Deepak's Ramblings

Raise our walls

2010-02-14T20:14:00.005+05:30

In the backdrop of cowards once again exposing our nation's security chinks there are two famous Khan's leading a campaign each. While the "Incredible India" campaign wants us all to look inwards and display pride in being an Indian, there is the other campaign asking for more co-operation & collaboration with a rouge neighbor. I want to see India grow in strength and very strongly feel that this is not the time to think about friendship with such neighbors. It is high time we look inwards and introspect much more than we have ever done before. It is time to think what will make each one of us proud of ourselves. Have we thought what our generation's contribution to the country is?

And so this is the time to raise our walls as high as it can be so that we need not worry about these neighbors bothering us. Let us shut out all access and bilateral trade with this neighbor. Of course we will need to take care of the ones dependent on trade around the borders but unless we close ourselves to this neighbor we can never hope to focus on our internal problems.

The union budget is due within a couple of weeks and it is time for Dr. Singh & Mr. Mukherjee to take the cue and allocate more resources to seal every plug around us. At the same time we individuals should look a little more inwards and act with greater self respect. Lets live with pride, let us live in peace.

The new crop of parents

2009-12-28T16:06:00.006+05:30

Oh well...This may not be just my observation but this is something I have been wanting to write about for a while now. Initially I thought this was a phenomenon I was seeing happen in my extended family. I thought while most of my generation is trying to improve in this competency (I know I'm getting good at it) they want to provide an early start to their kids. But these days this thing is just getting rampant; so much that I'm just irritated with almost an entire generation of parents barring a few exceptions here and there.

Oops I didn't yet tell what I'm getting irritated about. These days I get a helluva irritated with this legion of parents who can only talk to their kids in goddamn English. Before I rant further, I want to excuse people who want to argue that this blog itself is in English and those who want to say that who I'm today is in part due to my English skills. By no means am I against English. I (coming from the South) will be the first to accept that English is what is binding India together to a certain degree and I also strongly feel that this skill gave us the first mover advantage vis-à-vis the low cost global delivery model (GDM).

But why are things thus. May be because a lot of us go to an office where every communication with your boss, the client and the janitor happens in English. In fact a friend of mine told me some years back that his English improved a lot after he started thinking in English (!!!). But what we probably don't realize is the fact our success to a great degree in business or elsewhere has got to do with the empathy that we have for other people, cultures and languages. The learning of our native languages fosters unique ways of structuring communication and creates indigenous thought patterns that is found no where else on earth. When Google wants to move the Indic way why do we need to go the English way and let our native tongues wane out.

My two paisa: Wake up parents - I know you want your kid to be successful in life. And for that speaking/knowing good English alone is just not enough. Teach your kid 2-3 languages. Develop empathy and language neutrality in them and see them grow into responsible individuals.

Accountability travails

2009-09-11T22:12:00.001+05:30

Over the last year the world has been debating a lot about the Obamanomics of bail out plans, the failure of economists in predicting the recession and the way i-bankers self serve to get fatter bonuses. We are certainly going to see many more business cycles and many more versions of bashing and counter bashing. In my opinion, the recession that we may just be leaving behind was here because no one wanted to accountable. The key lesson learnt is that it is not always possible to leverage and securitize.

The markets seem to be picking and sometime soon the sentiment will become a wave. Let us all make use of the good times to progress but let us remember one thing. Every one of us needs to get accountable. Wherever we invest ourselves (in our professions or in the markets) let us take a conscious effort to measure how accountability is being ensured. Speculate but also moderate and finally don't let greed overtake the desire to be right.

Going Green

2009-02-11T18:14:00.004+05:30

A friend bitten really hard by the 'Going Green' bug had a big confusion. Is the usage of electric powered hand-drier a greener alternative to using a paper napkin?

But I had a different viewpoint. He better carry his own handkerchief or better still why to wash hands every time :-)

Oh BTW, this happens to be my 100th blog post.

Digipsyche

2008-12-28T10:57:00.008+05:30

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

2008-11-30T09:50:00.005+05:30

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

2008-11-24T14:16:00.001+05:30

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

2008-10-15T23:44:00.012+05:30

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

2008-10-12T19:36:00.004+05:30

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

2008-08-11T00:00:00.007+05:30

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

2008-08-09T10:09:00.007+05:30

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

2008-06-27T11:52:00.003+05:30

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

2008-06-24T11:45:00.002+05:30

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

2008-06-10T18:16:00.002+05:30

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

2008-05-28T18:05:00.003+05:30

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

2008-05-06T15:51:00.001+05:30

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

2008-03-29T12:46:00.008+05:30

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

2008-03-26T22:12:00.007+05:30

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

2008-03-12T02:15:00.005+05:30

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

2008-02-23T10:52:00.002+05:30

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

2008-02-18T01:16:00.004+05:30

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

2008-02-16T11:06:00.003+05:30

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'

2008-02-14T12:12:00.003+05:30

"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

2008-02-11T23:36:00.000+05:30

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

2008-02-03T16:13:00.000+05:30

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

Google and Yahoo

2008-02-01T21:16:00.000+05:30

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

2008-01-30T00:31:00.000+05:30

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

2008-01-28T09:48:00.000+05:30

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

2008-01-23T10:08:00.000+05:30

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?

2008-01-15T01:22:00.000+05:30

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

2008-01-06T20:10:00.000+05:30

"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

2008-01-05T13:15:00.001+05:30

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.

Term 6 Done - 75% MBA

2007-12-30T13:15:00.000+05:30

Somehow managed to cross one more :). Did four subjects again this term. Consumer Behaviour (COBE), Customer and Market Performance Management (CMPM), Investing in Private equity (INPE) and Financial Statement Analysis (FSAN) were my subjects this term. It was a good fare with special mention to the faculty for CMPM and INPE. So many things happened this term and as usual it is over even before I realized it started.

Our ELP is almost complete with just some minor documentation left. All ELPs will soon get closed and focus will shift to placement preps next term. Mom left Hyd and is happily enjoying in Atlanta now. Sad news is that my exchange program looks lil doubful with the tension in TAU now. The strike has been going on for 2 months now. If it doesn't happen then I should find something else to do in April and May.

Me taking a 4 day break now. Got to finish some chores in Chennai and may be do some reading too. And to all readers of this post, wish you a very happy, successful and enriching 2008.

Anniversaries

2007-12-27T10:01:00.000+05:30

It has been three years since then. For the first time me and S decided that enough was enough and decided to drive to Houston all by ourselves. It was a little more than a 12 hour drive and the interesting aspect was that both of us had never driven on a highway. So I said "One day we have to do it. Why not today". After roughly 7 hours reached Dallas and decided to call up M, my college mate and colleague, to see if we two can spend the night at his place. He was a gracious host. Just after dinner I logged on to read the worst news I have ever read in life. The entire coastlines of Bay of Bengal and nearby seas had experienced the worst TSUNAMI ever a few hours ago. All phone lines to India were jammed and after several hours finally managed reached my uncle to find that everybody we knew were safe. But sadly the damage was done and the situation was really bad. My roomie's brother had escaped by the skin of his teeth and when the videos came it was indeed shocking to see mother nature's fury. Today is the third anniversary of that day but the shock still remains. Well, it is a day for all of us to remember that we are all just tiny little things in this world order.

Today also marks 1 year since I was interviewed for ISB. ISB is quite a life changing experience and one year later, today, I'm looking at 3 more days to become a 75% MBA. At the same time I'm also quite tense about the fact that I have just 3 more months left and the job hunt phase is starting. So many pre-placement talks have happened. And so far nothing has excited me much. It is just the beginning say some but this time around I should not take up any offer just because I need a job. I hope I can hold up and not buckle under any kind of pressure. Thinking of the TSUNAMI is just the right thing now. These are small things after all. I should rather worry about my life goals instead. Ahem!

Solstice 2007

2007-12-24T15:15:00.000+05:30

It has been 2 full days of fun at ISB. Probably the first clearly chilled weekend here. As such the mood in the campus keeps changing almost as much as the hyderabad weather. 'Solstice' is ISB's reunion event. Started in 2003 it brings alums from all previous batches back to ISB and everyone celebrates their home coming. This year's Solstice apparently had many firsts. With the placement season coming up in about two months, alum interaction to a good degree is centered around that. This time around our placement committee organized a day full of mock interviews conducted by the alums. Around 140 of got a chance to go for a mock and I was among the lucky ones. Good a fairly good idea about my preparation levels !!!

The highlights of Solstice this year were the new 'Events Lounge' created by our batch and the live performance last night by the 'Indian Ocean' band. Our batch was one studious batch. The average CGPA of students is up by 0.2 and everyone studies like hell. So whenever parties and music was played in any of the student villages there was a big hue and cry. So much so that there were heated discussions and meetings with the Deans etc. etc. After all these problems the Student Life Council (SLC) decided to construct a new 'Events Lounge' away from SV-3 near the nursery. It is a beautiful hangout and probably the best getaway that can be built on campus. Everyone is damn impressed. In fact on friday night I even saw some of the die-hard book afficianados at the lounge (Well, McKinsey shortlists are out and so books can probably rest for a few hours). I'm sure all future batches will be thankful to our batch for coming up with the 'Events Lounge'.

Indian Ocean's performance on saturday night was again too good. I have never listened to them live. Boss...The experience was just awesome. To add the the fun there was free booze too. All in all it was a wonderful night. Back to reality today with assignments and pre-reads. Anyhow, three cheers for an amazing Solstice 2007. As our SLC President rightly put it, Solstice 2007 was one of the most successful events in the history of ISB and by far the biggest Solstice ever. 'Class of 2008' rocks.

Chennai blues - III

2007-12-23T03:53:00.000+05:30

Finally the last part of the torturous series is here :)
Part I
Part II

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Welcome to Starbucks. What can I get for you today?"

"Two tall Cafe Lattes with cream, a croissant and a muffin"

"Can I get anything else for you sir?"

"Please use fat free"

"And the name on the cup, sir"

"Pramod...P R A M O D"

"Thanks have a good day...Next in line please"

As Pramod stepped out of the line he saw a familiar face.

"Hi Pramod. How are you doing?"

It was as if lightning struck him. "Hey I'm alright...How are you?"

Arjun's eyes welled up. "It has been a long time...hope alls well with you..."

"Yeah...pretty good"

"I still feel sorry for that night"

"In some ways its for all of our good"

"Yes...I think...may be"

"Of course...You should meet Radha. Hey Radha, this is Arjun, the one I was talking to you about. Arjun this is my wife Radha"

"Hi Radha...You both make a great pair". Radha knew everything about Arjun and what happened that night.

"You are so lucky. Pramod is truly a treasure"

"Boss...I'm far from that"

"You have so not changed"

"Coffee for PRAM 'ODD" said the lady. Radha reflected. She was indeed lucky to meet Pramod. And ever since she heard that story she had always wanted to meet Arjun. And today her wish came true. It was about 6-7 years ago. That was when Pramod was not really sure if he wanted to be with Susan. There was a palpable tension in the relationship and one day, after a long discussion and argument with Susan, Pramod went to pick up Arjun from the airport.

Arjun was coming back after six months and it was not difficult to notice that something was amiss with Pramod. Notwithstanding his jet-lag, he made Pramod to take the next exit so that he can drive himself. As Pramod took the exit they heard a small thud behind and some squeaks.

“What’s that”

“Donno man. Let’s just get home soon”

The next day was probably the worst in their lives. Apparently Susan had been following their car and when he took the sudden exit, she tried to take a sharp turn too. The thud they heard was actually Susan’s car toppling over. Help reached her several hours later and she did not survive the crash. Pramod was shaken and Arjun had pangs of guilt for having made Pramod take the exit.

Shortly, after Pramod relocated and soon enough decided to go to Chicago GSB for an MBA. Radha was doing liberal arts at Chicago and after knowing each other for a while they decided to get together. Arjun moved around too and was now an associate vice president of a large American firm.

“You should come home for a dinner”

“Sure man. I’ll call you soon”

“Take care dude”

“Bye…Radha you are a very lucky gal”

“Yes…Indeed” thought Radha as a tear went down for Susan.

Why MBA?

2007-12-20T02:33:00.000+05:30

This question is rather too late in the day for someone who is a week away from becoming 75% MBA. But before imaginations run wild, lemme clarify that this post is not really one more figment of my self-introspection and neither is it intended to mock at anybody else's perspective. Notwithstanding why I'm doing my MBA, it sometimes is intriguing when I hear the rather wide ranging (some puzzling) answers I get to hear from some of my batch mates and the several b-school aspirants I interact with. I never thought that the MBA meant so many different things to people. Some of the puzzling ones include

i) I wanted to stretch myself
ii) My Dad challenged me to do an MBA
iii) The chicks are too good man
iv) I think I must become an entrepreneur but I don't have a business idea
v) I really missed college life
vi) I knew I needed a change but couldn't figure out what

While these may sound funny at first shot, the individuals actually managed to put them across convincingly. People indeed have different takeaways from this thing called MBA.

'Solstice 2007' will happen this weekend. We are expecting around 150-200 alums on campus. It is gonna be lot of fun and placement gyaan at the same time. Meanwhile, R1 results of the 'Class of 2009' are out. Welcome juniors. Two aspirants I helped in some ways are thru (Several others in Pagalguy did too) and one more is waitlisted, while the one I thought would sail in very easily missed out.

Finally the third part of last story is getting ready and will be out soon enough :) :).

Chennai blues - II

2007-12-05T01:51:00.000+05:30

"Surprise, surprise. Just close your eyes and sit here". Pramod sat on the couch wondering what Susan had up her sleeve.

"Ok. Open your eyes now"

"Wow. That is a surprise indeed. Let me try some". Pramod slurped and had a spoonful of the gajar-ka-halwa.

"So. Where did you buy this from?"

"Naughty. I made it for you"

"You are kidding me"

"No. Ever since you mentioned that you miss the halwa your mom makes I was planning on this. I googled up the recipe"

"And where did you get all the ingredients?"

"I went to the Patel store and bought these. The lady was really curious who I was trying to impress"

"And you told her my name?"

"Whatever is wrong with you. I will never get the idea of you secretly dating me"

"Nothing is sure as of now. I don't want the gossip hungry Indian housewives chirp away about us and get the story across all the way back home"

"Are they so bad?". Pramod just finished the halwa and gave back the bowl for a refill.
What does your friend Arjun think about us?"

"Arjun... He will support me in whatever I do. Just that I need to make up my mind"

"Take your time sweetheart". Susan gently kissed Pramod and rested on his shoulders.

Pramod continued his halwa feast. Everything was so sweet about Susan. But for her anguished past, a painful divorce and losing custody of her child. She was too young to have gone through all that. But now that she has found Pramod, life had a new meaning.

Pramod had never experienced so much attention in life. Everything was great about life now. It was all like a dream. But somehow he still knew there was something amiss.

--------------------------------------------------------------------
To be concluded...

Chennai blues - I

2007-11-30T02:26:00.000+05:30

"Hey, watch out", screamed Arjun as a Forrester zipped past their small Corolla. "Whatever happened to you. Do you realize this is I70 and not your panagal park main road where there is no lane discipline". Pramod didn't utter a single word. "Take exit 204 and I'm gonna drive after that".

"Susan...I don't know how she is now?"

Arjun set the cruise control and glanced over "Why what happened to her?"

"No da...We had a small misunderstanding"

"What business do you have with American women? You don't even talk to our desi girls"

"I tried to convince her but she would not accept anything"

Arjun took exit 197 and stopped the car in the 'Sonic' parking lot.

"Are you ok? I don't quite understand what you are saying. Whats going on between you and Susan? What doesn't she accept?"

"Boss. She wants to marry me and will not take any amount of reasoning why it cannot work that way"

Six months is indeed a long time. Arjun finished his last project and went back to Chennai to take care of some family stuff and Pramod continued in the same apartment 'coz he was sure of Arjun's return. Bored without company he joined the neighborhood gym and started taking aerobics lessons. Susan had her share of rhythm troubles with step aerobics and so the instructor set up separate times for Pramod and Susan. The typical south Indian good boy he was, he could not help notice that Susan was cute. She was around his age and seemed to be very quiet for the average American. Pramod liked ogling at her but never tried to initiate any conversations until Susan stopped him after class one day and said, "Hey, I'm Susan."

"Hi...I'm Pramod Rangarajan. You can call me Pramod"

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Story...to be continued

Term 5 Done - 62.5% MBA

2007-11-25T19:42:00.000+05:30

Yet another term whizzed past or I should rather say bull dozed past us. Contrary to popular alum gyaan term 5 was one of the most hectic terms. May be the choice of courses hurt me but almost the whole batch kept saying this. Did four courses; Marketing Execution, Marketing services, International Finance and Global Strategic management. The less said about academics the better. I would have loved to derive more out of the subjects and what the profs. wanted to convey but somehow the workload was overwhelming enough that I was either under prepared for the classes or was distracted with one thing or the other.

The resume fever really caught up this term. I have been fine tuning my resume all through the term but both my selective applications so far have been dinged (Anyhow I'm too tall to be part of a "short-list"). Did not come as a big surprise considering the spiky strong profiles that got short-listed. More international companies are coming this term and the system of not knowing the final results till February ensures that some of the best in the batch end up getting literally every international offer. I do not know of a way around the complicated issue of accommodating rolling international recruiters without affecting domestic recruiters who come only in Feb. Can't really complain 'coz almost 150 recruiters come around that period.

After exams till this friday, me and team of three others achieved a first of sorts. We won the first place in an RFP contest at IIM Ahmedabad's Confluence 2007. The team sacrificed Diwali celebrations on campus and submitted the prelims proposal 2 weeks ago and lo we entered the finals. After a full nighter on friday we flew in to Ahmedabad on Saturday morning. The IIMA campus was a no-nonsense place and the architecture reminded of my days in CEG. IIMA students were great hosts and everything was organized to perfection. The victory was really sweet and could not have come at a better time. Term 6 starts tomorrow and I'm now staring at two case submissions due by morning. God, please give me the strength to get through two more :) !

I miss you

2007-11-12T21:17:00.000+05:30

As I trudge along and squeeze in this post in the midst of the 100000 things I'm into, I seriously miss one person. The one person who never knew how bad the world around was. The one person who did not think any one competes against anybody else. The one person who did not know what jealousy was. The one person who did not read between lines. The one person who had no ego. The one person who did not try to work through personalities and ego's. The one person to whom life was nothing more than waking up and going to sleep and being nice to everyone in between. The one person who was never bothered about the next hour, leave alone tomorrow. The one person who had friends swarming around all the time. The one person who was the darling of everybody. The one person who was happy all the time. I seriously miss you 'My innocent self'. I really do.

Tact

2007-11-09T23:35:00.000+05:30

One conversation lead to another and finally led to a discussion about one brilliant guy. I think it is only a small token of appreciation to have a post on this amazing guy(although volumes have been written about him already)

Brief Profile (ISB folks... notice the spikes in the profile!!!)
RAJU NARAYANASWAMY IAS
First Rank in Secondary School Examination
First Rank in Higher Secondary
10th Rank in IIT Entrance Examination
First Rank in IIT B.Tech Computer Science
First Rank in IAS Entrance Examination
First Rank in IAS Training Institute

After 10 years of commendable service in IAS, he was forced to leave the profession and take up a position in UN. Later he came back to service and latest news is that late September he was shunted from Idukki after unearthing a Rs.19 crore scandal. So what exactly is happening here? A man of such unearthly intelligence does not know how to work through the system and tactfully do good? I may be passing value judgements here but is it true that with such extra-ordinary brilliance comes a certain kind of restlessness that will prevent a person from having any tact?

OpenSocial

2007-11-02T02:40:00.000+05:30

It is a tooth and nail battle out there. A little over a week ago Microsoft paid $240 million for a 1.5% stake in facebook.com, the no.1 social networking site in the world. After this news I created a facebook account, to add to my Orkut and Myspace accounts, as if the whole world wants to network with me and read my useless profile PJs. But is it really worth so much. What are these guys fighting over? Are these social networks just mines of demograhic data? Are they answers to unmet customer needs? Or are they just high potential advertisement channels?

Making this fight further interesting, Google chose halloween day to announce to the world its new social networks developer platform called OpenSocial. And not just that, Google already has signed up MySpace, LinkedIn and Friendster into this platform. And news has it that some of facebook developers have also signed up. This battle is getting interesting by the day.

As a hapless user, I just want one social networking profile, totally integrated with all my desktop software and my mobile phone. Google/Microsoft - Are you listening?

Look who's come

2007-10-28T09:41:00.000+05:30

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

2007-10-21T10:03:00.000+05:30

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”.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
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

2007-10-20T13:55:00.000+05:30

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

2007-10-15T19:34:00.000+05:30

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

2007-10-06T09:53:00.000+05:30

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

2007-10-02T14:42:00.000+05:30

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.

So true

2007-09-29T16:48:00.000+05:30

Readers may find this post silly and crackpotish. If this post doesn't make sense, I think I have achieved the purpose.

Mercurials are the fastest thinkers on the planet. Their mental acuity makes them extremely perceptive and very observant. They tend to be hyperactive, nervous, and irritable and have rapid mood shifts. The high metabolic rates of the mercurials make them prone to insomnia and sleep disturbances, and this makes them wake very easily. They suffer from real or imagined aches and strange maladies that have no symptoms. In the inner world of the mercurial she has a complicated labyrinth of doubt and insecurity. She has a constant feeling that you are always looking for an advantage you can take over her. The mercurial moves from person to person and has brief periods of intense friendships but has trouble believing that people really like her. Every scowl or raised eyebrow is taken personally and makes her wonder if her friend is really a friend.

Saturns on the other hand are very paternal and responsible in nature. Their chief feature is dominance. Saturns feel qualified not only to determine the best course of action for themselves but also for those around them. This makes them behave like a psychological weight. They are better off keeping this feature of dominance from becoming oppressive. Generally saturns have difficulties with martial, mercurial or solar types when their dominance evokes power. Saturns are prone to thoroughness of thought process and have a tendency to sit back, analyze and deliberate about thoughts and actions. Whether important or unimportant they invest the same solemn deliberation for every undertaking. The nailing was this one, “Saturns like to study psychology and become therapists or psychoanalysts”.

LOL. I think I’m doomed. One day all my human type analysis efforts are gonna make me mad!!!

Human Types - IV - Classic Venusian

2007-09-27T19:23:00.000+05:30

After a really really long break I'm trying to revive this series. Hope some of you had some success spotting personality types. The next type I'm going to discuss here is the Venusian type, obviously influenced by the planet Venus. Venusians are passive and positive and the earthiest of types(Venus is close to the earth). As usual, I'll broadly split the description into two parts, characteristics(the mindset/behavioral aspect) and physiology(the body).

Characteristics
Venusians are born followers. It is not that they cannot think, it is just that they always think what the people around them think. If you wanna watch a movie, the venusian wants go watch the movie. If you wanna go trekking, the venusian wants to go too. Basically the venusian blends in and doesn't create a ripple. The venusian loves to live through others and are excellent listeners, always willing to listen to other's problems. Consequently they make good therapists, nurses and paramedics. Venusian mothers are a family's delight. They pack excellent lunches, sew the kids clothes and bake excellent cakes/cookies. Venusians are natural foodies and most often the left overs in the refrigerator will do fine. Many a time they appear careless of their appearance and attract gravy spots on their shirts and blouses.

Venusians are the most dependable characters on earth. If you have a venusian in your life you are really really blessed. You have the warmest friend and the most die-hard supporter you will ever find.

Physiology
Venusians are earthy and usually fleshy and carry their weight in their hips and thighs usually beneath a relatively high waistline. Their faces are pleasingly proportional and many of the women, and some men too, are sensuous and have seductive curves and soft pillowy flesh. Most venusians have bad teeth, due to over indulgence in sweets and due to hyperactive parathyroid. Sometimes venusians have a gap between their upper front teeth.

Happy analyzing and as I have mentioned before, a careful analysis of the physical traits is a good starting point always.

ISB Term 1 Video

2007-09-25T00:56:00.001+05:30

I need to preserve this nice video to my blogosphere memorablia :)

Why?

2007-09-23T18:10:00.000+05:30

Recently, I came through a news article that said that private hospitals all over India have started doing a basic test to check for HIV virus in every patient's blood and immediately several groups have started protesting against this saying that the hospitals are violating the fundamental right 'to consent' to be a subject of the test. What crap? I mean, in my opinion, these hospitals have taken an incredible step. When the HIV demon is proliferating at such a rate in India and can stand as one of the country's biggest challenges in the years to come, this kind of screening of blood is of paramount importance. When social groups should start appreciating this move and make the government make this mandatory everywhere, they are actually protesting against this !! I donno what kind of bloody motivation is there behind these protests.

On the other hand, the Ram setu controversy is reaching its crescendo. Haven't we already done enough damage to our country by playing with the religion card. I'm sure we can use scientific evidence to prove all mythology wrong. But here we are talking about emotions and sentiments. When we can be sentimental about a pen or a piece of jewellery, why not appreciate the fact that some people are sentimental about the Adam's bridge. I really can't understand "Why?" !!!

Helicopter Man comes to ISB

2007-09-16T23:32:00.000+05:30

On Saturday, the Entrepreneurship club at ISB played host to the 'no-frills' hero, Capt.G.R.Gopinath, the pioneer of the low cost airline concept in India. It was the most stylish entry by anyone who has come to ISB so far. Capt. flew in his own chopper from Bangalore and spoke to us about his village upbringing in Karnataka, his stint with the army, his return back to his village farming, his sericulture business, his helicoptering ventures and finally the saga called 'Air Deccan'. It was truly inspiring to hear his story because he attributes all his success till date to just one thing 'perseverance'. He was truly a 'no-frills' man and we were privileged to listen to Chevalier de la legion d’Honneur (Knight of the Legion of Honour from the French Government)

I don't know

2007-09-14T19:56:00.000+05:30

I don't know why we still know each other only by name, although you strangely knew mine before I got yours. I don't know why I never try to barge in, although you hang around with guys I know very well. I don't know why I can't try and find out if you are already committed. I don't know why I didn't get into the habit of saying "hi" to you. I don't know why my heart skips one beat every time I see you. I don't know why my tongue almost went into a double knot, the one or two times I talked to you. I don't know why I hesitate to add you on to my Orkut friend's list. I don't know why I haven't gotten over some of my bitter past. I don't know why I still get nervous. I don't know why I like you, although you are quite short for me. I don't know how I will feel when you leave for your exchange program. I don't know if I will come up and tell "you look brighter" after your next facial. I don't know if it is really sensible to pursue you. I don't know why I'm blogging about you. I don't know if you will ever read this and post a comment. I don't know if I will ever get any further.
-Prequel to the formation of the Flippant hearts club@ISB

Onam@ISB

2007-09-10T18:47:00.000+05:30

Last week we had Onam celebrations (albeit a bit late) on campus. Me, SP and SR organized the tug-of-war, Pookalam competition(floral rangoli) and had Sarovar serve an Onam sadhya. The ISB students and spouses unleashed their creative best and came out with incredible patterns.

See the winning entry from Section B

And here is Section D's creation(Our section got the second place)

An Intellectual Orgasm

2007-09-07T22:49:00.000+05:30

Term 3 introduced many of us here to the world of Corporate Finance. Although I had heard of some of this jargon before, I was never aware of a discipline called Corporate Finance. A major aspect of teaching is the way a subject matter is delivered. Although many of my batchmates with a financial background will disagree with me, Prof.Bhagwan Chowdhry, UCLA, exposed us to CFIN in a truly unparalleled style. While he had to skim over a few really deep topics, I got to understand that the subject was really profound. While I'm not going to delve into all topics that he taught, I want to record some of the wittiest moments in my blog. Some call his jokes playboy stuff but everyone surely enjoyed his wit in class.

On the adverse selection problem...To a girl in my class(TL), Do you agree that guys at ISB range from sleazeballs to nice guys. She said yes. So on an average guys at ISB are jerks. She said yes again. So 'coz you consider the average guy to be a jerk, you don't get the guys above the average jerk(the nice ones) and you are stuck with the sleazeballs. She couldn't do anything but nod in approval.

On Arbitrage opportunity, Situation in a party. You are a guy, like many around, who has never had any luck with women. And all of a sudden, a beautiful young lady walks up to you and says, "Mein tumhare bachey ki ma banna chahti hoon - I wanna become the mother of your child". Can you believe it?...The catch is there is no free lunch.

On private valuation, I'm reading a book and my wife calls me to do the dishes. I ask her if she knows my billing rate. But she says that I'm just reading a book and not consulting right now. But the reason I'm reading the book is because I value the book more than consulting. But I still ended up doing the dishes 'coz she threatened no sex tonight.

Talking about benefits of going public he says, Human beings fornicate and read newspapers.

And talking about the costs of going public, Good or bad somebody will sue you

On signaling, he said something to this effect, I have my head tonsured to signal that I'm macho :-)

On underpricing in an IPO, The common investor gets too many lemons and too few peaches. Underpricing is the sweetener

On VCs, Venture capitalists are like your father-in-law

Finally his advice to us, Even though I look very young, I'm actually old enough to give advice :-). Use the GEO principle to decide who to work for or who to recruit. GEO is Generous, enthusiastic and optimistic.

This guy is truly a gem. Given a chance I would do CFIN again from the start and I think most of my classmates will agree too.

Term 3 done - 37.5% MBA

2007-08-28T16:03:00.000+05:30

A little over four months ago 422 young and old kids enrolled into this cute and fancy little program. They were all dreamy eyed, energetic and were ready to conquer the world. Today the dreamy eyes have given place to eyes that long for sleep, the energy levels are barely enough to withstand the battles at the testing arena. But one thing, they all still want to conquer the world. And they all took one more step closer towards this goal. At the end of another term of wizening, they are heaving a big sigh of relief, because as per past survivors the worst is now behind them. This term, of course, was the hardener 'coz they learnt some real serious stuff like Corporate Finance, Operations Management, Managerial Accounting and Entrepreneurship. As usual the learnings were immense but they were also daunted by the biggest roadblock in life called time. The day unfortunately had only 24 hours and the body would not always co-operate. But still they trudged along. Some managed to sprint in some phases and helped the others come up and some others did it when these guys stuttered. Everyone had some fun, some enlightenment, some realizations and some reassurances thrown in at them. And guess what they all managed to survive once more.

As much as they are all looking for the real challenges like ELPs, PAEV's and international placements, which are round the corner, they all are looking forward to this 5 day break. Cheers once again !

From War zone

2007-08-27T00:11:00.000+05:30

Two weeks and no post. These two weeks have possibly been the most hectic period at ISB so far. I have averaged 4-5 hrs sleep everyday due to the innumerable assignments and case studies that were pending. Tomorrow is once again exam time. Feeling much more relaxed compared to earlier terms even though I still have a long way to go tonight. One major update is me and KS have finally managed to launch a new social club called 'Vistas and August house' club. We are primarily focussed at literary events, soft-skills workshops and epicurean pursuits. In two days I'll be home in Chennai and I get 5 full days off. Yahoo!
International placements start next term and I donno which companies I want to apply to. Hopefully the economy stays up for one more year of rocking placements.

Jeffrey Sachs on India

2007-08-11T21:47:00.000+05:30

6:30 PM, August 8th, 2007: The Indian School of Business played host to the greatest economist of this generation, Mr. Jeffrey Sachs, Director, Earth Institute, Columbia University. Jeffrey needs no introduction to the ISB students. Prof. Krishnakumar from Rand Corporation taught us Global Economics in term 2 and he extensively used videos featuring Jeffrey solving hyper-inflation and extreme poverty in third world countries. After a raunching introduction by Rajat Gupta, Jeffrey walked up the stage to talk about 'Climate change and Sustained development in India'. He started out talking about the three major phases of economic development in India since independence, the 1947 to mid 1960s perios when essential PSUs were set up, the mid 1960s to 1980s when Green Revolution and infrastructure development happened and finally the 1990s onwards opening up of the economy and the rapid growth. Prof. Sachs feels that any country has to do two three things(in that order) to achieve sustainable growth.

i) End extreme poverty
ii) Achieve rapid growth
iii) Create a framework for sustained growth

And all of these have to be done consistent with our environment. Sadly, India has achieved the second step, achieving rapid growth, but has failed very badly on the first and third step. The high incidence of stunted growth in children(malnutrition), maternal and infant mortality is proof for that. In spite of great advances in the technology & infrastructure sectors the spending on primary health is among the least in the word (Some thing like $10 per head compared to $3000 in US). To add to this India is a coal based energy producer which contributes to a lot of carbon addition, a major greenhouse gas. The need of the day is to have public-private partnerships to uplift the poorest of poor in India and improve the primary health care system. he particularly lauded the efforts of the Satyam group which was setting up mobile public health clinics using a public-private partnership model. Prof. Sachs likes the fact that anything if decided happens very fast in India and he wants our country to target achieving this by 2015. After conquering this major challenge starts the gargantuan task of achieving sustained growth in an environmentally friendly way. He strongly encouraged carbon sequestering and use of nuclear and solar energy to a greater extent. Then followed audience questions. He stunned everybody with his knowledege about India. I felt that he was not just an economist. He is a technologist, environmental activist, public planner and visionary all packed into one wiry body. It was indeed a privilege to listen to such a great legend from such close quarters. Three cheers to ISB.

The happening place

2007-08-08T15:54:00.001+05:30

This is an incredible week at ISB in terms of what hogs the calendar. On Monday we had Prof. Raghuram Rajan(Ex IMF chief economist) address the students on 'Liquidity Glut' (It is a different story that a good part of the advanced finance talk went over my head). Today we have Prof. Jeffrey Sachs talking to us on 'Climate change and sustainable development in India'. We are all so looking forward to litsen to Jeff talk in person, after seeing him in so many videos in the "Global economics" series. Tomorrow we have the chairman of the ISB board, Rajat Gupta having an interactive with the students. And once again every student wants to see the man who conceptualized ISB. To keep things in perspective we also have the mid-terms on friday :-). As if this was not enough a group of us had a one to one with our dean, Prof. Rammohan Rao. Had a really free flowing 1 hr of discussion with him and in the process got to know from him that ISB will be in the FT world rankings to be released in Jan/Feb 2008. Man this is really a happening place.

Turning 60

2007-08-05T11:33:00.000+05:30

Its hardly a week away. Yes come August 15th, it is going to be 60 years of free India. It is a day to commemorate our victory over colonial forces, to pay our respect to the sacrifices of the millions of freedom fighters and the thousands of soldiers who fight to safeguard independent India. At ISB we are going to have one of the major events of the Net Impact Club called ‘Bandhan’ - an event for the underprivileged kids of 5-15 years age group from 6 NGO run schools of Hyderabad. In association with Sports Club, Arts and Creativity Club, SFA Club and the Dramatics Club several recreational and creative events on this occasion will be held to make it a memorable day for these kids. The club is short on funds but students are contributing generously(in spite of shrinking wallets) to make this event a success. Yesterday the Spouses and Family Association(SFA) organized an event called Drizzle and put up fun-stalls and food joints to raise money. It was good entertainment and hopefully a good amount of money was collected.

Just doing a simple calculation. If each of the 422 students contribute Rs.25 per month we can collect Rs.10,550 per month. But how to go about doing that? Direct debit can be one option but not all students have a direct debit account. If we had a mandatory smart card system we could have implemented a keep the change system to collect trickles of change. Blokes, if you can think of some interesting ideas to raise funds in a campus type environment please do let me know. Talking about student fundraising this funny video captures elements of bad fundraising by students. Enjoy !

BTW news is out and my last assignment at work has turned out to be a success( see deal) and an official press release came out a couple of days ago. So its time to feel proud :-) !

Whats happening

2007-07-29T01:45:00.000+05:30

A tumultuous week and a half it has been, since the term break started. India barely escaped with a draw in the first test. Dr.Hanif's case reached a crescendo but finally he has been released and is flying back home. The Tatas are leading in the race to buy Jaguar. Danone and Wipro are trying to buy Bisleri. The sensex is experiencing major corrections. Prathiba Patil has been elected to become India's next president. Looks like Najma Heptulla will make it two women at the top and the Harry Potter series had yet another round of success with both the book and movie doing really well so far.
And things have not remained so far behind at ISB. Two leadership development sessions, one on people skills and another on presentation skills happened and Term-3 kicked off last Monday with loads of pre-reads and an assignment to complete before the day-break on day 1 of the term. Prof. Bhagwan Chowdhry from UCLA is teaching Corporate Finance for us and his classes are really awesome. Prof. Atul Nerkar teaches the Entrepreneurship course and has really charmed the whole batch. The very first class included a case analysis of a worldwide private equity venture and our section debated the case in and out with Atul. When we had 15 minutes left finally, Atul introduces Jay Dehejia, one of the partners in the venture and one who we read about in the case. The whole class roared into a thunderous applause and we were all spellbound to see a person from the case come up and talk to us. Even though most of term-2 results are out and assignments & AIKYA(A hyderbadi family is adopting my study group) beckon ISB students this weekend, we didn't forget to party. I'm just back after the 'Pirates' party and it was sheer fun. The enthusiasm was electric and the booze was really free flowing.

Term 2 Done - 25% MBA

2007-07-17T23:14:00.000+05:30

Time for the next term completion post. After five weeks of great learning and a bizzare two days of exams term 2 has finally come to an end. This break I'm staying back in campus. This will certainly help me catch some breath before we get into one more term of berserk activity. The major highlights of this term were MARKSTRAT(the marketing simulation game), macroeconomics and decision modeling. Ziv Katalan's flamboyance, Jagmohan Raju's wit, Krishnakumar's dedication, Milind Sohoni's passion and Harbir Singh's lethal execution will remain etched in mind for a very long time. Except for the finals which I hated once again the learning was immense. Got two good friends, CD and SP in this term and we three with AB are going to be doing a marketing strategy assignment with a large Indian corporate over the next few terms. So alls well that ends well and successfully the class of 2008 becomes 25% MBA.

Pic: A popular one around the campus on the Decision modeling course. The subject is my personal favorite but I still loved this strip.

At wits end

2007-07-15T15:05:00.000+05:30

Term 2 is drawing to a close very soon and looking back at the last two terms I can see that there has been so much of an evolution in the student community. When we all first met a couple of months ago there was an all pervasive spirit of developing our knowledge repository and only pursuits that helped add knowledge seemed to be the right thing to do. But after three months of roasting, asses are on fire and pursuits and perspectives have generally gone for a toss. There is so much of cramming happening everywhere and quite a lot of this makes me feel totally uncomfortable. I'm so out of the stage where I will try to eat something that I dont like 'coz it is socially acceptable to eat that particular something. The 1 year MBA is certainly an experience that tries and tests your psyche, patience, wit's end and hopefully I will end up with better perspectives. News is out that, amidst this mad pressure, two of my batchmates traveled to SPJain this weekend and won two case analysis contests hands down. These ISBians certainly have their perspectives right. On a side note I have succesfully bid for a whacky exchange program to an exotic mediterranean b-school and if alls well I'll finish my MBA with supposedly the most intelligent race on earth.

Dipak Jain on campus

2007-07-06T01:59:00.000+05:30

The really great are the one's who can have a light head in spite of great achievements. Today I found that Dipak Jain(Dean of the Kellogg School of Management) is one of that kind and not just that. He is the first Indian to become the dean of a top US B-school and is a truly inspirational speaker. His address to the ISB student body was titled "Global Macro trends" and he touched upon a few major trends

i) Demographics - The western world is aging. The number of centurions in Japan is increasing every year. The proportion of old people in western countries is going to increase dramatically over the coming years. In this context India has a unique advantage 'coz we have 70% of the population less than 30 years of age. This effect is totally gonna polarize the world with the majority of the workforce from India. Prof. Jain calls it the 'Browing of the global workforce'

ii) Hypercompetition - The next trend Prof. Jain emphasized is the way competition is looked at. According to him the competition to the airline industry is not essentially between airlines. Rather it is video conferencing. Bulk of the air travel is business travel and if video conferencing reaches a certain level business travel will reduce as much as 80%. So the strategic angle for airline industry has to be perceived in a totally different way.

iii) Innovation - While we learn a lot about first mover advantage and market share and how great it is to have these advantages Prof. Jain talked about how Google enters after Yahoo/Microsoft and captures everything. The way the company innovated was the key. The customers of Google are not really the people who use the search engine. It is rather the website that receives the click. Google realized the fact and this innovation was the key to it's success. He notes several Indian students in a Mexican business school trying to learn Spanish(with a Mexican accent). They are all going back to India to set up BPOs to cater to the burgeoning spanish speaking American population(mostly migrated from Mexico). These are ways to innovatively forge ahead.

Prof. Jain's humble beginnings, his meteoric rise and true Indian spirit was totally inspiring. I felt really enthused after the speech. Well, anyhow I should have guessed that you cannot go wrong with a name like that.

Going on air

2007-06-27T19:50:00.000+05:30

This was a first of a sorts for me. I officially went on air yesterday as the newest RJ in the ISB Radio. I play a show called "Play something country" and the musical variety I dish out is pure american mid-western country music. It was a little bit of struggle to do the recording initially even though MnM told me how to go about it. But JR stayed back with me and eventually I thought the show came out well. It was a nice feeling overall. Thanks to SS and MK from class of 2007, the ISB Radio was started last year and today non-descript fellas like me get a chance to become RJ's. BTW this was the promo that I used for the show.

Human types - III - Classic Lunar

2007-06-23T00:20:00.000+05:30

As we venture into this world of understanding and identifying "Human Types" I want to re-iterate the fact that personality that a person acquires by virtue of grooming does not essentially mean the essence(the engine that operates inside). Under these circumstances, a careful observation of physical traits would really be an ideal starting point here. Today I'll start with the classic Lunar type. As the name says people of this type are influenced by the moon and are the only passive and negative type. I'll broadly split the description into two parts, characteristics(the mindset/behavioral aspect) and physiology(the body)

Characteristics
- Silent and secretive, Lunars prefer solitude and do not like to attend parties. If in a crowd they end up sitting in a corner or standing by a wall. They are basically low adrenaline types
- Like the moon they have a side that they do not show to the outside world.
- They are passive, so they perceive the world as a something that acts on them(something on which they have no control) and so they tend to be defensive
- A lunar is persuaded, goaded, begged, reasoned or bribed to do a thing. You cannot take a snap decision and take your Lunar friend to the mall. If anything she has to change her mind herself and should never be forced
- They remain cool and calm in emergencies and usually end up as heroes during crisis
- They are really successful as part of medical teams in emergency rooms or in bomb squads
- Lunars have great attention for detail and like work that involves minimum interaction with people. They sometimes tend to lose the big picture.
- The brilliant lunars are the world's scholars, inventors and mathematicians and some have a tendency towards monasticism
- Sometimes they tend to be timid and cynical and their biggest weakness is 'willfulness'. They are the ones that can say 'No' for the longest amount of time
- The lunar attracts maximum to the 'Saturn' type which we'll discuss in an upcoming post
- Lunars are the most loyal friends one can ever get

Physiology
- Mostly short and rounded, they are young looking, frail and have an unfinished look(under baked)
- Like to stoop/hunch and wear neutral colors, all to avoid attention
- Have eyes that look away and don't make eye contact
- Have dim eyesight and prefer dim lighting
- Have weak chins and very thin and patchy facial hair(males)
- Have generally low body hair and suffer from frequent digestive problems

This is one of the hardest types to accept oneself to be but nevertheless one of the most easily recognizable types. Happy analyzing and as usual bouquets and brickbats welcome.

Web 2.0 ...

2007-06-21T13:25:00.001+05:30

As the rage with Web 2.0(the evolved web) is hotting this video by a K-State prof. captures the beauty of this metamorphosis. As has been told by millions before, the possibilities are endless and the potential is mind boggling. Enjoy the video !

Human types - II - Primer

2007-06-19T01:51:00.000+05:30

Ok...Time to start the series of the Classical types. Some ground rules before I start. Applying the techniques discussed here would require prolonged and persistent observation of self or the target person. The reason is every person's personality is malleable and what one displays to the world is not essentially the true essence of the psychology underneath. But a big positive in this method is we can start with the physical attributes of a person. While that is not conclusive, it can help you clearly eliminate some of the types. Most of the types have names associated with celestial bodies. What it means is that the particular essence type has some characteristics similar to the celestial body. Example, the lunar type, like the moon has rounded faces and like the moon shows only one side to the world. There is another side that is usually never revealed. Finally, most people circulate between two classical types. So look out of two types that more or less describes your essence.

A little bit of encouragement in this series would definitely motivate me to do the work of reading up my stuff and illustrating the essences better. So, do post your comments and keep reading 'coz very soon I'm going to expose what your essence is.

A sad demise

2007-06-17T02:38:00.000+05:30

I think I'm pretty late to latch on to this news. But it was really really sad to learn about the murder of Koushambi Layek, a 24-year old software professional who used to work for TCS. It particularly haunts because she was killed by her boyfriend from Orkut. Apparently the relationship started in a train journey and matured through orkut scraps. It is very unfortunate that well educated girls fall into the trap drawn by such psychopath's. Only this morning I was so happy that I had an orkut account 'coz I'm keeping myself upto date about my school, college and office friends and lo I read this news item. There is no doubt that orkut is a fabulous medium but a request to all my lady friends reading this blog, is to better avoid the unknown guys. It is true that there are a lot of nice and interesting guys you can possibly meet in Orkut but a safer way to use orkut is to keep in touch with all your old friends who you can't meet on a day to day basis. Poor Kaushambi, may her soul rest in peace.
The story
Read also

Human types - I

2007-06-15T03:08:00.000+05:30

Have you ever wondered what makes you behave the way you do? What makes you think the way you do? What is it that sometimes makes you bring out top drawer stuff and what is it that makes you suck so much in certain things? If you have ever wondered, then continue reading, else call it quits and get to something better. So you are reading further and you think I have an answer to all your questions. Will you believe me that I have all the answers? If you say "yes", I'm going to open the door of realization and help you know what you are and what exactly you are made up of. And I'm not going to stop there. I'm going to tell you secret ways that will help you learn who the guy next to you is and what makes him work the way he does. What i'm gonna tell you are not concepts that I have theorized. They are actually stuff that so many people have worked on and refined over time. It is all based on the fourth way system and the "Enneagram model" which explains everything you do based on your essence. As I kick start this I realize that it is not easy because I'm thinking this will probably have to be a series with atleast 8 more parts to follow. So as usual keep watching this space. You are in for some slam dang self-introspection :-) !!!

Identity Crisis

2007-06-14T11:20:00.000+05:30

In the almost three years that I spent outside India, I thought a lot about immigration (to the USA of course). I have close friends in the bodyshopping business pestering me all the time and there were times when I almost decided that I was going the green card route. But there was something deep inside me that was totally against this. It was this thought about losing my identity and being culturally fit in a foreign land. In fact I was the only desi around who had a good number of videsi friends and I used to hang out a hell lot with them. To add to these, the country line dancing at electric cowboy got me a number of Italian and mexican friends too. After a lot of quality time spent with them I realized why I my mind was so fixated against immigration. In a multi-cultural group, while being sensitive and appreciative of each other's values, I held a strange pride about my cultural identity and uniquness. I realized that this is the one thing I did not want to forego. I realized that as long as I do not immigrate I get to retain all of that. I'm sure there are people who would not completely agree to my views that those who immigrate lose their identity. But I'm happy that I was not smitten by the bug and eventually decided to get back to school.

But what about those who took the plunge and are faced with the bigger challenge of dealing with the situation. The journey starts a whole identity crisis thingy. Particularly the first generation immigrants go through a hell lot of trouble. They tend to fake accents, some long to come back and others want their children to retain Indian values. A lot of them end up raising thier children with confused values. But in the middle of all commotion, I think a few people have found an answer to this too. And the best way to handle the indentity crisis is to actually laugh at the situation. Yes, humor is the magic potion here. A couple of these confused kids have done this exceptionally well. One is Russel Peters, the Indo-Canadian comedian and the other is Maz Jobrani, the Iranian American bloke. These guys have given the culture fit issue a different perspective. While they are essentially comedians, the comedy manages to spark a lot of profound thinking. They convey this beautiful fact that while the world (or economy, if you will) is shrinking at such a pace it does not essentially mean dilution of identities. Infact it is the retention of these uniquenesses(excuse me) that makes the stage called the world such an interesting proposition. You can read my banter but if you watch some their stage acts you are definitely going to be enthralled. And yes, these guys make me admit that my way is not the only way to think through these issues.

Videos I loved : Russel Peters

Videos I loved : Maz Jobrani

Term 1 done - 12.5% MBA

2007-06-05T17:19:00.000+05:30

Phew. At last the term 1 exams are all over. There was a disconcerting quiet in the campus during the last 4-5 days. On sunday evening I went for a stroll, and walked two rounds around the campus. In 20 minutes I crossed just one person, an exchange student from Germany. I was taken aback by the extent to which activity comes to a stop during the exam time.

Just about an hour ago the marketing exam got over. I invoked all my creative juices and poured out some trash in the paper. Basically, I sucked in all the other papers too. So overall I have come to know that I'm way beyond my academic best. But I like the way tests are conducted here. In 3 out of 4 subjects you don't have to rely on memory. You can carry books, notes, cheat sheets etc. I particularly like the way Bruce Allen put instructions in the economics paper. It said something like, you may refer to your books, notes, calculators. But you may not refer to anybody else's 8.5 X 11 answer sheet or calculators. He was another great teacher we had this term. He was a showman and was extremely funny. The way he explained risk aversion with the example of "teeny-weeny" kids asking for milk was the highlight. Alls well that ends well. I will have fond memories of this term(even though the grades may dampen them a bit) where I was introduced to the ISB way of life.

Good news is that I'm starting to Chennai in couple of hours. I have to be back by friday because the LDP classes are scheduled over the weekend. So its a short trip to check the progress of my new apartment which is under construction. I will also get to meet my dear buddies 'Laka laka' and 'J' after almost 2 months. So it will be a 3 day break from studies and obviously blogging too.

The pics : One is the best dunk of term 1 and this one is Section-D with Prof. Waterman.

Taking Charge

2007-06-01T01:43:00.000+05:30

As of today term 1 classes are over. It is so sad that Mark Finn and Bruce Allen won't be teaching us anymore, but the gratifying thing is that I'm almost gonna be 1/8 MBA (assuming I'll pass all subjects). Exams are on monday/tuesday and as expected the batch is slogging again. My mixed results in the mid-terms make me believe that "I'll remain as cool as I can again".

An interesting incident happened in campus this week. As part of the student body(GSB) elections we had soap boxes for all the candidates who were contesting for the GSB core positions. One very influential post had the least number of aspirants ( 3 to be precise) and with the end-terms approaching only 40 odd of us attended the soap-box. The people who came up and contested for that position were really sure about what they were going to do and had clear roadmaps to achieve what they said they will. Apparently a small lobby were not satisfied with any of the candidates. So they went up and started a signature campaign to re-open nominations. Now what do we call this act? Initiative?? Naaah..It is closer to something called shame. It is a fact that you are among the creamiest of cream in the country. So that doesn't mean that you can slack off and expect the best to happen. People who they think can be better candidates lacked the initiative in the first place to take up the challenge. So what is the guarantee that these guys will do well if the nominations are re-opened. So if people are not satisfied they are only paying the price for their own callous attitude. This is exactly what prof.Rangnekar said on the first day. "Take charge". If you want something, do it yourself and don't expect someone to do it for you. I do not want to blame it on lack of experience(A lot of youngsters are very mature indeed), but the fact remains that with experience you realize that the world is not always a fair place. Don't expect the world to change for you. You have to be the change.

Finally, common sense prevailed, nominations were not opened, and elections happened the way it should have and the best possible outcome came out. I wouldn't have expected this from ISB students but as someone rightly pointed out, "Individuals are intelligent but people are dumb". Anyhow, the tension is catching up and now I'm off to take a deep dig into the world of statistics, accounting, marketing and economics.

Wear Sunscreen

2007-05-28T01:22:00.000+05:30

Well its time for a video in my blog and I start with what is the best advice that can be given to an incoming batch of students (A lot of it will apply to life in general also).
For people who wanna know more the script is by Mary Schmich and the video is by Baz Luhrmann.

Wiki this

Presidential Elections

2007-05-26T15:46:00.000+05:30

After holding office for five years it looks like it is time for Dr.A.P.J. Abdul Kalam to relinquish office. Dr.Kalam is a great leader and used his first citizen role exceptionally to motivate the Indian youth. I have been particularly impressed with some of his speeches in the president's website http://presidentofindia.nic.in/. I was seriously expecting him to get a second term but our political parties have vested interests to take care of and so the nation will soon be getting a new president. A few names are doing the rounds, including the Chief Mentor of my ex-company. But my gut is that political appeasement will be the criteria this time.

Meanwhile at school, we just had our Graduate student body president elections. MG won it in what ppl say was a close race. We had an impressive set of candidates in the fray and I think MG's early initiatives forging a wide ranging partnership between the school and his ex-company did the trick. The scale of the initiative is really great(should run into several millions) ranging from research to ELPs to recruitments. Doing all these before people even got time to settle down is really commendable. But at the same time this raises the bar up for him. He has quite a handful to take care and I wish him good luck there. I thought some of the other candidates were very good too, particualrly AP, VR and PS. ISB will offer more opportunities for all these guys and the so far dormant leaders over the next year. So here is one for all the leaders at ISB. Cheers !

Fun with Statistics - Prof. Stine

2007-05-18T17:57:00.000+05:30

What does it take to make a subject like statistics really enjoyable for a literature major. Is it real life examples, actual business situations from fortune majors or HBR cases? You can get more functional answers than these anywhere else. But ask the ISB class of 2008. The one answer would be "witty one-liners". Professor Bob Stine descended from Wharton and spent three weeks with this batch teaching the first half of the statistics course. In this really short time he has created a lifetime impact with his treatment of the subject and his wit. While i enjoy statistics normally, this time I enjoyed the wit more. I made a note of a good number his one-liners in class. here we go

"We are now comparing apples to donuts"

"This thing is spreading like wild flowers"

"Assume we are holding a stock for as long as a day"

"Don't put all your mangoes in one basket"

"I hope we are appropriately dubious about this assumption"

"SAIL is the puke green line on the chart"

"Ok. I'm done JMPing around here"

"'coz I don't have any kind of life here I played with excel solver"

"I'm extrapolating way outside my experience"

"Linear models terribly don't make much sense in global sense, and lot of times they don't make much sense in the local sense too"

"Average is not good. Like the guy who drowned in a river that was on average 4 feet deep"

"Don't call me Bobbie, 'coz I'll think you are my wife"

"People don't take square roots everyday" - Bob quoting his wife

"These are the god-forbidden log-scale values"

"You call demand as D and do you use P for price or something else perverse"

"9 times out of 8 people appreciate the effort you take to present things"

"You are not going to BS your way thru the exams as they are multiple choice"

"Some people remember some things, others remember other things, but I want you to remember something!"

"Normality is more of a prayer than a necessity"

"It's a hammer in search of a nail"

So that ends the fun and after my not so good show in the mid-terms, this blog about Prof. Stine makes me feel lil better. The weekend has officially started and unlike previous weeks we have one day less and one assignment more :-) !!!

Exam Fever

2007-05-18T01:38:00.000+05:30

After a really really long time I will be taking up a college exam. The last one was in April 2001 and if I remember right the paper was Bio-medical instrumentation. A little over 6 years later I'm looking at taking up two mid-term papers tomorrow. In these six years while I gained loads of valuable experience my academic strengths have really diminished. So this time around I have carved for myself a really wonderful excuse "I'm so very tired of being the really studious guy, which I have been all my life". When I say this to myself it feels so nice and makes me feel that life is so easy.

I'm sure quite a number of my batchmates will resonate with me. At the sametime I also see folks with 10+ exp prepping like they were in class X and this mid-term is the board exam. I only wish that I don't score more than them and make life complicated. Anyhow the exam fever has really caught up here and I wish the batch of 2008 all the very best for the first set of tests this year.

Miles to go

2007-05-14T11:15:00.000+05:30

Five hours of sleep is a premium these days. Assignments and morbid discussions on how the demand curve and supply curves shift totally drain you. In the end you realize that you are just four days away from the mid-term test. In spite of best efforts you are lagging in the pre-reads and now you are playing catch-up. After poring over pages of material and quite a lot of problems you feel that your confidence level has increased marginally. You look up and see it is 2 AM and it is time for the library to close. You come back and slog it out for an hour more resulting in no further increase in confidence levels.
Not surprisingly, it is so easy to fall asleep. You just need to lie on the bed and very soon it is 8 AM and the alarm buzzes to start another day of learning. To top all this salsa lessons start tomorrow and the spanish language classes will also be starting soon. I stopped to think if I'm trying to bite more than I can chew. But then I thought, this is the year for learning and there shall be no stopping me. Once again today I have "miles to go" before I can sleep again.

Study group in action

2007-05-09T23:25:00.000+05:30

As I promised last time, this post is about my study group. The ISB folks have put great efforts to create study groups with people from diverse backgrounds. My group has five members and we have just gone through one weekend of assignments. I'm still quite far away from being able to classify them in an enneagram chart but I have got a fair idea of the team's working styles and group dynamics already.

First in the team is AP. He is a commerce graduate from Calcutta and has an equity research background. All through my life numbers have been just measures of quantity. I have been involved in lot of data interpretation when managing projects but this guy has dazzled me by generating mind boggling inferences looking at data. May be it is equity research background but my engineering mind, even though comfortable with numbers, needs helluva lot of training from this guy to get to this level.

Next comes AB. Well..well..He has no connections with the AB's from bollywood. But he easily brings the greatest amount of diversity in the group. A second generation entrepreneur, he started and ran his own polymer based doors business. Even though he cashed in on Mumbai's real-estate boom, this guy felt that in the long run he must trust structured business analysis skills more than gut feel and instinct. He is the practical guy and has an uncanny sense of humor. Girls have already branded him the "whacky" guy of our batch.

Along comes SI. A kind of journalism/writing back ground. He has been content developer for travel related websites. A fantastic team player, an idealist(Capricorn's usually are) and a down to earth demeanour would explain him succinctly. He brings out the most genuine and earthy ideas on to the table and acts a beautiful moderator whenever our marketing plan discussions become really heated.

Then comes SK. This guys comes with loads of business development experience in the financial products space and already has an executive MBA under his belt. A go-getter he is easily the most aggressive member of our team. Has a really sharp wit and the ability to make people listen to him. He played excellent host over the weekend arranging a luncheon for our study group.

Finally yours truly comes as the IT pro next door eager to learn from all these guys. This idea of group work is really fantastic. Taking it a step further, I think ISB can also shuffle study groups after every term. I think this will serve in making people better prepared to work in different teams and will also foster networking within the batch.

Classes begin

2007-05-02T01:09:00.000+05:30

The class of 2008 is two days into term 1 and the whole atmosphere in the campus has changed. Four hours of classes per day and almost double of that time spent on pre-reads makes it a 12 hr work schedule every day. Add to it time spent to catch up with batch mates, read the newspaper, hitting the gym etc, one hardly has any time to sleep. I think the art will be to assimilate information fast. One should learn the art of skimming thru information and grasping the gist of it. I have been up until 2 AM the last two days. Not that I cannot sustain this, I feel I shd. improve my productivity so that I can participate in other things also.

Talking about the teaching faculty, succinctly put they are really good. I guess I had no reason to think that they will be ordinary considering the fact they all have associations with the Wharton's and Kellogg's of the world. Class participation(CP) is another new concept that is throwing tantrums during lectures. With CP given 20% weightage in marketing there is a mad rush of people wanting to say something or the other. I'm sure the initial enthu will die down after sometime when the student's mind's reach an equilibrium state. Two more days of classes this week and then my study group will hit on two assignments this weekend. My study group is a really curious mix of ppl. I think I will write my next blog about my study group.

Pre-Terms done

2007-04-29T02:45:00.000+05:30

As I blog after one of the better parties at ISB organized by Liquids(these bars come to ISB to conduct promotional events) some of us are also rejoicing the fact that pre-term courses are over and we are ready to get into Term 1. The pre-term experience was overall pretty good. I had enrolled myself for all three pre-terms of which I would say that quantitative methods was not really necessary. As a matter of fact I learnt new things only in the Accounting classes. The QM guy was actually good. He was touching a lot on philosophy and mathematics and it was quite an interesting fare. The stats guy made himself popular with the 'Boy meets Girl' problem, one that was well received by all the students. The accounts teacher taught us a lot of new concepts. I now know how to balance assets with liabilities and equity. Wow I have already started learning business. Core term 1 starts on monday and I have lots of pre-reading to do before class starts. I will start something productive tomorrow.

IIM results are out. AFAIK two from ISB have made it to IIMs also. One guy has decided to leave ISB and another has decided to stick on. Well personal requirements matter a lot here. My personal take is that if you have less than 3 years exp. go to IIM else stick to ISB.

The Three Islands

2007-04-26T00:10:00.000+05:30

'The Three Islands' is a nice little game that was part of the 'Bind Unwind' team building exercise we had last week. The concept of the game was simple. A group of 30 odd people were split into three teams and were made to move to circles that were drawn on three ends of a small grassy area. Apparently as part of the game these circles were designated as islands and out of which two were sinking. The rest of the ground was supposed to be water. The three teams were then deliberately deprived some essential physical faculties. One team was totally blind folded, my team was deprived of any chance to speak (the dumb team) and the third team's members had their legs tied. Now the blind team was given small pieces of sponge which were the props that can be used to cross over to the island that will not sink. The blind team and our team(the dumb team) were secretly told that our islands were sinking. The lame team was only told that two islands were sinking, so they were not sure if their island was sinking. The whole group was then given one hour to get ourselves transported to the island that is not sinking. Sounds simple right. But what happened over the next one hour unraveled some really striking management fundae. Actually the fact that I was part of the dumb team helped me observe things much better. Ok, so here is what happened.

As would any logical team do, the lame team shouted out to the blind team and asked them if their island was sinking. The blinds said yes and we the dumbos were listening. Then the lames turned over and asked the dumbos if their island was sinking and the dumbos nodded "Yes". But the interesting thing is the blind guys could not see this and so they were not sure which other island was sinking. So now the lame team knew that they were in safe harbor and realized that only they can help the whole group achieve the team goal of getting rescued from sinking. So they called out the blind team to get one of them come over to the lame island placing the props sequentially and get saved. Then one of the lames can limp over to the dumb island and then the dumbos will get the rest of the blind guys saved.

Here is when an interesting twist happened. The blind team got a feeling that the lame guys were probably trying to deceive them. They started asking why the lame team wanted to help them when their own island was not sinking !!! What the heck can the lame guys answer for this??? The seeds of distrust were sown and the blind guys decided to come to the dumb island which was an impossible task based on the arrangement of the islands. We dumbers were totally at loss as we could not do anything to make the situation better. The one hour elapsed and the blind guys could manage nothing and essentially the entire group lost the game.

Thinking back on the game I could relate it precisely to any organisational set up. The blind guys were like the top management. They had what it needs to save the entire group(the props) but they were blinded from reality and had distrust running in their blood. The dumb team (which I was part of) was like the worker class. They have no voice and can do nothing to change the world. The lame team meanwhile is like the middle management of an organisation. They can see what is happening and can advise the top management what to do but they still are tied to their feet and can't really drive the change. They want to save the organisation but don't have the power to do. What a sad situation...

I was really amazed at how a simple game like this can teach such profound lessons. I'm really thankful to the alums and the external org. that helped in this team building session. Way to go ISB !

Career Options and self discovery

2007-04-23T22:59:00.000+05:30

One of the better events that happened during the orientation week at ISB was the career perspectives forum. The forum was conducted in a panel discussion model and there were five panelists, all alums from ISB. The backgrounds of the panelists and the order in which they spoke are

1. Management Consultant
2. Investment Banker
3. IT Strategist
4. Marketing Professional
5. Entrepreneur.

The forum basically had two parts to it. First the speakers came up and talked about their profession which was followed by a moderated Q&A session. The first speaker was the management consultant. Due to the fact that he makes his living out of powerpoint presentations he decided to buck the trend and instead talk without a PPT to support. Management consulting in his words is the job of dealing with CXO level problems. Typical assignments range from 4 weeks up to 5-6 months. The diversity of the assignments and thrill of working with the top-management of clients obviously gives the career highs in this industry. On the flip side there is a heck lot of travel. Our speaker for instance flies out every monday morning to a client site and stays there till friday evening. After 5 years in the industry he dreads the sight of an aircraft and always keeps an air-sickness bag handy. To put in a nut-shell consulting is a thrilling career for one who wants the broader perspective, loves to solve other's problems and for one who is either not very family oriented or has a very supportive family which understands his career aspirations.

Next came the investment banker. True to his profession he looked very much emaciated. He called on to the finance honchos in our batch and beckoned them to investment banking. I-banking, as it is popularly known, is among the highest paying sectors and salaries to the tune of $200,000 are more the rule than the exception. Investment bankers probably handle much higher stress than consultants and usually have 65 hr work weeks. But the job is really rewarding with the large bonuses and the high profile work style. A key learning was the fact that career shifts into investment banking by engineers/IT pros are rare and very difficult in 1 year MBA programs.

The IT strategist was up next and the first thing he asked for was a show of hands from all who had an IT background. This year's student directory claims that our batch has only 28% students with technology background but the show of hands indicated something much bigger. This instantly thrilled him and he said that the IT industry needs all of us to come back and is also ready to welcome students from other backgrounds. He was commenting on the multitude of middle management opportunities in IT and the way the outsourcing wave was booming. In his words, the industry has still got a long way to mature and opportunities are galore for ISB grads in IT. It was really gratifying to listen to him as career advancement in IT is exactly what I'm looking at accomplishing.

On came the marketing lady. She talked a lot about how every consumer decision is influenced by marketing and she also talked a lot about branding. As is expected out of any management discipline hectic schedules, excessive travel and high targets are to be expected in this role. The auditorium had a good number of marketing enthusiasts and her presentation struck a great chord with them. She also alluded to the marketing side of IT and it rung a few bells in my head too.

The stage was finally set for the entrepreneur to come in and walk away after winning all the hearts. He started by saying that as an entrepreneur you can be a consultant, i-banker, marketing pro and a lot more single handedly. He took a dig at every profession and also drove home the point of personal satisfaction that he derives out of being an entrepreneur. He also talked about the mental strength and risk appetite that one needs to have to set out on his/her own. This guy was really amazing 'coz he had his venture running even when he was studying at ISB and he used to travel every weekend to take care of stuff. It was absolutely fantastic listening to him and I'm certain that his speech inspired entrepreneurial ambitions inside the minds of a good number of people.

After this the experts clarified a lot of questions from the audience. I thoroughly enjoyed this session and gained a lot of insight about what each of these professions meant. Hearing about more and more options can confuse you a bit but it also lays a path to self discovery. For now I know that I need to tread this path soon enough !

Section D - Rocks

2007-04-22T10:06:00.000+05:30

The orientation program culminated with the Talent Nite yesterday. The class of 2008 brought out all their talents to the fore. We have great guitarists, percussionists, singers, dancers, mimics and theater artistes. After heavy partying till 4 AM on saturday I was down in the bed whole day and consequently ruled myself out of the section D practice sessions and out of any stage performance. I really hate myself for doing this but I had some solid (not bloggable) reasons for not getting out of the party zone that night ;-). So I decided to be part of the cheering squad and chant our section slogans.

The stage performances were really impressive. The evening started with a poem dedicated to the class of 2007 by one of our batchmates. Section D guys produced some really brilliant stuff. Sudipto on the tabla, Sravanthi and team with the skit and Kanika, Sumiti et al with the dance all rocked their way and earned loads of points for the team. Eventually we finished second overall. Section F's skit called "Dhanno ka Pati" earned them 2000 points and the overall championship. I thought the section F cheering squad also did a fantastic job improvising new chants every 5 minutes.

So the gyaan and fun week finally ended with the entire batch of alums who stayed back going up stage and singing a couple of songs for us. I guess it was a really emotional moment for them. Over the week I realized that each one of them was so very proud of the ISB brand and they put their best foot forward to convey this message to us. The parting words from our alum Mala was "We all will be there for you not just the coming year but throughout life". Truly our alums rock.

Today is a rest day for us. I should pick up my pre-term booklets and glance through them a bit.

Orientation Madness

2007-04-20T01:51:00.000+05:30

It has been a roller coaster first week at ISB so far. I would have shook hands with atleast 200-250 new admits and would at best remember around 100 names ! First lesson learnt "Unless you spend some quality time with a person you will not remember his/her name. Shaking hands just for the heck of it is really useless".
The batch of 2007 is doing a really fantastic job with the gyaan sessions et al but man the schedules are really crazy. The earliest I have slept so far is 2:00 AM and that too on the day I landed here.

After registration on saturday things started rolling with the dean's address on Sunday(April 15th). ISB wants to convey the message to the new batch that sunday or monday ISB will keep buzzing all along. The speech by professor Ajit Rangnekar was really insightful. His speech totally captured the students pulse. He took a jab at everything from IITian prejudices to unwarranted placement pressures to honor code violations. The clear hype on management consulting was very obvious and I got to learn that ISB was really a pro-consulting school. I donno how I will benefit from this but lemme play the waiting game.

The next four days have been really crazy with sports, treasure hunt, team buildings, gyaan sessions, club presentations, career perspectives, leadership development session and a case workshop. I had my first midnight gyaan on wednesday when the informal gyaan from the Biz Tech club went on till 1:30 AM. I tasted first victory in ISB as part of the section D Tug-of-war team. In section D some great bonding is happening. Looks like we have a great legacy to carry forward from our previous batch. Big time cheering is going on during the fun events and some of our chants go like "Go D Go" and "Jeethega bhai jeethega, section D jeethega".

Already two chicks have light a flame in my heart but both fizzed out after I saw them smoking. I thought smoking these days is out of fashion but I was surprised to see atleast 50-60% of the girls smoke. Right now preparation is on for the talent night on saturday night and by all projections the craziness will continue till end of this week. Pre-terms start next week and hopefully I'll get into a groove and manage to balance my act.

Rough Start

2007-04-15T01:37:00.000+05:30

After a comfortable train journey bunch of ISBians from Chennai reached hyderabad this morning. In what could be one of the biggest shocks I have had so far my name was not present in the list of admits in the main gate. The guys checked all the student villages and my name was not present anywhere.

What the heck !!! Did I really have an admission offer or not. In a period of two hours two million thoughts passed my head. Finally my name was found in the master list at 11:00 AM. The first impression did not go well but I'm keeping myself positive about the whole deal. After all the admin folks are not demi-gods. Small mistakes do happen. But the fact remains that my heart stopped this morning !!!!

Meeting with Indian Cricketers

2007-03-07T15:09:00.000+05:30

Apparently a second string Indian team consisting of former players played(and won) Pakistan in a charity match at Toronto. And guess what the team traveled with me in the Air India flight from Toronto to Delhi. Got a chance to chat with them a little bit and also managed to get a few pictures too!!!

Toronto – Ploughing a lonely furrow

2007-03-05T13:12:00.000+05:30

Finally I reached Toronto this morning at 6:00. My tryst with Air Canada is over. I’ll try my best never to fly Air Canada again. I immediately checked with Air India on my flight this evening and got to know that the flight is delayed to 2:25 AM on Monday morning. Phew ! At least I got some time to go around Toronto. Took a cab from the airport and checked in at Deluxe Inn. I was taken care of by a desi cab driver and then a desi hotel receptionist. I see too many desis in Canada (some in really deplorable conditions) and I could clearly sense that each one is longing to be in India. I can see their eyes sparkle when I ask them the very obvious question “Are you from India?” Checked for a tours to Niagara, but the bitter cold plus the Sunday meant that there were no trips. So took a longish nap till 2:00 and took the Toronto subway to get to the “Union” station at downtown. The subway system is very similar to the one in Singapore. Here there is an east-west line and a U-line from mid-north west to down south and all the way up to mid-north east.

A forty-five minute journey split across two trains made me realize the size of Toronto and I reached downtown. This is a typical downtown, the familiar glass-plated concrete jungle, if you will. It was not very difficult to spot CN tower, the very purpose of my visit. With a $26 entrance fee I could go up to the second level observatory. The only other buildings of this scale I have visited were the Sears Tower and the John. F. Hancock towers in Chicago. A 44 sec trip on the elevator took me to the first level observatory which is around 346 metres. The view of the Ontario Lake was simply superb. I just got reminded of Chicago because the Michigan Lake view from Sears tower is almost very similar to this one. Looking at the ground from the glass floor section was quite a scary thing. After getting an extreme picture here, I went up the second level observatory (447 m) which is rightly called the top of the world. I have decided to add a few other high rises to my to-see list are

i) The Ostankino Tower, Moscow
ii) Petronas Towers, Malaysia
iii) Empire State Building, New York
iv) Taipei 101 Tower, Taipei

Back in the airport the 2:25 AM flight is now pushed to 6:30 AM. What a journey this is turning out to be. God please save me !!!

Terminal Musings

2007-03-04T12:06:00.000+05:30

Never in my wildest dreams have I thought of the proposition of spending a whole day in an airport. Some excellent co-ordination by my company’s travel department and a big snow storm at Toronto has got me stuck at the Calgary International airport now. My original flight has been canceled and now after being standby for 3 flights I’m waiting for the fourth flight. Although I’m mad at a lot of people I’m taking this time to just cool off. After all I haven’t had any time for myself since April 2006. I was busy all of May 2006 winding up my first 100% mainframe project (curse my efforts at becoming versatile). And then I was busy preparing to fly to India for Divya’s engagement. All of June 2006 flew by with the engagement work and trying to reserve a marriage hall for the wedding.

Talking with Sreeram ( a.k.a Kulguru) during my vacation was a really big turning point in my life. He egged me to take GMAT and told how strongly he believed that I could be in a top B-school. What a great friend he is…You are great machi. Then came the two months slog balancing work and GMAT preparation. My college time MBA aspirations were all too obvious to my friends because I cracked the CAT 2001(It is a different story that my naiveté did not help me convert the interview calls). But this time I kept a really low profile about my second attempt at getting into a B-school. I can count with one hand the number of people who knew that I was preparing. Even after getting a pretty decent score I kept everything under the warps about my applications. I know that a lot of my friends are angry with me because I was operating so clandestinely. This MBA thing almost ate me full time up to early December and by then I was ready to fly back to India. Divya’s marriage happened on 11th Jan and in the middle of all commotion I had my ISB and RSM interviews. I then set out to Pune to help Divya and Sujith settle a lil bit.

Another nice twist was this Canadian due-diligence assignment. A couple of good meetings during the client visit helped me land into this fantastic assignment. I consider myself really lucky to be part of a team doing due-diligence for a $100 million deal…Do I really need an MBA I thought after getting picked up for the assignment. I met some really exceptional Infoscions here. The good quality in this team was the fact that even though the team members came from so many different offices each one knew to how to work cohesively towards the one goal of collecting and crunching as much information as possible. After a terrific presentation of the DD findings to the client yesterday, the team disbursed.. Once I head back it will be my last month with Infosys. I have learnt a lot from her (Infosys) and even though we are breaking up now in not so good terms (I got indications that my promotion is being withheld :-( ), it is a relationship that has shaped me. Okay, the pork ribs and the glass of wine are empty now and I’ll put a full stop to my inebriated rambling too :-) !

Calgary

2007-02-24T10:23:00.000+05:30

Today it is two weeks since I came to Calgary. This place will last in my mind for a few reasons. First was the shocker of sorts admit from ISB which I got immediately after I landed here. The next thing is the biggest thermal shock I got in life. In spite of the fact that I lived three winters in Kansas the cold here was at a different level. I landed here to face a -23ºC for around three days with continuous snow. Work started slowly but with this kinda low weather I started feeling low myself.

But bang came the Chinook wind, another fantastic new phenomenon I learnt and the temperature came up to +2ºC. I read about these winds in Wikipedia and came to know that these moisture laden winds can bring up the temperature by even 40ºC.

Then came the weekend. Yours truly still has a valid US drivers license. So me and my roomie here rented a car each and drove the eight member team to the Canadian Rocky Mountains. . It was a scenic 2 hour from Calgary and the view of the snow capped mountains was really scintillating. We went up the Sulphur mountains in a Gondola and then hiked (board walked) from Sulphur mountain to Sanson's peak. It was bitterly cold and to add to the misery we played with the snow and my lips totally froze. It took a while for me to recover but all in all it was fun.

On the way back we stopped at Lake Louis. In fact we walked on the frozen lake. Watching kids play ice hockey was a real treat. We wrote our names on the snow and clicked our cameras.

These two weeks have been one of the most intense professional learning periods in my stint with Infosys. Well Infy probably realizes that these are the last few days I'll be dating her and she wants to treat me well !!! As we get into the last week of the due diligence work gets out of proportion. I just hope that I can squeeze in a few hours and catch a glimpse of the Polar bear at the Calgary zoo...

Itz gonna be ISB

2007-02-13T11:09:00.000+05:30

Finally I decided that itz gonna be ISB. A couple of ISB admits advised me to mathematically analyze the situation. So my admit decision has turned out to be my first b-school style problem.

Here is the matrix I came up with. Just plain totals as opposed to weighted scores to keep things simple. ISB beat RSM considering my requirements. So i think I'm on my way to ISB even though RSM is a lovely school!!!

Columns
A - Diversity (1-5)
B - Reputation in US (1-5)
C - Reputation in Europe (1-5)
D - Profs (1-5)
E - Placement (1-5)
F - Family Visa/Acco (1-5)
G - Low Cost factor (1-5)
H - Alumni Network (1-5)
I - Exchange Progs (1-5)
J - Total
------------------------------------
Parm | A B C D E F G H I | J |
------------------------------------
RSM | 5 2 5 4 3 3 3 3 4 | 32 |
ISB | 4 3 2 5 4 4 4 5 4 | 35 |
------------------------------------

Scoring Key
1 - Low/Poor
2 - Average
3 - Good
4 - Very Good
5 - Exceptional

Results time

2007-02-12T12:44:00.000+05:30

All the results of my MBA applications are out now. It has been a gratifying two out of three admission offers. Even though the ding from INSEAD was painful admission offers from ISB and RSM, Netherlands make me elated. I now have to decide between ISB and RSM. Each school has itz own selling points.

I chose to apply to RSM after a lot of thought. The summer internship at RSM(I'm from IT and I actually don't plan to change my stream but want to decide between strategy or marketing within IT), the diversity of the class(students from 40 countries) and the Personal leadership development program are the key things that made me decide on RSM. But RSM is high on the fees front and is slightly low on some aspects of b-school rankings but ISB doesn't participate in any rankings. Becoming a global MBA makes RSM really attractive.

As for ISB itz reputation is second to none in India and it is catching up in a very very big way around the world. The class composotion is the best in India(In fact I believe it will be more competitive than RSM) and the placements are also very good. I also want to settle in India in the long term which makes ISB very alluring.

Thatz the problem although I realize it is not a bad situation to be in!

Bangalore - RSM Interview

2007-01-16T06:23:00.000+05:30

Reached Bangalore yesterday by Brindavan Express. By 2:00 PM I checked in and went around the Majestic area. It has been 3 years since I had last come to Bangalore and I felt that nothing has really changed except for a new overbridge to cross the K.G. Road. After browsing for several hours I came back to my hotel room and read my essays once again. My career goals essay could have been better(It definitely would have if my career goals were better..quip) but I really liked my essay on travel(I'm a dumbo..When I love travel my essay on travel would obviously be good !!). Woke up today fresh and after a little bit of trouble with no hot water I finally got ready. Reached the the Le Meridien hotel and met jat_pagla from www.pagalguy.com. He wearing a suit and was very smart. He already had admits from HEC Paris and GISMA, Germany(100% scholarship here). Like me he seemed to be really enthu about RSM. Mr. Rick Rudolph called him first and conducted his interview. Mine was at 10:40 AM and he called me sharp. It was quite unlike ISB. No interview rooms or interview panels. Just me and Rick sat on a sofa and started chatting.

Before we even started he wanted to know how I managed to get get my salary increases staying in one company(Boss doesn't he know about Indian IT industry). The first question was to introduce myself to the RSM Class of 2009 in 30 seconds. I compressed my intro and probably did one in 25 secs. Then he wanted to know how I got into engg. He seemed to be very much disturbed about the fact that anybody he meets in India is an Engineer. I told him how I had always wanted to be associated with technology and how I came to the IT industry. He then wanted to know about my experience and what I want to do post RSM etc. I thought I gave ok type answers but he did not seem to be convinced at all. He kept grilling me and repeated that I don't need an MBA to get into technology consulting. Finally he decided that I'm quite incorrigible and asked me a set of very interesting questions

What is the best advice you got in life?
My answer was "Itz not the size of the dog in the fight, itz the size of the fight in the dog"

What is the one thing you will carry with you to space?
Inspired by Sunita Williams I said "Bhagavad Gita". He asked why. I said that I derive a lot of personal strength from the Gita. Oh God. It has been atleast 15 years since I did the Chinmaya Mission's Gita classes.

What will you do if you are in a room for a whole day and have just 1 sheet of paper?
Very strange question and I gave an equally weird answer. I said I'll make a paper rocket and keep playing with it till I come out !!!!

Tell all different things that you can think of related to number 7?
Seven wonders of the world, Snow white and the seven dwarfs, Seven seas, Seven nations of SAARC(what a weird answer. later realized there are eight countries in SAARC)

If you relate your personality to an animal which would it be?
It will probably be a bird. I'm like the eagle.

What makes you unique?
My life experiences, my professional experiences, overseas experience with a major american railroad..blah,blah, blah !!!!

Finally it was my turn to ask questions. One, explain the PLD program at RSM and two, why only 4% of students are Dutch? Got decent answers and then I thanked Rick for the opportunity to interview with RSM.

All in all stress free like the ISB interview but as usual no stellar moments. Will have to keep my fingers crossed till first week of Feb ! This evening I met Bhagya, a friend from www.scoretop.com and a Wharton aspirant. I thought I have faced quite a few challenges in my personal life but this girl thrashed mine in all respects. I'm sure she is the next "Indra Nooyi" in the making.

ISB Interview

2006-12-28T11:44:00.000+05:30

It was a very plain/non-stress interview. I had to write an essay on mobile phones pre-interview. There were two panelists from the ad com.

Int 1: So Deepak you have a rich exp. working overseas. What is the difference between an American vs. Indian employee.
Me: Well, the average Indian employee works to meet his ends. He needs to work for his food, clothing and shelter to happen. Else he will end up in the street. So the job comes first before his personal interests. The average american is at a slightly higher level. Even if he doesn't work his govt. will take care of him to a certain extent. So his interests come above the job per se. This is quite a generalization and may not be true for all cases.

Int 1: Ok. That was a positive. Did you see any negatives?
Me: Well yes. I'll have to generalize again. Although americans seem to get on to their field of interest a lot of them begin to wane. They do not seem to higher their bar once they reach a certain point. The average Indian though always tries to improve his status quo. Also Indians work better as a team.

Int 1: Ok Deepak. Say I have an american employee and an Indian employee. Fit them in two of the three roles namely Superior/Peer/Sub-ordinate.
Me: Ok. Once again I'll generalize. I'll place the American as a superior and the Indian as a peer.

Int 1: And why would you do so?
Me: The average American is very objective and will not let emotions sway his decisions. So it is good to work under him. At the same time the american is very individualistic and his free will rules the reign. So he will not be a good peer/sub-ordinate. The Indian mentality is more of a collective mind. So the Indian makes an excellent team mate. I have relished teamwork with my Indian colleagues and so I would fit the Indian as a peer.

Int 1: Ok Deepak. Please do a SWOT analysis of Infosys. (This went on for 20 mins or so)
I asked for a paper and pencil and my main points were around
Strengths : Existing talent pool, Derisked business model
Weakness : Low domain knowledge, new talent entering the company
Opportunity : Large accounts present opportunity to move up value chain
Threats: Being in ADM space makes Infy easily replacable

Int 1: Comment about the standard of new employees in the company.
Me: The standard is going down a little bit not 'coz of the inherent ability of the candidates. They come loaded with so much info that they take everything for granted. They expect things to happen for them without any effort from their side.

Int 2: You mean too much info is bad.
Me: Absolutely. Only people with a certain level of maturity can handle that much of info.

Int 2: can you compare offshore vs. onsite roles ?
Me: Offshore roles are good to gain technical knowledge and process knowledge. Onsite roles help you learn business better as you work closely with the end users.

Int 2: So which is better?
Me: Each provides its own challenges and opportunities. Offshore more to deal with technical and process knowledge. Onsite deals with business and challenges managing client perception.

Int 1; What is your further career progression path in Infosys?
me: I have returned offshore after 2.5 years. I'm being mentored to become a Project Manager and will see a career growth in the delivery side.

Int 1: So why did you stick with Infosys.
Me: I never got bored and always got newer challenges.

Int 1: Will you go back to Infy post-ISB?
Me: Well. I would not like to go back to delivery. may be to the consulting division

Int 1: But why is it that so many TCS guys want to go back to TCS post-MBA?
Me: I do not have any comments on that.

Int 1: List two non-professional goals you have.
Me : Further my learning of Salsa dance and Spend more time with my family.
Int 1: The second one is tough to happen. Are you married?
Me: No

Int 2: When did you last do Salsa dancing?
Me: Few months ago when I was in US.

Int 2: What is difference between Salsa and Indian dance forms?
Me: Indian dances, like kathakali for e.g. have more depth and more scope for expressing emotions and have narrative ability. Salsa is more of a rhythmic dance and does not have so much depth.

Then they asked if I had any questions. I asked about exchange programs in ISB(WGCP in particular) and they explained the bidding process at ISB. I then asked why Google is not in the list of recruiters. They said Google didn't come last year but came for both years before that. I was then asked if it was my dream company and I was asked to reason it. I had some prepared stuff to talk about here.

Then I thanked ISB for the opportunity given to interview with them. Overall I had no stellar moments in the interview and my answers were very bland . Post-interview I got a feeling that they were probably not interested in me. Anyhow I'll have to keep my fingers crossed till mid February.

Wikipedia and Wikihow

2006-11-28T09:29:00.000+05:30

Wikipedia has been around for a while now. But I have started appreciating it very recently. Although I have witnessed the internet do astonishing things that impact our day to day life I have always felt that there is so much more of untapped potential. One thing that I always wanted the internet to help me with was to satiate my appetite for information. While there are billions of websites I donno where to go for information. I want to know everything in the world that I ever need to know at one place and it should be easy to assimilate. Whether it be current affairs or historical information, sports or science, psychology or pharmacology, everything under the sun should be available.

Wikipedia does this job brilliantly. The free encyclopedia as it calls itself is an astonishingly simple website. It has an excellent screen layout and very friendly navigation. The articles come from authors around the world and it can be anybody including you and me. Making the gazzillion internet users as authors, wiki stands the best chance of becoming the ultimate repository of information in the electronic world. The clear categorization and the international multi-lingual outlook shows the futurstic direction of this website. I'm gaga about this website and it ranks at the top of my list. The fact that this website runs on donations is another surprising thing for me. It may not be too late before some corporate giant devours this company. But I only hope that its essence remains the same.

Another wonderful offshoot from the wiki stable is the wikihow website. How many times have you wondered how to do fishing or how to bake a cake. If you have any "How to" questions you just need to go wikihow and I'm almost certain you will have your answer. I had a tough time removing the shell of an egg and thought lemme see what wikihow has to say. And lo behold it came back with a dozen articles and guess what, now I'm an expert at peeling hard boiled eggs. So what are you waiting for. Log on to wikipedia and wikihow and know the world around you.

Thanksgiving

2006-11-27T12:15:00.000+05:30

As I sit back at the fag end of the Thanksgiving weekend, I see that I have had quite a week. I submitted my INSEAD application on Wednesday. Soon I heard results of some of the R1 applicants. Some really good profiles have not received calls. Some believe it is due to perceived lack of diversity and some blame their own essays. Why on earth do I have to read these right after I submitted my app :( ... I have started getting some self-doubts about my application. Even though nothing can be done after submitting your applications I started thinking about the $250 application fees !!! I could have done a hell lot of things with that much money !

Aside of this I had a good trip to Grand lake, Tulsa, Oklahoma. It is a serene lake about an hour east of Tulsa, OK. We were a party of eight and we had good fun grilling, cooking, schmoozing and not to mention boozing. My favorite white wines(Chardonnay/Zinfedal are my favs) were not available for the first two days and so I had to remain sober, but on the last day got some and went into my orbit ;-) ! Came back on saturday night. Today I did some shopping for my return back home. Got a Girgio Armani code perfume for myself a nice watch for mom.

Three more weeks before I head back home. I have lots of things to do by then. Must complete the company mandated certification, must get my Singapore visa for the stoppage enroute home, must do some more shopping and ensure that my transition of responsibilities is as smooth as possible. When to the world it looks like I'm all done I'm just boiling inside :-). I plan to blog soon on my total experience in the US. It also occurs to me that I can prepare a lot of travel blogs too.

Anyhow Happy Thanksgiving to y'all !

MBA blues

2006-11-21T09:22:00.000+05:30

Again I took a break from blogging. Been busy with so many things. I have been so much occupied with my MBA thoughts the last 4 months. With a lot of self doubts about my aptitude level 5 years after college I prepared for my GMAT. I did quite well and surprised myself with my ability to compete gamely. My apping process is on full swing and a week ago I posted my ISB app. In hindsight I have a feeling that I have not submitted my strongest of apps. But I have to let bygones be bygones.

My INSEAD app is coming along well now. I hit some fairly good ideas for the culture shock essay and my describe myself essay has also come along well. I'm really liking the B-school admission process. After this I plan to app to RSM and MBS. If things don't work I'll look at US B-schools next year. Irrespective of what the outcome is, I think the whole process has made me think deeply about myself and what i want to do in life.

Looping in Winamp

2006-05-14T23:06:00.000+05:30

It has been almost a week now. This one song is looping on and on in my Winamp !!! It is a song called "You're beautiful" by James Blunt. The video is also excellent. The guitar is excellent and the pitching of the song is great. And the lyrics relate well to guys like me ;).

I was never a great fan of vilayathi music except for the fact I knew the really big hits of the likes of Michael Jackson, Backstreet boys, Enrique etc. courtesy channel hopping and occasional college culturals. Recently I have started listening to a lot of english music. I have started enjoying the likes of Blunt, Kelly Klarkson and Toby Keith. Looks like I have started becoming more eclectic. I'm not too sure but I think this is way to go !!!

Now itz just 32 days more for my trip home !!!!