Homework
And feathered canyons everywhere, I’ve looked at clouds that way.
But now they only block the sun, they rain and snow on everyone
So many things I would have done, but clouds got in my way’
The issue of work-life balance has finally hit the politically correct workplace. Options such as flexi-hours, working from home, and part-time work can now be taken without saying good-bye to your job – or so the bosses say. Of these, looking to work flexi-hours can be realistically got away with only if you have troublesome children, dying relatives, or clients in a different time zone. And part-time work brings about the vexing combination of having to meet full-time expectations on part-time wages. It is working from home that has serious attractions – a laptop, phone and Internet connection makes one productive wherever and obviates the need to commute, put up with the shitty coffee and have your finger on the abort key and your mind over the shoulder every time you play a game on the computer. But – will this actually work for you, and are there some pitfalls that you should be aware of in this seemingly win-win option? Is there something in those rats’ maze-like workspaces that makes work productive and fun? Are there downsides to peace and quiet and a TV and fridge within easy reach?
Return of the Jedi
Two-Pager by Ajit Chaudhuri
May 2007
Introduction: Some of you know that I had recently spent three months as a Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Rural Management (IRMA) in Anand, Gujarat. IRMA is an institution that I owe big time – for two wonderful football-filled years in the late 1980s, for a piece of paper that says that I am a post-graduate, for some lifelong friends, and for that lovely lady I met there who wakes up next to me every morning – yet I have been back only once since leaving and that was in 1999. And so, when Neelima Khetan (the Director of IRMA until very recently) popped the question, I agreed with an alacrity that must have made her think I was desperate. Luckily for me, she (and IRMA) followed through, my various bosses came around, and there I was with a car full of wife, children, maid, dog and 3 months necessities driving into the familiar campus in beginning November 2007. This paper looks to describe what it was like to return to the alma mater.
Money for Nothing
A 2-pager by Ajit Chaudhuri
April 2007
It was just a little while back that the word ‘aid fatigue’ had crept into our lexicon – the result of the perception that all that money and effort for so long was not doing very much. The starving children and crying women were still there and in numbers, their leaders were living better and better and fighting each other more and more, and NGOs and the Swiss banking system were flourishing. ‘Screw the whole bloody lot of them!’ the givers seemed to be saying, ‘They’re not getting any more of our money!’