A New Dawn

Power of the Fourth Estate

2011-11-15T22:01:00.002+05:30

The past 10 years have probably seen more Indian politicians being jailed as compared to the previous 50 years. Corruption and crime have always been mixed up with Indian politics. The public has over the years come to acknowledge that Politicians and other influential classes can get away with almost anything. In the 80’s and 90’s, it was unimaginable to have a minister or even a MP/MLA to be arrested. This general public perception is slowly changing in the past decade or so. Lalu Prasad and Shibu Soren are two prominent political figures who went to jail in the early part of last decade. In the spotlight today, are politicians and business leaders arrested in the 2G scam. You also have the former Karnataka chief minister and other ministers being arrested. One suspects that, with all their money and influence, these high profile accused will manage to get acquitted in the end. Nevertheless, all these arrests have shown that the Indian law & justice system has enough life left and if nurtured, can truly make life easier for the general public.

So, what has brought about this change? Despite systemic corruption and money power, how has the law been able to bare its teeth so often in the past decade?
There could be many reasons pointed out – like higher social awareness and better education. But I think the single most important factor leading to all these arrests is the private news media – especially TV news channels. Niche players like Tehelka started off the trend of investigative journalism armed with hidden cameras and phone tapping. Mainstream media has wholeheartedly adopted this method to stay competitive in this era of BREAKING NEWS. Every political party has its own news channel and its way too eager to expose corrupt politicians belonging to other parties. Channels are competing with each other to be the first to expose the next big scam. Had there been 3 or 4 channels, money and power would have been enough to control them. Now there are too many dogs to feed. It’s not possible anymore to control the news media collectively.

Perhaps the single biggest mistake committed by Indian politicians, which hurts their own tribe the most, has been the privatization of TV news broadcasting. Its probably one of the best things done for the Indian public – inadvertently – by politicians. Anna Hazare’s voice would not be nearly as strong as it is today, without the private news channels airing his every word. If I were a politician, and looking for ways to control this menace, the solution would be to reduce the no. of media companies to maybe 10% of what they are today. This can be done by encouraging mergers and acquisitions in a big way. One sure way to do that would be to open up this sector to 100% FDI. God forbid, that should not happen in India. Otherwise, within a decade, we will have just 3 or 4 holding companies running all news networks across the nation.

Anyway, as of today, we have a strong media capable of The judiciary has shown that there are significant pockets of integrity and courage left in the highest courts in the land.
So, let’s see what we have now. We have a strong media. We have a good judiciary, which has been severely damaged, but not irreparably. We have a fledgling economy, which is miraculously continuing to do well, thanks to the ingenuity of our entrepreneurs. One area where we are failing is education, which continues to grow, but too slowly. If our economy continues to do well for another decade and if we can strengthen our judiciary and education system, India is all set to enter the league of developed nations in my lifetime.

Returning to Chilka - Nostalgia and excitement

2009-07-26T08:06:00.005+05:30

I just realized that I havent put a post about one of my happiest times in recent years. I am talking about my trip to Chilka towards the end of last year. Chilka is the place I love the most. I had a happy childhood there between 1991 and 1995. For the first time I stayed with my own mom and dad (my early childhood was spent with my grandma). I learnt Hindi there. I made the first of my ‘best friends’ in life there. And that was the only time in life when I lived life in full flow. If only I had continued there for the whole of my adolescence, I might’ve been a very different person now. Definitely not so shy! Me and my friends were so full of pranks and mischief back then…

Guess I’ve digressed a lot from the original intent of the post! Coming back to this trip in Oct 2008. There are times we all feel a bit lonely and think of old times and forgotten friends. I was going through a similar phase last year. I suddenly got back in touch with my childhood buddies from Chilka – Rahul, Santosh and Subhasis. Couldn’t track down Gulshan and Naveen – the other 2 guys in our old ‘gang’. After a couple of calls with my old friends, I thought of meeting up and how nice it would be if we all got together in Chilka. All of us, except Santosh now live outside Orissa. So we had to plan in advance for this. Though everyone seemed eager, it didn’t quite work out as planned. Rahul and Subhasis cancelled their plans due to professional commitments. Santosh and I decided to go ahead rather than wait for another opportunity. I was going through a torrid time at office and thought this trip would recharge my batteries.

It was a lonely 18 hour journey to Balugaon-the nearest station to Chilka. I didn’t know what to expect; meeting Santosh after nearly 15 years I didn’t expect a smooth resumption of an old friendship. And I wasn’t sure how much Chilka had changed. I reached the Balugaon station at dusk. Just as the old times, there was a power cut and the station was dark! As I got down with my luggage, I saw a handsome and confident looking guy in a black t-shirt approach me quickly and punch me on my chest. It took me a second to realize, then I smiled and we hugged each other. All the awkwardness I had thought of during my journey evaporated immediately. Santosh had biked all the way from Bhubaneshwar (5-6 hrs drive) and was completely drenched in rain. Though my dad had arranged for transport from the station, he wanted to be there in the station to receive me. As we left the platform and reached the station entrance, I could see that not much has changed in this part of the country in the last 15 years. Power cuts are still a part of daily life. The roads are still bad. Buffaloes still block the way. The only change seemed to be an increase in the highway truck traffic. We went to Panth Nivas guest house on Santosh’s bike. He had booked a 4 bed room anticipating that Rahul and Subhasis would also come. We freshened up and went outside to Chilika Dhaba for a genuine dhaba dinner. After dinner we chatted about how great it would’ve been had all 4 of us gotten together. We had so much to talk about and share with each other. We spoke about a few things that night, trying to bring each other up to date with the most important happenings in our lives. We slept late, but decided to get up early and catch the sunrise.

That meant getting up a 4.30 am. And we did get up that early! It was still dark outside. We took the camera, put on our clothes and left the guest house. We jumped over the fence and walked in pitch darkness towards the lake. The villagers were just about waking up – most were still sleeping. Some kids were experimenting with fire and cigarettes while their fathers were still sleeping. The buffaloes were still sleepy. We reached the banking of the lake and sat down waiting for the sun to come out. It was pitch dark and a bit cold. Slowly the sky transformed to purple and deep blue, signaling the arrival of dawn. I was reminded of an old hindi poem I had learnt in school. The poem described how the colour of the sky changes to various hues as the sun comes over the horizon. After more than half an hour the first specks of orange appeared in the sky. It took us some more time to realize that we would not be seeing the sunrise over the lake that day. It was just too cloudy! But we did stick on for another hour and enjoyed the glorious morning. I took some nice photos. We watched the serene water slowly being taken over by dozens of fishermen in their small and unique boats. As it grew brighter we noticed ducks feeding on weeds at the banks. The villagers had woken up and the day had well and truly started. Santosh tried to bargain a deal with one of the fishermen for some prawns, but we didn’t get what we wanted. We were hungry and walked back to the guest house for breakfast.

Breakfast was good – poori and aalu and some tea. We then left for INS Chilka. We gained entry into the INS, thanks to Santosh’s uncle who worked there in the MES. We went straight to our school. As we approached the school, the smell of the grass and the trees was simply intoxicating. I saw that the school had been recently painted and it was a beautiful yellow with colourful logos of Kendriya Vidyalaya. Beautiful flowerpots were decorated in front of the school. I noticed that the old cycle stand was still there. Santosh was speaking to the watchman about letting us inside for some time. I just stood there and observed the surroundings. I saw the kids in their neat uniforms and walking in a queue formation as the class monitor led them back from the playground to the class rooms. I saw the smile in their bright little faces. That was a very intense moment for me. I was close to tears with emotion. I was happy, I was nostalgic, I was on a high. Though I haven’t taken drugs, I guess that particular moment felt something like that. Very intense, very happy! Those 5-10 minutes was sooooo good! I was rudely interrupted by a phone call from my office. Curse the mobile phone! Anyway, Santosh soon convinced the watchman and we went inside to meet the principal. The principal wasn’t in, so we met a senior teacher and got the permission to be in the premises and visit the classrooms during lunch break. We went to all our old class rooms that we had used during 5^th, 6^th and 7^th standards. Most of the kids were too shy and ran away from us. Some of them, mostly girls were having lunch inside the classrooms and couldn’t escape us. We chatted with them. They asked us a few silly questions and giggled stupidly. We unsuccessfully tried to convince them to share their lunch with us. As we moved slowly to the higher classes, the kids were more forthcoming and were curious to find out who we were. I had long hair at that time. Some of the kids called me Ishant and the name caught on with the other kids! We chatted with some of the existing staff. We went to the art room and saw the paintings of the current students. The library room was pretty much the same. We spent quite some time in the school. Finally we were thrown out as the kids’ excitement caused too much noise and some teachers got annoyed.

We went to Santosh’s uncle’s house for lunch. Aunty had made an awesome lunch and we really enjoyed it. After a nap we took bicycles and started to explore the INS. Simply riding the bicycle through the roads was amazing and full of nostalgia. We met an old class mate – though I had no recollection of him. Santosh spoke to him and we setup a daaru party that night. We were joined by another class mate. The other 2 guys weren’t in a stable job and weren’t doing that well in life. I was ashamed to even tell my real salary to them. It seemed to be too much money, to the point of being disgusting. I put aside the awkwardness and tried to strike up some lively conversation. The liquor for the night was something called “Panga”. It was supposed to be rum, although it tasted mildly sour. And it was packaged in a plastic bottle!! For a moment I was reminded of vague news stories about illicit arrack casing deaths and blindness. But my friends insisted that this was a ‘trusted’ brand in the local market. So I took a leap of faith and finished my first round. We had a lively evening. I guess Panga wasn’t all that strong. Because even after a quarter I was confident enough to take the bike and ride triples in the unlit and crumpling highway to drop a friend home at midnight.

The next day Santosh and I went to Kalijai and Narayani temple. But I was really waiting to go back inside INS and see my old house. We went there in the evening in fading light. We spent some time there. We then went to Apsara theatre. Since it was a weekend, a movie was playing – A Wednesday. We bought the tickets – whole of Rs 8 each! Before the show started we decided to check out our ‘old’ school, which was now being used as a Kinder Garden. We jumped over the compound and in the fading light checked out the class rooms and assembly ground and the old Imli ka paed which had borne so many stone hits from us kids and was still standing tall.

As we reached the station on Sunday morning to board my train, the trip seemed to have been too short. But that’s how good things in life are, aren’t they? This trip was a beautiful time in my life and the memories will remain treasured for the rest of my life.

Pictures: Please click here to see some nice pics of the dawn sky and more.

Saina Nehwal - A true sportstar

2009-07-11T21:55:00.002+05:30

Saina Nehwal is one of the best sporting talents that India has produced. At the age of just 19, Saina has achieved great things in her chosen sport and has truly arrived at the Big league in international badminton. Saina is not another superficial creation of the media. Indian media is famous for over-hyping and haloing any sportsperson who is worthy of 2 minutes of prime time television. Take for example, Sania Mirza. Sania is undoubtedly the best ever female tennis player from India. But when it comes to the world stage, she is at best an average performer who seldom indulges in giant killing. But our media would make us believe that on her good day Sania can beat even Venus Williams. Well, she definitely can’t – unless Williams is playing left handed and is not wearing shoes.

Things are quite the opposite when it comes to Sania’s namesake – Saina. Few people in India would’ve heard this girl’s name. Maybe she is not sexy enough for prime time television and newspaper front pages. But she is certainly the brightest star in Indian sport (non cricket) at the moment. Away from the media glare, Saina’s career has shown a steady rise ever since she won the national badminton championship 2 years back. Saina has regularly beaten the top 10 players and has been consistent in the big tournaments. Her current world ranking of No. 7 would underline that this girl is truly a world class achiever.

One wishes that this real achiever gets the attention and recognition that she deseves. Saina, in all likelihood, will continue to bring great laurels to India and make us all very proud in the years to come.

Global Warming

2009-05-31T22:42:00.003+05:30

I was watching a documentary called “The 11th Hour” on HBO yesterday. It was a powerful document on Global Warming. Although many of us are aware of global warming and its effects at a superficial level, most of us do not realize the extent and the imminence of the danger facing our planet and the human race. Man’s scientific and technological advancement over the past century has almost irreparably damaged a beautiful ecosystem that was built over millions of years by Mother Nature. We have destroyed oceans and forests beyond recognition. Our chemicals have changed the basic composition of most of the soil in the world. Our wasteful consumption of resources is leaving less and less for other species to survive on. In fact, over 50,000 species are getting extinct from this planet every year. Human beings can be blamed for much of this. If things continue unaltered, there is a real danger that the quality of general human life will be irreparably damaged within our lifetime.

One must watch this documentary to learn some astonishing facts about the ruthless and mindless destruction caused by humans to this planet. The documentary tries to explore the core reasons behind such actions by the human race, which is after all, supposed to be the most intelligent and sensitive creature. However, we are also a race that is infested with greed and short-sightedness. Corporate money and corrupt governments have ensured that short term financial profits prevail over the long term survival and quality of life of the human race. But then, aren’t the men running corporations and governments not aware of global warming? Aren’t they aware of the mess they are creating? Aren’t they worried about the future of their grandchildren? Of course they are. But they are unable to make the connect between their actions and its impact on nature. But hey, these guys are well educated and highly intelligent. Then why is it that they refuse to accept the obvious and act appropriately? It all seems a bit illogical, isn’t it? The answer lies in the way we live Life today.

From the Bushmen of the Kalahari and the tribes of the Rainforests to the bourgeois of urban India and high street Manhattan, the way man lives and sees life is immensely different. Urbanization has caused man to move further and further away from nature and into an artificial ecosystem. It’s a system which has all material comforts and ‘protects’ man from nature’s harshness. Automobiles, air-conditioners, fertilizers, pesticides, deodorants, polythene, mobile phones, all of these make the world a ‘better place to live’. We have become so enamoured with our own inventions and creative ability that we seem to think that we are no more dependent on nature. We think that human technology will provide all the security and happiness than a man needs. All the material comfort around us have numbed us so much that we refuse to see how dependent we still are on nature. Somewhere down the line we have stopped respecting or loving all other creatures in this world. If we move outside the cities and move to the village and to the jungle, people still retain some sense and understand the connect between man and nature. Junglemen and villagers still worship nature and respect other creatures. But cities are where the money is and the power is. In today’s typical metropolis, one cannot afford the space for a garden. One cannot see the stars in the sky owing to pollution. One does not hear birds chirp. One does not see milk being extracted from cows. Perhaps the only way a city resident is connected to nature is through National Geographic channel! One would have heard of the term “out of sight, out of mind”. This is exactly what is happening to us. We have lost touch with nature because we don’t see it in action in our day to day lives. We don’t love or respect other creatures any more since we don’t see their contribution to our survival. We continue to waste electricity and burn petrol, the only concern being the electricity or petrol bill, rather than worrying about the melting polar caps or rising levels of asthma and cancer.

Social awareness is the most essential weapon needed in the arsenal to begin an effective assault against global warming. But we don’t have enough time for a ‘bottom up’ approach to work. We need socially conscious leaders who can give a push from the top. I sincerely hope that Barack Obama is one such leader. America has to lead the way in fighting against global warming. And countries like China and India cannot afford to sit on the sidelines claiming to be poor nations. Inaction will prove much more costly. Concerted government regulation is the only way to move forward. One has to accept the fact that Corporate Responsibility is an oxymoron.

Seven years of Obama’s reign could be a watershed moment in the fight against global warming. And as individual men and women who are from a well educated background, we too have our moral responsibilities. We can start with becoming aware of the nature around us. Let us swithch off the TVs and the laptops and start enjoying the sunrise, the full moon, the twinkling stars, the cool trees and the chirping birds. Lets go out to the mountains and woods on the weekend rather than to the multiplex or to the disc. The more we fall in love with nature, we would subconsciously be more responsible towards nature. When that happens, the first battle would’ve been won and we would’ve conscripted ourselves into the army fighting against global warming.

If you think I sound exaggerated and that there is no need for alarm, then please download and watch “The 11^th Hour”.

Trip to Wayanad with some old friends

2009-01-01T20:22:00.006+05:30

It was like a dream come true. Twelve college mates getting together after almost 5 years. For two days, we all went back to our engineering hostel days and lived life as if we were 5 years younger. It was wonderful…

The coordination for the trip happened through a number of calls mainly anchored by Mr. Pandian. By the way, Mr. Pandian is our dear friend, who happens to be the only person to be in regular touch with all the twelve guys throughout. Among his various ‘talents’, Pandian is also very mature and responsible and we all owe it to him for making this trip possible. As part of planning for the trip, we had a number of conference calls. And these calls were great fun- imagine 10 old friends getting into a conference call and people trying to pull each others’ leg. Before I get into the details of the trip, I should not forget to thank Mr. Janakiraman, who was brave enough to put in his own money to book the train tickets for all of us. Knowing Janaki’s nature, we were all genuinely surprised that he would trust us all and actually put in his money. This didn’t stop us from pulling his leg throughout the trip.

The trip was to be in the 2^nd weekend of December. For my room mates and myself, the

adventure started even before the trip began. We had to rush to the railway station praying to God and we managed to catch the train with about 5 minutes to spare and huffing for breath. Some of us took a couple of minutes to recognize each other. Four years is a long time, and a few of us had changed considerably in appearance. I cannot describe the feeling, but I felt very very good and very young when I suddenly met so many old friends – many of them after a gap of four years. The entire train journey was a lot of fun, but maybe not so much for our poor co-passengers who had to contend with a lot of boisterous noise and crass language.

We reached Calicut at around 4 am the next day. It was pretty cold. We caught a bus to Kalpetta (a place in Wayanad district), which was to be our base for the next 2 days. We checked in to the hotel at around 7 am, freshened up and made plans to go mountain trekking. We had a brief taste of mallu food and tea during breakfast and made our way towards Chembra peak. We reached the base at 11 am and were told that it will take 6 hours to scale the peak and come back. Knowing the fitness levels within the group, we didn’t have much hopes of scaling the peak, but nevertheless, we started on our way in high spirits. The scenery was breathtaking even at the base, which was a tea estate. The group was fully equipped with digicams, which didn’t help in speeding up the ascent. Two people stood apart in the group due to the quintessential mobile phone being a permanent attachment to their ears. Mr. Prabhu was talking to his fiancée, which is understandable. Mr. Shiv Narayanan was apparently talking to his company sales team which was handling a product launch. But it was a little strange that there were reports of Mr. Shiv using terms like yes babe, miss you, dating, etc while taking to his sales team. Anyway, moving on from scandals, lets get back to the climb.

Excited as we were, we knew that not all of us will be making it till the end. The first casualties were Prabhu and Shiv, who stopped about 1 km from the start. There was speculation from some quarters that they stopped because beyond that point, the mobile phone signal coverage was inadequate. Well, I am not someone who likes to make fun of people, but it did give Prabhu the chance to catch his breath and explain to his fiancée how he was braving the conditions and continuing to climb steep cliffs. I am sure she would’ve been impressed. After some time, Shiv took the tough decision to stand up and continue the climb. Its another matter that his mobile ran out of charge at that point.

Midway through the climb, we reached the Heartin lake. It was a small lake- more the size of a pond - in a beautiful heart shape. We took a refreshing break and had an extended photo session in the lake surroundings. From thereon, the climb was quite steep and challenging. The higher we went, the more breathtaking the view was. It was a 5 km climb and I think the group went up till about 4 km. It was difficult, with people having to help out and manage with the slow movers. I, along with Vijay and Janaki took the liberty to leave the group and go another half kilometer further upward and we were rewarded with some truly breathtaking vantage points.

We returned to the base by around 4 pm. We learnt that in our absence, our immobile Prabhu was taken for a lifeless rock by a group of insensitive girls who refused to recognize that he was a living creature while making their way through the path. After consoling our distraught friend, we planned for the rest of the day. we were very exhausted and given a choice, I would’ve gone straight to the hotel and crashed. But as it happened, we next proceeded towards Soochipara waterfalls. We reached the waterfall with about an hour of sunlight remaining. It was my first time at a waterfall and I took the opportunity to take a bath. It was thrilling, what with the slippery stones making it a real adventure to cover even 50 meters towards the waterfall. We thoroughly enjoyed – not only the force of the water, but also the scene created by a group of mischievous girls. As we made our way back to the Jeep, I was at the point of extreme exhaustion. We went back to the hotel and I checked my weight to find that I had lost 1.3 Kg of body weight from morning to evening. It was an indication of extreme fluid loss. We took the cue and went into the hotel bar. A bit of brandy and a heavy dose of mallu non-veg food refreshed our bodies before taking to the bed.

The next day, we checked out of the hotel and left for Kuruva Island after breakfast. The island had a fairly dense cover of trees and had several streams of water running across. It was a water trek, in which we had to cross the streams, where the water levels varied from knee deep to hip deep (although some would say it was waist deep, its really their problem that their underwear got wet…). The scenery was really cool – and it consisted of more than just Mother Nature.

We went back to Kalpetta for lunch and after another heavy round of non-veg attack, we left for Calicut to catch our train. We did some last minute shopping for home and caught the train. The group was much more sober during the return journey, partly because we were exhausted. We browsed the photos that were taken and reminisced the two days of unbelievable fun we had. Morning arrived, Chennai came and we departed on our own ways, back to the life we had been living. The trip was over, but it helped form some of the golden memories in my life.

Future of Cricket

2008-11-30T21:52:00.000+05:30

When we talk about football today, most people will think of the English Premier League or the UEFA Champions League. If you ask someone which is his favourite team, most likely he will say Manchester United or Real Madrid or some other European club name. Football today is synonymous with club football. International matches are once in 4 year rituals like the FIFA world cup or the Euro Cup. Of course there are international friendlies and Olympic qualifiers that happen once n a while. But even in these matches, one rarely sees top international players, since they are occupied with more important club commitments. For football fans, its all about club allegiances. Many an Englishman will adore Portugal’s Christiano Ronaldo, but will loathe a Steven Gerrard who plays for a rival club. Club allegiance/rivalry is much more prominent today rather than nationalistic patriotism which is put on display once every 4 years.

For us cricket fans, thankfully the situation is quite different. Or is it?

Well, most of us Indians still identify our favourite team with the colour Blue. And most Australians cheer for the Baggy Green. We all love to watch Hayden vs Zaheer, Bhajji vs Symonds or Yuvraj vs Shoaib encounters on the field. But one wonders for how long. The IPL today is a 6 week annual tournament. Come year 2015. Imagine that the IPL is held over 40 weeks with 15 teams across India. Imagine similar leagues being played in England, Australia, Sharjah and South Africa. To add to this, we will have the so called Champions League, in which top teams from these elite clubs will compete to decide who is the best in the world. Of course, we will still have the World Cup and maybe even the Champions Trophy. After all, they are a once in 4 year commitment and it will give cricketers a chance to play for their country and realize their dream.

If you think that the situation I’ve described above is far fetched, then think again. Almost every decision in this world is taken based on economic logic. Every cricket board worth its salt, will take that course of action which is most profitable to itself. Over the past 2 years, it has become clear that 20-20 cricket is the most marketable form of cricket. Clearly it is the future. And the great Lalit Modi has proved that profits can be maximized by adopting the private club franchisee route. The IPL model is already a grand success with all involved making money and the audience is also apparently overjoyed. TV advertisement rates are the highest for T-20 than for any other format. Stadium tickets are equal to, if not higher than ODI matches, even for IPL (which is technically club cricket). Many IPL franchisees have made profits in the first year itself and all teams are expected to make profits from the 3^rd year onwards. Above all, the BCCI’s coffers are overflowing. All this, just from a 6 week tournament making its debut.

It is only a matter of time before people forget the Ashes, Border-Gavaskar and India-Pakistan series and instead talk about Chennai Super Kings Vs Bangalore Royal Challengers and Delhi Daredevils vs Mumbai Indians. Cricket as we know today will not exist 10 years down the line. Our children will know and follow cricket the way football is followed today. Is there a way to prevent this? I wish there was..

Obamania

2008-11-07T14:48:00.003+05:30

Like so many others around the world, I am at awe with Barack Obama. Not least by his oratorical skills. This man is amazing. He’s gifted in his speech, his intelligence, his courage and of course his charisma. I haven’t watched much of Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi or Winston Churchill tapes. But Barack Obama could be remembered as one of the modern political greats and compared with these yesteryear greats in the years to come. The funny thing is, Obama has only just won the election. He has only just entered the stage, but the applause from the crowd would seem to suggest that the play has reached the climax. At the risk of repeating what the media all over the world is saying, there is an ENORMOUS amount of hope pinned on Barack Obama. Looking at people’s expressions during his victory speech, one wonders how can so many people have so much hope from one man? And how can one man possibly meet the expectations of so many? He is not Jesus Christ. He is only a political leader of a less than perfect democracy. Yet, even Obama isn’t doing anything to play down the expectations. In his victory speech he only underscored these hopes. For the sake of the American people and for Obama himself, I hope he can meet a great deal of these expectations. But honestly speaking, I have no idea how he can do that. Meeting expectations in good times is difficult enough. But making people happy in these tough times… oh boy… Good Luck Mr. Obama!

What’s more interesting is that, perhaps for the first time, almost all nations of the world seem to be rejoicing an American president elect. Obama should partly thank George Bush for this international goodwill that he’s receiving. Well, after eight years of bull shit, the world would’ve been sure that things couldn’t get any worse in the White House.

The world in general needed an honest and intelligent leader in these turbulent times. Obama will be the right guy to create “win-win’ situations for everyone. From an Indian perspective, I think the Indo –US Nuke deal might suffer. This deal, at a higher level smells of American double standards and hypocrisy. Unlike some opinions, I believe the outsourcing industry will remain unscathed. Obama is smart enough to understand its economic logic. And economic logic always wins over politics.

Having seen the drama unfold over the last several months, I hope to see over the next 4 years, if one man can change America and the world for the better. I hope to see peace in Afghanistan and in the middle east. I hope to see an end to American political hypocrisy. I hope to see real economic and social prosperity. Am I audacious with my hope? Well, then so shall I!

Just before concluding, I was thinking who could be the best analogy for Obama. I could think of no one better than Rajnikanth. When all the chips are down and the world is at the mercy of the bad guys, all it takes to restore things is one man- Rajni, the Superstar. In the current scheme of things, people’s expectations from Obama is very similar to what the audience expects from Rajnikanth when he enters a scene. And Rajni never fails his fans!!

NM Memoirs

2008-08-17T09:49:00.000+05:30

Another phase in my life is coming to an end. Two years at NMIMS, Mumbai, doing my MBA. Looking back now, it has been a happy two years. Of course there have been good and bad times. When I first came here, I was disappointed- with a lot of things. My college lacked in a lot of things. But it also gave us a lot, which one sees only when the college days come to an end.

I shall try to talk about my most pleasant and unpleasant moments here. My first year here was difficult. I was initially disappointed with the college and hostel infrastructure. I also had difficulty adjusting to the food and the climate. Also, the people were different. I was interacting with north Indians after a long time and it takes some time to adjust. Added to this, I fell sick quite often- probably not adjusting to the Roti & Dal diet after a long time. The most difficult aspect for me at NMIMS was interacting with North Indians. It sounds kind of silly, but after these 2 years, I strongly feel that I am much more comfortable with south Indians around me. Of course I’ve had a few good friends from Northern and Western India (not least my room mates). But, in general, I’ve found it much easier to build a rapport with South Indians. It probably because of the obvious difference in personality between north and south Indians. This difference is kind of accentuated in girls. That probably why I never was comfortable with girls at NM. The matters were made worse by the fact that there was not a single Chennai girl in my batch L.

When I look back, the most enjoyable times of my life have been the three years in Chilka, the final semester in engineering and the 2nd year at NM. Being in Mumbai and away from any relatives, I got introduced to some of the materialistic vices in life- and I don’t regret it at all. The 1st year freshers party, the nights in Asiad and Harish were really enjoyable. The daaru parties in hostel were rocking too! The freedom that I got after the repressive atmosphere in my engineering college was very refreshing. It helped me feel mature and grow up. Most important was probably meeting some good people who will be my friends for a long time..

The last two years have been a break from life- from responsibilities, work, routine, etc. I have cherished these years for that. So many new experiences, new lessons and new friends have made these years worthwhile. I have truly enjoyed these years. The experience of doing MBA from NMIMS is truly unique. It is different from any other b school in the country. The spirit of NMIMS is unique and special and I am proud of being a part of it.

Note: Most of this article was written during my last days at NM. Some part has been added more recently.

Savings and Investment- Part 1

2008-06-08T16:42:00.002+05:30

Before starting with this post, let me warn you that I am not an expert in investments and I do not claim responsibility for any actions taken based on this post. This applies for all my blog posts!

This will be a two part post. In the first post, I will give some fundamental ‘gyan’ on savings and the characteristics of basic asset classes. In the second post, I will try to give an idea on how exactly to proceed with things on the ground.

Savings Account
All of us earn. And all of us spend. Most of us manage to save something at the end of the day, which we put into banks. But, is putting money into banks really saving? Technically speaking, it is not. All of us have savings accounts, which generally give an annual interest rate of 3-4%. The actual inflation rate in India today is around 10% (Don’t go by the govt’s WPI figure of 8%. CPI is the worldwide standard, which is not measured in India and is typically 1-2% above WPI). This means that the value of the money you hold in your pocket is decreasing by 10% every year. i.e., if Rs.100 can buy you 10 chocolates today, the same Rs.100 can buy you only 9 chocolates after 1 year. So you know that high inflation is a real killer of money value. Most of us get a salary raise every year. Let’s assume that on an average we get an annual raise of 15%. Let’s also assume that the long term (over a 20 year period) inflation rate (CPI) for India will be 7%. This means that, in effect your salary increases by approximately 8% year on year. That is a pretty decent number. But consider your savings. Let’s assume that you save 20% of your salary every year and leave it in your saving account. This amount will grow nominally by 3% every year. In real terms, you have actually lost approximately 4% of your savings. If your annual salary is Rs.5 lac, a devil called Inflation just ate Rs.4000 of your hard earned money. You would have been better off spending those Rs. 4000 on buying yourself some new clothes rather than see it vanish into thin air like this! So you now know that Savings Account is a bad guy and you should limit your association with him. But Savings Account is a necessary evil for all of us because he is the most liquid asset apart from cash in hand.

Fixed Deposit
Today banks give 8% on FD. Considering that inflation is 10%, this is a slightly better choice than a savings account. But the downside is, FD lacks in liquidity. Since your money is locked-in for a fixed period, you may not have access to your money when you need it.

Gold
Gold is the traditional inflation fighting tool. Over the years, the price of gold has managed to keep pace with inflation. If you want to protect your savings against inflation, then gold is one of the safest bets. But due to the emergence of bullion/commodity markets, gold prices are bound to fluctuate; but over the long term, gold inevitably keeps pace with inflation.

Equities
Now, lets come to the interesting part. The asset classes that we’ve discussed till now are conservative with little or no risk of loss in face value. But with no risk, comes no reward. Equities or stocks, are an exciting asset class which actually help your savings to grow. Investing in stocks is like giving your money to a businessman who will use it to build and grow his business. When he makes a profit, he gives you a share of it. As we know, at all times, there are businesses that make profits in the economy. Hence there is always money to be made by investing in stocks. But again, like gold, stocks are affected by traders and speculators. Hence their prices do not always reflect their true value and they are vulnerable to short term volatility driven by “market sentiment”. This implies that there is risk involved even when you invest in a good business/stock. Knowledgeable investors will always make money in the equity market if they stay invested for the long term. Trouble is-most of us are not knowledgeable investors. So it makes sense to take professional advice. Go to Mutual Funds and stick with a fund for the long term. You will be rewarded.

Real Estate
How can one ignore this asset class. Everyone dreams of owning a house. There are some of us, who are lucky enough to afford a second or third home. For people with such kind of surplus money, real estate is a good option to have. During times of economic boom, returns from real estate can be mouth watering. But there are many risks associated with real estate. Lack of liquidity is the biggest risk associated with owning property. But if you are smart with your decisions and not too aggressive, buying property with your surplus money is a good thing to do. But again, remember that you are not an expert real estate dealer; So be conservative with your choice and stay invested for the long term.

This brings us to the end of this part. In the next part, I will dwell a bit on some of the more sophisticated saving/investment instruments and also hopefully give some broad guidelines on managing your savings.

Need your suggestion!

2008-06-01T17:47:00.002+05:30

Long time no posts.. I've been very lazy. Sometimes I have the time and inclination to write something, but not much clue as to what I should be writing on. So, I am asking for help from YOU, the reader of my blog. Suggest any topic, and I will try my best to write a post on it. Please help me out- Any topic under the sun!

Abstract

2008-04-20T10:19:00.002+05:30

Sometimes trying is succeeding.
The greatest leap is the leap of faith.
When your heart wants something badly, you can’t listen to the mind.
I live to enjoy the journey; because the destination will last but only a moment, whereas the journey lasts a lifetime.
God, give me the courage to do what I must; and the intellect to not do what I shouldn’t.
Pink Floyd: Don’t give in without a fight.

My favourite sports personalities

2008-04-15T16:10:00.004+05:30

In this post I will talk about the people in sports that I have most admired in my life. I will divide the list of people I like based on the sport they belong to. As an Indian, it is obvious that I should start with Cricket.

Cricket:

Sachin Tendulkar- I started watching cricket from the 1992 world cup. That was the first world cup for the young star Sachin. Those days, Sachin was called “The little big man from Bombay”. He was the favourite among the commentators. Though India didn’t do well in that world cup, Sachin’s performance was well noted by the world. He was marked as a star for the future. And what a star he has been since then..

Mohammed Azharuddin- Despite the match fixing allegations and other scams, I have always enjoyed watching Azhar play. Not just his batting, but also his fielding. He was India’s best fielder for a very long time. I would really love watching him run between the wickets- he was such a wonderful judge of runs. He would almost never get run out.

Steve Waugh- I like Steve Waugh for his never say die attitude. He is one man you can trust to bat for your life. I cannot remember having seen a better fighter in world cricket.

Sourav Ganguly- To me, The prince of Calcutta was the best ever captain of India. The 3-4 odd years that Dada and John Wright were together, was the time I loved watching Indian cricket most. It was a time when the Indian team was characterized by determination, courage and a bit of arrogance. The Natwest Trophy final will remain etched in my memory. Apart from his captaincy, Dada is a fine batsman too and is a delight to watch when in full flow. If there is something more remarkable than his batting and his captaincy, it must be his grit & determination which he showed in ample quantities by making a successful comeback to the national side against all odds.

Tennis:

Michael Chang- He was never a very successful player. I think he won a couple of grand slams, but that was about it. I doubt if Chang ever made it to the No.1 spot in the ATP rankings. What I loved about this guy is that he never gave up. He would chase down every ball. You would hardly see any winners hit by his opponents. Chang would invariably reach every ball in this side of the court.

Formula One:

Frank Willaims- Though he is not a driver, I have been really impressed by this guy’s passion for racing. This has not been the easiest of times to lead an independent team in F1. The past decade has seen more than half a dozen independent teams exiting from the sport as manufacturers started to show their money power. At the end of 2006, most F1 pundits wrote Williams off, stating that it was only a matter of time before the team was sold off to another manufacturer. But old Franky stuck it out though the bad times. Today he has been finally rewarded. His team is fighting in fourth place in the world championship and also has one of the most promising stars of the future- Nico Rosberg- in its ranks.

Fernando Alonso- His reputation may have taken a beating after his unceremonious departure from McLaren last year, but Fernando Alonso remains my favourite driver on the circuit. 2005 & 2006 were the best years F1 has had in a long time. The battle of Alonso Vs Schumacher was just too good- especially in 2006. Even the mathematically closer 2007 championship did not match the intensity of the 2006 battle. If one were to ask Michael Schumacher to tell off the record, who is the best F1 driver at present, I am sure he would say its Alonso.

Basketball:

Michael Jordan- I watched basketball for 2-3 odd years around the years 1996-99. It was Bulls Vs Jazz in the NBA playoffs finals. It was my introduction to basketball, and I loved this guy, Michael Jordan. He was in complete control of whatever he did. He was cut above the rest. And the commentators were saying that this guy was actually making a comeback after a few years of sabbatical from the game. It was amazing. Come crunch time in a game, and Jordan was the man to give the ball to. His fadeaways and slam dunks are legendary. Unfortunately for me, my love for the game faded away as soon as Jordan left the Bulls and the game itself for a few years.

How about a world without cellphones?

2008-03-26T19:11:00.001+05:30

Hypothetical situation:

Scientists in one the most advanced European research centres have finally gathered enough evidence to prove conclusively that communication waves generated by mobile communication devices including cell phones are harmful to the human body. A ten year old research has yielded a result that states that exposure to such signal waves increases the chances of cancer by 50% and brain tumour by up to 20%. In other words, if the world stops using mobile communication devices, the occurrence of cancer might come down by as much as 50%.

Back to Reality:

Almost since the beginning of mobile phones usage by the general public, debate has raged about their impact on the health of the users. Mobile phone manufacturers claim that there is no conclusive evidence that cell phone usage causes any physical harm. Today, it is generally accepted that cell phone usage should be restricted; long calls should be avoided; and usage of handsfree is being encouraged. People know that cell phones can be harmful and hence the above measures to reduce one’s exposure to the waves. But no one knows for sure as to exactly how harmful these waves really are.

Now let’s imagine that the hypothetical situation stated in the beginning of this article actually happens. For some people this might be reason enough to ban all cell phones in this world. But it is highly unlikely that such a discovery will ever be known to the world at large. There is simply too much at stake for the corporates that are in the business of mobile communication – manufacturers, service providers, software providers, et all. And it is not just the greedy corporates so to say, who would ignore such a finding. What about people like you and me and what about the way businesses function the world over today? Will today’s CEOs be ready to part with his Black Berry? Or would the Dalal Street trader retain his sanity if his mobile phone service provider were to shut shop?

Aren’t we all so very dependent on mobile technology today? Imagine two worlds- one is the present world with cell phones and another one without cell phones, but you will have 50% less chance of getting cancer. Which one will you choose? Well, I know it s a tough choice!

I like

2008-03-09T14:37:00.002+05:30

Formula one, cricket, ar rahman, pink floyd, smirnoff, pink floyd+Smirnoff, kids- especially little girls, strategy computer games, relaxing at home, sipping beer in goa, mani ratnam, chilka, people who appreciate my sense of humour!, mom’s innocence, my unicorn, businessline, Frederick forsyth, Fernando Alonso, colour of the dawn sky, bawarchi briyani, wangs kitchen, besant nagar beach, mani’s, playing TT in GR Jani, IPO listing gains, rajnikanth, choosing a book from the library, ilayaraja

Mallya's leap of faith

2007-09-02T20:31:00.000+05:30

Vijay Mallya is undoubtedly the most flamboyant businessman in India. In the Indian press, he is often compared with Richard Branson of Virgin. He leads a colourful life and is a successful businessman. His spirits group- United Breweries- is an industry leader. He also owns ‘Kingfisher Beer’, which is a reasonably known international brand. More recently Mr. Mallya has entered the airline industry. Doing well in this segment will be much more of a challenge as the competitive landscape is extremely tough right now, and the stakes are much higher.

When Mallya’s Kingfisher airlines entered Formula One earlier this year as a sponsor to Toyota F1 team, it seemed to be a good, measured move which would enhance the brand visibility of his airline just as it was about to start services in international routes. But Mallya’s latest move to buy the Spyker F1 team is a much bigger move and an extremely ambitious one. It is to be noted that Mallya will use his own money - rather than involve any of the shareholders of his publicly listed company- for buying and running Spyker. The kind of money involved here is huge. Buying the team will cost around 80 – 90 million euros (450 crore Indian Rupees). In addition to this, the operations of the team will have to be financed. Considering that Spyker is presently a loss making entity (it made a loss of around 30 million euros in the first half of this year), this will be a very costly affair. Moreover, Mallya will be hoping for a turnaround in the team’s fortunes in another 1-2 years. This will be the most difficult part. Teams like Toyota and Honda have proved that money cannot guarantee success in this sport. And anyway, Mallya can never hope to match the budgets of the manufacturer-backed teams.

My guess is that, having entered the deal, Mallya will stick on with Spyker for 2-3 years and control the financial bleeding of the team. He is smart enough not to believe in miracles. He will try and minimize the bleeding of the team financially. He will utilize the 2-3 years to build a well-known brand out of his airline. He will try and bring in an Indian driver and use him to endorse his company. He will also try and make sure that an Indian Grand Prix happens- latest by 2009. At the end of these 2-3 years, Kingfisher Airlines will be known world over and Mallya would’ve achieved his objective. At the end of this period, Mallya will start looking for a good price at which to exit his ‘investment’. Inevitably there will be another corporate entity somewhere which would want to utilize Spyker’s (or whatever it will be called then) services for achieving its own corporate objectives, and the story will continue thus…

Things could go wrong though, if Spyker’s financial bleeding cannot be stopped without severely hampering its competitiveness. Mallya is rich, but he is not stupid. He is not a Roman Abramovich, who is spending his personal fortune on a soccer team to simply amuse himself. Mallya’s move is strictly business oriented. This is a calculated gamble that he is making. He is hoping that the money that he will bleed in Spyker will be compensated by making Kingfisher the airline of choice for flying in and out of India. But this is a risky move since Mallya is totally inexperienced in running an F1 team. I doubt if he has ever owned any motorsport team.

Mallya is going for all or nothing here. He is entering untested waters and the only reward that will justify his risk is if his airline becomes the number one Indian carrier in international routes. Here’s wishing Mr. Mallya best of luck in his leap of faith!

Click Here for more of my views on Formula One

LIC's MoneyPlus Scam

2007-09-01T21:40:00.000+05:30

The image you see here is the brochure used by LIC agents across the country for fooling middle-class people into investing their hard earned money into an investment product through fraudulent means. I am talking about LIC’s Money Plus. It is a highly successful ULIP instrument.

Not for a moment am I questioning the legality or quality of the product itself. What I am appalled with is the ethical standards of LIC’s agents. Typically what happens is that the agent shows this brochure to a prospective customer and talks to him about the ‘indicative’ returns. The brochure seems to suggest that his expected returns will vary from 20% to 30% on an annuated basis. This would mean that an investment of Rs. 30,000 will give you returns in the range of 7 lacs to 34 lacs.

In most cases the prospective customer will not think beyond the boundaries of what is being shown in the brochure. Of course, the agent can back his claim by showing LIC’s record in the past 3 years when the stock market grew exponentially. The possibility of a loss is not suggested anywhere except in the statutory warning about Market Risk which is present in a corner in the finest of prints.

A 20% yearly growth in assets over a 20-year time frame is the kind of growth that hasn’t been attained by the likes of Warren Buffet and Peter Lynch who are among the greatest investors in the world. If ever these guys come to know about the claims made by LIC’s agents…

Only last week, one of my friends fell in the trap of a LIC agent and subscribed to the Money Plus policy. This guy works in a top IT company and is a very intelligent person. If such people can be fooled, then think about people from the lower economic strata like auto rickshaw drivers and the likes. Rs. 10,000 is a significant amount for these guys. But the lure of getting Rs. 30 lacs from an investment of just Rs. 30,000 will be very difficult for them to resist.

The most worrying aspect is that this kind of sales tactics is not an isolated event. I now know atleast three agents who have used this trick. I must say that this has been a very successful method albeit unethical. It seems that whoever knows about the MoneyPlus scheme seems to have a favourable opinion on it, thanks to the lucrative figures mentioned in the brochure.

Needless to say, something needs to be done to stop this unethical practice. The regulators can do their bit by imposing strict restrictions on the commissions paid to insurance agents. More importantly, the LIC should rein in its agents.

The MoneyPlus scheme is now closed for investors and hence no one will now fall for false promises of the LIC agents- but I hope that this article gives investors more wisdom in future when one can expect more such schemes in the market.

Colleges or Schools?

2007-07-29T13:08:00.000+05:30

People who are aware of the situation will appreciate how an increasingly large number of engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu are being run like schools. One can find these colleges enforce strict and in many cases ridiculous rules and regulations which often infringe on some of the basic rights given to an Indian citizen. One should not be surprised to see engineering colleges in chennai that do not allow guys and girls to talk to each other. Yes, you heard me right. It may be tough to believe, but this actually happens in many places. Yours truly can bear evidence to the same, having spent four years in one of the strictest engineering ‘colleges’ of the country. Of course, its an irony that this was followed by a 2 yr stint in one of the most lenient and ‘chill’ b schools of the country!

Coming back to the topic of discussion, I believe that the 3-4 years of college life completes a person’s journey to adulthood. These years are crucial for a man in shaping his personality, which will be his asset for the rest of his life. College life is the time when a boy encounters a lot of new things in life. For the first time he realises how close he is to adulthood. He gets the perks that come with adulthood and also the responsibilities. He experiences freedom- it is exciting and sometimes scary too. The experiences at this age- the friends he makes, the enemies he makes, the situations he encounters, the first love, the second love, the college strike, the secret drink sessions with mates, the third love, the leaked exam papers, the ragging sessions, etc- determine the kind of man he will be for the rest of his life.

South India, especially Tamil Nadu is well known for its ‘intellectual’ tradition. The educational footing is strong in these states and as a result the region is a favourite with the industry. This positive environment has resulted in a virtuous cycle where the people have a strong faith in the power of education as a means to reach prosperity. This has resulted in a large number of higher educational institutes based out of the south. The number of engineering institutes is astonishing. Tamil Nadu alone has more than one lakh (100,000) engineering seats to offer every year. Of course, the quality of most institutes is very questionable. Nevertheless, the economic environment in the state and the country at large is such that any half decent engineering graduate gets a well paying job. People from rural regions of Tamil Nadu have suffered for a long time with an unreliable monsoon and an unfriendly neighbour when it comes to sharing of water resources. After years of a downhill ride in the state’s agricultural fortunes, many people have lost faith in agriculture as a means of livelihood. People want their sons to go to the city and enter the industry and see prosperity. An engineering seat is a very good means to achieve this.

The opportunists have capitalised on this opportunity by opening engineering colleges in every nook and corner. But the most important ingredient to lure students to a college is by having a credible placement record. The colleges try to ensure that they achieve a good academic record (read examination results) every year. There are regular exams and assignments. Failing in these will result in heavy impositions and other punishments. Academics is not just the most prominent issue in the agenda, it is the Agenda for these colleges. Things like sports and cultural activities are given only a cursory treatment. They also enforce strict rules like 100% attendance, no interaction between the sexes, formal wear (I heard that there is one college in chennai which requires students to wear ties 5 days a week! Now beat that… ties in chennai!!), no funky haircuts allowed, clean-shaven faces becoming mandatory. Such measures usually convince parents that here is a good college which will ensure that their son will not end up going in the wrong path and will get a good job in the end. The thing about no interaction between the sexes is a major selling point with parents of girls who are usually more worried about leaving their ward in a hostel far away from their hometown.

Things have come to such a turn that colleges are now competing with each other to impose stricter and more ridiculous rules. And these rules are actually enforced with a high degree of success. The end result is that at the end of four years you get a boy- not a man- who is seemingly bright chap with 80% in his engineering degree, but doesn’t know the fundamental engineering concepts. This kid is a very disciplined person, is used to formal wear and a can talk English. This is enough for a recruiter from an IT company to come and recruit him.

These ridiculous rules will not only cause students to forget about the fun element in college life, but it will also result in producing men of inferior quality. Men who are bound by the system. Men who believe that the system is insurmountable and do not even wish to change it for the better. Men who are cowards, because they have never gone through a ragging session where you learn to tackle bullying. Men who can never respect a woman because they never interacted enough with them. Men who cannot tolerate a rebel because they could never be one. Men who loathe optimists because they were never allowed to be one. Of Course there will be a few exceptions who come out of the system unscathed as normal human beings, but those numbers are unsignificant.

The situation can be rectified only when the mindset of parents change. This change can only happen in the coming generation of parents who have grown up in relative prosperity and who realise that there is more to education in life than can be obtained in text books and class rooms. I hope that this happens sooner than later.

Irritating Headlights!

2007-07-15T13:43:00.000+05:30

I ride a bike and wear a helmet with visor. One of the most irritating things I encounter while on the roads is the high beam headlights of motorists in the nights. Most vehicles that I encounter in the roads in the city use high beam headlights which are actually meant for the highways. When the light from these headlights falls on the glass visor of the helmet, it spreads all over the glass surface and the glare is so much that one has to close his eyes till the vehicle from the opposite direction has past. Even if one manages to keep the eyes open, it is hardly useful as one cannot see anything in the road except the light beams. This forces one to slow down considerably in order to avoid an accident. Since such a thing keeps happening, it is highly irritating. I am sure a lot many accidents in the night would've been caused by such things.

Cars and two wheelers are equally guilty of using high beam headlights in the city. Apparently, motorists in India need to be educated in driving etiquettes such as this and others like lane changing. I hope that atleast the few readers of this blog will keep these things in mind and make the life of bikers and drivers in the generally bad Indian roads a little easier!

Enjoying every moment of IT!

2007-07-07T22:58:00.000+05:30

A few days back I heard a colleague in office saying, “I am working in general insurance, my cousin is in health insurance, my sister is also in insurance. Only my brother in law is in retail. We are trying to convince him to join insurance too!”. A closer inspection of the conversation revealed that this person was implying that all his family members are working in the insurance domain of various IT companies.

We Indians are living in an era in which the demographics of middle class urban population is increasingly becoming homogenous. Almost every family has someone working in the IT sector. This is even more evident in the southern states. When you hear that a particular IT company hires over a thousand students from Anna University (which is around half of its student strength), you know that something strange is happening. As most of you know, I am talking about TCS which hired 1006 students from Anna University this June. TCS might as well consider setting up a strategic business unit for Anna University students. Incidentally this is not a one off case. Similar figures of campus placements have been emerging from many reputed engineering institutes in Tamil Nadu and other South Indian states. Things have come to such a state that the sole purpose of students enrolling for B.E. courses is now getting into the IT bandwagon.

The students or their parents are not the reason behind this phenomenon. They are simply reacting to the market situation. Who would want to pursue a career in electrical engineering today? Getting a job in the first place is itself difficult. Even if one manages to get into a decent company, the chances of his starting salary being more than that of his friends in Infosys and Wipro are extremely slim. To add to things, our electrical engineer most likely has a 6 day working week and has to spend a substantial part of his day in the workshop in the sweltering heat while his friend in Infosys is comfortable in his A/C cubicle, checking emails and chatting to friends. The Infosys friend also has pretty female colleagues around him to provide him with some entertainment. After two years of struggle and slogging, the electrical engineer proves his capabilities in his workplace. He gets good salary raises and is now proud to be earning almost twice his starting salary. But his ego comes crashing down when he sees that his Infy friend is now with Wipro and is earning thrice his starting salary. To add salt to the would, this guy announces that he is going to the US next month on a H1B visa. The only worry in his life is that he will be leaving behind his latest Wipro girlfriend. The electrical engineer comes home and finds that his parents have been unsuccessfully searching for a marriage alliance for him. The good candidates are either software engineers and prefer marrying another software engineer or they are not software engineers but still would prefer marrying a software engineer. The poor electrical engineer thinks that enough is enough and enrols himself for a Mainframes course.

We Indians are proud of our rich and diverse culture and heritage. But in 3000 A.D., archaeologists will find that urban India- especially southern India in circa 2000 – 2050 A.D. was a boringly bland society and was largely a softwarian (an analogy to agrarian) economy.

A serious issue

2007-06-07T15:27:00.001+05:30

I saw an interesting article in ET today. According to the article, top IT companies in India like Infosys, Wipro, etc have decided to ask their employees to sign a non compete agreement. The gist of the agreement is that if an employee of any of the following companies- Infy, Wipro, TCS, Cognizant, Accenture, IBM- quits his job, then he/she is not free to join any other company from the above list for 6 months from the date of termination.

The link to the article is: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2102946.cms

Such an agreement has serious implications to IT employees, who have fallen into the habit of changing companies every 18 months or so. There is no doubt that if this policy is comprehensively implemented then the sky high attrition levels in the Indian IT industry will fall drastically and will consequently help IT companies cut costs. But it also raises many important issues. The most important one is the issue of employee rights. An extract from the article: ‘Infosys Head (HR), Bikramjit Maitra, confirmed the move. He said the reason behind including only a few firms in the ‘named competition’ was to keep the terms reasonable and not restrict employment opportunities available to individuals

The present scenario in the Indian IT setup is such that around 70% of the market is dominated by the companies mentioned in the above list. So, if an employer decides to quit Infosys, his choice of a future employer will be severely restricted. He will have only 30% of the market to choose from. Of course, no one will consider sitting at home of 6 months. In such a scenario, this agreement will be a gross violation of the rights of an employee. It will also make IT companies to concentrate less on being employee friendly. At times like these one wonders if there is indeed a need for a union for IT employees. I seriously hope that voices are raised against such a policy.

Having said all this, my gut feeling is that ET, as usual, has gone overboard and has probably been inaccurate with its story. This thing sounds so ludicrous that it is hard to believe it. Perhaps the article fails to highlight some aspects of the story. Once all the aspects of the proposed contract are known, the story will be clearer.

Hi there!

2007-06-06T17:45:00.000+05:30

This post is to assuage any fears of the readers (if there are any left!) that I may have left planet earth! Well, I am here and I am very much alive! I hope that this long hibernating blog will become much more active from now on.

Back to Cognizant!

2007-02-09T12:41:00.000+05:30

The placement season is over and I am glad to announce that I have been placed. I will be going back to my old employer, Cognizant Technology Solutions. I will hopefully be put in the banking vertical and be located in Chennai. Thus ends the great quest of a job at the end of a MBA course. Well, the course is not over yet…but for all practical purposes, it has now lost its importance in our eyes. The placement week itself was more stressful than I had imagined. I thought I was very calm and composed and confident. But just one rejection shook me up and I realized how vulnerable I was to failure. I am forced to follow some protocols here which do not allow me to disclose which company I am talking about. This company came to campus about a week before the official placement week that started on 30^th Jan. And it wasn’t just me who was disappointed. Scores of others who were rejected were also dejected and depressed. I hadn’t imagined the kind of gloom and negativism that set in throughout the campus as companies started their pre processes and shortlists started coming in. We MBAs are supposed to be a self confident lot. But a lot of that is actually pretension. Placement season makes even the most self confident soul feel humble about himself.

By the time 30^th Jan arrived, I had regained my old self confidence. I knew that confidence, calmness and composure were the key to get through placements. And with the amount of preparations I had put in over the past few months, I knew that I could not rely on my knowledge- coz I don’t have much of it. So confidence and composure was very crucial. Thankfully things ended well and I ended up in the IT sector as I had wanted to. The interview itself was very cool. I had never expected it to be that way. The subject on which my knowledge was tested most was Formula One racing! I couldn’t have asked for a simpler interview. Anyway, I guess I got placed at the right moment. At around 7 pm people who were yet to be placed started getting anxious. Some cried- especially girls. The tension was explicitly palpable. I stuck around till my other room mate was placed. Then I quietly got down and took a drag and went back to the hostel.

By the end of the day, less than 20% of the batch was remaining to be placed. These guys were placed the next day. The placecom guys did a really commendable job. The first year students who handled the show were extremely good at their task and kept the inevitable confusions to minimum. The quality of the companies coming to campus was not compromised even till the last moment. Unlike the previous years there were no ‘bulk recruiters’ that took candidates in droves. Yet everyone got placed very fast. When placements ended, around 40 odd companies were yet to come! This speaks of two things- the marvelous effort of the placecom guys in convincing so many companies to come to campus, and the present crazy demand for MBA students from institutes like NMIMS by corporates. I guess the official placement statistics are not out yet. But the average salary this time will be substantially higher than last time’s figure. A look at the salary figures in top b schools over the past 5-6 years will give a mind boggling picture. Wage inflation is running up like crazy. It will have to stop at some point. At least the party hasn’t ended until I entered the dance floor!

Well, that was placements @ NMIMS for you. Now that it is all over, life is boring. But I am glad that I got most of what I wanted from placements. I am back at home now. I have a pleasant feeling going around in my head now which I would like to call- peaceful relaxation…

Guru

2007-01-16T17:39:00.000+05:30

The latest movie by Mani Ratnam starts with a message which reads something like this:

ALL CHARACTERS IN THIS MOVIE ARE FICTITIOUS AND ANY RESEMBLANCE TO ANY PERSON DEAD OR ALIVE IS PURELY COINCIDENTAL

That message is crap. But the movie isn’t. The movie is not simply “inspired by Dhirubhai Ambani’s life”. It is as close to a biography of Mr. Ambani as Mani Ratnam could dare to make. The movie is very good and deserves to be seen by every Indian. Inspirational stuff, especially for aspiring entrepreneurs.

Like many other people, I had an opinion in which I used to see the Tatas as the ideal businessmen, full of ethics and values and I used to see Reliance as an example of how not to do business. This movie has made me think a bit on this and now I see things in a different light. I see that all is not black and white in this world. Sometimes breaking the law is not the wrong thing, in fact it is the right thing. To borrow a line from the movie, 70 years back a man broke the law of the land, and today we call him Bapu. Dhirubhai might have done a lot of things that may be termed as fraud or illegal or unethical. But he did what he did, in order to grow despite the stupid license - quota laws that were prevailing in the country at that time. When you put in your sweat and your hard earned money and risk it all to do business, it is but natural that you don’t want an illogical system to stop you.

Ambani was successful at a time when it was a sin to make huge amounts of money- unless you were rich with your forefathers’ wealth. Though he himself became hugely rich, he also made thousands of common shareholders rich. Not only that, he gave employment to a lot of people and inspired countless entrepreneurs. He gave confidence to businessmen across the country and played an important role in building the nation.

India is very lucky to have had Dhirubhai Ambani and others like him. To overcome all those odds and still succeed, takes guts and determination. Dhirubhai had ample amounts of both. Thanks to people like him, today India has a stature of its own among the nations of the world. There have been others too, who have given the country as much, Narayana Murthy being a top of the mind recall. And I feel naturally proud that I am born in the same land as such great men.

She is beautiful !

2006-12-10T10:02:00.000+05:30

She has captured my heart. Her photo has been occupying my desktop for the past few days. I am longing to meet her again and hold her and kiss her.
She is my cousin's daughter, Dhriti. I haven't seen anything more tender than this.

2006-12-08T14:55:00.000+05:30

Found this somewhere on the net.

American sports fans kind of pride themselves on following their own sports that no one else in the world really cares about. The people who follow soccer (as it's known over there) are generally not "Sports fans" as such (or of South American descent). Basketball and Hockey may be big in other parts of the world, but US fans don't care about anything but the NBA and NHL - the various World Cup and Olympics apperances of USA teams in these sports are mere blips on the radar compared to Super Bowls, World Series and NEXTEL Cups.

In short, the only way F1 is going to break big in the states is if it becoms unpopular in the rest of the world. That's just how it is.

A year old !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2006-12-05T23:40:00.000+05:30

Exactly a year ago I started an unsure journey as a blogger. One year on, I look back at what I ve been writing and what I’ve got out of this activity. My posts have been a mixture of personal incidents and general issues and of course, Formula One. I have deliberately not given a definite shape to this blog. I guess this somewhat reflects my personality. I am a bit of everything. Sometimes shy, sometimes bold. Sometimes naughty, sometimes serious. Sometimes proactive, sometimes inactive! Since I myself seem to be a confused soul, you can expect something similar from my blog too. Moving forward, you can expect to find an assortment of articles relating to whatever comes to my convoluted mind.

Looking at what I’ve gained from blogging, the least I’ve gained is that my writing has improved. Just as it is important to keep reading and speaking to improve one’s language, I’ve realised that writing something from time to time can also be a big help (especially since the only other writing I seem to do is once every three months during my exams). When I read through some of the old posts, I realised that I was storing my thoughts and my ideas though this blog. Now of course I am not an Einstein or a Gandhi whose ideas are of relevance to anyone. But somehow, I feel good when I look back at my thoughts. It is almost like travelling through time and revisiting certain moments. One more thing that I derive out of blogging is of course the gratification derived from the knowledge that what I write is being read by quite a few people. But this was not the reason I gave myself for starting a blog, not is this the reason I give myself to continue blogging.

At this milestone I have some resolutions. I hope to be more regular in my postings from now on. I take this opportunity to thank all those poor souls who were unlucky enough to visit this blog and senseless enough to go through my posts!! And if any of these poor souls intend to return, then I assure them that I will try and keep improving my writing and will try and make their reading a little more fun.

The Verdict

2006-12-04T20:46:00.000+05:30

Sanjay Dutt was charge-sheeted by the CBI for possession of weapons which included three AK 56 rifles, hand grenades and ammunition. These weapons were allegedly meant to be used in the 1993 Mumbai blasts. Last week a special TADA court gave its final verdict in which Dutt was convicted under the Arms act and not under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act.

The full verdict of the case is not yet available to the public. But I must say that I am bewildered and disappointed with the verdict. Dutt’s argument had been that he had the weapons for self defence and that he was not a terrorist. Hence he should not be convicted under the TADA. Now, the judge has said in his verdict that Dutt did possess weapons illegally. But he also said that he buys Dutt’s contention that the weapons could have been for self defence. He also said that there was not enough evidence to prove that Dutt was a terrorist. But apparently there was enough evidence to prove that Dutt was in illegal possession of weapons and hence the conviction under the Arms act. Now, can any sensible person justify the possession of AK 56 rifles and grenades for self defence? Isn’t that ridiculous?

Among the co accused in the case were those who allegedly delivered the Arms to Dutt and those who tried to destroy the evidence by melting the rifles. Both of these men were convicted under TADA. But Dutt was seemingly just an innocent person caught in the middle guilty of simply possessing illegal weapons!!

I am sure that money, power and politics had their role to play in this case, as is common in such cases in this country. The fact that his sister is a MP of the ruling congress party and Dutt himself is a Bollywood celebrity should have been indication enough that one couldn’t expect a fair verdict. I have tried to gauge people’s opinion on the verdict. The responses ranged from disappointment to indifference. And then there were some whose thinking was something on these lines:

‘C’mon, he may have stored the weapons for some reason or pressure or whatever… but for sure, this guy is not a terrorist! He is a good actor. He may have been misguided in the past but now he is a reformed man trying to live a decent life. Whatever happened in the past is past. He is now trying to live a peaceful life. Why do you want to punish him now?’

Now what can I say about this. It is true that the objective of punishment is to reform a person. But there is another very important objective. The act of punishing a guilty man serves as an example to the society and shows that the laws of the land are functioning. This deters potential criminals from indulging in such activities. If the punished is a celebrity or an important person, the example is that much stronger. In the end it is the society which is benefited.

Sanjay Dutt, his family and his fans are happy that he escaped the TADA conviction. Of course they believe that this guy is a transformed man. Maybe they are true. But this verdict is one more nail in the coffin in which lies the nation’s legal system.

Children's Day Special

2006-11-21T00:48:00.000+05:30

This children’s day I went to a special place. The Social Responsibility Forum (SRF) of our institute had organised a function for children in an orphanage run by a NGO called ‘SUPPORT’. I went there hoping to be of some help in organising and conducting the event. As it turned out, the number of volunteers was far more than what was required. I guess the students were all excited about contributing something to the society. As you know, too many cooks spoil the broth. So I decided to stay on the sidelines and instead just looked around the place and observed things. I also talked to a few kids. This was my first time in an orphanage and I was just getting a feel of things.

I am not a great observer of things (even though I am a finance major!!! ) but I observed a few things. Most kids were going through a lot of suffering and hardship before coming to that place. The place that they are living right now is not really that good. A bit too cramped for space. What we did for the kids that day- conducting games, movie, snacks, etc- was not much. But the kids were really thankful for what they got. Of course they would’ve been told to behave in such a way by the NGO. But in the eyes of the children I could see real gratitude. When the kids were served snacks, all of them closed their eyes and prayed before eating. Each and every single kid prayed sincerely and loudly. Even in such hunger and at such a young age, many of the kids kept offering us the snacks as they saw that we were not eating anything. It was really touching. The kids were extremely disciplined. All this makes one want to go to the place again and again and give something to the kids.

In the eyes of the kids I saw so many bright young minds. Potential waiting to get unlocked. These are smart kids, these are the country’s future. These are good times for the country’s economy. If only these kids are shaped properly and given a chance, they will definitely grab the opportunity. I hope that all the kids I saw that day go on to work for an Infosys, a Maruti, a HDFC bank, or do MBA from a NMIMS or maybe start some entrepreneurship some day. Believe me, all these kids are capable of doing this. They are smart, hard working and have the fire in their belly.

I am convinced that if I do not do substantial contributions to such efforts as what is being done by SUPPORT, then my career and my life is a waste. It felt good to see so many volunteers that day. Especially the kids from MBA Tech. Younger minds are more easily impressionable. This kind of an experience should have served the 17 something students of the MBA tech course well.

We keep hearing about the economic growth of our country. What’s more important is inclusive growth. I hope citizens of this country keep this in mind. Our country is supposed to be full of ‘highly intellectual’ and intelligent men and women. If that is the case then we must realise that distribution of wealth, inclusive growth and social justice are more important than 10% GDP growth, FII and trillion dollar forex reserves. Let us all play our role in making India a great nation and not just a great economy. Let us all give these kids a shot at life.

My First Trek!

2006-11-16T23:32:00.000+05:30

Last Sunday I went on an ‘adventure trip’. Some of my friends had been planning to go on a trek with some members from a club called Nature Knights. At the last moment all my Sunday classes got cancelled and I planned to join my friends.

I got up at 5 am. I think that is the earliest I have woken since coming to Mumbai. Four of us left from the hostel in the early hours. At the bus stop we met the other four people from our institute. Three of them were French nationals who have come to our institute as part of a student exchange program. We also met the other people who were to come with us on the trip. There were a total of 23 members in the group. We left on a minibus from Andheri bus stand.

We went to a place called Tung near Lonavala. We reached the trek site at around 10.40 am. The mountain we were supposed to climb was ‘kathingad’. At first site the mountain/hill looked like a short but steep climb. The experienced members in the group seemed to think that this is gonna be an easy climb. I was not very sure though, since this was my first such excursion. We started the climb at around 11 am. The climb to the top took us 2 hours but with plenty of breaks. An experienced climber could probably have done it in an hour. But all the breaks were worth it. We stopped often to take in the breathtaking scenery. We also took some photographs. As we reached the top, it was time for lunch. We ate the food we had. Another group actually did some cooking there and had a nice time.

As everyone was simply lazing around, we took the opportunity to interact with the French students whom most of us were meeting for the first time. Thanks to the trek I got the opportunity to meet these wonderful people. Nicolas, Audrey and Joanna were nice company and I am glad I got to know them. It was interesting talking to them and learn about their country and their people.

We also did some rappelling while on top of the mountain. That was fun to do. I also very much enjoyed the serenity I found at the top. If you don’t know what rappelling means, well it is a way of climbing down the mountain using a rope. The quietness and the sound of the wind and the scenery below were very pleasant.

The climb down was much more difficult. It needed more balancing. We needed around 40 mins to climb down. We spent some time chatting at the bottom. Some people played cricket with the village boys. Even Nicolas tried his hand at batting and managed to make contact with the ball many times!

We started our trip back at around 6. we stopped at lonavala to have dinner. We reached the hostel at around 9. After looking at beautiful scenes through the day, the city looked ugly. But then this is where people make money, make a living. I guess that’s how life is. There are always two sides to a coin.

Anyway, the trek was an awesome experience. More so because this was my first trek. And I am eager to go on such treks more often.

Another competition, another experience

2006-11-09T14:09:00.000+05:30

Last weekend I had gone to a b school in Mumbai, NITIE for their annual inter b school event, Prerana My team was shortlisted for an event called B Sultans. Since B Sultans constituted of many sub events spanning 3 days, we had gone there prepared to stay there for the three days.

The NITIE campus was really amazing and beautiful. It had lots of greenery and was surrounded by 2 lakes. The students of NITIE are indeed lucky. The event itself was very exhausting with lots of games involved. One of the games required us to go to the streets of Mumbai and sell toys worth 2500 rupees. It was a real challenge. The final event was a presentation of a paper we had written on offshore outsourcing. We learnt a lot while preparing for the paper. The events as a whole were interesting. Although we did not win any prizes, I think we all gained something from it.

This is the second competition I ve been part of. The first one being IIM Indore. It will be unfair to compare the two institutions. But both my exoeriences have been pleasant. I was unable to watch Euphoria when they performed in Indore, but as luck would have it, the same group performed in NITIE during Prerana. So I had the opportunity to watch this famous group's performance.

Thanks to my roommate Arjun's initiative I participated in this competition. It was definitely three days well spent. Lot of good food, fresh air and indeed good learnings.

A welcome break

2006-11-01T01:47:00.000+05:30

I recently returned to Mumbai after a trip home for Diwali. I am feeling very rejuvenated since I came back. Its really surprising how such short breaks with one’s family can do wonders to one’s mental frame. It is times like these when I feel lucky to have a home, my own folks, relatives, and of course friends. The 10 days in Chennai really flew- like they always do. I met so many friends and relatives after a long time- and still there were so many that I could not meet. And the time I spent with my sis, mom and dad was as usual, wonderful. Its definitely Home sweet home!

I didn’t burst any crackers for Diwali this time, having lost interest in such things. For a change I did not go to any movie this time (not that I did not try). And I was bloody shocked when I saw the rates at some of the cinema halls in the city. At this rate Chennai will be as bad as Mumbai in another 2 years.

The city is changing rapidly. Lots of new hangouts have sprung up. And having lived in Mumbai, the costs seem really reasonable. One bad thing about the city is of course is the CAS system. Now am just waiting for the DTH system to mature and stabilise before deciding whether to opt for it.

I saw a special person in this trip to Chennai. She’s got the softest cheeks and feet I ve ever seen. And the cutest smile. Her name is Dhrithi.She is the most beautiful baby I ve seen!
She is my cousin’s daughter. And she is barely a month old now! It was a wonderful experience to hold her in my arms and spend time with her- although its quite another matter that she was asleep most of the time and quite oblivious of my presence!

Yet another friend of mine, Vivek will be going abroad shortly on a job assignment. I really wonder if any of my old friends will remain in India by the time I complete my course! Hopefully Prasanna will be back in India soon, and I hope to meet him.

All in all, the holidays was a welcome break (don’t ask me from what! ). And Fernando Alonso winning the world championship for the second time was the icing on the cake, even though I was unable to watch the final race thanks to the CAS system.

Back here in Mumbai I feel fresh and raring to go. My team has made it to the final round of a competition called 'B Sultans' in NITIE. So, right now busy writing a 'thesis paper'. Lets see how it goes..

Trip to Pune

2006-10-04T11:10:00.000+05:30

My 4th trimester exams got over last week. Went to pune after that to meet some old friends. Both of them- Rahul and Kunal- were my school mates whom I hadn’t seen in years. Had a nice time with them. As expected both of them are engineers working in a software company. Now isn’t that - engineers working in a software company- getting seriously clichéd?

I enjoyed the weather in Pune except of course the rain on the last day. The open spaces with lot of green was a relief to the eyes after being in Mumbai for so long. If only the roads are improved and the traffic pollution reduced, Pune would be a great place to live in. The cost of living though is another pain in the back. In many cases Pune is almost as expensive as Mumbai. Inflation is going through the roof. This really is a city that is booming big time.

I was very happy to meet Kunal and Rahul, both of whom were close buddies in school. I am really happy to get back in touch with 2 great firends...

The last evening was a bit of an adventure. I had to ride a ramshackle old motorbike in proper rain without any protection for more than an hour. And with the clock ticking we reached the railway station just in time- literally. All the usual drama was thrown in on the way to the station. We had traffic jams, red signals… even the bike ran out of petrol. We had to run like mad, and were thankful that the train was late by 5 minutes.

All in all, it was a nice experience. And I am really happy to get back in touch with two old buddies.

How life comes a full circle

2006-09-17T15:36:00.000+05:30

As a b school student often does, I often think about my future. What kind of job would I like to land in… Which is my dream company… Which sector would I like to work in, etc… And like most b school students, I am clueless. The only thing I am sure of is that my job should pay me well, shouldn’t be too taxing and also give me ‘job satisfaction’. Economics students may call this the unholy/ impossible trinity. But hey, I am human and I have the power of hope and imagination :)

Recently I was chatting with a good friend of mine. During the course of our conversation I said that right now I am looking at IT companies for my final placement. He reminded me that we had a conversation on the same topic about a year and a half back. At that time I had told him that I came to do a MBA because I wanted to get out of the IT sector in which I was previously employed. At that time I had wanted to end up in anything but the IT sector. How ridiculous isn’t it… Human mind is so fickle! What I didn’t want to do 15 months back is precisely what I want to do now! Life has come a full circle so soon!

If I look back at the reason I gave for disliking the IT sector one and a half years back, it sounds so stupid. And if you were to ask me the reason I prefer the IT sector now, I would probably not tell you. Because, sometimes the reasoning sounds stupid even to me. See, the problem is that I do not have a clear cut preference for anything. I do not have any area of interest so to say. I do not have a passion for any particular thing. Probably that is why I am not clear as to what my aim should be. Once I chatted with my dad about this. He said that it is good this way. One must always be open to anything. I think his point of view is that it is not important what job you get into. What is important is how well you do the job. Well I think he is justified in thinking that way. After all, considering his family situation 40 years back, he would’ve been happy with any job he could get. But I do think that there is a lot of truth in what he says. I think most people in this world end up in jobs they did not want to do. But not all of them are unhappy. And not everyone who gets into a job of his choice is happy with his job. One must learn to develop a liking to what one is doing. That is how one can be successful. I think to some extent I prescribe to this idea. During group projects in my MBA, many times we have to divide the work among ourselves. When the work is being divided I am not very particular about what part I get. That is because I tend to think that whatever part I get there is always scope to do a good job at it and impress people.

A few weeks back I had a conversation with Madhan, a good friend of mine who is working for a software company. He is doing very well in his job. He got top marks in his appraisals and is always cheerful. I told him that he seems to be very happy with his job and that he is very lucky to be in a job he loves. He said that rather than getting into a job he loved, he got into the job first and then developed a liking to the job so that he can enjoy his work. I think that is a very mature attitude and a very good approach to life. This kind of attitude is not only applicable in work life but more importantly in personal and family life too.

I hope I gain this kind of maturity soon. I know that I have the capability to do well professionally. With the right attitude I will hopefully live life the right way and enjoy it!

End of an Era

2006-09-11T23:06:00.000+05:30

I am one of the people who have hated Michael Schumacher for a long long time. I am one of those people who have always criticised his attitude and arrogance. I am one of those people who thought it will be a great day when Michael Schumacher finally leaves the sport.

On Sunday I sat and watched the post race press conference in Monza. I heard the announcement from Schumacher. Somehow, what I felt was not happiness. I don’t know why. The guy whom I hated most was leaving the sport. Far from being happy, I was actually a bit sad at heart. Imagine the start of the grid next year. No Michael Schumacher. Hard to think after all these years isn’t it. I always despised Schumacher’s ‘anything for a win’ attitude. But when I saw the emotions on his face yesterday, I realised that I have no right to despise that attitude. It takes a lot to get into F1. And even more to stay and to win. Being fast is not enough for you to get into F1. You should know to be bad. And Michael Schumacher knew how to be bad. He got into F1 under dramatic circumstances by cheating Eddie Jordan. And he cheated him again to go to a top team, Benetton. There were a lot more controversial things that happened in his career. But there is no point in stirring up those stories now. The point is that, you cannot be goodie goodie and get into F1 and become a world champion. I do not know much about Schumacher’s family background before he came to F1. But one thing’s for sure. This guy had the drive to win. He was born to win. He could never have done a ‘Barrichello in Ferrari’ kind of role for anybody. If he had taken up boxing, I am sure he would’ve been a champion. If he had been a businessman he would’ve been a very successful one.

When you have that kind of thing inside your head….which says that no matter what, you must go for the win, you must win….then I guess you get what we call the killer instinct. And Schumacher had a real good killer instinct. And he was one tough SoB. Only he knows how much he wanted to get into the sport and how tough it was to get in. Only he knows the kind of hardships he had to go through in all these years. The kind of sacrifices he had to make for the sake of a win. He had to go racing the day after his mother died. And I think he won that race. Formula One is a tough tough sport. Schumacher was a hustler. I am sure inside his head he felt his actions in Jerez, Monaco, etc were completely justified. He was well within his right to demand preferred driver status in his team. There is no point in us arguing whether his actions were legitimate or not. Try to understand this man. When you have that kind of drive to win and that kind of ego inside your head, you cannot help doing what he did.

I have always hated Michael Schumacher and will perhaps always hate him. But one thing’s for sure. I’ll miss him when the drivers line up on the grid in Melbourne next year. I hope there’s another Michael Schumacher (not just in terms of talent, but in terms of the head) among the new kids on the block.

Hi Guys!

2006-09-05T02:58:00.000+05:30

I know I've been lazy. Its been a long time since I posted something here. But I am determined to be more regular from now on. One more resolution is that my posts on Formula One will be reduced. Over the past month or so this was looking more like a blog dedicated to Formula One. I want to reassure that it is not so. For people who might be interested to know my views on F1, they can visit Linksheaven. It is a popular F1 fans website. I am one of the contributors to this website. Direct link to my posts is here. But from time to time you can expect some important posts on F1 here too.

To keep you guys updated on the happenings here, the past week or so has been a bit tight in terms of academic stuff. But to be very candid, I must tell you that I never imagined that an MBA (and that too in finance) will be such a relaxed experience. NMIMS is known for its cool and chilled out culture. If the first year was cool, the second year has been more like a vacation! Some ppl might disagree, but really, I am not feeling the pressure...well...because there simply isn't any!

With most of the projects and assignments over for this term, and with exams still more than 2 weeks away, I expect to put my brains to work and churn out some relevant posts here.

Destined to be Champion?

2006-08-07T14:48:00.000+05:30

Usually I do not believe in destiny. But after watching yesterday’s race in Hungary, I felt that Fernando Alonso is destined to become world champion this year. On Friday Alonso committed some silly mistakes and got rightfully penalised for his actions. At that time the 2 second penalty imposed on his qualifying time seemed to have effectively destroyed his chances in this race. But just as the qualifying session was about to start, news came through that Michael Schumacher was also penalised 2 seconds for having committed a similar mistake. And then in yesterday’s race, when Alonso retired he must’ve been thinking about what could’ve been… But then, just as Michael Schumacher looked set to finish in a strong position and dent Alonso’s championship lead severely, he too retired from the race with just 3 laps remaining. Destiny, it seems, favours Alonso to win.

Undoubtedly Jenson Button drove a marvellous race and deserved a long awaited first race victory. But it was a champion’s drive from Fernando Alonso. Starting from as far back as 15th on the grid and with loads of fuel in the car, and in slippery conditions, Alonso did not make a single mistake. Even drivers like Schumacher were caught out in a couple of occasions in such tricky conditions. Agreed that Michelin had a good package for the wet conditions, but you still need an extraordinary driver to push the car to the limits in such conditions without making a mistake. There were a lot of terrific overtaking moves in the race. The best was perhaps Alonso’s overtaking of Michael Schumacher.

Leaving the ‘destiny’ angle and looking at things more pragmatically, Ferrari’s and Michael’s chances look better in the coming races. Renault have still not been able to use their mass dampeners. They have looked severely uncompetitive without those. Hungary was perhaps their best chance to overcome that. The wet conditions meant that the Michelin advantage more than compensated for the absence of the mass dampeners. This kind of advantage is unlikely to be there in most of the remaining races. For this reason Renault and Alonso are probably the bigger losers in Hungary.

Alonso’s mistake on Friday seems to suggest that he is beginning to feel the pressure. He will have to handle himself better. Of course Flavio Briatore is there to guide him. I am sure Alonso will behave in a more mature way in future and will not crack under pressure so easily.

Pragmatism may suggest that the unusual conditions in Hungary notwithstanding, things haven’t changed much. Ferrari are currently the stronger package and Michael seems to have momentum on his side. But I come from the land of rope tricks and horoscopes. I would like to believe in destiny and something tells me that Alonso is destined to be the champion.

Juan Pablo Montoya leaves F1

2006-07-10T21:21:00.000+05:30

It was in the year 2001 when the world of formula one was introduced to a young Colombian called Juan Pablo Montoya. JPM was brought to formula one by Sir Frank Williams from USA where he won the CART racing championship the previous year as a rookie. Soon the fiery Colombian set the tracks of F1 ablaze with his pace. JPM never shied from speaking his heart out which led many people to doubt his temperament and term him as being too hot headed. JPM was equally hot on the track too. He brought excitement to the sport which had almost forgotten about it. When in peak form Juan Pablo was one of the best over takers the sport has ever seen. Many of his daring overtakings feature in video collections of F1 fans. This single ability to perform spectacular over taking manoeuvres won Montoya fans world over.

His debut season in 2001 was a bit of a disaster. The Colombian was marred by bad luck as a series of accidents and mechanical failures meant that he finished in just 6 races. He finished in the podium 4 times and won his maiden grand Prix in Monza.

In 2002 he was denied any victory by the dominant performance of the ‘bullet proof’ F2002 Ferraris. But a consistent performance throughout the year meant that he beat his team mate Ralf Schumacher and finished the season as the third best driver.

2003 was probably the season in which the Colombian was at his best. He consistently outpaced his team mate and finished the season 3rd, just 11 points off the champion Michael Schumacher. Sweet victories were scored in Monaco and Germany. The season was witness to many exciting tussles between the Colombian and Kimi Raikkonen and Michael Schumacher.

Montoya’s pace was obvious to everyone and top teams were vying for the Colombian’s services by now. The 2004 season started with McLaren making a shock announcement at the beginning of the season itself that Montoya will be driving for them from 2005.

His move to McLaren in 2005 sparked off expectations of an intense rivalry with team mate Kimi Raikkonen. Everyone in the paddock knew that there was no love lost between the two new team mates. But Montoya struggled with the Woking based team in his first season there. New regulations in the sport meant that tyre changes were not allowed during the race. This added to the Colombian’s woes as it did not suit his aggressive driving style. As he was consistently outpaced by his Finnish team mate, Montoya’s frustration grew. After he became a father in 2005, Montoya seemed to lose some of his aggression both on and off the track. In the beginning of 2006 McLaren announced a major coup- that of having signed Fernando Alonso from 2007. This meant that either Montoya or Raikkonen had to make way for the young Spaniard. As Raikkonen continued to outpace him, experts gave JPM little chance of continuing with Ron Dennis’ team for 2007.

The announcement that Montoya will be racing in NASCAR in 2007 has come as a shock to many of his fans in F1. Montoya was more that just another fast driver. His daredevil driving attracted many people to the sport. In his best form, he knew no fear and was undoubtedly the most exciting driver to watch. With Montoya in the picture you could always expect to watch exciting racing. He would never give an inch. Montoya has also been active in the social scene, helping underprivileged children in Colombia and the world over.

I still hope that he returns to F1 some day. He will surely be remembered by formula one fans long after his departure.

Montoya fans will enjoy this tribute

Half a manager??...Naah...

2006-07-03T17:25:00.000+05:30

It’s a start of a new academic year for me. After spending a week relaxing at home in Chennai I came to Mumbai today morning. I was greeted by a wet and drenched city as the monsoon has well and truly set in. It was a complete contrast to the dry spell I had experienced in Chennai. Luckily the local train was not crowded and we reached the hostel soon. Although we had to walk through ankle deep water before reaching the gate, it was better than what I had expected. Just one week into the monsoon and the approach ‘road’ to the hostel already looks like shit. Wonder what’s gonna happen in the months of rain to come.

It is sometimes hard to believe that I’ve completed half my MBA course. If this means that I’ve already gained half the amount of knowledge I will gain from this course then I am in deep trouble. But being a sensible person that I am, I know that I will be putting in more dedicated effort this time. I have to…because there is only 6 more months left before placements begin, and by then I must’ve learnt enough to fool my prospective employers that I know more than what I actually do! Well, I was kidding (partly). The fact that half my course is over has made some seriousness dawn on me. I realise that the next one year is the best time for me to learn about a lot of stuff.

My academics in the past year have been pathetic to say the least. My grades suck. And I cannot claim that “grades are not representative of my knowledge/capability”. Because I’ve hardly learnt anything. I am gonna specialise in finance and I don’t even know financial ratios. Gosh…I am sometimes confused between assets and liabilities! Well…at least I’ve realised the seriousness of the situation and I know, now is the time to buck up. And buck up I will!

What else did I do apart from academics…I participated in a lot of competitions, both inside the college and in inter b school competitions. I managed to get selected for the final rounds for competitions in XLRI and IIM Indore. But since the dates clashed we had to skip XL. We presented a paper in Indore but failed to get any prize. But I savoured the opportunity to visit an IIM and interact with people from various institutes.

My participation in competitions reduced drastically once my health deteriorated. I always prided myself for not having suffered any major illness ever. But the pleasant environment of GR Jani hostel, in which I am honoured to be living for the past year, has been very conducive to friendly bacteria and viruses that helped me through Malaria, Rat Fever and Jaundice. The good part about this is that now I am not at all scared of another attack of malaria since I know what to expect from this illness.

One of my worst regrets has been my interaction levels with my batch mates and my seniors, which have been very limited. My interaction with girls has been extremely limited. I don’t know whether I should’ve expected this. I’ve always been shy with girls. It did not help that my engineering college had a stupid rule that did not allow opposite sexes to interact. When I joined cognizant, I was able to overcome my shyness and I interacted extremely freely with girls. But somehow, when I came here I went back into my shell when it came to interacting with girls. Maybe it has something to do with culture…its difficult to explain, but to me, there is a sea of difference between girls here and girls in Chennai. And somehow I could not come to terms with this difference. I hope in the coming year I come out of my shell and interact more freely with my fellow batch mates and my juniors.

As I look back at the past year various pictures flash in my mind. The crowded city of Mumbai, the daaru parties in the hostel, my first experience in a discotheque, ogling at the attractive girls standing in and around my college gate during the tea breaks, the lush campus of IIM Indore, my illnesses, the class presentations, sweating it out in the streets of Mumbai during the internship, the sleepless nights, the Sunday trips to Matunga for having authentic Tamil food, the longing for home, and many more…

In the coming year I hope to live life the right way. In the end I do not want to regret not having done this or that. I want to participate in competitions. I want to update myself with all kinds of knowledge. I do not want to be lazy!! I want to interact freely with people. I want to do well in academics. I want to experience life in a b school in the true spirit.

A Comment on the Schumacher incident

2006-06-21T23:19:00.000+05:30

The following is an article by Steve Turnbull for updatef1.com. The link is http://formula-1.updatesport.com/magazine/article/Comment--The-Schumacher-Incident/1148908415.html
I am posting the entire (presumably copyrighted) article here for the benefit of those readers who are behind corporate firewalls which block such sites.

The Monaco Grand Prix, as is often the case, provided one of the more captivating races of the season so far. The duel around the twisting, heavily contoured streets of Monte Carlo proved exciting and unpredictable, as Fernando Alonso, Kimi Raikkonen and Mark Webber all displayed the talent that has enabled them to reach the very top echelon of world motor sport.

Yet, for all the on track interest, the race was far from the major talking point of the weekend; that accolade went, as again is often the case, to the antics of one Michael Schumacher, whose last second manoeuvre at the Rascasse during Saturday qualifying brought the sport of Formula One back to the mainstream news, and not in the fashion we would like it to be.

Michael Schumacher and Controversy (the capital is deliberate) need no introduction to each other. It is as if the brilliant German arrived in Formula One, all those years ago at Spa Francorchamps in 1991, carrying ample supplies in his briefcase.

Indeed that very debut was littered with the stuff: Bertrand Gachot was in jail, courtesy of a disagreement involving the Belgian Jordan driver, a London taxi driver, and a can of CS gas. Michael arrived with good references, and a healthy dose of Mercedes-Benz money for Eddie Jordan’s young team, on the back of assurances that he knew Spa like the back of his hand. In fact, he had never seen the place, let alone driven there. As history relates, he qualified eighth, went to the grid in seventh place, and promptly burnt out his clutch on the grid. Such a mistake was excusable, as the ripples he had caused when he first dropped into the pool were already spreading wide and far. ( A side note; what is not remembered is that the other Jordan, in the hands of Andrea de Cesaris, was rapidly gaining on the leader, Ayrton Senna, when mechanical failure put him out of the race. It is general opinion that he would have won.)

As history again relates, Michael next encountered controversy at the following race, the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, where he entered in a Benetton. Jordan was incensed, as he believed he had a contract; Benetton countered that none existed, and Mercedes-Benz stood back and let things take their natural course. As we say, the rest is history and, seven World Championships later, we can look back and see how this controversial debut set the precedent for years to come.

Let us remind ourselves, in brief, of the incidents that have coloured Michael’s multi-hued career over these past fifteen years. Variously, and without detail we have: 1994: the ‘plank incident’ at Spa; the constant talk of ‘illegal’ traction control; the Damon Hill Adelaide incident. That was a good year. Then there’s Jerez, 1997; Austria and the USA 2002; these are the major incidents that stand out. There are many more, minor, less reportable ‘Schumacher incidents’ but, it must be said, Michael really pushed the boat out on Saturday in Monaco.

I don’t think there is anyone who, having seen the moment in question, could seriously doubt that at least some part of it was deliberate, was pre-meditated.

Sir Jackie Stewart was ‘willing to give Michael the benefit of the doubt’; he believes the initial ‘accident’, the lock up of the wheels into Rascasse, was just that, an accident. However, what followed, the neat parking of the car that brought out the yellow flags, Stewart puts down to Michael, and Michael only.

Keke Rosberg, on the other hand, expressed the opinion that Schumacher should ‘go home’; while Flavio Briatore explained that Michael had ‘parked the bloody car’.

These were just a few of the comments made, but the general consensus was that Michael was, quite frankly, out of order.

The Stewards, after several hours of deliberation, examination of telemetry and witness statements, agreed. Michael had deliberately impeded the progress of other cars and, as the regulations recommend, was promptly stripped of all his qualifying times and sent to the back of the grid. Most thought this fair, some thought it a tad soft, Ferrari and Michael, naturally, thought it harsh.

“Watch the video, I did nothing wrong” seemed to be Schumachers defence. Watching the video, however, condemns Michael somewhat. One fellow driver commented, dryly, that the German ‘should have covered the camera with one hand while he turned off the engine with the other…’

So, the verdict given, no appeal allowed, Sunday saw Schumacher storm through the field to an eventual fifth position, again giving us a display of awesome talent and unparalleled genius. The sheer pace made one wonder whether Michael needed pole position to win. It also begged the question – why? Why stoop so low when ones talent is so great?

Some have offered the explanation that all genius is flawed. This may be so but, I ask, could you imagine Jim Clark pulling his car to the side to protect a pole position? Or Fangio, Moss, Brabham, or even great 1980’s champions such as Alan Jones, Nelson Piquet, Prost or Rosberg? The answer is, unequivocally, no. None of those would have even considered such a move; it simply was not done. And yet, when one asks the same of Ayrton Senna, one could easily answer in the affirmative. Ayrton and Michael are from the same mould, the same mindset, where win-at-all-costs is the only way.

This manner of thinking has done Michael Schumacher no long-standing harm across his lengthy career. Many of those who have watched, with justified awe, his performances from 2000 onwards at Ferrari, will be too young to remember 1994, or 1997, or may simply have been uninterested back then. Many of those new to the sport will be questioning why such a seemingly draconian penalty was imposed for such a minor transgression. Good questions, too, but when a role model such as Schumacher, a man whom to many of the young drivers of today is still a hero, behaves in such an underhand manner, something has to be done to bring the message home: Formula One is, first and foremost, a ‘SPORT’ and, as such, must involve a level of sportsmanship. Sportsmanship involves courtesy, as well as competition; it embraces fair play, as well as ingenuity; and it is a sad fact that, in many parts of the world, Formula One only reaches the headlines when Controversy is involved (yes, the capital is, again, deliberate.)

Michael’s body language at the post qualifying press conference said it all; sheepish, guilty, embarrassed were all descriptions used on the day, and all may be right. How soon after he ‘parked’ the car, we may ask, did he realise the mistake he had made? How soon after the blatant move at Jerez, 1997, did he realise that the on-board camera would betray any excuse? And how soon after the embarrassment that was Austria, 2002, did this great driver realise how foolish, how ridiculous, he had made himself, his team, and the sport appear?

It stands to reason that the punishment may, in the eyes of the stewards, the FIA, and the many Schumacher and Ferrari fans world-wide, have ‘fitted the crime’, but consider this. From the back, Michael raced into the points – admittedly, attrition aided his cause – points that many, including myself, believe he should not have been entitled to. What discouragement is it to the younger generation that a blatant, clear as daylight attempt to contravene the rules is met with mere relegation to the back of the grid? Very little, I would say. For next race, all is forgotten.

The incident also adds heat to the fire that currently burns around Schumacher with regard to the ‘will he/won’t he’ retirement debate. This one incident, while presumed of ‘little importance’ to the future where Ferrari are concerned, has clearly had major impact on Michael. He is annoyed that he has been pilloried by just about everyone bar his team mates.

Why? Did he really believe he would get away with it? Did he seriously consider that we, who have watched him driver countless brilliant races in underperforming cars, pulling rabbits out of hats at the most unlikely places, would not question why a man of his ability could not recover a car from such a minor upset as that at the Rascasse on Saturday? If, indeed, he did believe so, serious questions should be asked of himself.

Michael Schumacher is, and always has been, a quite brilliant racing driver; he is, and always has been, superb to watch in a crisis, wonderful to watch on the limit, and controversial more often than the rest.

He once said, I seem to recall, that he would consider retirement once the younger generation begin to beat him, fair and square.

If, Michael, you have to resort to underhand tactics such as those displayed on Saturday in order to beat Alonso, or Raikkonen, or any one of the pretenders to the crown, surely that time has come?

Formula One 2006- Mid Season Review

2006-06-16T14:52:00.000+05:30

It’s almost midway in the 2006 FIA Formula One championship season. And Fernando Alonso seems to have one hand on the cup already. The season started in Bahrain this time instead of Australia. But it didn’t make much of a difference to Renault. They started much like last year. They had the fastest car in the first 4 races. Schumacher and Ferrari upped their game in Imola. Imola was a good race, and ironically for Alonso, it was a complete reversal of last year’s race as Alonso tried in vain to get past a struggling but determined Schumacher. In the next race Ferrari were the better car and deserved the win they got. Going into the Spanish GP everyone thought Ferrari will do it again but Alonso and Renault pulled in some magic and won a memorable race. It was a fantastic win for Alonso- his first ever in Spain. And I must admit I ve never seen the kind of reaction from a driver as was seen from Alonso after winning the race. He was REALLY HAPPY!

Then came Monaco. It was another exciting race. Uncharacteristically, there were lots of over takings in the race. In fact I think so far in the season this has been the race with most no. of over takings. The weekend started on a sour note as Michael Schumacher was back with his prankster stuff. What he did in qualifying was disgusting and he thoroughly deserved the punishment he got. Everyone remembers what he did to Villeneuve and Hill and more recently (last season) to Barrichello. But one would’ve thought that he would’ve matured as he gets towards the end of his career. But no! he’s proven that bastards remain bastards, no matter what. I’ve always maintained that Schumacher is one of the best ever drivers. Not many have the kind of understanding of the car one drives and the track on which one drives as Schumi does. He’s a fantastic talent. Till last year I’ve said that he’s the best driver on track and this year I put Alonso and Schumi together as the best drivers. But despite his talent, Michael Schumacher’s attitude sucks. And that’s why I hate him. His drive in the race proved once again that he is a superb racer, but that cannot undo what he did in qualifying. If any of you haven’t seen the incident, you can view it here and make up your mind.

(if the link doesn’t work, just search for- Schumacher Monaco – in google videos)

Renault have upped their game since monaco. They realised where they were being beaten. Farrari were always faster at the end of the stints. So they made changes to their set up to make the car go fastest at the end of the stints. One could see this start to work in Monaco itself. Alonso was building gaps to Raikkonen towards the end of stints. It would’ve been a tight finish had the Mclaren lasted the race. Looking at Mclaren’s reliability I am really worried for next season as Alonso’s fan. The strategy of making the car go fastest at the end of the stints worked even better for Renault in Silverstone.

I expect Ferrari to up their game as the season proceeds. I think it will be a tough fight till the end. But for Schumi to win the championship, Renault and Alonso will need to have a lot of bad luck- like Alonso slipping in the bathroom and breaking his back.

News has just come in that fisichella will stay with Renault for 2007. more or less expected news. And it also means that Briatore has not been successful in roping in Webber.

There are 10 more races to go. I think the championship is not over yet. Its definitely much closer than last year. And we all know that Ferrari and Schumacher are fierce competitors. I expect a close and exciting tussle till the end.

Go Fernando, Go!!!

I will not forget...those amazing days

2006-05-30T13:12:00.000+05:30

I was going thru orkut and saw a few testimonials written to me and by me. Just stirred a few old memories and I thought of writing something about it…

Engineering days were truly amazing. Our college- RMK engineering college- had a lot of stupid rules and was very strict. We really resented that when we were students. In fact we used to call it ‘the jail’ But after coming out of it we realised that there can be nothing like those days again in our lives…Despite all the rules and all, we did enjoy! I was in the hostel for the first 2 years. By nature I am shy and reserved. So I hardly interacted with anyone in the first few months. It took me 6 months to even become friends with my room mate, Chaitanya. It was Prasanna who helped bring me out of my shell. Had a good time with the ‘Tamil gang’ in the hostel… Cant forget those countless mokkai sessions we had before and after elections, cricket matches and during weekends and study holidays…Then there was the Hostel day skit in which I participated. It was deemed so vulgar that they stopped it midway through the show :).

I will not forget the long discussions with Srikanth that went long into the night. I will not forget the fights I had with Prasanna everyday we were room mates. Its truly amazing how you can fight with someone for so long and so much and you get irritated by that person so much, but still, at the end of the day you count him as one of your best friends…

I will not forget the boring long days during study hols when the only thing we all looked forward to was breakfast, lunch and dinner. I can assure that anyone who has passed out of RMK will never forget the food there. Truly mouth watering ..mmm… The chicken briyani, Dosai, Parota, sweets and much much more..

Then I moved out in the 3rd year. I started interacting with the day scholars- Ananth, Vicky, GK, and others.. We had lots of fun especially in the last year when we hardly attended classes. Had the first taste of alcohol with these guys..Three of us (Prasanna, Vicky and I) started drinking on the same day, and one of them is a hopeless drunkard now :)

I will not forget the chicken briyani in Vicky’s house. Nor will I forget those Dec 31st nights in the last 3 yrs of engg… I will not forget those truly thrilling rides sitting behind Vicky in his bike. Ananth and GK fighting was always fun for all of us. Jothi’s powers with girls remained a mystery to all of us till the end. So was Ananth’s lack of powers with girls despite his looks…Vicky trying hard to convince Sumanth to join us for a dinner or party became a regular affair.

Engineering ended, and slowly everyone departed to where life took them. Prasanna to Hyderabad, Ananth and Jothi to UK, Sumanth also went to Hyderabad and so did Chaitu, Rakesh and so many others. After a few months realisation came that ‘those days’ are over. Perhaps the best days of our lives were behind us. We still keep meeting each other occasionally. I know those days will not come back and things will not be the same again. But I want to settle down in a place where we all can meet each other regularly, have a weekend together every month and share our happy and sad moments together. I know that will keep me happy. It’s the kind of happiness that money can’t buy.

Some shocking Facts

2006-05-25T22:02:00.000+05:30

Here I present some shockingly glaring facts which strengthen the case against reservation. These facts will show that:

-->There is no real need for reservation for OBCs

-->The existing reservation for SC/STs is not working and even after 50 years of its existence the reservations have not been able to achieve the motive behind them

-->If the govt goes ahead with the decision to increase seats it will severely hamper the quality of education and infrastructure available to the students. This is because the educational institutions simply do not have enough infrastructure and facilities and these restrictions cannot be overcome in a short time.

-->Even the first congress prime minister did not like the idea of reservation even though he was the one who initiated it.

***What is the proportion of OBCs in this country?
The report of the Mandal commission which came out many years back, states that it is 52%. But the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO), a govt appointed body reported in a more recent study that OBCs form 32% of the population.

***The NSSO in its research in 1999 (which is the latest available research) stated that OBCs occupy 23.5% OF ALL UNIVERSITY SEATS

***A study done by the IITs themselves shows that 50 per cent of the IIT seats for the SCs and STs remain vacant and for the remaining 50 per cent, 25 per cent are the candidates, who even after six years fail to get their degrees.

***A report of the Parliamentary Committee on the welfare for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes says that looking at the Delhi University, between 1995 and 2000, just half the seats for under-graduates at the Scheduled Castes level and just one-third of the seats for under-graduates at the Scheduled Tribes level were filled. All the others went empty, unfilled.

***Sukhdev Thorat, the Chairman of the UGC. He points out that today, at higher education levels - that is all universities, IITs and IIMs - there is already a 1.2 lakh vacancy number. 40 per cent of these are in teaching staff, which the IIT faculty themselves point out that they have shortages of up to 30 per cent

***Jawaharlal Nehru: “On the 27th of June 1961 wrote to the Chief Ministers of the day as follows: I dislike any kind of reservations. If we go in for any kind of reservations on communal and caste basis, we will swamp the bright and able people and remain
second rate or third rate. The moment we encourage the second rate, we are lost. And then he adds pointedly: This way lies not only folly, but also disaster”

***In India only 16 per cent of the places in higher education are occupied by SCs and STs. The quota is 22.5 per cent, which means that only two-thirds of the
quota is occupied. One third is going waste.

Let me make it clear that I am not questioning the capability of students from the so called backward classes. I am a person who believes that all humans have the same inherent capability. My only point is that if there is to be any reservation, then that should be given to people who are really handicapped in a certain way in the society and are at some disadvantage. Basically it should be given to people who come from economically backward and oppressed sections f the society. Because these are people who are genuinely at a disadvantage when it comes to education. I wouldn’t really mind if a guy whose father is a railway porter and mother is a housewife, gets into an IIM even if he has a 75 percentile score and I don’t get through even with a 95 percentile score. But once a person gets the benefit of reservation then the same should not be given to his/her offspring.

Finally students in my institute have started discussing about this issue. We have decided to come out with a statement in support of the anti reservation protest. Students from the IIMs have also declared their solidarity with the protesting medicos. Students from DU and IIT Delhi have also joined in the protests. I, along with a few friends will hopefully be joining the protests in Azad Maidan this Sunday. Lets see how it goes…

The Issue of Reservation- Do we need it?

2006-05-20T00:23:00.000+05:30

I’ve been thinking of writing on this subject for a long time…The students reservation issue. Its perhaps the most important national issue today. Its bigger than the volatility of the sensex, the assembly election results or LN Mittal’s Arcelor bid.

Is this democracy? Is this equality? I have nothing against SC/ST s or any other castes. But I feel unfairly treated, I feel cheated! Damn, I work my ass off for a whole year and struggle to get a 95 odd percentile in CAT and get into some top 15 B School . And then there’s a guy from a “backward class”, whose father is an IAS officer (and he got into the IAS cadre thru the reservation quota) and is hence quite rich , enjoys through his engineering days roaming around with his GF in his bike, having parties in weekends when I was giving SIMCATs and MOCK CATs. Finally he gives CAT coz his dad wanted him to, and being moderately bright, he manages to get a modest 75 percentile. But lo and behold, he gets calls from all 6 IIMs.
Wait a minute, 75 percentile ???? Gimme a break…I could’ve scored 75 percentile even if you had woken me up in the middle of the night when I was dead asleep and asked me give the test. I work my ass off, made all those sacrifices and still did not manage to get a single IIM call despite getting 95 percentile, and you tell me that this undeserving asshole is now thru to IIM A! What the heck! C’mon, there must be something wrong in the system somewhere! Yeah, damn right, there is something wrong. Quotas are OK, if they go to deserving candidates. They must satisfy the objective behind the quotas. If this isn’t happening then there’s no place for quotas. Isn’t this simple. Aren’t our politicians smart enough to understand this? Well, they are smarter than this. The only reason we still have caste based quotas is because it is a tool for certain political parties with which to play vote bank politics.

The following is the reaction of Narayana Murthy:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-802267813236081900

There are strong student protests going on across the nation against reservation. I hope somehow they succeed. I wonder whether the student community must ve been more proactive. Perhaps we should’ve started a student movement for reduction and elimination of quotas even before this episode started. Having this amount of quota for so many years itself is bad enough.

I don’t have the guts to go out onto the streets and join the protests that the medicos and many other brave students are currently participating in, across the country. But I will do what’s possible in my own way. And I am really proud –like I am,of our freedom fighters- of all the brave students and doctors who are putting their careers and much more on the line for such an important national issue.

I am shocked that there is little voice being raised by the corporate world against these govt moves. We all know that in this country if such reservation happens, its near impossible to reverse such a move. And I am sure that if this happens, it will have a mush bigger and long lasting effect on the economy than any budget or market crash. God help this country!

BTW, if there is anyone reading this article who feels that caste based (rather than economic status based) reservation is necessary, please let me know along with your line of reasoning.I would like to know

I urge all youth in this country to stand up and do something (apart from forwarding chain mails) , some little effort that will help this cause.

The following are some inspirational lines from a poem many of us have read in our schools:

“Ab Bhi Jiska Khoon Na Khaula, Voh Khoon Nahin Voh Paani Hai,
Jo Des Ke Kaam Na Aaye, Voh Bekaar Jawaani Hai“

Internship starts

2006-05-09T12:27:00.000+05:30

My internship started a few days back.The actual field work started yesterday.And I made my first sales pitch! But haven't made any sale yet though..And by the looks of it so far, there will be no sales for the next 2 months unless the company reduces the prices. Boy, its a tough job to sell something thats available from other sources free of cost!

To tell the truth, I enjoyed the day yesterday despite the fact that I had to roam around in the sun like a dog with parched throat and sweaty clothes.I had expected some bad treatment from the clients like closing the door on our faces,etc.But no such thing happened so far.All the clients treated us well and they atleast let us give a proper pitch.

For one of the clients we walked for arnd 2 kms and when we reached the address finally,we found that its his residence and not his office.Cursing our luck, we went to the office.And let me tell u, most of u (and me) could never imagine an office to be located in such a place! That too, the office of a investment planner/MF distributor. It was in a small industrial 'estate'. There were a lot of manufacturing plants, all kind s of dirty stuff was being manufactured.There was a murky looking
building with rickety stairs.A narrow corridor in the 2 nd floor. There was no flooring or paint on the walls.And of course no lighting. It looked like a scene from a Ram Gopal Varma underworld film.I wondered who the hell will have an office there..But then, there was indeed a small office there. I have no idea why anyone will have an office in such a smelly,dirty,shitty,murky place!! And that guy
is definitely not poor! He has a nice double flat for a residence. Whatever..

Today I again go out, this time to another corner of Mumbai.And I have an asshole from another institute to accompany me.Lets see how it goes..

One thing looks to be for sure.I ll probably become more considerate towards salesmen.

MBA Myths?

2006-05-04T22:20:00.000+05:30

I recently got this forward from a batchmte here. Its supposedly written by a MBA student, I dont know who or from which institute.But I can tell you from my own experience that its very close to the truth.

Yesterday Term 2 ended. I am now roughly 32 per cent of an MBA. As I evaluate myself on the huge costs (opportunity and real) that I have incured over the past 6 months, I ponder on the learnings (Cudn't help it fellow ManDevIans... WAC ka bhoot utara nahi hai!!!).

1) MBA is about making shit look like hot shit.
2) The faster you understand and implement point 1 above the higher will your Grade Point Average (GPA) and hence CGPA be, and the less expectations will you have, and consequently your satisfaction will be maximised.
3) Recruiters dont give a damn to how many Balance Sheets you balanced, how many models you optimised, what strategy you proposed (for the googled project you did for an MNC which you dint even visit once), what is your understanding of human resource mgmt, what is the positioning of the crap that FMCG companies generate, your exposition on world economics,.... and I could go on.
4) B Schools pressure and academic rigour are myths.
5) People will give their left ball/boob for an extra grade and a fellow batchmate.
6) Point number five is very valid in the corporate world too.
7) Job Job Job... is the light at the end of this MBA tunnel; at least in India.
8) Management is about bullshitting with elan and quoting esoteric gurus (with keywords thrown in for effect) to fool others. Finance guys fool investors, Marketing guys fool customers, HR guys fool employees, Operations and Systems guys join the fun (and the chaos and end up fooling each other)

So in the end its a fools game. I dunno why companies come in hordes and recruit MBAs in such large numbers?? I dunno.. seriously.. hope I am proved wrong!!!

I must tell you, its a very valid question this person is asking in the end.I myself was stumped by a question asked by a friend of mine a few months ago when he was preparing for his XLRI interview.He asked, " Tell me what have you really gained from these 8 months into your MBA?" And I was like..really clueless!

Another of my batchmates offered an answer to the question in the article. He said,

"why companies come in hordes and recruit MBAs in such large numbers is : companies also wanna fool all its stakeholder,shareholders and match the fleecing capability of it's competitors in the marketplace, esp. during the carzy times as we r witnessing now.hence the mad scramble for MBAs."

Bommu goes to USA

2006-04-17T02:10:00.000+05:30

I have a friend called Bommuraj.He joined my engineering college in the 2nd year as a lateral entry student.He comes from a rural background.When he came to chennai 5 years back,it was his first time in a big city.From the beginning I was attracted to Bommu due to his enthusiastic spirit and straightforwardness.He is a simple guy who can never involve in any kind of chicanery.We have been close friends for the past 5 years.

Bommu would often say how his parents (who are daily wage agricultural labourers)forced him to study engineering, though he himself wanted to get into some job soon and start supporting his family.After completing engineering he stayed in chennai with some folks from his village(KK Patti).He immediately started his job hunt.For 2-3 months he roamed around chennai at the peak of the summer like a dog.Finally he landed a job (and he was among the first few from our class to land a job).It was in a small software company and it paid him just Rs 4000 pm. The office was on the other side of the city to where he stayed.Every day he would start from home at around 7 am and return at 10 pm. And saturday was not a holiday.

After all the struggle, he is finally going to USA on behalf of his company on the 25th of this month. Of course his parents must be very very happy and proud now.And so am I.

Bommu would always say that his dream is to buy a large piece of land for his father so that he can see his father finally own the land he cultivates.He also wants to build a large house in his village and see his parents spend their last days in comfort.(Bommu says that his parents would never agree to leave their village and come and stay with him in the city).

I hope Bommu earns a lot of money in the US and comes back and sees his dream come
true.But please Bommu, dont stay there for too long.Come back here soon, we shall have a great time together.

The state of my country

2006-04-04T01:15:00.000+05:30

We live in a democracy.And we pay a certain price for it.

Tamil Nadu will soon have assembly elections.This is what the main opposition has to offer to the people so as to woo them to vote their party into power:

Quality rice at Rs. 2 a kg on ration cards, free colour television for every family "for women's recreation and general knowledge," a maternity assistance of Rs. 1,000 a month for six months, wavier of all cooperative loans to farmers and free electricity to weavers in addition to farmers, were some of the highlights.

The DMK has promised free gas stove to all poor women, a monthly financial assistance up to Rs. 300 to unemployed youth, assignment of two acres to landless poor families, restoration of all concessions withdrawn to government employees and teachers and reservation for Muslim and Christians.

This reminds me of a scene in Ayutha Ezhuthu (yuva) in which Bharathiraja gives a campaign speech to a crowd of poor illiterate people and woos them by talking absolute crap. We might have had a good laugh watching that scene in the movie, but its not so funny when you see that it is actually reality.

I know that this country will soon wake up and be a model democracy, where there will not be any place for such political bull shit.I just hope that its soon enough.But right now,this country is going to the dogs..

Got my summers!

2006-03-11T00:06:00.000+05:30

Finally I've got a company for my summers. I'll be doing my summer internship in ICRA online. Its a big relief that I've finally managed to get selected by some company! I'll be located in Mumbai for the duration of the project.The company is launching a new product which is some kind of a series of reports about the mutual fund industry.I'll be trying to sell this product to potential customers whom I presume will be Mutual fund houses,brokerage houses,etc.There are two ways to look at this:

1. Negative-
Its a bloody salesman job.I'll be roaming all around Mumbai in the peak of the summer in crowded local trains and dusty roads.I can't even be at home in chennai during the summer.

2. Positive-
Hey, i never looked at myself as someone who could be a good marketeer or salesman.But the company thought I could be! It means that I possibly have some capabilities which i had not realised before .Roaming all around Mumbai and trying to sell to people will be a good experience.I'll get to know the city well and more importantly i would get to know people well.I may not get such a good opportunity again.I am now forced to do what I've feared and hated doing-travelling and selling. I am sure at the end of those 2 months I will be much better off.I'll be more mature and I'll be more employable.

I look at my summer internship assignment in the second way.

Lok Paritran - A New Dawn?

2006-03-03T22:25:00.000+05:30

What do four IITians, some also educated in the US and almost all of them from rural backgrounds have in common? Well, apparently they all have a rare spirit of patriotism and a passion to help this country move forward. I am talking about Tanmay Rajpurohit,Ashwalayan Shukla,Amit Beesen,and Chandrashekhar. These four guys are aeronautical and mechanical engineers who had a bright promising future ahead of them in some large American organisation with guaranteed fat pay cheques and a good house and a pretty wife. But instead they have chosen a different path for themselves.

These guys have created a political party called Lok Paritran. They have decided to contest the elections in Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry and Kerala this year. They claim that lack of money will not be a hindrance in their election fight.

I don't know what will happen to this party in future but I will surely keep track of them.I hope that these guys actually have the best interests of the country in mind (can't help being a bit cynical in this world of deceivers) and that the country benefits.

Formula One 2006

2006-02-23T23:42:00.000+05:30

A new season is all set to begin of the FIA Formula One world championships. Renault and Mc Laren have been topping the time sheets followed closely by Ferrari and Honda in the winter testing. With a lot of changes to the regulations this season- the most prominent being changing the engines from V10 to V8 and allowing tyre changes- its difficult to predict who will be on top at the beginning of the season. Once again I will be rooting for Alonso and Renault this season. But I think the going will be much tougher for them this season. One might question Alonso’s motivation level after having announced his plans to shift to McLaren next season. Also, tyre supplier Michelin will be in its final year in the sport. So their commitment can also be questioned. The inclusion of Super Aguri will mean that there will be record number of lappings done by the race leader over the last placed driver this season. I cannot imagine the competitive level of Aguri who will be racing with an Arrows chassis which is atleast 4 years old ! I expect Ferrari to be more competitive this season with the V8s. I am sure Felipe Massa will be a worthy successor to Reubens Barrichello. He will play second fiddle to Schumacher perfectly. This will most likely be Schumacher’s last season. I think Raikkonen will be the most obvious target for Ferrari to replace him next season. Massa will then continue to play second fiddle to him. I hope my old favourite Williams team gets back to competitive form this season although there are little indications that this will be the case. So the competitive teams this season are likely to be Renault, mclaren, Ferrari and Honda. Lets fasten our seat belts and get set for another season for high speed action. Go Alonso !

Goa trip and an eventful start to the year

2006-02-15T14:38:00.000+05:30

After a long hiatus I return to blogging. My exams got over on 4th jan and I left for Goa along with my roomies as planned. We spent 4 days there, had a nice time. Goa is a very relaxing place and we sure did relax there. We got to know a few things that we did not know earlier:
• Almost 100% of Goans speak English.
• Goa must be the state which has the largest population of Indians speaking Russian language.
• Infact we were amused to see that some shops had billboards in Russian and even the names of the shops were written only in Russian.
{The above points are of course due to the huge inflow of foreign tourists, especially central Europeans whom the locals try to woo for their livelihood.}
• A plain egg omelette at a small restaurant with thatched roof and plastic tables and chairs can sometimes cost you 30 rupees (and on other times even more).
• Its easier to get beer than to get water in Goa. People are amused (some may even get offended) when we say no to beer and ask for water instead.
• There’s probably no traffic signal (atleast we did not see any) in entire Goa.
• When a European rides a Bajaj Pulsar, his size will make the bike look like a TVS Champ.
• Goa is probably one of the few places in India where you may get an unofficial discount from shopkeepers, restaurant owners and hawkers just because you are an Indian.

Having chilled out to our heart’s content and our wallets’ lack of content, we returned to Mumbai on 9th. I left for Chennai the next day on a trip that was planned to last one week. But my stay in Chennai lasted more than a month as I was down with Leptospirosis (rat fever) and subsequently with Jaundice. My doc says that I must have most likely got infected 1-2 weeks before the symptoms surfaced. That would mean that the most likely place where I got the infection from is GR Jani hostel (yeah, that’s the name of my hostel). For those of you who are wondering what rat fever is, well don’t worry. It is not such a common infection and you are not likely to get it- Provided you are not a resident of GR Jani hostel. Ours is a great hostel, incubator of all the dirtiest diseases in the country. But anyway, I guess it doesn’t make sense to ramble about it now.
Three fevers (malaria, rat fever and jaundice) in three months, but none during the trimester exam. Guess I must be one lucky chap!

So, after about a month’s rest I returned to Mumbai. Got the results for the 2nd trim. A much better GPA of 3.11 this time helped move my CGPA towards more decent levels after a disastrous 1st trim when I got a pathetic 2.75. Lots more hard work to be done if I want to push my final CGPA to 3.0 and beyond. And this trim I already have my work cut out having missed 1 month of classes. Anyway, hoping for the best…

2 down, 7 to go

2005-12-28T01:26:00.000+05:30

My 2nd trimester exams are going on right now. Two exams are over so far. Till now the indications are that my grades this time will be much better than the pathetic grades I got last time. Lets see.. Next paper is marketing. Haven’t touched Kotler since the marketing paper last trim! The exam is in the morning and am now sitting in the middle of the night, blogging. Well, big deal ! After all its marketing. Its gonna be one more session of story writing . Well, its not exactly story writing, but you don’t hav to study much for these marketing exams. It takes a little more than common sense to solve these marketing cases. And for a fin guy like me I guess its too much to ask for to study marketing throughout the trimester.

The exams get over on 4th and we have planned a trip to Goa. My room mates -Pulkit and Arjun- and I are going. We will be there for 3-4 days. Planning to have lots of fun there.. We’ve hardly had any time to enjoy since diwali. The last party I had was in IIM Indore when I had gone there for presenting my paper in IRIS, their annual inter b school competition. Its been more than a month of slogging. Hope to finish the rest of the exams well and then go and have a helluva time in Goa!

Cricket and Politics

2005-12-18T00:03:00.000+05:30

Sourav Ganguly was unceremoniously removed from the national cricket team this week. OK, a player who is a former captain, is removed from the national squad. It created a controversy and rightly so. After all, its not every day that a former captain is removed from the team. That too after two seemingly decent performances in the previous test. I am not going to take sides in this specific issue of excluding Ganguly from the team. But what worries me most is that this issue is being discussed in the wrong alleys. When statements of politicians regarding the cricket team selection appear on the front pages of newspapers, you know that something is not right with the politicians and the media in this country. I was shocked to see the following headline in The Hindu: ‘I am Hurt and Shocked, says Pawar’. When I first saw the headline I wondered what new trouble was an ally (NCP) causing the congress. I was exasperated when I read the article to find that Pawar, our agriculture and welfare minister, was actually referring to Ganguly’s removal from the squad. As if this was not enough, then came the news that the speaker of the Lok Sabha has scheduled a discussion of the selection issue in parliament next week. So much for democracy ! Our parliament has always been behind schedule and a waiting list of bills and discussions have always been maintained. Important issues of national significance have been pending before the House for many months. Crores of rupees of the taxpayer’s money is spent in conducting each session of parliament. And our politicians are finding fantastic ways of efficient use of their time and energy !

And all this is being done for whom? Sourav Ganguly. A man who had been woefully out of form for more than a year and a half now. A man who can’t field and run between the wickets. At this stage of his career he can’t even hope to improve in these areas. Also, it is clear that even if he gets into good form, he will not last till the next world cup. Look at Australia. They dropped Ian Healy soon after he had a fantastic series with the bat and the gloves in South Africa. Healy was near best form of his career, but the selectors looked at the future and we all know how big a contribution to world cricket his successor- Adam Gilchrist- was. Steve Waugh was dropped as Australia captain when he was not in such a bad form with the bat and he was still a hugely inspirational figure within the team and an icon in his country as well as in the cricketing world. I guess the Indian public can learn a few things from observing these facts and behave more maturely.

Its ok for people to have different opinions in issues like these. But if you are a member of parliament then sorry boss, I haven’t elected you to get ‘hurt and shocked’ about the selection of a cricket team. And it’s a shame that the national media (least of all, The Hindu) should encourage such behaviour by giving front page coverage to such idiotic comments.

Likes and Hates about NMIMS

2005-12-11T12:25:00.000+05:30

Yesterday was my birthday. And I had a good time. But only just. I am currently going through a bout of malaria. Thankfully I got a good doc and the medicines are working well and I am feeling well since yesterday. So I could maintain good spirit yesterday. But for 2-3 days before that, I was feeling like shit. Thats when I once again went thru that phase of regretting my decision of joining NMIMS. Of course, when I regain my senses, I realise that it was the correct decision. But the fact remains that, NMIMS, despite being a highly reputed institute, it lacks a lot. I shall try to list out the various pluses and minuses of the institute from a student's viewpoint.

Pluses:
1. Good placement- This is the number one criteria on most students' mind while choosing a B-School, and NMIMS scores well here. Especially since it became a deemed university 3 years back, the placement record has been very good. The average package of last year was 5 lakhs which I think is pretty good considering that the batch size is 240.

2. Location- The institute is located in a prime location in Mumbai. This gives a huge locational advantage to the institute and helps in attracting a lot of guest speakers apart from helping in attracting many companies for placements. Also, for any student, staying in Mumbai for 2 years is a good learning experience.

3. Babes- If there is any Mumbaikar reading this, he might be knowing the location of NMIMS. There is a cluster of colleges in the vicinity of NMIMS and the students considerthemselves to be among the "heppest" in the country. So, one can expect a great feast for the eyes throughout the day. Now I am not saying that it is a criteria for choosing a b-school, but if you are at NMIMS u can benefit from this 'facility'.

4. Good peer group- Since last year (my batch) NMIMS removed the gujju quota for its selection process. They have a 15% management quota which is again based on your score in the selection process. (Mind you, this works out better than even the IIMs' quota for SC/ST and handicaps which creates a huge differential among the students in terms of quality). In fact, NMIMS has one of the most transparent selection processes among Indian B Schools.All this has meant that most of the students here are very good. Many of them just missed out on IIM or XL selection and almost all of them could've got into an IIM with a little bit of luck. Interacting with students of such high calibre for 2 years is a big 'value add' for any student.

5. Reputation- One of the most important assets of NMIMS is that it has a good brand name. Though it might not be well known among the public in south India, it is known to those who matter.

Minuses

Now lets have a look at the ugly side.

1. Space- It the single most obvious factor that hits at you when you first visit the institute. There is a severe lack of space. In fact there is a severe lack of most resources. The resources might be acceptable in the eyes of some, but we are talking about a premier b school here. When a student goes thru a rigorous selection process and finally gets the prize of getting a seat in a
premier b school, it is natural that he expects a good campus. It may not be as lavish as an IIM campus, but atleast some space that can give a decent environment. NMIMS hardly has a campus. The institute is built in an area that is less than 1 acre. The hostel of course cannot fit into this, so it is located outside. To make things worse, the institute has zillions of courses
running in it. part time, full time, pharma, family business, executive program, MBA tech, MBA capital markets,..the list just goes on. No one is sure exactly how many courses are run, leave alone the no. of students enrolled. And all these students have one building that has around 10-12 class rooms, 1 comp lab with around 60 comps, 1 library and a small space inside the compound where you can relax and chit chat in between classes or in the evenings.Oh, that is if you can compete against a couple of hundred others for 30 odd seats available. During certain times like exams, the open space which we call as the 'quad', gives a good resemblance of a Mumbai local. ( If you are from chennai, a better example would be the scene inside a 29 C bus at 8.30 pm). The library is very good at NMIMS (IMO). But the sheer no. of students means
that very few are properly served.

2. The pedagogy- NMIMS was under mumbai university till 2001 or 02. So most of its faculty are used to teaching its students and helping them get 'good percentage' in the board exams. The predominant pedagogy applied in NMIMS is black board and lectue based. The widely used case study based methodology used in other top b schools is not regarded favourably here. Of course there are a few exceptions among the faculty members here, but they are, well, few.This pedagogy means that there is a certain lack of rigour in the course. Of course, students here do burn the midnight lamp and no one sleeps before 1 or 2am, but one can definitely feel the lack of seriousness or rigour in the air.
The hangover from the mumbai university era has also meanr that there is a lack of discipline in the air. There is little incentive for meeting deadlines, coming to lectures on time or even coming to classes at all. IMO, strictness in all these areas would make a better manager.

3. Batch size- The batch size of 240 is huge. Except some of the IIMs, I dont think any other institute has such a huge batch size. Such a huge size means that it beocmes difficult to get all students placed with good companies and packages. Also, it is more difficult to get a bonding among the students. (of course, opinions can differ).

4. Hostel- Now this is where my malaria case comes into the picture. Now, NMIMS does not have a hostel. The MBA students of NMIMS stay in the hostel of SVKM, which is the trust that runs NMIMS among othet educational institutes. Last year the NMIMS students did not get to stay in the hostel because "it was shut for renovation". Those guys were lucky. I dont know what renovation was done though. Soon after the monsoon started this year, the roofs of many rooms started leaking. The approach road to the hostel,...well, ther is no approach road. there is
just a lot of mud and stones. And the hostel is surrounde by slums. And the food is pathetic to say the least. Prime conditions for malaria. During the monsoon, everything came. Students were down with malaria, jaundice, dengue, rat fever, and what not. many of us were paranoid during the 1st trim exams. I somehow escaped the season relatively unscathed with 'simple' throat infections and viral fevers. But it got to me
finally. Now i am lying on the bed with malaria.
To sum it up, the hostel that the NMIMS students are staying in, is a shithole. And the worst part is that the authorities know abt it and are least bothered.

OK..its a long blog eh? Anyway, that is what was in my mind. But having said everything, the bottomline is that the most important criteria for most students in choosing a b school is placements. Money matters- doesn't it?

My First Blog !

2005-12-05T14:54:00.000+05:30

OK. So, this is my first Blog and I have no idea what Iam gonna write. In fact I have no idea what my blogs are all gonna be about. They can be self indulgent, they can be about something I feel strongly about, they can be humorous, they can be boring, well...u got it, they can be about anything. Well, what else can u expect? afterall, it is my blog.

I dont know why I am writing a blog or how long I will keep writing blogs. In fact this could very well end up being my last blog ! anyway, I guess one of the reasons could be that, after a few years, when I go thru my blog I might feel amused or maybe even proud of what i've written. This could be a way of preserving my thoughts and views for a long time so that after many years I can look back and realise who I was.