History is in the Making! From where do you want to see it?

The world around us is changing, no one will question that statement. After years of stable progress the world has been thrown into sudden turmoil. Organisations are fighting for their existence, a nation stands on the verge of bankruptcy and people are running scared in all directions. Newspapers and journals have no qualms about brandishing around words like 'recession' and 'depression', with a common feeling that the times ahead are only going to be more turbulent. But this piece is not about the change as such, but how we are going to witness it. What kind of vantage point do you want, while witnessing the most historic turn of events in the 21st Century?

Over the last few weeks, several people I know have had doubts over their decision to join a B-School during this period. Leaving aside comfortable jobs to come here only to find their future's becoming seemingly insecure or at least a little less iron-clad than before. However, I am of a different view, I think that a B-School is the best place to be at this point of time. Consider this analogy, when history is being made, do you want to be part of the making or do you want to be the one recording history. The one's who are part of the events, may or may not come out victorious, and in this case God alone knows who (if anyone) will win. But those recording history are relatively safe, and yet have the added advantage of knowing exactly what happened. I think that's the kind of position I am in right now. At SP I have gotten a far greater understanding of events around me than I would have had I been anywhere else, same goes for any student in a B-School. With the vast number of knowledgeable people around me, it is easy to make keep track of and make sense of what is happening. For example the Economic Forum of SPJIMR sends out mails almost daily explaining economic events happening around us. But more than the knowledge its the perspective which really helps. It feels like having a real live case study where you can apply the stuff that you learn in class everyday. And as the situation evolves so does our knowledge, which means that after a year or so, once the situation stabilises (hopefully it will) we'll be best prepared to tackle the brave (or not so brave) new world. Compare this to situation to people who are working or directly impacted by the economic crises, they have a very narrow view of the situation. For example most players of the stock markets supported the federal bailout by the US governement without knowing the real impact of the act. But as a B-School student you are exposed to several views which you can study in detail before reaching a decision. Finally, from where I stand, the future is still in my hands, and I can still mould my career choices to the economic environment.

And as Pink Floyd said " "And would you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?".

So what do you think is the best vantage point to view this crisis from?

Thank God Its Wednesday !!!

Since here at SPJIMR we live our lives in between Wednesdays, i've decided to start a sort of "my week in review" section, every wednesday.

The High Points:

Well never thought I would say this, but the high point of my week was my trimester end exams. Oh yes those God awful exams which made me cringe during my times in Engineering, are actually a welcome relief in a B-School. Without saying much more I'll just give you guys a few facts; I slept for about 7 hours on an average during the 3 days of exams, while my average sleep time durina a normal working day at SP is about 4.5 to 5 hours. Perplexed! Me too. In fact my average sleep time during exams in engineering was about 3 to 4 hours. Somehow studying for exams seems utterly pointless, considering I actually ended up doing reasonably well (well enough to be in the middle 50% of the class, where I am extremely happy to be).


Well enough of exams, another good high for the week was the Federal $700 Billion bailout being rejected, although the stock markets didn't react to it that well. However I feel it is a good thing, particularly because the bailout would be equivalent to rewarding the recklesness and greed of the largest corporations in the world, which put us in this mess in the first place. However personal feelings aside, the B-school student in me tells me that in the long run it would be in the best interest of the economy as a whole for these companies to survive, even if it means rewarding (or atleast rescuing) their stupidity. Again however opinion on that front is divided, read this point of view from a Harvard Economist

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/29/miron.bailout/index.html



The Lows:

"What the HULL?"

Sorry for ripping of Times' headline, but that was my low point in the week, to watch agonisingly, on Saturday, as Arsenal lost (at home) to Hull City.It was a truly painful experience. Didn't help my exam preparations either! And it was made worse by the, awesome performance of Arsenal against Porto yesterday, which shows how awful a day Saturday truly was. And it troubles me that Arsenal are become one of the mercurial sides, who can go from the sublime to the ridiculous in a matter of days. And the problem is, earlier when Arsenal lost it was because of some lack of killer edge, or failure to convert their exceptional football into results, but this season whenever they lose, it it because they have played terribly, without any commitment or desire. That hurts as a fan.


Well I have to mention it cause it happened, the bomb blasts. Seems every time I sit down to write a blog, there has been a blast. And I am truly speechless about what to say about these hideous acts. We seemed to be trapped in a vicious cycle of hate and counter-hate, which just doesn't show signs of ending.I truly regret my words in the last blog where I said that I wouldn't think about these things till the next blast. I get the feeling maybe I tempted fate there. But honestly I would consider it a perfect week, if the next time I write a post I could do so without using the words bomb or blast. However tomorrow is Gandhi Jayanti and the 'International Day for Non-Violence', I just hope God does not like irony.



WTH Wednesday

Well this is the moment of the week which made me go WTH!!! (What the Hell), I do it quite frequently but this is the one moment where I meant it.

Well for this week's WTH (more of a WTF) moment; it's a truly comical moment, and I am sure Mr.Murphy will be rolling over in laughter in his grave, looking at Ferrari and saying "I told you so!!!", because what happened with Ferrari in the Singapore GP on Sunday, must surely come under the category of "Whatever can go wrong will go wrong".
I mean allowing a car to move with the fuel hose still attached to the car, is something I wouldn't expect from Indian petrol pump attendents, let alone a Ferrari pit crew, who I guess might be better paid than most B-School graduates (well maybe not)! It was just one of those moments that doesn't make you just laugh but rather roll on the floor with the kind of sarcastic laughter which Nelson has in The Simpsons (he basically points at the person and goes "Ha Ha", repeatedly). I mean for all the money that Ferrari spends on the car, and the fuel and the technology, you would think they can refuel the damn thing without a glitch. Too bad it happened to Ferrari, would have been even funnier, had it been Mclaren, or funnier still had it been Fernando Alonso, in fact Alonso might have gotten out of the car at that very moment and started throwing a hissy fit, as it happened the whiny cry baby spaniard, went on to win the race.

Random Nonsense

One interesting thing I realised this weekend was that, somehow exams seemed to bring out the worst in even the most talented people. And by worst I mean, people who you think could breeze through papers are actually fretting over it, losing sleep and getting nervous. Which kind of really surprised me until I came across this really good article:

http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/Columns/Impostor.html

And it really seemed to connect with me, cause this is a feeling I have gone through personally, especially in a place like SP, where I am sorrounded by some incredible talent, it seems difficult not to feel out of place and wonder whether I deserve to be here. But then after reading that article, it was sort of comforting. And as Harsha Bhogle says, in his speech at IIM-C (a must watch), "One thing the college taught me is...that I after coming here I felt that I have arrived". And it is true, because for once after going through one rigorous, hellacious month at SPJIMR, I finally feel that this is something I can do, that maybe SPJIMR knows what is is doing when they selected me. And maybe soon I will be able to say, I too have arrived.

On that bright note. Ciao .

And SP Rocks!!!

Random Words on a Wednesday : "They claim to be be free-market advocates when its really an anything-goes mentality: no regulation, no supervision, no discipline. And if you fail you will have a golden parachute and the taxpayer will bail you out." - Nancy Pelosi

"Pinky: Gee, Brain. What are we going to do tonight?

The Brain: The same thing we do every night, Pinky. Try to take over the world. "

Dedicated to the Memory of Investment banks...

Well it seems to be becoming a pattern for every Saturday and Sunday. For the 2nd week in a row the following events have occurred:

1. Arsenal rocked in the EPL, their rivals faltered.

2. Terrorism struck again.

3. Financial world was turned upside down.

4. And i suffered through yet another exasperating exam at SP.

So begin with the bad news first, its the end of an era, so the Financial whizz in my class tells me, there no longer exist any investment banks, the 2 large remaining behemoths of the game are now just run of the mill banks. Not earth shattering news to the layman, but men in the world of business, it is as if someone pulled the rug from beneath their feet. And it is especially bad news for the MBA grads who dreamt of careers in i-Banking (and believe me there are a lot of them), because it causes them to seriously rethink there career goals. Not that it means all of suddenly we MBA's become jobless, but maybe some of them will have to climb down a bit from their lofty perches. It helps in that case when you are a fresher with very meagre expectations, and anything goes. Just for additional info, the marketing students at SP had a field day at the expense of brothers in Finance. All of a sudden selling soaps and shampoos doesn't seem that bad a proposition.

Now we move on Arsenal, yet again Arsenal rocked and their rivals were bad. The Man Utd-Chelsea game seemed like the 2 teams forgot how to play football, and were concentrating more on getting the opponents foot than the ball. And yes Liverpool are still the most boring team ever. But let's move off the pitch for a while, and there is this interesting bit of info I came across. As the financial turmoil shows, its not been a good time for banks, but what about football clubs. Even they have suffered badly in this situation. Its been quite widely mentioned about how Malcolm Glazer (Man Utd) and Hicks & Gillette (Liverpool) have had trouble repaying interest on their loans which they made to purchase these clubs, because of the credit crunch. But even Arsenal have been hit in an unexpected way. After Arsenal switched stadiums in 2006, the site of the old stadium Highbury was used to develop a housing complex to act as an additional source of revenue.But the downturn in the economy, especially the Real Estate sector, has seriously affected the profitability of the project and is probably one of the reasons why Arsenal maybe short of funds for players. So there you go, football and business in the same post.

I really don't wanna talk about stuff like bombs and exams, because after a depressing week I am finally in a good mood now. So lets just say that these horrible things happened, and maybe we can put them behind us, at least till the next mindless terror attack takes place or till I get my exam grades.

On another note, one of my friends asked me for the meaning of a word I had used in my previous post - Schadenfreude.

Well Schadenfreude basically means taking satisfaction from the misery of others. And basically scientists say that no matter how much we pretend to be empathetic and sympathetic, there is some sense of schadenfreude in each of us.

Read more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schadenfreude

Brought this up today, cause there was obviously a lot of schadenfreude around today after the whole i-Bank collapse.

So bye from me for now. As I write this I realise that I am one week away from become a 16.67% manager (end of TRIM-I). So heaven and hell wait at my doorstep. Goodnight and good luck to all.

Random Thought for the Day : The plot for the next Jurassic Park sequel will go something like this - "A bunch of intrepid and reckless individuals, characterised only by the initials M.B.A enter into the deadly financial jungle looking for the extinct beast they once knew as the 'i-Bank'. This once powerful being is now nowhere to be found, but the remnants of its existence still remain in the form of a swamp of written of loans, and the deadly 'bad debts'. So the question remains will the men find this beast, will they be able to control it, or will it devour them also."

My Top 5 - I

This idea is inspired by the tradition of having Top 5's during birthdays here in the SPJIMR Boys Hostel, the subject matter however is something different.

I have basically decided that from time to time I am going to put up lists of my own, giving my top 5 on anything that catches my fancy. So here goes..the first Top 5

My TOP 5 - Songs to Get Away from it All

Sometimes when life becomes really hectic and chaotic (refer last post), I find my solace in music, and sometimes you have these songs which you just close your eyes and listen and forget about everything else in the world. These songs somehow just take me to place where I am alone with only the thoughts in my head. And boy do I need them nowadays.
So in no particular order:

1. Tuesday's Gone - Lynrd Skynrd
A really melancholy song, with beautiful instrumentals and those awesome country vocals.

2. Mr.Tambourine Man - Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan's awesome lyrics, it feels like poetry flowing through your brains when I listen to this song.

3. Wrote a Song for Everyone - Creedence Clearwater Revival
Not a very famous song, but just couldn't get it out of my head when I heard it the first time. Thank you Winamp Shuffle!!

4. Wonderful Tonight - Eric Clapton
My favorite romantic song of all time. Clapton's guitars and that slow waltzy beat just make this an awesome getaway song.

5. Comfortably Numb- Pink Floyd
This list wouldn't be complete without a Floyd number. My getaway play list probably has more Floyd songs than any other band's.

Honourable Mentions:
Orion - the Acoustic Version by Rodrigo y Gabriela
Soldier of Fortune - Deep Purple
Wish you were Here - Pink Floyd

Random Words for the day :
"I'm ready to go anywhere, I'm ready for to fade
Into my own parade, cast your dancing spell my way,
I promise to go under it." - Mr Tambourine Man - Bob Dylan

One More Thursday, One More Week....

As one more Thursday disappears into the horizon, its time to reflect on what has been a truly tumultuous week, not just for guys at SP, but across the world.

Where do I start, for one it was possibly one of my most stressful weeks at SPJIMR till date, with 9 hr classes almost every day, tons of assignment, falling like bricks, and a few quizzes to to add to the chaos. All of which was accentuated by the return of the rains. And this just a prelude to the real hell awaiting us in the final week of our trimester - 3 Term Project submissions, 3 quizzes, 6 End term exams and probably more rains. I guess from now on we call this business as usual. And somehow my life seems so chaotic nowadays, so much work to do, that I don't even remember all of it, no clue where to start, and in generally I am so confused.

And the funny thing, is that somehow the entire world around me is mirroring this chaos and desperation( or maybe it's the other way round). First we had the bomb blasts in Delhi, and the frantic manhunt following it. Not mention the fear which has enveloped the nation. And then almost immediately came the news which spent the world's economy on a downward spiral. The collapse of Lehman Brothers and sale of Merill Lynch in the same day. Then AIG's last gasp rescue just the day after. And news coming in that even players like Goldman Sachs are looking for salvation. I have never seen a bleaker economic outlook in my life, and its down to a stage where all the finance graduates are virtually shitting in their pants worried about there future.

Even the Red and White couldn't cheer me up, Arsenal got only a draw at crummy Dynamo Kiev, and the only good thing about the match was that I couldn't watch it. And it turns out that the career of a player I really like, Tomas Rosicky, is in serious danger due to a debilitating injury. It just kept getting worse.

I made plans to watch Wall-E thrice and had to cancel them all the times. I saw Rock On, liked the move, but for some reason just couldn't enjoy it. And as if to top it of the book which I got as a part of my college book club this week was - "Death of a Salesman". Ironic isn't it?

I guess for some reason I saw everything through a black shade. Maybe it was just one of those weeks!!

And finally, possibly the most depressing thing I read all week, is the one which cheered me ; the inflation in Zimbabwe hit 11.2 million percent this week (the highest in the history of history) and well It got me thinking, atleast I am not stuck in god forsaken Zimbabwe.

Schadenfreude` Anyone?

An Innovative Business Model for Helping the Society

One of the first things you learn in a B-School, is that for any business to succeed is the need for a good business model. The same I believe can be applied to social service. The problem with most social service initiatives in the country today, is that they don't consider the basic understandings of the people working for them. Also most of them struggle to become self sustainable and are overly reliant on the altruistic spirit of human beings. Which is my most of them get underway but fail to take off and don't make a significant impact.

Recently however I had the opportunity to listen to a very impressive presentation by a group, which I really believe have an idea that will work. The organisation was called Teach For India and they proposed an idea which can go a long way in eradicating educational deficiencies of the impoverished section of the country. The basic idea was this : the organisation planned to go around the country to the finest educational institutions and aim to recruit the best students from these universities, through quite a rigorous selection process I might add, and then train them to teach in a government school in a poor section of the country for 2 years. Now after this is where the real innovation comes in. After the 2 years of teaching experience the participants in the program are free to stay or leave to return to their careers and ambitions. And in order to facilitate that the group plan to (and have already started) to establish ties with corporates and educational institutions, to allow people to take up deferred job placements and the educational institutions provide preferential treatment to people who have undergone this program. This program which has already been tried in the USA included institutions such as Harvard and organisations such as Goldman Sachs.

Now here is why this plan can work:

- The people who sign up for this program are amongst the most intelligent and well educated, which increases it's chances of success.

- They have something tangible to gain out of this. A great experience which will add on to your resume`. A better chance to get into a good college (SPJIMR has already signed up for this program with Teach for India, and several other prestigious institutions might do so).

- For graduates with time on their side, many of whom often spend few years unnecessarily in meaningless jobs only to go on and do an MBA, this is a great chance to do something worthwhile and also to improve their chance for success.

- Most importantly, the organisation is self sustaining in the long run.

I wanted to share this idea with you because I believe it's a model for not only improving education but also for all other forms of social service in the country. Basically what we need more than just a spirit it needs to be modeled properly, we need to provide sufficient value to the people who are a part of it. The problem with our country is that we jump into action without enough thought and planning. Whether it be improving education or flood relief, we are far more comfortable throwing money and charity than trying to finding a viable solution.

I truly hope that the 'Teach for India' innovation succeeds, at least it will act as a fine model for others.

The Gun(ner)s were Blazing...But unfortunately,so were the bombs...

Well, another saturday goes by, where the rest of the world enjoys a nice weekend while the future leaders of the country at SPJIMR slog their asses away. We had yet another gruelling mid-term today, DMS. And although my performance wasn't particularly heartening, I will say one thing, God bless the man who invented relative grading (you are not screwed, If everyone else is also screwed). And btw, if you seem to discover a pattern amongst my posts, wherein almost every post has some quiz or mid-term mentioned in it, it's because of 2 reasons mainly : 1) There are just so many of them!!! As one of my friends puts it, when we first came here our reactions to quizzes was - WHAT!!!, and now it is - So what!.

2) With so many quizzes around it's probably, there is no time for anything else here, its the most worthwhile bloggable thing that happens around here.

It was a mixed day really, after the dampner of the DMS mid term, my favorite team in the world, brought a smile back to my face, as the The Gunners demolished Blackburn Rovers with a 4-0 scoreline and a 5-star performance. And it seems Adebayor finally put his shooting boots back on,as he got a hattrick. And if anyone wonders why this team is so special, Arsenal finished the game, with a team on the pitch whose average age of the outfield players was around 23. And the entire team probably costs less than one whiny cry baby Dimitar Berbatov, whose presence could not prevent Manchester United from losing to a Liverpool team without their 2 best players. I do remember somebody saying Man Utd sucks without Ronaldo, oh wait a second, that was me. 

Earlier this week I posted about the futility of rankings, particularly for educational institutions. A couple of my friends told me that I was wrong, and not that I am trying to justify my position, but take a look at this, a ranking for B-Schools, by one of the most popular networks in the country:

http://campusfever.com/blog/forms/zee-bschool-survey

Please do pay attention to the positioning of IIPM in the rankings. And every B-School student or aspirant knows where IIPM stands. And its not just this one fact, look at the various sub-categories given in the rankings. With any amount of decent research and information gathering it is extremely easy to see what a piece of crap these rankings really are. I am not even going to get into the details. But just one glimpse, MDI, Gurgaon, arguably one of the best in the country when it comes to infrastructure is ranked as low as 13th.

The day however ended on a sour note, with the bombings at Delhi. Its really sad to see these kind of incidences occuring so frequently now. And I don't what to jump on the 'attack the government' bandwagon, but really isn't there anything we can do about these things. The cloud of fear is slowly creeping over this nation, and it has almost reached a stage where all the citizens of the major cities are living in a constant state of fear. In fact I remember about a couple of months ago, when the blasts in Bangalore and Ahmedabad took place, a week after that I had to travel to Marine drive by train for a class assignment, I had to think twice before travelling and almost postponed the trip, because of the threat of an attack. It has almost become a perennial Sword of Damocles, hanging over our heads. And I know we have almost made a catchphrase out of the whole India bounces back again and again thing, but there has to be a limit. We shouldn't have to bounce back so often. Someday we might just stay down. And this attack comes on the eve of one of the biggest celebrations in Mumbai, the Ganesh visarjan and I do believe the mood for the festivities will be dampened by today's events and the extreme security bound to present tomorrow.

May peace be with the families of those affected by this act.

Random Quotes for the Day: "Terrorism is contempt for human dignity"

Random Thoughts

Its been a lazy thursday. And after another hellacious week at SPJIMR, it was nice to be able to relax a bit, sleep late and generally not do anything for a change.
Of course as I am writing this I realize that I have a DMS (Decision Making Science) mid-term coming up in couple of days, which basically means that the my R&R ends the moment this post is done.
Still it's been a good SP weekend (Wednesday night and Thursday).

For one I went out for Italian food last night, and after eating the crap the mess people have thrown at me in for another week, it was like walking into an alternate universe. Of course that makes it just as hard to step back into reality again.

Also one of my favorite footballers, Theo Walcott (yes, he plays for Arsenal) had an awesome game yesterday night for England, scoring a hattrick against Croatia. And as much as I hate seeing England win, it was great that Theo won the game for them. And interesting Arsenal turncoat David Bently who had said that Theo should leave Arsenal, saw this magnificent display from the stands (he was'nt even in the squad for England). And to top it all Theo was playing in the position that Bently hoped to make his own after Beckham's departure from the team.

Oh and I will be making my 3rd appearance on TV on a channel called UTVi, in a program called Cracking Careers, for a 30 second sound byte. My previous 2 appearances included a show which was done by UTVi again on Independence day at the SPJIMR campus and a small segment on CNBC a couple of days ago when they spoke to B-School students about the Nuke deal. I know it's not much, but hey not many people can claim they have been on television thrice in the space of 2 months. :)

And finally on a slightly sour note, I read in TOI today that some girl committed suicide after reading the numerous reports on newspaper and the Web, that the world was going to come to and end because of the LHC experiment (see my previous post). Supposedly she couldn't handle the suspense and popped some pills. Now although this is a an extreme case (and sounds kind of fishy to me), it neverthless shows the irresponsible reporting that has been associated with the LHC experiment. For instance Rediff.com's headline was "A Wednesday! Will the world survive it?", this either shows either a gross lack of knowledge or a pure disregard for facts. In fact just to clarify the LHC experiment has just begun and it might take a while to genereate any results (meaningful or otherwise) let alone cause world destruction. And despite repeated assurances from scientists that the whole black hole fears were unjustified and a statistical improbability, a certain section of the media has just ignored them. And while I have absolute respect for most of media in general, some of them can be just pure as****es.
And just to clarify my last post, I dont believe that the world will come to an end and that we should'nt be thinking of the netherworld just yet. It was just an interesting thought.
And for anyone who might still be waiting for doomsday, read this nice piece for clarification:
http://news.economist.com/cgi-bin1/DM/y/eBbUo0YNyd60Mo0FGgy0E5

Random Quote for the Day: "Europe's Large Hadron Collider just fired up. It's a $10 billion particle accelerator designed to probe the mysteries of the universe. I think it is worth the money if we can find just one unicorn. But I would also settle for an elf, or free will, or Jimmy Hoffa's body. I'm just saying I'm not fussy when it comes to discovering stuff." - Scott Adams

Science meets Science Fiction : The Moment of Truth?

September 10th could be the biggest day in the history of mankind. It could be the day some of the most intriguing questions of life get answered. It could be the day we find out the true nature of the universe. If some others are to be believed it is the the day the entire world could come to an end. It could of course also end up being just another depressing, quiz filled rainy day in SPJIMR, Mumbai, as far as I am concerned.

But being the eternal optimist that I am, I do believe that September 10th will be something special, because on this day the Large hadron collider, the largest particle accelerator ever built (by CERN) is going to go operational.

For the uninitiated who don't know what the LHC is and what it is capable of, it is the similar to the device mentioned in Dan Brown's(remember him) 'Angels and Demons' which produces the dark matter. And for further info read this:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/03/god-particle/achenbach-text
Just quoting from the above article:

"Starting sometime in the coming months, two beams of particles will race in opposite directions around the tunnel, which forms an underground ring 17 miles in circumference. The particles will be guided by more than a thousand cylindrical, supercooled magnets, linked like sausages. At four locations the beams will converge, sending the particles crashing into each other at nearly the speed of light. If all goes right, matter will be transformed by the violent collisions into wads of energy, which will in turn condense back into various intriguing types of particles, some of them never seen before. That's the essence of experimental particle physics: You smash stuff together and see what other stuff comes out."

So what so special about this particular smashing exercise? Well the stuff they expect to come out might tell us some very interesting things, answers to questions you have never thought of asking. For instance ever wonder, if matter is made of atoms which in turn are made of protons, electrons and neutrons, then what are the protons made of (everything has to be made of something right) ? Fundamentally it could give us what comprises the mass of the universe.

Now if all that was nice and pleasant, the real question is what else will happen? And if some doomsday mongers are to be believed then this experiment will result in giant black holes and wormholes which will cause the world to disappear into itself. And although the ideas seems ridiculous to most individuals, it has actually caused legal issues for CERN, producing lawsuits preventing the machine from starting up.

Personally I am not a physics enthusiast, but I did try to read up about the whole black hole concerns on wiki and well couldn't make head or tail of it. But then it got me thinking if the world were to dissolve in a black hole, how would it happen. I mean think about it, how will you kick the bucket, if you do actually kick the bucket in this scenario. Or will I exist in some other parallel universe. Or will I just stop existing. I mean I can imagine just sitting in class breaking my head on Working Capital management one second and then the next second I stop existing !!! Would I even know that my time on this planet is up? Correction would I know that the whole planet's time is up? And what about all the stuff that we have learnt about, souls, aatma, parmatama, salvation etc etc..I mean are you eligible for entry into heaven if you don't actually die. Or will you soul be wandering around the universe aimlessly? And what about God? Imagine that God could be just sitting around his office happily going about His job of monitoring humanity and all of a sudden he realises that humanity has disappeared and He's lost his job?


And wait a minute..what if this is my last blog post ever. Should I be wasting it talking about particle accelerators, black holes, souls and divine unemployment. So ask yourself, if you could write one single post on one topic only, what would be your last post on this planet? Your parting message to humanity.

Would you try and wax philosophy? Would you attend to unfinished business like vent your anger on someone, or tell a girl you have a crush on that you like her? Or would you just say a nice goodbye to all your loved ones? And how would all of this affect your life if you ended up posting a doomsday message and the world in fact did not end on the next day.

And the most important in this series of questions - would you give a rat's ass if the world actually came to an end at an arbit point of time tomorrow? Knowing that you are not going to leave behind any loved ones, or that all your dreams and hopes are going to vanish along with you. And that you wont be leaving behind any unfinished business, cause the business itself no longer exists.
Finally...How can anyone have feeling about an event that you can never foresee coming and after it has occurred you no longer exist.Would the event make a difference in your life, in the way that you think, in any decision that you make?
Think about it......

As for me I honestly don't know.

But all I will say is one thing, if the world has to come to an end tomorrow, all I would ask is that it happens before my IT in Business quiz.

As for last words (if the world were to collapse on itself), I will go with Karl Marx on this one -"Last words are for those who haven't said enough in a lifetime".

Ciao.

Dont Panic!!!!!

The Futility of Rankings

We as a race are generally obsessed with lists and orders (I am sure all of you remember the Mercedes advertisement) and even more obsessed with comparisons. The fact is proven by the no. of blogs and sites on the net devoted entirely to lists and the fact that we come out with rankings for everything and anything under the sun, whether it be colleges, movies, travel destinations, in fact I think you will find that if you can name an object, someone somewhere has been kind enough (or jobless enough) to come up with a ranking system for it. Now, if you ask me rankings are, for a lack of more articulate terminology, a load of crap. And possibly the most futile activity on this planet (well okay maybe sessions of the Indian parliament are a little more futile).


Now for a little background on why I have decided to spend my precious time on talking about a futile activity. About a couple of months ago my alma mater Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) was ranked no. 10 in India by India Today. This caused one hyper active dude from IIIT- Hyderabad to rant and rave about what a crap hole VIT is and how the world should be engulfed in a giant ball of flame just because somehow VIT was ranked better than IIIT-H (maybe he didnt say those exact words, but I can paraphrase right). Now my 1st reaction was, dude get a life and secondly why do you care so much. And then I realised that he cares because unfortunately the rest of our ranking obsessed nation does. And I realised this when all my friends were somehow aghast by Mr.IIIT's rant and responded in kind. And then when a short while back Outlook came up with it's ranking (VIT placed 5th in list of Private colleges) a friend of mine, Baldy (check out the YDNTN's various blog) did a brilliant comparison between IIIT-H and VIT (my quant prof would have been proud of u Baldy) to basically try and refute the IIITian. And you understand where these guys are comin from, because they feel that the reputation of our Alma mater is at stake. However observe carefully the method of rankings and think aout it and you realise how deeply flawed the whole system is. For instance the entire ranking system is a cyclic process, consider a college ranked no.1 in the country, it attracts the best students, students who add to its intellectual capital (one of the categories commonly used for ranking colleges ). Which means that the college ranked higher will always have a higher quality intake and a college with higher quality intake will have a higher rank. The same goes for placements as well, college with higher ranks have better placements leading to stronger alumni which means better placements which means a better rank. Same goes even in the business world, a brand ranked as the most powerful in the world will obviously increase its brand power and the ranking will only make it more secure. Simply put rankings beget better rankings and once the cycle is formed it's almost impossible to break. And the best example would be the college rankings in India, anyone want to bet against the IIT's and IIM's being atop rankings 20 years from now, I wouldn't. And another thing about rankings is that its all about perception, what appears better is ranked better and so natural progression leads people to think that its better. And I have no better example than the 2 colleges I belong to, VIT and SP Jain. SP, I think is amongst the best B-Schools in the country, I didnt think so before coming here but now I do, I dont think they should be in the so called second rung below the IIM's, in fact I dont think the IIM's are a rung above,because the way we do things here is so different from the IIM's that there is no comparison between them. And I think this holds true for all good colleges, because the best do things differently and it is not possible to compare them. And then there is VIT a place which has supposedly broken into the top rankings, why because they have great buildings, a great infrastructure and above all else excellent PR. But I for one honestly believe that a good college should be much more (sorry to Baldy and the guys, I know you wont agree with me). And ultimately a ranking system is just that a slap in the face of originality and a an advocate of conformism, because it force us to align with a percieved view of what is good and what is not.



And whats really messed up about this whole system is that the ranking clouds judgement often preventing us from looking into the truth. I was just reading yesterday that Jet Airways is India's most powerful brand, one of only 2 brands to have gotten a AA+ rating from the Economic Times brand finance study. Now here are a few points to note about Jet Airways:

1) Known for its lack of punctuality. (Ask any frequent flier)

2) Not great in service either.

3) Its one of the only companies in the stock market, which neither appreciates in value and neither do they give dividend to shareholders.

And they are India's most powerful brand.

Quite how and why that happened I dont know. And once again you only look at the reverance people attach to colleges in India, again i have to give the example of IIT's and IIM's (this is not an anti IIT/IIM piece) where people aim for a specific college without even being concerned about the actual kind of education that they really want. The no. of people who have buried their creativity, desire and dreams all to study in the best college in the country is endless. Rankings began as a system to help people without access to information. Today they have began an endless nuisance which is often biased and does nothing but confound our brain. And they are now completely redundant given that most information we need to make an individual assesment is readily available anyway. Unfortunately we being the practitioners of herd mentality would rather follow the crowd rather than trust our own judgement and research.



Finally I'll close this post by quoting TV Journalist Bill Maher, who said "Saying that Iam no.1...in the world is like saying that my wife is the best wife in the whole world. Which is so idiotic, because all that matters is that my wife should be the best for me" . Couldn't have described it better, myself. So next time you want to make a decision look for the facts and do your own research.

It's been a good Weekend...

First of all a little fact about life at SP, we consider our weekends to be Wednesday night and Thursday (Thur is the only day off for us), but since the rest of the world still considers Saturday and Sunday as weekends, for their convenience I'll refer to them as such.

And this has been a good, wait scratch that out, excellent weekend.

To start of with, Man Utd got their rear ends handed to them on Friday night by Zenit St.Petersburg in the UEFA super cup. Which also proved what I told all those annoying Man U fans, who happened to be my roomates a year back, that without Cristiano Ronaldo, Man Utd is like the Apple portfolio without the iPod, big name with a lot of stature but absolutely no substance (I have reserved my judgement for the iPhone for later).

And then we had a quiz on ITB (IT in Business) on Saturday, which I managed to survive with absolutely no preparation. After that I was able to watch Arsenal return to their old self against Newcastle with a fab performance (it was like watching poetry in motion).

And then today I had an Operations Management mid-term which I yet again survived. And I also came to a very important realisation. The fundamental difference between a B-School and Engg is that the performance in a test is not directly related to the amount you study. Which suits me just fine!!!! I almost wanted to scream out "Im Lovin it!!!" after the test, but then realised best not to anger the almighty test Gods, who haven't been particularly kind to me this trimester. The icing(s) on the cake came when, Chelsea and Liverpool both drew, and just on a side note, Liverpool have now officially become the most boring football team on the planet. And those good for nothing snobs, AC Milan also got what they deserved, losing their first match of the season (no team has ever done well after stealing players from Arsenal).

Well now I'm off trying to study for my FSA (Financial Statement Analysis) Mid term tomorrow. Hopefully my good weekend will spill over to the week also.

Random Thought for the Day: "Fast, Cheap, and Good... pick two. If it's fast and cheap, it won't be good. If it's cheap and good, it won't be fast. If it's fast and good, it won't be cheap." Fast, cheap and good... pick two words to live by. - Tom Waits

Cheers.

Arsenal and SP Rock

I had to Go away to Come Back.....

Well I am back! After a self imposed 3 month blogospheric exile, which was partially due to the fact that I had nothing to say and partially due to the fact that I was still adjusting to life in a B-School. But it took a really eventful trip, to a wonderful place to finally bring me back to my blog. The place we went to is this amazing but little known place called Anandwan.

Anandwan for those who don't know about is a small community, situated at a few hours drive from Nagpur. It was started around 1951 by Baba Amte as a refuge for lepers and other sections of the society who were treated by outcastes by the rest of the society. Today Anandwan spreads over 200 acres and houses 3500 people all of whom have been rejected by our so called 'normal' society. Yet these people run a self sufficient, self sustained community which is as good as an example of innovation and management that I have seen in a long while. The people at Anandwan have turned the barren land in the middle of nowhere into a fertile, well irrigated area which significantly outperforms the rest of the region in terms of agricultural productivity. Their industry is not limited to agriculture alone, they also have workshops where they manufacture all the various tools and implements that they need, include wheelchairs for lepers, which have come into high demand across the country. They also produce exquisite handicrafts, garments, beds, artistic wall hangings, greeting cards and much much more. In fact anything and everything needed in the colony (except salt and oil) is self generated. And you will be immediately struck by the serenity of the environment, and the greenery and cleanliness. And I was amazed by the amount of technical creativity that you could find in this place. One example was a dam used for water irrigation which was constructed by using discarded rubber tyres and reinforced by using waste plastic. They manufacture solid damage proof houses without any steel or timber and make slippers out of rubber tyres.

But what makes this place really amazing is the dedication of the people out there.We met a few members of the Late Baba Amte's family, who have dedicated their lives to their father's ideal and have even taken his cause further. Dr Vikas Amte, Baba Amte's son and now the head of the organization, is currently working in a small town of Yewatmal (an isolated forest area), looking for solutions to the problems of farmer suicides plaguing the area, through irrigation and rain water harvesting, with a team of only 100 men. The group of Anandwan have even extended their activities to nearby tribal areas to improve the poor living conditions there.

So why am I writing about all of this? It's because amongst all the amazing things that came out of Anandwan, what was also glaring was the fact that this incredible place is still mired in anonymity. And the fact is that the stigma associated with leprosy has ensured that these people who were treated as outcastes in 1951 are still treated the same. And worse still, in a nation where we are so quick to applaud and hail the so called miracle workers, we still have not begin to recognise the true workers, like the people at Anandwan. The politicians, the media, the corporates, everybody stays miles away from this place. And consider the fact that this is a place which has received international acclaim and awards, with several documentaries and business studies being done on it and it has been so grossly overlooked by our countrymen. The very fact that no one (myself included) I knew, had even heard of this place, shows how fickle minded a nation we truly are. So I come back to the point, why this post? I don't want to be over-dramatic and say that this place has inspired me to devote my life to social service, I don't know if I will ever have the courage for that. But I can at least do this one simple thing, spread the word about this place. At least let people know that in this insane, competitive world, we have a place ruled by humanity and compassion. So for all those who read this, please do me a favor, tell someone about this place, anyone, your friend, your neighbor, your family, whoever is the nearest to you. If you don't want to, direct them to this post. But tell them. This is an extraordinary place, which has been forsaken by our leaders, ignored by our media and abandoned by our society. At least lets give them the recognition they deserve. Who knows you might just lead the next bright social activist towards a great cause?

"If everyone cared and nobody cried,

If everyone loved and nobody lied

If everyone shared and swallowed their pride

Then we'd see the day when nobody died" - Nickelback

Random Thoughts-1

It took me 3 trips to Landmark and 7 hours, but I finally finished Chetan Bhagats -"The 3 Mistakes of My life". And well truth be told it wasn't that bad a book. A neat package of religion, politics and cricket, Mr Bhagat sure knows what sells in India doesn't he, mixed together with his usual collection of youthful drama. One good thing i will say about Bhagat is that his characters have tended to become more mature with each book. Though his books could use a little more realism ( for instance why would the Australian government offer citizenship to a 13 yr old school boy, just because he might be a cricketing prodigy and as if Australian citizenship can be so easily given away). And finally for a book so attached to cricket, Chetan Bhagat shows a remarkable lack of knowledge about the game and has even got his facts wrong on a couple of occasions. Nonetheless I would say a timepass book (but then I did read it for free).

Sticking to cricket, the Super Kings (my fave team) have made it to the IPL semis at Mumbai Indians' expense.A terrific achievement considering that no team was hit as badly as Chennai by the mid series departure of the Aussies and Kiwis, and that a large portion of their success is due to the local talent in the team. Well all in all I would say its a fair result, the 4 most consistent teams made it to the Semis. As far as the Indians go, there is only word to describe them, Chokers, they have lost their last 3 matches in the final over of the game, twice due to sloppy fileding and bowling. All in all Lalit Modi and co must be delighted with the 1st edition of the IPL so far, its been closer than anyone could have asked for. Lets hope the Semis and Finals don't dissapoint.

In other happenings, I've started reading this book called "The 10 most Beautiful Experiments", a really good book so far, especially for science lovers, a lovely tribute to the ingeniuty of scientists. Hopefully I'll be able to finish it in couple of more trips to Landmark.

Lastly, I heard the 2 new songs of Coldplay's lates album, "Violet Hill" and "Viva La Vida", and I cant wait for the full album to come out."Violet Hill" is probably one of Coldplay's best ever songs, and the the album seems to have a completely different sound to the typical Coldplay stuff.

Random Thought for the Day - "A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools. "

A Slap and a Slip..Not Great Sports But Lots of Entertainment

I saw the UEFAChampions League final last night, and the entire game could could have probably been summed up by the weather, started of bright enough but ended up becoming a damp squib,atleast in the footballing sense. But even though the match didn't make for the most classic of football matches it sure made for one hell of a TV Drama.


First of all to begin with, Roman Abramovich couldn't have asked for a venue to see his greatest dream come to fruition, to see his team win the greatest prize in European Football on his home turf must have been the ultimate dream. Then as the game began Cristiano Ronaldo was determined to prove his worth and boy did he do just that. Then came Frank Lampard's turn to add the masala to this game, a man who scored of the spot, days after his mother's death to get Chelsea here, got them the precious equalizer. From this point on it was more about dramatic little moments than the continous flowing good football. Chelsea who probably were lucky to go into half time level were probably unlucky to have not won the match outright. So onto extra time and the football got no better but the drama got more intense. John Terry, who only 2 weeks back was stretchered of the field with a broken arm, made one of the great saves of the day to keep Chelsea in the game. And then it really got fun..Didier Drogba goes and pulls of a combo of Zidane and Harbajan Singh..imagine this could very well be the last act Drogba pulls for Chelsea ( considering that he could have atleast smacked Ronaldo, he has one coming). So on to the finale and the man who put the ball in the back of the net 42 times from often incredible positions couldnt put it in from 6 yards out. You would think that was drama enough, but then John Terry goes from hero to villain in 30 minutes (kinda like those soaps) and his slip up (literally) cost Chelsea the champions league. And for the last act of this gripping drama it came down to two men, Ryan Giggs,who has played at the same Club for 16 years and Nicolas Anelka who has hardly spent more than a year at the same club. And ina fitting finale, it was the veteran who became Man Utd's highest capped player ever in this match, who scored what would be the winning penalty, and Roman Abramovich watched 13 million pounds go down the drain as Anelka condemned his team to fate aptly described by his nickname, The Sulk.


On the whole given that Man Utd had a tougher group and knockout fixtures, I hate to admit it, but they did deserve the trophy.

On a different note as an incredible season of European football come to an end, I cant help but say that this has been possibly the best season of football I have witnessed. For the first time 4 leagues in Europe (England, Italy, France and Scotland) all were decided in the last game of the season, and we had one of the best Champions league competitions in quite a while, an utter unknown Zenit St. Petersburg, picked up the UEFA cup, thrashing the mighty Bayern Munich along the way. Add to that Milan didn't make it to next years Champions League, Valencia had to stave of relegation and of course who could forget England being knocked out of the Euro qualifiers. But my favorite tournament of the year had to be the FA cup, the oldest tournament in the world provided the most drama of any competition across Europe, consider the likes of Havnt and Waterlooville a team which doesn't even play in a professional league, taking on Liverpool at Anfield and taking the lead not once but twice, Barnsley knocking out Liverpool and Chelsea, and Portsmouth who knocked out Man Utd, going on to become the first team out of the Big 4 to win the competition in 13 years.

What a season of football, with the European Championships just around the corner, it's still not over, and in the spirit of football, I will be rooting for Switzerland or Croatia to pull of a big upset and lift the championship.

Immigrant Song

Sorry to disappoint any rock fans (who might have picked up on the reference) but this post is not about the classic Led Zep song, rather it is about the tune most politicians seem to be whistling nowadays. Illegal immigration has become the mantra of any politician who wants to create a stir. Just a couple of weeks back the Italian Prime Minister during his campaign speech, promised to rid his country of the "Army of Evil" that is the illegal immigrant population of Italy, strong words coming from a man who is famous for his Mafia ties and whose football club was docked points for match fixing. Immigration is one of the hottest issues in the US presidential elections, particularly with the Republicans. Closer to home, who can forget Raj Thackeray's outbursts against immigrants from within his own country. Basically it seems that the easiest way to stir up the voters is by telling that there are evil men who come from lands unknown and take away their food, money and jobs and are responsible for all the crimes committed against them. And somehow it seems to work, look at the actions of the people in Mumbai, they actually had to name their IPL team the Indians as a response in solidarity, almost as if the feeling of being an Indian was being lost, or consider the fact that t 1 in 8 Italians fear immigrants ( a number which was 1 in 20 less than 5 years ago) , and McCain's popularity with the Republicans soared when he supported strong anti-immigration measures. Why is that all of a sudden there is this outrage against immigrants ?
Now consider the facts , the largest crime syndicate in Italy is the Mafia, which of course does not comprise of immigrants ( another interesting bit of info - southern Italy which is dominated by the Mafia is the most economically backward section of Italy) , the American economy is in the crapper because of a useless war and a housing bubble, neither had anything to do with immigrants and as far as Mumbai is concerned, the city would be nothing if not for the immigrant population, for instance what would have happened if the Ambanis had been denied entry into Maharashtra. The fact also is that these immigrants do the most menial jobs which the local population of any place would never touch. I mean think of it, these people wash toilets, clean houses, sit on roadside stalls in the middle of summer for a meagre living and yet it is these luxuries which politicians want to take away. I guess people just find it easy to blame someone else for their problems, especially if that someone happens to be completely different from them.
And somehow I don't understand the outrage against immigration. Think about it, if I was born in Bombay, Bangalore or New York and not some war torn part of Croatia, an African Desert or a village in Bihar, then its just my good fortune. I have absolutely no right to deny anyone else the same opportunity that I've had. Most immigrants are people who leave hopeless old lives behind, just to be able to survive, I mean nobody wants to leave their home for the heck of it.
Also anti-immigration is just pure selfishness, basically we don't want to share what we have, for instance the Americans use 25% of world resources for 4% of its population and yet they are concerned about immigrants, I mean given the amount of resources they use, they should probably accommodate more people. Also most local population were immigrants at some point of time, the oldest Americans themselves are illegal immigrants.
In an ideal world everybody would be born equal, with the same opportunities available to all, but that isn't the case. The oppprtunities you have depend a lot on the circumstances you were born into, and I guess everybody has the right to seek opportunity wherever it lies and just because we have doesn't mean we can deny it to others. And again most places are better of for immigrants , take the Mughals for instance, what would Indian culture, art and literature have been without them, or the impact which the Irish and Italians have had on USA. Eventually I hope people realise that migration and immigration are what make the world tick. I would end with a quote from the song which gave this post its title -
"So now you'd better stop and rebuild your ruins,
For peace and trust can win the day
Despite all your losing. " - Led Zeppelin, Immigrant Song

Creative Writing 101

I dont think much of myself as a writer, atleast not in the creative sense, but I find that creative writing is one of the most amazing talents a person can have. So for the benefit of all the budding creative writers in the world (atleast the ones reading this) I'll put up this piece that I came across on the web (Stumbling Upon it as usual). In this ,Kurt Vonnegut, one of the greatest writers of the 20th Century, gives his take on creative writing, in the form of 8 basic rule of creative writing, which he calls Creative Writing 101, apart from being informative, it's a really good read also :

The 8 basics of Creative Writing, according to Kurt Vonnegut

1)Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.

2)Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.

3)Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.

4)Every sentence must do one of two things—reveal character or advance the action.

5)Start as close to the end as possible.

6)Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them—in order that the reader may see what they are made of.

7)Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.

8)Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.

My Mind Boggling Adventure

As, the delirium and euphoria of getting into SP Jain just begins to wear out and the fear and paranoia, of how I am going to survive a B-School after 4 years of utter lethargy in VIT during my B.Tech, begins to creep in, I have decided to take a look back at the last 10 months of my life, spent trying to capture the holy grail -admission into a good B-School, which have perhaps been the most harrowing days of my life. Worse than the years before my 10th Board exam when everyone kept telling me how the 1st big exam would shape my life for eternity and beyond, worse than 12th when all I would hear was - " Work hard for few months and the rest of your life will be easy", ya that was one whole load of crap. It was especially harder because after coasting through a B.Tech degree for 3 years, I had to face the unfamiliar task of working hard again (now I know why B-Schools prefer work-ex guys). So here are the basic phases of my MBA (Mind Boggling Adventure), others who have gone through this might be able to associate with it:
Phase I- Starting Line - Utter bewilderment and confusion
This phase involves the whole pre-preparation thing, finding out about the whole B-School process, the myriads of tests, the colleges, the coaching institutes, the test series' and all the other crap that there is. To top it of you find bozos in your college who have been preparing for the past 2 years and all of a sudden your scared out of your wits, wondering whether it isn't already too late. And your TIME and IMS and the ilk dont help either, I mean who the hell starts a 2 year prep course for CAT. Eventually you find a path through the confusion, and decide what need to be done, only to discover the hard part is yet to come.

Phase II - The Marathon or the Sprint (Depending on the path you choose)
This is where all the hard work really kicks in, whether you choose to work for 6 months or 2 years this is the slog fest. And for me it meant weekly shunts from college to home for weekend classes (I couldn't get a crash course in Vellore), 8 hour classes and a rapid succession of practice tests (each one more detrimental to your confidence than the previous). This phase also involves encountering the barrage of applications which you need to fill in order to even write the test. I mean would it kill the B-Schools of this country to subscribe to just one test. Add to that the fact that you have to buy a form for every god damned college means a seriously heavy work load and a significantly lighter pocket. All in all a serious work out prepping you for the big push. Adding spice to this whole scenario, is the whole competitive thing, who's working how hard, and hows the competition like in your vicinity. Again, there are some people who will scare the wits out of you with their hard work, I mean were people like these just put on Planet Earth to make life scarier for the normal people!

Phase III- The Obstacle Course
Well this is crunch time part 1, which decides if you stay in the game or not. This is where you have to go through your various obstacles called, CAT, XAT, SNAP, FMS and any other abbreviation you can find ( pick any 3 or 4 letter abbreviation, the odds are there will be some test in India of that name). And of course as usual we have people trying to complicate things further, strategy, final prep tips, how many pencils to carry to the exam, what breakfast you have on the exam day, to pee before the exam starts, were all things people (mostly belonging to the coaching instis) felt were paramount to your success and the difference between life death (in the B-School Race). I would like to believe that a guy who's going to be earning 10-15 lakhs in2 years time (if all goes well) would know that he needs a extra pencil or two, without somebody having to tell him that. And some how if you manage to keep your head and give a decent shot at the exam, you are obliged to go through those answer keys which come out immediately after the exam, and again no 2 answer keys are ever the same are they. Again its my understanding that if you are taking 20000 from a student you at least make sure you give him a correct answer key. And the worst part is if you fall in one of those neither here nor there categories i.e haven't done phenom ally well, and not bad enough to be completely out of the running, then you begin to sweat it out, desperately waiting for the results, hoping that a particular answer key (the one which gave you a higher score) is right while the others be damned. All in all you are the left to wait doing nothing, and just hoping that your performance in one test doesn't affect the others (like it did to me).This is perhaps the only time i would agree with Morgan Freeman in Shawshank redemption -"Hope can be a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane".

Phase IV- Hurdles
So, if all things go well and you are able to survive all the crap that come before and by some good fortune you are able to get a few good calls, then its time to sit through the hell of GD/PI, not that the experience is in itself that bad (except when you have a 70 yr dude telling you that the you that youngsters like me listening to Rock and Roll are ruining this country's cultural heritage),but its the whole aspect of your future depending on a 15 minute chat with a bunch of men looking to kick your ass (figuratively speaking). And the thing is that unlike a test you never know here you stand (makes you wish they had answer keys for GD/PI too). And it becomes that much worse when you get one reject while preparing for another interview ( I got a SIBM reject before my MDI and IMT interviews), it totally messes with your confidence, its like trying to jump a hurdle and hitting your foot the way down, you're never sure how you will fare with the remaining hurdles. And the sheer volume of thoughts flying through your brain after an interview, about how it went, what went right, what went wrong, where you screwed up, what you could have said, what you should not have said , can drive you absolutely crazy. And then there is the waiting, the damn waiting, keeping your fingers crossed, hoping, praying, checking the net every single day, its absolutely excruciating. But eventually the waiting, the praying, is all worth it when you get an acceptance into a great college, its worth the trouble, its the ultimate prize for surviving this difficult journey. And for some of you who are still fighting on, not having reached their dream, I'll quote form Shawshank Redemption again -"Remember .., hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things".

So why are we put through this hell, I guess it is because its the single toughest course in maturity, learning the hard way, boys to men, call it whatever you will, its the only thing which prepares you for the actual challenge, the really tough adventure, life in a business world which, I'm looking for to with dread and anticipation.
So don't you think the story above justifies the title-mind boggling, and the really scary part is that the ride is just starting!!!

As Funny as the English Language - 2

Now, being a multilingual chap, I know the experience of Lost in Translation, where one thing in one language can mean something absolutely absurd in another, especially when translated literally into English, so I was rolling over in laughter when I came across this list of English subtitles used in films from Hong Kong.Its absolutely hilarious:

1) Who gave you the nerve to get killed here?
2) I'll fire aimlessly if you don't come out!
3) I will surround their house by myself.
4) I am darn unsatisfied to be killed in this way.
5) Fatty, you with your thick face have hurt my instep.
6) Gun wounds again?
7) A normal person wouldn't steal pituitaries.
8) I'll burn you into a BBQ chicken.
9) Take my advice, or I'll spank you a lot.
10) You daring lousy guy.
11) Beat him out of recognizable shape!
12) I have been scared silly too much lately.
13) The bullets inside are very hot. Why do I feel so cold?
14) The Americans will not save you for Christmas.
15) Both of you will die when the sun hits the bell.
16) You always use violence. I should've ordered glutinous rice chicken.
17) I got knife scars more than the number of your leg's hair!
18) Beware! Your bones are going to be disconnected.

J.K Rowling ko Gussa Kyon Aata Hain?

So, whats bothering everybody's favorite fantasy author nowadays. A lot apparently, or atleast enough to cause her to breakdown and cry in a courtroom. The case in concern is Ms Rowling and Warner Bros lawsuit against RPR publishers, who are attempting to print a book version of the Lexicon, an online collection of the whats what of Harry Potter, maintained by Stephen Vander Ark, a devoted Harry Potter fan ( Definition of "Devoted HP Fan"- 50 yr old loser who gave up his previous obsession with Star Wars for HP). Now, the official claim of the lawsuit is that this book or encyclopedia (though I always thought encycolpedia's were supposed to contain useful information) will hamper Mrs. Rowling's ability to write and publish such a book of her own. Adding drama (the useless kind, like the whole Ron-Hermione crap in HP) to this case, is the fact that both Mrs.Rowling and Mr. Vander Ark, broke down on the stand, Mrs.Rowling claims that this work is a theft of her life's work and its like looking at her own children blah blah blah... and Mr. Vander Ark claims that he is doing this out of his love for the books and profit was not his motive, ya right! So even though Mrs. Rowling is, in the strictest legal sense, probably right, I still find the lawsuit bemusing for a number of reasons:

1) I do remember Rowling herself once saying that she was agianst the idea of publishing a HP encyclopedia, and even if she does there will still be a lot of "Devoted Fans" (see definition above) who will stand in the queue for hours to buy it. My guess is Vander Ark himself might buy the 1st copy. And yes, if it is any good, we Indians will continue to buy em in the pirated market for 5o bucks.
2) Also as far as the quality of this Lexicon goes, Vander Ark's website is amongst the most popular of HP fan websites, infact Rowling herself has expressed admiration for it before. So the question needs to be asked- is thie quality ok as long as it is online and promoting HP sales and it all of sudden becomes crap when its on paper?
3) As far as any financial losses areconcerned, isn't Rowling stinking rich already ( I'm guessing the world will be destroyed by global warming before Rowling and her progeny are done spending her HP income), and again isn't the lawsuit itself costing money, I dont think Rowling's lawyers would come cheap. And honestly isn't the whole point of being rich that you dont need to bother about minor losses, which is all that this book will be.
4) Aso given the slew of lawsuits that shes been through, does Rowling reall need another one?

So I return to the original point, what is so damned important about this lexicon, to Rowling, to spend all this money and time ( to personally testify at the trial). If you ask me, the answer is plain and simple - frustration. Yes, I think Mrs.Rowling has had it with all the crap that the book has endured through, I mean the endless slew of crappy fan fiction ( a lot of which involved the characters doing unmentionable things to each other) before the 7th book itself is enough to drive any author crazy, not to mention the pathetic movie versions which Warner Bros comes out ( of course she can't sue them cause most of her money was given to her by them). And then there are people coming up with fake books, rip offs and what else, just to make a quizk buck. Not too mention people in India, China and other countries, who build bookshelf of pirated HP books ( all those in India reading this know what Im talking about). So finally, Mrs. Rowling found someone to target and vent out her frustration (which she did on the stand). But, I do have to question her judgement, I mean seriously, is suing your devoted fan the best way to prove your point, cause after all the initial euphoria dies down it's these guys who eventually drive your business and make you the money to finance your whimsical lawsuits.
Whatever happens I cant help but thinking, this would make a great Boston Legal episode!!

Baywatch better for Kids than Cartoons?

No matter how absurd that tagline sounds..it is true; atleast according to the Venezualan Government. Recently in Venezuala, the Broadcast ministry removed the Simpsons from the air during the peak hours of kids viewing, because it was believed to be detrimental to kids, and replaced it with,u guessed it: Baywatch Hawai. Yes, that same show which was so succintly summarised in Friends as : a bunch of girls in bikinis running (and for the unitiated, Baywatch Hawai has more girls, with skimpier bikinis), is believed to imbue better family values and foster the edcation of Venezualan youth.
Now, on the surface this looks like a ridiculous ruling, and yet another example of a govt cock up. But look closely and you will realise that is nothing more than Govt propoganda, because there is no other logical reasoning for it otherwise. Simpson is in terms of visual content not at all detriment to kids, and again being a cartoon is taken less seriously than Baywatch. Now I'm not being conservative and actually saying baywatch is bad for kids, just that it is no better than simpson, maybe slightly worse. The real reason why this happened, according too me, is that the Simpsons has a history of political commentary through its shows , and it is often aimed at dictatorial communist regimes, such as those of Venezuala, and thus it was banned to prevent the youth of Venezuala from learning about democracy, free speech and other such privileges. Infact the official reason given was -"that the show sends messages that go against the whole education of boys, girls and adolescents." What education might that be? Anti-capitalist propaganda perhaps. Infact the show is now threatened in Argentina because in one episode Juan Peron is called a dictator. Ay caramba!
All this goes to show is how lucky we Indians are to live in a country which still has a free media, I was recently involved in a debate where the guy said Indian media is biased and controlled by politicians, I wish I could show this to him and show what really a controlled and biased media and I would also probably add- "Eat my shorts!!".

Passion for Books:reKindled or Extinguished

It was around 3 months back that I saw the article announcing Amazon's Kindle in Newsweek, and it has taken a surprisingly short time for this new technological revolution to hit India. For thse unaware of the Kindle, it is, to simplify things, an iPod for books. It is a pocket book reader launched by Amazon. This idea has been tried before by other big names before (even Sony tried it) and they all failed, some more miserably than others. But Kindle tries to offer what none of them did before, a more authentic reading experience for the book lover, it's got a new technology which mimics the appearance of a book on the screen. In addition it's got other features which a book can not offer, for instance people with poor eyesight can actually adjust the font size of the text, and you can store several thousand books on a single device, which means no more overflowing bookshelves ( a problem I have personally dealt with). Also it makes finding and buying books much more easier, particularly getting hold of very old or rare books.
Thus it has given rise to several Nostradames' of print who have claimed that this is the end of the paperback as we know it? Is it?
I dont think so, 1st of all practically speaking, there are several cost issues, particularly in India. I somehow cant see people spending 10k on a book reading device when most people dont buy 10k worth books in their entire lifetime. Also buying books will become far more expensive, simpler but expensive, because we'll have to purchase books directly from Amazon or some other website, which is a huge jump in expenses considering most Indians do their book shopping in second-hand and roadside book shops.
On a more aesthetic level, half the fun in books comes with sitting in a book store for hours together and going through a dozen books to pick one. Somehow I cant see that happening while browsing through Amazon and getting everything I need to find by clicking on 'related links'. Also how authentic the reading experienced promised by the Kindle will be, only time will tell. Also it wouldn't be very prudent to give our generation with very low attention spans a device with a thousand books on it, I am sure most of them wont finish the more than a 50 pages of each book before moving on to the next.
Personally though, I wouldn't mind having a kindle, I mean think of th potential-if I am on the road(which is where I find myself most of the time these days) I will never get bored also while reading a book before going to bed, I can pick one which most suits my mood.
Neverthless, I am not holidng my breath for the Kindle, neither will be any hurry to get my hands on it. For now I am happy with paperbacks, my college library and the bookstore round the corner of my house, which give me all the reading pleasure I need.

A 'Champions League of Cricket'

Well, just saw on the news today that the English cricket Board is planning to Launch its own version of a T20 league called the 'English Premier League' (the English are'nt the most imaginative people are they). So that means we now have 3 professional leagues popping up in the matter of a year. And there could be more- the Aussie board is now threatened with the possibility of players retiring early to take up the IPL, who knows they may launch their own league.
So what does this all mean for Cricket, I guess cricket is going to get richer, possibily more exciting, and definetly more competitive with countries not just competing for laurels and trophies but also for the prize of most exciting league and bigger share of the ever growing cricketing pie. It might also mean that Test Cricket might lose its charm ( particulary if we have drab series like India -SA) , and even ODI cricket will be threatened. The purists will continue to cry and claim the decline in technical standards (some idiots still claim that cricket is a Gentleman's Game), but the viewers will definetly get a more fun version of cricket. After all as Harsha Bhogle said- "The purpose is to get the ball to the boundary, how it gets there does not matter" and boundaries and sixes will be always be there with T20. And there is a possibility that the new form of cricket will attract more teams towards cricket (that however does involve the possibility of the Americans getting involved,how irritating that would be).
But the most exciting possibilty is that of a "Cricket Champions League", akin to the UEFA Champions League in european football, you could have the winners of individual leagues taking on each other. Who knows maybe cricket could get more professional and move in the football direction with clubs taking precedence over country. Whatever happens Cricket is going to change dramatically over the next few years and to think it all happened because Subash Chandra and Zee got pissed off for losing the TV rights for Indian Cricket.

To Stumble or not to Stumble, that is the question?

A few months back a friend of mine told me about this thing called Stumble and according to me this is possibly the best tool possible for all net junkies.
I am sure a lot of you would have already tried it but for those haven't this is how stumble works...you download the stumble toolbar and create your profile filling in your interests. You can then use the tool bar to randomly surf through the net based only on your interests..basically the toolbar shows you random web pages based on your interests..its got a host of other options..you can even generate ramdom you tube videos...
I am posting this cause i found stumble amazingly fun and its not half as invasive or annoying as social networking sites aka orkut,facebook...
The only drawback is that its damn addictive..i've spent hours at a time stumbling away...so if you've got time to waste..this is the most fun way to do it..
Here's the link...
http://www.stumbleupon.com/

As funny as the English Language

The English Language can be an exasperating thing, irritating and often difficult to grasp for a beginner (or some of the faculty at my college atleast). However, it's also the most entertaining if viewed in the right sense. So I am going to start a new section on this blog where I will post interesting and funny tidbits from the English language that I can find.

This is the 1st one..found it on a nice site...its a list of funny metaphors used by kids in Australia...
1)Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.
2)She grew on him like she was a colony of E. coli and he was room-temperature prime English beef.
3) She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.
4)He was as tall as a six-foot-three-inch tree.
5)The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM.
The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.
6) He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.
7) McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.
8) Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.
9) The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot oil.
10) John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.
11) He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.
12) She was as easy as the TV Guide crossword.
13) She walked into my office like a centipede with 98 missing legs.
14) It hurt the way your tongue hurts after you accidentally staple it to the wall.
15) Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.
16) The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.
17) The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.
18) "Oh, Jason, take me!"; she panted; her breasts heaving like a university student on $1-a-beer night.
19) He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame. Maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.
20) The ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.
21) Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.
22) From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another city and "Sex in the City" comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30.

Post Numero Uno

Well, I'll begin my blogging escapades with football..more specifically Arsenal (you should have seen this coming when you saw the title).

Arsenal fans' are one of the most rarest things in sport...I mean who in their right mind would support the Gunners,its a team without superstars- a team which in fact refuses to buy
superstars, a team which very frequently crosses the boundaries between the sublime and the dismal and very often leaves its fans infuriated (kinda like the Indian Cricket Team). So its no surprise that over the past few years, Arsenal fans have begun deserting their team. So, the question being why do I support Arsenal, infact a lot of people would find it easy to support other teams like Man Utd with their Portugese Paladin or Chelsea and their bags of Russian money or the Champions League experts Liverpool. The answer to put it simply in one word - football.

Yes, Football, the sport which amidst all the championships, the trophies, the transfers, the board room power games, we all seem to forget.The sport who's single greatest exponents on the planet are a bunch of 20 something year olds with a French Manager playing in North London.
For the football lover nothing is better than watching Arsenal on a good day, their intricate playing style is arguably the most exciting thing in football today.Now a lot of people might disagree with that statement, particularly fans of Man Utd,who have scored more goals and have been flying this year. And while that might be true the fact is Arsenal have played their brand of football year in year out, in their most succesful and their most barren years, they still play the same way. And that is what you love about Arsenal's football culture, it's unfettered by results, independant of personnel and has grown to become the hallmark of the team. And all this is down to one man, Arsene Wenger , their inspirational manager, who has transformed this once puritan english club into the most energetic brand in modern football. A man who has come into severe criticism for his transfer policy and what is often see as a stubborn selection policy, but would I give up Arsenal's brand of football for a boring collection of superstars ala Chelsea, or for Liverpool who bore opponents to death and win the UCL- not a chance in hell.

And eventually come to think of it football or sport for that matter is all about entertainment, I mean the Ronaldo's and Ronaldinho's of the world wouldnt make their big bucks if not for the entertainment value of sport, so why not support good football rather than trophies or cups. After all if winning trophies was all that mattered then Ricky Ponting would be placed above Sachin Tendulkar, now that would be a travesty. And finally as a last testament to Arsenal's footballing magic, consider this - on Tuesday at Anfield the mere presence of Arsenal, caused Liverpool, the most boring team on the Planet (when it comes to the UCL) to be involved in one of the most exciting matches of the season.

Go Gunners. (My next football post after the Arsenal - Man Utd match on sunday)