What's in a name?

Now that it’s my turn, I settle down to come up with a meaningful blog. Unfortunately, nothing of a substance pops up in my seemingly overloaded brain. The “I-was-born-intelligent-but-education-ruined-me” sort of feeling overshadows my otherwise calm mind, these days. The Corporate Finance owns half the credit for that. All I do for now is sit idle and stare blankly for a divine intervention with a topic.

Proving futile, as always, I look up only to find array of binders stacked on my bookshelf, not neatly as you may think. Moments later, I was reflecting deeply on what I have learned so far. It’s only been about six months into this MBA program, but the courses say that I have got what it takes to be a leader, at least in theory. What have we not learned? Almost everything under the sun – despite hardly seeing the sun in Denmark. It is not by chance that most of the course names are suffixed with the word “management.” There is some serious management stuff in the course. For instance, Marketing Management, Human Resource Management, Change Management, Operations Management and Strategic Management all have “management” proudly tagged in the title. Yet, the word management hasn’t found a place in MBA, literally. It would have been apt to call Master of Business Management, instead. I ask to myself, is management a part of administration or is it the other way round. After some thought, I decide not to spiral around yet another chicken-and-egg analogy. After all, what’s in a name?

William Shakespeare said in Romeo and Juliet “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet.” The MBA by any other name would smell as sweet. If not for sweet, it would definitely smell sweaty, for we sweat a lot as a fulltime-MBA’ians. Not only has the title of the program, but the course also has some fuzzy names. Even before I could familiarize myself with the name of one course, the course was already gone and the binder had found a place on my shelf. It is none other than the Supply Chain Management a.k.a Multinational Operations a.k.a Operations Management. In Buddhism, the reincarnates come in three forms; mind, body and speech. This subject for sure has come in all of the three forms.

With the increasing popularity of the MBA worldwide, it has also been notoriously expanded by some as a “Master of Bad Activities,” “Most Bossy Attitude,” “Married But Available,” and so on. Behind the sheepish smiles, most people would agree on this, if not all. Whatsoever be it, the MBA is a globally sought-after degree and for this, we have all the more reason to be happy about being onboard. Come what may, in about six months from now, we shall all be graduating. It shall finally find a place in our CV’s. Theories and models would then be put into practice, a live test in essence.

However, when someone asked me sometime back, would you be able to implement in your career what you learned in MBA? I smiled and gave the smart MBA answer- “It depends”.
It surely depends.

P.S: This is a reproduction from my post in the CBS, MBA Dairy (Copenhagen, Denmark)

Exhibition on Bhutan

On the 12th of February 2012, I had the opportunity of going to Arhus, the second largest city in Denmark, a 3.5 hours journey by car from Copenhagen to see the exhibition on Bhutan. The exhibition is aptly titled "Thunder dragon on the move". The exhibition is organized by an anthropologist and a Exhibition producer, Ditte Marie Seeberg through the support of DANIDA, Aarhus Kommune, Danish Centre for Culture and Development (DCCD) and the National Museum of Bhutan. This is an audio-visual exhibition with various display of the Bhutanese artifacts, mainly focused on the Bhutanese children and their reflections on life. Its purpose is to provide an insight into childhood conditions at home and school vis-a-vis the concept of Gross National Happiness. The exhibition is open for public from 10th February 2012 till 25th March 2012.

Not only did i get to meet the rest of the Bhutanese living in Denmark, I also had the privilege of meeting and discussing various aspects of life with the Director of the National Musuem of Bhutan, Khenpo Phuntshok Tashi. Khenpo is also the author of various books like Invoking Happiness: guide to the sacred festivals of Bhutan and Gross National Happiness, Mindful Living in Bhutan, The Positive Impact of the Gomchen tradition on achieving and maintaining Gross National Happiness, and The Thirteen Arts and Crafts of Bhutan.

                                           (Photo courtesy: www.bhutan-exhibitions.dk)

The event for the day ended with a brief teaching on mindfulness by the Khenpo followed by a short meditation. And now as usual, I am back to assignments and submissions.
For more info visit www.bhutan-exhibitions.dk

Useful Tips and Tricks

I thought it would be worthwhile to share some of the useful tips which i compiled from different sources. Kindly experiment it at your own will and risk.

1. Natural Mosquito Repellent: Rub Vick's Vaporub® on your pants and legs to ward off mosquitoes.
2. Before you wear a new garment, put a little clear nail polish on the front and back of each button. Buttons will stay on longer when their threads are sealed.
3. Zippers won't stick if you rub them with the edge of a bar of soap or candle. 
4. To remove pesky bottle tops and jar lids, don a pair of rubber gloves or rap a thick rubber band around the lid, then twist to open. Works like a charm. 
5. Have you ever peeled garlic or handled it and your hands get smelly. The next time that happens, take any stainless steel bowl, pan or other stainless steel kitchen gadget and rub your hands on it. It will take away the smell of garlic. 
6. If the clothes get stained with ink, smear the spot with cooked rice and rub it for a while. You can then wash your cloth to remove the ink stain completely.
7. To sharpen scissors,stack three aluminum foil together and then cut them with the scissors. You will see surprising result.
8. Soothe a stinging burn from insects by applying toothpaste. It temporarily relieves the sting and prevents the wound from weeping or opening. 
9. Cure for headaches: Take a lime, cut it in half and rub it on your forehead. The throbbing will go away. 
10. When you get a splinter, reach for the scotch tape/cellotape before resorting to tweezers or a needle. Simply put the scotch tape/cellotape over the splinter, and then pull it off. Scotch tape removes most splinters painlessly and easily.