Disaster Management

The most valuable 100 people to bring into a deteriorating society would not be 100 chemists, or politicians, or professors, or engineers. But rather 100 entrepreneurs.
- Abrahan H. Maslow

I was holing a plastic cup three quarters filled with tea with my two fingers fixed diagonally at the midsection of the cup from outside. The liquid was stirred by a faint movement of my hand and it caused to swing the cup just to make its opening face me. The tea spilled onto my shirt, tie and blazer. There was nothing I could do apart from using my kerchief to wipe off the droplets from the thick cloth of the coat that had temporarily prevented the liquid from getting absorbed. I had just finished my dinner and was standing in the lawns having tea with my father and cousins.

It was surely an experience. I didn't feel anything apart from the urge to ignore all the eyes on the stains on my shirt that was facing the lights cutting through the opening of my coat near the collars. Few minutes later we left the place for home. I had had a heavy meal as my father who was sitting beside me kept serving chicken. It was the last of the four functions we were invited for by two of my father's cousins. We have some more to attend in the last week of this month.

Yesterday a friend told me that there was a kidnap plan executed in some part of India and the kidnapper had collected all the information about the victim from his blog. My friend told me that I shouldn't be writing a blog. My instant response was to tell him that there are hundreds of thousands who write blogs and they are more ardent than me. We didn't talk much about it but later I sat thinking if this can really cause me a problem of such level. I surely write a lot about me and any person interested in me can get all he wants from my blogs. Right from my thinking to my action - everything can be gauged.

But then, when I write so much about me, I still don't think it can be enough for in-depth understandings about me. May be a person can collect small data and keep doing it over a time to build the complete picture, but will that be enough? None of my routines last more than a week! Further more, I find no reason why I must be kidnapped. And if I had to kidnap a person, I would personally track him or her rather than trying to read his blog. I believe that more than half of the times we don't know what the next day is going to bring to us. I can get into innumerable arguments and it will all be pointless.

After I returned home today, I soaked my shirt and the tie in water and I will wash them tomorrow. Today I had also washed around 30 clothes which had got accumulated over the last two months. I washed them all and it took me two rounds with the washing machine. I started with separating the ones that were soiled from the ones that were comparatively clean. Then I soaked them separately in water with dissolved detergent. Then I washed them with hands before using the machine. It was tiring. I have this lone shirt for tomorrow.

Yesterday I had a long day with my friends. We met in the college, then had burgers, went to Durgam Cheruvu, rode around Madhapur and Gacibowli before spending an hour of detailed discussions at my house. We were five and four of us were after the fifth trying to put into his mind how important it is to understand everything about money at this age itself - being prepared. We worked around several examples and gave him information what is meant by interest, insurance and finance. We told him what taxes are. He knew a lot already but I felt it was complete in no way. It was half-baked with him tied with only the information he could get from his elders. It was definitely very less. Being a friend, I thought I needed to tell him whatever little I knew.

My friend kept arguing that we learn what all we need to when we start earning. He told us that time will teach him and he need not worry about anything now. He even tried to validate that reading books is not necessary to become successful. According to him, all we are required to focus on now is one single subject from our engineering and perfect it. He said this is the time we must invest in learning what to be when we get into a job. He even believes that experience has a value more than a master's degree. He said it's time to focus and not to widen our knowledge base. He condemned the my will to learn more about money management at this stage of my life.

I am sure a student of my age would agree to all these things he said. But I don't agree even a bit. To start with, I have my mother's example - she is rich only because she had plans right from the day she joined her job 23 years back. No person earning what she does can reach this point without such adroit planning. This is no time for me to explain what all she did, but in short - she kept her future in her mind and had learnt all about money in her five years of study of commerce. She was so perfect because she had money as her core subject. We being engineers have to learn it from other sources. If we wait for time to teach us, we can wait for several years before we can buy the car of our choice, before we start investing in hundred thousands, and before we can think of moving into better lifestyles. Time teaches but it takes time.

Purchasing the right kind of insurance policies, making the right investments in bonds to save taxes, having the knowledge of how inflation and gold prices effect the value of money, understanding why different methods of saving money have different consequences, and most importantly, understanding the need to do all this puts us on the track to the destination we want to reach. We can't expect our monthly salaries to buy us cars and property. We need more pipelines. And we need all this at the earliest. Waiting for time to teach us the tricks of making money will pull us down into the glitches of mediocrity. If, instead of making money, the idea is to earn money, then it is foolishness to dream big. The dreams will remain as dreams that way.

Right from day one at our job, we need to know why we are there. We might be there to realize our potential as excellent programmers, me might be there to show everybody that we are the best, we might be there to fulfil our desire to become a scientist or get our selves engrossed in intensive research activities. But will we do all this if we are not being paid? We are there for only one thing - money. What we do is done because we want to earn more alongside give ourselves some satisfaction which we may derive from our work. We are not going to stay as programmers or scientists for all our lives - we have to become managers some day. The objective remains the same; the type of work changes.

My friend asked me what I would do after I complete MS. I told him my plans for the next three years after that. He even seemed to throw some mockery at my sudden decision to write GRE and TOEFL. I am sure it must have looked funny to him that I take new route when I was hell bent on doing MBA and staying in India for next two years at least. And I am sure many had thought this way. They must have also questioned my credibility as a person who sticks to one thing. Surely my commitment must have been looked at in doubt.

To start with, I had only two plans - Plan A and Plan B. Plan A was to give everything required to get into a decent MBA college. If that had then failed, I would have looked for Plan B - joining Infosys. I somehow find that the colleges where I can do an MBA with such CAT's score are not worth. Spending around 4.5 lacks didn't sound fine to me. So, Plan A almost failed. I was left with Plan B and it still remains. But not as Plan B but as Plan C. Infosys can always be exciting but I don't want delays or slow rides in my life. I need it to be fast and satisfying.

I brought in Plan B - doing MS in the United States. I was asked once by my aunt if I wanted to study there. I had said in negation. A few weeks back I spoke positive. I have booked slots of TOEFL and GRE and I have all my concentration of doing MS now. I am leaving Plan A completely so that I find MS as the only option and achieve it. I consider it as very bad to remain a graduate. I want to be a professional and I have to do my masters. Just to give an interesting but pointless example, I can mention that all the guys I see getting decently married these days have either done MS or MBA. This education shows it's worth not only in the industry but even else where. I am going to do MBA. But after I start working. I can always join evening classes as long as I am in US. I will learn more there. Infosys might just not teach all that. I need to get an I 20 and then the F 1 visa. The Plan C is always there to fall back. Allah decides.