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...

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...

The Mechanic in me...

Want to know about the style of writer inside you... Here's a website that analyses your blog and lets you know your writer personality type:
http://www.typealyzer.com

Here's what the website has to say about this blog...




I do not completely disagree I must say...
Want to know how it works? Check out here

Update: 21st Nov 2008
As pointed out by Chetan, the algorithm now classifies me as a 'Duty Fulfiller'... A couple of posts here and there and the algorithm has changed my personality in a day... Developers need to look a bit more into the consistency... The brain map hasn't changed though.... Now, analysis of my blog goes something like this
Update: 28th Nov 2008
It is 'The Mechanic' again... I think I for some unknown reason like 'The Mechanic' more than 'The Duty Fulfiller'. The brain activity map has changed a bit this time indicating that I have started using my brain a bit more since last week. Weird, immature but acceptable nonetheless.

Is it Marketing? Cajoling?? Or Begging???

I got this mail from ICICI Credit cards a couple of days back... I do not know who advises ICICI on marketing and promotion but I don't think this kind of promotion will help...

They say: ""We miss you and would love to see you using our card".
Does this mail connect to me or strike a chord? Hell No...
Will it serve its purpose with other consumers? I don't think so...
Would they still love me so much if I miss them (monthly dues)? No points for guessing
Am I overreacting? May be Yes but I hardly expected this from India's largest private sector bank

One last question: Did subprime happen because of such cajoling mails?

The Ironic Insanity of Modern Man

Second Life affair leads to real life divorce... Check out this Article in The Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/nov/13/second-life-divorce

A real woman divorces her real husband for misdeeds in virtual world...

It is ironic that the more advacned we become technologically, the more insane we become. Foolish as it may sound to me, an average citizen in an emerging country like India, it is a fact and it is very much happening in reality... Gosh, God Help Western World...

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...

Check your gender online...

Check out this simple script that tries to guess your gender based on the recent sites that you have visited. It works like this... If your surfing habits are skewed towards websites having more male/female visitor ratio, then your Male score increases and if otherwise, your Female score increases. Final verdict for me is that I am a male and so are my surfing habits...



You can check out your own gender at the following link ;-)
http://www.mikeonads.com/2008/07/13/using-your-browser-url-history-estimate-gender/

HR - Human Rigging

Look what I found in my mailbox the other day...

One day while walking down the street a highly successful Human Resources Manager was tragically hit by a bus and she died. Her soul arrived up in heaven where she was met at the Pearly Gates by St. Peter himself.

"Welcome to Heaven," said St. Peter. "Before you get settled in though, it seems we have a problem. You see, strangely enough, we've never once had a Human Resources Manager make it this far and we're not really sure what to do with you."

"No problem, just let me in," said the woman.

"Well, I'd like to, but I have higher orders. What we're going to do is let you have a day in Hell and a day in Heaven and then you can choose whichever one you want to spend an eternity in."

"Actually, I think I've made up my mind, I prefer to stay in Heaven", said the woman

"Sorry, we have rules..."

And with that St. Peter put the executive in an elevator and it went down-down-down to hell.

The doors opened and she found herself stepping out onto the putting green of a beautiful golf course. In the distance was a country club and standing in front of her were all her friends - fellow executives that she had worked with and they were well dressed in evening gowns and cheering for her. They ran up and kissed her on both cheeks and they talked about old times. They played an excellent round of golf and at night went to the country club where she enjoyed an excellent steak and lobster dinner.

She met the Devil who was actually a really nice guy (kind of cute) and she had a great time telling jokes and dancing. She was having such a good time that before she knew it, it was time to leave. Everybody shook her hand and waved goodbye as she got on the elevator.

The elevator went up-up-up and opened back up at the Pearly Gates and found St. Peter waiting for her.

"Now it's time to spend a day in heaven," he said. So she spent the next 24 hours lounging around on clouds and playing the harp and singing. She had great time and before she knew it her 24 hours were up and St. Peter came and got her.

"So, you've spent a day in hell and you've spent a day in heaven. Now you must choose your eternity,"

The woman paused for a second and then replied, "Well, I never thought I'd say this, I mean, Heaven has been really great and all, but I think I had a better time in Hell."

So St. Peter escorted her to the elevator and again she went down-down-down back to Hell.

When the doors of the elevator opened she found herself standing in a desolate wasteland covered in garbage and filth. She saw her friends were dressed in rags and were picking up the garbage and putting it in sacks.

The Devil came up to her and put his arm around her.

"I don't understand," stammered the woman, "yesterday I was here and there was a golf course and a country club and we ate lobster and we danced and had a great time. Now all there is a wasteland of garbage and all my friends look miserable."

The Devil looked at her smiled and told...
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"Yesterday we were recruiting you, today you're an Employee"

True... Very true... What about the nice HR lady who wooed me into my first job during my campus placement...

And what about the glossy, well-lit conference rooms that lured me into my second...