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

Scaling new heights at ISB

Co08 continues to break records and this time its our own Pallo who has raised the bar with her gravity defying stunts. In an unprecedented act of awe witnessed by a million well wishers ( read victims) she seamlessly glided to well above 6 feet in an inverted Greg Louganis style only to pause in mid air and then wrap it all up with an unmatched somesault - every moment of it screaming perfection.

As true MBA students, we sit down to analyze this work of art in hindsight. Some claim it’s her ability to hold her breath for long - meticulous perfected through ages of incessant, breathless talking. While 0thers say it’s the aerodynamics mastered through intermittent aerobic classes and passive gymming. Nevertheless everyone admits her pedigree matters the most, being in lineage with the likes of Milka singh, Gurbachan singh etc athletics has always been inane to her. In a true display of modesty, she dedicates this record to her friends, family and fiancée most of all, who have outlived her years of ardent practice with patience and sanity. Fans beg to answer the question – what is it that truly drives pallo to perform such acts of impossibilities – passion for dwelpment she says and faith that jejus is always hair with her.

We are in the presence of greatness and today Pallu has set the milestones and generations of ISB ians shall strive to emulate. I now have a sense of whats coming.

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.