In the middle of some extremely busy work, there was a mass dunking today... Dunking is throwing people into the pool... and every birthday baby is dunked in the pool at midnight... its a tradition among ISB students... Today, there was a major dunking when people went for their friends and before u could realise almost everyone who had come to just see the burthday babies get dunked was in the pool... mass dunkings have been more popular in our batch... many mobile phones and wallets have lost their color and life in the process... ;)
have a presentation in the IT class tomorrow and I am the only IT guy in my group... so it falls on my head... have to go...
Sunday, September 21, 2003
A village party after long...
There are 2 student villages in ISB... SV2 and SV3... there are supposed to be 4 according to the original plan and sv1 and 4 will be coming up as ISB grows... as of now, SV3, my village, has the reputation of being the kewler of the two... parties, loud music are routine while the mood at SV2 seems sober all the time... (I only hope those guys arent reading this stuff;))
Last night we had a village party after a long long time... it had been in the waiting for a while... and all the pent up energy was let out as the music rocked the village and the booze flowed... The depression of the exams and the stress of the past few weeks had to be discarded some way... it was a real good party that went on and on until 4 in the morning... Rajat Seth, fellow student and our in house DJ, was at his best with a damn good cross selection of music... everything from english to hindi to regional... jazz tracks to hard rock to love songs... it was total fun... we even paused to celebrate a birthday when the clock struck midnight... it was fun and the best saturday night for a long time...
today, we have a informal "beer and chips" session with Gurcharan Das... The "beer and chips" sessions were started to get all of us to have a more relaxed and informal session with profs and visitors... The first one was with Ravi Bansal, discussing economics, India and China... Today, I assume its going to be everything from P&G to nishkama karma... its going to be interesting...
There are 2 student villages in ISB... SV2 and SV3... there are supposed to be 4 according to the original plan and sv1 and 4 will be coming up as ISB grows... as of now, SV3, my village, has the reputation of being the kewler of the two... parties, loud music are routine while the mood at SV2 seems sober all the time... (I only hope those guys arent reading this stuff;))
Last night we had a village party after a long long time... it had been in the waiting for a while... and all the pent up energy was let out as the music rocked the village and the booze flowed... The depression of the exams and the stress of the past few weeks had to be discarded some way... it was a real good party that went on and on until 4 in the morning... Rajat Seth, fellow student and our in house DJ, was at his best with a damn good cross selection of music... everything from english to hindi to regional... jazz tracks to hard rock to love songs... it was total fun... we even paused to celebrate a birthday when the clock struck midnight... it was fun and the best saturday night for a long time...
today, we have a informal "beer and chips" session with Gurcharan Das... The "beer and chips" sessions were started to get all of us to have a more relaxed and informal session with profs and visitors... The first one was with Ravi Bansal, discussing economics, India and China... Today, I assume its going to be everything from P&G to nishkama karma... its going to be interesting...
Saturday, September 20, 2003
Yesterday was tough... and the stress got to me I guess...
and today was the investments part 1 exam... tough one... had everyone dazed... some really intuitive problems... this was not a well managed course I wud say... wasnt very happy with the first part being done over just 3 weeks followed by the exam... though the subject per se has been extremely interesting and intuitive, the fast pace did take its toll on many... given that we are suffering a 4 week term here, its been really tough on non-quant guys... its all going to change with a more evenly balanced term next year but that doesnt help me! anyway, this stuff will get applied again in the finance electives...
The elective registration started... tough go, choosing electives... some very interesting courses... its high time we decided the specialization as some basic courses are on offer...
the fee hike got announced officially today... the forex rate has not been kind on ISB and the 3 lakh rupee hike has been inflated to 30K$ by the strong rupee... I hope, just for the fee sake, that the rupee goes back to its 50 bucks a $ rate... ISB does need the money for its development but what worries me the most is that, given the high interest rates, the EMIs can go out of hand... let me see how this pans out...
and today was the investments part 1 exam... tough one... had everyone dazed... some really intuitive problems... this was not a well managed course I wud say... wasnt very happy with the first part being done over just 3 weeks followed by the exam... though the subject per se has been extremely interesting and intuitive, the fast pace did take its toll on many... given that we are suffering a 4 week term here, its been really tough on non-quant guys... its all going to change with a more evenly balanced term next year but that doesnt help me! anyway, this stuff will get applied again in the finance electives...
The elective registration started... tough go, choosing electives... some very interesting courses... its high time we decided the specialization as some basic courses are on offer...
the fee hike got announced officially today... the forex rate has not been kind on ISB and the 3 lakh rupee hike has been inflated to 30K$ by the strong rupee... I hope, just for the fee sake, that the rupee goes back to its 50 bucks a $ rate... ISB does need the money for its development but what worries me the most is that, given the high interest rates, the EMIs can go out of hand... let me see how this pans out...
Friday, September 19, 2003
Bad day... angry, disappointed and extremely frustrated... Guess if I blog now, I will end up with paragraphs of crap... As for a homepage, I have long stopped maintaining one... and havent even had the time to think abt it here... sorry guys... in a bad mood today... guess its just one of those low days...
Thursday, September 18, 2003
Mathur, Microsoft and Me ;)
I like to look at myself as a linux evangelist, though I was at one point in time a full time advocate of M$ and Gates... so much so that I cleaned up all MCSD and MCSE during my college days... then I got employed and started working on Linux... and have been in love with it ever since... today, i love both these guys for different reasons, though linux takes the cake
in my mind...
The meeting with Sanjiv Mathur turned out to be very interesting until I almost turned it into a little disaster for myself... His talk about the change management project, Saratoga, that he carried out in India, as part of a global organizational change aimed at eliminating any signs of bureaucratic attitude that may have set in... was pretty interesting and more importantly candid... Sanjiv is a very candid person by nature... atleast that was the impression we all got... he admitted his failures and is proud of what he and M$ have achieved... His detailed description of how the company is being turned inside out just to ensure that customer focus is given primary importance was very enlightening... the stories of failures were especially very interesting... along with a candid description from Mathur the implementer himself... some gems were, "How a company with one successful product can lose focus of opportunity in selling other products... Even if there are opportunities in getting X $s from another product, it is always equated to a small % increase in market share or margin of the successful product"... "Employees feel secure and are receptive when you tell them what wont change, than what will change, when advocating change!"... "Implementing change in any country, will have to be a mix of standardized processes and appropriate amount of localization. What works for you in your country wont work for me, even if its Bill Gates who is advocating it!"... I could go on...
His candid and frank presentation with the correct dash of humor made him seem a soft person... one must remember that he is in his early 30s... He has 4 years in wipro, one year in oracle and then 7 years in M$... to become the india marketing head in such a short career is phenomenal growth... that too if you are just a BA History graduate... and one could see why... If I have to say just one sentence for it, I will repeat what Huggy said... "Someone who is as candid as this guy, will never deceive himself!"... So true!
Now, coming to the interesting part... after the presentation, I was among a group selected for dinner with him... and i was itching to ask him about the Indian government's policy about linux, how it has released linux in 5 local languages and the move by china, korea and japan to build their own OS using linux as a base... After a first few minutes of introduction and ice breaking, I jumped in...
Mathur is known for his sharp and dismissive view on Linux... A recent ET report in which he had spoken about linux is a case in point... the first link that a google search of his name brings up is line by line rebuttal of his statement in that report by a linux fan in IIT bombay... and that made it so much more spicy... and as expected, the moment I mentioned linux, I had all his attention... or so I felt... he was staring at me, as if boring thru me... I mentioned abt all the government moves and asked him his views... as expected, he simply lined up all his points against linux... like the absence of a single business promoter... lack of a clear agenda... lack of even a few profitable companies based on linux (except red hat)... now I could have argued against his points... but what would bother me, if i were in M$ shoes, is the move by governments and their IT policy... and I asked him exactly that... I dont know if I used the wrong words or the wrong tone but he seemed put off... he simply dismissed me saying, "What govt policy? there is no govt policy!"... I thought I had been a bit too aggresive and had rubbed him the wrong way... anyways, there were others who had so much to talk abt that I could wthdraw then and there... but when it come to policy, Mr Mathur, I am sorry, I dont agree with you... check this out...
Kerala: http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2002/05/19/stories/2002051903550400.htm
Govt and open source: http://www.linuxforu.com/editorial/apr2003/MAIT.pdf
Asian policy: http://www.asiaosc.org/topic_9.html
Indian Policy: http://www.asiaosc.org/article_91.html
There need not be a written out policy, but then, there is indeed a clear move by even the MP govt to move to linux... As a M$ guy, I better be worried about the way govts are looking at linux...
anyways, it was indeed a evening to remember for me, Sanjiv and others in the dinner... at the end of the day, he seemed impressed, happy and that is very important for ISB, especially in these formative years...
I like to look at myself as a linux evangelist, though I was at one point in time a full time advocate of M$ and Gates... so much so that I cleaned up all MCSD and MCSE during my college days... then I got employed and started working on Linux... and have been in love with it ever since... today, i love both these guys for different reasons, though linux takes the cake
in my mind...
The meeting with Sanjiv Mathur turned out to be very interesting until I almost turned it into a little disaster for myself... His talk about the change management project, Saratoga, that he carried out in India, as part of a global organizational change aimed at eliminating any signs of bureaucratic attitude that may have set in... was pretty interesting and more importantly candid... Sanjiv is a very candid person by nature... atleast that was the impression we all got... he admitted his failures and is proud of what he and M$ have achieved... His detailed description of how the company is being turned inside out just to ensure that customer focus is given primary importance was very enlightening... the stories of failures were especially very interesting... along with a candid description from Mathur the implementer himself... some gems were, "How a company with one successful product can lose focus of opportunity in selling other products... Even if there are opportunities in getting X $s from another product, it is always equated to a small % increase in market share or margin of the successful product"... "Employees feel secure and are receptive when you tell them what wont change, than what will change, when advocating change!"... "Implementing change in any country, will have to be a mix of standardized processes and appropriate amount of localization. What works for you in your country wont work for me, even if its Bill Gates who is advocating it!"... I could go on...
His candid and frank presentation with the correct dash of humor made him seem a soft person... one must remember that he is in his early 30s... He has 4 years in wipro, one year in oracle and then 7 years in M$... to become the india marketing head in such a short career is phenomenal growth... that too if you are just a BA History graduate... and one could see why... If I have to say just one sentence for it, I will repeat what Huggy said... "Someone who is as candid as this guy, will never deceive himself!"... So true!
Now, coming to the interesting part... after the presentation, I was among a group selected for dinner with him... and i was itching to ask him about the Indian government's policy about linux, how it has released linux in 5 local languages and the move by china, korea and japan to build their own OS using linux as a base... After a first few minutes of introduction and ice breaking, I jumped in...
Mathur is known for his sharp and dismissive view on Linux... A recent ET report in which he had spoken about linux is a case in point... the first link that a google search of his name brings up is line by line rebuttal of his statement in that report by a linux fan in IIT bombay... and that made it so much more spicy... and as expected, the moment I mentioned linux, I had all his attention... or so I felt... he was staring at me, as if boring thru me... I mentioned abt all the government moves and asked him his views... as expected, he simply lined up all his points against linux... like the absence of a single business promoter... lack of a clear agenda... lack of even a few profitable companies based on linux (except red hat)... now I could have argued against his points... but what would bother me, if i were in M$ shoes, is the move by governments and their IT policy... and I asked him exactly that... I dont know if I used the wrong words or the wrong tone but he seemed put off... he simply dismissed me saying, "What govt policy? there is no govt policy!"... I thought I had been a bit too aggresive and had rubbed him the wrong way... anyways, there were others who had so much to talk abt that I could wthdraw then and there... but when it come to policy, Mr Mathur, I am sorry, I dont agree with you... check this out...
Kerala: http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2002/05/19/stories/2002051903550400.htm
Govt and open source: http://www.linuxforu.com/editorial/apr2003/MAIT.pdf
Asian policy: http://www.asiaosc.org/topic_9.html
Indian Policy: http://www.asiaosc.org/article_91.html
There need not be a written out policy, but then, there is indeed a clear move by even the MP govt to move to linux... As a M$ guy, I better be worried about the way govts are looking at linux...
anyways, it was indeed a evening to remember for me, Sanjiv and others in the dinner... at the end of the day, he seemed impressed, happy and that is very important for ISB, especially in these formative years...
Tuesday, September 16, 2003
Another hectic week
This term is becoming more hectic than expected... The courses have that seemed easy in the beginning, just faff (non quantitative) are looming large... While both huggy and Rajiv Banker (IT) have been excellent in the classes, there is so much tacit knowledge passed on in class... Investment Analysis and its complexities is beginning to give all those considered Finance in the past a serious scare... Many are reconsidering their elective choices... The registration for term 5's electives is also out and its a very crucial decision... Many basic fundamental electives like market research and futures and options are in term 5... And on top of all this is ELP, which for me atleast is getting more and more interesting but time consuming at the same time...
Today, my ELP team spent time with Ajit for an hour and that changed a lot of what we were planning to do as part of the ELP... He provided us with some much needed focus... I had the feeling that something was amiss, ever since the first day and it turned out to be a pull approach to the project from the perspective of what the client wanted at the end of the project... Talking with Ajit cleared a lot of uncertainity in the planning...
I also have taken it up on myself to write an essay for the IIMB manifestations event... I worked on the table of contents today and did a brain storming session with Mehul, who is also authoring the essay with me... We started pretty late but hope to cover good ground as I have been reading about the topic and observing the IT industry for quite some time to come...
Also, we had a new finance elective, "indian financial systems" added to term 5 today... It is being offered by Gangadhar, who is a post doctoral research fellow here... The post doctoral fellows (we call them PDFs) are part of a research faculty development program... and it was heartening to see a course from one of the PDFs... Gangadhar is a mine of knowledge when it comes to the Indian economy and its financial systems... The number of papers he has written and the books he has edited are his testimony... I sincerely wish he joins ISB as faculty after completing his research...
We have Sanjiv Mathur from Microsoft visiting us tomorrow, courtesy Huggy... I am among the few selected for a dinner session with him... Have to do my homework before I get to talk to him... Just a few minutes ago I read in the ET about the Indian government releasing GNU linux in regional languages... Enough cud to chew on for tomorrow I guess ;)
This term is becoming more hectic than expected... The courses have that seemed easy in the beginning, just faff (non quantitative) are looming large... While both huggy and Rajiv Banker (IT) have been excellent in the classes, there is so much tacit knowledge passed on in class... Investment Analysis and its complexities is beginning to give all those considered Finance in the past a serious scare... Many are reconsidering their elective choices... The registration for term 5's electives is also out and its a very crucial decision... Many basic fundamental electives like market research and futures and options are in term 5... And on top of all this is ELP, which for me atleast is getting more and more interesting but time consuming at the same time...
Today, my ELP team spent time with Ajit for an hour and that changed a lot of what we were planning to do as part of the ELP... He provided us with some much needed focus... I had the feeling that something was amiss, ever since the first day and it turned out to be a pull approach to the project from the perspective of what the client wanted at the end of the project... Talking with Ajit cleared a lot of uncertainity in the planning...
I also have taken it up on myself to write an essay for the IIMB manifestations event... I worked on the table of contents today and did a brain storming session with Mehul, who is also authoring the essay with me... We started pretty late but hope to cover good ground as I have been reading about the topic and observing the IT industry for quite some time to come...
Also, we had a new finance elective, "indian financial systems" added to term 5 today... It is being offered by Gangadhar, who is a post doctoral research fellow here... The post doctoral fellows (we call them PDFs) are part of a research faculty development program... and it was heartening to see a course from one of the PDFs... Gangadhar is a mine of knowledge when it comes to the Indian economy and its financial systems... The number of papers he has written and the books he has edited are his testimony... I sincerely wish he joins ISB as faculty after completing his research...
We have Sanjiv Mathur from Microsoft visiting us tomorrow, courtesy Huggy... I am among the few selected for a dinner session with him... Have to do my homework before I get to talk to him... Just a few minutes ago I read in the ET about the Indian government releasing GNU linux in regional languages... Enough cud to chew on for tomorrow I guess ;)
Sunday, September 14, 2003
ISB LS hots up...
The leadership summit organizing team got its office and things are alive and kicking now... We have nearly 50 volunteers working on sending out mails, contacting sponsors, sending out mails to various b-schools in Asia, Europe and the US... Event organizers are working overtime to get the rules and regulations, topics, judges and related software finalized... There is this massive effort to raise all the money we need through sponsorship... Karthik Jayaraman, who is heading the whole project, is an amazingly organized guy... he somehow seems to have the time to do this, his ELP and still top the class... He has simply dedicated himself to making LS a grand success...
My spanish improved that much more today... We learned verbo ser and ester... when to use the two... i am beginning to construct sentences... there was a ballroom dancing class in the evening but I cudnt get a female partner to dance with :(... But Divya, alum from the founding batch, who is here with her husband doing the PGP, told me to drop in next time around and promised me a partner! lets see ;)
Tomorrow we discuss CISCO in the IT class... I just went through the case and being from the industry, having followed Cisco for a long time, it seemed a cake walk... Really want to value add in tomorrow's class and gain some CP points in the process... ;)
We have to do the ELP weekly report today.. its due tomorrow and so we have a late night meeting to discuss it out... have to do some work for that... thats pretty much whats pending... otherwise, a nice day... managed to finish many things I aimed for!
The leadership summit organizing team got its office and things are alive and kicking now... We have nearly 50 volunteers working on sending out mails, contacting sponsors, sending out mails to various b-schools in Asia, Europe and the US... Event organizers are working overtime to get the rules and regulations, topics, judges and related software finalized... There is this massive effort to raise all the money we need through sponsorship... Karthik Jayaraman, who is heading the whole project, is an amazingly organized guy... he somehow seems to have the time to do this, his ELP and still top the class... He has simply dedicated himself to making LS a grand success...
My spanish improved that much more today... We learned verbo ser and ester... when to use the two... i am beginning to construct sentences... there was a ballroom dancing class in the evening but I cudnt get a female partner to dance with :(... But Divya, alum from the founding batch, who is here with her husband doing the PGP, told me to drop in next time around and promised me a partner! lets see ;)
Tomorrow we discuss CISCO in the IT class... I just went through the case and being from the industry, having followed Cisco for a long time, it seemed a cake walk... Really want to value add in tomorrow's class and gain some CP points in the process... ;)
We have to do the ELP weekly report today.. its due tomorrow and so we have a late night meeting to discuss it out... have to do some work for that... thats pretty much whats pending... otherwise, a nice day... managed to finish many things I aimed for!
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