Memoirs of childhood (continued)

Another favourite time pass of mine was visiting movie theatre. At that time multiplexes were unheard and prices though were still substantial, limiting my excursions. The cheapest shows were the morning shows but they attracted a different set of patrons, I too very much interested in having a peek but alas age was the main barrier.

I got my first desktop in 1996, which was a HCL 486 model. There was nothing much you could do with it accept play some card games, I even learnt Dbase programme at that time (I was an obedient son and did as my father told me). My first visit to cybercafé was in 1999, it was at that time that I created my first email account on hotmail. I wanted to carry on many more experiments but again company of my father acted as the main deterrent. Of course I visited the café many times later and did tinker with the net to my full satisfaction.

I guess I can go on and on as there are many others marked out incidences but I would end the post here.

Memoirs of childhood

When I look back at my childhood, I reflect back on the easy going life of 90s. I vividly recollect having shifted from Jamshedpur to Mumbai in 1991. At that time my dad was an employee in an PSU bank, which necessitated this transfer.

90s can be identified with introduction of cable television. I remember at onset we only had five channels, all under ZEE umbrella. But spending endless hours in front of the television was a novelty atleast in the begining, when I was small and had all the time in the world( I still have a lot of time and I have found out newer ways of wasting them). How can I forget Cartoon Network, which was newly introduced at that time, Swat Cats, Tom & Jerry, Captain Planet were some of my favorite shows that I followed religiously. WWF was another craze at that time and so was collecting cards of these stars which we used to gather diligently( I cannot imagine myself doing such things now but I guess I would say the same thing about my current time passes ten years from now).

Life was also cheaper in those days. I remember having bought a sports shoe, somewhere between 1993-1994. It had cost my father 130 bucks, relatively cheap even by show room standards, but I can distinctly recollect only branded shoe available at that time was Action shoes of the Bata brand. Miser as I was I went for the cheapest shoe(The last shoe of mine bought 3 years back set my pocket lighter by 250 bucks from a Delhi street vendor, I suppose street offerings are still relatively cheap.).

At that time, Maruti 800 was a luxury, with majority preferring to go with a second hand Maruti. I remember my father's colleague had bought one for 85,000 bucks in 1994. It was only 3 years old and was considered relatively new. At that time Maruti 1000 was a rich man's car with only one such that in our colony which was relatively affluent. (to be continued)

What after MBA?

This is a question I believe is close to hearts of most final year b school grads. If you happen to be in a above average b school you do have options other than typical sales job which any MBA grad is flooded with during placement season.
When I talk about myself, there seem to be atleast some options. I can get into a marketing job by working for a well known marketing company, one of the better employees atleast going by feedback from some of my acquaintances. I can also can into a bank or state government job or NGO or a research agency of repute. All these jobs have their own pros and cons, but evaluating these options and deciding upon the right one is a daunting challenge.
There could be four broad criteria for evaluating the options, salary, job quality, future prospects and last but by far the most important, interest. I believe most of us including yours truly focus too much on monitory aspect of job comprising on other important aspects. I believe this is the main reason for many MBAs leaving their first job in first year.
Has therefore a MBA graduate become too greedy? I believe the answer is a probable no. Unlike West, where work experience of atleast three years is a necessity, in India even a fresher can easily get into a premier b school provided he cracks the entrance exam. Because of his lack of experience, he is unaware of his interests and ends up joining company paying a higher salary.
So does that mean that people with work experience are in a better position and last longer in their job got after finishing MBA? There is no statistic to prove or disapprove this theory. But as per my interactions with some of my more experienced colleagues, I believe they too are only marginally better off than their novice counterparts. They might have a better idea of their job aversions but that doesnot help them much in deciding their future. The reason for that being plethora of options available offering them diverse job profiles and the limitation of work experience. Their job only gives them exposure to certain aspects. Therefore I believe that also place monitory criteria as utmost importance as this is the most tangible criteria.
So does that mean money is the most important criteria? Well if you are not sure of what is the that you want, then I believe this is the best option as normally a company paying high salary would also have high expectations and would give work commensurate to that experience , going by trends I believe in future too would it would remain the driving force in placement process.