Dunk n Sleep

I penned down this dunking anthem @ my blog..here is a shot at it going by a suggestion to post it on the C blog. Hope you njoi reading it..


Cold summer evening brimmed with wet earth,
Swell the spirits to enthuse a sense of mirth.
Talking and laughing the crowd pulls along
Chanting for the fellow a happy birthday song.

Sleepy in the classes , Merry in the crowd…
Beating the rain I called names aloud
The inquisitive and carefree,the dull and the bubbly….
All in one walked down the alley.

The waters are set awaiting a tide,
Sway the fellow ,throw him
Then run back and hide.
All attempts go in vain the hunters pull you down
They swing and shoot you,Like an air borne clown.

Swollen spirits sing the jingle,
Once in the day its time to mingle
Talking and laughing the crowd pulls back
Encore is incumbent, another day and jack.

Long live the tradition...

To Be or Not To Be

Without a trace, the group of 420+ odd strangers has dissapeared. Not a single trace. Gone is the confusion; the unfamiliarity.

In it's place are two new camps. One is called "Grades matter" camp. The other, you must have guessed is the "Grades Do Not Matter" camp.

Both camps enjoy some die-hard believers. While most of the batch kind of oscillate between these two beliefs.. The defection to the "Grades do not matter" camp more or less correlates with the exceptionally tempting parties arranged towards the weekends! The alcohol, the muzeek; hard to resist. This is not news to me. This happens every year at ISB. An alumnus had described this as the "ISB Disequilibrium"!

Why does this happen? Does this happen at other place too? Which camp is right? Well. Like all big questions, this has no easy answer. Clearly, there is no one right way to treat your MBA. Some interesting opinions from both the camps:-

Grades Do Not Matter Campers:-

1. Only TOP 5 Companies look for grades. Rest look at your past experience. So why bother?
2. One needs to de-stress after a tiring week. So I need to chill.
3. One of the most important takeaways from an MBA is the network. You cannot build a network, by limiting yourself to your studies.

Grades Matter Campers:-

1. I have not spent 15 lacs and come here to party. Here time is the major constraint.
2. I will focus on studies for now. Then later on, after core terms, I will focus on networking.
3. I am not good at all that. So I will avoid all that leadership stuff. Only grades matter.

Personally, I think that none of the above beliefs are accurate. Balance is key, but it is easier said than done. More often than not, balance comes with the risk of mediocrity. "Jack of all trades, master of none". So what is the right way?

Complete focus or Balanced Mediocrity or Complete Chill. Or is it possible to have it all?

Pour your opinions, if you have any.

cheers,
C

Affects of ISB on Normal life.

I went to a restaurant called ‘Basil’ the other day and was about to leave after a happy meal when the feedback form of the restaurant, lying unfilled on my table, screamed for my attention. There was a certain strange quality to this scream. I could not believe my ears when I heard our Statistics Professor Bob Stine screaming out from the feedback form! I’m not kidding guys, I’m serious!

Bob was shouting that this unfilled form would go as a ‘no-response’ in the statistical estimations of the level of customer satisfaction at the hotel. He asked me how, after all that he had taught us, could I make life more difficult for a statistician. Bob had drilled deep into us, in his classes, the adverse effect that ‘no-response(s)’ could have on such statistical estimations. And for the love of Bob and for his subject – Statistics – I could not help but sit back again and fill up the form.

My family who were waiting at the gate while I filled the form really wondered what had come of me. When they asked me I said, “Nothing, I just met my Professor of stats from ISB - Bob Stine!” They found nothing normal in my reply but then they have hardly found anything normal in me ever since I took this ‘abnormal’ decision (for a person with his own business) of joining ISB.

The Next President

There has been severe speculation from several quarters in the last few weeks about who the next President will be. Each party has been trying to huddle with its allies to come to a consensus candidate. It is becoming obvious after the UP elections that the road to Rashtrapathi Bhavan will have to go via Lucknow. There are arrangements being worked out by allies of ruling party to send alternate ministerial hopefuls list if one of the ruling party Ministers is offered the top job.

In addition to the parties, the media has been playing with people opinions conducting all sorts of surveys and opinion polls on this. CNN-IBN has been conducting an SMS poll with 8 potential candidates which include the current President as well. Even Amitabh Bachchan is a potential candidate and as of yesterday he had a 2% support !!

Anyways, the crux of this blog post is to question if corporate leaders make good presidents? One of the names that has been speculated very heavily is N.R.Narayana Murthy. Murthy, who needs no introduction has been building his self-brand consciously for years alongside Infosys. Today, he is like the Gandhi of IT in a sense - a seedha-sadha guy, ambitious, focused, transparent in operations, from a middle class background, living a simple life even after becoming one of the richest person in the nation, humble and party-neutral (though he has been a socialist in his early days). His image has been so well perfected that it is not a wonder he gets so much support from the upper middle class sections of the society. The NR Narayana Murthy brand carries a heavy value in Indian polity these days and a Governor or a President post is the next logical step for for him.

ET ran an article on May 21 about potential corporate leaders who are Prez hopefuls - list included Tata, Premji, KV Kamath, Sunil Mittal in addition Murthy.

The fact is - Yes. These people have been great leaders - ambitious, go-getters. winners, handle complexities everyday, great relationship builders etc., But is this what it takes to the President of this largest democracy ? Or are they overqualified for the job, which makes them too risky to occupy the Rashtrapathi Bhavan ?

thoughts???...

Friday Bomb Blast in Hyderabad - Amusing Incidents and Disturbing Aspects.

“Maa#$**#$@ band kar dukaan!”("Shut the shop, you ------ ------") shouted a young fellow of around 18 years while he hurled a stone missile at a shop in Banjara Hills in Hyderabad yesterday. Then he giggled away to glory saying “Kaisa phaada nai, dukaan waale ki,”(“See, how I scared the S--- out of the shop owner”) in his group of around 8-10 guys with age ranging from as young as 15 to a maximum of around 25-27.

While this incident to an extent was amusing what didn’t amuse me one bit was the reaction of the police. They just stood by, as is now expected of them, and just warned this group of ‘hooligans’ against having too much ‘fun.’(“Masti karo par zyaada nakko.”)

To top it all this policemen passed on a message (on his wireless radio) to the control room that a group of people were going around the area ‘requesting’ shop owners to down their shutters!!

Wow! What a definition of request the police seem to have. Wonder what their reaction would be if we were to ‘request’ the police in a similar way – by first abusing them and then by hurling stones at them.

Stray incidents such as the one above, of which I just happened to be a witness, aside there are a few other aspects about the blast in Hyderabad yesterday that bother me.

1) There are reports that the police went around the city on Thursday warning some of the petrol bunk owners against selling petrol in cans or bottles to anyone over the next two days. Never before was such an instruction / warning specifically given to the petrol bunk owners. Why then was it given this time and why again only for two days – Thursday & Friday? Did the Police have any prior inkling or info?

2) No stones can be found lying around on the roads or on the footpaths around the mecca masjid area. (I frequent the area often as many of my relatives have their shops and establishments around the mosque.) How then did the miscreants find sacks full of stones to hurl at the police and at the shops around mosque?

3) Previous such incidents of stone throwing were found to have been preceeded by a massive stock-piling of stones in the area. Many a times school children were found carrying stones in their school bags. No action was taken then and I am sure that no action, whatsoever, will be taken now.

4) CCTV cameras and metal detectors were later installed as a precautionary measure around that mosque but they were removed just recently.

5) Frisking and searching, a routine security check carried out at the mosque, of all visitors / devotees was not carried out only on this Friday – the day of the blast.

6) The most bothersome piece of information, however, has been a news article in the Times of India today. It draws the readers’ attention towards an organisation called Tablighi Jamaat which is holding one of its big congregations today on the outskirts of Hyderabad. The previous congregations have been held in Nanded and Malegaon. And guess what had happened in both these places prior to the congregations - A BOMB BLAST IN A MOSQUE !

P.S. The views expressed above are all personal and have nothing to do with ISB as a school / institution / organisation. I understand that this a collaborative blog of a business school, however, I hope that we have to liberty to once in a while sneak in posts like the one above on issues of general concern and importance.

Mid Term - Take 1

If only life was as simple,
As a hypothesis that you could test using a sample..

Every dude/dudette who ends up with an ace major...
will think, I hope I am not just a TYPE 1 error!

Lesser souls, like you and me, who waste time on posts like these..
Will wonder why the hell did they read "Who moved my cheese"...

Life was going on just fine..
Till the jump from the frying pan into the fire..
From sexy curves to supply curves..
From vital statistics to business statitics..

Dont worry. In the long run...
We will all be dead!

Segmentation..!

One more day to go for the first reality check for our batch. The mid-terms.
This will be the first excercise through which the ISB market is going to be segmented. Segmented in terms of grades - the A's, A-negs etc....
Segmented in terms of lists - the dean's listers(Potential), the outliers and the "within 2 SE" guys!
I wonder what sort of segmentation this is...my guess would be behavorial!
Anyways, here is wishing all of you the very best for the first mid term exams.

we have completed ONE month @ ISB

When I saw this mail from a friend here, I was like, "One month down, already?" Time just seems to grow wings here.. With assignments, lectures, quizzes, and the upcoming mid-terms, everything just moves in a flash.
Its great to be back in college again. Its fun to have friends all around, to study together(oh yeah!!!). We do have our differences, but the sheer diversity and viewpoints that people bring to the table, is amazing.
The weekends are more tough, with assignments due..people studying all around you. Books short in the library, because everyone wants to get hold of the popular Statistics volumes...And you can hear sighs of complains all around. Why did I have to leave my cosy job and come here? How much more can I really study? What exactly am I doing here? And so on and so forth...And yet we are all happy we made the decision. And though hard pressed for time, we all want to indulge in everything this campus has to offer. With cribs about the so soon mid terms rising high, I can still find people signing up for salsa lessons. The recreation centre still sees inhabitation. People do find the time to do what they must!!!
The one month has been immensely rewarding, as I am sure the next 11 months will be too. And as I sigh over one less day in the remaining 11 months, its time to sign off, to ensure I extract the most of my time here :)

Realities of Public Life in India.

Today(11th May, 2007) on NDTV at around 9:30 AM.

Barkha Dutt to Abhishek Singhvi: Yesterday there were rumors that the Congress could offer Mayawati a ‘deal’ on the Taj Corridor Case if Mayawati were to involve Congress in the process of Government formation and if she were to lend support to the Congress’ candidate for the post of the President of India. What is your take on this?

How do you think Abhishek Singhvi (Spokesperson of the Congress and one of the top most lawyers of India) responded to these ‘allegations’ of his party trying to meddle with the CBI in a high profile corruption case?

You would naturally expect Mr. Singhvi to be indignant and deny that any such ‘deal’ was on the cards, right? Sample what Mr. Singhvi had to say on the issue:

Abhishek Singhvi: Well, yesterday was Thursday (when there was speculation that BSP would need Congress support for govt. formation in UP and hence would be willing to share power with Congress) and today is Friday. Today she doesn’t need our support. So, there is no question of any deals!

More ironical than the statement itself is the fact that the panel on this show found nothing wrong whatsoever with the statement made, accepted the statement as a matter of fact and moved on to discuss other ‘important’ issues like which party could now be the potential ally of the BSP and which portfolios would the ally ‘bargain’ for. (The interview/discussion was held before it was clear the BSP would get a majority in the UP Assembly on its own.)

What a statement on the realities of Public Life in India!

Now in which country other than India can you expect a politician to get away by making a statement like that (indicating that his party, the party currently in power, was willing to ‘silence the Central Investigating Agency’ in a criminal case against the Chief Minister designate of a state, in return for a favour)? And in which country other than India can you expect the press and public not raise so much as a murmur to such statements?

Lagta hai – “Sau mein se Sau Beimaan, Phir bhi Mera Bharat Mahaan!!” – Hey Bhagwaan!

It's party time

Two weeks of Term one were like a whirlwind. The week seems to be shorter than the weekend. Each section in itself is a different world in itself and each section has decided to party today in the evening extending into the night not bothering what other sections are doing.

It looks more settled now after all the arbit threads on Orkut I could now related more to my batch mates. I have started feeling to be a part of the Co2008.

As admits we had been meeting others but that was more of celebrating the success of getting admission. Now we have started working together and we have started seeing the different dimensions and complexities of the batch. Its really surprising to see the diversity even on the to-do-things and my interests and my goals lists.

Apart from partying, we have many more exciting things like dunking, sleeping in the class, arbit CP - such as, spider's web or cat has nine lives, case assignments, club meetings, amazing maths forwards, sorry spams, lost wallets and purses, found umbrellas, sim cards and text books, honor(horror) code, study group team building, salsa classes, debit notes to deal with, new club proposals, ISB radio jockeying, unintended recipients of confidential mails, balckboard, turnitin, trinethra inconvenience store, once-in-a-while mails from Alums, barber in the campus, indirect message from party victims, innumerable mailing list mails, expired sunscreen lotions, meal plans, girls night out, and many many more and once in a while sessions to catch up.In the midst of all this you have to sleep and have food too.

But for today all the spammers are excused, blackboard is forgotten, assignments are given rest and everything will wait as we have been waiting for tonight - Music, Dance and Party. Thank God it's a Thursday, let's start playing the music.

Of mice and men

“Don’t Panic!” - The Subject said it all. The Guide didn’t use those 2 words for nothing.

Two weeks down, and the pressure of time running past is hitting everyone. And the feeling best described by these words from a smart young lady “I am not average!”

Well fact is that none of us are – because you cannot be average unless you really believe you are – and if you really didn’t think you were good enough – you wouldn’t be here!

I would like to believe that each person in the Class of 2008 has been outstanding in whatever they’ve done so far in life - and will continue to excel wherever they go from here. In the intervening period let’s just focus on learning what we don’t know regardless of whether the “grades” match up.

And when times get tough, think of the three words Mother Mary said in the Quartet’s song….. “Let it Be….”

Hyderabad Heat!

It appears that the summer heat in Hyderabad is getting to people. Or maybe it is something that always happens at the start of Term 1. People (including myself) have started behaving strangely. Without much ado, I will list down a few interesting ones (Source:- Orkut comminity of ISB Class of 2008) :-

1. Proffessor Mark Finn (looking at the Student 1 with the Macbook): Do you have Apple dealerships around?
Student 2(looking to score some brownies): yeah, we do get them in the convenience stores downstairs!!! [A typical case of arbit CP. the concept is same. incidentally he realized his folly after 10 long mins]

2. During one the breaks during class, Person X had to answer the call of nature.. X rushed and was happilly minding his business when he suddenly realized that the loo was a bit unfamiliar. He had inadvertently gone into the "Ladies" loo! A similar version was reported of a female venturing into the "Male" section!

3. Student A: "Have you registered for the Quants pre term?"
Student B: "No I've registered for the other two"
Student A: "Which ones?"
(There are only 3 pre term courses)

4. I got "cold called" by Prof Finn just 5 minutes before class was to end. I had somehow switched off mentally at that stage. So much so, that my mind just went blank. I could not even comprehend what the question was.. ( it was a simple one, btw)..Quite embaressing. Thankfully, a good soul came to my rescue and attempted the answer...

I could go on and on. :-)

But given the exodus of pre-read assignments, the tension of having to come up with good CP in class and the absolutely stupendous quality of the proffessors, it is only natural to see the fazed look on people's faces.

The professors come from places like Kellogg and Wharton. I am not exaggerating. Trust me, in the two hours in their classes, your mind will feel dizzy. The way they manouvere the class through profound concepts, the speed and beauty with which they resolve student's queries, the pace - I have never been through such an experience in my life. And I have studied in a very good Engineering college; it is not that I come from a village.. These proffessors have written books, decades ago, that are used by people around the world..

For every 2 hours of class, you need at least 6 hours to do the pre-reads. Make no mistake. ISB is not for the faint hearted. The pace is demanding. Intense..

No wonder, the sleep deprivation and the funny little incidents from now and then..

cheers,
C