Joint Probability, Indian Mythology & Lateral Thinking!!!

Here is a Katha in my village by a Saint who might be coming from some village in Saurashtra. And here is a Lecture from a Professor at IIMA who might be holding a PhD from Stanford. Well, both talked about Joint Probability in their own distinct way and here I am to synthesize the best of both world. My feet are in rural Saurashtra and my head is in elite IIMA! I have all rights to syntehsize :)

Katha is of Hiranyakashyapu. He gets Vardaan from Lord Shiva. He asks for immortality but Lord Shiva says that everybody who takes birth has to die. To reduce the probability of death to nil, Hiranyakashyapu asks specifics of death in Vardaan. Here they are: He says that his death is possible only when its neither day nor night, neither inside nor outside, neither on the earth nor in the sky, neither with the shastra nor with the astra, neither with the living not with the dead, neither by the human nor by the animal. Well, apart from the amount of lateral thinking it calls for, his death has least probability to happen. Thanks to principles of joint probability. Joint probability means that all the event should happen and probability of simultaneous happening of all the events reduces exponentially. Hiranyakashyapu knew application of this well before the theory of probability was developed!

But as Lord Shiva promised, everybody who takes birth has to die once. And here comes Narsima, one Avataar of Lord Vishnu who is neither man(Nar) nor animal (Sinha). He catches him at dusk: neither day nor night; he catches him in the doorstep: neither inside nor outside; he lifts him up in his lap: neither on the earth nor in the sky; and finally kills him neither with astra nor with shastra but with his nails and nails are neither living nor dead! Isn't that an out of the box lateral thinking? Professors at IIMA and Stanford that trains them are too late and far behind !!!

Countdown 3,2,1,0 NO its 0,1,2,3...

The most talked about campus event. Placements. The highly glamorized event. IIMA follows the day system of placements. The most sought after B-School starts the placement process with most sought after organizations on 'Day Zero'. Count down begins in reverse. Its a matter of pride to get selected on Day Zero. Its a matter of money and prestige too. Students joyce. Students regret. Students get frustrated. Its all about getting selected or NOT. Entire life's journey so far is summed up in one selection or rejection. Further, reinforcing the belief to work on the CV points! I have yet not seen the mood of final placements. This is just a beginning. Its for summer internship. But competition is still in the air. Ultimately, summers are linked with PPOs - Pre Placement Offers. Companies recruit people for summers to test them for final placements when they graduate. Afterall, its a costly affair! You know the IIMA graduate's salary from those news stories every year!!! This event brings the most glory to IIMA. The handsome placements. So much that most people's motivation to join the program is the job that they get after the completion. This is a cause of worry for some professors. People loose motivation, once they get placed into a dream organization for summers. And this happens so early, its just the mid of second term! Four more terms to go. Let me observe, how true it is! Many of my classmates have got into Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers!