The Question Of Ethics

"How ethical are you ?" ..This is a question which quite a few people have asked me after coming here..Infact almost every mock interview / committee interview at IIMK had this question..

Long back during my schooling and early college life, I considered smoking & drinking as totally wrong and unethical ... I no longer hold that perspective.. I still dont smoke( but I do take couple of pegs :) ) ... The way I look at people have undergone a sea change.. Similarly, I considered abstaining from seeing pornographic movies as an ethical way of life..but thankfully or otherwise, those myths got busted early in NITC life itself :-) ...similarly many more stuff...

If you have are caught in a situation where in you have to tell a lie to defend a promise,what would you do ? Most of us would tell the lie so that the promise holds... This might seem trivial, but few years back i was in such a situation which resulted in a big change in my life... Now when I look back to that episode, I think I would have handled it in a more mature way..Maybe declining to answer the question, or even managing my way out of the situation..

I still see pirated movies, I still use pirated software... So,that way, I'm not ethical. In IIMK, a significant ethical conflict that I've felt till now was over free-riding ( i.e, in a project group , you just relax, let others do the task ) .. No matter however talented you are, the pressures in a B-school makes you freeride in one project or the other regularly..

The values that an individual subscribes to undergoes lot of changes as he/she progresses in life..But then,there are some core values that remain more or less same... Its not easy to enumerate those core values... maybe a sense of equity,consideration for common good,being true to oneself etc... Over those, I still feel I'm the same .

Ajith

B-school Life - Part II

Certain observations/happenings/realizations/updates over Life @ IIMK .

* I get up a day and struggle to realize which day it is..i.e, whether it is a sunday or friday or any other weekday, all are more or less equal now with workload.

* I thought I'm decent in time management skills..Apparently, first month here has proved otherwise :-) ..I've missed quite a few things which I wouldn't have otherwise.

* I buy Business Line & The Hindu..But unable to read those on most days..And I'm running out of space to put all those newspapers.

* As a consequence of the above factor and my reluctance to clean, my room looks more or less like a dumping ground of newspapers, articles and books :-(

* My home is just 22 KM from here and I have a bike..But have gone there only for a few hours in last one month.

* I was caught sleeping in the class quite a few times..And the fact that my name begins with letter 'A' ensures that I'll have to sit in the front row..I'm eagerly awaiting for term 2 to start as my seat will be moved to the last row :-) ... And yeah, there is an MMS circulating in campus in which I was caught sleeping in class :-)

* B'coz of the above factor, I've decided that I'd not name my kid with a name starting with letter 'A'.. No matter however good the lecture is, you can't help sometimes ..

* 2 AM is the normal time to sleep now..And some days, it extends past 4 AM .

* There are quite a few opportunities in an IIM..But a day has only 24 hrs out of which you have to sleep for atleast 4 hrs .

* I see quite a few people getting too much upset over small reverses like bad exams, less marks, disproportionate rewards etc... But life is more than all these.

* A key learning - Even if you have nothing substantial to submit, its important to format it properly :-)

* And yeah, I won an election to get into Students' Council :-)

Part 1 of B-school life Linked here

Ajith