Crisis? What Crisis?

Friday we had a fantastic guest speaker at IESE – Nando Parrado. Many are familiar with the story: his rugby team was flying from their home in Uruguay to Chile for a game. The plane crashed in the Andes and 15 survived after 72 days in the mountains. Nando was one of two who hiked out and sent helicopters back to rescue the rest. . It was the most moving and personal, as well as inspirational and motivational speech I’ve ever heard. He didn’t talk about his own numerous business successes, just about his story and life. It’s rare to find a speaker with such amazing credibility when it comes to perseverance and teamwork, and so humble. He colored in, in black and white, the things that matter: Family, friends, staying alive.

At the end, nobody could talk. He had packed this center of 800 people from around the world (the executive and African programs were on campus in addition to us MBAs and all the aisles and walls were lined with more people) – and he calmly asked for questions at the end, but I don’t think anyone had anything to ask because any question seemed unnecessary. The whole place was dead silent after the applause, and we were all standing up from it, but sort of frozen not wanting to leave: awed, inspired.

His entire demeanor made me, and probably everyone, understand that he’s been to another level of thinking and existing that puts life into sharp perspective. The title given to the lecutre, “Crisis? What Crisis?” makes that point.

Nando talked about the team knowing one another quite well before the accident, and how quickly they organized themselves to face the challenge of living in the Andes. He talked about returning home after all this to find his belongings had been given away or sold: How easily the world continues without you. Yet he managed to get his life together. The teamwork and perseverance they exhibited are unbelievable. The element of chance, too was frightening. He said that since that experience, he’s never had trouble making a decision.

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If you want to learn more, you should see the “Stranded! The Andes Plane Crash Survivors 1/11″ clips on You Tube. There are 11 segments uploaded to complete the video. It captures the incredible brotherhood far better than the Hollywood adaptation, Alive, does.

Slumdog 100Rupee-air

This was the first time I spent my entire time abroad as the only person from my country/ school/ company/ group. I learned a lot and probably a lot more than I know I learned in some areas, and a bit less than I think I learned in others.

I was to spend the first week doing nothing but reading up on Indian labor markets, history, and the state of urban poverty, micro insurance, and many other topics. I was located within the Labor Markets Cell at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences – amid PhD candidates tiring over pressing issues in labor economics and urban poverty. These local experts and resources helped me learn about the culture and history so when it came time to apply my foreign perspective, it would actually mean something, which I hope it did.

I’d like to share a bit from an informal discussion with some of my colleagues about the perceptions around the movie Slumdog Millionaire. In a speech class during the first year of the MBA, an Indian classmate had proclaimed it a fantastic movie – we should all see it. I had seen it, enjoyed it in parts, and been charmed by the music, speed and chaos it captured.

Throughout my research, I learned things about India that made me change my original opinion of the film. I realized suddenly how unbelievable it was that Jamal came out of the slums to get a job as a tea walla in a call center. This was absolutely absurd upward mobility! Where did he learn English? How did he jump into the 3% of the population with formal sector employment? It angered me that the film portrayed this incorrectly. Understandably, movies are movies, but to make such a leap in a movie arguably intended to open the eyes of the Western world, seemed unjust. I asked my co-workers for clarity.

“It’s an outsiders anthropologic perspective of India,” they said, “It’s poverty porn.” “Middle and upper class India like it. People who like to think things are changing like it. It’s a happy movie. People can brush everything under the rug again.” Someone else added, “I think there were riots in the slums over it. People don’t like when they are misrepresented.”

I suddenly felt guilty for my own perception of India. The colors, the vibrant, chaotic, whir is such an overwhelming experience for the viewer that one can too easily forget that it is life for the viewed. Indeed in the movie, there was a distinct feel of looking at something from a removed perspective, not the insight of an insider. How dangerous that I only learned that after hours of research and conversation! It seems to me that some people never have to think about this because they innately get it and some people never will. I hope now I will be more aware.

I think music compatibility is really imperative in a marriage. I mean, just imagine if Thom didn’t like Toto. Where would we be?

Art and writing professors I’ve had, please weep with me as I work in the medium of PowerPoint.

Indie music, social media, board games, late nights at modern art museums, DIY… It is great to be with you all in this age of DorkLightenment.

My hindi phrasebook seems to be handling both sides to conversations. I just don’t see myself telling someone else, ” The sole of your shoe has become bad.”

I miss sailing a lot. In my rickshaw tonight, maybe I’ll stick my body out into the rain and yell, “Starboard!” at the traffic. That might help.

I don’t like when people use the word “sexy” in presentations to refer to something work-related. I find it subliminally inappropriate. One exception could be if the presenter is dressed as a sandwich.

I could see living in San Francisco, but I don’t think I could handle the being away from Barcelona it would entail.

“Enjoy with a paratha, roti or toast” makes me question the authenticity of this can of “Smith & Jones” brand baked beans from the fancy grocery store.