tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55591482011-10-03T06:43:10.334-07:00This blog was inspired when I was at the Indian School of Business. One year at ISB changed my life immensly. This blog started off as my means to describe life inside ISB to the outside world. The addiction to blog is still there and so I troll away to glory about life, post ISB and the world in general.Rnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1951100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-19168028884475896432008-03-19T08:20:00.000-07:002008-03-19T08:25:54.462-07:00

http://specials.rediff.com/money/2007/nov/29sld1.htmAbsolutely inspiring... This is tapping the true potential of India. The picture on their web site sums it up the best...

Rnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-50217130067488148982008-03-16T04:55:00.000-07:002008-03-16T05:19:28.398-07:00

News that trickled through yesterday... TiVO is now bringing youtube videos on TV... One of those many "over the top" services that cable and telco providers have been extremely wary off...While Apple TV has had this for a while, this announcement I thought was significant since TiVO has a much larger user base in the US. Google has been able to do very little in terms turning the youtube

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-49318417599599632212008-01-26T00:47:00.000-08:002008-01-26T20:26:26.409-08:00

Recently one piece of news that caught my eye was that of time warner's plans to introduce metered billing for broadband. Being in India, any broadband user should be pretty familiar with the ultra low data caps (for ultra low prices of course). My connection has a 1.5G cap which I just tip over every month when I am not on vacation. Its a different story when I am on vacation. But it serves the

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-73920284911542261802007-12-25T18:53:00.000-08:002007-12-25T19:01:32.221-08:00

My $6.25/mo DSL internet connection :)This was at peak usage times. Have seen this go up to 1.9 at night. Never had it go down since I started using it. How much ever anyone may whip BSNL for their customer service, this is a terrific deal.

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-80780804779386016252007-12-15T11:56:00.000-08:002007-12-15T12:04:36.001-08:00

Something different if you will be in chennai next weekend...

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-26166610656632706312007-12-08T13:13:00.000-08:002007-12-08T13:37:41.400-08:00

I have been reading up a bit on GPL and patents and it makes interesting reading. What happens when someone writes patented code under a GPL license? GPL mandates that the code and any modifications to it should be made freely available with any binary distributions. But if that were to be done, then the code distribution can be a patent violation! To complicate matters, GPL is universal while

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-82244935846859033692007-12-04T00:35:00.000-08:002007-12-04T01:01:15.430-08:00

My last few posts have been a unusually technical considering what I have been posting on these blogs before... My passion for DVRs though started first at bschool where TiVO was popular case study in marketing. TiVo is an interesting example of a product that caught on so well with its adopters that they literally refused to part with it, once they started using it, but still a product that

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-23407592686498667572007-12-03T23:32:00.002-08:002007-12-04T00:33:16.168-08:00

Here is the video of my Myth DVR :)And here is a screenshot of the mythWeb interface for program guide. I must say that the web interface is so easy to schedule recordings that I end up using is a lot.

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-70648432212571558982007-12-02T18:00:00.000-08:002007-12-02T20:46:33.380-08:00

So, I managed to finally get myth TV up and running... Took a while to get the hang of the configuration options but eventually figured that its not that tough a task at all. and I must say. I am impressed... This is exactly everything I wanted in my first DVR experience... and mythweb simply blows it all away.Installation was of course a breeze with ubuntu. Simply installed the mythTV packages

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-24873399774776917302007-11-30T21:52:00.000-08:002007-11-30T21:53:23.255-08:00

There were a few emails asking for details on how tvtime was up and running...I posted the same on ubuntu forums...http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=626780&highlight=intex

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-2814452025660674502007-11-30T09:09:00.000-08:002007-11-30T09:14:42.328-08:00

First, I made decent progress towards my goal of getting mythTV up and running. I had to painstakingly feed in every frequency number of every channel into mythTV (since it still doesnt seem to have a frequency scanner and India doesnt have standard frequencies for cable TV). Once I did that, I am able to flip and tune channels. More importantly, I can now pause live TV :))) Way to go! I am going

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-78755757926880540922007-11-29T21:00:00.000-08:002007-11-29T22:08:51.431-08:00

I finally got this up and running. Required a whole day in front of the computer and on the net. Had to modify the drivers, recompile the kernel twice and finally got it to tune and play channels. I dont have to now shell out the 2200 bucks for a pinnacle card :)The next challenge is to get myth TV to see all these channels and get xmlTV for India running. I already used tvxb to generate

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-85611204193210233772007-11-29T01:37:00.000-08:002007-11-29T01:58:22.408-08:00

After almost 2 years, I get to go on a long vacation. I have been using this time for so many things, from personal work I have ignored for quite some time to some experiments I have always wanted to do...One of the things I always wanted to do was to get mythTV running on my pc at home. Having lost touch with active programming ever since ISB, this will hopefully help satisfy the urges of the

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1528344892576093802007-08-02T07:20:00.000-07:002008-03-19T06:48:56.021-07:00

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-5574032773948921792007-05-23T11:03:00.000-07:002007-05-23T11:07:19.299-07:00

www.verizonfios.com/imgThis is in production now... im a proud proud happy camper...

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1155637499982883042006-08-15T03:05:00.000-07:002006-08-15T03:25:00.180-07:00

Just noticed that raaga.com, a website that has allowed users to listen to new tamil/hindi/telugu songs for quite a few years now for free, is also selling these songs... what was a free ad supported streaming service is now offering individual songs for a legal copyrighted download at approx Rs.12 a song ($0.99 in the US). The price may vary depending on how old or new the songs are. They add a

Rnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1154252737718693762006-07-30T02:36:00.000-07:002006-07-30T02:47:34.186-07:00

The last CD that I got was that of James Blunt: Back to Bedlam. It was recommended by a friend and I have fallen in love with it ever since I started listening to it. Terrific songs. I love the music. Strongly recommend.

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1152647028613009582006-07-11T12:43:00.000-07:002006-07-11T13:01:51.860-07:00

Maximus Decimus Meridius: At my signal, unleash hell.[Maximus looks at images of his wife and son]Juba: Can they hear you?Maximus Decimus Meridius: Who?Juba: Your family. In the afterlife.Maximus Decimus Meridius: Oh yes.Juba: What do you say to them?Maximus Decimus Meridius: To my son -- I tell him I will see him again soon. To keep his heels down while riding his horse. To my wife... that is

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1152222414171625712006-07-06T14:34:00.001-07:002006-07-06T14:49:29.180-07:00

another post after a long time...There is an important piece of legislation that is doing the rounds in the US congress... It directly affects a slew of big companies in the US, including the telcos like Verizon and the new internet companies like google and yahoo besides Microsoft. This is one point where all the non-telco companies, including Microsoft and Google see eye to eye and are in fact

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1144521037006986712006-04-08T11:21:00.000-07:002006-04-08T11:30:37.040-07:00

Just figured that google earth has added some high resolution images of chennai. They have covered quite a large part of chennai though not all of the city. A square area from Tambaram to nungambakkam have very nice high res images. North chennai is still low res... so are areas like anna nagar and mogappair...My house, areas in t nagar like panagal park are all pretty clear. But the pictures

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1143974428985772522006-04-02T03:39:00.000-07:002006-04-02T03:40:28.996-07:00

You Are 36% EvilA bit of evil lurks in your heart, but you hide it well.In some ways, you are the most dangerous kind of evil.How Evil Are You?

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1143973004783283062006-04-02T01:00:00.000-08:002006-04-02T03:16:44.843-07:00

Around a couple of weeks back, I happened to go for this so called turtle walk from neelangarai to besant nagar all along the beach... I am not a wild life enthusiast and had only read about turtle's being endangered species... only because a friend of mine goaded me to go, I ended up at around midnight on a saturday at a suburban beach in neelangarai...We met these bunch of people, most of them

Rnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1143967559203740502006-04-02T00:40:00.000-08:002006-04-02T00:46:00.073-08:00

Its been more than a year since I posted anything... its been a hectic one year, in which i have not done much than work... its been so much work that only the career growth that has come by my way has been any justification for the lack of attention to anything else... but its kind of time for me to break the shackles and get back to the world... one of the items in the list is to resume this

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1108908213664113712005-02-20T05:52:00.000-08:002005-02-20T06:24:48.490-08:00

Chennai can get boring at times... especially when u have seen all the movies around and have no where to go except the beach... though the beach any day is good enough for me, something different is always welcome... thats how i landed up at the sivagami pethachi auditorium to watch the theatre group Evam perform their adaptation of "Barefoot in the Park" (a 1951 classic on the broadway and the

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1108300581572373102005-02-13T05:15:00.000-08:002005-02-13T05:16:21.573-08:00

This one is for techies looking for a job...Sumit, from the class of 05 requested me to post this... Here you go dude...http://sumitdhar.blogspot.com/2005/02/tech-job-opportunities.html

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1106740484405430512005-01-26T03:42:00.000-08:002005-01-26T03:54:44.406-08:00

For the first time, I am directly responsible for appraising the performance of my team. Given that we operate pretty much like a startup, I have the mandate to devise ways to evaluate a team that was wholly recruited by me in the past 6 months. More difficult is the task to define clear and understandable metrics that I will have to use to measure the objectives I am going to set for them for

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1104298233484954522004-12-28T21:25:00.000-08:002004-12-28T21:30:33.483-08:00

Please read the mail below, received from a friend who works for Aid India. FYI, Aid India is an organization started by Indians who studied in the USA and wanted to give back to India. Their India office, from where the NGO work is being coordinated in Tamilnadu is in Chennai at the following address:AID-IndiaOld No 132, New No 242, Avvai Shanmugam RoadGopalapuram, Chennai - 600 086Ph: 044-

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1099330448685127852004-11-01T08:47:00.000-08:002004-11-01T09:34:08.686-08:00

I had an interesting human experience last week. As I was leaving work on friday, around 11 pm in the night, I stopped at the nearest signal. It had been a tiring day and I was really looking forward to the weekend. The was a slight drizzle in the air. The temperature was pleasant and cool. As I was waiting impatiently for the green light, someone tapped me on the shoulder. It was a young boy,

Rnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1098599337594321132004-10-23T23:22:00.000-07:002004-10-23T23:28:57.593-07:00

Nowadays television is dominated so much by all the cable channels. In homes which have a cable connection, the scene is dominated by the latest movies, soaps and cricket. No one seems to watch DD any longer. I was thinking that DD has sort of become the channel for the rural areas where there isnt any cable connection. But over the last few weeks, I have been surprised by the fare thats on the

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1097262210348657532004-10-08T13:01:00.000-07:002004-10-23T23:21:22.546-07:00

All linux lovers know Alan Cox. Especially the ones who have seen the kernel code. Alan Cox is wrapping up his MBA now !! So how have the linux code guru's views changed and what effect has MBA had on him? Check, http://www.pingwales.co.uk/software/cox-on-better-software.html Interesting read.

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1096746879847059542004-10-02T12:53:00.000-07:002004-10-02T12:54:39.846-07:00

I started using an RSS reader a week back. Its been something I have been wanting to do for a long time but never got the chance. The lack of internet access had been a deterrant. So when I finally got around to it, checked out a few readers and settled with RSS bandit for now. My first step was to try and find feeds of all the blogs and web content I browse nowadays. The blogs were pretty easy.

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1096228847601042882004-09-26T12:59:00.000-07:002004-09-26T13:00:47.603-07:00

Finally today I had some time to kill. After a really long time, I had some time and I did not know what to do this Sunday. So decided to take time out to reply to all the pending mails and also read some of the ISB blogs. It was an interesting experience. I wish my class too had had a few more bloggers. The one year at ISB flew past like it had never existed. Today when I look back, what has

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1095917408085052792004-09-22T22:23:00.000-07:002004-09-22T22:30:08.086-07:00

I noticed that there were comments asking for my mail address. It is ramki dot rs at gmail dot com. Added that to the sidebar as well.

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1095794322271612022004-09-21T13:15:00.000-07:002004-09-21T12:32:57.946-07:00

Verizon has silently introduced something that is going to revolutionize the way you make and receive calls and the way you manage your communication channels... If you live in MA, NH, you can get it immediately... www.verizon.com/iobi

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1095654769403554012004-09-19T21:09:00.000-07:002004-09-19T21:33:32.653-07:00

Its a cloudy and drizzling monday morning in chennai. This summer hasnt been the usual summer in chennai. Of course, when the days have been hot they have been HOT but there have been more than the usual rainy days. For all my fellow ISBians from other parts of the country, who decided to "take the risk" of coming to chennai, its been soothing. Talking of which, many of them think chennai is not

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1095198210574046502004-09-14T14:37:00.000-07:002004-09-14T14:44:11.203-07:00

Life has been absolutely hectic in the last couple of months... work has hijacked my life, but so subtly that I havent realized it... Its when work gets interesting that you dont realize that you are actually working for 14-15 hours a day... Its been such in the last few weeks... anyways, now have a brand new PC at home... replaced my dear old cyrix 233 with a 2.8 gig pentium... now at least i

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1092210036473760672004-08-11T00:26:00.000-07:002004-08-11T00:40:36.473-07:00

Probably the longest break I have taken. Work really took off in the last 3 weeks. I was talking one of my long lost school friends this weekend. He has a double masters from ivy league univs in the US and has just resigned from his job in bangalore. From his IIT days to his double masters, he has spent a lot of time in the academia. When suddenly thrown into the corporate world, the inherent

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1090303700929846662004-07-19T22:45:00.000-07:002004-07-19T23:08:20.930-07:00

The dreamer's trap... One of the advantages of being a firm thats not traditionally IT is that we are still distant from the many processes and procedures that have infested many an IT services company. Not to say that such processes are unnecessary (an easily customizable process framework is an absolute necessity) but I strongly believe that if overdone they can be a drag on productivity.

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1090212452308851772004-07-18T21:25:00.000-07:002004-07-18T21:47:32.306-07:00

A nostalgic weekend... It was turning out to be another dreary weekend this saturday afternoon. In the last two years that I was out of chennai, all my friends have either moved out of the city or have been married. Either way, I lost out of the buddies who made up my social life. The ISB alumni junta in chennai is what makes up to some extent. So, here I was on my bike at a traffic signal near

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1089905263555424892004-07-15T08:02:00.000-07:002004-07-15T08:27:43.556-07:00

HR in technology companies Over the past 5 years in the IT/Telecom industry, I have seen how the HR teams in many companies tend to classify you first according to the years of experience you have... I wonder how valid that is... Invariably, when recruiting candidates, I have found many who make it to higher positions thanks to their years of experience while not necessarily being as hard

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1089097198775612952004-07-05T23:45:00.000-07:002004-07-05T23:59:58.776-07:00

Back from sleep Well, the past two weeks have been busy or what? Have hardly had any time to think anything other than work... because its suddenly become extremely interesting... Being in a evolving organization that developing a matrix reporting structure is interesting. It all starts with a lot of micromanagement from the incumbents who setup the new facility. From then on, a gradual

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1087816332909571652004-06-21T04:10:00.000-07:002004-06-21T04:12:12.910-07:00

Schumi won again! I am tired of saying this. This is becoming a one horse race. Especially this race, with what, just 8 cars finishing the race and Schumi and Ferrari far far ahead of the rest. In fact, its kinda become boring watching F1. The match between spain and portugal was much more interesting.

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1087742167016237192004-06-20T07:32:00.000-07:002004-06-20T07:36:07.016-07:00

Rediff offers 1GB Have just noticed that a lot of web mails are beginning to offer 1GB of space, the latest being rediff. But as I thought earlier, the point is not the storage. I was wondering, whats the point having 1 GB of e-mail in your mailbox, if you can search through it, unless of course you have taken the pains to organize all the mail. Even then, if you cant have good enough search to

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1087481008922235482004-06-17T06:41:00.000-07:002004-06-17T07:46:14.710-07:00

Orkut and Social Networking I got an invite to orkut and registered there today. first impression: disappointing. I did not like the registration process. Like all other similar sites, there are simply too many questions during registration. One of the challenges in implementing social networking, I feel, is the way you collect information about someone's profile, interests etc. Asking a 100

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1087466017557296622004-06-17T02:42:00.000-07:002004-06-17T07:45:46.350-07:00

Google snippets just in case a software engineer did not have enough incentive to want to work for google... check, http://www.google.com/jobs/lunar_job.html Google's own blog! http://www.google.com/googleblog/

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1087301425837782142004-06-15T05:07:00.000-07:002004-06-17T07:45:28.600-07:00

Of gmail and e-mail wars... For those who still do not have gmail, there is some good news. I got a very early invite to gmail thanks to this blog. Of late I find that google is allowing me to invite more and more people to open an account with gmail. So much so that, I am beginning to have spare invites for more than a day before someone asks me for an account. I am not going to review gmail

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1087132159175845452004-06-13T05:55:00.000-07:002004-06-17T07:44:59.563-07:00

In Bombay... I was away for on thursday and friday in bombay at the Microsoft Executive Summit(MES) at the "Renaissance". Bombay is a city I love and it was great being there. As usual, my travel had its share of adventure. My hotel bookings were bungled up and I was stranded in the bombay airport around midnight. Had to call a sleeping friend to find a place to spend the night. The MES was

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1086593986417330422004-06-07T00:36:00.000-07:002004-06-07T00:39:46.416-07:00

Im not busy with work, but busy with shifting my house within chennai. Had no clue how tough that is, until it came down to it. Should have hired the professional packers and movers. Its good fun, but dont try this at home without expert help.

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1086016014263115452004-05-31T08:05:00.000-07:002004-05-31T08:06:54.263-07:00

Schumi won again!

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1085825075695087332004-05-29T01:55:00.000-07:002004-05-29T03:06:50.140-07:00

Second post of the day! Whoa! At work on a saturday means, I have exclusive access to the only PC that has an internet connection to blogger.com. So, I get the time to check out the newly redesigned blogger.com and find out that, among other things, I can e-mail my posts. This free time also gave me the time to look back at my blog. Gosh, all so many serious entries that I feel like I have been

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1085813559852322192004-05-28T23:34:00.000-07:002004-05-28T23:56:56.066-07:00

When in ISB, we had a course called management of organizations. It was the first course in organizational behaviour. Prof. Huggy Rao from Kellogg took a full session on networks in organization, where in he talked about the various kind of networks that get formed among people in an organization. One of them was the trust network. If one were to map the trust network in a firm on paper, the

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-108495019325209932004-05-18T23:53:00.000-07:002004-05-19T02:43:54.276-07:00

Over the past couple of weeks, I am realizing how much your mindset has to change when you have to move from being one of those engineers who are managed to the one who manages them. As an engineer, your mindset is so much tuned towards a world of your own, where your only bother is that problem in front of you that you have to tackle, solve to make things work. Of course, you work with a team,

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1084442006403767442004-05-13T02:52:00.000-07:002004-05-14T08:46:09.540-07:00

The first one week at Verizon has been a mixed bag. Without going into too many details, let me just say that I faced some intriguing issues and people that I had to handle. Its been interesting and challenging. I am a freshly minted MBA in an environment that is not totally used to such people. So, I disturb the mindset of many people who are set to one way of working. Handling all of that,

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1084245733953157982004-05-10T20:16:00.000-07:002004-05-10T20:23:23.366-07:00

This is after a three day weekend where I went around chennai house hunting. Im looking to move into a larger house and its been a nightmare searching for the ideal apartment that can have everything that my family wants. I got info late into friday about the work I am going to do. It involves process transition and new feature development for a new product. It sounded exciting and so, I spent

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1083900925770243982004-05-06T20:35:00.000-07:002004-05-06T20:39:30.936-07:00

Joined work. First two days have been a mixed bag. Got to meet the Exec Director on the first day and had a chat with him. Spoke to another from the US office on the second day and things are being sized up before I start work. Otherwise, there has been a lot of induction, filling up forms and procedures to follow... none too exciting. There is a lot of flux here as Verizon is in the process of

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1083343551666858652004-04-30T09:45:00.000-07:002004-04-30T09:48:58.450-07:00

this blog will be in full force once i join work, thats next wednesday. until then, i am crippled with my old pc playing its age and a browsing center where there isnt much privacy :(

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1082471070296512302004-04-20T07:24:00.000-07:002004-04-20T07:28:20.590-07:00

Well, a busy orientation week at ISB combined with some food poisoning has kept me away from this blog... Minus the ill health, this week has been very interesting. Its been fascinating meeting a new set of 295 souls, as passionate about ISB, if not more. I was seriously apprehensive when ISB's fee was raised. I thought it would influence the applicant quality. While I still believe it did, the

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1081775681359040602004-04-12T06:14:00.000-07:002004-04-12T06:17:30.343-07:00

Ganguly has just made me eat my words. Chopra dropped! I cannot agree. This is not fair on the opener. Ganguly better prove his worth by scoring a century. But even if he does, this is not fair.

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1081435937913803532004-04-08T07:52:00.000-07:002004-04-08T07:56:40.246-07:00

I have been killing time with my macroecon text from ISB. Its one book that I wanted to read patiently. Economics, especially macroecon, is absolutely fascinating. I wish I had read more of this stuff before. Forex reserves, inflation, exchange rates, GDP growth, stuff u read everyday in the newspapers made so much more sense only after this course. Prof. Ravi Bansal had made it all seem so

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1080396663888433412004-03-27T06:11:00.000-08:002004-04-02T07:30:42.513-08:00

I am back in chennai after graduation and the last few days at ISB. Its over with the course at ISB. It still hasnt sunk in that I will not be going back to my room in SV3, and there will no more be classes to attend. It still feels like a small break I have taken to come back home and its only a matter of time before I go back to the campus. Well, to be frank, it feels very funny to be back home

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1080108294680463012004-03-23T22:04:00.000-08:002004-03-23T22:07:24.450-08:00

There is so much to be done before I can say bye to ISB. Clearances, collecting my stuff, physical and digital, packing, calling up friends, so much to be done! I guess I will get a chance to do one long post before I leave this place and leave this blog to rest for sometime... expect one in the next few days. Until then, sorry, I am extremely busy winding up and watching cricket ;)

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1079926844917735632004-03-21T19:40:00.000-08:002004-03-21T19:43:12.280-08:00

My best friend is getting married today in chennai. I wont be there because of my exam in the afternoon today. It something I am not able to come to grips with today, when I realize that after 8 years of what has been an unforgettable friendship, I wont be there to see her getting married or for that matter not be able to meet her before she leaves for the US. I called my parents just now and

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1079638473453121432004-03-18T11:34:00.000-08:002004-03-18T11:45:51.340-08:00

Some random thoughts while I complete my org design project... I am listening to "Ayutha Ezhuthu" (Yuva in hindi). ARR and Manirathnam combo always works wonders. Being a die hard ARR fan, my expectations were very high. They were matched by the music. "jana gana mana" is brilliant and so is "Yakkai thiri". It hit me instantly, unlike most songs of ARR that grow on you. ARR rules. What talent! I

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1079601239843616762004-03-18T01:13:00.000-08:002004-03-18T01:53:58.186-08:00

Today is the last day of classes at ISB for me. Its 2:40 pm now and in another 2 hours, I will attend my last class. The first class we attended, our first case discussion during the take charge module at the beginning of the year is still fresh in my memory. I cruel aspect of a one year MBA is that time flies and you realize very soon that you are at the end of it all... too soon for comfort. I

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1079319443539657272004-03-14T18:57:00.000-08:002004-03-17T06:49:33.606-08:00

The uncertainties in life are too many at this point in time. I certainly want to continue this blog beyond my graduation. The first uncertainty: I have a cyrix 233, 16 mb ram, 33.6 modem, win 95 machine at home. Its an antique piece. But it is my first and only computer. There have been times when I spent oodles of my time on it and there is this seemingly explainable bonding... those who are

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1079290198597873872004-03-14T10:49:00.000-08:002004-03-14T10:52:18.280-08:00

After a long hiatus, im back online again... Term 8 is getting to be as busy as any other term... there is so much work to do... my whole sunday went in meetings for assignments and projects... what a sunday! i feel so tired at the end of it all that i want to sleep for a whole day... but i still have to read the case for tomorrow's 9 am class... someone help me :((( countdown to graduation: 12

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1078908403794554022004-03-10T00:46:00.000-08:002004-03-10T00:53:24.436-08:00

After the mayhem that my attempt to picture things has caused, I am determined to find out an easy way to do it. Ashwin just registered at photobucket. It seems to work... thanks! :) I was part of the same study group for the first four terms at ISB. 6 of us, totally diverse. Me the software/telecom guy. A shippee (that what we call anyone who was sailing before coming here). Another running his

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1078891841427558142004-03-09T20:10:00.000-08:002004-03-09T20:12:57.106-08:00

More holi pictures: http://www.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=67b0de21b34e0212657a Credits go to Ian Vacin, one of the exchange students from Kellogg.

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1078806426716446832004-03-08T20:27:00.000-08:002004-03-08T20:29:21.140-08:00

And so, go to www.geocities.com/rsramkee/holi.htm Atleast now do you see the picture?

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1078690200627604862004-03-07T12:10:00.000-08:002004-03-08T20:28:33.890-08:00

Irritating geocities does not allow you to link pictures directly! I thought I wud put up the picture here and all attempts have failed!

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1078665658443048382004-03-07T05:20:00.000-08:002004-03-07T05:23:11.343-08:00

Ok, 4th posting for the day... From Rajan's Rambling, I picked up this interesting post about PageRank, and also another one about matrix and entrepreneurship... Good reads...

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1078663856347343642004-03-07T04:50:00.000-08:002004-03-07T04:53:08.810-08:00

Btw, did I mention? I love typos...

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1078663330844812162004-03-07T04:42:00.000-08:002004-03-07T04:49:22.623-08:00

Sunday blues. I am feeling so damn lazy. Have been in the library since morning, reading up Wired magazine/Scientific American/Business World/All newspapers/Auto India, watching schumi show his class, eating lots of food from the brunch, gulping down lots of diet coke and on and on and on... Even read a case thinking I have to submit the analysis tomorrow when the actual submission is on

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1078631798421049392004-03-06T19:56:00.000-08:002004-03-06T22:44:16.013-08:00

have been busy preparing for a mid term tomorrow. plus holi bash is happening big time in the student villages. more about that later. The remote tokyo suburb where I spent two weeks was kashiwa. Now, I hope it is some kind of a suburb of tokyo as it was just two hours from Narita. hmm... btw, this happened in one of the GDs and all the IT folks can relate to this. Out of the box thinking if I

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1078296226947679232004-03-02T22:43:00.000-08:002004-03-03T01:09:18.560-08:00

Lost in translation was brilliant. I have lived in Japan for a couple of weeks, that too all alone, out of the blue, without knowing the language, without a translator at times, using just sign language at which I am the poorest, that too in a remote suburb of tokyo. I could relate to this movie so very well. Bill Murray was excellent. I had not heard of Scarlett Johansson before this movie.

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1078123935198492252004-02-29T22:52:00.000-08:002004-02-29T22:54:21.373-08:00

Renee and Tim win! LOTR, well I am yet to see it on the big screen. I wish I get to see it soon. Im watching Lost in Translation now, between classes. We had our second beer bath yesterday. More fun than the first one. I really wish I cud get the pictures out on the net somewhere.

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1078037284452425552004-02-28T22:48:00.000-08:002004-02-28T22:56:44.030-08:00

Talking about movies... I was going through this blog by Sidharth, after he left a comment for my previous post. Somehow his predictions for the oscars matched mine perfectly... Quoting from his post... Best Film : The Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King Best Direction : Peter Jackson(The Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King) Best Actor : Bill Murray(Lost in Translation) I

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1077827399496683982004-02-26T12:29:00.000-08:002004-02-26T12:32:02.543-08:00

I completed seeing the gladiator for the umpteenth time today... I somehow don't get tired watching this movie... and everytime I see the scene where Russell crowe remove his helmet in the middle of the colosseum and says, "My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius. Commander of the armies of the North, general of the Felix Legions, loyal servant to the true emperor Marcus Aurelius. Father to a

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1077733429880368442004-02-25T10:23:00.000-08:002004-02-25T10:25:51.936-08:00

Check out the anniversary issue of "The Smart Manager" if you are in India. The issue is about 25 top managers and the framework and research was done by a team of students at ISB. Gita Piramal's smart manager team and the ISB team did this work as an ELP project. Well done guys.

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1077656089179160492004-02-24T12:54:00.000-08:002004-02-24T13:08:30.860-08:00

Today I skipped a class... A crime at one point in time in my life... looking back the past one year, if I were to be absolutely blunt with my views about classes, fellow classmates and the education I have received, I should say, things could have been better and I could have done better... Though I don't regret anything... Looking back, I realize that the major difference between a one year

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1077530040052912372004-02-23T01:54:00.000-08:002004-02-23T01:59:02.763-08:00

A group of friends from bangalore and chennai are planning a trek to this place called nataraja gurukula, somewhere near bangalore, coming weekend. I am sooooo tempted to go, just that I dont know if all these assignments and what not are going to let me... the dumb me has picked out those courses that seem to have maximum work to do (but somehow everyone else is saying the same too ;) Having

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1077459501659032062004-02-22T06:18:00.000-08:002004-02-22T07:47:24.403-08:00

I am blogging today for distraction from things bothering me... Today we had a beer bath, a first of its kind bash in SV3 (Student Village 3). We filled up one of the three mirror pools with water (ankle deep), ordered beer and went bonkers. Jumping into the water, dragging people around and of course sipping beer with pink floyd, GNR and the gang for company... I am trying to find a place where

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1077252267286461922004-02-19T20:44:00.000-08:002004-02-19T20:46:23.670-08:00

As the comment by one of the alums mentions, the course this term about Organization Design by Prof.Anand Narasimhan has been fun. He is such a chilled out and cool person that a potentially dry course like this one is made very interesting in class by his delivery style and sense of humor. When I say potentially dry course, I guess its because one can just delve into the theory of OD and bore

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1077090681813258892004-02-17T23:51:00.000-08:002004-02-17T23:53:16.076-08:00

Interesting comment to my tuesday post... i once asked an iim grad- whose kids go to american schools- so why dont you even talk about them going to iit/iim- he said they just wouldn't be able to compete with the indians. wonder if that is true- indian kids raised in the U.S.A cant cut it competing against the indians from india??????? Well, I would agree with that in terms of cracking the

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1076962641512308762004-02-16T12:17:00.000-08:002004-02-16T12:20:07.966-08:00

there have been quite a few questions to me abt verizon and my role there. three of us are going to verizon. they were actually interested in nine of us but six others were out of the placements process by the time the offers came. all of us will be doing program management. the role involves product + project management. the products are either internal software products that verizon uses or

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1076913877035192672004-02-15T22:44:00.000-08:002004-02-15T22:46:29.343-08:00

Back in hyd, this is the last term... one and a half months to go... Courses in Organizational Design, Mergers and Acquisitions, Brand Management, Knowledge Management, International Trade, Marketing implementation, Digital SCM... Tough pick for me again... Its still hard to believe that the year is almost over!

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1076697509972115442004-02-13T10:38:00.000-08:002004-02-13T10:40:19.826-08:00

India's southwest Im blogging from chennai. I flew AirDeccan for the first time yesterday. I had to come to chennai on short notice and the only airline that could get me a ticket in a matter of 3 hours was this one. Southwest airlines in the US is a pioneer in cheap airlines. It is such a popular case among the profs teaching us that we all are tired of hearing a few companies that tend to get

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1076345313804181372004-02-09T08:48:00.000-08:002004-02-09T08:50:57.920-08:00

I was taking a break to read this article on rediff: http://www.rediff.com/news/2004/feb/09pak.htm "I faced a dilemma pardoning Khan: Musharraf" Could not help but laugh. Was wondering how the world was looking at the farce of an inquiry and pardon being played out. The US and UK knew all along that Pak was doing it. They present proof, Armitage flies down to Islamabad just for that and then,

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1076331915979853832004-02-09T05:05:00.000-08:002004-02-09T05:40:14.560-08:00

I finally took a call and decided to go to Verizon. Thanks to all the wishes and offers for help. It was a tough choice. I liked Sapient and the way they conducted themselves in the campus a lot. I will be going back home to chennai. I was planning to stay back for the orientation for the next class but if my joining date is in April, I guess I will have to give that a pass... The sapient

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1075741377173946602004-02-02T09:02:00.000-08:002004-02-02T17:56:21.763-08:00

I went out of the placement process today, with my third offer arriving by e-mail... this whole placement process started on the 6th of Jan... since then there have been action packed weekends, hours and hours of interviews, offers, rejections, salary negotiations spanning days and days, role negotiations that broke deals, multiple offers, elated and dejected souls and what not... its been a

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1075457415341755792004-01-30T02:10:00.000-08:002004-01-30T02:11:51.170-08:00

Random thoughts... I took half an hour out now, just stopped and decided to take a break... i have been so carried away by the pace of activities in the past one month that I have hardly had any time for myself... I look back, see my blog and Gawd, so many typos... In all the hurry and furious pace at which life happens in ISB, though I am happy about the amount of blogging I have done, I guess

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1075453351673891432004-01-30T01:02:00.000-08:002004-01-30T01:07:45.436-08:00

There have been a few questions about the microsoft interview and the kind of roles that are being offered in the IT industry and the kind of interviews these companies conduct. Here is a quick take on these. The Microsoft Interview was for the post of a "program manager". Now, if you want to know more about this role as well as the typical MS interview for this, read the book, "How to move

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1075260655102492072004-01-27T19:30:00.000-08:002004-01-27T19:32:28.483-08:00

And it goes on and on and on... Ok, after a long lull, here is an update... the latest placement numbers: 47 companies have interviewed until now. 15 of them have gone back are discussing/negotiating with students they are interested in and are yet to make offers. Remaining 32 have made 148 offers! (Thats nearly 5 offers per company). More than half the class has offers, 123 to be precise.

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1073910894919943822004-01-12T04:34:00.000-08:002004-01-12T04:39:22.936-08:00

The first few days of placements... the past 4 days have been sheer madness... sheer madness... there have been interviews and offers galore... before I go onto the numbers, caveat: these are unofficial numbers and I am solely responsible for these details... Thats 33 offers over the weekend... 5 overseas... Mck, Dell, GE, GECIS, Deutsche Bank, LNM group, CTS have made offers... Microsoft,

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1073422858217971872004-01-06T13:00:00.000-08:002004-01-06T13:02:10.796-08:00

Back in hyd after the disorienting wonderful one week back home. And its been hectic here. Job postings, resume changes, cover letters, applying to jobs, shortlists... Interview start this week... This is the holy grail... or is it?

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1072721696860346792003-12-29T10:14:00.000-08:002003-12-29T10:16:01.216-08:00

A very happy new year from chennai to all of you! Busy with interview prep and meeting good old friends :)

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1072601557990017722003-12-28T00:52:00.000-08:002003-12-28T00:53:40.420-08:00

Back home after 8 months. Enjoying my time at home. Updates can wait :)

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1072191125525103402003-12-23T06:52:00.000-08:002003-12-23T06:53:55.670-08:00

Year end break... The one week year end break is coming up... tomorrow is the last day of exams and then, for the first time since we walked into this campus, we are off, for a whole week, through chirstmas and new year before we come back on the 5th of Jan for term 7. Term 7 has been the most looked forward to term, though the reason is not the fantastic line of courses and professors that it

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1072074268075515242003-12-21T22:24:00.000-08:002003-12-21T22:25:46.153-08:00

Biswajit's prophecy comes true ;) http://in.rediff.com/money/2003/dec/22sld1.htm

Rnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5559148.post-1071997741474901042003-12-21T01:09:00.000-08:002003-12-21T01:09:57.670-08:00

Random thoughts... Sitting in the LRC, I am trying hard to concentrate preparing for my "Pricing" finals tomorrow... I am beginning to get the feeling now that I am going slightly off the boil... I dont know if its placements thats distracting or its just the amount of work built up over time... I hate to think it is the amount of work, for in my belief, to some extent at least, it is hyped up,

Rnoreply@blogger.com0