Unteaching MIS

 After a long career gap, I am back and I am back teaching the same dreaded subject - Management Information Systems from Laudon. In the past two years - I have broken all career stereotypes and taught courses ranging from Generative AI to Ethics. Loved teaching each one of them because I believed in them, loved each bit of them...but MIS using Laudon, I wondered why it was more bitter than ever this time!

The sequence of events of my single day might reflect this ecky feeling!

And conspicuously, the day started with a wish to find a nice silk fabric in South Delhi without much wild goose hunting. Multiple friends had recommended me the "Nalli Saree Shop". I was reluctant - I had heard of its price range! And the time constraint was steep. So one night before, I visited Nalli online website and found I might just use it instead of wasting my time visiting the store. And then, the next morning - I don't know why - I just put "Nalli Sarees" on my map - and off I went. The map made me go merry-go-round of South Ex until I realized - Nalli was right in front of me from where I parked my car and started revolving around the market using my map thereafter. Nalli had shifted ...but never bothered to change their location online! Bravo!

In I went... and was instantly taken over by warm salespeople smiles and received a very reasonable understanding from them on which floor I needed to be on just a look at my bag full of sarees. Parking myself on the right floor for the right product, it took me a few light and friendly conversations on my saree color matching exercises - my fellow ladies discussing their to-buys or not-to-buys with anyone in a close radius - I getting clues from a young girl in how I could use those fabrics to create cheaper-than-fabindia Dupattas. They knotted my saree tassels for free - even though they were aware my sarees were not bought from Nalli. No issues at all - just smiles. Billings were all modern - but the Nalli's dos and don'ts on returns etc were all old and bold style written placards. They dictated the rules and customers never seem to complain! I ...smiling all wide there...just didn't want to take the lift back. In slow motion...I chose to tread the old mahogany stairs down each floor with all the Indianness and smiles and hullabaloo.

I realized it was such a happy experience only after I opened Laudon's first chapter at night and read about the smart shelves, presumably in trend among big retailers! And I wondered, why it was more bitter than ever...

Laudon has a habit of showing moonshot technologies view at the most typical of places! Smart shelves- equipped with wide angled low lying cameras - cashierless counters - smartphones guiding customers to the right aisles - object recognition to alert when did we park our cars in the parking - Gosh, you are killing me! Literally!  Of course, it is Generative AI written all over the "smart shelves" and that is why, my love for GenAI also ends at its Maths! 

I wonder if my students will ever know what they will be missing in the future! Wish I could unteach MIS to them after teaching it!

Sometimes...

 Sometimes, I close my eyes

Swirling myself in the air

To the song I sing in my hair

And throw my arms open to a thousand miles view…Sometimes

Sometimes, I unfetter the loved

redeem the feared

close my eyes to the whirls of life

and just open to the whole good sky....Sometimes

Sometimes, I wish to hold whats with me

and cherish whats within

grow what I am without

and just keep living in the woods...sometimes

आज़ादी

आज़ादी रिश्तों को तोड़ कब मिली 

आज़ादी सब छोड़ कब मिली 

आज़ादी तो मन की थी, जैसी मांगी वैसी  मिली 

आज़ादी पढ़ लिख कर कब मिली 

आज़ादी पैसों से इज़्ज़त से कब मिली 

आज़ादी तो हर पल में थी, जब चाही तब मिली 

हाथों में पकड़ यूँ जग बटोरा 

इधर उधर सब सुन यूँ बोझ बिठोरा 

आज़ादी जग बटोरने में कब मिली 

आज़ादी तो हलकी सी थी, बस सांस भर छोड़ा ___और मिली 

पर क्या आज़ादी से में खुश थी?

या पिंजरे में बंद, रिश्तों की ताल में बँध 

सोने की चमक से चुंध्याई, या आन बान से सिकुड़ी 

या फिर __खाली सी, कुछ हलकी सी, और कम सी 

आज़ादी ___

जब चाही तब मिली  

मन  में उल्लास भर तू
निकल धूप में तड़क भड़क
मुस्कुरा। ... तू खिल खिला
ये निकली तुझे बढ़ाने के लिए 

Science vs Engineering vs Business

It is highly stimulating how science brings explanations, corrections and often more questions to be answered! How engineering shapes the abstractions of science into cogs and wheels and makes it run with conviction! How business makes us feel how we have been in need of this new gadget for all along!

How we connect the product with the science of it - with the progress of it!

How we shun the possibilities of re-tracking the wheel of invention back to where the science of it all was explained once. For what is working should be enough evidence of it being correct!

Science has never been this confident that it forgets being questioned and being enquired upon. Should the manifestations of Science be that confident then?

The A's and C's

A sunny ride

With bumps and glides

Loving the ups

and the downs

as they appraised with their A's and C's

Changed my ways

my smiles and strides

keeping alive

the dreams and joys

there...toasting for some more A's and C's

had covered up my flaws

and honed my skills

from the Admirers

and the Critics

Alas! never approved by the A's and C's

let me be stamped, starred and judged

just break the mould

and discern them all

reflect within

for I am my Admirer and the best Critic

The masterpiece...

I cherish that famous Picaso fable where a man wonders how he is going to make a lion out of huge piece of boulder...and Picaso effortlessly replies "I'm going to chip off everything that doesn't look like a lion". Sometimes I wonder He is also expert at chipping off everything that doesn't look like me to make a masterpiece called "I".