Mumbai 9.0 - When R1 met R2 !

Mumbai 9.0 was destined to be different from the others in the fact that we would have both R1 and R2 junta partying together. Also since winter is almost over quite a few R1 public woke up from their hibernation. So an overwhelming number of junta were gonna be there this time.

Deciding the venue was tricky and opinions varied on choice of venue. But in R2 we had the batch's 'poster-boy' Hardik who wooed the public opinion in favour of Sportz Bar at Phoenix Mills. 

So it was Sportz Bar on 21st Feb at 6.30pm. About 28 people had confirmed.

Quite a few of us were there well before time so ensure we got seats before the weekend crowd got in. In no time quite a sizeable crowd had poured in. A few were running late (by about 40 minutes ... eggxact !!) while the others preferred to walk slow. 

Our Restless fish had always wished for a representative gender ratio in the meets and today he got exactly that. But the space constraint meant we sat on two tables and mixing didnt happen. So we started playing musical chairs to mix and match. We had a lot of introductions but not all of them were as smooth as desired. 

Fresh from the onslaught of Dev D a couple of sundays back, Parag barged in rather late but pretty much ready to model his evening to be Parag D. (Yes ! He got sloshed, emotional and puky). In fact he puked so much that the traffic police has now put up a new sign on the narrow road in front of Sportz Bar.

We had a special appearance by the relentless traveller Rachita Paes (not Pace) who finally decided to tour Mumbai after being done with other parts of India. By the way I had last seen her in Rajasthan next to a camel.

The meet was pretty much chaotic in the sense that there was action everywhere. I missed quite a bit of it because I too busy concentrating on the Pop Corn on my table. But it can be summed up by the following questions which made up for 75% of the conversations mainly:

1. "I am sorry, what was your name?"

2. "Oh sorry, I think I am asking you this for the third time."

3. "Are you from R1 or R2?"   

 because of the fairly large number of new people you had met. 

I met quite a few stand-out junta. But the 3 people who need special mention:

• There was this "random" guy whose name I am withelding upon request (read bribe). He is such a people-oriented chap that he has "U" in his name and not the selfish "I". That too inspite of staying in Powa"I" in Mumba"I" and working for Delo"I"tte. 
• Then we had an ex-Army commando who if I reveal on the blog will make me the 11th casualty on his 'laid to rest' list assuming nobody else gets lucky. By the way he informed that he was primarily a 'farmer' into 'weeds' and by depositing the money in a famed finance institution in Kerala he got lot of interest (13%) which helped him double his savings. He's gonna be the Captain 'G' on campus. And he got an enormous kick because the drink was served to him by 'Ialive' Nishant. 
  
• We had Sid who is not just any-Gandhi but Ne-gandhi. He is a CA at PWC and is rumoured to have leaked the Oscar winner's list by signing his name below. He was seen doing two things passionately - defending PWC & challenging that Ghatkopar was 10 mins away from Powai.

Later in the night we were joined by the 'barb-wired' couple Aviral & Neha, so our Parag D let loose a barrel of emosonal atyachar on them. By then the evening had been set-up nicely for a passionate outburst by all people drunk and senseless. It involved talks of life, emotions and politics. For the mintues of meeting please contact our poster boy 'Hardik'.

By the time things were done and dusted it was over 1am. A idea floated that we go some place to eat after all the booze but figured that it was better to split for the night since most of us were out of cash while Hardik was out of chances (he was already pulled up by his mom on thursday for turning up hic ... hic at 4am in the morning).

All in all a Saturday well spent. Guess the next one is gonna be even more rocking since the 75% contributor (ref questions 1 to 3 above) will be out of the equation. Also we have our consultant Akansha using her skills to tell us how we can cut costs involved in the meet. Till then this is Smack D signing off !

Smack D's memory test of the day: How many names and faces can you recollect correctly?

Next meet: A special quiz on who's who ! 

"To Make New Friends!"

These are exciting times!

Exciting, especially, for those of us who have decided to quit our well paying, comfortable jobs to pursue an MBA now.

There are many reasons to do an MBA. I have many, but one of the more important reasons I decided I wanted to do an MBA is because I wanted to make new friends. New friends from backgrounds other that my own and get to know them, their work, their passions, aspirations and ambitions. I kid you not - This is what I said at the ISB interview when they asked me why I wanted to to go to ISB: "To Make New Friends!"

It was a few years ago that I noticed that my friends circle was very homogeneous. At the school I went to, all the kids came from modest middle class homes, aspiring to be engineers and doctors. Then I joined an engineering college to study computer science, and everyone was just as smart as me, interested in the exact same things as me and wanted to work in the exact same fields as me. After college, at work, everyone seemed to have the same plan for life - Work in software for a few years, then do a startup and become rich. I started to venture out of my circle a little bit and tried to make some new friends, but most people I met were again like me - Engineers interested in either photography, wildlife or both.

In the meantime, I heard of ISB and its huge focus on diversity. They claimed that they admitted students from all walks of life, and that the students could learn so much from each other. I thought how great it'd be to meet all these folks - People who've worked on offshore oil rigs and investment bankers, scientists and army men, lawyers and RJs. I got all excited! It would be so much fun to work and learn with such a diverse set of people and get to know them better. I was game!

A few months later, I was ecstatic when I learned ISB had admitted me to the class of 2010. This was going to be so much fun! Right after the R2 results were announced, the admits from Bangalore got together for dinner to get to know each other before the course actually started. As I was driving to the dinner, I was skeptical of who I'd meet. This is Bangalore after all - The land full of software engineers interested in either photography, wildlife or both.

But I was not disappointed. I met a race track owner, a corporate lawyer, a scientist who models hair shampoo and another guy that makes chewing gums. In fact, I met this person at the dinner who said he did something, and I couldn't understand what that meant, so I asked him "What does that mean?". He explained it in detail, and I still couldn't understand! This has never happened to me before. At that point, I decided I was definitely going to go to ISB. I was going to meet many many more people doing many many interesting things.

I'm all excited and pumped up for April 11th! Imagine the kind of folks I'll met at ISB and get to know them and their unique perspective on life. What fun!

- Aditya Kulkarni

The Second Wave

Guess this is the first of (hopefully) many posts by R2 admits on the blog of the class of 2010. Before we all get to migrate and unleash our arbitness on the official weblog, that is.

There are many reasons why people have chosen to apply in one of the two rounds, and the single most important factor for me to submit my application on December 1st 2008 instead of September 15th 2008 was because I was too lazy.

Yes. Too lazy. And forgetful.

I know for sure that a few of you would identify with this particular condition, which is what, in my case, prompted me to take up the GMAT late in October and then get essays, evaluations and my entire application in place by the last week of November.

The memories of sitting up late at night trying to trim / re-word / sometimes overhaul essays to incorporate maximum fundas in them shall now be fondly relegated to that section of my mind I've labelled as 'nostalgia'.

So will the memories of an interview where I walked into the main atrium of MY new campus, clad in a suit for the first ever time in my life with an official-looking folder in one hand and a banana in the other, which is why I wasn't able to shake hands with the ad com volunteer who handed me the sheet in which to write the 100 word essay in.

Fondly recollected is also the memory of standing at the second floor of the Forum Mall with a good pal (an R1 admit), after my GMAT, being drunk on a meagre quantity of alcohol in a way that only expensive restaurants would prompt you to, hoping we'd soon be in Hyderabad. The city had to be made awesomer, and it needed us to be there.

Random fond memories and anecdotes notwithstanding, the R2 admits have been watching, waiting, and for the most part hoping that they'd get to be part of the online action soon, and those days seem to have finally arrived.

While the time available between the admission offer being made to an R2 candidate, and the day of joining ISB is quite short, the R1 admits (who've vaguely achieved college senior status) have been incredibly helpful in ensuring that our teething troubles with regard to accommodation, loans, laptops and other miscellaneous stuff are being adequately addressed.

Here's to R2 admits making the most of the available corporate internet bandwidth, and serving the notice period in a highly 'productive' manner.

L'chaim!

ISB R1 Awards

Now that the R2 admits have started streaming in its time to announce the Smack D R1 awards:

1. The over-abused term: "My two cents" (its beginning to get on the nerves of most people)

2. Most words typed per mail: Vivek - the hands down winner (btw hands would have to be down in order to type)

3. Maxim zeal for uploaded files: Tom (just keeps 'em coming)

4. Artistically challenged: Pankaj Poddar (for his controversial and universally accepted logo)

5. Successful Marketing campaign: Chalo Chennai (with the huge number of underwhelming responses) 

6. FODU (Father of Doc Updates) - Nikhil (aka Narnikhil)

7. Versatility:  Restless Charmer / Restless Fish  (and btw now restless is a official four letter word for him)

8. Shakesphere's muse: The bee in the bonnet (who says "My name is a name is a name" and has different 'official' spellings for the same name. Shakesphere once asked "whats in a name?". Her reply "Whats in the spelling of the name?")

9. Discount Ninja: Jiggy aka Jignesh Shah (who can bargain a discount on anything including something thats free !!)

10. Diet coke Keshto: Ashwin (for messing up directions to the restaurant after two shots of Diet coke)

11. The truck stopping show-stopper: Rishi Dogra (Late night adventurist on the Lonavala highway)

12. The Chaddi buddy: Pallavi aka PJ (for taking the Pink chaddi campaign to the Ram Sene)

13. Byomkesh Bakshi: Vivek Pandey (for finding the three reasons behind crimes)

14. Relentless traveller: Rachita (done with India !)

15. Ms. Youtube: Sreejita (who is googling away the oglers !)

16. Most expensive mails: MRC (for promised sum of Rs. 1 lakh for the best B-plan which could go upto 1 crore)

There were more but I just ran out of awards !

ISB now ranked 15th

Amidst the gloom and FUD comes the rocking news that ISB has made it to the 15th rank in FT's global b-school rankings. There have been numerous critics and doubters of this achievement by an Indian b-school and the debate may have its merits eitherways. But for the current and prospective students this is an excellent news as it underscores brand ISB on the global business landscape in a big way.Not sure of the exact date on which these rankings were actually released but for me they are a most sweet Republic Day gift.

How ISB Co2010 can revive the economy !

Of late I have seen a lot of debate on Y! groups on how we can revive the economy. One thing we all agree upon is that each one of us has to contribute in some way or the other to revive the economy. So here is Smack D's prescription on how my fellow classmates can 'contribute':

1. Each one gift one: The best way to kickstart any economy is to target 'internal consumption'. (Source: MRC / New article on ISB site thread). So I suggest that all you guys buy me something on your way to ISB. Remember the better the investment you make for my gift, the bigger the stimulus the economy gets. Let me take two cases to explain: Mr. A buys me a Eclairs candy and Mr. B buys me a Porsche. Now how much of value can Mr. A add to the economy - not very significant ! 

While Mr. B adds a lot. One he buys me a expensive car. I invest on the fuel, tyres and maintenance. Oil companies and the retailers earn from the fuel. They are going to invest this money somewhere and grow it. More money means more spending power. More spending means the currency flow in the market is better. Economy gains !!

 2. Bring on the ladies: Its a well known fact that in India men spend more on women than anybody else because they are more chivalrous than their western counterparts. So somebody please write a mail to Mr. Menon asking him to take as many women as possible  in R2 for economy's sake (not for the safety in numbers that our restless charmer advocates for) ! Also the higher the number of women graduating from ISB the better for economy coz' women love shopping. I am sure most of the pay would go towards shopping and more shopping ! Economy gains again !!

3. Show me the money: Bank balances look good but they do no good to the economy. So after you have spent enough on women and my gifts I suggest that you hand over all your money and life savings to me, so that I can splurge and try my level best to boost the economy !

Any more suggestions are surely welcome.

Mumbai 6.0 - Chati ka Wine

Prologue: Mumbai 6.0 (Chati ka Wine) happened on 20th (Tuesday). I am no longer gonna call them meet-ups as they have ceased to be just that ! And like how wine gets better with age they seem to be getting better and better each time we hang out together !

Mumbai 6.0 started at Woodside Inn, Colaba. I happened to reach there pretty early. Nobody had turned up and going by the resposne I saw on Y! Groups I didnt expect many to turn up either. What I knew of sure was our Restless buddy was definitely gonna be there - come hell or high water. Called him and found out that he was gonna take atleast another half'n hour or so to reach. So went inside and sat at a table for 6 people. But sitting alone at a table for 6 was gonna be socially tricky. But thankfully I knew the way out !

After about a Iced Tea and a plate of mashed potatoes later Ashwin arrived. He had a flight to catch at 7am so he had made up his mind to leave by 9 - 9.30 pm. Mumbai's lifeline Shishir soon joined us and thus we were truly on our way in the evening. Soon we had our newcomer for the evening Ayush joining us. His intro was followed by a conversation between him and Shishir which went on as follows:

Soon Jay was kind enough to join us and give us a candid hour-by-hour breakup on how he spent his day at work which included lots of pretending to work followed by real sessions of Counter strikes !! Earlier that day Jay was having a hard time telling his boss that he was resigning ! 

Soon Sreejita joined us. And which is when the wine started flowing by the bottle (which had come with a interesting label).

Meanwhile some place else, Shouvik and Parag met up to come to Woodside Inn together. To kickstart a conversation which had nothing to do how the day went, Shouvik showed a few cool stuff on his bike.

During our conversation Sreejita was her usual charming self. To counter her we had the restless charmer. And boy did he do an awesome job ! Sreejita was overwhelmed at the end of the day and kneeled with her "juicy" hands to the king in gratitude as "she couldnt even get there" !

The bottles of wine seemed never-ending ! But since we had decided to move to a pub to do some more rocking stuff the wine marathon had to finally end. 

While all this was happening it was rumoured that Niraj who was in Film City, Goregaon was busy with ....

(Anybody guess ki Niraj ne kaunsa seat liya !)

We then moved to Tavern where Niraj joined us. There were about 3 rounds of Tequila shots followed by what were the "moments" of the evening when all of us started swinging n head-bangin to the cool rock music that was being played at Tavern. Then spontaneously we formed a train and choo-chooed our way around the entire pub. We were like long lost buddies making the best of every moment we had that evening.  We were there till the pub realized that the only way to evict us was to close down. But we were not done yet !

We then moved to get a awesome sea-side view at Malabar road. But our time there was short as the cops thought that we were nothing more than a couple of drunk kids with a ladiez. Seeing that we were with cars the cops wanted to carry out a breath analyzer test. Since the car belonged to Jay, he had to take the test. And he passed !! But he didnt stop there .... 

Soon we headed to a Bistro as some of us were hungry. But we met with some strong opposition from Shishir who wanted the "three things" ! Shouvik managed to find a place that met his requirements ! But there was always a catch .....

So naturally Shishir backed out ! 

Then we got back to our original plan of going to a bistro. There we had dessert first (Roshogulla, Phirni, chocolate cakes etc etc) and then had some chicken and paneer !! during all this Sreejita was busy fidgeting with her Blackberry & Shishir was not happy about that ... so he let her know that the mobile phone can be switched off and kept in the bag without any major catastrophe happening to it ! But Sreejita had a spiritual answer to it ....

By 4am the wine (and in case of Ashwin the diet coke) started kicking in and we remembered that we had go to work next day morning while Ashwin had to catch a flight! Poor dude wanted to leave by 9.30 pm ... but ended up going at 4 am !! Ironically he couldn't sleep well in the plane later and he found a able companion with a similar ailment ....

 

Fun can be so addictive ! All in all it was a night well spent and one that kept getting better by the minute ! 

Epilogue: There were lot more funny / grouse details that I left out deliberately coz' the post is getting very lengthy! ISB Mumbai truly rocks !!

Paanch numberi meet up @ Mumbai

Mumbai meet up (no. 5) happened at "Not Just Jazz by the bay".  There were a few new faces like Ashwin & Niraj. There was a awesome buffet laid out that afternoon but handling it was tricky. But being smart ISBians we had a solution to it. 

By the time lunch was done Parag joined us. It is when we decided to have the legendary one-line intro session. Parag had a relatively tough time explaining it.

Aviral was having it relatively easy with the intro before "tragedy" struck, the consequence of which Neha made him pay later in the night.

Meanwhile it was almost 3pm and Shouvik had still had not shown up. Meanwhile on the other end of the town Shouvik was racing against time to reach the place as soon as possible.

By the time Shouvik made it, it was time to split. Most of them left except for the 6 of us (Shishir, Parag, Shouvik, Jay, Ashwin & me) who decided it was too early to call it a day. So we headed to Leopold's Cafe and a few of us drank like a fish. Our discussion was on "diverse" topics which included the probable size of the pool (that we were gonna get dunked in the future), a few individuals who were gonna be with us at ISB etc. With all that booze people were in the mood to get naughty. Unfortunately for Mr. XXXXX, he happened to message Shishir at that time. We decided to play a small prank on him pretending to be sloshed. Though Ashwin had not gulped even a drop of booze that day he acted like a professional drunkard on the phone with Mr. XXXXXX. I hope the poor dude didnt freak out or get offended. 

By 7.30 pm we decided we had enough of booze for the day but we were not done with having a wonderful time. We decided to take it one step higher to Marine Drive. There we had coffee and chips and talked more and more. Jay tried real hard to get a discount on the coffee + chips combo but ultimately was kept at bay.

By 9pm we thought of catching a bite and then heading home. We decided on Apoorva. Except Shouvik and Ashwin nobody knew the direction to Apoorva. I tagged along with Shouvik on the latter's bike and reached Apoorva in 5 minutes. Then we waited .. waited .. and waited ! 

Meanwhile .....

Finally Ashwin managed to bring them to Apoorva. Then a few of us ordered something to eat. Shishir was too full (and tull) to eat anything so he wanted some Lime soda. So the waiter asked him "Sir, you want your lime soda sweet or salty?" to which Shishir answered "Medium!". I cant explain the look on the waiter's face at that exact moment. But he was in store for more when Parag asked him to bring a "Sweet lime soda salted". 

Jay wanted some more booze but didnt get what he wanted to. So tried to discount whatever he was getting. He didnt get that either !

After that finally at 10.30 pm we split for the day to call it a night. But the fun didnt end there ! 

Shishir reached home and his mom opened the door. The conversation was something like this:

Meanwhile after Shouvik dropped me at the Andheri flyover he saw a cop at the next turn. So he came up with a innovative idea to beat the cop and reach home without a fine.

All in all, it was a day well spent. Each minute was getting better than the previous minute. Cant wait for the next one !

It just got worse !!

The class of 2010 seems to be hitting the tipping point in terms of its timing. Credit Crunch, Madoff and now the unbelievable Satyam fiasco puts all of us in an extremely delicate situation. There are no easy answers to questions like Why MBA? and Why Now? for our batch. More importantly, one also has to look for answers to Where do you see yoursef X years from now?. I think this is a time to stop following patterns and do some real soul-searching and original thinking. We will all have a lot to sort out when we get together in April. And I believe the world will have its eyes set upon the paths all of us take when we pass out from ISB.
Thoughts ?

On the Mumbai Massacre

Mister Prime Minister, with all due respect, I’d like to know why it has to be the US Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice, who has to do the tough talking on your behalf? Why, in spite of corroborated reports and testimonials from Kasab, the lone mujahideen taken alive, (and evidence ratified by the Indian as well as US intelligence) we must still entertain dialogue with a nation, which hasn’t taken the plotters of the Benazir Bhutto assassination to task a year after it was carried out? Why must we negotiate while dealing with a rogue state where the entire judiciary was once imprisoned in an hour’s notice on the rabid orders of a general who ambushed the country’s entire administration? What good is the fact that Mr. Pranab Mukherjee is crying himself hoarse while his Pakistani peers are busy strategising how to ‘plant’ Indian extremist infidels on Pakistani land? Must we still sweet talk a nation which had the temerity to label the morbid events of 26th November, self-plotted?

Why aren’t we instead channeling our energies on how to muster the UN’s express support and flush out the fanatics from their well-plumed hideout? I wage my money and my honour; infantry from the Lashkar-e-Toiba, Jamat ud Dawa or whatever it is they are called, are busy planning their next strike over kakori kebabs and recorded videos that talk about jannat and killing kafirs. Mister Prime Minister, act quick and hit hard, else we might soon have a short-haired loony woman who once proclaimed Kanshi Ram her father, in your esteemed seat.

Mister Vilasrao Deshmukh, you, supporter of agrarian reform, and head of India’s financial capital – could you not do better than be escorted by a once-brilliant-now-redundant Ram Gopal Verma on your rounds of the Taj? Sure, Riteish (I hope your son’s numerologist still spells his name with a single ‘R’) might have bagged a role or two, but look where it got you – no rounds of the Mantralaya with your Z Security bulletproof escort Scorpios in tow. People died in there, bullets in their heads, bodies rotting in six inch-deep water that was used to douse the inferno. And you chose a film-maker for your post samosa-chai rounds. I hope they make a film on you some day, why we even have a director; the ape that directed Deshdrohi, whatever the fuck his name is. You guessed it, sir; you’re in the sequel.

Mister Unnikrishnan, father of Major Sundeep Unnikrishnan, Sir. I had the fortune of seeing you on TV, your stoic acceptance of the fact that your only son was no more. Your bitter recount at the Shivaji Park congregation, of how a khaini-rubbing havaldar refused you entry to the Taj, where you wished to see where your brave son lived his final moments. The havaldar didn’t recognise you; I’ll be damned if any of us ever make that mistake. It would be an honour if someday you told us, students at the ISB, how Sundeep lived. Because his was a life that is truly one in a million.

Mister Narendra Modi, you’re an ace at negotiation. No sooner had the Tatas pulled out of Singur, West Bengal, you had Mister Tata and his history-creating vision, Nano, at your doorstep in Sanand, Gujarat. But I hope Mrs. Karkare (wife of slain Anti-Terrorist Squad Chief Hemant Karkare) showed you one thing. You cannot negotiate with the souls of heroes. No sooner had Hemant Karkare been killed, you flew down to Mumbai, announcing a rupees one crore cash reward to his family. And just about a month back, you were condemning the man for doggedly chasing the culprit behind the Malegaon blasts. Mrs. Karkare doesn’t need your charity, Mister Modi. (And she rightly refused.) The countless Muslims whom you had murdered in 2001, do.

Mister Ratan Tata, sir. I’m sorry the grand old lady of Mumbai, was raped, burnt and torn the way it was. However, hats off to you and your staff, who came fighting back in less than a month’s time. Hats off for initiating a fund that assists not just those who were maimed at the Taj but also those who suffered at VT Station, Cafe Leopold, outside Metro Cinema, and at the Trident. It just shows your generosity and if I may use the word, pedigree. Thank you, sir.

To you, dear reader. Let us question what happens after. Where our votes go, and where our tax money does. Why we must surreptitiously still slip that wad of hundred rupee notes to get that ration card, that telephone connection, that tatkal passport and the driver’s licence? And for heaven’s sake, let’s keep religion out of this. 40% of those killed in the attacks were followers of Islam. They were, like you and me, waiting at VT Station to get back home to their loved ones and watch the latest movie songs over dinner. They were like us, downing a pint to celebrate a raise, an engagement or simply a good day at work, at maybe Leopold Cafe or at Wasabi, The Taj. They were just marked by destiny and time. I’m glad it wasn’t particularly one of us. I’m haunted by the notion that it could be. I don’t know whether a particular branch of the Oxford bookstore banning books by Pakistani authors is right or wrong. (Especially after I saw Harvard and Oxbridge educated Pakistani nationals convincingly voice their idea that the Mumbai carnage was orchestrated by India) I don’t understand how any of this violence begets anything but more violence.

But there’s one thing I’m certain of. The answers have to be had. Be it Pakistan extraditing the culprits to Indian shores to be judged by the Indian Penal Code (which will never ever happen, given Pakistan’s posturing at the moment and if history ever teaches us anything (the Parliament attacks) be it UN (read US) sanctioned pinpointed attacks on mujahideen and terrorist hideouts across Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir; guns must go and fire, without trial or negotiation; because the moment of negotiation has long gone, and too much patience is but the virtue of an ass. I have seen my country whipped silly for way too long, without occasion, and it’d be a slap on the face of the soldiers, policemen and civilians who died ...if the day of trial (by fire) is not close at hand.

Bloggers War: Version 2.00

The entries for the version 2.00 of bloggers war are now available:
Smack D - entry 1
Smack D - entry 2
Sindhu Subramaniam
punterpandey
Abhishek Singh
Saurabh Goyal
Sweta
Aviral Pandey
Vivek
Koreel
Voting Poll is up now on the Y! groups. Voting ends on 9th January evening.

Dean Rao might have to step down

Dr. M R Rao, currently dean at the Indian School of Business (ISB) in Hyderabad, might have to step down from this position if news items appearing in the media are to be believed. Prof Rao is an eminent luminary of Indian academia and has held numerous prestigious positions and won several awards (profile). The involvement of his name in the murky Satyam affair does not bode well for the reputation of ISB which is still young and in the nascent stages of building its brand internationally. In due course the details of this would become more clear but for the time being Prof Rao and ISB would have to fight their way through scrutinizing eyes.
It would be good to know what current and prospective students think of this development.

2008 : The year of aspirations ! 2009 : The year of change !

One more calender year added to history. 2008 will be remembered as the year of aspirations in my book of history. While most may remember it for the Economic downturn that saw millions of dreams downsized, I am sure that in the future it will be remembered as a year of chaotic destruction only so that a New World order is established.

Yes, Ladies and gentleman ! This economic downturn is the opportunity of a lifetime for India to take centrestage and emerge as a global superpower. The Economic downturn has wounded the erstwhile superpowers US, UK and the EU badly. Their financial might has been scaled down considerably while India's diplomatic clout increased. Though our stock markets have halved this financial year but India's growth story remains intact. Please remember that 7% growth in times like this is also very very impressive.

The Mumbai attacks may have cost us several valuable people, some of whom were near and dear to us but this attack will also be a decisive turning point in our war against terror. Unlike other attacks, this attack has scared the S#*T out of the international powers. Citizen's anguish like never before ensured that our politicians and babus had to sit up and notice. Because a fidayeen has been caught alive Pakistan has been cornered. This for us can be the moment of truth. We have the opportunity to shut out terror. Its upto us to ensure that Pakistani establishment is made to pay.

India also emerged as a cricketing superpower in 2008. Impressive and decisive victories over Australia and the IPL meant that India's hold on world cricket was tighter than ever. With more and more youngsters in the team standing up and making their performances count, the future of Indian cricket has never looked better.

Thus 2009 has been setup nicely to be the year of CHANGE and I am not just taking of Barack Obama. Personally for each one of us this will be a year of major changes. 2008 for most of us has been a year of aspirations though these aspirations would have varied from person to person. A probable common aspiration was to be aboard the ISB bandwagon.

2009 will be a year of change, a year when we will face new challenges, new perspectives, new capabilities and new limitations. Some like Saurabh begin a new chapter in their lives with loved ones while some will continue their search for the "One". Some dreams are gonna get bigger !

Overall a year that I look forward to with hope, happiness and a sense of destiny.

Bloggers war: verision 2.00

Winner of Bloggers war : version 1.00 - Priyom

Theme for this fortnight: "Mumbai carnage and terrorism"
Topic suggested by: Binita
Last date for posting: 6th January 2009
Results and the next topic declared on: 9th January 2009

PS: Entries need to necessarily stick to the theme, you are free to post on any topic.g

Bloggers War: Version 1.00 - "My journey to ISB and what it means to me"

The entries for the version 1.00 of bloggers war are now available:
Abhishek Singh
Sweta P
Ankit Goel
Laxmikant Vyas
Nitin Pulyani
Sankar G. Vyakaranam
Vinit Garg
Amit Kumar
Sarat Chandra Vadapalli
Raghav Wate
Priyom
Voting Poll is up now on the Y! groups. Voting ends on 26th December evening.

We gotta wait!

We are excited. But with little to do till April 11th, we wander around creating our own excitement - we meet our future classmates, we visit ISB, we discuss laptops, the economy, loans, trips, we blog about every moment, book tickets for April, give advice and generally jump around.

Remember that birthday so long ago with that gaily wrapped present sitting on the table. Mum insisted on waiting for the party to end before opening it. For the next few hours you wished you had xray vision, you petted it just so lovingly, carried it around like a fool, shook it gently and guessed hard.

But you had to wait, baby.

Nothing’s changed even now - we gotta wait till the clock ticks to the chosen hour.
Jump all you want to, but we gotta wait anyway. :-)

Bloggers War Kickoff!!!

Bloggers war, a fiercely fought contest among the ISB 2010 junta is now open. Jung ka elaan!!!!
Lets put in the most caustic, vehement, telling, but frank comments on issues , insane yet pragmatic reactions to new developments, lateral and vertical thinking(:P not sure if something such exiats) on abstract topics.

Some golden rules:
#1# The topic for the next fortnight and the results of the prior fortnight will be posted on this on every alternate Friday evening starting from today.
#2# All the bloggers will have to complete posting by the next Tuesday evening. So in all you get 2 weekends (i.e. 4 days) and 7 weekdays to post. This should be sufficient no matter which category you fall under (cat1, cat2 or cat3 :P).
#3# All the bloggers will post on their personal blog and provide the link latest by Tuesday evening.
#4# The link to all the participating posts will be posted on this blog by Wednesday morning.
#5# The poll for judging the blogs will be put up on Wednesday morning and will close on Friday morning.

Topic for this fortnight: "My journey to ISB and what it means to me"
Topic suggested by: Zorawar
Last date for posting: 23rd December 2008
Results and the next topic declared on: 26th December 2008

Mumbai

I’ll miss the sea, for sure. The grey, rippled balm putting together shreds of another working day’s resolve. Kurkure packets, SEC A, B and C garbage bags, plastic forks and plates notwithstanding. The kala khattas, pony riders, helium balloon sellers, shapely belles and their out-of-shape better halves, all.

Media men talk about and dissect the Mumbai spirit. Several carnages, bombs, AK 56s, Pakistani linkages and pathetic post mortems later, life races back to normal. That really isn’t the Mumbai spirit. That’s compulsion. That really is a mechanical servitude that thinks twice before letting go of another Privileged Leave just like that. That’s the stoic that comes with the warm cocoon comfort of knowing that no one in your family was killed, maimed, blinded or paralysed by a terrorist’s gun. Collateral damage is someone else’s spill to clean up. So, one giant rally with candles and slogans and life’s back to Sex and the City and the weekend boogie at the Hawaiian Shack or wherever.

Don’t get me wrong. I have nothing against a show of solidarity or a quiet protest march. But my point is save the fact that apart from getting a few media people scurrying with their cameras, microphones and dictaphones, it’s just a colossal waste of collective effort. I’d rather park my time for a pressure group, or a Public Interest Litigation for NSG-like bodies playing vigilante rounds in every metropolitan city, or anything that measures up to something.

As for the spirit of Mumbai, I guess it’s summed up no better than the thousands of suburban families that turn up on Marine Drive or Juhu Chowpatty on Saturdays and Sundays to do their weekly quota of romance, iced golas, sev puri or horse rides. From miles away they come, so that their kids can see what the best of Mumbai is like. Where investment bankers, private equity moghuls, diamond merchants and Bollywood heavyweights go back to after a hard day’s work. So that the kids can aspire and work towards that.

The spirit of Mumbai is two hundred men in a crowded train compartment traveling thirty kilometers from Borivali to Churchgate so that their sons can go on to become fine engineers and doctors. The spirit is a taxi driver returning a Hidesign bag packed with 500 rupee notes, left unwittingly by a customer. It’s 5,000 dabbawallas getting a six sigma and becoming a case study in supply chain precision at the Indian Institute of Ahmedabad. It is letting the young couple canoodling and whispering sweet nothings to one another on Bandra Bandstand and Reclamation, stay unmolested. It’s about the nalli nihari on Id eve on Muhammad Ali Road, with gargantuan rotis, topped with firni. It’s the sky on Marine Drive on Diwali eve bursting with rockets in a million hues, dying like a million stars. It’s the joggers in countless parks smiling to strangers as they all aspire to a longer youth. It’s the soft hello to the Parsi septuagenarian who mans his counter as I sip my tea and brun maska. It’s the sum of all our social graces, however soft and hidden.

Inflation, recessionary trends, political brouhaha, corporate shams, scams, they all come and go. They’re the cyclical nemesis of a peaceful equilibrium we all take for granted. We see them coming, yet we stay peaceful till we are disturbed.
We the people, exist, because sperm met egg. We become when we choose to be. Mumbai became Mumbai because we made it so and because it chose to be so. I will miss it sorely for a year. But most of all, I’ll miss the sea.

Here we are...

I don't know what you all said in order to be here. I don't even quite remember what I said in my interview or wrote in my application. It all seems like a long time back. I have vague recollections of sleepily writing the Zumba river essay, of bugging people for references, preparing plan Bs and Cs, marvelling at people's plans and getting worked up over my own, the interview (and my absolute strong belief that I had screwed up), the crazy wait for the results at pagalguy(refreshing that poor page once every 5 minutes - yes, despite my belief that I had screwed up). Well, the mail I wanted so much came on 20th November.

The wait to April promises to be a long one. It is the end of one journey, you know? And we're all the station ready to switch trains. And there is nothing to do at stations except to watch people all around. I guess that is what is happening at the yahoo group and the meets. My mailbox is flooded each day with tons of messages - people arguing on new theories, making plans to meet, wondering about loans, swapping stories about work, blogging about their experiences... :)

But, I feel rather empty right now. It is a destination I've reached two tries at CAT, a job change, a city switch and a few personal upheavals later. And now, there is nothing to do till April - lol, whether I do it or not, I always need something to do. Guess I need to make some short-term goals.

Welcome to the class of 2010. Welcome to the madness that'll begin in April.

Mumbai Meet up on 30-Nov-08

Mumbai guys/gals met last Sunday and had a rocking time with some unbelivable moments in it for everyone of us.

 

We had a huge turnout of very diverse Junta which was young at heart out of which some of where restless :-) The restaurant was so overwhelmed by our presence that they arranged for a live performance of Saif for us free of charge. The turnout was so huge that intros itself took about 4 hours. 

In between we had some lunatics at the restaurant who were very loud and eating like hogs and spilling quite a signifacnt amount of drinks and food near us. One of us who was a expert on healthy living sms'd using Webaroo (SMS Gupshup) and asked them to eat in a more dignified manner. But the lunatics started to get abusive - vebally and physically. We had Karate champ cum lawyer in our midst who with one chop flattened them out like dosa and threatened to sue them. The lunatics were huge in numbers but we had a consultant in our midst who suggested a few ideas after which the copywriter duo came to the rescue. They immediately copied the Karate guy left and right and we won. 

We celebrated the victory with our national bird "The tandoori chicken" and the national drink "The Patiala peg". In fact time flew so fast and it was so much fun that we ended up having Dinner too at the same place. 

By the time the bill came we found that none of us had enough cash. But fortunately we had a 5 star hotel manager in our midst who helped us settle the bill in a much amicable manner without having to do the dishes. Next day our meet was all over news channels since we had a TV Producer in our midst. We also got extensive coverage by the print media since one of our junta was a journo there.

 

It was a time that could easily not have been forgotten :-)