‘Star’ outside - ‘Fading light’ inside…
I have nothing to do with the title..It’s just a general topic…The following is the thought process that went through my head today…
Assume a cricket team like Indian cricket team. There are phenomenal players and once-in-a-century players like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Laxman, Sehwag..and the list grows on…If you have to evaluate them in a absolute scale out of 100, then the scores will be like 99,98,90,95 etc., Wonderful scores….But, What if you rate them relatively?..The one which is in the bottom of the list has effectively failed to live up with other three..Does this mean he is a failure?
By now you know what I am talking about…Yes, I am talking about the relative grading system. If everyone in the exam achieves a score of 95 out of 100 and I achieve a ‘meagre’ 90, I am an outlier and I have effectively underperformed within the ’system’. But overall, the learning that I have got is not bad..
Going back to the Indian cricket team, Let’s assume Laxman was the unlucky soul who got ‘90′. If you compare him with state level players and domestic players or even with other ‘international’ players, he is a ’star’. But not within the Indian cricket team…
Also, Let’s compare players like Rahul dravid and Sachin tendulkar. Sachin is a kind of prodigy, genius, brilliance…Rahul is epitomized for Hardwork, reliability, technique. The strengths of them are different…but the overall effect brings them together in the scale. Translating this to academic terms, there are some souls who are simply ’super’ smart, who needs very little time compared to others to grasp a concept…and there are others who take time to grasp concepts, but consistently perform…
Next question that I receive will be, “So…Where do you fit in?”..Well, I fall somewhere in the middle of the scale here in ISB…I am not brilliant, but I am hard-working. I am not prodigy, but I am dedicated and sincere. I am not genius, but I am a fighter..By now, you should have interpreted that I like Dravid more than Sachin 
On a serious note, as long as I go on without any ego, and with my heads up…I will learn a lot…No questions about that…
I am HAPPY that I am here…
Finally, I would like to mention about interesting chat session that I had yesterday. A small talk which started with 2 operations guy grew to 6-member group. It was absolutely thrilling to know about each of those profiles..There was a operations guy from Maruti Udyog who was in R&D division, 2 operations guy from Oil field exploration and drilling, 1 operations guy from L&T who was part of team which developed Launch controls for “Akash” missile…I have come up with an idea after yesterday’s conversation…I will make this in action soon…It will be very beneficial to prospective students..
i know exactly how u feel…but what matters is that the score gave u much more than just face value…some of us learn well..some of us “perform” well..a selected few manage both..trying to get there…(using ur space for my blogging!..;))
Comment by haywire — May 22, 2005, Sunday @ 5:09 pm
Agreed…and, I know You will definitely get there…
Comment by Administrator — May 23, 2005, Monday @ 2:13 am
Hey, you gave me the logic behind my liking for Dravid ! I never tried to figure out why I liked Dravid better than Sachin. Thanks dude. I understand what you are saying. What I try and do now is to find out when I should use the statistics to motivate myself for a better me and when to say “in the end i am competing with only me !” Its a very tricky thing to do, yes, but if done in the right way, it helps put things in perspective.
)
Comment by Anonymous — May 23, 2005, Monday @ 3:56 pm
You are right with your perspective…
Comment by Administrator — May 24, 2005, Tuesday @ 1:24 pm