Dil Bole AIKYA !!

What is AIKYA? ISBians are 'adopted' by some prominent business families of Hyderabad.

My AIKYA family was Mr. Vinod Poddar - Chairman of the Poddar group of industries. We were about a dozen of us who had been 'adopted' by Mr. Poddar and invited over for dinner last night. The plan was that after my classes which end at about 7pm myself, Hardik "Rangeen" Jhaveri and Samridh "Ghungraloo" Sharma would head together to Poddar Uncle's place. But the bav we booked ditched us for some strange reason. So we found ourselves stranded. So we decided to take one of our batchmates car and head to Mr. Poddar's house.

Both Rangeen and Ghungraloo are hard core entreprenuerial by nature. They were discussing about business and value. Then the conversation between Rangeen and Ghungraloo enroute were something like this:

Rangeen: I hope he doesnt offer alcohol. I have decided to stay off alcohol for a month. Last term I drank like a fish. Need to detox.

Ghungraloo: Ya dude. Me too !!!! This time when I was home I was playing cards all night and in the morning when my Dadi woke up I was still drinking. This was when I realized that I had been drinking too much.

Rangeen: But he's a big-shot for sure. So I guess he'll have a big bar at his place.

Ghungraloo: ... and he'll have the best of whiskies and stuff

Rangeen: What if he offers ?

Ghungraloo: I'll head straight for Single Malt whisky ...

Rangeen: I'll attack Black Dog whisky ...

All this while I was wondering about what each one's first words in this conversation were ... ISBians I tell you ...

Soon after we reached Uncle's place where we were welcomed very warmly by him. All of us sat around in a big circle. Uncle told us about himself, his family, the businesses his handled but what came across as most interesting about him was his passion about Kailash Mansarovar. He talked about how he no longer into his businesses so that he could do something for the society.

Between munching on the delicious Corn pakoda and awesome Dhokla that Uncle had been serving us we had Dr. Somnath entertaining all of us by probing with endless tales about Mr. Poddar's connection to Kolkata. The Doc was missing Durga Puja at home and compounding that was the Diwali atmosphere.

Then Dinner was ready and weren't we hungry !! The food was so delicious that all of us descended on it like a pack of wolves. However Soham, Puneet, Sukesh, Vikram, Tokas, Nandan and Sarfi were on a balanced diet.

While Aanchal, Janani and Suparna were on a See food diet. They only saw the food; ate very little of it. They had some very good insights about how to fool our body when it comes to Calories.

Then we played a funny game - Who wants to be Jalebionnaire ? In this game Uncle chased us and fed us more Jalebis than we have ever eaten. By the end of it Arun "Frenchy" Sagar and Ghungraloo had beaten others by a margin of about half-a-dozen. Rangeen and I used our own hypothesis to dodge most Jalebis. Aanchal and Suparna lost whatever competitive advantage they had won over other girls in terms of Calories input in a single meal that night.

But as the famous quote goes ... If nobody cant, VibhorKant ! At about 11pm just when everybody had been battered and bruised after eating about a dozen Jalebis, Vibhor wanted tea ! In shock Tokas fainted ! Finally Dr. Somnath could retrieve him from the shock without using his medical skills.

All in all it was a fun-filled night and hats off to whoever conceptualized AIKYA. Its a awesome platform for some real social networking and each one of us went home that night richer by experience. ISBians are priveleged in matters like this. Truly looking forward to the next one.

Finance: The Biggest Scam in History

Disclaimer: Meant only in humor

Finance = "Faffin INtuition using chANCE"

The world of Finance is one big scam. They have made money out of making other people look like a constipated monkey tied to the kitchen sink. From the outside they make us believe them to be superior lifeforms who seem to know where the money is.

They help in reducing the rich-poor gap by constantly making the rich people poorer thus doing their bit for the society. So what if that costs us employment ! What's better than seeing somebody's life savings' going down the drain and all they get is "Economy is bad" ! By the way who the jackass in the universe controls the economy ? Let me know if you find out.

Coming back to Finance, take a look at Finance courses in a B-School and you'll understand the dirtiest practical joke played on humanity. Nothing is certain. Everything is assumed and then theories are built on that assumption and then they'll relax those assumptions, subtly prove the assumptions were no good and conclude by saying that the base assumption was an act of god.

You can manipulate every assumption as per your own convenience. Tweak the cash flows and you have a new NPV. Make big equations with lot of terms such that people cannot come to terms with that equation. Clout your lack of capability using Probability. Call everything expected and then expect the unexpected. Blame it all on idiosyncrasy. Tell people that the need to make these assumptions is to build intuition. Hurray !! Now I am a genius with a foundation of false knowledge based on unrealistic assumption. Gotta take one for Intuition. The survival of the human race depends on my sacrifice.

Lets look at something called the one factor model:

Expected Return = alpha + (beta*Factor of shock) + idiosyncratic error

Now take any historical data including your grades since kindergarten and tell me if you cannot fit it into this equation. First you make a prediction. And then based on it make a estimate. And them make up for your lack of understanding with the error term. So in totality you need to be a astrologer and not a MBA grad.

Pivot quite a few of your numbers on Historical data and then use the same historical data to prove how wrong the historical data is i.e. do not use the past to judge the future. No wonder Mutual Funds say "Past performance is not an indicator of future performance" which in English is "Dude somehow the guy who broke the coconut, broke it at an auspicious time and hence it all worked out well but don't you think that you are going to get this lucky".

In the end I guess everyone needs to earn a living by hook or by crook. So be it by pulling a fast one on the countless number of people who believe Finance is something to do with money. Everybody who can count himself to be a decent Astrologer can be good Finance professional. So all you Finance hopefuls, start listening to Bejan Daruwala more intently .... you just might pick up Intuition !

Exchange This !

Exchange programmes bid results are out. Most people are going to the usual boring places like Kellogg, Wharton, NYU Stern, Tuck, Duke, London Business School etc but a few of us are going to some awesome places. Here is a mini-list:

1. KK: Going to Sahara Desert to appreciate some more wild life and in return getting exchanged with a Wild Boar.

2. Vivin: Going to Wimbledon so that he can now use his Tennis racket to play tennis rather than chase stray dogs at midnight.

3. Manjari: Going to Germany as Oktoberfest allows to continue her secret life as Beero.

4. Arjun: Going to Argentina as our Ghoda likes the Grass there. Though that means SV4 will be manure-less and ISB would tardiness-free !

5. Priyom / Jay / Prashant / Suyog : Going to Thailand as thats the Mecca of the Pink Daddies !

6. Hardik: Going to Hawaii as only that place exchanges Rangeen aka colourful students.

7. Viggy: Going to Broadway to be a bigger Dramebaaz than he is currently

8. Sai: Going to Switzerland with the woman of his dreams in exchange for some Cows.

9. Kaushal: Got tricked into going to HEC, Paris as he thought H & C in HEC stood for Honor code

10. Somnath: Going to China / Myanmar to propagate democracy through SOMBOX

11. Saurabh Jhawar: Going to Columbus, Georgia to explore the possibility of the next big thing - the Coke shampoo.

12. Tanya: Going to a research tour to Italy on how to make Middle Managers Deliver while zooming around in a Ferrari

13. Soham / Dushyant: Going to on a world tour so that MJ's Moonwalk can be replaced by Soham's Earthjump and Dushant's Sleepwalk !

14. Prabhat / Deepak / Mohit / Rajesh / Kishore : Going to Vatican to be the Chorus for next Christmas !

15. Aarti Kapur: Going to California for an internship under the original "Commando" !

16. Aarti Ganesh: Going to Tibet in exchange for a monk !

17. Mamta: Going to UK in exchange for a coffee-spilling MI5 spy.

18. Gaurav Bhatnagar: Sorry his marital pressures dont let him go anywhere !

19. Vikas Poddar: Wherever being "Game" is legal !

20. Ashwin Uppal: Is going to the American Museum of Natural History in exchange for a similar aged Dinosaur there !

As for me, I am going to Swat Valley in exchange for some PoWs.

Genetic Evolution

In a time not long long ago the "invisible" hand decided to get creative. It sent a unique and special specimen to the Planet. Of all the eligible and eager countries it decided to bless the Mother of Democrazies - India. It is the only place on the planet where God's own country is a state. Among the numerous possible states in the country the good fortune was bestowed upon Cochin in Kerala. Years later, fate and destiny brought him to ISB, Hyderabad.

"Is that like an acronym or a real name?" said Vivin Mathew when he was first introduced to this prodigy. His name was KK.

He chose to announce himself to the world through innovative thinking and kind-heartedness during the big bad world of Managerial Economics. "Sir, why is it a fly?" quipped KK when shown the pic above. "I dont like to aim at flies because they fly. They can get wet and sit on us. Would you like that?" continued KK. "I would prefer ants. After they got wet and came close all you have to do is run faster than the ants. After all its all about intuition."

All this while his engineering skills was lying dormant. Atleast thats what he wanted others to believe. So he engineered a perfect 'leak'-mail of their assignments along with the naturally talented Shweta Divecha. And with all this his "Boutom-line" grew.

KK is potent everywhere - in air, on land and even under water. Under water his Blackberry is like a Bofors gun - shoots and sinks people at will. And just like how Phantom signed off with the "skull" mark on his targets .... KK signed off by saying "Sent from my underwater Blackberry"! His special Blackberry was custom-designed as shown in the pic below:

Over time his violent nature grew until it had reached unmanageable proportions. KK was now looking for signals from above. One fine day down came the legend--wait for it -- dary "Wild Boar" which changed KKs life forever. His war against humanity for these Wild Boars was exemplary. Though he faced undue criticism for calling "pigs" as "wild boars" but KK fought on valiantly. This feat earned him the presudo-Presidentship of the fictitious Wildlife club. Till date he continues to wage his war.

The "Wild Boar" had now taught KK to channelize his raw energy towards discipline. He decided to become what History would remember as the "Shaolin of Cochin".

Legend has it that he still loves his Coffee. Last heard he was trading Rs. 100/- with a bread loaf between his left and right hand so that velocity of Money became infinite and hence GDP became infinite. Wish him luck !

My Election Speech

Food

This cartoon was to emphasize on the fact that the hygiene audits would be stringent.

This cartoon was to signify how I plan to have that 'zing' in the menu

Infrastructure

This was to signify that the response time to infrastructure based issues would be closely monitored.

This was to signify the "Go green" initiatives which also included water conservation through optimal usage of washing machines.

IT support

This was to signify that regardless of the type of problem, support would always be prompt.

This was to signify the need to beef up IT infrastructure in a few places where it was falling short. For e.g signal boosters where wireless signals were weak.

Library

This was to signify the increased range of books that were to be made available at our Library.

This was to signify the need for a mechanism for notification of the arrival of new books in the library.

HealthCare

This was to signify that stocks of all critical medicines needed for students would be stocked at the Wellness centre.

This was to signify that I wanted to look into the heavy usage of Local Ferrari and reasons so see where OIC could step in.

Other Vendors

This was to signify that I would try and get the vegetable vendor twice a week to campus.

This was to signify that I would look into stocking policies at MORE w.r.t availability etc

Accountability

This was to signify that as member of the GSB Core I would be acting responsibly and ensuring that the core was accountable to GSA.

This was to signify that for matter related to OIC the buck would stop at me i.e. I would be accountable to GSA for all OIC matters.

Something that would be impossible ....

This was to signify that action would be taken on all complaints and nothing would be dusted under the carpet and left to God.

Expectations in check !

This was to signify that though I'll try and get in positive changes but I cant get the impossible done in one shot i.e. it will take time !

And finally incentives for those who vote for me ... 

Enter SmackD the Director

Phew ! Whatte Week  ! Last Sunday after spending some awesome time with my friends at Hyderabad I came back to campus a fully contended man ! I felt I was ready to take over the world ! 

I had been in two minds about standing for the post of Director - Operations and Infrastructure Council. It was a trade-off as to how much time I could devote to myself (Friends, BBK, Blog etc) vs. to others (Acads, OIC etc). I loved this kind of Thankless jobs. Brings out the best in me because nothing is more challenging than get a Thank you in a thankless job. My success at Ashok Leyland (in far more worse n thankless conditions) was a testimony to the fact that I can do justice to this post. 

By the way I personally feel voting in India especially in the General Elections is a scam. I think those survey junta like Gallup must do all this and tell us who won. Anyways they make a living out of such kind of stuff. How many people brush twice a day, how many people are men, how many people had monkeys as ancestors kind of surveys ! Will save us a major pain of going and voting between the bad and worse. 

By the way when you are standing for the elections, all of you can think of is elections the whole day. What are my chances, who are all the competitors etc etc ? When I look at my watch to see the time I see elections all over it !

After I had decided on it fully I wrote down my manifesto, bringing about in one page major issues that I wanted to tackle this year. Was careful enough not to have a Jargon-filled manifesto. Afterall I was presenting ideas and not taking a marketing lecture !

Then came the Presentation ! I didnt want to pretend as somebody else on the stage. So I prepared a PPT which had SmackD signature all over it.  ( A separate blog on this coming up next)

In the end though I won by a convincingly huge margin but the competiton was tougher than what it may seem on paper. Hopefully now I will be able to do justice to it.

Hurried note

To the non-ISBians reading this blog,

Reason for the silence?
Exams. First end terms. On Monday and Tuesday. Also just completed various assignments and quizzes.
The class even squeezed in an extra lecture with visiting Prof. John Zhang. (Rock..EEEEE)
Where can you find us mostly?
Library. Goel. Room. Atrium.

oh..and please visit http://www.helpabhishek.com/

A friend of a classmate needs our help in his battle against cancer. We are all gonna do our bit. Do spread the word.

Yours,
In a bit of a daze,
Me.

While you are here...

You run a marathon as if it were a sprint,
Till you find your pace in each terrain.

You push your limits on another's scale,
Till you make it a race with your past.

You defend against chance opponents,
Till you realise this ain't your game.

You rest with just a deeper breath,
Till you glance beyond the finish line.

You dismiss the ache of dormant ability,
Till reason finally catches up with you.

You know all along what you want to do,
You're just too scared to say it aloud.

And that you've noticed life's hard knocks,
Only tells me you may be on the wrong path.

Director's Cut Version of my Manifesto

Its Election time and I am standing for Director - Operations & Infrastructure Council (OIC). So here are some highlights of my unpublished OIC manifesto: [For illustrative purposes only. Not to be copied. not even the comments]

* I will start an international consortium of a present day industry case study [Go figure out what this means]

* My experience so far, comprises my childhood in the school, a career at XYZ and an active interest in the every high-paying sector.”  - [Child prodigy]

* To empower each and every fellow student to discover and realize his or her full potential and to change the way we think of ourselves, the way we think of each other and the way others think of us – [Wow, a lot in it for you to think about!]

* To truly have a OIC of the people. – [To hell with by the people, for the people]

* To be honest, fearless, neutral, accountable, having great integrity of thought and action. To be affable, open and approachable to everyone. [Talent Personified]

* It is this diversity, leadership experience and ability to interact with people and using those interactions to drive towards the desired objectives (infrastructure building and shopping opportunities in our case) that makes me believe that I will be an effective and efficient OIC Director. – [This sentence is neither effective nor efficient!]

* Redressal forum for individual grievances – [Mommy will be in the house]

* Youngest Belt wearing Professional – [Youngest in the family, youngest in Mars]

* If it is significant for you, so it is for me. Openness is my priority, neutrality is my strength– [And rhetoric is my forte] 

NJ

The news is spreading like wild fire. The massive collective intellect of the strong and energetic batch smiled at NJ and he will now have the honor of representing ISB 2010. 

Channeling this raging ball of fire (the class) is not an easy task, but so is winning an election contested by 24 brilliant minds. I take the liberty to represent the crazy folks here at ISB-MMX and the Class of 2010 at large to congratulate him on the win and wish him every success in whatever he sets out to do as our GSB President. 

There's so much to be done. The entire batch is overflowing with ideas. We'll all be little Presidents on our own accord and drive the initiatives we're passionate about. And we will rely on NJ to steer this massive collective intellect in the right direction using his signature 'calm, composed and confident' approach.  

Go NJ go! 

Pause

Our life's too busy
With lots happening.
The pace promises
to never keep slackening.

Commitments to keep,
Loads to read.
And then aim to emulate
examples who lead.

Pop-quizzes and exams
with alarming regularity.
Meetings and sessions you attend
Hoping for some clarity.

Career, job options, dream jobs.
And then a nagging worry of the loan.
Jamming sessions, high on 'spirits'.
Followed by bright sunny mornings when you moan.

Words of wisdom passed along.
"Introspect", "Identify", "Do what you like".
A mad rush to do everything you can.
Anything - to get that "spike".

Forgotten the real reasons,
That essay written with conviction; that clause.
Struggling to keep up like Superman.
Ultimately losing out on the cause.

Pause.

Elections on the horizon ...

Elections? What elections? I know it sounds funny, especially to people who are not in ISB, to hear about elections just after the Election results came out and finally the country is looking at a stable government, but from an ISB perspective, the major election event on campus is just getting started. Elections for the post of GSB president are scheduled for the 21st of May. With an increased batch size this year, all sorts of rumors on the number of candidates contesting abound. From sections with no people to some sections with 5-6 people contesting (mine, I think :P), a clearer picture should surface by tomorrow once final numbers are out from the admin office. It is kind of expected with 560 ambitious people in the batch of course.
The next step will be the soapbox where all candidates will get a limited time to present their manifestos in front of the whole student body. A lot of people have been campaigning in advance already in the last week or two as well.
Will vote bank politics and personal loyalties work in elections where you have an electorate that consists of 560 highly intelligent people with a future in corporate India? Or will everyone be impartial in their choice? That is one thing I personally want to find out.

More to come as the whole election scenario unfolds. We dont have an exit poll, yet, but you never know what resourceful people in the batch will come up with next. :)

PS: The bloggers in the batch are already keeping a close eye on the happenings going on in campus and expect a couple of reports on the election scene as it progresses...

What the city says...

It took all the wishing of 560 people for time to cross 4:30 yesterday. Us quaddies got out of the campus after the test. Two weeks can seem like a very long time - ISB time.

It was a hot-wind-in-your-face ride in the auto up to Hyderabad Central even at 6 in the evening. Now, ISB is a beautiful place – but, I miss the city! The crowds, the traffic, the shops…everything. Yesterday was a quick dunk into my favorite part of cities – malls! I love the whole shopping experience – even if I end up not buying anything (which occurs very often).

Hyderabad seemed so beautiful last night on the way back. In the van with hummable hindi songs on the radio. Dark night. Pleasant wind messing my hair. A satisfied mind. We passed through mainly shopping areas. I don’t know if it was the euphoria of surviving the midterms, but it was all so beautiful.

Somehow I liked the sight of a beautiful brand logo standing atop a dark building against an equally dark sky. I can’t explain it much, as you can see. Go closer and things may not look as pretty. But, from that distance, everything looked good – the shop windows, the decor, the billboards, the sights and smells. Maybe it was the apparent effort put in that I liked seeing. These people are trying to sell!

There was this balloon seller outside a mall on the way back. I caught a glimpse of him as the van sped on and I twisted around in my seat for another look. He had about 50 heart shaped balloons of every color blown up and tied together. He just stood on the edge of road, letting the wind sell his wares. What a sight! I know I won’t forget that in a hurry.

Cities don’t care about you at all and that suits me just fine. They are made of these places and experiences – you mix and match and manufacture your own joy - whatever works for you.

Torture's over, let the fun begin....

You should have seen the Atrium yesterday evening. It looked straight out of a Ramsay movie! Deserted to the core. Not a single human being around. You should have walked around the campus. Empty again! Like someone was remarking yesterday - "Where do you go to see 576 nerds under one roof?" Answer - ISB during exams! And sure as hell that was the case. People cramming in their quads, delayed dinners that'd last not more than 9 minutes and 32 seconds. Don't ask me how I got that number. Someone told me that they had taken a SRS with sample mean = 9.76 minutes and looking at the t tables I kinda estimated the population mean! OK... If I continue, I'll probably get beaten up the next time I step out of the safe confines of my quad!

Not just the physical locations on campus. Outlook was uncharacteristically quiet as well. No random emails. No personal conversations relayed through chain mails to the whole student community. No club meeting requests, no minutes, and no 'I throw my hat into the GSB ring' campaign messages either! Facebook was full of mourning messages relating to something Statistically related to the Economic Accounts of Marketing! Know what I mean?

And while there was an unusual emptiness in the prettier, non geeky parts of campus, the LRC was full of groups piled together poring over a pile of books! And if the piles of books were not enough, we always had the treasure hunt surrounding the 'hidden' reference books! Going all around the floor looking for some person holding on to the blue cover wala Velleman book, grab the individual's attention, 'network BIG TIME' and trade with him/her for quality book time!

But now all that is done. For the time being at least! We have another 2 weeks for an encore. But why care about that now? The quiet is over, and it's time to hit the party circuit BIG TIME! Happy end of mid terms everyone - Let the fun begin!!!

No more.

A strange feeling -
Numb but not tired,
I think it is saturation.

I want to indulge,
Find compensation,
And regain lost senses.

All, but frozen.
Nothing more is possible,
Today.

MBA FAD(M)s

Many people say that MBA is a fad. I say come and attend our FADM classes. FADM stands for Financial Accounting by Decision Making.

The first half of the course was taken by Professor Mohan Venkatachalam from Duke University. Who knew Accounting could be so much fun. Only a maverick like he can make a mundane subject like accounts come alive in class. In a class composed of mostly engineers, he literally brought Taare Zameen Par. Today was his last class and he actually showed a clip from the above mentioned movie wherein the kid draws the winning picture in the competition. He explained the reasoning behind showing the clip that today being the last day, everything he taught will fall into the big picture and it will all make sense.
It all started on our very first day of classes. The first class contained such gems as "Many students say Accounting seems like Greek and Latin to them - one day Greek, next day Latin"! In our class, the Chartered Accountants (CA) were given an option to continue normally or chuck the class to work on a project which would be more challenging to their intellect/knowledge. To elaborate on the choice, he brought up Matrix, the movie. When Morpheus and Neo meet, Morpheus offers Neo two pills. The red pill will answer the question "what is the Matrix?" (by removing him from it) and the blue pill simply for life to carry on as before. As Neo reaches for the red pill Morpheus warns Neo "Remember, all I'm offering is the truth. Nothing more." So he enacted the scene to the CAs that he'd offer this just once and if they accepted the red pill, that would be it and there's no turning back. To accentuate the point, he in fact brought 2 actual red and blue pills!

All ISB students were really emotional on seeing him leave and each section is planning to give him some gift as a token of our appreciation. He's such a sport that he agreed to be at the receiving end of ISB's most personal gesture - Dunking (where we throw the person to the swimming pool - generally reserved for Birthdays)!
Now that should be fun.

SHIT (SomeHow In Time) - 'Kodak' Moments

Day One: 8th May - "Just Postpone It"

We had decided to meet at 9pm on Thursday but Gaurav requested for postponement as he was committed to the Pan-IIT meet happening that evening. We examined the entire issue in context of marital pressures and decided to meet next morning at 10.30am. Next morning Prasanna had a family emergency and had to rush to Chennai. So we had to make do without our Logistics Director for a day. By 10am Aastha woke up on the wrong side of bed and was feeling sick. Result: Postpone to 11.30pm. Then Vishakha mailed and postponed it to 12pm to give Aastha the additional 30 minutes to get better. Then I emailed asking for postponement to 1.30pm in view of my lunch schedule. Then Gaurav waved the magic wand of Marital pressures again and shifted it to 2pm. Then Aastha mailed since she was supposed to be at the Eco tutorial at 3pm.... and so the series went on till Gaurav finally decided to pick up the phone and the Clock stopped at 8.30pm. Our Director - Refreshments welcomed us with Pasta. Dicussed for an hour and half and called it a day !

Day Two: 9th May - "Of Permutations and Combinations"

The Famous Five met again today to solve a new mystery - the Funtime conundrum. And boy, were we not in our elements. We had agreed for a 3pm meeting the day before but it all seems a ploy to keep me out of study group meetings lest the discussions spillover to my blog. So when I walked in at 3pm sharp I see that three of them had been camping there since 2pm.

Aastha, Director - Refreshments, had lured everybody to her quad with promise of free Tea and she lived up to her promise. I was greeted into her quad by 7 different pairs of shoes and 7 different handbags - one for each day of the week I presume. She mathematically proved to me that the permutations and combinations in which she could wear them in unique combinations would last the entire one year. The math must have confused her quite a bit as she was suggesting that we use both sides of the page on Microsoft Word. Probably Bill gates would address this need of Aastha in the next version of Windows.

Prasanna,  Director - Logistics, was bamboozled to see the number of postponements that had happened to our meeting in his absence. After all close to a dozen postponements in a matter of 4 hours is hard to digest even when you are on a overdose of Hajmola. He decided to play the devil's advocate and confuse the hell out of us without much effort. When he looked at Aastha's shoe collection he laughed at it as he had more number of shoes that too which belonged to different countries. His count of permutations and combinations would have lasted all the five of us this lifetime.

Gaurav, Director - Common Sense, put aside his 'marital' pressures and made it to the meeting by 2pm. He was a bit sad that this time he wouldnt be able physically bond with the assignment. But he was cheered up by the amount of value he added along with the number crunching. Its no secret by the way that IITians get an orgasm out of number crunching.  

Vishakha, Director - Communications, started putting it all on the word document. She bonded so much with Aastha's laptop that the laptop too fell in love with her. They say Love makes one crazy ! The Word application too went crazy after that. The formatting just wouldnt come right !

We were almost done - atleast thats what it seemed. Aastha did the clean up job later in the evening and mailed us the rough draft late in the night. We decided to meet up next morning to finalize stuff. 

Day Three 10th May: "The Case of the Moving Pies"

We meet at 9am. There was not much on content that we had to had so we expected to finish it all up by 10am, latest by 11am. But nature presents irony at every given opportunity. Microsoft word decided to test us today. We were doing basically three things: Formatting, Formatting & Formatting. 

@ 10am: We had a few tables in our analysis. Formatting them was painful. They would shift left - right almost replicating Madhuri Dixit's thumkas. The lines above and below had also joined the Salsa party. While Gaurav, Aastha & Vishakha were fine-tuning content, Prasanna and me spent one hour formatting the tables. Success?? No

@ 11am: This was the time when the mysterious Force hit us. First Prasanna: "Arrey yeh Pie chart kidhar ko gaya?". Next 15 minutes he spent searching for it in the Excel sheet ! Finally we had to constitute a special task force for the search and rescue operation to resolve the issue. Then Gaurav: "I think the Pie charts are moving". He kept trying to put these 'moving' Pie-charts on leash but they were wild horses who refused to be subdued. After a long struggle we managed to tie it down.  

@11.20 am: At this time the case decided to come alive and all the contents started dancing. The tables and the moving Pies decided to push it again. Finally we all had to don the Cowboy caps and whip the wild horses. Adrenalin rush had begin as the deadline came closer. This was when Shweta Divecha decided to up the ante and send across her group's submission to the entire section - Sleep deprivation, lost mind and marketing are a deadly combo. I wonder what would have happened if she had mailed it to the entire Co2010. Mailing lists can be cruel !

@11.45 am: Time for headers and footers.   Formatting Jhamela - Reloaded ! 

@ 11.50 am: We were done finally ! We decided to convert into PDF before uploading into Turnitin. This would ensure that our formatting didnt go awry. We converted it and saved it. Oh not so easy ! We forgot we had saved it ! Redo to save time rather than search and rescue.

@ 11.55 am: Submitted successfully ! We had Aastha bring her 'Kodak' camera out and Sushmita click a Kodak moment !

It was a full on Bollywood masala with everything in it - 

• Romance: Vishakha and the Laptop
• Suspense: Prasanna with the Lost Pie chart
• Thrill: Gaurav with the Moving Pie charts
• Action: Aastha with her PDF conversion
• Comedy: Me ! (Need not elaborate I guess)

At 12pm finally we parted ways only knowing that the next Bollywood Flick is round the corner. Stay tuned folks !

Visitors @ ISB and hectic schedules

The one great point of studying in a top college like ISB is the amount of industry interaction you can get. Its not even been a month since we have come here and already we have attended presentations/visits from so many people who are among the very best in their particular fields of business.

A round up of the various people who have already been to ISB since 10th April!

• Mr. Lloyds Blankfein, CEO and Chairman, Goldman Sachs:

Goldman Sachs has initiated an initiative called 10,000 women. ISB is the Indian partner for the initiative which includes top business schools all over the world, such as INSEAD, LBS, Columbia, Harvard, Wharton, Stanford, Yale among others.
10,000 women is targeted towards providing a management education to women entrepreneurs all over the world in order to encourage and educate them. Video here.
Post the presentation, we had an interactive Q&A session for students and media that focused equally on the initiative AND the financial crisis.

• Mr Mike Christenson, President & CEO, Computer Associates:

Mike Christenson visited ISB for a discussion on the current environment, and shared his experiences with current students. I couldn't attend this one because of schedule conflicts.

• Navtej Sarna, Indian ambassador to Israel:

Mr. Navtej gave an interesting talk on 'Media and its role in diplomacy'.

• Professor John Mullins, London Business School:

Professor Mullins gave an interesting talk on how VCs evaluate entrepreneurs and what it takes to be a good VC.

• Atul Singh, President & CEO, Coca Cola India:

Mr. Atul Singh gave an interesting talk yesterday on how global companies have adapted to growing countries like India with respect to marketing, growth and social responsibility.

• Go-to-Market Strategy for product companies, NASSCOM:

This workshop cum session was held today.


The point I am trying to make? Its a simple one. There is just so much to learn and take away from this place. Its been less than a month, and the above were NOT as part of any specific event etc. Its kind of part of normal routine here at ISB.

The funny part? I have personally attended only 2 of the above presentations. Why? Mainly because they ran concurrent to other stuff, classes, blogging meets, and other stuff that we have going on in addition to all this as well!!!!
Everyone has to manage their schedule. Theres just so much to do here, and thats in addition to studies, which IS after all a 2 yr MBA course condensed to 1 year as it is.

We have classes from Mon-Thu, with Fri-Sun for various workshops/assignments/quizzes etc. Heres what tomorrows (Friday) schedule looks like for me (Thank God for Outlook!):

I have removed the details, but you get the general idea. This is in addition to an assignment and a quiz as part of coursework that needs to be submitted by Sunday. Not to forget that these are ONLY events I am interested in. There are lots of meetings requests etc that I delete since I will NOT be attending. And before someone thinks I am taking up too much stuff, I am one of the people involved in least number of 'initiatives' etc here.
By the time I pass out, I will either be very good at time management and prioritizing stuff, or a completely burnt out shell after continuously running around here and there for the whole year. :D