Digipsyche

Personality types have always intrigued me, well my own self and the ones around me. In my search to understand the way people behave and react to situations I have devoured a number of books ranging from the usual Linda Goodman to some obscure Fourth way system literature. I will accept that I have not been exceptionally successful. But over the last few years I have been noticing a new dimension of human personality, something that never existed till this decade.

I have to credit one of my friends for generating this curiosity in me. He is one person I have known for quite sometime and ask anybody you will come to understand that he is a man of few words. But all this was only till he added me as a friend in his Orkut list. His profile indeed came across as a whiff of fresh air and he started to come across as a stylish and expressive young man. I never thought that this guy had such a sassy side to himself. His status messages were witty, his pictures dapper and to top it all he had women throng up the scraps.

I did met him sometime later. He was still the same guy, nice and quiet. I could not manage to ask him what made him play Remo in cyberspace, and never will I.

And this is not one random observation. I have now started noticing scores of people demonstrating sides of themselves I never knew, albeit only on cyberspace. Well, we all have read about chat forums making people more expressive when incognito but this I believe is new phenomena. My conjecture is that social profiles are helping people be what they want to be and may be at times gives them more time to react, than when in real life situations. And for God's sake this is not MPD. I don't know if this is already a subject of research in universities. If not, may I request the world of well qualified psychologists to please start taking note.

And before I sign off this post, let me muster up some conviction and do a first ever coining a term thingy - a person's digital personality shall henceforth be known as 'digipsyche' :-)

Rebrand Terrorism

So Mumbai happened !!! It pains me so much that these morbid infiltrators could sneak into my country. Television channels are rife debating over what needs to be done to combat terrorism. There is a lot of talk about heads that need to roll and how the security apparatus should change etc. I agree to all of these. At the same time I think we should attack this at a more fundamental level. When I say fundamental I'm talking about the general psyche of the common man and these terrorists themselves.

My two cents is that we should stop calling these heartless insane acts as 'Terrorism' and stop calling these guys as 'Terrorists'. The word 'Terrorist' is a very powerful word that evokes sense of fear in the minds of anyone who hears it. It is only natural that the common man feels weakened and let down when he hears about terrorist attacks. At the same time this word really boosts the morale of these insidious elements. They are proud of the fact that they are perpetrators of terror and this is a vicious cycle.

I wish the governments, media houses, PR agencies etc. from around the world come together and decide that it is time for a re-branding. Let us decide to call these terrorists as 'cowards' or 'spineless bastards' or something to that effect. I believe that when we start hearing this from the media over and over again it will definitely debilitate the morale of the terrorists. And not to mention it will surely have a positive effect on the psyche of the common man. Is someone listening?

Quote

If there is one quote I wanna live up to it is this one.

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. - Robert Heinlein

Sister Stella

Early this morning granpa complained of wheezing and I made my first hospital visit in Pune. I was expecting to see some things different in Pune hospitals, based on the kind of customer service I have received so far, across the board. But guess what, the experience was exactly similar to what I have seen in Chennai all the time. The first person to greet us in the hospital was a Malayali nurse and true to my expectations she did everything right all through the day. It is always great for us mallus in Chennai because we see hordes of mallu nurses in any hospital we go. I was not really expecting that to happen in Pune. But from today's experience I think I can safely conclude that mallu women have made nursing their bastion everywhere.

Then I pondered why on earth mallu women do so well in nursing. Is it because they are more service-minded than women from other communities. That didn't sound right. No one can question the motherly qualities that women of every race hold. Does the literacy level of women in Kerala help make nursing easier to learn? May be not. More thought let me to conclude that the matriarchal system is what is responsible for this. The matriarchal system in Kerala is the reason for the empowerment of women in Kerala (we all know that Kerala has 1000+ women for every 1000 men). I know not all women empowerment experts would agree that women in Kerala are fully empowered. Nevertheless, nursing is a demanding profession and more than just service-mindedness the women need to be courageous. There is so much pressure, so much responsibility and very often you need to work really odd hours. All these require a level of maturity and boldness and I seriously believe it is here that mallu women score better. Comments?

Anyways for all non-mallus apart from the great service there is assured fun when they start talking in english. Listen to this audio-clip if you have not had any first hand experience so far.

New York New York

Well I'm back to blogging and back from a short trip to US. The first one week of training at Chicago was an incredible networking opportunity. MBA consultants from US, European schools and ISB came together for the one week orientation. Impressive pedigrees once again (Kellogg, Duke, UCLA, Rotman etc.) and I got a pretty good picture of what the firm's true strengths are. An added incentive was the opportunity to attend the firm's 25th year celebrations at the Field Museum, Chicago. That weekend I rented a car and drove to Champaign, IL to be with my aunt and cousins. Good fun overall.




And then I reached New York. I was put up in a nice swanky apartment one block away from the Lehmann Brothers office (Anyways the signboard just changed to read Barclays Capital) and a three blocks from Times Square. Living in the financial district and walking to work early in the morning is quite refreshing and inspiring, if you understand what I mean. Meeting my clients was the primary agenda and all the planned meetings went very well. Now they will know who they are talking to. My counterparts in the NY office are a nice bunch of people although there is a bit of crib from everyone about running ongoing sales operations.

New York is really vibrant. Times square is incredibly lit up and is buzzing with activity even on a regular weekday midnight. It is a pity that I could not go and attend any broadway show. Hopefully I'll go again soon enough and get to watch one of them. That week the New York office celebrated the 25th year celebrations (I'm being branded as a party animal for making it to celebrations in three offices) and the venue was the Plaza Hotel. Now that is an amazing venue, the place where Michael Douglas married to Catherine Zeta Jones and one hotel that is featured in lotsa Hollywood movies. One more slice of luck :). Champagne flowed freely once again but I somehow find Gourmet food rather plain, need to develop a taste for it !!! Walking across the Rockefeller center and Waldorf-Astoria etc made my day everyday.

The weekend was dedicated to visit the patel points like Wall Street, Statue of Liberty etc with my friend from Infy. The Statue of liberty is definitely one of the best sights in the world. I stood spell bound at the base for a full 15 minutes. The statue is at once enigmatic and grand plus the copper blue hue gives it a sublime bliss. I could not help but compare it to the "Veiled Rebecca" in the Hyderabad Museum for the amount of detail that has gone into its making. A lunch at Saravana Bhavan also happened and I just can't forget the badam halwa. Overall a fruitful trip.

Taxi Driver - 1976

I have never done a movie review, not even for Kamal's Dasavatharam. But today I watched Taxi Driver and decided that I better write something on this outstanding movie. In this 1976 movie Robert De Niro plays the lead as a mentally unstable war-veteran. This is by far one of the best movies I have seen. Let me make an attempt at doing a review.

Martin Scorsese has in this timeless classic shown the world long ago the seeds of psychotic abnormalism. The character of Travis Bickle captures every dimension of human decay. The war veteran is somehow not really part of the society and we cannot attribute one single reason for this. May be some sort of suppressed sexuality, may be some effects of the Vietnam-war or plainly a lack of identity. His insomnia doesn't help either. He takes up the job of a night cab-driver and the nights in New York are best described by his one dialogue "All the animals come out at night - whores, skunk pussies, buggers, queens, fairies, dopers, junkies, sick, venal. Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets".

Travis develops a strong crush on Betsy(a campaign volunteer) and on their second date takes her to watch a porn movie (I can hear u scream, Holy ....) and very obviously she drops him. It is after this that we realize that his schizoid behavior is actually coming out of the fact that he is searching to find a purpose for his life. A fellow cabbie introduces him to guns and Travis decides that he is going to clean up the corruption and dirt around him. He meets Iris, a teenage prostitute played by Jodie Foster, and tries to convince her to get away from prostitution and fails in his attempt. He works hard on his marksmanship and he continues to grow violent and more alienated.

The story moves on as Travis makes another failed attempt at assassinating Palantine, the presidential hopeful for whom Betsy volunteered before all his repressions finally culminate in a gory gun battle to save Iris. What is more poignant is the fact that police and Iris's parents eventually construe that Travis saved their daughter and helped get rid of some dangerous gang men. Well, we are forced to think that at last Travis gets some meaning out of his life. But there is nothing in the movie that proves that the incident changed him. When Betsy happens to ride on his taxi later he says "Papers always blow these things up".

The movie ends here leaving you wondering if this man will strike again. It is a strange feeling I bet you. But do watch this movie...silently with no one disturbing you...The BGM is one of the best I have heard. The melancholy saxophone can bring out the deepest and darkest feelings inside us and I was shocked to read that Bernard Herrmann, the composer passed away a few hours after he finished this score.

For now listen to the BGM here

After a while

It has been sometime since I posted. It is just over a month since I moved to Pune. I'm slowly getting into the groove with my job. Figured out that the work here is very niche and the company's strength lies in its expertise and culture. The pedigrees are very impressive but the process capabilities don't really impress me. Let me see how much of a change I can bring about. I have to travel to USA for 2-3 weeks in September and hopefully I'll visit NY (The one important place I missed in my 3 year stay in US last time). On a side thought I also think consulting is a little hyped up. A medley of feelings crop up in the first month itself. Anyways lets see how my opinion shapes up with time.

A few botheration's outside work have cropped up, things that I would rather not blog about. Hopefully everything will become alright soon.

I hear a lot of people crib about recognition this and that. I have also done that a lot in the past. My suggestion is we should first think how many times have we have appreciated and recognized God, his creations and his great grand scheme. Well if that's what God gets from mankind we ought to set more realistic expectations. Adieu!

Thailand – Not Enough

Cheap air travel may not be the theme today with the rising crude prices. But on 16th May 2008 (Day seven) we flew from Phnom Penh to Bangkok for a paltry Rs.1600 per head (A shade less than 40 USD courtesy AirAsia.com). The flight was rather empty but we were incredibly busy reading up the heavy Wikitravel.com printouts. We understood right then that even if we spent all our four days in Bangkok we would still have more to see. Nevertheless we did have a plan.

Suvarnabhumi International airport is one of the largest terminals in the world. After a half-hour walk evading hundreds of taxi touts we managed to board a pre-paid taxi. There is some kind of a strange logic about addresses in Bangkok. The fundae behind the ‘Sois’ and the ‘Nois’ of Bangkok made for an interesting read but locating the River View Guest House was a real challenge. But it was all worth it ‘coz the view of the Chao Phraya River from our balcony was simply breathtaking.

Every time we stepped out of the hotel room, the first mode of transport was the ferry we took from the N3 pier. We ferried straight to N8, the pier nearest to the Wat Pho. Wat Pho is the site of the world famous ‘Reclining Buddha’. About 49 meters long, this gold Buddha in the “Anantha sayanam” pose is a master piece. To keep him away from gold-scratching tourists there is a barricade with a 2-3 meter wide gap from the iconic Buddha. Till date I didn’t know that around this part of the world the Buddha is considered one of the dasavatharas.

Hunger pangs took us to the Siam center where after a heavy meal and a few rounds of mall hopping we started feeling the tiredness from a week of sight-seeing. Our aching legs made us decide that our next two days at the Pattaya resort were meant for rejuvenation.

Pattaya has something on offer for the tourist of every age. Our first memory of Pattaya is the beach where we spent hours tanning in the waters. Stepping out of the beach we filled ourselves with satays of the choicest meats. We also happened to try out some brilliant banana pancakes. I’ll post the recipe for this simple dessert soon.

Later in the evening we decided to explore the famous Go-Go’s and Beer bars. While these places have interesting themes we soon realized they all these were merely veneers for prostitution. The first place had exhibition Muay Thai (Thai kick boxing). The matches were pulsating but the lady bartenders were vying for our attention hoping that we would pay the bar-fine and take them out with us. A quick exit led us to a place specializing in board games. I was soon with an incredibly striking Thai beauty (Ms. Aio) playing a board game called four in a row. While I couldn’t take my eyes off her, I managed to win a game with a bet of 100 baht. Boy! It was a nice feeling and I kept playing. Only when I was at minus 300 baht I realized that I was being milked. After promising her that I would take her out the next evening we made a second exit and by then it was like 3 AM.

We woke up around noon on day nine and headed straight to the beach. After the ritual dip we negotiated parasailing for 1100 baht (for three guys). Parasailing at Pattaya is quite different from the ones at Miami and Cancun. This one was precision personified with the speed boat driver making you take-off and land exactly on a small launch area. But the aerial sojourn is only about 3-4 minutes long, way lower than the 20 minutes sail offered in the Atlantic beaches. The afternoon and the evening were spent walking along the shoreline and going on a shopping binge at the Big C. We ended up using the bhramastra (a.k.a Bank of America credit card) for the second time in the trip.

Day ten started early. We took a ‘songthaey’ to go to the bus-bay and went back to Bangkok. A heavy rain greeted us but we had made up our mind to go visit the King’s palace. Adorned with so much gold the Royal palace is a great sight. Little did we realize how blessed we were that day. When we reached Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn) that afternoon, we came to know that we were seeing the sacred ‘Visaka Buddha’ on Buddha Jayanthi itself. It was a perfect culmination to a great trip. After some more eating in the streets and some evening shopping at Chinatown we packed up to leave next morning to Calcutta and eventually home. There is so much more to see in Thailand and hopefully I can come once more and spend at least a couple of weeks here. Yeh Dil Maange More!

Cambodia – Pristine Beauty

Apparently it had been raining hard around Siem Reap and thus an aerial view of the muddy country-side made it look like a huge bowl of milked tea :-). The morning of day five we reached the small but impressively clean Siem Reap International airport terminal.

We exchanged $50 at the airport and collected a hefty amount 187,500 Riels. The instant lakhpatis, that we were, hired taxi driver Mr. Vannak in his bright green Toyota Camry to go to Golden Temple Villa, our abode near the old market area. From what we learnt in Wikitravel.com we also negotiated with him for $30, a whole day trip around major historic sites and a trip to the Landmine Museum some 20 miles outside the city.

Akira, the curator of the Landmine museum, has indeed got a touching story to tell. He joined the Khmer Rogues when he was barely nine years old. From there he was captured by the Vietnamese army where he was taught how to lay mines. Later he planted mines for the Cambodian army. While he admits that he indiscriminately planted deadly mines for more than a decade he has been making amends since the early 1990s defusing about 50 mines everyday. Well, with around 200 Cambodians dying in landmine blasts every year even today, he still has got a lot to do. Just outside the museum sat a war victim whose hands and legs were blown apart by a mine. This only added to our anguish as we were just coming from Wat Thmey (The killing Fields), where a few hundred skulls from the savage ‘Pol Pot’ regime were on display in a poignant glass stupa.

Well, all this was just history from the near past and we had no clue about what we were going to witness as the day progressed. Our first historic stop was the Ta Prohm temple (currently being restored by archeologists from India). I think everyone will understand something different from this site. While there is some kind of an unimaginable silence around the temple ruins, I could sense the battle between nature and man-made relics. Trees (each 500-600 years old) have, with their roots, brought down beautiful temples. I’m sure that in a few years archeologists will restore some of this temple’s lost glory. But what you witness today will tell you who the eventual winner will be.

From there we headed to the Angkor Thom city area which had the beautiful Bayon temple at its centre. The trademark face-towers of Cambodia come to life at the Bayon. As for me, the Bayon is the most enigmatic structure I have seen in my life. A mass of four-faced towers creates a mountain of ascending peaks and the incredibly complex bas-reliefs depict everything from Apsaras to wars to scenes from daily life. This is one place where you should have your picture taken (See mine above).

A highly ruined Bapuon temple is just a short walk from Bayon but the series of short round pillars that support the causeway are an incredible sight to watch if you are ready to bend your backs and look down. Climb up the Phimeanakas only if you have the guts. While my friends decided at the outset not to climb the narrow steps I regretted after climbing up. The real challenge is getting down. By the time we took sneak peek at the Elephant terrace it was 3 PM and time to drive down to the biggest attraction in town, the Angkor Wat temple.

The Angkor Wat, I bet, will not disappoint anyone. The superbly serene temple is the world’s largest religious monument which also makes it the largest Hindu temple in the world. Michael Freeman calls Angkor Wat the microcosm of the Hindu Universe. The moat around the temple is supposedly meant to represent the mythical oceans and all the towers meant to represent the peaks that surround Mount Meru, the abode of Hindu Gods. In fact there is a gradual ascent as you go inside the temple and this is some kind of an imitation climbing up to God’s abode. The authors of ‘Ancient Angkor’, the guide book we used, recommend multiple visits to appreciate Angkor Wat’s beauty. And apparently, only in August can you can see the trademark orange hue of the temple towers at sunset.

After a hard day we went to Zanzybar, in town, where some local girls invited us to play pool, which was only a guise to lead up to a round of incredible neck massages. Before it led to anything else murkier, we tipped them a dollar each and headed back for a good night’s sleep in the idyllic Golden Temple Villa.

Early morning on day six, we wanted to take the hydrofoils to go to Phnom Penh. But with the waters receding in summer we had to settle for the bus. It took us about 4.5 hrs to reach Phnom-Penh. After quickly checking into Comfort Star Hotel (Monivong Blvd) we hired a tuk-tuk for an afternoon sojourn around the city. Phnom Penh is an incredibly organized city. We managed to visit the Royal Palace, the museum and take a walk down the Mekong riverfront. Let me not forget to mention an incredible game of kick-badminton we witnessed at the riverfront. Later we went to check out the notorious Martini Pub, but had to wriggle out early ‘coz we had an early morning flight to Bangkok. Apart from the steep $25 departure tax, every penny spent on Cambodian soil is well worth the money. You bet.

Malaysia – Truly Asia

On a mildly sunny Saturday morning, 4.5 hrs after we started from Chennai, the team reached the surprisingly quiet KL International airport at 8:45 AM (6:15 AM IST). A few times I felt we guys were creating the only few noises in the airport. We quickly finished the immigration, picked up our bags and also took a tourist SIM card each and called home (5 Ringgits talk time on an 8 Ringgit activation card was not bad at all). Deciding to take the fastest mode to reach KL Sentral, where our hotel was located, we took the non-stop express and reached in 28 minutes flat burning 35 Ringgits apiece. At KL Sentral we learnt our biggest lesson of the trip. A suave Tamil speaking taxi-driver hoodwinked us into paying 10 Ringgits for a less than 0.5 km distance to the hotel. We remembered an old lesson “Don’t believe any Indian doing business abroad unless you know fully well what you are getting into”.

Hotel Florida is ideally located just 5 minutes by walk from KL Sentral. Being a predominantly Indian area there was no dearth of Indian food options. Food is very cheap in the vicinity with a sumptuous meal for us three costing only about 20 ringgits. We quickly swung into action and took the train to KLCC that very afternoon. KLCC is Kuala Lumpur convention center and is among the happening areas in the city. Petronas Towers, Aquaria KLCC and the KLCC Park are the main attractions. We got to know that PETRONAS issues about 1000 free visit passes everyday in the morning from 8:30 AM which meant that passes get over by 9 AMJ. After spending some time in the SURIYA Mall at the base of the twin towers we headed to the Aquarium. It was rather a mini-zoo. Lots of fishes plus tropical snakes, lizards and insects were on display. Admission is a flat 38 Ringgits per head but when I brandished my expired ISB student id they reduced my ticket fare to 25 ringgits. So when you go don’t forget to carry your old student id ;). Since it wasn’t even dark when we got out of the aquarium we decided to go to Chinatown. All shopping buffs don’t miss out Chinatown. There were stalls selling t-shirts, all kinds of counterfeit Rolex watches, Nike/Reebok shoes & T-shirts, decorative items, spare parts and many different eateries. I picked up a Chinese cool drink made of jowar (sorghum) and slowly developed a liking for it by the time I finished it up. Trying to apply some MBA style price-discovery and negotiation techniques I got booed by several Chinese shopkeepers. Anyhow our idea was not really to shop much on day one. Later in the evening we spent a good time at a rather expensive Hard Rock Café and decided to wind up at 11 ‘coz we were all sleepy due to lack of sleep the previous night.

Day two, we were in the PETRONAS visitors queue at 7:45 AM. Leaving L at the queue me and K went in search of a place to have breakfast. We discovered a place that served some dosas plus some other Malay food. I could not resist the temptation to open the folded plantain leaf, inside which was hiding some Malay breakfast. Inside was a ball of rice flavored with some dried chilly flakes in oil plus a small salted-sun-dried fish (Karuvadu). It was actually very tasty and soon enough K also finished one servingJ. After having been atop the Sears Tower, John F. Hancock and CN Tower going up only to the 41st floor of PETRONAS did not sound any bit thrilling. But the beauty here is walking on the sky-bridge that connects the 41st floor of either tower. An interesting trivia is that the towers were constructed by two different contractors. Looking at the Malaysian skyline from atop, I felt my first pang of jealousy at a country that came out of colonial rule 11 years after India. Soon enough we were in a local bus to Genting Highlands, an hour away from KL, the seat of Malaysia’s world famous theme park. From the base of the mountain we had to board a gondola of the Genting skyway. The 3.4 km skyway is claimed to be the longest in the world and in about 17 minutes we were up the 1000 m peak. In spite of reading up so much and planning so well, yours truly was wearing half trousers when we got down at the misty peak. Feeling quite cold we decided that we would spend the half a day or so let out in the indoor theme park. We should have taken around 10-15 rides. The ‘Flying Coaster’, which gives u a controlled experience of how it would feel if you were Superman doing aerial somersaults, was easily the best ride. It is a different story that L decided to sit out looking at the intensity of the experience and the pale faces that came out. The day ended very late that night but not before we discovered the Puduraya bus terminal and we dynamically decided that we were setting off to Melaka (Malacca) the next day.

After coaxing L to get up and wash first, we took the 3 hr bus from Puduraya to Melaka early on day four. We reached just before noon and decided to go around town first rather than finding a place to stay for the night. Melaka is a historic town, one that has changed hands so many times with everyone from the Persians, the French, the English and the Dutch having ruled over at different points in time. Before Singapore became what it is today Melaka was the trading center of the Bay of Bengal. Two museums and a view of Melaka from atop the newly inaugurated revolving tower we were at the famous Jonkers walk lined with nice little shops and resto-bars. Small town Melaka is a refreshingly cute city with beautifully decorated Trishaws to carry tourists around. It is so nice to walk around the town that after getting some rest we went around late in the evening picking up some satay and a Chinese version of Phad Thai for dinner. And yes we did some shopping at Jonkers walk.

Day four was literally wind-up-Malaysia day. We reached KL around afternoon and went straight to Chinatown. After finishing off some namesake shopping (L did get into a binge) we went again to KLCC but this time to the park. While L watched our bags we played in the water for sometime and then we all enjoyed the beautiful dancing fountains in the park (Please don’t imagine anything like the Bellagio fountains at LV, this was basic stuff). Things weren’t over. We came to know that our AirAsia.com flight flew out of a specially built airport called the Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT). But the superb thing was the airline operated special buses started from KL Sentral, a stone’s throw away. Getting into the bus at 4:45 AM to catch a 7:00 AM flight to Siem-Reap (Cambodia) was not really a pain after capping a brilliant four days in Malaysia.

Three Nation Trip

After some unabated traveling I once again sit reminiscing. It all started a couple of months ago when school friends where in Hyderabad to celebrate Holi with me at ISB. One conversation led to another and we ended up with a summer trip proposal to go and see Malaysia, Cambodia and Thailand. Two of my friends literally took my case when they heard Cambodia. But I maintained that Cambodia is indeed the destination to visit which two others, L & K, who eventually made it to the trip, would strongly concur ex post.

After a month and half of scouring for cheap tickets (Hansa Tours, Hyderabad and AirAsia.com coming to the rescue and we finished at Rs.21989 per head) and reading up on reams of web-sites and travel logs we were getting ready. Our budget was going to be somewhere around 35-40 grand rupees per head (what we ended up spending will come a little later). We haggled and argued about every stop in our itinerary. Lonely Planet and Wikitravel.com were literally Godsend. We read reviews on every Lonely Planet listed hostel and guest house. It comes as no surprise that our final expenses show just Rs.4405 for accommodation (Isn’t that incentive enough for you guys to pack your bags).

The expedition, as I like to call it, started on 10th May, 2008 with the trio boarding the Air India Express flight to KL. Eleven days of pure exploration ensued where we were willing to experiment on everything from food to modes of transport to night-life spots. It will not do justice to any country if I decide to pool our entire trip experience into a single blog post. So I would rather unravel our experience in three posts trying my best to relive the best moments of the trip and also try to drop in a few cues for any would be visitors. Kindly bear the braggadocio.

Chill time

So it has been a while since I posted anything on blogosphere. Well a lot of things have happened before I finally decided to wear my introspective cap again. First things first I have successfully graduated. A waning interest in acads started showing up a way bit too much during the electives. My philosophy of taking up courses where I would struggle can be blamed but anyways an ISB invitation to be part of the next-batch’s orientation did come as a nice dollop. With mom away, going back to ISB meant a further respite from cooking (and the rather frequent restaurant trips) and the horrible state of infrastructure near my home. Underground drainage construction cannot wreck any place more than it has done to Old Pallavaram!!

The bind-unwind training at Greenfields, Hyderabad (Ms. Zenobia’s farmhouse) was at once fun and exasperating. We came back with a vengeance on our juniors. Well they finally won when we were finally dunked by our group of kids. The juniors are also really well accomplished and it will come as no surprise to me if they raise the ISB bar higher. Coming out of orientation was much more fulfilling than the eviction that happened on April 6th. Boy, should I mention our last batch party that ended at 7:22 AM on that day. Grandpa kept knocking my door thinking I was sleeping inside and lo behold, I show up from behind :). And he was grinning ‘coz he had finished half a bottle of red wine the previous night (he did enjoy his grandson’s achievement, I should say).

The last two weeks have been spent planning my SE Asian trip with two other school friends (L and K). We have all the tickets, hotel bookings ready now. The Malaysian and Thai visas are also ready. The Cambodian e-Visa should show up anytime. So basically, we are all set to leave on Friday night. We land in KL first, four days of Malaysia, followed by 2 in Cambodia and a wrap up 5 days in Thai. I just can’t wait anymore. K is a little scared of the situation in Cambodia. But as a world traveler you just gotta go.
My new possessions: Blue Curacao, cocktail shaker and essentials ;) !!!

Term 8 done - 100% MBA

My system clock said 3:36 AM on 29th March 2008. I realized it was a marquee moment in my life. I just completed my last take home exam for PWPT and got technically done with all academic work. Quickly emailed the assignment to Stefan Thau, my prof, took a print out and went to the academic center to drop it. Didn't stop there, took J one of my good friends at ISB to take a picture of me making the last submission (I'm a senti moron. See pic below). We came back and to celebrate the occasion opened up the bottle of red wine, which my future employer had sent with their welcome kit. After two glasses of wine and the onset of a mild confusion we both set out on a walk of revelation, nostalgia and soul-searching. Finally came back to the room at 6:30 AM and crashed :). lol...

Term 8 was a breeze. I took four subjects once again (How boring). Business to Business Marketing(BBMK), Microfinance (MFIN), Behavioral Finance (BEFN) and Power & Politics (PWPT) were my subjects this term. Gary Lilien, supposedly the next Kotler took the first half of BBMK. Really enjoyed listening to old-school style lectures from this Penn State prof. And well in some ways marketing engineering or scientific marketing is what I'm gonna take as my first job post-MBA. MFIN was interesting and my behavior had changed so much Term 8 to assimilate anything from BEFN !!! PWPT was an interesting subject but I was not in any mood to drag myself to do great work. Nevertheless the insights from PWPT are going to help me for a long long time in life. In total... Term 8, total timepass :).

Have a week more on campus with a one day trip to see the new employer mid-way. Lotsa people are headed to Goa/Dandeli etc. Come friday ISB will be a different place with parents and relatives of all students flocking in. Ah...well, it is a dream come true for many of us and who better to have in your midst.

Khatam Khatam

Life moves on. This is the last week of classes and I have just one quiz and one take home exam remaining. Next week is disorientation week. Our laptops will be removed of all MBA course software and we all will get out of the network. The exit formalities have been outlined and soon we all we be on our way out :(
Well we don't stop at that. Already extensive planning is on for the orientation program for the Class of 2009. I'll get to stay for 8 more days at ISB starting the 11th of next month. It will be interesting to see a new batch come in with all new spirits (pun intended).
Had friends from Chennai come over last weekend and we all enjoyed Holi together. This was my first real full-fledged holi celebrations and the word "ultimate" is a let down. In fact Holi would easily rank as my best day here. And in the middle of all this I did some more restaurant hopping (Mediterranean and Terrace bay - both turning out to be quite good).
Tomorrow is the last day of classes. We all are gonna be in ISB T-shirts. It is so sad that the year is getting over. Today in BEFN class the entire 8 terms ran through my mind. I have to admit that this feels really strange. Anyways as I said in the beginning of this post, life moves on.

Some fun atlast

So finally we get to enjoy Hyderabad. I haven't chilled so much in quite sometime. While I still maintain the same schedules, this time around I laze around in friend's quads, watch flood light cricket, eat out and just chat a lot on gtalk. Today we are having a sleepover at the atrium. It is incredibly strange and funny to have this in the academic centre but it is fun in some ways. So many beds have been put and a movie is being screened. The SLC (Student Life Council) is determined to make every single day remaining at ISB a really enjoyable one.
This week is mid-term week and we have some work but the last 3 weeks have been quite some fun. After having visited quite a few restaurants around hyd it is now time to pass some comments

Chutneys - A vegetarian's delight. Good Dosas (Try the MLA dosa), vadas and buffet.
Malgudi - Really poor service, so poor that it can make you feel that the food is bad even though it is average.
Bhavarchi - Really reputed for its Biriyanis but sadly we were not impressed. The biriyani was bland and they ran out of stuff at 9 PM (All for a highly reputed 24-hour biriyani place)
Sampradaya - Excellent veggie. buffet. You get the best of South India and the ambience is truly amazing.
Southern Spice - Once more bad service. But the food was really good. The fish curry could have been slightly better but overall very enjoyable.
Laguna - Very impressive mediterranean plus Italian fare. Good falafels, tasty pizzas, salads and pastas. Very satisfying overall and not to forget the great ambience
Fusion 9 - Trendy, upmarket and infested with Firangs and page 3 crowd. Bad service but pretty decent food with good cheeses and steak.
Angethi - Nice punjabi food. Dont miss the biriyani and the mutton soup. They are really good.

I know that I still have a few more good ones left. Please do suggest...I hardly have a month left.
The last weekend a small group of friends here went on a one day trip to Nagarjuna sagar dam (150 km from here). It was a pleasant road trip with a nice little island museum and a beautiful waterfall (Ettipottala falls - pic below). I realize that this period of fun is really shortlived. Can't imagine going out and living the tough corporate life again :( :(. Where is the pause button?

The calm

The placement week is almost over. There are like 1-2 companies coming today and tomorrow each. Placing 400+ students in a week is not an easy thing and ISB always wants to up the challenge by increasing the number of students. While there were students who cracked the placements by getting the meatiest of roles or by increasing their salaries 3 or 5 times, law of averages also ensured that a few got pretty raw deals. Some did not get the kind of offers they wanted and have declined to take up anything. I made 2 more offers but for the moment decided to accept the Consulting offer. But all in all, although it was a really draining week for everyone involved in the placements it was good work all round!

Day 2

So I got my first offer. The consulting firm I was interviewing with today apparently liked me and after three rounds the question was popped. I should say the selection process was very interesting. In the first round I met the Principal of the firm and he administered a case and then I had to field a bunch of PIs. I actually messed up the numbers in the case and then announced myself that I want to do it again. The Principal smiled and I redid it. I thought I'm out of the process and came back for a nap.

To my surprise they called me for the second round. So then started the most interesting part of the process. I was given around 30+ pages of a case with lots of data. I was asked to make a presentation of case findings and my . It was a very interesting case and I thought I did that fairly well. Within 5 minutes I was called in for the final round. I was realizing that things were happening very fast. The final round was pure PI about all my professional experience and lot of scenario based questions. It went quite decently and finally the offer was made.

The firm is into sales & marketing consulting, an area of interest. I told them that I was not expecting the offer and I need some time to decide whether I want to sign it or not. They were nice enough to let me go back and huddle with my friends for an hour. They have given me a week to decide on accepting, so took my first offer. I have a few interviews for some challenging direct sales/marketing roles. So will try my hand and see if I can get something else more exciting.

Day 1

So the placement process has officially started. Day 0 was in full swing yesterday and Interviews were on till 4 AM last night. News trickled in about some of the majors trying to poach a few students. It feels a little strange that I don't have any interviews today but that is partly 'coz of the kind of applications I made. ADAG has announced a rather long list of interviews and my mates are going to be interviewed over the next two days. I think they are going to make some never seen before number of offers to ISB students. Tomorrow I have just 1 interview with a consultancy and day after I already have 5 companies lined up (with potentially 1-2 more looking clear possibilities). I hope I can make some sensible choices.

Day '-1'

"Zindha rahe tho agla haftha milenge" said one of the smart guys on campus. He was obviously kidding but taking a real nice dig at placements. Today is day '-1' and with day 0 tomorrow there are going to be quite a few on campus who will interview with big names starting tomorrow. My guess is that atleast 80-100 students will be out on day 1 and a similar number on day 2. There are already 543 different job postings this year and frankly there are a number of really meaty offers for experienced students. As the placement week nears shortlists have started pouring in. My applications are a mix of small-medium to really tiny companies. As of now, I'm sitting with a few shortlists but will start with just one on day 2 and many more starting day 3. The dream company with whom I'm interviewing for the last 2 months has still not announced anything and with 2 days to go, the ding looks more or less certain from them. Anyhow I should manage something next week if not during the month ahead, but it is truly one of the biggest experiences we came to b-school for.
ISB...Time to break a few more records :)

Meanwhile R2 results for Class of 2009 are out. Welcome folks. Time to party and chill.

Term 7 done - 87.5% MBA

So term 7 is also officially over. A surprisingly light one in terms of course work. I don't know of anyone who did four courses this term. There were people who did PAEV earlier and did just two courses this term. Anyhow I did three very good courses. Negotiation Analysis (NEGA), Advertising(ADVT) and Capital Raising Strategies in Corporations (CRSC).

If there is one course that is of greatest value for practical life it is NEGA. Recruiters beware, almost 300+ students have done this course over the last two terms :). Two amazing profs., ISB's own Dishan Kamdar and Catherine Tinsley from Georgetown Univ conduced NEGA this term. In every single class we had live negotiations and there were valuable lessons from each and every one of them. I just can't wait to apply these in real business negotiations. Advertising was another good course. Very light on work, good professors, lotsa videos in class and a final agency project. It was fun all throughout. Of the lot I really enjoyed the Mountain Dew assignment...To cap of a brilliant term we had two great professors for CRSC. The concepts of IPO, Project Financing, Film financing and rainfall insurance were presented so lucidly by Prof. Prabhala and Prof. Kapadia. I'm just amazed that in spite of placement pressures I could enjoy term 7 so much. Thank goodness.

Now all roads lead to placements, which start this Sunday. Shortlists and dings have started pouring in. More expected this week. Preps, mock iHopefully will have something interesting to post in about 2 weeks time. Adios amigos!

Internet advertising

Reason why internet advertising has still got a very very long way to go.

Google and Yahoo

So Google and Yahoo have come out with their results. While Yahoo has really disappointed the market and has announced 1000 job cuts, Google just missed analyst forecasts by a whisker (one penny to be precise). I think it is time for Yahoo to stop trying the turnaround story by itself and accept Microsoft's bid. With the portfolio of websites they have got I think an MS managed Yahoo can compete with Google better.


BTW I think this is the first time Google has missed forecasts since they went public. And one aspect that caught my attention was Google CFO's remark that ads from social networking websites have not monetized as well as well they had expected it to. I think there are two reasons why this is happening. One, Orkut is less popular in US when compared to Brazil or India where internet ad spends and click potentials are lesser. Two, while ads in orkut are still being experimented and debated in India/Brazil, I think the risk of appearing in wrong forums would make advertisers shy away from this medium. Some more rejigs are necessary before this channle can really bring in the money.


The more interesting thing for me however is to see whether the projected recession will make advertisers seek to invest more in clearly accountable Internet advertising. Can this be the some kinda goldmine during tougher times?

Hard to digest

It is fair to expect a certain level of disbelief and criticism to see a young school like ISB to make it to the top 20 but I think some people in public and even the press are taking it a little too far. Had to encounter this in two of my regular media channels. One was in http://www.pagalguy.com/ (PG) and the other was in the popular business daily Economic Times. So in PG one particular guy goes on a rampant criticism saying ISB can never be in the top-20 etc. etc. Anyhow there seems to be a personal angle as to why it pains that one person so much and finally the administrator came in and locked the thread.

And today Economic Times has published a write up on ISB's 4th rank in the PG survey right next to the news item on ISB's 20th rank in FT rankings. Pagalguy had published its b-school rankings based on student/aspirant surveys on 20th Jan 2008 (10 days ago).It does not take rocket science to figure out what the newspaper is getting at.

We at ISB are very clear. There have been detractors in the past and have been critical of the ISB model but they have all been proven wrong. ISB is young and has lot more to achieve and as our Dy. Dean Ajit Rangnekar said "We have to accept this honor with dignity, humility and sensitivity". We at ISB have always and will continue to admire the IIMs. Our Dean's and top administration went to IIMs and even several of our professors went to IIMs. At the same time we appreciate it if we are not compared with IIMs 'coz they have a unique model, which is an incredibly good one too. ISB is fundamentally different from IIMs and I'll not go to explain why.

Info: I have nothing against Pagalguy.com. I have benefited a lot from PG during GMAT prep and b-school admissions and to that end I have posted over 325 responses answering queries of prospective applicants. FT is a leading brand from UK and are reputed as the second best b-school rankings by none other than GMAC which conducts the GMAT test.

Request: Anyone commenting on this post please don't bring in the ISB vs. IIM angle. Such comments will be deleted by me.

Financial Times Rankings

Yesterday a group of us were discussing what kinda rank our college would get in the Financial Times world rankings. A top 25 would be the best possible outcome, we concluded. And the sweetest email came this morning from our dean Rammohan Rao.

*******************************************************
Dear All,

Today, the 28th of January 2008, is a red letter day in the history of the ISB.

The latest list of the 100 top Global MBAs in the world released by The Financial Times today ranks ISB at Twenty (20), making it perhaps the youngest institution ever to be ranked among the top business schools in the world. The fact that we have been ranked 20th in the first time we have participated in rankings, makes this announcement so much more gratifying. (The details will be shortly published on http://www.ft.com/businesseducation/mba)

We set out in 2001 with a vision to be an internationally top-ranked, research driven and independent management institution that grooms future leaders for India and the world. It is therefore a great moment for us, as it marks the accomplishment of an important part of the vision that guides and inspires every action that we take.

Each one of you has played a critical part in scripting this success - our faculty for their research work and publishing in top tier journals and teaching, our students, who are all successful professionals today, our staff, who are passionately committed to excellence, and our families for making the ISB such a vibrant community that it is. I thank you all for your invaluable contributions, and look forward to your continued support and commitment towards strengthening this great institution.

To celebrate this momentous occasion, I welcome you all for a get-together at the Atrium at 12:15 pm today.

With best regards,
MR
*******************************************************

Cheers ISB. Thank you Rajat Gupta and team!

Heat

So the ding from O came very quickly last weekend, but not before a good dinner at Taj Ahala, what a solace. So back to square one. One strange trend is appearing on campus. Companies come in and talk about picking the 2-4 years experienced IT guys and wanting to groom them into Engagement/BD managers in about 3-5 years post MBA. That is definitely a good prospect, I would say. And the 8+ yrs categories are gonna rake in the moolah this time with roles in Corporate strategy, Delivery and the like up for grabs.

So what about the wonderful 5-8 yr experienced bracket? What are we to these organizations? It is quite scary to hear so many companies clearly avoiding this category. 25 days to placements and the stock markets are plunging. Can't forget 2001 when I passed out of engineering and entered a market battered by a major US slowdown. Till some shortlists come, a slightly negative sentiment will linger.

What timing?

Seriously. After more than 1.5 years I have got this sore back as a result of the silliest of things I can do on campus. Well I flew kites on saturday. And what great fun it was. Donno what kind of crazy monkey jumps I did. I shouldn't have played so much with D's son.

But what to do now. Interview is gonna happen in 3 days. Will be my third interview so far. G was the first to shortlist me. Did a phone interview first. I thought I messed it but and then she called me for second round. It has been a month now and we are still faced with scheduling problems. Donno when this round will ever happen!!! Then B shortlisted me and I thought had a cracker interview. But somehow she didn't like me :(, cha too bad !

And now O wants to meet me. So J & S have been doing cases with me for a while now and today all of a sudden A administered a couple of cases in a totally new style and flummoxed me. So I came up with beautiful MECE strategies that will ensure that the problem is structured well and is presented convincingly. But what crap if I don't understand the question properly and just focus on structuring the problem. Oh God where are you!

Drama

"I hate you. I hate myself. I will never talk to you again...sob...sob" said Harish and perched up the huge drum in the balcony. Every one in his class was going for the school excursion to Ooty, but for him. Momma says "no" and says she has her reasons. It was so disturbing. Kishore and Harish had been planning for this excursion for so long. They had even saved on their pocket money so that they could go boating and even have ice-cream in the cold weather. Nikhil had even promised to bring his brother's camera. Now everything was ruined.

There was never enough money for anything. Even last month when Harish wanted a Indian cricket team jersey momma said no. "What a worthless childhood it was?" thought Harish. Before he knew, Harish dozed off in the balcony and woke up early morning realizing he had slept hugging Momma. He was distraught and decided to put up a face till he went to school. It was a really bad day for him except for the fact that Vikas also was dropping out of the excursion. He decided to go to the ground and play cricket after class, even though he knew that Momma would be waiting at home.

Finally at 7 PM he reached home still maintaining the face. Kiran chacha was home and seeing Harish said "Here comes my lion". But Harish was in no mood and went straight to the balcony. Momma said "This drama started last night". He could not take this anymore. A huge tear just rolled down his cheek and just then he felt his uncle's hands on his shoulder. He decided not to turn, but his uncle gave him a key and said "My son, Momma has been saving Rs.100 every month since last fall for this bicycle. I want to see you to take a ride".

Harish did not know what to say. He ran and hugged Momma.

"I'm sorry Momma. I've been such a bad son".

"No dear...I've been quite a bad mom the whole of last year"

Chacha said "Now you both stop the drama". Everyone burst into a big laugh.

The week that was

It was a totally sinusoidal week. Some lows compensated with some big highs. Lows first

• Tel Aviv University canceled this years exchange program leaving me shattered. All my Israeli, Egyptian and Turkish tour plans lay derailed now :'(
• Languishing in Chennai I forgot that I had to revise core terms. Now wondering how I'll catch up

Now for the highs

• Received the keys for my new apartment in Chennai. News is that DLF is entering Chennai with a complex right opposite my apartment. My mom is a visionary :)
• Got my first consulting shortlist. It was a company I was hoping will shortlist me for my domain knowledge and they didn't let me down.
• Won the ISB Torchbearer award. My friends say it was expected but nevertheless it is very sweet.

It is placement prep season from now on. Just three subjects next term should help me prepare better, provided I keep away from timepass activities. God bless the week that went by.