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….
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
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.
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.
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
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….
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.
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…)
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”!
Still enjoying the ‘free’ days….
Watched the movie “Ice Age-2″ in Satyam movie complex yesterday. For the same price of Rs.90/=, the quality of movie watching experience is lower compared to PVR or Prasad’s in hyderabad. The pricing scheme was funnier…”Satyam Budget”, “Satyam Premiere”, “Satyam Elite”!!!
Purchased couple of books. One was “The Greatness Guide” by Robin Sharma (The author of The monk who sold his ferrari). I wanted to buy another book “The undercover Economist”. But decided to postpone the purchase after seeing the price tag of Rs.500/=. There are some more books that I want to read once, but I don’t want to possess. “How Opal Mehta got a kiss, got wild, got a life”, “5 point something” and “11 minutes”. Will borrow from my friends or from a library…
Couple of chennai friends are beginning their Post-MBA career today. One in Cognizant and other in TVS. Many others are starting on May 2nd/3rd. Life will be on high speed track once I join work. Will relax for 5 more days
An attempt at my own 2 x 2 matrix creation …Don’t read too much…
The X-axis represents the amount of interest you have for any topic.
The Y-axis represents the amount of knowledge you have about any topic.
You might come across any topic/person/activities in your life. You might either know about the subject already or not. You might either have interest for the subject or not.
This framework suggests you 3 ways for knowing and generating interest about any subject. So you basically start at the “Don’t know Don’t care” quadrant. You have to reach “Do know Do care” quadrant. As you can see, there are 3 ways to reach the destination.
1. Generate interest about the subject and simultaneously learn about that! [Travel diagonally]
e.g., You are forced to do a project in your work with a particular technology. You don’t know the technology and you don’t have interest for that either. As you work your way through the project, you get to know about the technology, and as you know, your interest grows parallely!
2. Learn about the subject and then generate interest for that subject! [Traverse Y-axis first, then X-axis]
e.g., You are going to a restaurant..You see all alien menu items! You are hungry. So, you should order something and try it out. If you like it then you will generate an interest for it!
3. Generate interest for the subject and then learn about the subject! [Traverse X-axis first and then Y-axis]
e.g, First impressions, Love at first sight, Infatuation etc., If your further learning about the subject reveals more unpleasant ’secrets’, then you will ‘permanently’ go back to “Do know Don’t Care” quadrant!
So, everyday in your life, keep exploring subjects that you “don’t know and don’t care”…and then consciously make effort to deposit the subject under your “do know do care” quadrant! Only very few subjects make it to that quadrant…and stay in that quadrant…Whatever remains in that quadrant, nurture those!
Looking back at the evolution (or revolution) of cricket, I am wondering if the following things are changing the nature of the game.
Positive mindset…
Ambitious players…Strong players…Strong hitting…
Changing rules like Powerplay…
smaller grounds and Shorter boundaries…
Better pitches…
Better bats…
Advent of 20/20 matches…
Need to think about these points as well:
Psychological impact on bowlers?
Cricket is commercialized? Lose of purity?
The records are broken everyday…Be it the lowest score or the highest score…In the end, spectrum is widening…That’s good for cricket…But care should be taken that it does not become an overdose…
After a long time, I had that overhang after watching a cricket match…you know the memories still fresh on mind the next morning, the next evening…and for few more days to follow…:)
This sort of game can life the spirit of entire nation…enhance the intensity of the fan-following for cricket in the winning nation… Just like the world cup victory for India, the world cup victory for Sri Lanka, the world cup victory for Pakistan, this win is right up there for South Africans….
Read somewhere that the request for a DVD of this game is flowing in from all parts of the world to the South African cricket board. They are promptly preparing one… Expect one in week’s time… The demand is originating from India and Australia…Biggest Ambassadors for Cricket!
On its part, ESPN will be repeat telecasting the match on 3 occasions over the next week! Make hay while sun shines Now the expectations for the South Africa-Australia Test matches have gone up many notches! Advertising revenue will go up by multiple millions
Hats off to both South Africa and Australia…
If the first day was a perfect yorker, second day saw me handling the ball myself and getting out! Yeah, I was not so keen about this firm…I was ready to take their position if I receive better salary or location…Both didn’t match up…so, didn’t show any interest in interviews…
I would like to say something about one particular panel from the same firm(Had two interviews). Absolutely unprofessional. If they have made up their minds and filled their quota, they need not treat the remaining candidates like dolls!
16:00 - Welcome…introduction…formalities…
16:02 - Mobile rings…Interviewer excuses himself…
16:05 - Enters again…”Where were we?”…Again, mobile rings, excuses himself…
16:09 - Enters again….Mobile rings…This time continues talking inside the room itself…”I am in the middle of interview…but I can talk with you…Yeah, X is good…he is very good..we will take him…Y and Z are also good…they are shortlisted for further interviews…”…My self-respect took a jolt…but stayed quiet…
16:12 - Another interviewer enters…talks with the first interviewer…Then they say looking at me…”We are keeping our interviewee waiting…”!
16:20 - Finally…interview gets on…Another 2 disturbances happen afterwards…
16:25 - Tea comes…So, I have to continue speaking as server keep watching…(!!!)
16:35 - Ask me some useless questions…Really had no clue…”Suppose you have ten line paragraph…how would you use a single slide to convey the message?..would you use bullet points or paragraph…”. I said, “You can take 3 key messages, including the central message.. and use bullet points…Even better would be pictorial representation…As a picture is worth 1000 words(!)…or if the para is small, you can paste the para as such!”…”Ok, any other ways…??”…Silence for next few minutes…
Finally completed the round after facing few more such useless questions….
Absolutely needless for me to face them…
As my journey continues, lot of good news in the campus. Consulting firms and Financial firms have made good offers…100+ offers so far made in just 2 days…Almost 50% of the jobs has been accepted as a backup by people…(Less salary, but an offer in hand gives confidence..that’s the philosophy)…I will wait for 2 more days to follow that approach…
Today, I gave one more interview…Went with a free mindset, played the ball on merit…few good balls and few good shots…overall, I think went above average…but fingers crossed…If I get this job, will take it up…
I have been going for some sort of interview for last 4 days…getting up, wearing the suit and tie has become a ritual …Boy, will miss it once I get an offer…
Every coin has two sides…while life has been smooth and lucky for some people here, it’s been tough and not so friendly for few…I seem to be some kind of niche product who will fit in only very few roles…Still searching for my matching piece to complete the jigsaw puzzle…Few days back, I said my test of positive attitude will come under pressure…Now is the opportunity to develop it and prove it …Many opportunities and jobs in pipeline…Kuch tho mil jayega!
PS: I respect the opinions and comments a lot.. sometimes, even overwhelmed…but, excuse me for disabling the comments section for the post…
Everyone’s ears will be tuned to hear about India in the World Economic Forum that began today! This is India’s perfect opportunity to exploit the attention…
This is what Businessweek has to to say about India
“India’s showy debut at Davos is yet another sign that this newly confident country is ready to strut its stuff on the world stage. Branding and marketing itself hasn’t come easily to India, a culture where the preferred path is understated and unspoken. But some of India’s most prominent native sons thought the time has come “to raise India’s profile in the global community”…”
Also, stumbled upon this link “India Everywhere”, a $3 million promotional venture for India (by CII, IBEF (India Brand Equity Foundation)). It will be worthwhile to catch up with some of the promotional materials hosted there!
When the professor mentions that the Mid-term papers and End-term papers can be done at our own convenience in home, many of us jump in joy! atleast momentarily…After all, What better way than writing your answers at the time convenient to you, place convenient to you and in the way convenient to you.
But hold on…that’s just an illusion. To my knowledge, the take-home exams are highly painful in nature, especially if the subject is highly abstract. They suck up considerable amount of our time and energy. Take my case for example. I have all my mid-terms and end-term examinations this term in the form of Take-Home!
Knowledge management [1 Mid-term, 1 End-term]
Managing IT [1 Mid-term, 1 End-term]
Negotiation Analysis [2 Write-ups]
Rural Marketing [1 Final write-up, minimum 30 pages, no upside limit!]
I spent almost all of my weekend reading articles, framing the answers, penning down the thoughts and reviewing the answers for Managing IT and Knowledge management. In effect I spent 14-16 hours for both the mid-term papers!
The trauma of completing our Competitive Strategy project paper is still looming in my mind.
Officially, the term is coming to an end this Thursday[17th] for me. From Friday [18th] till Sunday [27th ], I have to complete 5 write-ups for all 4 subjects. Painful! No doubt, there is an opportunity to learn. But very tough to motivate myself…Somehow, should complete it soon, so that I can use the remaining days for other important activities.
Interestingly, it would be almost 87 days before I will be in examination hall since my previous examinations!! I am longing to be in examination hall
2 days back, my roomie was mentioning that I am lucky to have all exams as take-home. But he had taken Knowledge management course. After completing the KM Mid-term paper spending full sunday night, he came to me today morning and said “I can understand your situation…Pity you” !!!
The most awaited B-school event in India, “POSEIDON 2005” is coming soon (December 16-17, 2005). The Poseidon website will be launched tomorrow. This year the theme is entirely ‘Greek’. [Colour schemes, background images, fonts, event names etc.,] The website will go live at exactly 10:00 p.m. November 9th night. There will be online fireworks marking the opening ceremony! Actually i am curious to peek into the contents of website…! Loads of events, prize money, honours up for grabs…
The name that we gave to our Business venture is ‘Prapanjam’. Prapanjam in Sanskrit means Universe. Knowledge is universe. That’s the idea for naming the venture..S might give a very nice description for choosing this name.
We had to design a logo. So we came with an image above. The justification came later Brahma created the universe while he was sitting at the center of a flower. Also, the core of a flower represents the Universe. The soft rose petals surrounding the core represents children. Children are by nature very soft. Our concept (Prapanjam) is dedicated for the children and their values. So that part is justified.
Next, the letters. The letters are not that clear and dark. There is a reason to that! Prapanjam is aimed at providing Value-based and character-based education through workshops. Since values and characters are intangible, the letters have a sense of serene, dull, unclear look. It is there but it is not there…You see!
MBA helps us to provide justification to anything and everything….Never mind!
BTW, I unearthed following two websites which hosts logos of leading brands. If you are a quiz lover, you will love this website, even otherwise it’s an information resource…
Resolve Query.
“Are you a student? A Professional? Do you have a question? We can help you to get your query answered…” this is the mission of a newly formed venture called ResolveQuery.com.
This website is started by 3 young engineers from different backgrounds united by a common goal - to provide a one stop solution in career counselling to students and professionals. In the recently concluded TiE-ISB Elevator Pitch, conducted at ISB, this venture made it to the final round. Within 3 months time this website has taken a solid shape and almost available for public service. Explore it yourself.
Eve of the Second innings at ISB…
First innings at ISB has come to an end and so is the long-drawn term break. My first innings was not a dream innings. Learnt a lot though. Planning to maximize the returns in the second innings. Key is ‘focus’. I have trimmed down my activities and focussing only on select few. Ofcourse Career is #1.
I have almost finalized my elective choices given the constraint that I face this term. Managing IT, Rural marketing (Have been reading some cases on rural marketing…seems promising area), Strategy Implementation and Marketing Research. 2 subjects don’t have end-term. All the courses have group projects though. So the term is front-loaded in a way.
2nd round of bidding begins on Tuesday evening.
Suffering from cold and fever. Have been spending time in the room to avoid spreading the disease. However, it looks like many people are already suffering from cold and flu…Seasons don’t changeover silently!
Today Mr.Rajeshwar Upadhyay who takes Leadership lessons, offered a simple exercise to the class. We had to write in sheets the name of the person whom we like and the reason why we like. It was good experience. I started writing comments about the people who were top-of-my-mind. But as time went by, I felt like writing about everyone…Probably I will send out individual emails to the people who I couldn’t address. The following are the words I received about myself…
I am surprised to see a common theme among most of the comments…
You are a good human being and display an old-world sense of decency!
Your calmness and good spirit
A nice guy. Hardworking & a great friend.
Silent & very nice in heart.
He is simple & extremely helpful
He is pleasant.
Cool. Down to earth.
He is simple and very smart.
Calmness, Composed attitude.
Calm & Composed. Very simple.
Hardworking. Helpful.
Simplicity. Sincerity.
Writing skills (I’ve seen your blog).
Cool behaviour. Ever helpful. His friendly nature. He is my favourite.
Of his sincerity.
Calm presence. Pleasant expressiveness. So many unexpressed traits that may be.
Blog. Decent Chap (?!)
He is down-to-earth.
Humble. Comes across as innoncent and hardworking.
Sober, Serious, no-nonsense nature. Always in formal.
He is calm and composed even during tough times.
He is very simple and keen to discuss. He is kind, emotional and cares a lot about people around him.
Of his cool and calm temperament.
How did I begin Term 3? I overslept! yes, I missed my very first class of Term 3, just because I overslept!! Well, I don’t have any explanations other than a very conducive climate for sleep and possible sleep deprivation.
From day 1 of Term 3, we have zillion readings to be done each day. Only way to beat the race is to read fast! The reading speed seems to be the weakest link for everyone. You are as efficient as your speed of reading. So, I have been trying to increase my reading speed and so far been able to achieve miniscule success…It is success anyway!
I was reading Operations management chapters and Entrepreneurship case till 4:00 a.m. Just as I decided to sleep, I went to kitchen to drink water. I was surprised to hear “Suprabhatham” from my quadie’s room! So I went and enquired “what’s up?”. He said he slept early in the night so he is waking up now…He then informed me about articles to be read for Leadership Development program. A thought ran over my brain. “I have a couple of cases of oversleeping. Should I risk missing morning class? or Should I continue studying and sleep in the evening?”. My conscience answered “Don’t sleep!”. So I started reading this article by Peter F. Drucker - “Managing Oneself”. Amazing article! Nothing out of the world. But, whatever you knew already has been formalized, organized and delivered to you in a new perspective. Now I am set to read another article “How Hardwired is Human Behaviour?” by Nigel Nicholson. I love reading such philosophical or psychological articles.
I have been thinking about couple of posts. One about passion in life and other about…which I am still thinking about!
I am beginning to do lot of reading. I am reading every 2-3 days about one particular Industry in the world. So far I have covered Pharmaceutical, Advertising, Entertainment, Aerospace industry. It’s not a thorough reading, but a general grab on the industry. In order to make these side-tracks in ISB possible, I have to cut short my time in academics. One technique is to read fast. Other technique is to share the workload with Group. And I am lucky to have such a wonderful study group who is cooperative in almost everything…
BTW, I was surprised to see the following comment in website of one of the leading educational counselling firms.
Bharanidharan, a blogger from the Indian School of Business talks about exams (with class by class summaries)! Yes, not all business school students are presently on summer break. The nice thing about this blog is that it has dozens of links to other ISB bloggers who are documenting their journey through the program. A must for those of you considering ISB.
http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/07/19/recount-on-subjects/
http://www.clearadmit.com/2005/07/notes-from-front-lines.html
Sort of encouraging…Okay, will go back to reading “How Hardwired is Human behaviour?” now…
“In late fall 1974, Daniel Garrison, president and chief executive officer of Optical Distortion Inc (ODI) had asked Ronald Olson, marketing vice president, to develop marketing plan for ODI’s new and only product - a contact lens for chickens….”
What the heck? Lens for Chicken!! But alas, we had to look beyond logic, rational, sympathy and emotion to develop a marketing plan for this ‘glorious’ product. During the course of reading and analyzing the case, I learned about Chickens more than I have learnt in my entire life. What is the average life of Hen? How many eggs does it lay? What is broiler (I am a Vegi!)? What is debeaking? etc., BTW, debeaking seems to be a profitable industry too! It was a 15$ million industry in US during 70’s.
This product is one of the excellent examples of human intentions to make quick money, ignoring the harm caused to other life forms!This product was a result of an accidental discovery…You can find more about the Chicken lens here…
http://www.upc-online.org/RedLens.html
Grades of three subjects in Term 1 has been announced so far. I have not done well nor have done bad…Hoping to pull the score marginally in this Term…
The amount of assignments and effort required for assignments is increasing day-by-day. So is our ability to complete those assignments…Have to wait to see who wins the war…Assignment or ISBians?
Educational videos and documentaries always have high respect in my heart. When such videos make
complex subjects easy to understand and interesting to learn, it deserves publicity. One such documentary is “Commanding Heights - The battle for the world economy.” Classes 7-10 of Global Economics subject will build on the concepts learnt in this video. It would be very easy to correlate to the book concepts…Nice approach towards teaching. What’s striking about the video is the way it is narrated, the way it is blended with a modern cinematic appeal, the way the concepts are built one upon other…Clap! Clap!
On Markstrat front, we managed to increase net profit and now we are placed 2nd. Also, our product positionings are good and brand awareness is good. We are placed well to compete with 1st team.
Applications for ISB 2006-2007 is open from July 1st. You can access the online application form here. The applications are invited much earlier than previous years. This gives ample time for the applicants to think about their essays and to plan for GMAT etc., Wishing all the applicants success with their efforts.
Lessons learned : [from my observations during the week]
1. Assumption is the mother of all misunderstandings. Look through the skin.
2. If you are not comfortable about others imposing stuff on you, tell them straight-forward. Be assertive where it is required. A minute is minute for everyone, especially during this intensive year, and that should be respected, if not respected deal that with assertion..
3. Not everyone here are to make friends. Understand the reality and accommodate.
4. Some time I think excellent insights but decide that they are wrong after listening to others. In the end, what I thought actually turns out to be correct. So be confident with opinions.
Sometimes, I observe that people ridicule the actions of some people. Later, the same person who ridiculed will approach the person who was ridiculed and ask for help..that too on the same topic on which he was ridiculed..How ridiculous!!!
Somedays back one of my friend Karthik Ganesan (Fellow ISBian) met with an accident while riding his bike. His ankles were damaged, with hairline fractures. He was operated. Now he will be locked to wheelchair for 5-6 weeks period. Last thing that anyone wants to happen during the critical year here at ISB. I really felt for him. He seems to have taken things in right spirit..Yesterday I was talking with him in the Dining hall and during the conversation, he punched the air and said “I will fight this challenge!”…I was moved and smiling at his confidence …Cheers to him…Since he missed some lectures, Professors were kind enough to take private sessions to him. He is fine now and will be taking the examinations…
The whole campus here in ISB is amazingly quiet..Thanks to end-term examinations due on Monday. We received the marks for our second Marketing case study. Our study group have faired well above average. A considerable leapfrog from our previous efforts…Good. We will carry forward the momentum…We also submitted the Financial group assignment due today. I think we have done a good job on this. Time will answer. With all group assignments completed, it’s back to Individual heroisms in end-terms..
I am studying as much as I can…I am done with today and off to bed. I need to conserve energy for another 96 hours. Just as I decided to switch off my lights, my blog called me….and as a result this post…
The pre-term in Introductory Accounting is very interesting and addictive. We have been given some homeworks in pre-term too!! Well, lots and lots of questions and doubts in mind..If I take the book, and search for explanations it might take years to find answers..So, I sought the help of my good apartment mate G, who is a CA. He gave some very good insights and, bingo..we were able to solve and understand the balance sheets in a better and much quicker way.
My other apartment mate A, is IT guy, and he is more like me, gadget-lover, calm and reserved. We both worked together to solve the assignments given today. After completing it, we verify it with G, and he will provide more insights. So far so good. I am happy with my quadmates. Waiting for the 4th person .
This time, there are lot of females (around 80) and almost all of them are good-looking. I am not flattering, it’s the reality. The guys are not less in anyway, there are some hot guys around too..Definitely a colourful and brilliant batch.
I met with some of the yahoo group friends and good to meet them in person. I was happy to see my name more familiar amoung fellow admits. Blogs and activity in yahoo groups has helped gain that visibility.
Spent some time in ISB fitness center for the first time. Gym facilities are sufficient. Swimming pool is just 5 feet deep, so I can safely jump and learn swimming. Need to buy swimming trunks soon.
The week-ahead is tightly packed with orientation and lots of presentations. The orientation week will be more fun though. After that, the roller coster ride starts!
A fellow ISBian has started a photo-blog. He will upload pictures of ISB, seen through his eyes, in a regular basis. An effort different from other regular and conventional ISB bloggers. Good luck to you ISBinPic (Hope you disclose your identity to me when we meet in ISB!)
Pasting this link from Sumit Dhar’sblog.
http://sumitdhar.blogspot.com/2005/02/tech-job-opportunities.html.
For all the techies out there, awesome job opportunities at the Technology Division of a top US based Financial Services Company. I can personally vouch for the opportunity and the company. If your resume matches the details given below and you are willing to relocate to Bombay, please send me your resume at sumit.dhar at gmail.com. The resume should NOT be longer than two pages.
Position: Technical Project Manager
During my stay in Belgium, I came to know about the flourishing diamond business in Belgium, especially, in Antwerp, the hub of Diamong cutting & Polishing. Historically, Belgium and Isreal are considered the kings of the “Large stones processing”. But In the last two decades, Indians are dominating the business. When I visited Antwerp, I happened to see how Indians are dominating the business [especially gujarathi’s or ‘gujjus’]. I was curious how Indians are so dominating in a country like Belgium that too in Diamond processing and how they overcame the dominant Jews? I had insightful discussions with my Indian colleagues here and got some viewpoints then. I am also presenting the link which will prove the ‘might’ of Indian diamond processing industry.[Dazzling Success]. No wonder Diamond merchants are called “Dream Merchants”!!
A very interesting analogy between Indian software industry and Indian diamond industry:
“India’s diamond industry handles 80 per cent of the global polished diamond market, and earned $8 billion last year (compared to software’s $ 10 billion.) So why do we hear so much about IT and so little about the diamond business? Well, try talking to someone in the diamond industry. It’s like pulling teeth.
India ’s diamond adventure took off in the 1970s when a small group of intrepid merchants, mostly Jains from Palanpur on the Gujarat-Rajasthan border, began invading the Belgian city of Antwerp , where 90 percent of the world’s uncut diamonds were traded each year.
In time, they would challenge another legendary clan, the Hasidic Jews, who had dominated the trade from the time they arrived from Spain and Portugal in the 1500s.
What took the Hasidim centuries to accomplish was overturned by the Jains in only two decades. They did so using tactics that the software industry replicated some years later.
First, they worked at the bottom end of the spectrum, taking up the smaller uncut diamonds that the Jews ignored as low-value.
Next, they ‘outsourced’ the finishing jobs to India (where incidentally, the diamond industry employs more people than the IT industry), while working their way up the value chain…
The remarkable thing is, like with the software industry, India does not produce much original or branded diamond products. [Times of India] “
In fact, the curiosity reached it’s height when we witnessed one of the costliest marriages held in the planet,[ before Lakshmi Mittal toppled it with 30 million pound marriage of his son] by certain Vijay Shah, a diamond merchant in Antwerp. He spent roughtly 10 million pounds for the marriages of his children. He literally transformed a building into Rajasthani palace. Some of my colleagues, who stay in Antwerp, were awe-struck & dumb-struck and they explained how lavish the Indians spent and how rich their dresses, so on and on…It was a good feeling..
Each time, I go to India, my mom asks about diamond very curiously. How much does it cost? Do you have learnt to identify good diamonds (No way!!]? How is the finish? etc., So I went around some shops just for seeing the prices and pieces. I went in atleast 5-6 shops and no body cared to ask me why I am there? [I was the only customer in the shop..may be the owners knew that even If I buy, I won’t buy more than a ‘dirt’ sized diamond !]. Well, it was a different experience. I asked my boss (who is an Indian) about diamonds. And he mentioned to me that it’s always best to buy diamonds from India and we can pick and choose at ease and comfort…
The following article & images from Rediff.com made my day. I salute these little bravehearts. No wonder they will be paraded in caparisoned elephants. They deserve it and the national attention they receive, will provide a never-ending supply of energy and motivation to succeed in their lives.
After seeing ebloggy crash 3 times in less than 3 months, I decided to look for stable options. I am glad that I stumbled upon “Wordpress” and “blogsome”. Wordpress is the hot topic in blogging community. State-of-the-art. The Administration interface is one of the best and exhaustive I have ever seen..Slowly, I will port my blog entries from ebloggy [Way2Top] to this, once the site is up. Looking forward for a long-term relationship with this blog
Here’s offering prayers to Lord Ganesh..May this venture bring me good luck.
I finally received a appointment for a telephonic interview with ISB Admission committee. The interview is scheduled on January 4th [7:30-8:15 a.m local time Belgium]. I need to make a call to the admission committee!
Some people may laugh at this. But this is me. I was planning to buy a speaker phone if I was shortlisted for interview [I have a phone with basic functionalities currently]. So I went around and looked at a deal. Finally bought a cordless phone-cum-answering machine. Possess a good speaker phone. Tested it. Works fine. I will take it to India when I go back.
The telephone cost is extremely high from Belgium to India. Comes to around 1 Euro/minute. If I make a call to ISB, I might end up paying 45 Euros. Well, everything is fine, If I finally end up in ISB . I will start preparing for Interview from tomorrow or Saturday.
Nothing much happening these days..Joined the fitness centre again for 3 months. Working hard for project completion [Jan 15th deadline].
In between, I became heavily upset by the destruction caused by the Tsunami waves. Sad to hear again that the human losses could have been minimised had the warning systems were in place. Hope we learn our lessons and implement the warning systems. Only few months back there was a tragedy in Kumbakonam city where 90 school children died. The loss could have been minimised in that case too. I read the following article which talks about lack of administrative skills in Indian governments for tackling such disasters.
Hope the relief measures will restrict any further losses. Contamination of water, lack of drinking water, possible of spread of epidemic diseases all loom over the head.
I made my small contribution to relief measures by sending in some money.
Career Descriptions.
The following webpage from www.mba.com neatly describes all the possible industry functions and career paths. It’s good to know about each and every role. Very informative. I learnt quite a few things about advertising, supply chain management, logistics, production planning, brand consulting, research, etc.,
PS: You will find a section called “MBA Career oppurtunities” in this page.
Lessons from Apprentice2
I haven’t missed an episode of Apprentice [1 & 2] so far. Appretice 1 was a great success. Apprentice 2 is currently underway and had created huge expectations in the beginning of the show. But lot of people are disappointed with final candidates, especially with Jennifer M, as evident from discussion forums, groups and blogs. I absolutely hate her. Just one final episode is remaining to discover the true Apprentice for Donald Trump . Kelly Vs Jennifer M. Who will win? I am hoping that Kelly wins. Only 3 more days to go…
It’s a pity that European broadcasters don’t show the Apprentice season. So, I download it from web through bittorrent and watch it.
Each episode teaches a very valuable lesson. The following are the “lessons learned” this season.
How to Conduct a Successful Creative Brainstorming Session
How to Make Sound Business Decisions
How to Earn Respect as a Leader
How to Develop a Winning Competitive Strategy
How to be an Effective Project Manager
I would like to hear your opinions/feedback/suggestions towards improving my blog. This column is completely yours..Feel free to leave your opinions here, I will take everything constructively.