My IIO report..

This is a part of the report I submitted for my subject IIO. This is a little exaggerated but I enjoyed writing it. PS: this report got me 30/30 :)

Intelligently Interacting with Others

- What I learnt, if any :)




‘I’ here stands for a guy accumulating good and bad karma in the name of ‘Bharath Kumar B’. As I have to perform better in Great Lakes Institute of Management and empirical research suggests that groups bring the better out of an individual, I have been put in a group G2:7 and assigned a roll number 9222.






































My cover page, present above might look creative for some one. It may look satirical for some one. But frankly speaking the matter of fact is it is a testimony to the truth that this subject has created an impact on every one of us in the patriots’ batch. What is the impact? It’s simple. People who were talking cricket and movies are now discussing gita and yoga. “Don’t try to copy dude. You are accumulating bad karma”, “Don’t waste the food buddy. You will have a re birth”  - These are now common dialogues among patriots. Personally, what is that I have learnt through and at the end of the course? Well, these learning can be categorized into two.
1. Things I learnt based on the book and the course content
2. Things I learnt outside the course content but based on the happenings related to the class.

Here are a few learning that I got outside the course content based on my experience in class.

1: Never be prejudiced about things
Reason:
I got the books – ‘Bhagavad Gita’ and ‘Upanishad’. Then I got the course outline which said “In case you don’t come prepared to the class, your group will be given a ‘-2’ and you will be asked to leave the class”. I thought ‘asked to leave the class? This is too much. The professors are trying to boss over’. Then the calm looking Prof Venkat R Krishnan came to the class. With his innocent smile, he answered all the questions with impeccable finesse. For a handful of questions, he preferred not to answer directly and said ‘This you will learn in due course of time’. Other than that he answered all the questions with calm and patience. Is he a professor who is trying to boss over? NO. Never be prejudiced about things.

2: Don’t bluff
Reason:
While teaching the kata Upanishad in class, prof Venkat R Krishnan asked a guy to explain his understanding of ‘Nichiketa’ story. He said his version of the story where the only resemblance to the original story was the character name ‘Nichiketa’  and everything else was different. It was clear that he did not do the pre read and the professor said ‘While telling the story, you must presume that even I have read the story’. The class burst out laughing. The guy was neither given a ‘-2’ nor was asked to leave the class but it would have been better had he said that he did not read. Bluffing caused more shame than not answering.

3: Have an unflinching conviction in what you do
Reason:
“A son of a Brahmin is not a Brahmin. A son of a sudhra is not a sudhra”
“There is nothing wrong in committing suicide to renounce this body for a noble cause”
“Practice abstinence if you want to achieve greater heights”
These are the statements made by a professor to the group of students who have been told the opposite throughout their life or who have not given a thought about these. The only thing that can help a person in making such statements is the conviction in what he says. Translating this to marketing management terms it means “Only if you believe, you can sell”.

4: Be open for discussion
Reason:
This happened in our class during the discussion about rebirth. When the professor told us about the rebirth concept, a smart guy asked a question, “sir what if everything we are reading now about rebirth is false? Because we do not have any proof about these”? I felt this question made perfect sense. The professor replied ‘Just try out this option. There is no proof for the belief that there is no rebirth too. Because none of us know what happens after death. So let us believe in this now. Let us revisit this belief later, if required’. Yes. Simple! Be open for all view points. Be open for discussions.


5: Probabilities do not work always
Reason:
It was our first class in IIO. Pre read was ‘Introduction & universal religion’. I did some pre read. But I was very confident that we won’t be questioned in class, because it was the first class of our course. Even if we are questioned I assumed it won’t be me because the probability of me being asked was just 1/63. But in class Murphy’s Law was proved to me. From the attendance sheet, the professor read out the name ‘Bharath Kumar’ and asked “What is universal religion”? I managed to answer the question. But the learning is the logic of Probabilities doesn’t work always!

6: Data talks more than your words
Reason:
The core concept of the group dynamics part was very simple - Get data and let that talk. The subject had examples of a lot of empirical researches that quashed our basic assumptions about many issues. For example Milgram’s experiment demonstrated the impact of power which I grossly under estimated. The way to avoid this prejudice is by looking for data instead of forming opinions. In fact, this subject has made me question many assumptions in my day to day life as well.

7: Be an extrovert
Reason:
‘Babble effect’ says people who talk more are considered to be more involved in the group than others. A case study also shows that extroverts are happier than introverts. So the conclusion is simple- Be an extrovert to be liked by people and for you to like yourself more.

8: Strive for perfection, settle for excellence
Reason:
In spite of all the learning I have told above and listed below, I still have some open questions. Some of them are as follows: Why is group dynamics & Indian philosophy combined as a single course? How does that fit under the frame work ‘Intelligently interacting with others’? Why is that the Indian philosophy has not percolated to the masses if it so good? Since the group dynamics experiments are more foreign countries based, will they hold water in India?
But still, I am satisfied with this course and I feel you can’t get 100% in real life issues and there are bound to be some open questions. The point is ‘Do strive for perfection; But settle for excellence if you don’t get perfection’.

My First Blog

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