MBA Kaliedoscope

A dig at poetry.........

Deliberate stride into a no mans land; confused choices and raison’ unclear…

Excused early from deport or disband; certainty equivalent of risk still to uncover

Never trust the collaborative blogs, riddled they are with biased frogs.

Envy when u are at the celebrated dias; remember its all a selection bias.

And late shall your realize the winners curse; as sharks bite your empty purse

Rain drops are pattering heavy; difficult it is to hold nerves steady…..

Drown your strains and pump some weight; just to remind u ain’t dead meat.

And soon it smells a whiff of rose, Mark of course with his melody dose.

An hour flies like blink of eyes, condemned you are back to chosen despise.

Debt starts to matter a lot, time to let your resumes afloat….

Guardian angel appears finally, graceful enough with a succinct googly

While you iron resumes to its last crease; preparing enough for the final strip tease.

Time doesn’t wait for any wayby, bidding life’s pleasures teary good bye.

It’s an art movie for heavens sake; for true connoisseurs and lest a fake…..

Look ahead for the final cake, recuperate the pleasure you silently forsake

Two months of utter disdain, rewards come with risk that’s inane….

Time ahead looks very insane, but joy ahead is unblemished cocaine

The Shady things i do.........

I am going live next month.......this day, the 9th of Dec 2007, I too shall join the ecleons of those great men who have strummed it out to glory merely to fade away into oblivion the next minute. Nevertheless we are those smart cuckoos who have picked a lesson or two from the phoenix's ashes. A fool proof backup plan is vital, considering the fact that you never have a main plan and now that murphy has said it and is no more alive to take the brunt of it, the inevitable shall invariably happen. The mortal reminants of our guitar class have decided to put up a show for ISB day and tommrow is the audition. Frankly our plight is more or less that of an IT bretheren following a CA into the world of investment banking. Can you smell smoke ? But then true to any MBA graduate, we too came up with a contigency plan. Performance on the guitar shall be resticted to 1 inch away from the string while our maestro shall use the lead guitar to weave magic. Sounds absolute aint it. Well we need to put a fine dance and song to pull that off but then hopefully we will......

Realization stuck me that i never mention the things i do most in ISB......watching movies. I almost watch one every other day.....saw an excellent movie yesterday......."Dances with Wolves".......Kevin Costner bring alive interactions between a cavalry officer and Sioux Indians. Mary Mcdonnel, though totally unattractive pulls off and equally unimpressive performance. I am sure she could have done more justice to the character considering its profound intricasies. Neverthless, it has a happy ending and i couldnt ask more..........

Sleepless in ISB...........

Act 6 of MBA......looking forward to the two day speed braker before life takes the express lane once again. The storm of advanced corporate finance has blown over and surprisingly the reed still stands unscathed. Frankly not much of the subject has rubbed off me but the intention in any case was a scratch on the surface rather than a battle scar. Just wrapped up my take home examination and for a change i found the case quite interesting. It opened up a whole new perspective of the movie industry. Beneath all the glitter and glamor, there is ruthless financial valuations and options evaluations that puts wall street to shame.Never again shall i think of sequels as a sponge off of past laurels. The case in hand Arundel partners introduced me to the financial intricacies of making a sequel. Arundel partners is an investment group that purchases the right to the sequels of a production house much before the prequel is even released. This essentially provides them the real option of exercising the prequel rights if the first version is a hit. Sounds commonsensical when you think about it but then I don't think MBA is anything more than an eye opener. An year is just about enough to introduce you to the limitless avenues out there and the mandate is on you as to which path to choose and explore. The public view of MBA is quite different though. To them MBA conjures the images of a generalist with ready reckoner to any abstruse problem. Frankly my MBA degree has been viewed with sceptisicm for not being able to recall the name of a train bound for Hyderabad. But then life's a curve ball and expectations keep raising its bar.

As Prof Bhagwan chowdary says " In the big scheme of things nothing matters". But to me its turning out to be a self-fullfilling profacy which i use to justify my lethargy. Term 6 is gonna be a nighmare. Corporate control,mergers and acquistion, private equity and business statement analysis - the dreamcatchers i have willing submitted to .Though firmly decided to stay away from the world of finance, i just cant convince myself against picking these insanely time consuming courses. But then i think its the engineers curse - unless u see figures and equation, u dont percieve value.And to appropriate value is my karma for the year...

Bhangara with danda = Dandiya !!

The moment you think that life’s become an abyss with endless assignments and brunch mornings, ISB pulls you right back into the game with just the right dose of exuberance. My first tryst with Dandiya was good fun ….. danced like crazy but mostly thankful for getting away unharmed. Was a packed day really and we had to cut short our visit to the Birla temple to make it in time for the festivities. Sarovar, our inhouse catering had arranged a sumptuous Bengali dinner replete with machili and Rosogullas. Dances were officially kicked off with a colorful number by the spouses before the floor was thrown open to eccentricity. As always the learning curve was vertical and the junta took to the rhythm like CA’s to corporate finance. To my mind beating the sticks seem to be a good way to vent out frustration. Think of your grades and your groups, beat it out with the sticks and blame it on the fast music. Nevertheless I wished south Indians also had active festivities like Dadiya and Holi. Our ideas of socialization mostly confines to good food and a hearty chat.

I am sure the exchange students love it out here. A chowki dinner complete with haleem, mutton biryani and kurbani ka meeta brought alive by quawali’s and gazals welcomed them to our midst. Just when they thought that the formalities were over, we hit them again with Dandiya and will again with Diwali not to mention the regular section parties.

Harish was here for the weekend, and I couldn’t have marketed ISB any better to a hardcore IIM grad like him. Though he did not compromise his allegiance, I am sure the dent is deep.

The two fin courses I have taken for this term is really taking a toll on my sleep. Advance corp fin classes are preceded by confirmed nighouts. Though the learning is profound I sometimes wonder, why mire myself with fin when I have no plans of making a career out of it. But then as we regularly do it here in ISB, mostly after the grades are declared – look up at the cloudless azure and convince yourself that in the big scheme of things nothing matters. We are here for the learning :P.

Fiddling with destiny......

Have been hitting slippery slopes quite too often now. Chose to ignore Porters golden rule to avoid straddling for a while. True to an ISB MBA I contest that there is an agency problem out there and the only viable strategy is to haul a handful of gravel at your target hoping at least one tiny chip might hit. Manifestations at IIM B and Diamond consultancy case both turned out to a total wash out. In spite of some committed effort our papers just didn’t see daylight. Nevertheless, the tide is still high and our leaky boats still have some room for fish. BT Acumen quiz is the next elusive bastion – the prelims were more a test of speed than merit. But then life is always a lemon. You just gulp it down with all the sweeteners you can find.
Chose to stay back for the term break in anticipation of shoveling down some of the amassing activities. Not suprisingly they got the better of me – got me disillusioned by the enormity of the things impending, eventually got tired and slept my way through most of the days. Not to mention the especially draining experiences like the Lions of Punjab, palate arousing Ramzaan delicacy Haleem and a newly found haven for food connoisseurs – Four seasons. Well I wouldn’t say the stay back was totally futile. Just that you set out for pearls in the deep ocean and finally settle for the pleasures of a good swim. Reminds me of a closing discussion in the entrepreneurship class on the mythological land of Ithica. Enjoy the ride while you are here…care less for the future..,let destiny take care of it for its better to die with memories than to just live a life full of dreams.

An ode to us......

Sid collected the consent signatures for the 2008 party lounge – a monument of benevolence from the batch of 2008 to the succeeding generations of ISBian. It would undoubtedly be the most befitting of contributions that can be made to the party crazy animals at ISB. So for all the prospective students out there, there is more opulence to look out for. Havn't had a chance to see the blue prints for the same but I hope its more or less an RDB style chill out with a pool amidst Graffitis all around. Well a twitch too much to hope for but nevertheless.


Speaking of longe, the core term closure party at touché was indeed a deserving finale to the 4 terms of pain and toil (too dramatically). ISBian rocked the floor at touch and stole the limelite inspite of entrenched mob pullers like Nayanthara, Priyamani and VJ Shreya.

So there I am a 50% down a high rope act called MBA. There is no retreat…..just a tight rope and promises ahead.

Hall of fame......

Had an opportunity to interact with the messiah of Telecom – The person at whom the telecom buck stops. TRAI chairman Nripendra Misra needs no special introduction atleast to the Indian diaspora. He has been at the helm of things putting a check on the uncanny ways of Telecom majors and providing succor to the burgeoning users. Strategic analysis of Information technology course had a panel discussion on convergence and luckily I got picked to host Mr Misra.
Unlike most beurocrats, he surprisingly has an unassuming demeanor complimented with an extraordinary sense of honor. He easily stole the limelite at the panel discussion inspite of being amidst a star cast of stalwarts like Sumit Chowdhury, CIO, Reliance Communications, Subhash Dhar, Senior VP, Infosys, Vivek Gambhir, Partner, Bain, Nikhil Jain, Chief Technology Advisor, Qualcomm India. He lucidly brought out the challenges of regulating an overheated economy like India where inclusive growth has to be balanced with infrastructural and spectrum constraints. Addressing several controversial issues like local loop unbundling, infrastructure sharing – both passive and active and possibilities of opening up the market for MVNO players he managed to convince the audience that there is still light at the end of the tunnel. Sumit was eloquent on the extensive road map that reliance has chalked out for India and Subhash Dhar kept reiterating on the potencial that Telecom hold for the future.
But end of the day, Mr. Misra walked away with the cheers and appreciation of the ISB junta.

Shattering myths ......

The ISB folk lore insist that you always have to drink from a fire hose, nevertheless it ignores the fact that the controls are still with you.
The call US the land of opportunity and India the land of diversity; juxtapose them and you have ISB. Carefully mix and match the right ingredients here and you have the perfect cocktail. Lack of truism and turbo boosted ambitions will clearly loose you in the wilderness though eventually you turn wiser.
The war conch for the placements have sounded, tales extolling the virtues of the innumerable MNC’s are drifting in with the wind. The student body has morphed into three – the clear, the confused and the cafers. Needless to say the clears have their priorities straight, their targets locked and their ammunition at point black. The confused are the sitting ducks vulnerable to the overwhelming gyan and aiming high flying ducks with machine guns. The cafers have severed all allegiances and unlike popular misconception are the wisest of the lot with their feet firmly on the bedrock of reality.

The mentorship program launched by ISB has been especially laudable. You are assigned to a mentor from the industry and profile you aspire to be and he systematically guides you through your highs and lows at ISB. The initiative was driven by feedbacks from the previous and the current batch. ISB has been very responsive to such feedbacks

Chilled.....

ISB is the Mecca of opportunities and amidst abysmal opportunities, disorientation runs bananas. After significant deliberations and confusions on PIEV Vs ELP, the dust settles to find you just hours short of the markstrat decision. Comstrat cases, DMOP simulations, leadership lessons – laundry list is exhaustive. Amidst this rigor, classes like marketing by Jagmohan Raju are a breath of fresh hair. The insights that he brings into the cases are profound. As the case unwinds, he catches you off guard on certain aspect that would not have crossed your wildest dream and then he makes his conclusions to reinforce a powerful concept of marketing: Competing amidst inconsistencies – How firm sent subtle hints to competitors and the subsequent reaction functions that emerge in the dilemma. Graduated from IIMA, Professor of marketing at Wharton , assistant professor at Anderson school of management, UCLA and winner of the best faculty award for core courses at Wharton, he is a hurricane in his own right Undoubtedly, a contender for best professor hall of fame at ISB.
Having said that, I owe the justice of a mention, in the least, to the true “Andavan” of Indian cinemas. With arguably the largest fan following in the world, Ranjnikanth is second only to Jackie chan in his journey to emerge the highest paid actor in Asia. Celebrated Shivaji with 10 other like-minded souls. Was a liberating experience – non-ISB air, gravity defying stunts and screaming until our voices dropped.

Lost my wheels..........

Got amputed before expected. Just bid farewell to my best buddy. The deal was only an advance today and delivery of bike on saturday but then he couldnt resist her vibes. Payed in full by afternoon and snatched my keys.For the last two years we never touched ground.To the extend that I almost lost the feeling in my limbs. But now that I am firmly on the ground again cant help these random flashbacks in my mind. Happens every time I part my vehicle.Our first car, a fiat was with us for almost 5-6 years before it lost its charms and got traded for a peppy maruthi 800. While his big brother zen is still with us, I surely shall miss my trainers.
Moving on..........inspite of these occasional lows....its been a roller coaster ride since last december. Been exceptionally busy the last two weeks ....the main highlight being a pondy trip and the infinte get togethers with the ISB crowd. More than Pondi, I cherished the unexpected discovery of Moon Racker......an contender to the palate ticklers hall of fame. This small seafood outlet of the coast of mahabalipuram made our evening b-ea-uti-ful. With six of us drooling over a foot long beasty......we had hadly time to notice the newspaper cuttings depicting historic moments of the freedom struggle dawning the palely lit wooden walls.Coundnt have found so many french even while they ruled pudhuchery. Attaching a pic ......donno abt my other senses but my taste buds are gonna have Moon racker in their memories for pretty much a long time.

Coffee@Anokhi with ISB mates was fun.......got to know a lot more people..... Arun,Aditi,Ayush and Shyam aaded to scrap list......some of them still have their feet on many boats....hoping to use my charms to create renaissance. Regular guys are becoming too regular....standing the risk of hating each others faces before the D-day. Hyderabad is gonna be fun....especially for a food addict like me. I can already dejavu myself relishing mughalai at Paradise and Bawarchi's.........heard from my friend at IIM-C that he has a 15lakh offer from SC.......the job market is red hot and the MBA grads are minting in millions. Hope the ambience get richer over the year..........Marking this post.......hope to reflect back when I seal the deal on my Suzuki-Hayabusa.....heh decades from now ........

Tyre starts to roll!!

16-Jan-07

After a long break of 3 years, I am back again to mind reprographing. After accepting the admit offer to Indian School ofbusiness, Hyd, things are upbeat and I have a feeling that there are gonna be much more to pen in than mundane IT life.Its been really wild since we go the admit offer for the R1 applications. Routine jobs and the longing for campus life hasmade all of us pretty hyper.Over the last one month we have had frantic activity within this small community of about 120 odd people . Forums at Pagalguy and Orkut, get togethers at all major cities, torching traditions.......the list 's endless.Personally, we guys in Chennai had over 3 gettogethers during this long weekend for Pongal. When the caffenine@Amethistcouldnt quench our enthu', we had to wash it down with spirts@bike&barrel. Neverthless the agenda had remained the same.A getto for every new member who has joined.Yesterdays meetup was especially interesting with the maximum participants - Karthik,Vijay, Prerna and Athul,Arun, Jayanthand Pinaki. Attaching a snap, lest i forget the faces.......tend to have this tendency after watching Gajani :-).

Inspite of immensely diverse profiles, we all blend in so seamlessly that it makes me if ISB had handpicked its applicantsfor this particular quality.After resignation, I am enjoying my first ever honey moon with TCS. With no expectations and commitments, this is going to bethe last phase of my life with careless freedom. I am definitely gonna make the best out of it. Planning to go to my nativeplace Karunagapalli in Kerala by feb and enjoy 2 months of uninterrupted fun........just food, rest and lots of road trips.

Will I ever.......

As another day rolls out to the yore......i sit down to jostle the happenings of the dayEveryday begins with a new promise,a resolution.This is the day which would prove to be the turning point of my life.Ten years down the lane I would look back at this day with pride and reminescense the warm feeling of pride and self respect...naay its just the warmth of the winter son glaring on my eyes....damn who left these panes open.Staggering on those lazy bones i call legs i manage to drag myself to the cofee maker for a refreshing sip of hot barista.Works like magic ......I am up on my feet ready to retire to my thinking room.The most important decisions of my life have all been taken here.The one place where mind and heart agrees on a common purpose .No conflicts...no bones of contention........Soon Enough u start to harbour new tendencies at the climax of which creative thinking begins to ooze out until you deluge into fondling thought and ambitious resolutions.You proclaim to embark on a persuit for success,power and acceptance.U stare at the crystal case amazed at the prospects awaiting you and resolve to rise to the pantheons of the great and shine as a beacon for the rest of the world to follow.At the point realiztion strikes you hard......Its 9 am.Heasitantly you leave your comfort zone and venture into the open world where resolutions are countered by reality and dreams are prolonged by promises.Pondering over the redundancies of life.........ironing your attire takes over the fads of power dressing ...vivaciously approved just a minute ago...and Tyre is bk on the coconut treeLife is too short to ponder over such conundrums and submitting to hegemonies during this brief period is pure sin

Production Support - The best a man can get

Well right when u are staring down the endless array of dishes ,laundaries to take ...surmising on the meaninglesness of life and the vacuosness in you.........Work Beckons!!! Enter - PRODUCTION SUPPORT Oh! How much i hate this job........same saga i sing ....monday mornings,friday evenings,saturday nights......sunday afternoons....Inspite of the monetary benevolence it offers,it comes down upon you quite cruely especially when u least expect. PS invigorates this totally different persona in me.....kinda like the sword for Heman,underwear for Superman and the pager for Tyre............well Tyre thats a different story altogether.....maybe some other day.... Frankly all these cheap bollywood flicks used to give me a amusing sweat - Crippled hero battling it out on the wheel chair while the "blind" chick executing double somersaults blind folded (People who know me ..that was intentional ;-) ) over the electric line.......well admit therotically feasible in kerala from 7-7:30 but Mumbai.........yeah right!Gimme a break will yall !! But i am changed man now.Two years of production support has taught me that all this are not just ludicrous,empty headed,floatatious summer pop corn stunts but screaming realities soaked up in all its vivid colours............well considered to things i do after late night pages..All this is just childs play!!! You see over this past couple of years i have cultivated this unique ability to identify the pagers beep from a maze of other sounds.Well if its food for Mr .Kumb......its the sweet stoping melody of Motorola A05 for Tyre........ho!! how much i adore it ......esp at 2 am after 4 rounds of beer....... Well my boss is the best person to know.....come morning...he is waiting with the question....."Did u get a page the last night".........urs truly...in all this modesty and innocence......"How did u know"...Well i caught a cold, sneezing all night .........."Dang"........ In the pit darkness of wee hours,my extra auditory perceptions guides me to to the destination....... be it under the pillow,inside the cookie box...or just cooling of in the refrigirator.In the process i jump over all man made hurdles.....tangling cables.....edgy speakers...hot iron boxes....(modems..mp3 playes...kinda all that i have got.....just letting u all know and available too just in case)...and on rare ocassions a human being...well i come to know that early enough...its a different kind on noise.......Lucky i dont have dog ....... Yesterday was quite eventful - After a dramatic weekend of late night action,avid production support and early delivery......talking of work u perverts....i reach office all spirited and charming......(well talking of charming......for those who dont know me.....I am among the priviledged few,the almight has gifted profusely - Talent,glamour,vigour,figure whatever u can imagine......i too imagine.......couldnt sleep a wink yesterday watching all these dreams.....life is tough).....and not to mention the occasion love bites.......mosquitos ofcourse....Serously dudes..the last thing my roomie would have wanted is to come all the way down to US to get malaria....u see he has a knack of getting along with mosquitos......totally a different league.........walks to the beat of this own drum. But then the purpose of this writing..............Any early pensions for Production support......special protection acts?????

Amateur

Do u think life is long enough to speculate on conundrums!!!