Partially enlightened reflections

यह मेरा पहला हिन्दी पोस्ट हैं

2008-08-05T14:21:00.000-07:00

मुझे पता नही था की हिन्दी में ब्लॉग करना इतना आसान होगा
मैं गूगल पे पूरा लट्टू होगया हूँ
मुझे गूगल से फिर से प्यार होगया हैं
नो वंडर गूगल रोक्स

ఇది నా మొట్టమొదట తెలుగు బ్లాగ్ పోస్ట్!!

2008-08-05T14:07:00.000-07:00

బ్లాగర్ లోనే తెలుగు లో పోస్ట్ గలనని నాకు ఇవాళ్ళే తెలిసింది.
ఇది చాలా కూల్ కదా!!
ఇప్పటి నుంచి నేను వీలైనప్పు డల్ల తెలుగు లోనే బ్లాగ్ చేస్తాను.
తెలుగు లో బ్లాగ్ చేయడం ఇంత సులభమని వూహించలేకపోయాను.

GOD – the remarkable invention of a criminal genius??

2007-01-21T23:02:00.000-08:00

The other day I was having an interesting discussion with a good friend (he is currently selling sanitary napkins for a health care major in Vizag and he lives alone by the seaside) of mine from IIMC who is writing a book on philosophy (at least that’s what he claims). I don’t remember how we got about discussing religion and GOD starting with randomness (guess that’s what talking about randomness does) but we did and suddenly an idea struck me. Could the concept of GOD have been a remarkable invention of one of our ancestors –most likely a criminal genius??

Humans being have a remarkable ability to find patterns (even in randomness) and develop cognitive shortcuts (biases). On one hand these abilities help us make sense of the immensely complicated world around us and help us in times of danger by reducing the processing times of our decision making. On the other hand, they are responsible for us drawing incorrect conclusions from information, both insufficient and incorrect and get thoroughly confused between correlation and causality. Why did ancient human beings have to resort to a supra human entity to explain the then unpredictable/apparently completely random natural phenomena like earthquakes, floods and epidemics instead of accepting the fact that they don’t understand the causes and that they need to investigate further? Why is it so difficult to deal with uncertainty?

My guess is that the concept of GOD is a brilliant conception of an evil genius, a genius who exploited the human mind’s innate weakness to his benefit. It’s a masterstroke. Multiple sources of uncertainty can now be neatly encapsulated into a single one – GOD. Also the causes of destructive/constructive random events can now be explained through anger/happiness (emotions that are pretty easy to relate to and understand) of GOD and correlated to activities performed by humans. It shouldn’t be very difficult for a genius to find spurious correlations. The biggest benefit to the genius is obviously the ability to influence people at will.

Now the only question that needs to be answered is the following - how did the person predict GOD’s moods given that he really does not understand how they work? Pretty simple, all he had to predict was to consistently predict a bad outcome and hope for the best (that is the occurrence of the bad outcome J) and he would have had a pretty good run.

So my humble submission is that GOD is a remarkable invention- an abstraction much ahead of its time and could only have been conceptualized by a remarkable genius having a remarkable understanding of probability and yes RANDOMNESS.

Clarity on lack of clarity

2007-01-18T03:12:00.000-08:00

This is my second week at office in my new job and though I have been given lots of work to do, I just don’t feel like doing any of it. And to top it all, I am feeling extremely sleepy. I am trying to figure out which of the following factors are responsible for this situation of mine:
Lack of sleep (the late night jog at Shivaji park last night with a pack of dogs has resulted in lesser number of hours of sleep. I am trying to jog to lose weight and not to take part in the Mumbai marathon not even the senior citizens’ marathon and that I am not an early riser should have been obvious by now)
Lack of interest (in the work I have been asked to do although the job was chosen by me...I work in the Ops and Tech division of one of the biggest financial services firms on the planet)
Lack of attention span (can be measured in femto seconds these days)
Lack of clarity (this is exactly what I mean)
Lack of ‘enough money’ -the feeling (am clear about this and I guess so are you)
Lack of higher physical and cognitive abilities (trust me, I have ample evidence to prove this)
Lack of steady female company (steady is the key word)

Though all the factors are mutually reinforcing, there is one factor, which clearly is the root cause and that is lack of clarity. Lack of clarity is the single most important factor responsible for dissipation of energies, decrease in productivity, happiness and satisfaction in individuals, teams, companies, states and countries.This post is only about the individual(may or may not be me).

Lack of clarity on what you like and what you are good at -> lack of clarity about what you want to do in life -> lack of focus-> lack of clarity about what abilities you want to develop ->lack of higher cognitive and physical abilities->Lack of clarity on strengths and weaknesses -> lack of clarity in terms of studies, career and relationships -> Lack of interest in job, lack of ‘enough money’, lack of satisfaction and lack of steady female company ->lack of attention span and lack of sleep->lack of productivity and happiness.

Most normal people, businesses struggle to achieve this clarity in their lifetimes. This clarity of vision is what separates great leaders and companies from the mediocre at least according to a lot of theories. Achieving internal clarity then seems to be one of the best ways to deal with the chaos and uncertainty of the external environment. But what is surprising is that so much of research is done on great leaders and companies and relatively little research is done on how people actually achieve this clarity that makes them great!!!!

Its one of those days

2006-12-19T10:21:00.000-08:00

It is one of those days when I feel myself being forced by myself to communicate with others ,dont know what and dont know why...I dont know whether this is a kind of desperation that stems from not being able to articulate what one would like to communicate, or is it just a kind of uneasiness that arises when you realise that there is something wrong with you when you have nothing 'original' to communicate, which forces you to communicate?? I dont know what it is but I know one thing for sure - it is extremely frustrating when words dont come easily to you especially when you think you have a lot to say..and my respect for authors of any kind has increased manifold ever since I have experienced this terrible feeling.

I started this blog with the idea of sharing something 'original' from my life with the world... something that could be a thought, an idea or even a real life experience...down the line I have realised how difficult it is to produce something original, the difficulty of the task is reflected in the number of truly original posts = 0 that I think I have been able to create ever since I started blogging...by truly original I mean something which has not been done before by oneself or by anyone else...since it is very difficult to create something original this blog is a desperate attempt to create something original by documenting the desperation one feels in attempting to create something original...I desperately hope this kind of desperation is original

Slightly late in the day

2006-10-07T07:56:00.000-07:00

These are the lyrics one of my friends showed me today.Unfortunately I cant say yes to many of the questions raised below but hope some of you can..read on..

would you say everything you could
do the things that you thought you would
did it ever occur to you that this could be your final day
did you go where you wanted to go
learn about what you wanted to know
did you ever really give something back instead of always taking it

did you find what you're looking for
did you get your foot in the door
can you look at yourself and feel proud of all the things you've done
did you inspire the ones that you knew
make a difference to those who knew you
did you finally figure out what it is that makes us who we are today

don't waste another day
you never know when you'll get one
don't waste another day
to do anything you haven't done

did you always give it your best
is there anything you regret
if you could have another shot at it all would you do it just the same
was it all that you thought it could be
are you the person you thought you would be
or did it feel like you were spinning your wheels instead of moving forward everyday

don't waste another day
you never know when you'll get one
don't waste another day
to do anything you haven't done
don't waste another day
you never know when you'll get one
don't waste another day
to do anything you haven't done

did you
da da da did you
did you
da da da did you

don't waste another day
you never know when you'll get one
don't waste another day
to do anything you haven't done
don't waste another day
you never know when you'll get one
don't waste another day
to do anything you haven't done

did you
da da da did you
did you
da da da did you
did you
da da da did you
did you
da da da did you

Did you - Hoobastank

My latest orkut photo

2006-09-28T01:20:00.000-07:00

Edwise - exploiting the long tail of education

2006-09-25T10:49:00.000-07:00

I recently finished reading Chris Anderson's 'The Long Tail'. It is one of the best business/economics/culture books I have read in recent times.In it Anderson talks about how the empahsis is shifting from blockbusters to niches and how infinite choice is creating unlimited demand.Anderson gives a lot of examples of companies exploiting the long tail of demand in various industries - e.g. Amazon(books), Google(adverstising), Netflix(dvds), Itunes(Muisc) etc. As I was reading the book I was trying to think of local companies trying to tap the demand in the long tail and players taking advantage of the long tail in other industries. The first company which came to my mind was this company called Edwise. Edwise provides educational consultancy (for free almost!) and value added services to students interested in studying abroad.

Unlike the big companies mentioned in the book which cater to the demand in he 'head' as well as the 'tail', Edwise caters to demand only in the 'tail'. The business model of edwise is pretty simple. It has tie ups with a large number of universities in countries like US,Canada,UK, Singapore, Australia, Switzerland, New Zealand and Hongkong. These institutes do not include the top rung universities which essentially makes them a part of the long tail of education in the respective countries. Consultancy here means helping the student choose a set of countries, courses and institutes.Value added services mean various services required by a student starting from couriering the application forms to the institutes the student has selected to finding accomodation in the place where the student has finally enrolled.

Ok now here is the interesting part about how Edwise makes money without charging the student a penny. Edwise gets a commission from the university(Edwise should have a tieup with it ofcourse!) for every student who joins it.It gets a commission from the value added services it provides.What about the costs??Almost all the costs involved are fixed costs.And the major costs I can think of are rents for decent sized rooms which can accomodate on an average 2-3 counsellors, a broad band connection at each of the places and man power costs. I leave it upto you to estimate the profits(atleast I think its a profitable venture).

What I like most about this whole idea is the way it fits beautifully into the framework proposed by Anderson in the long tail.In 'the long tail' he says:

1)Give people a lot of choice.
2)Help them choose.

Thats exactly what Edwise has done. Edwise gives the student enormous choice using the power of the internet, hundreds of universities to choose from and it also helps them choose by recommending institutes and courses to students. Edwise can provde so much choice because the marginal cost of a tie-up with a new institute is negligible.The demand for each of the universities from a country like India will be very low but the cumulative demand for all the universities will be a sizeable number given that not all students can get into the blockbuster universities like MIT, Stanford, Harvard, LSE or other top rung universities and that different students have different preferences.

The student wins because he does not pay anything, the university wins because it gets more students and in a lot of cases foreign students are charged more than locals and Edwise wins too.

Check out The Long Tail and Edwise

Books - My second love

2006-09-06T08:28:00.000-07:00

My love for books is surpassed only by my love for Mathematics.The sight of books fills me with joy undescribable. I have always nurtured this dream(supposed to be a secret) of setting up a library because I know how difficult it is to get access to great/good books in India and I wanted to do my bit to make things slightly better.

The credit for developing the reading habit in me goes to my mom who made sure that never missed a single book fair when I was in school despite not being a voracious reader herself. I shall always remain grateful to her for this.

My love for books in mathematics was kindled during my IIT coaching days and the credit for this goes to one Mr.Koteshwara Rao, one of the best mathematics teachers I have met.Even after nine long years, I can still recollect with great fondness, the enthusiasm, passion and energy he exuded while teaching.It was he who introduced us to Bernard and Child's Algebra, Dorofeev's Elementary Mathematics, Tom Apostol's Calculus, Shklarsky's Problems in USSR mathematical olympiads, some of the best books of high school mathematics ever.The sheer joy of solving problems or reading these books is inexplicable.

Though initially I was only interested in collecting good books on mathematics, it was IIT, Kharagpur's library (one of the biggest technical libraries in Asia) which exposed me to great books in a lot of other domains(though mostly scientific like physics, computer science, aerospace etc) and it was then that I started collecting non-mathematical books.

My love for books only kept growing and my intersts have only widened. While I was working for a software development firm in Hyderabad, I used to buy a lot of books about Computer Science and Engineering and software development.Bjarne Stroustrup, Gang of Four, Sipser, Ullman, Brooks, Kernighan and Ritchie, Pressman - all great authors.Thanks to the increase in disposable income, I also bought books like GEB, Selfish Gene and other non-fiction books once in while. During the 3 years I was in Hyderabad, my book collection swelled to around 800 books.

CAT coaching had a big big impact on my reading habits. The preparation for the RC section in CAT(considered one of the toughest sections mainly because of our reading habit which is almost nonexistent)consisted of reading passages from very varied domains including philosophy,politics, business, literature, sociology, anthropology, psychology and science. I started buying books like Arundhati Roy's the Algebra of Infinite Justice, Bertrand Russel's History of Western Philosophy, Jack Welch's Straight from the Gut etc.My reading speed no doubt improved but more importantly my perspective broadened.From here on a lot of books on philosophy, economics, business etc found a way to my library.

My stay at IIM, Calcutta reinforced this trend further.IIMC's library is one of the biggest Management Libraries in Asia,it was here that I got to read some absolutely fantastic books on economics, finance, mathematics(surprisingly!) and gerneral management.I also started buying a lot books thanks to the guy who came to our Hostel with the latest business best sellers.

I can proudly say that I am now an owner of more than 1000 absolutely wonderful books in a wide variety of subjects like mathematics, physics, computer science, artificial intelligence, philosophy, economics, business, genetics, biology and history.

Some of the books I have read recently:
My rating scale - very bad, bad, ok, good, excellent

Fooled by Randomness - Excellent
The Long Tail - Excellent
ROI selling - Good
Valuation - Excellent
Interpreter of Maladies - Good
The Google Story - Ok
Understanding Arbitrage - Good
It's Not About The Bike - Excellent
The McKinsey Way - Good
The monk who sold his ferrari - Ok

Currently I am reading "Blue Ocean Strategy".

Reservation

2006-05-20T13:14:00.000-07:00

I personally feel that there isnt something wrong with reservation per se.Reservation is one of the many means(and not the only means) by which the problem of inequity can be addressed.And as far as the effectiveness of the means is concerned, it depends on the execution.So instead of rejecting the means, one needs to think in terms of increasing the effectiveness of the means.Experience with reservation shows that it can be beneficial, the evidence for this comes from the better performance of states in South India on various economic and developmental parameters as compared to states in North India where there is comparatively lesser reservation.This is not an original line of reasoning and I am not in a position to give statistical evidence (one can look at Frontline for an indepth analysis along these lines).
On the other hand, I personally dont think that there is place for reservation when favoritism is not a 'very big issue' and output is dependent on skill/IQ and this is usually the case when it comes to entry to institutes like IITs,IIMs and AIIMS or even most jobs involving knowledge processing for that matter.

If poverty cannot suppress great talent I dont see how casteism can?

What is the problem that reservation at these institutes of higher education is trying to solve?

Has anyone bothered to analyze the performance of the students who have gained admisssions into these institutes other than through the NORMAL route?

How about subsidised coaching for students trying to get into these institutes or making reservation mandatory in the coaching centers which coach students for these institutes?

Reservation cannot solve the problems arising out of randomness.
Dont be fooled by randomness.Read the book 'Fooled By Randomness'.

My new job

2006-05-20T12:36:00.000-07:00

I joined PriceWaterHouseCoopers in their Technology Advisory Services division as a Level 2 consultant a week back. The first week was pretty hectic as induction was coupled with training. The real life case simulation which was a part of the training program was a lot of fun.Got to meet some interesting people as well during training.Here are my take aways from the training:
1)Consulting is as much about building relationships as much as it is about solving business problems.
2)Consulting is a demanding profession, not only in terms of hard skills but also in terms of behavioural skills.E.g. Keeping your cool when being ripped apart mercilessly by a client is not everyone's cup of tea.
3)Attention to detail is a must have attribute of a wannabe consultant; at the same time, he shouldnt lose the forest for the trees.
4)Consultants have to be team players.

Motherhood statement about consulting: Consulting is about being logical and structured without sacrificing creativity, paying attention to detail without losing the big picture, building relationships and trust with tact without ethical compromise.

Many MBAs and wannabe MBAs have an idea of what Business Consulting is all about, but when it comes to IT consulting the situation is pretty bad(I myself am still unaware as to what exactly is the role of IT consultants in an organisation).

In the next few days of working in my job I hope to understand what IT consultants do and the kinds of technical skills they require to do what they do and share it with others.

'Premante inthe' - Of the confused, by the confused, for the confused

2006-04-14T23:46:00.000-07:00

Producer - Sravanthi Ravi Kishore
Director - BV Ramana
Dialogue writer - Marudhuri Raja
Music - Koti
Cast - Navdeep,Poonam Bajwa,Roopali,Sarat Babu,Naresh,Aiswarya,
Brahmaji,Jackie,Satya Krishnan,Annapurna,Surya,Ali,Dharmavarapu, Venu Madhav,

What else can one expect from Producer Sravanthi Ravi Kishore,Ph.D(Love)?Yes, yet another movie on love starting with 'Premante...' like all his previous movies, only that this movie is a remake of a succesful hindi movie.But for Director BV Ramana M.A(Master of Action) used to making action movies,this movie devoid of much acting(oops! sorry action) is a new experiment which may not be very successful.

I dont want to reveal the story,actually I cant,because the movie doesnt have one in the real sense of the word.The movie is about Veerendranath aka Veeru(Navdeep), the confused son of Narsimha Rao(Sarat Babu) a business magnate.Its about how he gets rid of his confusion and marries Pavani(Pooja Bajwa) the girl he actually loves and not Lizzy aka Elizabeth(Roopali) the girl he thinks he loves.

Veeru is a rich spoilt kid(do I need to say more?).Narsimha Rao thinks that marrying him off is the only way to teach his son responsibility(great thinking!!) and arranges for a traditional 'PelliChoopulu' with Pavani.But Veeru rejects her because he thinks(he is not sure and he wont be sure for some more time) he is in love with Lizzy.The rejection angers Govardhan Rao's(Naresh) family and they become enemies of Narsimha Rao's family but Veeru and Pavani are cool about the whole thing and infact become good friends.

Veeru along with his gang and Lizzy are supposed to go to Vizag where the now partially confused Veeru(confused about his feelings for Lizzy as well as her feelings for him) would reveal his love for Lizzy.But Lizzy cant join them for some stupid reason because if she did that would have been the end of the story.Mysterious circumstances force Pavani to join the Vizag trip.Aint it obvious???Pavani and Veeru get close to each other.Lizzy joins them midway and is jealous of Veeru's and Pavani's closeness.

After the trip, the now totally confused Veeru proposes to the confused Lizzy and she accepts it.Veeru inspite of getting engaged to Lizzy is not able to forget Pavani and realizes that he actually loves her(I am sure you didnt know this).

At this juncture, all the three families, Veeru's, Pavani's and Lizzy's are totally confused.Also at any point in time, either Pavani's or Lizzy's family is fighting with Veeru's family.Most of the second half follows a pretty simple algorithm :

1.Creat confusion
2.Resolve confusion
3.Provide comic relief
4.Go back to step 1

Infact, the second half also has a powerpoint presentation
on how the pyramids of Egypt were built by teamwork and the power of human will by our very own Veeru.

Do we still need to answer the million dollar question with the following options?
Whom does Veeru marry at the end?
a)Pavani - the heroine
b)Pavani's cousin sister who is seperated from her husband
c)Lizzy - the side heroine
d)If you even look at this option, then go jump!!

Finite state machines Navdeep, Poonam and Roopali need to increase their range of emotion. Poonam also needs the help of VLCC.Ali, the eternal college student (God only knows when he will pass out), Venu Madhav and Dharamavarapu are good.Music by Koti is both original and great.The part that is original is not great and the part that is great is not original.Dialogues by Marudhuri Raja are good in bits and pieces.

The above review could not be published because the editor thought I was trying too hard to be humurouous :(

My first film review experience

2006-04-14T23:05:00.000-07:00

Today I am did my first film review for a telugu film 'Premante inthe'.When Kishore Kumar of fullhyd.com asked me if I was interested in doing a movie review for him,I didnt know whether to say yes or no but I said yes anyways.This was the first time I was doing a review and I was quite apprehensive about the whole thing because I didnt know how to go about it and was not sure whether I could do it.

I decided that I would watch the movie at Prasad's rather than Sandhya as it was the better of the two theatres.I walked into the half empty theatre after having a paneer tikka sandwich with wheat bread at Subway's.Before going to the theatre I realized that I didnt even have a pen and paper.I went to the Reynold's outlet on the second floor to get a paper, but I couldnt find any paper, so I got a couple of tissue papers from one of the stalls.I entered the theatre around 12:45, a few minutes before the show started.

The half empty theatre dampened my already dampened spirits. I was not expecting much from the movie anyways and I realized that it was more or less the same with the people around me. As soon as the movie started, the lights went off,which made noting things down pretty difficult for me.After a couple of stares from the people sitting beside me, I gave up scribbling on the piece of tissue paper and decided to concentrate on the movie.Yes,for the first time in my life I watched a gult movie, that too a vague one for the first time in my life with utmost concentration.What follows in my next post is my maiden attempt at a humorous review of the film "Premante inthe" which when translated into english means love is just this.

After watching the movie, not only has my respect for movie reviewers increased but also my sympathy for them has increased by leaps and bounds, not only do they have to put up with crap for around three hours but they also have to analyze the crap for
a few hours after that.By doing all this they are doing a great service to the society.

The Paint industry-1

2006-04-06T22:28:00.000-07:00

Though the paint industry may seem very unglamorous and low tech,in reality it is one of the most challenging and complicated industries to be in.This series of posts will try and tell you why it is so.

Paint - the product

One has the feeling that all paints are the same, but infact there are atleast three different categories, namely decorative, automotive and industrial.That the characteristics and the purpose of the productsin each category are quite different should be obvious from the names.Industrial paints are used in harsh environments(e.g. boilers),have to be able to withstand high temperatures, have to be very durable.Automotive paints are used for automobiles, decorative paints are used for housing and furniture.There are also many subcategories in each category.In the decorative category we have various subcategories like enamels, wood finishes, wall finshes(interiors, exteriors) etc.In the industrial category we have marine, powder coating, CRPs etc.In each subcategory we have various types.For instance in the wallfinish subcategory of decorative paints we have distempers, emulsions etc.This subdivision is based on various attributes like quality, texture and so on.In this series of posts I will be dealing only with decorative paints as my knowledge is limited to it.

Decorative paints

One peculiar feature of decorative paint is that it doesnot fit neatly into FMCG or white goods.Infact paint shares the characteristicsof both FMCG and white goods.The distribution channels are very similarto that of the FMCG while interms of cost and durability it variesfrom that of an FMCG to a white good(if painting a house is involved).Nowadays paints also come with guarantees like those of white goods.The demand for decorative paints in a country like India is veryseasonal.The demand is highest during festivals like Diwali,Pongal etc.One will be surprised to know that apart from usual dealer incentives,there are otherfactors like elections etc which also influence the demand for paint andthis makes life of the demand forecasters extremely difficult.

Expectations of consumers

Consumers also expect a lot from paints.They expect
Durability
Washability
Ability to cover up cracks
Protection
Provide lustre
Anti-poster properties

Knowledge of consumers

Knowledge of consumers as far as paint is concerned is very low.Except forthe selection of the shade where the involvement is high,the involvement of the customers is very low in purchase. The main people who influence the purchase process arepainters, contractors, dealers, architects.

What you buy is unfortunately not what you get

Though the consumer buys a tin of paint what he/she is actually interested in, is the painted surface and not the tin of painthe/she actually purchases.What complicates matters for thepaint companies is that the though the quality of paint isunder their control, the quality of the finished surface dependson a lot of factors(skill of painters, substrate condition, surface preparation,painting system, application tools,environment) not under their control.

4Ps of painting success

Proper surface preparation
Proper dilution
Proper priming
Proper painting

To be continued...

Excerpt from Memories-class of 2006 year book

2006-03-31T00:21:00.000-08:00

This is what my wingies had to say about me in the year book..

"Tu paagal hain kya...teri to life mein bahut fight hain!"Warning: This one is really looonng...we have to pay our dues to the king of bakar on campus- Vamshi Krishna J V (Joint Venture?) ..The Voice of Youth in Joka..Iss sundar(?), sushil (?), bandey ke liye...ek bottle daaroo chahiye!Actually, even two pegs can do the trick.After that, you would either like him or dislike him, depending upon whether you are the audience or the butt of his jokes.In fact, drinking has been his secret passion and this is something that he has unknowingly demonstrated in his now famous comments on the "Merits of Drinking".The master in mimcry, he can mimic anyone from a gorilla to a cat, and of course, fellow jokaites.He took up whichever positions in the IIMC community that were vacant, Library Representative, Persona Head(well, this position has helped him regain some of his lost youth - the club had some rejuventating members, you see).From IIT kharagpur,this guy came to Joka in search of value addition.We are not lying here- he is amongst the few on campus who didnt go by the herd mentatlity and chose the courses he felt like taking.In the first year, he was confused whether he was in the ladies wing because half the time (especially at night) he watched all the ladies going in and out of the rooms nearby.But still, he persisted with the TASk of value add, and dreamt of a beachside villa in Mumbai.And for the unsuspecting facchas, he became the stats tutor, the answer to Sarkar.Well, it was witnessed in KuntryKlub that the facchas used to run, when they heard his door creaking open.And the new facchas who got into his room were shocked at the dust on his computer screen.If only they knew that our man was more petrified than they were when it came to Stats problems.But apart from all these defects(only a few..In fact a lot, but since this is a year book, lets say a few), he is a very sweet guy( ha ha, get caught with him after two pegs and you will shiver in the memory afterwards), fun to be with, takes life with loads of calm and coolness and to sum it up, he is just a sick, old man with an amazing sense of humour.Okay,lets admit it finally- he is one of his kinds because it is not possible to pack so much of enthusiasm,commitment, wittiness, calmness and resilience in one person.

My wingies rock :)

Target audience for this blog

2006-03-01T22:32:00.000-08:00

I have finally managed to identify the target audience for the blog. Though this should have been done before I started writing the blog,I guess its better late than never(I hate cliches).This particular order of doing things perhaps explains the low value of the hit counter on my page. I would want to believe that my lack of focus rather than my insipid writing as the cause of the low readership :). Not that I am too concerned about the count but yes, readership helps me keep myself motivated.

From now onwards, most of my posts will be talking about some particular aspect of business, interesting business ideas or useful management concepts that I have picked up during the course of my stay here. I am hoping that this blog will be of some use to wannabe MBAs, people doing their MBAs and also MBAs who are working.You will also find some posts talking about my personal experiences in IIMC as well as those from my place of work.

This blog post marks the end of my academic life in IIMC. Today I gave the last examination of my MBA life in IIMC, Software Project Management. I have finally become an MBA.

Curiosity and talking to people -2

2006-02-10T12:09:00.000-08:00

Yesterday after dinner while I was on my way to the library when I met a friend of mine, a FP student in campus doing his Ph.D in the field of Operations Research. I casually asked him what his thesis topic was and who his guide was.I came to know that he was doing his thesis under one of the most feared profs in the Operations Management Department.To show my symapathy to him is not the only reason for this post, the main reason is to give an idea about the kind of problems he was working on.
He was working on problems regarding the assignment of aircrafts of different sizes to different trips at different points in time given the routes and the demand on each route.He was telling me that airlines in developed countries have developed complicated mathematical models to optimize the assignment and have saved millions of dollars in the process. He was trying to develop some models for indian airline companies.He was telling me that there was a lot of problem getting data regarding indian airline companies unlike those in US.One interesting idea that came up during the discussion was regarding how low cost airlines could be looking for alliances with other means of transport providers like railways and even road transport providers to make a lot of small towns which are close to cities but which are directly inaccessible by air because of lack of airports.This has advantages for both the business traveller and the reasonably affluent town dweller and could also increase revenues for the airlines because of the potential increase in demand(we have not discussed feasibility and profitability).This will also relieve the traveller from the worry of finding the connecting means of transport to her destination.Though the idea of connecting flights is not new, extending it to other means of transport might be novel.
Whether or not the idea is novel or not, the point I am trying to make is that a little bit of curiosity can go a long way in helping us learn about new ideas if not generating new ones. This reminds me of the advice of a CEO which I have read somewhere,he says its more important to be interested than be interesting.

Curiosity and talking to people

2006-02-09T09:23:00.000-08:00

This post is dedicated to the anonymous 'commenter' who urged me to talk to people and explore things around me. The other day me and my friend went to watch the movie 'Rang De Basanti' at the Inox theatre at The Forum, Calcutta.The evening show was at 5:25pm and we reached the place 20 mins in advance.Both of us were very hungry so we went to the food court which was on the topmost floor.The food court had all kinds of stuff from Puchkas to Pizzas in stalls of different sizes.We went to the puchka stall to have some puchkas. The guy manning the stall told us that we needed to get a 'Burp!' card to buy stuff and that cash was not accepted at the stalls. Me and my friend wondered why the payment procedure had to be so needlessly complicated.The MBAs ;) that we were we decided to investigate the logic behind the 'Burp Card'.

The Burp card is a swipe card akin to your credit card. Only that the limit is determined by the amount you pay at the counter.You also need to pay Rs.25(caution deposit for the card I guess) extra for the card which is refunded if you return the card. You have use the card at the food stalls to buy stuff and based on your purchases the amount gets deducted from the card. All this is fine but we still couldnt figure out what purpose the card solved.

When we went back to the puchka guy, we asked him what the advantages of the Burp card system were.The guy told us that the Burp card system helps 'The Forum' management keep track of the sales generated at each store.The stall owners dont pay a fixed rent for the stall space, instead they pay 'The Forum' a percentage(which is outcome of the negotiations between the stall owner and 'The Forum' management) of the stall's sales. The advantages of this system are obvious. In case the sales are high 'The Forum' guys gets to benefit and in case of lower sales the stall owner doesnt get affected very badly like he does in case of a high fixed rent.'The Forum' management determines the ranges of the prices of the food items which are sold and it can also get rid of the stalls which have not been performing well as it has the sales information.
Interesting stuff I thought(revenue sharing, a concept I studied in supply chain management)...

We were not disappointed with the movie either..excellent visuals and very nice songs.All in all it was good fun.

200 things you might have done

2006-02-04T10:16:00.000-08:00

Saw this list on my cousin's blog, found it interesting, so decided to make one for myself. I have highlighted whatever I have done.

01.Bought everyone in the pub a drink
02. Swam with wild dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula.
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said ‘I love you’ and meant it
09. Hugged a tree
10. Done a striptease
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Stayed up all night long, and watch the sun rise
15. Seen the Northern Lights
16. Gone to a huge sports game.
17Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
18. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
19. Touched an iceberg
20. Slept under the stars
21. Changed a baby’s diaper
22. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
23. Watched a meteor shower
24. Gotten drunk on champagne
25. Given more than you can afford to charity
26. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
27. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
28. Had a food fight
29. Bet on a winning horse
30. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
31. Asked out a stranger
32. Had a snowball fight – hailstones, not snow
33. Photocopied your bottom on the office photocopier
34. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
35. Held a lamb
36. Enacted a favorite fantasy
37. Taken a midnight skinny dip
38. Taken an ice cold bath
39. Had a meaningful conversation with a beggar
40. Seen a total eclipse
41. Ridden a roller coaster
42. Hit a home run( equivalent anyway)
43. Fit three weeks miraculously into three days
44. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
45. Adopted an accent for an entire day
46. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
47. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
48. Had two hard drives for your computer
49. Visited all 50 states(or 27-28?)
50. Loved your job for all accounts
51. Taken care of someone who was shit faced
52. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
53. Had amazing friends
54. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
55. Watched wild whales
56. Stolen a sign
57. Backpacked in Europe
58. Taken a road-trip
59. Rock climbing
60. Lied to foreign government’s official in that country to avoid notice
61. Midnight walk on the beach
62. Sky diving.
63.Visited Ireland
64. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love
65. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them
66. Visited Japan
67. Benchpressed your own weight
68. Milked a cow
69. Alphabetized your records
70. Pretended to be a superhero
71. Sung karaoke
72. Lounged around in bed all day
73. Posed nude in front of strangers
74. Scuba diving
75. Got it on to “Let’s Get It On” by Marvin Gaye
76. Kissed in the rain
77. Played in the mud
78. Played in the rain
79. Gone to a drive-in theater
80. Done something you should regret, but don’t regret it
81. Visited the Great Wall of China
82. Discovered that someone who’s not supposed to have known about your blog has discovered your blog
83. Dropped Windows in favor of something better
84. Started a business
85. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
86. Toured ancient sites
87. Taken a martial arts class
88. Swordfought for the honor of a woman
89. Played Counter-Strike(game was D&D) for more than 6 hours straight
90. Gotten married
91. Been in a movie
92. Crashed a party
93. Loved someone you shouldn’t have
94. Kissed someone so passionately it made them dizzy
95. Gotten divorced
96. Had sex at the office
97. Gone without food for 5 days
98. Made cookies from scratch
99. Won first prize in a costume contest
100. Ridden a gondola in Venice
101. Gotten a tattoo
102. Found that the texture of some materials can turn you on
103. Rafted the Snake River
104. Been on television news programs as an “expert”
105. Got flowers for no reason
106. Masturbated in a public place
107. Got so drunk you don’t remember anything
108. Been addicted to some form of illegal drug
109. Performed on stage
110. Been to Las Vegas
111. Recorded music
112. Eaten shark
113. Had a one-night stand
114. Gone to Thailand
115. Seen Siouxsie live
116. Bought a house
117. Been in a combat zone
118. Buried one/both of your parents
119. Shaved or waxed your pubic hair off
120. Been on a cruise ship
121. Spoken more than one language fluently
122. Gotten into a fight while attempting to defend someone
123. Bounced a check
124. Performed in Rocky Horror
125. Read - and understood - your credit report
126. Raised children
127. Recently bought and played with a favorite childhood toy
128. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
129. Created and named your own constellation of stars
130. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
131. Found out something significant that your ancestors did
132. Called or written your Congress person
133. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
134. …more than once? - More than thrice?
135. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
136. Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking
137. Had an abortion or your female partner did
138. Had plastic surgery
139. Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived
140. Wrote articles for a large publication
141. Lost over 100 pounds
142. Held someone while they were having a seizure
143. Piloted an airplane
144. Petted a stingray
145. Broken someone’s heart
146. Helped an animal give birth
147. Been fired or laid off from a job
148. Won money on a T.V. game show
149. Broken a bone
150. Killed a human being
151. Gone on an African photo safari
152. Ridden a motorcycle
153. Driven any land vehicle at a speed of greater than 100mph (greater than 100 kmph anyway )
154. Had a body part of yours below the neck pierced
155. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
156. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
157. Ridden a horse
158. Had major surgery
159. Had sex on a moving train
160. Had a snake as a pet
161. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
162. Slept through an entire flight: takeoff, flight, and landing
163. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
164. Visited more foreign countries than Indian states
165. Visited all 7 continents
166. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
167. Eaten kangaroo meat
168. Fallen in love at an ancient Mayan burial ground
169. Been a sperm or egg donor
170. Eaten sushi
171. Had your picture in the newspaper
172. Had 2 (or more) healthy romantic relationships for over a year in your lifetime
173. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about
174. Gotten someone fired for their actions
175. Gone back to school
176. Parasailed
177. Changed your name
178. Petted a cockroach
179. Eaten fried green tomatoes
180. Read The Iliad
181. Selected one “important” author who you missed in school, and read
182. Dined in a restaurant and stolen silverware, plates, cups because your apartment needed them
183. …and gotten 86′ed from the restaurant because you did it so many times, they figured out it was you
184. Taught yourself an art from scratch
185. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
186. Apologized to someone years after inflicting the hurt
187. Skipped all your school reunions
188. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
189. Been elected to public office
190. Written your own computer language
191. Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream
192. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
193. Built your own PC from parts
194. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you
195. Had a booth at a street fair
196: Dyed your hair
197: Been a DJ
198: Found out someone was going to dump you via LiveJournal –yeesh!
199: Written your own role playing game
200: Been arrested

Score: 36/200

End of a journey

2006-02-03T08:19:00.000-08:00

Jan 30th the birthday of one of my best friends also marked the end of a journey which started on Nov 4th, 2003.A journey which started unexpectedly and ended abruptly. Interestingly it began a few weeks before CAT and ended a few weeks before final placement at IIMC. Not the best of times of times to start or end a journey but thats how life is.Let me talk about the end of the journey first.I dont feel very bad that the journey has ended but the manner in which the journey has ended left a bad after taste. I am glad that the journey ended, but not everything was wrong with the journey, the good part about it is that I got to learn a lot.
It is rare that you get to choose people with whom you travel so as to make the journey more enjoyable and pleasant.One has to be very judicious when it comes to choosing the right copassengers especially when the journey might be a long one or one fraught with a lot of uncertainities and decisions taken impulsively can make the journey unpleasant.

My last term in IIMC

2006-01-26T22:45:00.000-08:00

The sole purpose of this post is to garner sympathy from people because of my current situation.
Thanks to placements I can accept only one more job offer.I made the mistake of taking only two courses this term.How I wish I had taken more courses this term.Thats because I have only two lectures per week(3.5 hrs) and lots of time(the remaining) to spend and I dont know how to spend it.How I wish I had midterms this term, I so badly wanted to study but unfortunately I have none. Thats the situation as far as academics is concerned.

Let me tell you the difficulties I am facing as far as spending the rest of my time is concerned.I get up at around 12 in the noon or sometimes even later and then feel sorry for myself for having to wake up so early. Then I have to go through the sports/entertainment sections of ET, Times of India and any other newspaper I can lay my hands on and see all those interesting photos.Once I am done with all this, its time for lunch.The mess food sucks so what do I do.I see that you are already beginning to feel sorry for me, but its ok.I dont have classes in the afternoons, so I go out to Aahar(a place just outside the gate), order tomato soup, chicken roll, channa masala and other interesting stuff.I know Aahar takes time but I dont have much of an option you see.After a heavy lunch I have trouble walking back to the hostel.

Is it time for the siesta?No, not yet.Its time for a couple of games of TT and some cricket match viewing.How I wish there were more people in the mess.But there cant be more, people are attending lectures.After the tiring TT matches, its time to take some rest.I come back to my room, chat a bit and sleep for some time(just a couple of hours).Poor me :(

Its snack time.I go to the mess, have some snacks and then play TT for some time.How I wish I had some assignments to do, but unfortunately I have none.I come back to my room surf for some time and then I get a call from GOD."Lets go out for dinner today."I try telling him that only yesterday I went to Tung Fung,the day before to Marco Polo, the day before that to Bar-B-Q, but he is in no mood to listen.I am forced to go to GOS(Grain of salt).We didnt order much actually, for starters we had Sesame lamb,Pepperoni Chicken, Seekh Kabab.I was feeling thirsty and just to quench my thirst I had some Long Island Iced Tea and some Kahlua. After that we had a pretty dull main course consisting of Chicken Steak and another exotic continental dish. We actually wanted to leave but then we thought that there was no point coming this far and not having a dessert.We settled for a chocolate brownie with plain vanilla icecream, the regular chocolate mousse and molten chocolate cake.Throughout the dinner we talked about a lot of interesting stuff as well.

By the time we came back it was already 1am in the nite.I was not feeling sleepy and I was feeling depressed.I didnt know what to do.Birla suggested the movie "From here to eternity"(1953 movie) while we were having dinner earlier.Though the ending was tragic, it was a nice movie.I finally went to sleep at around 4 in the morning.

So this is what I am doing in my last sem, if you have any suggestions for me for making life better in the last term I would be grateful :)

The number 13

2006-01-14T12:59:00.000-08:00

For a long time the post count on my blog remained 13.But today I have found interesting stuff to put up a post and break the jinx associated with the number 13. It all started with the play "Sir....Sir...Sarla'(written by Makarand Deshpande) performed by the Dramatics Club of IIMC on the event of Carpediem 2006.The play was superb and the impressive performance of the cast/directors/lightsmen etc has amazed me. After the play I took a walk around the campus with a good friend of mine and we had an interesting discussion on a wide variety of topics ranging from the utility of dramatics in management to honesty in life and the desire to document the discussion is the motivation for the post. While a lot can be learnt through dramatics, to produce an impressive performance as the one we witnessed today requires humongous effort and we were undecided as to whether the effort required was sustainable given the very tight schedule of management programs.We then talked about why people are more attached to their undergraduate almamater than their graduate almamater.May be its because the timespent in undergraduate institutions is more than the time spent in graduate institutions, may be people are more impressionable at that age and the memories of that time remain for a longer time.We then talked about the main differences between student life and job life.We agreed that there is more responsibility, accountability and felxibity in job life than in student life.We then moved on to more interesting topics. Having a job offer and just two subjects in the last semester gives you a lot of time to think about stuff you would have not thought of otherwise. I expressed my desire to read interesting non academic stuff during this period to my friend and this led us to discussing philosophical issues raised in the book 'Siddhartha' which I recently read.I found ''Siddhartha' extremely interesting and thought provoking and I recommend it to everyone, even to those who are only remotely interested in philosophy.I talked about a few ideas from the book, some of which are very well articulated e.g. knowledge can be communicated but true wisdom cannot be communicated and why should one try to find and not search and the meaninglessness of trying to reach an ultimate goal, the process of enjoying the present, learning and experiencing and a few others.I am too lazy to go into the details of the discussion we had but I will mention the other topics which we discussed.We talked about facts and beliefs,why ignorance is bliss(we think this is a statement made in extreme frustration),why little knowledge is not only dangerous but frustrating as well, why real time analysis/dissection of the thought process can modify the original thought process(this is akin to Heinsenberg's uncertainity principle which states that both the position and momentum of a fundamental particle cannot be simultaneously measured with enough accuracy), how the discovery of certain profound truths can shatter the discoverer of those truths and lastly the reason why honesty is something which is universal and absolute.The reader of this blog is requested to forgive the ignorance of the writer of the blog. factual inaccuracies and logical inaccuracies.I have not delved into some interesting arguments that have come up during the discussion because this will hopefully form the material of my next few posts.Today is one of those rare ocassions where I have more material to write about than that allowed by my laziness.

Have you always wondered why economics is so important?

2005-12-27T05:37:00.000-08:00

It is because economics deals with how 'rational' human beings think and take decisions.Following is an excerpt from Steven D.Levitt's Freakonomics:A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden side of Everything;(This book is a must read, for further information about the book and the authors check out www.freakonomics.com.)
Economics is, at root, the study of incentives: how people get what they want, or need, especially when other people want or need the same thing. Economists love incentives. They love to dream them up and enact them, study them and tinker with them. The typical economist believes the world has not yet invented a problem that he cannot fix if given a free hand to design the proper incentive scheme. His solution may not always be pretty -- it may involve coercion or exorbitant penalties or the violation of civil liberties -- but the original problem, rest assured, will be fixed. An incentive is a bullet, a lever, a key: an often tiny object with astonishing power to change a situation.
We all learn to respond to incentives, negative and positive, from the outset of life. If you toddle over to the hot stove and touch it, you burn a finger. But if you bring home straight A's from school, you get a new bike. If you are spotted picking your nose in class, you get ridiculed. But if you make the basketball team, you move up the social ladder. If you break curfew, you get grounded. But if you ace your SATs, you get to go to a good college. If you flunk out of law school, you have to go to work at your father's insurance company. But if you perform so well that a rival company comes calling, you become a vice president and no longer have to work for your father. If you become so excited about your new vice president job that you drive home at eighty mph, you get pulled over by the police and fined $100. But if you hit your sales projections and collect a year-end bonus, you not only aren't worried about the $100 ticket but can also afford to buy that Viking range you've always wanted -- and on which your toddler can now burn her own finger.
An incentive is simply a means of urging people to do more of a good thing and less of a bad thing. But most incentives don't come about organically. Someone -- an economist or a politician or a parent -- has to invent them. Your three-year-old eats all her vegetables for a week? She wins a trip to the toy store. A big steelmaker belches too much smoke into the air? The company is fined for each cubic foot of pollutants over the legal limit. Too many Americans aren't paying their share of income tax? It was the economist Milton Friedman who helped come up with a solution to this one: automatic tax withholding from employees' paychecks.
There are three basic flavors of incentive: economic, social, and moral. Very often a single incentive scheme will include all three varieties. Think about the anti-smoking campaign of recent years. The addition of a $3-per-pack "sin tax" is a strong economic incentive against buying cigarettes. The banning of cigarettes in restaurants and bars is a powerful social incentive. And when the U.S. government asserts that terrorists raise money by selling black-market cigarettes, that acts as a rather jarring moral incentive.

Only after coming to a B-school have I realised the power of thinking in terms of incentives.I have started believing that the world has not yet invented a problem which cannot be fixed by designing a proper incentive scheme.An important thing to keep in mind is that an incentive can be something as tangible as money or something as intangible as affection, recognition.Once we allow for intangible incentives, I think a lot of mysterious 'behaviour' in relationships even friendships and personal relationships becomes less mysterious.

Do you think, thinking in terms of incentives/disincentives can help in the following situations?

1)How would you ensure that there is no freeriding in your project group without letting the quality of project get affected?Assume that you have no control in the formation of groups.You also cannot report the name of the freerider to the professor.
2)The IIMC library requires student volunteers so that it can remain open till 1:00am in the morning.The student gets paid a very meagre sum for volunteering for 4 hrs in a week that it is not an incentive.The library requires 20 volunteers per month out of 500 students.You cannot fine the volunteers if they dont perform the duty after giving their names.You cannot increase the number of staff in the library.
3)Asssuming equal ability, how would you decide whom to vote for a place in the Placement committee,if you have to decide among the following, a guy who already has a 'slot 0' offer but medium CG,a guy who has 'slot 0' offer and a very high CGPA, a guy who has a very high CGPA but no 'slot 0' offer, a guy with an average CGPA and no 'slot 0' offer?
4)How can students be motivated to show 'interest' in terms where the CGPA does not count for placement?Assume you cannot make all the terms count for placement.
5)What about 'unconditional' or 'unrequited' love?
6)Going in for 'love marriage' versus going in for 'arranged marriage'?

Can you think of other situations where apparently altruistic or 'mysterious' behaviour can be explained in terms of incentives?

Proving a point - Doing things for youself, not someone else

2005-11-15T00:00:00.000-08:00

All along I have made the mistake of doing something because I always had a point to prove to someone and that someone was always someone else other than myself.When you do this you are actually allowing someone else to control you and your happiness.The 'joy' of proving a point for the sake of it is temporary but the joy of doing something because you really enjoy doing it is long lasting.
We have only one life so its advisable to make the best of it doing things we like doing,things we enjoy doing and things we are good at doing.Proving a point should be a by product of doing things we enjoy doing but should not be the sole aim because it usually results in wasted effort.We only give our best when we completely believe in what we are doing otherwise there is always a gnawing thought (which questions the 'utility' of the task being performed) which prevents us from getting completely engrossed(flow) in what we do and giving our best and results in unhappiness.

P.S For readers who are interested in understanding happiness, I suggest the book 'Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience', by one Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Its a book worth reading.

Will you decide if I need help or not?

2005-11-14T22:49:00.000-08:00

People have their own reasons when they ask you for something.You can decide whether you want to help them or not depending on what you believe in but I dont think you can/should or atleast I wouldnt invalidate their reasons based on my beliefs.That doesnt mean you do not have the right to question the other person's reasons for asking for help.Sometimes their reasons could be wrong and sometimes you may not know what compels them to ask you for help and sometimes you may not agree with the reasons given to you by them.So you should either help based on what they need given your resources/beliefs or in case you cant, clearly tell them that you cant but I wouldnt tell them that they are stupid or conclude that they are stupid or why they should help themselves or why they dont require help.Also not helping is not necessarily 'bad' or 'incorrect' or 'selfish' and can infact be good given that you have good intentions.A good way to decide whether or not to help would be to put yourself in the shoes of the person asking for help and think of what you would expect. Lastly, you must be upfront while communicating your willingness or unwillingness to help.

What they teach at IIMC?

2005-10-31T02:35:00.000-08:00

I am actually fed up of seeing a column about what they dont teach at B-schools in almost every other business daily after McCormack wrote his famous book "What they dont teach at Harvard Business School".I agree with him when he says that they dont teach some things at B-school because somethings just cannot be taught in a B-school.You learn some of those only by experience.Nobody talks about what they have learnt in B-school or what they have been taught in B-school.All that they have learnt in B-school is classfied under 'theory' or analytical skills.According to me this is not doing complete justice to the curriculum in B-schools.
One might be wondering why I asked the question "What they teach at IIMC?" at this point of time. I asked this question to myself to take stock of my current situation, to see what I have been taught in the last one and a half years and if I was taught something which not many B-schools in India would be teaching.I say taught because unfortunately I havent been able to learn all that I have been taught sometimes because I was taught too much, sometimes because I didnt bother to learn what I was taught and sometimes I was not taught too well.In trying to find an answer to this question, I was pleasantly surprised when I ran through the list of courses I have taken. Apart from the basic marketing, finance and OB courses, we have been taught a lot of 'other' stuff as well.There are some courses which I think very few B-schools in the country offer...here is the list of the 'other' courses I have taken from the whole gamut of electives that were offered.

Indian Economic and Political History(IEPH)- History from the time of East India Company's arrival in India to 1950s
Indian Social Structure (ISS)- Covers some aspects of sociology,Indian caste system
Business Ethics ( BusEth)
International Geo Politics(IGP)- Asian Crisis,Oil shocks, TRIPS, GATT, WTO
Quantitative applications in Finance ( QAF)
Econometrics(Ecotrix)
Executive decision and OR (EDOR)- Applications of Mathematical Programming
Economics of the Firm ( EcoFirm) - Game theory and its applications (mainly economic)
Business modelling using system dynamics (BMSD)
Corporate Restrcucturing(Corp res)
Fixed Income Markets(FIM)
Indian Legal Sytem(ILS)
Mangement of Self (MOS) - Theories of personality,basis of personality tests
Topics in Finance and Taxation (TFT) - Securitization, credit derivatives and taxation

Most of the names are self explanatory but in some cases the content of the courses is not very obvious from the name..in a later post of mine I shall try and cover the content of the courses in greater detail.
When it comes to electives....IIMC rocks big time.

Cribbing and its benefits

2005-10-19T00:20:00.000-07:00

A lot of people I know and who know me well accuse me of "cribbing" too much.
My cribbing is generally targeted at the so called "system" we live in and at myself as well.
We all know a lot about the bad things of cribbing in general and excessive cribbing in particular.For a change, let me try and talk about the good things of cribbing(something I am good at).
Firstly, according to me cribbing is an outcome of/ reaction to frustration, helplessness etc and almost every human being goes through phases of frustration,helplessness etc at some point in his life.I think cribbing is a way(good way) to relieve ourselves of this 'stress'( though I dont recommend this as a stress buster always, especially cribbing about the same things to the same people again and again..people have a tendency of getting bored listening to the same cribs again and again).
Secondly, when we are cribbing we are at our critical best ( though not always fully objective).So good cribs can actually bring out the bad things about systems/people.
Thirdly, cribbing is an ice breaker/conversation starter(though I would agree that there are better ways to break ice or start a conversation).Sometimes common cribs can help people connect better and understand each other but only sometimes.
Fourthly, sometimes people make mistakes involuntarily and they feel sad/bad about it.
And they want to "crib" to someone they feel will be able to make them feel better and may be empathise(or sympathise whatever) with them.If you dont believe me that cribbing can make you feel better you can try it out yourself.
Fifthly, cribbing can also be a good source of humour and sarcasm.

I would like to dedicate this post to the special person in my life who has helped me reduce my cribbing...only dont ask me how this was accomplished...

You know why I couldn't post this earlier...i was so busy with so many other things..I have so many subjects to study...I have so many projects to do..the b-school curriculum is so screwed that you dont have time for anything else blah blah..

My experiences with education - Part III ( IIT-JEE coaching)

2005-09-25T12:51:00.000-07:00

Ok before I get into trouble let me say this - "all the opinions expressed in this blog are my own and are online solely for the purpose of documenting my experiences and making it accesible to wider audiences, they are not intended to hurt people, reputation of organizations, to serve as sources of primary or secondary data, or illustrations of effective and ineffective management ".

In June, 1995 I joined Ramaiah's coaching centre(RCC). I was very happy and excited.
RCC and Ramaiah were almost legendary in Hyd then, not sure what the situation is rite now. Almost every student in Hyd and a lot of cities in AP had heard about Ramaiah and RCC ( students used to come from other cities as well to study at RCC). In terms of faculty and academic inputs, RCC was the best in the city but each faculty there, had his own set of eccentricities.Also the institute was very strict when it came to punctuality, homework, dress code etc.Nobody was allowed inside if he/she was late to the class even by 5 mins, if you miss a class you would have to get your parents to the institute to offer explanations for your absence, boys were not allowed to tuck their shirts or wear shoes, girls were only allowed to wear salwar suits, and once inside the class you were not supposed to be wearing sweaters/woollen clothing etc.There were a lot of instances were people had to shift to houses closer to the institute because the morning classes would start at 4am in the morning. In short , during the two years when students were at the institute, the students including their parents were at the mercy of the institute.Some of the students used to leave the institute because they couldnt cope with the pressure( which includes nasty comments and may be a bit of slapping as well) there.From my personal experiences I can say that a lot of what I heard was right, though not everything was right.

There are some ' interesting' things which I distinctly remember about the institute.The first thing they do is have a meeting with the parents and the students when they discuss the question paper and the performance of the students. In 1995 around 4500 students appeared for the exam and around 600 - 700 of them got zeroes in maths and physics ( that should give you some idea about the toughness of the paper).The best part about the maths paper atleast is that all the questions can be solved without using any mathematics beyond class X though the questions appear very complicated.(For those who are mathematically inclined here is a 1 mark question from the paper which I gave.. How many times does the curve y = | | x-1| -1 | cut the x - axis?).In the meeting, the parents are also told not to scold their children at home because they do that at the institute anyways and they are also urged to take good care of them and monitor their mental health regularly.The other interesting thing about the institute is the classroom experience; sometimes nasty and sometimes witty comments peppered the lecture sessions.Once in a physics class I was asleep and the prof caught me napping. He promptly woke me up(dont remeber if I was slapped though) and this is what he told the class in telugu " Vamshi gaaru theory of relativity meeda panichestunnaru andukaney raatri padukoledu" which when translated into english means "Vamshi was working on the theory of relativity and thats why he could not sleep yesterday nite" and then he asks me "Vamshi, any breakthroughs ?".
Some of the comments the lecturers used to make were quite sarcastic and you needed to be really thick skinned to take that and continue with the course.

On the whole, to be frank I didnt enjoy my experience at RCC very much but I cannot deny that I learnt a lot of stuff there and some of what I learnt I remember to this day. It was in RCC where I fell in love with Maths and Physics and I will always be grateful to the faculty there for this.I learnt what passion means from the faculty there.Also I met some amazing guys at this place.

Only when teachers are passionate, knowledgeable, good communicators and friendly can learning be fun and effective.At RCC atleast as far as my perception is concerned, the faculty satisfied the first three conditions but I think they were very students unfriendly.I dont deny the importance of discipline but I am against taking it to extremes and imposing meaningless rules like what I thought they did at RCC .Proponents of RCC's system may argue that it is very effective based on statistical facts, I agree it is effective but the effectiveness comes at a very high cost. Many students apart from the ones who are very very bright dont perform as well as their peers from coaching centres in other states once they join IITs because they are already so 'tired' studying for getting into IITs . I dont have exact numbers to support my statement but the above statement is based on my personal experiences.

The goal of coaching centres should not just be maximizing the number of students cracking JEE, but instilling in them a passion for life long learning with discipline and making the learning process enjoyable.
Cracking JEE is not an end in itself, its just a means to an end.

My experiences with education - Part II ( Pre - college )

2005-09-01T11:10:00.000-07:00

As I have mentioned in my previous post, I did my schooling in Hyderabad- an educational hub.I doubt if there is any other city in India which produces as many engineers and doctors as Hyderabad does.I dont know whether it is good or bad but almost every guy who appears for the Engineering and medical entrance test ( EAMCET) gets a seat in some college or the other in the state.

Before I talk about my experiences in College, I will describe the educational scene in Hyderabad. Hyderabad is one city where the parents know more about the syllabus of the exams than the children themselves.There are certain localities in the city which are totally dedicated to coaching institutes, in these localities coaching institutes outnumber any other kind of business or non business entities, I think they even outnumber the grocery stores in that locality. There are also some offices where people spend more time discussing coaching centres and exams than on their work. Education in Hyderabad is a very very lucarative business at every level. You have coaching centres for almost every exam in the country- school exams ( class 2 onwards), board exams ( 7th and 10th), competitive exams like olympiads, science talent search exams,JEE, EAMCET, university exams, B.Com, B.Sc and IAS exams.People here are so obsessed with careers in Engineering and Medicine that preparation for the entrance exams like ( JEE and EAMCET) starts from class 8 onwards and sometimes even earlier (I am not kidding here).There are some interesting things about IIT preparation in Hyderabad which are worth mentioning. Not only are there coaching centres for IIT-JEE which conduct their own entrance exams for selecting candidates,but also coaching centres which conduct entrance exams for selecting students whom they can coach so that they can get into the reputed IIT-JEE coaching centres.As far as I know there are also institues( am not sure whether they conduct entrance exams or not) which train students for getting into coaching centres which train students for getting into the reputed IIT-JEE coaching centres.There are also intermediate colleges which give special privileges to students who belong to some of the IIT-JEE coaching centres.These special allowances are in the form of reduced attendance requirements, special timings for Laboratory Practicals which are a part of the Intermediate curriculum, special classes for subjects like English, Sanskrit, French etc.These colleges in return get the right to publish the photos of these students later in newspapers as a part of their advertisements if these students do well in the competitive exams.

Till class IX I was undecided as to whether I want to pursue higher studies in the Medical stream or the engineering stream because I liked maths and biology equally and I was decent at both the subjects.
My mom was a post graduate in Mathematics and my dad was an engineer and together they convinced me that pusuing higher studies in engineering was 'better' than pursuing higher studies in medicine because there were more options available for engineers, it took less time to complete engineering education as compared to medicine ( with its internship, specializations and super specializations ) and because engineering was 'relatively easier' when compared to medicine. Here I must admit that my greater liking for maths as compared to Biology also played a part in me choosing to pursue higher studies in engineering. It was drilled into me that I had to get into an IIT and I was also determined to get into IIT at any cost.Incidentally 12 members of my family( including my mom and my grandfather) are from IIT, Kharagpur. I must admit that I didnt know much about engineering then( not that I know something more now) and one of the major reasons for me wanting to go to IIT was the prestige associated with it and the respect people had for IIT.

From class 9 itself I started preparation for IIT. I registered for the Brilliant 1 year correspondence IIT-JEE foundation courses. Every month I used to get booklets full of theory and problems in Maths, Physics and Chemistry. I had to solve the problems and send it to the institute before I get the next set and they would send me back the corrected answer sheets.After a couple of times I was tired and stopped sending the solutions,I would just wait for the next set which had answers to the problems of the previous sets. ( Brilliant was lenient, there are some insttitutes where they dont send the next set unless you send them your solutions of the previous set).My mom ( a post graduate in Mathematics from IIT, Kharagpur) helped me with maths and my Grandfather ( a doctorate and a Physics professor from IIT, Kharagpur) helped me with my Physics.All this preparation helped me do well in the various science talent search examinations.

After I finished my high school exams in March 1995, I had a month to prepare for the entrance exams of the various IIT-JEE coaching institutes and the entrance exam for Little Flower Junior College.During that time LFJC was one of the very few intermediate colleges which had an entrance exam and it was also considered one of the best colleges in the city. As far as the IIT-JEE coaching centres were concerned, they were two institues namely Ramaiah ( There is also a Ramaiah Fan club on Orkut) and Krishnamurthy which were considered to be the best of the lot ( these were institutes with very high percentage of succesful candidates).I was determined to get into the 2-year IIT JEE coaching program at one of these institutes.

After one month of hard work ,I successfully cleared all the three exams I appeared for; Ramaiah, Krishnamurthy and Little Flower Junior College entrance exams.

My experiences with education - Part I ( Schooling)

2005-08-26T06:30:00.000-07:00

Today I gave my last exam, the last exam of some consequence in IIMC. Incidentally it is also the one of the worst exams I have given in recent times.Cant think of a better time to go down memory lane and share with you some of my frustrations and joys(yep..frustrations and joys) I have experienced during my education. I shall start right from LKG.

I joined LKG in All Saints High School when I was around 2 yr 10 months.It was a peculiar situation. I was born on one of those 'wrong' dates, dates totally unsuitable for admission into school.I was underaged for admission that year and would be overaged for admission next year. I dont know how nor do I remember how but somehow the Principal was convinced and agreed to consider my application for admission.Little did my parents know that there was one more major hurdle that had to be crossed before I could get admission. If you wonder what that hurdle was, it was not a donation, it was not a bribe , it was an INTERVIEW.Can you believe it? yes.. an interview for a 2 yr 10 month old for admission into LKG.My parents tell me that I did not open my mouth during the interview, but I eagerly and happily accepted the chocolate given to me at the end of the interview.I dont know what that action of mine conveyed to the principal but it looks like it did the trick for me and I was admitted.For all you Azhar fans, this is the same school from where he did his schooling. Dont remember much about my two years stay at this place except that my teachers had a tough time preventing me from talking to other guys in the class, especially a guy called Suryakiran(wonder where he is now and hope he will read this post of mine).

After finishing two years in All Saints I was admitted into a school by name Johnson Grammar School because it was close to our newly built house.This is where I spent ten wonderful years.I have lots of fantastic memories of my schooling there.I shall not talk about them much but there are a few things I cant help mentioning. I had a lot of fun learning stuff because I really understood what I was being taught, something that decreased as time passed by. This might seem surprising, but I think most of us will agree that as we grew up we understood less and less of the more and more we studied.This especially seems to be true for the period from the beginning of 10+2/Intermediate to the end of engineering.I dont have anything against studying more and more as long what we are studying makes sense to us.

Anyways, coming back to school, we had good teachers(inface some very very good teachers) then and that made learning even more fun, something which was difficult to find later on.I made some good friends( one really good friend) in school and we are in touch even today thanks to email and yahoo groups. I have a few points to make about schooling based on my own experiences and observations. Firstly, it makes helluva difference if you do your schooling in a state other than your native state.The benefits of this should be obvious. You get to learn a new language, your spoken English improves because you are forced to communicate with others in English, your communications skills improve, you learn to adapt yourself to new circumstances and people at a very young age and this gives you a lot of confidence later on when you go to College.Secondly, people from schools which lay emphasis on extracurricular activities( be it sports or other activities like quizzing, debating or music) on an average have better time in college, though not necessarily academically.Students from these schools pick up a sport or some extracurricular activity which stands them in good stead later on in college as well as in life.Being good at some activity helps them differentiate themselves from others and this is what gives them confidence and these are the kind of students who are likely to take up positions of responsibility in college and later in life. Most parents pay lip service to extracurricular activities and they dont take them seriously because they fail to realise the enormous long term impact extracurrics can have on the child's future. If extracurrics are pursued seriously and taken upto some level, it could even help them in getting a very good job later on.The logic is simple..it shows that you are dedicated, persistent, hardworking and that you can produce good results.( What else can an employer ask for?).I have spoken to a lot of parents and the only thing on their mind is academics and they are willing to spend huge sums of money on tuitions to make sure their child does well academically ( so that he can get a good job later on..thats the aim of parents in many cases), but sadly they are not much concerned about 'all round' development ( inspite of the chances of a well rounded individual getting a good job being higher on an average).

In school I took part in a lot extracurricular actvities, quizzing being my favourite.Outside school I also did some art and painting courses.In the beginning I never had any stage fear but towards the end of my schooling, I developed stage fear( till date could not figure out how?).In my final year in school, I was elected the headboy of the school by a slender margin ( 1 vote).If there is one big regret I have with regards to my schooling, it is not pursuing any outdoor game (I took tennis lessons for a month) or for that matter any extracurricular activity seriously ( no differentiating factor).Advantage of pursuing an outdoor game is that you automatically pay attention to physical fitness. You might get the feeling that I am advocating taking up extracurrics at the cost of academics....nope..thats not what I am trying to do..I am only trying to emphasise the advantages of taking up extracurrics and their long term value. I was a first ranker throughout in school except in the Board Exam someone else santched it away from me. I passed out of high school in March 1995 with a reasonble percentage.I was also awarded the NTSE scholarship the same year.On the whole my whole schooling experience rawked..I enjoyed every bit of it.

I like blogging

2005-08-08T04:36:00.000-07:00

I have started liking blogging. I wonder why I didnt recognise the benefits of this powerful medium of self expression earlier.
Have nothing much to write today because I am not writing what I wanted to write.What I wanted to write is not in the best interests of the institute I am studying in.
Anyways, I shall blog because today is Friendship Day.
The day was full of classes, nowadays we dont have anything called weekends in Jokaland.
Went to the gym after the classes,did some cycling and some crunches. Its so god damned tough to lose love handles.
The 'World War' just got over.Unfortunately I can't tell you what the 'World War' is.You have to experience it yourself.
Had a wonderful party with freshers and now I am going to sleep.
Have a class at 9:45 pm tomorrow...
The problem with me is I myself donot know whether I enjoy life at this place or not.Its a very peculiar problem.
They teach too much at B-schools....I think I have started to digress.I guess its time for me to stop.

Positive feedback for my posts

2005-08-06T14:25:00.000-07:00

After some 'positive feedback' to my last post from someone special(you may have already guessed who it is by now) I am motivated to keep going.But unlike my last post there will be no 'heavy stuff' this time. Let me talk about some positive changes which have taken place in my life this trismester at IIMC as a result of 'negative feedback'.
Firstly, I have become very health conscious and fitness conscious.I do some gymming and jogging and also play some TT whenever I can. Yesterday I ran 5km in about 40 mins on the treadmill.The timing is nothing to boast of but the feeling after completing the run was fantastic. I thoroughly enjoyed it.I also played some volleyball and TT. The first thing I look at nowadays whenever I buy something to eat is the amount of fat content :). I dont want to state the obvious by talking about the advantages of being fitness and health conscious, but I have a couple of points to add here. Spending some time on fitness is a great stress reliever and I have observed both here and in IIT KGP that people who do well in acads give a lot of importance to fitness and spend quite some amont of time exercising.
Secondly, though some people would not agree I have made a conscious effort to talk less.
The lesser you talk, the lesser crap you talk and the more seriously people take you. Its against my very nature to talk less, but I am sure my effort will pay of in the long run.For the not so obvious advantages, interested readers may read 'THE 48 LAWS OF POWER" by Robert Greene.
Thirdly, I have 'tried' to reduce procrastination and aslo 'tried to plan. This magically seems to generate time out of nothing.Actually by planning I dont mean creation of detailed schedules and timetables.Just keep the things that need to be done in mind or preferably on paper and allocate time to them. If you keep doing the things on your to do list and keep udating the to do list you see things happening.Given the arbit schedules of classes and activities in B-schools detailed and long term planning does not make sense and is not more effective either.

I think I have taken up more activities than I can handle but surprisingly I have been able to do 'more justice' to the tasks than in earlier trimesters.
Here is a list of extracurricular activities I have been doing this trimester
Library representative's duties
Persona President's duties :)
IIMC Carroms' captaincy ;)
Thinking of some Knowledge Management Initiatives as a part of Internet Solutions Group (ISG)
Gymming and jogging atleast 3-4 times a week

(Persona and ISG are clubs in IIMC)
I have some more stuff to say about "Extracurrics in B-schools" and "Why Projects in B-schools are a farce?" but that will be a part of some other post.

All the above activities are in addition to the 7 courses I have this semester.
Indian Legal System
Strategic Management
Sales and Distribution management ( includes a project with HLL - development of a new channel for high end cosmetics)
Corporate Restructuring ( includes a project on caluclation oF EVA of companies in various sectors)
Logistics and Supply Chain Management ( includes a project )
Options, futures and derivatives
Fixed Income Markets

The three things I have mentioned have made a positive difference ( more than what I had expected from them).I feel less frustrated than before and I am cheerful for more amount of time. Staying cheerful and happy is a tougher task than what most people think and I must admit that even while I am writing some much about positive difference, cheerfulness etc I am not exactly very happy.

Gotta go to a class now..

I am back

2005-08-04T23:58:00.000-07:00

So here I am again after a long long time.I know its been a while since my last post.Actually I have been kind of busy, was caught up in a lot of things.As u know, B-School life is so hectic that you rarely find time to do something else other than acads.
Ok...I give up..I know that you have seen through all this fibbing of mine about being busy and acads and all that.Before you start telling me "that where there is a will there is a way", I will tell you the truth, the truth is that I havent bothered to blog because of my sheer laziness.Yes sheer laziness!
You might be wondering what then propelled me to blog today?To tell you the truth I was inspired by reading my girlfriend's blog.Your next question most likely is dont you ever do things on your own?Do you always need some 'external motivation'? May be yes or a more correct answer would be 'I dont know'.But I have to admit that a lot of times the motivation has been external and it has mainly been through 'negative feedback'(me being a pessimist am calling it 'negative feedback', an opitimist I guess would call it 'constructive criticism').Is it good?Is it bad? I dont know. But is it effective? I definitely think so, atleast in my case till now.Is it sustainable? I dont know and currently I dont care.Actually I think 'negative feedback' or more euphemistically( does this smack of sarcasm?) 'constructive criticism' does not necesssarily hinder positive thinking nor demotivate as some people think it does.May be it does for a moment but it doesnt have to be so in the long run. The next logical question is how do you figure out whether something is "constructive criticism' or 'negative feedback'? But according to me that is irrelevant, what you need to figure out is whether there is any truth in the 'feedback' ?( from now on I shall use 'negative feedback' and 'constructive criticism' interchangeably). If there is truth( or if the criticisms are valid) in that, you should start acting on it.It does not matter who provides feedback or what the intentions of the person providing the feedback are.The validity of the criticism, is for you to establish through objective and ruthless introspection or with the help of someone you trust and is frank enough to tell you the truth on your face or someone who is competent and knowledgeable. The point here is there is no point running away from 'constructive criticism' or 'negative feedback' whichever way you look at it, because 'valid negative feedback' not acted upon will cause you to regret later in life.This conclusion follows from the definition of 'valid constructive feedback' and has been proved to be right empirically in life.
Till now whatever I have said is for people who are as confused as I am, who dont know what motivates them and who are not intrinsically motivated but who want to 'change for the better' and who dont know what to change in themselves so that they become better.The gist of what I have said till now is the following - be open to all kinds of 'criticism' and 'feedback', validate it and act upon it.This does not solve the problem of identifying your goals in life and does not suggest ways of achieving them, but I guess the process outlined above should atleast simplify the process of identifying your weaknesses and strengths and for self improvement which is so difficult to do yourself and which is the starting point.
I was expecting that.I hear somebody saying "there is nothing new in what you have said?", tell us something more concrete and to put it in IIMC lingo "please dont give globe".
I can also hear somebody whispering..why do we need to be motivated and why do we need to change?
Before answering that I have a question to all of you?How many of you are demotivated? How many of you are frustrated?How many of you find life exciting?I see a lot of hands have gone up for the first and the second and very few for the last..
I actually wanted to write about what happened today but I think I have digressed quite a bit, but I guess I couldnt help raising some of these important questions?The response to my questions compels me to try and explain the response which I shall some time shortly..

Have decided to start blogging regularly

2004-09-19T22:54:00.000-07:00

I have decided to start blogging from today.I have also decided to create a website as well.Lets see how it goes.Finished "Snap shots from Hell" yesterday...was reading till about 3 in the morning..I guess blogging is an easy way to doucment daily happenings..maintaining a diary is pretty painful..wish we had more holidays..term-2 starts tomorrow after a "long" break of two full days...this place is amazing...but was glad to know that people face similar problems even in B-schools like Stanford..also plan to start exercising from tomorrow..am beginning to look like a football and my love handles are growing in size by the day thanks to the oily pooris, rice and the mishti in the mess..will do some coding, chatting and then go to sleep...hmm...I like blogging...might do some good for my english as well..started reading 'Journeys through babudom and netaland' by T.S.R.Subramanian..seems interesting..spoke to my girlfriend in the evening..looks like she didnt have a great time during the weekend..I guess thats it for today..

This is my first blog.

2004-02-23T01:05:00.000-08:00