Bornloser

Sorry, Please retire

2012-01-24T19:17:00.003+05:30

At the outset let me state that I am a selfish guy. When the Indian team is down in the dumps I will not support them, on the contrary I will take potshots at them.

Yes, I supported the Indian cricket team and cheered them when they were going great guns and seemed to be winning all over the world (except Australia)

Yes, I was on cloud 99 when we won the world cup for the 2nd time

Yes, I reveled in the fact that we were on top of the Test rankings

Yes, I am dismayed and depressed after watching the dismal performance in Australia

Somehow, the past 2 tours of England and Australia seem to have wiped out every positive feeling about the Indian cricket. There is gloom and doom every where. Even the most optimistic fan out there cannot go out on a limb and claim that we can win even one session out of maximum possible 15 sessions in a test match. Is that too much to ask for? Our lead pace bowler has the hallucinations that he is playing in a T20 match. So instead of staying at the crease for as long as possible, he tries to swing his bat and try to hit every ball out of the park. I wonder what must be going through the minds of our senior citizens in the cricket team. True, they have done a great service to the nation. But the nation is not obliged to provide them with a guaranteed employment (the usual refrain is that these guys know when it is the best time for them to retire). Lot of people will say that fans are fickle minded and they go over the top while expressing their feelings. Let us be frank, the world is a cruel place. We are living in a capitalist economy - you perform you play, you slip and thank you very much. That's how the world is. Other less fortunate players have got even lesser opportunities - doesn't that prove that this is a cruel world and the 'seniors' should not expect a better treatment.

The problem with us Indians is that we are hardcore believers in TINA (There is no alternative) factor. We believe that in a country of 1.2 billion only 4 guys are talented and have the right to a guaranteed place in the national team. The youngsters do get opportunities. but only when the seniors are either oiling their creaking bones or do not consider the opposition worthy enough. Some will say that we do not stand any chance in the absence of these experienced players. I agree but a smooth sea never made a skillful mariner.

Now I wonder that I am not the only selfish person out here. These seniors are selfish too. Aren't they thinking only about their career? Aren't they worried about retiring on a high? Why can't they have a modest last match and just retire? Why should an entire nation suffer in agony so that 1 individual can have a perfect retirement?

P.S. What the hell is the coach doing?

P.S.S. Sack the Coach and get DADA on board. :)

P.S.S.S. Conspiracy theorists are saying that the Indian team is trying to prove that England is not the #1 team and they are trying desperately to lose more convincingly to Australia, just to prove their point

Typical Indian Cricket Fan

2011-07-22T11:16:00.007+05:30

Like "aam aadmi", cricket historians and commentators world over have often wondered, who is this ubiquitous but invisible Indian cricket Fan (ICF). He could be anyone, right from our milk delivery guy, grocery shop owner, tech geek, politician or head honchos of some blue chip company. Just like God, this Indian Cricket Fan (ICF) is omnipresent. If you want to test my hypothesis, then try this. While traveling in a crowded Mumbai local train (the only place where you can get statistically significant homogenized sample of unbiased people) try mentioning that Sachin Tendulkar is one selfish person who is only after milestones and can never perform in crunch situations. I can bet you anything in the world, that you will be bombarded with expletives, remonstrations and even glares that will make you pray to Harry Potter to lend you his invisibility cloak. Reams of newsprint have been written about India being a cricket crazy country and recent world cup triumph has only added to the rolls of this community. Indian Cricket Fan (ICF) is a much bandied word, just like Congress' favorite person "Aam aadmi". But no attempt has been made to understand or identify this ICF. Aam aadmi has been immortalized by RK Laxman's cartoons, but ICF still is waiting for his due.

So who is this ICF???? I have made a humble attempt to demystify this ethereal being

He believes in only one religion - cricket and worships only one god - Sachin (even if he is a Bengali his first loyalty is towards Sachin. Though, Dada comes close second)
Inorder to test ICF's faith in Sachin, you need to either criticize Sachin or charge Sachin with ungentlemanly conduct. This trigger is enough to wake up even the most latent and soft ICF. Don't believe me? Ask Mike Dennes, the match referee who charged Sachin with ball tampering
He can dish out stats at the drop of a hat. Though his memory is limited to last 15 years.
He believes that the Indian cricket's glory days began after 2000 (after Dada's ascension to the throne)
He gets extremely excited after watching Sehwag whack the fiercest bowlers and gets equally frustrated on seeing him getting out casually. He doesn't mind giving his piece of mind as if he Sehwag was standing right infront of him
He is someone who lauds Dravid's gutsy batting when the Indian batting crumbles. He doesn't mind Dravid scoring 30 runs from 200 balls. But he gets equally frustrated when Dravid doesn't alter his strike rate even if 80 odd runs are required from 90 balls.
He follows cricket religiously - on TV, car radio, mobile phone (GPRS), Office (internet) and frequent visits to the cafeteria
He may have never got up at 6 AM to study or practice yoga. But he gets up at 5 AM to watch India take on Australia down under, even on weekends !!!!
Actually, he alters his body clock according to the geographical location of the Indian team
He is an expert batsman, bowler (spin, fast and swing) and fielder
Chances are that he may have never touched a leather ball in his life. But that doesn't prevent him from criticizing Harbhajan's lack of spin technique or sermonizing Zaheer Khan on how to extract swing
He can read, interpret and discuss about pitches more efficiently than Udayan Mukherjee can slice and dice the stock markets
He hates Aussie cricketers more than Pakis
Finally, he thinks every cricket series is important be it Australia, West Indies or even Zimbabwe

State of Limbo

2011-07-07T23:30:00.000+05:30

I recently found out that the world's most difficult words are "Can I talk to you in private for a minute?"

This sentence evokes mysterious responses. People let their imaginations run wild and most likely conclude that something is definitely wrong. So I witnessed similar responses when I put down my papers recently. I went up to the HR person and asked her, "Can I talk to you in private for a minute?" She was bewildered. The fact, that this is resignation season, didn't help either. Immediately she was suspicious and the long walk from her cubicle to the conference room seemed like eternity. Inside the conference room, the atmosphere was sombre and tensed. People passing by were glancing inside and wondering, what is the conversation about. When I walked up to my manager to say "Can I talk to you in private for a minute?" I think she had guessed it, because appraisal seasons are long gone, no project related work was ongoing and I looked visibly very tensed and stressed.

When you put down the papers in your organization, things change immediately. You feel the piercing gaze that is directed at you, evaluating you, doubting your intentions, doubting your professionalism, doubting your commitment towards work etc. Now I have entered a state of limbo. Where you realize you are neither inside nor outside the organization. You don't know whether you should attend team meetings, you don't know whether you should act normally and offer your opinion on the state of affairs of the company, you don't know whom to tell and whom not to. You always feel that incase you arrive late some day, people will start mocking and doubting your professionalism. So this is the state of limbo. You just want to go through the motions without emotions.

Let me conclude with a borrowed a line from Facebook status of a friend - "Appraisal hote hain... Disappointment ka sama hota hai..... Aise mausam mei hi to attrition jawaan hota hai...Dil ki khunus hum jubaan se nahin kahte...Yeh fasana to resignation se bayan hota hai"

Nandi Hills - best pics ever

2010-11-15T16:06:00.011+05:30

We decided to visit Nandi Hills yet again (3rd time in last 2 months). That's because it is very close to Bangalore and secondly, you can be back in a couple of hours. Every time we had been there, the weather has been totally different. First time (May) there was no sign of mist and clouds - so it was little disappointing. Second time (October) - there was mist all over the place and clouds blocked the view of sun rise. Third time - we decided to skip Nandi Hills and trek over to the hill opposite to that (that again was a hell of a trip). Fourth time - there were clouds all around, but below us... so we had clear sky but clouds below our level.

As usual, we reached before the gates opened at 5:30 AM. Bought the tickets and were the first guys to reach on top. Sudden impulsive decision to take a short cut and reach the top proved to be a boon as we witnessed the best ever sun rise. We were just in time as sun was rising over the clouds. The view was akin to that seen from an airplane. It was just spectacular, as we saw the sun rising slowly and then clouds engulfing the sun. The clouds were at very low height and they covered the view below the hill. We were at sufficient height to get a clear view of the surroundings. Words cannot do justice to the awesome sight. So I will let the photographs do the talking

Travelogue - Ooty, Bandipur, Mudumulai and Conoor

2010-09-08T21:51:00.013+05:30

After exploring Coorg and Mysore, we decided to head to the Queen of the hills - Ooty for a short vacation over the extended weekend. I was aware of the fact that Ooty has lots of places and some planning is required to shortlist the places and chalk out an itinerary. After looking up the Team-BHP posts, I shortlisted Bandipur National park, Ooty, Conoor and Mudumulai National park. After the experience at Nagerhole national park, we were quite enthused about going on a safari at the twin national parks that fall en-route to Ooty. We took the following route Bangalore-Mysore-Gundlupet-Bandipur-Mudumulai-Masinagudi-Ooty-Conoor

As usual we left early and hit the road by 4 AM. we were anxious to reach Bandipur before 9 AM because the safari ends at 9AM. We were cruising on the Bangalore-Mysore road and before the sun rose we were in the vicinity of Mysore. There were heavy rains all through out. We exited Mysore and were greeted by the cloud covered mountains (Chamundi Hills). That boosted our spirits and we were literally waiting to get engulfed by the clouds. We rushed through to Bandipur and reached there by 0815. But unfortunately we were told that the safari has been cancelled due to rains. However, the forest staff told us that Mudumulai wildlife reserve operates safari as it has tarred roads. We rushed towards Mudumulai, to beat the 9AM deadline. Here too we were unlucky as they did not have the required number of people to operate the safari. We were told that we can go on the safari on our way back because there is a sizeable crowd in the evenings. So we decided to head towards Ooty. While passing through the national parks we did sight lots of deer. But we did not give them too much importance (height of conceitedness). Anyways, we decided to take the famous "36-hair pin bend" route to Ooty.

We were greeted by the first sight of the Blue hills (Nilgiris) and i must admit, the hills appeared quite imposing. We could make out numerous waterfalls on the hill. That was the sight to behold and we were absolutely looking forward to the trip. As we reached Masinagudi, we could see the clouds covering the mountains that were looming infront of us. We just could not wait. After stopping for some photo opportunities, we hit the 36-hairpin bends. To be fair, they were not tough to negotiate. However, one must liberally honk and look straight ahead instead of the spellbinding view around you. We did stop after every couple of bends to soak in the beauty around us.

We just could not get enough of the hills, clouds, waterfalls and the tea gardens that were beginning to appear. We reached Ooty at around 1030 and decided to check out a couple of hotels. We had planned to visit Emerald and Avalanche lakes on that day. We checked out a few hotels and decided to head towards the lakes and check into the hotels after returning. The road to the lakes was again a spectacular one. We came across several tea gardens and hill settlements. We reached a cross road and took a left turn for the Emerald Dam/Lake. It was a pretty steep climb and the roads were in bad conditions. It seemed that we required a 4X4 to negotiate the treacherous road. We persisted and carefully negotiated the narrow, potholed (understatement, they were infact craters) road. Finally we reached a bridge and there were two lakes on either side. The left one is called Emerald Lake and the right one is called Avalanche lake. there were no sign boards to indicate anything. there was no parking space and there was not a single soul in sight. then we heard a roar and there a truck appeared from the opposite side. We managed to get on one side to give the truck enough space to pass through. There appeared a couple of people (locals) on bikes, but it was difficult to converse as they did not know english. WE decided to park somewhere and climbed down to the lake. It was a tranquil beautiful lake, very different from the usual lakes that we see in the cities. There was greenery all around and the cattle were grazing. That was a sight to behold. After clicking several pictures we decided to proceed to the dam. But, the roads were in very bad shape. There were huge craters (filled with water) all across the road. We decided to turn back as the road was not motorable. It was kind of getting late evening and the early morning start had started to kick in. We decided to head back to Ooty and check into some hotel. We found a hotel located near to the lake and took a cottage there. This was the end of day 1

Day 2, we again decided to start early. So we left the hotel at 8AM and headed towards Conoor. and the weather was awesome. there were clouds and then there was sun. We even witnessed a rainbow forming across the hill. The drive towards Conoor was simply amazing, there were lush green tea gardens and there was cultivated farmland spread across the valley. We headed towards Lamb's rock view point and Dolphin's nose. There was very less traffic (because we started early) and by the time we reached Lamb's rock, it was almost 0930. The view from there was simply spell binding. The sky was clear and we could clearly see the two cities - Mettupalayam and Coimbatore. We enjoyed a hop cup of masala tea and chocolate tea, and also posed for pics in the adjacent tea garden. After sometime clouds appeared and covered the entire landscape. The cities were no longer visible. We left for another view point (this was the real Lamb's rock view point). The trek was amazing and we were told that several movies (like No entry's final scene and Jungle) were shot there. We could see the clouds covering the hills and the place where we were standing and were too excited to reach Dolphin's nose. After resting for some time we left for Dolphin's nose. There was dense fog/mist along the entire route. The clouds had engulfed the entire route. This was just what we wanted. We thoroughly enjoyed the place. Due to dense cloud cover, we could not get a good view from the Dolphin's nose view point. nevertheless, we wanted to enjoy the clouds and that what we got. We wanted to explore Glenmorgan and decided to leave from Conoor. But on the way we got to know that a permit from Forest dept is required. so we abandoned the plan of visiting Glenmorgan and instead explored the Botanical Garden and waited for the arrival of Toy train at Ooty railway station. It had started to rain and the weather was cold. chilly wind was piercing us and it was the perfect weather. We decided to call it a day and started our search for a hotel.

Day 3 - This was the day we had to go back to Bangalore. We enquired and decided to check out Pykara lake and falls. It was around 27 km from Ooty. Pykara falls were disappointing as there was hardly any flow. We arrived at Pykara lake at around 1000 on Day 3. Pykara lake was simply breath-taking. there were clouds all around and the lake was huge. We got into a boat to explore the lake. Again, the lakes in Ooty are very different. the shores are pretty steep,but the lakes are not deep. The weather was playing games with us. Suddenly it would start raining heavily and then stop all of a sudden. But, the tranquil lake was simply a treat for the eyes. We left Pykara and turned back towards Ooty for some chocolate shopping. We had decided to take the 36-hairpin bend route for our return journey.

Well the drive down towards Mudumulai was uneventful. We were just in time for the safari at Mudumulai. The people in the safari made enough noise to scare away any animal in the vicinity. Nevertheless, we still magaged to spot Elephants, deer, peacocks and one leopard (it was eating its prey, but ran off due to the sound of the safari). This safari made us greedy and we decided to stop again at Bandipur national park for another safari. We waited for the required threshold of people to gather, then another safari started off. This time we spotted wild boar, deer, some birds, bisons and peacocks. By the time we left Bandipur, it was 6pm. We had around 240 km to cover and I had an 8AM meeting in the next morning. We drove non-stop to Bangalore from Bandipur. 240 km in 4.5 hours and there were torrential rains for nearly 100 kms where the visibility was hardly 10m.

Overall the trip was totally rejuvenating one and one of the best holidays we had ever had

Travelogue - Coorg trip

2010-07-06T20:46:00.001+05:30

Here comes my first travelogue. After selling the theory that "there are no good places to visit near Hyderabad" to my wife for an year, I knew I could no longer hide behind that excuse when I moved to Bangalore. Everybody knows that Bangalore has no dearth of weekend getaways. So I planned a trip to Coorg (or Kodagu) in order to maintain credibility of my Hyd theory.

After consulting few friends and reading about Coorg on Team BHP website, I realized that the trip is best made by car and the journey is as beautiful and enjoyable as the destination. Monsoons and clouds did not deter me nor did the fuel price hike :). After packing clothes and some eatables in the night we were all set to travel to THE hill station. I had finalized the route after reading a lot over net and realizing that the entire region cannot be covered in a single trip. So I converged on the following route Bangalore-Mysore-Hunsur-Nagarhole-Kutta-Irpu Falls-Ammathi-Siddapura-Dubare-Nissargadhama-Golden Temple-Mysore-Bangalore. The printouts of the maps were taken and the only thing left was finalizing the homestay. Homestay is a concept unique to Coorg. Coffee estates have been converted into guest houses by the owners and that provides a chance to enjoy a stay in the serene and verdant environment amidst coffee and pepper plantation. Combine this with hospitality and warmth extended by the owners and the experience becomes unmatched. I had already decided that I will stay in a homestay and not a hotel, now the only decision left was the place where I should stay over in the night. I had decided that I would go via Nagarhole National Park (Rajiv Gandhi National Park) and visit Irpu falls on day 1 so I could either stay at Ammathi, Siddapura or Kutta. I had anticipated that we will have some time before night falls and thus we should try to reach as close to Dubare Elephant camp as possible and halt for the night accordingly. Thus, I finalized Siddapura as the place to stay over in the night. I booked a homestay after reading the reviews on the different web forums. So I was all set for the trip

We had decided that we will leave AEAP (as early as possible) so as to avoid the mad Bangalore-Mysore traffic of the weekend. We got up at 0330 hours and hit the road by 0440 hours. This turned out to be a wise decision and we were soon cruising on the Bangalore - Mysore highway. after reaching Mysore, the weather gods obliged us and the dark clouds covered the sky - thereby making the trip comfortable. we decided to take a detour on the Mysore ring road and also visited the Krishna Raja Sagar dam (KRS dam) on Cauvery. This dam housed the Asia's first hydroelectric power generating station. Meanwhile we kept a close watch on the time and we had reached KRS Dam in flat 3 hours. We also saw a huge flock of ducks (possibly thousands) on the roadside, that was a treat to the eyes.

So we resumed our journey towards Hunsur. After reaching Hunsur we took a small break, had breakfast and left for Nagarhole. The road from Hunsur to Nagarhole was quite narrow, it was barely a 2 lane road. However, the weather was amazing and it was drizzling intermittently. We also saw a fake Cafe@Coorg, modeled along the lines of Cafe Coffee Day

We reached Nagarhole National Park entrance by 10 AM and the drive through the park was truly amazing. The dense forest coupled with amazing weather made it a memorable experience. The drive through the National park was the best part of the trip. We were lucky to spot some elephants, deer, stags and wild dogs. Due to rains, the animals were taking shelter under the trees and were not visible from the road. We were expecting to see the Tiger. However, the only Tiger we saw was on the board. Later some office colleagues told us that the best time for tiger sighting is the evening.

After exiting from Nagarhole at around 12 PM, we headed towards Irpu falls via Kutta. Suddenly coffee estates and pepper plantations sprung out of nowhere. there was greenery all around. the road was narrow and constant rains had cut off the road at the edges. The drivers on 4X4 coming from the opposite way were considerate enough while passing us and used to give our vehicle enough space to pass through. We had entered the hilly area and that was evident by the view of clouds covering the hill tops. The Irpu falls were a treat for the eyes, though the combination of rains and steep path had made the trek up to the falls a difficult one. At Irpu we could see the clouds enveloping the hills, making it a sight to behold. We just sat in the car and watched the amazing sight for an hour.

At 1430 hours we decided to leave Irpu falls and head towards our home stay in Siddapura. The distance was more than 80 kms and needless to say that some of the sights left us spellbound. We were surrounded by coffee plantations and it rained all the time. We reached our homestay at around 1630 hours. the place was beautiful and our host was gracious enough to provide us endless cups of home made filter coffee. We were famished as we had not stopped anywhere to eat, instead spent time in watching the natural beauty around us. Our host also provided us some snacks and eatables. We decided to take a walk around the coffee estate and explore the area. However the slippery ground quickly made us reverse our decision and we decided to stick to the metaled road instead. In the evening we were joined by another couple from Bangalore and we had a great evening mingling with them and sharing our experiences. It was all misty in the evening and the temperature had dipped several notches. After covering more than 300 km and witnessing some truly amazing sights we decided to call it a day.

The next day turned out to be rather dull and failed to live up to the expectations. Sunny day coupled with high humidity proved to be a dampener. we left the estate by 9AM and approached Dubare Elephant training camp. this camp was located on the other bank of the cauvery river. The river was in full glory and we could see several small islands and trees submerged under water. We saw several elephants taking bath and they performed several stunts on the directions of their masters. After spending an hour in the elephant training camp we decided to leave for Nissargadham. Nissargadham is an island made by different tributaries of Cauvery river. This again was not worth the visit. But we did spend some time there. The sun was rising and so was the humidity. By 1230 hours we decided to leave for Golden Temple (Buddhist temple). the terrain had changed from hilly and green to plains. The humidity and sun had sapped our energies. We reached Golden temple, a Buddhist monastery and temple, at 1300 hours. The temple was breathtaking and well maintained. we spent some quiet time there and left for Mysore at around 1430 hours. The drive back to Mysore was rather dull. We had witnessed some amazing sights on the previous day, therefore everything appeared dull when compared to the picturesque beauty of Coorg.

We stopped over at Brindavan Garden, but were too tired to walk around the whole place. So we decided to leave for Bangalore at 1700 hours. Drive back from Bangalore to Mysore was a mad race. It looked just like NFS (Need For Speed) game. With cars racing at 100 kmph and frequently changing lanes. You just had to follow the rules of the game otherwise you will be honked at and glared at. The Mysore-Bangalore stretch is also very congested, due to large number of people returning back to Bangalore on Sunday night. Anyways, we reached our home by 2030 hours. Overall, it was a memorable trip and has inspired me to plan another trip very soon. It could be either Bandipur National park or Ooty. Keep reading

Think ISB

2010-05-26T11:28:00.001+05:30

Thinking of applying to ISB? Wish you could talk to and clear your doubts from ISB Alumni from your industry/roles?

A venture by a good ISB friend of mine does that and much more- It is about guiding ISB aspirants through the ISB Admissions process. They have a very structured approach about the whole admission guidance process!

See:

www.thinkisb.com
www.thinkisb.com/services

Why Sania, Why???

2010-04-04T23:10:00.003+05:30

I am no jingoistic Indian fanatic and I am not going to parrot the patriotic lines. But the question I would like to ask Sania Mirza, the Indian tennis 'star', is "why did you choose Shoaib Malik"? When I first saw the news flash that Sania is going to marry Shoaib, God is a witness, I was shocked. I secretly prayed that Sania should not marry Shoaib Akhtar. Well, God answered my prayer and Sania will not marry Shoaib Akhtar, rather she will marry the 'other' Shoaib of Pakistani cricket team. Not many people recall Shoaib Malik and few who do, will recall him because of his speech as the losing captain in the inaugural T20 world cup final. Yes, this is the same person who "thanked" all the muslims for supporting his team (read here-> Shoaib foot in the mouth). Well what was he thinking, was he thinking that Irfan Pathan (Man of the match in the final) was also supporting his team??? What can I say, I can only laugh at his 'innocent' remark. So the question is Why Sania, Why? There could be two reasons for the above mentioned fiasco

1) Shoaib Malik was being racist by thanking all the muslims for supporting his team or

2) Shoab Malik can not put 2 and 2 together while speaking a couple of English sentences at a stretch

Both the reasons should put off Sania Mirza and discourage her from marrying him. His only claim to fame was that he was an ex-Pakistani captain. I don't need to highlight the fact that he was the captain not by choice but because of TINA (there is no alternative) factor. Anyways, that is lot of dirt flying around and there are hardly any Shoaib supporters out there to defend him. There was another incident which led to him being banned for 1 year by PCB, and there are numerous other "illustrious achievements" of the famous Pakistani cricketer.

Sania, there is no dearth of eligible bachelors in the 'market' but your choice defies all logic. It is well said that "love is blind". Perhaps in Sania's case, love is deaf and dumb too.

Why is the Indian driver angry

2010-03-22T20:40:00.004+05:30

I spend a decent amount of time on the Indian roads and sometimes the traffic, nonchalance of other drivers, pedestrians, hawkers, illegal encroachment, unruly bus drivers etc etc leaves me fuming with rage. The best I can do is mutter some unmentionable words if I am alone or if I am with my wife, then i just hurl inaudible abuses under my breath.

So the question is, why is the average Indian driver angry? Here are some of the reasons
- Because of nonchalance of auto drivers, since traffic rules do not apply to them
- Because of the inexperienced drivers who clog the highway, whereas they should be practicing the driving in the by-lanes of the city
- Because of the unruly bus drivers, who drive the 1000 ton mammoth vehicle and can muscle their way through the traffic
- Because of the lady drivers. Now I am not a woman-hater. But i seriously doubt the driving skills of most of the woman drivers. If the car ahead of you is stuck and is not starting then 9.9 out of 10 times the driver will be a woman
- Because of the people who drive at economical 40kmph on the extreme right lane. Dude, if you want to drive at 40, then move to the left lane.
- Because of the hopping pedestrians. seriously driving on Indian roads require you to have eyes on either side of the head, just like a horse, so that you can look to the right and left simultaneously. Oops, you also need eyes on the front so that you can look ahead for the boulders, broken trees and potholes on the road, apart from the traffic
- Because drivers never use dippers at night. But they cannot be blamed, as the streetlights seldom work and the 'upper' is required to watch out for streakers and animals on the road
- Because bikers don't care a damn about you. They will cut you from left and right and you will be left maneuvering to the opposite sides. At the Traffic signals they will just squeeze themselves and zoom ahead
- Because traffic signals do not work. And even if they work people seldom obey them. If you want to obey and wait for the green light, the car behind you will honk and force you to move
- Because of drivers driving in the wrong direction just to avoid the U turn which is 100 meters ahead of their convenient turn
- Because the autorickshaws make so much noise that the auto driver can not hear your honking

These are some of the reasons, why driving on the road is so stressful. So the only stressbuster is to hurl some unmentionables and chill. Happy driving.

Why Paki players deserved IPL snub

2010-01-20T20:16:00.000+05:30

The diplomatic Indian media and the commentators in this issue will never admit, but Pakistani cricketers deserved the IPL snub. They attracted the penalty and the franchises were right in denying them the opportunity to mint money out of India's economic progress. Let me give the rationale behind my opinion

This is to those who say that what is the fault of the players - Let me throw a different question to you. What was the fault of the thousands of people who have fallen prey to the state sponsored terrorism from across the border. So if not playing in IPL is the price to pay, then every doubting thomas will agree with me that this is a very small price for the thousands of lives.
Would you pay somebody to bomb your house and kill your people. We will pay the paki players, who will in turn pay taxes on that money to the Pak government. Pak government will then use that money to finance the terror activities targeted against India. So does it make any sense to pay Paki players so that they can finance the anti-India terrorists?
Sports and Politics should not be mixed. Whoever floats that argument should just go and hide in the Tora Bora caves. Why shouldn't they be mixed? Does it make any sense to keep playing matches while our soldiers are being killed in Kashmir and on the border? Why do we always portray ourselves as the soft nation. Who the hell cares for sporting ties when the country was subjected to the worst terror strike sometime back.
Pak Cricket Board says that IPL issue will affect ties with India. My reply to PACB is "Yeah right", I am sorry i forgot that we had such healthy ties and we would really care for paki players to play in India, while you keep on shielding LeT and keep on dispatching suicide bombers from across the border.

As the ex-Indian ambassador to Pak, Parthasarthy, said on a forum "we should isolate Pakistan and break off all ties with that country, it serves no purpose. we should strengthen ourselves rather than live in a dream world thinking that Pak will eliminate terrorists operating against India". This is my view too. We have tolerated the propaganda for long and it will be foolhardy to think that things will change in the short term.

A good Quote

2009-10-07T14:30:00.001+05:30

I read this funny quote somewhere.

"Due to recession, the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel has been indefinitely switched off till further notice"
- GOD

Joke of the century

2009-09-16T21:42:00.002+05:30

I read this joke of the century, would request everybody to read and laugh their @$$ off. Laughter is the best medicine they say, right?

Pak won't allow its soil to be used against India

I want an address proof

2009-09-12T23:19:00.009+05:30

Dear Nandan,

Let me first convey my best wishes to you for taking up this challenging job. I must say that you would have received thousands of best wishes messages as soon as they heard about your decision to join the Government of India in their highly ambitious initiative. I must say that this job must be a huge transformation from your earlier job as the Chief executive of Infosys, a no-nonsense job, where you wished and it was disposed off. But again, you are much much wiser than I am, so i would steer clear of being judgemental. Well, I am too small a guy to advise you on how to go about your job but I would like you to listen to my request.

Nandan, I am sure that there are thousands like me who face this issue of an address proof. As India progressed economically many people like me came out of their hometowns, pursued education in a different city and got employed in another city. All this while, I stayed in 4 different cities and most of the time was spent in hostels. So needless to say that I don't have an address proof. When i approached a telecom operator for a mobile SIM, my application was turned down because i did not have an address proof. Now, my question to you is that how can I have an address proof when I never stayed at my home after I was 18 years. Does it mean that I am not entitled to a mobile SIM. When I wanted to get a new driving licence (one with a smart card) in Kolkata, I did not get it. The reason being that I did not have an address proof. The status of all valid address proofs is

- Ration card - I don't have it

- Passport - has the IIT hostel address

- Driving Licence - has my permanent address

- Voter Id - I dont have it

- Electricity bill - I dont own a house

- BSNL bill - Who owns a BSNL phone these days???

Hence, the net result is that I have never voted, because I could not get my voter ID card as I never had an address proof of my current location. I don't own a house, so I don't have an electricity bill. Most of the authorities don't accept the lease/rent agreement as a valid address proof, so the only address proof that I had goes down the drain. Where does it all start, because it seems to me as a chicken and egg problem. I cant get a driving licence because they wont accept the rent agreement as the address proof, they will accept the post paid mobile bill as the address proof. But I cant get a post paid mobile connection because they wont accept rent agreement as the address proof. So how can I lay my hands on one of these.

When your announcement came that you will provide all the Indians with a unique identity number, needless to say, I was thrilled. But at the same time, I was saddened by the fact that I might miss out on getting your Unique ID number. I fear that I wont get the ID because I will again not be able to furnish a proof of my address. There are thousands of illegal residents in India who have a goddamned address proof, but I don't have that coveted proof. There is a high probability that I might miss out on getting that unique ID.

The question that troubles me is that, Will i ever be able to vote? Will I ever have a valid address proof? Will I also get a unique ID number? I am pretty sure that the answer to the above questions will heavily tilt towards negative. But what is the solution to my situation. There are so many professionals who are working in different cities and are mobile, so how does your organization wish to solve the problem. People like me are looking up to you and seriously wish that you succeed in your venture. Hopefully, you will be patient enough so as not to get frustrated by the red tapist mentality of our babudom.

Jai Hind

Frustrated

2009-09-09T09:34:00.003+05:30

I am getting increasingly frustrated with the political system of the country.

MPs want to retain the privilege to travel business class, especially when the country is facing a severe drought and these self proclaimed poor man's champions are least affected
Mayawati government has spent Rs 2800 crores on monuments and statues. This when the state's contribution to the national GDP is a mere 2%. the state is again reeling under severe drought.
AP government wants to build a memorial for YSR in the reserve forest
It was reported that 1 out of 3 grenades never explode and the INSAS rifles given to Indian army are inadequate. The barrel of the rifle heats up after prolonged use; it has been designed for "shoot to injure" and not "shoot to kill". Apparently we are still living in the Nehruvian well, where the country was assumed to be surrounded by well meaning neighbours and the Panchsheel principles were enough to guard the borders of the country.

These are just the headlines of what happened in a single day. Indian political class is amongst the most irresponsible, unaccountable and insensitive group of people in the country.

Where do you place yourself?

2009-09-04T11:00:00.003+05:30

I was having a discussion with a friend of mine and we were discussing our respective jobs and the jobs of our friends. It suddenly dawned on us there is no such thing as an ideal job, because we human beings by nature have an insatiable hunger for better things. And that incessant pursuit for better things leave us as a dissatisfied person. Anyways, we even discussed a 2X2 matrix to classify our jobs. Have a look at it and think where do you lie?

Dear Mr Prime Minister

2009-06-29T20:40:00.007+05:30

Dear Dr. Manmohan Singh,

I read in Economic times today that the government is not serious about its promise of introducing Goods and Service Tax (GST) regime in India. The date of April 2010 was being publicized for years and the country was waiting for the day to arrive when myriad taxes such as excise, sales and service taxes will be replaced by a unified GST. This further gives credence to the theory that Indians are poor executioners, they fail to live up to the deadlines. I am afraid sir that your government is setting a very bad example. Excuse me and pardon me for failing to understand the political and economical compulsions that your government might be facing in implementing GST through out the country. But you will also understand that the ministers should have taken this into account before committing to this date. I won't even talk about Fiscal responsibility bill wherein the government was obliged to keep fiscal deficit within a limit and wipe out in a couple of years. Being a rational citizen, I understand that the global recession has made the task of reining fiscal deficit a tough one.

The entire world knows that we have the best policies and the best possible schemes, but when it comes to implementation we draw a blank. Allow me to convey my disappointment to you. When Congress party returned to power with the best performance in the last 20 years, I had assumed that this phase will be the epochal in the history of the country. Armed with the mandate for development, the government will set about doing what it was constrained from doing in its previous term. But there are hardly any indications that the government has any urgent agenda. With UP government (read Mayawati) spending close to 10 billion rupees on erecting self eulogizing monument, it is another sad day for the country. I understand that the union government can not do anything about this issue, but you are the head of the state and who else is more powerful than you.

Mr Prime Minister, if your government can do a single most important favor to the country it will be fixing "accountability". Officials (bureaucrats and politicians) get away with everything. If only accountability is fixed and somebody is answerable, the state of affairs of this country will improve. All the infrastructure projects are facing incessant delays for want of approvals/funds etc. There are always unutilized funds lying with the ministries that lapse after the end of the year. Who is responsible for this? Why is there no appraisal or performance review system for different ministries? I know that my questions betray ignorance and immaturity, but they are not irrelevant.

I understand that you have a lot on your plate, but there is no better person that you to initiate reforms in the way our government functions.

Regards

ISB convocation 2009 speeches - inspiring

2009-06-16T19:33:00.001+05:30

Here are the links for the speeches delivered on the occasion of ISB convocation 2009 by Rajat Gupta (Chairman ISB), Arun Sarin (ex-CEO Vodafone) and Prof Dipak Jain (Dean, Kellogg school of management). Do read them, they are really inspiring and worthy of your time.

Rajat Gupta

Arun Sarin

Dipak Jain

credit: Garima

Life post ISB

2009-04-21T19:48:00.003+05:30

Here comes my 150th post.

Whenever we used to discuss the last days at ISB, there were two concerns expressed by people. one, when will we be able to meet each other and second, how will we adjust to the life after ISB especially given the royal treatment recieved at ISB. Infact even ISB had put up a banner at the exit gate on the day of our departure, it read "Welcome to the real world". But it has not been so tough for me. I have been extremely busy with all the wedding preparations. I have been hopping from one city to another. Infact there was a reunion of sorts at Harsh' wedding in Gurgaon last week. It has become extremely hot in the northern India and the sun is blazing like anything. for the past 8 years i have escaped the scorching heat and body numbing cold of northern india because i was in coastal part of the country for the last 8 years. But now the heat is becoming unbearable.

Anyways, C02010 has taken over ISB and they are all set for a whirlwind year ahead. ISB has attracted lot of bad press due to inadequate placements this year. but the press and people do not know the real reason behind less than 100% placements at ISB. The real reason is that lot of people at ISB had significant and specific work experience before coming to ISB and they are/were looking for jobs that would have accounted for their prior work experience. Jobs have dried up and people were not willing to sacrifice their earlier work experience and take up some other job. This was not the case for IIM grads, since they dont have significant work experience and hence are willing to take up job offers. An example would be Union Bank of India, no body took up the job offer at ISB because people thought that the offer was inadequate. Union Bank went ahead and made 18 offers at IIM Ahmedabad and became the largest recruiter. Now this need to be made clear to the press and public in general.

Maa, main MBA ban gaya

2009-03-29T22:15:00.002+05:30

yeah, this is the feeling that I have right now. After all the wait and struggle I finally attained what I had set my sights on, long before my engineering dreams were realized. But I am still not sure what it means to be an MBA. surely i have picked up lot of random jargon or as Amit bubna would put it, "buzzwords". These buzzwords mean utter crap to common man, but have become an indispensible part of the vocabulary.

The entire campus is in party mood. There are get-togethers and parties happening even as I write. Everybody is catching up with everybody. Exams and all academic related work got over today and for the next 1 week, we all will be partying away till we drop. there is so much to do and so less time. there are quad mates, study group, section mates and other friends to catch up with. and then there are some exit related formalities. This entire week is being labeled as "dis-orientation week". this week is supposed to prepare us for the life outside the campus. Life where there are power cuts, water problems, traffic, pollution, crowd and DOGs. Life where there is chaos, unknown faces and uncertainty. ISB seems like a simulated experiment, everything happens here by the book. Everything is so systematic. Oh yeah, i forgot i will have to give up my nocturnal habits and start living like humans.

But the big question is, "Will I be able to accept the new life and adjust to the real life". Well the jury is still out. Untill then, its party time baby.

[Sad]

2009-03-28T02:38:00.001+05:30

people have started to leave and i am sad

Wierd dream

2009-03-17T22:12:00.003+05:30

I had a wierd dream while taking a nap this afternoon. Here it is

I dreamt that I was at home after the convocation and enjoying the next best phase of my life. Suddenly an email pops up. It was from a TA named AA. the email informed that a case analysis is pending by 8 AM next morning. i freaked out. i had a nervous breakdown. started screaming, started throwing things around. Suddenly mom enters the room, sees me in this situation and then leaves the room thinking that i must be stoned.

See this is what this place does to sane minds. come to think of it, i pulled off a whole nighter writing a take hom mid term exam and then went straight to a lecture. and then again there is a case analysis pending before tomorrow's class starts. And yeah i forgot, 4 project submissions are due next week starting from monday. But this place has taught me one thing, how to enjoy. Despite being swarmed with assignments and what not, our section went out to have a blast on sunday night at Athena. It was a wild night, one of the best section party till now. So while the parties will wait for another day, i have to get back to reading the case.

Last month @ ISB

2009-03-09T12:03:00.008+05:30

There is just over 4 weeks left in this place. i cant imagine that 1 year has gone by in this place. I was reading my old blogs written around this time last year. Last year, so many pre-ISB meets were going on in all places around the country, people were discussing their joining formalities, loan, laptops, quads, arrival info etc etc. It seems like yesterday, but it has been an year almost. many seasons have changed and much water has flown down the proverbial Ganges. Life has changed and so has the world. The world today is not recognizable, it is being said that this could be the longest stretch of recession post world war II. Job market is bleak and the political rumblings are not showing any signs of comfort. India braces itself for another mammoth general elections (supposedly it will cost more than $ 2 billion) and another bout of political instability.

Lectures have become boring, assignments have become drab and cases dont enthuse anymore. Nonetheless the number of assignments betray no signs of this being the last term. There has been a huge hue and cry over celebration of holi. Academic affairs office did not keep holi as a holiday ( can't blame them, as they run a tight ship around here) and a section of students wanted to celebrate holi on wednesday. however a "consensus" has been reached and holi will be celebrated in the campus with gusto on saturday. Apart from that, the feeling of less than a month has started to sink in. there has been an exponential increase in get-togethers, parties, dinners and movies in the last few weeks.

So only a month to go and then it will be curtains for the academic life (No, i dont want to do PhD). Untill then, assignments beckon :(

The comeback kid

2009-03-02T10:11:00.001+05:30

I owe an explanation to my die hard and loyal fans (readers) about my disappearance from the blogging scene. the truth is that i have been enjoying my life without any fear of reprisal from the "system". i realized that its been nearly 10 years since I entered this mad rat race. Since class Xth i have been perennially worried about my so called "career" and it was time to chill out. So i was exactly doing that. But to say that i was killing time would be an insult to me. I was busy catching up on movies and TV series. in the last 1 month i have devoured the following

- Entourage (5 seasons)

- How I Met Your Mother (4 seasons)

- Prison Break (4 seasons)

- Lost (1 season)

- 24 (3 seasons)

- The Big Bang Theory (2 seasons)

so you see, i was not exactly idling my time. I was not the sort of guy who believed in wasting time by sleeping, but these days i have been doing exactly that. My sleep time has nearly doubled compared to the average nap time for last 9-10 months. But i am not complaining. Right now i am blogging while sitting in the lecture, that speaks volumes about my commitment level to academics. the couplets below sum up the paradigm shift in attitude.

Being attentive in class - I do it no more

crash during lectures - i do it like never before

jot down notes - i do it no more

chat/sms during lectures - i do it like never before

do assignments seriously - i do it no more

last minute desperate scramble for assignment- i do it like never before

getting up at 7 AM - i do it no more

sleeping at 7 AM - i do it like never before

CP - i do it no more

arbit CP - i do it like never before

concerned about grades - i am no more

grade indifferent - i am like never before

what can i say, barely 5 more weeks left in this place and i am definitely going to miss the luxury offered by this place. Time to move on to the next phase of life. What say?

I am back

2009-02-11T15:15:00.001+05:30

Yeah baby I am back !!!!

don't feel like writing anything....too lazy

Sometimes you just let go

2009-01-10T11:23:00.006+05:30

Barely couple of days into the term and an assignment was staring at my face. what was worse was that there were two applications (along with EOI) pending for the same day. Can it get any worse? I thought okay, let me start with the assignment and then i will get started on the applications. It turned out that the assignment was a tricky one and consumed more than 4 hours of precious time. Barely 11 hours left for the application deadline.

0100: I start off with my EOIs, even circulate my EOI to some friends for their feedback.

0430: I am done with the applications, its 0430 in the morning and i remembered that I have got a 1015 class the next day.

0440: My friends have still not sent me the feedback. so i just apply, thinking that i will get up early morning and reapply.

0800: So i get up early morning and check my mails, amend the EOIs and reapply.

0945: Oh shit, its time for the class. I get ready and rushed off to the dining hall.

1005: a long queue at the dining hall and then it struck me that i did not take the printout for the assignment and it was my responsibility to submit the assignment (though it was a group assignment)

1008: still standing in the queue

1010: get hold of some eatables and start gobbling the food

1012: i realize that i will be late to the class and i haven't yet taken the printout of the assignment. so i had two choices, either be late for the class or forfeit on the assignment. still munching and thinking. suddenly a divine light shone on me and I was in a different world. things were moving slowly, people were chattering and laughing. there was joy all around and I smiled. then all of a sudden i was back to real world. I sat back and relaxed, i thought to myself "Sometime you just let go". So the thought of being punctual to the lecture was put aside and i thought of submiting the assignment first

1014: i rush off to the library to take a print of the assingment

1018: laptop starts, printout is fired and collected and I sprint back to the dropbox and drop the assignment

1022: I rush off to the lecture and after galloping through the stairs i reach the class huffing and puffing.

1025: i make it to the lecture. Yippeee...but i am late, thank god the attendance sheet has still not arrived

1025: i smile at my achievement and i am happy again.

As they say, "Alls well that ends well"

The economics of terror attacks

2008-12-23T21:59:00.004+05:30

The Mumbai terror attacks will be forever etched on the minds of the Indians. The trauma lasted for more than 60 hours for the world and for a lifetime for many of us. A bunch of highly trained and motivated Kalashnikov wielding young men held the entire nation to ransom. The world community watched as the stick wielding policemen fought the suicide squad. Later the elite commandos took extreme precaution to minimize casualties before finishing off the terrorists. For the second time a suicide squad member (fidayeen) was caught alive, first time being during the attack on Ram temple in Ayodhya. The truth was laid bare, the neighboring country has been clearly linked to the attacks. The country "non-state actors" not only provided logistical support, but their ex-army officers trained the terrorists in commando warfare techniques.

It is estimated that the loss suffered due to Mumbai attacks will run into thousands of crores of rupees (billions of dollars). During the 4 days of the seize all the businesses, shops and offices were shut down. The loss due to this amounted to roughly Rs 4000 crores, as a single day of shut down results in a loss of Rs 1000 crores. Not to forget that the stock markets were closed on Thursday. Combined daily turnover of the BSE, NSE and the commodity exchanges is about Rs 33,000 crores. The loss suffered by the tourism and hospitality sector can not be estimated. Entertainment industry also suffered due to the attacks. The Mumbai based movie halls lost roughly Rs 10 crores due to the low turnout. The loss to life and property could not even be estimated.

The concept of a war has changed nowadays. the wars are no longer fought face to face and across the borders, its the proxy-war (invented by Zia-ul-Haq, who promised to bleed India to death through 1000 wounds) that will be fought in the future. The country needs to be prepared to fight more such attacks as these attacks are aimed at hampering the rapid economic growth taking place in this part of the world. Our neighboring countries have never been fortunate to experience true democracy and neither have they experienced the fruits of economic prosperity. It is their anachronistic belief that they tend to link India's rise to their failure.

The world community is taking note and this time the terrorists have made some deadly and powerful enemies by targeting Israelis, Americans, British, Australians and Europeans. This is no longer a regional issue. Countries realizes that this monster needs to be tackled right now, otherwise it has the potential to engulf the larger region.

P.S. Its not my intention to say that the economic loss supersedes the loss to human life. I realize that the human life is supreme. This was just an attempt to highlight that the modern day warfare is no longer fought at the country's borders.

The Education Sector in India

2008-12-06T12:38:00.004+05:30

Everybody is aware of the pathetic state of Education in our country. India has an adult literacy rate of around 65 percent and our communist neighbor boasts of literacy rate of upwards of 90 percent. Whenever any social or human parameter is considered, we are always ranked along with sub-Saharan African countries. This is something that our politicians are just not bothered about. The Prime Minister rants about the 7-8 percent growth rate that the economy will achieve but he does not even talk about ramping up budgetary allocation in education and health care (except in some random speeches). Though we had a headstart when we gained independence (as compared to other south-east Asian countries) we failed miserably to build upon our illustrious heritage.

Lets pause for a moment and spare a thought about the education infrastructure in India. Lets divide the types of schools into three categories, government schools, government aided private schools and private schools. What do you think about sending your kid to a government school? Its a common knowledge that the government schools lack good motivated teachers (though the statistics will reveal otherwise). what thought comes to your mind when you think of a government school? a shack, dimly lit, broken furniture, unruly students, truant teachers, deteriorating education standards. The story is no different in government aided private schools. I can go on and on. The studies done by government and private agencies reveal that more than 70 percent of the children are studying in government schools and government aided private schools. this will give us a picture of the state of education in our country. It is a sad thing that we have been able to create world class higher education systems (IITs, IIMs, AIIMS etc) but have not been able to make an impact at the primary level. Our country provides subsidized higher education, but is not able to find money for funding primary education. And if you mix politics into this, you get a deadly concoction. Off-late there have been demands by political sections to move the medium of instruction from English to vernacular languages. This is an anachronistic philosophy of our politicians. Surveys indicate that even poor parents want their kids to learn, read and write English. And then the selection and appointment of teachers in government schools has always been mired in controversies.

In one of the courses taught here, Government Society and Business, the professor told us that the situation is quite poor in the interior areas. In many places, kids have to walk several miles to reach their school and often there is a single teacher responsible for teaching all the subjects and all the classes. The schools don't have toilets for girl students and the competency of the teachers is doubtful. the dropout rate is nearly 70-80 percent in these schools. In numerous surveys, it has been highlighted that the parents desire to provide their kids the best possible education, provided they have access to it. Government has pegged the budgetary allocation at 3 percent of the GDP for many years. In several 5 year plans there were talks about increasing the allocation, but we have yet to see some action on that front. Numerous initiatives have been launched by the government, but the impact is yet to be felt.

There are many causes and many effects, the inability to curb the rising fiscal deficit leaves little room for maneuvering. The political class is just too busy with all the regional demands that they have little time to think about the needs of the masses. It is often felt said that nearly 60 percent of our population is involved in agriculture and it contribute to only 20 percent of our GDP. Most of the farmers are illiterate and have poor knowledge about agricultural techniques and methods. Education is important not only for getting a job but also for the welfare of the scoiety. if the electorate is educated, they can make an informed choice about their leader. But does our political class want this to happen?

I think I have already highlighted many symptoms and affects, so what is the therapy that could be used to address this malaise.

increasing budgetary allocation to at least 5-6 percent
ensuring that there is at least one school in a village of population more than 100
encouraging the participation of private sector
shift subsidies from higher education to primary education
have performance evaluation of the primary teachers, conduct surprise checks and ensure the teachers attend school
ensure that the education cess collected is spent only on education sector

There are numerous committes and commissions that have been setup in the past. If only the government can implement one of those, we will see a drastic change in our society

The wishlist version 1.0

2008-11-15T22:31:00.007+05:30

This is going to be one hell of a rapid fire blog.

- I wish one day when i wake up, the world will be free of all the assignments, case studies, presentations, submissions and projects

- I wish a day will come when I can get up whenever I want and then go back to sleep as if I dont give a shit about this world

- I wish one day I will eat at the goel dining hall and the conversation will be free from topics related to CGPA, CV, Shortlists, Jobs, Interviews, Dean's list, companies, case prep, placement prep, Alums and recession

- I wish one day there will be a weekend that will actually be a weekend

- I wish someday people will realize that somebody actually sleeps, before they think about calling up on the cell and then on the landline at unearthly hours like 5 AM and 4 PM

- I wish I could just stop thinking about the job, interview, shortlist, CGPA, salaries and CV

Whoa, that's one helluva wishlist, but that reflects the current state of mind.

Case preps, Resume reviews, PPTs and 3 dot 3 party

2008-11-03T19:33:00.002+05:30

After being arm twisted to write a post for this blog, I thought that its better for my self esteem to fall in the line :). just kidding, its just that I tend to use these tactics to get attention towards myself.

So what's going on in the campus? Life has been BAD, if not worse. I had expected that elective terms will bring some relief and respite from the regular grind of assignments and case studies, but I was disappointed. Elective term turned out to be the same as core term.

An interesting incident happened two days back. I ran into an old acquaintance of mine (friend of a friend from IIT Madras) when i was going to attend a pre-placement talk of a company. He had come to the campus for his interview as an applicant for next year. We had an animated and short discussion before I excused myself and rushed off to attend the talk. Next two days of the weekend were like mayhem, with all the alum sessions going on for different companies. I ran into him again and asked him about the interview. He said "Dude, with the kind of pressure I have seen you guys going through, I don't think i can sustain that myself. I am afraid of doing MBA now". At first I was happy with the empathetic talk but then i knew i had to do some damage control. I did allay his fears and apprehensions but the fact remains, "the pressure ain't going down any further".

To an outside entity 3 days weekend break looks like a perfect soothing balm for the hectic 4 days of lectures. but trust me, weekends are crazier and worse than weekdays. Firstly almost all the assignment due dates fall on monday 8 AM. That means that Sunday day and night is spent coordinating with disparate study groups and "managing" the assignments. With the placement season round the corner, weekends are now hogged by alums and companies visiting us for placement preparation tips, Resume reviews, case workshops, pre-placement talks and what not. So a typical weekend is spent in hopping from one session to another. International round of placement process has already started with the short lists trickling in for few companies.

Life ain't getting better from now, but believe me you, it does give you an adrenaline rush. Despite of all the deadlines assignments, resume review sessions, case prep sessions, PPTs etc etc we do find out time for a party. So our section got together to celebrate the 3 dot 3 coup that we pulled off in the previous term. To get a detailed description of this "3 dot 3 funda" please visit my personal blog. The alums who were on campus also joined us at the party. For 3 hours everybody forgot about other crappy things in the world and just mingled with old section mated. And i think it is this ability to let our hair down, despite being swamped with deadlines, is keeping us alive in this place. And my friend (the acquaintance mentioned above) missed out this aspect of the campus life. I am sure after looking at these pics he will revisit his comments.

A new twist in life

2008-10-10T20:41:00.004+05:30

In a departure from ISB related opinionated blogs, I will write something personal. I am just too excited to hide my excitement. Lets mark 8th October 2008 as the day when my life took a sharp turn and it will never be the same ever again. Its too damn hard to find words to write here. I rarely find myself in such a situation where I am at a severe loss of words.

Lets just say, LIFE IS GOOD :)

Dinosaurs and Investment Banks

2008-09-29T02:18:00.006+05:30

Question: Whats common between Dinosaurs and Investment Banks?
Answer: They are both extinct.

Last week, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan were put under regulations. That event kick started the end of Investment Bank era. For ages, the I banks had looked down upon the normal commercial banks with disdain. I think sanity will return now that they have become mortals too. At the risk of being labeled a jerk, i would like to post a couple of cartoons that bear similarity to dinosaurs and I Banks. The analogy between them can not be missed.

A Coup and its aftermath

2008-09-21T12:13:00.007+05:30

Okay, ever since this saga started i knew that it will make an appearance in this blog. It all started 2 weeks back when a professor in one of the courses decided to give us the power to decide our grades in that course. But as Professor Bhagwan Choudhury would say "What's the catch?", even we asked MK, "What's the catch?". The sequence of events that unfolded next have registered themselves in the annals of ISB's history. Enough of the prelude, here goes the entire story.

Section C pulled off a coup when we as a section decided to allocate a grade for ourselves. Sounds easy eh !!!, but the catch was that everybody has to submit a sealed bid and the average grade of the section should come out to be exactly 3.3 . Failing which, we would have to appear for the exam of Government Society and Business course. The offer was tempting but full of risk. It was a perfect case for 'Prisoner's Dilemma'. A Sealed bid made the coordination difficult and impossible. The real question was why will some people voluntarily settle for a lower grade A- (3.5) and B (3.0) inorder to bring down the average to 3.3 .First time we submitted the sealed bids, our section average came to around 3.48. We were pretty close so the professor gave us another chance to arrive at a consensus. What followed was unprecedented in ISB's history. The entire section came together and sacrificed our grades just for the sake of solidarity of the section. Finally we did achieve the magical figure of 3.3 thanks to the last minute juggling and negotiations. And the best thing was that the professor required each one of us to send an email to him regarding the grade that he/she should get. When we had done a dry run, we knew that even if one person changes his stance we all will fail. But not a single soul reneged and that set us on the path to history. Even the professor acknowledged the unity of our section and our section has booked its place in the History of ISB. Here's a toast to the Sec C guys and gals.

So after hectic rounds of behind-the-screen negotiations regarding the grade, it was time for the party of the year. Nidhi Reddy (Co2008 Alum and Associate Director at ISB) arranged an entry for our section at the newest and hippest lounge bar in town "FIREFLY". We even booked two buses to ferry us to the place. And MAN DID WE ROCK THAT PLACE OR NOT. it was one helluva party. Initially it looked like yet another ISB party, but as the night progressed other people started coming in. We had thought that "Jalebee Cartel" is going to perform at the lounge bar. Apparently they had performed on the day before. Anyways, the music was cool and the party was rocking. Most of the guys looked sloshed but we truly deserved a party for ourselves. While at ISB, the other 5 sections burned midnight oil discussing the intricacies of Singur Issue, our section partied away to glory at Firefly. And there were some trespassers from the other sections who had hopped into the party late in the night. We even rocked that place with our section chant hehehe.

So now the mid-term exams are over and the party is just a memory, its time to hit the assignment trail. End Term exams are only 10 days away and did i mention that next month some international companies are visiting the campus for placements.

Future aspirants, don't worry ISB prepares you to face all the vagaries of life and exams are just one part of it. Not to forget the innumerable parties (that we have here despite all the torture and stress) refresh and recharge you to face the demons that ISB unleashes on us.

What happened to the studies?

2008-09-12T12:20:00.002+05:30

Term 4 has brought a plethora of competition and theoretical courses. Three out of four courses in this term are theoretical courses. Management of Organizations (Organizational Behavior) is quite an enjoyable course. Investment Analysis has scared the shit out of everybody and Government Society and Business has been quite a revelation.

The list of international recruiters was emailed few days back. If the list is any indication, the talks about slowdown could turn out to be hollow. They are expected to hit the campus from October. Did anybody say that October is only 18 days away!!!! I mean who is ready for the placements? If anybody asks me about Whats a "Dead weight loss" is, I will just stare in the face as if I have heard it for the first time. Nervousness around the campus is starting to build up. Study groups for placement preparations have started to form and everybody is going all out to take part in various competitions organized by different B Schools and companies. And nobody is even talking about studies and courses and mid terms. BTW this is the most condensed term ever. We have classes on fridays too and End Terms start a day after the term lectures end. Phew, but nobody seems to be complaining. Everybody has got used to the maniac schedule over here. Next term onwards, people will dive into the placement preparation and forget all about courses, classes, assignments, case studies, mid terms, end terms etc.

The softer side of ISB Students

2008-09-02T02:06:00.004+05:30

Everybody is aware of the calamity that has struck Bihar. One of the world's largest evacuation exercise is currently in progress in Bihar. The magnitude of the calamity is hard to imagine.

Net Impact club at ISB and few volunteer students got together and decided to do their bit for the state. They roped in volunteers from all the sections and put together an action plan to help out the victims. One of the important part of the plan was to collect clothes and money for purchasing essential medicines. The volunteers addressed all the sections and within few hours a sum of Rs. 1.6 Lakhs was collected by the students. Thats amazing. Some people even emptied their wallets to donate for the relief fund. The volunteers had already placed an order for Rs 1 lakh worth of medicines and the amount collected far exceeded their expectations. They plan to dispatch the medicines by a train on wednesday.

The Net Impact Club has roped in the faculty, AIKYA families and corporates too in this effort. If anybody wants to donate for the relief effort please contact Rajarshi Ray (President of Net Impact Club) at rajarshi_ray@pgp2009.isb.edu

37.5% MBA

2008-08-28T19:24:00.006+05:30

Ya I know that i have not blogged for a long time. I have been busy with the end term exams and then enjoying the break after the exams. The monstrous 3rd Term got over on Tuesday, not before scaring the sh!t out of everybody by the mammoth exam paper in the Managerial Accounting and Operations Management. The Managerial Accounting end term paper was arguably the lengthiest paper in the history of ISB. Everybody who came out of the exam rooms had the same question mark look on their face, which read "WHAT WAS THAT?". But as all bad things come to an end, end term exams also ended and everybody heaved a sigh of relief. The highly propagated term had ended and lot of guys were heading home. The courses in this term were interesting and the next term also promises to be an interesting term. However, 4th term will be the most hectic in terms of schedule and activities. Lots of conferences, summits and conclaves will take place. I have to start thinking about PaEV, there will be classes on Fridays in the fourth term and there wont be any break before the end term exams. But I think, by the end of fourth term, nobody will care about exams and grades.

What have I been doing after the end-term? I knew that i won't waste my time in sleeping. So I have been watching movies ( 7 in 2 days), watched the India-SL cricket match, went for some "important" shopping, listened to songs (after ages) and did some introspection. I have watched "The Departed", "Mr and Mrs Smith", "Jannat", "Jaane tu", "Babel", "Harry Potter and Goblet of Fire' and "the last Kiss". All the movies were great (except Jaane tu).

The campus wears a barren look. Atrium, which is always buzzing with activity is, is deserted. The dining hall looks haunted. Looks like everybody has left this place. Somehow after spending last two days virtually doing nothing, i get a feeling that i am bored. There is always this nagging thought that something is not right. after getting used to assignment and submissions deadlines, this sudden slack feels wierd. Sometimes i feel that i am missing out on something, this is not normal. How can i watch back-to-back movies without an iota of worry? But this is all going to get over in a couple of days. 4th Term starts from monday and it will be business as usual from monday. I think i have got used to the life where there are assignments, case studies, deadlines, lectures, seminars etc. This sudden vaccum has left me with a feeling of boredom. I want my life back, i want some assignment, i want to read some case study. I went out to the city today, man I suddenly feel that the serene and calm life at ISB has spoilt me. There was so much of pollution, traffic jam, dirt and crowd.

Time to go to the DVD library (in Library) and get some new DVD. I dread going to the dining hall, it gives me a wierd feeling to sit there and eat alone (okay there are at max 8-10 people in the dining hall).

Dies ist das Leben. This is life.

3rd Term Exams

2008-08-24T12:46:00.001+05:30

The image below says it all. BTW End Term exams begin from tomorrow. Nirvana after 48 hours from now. Time to go into hibernation.

Stress Reduction Therapy

2008-08-22T11:35:00.001+05:30

Term 3 - Final Verdict

2008-08-18T10:27:00.007+05:30

if there was anything called as "eat my own words", then i would have been doing exactly that. Not long ago, i had declared with contempt that Term 3 has been a misnomer till now. It has been like a bomb that just did not explode. But now i have realized how naive I was. Term 3 monster is back and its back with a bang. If I were to describe the life out here, it would be like "living from one deadline to another". That's how life is over here. I just barely scraped through the Black Monday and Ash Wednesday awaits me. I had been going around the campus and telling people that Term 3 was a fun term and there was nothing to be scared of. But yesterday people had the "I told you so" look on their faces. Every study group was in a huddle, desperately trying to survive beyond the deadline.

To top it up, end term exams are starting from next week. These assignments have kept everybody busy and we have not even touched the text books. The next 3-4 days are not going to be any better. The mega block buster Entrepreneurship report is still in "work-in-progress" phase. Let me say that the weather at Hyderabad is splendid. It induces lethargy and procrastination in everybody. Thank God its not raining but the weather is superb. Right now, the lights in my room are dim, the curtains are drawn, its damn cloudy outside, cool breeze is blowing and the bed is looking damn enticing. I cant hold myself anymore, so I am off to sleep. Ya its 10:40 AM and I woke up just an hour ago. But What the Hell I had slept for only 3 hours last night.

Few Random thoughts on placements

2008-08-10T18:31:00.001+05:30

Kaustubh Verma (Co2008) visited us as part of the Accenture Management Consulting practice. He was here to host an official event for the Co2009. I have mentioned this because he had an important message for our batch. Everybody knows that the coming year is going to be little hard for all of us. The placements are going to take some hit due to the widespread recession in the economy. Everybody is saying that we cant expect to repeat the stellar performance of the placements that happened last year. Well I am keeping my fingers crossed.

Anyways the message was that we have to stick together as a batch. He was of the opinion that several people often remark "I have worked in XYZ company and i know that they are not that good, I have worked in such a role and its not worth it" he said that we are nobody to comment on such things. It doesn't cost anything to speak good things about a company or a profile. We are going to make things better for our batchmates by encouraging them and not badmouthing the companies or the roles that they offer. In bad times we should put up a united front and help each other.

I hope our batch picks up the message and implements the advise. it will make the placement week a tad better. I have another topic in my mind. these days everybody is talking about Grade Non Disclosure policy. i will write my two shillings on this topic sometime.

Message from a Professor

2008-08-04T21:17:00.005+05:30

Let me clarify at the outset, the idea for this post has been plagiarized from a fellow ISBian blogger. But this is outside the purview/jurisdiction of the Honor Code Committee (HCC), and I can roam around like a free bird, without an iota of remorse or fear. More importantly, I heard the radio interview of this impressive Professor and then i remembered the last email from him. He was clearly one of the most popular Professors in the campus. His is affiliated with an influential think-tank in US and that was clearly evident in the confident way in which he taught us. Here goes the email:

Dear Students:

Thanks for your kindness during the last session (and indeed all the sessions)! It has been a pleasure interacting with you and it was your intellectual curiosity that added spark to the course.

I am sure I will read about you soon in the papers as great examples of people who harnessed the market for social good as much as for profits. Meanwhile, question everything. Defy conventional wisdom. Buck the trend. Read the less known novelist. Watch the movie without stars. Listen to the less famous person. What you encounter might enlighten you, entertain you, and even change your life!

Cheers,
KK

ISB Private Equity Conference: 6th September 2008

2008-08-02T19:43:00.005+05:30

The Finance Club at Indian School of Business will host the ISB Private Equity Conference on September 6, 2008. This is a unique event and the first to be held by a B School in India. With so many M&A deals happening in India and abroad, PE suddenly has become a hot sector. Many global PE companies have also set up shops in India and are looking for some attractive opportunities. It is anticipated that the global slowdown will spur the PE activities, as companies become more attractive during the recession times.

This Conference serves to bring together private equity professionals, industry leaders, students, alumni and faculty to discuss recent trends and emerging issues in the private equity industry. It will provide a platform to discuss the opportunities and the challenges for private equity investments in India. Further, it will act as a forum for private equity professionals to interact with pre-eminent business leaders and India’s brightest human capital present here at the ISB.

The daylong event would involve a keynote speaker and two panel discussions on:

Quo Vadis Private Equity? Sunrise sectors, deal valuations and exit strategies. The panel will discuss topics such as ‘Are education, healthcare and media the new poster boys for private equity investments?’ and ‘Exit Strategy: Are the investment horizons shifting?

Private Equity: Adding value to India Inc's business practices. The focus here is on family businesses opening up to private equity as a source of investment and whether private equity firms are ushering in a new wave of corporate governance norms.

Many top speakers have signed up for the event, some of the prominent one are:
Nainesh Jaisingh: MD, Standard Chartered PE
Deepak Shahdadpuri: Founder MD, Beacon India
Shujaat Khan: MD Blueriver Capital
Gaurav Mathur: MD India Equity Partners
Satish Mandhana: MD, IDFC PE
Gul Mukhey: Director, HSBC PE

Heads of other leading PE firms and also eminent business leaders from South India will also be participating in the event. This promises to be an interesting and exciting event. Well, this is the part of the deal that a global B School offers :)

Term 3 - a misnomer

2008-07-31T02:19:00.004+05:30

Nitin gave me an idea to write a blog on the misnomer that this term has been till now. I don't want to disappoint the ISB aspirants and the other people around me. But frankly speaking, this term has failed to live up with the hype and hoopla, that was created. My leftist friends would counter me by saying that we have become conditioned to all this now, so we don't feel any stress or we are not cowed down by the threat of deadlines. May be they are right.

Before the term 2 ended, people were worried about the Term 3 and the stories were famous. Chitra (Co2008) told in one of her talks that during term 3 there will be roughly 2.5 assignment submissions everyday. Naturally the students were psyched and were cautious. Everybody was waiting in their caves and waiting for the Term 3 monster to strike. But the monster didn't come, instead a small time ghoul by the name of "Entrepreneurship" comes every alternate day and tries to scare us. We are lot smarter now. Having experienced the meticulous slicing of the case by "Prashant Kale (Comp Strat Professor)", these things don't even deserve a mention. In Term 2, we used to have comp strat cases every alternate day, apart from Markstrat and DMOP assignments. This term looks like a preparatory term. I think i should stop now, i am going a bit too far. Corp Fin case and assignment are due over this weekend and Operations case is due on tuesday. Grapevine has it, that the Operations case (Kota fibers) is one of the toughest case. There you go, I think there is some succor for my pessimist friends.

Keynesian view on this theory would say that we have got used to the pressure and the deadlines and we are no more stirred by them. They would like to point out to the fact that there have already been 8 assignment submissions within 10 days of this term and that's a healthy proportion. But Keynesians are few and hard to locate, hence the classical view prevails.

BTW a great section party was organized today by the great party organizers of the section (5 of them). I attended only for an hour, but i have heard that it was by far the best one till now. Its sad that i missed it. I was busy with PaEV dammit.

I hope none of the professors are reading this. I don't want to give them any ideas or the impression that the Co2009 are having a time of their lives.

Slack Time at ISB - a rare commodity

2008-07-27T03:08:00.002+05:30

This week was relatively free and did not live up to the expectation of Term 3 being a killer term. I could say this because I could actually find time to go out to the city, have dinner and watch a movie. Can you even imagine doing that in the middle of the Term that is termed as the worst term ISB could offer. But i think, its only the beginning, if the coming week is an indicator the horror is not far away. There are already 3 assignments due for Monday morning and many more to follow later in the week.

Today was the AIKYA launch. AIKYA is a network of local (hyderabadi) influential families that "Adopt" ISB students for an year. These families host the ISB students for dinner and outings and networking. Its a good concept and the launch was successful, though few families could not turn up due to pressing engagements. The students were dressed up in Indian Ethnic dresses and everybody looked fabulous. The weather was excellent and that added to the festive mood. even the children in the campus enjoyed a lot.

I went to see the movie "The Dark Knight". It was by far the best movie I have seen till now, but it was grotesque, it was gross and it was gory. The movie was action packed but its a strict no-no for those who detest violence. The audience ended up abhorring the villan (the joker). But the movie deserves its place up the charts. It had even displaced Godfather as the all time best movie on IMDB. But i dont think that it will be able to keep its place, because the Godfather enthusiast will pull Godfather to the top position again.

Thats it for now. time to catch up on sleep. A busy day tomorrow. My ex boss from PwC might visit me, I will show him around this place.

Term 3 Begins

2008-07-23T12:39:00.001+05:30

Here comes my 125th post. The Term 3 started on 21st July and with that came the avalanche of assignments and submissions. Barely few hours into the term, there was a deadline. For a few unfortunate souls the deadline was at 11:59PM of the previous day before the start of the term. Barely two days into the term, we got an individual assignment worth 10 percent of the grade. Term 3 surely is living up to its reputation of being the Killer Term.

The previous term did not prove to be as hectic as it was being propagated. Surely Markstrat took away some of the stress and proved to be a big entertainer. BTW the Markstrat team about whom I had written in my earlier post emerged as winners amonngst Firm A and my Team emerged winners amongst Firm I (this was the reason why i enjoyed markstrat). The end terms were as usual, DMOP was the ultimate massacre. After the end terms got over, most of the students left for their homes. The campus wore a deserted look, even the party after the end term was a drab one.

Term 3 again has some interesting courses, I am looking forward to the courses on Management Accounting and Operations Management. A course on Entrepreneurship also seems interesting, however the loads of pre-reads have made that course look boring.

Campus is witnessing a spate of injuries, atleast 5-8 percent of the batch has been inflicted with leg or arm injury (fracture or ligament tear). That is an alarming proportion. I hope things get better soon.

Thats about it for this post. There are too many things to do, than to sit and write a blog :) do hang on for sometime, I will write as soon as i get some slack.

SSHHHH Term 2 End Term Exams in Progress

2008-07-12T16:45:00.004+05:30

Life is not all about ISB

2008-07-09T15:01:00.001+05:30

Well I have been ranting and raving about ISB for almost two months. In the past two months, i failed to realize that there is actually life outside the campus too. I failed to realize that life has better things other than Grades, DMOP, Comp Strat, Sonite, Vodite and Inflation. THERE ARE actually many people who are living happily without being bothered by the aforementioned things. So this post will not be about ISB.

What next then?

I would like to write about Indian cricket team losing yet another multilateral tournament (18 ouot of 20 finals). Indian team has earned an unenviable tag of "chokers". Mendis did India in. The famous Indian batting lineup collapsed like a building made of mud.

I would like to write about the changing political equation in the country. Left parties ended their 4 year old acrimonious marriage with UPA and finally parted ways. Good for the country, I must say. With SP supporting the central Government, India is all set to throw away the yoke of nuclear apartheid imposed on it.

Job market is becoming scary, everyday there is some depressing news about the economy. It is not expected to become better in the near future. No Idea how the placements will turn out to be.

Oil prices are shooting like anything. It threatens to engulf the entire world economy. There is no relief in sight. Inflation is expected to touch 15% by the end of the year, that's when the oil price effect will percolate down to the prices of commodities.

Right now I am feeling damn sleepy. I have been surviving on only 4 hours of sleep for the past 4-5 days. This is the perfect time to catch up on this dear "commodity". Sleep has transformed from a necessity to a leisure activity.

But before I end, I would like to mention about the Macro Economics Professor, Dr Krishna Kumar. I am sure most people will agree that Macro Economics has a political angle. I remember taking an economics course in IIT. The professors in IIT usually had socialist and leftist affiliations. So the course was structured and taught to show globalization in a poor light. Keynesian philosophy dominated over Classical. But this guy hails from Rand Corporation and he brings a totally new perspective. This guy is a champion of globalization and no prizes for guessing the camp to which he belongs. I am not saying that socialist are bad guys nor am i saying that capitalist are heroes. All I am trying to say that certain subjects get a totally new meaning depending upon the inclination/affiliation of the teacher and Economics is one of them.

So I am off to sleep, leaving aside all the worries and thoughts about end terms, pre-reads, DMOP assignment, markstrat, compstrat project, compstrat case and articles.

Just too busy

2008-07-07T23:49:00.004+05:30

I wanted to write about the life, developments, changes etc etc, but there is simply no time. Life is just too busy. Markstrat, DMOP, Comp Strat all of them are hanging like an albatross around my neck. After diving into Markstrat straight after the classes, I finished the DMOP case and now going to hit the Comp Strat Case. Apart from that, there is nearly 60-80 page of pre-read for Comp Strat.

Ciao. Life is just too busy these days. Not surprisingly end terms are round the corner. More when life will be slightly relaxed. :) Ciao and Happy reading and slogging.

Clueless

2008-06-30T21:59:00.002+05:30

I am totally clueless about the content of this post. it could even turn out to be a very incoherent post. I am just writing it coz i have not updated the blog for quite sometime. The mid term exam got over on friday and I went out with a huge group of friends for dinner. The occasion was the party thrown by DD and RD. We had a gala time, given the fact that this was only the second outing in more than 2 months of stay at ISB. The dinner was awesome, we had great sizzlers and it was not a surprise to find all the restaurants in the vicinity of City Center totally booked. You can spot ISB guys on every alternate table. They had totally swamped that area. After returning from "Indi Joe", I had a small party with my quad mates. it was fun, we played some loud music and made sure that every passer by heard us. Then it was time for the desi party at the events lounge. That was also another great party. I was there till 3:30 and then it was time to catch up with some good sleep.

The mid terms ended, but there was no respite from the drab assignments and submissions. Within a span of few days, there were a couple of MarkStrat Decisions to be made. DMOP is staring us and Competitive Strategy Project is going to nail us down. Given the fact that I am heading home during the term break, I am sure CompStrat Project will be giving me a hard time.

People here have got bored with MarkStrat. Those who are performing well are wary of their performance going down and those who are not performing so well have become bored of this game. Initially everybody was feeling that 8 decisions will be too less, but now they have started to feel the drag.

Second set of professors have arrived here. Jagmohan Raju has taught at Wharton for more than 17 years. He is a gem of a professor. Its sad that he wont be coming back to ISB next year. He has taught all the batches who have passed out from ISB ever since 2001. I will end this blog abruptly here now.

Its time to get back to the "Cisco case study" for the comp strat class tomorrow. nearly 100 pages to be read for tomorrow's class.

Mid Term Exams in Progress

2008-06-25T23:05:00.002+05:30

Markstrat world 2nd Century

2008-06-19T15:32:00.006+05:30

This is the report from the Markstrat world. This report deals with the developments that took place in the 2nd Century(Period 2)

Period 1 results were out within a couple of hours after the deadline and there was a buzz all around the campus. People were seen animatedly discussing their Firm's performance. There was a sense of enjoyment among all. Some firms (including mine) were ruined and gone bankrupt, while others had made a kill. There was a fierce price war in all the industries. In my industry some jackass had launched new products at a $10 margin, and that killed my firm. These are some of the quotes that I heard from the victims of the Price wars (Pardon me, some of them are in hindi):

"Yaar, main to kahin ka bhi nahin raha, barbaad ho gaya

Shareholders are looking for me, I am going underground

Izzat lut gayi yaar, hum to kangaal ho gaye

We have become beggars. Next period we will be wiped out from the market

Bloody Firm X, these &$#$#@$$ ers, they launched a price war and swept our market

we have piled up loads of unsold inventory, our creditors are baying for our blood

hum to kisi ko muh dikhaane ke laayak nahin rahe

I am planning to store Sonites in my studio apartment, in order to lower our inventory holding costs

But then there is light at the end of the tunnel, there are many firms that had performed worse than ours. The benchmark was set by a firm that had negative contribution :) . So whenever I feel bad about my firm, I close my eyes and think about that firm. I would like to propose this therapy to all the markstrat stressed souls too. :)

Reporting from the world of MarkStrat

2008-06-14T22:52:00.001+05:30

The entire campus is in the grip of MarkStrat mania. It has hit everybody. People have got their necks deep into the laptops, strategies are being devised, tested, retested and reworked. Everywhere there is a talk about this weird game. People are talking in hushed tones about Sonites and Vodites. To the external ear, this may sound like abstract words. But trust me, next 5 weeks at ISB will be entirely devoted to these two names, Sonites and Vodites.

To the ignorant junta, MarkStrat is an online simulation game. It is a strategy game based on marketing. There are different industries and different firms in the industries. Each team represents a firm and they are given a budget to start with. each firm has a couple of existing brands in the market. Everybody is playing against each other. We have to maximize our profits in the long run. During the course of the game, brands have to be introduced, repositioned, advertised, Researched and Targeted at the right segment of the market. There are tonnes of data, charts, graphs, tables, Conjoint Analysis and what not. The majority of the time is taken up to understand and relate the various graphs and data that is given for each of the brand.

Maybe I have not been able to describe the game very clearly, but you have to play the MarkStrat game to understand and appreciate the nuances of the game. Its all about team work, strategy, understanding the concepts, having a vision, and sheer gut feeling. We have only taken the 2nd decision (1st Stage)and there are 7 more decisions(stages) to be made (crossed). Today we spent 10 hours at a stretch on this game, and we were never bored of this game. Its o captivating and energizing. The best thing about my group is that whenever the team starts to slow down and gets slack, somebody rises to the occasion and steers the team. Thats what they call, a team game. It happened so many times today, somebody or the other took the lead and kept the momentum going.

The coming weeks are going to be exciting. We have two interesting courses. Apart from MarkStrat, we have another course called Competitive Strategy. I have mentioned about this course and the professor taking this course, many times. Today we had the case discussion on "Apple computers". The sheer brilliance with which Prashant Kale took apart the case was inspiring. He even narrated an incidence when he was having a lunch with Steve Jobs at Ross (Michigan) and how he explained to Steve Jobs that the strategy that Apple was using was definitely going to fail. And then Steve Jobs replied to Prashant Kale that "He knows that the strategy wont work". The entire class cheered him on that. Well, he is arguably one the best professor to visit this campus.

The coming week is going to witness a carnage, with loads of assignments and submissions pending during this week. Wish me luck.

P.S Today, the dining hall served one of the best dinners till now. We had jalebis, chole-bhature and Lassi. Simply the best till now. And yeah, this time monsoons have definitely arrived at Hyderabad :)

Term 2 begins

2008-06-12T01:21:00.002+05:30

Officially we are 1/8 or 12.5% MBA. Term 1 has ended and we are in the middle of Term 2. In this term we have the following courses

- Decision Models and Optimization (DMOP)
- Marketing Decision making (Mark Strat)
- Global Economics (GLEC)
- Competitive Strategy (Comp Strat)

We have heard from all of our seniors that Term 2 and Term 3 are the mother of all terms. It is in these terms that the mettle of each student is tested and the limits are stretched. The signs are evident even from now. The first weekend is round the corner and we have roughly 3-4 assignments pending. Apart from that, we have a full day Leadership development Program (LDP) session on Sunday. Add, the pressure of CP to that and you have got a potboiler. The courses to watch out for are Mark Strat and Comp Strat. In Markstrat we have to play an online simulation game. The results of the game are worth 50 percent of the credits in that course. It has been told by the seniors that during the middle of the term, the entire campus catches the markstrat mania, people are seen discussing their marketing strategy in hushed up tones. People plot to kill the rival teams (firms) and throw them out of the business. The excitement has started to build up from now itself, with the first decision to be made by this weekend.

We again have some good professors in this term, the notable amongst them are Prashant Kale and Pradeep Bhardwaj. In one of the courses we have something called "cold calling". Some professors cold-call sometimes. This means they will call on you without previous warning. In the first competitive strategy lecture, I had barely walked in at 8:15 AM, when Prof Prashant Kale remarks that this year they have recruited lots of Prashant and he looks at me and asks "Prashant, do you know the reason?" . I had barely settled in my seat, I could not think of anything so i retorted back "Perhaps they liked your name". well, that was the best I could think of :(.

Marks for the end terms of Term 1 were declared and the whole campus is suffering from the grades phobia. Everybody is seen inquiring about the grading pattern here. People are asking about the grades that professors give if they are just below average or just above average. The atmosphere is really sensitive these days.

Lots of people have told me that they have read my blog and they liked it or disliked certain portions of the blog. That had made me a little conscious. At first I thought that I will tone down the content of the blog. But being a politically correct person (95 % of the times) I hardly write anything controversial here, so I have decided to continue with my natural flow.

First weekend round the corner, and I am looking forward to catching a good sleep over the weekend. Ciao, I should get back to the pre-read for tomorrow Competitive Strategy Class, I HAVE to do some CP tomorrow, damn it.

Trip to the lost World

2008-06-07T14:06:00.002+05:30

Well, Term 1 ended on Tuesday and I went home for 36 hours (ya exact 36 hours, not an hour more and not an hour less). As soon as i left the campus and came in contact with the external world, I had a weird sort of feeling.

Hyderabad Airport (Rajeev Gandhi Int'l airport) is a marvel. It is truly a world class airport. when i reached the airport, i couldn't believe that this is an Indian airport. Kudos to GMR group. In contrast, Delhi Airport was infested with mosquitoes and i also spotted a rat in one of the corner. Did anybody say that commonwealth games are being hosted by Delhi in the near future? I reached Delhi on Wednesday evening and met a couple of school time friends. I had dinner with them and then rushed to the railway station to catch the train to jhansi. I had to run, since I was late due to the rains that lashed Delhi on Wednesday evening. I managed to just enter an arbit coach, since the train had gained considerable speed. In the chase, my watch slipped and i saw it fall down on the rails beside the platform, but i could not do anything except curse myself. That watch was given to me by my didi :(.

I realized that after spending 2 months in the campus, things are different in the external world. for example
- there are different types of four wheelers other than prams (ya in the campus the only 4 wheelers one can see are prams)
- you don't have to smile at every person with whom you establish an eye contact (here in the campus, either you flash a smile or the other person flashes a smile)
- You actually have to look left and right before crossing the road.
- Pollution (sound, air and water) is a problem that we are alien to in side the campus
- Not every face is recognizable
- In the external world you don't expect to run into snakes all the times

Anyways, I am back to the ISB campus. Term 2 starts from Monday and it promises to be a hell of a term. All the seniors have warned us that Term 2 and 3 will be the mother of all terms. Lord save all of us.

P.S This is just to make note of a personal milestone that I achieved on 5th.

Current State of mind: penultimate day of Term 1

2008-06-02T16:57:00.003+05:30

It all depends on how you look at the glass that is half full. Well, to put things in perspective, 2 end term exams (Financial Accounting and Managerial Economics) got over just now. One more day to go before Term 1 ends completely. The other perspective is that there are 2 more end term exams left (Statistics and Marketing). Then the week will be about parties, going home for a couple of days, and more parties, before Term 2 begins from next Monday. Still more slogging to do, I am running an acute deficit in my "Sleep Account". No idea when that deficit will be erased. This is the current state of mind:

Run, rabbit run.
Dig that hole, forget the sun,
And when at last the work is done
Don’t sit down it’s time to dig another one

So its back to the studies again. Inshallah, Term 1 will end on a happy note tomorrow.

Amen

Term 1, Elections, etc

2008-05-29T22:05:00.000+05:30

- I forgot to mention an important deadline that I allowed to lapse. May 19th was the final date for acceptance of the IIM offers, and I conveniently let it pass away. Somewhere in the previous week I had decided that I will stick to this place. I had my own personal reasons for staying at ISB. But nevertheless, it was a great moment to enjoy. I remember one day Rajat Mishra was telling me that it feels great when you have the offers from the best B schools in the world and you have the liberty to just trash them. Did it feel great, Well not exactly. But yeah, that thing is off my mind now for good.

- Elections were conducted at ISB for the student body. There were few surprises. Few of my friends couldn't make it, but hell thats not the end of the road. Who said that the best man always wins. So my friend, there is no reason to fret. MB pulled off a coup and did a great job. hats off to her.

- Term 1 classes ended today. I must say that ISB has lined up some of the world's best faculty. Some of the professors are simply awesome. You just sit back and enjoy their classes. Waterman and Piyush were amongst them. They will just entertain you with their brilliance and ease with which they teach the subject. Their enthusiasm is remarkable. Even after teaching 6 sections in a row, they are able to maintain the same passion in all the classes.

- I met A, P, S and I on the lawns of SV3. They were just spewing venom against the IITians. Nowadays, I have seen and heard junta lashing out against these poor people. Guys, believe me, these are harmless people. you just have to know them from up close and personal and you will realize that these people don't have a horn or an extra limb. They are also in a soup and deep sh!t just like everybody else.

- End Term exams start from Monday and the whole campus has gone into a study mode. Few assignments and quizes are pending for submission. And I am feeling too damn sleepy now :(

P.S. As usual I was getting late for the morning lecture. And as usual I took the short cut to the dining hall. I was literally sprinting when suddenly I had to hop. I saw that there was a white colored snake lying on the ground. I literally froze in my place. I realized that I was just going to step on that snake. The snake was dead and the ants were having it for breakfast. You can have a look at the pic on the top left corner.

Term 1 coming to an end

2008-05-28T14:58:00.000+05:30

Term 1 is nearing the end. We had the last lectures for Accounting and Marketing today. Tomorrow it will be curtains for lectures of term 1. We again had a professor farewell today. Sec C lived up to its tradition of having a cake on the final day. Somehow i couldn't resist myself from comparing the last day of the class at ISB and at my alma mater IIT Madras. I clearly remember that the attendance on the last days used to be thin. Infact the last lectures were considered redundant because everybody used to be in a firefighting mode. Back then in college, we used to survive with last minute revision of concepts, photocopies, innumerable funda sessions at all possible places and frantic visits to the library to get hold of any arbit book for the open book exams. In the end I used to scrape through with good grades. But things are starkly different over here. In order to get superior grades, one has to put in a consistent and constant effort. There is absolutely no room for slack and complacence. Somehow I need to get over my habit of taking power naps in the middle of the lecture. It has become normal for me to sleep through the first half of the lectures.

However, the marks for the mid terms have been declared. So nowadays you will find people discussing marks, potential grades, potential merit list etc. I hope that this all will die down once we are in Term 2. All these things will become normal and most of the people won't care about grades/marks.

Too many assignments pending for this weekend. I have procrastinated for long now i need to pull up my socks. The "1 day Acuvue" case study discussion was by far the best one. Piyush brought out so many implicit concepts during the case discussion. It showed that we all do such a shallow case analysis before coming to the lecture.

Overall the term was great. It provided a good perspective of the management education and also encouraged everybody to view things around us in a different light. End Term exams are starting from Monday next week. Let this get over and let the next term begin.

Monsoons are here !!!!

2008-05-22T22:48:00.005+05:30

The monsoons have arrived at Hyderabad. Don't sue me if these were pre-monsoon showers.

P.S The first pic was taken by Ujval (don't hold me for HCC violation)

ISB vs IIM - my decision

2008-05-21T23:48:00.000+05:30

So the time has come to take a decision on the ISB vs IIM dilemma. Having gone through the mental torture of sitting blankly in the class and thinking about the pros and cons of the decision, i can say that i cant take it anymore. Letting go of the opportunity to study in the best B schools in the country - IIM A, IIM B and IIM C is not an easy decision. At the same time, quiting ISB ain't gonna be easy. So here is my rationale for choosing ISB over IIM A, B and C. (My logic might be faulty, but everybody has his own decision making criterion)

I wanted to do a 1 year course. I realized that ISB offered 85 percent of the curriculum in 50 percent of the time. It was a valuable proposition for me as it saved 1 year. that meant an extra year in the job
FT 20 rankings influenced my decision. The rankings were helpful in validating my conviction that ISB is a top notch school
ISB’s portfolio faculty model impressed me. They had the best faculty from all around the world teaching at this place. In this term we have faculty from Wharton and Kellogg
Diverse peer group - the diversity of the peer group is simply amazing. from the ex indian hockey captain, to a SP of AP Police, Commander of Navy, Lt. Colonel, Doctors, Lawyers, Architects, Marine Engineers and the omnipresent engineer. The diversity is simply awe inspiring

Add to that i had a personal reason to pursue a 1 year course and i hope my choice turns out to be a wise one in the long term. Finally, I decided to stick to ISB and with a heavy heart allowed the deadline for IIM to lapse.

Its all about CP, honey

2008-05-21T14:58:00.001+05:30

People have taken Class Participation (CP) to a whole new galaxy. I think I have learnt more about different industries than about Marketing in the marketing course. People usually start like this, "I come from IT/FMCG/Pharma/Oil/Steel/Tea/Automobile/Garment/Textile/Banking industry and I have a classic example to explain the situation at hand" This makes me feel as if I was just selling peanuts all my life. Piyush also indicated today that the content of the class is lost due to arbit CP done by the students. And its totally true. He has not been able to complete the case studies in two successive classes (Land Rover and Virgin Mobile) and we have no idea about the loss to the course content. This means a loss to the entire class. I wonder why people dont understand this. I mean I am all for learning from peers but we need to draw a line somewhere. Nobody can contest that he has a more interesting and relevant point than the professor. But still, sanity eludes everybody.

On a lighter note, I have my own version of CP, thats on the lines of the CP that happens in the class. It goes like this

"Sir, prior to coming to ISB, I was selling peanuts on Secunderabad and Hyderabad railway station. I belong to the peanuts industry and I have observed that product bundling does not work on all the days. I have observed that on Fridays peanut with plain salt sells more than peanuts with onion and chana. I have tried to shift the reference price of the customers by using price discrimination and I have observed that when I had the scheme of 50 percent off on the second packet of peanuts, I sold much more than when I had the offer of giving 150 grams at the price of 100 grams. I tried to experiment with the Endowment method. I came up with the offer of "Buy now and Pay Later". But I observed that my customers never returned to pay me. Do you think that endowment works in all types of business scenarios?

Excuse me, but i am totally frustrated as I have to listen to arbit views and concerns of junta for more than 60 minutes out of the 100 minute lecture.

Exams Ache Hain

2008-05-16T18:26:00.004+05:30

2 Mid term exams got over today. I am back to my room after experiencing a severe bout of happiness after the exams. You should have seen the crowd outside "The Cafe". Everybody was smiling, joking, laughing and enjoying. At the risk of being labeled as a spoilsport, I felt that people were behaving as if they have achieved something great. But I must say that the happiness was well earned and deserved. Tomorrow is Accounting mid term, but i don't feel like studying, neither do i feel like sleeping. So what's the next best thing to do? Blogging.

Have you seen that Surf Excel advertisement, "Daag Ache hain". I liked the tag line and it has nothing to do with the marketing course that i am doing currently. The Tag line goes something like this, "Agar Daag lagne se kuch acha hota hai to fir daag ache hain". Translated to the context here, it means that if something good can be derived from the exams then exams are good. Today we had the mid term exams of Statistics and Managerial Economics. Everybody was so tensed before the exams. The tension and the stress was palpable. You should have seen the students last night and in the morning today. Everybody was frantically going through the notes, discussing abstruse concepts with others, and swearing at the system that made them slog like anything. And the atmosphere in the evening was starkly different. You could feel the joy and happiness in the air. You could see people indulging in harmless banter and endless chat. Plumes of nicotine smoke and tonnes of caffeine. What made the difference? The pressure and stress was off. Everybody was relieved that in the end its over. Nobody was worried about the performance, since that hardly mattered. Everybody was collectively extremely happy. I could bet that the average happiness quotient had gone up by several notches today. People were never so happy, after joining ISB. I felt like asking Xenobia "I feel so happy, Am I normal?"

So if the aftermath of exams results in increased happiness and joy then I would reckon that exams are good. It was like our Economics professor, Amit Bubna, would say "Nirvana". Don't label me as a jingoist, but I felt today that exams are good and they help in increasing the net happiness quotient of the batch. Everybody was emoting, "Dude, its over". Did anybody say that the Marketing Case study submission is due for Tuesday and Statistics Quiz is there on Tuesday too. But for now, let me sleep for an hour before hitting the books again :(.

A BIG SPLASH is planned for tomorrow night. The mid terms end tomorrow. People will celebrate and party like anything, coz they have survived 1/16 of the MBA course ( half of the term and there are 8 terms). I just can't wait for tomorrow evening.

BRING IT ON BABY.

On the Eve of Mid Terms

2008-05-15T14:30:00.000+05:30

Life it seems will fade away,
Drifting further everyday.
Getting lost within myself,
Nothing matters no one else.
I have lost the will to live,
Simply nothing more to give.
Theres nothing more for me,
Need the end to set me free.

When The Profs go back

2008-05-12T18:40:00.002+05:30

- It is inspiring to see the enormous amount of enthusiasm and energy in the professors. I mean they teach for like 4-6 hours at a stretch , but their ability to make each class feel special is commendable. David Bell and Stine are both from Wharton while Mohan is from Duke. There is something special to ISB. Because if these professors are choosing to teach at ISB, it speaks volume about the school. They are amongst the best professors from the best B school in the world. ISB does has a valuable proposition for these professors. Both the Professors were impressed by the response that they have got from the batch.

- David Bell already has a fan following in the campus. He got a rousing farewell and an ovation from the class. He was visibly moved. He is a favorite among the ladies here and the ladies were vying with each other for a photo-op with him. It was a relief that nobody cried. Somehow I had a feeling that somebody will break down and sing "Naa jao Professor, chura ke baiyaan. Kasam tumhari main ro padoongi, ro padoongi" hehehe. He was clearly embarrassed and kept repeating that he didn't want to get into any sort of trouble. DB provided ample opportunities for the shutterbugs. I guess he deserved the applause, coz he did stimulate some creativity in us. Mohan also deserves the applause, given that he taught a drab subject with great interest.

- Last night while going to the dining hall i thought of taking a detour inorder to cut down on the travel time (walking time). So I took to the grass instead of the normal stone path. Suddenly i saw something move in the grass. I was frozen, I was like "God I am coming". It all happened in a flash, but it did send a chill down my spine. No more grass from now on, especially with the rainy season round the corner.

- I went to the ISB main gate with DD. We stood outside the gate and watched the buses and cars pass by. Phew, it looked like a Lost World. I had a feeling that I used to belong to this world till sometime back. But now my world has changed. The setting is more serene and beautiful, but the life is hectic and tiring.

- I was doing a retrospect analysis with my study group and we were surprised to see that we had spent so much time on an economics assignment that barely had 4 question. I am sleeping like a log these days. Last week I managed to clock 8 hours of average sleep. Thats too high going by the average sleep clocked by other people around me.

Week 4 @ ISB

2008-05-09T00:54:00.003+05:30

- The week started with a Tashan (yeah my week starts on a sunday). Few of my friends had booked a ticket for a morning show of Tashan. Ya Ya we were forewarned by HVP and others. We were aware of the fact that this might just turn out to be the crappiest movie ever. But then, if only humans were rational beings. We woke up at 7 in the morning (Sunday morning !!!!) and then found out that there was no shuttle in the morning. I took out my bike while others hopped in the auto. I was flagged down near Jubliee Hills by the traffic policeman (My license plates had a WB number). I escaped with a "fine". The movie started in style and the first 10 minutes were an indicator of the ordeal that would follow. The songs were the worst songs I have ever seen or heard (Tere white white gaal yuck :( ). But MAN, if it was not for Kareena I would have left the hall within 15 minutes. Suffice to say, she looked damn "cool" (you know what i mean ;))

- The next few days were consumed by "Gillette Indonesia" case study. By the time we submitted the case study, everybody was totally fed up with the case and had developed a strong abhorrence towards Gillette. My study group mate GM's marriage anniversary was on Tuesday. Poor guy could get only an hour to spend with his wife due to the case study. We enjoyed a sumptuous dinner at his home and then proceeded to the pool to dunk him.

- Mid Terms are looming large and are staring us in the eyes. This week is crucial as I have to decide between ISB and IIM during this week. A couple of guys are leaving ISB for IIM. The week just flew by. There is another assignment submission due for this weekend. Somehow the parties never stop here. There are Class of 2009 parties, Section parties, SV parties, Block parties, Quad parties, Study group parties and what not. People dont need a reason to party. Apparently people are misusing and abusing the Idea CUG. People call each other in the Goel dining hall to ask the other person to get another drink or something for him.

- We had a get together of "Kolkata Chimneys" at the pool. Later we all had a mass dunking session. Guys you rock, these are a bunch of great guys and you have made the stay at ISB highly enjoyable. AM and CM also joined us and later invited us to their studio for a cup of tea.

- Election fever is catching up these days. Some guys are getting hyper active in order to get the first mover advantage.

A Knack

2008-05-06T02:32:00.002+05:30

This post is being written at 3 AM in the night and out of sheer frustration. The Marketing case study has got me. I have lost it totally. The Hypothesis and T Tests have ruined my life. I have lost all my sanity. My quad mates complain that they never see me in the quad and wonder whether I have left the campus. I have no clue about what will happen in tomorrow's class. Apparently there will be a pop quiz in Eco and Cold Calling in Stats. Lord Please Save Me.

The following is a figment of my wild imagination. This has been adopted from a Dilbert Clip. (just mentioning coz Honour Code Violation scares the sh!t out of me)

Mother: I am worried about little Dilbert, he is not like other kids.
Doctor: What do you mean?

Mother: Yesterday, I told him "I am going to get a Gillette Sensor excel for dad" and he asked me about my Null Hypothesis. And he calculated the z value and p value and told me to go for alternate hypothesis as the chance for Type I error was less
Doctor: Oh My god

Mother: Then he asked me about the shaving incidence of his dad and he calculated the market size of Gillette.
Doctor: Oh dear !!!

Mother: Is that bad?
Doctor: I am afraid, you son has a knack.

Mother: A knack, what do you mean by that?
Doctor: Its a knack that is characterized by an extreme urge to speak out of turn in class, and analyze market segment and draw up STP using 4P and 5Cs. These people do the RFM analysis for even elementary problems. People like these usually are an outlier and end up becoming a nocturnal animal.

Mother: Can he lead a normal life !!!!!
Doctor: No he will be an MBA.

Mother: Ohhhh LORD !!!!!

you can watch the actual clip here. The actual clip takes a potshot at Engineers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmYDgncMhXw

My Dilemma

2008-05-02T01:07:00.000+05:30

- It was like Deja vu. Five months back the results for the CAT had come out and since then it has been a painful journey. The interviews went well and some didn't. The best thing was that I didn't prepare anything for the interviews. And it all ended yesterday with the final results being declared. I got into all the IIMs (except A) and got waitlisted at IIM A. I had totally forgotten about this and had made up my mind for ISB totally. But now that the FINAL results were out, I started thinking again. Its not that easy to resist the temptation and much more difficult to take some decision. And then there is pressure from home too. All of this has led to a lot of tension and stress. It would be fair to say that I was better off without this. But then, you got to do what you got to do. Let the life go on.

- The LDP session was great. It was humbling to read the feedback given by my superiors, sub ordinates and peers. It feels great that people think positive about me. And Life has been about pre-reads, assignments, case studies etc etc. I am going to the city on Sunday with friends and will watch a movie too.

- Section B threw a party last night. This was the 5th party that I had attended after coming to ISB. It helped me in keeping my "spirits high".

Dunkings, CP, Case Studies and more

2008-04-30T15:13:00.001+05:30

Last Week many people had asked me, "Do you still plan to blog regularly". My answer was an emphatic "Yes, Why wouldn't I?". but I had no idea that i will be sucked into the endless pre-reads and case studies. Remember, the assignments have not struck us yet, they are due over the weekend. Hardly a week into the core term and everybody seems drained out. The pre-reads have been enormous and people feel that the content in the class is way different from the pre-reads. Some people feel that the course is moving at a very fast pace, imagine that one professor takes 5 lectures and there are two professors for each course. Hence in one class 10 percent of the course gets over. Thats scary, I mean if you bat an eyelid you are gone. Somehow I feel that the learning is through self study here. We do an enormous amount of pre-reads and the content that is taught is starkly different from the pre-reads. Quite a lot of people are of the view that the teaching is little shallow.

The faculty is amazing. Somehow the USP of ISB is getting clearer now. The professors are the best in the industry, they come from Wharton, Duke, Kellogg's etc. The amount of energy and enthusiasm that they display is commendable. One thing to note is that they are all overawed by the talent at ISB. That speaks volumes about the talent in India and thats a fact that the professors acknowledge regularly.

We had a mass dunking session yesterday, needless to say it was extreme fun. Though it did slice away precious 2 hours from my time bank. Almost the entire section turned out for the dunking. It provided an occasion for some harmless banter and camaraderie amongst the section mates. Later Srini and his wife hosted a sumptuous dinner for all of us.

CP is something that I am very poor at. In one of the course, there is a substantial proportion of marks for CP. That gives everybody a virtual license to "contribute" towards the class discussion. Somebody has coined a new term apart from ACP (Arbit CP) and that s DCP (Desperate CP). When the lecture is veering towards the end, some of the guys (including me) indulge in DCP. But I have not been successful yet. Somehow the prof looks the other way whenever i raise my hand:(. However the professor has reassured everybody that there is no need to panic. Well, we will come to know the consequences only at the end of the term.

Case, Case and Case. we had to read 3 case studies for today's class. One for accounting and 2 for Marketing. The case studies look so damn boring. They are roughly 30 pages long and made up of redundant data. While I understand that the whole purpose of the case study is to fish relevant information out of the sea of information, but somehow it sucks up a lot of time.

There have been only a couple of classes till now, but I have already built up a backlog. There is so much to read and once somebody lags behind, its very difficult to catch up.

P.S. Dunking - This is an ISB tradition, where the target is dunked (thrown) into the swimming pool by holding him by all the limbs. The target could be a b'day boy or gal, some irritating person, volunteers etc.

The "Probability" Returns

2008-04-23T21:51:00.002+05:30

Probability has returned to haunt me again and I was totally unaware of the impending onslaught.

I had skipped Probability during my XIIth boards, that had resulted in my mathematics score touching new depths. The came IIT JEE exam, since I had already developed a fear of Probability, I decided to totally avoid the subject. The question that came in the JEE exam was perhaps the easiest question that could ever come, I had drawn a blank then. I thought, "Fine, let it be. The ordeal is over and the life will be peaceful now".

Come semester 1 of IIT and Probability reared its ugly head again. But by then, fear had given way to abhorrence. I purposefully skipped the Probability questions in the End Sem Exams and that resulted in an E grade (4 /10) in 1st Sem. That was a shock, but I knew it was too late for a change of heart. During the next semesters I carefully avoided all mathematics courses that had anything to do with Probability. And I did suffer in some chemical engineering courses too. By then I had developed a mutual understanding with Probability. I decided to forgo my grades and in return Probability will never cross my path. We had reached an understanding and built a relationship of trust. I was okay with lesser marks and lesser grade. Come CAT and GMAT, I had conveniently avoided Probability. I had to compromise on the marks and grades, but I was happy.

When the B Tech was over, I had thought "Good Riddance" and Probability will never cross my path ever again. But that trust and understanding was breached today. In the pre-term class of "Business Statistics", the demon appeared again. And Man was I scared. Phew, I had never thought that after so many years, Probability will still stalk me to the B School. Right through XIIth, JEE, B Tech, CAT and GMAT I had not studied Probability at all. I had totally skipped it. However much I studied I just could never understand anything about it. But now I am at cross roads, "Should I or Should I not, tis is the question". I could afford a lower grade in mathematics in IIT, but can I afford it here? I wish it was simpler to answer.

In the Accounting pre-term class, arbit CP took the discussion towards CSR and consumer behavior. I wish people realize that they are wasting the time of fellow students and the professor too. Due to the airtime hogged by such "inquisitive" souls, the content of the class suffers. I hope that Professors keep a tab on such attempts. If people are genuinely so curious then let them drown or strangle themselves rather than waste the precious minutes in the class.

P.S. for the ignorant souls, CP means Class Participation. In certain courses professors encourage class participation and keep a significant weightage of the total marks for CP. Due to this lure of marks, people indulge in time wasting tactics that is termed as "Arbit CP".

Pre Terms Start

2008-04-22T02:23:00.000+05:30

I had the first and last holiday yesterday. I utilized it to the max, slept for 3 hours and then watched IPL. Kolkata Knight Riders won by a whisker, Deccan Chargers had given them a nice scare. Met G after a week. Have to meet several other people too. I have not met several people with whom I used to chat before coming to ISB, I still have to catch up with them.

ISB is seeing enthusiasm overflowing and spilling over. People are enthusiastic about everything, can't believe how they get themselves going. I got my laptop today, finally. Loan got delayed, Idea connection got delayed and the laptop got delayed too. But in the end, all the pieces have fallen in place just in time.

The campus is great, some people have been bowled over by the campus. But I have seen the Madras campus, and it was equally great, if not better. The only difference was that it was a government run campus. Nevertheless, ISB has got an army of workers who work throughout the day, to keep the campus neat and clean. The landscaping is awesome, the Student Villages have been designed in an excellent manner. Each SV is differnt and has some unique architechture. The food has been good too. Some people are not liking it. But as far as I am concerned, I think the food is awesome. I have seen worse and I can vouch for it that the food is "manna".

We have started a club called "Kolkata Chimneys". The members are PA, HVP, RRS, RRK, VG, RD, DD, SD and SG. The are some members who are on probation. I have to admit that I have been able to survive in this place only due to the people mentioned above. I am not the out and out extrovert type, so I had a little difficulty in adjusting to the new place and new faces. Some of the people are putting up a deceptive and fake appearance. but then thats life for you.

P.S. PwC senior team is in Hyderabad for the Advisory University (AU) that was started by PwC. I have to meet few people from my team who have come here. I will have to find out where they are staying. Apparently some are staying in ISB's executive housing area. I will find out tomorrow.

Ciao and Good Nite

ISB journey begins

2008-04-16T23:42:00.004+05:30

I am not going to describe my ISB experience in detail now, since I have not got my laptop yet. But I am just going to mention about my first experience of a case discussion in class today. Man, was I underprepared or what. Got a first hand glimpse of CP and arbit CP and arbit max CP. People surely know how to put crap. Well thats MBA for you.

Networking has been an overkill, I have met more than 200 people till now. Cant remember more than 100 names. People are extra courteous these days. Everybody is very liberal with the colgate smiles and hi. Somebody has coined a new term "arbit-soc", that stands for arbit socializing.

Life has been hectic, since landing here. But not everything has gone well here.
- My SBI loan has not yet been approved, since my guarantor docs reached late
- My Idea connection took 4 days to get activated
- My Dell laptop has been delayed indefinitely
- My Quad was changed yet again, when i reached ISB on 12th.
- I was booked for jumping the unseen red light on 12th, when i was bringing my bike to ISB.

There has been an enormous amount of information overload. Did somebody say that 1 year MBA was too fast paced !!!!!

More later. ciao

Hyderabad, Here I come

2008-04-10T16:10:00.000+05:30

Here comes my 100th post, just before I leave for Hyderabad tomorrow morning. I will be boarding the train and AM will join me from Bhopal (AM was a senior of mine in IIT M). I cant believe that I have already spent a week at home, the week passed by in a flash. Now I wish I had put down my papers a little early, but it was the lure of filthy lucre that enticed me.

- Last day before leaving for Hyderabad and I am all geared up for ISB. No more IIM vs ISB dilemma (99.9% sure). So next 1 year I will be staying in SV1 (hopefully, since my room has already been changed 3 times). Another packing ordeal is staring me in the face, I already have a HUUGE suitcase and 2 bags. I am a light traveler and these pieces of luggage are giving me a headache. I know i will come back atleast once before the winter strikes, hence I am leaving the warm clothes behind.

- Having spent last 6 days as a full time child care executive of my infant nephew Nonu, I have learnt a few techniques to entertain him. The best one is the handkerchief/bib technique. When the handkerchief/bib is placed on his face, his excitement level reaches the zenith. As a result of that, he extends his arms in the air and moves his legs in a synchronous manner as if he was cycling/running. His arms and legs move furiously and in a synchronous manner. I am sure that if child cycling was an Olympic sport, Nonu would have got some medal for the country at Beijing Olympics. I wonder what will happen when he learns to stand on his own. And then there is the newspaper technique too.

- I just hope that everything passes off peacefully, the SBI Loan thing has been quite jittery, with all the crap stuff going on. And ISB keeps shuttling me around. Looks like they want to keep me on the move and prevent any planning, did somebody leak the idea about the "Tunnel" Project?

- Status-quo still maintained on To-Do list, I have to learn to avoid procrastination :(. However the DD for laptop and Med Insurance are ready, other things are still pending. My Bike has reached Hyderabad safely, I will have to fetch it from my friend's house.

New Life, New people

2008-04-06T18:52:00.003+05:30

Life is going through a hell of a change. I quit my job, got relieved and left the "City of Joy" forever. That city gave me a lot and apparently took something from me too. But Life is going to change permanently and for the better. As somebody had said, its 4 days to blast-off. Time is flying past and I cant help but watch by the sidelines.

Jobless life has not hit me yet, but I guess it will sink in only on 30th April (when there wont be any more increase in the bank balance). So I have been recruited as a full time child care person. These days I am totally dedicated to the service of my nephew Nonu, who happens to be at my place for a couple of weeks. Hence Life has been on a different plane altogether. It has been more of lactogen and cerelac, far away from the world of ISB and MBA. That hardly leaves anytime for surfing and doing some thinking.

Now that my earlier To-Do list (for leaving kolkata) has been eliminated, another To-Do list is being drawn up. And believe me, this one is worse than the earlier. To many things to be done, just too many :(. Hey Bhagwaan Madad Karo :(

P.S
I have to somehow wrap up this loan ordeal. It seems another affidavit has appeared now :( Crap

Last Day, Last Show - Bye Bye PwC`

2008-04-03T01:47:00.001+05:30

Today was my last working day and I got "relieved" off all my duties from PwC. So I have become an alum of PwC. The day started early. I reached office at 8:30 AM, well before time. Started clearing my desk and my drawers. Couldn't believe that I had so much of junk in my cub board. Anyway, most of it found its way to the shredder. Went to Accounts Department and got the clearance form signed. Then, it were few courtesy calls and courtesy visits. There was a luncheon party. I returned my access card and Business cards. Gave back my credit card. Returned the laptop and the data card. And finally got the relieving letter and the experience letter. And said Goodbye to everyone. That was the last day in a nutshell. It was a smooth sailing for me, no hassles and no impediments. And for the record, HR GUYS ARE NICE. I had some apprehensions, but fortunately I was proved wrong. Blame it on other people who had fed me stories of diabolical HR guys.

I sent the Goodbye email to all and got some very touching responses. Few of them were flattering and humbling. Thank you guys. I gave a farewell party, RD helped me to arrange that. Gave a speech and got some frank comments from many people. RN was in a meeting, but she same out when I had sent a message to her. I wanted to say goodbye before leaving. Called my ex-boss DD, he was back in India. I met him too. He was happy to see me and so was I. We had a great discussion and as usual, he had some great and useful fundaes for me. Most important of them were "Be positive" and "Think Ahead and Think Big". Thanks DD.

Met the ISB Kolkata gang in the evening. It was the last meet before the D day next week. The meet lived up to the expectations, the banter never dies down. My flat mate sent a SOS, he was shopping nearby and I had to help him out. Finally had dinner with SA at "Kaafila". Came back and saw that my housing has been changed. I have got the last room in the entire Student village. Now, that's a disappointment. That was the final day of my first phase of professional life.

P.S
- Thanks to DD, you have a big hand behind my success
- Thanks to RD for arranging such a memorable Farewell party and special thanks for such thoughtful gifts.
- I will miss the MBS team. Thank you guys for making it an enjoyable experience. Incase you are reading this, please leave a message

Mid night Ramblings

2008-04-02T01:45:00.005+05:30

- ISB has announced Housing Allotment on campus. I am excited, got a room in SV3 i.e. Student Village 3. So its finally sinking-in. Since the Room Number was highly esoteric, several theories were floated to decipher the code. I floated the 1234 Theory, according to which, Room Numbers 1,2, 3 and 4 are going to be quad-mates. This theory was widely accepted, until somebody told me that there are few studio apartments in the middle of the numbering. So my 1234 theory goes for a toss. Phew, got a royal rebuff from R, never mind it was not directed at me as some guys pointed it out later. One of my quad mates is going to be A, quite a lively chap I have heard. NM and NR are going to be in my SV, I don't know whether thats good or bad. But I am sure of one thing, I am in for philo-heavy and Fin-heavy sessions :(. And My Kolkata Gang has been disbanded totally, everybody is in different SV :(

- Today is my last day in PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Have to run from one place to another to get the exit formalities done. First time for me, so I am a little anxious. Will inquire about the bonus fiasco too. Keeping my fingers crossed, Hey Bhagwaan Madad karo

- Planning to go out for the "last supper" with my flat mate SA today. I will miss Kolkata and the City Center, its simply marvelous.

- Sent my bike through Movers and Packers, a big worry off my back.

- Taken the backup from the office laptop, I have to return it today :(. After getting some motivation from M, I finally managed to strike out the entire To-Do list (A day in advance, now thats an achievement)

Interview for IIM Bangalore

2008-04-01T20:08:00.004+05:30

I had the last of the IIM interviews today. So I am done with them and I am happy to say that it ended on a good note for me. Since I hold IIM Bangalore in high esteem so I am going to give a detailed version here. Dont get bored.

The venue was the same as IIM A interview, The Kenilworth Hotel. I had reached the venue before time (for the first time), so I had ample time to tie the knot of my tie. The case discussion started at sharp 9 AM.

GD
It was a case discussion on a Burger Company. The Burger company claims that it makes healthy burgers, which are different from their competitors. The company has captured a large chunk of the market. The Burger company CEO used to appear in ad campaigns and used to swear by the Burgers. The CEO suffers a heart attack and dies. He had actually led a stressful lifestyle coupled with booze, fag, etc etc. Now the Brother of the deceased CEO wants the Short term, Medium Term and Long Term Strategy to do damage control.

I jumped the gun, didnt know that the panelists were going to signal us to start. Anyway, the GD was great for me, I brought out several good points. Had a sudden brainwave and linked it to the Pepsi and Coke pesticide episode and the way they had handled it. Overall it was great, only negative was the we ran out of time before summarizing.

Interview
I was the first one to be called inside the room. There were two panelist (P1 and P2)
Blooper: My cell rang in the middle of the interview :( I had switched it off, dont know how it got switched on again. :(

P2: How long have you been working
I: 30 months sir

P2: do you think that you are being paid well for your job.
I: sir my salary has more than doubled, since the time I had joined and I think that I am being paid well. Its more about exposure rather than salary

P2: What type of assignments do you do
I: Blah blah blah

P2: So do you operate in SME Environment
I: yes sir

P2: How do you recommend the ERP to the clients
I: Blah blah blah

P1: Why didnt you take up an engineering job
I: I was inclined towards consulting and management

P1: So you want to open up your own firm
I: Yes sir eventually

my cell phone rings :( and I am embarrassed and switch it off. I apologize to the panel

P1: So Mr Awasthi, you seem to be a busy person
I: No Sir not at all

P1: That means you sit idle in the office haha (they are in splits now)
I manage to display a Colgate smile

P1: What was your rank in the IIT Madras
I: Blah Blah

P1: Why didn't you go for PhD
I: I wanted to stay in India, and I was not interested in research

P1: When did you realize that you are interested in Management, Did you have a divine enlightenment just like Lord Buddha haha(both of them are in splits again)
I: trying to laugh Sir I had taken Finance as my minor and at that time I felt I could perform better in those subjects.

P1: What is Cost of capital
I: Blah blah

P1: Is Cash always debit (positive)
I: yes

P1: Give an example of a credit entry
I: blah blah

P1: Why is balance sheet "as on date" and P&L "for the period from XXXX to YYYY"
I: Blah blah

P1: One of your recommender has written that you have good client handling skills, give an example
I: Blah Blah

P2: Was this the first time you sat for CAT
I: No sir

P2: What was different this time
I: Sir I had written GMAT earlier this year and that proved to be a great morale booster.

P2: So you must have applied for US B Schools and ISB
I: yes sir

P2: What happened
I: I have got a final admission offer from ISB (At that point of time I thought in a flash, that I will be myself and hold my forte)

P1: Then why are you going for IIMs, you have got an ISB Offer
I: Sir, I feel a 1 year course will be too fast paced and a 2 year course will allow me to estimate myself. It will give me greater opportunity to explore the studies and equip me with the knowledge for the next 30 years

P1 & P2: hahahaha (was that funny??)

P1: Whats the fees for ISB
I: 15L + 1.26L

P2: Whats the fees for IIM B
I: 4L + 5L

P2: You are an engineer and you can do the calculation yourself
I: Sir, I am not looking at cost right now, for me knowledge is more important. cost will be recovered sooner or later. this is my last degree and I want it to be "wholesome"

P2: Can you get back to school after such a long break
I: Yes sir, blah blah blah (what was this question about!!!!)

P1: Thanks, it was nice interacting with you
I: Trust me, the pleasure was entirely mine (murmured to myself)

Overall the interview was good. I can rate it as the best one till now. Somehow in the middle of the interview, I had decided that I will be myself. So I had put up a frank and open display.

So its curtains for the CAT endeavors for me. The CAT journey ends here and on a successful note. I am happy with my performance and looking forward to ISB.

In Dino Dil mera, mujhse hai kah raha....

2008-03-29T21:37:00.005+05:30

I just love this song.

in dino, dil mera, mujhse hai keh raha
tu khwaab saja, tu ji le jara
hai tujhe di izaazat, karle tu bhi muhabbat

berang si hai badi zindagi kuchh rang to bharoon
main apni tanahaayi ke waaste abb kuchh toh karoon
jab mile thodi fursat, mujhse karle muhabbat
hai tujhe di izaazat, karle tu bhi muhabbat

- My wayward mind went on an unexpected trip down the memory lane. Roughly 3 years back, I was vacating the hostel. I remember that I had come to IIT as a dumb kid from a small town. I had heard scary stories about ragging and the barbaric Seniors, and my blood would freeze at the thought of the hostel. When my father went away after the registration, I was afraid to go to the wing. I knew very well that the blood thirsty Vampires (Seniors) would be waiting for me. But to my utter surprise, I found some very friendly Seniors who allayed my fears and provided me a comfortable transition to the hostel life. Life was a roller coaster ride for the next four years. I had met some amazing guys, made life lasting friendships and matured from a dumb kid to a street smart guy :). Its not possible to pen down the thoughts about the time spent there. Only thing I can say is

Saath Humara 4 saal Ka Sahi,
Par Woh saal Aise, Jaise Koi Kal Nahi
Rahe Zindagi Mein Shayad Phir Milna Humaara
Par Mehekti Rahengi Tumhari Yaadein Humare Sang Sahi

- I was watching a movie today, when I felt a sudden urge to visit Ladakh. Then i realized that the last time I had taken a proper vacation was 2 years back. I had gone to Sikkim with a group of friends. Since then, the Life has been on a fast lane. It has been like If I am taking a vacation, I had rather go home. So Whatever vacations I had taken every couple of months I had gone to Jhansi. But tamanna abhi bhi baaki hai doston...

- I got an e-mail last evening that the Annual Performance Bonus has been deferred by a month. It was a bolt from the blue. I had extended my stay in the company so that I will get the bonus. But that mail shattered me. I had made some grand plans and my cash-flow was totally ruined. It meant a loss of 60K - 90K in a flash. My ex-boss DD pointed out, "Thats what is called Actuals vs Forecasted Cash flow, you had counted your chickens well before they had hatched". Rightly said. But that has hit me hard. I am going to face a severe cash crunch in the coming months. There wont be anymore debits in my salary account for an year :( . I had thought that I will manage on my own throughout the year. But it seems that I will have to depend on my father & my PF to sustain me through the year :(. Damn it !!!!! :(
So how am I going to celebrate the loss of potential earnings? DC had brought Johnnie Walker from Dubai, thats still in the fridge. This is the last weekend with my flat mate SA, hence its time to say cheers.

P.S.
I had expected Indian team to put up an aggressive display, but it seems expectations from the team are running high these days.

Countdown

2008-03-26T20:06:00.002+05:30

- My target is to reach the 100 posts before I go into a self imposed exile in April. I hope to reach the target well on time.

- I got an email for the interview from Fuqua School of Business (Duke), but i conveniently ignored it. Don't want to get involved in too many things. ISB it is for me, so no more distractions.

- Last few days in office and with each passing day, I find it extremely difficult to go to the office. If it was not for lunch, I would have stayed at home and slept throughout the day. The countdown begins, last day is supposed to be in next week.

- I feel very guilty because I used to take pride in calling myself a thorough professional. But when colleagues ask for my inputs on various things, I express inability and unwillingness to help them out. Blame it on the laziness creeping in slowly and steadily.

- I wanted to buy a pair of floaters, but ended up splurging much more than planned on other unnecessary clothes today. Anyways, this was the last binge before I end up jobless and heavily in debt. Itna to chalta hai yaar.

- If you are an impulsive buyer like me, it helps to stay focussed when you go shopping. When you are done with your shopping don't loiter around, just move out. If you don't follow the aforementioned tips, you are bound to spend much more than planned.

- RACE was totaaal paisa wasool. Katrina rocks Maaan ;)

- My To-Do list is increasing by the day and I am procrastinating lots of things :( Hey Bhagwaan Bachao.

Its Maze Time

2008-03-24T21:31:00.001+05:30

- I read "Who Moved My Cheese" on the train from Jhansi to Kanpur. I had been waiting to read this book for a long time. Finally I was able to lay my hands on the book and it turned out to be a great read. I liked all the characters in the book especially the sentence "Nobody likes to be seen as Hem". I loved the question "What would you do if you weren't afraid?". I am going to recommend this book to everybody.

ITS MAZE TIME GUYS

- Some of my close colleagues and friends DC, VA and PD are going to leave for Sudan in a couple of days. We went and had lunch outside today, one of the last lunches together.

- Previously I used to ignore the mails in which I was marked as "cc". Nowadays I tend to ignore mails which are marked as "To".

- Trip to home was highly enjoyable, as always. I met all my cousins after a long long time. I had to chose between Nonu and my Cousins. But I chose meeting the cousins over meeting Nonu since I had a better offer, when I will go home in April I will have full 3 days with Nonu. So I chose 3 days over a couple of hours.

- Planning to go to Race with my flat mate DC tonight (he is leaving for Sudan tomorrow).

- This weekend a couple of ISB Co2009 meets are planned, lets see how are the rest of the guys. Till now, all of them have been great and sporty people.

Interview for IIM Ahmedabad

2008-03-18T20:31:00.000+05:30

When will it get over, I am fed up of all the interviews and the flak that i get in the interviews from the panel members. So add yet another average performance to the list of interviews till now. The location was good, The Kenilworth Hotel, and the setting was perfect for a royal session.

I reached the venue JIT. I had brought a tie, so i spent some time in tying the knot. I was wearing my lucky watch too :). Familiar faces yet again. My name was called and we entered the room. We were given an essay topic "Yoga: A fad". I wrote a pretty good essay on that and mentioned Baba Ramdev too ;). After the essay, we were told to sit outside. I was called inside the room after 20 minutes. There were three panelists P1, P2 and P3 and I was also there too. Since this was Ahmedabad interview, I will make it a big blog, You never get interviewed with IIM A everyday.

P1: Please take your seat and give me the certificates
I: Thank you Sir

P2: How many people were reporting to you
I: two

P2: how did they report to you
I: there was no formal way of reporting, I was leading the team and they were junior colleagues.

P2: did you approve their leaves and expenses
I: No sir, that authority lies with the Principal Consultant

P2: So you were not doing anything in the project
I: I was managing the project and the team

P3: What Project Management Methodology did you use
I: None sir, the timelines of the project was tight and I was at a remote location, hence could not use any Project Management tool

P1: What was the background of your team, must be all engineers?
I: No Sir, there were MBAs, CAs and Engineers

P1: You didn't use any learning from the course "Principles of management
I: Sir that was a theoretical course and the concepts taught in that course were difficult to apply in a practical scenario

P1: That means whatever we will teach will be irrelevant
I: I knew this will be the next question, I don't remember the answer

P1: So what is the application of Chemical Engineering in your current job
I: Sir its all transfer of learning and blah blah blah( totally incoherent answer )

P1: So tomorrow we will teach you finance, what is the guarantee that you won't take up a chemical engineering job
I: If Chemical Engineering job interests me then i will take it up

P1: What were your favorite Engineering subjects in IIT
I: (Thinking hard to remember) Transport Phenomena

P2: second fav
I: (thinking extremely hard) Thermodynamics

P1: third fav
I: (bhai ab jaan loge kya, thinking thinking thinking) Chemical Processes

P1: How is Urea Manufactured
I: Sir I can not recall

P1: You didnt revise before coming
I: Sir I dont have the books

P2: You have the hostel T Shirt
I: Yes sir

P2: You have the IIT T Shirt
I: Yes sir (I know where this is leading)

P2: If you can keep all the IIT memorabilia, why didnt you keep the course books
I: (kill me, kill me, jaan le lo meri) Sir I didnt buy the books, I used the library

P2: You can invest in life style but not in knowledge, whats with this generation these days.
I: (dude i am taking a 15L loan for my education, ) smiled like a fool

P3: Tell us about portfolio management
I: Blabbered something

P3: Whats CAPM Model
I: Sir I can not recall that

P1: He did not carry his books when he left his hostel, he was busy packing his T Shirt, (everybody has a hearty laugh)
I: totally stumped, clean bowled, I also laugh, there was no other option

P1: It was nice interacting with you, you can pick a candy and leave
I: (was that an interaction)Thank you sir

P.S
1) No idea what to make out of this interview. There were other questions too which i was able to answer, but i can not recall the questions. Well, time to go home so I am excited. I had thought that attending the interviews will be a morale booster for me. But it turned out that they have dented my morale. Nevertheless, karma karna manushya ke haath mei hai, baaki sab upar waale ke haath mei hai. Jai Hind.

2) Words of Wisdom: Success made me a boy, failure made me a man :)

My expectations from the Post Graduate Program in Management

2008-03-15T23:32:00.002+05:30

I had always wanted to do a MBA since the time I can remember. However I can not recall the reasons why I wanted to do MBA. I never wanted to become an Engineer, thats for sure I can say. But as fate would have it, I had to become an Engineer :(. Now the time has come to realize the dream. The reasons behind my desire have progressed from naive reasons like money to more mature reasons like enhancing skill sets.

People expect the MBA guy to be an intellectual person having a philosophical bent of mind. I ain't no intellectual and I don't have any schooling in philosophy. However, here are my expectations from the Post Graduate Program in Management. Perhaps I will revisit this page after an year (or two ;) ) and evaluate whether I have met my expectations or exceeded them.
- I want to learn better Time Management
- I want to learn different management concepts
- I want to brush up my Accounting and Costing concepts
- I want to re-learn Finance
- I want to learn different business functions like marketing, strategy etc
- I want to learn about business plans
- I want to take part in different competitions
- I want to benchmark myself against other distinguished peers
- I want to hone my leadership and team skills
- I want to replenish the stagnant Friends-bank
- I want to pick up management jargon
- I want to become 10% intellectual
- I want to build a good network of friends and acquaintances and LAST but not the LEAST
- I want to land a plum job. (Come on I have to repay the loan :D)

P.S this list might/will be edited and updated at an opportune time

Interview for IIM Calcutta

2008-03-14T20:26:00.005+05:30

Yet another interview and yet another average performance. I feel that ISB has sucked up all my enthusiasm and energy. Anyway, the day started early yet again. I dread the early mornings these days. I reached the center on time and sat inside the room. Saw some familiar faces from earlier interviews.

GD was a case study, there were 10 candidates in the panel and it was dominated by 7 members from IIT Kgp. The case study was on a photo-copy manufacturer's dilemma on whether to invest in R&D or continue with the current product. I felt out of place and out of focus. I managed a little less than decent airtime, primarily because some IIT Kgp guys indulged in grouping tactics. Anyway, everybody was asked to summarize in the end.

After waiting for more than 2 hours, I was called inside the room for the interview. There were three members in the panel including a lady professor. Here is the summary of the questions that were asked:

- So you are working in XXXX, how did you get a job there
- When did you get promoted
- How many years will it take for you to reach the top of the ladder
- What type of work are you doing
- Why do you want to do MBA, since you are already working in a good company
- Why did you forget to bring the call letter
- Why are you so careless
- Do you support Kolkata Knight Riders
- Why do you support Mumbai Indians
- IS Sachin a good leader
- Why are you not supporting Chennai Team
- What were the reasons for India's success down-under
- Can you guess the remuneration of current Cricket coach (Have I applied for the job of a Coach in Indian Cricket Team !!!!)
- Why didn't you get selected in earlier years
- What was different this year
- Do you think CAT is the good management aptitude test
- How can it be improved
- Isn't it more of an elimination rather than selection
- How much did you score
- What are your other calls
- Whats ur Verbal score
- Do you Smoke
- Do you drink
- Do you drive
- Do you drink and drive
- Will your family be able to support you for the MBA
- Are you doing MBA because of societal pressure
- You appeared out of place during the GD
- What is the application of Chemical Engineering in your current job
- What is your favorite past time

Over all, it was average interview. I have no idea, how I could have performed better in such an unstructured interview. I admit I was out of place and out of focus during the interview. I will try to bring my focus back in the remaining interviews.

P.S.
I met Patti after the interview. He was satisfied with his 2 years at IIM C, he has finally accepted the PPO from ML. However I got the inside story and some interesting snippets about placements at IIMs this year. Apparently the picture was not that rosy as it is being painted in the newspapers. Today is his last day in Kolkata, he is leaving tomorrow morning. Dude we will meet in some corner of the world, World is a small place after all.

Mom & Pop vs Supermarkets

2008-03-11T22:08:00.001+05:30

I visited my friendly neighborhood panwaala, Ashok, after a long time today. I was just getting pally with him. He inquired about my absence, "Long time no see bhaiya", I told him that I had been using my stock for sometime. I observed that:

He knows the choice of his customers and the moment they come, he digs out their brand in a flash.
He is an enterprising person and always greet me with a smile.
He is benevolent enough to give me loose change whenever I need them.
He is open from 6 AM to 11 PM.
He is diversifying, he stocks up groceries, water cans, ready to eat, phone booth and other sundry things.
He gives credit to lots of his customers.
He knows most of his customers by name and address.

That made me ponder over the onslaught of supermarkets and hypermarkets on these Mom and Pop stores (hereafter referred as M&P) that dot the Indian landscape. No doubt the ripple effects are being felt by these small unbranded grocery and retail outlets, but these M&P stores might just have an ace up their sleeves.

M&P have few advantages over the multi million square feet retail chains. M&P know their clientèle and their preferences. M&P know their terrain and have deep penetration. M&P can improvise upon and provide customized service (for example door to door delivery) to their clients. I remember having a chat with a senior client member, he pointed out that his wife still likes to buy fresh vegetables from the sabziwala who comes every morning. He reasoned out, that his sabziwala knows how much quantity is consumed and which vegetables are preferred by his family. That sums up the advantage that M&P might be having.

In India unorganized retail still accounts for over 90 percent of the retail market, but M&P are facing a constant and increased threat from organized retail chains. These retail chains bank on the seamless supply chain that they have built and also on the economies of scale. Till now Organized retail has appealed premium and high end customers. But it wont be long before no-frills retails chains on the lines of Subhiksha and others give M&P a tough fight for the turf.

But Ashok is unfazed, he knows that market is big enough for everybody to survive and innovation will be the key to the survival of M&P in the times to come.

P.S I want to post this on the ISB Co2009 Blog, but I am wary of getting mauled and lynched by the experts out there :)

Brunch Meeting - One Track meet :)

2008-03-09T19:56:00.004+05:30

We had decided to meet for brunch on a nice Sunday morning and sort out all issues related to Educational Loan. Ya it was yet another All Guys meet (Bad luck bachpan se hi kharaab hai). But it so happened that the loan issues were discussed for barely 10 minutes out of the 6 hour long meet. There were other "important" topics to be discussed and discussed they were in a threadbare and no holds barred manner :) . It was spontaneous and the guards were permanently lowered this time. No more "Hi, Prashant here, Hi Harsh, Hi Aditya, Hi Rishi, etc", "Nice meeting you", "Lovely Sunday Morning". Junta were more open and more frank. There were endless bouts of leg pulling and friendly banter. The ice had been broken and there were no more posing or sophisticated talk. My apprehensions had vanished, I had long worried about the culture at ISB. I was having sleepless nights thinking about the peer pressure at ISB, the studious and focussed people coming there. I used to think that I will feel left out in the midst of these serious and studious people. But all my doubts and apprehensions were laid to rest. We all gelled seamlessly, there was no talk about studies and ya all the discussions were "one track" discussions. It was a great relief to me. Now I am sure that ISB will be much more about studies :)

ND put up a guest appearance. RRK, AH and HVP are involved in big time movie swapping deal. They are planning to start a clandestine DVD rental service at ISB. Perhaps they will bundle their offering with other interesting stuff too. VG had come all the way from Chennai and he also contributed some creative ideas to the interesting discussions. VG had an innovative business plan of "constructing a tunnel between ISB and ICFAI". Apparently he has done enough research on the reasons behind this tunnel (He is into equity research). I have volunteered to be the joint-collaborator for this business plan. But I need to maintain a low profile from now on, as my reputation has taken a severe beating after today's meet. I run the risk of being labeled as a de$&0 and being kept in a solitary confinement in ISB. I hope that the things that were discussed remain between us. Anyways, I had the blast of my life, after several months I was happy and we were rolling on the floor most of the time :). We were in splits over several leg pulling and jeering moments provided by RRK, AH, HVP, VG, RR, DD and of course me.

Later, RR regaled us with some interesting anecdotes about his merchant navy experience and his brush with the pirates. VG's innovative venture (tunnel between ISB and ICFAI) will attract VC funding and we plan to rope in few architects and electrical engineers too. Later we had discussed the idea of throwing the tunnel open to public and levy toll tax too :) . HVP and DD floated the idea of going to a movie next time. Thankfully HVP's water park idea was shot down :) and DD is a chupa rustam believe me ;)

P.S.
1) I seriously need to maintain a low profile from now on and work towards improving my reputation ;)
2) No need to even mention the cliched "diversity" of ISB and
3) I am convinced that ISB will be fun with a capital F.

Thought for the day

2008-03-06T21:04:00.003+05:30

I was talking to the oldest friend of mine M. We were discussing some very old memories of childhood and school. He recalled an urdu couplet that used to be the trademark of our Hindi teacher in school. it goes something like this:

Har kisi ko mukammal jahaan nahin milta
kisi ko zameen to kisi ko aasmaan nahin milta

I remembered this couplet very clearly, but its profound meaning sunk only when he recited it to me. I need to change my way of thinking and need to put certain things in perspective. Having been in the rat race since the time I can remember, I have stopped appreciating so many things in life. There are so many things for which I should be happy in life, but there are certain nagging thoughts which keep haunting me. I had read an article on "postponing happiness". I will write a blog on that some other time.

I believe I need to get out of this place and start afresh. Perhaps my thoughts will get a new vigour after I leave this place in less than a month's time.

Veni, Vidi, Vici

2008-03-04T23:48:00.000+05:30

They were bullied, humiliated, sledged, abused, cheated and written off. The Aussies media hounded Harbhajan and made him look like Michael Jackson (In Dhoni's words). But in the end, the Men in Blue first tamed and then slaughtered the Kangaroos. It was a tight slap on their face. Their tactics and strategies fell flat. Aussies had run out of tricks, they had tried out everything. They had targeted specific players, bullied them and abused them publicly. But the Indian Team decided to hit where it hurts the most i.e. on the cricket field. And hurt it did. Ricky Ponting's face was the pic of the day. Never before, he would have felt so much humiliation. MSD was dignity personified. I was thinking that the celebrations will be on the lines of "roars let out by Ponting after the Sydney test win". But it was subdued and dignified.

The icing on the cake was that the GOD had led from the front in both the finals. He was always accused of faltering at the altar. People never got tired of writing him off. But Sachin has redeemed himself by blasting the opposition in both the finals and setting the stage for a resounding victory. I idolize Sachin more as a person than as a cricketer. If there ever was a more dignified and humble person to walk on to the cricket field, it will be Sachin. He nudged out Ponting to take over the number 1 spot in the cricket rankings. Hats off to you.

I watched Taare Zameen Par

2008-03-03T23:36:00.005+05:30

WHAT A MOVIE.... I am brimming with emotions. I felt a sense of deja vu. No I am not dyslexic, but I have also been on the wrong side of the stick many times. I had studied in a Catholic school called "Christ The King College", where "Sisters", "Brothers" and "Fathers" knew only one way to discipline the kids. All those memories are rushing in. I have seen all kinds of sticks thin, thick, oiled, black, round :( Teachers in my school used to beat us with anything they could lay their hands on. Be it a duster, stick, hand, fist, ruler, and what not. Bahut dard hota tha seriously :((

Anyways, I will write another post on the movie. But it was an excellent movie. Aamir Khan deserves all the credit. He is a brilliant actor, starkly different than other commercial actors (read SRK and his coterie). BTW you can find the link to Aamir's blog on my blog list.

The week that was

2008-03-03T22:13:00.002+05:30

It was a week without parallels. During the last week, I woke up in a new city everyday. It was like this

Friday - Kolkata
Saturday - Delhi
Sunday - Jhansi
Monday - Kanpur and Lucknow
Tuesday - Kolkata
Wednesday - Mumbai
Thursday - Pune
Friday - Mumbai
Saturday - Kolkata

Last week I attended two interviews, met old friends, went home, met Nonu, gave client presentation, went to Pune (first time) and managed to miss a flight. It was an action packed week. I met NM at 1 AM in the night and we sat at Worli Sea-face :). (Don't try to dig deep here). It seems Mumbai changes every day. Its a city which lives life on a fast lane. Raj Thackeray didn't welcome me and was no where to be seen except on posters which were plastered through out Mumbai. Pune Expressway is awesome, you can drive at 120 kmph and dont have to apply brakes after every 5 minutes. Two wheelers are not allowed on this road, but the toll is little steep here. Next few weeks are going to be hectic with capital H. I have to apply for the loan, sell my bike, attend a couple of interviews, go home during holi, come back from home and then wrap up from Kolkata forever.

Interview for IIM Lucknow

2008-03-01T22:14:00.004+05:30

The venue for IIM L interview was the same old IIM C, a good 30 kms from my place. I hate that place, its damn too far. Especially when I had to get up at 7 AM yet again. After all that had transpired earlier this week, it was a pleasant ending to the turbulent week. In the morning when I was reading the form, i realized that I had not taken the printout of the salary slips. So I had to rush to office to take the printout, since the shops were closed at 8 in the morning. After "utilizing" the office resources, I rushed to the interview venue. As usual, some of the faces were familiar from earlier interviews. And the sight was familiar too, anxious parents, tensed candidates, several notes being flipped, phone calls being made, budget being analyzed and everybody adjusting their tie. I indulged in small chat with few people. I was very tired and just wanted to go back and sleep.

The GD started. We were given a topic to write a 500 word essay and the GD was supposed to be done on the same topic. The topic was something like this "habits and routines are destructive in nature". What a dull topic, I wrote whatever came to my mind, a very incoherent and unstructured essay. But there was no scope for editing, so i wrote whatever came to my mind. GD started. It was like a fish market, unlike other GDs for other IIMs. Everybody was speaking crap, there was no substance in the topic, even I was doing BS. Well, you can't blame anybody, the topic was like that.

Post GD, we all came out and indulged in animated discussions about the GD. After sometime the interview started. The theme of the interview turned out to be "accounting". The panel members had seen a course done by me "accounting principles". So they decided to pin me down. Here is the synopsis

- Why MBA? Don't give us the points which you have memorized
- What are the different roles that you have performed
- How come you performed so many roles in the project
- What did you learn in the accounting course
- Tell us something interesting about yourself
- What is the accounting entry for goods that are returned by the customer
- What happens when the cheque is dishonoured
- What happens when the TDS is deducted
- What are the different TDS types
- What is a cash flow statement
- How is Cash flow statement different in US and India
- What are the different Accounting Standards
- What is GAAP
- Who decides the GAAP in India
- What is current ratio
- What is the ideal Current Ratio
- You think you are better than a CA
- If there is a project for a Chemical Manufacturing company, do you think you will do a better job or a CA
- Whats ur percentile
- How many calls do you have
- Why do you want to join IIM L
- You may go now

Overall it was good, I was able to answer majority of the questions. I was lucky enough, since I was not asked any engineering related questions. The main difference was that I had substantially cut down the number of colgate smiles flashed and I had worn a tie today.

Missed the flight and Stranded now :((

2008-02-29T10:14:00.006+05:30

What a day and What a trip... I will never ever forget it. For the first time in my life I missed a flight. I guess I have made history today. I would be the only person to ever miss the flight even after reaching the airport 3 hours before the departure. Blame it on the early morning sudden "snooze". I can't imagine that I have missed the flight.

I was awake the whole night and didn't have any problem. Bindaaas boarding pass liya (clean 2 hours before the departure) Bindaass security check kiya ( again 2 hours before the departure) and then bindaas so gaya(slept) :(( . What a misery. I cant remember when exactly i slept off :(. I remember some announcements being made for Bangalore flight and nagpur flight, but I seem to have lost track and I was zoooming on the Pune expressway in my dreams. When I got up I got the rudest shock of my life. I looked at my watch and then rest is and will be history. Some of the ground staff could not hide their smirks, when I told them that i was sitting right on the front row and had dozed off :(. Why didn't they wake me up, Vijay Mallya prides himself in hospitality. yahi hai hospitality. So the end result, I am stranded here, missed the flight, made a fool of myself, got poorer by few thousands and still feeling sleepy. Damn these eyes.

I will remember this forver.
Time: 6:30 AM
Place: Mumbai Domestic airport, Terminal 1A, gate number 10, front row
State of mind: shocked, sad, angry, embarassed, blank and disbelief

Mom and Papa were sympathetic and blamed it on the stress (thank you), Didi tried to be sympathetic but ended up laughing, R could not hide his laughter and my boss swayed between disbelief and amusement. So total entertainment for everybody. I have booked another ticket at 1 PM and I am going to be the first person to board the aircraft today. I am sitting here and analyzing the reasons. But to be honest, I can't blame myself. I had slept for only 4 hours in the past 2 days. The past 2 days had been hectic with a capital H. I had taken a nap accidently and not intentionally. Ironically, I got a spam message from Vodafone labelled Astro, it read "kaisa hoga aaj aapka din, kya aapko promotion milega, blah blah blah". What a coincidence I must say.

But I am trying to get over that guilt feeling by giving a grand feast to my eyes, afterall eyes deserve some rest too :)

The story of cooks and spoilt broth :)

2008-02-29T04:31:00.002+05:30

The meeting, with the client in Pune, went off well. Due to some fine strokes by MR in the end, some honor was salvaged in the end. But it had stretched way beyond the normal time. It got over at 10 PM, we had dinner and left Pune by 11:30 PM. What a day it had been, hectic, hectic, tiring, boring, irritating and what not. Last night I had met NM at 1 AM in the night (But right now I don’t want to write about that). So we “celebrated” the “successful” conclusion of the meeting and presentation, by saying Cheers. I reached Mumbai at 2:30 AM, I was debating what to do. Whether I should head away straight to the airport or catch 2 hours of sleep and head later. But I knew that if I crash now, I wont be able to get up. So I picked my luggage and with sleep laden eyes came to the airport. I am feeling hungry and sleepy. I have had less than 4 hours of sleep during the last 48 hours and less than 2 meals in a day. Anyways, I was thinking about the meeting and the presentation and what went wrong with that.

These are some of the observations which I made today during the meeting/presentation.
• Have a detailed briefing about the role of each person during the meeting/presentation
• Act in a mature and professional manner
• Avoid awkward movement of limbs (both arms and legs)
• Don’t speak out of turn, let the other person complete the sentence
• Listen to the question before jumping the gun
• Whenever in doubt, confer, don’t shoot from the hip
• Don’t panic if things are not going well, maintain a cool disposition
• Keep the team as small as possible and minimize the number of presenters and speakers
• Don’t argue with the client
• NEVER contradict your team mates and finally
• Colgate smiles do help a lot and
• Having ladies in the team always help :)

I know that whatever I have written are just basics and even a child would tell you that. But I wonder why grown-ups don’t remember these points and make the same mistakes again and again.

Interview for IIM Indore

2008-02-27T22:05:00.002+05:30

I had planned to appear for this interview by hook or by crook. So it meant manipulating the colleagues at Mumbai and Pune, manipulating my boss, and manipulating my flat mate. So I convinced R and others that I have some "personal" work during the first half of the day, hence I will be able to make it to Mumbai only by Wednesday evening. My Boss knew about my "personal" work, but he has been extremely supportive till now and I am highly obliged.

So I got up early for the fourth time in the row this week and made it to the venue 15 minutes before the scheduled start. Some of the faces were familiar (from IIM K interview). I was the only one not wearing a Tie (I am cool :), what say).

GD started with 7 participants. It was a case study and the theme was ethics and morals etc. If somebody has watched "Scent of a woman", will be familiar with the dilemma faced by George (I dont remember the name of the person)What a speech it was by Al Pacino. Anyways, the topic was cool and I managed a pretty good airtime in the GD. After the GD was over, we waited for the interview to begin. I was debating whether to talk to the panel and request them to take my interview early, since I had to leave for Mumbai. But by that time I was called in the room.

Here is how it went
- Tell us about your extra curricular involvement
- What are the different Principles of management
- What is budgetory control.
- What is Fixed Cost
- What is a balance Sheet
- Golden rules of accounting
- What type of a leader are you
- What do you do when there are free riders in your team
- IIT and IIM, do you think that brand matters
- What are directive principles of state policy
- How many judges are there in Supreme Court
- Why MBA
- Which organ of our body filters blood
- Which rivers are getting interlinked between UP and MP
- Why are u not wearing a tie
- Rail budget
- From Chemical Engineering to Consulting, explain.
- Is Lalu responsible for Railways turnaround
- Controversy about Raj Thackeray

Overall, It was good and I managed to answer a decent number of questions. But I need to cut down on my colgate smile :) . Thankfully, they didn't screw me on Engineering related questions.

So here I am sitting in the XXX's Office and writing a Blog and waiting for SB to join in. Apparently he is stuck in the jam. This city surely never sleeps, its already 2200 hours and he is going to make it to the meeting. I am already too tired due to a very hectic day, I want to sleep and eat something too :(. Tomorrow early morning I have to go to Pune too :(((

Yet another trip to home

2008-02-24T19:54:00.004+05:30

Finally I was able to make it to home. Friday was a day to remember. Few conference calls were there and my cut-off time at the office was 4pm. I had reminded my colleage R from Bombay that I have to leave office by 4 PM. And it was duly communicated to all the participants in the call from Pune and Chennai. However despite repeated reminders that I need to push off, they had several “important” points to discuss. I was held up at the office, dashed back to home, picked up my luggage and I had hit the road in 15 minutes flat. As luck would have it, I was caught in the traffic Jam. God Bless the WB government for still plying the trams. I got out of the cab and boarded the Tram and then got down and took another cab. However I was able to make it Just in time yet again. My friend DC said that he is expecting to see my experience on my blog. So here it goes.

The journey was interesting. I had a very enlightening conversation with the gentleman sitting next to me. He was a GM in some PSU and was returning from some seminar in Kolkata. Here is how it went

Uncle (U): Are you studying?
Myself (M): Blushing, No Uncle I am working

U: So where do u work?
M: PricewaterhouseCoopers

U: WHAT !!!, is that a state government or a central government?
M: No, it’s a private firm.

U: Never heard of it, must be some local company
M: silent

U: SO what do you do, what does your company manufacture?
M: I am a consultant and my company indulges in advisory practice.

U: What type of consultancy do u give? You don’t even have any experience to advise anybody
M: stumped, mumbled some arbit explanation

U: Which college did u study in?
M: XXX college

U: didn’t you get a job in a government company?
M: No uncle

U: Has your company given u an apartment?
M: No uncle

U: Car?
M: No uncle

U: My son has done his BTech from YYY College and he is in USA.
M: thats great uncle

U: what’s your salary?
M: (is uncle looking for a match for his daughter) XXXXX

U: not bad, but its no match for the government sector.
M Uncle you are absolutely right, but I can’t help it.

U: you should switch to government job
M: yes I am desperately looking for it.

U: U look like a good boy (He had glanced a look at the cigarette packet), you should not smoke.
M: I AM A GOOD Boy.

And then I just ignored his queries and immersed myself in a book “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”.
U: So you also want to get rich
M: silent, didn’t know whether that was a question or a remark.

I just turned away and feigned that I was reading the book. But what’s with the people these days. Why are they so @#$@#$@#$$%%^%@#

Anyways, I met my friend yesterday and today too. Felt Good. We sat alone in the room, didn’t talk much. But I felt that silence communicates much more than words sometimes. He knew that I will visit him and I felt better that I was able to make it. He has to take some tough decisions in the days to come and I am sure that he will be able to triumph in the end. I will write an exclusive blog on him and our friendship one day. A couple of friends, working in Delhi, had come down too. We sat down and discussed out lives, jobs, career and some gossip .

Indian top order disappointed yet again with the bat. I had got up early to watch the match and despite getting scolded by Mom a couple of times, I still showed faith in the Indian team. But I had to switch off the TV since the atmosphere in the house was heating up.hehe. But life at home means endless eating, endless lectures (about my lifestyle), endless visitors, endless namastes, endless pampering, no caffeine, no nicotene and endless sleep.

I am loving it.

To Each His Own

2008-02-21T21:32:00.005+05:30

These days I meet two types of people and get two types of reactions when I tell them that I will be joining ISB.
Set 1
Great yaar, congratulations, awesome news, a very smart career move, ISB is a great institution, value for money, excellent Return on Investment etc etc

Set 2
Great yaar, congratulations, awesome news, But its too expensive, How will you manage the loan, why don't you think it over, Don't take a hasty decision, etc etc

When I started taking up leadership roles in a team consisting of Senior Colleagues, peers and junior Colleagues, I had learnt one thing "Middle Path". So I have learnt to agree with everybody and appreciate their views but doing what I feel like. So I DO agree with both the school of thoughts and understand that both of them might be right in their own place.

But it was not long ago when I had decided that money is not the only thing in life and we should always take a long term view of the career. As NM would like to put it, "We should take a 30 year view of the career". Its true that everybody evaluates your decision with the immediate results, but I would like to have a long term perspective of my career.

It is always the best time to get a management degree and it is coming at a perfect time for me. I had felt that my career graph had entered a plateau region. I knew that I will get the same roles over and over again. There were certain exclusive and niche roles that were reserved for MBAs. When I used to be introduced to the client, I had to bluff the client. I knew that not having a management degree was a serious handicap for me. Well there are several points I have for "Why MBA" and "Why ISB", but I don't need to convince anybody. If I am convinced and few other important people are convinced, thats it. Its done.

Anyways tomorrow I am going home and I might just take a sneak peak at Nonu :D

Totally Messed Up !!!

2008-02-20T20:05:00.003+05:30

Yes thats my present state of mind. I have gone crazy to the extent that I threw my cell phone in frustration and anger. If only I had the laptop in my hand...Whats going on, I say, Is there anything called "planning"? Don't people have "personal" lives too? Are we slaves? don't we have personal engagements? What are we running after? What do we want to achieve in this mad rat race?

These are few questions which i am pondering over. The background: One of my best friend was bereaved, so I had decided to pay him a visit and be by his side, perhaps he needs me. I haven't yet talked to him after that incident, I don't have the guts to talk to him. But I had to abort my plan due to some professional commitment. I was scheduled to travel to Bombay and then to Pune on Monday. So I got my return ticket canceled and planned to take the Delhi-Bombay route and hence booked the Jhansi-Delhi train ticket. Then the colleague from Bombay (R) told me that the plan has been changed and now the meeting is on Sunday. Ok, I was still cool and took it in my stride. I said fine, I abort my home trip and get all the tickets canceled. The entire thing happened yesterday. I was fuming, but still in control.

Today morning, I again got a call from R, I was told that the client has some other engagements and hence the Sunday plan stands canceled. Instead the meeting will be held on Monday and Tuesday. I knew that the Pune airport has been closed due to some runway renovation going on. hence i wont be able to catch a Pune-Kolkata flight and therefore I will miss my IIM Indore interview. I said fine, no problem, I am ready to do that. In that case, I can plan to go home and visit my friend this weekend. So I fell into the trap and booked my tickets again. R called me again after sometime and told me that the plan has been slightly changed and instead of Monday, the meeting will be held on Tuesday. I took a deep breath, but I was still in control. I still put up a cheerful expression and reminded him that I do have other plans and he was totally aware of that. But it was still ok as I didn't need to change my tickets. I informed my boss and he was also angry at R for changing the plan after every hour. The final straw came when my boss told me that the R had called him and told him that the client has still not confirmed. So the final position was that the meeting could be held either on Monday or Thursday. R didn't call me and didn't tell me personally. I knew the reason very well.

That was it. I lost my cool, I called up R on his cell. He didn't pick up my phone. I dialed his board number. He picked up the phone. R was very apologetic about the entire state of affairs. I lost my cool and I shouted at him (I felt very bad later and apologized too).

Later in the day P, a colleague from Bangalore, called me up. He told me that he was blessed with a baby boy yesterday. I congratulated him, gave him my wishes and inquired where he was. P told me that he was in office. I asked him, why didn't he take any leave, he replied that his boss didn't allow that. I had no words. I didn't want to say anything else. I wished him luck and hung up.

What's going on here. Are we becoming slaves? Are we working for money? Have we pawned ourselves? Don't we all have personal lives? How long will this last? What repercussions will this have on our lives? Where will it lead us to?

BTW a colleague remarked while I was leaving, "They are going to miss you, when you are gone". I was flattered :D. My entire frustration vanished in a flash. But i told him that "organizations are always bigger than individuals" and I have seen "how big a small organization can be and how small a big organization can be".
Words of Wisdom eh !!!

Aamchi Mumbai - not anymore

2008-02-16T17:22:00.003+05:30

This Blog marks my 75th post. Phew, what a journey it has been. I had started way back in 2005 when I was in my last semester at IIT. The life has been through crests and troughs, but it feels great when I look back and read the old blogs. I get an idea about the state of my mind at different times of my life. Well, this blog is dedicated to Raj Thackeray and Narendra Modi.

The trigger was an article on CNN IBN which said that strong regional undercurrent is taking shape in Bangalore too. Well if events during the past few weeks in Mumbai are an indicator, I am sure that something similar is waiting to happen in Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi and other metros of the country.

I have never stayed in Mumbai for a long period, I have mostly been in and out of Mumbai (erstwhile Bombay). But I have definitely read about the character of the city, the resilience it has shown time and again. Be it the serial blasts in 1993 or 2007, Mumbaikars (residents of Mumbai) have always risen to the occasion without batting an eyelid. But the regional/ linguistic comments by some self proclaimed leaders and the disturbances that followed, have forced many people to think. The fact that such blatantly regional rhetorics went uncensored by other political parties (for initial few days) is more appalling. What followed was a national shame. Whats even worse is that the state administration allowed it to spill over. The nonchalance and immaturity of the administration doesn't even deserve a mention. Our forefathers had dared to dream about a unified nation, they had dreamt about the country INDIA and not the states. Whenever I will sing the National Anthem I will always remember that there is something that has gone wrong.

Punjab Sindh Gujarat Maratha
Dravida Utkala Banga
Vindhya Himachal Yamuna Ganga
Ucchala Jaladhi Tiranga

Maybe but Not anymore.

But being an analytical person, I tried to go into the reasoning behind the sudden regional rhetoric that are finding favor with the politicians. Not long ago, Delhi CM Sheila Dixit had remarked that "everyday 668 new people come to Delhi". The sums up the problem which Big Cities in our country are facing. The infrastructure has been stretched to the extreme, the culture of the city is getting affected, crime is increasing and many more ill effects of huge migrant population. But that calls for some brainstorming and not slogan shouting. Given the myopic politicians that we have been blessed with, it doesn't require an IQ of 150 to foresee the aftereffects of the regional rhetorics of Raj Thackeray. Politicians in other states are going to adopt similar stance and play on the insecurity of the ignorant and vulnerable minds.

Lets just hope that the ever abstruse "better sense" prevails over our politicians and their audience.

My V Day

2008-02-14T19:55:00.000+05:30

This was my special V day.

0730 SMS from Vodafone asking me to dedicate songs to XXX by sending sms to XXXX: Promptly deleted and went back to deep slumber
0810 SMS from Vodafone asking me to take part in a special V Day contest... Deleted Again and back to sleep again
0830 My phone "beeps". It was not my valentine, rather a colleague from Bombay inquiring about the "proposal" that i was working on, I said "I am still working on that and will give him the updates when i reach office".
0835 I got up and saw my flat mate, getting ready and humming songs. Quite an enthusiastic chap I must say
0900 My flat mate emptied the entire can of deo. When I inquired about the "jeans and T Shirt" attire. He said that he is taking a chance by not wearing the formals today.
0915 He leaves the house and tells me that he will come late and wont have dinner today. These kids are totally spoilt I must say. This MTV generation is going to the dogs. Am I growing old :((
09:16 Some old memories try to raise their ugly heads, I suppress them all and block all my thoughts
1000 I reach office and get into the elevator at the basement, humming "O Billo raani, kaho to abhi jaan de doon"
1001 Elevator stops at ground floor and the Partner gets inside. Unaware of this, I am still humming the song. She says "Hi Prashant", I don't know what to say, after few awkward moments I reply with a sheepish grin "Morning".
1005 I check mails and stuff
1015 Check the progress of the proposal with other team members. Apparently V Day had cast a profound spell on the office. Team Members showed their reluctance to work today.
1030 I call up the Bombay BD guy and tell him that the team is working on the proposal and we are facing some roadblocks. Used some jargons which He could not understand.
1100 The I Tax declaration along with the docs has to be submitted. I frantically call up Papa and remind him to about the Life insurance.
1230 Some senior colleagues ask for advise on the gifts for their wives. Yes I am THE Guy for all such things. Why does everybody rub it in all the times
1300 At the lunch table, everybody is discussing their plans. "No yaar I don't have any plan, I have this proposal to submit" :((
1530 Team Members start to voice dissent and tell me that they will leave early, I said fine lets do it and leave by 5. They say "early means, now".
1630 I Finally have a Life Insurance (first time) yippeee. So my last month salary is intact. Got the FAX of the premium receipt and submitted it to the Accounts dept.
1700 The entire floor is empty, I wonder why don't they declare 14th Feb a holiday.
1800 The BD guy again gives me a call, I tell him everybody is working on that and it will take a longer than anticipated time. He starts to crib, I give him some abstract gyan
1820 I decide to call it a day, after all I am not making a proposal for my Dad's venture. Let it go to hell, why should i work my arse off.
1840 I decide to stop by the "City Center", have some Tea and "refresh" my eyes. Damn these Kids, Damn this MTV generation. They are everywhere. I AM seriously growing old (atleast mentally)
1855 The atmosphere is too depressing for me and I leave for home
1950 Out of sheer frustration I am writing this Blog
2330 My another flat mate is gonna arrive from his project location tonight and he is getting a "Johnnie Walker" from Dubai (ya same Sudan Project :D), we are going to say Cheers !!!

Hail Shiv Sena, you guys should have been here in Kolkata and stopped everybody from celebrating some "firangi" festival which is denigrating our culture.

Confessions of a prodigal son

2008-02-13T23:45:00.005+05:30

Hi Mom and Papa,

I know that you are never going to read this, but I could find no other way to tell you that I do love you. Although I have never told you this, but I hope that you know this.

I would like to tell you that

• Sometimes I didn’t talk properly and got irritated when you discussed certain issues with me, please forgive me
• You might think that I never listen to you, but rest assured that all your fundaes are secure in my mind and I always remember whatever you have taught me till now
• I can’t thank u enough for sticking by my side during my tough times earlier this year
• Even though I used to remain busy, I always used to think about you whenever my mind was idle.
• I could never gather courage to tell you, but sometimes I feel that I have failed you and let you down.
• I can’t thank you enough for showing faith in me and always inspiring me to fight to the finish.
• I can’t thank you enough for not involving me into petty family matters, so that I could concentrate on my studies while I was in college
• I don’t have the words to thank you for the sleepless nights you spent, when I had undergone the operation
• I want to thank you for always sharing my happiness and keeping me aloof from all your worries.
• I want to thank you for calling me thrice everyday without fail, despite your extremely busy schedules.
• I was responsible for that side dent on the car, although i never confessed coz i didn't have the courage to do that.
• I am sorry for all the pains and troubles that I have caused you.

As I sit here and contemplate over my life, I wish that I will make you more proud and prove to be a son who is worthy of your faith and trust.

Prelude - Dus Kahaniyaan

2008-02-12T20:35:00.000+05:30

I have been egged on by people to try my hand at fiction. So i pick up the gauntlet and take it head on. Hereby I will write 10 fiction stories, which will encompass all the genres.

Disclaimer: All the stories will be pure and original work of fiction and will bear no resemblance to any living or dead person. If there is any resemblance, it will be purely coincidental and unintentional.

P.S.
1) Indian team: Please remind Sreesanth, that he is playing for Indian team and not for the opposition
2) HSBC & Vodafone: please dont send any Valentine Messages to me anymore
3) Sanjay Dutt: Dude, wass up!!!
4) Anil Ambani: Dont worry dude, you still remain the top notch industrialist
5) PC: Please dont introduce service tax on tution fees this year
6) ISB Co2008: All the best for the placements, Guys you will surely ROCK !!!
7) Raj Thackeray: Please don't sow seeds of regionalism
8) Yuvraj: Dude have u lost it? If u r missing someone, u can watch the Fiama Di Wills soap commercial

Ramblings yet again

2008-02-11T17:04:00.000+05:30

Today there is a holiday in Kolkata due to "Saraswati Puja". I was relaxing at home and enjoying a nice sleep when I got a sms from a colleague from Bombay office, "check your mail, we have got a con call at 2". I just hate sms, people send sms when they know that it is unpleasant to convey the message over the phone. So sending sms is a convenient option more of a FYI kind of thing. And you ignore it at your own peril. I am glad that there is only a "delivery report" in sms and no "read report" in sms. So you can feign ignorance and say that you didn't read the message. However, I decided against using such tactics. So I had to turn up at the office on a holiday. I dont remember when was the last time I had come to office on a holiday. Sometime back, I had taken a conscious decision to not to come to office on holidays, come what may. There was not a single soul in office. Being a major festival in Kolkata, nobody was there in the office except few security guys and one person in IT support desk. The elevators had been switched off, the AC had been switched off and the lights were off too. Too much of power saving I must say. Thankfully the coffee machine had escaped the "Conserve Power" squad. My floor was pitch dark, probably all the people in my floor are "kaamchor, makkar and nalayak" like me. But I found out where the light switches are on my floor.

After doing some pre-read and doing some R&D about the client, I entered the conference call. Somehow I hate these telephonic conference calls. There are so many people who are usually present in the conference calls, you hardly know them by face. There are so many unfamiliar voices, too much of formality, in the absence of visual contact you cant gauge the body language of other participants, you can not say whether the other person is listening to you or not and you don't remember the names of different people in the con call. And on top of that, people expect you to recognize their voices. I must say, I am very poor in recognizing voices, I am a master in recognizing faces but I suck at voices.

Well, the conference call progressed with loads of hiccups, people joining in the middle of the conversation and some mobile phones ringing and some people murmuring and some traffic noise (perhaps one of them was out there on the road). But the best thing is that it is difficult to track who was creating the nuisance. I love it. Anyways, its over and its time to go home. Its scary inside the office as there is nobody on the floor and infact in the entire building...

Yeh India ka cricket hai Bidu

2008-02-10T12:30:00.000+05:30

Cricket fever in Hostel Common room, spot me in that pic

As India steam rolled the world champions Aussies in the first innings of the 4th ODI of the Commonwealth series, I jumped up in joy but there was nobody to do a high five. Sitting alone in my house on a splendid Sunday morning, I became nostalgic about the cricket fever in hostel. My other flat mate had gone out for an office outing and other mates are out in different locations for their respective projects.

I can still hear the shouts, cheers, slogan shouting and swearing that used to accompany cricket matches in the Hostel Common Room. There was no AC in the common room (poor college :D), fans did not work properly, hot and humid weather of Madras, jam packed common room, lectures, end-sem exams, quizzes, assignments, presentations, submissions and what not. But nothing could dampen the cricket fever. With every boundary being cheered on by the enthusiasts and every loose ball being jeered, junta could never have enough of cricket. Well India is a cricket crazy country, you can't blame anybody for that. Even when I was studying in my room, the shouts emanating from the common room would tell me that a wicket has just fallen or a boundary has been hit. The sheer enthusiasm and the rush to take up the front rows was amazing. People used to bunk lectures and reserve their place several minutes before the start of the match. I still remember, India's dream run in 2003 World Cup. The matches clashed with exams, but there was no drop in the attendance inside the common room. Even when i was doing some assignment in some other hostel, I would land up in their common room. And the celebrations that used to follow after the win, people would come out in the quadrangle and celebrate in style. There was never any dearth of enthusiasts.

But I have grown old and the times have changed. But cricket still evokes the same response. Even though I slept late last night, I still managed to get up early today and just in time to watch Sreesanth snare Gilly in the very first over.

Govt announces compensation package for bird flu affected poultry owners

2008-02-09T22:33:00.000+05:30

Finally, Government announced a compensation package to bird-flu affected poultry owners in WB. I was wondering from day one, why this was not thought about. How can the government expect poultry owners to voluntarily allow their poultry to be culled. That was their only source to earn their livelihood, to support their family, their only means of survival. When the news first came that culling will be done in the affected districts, it was natural to expect that the affected owners will not cooperate with the authorities. And they didn't. They smuggled their poultry to neighboring states and districts. I mean who will voluntarily give up their means of livelihood, and stare into a life full of despair. Even if I had been in their place, I would have done the same thing. I don't give a damn to the environment and I don't give a damn to the fact that the virus would spread to other districts and eventually to humans. For me, the survival of my immediate family is of utmost importance and I don't give a slightest damn to anything else. Yeah I am selfish and conceited, but I am not a saint and its unfair to expect the same from any of the affected poultry owners.

If the better sense had prevailed upon the government before the calamity had worsened, the situation could have been a little better. The loss to poultry is estimated to be 500 crore rupees. I just hope that the aid reaches the affected families and not makes its way to the pocket of corrupt officials.