Food for thought

The last of the three days of the Term break. Tomorrow morning we start the penultimate term at ISB. Three months and we are done. But its still a long way to go. Need to get a job to feed myself post ISB and the batch needs to be placed well as a whole so that we can enjoy Term 8 to the fullest. However nothing in the present circumstances of economic gloom and doom seems to cheer us up.

I originally had exotic plans for the term break and the first few days of Term 7 but they all came out a cropper. It feels so weird....I don't know.

Last night went out to the old part of Hyderabad with my roomie since his brother and his fiancee have come to visit him in ISB. Charminar looks really nice at night, in fact much better than I had imagined. We went to Lad Bazaar famous for their gaudy churis and fancy pearls. Then walked back to Shadab and had some of the best biriyani ,Sami mutton and Pakistani chicken ever. Although the icecream at Famous Icecream parlour was a let down, nevertheless it settled the curiosity associated with the place since we all had heard such a lot about it. Hyderabad is really one of the best places to satisfy your appetite. So here I am, trying to eat my way to happiness in these times of uncertainty.

2008 - The Year that was....

2008 probably has been the most happening year for me ever in life. I know it sounds hackneyed but its true...a real roller coaster...So here is looking back at the year gone by for me

1st Jan 08 - It was not a great start to the year for personal reasons... Things happened and lots of "rona dhona" and lots of emotions. But in spite of everything, it probably will be a day I will never forget in my entire life.

5th Jan 08 - I had to fly back to the US to take care of the assignment so that I could make a smooth exit of the project and then the company.

25th Jan 08 - Went on a 4 day road trip of Death Valley National Park. Enjoyed to the fullest but felt a bit sad as I would miss these trips after moving back to India. The drive into the Park, negotiating the great Panamint Ranges at 1 AM at night through a deserted road and then stopping in the moon light with the Panamint Valley bathed in moonlight in front was an ethereal experience.

6th February 08- The last day at work in US. It was really emotional since the place (Monterey) and the people had become a part of me. Lots of memories...I did not know how to react when my client director break into tears while saying Goodbye... :(

8th April 08- Last day at TCS. I did noty realize but on my home it struck me finally. I was out of work for the first time in 5.5 years.

12th April 08- Join ISB and life never was the same anymore.

18th June 08- Got elected as President of Business Technology club at ISB and life at ISB changed again. But it was something I really wanted to do and have enjoyed it.

6th October 08- Flew back home and spent the first pujo at home since 2003. It was really nice and met a lot of school friends at our favourite hangout in Durgapur.

25th November 08- A sense of Deja Vu...Spent most of the day interviewing 3 rounds with Google. Brought back memories of 2002 when I went through the whole day interviewing with TCS. The results unfortunately did not keep up with the similarity.

26th November 08- Shocked like the entire country with the dastardly Mumbai attacks. Watched events unfold on TV I could not believe I was watching. A close friend escaped unhurt from the incident by Grace of God.

19th December 08- Everything went for a toss...A case of so near yet so far...It was so close to my personal life getting settled. Yet as fate would have it, things went south. The incident has left a scar and shook my belief on people.

31st December 08- Remember last year....Every moment of that day in 2007... Wish I could play back 2008 again. I just want to make things right. Well not to be...

So here is hoping that 2009 brings more peace, prosperity and more importantly Happiness in all our lives...Cheers everyone!!!!

Ghajini - "Victory" in Tamil

It has been a crazy crazy last 2 days. One mistake of taking a hardcore subject of CCMA and I am paying the price through a take home test. Just for example, I slogged for 14 hours at a trot to complete only half of the examination. Anyways the second half remains and I need to finish it somehow by tomorrow evening.

You might be asking why the hell do you need sweat it out in the lovely extended break between Christmas and New Year. Well the reason is at ISB there is no such thing as break. With exams on Sunday and Wednesday (31st) and a submission due on 4th January, ISB has ensured that we are pretty much tied up in our quads. Nothing has fundamentally changed since the earlier terms. If you happen to take the wrong electives (read the ones with higher volume of coursework) then it is as hectic if not more than core terms.

And so it goes. Christmas has never been so dull. The only high point being forced to watch a Hindi movie Ghajini. The new movie featuring Amir is all set to be the biggest hit of 2008. So how is the movie? Its a very "Tamil" flick, if you know what I mean. The movie, a remake of a 2005 Tamil hit by the same name, is loosely inspired by Chritopher Nolan's directed movie "Memento". However thankfully this movie is just inspired and is totally Indian and much less complicated than its Hollywood version. Amir is good as usual and so is the villain. Asin, the lead actress in the movie is really pretty and did justice to her part in the movie. The movie weaves the nice, soothing romantic love story in the middle of the violent gory revenge action theme. The nice gestures of selflessness in love in the movie are very touching. One has to stop and think whether such selfless and pure love is now restricted to the silver screen and gets polluted once it sets foot in this big bad world. The cinematography is fantastic and so is the editing. Although the movie has several logical flaws, it keeps you at the edge of you seat for the entire 3+ hours. So all in all money worth.

So here is me signing off with a couple of nice songs from Ghajini...AR Rahman is GOD....Listen On

Song 1.Guzarish..
Song 2.Kaise Mujhe..

Escalation of Commitment

It is true that once someone does an MBA their language alters dramatically. Many of the things that he/she knew or assumed common sense now have new terminology and most of the times, these terminologies are even more daunting. But no matter how much this causes irritation and annoyance to people not accustomed to this lingo, it is really fun to use them appropriately.

Of the zillions of such terms, one which comes to mind is "Escalation of Commitment" or "Sunk Cost Fallacy". I guess by now you have no clue of what they mean. This means the phenomenon where people justify increased investment in a decision, based on the cumulative prior investment, despite new evidence suggesting that the decision was probably wrong. So what essentially happens, people repeatedly get evidence that something is terribly wrong but keep on believing that things will somehow work out and needs some more patience or some further effort. They fail to realize that no matter what is done its a lost cause and so better to just quit.

This phenomena can be seen in business, government, project management and gambling. It can also render itself in our day to day life where we are so attached to a decision emotionally that you think that more effort and time will make things better. And it takes something drastic to realize all of this and understand that you yourself fell into the sunk cost fallacy and never realized. All I can tell you is that it is not easy psychologically to recover from it and even if you do a part of you still tries to think what you could have done differently to make the effort a success...You wish you could go back in time and fix it up....Our minds!!!

Thresholds of Motivation

Someone asked me a few days back. What has been your single most important takeaway from ISB? Cliched as it may sound, but nevertheless a very important question. I replied that it had to be the Organizational Behaviour subjects - Management of Organizations and Managing Teams and the experience of running the Business Technology Club. I think that these two are related. Organizational Behaviour (OB) is one of the most neglected subjects at a B school. Wannabe Consultants find it non-analytical, finance people find it too vague and the general management enthusiasts think that they have managed enough teams to learn more about it. In this process, a lot of students miss out on these subjects (dealing with the softer side of management - people). Having worked for almost 6 years, the one thing I have realized is that as a manager, your functional skills are implied. What really sets you apart from a not-so-good manager is your people skills, your ability to empathize, ability to motivate, ability to be calm under duress and ability to modify company policies for the betterment of you staff.

I was listening to Mr. OP Bhatt, CMD of SBI who was speaking at the CLIC conference here at ISB and his topic of talk was the organizational transformation of SBI in the last 1.5 years in his charge. I listened in amazement at the way he went about rejuvinating the organization - a public sector behemoth. Many of the things we learnt in OB in class were put to use and with spectacular results. Just as an example, he talked about how he motivated peons at the SBI branches to take up additional responsibility and thus improve the productivity and response time at the bank. He had them trained to operate the basics of the computer and printer and how to update the pass books of the bank customers. With this, their additional role was to update the passbooks of the customers, thus taking the load away from the teller. This was a phenomenal success. The peons got so motivated that they were not only proficient, they asked for more responsibility. And the amazing part of this was that the labour unions did not even ask for a pay hike. This is a classic example of intrinsic motivation as we study in OB. The peons whose only work was to transfer files from desk to desk at times and just sit in some obscure corner smoking a bidi was all of a suddena very important person in the bank. Customers queued up to him and requested him to update their passbook. This gave him recognition, pride and a sense of belongingness.

OK so why have I started on this seemingly boring intellectual post early on a sleepy cold November morning? Well the thing is I have been reading Managing Teams for my exams this week and these thoughts kept going round in my head. Anyways as for the campus update, a lot is going on. Placement fever has set in and some international companies have started coming in. We have our Term 5 exams this week. Another tem just whizzed past. 3 more to go...Wish me luck with everything

Wish You all Happy Durga Pujo!!!!!

Half down Half to go...

Term 4 was one of the most crazy rides here at ISB. It came and went by and I am still coming to terms with it with a slight fever and runny nose. After the carnage called Term 3 we thought Term 4 would be better. Better it was, but not quite in the way we imagined. Well let me remember and share with you the historic Term 4.

1) Term 4 was the only term in ISB which is 5 weeks long instead of the regular 6 weeks to accommodate a longer term break for project work (ELP). So what that means is that the craziness of a regular term was fitted into a week less of time.

2) Term 4 also meant renewed interest in extra curricular activities. Club organized sessions, speaker talks, challenges, competitions, B plans and the like made out of class extremely hectic.

3)Term 4 meant a good achievement for my club with the first Product Management workshop by Google organized at the ISB participated by about 310 students.

4) Term 4 meant a crazy subject called Government Society and Business where our section achieved a historic feat of giving themselves their own grade. To read more about this 3.3 moment as we called it refer to Prashant's blog at

5) Term 4 also saw a lot of action (for lack of a better word) at Wall Street. Aspiring i-Bankers watched in horror as the industry became history. The future managers of the corporate world watched the birth of the US Navaratnas(the name I coined for state controlled AIG).

6) Term 4 saw Mamata putting a gun on Ratan Tata's head driving him out from Singur and thus pushing Bengal to stone age.

7) Term 4 had 3 birthdays of my close friends at ISB and I got flung into the pool with them thrice in 5 days.

8) Term 4 meant a lot of expensive phone calls to exotic european cities like Paris, London, Zurich, Venice, Berlin, Rome and I dont know where else...

9) Term 4 meant not partying after end terms and lying in bed with flu.

10) Term 4 meant finally getting to go stay at home with parents during Durga Pujo

With this I am halfway there...50% MBA

A few snaps from Viren's bday party and the 3.3 party

Trip to Blore

Another of the mega breaks from blogging. The only thing I have to say is that Term 3 is over. Most of us did not realize what hit us specially in the last 2 weeks of the term. Well it did end as all good things do and then it left a huge void in my life. A void exacerbated by the fact that all three of my quad mates decided to take a break from campus. The next three days were one of the longest and loneliest that I have spent at ISB. And I can tell you that if I did not have loads of work of my club, it would have been really bad. However the one good decision I took was to make plans to visit my friends in Bangalore over the weekend. It was something to look forward to and and it did not disappoint a bit.

Two significant revelations from the trip. This was the first time I was traveling through the new Hyderabad and Bangalore airports and both of them are pleasant departures from the railway station like boring and stoic look and feel of the other existing airports of India. The second significant thing of the trip was the fact that I did not have to negotiate the infamous Bangalore traffic on either of the days I stayed there. I must mention my friend AM and his wife MM for the impeccable hospitality and warm reception extended to me during my visit. I know that its natural considering that he is one of my best friends but in these days when things change so fast and old relationships give way newer models, we found that we had not deviated away much from our college days. We could still laugh at small insignificant things, share the odd joke and discuss practical issues. MM is a nice girl and I had some of the most amazing home cooked food I have had in two months. Who otherwise takes the hassle to make me luchi at 12 in the night after we all reached their place from the Bangalore airport. Ohhh I forgot to mention, my friend got a brand new Honda City and it is his first love at the moment. His wife probably sees the same attention being given to the car now that used to be her before.

Anyways met up with a lot of other friends from from college. Had loads of adda (Bengali of pure idle gossip) on the Saturday and watched the horribly crappy Singh is King at night.The next day, we had lunch at BBQ Nation and I visited my school friends place. I met another couple of friends all of whom I was meeting after 8-9 years. We discussed school, childhood crushes and adolescent pranks. It was the first time after joining ISB that I laughed so much. Anyways all in all a memorable trip. Unfortunately no pictures since I forgot to take my camera. MM took a couple but I have not got them yet. Ohh yaa the best highlight of the trip was the fact that on both my flights the adjacent seat was vacant in spite of the flight being reasonably full. Talk about being lucky :D

From now on I have been chosen to blog on the ISB official blog which would be launched within a month. Watch this space for more updates on that.

08.08.08

Sorry guys...I haven't kept up with the pace here over the last couple of weeks. ok ok you know what is coming...another load of the same excuses - too hectic, classes, assignments, blah blah blah....well they are correct you know..only you all at ISB know...when you are expected to be proficient in corporate finance, operations, cost accounting and entrepreneurship within a span of 5 weeks...things are not that rosy.

Anyways now onto some interesting news on the other things at ISB. Last week I attended a session on Leadership by Mr. Shiv kumar who is the VP of sales at Nokia India. It was one of the interesting and thought-provoking talks I have heard in a while. He shared with us ten interesting thought relevant for a leader.

1. Complexity vs Changes
2. Present vs Future
3. Boss vs Friend
4. Job vs Family
5. Do vs Think
6. Detail vs Big Picture
7. Responsibility vs Accountability
8. Popularity vs Respect
9. Good News vs Bad News
10.Self doubt vs Optimism

He shared with us interesting anecdotes regarding each of the thoughts and we also got to hear from him the insider account of his handling of the Nokia battery crisis which happened a couple of years back. One of the best definitions of a leader I remember from the session is that " A Leader is a dealer in hope".

We have Mr.NarayanMurthy(of Infosys fame) coming to campus for a session with us tomorrow morning. I am sure it will be another interesting and insightful talk. So all in all a lot happening on campus. At times you just stop and think for a second....its just mind boggling.

The hyderabad weather is extremely pleasant now and it gets harder by the day to pull myself out of bed in the morning. The good part is that I have classes in the afternoon which means no missed classes. I have a new project on my plate now. It is the experiental learning program at ISB where the students take up a consulting project with a company for about 4 months. I got a project of my choice which is related to formulating the marketing and growth strategy of a new Web 2.0 product. Hope it is going to be an interesting experience.

Anyways time to sign off. Having slept for 7 hours over the last 2 days, I think I deserve a bit more tonight. Ohh I happened to watch the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics...I think all I can say is Wow..Hats off to China.

A Day in Term 3

7:30 AM: I get out of bed after having snoozed the alarm for the last 30 minutes. My eyes are all red as I slept at 3:30 AM in the morning after completing an assignment.

11:45 AM: Somehow manage to read through 80 pages of case and 30 pages of articles before submitting another online assignment for a different subject.

12:00 PM: Rush to meet ISB official to finalize the plan for a high profile speaker(President and COO of Computer Associates Inc) visit in the evening.

1:00 PM: Walk back home after co-ordinating the activities for the evening.

2:15 - 6:45 PM: Classes and Classes.

6:45 PM: Rush to Deans office to receive the guest speaker and show him around the academic centre

7:00 - 8:00 PM: Introduce speaker and listen to the captivating talk on successful technological mergers.

8:00 - 9:00 PM: Check mails and reply to the important ones.

9:00 - 9:45 PM: Attend a meeting with other professional club presidents

9:45 - 10:00 PM : Somehow gulp down my dinner

10:00 - 11:00 PM : Team meeting for status updates of my club

11:00 - 12:30 PM: Discuss and narrow down list of prospective ELP projects to apply

2:30 AM: Doze off to sleep with the casebook still open while reading another case for the next day's assignment due at 10:00 AM next day.

There is pressure and then there is Term 3. Its an uphill battle and will prove to be a test of my time management skills with all the added responsibility. Lets see. Wish me luck.

Here is a picture from the Computer Associates session that evening

Nagarjunasagar Dam Visit

The end of Term 2 break proved to be much smaller than we thought originally. Most of the 5 day break had to be sacrificed to complete the Compstrat assignment. However yesterday we finally broke free from our shackles and escaped the prison of ISB - destination Nagarjunasagar Dam which is around 200 km from Hyderabad.

The gang that got together for the trip was very nice and with the exception of about three or four of us everyone else was with family and kids. The bus ride of about 4 hours was great fun with chit chats, light humour and pranks. It was a long time since I had an opportunity to watch India up close. I feel that if you have to experience true India you need to travel by road. Although a lot has changed, yet the farther we got from Hyderabad, the large houses and supermarkets gave way to smaller houses to thatched ones. And there were roadside dhabas and nondescript teastalls doing brisk business. We stopped at one of them for breakfast. To my amazement, even the foreigners in our group did not need second invite for the hot puris and some yucky daal. And the best part of it they are all alive and kicking today, a day after this. Talk of health consciousness.

Anyways we reached Nagarjunasagar around 11 AM and the dam was pretty nice. Although the gates were closed, we could imagine the imposing scene when the gates might be open and million cusecs of water gushing down the slope of the dam wall into the riverbed below. An hours boatride took us to an island in the middle of the huge reservoir upstream called Nagarjuna Konda. There is a nice museum where the local archaeological artifacts dating from paleothilic age to buddhist times were on display. We also had lunch in a local restaurant and after a long time had some nice fish fry.

Ettipotala falls was not as pretty as it might look after the rainy season. Yet the vista point, the adjoining park and the cafeteria provided a nice place to hangout. After ages, I rode the swing and the see-saw and felt like kids. I wish I could go back to that age - an age where there were no worries apart from homework after class.

Amidst all this fun and frolic, I felt strange...well somewhat empty. How I wished that the person I love so much was with me. Ahh wishes....Anyways after a nice evening coffe, we headed back for campus, feeling wonderfully refreshed but a bit down as the enjoyable day had come to a close. I stared out of the window of the bus and see the scenery rushing past and I felt that it is the same with me.

Just for the memory, following are a few of the pictures from the trip.

The path to Nirvana

Will we ever fully understand ourselves? I guess not. There are times we feel that we know what we are doing. We feel we are doing everything for a purpose. We feel happy, content and lucky. But I wish that life was that simple. Just when things seem too easy, predictable and obvious something changes and all your ideas, beliefs and the obvious are no more and you look like a fool for having been so naive.

Life these days forces me to make a choice in even the most mundane of things. Should I have breakfast at Goel( the cafeteria here at ISB), have it at home or skip it altogether. Should I spend the extra hour on one subject for a lost cause or spend it on something else where there maybe better return on marks. Should I attend a party or catch up on some precious sleep. Choices choices and more choices. I sometimes so wish that these choices were not there. Our lives would have been so much simple. Anyways even before I came here I had to make difficult choices. Should I change jobs and settle down in the US, should I quit my job or take a leave of absence, should I study at ISB or go for Cambridge...the list is endless. And I made each of those choices, worked through them one at a time...fought with my fears and apprehensions but I believed I made the right choices. Well the only problem with the definition of "right" is that it makes us happy. So when the scenario changes, happiness moves further away and then all those decisions do not seem so right anymore.

Now when this happens what do you do? You feel disoriented, frustrated and helpless...and just wish someone would help you...You stretch your hand out in the hope someone will hold you and guide you out. But it is India where nothing can ever be right and just like the Hindi movies there is no help when you need it. The police always arrives late.

So I resolve to keep fighting. I resolve to wade the shit and come out on the cleaner side where the lawns are picture green, the water is crystal blue and the air is pure and fragrant. Hope that would after all make me Happy. Would it? The personal battle wages and end is not in sight....adios

Zipping through Term 2

It is a story of so near yet so far. Germany came closer to the crown. They came third in the 2006 world cup. In the 2008 euro they came second. But while I felt heartbreak to lose to Italy, I did not have the same feeling to watch them lose to Spain in the final of Euro. Spain played beautiful football throughout the tournament and in the final and totally deserved a title to put their under-achiever ghost to rest. Anyways a fitting finale to a wonderful tournament.

The term is breezing past. I really cannot express how busy days are. So much is hapenning on campus. The clubs have finally got their core teams in place. I had to sit for four hours at a stretch to take interviews of my interested batchmates.And to tell you the truth, I also realized how hard it is to make decisions. I mean ISB is full of superstars and everyone is capable. So to select someone over the other is a challenge in itself. Anyways I finally have my club team in place. And in the very first day, the team performed phenomenally to pull of a perfect session involving some very senior Google officials on campus. I also got to meet a lot of our alums in Google and chatted up about their new lives post ISB and they tried to relive their days in Term 2 through us.

The club activities mean that I end up emailing the whole day. Even now, I have been planning to go to bed for the last 30 minutes and have been replying to mails and getting items checked from my to-do list. My personal life is also taking a hit with my super busy schedule. I wish I had some more time for the people I love. I know they understand but sometimes that is not enough. Anyways thats life at ISB.. My life zipping ahead at galactic speed. Now off to the precious few hours of sleep.

Deutschland besiegt Portugal

Whenever Germany yet again prove the doubters wrong on the biggest stage, an aphorism usually attributed to Gary Lineker is dragged up: "Football is a simple game – 22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans win."

Living Life Fast Forward

Have you ever felt like you are desperately trying to catch up with things but it is always a step ahead of you? Well this is the exact same feeling I am having ever since Term 2 kicked off. Term 2 is a totally different beast compared to Term 1. Every other day there are group assignments, DMOP homework, Markstrat decisions and to top it LDP presentations. The list is endless and it is relentless. Every moment I feel that I am rushing through everything even sleep...can you believe that? even sleeping in Fast Forward.

Classes are not very interesting this term. Some of it has to do with the subjects but a lot of it also has to do with the profs teaching them. Although they boast of some incredible credentials, when it comes to teaching I think they have quite a long way to go. Markstrat is one of the highs of this term and is playing a big part in sucking away every one's time. We have adopted a nice policy related to Markstrat. We have decided not to spend more than 3-4 hours on each decision. Given that your company's results are not correlated to the amount of time you put in the game,it does not really pay to put in long hours. I am happy that this strategy paid off quite well with decision 3 and we did much better with lesser effort. A lot of buzz is going around campus with one of the groups having so much inventory left that they are planning to stash them in their quads and studios to avoid holding costs. But I must admit that the Markstrat game is a beauty. It has unleashed a competition on campus like never before and it is really funny at times to see people hyped about their company's reults as if they are really going to get a raise.

Its not just all these acads, its the football as well. I really wish I was not so passionate about the game. I have to give it another 2 hours each noght. I was upset to see Germany limp through to the Quarters. Tonight they play Portugal and I am really apprehensive of their chances. The German fan inside me is getting prepared for the worst. But then Germany still it is....We will know tonight.



I just hope Ballack shines tonight.

As if all this was not enough, I decided to contest for the post of President - Business Technology Club (one of the many student clubs at ISB) and luckily enough (or unluckily only time will tell) got elected. So now this new responsibility will also demand time from me. I just hope I can live up to the expectations of the people who have expressed their faith and voted for me. Ahh well we will see....So many people have survived this rigorous year and I am confident I will too...but right now I just want life to go even faster so that this freaking Term gets over and I can just relax for a day.

Weekend Entertainment

The term breaks gave me the opportunity to watch two movies of totally contrasting types - Indiana Jones and Sarkar Raaj. The first one fails to live upto the standards of prior Indiana Jones movies even with the state of the art special effects that Hollywood puts to use these days. However if you are looking forward to watching a non-sensical movie without having to bother the grey cells much, it might be actually value for money. So next time dont ask me "did you like the movie?" The response is totally dependent on the state of mind one is watching the movie.

Sarkar Raaj on the other hand is a different proposition. The starcast and the opening sequence is very very similar to Sarkar. Although inspired from Godfather, I felt Sarkar was a decent try by RGV. However Sarkar Raaj has an extremely weak storyline. Amitabh, Abhishek and Aish all desperately try to save the movie through a combo of decent acting and star power but the movie just falls through without a plot. I had gone into this movie with an expectation after having watched and liked Sarkar (inspite of its shortcomings) but Sarkar Raaj turned out to be a total waste of time. In the end, I was literally crying "Govinda Govinda Govinda Govinda Govinnnndaaaa" for the movie to end.

After two movie experiences, the only good entertainment from the term break was watching TV. I watched Ivanovic become the women's world no 1 and then I witnessed a rare sight of Roger Federer literally torn apart in Roland Garros by Rafael Nadal. And to top it all, I watched Germany begin their campaign in Euro 2008 with a convincing 2-0 win over Poland. Hats off to the greatest entertainer there is.... Sports!!!!!!!

Salvation Awaits

I happened to take a walk around campus a while back and believe me there was not a soul to be seen. The final exams for Term 1 begins tomorrow and for many of us its the last hope of salvation. Though I must say that each one of us have our own view of salvation. No matter how much many of us say that grades don't matter and that we don't care, the fact is all of us do. And it is not because we are obsessed about it but it is because we all are used to being successful. I mean all of us have been in the top bracket either in acads or work and the very thought of being resigned to mediocrity is a huge blow to our morale. Its a bitter pill to swallow. I can really feel what is going through most of our minds. Thinking about it, I feel that coping with these mental blocks, inhibitions and challenges and coming out on the better side of it would be an important takeaway for me from B School.

It is also true that having a support net of close friends is essential to survive through these difficult times. Each of us need that space where we can let go of our emotions,speak our mind and have others listen, understand and empathize. I have always been a firm believer that people whom you want to be with when you are feeling down, are the people whom you value the most. For those of us who have family on campus, the support system is in place and for others - the sooner we find it the better it is. As for me, I just want to say thank you to you all...you know who you are...>:)<

On a lighter note, I watched the IPL finals what a grand finish it had. Being a neutral I enjoyed the match even more without having to go through the angst of a supporter. Kudos to Warney and his team for proving the law of averages wrong and outperforming everyone else throughout the IPL.

Debit Marks Credit Confidence

Well it has been one of the longest periods without a blog from me. I have heard from quite a few of you as to why I have not written for a long time (read a little over a week). Well here I am...after having my self-confidence in accounting take a severe beating, I cannot find a better thing to do at this hour.

A lot has hapenned over the last 10 days or so after mid terms. The courses with which I was anyways having trouble keeping pace with before the mid terms have quickened and lo and behold tomorrow is the last class of Term 1. Can you believe that? Four subjects over and with it 1/8th of the MBA classes at ISB. Wowww!!!

It was hardly a couple of days after recovering from the brutality of mid- terms and the results were out. All my notions of doing decently(above average) have gone for a toss and now I am desperately hoping that I can stay within my revised goal as I mentioned in my previous post. A whole slew of things get taught in classes and I really wish that I had not slept through them but then its not something that I really wanted to - it just happened.

Today has been a happy day for me personally. Two of my very close friends(one study group mate and another quaddie) won director posts in the student body at ISB. Congrats MB and JK!!!!They thoroughly deserved it.The good feeling was that most of the guys who got elected were the people I had voted for. I felt good that amidst the intensity of the competition and the groupism people did not lose their sense of rationality. A couple of days back I was really appalled at the lack of interest of my batch mates towards the elections and the candidates. Infact only 5% of the batch even bothered to show up at the soap box presentations of the prospective candidates. This is surprising since the student body contained some very key posts like placement committee director which should be of paramount interest to each and every one of us. I thought to myself that this represented the true picture of India. We in India do not bother to invest a little time to understanding and selecting the people we vote for and later come to regret and crib about it. Anyways I hope that the people who have been elected stand up to the responsibility bestowed on them and perform to the fullest. My sincere best wishes for them.

A significant event last week was attending the HYSEA(Hyderabad Software Exporters Association) meet at the Infy campus opposite to ISB. We were a group of four representing ISB and it was a nice experience listening to a rivetting talk by Mr.Jai Pullur who is the founder of Pramati Technologies. It was also a nice opportunity to "network" with Mr Pullur as well as Mr Narasimha Rao, chairman HYSEA and head of Infy Hyderabad.I have talked to ISB and hope to get Mr Pullur for a similar session in ISB. Another event last week was an alumni interaction event we had organized. It was one of the best sessions in terms of understanding where we may fit post ISB in the technology sector. We had the opportunity to speak with alums who have made it quite big post ISB. So "net net" very enlightening experiences.

As I speak the fear of the end terms is already playing havoc on my psyche. As a stress buster I have already started planning for the 3 days of term break post end terms. A movie, a visit to BBQ Nation,Hyderabad Darshan and a visit to my didi's place already figure in the plans. Added to that is the excitement of Euro which is scheduled to start on 7th. "Deutschland wird gewinnen!!!!". Wish I could fast forward time.......

Letting it Loose

It all hapenned last night. All the frustration, disappointment, all the pain, the agony, the longings of the past week was let out by large doses of rum!!!!Mid terms over and instead of reflecting on the carnage of Eco exam, it was time to party again at ISB.And with Bacardi sponsoring the party,booze was free and man it flowed. Nothing could deter the gathered party crowd - not even the smoke when one of the fuses blew up in the events lounge. Some people who were "sober" even thought the smoke to be the usual dance floor smoke.

Anyways, saw and heard loads of funny stuff too and after a point, many of us lost track of what was going on. Even as we were sifting through the party pictures today, we were finding it difficult to remember when the pictures of us were indeed taken.Well doesn't matter.The conversations were incredibly interesting with discussions ranging from batch presidency prospects,to the quantity of liquor in each drink, to Rajkumar(of Virappan abduction fame) films and why he is the best thing to have hapenned to mankind after Jesus.Now who dare say much when the stakes of conversations is so high.

But I had my chances to show my softer, vulnerable side and unfortunately MB got that recorded on tape..damn..Well it was one of the most enjoyable parties at ISB till now.Also this weekend marks the successful completion of 1/16 of my MBA sojourn.
A few photos from the party last night.....Enjoyy

Confidence Marginalized

The campus bears a deserted look. Its not just today but it has been the same this entire week. Exams really have this superb capability to psyche out students. And its no different in a B school as well.Every one of us are busy cramming for the mid-terms which happen to be tomorrow and the day after. Now the interesting question for many of you would be "What the **** are you doing writing a blog instead of studying?" Well the answer lies in a new statistic with which I have decided to measure my performance - its called the top 75%.

Even a week back I was of the idea that even though grades are not super important I would try to remain above or around the average.But slowly with the asignment marks coming in and the reality of preparations sinking in, I felt the need of a new statistic - a new benchmark I can aim for....and now having settled on it I feel much more relaxed.

Classes are so much fun these days. With everyone studying till late in the night,sleeping in class with varying degrees of shamelessness is the order of the day. There are some who doze off every now and then and wake up, look at the professor and around to figure out that all is well and again start dozing. Then there are some who keep dozing in oblivion, irrespective of whether the prof is looking or not.And finally there are people who doze for a while, feel they have been sleeping for a while and start contributing in class as if they had been listening intensely all along. Whatever it is its real fun to watch. Although I belong to the first category, I do sometimes take some time off my dozing schedule to look around :D

Another favourite comment going around campus is "Arey You are the potential dean's lister"(Read top 10% of class). I dont know but saying this phrase probably makes some of us feel better...or maybe its the response to this statement that makes them feel better. Anyways dont know..dont care....thankfully people have not thought so highly of me and I have been spared of this torture till now.

Today SD sent me a mail with the pictures of 3 bottles of Chivas Regal and saying waiting for saturday ...Felt soo good. Even though I am not a great fan of Chivas Regal, the sight of those bottles and the image of saturday nite post midterms...aaaaahhhhhhhh...bonne humeur