Monday, October 31, 2005

Diwali every day

If life is dark and shady…and the path ahead is not clear
If the direction you choose is governed by the fear of fear

If the grades are brining you down, when you want to rise
And the god damn marketing courses have come across as a big surprise…

Bask in the Tuesday holiday…don’t fear…don’t loose hope…don’t pray…
Let there be Diwali every day…


To everyone seeking light…
Wishing you a very very Happy Diwali and best wishes for the time to come. God Bless!

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

i want it that way...

Some good news after a long time. We have made it to the top 24 teams (all over the world!!!) in the IIM-A business plan competition. By November 5th, the main B-plan needs to be submitted follwing which the top 6 teams shall be invited to ahmedabad to present their case. Of these 6, the top 3 will then get a week long visit to Mumbai, wherein they shall be meeting with top industrial houses etc etc (basically get a feel of Mumbai from a business point of view) and then spend a day with Mukesh Ambani discussing the plan, after which he shall name the top team.

Sounds pretty exciting…? It’s the same for us too…!

However, to be true to myself…my role in this shortlist is probably running into negative. I didn’t work at all from delhi…and whatever was presented was primarily the work of the remaining trio. I do hope I am able to contribute at a much higher level from now on…saala free rider…!

Thankfully life after Sunday has chilled down a bit. The fixed income class is turning out to be super amazing…really awesome prof and the manner he deals with the subject is quite impressive. Makes us wonder why the hell we even took the options/futures class. That is one hell of a ‘bullet train with missing magnets’ class…if you know what I mean…!

What else…? Oh yah…this Sunday when I was at my ‘stressed out best’…I realized why I was so. Because I hadn’t listened to god damn music for generations…! I remember when the US used to take a toll on me…I used to simply switch off the lights and listen to cheap ass britney spears and backstreet boys (and occasionally yanni and pearl jam..!). I don’t know how it works…but it just does…

I mean for god sake…hear this out…

“you are…my fire…my one…desireeee…believe when I say…I want it that way…”

Who is his right frame of mind would get mentally counseled by such stuff…! I mean who…!! But it works for me…maybe I am ashamed of it…but it works…and I don’t care beyond that…! its funny…!

Anyone seen the new hutch chota recharge ads…I love them…that guy is too cool…!

Anyways…I shall get back to my music and life…see you soon…

~a




Monday, October 24, 2005

life is finance like...!!!

Life has been moving at 100mph lately…and its not even funny at times. With 4 fin courses…the world seems to be one hell of a ride…assignments enough to create 4 PhD reports…and classes enough to put Einstein to sleep…!

And to think that this might be my bread and butter for the next 30 years…woopsieee…!!!!

Saturday was an easy day though…we had a talk by Sanjay Bhattacharya (acclaimed painter) and Shekher kapur (yes…the film maker!). Both of them outstanding personalities in their own right. However I shall have to admit that Sanjay swept me off my feet…with his art…his humility and most of all his straightforwardness towards life.

When asked time and again as to what is his inspiration…he got irritated and went, “arre…kuch nahi hai yaar yeh inspiration vinspiration…!!!”…! to us it might be a flippant remark…for him it might be his truth…who knows.

Shekher kapur was stoned…! I mean literally…! He started with describing his place in the matrix of the universe and went on to explain…or confuse, whichever way…as to how we are mere mediums for decision in this universe to be executed. So when I say that I choose not to drink…is it really a decision that I am making…or is it that the decision has already been made and I am merely re-emphasizing…! And if this reminds you of the matrix trilogy…join the wagon…!

Then we had dandiya night on Saturday. It was awesome fun. Everyone was looking stunning in their traditional outfits. Needless to say the girls too. E was rocking in a saree…or maybe since it was the first time I had really seen her in the outfit. I clicked to my heart’s content…yet…the conversations were funny…

“dude…how many have you clicked…”
“ummm…close to 50 or so…”
“what…50…? I am on my 200th or so…! Dude…what’s up…????”
“dude…I am on a film camera…it will god damn cost me 500 bucks to see my results…!! Now u know what’s up…!!” – that was me…! :)

The organization was pretty amazing…and even though the singers reminded me of Bappi Lahiri singing…”yaaaaaaaddddddd aa raha hai…tera pyaar……”…overall the experience was terrific. Professional quality

Sunday was not expected at all. Here is what happened…

8.00am: got up…daily brushing…shitting…emails…etc…
9.00am: breakfast meeting
10.00am: start with fixed income assignment
11.00am: fixed income assignment
12.00: fixed income assignment
1.00pm: fixed income assignment
2.00pm: fixed income assignment
2.30pm: lunch break
2.45pm: fixed income assignment
..
..
7.30pm: corp fin assignment
..
..
9.30pm: corp fin assignment
9.45pm: dinner
10.00pm: corp fin assignment
..
..

And just so you know…no…I wasn’t paid to do all this…! It was the longest…most tiring…and the most challenging day of my ISB stay here…phew…

The week started ok…classes going on…ELP going good…loads of work regarding Poseidon and Placom…and thankfully I am doing juts good…(though A, K and G will disagree…but what the heck…!)

Life’s good…life’s finance like…! (I have no idea what this means)

:)

~a

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Term 5...and life...

I hate myself for being this irregular blogger…trying to convince my own self that its because of lack of time. While all these years I have harping on the fact that time is always a matter of decision. If you want…you shall always have time…

I am guessing people wont be interested in the above gibberish. So I shall move on…

The past 15 odd days have been awesome. And intimidating lately. The break was supercool. Delhi, as always, was a pleasure to live through. Went for movies, dinners, dandiya and a road trip as well (which was planned 15 mins before we stepped into the car…!). amazing fun…coupled with the usual feeling of ‘damn…I don’t want to go back…!’

Coming back has been quite an experience as well. I have taken up all 4 Fin courses and believe me…the feeling is at times of ‘so…who do you think you are…superman…!”. So much so that to display the same I was wearing a superman tee day before…much to people’s amusement…!

But then…the courses are pretty good.

Advanced Corp Fin is something that I didn’t want to miss taking. However, the professor’s reputation precedes him. the 1st class was some kind of a trailer of what is to follow…however I have a feeling that it wont be as bad as it has been projected.

Fixed Income was good…and easy in the 1st class…though it could be simply because of the fact that most of it was a repetition from last term’s course. The prof reminds me of Rob Stein (Term 1)…and seems to be pretty cool. Is a prof at the Institute of Management at Tel Aviv…!

Financial Reporting and Analysis is something I am dreading…given my experience with accounting. I don’t know why…the balance sheet hasn’t really registered inside…and same with the income statement. Maybe I am trying hard enough…

Options and Futures by the Dean. The course was never meant to be ‘oh u know what…this is an option…which sells for Rs 10. So if you buy one…how much do you have to pay…?’ course. It will surely be one hell of an analytics driven course…and I guess the 1st class psyched people out. Lets see how it uncovers as time goes along.


Loads of things to look forward to this weekend. We have a talk by Shekher Kapur and Mohammad Khan (Ad Guru) Saturday afternoon followed by Dandiya Night organized by the Spouses Association. Our group also has the ELP client meeting this Friday. We have come up with some really fundoo recommendations…however they are quite drastic in nature. So lets hope the reception is good.

Apart from that…placements have started to take a serious turn. Preparing the CV…working on this and that…and what not…and with Deustche Bank coming for recruitment…(yes…I am planning to apply)…it makes the entire deal all the more rigorous.


I just realized…this is the most serious entry ever…! Damn I have killed myself…! (

~a

Saturday, October 08, 2005

of exams...and their effects...

6 months have passed by…and time presents itself as “oh my god…6 months…it was just yesterday” and also as the occasional… “I feel my mom left me here as soon as I was born…!”

And the culmination of the core courses was the exams.

Management of Organizations

Question 1: People like you if you like them…! True/false (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Question 2: Analyze the situation through the 4 lenses

Me: “what lenses are these…? Damn…!”
Me: “ok…cool…chill…I shall wait till my neighbour starts writing. I shall gather the 4 lenses from him and then plug in my thoughts…!”
15 fifteen later…
Me: “why the hell isn’t he writing…he seems to be done with everything else…”
5 more minutes…
Me: “DUDE…HE IS WAITING FOR ME TO WRITE THE SAME ANSWER…DUHHHHHHH…!”


Strategic Analysis of Information Technology

Tick whichever is applicable:

Question 1:
India will benefit from Outsourcing IT only if it develops:
  1. Price arbitrage

  2. Quality arbitrage

  3. Efficiency

  4. Effectiveness

  5. Option a, b, c

  6. Options b, c

  7. Options c, a

  8. Options a, b, c from the previous question

  9. Options b, c, from question 23

  10. Options a, b, c incase you didn’t read option e

  11. None of the above

Question 2:
Remember the day we had that IT seminar? Yah yah…the last day of the class. Ok…right at the time when you decided to take a power nap…ummmm…it was 4:37 pm…I guess 47 seconds down…some dude by the name of Narsimha rao made a statement. What was the last word of the statement…?
  1. Thanks

  2. Bye

  3. You

  4. Infosys


Investment Analysis

Question 1:
Bacho…yeh hai humhaari daaton ki banaawat. Now calculate the present value of your teeth upto the 32nd decimal point…and then find out why you should go long on a call option for the same. If you don’t have any clue of the above, then leave the room…cause the next 9 questions are of similar nature…!


Government, Society and Business

Question 1:
Population of India is
  1. 1.01 billion

  2. 1.011 billion

  3. 1.012 billion

  4. 1.013 billion

Question 2:
Human Development is all about:
  1. Quality of life

  2. Security of life

  3. ACs in your rooms

  4. 24 hours café at SV1

  5. HDI

  6. PQI

  7. CGI

  8. PMS

  9. HIV

  10. AIDS

  11. BCG

  12. ATK

PS: there is one and only one correct answer

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

It was surely a great ride these 2 days. Studied like a dog and realized that it just wasn’t your day…! But then…its over…and that’s good. Am looking forward to the coming week…relaxing at home…chilling out with R…and just having a great lazy time…!

Have loads of word to do as well. Innovation challenge, ELP and then resume building etc…! So won’t be entirely vain all this while…

For the 1st day today…I am spending a day just by myself…with nothing to do. And it’s such an awesome feeling. However, the course packs for the next term tell me that I shouldn’t get used to such days…!

Chalo…dekh lenge term 5 ko bhi…!

Will be off for a week…have a great time everyone…!

~a

fascinating...!


this is one of the best pictures i have ever come across. i could give away my left arm if i get to click this....its absolutely breathtaking...(and surely not as easy to click as it seems...)

enjoy...

~a

Monday, October 03, 2005

SAIT and faff...!

Course: Strategic Implementation of Information Technology
Presentation: Introduction – Session 1
Slide: 53

“Firms create competitive advantage by assembling, integrating and deploying tangible and intangible resources to create organizational capabilities and competencies”

What is it…buzzword competition…? And then they expect us to give ‘insightful’ comments…!

What the…?

~a

So much to learn...

The last few days have been busy with a lot of things…and marked with a lot of learning.

U, S and I got shortlisted for the research paper that we were working for. We had to go down to Mumbai for the competition, which was being held at the Taj lands End. Awesome hotel with the most breathtaking view of Mumbai. The event was wonderfully organized as well…and we had one of India’s top brains presenting their content. We did manage to do good for ourselves in the end…and it was a pretty amazing experience.

Wonderfully, had a chance to meet R as well. she too had come down for a business conference and was flying down to Delhi Friday evening. So hung out at the airport itself…was heaven meeting her after so long.

Met A as well…and had a beautiful time. Dressed in business suit…doing the rounds of the Ghatkopar café coffee day…she went… “The girls of ghatkopar wont let me live now…!!!”

In Mumbai…E kept me abreast with the music competition that was being held back at ISB between the sections. G won’t the best vocals…which was awesome news. Sadly section C didn’t win the best team award…and given that I had attended the practice the last night…it did come as a surprise to me.

Anyhow…came back to Hyd Saturday afternoon…and had a chance to see the video of the competition. It was…humbling…! All the performers were brilliant. I didn’t know that R was such an awesome mridang player. His performance left me with tears…I mean literally. Here is this dude…one of the ‘purest’ guys on campus…and it took one fine evening to discover that he holds so much within him. God has given him the most spectacular medium of expressing himself…and I am just lucky to have been a witness. Hats off dude…

G was brilliant too…evidently so, since she managed the top award. Her rendition of ‘My Immortal’ did complete justice to the song…and to my likeliness for the same. However, the surprise of the night was E. She was gorgeous on stage…I didn’t even have the slightest inkling that she was that close to being a singer. I guess her eccentricity shades a lot of things that she is capable of…keep it up lady…!

Today…we had the last of our section days. I cant even begin to express the beauty of my time with section C. have got so much of love from them…so much of respect…more than I ever deserved. And I have got to learn so much from them too. Each one of whom I interacted with…left me with a respect for them. Everyone is such an achiever in their own right…I just feel oh so lucky to be part of this group. And I shall surely miss the comfort of their company.

There is so much to learn in this world…I wonder if I have even started…!

I am gonna miss a lot of my 6 months…