Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Jana Gana Mana

Bharat Bala and A. R. Rahman came together to create a historic album called 'Jana Gana Mana'. This was a project in which over 35 top artistes of the nation came together to sing or play the National Anthem "Jana Gana Mana". The project had started as "Desh Ka Salaam" which was telecast in Indian TV channels and on the web on August 15, 1999, in which several great Indian musicians, from the classical to the contemporary, came together to give a soulful and modern rendition of the National Anthem. The video was released January 26, 2000 to mark the 50th year of the Indian Republic.

Monday, October 30, 2006

Call Center Movie



Check it out guys. This is hilarious.

You can watch the full movie here.

http://www.callcentermovie.com/index.html

Calling all profit-making ideas that have high social impact

The Global Social Venture Competition began in 1999 and is a student-led initiative pioneered by the Haas School of Business, Columbia Business School, and the London Business School. The Indian School of Business is a full partner – with responsibility of promoting the competition in business schools in Asia, mentoring the teams, and holding the Asia semifinal round. GSVC is a business plan competition whose mission is to promote entrepreneurial businesses that satisfy two criteria:

–They have clear and quantifiable social objectives and impact

–They are financially sustainable, in the sense that they are profitable or self-supporting through revenue generation.

The team must have at least one person currently pursuing a full time MBA programme or has graduated during 2006.

Further information is available at www.socialvc.net or www.isb.edu/gsvc

Important dates are:

1. Registration with five page summary (optional, if teams require mentoring support) – Wednesday, November 15, 2006 (to ISB at GSVC@isb.edu )

2. Submission of final plans – Friday, January 12, 2007 (to ISB at GSVC@isb.edu )

Sunday, October 29, 2006

Roundup from the week

This week was damn crazy. We were evaluating applications of prospective candidates, submitting analysis of cases, playing frisbee whenever there was time, preparing one page write-ups for projects due at the end of the term. in fact, i just dont remember a lot of things that happened.

we played on this software called "industryplayer" organised by IIMA for their annual event. it was something totally different from markstrat. markstrat was extremely painful. it makes you do all the nonsense. but this was one was more macro level. we had to make industry level decisions like buying and selling of companies. and how to consolidate companies and things like that. so that went on for a few nights.

then we had NS Bala from wipro who had come to campus to give a talk to us. we'd done a wipro case study last term about their factory model. so it was good to see the person who was involved in the case study.

we also kicked off a toastmasters meeting for this term. i got a chance to talk on an extempore topic called "Laloo Prasad Yadav is the new Options and Futures Professor at the ISB". that was good fun. i got great positive feedback from others about my three minute talk.

then there was the awesome bartending workshop. we learnt to make a few drinks. got to taste the drinks as well. this was organized by Smirnoff and we had a great time.

we had presentations back to back - for our project first and then our business plan. we also had to evaluate other projects and b-plans. it was just crazy.

the volleyball fever has started. the court is ready. for the next two or three days, everyone would play volleyball and then they will stop after that, get back to their normal routine of banging on the books.

a few international firms have started coming to campus. people have started submitting their resume.

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

They are back

First it was the sampling time and they were there in almost every class. And now, their presence has been confirmed.

Its none other than the politicians of my batch. If you remember, we'd talked about people playing politicians during class participation (CP). Whenever the professor asks a question, they will be ready with an answer that is certainly not connected to the question. But, they will still raise their hands, make their point and leave the question unanswered.

The frequency of such an event happening was comparitively less in the core terms. My section had become a bit more matured term after term, and the amount of relevant content in class participation was getting closer to the better at every stage. I used to think - is it just my section that is doing such Political CP's. It definitely used to be of great importance in keeping the class involved because ten other people got frustrated with every political remark. But, my section is, in fact, far better, compared to the whole batch now. Now I get to see the real diversity in CP and I must tell you - its absolutely hilarious and in the end, it sucks.

Out of the three courses I am doing this term, Innovation has 25% CP. And you should be here to see how much air-time people demand in class. There are some people who just go on and on and on!!! And the first Political CP happened on Day One when we were discussing the Cemex Case and from thereon it has just continued.

Whatever said and done, we should give to them for what they do in class. When the Professor tells that he is unable to understand the point they are making, well, thats almost a clear indication that whatever you have told is shit and doesnt make sense, you must see the extent to which these people go in order to explain their point. they keep beating about the bush, tell all sorts of nonsense and finally make a claim.

I hope I didnt do any of that here!

Sunday, October 22, 2006

The Festival of Lights

Diwali wasnt any different at the ISB. But it was just great. We began our Diwali pretty early on Friday night. We were given instructions to burst crackers only in the football ground. now that was a bit pissing off, but couldnt help it. strange rules. anyway, so we burst some cracker and then found out that we had actually bought less. then we tracked Doc who was out for a coffee at Mocha and asked him to get some more crackers. finally we managed to get some 2K worth of crackers.

during our first attempt to disturb everyone, vivek and bob tried their engineering skills on the rocket and sent a couple of them to the student village instead of aiming the sky. that was great fun.

a little before we did all this, we had the spouses association performing dance and drama for the whole school in the auditorium. that was awesome. great dances, then a mock on the idiot box, shaayari etc. next was dinner, as usual, nothing great. looked like normal food being served outside. or was it just me, because i had a very bad cold.


the next day, we woke up at 3.45, started the ritual again at 4.15am. and this time, it was right in front of the student village. we did some flower pots, chakras, small bombs etc to alert everyone. then we pushed to the footy ground. we made sure that we burst crackers as close to the student houses, just to disturb them. anyway, in about an hour we were finished with all the ammo we had.



throughout the day, i was out in Hyderabad. late evening, the social life council had organized a diwali party for us. this party can be rated as one of the best parties on campus. the setting was so nice - it was on a slope outside the student village. lots of crackers again - some of the best ones i would say. lots of color and light. no sound. just the ones the girls like.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Does IT matter?

we finally had the SAIT exam today. 2 minutes into the exam and we realised that some 60 odd questions were missing from the paper. junta nowadays is not bothered about anything weird that happens at the exam hall. they have been thru one helluva exam drama a few weeks back. so all this was just chill types. but then the rest of the questions were over in less than 15 mins. so most people were sitting idle during an exam that was actually 2 hrs, while the people incharge were trying to find out what went wrong.

well - bloody hell, we dont have a part of the question paper and do you still need to do a root cause analysis? and then after another 15 mins, we got the rest of the question paper. finally i got over with that nonsense in another 20 odd mins. in all, i was out in one hour.

so, we come back to this question on my subject line - does IT matter? well, IT matters definitely for a large number of organisations in the fortune 500 list. but definitely not for us. it doesnt matter at all.

and then we had this whole bungled event in the evening at the Audi. the elected student board was discussing this whole issue of exam postponement and they till the end, they never stood up to what mistakes were made from their side(im suren there was some mistake). in effect, they did not say that we screwed up and we are sorry. all that was said was said in a very polished manner and this irritated a lot of people. its not any complaint that i have. nor have i the intention to impeach anyone. i just want people to be honest and tell the rest that these are some places were we actually screwed up and its our mistake. but no one said anything like that. in that case, does it mean that all the student reps did a flawless job. then, did the administration screw up? did the prof screw up? we still dont know the answers for all this. well, this is not a big crime. its just adding to the fun.

but, for all what happened in the last few weeks regarding the whole thing about postponing the exam to today, finally the paper that was given to us had less than 20% of questions from the cases for which students did not have access. but still, all those questions were discussed in some way or the other during the class discussions. so, in effect, the exams neednt have been postponed.

Monday, October 16, 2006

Sampling Time

I had two classes today. I got both these courses for one point each. Well that doesnt mean that the courses are lousy. Definitely not. For me, I get to do courses that I like, courses that I feel would help me in my job. In the last four terms, I did four finance courses and I have got this feeling that I shouldnt take any more finance courses in the next whatever births God proposes to give me. Its really been so horrible on me. Not that I royally screwed up in those courses. I got what I need to pass and that was just enough for me. But this was more like an overdose of finance in about half a year.

Having said that, nearly half the batch or perhaps more are doing a finance major. and there are some people who are doing a finance and marketing major. how does that sound? for me, that sounds absolutely funny, if you can get what I mean.

anyway, a number of people are sampling courses today - just to see whether they can enroll for the course in the following days or not. and i simply dont understand why people who sample courses want to do class participation and trouble the whole class. today i had to experience that situation and it was so frustrating. do they want to make sure that just in case they register, they dont miss on one class' participation? thats even more silly.

so thats how this term has started. given that the sampling event would happen tomorrow as well, i am expecting more people to consciously throw in gas comments during the lectures.

Sunday, October 15, 2006

Longest Term Break Ends

The longest term break of about 10 days will end in about a minute now. People have gotten back and more people are getting back. The grind begins from tomorrow. Just that 418 people will not be doing the same courses. There is scope for diversification.

The last week hasnt been great as such. To keep my fitness levels at the peak, I made sure that I played frisbee everyday. It was great fun. On the projects side, we did a couple of interviews and gathered data. I dont know how much of this is true, but most people who are doing projects here with the big names in the industry believe that the MBA students are just being used to do market research. And I dont disagree at all. I see most people doing that. Well, I guess we must also understand that in the given 3 months for a project, wherein we dont even spend full hours everyday to do project work, we cant expect anything better. Yes, there are a few strategy projects, but finally it ends up being focused on research because the company has a plan but they need information to formulate the strategy.

My friends from Pakistan have come. Myself and Parul had been to the airport to receive them. Sooner, I'll get their photographs up on the blog.

Dr.Rangarajan, the ex-RBI governor and also the ex-governor of AP has started his series of lectures on macroeconomics and policy issues. its a pass-fail course, so no credits. a lot of us are doing it just for the thrills of listening to such a learned person. today we were discussing about macro theories and india in general. and during his lecture he was telling - "recession is when your neighbor is out of a job and depression is when you are also out of a job" and thats the difference between the two.

life on the fast lane just starts in a few hours from now and im already tired.

Thursday, October 12, 2006

Do you fancy a Donald Duck?

The BIG BROTHER of "TIMES OF INDIA" in Britain - THE SUN. The only nonsense newspaper has released this news item today.

RANDY pooch Goofy is seen ROMPING with Minnie Mouse in a Disney video that’s definitely not meant for family viewing.

The costumed characters simulate sex in an illicit clip shot at a theme park and circulated on the internet.

The hilarious footage even shows kids’ favourite Mickey Mouse in a GAY clinch with a snowman.

Minutes after the backstage frolics, the characters go out to perform their regular Disney routine in front of hundreds of kids.
An insider said last night: “It’s Disney characters as you’ve never seen them before. Goofy grabs Minnie’s boobs but the highlight has to be Mickey’s gay romp.”

The incredible “orgy” is given an added bizarre touch by the characters’ constant fixed grins.

It begins with cartoon dog Goofy GRABBING Minnie from behind and pretending to have sex with her. She pulls herself away, but is then CORNERED for more fake sex with the giant snowman.

Then Mickey gets friendly with the snowman — and the gay action continues with Goofy having a steamy CLINCH with cartoon chipmunks Chip ’n’ Dale. Finally, the horny hound CUPS Minnie’s boobs.

The 2½-minute clip is believed to have been shot by another character or worker with a concealed camera at Disneyland Resort Paris.

A French voiceover announces “Disneyland backstage, it’s hot!”

Bosses were said to be outraged last night. The insider added: “The organisation never tolerates any behaviour that could taint its spotless image. They will be desperate to get to the bottom of this.”

A Disney spokeswoman said: “We are aware of the video that was taken in an area not accessible to guests at Disneyland Resort Paris.

“We regret any offence it might cause. Action has been taken to prevent this happening again.”

Disney declined to say whether any staff had already been sacked or disciplined over the video.

Please CLICK HERE to see the video.

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

The quest begins

the first round of applications have come in and the review process has begun. we are doing our best to select the next batch. i like this whole approach of the current students deciding on how the next batch would be. this happens with most top schools in the world. its perhaps the best system.

today we had one more event w.r.t the admissions process. some of us had volunteered to be a part of the interview preparation process. in this process, the ISB interview team gets to interview us to get a feel of how the whole damn thing is going to be, when they have to do it for prospective students. they also give us effective feedback which would be helpful for us to prepare for our interviews. we then give our feedback about the interview and also tell them what all to look for in a prospective candidate and how to go about questioning them in the right way.

the event just got over and i got my feedback. am quite happy. there are a few things that i have to work on. that can be done. in fact, there is only one pain point and rest were all positive. so, i can channel my efforts to work that out for the better.

in all, the admissions team is gearing up for the mega marathon interviews they are going to have in the next few weeks to come by.

good luck - class of 2008

nothing much happening on campus though. 80% of the batch is at home enjoying holidays. i am lazy to step out. so i am wasting time here - definitely not enjoying the hot weather in Hyderabad. I wonder when it gets cold. Oh please let that happen very soon.

we had a section party as well and that happened on monday. we had a lot of section funds that had not been used for a long time. so we decided to spend that on booze and we had a party till about 3.30am. awesome fun it was.

Monday, October 09, 2006

Placements - Co2007

This has been the craziest weekend ever in the ISB for me. Whacko!! We had the Innovation Challenge to be done and we spent the whole night working on the concept. It was just great. Three members in our team were in madras and we coordinated the whole damn thing through a conference call that lasted the whole night. In fact, I have been so frustrated while staying up all night and studying for courses. This was just not like that. Every hour, we were coming up with new ideas and it was just fantastic.

Later today, I got a chance to look at the Placement Brochure for our batch. Pretty Impressive stuff, but yes, I came across something that made me go - What the F. I saw profiles of batchmates who happened to belong to my same year of undergraduation and they have managed to get their profile under the 5-8 yrs experience category of the brochure. Well, mine's 4 years and 9mths, but I still fall under the 2-5 yrs category.

So what did they do? Well, my guess is that they also perhaps had 4yrs and 9mths or 10mths or 11mths. And then they decided to round it off to 5 yrs. How does that sound?

And what difference does this make? Well, a number of big names that come for recruiting do not always look at resumes for shortlisting people. They look at the brochure and select people, and if they want people with 5yrs experience and above, these ******** stand a probability of getting selected for interviews.

I just wanted to blow my top in front of the Career Services guys, but what will they do. They can just write what the students tell them. They cant go around and keep track of what each person did since under-grad.

So, we learn strategies, marketing concepts, valuations and every damn thing throughout the course, but then some lose honesty and integrity. Or were they like this right from teh beginning. Just that I didnt notice. We also talked about governance and business ethics. And all that was just hearsay. Personal ethics takes a big six. But I guess, thats the harsh part of life. Getting to know the truth when its not important and cannot make a iota of difference. Atleast, we can be happy that things like this do come to your attention, just that we should be a little more careful while judging people.

Saturday, October 07, 2006

ResolvequeryDotCom

www.resolvequery.com is a website that provides information to students and young people. In fact, this line itself is a lift-off from the website.

Well, why I am writing about this today. In fact, I should have done this a long time back.

The CEO of this website - Sundeep Tibrewal, is in my class (and thanks to Chiranth for having pointed an error here - for details, look at the comments). He along with great enthusiasts and intelligent people in Section C - Kanika Atri aka Madhuri Dixit and the Brand Ambassador for the Website, Anuj Gupta aka the Sleeping Beauty (I dont have another name for a person who always gets away for sleeping in class) and Sakar Mawandia, the CFO - have launced an extensive drive to create a new business model for this website.

Their business plan was chosen to present for the TiE-ISB Event, which was a great forum of entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, perhaps the best event for entrepreneurship in India ever.

Thats the awesome raw talent in this group of people, who are also great friends of mine. So, I decided - why not write about the website.

I must also say that some of us in Section C have volunteered to be Experts in the website's forum. By experts, I mean - we've got to answer questions posed to us by visitors to the website. There have been so many websites that give a lot of information to people regarding career, studies, jobs etc. But through this experts network, this website would be an excellent platform for clean and right advice.

Need I say more! Please go to the website and explore to know more. This is going to be the best career launchpad for every student in this country.

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Midnight Masala

69 emails till now, well if that number suggests something connected to the title of this post. nothing really.

prabhu, vivek and i decided to get a cuppa tea when it was close to 12. we walked up to the cafe, as usual discussing about electives, bidding and girls. then doc called us and gave us a shocker message. that was somewhere closer to few minutes after midnight.

the morning exam had been postponed to a different date. why, because the prof decided so.

background: copies of the book prescribed for the course were not available for some reason or the other. lets not worry about that. and this issue had been raised by concerned ppl in the student body to the profs and the institute. and then, our student representatives have been so efficient in handling this that they have left this hanging in the air till 10 hrs before the exam, without getting a proper resolution on time. and finally, we get an email that its postponed.

so who should we blame? some people blame the institute for sending a late message like this, when people have spent hours preparing for the exam. well they were not worried about the non-availability of the book. and they still prepared.

some people blame the student reps for having sat on this for such a long time, when this problem was identified since day one.

no, we cant blame the prof. the prof had to make a decision and she perhaps made the right one.

but why is all this happening. you are taught "root cause analysis". McKinsey comes here and conducts a 4 hr session with everyone to help them make Issue Trees to understand problems, talks about "mutually exclusive, completely exhaustive". After all this, you still make decisions at 00.00 hrs. Is it an auspicious time to make an announcement?

I think I have taken 5 minutes to write all this and the email count has increased to 85.

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Sec-C Formal-Wear Day




Last week, we had our Formal-Wear Day as well. Every section had a formal wear day sometime during the last four terms. And we decided to have one too. In fact, the one other thing we did different was that we found out whether the Dean would be available for a photograph with us. So, we kinda co-ordinated the whole thing properly with the Dean's Office, also informed the Assistant Dean and Academic Services Dean.

So, here are the samples fron the extraordinary collection of photographs.

Sunday, October 01, 2006

Dandiya@ISB



The SFA and the Social Events Club at ISB jointly organized Dandiya Raas on Friday evening to celebrate Dussehra. Students and Staff were invited for a dinner and dance nite at the Atrium.

We went there at about 8.45pm and stayed till 11pm, but I heard that the whole thing went on till about 1am. A private group was called to play music. Our own composer Megh sang a few songs from his Soulfull album. Women from SFA performed three dances for which they had prepared for almost 2 weeks. The kids also did a small number. After all this, the floor was open and the whole batch along with the Professors and TA's started dancing to the live music.

Food was just about average. On the whole, good event. As usual, I managed to click close to 140 pictures.