Mountain delight ... Part 4 (The morning after)

Well ill type less & let you just admire the beauty of the place

View from the resort of the valley below ...


The morning sun as seen through the branches of the trees in the resort.


Another one of those picture perfect moments...


Can you see the Himalayas in the distance? Look carefully. There is a faint hint of the snow capped mountains.


Self indulgence ...


We were here .... the lodge in the background. Foreground we had to use cheap models! Jetwani, Justice, Neta, Sameer Dhar.


Another view from the resort.

Mountain delight ... Part 3 (Rollercoaster)

For the rollercoaster we were divided into 4 groups and were given some resources. Each team had to build a structure that would trigger a ball in the next structure. The objective was to coordinate efforts and share best practices across teams (which dint happen obviously!).

Well to put things modestly, we had the most robust and economical structure. The mechanical engineer in me to the rescue of the team helped matters. ;) Have a look at the other structures in the above picture. Bloody redundant, wastage of resources and loose as hell. Jus kidding! we dint work as a team so all my great technical inputs were reduced to an insignificant speck. See pic below.


Testing 1 2 3 .... Sameer Dhar scratching his ass as the tension mounts

Mountain delight ... Part 2 (Navigation exercise)

The Navigation exercise involved 2 teams led by 3 leaders each. The objective was to collect 7 clues and return to base within 90 minutes. The route was through the mountainside, forest and farms. I was one of the leaders for my team. We completed the task in 83 minutes and compromised one clue. The other team took considerably more time and compromised 3 clues.

A lot has been discussed in class about the different behaviours that we observed. The key takeways of the activity were to look at things as a whole and not as disparate parts. It also involved resolving conflicts, taking key decisions with ambigous data when clues were hard to find and finally taking the entire team along; of course learning to have fun along the way!


The terrain ... fun in the mountains...


Searching for clues at the temple. Tough decision! compromised a clue & moved on.


A happy team. After we got on track after searching for a clue for 30 minutes!


Another portion of the trail ... through the farms


Through the farms, cattle. We had some really good apples courtesy some a kind couple.


And finally, some gyan, and Relak Singh (bad one, I know .... for those who dint get it ... relaxing)

Mountain delight ... Part 1 (On the road)

Bhimtal ... a beautiful lake nested in the Kumaon range of the Himalayas. I have never seen a lake at such heights!


On the road ... in the Shivalik hills. This is a small range that begins when the Great Indian Plains end somewhere near Haldwani.


A great view of the begining ofGreat Indian Plains. Taken from the Shivalik hills


Apple trees. plenty of them. As Bhobe said, "There is a different taste to it when you pluck it off the tree!" The apples of this place truly have a different taste to it. They are much more juicy, have a different aroma, are slighlty green (well almost green in fact) in colour and leave 'that lingering taste' in your mouth...


And not so interesting things (compared to the scenery around!) The bus. A source of unending entertainment; be it boisterous and off tune Bollywood numbers, a negotiating Jis Jose, a few German songs, some antakshari, puke, vodka, inane jokes, dedications, a pretty girl, stop-overs, takeovers, Pranesh 'mapping' traffic routes to optimum flows, blah, blah...

Mukteshwar ... One trip I'll always remember ...

Last weekend I visited Mukteshwar in Nainital. It's a beautiful place. And I have to say, Uttaranchal is by far one of the most picturesque states that I have seen in India. I have always liked the mountains (though I have got tired of seeing the Sahyadris and the Western Ghats) and the Himalayas are just amazing.

We were a group of 28 students enrolled for the course called 'Leadership and Managerial Effectiveness'. (One of the better courses at MDI, which has helped me understand myself and people around me!). Mukteshwar was part of the course. Outbound Training, is a method of developing the right brain. Over years and years of structured analytical training in school and college, our right brain which senses emotion, feeling, and our subconcious does not develop to the extent that the left brain has. It is very evident today when we see people with excellent analytical skills but severely lack the ability to connect with people, influence them, work in teams, understand the world around them etc. OBT is a step in that direction.

Anyways, here are the pics. Will split it up into different posts ...

Hiring season!

Yesterday was a long day. Primarily because I had got up really early in my mission to rationalise my waking and sleeping hours. Secondly, because Unnati and Monetrix both had their interviews for the incoming junior teams. However, not all was lost coz at the end of the day I realised that I actually liked interviewing people.

I remember numerous times when I was on the disadvantaged side of the hallowed table; nervous, sweaty and wondering whether the interviewer would devour me. But shifting sides to the advantaged side ;) suddenly brings in a lot of clarity. You can see the trembling hands, the nervous voice, etc; not that I'm sadist or anything, just that you suddenly feel a quantum leap in your observational skills.

I think there are somethings we need to keep in mind when we are evaluating people. One, make the candidate comfortable. A lot more can be discussed and much more fruitfully at that when the candidate is in his natural state. I dislike stress interviews. They put people on the backfoot, make them defensive and in the end nothing is achieved. The use of stress interviews may seem to counter my view, but still i'd like to stick to my point.

Two, treat people with respect. I guess this is plain manners.

Three, make a plan of what you want to test and test those aspects first.

On a personal level, taking an interview gives you a first hand experience of the errors that are most commonly committed. Its a good way to prepare for an interview. Also, very very surprisingly I discovered the need to be well dressed. Shabby dressing sticks out like a sore thumb. Grooming is important too. Uncombed hair, unpolished shoes, etc. definitely make a difference, it builds a positive perception of the candidate; atleast when the differentiating factor between a group is low.

Pretty interesting thought this. As I have mentioned time and again, it reinforces my beliefs about the importance of people and the need to manage relationships. Guess thats the biggest learning that I have got from this place so far.

Meaningless numbers

The first year verdict has been passed. I have secured a cumulative grade point average which classifies my performance as between 'fair' to 'good'. well it could have been between 'good' and 'very good' had the Operations Management (OM) faculty set his papers in a way befitting a management degree examination. Not that I'm cribbing about my grades. Agreed I didn't put in the effort that merited something better, but that was primarily because I had done the stuff before in engineering. Plus too much of math bugs me. All the questions in the OM paper were based on math. It might as well have been a paper on machine design. No decision taking. No practical application of concepts.

So I received a 'C-' in OM for my lack of interest and apathy towards the kind of learning. It's literally like rubbing salt in open wounds considering the fact that I'm a Mechanical engineer with a year of experience on the Siemens shop floor. Does it in any way undermine my capacities or skills as an Ops guy? I dont think so. Does it in any way say that the guy / gal at the top of the class in OM is a genius at Ops? Again I dont think so. If I present any of the top 10 rankers in OM with a shop floor problem, to be solved in a dusty environment at temperatures of 40+ degrees, with a union rep over his shoulder, workers at his heels and a boss on his head will he get an 'A+'? Having been there and done that, I may or may not get an A+ but will definitely not land at C-.

Grades like these are used to rank students. Many people actually use these numbers as a measure of ones worth. Though not explicitly stated, phrases in employment ads like 'exceptional academic record' make you believe otherwise. End result? You have to prove yourself more than what is required on the job, all because of some meaningless numbers. Crazy world this....

Stud boy Verghese

Pradeep Verghese (my roomie) is a stud. Let me start by giving you the context.

We have a visiting professor; lets call him TPG; who teaches a course called 'International Corporate Finance'. Since he is a visiting faculty he can take classes only on Saturdays and Sundays. And so, we have back to back classes either on Saturday mornings or Sunday mornings depending on the workload Mr. TPG has the night before.

Now TPG has a funny accent and he rambles on and on. Listening to him for 90 minutes (the normal lecture duration) is acceptable. But even making an effort to sustain the drone for 180 minutes is asking too much. It doesnt help matters that its the weekend and that its 8:30AM, with most probably a hangover from tasting spirits the previous night. (Our lucky friends who do not have lectures on weekends are the culprits who entice us). In short, the weekend lectures are dreaded. We consider the weekend sacred because its the only day on which you have the liberty to get up and walk for lunch.

Now the interesting part. Over the past one and half month Verghese who sleeps for an average of 12 hours a day, has been getting up early on Saturday mornings and attending TPG lectures. Its a different thing that he leaves after roughly 45 minutes and asks the benevolent class representative to mark him present for the day. He 'lost' his reading and study material on the very first day of the term, but that din't stop him. After all currency futures and hedging strategies were his areas of interest once upon a time. He even appeared for a coupla tests.

A few days back, the Dean sent his ritual e-mail reminding students to submit their feedback for the mid-term. Yesterday Verghese submitted his feedback for all courses that he signed up for, except International Corporate Finance (ICF). He was told that he has not signed up for the course.

Realisation then dawned that he forgot which electives he had signed up for and 'thought' that he had registered for ICF. Also, he did not receive any material from the office, but 'thought' that he lost it. Such 'dedication' to the cause of academics will go down in the annals of history of MDI. Pradeep Verghese, tusi great ho! *bow*

The Bald and the beautiful

UPDATE:
July 4th, 2006
Due to the possibility of a modelling assignment anytime this or the next month, I will be delaying the bald look till further notice. Hell, I forgot to factor in this ritual that the senior batch of MBA students have to undergo every year. I wouldn't want to look like a don to the recruiters who flock this place. Sorry to disappoint you folks!

I am planning to go bald. My sis has given strict warnings against it. But then what do cute 11 year old girls know about the sex appeal of bald men (read about it somewhere!) ... ;)

Jokes apart, just want to try something different. And since there is no girlfriend, wife, mistress who will threaten to leave me if I do take the step, I've decided why not? Just wait till the current crop of hair has reached its threshold length. I'll post the pics of the bald and the beautiful. ;)

Relationships

No, this is no boyfriend-girlfriend post. I am in the mood for gyaan, especially given the fact that I have some free time today and that I haven't posted regularly for quite some time. So here goes.

Business is driven by relationships. Think about it. Good relationships with customers get you loyal customers. Good relationships with bankers get you better financing options. Good relationships with suppliers eases working capital requirements. Good relationships with employees increases your productivity. You get the drift?

Sadly, almost all B-Schools in India (I dunno about B-Schools abroad) do not have a single input on how to manage relationships. There are tangential courses on Personality Development, and most are electives to the streams of Human Resources or Personnel Management. There is a course on CRM (Customer Relationship Management) but as far as my knowledge, it has been classified as an Information Management elective.

So what does that leave us with? Management graduates who are more attuned to quantitative models and methods rather than relationship builders. It does not help that the large number of MBA's we generate these days are engineers, who love to play around with math. Management unlike math is about ambiguity. As managers you got to make the right decisions from very hazy scenarios. There is no 2+2=4. No exactness. There are many soft issues which need to be taken into account.

But engineers (most of them) hate subjects on the topic of Human Resources or Organisational Behaviour. There are two schools of thought. One, the freshers who cant understand jackshit of how HR / OB concepts are applicable. Two, experienced guys who have cursed their HR Dept. all their working life. At the end of the day, walk into any class on HR / OB and you'll see bored faces. This is compounded by poor faculty in many parts of the country who cannot relate theory to practice.

There is hope though. In my interactions with fellow MBA students over the past one year I have been able to feel a latent opinion that networking is important. How to go about it, and establish strong relationships from nominal contacts is something that has yet to take off. So unless you have it as an internal attribute, you may never develop or hone your relationship management skills in a Bschool. It may take you years of being close to customers, employees, partners before you manage to establish relationships with all of them. And if I can do that over that long a period of time, even after going to a BSchool whats the point in spending time in one.

As I said earlier, think about it.

Summer gyaan

And after I'm through with it please do not come searching for me with a sawed off double barrel shotgun. Thats the precise reason why I had 'gyaan' factored in the title of this post.

Well it all started off with me getting my posting at Corporate Strategy. After going throught the strategy course in Term III, I was convinced that this was another faff job. Not to question the professors credentials, but more as an expectation gap. Well thats how I started off, with faff, in the first review due April end. Shockingly, the guide shot it down and thankfully, he dint castrate me. We have been so used to the method of strategising in cases without knowning the context of the situation that we have become champions at rattling arbit fundaes on comparitive advantage, co-operative strategies, Porter's five forces, Red & Blue oceans, BCG matrix, etc. What happenend at ABG was different.

After the April review, I was urged to start reading history. Yes, history. So for a week all I did was read the stories of the industry I was working on. After that I had a fair idea of how the industry had moved over the years. In short, I got into the context of my work. The project suddenly came alive when I understood the background of work and the future implications of my work. History provided the base to understand competitor actions, which in turn helped to understand the motivations behind those actions, which finally led to isolation of their strengths and crytalised into the way they evaluate alternatives (which is what strategy is all about). Then of course you got to validate your hypothesis (as to how a competitor evaluates alternatives) by looking at their annual reports, law cases, analyst reports, etc. (The finance part!)

By May end, I was done. Better still, I was able to strategize for the business unit I was working on. I divided the critical factors for alternative evaluation into three main categories and devised a model. The model was short and to the point. It captured everything I wanted to say, each category described by one word that stood for everything within it. I showed the model (just the model, without the background, context and the research) to a friend, a fellow MBA student, and a pretty decent one at that. Guess what he told me? "What gas man! What the hell does this mean?" I presented the same thing to my Dept. Head. This time after updating them on the background, context, and the research analysis. "Excellent" was the reaction.

The point I want to make is this. In B-Schools we are presented with the tip of the iceberg. This may not neccesarily be the fault of the case writer, professor or the student. Companies are wary of revealing much especially in a market as competitive as today. But we can surely do a little better with some background information; and I'm not talking of the little paragraph before the actual case begins. I'm talking of the stories of the industry. What caused the change, why did the industry move the way it did, how did they evaluate their alternatives, and so on. Without it, strategy is and will always be faff.

I'm Back

Im Back! *Saying it with the syle of Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire* ;)

Almost been 3 weeks since I made a post. The last days of the month of May were spent making presentations to the top brass at The Aditya Birla Group. From first impressions they seemed to like my work. And I also like the place. The more I think of it, it seems the only place where I can get a profile of my choice, rather than the analytics / MoFS (Marketing of Financial Services) / etc. types of profiles that are on offer here.

We interns had a great time at Gyanodaya making our presentations to HR, enjoying the good food, the fellowship with other interns and last of all the party at COs at Lower Parel. That was the grand way we brought the summers to an end.

A small vacation to Mangalore recharged my batteries. Especially the travelling. The Matsyagandha express chugs through the picturesque Konkan and the advent of the monsoon the week before made the place look even more beautiful. It had been 3 years since I had been to Mangalore and the place surely has changed. For one, many people understand Hindi which is a HUGE improvement from the days when I visited Mangalore as a kid. Roads have improved in many places. And though I didn't visit the city I'm told that much has changed there too.

Come the 11th and it was rush-back-to-college time. Unfortunately, I fell sick. Not one of the best ways to start the new academic year. Travelled by Kingfisher this time. A relief from the Dhakkan days. No waiting at the airport, no delay in takeoff, no hassles, all the women staff smile in this half flirting way that makes you smile back and keep smiling long after you've they've seen you off. A good flight. My first good flight.

Well thats the story so far. Watch this space for more updates!

The innovation that is 'Orkut'

There was a spam doing the rounds recently of how Mr Orkut Buyukkokten, the coder from Stanford was making money at the speed of light. The mail stated that whenever you send a friend reqest, scrap, add a person as a fan, etc etc Mr. Orkut makes money. The objective of this post is not to quantify the cash that Orkut is making. (Some say he may be the richest man on the planet in a few years. Ironically his office is in the 'Gates' building.) The objective here is to celebrate the innovation that is orkut.

Orkut.com is a website that helps you to get in touch with other people. It is much more effective than other sites since to become a member of the network you need to get an invite from an existing member of the network. Thus making it difficult for bots to enter. The website helps people stay in touch, meet old friends, and last of all make new friends. When one becomes a member, you fill up a e-form that takes a lot of data like hobbies, interests, demographics, etc.

So whats so great? Well since the network is 'trusted' because of the invite barrier, you get more reliable people and hence reliable data. As I write this, orkut has an estimated 20 million strong membership and believe me its addictive. Who would not like to get in touch with old friends. Its one of the most difficult things to let go when you change locations. So its safe to assume that a huge percentage, somewhere around 70-80% will be active. That makes 16 million people chatting up, flirting, and most important giving valuable information about themselves. Which marketer would not give her / his left b00b / b0ll for such information. At the same time the members enjoy, they have come in touch with their long lost friends. Its a win-win situation. Which is what makes orkut such a great innovation. I wouldn't be sursprised if Mr. Buyukkokten becomes the richest man on the planet or is getting those big bucks. He might be selling the data to Market Research firms. (Would have loved to put the mail here too, but sadly I dont have a copy. Anyone reading this please mail it to me at xcesstorque [at] yahoo [dot] com.)

However there is a caveat. Orkut for all its 20 million members is mainly popular in India, Pakistan and Brazil. But considering the way it is spreading it will take little time to expand into emerging markets like South East Asia, Eastern Europe, and the other parts of South America & Latin America. Also, orkut is popular among the age group of 15 - 30. Yes it could take a quite a few years before the current crowd ages and we have representation from all age groups. People might also argue that only the internet savvy are profiled. Ah well yes .. thats a valid point. I guess customer profiling can be done only for this section of society. However in the future almost everything will be online. Almost all middle class kids today have email ids and orkut is growing at a frentic speed. Since I joined orkut (somewhere around October 2005) till date, membership has grown from some 6-8 million to the 20 million odd members in just 6-7 months.

So marketers here lies your potential goldmine. All your fundas of segmenting, targeting, positioning, etc can be got in a jiffy. The worlds largest database of what customers want! Phew and to think it all happened because a geek mixed his interests of social networking and coding.

PS: While researching for this post, I came across a link as to why Google bought orkut. Read it, its interesting!

My orkut profile is here.

Killer Silence - The latest addition to the Strategy toolkit

Today Man has inched closer to implementing quotas as the means to the upliftment of those belonging to 'Other Backward Classes' (OBC). With the BJP also supporting the move and infact going one step forward to suggest implementation in minority institutions also, my worst fears have been confirmed. Caste politics looks set to win.

Since I'm a Management student and my friend circle includes many management students a lot of talk doing the rounds deals with what imapct will quotas have on the IIMs. The Big 3 IIMs were having plans of going global. WIth the quotas system coming into place, the only way to maintain an equal number of meritious students will be to increase seats. If they do not do so, there will be an erosion of their intellectual capital. Not to suggest that the reserved guys are bad, but that the balance will suddenly shift from current levels. If they increase seats, it puts a huge strain on their infrastructure as they are already bursting at the seams (read this). This seriously hampers their global (or any) expansion plans.

At the same time, private management colleges have been quite. The strategic silence has a lot to do with them significantly becoming big players in the cluttered field of management education dominated by the Big 3 IIMs. So where does that leave us? The 6 IIMs, JBIMS, IIFT, FMS, NITIE look set to take a hit. Others like XIMB (Oriya quota), NMIMS (Gujarati quota) will get their share of the action but how much stands to be debated. The biggest gainers on the face of it look to be MDI, XLRI and SPJIMR. Of the three, MDI with its aggressive growth in the past few years and even aggressive plans for the future seems all set to power its way ahead. It strategically launched the post graduate HR programme two years ago. It has an international MBA programme starting this year. It has links with major BSchools across the world and has very strong European linkages in France (ESCP-EAP, EDHEC, Aix en Province), Germany (Wuppertal, EBS, HHL), Denmark (CBS, Aarhius), Italy (Bocconi), Poland (WSE), Austria(Vienna University), Belgium (Solvay) etc., Lately it has been catering to niches like Energy Management, Public Policy, Armed foces, etc. SPJ has on the other hand been developing strong niches in Entreprenuership, family business, etc. I do not know of their growth plans but I'm pretty sure they are planning big. XLRI have already set up centres in Dubai and Singapore. They have also come up with Satellite programmes. Other players like the IMT Group, the Symbiosis Group, IMI, Somaiya and the others in the Xavier fold will also look to grow in prominence.

Maybe all this is wishful thinking. The IIMs have earlier played masterstrokes at nullifying competition, notably in BSchool rankings, by refusing to be part of them thus making it an IIM versus non-IIM competition. What do they have up their sleeve this time? Are any aces left? Its a wait and watch game.

PS: In no way am I happy that reservations will been enforced. This post is not and should not be seen as sadistic.

'Decoded' ... My take on the DVC

Many people have been asking me my views on the recent spate of controversial films that have outraged Christians all over the world. From the many movies the one that is in the centre of media attention is 'The Da Vinci Code (DVC)' mainly because it has sold 40 million copies (legally) and almost double the official number illegally. That makes it a billion odd copies which means that somewhere around 16% of the worlds population has read the book.

Now what does the book suggest ...
1) It says that Jesus Christ was 'made' divine by the Emperor Constantine.
2) That Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene and that they had a girl child between them
3) That Jesus Christ has taken the place of worship that essentially belongs to the 'woman' (In this case, Mary Magdalene). An ancient form of worship practiced among early Christians.
4) That Opus Dei is an organisation which is entrusted with the duty of keeping the 'code' secret and exterminating those who come close to revealing the code to the world.

What Dan Brown implies....
1)That the Bible has been manipulated through the ages to its present form
2) That there is a lineage of Christ existing in the world.
3) That an organisation of the Roman Catholic Church spreads terror and kills people if need be to serve their objective

Now my take ...
Christianity was no dount one of the most powerful religions during the Middle Ages primarily because the it spread rapidly in those countries which were colonising the world. So we had Italy become a major centre for Christians because of The Vatican was in Rome. Slowly, the countries around the Mediterranean especially Spain and Portugal becoming countries where the Church ruled supreme and had important links with the rulers of the land. Eventually much of Europe was in the Chriatianity fold. When these countries started colonising, parts of the world like the Americas were introduced to Christianity. Till today places like the countries of Latin & Central America, Spain, Portugal & the Philippines have a strong influence of the Church.

With uncontrolled power comes corruption and the Middle Ages saw the Church playing a part too with the Pope selling indulgences, Galileo and Copernicus and so on so forth ... Yes there could be no denying the fact that there could have been manipulations here. But these might have had to do with the rituals, rites and traditions that have become part of the Christian culture. I am not in a position to judge the extent and magnitude of what manipulations that took place, but I seriously doubt wholescale manipulations like making Christ 'divine'. The Old Testament and the New Testament (the two parts of the Bible) are exclusive. The people writing it were different and the Jews who follow the Old Testament till date are waiting for the Messiah, the Son of God. So the divinity part of it is not in doubt.

Jesus married to Mary Magdalene? My opinion is that its a non-issue. For me the teachings of Christ are what matter and not his personal life. A little background on Mary Magdalene ... she was a prostitute who later gave up the trade to follow Christ. She was very close to Mary, the Mother of Jesus and stood by Him throughout His agonosing last moments before He was crucified.

Did they have a kid? Again a non-issue. What difference does it make if Jesus was married or had a kid? It doesn't change who He was as a person nor does it change His teachings.

Now about Jesus taking the place of the 'woman' ... As mentioned earlier Jesus was the Son of God, and according to the mystery of the Holy Trinity is God Himself. We Christians have chosen this as our channel of belief to satisfy our spiritual and religious needs. Other faiths have other channels and I respect those choices. God is absolute and there is no Man or Woman with Him. Its the incarnation that we believe in.

Lastly, regarding Opus Dei ... the Church may have been corrupt at certain points in time (That may also be reason that all but 2 or 3 of the 350+ Popes in history have been Italian!) but certainly under no conditions has anybody formed an organisation that will kill. Particularly since there is nothing to hide. No secret to keep. Even if there are, it is not worth killing for. The modern Church is today one of the most proactive and liberal organisations in the world today. It has provided for pre-marriage counselling, pre-birth counselling, platforms for healthy exchanges between teenagers, sports, sex-education, cathecism and a whole lot of activities that are not persent in many communities. If there was anything worth telling, it would be out by now, there would be debates, a Papal conclave of Prefects, Bishops, Archbishops & Cardinals would gather to discuss changes and its implications.

Thats my take... thanks for a patient listening ;)

One trip down memory lane .... Reservation with sleeper class, please

There has been a big outcry against the Reservations Bill that the Honorable HRD Minister has pushed into Parliament. Will it get passed? Looks certain by the way PC and Man are going about it.

It seems like a drive past memory lane for me....

Long before Arjun Singh even dreamed of the welfare of OBCs, engineering students in maharastra were going through similar difficulties. I still remember 27th May 2000 when I held my XII standard result in my hand and exulted at hitting a 95.66% in Physics, Chemistry and Maths combined. I was crazy about Telecom then (attributed to herd mentality), and thought that securing a Merit seat would be easy. In those days we had a system of Merit Seats and Payment Seat. The fees for the Payment seats being almost 5 times the fees of a Merit seat. Also having worked hard over the last one year at the XII standard State Board exam, I wanted to secure admission to a well known college ( ... Since we all know brand names make a huge difference ... )

Imagine my shock when inspite of having a Bombay rank of 561, I could not get a Merit seat in a decent college. Bombay had 131 engineering colleges affiliated to Mumbai university in 2000. There were about 10 decent colleges each having intake of 60 for all streams, Some ministers blessings, made many colleges revise intake to 90 a lil' later. Yet here I was with Telecom being 3rd option after Information Technology and Computer Engineering, still not able to get a Mert Seat. Why? Becasue there were reservation tally ran somewhat as follows:

15% Scheduled Castes
7.5% Scheduled Tribes
2% Nomadic Tribes (1)
1.5% Nomadic Tribes (2)
1.0% Nomadic Tribes (3)
19% Other Backward Classes

1% Displaced Kashmiri Pandits
1% Physically handicapped
2% Some other shitty quota (I think it was displaced people along the Maharastra Belgaum border)

1% Defence personnel
1% Govt of India

To make matters worse, the Govt introduced 30% reservation for girls. So if you were a guy, you had 35% (15% went towards 'Open Category girls and 15% in 'Reserved Girls category") of 48% 'Open Category Seats' only. That made 16 seats for 'Open Category Boys'. In a private college there were 50% Merit and 50% Payment seats. Meaning for a guy like me I would get to choose from 8 seats only! In government colleges there were 16 seats for 'Open' boys

Doing the rounds of the admission process, Dad and me came across one of my college friends who was taking up the issue of reservations in the Bombay HC. We joined a forum of like minded people, spent some cash and hired MP Vashi, a prominent Mumbai lawyer to fight our case. We got a stay on the admissions. We thought it might lead to something fruitful. But the decision got a 'tareek' and the student community was losing out. Finally admissions comenced in September, some 3 months after the whole thing started, just because students were losing out if the term started late.

Through some divine intervention, I decided to take up Mech at VJ. It took me one full year to accept the fact that I was cheated. (Its a different thing that it turned out to be the best decision I took in my life!) I was bloody mad with the system. Went to the extent of lamblasting some guys in my class who had taken the backdoor entry. These guys were well off economically, yet they claimed to be backward. It was the same story in all other institutes. The irony of it all was that in the same class we had a student with 45% PCM. Thanks to the 'Reserved Girls' category. It was crazy. But I was alone.

TIll today nothing has changed. And thats where I say that nothing will change. Because for every guy who is against reservations I have seen 10 guys for it. One of my classmates wants to write to the Prime Minister, Finance Minister (possibly God too!). What a waste of time. Others want to go on a morcha. The morcha is supposed to comprise of a handful of MBA students. Will Delhi fall? I doubt. On the other hand we have a multitude of poor, uneducated people who attend political rallies in villages hoping that 1% of the speeches materialise. They think that such measures will really improve their lot. So they all go out in huge numbers and vote. The first year MBA students will not, I dont think even 10% of them exercise their franchise. Caste politics will win, the morchas, petitions, blah blah notwithstanding. Letters to the PM, FM, God will be used as toilet paper. My Dad wrote files and files of complains to the BMC (Bombay's famed Municipal Corporation) and they had just moved their little finger. Morchas will lose steam when classes begin. The noise will become a whimper when exams begin. The whole movement will be put to sleep. History will repeat itself, just like it did in 2000.

I hope I am proved wrong.

Mera bageecha hai Japani

Yesterday's Mumbai edition of the 'Times of India' (front page bottom) carried an interesting story. It seems that 14 elected representatives (lil' corporators actually) and a 'Tree Expert' of the Pune Municipal Corporation decided to go to for an all expenses paid trip to the city of Okayama in the Land of the Rising Sun to study preservation of trees and gardens. The greater objective as stated ever so humbly with reverence for public welfare is to build a Japanese style garden on the lines of the Korakuean. (we'll call it the K Gardens)

I would love to visit Pune after K Gardens is built. In fact I'm looking forward to trekking through bad roads, wading through polluted rivers, drinking toxic chemicals and bathing in sewage before I reach the succour of K Gardens. Won't that be wonderful. And for this very luxury, the citizens of Pune will have to pay a small price. i.e. Foot the bill of these 15 clowns. For all I know the trip to K Gardens might actually be like taking part in those reality shows a la 'Survivor' except that on reaching you may be a lung short and toxins in your body for company.

Thankfully two men have decided that they'd rather have both lungs and minimum toxins, hence a petition filed and won, complete with the blessings of the Bombay High Court. In fact, the good ol' HC has not totally dumped the plan of K gardens. Who would not like a stroll down there, after a hard day of making hard decisions like the men with white collars and black coats do. Hence the judges have kept options open for our 15 scholars, albiet at their own cost. "Education is expensive" they might have said with a grave look just before the gavel landed with a thud.

Now comes the best part, and what follows will speak of the ingenuity of the Indian politicians who have as in the past gone down with guns a-blazing. With true soothsayer-isque powers our 15 scholars foresee trouble, and they have made an alternate proposal to visit J&K! Are they trying to convert Pune into another Dal lake? They are not telling

Now thats what I call GUTS

Ever sent a chill down an ACP's spine? Read this

I used to follow all rules by the book, before I realised that I was at a disadvantage if I did. Its people like Swaroop Srinath who teach me that its not always the case!

Rock on man. Just as you wanted have linked your post.

Thus spake the Lord ...

"Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise against their parents, and have them put to death"

The Holy Bible, Matthew 10:21

The events of the past few days and ultimately Pramod Mahajan's death have had this verse from the Bible rankling in my head. Ever since I have been hearing it at various Church readings for years, I never understood the meaning nor thought that such a thing is possible. Yes I have heard of fights about property, fistfights, a sexual abuse case, etc and what not. Shooting your brother in broad daylight, intentionally, coolly walking off; all for not being treated well? I don't think so.

Even last year when some middle aged man killed his father and buried him in the wall of his bedroom, a la 100 Days (a decent Bolly flick for its time), I refused to believe. There are psychos who do crazy things. And in a world of over 6 billion, you get all sorts of people. And then there are always the newspapers who dramatise things in such a way that the frontpage has a headline screaming 'Corpse excavated from apartment wall', in such a way you'll never know what actually happened.

Such events have been becoming extremely regular and that's what scares me. Hope that prophecy doesn't become a trend.

Think about it

"In selling to poor people you have to treat them like producers and not consumers"

Think about it. It has been the reason a particular company has been extremely successful in reaching out to low-income groups and has made them and their families customers (oops!!! ... producers) for life. This statement was made by a person who has been instrumental in driving such schemes. India's rural marketing andlow-income scheme gurus might just have something to chew on here.

Errata: to an earlier post

First I apologize. Many people have been asking me about the post 'The truth behind BSchool PLacements' and I have come out with revised figures. With the help of the most famous ManDevIan on pagalguy. So here goes

I revise the average post tax in hand to 35-37k (thats a hefty 20% increase). Means pre-tax you will be getting around 52-55k types. (Again as I said, its a lot of money .. but thats beside the point here)
Hence you can count 6-6.5L plus the other heads that pull it up to those numbers that newspaper reporter's love to talk about.

Have fun! and please prospective BSchoolers this was just in response to clarification. I'm not glorifying my institute here. Please do not select a BSchool based on the reported figures. Instead like the Alchemist said 'Follow your dreams! And the whole world will conspire to get you there' ;)

Have fun!

Handshaking Vs The Corporate Life

I miss Siemens. Rather it would be more appropriate to say that I miss the Siemens culture. My day at Siemens began by shaking hands. I was the first person to board the company bus and so anybody who came onboard would shake my hand.

It all began with induction, where the HR Director, Mr Anil Nadkarni would shake our hand first thing in the morning. A firm handshake, it almost jolted you out of your lethargy. You could actually feel the zing of the man. Then everyone would greet you with a handshake. I had never done so much handshaking before.

On the job, everyday from 8:15 I'd go to inspect my line. And being at the end of the factory farthest from the office, I had to pass through the relay, contactor and switches lines. On the way I shook hands and greeted many. You could actually feel the warmth of the place. Over the next year handshaking became a way of life. It is really a good way to greet people. I was told that it wasn't prevalent in the offices. (Today I understand what that means)

The office culture is very different from the shop floor at Semens (I say that coz I have seen shop floors at other companies and though it looked great it didn't feel great). Desk jobs suck! All you interact with (rather most of the time) during your work is a stupid box which will accept anything you type and show it back to you on a screen (How brilliant!). Your arse pains from the constant sitting and you can actually feel your tummy expanding in all directions. Worse, everyone seems to be engrossed with their boxes. There is no shouting, hollering, ranting that takes place. The clanging of machines, pneumatic devices et al is replaced by the dull humming of the AC. There are no opportunities to roll up your sleeves and indulge in grease and oil.

Worse still no one shakes hands. I still remember my Boss coming first thing in the morning to shake hands with each member of the department. Pity, it never happens in an office!

1000 hits (and possibly screwed too)

Past few days have seen unprecedented traffic on my blog. Thanks to some soul on pagalguy.com who has advertised my link and has probably made parts of my personal life public. Though I started blogging way back in June 2004, almost two years ago, I installed the hit counter on November 30th. Even so, there might not be a big lag in actual versus official dates coz the blog was not visited frequently. Returning visitors were Venkee and Milan.

The site stats thrown up by Bravenet.
How I wish that graph were indicative of my investments!

But since MDI happened, Guru Bhobe (blog)has been a regular. Along with Ronnie and some others. Bhobe is a revolutionary poet in the making. Ronnie is MDI's arse (coz everyone likes to kick it!) Sorry Ronnie ... had to say it. For all their efforts, they could never make the graph look the way it is today.

Which puts me in the soup. I know some of the faculty who read pagalguy, especially following the interview reviews pertaining to MDI. Now our profs are sure to have read my posts here. Which means that I am screwed. Anyways I had my opinion and I voiced it with backing.

So much for the other side of publicity!

Mumbai -- A changed city

Mumbai has changed. And for the worse. For the past few days I have been stumped as to how can a city that was once known for its hospitality, relative safety for womenfolk, and many other adjectives (that do not come to mind at this unearthly hour) have become a nightmare for its residents.

Today I was conned by a taxi-driver on the way to work. Sad. It was my first day and this guy takes me for a ride around Worli. The same thing would have been unthinkable in the past. So much for the trust of Mumbaikars.

My parents tell me that crime is on the rise. Young call centre employees get mugged at night. Though Im not a big fan of the BPO industry still this is sumthing that never happened or were rare before. Nowadays its very common.

Women are not safe. Flashing is a common phenomena. Especially in deserted streets and quiet neighbourhoods. Whatever happened to Mumbai. Its getting scary.

Today I walked back from the station. Just for kicks. The road to the station is blocked with autorickshaws all over the place. Usually I skipped between vehicles to walk from the station to the bus-stand. Today there wasnt possible. The place sucked. Worse none of the rickshawallas wanted to take a fare to Orlem??!! All the ricks are driven by young Biharis. Dunno whether its their attitude that is killing the city.

Long time back we criticised the Shiv Sena for the 'Mee Mumbaikar' campaign. Everyone got up and against it. But then, post that we havent done anything to preserve the culture of this city. We have allowed it to go to the dogs. Atleast I can clearly notice the difference. Wonder whether that was a right decision then?

Of old times & old memories

The thrill of coming back home is almost gone. Rather now in retrospect I think it was the thrill of getting out of college and acads for the next 2 odd months. Had a great first day at home and it ended there. The next day I took a walk just like the days when Audrey and me took our long walks. This time I was alone.

Every corner of Orlem brings me back some memories. Every place I have been to every street I walked, every eatery, stall, bend in the road, etc. clanged at my head and rejigged old things. I never thought I could remember things so well. Each step I took had a past to it. I just could not escape it. Also was the first time in 10 months, ever since I left for Gurgaon that I went about the place.

Damn I cant even look at my clothes. Almost every pair of clothing I have also reminds me of some crazy moments, happy times. It has been a bad flashback. I always thought that I could get on and have lost the past behind. But it was easier said in Gurgaon than done in Bombay.

Felt like a sailor in an old Konkanni movie who left home, news came that his boat was capsized and people assume him dead. Years later he gets home, now nobody recognises him and his house is gone and his wife marries another guy and his kids dont recognise him. Dont remember the name of the movie but can feel just what that sailor was feeling.

Hope this shit ends soon. I wanna move on.

Air Dhakkan - The epitome of uncertainity

My love affair with 'Air Dhakkan' continues. This time I was asked to pay up 700 quid for excess baggage. But thats not the reason I'm pissed. People with more baggage than me have happily cleared the check-in. Ok that was tolerable. I was already at bursting point, but still it was ok. Im mighty pissed because everytime I book my tickets on Dhakkan I am subjected to uncertainty, risk, ambuguity and irresponsibility. Not only that I make long distance calls to convince near and dear ones that all is ok. Also I spend a fortune at the airport quietening my stomach. Then I will land at my destination at some godforsaken hour and have to shell out 25% extra as night charges. All in all I spend a lot more. So much for low cost fares. Even the airhostess' are rude. The seats are crappy. (I can take normal seats but I surely dont expect a torn seat with the sponge peeping out). It seems I am not alone. The best part is that none of the groundstaff have a clue about what is happening. I talked to the control room behind the check in at Delhi airport and he told me my flight was on time inspite of me getting a message the previous day that I was delayed by an hour and half. Better still the check in people contradicted what the control room said!

But these no-gooders still get customers! And how? Apparently they have the lowest fares. Their fares are marginally lower than all other carriers. Hence the psychology of the consumers when buying tickets is to go for Dhakkan vis-a-vis other airlines. At that moment they do not have an idea of the other atrocities that Dhakkan will inflict on them. It will be just a matter of timebefore Dhakkan will be unable to attract customers anymore.

Another thing that gets my goat is that Air Dhakkan is always delayed. If not the weather, its 'operational problems'. It always has to hover around airports for 15-20 minutes per flight until its lands. Dunno what Gopi and his team is upto. However, there is a magazine called 'Simplifly' in every seatpouch which speaks of the wonderful service levels of the airline and a few pages have to be extolling the leadership and managerial skills of the CEO. If he is what he claims to be he better do something quick. There are also glowing tributes from customers. (Wonder who these people are?)

And then of course, is the fact that the airline has been reduced to a luxury bus. As soon as the plane lands and while its still taxiing to its terminal, people get up and open the overhead hatches to get their cabin baggage(??!!) WTF! Reminds me our Mumbai locals where we get up from our seats one station ahead to avoid beeing unable to alight! Last time I flew on 1st Jan and the plane was smelling of puke. God knows where this airline is headed!!!

MDI Unplugged! - Part One

Possibly one of the most beautiful campus' in India. Spread over 16 acres of flora, lawns, architecture, red bricks, hostels, and gyaan

The Change Masters gate entrance to MDI

The view from inside the gate

'Gurukula' - Academic block in simple terms means 'Where lectures are held'

The front entrance to Acad block - 'Renaissance'

The backdoor entreance to the 'Acad block'

'Jhaji' - The hole in the wall @Acad block from where we source our in-between-lectures meals!

MDI Unplugged! - Part Two

The NMP hostels. These guys are usually senior managers from PSU cos and they get a whole lot of facilities an their mess is more or less a 3 star hotel!

'Taksha Shila' - The NMP reception, lounge, and the upper floor is their '3 star' mess!

The Scholars block - The offices of the professors and the Director.

The Scholars building in all its glory

MDI Unplugged! - Part Three

The canteen

Sharmaji - And his archaic menu

The hangout spots - Jus outside the canteen (L-R) Mani, Kakkar, Raj & Mansur

Hangout spot - Part Two: Nescafe

Nescafe - This outlet has witnessed high attrition in the past few months. Chotu, Gopal, Babloo, another guy who lasted 2 days and off late Amar.

Finally the Auditorium - The place of a million openhouses, meetings, addresses and wot not.

MDI Unplugged! - Part Four

The passage from the library to the audi

One part of the quadrangle formed between the library, and the U shaped Scholars Block

A top view of the Library and the quadrangle
The reading rooms

The upper floor of the library - Rack and racks of books

The library building from the lawns

Packing and Cleaning Woes

Its that time of the year when you have to pack, clean and check out of Change Masters. And boy believe me it aint as easy as you think. I have discovered new things during Operation Cleanup.

First of which is that there have been many clothes that I have not used at all during my stay here. Next, I make a lot of notes. I seem to have a lot of spare sheets with arbit scribblings all over the damn place. I have hardly read the newspapers that I have subscribed too in the last 8 months.

And finally as economics would have it, we have spawned an industry. The packing and logistics industry has got a fillip from the sudents leaving MDI. Such has been the exodus rate that the front of Change Masters looks like a railway station. Apart from that the massive packing has lead the raddi wala outside campus to be the most sought after man. Over the past two days had you been trading in cardboard cartons, you would have made an 200% gain on your investments. So much for the value addition at BSchool and the thrill of 30% annual gains by the Sensex!

All said and done I am far away from completing my packing. The room almost looks empty. The college sounds have died down. The last of those left here are brooding on not being able to go home. The rest are partying knowing that once the summers start there wont be time left to scratch their butts. Me ... I thought of taking a few pictures around campus. Will upload them asap.

Bye bye time

For all practical purposes the Term is over. Exams are over almost, except for this paper on Strategic Management, which, if you have read my previous posts on the subject) will tell you what a waste of time it is. So here we are at the end of a year of BSchool and all I am set to go home. Have been feeling really homesick for the past 3 weeks and have been waiting for this time to come. Now that its finally arrived it makes me happy and sad. Happy coz I'll be seeing everyone again. Sad coz it brings back some really sad memories. But lets not get into all that right now :)

So what will I be doing for the summers in Bombay? For starters I'll be interning with the Aditya Birla Group at their Management Centre in the Corporate Strategy and Business Development Cell. The very name sounds exciting and I'm looking forward to doing some really good work there. Hopefully get a Pre-Placement Offer (PPO). ABG has been growing agressively for the past few years as they try to 'Take India to the World'. KMB has infused a lot of young blood into the group. And as they plan to become a $15bn organisation there will be a lot of challenging opportunities.

Enuf of the gyaan. Bottom line is Im going home. Im gonna have fun.

The truth about BSchool placements

There has been a hype in the media over the recent placement season of India's top Bschools. Each and every insitute worth its name has been posting average salaries and wot not. Now lemme tell you what all this hype and hoopla is about. And having spent a year at one of India's leading Bschools and having been a part of the process I think my words will have some credibility to them.

• BSchool average salaries that have been posted in the media are only a ploy to attract the best students. Rather in Bschool speak, its for grabbing the marketshare of the students.
• Sometimes only 5% of the batch gets the average salary that is quoted. And these guys get it because they have international placements and the exchange rate is the prime culprit. At Purchasing power parity (another post for this!) they will be again below the average salary
• Most of the batch (50% plus) at any Indian BSchool, even the IIMs will give an arm and a leg for a post tax cash in hand figure of 30k p.m. And before you gasp lemme tell you that Rs.30,000 p.m. in hand post tax is a lot of money for people with even 2 years of work experience. I dont know whether you expect to be worth your weight in gold after 2 years of acads but then dont have great expectations from an MBA.
• The cash component, and then non cash perks, and some more factor of safety by the institute plus deferred bonuses and a whole lot of stuff is added up to give you those near million rupee salaries that have been doing the rounds in the media. The biggest culprit here is the joining bonus which is usually recovered if you leave the firm within 3 years. So this figure hikes up the CTC by upto Rs.70,000.
• Even for those $150,000+ figures quoted by the IIMs, the in-hand component would be in the region of $60,000-$80,000. So chill, its just the exchange rate stupid.
• Yes there are a few Indian corporates that truly give you huge salaries. The post tax from these guys works out to Rs.45,000-Rs.50,000. But then there are only 3-5 such companies. And their total intake is just 2-3 people per company.

I hope I have given you a low down of what happens during Bschool placements. I admit there are a few guys who make it big. But then they are a few just like I said.

Rang Barse

It was Holi. The Festival of colours. It was probably the most decent Holi celebration I have witnessed till date with very restrained throw of colours and water, very unlike the Mumbai style of oil paints, acids, urine and the like. No 'bhaiya plastics' as is the case with Mumbai. Just plain water and for a change we had an NGO, the SNS Foundation, which provided us with herbal powders. The powders were of a good quality and scented again unlike the chemicals laced with lead and other toxic substances that we get in Mumbai.

L-R: Harshit, Tamagna, Jis, Me (time stamp) and Samir

We were then invited to 'Daddu's' place, our dear Director, Dr. Pritam Singh. We had sweets and then proceeded to the lawns behind the library where we had another round of sweets and 'thandai'.

L-R: Uday, Shantanu, Abhishek, Achyut, Sarvo, Me (time stamp again!) and Avdesh

And of course 'Holi' here is never complete without 'Bhaang'. Most of us being first timers and having had a rather crappy experience the last time Bhaang was served during 'Lohri', consumed the drink in copious amounts. Little that we knew that this time around the Bhaang was unadulterted and pure.

The laughing fit! : Ronnie, Me and Raghav in the foreground

So that made many of us laugh our way back to our rooms. Massive bouts of sleeping later, many of us were still under the spell. There has been a unanimous demand for only bhaang at the next MDI party!

The forgetten nick

Last night while chatting with Anna, Nikunj and Rups after a long time was reminded of a nick that Nicks had coined many years ago at VJ. 'Max' was what they called me much before the 'Gordy' that Rups coined. Though later Gordy went on to become the nick that I was associated with from the second year onwards and later on here at MDI, Max remains the name that only Nicks and Anna use. It was a very nostalgic moment when they both used it during the chat, and I was immediately transported to the Eden Gardens (a patch of garden) in front of the Textile and Structural dept. at VJ. It was like we were there under the tree once again chatting like old times. I immediately changed the nick on my IP messenger (The local campus LAN messenger) and updated the status on Yahoo too!

The origins of Max probably go back to the day I was christened. Other than my family and a few close friends no one knows that my full name is 'Gordon Maxmillan DSouza' which was some years later distorted by the Maharashtra Govt., Dept of Education to include Dad's name as is the practice in India, where the fathers name is appended to wards name. And so was entered in the school records 'D'Souza Gordon Gerald'. (Surname First, Name and then Father's Name said the clerk sitting at the admin office! in that order) The name has stuck. Coz when I was apping to engineering college and then after that to MDI, I had to keep it the same as the name that appeared on my school records.

Why Maxmillan?
Maxmillan Kolbe was a Polish priest who chose to be killed in the place of a fellow Pole during the holocaust years in the World War II at one of the many concentration camps. Ultimately many years later on the 10th of October 1982, Fr. Maxmillan Kolbe was canonized by Pope John Paul II. And on that same day, same year I was born. So my parents thought it fit to name me after the great man.

Maxmillan has never seen any official records thanks to the Indian Govt. and most probably I'll leave it at that. I have always preferred to just enter all offical records with just Gordon DSouza. But I like Max. Feels like a part of me is pure and unaduleterated.

Pt. Hari Prasad Chaurasiya

Today the MDI Chapter of SPIC MACAY organised a performance by Padmabhushan Pt. Hari Prasad Chaurasia at our campus. Panditji is known internationally as an acclaimed artiste of the Bansuri (basically a flute). He belongs to the Maihar Gharana of Hindustani music, has dabbled in fusion and has had a stint in films too!

In much younger times

Panditji started off by playing the afternoon ragas. He said that he rarely gets to play the afty ragas at SPIC MACAY events. He then went on play a few Holi tunes. Well I don't remember the technical names of the pieces because I'm zero at Classical Indian Music. But whatever it was it, I had a great time especially during the jugalbandi with Pandit Vijay Ghate.

The performance

Later we all volunteers got an opportunity to be photographed with Panditji. Must say that he is a very sweet chap, very witty and a jovial gent. Much unlike previous artistes who came last time

Padmabhushan Pandit HariPrasad Chaurasia and Me

Have realised one thing after the event. I do not know anything about Indian Culture. I do not have any tastes in anything about our culture. And I have decided that I'm going to rectify that. Thanks SPIC MACAY!

Behind the HBS curtain

Today for our class on Strategic Management our course instructor Dr. Amit Kapoor (co-instructor with Micheal E Porter at HBS), showed us a video of a classroom discussion at HBS on the Volvo trucks case (Volvo Trucks(A) : Penetrating the US market, Prof Orjan Sorwell and others). The class formed part of the course on 'Microeconomics of Competitiveness' and was facilitated by Porter himself.

It was an insightful peek into what happens at arguably one of the top B-Schools in the world. The discussion was well structured by the legend. He explored the locational strategies, the global network, the comparision between Europe and US, the reasons for entering the US, etc. At the end the discussion did produce some quality inputs. But almost all inputs were almost prompted by Porter and a few others were from some really experienced people in the class.

More than a video on a case analysis the clip proved to be a big confidence booster for me. Today I broke the myth of excellence that surrounds prestigious B-Schools outside India. (I already busted my belief on the IIMs much earlier :) ) The image that an average person has on B-Schools like Harvard and the likes is that the people who make it to these institutions are undoubtedly the best in terms of business acumen, insights, and opinions that any student body can offer. However, after listening to some of the views, it became apparent that we here at MDI (maybe I could add top Indian B-Schools) have much better class dicussions, talk more sense and less jargon, and also come to the point faster with less prodding or prompting from faculty.

Well to put some thing in their favour, they listened, and were disciplined in their approach; as in, no one cross talks when another makes a point. (Probably because they were being taped! or because 50% of the grade is towards quality class participation. And we were told that there is an aide who takes notes on the class contributions). I agree that here the major grouse is that students sleep in front of the instructor, don't prepare well, etc. But apart for a strong alumni network I can't see reason for Harvard to be better than any top Indian BSchool. I know that this statement may look blasphemous to many but I have my reasons.

Getting into a top BSchool is more difficult than HBS.
These institutions get the top 2% of India's brightest minds (thats 2,500-3,000 from the top 10 BSchools)
Most of them possess extremely strong analytical skills since they have good engineering backgrounds.
More than 50% of students have previous work experience.
And now this video proves that these guys in HBS are no great shakes.

All said and done, I am really proud of being in MDI and proud to be Indian. It's no wonder that people around the world consider us a smart and intelligent people. Sounds extremely jingoistic, but I don't care!

And so they went ... lock, stock and placed!!!

Today was the Convocation ceremony of our senior batch. And they went out in style. Sunil Bharti Mittal of the Bharti Group was the Guest of Honour. Wondered what it would feel like next year when I would be leaving this place? Another thing was that Placements 2006 was officially released. And like the standard litany of the various magazines and newspapers that would scream the statistics here is for those who will not get to read it. The report says that the average salary is Rs9.1 lakhs and some more details which are of no importance. Don't ask me how they calculate the average. Rumour has it though that the guy drafting the report got up at 9:10 this morning ;)

The Class of 2006. Aren't they a happy lot!

Of jammed drains!

Came across this interesting mail. PFA the attachment!

(click to enlarge)

Durham Univ surely has some problems on their hands! (pun intended)