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….

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’!

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.

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

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.

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…

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….

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…

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…

Took a day off on Friday and went home to Chennai.

Received a bonanza gift from my brother for my B-day. Most Expensive, greatest gift I have received so far! Nokia N-91…Wow!!! Still exploring the never-ending list of features….What a brother I have..:) On the other hand, with a heavy heart, I am relieving my Nokia 3310 from the service (served well for 4.5 years)!

It feels like only yesterday that I was dunked in ISB pool…but one year has gone very fast…

On the books front, completed reading “Maverick” and “Search”. Enjoyed reading both…”Maverick” was unconventional stuff..I admire the guy Ricardo Semler..”Search” gives lot of insights about Search Engines and talks in detail about Google’s success story…I have lined up few more books in my reading list…“Liar’s poker”, “Sea biscuit”, “The Argumentative Indian”. Convergys Library has procured some new books. Few of them look interesting…So, my eyes will be busy for next few weeks.

On the Movies front, Watched two 80’s movies. AlPacino’s “Dog Day Afternoon” and Michael Keaton’s “Gung Ho”. “Gung Ho” in particular should be featured in the management movie list (Am not sure if it is). Nice movie about Cross-cultural conflicts [American-Japanese]. Watching “The DaVinci Code” is going to be a dream for some more time…[Banned in Andhra and TamilNadu].

When I came back to hyderabad, I was taken back when I saw a brand new “ONIDA OXYGEN 29 TELEVISION” in my apartment in hyderabad. Three cheers to Vickie-the-clickie for purchasing it…Watching football on the 29 inch flat screen would be awesome! Wimbledon, Tour De France, India-West Indies cricket series are also lined up for the next 1-2 months…

PS: Will write about my role in Convergys in the next post…

Proud display of some of our efforts! More “nice-to-haves” to follow in the days to come…We have fallen in love with home that we are not feeling like going to office…!

A message from a very good friend that disturbed me a lot….I know this chap very well…Damn good guy…He recently took up a significant challenge….and is determined to achieve his ambition….his father’s ambition….and all of a sudden this incident….God tests good people a lot…

I badly want this guy to succeed in his mission…

Just see the foot message…tells a lot about his character…

“….My Father passed away on the 8th of this April because
of stomach cancer.Couldn’t inform at that time as I
was/am totally devastated.

PS: For those of you who stay away from parents & who
don’t visit their parents frequently,a complete health
checkup for them atleast once in 2/3 yrs would help
immensely….”

Giks and myself began the last weekend with a mission to set up the home. Over the next 40 hours, we completed many of the tasks in our TODO list. We explored quite a few places. By Sunday evening, the process of purchasing became mechanical. Find the shop which sells the item in need. Learn the price range. Know your BATNA (Best Alternative To Negotiated Agreement). Explore few more shops. Negotiate with the BATNA in mind. Get a new BATNA. By 4th or 5th iteration, we would reach the optimal price level. Complete the deal. Give the address to the shop owner for transporting the item. Get on with the next item….

Seeing the brand new items and installation people walking in to our apartment every 1-2 hours, our neighbours should have been wondering a lot!

PS: I just tallied the accounts. Realized that I spent Rs.4500 for sleeping items alone! [Cot, Mattress, Pillows, Bedsheet, Pillow cover, Quilt]. Well, I now have a comfortable setup to sleep…I really fell asleep within moments…which is a bit unusual for a ‘thinking…thinking’ person like me!

Saw the movies “Pink Panther” and “Poseidon” in the last couple of weekends. Pink Panther was quality fun and Steve Martin has done a splendid job. Poseidon, well, should have been renamed as “Upside down”! The whole concept was mentally challenging. How will it be if the environment around you is vertically inverted? The movie was non-stop action. But beyond a certain point, I started losing interest. Didn’t impress me much.

I am racing against time to complete the book “The Da Vinci Code”, so that I can watch the movie with the novel in my mind. I missed out the experience of watching a movie after reading the novel/book with “The Lord of the Rings” Trilogy. Anyway, I started reading the book on monday night and am half-way through. Man, I love the mystery presented and the way it unfolds. Add to the mystery some dark concepts, Controversial revelations and the elements of the genius Da Vinci, you have a perfect recipe for a great novel…

I want to watch the movie for the experience (Movie-after-novel), the beautiful actress Audrey Tautou and ofcourse the oscar-studded Tom Hanks. Of course, the movie will not have any suspense for me..but that’s fine.

Eagerly waiting for the weekend to arrive…

ps: btw, “THE CANDID VOICE” (the title of the post) is an anagram of “THE DA VINCI CODE”

Since my ‘luxury’ period in the guest house was over, I had to finally move to the apartment in Srinagar Colony. I shifted my things to the flat and headed to office. I purchased a set of bed, pillow and bedsheet the day before and kept in the apartment. When I came back in the night, it struck me that there is not even drinking water in home. All that was available were copious rooms, fans, tubelights and empty cup-boards! It was awkard to sleep in such an empty house! My flatmates would be joining me little later.

There are list of things to do over the next few days

- Get the house cleaned once more.
- Get the Cable connection.
- Install the television and DVD Player
- Get the Gas connection.
- Get the Broad band connection.
- Interview and finalize maid (!)
- Subscribe to newspaper
- Subscribe to milk.
- Subscribe to mineral water.
- Buy a study table and chair
- Buy fridge
- Buy washing machine (?)
- Buy iron
- Buy sofa sets and chairs
- Buy a good 2.1 speaker set.
- Buy cooking utensils, cooker etc.,
- Buy curtains.
- Buy some plants to grow indoor (!)
- Buy TV table.
- Buy a Cot (I prefer sleeping in the floor with the bed..so will take a call on this)
.
.
.

Huh, the list is not stopping…Of course, the common expenses will be shared. After 4 years of comfortable life-style, I simply cannot imagine living without the above basic facilities. Regarding the car/bike, will postpone the purchase until I get my driving licence and save some moolah!

I did not explore HITEC city when I was in ISB. All I had seen was the CYBER TOWERS, which does not reflect the magnitude of the HITEC city.

There are so many buildings in HITEC city. Some of them have beautiful contemporary designs. Lot of new buildings coming up…Latest addition would be from Dell.

As the guest house accommodates people from various organizations, I had opportunities to interact with them.

One of them was from Google. Google hyderabad is recruiting for its “Adwords” and “Adsense” program - for technical development and content monitoring. He said, the female-to-male ratio in Google is 80-20!! There are 600 employees in Google currently. Which means there are 480 girls! The men who join the company are keenly watched at and commented by the girls! High probability for Adam-teasing! Google is known for its culture. One among that is unlimited supply of food. Be it comprehensive buffet/snacks ranging from exotic cookies to indian samosas/wide variety of coffee and tea, Google is among the best when it comes to appetite . So naturally many of the Google employees are obese Convergys does a good job on that front too…Breakfast/lunch/supper/dinner are available everyday for a monthly fee of Rs.150/=. That’s not bad…If they provide a bed and shower, a person can stay here permanently

I met some guys from Wipro. I also met a person who has significant work experience. He has IIT-IIM combo as educational qualification. 8+ years of work experience. Working as Project manager. Couldn’t interact much with him…

I also interacted with a German. He joined me in the dining table. Only two of us were there. He was all cocky…to be honest. In spite of my best effort to grab his eye contact, he was looking everywhere except towards me. Finally he looked at me…and I smiled After exchanging few pleasantries, I began the conversation…”So, Germany is all set for hosting the world cup?”…That was enough to energize him…He was so proud to talk about Germany hosting the world cup…and then suddenly he took a jibe…”It’s a pity that India, with a billion plus population, does not even figure in the world cup football…”. “Forget about Football, not even in olympics…”. “Even in cricket they were 4th or 5th in rankings sometime back..”…He was going on and on….I gave my justifications…corruption, lack of transparency, red-tape, unfit politicians…everything…and how things are getting in right track…Well, Whatever he said was true…but I would not complain about the other person’s country when I meet someone for the first time…I could have countered, but he didn’t stop…”Indians also don’t have a good body frame. They don’t have broad shoulders. They are short. They don’t have balance between education and sports. blah..blah…”. All the while he was surveying my body frame and my shoulders His eyes sparkled. He was speaking as if he just came after obtaining Ph.D in India!! I mentioned about my visit to germany, munich, the beer hall, the black forest etc., all nice things…and I didn’t even mention about my visit to Concentration camp, as I thought the very word “Concentration camp” might upset him…I finally asked him one question..”So, What do you like in India and why have a captive centre in India?”. He was momentarily taken back….My eyes sparkled….While he was very generous in complaining…I could not find the same generosity in praising!!! Well…so much for trying to strike a conversation with him…Heard about the aggressive nature of germans….but witnessing for the first time Finally “Nice meeting you…I am leaving tonight”..I replied, “Nice meeting you too…have a pleasant journey back home…”

Recently, a phenonmenon swept over chennai and many parts of Tamil Nadu. The “Vazha meenu, vilanga meenu” phenomenon. The song, the picturization, the singer and the choreography took “Gaana Ulaganathan” to the cloud nine in a short span of time. He was iconized with a single song. Now, he has started endorsing products and services! He is endorsing for “BSNL - one India scheme”. He has modified the same song with which he became popular for this ad. The song goes like this…

“Sada phonukkum cell phonukkum oru rooba…
Kashmirukkum kanyakumarikkum oru rooba….
One India…One India…BSNL One India….”

With the look-alike of malavika shaking her hips and hands rhythmically in the background…Even “Thalaivar Thimingalam” is featured

BSNL seems to know the pulse of people.

PS: People who haven’t seen the song and the ad cannot appreciate this post…

Joined the Firm. Met with entire BU team. First impression is good. I don’t have anything to complain and I am happy about that. In fact, my immediate superior has built some hype about me I guess…I am just trying to ‘manage’ and bring down the expectations…”Hit” the ground running sounds good in paper. But in reality, it’s not that easy…There are simply so many things to know before I can be 100% productive…

It was tough to sit for 8 whole hours on day 1. It will be a while before I am comfortable with the ‘work’ mode. My work timings are 11 a.m to 8 p.m. The mornings will be more relaxed for me! The traffic will be less during the time I travel.

The guest house that I am staying in currently is very good. The room is VERY big. The breakfast, lunch, dinner everything comes to my room…

About the house hunt….After looking at some apartments, I have decided to settle in an apartment in Srinagar colony (The apartment is owned by my batchmate in ISB). The place will be convenient for travel (shuttle services provided by firm stops near the flat). There are quite a few restaurants, departmental stores, food world and hospitals surrounding the apartment. Ofcourse, the hyderabad central is just 2-3 km away. I am yet to find the fitness centre…Will find one. The best part is the rent. It’s a 3 bedroom flat and the rent is 40-50% lower than the nominal rates here. That’s because the flat belongs to our batchmate .

PS: I am planning to get an internet connection in home soon. I will try to blog more after that…Once the actual work starts, I think I will be able to blog only in the weekends.

Yesterday, I downloaded the video that my brother took on Camcorder during the graduation day. He patiently captured the entire procession starting from dean till the end (The procession from ISB building to the hangar). When I look at it now, it is a definite treasure. Thanks a ton bro

My town (Manali new town) is boycotting elections citing various reasons including non-distribution of land certificates and house certificates, lack of proper roads etc., The Association of the town has submitted their decision to the collector. So no election campaigns, no posters…no indications whatsoever that there is election around….!

The Chief Minister will be visiting a nearby town on April 27th. So the PWD is busy laying damn new roads all the way from thiruvottiyur through ennore to the place called Ponneri. You should look at the speed at which the work is progressing…It will put even the most productive country in the world to shame! Is this because the local MLA wants to pacify Chief minister or a need for conveninent travel for chief minister or form of election campaign? Anyway, people are just going to use the road without thanking anyone…Well, why should they? It’s the job of government….A layman’s comment was interesting…”Why is Amma (Chief minister is fondly called so) laying roads now? She is stupid…She shouldn’t be doing it now…”!

I have been reading books and solving sudoku. I have this habit of reading multiple books simultaneously. I have covered 70-90 pages on 4 books…This helps my big-picture thinking…managing with multiple topics…! When I take the same book again, I take time to summarize what I read so far…helps to crystallize the learnings…

Tipping point is definitely interesting…Worth reading once. As far as, Lance’s story, I knew it before, but his writing style is truly inspiring and gripping…World is Flat has been interesting so far…But having been bombarded with loads of MBA related articles, the book seems repetitive/redundant…nothing new. Art of innovation is interesting….

3 of the 4 books talk about word-of-mouth. I am writing about books in the blog. The books talk about blogs! It may be a coincidence but a striking one!

I have a request from readers. Would like to hear from the readers on how they choose which books to read (where they get recommendations from?), how they read the book? (Speed, style of reading, pattern of reading etc.,) how they jot down the learnings? etc., Will be interesting to see the thinking process behind…

Am off the place for the weekend. Will get back on monday….

Bought 4 books and borrowed three books from a friend.

Argumentative Indian
Lance Armstrong - It’s not about the bike
Alchemist
Seabiscuit
World is Flat
Tipping point
Art of Innovation

Journal for myself:
Applied - Fit Analysis in progress - But I speculate that the chances are bleak. Either way it’s ok for me. Am glad that things will remain the same no matter what the outcome is…And, the important part is that the load is off my heart and I can look further….

I have decided to blog about the following things:

My interests - This will change according to time [Blogs, Books, Fitness (I developed a brief love with this activity when I was in belgium, planning to continue), Inspirations from various sources (!), and whatever comes as I go]
My life [Interesting happenings in my life, my perspectives about different things, etc.,]
MBA & Information Technology [Not much information is available about opportunities available for MBAs in IT..I will try to explore the opportunities and present it…I am relying on the army of IT guys from my batch who are heading to various companies as a source of information]
ISB [My alma mater (for a week now!)…which I have strong affection for]

Quite a few of my dad’s friends and relatives have been asking my dad, “Is your son the one who received that 1.04 crore salary?” The cheap and best, mass-newspaper “Deccan chronicle” has done a good job in publicising about ISB in this part of the remote world…Even, the same people who were asking “Why are you paying 15 lakhs for ISB, while you can get MBA from IGNOU for Rs.12,000″ are finding rationale for my choice over ISB …People want to see only the fruits…not the labour that goes in growing the tree! Another comment…”If he is taking such a risk, then he would definitely know it’s worth it…I never doubted it” Interesting insights…oops…hind-sights!

Since the PC in my home was almost 6 years old and failing frequently…set-up a brand new assembled box. It’s fast! Should get the Broad-band soon before I leave for hyderabad. I have also started my hunt for good house (for purchase)…Am in the process of identifying my needs and associated parallel research…

I subscribed to the RSS feed of all known ISB-2007 blogs. Very interesting to read the posts…The current batch is more active than we were…Go on guys, ride on the momentum..You all have one definite reader in me The RSS-reader software is a bliss for dial-up homes like mine….

Two people I turn towards for advice…

One I have known very well…rare kind to find in real life…gem!
Other, I have known through virtual medium….not met in real life…but somehow have confidence to turn for advice…But real nice person…so much by spending 40 minutes by calling me from UK….Thanks a lot…

I should say talking with these two has helped me a lot…

In the mean time, I have started loving list of things…God of small things, Short term goals, Compact Flash card, small-scale industries, Storage bits…

Finally, watching the climax of a Tam movie yesterday, gave me a flash of insight..and cleared the fog in mind…State of Crystal clear is bliss!

Pardon my cryptic post…Want to journal the happening but don’t want to make things explicit.

I spent the past few days by sleeping blissfully and eating good home-made food. Apart from that I haven’t been doing anything significant.

I have been living in my hometown for nearly 27 years. I have never felt bad about my place, even though there were many problems and I was aware of those. But now, I am feeling disadvantageous for living so out of the city. This place is good for people to settle down finally….But not for people who are so full of energy and at the stage of life where they want to explore things.

Yesterday, had a small meeting with Chennai Admits (around 5). I travelled almost 2 hours to reach the destination. The main incentive for me was to meet my friends while meeting the admits.

Almost all of my friends have cars and live in good posche areas. I had some strange feelings about the same…about being the odd-man out…! Anyway, these things can be bought out anytime…it’s the human relationships which is tough to obtain…

As expected, my parents started the talks of Marriage. I put the topic down by saying, “I am so undecided now. Let me settle with my job for 3-4 months. Then, we will see…”. There are some things in life, which you cannot discuss openly with everyone. I am facing exactly one such thing. I have never faced such a situation in my life….I am hoping that things smoothen out….

I am also in the process of transitioning the blog to next phase. Thinking about themes to follow. I have some things in mind. Will update soon….Blogging is one of my favourite hobbies. Will continue that at any cost….