just like that

The World cup victory for a cricket fan

2011-05-03T13:50:00.000-07:00

It’s been over a month now since that memorable Saturday evening. The 2^nd of April will now take its place as the most important date in Indian cricket displacing the 28-year reign of June 25^th. For me, personally, it was the greatest moment of my life. It gave me joy that I had never felt before. Before I go further, I would like to dedicate this victory to two people:

1) Sachin Tendulkar – The person who has inspired me the most in my life. The entire team rightfully dedicated the WC to him but as one of his true fans, I would once again like to do the same. We won it for you, Sachin! There wasn’t nothing much left for you to achieve but this is one cup we wanted to see you lift. A loss wouldn’t have reduced you in my eyes in anyway but the win just makes the world so much more perfect.

2) The cricket fan – The cup may belong to all the people in India but there are some who deserve more credit than the others. This win truly belongs to

a. that fan who stood for hours in the sun to buy a ticket for any test-match/ODI

b. that fan who never gave-up on his team when they were eight down and needed 52 off 34 balls.

c. that fan who did not say “This team is a bunch of losers” just because it was the fashionable thing to say

d. that fan who defended Sachin resolutely when some half-baked guy said random stuff about him not winning enough matches for India

e. that fan who woke up at unearthly hours to catch live action of a test match.

f. that Indian who never gave up on India, in sport or otherwise.

I have always loved cricket because it excites me in a way no other sport does. But on April 2^nd, I actually felt what we have all known all along – that cricket is more than just a sport. On the streets, there was a celebration like never before. Everyone met on the street was greeted like a long lost friend. For once, the marathis and the Punjabis and the tamilians were gone - there were only Indians.

Now, as the dust settles and we return to our corrupt politicians, desperate news channels and an ordinary IPL, I have a small request for all of you. Most of us lead routine lives which could do with a little more inspiration. I hope all of us could rejig our thoughts once in a while to the night of 2^nd April and derive hope and energy from that to do something better –it could be standing behind Anna Hazare or it could be starting that fitness regime you have been putting off – something that will make you better than what you are. Think about it!

Istanbul - A trip to remember!

2009-11-26T09:27:00.000-08:00

Went to Istanbul last month as part of a dealers trip to turkey. Had a really great time. Just capturing some highlights of the same here.

Day 0 - Took the emirates flight from Chennai to Istanbul via Dubai transit. The new Terminal 3 in Dubai was outstanding - tempting u to purchase almost everything on view. I almost bought a W270. The McLaren F1 car that Hamilton drove last year was also on display and I almost called my friend Raj before I realized I didn't have international roaming :) Landed in Istanbul in the evening and we were welcomed in traditional manner with Turkish Delight( local sweet) and a bracelet with Turkish eye on it. Moved to Hotel and rested for the night.

Day 1 - Began with Visit to Grand Bazaar, one of the oldest shopping places in the world with over 1400 shops in a single place. Long parallel lanes and by-lanes were all dotted with shops on either side.We easily got lost inside and if it weren't for the cards given by the travel agent, would have had a tough time walking back to the same gate. One of my colleagues compared it to Delhi's Palikaa Bazaar. There were jewellery shops, carpet shops, antique stores, hookah shops, cloth stores, handicrafts and the like. Some of the carpets were really amazing and I was reminded of a Jeffrey Archer short story about buying a carpet.

Our next stop was the Spice Bazaar - once again similar to Grand Bazaar but in a much smaller scale that specialized in spices and turkish delight. Post the morning shopping extravaganza, we crossed over to the Asian side of Istanbul. The bridge connecting the two continents over the Bosphorous river was amazing. Interestingly, the Asian side looked newer with more modern malls and buildings. Post luch, we hit Baghdad Street - a long stretch of branded outlets on either side. It is supposedly one of the most expensive places in Istanbul to buy/rent. For the next hour or so, all we did was stroll that street up and down. We hardly entered any shops - one because everything was too expensive to even think about buying and two because some of Istanbul's most beautiful women were strolling the street just like us. After that, we drove to Camlica Hills, a sunset spot.Thats when I first tasted Turkish tea and it was easily the best tea I had tasted in my life. Returned to hotel in the evening for the Gala dinner with dealers. Whirling Dervishes(Turkish Janissary band), belly dancers and puppet shows entertained us for the rest of the evening.

Day 2 - A day devoted to exploring Istanbul's ancient architecture. We drove to Sultanhamet (Old City) and learnt about the Roman and Ottoman empires that ruled Turkey. The Hippodrome, St. Sophia, Blue Mosque and the Topkapi Place all stood testimony to them. Was in particuar impressed with Hagia Sophia and its architecture.

Post tea, we hit a big leather retail store(forgot the name). Since we were a large group, we were welcomed with an in-house fashion show of their models displaying their variety of leather jackets.Turkey is world's leading producer of leather but the place we went was so expensive that only few of my really rich dealers managed to buy anything. Returned to the hotel in the evening and went out to a nightclub, Istanbul Inn, for dinner. Were again entertained with traditional turkish shows and belly dancers.

That night since we were free, we(the managers) took a separate cab and explored the night life of Istanbul. We decided to hit one of Istanbul's elite nightclub/discothque. Being a saturday night, getting entry was difficult and also none of us were in the required dresscode. Our local agent pulled a few strings and got us in; however, the music was annoyingly loud and after 20 mins and 140 USD, we were out. After that, we hit Taksim Square, another long stretch of shops similar to Baghdad Street(or Nanjing Road of Shanghai). Again, we spent the time just roaming the street and enjoying the atmosphere. Finally hit bed at some 3 in the morning. Got an extra hour of sleep as Turkey went back by one hour from that night for daylight savings.

Day 3 - Since shopping is a integral part of the trip for most of the dealers, we arranged for a trip to Carrefour in the morning. Along with dealers, even I freaked out buying lots of stuff from Turkey towels to biscuits to turkish delights(again!). Anyways, post lunch we hit Miniaturk, a minature park of Turkey which also happens to be the world's largest minature park. We rounded off the evening with a cruise across the Bosphorus, another highlight of the trip. Came back to the hotel, relaxed a bit and hit the local shopping mall where one of my colleagues added a Turkey Starbucks Coffee mug to his collection of Starbucks coffee mugs from around the world. I too bought one to start the collection :)

Day 4 - Day of departure. Since flight was in the evening, made a visit back to Grand Bazaar to catch up on some last minute shopping. Bought a few souvenirs for friends and family. On the way back, the transit time was very short - just managed to buy some chocolates from Dubai duty free and catch a final glimpse of the Mclaren. Also managed to watch "The Taking of Pelham 123" and a few episodes of friends on the in-flight entertainment!

All in all, it was a pretty fantastic trip! Turkey went right to the top of my list of foreign countries. Of course, the list had a new topper this month when I went to Thailand :) More on that some time later! BTW, my acknowledgements are due to Wikitravel(towards help in preparation), SOTC (tour operator) and my employer Asian Paints (for giving me a free trip :))

Tag 4

2009-07-26T02:27:00.000-07:00

I have a fear that this tagging business will soon become the blogging equivalent of an email forward. In future, you might be tagged and if you don’t pass on the tag to 10 more people, your index finger will go numb on the seventh day :) Anyways, since we are still at an early stage in this business, I have decided to respect Athena’s tag(She’s the only one who bothers to tag me!). So Tag 4, here we go!

4 Places I Have Lived

Chennai – The place where I was born and brought up. School, College, Beach, Satyam Cinemas, Cricket and Friends – Too many wonderful memories for any other place to even come close. Will most probably be the place I settle down as well.

Mumbai – A city abuzz with life 24*7. A city that gave me a perspective of people and the world outside. A city I will never willingly settle down in but nevertheless, one of my favorites.

Indore – A wonderful two years in the hilltop. I have written entire posts on it so no further rambling on the same.

Coimbatore – My home for over a year now, this sleepy town is an absolute rocker. A brilliant weather means I hardly get out of bed before 9 on most days :) Surrounded by Hills on one side and the lush greens of Pollachi on the other, the travels have been such a delight. If it wasn’t for the completely barren social life, this place would have ranked higher.

4 Favorite TV Shows

Neeya Naana? – While everyone is busy making people either cry, sing or dance, this one stands out from the pack. Modeled on group debate format, the anchor takes you brilliantly through two sides of important social and personal issues every week. Currently the best show on TV if you know Tamil.

F.R.I.E.N.D.S – Had heard so much about it before I actually saw it but this was one show that lived up to its billing.

24 – First season was terrific. Has gotten slower and predictable in the next two. Hopefully will pick up in four which Iam yet to start.

Seinfeld/ How I met your Mother – Well, it was a tough call; so I chose both. Seinfeld continues to amaze me with its simplicity while Barney, Ted and Robin make HIMYM irresistible.

4 Vacation Spots

Shimla and Manali – Awesome!
Kerala – Only been there once but it’s simply beautiful. Should explore more sometime!
Pondicherry – Ideal for a one-day round trip.
Paris – The one place I dream of going someday!

4 Favorite Foods
Ghee Roast, Pongal, home cooked (Sambar Rice +Alu Podi Curry) and Rasagulla

4 Daily Websites
Gmail, Cricinfo, Google Reader and Facebook

4 Places I’d Rather Be
Question Pass

4 Things to Do Before I Die

Watch India win 50 over WC (if possible at the stadium)
Learn to ride a bike :)
To be a job creator for at least 100 people
Be a cricket commentator (atleast briefly)

4 Books I Wish I Was Reading For The First Time

Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less
Kane and Abel
Vyasar Virundu (Vysar’s Version of Mahabharata)
The “Blandings” series

4 Movies I Can Watch Again & Again
Mouna Raagam, Anbe Sivam, Minnale and Indian

4 people I believe (or hope) will respond to this tag

Mahesh
Wayne
Jay Jay
Rajesh

Cricket Versus T20

2009-06-11T10:50:00.000-07:00

Just didnt want the blog to become inactive again. So reproducing an earlier post I wrote as a guest blogger for Mrunal's new blog.

Cricket versus T20

Along with over-arm bowling, Kerry Packer and the third umpire, T20 will undoubtedly go down in history as one of the few things that changed the game forever. Like all those changes, the impact of T20 was not immediate – Two years and an Indian win in the inaugural World cup was what it took to capture India’s, and thus, the cricketing world’s, imagination. Smartly, Lalit Modi & Co stepped in. A few cash-rich corporates, some of the world’s best players, a borrowed concept and a booming economy (on second thoughts, just a growing economy) took care of the rest. No one even remembers poor Subash Chandra now.

Well, with IPL2 ready to rock South African audiences and Indian televisions, I thought about why IPL1 didn’t fascinate me as much as it should have. Surely, if not for all the glitz and glamour, atleast the big names and the cricket on display should have had me. First and foremost, I guess it was the city-based teams’ concept. I really didn’t feel that passionate about supporting my city, or any city for that matter. And when Mathew Hayden, Joginder Sharma and Andy Morkel turn out for Chennai SuperKings, whatever little you felt is also gone. On the other hand, when Team India is playing, it’s a totally different ball game. The ecstasy that an Indian win brings is truly unmatched and so is the disappointment at a narrow loss.

The second thing that doesn’t work for me is the whole T20 concept itself. Sure, it gets over in three hours and fits television audiences perfectly but for a serious cricket fan, the cricket on view is not as pleasing as Test or one-day cricket. I remember seeing the inaugural T20 WC and truth be told, I fell for it. What nail-biting excitement it provided and of course, India kept winning. Two years on, the format has not evolved as much as it should have with the result that we keep seeing batsmen trying to hit every ball for a six. Swing and seam are gone; Flight and loop have been forgotten and it’s all about getting the Yorker length.

There is no doubt that T20 has given an exciting twist to the gentleman’s game. As Richie Benaud famously remarked “Test cricket is what parents take their kids to and T20 is what kids bring their parents to” (or some such thing). It has got a whole new generation of people hooked onto cricket. It has got more money into the game and for a cash-strapped ICC, it’s a huge opportunity. But let this opportunity not lead us to the demise of the game. Let it not turn cricket into some fast-paced action thriller where power and purpose take control over skill and strategy. The Dhonis and Gambhirs of today were brought up on Sachin’s Sharjah-like innings. Let Yuvaraj’s six sixes in an over not be the role model for tomorrow’s cricketing princes. Let T20 be what it is - the fun-filled, relaxed form of the game.

It’s a tribute to the game that Test cricket is still considered the pinnacle by its players and fans. And it’s a tribute to its administrators that they have maintained the balance between all the three formats. Undoubtedly, the big challenge will be to sustain the same in the coming years. Let’s maintain IPL as what it is – a cleverly packaged entertainment show with cricket as its anchor. Let it stay as the format where Buchnan tries out his multi-captaincy theories and Modi his time-out commercials. But let’s not take it beyond that.

The Olympic curse

2008-08-08T11:54:00.000-07:00

Once in every four years, we come across

(i) the biggest sporting extravaganza on the planet.
(ii) the existence of sports like Boxing, Weightlifting and Shooting.
(iii) small African countries that can't be found on the map winning many medals.
(iv) an entire nation of one billion and more waiting with bated breath for that single gold/silver/bronze.

That time has come. Lets pray and hope for the best!

Dasavatharam - Kamal at his best!

2008-06-14T03:52:00.000-07:00

I never thought I could watch Dasavatharam in the first week of release. So when one of my TSOs got tickets for the entire team on first day evening show, it was a pleasant surprise.

Awesome movie! - lives up to the high expectations it came with. Iam no great shakes at movie reviews, so I would just limit myself to sharing some of my thoughts on the movie:

(i) Kamal Hasan - Arguably, the best actor in Indian cinema and probably world cinema. The kind of effort he has put in for each role is simply outstanding. Of all the roles, I liked the american ex-CIA agent and Japanese Master the best - The former for the characterisation and the latter simply for the make-up. (The grand-mother and Afghani make-ups were probably not done very well). It's one thing to don ten roles and entirely another thing to do justice to each character and this is where Kamal stands apart from the pack. Hats off Kamal!

(ii) The Plot - A Hollywood style save-the-world plot is a little kiddish but it provides the opportunity for Kamal to weave the other characters around the protagonist. From the surface, spotted a couple of logical flaws. Need to watch it closer next time around.

(iii) The Screenplay - Another highlight of the movie. The first half moves at break-neck speed. It slightly slows down after interval to introduce a couple more characters but once again picks pace towards the end. Overall, a brilliant job again by Kamal who I guess (missed the first 2-3 mins) handles story, dialogues and screenplay for the movie.

(iv) The Stunts - For once, an Indian movie matches/ gets close to Hollywood level action and chase sequences. A lot of good effort has gone into making the climax sequence between the hero and the villian at the construction site.

(v)Dialogues - The same problem that 'HeyRam' had continues here. Each one speaks a different language or a different dialect which is perfectly acceptable from the creator's point of view but for the masses watching it in theatres, it becomes difficult to follow the proceedings. One of the few reasons why I suspect the movie may not do that well in B and C centers. Need to watch the movie once just to listen carefully to the dialogues.

(vi) Music - A big disappointment and Kamal has erred by picking Himesh. A couple of songs seem good when we watch the movie but the truth comes out when we listen in Winamp later.

(vii) Direction - K.S. Ravikumar ensures that the movie is on the right track and not just a parade of the ten characters. Ensures the commercial side as well with Mallika and some comic interlude. The only other guy who could have done a better job with the same story is Shankar.

Overall, a landmark movie for Kamal - probably his best effort so far! Watch it purely to get a glimpse of what he is capable of. And you will not be disappointed.

P.S - I plan on watching the movie a number of times. Definitely need to watch once at Sathyam cinemas, Chennai to get that experience - Complimentary passes are welcome :)

As another journey begins..

2008-03-23T16:57:00.000-07:00

I finally got my posting this month at work. Coimbatore will be my new home. The Manchester of South India, the city and its surrounding geographies are in the middle of an economic boom. For the first time, I see a city where manufacturing is above par the services/agriculture in terms of employment as well as wealth creation. The cost of living, not surprisingly, seems to be nearly as high, if not more than, Chennai. In fact, one of my friends went to the extent of suggesting that it is costlier than Bangalore.

Anyways, since I am going to be here for sometime, you will have enough of Coimbatore snippets in the days to come. Just thought I will make a post as I begin another journey in a new city. I am looking forward to the challenges and hope to have fun in the way!

Season of Love

2008-02-13T23:21:00.000-08:00

You know Valentine’s Day is near when

a) The normal stationery shop you visit is suddenly full of ‘You are the one for me’ cards and heart-shaped gifts.

b) Your newspaper comes with special ‘love’ supplements.

c) The news channels run breaking news as “One crore red roses sold in February”.

d) Shopping malls run all sorts of Ms. And Mr. contests.

e) A lot of (otherwise idle) bloggers write some silly post on it :)

As of now, the only missing link is the self-proclaimed moral police who pop-out on occasions like this and tell people what is right for them and the society. (I guess they will give it a skip this time as they are busy with other ‘Maha’ issues)

Anyways, my earliest memory of V-day goes back to eighth standard - I overheard a conversation while standing in the prayer line at school which went as follows “Do you know today is lover’s day?” “Yeah! I know. And Ganesh is going to propose to Divya” (Names changed to protect identities :) ). But it wasn’t until I was 15 that I actually came to know about the dress-color codes to be followed. I remember being furious with myself for not having a green shirt with me (Green, supposedly, was to indicate to your target segment that you were available). These two silly events keeping come back to me whenever I think of V-day. Since my other adult years did not provide any reason to remember Feb 14 in any special way, its time to bring this aimless post to an end now!

I wish all of you a Happy Valentine’s Day. Enjoy the day. Love everyone and throw away any of your old hatred for anyone! And above all, treat every day of the year as V-Day. Let your heart go on!

The year that was

2008-02-03T23:30:00.000-08:00

Since we are already in February, it is probably a bit too late for the 2007 year post, but since I had started writing it sometime back, I might as well complete it. This should also satisfy all my readers who have been complaining about too much of cricket posts :)

It was a year of two parts – the one on campus and the one after.

The one on campus

The last few days on campus were quite enjoyable as was most of the two years. Birthday cakes and treats, parties, movie downloads, yearbook testimonials, placement preparations, a few last-minute love stories, and farewell trips with friends – it was all happening! And then came the three biggest days in any B-school’s calendar – Day 0, Day 1 and Day 2. (Yes, all those stories you read in papers about placement getting over in half-a-day are, mildly put, pure #%$*). Anyways, blessed with a buoyant economy and a hard-working placement committee, we all got our dream placements. Delighted mothers, relieved fathers, and proud siblings - the convocation was really the icing on that huge cake called IIM Indore.

And then it was finally time to leave - everyone had to, except that no one really wanted to! There are moments in life when you wish you had an opportunity to go back and do it all over again - that feeling came over me as I stood near the stairs of my hostel block and took one final look at the home of my two years. And when I finally boarded the train at Indore, I knew I was finishing up on one important journey and starting on another.

The one after

The one month period after campus and before work was bliss - I slept a lot, ate even more and generally didn’t do any productive work. And then I joined work. The first four-and-a half months was so hectic and so full of travel that it passed before I could say ‘paint’. After that it’s been relatively peaceful with occasional bursts of work.

On the personal front, a six day week meant just one day for all the catching up - catching up with friends, coming online on Gtalk, sleeping long hours and all the efforts towards getting a driving license and passport (both still continue to be in the pipeline). Thanks to weekday night shows, I managed to stay in touch with the film stars. And by installing DISHTV, my lifelong ambition of watching Sachin bat on a 29 inch screen was also fulfilled :)

There is one more very significant thing that happened in the year of 2007. Right through my school and college days, I have tried everything from drinking Complan (Yes, I was a Complan boy!) to working out at the gym to put on weight. None of it had ever worked even a little bit and I had given up hopes long time ago. And yet, magically, this year, with almost no effort from my side, I put on so much weight that for the first time in life, I was actually worried about my diet :). For this reason alone, 2007 would go into the annals of my biography as a very important year. 2008, u better have something really special up your sleeve :)

Come back India!

2008-01-08T00:50:00.000-08:00

With the current mood in India, the title alone would have sufficed as a post but I am so angry right now that I need to pour my feelings somewhere.

To the Australian cricket team – I would like to remind you that the world hasn’t forgotten what Glenn McGrath, Michael Slater and so many others have all said at various points of time in the field. So don’t act like a bunch of angels now! What was said in the cricket ground was to be left there. If other teams started complaining about what you say to them on the field, Australia can never field eleven players in any match.

To Australia and its people – If you want to prove to the world that you are a good sporting nation, this is the time to do it. You know what’s happened – so if we call off the tour tomorrow, you know it was because of your own team’s making. Sorry about that! I, as a cricket fan, have at times saluted the way in which your team has played the game but your current team will have none of it. It’s tough to believe a team led by someone like Steve Waugh has also been led by a rogue like Ricky Ponting.

To Mike Procter, the South African match referee:

1) When harbhajan did not agree to the allegation (or to the actual words as charged) against him and you had no neutral person (namely the umpires – Whether they were neutral in the game is an altogether different matter) supporting the allegation, on what basis can you lay a ban on the accused?

2) Coming from South Africa, a country which has fought so long against racism, you should be the first person to understand when something is meant as a racist remark and when its not. Or are you probably trying to pay back for all the good that the Indian board has done to South Africa when you came out of apartheid?

To Indian fans – Thanks a lot for the support and feedback you have been giving in the media. It proved that we not only burn effigies but also can support our team in an hour of crisis. Continue the good work!

To the BCCI – You have begun acting the right way. Ensure the job gets finished properly. For the benefit of everyone, the following is the procedure we should adopt:

Revoke Harbhajan’s ban completely, failing which we will pack our bags and catch the next flight out. If the hearing is suspended till end of series, we can continue to play under the condition it will happen before the beginning of tri-series.
Although we would like Bucknor and Benson not to stand in any more matches, it currently cannot be changed mid-way through a tour. This must be understood by everyone. We should register an official protest for now and leave it at that. For any international match played after this test series, BCCI should insist on these umpires not officiating in any India matches. It might sound very childish but their performance left very little scope for anyone to think otherwise.
If the matches do happen after revoking the ban, ask our team to give it back on the field in every single opportunity. The series has already been lost, so what is left for us is not just ‘pride to play for’ as some might argue but use the opportunity to show those guys who we really are and what happens when you rub good guys on the wrong side.

The most stupid thing for us in the world would be to continue the tour if the ban is not overturned. It will be like bowing down to every team in the world and saying “Next time I tour your country, keep your players and the match referee ready – We have our key players waiting for a ban” .

Enough is enough!This is the time to show our cricket power to the world. For far too long, we have been seen as a country of meek people. Its time to assert ourselves, not only because we deserve it, but for the simple reason that we are right! Come back India!

Happy New Year

2008-01-01T01:40:00.000-08:00

Wishing all of you a very happy new year! May this year see all your dreams come true!

Iam someone who believes every day of every year is a new one and needs to be started afresh but nevertheless, these occasions give you a chance to reflect upon yourself and an opportunity to start something new and positive for the days ahead. As for the year that went by, it is quite a memorable one and I would probably make a post on it sometime. Till then, happy new year folks!

Pic of the day

2007-12-01T23:30:00.000-08:00

Sourav Ganguly, after completing his first century in his homeground, Eden Gardens. Go on Dada!

Pic courtesy - Cricinfo

The Mumbai airport fraud

2007-11-22T00:05:00.000-08:00

Recently read about a petrol bunk fraud in one of my friend’s blog. I was reminded about how I had got duped at the exact same bunk a couple of weeks earlier in the same fashion. Taking a cue from it, I decided to post about one of the other frauds that I came across recently so that at least some of you can be prepared next time around.

I developed great respect for Mumbai when I lived there for a year. I was impressed with the efficiency of the train system and the honesty of the auto drivers which made travel at any time of the day such a comfort. So when I recently got duped at the Mumbai airport six months ago for the first time, I wasn’t even sure whether I had been duped in the first place. Me and my friend had landed at the airport and asked for a cab to Powai. Upon agreeing to the rate of Rs 200, the guy (lets say a Mr. X) who did the bargaining with us called for the cab and we get into it.

As soon as we sit inside, Mr. X smartly hands out three hundred rupee notes and politely asked my friend to give a 500 rupee note to settle the fare. My friend is slightly puzzled, but still takes the hundred rupee notes and pays the fare but Mr. X immediately returns it showing it’s actually a hundred rupee note we have given and asks for 500 Rs note. My friend thinks he has made a mistake, takes the 100 Rs note and pays him 500. Later, when he checks his purse, my friend remembers that he had no 100 rupee notes to begin with in the first place. So effectively we had been duped 400 Rs (since we got back a 100 Rs note for the first 500 Rs we gave).Upon enquiring with others, we find that this is a common occurrence at the airport.

So what is their modus operandi? They pick on unsuspecting passengers who as it is have no idea about the fares. Negotiations over, they take you a little outside the airport saying the taxi is parked there. There, the usual Mr. X is ready with the (500 – Agreed fare) amount. They wait for the passenger to sit inside the cab and immediately give him the money and ask for the 500 Rs note. And here is where the most important part of the operation is – As soon as u pay him the note, he switches it in a flash with a 100 Rs note, which no doubt he was having handy. If u weren’t paying enough attention you would not even notice his hand movement,go on to assume u made a mistake with the notes and end up losing 400 bucks more in the process.

I experienced the whole thing again when I went to Mumbai two months back. This time I was watching him closely and despite that I wasn’t able to spot when he actually made that switch. However, I at least knew he had definitely switched the note. I was angry and despite the broken Hindi I uttered, my tone helped that guy realize I was clearly not impressed by his behavior. He went off silently and the journey progressed smoothly. All of you might not be that lucky so I suggest one of the following precautionary measures:

1) Always try to take one of the taxis which are standing just in front of the airport lounge exit. In full public view with security personnel nearby, the Mr. Xs are virtually absent. Even better, take one of the prepaid taxis. The queue is long, but it’s always better than paying 400 bucks extra.

2) Never agree to go outside the airport to board a taxi unless it’s a prepaid taxi where you have already paid the fare.

3) Always insist on paying only after you reach your destination. Even if you are already inside the cab and they insist on payment before starting, do not hesitate to walk out.

4) Finally, if you know you are going to stay in a particular hotel, make use of the cab pickup service by calling them in advance and informing them of your arrival. The service usually comes free but even otherwise it makes a lot of sense.

As a parting note, I would like to mention a couple of things.

One of my friends recently had to go to the US and he had to take a connecting flight via Mumbai. He is running late and takes a cab to go from the domestic airport to the international airport. The cabbie takes him to some remote place, asks him to pay money failing which he won’t take him to the airport. Due to the paucity of time at hand, my friend paid 100 dollars in traveler’s cheques and got to the airport. Of course, he smartly blocked those cheques once he got inside the airport via phone banking.

Just beware of the Mumbai cabbies in the same way you would be of the Chennai auto- drivers. As in the latter case, the safest option would be to avoid them!

After the hibernation

2007-11-18T00:02:00.000-08:00

It almost seems that Oct-Nov is my blog hibernation period. Even last year, I haven't made many posts in this period. Anyways, since Iam making a re-entry yet again, I guess I will use this post to just give a snapshot of what's been happening with me over the last six months. Return to serious blogging only if I manage another post this month.

1) Work - When I made the choice on campus, I knew it was a good one but wasn't exactly sure if it was the right one. Six months post joining, the initial signs are encouraging. Responsibility, Independence and Pressure would be the few adjectives that I would use to describe the journey so far. With training getting over, I am just waiting to be let loose on real work.

2) Travel – This should count among one of the perks that I have enjoyed at work. From the buzzing M.G roads of Bangalore to the serene shores of Pondicherry, I have traveled across four states and 17 towns, learning something new at every stop. There was a period when I had to explore some new towns in interior TN with just a map, a sales officer and an Indica - Good fun it was!

3) People –The brusque menial in my godown, the smart yet down-to-earth MBA salesman, the multi-crore dealer who sits in a shop so small that two people can’t enter at the same time, the cab driver who has seen more countries than I ever will, the risen-through-the-ranks manager from whom I keep learning new things about management everyday – Its simply been a terrific time meeting new people and understanding what motivates each one of them.

4) Friends – Right at the top of the list of casualties. I knew I would lose touch with a lot of people once I left campus but even the 25-30 people with whom I wanted to stay in touch with have slowly started drifting apart. It may be because my work is too hectic (such a lame excuse!), I come online for a very small time and Iam not exactly the calling types but the fact remains that the only friends I have stayed in touch with are the ones who have bothered to call/mail me. Hoping to correct the situation in the near future (just the way I hope to write a blog more regularly)

Overall, a mixed bag with a lot of positives. Actually wanted to write a little more but on second thoughts, let me just post first after a long time. So that’s it folks!

We are World champs!

2007-09-25T00:15:00.000-07:00

India win the inagural 20-20 World cup. This is arguably the greatest moment in Indian cricket (along with the 1983 win, of course). Its time to give our boys their due! A young team that played bold, dashing and brilliant cricket have rightly been crowned World champs! Its time for all true fans to celebrate this once in a lifetime moment. Three cheers to Team India.

P.S - Detailed post to follow when I come back from cloud nine :)

The detailed post - October 18

Well, the euphoria has almost died down now with Australia winning the one-day series quite comfortably and the focus shifting to other things. But that couple of weeks of T20 WC would forever stay in my memory for a lot of reasons. When I tried to analyze what had happened to our team suddenly to become such a good side, the following came to my mind.

1) The fielding - The very absence of senior players (which was considered to be a major weakness) turned out to be a strength. Hitting the stumps directly did make a difference as the South Africans found out from the hands of Rohit Sharma and Robin Uthappa. In over a decade of watching Indian cricket, never have I seen an Indian team field so brilliantly throughout a tournament. There have always been occasional brilliant performances but none like this one which was consistent over 4-5 matches.

2) Winning from nowhere - It was not as if the entire tournament was a bed of roses. We had to struggle in almost every single match and the ability to come back from losing positions was what the difference was between this team and those of the past. Whether it was the league game against Pakistan or the match against South Africa, we came back from bad positions to ultimately turn the tables on the opponent. The lack of expectations from the public and the fearlessness of the younger brigade were chief reasons for this.

3) Smart captaincy - When Dhoni was handed over the captaincy, I had my share of doubts as to how he would perform. But he rose admirably well to the occasion and going by initial signs, I believe he can go on to become one of the smarter captains India has had. Whether it was keeping the extra fielder inside the circle in the game against Aus (which provided the crucial breakthrough) or making ur inexperienced bowler bowl the last over of the game (reasoning that the pressure would be equally high on the batsman), he promises a refreshing approach to captaincy.

4) A team effort - This is probably the most overused word in cricket and least followed action in Indian cricket. But for once, every time there was a mini-collapse in batting, couple of guys stood up and steadied the boat. Every time we needed a breakthrough, the bowlers provided it. And as already mentioned, unlike so many other times, when there was a chance to be taken, the fielders grabbed it. Dinesh karthik, who otherwise had a limited role cricket in the tournament, pulled off a splendid catch which I would rate amongst the top five catches of all times. At the end, we were left wondering why we can't replicate the same team effort in every match.

Its so easy to analyze now and say why we won. But the excitement each victory generated in every fan's heart at that moment is truly incomprehensible. So how much ever I write now, I can never truly explain how great it felt at that moment. Well done India! At last, a cricket crazy nation got its due! A T20 WC is a good start - Lets go for better things now. Go on guys!

Rest in peace

2007-08-07T23:01:00.000-07:00

This post is a dedication to Neha and Nitesh, two of my juniors in IIM-Indore, whose wonderful lives were brought to an abrupt end last Saturday. I join with the IIM-Indore family in praying for their souls to rest in peace. Let us pray to give their families and friends the strength to bear this irreversible sorrow.

A few posts made by their friends in their memory -

http://creativenits.blogspot.com/2007/08/when-hopes-died.html

http://nishantzworld.blogspot.com/2007/08/memories.html

http://robinsamuel.blogspot.com/2007/08/when-words-fail-you.html

Advertisements at a glance

2007-08-03T23:44:00.000-07:00

Last month, at the end of a long and tiring day, I was watching TV. And when u watch TV, u invariably watch a lot of ads. Suddenly, there is this MBA guy inside you who thinks what a stupid ad that one was. But there is this other common man inside who feels the ad wasn’t so bad. In fact, upon watching the same ad a few more times, he thinks they are good. To resolve the conflict between the two, I decided to employ the model I had learnt in my FMCG course for concept development. In addition to the 3 parameters mentioned in the model, I added a fourth one to even things out between the “aamadmi” and the MBA. So lets evaluate a few of the ads I saw that day.

Airtel

The Plot – A small kid is coming back from school. On seeing the rain, he dances all the way home thoroughly enjoying it. He calls his father as soon as he reaches home, asks him to close his eyes and makes him listen to the rain over the phone. And the now evergreen Airtel music starts playing in the background. A voiceover gives a little globe.

1) Accepted Consumer belief - Here the underlying belief is that of a frustrated customer who loses connectivity whenever he goes someplace far off. He believes that the network invariably lets him down.
2) Benefit – The benefit that Airtel has been consistently reiterating is that of its connectivity no place which place you are in. That old ad where a daughter calls up her dad from a forest after a copter breaks down, the more recent one where the grandson plays chess with his granddad over phone - they all try to reiterate the same benefit of connectivity, no matter where you go. It is a very strong feature that both Hutch and Airtel have been playing on, although Hutch’s ads have always been far better.
3) Reason to believe – This is probably the most important part for any ad according to me. More than the reason, the believability of it is more crucial. With Hutch doing very well with the boy-dog combo, Airtel has been desperately searching for one. They have continuously been playing on the emotional angle and mostly it’s worked for them. However, the last two ads – the granddad-grandson ad and the happy recharge ad have miserably failed because of an overkill of this emotional angle. Compared to that, the new ad partially succeeds with the help of the little boy. It doesn’t feel that odd now.
4) Impact on Target segment- At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter whether we over-educated folks like the ad or not. All the above analysis might not be necessary if it can leave an impression on the intended target segment. And in this case, I feel Airtel has finally struck here – not exactly gold but good enough to keep those bad memories of “Happy recharge” far away.

Apache RTR 160cc

The Plot – A professor is teaching Newton’s laws in a classroom. For each law explained in the class, we simultaneously see an ‘interesting’ demo on the road by a guy on a bike. At the end of the class, when the bike guy walks into the classroom, the Prof asks him what is his excuse this time for missing the theory and he replies that he was doing the practicals.

1) Accepted Consumer belief – A bike is the one of the most essential style statements for a youngster in his college. It is expected to help him show off in front of everyone. Most importantly, it is ‘the’ tool for getting your girl. In short, the belief attacked here is the dream/desire of every college going youngster.
2) Benefit – Towards the end of the ad, the product features are mentioned in the passing but when you have an entire ad which ‘shows’ the more important benefits, it can be excused.
3) Reason to believe – Well, if you think logically, there is no reason for me to believe (i.e. based on the ad) that this bike will provide the said benefits  However, as with most good ads, ‘how you say’ matters more than ‘what you say’ and this ad rocks on that front.
4) Impact on target segment – One Word – Wow! One of the sexiest ads in recent times leaving an indelible impression on its target segment. It doesn’t really matter whether you understand Newton’s laws or not – you will like the ad a lot more if you do – but the ad achieves what it set out to do. The earlier Apache ads were a shame to the bike itself but this one might just change all this. Pulsar, better watch out!

Well folks, I was planning to write on a couple of more ads when I started but I guess that will be it for now.It turned out to be much more than just a glance. Maybe I can do another series some other time :)

Rising from the ashes

2007-08-02T23:09:00.000-07:00

With a single post in the last two months, this blog is now as good as dead. This was always on the cards once I joined work – I had seen it happen to a couple of my seniors’ blogs last year. I had told myself that I wouldn’t go that way and would somehow eke out that time to make a post now and then. However, with things turning out as they have, it has become difficult to even spend enough time on the net to read my favorite blogs, leave alone writing one.

Anyways, after several brave attempts in the last few days, this blog finally rises from its ashes today. I promise to myself and my faithful readers (who by the way have kept the site meter running) that I shall write a minimum of one post every week starting now. Chalo then, let’s get started!

Sivaji - The BOSS

2007-06-01T22:33:00.000-07:00

If you are a tamilian, there is a 99% chance that you have already seen this trailer. Yes, this is the trailer for Rajni’s upcoming movie, Sivaji – The Boss.

If there was a huge expectation already, the trailer has turned it into a craze by now. The talk is all over the town – From my autowallah to my manager, the topic is there in everyone’s lips. The truth is that there are few things that can create as much buzz as a Rajnikanth movie release. For over the last decade and more, he has been a one-man industry churning out some of the biggest blockbusters (His last movie, Chandramukhi was supposedly the highest grossing South Indian movie ever).

Although there is no doubt that this is going to be the biggest Indian movie ever made, I will be personally watching out for a couple of things. Production is by AVM – the biggest production house in South India. Also, this will be the first time Director Shankar teams up with Rajni. With the exception of the lone failure of ‘Boys’, Shankar has been able to mix mainstream commercial cinema with stories that have strong social messages. So when he teams up with the biggest entertainer of all, the result is going to be outstanding. We can expect not just an entertaining movie for the masses but also an enthralling movie for the purists!

Thalaivaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Waiting for the release!

Why Sales & Marketing?

2007-05-12T02:41:00.000-07:00

Yes, that’s the question almost every marketing company asks a candidate in the interview process. I feel that it’s a question that everyone wanting to enter S&M should answer very honestly – not just to the company but to your own self and long before the interviews. After all, at first it seems everything is loaded against the marketing guys – their jobs are the ones which involve a lot of travel in rickety buses and trains (more often than not in sweltering heat and humidity of rural India) and on an average, it pays the lowest compared to other fields. You could comfortably sit all day in an AC and make presentations for a software company instead of suffering in the heat. Or fly executive class from one metro to another and tell one-minute solutions to year-long problems of clients. Why would anyone want to take up Sales and Marketing? At first, the argument seems perfectly logical. But dig a little deeper and you get a different point of view. As one of my friends said, “I can’t sit all day in front of a stupid comp and do the same thing over and over again. I shall get bored. I want to travel, meet people and live my life”. Another one says, “I have a natural flair for talking and interacting with people. I am not a desk-jobber. I can’t do stupid numbers and stupid graphs” So is it just about a personality-profile fit? What else could be a decisive factor? In this post, I try to explore that with my own experience.

If someone had told me couple of years back that I would be entering ‘S&M’ after MBA, I would have probably shrugged it off or just said ‘Yeah! Maybe! U can never tell!’ When I first came to IIM Indore, I had a lot of pre-conceived notions. I had almost made up my mind to go into Finance even before I knew what it held. To be honest, I was just driven by whatever were appearing in the papers at that time – time and again, there were reports of how much money I-bankers made and what glorious, luxurious lives they were leading. So when after the initial few weeks of accounts reality struck, it struck hard. At first, I thought I wasn’t working hard enough. After all, I had topped all my life in almost all subjects. But with more and more single digit scores in quizzes, I not only realized that I had no clue about assets, liabilities and income statements but also despite my best efforts, finance wasn’t coming to me. It was almost as if Finance was laughing at me – “You lowly mortal! What did u think of me?”

I don’t know when but it was sometime during my second term that I decided I was not going to Finance. It was a coming together of a lot of factors – all the banks deciding not to shortlist me during summers, my poor scores in Finance and accounts quizzes and the sheer terror that came over me every time I saw a balance sheet. In hindsight, it was probably too early to call it quits (considering the fact we had learned little ‘real’ finance till then) but at that time it was the right decision.

So at this point, when I was really unsure about what I was going to do came our IRIS event ‘Marksman’. It was basically a marketing strategy game we were organizing as part of our annual inter-college festival. I later realized the game being very similar to a popular branding game marketed to international B-schools for their curricula. The important difference was that this one had been Indianized very well. It was basically about four soap manufacturing companies fighting it across the different regions under various simulated conditions as they attempt to capture market share and increase their brand value. As part of the preparations for the game, I learnt a lot about market research, consumer behavior under different situations – things I would have never learnt in class, at least not in the first year. The game was one of the important reasons that I turned towards marketing.

By the time I was in my third term, I had more or less settled with marketing. And this was what worried me the most – I wasn’t very sure whether I wanted to do marketing but it was looking like the right choice. The bigger dilemma came when we had to select our electives for the fourth term before we went for our internships. Knowing my dilemma, one of my good friends suggested I take marketing courses but keep a couple of Fin courses in the ‘float’ option just in case I changed my mind after my internship. Although my summer internship didn’t give me any first hand experience in sales or distribution, I got to know a little about the way sales actually worked by observing some of the managers there. I just felt that I could do the sale they were trying to make – it sort of reassured my own abilities to handle sales. I was actually able to understand where exactly the manager was making a mistake. And I became more confident.

In second year, with the help of some good courses and better Profs, I begun to deliberate more about marketing as a career. Although there was a small dilemma till the beginning of placements,there was just a gut feel which asked me to go ahead with it and so here Iam - a fresh MBA about to jump into S&M. So where exactly in the middle of all this did I make that choice to enter marketing? Which is that one point which tipped it over? The truth is I don’t think there was one. I can’t point to a single day and say that was when it happened. It was just a slow-build up until finally one day I realized I will probably enjoy doing this and I will be good at it. This might not be the case with everyone – I have seen people who knew that they have always wanted to do marketing. Some others have always thought it as a natural fit for their personality. I guess, in the end, what really matters is that u should be convinced yourself and clearly know why you are taking it up. Salaries or Big names don’t matter; it’s better to take up something that you know you will like doing – Conventional wisdom, yes, but worth recollecting and remembering!

It's Showtime!

2007-04-24T22:09:00.000-07:00

This World cup has been a big disappointment to me for two reasons

1) India didn’t make it past the first round

2) The overall mediocre cricket played (except for the top four teams, to an extent)

However, this World cup would still be remembered as the World cup of the minnows. Bangladesh truly arrived in the league of big teams. It will be interesting to see how they shape up from here. They can go on and become a major power like SriLanka did or fade out like Zimbabwe. The next five to ten years are going to be crucial in this regard. Another team that made it big in this World cup was Ireland. From being just part-time players on a holiday to the islands they have risen to the tenth position ahead of Zimbabwe and Kenya in the ICC table. Once again, the cricket administration here needs to develop a sound first class schedule and develop a pool of players. On the other hand, they could ensure that most of the players get good county experience in England. That should not be difficult after their recent performances.

Anyways, we are now at the business end of the tournament and truly the top four teams have made it here. My friend asked me to pick the winner of the World Cup just around the time the World cup was about to start. I told him that would be difficult but instead picked the four semifinalists – Australia, India, South Africa and New Zealand. Looking back now, that prediction isn’t far off :) As for picking the winner, if I were to purely go by what by the formbook says, there is only one team which is winning this World cup – Australia. Alas, this is the World cup of the minnows and my heart wants any of the other three teams to win. New Zealand, SriLanka, South Africa in that order would be my choice for the champions. However as things stand, I hope SA defeat the Aussies and NZ defeat the Lankans. And in the final, I hope Shane Bond takes the last wicket in a tense final over and wins the cup for New Zealand :) Above everything, I just want to watch three good, nail-biting matches. Please!

All the best. May the best team (apart from the Aussies) win!

Update, May 1:
Aussies won the World cup :(. At the moment, they seem unstoppable for at least another couple of years. Anyways, well played Srilanka! India needs to learn a few lessons from them.

A round-up

2007-04-21T16:27:00.000-07:00

To kick-start my re-entry to blogging, just a round-up of yesterday’s important events and my views on them:

1) The much hyped Abhi-Ash marriage took place yesterday. I was getting really sick and tired of all the useless coverage that the news channels were bringing over the last 3-4 days. If they wanted to have a private affair, let them have it. Why do these channels have to haunt their houses waiting for something/someone to show up? Anyways with that marriage, my cup of woe is full. Aishwarya was the last in the list of my favorite actresses – Revathy, Kajol and the eighth wonder. Now have to turn my attention to the promising Asin :)

2) Brian Charles Lara announced retirement from international cricket. Despite what has happened in the recent past, he will always be remembered as one among the greatest batsmen ever. When in full flow, he was such a pleasure to watch. However, just like Inzamam a few weeks earlier, it’s not always possible to get your timing right.

3) The Indian team for the Bangladesh tour was announced. The selectors were forced to do something dramatic after the WC debacle. They had to show that they were tough; that they shall put Indian cricket back on track. Unfortunately, they have only made the water muddier. A couple of silly things I could notice:

a. Dropping Virender Sehwag from the test team and selecting him for the one-day team – Absolute bullshit. With the exception of the SouthAfrica tour, Sehwag has been our leading batsman in tests last year. And he should have been dropped from the one-day team for obvious reasons.

b. Playing Piyush Chawla for the one-dayers. In today’s scenario, fielding a young leg-spinner in the one-dayers is not a good option. He will go for control of run-flow over wickets and in the process lose the edge. Should have atleast let him stay for the tests as well.

4) The Government has asked the IIMs to put on hold the admission process. If the new quotas are only incremental and are not going to affect the general category students (as promised by our HRD minister), why not go ahead with the admission process for the general category? Why cause unnecessary trouble for everyone? As far as I can see, this is once again a ploy used by the HRD minister to put the time pressure on the Court to force the verdict, probably without providing the latest census data as required by the court. At the end of the day, I just hope genuine students (whichever category they may belong to) don’t get affected in all this politics bullshit.

Chalo then, that’s it for now. Hope to get back to normal blogging for sometime before I join work.

The World cup - its here!

2007-03-19T04:12:00.001-07:00

After all the months of hype and hoopla, the cricket world cup is finally here. I have been looking forward to this for nearly a year now. Just like every other Indian fan who thinks with his heart rather than his head, Iam expecting India to win the world cup. This World cup is the first time sixteen teams will be playing. It is the first time it will be played in the West Indies and also the longest in terms of the duration of the competition. More than anything, I guess this is the most open World cup we have had in nearly a decade. The recent bad form of Australia and the good performance of other teams makes it a very interesting world cup. While the associate members are given a chance to prove themselves in the league stage, I believe the real excitement will begin in the Super eights. Not even a single game could be missed here. Atleast that’s what I thought before the World cup begun.

Noone could have predicted the way things have gone in the first week. Going by this one week alone, this World cup might well be remembered for the rise of the minnows. Ireland first tied with Zimbabwe and went on to topple Pakistan. That easily is the biggest upset of all times. The loss means that Pakistan is out of the competition. And they have angry fans waiting back home. Things with India aren’t looking exactly rosy either. The shock loss to Bangladesh might serve as a wake-up call but there is a strong possibility that we might get knocked out of the World cup even if we win the next two matches against Bermuda and Srilanka.If Srilanka manage to beat Bangladesh, the latter going into the last game against Bermuda will know exactly the margin by which it would need to win to qualify for the super-eights. The odds are indeed stacked against India at this moment. However, as a start, they can concentrate on winning against Bermuda by as big a margin as possible. Then probably they can think of the game against Lanka, try to win there and then leave everything else to the Gods.

It will be indeed sad if India does not make it to the super-eights but irrespective of that, the fans in India need a reality check. Making them heroes every time they win and pelting stones in their houses every time they lose is not going to get us anywhere. Its one thing to cheer your team for victory and entirely another to accept a loss and move on. I guess it will be difficult for an emotional fan to understand this but the sooner we all realize it’s just a sport, the better for all of us.

End note:

Even as I was writing this post, news of Bob Woolmer passing away filtered in much to the shock of many cricket fans around the world. He was arguably one of the best coaches in the world and brought in great innovations to the game. It is indeed a sad day for cricket. May his soul rest in peace.

Where does this blog go now?

2007-03-03T04:35:00.000-08:00

That’s one question that’s been haunting me for quite some time now. I started this blog around about a year back. I did so because I always liked writing and six months at IIM-Indore had made me aware about blogs. So I began this blog, partly from peer pressure and partly from my own interest towards writing. Amongst my first thoughts was to build this as a social awareness blog, giving strong opinions on important social/political issues. Unfortunately, that needed a lot of background work and the lazy ass I was, I never got to that. So the next best thing was to write about something I was experiencing – my life here. Hence, this blog today stands before you as indorelife - a ‘campus’ blog. That now takes us back to our main topic – where does this blog go now?

Even while on campus, with all the free time in the world and a broadband internet connection at my disposal throughout, I have managed just 25 posts in an entire year. Of course, numbers are not everything but they do indicate my laggard nature. The point is, when Iam going to shift to a busy work environment where am I going to find time for blogging? Will I at least have access to broadband in the small town that I may be posted to? All said and done, I guess if Iam really passionate about my writing, all the excuses can be handled. And I do feel that I just might manage to continue writing. Assuming I do that, the next question is – will it be under indorelife.blogspot or will it be a new blog?

‘indorelife’ has built some brand equity for itself over the last one year. With 3116 hits as of today and readership across seven countries, it is a truly global brand :). Jokes apart, I really don’t want to throw ‘indorelife’ out of the window just because the name is no longer relevant. I request my regular readers to voice your thoughts on the same. May be you can help me reach a decision.

Bidding adieu

2007-03-03T03:31:00.000-08:00

“All my bags are packed
I’m ready to go….

….cause I’m leaving on a jet plane
Don’t know when I’ll be back again
Oh babe, I hate to go”

I always knew this was coming – when the two years will be over and it will be time for everyone to leave. And to be very honest, the moment is a mix of happiness and sorrow. Happiness, because this place has given me a bagful of wonderful memories and friends for a lifetime. Sorrow, because the merry-go-round has suddenly come to a stop and I don’t know what to expect next.

I look back at these two years and a few things come to my mind immediately. The first month when I stood shocked, stunned and surprised looking at some of the most intelligent and hardworking people in the country. How I slowly got my bearings together. How I surely realized that I never wanted to do any Fin in my life. How I learnt to work through the night and get any assignment done. How inadequate my general knowledge was. How I learnt important lessons about working in a team and how to handle one. How my acadcom experience taught me about handling problems and people.

And now as I prepare to leave, I have begun to realize a few things that Iam going to miss. Where else can I have a party that starts at 12 in the night and go on till 6 in the morning? Where else can I have Paratha and Maggi at 4.30 in the morning? Where else can I find a subject matter expert on almost any subject you can think of? Where else can I find the greatest collection of movies and TV shows in one place? Where else can I find so many brilliant people together? Where else am I going to have those intellectually stimulating conversations on the long walk down the hill?

Fortunately, despite all the questions, there is a ray of light in front to guide me. I realize that I came here for the experience and the placements at the end. Both of them have been very satisfying to say the least. I realize just like school and engineering college, this is just another phase in life. You treasure the experiences, maintain the friendships and move on. Without getting anymore sentimental or philosophical, let me conclude this one.

Here’s wishing everyone a truly wonderful life ahead. And as for the real world, here Iam!

Life and times of an acadcom member - Part 1

2007-02-21T03:17:00.000-08:00

In the first of this two part series, we shall trace the story of how Vimal actually got elected as an acadcom member and also his initial days in the job.

The year was 2006. The last week of the first month had just begun. The SWAC-EC elections had just got over and the batch had elected the eleven people who would head the various committees. It was now time for the member elections (The members shall work along with the secretary of the respective committees). While everyone’s eyes were focused on the placom elections, Vimal and Wayne (The SWAC co-ordinator) went around scouting for a possible candidate from their section that they could request to stand for the acadcom member. They went around asking people whom they thought would do a good job as an acadcom member. They finally zeroed in on one Mr. Vivek chopra who at that point of time was contemplating about standing for ‘Alumnicom’ member. They explained to him how Acadcom was a much more important role and why he was needed there. He promised to consider this. In the evening, with hardly a few hours left for the filing of nominations, the duo once again went to see Mr.Chopra and see if he had made up his mind. He had indeed made up his mind and he would be standing for the ‘alumnicom’ member elections.

Faced with the daunting task of finding a nominee from their section, Wayne made a mistake that the entire batch would regret for the year to come. He requested Vimal, the innocent bystander, to stand for the member election. Now, Vimal had always set his eyes on the Quiz club (which is an interest club and whose elections would happen later) as he felt it matched his lifestyle of no politics and at the same time being responsible for something he liked. So when Wayne suddenly threw this missile at him, he was unprepared for it. He tried to laugh off the preposterous suggestion but when similar salvos were fired from other allies, Vimal fell. He filed in the nomination just before dinner. Little did he know that the small signature was going to change his second year in ways he could have never imagined.

The Election Day was probably the darkest in the history of IIM Indore. Seventy three half-mad participants voted in Vimal as their acadcom member. A post-poll analysis suggested that most people had thought that this guy would most probably end up with single digit votes. Hence, they had voted for him in the hope that he wouldn’t feel too bad if he got a few more votes. Talk of winning an election on sympathy votes!

With Pawan(P) having already been elected the secretary, Roshan(R) and Vimal(V) completed the three member team which will handle all the student issues regarding academics in the coming year. The team, which came to be known by the acronym ‘PRV’, started off briskly just like all teams do at the start. They got themselves introduced to the various faculty members and started working on the electives for the second year. Vimal, though, was very apprehensive to start off with. He even feared telling the Prof that his time was up when the class time was over. He had a difficult time listening to all the long stories that the Profs were waiting to unleash on any participant who dared to enter their rooms in the afternoons. In his words, “I sincerely thought I had made a big mistake by coming into acadcom”. However, time and PGPOffice change everything. By the end of term in March, he had mastered the art of answering all participant queries. After all, how difficult it can be to learn to say “We are looking into it” or “We will look into it”.

It was at this time that Team PRV realized that there was a lot of budget left over from last year which could be put to good use by conducting some events. Vimal simply jumped at the opportunity as unlike acadcom work, conducting events was something he enjoyed doing. He came up with a “truly novel” series of daily events called “Brain-I” (in keeping with the tradition of IIM Indore to name everything with an ‘I’ in it). The game was simple – Every night in the newsgroup, few questions would be posted in the newsgroup based on the class readings for that day and what the Prof had actually taught. The participants simply had to mail the correct answers and stood to win money if they were among the first three correct entries. The game fell flat in exactly ten days. With not even three responses coming in after the first few days, Acadcom was left with no option but to close shop and concentrate on their bread and butter – postponing assignments, projects, quizzes, birthdays oops!(Just got a little carried away there).

All these experiences hardened Vimal into a lean, mean fighting machine (!) capable of standing up to any Prof for the cause of…for the cause of…well, forget it. Anyways, when the summer break came in April, he thought the worst was behind him. After all, second year was supposed to be chill. With these pleasant and soothing thoughts, he headed off to Bangalore to start his internship with Radio Mirchi. Little did he know how second year in acadcom was going to change his life for ever…..

(To be concluded)

MBA

2007-02-21T00:45:00.000-08:00

February 18, 4.30 PM – My last class in the two years here. I made my last presentation and I gave my last ‘Thank you’ speech to the Prof at the end of the class. I officially completed all course requirements of the PGDM program. Hence, I hereby declare myself an ‘MBA’:)

The visit to Ranthambhore

2007-01-20T07:33:00.000-08:00

Last Friday night, me and four of my friends set out to visit Ranthambhore, one of India’s largest tiger reserves. Seeing the tiger was not foremost in my mind. In the eighteen months I have been here, I have missed out on quite a number of opportunities to visit some beautiful places due to some reason or other. This being our last few months here I straightaway said ‘yes’ when the offer was made. That night we boarded the intercity to Jaipur from Indore railway station.

Next morning at around 6.30, we landed at Sawai Madhopur, the entry point for Ranthambhore National Park.(Certain trains from Delhi and Mumbai also pass through this station and the place seems well connected). We had come prepared with as much winter clothing as we could lay our hands on but still when we stepped out of the train, it was freezing. After having chai and hot pakodas in the station itself, we inspected the map at the station to get a fair idea of what lay in store. The cabwala outside took us to a few hotels and after enquiring in three hotels, we settled in RajPalace. It was a pretty good place and at 500 Rs a day was good value for money.

There aren’t many places other than the park to visit in Ranthambhore but still we had decided to spend two days and do things in leisure. The visit to the park is done in canters or gypsies and there are two trips a day – one in the morning at 7.30 and another in the afternoon at 2.30. Since it had taken us sometime to settle down in the morning, we decided to go for the afternoon trip. We had an elaborate breakfast after which we lied down in the grass absorbing the sun’s rays. It was such a relief after the morning cold. At 1.30 that afternoon, after a hearty lunch we set out in the open canter to the park. It was basically a guided tour where each canter is assigned one of the five zones randomly upon their entry to the park. For about an hour, everyone in the canter was enthusiastic and spotted even the smallest monkey or deer. As time wore on, we had spotted almost all the species except the tiger. It was the animal for which most people had made their trips and so the anticipation was higher. However only disappointment remained at the end of three hours. As we were coming out, we heard of couple of other canters on other routes which had spotted the tigers. A couple of my friends decided to come again the next day and try their luck again. It was once again chilling cold by the time we returned to the rooms at around 7 pm. I also managed to catch a bad cold by this time. We had a quiet dinner followed by a bonfire for a couple of hours which were spent merrily in pulling the legs of all and sundry.

Next day morning, we visited the Ranthambhore fort which houses the Ganesha Temple and a mosque. The sight from the top was really awesome and gave a panaromic view of the entire park area. It was only then I realized how big the park really was. While coming back from the fort, due to the incessant bugging from one of our friends, we stopped near a lake and spotted two crocodiles.

After lunch, my friends once again went to the park on another trip in the hope of catching the tiger. My cold had gotten worse by this time and hence I gave the trip a miss. Alas, my friends couldn’t spot the tiger the second time as well. After a hearty dinner (we had actually beginn to like the food by this time) and another round of bonfire (where we were joined by another set of friends from IIM Indore), we returned to Sawai Madhopur station for the trip back home. All in all, it was a great two day holiday with the only disappointment being the tiger.

A few things for people going to Ranthambhore:

1) Apart from the fort and the park, there is not really much to look around. Proper planning will help you to cover everything in well under a day. However, some people like to stay back and keep visiting till they spot the tiger (A family in the canter was coming for the third time).

2) The per head charges for one trip in a canter is Rs 300. If you take a gypsy, it will be costlier.

3) The rice was pretty good while the rotis and parathas were a disappointment. Something to think about.

4) The website suggests November- May as ideal period for tiger sightings. But at the end of the day, it is pure luck whether your rendezvous with tiger happens or not since it is a natural habitat and not a zoo. Be prepared for this and try enjoying the other things as well while you are in the park.

My forgotten friends - my newspaper

2006-12-24T11:55:00.000-08:00

Starting with this post, Iam starting a new series – ‘My forgotten friends’. These posts will be about certain important companions (mostly my habits – not human beings) of mine whom I have slowly forgotten in the one-and-a-half years I have been in this place. I have been so busy with all the wonderful things that IIM Indore has kept me occupied with that I haven’t even realized that these guys are slowly slipping away. Anyways, now I would like to look back at them and see if any of them can still be rescued. So here we go!

I have lived the major portion of my life in Chennai. There are two things a Chennai guy will never argue about – The best film star and the best newspaper in the country. I have almost woken up everyday to find ‘THE HINDU’ on the sofa near my bed. I guess I started reading ‘Hindu’ when I was in sixth or seventh standard. Like all starters, I used to read only the sports section. That was also the period I got interested in cricket and I used to closely follow the fortunes of the Indian team through all the articles that came. I remember how automatically I used to take the paper, remove the supplement, go to the last page and flip back one page to reach the last but one page (Sports page). By the time I was in eleventh standard, Vijay Lokapally (the guy who wrote columns in the sports section) was one of my favorite writers. I liked Hindu also because it almost covered all the sports Indian players were taking part in, irrespective of where the event was happening. That’s how I kept track of how many titles Vishwanathan Anand was winning and how Geet Sethi was faring at the England Billiards championship. Some of the sports news that came in Hindu was carried by Doordarshan only in that day’s evening news and this impressed me even more.

When we were in ninth standard, a lot of boys in school always talked about sports. So it was a kind of show-off for most of us to talk about all the players, all the statistics and the gossips. And the fact that I didn’t have cable connection at home (meaning I didn’t have access to any sports channel) meant I had to read the sports section from top to bottom without leaving out even the slightest detail.

My grandfather was the one who had encouraged me to read Hindu from the beginning. He said whatever English knowledge he had was thanks to reading Hindu over the years. He was initially happy to let me just read the sports pages but slowly he was advocating me to read the other sections of the paper as well. When I was in eighth standard, he told me ‘you have to start reading the open page supplement’ that used to come on Tuesdays. In the second page, it had a section called ‘Know your English’ which was pretty interesting and I began to read that as well. Of course, my other favorites were the sports supplement and ‘Young world’ that came on Saturdays. I was deeply disappointed when Hindu discontinued this sports supplement sometime later.

As I moved into my eleventh and twelfth standard, my grandfather asked me to read the editorial and the ‘letters to the editor’ – he said that I will learn a lot from these things. I tried but found them boring and till my third year of engineering restricted myself to the first page for some headlines and of course the sports pages. Then midway through my third year, I joined IMS coaching centre for my CAT training. There was this guy, manager of the center, who talked so impressively and motivated all of us towards the test. As part of the preparation, he asked us to read the center page of the Hindu everyday. He said it will serve two purposes – one, improve your awareness about a lot of things and two, improve your language. He said whenever you find a word that you don’t understand, stop reading and immediately refer to the dictionary, understand the meaning, try to fit it back into the sentence and continue reading. So the Vimal who never read the editorial despite repeated pleas from his grandfather over the years finally began to read the center page because he wanted to clear CAT :)

It was during this period I began to realize what a brilliant paper ‘The Hindu’ was. The coverage was so complete; the editorials and opinions were so unbiased. In fact, one day I read another newspaper and felt so bad that I had to come back in the evening and read ‘The Hindu’ to console myself that everything was fine with this world. And this perfect love story continued until one fine day, I had to move to Mumbai to take up my job.

At first, I thought they were joking but when I learnt that people there really don’t read ‘The Hindu’, I was shocked. It was almost like waking up one fine morning to find your right hand missing. Even in my office, where even the ‘chotu mottu’ papers were bought everyday, I was stunned not to find Hindu amongst them. Pretty soon, I found that the only place I could get Hindu was in Mathunga (a predominantly Tamilian area in Mumbai) and I was living in Kandivali. On two Sundays of the month, we used to go to ‘Mathunga’ for two purposes – to have good tamil food and watch a tamil movie. The secret motive for me of course was also to buy ‘The Hindu’. You can’t believe the amount of joy I used to get when I read that paper later in the evening. Of course the disappointing fact was that there was no editorial on Sundays :)

The paper that was selling the most in Mumbai was the ‘Times of India’. One look at the newspaper and I wondered “people actually read this??” It never really seemed to have any issue that was important to the common man. All it was concerned was with any news that was sensational, any news about movie stars and cricket personalities (I remember recently there was a front page article about Sourav’s little daughter asking him ‘Papa, why are you not playing these days?’ after he was dropped). Basically it had anything which would make it sell. And I guess that’s what mattered at the end of the day. I resigned myself to reading the opinion pages of TOI. They weren’t exactly that bad after all but I couldn’t even begin to compare it with my paper. By the end of the year, I had started reading Hindu online and consoled myself.

The problem continued when I came here for pursuing my studies. Although Hindu was available in the city, it was a Delhi edition and came in pretty late. And since the campus is some 30 kms away from the city, the newspaper guy could get us ‘Hindu’ only one day late. Having been starved of it for over a year, I settled for even this. But after a few months, I found it really stupid as very often I would be reading news two days old and ultimately discontinued it. These days, I have a subscription to Business Standard. The paper just comes everyday in the afternoon and I hardly ever touch it.

Right now, the very thought of me sitting on the sofa with a 'Hindu' and sipping the hot coffee that my grandmother makes is enough motivation for me to get a job in Chennai :)

I shall close with the links for my favorite paper.

The Hindu online - http://hindu.com/
The ePaper - http://epaper.thehindu.com/

P.S. – I just realized how nostalgic this post had gotten. So if you are allergic to it, keep your distance from this series :)

Society, Business and Management

2006-12-21T07:48:00.000-08:00

That is the name of one of the courses we did here in IIM Indore. This is a very unique course across B-schools and was designed keeping in mind the vision of IIM Indore to produce socially conscious managers. The course is done in two parts – a theoretical part in Term IV and a practical part in Term V. In the theoretical part we looked at the relevance of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in today’s scenario via the help of a lot of cases. We saw how CSR is more and more becoming an integral part of corporate strategy today. We had lively debates during some of the cases about why the business of business is more than just business. Then came the practical part in the fifth term where we were to take up a specific project in the neighboring community (like Rau, Pithampur) and study and if possible, make realistic recommendations. The Profs we had for this course were pretty good and they made it very clear in the beginning itself that the basic aim was to sensitize ourselves to the community around us. In the process, if we can come up with any recommendations which can be implemented, well and good.

Now six days were allotted in the term to make these field visits. Our group chose to study about the contract laborers (security guards) working on campus. To be honest, most of the groups didn’t take it seriously and were doing it just like any other project. The course was viewed by most of us as just a necessary evil wherein we do all this big talk about society but actually achieve nothing at the end of the day. In fact, the way some people were doing it, I began to wonder whether there was any purpose in doing this course.

And then one day, myself and a friend interviewed a couple of security guards as part of the project. That half an hour came as a rude awakening to me. It really laid before me, in black and white, the people I meet almost everyday but about whom I barely stop and think about. I realized what a different life these guys are leading and what are the various difficulties they are facing. Those guys weren’t struggling for food or anything but a lot of things which we take for granted are only a dream to most of them. Most of us had been mocking at the course and its relevance but for the one hour after we finished the interview, I really wanted to do something for all these people. I don’t even know what that is but the thought is there. Today, as I was just making the report for the final submission, I thought I would write about this course. But what I begun to write about and what I have to say now are somewhat different. Sometimes we are all so immersed in our worlds that we fail to see how important a responsibility we all owe to our society. I would request anyone who is reading this to give something back to the society in whatever way you can. Not necessarily now but as and when you are in a position to do that. It might be as simple as providing one meal to a beggar or something as important as supporting the education of one poor child. Believe me - it gives you great happiness when you see a small deed of yours make even a little difference to someone’s life.

A sigh of relief

2006-12-07T20:41:00.000-08:00

When I was in first year, I always used to think that what a good time the seniors were having. I remember saying to myself that in the second year, I will do the things that I always wanted to do in all the free time I will have.

Alas, second year has been an entirely different story so far. The fourth term was short and packed with credits, so I let it go. All my eyes were on the long three-and-a-half month fifth term where I was sure I will get my time. However, things have been totally different. Due to a variety of reasons from acads to IRIS, I have literally been on the run right through. So today, as I completed the last exam in the afternoon and the last project submission in the evening, there was more than anything a huge sense of relief that came over me.

Of course, we did have our share of fun – we celebrated dusshera, Diwali, IRIS and the birthdays and parties. I also managed to go someway with one of my goals for the year – Reading Kotler. Hope to complete it in the next term.

The next term is not only the last term here but also the most important one. Most people have already begun the countdown. As for me, I still have no idea where Iam headed after MBA. The next term will hopefully provide some answers.

Right now though it is time to sit back and relax for a while. A few of my friends are going to Goa. Iam going back home. Will be back in ten days time. That’s all Folks!

Idanim and the play

2006-12-07T18:13:00.000-08:00

‘Idanim’ is the new drama and theater club in IIM Indore. The brainchild of a few enthusiasts , the first play was made for Independence Day and by all counts was a great beginning. So when they decided on putting up a play for the alumni meet, they actually took auditions for the various characters. Having dedicated a great deal of my life to drama[:)], I was naturally interested. I was eventually selected to play one of the roles.

The play basically revolves around seven characters – people who are all going back from an alumni meet and due to a flight delay are caught up in the airport. Tanvi (script-writer and co-director) supposedly based most of the content from what we normally hear from our seniors and from alumni blogs. It was a wonderful script – in fact that set the basis for a superlative performance from some of us. And the casting was once again perfect. Whether it was Christoph as the rock star (during college days) or Saurabh as this son of the soil, it looked like these guys were made for it. Needless to say, we all had great fun while rehearsing. Two hours of practice time would mean only half an hour of actual practice. The rest of the time was spent in making fun of the characters and sometimes the script writer and the other director (Dibyak).

Anyways, finally it came off very well and everyone enjoyed it thoroughly. In the words of my director, “Dying is easy. It’s comedy that is hard” (originally made by some one else) and I guess we did a fair job of giving people a good laugh that day.

Good work Idanim! Keep it up! Looking forward to at least a couple more plays before the academic year ends.

P.S. – Idanim has also been screening some really great movies (classics) in the audi now and then. Recently watched ‘Amelie’ thanks to that.

Team Marksman

2006-11-26T06:05:00.000-08:00

If the success of IRIS was important to us as an institute, the success of one of the games in it, Marksman, was important to me as an individual. To understand why, lets just go back an year in time to IRIS 2005. I was one among the four member PGP-1 team handling Marksman – an online marketing strategy game. We (Sandhya and Cijin in particular) had worked hard under the able guidance of the PGP2 team but unfortunately we didn’t have enough time to test the game properly. The result – the game crashed mid-way and we had to make a manual entry later to decide the winner. I felt bad in being one of the very few games that let down the entire show. And at that time I told myself, whatever happens, next year I shall ensure this game becomes a success. It was one of the very few promises I definitely hoped to keep.

Cut to July 2006. The Marksman team now consisted of Sandhya, Mrunalini and myself(Arun and Cijin had moved onto bigger things). And the pitching of various events to the PGP 1 began. I knew this was it. If we were to succeed, the PGP1 team coming in had to be good. They were going to make it or break it. And thankfully the enthusiasts list got self-pruned to a sincere bunch of five guys – Anubhav, Nitin, Vignesh, Vijay and Easwaran. Of course, Srinivasan and Kaustubh helped us out in various stages of the game but the above five were the ones who were in it right through.

These guys were about as good as you can get – sincere, enthusiastic and knowledgeable. After the first few meetings, I began to breathe easy as I realized these guys could handle it. And of course, the dependable sandhya was there to lead and guide them. Easwaran was into the concept design part while the other four took up the core part of coding. My role was limited to allowing my room to be used for the meetings and giving globe now and then. Mrunalini, of course, was providing the technical inputs and also backing me up in the free-riding :)

After the first few meetings, the guys came on to their own and the team began to have a good working chemistry. This, I thought, was very important as these guys had to motivate themselves through assignments, summer placements and end-terms. We had initially planned to finish all coding about ten days before IRIS but when we approached the home stretch with still a lot to cover, I was slightly worried. Thankfully, the guys gave no more anxiety and finished it with about three days to go for IRIS – enough time to test it out thoroughly and find the chinks.

IRIS came and the prelims of our event happened on the first day. Eight finalists were chosen from the fifty-eight teams that took part. Day 2 of IRIS, 4.30 PM – This was it. The D-day was finally here. It was now or never. I was a little nervous within about whether things will go on smoothly. Can we do it?

Thankfully, except for a minor technical snag (which was fixed on the spot), the game went amazingly well. The greatest joy comes when even the losing participants come up to you and tell what a ‘fundoo’ game it was. It was personally a very significant thing for me. It was not as much about those smirks that I had received but more about the need to prove it to myself that our team could do it.

Great job guys! I know now that ‘Marksman’ is in safe hands. It will be taken care of and some good improvements made in the coming years. Thanks to the entire team – It was indeed great fun working with you and I really mean it.

P.S – If you are wondering why Iam making a big fuss about a game going off as expected, I guess I can’t explain much. Sometimes you need to be there to know it :)

The best Prof ever!

2006-11-23T06:55:00.000-08:00

There are times when I feel really lucky for having made it to this place. Some of the people I have met here have inspired and motivated me to bigger things. The Professor who handled Business to Business (B2B) marketing for us is one among them. This post is a dedication to him and all such good Profs in this country.

I still remember the first class. Even as the people were all just settling in the class, we saw this tall guy going about setting up his things. My first thoughts were one of skepticism – doesn’t seem right; must be yet another of those 'globe' profs! And then he began to speak. There are a few prof’s who speak really well but really don’t have much substance and then there are some who know their stuff but are not really able to get it across to the students. Very rarely do you find a Prof who knows his subject and is able to communicate it in a way that even the least inclined student gets interested and learns something. For once, all those guys who always considered marketing as ‘globe’ shut up. For once, we knew what case analysis really meant. For once, here was a Prof who was teaching us what was exactly happening in a corporate scenario and how to handle it. For once, we were spellbound!

The best part about the classes was the light-hearted manner in which he narrated certain mistakes made by himself/his colleagues at work. And also the humble, polite manner in which he answered the silliest of questions on and off the class. Every class of his was filled with immense takeaways and as I just said, solutions to tight situations a manager might find himself/herself in when they start working tomorrow. Over the course of twenty sessions, he has introduced a structured thought process in us and Iam really happy to say that I can approach any case much better now. Above all, it has got me totally involved in marketing all over again.

Thank you sir! It's truly been one helluva course. Hope you continue to enlighten the future batches of IIM Indore (and other schools) for a very long time to come.

Iam back!

2006-11-17T10:32:00.000-08:00

After nearly 45 days of hibernation, Iam back to blogging. My thanks to the loyal readers (however few they are) for continuously checking on me. More than everything, it’s for you guys I wanted to get back ASAP.

Anyways, some dope on what's been happening all these days:

1) Summer placements of juniors - With the batch of 180 coming in, the summer placements this year were the biggest operational exercise in the history of IIM Indore. Our placom had worked hard and the results were there for everyone to see. History was created when all the juniors were placed in the day process itself with no one going into rolling. And the kind of the companies that came in was simply outstanding. Hats off Placom - we are really proud of you!

Some excerpts from the placement report:

"With 199 offers from 58 companies, IIM Indore has placed the entire batch of 2008 in the first 4 days and moved on from being a business school at the front of the pack to being a trendsetter, setting both the direction and momentum for placements across all IIMs this season."

“95 companies expressed the intent to participate though only 58 could be accommodated this season. On Day 0, a total of 133 offers were made, an increase of 82% over last year's summer placement process. Of the 58 companies on campus, 23 were here for the first time. An average of 3.5 offers was made per company which indicates the growing confidence shown by Corporate India in IIM Indore.”

2) IRIS – Within less than ten days of summers getting over, we were all gearing up for the next big challenge – IRIS, the annual management festival. The four day festival was a big success this time around as well and reiterated why IRIS at the top of all B-school fests. Our flagship event ‘Ashwamedha’ got bigger this year with the winner taking home Rs 1.5 lakhs. The event, into its third year now, is a big draw across B-schools and as any of the 30 finalists would confer, this is easily the most challenging and complete game you can imagine. Kalpavriksha, the social venture business challenge, started for the first time across any B-school also had a fantatstic start. (For more details visit www.iimi-iris.com )

My own event - Marksman, a marketing strategy game, also went off smoothly. It was personally a very satisfying experience for me and my team. I will make a separate post on this some time.

3) Assignments, Projects and presentations – Yeah, right!

Anyways, in between all this I also managed to lose my cellphone. After all the formalities with the concerned authorities, I got back my number and the eighteen hundred odd balance from the old SIM.

That’s about it then. Iam back and hope to have a lot of posts(sensible ones) in the days to come!

A break

2006-11-01T08:52:00.000-08:00

Currently on a break from blogging due to some really hectic schedules. My apologies if you are a regular reader - u wouldn't have found anything new in the last month .
Will be back in about a couple of weeks time.

CU - Dusshera Special

2006-10-01T17:50:00.000-07:00

Last night was a great one for several reasons. To begin with we had the dusshera celebrations in the form of 'dandiya'. I had been introduced to dandiya a couple of years back when I was in Mumbai but I hadn't exactly danced till date using the 'sticks' (sorry, I couldn't find a better term). So when I went down to just watch the dandiya show, I had no idea that one of my friends (Deepti) would actually pull me in and make me dance. I found the going very tough initially but was soon comforted by the fact that there were just four basic steps - a left, a right, a side and finally a swirl in which you bring both pairs of sticks into contact and also make a revolution (may/may not be accompanied by a position change). Soon after I was in the thick of things and the dance without any sticks was the one I liked the most (Once again I forgot what they called this particular form).

Well, after nearly 2-3 hours of dandiya, the stage was set for the real party - the one where you are free to dance as you want :). The dew/fog was gradually filling up the entire place giving the night that romantic touch. Initially, the pace was pretty slow as people were a bit tired from all the dandiya. It was during this time that I had a long chat with one of my friends (Mars) on 'The life, the universe and everything'. And then it was time for me to enter the dance floor. Once on the floor, Iam usually a no-holds barred sort. I enjoy doing 'pakka' local steps for all the English songs and all MJ steps for the Punjabi ghanas. Of course the song I look forward most to in any party is 'Appadi Podu'(a Tamil song). It is a regular song in all the parties here and somehow I enjoy dancing to this song the most. Till this point of time, it was just like any other party until me and Shreyan went crazy. We tried on all sorts of goofy things while dancing (we actually sat on the floor and imitated driving a F1 car for the 'Schumacher' song; we tied our faces with the kerchief and did a blind dance). All in all it was one of the best parties I had after coming here :)

By the time it was 4.45, I was completely done. I usually retire around this time in most parties. But today, me, Shreyan and Rajesh sat down in the mess and started discussing about nothing in general. Soon enough, it meandered into a discussion about the girls (and guys) in our batch and the junior batch. Rajesh was the real 'guru' here giving us gyaan about men-women relationships. In fact, Shreyan was so impressed by the analysis that he asked him to write a book on 'Women' for which he was willing to be the editor :) And before we knew, it was 6 am in the morning. We decided it was time to crash and came out of the mess where we had a brief chat about the new names given to the hostel blocks (Sanskar, Lakshit, Sanyamit etc).

All in all, it was a great day capped by the fact that Iam writing a blog now with 'winamp' playing on the background. The only thing Iam worried about is whether I will wake up in time for lunch at 2 pm :)

P.S - Just in case u haven't figured out by now, 'Campus Update' has been abbreviated as CU in the title. We shall follow the same henceforward.

IRIS 2006 - A preview

2006-09-24T08:41:00.000-07:00

IRIS 2006, the annual management fest from IIM Indore, returns this year bigger and better. The grand mela is still 45 days away but the website was officially launched today. You can visit the same at www.iimi-iris.com

Keep visiting the site for regular updates about the events and all the latest news on IRIS itself.

About the website - The design is simply awesome and it’s probably right up there with all the professional websites. Kudos to the design team! A few of the links are not yet up and running but this is just a trailer – Wait and watch the real movie!

Campus update - Season of business plans

2006-09-19T13:54:00.000-07:00

If there was one thing that was not part of my activities planned for the second year, it was writing B-plans. But tuning myself in with the flavor of the season, I have also taken part in a couple of them. And actually it was fun - Thinking carefully about concepts learnt, how practical/impractical they are in the current market scenario and finally selling your plan despite all this. There was also this paper on World trade we did and sent in for another competition. So why am I suddenly doing all this? I guess its partly due to the inspiration from a few of my fellow batchmates here. Just giving you a glimpse of it,

1) Sandeep kumar wins the Tata 'Smart Manager' award beating competition from all other B-schools

2) Hushi,Joseph and Sanika win the national level contest of L'oreal Brandstorm and are among the elite 32 teams in the world to take part in the finals in Paris.

3) Sandeep(again) was selected for St Gallen's Symposium; held annually at the University of St Gallens, Switzerland, it is the world’s leading neutral platform for critical and constructive debate on the issues of global concern.

4) And just yesterday, Sanika and Mrunalini won in the 'Cherry Blossom' case contest held in MDI, Gurgaon. The grand prize included not only cash but also an PPI from Reckitt & Colman.

My congratulations to all you people!

As you can clearly see, there is enough motivation for all of us to keep emulating these people and bring in more laurels for ourselves and the institute. These things definitely go a long way in conveying to the corporate world about the potential of the students here. Being the youngest of the IIM's hasn't prevented us from taking rapid strides over few of the others, but as we look ahead, we would like everyone to view IIM-Indore more for the 'Indore' part and less for the 'IIM' part. It isn't something that happens overnight. Everyone here realizes that and we all want to contribute our little bit while we are here.

Moving on to other news,

1) The juniors have gone on their first term break. The first term break is usually the most awaited one and everyone has gone home.
2) The classes are running pretty light - Finally some time off to catch up on movies, jogging and going to the city (incidentally, none of which I do regularly)
3) On Super Sunday, Arsenal bt ManU and Chelsea(my team) bt Liverpool. This is very much a campus news due to the huge number of fans for the various teams and the fights that happen in the newsgroups.

Thats it for now! See u soon on the next update.

Update - Sep 24,2006

I never thought I will be updating this so soon but Sandeep Kumar and Vivek Chopra just won the second place in the Banker's Day finals held at FMS,Delhi. Congrats guys!
The way things are going, I guess I will have to keep updating this post every now and then :)

Update - Dec 20, 2006

Prashanth, kaushal, Ashik and Parry have been winning left,right and center with their incredible business plan. They finished second in the Pan-IIM business plan contest held in Singapore. They have also been selected for one of the best business plan contests in the world, the name of which I seem to forget. They also won the first place in the FMS business plan contest. All in all, a rocking year for them and IIM Indore.

Anoop, Bhajanka and Banka won the first place in the JP Morgan case study contest and won themselves a PPI along with 2 lak cash prize. The win was even more significant as they competed and won against some of the best teams from the other IIM's.

Great work guys! keep it going!

The Great Indian love marriage

2006-09-13T16:18:00.000-07:00

Was chatting with one of my friends today and after a long discussion on this topic, I thought I might as well write about it.

To begin with, a typical Indian love marriage happens post one of the following scenarios:

1) Parents from both sides don't agree. The lovers run-away and marry (no movie stuff - still widely prevalent in many villages and even cities)
2) Parents from one side agree. Marriage either occurs immediately or after waiting successfully/unsuccessfully for other side to agree.
3) Parents from both sides agree (becoming more common these days in the big cities)

So, why don’t parents agree to the choice made by their son/daughter? I guess it’s got to do with a couple of things – our caste system and societal pressures. In a way, they are inter-related. India’s caste system has always prohibited people from marrying into another caste and this has been followed down the centuries. Whether they see any logic or not, parents are adamant about not letting their children marry anyone from other caste. And ours is a social system where people pay too much importance about the way the relatives see/talk about you. So no parent wants to hear things like ‘Oh! Ramesh – His daughter ran off with that Christian, didn’t she?’ or ‘u know, Mahesh’s son married some Punjabi girl; My God! and this man shamelessly tells me that he accepted them’. Hence every parent wants to marry off their children into a family chosen by them which, of course has the ‘appropriate’ caste and class. I have seen many a family where the parents actually keep driving this fact time and again to the children. There is also the additional aspect of marriage being a spectacle of showing off in many communities. A friend of mine once remarked how people in his community actually save a lot and lot of money throughout their life only to burn them all during the 5 or 6 days of their daughter’s marriage. The marriage being such a status symbol also sometimes contributes to the mad and unreasonable rejection of love by parents.
(There is also this huge stupidity of matching horoscopes to check compatibility - Since it is not such a great factor as far as love marriages are concerned, we will not go into the details)

There are also a few things which explain why love marriages are always not as successful as arranged marriages are in the Indian context. First of all, unlike the west, an Indian marriage is the coming together of two families and not just of two individuals. So when the girl coming into the groom’s family is from a similar family background and upbringing, she is able to fit in that much more easily into her role as a daughter-in-law of the family. Not only is a girl coming from some other community viewed with a lot of prejudice, she is also that much less readily accepted in to the family. Compare this with a scenario in the west, where the couples live alone and the girl just needs to tackle the guy (I wonder how they manage without saas-bahu serials). On the other hand, things become difficult for couples living alone in India (say after love marriage without the support of parents). The neighbors view them with suspicion, they are isolated by all relatives and don’t get invited to any family function. In fact, it becomes difficult to raise the kids in case both of them are working. Hence, it is very essential that the couples earn the support of their families before marriage. It solves a lot of unforeseen problems later on. Things which might seem relatively unimportant now become critical later on. So all couples who are in love and are planning to marry - let the marriage happen with the acceptance and blessings of both the families. If you have to wait for it, so be it; if you have to fight for it, so be it.

Of late, though, there are encouraging signs. There are quite a few cases where I have seen/heard parents accepting wholeheartedly the choice of their son/daughter. Even a lot of my friends here acknowledged the changing scenario. I guess, after all, those hundreds of romantic movies are finally having their effect. Of course, Iam very sure that this is a trend limited to the big cities. We still have some way to go before we can even talk of a developed society where the individual married into a family is viewed for what he/she is rather than for what his/her family is.

Finally, if there is one characteristic of the Indian parent that needs to be admired, then that is the way they accept their son/daughter back into the family after the initial period of isolation post the marriage. The period of isolation may vary from parent to parent, but ultimately they do accept. A salute to that quality! As for all the lovebirds out there, all the best – hope there isn’t a necessity to experience that quality of your parents.

Campus update - A new beginning

2006-09-06T15:13:00.000-07:00

Starting with this post, I plan to begin a new series of 'campus updates'. This I decided based on two things - one based on a scolding from one of my seniors with regards to the lack of updates and two I need to know whether I really write anything of substance apart from campus happenings. So hereafter the 'campus' series will cover campus events only. Lets get started.

Well, one of the most striking things as far as the last term went was the arrival of our junior batch. Ever since our seniors left in March beginning, the campus was ours to rule. So when the juniors arrived in the last week of June, suddenly it felt a bit odd. They were also the first batch of 180, so for the first few days any place you turned in campus, it was swarming with them. I once remember a particular lunch time when I was the only PGP2 in the mess and believe me, for a moment, I didn't know where to go. Of course, once the initial ice was broken I was as good a friend with lots of them as Iam with my own batchmates.

As a part of the tradition here at Planet-I, we also had the inter-section cultural stand-off popularly known as the 'Talent night'. Aimed at building section and batch unity, the performances are typically from the PGP1 side. And boy were we in for a surprise this time around! The performances put up by them was simply mind-blowing both in terms of variety and quality. Fashion shows, skits and videos were only a teaser for the big things to follow. The light music (I wasn't sure what to call it) performances really stole the thunder. The singers, the guitarists and drummer really made us feel that we were witnessing a professional show by experts. There was also this great dancer(Vivek Johar, if Iam right) who did a Hrithik performance. At the end of it all, we were pleasantly shocked, surprised and in awe of what we had just witnessed. Seriously, this batch can go on to do bigger things.

( For the record, Section B won the competition :) )

Moving on, the PGP1 had their elections about a month or so after they landed here. The elections for the various student body committees were well contested and certain committees like hostelcom and messcom which have rarely witnessed competition in yesteryears had many nominees. Overall, I got the feeling that the batch was a bit too political with all those manifesto presentations :) Anyways, in most of the initial elections like these, it is the more popular guys/gals who get elected(Nothing wrong here - it is completely natural). My best wishes for the elected representatives - u have an important role to fulfill for your batch.

Apart from these, the term in general was a very hectic one for most of us. Came as a real shock to many who were expecting a far lighter second year after all the slogging in the first year. It could probably be attributed to a relatively shorter term and the fact there were three compulsory courses in addition to the electives. Infact, during a particular stretch of fifty days during the term, a sizeable number of people in the batch didn't have a single holiday. Of course, the academic load did not in anyway affect the other life at I . Be it quizzes, club events or full-night parties - it was as always at full flow.

Now as we begin a new term, there are a few important things that lie ahead of us. Apart from the studies, there are

1) The exchange students from France and China (Our guys have gone to USA and Newzealand in addition to these two countries)

2) The Business plans and paper presentations

3) The summer placements for the junior batch.

4) The mother of all events, Iris (this November, experience 'larger than life')

And of course, lots of birthdays, lots of parties and loads and loads of fun :)

To be or not to be

2006-08-11T12:17:00.000-07:00

Ever since I came back for the second year, I have been a confused guy (Not that I wasn’t confused before, it’s just that it has gotten worse). The basic reason behind this might be the fact that I have started thinking about where Iam actually headed in life. First year was all fine when you just had to study the subjects that were there. Second year is different – you need to decide which subjects you will study and which you won’t. All I know right now is what stream I don’t want to get into.

It is not just a question of the subjects or the stream alone – I don’t see where Iam headed in life. All right, I will finish my MBA; get a good job (hopefully) and then what? I don’t have any sense of direction of where this is all leading to. When I was young (say ninth or tenth standard), I dreamt big. I wanted to be the next Tata or Ambani. I wanted to do something that will make India proud. I wanted to provide employment to thousands of people. I never knew how I was going to do it but I always knew I should.

Strangely, somewhere along the line, I have lost it. I just did what everyone else did. I tried for IIT and BITS and didn’t make it to either. Got into a decent engineering college, got one of those good software jobs at the end of it and was very happy about it. A year later, Iam in an IIM dreaming of those big bucks. I still sometimes think about my big dream but the fact that I don’t know how Iam going to get there worries me a lot. I recently read about an IIM-A grad, Sharath (http://www.hindu.com/2006/04/02/stories/2006040215261000.htm) who started a restaurant after finishing his MBA. He had struggled financially right through his life. He had an ageing mother who had fought all her life to ensure the rise of her children. He had brothers and sisters to take care of. He could have easily taken one of the many on-campus offers he had and lived happily ever after. Rather, he chose the untested, riskier path of going on his own. This guy Sharath suddenly became a hero for me. I got motivated by what he had done.

As in most cases, reality struck me hard a few days later. Once I was out of that emotional cloud, I evaluated what were my realistic chances of doing something similar. To begin with, my parents have high expectations from me. Though they never convey it to me, I can see it in their eyes. Tomorrow, if I go and tell them that I want to start my own company, they won’t say no but they would be very disappointed. They don’t want a model son for the society; they would rather be happy with a normal MBA grad leading a good life. I wouldn’t blame them – it is the typical mentality of any middle class family.

This apart, on a personal front, the fact that I don’t have that bright idea yet worries me as well. I have always been confident of myself, but all I have is just that. Iam beginning to wonder whether I will really make it and when you start thinking like that, you are as good as finished. However, there is also this last glimmer of hope inside me which says I might just make it. Whether that glimmer burns out or glows brighter remains to be seen.

And the World cup goes to...

2006-07-10T07:24:00.000-07:00

To begin with, I was never a great fan of football. Only after landing in Planet-I last year, I have begun to follow it (though the word 'follow' might be a bit disrespectful to the true fans). Nevertheless, over the last one month, I was surprised to see the amount of support and passion that some of my friends had for their teams and for the game. Many discussions in the mess and hostels revolved around football. I was really wondering whether India had suddenly made football their popular sport. Anyways, in terms of watching the games, it was great fun as all the important matches were shown in the auditorium big screen. It is a great experience when 100 people around you 'ooh' and 'aah' the hits and misses.

Getting down to the tournament itself, I had pledged my support to France long back. It goes back to 1998(when I started watching football for the first time) when they won the cup with a splendid Zidane show in the final. Anyways, coming into this World cup, few supporters would have expected them to make it big. And the initial signs were disappointing. The way they were playing, it seemed that they wouldn't even make it to the second round. Anyways, the match against Spain turned the World cup upside down. Suddenly, I got all interested in the World cup although Brazil was up next. And when they actually stopped the South American team's brilliant run in the competition, I was almost sure it was time for 1998 again. The final was always going to be difficult despite a below-par performance being enough against Portugal.

And what a final it was...A sixth minute penalty and time for Zidane to show his genius. To have the audacity to take such a shot in an World cup final - too good (Though my football guru, Shameel, believes he was plain lucky). The powerful header from the Italian in the nineteenth minute set up things nicely. Italy dominated till half-time but France came back brilliantly in the second half and looked all set to take the Cup. But the fact that they couldn't convert their dominance in to goals meant the inevitable - extra time. and boy, did it have some drama! Ribery and Henry get substituted. Zidane's brilliant header saved by an equally brilliant Buffon was easily the defining moment of the match. That save stood between Zinedine Zidane and a fairy-tale farewell for one of the greatest players. Minutes later, Zidane head-butts Materazzi and promptly gets what he deserves - A red card. Whatever the reason, whatever Materazzi might have said or done (http://antithesis98.blogspot.com/2006/07/why-did-zidane-to-it-because-materazzi.html) that was unacceptable. As far as Iam concerned, you don't become a great player by your on-field play alone; it is as much, if not more important to have proper on-field behavior and be a role model for others (Shameel still says ' He is Zzzzzzzidane, he is allowed to do it').

Getting back to the game, France still played well with ten men in the dying minutes although it was all but heading for the penalties. The very look on Barthez's face before the penalties didn't inspire me. He strangely didn't seem very confident to me. Buffon, on the other hand, was all charged up and motivating. Whether it made a difference in the end, we would never know. At least, Trezeguet didn't give us an chance.

Italy won the world cup and France my heart (unfortunately, people seem to pay more attention to the former :) ). Congrats Italy! Well played France! I will be rooting for you next time around as well.

Back on the hilltop

2006-06-15T15:50:00.000-07:00

So, after two months of roaming here and there, we are finally back on campus. It was almost like a second homecoming for most of us. There was a series of big hi's and bigger hugs. And among the first things we did were to carry out an extensive search for the sweets and snacks that had come in from various homes across India. The following things illustrate what it means to be back on campus.

1) Hearing loud music at any time of the day
2) Playing FIFA, the online football game
3) Sleeping in the evening from 5 - 7 pm (something my mom would never allow)
4) Taking the only bath of the day at 8 pm (something my mom still doesn't know)
5) Taking that long walk after dinner
6) a party that starts at 12 and goes on till the last guy on the floor can dance (usually by which time the sun is up)
7) Having two classes on the same day the sun went up
8) Spamming the newsgroups
9) watching 'Friends'

and with the night canteen opened from today, campus life is back in full flow.

The second year promises to be more of fun and less of acads. Let's hope it stays that way.

The project that never was

2006-05-26T02:43:00.000-07:00

When I first landed in bangalore to do my summer internship, I was looking forward to a lot of things. The most important among them was how this stint is going to help me make that important decision about my career. At the end of my first year of MBA, I still wasn't sure what I wanted to take up - Finance or marketing (or probably systems). These two months were supposed to throw some light on it.

First day at office - After the introductions were over and I had settled down, one of the managers explains to me about the entire concept of radio and advertising. It all sounds very exciting. Alas, the excitement didn't last long. As part of my work, Iam made to go all around the city and take a list of all the hoardings in the city. Roaming all day in the hot sun, stopping at every hoarding and making a note of the hoarding - it was a really miserable two weeks. The worst thing is the look you get from the passersby. Why is this idiot looking at the sky, thinking about something and writing it down! Anyways I was a releived man when my guide told me there would be no more field work ( a small pause - Am I unconsciously getting the feeling that sales is not for me or was it just the kind of work I did which was making me think like this?

Over the next one and a half months I have done a number of things as part of my project - noting down ads in newspaper, acting as telephone operator, arranging visiting cards etc . To top it all, one day due to a series of unfortunate circumstances, I become the peon who goes and gets photocopies done. To be fair to my employers, they are in the middle of an important transition phase and Iam anything but a liablity. The real learning for me happened watching all these people work - how they went about selling their product to advertisers.

Now even as I near completion of my two month stint, Iam as confused as I was at the beginning about what to choose. Sales & Marketing seems good but then is it something Iam going to be good at? Probably time would tell.

P.S. - I didn't mean to end on a philosophical note :)

Bangalore - First Cut

2006-05-09T02:36:00.000-07:00

It's been more than a month since I landed in Bangalore for my summer internship but I haven't quite had the opportunity to explore it. After going home to chennai for the last 4 weekends, I decided I will stick around this time. Hence, the last saturday, after the morning and afternoon were spent peacefully eating and sleeping, we decided finally it was time for some action.

It was a cool saturday evening when me and my friends set foot on the Forum, a shopping mall. Although I had paid a fleeting visit to it earlier last month, this was the first time I was exploring it in detail. With Mcdonald's in the front and KFC in the rear and many more biggies in between, the Forum is catering to the new, emerging class of young Indians who are increasingly willing to pay anything for what they consider fashionable or the 'in' thing. The Landmark shop was the highlight. You can get lost for hours together in the maze of books. My favorite pastime when I was in chennai was to get in there and keep reading sections of many books without actually buying anything. Anyways, since we had better plans that day, we just moved on after buying a purse for my friend. We then proceeded to check out the movies at the PVR cinemas and as expected all the night shows were full. After window shopping for some more time, we finally settled down in McDonald's. The transparent glass meant we could look at the entrance of Forum and the best time of the evening was there. For nearly an hour, we kept looking at all the girls who were passing by. It was a throwback to the good, old engineering days when we used to do the same sitting in bus stops and railway stations. Of course, the worrying thing for us was that most of the girls were accompanied by their boy-friends. There were also rare moments when we did catch a couple of girls all by themselves. At the end of the day, it was a very satisfying outing :)

Overall, a few things I have observed in Bangalore are:

1) The auto-wallas can speak in Kannada, Hindi or English. They understand Tamil and Telugu as well. They are more honest than the chennai autowallahs but still some way to go before they can catch up with their mumbai counterparts.

2) The roads are always congested and the infrastructure is poor - desperately in need of a good mass transport system.

3) The most obvious - highly cosmopolitan.

4) Cost of living is pretty high - only slightly less than what it would take you in Mumbai if you are a bachelor.

All in all, it's a nice place for bachelors to be, particularly if you are in the right places at the right times :)

49-o and its implications

2006-04-20T00:50:00.000-07:00

Come May 8, yet another assembly election will happen in TamilNadu and yet again, it will most probably be the AIADMK or the DMK combine which will come to power. I was talking to a couple of my friends the other day and they all sounded pessimistic about the whole process. They were lamenting the fact that how neither of the parties had done anything for the development of the state. They said there was no point in voting.

Although there is some truth in whatever they said, I don't think shying away from voting is the right thing to do. It is not just a democratic right; it is the duty of each and every citizen to vote. I believe most of the educated people do nothing but complain about the Government policies (or the lack of it), but shy away from voting at the time of elections. Then what right do these people have to complain? The real voting is done by the poor and illiterate of the country who are swayed by the false promises made by the politicians. It is little wonder then that most of the manifestos include promises of free TV, rice at 2 Rs etc. The real development issues never gain importance.

Iam not asking people to vote for someone they don't like; rather there is an option of not supporting any party but still exercising your vote. Under the 1961 Election Rules, Section 49-o provides the voter the option of registering that he doesn't wish to vote for anyone. However, this needs to be expressed at the time of voting in the booth and not before. The problem of course is that this is first of all not known to many people. Even many officers at the election booths are not aware of this. Since no party is going to publicise this aspect of voting, it is up to the election commission to make the voter aware of it. Of course, the additional problem is that the present Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) don’t have a button where the voter can register this. So this needs to be registered with the election officer at the booth which once again raises the question of secrecy of ballot. When the voter's choice of party at time of voting is kept confidential, people argue that even this must be confidential.

However, despite all the problems, this type of voting is useful for two reasons
1. When u want to vote but don't like any of the candidates
2. when the percentage of voters who have voted under 49-o is greater than the percentage of voters of the winning candidate, the election commission calls for re-election in the constituency and none of the candidates who stood initially can stand as they have already been rejected by the voters.

We can just imagine the situation even if it happens even in one constituency - The otherwise busy media will focus all its attention on this and as a result, 49-0 will get wide spread publicity. Political parties will be more concerned about whom they are nominating in every constituency, probably resulting in better candidates. I am not saying this will create a revolution, but we can at least try. A social awareness movement has been started in TamilNadu by Gnani (a renowned writer and thinker) and a few others who are now spreading this message by distributing pamphlets on all buses leaving Chennai to various parts of TamilNadu. The initial response, they say, has been very encouraging. Their web-link is
http://www.keetru.com/ohpodu/index.html

My request to everyone who have read so far is this - Please exercise your vote. It is something you owe to yourself and your country. If you are not satisfied with the candidates, still exercise your vote under 49-o. Spread this awareness to your friends and family. Let this election set a trend for the years to come!

Radio Mirchi - Sakkath Hot Maga

2006-04-18T02:01:00.000-07:00

Radio Mirchi, Bangalore went on air yesterday and being a summer intern here, I had the opportunity to be part of their historic moment. The first song played was A.R.R.'s “Vande Mataram" and the first jock-talk that followed it went something like:

“The time is six minutes past 8 PM
The date is 17th April 2006
The place is Bangalore
and India's No.1 Radio station, Radio Mirchi is here!!!
(Loud cheers in the background)
Radio Mirchi 93.3 FM, Sakkath Hot Maga”

I was one among those standing in the studios and giving those loud cheers. It was an emotional moment for many of them as their months of hard work finally bore fruition. They have a challenging few months ahead as they try to establish themselves in the third biggest media market in the country.

All the best Radio Mirchi. Rock on!!!

Hostel life

2006-04-05T03:31:00.000-07:00

The most important part of any residential program is the hostel life. so having completed one year of my PGDM program, I thought of reflecting at the life that has been in our hostel.

First day on campus was pretty intriguing for me. I was simply lost in the maze of rooms and had a tough time finding my room while coming back from lunch and evening tea. Even as I was just settling down into my room nicely, a new allocation of rooms came. I was shifted to the "A" block top floor(ATF). I had heard lots of stories about the particular block. This was the only block where there were girls on the ground floor and first floor with guys occupying the top floor. Also it was a bit distant from the other three blocks, so people were saying that u will be cut off from the main action and all such stuff.

Highly apprehensive and completely unwilling I moved my entire stuff to my new room. Even as I was approaching the room, I saw a vaguely familiar face. Yes, this was the guy whom I had seen at the "TIME" classes in Mumbai. As it turned out by a strange coincidence,four of the five guys from our TIME classes who made it to IIM Indore occupied consecutive rooms. Pawan - 307, Wayne - 309, Raj - 310 and me - 311(308 was the common tv room).

The striking thing as far as our hostel life goes are the birthdays. At exactly 12 in the midnight, all of us goto the birthday boy's room, make some customary wishes and then the real fun starts. The birthday bums were first given to the birthday boy and depending on the mood of the guys, to some other people. Maggo was the one guy who always got bums irrespetive of whose birthday it was.Can't help feeling for the poor guy but I do enjoy seeing him getting kicked:) After the bums, the birthday boy is taken outside the mess wherien the 'kumbabishekha' starts. To begin with, a few eggs are broke on the guy's head. This is followed by pouring of sauce,pepsi,coffee... After sometime, it becomes a free for all - almost anything that people find will become a decorative ornament on the victim. Dahi, atta powder, vegetable peels, left over mess food were some of the add-ons observed during the year. Finally, the slaugtered goat is allowed to go and have a bath after a chorus of "happy birthday" song. The whole thing is great fun to watch unless it happens to be your birthday.

If I didn' talk of FIFA, my hostel life would only be half complete. FIFA is the computer football game. Initially, it was a rage amongst many of our blockies althought most of the other guys found AOE and NFS more interesting. However, within a short period most of our guys uninstalled FIFA as it was getting too addictive. Finally, there were just three of us(Me, wayne and niket) who were playing the game throughout the year. We had some memorable matches and even longer analyses after the game. By now, we have mastered most of the moves and the game is beginning to lose its charm.Infact we are eagerly waiting for the release of FIFA 2007.

Our TV & printer room was unique - it was just another student's room converted into a common room unlike other blocks where they had a separate, spacious common room. Our room had just three chairs and at any point of time, not more than 6 or 7 people can be inside the room. We had some great moments there watching the football and cricket matches. My favorite moment was when Pathan picked up a hat-trick against pakistan and I woke up the entire block on that sunday morning with my screams of joy. The printer in the room is a very old one and doesn't work most of the times. We spend most of our times trying to get it running but ultimately end up printing it from other blocks.

There are many more things which I just want to go on and on about, but I think I will stop here. Now that a new batch with bigger size is going to come in, we will have to vacate our rooms in the second year as it is converted into an all-girls block. Iam definitely going to miss A-block. The entire feel is something which cannot be described in words. Things would probably be never the same again, but then it's always the people who make it special rather than the place itself. So hopefully another exciting year of hostel life is in the offing.

The life and times of Sachin Tendulkar

2006-03-22T05:45:00.000-08:00

19th March,2006 will be an important day for all of Sachin fans. That was the day he was booed off his homeground after his dismissal. Sachin, atlast, they said had become mortal. People begun to come up with statistics saying how he has underperformed in the last few years, how he no longer deserved a place in the team, how he has never won a match for India single-handedly - the no. of hows seemed endless. This post is not as much about a debate about all that but just an attempt to view his life from the side of a great fan of him.

Leave alone others, even Sachin couldn't have dreamt of the great heights he were to reach when he first took strike in pakistan in 1989. Over the next few years, he became the undisputed god of a cricket crazy nation. I grew up idolizing him as did million others. That WorldTel signed him shortly afterwards for an astronomical sum was a surprise only to those who didn't follow him. I think some of his best knocks were during the 1996 World cup. The way he would tear apart attacks was truly a sight to behold. He was easily the best batsman in the world right then. But his best was yet to come. We have seen batsman win matches for teams but Sachin in 1998 won an entire series for India. The knock he made under the lights after that desert storm to get us into the finals is easily one among the greatest innings ever.

For me, it is not as much about all those knocks as it is about Sachin, the human being. To remain as simple and unassuming as this man has been is a lesson to any youngster, whether he is into cricket or not. That his words could calm an entire nation, which was furious after India's miserable performance in the first two matches of the 2003 world cup, speaks volumes about the great force behind that child like, smiling face. Time and again, so called experts have criticised him and his response has always been only through the willow.

Although I continue to be a great fan of his, I have to admit the fact that the spark is missing nowadays. He is still undoubtedly one among the best around, but, even he would acknowledge the fact that he is nowhere near his best. For cricket own's sake we need the "little master" back. Now that he is off for a couple more months due to a surgery, it is a good time for him to sit down and find out where it is going wrong. As Kapil Dev rightly pointed out, only he can judge exactly where he is , both physically and psycholgically.

I have always dreamt of India winning the World cup. Next year would probably be the last time Sachin plays the World cup. Nothing can be a greater feather in his cap than winning the World cup itself. For the sake of millions of fans like me, Go Sachin, Go! Win us the World cup!

The batch of 2006

2006-03-01T23:32:00.000-08:00

The time has finally come for our seniors (known as PGP2 here) to pack up and move on. Two fun-filled years at this wonderful place and off they go, to start a new phase in their lives. Most of them are happy having got their dream jobs – after all, this is what we all came here for.

As far as my interaction with PGP2 goes, I must admit that it was very limited. Living on a floor where there are no seniors doesn’t help the cause in any way. I still remember the first time I had a serious chat with one of the PGP2 people. It had been less than a week after I had come on campus. I was at the dinner table, eating all alone when one of the seniors (Who I will later come to know as Arun) sitting two chairs away invited me to join them. Arun, who was also from Chennai got me introduced to a few more PGP2 guys at the table. He had lots of wisdom to share with me, particularly considering the fact that I was eating all alone even after a week on campus. I soon developed a respect for him and he was the one person in PGP2 whom I could approach without any apprehension at any time.

During the course of the year, I also came to know of Govar and Jam. Jam (I still keep forgetting what his real name is) is the man when it comes to quizzes. He was a de-facto member of all the interest clubs, conducting quizzes for them. However, what impressed me most about him was the way he involved himself with the summer placement process of our batch. He was there right through the entire process - shouting, chiding but at the end of the day getting the work done. He is unofficially known as the “saare panch” placom member. He was quite active during the parties too doing both the D’s – drinking and dancing. I have had a couple of friendly fights with him as to which batch is better – PGP1 or PGP2.Govar, on the other hand comes across as a secluded person. A self-confessed computer geek, he is well respected by our entire batch. He is supposedly one among the best bloggers in India. And the best thing about him is that he comes across as a very simple, down to earth guy when you talk with him. None of those “I know all” types despite him actually being one.

Now, we come to the guy with whom I was always comfortable with – Angshuman. I was a part of a marketing game in IRIS, headed by this guy. We had a great time as a team (also consisting of rashmi, sandhya, cijin and arun) while preparing for that game. It is through him that I came to know Kida, another amazing guy. There were a few others like dejo george, who inspired me a lot. I actually sent in a nomination for the events coordinator of IRIS, simply because I wanted to follow in his footsteps and do a great job. There are a lots of other people about whom I heard a lot but never quite got the opportunity to interact and know better.

Now that they suddenly have to leave, it is a strange feeling. Though I don’t feel sad or anything that these guys are leaving, Iam not happy either.Those long queues during snacks, the intense matches, the nightlong parties, the mindless spamming on the newsgroups – all this simply wouldn’t be the same without these people. Nevertheless, I guess life moves on.
Ok then, for the entire batch of 2006, I wish a wonderful time ahead in their lives. All the best people!

IIM Interviews

2006-02-20T13:58:00.000-08:00

It is 'the time' of the year for all the people trying to get into an elite institute to pursue their MBA. I just went back a year in time and looked at the interviews I had atteneded. Some of them seem pretty funny right now and so here we go.

IIM Indore Interview

Panel: You said your father works in Sundaram Finance Ltd. Can you tell me who the chairman of that company is?
Myself (mentally): What sort of a question is that?
Myself: No sir, I am not aware of it.

Panel: Do you know what Sundaram fasteners produce?
Myself (mentally): For Heaven's sake, what is wrong with you people?
Myself: I am not sure, sir. I think they produce the fastening materials (What a brilliant answer!!!) for nuts and bolts.

Panel (mentally): This guy is clearly dumb!
Panel: Nuts and Bolts???
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
P: Do you now what is Bluetooth?
M: It is basically a wireless system confined to a limited area with high quality transmission and reception.

P: What is the difference between ordinary wireless and Bluetooth?
M: ???!!???

P: OK, tell me why is reception quality better in FM compared to AM?
M: Sir, in FM, the frequency is modulated whereas in AM the amplitude is modulated (Nobody in this world knew about this before!!). Since noise basically occurs more when there are variations in amplitude, noise is less in FM.

P: No but why is the noise less there?
M: (ok u asked for it! Come on start!) If you consider AM, the carrier signal is modulated w.r.t. amplitude and during transmission noise can enter at various spikes and troughs. Whereas in FM the amplitude is constant. This is the reason noise is less.

P: (How the hell did he pass his engineering?) Ok, can you at least draw me the waveforms of AM and FM?

After struggling for 5 minutes, I draw two waveforms that can be accepted by half-asleep people as AM and FM waves. After seeing that, the panel decides that if they continue to ask in electronics, they will forget whatever little they know of it.
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
P: Ok, so you come from Chennai. Which major foreign companies have set up plants there?
M: (Aah! Finally something I can answer.) Hyundai, Ford…

P: Have they set up plant in Chennai or in outskirts of Chennai?
M: (oh! shit, these guys seem to know everything)On the outskirts of Chennai, sir.

P: You have heard of Maraimalai Nagar?
M: Yes, sir.

P: Which company has its plant there?
M: (Inky Pinky Ponky…) Hyundai.

P: Really?!? Who has set up plant in Sriperambadur?
M: (By this time I realize that they already have found out that I don't know anything and were simply playing around.) No, sir. I don’t know!

P: Why does the city have its name as Chennai?
M: (That's it man! I quit!) Well, sir, it was traditionally called Madras. But people wanted a Tamil name to give an identity. So probably they gave the name Chennai.

P: No, but why was the name Chennai given?
M:(After thinking for about 30 secs) No sir… No idea.

P: OK, what other calls you have?
M: Calcutta, sir.

P: Best of luck for that Interview. (This is anyways gone! Atleast do that properly) You can leave now!
M: Thank you, sir. It was a pleasure meeting you all. (A pleasure I hope I will never have again)

P: (I’m not sure whether you will get an other opportunity)

Post-mortem:
Chennai is called so because the city was sold to the British by a king called Chennapanayakkar. Ford has its plant in Maraimalai Nagar and Hyundai has it in Sriperambadur. And I am still trying to find out why the noise is less in FM.

IIM Calcutta Interview

P: Mr. Vimal, you are working in Polaris. What exactly is your work there?
M: Well, sir, basically speaking, we are concerned with the clearing house operations of Citibank... (Give a huge Build-up)... ... ... So, that's what we do.

P: OK. What is the system that the RBI has to clear all the cheques in one day irrespective of the bank you deposit it in? (This was asked because during my build-up I had given some example about cheques.)
M: No sir. No idea.

P: Well that’s ok. You seem to have done your engineering from electronics and communication…
M: (If you want to commit suicide, just say...) Yes, sir.

P: Did you have telecommunication as a subject?
M: (I thought of telling no – In fact that is what I would have told to half the subjects - then I remembered that my mark-sheets were right across the table. So My answer changed to) Of course, sir.

P: what are the two mobile technologies available?
M: I think they are CDMA and GSM. (I later found out I was correct)

P: From user point of view, what are the differences between the two?
M: Well sir, (whenever I begin with a "Well, sir" it only means one thing: Nobody in the world will ever understand what I am going to say because basically I myself don’t know what I am going to speak) CDMA will provide... ... ... whereas GSM can only provide... ... ...

P: (How the hell did he pass his engineering?) (Getting nostalgic..? Stay tight. The real fun starts now!) Will my SIM card work if I remove it from one CDMA mobile and put it in another?

M: (Poor guy - He doesn’t even know this!) Of course, sir. No problems!!!

The rest of the interview was just vindication of the opinion you people by know have in your mind.

Post-mortem: CDMA MOBILES DON’T HAVE A SIM CARD.
ANYONE STARTING A MGMT SCHOOL ANYWHERE - JUST GET ME A SEAT THERE!

Life at Indore

2006-02-18T09:20:00.000-08:00

Ok, let me begin with something I wrote a few months back. I had written this mail to my college mates as to what was happening with my life here.
Exercepts from that mail:

So here is what I have been up to in the last few months.
When I came back for the second term, I was determined not to let things slip. I was among the bottom half of the batch and wanted to move up the value chain(?????).The first 2 days were one of intense planning wherein I decided how Iam going to allot each minute of the day for various subjects. It was a very good plan but soon after, the real ‘vimal’ in me took over. So, I was back to square one (or zero).

It took two classes(actually mid-way throught the second) to understand that ‘Finance’ is not for the ordinary people of this planet. Disappointing, especially when u consider the fact that I was thinking of a Fin specialization when I came in here. My first term favorite, Microeconomics had evolved into Macroeconomics in the second term. It continues to be my favorite in second term along with marketing. Marketing as a subject shows a lot of promise in the sense that I can talk absolute globe for half an hour and still not make a single point. As for other subjects, less said the better.

Life here is much more than just academics. The glossy side of my life here has been the other 18 hours in the day. The beauty of the campus continues to amaze me. You almost lose count of time when you go on one of those long walks down hill with the moon shining down in all its beauty and the chilling winter breeze striking across your face. It is almost too good to be real.

As for the people here, they continue to amaze me with their intelligence-hardwork combo.We have a good bonding among our block mates here, who are twenty in number. The other blocks envy the unity of our block and also its strategic positioning (right above the girls block). We have a ‘gala’ time most of the days. No wonder, most of our grades are hopelessly screwed.

The most eagerly awaited event of the second term – the summer placements happened three weeks back. This was for our summer projects in march and april. I had prepared a resume properly for the first time in my life ( my job interview resume was prepared by a friend of mine) but when I saw some of the other resumes I thought of sending my resume to the place where it belongs – The Trash. Anyways, the big day came and so did the biggies. HLL, ITC, Tatas, Reliance, Pepsi, Coke, L’oreal, StanC and HDFC to name a few. My first GD shortlist was that of HLL’s and I screwed up the GD big time. Then came ITC and it was basically a dream GD. I got the interview shortlist. Excerpts from the interview:

Panel: so vimal, you studied electronics. Why did you get into management?
Vimal (to himself): because I never understood anything in electronics.
Vimal(to Panel): Sir it’s got to do with my long-term career plan. Well, you see ….

P: why do you want to get into marketing?
V(t h): Because Finance is screwed, there are no HR profiles open and I don’t know anything in IT.
V(t P): Marketing – the very word excites me……

P: why do you want to join ITC?
V(t h): because you are the only people who have short-listed me. It’s that simple, really.
V(t P): when you want to learn, you better learn it from the best. The 2 months will be a learning curve for me and ….

After a few more such "wonderful" interviews, I got an offer from Radio Mirchi. I was pretty happy and excited about the fact that I would get to do my summers in something I would enjoy actually.

After all that excitement with placement for 4 days, we had a few peaceful days where we screwed up quizzes as usual. Then, IRIS came. It is the biggest management festival conducted across all B-schools. With a sponsorship of 15 lakhs, the event was truly a success even before it begun. The event had the biggest prize money on offer for any game across B-schools, namely one-lakh rupees for the first prizewinner in a particular game. The other events had equally attractive prize moneys. On the last day, we got “Euphoria” to perform on campus. Incidentally, it was the first time they were performing in Indore and the ticket sales were simply outstanding. It would take me an mail as big as this to just tell about IRIS, but put shortly, it was a truly amazing experience.
.....

All right then, let me stop here. Hope it wasn't too boring.