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Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Mumbai BLASTS back

On 11th July, 2006, after a gap of 13 years, Mumbai was again struck by the serial bomb blast. This time Mumbai suburban trains fell victim to the catastrophe.

Last 2 weeks kept Mumbai terrified, first by the torrential rains, followed by bandh called by Shiv sena activists and now the serial blasts. Inspite, of these events the ever-resilient Mumbai showed all the courage to return back to normalcy.

In the normal situation people of Mumbai are least bothered about each other. But, in the event of calamities Mumbai ensures to minimize loses by generously helping those, affected. After yesterday's bomb blasts and closure of Mumbai's lifeline,(suburban trains) many social communities came forward and worked all night to ease the situation. Locals were seen distributing free biscuits, tea and coffee. While some were seen helping Mumbaites get back to home. This allowed Mumbai to get back to business almost instantly.

This resilient nature is Mumbai's answer to those, who want to strand it. If you try disturbing Mumbai, it blasts back with all the vigour. Come what may, Mumbai will never stop breathing.

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

Do you really need college degrees to be successful?

When you look at the world's most successful men, you find most of them are college dropouts and don't have a college degree. The likes are Bill Gates, Azim Premji, Dhirubhai Ambani, et cetra. Does this mean to be successful in today's business world, college degrees are not a necessary ingredient? Then why do corporates stress on employees possessing a valid college degree ?

Bob Rosner from ABC news writes :

My undergraduate years were a valuable time for me. I learned how to do my own laundry, how to drink Jell-O shots, how to use a cafeteria tray as a sleigh, how to kiss with one leg on the floor, how to cram all night for a test and how to forget everything the moment that the test was over — all helpful skills to possess, sort of.

Just last week I talked to a woman who had run an office for two U.S. senators, been a successful entrepreneur and is currently thriving in an entirely new career. She accomplished all of this without a college degree. Yet, there are many jobs that she cannot apply for.

That does leave us with a problem. If we are going to level the playing field in terms of those with, and those without a college education, how will we decide who are the better people to hire? We'll have to look at each person and not use a convenient, and often inappropriate, yardstick.

A few considerations: What has the person accomplished at work? How do the people they've worked with feel about his or her contributions? Has the person traveled abroad? Has the person done volunteer work? Does he speak another language? Does she know what's going on in the world? Does the person understand your industry and its competitors? I would argue that all these are more reliable measures of what a person can contribute to your organization than a tired, old piece of sheepskin.

Click here to see Bob Rosner in an exclusive interview with ABC news.