Sleepy in Symbol

I've had a particularly heavy lunch and am falling asleep at my desk here. A session of TT did not help and this particular song from 'guru' is definitely not helping. Its a nice song, but not to be fed to a sleepy mind. I've read that food activates the digestive process. Is it part of the body's energy conservation mechanism, that it simultaneously tries to shut down the brain? Most people as a habit have an afternoon nap. How do they manage during working days at office?

I hear Dhoom-2 is a pathetic movie. I expected such a verdict for Don, but not for this. sad!! with such a cast, the movie should have done better. Unfortunately, the producer and director too felt that way and didn't bother about things like script and screenplay. I'm being a son-of-a-gun here by judging from the covers, but i think i can trust my friends when it comes to bollywood.

On another flank, Indian Cricket has successfully proclaimed Greg Chappel as the scapegoat for all conceivable issues plaguing the team. Note my use of the words 'Indian Cricket'. Yes, its not about the team or the BCCI. In India, many advise and many listen, nobody acts and the remaining, like me criticize. It seems, Ganguly is going to pad up now to counter the domineering Chappel. I have a confusion here. Which game are we talking about?

Walmart plans to set shop in India. I'm reminded of a particular South Park episode which was a good take on Walmart. South Park is a great series. Its taught me so many things. For example i didn't know apriori that 'turd' means shit. The spoof on Walmart was, on a serious note, a little scary. I therefore, read in detail about this news. Some news article enlightened me that when Walmart 'takes over' a particular neighbourhood, it calls upon all the small shop owners and trains them on "how to stay afloat inspite of Walmart" and also allows them to advertise for free in Walmart outlets. Now how condescending is that?

good...i think i've successfully fought my urge to sleep. Time to get back to work :)

CAT 2006...the fiasco continues

Now for the other side of the coin. CAT 2006 had 1 wrong question in quants and printing mistakes in one or two sets. A question in verbal is also purportedly wrong. This is not excusable. It was a godsend that i didn't have the set with the printing mistakes and i chose not to attempt the erroneous question, but what of the thousands who did. It was a couplet worth 8 marks and anyone who attempted it would have gone over it again and again on not finding the answer in the options. He/she could have spent close to 10 minutes on it for nothing. When 1.91 lakh students compete for 1200 odd seats, 10 minutes/8 marks is very very BIG!! It is indeed shameful that the IIM's CAT cell cannot set one error free question paper over a period of 1 year. The worst part of this fiasco is that, there is no judicious way in which this error can be compensated/rectified. Marks cannot be awarded to students who attempted the question. Many of those who got stuck with the question would ultimately chose to not attempt it in fear of losing a mark. They can't award 8 marks to all as it doesn't make any difference in an eliminative exam.

As a friend suggested, and i agree with him totally, the IIMs should increase the no: of GD/interview calls to include those students who would otherwise miss out because of this question. Of course, it won't bring justice to all, but its a fair thing to do.

Also, and this is very doable, there should be a new option given to the student to deal with erroneous questions. If a student feels that a question is wrong, he/she should be given the option to indicate that in his/her OMR sheet. Shading all the options for a question can be taken as an indication that the student has referred this question to be wrong. If, indeed it turns out to be wrong, full marks should be awarded to that student. However, if it is a valid question, he shouldn't be penalized for the same. A penalty for the same will again act as a deterrent and keep students from marking a question as wrong.

This, however, could create a scenario where a student choses to mark all the questions that are not attempted by him as wrong since he's not penalized for that.
To prevent that, a ceiling can be imposed on the number of questions that can be marked wrong...maybe 5. We can at least trust the IIMs to not have more than 5 questions wrong. If a student marks more, only the first five will be considered. Can't see any other loop hole at first sight. It seems pretty practical to me. What do u think?

CAT 06

CAT is such a leveller. Just till a few minutes ago, my entire life was passing in front of my eyes like a flashback...that was after i realised i'd screwed my chances, based on the answer key broughtout by PT. ..now i'm much better...almost my normal self, after checking with the Career Launcher answer key. there is hope, good hope, i dare say.

Drop in a prayer for me if u can. thanx :)

The British Psyche and the Ashes

This is an obituary that appeared in the Sporting Times, an English newspaper on 2nd sept, 1882. Interesting as it appears, it was responsible for the test cricket series between England and Australia being named,...... The Ashes.

What i find more noteworthy here, though, is the tremendous capacity of the English to mock at themselves. I cannot dream of such an article appearing in any Indian Newspaper.

The above mentioned obituary was reported after England lost the deciding test of the series by a mere 7 runs. It was the 9th series between the 2 countries and the defeat heralded the first defeat of England at the hands of Australia, in England. Archives of the test say that the spectators went into a state of shock when the last English batsman got bowled after making just 2 runs. When he had come in to bat, England needed just 9 runs to win the match and the series. Mind you, England had not lost to Australia before and an English win was the order of the day.
the spectators went numb but recovered slowly to give the victorious Australian team, a standing ovation. A very impressive and sporty gesture, given the magnitude of the loss for the English

It all started with an friendly argument in my house over what comprises the ashes. I was stubbornly set on the bails while my friend was backing the stump. As my reading brings to light, the contents of the ashes urn is still a mystery. The contenders currently are, bails ( i'm still in), stumps( you're in too Ashish) and the outer skin of the used ball. Another source suggests it to be the ashes from a burnt veil, which is very weird. To droll on, the urn made its first appearance after England won the 3rd test of the series, the following year. the urn is preserved permanently in the MCC museum and is not awarded to the winners each year, as maybe wrongly assumed.