Perfect Show with an IIMB Professor - Knowledge Exemplified

THE PERFECT SHOW

After a long lull, PERFECT Show is back with a bang :) Due to other pressing commitments, I couldnt devote sufficient time to the Show. But as the saying goes, the good shouldnt be left undone for a long time.So we are back to routine :)

Its a matter of great pleasure to have Mr.Shekar, an IIM B professor and a distinguished alumnus of NIT,Trichy as a guest in this edition of Show. Mr.Shekar had kindly consented to share his life experiences and views with others.Iam grateful to him for agreeing to be in the Show.

Mr.B.Shekar has a PhD in Computer Science from IISc,Bangalore and a M.Tech from IIT,Delhi and a BE from REC,Trichy. He has donned various roles before joining IIMB as a faculty member. Presently he is Professor of Quantitative methods and Information Systems in IIMB.

He has received many honors most prominently being the recipient of "Best Teacher in Management Award (Southern Region) conferred by The Deccan Herald and being Listed in Marquis "Who’s Who in the World” - Editions : 2000, 2007, 2009" and being nominated as a ‘Leading Educator of the World - 2007’ by International Biographical Centre, Cambridge, England. He has given lectures/seminars on Creativity,Thinking Paradigms and Problem Solving at various academic institutions across the country.

Over to the Show now.

Host - Prashant Sree - PS
Guest - Mr. B.Shekar - BS

PS: Welcome to the Perfect Show Sir.
BS: Thank You. Upfront let me state that the views that I express are my own and are not those of the institution that I am working for; nor is the institution responsible for these views.



PS: Very well Sir. Starting with the first of the ‘Perfect Questions’, what are you passionate about in life?
BS: I would be using the word love interchangeably with passionate. I am passionate about life itself – Strange as it may sound but that is the real truth. Here I would like to elucidate this cryptic statement. I am passionate about life in all its forms and colors. For example I am passionate about knowledge as that opens several doors and leads me through different corridors to unexplored and uncharted territories. At the same time I love ignorance – it is the one that gives me humility and some times it helps me to develop reverence toward others, and quite a few more things that constitute a good human being.

PS: That definitely shows ignorance in a new light. I agree with you Sir that awareness of our Ignorance leads us to Knowledge. Now, what have you learnt in your life( other than academics), which you would like to share with others ?
BS: There are too many things and in fact most of them may be shared. I may be willing to share but sharing is a two-way cooperative coupling and I do not know how these may be received. Never-the-less here is a minimal set.

There is none who is despicable or who is hate-worthy or pooh-pooh-able. If at all such feelings get evoked, they are issue-related and that too temporally bound. These feelings occur immediately but one should be able to recall the issue-relatedness immediately and get out of these feelings quickly.

There is a lot to learn from everyone you come across in life. This is irrespective of social status, moral status or financial status. In actuality one can even learn from non-human living beings. However it requires a tremendous effort. I have been taught by auto-rickshaw drivers, canteen/hotel bearers, and corridor sweepers to name a few. Learning is to be construed as “becoming a better human being” as compared to what you were a time slot prior to that event.

One should be able to accept one’s mistake unreservedly, genuinely and immediately – Not because it is a great quality or anything of that sort (as it is generally claimed). Most importantly because it leaves you with a very good feeling and this feeling is enough a reason for practicing it.

The good life is inspired by love and guided by knowledge.
- Bertrand Russell

PS: I am sure your learning will be an effective learning for our readers. Particularly, what you said about opening your mind and learning from any source that can teach us. If you are given a wish to change one thing in world, what would you change?
BS: MYSELF – Because I think that is the only one I have “some” control and that too not always. I am talking about living beings only. Reference is not being made to non-living things and abstractions such as world, society, and environment. If you ask me about the environment then I would certainly like the environment to have more love, compassion … However I think all these things will turn out to be the way you see them. That is why I said “myself”.



PS: Wise words, sir. One can only act on the zone of influence he has control over. The improvement starts with self. Now let me ask a question about mythology. Which is your favorite mythological hero, and why?
BS: I have many. One of them is Sri Rama – Even to utter the name of this character, I do with utmost reverence and I consider it a great privilege to have known this character through His story.

Usually one has a tendency to admire traits or people because you want to have those traits or you would like to be them; essentially implying you do not have those traits or you are not those people. This is precisely why He is my favorite. He lived for Dharma and nothing else. Though this term encompasses many attributes I would like to explicitly cite a few - Truthfulness, compassion, dutiful ... These have been practiced by several others (mythical and non-mythical characters). The specialty here is the unimaginably high intensity levels.

Some of the incidents make me stand up in awe and reverence. Here is a character who went through a sequence of trials and tribulations to keep up a word (not given by him) but by his father. He considered Kausalya, Sumitra and Kaikeyi all as his mothers. Some of the passages in Ramayan reveal the consideration he shows to Kaikeyi. His attitude toward Vibishana displays another one of his traits. The subtle way of exemplifying humility (with respect to Hanuman’s devotion to Rama) to Hanuman is a lesson on “how to teach”, or more precisely “how to make someone learn”.

PS: Lord Rama's deed and valor is very well known. His attributes and qualities certainly serve as a reference point for someone who wants to live his life in an ideal way. What would you like to evangelize or stand for in your life?
BS: I do not understand this question. Some of the answers to the previous questions will give some idea of what I appreciate, like …. “Stand for” is too strong a term and it can become vague also. I do not stand for anything, and even if I stand for something I do not think I have the capacity to state it succinctly. Yes, I would like to lead a life according to Dharma though I am far from that right now.

PS: What is your charm?
BS: According to me, I do not have any. If any individual feels or thinks that I have, then this question should be put to him/her.

PS: I definitely feel that humility would be on the top in the list of your charms. :) What do you consider the Thumb Rule for success in life?
BS: Here there are three terms that are open to interpretation. What do you mean by life, how do you define success and how should you view a thumb rule?

A thumb rule (by classical understanding) is a rule that is signified by experience and is not backed by theory and proper analysis and is somewhat akin to a heuristic. This can lead you to success many a time; however, it can also result in failure as experience is never universal. This being the case I do not think one should look for thumb rule(s) in life as life is a very serious affair and it has several attributes, a primary one being "one cannot put back the clock". Hence I would not like to search for thumb rules to be given to you all; I very much doubt their existence on such matters.

Now we come to the more important terms given in your question.

Life - Any individual leads many lives, common nomenclature being personal, professional, … Every relationship may be considered as a life in itself – mother, wife, brother, friend, … In each one of these, success assumes a different colour. Am I making a mountain out of a mole hill? In actuality I am not. I am just mentioning the reality. I am not saying that we wear masks because mask implies “hiding something”. I am just saying every relationship is a part of the sum totality of life that we are leading. I know instances where an individual has been a failure as a husband but has been a successful professional. At the same time he has been a failure as a father. This being the case, how can one have a thumb rule for life (in all its complexities)?

Next is success – It has a variety of definitions all of them being person-centric, experience-centric, philosophy-centric. One individual’s definition may be utter nonsense to another. Hence I would not like to even delve into this complex knot. Any statement that I put forward may be (who knows) a very defensive part of me coming out.

With this long winding bends and turns on the road let me at least say what I think may (strictly MAY) give happiness (not success) to an individual. Identify your natural strengths and natural weaknesses. Seek environments that need your natural strengths and contribute (and you will as there will be natural motivation for contributing). Try to overcome your weaknesses (it is not at all easy). It will be slow and will take a long time; that does not matter. You will definitely go ahead. There is no question of turning back. This is all easier said than done.

One may think it is easy to identify strengths and not weaknesses. In actuality it is difficult to identify both. This is where people around you should help. Only your well-wishers may do it. The axiomatic well-wishers are your parents. After that your sieve should be applied. Let me again state I have not said anything about success. Strengths and weaknesses are abstractions that need to be translated into real entities depending on what “life” you are looking at – relationships, career, professional...

One may wonder why I had to give a long pre-amble to state the above. This is because one should know the right context and interpretation for the terms and for the question

Let me highlight some difficulties with respect to the strengths-weaknesses discussion.

(1) Many a time we may not be able to identify these strengths and weaknesses. As I said earlier parents will definitely have interest in our well-being and hence can certainly point these out. Genetic disposition does play a large role and again they seem to be relatively more qualified toward this. It could be a direct descent or more than one level descent.Again the same statement holds. However parents can always be blinded by extremes due to excess attachment. Working parents may not have the time to perform this arduous task as it needs observation over a large stretch of time and correlation of a high order. Uncles, aunts … may be useful surrogates. However we have come out of the joint family set up and got into a nucleus fold.

Thus there is a genuine problem. I do not have any solution for this. Each individual is placed in a unique situation and hence examination has to be done on a case-to-case basis – Again no guarantee. Apart from this there is another serious problem. Societal constraints may influence parents, … leading to lack of sensitization toward the “strengths” and consequent possibility-of-happiness of a child vis-à-vis success (defined in their and societal terms). I have been a personal witness to such a happening. When such things occur I can only feel sorry for the unfortunate situation. The mid-career transition from industry to teaching in my case was amidst one such similar difficulty.

(2) Strengths themselves may become weaknesses depending on the environments. There are very few universally valid strengths and universally valid weaknesses. Thus one should be able to pick the right environment. It is a phenomenally hard task.

(3) There is a natural urge for an individual to ignore the strength that may be glaring to the eyes and pursue the weaknesses (such as what an individual Is not good at) and try hard toward overcoming them to the point of not utilizing the strength. I know several such individuals. While it is good to attempt overcoming weaknesses it should not be at the cost of underplaying and undermining strengths. This can be tackled only by personal counseling done by well-wishers who are in the immediate vicinity and on whom the individual has confidence. This analysis is applicable the other way round also – strengths replaced by weaknesses.

Many of the so called “successful” individuals have been utilizing their natural strengths. I for certain believe that every individual is bestowed with natural strengths that need to be groomed, well-directed and placed in the right environment. If not I can only feel sorry. If you closely analyse some of the “successful” people you will find that their strengths have been their sheet anchor. A few examples – Einstein, Newton, Chandrasekhar… These personalities have stated the key trait (in the passing, somewhere in their writings) that helped them. The key trait is not something that most people possess. An example of weakness overpowering strength is the genius music director and singer A M Raja.


PS: Your answer has shown ‘Thumb Rule’ in a new light. Who are your favorite role models and why?
BS: I do not have a single role model in the generalized sense. However from different angles I have some traits/people (real and not mythical) that/whom I like, admire … These people - either I have had personal contact or I have got to know through their works. To give a few examples along with respective categories (sometimes there may be more than one in a category – Mentioning just one does not belittle the others whose names have not been stated):

Administrative acumen, professional competence and courage – My father Dr. L. R. Balasubramaniam

Intuitive Grasp, Understanding of situations and people – My mother Neela Balasubramaniam

Communicating great and possibly difficult ideas and consequently inspiring the audience – Professor Vittal Rao

Involved multi-emotional singing (hindi) – Mohd. Rafi
(tamil) – P B Sreenivas

Light music composer/arranger (tamil) – Viswanathan and Ramamoorthy (as a duo)
(hindi) – Madan Mohan
(non-Indian) – Mantovani

Visual art (Static – drawing) – Raja Ravi Varma

Visual art (Dynamic – Cinema) – David Lean

Classical music singing – G N Balasubramaniam

Classical music composer – Saint Thyagaraja

Classical literature (Indian) – S L Byrappa
(non-Indian) – Leo Tolstoy

Sports personality (specific attributes not listed here) – Viswanathan Anand

PS: Could you please share any 3 Must Read Books for any Manager/Entrepreneur ?
BS: A serious study of Mahabharat. (for a manager)

Les Miserables - to have an (in depth) appreciation of different emotional facets of an ordinary human being

Euclid’s Elements along with mandatory “attempting to solve” at least one problem at a convenient periodicity should go a long way in sharpening the intuitive, creative and logical nature of the human mind. (This is not necessarily for a manager)

These are books for anyone. I don’t think I can suggest anything only for a manager/entrepreneur

PS: Thank You Sir. Now let me put a few questions regarding your profession. Being a professor, what motivated you to choose this career? At what point in your life, you decided that you have to become a teacher.
BS: I am not cutout for industry. Relatively I am better off on the dais. I realized it in 1983. A huge amount of time had passed by then. Better late than never. This industry-dais difference however small it might be was sufficient enough for me to cross over to the teaching profession


One has to be a scholar and adopt a scholarly approach to life in general. This category has a few whom I know. I am far from it – the only saving grace is that I am trying (many more steps to go).



PS: Very humble way of saying that the learning streak in you still remains. Could you please share any three most important things (related to professional) you learnt in your career.
BS: I cannot prefix “most important”. To me any learning is important. However I will mention three things I learnt. Do not ask me whether I practice them. I am trying to. However I have learnt that they need to be practiced. These are life’s teachings.

A thing that is worth doing is worth doing well. If it is not worth doing well then it is not worth doing at all. Try to practice this as far as possible. The more you are able to practice, the more you will be better off in your mind.

Never harbor negative feelings (jealousy, hatred …). It is bad for your health – mental and physical. Your mind will never be at rest. Modern science hypothesizes the presence of a psychosomatic component in many of the physical diseases.

Your actions will invariably have a thinking component and a feeling component. Give importance to both. Don’t be skewed in your approach. Just as an illustration – suppose a guy is caught copying in the examination. Punishment is a necessity as that is going to teach him and others not to do it. A capital punishment will destroy and possibly demolish him. A punishment should be to mend and reform, resulting in his contributing positively toward himself and the society.


"Imagination is more important than knowledge. For while knowledge defines all we currently know and understand, imagination points to all we might yet discover and create."
- Albert Einstein

PS: That was useful. Talking about learning, how can one ensure that the spark of Knowledge remains shining in them?
BS: It will continue to shine provided the spark is a result of your love for “that” knowledge and not merely an indirectly and externally motivated result. Thus you need to do what you love. It is not always easy. There may be several sacrifices you may need to make. It is important that you should know to differentiate true love. Otherwise your sacrifices may leave you disillusioned.

PS: Few questions on Management. MBA is considered a way to fast money. How much of it is true...?
BS: Good money - Yes. Fast money - Not necessarily. A word of caution - Anything that comes quickly also goes away quickly.

I do not think this is true. Students certainly give a lot of value to what they do to earn that money. Most of them are aware of what they like and otherwise. They choose jobs based on that. They do hop from one job to another fairly quickly before they settle down on a job, money being one of the important parameters. However it needs to be within the bandwidth of their likes.

PS: In what ways should a student pursuing MBA spend his time so that he utilizes the most of his time in the 2 year MBA stint.
BS: I am not competent enough to answer this question as "ways to spend his time" and "utilizing the most of his time" is too general and at the same time too person-centric. I don’t think I can answer in a meaningful way also. I do not want to say - "Work hard, Get a good CGPA, develop your personality, develop team spirit …" as these are tautological statements and may hold in other similar academic environments too.

PS: Some questions on Manager and Leader. There is a subtle difference between a Manager and a Leader. Which is more desirable?
BS: That depends on a person's attitudes, aptitudes and goals. Some comments are warranted here.

My contention is that a good manager is more by nurture - by training as long as there is willingness to work, learn and implement. On the contrary a good leader is more by nature than by nurture. It has to be in you. Of course if one has the spark there can be ways and means of making a fire out of it. It is better to be a reasonably good manager than to be a bad leader.

Quickly let me add that every job has a leadership component and a managerial component. This mix changes as you advance in time. There is bound to be a leadership component as you approach the later stages of your tenure. Hopefully everybody has a little bit of “leadership” nature.

PS: MBA school teaches the students to become an able Manager. How to mould oneself to a Leader?
BS: I do not know whether one can mould toward leadership (see the answer to the previous question). One important point - a sham/bad leader will very easily be noticed as compared to an OK manager. Unfortunately there is nothing like an OK leader. People will just hate you for lack of leadership if you hold a position that imposes such demands as compared to managerial effectiveness. Another feature - technicalities are more in management and can be learnt and practiced. Leadership on the contrary has less of this.

PS: The education industry in India needs to change so to effectively empower the students. What kind of change is required and how can it be brought about.
BS: First of all I do not know whether I will agree with the first sentence. In addition I take objection to the term "education industry". If “education” as an industry makes a major headway in our/any country, then I will feel sorry for the citizens and future citizens of that country. I do not know what you mean by empower. You need to state "empowered" to do what?

Education should be personalized as learning should take place on a one-to-one basis – the Socrates approach to learning. It might be expensive from various angles. If that is the case then so be it. I believe that education should be classified as a basic necessity like food, shelter and clothing. Hence budget for school education should occupy a high position in the priority list of any government. I do not even know whether it should be a governmental initiative. To me "education industry" comes very close to being an oxymoron.

One thing I am happy about - in good private schools personalized attention is being attempted in a serious way albeit being an extremely expensive proposition. Here let me point out the existence of a "school for the gifted" in Hungary, which has produced great mathematicians…

Let me quote the famous mathematician Paul Erdos:
"In Hungary a few years ago a special high school, the Michael Fazekas High School, was opened in Budapest for children who are gifted in mathematics. The school started just when Pósa was due to go to high school. He liked the school very much, so much so, in fact, that he refused to leave it for entrance into university two years early. Soon after attending Fazekas High School, Pósa was telling me of other boys in his class who he thought were better at elementary mathematics than he was. Among these boys was the now prominent Lovász."


I really do not know why we do not have such things in large number for different subjects and at subsidized rates in our country. I know there are several issues that need to be resolved. However there is no point in ignoring something because it is difficult. Every child gets treated differently in the school mentioned by Erdos. Recall Einstein’s dislike toward his school (called gymnasium at that time). It was primarily because of regimentation and approach. He was all through an opponent of regimentation. Incidentally regimentation is an inherent attribute of any industry-oriented environment. It is a process of bunching things together ignoring the differences however subtle they might be. One cannot graduate students like mass produced engineered products such as pen-drives, locks and keys.


Evaluation systems have problems. According to me, there should not be any evaluation system at all. By and large, students will orient themselves toward evaluation. This is also because all students do not have high motivation levels. Again this is because of possible societal pressures.

PS: .After hearing your reply, I would like to retract my statement and rephrase it to mean "How to Change the evaluation System in India". The individualized attention if given to kids will be definitely beneficial. I believe Indus School is also a new step in the education system which emphasizes more on overall learning along with academic learning. Sir, we have reached the end of the Show.

It has been a great pleasure to have you in the Show and learn from you. Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us. On behalf of the readers and with me, Warm regards to you, Sir. Thank You.

BS: You are welcome. All the Best.

Adventures of Rim,Jim and Sim - Sim brings Home a Dog

Before you start wondering with why Sim bringing home a Dog has to occupy a chapter in our evergreen memoirs of life,a bit of history will be of much use in shedding light on the incident which was unthinkable in our lives.It would be wrong to say that Sim hated Dogs; To tell that Sim repulsed Dogs with every cell of his body would come somewhat nearer in describing his attitude towards dogs. Knowing this i feel you could understand the magnanimous of Sim when he adopted a dog as his pet.

It all started with Sim 3rd grade Science class and his attempts to understand the difference between 5 sense and 6 sense species. When we was in his 3rd grade, his Science teacher when talking on some topic struck upon this topic of difference between humans and animals. I know talking about these kind of topics in 3rd grade is somewhat strange,yet maybe the Science teacher wanted her students to be advanced in their thinking... Anyhow,when all the basic differences had been told by the students(Sim claims he had also made his own contribution. His point - Animals have 4 legs whereas Humans have 2 legs), the teacher elaborated further saying that Humans have 6 senses whereas animals have 5 senses.



Sim was bowled over by the thought that 1 sense can make that big difference. Anyhow, before Sim let his imagination go flying, the teacher explained how the 6th sense mattered. She went on to explain that other than the five basic senses, seeing, feeling, smelling, hearing and tasting every human has sixth sense, that sense of other-worldliness, a connection to something more and greater than their physical senses are able to perceive.I assume it would have impacted Sim profoundly to know that he is in possession of an extra sense, which the poor animals haven't been bestowed upon.

And guess what he did... As curious he ever was he decided to test if really the other animals possessed this extra-sense or not. He reached this conclusion after 2 weeks of deep thinking. To think that a 3rd grade child can think for 2 week on a single topic is unheard of, yet that's what makes Sim different. He was a prodigy in is own way.He decided to go ahead with his experiment plan. The only mistake little Sim made was with regards to the timing and the 'object' on which he experimented.

Sim's neighbor had a dog, a German Shepherd a little bigger than a pup size. Sim plan was to enter his neighbors house when the dog would be sleeping. I think the word 'perceive' in his Science teacher's explanation of 6th sense was taken as such by Sim and he reasoned that if he enters the house successfully it would mean the dog has no 6th sense and his teachers theory would be proved. He was so confident of the theory of the 5 senses of the dog that he overlooked the fact that dogs are meant to guard homes and have a special sense for that.Anyhow,our Child prodigy Sim silently tiptoed to his neighbors home in the afternoon when he was sure that everyone inside the home will be asleep and the dog would also be having his afternoon nap. His plan was to go in the house and come out silently without the Dog finding it out. He tiptoed silently till the open veranda before the house and climbed the stairs and would have had just touched the door, when disaster struck. The dog's mighty sense sensed an intruder and it leapt on Sim.



Fortunately for Sim the dog had been tied and the rope size restriction saved the day for Sim. He escaped with 3 dog bites and barking sounds very close to his ears which left him in a dazed state. I think the dog would have been happier to gift Sim few more of its juicy bites but for the house-owner who rushed down and saved Sim. Sim's explanation that he came there looking for a ball satisfied everyone. But
since that day, Sim got a suspicion that Dog also possess 6th sense. My reasoning to him that if the Dog had possessed 6th sense, then it would have bite its own rope binding him and would have taken few extra bites of him failed to convince him.

And from then on,Sim developed a revulsion against dogs that would have prompted the Dog's community to sign a peace-treaty with him, had it known this. But as in all cases, Sim had a weakness. His desire to impress girls ensured he signed a new peace treaty with the dog's species. It all started when a girl joined his company as a new employee. Sim considered her the most beautiful girl(which he considers every girl on a routine basis) and began to trouble us with his pathetic odes to the girl back in our room.

Someone had said that Life is like a chess game and it plays an unexpected move which would leave you dazed. Destiny had similar plans for Sim. That girl turned out to be living in the same locality as ours. The brilliant destiny move was that she loved dog's and she owned one which she took for walking daily to the nearby park. A cute Pomeranian. Sim's revulsion of dogs had to take a back seat and his decision to do the unthinkable - adopting a pet dog was influenced by an single incident which changed his life and the poor dogs' life for ever.

To be contd...


First Part of Rim,Jim,Sim - here

The Adventures of Rim,Jim and Sim - Sim goes Gyming - Part I : here

The Adventures of Rim,Jim & Sim - Sim goes Gyming !! - Part II : here

Cool Runnings:

There have been a variety of movies ranging from comedy,thriller, action and drama. One characteristics of the movies which i appreciate much is the moral lesson which the movie depicts. Thanks to some wonderful directors,we have ample movies which not only makes you sit back,relax,laugh but also makes you THINK.(Since we are increasingly getting acclimatized to a robotic pace of life,hence THINKING is something which we are doing less often. Maybe,i will post another post on the concept of THINKING, for now lets continue with this one. One such movie which i recently saw is 'Cool Runnings'.Going by my way of extracting life-lessons from movie, the following post isn't a movie review but review of what the movie had to offer other than entertainment.



Cool Running is a comedy movie in which the main characters of the movie are from Jamaica who are well talented athletics and they hope to represent Jamaica in the upcoming Winter Olympics. The 3 of them are confident of qualifying in the selection race and make it to the Jamaican Athletic Team. On the day of race, when the race starts the 3 of them lead the race when just few meters before the finishing line, one of the 3 racers stumbles down and also trips the 2 nearby athletics. Hence they lose the chance to make it to the Jamaican team. But the lead hero Derice is so fired up to represent Jamaica in the Winter Olympics that he is ready to fins any avenues to make his dream come true.

In the process,he meets Irving , a retired Olympic winner who had been disqualified because of accusations of cheating and currently a Bookie. Irving in his younger days had been a friend of Derice's father who had been a great athletic himself. Irving who after being disqualified had wanted Derice's father to be a part of Bob sledge team because he believed that good runners can make a great Bob sledging team. Derice comes to know of this and goes in search of Irving and persuades him to train him so to represent Jamaica in the Winter Olympics.

Irving after being initially not interested finally agrees to train Derice. He tells 4 people will be required for making a team. Derice meets his friend who has been a champion in the push cart race in his area and persuades him to be one of the team member. Then they together call for a audition for selection of team members. Irving starts the audition by saying that the Bobsled game is not a easy one and that people have died in the games. Hearing this all the people who have come for the audition ran away except the 3 of the athletic who had earlier ran in the qualifying race and the push cart friend.

The funny part is that none knows what is a Bob-Sled game is and how one plays it.A Bobsled is a long racing sled (for 2 or more people) with a steering mechanism and since it is a winter Olympic the racing happens in ice. And Jamaica being a hot place has no amenities for practicing. Even then, Irving trains his new found 4 trainers and they start to practice with full zest. Irving approaches the Jamaican Olympic committee head and ask him to sponsor his team for the Bobsled games. Yet, the head refuses to do so and asks him 'Jamaican participating in Bobsled game is unheard of' and refuses to give financial assistance. Undeterred Derice struggles and finally arranges money so as to reach Calgary,Alberta. The whole place is in complete contrast to Jamaican climate , the temperatures touching -13 degrees.They somehow get acclimatized to the climate.Irving manages to get his team a second hand Bob Sled from his American friends. The first day during the practice proves disastrous for his team as they not only perform badly in the practice but also end up being the butt of others ridicule.

Even then, in the trials next day they record a good timings and end up at the 8th place. Their performance invigorates the entire Jamaica who look forward On the final day,they have a good start and look as if they will end up making a world record. Unfortunately, due to one of the blades falling off, their bob-sled flips on its side coming out of a turn towards the end of their run, leaving them meters
short of the finish line. Still,all the team lifts their sled up and walks across the finish line to rousing applause from onlookers, including their antagonists.

I know that the gist has been a bit long but it was necessary to understand the lessons which the movie had to offer. Firstly, the fire which each one of the 4 team members had so as to represent Jamaica in the Olympics. Leaving the push cart friend, the other three were accomplished runners, even then when they lost the race due to an unfortunate incident, they still didn't lose hope and looked for ways to make their dream come true. In the movie,after persuading Irving to train them they faced a lot of obstacles like no financing to go to Alberta,no proper equipments to practice,no one to support them, a climate in complete contrast to Jamaica and a crowd of antagonist who were making fun of them. Still, the team went ahead with their ambition not bothering about the external factors and focusing on what they really wanted.

This is similar in life that when we want something truly and intensely no matter what the obstacles are,one definitely achieves it...On the day of the race, in spite of being leading the race, due to a glitch their bob-sled over turns and they end up missing the record and are not able to finish the race. in spite of this, they lift the bob-sled and carry it across to the finish line. Comparing this to our life, many times in our life,when the going seems smooth and easy, we come against some unexpected challenge.

Still,what determines our destiny is how we decide to respond to that particular challenge. What choice we make at those particular moments. Do we cry foul over what happened or we sit back and decide what to do next. As always,its our choices that determines our destiny. There are few other minor learning's in the movie for that i leave it to you to check up the movie yourself. Hope the article had some useful learning's.

Take Control.