Giksaw Tangent

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2008-06-23T18:05:00.000-07:00

I am relocating - catch a "seemingly" more mature and intelligent giks at http://kseeker.wordpress.com

2006-07-29T11:59:00.000-07:00

Well - circumstances have forced me to say goodbye to blogspot and migrate to wordpress.
Blogspot sites are still inaccessible to hathway users in Hyderabad and i dont see any other option but to shift :-(

Wordpress is a pretty cool place to host your blog too - I was able to import all the blogspot posts into it without much trouble.

See you all at - http://kseeker.wordpress.com -

Dont forget to say hi !

Breaking News and Sensational News

2006-07-26T05:40:00.000-07:00

Its been exactly one month since i last blogged at blogspot. I even have a tag pending (courtesy consultant warikoo!) on top of my writing that is due! Some useful office work and basketball matches that got my company a runners up trophy in a corporate tournament took away my time during the last one month. The brouhaha about DoT and ISPs blocking sites also helped fuel the blogging escapism - Sometimes you juss want a bakra to blame on, eventhough there are ways to get to the ends!. Blogspot is still not accessible to me at home, and hence its valuable office time that is being spent here - junta please note (my dedication, please see the positives alone ;-) )

We all know that breaking news in the various news channel hardly justify their name. Insipid, mundane news items are put as placeholders in the TV graphics though they could be avoided. This has kind of inspired news-channels to add "sensational news" during prime time.

Here's an example - this item was aired in prime time NDTV yesterday with none other than Dr Prannoy Roy hosting it. The story is about two village girls who come to Mumbai with 800 bucks, singing talent and hopes of becoming rich and famous!. The failure and desperation the girls feel while realizing they are far far away from their dreams leads them to attempt suicide. Fortunately they are saved by the local policemen, but the tragedy is that their father dies of a heart attack when he hears about the doings of his children. The story is narrated in the background, and interspersed is the interview with these girls who describe their experiences at strange city Mumbai, away from home! The recordings dont show the sisters lament at the tragedy and i fear that they were not aware of it at the time the video was recorded. You really feel the punch when Prannoy says that line in the end - just to create the effect of a thriller - Now i tell you the secret types!

I believe this is a personal tragedy of that family and though we all share their sorrow, the news shouldnt have been aired at prime time along with items like the "Hizbullah vs Israel", "The mole at the PMO" etc which are the "conventional" news items for the day. I even doubt if the above incident had happened yesterday - the recordings gave me the impression that the feature had been casually recorded for filling any gaps in the routine programs. But with the plethora of news channels that are in competition and the need to fill in interesting items throughout the available 24x7 airtime is forcing channels like NDTV to get hot news items as fast as possible (anybody remember Rajdeep Sardesai literally bragging after being able to break the Mumbai blast news first to all of us after juss finishing his report?) or if not, compensate by getting more of this kind of sensational news.

Its time that a real professional news channel came into fore...

Night Trouble in Yellareddyguda

2006-06-26T10:53:00.000-07:00

Funny thing happened yesterday. I had earlier mentioned the lack of solitude in our house because of its proximity to motor traffic and of course the presence of a giant TV which seldom gets rest courtesy “the photo guy”. Having been brought up in more peaceful regions, I have always been eager to hide in quieter places of the city. I even go bulk packing to nearby parks on weekends just to get that “Kerala” feeling.

Anyways, what I wanted to tell you guys is that like a nocturnal creature, I eagerly wait for nightfall – only for enjoying the solitude (and not for anything else – u ugly minds!).

And Sunday night 1 O’Clock, that happened. The photographer fell asleep in the sofa and I managed to switch off the TV without waking him up. Perfect – quiet and cool – this is what I like most in my life– la la laaa la….I shall build a house in Munnar some day, and own a tea estate….la la laaa..

Whoo – whoo – whoo ---- All of a sudden,breaking the silence of the night a police jeep passes by --, continuously howling like a jack ass!

And that my friends, triggers off a series of unfortunate events. Firstly, the tramps in the area recognize it as the mating call from a famous dog siren and reciprocate strongly. The attraction is so intense that they continue howling for a considerable period of time. This in turn wakes up the photo guy, who upset with himself for not keeping the TV working, switches it on.

Well, things have gone out of control and I give-in to fate. Good bye – airiness and solitude. We will meet again some other day..Slaaam and zzzzzz..

Spotlights of the Day - June 19

2006-06-19T10:45:00.000-07:00

Here’s the latest penguin book written by one of the losing Miss India finalists. - ''What Would You Do to Save the World?'': Confessions of a Could-Have-Been Beauty Queen - by Ira Trivedi.

Apparently, in the book she mocks at the whole selection process and expresses her shock at seeing (or rather experiencing) the farcicality of the whole event. She expected Bikini clad Mother Theresas at the competition but was disappointed to find some pretentious, female bombs who wore bikinis and had no intentions of going and working for underprivileged people!

She was also irked to see that the participants mugged up answers to anticipatory questions and honed up their acting skills(the ones wherein u r supposed to open your mouth in a perfect circle, close it with both palms crossed, and smell the deo of the next person on the stage) –both of which were part of the training given by the authorities!

Total expectation mismatch – I sincerely feel sorry for Ira – looks like she is the female version of Truman or our own Yugpurush!

Somewhere else a “mundu” clad Mammotty did a walk the talk with one of the NDTV dumbsters, expressing his strong opinion against the preferential treatment given to Hindi movies over non-hindi movies at the IIFA awards. Incidentally NDTV had sent a mallu reporter, just to make that bonding a bit stronger and to get it all out of Mammookka.

Though I agree with him, I support preferential treatment given to hindi movies because Rakhi Sawant acts(?) in only hindi movies – my loyalties would change only if she starting acting(?) in mallu movies!

Of course, the main news of the day was the “Revenge of the Ramadoss”. The progressive politician wants to implement a “No work No Pay” system for the doctors so that the patients are saved the agony of not getting treatment during a strike. He is also making sure that he and our tentative Prime Minister have more (or all) control over AIIMS by appointing a commission to study the mismanagement over there. His publicized reason is that he wants to make AIIMS the best institute in the world and in that scale it isn’t doing that great!

The ends justify the means – and so i believe that the actions are justified if the intentions are sane, but in this case the timing suggest differently.

I just realized that being a doctor eliminates your right to strike almost completely, more so because you lose public support pretty fast. If these white khadi attired well wishers have some amount of equanimity in them, the “No work No pay” system should be extended to all the government jobs which include walk outs/boycotts/disruptions of parliamentary sessions. Extending the argument, leaders of political parties calling for strike should be prosecuted for misusing their power and inflicting heavy economic and social losses to the country. If only I was Bruce Almighty, sigh….

Fully Faltoo - Superheroes in India?

2006-06-16T23:45:00.000-07:00

In the wake of a few superhero movies getting released in India, I started thinking about what things would make him more authentic and believable to Indians.

First of all, heroes do most of the superhero stunts in India. Rajanikant’s resume (if he is applying for the superhero post) would read something like this

Major Achievements:
--> Achieved target of killing two goondas with one bullet by patented technology that has huge potential in rural India (the barber knife technology)
--> Invented desi storm technology which is of much lower cost as the one practiced in developed countries. This technology just needs a sign from the hero (see Chandramukhi – tamil movie) as compared to the much more energy consuming and seemingly painful X-Men Storm routine.
--> Can run faster than a speeding bullet, and have the ability to catch it
--> I don’t obey Newton’s laws of motion
--> Basic medical care knowledge, surgical procedures using commonly available alcoholic drinks – especially for a bullet wound (refer to Tyaagi – a hindi movie)

Off and on most heroes over here practice superheroism. Notable mentions here would be The lovable Bong Mithunda and Captain Vijaykanth. But undeniably, there are some more things which the superhero can do and the concept might just work in India if he (I mean the superhero) does all his deeds more consistently.
Here’s a feasibility study covering a few points checking if these are possible in India.

Overrall we can conclude that image maintenance for superheroes is more difficult in India than anywhere else as the chances for goof ups are more here. We could still have a sellable Superhero if he over compensates by adding more value on some parameters like the Maa factor and other PR Activities.

Kiss, before it gets too late...

2006-06-14T11:42:00.000-07:00

Here’s a really thought provoking topic…

Did Mika kiss Rakhi Sawant or not?

Before delving into specifics, I would like to set the context here.

Hope we all know who these two people are. Mika is the brother of Daler Mehndi and sings like those poor things who demand charity by emitting a particular frequency of sound that is unheard of even in Anu Malik’s music. The only song that ever came close to that was “pardesi pardesi” which is their trademark even nowadays.

Rakhi Sawant is one of those supposedly “hot or environment friendly” item girls in bollywood who behave hyperactive to compensate for the cold they feel because of the lower amount of clothes they wear. (My goodie goodie Tamil roomie thought that Rakhi Sawant was the name of a festival where people tie raaki in the month of Saawan – So much for cultural deterioration!)

Rakhi supposedly filed a case in a police station against our dude saying that he forcedly kissed her.

Check out some of the media doings which happened after this….

One website does a poll on whether Mika really kissed Rakhi or not?
60% of those idiots who voted say he did, 20% say he didn’t, and the rest 20% say that it was she who kissed him! Now, since a proper kiss has to be mutual how do u figure out who kissed whom

One news channel has a face to face debate arranged where Rakhi, Mika and a common friend are present! All of them debate about this and the channel makes a lot of money because close-up toothpaste exclusively sponsors the event.

Another website has photos of the incident – Click here to view those
It also asks conscience pondering questions like to take a look at a Rakhi photo and swear by the heart if u again feel like molesting that figure?

I have my own couple of questions that need to be answered urgently for the case to be solved..

1) People are usually on a high in parties – either drunk or high on drugs. Shouldn’t there be some kind of leniency allowed in parties? Something like having a tolerance for kisses- say + or – 1 inch from the centre of the cheek?

2)A proper kiss is mutual – how do you figure out who kissed whom. Technically I feel that is a challenge. My take is that we need to find out who enjoyed the kiss more. In this case the parties involved are Mika, Rakhi and the public. Prosecute whoever had the higher amount of satisfaction.

3) Some people have gone on record saying that kisses should be banned in India because it is against the country’s culture. So, people who haven’t kissed as yet, should try that out before a ban comes out. And yeah - make sure to try out the flying kisses too, even they don’t seem to be having a long life in our country.

Philosophically speaking, this event seems to be like a bull run in the stock market. Everyone gains, and the spirits are high. In this case, the media surely gained, the public have a good time hearing all this stuff and the people involved get a lot of limelight!

Wassup Giksa?

2006-06-12T09:26:00.000-07:00

Wassup giksa?
Lots of things – new job, new house, new roomies – Currently suffering from acidity, and gulping a lot of bubbling ENO water and chewing gelusil tablets.

What about the job?
Kind of intellectually stimulating, high impact ,strategic thought leadership job which also allows for a lot of networking with high net worth individuals.

Phew – I can make out a lot of faf there – and hmm u r chattin a lot!
Howz the house? Did any setting up?
House is big, 3bhk. Unlike the serene life at ISB or at my house in Kerala, this one is located in a buzzling locality where u r never far from the buzz of a motor vehicle.

Bought a lot of stuff between the three of us to make our den as cozy as possible - TV, fridge, washing machine, sofa set, dining set (both table and vessels), cot, mattresses, broadband connection, wifi set up, speaker system etc.

The latest buy is plants – Can you believe it? Weird but true - We bought a couple of creepers and a red coloured croton and named them after each one of us staying in the den – Nowadays bachelors are more artistic than they ought to be!!

What do you do for food?
Since all three of us are typical curd rice eaters, there is cultural fitment for taste. Hence we end up cooking quite often. Don’t even bother asking about timepass eats – there are tons of crap food that we have accumulated in the big plastic dubbas we got from Big Bazaar specially for this purpose. We have collected a large list of phone numbers of all weirdo food suppliers for other days!

So what’s the way forward?
Work hard, eat hard, gym hard and yeah – search for a like minded iyer mallu amphibian!

The Psychoanalysis of Mr X

2006-06-08T07:42:00.000-07:00

Mr X has a special way of driving his vehicle. Some psychoanalysts track its source to the alienation he faced during his lonely childhood. They say that his longing for company is what has caused him to drive with vehicles on either side of his car.

He takes his car into the center of the already messed up multifarious lane traffic to get that secure orgasmic feeling! Definitely Possible! With the helmet made compulsory, u could feel happy with the hope that u r staring at a hidden pretty face inside that suit which comes with a “predator”-ish skull, a couple of gloves, an oxygen cylinder, a few anti depressants and of course a weekly soap magazine, just in case the wait in the traffic gets too long!

And with the Hyderabadi style of road goers, u might even have a cow or a dog as ur neighbour in that long journey that exposes the futility of defining pathways in India and also force u to understand the FM radio jockey better than ur own (definitely not) better half!

Another feature of Mr X is that he plans his driving – He’s a visionary and so he applies his fundaes in real life by scanning the points that are around 150 metres ahead of him and checks for dresses with a white-brown combination. It’s sad that the best psychologists overlook the effects of migration on human life! (

Migration trauma transforms a person especially when you have an outside state registration and the whole RT community stands against ur attempts to be a law abiding citizen. There are too many bribe points in here – from getting a 14day valid NOC before transporting ur vehicle, to unregistering from one state, getting the refund, taking it to the next state and registering it!

A simple yearly road tax payment in the state where u r driving is all that matters to get things on track. But just like the red states where the union “protects” employment & labor, such measures are still seen as deterrents to entrepreneurship as practiced by many gov officials and agents. And so, the system continues to drag and slow this democratic behemoth where the only thing that moves fast through our narrow roads is the minister’s brigade (

The sensibility paradox

2006-06-03T13:34:00.000-07:00

CEO of Yash Raj films to consultancy company - "I want insights into the indian film industry".

Consultant - Mines data for three weeks, sees his wife only for four days out of the 21 days , gets a brilliant ppt made in Microsoft Vista (his laptop battery draining out several times in the process) and of course - adds lots of sparkling insights gathered by his firm over the years.

His presentation had the following insights about the behavioural patterns of the customers of bollywood -

Characteristics of Indian film market: Women need clean eyes, girls have low sugar, guys are low in cortesone, the kids get high parental care, Cultural bondage is high with ones parents!
(In other words - women want to cry, girls want lot of sugary romance, guys like lot of skin and action, the kids are forced to see family movies, and oldies dont have the right to choose the movies!)

Luckily Yashraj is a progressive organization unlike the congress party, and the below market segmentation was taken well by them -
Market classification: Women-20%, guys-50%, girls-14%, kids-10%, oldies-5% , Untellables -1%

And so the new project was taken up accordingly -

Two old actors Aamir Khan and Kajol were taken in mainly for advertising effectiveness.
"Jarring music by two warring brothers" again sounded like a good ad-gimmick - and was green flagged. To compensate for the holes in the script, a good lyricist was hired - he is asked to fill in stuff (shaayari) into the movie. A brilliant cinematographer is brought in to hide the aging actors' wrinkles. And the result is ....

Tere Dil mein meri saanson ko panaah mil jaaye,
Tere ishq mein meri jaan, fanaa ho jaaye!

But here is the catch - these insights are enough to make the film a hit , not a super hit. But yashraj knows the "X" factor to take it to the next level which succeeds many a time....Increase the melodrama and cut the sensibility at crucial junctures of the movie.
Anybody remember the climax of a movie called Chandni? yucky but successful. The same stuff faltered in Mujse Dosti Karoge (remember the kumkum flying off and falling on Rani's forehead, just because Currynaah woke up late on wedding day!).

The trick works for fanaa....

If ur still going to watch the movie, prime yourself into ultra low expectations like i did - u might just enjoy the movie!

More about Dave Barry and me

2006-06-01T12:34:00.000-07:00

Inspiration comes thru various things ranging from the momentum transferred by an apple to being forced to sit in a sponsored browsing centre.
Reading Shankar’s forward (also a Dave barry article) made more sense to me especially due to the priming induced by the goodies that came from the employer on the first of this month – what more can one ask for in life? Some articles bring back the fun and frolic even amidst ultra serious business matters (theoretically possible on people who are involved in serious things, right?)

I dug up some more of Dave Barry’s trademark articles. Some people even without that weird sense of humor will find these articles suiting their taste!..Check out if u r among ”them”..I mean among us!
Dave Barry 1 , Dave Barry 2, Dave Barry 3 , Dave Barry 4

Ever seen any of the goofy skits college students present on stage? They are good - But would you pay 100 bucks to see that shit unless ofcourse you gave birth to one of these three - the cast, the crew or the play itself! Well, some idiots do - which is why i ended up watching 36 china town. I can tell you that it would have been better if they had shown 36 Chinese towns and improved our global awareness rather than encourage us waste some more cash in the pretext of munching pop corn watching "curry"naah and "shah"-Id (remember Id, ego, super ego?) kapoor experimenting onscreen chemistry! (the mms clip was a much better watch, i shud say!
Well, considering the circumstances wherein the only other option was to get destroyed in love - the goofy skit was the only way to make a "memory mark" last sunday.
But, some things are unavoidable - its fate, its fanaa..they catch up with you on time; I mean, this week!

Respite, Time Crunch and the cycle of life!

2006-05-24T08:37:00.000-07:00

Finally, i am out of solitude and back with a bang to get engulfed in earthly bondage - Back to enjoy the trivialities of life and imitate the senseless behaviour shown by some living things called human beings on planet earth! There goes the philosopher in me - a claimant of "exhibiting" conscious behaviour juss because this guy was born human - huh - bull#$%@!!

Anyways i am in hyderabad, enjoying the traffic and crowd - Also adding to the feeling is the new job, the new people around me and lots of time crunch! The already famous shopping spree where me and another blogger went about buying (too much) stuff doesnt seem to be ceasing - we have grand plans for this week too!

Speaking about cycles in life (not the BSA slrs!) - I had the privilege of sitting in our own Mr Unpack's class again. Raju came for a Facilitation skills workshop in my firm and all the newly recruited MBAs got a sneek peak at his brilliance (again!). The discussions were as usual, very interesting and full of controversies and the session also made me realize that my MBTI profile has changed!! Guys, make way for a future Level 5!!

Solitude and Bhakti

2006-05-05T00:34:00.000-07:00

This blog was posted when i got a small chance to interact with the outside world - The internet cafe is like a magical corridor - like the ones which are described in He-Man and the masters of the universe!

I am infact enjoying a very calm lifestyle after the 1000 miles/hr ISB MBA marathon - this one is of extreme serenity and solitude. Deep within the natural tranquility of Kerala, my holy ashram (i mean house!) stands alone near a river stream. I am the descendant of a yogi and yogini - my parents who taught science and maths in the nearby gurukuls. Early morning i get up, pluck flowers for their pooja - the mantras soon echo in these corridors of peace!
The journeys to famous temples mark great importance in the life of these yogis and hence i get the chance to share the experience. Traditional lunches served in plantain leaves are a delight especially since they give u a chance to drink (or rather thru multiples licks of ur hand) kheer from the leaf. TV aversion is helping me read quite a lot - luckily newspaper is available in this part of the world!

The magical corridor is closing and i have to return to my ashram - more in the next interaction with the outside world - After all, everything is maya , right?

Pre-Graduation Trauma

2006-04-10T02:33:00.000-07:00

This is one honest confession that me, the author of this blog is making now. I was under depression for a couple of days before graduation! My "extra-long duration" sleep cells were over come by nostalgia and the living creature in me desisted from sleeping as much as possible. My parents were supposed to be here on 6th evening and even that thought didnt help. After sometime many of my friends (who had yet not slipped into this particular mode) started noticing the extra "brood" length of my already long face and started that horrible sympathy wave, which though essential is unwelcome to one's manliness.

Getting over this pre graduation trauma was tough, especially because the bondings that you have in a B school are a bit more special than the ones you create at your school or undergrad time. Here are people with similar business focus, having fundamental knowledge about various things, more mature and returning to college after few years of work. The result is that most likely you will find definite wavelength matching with many of them, and of course, the makes life tougher for you towards the end irrespective of your previous seperation experiences.

How do you get over it? I dont know if i can generalize this, but i have kind of got over it now and the way to do this is to keep hanging out with ur friends. For the last one month i have been going out for dinner with my pals almost every day and daily hope that the fun keeps going on. Playing helps a lot, the volley ball marathons in ISB start at 10 in the night and continue till 2 or 3am, beyond which also sleeping is tough! Sprains and muscle pains are forgotten during those intensive Baskey matches in the midnight - gosh, I love my team so much, and this is one thing i am going to miss for the rest of my life.

Once the clock hits 2, its time for some movie or comedy or similar crap -you stare at those till you fall asleep. The day dawns early for you, and you run to the breakfast hall to be able to get someone to chat with you. The saga continues throughout the day and you end up being in the main building area most of the time, catching up with your friends and trying to savour as much of the remaining moments in this school as possible! Guess the advice is pretty ineffective as you can already see the depression taking over me at the end of each activity! - the only way to get through it is to go through it - sometimes sadness is cured by being sad.....

The weird term 8

2006-03-16T11:21:00.000-08:00

It is a weird feeling that is going through me this term. First is of course, the laziness to go to work again - my pop is not a millionaire and he doesnt have tea estates or industries which i can look after - which means i need to work to earn a living. The life at ISB is an awesome rollercoaster ride and it is so luxurious for a middle class person that u get a shock whenever u get out of campus. Speaking of going out, my quaddie "The C dog" took us for a party today to a place called Seventh Heaven in the city. Its a pretty cool place to dine, the ambience is pretty good. We stuffed ourselves with weird curries (as usual trying out aboriginal names in the menu card when someone else is paying !!).

Ok, again i am deviating from the main topic, which was weirdness..hmmm - i am trying to visualize something of me that is 45 years old and i am not able to draw that picture. Not sure if that is because things are changing very fast nowadays and so are careers..No one can be sure what will happen in the future. But the fact i am unable to extrapolate the current situation to the future and come out with a rough measure of "mera kya hoga kaliya", troubles me big time!

The weirdness is also because of the ISB public - No one seems to be knowing the perfect way to spend the last term. There is so much of emotional confusion that we havent charted out this terms' modus operandi. In a one year course, the bondage between people becomes really strong because u r together in an environment of pressure. Another reason is that u find people of the right wavelength, and the connections are better than in an undergrad situation where we are less mature. Well, whatever may be the underlying reasons, the weirdness remains. It will last for another 20 days, and beyond that i can only hope that i am able to stay in touch with all these special people who are called ISB-ians!!

Moving to the battleground

2006-03-01T08:13:00.000-08:00

Time is running out, the training camp is coming to an end..Soon we shall be left free in the battleground. The fitter would survive, the rest wont. It is indeed a restless feeling when u know that you would have to fight it out at ur job, but currently have to play the patience game till u get out of college. Please dont think that i am too eager to work myself. Its been an exciting vacation at ISB and it is extremely tough to get back to work again. We have all been pampered to the maximum and the first few months of work is going to be rehabilitation time :-)

Special People

2006-02-24T10:51:00.000-08:00

A small milestone along the long winding road; being agnostic about achievements is probably my greatest differentiator. I felt nothing great when i got my first job - my neurons just repeated the feelings this time around. God knows how many people will stick to the first job, last year's attrition rate was pretty high.

Pardon me if i sound a bit too philosophical, but that is how i am. I got to see many intelligent beings going through the hills and valleys of pulsating human psyche. But there were a few unruffled souls in whom i saw the spark of brilliance shielded by a sea of calm. I know i could have got tense had my placement got delayed, but not these guys...They are extremely confident about themselves and dont mind waiting for the right job. Being able to counter the high placement stress, peer pressure etc with patience and self confidence is no mean deal and i am sure that these champs will do great things in life. I wish them all the very best!!

Frailty of an Ignorant Mind

2006-02-09T08:47:00.000-08:00

Here we are, Eight more days before the drama begins and i know where i will land up. My close friend who is an esteemed astrologer has predicted that i will go back to IT!!! These are testing times when a job can take your career on a totally different path as compared to what you were thinking of doing earlier. But these are often misleading thoughts....

I believe in Paul Coelho's Alchemist - “When a person really desires something, all the universe conspires to help that person to realize his dream". Its all about trusting your intuition and going ahead in life, and of course do watch out for signs that you get from around you.

For the karma guys, who are skeptical about too much of earthly bondage following this principle of desire, there is a duty aspect to it too - “To realise one’s destiny is a person’s only obligation.”

Fundamental to a successful manager is the desire to succeed - the fire in the belly, the kick of winning under extreme competition!! Much more basic to desire is motivation - We need to spend 5 minutes each day thinking about the ends we want to attain in life and the path to it. If you are not able to find that out, then you need to watch an inspirational movie or read something to that effect urgently. Its just that killer instinct that matters now - the preparation will follow suit!!

The return of the native

2006-02-05T12:43:00.000-08:00

Its a long break from blogging and i have become a visitor in my own house. There is critical business to run elsewhere and the analogy is the classic real life story for many of us. An ideal person would not forget his duties, but thats were mortality comes in...You blame it on the frame of mind , and decide to take a break. I now return as a responsible citizen to check out my deserted house, with a promise that i shall get the place intact soon..

The happenings of the real world follow this blog: usually the blog trails the world, but i have seen parallelisms too. I actually visited my house in Kerala two weeks back, and spend a couple of days with my "amma" and "daddy"..weird it is, but i used two different languages to get their attention. A closer friend would immediately spot the big cultural misfit called "me", who is mid way between two different cultures with a few English garnishes!! Anyways, the greenery of my native place was an awesome experience going from a more industrial but dry city.

I had also the privilege of being in the town where i spent four years of my life, trying to learn things without the typical homely shelter - I am just saying that i visited my college! The cryptic in me will take over this blog if i don't go to sleep...so for your welfare and mine, i sign off - goosh night!

Six ends and Six begins

2006-01-03T14:31:00.000-08:00

We are in 2006 and there's of course the usual brouhaha about the new year that has got ingrained in the human genome. Some people are sad about letting go the passing year and for others, it is exciting to welcome the arrival of a new year. One could see two sides of human behaviour over here - one which doesnt want a change and wants to hold on to present for ever and the other which wants to forget and start afresh. What could be a balanced view? I am sure people would have different opinions on this, but as far as i am concerned a new year is just a milestone - just like the ones which you keep noting while going on a long drive. While on a drive we constantly remember where we started from and where the journey is going to end, but in real life we are ignorant of the macro view. Hence some people want to cling on to the past; it is probably better to be happy that the milestone has passed and you are nearer to the destination!

The logic stands but alas, we are all but human! Six terms has passed in ISB and it has been an exciting journey so far. Changes are inevitable, and we need to be prepared for it. We may encounter a crossroad, a speed checking cop, an accident, bad climate etc etc on the road. The trick is in anticipating and changing gears accordingly. It is a one way lane and there's no turning back - The most you can do is to look at the rear view mirror and see what you have left behind.

Goodbye Term 6, welcome 2006!

Ready to Soar?

2005-12-30T13:26:00.000-08:00

This picture was taken during Poseidon and participated in the photography contest. For me it symbolizes the spirit of ISB - Birds ready to soar!!!

New year is here - where's the eve?

2005-12-30T12:55:00.000-08:00

Could these be our thoughts??

Too many things happening around and i am in a daze!!.

I feel like a goat blindly following a shepherd, where is all this going?

Eight months of cocooning in an educational institution could be the choice of an escapist. But now is the time to face the real world again, the time to discover oneself, the time to prove one's mettle, the time to start leading!

Apprehension is normal, i am a fighter too.

Com'on man, get up and prepare- remember Swami Vivekananda's exhortion from the 9th standard textbook- “Uthisthata Jagratha,praptavaran nibodhata" (Arise,awake and stop not till the goal is reached!!)

This is new year's eve. Unfortunately you get this day only once in ISB, but i am sure this is going to be memorable. I suddenly feel sad by the thought of leaving this place soon..don't want the new year to step in :-(

A New year and a new step ahead...a new job, a new goal , new life (l or w?)!!

Someone cool inspired me to write a few lines - Inspiring me could be disastrous sometimes, but this time i guess it was just fine......

New year’s eve is the call of the future,
It’s also the swan song of the present
The future beckons me to dream for it
The present yearns not to part with it.

Time to go to bed, and give rest to "zinda"...Probably my quaddies' thought - Sannata keh raha hain, kyun zulm seh raha hain!

Lazier than Ever

2005-12-18T11:27:00.000-08:00

I dont have words to apologize. Not having time is not enough excuse for not blogging. I am a firm believer that you can always take out time if necessary and i have whiled away too much time in the last two weeks doing nothing! The brighter part of all this is that i did some good stuff too. Contributed my bit for Solstice and Poseidon, and here i am, two weeks older and with no state change (as in 12th std physics)

I have a serious thought for a change...Well, all of us understand that ISB life is hectic and that you really get stretched if you get started on some side business -- as in taking part in competitions or organizing some stuff etc. There are a few people who balance these well and really don't show the pressure at least outside, but majority can't cop up doing both. Hence some don't even venture into the troubled territories. Extrapolating this to life is natural for any inquisitive mind and i assume that things are not going to be that different there too. If many people are going to fall within the realms of this hypothesis, then it is really saddening, esp because we are all B-school students and are supposed to set standards in leadership and being all rounders. May be all of us need to ponder over this idea a bit and decide how much of other stuff we need to take up or decide on what kind of job to look out for.

Doing the skit for Solstice was real fun, and i enjoyed every bit of it. Sometimes i think that i am more of a "papparazzi" type than anything else, and that mentality showed out in the skit - making fun of a lot of things in ISB, "a self goal" (i put up the webfilter issue in the public) and of course, trying to end the skit in a diplomatic/feel good note. :-)

Analysis of a few things

2005-12-02T11:29:00.000-08:00

Heres my take on some recent happenings in ISB...

Why did the bid price go over the roof for M&A?
Many people took the 1 point Faf courses last term and got frustrated because of over faffing! Since they couldnt opt for heavy quant stuff, M&A looked a decent option to get back to numbers in a minor way. The heavy wallet of course played a big part!

On the consumer behaviour front, i had promised more practical examples. Here's one...
Remember the Aamir Khan commercial, "Sar uthake piyo"..Do you know why Coke has come out with this ad?
The pesticide incident created linkages in the long term memory between the word Coke and pesticide. Hence whenever people think of Coke, it is natural to think of pesticides.
Even though people dont believe that there is pesticide in Coke, the thought of the word deters them from buying it. Now, what is the remedy?
Denial will only reinforce this effect. You can try "associative interference" techniques to reverse this. This is achieved by making stronger linkages with Coke than what is existing..try nationalistic feelings, quality standard etc. In due course of time, the older effect goes down because there are a lot more linkages established; the old associations get lost in an embellished associative network!

Getting into the 50's

2005-11-25T09:10:00.000-08:00

Life at ISB can be compared to our own life and in that scale we are all 50+ now assuming that our average life span is around 80 years. This term was a bit heavy on me as i had to manage the load from 5 subjects + PAEV. I even had to cut down on my play time this term for multiple reasons...lack of partners and being busy myself! I should admit that it has kind of helped me wake up to the fact that post B school life can be really taxing and that we need to be ultra smart & be on thy feet for 24 x 7 x rest of work life!

Yesterday was the "freak out" day when the exams got over but unfortunately we didnt have any good movie to watch at Prasadz. There was a plan to go and play fuzzball which got scrapped due to our own laziness. Anyway we made amends by going "city hopping" in the night and saw a good part of hitech city life in the midnight. It's amazing how the Hitech city has developed over the recent past. This place was just deserted rocky - good for nothing land a couple of years back and now its a revelation studded with awesome buildings hosting the best minds of the country! We tested out the street side stall food and tea after a long time and it felt great grounding feet firmly in between an elevated B-school life! Overlooked many a time, the cops too are doing a great job when the city sleeps, and even our car got checked thrice yesterday. (now dont tell me that we looked subspicious!). I've had a good term break till now but need to get started on my PAEV plan.

Oh yeah, for people who didnt get a chance to study consumer behaviour here's a funda to apply in real life. This is called Protection Motivation theory and one among the many principles of persuasion. It says that fear appeals are effective when they “really” evoke fear, provide a means to overcome the cause of fear and the recipient feels capable of using these means.
An application of this in English is to take your girlfriend to a horror movie or to a tense sports event to get an increase in romantic behaviour towards you. Feel free to talk to me if you want to know the exact means by which this happens - i mean the behaviour theory side :-)

Vega Speaking to Kappa

2005-11-18T11:41:00.000-08:00

Its been a long time and i apologize. The reason is two fold - First is ill-health. My hiccups went on for a week, got me worried and finally doctors had to use nuclear bombs to get rid of it. By the time i recovered, ISB - 5 course fifth term got me busy. I am desperately trying to make ends meet but there seems to be little hope. I have been sleeping at 3 AM for the last 5 days and there seems to be no respite till next thursday when the options final would put an end to this term. Things dont get easy then also..The PAEV business plan needs to be submitted in a couple of days after the exam and i am sure i will be busy throughout the minute term break we have this time.

Somehow i have gone from bad to worse in managing my stuff, and i am yet to start studying for the finals! Assignment submissions are going on and on...the last one is due on monday and i have one due tomorrow too....So much for excuses for not blogging :-)

Consumer Behaviour course has been a revelation. Associative interference seems to be a having better logic than the earlier limbic system and trauma transforms. It actually helps you to explain on why some people are more intelligent than others...fascinating stuff get revealed only as and when the exams are nearing!!

Yeh Kya Ho Raha Hain?

2005-10-26T17:51:00.000-07:00

Any idea on why this blog is being written at 6:25 AM even though i went to bed at 2:30 AM?? Also, I have my class only at 11:00 AM and i haven't read anything...then why? bolo bolo...
Ever heard of not being able to sleep because of hic-ups?? if not, you may be amused to note that i am being harrassed by that bloody cyclic irritant and i am currently in a very bad shape!! "!%^*()*&#$^&%". My eyes are all red, i feel like my eustacian tube has been choked, and when i try to take in some air and clean my nose stril with a strong "mmgroaahh",i am getting a damn headache!!! Believe me, it is a horrible situation to be in, and i badly want to get rid of it as soon as possible and resume sleeping (looks like wishful thinking though!!). The only consoling thought is that may be fate wants me to write this blog, and so i sit and scribble at this odd ISB hour.

Going back to the quirky events that happened after the last blog, dandiya night comes to mind first. As always, i preferred to be the friendly photographer around than try my hand at dancing. I did some "papparazzi" style photography too..This is was strictly "on request" or "on academic interest" basis!!

In the wake of seeing the SAIT results, i have decided to write a book called "Why "appropriate" means "Not appropriate" in the ISB dictionary!!! ". Got our GSB midterm too...For once i felt that the person who corrected the paper has actually gone through it in detail. I had written a word called "unregulable" which showed an error even when i typed it in MS word..but i decided to keep it for lack of a better word and of course, time!. I have a habit of using non-existent but suitable looking words in my essays (I used "localites" in the essay i wrote for ISB admissions!!) , and i am really surprised that someone has caught it..First time I am seeing this happen and i am all praise for MK..Way to go prof!!

Though i am playing daily, i have still not got back to full playing health. I realized it even more deeply when i was playing basky earlier this week. My injured joints are all still squeaking and so are the stretched muscles. A two term partial layoff hasn't helped much..but what the heck, even tendya scored ninety three with his tennis elbow!! That match inspired a lot of "lost" enthusiasts to concentrate again on cricket..hope Team India puts up a good show this time...Did you know that i was practising spin bowling from 2 - 2:30 AM in the SV1 cafe yesterday when i got the hic-up??

Galli Cricket and Quad's Day Out

2005-10-21T21:35:00.000-07:00

Did you know that we have started playing cricket at the SV1-cafe? The rules are similar to the cricket tournament that happened in ISB earlier, but we dont play for runs..existence at the crease is the bigger concern here! I guess you see the real life analogy (..think of study?)!!
Feel free to drop in at the wee hours of an assignment filled eve on a normal ISB day, and u could join the best boys of SV1 playing the most popular game in India!

The residents of "Kutha Villa" (SV1:B21-24) had their quad's day out yesterday. We dined out at the Waterfront Inn and payed one more visit to Prasadz to watch a movie called "Stealth". It is a cool movie for all those people who like fighter planes, big explosions , big sci-fi sets and of course, JB.

Yesterday reminded me of the weekend drives which we used to go for when i was working at Ruan. Come friday, we used to rent a car and drive to explore the next city in our target list, hop around that place during the weekend and rush back on sunday evening. Just like over there, yesterday too the one who got to drive received most of the "goals" on the offering!!

This is an assignment packed weekend, time to enjoy the fun!

Are Placements nearing?

2005-10-20T09:35:00.000-07:00

Self selection is not a good option for believers of destiny. It makes life difficult for people who still have an umbilical cord existing between commitment and conscience. Let me confess that I am truly facing a sweet and sour situation this term. My long term vision of getting a dual specialization from a B school has been put to test and i am forced to work!

The marketing classes are proving to be a big relief after having to study a host of not "as inspiring" stuff in the last couple of terms. I have enrolled for marketing research and consumer behaviour and the one common word i can think of to describe both the profs is that they are both "cool". Of course, you don't get to learn any rocket science from either of the courses but they kind of help to you to analyze things from a grass root level.

"Kutha villa" i.e. my house in ISB, and its four kutha's are looking out for the biggest "kutha"/"kuthiya" in this area for the naming ceremony of their place. We shall have a ribbon cutting ceremony and a speech calling for the formation of a consortium of all "ISB kutha log" of our batch. "Kutha" according to me is just another mispronounced word originating from the Mallu "kutta" meaning "dear boy". You see, it's just a way of showing your love to one another...we exhort all of you to use that word more often! (i mean , between you and your loved ones...need not be used at us, direct!)
P.S. Kutha is a patented trademark of SV1: B21-24 and owes its origin to my quaddie,
Mr Pashu.

How do you receive an important piece of (tense) information when it is bundled with something else, much milder? Along with Term5 comes a gentle buzz about interviews and placements; the awareness is slowly creeping up the veins and we can feel it slowly taking over our senses. Well, one has to get along with life and can't afford to freak out for long..An opportunity to be part of a B-school like ISB comes once in a lifetime and its hard to see it pass, especially when you are enjoying it. I guess the big difference when you have come back to school is the constant feeling of getting out at some point of time, as compared to the ignorance filled undergrad life. Ignorance is bliss, knowledge kills the fun :-(

Naam Gum Jayeega

2005-10-16T05:44:00.000-07:00

The biggest problem i am facing in Term 5 is carrying the name tag around without losing it. Twice it happened that i forgot to pick up the card from my seat and someone had to remind me to take it from there. The outlook-ian world does make people go low in memory :-)

I had the privilege to savour the initial classes of term 5 in the last two days.Though i want to go slow on criticizing the profs, i cant resist lamenting on the advanced corp fin class. May be the profs also need to go through a detailed Business presentation skills workshop and have a one to one session with Mr Unpack. I see a lot of scope for improvement in them when it comes to communication though I accept that they are leaders in their fields.
My own personal experience says that the most important characteristic that people should build in them is a constant feedback loop which keeps looking out for criticism and tries to constantly improve. It is pretty saddening to observe that many of our well known professors lag behind in this metric and are still carrying basic flaws when it comes to lecturing or handling a class in general.

Coming back to my favourite hot chick of this season, i.e. the climate, the nights are also turning to be absolutely fabulous here in the campus. The yellow street lights and the white footpath lamps create a mystic illusion in the dense fog that has started to accumulate these days. I have a beautiful view of the SV1 frontage from my room and i keep staring at the campus every now and then. I even went out photo-hopping trying to capture some elements of ISB in digits; the best one i could come up with was a fast shutter pic of ISB getting drenched in rain, and as seen from my place..ISB- keep modelling for me!!!

Challenges to Innovation

2005-10-14T14:04:00.000-07:00

What better way to spend your term break than paying up a hundred dollars and getting to crack your brain for some dumb competition? Did you know that almost one fourth of ISB is doing the same damn stuff? There is also a paper writing frenzy that has caught our batch. Every duffer on campus is writing a paper and expecting it to earn recognition which can be fit into his or her resume. I thought it was a time consuming thing to come up with a paper, but ISB junta has begun to prove me completely wrong on different counts!!!

Coming back to Innovation Challenge which gobbled up my term break, I would say that it has been a test of patience and the ability to reproduce healthy faf babies. Fafing succeeds where hours of brainstorming flops miserably. Its time to do a pooja of those jargon gurus who have instilled confidence in all of us to deliver the goods when the situation is grim. We finally came up with a impressive list of jargons like "Quintessential metamorphosis", "Extreme analysis on a MaxiMin Scale", "The Insight-foresight-hindsight triad" etc which we plugged in to the paper. We are currently working on creating some more triangles and quadrants to further convey some non existent ideas to the judges. The futility of the entire exercise prompts me to conclude that if you can't innovate you should try to motivate. A confused reader might get motivated by seeing some of these cutting edge faf, and make something worthwhile out of it which was not thought of while writing.

The term break is almost gone now and there is no point repenting over the lost time. Thinking of good things that happened this break, the first thing that comes to mind is the weather. The climate in the campus has been absolutely fabulous with mild drizzles and strong breeze which enhance the greenery around. Its amazing how the same place can switch from being a heaven to a red hot grill....guess it is all in the mind set- keep cool in term 5!!

What happened at BPS?

2005-10-10T11:53:00.000-07:00

Long time ago, i was a non-presenter. Then i was sent to attend a workshop by my previous employer where i was taught body language and the importance of doing actions and expressions while making a presentation. From that point of time i have been shaking my head and doing fast paced karate style hand actions whenever i present.But i recently realised that i have been too sincere a student to have practised them so well that i had acquired exaggerated versions of what was taught to me earlier!!. I was really shocked to see myself jumping around when the first BPS video was shown. First Resln: People can view a calm and composed me from now on.

Instructor imitating an Andhra Guy, wanting to tell us the importance of owning a good accent says - "Wemen rrr dha perrlssu aaf dha worrllddu" and explains that this is the way a localite would say women are pearls of the world.
Student - Madam, u have understood it wrong, his accent was reasonably correct. What he meant to tell you was that "Women are the perils of the world not pearls" ...big shouts from all the females of the class -- maaro, maaro!!

Instructor: The a/c can be colder, you may remove the blazer till the temperature is further reduced.
Student Action - Remove blazer, tie, watch, shoes, socks, raises his sleeves....hooo this is cool!!.. Next day, of course wearing a half slack is the natural progression :-)

Takeaways from the course: hmmm, other than a revealing video (not in that sense, u ugly minds!!) which showed that i need to get back to a conscious mode while presenting or talking for that matter, nothing much. Nobody got really bashed up for their pathetic presentation skills, and that was really disappointing for my own sadistic instincts which wanted to badly contribute towards targeted segments (--Do you know that when i was a kid i was so fond of pressing on people's bleeding wounds ---he he he!!)
But frankly, what's the point of giving goody goody feedbacks and making you feel that you are a champ when the presentation actually had a junk rating?

Mein MBA/2 Hogyaa!!

2005-10-09T22:05:00.000-07:00

Well, i should be writing in my blog a bit more often, sorry for dozing out for large durations. Times have not been exactly conducive for writing,I was getting squashed with work. For the first time in ISB i was really running short of time, especially in the last two weeks of Term 4.

The exams were good fun. Lots to study, limited time..so you are free to prioritize and pick what you want to study and ignore the rest. I am not sure if i am the only claimant of enlightenment after coming to ISB, but i have completely lost the tension i had on the eve of the exams!!

Term 4 has been the most useful term as far as i am concerned and i have strong reasons for saying that. Involuntary "Faf"-ing is the most potent tool an MBA should have, SAIT has more than helped with that. I simply admire Prof Banker's Step by Step logic studded articulation which makes you believe things without hard core data..I have adopted him as my role model from now on. GSB made me comfortable with the words i was shaky talking about. eg institutions, fundamentals etc. It has also made me interested in reading long and dense articles, and thinking on those grounds than just leave them at that. MO had lots of interesting articles which i came to know on the eve of the exams; but i read them all and now i am confident of going to an interview asking for a HR role!. IA was good, a slight deviant from the spirit upheld by the other subjects, but was fulfilling in the traditional manner.

The writing part of exams were cool too, irrespective of the result i am expecting!. Three of the exams were almost objective type, and motivated us to have competitions on who would come out of the hall first. We were writing the lower bids on time on the board and the TA - invigilator marked the actual time when we gave the answer paper. For the GSB test, JD "The Grim guy of ISB" won hands down after bidding at 17 mins and finishing the paper at 14.5!!

After the exam, the custom of going for a movie and enjoying a bike ride was followed. I had to watch Salaam Namaste again, but that's just a small price to pay for being with some awesome company. We had a blast of a time at Prasadz at all three stages- Pre-Movie, during movie and post movie. Hot debates, whistling and shouting at the screen images and of course a group riding back to ISB with a lovely crescent watching them enjoy the cool Hyderabad night..Nothing to beat that last one and i plan do it at least four times before i say good bye to ISB!.

The Half way mark

2005-10-01T14:24:00.000-07:00

People are carrying handkerchieves and buckets (uncontrollable tears!!), especially in my section. Even i am feeling a bit skeptical sitting in class alongside people from other sections, and i am surprised at the emotion. Section C has really become like a family for me and even others are feeling the pinch of leaving it. The sentiment was very visible during yesterday's music competition.

The original animalistic patriotism which was the trademark of SecC was missing in the section for the last some weeks but people made it up by really turning it on at Khemka yesterday. Led by none other than the original "Baasha", the sec-c team produced super high decibel support notes with consistency throughout the program. The cheering slogans of our leader which sounded like some aboriginal mating cries echoed into the limbic system of the audience and was drilled in by the echoes generated by the rest of the team.

I just came back from the karoake session organized by the SV1 tribesmen. I am feeling happy on being able to deliver a traumatic experience to the few others who were unfortunate enough to be present for the event. For dummies, that just means "I sang". The cafe in here has started attracting people from far and wide of the campus and its heartening to see many more people around SV1.

I turn wiser

2005-09-26T10:08:00.000-07:00

Long time ago, god blessed this world with a cute and chubby baby boy. Astrologers have predicted that he would do great things in life. Whether that prediction becomes true is to be seen, but that boy has at least made it to ISB. Today he celebrates his nth (??) birthday and has just returned from "the dunking ceremony" which is part of the culture at ISB. He is feeling really happy getting so many wishes on his B'day and wants to thank all his friends...thanks all..!!

A Blog of Relief

2005-09-20T07:34:00.000-07:00

The last some days were really hectic, but i am now having a pretty good feeling about what has passed. The Onam celebrations went off fine and i really enjoyed the preparation phase. We had lots of witty moments during the practice sessions and it was a great feeling to be in the midst of some really energetic people. The shopping on the previous day was a greater fun.I realized that my Mallu-Tamil-Hindi language mixture actually went down well with Andhrites. I had gone to Raitu Bazaar and was telling the flower vendors that i needed jasmine garlands with buds and the not the fully bloomed flowers. They somehow thought that i was bargaining for price and immediately reduced Re 1/- per "mooru"!

There was lot of improvisation that happened real time when our skit was going on, but my beard falling off was certainly an accident as opposed to some of the allegations i have been hearing. Shukracharya, i.e. me did get very excited during the play and unknowingly pulled his own big beard in the process of going back to the seat. I really need to applaud the other members of the team for performing so wonderfully at the decider.

I had put in some really freaky stuff in our SAIT presentation today, but we were able to pull it off without too much trouble. There was a "digital signature and encryption techniques" slide which had a picture of a Anglo Sita and Ram who were sending "sandesh" to each other and with Shoorpanaka trying to intercept it. I had also put up a "Pop Quiz" slide, just to imitate Prof Banker! We also pulled the legs of some of our classmates by quoting "devious" examples starring them to explain hacking concepts. Luckily everybody took the pranks in a jovial manner and the presentation went off well.

Suds,my very old friend from REC made our day today by putting together all our (section c) photos and making it into a beautiful movie presentation. Its amazing how fast time has passed by after coming to ISB and in another two weeks there will be no Section C. The whole section has become really close and it is quite painful to imagine it break apart. I dont know if it is apt to think Herman Hesse here, but i am going ahead..."Some of us think holding on makes us strong; but sometimes it is letting go".

Oh Clock, please stop...

2005-09-12T07:05:00.000-07:00

A week at the end of which you are bound to be weak...this is one of them. Though it started off with a bang (Mr Seshan giving a cracker of a talk!!!), i dont see too much of sleep happening this week. I am really out of wits today and i am going to try some hopeless analogies....

Imagine a very fat person pushing you down and sitting on top of you. You are choked and don't know what to do...but this is only the beginning. Two more really fat people (read IA cases) are going to be on top of you soon...God, is this fair??
Now comes the fun part..A cow (read MO assignments) comes and starts nibbling your hair when you are in that frustrating position..obviously irritating you to the limits!!
That doesnt prevent a rich sait start kicking you in your butt!!

The Sait and the Banker have obviously a long standing relationship. Though our prof is an expert in the subject, i feel that we are missing some strategy stuff here. Mundane IT becomes intolerable after sometime, the living proof for this ran away from Infosys to join this B-school!!

Did i say that's all, there is a sea of reading to be done for the classes and i am kind of starting to feel guilty if i don't read before the class...Don't know whats happened to me, this was certainly not the case the last couple of terms!! Feels as if i am getting transformed for all wrong reasons...

There is certainly light at the end of the tunnel; there are two events - Onam celebrations and the section party - i am looking forward to at the end of the week. I suddenly recollect Andy saying "Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies. " (thanks to Bharani for reminding!!)
Time for our routine coffee at the cafe, need to value Google..Help has to come from Google:-)

The Missing Alums and the Bookworm Consortium

2005-09-10T02:50:00.000-07:00

I am convinced that there will be no dearth of topics to write about while you are at ISB. Just have a look at yesterday's events. A non stop CP which went on for 2 mins and 27 secs set the new record for max CP time at ISB. The record holder is none other than a Section C "tirchi" veteran who has been trying to peak at this for sometime now.

There was a "meet the alums" event yesterday and we were all thrilled to find that two of them turned out on time. We were more impressed since they had decided to work for ISB post graduation and their cute looking kid had all of us wanting to say "goo" to him :-)
It was anyway a nice socializing experience for all of us because we got to meet a lot of "would be alums" during the occasion!

I am suddenly interested (again!) in carnatic music after yesterday's amazing sangeetha mela!! The Tam-junta did great to organize a karoake session and as expected some maestros hogged the limelight. The singing couple, Mr funny percussionist and my own dear friend Mr Can't did a fabulous job and i was taken back a few years time when i had this atmosphere at home!

We also had the "Retro" party in the night and ISB rocked in the 70's attire. I regret not having worn a more suiting dress on the occasion, but i did some useful photography, catching all the hippies in the act. Earlier, our party organizer had got wild at the "united consortium of bookworms" because of the beginning trickle at the party stalls, but folks soon swarmed in to make it a very memorable event.

Sleep Zone

2005-09-06T07:47:00.000-07:00

I am redefining the sleep schedule for this term after attending the first round of classes. There is absolutely no hope of the new coffee machine being able to salvage any pride for me this time. The classes are so sweet and full of faf that concentration levels tend to drop whatever you do. After 6 hours of that treatment yesterday i feel even more tired though i was sleeping through a good part of it.

The MO class reminds me of my mother singing lullaby to me and patting my hair gently when i was a kid. This used to have an incredible effect on me and i used to go to sleep immediately. MO class is probably the result of some great research which causes the same effect on people through the application of behavioural science!! I am not too thrilled with the SAIT class also.How many times will you discuss Walmart and Dell..Its like doing a post mortem on an already dissected corpse which has barely any body parts left to examine! BTW we had the wonderful opportunity to discuss Dell in the PAEV class today. I am really excited to discuss Dell again in tomorrow's SAIT class..my hair is all standing up by the mere thought of it!!

The IA class is pretty good, but i feel kind of left out in class since the prof doesnt look at me at all while teaching..Its another thing that he doesnt look at anyone for that matter. But impartially speaking, i think he taught well in the first class and even kept us updated on the scores when the India-NZ match was going on!!

Well, i know it doesnt augur well with me being so critical of the classes, but the main reason is that the sleep maniac in me has woken up during the term break! GSB hours are turning out to be really good but today I slept peacefully during the last fifteen minutes of the class. I couldn't control my sleep in the library also and conked off for an hour today afternoon inside one of the reading rooms!. Anyway,I am hopeful of turning a new leaf and will try to remain awake in class from the very next chance i get for each of these subjects...Jai CP Devi!

Cold Week

2005-09-02T12:08:00.000-07:00

My catching cold and fever is like a festival season. There are two reasons for this analogy. One is that they happen very cyclically and second is that they happen during holidays. Look at this term break itself. I started shivering on the evening of day #1 of the break. In a way i am lucky, you definitely dont want these illnesses to affect you during the actual term. I usually get throat ache bundled with cold and fever and more often than not i get the opportunity to drink "benadril". It is a pleasure to have a couple of teaspoons of it and be all drowsy, have weird dreams and then fall asleep. Being drowsy for a long time creates the impression that the night (or day) is really long. This lets you really dream long and gives you enough time to achieve something significant at least in that world.

I discovered one more advantage of the ill state i am in. Even though i am the most hated person on campus (courtesy an outlook-dunk reminder) when it comes to dunking, i was spared today because of my cold-fever shields.

There were couple of good activities today..Got to play singles with a really good badminton player after a long time. Obviously I got thrashed, but as Bhagwan said, we all need to (surround ourselves) play with better guys to improve our game..daiii...i will have my revenge!!
Catching a live frog was my main contribution to our team in Beg, borrow, steal. I provided it with a five star accomodation in a well ventilated card board box which originally hosted my mobile charger. Graduation in literature (this is a card game, not the language stuff!!) continued today as we again got together for an hour to play.

Time for another two spoonfuls of benadril..here i come

Some passion, a snake and the suspects

2005-09-01T12:51:00.000-07:00

Though we were asked to write about the "Passion of the christ" and Level 5 and Gandhi, the non availability of a dvd forced us to change our topic a bit.
"How did Christ and Gandhi affect people's limbic system" was the main point of our LDP assignment. We have over intrepreted some part of Christian and Indian history to suit Mr Unpack's class discussions and aligned our 13 page write up with it. Just like Level 5 leaders, we feel that the whole student committee should take the credit for any discovery we have made during the process because the whole thing was setup when nobody could give us a dvd on time!!!

My scanning abilities proved their mettle today. You know, i have developed a habit wherein i keep looking around and try to identify as many people and events going on around me. Some jealous people say that i should have been an papparazzi and some orthodox guys tell me that i have become artistic and i am wandering. Though i easily adjusted to the fact that i needed to wear specs because my night vision was turning blurrier by the day after ISB Term 1, it has taken away the zing from my scanner :-(. At times when the extra fitting is missing, i have to rely on specific features or mannerisms of the blurred figure and make a calculated guess.

Today when i was returning from the rec-centre, the streets were poorly lit as a couple of lights were off and my scanner sensed something unusual on the road. It was about 20 feet away and was just a dark patch on the already dark road. My friend, who is being named as "Ghanshu Bhikari" by some Sec-C ians, was psychoanalysing (after effect of the passion!) how his adulthood had taken away his ability to take backhand shots while playing badminton!!. He cited two reasons for this - an overall dimension increase as well as a neo-cortex file delete. While i was emphathising with him, my tube light started glowing and thankfully, the first thing my pessimisstic mind thought of was a snake. A matrimonial site would have started with the following specs tall,dark, handsome 5 feet 10 inches tall, adventure loving, highly sociable....i am sure that was a bloody poisonous snake which had probably swallowed a frog and was resting in peace on the ISB highway !!!!

The only good thing to come out this event is solid proof that SV1 is changing. SV1 has become more civilized than other SVs and i can already see a fairer migration happening. I have great beliefs that our fundamentals are strong and by the end of the year should see junta here on top of the world :-).

I skipped the famous dumb movie which was playing in another SV today for a first time view of "The Usual Suspects". Luckily the threats of my dear quad mate who was on the verge of giving the crux of the story away didn't manifest as i expected, and i could enjoy the movie in my own way. The hype around the movie made me suspicious throughout and i could make out who was "the man" just before the ending. Though the movie is excellent, i would rate se7en higher than this one. The fact remains that there is no-one to beat Kevin Spacey in these creepy roles.

I am shocked to find that two precious days have passed and that i have to return to class soon. It makes me realize that we cannot rest for years from now on and that we are already warming up for a marathon race. Its "Uthistatha Jagratha" till the time we all start playing with our grandchildren and are transformed to kids again!

Battles and Fighters

2005-08-30T20:53:00.000-07:00

A war fought without arms and another waged with cutting edge arms and ammunition…As life has it, the one without weapons always brings lasting peace!

“Bhagwan” at ISB had similar ideas and the Corp Fin exam actually went off fine even without a cheat sheet. Entrepreneurship on the other side was an open book test and though people had packed their desks with all possible weapons to assist them in the fight, it turned to be the biggest dud among all exams we have had till now. I shudder imagining the plight of the TA who ends up evaluating our papers as I myself did not want to have a second look at what I had written! The bearded one did well to give out an appeal to all of us at the beginning of the exam that we don’t try to enlighten him with our worldly knowledge and stick to what was taught in the class. That actually put me in a sympathy mode restricting my writing to cause only moderate pain for the evaluator! I am sure that there were more of these “humane type” ISB-ians who did the same thing.

It’s amazing how a little tear in a friends’ eye can make you incur losses and strive utmost to bring the smile back. At least I sacrificed satiating my sadistic urges and referring to all those googled print outs on Innovators’ dilemma and Discontinuous products just because of MJ’s appeal!

Talking of real fighters, some part of our history says that Mangal Pandey was one of them. Though “1857-The Rising” did not do any justice towards showcasing patriotism, it did justify its title in a totally different context :-). There was quite a sizeable ISB gathering at Prasad’s yesterday and we did have a good overall experience. It started with a heated debate on Mr Unpack’s interpretations of a divine lady returning from the mortal world by means of a glorified earth splitting as committing suicide by jumping from the top of a cliff!. The decibel level rose quite high and we actually got some audience who were eagerly following the views of the future managers of the country!

Coming back to the movie, I think it was a beautiful concept of one man awakening the nation which got made into an uninteresting sleaze show. The last couple of minutes showing the actual footage of our freedom struggle against the British Empire reinforced confidence in me that wars can again be won without a cheat sheet or arms!!

The ride back home was fantastic..cool breeze, five bikes in a formation, racing on the empty roads, no worries, just pure satisfaction of becoming 3/8th of an MBA and enjoying college life!!

Grade Pills for Sale!

2005-08-27T12:40:00.000-07:00

The exams are around 33 hours away and I am dreaming..In my world, the ISB store sells these grade tablets. The A-grade tablets cost 2000 bucks, but the availability is low for each subject. They are extremely bitter to take in, and the after-effects leave you dizzy for the next 48 hours. People start emitting a pungent odour after having it and nobody can bear it for long. The chances of nervous breakdown are also high if you take this pill. You may also develop side-effects such as hair loss, high BP, sinus trouble, hypertension etc. Sometimes you get a milder dosage (350gms) pill which has less severe effects but gets you only an A-.
The B-grade pills are much better, you get a pain in your neck for 10 minutes and you doze off for sometime..thats it..ur grade is guaranteed! No odour, no side-effects, and the pills are available in large numbers and are pretty cheap (50 bucks!). The C-grade pills are an alternative to having a high..They leave you extremely relaxed and the effect lasts for a couple of days. The store usually receives large number of compliments for this one and hence these are available for free!.

I forgot to get my B-tablets today..need to wake up early morning tomorrow and go to the store before the stock gets over..I hope to get one of them for each of the three subjects..Entr has a mysterious pill which comes in a surprise packet. You can get any one of the tablets inside the cover; i prefer to get B..somehow can't suffer with the A-pill side effects with people running away from you!

If the pill stock gets over, i will have to get a substitute from the temple pujari..Its a long ride till HiTech city and its pure luck if that would work this time also. I am hoping for the best and setting the alarm clock.

I like you because

2005-08-26T09:17:00.000-07:00

I got a very practical feedback in the LDP class where we were asked to give chits to others saying "i like you because of xyz reasons". It said that the person liked me because of the totally irrelevant comments i pass in class!! I think that was a very honest opinion and i am very pleased to note that many people like me for various reasons!

I read about Grade non disclosure policy in "I the absolute" and have a pretty practical idea to implement it. Remember, we wrote the Comp Strat exam long time back and still have no clue of what our grades are!! My suggestion : Make all exams open book like CS and give essay type questions for ISB-ians to answer. The TAs will not be seen in public after that and on a very optimistic note, we might end up getting our grades sometime after we graduate from here.. This is called Automatic Implementation of Grade Non Disclosure (AIm-GraND) .

A six year old boy is standing at the seashore and wondering where the sea ends..He is overwhelmed by the amount of water he sees in front of him and is feeling totally overpowered by mother nature..I am that kid and Corp Fin is the sea.

Angulimaal Point

2005-08-24T07:42:00.000-07:00

I think Mr Unpack should start researching on the dunking tradition in ISB and see its analogy with his own discovery - the Angulimaal point!. As A-point is supposed to be the point of your life where your past actions catch up with you, we can immediately spot its similarity with the event of people getting dunked in the pool. Take the case of Dunkee..the poor chap couldn't go home today because his chappal was near the pool and so he was sitting at a dark corner of the rec center waiting for the dunk-spree to come to a halt. But the process soon reached a tipping point and at the same time his destiny reached the Angulimaal point!. As i walked back from the pool unscathed, shrieks of the poor dunkee again proved to me beyond doubt that one's past karma could catch up with him in no time at all.

Mr Unpack is going nuts..He stretched the Psychoanalysis of "Satya for Dummies" to more than what section C junta could take. The universal conservation law which states Quantity * Quality = constant in LDP class, held true when yours truly gave vent to his frustration by adding another dimension to the postmortem of the inner self of Bhiku Mhatre and Satya himself. During our long journey through the MBTI spectrum, Mr Unpack had asked us to find reasons to the formation of the seed of friendship between the characters of this movie and this earnest guy pointed out the most insightful by saying that both of them were unshaven, shabby, and wearing old clothes. Prof Chopra had said that we need to seperate simplicity and complexity in real life also and i just followed his advice. We stuff ourselves with lot of complexity that we forget simple observable things which help us to take great decisions. I am happy that at least some people in our class followed suit by giving similar insightful observations that day. After all, people urge you to have your foot firm on the ground even when you are flying high (never mind that no-logic in the analogy!) and i hope that our contribution does the same thing to ISB-ians.

The webfilter in ISB which blocked all "good" sites and prevented the streaming media coming in, created quite some trouble to me. Among all the mails i received, there was one sincere guy who really wanted to have some serious fun. After cribbing one full page, he got enough attention from my side even though the streaming stuff was up at that time. A prompt reply to my consolation mail which said " Please let me know if there are still some sites which you need to access and i will take it up with the IT" came to me and i was in a fix. The reply mentioned a site name which was so "good and mature" that i can't put it in here, and my friend urged me to solve his problem (at 5:00PM!) as early as possible. The same guy had shown his penchant to civil silence during the democratic exercise session in our campus and later cribbed that junta discriminated against him because of his silence. Page 88 of the student handbook came in handy to me, and i put a butterfly in his stomach by copying one VP in my reply to him.I added "If you insist, I shall still take this up with the ISB authorities and see if we can do something about it". The next mail would have gone to Team GSB and that would have been "Apocalypse now" for Mr Cribber, but he has been maintaining calm after that.

I continue to entertain people of my school, the latest act being the usage of the word "funda" in the entrepreneurship class and also the sending of a long number which enables a personal-portable monetary device to the whole student community!. Accidents do happen, but i think the trick lies in our perseverance in recovering from it - this has been my view for a long time now and i am sticking to it this time too!

Om Avaavah!

2005-08-22T04:47:00.000-07:00

Well, there is this complaint against me that i pull others legs a lot and that is also the main topic of all these postings. I can't help it because "choriyal" (itching - irritating etc in mallu) has become my second nature and instances such as what i am going to narrate here just keep happening.

It was avani aavittam day, and for all cross belted isb-ians we had organized a japam session here in the campus. I am not sure if "kaamo kaarshyam" is apt in a B-School, where teachings drive earthlings to strive harder in mortal territory, but on further thoughts it may suit the level 5 leadership gene in some of us. Whatever be the case, we were all very disciplined in waking up a poor chap who had (at a weaker moment in his life) agreed to give his house space for the japams.

The export quality pujari was a multi linguist and just like the "nair shop in mount everest" story, turned out to be a mallu pattar. He was accompanied by his son, who was an embeeyea aspirant and was in a investigative mode from the moment he landed on our campus..i see a future isb-bakra in him but that is what probably helped in bringing the vadhyar to this god forsaken place!

Two people stood out during the whole pooja - my co-basketball player who spent quite a long time in the US, turned up in shorts and was enquiring for the holy thread as soon as he stepped in. Though that was on the top of the agenda for the day, this guy was asking a poonal because he had none to change. Goals are seldom contained and guys reacted strongly to this telling him that "dey vadhyar pazhaya poonalellam kudukamaataar" (vadhyar doesn't provide old poonals for him to change)!!

Our friend hogged the spot light again when the "achamanam" was due and the vadhyar had to enact a "News for hearing impaired", telling him to use the right thumb on the right cheek etc while doing the procedure. He had to be again corrected when he mistook vadhyar's actions to be a mirror image of what is to be done and was touching the wrong hand at the wrong places!. Illitracy didn't affect the TFP (Total Factory Productivity - Term 2 economics!) as much as we thought it would, but it was an eye opener to the vadhyar about the GenX ISb-ians!

The cracker came when our Thirunelveli ASA rep, repeated "Avaavaah" in tandem when the vadhyar was actually giving instructions "avaavaah kuladaivangale nanuchukongo" (each of you think of your family gods). His "Avaavaah" followed the mantra rhyming so much that it reverberates in our memories even now.Things went fine after that and we sincerely thank Rajanikanth for organizing the whole stuff for us.
On the previous day, our basketball team made a major comeback into semifinal contention by defeating IIIT in their home court. I was absent in body because of my PAEV class, but my spirit was hovering around the match area -- this is some bull%^&* i tell others, the truth is that i am a useless guy who cant bunk classes :-(. Perseverance paid off for us and proved beyond doubt that it is all about fighting hard. We were not as lucky the next day, as we failed to overcome an inspired MGIT in the semis, but i guess we have emerged as a better team from the tournament.

A Goof up and a loss

2005-08-16T09:27:00.000-07:00

This day in the history of ISB belongs to me. I made tuesday the 16th of August 2005 a landmarkish day in the saga of CPs of our class; As they say, history repeats time and again and this time it did through me!!.

Section C had witnessed a similar incident in 2004 and this was one of the main stories told by the alums during the orientation. Naturhouse and Entrepreneurship would remain etched in the minds of many ISB-ians because of a seemingly small goof up by this IT Co-ordinator. Well, i believe that there is a time delay between the thought process and the creation of sound from a human body. Usually i dont really bother about this fact in the entrepreneurship class, because here garbled comments are taken in an insightful sense. I continue to keep the faith but the other 84 morons of my class found it outrageously funny when i slipped to saying "mouth to mouth" instead of "word of mouth" while mentioning the modes of publicity.

Well, my credentials in delivering a cracker CP have spread like wild fire after that and all that i can say is that i will try to live upto everyone's expectations. I got a glimpse of the future demand for my airtime presence when my dosths recommended a unanimous cold call of me to Mr Unpack. I was practising detachment for a change and Spaceman Spiff found it difficult to maneuver his spacecraft when this unexpected alien attack happened. Those sadists again gave out those ugly laughs when i mumbled some rarely known facts about queues and culture..not really sure what Mr Unpack made out of it.

In the post interval section of the day, Hyderabadi Rain god tried his best to stop us from playing basket ball, but fate had a different plan . It gave us home court advantage but we could still not manage a win. The guys gave it all but the last quarter again proved to be decisive in the other teams favour. Victory doesnt come easy, and i am sure we guys will keep on trying.

Saawan mela and a scrapped exam

2005-08-15T08:54:00.000-07:00

I am a hopeless Indian citizen..couldn't even wake up on time for the flag hosting. Why do i set ambitious targets like waking up at 7:30 AM, taking bath, going to temple and then attending the flag hoisting etc etc? It was sheer good luck that i made it to the brushing arena at 11:45 am.
Rain gods justified the mela by sprinkling water on our abode. I was on the receiving side since i had put my clothes to dry and gone to sleep :-(.

The mela had some stupid paintings hung around and some hopeless handcrafts. I am sure the housekeeping staff would fine us if we burn those candles inside the quad. And then there was this fraud parrot and card guy who was sitting there. Curse the guy who brainwashed me into this; the parrot was already tired of picking up cards for the day and it got me the first one from the cage. The predictions for my indeterminate future were done in mystic hindi and i did good to get a translator half way through. General fundae like money will not stay in your hand, u r short tempered etc could be said by anyone to any ISBian. More common sense on the way when he said that there are girls who like me a lot here in ISB and if i want to know more i need to give him five more bucks..Nice try dude..You see a good looking guy and try the most elementary stuff to get money out eh?
More defense mechanisms were in place by prohibiting me from showing my hand to anyone and also warning me not to wear black dress!! The guy doesnt want me to look dashing anymore!

Though i got out of the place before he uttered more of the fateful things, i am just wondering whose name he would have told me over there..Mr Clever guy should have had some names in stock, and in all likelyhood he might have memorized some spouses name..Phew..That was a lucky escape for me!!!

Lot of smoke in the air..The smell mix of roasted chicken, burnt pav-bhaji bread, the need of an LP to optimize the split of dishes for the Rs 60 coupon amount, and an operations "bottleneck" problem where you had to get a sign from a fatso in red shirt to have your coupon accepted in each counter were highlights of the Mela. Sarovar folks-- havent you heard of Kanban and Kaizan..pote--customer service anyone?? May be we should arrange a OM training for them too..On further thoughts i am scrapping that idea - remembered that experience is the greatest teacher; I have seen enuff of nidra in OM class to have any sense of optimism left in me!!

More bad news greeted me when our academic boss scrapped the CF paper--now i have to study hard even for the last exam. An increase in uncertainity for a B grade makes it really a stupid situation to be in!!!

Return of the king

2005-08-14T12:44:00.000-07:00

My IT gene had switched off for months now. How the hell can a Too-browsy spectacled me wander out of the IT net into the greenery of the wild world? Well it happened and i regret. They teach you some crap about sunk costs in the class. All that i understand is that they are asking you to forget stuff..Lets just follow those rules now.

My resolutions from now on
--> Regularly read some boring articles from the web
--> Blog daily - I am diversifying by blogging frustrations in here - kind of sab ka leta hain and building a knowledge repository in msn :-)
Todays thoughts
@11 am, hoo i have still not got up.
@12 pm, let me start blogging
@1 pm oh, now there is something called brushing your teeth
@7:30 pm, how to plan and play basket ball?? Our team has never won even a single BB match.Now we are thinking of strategies- pick and roll, back door entry, cutting the zone. According to me the strategy here is to introduce size..now the million dollar question - who can make the pres play??
@1:34 pm..I have outsourced the LDP assignment to my group mates in return for the OM one.Was that a wise decision??

Learning to Walk at ISB

2005-04-27T03:50:00.000-07:00

Well, its with great enthu that i land here. I have woken up from my slumber of being a IT worker and its dawn for me at ISB. Back at college and this one really rocks !!!! One million intros and three parties later, i recognise around one-fifth of the population here.

I made my first contribution to my fraternity last week by setting up Outlook reminders for Birthdays of all ISB-ians and became the IT wing of "The Dunking Authority of ISB". I leave the actual dunking to Professionals !

The pre-term was pretty cool because i took only accounting and was pretty happy to see the other classes getting bunked...Looks like i saved some money and also some harassment of sitting in the class :-)