Subbu Speakz

Indians have a few national obsessions - Cricket is our national pastime , Engineering our national degree and MBA is our national passport to greatness. Jokes aside every Indian millennial at one point of time or other in their career has thought of doing an MBA. And as every MBA aspirant will tell you, its grueling to say the least. Indians being Indians, we prepare for everything thoroughly. What does one prepare for while aspiring to join an MBA ? While the entrance examinations focus on English , Maths and Logical reasoning, the interview part is trickier. The average aspirant is supposed to be conversant not only about himself, his dreams , his industry but also about what is going on in the world as a whole. Managers are supposed to guide industries and guidance takes into account not only internal factors such as what your company is good at, but also external factors such as economic and environmental policies, social and political trends, technology advances and changes ...

Indian TV these days caters to the worst of the lot. On one hand you have News readers who take themselves too seriously and whose best talent seems to lie in shouting at the top of the voice and trying to host what look like heavily scripted match-ups which go by the name of debate. On the other hand you have those Tele-serials which make 10th century court intrigue look like child's play. Going by these serials it would seem that the favorite way of passing time in an Indian house hold is for the Saas to plot the downfall of her Bahu and vice versa and its a formula which can be played in an eternal loop by just giving the same story different names across channels and time slots. It was amidst such doomsday scenarios that my wife started watching a Pakistani serial which seemed like a breath of fresh air . No daily shows , certainly not never ending and oh wait for it , there is actually a story . So I started following the daily travails i...

"Cogito Ergo Sum" - I think, therefore I exist If we go by the words of Rene Descartes, most of us don't exist. Yes we live perfectly proper lives, get up in the morning, go to office, do our work, come back, watch TV, surf the net and a lot of other stuff. But when was the last time we thought objectively. Most of us these days don't have our individual opinions. In farmer parlance, we are sheep supposed to choose between Choice A and Choice B, both of which have been carefully thought of and provided by a 3rd party out to influence us. Our opinion on various subjects these days is rarely formed because we passionately believe in a cause or because we have objectively analyzed a particular situation to find out its various pros and cons to arrive at an opinion. Given the paucity of time, in our lives due to our preoccupation with social media, most of our opinion is formed on these platforms. And here is where a particular psychological phenomenon kicks in. ...

"It's quadraplets" A wave of thoughts ran through Mukund as Sudha's face beamed in excitement. The Gynecologist was speaking about a lot of things, but Mukund's mind was lost in thought. " Will Sudha be able to work during the pregnancy. Do we earn enough to handle 4 kids. If Sudha leaves her job, will my salary be enough to support us." Mukund and Sudha had been living in Bangalore for the last 4 years. Mukund and Sudha both private sector employees, were what marketeers called DINK (Double  Income No Kids). While Sudha was the quintessential IT worker, Mukund worked as a Manager in an MNC. It had been 6 years since they were married and although every thing had been going on fine till now, the elders in both the families had started hinting at the obvious. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- " I saw a baby girl calling me out in my dream yesterday" exclaimed...