mba dreams

10 tips to hold the govt ransom

2011-08-27T13:04:00.001+05:30

10 tips to hold the Govt Ranson

1) Choose a leader who the public associates with Gandhi (doesnt matter if knows anything or not, but has to be clean and has to be respected)

2) Choose a platform which the public has some grievance towards (but doesn't know how to solve it)

3) Choose an un-implementable bill (if its implementable the govt might agree so beats the point of holding them ransom)

4) Talk a lot of hoopla - examples galore - go to IIT talk about how the CBI cannot do anything because of their reporting structure. Now keep in mind that all you have to say is that "we will do it better (reference: yeah lokpal will resolve this in 6 months or 1 year)" never talk about actual implementation methodologies cause that might show holes in your thought process.

5) Get the media involved - now this is a tricky one, you need the media to exaggerate the numbers, you will need them to make your "Gandhi" a messiah.

6) After all this is done you have done your ground work, now you need to maintain a stance of "my way or the highway (ref: bush - you are with us or against us)" this has to be carefully done cause you cant sound like a megalomaniac, so what you say is "I am open to changes as long as its better" now keep in mind that you have the ability to decide what is better. so you cover all your bases

7) put it up on your website, and use social media. Anything public almost makes it legit these days. Show that there have been 3000 suggestions and 14 amendments. (as long as you say it with conviction 14 amendments can sound really big, not to mention 3000).

8) Start a campaign which doesnt talk about the core stance - (ref: anna is india - india is anna). This is a master stroke, you have suddenly made this mainstream regardless of the number of people who are supporting you. Also this takes away from the core stance of the bill and now its the person you are following not the bill. This ensures that more uneducated (ie people who havent read the bill) will follow you.

9) Now comes innovation at its best - you need to ensure there are sleeper cells in every city that you can call upon. They will run around in the rain, stop traffic/trains etc. Ensure that people who are no part of this campaign get bugged enough. Motive is to stop status quo, delay daily work. So goes back to my way or the highway

10) the master stroke of all - hunger strike, Fast till death. This can only be done if you choose the right leader, a simple man. he cannot be grandiose. No one should be able to question his motive.

Now I look forward to more of this in the future....... Wonderful world that we live in.....

Thanks anna for "standing up" for me, when I never asked you for it!!!! thanks to the media exaggerated millions who have no idea what the bill stands for or how it would be implemented. only thing I have heard for implementing the bill has been "yeah we will try the guy in 1 year" WTF????

been 3 years since graduation

2009-06-14T04:13:00.002+05:30

wow I cant believe its been 3 years since I graduated from ISB. I feel like I have lost quite a bit of my creativity in the last 3 years. Its a real struggle to start writing again. I keep wondering if this is a result of getting into the "real world" again. Work sucks ass and I cant believe that I am still doing this stuff. Office is filled with useless idiots who don't want to take ownership for anything, its a struggle to get people to own up to their responsibilities. And somehow, the most important thing at work is politics and stakeholder management. WTF?????

I wish I was back into that intellectual crowd, working on value adding activities and responsible people who arent just putting road blocks because they have something stuck up their ass. The corporate world is very different and feels like a prison sometimes. it seems like everyday I try to move 3 steps ahead and end up moving couple of steps back. What a life?

4 teas down, many more to go

2006-06-09T16:15:00.000+05:30

FIrst it was the one year roller coaster at ISB, then it was placement week jitters, after which the all india tours and a long time warming the couch at home. While waiting for my visas to come through I had a bright idea : the idea was I am getting terribly bored at home and why not work at ISB? So here I am at ISB for the enxt 2 months working on an amazing project, the fear however is that I might like it too much, and with my affection for start up experiences I might stay back. Well gonna try very hard not to succumb to the temptation. Right now I have had about 4 teas today, and life is wonderful.

Back in ISB

2006-06-08T16:57:00.000+05:30

Here I am sitting in a cubicle in WCED, I am working with WCED on a bplan for a technology venture here at ISB. I will be here for the next 2 months, and the job seems to be exciting. I am looking forward to an incredible 2 months here. ISB seems a lot different now than last year, now that I am looking at it from the alumni angle. I get this big brother type feeling where I feel the need to impart the little knowledge that I might have to the new batch. SO I have been boring some of the students to death with my diarrhea of advice and gyan.... hope these guys dont shoot me before I leave campus...

My Thoughts on Reservations

2006-05-31T03:33:00.000+05:30

Well I thought it is time that I spent some of my energy onto the ongoing debate about reservations. So I think reservations are a great way to equalize the inequality, afterall in this day and age this is the only way to ensure that every one regardless of the intellectual caliber can become a doctor, or engineer, or scientist. It is unfair that we have to be treated by great doctors, it is in fact unfair that we have bridges that dont break at the pressure of a birds droppings. It is in fact unfair that we be taught by professors who actually know their stuff. So my suggestions are as follows.

1) The IITs, the IIMs and the ISBs of India, should ensure that the best jobs get distributed on a quota basis to the students at these institutions. 27% reservation for the OBCs shoudl be maintained during placements, 22% should be given to the SCSTs. and the rest should be distributed amongst the "meritorious" crowd.

2) The professors of these institutions shoudl be hired on the basis of caste and creed, ensuring a 27% reservation for the OBC and 22% for SCSTs. SO that we can ensure that our educational system also maintains equal representation. God forbid if we are taught by the most talented professors this country might actually improve. We cant let that happen.

3) We must ensure that US immediately implements 27% reservation and 22% for OBC and SCST respectively, for visa and h1 applications. We must ensure that there is equal representation of caste in other countries as well. We cannot allow just the meritorious to escape the torture of our educational system.

4) The prime ministers post should be donned by an SCST/OBC individual effective immediately. WE must ensure that our top political post is also maintained with no regard to merit. As we have had our share of non SCST/OBC primeministers, we shoudl ensure that it is finally equally represented.

5) We must ensure that every family has a representation of SCST/OBC members so that we can ensure that families too are not based on merit. Effective immediately the goivernment should move children from one family to another so that 22/27% representation in maintained. if families have only 2 members, members of the family should be increased so that the merit category is not reduced (as per the instructions of the honorable prime minister of India Sonia Gandhi oooops or is it Manmohan Singh, I get confused at times)

6) effective immediately India shoudl ensure that all religions are eqully represented, therefore there shall be forced conversions so that this representation can be maintained.

Please the readers of this blog (if there are any) ensure that these points are followed through so that we can become a more inept country. PLEASE..... Let the arjun singh and the manmohan singhs of this world rise up the political ladder so that such actions can be immediately taken

Thanks to the Indian political system that we are able to dream of such possibilities
-Ashok

Nostalgia

2006-05-23T04:38:00.000+05:30

I was going over some pics from my time at ISB, and a lone tear rolled down my eyes. Remembered that this time last year we celebrated Bhishms bday at my quad (we used to call it the common room, since everyone used to be there. Remembered his comment about how we stuffed his oraface with cake... Remembered the times I spent with a special someone who cant be mentioned :). The visits to SV2. God I miss those days. SO got me thinking about the present batch, and how they are doing. I searched through some of the blogs, and its funny how people are feeling the same things I felt last year. And seems like this batch is a lot more gung-ho about ISB than ours. Anyway its a good thing, and I hope the legacy continues.

So what am I doing these days???? hmmm... well nothing really I am warming the couch and bugging mom, trying to loose weight by operating the remote control, I thin kits working actually :) I am gonna file my visa papers for UK tomorrow, and am prolly gonna hit Bombay this week and meet some ISBians...... Wish I could go through the whole year again

LIFE right After the MBA

2006-05-09T02:44:00.000+05:30

School has come to an end, and its back to corporate servitude. I am headed to British Telecom in London. It was most definitely a roller coaster ride, and I have some very fond memories of ISB. It has been a wonderful year, and I wish I could go through it again. I also got my dream job, which makes this whole experience totally worth while.

I was just thinking yesterday what are the things I would like to highlight about my ISB experience, apart from some of the personal things I would rather not talk about. Maybe some time later :)

I came to ISB with a mission to undo what I had done in my undergraduate years at Penn state, that is get a better GPA, not fall for any girls on the way, and various other details which I chose to completely ignore come the first week of classes. Well GPA was very average, the not falling for girls part did not happen. SO need less to say I did not do what I came here to do. But I did have a lot of fun. Lived the drunk life once again, was a loud abnoxious asshole once again for a few terms. Made friends with some very pompous people, didnt like who I had become, then came time for the surgical amputation of everything that I felt did not fit my bill, be it friends or the character that I had become.

I made some great friendships at ISB, people I will hold dear for a long time to come I think this is one great thing about going to school again; THe friendships.

Terms went by and placement season started, when I realised all the mistakes I had made in terms of my GPA and a realisation that I cant do anything about it now, so I had to prepare extremely well for my interviews. THe interview preparation I think was just superb leading to the job at BT.

So apart from the drunken days, the great friends, the amazing year, the cherished memories, the changed life, and an amazing end to a wonderful year, I believe this 15 lakhs is well spent.......

So long., will write, but not as often
Ashok

A mad rush for jobs

2006-02-19T22:00:00.000+05:30

We have finally hit the end of our adventure at ISB. This one truly has been a roller coaster ride,
Term 1- the grandeous dreams of 4.0 GPAs, the shock of the first semester grades thereafter, the attack of the single men and the denial of the ones taken,
Term2 - The rude awakening of yet another term gone bad..... the fights with the groupmates, the finger pointing.....
Term3 - The feeling of disgust at again the grades..... the worry of whether we will get placed....

Term4, the acceptance that it is no longer possible to change what has happened..... The fix??? lets publish some papers and take part in competitions, others have done it, it will make our resume look better... so now the mad rush for publications, and competitions.

Term 5- Thank god for electives, but oh wait I am a finance major, I am fucked!!!! I hate finance, why the heck am I doing it? god only knows....

Term6 - Hmm finance is not so bad, neither is marketing, but am I gonna get a job....

And now we are at the tail end. Term 7 has ended, and we are all looking for jobs.. SO placements on campus has started. SOme have been placed, some have multiple offers, there is a marked caste system developing, and the reality is Grades DO NOT MATTER>>>> Mackinsey has taken 8 this year, and BCG 3 ATK 2, DC 4- Now according to the sould that have gotten into these programs, they are the lords of the batch. The ones with good grades who havent cracked anythign are sulking, wodnering why they did not have fun during the year... some marked surprises in the placement process.... but oh well such is life.

Yours truly has not been placed and will probably hang on till the end, unfortunately the companies I am targeting are coming in the END, and I have to fly out for one of them too...

Our PPTs

2006-01-18T04:44:00.000+05:30

Our PPTs (pre placement talks) have started now. Companies come on campus and give us their pitches, its quite hilarious to see some of the students here rush in for the “high ticket” companies (ie the mckinseys of the world). As if everyone on campus is going to get into these firms. And then you have those “rare souls” who think that the guys who come on campus are going to remember them or something when they come here for recruitment, so they start with the familiar “I am “first name Last name” and I have a question. It is damn funny, my god do these people really think that they would stand out amongst 150 students? The best are the Mckinsey and BCG talks, so these companies are actually going to hire only 3-4 people each and there were literally 200 students at these talks. Today was microsoft’s turn so we got the shpeal of “passion, integrity, honesty” and how Microsoft values these words. SO first of all integrity and Microsoft???? That itself is quite hilarious, and then to think that every company thinks that this is one of their unique selling points, so do these companies actually think that there will be companies out these who say “we believe in dishonesty”??? come on…… (

The pain

2006-01-13T04:37:00.000+05:30

I am surrounded by darkness, and I don’t know which way I need to turn. I have been trying to find the light that does not exist. In the absence of sanity only thing that prevails is stupidity, and that’s what has hit me. What am I doing to myself, and the person I care the most about? I sometimes wonder where did all those days go when everything was a joke? Why can’t I live that anymore? I have been in the dumps all day, actually last couple of days when I don’t know what’s happening to me, I feel lost and looking for a Shepard to lead me into the light. When I look into my future I see a lot of pain, more for people I care about than me. What am I doing? Where is all this headed? I just want to go back to those Pittsburgh days when everything was just a joke and nothing really existed. Today I am finally part of this world and I don’t want to be, I really don’t want to be a part of this stupid place.

I feel like my world is shrinking and I am in it, waiting to be crushed…….. I wish I had the will power to face this challenge… I pray I had the will power to face this…

a dillemma

2006-01-09T05:04:00.000+05:30

Well two thoughts today, one of pure bliss and one of extreme sadness and anger. I can’t really make out which one prevails right now. I have overall been really happy today, with yesterday being the most amazing day at ISB. Wish everyday was like that, and today has just been awesome because of yesterdays “hangover” if you may. Had a ball at the waterfront. Anyway but today I am not sure how I should look at it, I have this weird feeling that I have been doing something wrong for the longest time. I actually get this feeling quite a bit, and then I make a resolution that I will never do it again, but then it again starts. What exactly is this? Am I nuts or what?

I guess I am not as nice as I think I am : (

odd day

2005-12-30T05:01:00.000+05:30

Odd day today, not that I have been having normal days lately but anyway pretty odd none the less. It finally hit me that Bangalore was target to a terrorist attack, and that to at IISC, one of the places that I used to hang out at.  Our family has been quite attached to IISC since my great uncle was a professor there in the 1930s so this really hit a chord.  I mean, to think this is a place of learning and these fucks want to hit this place. Where is the compassion, if there is such a thing? Well and the part which bugs me is that we as we could care less about something like this.  Almost seems “normal”, has the world just lost it?

Anyway then today we all get a mail from one of our profs and he just lost him mom, poor guy seems like no on at the institute helped him out at the time of his greatest need.  He wasn’t even able to reach the hospital on time.  Well anyway point being that I think this world is getting overly desensitized.  Also I think we are all losing it, stuck in our own worlds.  We are more concerned about the lakh or 2 more that we would make coming out of here than having a humanitarian approach to life.

Well after all this one of my close buddies is leaving for the US on an exchange program, and it just hit me I will be out of here in 3 months.  Wonder what the world has in store for me, wonder what!!!!

Who am I?

2005-12-29T04:26:00.000+05:30

I have been pretty confused for quite a few days now, have felt kinda low and have been feeling like something has been pulling me down. been trying to figure out what it is and havent come to much of a conclusion. At times I feel betrayed, betrayed by the whole world, betrayed by myself, and betrayed by this very existance.

sometimes I feel like I dont know whats going on. Take for instance, the people you think are your "good friends" and now they all seem to be nothing more than acquaintances. Dont wanna meet them, feel like I cant talk anythign more than just the most mundane things, and these are people I used to be able to tell everything to. Similarly people who I interacted with in the begining of the year in ISB, many of them I dont even talk to, in fact I tend to just avoid them at the first chance I get. Is there something wrong with me? How can things change this much?

As I write this all I can picture is the very first day at ISB, where I was frantically looking for people to hang out with. Finding some good friends in the begining did make life here a lot more bearable. Then I guess the characters in the play changed or rather they found other plays to go act in (whatever the case). Then new guys took new roles, more important roles I guess...... at times I feel like this whole experience has been a blur, I dont know exactly when, what and how things happened, and I feel like I am lost....... WELLL pretty pointless ramble today, but thats the way the day has been.....

no time to duck

2005-12-24T03:44:00.000+05:30

When life hits you like a ton of bricks, and you don’t have the time to duck, it really is a revelation of sorts. And so much shit is happening these days that I don’t know where I am headed. Sometimes shit is thrown at me and I dont even know where its coming from. When will all this end???????

I need a remote!!!!!

2005-12-23T17:44:00.000+05:30

Yesterday was a shitty day!!!! Sometimes you just want a remote which could possibly rewind the whole day and you get to fix some of the stupid things one does.  And yesterday was one of those. I wish I could completely erase it from memory.  All I was doing today is think about things that went wrong and wish I could undo some of the things.

Sometimes I feel I am trapped in some warped sense of reality where I am losing control day by day.  I would of all people!!!!! COME ON!!! How is it possible? But I am I am just not the same guy I was when I came here.

I wonder why we are not able to use are heads at times? God damn it, I am usually the type of guy who runs purely on logic, and I just could not yesterday.  Man do I wish I could change things.  I feel like I am completely at fault, can I fix what happened? I am not sure.  Really am not.

I just feel like CRYING!!!!!!

another term!!!!

2005-12-16T03:21:00.000+05:30

Well well,  So what do I say now? Its 6th term now, and this term is a lot easier than lot of the earlier terms.  Some of the good news this term is that I have published a paper in the All India Management Association’s journal call “Indian Management” Pretty proud of that.  Also we have been short listed in Draper fischers All India B-Plan competition, which is definitely an amazing achievement.

Hmmmm what else? Well there are so many things I would like to say, but this medium is just not the right forum.  Anyhow so imagine that we actually did not know that our paper was published, until my buddy was reading the magazine and goes “this looks familiar” only to find that it was actually our paper.  Pretty cool eh?

SO now we have about 4 people from XLRI who are in my quad for competitions which are going to be held at ISB.  Gotta show them a good time, and give them the same treatment that they gave us when we went there.
Well thats about it for today (

Wow its been a while

2005-11-30T03:07:00.000+05:30

SO it’s been a long time since I have written.  I somehow didn’t feel like writing the whole of last semester, I guess I wrote too much the semester before.  Anyhow so my last term went pretty shitty, and I am pretty pissed off with myself for not giving my time to some of the most amazing courses.  Marketing implementation was taught by probably one of the best professors this whole year, and I paid very little attention to it.  Wish I had been more responsible.
     Last semester was spent taking part in competitions, and we were in the finals for a b plan competition at XLRI, I wish I would say that we won it, but we didn’t. (sad sad sad) I thoroughly enjoyed it though, going to my dads’ alma mater and meeting the very professors that had taught him while he was doing his MBA was amazing.  I even took photos with the professor there, a prof Sarin, and oh crap haven’t sent the pic to My dad (so bad of me).  And I met an old friend of mine from yester years, ie from high school who now is at XLRI, was amazing, in fact I fell in love with Jamshedpur.  To imagine that my parents would have gone through the very streets that I walked through while they were still newly married was an amazing feeling.  I was actually there for my first year, and I caught myself wondering what it would have been like in those days.  Dad and mom have frequently told me stories about how I used to be a pain in the ass but couldn’t help but wonder if I had walked through the streets in Jamshedpur when I was young.   The students at XLRI were extremely friendly, I was actually pretty happy to have met some of the guys there, and in fact I am gonna keep in touch with some of these guys for many years to come.
     So then I was back in school and had to go through the grind again, and had to take exams that I was not prepared for.
     Now its 6th term, can’t believe that time has flown this fast.  We have only 4.5 more months of school, and then I will be gone.  I am really gonna miss one friend a lot, and I don’t even know how I got so close to this person.  Sometimes its odd how you get so attached to something that you feel its as much a part of you as anything else, and cant fathom not having it anymore.  It’s the same here, this person has become so much a part of me that I cant imagine this person not being there.  And now we come to ISB, man I am gonna miss the pampering, why couldn’t this course have been a 2 year course?  On that note let me get back to my assignments…….

No option No future

2005-11-02T21:43:00.000+05:30

Long time no write…. So I have been pretty non verbal for the last few weeks. Ever since term break, I have introspected too much, and really don’t have any energy to write. So term has gone well, have made it to the finals in a competition, and will be headed somewhere in a week, somewhere out of the prison I guess.( Classes have sucked, I have this course taught by our dean, and all I can say is SHIIIIIITTTTT… If only a guy could be more boring. So all we do in this finance course is regurgitate equations without actually understanding why we are actually using particular equations… so all that comes to my mind is. G=F(u,c,k) I think that expresses all my feeling about options and futures.

vacuum

2005-10-12T13:23:00.000+05:30

Couple weeks ago a couple students from ISB won a paper writing competition, ever since the newest fad on campus is “TAKE PART IN ALL THE COMPETITIONS YOU CAN THINK OF”. SO going with the flow, I too have succumbed to the mass movement. SAD but TRUE! SO this vacation I have been working on a few papers and case competitions with a few of my friends. What I realized is that my learning is 10 fold when it comes to researching for papers and competitions. I wish I had discovered this earlier(.

So this term break I have introspected quite a bit and have really figured out a lot about myself as well as the environment around me. I wrote a lot (though not for public medium) and it has helped me quite a bit. Sometimes I think we just have to give ourselves some time to just think about everything that’s happening, including things we think we have control over. I have done exactly that, and it has helped quite a bit.

Introspective

2005-10-07T20:11:00.000+05:30

I am half an MBA now; we just got done with are exams today, and what an exam that was (Investment Analysis). I studied just about 6-7 hours for it, and need less to say it was not sufficient. This was one of those beauties which actually tested your understanding of the subject. The 4 cheat sheets that we took along to aid us in our quest to conquer was just not enough, I mean even that would be an understatement. It was a true beauty. I wish I had put in my study time for this; I really enjoyed solving the paper, even though I probably did not do to well. It would have been nice if I had put in a good 10 days to study for the test. Anyway retrospection is of no use now. The faces of fellow students were wrought with surprise and fear, until they found that everyone had done badly. Thank god for small mercies, Relative Grading ki Jai ho.

So now we start our 10 day break. I intend to do a lot of introspection these 10 days. I need to figure out a lot of things, and I need to get my act together. I have been in a little bit of a soup lately, not knowing what and where things are going. It almost seems like I am making a lot of mistakes that I made earlier…… I really do need to put a stop to this. So the action plan is to spend time with myself a lot, I am going to try to figure out whats going on in that teeny tiny brain of mine which hasn’t been functioning too well lately. Control has been lost, and I need to gain it back.

exam blues

2005-10-06T00:50:00.000+05:30

Sitting here I can only wonder what tomorrow may bring. That’s right its exam blues again. And I can’t believe that I am this close to being half an MBA. I am however not at all prepared for the shit tomorrow. So as with every exam day the spams were let loose today, GOD people just go nuts at ISB with spams. MORE TOMORROW

I wish

2005-10-02T01:39:00.000+05:30

I have always felt I would change nothing about my past, because it’s what made me what I am today, and the past has taught me a lot. I always believed that my past (good and bad) has made me a much stronger person, a person who can withstand the test of time. Probably everyone has felt like they wanted to change something from the past, but I never had that urge, I never for once felt like changing anything. Today for the first time I want to be someone else, I don’t know who exactly I somehow feel like just changing what I am completely and just wish I could be a completely different person. Wish I was in a different time, a different place, seen things before they became what they are. I WISH I WISH I WISH…….

Question????

2005-09-24T07:42:00.000+05:30

I know not what, I know not how,
I know not when, I know not where,
But at some point, somewhere and some how I did.
Locked up in a cage without bars,
A prison without guards,

Tis’ but a tragedy that I cannot control,
The realms of reality are two fold,
Freedom I have, but the mind doesn’t let go.
Looking to serendipity to pull me out of this low.

deep thought (yeah right!!!)

2005-09-21T21:39:00.000+05:30

Why are all the good things in this world already taken? Be it business ideas, women, or whatever else you want to think of. I am especially pissed off with the fact that ideas and women are always taken. I mean how is it possible that I always miss these by either a year or two?? ;) So I remember coming up with some cool ideas which were either already implemented just about a year back, in some remote corner of the world. Now coming to women, it’s the same case, they are always taken (the good ones that is). I am sick and tired of it, so yeah I missed out on all the possible hook ups during my bachelors, due to some stupid notions that I might have had at that time. But why now? Now it’s too late apparently, too old too late too nice, there is always some problem or the other. I am tired of it; I guess this possible thought has been bothering me ever since talking to my mom. Cant digest the fact that I would have to settle for an “arranged marriage”.

Or could it be that these women too are looking for their perfect matches and I am never the one? Wow what a fucking morbid thought…..

Proposal

2005-09-20T18:32:00.000+05:30

Couple days ago mom called….. The conversation goes as follows
“Hey son how are you doing?”

“Fine mom, extremely busy, lot of work and I don’t have time to breathe”

Now the kicker…..

“Dad got a call from this friend of a friend of a friends’ uncle who has two daughters….”

I usually have a sixth sense for these things, and I guess you don’t need much of an intuition to figure out what was coming…. So anyway I start to scream, and mom tells me to calm down and listen so I do

“One of the daughters is a doctor, and they asked about you, and if they can get you to talk to the girl.”

So as with other such conversations I go

“Mom, I am only 27, and I am still doing my MBA, can’t this shit wait? I don’t wanna think about it now. Besides I don’t think I the parents will be too cool with me trying to start my own thing. I guess we can wait a couple years”

This has happened before about a year and a half back, similar situation, and I had to vehemently oppose, on the grounds that I am planning on going back to school and I can’t think about this shit now. I guess its one of those things which is going to happen more frequently from now on, with the receding hairline and all. Indian parents somehow see this as a big problem; the argument being the less hair you have less is the choices. It almost seems like this whole marriage thing is a huge business of some sort, where the asset (the boy) depreciates over time. Since the present value of the asset is higher, the younger the asset, it seems only natural that you should get the asset married as soon as possible. Now another variable in this equation is about how damaged the asset is, here is where the receding hairline plays a part, so now with receding hairline the asset is automatically discounted at a higher rate. The business it seems is fool proof, parents have it figured, and the only problem is the assets who have to put up with each other for the rest of their lives……

Anyway jokes aside, this whole thing did get me thinking whether it was time to call it quits, I mean call the freedom quits. Is it time to just bite the bullet and enter the dragon if you may? Hmmm food for thought I guess. My thought process goes like this; I have a huge loan, so the higher the earnings of the fellow “asset” the better it is cause we can pay off my loans KIDDING!!!!

Hope mom doesn’t read this Blog……

Wish i had a beer

2005-09-18T17:45:00.000+05:30

Pretty shitty day, I haven’t done a thing, and have just been wishing that I had something to drink to fucking wash some of the shitty thoughts out of my head. I think over the years drinking has just become a crutch which I use when I feel things aren’t in my control. I got to have more strength, need to look at life in a more realistic way!!!!! I was just thinking of those days when I started drinking, AJ telling me “dude fucking just start drinking it will help wash down the pain”, does sound kind of corny I know. Those were the days when I was on my all time lows, the girl I thought I loved didn’t love me, and since then its all been downhill,
drinking when I am happy, drinking when I am sad,
drinking when I feel lousy, drinking when I have been bad.
It has served me quite a bit, in the last few years. To have gone through 7 years learning to live with my life with the aid of the bottle, has made me rely on it a little too much. Today when I want it this bad, I am holding back, realizing that I need to take it easy a bit.

confusion

2005-09-18T11:03:00.000+05:30

We had a party this weekend, and I had vowed not to drink. ( It really does suck to be sober; I realized that I don’t actually enjoy parties where I don’t drink. What the hell is wrong with me? So after the party I was walking a friend home and she gets a call from this dude, who asks her to come on a drive with her. This dude was drunk as hell, and this girl actually sits in the car with him. I tried to stop her, but oh well; I guess people have their own compulsions. Why are people so dumb? Why do they have to do the stupidest things all the time? Why are people hardwired to do dumb stuff? I just don’t get it.

Another Boring Day

2005-09-16T14:34:00.000+05:30

As I sit here attending the unending bullshit called Investment paralysis, a thought finds its way into the little space that is left to be occupied, what a fucking crock of shit this whole experience is. To have lived through another day at this joint without smoking a joint, is enough of a punishment. I think I need a mind numbing experience now, way too much data overload. Sometimes it seems that my hard drive is one of those ancient 40 Meg drives, which my dad thought was sufficient for all my future needs, of the early 90s. It seems way outdated, and I seem to retain as much information as an ant. Maybe there is a need for a thorough formatting of the drive, one that will allow me to take away some of that information that hasn’t been used or those that I don’t want to use, but fucking keeps coming back to the fore every time I retrieve some information or the other. The painful ones seem to always find its way back to the beginning of the FIFO.

Anyway, looking around at the class I see some of the more attentive people in the class, for example Noddy. Sometimes it seems like we can actually see the information going into his head. Judging by the spastic movements of his head while “imbibing knowledge” that’s being parted, it is obvious that information is definitely entering his head in such violent jerks that I feel one of these days he might just hit the wall behind him. Obviously that is because of the inherent violence in the information. :)

SO we have management of orgasms next, and I am sitting here during the break wondering what I should do in this class. I guess I will try to write a synopsis of the class. Therefore, from that point of view, the part of the class is going to be quite boring…. Therefore from that point of you I am going to write part of the blog about this particular class.

In the last class we counted the number of therefores’ that this dude says during the tenure of the class. The count was 123 therefore’s, 56 “from that point of view” and “120 “part of” in his talk. Now I think that’s quite an achievement.

Oh wait a minute; I just received a mail from one of the guys in this class….. so we are supposed to use one of three phrases in any of our class participation questions or answers, and we get a free drink at todays’ party. Hmmm…. I think I am going to attempt it now….. We have been talking about how processes help in the learning for an organization so here goes (my CP)
“Small organizations tend to have an informal process which makes sure that they are able to constantly learn even though there is no formalized process, however extending the same to a larger organization; its like making an elephant wear shorts”

There done, and the part which is underlined is the phrase that I was supposed to use :) now I am extremely proud of myself. And not only that that’s exactly the CP I wanted to say, only that I just had to add that phrase…. Cool eh?

Some Senti Stuff

2005-09-14T20:01:00.000+05:30

Today one of my friends sent me this really mushy website of this one couple who have written about how they met and how they fell for each other. Though I am usually quite annoyed by such topics, and at times quite skeptical about such blatant public display, today this site got me thinking even wishing a bit. Wishing if I would ever have something like this. It actually sickens me at times even thinking about this stuff. Well I don’t wanna write any more than this, it already has sickened me enough :(

Thought of giving the link of the site, but I am not sure if it would be right to publish it like this on the web

Verbal Diarrhea

2005-09-12T01:56:00.000+05:30

with the looks of it I seem to have written a lot in the last couple of days. I wonder why though? I dont think I have had an urge to write so much. And so much shit? damn!!!! wonder why...

Sometimes I am not even able to figure myself out..... :)

Pseudo intellectual RANTS

2005-09-11T14:53:00.000+05:30

I feel its time to pen down my thoughts as to what b-school is all about, be it single term relationships, the mad race to get an A, the relative grading- sabotage, or maybe even the occasional "hey you are my buddy so I will let you copy my exam".......

So lets start with relationships, a B-School relationship has a unique character to itself, it tends to last a whole term, now the way I see it, there are 8 terms in all so along with "intellectual wine tasting" (as MR Manish Sabharwal mentioned in his talk) we also have other types of wine tasting "you know what I mean". How can you blame them? I mean come on after all we all have to find the best possible specimen. Think about it, now if we can spend 2-3 months thinking about which car to buy, and all along test drive every single possibility, and then test drive again after comparing and contrasting, it is but natural that we would have to do the same with relationships. Of course, the best ones are those that sample more than just 8....... Now it also gives an opportunity for people already in a relationship to wine taste without getting out of the first one as well....... boy what a "brave new world":)

So grades.... they the elixir of ISB life. The sign of a good specimen at times..... So looks like grades serve two purposes, they are used for signaling the health of the specimen, and also assures that many "cows" will use you for consultations. And thank god for these consultations, many of our toppers probably would have never received this kind of attention before. Why should they not? After all they are on their way to becoming the CEOs of the next Microsoft. I mean, I mean, I mean.......... Apart from the women/men angle, we also have the consulting angle, BCGs and the Mckinseys' of our world only recruit from the top 10 percentile of the students. Now What I fail to understand is this, I did attend a Mckinsey presentation, and what I found was that they don’t really need people who are smart, but they actually need people who can bull shit. So me thinks they need to look at the "bull shit" competence.

Now the best aspect of ISB life is "relative grading" or rather sabotage..... So only the top 10% of the people get As and the next 15% get A- and then we have bout 50% of the crowd getting Bs. So inevitably what happens is sabotage or what we call RG. It is a mad rush to get grades, of course now the good looking ones in our batch end up getting "special" help, be it exams or even homework. Now inevitably I think we are gonna now see huge lines in front of beauty salons and maybe even plastic surgeons.....

Now honor code violations, in reality though they is no honor code at ISB, it can be compromised at the first sign of trouble. I mean come on, after all its consulting at stake (whichever way you look at it). The most amazing violations include discussions in the examination room. Yeah they do happen, and usually ISB turns a blind eye to these, unless again your proctor or your TA doesn’t like you:) (Well we will come to this aspect in the next para). Well if it is a friend its all good cause collectively we need to try to get all our friends to get as........ So yeah you would think that the IITian species would not indulge in these, but you would be grossly mistaken. They are among the first actually, because how can they let the consulting placements pass by??? It’s after all the most important thing in their superficial lives. Oh yeah and cha-ching... if your spouse is an ex-ISBian, you have it made!!!!! If anyone wants to "crack-it" in ISB just make sure you marry an ISBian before joining ISB. Oh yeah and don’t worry about whether your spouse would help you out, obviously he/she will, after all it’s about the 30 lakh loan (15+15).

One of the most annoying aspects of living at ISB is traversing through the stairs.... and talk about ergonomically challenged, so they spend millions of dollars to make these fucking buildings look pretty but can’t spend the time to think about how annoying this shit might be?????? I have been having this excruciating pain in my knee, which I can only attribute to these god damn stairs..... So the "limping CEOs" of tomorrow are gonna be the esteemed alumni of ISB....

Its time for the competent TAs of ISB. Our TAs are so learned that they know exactly how to measure the competence of the students... so it goes like this goes "now if you dance with me in the parties you get an extra point, if you don’t then hmmmmm well -5" god forbid if one of the people in your group is someone who didn’t give her the time of the day. (Maybe a bit exaggerated). The TAs also have an uncanny ability to notice buzz words in our exams, as a matter of fact shouldn’t we be graded solely on the ability to regurgitate inconsequential terms such as boot-strapping regardless of whether we know what it means, or even if it is appropriate for the particular question? So our TA says this during our exam - "Please use terms which have been taught in your entrepreneurship class and underline them, do not use terms that have not been taught in this class"

So my exam looked like this

Boot-strapping, effectual reasoning, social capital, value-driven, core competence (damn it that was not taught in our entrepreneurship class CRAP I am gonna fail!!!!!!)

Class Participations

2005-09-10T19:46:00.000+05:30

So one of the funniest aspects of attending ISB is the aribitrary class participation in our classes. In fact we have actually named our favorite characters, and it is quite amazing to just listen to them in class. Primarily people actually get into the habit of using jargon, just for the sake of using them, they believe that this will get them mileage in terms of grades. Of course I am only complaining because I seem to never remember jargon, and terms like Operating leverage or network externality could well be in french. I guess then I should just start with our favorite CPs this semester, oh yeah and in the last 2 weeks we actually have had many amazing CPs.

CP King - Our sections CP king is most definitely the most "learned" person in class. Notice the quotes cause he isnt really that knowledgeable but most of the time just banks on people not knowing anything about the subject, and sometimes he does get caught and we usually make sure we snub him when he does

CP for the week: As we all know there are 3 million, no 4 million no! 10 million muslims blah blah blah

My synopsis: As we all know we need to adjust population to the prevailing exchage rate, or maybe inflation who knows... therefor our man was obviously just doing the real-time exchange rate conversion in his head...... :)

CP Queen- OUr CP queen is quite unique, her CP usually last a whole 5-10 mins. It so happens that I usually sleep at the begining of her question and when I wake up she is still talking.... Sp her CP goes as follows "first blah blah blah, secondly blah blah blah blah, thirdly blah blah blah"

It almost seems like she has rehearsed her CP and then just shoots off these rehearsed words of wisom. It so happens many times that she eats away all the possible questions and the other "great CP souls" in our class have to then repeat what she has said to get their points.

Also what I fail to understand is that people end up just talking shit sometimes, even about things that they knwo nothing about. for example we had a presentation yesterday about Cisco and someone asked the person "so what about IPV6, what is cisco's strategy there?"
so our man goes "IPV6 is not really picking up because its linux based so when linux picks up and there are some security issues as well"

I mean come on what does linux have to do with IPV6..... IPV6 is just a new standard which enables a larger connectivity, has nothign to do with security or with linux. (well I could go more technical but then in interest of my sorry finger (typing) I will stop)

Noddy: SO we have a unique character in class. This dude is pretty funny, lets call him "noddy" he has a habit of repeating whatever the professor says and he keeps nodding his head all through the class. Its almost there is a vibrator in his head and anytime he listens to the professor it just gets started..... Now I have been thinking what would he do when his wife yells at him
"you asshole, why did you come home late"
noddy: "yeah asshole why ..... late"
wife : "stop repeating what ever I say"
noddy(while nodding) : "say, sure sure sure"
Well I could go on.... and on about different situations, but you get the picture ;)

So another interesting thing this semester is that, I am sitting next to this dude, who is fucking hillarious.... he has some smart comment or the other whenever some one opens their mouth in class.... I just cant stop laughing.

Investment paralysis and Management of Orgasms.....

2005-09-06T14:29:00.000+05:30

Its Tuesday and the professor (Management of Orgasms) has just walked in, aparently the class is going to be boring. So I have decided to blog, instead of paying attention. So we had investment paralysis before lunch, and the dude (professor) was hillarious. I think during the whole class he never, not even once, looked at the students. In fact every 5 mins or so he switched his hindi on "boss, aisa hai blah blah blah" it was too funny. I think I am gonna have a lot of fun in that class, however I do think that I am gonna spend most of the class just laughing at his idiosyncracies. I was told that I was acting spastic in the class, constantly laughing, I am not quite sure how I am gonna listen to the dude while laughing so much.

So then we come to Management of orgasms...... my god talk about orgasms, I think this dude will definitely put every part of my body to sleep.... ;) I would not be surprised if this guy over anesthetizes me, and I die in his class........ talk about a mind NUMBING experience.

Another Term About TO start

2005-09-04T10:53:00.000+05:30

Its that time again, when a vacation (a minute one nonetheless) ends and a new season of torture begins. What a vacation this has been, basically shit!!! I think I should have gone to Bangalore this time, atleast I would have got to meet some of my friends :( I really thought that this vacation would be a lot of fun, but it basically sucked. I think I enjoyed the vacation more when I was sitting by myself and not hanging out with anyone. Somehow in the last 4-5 days I have realised that I am not exactly a people person, and maybe the extrovertism that I showed was a mask. Who knows....

Term End and funn funn funn

2005-09-01T05:52:00.000+05:30

Well its end of the term now.... and the extensive term break of 4 days is already half through. WEll the break has been nice overall, with me confessing a lot more than I should have at times :( wish I could take some of the things I said back, I dont know what I was thinking, well hopefully some people dont hold it against me. FIrst of all it was a confession of fear rather than an actual event, maybe even a session of thinking out loud. Oh well sometimes these small things can create such a riff........

exam jitters

2005-08-29T01:59:00.000+05:30

So its that time again, end of term and the midnight oils' burning. I see all the lights on in the village and people are fretting, I hear cries of frustration, anger and war.... Essentially its gonna be a lost battle for many of us tommorow, the unprepared souls try to make the best of the situation, by keeping awake all night, trying to make up for all the sleeping in class that they have done to date. I identify with these guys, hey I am one of them. Boy, do I regret it. I was just running through the term in my head and I dont quite know where all this time went.... what was i doing this term????? god I dont know!!! It seems like I have wiled it away, and I dont know where.

So right now i am hungry, but I dont know what to eat, what can I eat now that is available in the house???? hmmmm.......

Happy days

2005-08-27T03:41:00.000+05:30

Today was a great day, in our leadership development class we had an exercise where we had to write something nice about other and go up to them and give them the slip. It was great fun, and in fact I realized that I actually like most people. I always thought that I was a pessimist and saw the worst in people, well what do you know, when it came to thinking about something nice about people in our class I could come up with more than 5-6 points about everyone that I liked. I also received a lot of slips myself about what people like about me, sometimes these small things are just sufficient to make ones day. I was thinking about it, I think we spend too much times thinking about the worst in people, and we need to start looking for the good in people, and I think today I have made a decision to just look at the positive side of everything...... NO MORE NEGATIVITY, especially about others....

Now about my exams which are coming up on Monday, well I think I am grossly unprepared, so I better get back to studying :)

Crossing paths

2005-08-25T02:16:00.000+05:30

In our lives we seem to cross paths with so many interesting people who just become memories in the later years. We rarely meet again, and maybe rarely even talk again. While we knew them, however, they occupied an important part in our lives. I was just thinking of all the people that I have known over the years, some of them have saved me from myself, and some of these people were there for me when I was at my worst. Where have they gone? I hope one of these days I get to meet all them all over again, and introduce them to all other significant people in my life.

will I yet again just lose the ones that I know now? It is kinda odd to even think about it.... Sometimes I wish I go back into those yester years, and go through the same issues again, however painful they were. It is at the worst of your times that you make the best of friends. The ones that you realize are truly genuine, who you will always remember as holding a special place in your heart.

:(:(

Bored in class

2005-08-17T11:18:00.000+05:30

Here I am sitting in Professor Sridharan's managerial accounting class, and what he says pretty much just vanishes into the uninterested dazes of the students. I think as I type this post there are about 10 people chatting on Yahoo. I guess there are still some people paying attention, with a few "intellectual" souls trying to participate. I look to this class to usually fulfill some of the latent sleep requirements. I have only slept about 4 hours yesterday, since we congregated in one of our friends' places to chat about such unimportant topics such as women at ISB.

I think I just heard a word..... "oh never minds its just "minimum balance" it will definitely be repeated about a million times during this session. we have been sitting on this same exact slide for the last 35 mins, why cant this dude work a little faster?

I have not listened to this character this whole term, in fact what I dont get is why do boring professors always stick around for the whole term but the interesting ones just end up staying half a term.... its pretty sickening.. :(

in search

2005-08-17T04:06:00.000+05:30

In a drunken stupor, as I pour into realization
That which exists is a mere reflection,
A reality that will never be mine, a forbidden fruit
A delving into the never ending route

An unconventional addiction, a thought, a reality?
The cholera that exacerbates the eventuality
Why do I indulge this emotion of mine?
To only realize that tis just a shine

As a visitor who admires the view
And moments there are just a few
Into the night I am left with a thought,
For how nice it would be if it could be bought

What I see I cannot have, and what I can have I cannot see
For where is that one thing I look for?
I search into the night, every hour
To only find the shine but not the lure

GRIPE

2005-08-14T20:18:00.000+05:30

Well well its one of those days agian.... a day when i feel like griping, somehow these sessions are usually the most fun to read after a week or so. So here goes

First things first, on Friday we had our stupid exams. It was a fun filled day over all, with one of the exams being the same one that was given to last years batch. Now it was de ja vu all over aqgain, with students pretty much finishing the exam in about 15 mins. The funny thing is even in this type of gross honor code violation by the professor, the students still copied from each other. Talk about mediocrity...... it is really hillarious to see people blatantly discussing the exam right in front of the proctors. Now what I fail to understand is this: we have spent 15 laks for an MBA education, we are supposed to be adults with "work experience" and we still dont fail to indulge in gross honor code violations? Why is it that we Indians dont have any sense of honor or decorom or whatever else you wanna talk about. I somehow cannot ever get myself to cheat, maybe because I find it extremely demeaning to accept that i cannot get my grades on my own, I also find it rather apalling that what was told to us on the first day by out deputy dean Mr Ajit Rangnekar, "I will throw the book at anyone who indulges in dishonorable activities" is only lip service. There has been no book, neither has there been any talk about corrective actions for what seems to be one of the most important lessons that any school should be teaching. Learning environment???? I think its all crap, this is merely a business and they are only looking to run it as one. And its rather sad that the only time we hear "learning is more important" is when we take the schools case with the authorities, and I call that passing the buck.

So now coming to my gripes, so we have some crap on Leadership due tomorrow. 2500 words of shit, leadership???? come on.... how can anyone teach that. I just read some crap in HBR which I think was just a decentry of words and a constupation of ideas. I believe all these god damn articles and journals are just that. A bunch of plagarized shit from epics such as mahabharatha or bible or whatever else. No originality of thought or ideas, and I am supposed to take this "level 5 leadership" thing seriously?? and even go as far as writing a 2500 word essay, talk about punishment. Anyhow I guess I am gonna stop at this, maye I will fill in more after dinner......

Friends

2005-08-11T03:10:00.000+05:30

I have been wondering for the past week why one of my closest friends on campus is avoiding me these days. After talking to her, just realised that she is worried what people might think if they see us together. It is odd isnt it, that at this age we still need society's approval to be friends? the rumor mill has aparently already started, and it seems that people on campus dont have any thing better to do that talk about others. With an average of 5 years work ex why do we still act like middle school kids? It seems that we just come back to college and immediately our moronic personalities starts to show its face. How does it matter what our relationship might be? is it anyone's business?

Saying what I just did, I do believe that I too at times have acted kinda childish here on campus, it seems that the college experience has just brought out every juvenile idea that I have had to the fore. It seems that at 27 I still am as juvenile as I was when i started college at the age of 18.

Maybe I will write about my college years next :)

As I sit here and think through this issue, I really do hope she remains the freind she has been.

Average flow time

2005-08-06T03:21:00.000+05:30

Exams are coming up on Friday, operations and corporate finance. I feel like I am not prepared at all, I have been slacking this term, and motivation is at an all time low. As I write this, there are a couple more chapters to read in operations and though I have finished my first read of CF I dont think I have a good grasp.

As I was reading Operations I realised that my flow time has significantly decreased (well thats basically the time required for me to finish studying). I inevitably find other things to do, talk on the phone, eat a cake, drink? all non-value adding activities which slow down my effective flow rate. I was sitting in the library and all I could think of is who to call next. What the fuck is wrong? I dont fucking know.

NEED TO GET BACK TO STUDYING!!!!

a run through the day

2005-08-04T08:05:00.000+05:30

8AM : About ready for class, We have entreprenuership, operations management and managerial accounting (in that order) today. Love the first two and hate the last one. In fact yesterday I pretty much slept through the whole MA class. That only means that I need to study that much harder in that subject to crack it. Will write more as the day progresses

8:30 - 10:30 Entreprenuership---- This prof is too cool, we learnt about boot strapping (ie a way for a startup to run without funds) if i remember right this is what he said
"dont buy if you can rent, dont rent if you can beg, dont beg if you can get it for free, dont get it for free if you can get paid to take it" I think thats just an awesome way to run any business. We need to continously make sure that we arent paying for unncessary things. In class today we went through 2 cases, walden paddlers and kate spade, both were amzing analysis of how to run a new company.

10:30- 11 Break - During the break we just chilled

11-1 - Operations management - Todays class was amazing we talked about how to analyse a process and find the bottlenecks in the process. We need to measure throughput in terms of profit to the bottom line and not in terms of units produced. TO prove this point we went through 2 cases national cranberry and bariatric...

2:30-4:30- managerial accounting - What a crap course I dont even remember what was taught, cause I believe I was sleeping.

5-6 ----- a lesson on bidding for courses.....

Since then I have been chillin'

Long time no see

2005-08-03T21:25:00.000+05:30

The last month has been extremely hectic, with a drive to perform well in my courses I spent pretty much most of my time studying. Only to realise that "to B or not to B is the only question since A is just not under anyones control, but the TAs" It almost seems junenile to just concentrate on grades at my age, but the Indian in me will never let go of that aspect.So what else have I done in the last one month? well I have shut myself out of all the nonsense that was around here on campus.

Thank god for a very close friend who has been my only escape into the social world. It seems almost useless to talk to anyone else, imaturity and stupidity is so rampant here that its just better not to be a part of it.The second term ended about 2 weeks back, I did have some fun during the term break hanging out with some really cool souls :) drinking and doing things which I rather leave for imagination :) Went out wining and dining in hyderabad, and found that hyderabad is pretty much like bangalore.With the new term starting I have been pretty unenthused, too much reading to do and I have done any.

I just wanna chill I think, I do not want to study!!! :(Well with my b-day approaching, I am gonna be another year older, and farther away from the childhood that I once enjoyed. OH crap

many beers down

2005-07-03T00:17:00.000+05:30

About 4 beers down and I start to think that I am a philosopher, so bear with me!!! At times liek this you evaluate the existential dilemma as well as all the baggage that comes along with it. To be right ot not to be right? Why am i late? why am i not? oh well, at times it seems like I should keep my writing to the minimum, dont ever know who might be reading it. Maybe the fear is actually that i might be reading it at some point myself. hmmm interesting thought, the fear of reading ones own thoughts eh?

listening to oneself is sometimes an eye opening experience actually?

-A

What a day

2005-06-30T01:42:00.000+05:30

So the day starte a little early. Woke up at about 7 just to look at the Markstrat results. Only to be slightly dissapointed, and at the same time slightly relieved that we werent hopeless either. Actually I have been a little bogged down this whole week, doing group assignments/markstrat/studying to keep up with the classes. So it was a relief to see that we havent completely bombed the markstrat world like we do in other assignments.

Today is also kinda sad day cause we will no longer be taught by Anjani Jain, who was just amazing..... he will be replaced by Ziv Katalan. Anjani was just amazing.... I truly believe that I am extremely priviledged to be taught by such amazing professors... It is just amazing to see the kind of humility that he has. And to think that he is the Asistant dean at Wharton, wish we had such assistant deans ;)

Then it was time for juggie, where Juggie decided to flash the results of all the teams on the board...... and yippie... we are second in our industry :) but then there is also a group, which I believe with "divine providence", has managed to actually rake in a shit load of moolah..... could it be with the help of some "older and wiser" individuals? well we can only guess.....

Hmm What else??????? well I guess thats about it not much to say

The first markstrat decision

2005-06-26T03:01:00.000+05:30

Dude Markstrat rocks. Amazing strategy game for marketign strategy. Se were stuck with some pretty shitty products and had to come up with a strategy to comepete with other teams in the market through a product introduction/repositioning/advertising.... Itwas just the most cool thing I have done yet. And it was in juggie's class. Juggie even through a party in celebration for all the groups' first markstrat decision. FUN FUN FUN.....

Juggie!!!!!

2005-06-22T02:17:00.000+05:30

Today was an amazing day..... first marketing class with Jagmohan Raju (Joseph J. Aresty Professor; Professor of Marketing at Wharton). It was totally amazing..... Truly inspiring. I dont think I have been this engrossed in any class till now at ISB, and ISB experience is just getting better by the day. I was already impressed with the professors we had till date, but truly I think Jagmohan raju takes the cake. we went through the Barco Case, and I think I will never forget anything that he said in class... talk about dialogue delivery, and the ability to keep students' attention. The classroom experience is just amazing with a lot of interactions with both the professor and the students.

This term is just amazing, we also have the assistant dean of Wharton school of Business Anjani Jain teaching us Decision making and organization. amazing professor as well, makes the whole concept of linear programming so intuitive... truly, I think I am lucky to be taught by such amazing professors.....

We are just prisoners of our own creation

2005-06-17T20:01:00.000+05:30

Why do we just try to get stuck in our own little prisons? is it a consequence of our inability to accept that we actually are in control, or is it the fear that we are actually in control. It seems to me that I have consistently tired to tell my self that I am in control, but in reality I have made sure that this control is limited to the proverbial prison that I have built for myself. It is in this realm that I conduct all my activities. Taking long circular walks, trying to find the corners to this realm, trying to exit this reality, but making sure that I do not think beyond the realm of possibilities limited to this existance. In the quest to find the reaches of this existence I have been contemplating for the last few days. I have been pretty bored the last few days, not quite interested in many things but still......

Anyhow alls this is the rambling for today :)

Fucking bored

2005-06-15T02:16:00.000+05:30

Finished all the reading for next week and I am fucking bored..... WHAT TO DO????

Vacation

2005-06-13T21:02:00.000+05:30

Just came back from a gala of a time in bangalore. After the exams it was definitely a much needed break. some of my buddies from ISB came along and we rocked the town, ate some great food in Ebony and partied in Taika.

I even got a chance to visit my old watering hole (TGIF). I just realised that while I frequented TGIF throughout my stay in bangalore, I didnt quite understand why I liked the place so much. It wasnt a place where there were a lot of women, and I didnt really know anyone too well over there, but regardless I frequented it, and sat in the same spot all the time. What i realised during this vacation is that, I really liked the fact that I could talk to the people at TGIF without actually letting them know too much about me, it was one of those "hi, hello, what do you think about that new ad on TV" type conversations. It is also quite interesting that we meet so many different types of people in these bars; the quiet ones who stay to themselves-chugging down kingfisher by the bottle; the loud abnoxious types who pretend to be the preppy type-talking about how much they spent at The Leela (while making sure that they definitely attend the "Happy hours" at TGIF, infact never staying back past the happy hour time). The sober rich ones who refuse to come during happy hours as if it would be almost disgraceful to drink a shot of Chivas for half the price. Really interesting that whatever these people might be they were what made TGIF interesting. Now when I went back I realised that there is a charm to this mundane existance, where we can compartmentalize the essence of a person into some predetermined boxes.

Well so much for my blabber......... was just writing what I thought.

Well now I am back in school and classes have started again. ANother semester on the way...... hopefully better!!!!

End of Term 1 Gang Rape

2005-06-07T01:28:00.000+05:30

I was just thinking, “What should I call this term?”..... By tomorrow we would have gone through 4 out of our 32 courses, so 1/8th of our term. From the looks of it it hasn’t gone well for many of us, and what tomorrow holds no one knows. So I think we can appropriately call term1 a GANG rape? And as we were all ISB "exam virgins" prior to these exams, I think this would also mean that we have lost our virginity. We have about 15 minutes for tomorrow and another disaster is quite evident. SO the last minute studying that I am doing right now is gonna probably be of no consequence. None the less a sense of what I call “last minute responsibility” overwhelms us, “I know I can beat the system, I have done it before about 8 years back”. What I fail to consider in this regression model is negative externality of age, (whoa did I just mix stats and Eco?) then I would have to do a conjoint fucking analysis of my preferences (ie, sleep vs a marginal benefit of getting an extra percentage, kicking Bubnas ass, me sitting here procrastinating with the eventual end quite evident, and the list goes on….) and then I would have to do a cash flow analysis for the amount of pepsi I buy because of this stupid FMBA(fucking MBA) and well I think I just lost my thought of train (whoa said that wrong too) . Well as you can see, as I enter tomorrow I don’t quite know what the hell I am gonna be examined on, my sanity or my ability to regurgitate the nonsense that awaits.

Overall I am pretty happy though, with the look on people's faces after the Economics Exam gave me assurance that I might infact get above the mean (which is appropriately called so). Accounts though was a completely different story, i could not balance the damn cash flow statement. It was a total bitch, and these days I have just come to terms with the fact that I might have to work a bit harder and keep pace with the class, there is no way taht last minute studying is gonna help in this course.

2 standard deviations away from my life

2005-06-01T03:30:00.000+05:30

"I was locked up in my rubber room, stats crawled up my ears and ate my brains out"

And that's pretty much what Statistics does to someone. I feel this sudden urge to regurgitate the little stats I know and flush it down the toilet. I really don't want to know anymore..... Who the heck cares if males get paid higher on an average than females? Who gives a shit? God damn it. Standard deviations and multiple regressions are truly "constupationary" terms (yeah so sue me I invented a new word). In other words I really am fed up, I want it to all come out............ Cant wait for the finals.

So where is my life? Looking at the title of this particular post I am sure that's something that I would need to explain, in case I forget it at some point in my life.

So my life: the ideal one

On a beach in some Caribbean island, where I can soak up the sun and get "tanned", well I guess I was born tanned, but wouldn't mind getting baked a little more. Maybe scuba dive into the reef and swim with Spotted Eagle Rays and parrot fish. From the looks of it right now I feel I am about 2 standard deviations away from that dream.

My present outlook:

I will probably be stuck in some board room talking about the probability of the sun shining up some executive's ass. Or maybe I will be talking about how we need to come up with some creative accounting to fucking hide the shit under the carpet. Or maybe I will be marketing shoes to dogs and come up with a billion dollar marketing budget, where the incremental break even would definitely be so minute compared to the market at large........ Well could this be my life? Is this what I am gonna end up doing...... I hope not.... Well I really do hope no employer of mine ever reads this blog, or I am toast.

Two standard deviations eh? Well that still gives me a 5% chance.... Well good enough I hope.

Eric clapton and procrastination

2005-05-31T13:01:00.000+05:30

Listening to Eric clapton is such a refreshing experience, so much so that it takes my mind of accounting. As i sit here in the library trying to finish my accounting reading material, eric rudely interrupts with his cross roads album. Definitely its not my fault that i cant study right now, it has to be Mr. claptons fault. "oh mama what you gonna do now" I guess there is an answer to that question, quite possibly I am just gonna sit here and enjoy this rendition.

thinking of skipping the accounts class so that I can study more for the exams next week. Wonder how I am gonna do in them, if past history is anything to go by, I will probably know the subject well enough for the exam but then will probably make some stupid mistake. lets see maybe history can be changed and I have some control over my fate.

crapppppppp

2005-05-30T23:58:00.000+05:30

Today started pretty much on the low, with stats giving me the scares. how can I mess up in stats, this is stupid. Cant believe it, I get below the mean. Whatever!!!!! After the harsh reality that hit me like a ton of bricks, the rest of the day was ok. Just finished the 2 problems that I had assigned for myself in accounts, I dont feel like doing much else. Maybe I shoudl go to sleep, wake up early in the morning and attack the rest of the subjects.

in the middle of the night

2005-05-30T03:16:00.000+05:30

Insanity is definitely something thats contagious. Especially on ISB campus. Do these people decide to be stupid prior to coming to ISB? Or is it the priviledge that ISB has? And why is it that only the stupid people have opinions, and why do they love to share them? dont they know that noone cares? is it really beyond understanding that I could care less if there was party and that these people werent invited to? why do they have to flood my inbox with rather stupid emails about how the whole fucking school was not called for some party that was thrown? Why cant they get it that people just dont wanna meet these people, quite possibly because they annoy the heck out of everyone with their ridiculous mails.....

so with the flooding of emails and the damn ECO assignment my day has been completely occupied with another set of mundane experiences.

well not much else....... feeling pretty shitty actually, dont know why I feel a certain way, and dont have much control over it....... it has to change and must change

to account or not to account

2005-05-28T20:07:00.000+05:30

as i sit with my accounting text, I wonder what the hell I was thinking when I decided to take this adventure head on. EXAMS more EXAMS and more EXams, all this for what? A fat paycheck? well that I had already, so what else? maybe I am a bit masachistic, or maybe not.

accounting blows and blows hard, I feel an urge to just call it a day and quit. as I type this, there are about a dozen people who I know, who are studying hard. And me here, I am hardly getting anything done. I dont feel like doing it either. but I have to.

excuses : i have conjuctivitis and my eyes burn, well I did play basketball when my eyes didnt burn that much....

ME ME ME ME

2005-05-28T03:56:00.000+05:30

As the white space eagerly awaits the master creator to unleash the nonsense that will eventually entertain the creator himself, the creator too contemplates upon what what should be said and what not? Is it truly an expression of individuality or is it a fear of what the individuality actually might be? Do I honestly even know myself well enough to be honest with myself?
The existential belief in oneself, yeilds yet another problem, whether there really does exist an individual who I call myself. Or is it a complicated set of chemicals which interact in manners more than one where the personality is different. Well if I could truly undertsand myself then in ways wouldnt I be able to control the way I think, of feel? If I do not understand myself, then how can I even aspire to understand that which is not me?

as my fingers press into these keys, the clock strikes 4:15AM and I have to sleep :)

Hmmm better late than never

2005-05-26T03:43:00.000+05:30

I havent written much in a long time... I feel like I have been ignoring a significant part of my life, while my mundane existance has sucked any creative thought that ever was. The 'MBA experience' if you may, has really made me realize what I am really made of.

These last 3 weeks has taught me some lessons which I think I would never have learnt otherwise. I always thought I was a great people person, who understands how people think and how to deal with them. The belief however was far from reality, in the last 3 weeks I realised what I was lacking as an individual. I lack the ability to listen, I lack patience, and I am overly impose my opinion upon others. If I learn nothing else in ISB than these personal breakthroughs I think my money would still be well spent. Working in a group consisting of people with very different background than mine has really made be appreciate the the diversity that is inherent in society, how can I ever aspire to be a good leader without this insight? These aspects in my life has to be modified and improved upon.

The status report

So today was amazing, we moved the ISB buffalo about 500 meters to Student village one..... It was truly a bonding session with about 18 of us enjoying the buffalo in manners more than one ;) hopefully I will post these pictures here in about a week

Yesterday we turned in our case study for Rohm and Fucking haas and I at that time believed that we had done a good job while the reality was far from it :) well the score is yet to come and hopefully we do better than average this time :)

hmmm weekend was amazing spending time with natalie portman (queen amidala), after star wars we dunken a friend of mine into the swimming pool about 8 times..... poor dunk slut AMIT.... Photos awaited :)

well thats abotu it for now

ISB here I am

2005-04-25T02:42:00.000+05:30

its about 2:50AM now, and as I write this there is still music blaring outside my room, as a we are partying it out tonite..... Its orientation week, and here I am in the middle of it all, going through yet another change in my career. As I write this, random thought pop into my head and I am not quite sure if it is a result of the two glasses of liquor I had (well it cant be that) maybe its the excessive "GYAN" that has been showered on us lesser souls by the senior more "experienced class". The first thought that comes to my mind is the sorry attempt by our assistant dean to "orient" us to the coming year. god was that horrible. To think that this was the first real interaction with the school that we had, and this school is supposed to teach us "good marketing"? well anyway that was a week back, in the meantime all we have been talking about has been the very sorry state of affairs, until today when the deputy dean made a bang with his amazing presentation. Truly inspiring.....

Talking to the alumni I get a sense of relief that I have made a good decision by joining ISB......

quote

2005-04-05T18:43:00.000+05:30

well a friend just said this when I told him that my life hasnt been eventful lately
"life is not that eventful unless yu make it"

10 days and counting

2005-04-05T18:14:00.000+05:30

10 days left for move in day at ISB., and need less to say I am excited. I have been walking around the house wondering how I am gonna feel on that first day at ISB. I love the first day feeling, and cant wait to have it all over again. its gonna be wonderful....... I havent planned anything yet, in fact havent packed either. have to get started I guess. I wonder if my loan has been approved hmmm.... ok gotta go check....

The health check up

2005-04-02T23:40:00.000+05:30

After worrying about what alcohol might have done to my body, for the last 8 months, I finally decided to get a complete health check-up before starting school. I went to the Mallya hospital today for it, I told the lady at the reception that I was there for an "executive check up". Aparently in India regular folks dont get checked up on a regular basis, unless their company makes them do it, so need less to say the lady at the counter was quite surprised when see saw what looked like a perfectly normal 26 year old male come in for a physical. SHe enquired twice whether I was here from any company. And the docs too were quite surprised.

well in the end found out that I was quite normal, and there was nothign wrong with me, so I guess I can continue to drink :)

back to bangalore

2005-03-31T00:15:00.000+05:30

I am back in bangalore, helping my present company "get with the program". generally they dont know what they are doing and I am here for a few days to show them the ropes. and then will be off to Hyderabad. Just booked my train tickets to hydie, now the next fear to haunt me is the fact that my fellow travellers are gonna get damn pissed off with all my lugguage. I hope noone shoots me :(

Well thats all for the day

Dreams Galore

2005-03-25T13:46:00.000+05:30

I haven't written much lately, as I am on vacation enjoying the couch. Its been a long time since the last time I lazed around. I have noticed that when I honor my couch with my beautiful ass, I find it very annoying when mom calls me to do some house hold chores. I usually protest vehemently "no I say I need this quality couch time, stop trying to get me to take a shower". Well so computer is definitely out of question.

Aside from being a decorative piece in the living room, I have been actively engaged in the mundane existential world of MBA loans. Well actually its been annoying me too, because of the good 2 to 4 hours I have to spend a everyday away from the couch. It is quite annoying that when I get a chance to relax like this I have to follow up on my MBA loan formalities. Well I actually have to book my ticket to Hyderabad too. As I will be completely bankrupt for the next year I have decided to shamelessly use a venture capitalist (daddy) for my living expenses. I guess the loan should cover some of these expenses. Dad however has commanded me to not use his money for booze :( what am I gonna do? I guess I wont have the time to spend on booze. Sucks big time.

Well what else? Just spending my time ordering my laptop, getting my loan in place and housing request forms.... God filling up forms sucks big time. And filling up this god damn state bank of India loan for is a total bitch.

Vacation!!!

2005-03-20T20:32:00.000+05:30

I am right now in Jamnagar on a vacation. I am here at my parents place. But what a vacation it is, I have to get this god damn loan application done and also start on the formalities for joining ISB (the acceptance letter, the laptop order, the health report). And the parties for buddies who demand them at a time when I have a 15 lakh hit :(. Oh yeah and my home loan.... SHIT how am I gonna pay for it? Damn it none of this went through my head when I applied for ISB. Bad Planning huh?

GREAT NEWS!!!!!!

2005-03-18T22:34:00.000+05:30

Well well I kinda avoided writing for the last two weeks because I was quite depressed about this whole wait list thing. I have been put on two more wait lists Ohio state and Carnegie Mellon. The great news however is I have been admitted into ISB (Indian School of Business), finally some closure, and I don't have to look for a job.

well thoughts running through my head right now
1) Damn cool, off to school
2)shit how am I gonna pay for it, I guess a loan!
3)Damn then I will have two loans to worry about when I am out (home loan and this thing) :(
4)I better get a huge salary when I graduate :)
5)God I haven't started thinking about the course yet HAHA
6) hmm more hair loss :((((((((
7)Will I be bald when I graduate?

that's right I haven't started thinking about what I want to do at ISB yet

So long :)

hmm...

2005-02-28T22:52:00.000+05:30

Well I just received an email from ohio state, I prayed for about a minute before opening it, but guess what? it was just a mail asking me if I have any questions about the Ohio State program... sucks big time.....

two more days to go

2005-02-27T23:41:00.000+05:30

Well, I presume I will know about Ohio state on tuesday, as I am supposed to about it by the 28, however US is about 10 hours behind us, so I will only hear about it on Tuesday. ISB second round admits come out tomorrow, and I would have to wait another week to two weeks to learn about my fate at ISB. This wait is quite difficult, as I have already given in my resignation, and I am headed to my parents place in about 2 weeks.... I am not sure what to do, as I am thinking about all the possible options that I have at the moment... oh well :(

Doubt

2005-02-22T15:09:00.000+05:30

So a sense of doubt sinks in..... Is an MBA really important, I actually earn more than the average at any Indian business school. Being that I lived in the US for close to 7 years, I know for a fact that I could earn more than the averages at most schools in the US too. THEN WHY??? Why do I wanna put myself through another 2 years of self-doubt? I had my dose of self doubt in the US doing my bachelors? Why again?

I think I am going through these thoughts because I have nothing else to do other than wait wait and wait more. at least for another week to hear back from the first school. But its a good question none the less, and I had an answer, but I seem to not remember what it is. So let me try to re formulate a good answer.

I feel stifled presently, I do not have the same motivation that I once had, and I feel like my career has kinda stagnated. What else could I do after my present job? Maybe a technical manager? But then what? Yeah I would make tons of money, but I feel I wont be complete without an MBA. of course this is apart from the "dowry points" (kidding) that I would get once I am ready for marriage. SO in a bulleted fashion

-unsatisfied with the current job
-think I am cut out for better things
-want to maybe do marketing or business strategy
-and finally DOWRY points..... Or rather need something to compensate for my receding hairline :)

SO I shall continue to wait.......

wait another day

2005-02-21T21:34:00.000+05:30

Well its a monday, and apart from the boring day at work, no emails from any university. Hope to get a mail from ohio state this week. Its kinda odd that I check my email about 100 times a day, wondering if the mails might have gone to my junk mail, but no mails in the junk folder either. WHat are these schools doing, this torture is unbearable :(

This wait is killing me

2005-02-20T21:27:00.000+05:30

these few weeks have been quite trying.... I have been waiting to hear from schools for the last 2 months.

It was really exciting while I was going through the application process writing the GMAT then based on the score deciding upon the schools to apply, then going through the application requirements and then revisiting the decision on the shortlisted schools finally editing reediting and then proof-reading. Then the dreaded submission, with the fear that I might have missed a comma or a period, or spelt some obscure word wrong.

Then then wait began, the slow process of "doubt-building" with every passing day. Am I I good enough? did I make a mistake? I shoudl ahve applied to some sure shots atleast, will I get into these schools? should I start looknig for a new job? my GOD this process has taken a toll...

Initially I was excited about the ISB waitlist since I thought it was a blessing in disquise, since if I had made ti I would have had to shell out 1 lakh on the 31st of jan before I heard back from any of the US schools. Now I feel it would have been better off if I had received an admit, since this uncertainty is killing me.

I have been interviewed by Ohio state and I should get the decision by this week.... Hopefully its an admit, if not the uncertainty will continue.

GOd damn it why isnt CMU calling me??? when will I get the interview call?

Just sent out the Cornell Application this weekend, being that its the 3rd round, I am not sure what to expect.

Berkeley --- THis is a long shot, not expecting much, but woulnt it be nice if I get in?

USC -- well havent heard anythgin from them, hope to hear from them soon..

looking back at the post looks liek I have ADD(attention deficit disorder) I jumped into so many topics, no clear idea. Well I guess it explains my present state of mind....

WHAT THE FU*K!!!!!!!