Ranking among IIM's...

Once again, I beg the forgiveness of my audience for the shortness of this blog, BUT...
I have always wondered about the concept of ranking of different campuses of an institute. Take for example the IIMs. To me it would make more sense for the IIMs to be regarded as one and have a rotational program wherein the professors and students rotate one or even two trimesters to different campuses to experience different cultures and the strengths and weaknesses of each campus.
I say this because the new IIM that has sprung up at Shillong is being penalized because it is a new campus - folks are choosing to join other 'better established' institutes. Instead the IIMs could have very well presented a united front to the country and sent students from the 'superior' campuses of A,B, C and others to shillong to experience a trimester there as part of the rotational program.
Instead of competing with one another, the campuses should play off the strenghts of one another and groom better all round students. Recruitment can then happen centrally; there would be no need to distinguish between A and C when it came to placements. Admissions too would happen centrally, and not vary from campus to campus.
Those who say that compeititons between the different campuses forces each campus to raise its standard are absolutely correct. But the same can be said of all the campuses uniting and bettering their standards to remain above the other b-schools like FMS or ISB.
Co-opetiton might be the order of the day and simply compeition...

The side of consulting they don't tell you about...

I do not claim I will ever be successful in consulting, nor is this a guide to become successful in consulting. Quite the opposite in fact! From the naive intern and college graduate to an aspiring business school prospective, I have come a long way to understanding that the career pitches made by companies at career fairs are not just laced with sugar, but dunked in syrup. In my short stint in consulting, I have come to realize the insiders point-of-view of what constitutes the life in consulting.
Identification of consulting talent begins at an extremely early stage - junior year atleast and in some cases sophomore and freshman year. A company with whose workers I am acquainted with is targeting sophomore students to recruit. While this sounds exciting, what it also means is that sophomore college students must act wiser, much beyond their age in order to impress these companies. Even a small mistake is remembered and noted for a significant enough time. A guy with excessive ear hair was rejected and 'not client ready' was written on his profile; it still is written on his profile.
They tell you consulting is exciting work - the projects, the travel, the pay. What they should also mention is the politics, disrespect for work-life balance, and the lack of forgiveness to employees. There is tremendous amounts of 'playing the game'. For instance, even if it is at 12 am at night, a manager calling and asking for help, you must oblige. Not doing so is what the consultants describe as a 'potentially limiting career-move'. Not only does the manager hold a grudge against you for the foreseeable future, but also word about this usually spreads around about the uncooperative nature of the analyst. One particular consulting firm often claims that analysts can work from home; Yet everyday the analyst does not show up, it is noted, even if the work is completed.
Another consulting firm is divided by region and each office has its own head partner. Therefore, making sure the regional-head and office-head partner know you and that you're on good terms with them is of prime importance. A close friend I know got assigned to a project which was headed by a partner of a different region. As a consequence of the travel and work requirements of the project, his own regional and local partners knew little of him, which cost him dearly when it came to 'realignment'. The partner preferred the analyst he knew and had worked with before even than our aforementioned unsung hero. (Incidentally, our unsung hero had a higher performance evaluation than the analyst who kept his job).
The travel for project no doubt takes a toll on family life, but one must also account the travel for networking purposes. There will be events which analysts must attend because that is where the 'big guns' will be hiring for the next project.
Furthermore the projects must be found and picked by the analyst, there is no one assigning you the projects. So in a recession, such as the current one faced by the world, an inexperienced analyst must build up his/ her network even quicker merely to be on the same landscape as the more experienced colleagues. Upset at the loss of the project, excessive happiness on success, showing any sort of excessive emotion is frowned upon.
A dear friend of mine once said it best when he stated 'Utilization is king' and 'Someone is always watching'.
Now I am not discouraging anyone with the above information. In fact, many people are suited for consulting, they enjoy the networking, they like playing the game, they like the handsome rewards that go with it and are willing to make all the tradeoffs. But this is to guide people about the unheard side of consulting and merely help them an informed decision...

Religiously speaking...

People often 'pick' religions because their parents are one religion or because they have not been exposed to another religion. Very rarely does one find a religion being picked by an individual on logical sense. Gun to my head, I subscribe to Hinduism, but I would prefer not to pick one religion over another to associate myself with ideally. All religions are flawed - I mean this in most benign of ways without intending to belittle the existence of a divine force. Yet I have very particular beefs with religions.
For example for me to ascribe to Christianity, I would have to agree that Jesus Christ is the sole way to salvation/ heaven. While this is absurd in many ways (the most notable way being an atheist performing community service and other forms of charity being marked for sin or hell), I argued this particular scenario with a dear friend of mine. Belief in Jesus Christ implies forgiveness of sins. But suppose at the age of 40, as a non-believer, I commit a heinous crime (pick the worst kind). On my deathbed, I am enlightened and I profess my absolute faith in the Lord, then according to Christianity, I am forgiven for having killed someone at the age 40. Do I not get what's due to me especially since what goes around comes around? Or are my sins forgiven 'magically' and I go to heaven...?
Against Islam, the recent laws enacted against women in the middle east is nothing short of marital rape and can never be condoned. It requires only common sense to realize that certain laws should not be enacted in the name of religion i.e. 'holy war', or subjugation of women in a derogatory way.
Even though I profess my faith in Hinduism, I consider the world lucky that one of the prominent pillars of Hinduism i.e. do whatever your duty is without expectation of the result has not been morphed into anything violent. I am glad that people have not taken to war under the concept of 'duty'. I am also glad that people have enough sense to not follow rituals such as Sati in most of parts of India and that common sense has prevailed. In time, as education and technology permeates the third tier cities and villages, I hope this still holds true.
Against Buddhism or Jainism, while I do believe that everything ascribed by them is logical, I do not agree with the fact that they do not consider a form of 'God' as the source of guidance. A minor flaw no doubt, which is why I do agree with most of its principles in the first place.
In my opinion, all religions should be banned, one universal religion must be picked and people then ascribe to it openly. This one religion will have all the good of every religion while letting common sense dictate what is right/ wrong and what is good/ bad. I know that the terms 'good' and 'wrong' are up for debate, but atleast we can all agree that 'Do not rape, do not steal, do not kill; these are principles that every man of every faith can embrace' ... right?