term 4!
Term 4 is here... classes tomorrow... as we start thinking abt electives, we go thru the last 4 core courses... some favourites of mine are in this term...
management of organizations... have heard a lot abt huggy rao... this also happens to be my favourite... the fundamentals of Org B...
strategic analysis of IT... finally a tech course! i have been waiting for this one... after all the battering in the accounting courses, this is my turn to give it back to the CAs! ;)
Govt. soceity and business... Gurcharan Das is here! India Unbound and elephant paradigm are required readings!
Investment analysis... happy that this one course is quant oriented... badly needed one to balance all the other faff courses...
The graduate student board is holding its student forum next week... the GSB comprises of the president, the treasurer and the vice presidents of various councils... these councils take care of all aspects of student life here... they meet every month with the students to apprise them of what the GSB is upto... the meeting assumes even more importance as they plan to unveil details about an ISB event coming up in december... the one for which I designed the logo... this is just the teaser... I will write abt the event and the the details next week sometime... :)
as i am doing the readings for tomorrows classes, the sunday brunch from sarovar is playing up... guess i am going to sleep after all and complete the readings in the morning tomorrow... its been a fabulous term break... I learned to play snooker and slept like a log most of the time... just that ELP stole one of these days from me, but thats ok... i am waiting to see which project will come by my way on tuesday, when the bidding results will be announced... anyways, as of now, the mind is fresh and ready for tomorrow...
Saturday, August 30, 2003
As the break nears its end, I am going through a lot of reflection... The first three terms have resulted in a lot of learning... at the same time, its been tight and fast... if there has been one disappointment for me at ISB, its been the way our batch has been scheduled... we had a late start, a protracted orientation and now, we have 3 of the 4 core terms for just 4 weeks... This year ISB has made adjustments to the various variances that had happened in its scheduling so that it can settle down in an annual calender that can be repeated year after year... the next year's academic calender reflects this, with 6 week terms though the year... i would have loved to have 6 week terms... while the no. of classes or the course content has not been reduced, doing this in short time this year has meant that we have had more classes a day and lesser amount of time to take things in... i do not know how this has affected people here...
If I have to think of the positive side, what comes to my mind immediately is that a nice momentum has built up thanks to these shorter terms... My time management has improved considerably... its been tough but its taught a lesson as well...
If I have to think of the positive side, what comes to my mind immediately is that a nice momentum has built up thanks to these shorter terms... My time management has improved considerably... its been tough but its taught a lesson as well...
Friday, August 29, 2003
ELP
Eventful term break... There has been lot happening in the campus in the past few days... ELP company day happened yesterday... there were many companies in campus, making presentations to students about projects being offered... We had 2 sessions of presentations followed by break out sessions where we met with the companies one on one to discuss the projects... My perceptions about many projects changed as I went about meetings these companies... It was a tough choice... I am interested in aspects of HR as well as technology and it was a tough choice given the number of companies and the quality of the projects...
Today, all students submitted their bids for the projects, along with expression of interests... Joe and his panel will go through the EOIs decide the allotment of projects... I have ranked a US based high tech startup's India entry strategy as my no. 1... then there are projects from Mercer, some IT marketing projects and some commodities trading projects from Singapore... I am looking forward to monday...
Admissions released the next year's calender and fee structure... personally, for me, the fee hike is a bit disappointing, though i understand the reasons behind it... i dont have enuf detail to know if it cud have been avoided but my concern is if it will deter some people from applying to ISB... I hope it doesnt happen.. the increased no. scholarships will help but I am still very afraid what the impact of this one is going to be...
Eventful term break... There has been lot happening in the campus in the past few days... ELP company day happened yesterday... there were many companies in campus, making presentations to students about projects being offered... We had 2 sessions of presentations followed by break out sessions where we met with the companies one on one to discuss the projects... My perceptions about many projects changed as I went about meetings these companies... It was a tough choice... I am interested in aspects of HR as well as technology and it was a tough choice given the number of companies and the quality of the projects...
Today, all students submitted their bids for the projects, along with expression of interests... Joe and his panel will go through the EOIs decide the allotment of projects... I have ranked a US based high tech startup's India entry strategy as my no. 1... then there are projects from Mercer, some IT marketing projects and some commodities trading projects from Singapore... I am looking forward to monday...
Admissions released the next year's calender and fee structure... personally, for me, the fee hike is a bit disappointing, though i understand the reasons behind it... i dont have enuf detail to know if it cud have been avoided but my concern is if it will deter some people from applying to ISB... I hope it doesnt happen.. the increased no. scholarships will help but I am still very afraid what the impact of this one is going to be...
Tuesday, August 26, 2003
You've got mail
Its term break. It's nice, just warm and sunny outside... As symphony 9, boyz and norah jones take turns to please my ears, i am almost dancing in my bed...
Here I am sitting in my bed, with my laptop on my lap, and the lazy me has just finished watching "You've got mail"... Nice and sweet movie... And Meg Ryan, I have no words! As she realises that it was indeed "Joe Fox" all the while, her reactions, the smile... wow... A nice, pleasant and happy ending that kinda ups your mood for the day!
Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high
There's a land that I heard of, once in a lullaby
Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare to dream
Really do come true
Someday I'll wish upon a star,
And wake up where the cloouds are far behind me
Where troubles melt like lemon drops,
Away above the chimney tops
That's where you'll find me
Somewhere over the rainbow, bluebirds fly
Bird fly over the rainbow, why then, oh why can't I
If happy little bluebirds fly beyond the rainbow,
Why, oh why can't I?
Life decides to give you a breather once in a while... I am grateful!
Its term break. It's nice, just warm and sunny outside... As symphony 9, boyz and norah jones take turns to please my ears, i am almost dancing in my bed...
Here I am sitting in my bed, with my laptop on my lap, and the lazy me has just finished watching "You've got mail"... Nice and sweet movie... And Meg Ryan, I have no words! As she realises that it was indeed "Joe Fox" all the while, her reactions, the smile... wow... A nice, pleasant and happy ending that kinda ups your mood for the day!
Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high
There's a land that I heard of, once in a lullaby
Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare to dream
Really do come true
Someday I'll wish upon a star,
And wake up where the cloouds are far behind me
Where troubles melt like lemon drops,
Away above the chimney tops
That's where you'll find me
Somewhere over the rainbow, bluebirds fly
Bird fly over the rainbow, why then, oh why can't I
If happy little bluebirds fly beyond the rainbow,
Why, oh why can't I?
Life decides to give you a breather once in a while... I am grateful!
Sunday, August 24, 2003
Saturday, August 23, 2003
From the archives...
Here is a humorous account of a day in ISB... Written by one from the second batch... Dug it out from my mails today... enjoy!
06:30 alarm goes off.
06:45 at least a couple of other people in the block have been woken up.
07:00 “The damn alarm”. “No, this is not the best of days to hit the gym; will start from tomorrow”. Hit the snooze button for now and go back to sleep.
08:15 “Damn it, how the hell did I turn the alarm off when all I wanted was a 10 minute snooze? damn you alarm”
“Who the hell designs such clocks, I wonder. These guys sure need a lesson or two to keep the snooze and off buttons distinct”. Swear again.
08:20 Get out of bed. “Bligh me, Why the hell do I have to work so hard?”
08:30 Reality strikes - “Planned on reading the case this morning”.
Worse still – a faint remembrance of a promise to print off and submit the assignment. “Damn, why the hell do I have to take all the initiative?”
(Considering that our man did not have a part to play in the assignment itself, submitting it is the least he can do)
08:45 Showered, dressed and out. Run to the academic centre.
Exchange “Hi”, “Hello” on the way. “Hmmm… some of these women sure are beautiful”.
The semblance of feminity has by now sent spirits sky high. “Beautiful day, beautiful flowers... beautiful everything”
08:55 head for breakfast; long queue. “I hate this. Whoever is that Herbie…?”
08:57 grab a muffin, a cup of coffee and run.
09:00 Print off the assignment due for submission. “Now, how do I get out of this labyrinth? Which way is ACx? Never mind, I’ll just ask”.
09:05 Settle down for the lecture, unsettling at least a couple of people on the way.
Yawn. Munch muffin. Sip coffee.
09:15 Connect laptop and check e-mail. Log-in to MSN, Yahoo messenger, rediff bol and every other messaging software. Check news, sports, weather.
Refresh, check for e-mail again (might get one of those “mission critical” e-mails you see).
09:30 Perverted day dreams
09:40 “Oops. Close call; the guy in the next seat got cold called; better pay attention”.
Raise hand and make a long winded statement which somehow gets the professor’s appreciation.
“Hee hee…Not a bad point for some one who has not read the case”
09:57 Hunger pangs. Join the mass exodus leaving the room. Head for breakfast.
The bemused professor declares a 10 minute break.
10:20 Sanity prevails and the class gets underway.
Sign the attendance sheet. “Strange morning this - no jokes, cartoons on the attendance sheet. I hope all is well with my class mates.
Or is this MBA finally getting to them? Nah, must just be an off-day”
10:30 Try and plan for the day. “No, getting too tough. Let me not bite off more than what I can chew. One thing at a time is all I’ll do”
Send out a meeting request for a case discussion later that evening.
10:40 Music to the ears – favourite babe speaks.
Wonder why women with long hair are so pretty.
10:47 Yawn, sleep, snore, dream.
11:00 Wake up. “Boy, how long can an hour get?”
Lecture ends.
For the next 15 minutes, live life kings size. Kings size cigarette that is.
Get to know life on the queen’s side. Flirt that is.
11:15 Another lecture. Ditto.
01:15 Pm -Check schedule for the day, before it is too late.
Instant bout of depression: too much work for the day.
“Did I make a mistake in setting up that meeting today? One of those grade conscious guys in the group would have done the assignment anyway. Silly me”
01:25 Lunch. “I’ll stick to low fat, protein rich diets today”. Fill the plate with sprouts, peas etc.
Counsel the guy opposite on why he should have more of proteins.
Taste the first morsel. “Ahhh… This lunch sucks. What was I thinking when I picked all this up?”
Commitment & consistency – “got to eat now”. Damn Cialdini.
“Or may be I could just wait until this guy finishes”. Get stuck into the brownies and ice cream a little later.
01:50 Belch. “May be I ate one too many of those brownies”
02:00 Send out an e-mail to at least 4 people, inviting them for a game of tennis at 4:00 in the evening.
02:05 catch some sleep. “Have been working my ass off, I sure need some rest”
04:30 Turn up for tennis. Just one other guy there, “Lazy jerks, must be sleeping”.
Decline to play singles. Too demanding - “Who the hell can cover an entire tennis court on his own?”
04:45 Hunger pangs again – banana milk shake at The Café.
Gossip.
05:15 Check e-mail. Too many spam e-mails these days. “I am not taking this lying down” – contribute to the spam.
05:30 Send some more spams, this time without any subject.
06:00 Team meeting for the case submission.
Déjà vu: One step forward, two steps back.
“Nobody listens. These guys need to improve their listening skills.
I made a perfectly logical argument; well an almost perfectly valid argument except for the fact that cause and effect were not really linked”
So much for diversity - “The accountant’s world ends with numbers. The economist keeps going back to his ideal world of demand and supply curves.
The marketing guy wants to make a qualitative decision and twist (rather than build) numbers to support the decision.
Personally, I just want this meeting to end and end soon”
07:00 Discussion still on.
Time to play the trump card – “If you cannot convince people, confuse them”
Yell. Berate.
08:30 Somehow work is split. “My part is the exec summary and the conclusion. Got away this time!”
08:35 Dinner. No discourse this time - All taste no gyaan.
09:30 Thirst attacks. Alcoholic thirst that is. Check e-mail to be sure you haven’t missed out on one of those booze parties.
Just the lone email from CAS; Shift+Del – way too many spams these days!
10:30 Wait for group mates to send in their bits for the assignment.
Use cutting edge technology (read as Cntrl c and Cntrl v) to populate executive summary and conclusion paragraphs.
Send out the completed report and ask someone else to print off and submit. “Done my bit for this report.
Surely, I can’t be the one running around to get this printed”
11:50 Friend calls in to remind you about the application deadlines for the day. “Jerk, couldn’t he have called earlier?
Or may be I should read e-mails sent by the CAS office before I delete them.
Ahh… don’t blame yourself, you get 10 spams for every reasonable e-mail. How can you even tell?”
11:55:46 Get to work heart in mouth. Search for the last EOI. Change all “marketing” to “finance”. Change all “managerial” to “leadership”.
Change all “XYZ Ltd” to “ABC Ltd”. Change all…
“Whom should this letter be addressed to?”
“One of these days, I am going to write a generic EOI saying ‘to whom so ever this may concern’ for now let me stick to Manager HR”.
11:57:45 God, MS-Word takes ages to save a document. Damn word.
11:58:15 Adobe is even worse in converting files. Damn Adobe.
11:58:55 Log-in to the CAS website. Once again huge latency problems - the web-site does not live up to the speed demanded by the user.
“Got to give this feedback to CAS”.
11:59:55 “Phew, close shave!”. Done with uploading the EOI.
12:00 Gloat at the achievement - “Am I not a master in operational excellence? I bet no one else on campus would have achieved my Just In Time finesse”
12:05 Time to kick ass - quite a few birthday boys. Head for the swimming pool and kick ass really hard. Make sure he wakes up with a swollen ass.
2:30 Well, all is well that ends swell. Hit the bed; need to be up for another gruelling day.
Here is a humorous account of a day in ISB... Written by one from the second batch... Dug it out from my mails today... enjoy!
06:30 alarm goes off.
06:45 at least a couple of other people in the block have been woken up.
07:00 “The damn alarm”. “No, this is not the best of days to hit the gym; will start from tomorrow”. Hit the snooze button for now and go back to sleep.
08:15 “Damn it, how the hell did I turn the alarm off when all I wanted was a 10 minute snooze? damn you alarm”
“Who the hell designs such clocks, I wonder. These guys sure need a lesson or two to keep the snooze and off buttons distinct”. Swear again.
08:20 Get out of bed. “Bligh me, Why the hell do I have to work so hard?”
08:30 Reality strikes - “Planned on reading the case this morning”.
Worse still – a faint remembrance of a promise to print off and submit the assignment. “Damn, why the hell do I have to take all the initiative?”
(Considering that our man did not have a part to play in the assignment itself, submitting it is the least he can do)
08:45 Showered, dressed and out. Run to the academic centre.
Exchange “Hi”, “Hello” on the way. “Hmmm… some of these women sure are beautiful”.
The semblance of feminity has by now sent spirits sky high. “Beautiful day, beautiful flowers... beautiful everything”
08:55 head for breakfast; long queue. “I hate this. Whoever is that Herbie…?”
08:57 grab a muffin, a cup of coffee and run.
09:00 Print off the assignment due for submission. “Now, how do I get out of this labyrinth? Which way is ACx? Never mind, I’ll just ask”.
09:05 Settle down for the lecture, unsettling at least a couple of people on the way.
Yawn. Munch muffin. Sip coffee.
09:15 Connect laptop and check e-mail. Log-in to MSN, Yahoo messenger, rediff bol and every other messaging software. Check news, sports, weather.
Refresh, check for e-mail again (might get one of those “mission critical” e-mails you see).
09:30 Perverted day dreams
09:40 “Oops. Close call; the guy in the next seat got cold called; better pay attention”.
Raise hand and make a long winded statement which somehow gets the professor’s appreciation.
“Hee hee…Not a bad point for some one who has not read the case”
09:57 Hunger pangs. Join the mass exodus leaving the room. Head for breakfast.
The bemused professor declares a 10 minute break.
10:20 Sanity prevails and the class gets underway.
Sign the attendance sheet. “Strange morning this - no jokes, cartoons on the attendance sheet. I hope all is well with my class mates.
Or is this MBA finally getting to them? Nah, must just be an off-day”
10:30 Try and plan for the day. “No, getting too tough. Let me not bite off more than what I can chew. One thing at a time is all I’ll do”
Send out a meeting request for a case discussion later that evening.
10:40 Music to the ears – favourite babe speaks.
Wonder why women with long hair are so pretty.
10:47 Yawn, sleep, snore, dream.
11:00 Wake up. “Boy, how long can an hour get?”
Lecture ends.
For the next 15 minutes, live life kings size. Kings size cigarette that is.
Get to know life on the queen’s side. Flirt that is.
11:15 Another lecture. Ditto.
01:15 Pm -Check schedule for the day, before it is too late.
Instant bout of depression: too much work for the day.
“Did I make a mistake in setting up that meeting today? One of those grade conscious guys in the group would have done the assignment anyway. Silly me”
01:25 Lunch. “I’ll stick to low fat, protein rich diets today”. Fill the plate with sprouts, peas etc.
Counsel the guy opposite on why he should have more of proteins.
Taste the first morsel. “Ahhh… This lunch sucks. What was I thinking when I picked all this up?”
Commitment & consistency – “got to eat now”. Damn Cialdini.
“Or may be I could just wait until this guy finishes”. Get stuck into the brownies and ice cream a little later.
01:50 Belch. “May be I ate one too many of those brownies”
02:00 Send out an e-mail to at least 4 people, inviting them for a game of tennis at 4:00 in the evening.
02:05 catch some sleep. “Have been working my ass off, I sure need some rest”
04:30 Turn up for tennis. Just one other guy there, “Lazy jerks, must be sleeping”.
Decline to play singles. Too demanding - “Who the hell can cover an entire tennis court on his own?”
04:45 Hunger pangs again – banana milk shake at The Café.
Gossip.
05:15 Check e-mail. Too many spam e-mails these days. “I am not taking this lying down” – contribute to the spam.
05:30 Send some more spams, this time without any subject.
06:00 Team meeting for the case submission.
Déjà vu: One step forward, two steps back.
“Nobody listens. These guys need to improve their listening skills.
I made a perfectly logical argument; well an almost perfectly valid argument except for the fact that cause and effect were not really linked”
So much for diversity - “The accountant’s world ends with numbers. The economist keeps going back to his ideal world of demand and supply curves.
The marketing guy wants to make a qualitative decision and twist (rather than build) numbers to support the decision.
Personally, I just want this meeting to end and end soon”
07:00 Discussion still on.
Time to play the trump card – “If you cannot convince people, confuse them”
Yell. Berate.
08:30 Somehow work is split. “My part is the exec summary and the conclusion. Got away this time!”
08:35 Dinner. No discourse this time - All taste no gyaan.
09:30 Thirst attacks. Alcoholic thirst that is. Check e-mail to be sure you haven’t missed out on one of those booze parties.
Just the lone email from CAS; Shift+Del – way too many spams these days!
10:30 Wait for group mates to send in their bits for the assignment.
Use cutting edge technology (read as Cntrl c and Cntrl v) to populate executive summary and conclusion paragraphs.
Send out the completed report and ask someone else to print off and submit. “Done my bit for this report.
Surely, I can’t be the one running around to get this printed”
11:50 Friend calls in to remind you about the application deadlines for the day. “Jerk, couldn’t he have called earlier?
Or may be I should read e-mails sent by the CAS office before I delete them.
Ahh… don’t blame yourself, you get 10 spams for every reasonable e-mail. How can you even tell?”
11:55:46 Get to work heart in mouth. Search for the last EOI. Change all “marketing” to “finance”. Change all “managerial” to “leadership”.
Change all “XYZ Ltd” to “ABC Ltd”. Change all…
“Whom should this letter be addressed to?”
“One of these days, I am going to write a generic EOI saying ‘to whom so ever this may concern’ for now let me stick to Manager HR”.
11:57:45 God, MS-Word takes ages to save a document. Damn word.
11:58:15 Adobe is even worse in converting files. Damn Adobe.
11:58:55 Log-in to the CAS website. Once again huge latency problems - the web-site does not live up to the speed demanded by the user.
“Got to give this feedback to CAS”.
11:59:55 “Phew, close shave!”. Done with uploading the EOI.
12:00 Gloat at the achievement - “Am I not a master in operational excellence? I bet no one else on campus would have achieved my Just In Time finesse”
12:05 Time to kick ass - quite a few birthday boys. Head for the swimming pool and kick ass really hard. Make sure he wakes up with a swollen ass.
2:30 Well, all is well that ends swell. Hit the bed; need to be up for another gruelling day.
Friday, August 22, 2003
Nature...
It poured torrents in hyderabad today. The last thing I wanted to do in such beautiful weather was to study!!! The forests around ISB's campus are green and fresh... The birds chirping, peacocks dancing (literally... peacocks are plenty around here)... Morning was cloudy, chill and the greenery was refreshing to watch... then it started drizzling as I walked out of my room for breakfast and class... By the time I finished breakfast and reached class, it was pouring in the distance... my classroom, AC8, faces the lake and the scenary out of the balcony is the best you can get to see around hyderabad... mountains and lakes lush green after the rains in the past few weeks... Today as I was standing in the balcony letting nature's beauty sink into me, I could see the rain sweeping from the distance, approaching the campus... it became darker, murkier, cold and breezy... the drizzle harder and then the rain hit... I could see Dan's face and tell that he hasnt seen such rain... monsoon at its best... It was so hard that the mountains beyond the lake looked like covered in fog... It was a sight to see... Just when I it was feeling like absolute bliss I remember it was 9... Pity it was time for the class...
The campus is in the middle of a rocky area, with light forests all around... ISB has built roads that go deep into these woods and a walk along these roads take you to some wonderful sights... all kinds of wildlife... if you are a nature lover, you will love this place... Add to this, the ISB lake which has filled up this year thanks to the monsoon... a walk along the dam in the campus that holds the lake is always energizing...
The whole campus is built on land that tilts from right to left... There are underwater drains that carry all the rain water down the slope to where the dam is... ISB built the dam to create a small lake that will hold all the rain water... When we came to the campus, the lake bed was dry... and we did not realise what a beautiful place it can be... In fact, now is a very good time to visit the campus... whoever said hyd has bad weather, eat your words... this monsoon has changed this city into a beautiful place...
Amidst all this, here I am slogging it out for the exams... my room happens to be the corner of the village... so whenever I open out my windows, I see nature in all its splendor, the sunrise as well as the dusky sky... So, there is always enough incentive for break in the midst of exams preparations...
It poured torrents in hyderabad today. The last thing I wanted to do in such beautiful weather was to study!!! The forests around ISB's campus are green and fresh... The birds chirping, peacocks dancing (literally... peacocks are plenty around here)... Morning was cloudy, chill and the greenery was refreshing to watch... then it started drizzling as I walked out of my room for breakfast and class... By the time I finished breakfast and reached class, it was pouring in the distance... my classroom, AC8, faces the lake and the scenary out of the balcony is the best you can get to see around hyderabad... mountains and lakes lush green after the rains in the past few weeks... Today as I was standing in the balcony letting nature's beauty sink into me, I could see the rain sweeping from the distance, approaching the campus... it became darker, murkier, cold and breezy... the drizzle harder and then the rain hit... I could see Dan's face and tell that he hasnt seen such rain... monsoon at its best... It was so hard that the mountains beyond the lake looked like covered in fog... It was a sight to see... Just when I it was feeling like absolute bliss I remember it was 9... Pity it was time for the class...
The campus is in the middle of a rocky area, with light forests all around... ISB has built roads that go deep into these woods and a walk along these roads take you to some wonderful sights... all kinds of wildlife... if you are a nature lover, you will love this place... Add to this, the ISB lake which has filled up this year thanks to the monsoon... a walk along the dam in the campus that holds the lake is always energizing...
The whole campus is built on land that tilts from right to left... There are underwater drains that carry all the rain water down the slope to where the dam is... ISB built the dam to create a small lake that will hold all the rain water... When we came to the campus, the lake bed was dry... and we did not realise what a beautiful place it can be... In fact, now is a very good time to visit the campus... whoever said hyd has bad weather, eat your words... this monsoon has changed this city into a beautiful place...
Amidst all this, here I am slogging it out for the exams... my room happens to be the corner of the village... so whenever I open out my windows, I see nature in all its splendor, the sunrise as well as the dusky sky... So, there is always enough incentive for break in the midst of exams preparations...
Wednesday, August 20, 2003
...
The logo is mine! Won the contest for the logo for an business event we students are planning this year. If the event survives time and my logo does too, I would be very happy. What is the event? Still under wraps!
I gather some interesting blogs wil be coming up soon from ISB students... I gather quite a few are either already blogging or planning to start soon... Guess will maintain a log here...
We had the managing director of KSA technopac in the campus thanks to the WCED... Listening to him was a very good experience... Entrepreneurship is an attitude, a way of life and his presentation personified it... he offered to mentor students wanting to start on their own here when he finished the presentation... I saw quite a few excited souls among the audience...
Spent most of the day in the room, preparing for the finals next week... the campus has dulled down a bit thanks to the finals approaching... things will again pick up during the term break, especially with the ELP company day coming up.. until then, its books all the way!
The logo is mine! Won the contest for the logo for an business event we students are planning this year. If the event survives time and my logo does too, I would be very happy. What is the event? Still under wraps!
I gather some interesting blogs wil be coming up soon from ISB students... I gather quite a few are either already blogging or planning to start soon... Guess will maintain a log here...
We had the managing director of KSA technopac in the campus thanks to the WCED... Listening to him was a very good experience... Entrepreneurship is an attitude, a way of life and his presentation personified it... he offered to mentor students wanting to start on their own here when he finished the presentation... I saw quite a few excited souls among the audience...
Spent most of the day in the room, preparing for the finals next week... the campus has dulled down a bit thanks to the finals approaching... things will again pick up during the term break, especially with the ELP company day coming up.. until then, its books all the way!
Tuesday, August 19, 2003
Hmm... another post for the day...
Now, I am in the mood to blog today... While reading thru macroeconomics I suddenly slipped into some random thoughts and I remembered the wonderful discussion we had today in class about quality and 6 sigma... The discussion explored ISO and invariably SEI CMM as well... In a zombie state, just listening to the discussion, my antennae went up when Sonali, previously a consultant with Accenture, mentioned CMM... I used to work in Future Software in chennai... a company assessed at Level 5 of the SEI CMM model...
I always thought the CMM model was useful only if implemented properly and the quality culture is developed among employees. Many sw companies in India are successful in obtaining these accreditations but few actually have such quality and culture running in their veins... Many people believe that CMM is very heavy and slows down processes. In fact, during the class break, I had the same argument with Ajay, one of my good friends here... He used to work in Motorola, the inventors of 6 sigma... I do not agree. If implemented with common sense and if followed correctly by the average employee, CMM will work to your advantage. We have seen so many abusive practices due to lack of required knowledge and training in the Indian sw industry that today CMM is being branded as being too process heavy...
I believe that this paper: http://hsb.baylor.edu/ramsower/ais.ac.97/papers/gibson.htm has some interesting thoughts in that it moves towards the quality culture aspect in software companies... Thought it made lot of sense...
Now, I am in the mood to blog today... While reading thru macroeconomics I suddenly slipped into some random thoughts and I remembered the wonderful discussion we had today in class about quality and 6 sigma... The discussion explored ISO and invariably SEI CMM as well... In a zombie state, just listening to the discussion, my antennae went up when Sonali, previously a consultant with Accenture, mentioned CMM... I used to work in Future Software in chennai... a company assessed at Level 5 of the SEI CMM model...
I always thought the CMM model was useful only if implemented properly and the quality culture is developed among employees. Many sw companies in India are successful in obtaining these accreditations but few actually have such quality and culture running in their veins... Many people believe that CMM is very heavy and slows down processes. In fact, during the class break, I had the same argument with Ajay, one of my good friends here... He used to work in Motorola, the inventors of 6 sigma... I do not agree. If implemented with common sense and if followed correctly by the average employee, CMM will work to your advantage. We have seen so many abusive practices due to lack of required knowledge and training in the Indian sw industry that today CMM is being branded as being too process heavy...
I believe that this paper: http://hsb.baylor.edu/ramsower/ais.ac.97/papers/gibson.htm has some interesting thoughts in that it moves towards the quality culture aspect in software companies... Thought it made lot of sense...
Competition
Today we got the grades for the decision models course in term 2. It was amazing to see the competition. It was by no means an easy course but very interesting. It was intuition all the way and the profs, Anjani and Ziv had been simply amazing in trying to build the intuition development into us. The final was a good proof that they had done a very good job. The grading curve has a 3.25 mean. Thats between B and B+. All courses are graded according to the curve. The cutoffs for A-, B+ and B for this course were just 1 or 2 marks from each other around the 87% inspite of a final question paper that required intuition to crack. A point lost here or there has meant a drop in the grade. I was happy to be safely tucked up in the 90s but I wudnt have minded any grade in this course. Once the intuition is built, it never goes away.
In fact, almost every prof that has come here has made an effort to tell us that the most important part of the course is the intuition for the subject that they are trying to build. "Irrespective of the grade, if the intuition is built, you have got your primary takeaway." Cant agree more...
We had a meeting of the admissions committee and student volunteers yesterday... It was decided that more students will take an active part in online forums and discussion boards so that varied backgrounds can be represented to the prospective applicant pool... I look forward to some good help on yahoo and bwonline :)
Today we got the grades for the decision models course in term 2. It was amazing to see the competition. It was by no means an easy course but very interesting. It was intuition all the way and the profs, Anjani and Ziv had been simply amazing in trying to build the intuition development into us. The final was a good proof that they had done a very good job. The grading curve has a 3.25 mean. Thats between B and B+. All courses are graded according to the curve. The cutoffs for A-, B+ and B for this course were just 1 or 2 marks from each other around the 87% inspite of a final question paper that required intuition to crack. A point lost here or there has meant a drop in the grade. I was happy to be safely tucked up in the 90s but I wudnt have minded any grade in this course. Once the intuition is built, it never goes away.
In fact, almost every prof that has come here has made an effort to tell us that the most important part of the course is the intuition for the subject that they are trying to build. "Irrespective of the grade, if the intuition is built, you have got your primary takeaway." Cant agree more...
We had a meeting of the admissions committee and student volunteers yesterday... It was decided that more students will take an active part in online forums and discussion boards so that varied backgrounds can be represented to the prospective applicant pool... I look forward to some good help on yahoo and bwonline :)
Sunday, August 17, 2003
Random thoughts
There happens to be just one linux machine in the LRC's computer center... Having used linux for 4 years and having fallen in love with it and its growing user friendliness, i use it every given chance... here i am now, not in a mood to go through the same eco book I have been reading for the past 3 hours and so, i decided to do some ego surfing... searched google to see if my name got listed when i searched for it... it did! and then went to mbaleague.blogspot.com to see blogs from other b-schools and noticed my name was listed there! Hmmm... now, that feels good :) At times, I get into this mode of super big ego... now it one of those times...
ok, now that i did it, checked this blog to see if anyone commented on yesterday's post... nobody! but then, something was striking abt the blog... it was looking really neat... then realised that it was the mozilla browser on red hat that was presenting my blog so much better than stupid IE on XP... hmm... i told you... linux was anyday better... right from writing device drivers for embedded linux in previous life to browsing on mozilla on linux 9, the experience has anyday been better than windows!
in fact my love for linux pushed me to get CAS to get in touch with red hat and SCO india for placements... i was looking for other linux companies in India doing big time recruiting and hope to catch some more... i wud love the job of selling linux and competing with MS in the process...
now now, when i put this argument across to some of my mates here, they shot back, "So will you reject an offer from MS?"... hee hee... MS has been picking up good no. of ppl for the past 2 years... even met one of the seniors at fusion 9 last term break (his team was a pretty happy bunch... "prospects looked very good" ;)) well, i will have to give it some thought... there was a time when i was an MS fan... went to the extent of clearing everything from MCSD to MCSE to what not... until I met linux... and fell in love... but, in some ways, even today, I am a fan of Gates, not windows though...
forgot to mention something that happened a few days back... we had a meeting with the HR head of Digital Globalsoft.. i got selected for the meeting... conversed everything from the HP ISO merger and the subsequent drop in share prices to functional managers being good HR managers... Digital will be on campus in Jan... he made a good impression... will look forward to this one...
Talking abt share prices, my initiation into shares and stocks has met with utter disaster... saw the wipro stock falling after the infy announcement and the way its been hovering around 900 to 1000.. thought that was an undervalued share and invested @ arnd 960... have been waiting for a long time for this one to pick up ony to see that given wipro's projections for the 4Q03, and 1Q04, the share price is around 930! :( poor research on my part... but good lesson... i am waiting for the valuations course... hope to use this experience to learn more...
guess i have rambled enough for the day... be good, have fun... im off to... dont know what...
There happens to be just one linux machine in the LRC's computer center... Having used linux for 4 years and having fallen in love with it and its growing user friendliness, i use it every given chance... here i am now, not in a mood to go through the same eco book I have been reading for the past 3 hours and so, i decided to do some ego surfing... searched google to see if my name got listed when i searched for it... it did! and then went to mbaleague.blogspot.com to see blogs from other b-schools and noticed my name was listed there! Hmmm... now, that feels good :) At times, I get into this mode of super big ego... now it one of those times...
ok, now that i did it, checked this blog to see if anyone commented on yesterday's post... nobody! but then, something was striking abt the blog... it was looking really neat... then realised that it was the mozilla browser on red hat that was presenting my blog so much better than stupid IE on XP... hmm... i told you... linux was anyday better... right from writing device drivers for embedded linux in previous life to browsing on mozilla on linux 9, the experience has anyday been better than windows!
in fact my love for linux pushed me to get CAS to get in touch with red hat and SCO india for placements... i was looking for other linux companies in India doing big time recruiting and hope to catch some more... i wud love the job of selling linux and competing with MS in the process...
now now, when i put this argument across to some of my mates here, they shot back, "So will you reject an offer from MS?"... hee hee... MS has been picking up good no. of ppl for the past 2 years... even met one of the seniors at fusion 9 last term break (his team was a pretty happy bunch... "prospects looked very good" ;)) well, i will have to give it some thought... there was a time when i was an MS fan... went to the extent of clearing everything from MCSD to MCSE to what not... until I met linux... and fell in love... but, in some ways, even today, I am a fan of Gates, not windows though...
forgot to mention something that happened a few days back... we had a meeting with the HR head of Digital Globalsoft.. i got selected for the meeting... conversed everything from the HP ISO merger and the subsequent drop in share prices to functional managers being good HR managers... Digital will be on campus in Jan... he made a good impression... will look forward to this one...
Talking abt share prices, my initiation into shares and stocks has met with utter disaster... saw the wipro stock falling after the infy announcement and the way its been hovering around 900 to 1000.. thought that was an undervalued share and invested @ arnd 960... have been waiting for a long time for this one to pick up ony to see that given wipro's projections for the 4Q03, and 1Q04, the share price is around 930! :( poor research on my part... but good lesson... i am waiting for the valuations course... hope to use this experience to learn more...
guess i have rambled enough for the day... be good, have fun... im off to... dont know what...
Sunday guilt
One phenomenon that most ISBians here experienced every sunday, especially around 3-4 in the afternoon is called sunday guilt. Its that feeling that you had decided to do so many things over the weekend and now the weekend is over and you havent done much! It happens with me every sunday... I tend to accumulate stuff to read up and catch up on over the weekdays. Its not easy at all to do al the pre readings before classes. Many times, some articles and cases end up being interesting and some very time consuming... meaning you dont find time for some other readings... rajesh, one of my section C mates, has managed to tide over this problem by using his group and sharing readings but not everyone of every group has managed it until now... so when saturday is here, there are these conflicting feelings in the mind... one says, take rest, relax this is the time for another week of classes and exams beckon... another says, make up for the lost time, make up for what you have not done over the past week... and invariably, the first one wins, to a varying degree, every week... so when sunday afternoon arrives and i take stock, i realise i have tons to do... :) i have been fighting back with better time management and the situation is certainly better than before... today, around 4, when i took stock, i have completed almost everything except that i wanted to read up stuff about the org behavior research paper but ended up missing that target... now that gets postponed for tomorrow...
had my first spanish class today... everything from hola! que tal to yo soy guapo y listo y inteligente y simpatico y divertido. This is my first foreign language... from 10 to 11 in the morning, it was total fun going thru all this with esther in a small class... i loved it... now, i look forward to practicing this stuff... saurabh is in the class as well... so spanish rules in my apartment from now onwards... poor atul...
saturday evening was one heartbreaker... saurabh and I were listening to the india holland hockey match commentary on all india radio on saurabh's walkman and were jumping around for every goal until the last 10 minutes... we were literally drilling through our ears as we cudnt believe what we were hearing... truly heart breaking... i wish India bounces back and wins the champions trophy...
i reframed my todo list today... its growth per day is faster than the chinese GDP growth per year... now, i have been reading economics for the past 5 hours and so you have to excuse me for this poor analogy... maybe its time to sleep...
One phenomenon that most ISBians here experienced every sunday, especially around 3-4 in the afternoon is called sunday guilt. Its that feeling that you had decided to do so many things over the weekend and now the weekend is over and you havent done much! It happens with me every sunday... I tend to accumulate stuff to read up and catch up on over the weekdays. Its not easy at all to do al the pre readings before classes. Many times, some articles and cases end up being interesting and some very time consuming... meaning you dont find time for some other readings... rajesh, one of my section C mates, has managed to tide over this problem by using his group and sharing readings but not everyone of every group has managed it until now... so when saturday is here, there are these conflicting feelings in the mind... one says, take rest, relax this is the time for another week of classes and exams beckon... another says, make up for the lost time, make up for what you have not done over the past week... and invariably, the first one wins, to a varying degree, every week... so when sunday afternoon arrives and i take stock, i realise i have tons to do... :) i have been fighting back with better time management and the situation is certainly better than before... today, around 4, when i took stock, i have completed almost everything except that i wanted to read up stuff about the org behavior research paper but ended up missing that target... now that gets postponed for tomorrow...
had my first spanish class today... everything from hola! que tal to yo soy guapo y listo y inteligente y simpatico y divertido. This is my first foreign language... from 10 to 11 in the morning, it was total fun going thru all this with esther in a small class... i loved it... now, i look forward to practicing this stuff... saurabh is in the class as well... so spanish rules in my apartment from now onwards... poor atul...
saturday evening was one heartbreaker... saurabh and I were listening to the india holland hockey match commentary on all india radio on saurabh's walkman and were jumping around for every goal until the last 10 minutes... we were literally drilling through our ears as we cudnt believe what we were hearing... truly heart breaking... i wish India bounces back and wins the champions trophy...
i reframed my todo list today... its growth per day is faster than the chinese GDP growth per year... now, i have been reading economics for the past 5 hours and so you have to excuse me for this poor analogy... maybe its time to sleep...
Saturday, August 16, 2003
Some photographs of those children visiting the campus...
http://public.fotki.com/benigni7/india/childrens_visit_to_isb/
http://public.fotki.com/benigni7/india/childrens_visit_to_isb/
Friday, August 15, 2003
I-Day and a successful blood donation camp...
I-Day was great celebration at ISB today. Flag hoisting in the morning at 9, through which I slept. Then we had under priviledged children having a fun day watching movies, having lunch and playing games... It was a wonderful sight seeing those children in our classrooms, with wide eyes at the way the lights went off and on and the animation that powerpoint could put up... and the undiluted smile and laughter when they saw tom and jerry... it was a fun day out for them... there was a clay workshop and my roommate, saurabh brought one of his own creations that I could hardly fathom... he called it modern scupture... cudnt help not agree! I spent my whole day at the blood donation camp, writing out the free insurance forms for everyone... there was everyone from Prof. Ramachandran to the utility workers at sarovar. In all, 107 units were collected in a single day... The red cross was pretty impressed and I was proud that we could do something like this... in all around 60-70 students came forward... many are out of campus given the 3 day weekend... some could not resist alcohol the previous night... ;) so the turnout was pretty decent... The evening was lit up by the music club... some great songs and in between there was this amazing dance performance by some students and spouses... i love all kinds of music and the evening charged me up no end! to top all this, karthik and divya called a few of us home for some home made south indian food... how I have missed all that home cooked food! i dont think i was conscious when i ate my dinner ;) Now, with all the wonderful food and fruit juice in my stomach, i am off to sleep... ELP's first session starts tomorrow... bidding will be explained... look forward to that!
I-Day was great celebration at ISB today. Flag hoisting in the morning at 9, through which I slept. Then we had under priviledged children having a fun day watching movies, having lunch and playing games... It was a wonderful sight seeing those children in our classrooms, with wide eyes at the way the lights went off and on and the animation that powerpoint could put up... and the undiluted smile and laughter when they saw tom and jerry... it was a fun day out for them... there was a clay workshop and my roommate, saurabh brought one of his own creations that I could hardly fathom... he called it modern scupture... cudnt help not agree! I spent my whole day at the blood donation camp, writing out the free insurance forms for everyone... there was everyone from Prof. Ramachandran to the utility workers at sarovar. In all, 107 units were collected in a single day... The red cross was pretty impressed and I was proud that we could do something like this... in all around 60-70 students came forward... many are out of campus given the 3 day weekend... some could not resist alcohol the previous night... ;) so the turnout was pretty decent... The evening was lit up by the music club... some great songs and in between there was this amazing dance performance by some students and spouses... i love all kinds of music and the evening charged me up no end! to top all this, karthik and divya called a few of us home for some home made south indian food... how I have missed all that home cooked food! i dont think i was conscious when i ate my dinner ;) Now, with all the wonderful food and fruit juice in my stomach, i am off to sleep... ELP's first session starts tomorrow... bidding will be explained... look forward to that!
Thursday, August 14, 2003
Grades...
Today another set of grades, term 2 and term 3 mid term came out... While the campus was buzzing with the news of the grades coming out, it wasnt as much as it was in the first term... but still, I was thinking that the buzz wud have died down by now...
I am one who believes that exam grades are less important than what you actually learn in the exam itself... if you get good grades, good! but bad grades means you have learnt so much more... this may seem contrary to what I have been saying about grades, but I concentrate on my cgpa to ensure that it is within decent limits, in case I apply for a PhD sometime later in life... otherwise, grade hunting is something I dont think shud happen... especially in a b-school...
but the indian education system is so hung up on grades that we are all brought up to compare ourselves using grades than more subtle things in life... no wonder there was no correlation between the grades and placements last year... at the end of the day, what mattered was how well people performed in the interview... except for consulting jobs, no company cared about grades when they picked someone!
The community here is indeed to some extent hung up on grades... i dont blame them... you are the way you have been brought up... while learning is "the" major focus among the student community, the hurrahs and disappointments of grades defies me... today, i saw many in my section elated and dejected seeing a simple mid term paper... some even asked questions about the way points were awarded than being interested in the actual solution... while such crowd is indeed a minority, the general level of importance given to grades was too much in my opinion...
well then, its just me at 3:30 in the morning maybe! or maybe i am looking at it that way and its actually not the case... ??!!??
Today another set of grades, term 2 and term 3 mid term came out... While the campus was buzzing with the news of the grades coming out, it wasnt as much as it was in the first term... but still, I was thinking that the buzz wud have died down by now...
I am one who believes that exam grades are less important than what you actually learn in the exam itself... if you get good grades, good! but bad grades means you have learnt so much more... this may seem contrary to what I have been saying about grades, but I concentrate on my cgpa to ensure that it is within decent limits, in case I apply for a PhD sometime later in life... otherwise, grade hunting is something I dont think shud happen... especially in a b-school...
but the indian education system is so hung up on grades that we are all brought up to compare ourselves using grades than more subtle things in life... no wonder there was no correlation between the grades and placements last year... at the end of the day, what mattered was how well people performed in the interview... except for consulting jobs, no company cared about grades when they picked someone!
The community here is indeed to some extent hung up on grades... i dont blame them... you are the way you have been brought up... while learning is "the" major focus among the student community, the hurrahs and disappointments of grades defies me... today, i saw many in my section elated and dejected seeing a simple mid term paper... some even asked questions about the way points were awarded than being interested in the actual solution... while such crowd is indeed a minority, the general level of importance given to grades was too much in my opinion...
well then, its just me at 3:30 in the morning maybe! or maybe i am looking at it that way and its actually not the case... ??!!??
Wednesday, August 13, 2003
I-Day...
I-Day will be a happening day @ ISB. Many activities from blood donation to movie screenings to treasure hunts to a visit by under privileged children to the campus. The red cross is coming to ISB for a blood donation camp. The Net-Impact Club is organising to have under priviledged children visit the campus and are screening the movie Lagaan for them. The Cultural Club is organising a treasure hunt as part of helping us discover the corners of our campus! The Music club is organising a special I-Day concert by students with a patriotic theme. Its going to be a happening day.
Today I sent out my entry for the Mercer Asia HR research paper competition. Couple of my friends, Narsi and Sriram joined me in doing this research on HR problems in the BPO industry. The next 6 weeks are going to be hectic doing this. I am already tired for the day after all the classes, a group assignment and the term 2 grades that came out today. Only saving grace, the grades were better than I expected. So I guess I can sleep peacefully :)
I-Day will be a happening day @ ISB. Many activities from blood donation to movie screenings to treasure hunts to a visit by under privileged children to the campus. The red cross is coming to ISB for a blood donation camp. The Net-Impact Club is organising to have under priviledged children visit the campus and are screening the movie Lagaan for them. The Cultural Club is organising a treasure hunt as part of helping us discover the corners of our campus! The Music club is organising a special I-Day concert by students with a patriotic theme. Its going to be a happening day.
Today I sent out my entry for the Mercer Asia HR research paper competition. Couple of my friends, Narsi and Sriram joined me in doing this research on HR problems in the BPO industry. The next 6 weeks are going to be hectic doing this. I am already tired for the day after all the classes, a group assignment and the term 2 grades that came out today. Only saving grace, the grades were better than I expected. So I guess I can sleep peacefully :)
Tuesday, August 12, 2003
Today has been one of the busiest days of my life. Did I say sunday was relaxed? I dont know how I managed to make a statement like that. guess i was sleeping for when i did a todo list today, 15 items sprung up from nowhere... now i am racing against time to complete it all... from tax returns to studies to other stuff here at school...
so many things keep happening at ISB, lots of them very interesting that sometimes you sign up for all of them and end up doing very few... I was told these exact words by the last batch during the orientation but then, nothing better than learning through experience right?! :) Anyways, guess i have prided myself at multitasking before and so, guess I will come through this unscathed...
the initial list of ELP projects were out today... some really exciting stuff that I cant really quote now because of the confidentiality... will do so in 2 weeks time... but all very exciting projects like entry strategy into India for US firms, b-plans, branding strategy for NGOs, employee retention strategy, international commodities trading, insurance, product launch strategy, IT marketing... well, I dont know which one I am going to bid for...
btw, i noticed that the small comments link at the end of posts has disappeared... dont know why... maybe problems with haloscan... will check it up...
off running now... happy that i found time to blog today!
so many things keep happening at ISB, lots of them very interesting that sometimes you sign up for all of them and end up doing very few... I was told these exact words by the last batch during the orientation but then, nothing better than learning through experience right?! :) Anyways, guess i have prided myself at multitasking before and so, guess I will come through this unscathed...
the initial list of ELP projects were out today... some really exciting stuff that I cant really quote now because of the confidentiality... will do so in 2 weeks time... but all very exciting projects like entry strategy into India for US firms, b-plans, branding strategy for NGOs, employee retention strategy, international commodities trading, insurance, product launch strategy, IT marketing... well, I dont know which one I am going to bid for...
btw, i noticed that the small comments link at the end of posts has disappeared... dont know why... maybe problems with haloscan... will check it up...
off running now... happy that i found time to blog today!
Sunday, August 10, 2003
Sunday
Moods@ISB happened today. Some amazing photographs and paintings. I hope they put the photographs and paintings up on the website. The SFA is doing some great work in the campus. More about it later, because I am in a hurry. I have a short 1/2 test tomorrw for which I am going to start studying now at 2 in the morning! Spent the whole day today trying to design a logo for an upcoming event at ISB. The event is a surprise... Not going to let it out now... Sent my entry to the logo designing contest. Now time to hit the books...
Moods@ISB happened today. Some amazing photographs and paintings. I hope they put the photographs and paintings up on the website. The SFA is doing some great work in the campus. More about it later, because I am in a hurry. I have a short 1/2 test tomorrw for which I am going to start studying now at 2 in the morning! Spent the whole day today trying to design a logo for an upcoming event at ISB. The event is a surprise... Not going to let it out now... Sent my entry to the logo designing contest. Now time to hit the books...
Saturday, August 09, 2003
Back online!
After 4 days of grueling mid terms, tomorrow is a Sunday and I have very little reading to do... That feels so good! Besides, I had tasty dinner today, thanks to Utkarsh Palnitkar and family. Utkarsh is a partner at E&Y. His is part of the Aikya initiative @ ISB.
Aikya, the brainchild of the dean Vijay Mahajan, and implemented very nicely by one of our alums, Niraj Gelli, involves some well known families in Hyderabad. Dean Vijay believes that the Hyderabad community has given a lot to ISB and wants the students to interact with families here to develop a network with this community that we can carry with us forever. Students have been divided into groups and each group has a host family which adopts us. I can tell you that we have been enjoying this experience. My friends have had dinner with the Reddys of DRL fame, enjoyed 5 star luxury whenever they wanted to thanks to their host family being stakeholders in the Taj hotels in Hyd, got free passes to the new IMAX theatre in hyd (Have to visit this one soon!) and what not!
We visited Utkarsh for the first time today. We met his wife and his kids, cute little twins, very sweet and pleasantly well behaved, compared to the uncontrollable brat that I was when I was their age ;)
Karthik, one of the groupmates, was with the tax practice in E&Y before coming to ISB. His wife Divya was also with Anderson before graduating with the founding batch at ISB. They had a lot to talk about E&Y, Anderson, the merger etc. Aneesha, another one of our groupmates lives in Bombay and Utkarsh, who is from Bombay slipped into his memories of Mumbai and his college days. We talked about everything from E&Y and its biotech practice to vada pav and bhel in mumbai to the E&Y entrepreneur award to cricket. Besides, Utkarsh's wife spread out a very nice and tasty meal for us. The gluttons inside us woke up to the opportunity and the monotonous feeling about food we had built up thanks to Sarovar's consistency was murdered mercilessly... at least for the moment. It was a very nice evening, thanks to the wonderful hospitality. Even before we could realize, we spent nearly 4 hours of the evening. We were beginning to feel so comfortable that I noticed Karthik relaxing and putting his feet up ;) We decided to plan a picnic sometime soon.
Just as I finish this, the global economics course TA has sent out the solutions for the mid term exam. Think I got all of them right. Global economics has been a very interesting course and Prof Ravi Bansal from Duke has been simply amazing. I have no words to describe how much I have enjoyed his classes and his authority over macroeconomics. Im afraid this is going to sound like a sales pitch for ISB here, but sincerely, this course has been more than my money's worth.
After 4 days of grueling mid terms, tomorrow is a Sunday and I have very little reading to do... That feels so good! Besides, I had tasty dinner today, thanks to Utkarsh Palnitkar and family. Utkarsh is a partner at E&Y. His is part of the Aikya initiative @ ISB.
Aikya, the brainchild of the dean Vijay Mahajan, and implemented very nicely by one of our alums, Niraj Gelli, involves some well known families in Hyderabad. Dean Vijay believes that the Hyderabad community has given a lot to ISB and wants the students to interact with families here to develop a network with this community that we can carry with us forever. Students have been divided into groups and each group has a host family which adopts us. I can tell you that we have been enjoying this experience. My friends have had dinner with the Reddys of DRL fame, enjoyed 5 star luxury whenever they wanted to thanks to their host family being stakeholders in the Taj hotels in Hyd, got free passes to the new IMAX theatre in hyd (Have to visit this one soon!) and what not!
We visited Utkarsh for the first time today. We met his wife and his kids, cute little twins, very sweet and pleasantly well behaved, compared to the uncontrollable brat that I was when I was their age ;)
Karthik, one of the groupmates, was with the tax practice in E&Y before coming to ISB. His wife Divya was also with Anderson before graduating with the founding batch at ISB. They had a lot to talk about E&Y, Anderson, the merger etc. Aneesha, another one of our groupmates lives in Bombay and Utkarsh, who is from Bombay slipped into his memories of Mumbai and his college days. We talked about everything from E&Y and its biotech practice to vada pav and bhel in mumbai to the E&Y entrepreneur award to cricket. Besides, Utkarsh's wife spread out a very nice and tasty meal for us. The gluttons inside us woke up to the opportunity and the monotonous feeling about food we had built up thanks to Sarovar's consistency was murdered mercilessly... at least for the moment. It was a very nice evening, thanks to the wonderful hospitality. Even before we could realize, we spent nearly 4 hours of the evening. We were beginning to feel so comfortable that I noticed Karthik relaxing and putting his feet up ;) We decided to plan a picnic sometime soon.
Just as I finish this, the global economics course TA has sent out the solutions for the mid term exam. Think I got all of them right. Global economics has been a very interesting course and Prof Ravi Bansal from Duke has been simply amazing. I have no words to describe how much I have enjoyed his classes and his authority over macroeconomics. Im afraid this is going to sound like a sales pitch for ISB here, but sincerely, this course has been more than my money's worth.
Tuesday, August 05, 2003
mid term blues
When I opened my eyes at 7:20 in the evening today, I realised that I had been bold enough to sleep for a full 4 hours on the trot in the afternoon... given that I was alone in the apartment, my cursing skills were in full flow... all that football behind me, i rushed out for early dinner and here I am back in the LRC, slogging it out with operations management... Its been only a week and a half into the term and yet, it feels like finals are here... i am back on the run... all this thanks to a mid term exam in a 4 week term! Hardly have I had any time to assimilate 2 weeks of classes and I am here facing exams... people here have been upset at the way this term has been scheduled and have been questioning the raionale behind mid terms, that too closed book, in a 4 week term... thankfully the schedule and the content is pretty relaxed after this week... this term's scheduling has not been the best... the only positive is that lot of feedback has gone in... isb is still learning but 3 years of experience means that atleast in such issues, it can only get better...
back to the books...
When I opened my eyes at 7:20 in the evening today, I realised that I had been bold enough to sleep for a full 4 hours on the trot in the afternoon... given that I was alone in the apartment, my cursing skills were in full flow... all that football behind me, i rushed out for early dinner and here I am back in the LRC, slogging it out with operations management... Its been only a week and a half into the term and yet, it feels like finals are here... i am back on the run... all this thanks to a mid term exam in a 4 week term! Hardly have I had any time to assimilate 2 weeks of classes and I am here facing exams... people here have been upset at the way this term has been scheduled and have been questioning the raionale behind mid terms, that too closed book, in a 4 week term... thankfully the schedule and the content is pretty relaxed after this week... this term's scheduling has not been the best... the only positive is that lot of feedback has gone in... isb is still learning but 3 years of experience means that atleast in such issues, it can only get better...
back to the books...
Sunday, August 03, 2003
Victory
Students here are divided into sections A, B and C... The inter-section rivalry, especially in sports, is to be seen to be believed... Section B had been doing great until now, winning in cricket and water-polo and were even a bit over confident coming into this tournament... And sections A and C were more than just waiting to give section B its due... And it happened today... every section had 2 teams... In both the first semi final between b2 and c1 (my team) and the second semi final between a1 and b1, section B lost and there was more jubiliation that it was eliminated than for the victory... c1 finally ended up winning the tournament... most of us were limping at the end of the day but u hardly feel it in the face of the sweet feeling of victory... Prof. Ravi Jain, who is taking a course in corporate finance was around to give away the prizes and also play a game with us and our hyderabad alumni... all in all it was fun through out the day...
we took out a victory lap, then sat around and chatted (read bragged) about our own performance with some old monk to boot... by the time i showered and finished my dinner, I realised that I had done absolutely nothing I had planned for the weekend... huh... who cares... i have a cute mug, with ISB and its logo printed sitting on my desk... a prize for the fighting spirit and resilience we had shown in winning the tournament... we dedicated it to our friend Raj who is still in the hospital...
my legs are aching but victory is going to ensure that i sleep well today... classes can wait :)
Students here are divided into sections A, B and C... The inter-section rivalry, especially in sports, is to be seen to be believed... Section B had been doing great until now, winning in cricket and water-polo and were even a bit over confident coming into this tournament... And sections A and C were more than just waiting to give section B its due... And it happened today... every section had 2 teams... In both the first semi final between b2 and c1 (my team) and the second semi final between a1 and b1, section B lost and there was more jubiliation that it was eliminated than for the victory... c1 finally ended up winning the tournament... most of us were limping at the end of the day but u hardly feel it in the face of the sweet feeling of victory... Prof. Ravi Jain, who is taking a course in corporate finance was around to give away the prizes and also play a game with us and our hyderabad alumni... all in all it was fun through out the day...
we took out a victory lap, then sat around and chatted (read bragged) about our own performance with some old monk to boot... by the time i showered and finished my dinner, I realised that I had done absolutely nothing I had planned for the weekend... huh... who cares... i have a cute mug, with ISB and its logo printed sitting on my desk... a prize for the fighting spirit and resilience we had shown in winning the tournament... we dedicated it to our friend Raj who is still in the hospital...
my legs are aching but victory is going to ensure that i sleep well today... classes can wait :)
Saturday, August 02, 2003
continued...
A NGO fair happened today in ISB, thanks to the Net Impact Club... many NGOs from hyderabad and beyond had come in for a one day presentation and one-on-one interaction with the students... Was basically to help students who want to do some social work and also help NGOs in need of such talent... the turn out was dismal in the morning but many students got out of the saturday slumber and it all ended up being a grand success... have a meeting tomorrow to decide the course of action...
Today was the second day of the tourney... more exciting football and more injuries... thats sport I guess... Raj's operation went well... met him in the evening... he looked ok, ready to jump out of his bed (he did not have a choice!) given the enthu guy that he is... was heart warming to see him that talking and smiling... its going to take time for him to get normal but he is already talking abt campus, classes and exams!!! gosh...
had to kill all this somber mood setting and so decided to have some good food outside with some folks here to up the spirits... tagged along with some friends to the city and enjoyed some nice andhra khana again... chatted, cracked jokes and enjoyed the evening and its kinda done good for me...
spoke to some good friends in chennai after a long time and that peps u up so much!!! raring to go... sarovar park has arranged for sunday brunch tomorrow and the cultural club here is planning some games in the atrium for upping the fun even more... i look forward to getting up in the morning :)
A NGO fair happened today in ISB, thanks to the Net Impact Club... many NGOs from hyderabad and beyond had come in for a one day presentation and one-on-one interaction with the students... Was basically to help students who want to do some social work and also help NGOs in need of such talent... the turn out was dismal in the morning but many students got out of the saturday slumber and it all ended up being a grand success... have a meeting tomorrow to decide the course of action...
Today was the second day of the tourney... more exciting football and more injuries... thats sport I guess... Raj's operation went well... met him in the evening... he looked ok, ready to jump out of his bed (he did not have a choice!) given the enthu guy that he is... was heart warming to see him that talking and smiling... its going to take time for him to get normal but he is already talking abt campus, classes and exams!!! gosh...
had to kill all this somber mood setting and so decided to have some good food outside with some folks here to up the spirits... tagged along with some friends to the city and enjoyed some nice andhra khana again... chatted, cracked jokes and enjoyed the evening and its kinda done good for me...
spoke to some good friends in chennai after a long time and that peps u up so much!!! raring to go... sarovar park has arranged for sunday brunch tomorrow and the cultural club here is planning some games in the atrium for upping the fun even more... i look forward to getting up in the morning :)
Friday, August 01, 2003
Today was the first day of the football tournament... Inter section league matches... Was fun playing though we lost... all was good until one of my friends Raj broke his leg in a collision going for the ball... Poor guy suffered multiple fractures and will be bed ridden for a week and then on crutches for a couple of months... the last thing you would want to go through, more so at ISB... Was very disappointed for him... he is getting operated tomorrow morning... Plan to stay with him tomorrow... Couldn't do pretty much anything worthwhile after this incident... mood: pretty somber...
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