View from the bean stalk

2 products - 4 Ads

2008-08-25T00:32:00.004+05:30

This post is dedicated to good ol' HP who came up with a rather astute observation when working on a dull pitch on a beautiful Sunday afternoon

One keeps hearing talk on the media about how we have grown as a nation, or how the time has come for us to occupy our "rightful" place among the ranks of nations. To all those columnists/ talk show participants out there, I present to you 2 ads of the same product with a gap of at least 10 years between them

Old - http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=8Iai5mSOxYU

New - http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=smaJK6ZMzwM

While the first ad shows a girl (and a pretty one, if I may add ) breaking into song and dance the moment her favourite team/player (Indian, we are given to assume) wins the match, the second match shows a bunch searching for a reason to celebrate. Even if it is Kenya winning (India losing ). All that the people need, we are told is a reason to celebrate and have a blast. HP helpfully pointed out that it showed that we had matured as a nation in the space of 10 years. I prefer to see it as a demonstration of how much more cynical we have become over a period of just 10 years. Or may be growing up means becoming cynical.

Moving on to 2 ads of another iconic brand with more than 10 years between them -

Old - http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=xEV8MWd1p3M&feature=related

New - http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=-h8hrlbdEz4&feature=related

Wonder what these 2 ads say about us as a nation and how we have changed over the past 10 years. The first ad is a simple montage of people on bajaj two wheelers with the focus on the fun aspect of owning a two wheeler. The second ad seeks to reinforce the fact that we continue to respect traditions deep inside even as we change outside. J was of the opinion that the second ad was more towards parents to assure them that their kids would not change once they got their bikes. It must duly be noted here that J barely managed to score a B in marketing while at B-School.

Banking, Subways and Arbitness

2008-07-26T16:55:00.005+05:30

It has been about 3 months since landing in Mumbai. 3 months of being an IBanker. 16 hour days have become the norm. Weekends are spent working. Life has become a series of pitches, DCF models, WACC calculations and relative valuations. There is probably more caffeine in my blood than in an average CCD and my eyes are invariably a shade of red. These are all things I was fully aware of even when I decided to accept my PPO and make a career out of investment banking. What is worrisome is the way my thinking has changed… The other day MJ and I had gone on one of our quests to find a Subway open at 12 am. While downing a veggie delite, we happened to discuss one of our instructors. It took us some time to realize that we had reduced a living breathing human being into a revenue model. In fact we had also reduced him to a variable (albeit independent) in trying to figure out if it was possible to predict his income based on the state of health of the investment banking industry. What worries me even more than the sheer “clinicalness” of the approach is the flaw inherent in such an approach. In the urge to reduce everything to numbers, I tend to run the risk of ignoring the potential that might be hidden in a situation/opportunity that I might have ignored due to my inability to quantify it or worse still might not even be aware of due to sheer ignorance. MJ, of course was more worried about the “clinicalness” aspect, but that is because she is better than me in quant and modeling.

Highly arbit post, but that’s what my life has become these days.

p.s. – Hil, before you point it out… everyone is better than me in quant.

Slightly bummed out... doing well otherwise...

2008-06-05T06:56:00.003+05:30

Pretty well actually. I may be feeling a bit bruised but thats okay. The gap between the previous post and now has seen yours truly-
1) Arrive in Mumbai and get hold of a house without much of a fight.
2) Freeride big time on Kata's/ AssG's hospitality for 3 days. Seniors ho tho aise!!
3) Put up with Chummi Darling for 1 full week. Only those who know Chummi can and will truly appreciate what I have been through. That said, Chummi is a Darling, period.
4) Make the house habitable for Thatha and PK. Of course they think otherwise but then who cares about such trivialities.
5) Come face to face with a till now alien concept called - "Cost of Living". Mommy... help.
6) Discover that hotels in Mumbai shut down on government holidays.
7) Get hopelessly lost in Mahim/Dadar/Matunga before Kata and Vaidya bailed me out.
8) Listen to unending cribs from PK of "How hot Mumbai is". It must be duely noted that PK himself is from the urban Sahara that is Chennai.
9) Go to office for 2 weeks before being packed off to NYC.
More about the Big Apple later...

Mumbai, here I come

2008-04-26T19:53:00.006+05:30

Headed to Mumbai to join DSPML in a couple of days. Couple of arbit observations before signing off from Chennai -

How did a game called "I Spy" come to be called "Ice Boys" in Chennai?

Isnt it time the powers to be drew a lesson from the happenings in Nepal and actively encouraged naxalites to participate in the electoral process? The naxalites might in turn find it much easier to achieve their stated goals of social justice by winning elections and getting the state machinery to work for them. I am of course assuming that there will be a groundswell of public support for the red brigade if they shun violence and decide to contest elections. This may not necessarily be the case. Either way, I believe there will be an end to the wanton destruction of private property and loss of precious life if the "Nepal model" can be replicated here. On the other hand, I am pretty much sure that these thoughts have already crossed the minds of both sides. What is it that is holding them back from trying?

Next post (if there is one) will most probably be from my new digs in Mumbai. Till then, suggest you listen and enjoy - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkIPRe49nFE

p.s. - Above link points to an arbitmax tam song from a yet to be released flick with a very strong beat. Me thinks it has very strong L^2 potential. It is about time junta stopped playing "Appadi Podu" on L^2.

p.p.s. - Would be grateful if someone were to actually enlighten me with the meaning of the phrases "naka muka" and "laarisona" used multiple times in the song!

Why cricket will never die

2008-04-22T22:09:00.005+05:30

This post started off as a comment in response to Hil’s fantastic post on his blog - http://commeman.blogspot.com/2008/04/death-of-civilized-sport.html. So, you are better off reading his post before proceeding further. That and the fact that he writes much better than me. And if it is Hil who is reading this, how I wish this discussion was taking place in H-Mezz at 2 am … those were the days … sigh!

First a personal message –
Dear Mr.Packer,
Just in case you happen to read this blog, I know you are up there having the last laugh. Yep, you were right all along. Just that your ideas came 30 years early. Ciao.

The simple thing is that 20-20 or T20 Franchise system is the latest in a long series of steps taken to make the game of cricket that extra bit closer to the masses. If there is lots of money is to be made in the process, then merrier the party. ODIs and Day Night matches are examples of similar (successful) changes that immediately come to mind. The struggle has always been to ensure that cricket appealed to the layperson. Yes, the same guy who stands outside the television shop showroom in the blazing sun at Anna Salai traffic junction craning his neck to catch a glimpse of Sachin’s glorious straight drive on the widescreen TV. He may not know its technical name, but it sure does bring a smile to his face. For you see, it is no longer religion alone that is the opium of the masses. Sports and the entertainment media are increasingly proving to be more potent. The moment you don’t get him to stop and watch the game, the moment he decides to flip the channel to some arbit reality show, the game is as good as dead. For, it is they who sustain the game and in a vast majority of cases, it is a symbiotic relationship. Sure there will be the purists and the “lovers” of the game who follow every match religiously and debate the intricacies of a simple game endlessly, but they are not the ones who matter. And thank God, they don’t. Every change in the format of the game has been met with stiff resistance from the purists who keep going back to the same old wounded cries of the game being played is “just isn’t cricket” anymore. Be it the introduction of the ODI format or the third umpire or the Day/Night format – they have always argued that the spirit of the game was on the verge of asphyxiation. So what, I ask? If that is what the masses want, if that is what makes them happy in the middle of galloping inflation, cancerous corruption and a generally hopeless existence, so be it. Cricket belongs to the masses, it is they who bring in the moolah into the game (indirectly) and they shall decide the success or failure of the T20 Franchise system.

Let us remember, that we in India have pioneered a system that if successful could very well be replicated in all cricket playing nations. Everything going well, in due course cricket might see the emergence of its Manchester United and LA Lakers. The wealth of good it would do to development of talent at grass-root level cannot be overemphasized. The emergence and involvement of businessmen and corporations in the management of the game will ensure that the likes of Dalmiya and their brand of politicking don’t ever plague Indian cricket. Playing for the country in international fixtures will be for the pride and not for the hefty pay packet that it brings (as is currently the case in soccer and basketball). But all this is far into the future. Let us first give the new format a chance to succeed.

Arbit Stuff

2008-04-19T17:52:00.006+05:30

1) Why the hell is Orkut trying to become another Facebook? The one reason I stay away from Facebook is its bells and whistles. Too confusing, I say. Call me a techphobe or worse, Facebook sux, period. Also, getting mail notification from Facebook informing me that DB wants to have sex with me is slisha frightening and disturbing, to say the least.* Facebook does that to you.
2) Going to a BSchool has not changed my tastes and preferences. I am still the same countrax middle class guy who loves piping hot Milaga Bajji on Besantnagar Beach deep inside. So, I continue to prefer watching flicks at local "tent kottagai" level theaters to going to multiplexes. I still consider paying Rs. 300 for a flick ticket to be a crime when I get to watch the same B-Grader for 30 bucks. If that makes me a cheapo, so be it. K wonly.
3) While on the topic, I still consider spending 1500 bucks on a goddamn shirt a crime. Just step out of the mall mon ami, you will see the unshirted millions. I am sure you will get a equally good shirt for 1/3 of that amount. You may want to donate the rest to some worthy cause.
4) And yes, I still love obscure "kutthu" tam film songs with off colour lyrics. A good example of this is attached herewith for your kind reference - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifU0nnRQsiQ . I just went to an educational institution, had fun for two years, made some awesome friends and did some studies on the side. While the place does change you, it certainly doesnt make you develop a sudden liking for all things "psued".

* - No offense meant to DB, but junta who know DB would agree whole heartedly with me.
p.s. - Junta who have been in Chennai for a reasonable period of time would be able to understand the Tam terms used here. Others can just google the terms.

What the hell...

2008-04-18T20:50:00.006+05:30

Arbit Visitor - "So, how much are you earning?"
Yours Truly - "I can tell you, but ML will have to fire me after that."*
Arbit Visitor - "So, Didnt you get the 1.5 crore salary?"
Yours Truly - "Of course I did. Just that I didnt like the number. It was not a multiple of Pi. Any such number gives me the heebie jeebies. Numerology is the science of 23rd century, you know. Nostradamus told so."
Earned - Dirty look from Dad, a 30 min lecture and a treat from J.
Mood - Frankly, my dear, I dont give a damn.
* Honest to God, there is actually a beautiful clause in my employment contract that states just that. At least, I choose to interpret it that way.

Reservations ...

2008-04-13T08:09:00.003+05:30

To those who have been following the OBC reservation debate post the Supreme Court (SC) judgement, yours truly has the following questions.

1) Are reservations applicable to post grad institutions?

2) How has the SC defined creamy layer?

3) What is the SC's stand regarding reservations in private and minority educational institutions?

I have been surfing around for answers to the above questions and getting contradictory answers. Request someone to throw some gyan. When I say gyan, I am not referring to the grand fartings of Arjun Singh and his ilk who would gladly push for reservations in creches, movie multiplexes and old age homes if it got them a few extra votes and some undeserved footage. I want to know what the SC actually said...
p.s. - Read in the Hindu that Mayawati while welcoming the SC judgement asked for reservations to be extended to the poor among the "forward" castes. This is why I simply love democracy :)

p.p.s. - I am neither for nor against reservations. In fact, I have no opinion. The truth is I am damn confused about it all.

Crush are there...

2008-04-12T23:05:00.002+05:30

Dunno why but I simply love the names - Lopamudra and Katyayini. So, for all the girls out there with either of these delectable names, I declare my undying/unwavering crush ... on your names that is. Yours are the names that could launch a thousand ships and in this particular case an arbit blog.

p.s. - Before the sheep aka hil aka barua aka huggesh barges in and defaces my comments section with sordid allegations, lemme assure you that I know no girl/woman having those names.

My experiences with Sify

2008-04-07T23:44:00.000+05:30

Being accustomed to decent 24 hour net access back at campus, the one of the first things I did on reaching home was to go in for a broadband connection. I chose Sify and went in for one of the base packages on offer. While there were initial hiccups in getting the connection up and running, they were hardly a bother. After finishing up the allotted 400MB in a single week, I went in for a renewal. Thereby hangs an interesting story ….

I paid Rs.230 on 04/04/2008 (around 2 pm) to the local Sify representative (Mr.Shankar) for renewing the 400 MB - 256 KBPS package that I had bought a week back. I also requested him to change my login id to “abhinandan” from “abhinandin” (which he gracefully admitted was due to his negligence). He sent over one of his deputies to collect the amount and assured me over phone that
The renewal and the change in login id would happen in a "couple of hours".
Sify did not have the practice of giving receipts for renewal
That was 4 days ago, moving to the present… 15 telephone calls (one of which lasted 30 minutes) to the Sify Help Center and 10 phone calls to Mr.Shankar later, I am no closer to getting my renewal. I might as well add at this point that Mr.Shankar has stopped taking my calls as of today.
All I have to show for my repeated efforts are empty assurances from SIFY help desk employees that I would get my renewal “by 5 pm”/”in one hour”/”in 4-8 hours”/”in 30 minutes”/”by 10 pm” over the past 4 days… none of which have obviously materialized. Worse still, I was never allowed to escalate the issue and speak with the guys who could take a decision. Surely, there had to be someone who could change my login id and give me my renewal with the click of a mouse. All I wanted to do, was to speak with that “someone”. However, I was told that “it was not possible and they were following due process”. Eventually when I still persisted, I was made to stay on hold for 30 minutes and then finally told that I would be called on my mobile number. I am still waiting for that phone call along with my renewal and my login id change. It required me to lose my patience and blow my top before I could elicit a remotely favorable response from the customer care executives. As a stop gap arrangement, I was given a one day pack with the promise that I would be given a renewal by end of today (10 pm). I was however told it was not possible to give me a new login id within the said time interval. I was now clutching at straws and was willing to accept anything that was being offered and gladly agreed to the partial solution. It is now well past 10 PM and I am yet to get the renewal I was promised. So there, all the yelling accomplished nothing and all I am left with are mounting telephone bills. Incidentally, one rather rude customer service executive refused to even consider the fact that Sify might want to consider refunding me the bills I was running up. To quote the woman – “you running up huge telephone bills in trying to speak with us is not our concern”.

So, where does that leave me? I don’t plan to give up any time soon. For me, it is now more a question of holding someone responsible. For long, I have wanted to know what it is an individual can accomplish if he sets his mind to it. Can an individual really hope to get justice and achieve change on his own? I believe the result of this ongoing customer service nightmare will help me get answers to some extent.

All I want is
1) My renewal
2) Compensation for the innumerable phone calls that I will end up making before I get the renewal
3) Apologies from the Sify management for making a customer go through bloody hell and an assurance that no customer will be made to go through such an ordeal again

I somehow feel that this is not too much to ask for.

p.s. – I have no idea about the options available to me, apart from calling up the “customer service” people over and over again till I get what I want. It would be great if you could chip in with ideas as to what else can be done.

Life @ IIMB

2008-04-07T15:47:00.001+05:30

As I get ready to move to Mumbai, I cannot help but look back over the past 2 years. I set out to IIM-B with just two objectives –
1. Break into the investment banking industry and get into a bulge bracket investment bank if possible. This was near impossible for a CA to achieve in Chennai
2. Make as many new acquaintances and friends outside of the CA/commerce junta circle. Light talk centering on costing, accounting standards and taxation was beginning to get on my nerves
Did I manage to get what I set out for? Yes and much more. What I now take back from IIM-B is something much more valuable –Experience and Memories.

IIM-B offered me valuable insights in human behavior which I thought were impossible after 3 years of industry experience. This is probably because IIM-B is filled with a particular subset of people whom I never had much of an opportunity to interact with. The typical IIMBian would be an overachiever in one or more fields, with a middle class/ upper middle class background with a rather strong competitive streak. Now bring together 250+ of such characters from all over India and you have my batch. This is in was very different from the people I encountered in my previous employer(s) which did have some very bright people but also had huge swathes of mediocrity. So, I was in for the ride of my life from the very first day.

The sheer variety of students was something of a revelation to me. Anyone who needs an eye-opener as to the diversity that makes up India needs to go to a national institute of education. From Bikaner to Kolkata, from Ludhiana to Coimbatore, from the usual engineers from watchacallit engineering colleges to economics grads to the dudes from the IITs, we had them all and much more. For a guy whose circle of interaction had never extended beyond Chengalpattu District’s Chartered Accountant community, this was a rude awakening and a timely one at that.

IIM-B taught me it was quite possible to be very competitive and yet be friends with your competitors. Okay, there were a couple of hyper competitive, footage hungry morons who insisted on making the lives of others and their own miserable. But they were the exceptions. The vast majority were the type who would compete their hearts out and yet gladly accompany you for a cup of steaming chai at Athicas at 3 a.m.

Another lesson that IIM-B taught me was the need to look beyond appearances. It was quite possible for a person with the best background to be capable of the worst conduct possible. Yours truly was often guilty of judging people on the basis of their looks and appearance. It certainly didn’t help that the ones that looked particularly bad also turned to be free riders on the n+1th order. IIM-B helped me to look beyond the surface. One could have the potential to be a world class investment banker and yet indulge shamelessly in behavior bereft of common human decency. To put it cynically, IIM-B helped me understand that “worresht max, K level” behavior was background and looks proof.

IIM-B made me accept people for what they were. This was initially very difficult for me, given my ultra conservative Tam Bram upbringing. It took a particularly stubborn bull from Bikaner to convince me that it was okay if people got stone drunk, as long as they turned up on time for the group meetings and presentations as models of sobriety.

If there is anything negative that struck me during my stay at IIMB, it was some of the cliques that came to exist on campus. They were usually formed during the first term and held on till the last day. The raison d’etre for these cliques could be anything from graduating from a common institution prior to IIMB to having common beliefs, aspirations and goals (both of which were perfectly understandable) to a misguided attempt to seen as the “cool” set. While I agree that one tends to gravitate towards people with whom one feels comfortable, the “cool & happening” cliques were almost tragi-comical. Their behavior reminded me of the typical Hollywood teen flicks that dealt with high school/college hijinks and shenanigans. But then again it could be me with all my biases and prejudices ranting away about something I could never truly appreciate.

All said, I cannot but look back to my days in IIM-B with a sense of fondness and gratitude. So long, IIM-B and thanks for all the memories.

Need a house on rent in Mumbai

2008-04-03T10:02:00.003+05:30

Need an apartment in Mumbai -
Specs - 2 BHK preferably furnished
Location - Lower Parel/Mahalaxmi/Worli/Mahim in that order
I will be needing the house from May 1st. Request junta reading this to leave contact details in the comments section if you know of any good prospects.

Totaaly Jobless - Part 2

2008-04-02T10:47:00.002+05:30

12 hours of "Badal Pe Paon Hain" and still going strong. Regret hooshing Kitten and calling Pabbo names.

Totaaally Jobless

2008-04-01T23:46:00.003+05:30

It is now official. I am completely jobless. I have been refreshing my orkut screen every 5 minutes, sending arbit messages to people on gtalk and even blogging regularly. So jobless, that I actually tried to help mom in the household chores for the first time in a long, long time. Now there is a reason I stay away from doing the chores of the house. It is just that mom interprets any attempt of mine to help her out as an attempt to soften her up before delivering a devastating "Remember that crystal vase, mom. Now you just have the crystals" level blow. No amount of protesting the honesty of my intentions helped and I found myself in front of the idiot box again. CAS means that I only get to watch Tam and Gult mega serials at any point. There is only so much of "I will burn your daughter and feed her ashes to the street mongrel" level dialogue and melodrama that one can take in a day. That meant me staring blindly at the lappie screen. Tried chatting with Daga and Hil and it turned out they were even more bored than I was. I finally settled down to read up some stuff and lost myself for about 3 hours. Chatted again with Hil for sometime and now ready to hit the sack at 12:00 am. Doing this on campus would have been unthinkable.

p.s. - Been listening to "Badal Pe Paon Hain" from Chak De on a loop for the past 5 hours. No idea why I have been doing this, but I now am beginning to understand how kitten felt about the "vampire" song.... but that's another story for another time.

To all Mommies and Daddies out there.....

2008-03-31T13:06:00.002+05:30

Spending 2 years in a place called Billekahalli on Bannerghata Road means many things to many people. The masses tend to assume that you belong to the cream of the intellectual cream that this nation churns out every year. The future of the country it seems, is safe in our able young hands. Some even go to the extent of proclaiming this in front of one’s parents. This of course is most disconcerting to the martyrs who on numerous occasions been given enough reasons to suspect permanent brain damage in their sons and daughters. It was that fall from the tricycle you know… things were never the same after that. The stupefied look on those wizened faces hardened by years of futile battling to drive sense into the considerably thick skulls of their wards is priceless to say the least. The father knows something has gone fundamentally wrong with the universe when his colleagues ask his numskull son for his views on how the budget will impact the banking industry and carefully listen to the pearls of wisdom. It hurts even more if the said father has more than 30 years in the field. The mother is equally confused about her social standing among her friends suddenly shooting up from the day ET came out with its Rs.1.44 crore headline. To all the bemused parents out there, I assure you, your precious sons and daughters continue to be the same. The world may see them differently, but they continue to be as hopeless as they were before. Just that they spent two years in Billekahalli and are now worth much more.

How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Summers Process

2008-03-29T23:56:00.010+05:30

In one of my previous posts, I had referred to the summer internship selection process as one of “madness”. I would like to correct myself; it is one of unbridled madness with dollops of opportunism and greed thrown in. In my opinion it is nothing less than a cancer eating into the innards of an amazing educational institution. Think I am exaggerating? Read on… Let me assure before proceeding further; I am one of the beneficiaries of this process. Hence when I state my case, it is definitely not a case of sour grapes. Another caveat to be kept in mind is that whatever I mention in this post is what I have seen happen in IIMB. So, drawing generalised conclusions across IIMs would be at your own peril. On the other hand, I did interact with my peers in IIM A and C and found that the summers process is largely the same in method and spirit across the 3 IIMs. So there, now I can burn all my bridges and start making enemies left, right and centre.

Summers – Strictly speaking, it is an academic requirement. You got to intern for two months, if you want get your goddamn diploma (Oh yes, we are not MBAs at the end of 2 gruelling years. All we get is a sorry diploma, but that is fodder for a separate post). So, that is what it is at the end of the day – a course completion requirement. At the face of it, the objective of the internship was laudable. Though, I have not spoken with the faculty, I guess it was to expose raw students to the sectors they would like to make a career in. Even in case of students with work experience, it did make sense to expose them to their target sectors. While it sure was great to intern in an organisation of your choice, it finally did not make much of a difference in terms of the company you finally got employed in.

And this is how things were, till a new variable entered the equation some years back – Pre Placement Offers (PPOs).

PPO – Let us assume a guy interns at his dream company and the latter is happy with the work done by the intern. Having seen him perform well for 2 full months, the company decides to offer him full time employment. Only that they make the offer, at the end of the internship or in rare cases during the internship. That is a PPO. Again, the objective of a PPO is laudable. The intern gets into the company of his choice, the company gets the employee it wants and everyone is happy.

Now let us combine the summers process and PPO in the high pressure cauldron that is IIMB and presto, we have a problem.

Summers + PPO - To get the dream job in the dream company is the dream of every person who dreams to walk the hallowed portals of the dream that is IIMB. While the previous sentence sounds rather repetitive, you get the picture, don’t you? Usually, you had to wait for 2 years to have your shot during the final placement season. The summers-PPO combo allows you to take your shot twice – first within 4-5 months of joining and in case you screw up, during the final placement season. Sounds idyllic, doesn’t it? What could be wrong with giving a guy two shots at his dream?

The fun starts when on entering the institute, the student is relentlessly subjected to a propaganda barrage emphasising the importance of summers by the placement committee (placecom) and certain seniors. This starts right from the first week the student lands on campus. The summer internship is presented as a short cut to that dream job and career. When the student is supposed to be being oriented into 2 years of business and management education, he is subjected to insidious and mind altering mumbo jumbo about the importance of summer internship. From then on, IIM B in the mind of the student ceases to be an institute of higher learning and becomes a glorified placement agency. The attitude towards placecom and the placecom members (placus) is almost slavish. This is not to suggest that the placus are evil. On the contrary, most of them are very decent chaps and happen to be good friends of mine. Just that they are too good in what they do and they play upon the inherent insecurity of the fachha pretty well. With no one around to protest against this all consuming focus on summer internship, the fachha is as good as gone.

The focus by now has shifted from learning for the sake of education and wisdom to preparing for the summers interview while studying when possible. Hours and days are spent perfecting the resume, wording and rewording that sentence, trying to come up with that one “bullet point”; all for that illusive summer internship and that PPO. Seniors who have interned in the dream companies and have PPOs become the new Gods; dispensing “knowledge” to the brain washed juniors. Who needs professors when you have such seniors? The process becomes even more convoluted when the companies get in touch with their former interns (current seniors) and ask them for recommendations. While some of the students have the moral courage to refuse to recommend anyone, there are those with no such qualms, who go ahead and recommend their favourites. Did I say that the seniors are the new Gods?

To make matters worse, the focus in the initial months is always on “Day Zero” companies viz., the big consultancies and the bulge bracket investment banks. It is almost as if there is no world outside of these companies and it is a crime not to be getting into these companies. The media plays its stellar role by focussing on the Rs.1.44 crore salaries and ever increasing average booties on offer. All this reaches a crescendo by the time the Day Zero companies release their shortlists. This is when the first wave of disappointment strikes the students. The shortlists are actually predictable. Given that the companies do not have the grades of the students, they tend to go for candidates with the best pedigree. Ideally this is what a company wants –
Education – IIT/ BITS / Certain NITs/ St.Stephens/ CA-CFA/ “Some place that sounds interesting” – Bonus points if you are a 9-pointer / University topper
Gender – preferably female (and this is when I start checking for poison in my food)
Extra Curricular – Anything at state/national level

While there are exceptions that make it to the shortlist; they are precisely that, exceptions. One can safely say that at least 40-50% of the batch would not fulfil the above criteria. This means that there is a very high probability of them not getting into any of the shortlists and that is what happens. No one bothered to inform them that it was impossible for everyone to get that coveted day zero shortlist. It is just one of those minor details that get left out.

One gets to see aspects of human behaviour that one would have thought had no place in an IIM. A student with multiple shortlists boasting away in front of less fortunate batch mates about his shortlists is not an uncommon sight. The impact this has on batch morale can only be imagined. It must be remembered that this kind of behaviour is restricted to a few in each batch but then all it takes is a single rotten apple. The fight for shortlists continues even up till the D Day i.e. Day Zero with a few students trying to get shortlists by hook or crook. All I can say in defence of such students, is that a couple of companies behave even worse. I would not like to elaborate on this further, but anyone who has been part of the Day zero process will know what I am talking about.

Six months down, the internships are over and the PPOs are made. However, summers continue to wreak havoc on the academic environment. There are instances of students giving up on their academics the moment they get the PPO from their dream company with straight A students descending to Cs and even Ds. Fellow students are downright scared of having some such students in their project groups due to the extent of free-riding that happens.

The summers process in my opinion has mutated into something completely different and unintended. The only people benefiting from the current arrangement are the companies who get to have an extended 2 month interview with the interns and make PPOs if they are happy with their performance. We also have to keep in mind the segment that loses out the most under the current dispensation - Those with stellar academic achievements in IIM-B with none too impressive background, as a result of which they could not get to intern in companies of their choice. It is argued that such segments get a chance to get what they want during the final interview. While this may be true in most cases, there are still instances of brilliant students who do not get what they want. It must also be remembered that a number of companies visit and hire from campus only during the summers process and these students lose out on such opportunities.

I am sure that there are people (many of whom would be my batch mates) who would disagree with the points raised above. But what cannot be denied is that we have a problem in our hands. I agree that the problem on hand is complex. I also agree that there are no easy solutions. What is required is for the students, faculty and alumni to sit together to figure a way out of the current mess. Placecom’s decision to opt out of the salaries game is definitely a step in the right direction. That they stuck to their guns even when faced with provocative press releases by sister institutions was a very pleasant surprise for me. The brand IIMB initiative recently launched by my batch in consultation with the faculty is another very laudable step. One can only hope that some good comes of it, for the sake of the future batches of students joining IIM-B. They deserve all the good that IIMB offers in terms of education and opportunities. Even as I pass out of this fantastic institution, I can only hope that it grow from strength to strength and from laurel to laurel. But if this must happen, we better figure a way out of the quicksand that is the Summers Process.

P.S. - Many of the statements and assertions I have made are meant to be provocative. So, if you have been provoked into even thinking of how things can be made better, I shall deem my post a success. It must be remembered that when something is terribly wrong, doing nothing is no longer an option.

Back on campus....

2007-12-16T21:01:00.000+05:30

Back on campus and final term starting tomorrow. This will the term where yours truly takes fraud and nothing but fraud courses.
Exchange and IBP junta coming in, and it is great to have the blokes back on campus. Of course, the apna bloke from H Mezz - Gaaaaypeeee is descending only on friday.
Moving on to other things, Hil came up with a strong game - "Chair F1" today. I think it is gonna become quite the rage within campus if only we could come up with a better name. The current name is slisha lame to say the least. Hope to have the video uploaded on Youtube soon.

Google account hijacked...

2007-12-15T02:27:00.000+05:30

Arrived back on campus for term 6 today and had the rather unpleasant experience of discovering that -
1) All mails in my gmail account had been deleted along with most of my chat transcripts
2) Vulgar messages had been sent to couple of my friends on GTalk
3) My orkut scrap book was also wiped clean to a large extent

I still dont know the full extent of the damage inflicted.

Was sorta shaken up and tried to retrace my "online" steps. I have been using this browsing center couple of blocks away from my house in Chennai. I usually make it a point to ensure that all sessions and IRC messengers are closed before I sign out. The only explanation is that I possibly forgot to do so the last time I visited and some sadistic fucking son of a bloody fucking bitch (yep, thats how angry I am) had a ball of a time. Either that or someone had installed a keystroke recorder. What really shook me up is the fact that I come across innumerable open messenger windows in public net browsing centers and I always make it a point to log them out. Why is it so wrong to expect the same courtesy to be extended to me? And why this perverse need to dabble around in someone's private life ... what kind of depraved sick mind would do such a thing?

Miracle are there....

2007-10-22T02:33:00.000+05:30

Been waking up at 6 am and actually having breakfast for the past 3 days. Nothing short of a miracle, given that I have been averaging 10 am for the past 2 terms. Still not been able to figure out what I have been doing different over the past 3 days, but it sure does feel good. Lets see how far this lasts.

p.s. - Bangalore at 6 am looks beautiful.

Facebook...

2007-10-20T05:15:00.000+05:30

Got on to this new web networking thingie called Facebook. Resembles a vastly improved version of Orkut with hajaar bells and whistles added on to it. Was lost in it for about an hour trying to familiarise myself. Apart from the usual privacy issues, it seems to be a pretty fun thing.

Campus Speak ....

2007-10-18T21:38:00.000+05:30

Decided to list down words that form the lingua franca on campus. Definitely not exhaustive...

Arbit - Something of a institution, nay religion in B. Defies definition. Furthermore, it is known to be the primal source of campus lingo - yayo, TIN__OTM, ATF, WOWCTB and the infamous "K" are examples that spring to mind.

Are - Death "are there"... Treat "are there"... got the meaning?

BRacket it - To send some file over BRacket... the life blood that sustains the students (apart from DC, of course)

Bullet Point - What fills up your resume. For some, the two years in IIMB is a never ending quest for bullet points. For many others, it is a swear word.

CG - Cumulative Grade Point Average. Technically speaking it is the index of one's academic performance reflecting the student's performance throughout his studies in B. In other words, it is the stuff really bad nightmares are made up of.

CP - Babbling away incessantly in the class in the blind, fervent hope of getting that extra grade. Stands for Class Participation and has variants like - DCP (Desperate CP), ACP (Afterclass CP). CP putters as a rule go on to become the most hated specimens on campus.

Da - a sentence sufffix that owes its origin to the sizeable tam population (aka Sambar Mafia) on campus. Tam equivalent of "yaar". Sounds rather funny when bongs and biharis use it.

Faccha/Facchi - First year students

Fighter - Refers to anyone who slogs for anything and everything. Usually used with reference to acads. Started off initially as a derogatory term but has now become more a term of respect.

Footage - Unadulterated compulsive attention seeking reaching ridiculous proportions.

Globe - Spouting long, never ending bullshit with no purpose or end in mind. Some profs are known to be particularly nasty when faced with globe CP while some others actually encourage it

Hagga - You know what it means in Hindi. Just that we use it as a term of endearment.

K - Suffice to say that K with it variants of K level and K Max represent the verbal equivalent of flipping the bird. Just that it is a lot more classy

L^2 - The fornightly party that starts at 12 am and goes on till 6 am making campus life a bit more bearable. Why the name L^2? Come to B, you will figure it out.

Machan - a term of endearment that again is the contribution of the Sambar Mafia. Tam equivalent of "Saale".

Pappu - Stands for PPO (Pre-placement Offer). There are others who insist it refers to male genetalia

Placu - Member of the Placement Comittee. There are some who insist it is a swear word :)

Puts - essentially means to do something - "Lets put food da", "Lets put tsepak da"

RG - Everything academic in B revolves around the normal curve and relative grading. It means your performance is not determined by your absolute score but how well or bad you have performed with regards to the rest of the batch. When a person is accused of RGing someone else, it usually means he/she has done something sneaky to get an edge over the other person academically. Welcome to IIM-B.

Senti - Go all emotional and sentimental usually over the opposite sex... often happens when one has had one too many in L^2

SIGMA - Embodiment of pure evil aka the guys who take care of the computing requirements of the students

Tsepak - Another religion in B. This time it is a sport.

WOWCTB - When Others Were Carrying Their Books - refers to any presumptious and pompous statement made by junta. The story behind this is something of a legend within campus.

11 - To laugh on Bracket. Adopted from its shortcut in Age of Empires

Vista is on...

2007-10-12T21:20:00.000+05:30

Vista started today. Junta from all over the country have started pouring into campus. Not much of eye candy, though. I was looking forward to participate in this PE game, but had to put fight to complete this submission. Was sorta consoled when pabbo and sk unanimously called the event and it's organisers unprintable names. Think I might participate in this strat event being organised tomorrow and then there is Bizarre (the quiz). Ciao.

zzzzz....

2007-10-08T08:34:00.000+05:30

Yester all of my wingies had to put a night out on assorted assignments/submissions while yours truly snoozed away to God’s glory. What is life without such small pleasures? Term 5 truly rocks.

1447 and going strong...

2007-10-07T10:06:00.000+05:30

It never ceases to amaze me that there exist people on this planet who actually read my blog. The rare combination of poor writing skills and pedestrian creativity that is me, was supposed to ensure that no one dared to trespass this part of cyberspace. But guess what? 1447 unsuspecting innocents actually have gone through my blog as of date. That translates to approximately 1.1 readers per day. Phew! ... JK Rowling, here I come.
What intrigued me was why did they visit my blog in the first place? I mean sometimes, even I cannot bear to read some of my ramblings. So, what was it that drove that these poor moths to beacon light that is my blog...
Findings are as follows -

Arbit junta who happen to visit my Orkut page
People pursuing their yem bee yay dreams and browsing PG. My blog address is part of my signature. Me however thinks, the hits are more a result of me having Asin as my avatar pic than any genuine academic interest
People who happen to visit kviv's blog. The kid living couple of rooms down actually maintains a blog and had put up my link on his page. People visiting his blog usually end up visiting mine for no good reason
Now comes the interesting bit. People who googled for the following landed up on my blog -

"proud to be a beancounter" - Australia

"bangalore flat kata blog" - India

"BT Acumen questions" - India

"people visiting chennai once never return" - India

"definition of sambar sadam" - United States

"beanstalk,chennai" - australia

"crowded bus chennai" - India

"opiate pagalguy" - USA

Pretty interesting mix, I must say. The "bangalore flat kata blog" bit beats me though. Ciao, for now

What you should never do in a hostel...

2007-10-07T06:42:00.000+05:30

Play a shitty piece of music on infinite loop in full blast and skip town. Unless of course, you have this uncontrollable urge to create blood enemies by the dozen. Why the post, you ask me? Well, some &*%$ing b!@#$%d has been doing precisely that in my block. Why else would i awake in this ungodly hour....

The circus, that we call "summers" ....

2007-10-06T18:02:00.000+05:30

The annual circus that we in B-Schools call "summers" is well and truly in progress. Companies have started visiting campus for pre-placement talks. In the great Yem Bee Yay tradition of reducing everything to an abbreviation, we call them "ppt"s. "Why summers?"you ask?... the reasons are given below in no particular order ....

Decide what the student wants to do for a career. The two months in the organisation helps one to get a idea of whether one wants to pursue a career in the given line/ given company.
Gives the fresher fachhas a taste of what it is to work in an organisation. The internship experience is their first taste of corporate life. People (both recruiters and students) often desire that the internship period be extended to 3 months. In my opinion, it is about time we extended the internship period to 3 months, at least for the fresher fachhas. The more experience they have of working, the better it is for them.
Summers often result in the making of a preplacement offer (PPO) if the recruiter has a PPO policy. There have been cases where companies with no PPO policy have gone ahead and made offers due to the quality of work seen.

So, why did I call the process a "circus"? .... Keep watching this space ....

Changes R There

2007-09-30T01:22:00.000+05:30

With 2 terms left in B, thought I'd put up a list of things that have changed in me since I joined the place....
1) Sleeping hours - From 11pm-5 pm to 3-4 am-7:30 am (in case there are classes) or 12 pm on other days
2) Vocabulary - have slipped completely into campus lingo. Fight are there.
3) Friends - Most important takeaway ... for a guy who had never been out of singara chennai, it has been quite a revelation. The "Indian" aspect of IIM-B does wonders to one's perspective.
4) Music - Taste has definitely undergone a sea change. No longer restricted to ARR and Ilayaraja. Greenday, Metallica, Clapton, Hindi Oldies and Remixes ... I luv 'em all
5) Values - Am no longer the person I was 2 years back. A lot less judgemental, a lot more cynical and most importantly I accept people for who/what they are. B does that to you.

Ciao for now...

Dummy's guide to the IIMs...

2007-01-06T00:16:00.000+05:30

I have been getting calls from people who have made it to GD/PI stage of the IIMs seeking gyan. Felt the need to collate the FAQs in a single place and hence, this blog -
1) How do I start the preparation?
Get started on reading at least 2 newspapers (one business and the other normal) everyday. Attack the editorials with gusto. Develop atleast 2 view points on any and every topic of current interest. Reading of news magazines never hurt anyone. Develop good and well thought answers to the questions asked in the forms sent to you by the IIMs.
2) My undergrad insti is not known outside it. What can I do about it?
Honestly, nothing. It definitely is a disadvantage when your competition comprises the likes of the IITs, NITs and the BITS. But please note that at least 50% of the batch comprises of people from institutions such as yours. so, if they could shake off the disadvantage and get in, so can you.
3) My undergrad marks/acads suck. What do I do?
Nothing. Apart from coming up with a convincing answer that is. Work on it for the next few weeks and make it as convincing as possible. A few pointers - Let it not be defeatist / Dont ever blame it on the academic rigour, for remember you are trying to get into an institution that prides itself in its academic rigour. It helps to note that people with a not so great lustrous academic record do make it.
4) Extra-currics for me has been to date, a dirty 11 letter word never to be used in decent company.
While having extra currics never hurt anyone, the IIMs do have a fair number of people who do not have extra currics/hobbies worth the name. Question is how you present yourself, when faced with competition of the likes who have rockstar profiles. If you are able to come across as a person who is confident about oneself even faced with such competition, the battle is half won. On the other hand, if you do have decent extra currics or hobbies, be prepared to be grilled in it. Friend of mine who studied music for 8 years was asked to sing a song while a karate enthusiast was asked to demonstrate a kata.
5) What if the GD is a fish market and the PI is a stresser?
Well, first of all - best of luck. Having said that, a stresser and a fish market if used in the right manner could also turn out to be ur passport into the IIMs. The key is not losing ur cool in both situations. Please remember that the panel is more interested in reactions rather than your actual answers to the questions asked in a stresser.
6) My CAT score sucks or I have got only one call. What are my chances?
Would like to pass up this question for I have no idea. But what I can say is that, now that you have got a call, the best option is to give all you have to convert it. Similarly, the fact that you have got call(s) inspite of the CAT score means that profs have seen something in you and want to see whether you actually have what they want. Now go tiger.
6) Any other gyan?
Please remember that
a) The profs who come for the PI are extremely well read and are among the most accomplished in their respective fields. They possess razor sharp intellects and you would be better off treating them with deference and respect.
b) Avoid untruths completely. The IIMs and the faculty lay a lot of stress on integrity and even a perceived lack of integrity during PIs will ensure your non selection. If on the other hand you believe that you are better off lying about something in the PI, go prepared for it. Do not rely on your improvisation skills.
c) The most important thing is to convince the profs that you are equipped to handle the academic rigour and that you are genuinely interested in the course. Try to communicate these two aspects during the whole process.
c) The GD/PI stage is that of selection and not elimination. The panel would gladly select you, if you were to give it enough reasons to do so. So, just go ahead and give them what they need.
p.s. - this is my last blog from Chennai before I head back to B-School. Current visit turned to be very hectic with no time left for doing any of the stuff I had planned to do. Lets see what happen next time. Au revoir!
p.p.s. - hope to continue blogging even after I land in IIMB, but then if only good intentions could blog...

Mah new lappie rox ...

2007-01-04T00:12:00.000+05:30

Second blog from Chennai and the first one from my new lappie which I won at BT Acumen. Its a Lenovo thinkpad and to use a much abused IIYumBee slang ... me thinks it is very pseud. Thanks to Pabbo for forcing me use the new lappie. It required him and Mausa to barge into the room and open the package to force me out of my sloth. Another thanks to GeeBee for installing some of the required software. Transferred the stuff I had on good ol' Dell to the new one. Appa will be using the Dell from now. Efforts on to make him and Amma computer literate in a space of 3 days. Fight are there. So long and thanks for all the dosas ....
p.s. -
1) Songs of Mani Ratnam's Guru rock. Vintage ARR stuff.
2) Statutory warning - do not watch Vallavan/Thimiru/Dhoom 2/Vivah, unless you get kicks out of self induced migraines.
3) Pls note that the last mentioned movie might also induce a pathological and irrational phobia against marriages. So if you are the marrying kind or even better newly married, this might just be the film for you.

In Chennai ...

2007-01-02T00:08:00.000+05:30

Back in Chennai for term 2 break. Bangalore may have its climate and all that jazz but undeniable fact is that Chennai rocks. If you were to ask me for any specific reason, I would be hard put to come up with a logical answer, but the simple fact is that the place grows on you, until it becomes an integral part of you as a person. One of the charges laid against us as a city is the fact that we as a species do not bother about the plight of the person next to us. In other words the concept of Vasudevya Kutumbam is sorta given the short shrift in the roller coaster that is life in Chennai. An instance was recently brought to my notice that helps dispel this notion. A lady and her husband (both senior citizens) happened to get into a rather crowded bus. Even as the lady was trying to buy a ticket, the next stop came and a ticket checking team boarded the bus. The lady promptly told the checker that she hadnt bought the ticket. Having said that, she requested the checker to permit her to travel (after buying the ticket, of course). She reasoned with the checker that it was very difficult to buy the ticket as the travel time between 2 stops is hardly 30-45 seconds and the bus was crowded. In fact the lady in question had already passed on the fare money to one of her co passengers for buying the ticket. The checker obstinately refused to believe the lady and asked her to cough up the fine (Rs.500) or get down from the bus, accusing her of travelling without ticket right from the beginning of the bus trip.The lady's husband noticing the commotion tired to reason it out with the checker only to be rudely put down by the latter. The lady, at this point had two options. Swallow her pride and pay up or fight for what seemed to her, a very just cause. Fortunately, for us, the lady chose the second option. The moment she refused to pay, albiet in a polite manner, the checker let loose a stream of abuse. Even as the lady and her husband kept appealing to his better senses, the unrelenting checker kept up his crude verbal tirade against the couple. Now, a curious thing happened. A girl (copassenger) who had been silent till then, turned to the lady and asked her not to pay the fine. This simple act released what seemed to be a flood gate of support in the bus. Every passenger on the bus started arguing with the ticket checker about the reasonableness of the woman's stand. Seeing the obstinacy of the checker, the passengers threatened to step off from the bus en masse if the lady and her husband were made to get down.The ticket checker, clearly taken aback by the public outcry, started to reduce the fine demanded, starting from Rs. 500 to Rs.400 to Rs.200 to Rs. 100 and finally to Rs.50. With the passengers not backing down, the ticket checker threw back (literally) the original fare money that had been tendered by the lady and got down from the bus.The rest of the journey proceeded uneventfully, with the lady thanking her co passengers for their support. The public outcry in favour of the lady who was "technically" on the wrong side of law, does go a long way in showing that we chennaites do care for others, as human beings. While the ticket checker was right to ask for the fine, he could have -
1) exercised his discretion
2) asked the conductor (who was incidentally was studiously silent throughout the entire episode) if the lady had indeed got into the bus only in the previous stop
3) asked the co passenger if the fare money had indeed been handed over to him by the lady and above all else
4) been polite to a senior citizen couple
What probably galvanised the crowd was the sight of an old couple being harrangued by a boorish government servant, when they were clearly not at fault. Once again, hats off to you, Chennai. And yes, thank you ... for that old couple were my parents. It feels nice to know that there is an entire city to take care of them when I am busy mugging in Bangalore.
p.s. -
1) I continue to believe that the public transport system in Madras is very efficient and rocks. In fact my exposure to Bangalore's (non existent) public transport system has only strengthened my belief.
2) Just travelled on the TIDEL Park road. Awesome is the word!
3) I am very much against ticketless travelling.
4) Happened to travel on the bus with plastic chassis running on 47D route. It was a delight to travel in and very comfortable. Hope it is replicated in more buses.
5) This is the last blog from my trusted Dell lappie. Goodbye HAL, its been great working on you. More about it later.

I am back!

2007-01-01T09:40:00.000+05:30

Wokay, this is in response to the ever increasing number of people/fans (acshully 2) who have demanding that I start blogging again. The question I beg to ask - when did I ever stop? Now that I back in Chennai for my term break, I hope to come out with some profoundly disturbing ramblings before heading back to the loony bin/heaven that is IIMB. It sure feels great to play my small part in desecrating the web!

And oh yeah, wish ya all a very happy new year!!

In chennai and loving it...

2006-09-28T15:51:00.000+05:30

Term 1 finally got over. Blogging from singara chennai :)
The weather is balmy, almost reminds you of Bangalore. Even as I hog to my heart's content at home, my mind keeps going back to the learnings over the past term. So here goes - This post is devoted to my learnings and unlearnings over the past 3 months -
1) It is possible to survive with 3-4 hours of sleep. Yes, after a point of time your eyes get as bloodshot as a drunk guy but then it hardly matters when the entire batch is sporting red eyes.
2) The place is ruthless to people with backlogs. Remember the homily that your mom, dad, teachers, uncles, aunties and every other soul used to give about finishing your work on time. Over here it is the rule to survival.
3) The pressure that one has to undergo at this place is directly linked to the pressure that one actually wants to take upon himself or herself. It may sound a bit weird to the outsider but ask any guy who has been here and done that, he would readily agree.
4) Continuing on the pressure thingie - it plays tricks on people and you can see people change for the better or worse right in front of you.
5) Choices abound in this place. Everything you do is either at the cost of your acads or sleep. So, you are better off doing a cost benefit analysis before embarking on new activity/adventure.
6) We have a lot to learn from the profs. I had a chance to go through the profiles of some of the profs who taught me. It turned out that apart from being excellent teacher's, they had what in IIM parlance is called - "God level" profiles. What struck me the most was the total humility of the profs!
7) More than anything - this place is fun. Its not often that you get to learn so much and have fun at the same time.
Looking forward to 5 more terms in this beautiful place that I have come to regard as my second home.

Life at IIMB

2006-08-24T22:39:00.000+05:30

Been meaning to put up a post that sorta reflects what being in IIMB is –
Time – 0300 hours
Snapshots –
1)One leafs through his eco textbook for the class next day, after having watching Syriana on the intranet.
2)Another returns from the block party, promptly pings above guy for dope on the fin acc assignment.
3)A group is taking a break from a case analysis/project report.
4)The block parties continue unabated.
5)Confused facha sits with his PGP2 mentor, getting some gyan on the intricacies of QM.
6) Couple of ppl on their mobiles whispering sweet nothings… distance does make the heart grow fonder.
7)A PGP2 returns from his jog.2 fachas set out for a walk after mugging away to God’s glory.
9)A DML types sets the alarm clock for 6:00 am and hits the sack.
10)Inter section tournaments are on in full swing with future CEOs slugging it out on the futsal court under floodlights.
The above is just a small sample, of what goes on here. If you thought getting here was tough, you my dear friend are in some rude awakening. CAT and GD/PI are the easy part. And did you think getting a %ile of 99.85 made you a stud or something? Wait till you get in. Some junta here, get 99.85 on their bad days.
With the kind of activities that keep going on around, you have run flat out just to remain where you are. You sometimes do end up surprising yourself. I, for example never thought I could keep hitting the sack at 3 and be up by 7, but here I am. All this when I am just 20 days into IIMB. On the positive side, hey, it actually is fun.

Its been quite a while.....

2006-08-14T00:07:00.000+05:30

A month and 21 days since I landed in IIMB. Lots of factors contributed to me not posting -

Acad and other pressures in IIMB
Govt's rather pig headed move to bar access to blogspot
Laziness on my part, that prevented me from going to other proxy sites

Hope to start posting more frequently. May be, if my writing skills improve sufficiently, I could even publish this crap that I dish out as a desi "Snapshgots from Hell" or better enter into a tie up with the Rapidex folks and publish a " Learn how to get into IIMB and survive in 30 days"

Have to get going.... but all I can say is this - Getting in was the easy part, the "fun" has just started :)

Chennai to Bangalore ...

2006-06-22T13:24:00.000+05:30

Just finished packing up my stuff for B. Dad insisted that I clean the toxic junkyard that is also my room before I scoot. Mission accomplished in 8 hours flat. Yup, It took me 8 hours to undo the damage inflicted over a period of 9 years. That’s less than 1 hour for every year, eh!
The good thing about cleaning up wholesale is that it allows you to get unemotional about stuff. You tend to view things as junk and non-junk. No more staring wistfully at the farewell card given by your colleagues in the organization before last. Especially not at 1:00 am, when you have been slogging away for the past 6 hours. You know it is junk and there it goes.
Now that I am all set to bid farewell to the city that has been my home for quarter of a century (and man, why do I suddenly feel old), what is it that I will miss –
1) Masala kadalai & Milaga Bhajji by the beach – my definition of paradise.
2) The beach itself – nothing like sitting on the beach all by yourself n just watching the waves.
3) My colleagues in St.Gobain. The guys were clever… very clever and a joy to work with.
4) The public transport system. The MTC buses for all their faults are thoroughly dependable and cheap. I will feel the pinch in B, as it does not have any public transport worth mentioning.
5) Watching English movies dubbed in Tamil on Vijay TV. Wholesome entertainment. Where else would you see “Holy shit” get transformed to “Hey, Kadavulae”(Oh My God!!) or get Jackie Chan to sing that immortal classic – “Raakamma Kaiya Thattu”.
6) The heat of Chennai. People visiting Chennai do crib quite a bit about the climate or the lack of it. For me though, give me Chennai’s heat and it’s occasional rainy spells on any day.

Going on to what I definitely will not miss –
1) The company bus – the driver who is other wise a very nice person, becomes Schumi’s guru when he sits on the drivers seat. The bus suddenly transforms itself into a F1 truck and the race begins. The company bus is a menace on the roads and I am only too glad not to be riding it. The fact that I am alive today only goes to show that miracles happen even in lives of people who call God all sorts of names.
2) Spending 3 hours everyday in a bus commuting to and from the place of work is idiocy.
3) Autowallas of Chennai – they fleece, period. This from a guy who has been in the city for quite some time. God help anyone who does not know Tamil/Chennai and lands up in their clutches. And about their notorious road habits, the lesser said the better. While we are on the topic, scientists may want to study the unique fuel used by these 3 wheeled chariots and patent the same. I just cannot get myself to believe that driving skill alone could result in such acrobatics on the road.
4) Cooum - You see some, you hear some and then in case of dear Cooum, you smell some. The once proud river is now an open drain. Sporadic attempts have been made to set things right, but to no avail.
5) CAS – Chennai is the only place where Conditional Access System has been implemented. That means we are asked to pay for watching TV. And why is it that i am glad to escape CAS?
a) We Indians hate to pay for things. Guess, it's a part of the national conscience and there is nothing we can do about it.
b) It sucks even more when the entire nation is getting the stuff for free, while you alone are asked to pay.
c) It sucks biggest when that country cousin of yours living in a God forsaken part of Tamland walks in and gives you the latest dope on the your one time fav show on STAR World.
Going off on a tangent - Free tip to any political party that wants to romp home in the 14 assembly constituencies of Chennai - Promise to remove CAS and thou shall rule (at least in Chennai).

So, that’s that for now. Leaving for B tomorrow. This is my last post from Chennai for the next 2 years. So long Chennai … I will miss you.

Coasting along ...

2006-06-04T13:06:00.000+05:30

Quite some time since I posted, so what have I been up to –
1) Serving out my notice period.
2) Handing over stuff that I was doing at workplace and KT (knowledge transfer – One thing I still cannot get myself to believe is that I actually have knowledge to transfer. But then, if people want to labor under that illusion, don’t blame me)
3) Orkutting.
4) Reading up some stuff – trying to get back into the student mode. Working (in my case at least) has reduced my ability to sit in a place and read any printed material. At best I just skim through it and move on to something else. I have been spending the last few weeks trying to get back my studying habits.
5) Getting in touch with friends and renewing acquaintances. It struck me, a few days back that I was losing contact with my friends and I started a conscious effort to keep in touch with them. Happy to note that they do remember me :)
6) Browsing PG. Don’t spam like the pre CAT result days but I do keep browsing.
7) Visited the dentist and had my tooth set right.
8) Started getting together stuff that would be required for my stay in B.
9) Calling up future classmates and cribbing about life in general and notice periods in particular.
10) Reading up stuff on reservation in higher education.Honestly, I have not been able to form an opinion about it, but one thing I am sure about is that the UPA government screwed up big time with the way it went about the whole affair.

Pretty dull post, eh? But that’s the way life has been for the past few weeks.

Pagalguy

2006-05-12T14:55:00.000+05:30

This blog was long overdue. A thank u note to www.pagalguy.com (PG).

If I am in IIM-B today, its because of PG. Sure, I did put in some serious effort, but it was PG which guided me through out. Right from sustaining me through the mock cat debacles to telling me that IIMB results page was behaving funny, it was PG all the way. More than anything I owe 1 great freind to PG - Opiate. But for PG, I might have never met such a wonderful person.

PG showed me that it actually was possible to believe people who you may have never seen before and may never even see ever. In some ways PG operates on trusting the inherent goodness in each and everyone of us, and surprisingly it worked most of the time. Given my rather caustic attitude towards life in general and human behaviour in particular, this was a pleasant surprise.

So a big "Thank u" to PG, to all the people who make PG such a great place and to Alwin ... the guy who built it all. Hope to remain a part of this community and give back in whatever way I can.

Travel time

2006-05-08T16:42:00.000+05:30

My workplace is situated about 40 km from city. That means I spend more than 3 hours traveling everyday. That I am the first to get into the bus and last to get out doesn't exactly help either. Having put in my papers and being all set to scoot by mid June, I decided to calculate the total time that I have spent traveling under my current employer. So here goes - I would have worked for 472 days by mid June. This is after eliminating all weekends and holidays. I have assumed that any leave that I have taken to date would be more than compensated by the weekends and holidays during which I worked.
My daily travel time is slightly more than 3 hours. But then, it would be wrong to take all of it for the purpose of my calculation, given that I would have anyway spent some time traveling to my workplace. For the lack of a better alternative, here I take the traveling time under my previous employer - 80 min.
U don't have to be a math whizkid to arrive at the total incremental number of hours spent traveling - 826
In terms of 24 hour day - 34 days
In terms of 8 hour man day - 103 days ... phew
Moral of the story - Next time I choose a workplace ... maybe commuting time ought to be given due importance.

IIMB Campus Pics

2006-04-20T19:52:00.000+05:30

Was scouring the net for some info on IIMB when I chanced upon this blog - http://guha.blogspot.com/ maintained by a B student (who should have passed out by now). Apart from the rather interesting observations on life of a PGP1, it had a collection of superb pics which I have posted here ... all credit goes to Guha - PGP2005

Classroom Cluster

Hostel Block .... Hostel Entrance

Faculty Blocks

Library Exterior

Library Corridor

Main Corridor

Having stayed there for a couple of days, all I can say is that the campus is awesome. The pics above hardly do it any justice. Suffused with the grandeur that one would associate with temples and monuments of the yore ... the place does leave an inedible impression upon you.

I am a PGP1 now

2006-04-16T16:05:00.000+05:30

“Made it to the base camp. Climb to the summit starts…and then the summits after that…” These precisely were my thoughts when I sat staring at –

“ Status of application to PGP 2006-08 at IIM BangaloreCongratulations! You have been selected for the PGP 2006-08 at IIM Bangalore. The official offer letter is being despatched. Please contact the IIMB admission office in case you do not receive the offer letter by April 18, 2006. To secure your seat you are required to do the needful as per instructions in the offer letter by May 8, 2006.”

7 months of single-minded pursuit resulted in this and what was it I felt? A feeling of relief at having crossed the first hurdle and possibly the easiest one at that.

The last few days have been excruciating to say the least … F5-ing and spamming PG…. ignoring the mounting pile of high priority stuff on my desk…. hoping that I convert at least 1 call…. getting rude with all and sundry. Honestly, never has any exam result had this kind of an impact on me.

Speculation as to the D Day was mercifully laid to rest by the IIMA director who named 13th as the date on which all IIMs would come out with their final lists. C was the first off the block with results coming out on 12:01AM. A large number of PGs had made it. Sent a couple of congo PMs and went to sleep. The rest of the results started trickling in around 10:00AM and so did the disappointments. Both A and B danged me. While A’s reject was clear enough….B’s reject was rather cryptic – “Data entered does not match with records”. Shaken, I waited for K, which came around 13:00PM. Phew, I was through. I had made it to an IIM … finally. True, it was not the one I would have preferred…. But hey! Things could have turned out much worse. Opiate msged me about something being wrong in B’s results but I didn’t bother to check. Next day … the day after the storm … checked my mail…and saw a mail asking me to join the Y! group for the IIMB PGP Class of 2008. Surely, there was a mistake…. Me … PGP Class of 2008 … Bah … My data did not match with their records!! But then hope floats … so logged into B’s website and keyed in my details … Got the msg which I have pasted in the beginning of this blog. Spoke with the admissions office and the seniors to confirm the news the next day.

So, Its now official … I am now headed to B to pursue the PGDM course. It’s been quite a ride and it’s nice to taste success at the end of it all.

Relaxing and girding myself up for the experience that is B School!

More gyan later …

The waiting game....

2006-04-07T07:38:00.000+05:30

The last PI of IIM B gets over today and the waiting game for results "officially" commences today. For me however, it started on 31st of March......the date on which my B PI got over. Honestly, it wrecking my nerves. While I may seem this ultracool types outside, spouting lines of "having given my best shot" etc, only I know how much of a bundle of nerves I am now. I keep checking PG every other minute to check for that one thread !!!

God help me!!

GD/PI - IIMB

2006-04-01T14:53:00.000+05:30

Venue - M Block(room M14)
Date - 31/03/06-0900 hours

Panel - P1(bearded,long hair,smoked a lot,spoke accentless english...the BBC types and looked like...well, will come to that later) and P2 (youngish, light accent, sardonic grin always in place).

GD - Case study abt director of edu insti wondering who among 2 profs is to be the next Dean. P2 gave the instructions.1) 10 min to digest caselet contents2) 15 min to discuss - No fish3) 10 min to summarise. Summary and not your viewpoint.4) No sms lingo in summary. Should has 6 letters.5) No bullet points. This is no ppt.6) Keep the parapharnalia(files) down unless you wanna refer to them in the GD.
GD started with 2 ppl starting together and keeping at it.In the first min we had a mild fish in hand.P1 who was watching stepped in to warn we were not listening to each other. Duely chastened we settled in for a decent GD. Towards the end, P2 stepped in to ask-"so what should the prof do?" Group guided itself to a solution. Put in decent participation. Coming in whenever I wanted. Thecky though was the star.
Summary went off w/o any major incident though my handwriting was illegible to say the least.
Came out and chatted with Thecky and Opiate. Had rasna and hogged krackjack offered.
Was the only non engineer in group of 6. 3 ppl with workex of more than 18 months each.

PI - Third in order and went in after Thecky. Thecky and the guy b4 him came out mouthing the word "stress" I am B(bakra).
P2- Why MBA?
B - Current job description. How MBA will help me get exposure/expertise to achieve my future goal.
P2- You have said ur goal is to b the CFO of an Indian MNC. Care to explain Indian MNC.
B - Flashback as to Indian MNC.Also agreed it is very difficult these days to categorise any company wrt any country.
P2- Name any Indian MNC. Infy?
B - As of now, Yes.
P2- Think you can make a difference in Infy?
B - No. Reason - Infy already has its share of CAs, Engineers and MBAs,. Difficult for me to distinguish myself.
P2- Where do you think you can make a difference...KVIC..which is actually bigger than Infy?
B - Can achieve what I want, in a new company ...also in manufacturing company. Some gyan here.
P1 steps in here
P1- Whats unique abt Infy's accounting? They have many firsts to their credit.
B - Have not studied their accounting practices, but is it human resource accounting.
P1- Nope
B - First company to report in US Gaap.
P1- Any other firsts?
B - Dunno
P1- They were the first to go in for quarterly results/disclosure. Is it required under US Gaap.
B - Dunno. But required under SEBI norms.
P1- How many standards under US Gaap.
B - Dunno.
P1- With your goal, u r supposed to know.
B - Yes, but I have no exposure to it.
P2-How many Indian companies complying with US Gaap?
B -Depends on the number of Indian companies that are lsited in the US.
P2-Gimme a number.
B -20-30. But I am guessing here.
P1- Who is the CFO of Infy.
B - Mr.Mohandas Pai.
P1- He is well appreciated, isnt he?
B - Yes, was featured in the latest edition of Business Today as one of the most admired CFOs.
P1- What is Balance sheet.
B - Told
P1- Asset?
B - Told
P1- Liability?
B - Told
P1- Opportunity Cost?
B - Replied with example
P1- Another example?
B - Told.
P1- So where is Bakhra Nangal?
B - Punjab,on Satluj.
P1- Any other speciality?
B - Nehru called it one of the temples of modern India (dunno from where I got that)
P2- He referred to industries, didnt he?
B - Referred to dams and industries.
P1- Any other speciality?
B - Built with russian help.
P1- What abt Bokaro plant?
B - Also built with russian help.
P1- Capital of Turkmenistan.
B - Ashkabad (mispronounced it terribly)
P1- Wrong.
B - Okie
P2- Any 3 states in American midwest?
B - Havent been there..guessing...Milwaukee, Nevada.
P2- Nevada?
B - Guessing.
P2- Any city in Nevada?
B - Las Vegas
P1- What is privatisation?
B - Told
P1- What is divestment?
B - Told
P1- So what is the difference between privatisation and macroeconomic stabilisation??
B - Started off with privatisation.
P1- So, is privatisation = divestment?
B - Nope, divestment is a part of privatisation. Illustrated with examples of Modern Food, Balco and arbit.
P1- What was the consideration in case of Modern food?
B - Dunno.
P1- Dont you think divestment is just a ruse of the govt. to bridge the fiscal deficit?
B - Yes, It has been referred to as selling of the country's silverware.
P2-What kinda books do u read?
B -No specific likes. Recent reads include - Freakonomics, Straight from the gut, Snapshots from Hell, an Economics textbook etc.
P1- First time you taking cat?
B - Nope
P1- So is it secod, third, fourth...
B - Second.
P1- Why?
B - Work pressure. Come in at 8am and get out by 10pm.
P2- You wud be a disaster in HR.
B - Grin.
P2- Do you think it is ok to work so hard.
B - No issue at this age. Get to learn a lot.
P1- Your refrees seem to have written a lot abt you in the weaknesses.
P1- Reads out stuff all of which points to my habit of overworking/overloading.
P1 and P2 look at each other
P2- Okie thats it.
B - Sir(to P1), can i ask a question?
P2- Yes?
B - Are you Sam Pitroda by any chance. Asking as there are bets outside that you are him.
P2- Nope.
P2 and P1 grin.
B - Thanks for the oppurtunity stumble out.
Verdict - Honestly, no idea. At the end of it all, I came out feeling good which is surprising, given the number of "dunnos".

1 Year old

2006-03-22T12:08:00.000+05:30

Just noticed, I have just completed 1 year of blogging. Honestly, I never expected it to last this long given my laziness to maintain a diary for more than a week. But hey, here I am!!

Normally, this would call for some introspection...but the way things are, I am convinced that -
1) I just don't have the time to indulge in a bout of self analysis. As a matter of fact, even as I type this, I have a couple of unfinished reports on my desktop staring at me angrily.
2) Whenever I have sat down to introspect, it has always resulted in this rather uneasy feeling.

So, a big NO to soul searching today. And yes, Its been great fun to blog and I see myself continuing at least for another year. Ciao.

Some general stuff...

2006-03-17T12:56:00.000+05:30

Came across this elegant way of calculating transfer pricing -

Transfer Price = Incremental Cost of production + Opportunity Cost

Assumption being that the product has a market. Where the product is unique and does not have a market then the incremental cost of production alone is to be considered.

Finished reading "Snapshots from Hell".Nice read. Dunno how far it is applicable to Indian B Schools. Going by what I hear abt the work load n pressure @ IIMs, Peter Robinson probably had it easy at Stanford.

One of the good things abt GD/PI is the enormous amount of reading that gets done preparing for it.For example, in my case, it meant getting in touch with acads after a gap of abt 2 years. Funny thing is that, I have now started realising the logic behind a lot of things I studied. Standard costing which when studying was nothing more than a painful list of formulae, now seems a lot more logical and fun.

Preparation for B started in right earnest.

Ramblings abt CA course

2006-03-10T17:43:00.000+05:30

This blog owes its existence to the discussion I had with my colleague, couple of days back. Out of nowhere, one fine morn, a question popped up – What are the 5 things that I would do, if I had the power, to improve the lot/quality of chartered accountants (CAs) passing out? Posed this Q to my colleague and below is the common list we arrived at, after much haggling …..
1) Get the recruiter’s input as to what skills they expect from CAs. After having got their inputs, incorporate changes in syllabus - to instill the skills and examinations – to test those skills.
2) Change the structure of the CA Final exam. Make it compulsory that every guy/gal taking the exam identify two subjects and specialize in them. He/she must master those two subjects and take “specialization” exams in them. It’s only logical that the examinee will choose those subjects which will enable him to achieve his career goal. For e.g. for someone interested in a career in audit, taking specialization exams in audit/law will be logical, while others can take the “easier” exam in audit/law. Another benefit of this would be that, it will make the life of the recruiters uncomplicated as they can narrow down on the candidates with the required skill sets easily.
3) Have the prescribed textbooks written by world renowned/respected authors. It makes much more sense if they are authored by specialists and experts in their respective fields. Dunno if it is being done right now….but strongly suspect otherwise going by the pathetic quality. By “renowned/respected”, I am not talking abt Drury for costing or Datar for MAFA…U do have home grown specialists who I am sure would be more than glad to have their names associated with the institute.
4) Conduct tough entry level tests. Skills to be tested – Maths & Logic. The test to be conducted in English, Hindi and all major regional languages to enable rural students to have a fair shot. Only top 1 percentile of students are to be admitted into the course and not more than 2 attempts allowed. Students must be tested in business communication in PE2 level to ensure good knowledge of English. Honestly, I am sick of seeing dumb CAs, who lack the basic quant and logical skills and believe me they do the max to bring down the profession in the eyes of the recruiters. The institute has to ensure that the CAs are of a minimum intellectual caliber, if it ever wants to dream abt taking on the MBAs from the IIMs. And, in case you have not figured out bu now, the CA course at no point of time tests your logical/quantitative skills.
5) Have open book- case study based tests for law/audit/tax(direct and indirect). Do you want CAs who understand the concept or CAs with good memory?

That’s it for now…ciao :-)

IIM A - GD/PI

2006-02-28T17:51:00.000+05:30

Date – 27/02/06
Venue – IIMB – M Block
Background – CA, M.Com
Verdict – Screwed up big time.

One from panel collected forms. Asked me why I had not pasted identical photograph. Apologised.

GD – 5 min to read. 20 min to discuss. 5 min to write summary. Case study abt a new HR manager who finds that attrition rate has gone up but is unable to pinpoint the reason. GD was peaceful. No fish. Lots of points thrown up in first 15 min. Got repetitive in last 5 min. Put in decent participation coming in 5-6 times. Wrote a decent summary with the panel specifically asking us not to write bullet points and in paragraphs. Panel asked us to write name and xxxxx number along with the summary. Didn’t get the number part first time around and I decided to ask after writing summary. Panelist gave rather cold stare when I asked while submitting the summary and told nothing could be done now. Hope its not held against me.

PI – Panelists – BP (Bearded Prof), CP (Clean shaven prof), LP (Lady Prof), BM (Bakra Me) Guy before me assured that the 2 gents were mech engineers while the lady seemed to be HR types. He got the idea when they drilled him abt CAD/CAM and other assorted mech stuff. Next 30 min would tell how wrong he was!! Lady came out, called me, let me in and shut the door.

BP – OK BM, give me the variance used to analyze overheads?
BM – Tried to give some gas abt material variance, got cut short.
CP – Give me your certis.
BP – So give me theoretical name of the variance.
BM – Absorption variance.
BP – Are you sure?
BM – No. However I do know how to calculate it.
BP – So, you don’t know?
BM – I am not able recollect it right now.
BP – You should have told this earlier. What do you know abt Efficiency variance?
BM – Yes, It is used to measure Overhead Variance. Told him how it is calculated on the basis of labor hours.
BP – Don’t you think it will result in labor variance.
BM – Clarified that overhead could be measured on both per unit of production and labour hour (with labour hours tied to unit of production) basis.
BP – So what other methods can be used for cost control and reduction?
BM – Standard costing, ABC….
BP – Ha ABC! So tell me the disadvantage of using ABC?
BM – Inability to break any process to clearly defined activities
BP – What if it is taken care of?
BM – Inability to logically allocate indirect costs to all activities.
BP - What if it is taken care of?
BM – I use ABC for cost reduction and standard costing for cost control…
BP – So there is a difference between cost control and cost reduction …
BM – If I employ ABC for cost reduction, I will need a target cost which ABC may not provide in the first place….
BP - What if it is taken care of?
BM – Not able to recollect any specific disadvantage.
BP – What are relevant costs?
BM – Wrt to decision making, costs that matter
BP – Are past costs relevant?
BM - Nope
CP who was going through my certis till then took over.
CP – So BM, you have been talking abt variances all the time. Do you know abt variances in mathematics?
BM – Yes, in statistics.
CP – Explain.
BM – Asked if I could write the formula. CP agreed and I wrote and showed it.
CP – What is it used for?
BM – Measurement of dispersion.
CP – Any other measures used?
BM – Std deviation.
CP – How it calculated?
BM – sqrt of variance.
CP – Then why STD Dev better over variance?
BM – Explained funda using example.
CP – Any other measures of dispersion?
BM – Not able to recollect…
CP – Range?
BM – Yes, Explained. Also told it does not give true idea in case of skewing values.
CP – Gimme a skewed distribution.
BM – Drew and explained.
CP – Types?
BM – Told
CP – Gimme a distribution that is always skewed?
BM – Abt to give him an example…
CP – You have so many types of distributions …Poisson. binomial etc. So tell me?
BM – Dang…er…stats studied more than 2 years back and not in touch with it.
CP – What is kurtosis?
BM – Showed with diagram…
CP – Not satisfied, said I had drawn 3 normal distributions.
BM – Was abt to tell him that 2 curves were not normal and the diff in peak is kurtosis but decided keeping mum is better. Bleated again that stat I studied was pretty elementary to which BP replied that he was sure all this formed a part of the syllabus.
CP – OK, so what is Jambudweepa?
BM – Initially confounded. I mean, after getting grilled on stats, the last q u expect is abt jambudweepa!! Then told abt ancient name given to Indian subcontinent.
CP – Now tell me 5 such regions and their old names.
BM – Tamilnadu – Tamilnadu, Kalinga – Orissa, Magadha – Bihar, Gandhar – Afghanistan, Asom – Assam, Dwaraka – Gujarat (last 2 - crap)
CP – Assam funda is wrong.
BM – Me agrees.
CP – OK what abt kurupanchal?
BM – Kuru – Kurukshetra – Haryana. Panchal – Dunno.
CP – Draupadi was called Panchali, right?
BM – Yup, still don’t know.
CP – What abt Vidarbha?
BM – Maharashtra.
LP takes over –
LP – Raised a point abt the absence of my M.Com marksheet.
BM – Clarified.
LP – So, you have studied HR as a part of M.Com. Can I ask you abt it?
BM – Don’t remember much. Will try to answer with reference to what I do at place of work. Also M.Com for me was more of a fall back. So did not pay much attention to it.
LP – What is strategic HR, HRIS?
BM – Dang in both cases.
LP – Who is an entrepreneur and you don’t have to tell me the classical definition in the books?
BM – Told her. Also entrepreneurs in true sense of the word not strictly applicable in today’s corporate sector as shareholders take risk and managers run the show.
LP – Are managers entrepreneurs?
BM – In a way, yes.
LP – Who are intrapreneurs?
BM – Explained.
LP – So why do companies encourage them?
BM – Retention of bright employees. Also gets to make money out of good business idea.
LP – And who gets all the money made?
BM – Depends on the shareholding pattern of the enterprise.
LP – Gimme 5 companies that you admire of Indian origin?
BM – TATAs, Infy, Reliance, TVS and my current employer.
LP – Is your current employer of Indian origin?
BM – Nope, but included as it is one company that I admire a lot.
LP – Why Reliance at third place?
BM – No ranking. Just mentioned them in the order they occurred to me. Admire Reliance because of focus on shareholder enrichment. IMHO prime reason for any co.’s existence is shareholder enrichment.
LP – Don’t you think it’s the employees who are the reason?
BM – Reason for existence is shareholder enrichment. Employees work hard with specific objective of shareholder enrichment
LP – OK that’s it. Take a toffee.
BM – Look for a tuft of grass to graze upon. Not finding any settle for a Coffee Bite and bleat out.

Thus ended my tryst with IIM A. Hope they call me even after this. Am totally down after reading the dazzling PIs posted on PG.

Prp for IIM A started

2006-02-19T09:28:00.000+05:30

IIM A GD/PI prp started in right earnest yesterday. Was a bit lucky in K as the panel did not go tech heavy but cannot hope for the same in A. From what I can see on www.pagalguy.com the trend seems to be towards acads. Then again, thats what I felt in case of K too, but it was not so in my case. Paying special attention to - OR and statistics. Discovered yester that I actually had them for grad, post grad and CA. Better know at least the basics. If things get too hot, I can always take refuge behind the familiar - "Its been a long time..." excuse. :-)

K - GD/PI

2006-02-16T18:59:00.000+05:30

GD/PI of K got over on 15th.Venue – CPP, IIMB Day got of to a flying start with me reaching IIMB at 8:30am and waiting at Center for Public Policy for 45 minutes with another guy, wondering why no one was turning up. Asked the guy below who was helping out and was guided to the real CPP. Sprinted in right on time and saw 16 hopefuls peaceably reading newspapers/chatting away/arranging certis. Got hold of a chair with some difficulty, only to be cornered by a DCE guy who quizzed me abt US GAAP. Gave some general gyan and that seemed to satisfy him. Before I proceed further, a confession would be in order. Being a CA does not… I repeat, does not mean that you know everything about Finance, Commerce and everything monetary. Nothing could be farther from the truth. So, please stop asking CAs panting from a long sprint abt US GAAP. Was put in panel 1 (8 engineers and 1 CA...me )and herded to the IIMB Managerial Review mag wing with 9 other hopefuls. Had gotten familiar with 3 other souls … we are supposed to do that to make the GD just a bit more easier… remember the GD Must Do rule No 1?? Just that it was of no use as none of the guys were in my panel and I was back to staring at a group of strangers. The IIM Profs, canny souls that they are, called us in immediately for the GD, leaving no time for the “getting to know each other better” ritual. GD started at 9:35 am. 2 panelists – Both middle aged men – no distinguishing features – so will settle for P1, P2 and UT (Urs Truly) The seats are pre-assigned and there was a slight delay as No.10 joined in a bit late as he was talking with his placement officer over phone, who had gone ballistic when he heard that No.10 was attending an interview, after getting placed. Seating arrangement –
X1 X2 X3 X4
P1-----------------X5
P2-----------------X6
X10 UT X8 X7
P1 welcomed us and after some minor seat adjustment kept the GD Topic sheets upside down. Laid out the rules – 1)3 minutes to put our thoughts in order.
2)He would specify when to start.
3)10-12 minutes of discussion.
Topic- Globalization is having a devastating impact on the environment.

GD – Single word to describe it “chaotic”.

You want the gory details?

Here goes – 1)4 self appointed moderators.
2)3 ppl screaming out at the same time.
3)One guy defining globalization as a communication revolution and going unchallenged.
4)All agreeing that Globalization was having a devastating impact on the environment in the first 25 seconds.
Came in twice, but no major contribution. Overall big disappointment… especially when I have been doing well in the TIME GDs. Discussion called to halt after 7 minutes.

PI – The guys who went in, came out looking sort of bruised. They spoke of being ripped apart in acads. The sole lady with abt 17 months of work-ex at infy was asked abt her domain, significant achievement (they did not get what she had written) and hobbies (she was asked to recite one of her poems as poetry was her hobby). She was the only one who was happy at the end of the PI.Me went in finally after polishing off 2 samosas and a cold chocolate…

P1 – So, Abhinandan, tell me something abt urself and asks for my certis.
UT – Usual spiel abt my superhuman virtues and achievements.
P1 – You have some rank in CA
UT – Yes, got the 35th rank in CA Inter (had not mentioned it in my spiel)
P1 – There is this school of thought that says “Inventory is actually a liability”….any idea why?UT – Inventory reduction is sole focus when dealing from working capital reduction angle….also liability when the stock is aged/outdated as a result of which I have to write down the inventory value.
P1 – Don’t you think there is scope for inflation of company/share valuation due to overvaluation of inventory?
UT – Quoted funda of Book Value vs. Net Realizable Value whichever is lower as per AS-2 – Indian GAAP and how one would have to check the NRV carefully during due diligence or valuation exercise.
P1 – So you can write down inventory value if it is actually low?
UT – Yes, you can and must.
P1 – Tell me abt the difference between CFA and CA?
UT – You study different courses to qualify.
P1 – No..No.. I am talking about the jobs handled…
UT – CFA deals more with financial instruments and financial markets….CA with accountancy, audit, costing etc. CFA rarely employed by manufacturing co.s
P1 – So why do you think a CA cannot do a CFA’s job?
UT – The CA syllabus covers only the rudimentary stuff abt fin instruments and markets. CFA syllabus on the other hand goes into much greater depth. However, it’s more a q of orientation and a CA can do the same job given time as it demands the same skill stes and familiarity with numbers.
P1 – You must have studied statistics as a part of M.Com/B.Com?
UT – Yes, but have no touch with it for past 3 years.
P1 – Because statistics is useless?
UT – Of course not. Me of opinion, it is very useful….just that I don’t apply it in my daily work, so out of touch. P1 looks at P2 visually signaling him to take over –
P2 – What is your take on your performance in the GD?
UT – I came in twice and could not contribute much. This is despite the fact that I had lots of points to contribute to the GD. I just could not come in. That’s about it.
P2 – In your hobbies you have mentioned blogging, don’t you think there is no control over what gets posted on the internet?
UT – There are 2 viewpoints to this – One is the freedom of expression. One may speak the truth or may lie and may even indulge in slander. But he is entitled to it as the freedom of expression ifs paramount. (P2 raised eyebrow when I said this). The other view is that all freedoms have their limits. Spoke abt the bromide - right to swing stick ends where other person’s nose begins. Also mentioned internet being a nascent medium and how controls are being evolved. Gave some gyan abt how controls on print media will in due course and with modifications become applicable to the net too.
P2 – Still persisted in the same line of questioning.
UT – Gave some gyan about how what is posted on the net is self governed as the poster’s reputation is at stake. Also gave the example of wikipedia’s self correcting mechanism.
P2 – So will you be posting the PI details?
UT – Yes, both GD and PI (I grin , they laugh)
P2 – What is the most famous blogging site or group?
UT – Dunno, but I use blogspot and blogger both of which are owned by google.
P2 – Know anything about mumble jumble(that’s exactly what he said)
UT - Dunno
P2 - Don’t you think there is too much of junk on the net? I spent 30 min in the morn searching for something but still could not get anything remotely related to what I was looking for?
UT – Told him that same thing could be said abt print media too…just that there is no search function. Also search engines always on the look out for improving search results…so things can only get better. Google allows you to report bad search results so that they can improve.
P2 – I assume you will specialize in Finance, If we call you?
UT – Finance, yes…but also in general management topics like OR, Logistics in line with my long term goal.
P2 – Nice meeting you
UT – Thanks for the opportunity… and stumble out after 20-25 min.
Was relating the experience to the last guy when P1 came and called him.

Overall poor GD and weird PI(though me was happy with it).Now its on to A.

B'Lore -

2006-02-16T10:58:00.000+05:30

K interview got over on 15th Feb. Landed in B’Lore on 14th Feb. First impressions of the place –
1) Great climate
2) Lots of greenery
3) Lots of buildings and schools
4) Auto drivers who don’t fleece
5) Pathetic roads and too many speed breakers.
6) Non-existent public transport
7) Large number of Muslims
8) Too many one ways and too much smoke from vehicles
9) Traffic congestions galore.
10) Loads of good looking girls

Funny thing is that Bangalore seems to be the opposite of Chennai in each of the above points (except may be 3).

Another thing that struck me was the large number of young guys lolling on the streets with uniform dress code – Oversized Jeans pant, Round neck T Shirt, Tracksuit/leather jacket types, oversized coolers, long hair and sneakers. Wonder why I found it disturbing? May be it was the perception that guys at the prime at their lives were doing nothing but just lazing around. Either that or the thought that I just dont have the time to loll around any more :)

Somehow the distinct impression I got of B’Lore at the end of 2 days was that of a place that was struggling to keep up with the pace of change but was just not succeeding. Dope on the GD/PI later.

4 more days to go....

2006-02-11T20:56:00.000+05:30

4 more days to go for my K interview and I am in office working??

Shucks..cant get myself to believe it. Another thing that is bugging me... no one is reading my blog...except that old faithful..sornakka....OK.. OK.. u r not old :)

Hello is someone out there listening..... hellooooo?

Funny thing happening at place of work...everyone has assumed I have quit. In a wierd way, it's only adding to the pressure of converting the calls.

More later.

How I luv being a freeloader :)

2006-02-05T17:16:00.000+05:30

Discovered this website yesterday - www.businessweek.com, contains good stuff relevant to GD/PI prep.

Good thing is that you dont have to pay any subscription for it's contents. This is unlike http://www.economist.com/ which requires that you pay for access to its contents.

While on the topic, why is it that I have no issues with paying for the print edition of a magazine, but complain when asked to pay for access to the web edition? Is it because I have got used to expecting that anything related to the net gotta be free e.g., email. Then how long is it going to be free?

It's only a matter of time before www.businessweek.com concludes that it's web edition might be actually hurting the sales of it's print edition. The next logical step would be to start charging for the web edition too. The only way this is not going to happen is if the revenues from online ads are high enough to justify offering the content free. In such a case, again it would be a trade off between online ad revenue and revenue from member subscription(MS). "Trade off" because it is difficult to imagine online advertising and MS coexisting . The guys advertising are dependent on the number of eyeballs which is likely to fall once you start insisting that the eyeball owners pay up before browsing.

Funny thing is that the above logic is not applicable to the print media.

Read at your own risk

2006-02-04T20:57:00.000+05:30

I am not my usual ebullient self today. Today is gonna be a cribbing/crib analysis day. Have been a dark mood for the past 4 days. Not that anything has gone wrong but just that I am feeling pretty much down and out. Suspect it's my work pressure that's beginning to tell on me. Surprising thing is that I have always been a guy who loved to work under pressure. Pressure is one thing set my juices flowing. So what is it that has changed? May be it's because I have not been able to prepare for my GD/PI. Yes. think that is the reason. A chance to study at the IIMs has always been at the back of my head guiding me in everything I do. Just when I stand a chance to have realistic shot, I find my goal slipping away. I have just not been able to prepare and the blame lies squarely on my job and the pressures that go with it. Just dunno how I am gonna manage it. Worse thing is that I am going to be 26 in a few days ... and what am I? A frigging beancounter with prematture greying, wearing thick spectacles,getting a pathetic pay, having no future and getting older by the day...not exactly appetising, is it?

Have never admitted defeat but am pretty much close to it now.

2006 ......

2006-02-02T19:29:00.000+05:30

CAT results came after a loooooong wait. 3 calls - A,B,K. Lemme see how many I convert. Work continues to be damn hectic. Have been staying the nights in office. Consequently, GD/PI prp has not even started. Dont even want to think abt the forms I have to fill......Gawd help me.

Its been ages since i blogged...

2005-12-14T19:24:00.000+05:30

Back after quite a gap ...8 months...phew!!

Reason .... work. When you are putting in anything between 12-14 hours everyday, blogging is the last thing you wanna do when you head home.

Was lolling around as the sys admin was setting something right and had locked all users out... and bingo..here i am.

Lotsa things happened during the gap of 8 months -
1) Completed 1 year at work...yessss...i survived :)
2) Took up CAT.
3) What else ????

Abt CAT ..... Went in with bare minimum prep .. not much you can do when you return home everyday at 11 pm and work on weekends too. The results of the mock cats were not encouraging too... was swinging between 64 and 99 percentile :)

So there i was on D-Day... all nervous....and funnily a strange calm descended on me .. i just realised that i had nothing to lose. With the kind of prep I had (or didnt have, depending on your point of view ) and the scores i was running up ... i actually did not stand much of a chance. So, logically there was nothing to prevent me from having a ball of a time... which is what i had.

End of the test, i did not have much of an idea how i had done. Just went home and slept the day out. Checked scores next day ..... i had actually done pretty ok ... hit something in the sixties. Just when i was beginning to feel elated, a small doubt crept up ... did i mark the question paper code proerly .. or did i not??? There i go again ...

Anyways hope to start blogging again.

So w

Glimpses from Human evolution

2005-04-09T09:43:00.000+05:30

It’s actually been raining for 5 days and I have a bad case of foot ache. Are the two related ? How am I to know … I am just a goddamn accountant and not a good one at that. Much reviled as accountants/book keepers/bean counters may be … they have played a hard to ignore role in world history and even more stellar role in evolution. Starting with evolution, dunno how the scientists missed us out, but my wide research tells me that it was the Accountantis Humanis that acted as the crucial bridge between our tree loving ancestors and land bound forefathers. The crucial decision to move to land was taken on 17 August 17263 BC, excerpts from the momentous occasion –
Two Accountatis Humanis (AH1 and AH2) sit on top of tree staring at the ground below –
AH 1 - Hey, That yellow thingy down there looks like shit.
AH 2 – I certify
AH 1 – Lets get down and look closer (and makes the earth shaking move to … well … earth)
AH 2 – I certify
AH 1 – Hey, That yellow thingy continues to look like shit.
AH 2 – I certify
AH 1 – Hey, This yellow thingy smells like shit
AH 2 – I certify
AH 1 – Hey, this yellow thingy feels like shit,
AH 2 – I certify
AH 1 – Hey, this yellow thingy tastes like shit.
AH 2 – I certify
AH 1 – Hey, this yellow thingy must be shit.
AH 2 – I certify

The above incident resulted in 2 things. Humans as a species decided to move to land and they appointed accountants to deal with shit. While sub sub species started by AH1 had to handle all the drudgery, sub sub species sired by AH 2 made lots of money. One of the closely held secrets of the accountant sub species has been the way we procreate. For we have to deal with 2 constants –
1) The males of the sub species are known to repel women … in extreme cases women are known to sense the presence of an accountant 5 km away and flee in terror.
2) Even where a bold reckless few venture anywhere near us, we either stare at them tongue tied or worse still behave like ourselves. That is usually sufficient to send them packing.
If you think I am gonna tell you how we procreate, perish the thought …. This is not a porn blog and I don’t want the venerable institute* to come down on me like a ton of bricks. Next I will deal with the role we played in world/alien history and my foot continues to ache and it continues to rain.

* - oh yeah, we sub species do have an institute of our own that well …. Churns out more of our unique kind and keeps making and unmaking strange rules.

Rain and some other stuff

2005-04-04T14:13:00.000+05:30

It rained today. So what u may ask …. It rained for the first time in the month of April in more than 250 years… I am getting really good at making up stuff like this!! Fact is that we have been in the grip of almost a heat wave (almost as we, chennaites call a heat wave a heat wave only when the temperature touches 40 celsius ..with temperature stubbornly hovering in the 39 mark …. This falls in the almost a heat wave category.) for the last 10 days. In fact 5 died (2 dogs and 3 cats) when it rained … no not because of the rain but because of the shock of it raining.

Another thing that struck me as very strange was the obsession of the western media with the life/death of one single woman. …. Terri Schiavo. I don’t intend to provoke by going into the rights and wrongs and god knows what else of the whole thing …. The media has done an admirable and hard to replicate job in that respect. What I found rather strange was … why the hullabaloo over a single human life and an invalid one at that. I mean, in India we have people dying lrc and guess what …. We don’t give a damn. We have perfectly healthy men, women and children reaching their maker everyday due to every thing from derailed trains to unseasonal rains to drains left open. And do we give a damn …. Nope. This could mean either –
1) The lives of perfectly healthy individuals are much more expendable than an invalid person, just because the former were born in a third world country.
Or
2) We have become so inured to the daily tales of death and injury that we have stopped valuing human life.

Both of the above are too terrible to contemplate.

Adventure in Triplicane

2005-04-03T18:50:00.000+05:30

Pretty exhausting day ..... legging it through the city in search of a book on SAP-FI/CO module. Could not get it in any of the big book shops that seem to have everything except... well... books. So decided to venture into the Old City that abounds in second hand stuff. Got interesting responses from the vendors ..... from a straight "No" to "We had it, yesterday" (so what??) to "What is SAP ?" to "Do you want a book on Gynecology?"(dunno what prompted that one) to "SAP is no longer hot ... suggest you change your line" (WTF ....)

In fact got to check out some very interesting titles ...... "The Ultimate Sin" (surprising it was not what I thought it would be) ... "Expert's guide to thermodyanamics" (why wud an expert need a guide ?) ..."Susan's Family Portraits". In the last case it was the blurb that caught my attention - "A tale of wanton lust and forbidden desire", wonder how that is linked with Susan's family pics !!

In other words I did not get the book I wanted. :)

Operation "Delete"

2005-04-03T09:14:00.000+05:30

Back after a long time. Its been pretty hectic at workplace. Read somewhere that true friends are those who survive from one address book to another. Thought nothing much of it at that time... discovered how true it was yesterday. As I searched for a particular number on my mobile, I was struck by the number of contact numbers I had accumulated.... everything from the number of my dentist to that of my pretty former colleague with whom i always intended to stay in touch, only that it remained an intention..... this set off - Operation "Deletion". The criterion I set for retention of the number were -

1) Did I really want to keep in touch with the person ? (that sent the number of my former colleague into oblivion)
2) Would the number be useful in the near/medium term ?

End of the day, I discovered that I had got rid of nearly 95% of the phone numbers, with the remaining 5% being evenly divided between criteria 1 and 2.

Guess, it does reflect something about me, just that I dont know what it means .... or may be I dont want to know !?!

VAT is this ?

2005-03-20T18:26:00.000+05:30

VAT is touted as the first step towards rationalization of the indirect taxes regime in India. Its supposed to be in place from 1st April,2005. Atleast that's what the fin min proclaimed in his budget speech. Looks like he is in for a major reality check .... With all BJP ruled states deciding not to toe the 1st April deadline, for whatever reason and a host of other states either downright refusing to join in the party (UP) or having second thoughts (TN), it looks like VAT going live in all states together will be a mere pipe dream. The BJP has hastened to clarify that it is all for VAT, just that it believes the govt. machinery and the nation is not prepared for it. Also there is the small matter of CST. Somehow this just does not gel ... one gets the distinct feeling that the BJP is playing up to its core constituency of traders. I will not call it the bania constituency as the traders per se have opposed the move to VAT, and it would be wrong to single out any single caste/group even if they constitute the majority of traders (that too only in some states). This also seems to be the case in many of the other non BJP states that are opposing VAT. Sadly what is lacking is the political will and statesmanship to resist the pressure of the vote bank politics. Many a great policy/schemes have had their Waterloo due to this shortsighted approach. I can only hope, VAT too does not meet the same fate.

India won the second test match at Eden gardens .....yeeehaaaw!

My first blog

2005-03-20T10:26:00.000+05:30

Been wanting to start blogging for quite some time.... just that I did not quite figure out what to blog about. So sitting at home on a particularly sunny sunday morn, I set out to blog .... abt what .. have the faintest of idea even as I type. One thing I can assure any unfortunate soul who is reading this is the truth factor. What you see here is what I really feel and think and that imho is something in itself, given the importance given to "correctness" these days.

As to myself .... I am from India and I guess that should do for now.

Moving on to my first blog .... abt what ? India ....

She is corrupt.
She has notions of moral superiority, which are thoroughly misplaced.
Her citizens have divided themselves on the basis of caste and creed and are particularly proud of it.
Her standards of hygiene are horrendous.
Her media/citizens are somehow happier focussing on the sexcapades of an ageing has been film star, rather than pressing issues such as farmer suicides.
Her citizens have no qualms to electing criminals to the legislature.

Yet

She is all set to dominate the world economically along with her neighbor for the better part of this century and possibly the next too. How ... that my dear is India. For all her problems.. warts and all ... she is a survivor. She has seen even worse and has come out unscathed. The future belongs to Asia and India.