I read the news about Google’s Custom Search Engine, which restricts the search only to the sites specified by target user community. The target websites can be collaboratively maintained and managed.

So, I spent some 30 minutes in creating a custom search engine for ISB. Currently the search is targeted to 89 sites including ISB Website and ISB student blogs. Having spent the last 6 months in Enterprise Search domain, I couldn’t avoid appreciating the usefulness of this “targeted search”

ISB Search Engine

Check it out yourself to appreciate or to ridicule!

If you would like to add relevant sites to this website, please feel free to enroll by clicking the “Volunteer to contribute to this search engine” link on the search home page.

I was surprised to see my blog in the “Blogstreet Top 100″ list My blog was ranked 57th out of possible 4101 blogs…not bad..BlogStreet has authorized the Top 100 blogs to place the following image in their blogs…

I feel sad that I have to build this value all over again with my new URL…:(

It is official…I have moved.

Visit me at http://www.way2top.org or http://way2top.org.

This blog will remain as an archive, as a memory…and I will try to update this blog with ISB related news…

Please update your blogrolls with the new URL. I will do the same…Thanks for your continued support and I need them aplenty….

You think you have good Business writing skills? Can you generate quality content about any company/business? Then, “Commercial Editing” is for you. Wikipedia’s answer to Open Business Listings or Open Yellow Pages lies in the form of “YelloWikis”. There are numerous reports in the print and online media which indicate that Yellowikis is the potential killer of Yellow-Pages/Mail-order-catalogue or similar business.

As an individual, you can attract some currencies your way by utilizing your Commercial Editing skills. Read the following page for detailed instructions….

Make $$$ with Yellowikis

Alumni meet@hyderabad happens only when I decide to go to chennai! I missed out on the meet couple of times. This time, I managed to attend the Alumni meet, but in chennai

Kaushik Gopal (my batch-mate) was a key organizer along with Prashanth (Class of 2003). ‘Pasha’, a trendy night club @ Hotel Raj Park was booked for the event. Around 40+ turned up for the event. 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006 - all the batches had representation, though the distribution was uneven with a strong representation from 2006 batch! Dean Rao and Prof. Chandrashekar flew from hyderabad to join us on the occasion. It was nice to meet the alums. I was glad that quite a few recognized my name immediately…Thanks to my blog!

Ramkey, the Quizzing pro, conducted a fun-filled quiz program. He made his presence felt yet again! As of me, I met Karthik Sankar, Karthik Ramachandran, Prithvi, Rajanikanth, Sanjeev Sujan, Kaushik Gopal, Vikram Raman (I meet him day-in and day-out in my apartment!), Krishna Tata, Supreeth Hari, Ramkey. I also met Bala Prabhu (The blogger from 2003). Few of the alums have already ventured into their own business. I collected the business cards of few entrepreneurs. In terms of Organization, Cognizant stole the show with more than 15 people from the firm.

The bill was on-the-house! I am waiting for Kaushik to share the photos with us…

It’s painful and highly discomforting…Realization strikes only when things happen to self…Chikungunya is troubling me high time since Monday…Hoping to recover before Sunday…lots of work waiting me at work…

I have been pondering over this question for a while…”I am living in a rented house. When will I own a land, own a house?”

If you are thinking that I am referring the real estate in the real world, then you are wrong! I am referring to the real estate in the virtual world….

Researched quite a few Domain and hosting providers. Am fixated on one particular offering. It’s going to cost me quite some bucks…But I have made up my mind to purchase. Now, I am waiting for the right occasion and an opportune time..!

Though I was busy with work for last one week, I actually had some time to blog. But decided not to…Am kind of giving a break…

Lemme get my own real estate first…

PS: Ofcourse “A steel tear” is an anagram of “Real Estate”

My dear blog,

The decreased frequency and lack of focus/theme should be fairly concerning to you by now…! Sorry, I am not able to give enough attention to you…

1. Something more important is keeping me busy now-a-days…sucking up the energy and leaving me half-dead by the time I come back home. Work of course!

2. Incidentally, I have also acquired interest in ‘reading’ more and more blogs that are landing up in blogosphere. So decided to give some time to enjoy reading other blogs with the free time I have than writing stuff on my own. I will gather more ideas and make you strong soon…

3. The very thoughts of ‘not-making-posts’, ‘oh-no-the-traffic-is-dying’ and the associated guilt and pressure are least wanted by me for the next few weeks…

So, I just wanted to say that “I will be around, but cannot give attention to you as I did before…”

As is the nature of life, I will get free time soon and then I will completely revamp you, decorate you with stunning page designs, make you sparkle with insights, connect you with influential-interesting-insightful blogs and ofcourse will devote you my attention…aplenty..!

And yeah, you are nearing your 100,000th Visitor count…So just hang in there…I will treat you..!

Bear with your undisciplined friend for some time…but, I will give surprise visits to you sporadically…

Your’s truly,
Truly yours.

PS: I have tagged you correctly atlast, under ‘Diary’!

Market Analysis
The candidate should be capable of doing a thorough analysis of Vegetables/Food items in the market. He should be ready to travel to the shop by foot. He should be extremely smart enough to sort out rotten vegetables from fresh ones. The mindset to apply right techniques to sort right vegetables will be very handy [Like snapping the tail of the lady’s finger to see if there is a ‘tuck’ sound! But should not squeeze the tomato to see if it is good!]. The application of new techniques is encouraged and if necessary we will sponsor the patenting process.

Managing Supplier/Vendor Relationships
He should have good negotiation skills to procure the vegetables at rock-bottom price and should definitely ensure the freebies at large quantities(green leaves and chillies). Performance-based bonus is dependant on the amount of freebies obtained. He should be aware of the fact that MRP means Minimum-possible Retail Price in the case of vegetables. He should talk with Supplier to get inventory delivered at our destination/doorstep. Fluency in Telugu/Hindi is preferred to managed good relationships. Should effectively handle Cash Transactions with Vegetable owners and should buy food in credit from Foodworld/Departmental store. Accounts Payable is ok, but Accounts receivable is absolutely unacceptable. To avoid lock-in effect, relationship should be maintained with multiple suppliers and we should let them play off with each other. Supplier competition is healthy to consumer! That is our motto.

Managing Inventory
The purchased vegetables/food items should be carefully sorted out and stored in the Refrigerator at designated places. The existing inventory should be carefully studied to dispose off any outdated/rotten food items. Once the inventory level falls below the EOQ, the efforts should be initiated to fill the void. The inventory should be periodically monitored to avoid the growth of any fungus.

Decision-Making
He should be able to carefully assess the home conditions (like whether people are motivated to work, to eat, etc.,) and make appropriate decisions. The ability to make decisions (what dish to cook) under constrained choices of inventory is expected. He should be a strong leader to motivate others work. If nothing works out, he should lead the people to best possible locations to eat.

Shop-Floor Management
The shop-floor management will be addressed as “cutting-board management” in our place. He should be able to handle tools efficiently. The inventory should be processed in a very productive manner. The requirements should be carefully gathered about what vegetables to cut and what shapes to transform to.

Managing Transformations
This is by far the most important and crucial role. Whoever handles this should be able to manage the transformation of raw rice to boiled rice, vegetables and spices and masalas to Sambar/Rasam/curry. Experience in popping the mustards and dried red chillies is good. He should also handle the intense heat of closed-and-smoky environment, the nasty sound of whistles. The talent lies is avoiding the fingers from getting burnt. Should be able to improvise every time. The multi-tasking is extremely important.

Managing Crisis/Disaster Recovery
Managing crisis is out and away the most under-estimated job. The Clean-up of the mess is important for further operations/missions to continue. The candidate should be able to withstand the sight of vessel mountain. Should use the water very efficiently. Should carefully calculate the washing powder available and consume at an optimum level. The willingness to clean the sink off any vegetable-particles/rice is desirable. There is no better satisfaction than overseeing the entire mess being cleared up in front of your eyes. Guaranteed. The performance is judged based on the shine of the sink!

The jobs are generally rotated except for Decision-making and Transformation management. Once the person is well-equipped to handle the squeezes, he can take over the mantle.

PS: I managed the crisis today

I was wondering whether any “World Sudoku Championship” exists. After googling, realized that the first world championship in sudoku was organized at Lucca, Italy on March 10-11 2006. The winner was a 31 year old Czech Economist, a lady called Jana Tylova.

I explored the WSC website and downloaded the Official instruction booklet. The number of Sudoku variations in the tournament is quite amazing! In total they have 27 variations…Pips, 0-9, Classic, <>, Diagonal, Sum, Odd/Even, 147, Irregular, Toroidal, Multi, Extra-Regions, Outside, Consecutive, Frame, Star, Pandigital, Mini, Product, Digital, Irregular 6x6, Multi-mixed, Irregular 12x12, Mechanical, Combined, Cubic and Word Sudoku! Huh…understanding the rules itself will take time

BTW, The World Puzzle Championship will be held at Bulgaria this year from October 7-12. If you are interested, explore the website to know the details. I am going to try out the sample puzzles given at the website during the weekend for my own pleasure!

BTW, the title is Japanese version of the word “SUDOKU” (Suuji wa dokushin ni kagiru) Source: Wikipedia

Thanks to Girish, I was able to explore wikimapia and mark my location on the global footprint

My location…

Go mark your houses and nearest landmarks….

PS: The Wikimapia is powered by Google (Google maps). But the feature to define your location for everyone to see is cool!

Business Summaries, Compressed Knowledge, Book Abstracts, Executive Book summaries…These are all names given to the ‘concept’ of providing a brief summary of the book. This business mainly preys on the need to “Save time yet manage to get the fundamentals behind the book”. There are two ways in which these summaries can be useful. First, you can read through the concepts and if you are only really interested you can buy the book to read in detail. Second, you can use the summaries as a form of ‘key notes from the book’ to revise the concepts of the book. Either way you save time. If the summary does not excite you, you don’t have to buy the book. Well, there are prefaces/book reviews/excerpts available in the market. But they are either ‘opinions of others’ or simply ‘a slice of the book’. The Business summary on the other hand is a condensed version of the book lacking the ‘judgement of the reviewers’ and ‘a peek into the best portion of the book’.

The market for Business summary is quite niche [Executives and Business people]. But it is slowly gathering popularity among student community too.

I perceive this Business summary as a way of uploading the knowledge of a “600 page book” into your brain by reading just 5-6 pages! Somewhat similar to how Neo learns to ride helicopters, fight jujitsu, kung-fu etc in the movie Matrix Just kidding.

Websites:
http://www.getabstract.com/ [Get Abstract]
http://www.bizsum.com/ [Business Summaries]
http://www.summary.com
http://www.elementk.com
http://www.execubooks.com

Get Abstract is offering Freakonomics here.

If you come across any more good Business summary websites or free downloads of Business summaries, please let me know.

Blogging has finally received the much needed attention in Television Media. Now more and more common people will be interested in knowing about blogs. The issue about blogs being blocked by ISPs will be resolved in days, weeks or at the most months time. But in the end, the real beneficiaries will be blogs and bloggers. Just imagine an entire 30 minutes being dedicated by a leading News channel to debate about this issue. All the time, some of the prominent blogs in India were constantly shown in the background. “India Uncut” being the prominent!

Since Blogsome was immune from these bans and blocks, I could not feel the discomfort faced by other fellow bloggers. But I could empathize their position. For me, blogging has become a part of my life. I cannot imagine life without it.

There are days during which I did not publish any post. But it can be attribued mainly to lack of ideas/content than to laziness. I think I have been a fairly regular blogger. In my opinion, consistent and frequently updated ‘web-logs’ are the result of ‘web-slog’ (Yet another new term and is an anagram by the way!)

During the Leadership Development program @ ISB, there was an exercise to deliver presentations about any topic. I chose the topic, “Blogging and ISB” when there were so many other topics to chose from. There was a blogging competition held by IIM Indore, where one needs to write about “Blogging and Viral marketing”. My article fetched first prize! Then, there was the “Torch-bearer award” which was given mainly for my blogging efforts than for other form of contributions. There were few more occasions when ‘blogging’ influenced my thought process. I started blogging as a hobby, then it became a habit, then it became an addiction…and I just hope it does not become an obsession.

Given this frame of mind, no wonder I was enraged about the blogs being blocked by ISPs. Thank god, my blog was not blocked. Otherwise, I think I would have participated even in the street-demonstrations…!

Today afternoon around 1 p.m., my superior approached me and asked, “Bharani, can you give a talk about our initiative to the India Leadership Team @ 4 p.m?”. I had to agree. I was excited about the fact of meeting 13 wise gentlemen who form the India Leadership Team (Managing Director and Directors of Business units, HR, admin etc.,) for the first time. I was also excited at the prospect of talking about the progress that we have made so far. It is an opportunity to gain visibility for my BU and self. I conjured up a PPT out of 4 different sources that existed at that point of time. I should call the final product a “Federated PPT” (new fancy term )

The big board room environment reminded me of the Apprentice Show! I did not know the names of some people in ILT. So I introduced myself and then asked each one of them to introduced themselves. I was expecting someone to introduce each person officially. But that did not happen. So took the initiative myself. (That was pretty bold when I reflect in the hindsight). I think the talk and the demo went on well. I made a note of few areas which needs cover up and few items which needs a touch of polish. The talk was more of a chance to get more buy-ins for the initiative. One thing is becoming more clear. That we have a very long way to go…

When there is an opportunity to enhance your visibility/position, give your best.

It was around 8:15 p.m. I don’t know what struck me, A bulb flashed in my right brain and I suddenly thought “Is there some smart soul who has already thought about a business of ‘Jargon Consulting’?..” You know, the business which will essentially create new jargons for these consultants (so that they can use them to impress their clients) or for analysts (who can use in their powerpoint presentations)…Never mind… So I open up the google search engine and carefully enter “Jargon consulting”. I click the first link that is displayed and an unpleasant looking page opens up with a topic “A tongue-in-cheek guide to business jargon and management buzzwords”. I shrinked my face initially. But, I totally enjoyed reading those descriptions for the next few minutes ..Awesome in my opinion

Totally tongue-in-cheek!

Watch out for the descriptions about buzzwords “High level”,”30,000 feet”, “wet-signature”, “wetware”…and the new catch word that I learnt was “re-purpose”!

On the lighter note, non-mba grads can actually try these jargons with their managers and see for themselves the weird reactions (Like “Oh man, I am buried…now there is no differentiation between us” )! Fun apart, this post is more of self-deprecating humour and I am in no way affecting the feelings of good and solid MBAs….So please hold your fingers back from typing counter-comments…and use that energy to play piano

The crux of this post is over. What follows is a post-script Stop reading at this point of time, if you have something important to accomplish…

It is infact true that I am also part of this ‘Jargon club’ and some of these jargons are coming naturally to me. I am sure it comes naturally for most management graduates. But some people overuse it and cross the boundary of acceptance thereby landing in the zone of annoyance. My quadie in ISB who was famous for jargons can share lot of gyaan on this

One of his creative phrases was “Unsustainable Uncompetitive disadvantage” [The opposite of Sustainable Competitive Advantage]. Try deciphering the meaning….”Jargon club” can actually be a nice-little enjoyable hobby…

1. Work-life balance.
2. Start up environment vs Corporate environment.

I want to maintain a work-life balance. This thought has become so ingrained in me that I am feeling a sense of guilt if I work hard (well, work long hours). I am busy and slowly extending my work hours without even realizing the passing of time. I am glad that way. But I am missing out on my hobbies and other activities. The books are slowly collecting dust. (As of now there is exactly 2.234 millimetres of dust…). I am not keen on watching movies on HBO/Star movies/laptop. Fitness centre has become a weekend affair. Room is not so clean anymore, as washing the clothes has become a weekend affair too. I am logging my daily activities to see where I can fit some activities/hobbies. As long as I have this sense of guilt, there is scope for work-life balance. The key for work-life balance is to maintain a high level of productivity during the 8 hours of work. Working towards that…

I was working in a start-up environment before ISB. There was very little bureaucracy. Things get done faster. But in Corporate environment, if you make a request, you have to expect that the other party will come back with a way to turn down the request. Then you have to employ your convincing skills to get past the first-level road-block. You can call yourself lucky if there are no further road-blocks. Things like getting PCs, purchasing softwares, hiring resources are also made inefficiently formal! For each decision you make, you need to pursuade so many other parties. Justify your actions. Sometimes, these things kill the initiatives. I am just adapting to the change. The problem is complicated because of the stagnation layer prevalent in big companies. The people in the stagnation layer might have been stars once, but they have stopped learning long back and are not stars anymore. They are getting paid for their past laurels, at the expense of new and raw workforce. Some of the organizational inefficienceis originates from the insecurity felt in this stagnation layer. When your team/BU is different from this ‘corporate’ environment, you have to face the threat of being labelled as “incompatible” or “rebels”. This threat is amplified when your “incompatible” approach looks promising to yield impressive results! Interesting…

I am also slowly building rapport. Investing time and energy on colleagues too.

30 days ago, I spelt out the teams that I thought would make into Semi-Finals. The teams were Brazil, Argentina, Italy and England. Today am glad the only country which made into the Semi-Finals from the list also lifted the world cup…:)

But man, what happened to Zidane? The man of his calibre, such class, on the finals of the world cup, with only 10 minutes away from the finish time can’t react in that manner. I am curious what Materazzi said. But whatever he said, Zidane, such a cool person he seems to be, should not have reacted like that. He just destroyed the hopes of millions of French fans…More than the person who missed out in the penalty shoot-out, I think France will remember Zidane as the person responsible for losing the world-cup. Sad end to such a glittering career…

Anyways, am happy for Azurris, for ITALY…and I just shared the celebration with a glass of Beer

Some filmy dialogues…

I don’t remember which movie this was…But the boy talks with the friend of the girl. Then there is a scene in which the girl talks with the same common friend.

Common Friend: Can you tell the reason why you love her?
Boy: You can say 1000 reasons for not liking a person, but for liking a person you can’t reason!

The girl apparently is not interested with the boy.
Common Friend: Can you tell the reason why you don’t like him?
Girl: You can say 1000 reasons for liking a person, but you cannot say a reason for not liking a person!!

Wow…that’s Filmy!

I was watching a Telugu movie, when I was travelling in the very cosy volvo bus from hyderabad to chennai. The movie was entertaining to be honest. But couple of dialogues were very interesting:

Father advices to his daughter about the need for marriage:
“See, till the age of 10, a person is lost in his childhool games. Till the age of 20, a person is lost in his studies. Till the age of 30, a person is lost in his work/career. After that if the person is alone, he will lose himself!!!” The girl immediately agrees to marry…!

Girl: Why do you like me?
Boy: I cannot say why I like you…But I can say how much I like you!!! The girl literally floats after hearing the comment!

What the….? The script writers of Indian movies..especially Tam and Telugu movies are non-sensically creative Read Ram’s post on Captain…related to this and hilarious one.

The Business Unit is 40-50 strong. It is small compared to the size of other Business Units. The director of the group is pretty jovial, technically strong, broad-minded and informal. He has almost 20+ years of experience. I report directly to the director. The director reports to the Managing Director of the India centre. So,in a way I am only 2 levels from the top

I am given in-charge of an initiative. The initiative grew out of an organizational need. But gradually a vision to carve out a commercial product out of this initiative is emerging. Time will answer.

The initiative needs buy-in from higher levels. Fortunately, we do have buy-in at Vice-president level. That’s a big bonus for us. The initiative is not funded by the organization. So, the Business unit has to fund the initiative through its own budget. This currency constraint coupled with human-resource constraint is trying to drag the initiative down. So, we are undergoing the same emotions as entrepreneurs undergo while setting up a venture.

Activities performed by me: Research [Analysis of existing products in the market, Identifying the needs for the organization, Proposing the features to be implemented etc.,], Design and Architecture [Working with Technical leads to come up with Scalable, robust, component-oriented design], Requirements Analysis [Business Analysis for the first customer], Project management [Planning, Scheduling, allocation etc.,], Training and mentoring, Chairing tele-conferences to demo the product [High level people participate in the conference]…The Business Development part [Selling the concept to other business units/customers once the initiative takes shape] will come later, though it largely depends on the success of the initiative initially.

Though there are organizational red-tapes, I enjoy relatively more freedom and command [I am talking about the command of situation, resources I have, style I can follow etc.,] compared to many others in the organization. That part I am happy about.

I have joined at a level/grade which is normally given to people with 9-10 years of experience. That is a significant ladder-bypass for me.

Since I am working on the organizational initiative, I have some concerns in terms of not learning/mastering enough domain expertise relevant to my firm. I have made some plans to cover the weakness by utilizing the resources/facilities available within the organization. In few months time, things should take good shape.

One thing I would like to mention here is “Manage your expectations. Sometimes, what you expect might be vastly different from reality. Give some time before taking rash decisions. Patience is a virtue. If you leave the job, do so only after making sure that it is not for you.” Another point. “Just because your role is Strategy consultant/Business development, you are not necessarily insulated from project management or people management. The promised role will be given to you. But it will come as a part of package containing other mundane roles too.”

The problem about expectations can be published as a book in itself.

PS: A dialogue that I had about expectations some time ago…

Talk was about marriage…
Me: Dude, I don’t have high expectations.
Friend: So, why don’t you marry a girl from slum?
Me: I don’t have high expectations. But I do have expectations

I am thinking about how to make this post honest yet interesting I am thinking about how to realize my long term goals. I am thinking about how to manage the organizational politics. I am thinking about why I have stopped thinking about others and thinking more about self? I am thinking, so I am alive!

I said
“If my wife earns a good salary, then I would not mind sitting in home and pursuing the things I like.”

“People criticize generously and praise stingily. That’s how the words Aw’ful’ and Awe’some’ came into existence!”

I want to build a beautiful and spacious house. And yes, it should have a breath-taking garden. I want to be a fantastic orator who can capture the attention of audience and mesmerize them for long period of times. I want to contribute to the society, especially to the down-trodden [Astrologer has said that I will be doing lot of good to lower-rung people…I am yet to figure out that trait in me…For everything there is a time!]. I want to be a popular figure and as a role-model for others. I want to dress well. I want numerous other things..so I will stop here…

I wish always that everyone in the world remains happy with a sense of fulfillment..”Lokha samastha sukhino bhavanthu” [Sanskrit equivalent of the wish] is a phrase I utter to myself atleast 10-20 times a day.

I miss my child-hood days, miss the days when we had to spend each paisa after thousand thoughts, miss the days when I fought with my brother for petty things, miss the days when I had my first crush…Basically I miss the bad times as much as I miss good times…That’s the essence of balance to me.

I hear to my inner voice more often. On the negative side, sometimes I hear only what I want to hear [Selective hearing] and that puts me into trouble. I am still learning to hear the person across the table without any bias or preconceived notions. Believe me, it is not easy. Compassion and empthy are not the traits one can acquire easily.

I wonder about lot of things. In particular about my future. What will I be doing 5 years down the line? Am I doing the right thing? Reading the Freakonomics has made me to wonder a lot and ask lot of questions!!

I regret for being vertically challenged. I regret for not doing anything constructively to the society.

I am unassuming. No non-sensical. Not good-looking but pleasant-looking. I am someone who does not contribute a lot to the fun, but enjoys the fun. I am a great fan of kids…

I dance sometimes in my room when nobody is around. I play some “Ghana songs” with great beats and try to imitate the choreography performed on the silverscreen. I do dance in parties once in a while.

I sing in bathroom. I hum a lot. I do think that I sing well…but my talents have been long buried within myself

I cry. Yes, I have sometimes. But I would not cry before others. If I want to cry, I will go and lock myself inside a room and then cry. I can remember only one instance when I cried uncontrollably before others. Even now, If I think about the instance my heart gets heavier.

I am not feeling like disclosing my long list of weaknesses!

I write (well type) a lot of crap. I write so that someday I will become a great author. I actually ‘write’ to maintain my good hand-writing.

I confuse between What I want and What I need…

I need a perfect life-partner! I need a mentor in career!!!

I should learn a lot from books, from the experiences of others, from other culture. I should learn to maintain the smile on my face even during tough times…should learn many languages…should start writing quality blog posts…

I finish this post now…God, it has to come to an end..:)

I tag

Ramkumar
Ramki
Indian Blogger
Anuj Kadyan
Ankur Warikoo
Karthik Ramachandran
Vasanth Dharmaraj

Today early morning, around 3-4 a.m., there was an attempt of theft in the flat just opposite to where we live. Apparently, the house owner has gone to US for 3-4 months I guess. The thief has managed to break the big lock that was put up and even the main lock inbuilt in the door! We were actually awake till 2:30 in the morning. But we all were in to deep sleep by 2:45 a.m. Luckily, the flat owner who was living beneath us had heard some sound and went down and took Security person along to check out what’s happening. By the time they both reached the flat, the thief became alert and ran away. Now, none of us know what has been stolen…Now the people who live in the house have to spend the rest of their days in US with loads of tension…

Since hearing the news, I am disturbed a lot. I mean, what’s the point of all those ‘more security in apartments’ argument. Thiefs do notice the empty houses and attack it. Safety is in our hands…But, no matter how much external security we have, if our time is not good, we can become a victim.

I think we should seriously consider shifting the apartment. There were rumours that this particular locality is prone to thefts. Now, it is not rumours anymore. There should be peace of mind as far as safety is concerned. Once that is disturbed/threatened, then it is very difficult to convince myself from not shifting the house. And we have invested bit heavily..that gives us extra concern…! OK, we all are bachelors and are awake late in the night..but what if all 3 leave for the weekend…I think we should deploy traps like the kid in ‘Home alone’ does!!!

Safety…is a deception.

It is almost 2 months since I cut my hair. I have to attend my cousin sister’s marriage this weekend. So decided to trim my hair to look neat and not shabby…Who likes the guy with shabby, ratty hair anyway? and that too in the marriage…it is a SIN

Since two of my flat mates went to a nearby Men’s Beauty Parlour for dressing their hair, I decided to check out the parlour myself too…I was just entering the parlour and the door automatically opened itself from inside…I thought somebody is coming out and so stood away from the path..After some time, a local guy with 20 days old beard and colgate palmolive smile came out and said..”Come in sir!”. Gosh…then it struck..”it’s the damn customer service”.

I entered inside the parlour. The shop is fully air-conditioned. Not many customers. There were just two gentlemen utilizing the services of the parlour. One was middle-aged. He was reading his newspaper and one person was grinding his heels with a finely crafted saw like tool…and another one was polishing his fingernails..The other customer was just having a shampoo bath…A hair-dresser came to me and asked..”Sir..what do you want?”. I said..”Just haircut…medium..but short on the side and the back”…He understood and started his work..I was observing myself in the mirror and realized how much hair I have lost over the years…hmm…i think the supply will last only for few more years…I sincerely wish that a shining bald-head becomes a fashion by then…Just when I woke back from my good old memories, he disturbed me and said..”Sir..it’s done”!..I checked and said..”Ok”..I thought, I will have a massage..”How much for massage?”..”60 Rupees sir”..After few more conversations decided to have the massage.

He said..”Sir..use navaratna oil..it is good.” As I did not have any preference, i said..”ok”. He then began his massaging operation. He used my head as Drums, Mirudangam, washing stone, and what not…But I closed my eyes and enjoyed my massage…I have tried to do the same techniques myself but somehow don’t get the same relief, when a seasoned masseur does it..He then proceeded to massage my neck, shoulders, back till lower back. I got that tickling feeling when he massaged my back. I started reacting just like a person who is being tickled does. The masseur started smiling and continued his massage in the same place… it tickled more…more…and then I leaned forward….forward and fell in to splits of laughter…Even the masseur started laughing…I felt weird and awkward!! I signalled him to stop…he understood and proceeded back towards the head region and finished his job. By now my hair was a holy mess…So, I asked him..”How much for shampoo?”..He said, “Rs.60/=”..”So, that includes drying also?”..”No sir, Rs.60 for drying…”…What a way to extract money…”Ikkada anni aravai rupaila?” (Everything is Rs.60 here?) ..Paid for the hair-cut and massage. I then had to walk back the distance to my home and had to bear the strange looks of people who were wondering what happened to my hair…:) But the massage left me energized for the whole day…

Courtesy: Lack of ideas to blog about…! will enjoy free-wheeling for some days….

Cycling…

Whenever I go to fitness centre (I have visited fitness centre only 30-40 times totally in my life), my legs take me automatically to the cycling equipment. I just love pedalling…After seeing lance armstrong and the way he beautifully pedals in a rocking motion, I have developed a liking to cycling…rather pedalling…

I normally set a target. Say 10 kms. Every time, I will try to beat my previous performance. The latest is 10 kms in 17.3 minutes at difficulty level 4. It’s always easy to reach 2-3 kilometers. It is the middle portion which is tough to sustain. You will feel like giving up…That’s when, my prestige takes over…”What the F#@*, be a man…”!!! Then, I pedal…pedal…look sideways…look up…look at my own image in the mirror…murmur to myself..”I can..I can..” After some time, I will stablize..Then, legs will begin to hurt… feel a sense of bulging on thighs…on the calf muscles…sweat pouring like heavens from your head…Finally, when I reach the target, automatically the smile emerges on the face…the victorious smile…! A sense of achievement…:) For that short duration of time, I am Lance Armstrong…no one can take that perception away from me…!

Only when I plant my foot on the ground will I realize that taking even a single step is going to be a herculean task…Not ready to show the tiredness, I just stylishly lean on to the nearby support (wall, equipment or some god damn thing!) as if I am posing to a photographer……and wait until I sense that I can walk normally…man, I am weak yet I am strong…it’s all in the mind…

But there are all kinds of people who come to fitness centre…6 feet vertically or 5 feet horizontally or 7 feet circumferentially! People with huge biceps roughly the size of my thighs! (Well that’s an exaggeration..Let me correct it…actually the biceps are bigger than my thighs!) Fat-burners…muscle-builders…People who lift all the weights in one stretch and people who lift just the bar…diversity at its best…

I always use to wonder, everyone wants to spend calories when they come to gym…basically give away the excess calories..why not convert those calories to something useful…say electricity! Say, you pedal…so connect the wheel to a generator through a conveyor belt and efficiently convert the energy to electricity…the more electricity i generate, the more I feel like Shah-rukh-khan of Swadesh! Same applies to all the equipments…Anyone interested in a good business plan? please feel free to implement it..no royalties please

Man, I am so happy today…because after 15 months…I spent the complete 8 hours in work only for work!!! so, just letting my fingers type whatever it wants…

At ISB, we have this benefit of renting top-quality DVDs anytime, the luxury of recommending a good DVD to be purchased. In the outside world, renting DVD is a costly affair. Even if you manage to rent a DVD for 50 rupees, there are chances that the DVD is pirated and that the DVD player might get damaged.

There is this shop called “Cinema Paradiso”, India’s first licenced DVD rental shop. They have few branches in India. This is a high-end rental shop and targeted towards the affluent society. The membership fees is Rs.3000 and the cost of renting a single DVD is Rs.75 or Rs.100 depending on the movie. That is costly in Indian standards. But the shop has an awesome collection of movies, some of which you might never get in a normal shop. This is a great benefit for movie aficionados. Moreover almost all the DVD’s are collector’s edition (which will have lot of features in addition to the movie). They have also neatly classified the movies to different genres. I believe, having a membership here will soon become a symbol of status!

The special feature of the shop is the mini theatre. This is what Hindu has to say about this

“..The 11-seater is equipped with a 52-inch plasma television. With the acoustics okayed by A.R. Rahman’s sound engineers, the theatre will give you the complete theatre experience tempered with a happy cosy feel thanks to snug rugs and comfy sofas. And while you could bring in eats from the many fast food joints in and around the place, popcorn is on the house. ..”

The cost of renting the mini theatre for 11 people is Rs.1000/=. Now, that’s a nice way to celebrate an occasion for a small group!

I will wait for some more time before getting a membership. May be my firm comes up with a corporate plan…

10:15 p.m. Not much traffic on the road. I was walking back to my room after purchasing some food stuff. An autorickshaw fled past me. I felt a sensation of something being sprayed on my body. Since it was dark, I could not realize what it was. When I closely observed, I saw dark droplets spread all over my right hand and pants. They were ink drops. I looked around and saw a plastic ink bottle lying on the ground, completely deformed in shape, literally road-rolled. Those ink drops are not something that goes away. The ink is meant for ballpoint pens. I was so enraged…that I shouted…”S..H…I..T..”! on the empty road and it echoed in the empty roads…By this time, the autorickshaw had already transformed into a mini-dot in the distant…

I was so pissed off by the thought that my pants have become useless…I blamed my friend for bringing me along with him to the shop inspite of my resistance…I blamed the autorickshaw for driving on the bottle…I blamed the person who threw the bottle on the road…I blamed the corporation worker for not doing the clean-up job properly…Blame, Blame, Blame was all I did…The more the parties I tried to blame, the more I was enraged…I was atleast lucky that I was wearing an old T-shirt…

Only when I came to my room did I realize that I did not kick the bottle away from the road..Now, I am responsible for someother good pant getting spoilt…and I will be part of somebody else’s blame…! Next time, I will try to maintain calm and see how I can control the damage…and when will all our citizens co-operate to maintain the cleanliness in public places is a question that needs to be answered…and thought upon…

PS: I bought the pants only 20 days ago…I tried to clean the pants..but to no avail.

1. Post my profile in TeluguMatrimony.com [With a very short-and-sweet description, no photos uploaded, no horoscopes uploaded]

2. Explain the Online matrimonial facility to my parents and the benefits associated with it. Impressed with such a facility available in net, they pursue me to add more details. I even ended up paying Rs.1750/= to acquire the paid-benefits of the matrimonial site [Like sending personalized message, password-protecting the photograph etc.,]. Can’t believe it!

3. Go through the profiles matching my preferences. The most important filtering being “Search profiles who has put up photographs”!! Later, I realized that most of the people who put up photographs have published a well-crafted, studio-quality photographs. The bright-white teeth, the angel-like glow behind the hair and extremely fair face (a closer analysis will reveal the huge contrast between the hand color and the face color!) makes you wonder “How come everyone is so beautiful”??

4. Wait for someone to contact me. You know, the typical Why-should-I-make-the-first-move thought. Fed up with the dismal response rate, I begin to analyze the reasons…

5. Decide to search for profiles without photographs. I learn to patiently read the description written by the parents/friends/siblings. It turns out that genuinely interested people do not publish the photographs (or atleast password-protect the photographs).

6. Decide to make the first move. Express the interest to the newly found profiles and wait for response.

7. Decide to publish my photograph and put up my salary figure. Within 24 hours, the response rate improves dramatically. Agency problems??

8. All the while, I forgot about the Horoscope compatibility. I cannot seek the service of a Purohit each time to match the horoscopes nor can I learn the astrology overnight. Think…Think…Finally, I find an online Horoscope matching service which does a good job of matching.

9. Match the horoscopes of profiles to decide whether to proceed further or not. The service gives a score on a 36 scale. Minimum of 18 points is needed for horoscope to be compatible. If the points is 30+, then the match is excellent! But the score is not just enough..There are more checks like Manglik dosha, Nadi dosha, Masala dosha, Paper dosha etc.,!!! If there is any one dosha, then even if you have a score of 36 out of 36, the horoscopes are certified as incompatible! [A small fact, 46%-53% of people in the world are Mangliks]. Manglik dosha is the result of Mars positioning himself/herself in some specific squares in horoscope. Now is this what is meant when someone say “Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus”…Juz Kidding

10. It turns out that 5 out of 8 profiles that were up for matching are incompatible.

11. I get more responses [both response to my responses and fresh proposals]. The horoscope funneling eliminates the responses!

12. A close friend suggests to remove the salary figure and put the photograph (password-protected). Also, a few modifications in the description. I follow the same.

13. Two prospects have been contacting me since then. Also, they received a score of 33 out of 36 in horoscope compatibility test! One prospect asked me to meet the brother of the girl in hyderabad! Scared by the thought of being interviewed mercilessly by a stranger and by the speed at which events were taking place, I decided not to respond. I will let my parents do the initial talking.

14. One profile caught my attention, but for one thing. The HEIGHT! She was 170 cms. I remember my height as 169 cms. I wanted to confirm my height badly…I even bugged my flat mates to help me in measuring my height!! At that moment, I was complaining to god for being vertically challenged Anyway, I don’t want to end up as the shorter one after the marriage! So, with heavy heart had to let go that profile…and updated my preferences to reflect the height…

15. After few cycles, the preferences have evolved and many confusions are cleared. I have even come up with a bank of questions to ask whenever I get a chance to meet a prospect! There is also a document of “things that I would like to do for my life-partner” so that I can impress her in the future…you see, the problem of seeing too many Tam/Hindi love movies

16. Now comes the anti-climax. It turns out that my preferences have narrowed my choices way too much. Caste, Place, Education, Career, Height, Looks…etc.,

17. Totally confused and frustrated by the futility of the online search with such a preference, I finally decide to not log into matrimony site anymore. Atleast not for the next 1 month. As I was not lucky enough to find a life-partner on my own so far, I will leave the job to my parents…provided my preferences are satisfied. It’s going to be a long-drawn process…that’s for sure and it better take time, as it is a question of life…!

Only take-away: I got to meet/interact with 2-3 new people. It was great to know about their interests and ambitions in life.

For a brief period, there was a great interest to get married and settle in life fast..Now, the interest has died down (is gradually dying down..)…With the excitement and fun away, it’s time to kick-some-mighty-a** in work The momentum is finally picking up at work front…

PS: There was a big dilemma whether to publish this or not…Question of excitement vs consequence…finally, excitement prevailed…hope I am not wrong….

Normally I don’t give much attention to forwards…but these Images are so refreshing to ignore…

The other 2 images (part of trilogy!) that I cannot fit in the page…

I have a feeling that, for past few months, I am leading a very cushy cushy life, without facing any major struggles to fight with or any major obstacles to overcome. May be this is due to the positive attitude that is growing day-by-day or May be because life has been really been kind on me….

Deep down, I want to struggle…I want to face difficulties…In the past, when I faced difficulties and when I had major challenges to face with, and I overcame those, I felt COMPLETE. Each time I overcome the obstacles, I felt the growth within me…

I thought I got a small set of wings out…but not quite so…God, I want to struggle more….and get the wings out of my cocoon….and finally fly high…May be it’s time that I start working towards my long term goal…earlier than I planned to start…

My heartbeat…instead of “LUB DUB….LUB DUB” is “TAKE RISK… TAKE RISK”

Guest House: (May 8th)

3 Wipro guys in front of me..all freshers…introduce themselves to me…I introduce myself…and theres comes the word “ISB”…the looks on their faces change…a mark of respect emerges….from then on whatever I say, they listen with silence….with attention…They want to know more about ISB…a lot…they have already started GMAT Preparation…!!!

Guest House: (May 11th)

New set of people come to Guest house (Google guys). This time, I don’t do anything…The Wipro guys convey that I am from ISB…”He is from I..S..B..”!!

Convergys: (May 16th)

Some of my colleagues come to me (freshers)…talk with me…want to know more about ISB…”Bharani, We would like to sit with you and want to listen to your experiences about ISB someday..”. “How much score should I get in GMAT?”…and the list goes on..They see me with respect…talk to me with regard…I would definitely help them out in whatever way possible…of course nothing is official…

Convergys: (June 8th)

A new person joins our team. We kind of introduce ourselves. This time, I don’t say that I am from ISB…After quite some time, he comes to know that I am from ISB..”Oh…you are a product of ISB…? great!”. The look on his face changed to some kind of respect….

Convergys: (June 15th)

Induction program…I introduce myself…mention that I am from Indian School of Business….The looks on the faces of people changes….they pay more attention to what I say…I infered from couple of coffee chats with some of those people that they wanted to work with the team which has grads from ISB! Some people already are planning to prepare GMAT!! They say, “Who better than you to give gyaan about MBA courses…we would like to hear from you about that sometime..?”…

Man, this kind of respect triggers a kind of ‘nashaa’…It’s a good feeling..but should not fall for it…it is very tricky…the expectation on me is higher…They would like to see some magic from me…that kind of pressure is too much…I sometimes think, “Oh man, they think I am a superman…what if i screw up this?”…May be I am disillusioned…but there are more evidences to support that it is not disillusion, but a genuine expectation dilemma…

The last 2 years of impressive placement performance and the incredible media coverage executed by ISB this year has made sure that ISB is known as a big brand…reputed brand…ISB brand is growing…at a rapid pace…

Similar to “Burden of command”, this is called “Burden of ISB”!!! People judge the quality of ISB based on quality of you…if you are really good, then perception about ISB goes up…but if you are not that good, perception about ISB goes down…atleast among the people who observe you daily…

Now I know why some IIT guys and IIM guys move around with a shield around them….and don’t even talk to some people from tier 2 colleges…it’s because of this ‘Nashaa’…it’s because of this “Power of association with a great institution”….I am hoping that my humility will not let me down and help me to walk with a level-head. This ‘realization’ should keep me on my toes and help me to perform well…

It is hardly 45 days since I joined the firm and I am taking session in the induction program for freshers…Well, had to cover for a person who was supposed to take the session…

It’s very refreshing to see fresh graduates straight out of the college, with a great amount of enthusiasm and interest gleaming in their eyes. They don’t have any idea about how the organization works and how the teams function. But they want to do some geeky things. Develop great software. Make big bucks. Buy gadgets. Do lot of things….When they join the organization they are like babies. At this stage, their learning curve is very steep and they absorb concepts/ideas/techniques in large amounts. They are clean from organizational politics. I liked interacting with them…REFRESHING….

My colleague who accompanied me explained to the freshers about lot of fun things that happens in our BU. Overall, we projected our Business Unit as THE PLACE to work in the organization…That’s a big deal given the fact that we did not even had any PPT’s to present!

Another incentive for taking sessions for freshers is that you can check out some smart girls….and if you want, do a little bit of fun ragging as well (But we didn’t!). A funny incident. Since we were the 5th Business unit to present, we did not want the freshers to go through another round of boring introductions! But at the same time, the curious harmones in us wanted to know the name of some girls….So I began asking, “Is there a person in this room who knows every person by name?”. Not even a single hand raised! Luckily, a person from the last bench raised his hand. I said, “Give him a big hand, it’s a commendable thing.” After a brief applause and making sure that he felt happy about the achievement (no sarcasm here, it’s very tough to remember the names of many strangers at once), my colleague interrupted, “Wait, I don’t believe you..Tell me the name of the person here” (Pointing to the girl)!…The cycle continued until we knew what we wanted to know!

Fun apart, I proposed to my superior that myself and my two colleagues will be taking all the induction sessions in future (about our Business unit). With the rate of expansion that is happening, I guess there will be induction sessions every fortnight or even week! Nice exercise to spend the time….until we hit the 100% utilisation rate…

Some notes from ‘Maverick’ book….

Hepatitis Leave
When people tell us they don’t have time to think, we ask them to consider what would happen if they suddenly contracted hepatitits and were forced to spend three months recuperating in bed. Then we tell them to go ahead and do it.
(more…)

1. Reply to emails as soon as possible. I normally reply aptly for emails. But for past few months, I have acquired an “email fatigue”, so much that my responsiveness has come down significantly. For some mails I want to give a very thoughtful and honest reply, because of which I keep postponing them. Time to break this syndrome…Replies from me would be apt from now on…But I have to clear the backlog first.

2. The pressure to positively represent ISB in all my activities is creating undue pressure. Sometimes, this comes across as arrogance I believe…Just do what comes naturally to you, you will be fine. The paper certificates should not give you over-confidence. It should just give you absolute confidence. Watch it and adjust dude!

3. Participate in some Social initiative.

4. Watch the weight. I have hit 70 kgs mark. Need to stop further weight addition. Joining the fitness centre is good start but continuing it is the challenge…Discipline…Show some discipline…

5. Call some friend daily and talk. I just browse through the phone book and pick up a friend to call everyday. Maintain it….

Couple of websites I would like to talk about…

www.bharatbloodbank.org: A “Corporate social Responsibility” initiative by BharatMatrimony.com. Since one of my colleague’s father is undergoing open-heart surgery, she was seeking for blood donors. We received a suggestion from one of the employees to check out this website. I registered and found that significant number of people have registered as donors and there are donors from many parts of India. I am sure there are other websites available for blood donation, but I was impressed with the service.

www.dhamma.org: Vipassana Meditation website. Vipassana is one of India’s ancient mediation techniques. This organization is driven by Mr. S.N. Goenka. This organization runs 10-day courses throughout the year, during which the participants will learn the art of meditation and practice it rigorously. There are no charges for this course. Yes, it is absolutely FREE. They will provide you accommodation, food and will take care of your entire stay. But you have to follow the guidelines and timetable that is instituted. During the 10-days, you should not communicate with any other person in the course, not even communication through body language [Using mobile phone is out of question!]. See yourself the course schedule to understand the rigour of the course.

THE COURSE TIMETABLE
The following timetable for the course has been designed to maintain the continuity of practice. For best results students are advised to follow it as closely as possible.

4:00 a.m.———————Morning wake-up bell

4:30-6:30 a.m.—————-Meditate in the hall or your own room

6:30-8:00 a.m.—————-Breakfast break

8:00-9:00 a.m.—————-GROUP MEDITATION IN THE HALL

9:00-11:00 a.m.—————Meditate in the hall or your own room

11:00-12:00 noon————–Lunch break

12noon-1:00 p.m.————–Rest and interviews with the teacher

1:00-2:30 p.m.—————-Meditate in the hall or your own room

2:30-3:30 p.m.—————-GROUP MEDITATION IN THE HALL

3:30-5:00 p.m.—————-Meditate in the hall or your own room

5:00-6:00 p.m.—————-Tea break

6:00-7:00 p.m.—————-GROUP MEDITATION IN THE HALL

7:00-8:15 p.m.—————-Teacher’s Discourse in the hall

8:15-9:00 p.m.—————-GROUP MEDITATION IN THE HALL

9:00-9:30 p.m.—————-Question time in the hall

9:30 p.m.———————Retire to your own room–Lights out

Huh!

Some of my colleagues have/are going to this course. They have very good words to say about this course. They say “I am mentally clear….and have absolute peace of mind”. Why did I write about this course, because my superior believes that taking a 10-day break for this course brings lot of productivity gain to the individual..and he recommends everyone to go through this course…Well, after seeing the schedule, I cannot make up my mind as of now…but definitely will try it sometime..This course might be an answer for what some of you might be searching for…”Away from the outer world, deep into your own world”!

The following ad caught my attention today morning…Nah, not for the job opportunties , but for the brief description of roles…ads for MBA roles in IT are very rare…and this ad neatly summarized 5 different possibilities for MBA grads from leading institutes…So journalizing…

http://www.polaris.co.in/new/about_us/hr_ad.html

Business Analyst
Close coordination with customers and project teams to understand, analyse and translate customer requirements in BFSI domain; test and validate requirements; actively participate in pre-sales activities.

Program Management
Planning, monitoring and control of multiple projects; continuous mangament reporting on financials, resources and risk; proactive identification of issues timely escalation and tracking.

Solution Architect
Articulating, architecting, planning & developing technical specification for end-to-end content delivery strategies, helping define strategies, roadmaps & implementation plans.

Business Development/PreSales
Strategising and winning new engaments within high technology clients; pre-sales activity across opportunities from various geographies in BFSI domain; active interation with prospects, building proposals and presentations, participate in contract negotiations and finalisations.

Subject Matter Expert
Understand and acticulate business needs, translate business requirements to implementable solutions; build competencies in BFSI domain; analyse industry trends and identify suitable offerings; demonstrate domain compentencies in customer interactions.

In general, the boundaries are not clearly defined..One can see, a person performing tasks covered under more than one topic…

Wow…! My first mobile blogging effort