Look who's come

Two weeks ago, we had our first class of GSMT(Global Strategic Management) and we watched with awe, Thomas Friedman talk about how, when we he was covering the post 9-11 drama in the US, a silent revolution happened in the Infosys' and Satyam's of the world. How in his meeting with Nandan Nilekani, he was told that the global playing field was getting levelled and that the Americans were not ready for it. This was the incident that shaped his thoughts to write 'The world is flat', his New York Times bestseller. I came back that day and watched a few of his interviews in YouTube and was really awe-struck with the way he talked about global issues. I think he is one hell of a speaker packing emotion and conviction.

Little did I realize then that I was going to listen to this great man speak live so soon and that too walking just a couple of hundred metres to Khemka Auditorium. We all got to know of Tom's arrival only in the afternoon. But guess what the 400 seater auditorium brimmed over with people. There were students, alums, faculty, press, AIKYA families etc. and Tom did not disappoint anyone. He spoke about his books 'From Beirut to Jerusalem' onwards to his upcoming work, about the various phases of globalisation with his own wit and charm. This one hour, listening to Tom, was a real silver lining on an otherwise abysmally bad bad day.

Thomas L Friedman
Video Link

Love in the times of Telepathy

It was a Wednesday morning, early march, and was raining heavily. Radha just hung up on a phone call from office and looked at her phone. She just hoped that Shakti would call her and check how she was. She had been waiting for his call since last evening but in vain. She rested herself against the wall clenching the phone and looked up at the ceiling. It was almost a year since she joined this company. Shakthi had joined her project around six months ago but was working on a different module in the same floor. For a long time they never knew each other and Radha being the traditional Indian girl never even exchanged smiles with strangers. One Saturday, late last September, she was waiting for her office cab to drop her home at 1100 PM. Just then Shakthi came by and said “Hi”. She just turned around and did not even acknowledge his smile. As luck would have it the cab broke down mid-way. After more than an hour they finally managed to get a taxi. When she got down Radha said “Thank you” and looked at Shakthi’s eyes for the very first time.

Shakthi was a very charming man, the youngest Senior Manager in the company and unmarried. After that night they started bumping into each other more and before they realized they were spending a lot of time together. Radha was not in the same league and came from a middle-class background. Her father retired last year and was keen on getting Radha and her younger sister married. Radha and Shakthi were getting closer and their philosophical discussions and sweet nothings kept them enamored all the time. It became customary for her to give Shakthi wake up calls every day and last month he took her to his house. She met everyone in his family and they were all really nice. Everything was on a roll.

Yesterday, she came back from work quite early and to her surprise her uncle, Parthasarathy mama, and her aunty were at home. They were her closest relatives and have been by their side through thick and thin. Mama said “Radha, take a day off tomorrow. My best friend Rangachari is coming with his son to see you. His son is a Senior Design Engineer in Motorola, Hyderabad”. A shiver ran through her spine. She knew that her father was trying to find a match for her but this was a total shocker. She immediately called up Shakthi and told him about the new development. Shakthi responded with utter silence. He said no words of reassurance, not even a “It will all be ok”. Radha finally hung up. The Rangachari’s came to see her and immediately wanted the engagement within two days. She could not understand what was going on with her life. Nobody really seemed to care what she thought about the whole thing. She kept calling Shakthi and sent him several messages but of no vain. Tomorrow it was her engagement and she wanted to know what really went through Shakthi’s mind. Did he really like her? Why did he get into a sudden silence? Why is he not responding to her calls and messages? She wondered why she was not living in the era where “Love happened through Telepathy”.
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My first attempt at a small story. My dear friend AS gave me the title and asked me to write whatever I can think about it.

In the Rankings

If I remember right, this is the very first time that ISB has participated in b-school rankings. The Business India 2007 rankings rate ISB at #4 in India behind the top three IIMs A,B & C. Pretty good show by ISB, I would say, as we wait for the FT rankings which will be out in a few months. Cheers ISB.

See the article here

Mumbai Express

Term 5 started today after a slightly longish break. I spent the better part of the term break in Bombay with my ELP client, a construction major. This was my first real trip to Bombay, discounting all the transit trips I have done in the past. Having heard a lot about the city I was at my critical best. First things first, the Bombay airport is really amazing, very spacious and truly international standards. The idea of PPP(Public private partnership) really got into my head, in form and spirit. This phenomenon is truly powerful. Over the course of the week as my understanding of the construction business improved, I realized that PPP is one sure way of meeting our insatiable infrastructure needs. Next comes traffic, quite expectedly it was heavy even during the weekend. Can't really complain considering the population and the amount of activity that happens in Bombay everyday. Our team stayed closer to Powai, so quite outside the hustle, bustle(shd I say that). Checked out Hiranandani, Cafe Mocha, KFC and Aura bar, all very good places. Speaking of highs and lows of the trip, the high definitely was the visit to the Bandra-Worli sea link project. Our ELP client is working on this prestigious project and once completed it will be one of a kind in India and will definitely become the pride of Bombay. The low of course was with the local. With superior predictive skills and due to the fact that I was carrying luggageI purchased a first class ticket from Vikhroli to Ambernath and later found that there is no crowd difference in any compartment. Thank God I had experience in the Chennai local, I could weather the journey in spite of a few gali exchanges here and there. The final icing was flying back in Kingfisher, before the truckload of pre-reads hit me on my face again.

(In the pic...A model of the Bandra-Worli sea link)

Term 4 done - 50% MBA

Six months in and four terms down, we all are 50% MBAs. The fourth term just whizzed past. I did not particularly enjoy this term academically. Somehow got a feeling that the intent was right but the content was not. We had four subjects, Strategic Analysis of IT, Management of Organizations, Government,Society & business and Investment Analysis. May be my background was such that I could not appreciate all that was going on. Ramana Sonti for investments was good fun even though he used zip thru stuff. He was the typical geeky, self-deprecating and weirdly funny prof., the type you meet so often in engineering college. But this was one subject I enjoyed this term.

As woe be it, the three other subjects in spite of having pretty good teachers had exams that were pedantic and very much memory based. I really felt I was so over the hill for such stuff. Some of my friends won't agree with me 'coz they gape at the fact that I wrote about 'bow-tie' networks in the MGTO exam and have now started treating me like an alien ;-). The term lasted barely 5 weeks and now we have a nice 10 day break. My team is going to bombay for our ELP next week. So should be a good break away from campus and some progress in our project too. And may be do some work on FHC also ;-). Elective terms start from 15th. I think the all equations on campus are going to change. There will be so many sections and people studying various combinations of courses. I'm doing 2 marketing and 2 finance courses in term 5. Last night had a marathon booze session with my core term study group. Really enjoyed the philosophical discussions and the rantings. We were an amazing group, typical housewifey types. With morning classes we slept everyday in the afternoon and when we met we loved to bitch about ppl. Girls will envy the proposition of being in our group...LOL. Here's one to my amazing core term study group and to the 50% MBA.

Sections dissolved

Today was the last day of core term classes. After the thursday/friday exams we all will be 50% MBAs. My section, Section D, was a curious mix. Although very poor on parties, people generally were pretty cool. I have made tons of friends here. We had all extremes you ever wanna meet. As Johnny Cash sings, we had whackos & weirdos and dingbats & dodos, arbit CP queen(s) & einstein CP king(s), PJ artistes, beautiful babes, lost children, desperate IITian(s), chupa rustums, know-it-alls, chatterboxes, sleeping beauties and secret cohorts.

Our group had the privilege of doing the last group presentation of our section for the GSB course. The topic was "Child labor" and we tried to keep it as boring as we possibly could ;-). After class we all stayed back to autograph our section T-shirts. It was not particularly emotional or anything, but when I walked back home it was a strange feeling 'coz once again I was reminded of the pace at which things are happening here. I have already started thinking about life beyond ISB (placements of course) and it feels very strange. I now wish I did a 2-year program. My T-shirt peppered with all autographs is my prized possession now.