Spilling beans...........

" Its official now - ISB ranks T20 in FT global MBA rankings"

One of the historic moments of the school.........and i am glad it is happening while i am here........

http://rankings.ft.com/global-mba-rankings

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.

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