Away from Home

I have been staying in Vile Parle for the whole of last year and I will be staying in Santacruz for the whole of next year till 2nd year of my MBA course is completed. Now what makes this seemingly unimportant thing a topic for a blog post is the fact that this was for the first time ever in my life that I stayed away from my home for more than two odd months (which happens to be in Thane – about an hour from my college).

Call it lack of infrastructure or whatever but NMiMS does not provide a residential MBA programme and those who stay in Mumbai are not allowed to stay in the hostel. Last year, around this time when I joined NMiMS all I wanted was a decent residential MBA programme. So, I decided to rent an apartment with a few of my classmates near college. To my surprise, my parents agreed to my proposition of staying away from home while I was still staying in Mumbai (I must admit here that I expected a more emotional farewell like the one that they show in most of those Star plus and Zee serials).

The first problem with renting an apartment in Mumbai is the astoundingly high rent. An advice for those who are hunting for a rented house in Mumbai here – You may at times experience emotions like sheer disbelief, extreme anger for your landlord and may hear numbers of unimaginatively gigantic sizes but get used to it as the homeowners here have been taught numbers beyond 25000 during their kindergarten days and that is where they start quoting from.

So, my pseudo hostel stay began in May last year. Staying with classmates was always fun as I could watch TV at any time of the day, drink gazillion cups of coffee and have other junk food at will, listen to loud music late at night, hang out in the college for most of the time. The direct impact of this liberalization in my life resulted into more frequent viewings of my Friends’ collection and addition of some other sitcoms like “How I Met Your Mother” and “The Big Bang Theory” to my collection.

The sad part of staying away from home is when it comes to washing your own clothes which had actually turned a 3 hour long Sunday afternoon grand ritual for me.

I can surely say one thing about staying away from home. You learn a hell lot. I have been seeing several improvements in me ever since I have shifted base. For starters, I realized that there are so many household things that need to be done that were virtually non-existent for me when I was staying at home. This includes taking Doodh from Doodhwalah in the morning, arranging and more importantly managing the maid, paying bills, buying routine household stuff from matchbox to mosquito repellents. I have changed from being a really pathetically lazy person to a more acceptable lazy person and I still continue to show progress. :-D

This post would be incomplete without mentioning my roomies.

Trying to study

Jigar aka Jigga, Saurabh aka Baldy (Ref: Barney from How I Met Your Mother) and Dhawal aka Kanta aka Horney Thorny (Don’t ask me why).

Jigga @ Hareesh's B'day Party

Jigga is the most sincere guy in the class and I had obvious advantages like getting assignments and notes from him. I also managed to read some stuff and study for sometime because of him (Peer pressure you see...). While he was busy in putting up an extraordinarily large family (Details can be obtained on special request ;-)) and challenging the existing rule of "One wife One family" ;-), he has been a true inspiration and pushed me every time from taking CFA to enrolling for different competitions.

Saurabh - Notice that developing spike

Saurabh is somewhat quiet and was like the big daddy of the house. Everyone feared him and we made it a point not to disturb him during his morning ritual of creating one large spike on his head ;-). A warning here - Though he is generally very calm and composed, he will stump you with his occasional one liners. He was the encyclopaedia of our lot and has helped me notice, understand and comprehend things beyond what is called “Mumbai”.

Dhawal on Holi day

Dhawal aka Kanta aka Horney is another being that belongs to the species called “Toppers”. He spent most of his time reading self-help books like The Secret and Vedanta Treatise. A Cricket fanatic and a former Satyamite (I’m sorry but I had to mention this), he was in search of true Gujarati love and tried to find it in many girls including some South Indian girls ;-). He thinks putting a couple of drops of Vodka in a glass full of Sprite is called “Drinking Vodka”.

Managing Household Chores - An attempt at Breakfast

Four of us always made it a point to waste time in trivial arguments, in house cricket matches and other discussions which cannot be mentioned here as this is a family blog ;-). However trivial, it all seems fun in the hindsight.

Diverging from the topic, among other things happening in my life, last month was one of the most hectic periods of my life... Managing my summer internship @ NSE and preparation of CFA Level 2 examination (Someone please let me know if I have violated the CFA Institute Code of Standards by this reference ;-)) was quite a task and kept me away from all the things which I otherwise like to do... Now that I have sucksessfully (No, it is not a typo) taken the seemingly difficult exam full of fictitious Balance Sheets and Income Statements, I have all the time in the world to get back to things I like the most... Reading, Writing and Imagining. So expect more of these from me...

Things to be done before you’re in a B-School for a course in Finance

I know it sounds funny and far fetched but last week a friend of mine asked me for advice on pre-preparation before an engineer joins an MBA Finance course. The advice was for another friend of hers who had just finished engineering and was about to join a B-School. Obviously, she has chosen a wrong engineer for advice but however awkward as it may be for me, I generally never waste an opportunity to impart Gyaan onto others. So here’s my advice for all those engineers who are about to join a B-School and have time for trivial things such as preparation and all...

“Engineers need not study anything before the course has begun. They can manage everything you see... ;-)”, I told her. But, on a second thought, I think I would have had a better time in the class if I had brushed up little stats or read a chapter or two of basic accounting. So here it goes:

Statistics and Mathematics

Most of the part is covered during the 5 semesters of mathematics during engineering. Basic concepts of measures of central tendency (Mean, Mode, Median, etc), graphical representation (Frequency Polygon, Histogram), limits, sequences and series, calculus, matrices is what you are supposed to know

Financial Institutions

NCFM book for Securities Markets – Basic Module is a good read here. Different financial institutions, regulators and intermediaries in the Indian Financial System and their functions is what you need to know (You can download this book from NSE website http://www.nseindia.com)

Word, Excel and PowerPoint

I have seen many of my fellow classmates struggle with this. You at least need to have skills to make a ‘not-so-good-presentation-so-far-as-the-content-is-concerned’ look extremely good with different layouts and animations. For those who are already comfortable using office, some knowledge of macros and VBA programming will prove to be a great help...

Accounting Basics

If you don’t want to be in a position where you don’t have a clue what your accounts or FSA (Financial Statement Analysis) professor is talking to other commerce background students, you need to grab an 11-12 standard commerce book for basic accounting.

Laptop and Basic working knowledge of computers

Decide which laptop model are you comfortable with. Is it a Mac or a PC? Check out different models out there. See which one are you comfortable with. Another must have is a USB Drive or preferably a USB hard disk. If you are not comfortable with computers/ Internet, spend some time exploring and using the Internet. 

Meet-up with Friends

This is the best thing you can do during the holidays is that you can meet up all your friends. When the course will start you will not have time to do such things. The presentations, projects and other such activities will keep you occupied for your two years in the B-School.

I think you’re all set once you are through with the things I’ve mentioned here... Have I missed anything? Fellow capmarks students can chip-in with their suggestions...

Bogie Number B2 / Seat Number 6

Team Fintellect

My IIM Lucknow sojourn is almost over now. As I sit comfortably in Bogie Number B2/ Seat Number 6 on my way back to Mumbai, it is almost compelling to look back at the experience. It has been a couple relaxing and still busy days at IIML. For the uninformed, I was at IIML campus for last 3 days for ‘Call for Arms’ – a team event to adjudge the best B-School in India. We finally finished as eighth best B-School in India (I am aware that the B-School rankings are controversial and subject matter of a lot of debate, but eighth spot will do for me :-)). IIML guys had planned the event well and did all they could to make sure that we had sleepless nights.

Talking about IIML campus, the first thing that came to my mind when I reached the IIML campus was that it was damn spacious with greenery and over capacities observable everywhere. Large lush green grounds, smaller buildings spread wide apart from each other, large canteen, large library, large classrooms and large ‘almost everything than can be large’. For a guy who comes from a crammed B-School having a few tall buildings and no more than a few hundred square meters of campus in space starved Mumbai, this was an overwhelmingly overwhelming experience. In fact I wonder how IIML guys manage to study in such serene and scenic surroundings

Talking of ‘Call for Arms’- Different shortlisted B-Schools across India, three days, eleven events... It was an action packed venture... I could see the commending and commanding IIMs, long established XLRIs, FMSs, SPJIMRs, MDIs and NMIMSs all fight in the same arena for the best B-School title. The contrasting cultures of different B-Schools were apparent at each step of the tournament and it was indeed a learning experience for me.

Throughout the tournament, I observed the differences between ‘a winner’ and ‘a loser’. A loser cribs, attempts rationalization and most important of all misjudges his abilities whereas a winner regrets, analyses and most important of all is well aware of his abilities as well as weaknesses. Being a winner is as much a part of one’s attitude as it is of one’s abilities.

Another important thing which was observable was the rivalry between B-Schools and their willingness to go to any length to achieve the supreme spot. So much so that add Madhur Bhandarkar to a B-School fest and the outcome would be a Bollywood flick on the B-School rivalry.

I also got a chance to see the Rock competition at IIML. It was the first time I attended one. With all due respect to those who love rocks of any kind, I really could not digest the whole thing. Being in Mumbai, I had numerous opportunities of visiting rock shows. But I managed not to visit any of them somehow. Here at IIML, on a chilled grey Saturday evening, I finally decided to attend one while I was passing by the brilliantly lit competition area with people screaming and loud guitar accompanying their chorus. My first impression when I entered the competition arena was that it was insane but Power-packed. The lead singer (Though I am calling him a singer for the lack of a better word, most of the time he was screaming in a language I could not comprehend), was moving his head as if he had the shaft of a generator attached to his head and the power supply of the whole campus will go down if he stops. The guitarists and the drummer were louder than the singer and the show could have gone on even without the lead singer. As I watched them perform and watched people near the stage go crazy here’s an excerpt of my conversation with Jigar (Jigar, by the way, is my roomie and is one of those guys who believe they understand and like Rock...)

Me: Nice show... Seems interesting but I can’t understand why...

Jigar: Hmmm... (Giving me a ‘I-am-Harsha-Bhogle-and-you-are-Navjyot-Singh-Siddhu’ kind of a look

Me: Those people near the stage have gone crazy... They are mimicking the guy on the stage... This guy must be like very famous... Who is he?

Jigar: He’s a participant... Not famous at all... In fact these guys must be watching him perform for the first time...

Me: Oh... It is the song then... The song he’s singing must be like very famous in the world of Rock.

Jigar: Not a famous song either... It is his composition...

Me: Then, how on earth are these guys near the stage able to understand what that hairy and swinging guy on the stage is screaming and enjoying it?

Jigar: No answer... Just a laugh

Giving it a second thought, if I get drunk like crazy and have a lot of worries in life regarding my placement, exams, scores, etc even I can enjoy the thing called ‘Rock’.

I kept the conclusion to myself as the hairy and swinging guy promised the crowd for third time that it was going to be his last performance and the crowd raised their hands in the air as they did for his earlier performance...

More on IIML, the event and my take away from the trip once I reach Mumbai... Right now, the battery promises to die in a few minutes and thus time for me to go play some ‘Teen Patti’ in the train...

B-School, Bad news and a trip to Lucknow

Third trimester has begun... Before I realize it, first year of my MBA experience is almost over... I realize that I haven't really jotted down anything on my B-School experience as yet and now is the time to do so.

After more than two years of work experience (Or whatever experience that was), I finally joined a B-School. I must admit that given the fierce competition, what people say about different B-Schools in India and different B-School rankings floating around, mine qualifies to be 'A B-School' and not 'The B-School'. The experience has been value adding and interesting nonetheless.

After working in the field of stock market for real-time trading software development at TCS, I, like any other mortal who likes money, got hooked onto the market. A few certifications and I started thinking that I know how the world of finance works. Finance seemed the most obvious choice for my MBA specialization. I knew I was made for Finance. I was born for Finance. As a matter of fact, I believed that I was born for Computers and everything there is about computing back in 2001 when I had to choose my specialization in engineering ;-). (Fortunately for me it turned out to be not so wrong and I still think I like technology and everything there is about technology and I hope it turns out to be true again this time too)

So I became a student again and after a big gap of three years, attending lectures and submitting assignments was quite a task. The strangest part and a significant difference between MBAs and Engineers comes from the fact that unlike Engineers that are programmed to mass-replicate the assignments, MBAs seem to be less into team work... This means that I have to do all my assignments on my own. Working hard throughout night, passing on work to group members, last minute changes, pretending to know everything during presentations is fun nevertheless.

Other important difference is the improved quality of the pedagogy. With all due respect to the teachers in my engineering colleges (Last time I visited my engineering college, my professors still remembered me... I am dead sure that none of them reads this blog though...), I can safely say that teachers in the B-Schools know what is teaching. Here, there's more to teaching than reading out of a book when you know that no one around is listening. Here, most of the students listen to what the professors have to say and most of the professors know what they are teaching. (The word most is of utmost importance here ;-))

The title of the post also says something about bad news. The bad news this time comes from a probable scam in the Munis Bond market in the US. Read this story in New York TImes

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/09/business/09insure.html?_r=2&th=&emc=th&pagewanted=all

After Satyam, it is turn of Wipro to get punished from the World Bank. Read this Bloomberg story

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601091&sid=a9JU.qfdvJ08&refer=india

The disclosure came almost 18 months after the actual ban was imposed. After world bank made the information public, the company did whatever it could to assure market of its negligible share of revenues from World Bank project but the scrip was still hammerred down 10 percentage points. In the context of the overall grim sentiments, markets seem to be in the mood of punishing even the slightest mistakes of the corporates. This also brings out the fact that disclosure norms in India need to be improved.

For the last part of the title, I am going to IIM Lucknow a couple of days hence to represent my college for an event there. Visitng an IIM campus was always a dream and I have a chance to put it into reality and that too as an all expenses paid trip by IIML :-). As I am packing my stuff and deciding things to do and movies to wathc during the 24 hours long train journey, I find this post that lists great business related movies of all time

http://financialrounds.blogspot.com/2009/01/great-list-of-business-related-movies.html

Now that I have covered the whole title, I can hit the bed...

PS: Song Playing - Kahin to hogi woh - Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na....

Read Read... Till you are Dead...

Today, I received a couple of books from the college. While I was carrying the giants home, I realized that the 5 odd Kilograms of paper had around 1800 pages together. I have seven subjects in a trimester on an average. Now, simple mathematics tells me that I am expected to read around 6300 pages of textbooks this trimester. Please, note that this is only the textbook material and reference material suggested would be an equal amount of another 6300 odd pages. Add to these the daily ET and FT articles that the professors expect us students to read. Assuming the fact that I don’t read any of the reference material and I read about 3000 pages of blogs, newspaper articles, etc in a trimester, I am expected to manage about 9300 pages of reading.

As a normal B-school student, I can divide my work-day into following activities
Sleep – 6 hrs
Lectures and other classroom activities – 5 hrs
Other activities like competitions, projects, etc – 1 hr
News (Or should I say Bad News, etc) – 1hr
Eating, Travelling and other unavoidable daily activities – 2 hrs

This leaves me with about 9 hours in a day which I can solely dedicate to reading. Now with a speed of about 3 minutes a page, this will take me about 52 days to read the whole thing. Add to this the time that I should dedicate to internalise and contemplate on the matter and the figure crosses 2 months. I want the readers to appreciate the fallibility of the plan terms of tightness of the schedule here...

My term ends on 15th of December. This means that I have only 38 days left in this term. And unless I have a Time-turner like Hermione Granger has one in HP, I will not be able to complete the expected reading this trimester.

Conclusion:
Chetan (Class CR), please arrange for the books as early as possible in the next trimester so that I will be able to read the stuff... ;-)

Food for thought:
I wonder how Nidhi (Class Topper) manages to read it all in time ;-), faster reading speed may be...

Ma... Main Ghar Aa Raha Hoon Ma...

Yesterday, I went to my home after almost a couple of months. Yes, it had been two months since I had visited my home and last few days my mom called me every day and asked me “Beta, tune ghar chod to nahi diya?” I had hard time concincing my mom that I was busy with all the presentations, case studies and other unimportant things that I was doing in life and that was the only reason for me not showing up every week which and it meant that I was still the same old loving son that left the home a couple of months back.

On a serious note, life has been a little hectic since I have joined NMIMS for my two year MBA course. I am living the hostel like life that I always wanted to experience. Even though it means doing a lot of daily chores like waking up myself (And my roomies) every morning, ironing my clothes, making my own breakfast, washing my clothes, etc. Life is enjoyable. At the moment I am staying in a rented apartment about an hour and a half from my home. (Why? Because, I don’t want to spend one eighth of my time travelling in a bus or a train...)

My typical day goes something like this:

It starts with me, cursing at my alarm clock and getting up at around 07:30 AM in the morning after snoozing it for an hour or so. That follows a newspaper reading session of about half an hour when I read the morning newspaper and imagine myself drinking mom-made tea like good old days. After getting ready to go to college and managing a quick breakfast (And missing it most often because I am late), I start off for the college.

Auto-Rickshaw or a 20 minute walk from my place takes me to my college. Then there is the usual daily dose of enlightenment from some fascinating professors on some even more fascinating subjects which I pretend to understand ;-). That leaves me with only half of the day for doing something useful. At around 1 o’clock in the afternoon, I eat some Biryani, Pulao, etc along with a cup of tea in the canteen. That follows a lazy afternoon session of project/ case study discussion where people work diligently on some critical aspects of the project presentation like font of the presentation, colours to be used in the presentation, etc sidelining some of the more trivial aspects such as content of the presentation, etc. After fighting for a cause that no one in the group is sure about but everyone in the group wants to fight for, there’s again a chai-session at the tapri outside the college.

By this time, I realize that I have only a fourth of the day left with me to do something useful (In the MBA lingo, something that adds value to my being). Then, after all the day’s hard work, at around 6 o’clock in the evening, there is a mail from Chetan (He is class CR and is the actuator, stimulator, guide of our otherwise lazy class) stating that the presentation we’ve been fighting out about has been postponed to the next week and now we have another presentation instead. People utter some good words of appreciation for Chetan and this sets stage for another similar fighting-cum-discussion session that runs well into the night. At around 9 o’clock in the night (Or night for normal people), my stomach starts making me aware of its presence and I head back to canteen for a quick bite. After finishing the presentation (rather finishing off the presentation), I head back home where my dinner is waiting for me in the dabba that that black, old, shabby man delivers. Now, the man and his appearance is very important here because I suspect that he’s the one making the dabba indicated by the little smirk that he shows me every time. I eat my dinner, watching Olympic game highlights and contemplating whether that shabby delivery boy is the one who actually makes my Tiffin.

Then, there is a chatting-cum-music hearing-cum-reading-cum-mail checking-cum-googling-cum-contest registering-cum-previous contests’ result checking-cum-frowning at the result session that starts at around 11:30 PM. This is when I end my day at around 02:00 AM in the morning.

On a lighter note, this schedule also has some interesting sports, competitions, paper presentations, festivals, excellent guest lectures, wonderful regular lectures which add a spice to the whole thing. I think this hectic but enjoyable schedule is something that makes B-School experience pleasing.

Coming back to the topic, I wasn’t able to go home for some time because of such self-inflicted hectic (or is it?) schedule and finally, after getting ultimatum from my sister on Rakhi, I went to my home and in its cosy comfort again.

You don’t realise the importance of your home and your family unless you are away from it for some time, especially if you’ve lived in your home all you life... like me. I used to take everything for granted when I was staying at my own home for 25 years but it is only now that I have come to understand the importance of my home and family. On that senti note and with “Koi Aaney Wala Hai...” from Strings playing in the background, I think I should head to bed now...