One Year stand with ISB

Bye Bye ISB?

2007-04-03T22:14:00.000-07:00

So we are in the last week. Its been a very eventful year. The last month was one of the busiest. not the usual kinds. We were too busy partying. All clearances need to be completed before the big day on 7th. This would probably be the last post from the ISB network. I am taking the laptop to the IT dept for stripping it off its preferred ISB machine status. In a few hours it will be a dumb terminal. And i hope it will remain like this for sometime now.

SO its been a great year. Now back to the real world, back to the grind. But am fully equipped!! This space shall continue...

I know you

2007-02-09T04:42:00.000-08:00

I know you very well. You hide behind the giant screen that separates the real world from the virtual and think that I cant find out. From your point of view your world is real but for me its not. I dont know who you are and what you do, but you very well know me. But you dont know something. You are part of an elite group of people who have but 1 thing in common. you wanna know what that is? you read my blog. And not only that you come back and read it again. Some of you might be waiting patiently for me to write something. some of you might be fleeting pilgrims who just came, read and moved on. Some of you got stuck and realised that this blogger is a lazy bum who writes once per month and subsequently dropped, but returned back again. Some of you never left and waited patiently for a new entry. It is to all you people who have taken the time out both regularly and sometimes that I dedicate this post.

When I started out with writing the blog, it was all with passion and enthusiasm, to capture the relatively different life that I expected to have here at ISB. After all, you guys will have to agree that living at ISB is one experience worth writing about. But Father Time played its rusting game and the enthusiaim dwindled a little. The thoughts were always there. Putting it on the screen to light the pixels took an effort, especially after the reams of reading and writing that one had to do to complete the so called assignments and exams. At the same time there was about half the class writing about the same things and the same happenings and the same thoughts and there was no way to differentiate. But now I realise that I have differentiated. And that is in the type of readership that I have. You are a bunch of exclusive people who read my blog and wait patiently for a new post. You are anonymous and stay anonymous. The best thing about you is that you are few. That enables me to share an intimate relationship with you through these words. I havent seen you guys, nor know you, nor interacted with you but still we share a deep relationship. I might have passed you on the street, stumbled on you somehwere else. It is also possible that most of you know. But I know you very well my friend (not in the sense you think) and thank you for coming back to my blog.

If you would like to get in touch with me, you can drop a comment or write me an email. If you prefer to stay anonymous, you are most welcome. :-)

Leaving all the soft things aside, simply cant imagine how time has passed. Actually the trigger for this post was the mail I recieved about the graduation day preparations and our last day on campus. That got me thawed and thinking. I was in the middle of an assignment which is due midnight and the mail just changed the course of my thinking. Its already time to leave?? Just a month and a half remaining? It was just yesterday when we had arrived and looking forward to a great year. Its all coming to an end? I knew I had to put my thoughts together, so I left the assignment and came here (to the blog). After coming here I realised, I have already shared a 1 year relationship with a group of people who I dont even know. And most of you will also leave me once I go out of here. So it was time I wrote to you my virtual friends, who have not only spent reading this space but must have also spent some thought imagining what I was going thru. So a heartfelt Thank You my friends and if you want you are most welcome to come out of your anonymous shield and write me a few lines. I assure you that you are very few and that is very much in line with what has always been my philosophy: Have a few good people around you rather than have many good (and bad) people :-)

All the best to you guys.

Hey this doesnt mean that I am signing off. This space will continue...

Problem of the Plenty

2007-01-25T22:14:00.000-08:00

PPTs(Pre Placement Talks) are going on in full swing. more than 150 companies have registered for placements and the number is set to increase. Companies are offering a plethora of roles in different locations and the number of international companies on the campus have also increased manifold. All this is good you say? Well on the face of it, its very good. But it has lead to one serious problem: Confusion. where do you wanna go? what do you wanna do? unless you are totally focussed its very difficult to come out of this mess.

Its considered a bad sign not to be focussed on your career goals. You are supposed to have a clear cut view of what you want to do by this stage. Some HR gyan gurus and also alums and other speakers who came on campus to distribute the gyaan underline the above statement. But nobody sees the main unerlying problem. The role that we want to be in the responsibilities that we wanna take are all based on our past experiences and judgement and all that we have seen and known. But there is a vast black box of the unknown which we know nothing about. We have only heard about it, learnt about it and have imagined what it can be. But we havent lived it, havent felt what exactly it is. Every job has its pros and cons and there is no such thing as a dream job.
All this blabber is very important at this stage precisely because of the vast choice available. If I believe something to be good and choose it and later on find it was something I never wanted, then the feeling of choosing the wrong thing will be very overwhelming. It is not that there will be no way to turn back at that point n time. The ISB brand name will take care of that. But the fact that you chose the wrong thing will be very intimidating. Every choice does not stand by itself. Its a tradeoff. You are giving up something to take up something. And that precisely is the problem.
But fortunately there is a way around this problem. Focus on the holistic. Forget the roles: Asst vice presidents, Business development, consultant, account manager. Imagine a day in your life, what will make every moment every hour well lived. Is there a remote chance of living that kind of life with the role that you have chosen. If the answer is Yes, go for it. Again as i said, its not necessary that it will turn out as you imagined. But there is so much you can do. If it doesnt turn out well, either adapt or leave.
I know most of the above doesnt make sense, or does it? :-)

"the anatomy of compromise"*

2007-01-05T22:22:00.000-08:00

Well term 6 is over. We are now 3/4th MBA. Just 2 more to go. And in the middle, there will be the placements. Junta is taking lesser courses next term to focus on placements. I am also thinking of doing the same. Last term was very eventful both in the classroom and outside. First of all there were innumerable assignments which really kept us busy. Then we had the party at our Aikya family's house (who is incidentally an ISB alum). No need to mention about the alum gathering - solstice. All of you must be familiar with it. Then we went carol singing a day before Christmas eve and it was a huge hit with the kids, the profs and the junta and spouses. yours truly went around distributing sweets and presents as the grand old man clad in red robes (minus the reindeers). Then there were innumerable number of PPTs and talks. Finally the new year intermingles with exams. Top it all up with a trip to Ramoji yesterday and that's term 7 for you.

You are wondering what all the above has to do with the title of the post. Well you are right, nothing! The link starts now. It is the title of a chapter from Ayn Rand's book "capitalism". Just got to lay my hands on a torn an tattered copy which I had kept for years. I knew it was a great timeless classic, also read and appreciated some of the chapters (though not all of it) and so never wanted to part with it inspite of its precarious condition. Today it just happened to grab my attention and while turning the pages I couldnt help wondering at the intellectual content this great lady possessed and how well she understood. Most of the principles and thoughts which are so fervently thought in today's BSchools as something which is time tested and developed recently, already find place in this great book of an outstanding visionary. I would like to quote here 3 basic rules (without context) from the chapter "The anatomy of compromise"

1. In any conflict between two groups (of people) who hold the same basic principles, it is the more consistent who wins.
2. In any collaboration between two groups who hold different basic principles, it is the more evil or irrational one who wins.
3. When opposite basic principles are clearly and openly defined, it works to the advantage of the rational side; when they are not clearly defined, but are hidden or evaded, it works to the advantage of the irrational side.

If you dont understand the above. Gotta read the book. Meanwhile am off to face the new term.

PMs visit and 5 year celebrations

2006-12-07T23:14:00.000-08:00

The media is agog with the PMs visit last Tuesday and almost every paper and electronic media website has covered it. There was huge security arrangement at ISB and there were lotsa cops around. It was really a proud moment for us all. It was his first visit to the ISB and he was impressed by the campus and the work done over here. I wont go into the details of what he said and did as I am sure you must have already read it all in the papers.

The PMs visit was a part of the 5 year celebrations that are going on this week on the campus. It started with the ISB Leadership Summit last Saturday which saw the presence of many industry dignitaries on the campus. We also got to meet the founding dean Mr. Pramath Sinha who tool us on a nostalgic trip when they had conceived the idea of ISB way back in 1995. The vision of the initial pioneers is really commendable and the execution impeccable. There were many roadblocks on the way but finally ISB saw the light of the day and rolled out its first batch in April 2002. This was a moment of truth for the founders and today 5 years down the line the look at ISB with pride: their baby which has grown by leaps and bounds.

There were some initial core mandates which the founders had set for themselves which really proved instrumental in the success of the school. They were: to seek the mentorship and sponsorship from some of the biggest names in business schools like Kellogg and Wharton, to be an independent institution and not be affiliated to the government or to the foreign B schools, to build a world class international campus, seek sponsorship and strategic direction from the Indian industry titans etc. The model on which the school was based was also entirely different: the one year course, the visiting faculty, the ELP etc which posed many more challenges than a normal upcoming business school might face. Then there was also the problem of relentless scepticism and discouragement from people and government who thought that such a model wont work, that India doesnt need (or is not capable of establishing) such a business school. But all the sceptics were proved wrong and the initial vision was proved right. The PM explicitly mentioned that there is a need for 100 such B Schools in India. Considering the ratio of the number of Bschools to the popluation in US and considering the indian population, the PM might be right. There is vast potential in India waiting to be tapped and given the right direction and the right coaching, there is no end to what India can achieve in another 50 to 100 years.

But the primary ingredient that is needed to meet that end is a different vision. To see what others normally cant see. To gage the direction of the tide in advance, or to put it more properly change the direction of the tide to where you want it to be. To build models that are differentiated and sustaining. Hmmm lotsa fodder for thought :-)

The little piglet

2006-11-18T10:42:00.000-08:00

We have a new addition to our family. Someone who came 2 months back. But it is occupying a major portion of my mindspace since it came. It remains a little sick and sometimes behaves funny. But it has done a great deal of help. Cant imagine life without it.

My folks are here on a holiday and enjoying the hyderabadi winter. You must know that back there where I used to live in mumbai, there is no winter at all. Here the nights have become a little chilly and I can find myself searching for a blanket before sleeping. Rest assured I ll be having a wonderful cool Xmas here in Hyderabad.

Speaking of Christmas, Last Christmas was my first white Christmas. It was a dream come true. And just like a fairy tale Christmas, it was actually snowing. But the only problem I was all alone. But thats the law of life right? You get some, you lose some, you cant have everything at the same, you cannot have some things all the time, you can have some things all the time, gawrsh what am I saying! guess am feeling sleepy, exams on Monday but no intention to study. Tomorrow I need to make an all out effort to do some serious studies. Ever wondered why we make plans always from tomorrow. Why not from now? Well am too lazy to think about that. I ll think about that tomorrow :-)

Coming back to the new someone who came into my life, we have named it piggy. Its because it looks like a little piglet and is very cute. It does a great job of carrying us around the city and takes Kandy to and from office or is it the other way round? never mind. Its all relative. Gotta go to sleep now. Otherwise God knows what I ll keep muttering. cya

End of Term5

2006-11-16T04:56:00.000-08:00

Today is the last day of term 5. We have exams next week and Term 6 starts the week after that. Cant imagine how quickly time has passed. However, it is ironic that the events that happened only a few weeks ago seem as if they have happened long past. We are doing so many things. The days (and nights) are so full. But this fullness seems to be taking its toll. There is a feeling of saturation. This is only term 5. 3 more to go. And the huge placement expectation. Things are only going to get more hot.
Talking of placements, this period is the moment of truth. This is the period (when placements have already started and many international companies have posted job openings) when you will get to know what is your market value. Since ISB is different in the sense that there are many here with comparatively high work experience, this is the moment when we ll know the true value of the industry experience prior to ISB. Whether what I have done in the past more than 5 years has substance or not. And what is the premium I can command on this substance due to the value addition done in ISB.
The Big Mac was on campus yesterday, to talk about the nuances of case interviews and the generally accepted approaches to crack them. They told us to keep it simple, start from basics, take help from the interviewer, dont ask naive or too out of the box questions, be creative, look at the bigger picture, dive into the details once you get the bigger picture right etc. Seems easy eh? wait till I start solving some sample cases.

2006-11-10T10:53:00.000-08:00

The international placements are in full swing and quite a few have been shortlisted by the international Ibanks which came in pretty early this year. The opportunities available here are tremendous. This has led to a lack of focus and sometimes there is confusion as to where I wanna go. There is also very less time to think. Already Term 6 biddings have started. I managed to get all the courses I bid for in this term. Some of the finance courses are in very high demand and lot of people stand a chance of not getting what they want. Again a lack of focus?

Last Monday I alongwith some batchmates went to dinner with an executive of an Indian Software company from UK. He initially gave a presentation on the different activities of the practice he hailed from and the different roles available. It was great interacting with him and knowing about different openings available in the organisation. It remains to be seen whether those roles will come up during the placement week.

One course which continues to intrigue and surprise session after session is the marketing Services course. The prof really leads the class slowly and steadily to new insights through structured case discussions. The different "mental models" that he seeks to imbibe with relation to funcioning effectively in an organisation are really different and thought provoking. Most of the things are not what they seem at face value when you look at it from the organisation view point. The various different activities/processes established by an organisation seem trivial and of no consequence when seen from the perspective of an employee. This course gives the point of view from the other side and its truly amazing how all these things matter from a strategic perspective and makes the organisation truly what it is. The Marketing Services course seems more of a strategy course than a marketing one. For the aspiring ISBians, this is a must have in term 5.

Placement blues

2006-10-25T04:10:00.000-07:00

The boat has started to rock. Suddenly its placement season. Some of the international banking and IT companies are already here and we are busy squeezing time for resumes and EOIs. I got all my electives and academics is cruising. We already had around 3 PPTs and 4 to 5 psuedo PPTs from the consulting biggies. Last thursday was the PPTs were kicked off with a large international IT biggie looking for some strategic roles. Planning to apply. There is also the stark realisation that how quickly time has passed. Day zero would come calling and we wont even know. Gotta be prepared and organise and prioritise things.

Diwali was well spent on campus. After a long hiatus a wonderful party was organised with great music and the usual suspects: drinks and food. There were also great display of fireworks and the campus spotted some new faces from Italy, Pakistan, China etc. here on exchange. Our people will start to go out on exchange by next term I guess. Some of them will have to miss the placement season but it shouldnt matter much. The different school experience from Wharton, Kellog, Darden etc should really do them good and build a great perspective.

Surprise Surprise

2006-10-09T00:58:00.000-07:00

OWWWW Crap, she again gave me the ditch. Just when I was starting to believe in the goodness of things, I get dunked(not in the sense this word is used in ISB, but more figuratively as in fooled, taken for a ride etc.). You are wondering what this is all about? Well I am talking about my electives for term 5. i only managed to get 2 out of the four I bid for. Unfortunately there are many other vying for attention in these specific areas more than me, who are ready to pay more price than me and 'she' chose not to include me (as of now). But I still believe in the goodness of things, I know rationality will prevail, I know I ll get what I want, its just a matter of time.

The campus wears a deserted and sleepy look. Some of my friends who had come to attend an executive program were commenting on the lack of activity and lethargy in the campus. I clarified that this is just the exam and the term break season. It is more like the silence before/after the storm. Just wait till the storm begins.

This period actually brings an end to a phase in ISB. This is the point where we enter the part where theres some uncertainty and turbulence. The placement preparations and other realted stuff is also going to take off in the next few weeks and there is a lot of earnestness and enthusiasm around. The alums also warn that the same earnestness and enthusiasm can turn into frustrations and tantrums. Everybody need to keep their cool. No need to get excited.

Speaking of alums, my study group got to interact with a bunch of them at the phenomenal party that we had at our Aikya family SL residence. We had a wonderful evening and the alums and 'spouse alums' really made us feel at ease and asked us to enjoy the experience and not to get too much worked up about the events that are going to unfold in the future. We realised what a great big beautiful and buoyant family we were actually a part of!

Half Way Thru

2006-10-04T21:39:00.000-07:00

Friday will be the last day of the fourth term and we will be half way thru. It was a very busy and high intensity 6 months, but also a structured and well planned one. The past 4 terms had core courses and there was no worry about what you wanted to study and where you wanted to specialise. The story will completely change come mid October, as the forthcoming 4 terms contain only elective course and you gotta choose what you want to study and the area you want to concentrate on. Not only that you need to manage your time table and see that there are no clashes. (After all yo ucant be at 2 places at the same time). Also it is not necessary that you will get what you choose. The elective bidding process claims to accomodate everybody's requests as far as possible. Anyway that remains to be seen. The bidding process is highly sophisticated and involved. Hope I get the courses I bid for.

The exams start today. Gotta get back to study. Anyway am not in much mood to study after the bloodbath yesterday...

Updates

2006-09-28T05:40:00.000-07:00

Theres lotsa buzz around the canpus and its alive with energy and enthusiasm. The Tie ISB Connect held last week was a great success. For details you can check the media. There were campus visits from many of the top tier consulting firms like Mckinsey, BCG, AT Kearney etc. Many IBanks are expected in the next 2 months. People have already started preparing for campus interviews and case preps. The long term break after the fourth term is sure going to keep many occupied with their ELPs and preps.

I think I need to take this seriously and start putting in more efforts. Already we are half baked MBAs now (in another week) and when I look back on the past half year, I realise that there has been a quantum jump in my understanding. Hope the next half year is gonna be the same.

Yesterday was our last assignment as a group. Next term onwards all the groups and sections will be dismantled. Your section will depend on the electives you choose and the timings of the classes. There are such a wide array of electives that it is becoming difficult to choose. Call this participatory education. you get to choose what to study? though at a very high level? Anyway, some freedom is better than nothing at all. So the criteria we use to narrow down on the courses are the concentrations you like, quant focussed or faff, past faculty ratings, faculty faces :-), past experience with faculty or faculty affiliations in the absence of past experience etc. Again the decisions are qualified with inputs from alums leading to multiple iterations. And then at the end of the day, there is a probability (small enough but nevertheless present) that you will not get what you want, simply because your peers want it more desperately than you.

Apologies

2006-09-28T05:25:00.000-07:00

I know I have been very bad. I know I have neglected you for long and you have all the reasons in the world to be angry. I know I have followed other pursuits and given them more priority than you. Thatswhy you are sulking. I could see that from the effort that I had to put to convince you to talk to me. I had forgotten your password!! I was trying to recall and it was all cobwebs. Gawrsh how can I do this to you dear Blogie. Please forgive me.

At the same time please do understand my position. I was busy with the very cause of your existence. It had held me so occupied and so mesmerised that I didnt pay much attention to you. You know this one year stand always gets the top priority. There were parties (Kandy's birthday as well), birthdays, dunkings, outings and then there were also the usual suspects: assignments, exams, workshops. But you and I both know that is not an excuse. I have done something wrong, period. I need to correct it, period. And I will start this moment, period.

The Leadership Game

2006-09-11T04:18:00.000-07:00

We played a wonderful organisational kinda game in our last LDP (Leadership Development program) session. This is a great differentiator at ISB. It was ingeniously set up and we had quite a few insightful takeaways by the time the game was over. Ofcourse it also meant sacrificing a whole sunday for the workshop but at the end of the day it was a sunday well spent.

I wouldnt go into the details of how the game was actually played as it would hamper the real essence of the learnings. But I would like to delve into the structured insights that were gained progressively. The game started with a distribution of wealth which was very random to replicate the very real life scenario of some being born with silver spoons in their mouths and some born to incompetent and lousy parents and some the so so ones. The next activity was to trade this wealth which we were born with, with others so that we can maximise our wealth. There were certain conditions which made this practically possible, for a person with virtually no wealth to become rich depending upon his/her abilities to trade and the opportunity available. At the end of the trading phase, we were distributed into 3 differentiating groups based on where each of us stood depending on the wealth we accumulated. The top 3 rich people were the Toppers or Top Management in a Company, the next 6 were the midders or the middle management and the remaining were designated as the poor workers class.

A virtual organisation was then set up and then we played another game, in which each of the 3 groups tried to maximise their gains again. Because of the real world similarities, the game was structured in such a way that maximum opportunities and high valued transactions were given to the top 2 groups and the 3rd group had to make do with the opposite. At the same time whatever were the profits in each group had to be divided by the total number in the group, so the rich ended up being richer and the poor ended up poorer.

I ended up in the midders group in the first game as I was also born with average amount of wealth, so I could say that I fairly made well. In the second game we ended up cutting each other (ie the three groups) ie nobody considered the interests of the other and everybody ended up making very less money comparatively. But since the Toppers were operating at a very high level, and there were only 3 members, they ended up earning more individual profits which made them more richer. The worst sufferers were the poor class who inspite of performing better than the others ended up the poorest.

We then had a second round in which each of us was given a chance to be born with new randomly chosen wealth. After the trading this time, I ended up in the top position alongwith my other 2 colleagues who were in middle management. So now we became the policy makers. Building up on our learnings from the past round we decided not to cut each other this time and operate in synergy to maximise everybody's profits in the next game. We also realised that being at the top of the pyramid, the actions from those at the bottom or at the middle can hurt us very badly, but at the same time, if we yield a little and accomodate the demands of these two classes within limits, and ask them not to interfere in our territory in return, then everybody gained. Also yielding a little didnt make much difference to us at the top. It was much like removing a few drops from the ocean. This policy went a long way in building the trust between the three groups (we were allowed to communicate only thru chits and not thru discussions) and everybody ended up maximising their profits. We the Top Management gained the most, but this was not at the cost of cutting from the other groups, but as a result of building and gaining trust and synergising.

This game at the end really thought us how important an element of trust is to function effectively in an organisation which has a hierarchical structure and needs cooperation from different groups. It is always better to accomodate the demands (rational of course) from those at the bottom of the pyramid and gain their trust which will benefit everybody.

Trivia

2006-09-03T10:48:00.000-07:00

So the term holidays are over and we are back for the 4th term which incidentally is the smallest - in terms of number of weeks and not in terms of the amount of work which you have to put in. This way of life now seems to have gotten in the blood and the anxieties and aspirations have reduced. I and Kandie got to catch up with some of the crappy films which are doing the rounds in the cinema halls. We strategically avoided KANK which I think was a great decision as I couldnt imagine how I would have lived with those memories after the fact.

Friday night was spent in Ahala of Taj Krishna and the place was happening. We got a lot of photos clicked by photographers who presumably were from the press, but I didnt see any of our photos in the local press or the local TV channel the next day. May be I just didnt know where to look or it didnt appear at all and/or the so called media people were just fooling around with unloaded cameras. Whatever it was we had a whale of a time. All thanx to G and P.

Passing fact: Your brain is divided in two parts: Left and Right.
The left part has nothing right in it
and the right part has nothing left in it...

Term 3 subjects

2006-08-20T12:40:00.000-07:00

Oops I did it again. I havent updated dear bloggie since 2 weeks. I think this was the longest hiatus. Anyway here I am back again.
Would like to share a few thoughts about the subjects this term:

Corporate Finance: Very interesting subject which teaches yuo everything about the elusive financial world. I didnt knew there were so many interest rates and selecting the right one was so difficult. The prof is amazing and is really the Bhagwan of any thing related to money (read finance). We also call him Chacha Chowdhry with love (hope he is not reading this). You have to be dead alert in his class and hang on to every word that comes out of his mouth. You miss one word and you are done for. You will have to read reams of pages from the textbook to get it. His jokes are also great, especially about the nice guys and how to have a wonderful sex life.

Managerial Accounting: This subject involves using accounting data for managerial decisions. It includes everything from cost accounting, activity based costing, budgetting, common errors done by managers in interpreting the data, transfer pricing etc. The subject is dry and the profs try to make it interesting but they fail miserably. I didnt know a manager's life was that miserable!!

Operations Management: Another dry subject, which consists of inventories, throughput rate, expenses, the Goal by Goldratt, services capacity planning, quality management etc. There are so many concepts and so many relations and so many quantities to remember that you end up getting confused as to which concept to use where. An Operations Manager role has become a strict no no :-))

Entrepreneurship: This subject basically contain love stories between man (which means both the sexes) and his/her enterprise. It depicts in rigorous details the emotional, financial and intellectual turmoils that an entrepreneur has to undergo to build his/her baby from scratch. How he/she has to get it financed from profit chasing venture capitalists, emotionally blackmail the F network and eke out seed capital from relatives, friends and friends of relatives and relatives of friends. How he/she has to toil day and night during the initial stages and then reap the benefits when the enterprise grows. A very thought provoking subject.

Way to go

2006-08-03T11:49:00.000-07:00

Its really amazing and it strikes me with more and more force as the days progress and as I do more and more readings. Its subtle, always with the flow and if I was not fed with the opposite since I learnt to read I wouldnt have realised it. Its also a very good thing and literature has finally done justice to something which was long pending. You are wondering what it is?

It is the reference to the female in the third person in almost all the text books, course packs and other material that I have read after joining BSchool. Most of the customers, suppliers, managers, supervisors, workers, technicians, professors, doctors and all the other characters that you come across in typical business scenarios are amply referred by 'she', signifying that they are women and they are here to stay. This is a subtle but a very powerful way of giving women their rightful place and I am glad that its happening. Also we have come across almost 4 successful FEMALE entrepreneurs in the first 4 cases of the Entrepreneurship course which I think is a fairly good proportion. This sends out a powerful message that not only men but women can also start new ventures and be successful. Girls are you listening...

Most of the textbooks and material that I had read during my undergraduate course always had the 'he'. The 'She' was almost non existent. I think this is what forced me to identify the overwhelming presence of the 'she' in the readings. It might also be the case that I read Indian textbooks in undergrad and now I am mostly reading foreign material and the foreign material always contained the 'she' all along. But still the change remains substantial and hope it gets replicated down to the primary school level. In school, all the math, science and other subjects which required reference to a person without regard to the gender always contained the male. Hope the new text books that are written take care of this simple discrepancy and show women affected by the same problems and present in the same decision making processes in textbooks as the males have been shown to have.

Gossip Gossip

2006-08-01T10:23:00.000-07:00

Monday 8 AM - Assignment Submission Deadline

Sunday 11 PM - Our team decides to meet (After enjoying 3 days of the first long weekend of term 3)
Sunday 12 PM - Started work on the assignment. Till then gossipping about the latest going ons and affairs in the campus. Gossipping about who is wooing whom and who got slapped and who got kissed (and possibly got laid???) on campus. Caught up on the status of the affairs which were going strong, like this coy couple who are seldom seen together in campus but go about painting the town red, this bold couple (or were they just hopefulls) having endless discussions in the corridors. Then there was a lot of information interchange on the slapping incident, the kissing incident(s), the rumours proclaiming who is going around with whom and who was successful in wooing the girl in question and who was not so successful, who has a chance and who is on the borderline, what strategies one can use to be successful, why this girl doesnt suit that guy and vice versa, etc etc...

The one thing that surprised me was the fun we were having discussing these juicy tidbits like a bunch of housewives. It was very refreshing. We didnt realise how the time flew and that we had a catch a few winks before we were ready to justify our findings about the case the next day in class.

Sunday 2:30 PM: Dropped the assignment in the drop box and started for home half expecting to bump into the characters we were discussing...

Meanwhile a bunch of my section mates are up in arms over the issue of CP (Class Participattion which is a sizeable % of the overall class grades) in Entrepreneurship. There are lotsa mails clogging my mailbox wet with tears. The prof made a comment at the end of the class which made a lot of hearts bleed. These are the CP kings and queens of the class which never get enough of it. Aw Cmon guys and gals, theres life beyond CP and grades, and expressing your opinions and making your points, whatever. This is a non issue. Its not worth spending a single thot. Focus on Marriott and Donner instead. Chill, take it easy, play it cool and as AA said 'enjoy life' with all the beautiful things!

Reply to Shantaram

2006-07-27T22:30:00.000-07:00

Visit http://www.shantaram.com/ for Gregory David Roberts' site. (thanks to Mon). His is a great story of the triumph of the human spirit. Especially read his seminars under the philosophy link on his site. Before that a brief stop at Author facts will give you a snapshot of what I am talking about.

The purpose of this post is not to introduce Shantaram (Well I am sure most of you must have heard about him) but to put forward my thoughts on his philosophy. I had written a mail to him a few months back after reading his engaging seminars and am putting it here just for record purposes:

Hi Greg,
Your site was introduced to me by a very good friend as a mustread. My friend and I both share a common love for melbourne as we have been there in different points in time and whenever we talk, Melbourne always features one way or the other. I havent read your novel yet but went thru the seminars posted on the site and was mesmerised by your thoughts. You seem to be strong character who after having gone thru so much in life came a full circle and made a success out of it. I am not sure whether you will ever read this mail but if you ever read I would be highly obliged.

Well, coming back to your seminars I absolutely agree with most of your thoughts and the concepts that you have explained so lucidly. This world is finite and imperfect. Nothing
can be more closer to the truth than the above statement. All sorrow and joy is present due to its imperfections. The dichotomously variable continuum (DVC) is also a great concept and I am looking forward to how we can apply it to decipher the all encompassing and ubiquitous questions of life as you have promised on your website.

But I had a specific reason to write you this mail and not just to make an acquaintance. This is because I found an inherent contradiction in your dichotomously variable continuum and the stmt that 'Nothing is absolute and perfect'. Also forgive me in assuming that this musnt have crossed your mind before but the basis of my assumption is that what I am going to say doesnt occur on your seminars. You might have planned to take up this point in your later seminars but still here it goes:

Well the statement 'nothing is absolute and perfect' is in itself an absolute statement in the sense that you are going to the extremes of the continuum. Lets consider this for a moment. If we take a sample of entities, measurements and concepts and try to fit them in a Bell Curve then again we will get a distribution in which things which are not absolute at all at the left end, the absolute things at the right end and things with varying degrees of absolutism (forgive the
word) in the middle. Also dont you think this fits in the concept of dichotomously variable continuum. But again you would argue that things are either absolute or not. Its discrete. we
cant have varying degrees of it. But just as the other concepts become continuous or discrete based on relativity or within a specific context, I think this concept also holds water. I quote your example of falling from a tall building. Only when you change the context and give the person a parachute or other such contraption does the person fall and does not die.

But what are the extremes of this dichotomously variable continuum. Do we have real examples in life which are absolute and those which are not. There are many examples and I guess almost everything under the sun is not an absolute which corroborates your statement. Infact I can even say with confidence that the bell curve must be actually left skewed instead of perfectly bell shaped. The best example of an absolute is the concept of absolute zero (0 degree
Kelvin or -273 degree celcius). This is the temperature at which all activity(energy) ceases and we have an absolute. This is true for all things in the universe. This is the absoulte and terminal
reference from which the activity level (energy) of everything is measured. So dont you think the absolute zero is absolute (derived from your dichotomously variable continuum concept) but contradicting the 'nothing is absolute and perfect' statement. You must be glad to see that I have already used your tool and a little of my non existent intellect to decipher some truths from this universe :-). Also the concepts of minus and plus infinity will come next on the absolute zero of temperature on the absolute continuum. Though there is no particular number
assigned to these concepts they represent some form of an absolute which is high on the absolute scale.

Again I think you are getting what I am trying to say. I would like to refer to your third limit to the intellect that of language (or communication) if at all I was not able to explain properly. It has been my long held belief that language as we know it, is the most primitive and most imperfect way of expressing ourselves that we have chosen. If we refer to the DVC for communication, language (especially the english language) will fall on the leftmost end of the continuum. No matter how hard we try to communicate what we want it is always subjectively interpreted by all the subjects who receive that communication.

Most of the times the interpretation is negative and this is again due to human imperfections. I am reminded of Ayn Rand's chapter topics in Atlas Shrugged. 'A is A' and 'Either-OR'. A is always A no matter who reads it. I cannot say that I choose to interpret A as B because thats how I am. So there are some perfect absolute thruths or axioms in this world which are true
for everybody and not subject to context or individual interpretation. Similarly light can be Either a wave Or a particle. It cannot be both at a particular time while explaining a given concept. Like while we are talking about photoelectricity light cannot be both a particle or a wave. It has to be a particle. This is just an add on to your example.

I am ofcourse talking from a granular perspective and it is not meant to contradict your philosophy of 'nothing is absolutely or perfectly true'. The seemingly inherent (but non
existent) contradictions are again due to the third limit to intellect. I am again reminded of Ayn Rand'd words regarding condradictions:

'Contradictions dont exist. Whenever you are faced with a contradiction, check you premises. One of them will be wrong'.

Another example of an absolute? :-)))

Coming back to communications I think mathematics is the near perfect language that the human mind has invented. 1 can never be equal to or interpreted as 2. It is 1 for everone
and everywhere (an absolute granular truth). And science and other fields have made progress and achieved higher amount of maturity only because of the maturity that has been
achieved in mathematics. Just imagine what the state of the world would have been if humans had relied only on the primitive concept of language. Tower of Babble? Each one interpreting A (or B for that matter) as he pleased. There would have been no intellect and no philosophy.

I hope I was able to convey my thoughts to you within the third limit of the intellect. Again let me reiterate that I perfectly agree with your thoughts and they reflect what I have also experienced and evaluated in my life till date. It was really great knowing you through your website and considering that you are such a great celebrity I dont expect to receive an answer to this mail (If I get I will be highly delighted though). I am basically from Mumbai and I
think we both share a deep love for this city as do so many mumbaiites inspite of
its filthy trains and burgeoning popluation and other problems blah blah blah... (this part is not relevant)

Warm Regards,
Bonet Lobo

Term 2 exams, vacations and the blasts

2006-07-24T11:22:00.000-07:00

This brief hiatus was a result of - as most of you must have realised - term end exams and 4 days of vacation. Well the exams were terrible and then I visited dear ol rain ravaged mumbai to cool my heels. There it was raining cats dogs and mice and the hugh humidity made sure that if you are not wetted by the rain you will atleast be wetted by sweat. While coming back to the airport I deliberately took the local to find out if anything was changed after the blasts. It was a Sunday afternoon and I could see atleast 3 to 5 men in uniforms in almost all the 5 odd stations I had to pass. So the number would definitely go up during peak hours on weekdays. But does it help now? The damage has already been done...

It was another lazy Sunday afternoon, more than 1 year back and I had come down from my apartment to take some fresh air, when I saw this man from my building. I had seen him before but hadnt spoken. We smiled and started a conversation. He told me about his job, his family and I told him about mine. It was a casual acquaintance after that and the usual smiles and hellos during society meetings etc.

He regularly used to take the evening local train from Churchgate to Borivili and always used to travel in a first class compartment. On 11th July too, he took the local, but never returned home...

This post is dedicated to him

Musings

2006-07-07T13:07:00.000-07:00

Please bear with this post...

There comes a stage in life when you know exactly what you want. You have done retrospection and evaluation of all that has happened in the past and know what is relevant and what is futile. You know that running after concretes and symbols in this life leaves you high and dry. You have been there done that. But all good things come to an end. Still you hold on to it and when it leaves you eventually, you become sad and go in search of other symbols. Approval from peers, praise and friendship, the desire to lead, to be on top of things, all come and go. You keep wondering why all these things end. Why they are all temporary. Why cant they last.

And then you realize that they are not meant to last. They are ephemeral. Tiny specks on the fabric of time. The spotlight. Today its on you. Tomorrow it will be on somebody else. Then you will go in search of other spotlights, bask in the glory, again forgetting that it is temporary and in the process hurting yourself. Then you blame the entire world for making the spotlight temporary. Why is it not lasting?

But if you think a little deeper you will realize. That you shouldn’t run after concretes and symbols. Go for the abstract, delve deeper into your heart and find out what it is that you are after. Beyond the concrete, beyond the symbols. There is a very good analogy. In the Marketing class that day, the professor said something that was very illuminating. It still rings in my years: Think beyond the product, think not what product to design, think what is the customer need, how can you satisfy the customer’s need. Go beyond the concrete ie the product, look at the customer need, the abstract and then map and create the concrete. Don’t get too overwhelmed or attached to the concrete that you lose sight of the abstract.

The English language is a very poor method of conveying one’s thoughts. You can quote anything out of context, read between the lines, dot the i’s and dash the t’s. This is also a result of focusing too much on the concrete rather than on the abstract. I am not saying this is done all the time but that it is possible. When it is done deliberately then it cannot be pardoned. When it is done with ignorance then it is immaturity.

I have now stopped running after symbols, after people, grades, recognition, praise, a specific job, the spotlight, rewards, I have stopped being passionate about the concretes in life. I have stopped being a fanatic. I don’t feel strongly about anything concrete anymore. But I am diehard passionate about the abstracts. I am not passionate about people, but I am passionate about love and friendship, and about striking a chord. I am not passionate about grades but I am a fanatic when it comes to gaining knowledge and finding out how the world works. I am not passionate about a specific job but really passsionate about my career. I don’t want the spotlight anymore but am more focused on my contribution when I am under a spotlight. Low grades, lost people, a job rejection, temporary spotlights will still continue to pain me, but that’s because I have still not fully come out of the concrete (and after all I am flesh and blood). The metal is still being formed and each blow is forming it harder and one day I am sure I will stop connecting, like a throbbing vein which was clipped, clots and the pain eases. Or will I?

I ve been tagged

2006-07-07T11:27:00.000-07:00

I ve been tagged! I ve been tagged, by Arun. I guess I need to fill this up...

I am thinking
how did man succeed in messing up this beautiful world. Of course he s not been entirely successful.

I said
leave me alone and see what I can do

I want
to change myself so that I can change something greater

I wish
people were robots

I miss
something deep which I will never talk about

I hear
the horns of the vehicles behind me and let them pass. I am in no hurry.

I wonder
where life goes from here, why the people closest to you hurt you the most and why the world is the way it is.

I regret
nothing.

I am
still building myself

I dance
to my own tune

I sing
'You used to think that it was so easy, You used to say that it was so easy, but you re trying, your re trying now...
Another year and then you ll be happy, just one more year and then you ll be happy, but you re crying , you re crying now...' from Jerry Rafferty's Baker Street

I cry
whenever i feel like.

I am not
going to stop dreaming.

I hate
procrastination and complacency

I confuse
life. It must be wondering where I am taking it. :-)

I should
blog more frequently, watch my weight more religiously and enjoy things more completely

I finish
everything on my plate, atleast try to

I tag:
This was the most time consuming post I guess. But enjoyed writing it. I tag:
Soumya
Yash

Mid terms and admissions

2006-06-30T11:21:00.000-07:00

Today were Term 2 mid terms. But there was no relief after the exams. There are submissions due. Sometimes I feel like a robot, switch off one subject and then immediately switch on the next, switch on parties and drinks, then switch it off, grab some sleep, then again switch on something else. I know deep down inside, it is changing my very being. I am more equipped to fight lethargy and remain enthusiastic most of the time, something which was lost somewhere in the last 3 to 4 years. But thats what I am here for and thats what I am getting. So no issues :-).

All you kiddos looking out for a place in this institute better start preparing now itself. You will never know when the deadlines will come n go. Start working on the Essays and start building a perspective on where yo ucome from, where you are right now and where you want to go. The essays basically ask these 3 things. And never ever copy essays from others. Dont even refer to them. These are the things which are wholly and truly yours as you see it and no part of it should include opinions or ideas of others. Ofcourse you can take professional help but only after you have first drafted the essays, only after first providing the meat, the seasoning part can be refined by professional help...

The application deadlines for batch of 08 are Oct 3, 2006 for cycle 1 and Dec 1, 2006 for cycle 2. One more point to note is that GRE scores will no longer be considered. Please check the website for complete details.

Check this space for more on admissions.

True Colors

2006-06-26T07:09:00.000-07:00

The more you need her help, the more she let's you down,
The more you like the way she walks the more she shakes her hips,
The more you fall in love with life the more she runs around,
The more you fear the kiss of death the more she licks her lips
-Flatlanders in Julia

Well the 'she' is none other than ISB itself. The first 2 weeks of the 2nd term I have been struggling to make sense of night and day. Running around like a zombie for lectures (after prereads), markstrat decision making sessions, DMOP assignments and pre readings of 30 to 35 pg case studies in Competitive Strategy. When I look back on the last 2 weeks I couldnt help imagine the amount of knowledge I have gained and the number of tools I have used. But its worth mentioning that at the end of the day its very fulfilling. A few words about the different subjects in Term 2:

Global Economics: Very interesting subject about macroeconomics and about the world in general. Also the prof KK makes it very interesting and makes sure there are not much arbit CPs and the knowledge transfer happens at high efficiency. You get to know why China and India are on their way to become successful global economies and what can hamper their growth and why globalisation is the logical way forward.

Decision Models and Analysis: This is all about spreadsheeting and modeling and simulations. Becomes very interesting once you know how to model and if you are familiar with spreadsheets. So all ye ISB aspirants, hone up those excel and solver and crystal ball skills. It will do u good in this subject, because the learning curve is very steep with hardly any time. You are thrown in deep waters with sharks all around. (Of course I dont mean fellow students :-))

Competitive Strategy: This is all about huge cases and what orgs did in particular strategic situations and what we should do to see that history doesnt repeat itself in the corporate world and what are the principles and thought processes behind the strategies. Since this is a very subjective subject, it becomes difficult to arrive at concrete conclusions because 10 people think in 100 different ways and so it might seem that this is B*****t at times. But one has to keep in mind that thats how the real world is. Sometimes you dont know that you have taken a strategic decision until after you have taken it. At hindsight you realise that everything was moving in that direction and the decision was taken non strategically rather than deliberately. But still it was a turning point in the life of the organisation. Isnt this similar to everyday life?

Marketing Decision making: Well this one is a time sucking machine. We need to play a simulation game thruout the term as a firm selling fancy electronic goods in a godforsaken world called Markstrat and make profits and thus compete with other firms (who are ofcourse other student groups). The learnings are tremendous and you get to use a lot of data to base your decisions. But at the end of the day what counts is what profits you made in your industry, since a sizeable porion of your marks are dependent on it.

Leader vs Manager

2006-06-13T10:28:00.000-07:00

I was reading John Maxwells book ‘Developing the leader within you’ recently and couldn’t help pondering over the immaturity used in defining leadership. This is also followed in many books and by other authors while defining leadership. John says that Manager gets the job done while the leader inspires others to do a better job. I don’t understand why people take pleasure in beating the manager and glorifying the leader. Why a leader has to be defined by comparing to a manager. Most of the definitions of leadership also imply that a bad leader is a manager, some moron who only gets work done but doesn’t inspire the followers to do better work.

A manager is not actually a bad leader. He/she is generally defined within the context of a particular unit of work or service, like a project manager or a program manager. What it essentially means is that a manager is responsible for the work unit as a whole which includes both human and non human entities like infrastructure, machinery, assets, costs, budgets etc. All these entities need to be managed to deliver the work unit especially the non human ones, they cannot be led. However managing some or all of these entities finally requires leading people. Leadership is an enabler to management. In that context leadership is also superior to management since good management requires good leadership but the reverse is not true. Thus leadership drives management of resources and people to achieve the final goal. A leader and a manager have two separate but overlapping functions and the statement that a manager is a bad leader or some such sort doesn’t really hold water.

Most real life problem solving calls for situational leadership ie leadership styles that change with the context and time. So its not always practical to follow the inspirational form of leadership (which is the pinnacle of leadership as defined by Maxwell). The goal or the end of any organization is not to inspire people per se but to make profits. Inspiring people is just a very important and high priority means towards achieving that goal. A leader plays a huge role in getting the work done from people and needs to use different forms of leadership which meets the final end. In some situations he needs to use inspirational leadership while in others authoritative, but making him/herself clear. While in a leadership position your goal can’t be to make everybody happy. Your strategies and actions have to be to meet the goals of the organization.

Look Heru, Look Theru, everywheru Haiderabadu...

2006-06-11T00:07:00.000-07:00

The term 1 exams got over on the 6th and since then the campus is wearing a deserted sleepy look. Half of the bunch has gone to meet mamma and pappa and ofcourse special friends. The exams were some huge brain chewers and it is such a huge relief that they are over. The next term is starting tomorrow and the huge coursepacks are lying clean and unblemished on the table. The thought of opening them has crossed my mind several times but as yet I have been unsuccessful. But I know sooner or later I will have to open them and enable the flow of knowledge through my mind's circuit which will undoubtedly offer a huge resistance.

Kandy and I decided to go on Hyderabad darshan yesterday. First we went to Charminar, where there was a narrow spiral and dirty staircase to go to the top. The view from the top was very good and we could see the entire old city. The thing that was striking (well it no longer strikes me) was the unkempt, disorganised and inprofessional way in which our country people choose to keep our historical monuments and places. The Bhool Bhoolaiya in Lucknow is another example. I had a nightmarish experience there and ended up without seeing the entire structure. If only India can wake up and start maintaining these places professionally so that tourists have a good experience of the rich history and culture of our wonderful country. This would also make good business sense and there is a lot of money to be earned.

The next place we visited were the Lumbini gardens. It wasa very well maintained place and we also went on a boat ride to the centre of the Husain sagar lake where stands erect the tallest statue of Lord Buddha in India. This place unlike Charminar is very well maintained and Kandy and I had a wonderful time there. However the most fascinating and paisa vasool part of our entire endeavor was the Laser Show just outside Lumbini Park. Initially I thought it was similar to the one in Brindavan Gardens in Mysore. But this experience was incredible. Apart from the display of water fountains dancing in sync to popular music numbers, there was a good 15 min film on the history and culture of Hyderabad projected on a wall of water. Whatever I could make out of the melodious song is mentioned in the title :-). The last part was chaala best.

Exams in ISB

2006-05-30T11:37:00.000-07:00

Some people are really concerned about the exams held in ISB. Here there is no fixed pattern for the term exams, mid terms or assignments. Each prof is free to choose an optimum mix of the different exam variables. There might be quizes (arbit whenever the prof feels like or weekly) or assignments consisting of problems and/or case studies. Some need to be done in groups and some are individual. There are lotsa variables which the profs can play with in the exams. Multiple choice vs short answer types vs only problems, duration of the exams, closed book/open book, last minute instructions, write with pen/pencil, :-), cheat sheets/Non cheat sheets etc. They can design the exam as they seem fit. (Well these are the variables which I have been introduced to till now and I am sure there are many more up their sleeves).

This diversity in testing the course knowledge has really caught the student body on a wrong footing. And there are many discussions going around on having a set pattern for the exams. I for one dont agree in having a set pattern. First of all most of the course content contains text book problems and solutions which are very difficult to replicate in real life. But hold on, this doesnt mean that they have no significance at all in real life. Nobody can know real life. There can be a hundred things going wrong or right at the same time. What these text book problems actually do is equip us with the basic principles and tools which can be used in a wide variety of situations. Infact some of them can be used in their nascent form in a wide variety of life situations. As good managers and leaders when we venture out into the real world, we are supposed to take decisions based on these basic principles but keeping the particular context which we are in, in mind. Of course teaching each and every nuances of everything in a B School is not possible as well as plausible. What a BSchool can do is equip you with the necessary tools and skills to solve real world problems. Once you understand that you ve got it and ISB is doing a wonderful job out of it with ample number of case studies and real examples. (Enron and World Com are the favourite whipping brats)

Coming back to exams, profs get only the variables mentioned above to make the picture a bit more realistic ofcourse apart from the twisting and turning the text book problems to a certain limit. By introducing variation in the pattern of exams, they can test how people react to the same problems in a different context in a different environment or under different constraints. This leads to not only a holistic learning of the subject matter but also teaches us to be aware of the context while making decisions.

That said, gotta get back to my studies. Tomorrow start the first term exams. This was a long break...

Cities in love

2006-05-28T21:42:00.000-07:00

Hyderabad and the surrounding campus is becoming more beautiful by the day. As the harsh sun is slowly giving way to the oncoming monsoons all the trees, birds and insects on the campus (including us lesser mortals) are excited and are coming out in all their beautiful colours. Even the little frogs on campus are beautiful and friendly. I can see peacocks outside my living room window wandering about with their not as beautiful female counterparts. I am yet to see a peacock dance though. The leaves on the neem tree outside my balcony keep rustling in the wind and the birds of all shapes and sizes try to find a place on it.

Cities do this to me. They unleash all their charm once I enter into one. There were unseasonal rains in Hyderabad when I first landed which was a sort of welcoming sign. I remember my first day in almost all the city I visited. The first day in Pune was a late July day which was very pleasant and green and beautiful. It was a pleasant transition after years of hot and humid climate in mumbai. Melbourne was the most lovable city I ever visited. I landed in Melbourne during the beginning of summer in October when Melbourne was becoming more beautiful by the day. I think that was the city which was in love with me the most. It pampered me with cool breezes, sudden showers to bring the heat down when temperatures touched 40, the beautiful botanical garden just a block away from my home, the yarra river, Flinder's Street station, Victoria Market, St Kilda Beach, the walk on Toorak Road and I can go on and on. Melbourne will always remember me for years to come !! Phoenix was another city which fell in love with me and literally stopped my trip back to mumbai out of sheer jealosy. Minneapolis introduced me to full time snow and had its own charm in winter. I actually built my first snowman there. But as they say, 'been around the world, there's no place like home, O Mumbai'. We share a love and hate relationship. When I am in mumbai I grow restless, when I am out of it, I long to go back. But wherever I go, whatever I do, she knows I will always come back to her.

Meanwhile on campus, assignments per weekend are averaging to 3. Next weekend will go in preparing for the first term exams. But silly, immature and crappy mails are still floating around in the Inboxes. The directors for the GSB have been elected and they are all set to deliver on their promises. I learnt to play Foosball which isnt as boring as I had previously imagined. Infact I think that is the most wonderful indoor game. Preparations havent started yet for the Term exams next week. Looking forward to the first term break...

Mid terms and email etiquettes

2006-05-22T08:56:00.000-07:00

Hey, long time no c! Was swept off by the Mid term tsunami. But as always Father time has healed all the pains and here I go, ready for the next one. I think these are all adjustment blues and teething problems and labour pains and things of the sort. I ll do fine... yeah I ll do fine..probably...

Just kidding guys. Its been more than a month since the one year affair started with ISB and as expected I am going thru the pains like a forlorn lover. But the decision of coming here and accepting her proposal was one made from the heart and not from the mind. Ofcourse the mind was all out for it. But this was a rare occasion when both concurred. And I had no choice but to go for it. As the song goes ('Julia' by flatlanders):

Now what's a few miles between the beauty and the beast (ISB and me)
What's it mean when angels keep flying by above
Storm clouds gatherin' round the full moon in the east (in middle east of India ie Hyd)
I was empty-headed but my heart was full of love

Now my empty headedness is causing all the problems, but when your heart is full of love u sail thru, rt?

Well the air is full of election and soapbox preparations. And there are a lot of consequent email wars being fought in our Inboxes. This is really naive and immature (I know they mean the same thing but required here for emphasis). People just dont know how to respect the written word and end up being sarcastic and hurting each other. If there is one system that is highly abused (not only in ISB but everywhere) most prominently is the email. After all it is much easier to write some crap and press the send button without checking out the To list than pick up the phone and speak the same crap right. When will people realise that if something is bothering them then they need to just pick up the phone and talk to that SPECIFIC person rather than write a mail and cc everybody. Hmmm lil bit hard but very effective, dontcha think.

Midterms

2006-05-17T06:23:00.000-07:00

Lotsa things are happening around. The GSB (student board) presidential elections, CAS sessions, LDPs and the biggie: midterms. It seems like ages since I last took the examination paraphernalia and stumbled into a classroom full of anxious faces. It also brings to mind the unpleasant experience I had had during my second year engineering exam. It was the electrical engineering exam and I was busy slogging, when the director of exams walked in. I didnt even notice him, but he stopped at my desk, and pulled a brand new copy of Theraja (The electrical engineering textbook), from a corner of my desk. I was totally flabbergasted. Apparently I had forgotten to keep the book back in my bag and it was lying there all the time, unnoticed not only by me but also the invigilator who distributed the papers. I was so frightened that I could see th e sword of a 'Keep Term' hanging over me instantaneously. I pleaded with the director who didnt argue, just gave me a cold look and walked off with my Theraja. I thought I was done for. The invigilator came and started giving me gyaan and scaring me that he will be back and you will be banned from the exam. I still remember the intense pressure under which I completed the remaining half of the paper, half of my attention always at the door.

But surprisingly nothing happened that day. So it was an agonising wait till the declaration of the results. More surprisingly, the results were also good and I managed to get a good score. So the only thing I lost was a brand new copy of Theraja. As Shah Rukh said in DDLJ (or was it DTPH?)

Ache logon ke saath acha hota hai (Good things happen to good people). Thus this also proved that I am good :-)))

But this time strangely there is no fear, no anxiety just plain indifference. I think I ll be jolted into reality once I get the term 1 grades :-).

The soap box for the GSB president was held this week in which the candidates were given a chance to sell themselves to the junta. Wouldnt comment on any of them, but it seems there is a general lack of interest among the student community to enter into politics. The elections were held today and we ll have the results probably by this weekend. There is a strange pattern among the candidates: All have names starting with P,... hmmm, I wonder if that was an unwritten criteria to become Mr President :-??

Girls and Phones

2006-05-10T20:54:00.000-07:00

A dog is a man's best friend?
Well for a woman its different. A woman's best friend is the cellular phone which like them comes in all shapes and sizes. They hang it around their neck and let it kiss their ears for hours together. And this has become alltogether more profound on the campus. If you can find a member of the fairer sex not talking to anybody then she is probably talking on the phone (I can say with 95% confidence from the random sample I randomly collected). Well this also proves one more thing: Women love to talk. Some of the data points (time spent on the phone) have been huge outliers, ranging from 1 hour to a maximum of 2 and a half hours which my friend recorded (Thanks M). Actually this was the motivation for the research :-).

Hope I dont get bashed up the next time I am on campus :-

Coming back to academics, its become absolutely difficult to concentrate on all things said in class. And this has been a common problem too. But I have a small workaround: I just listen. I Dont think, dont evaluate. Just listen. But believe me, there is always a temptation to evaluate or try to unerstand what is being said. If you can fight over the temptation then I think life should be easier. This also requires a belief that whatever the prof says is correct and true !! which means you just need to sit there like a robot, and hang on to every word coming from the prof as if your life depends on it. You can spend some time later, evaluating it. I ll try to put this into practice right away. Readers are requested to try this and let me know.

Advertising

2006-05-07T12:05:00.000-07:00

I was sifting thru my purse which was overloaded with trivial chits, papers and business cards, so that I could make some space for cash. It brough back long lost memories of yester years and I spent almost an hour going thru the treasure which had accumulated over time. It still contains the discount coupon for the Heat nighclub in Melbourne's crown casino which I never got to use. Everything about Melbourne flashed before my eyes and the wonderful year that I had spent there. Melbourne remains the most romantic and beautiful cities I ve ever visited. But the paper that caught my greatest attention was a clipping which I had cut from a weekly bulletin which was circulated in a church I frequented in Minneapolis. It went like this:

Why is It?
A man wakes up after sleeping
under an ADVERISED blanket
on an ADVERTISED mattress
and pulls off ADVERTISED pajamas
bathes in an ADVERTISED shower
shaves with an ADVERTISED razor
brushes his teeth
with ADVERTISED tothpaste
washes with ADVERTISED soap
puts on ADVERTISED clothes
drinks a cuppa ADVERTISED coffee
drives to work in an ADVERTISED car
and then...
refuses to ADVERTISE
believing it doesnt pay.
Later if business in poor
he ADVERTISES it for sale.
Why Is It?

Funny and very effective way of advertising for advertising, isnt it?

Readings

2006-05-03T11:43:00.000-07:00

I think I have broken all my previous records of the highest number of pages read per week in the first half week of the Core terms itself. The last time I remember reading so much was when I was hooked on to Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. But there is a difference: Atlas Shrugged was simply unputdownable and these books are so putdownable. But the subjects are really interestinig and the profs are also doing a wonderful job. One more thing that is interested is the CP (Class Participation) in the class. Helps in alleviating the drudgery a little.

The LRC in ISB has a very good DVD collection. Just the other day I was watching 'Wall Street'. Noted a wonderful quote from Bud Fox (Chalie Sheen) to Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas):

All warfare is based on deception,
If your enemy is superior, evade him,
If he is angry, irritate him,
If equally matched, fight
And if not, split and reevaluate...

A great marketing strategy considering that enemy means your competitors? Hmmmmm...

Cooking

2006-04-29T10:58:00.000-07:00

Cooking is a great stress relieving activity and a welcome and different change from starring at the laptop screen for endless hours (and u 2 bloggie). Cutting onions and tomatoes, beating eggs, whipping the cream and frying and cooking things takes you to an altogether different world. You must be thinking that I become sadistic in the kitchen, but thats what cooking is all about. It relieves you from the million concepts flirting with your mind and gives you a chance to do something different. I generally like to multitask while cooking and prepare 3 to 4 dishes at a time. Optimum utilisation of resources and time u c. Also having a prior experience of 3 years in yankee land and the land of Oz helps. My roomies used to swear by my cooking and I have rescued many of them from malnutrition and hunger.

But there is one thing that I hate about cooking (and ofcourse eating): Washing dishes. Why dont I employ a Bai (maid) you say? Well that is because this is just the preliminary stage and will be doing so as soon as Kandy comes on board. Also, I didnt have the luxury of hiring one in yankeeland or in the land of OZ where I developed these skills (it was a matter of survival then!!!). But something that started as a question of survival eventually metamorphised into a liking and then a hobby. But the scarcity of maids did teach me a lesson: clean up immediately after you cook. Atleast to an extent that it becomes easier later. And I have incorporated that lesson big time. So you wont find my kitchen cluttered with vegetable waste or dirty utensils.

Also I never cook at home. Mom is the queen of kitchen and she is very particular about cleanliness (hope she is not reading this). I tried to delight and surprise her once by making poha in the morning. Everything was perfect but just at the last moment, a small portion of cooked poha fell on the other side of the gas stove. I hurried to clean it up before mom could see and got burnt on the forearm in the bargain. But still I managed to clean it before mom could see and all was well. Cuts and burns and wastes and dirty dishes, just become a part of life in the kitchen. But they are a welcome change from the huge back breaking Term 1 books and handouts. Also the most important thing is it fills your stomach!!

Parting Joke (My original)
The flame was flirting with the vegetable in the vessel. What did the vegetable say to the flame???

'Cook me Tender!'

So long...

Start of core terms

2006-04-28T06:30:00.000-07:00

Life on the campus is getting geared up for the storm which is scheduled to hit the campus next monday. A formal mail from the asst dean making a thorough health check was a very sweet gesture. It served as a sugary portion before the bitter medicine which we will have to take in the coming terms. Study groups can be seen huddled up trying to make sense of the initial reading in marketing and economics in the atium. I am sure a larger number must be meeting up in the villages. Our group also had a few meetings but there were no tangible outcomes as such. We decided to discuss only the kitaabi gyan and postpone the case solving till we get a general direction from the gurujis.

The Accounting pre term lecturer really opened up a whole new financial world to most of us (75% being techies with no formal accounting or financial background). She displayed enormous amounts of patience with the silly questions (and some smart ones) doled out to her. It was really nice to see the twinkle in her eyes which had the 'I know what you dont know' look whenever a question was asked. Too bad we wont be seeing her next week onwards but the concepts shared by her will be always with us.

Need to catch up on a lot of reading. So c ya Bloggie sometime later...

The Level 5 Leader

2006-04-24T21:50:00.000-07:00

One who fits the Level 5 Bill,
Is a person with humility and fierce will,
He can take a company from Good to Great,
and his Subs, can motivate,
And make sure there is no peril...

The team which researched the subject 'what takes companies from good to great' claims to have stumbled upon the concept and the characteristics of Level 5 Leadership by accident. That is really great. I like such research which doesnt start with pre conceived notions and go on to find something unusual something really different. The two main characteristics of Level 5 leaders (Leaders who take a company from good to great AND make sure that it stays there) ie humility and fierce will does seem like a surprise at first glance. It also seems ironic that these two traits can be present in the same individual. Having these two traits requires a greater degree of emotional intelligence. Again it also depends on what is the motive. If a leader's main aim is self exaltation and media attention as opposed to a genuine interest in his/her organisation's long term growth and sustenance, then he will of course stick to a level 4. But what is the greater good. By any means isnt it the latter? Because by focussing on the latter you are building something larger than life not only for yourself but also for others. Self exaltation and media attention initiated by yourself is shortlived. But the same achieved thru actions and letting others appreciate it of their own without prompting is something which is very fulfilling and long lasting.

So much for level 5 leadership. Now lets move on to something lighter. The preterms started today with a bang but ended in a whimper. It was the official start of academics. The email chaos has turned into a riot. But these are the initial teething problems and as all things, this too shall pass !!!!

Club enrollments are still going on and people are trying to add some turbulence to the 'silence before the storm' which is going to hit next monday. I can hear it from far away and the lethargy of opening the books has still not gone away. I think I will wake up once the storm hits. :-)

"ISB Rocks"

2006-04-22T06:54:00.000-07:00

That was the chant which resonated more than any of the section chants when the fun and games filled Orientation Week came to an end on Friday with the talent nite. Our section managed to get a third place in the talent nite and some bonus points for the mesmerizing chant. Hats Off and thanks to the alums who stayed back from last year to give us a wonderful and smooth transition into the rigorous academic life @ ISB.

Now starts the actual grind of the program as we start off with the preterms comprising of 3 core subjects. My mind is still trying to cope with the fact that I took this decision - of going back to academic life when I was fully set in my career. But thats what defines me. Putting myself in chaos when life is smooth sailing. There wouldnt be any order if there were no chaos. And what is life but an unending cycle of order and chaos. If life has to stay in any one of the two stages then its boring and unlife. That again brings me back to the eternal unanswered question: What would life be when ones attains nirvana, salvation or eternal life? How boring that would be. Well I ll treat this question in depth in my forthcoming posts :-D.

Coming back to chaos they are just starting to take shape. My ISB mail box is inundated with millions of mails trying to get me enrolled in one or the other clubs or informing me of other trivia going on in campus. Some are replies to mails sent earlier which ideally shouldnt have ended up in my mail box. Sometimes people are so naive that they dont understand and respect other people's time. I spent a better part of 2 hours trying to separate the wheat from the chaff. Though its heartening to note the enthu of the crowd in campus, it would be better if fellow mates start exercising caution and discretion before clicking that 'send' button. Email is a wonderful instrument of communication but is more often abused than used. Hopefully I guess the number of mails will go down once the focus shifts to academics. Now the ship is sailing in the shallow waters without a captain and without objectives. Once those get defined we should be set for the real chaos of the high seas.

As of now I cannot help thinking about George Michael's words in 'Careless Whispers'

I feel so unsure, as I take your hand and lead you to the dance floor.

Hope to dance a smooth and synchronous ballet in the next 1 year. May the powers that Be, be with Me (and all fellow mates).