FunFest results

Forgive the pic quality. Click to enlarge.
(And Natyamatics dint have any funds for the winners ... so no treat to anyone!!!)

FunFest

Yesterday was Funfest, organised by Natyamatics. There was a flurry of activity throughout the latter half of the day with events like Collage, FacePainting, Ad Mad show, a live performance by Mandolins, etc.

As usual my team reported 5 mins after time for the first event i.e. collage and boy we rocked. Prady, Mansur, me and Sarvo made up the team. Our theme, 'Parties@MDI'.We made a collage that was pretty interesting. It looked more like a sleaze act. But then when you put fournaughty guys together whaddaya expect?

L to R - Harshit, Mansur, Prady, Sarvo, ME and Aditya

The collective brains of horny minds can turn a good theme into this...
Sarvo, ME and Mansur.

In the meantime, me and Tamz had a facepainting entry and again we came up with a masterpiece. This time the theme was 'Rebuilding India' and the master that Tamz is with the brushes, he did a brilliant job. so there I was on the eve of Republic Day looking like an Indian soccer hooligan! (though I doubt the existence of such a tribe!)

GET... SET... GO!!!

AND THE FINISH... !!!!
RIGHT SIDE PROFILE..

LEFT SIDE PROFILE...
SOME OF THE PARTICIPANTS...
L to R - Achyut, Pradeep, Rohin, ME and Pranav

There were many more ... will upload those pics later...

The Alumni Meet

Alumni meet was on last Saturday. But I dint get hold of the snaps until recently. It was a celebration of the 10th aniversary of the first graduating batch. The Director hosted a dinner and our clubs Natyamaics and Mandolins performed for the gathering.

Later after dinner we assembled at Parthenon for an informal jamming session with a coupla PG03 guys (superseniors). That was about it. Had a winterball at Change Masters later after that.

The parties at MDI have now become extremely boring so we just hanged out at Bhobe's room playing rock n roll! Of course we joined the party scene whenever we had to refill.

Here are some of the pics of me at the alumni meet.

Me with the gat. Of course I was just posing for the cam. Dont judge which cord I was trying to play!

Hogging gulab jamuns with icecream at the party. Boy did they taste good.

The jam session outside 'Parthenon'
L to R - Tamagna (Tamz), Mansur, Pradeep (Mob), ME, Makesh (Maks)

Fooling around with Pranesh. Forgive the photographer (Bhobe) he took the snap when I almost blinked!

Unnati and Monetrix

Made it to the Unnati team as a Senior Securities Analyst. 'Unnati Investment Management and Research Group' is India's first student managed mutual fund. Most probably will handle the Infrastructure and Engineering portfolio.

Pretty excitied about it. I have always been excited about the stock markets ever since I made my first trade in mid 2003 buying 10 shares of Grasim Industries @ 480 odd bucks. I had made a good return on that investment. Obviously it was Mom's money! Over the years I have come a long way from poring over the quotations in the Economic Times and drawing all sorts of conclusions. I remember carrying the ET to college and my friends asking whether I understood it at all? It took me a year to understand what to read and what not to. Over two and a half years I have made just two losses and luckily for me the scale has been small. Today our (Mom's and mine) assets under management have grown to be substantial.

The next thing I knew, I had made it to the Content Generation team at Monetrix too! Monetrix is our Finance club. I hope I will be able to contribute well to Monetrix. I have lotsa plans and lets see how they materialise.

Lastly I have applied for Delphique for the Operations panel as Research co-ordinator. Lets see how that one works out.

The truth about sex

I found an interesting article on rediff.com by Rashmi Bansal titled 'The truth about sex'. It debates whether people get into a realtionship just for sex or not. Somewhere down the middle, it digresses into discussing the history of sex and arousal characteristics of men and women; but (thankfully) at the end returns to the topic but doesnt answer the question.

Seeing many people fall in and out of relationships I agree partly when Rashmi mentions that college students mainly get into relationships to be one with the crowd. Though not explicitly mentioned there is a lot of indirect peer pressure. The same was also highlighted in an article 2 years ago which had appeared in the Bombay Times (a supplement with TOI, Mumbai edition) which said that couples in colleges are forced to 'pet' each other and get 'physical' else risk being labelled as 'frigid'.

This is a disturbing trend since when a relationship breaks down, it becomes very difficult for the persons involved to believe that there was no love involved. It then complicates matters leading to loss of self esteem and depressing times.

I know this sounds like general fart. But then I couldt find a better way to put it across. And no my posts wont be so intense all the time ;-)

The entire article is available at the following link. Click here.

Movie fest and minus 1 degrees

For the past three days we at MDI are having a movie fest. Day before yesterday saw 'Butch cassidy and the Sundance Kid' and 'The seven year-itch'. Yesterday saw 'The Seven Samurai' of Akiro Kurosawa and 'Waqt' (The old version). Today we have 'Lawrence of Arabia' and 'Half Ticket'.

Me ... have missed Waqt and Lawrence so far. Plan to go for half ticket in the evening. Butch was a good movie. Hilarious at times, comical and was good timepass. Seven year itch has reinforced my belief not to watch English classics. Sad. Really sad.

The best so far has been Sevem Samurai. The movie was in Japanese with English subtitles. At times the focus goes away from the scene and the entire attention is on the subtitles. Even today the movie is a thrill; which just shows what it might have been in its haydays. Towards the end of the movie, the action scene was fun to watch with everyone passing comments on the scenes and linking them to the random crap that happens at MDI.

The day ended with dry runs for the upcoming placement season.

****************************************************************

Yesterday Delhi touched ZERO degrees celcius for the first time in many years. The lowest recorded temperature for the past few years had been 4 degrees. Our campus recorded -1 degrees. And no the water did not freeze in the taps yet. Though it was awfully cold even at 10:30 in the morning. My fingers froze to the extent that I had to solicit help to complete typing out my presentation for the ODC class at noon.

Another coupla weeks before the winter eases...

Back to Gurgaon

So im back from the term break. Christmas, Midnight Mass, New year, Mom-Dad's anniversary, a wedding, the beach, hanging out of a mumbai local, chaat, dinners with friends, relatives, walks to Evershine, shopping at InOrbit, gifts, a coupla movies, christmas sweets, Pork Sorpatel, Pork Chilly Fry, Prawns, Wine... the list could just go on. Reminds me of some of the things that I miss over here.

At the airport I just couldnt imagine that I was leaving so quickly. There was so little time and yet though so much was done and so many people met; there were still people to meet and many more things to do.

A new term has started. It looks interesting (but so did term 2!) but a coupla profs just proved me wrong. Anyways me just going with my funda of no baggage from the the past! Lets see if there is any point of the first year of an Indian MBA course.

So heres heralding the New Year and the New Term!!!

Airport ordeals & the festive season

Fog has crippled Delhi airport. Or is it a scapegoat?? Dunno, but whatever it is, I was made to wait for a lifetime, the logistics at the counters, boarding pass counter, security checks and other formalities was so long I was pooped by the time I boarded my flight. But that wasnt the end of it. We had to wait for a full 2 hours more till we got permission for take off.

Travelled by Air Deccan for the first time. The interiors look almost like a Mumbai local with ads springing all over the place. The pilot openly admitted to reporting 'false data' to the control tower so that we could get an advantage in take-off position over the other planes. Apparently they could not handle the load. Bad crisis management I must say. Anyways, me was on one lucky flight which made it Mumbai at precisely 8:30 pm. A enthusiastic taxi driver then displayed some Formula driving skills to help me make it home at 10:00 pm. Placecoms training in quick dressing came in handy as I was bathed, out and into fresh clothes and made it to the service in time.

Was a tired day at the end of it all. Couldnt help it. Was lucky that I was one of the few people to leave Delhi. Praise God for that. Thats it from here. Today (26th) is Mama's and Daddy's anniversary. 27th is another party and so on... The celebrations and the festive season has just begun!!!

Urs Foggingly and byebye for a week

Yesterday Term 2 ended. I am now roughly 32 per cent of an MBA. As I evaluate myself on the huge costs (opportunity and real) that I have incured over the past 6 months, I ponder on the learnings (Cudn't help it fellow ManDevIans... WAC ka bhoot utara nahi hai!!!).

1) MBA is about making shit look like hot shit.
2) The faster you understand and implement point 1 above the higher will your Grade Point Average (GPA) and hence CGPA be, and the less expectations will you have, and consequently your satisfaction will be maximised.
3) Recruiters dont give a damn to how many Balance Sheets you balanced, how many models you optimised, what strategy you proposed (for the googled project you did for an MNC which you dint even visit once), what is your understanding of human resource mgmt, what is the positioning of the crap that FMCG companies generate, your exposition on world economics,.... and I could go on.
4) B Schools pressure and academic rigour are myths.
5) People will give their left ball/boob for an extra grade and RG a fellow batchmate.
6) Point number five is very valid in the corporate world too.
7) Job Job Job... is the light at the end of this MBA tunnel; at least in India.
8) Management is about bullshitting with elan and quoting esoteric gurus (with keywords thrown in for effect) to fool others. Finance guys fool investors, Marketing guys fool customers, HR guys fool employees, Operations and Systems guys join the fun (and the chaos and end up fooling each other)

So in the end its a fools game. I dunno why companies come in hordes and recruit MBAs in such large numbers?? I dunno.. seriously.. hope I am proved wrong!!!

*****************************************************************

So since exams are over and the term break is on, Im off to Mumbai. Waiting to see home and family. In the meantime, fog has descended on us in the North. 'Kohra' as they say has caused havoc in all transportation systems across the North. Delhi airport is clogged. Flights are cancelled. Trains are held up. Highway traffic is moving at slow pace. Its frustrating. I have to complete the marketing assignment (whose deadline was postponed till tomorrow night), complete a friends report, catch up on much needed sleep, pack my belongings, etc. My flight is already delayed. Air Deccan has been kind to SMS me the news. Other friends are stranded at the airport with cancelled flights et al.

Will be back after a week. I might blog.. I might not.. Till the next post goodbye!!!
and since its already Christmas Eve, Compliments of the season!!! May the Lord bless ye all and ye families.

Elections

On 16th we had our Student Council elections for the next year, and boy have they thrown up a number of surprises. After the speeches interspered with hooting, cheering, booing, applauding, jeering, clapping and the voting which lasted for a cumulative 5 hours, we were left with a new council and Sharmaji, our canteen man was left with nothing (That was coz the new council treated us ... and we looted them ... literally!!!)

So heres presenting the new Students Council at MDI:
Gen. Secy : Subrat
Imperium : Sravan
Illumina : Harpreet Bajwa
Delphique : Samrat
Alumni : Ashish Singla
Corp Comm Cell : Karishma
PG Rep : Sanjay Mohta
PGHR Rep : Thariyan Chacko
Monetrix : Bhavin
Marquity : Makesh
HRDirection : Vishal
Iterations : Ramesh
Sports n Cultural : Vaibhav Mathur
Treasurer : Harshit Jain
Hostel n Mess : Nitin Sharma

That was the entire list. As for me, I ut my time to productive use. Read a book on 'Low Risk Investing' in the midst of the chaos in the Audi. ;-)

Of sub zero temperatures and survival guides...

The cold has hit a new low. It has become unbelievably cold in Gurgaon. Though it is a bit of a chore to dress up appropriately and take the necessary precautions so that tropical freaks like me dont exfoliate, the experience has been great. The maximum that my exterior has been subject to has been the cool environs of Matheran, Mahabaleshwar and the summer 'cold' of Nepal. This winter just a few hundred kilometers from the Shivalik (the foothills of the Himalayas) is a new thingie for me. The weather forecast has been sub zero at -3 to 0 degree range for the coming week. So I am told by an email shot off to the entire batch by the benevolent Singla.

Winter here means layering your skin with moisturisers so that it doesnt look like you seen a ghost or rather people mistake you for a ressurected being. (Dehydrated skin can give you a ghostly look). It also means wearing heavy clothing. Something new again for the equitorial me. Jackets over sweatshirts over Tee shirts over vest over skin is a must to prevent shivering. Also one has to supposedly wear thermal 'inners'. The first time I heard the term I thought it was some gizmo made from fundoo materials with heating properties. Looking at the model on the cover of the pack at the store I decided against it. He looked more of a ballet dancer. My shorts serve me better.

There are 3 zones of contact where you can 'get' cold. First its the ears... If not properly shielded with a monkey cap, shawl, etc. the winds of Rajasthan that blow with gay abandon over the plains of Haryana can give you a pain in the head. Second its the feet... here it is advisable to have them covered with socks or better still wear shoes. Inspite of all this they have the tendency to freeze your toes and boy can that hurt. Last but most important of all are the family jewels (at least for the guys... dunno abt the gals ;-p ...) Keep these guys reasonably warm and you can rest assured that they will keep all other fraternity guys warm. I have already explained the futility of the thermal wear.

Another point of caution.. DO NOT wash hands and then directly launch into the open. They hurt bad. My palms have been hurting coz in a display of scant respect for the winter air, I waltzed out of the washroom with wet hands and as the temperature of my palms reduced exponentially I felt a sharp surge of pain. It takes a long time to go. So beware!!!

Well for a guy nothing can be as irritating as dandruff problems. I have never, I repeat never, ha dandruff problems in my life. Here with the onset of the winters my scalp has chosen this occassion to make up for all the years of my existence. Every morning I play this silly game. It's called 'ScalpScratcher'. I vigourously scratch my head to shake of the dandruff that builds there over the past 24 hours. Mom says that I must oil my hair and wash it regularly. Alas! the oil that I use has solidified. I have to place the bottle under hot water and even after that effort all I get is the equivalent of flatulence from the blocked nozzle.

They say that this is not the least. The mercury is yet to fall to its lowest. The locals are awaiting the fog. They say its colder then, and claim that visibility is so poor it is limited to a few metres. I havent seen much of fog. Or was it mist?? Frankly I dunno... but what I know is that the winters here are a great experience. Just as the lusty showers of Mumbai, the winters of Delhi (and surrounding areas) have a charm of their own.

What Pattern is your Brain?

Your Brain's Pattern

You have a dreamy mind, full of fancy and fantasy. You have the ability to stay forever entertained with your thoughts. People may say you're hard to read, but that's because you're so internally focused. But when you do share what you're thinking, people are impressed with your imagination.

What Pattern Is Your Brain?

Got the above link from Amit Goyals blog. So simple nah! Just look at a pic and it guesses your thinking pattern, mental process. In the words of my Operations prof, so much inn-no-way-son!!! ... They just stopped short of predicting the mental attributes of my yet to be born children.

Management S&M

In the pursuit of our MBA degrees we are supposed to have a wholistic view of Management Science Models. Though many of my analytical friends will swear that it is one of the better subjects to study, and I dont blame them coz this is the only soccour to those enginneers where we get exact solutions (in an otherwise choatic world of mgmt.)

In another life the same things I studied under the moniker of 'Operations Research' and boy! did I kick ass then. Assignment models, PERT CPM, Linear programming, Simplex were like brothers. Now we are estranged, me after a stint on an MNC shopfloor where I was saw that they weren't as effective as academic oracles back at engineering college claimed them to be. In fact what worked best was the out-of-the-ass solutions that me and my colleagues worked out. Out there I learned to abhor theory and those serpentine formulae.

So today, when I am told that some linear graphs and similar methods are the answer to management jigsaws I find it hard to believe. I dont know why such subjects are taught to us. I dont think that 2 years down the line when I am Manager of some function will I be worried about the sensitivity of some god forsaken 2D line drawn by an MBA still wet between the ears.

Other than being a teaser for those with an analytical bent of mind, for lesser mortals like me who are petrified by too much of math the subject is psychologically a pain. I prefer to call MSM Management S&M. Yes friends, the subject is precisely that; its Sadism and Masochism in Management education. But then I'm happy to be studying it. Why?? ... Reminds me of those glorious engineering days. Reminds me of SG Patil (The engg.prof who taught me OR) and all the fun we had in his class; and all the imitating that I did. Yes it is gratification, by pain. True S&M!!!

Movies to watch when your stoned, drunk, are frustrated with life...

1. Harold and Kumar go to White Castle
2. HitchHickers guide to the galaxy
3. Monty Phython series... 'Life of Brian', 'Meaning of life', 'The holy Grail',
The script of 'Fellowship of the Rings' is available at this link.

Well for now watch these... I'll add more if you are really that stoned/drunk...

Exchange????????

The whole day today was spent on evaluating the benefits of studying (rather visiting) Europe as an exchange student. After a thorough analysis of the pros and cons I have decided against it. The were only two institutes I was interested in. European Business School (ebs), Germany and Copenhagen Business School (CBS), Denmark. Though both institutes have a stipend that makes the total expenses quite manageable, I am not too keen after lookng at the course content of either institute. Also the courses that I would miss over here are important core finance courses that should ideally not be missed in a Finance major.

So thats the end of a dilemma. Mebbe I'll visit Europe some other time.

The Great Bong

Ramesh has introduced me to a very interesting blog. Following is the link of a hilarious (brilliant.. as put by Ramesh) post on GreatBong.

Do read it!!!

Salaam Namaste

Watched it finally.. a hindi movie after a long time... the last hindi movie I watched was ...shit dunno... it was so long ago that I forgot :-p

I believed that SN was decent until the last 20-30 minutes of the movie had me thinkin otherwise. Damn... people might say big 'crap' ;-) abt it showcasing the realities of modern Indian society. Agreed that to an extent it does... but then the movie doesnt live upto the climax it that shows a total disconnect between the 'cool' attitude and the slapstick comedy that is potrayed towards the end.

This is another reason why I dont like watching Hindi movies. Themes change abruptly, Plots follow convoluted paths and in the middle somewhere a song and dance routine is thrown in for good measure.

On the positives of the movie, I'll say that the direction and cinematography was excellently done. The photography is good. Saif dancing skills are well hidden by the zooming cams, the colour roit and other similar methods (as observed by Mansur). The movie could have really made it big with the sensitive issue it generated. However they lost it in the end with the 'crap'.

All said and done, it was a good way to spend 2 hrs on a saturday night.

Retail or Corporate?

That was the question that vexed many an eminent panelist who congregated onto our hallowed campus to debate the issue in the post lunch session of our first ever 'Annual' Banking Symposium.

Well for starters we wore our suits/blazers for the first time on campus. Formal wear for the winters we were told. Unfortunately some a***hole decided not to turn on the air conditioning inside the packed and sealed (may I add) auditorium. So there were we all dressed and cooking inside our 'formal wear'.

The roll calling done (its a tradition to be followed... who cares a damn whether you are interested in the proceedings or not!!!) the panelists were escorted to the dias. I must say that the organising committee did a great job on the celeb front. We had the whos-who and the whos-going -to-be-next-who of the financial world. The keynote speaker was the Dy. Gov. of the RBI. (Forgot her name...forgive me!!!) and the rest of the guys were senior bankers/VPs/diros of firms like Ernst & Young, ICICI Bank, SBI, Yes Bank, StanChart, Amex, Citigroup, NCDEX, etc etc.

The entire thing would have been another also ran thingie at MDI had it not been for the sardar from SBI who livened up things at the fag end of the session. He rocked the place with his sharp wit, humour, sarcasm and hilarious stories. The other guys did a marketing job of their resp. cos and the ICICI bank dood did a typical MBA style presentation with lotsa data and the ubiquitous 'sa pa da pa'

So finally the conclusion... we need a balance of both COrporate and Retail banking... knew that was coming right!!! its a typical MBA answer politically correct and vague as hell... sardar dood was bang on target when he said that retail banking depends a lot on corporate banking. If firms borrow and grow, the returns flow towards the household sector who in turn then can drive retail banking. Way to go paaji... you probably said everything that had to be said in short sentences, in succint language and served with doses of common sense that probably they dont teach at BSchool

And this number is dedicated to....

I cherish this song... Other than being one of the fave numbers I love to dance to each word is meaningful to me... I've been listening to it continuously for quite some time tonite...

This is dedicated to you .... Audrey ... Bryan Adams with "Heaven"

Oh - thinkin' about all our younger years
There was only you and me
We were young and wild and free

Now nothin' can take you away from me
We bin down that road before
But that's over now
You keep me comin' back for more

Baby you're all that I want
When you're lyin' here in my arms
I'm findin' it hard to believe
We're in heaven
And love is all that I need
And I found it there in your heart
It isn't too hard to see
We're in heaven

Oh - once in your life you find someone
Who will turn your world around
Bring you up when you're feelin' down

Ya - nothin' could change what you mean to me
Oh there's lots that I could say
But just hold me now
Cause our love will light the way

N' baby you're all that I want
When you're lyin' here in my arms
I'm findin' it hard to believe
We're in heaven
And love is all that I need
And I found it there in your heart
It isn't too hard to see
We're in heaven

I've bin waitin' for so long
For something to arrive
For love to come along

Now our dreams are comin' true
Through the good times and the bad
Ya - I'll be standin' there by you

Shopping!!!

Today was my shopping day... After attending a sad PPT and a good workout, Ramesh, Pradeep, Mansur, Sethu and me went out shopping... We had a good time and followed it up with dinner at McDonalds.
What did I get???
A pullover, a winter cap, a cool jacket and a tee. Was going to buy cargoes but didn't like the designs. Will do so in Mumbai.
Missed the CRC meet... damn... but alls well that ends well... me off to finish Season 3!!!