Non Value adding activities..

All I have learnt about them is that the definition is relative. We all have our own reasons (justifications) for our beliefs. Just read on to get an indicative list of the VAs and NVAs.

Well Some of the non value adding activities -

• Examinations: - They do not add value as the system is completely outdated and it promotes only cramming and theorising.
• Presentations:- All they promote is googling.
• Case Studies:- Not at all value adding (how many cases we have done on our own?). It only promotes datamining and googling again.
• Lectures: All they help is in curing insomnia and not at all a value adding activity.

Some of the value adding activities:-

• Day dreaming : President says that you should have big dreams. Even 'guru' says that. Dreaming about becoming a CEO some day is the one thing which has significant value.
• Orkutting full time : Orkut is a social networking site and we should network with more and more people who are going to become someone important. Are you getting it?
• Chatting and going out: Improves your social skills and also helps in building communication skills. Adds a lot of value.

I told you, the definition is relative. For me, sleeping is a VA activity while for others its a NVA. So it depends. It always depends.

Boring and Interesting..

• We wanted to interview some railway officials who are handling the IT functions for our ITES paper so we went to the Chennai office. We talked to this about 50 year old person who happened to be friends with the father of one of our colleagues. All the information we got in 50 minutes of interviewing is that at Chennai they are processing the payroll of 110,000 employees and whatever other information we got from him is freely available on Oracle site (all about Oracle).
• So after getting frustrated we came out of his office and was wondering what to do next? We interviewed this another guy who is from railways and is on a deputation to CRIS. The difference was apparent. This guy was much methodical in his approach and talked in brief only what was needed. In 15 minutes we were overloaded with information.

The turnaround of railway is not because of Lalu, it's because of these employees who brings in fresh zeal and enthusiasm in the enterprise. Though, CRIS do not pay its employees a fancy salary but still the kind of work they are doing is beyond comparison.

Incredible Marketing..

Marketing lecture by Prof. Venu Gopal is the one thing for which I can stay awake all night or even for that reason can get up early in the morning. In an incredible display of humour he reveals the intricacies of marketing in a manner which is captivating as well as enlightening. Well, if I use some more fancy words probably he will kill me for that because as much as he hates Kotler, he hate us using jargonified language. Language should be simple enough to make sense and clear enough to drive the point home. One out of the many interesting topics he took for us is how to use strategy and planning in our lives. And the only learning is that, these things doesn't even matter. In the end what matters is the clarity of your goal and how focused you are towards those objectives. If you are sensible enough you can figure out a strategy and then planning is nothing but seeing the strategy through.

Big questions before me?

• My objective? I am not sure.
• My strategy? I don't know.
• My Plan? I am not sure about the strategy, so I can actually avoid this question because as per our professor, Planning comes later.

This is not all, Marketing is one subject at IFMR for which I can bet my life. I still wonder that how come a person who dreamt about investment banking for all these years actually change his mind to switch to marketing in 3 hours? Well, don't get amused. It's me and the only reason I see is nothing but Incredible Marketing by a professor with incredible sense of humour.

Consensus--> Majority--> Representation --> Where next??

What is the best way to take a decision? Is it by consensus or majority or by a representative group of individuals? Well, each has its own advantages and disadvantages and the trade-offs are generally on participants satisfaction and participation level. Anyways, generally the trend is that people start with a broader goal of getting a consensus then at-least a majority (first deviation) and if this is also proving to be a road-block then go for the ultimate route of indiviudalism. Well, this is the way most of the decisions are taken by our govt and even by us. After a certain point, nothing matters, nothing except our personal opinions, judgements, fears, biases and prejudices. True for me, true for most of us.

The different colours of Holi..

As a kid, I loved Holi not only for colours but also for many more things. Holi is more like a family get together for the extended family and kind of food fest. All the bhabhis, mamis, aunties try to impress each other by their gourmet assortment of food items. But slowly, due to the exams and all the colours started fading. But, this piece of video is really moving and reminds me of some of those colourful moments spent as a kid. Really moving video.

source:- India Uncut

Eye Donation link :- www.ebai.org

Lotus blooms in two more states..

So, the government in Punjab and Uttrakhand has changed. Chandigarh and Dehradun are going to be painted in saffron colours over the next few days. I am wondering that what implication it has for public there. Have they voted in favour of the change or against the old? It's difficult to say. Sidhu has won elections despite of being convicted for a road rage case and Badals will be back into power after all those scams and disproportionate income charges. What does this all indicates? One thing is clear that Congress has to toil hard in the next LokSabha elections and the other thing is that public has no memory. The song of yesteryear " Ye public hai sab jaanti hai, Ye public hai" is echoing into my mind and my honest reaction is that "Kya Bakwaas hai, Public idiot hai".

Consultants in the making..

A student qualifies to become a consultant when he/she can continously speak for 3 minutes in a jargonistic fashion without making any sense. It's an art really difficult to master and requires juggling around with all the vague terms, "the Art of convincing through confusion".

• Well, then why consultant gets paid in hours?
• Man! who can tolerate them for more than an hour or per say for even half an hour?

We are all consultants (in some walks of life) aren't we?

Faster than News Sites..

Another example of the power of blogs and the vastness of this unbounded blog space came in capturing the news about the documentary " The last tomb of Christ" by James Cameroon of Titanic fame. CNN IBN is running the bulletin now on their website.

http://www.ibnlive.com/news/world/02_2007/titanic-director-finds-jesus-grave-34473.html

Well, it has happened time and again and sometimes I think that blogs does a better job rather than news papers because one is free expression whereas the other has to go through numerous editing and checks. Well, to see the difference simply compare the articles on my blog, the israeli bites blog and CNN IBN. You will see the difference.

Wonderful times..

It's 8 months since I last went home. Kind of natural for me given I have spent 3/4th of my life away from my parents but then, this picture forwarded to me by an old friend remind me of those days which I have spent at home bugging my parents. When it's hot outside play indoor cricket, when it's raining play soccer in muddy ground. Come home in the evening all soaked in sweat and then mommy has to force feed you. Go swimming in the river nearby, catching fish with cloth nets and bicycling all the way down to the nearest mines and then fighting each other over who will bat first and who will bowl how many overs. Never worry about anything. Days use to fly like anything.

Almost 15 years have passed now. I am Sitting here in my hostel room and reflecting about those wonderful days. I am actually feeling nice. Thanks dear for reminding me that sometime back I use to be a normal human being.

Group or Team?

The most significant differentiating factor between a group and a team is the "identity" factor. A team has an identity and its different from an individual's identity and also a team is always bigger than an individual. The classic rule of 1+1 = 11 stands true for a team. Now a group has no identity of its own and the basic reason for existance is out of some common need. Now, I am wondering that what is my identity? Well, I am still Rajneesh so that makes it clear that I am still an individual and not a team. A self introspection tells me that its actually a poor accompolishment after spending 8 months in a B school.

Making a fool out of myself:-

My habbit of blabbering sometimes put me into embarassing situation. Today when prof asked that did you see this movie (he named some movie which I ofcourse did not hear properly), I said yes, thinking that he is talking about that nearby shop. But then, he put me into embarassing situation (rather I put myself) by probing further that do you know Tamil? Well, moral of the story is that I should be a bit more patient to actually comprehend the question and then come with an answer and I should make a serious attempt towards learning the language. But well, these stupid mistakes of mine gives people a chance to laugh at-least (but it again proves that our batch is still a group and not a team) so I am happy too .

And Finally Pathan Gets the flag off..

So the verdict is out. Selectors took no time to decide that Pathan is going to world cup and the decision came for him only after bowling 9 overs in the match. Well, poor Ramesh Powar then who bowled a magnificent spell to castle top order wickets that too on the first day of the match. A classic example of luck/favoritism blah blah..

Option Value..

What is the option value of a review session in a corporate finance?

a) two hours of peace.

b) an articles from ICFAI journal of supply chain

c) a blog post

d) a half an hour nap.

Dont know the answer yet but the option 'a' sounds pretty appropriate till now. I just scooted out from corporate finance lecture and looking forward to 2 hours of peace. The story about ICFAI journal is that I got it issued from library some two weeks back and have read four papers from it. But now I am wondering that by all standards the papers that we all are preparing for our ITES course will be fit enough to be published. I guess all it takes to get published is a prof's name, some pie-diagrams, lots of references and then picking a little from all those reference articles and integrating them all. That's it.

Sinking another Ship. Tracing the family tree of Jesus.

On Monday, Director producer James Cameroon of Titanic fame will hold a conference where he is going to raise the curtain from some touching issues like whether Jesus was crucified or not? He was married to Mary Magdalene or not? Did he really had a son? Well, no! its not another Da Vinci Code which later turned out to be mere stunt. This time his new project will aim towards fitting the pieces into puzzles (at their correct places of course) and that too with evidence from cryptology, Israeli Archaelogical study, DNA tests and from Old Testament.

The story takes you back to 27 years when some Israeli workers discovered a cave while they were working on an industrial site near Talpiyot in Jerusalem. They disovered 10 caskets (6 marked and 4 unmarked) buried in the cave. Prof. Amos kloner who finally deciphered the crypt after almost 20 years claims that the coffins held the remains of Jesus of Nazareth, his mother Mary and Mary Magdalene. To substantiate his claims, he has DNA reports conducted in some New York Crime Lab of bones found from these caskets.

Well, this press conference will also be a curtain raiser for his 90 minutes documentary of this extraordinary finding which will be telecasted on Discovery before Easter. Although the findings have been established 10 years back, the reporting to press was kept to minimal and the film makers are first to eastablish that the 2000 year old caves were the actual burial site of Jesus and his family. The crypt reads : Mother Mary, the carpenter Joseph, a little-known brother called Jofah, Mary Magdalene, and, most surprisingly of all, Jesus's son Judah.

The caskets contains some human remains and probably after Da Vinci Code, this looks like a sequel to it but this time with a little more punch. There will be repercussion but it will be a treat to watch that how a world which supports the co-existance of multiple point of views and which branded the Islamic protest against Prophet's cartoon as "hooliganism" wakes up to this piece of news. Last time when James Cameroon sank Titanic, it received an overwhelming response but this time he has chosen an apt medium as TV.

To read more: http://israelitybites.blogspot.com/2007/02/bones-of-jesus-son-uncovered-in.html

Will Pathan Go to world cup?

Ofcourse yes. The only reason is that there is no proper replacement available. They can't play 3 spinners. And there are many better batsmen available then Dinesh Kartik. It will be hard for selectors to justify rejection of Dinesh Mongia because he can bowl a bit too. For world cup they do need two wicketkeepers but then Uthappa can don the gloves on a bad day. They can't pick Kaif as he has given no reasons to merit a selection and so is the case with Raina. So, due to lack of options Pathan will be flying to West Iindies on the same flight with team India.

Then people can ask that what is this hoopla about his fitness? Oh! yes, well they need to prove that no no Pathan is clearly fit for a match. I don't know whether they are talking about physical fitness or is he a team fit or not. Physical fit, yes as he bowled 8 overs today. Team-fit, No as he went for more than 5 an hour and picked 2 lower order wickets.

Can B Schoolites Play Volleyball?

• A prospective student will say "No". They dont even get enough time to sleep, how come they can play volleyball?
• IIM students will say "ofcourse not, we don't have time for non value adding activities".
• Coaching institutes will tell you that, "if you get through IIM the only game you will dream about playing is Golf and not volleyball. So better don't ask these questions and ask some relevant doubts".
• Professors will tell you, that the answer lies in time management. Work while you work and play while you play. You can play a lot if you manage your time well.
• Other B schoolers will probably say that " Who the hell has time for volleyball, if there are so many pubs, discos and multiplexes are around.
• What will an IFMR'ian say? "Oh yes. You are talking about volleyball? We play all the seven days man". Lucky isn't it?
  

Indian Ocean..

Rightly been said that you can discover the mood of the person by simply observing what kind of music they are listening to. Indian Ocean has a lot of arrogance, a lot of anguish, sadness and anger in their music. The sound that they produce captures different emotions so beautifully that I cant hold myself from playing the music loud enough even when everyone around me is sleeping. They play a variety of instruments and the co-ordination and rhythm speaks of itself. THough I like most of their songs but still my favorites will remain Kandisa, Ruk Jaa Re Bandeh and Hille Re.

How does it feel?

How does it feel when you come to know that you are not with the people who need you most? Or you were not there when they needed you most? Or even when you feel like you can not reach out to those who need you? Well, for me all these questions will remain unanswered for long long time to come. I guess that time spent out of home has toughened me but then I guess that its high time now to take that long overdue break and go home.

Hooked on to Maula Mere Maula..

The music of the movie Anwar is different from the rest and that's why perhaps "Maula mere Maula" or "Tose Naina Lage" sounds a lot better than the normal bollywood songs. Since last few days I am quite hooked on this music. Atif Aslam is again the one whose voice stands apart from the crowd. His songs Yakin, Doorie and Tere Bin are the songs I am listening to frequently. The lyrics of "Maula mere Maula" is touchy and poetic. I think that in the last few days several movies have released their music but still Anwar touches my hear like no other song. Hope to download some more nicer hindi songs. Honeymoon travels sounds promising but only the track sung by Shaan and Shreya ghosal "Jaane wo hai kahan" sounds good.

Well. incidently this is my 100th blogpost. Cheers. Planning to sleep early actually and that's my idea of celebration as a B school student. Sleep as much as you can.

My sales blog..

I thought, it could be a nice idea to pen down my attitude, emotions and behaviour towards sales job on one page so that the sum total of everything can be a nice HR case (or atleast first hand salesman's experience). So there came the idea of a separate blog for my sales experience which will benefit me in keeping track of my own performance as well as those poor souls next year who will have to venture into similar territory. I really dread the sales job and I am wondering where do I fit given my zero knowledge of Tamil and Chennai roads.

But well, I have started working on it and have to improve my knowledge about Chennai, the psychology of people, their buying behaviour and then also have to make a serious attempt in learning the language. I do not fear the heat as my skin is sun screen ready (given the dark tan complexion I have) and neither the hostility of the shop keeper as I have nothing to loose (sales people are supposed to be dignity less people for the first two years on job).

So, you can guess what's waiting for me this summer but well I will pen down or pain-down whichever sounds appropriate everything from perception to emotion and attitude to moments of solitude (if any) on my blog. This will be accessible at http://honestsalesman.blogspot.com . I guess each one of us should do a similar thing. This will help you accumulate thoughts and contribute towards the making of bigger picture in form of knowledge repository.

Summers..Surprise..

I woke up at 10 'o' clock in the morning as it was an unusual friday with the whole day off (academically only as you have whole lot of assignments and cases piled up for the weekend). I asked one of the placement reps that can I bunk one of the interviews as I wanted to sleep some more but got a No for an answer. So it's time to kickstart another day. Got up from bed, took a bath, spent 15 minutes on cleaning up the 3 day stubble from my face and then dressed up in the formal wear and excitedly climbed three flight of stairs down to reach the interview hall.

Well this is the company where I don't want to go actually and I applied to it seriously because I wanted to keep backup as well as I was thinking about being a parasite on finance guyz. But then, given all my friends are placed, so that leaves me with no any options other than to take the interview (half heartedly) and on the other hand pray (whole heartedly) that these people don't make a hiring mistake. Anyways, I came with three button suit on in blistering summer heat of Chennai to hear that I am out of placement process as I have been selected by some company.

Should I feel happy that I am placed without an interview? Or should I feel sad that I didn't get a chance to get into the company that I thought? Should I feel happy for the brand (relative term) or rather feel sad that I got a sales profile? What was in my CV which they saw and which was not there in anybody else's CV? So, it was a surprise but I am not sure whether a good one or bad one. My prof. says that a part of growing up is to make your own decisions and to be ready to face the consequences. I didn't decide that this company won't pay stipends, I didn't decide their selection process and I didn't decide that I won't be getting the liberty of knowing about the company and the job profile from the horse's mouth, I didn't decide about not holding any interviews and I did not decide about behind the scene activities. Well, I decided about only one thing and that was to apply for this company thinking that they will atleast fulfil some basic expectations of the summer interns.

Anyways, so here I am, willing to take on the world and to face the consequences of not only of the decisions that I made but also for those decisions which were made by others assuming that they are being generous in working in the students' interest. Anyways, I am well prepared to work in sales selling things and working with some of the people whose institutes do not demand high CAT %iles for admission but still make sure that their students should be treated well in companies.

Well, I am seriously happy for myself that I have a challenging offer waiting for me this summer and something which I always dreaded to do. But this is not a story of individual. This is the story of summer placements where all the things point to a similar trend that everyone wants cheap labour and beggars better not be chosers. Some HR implications are there. I am happy I am growing up..

What is there in the name?

Though IFMR has finance in its name, I think HR is one of the institute's core strength. With only 1 girl planning to major in HR it leaves the student:faculty ratio to 1:4, best in India or in that sense I guess any where in the world. And given the pedagogy of those professors, one place to be for HR is IFMR. Each one is a class act. For example one prof. leaves you with so many doubts lingering on your mind that you feel angry, and try to learn as much as possible whereas the other prof. leaves you like its so simple. You always knew this, its right there at the back of your mind and you have to appreciate how much you know. Add this fact that these two complimentary teaching styles are offered one after another which makes it a thorough affair.

Management Humour..

Q. Why you need HR Manager in an organization?

Ans:- To handle people and execute the different HR functions.

Q. Is it possible to replace people with system?

Ans:- It depends on the nature of the business. Like complex surgical operation where robots can do better than human or a machine is more efficient than human (in reading xray and ECG reports)

Q. Imagine that you are ill or some loved one is having a heart surgery and you are standing near a computer which tells you to move right, you don't know your right or computer's right. Then it instructs you to walk five steps and lie down on a bed. Then you see two robots coming with scalpel and surgical instruments. Will you not be scared? I mean won't you want some personal touch or something?

Ans:- Then I guess this system is not for emotional people like you and me, its for those people who appreciate technology.

Well, the discussion continued further with statements like then it's only for animals I guess.

Sir, Humans are the most civilized animals.

These are the excerpts from one HR guest lecture at IFMR. Mr. Abraham who is HR manager at Kevin Care was really humorous but then he has to appreciate that though there were only 19 people attending his session, most of the time he was caught off-guard by sharp minds at work. Overall, the session that he took was quite entertaining and full of humour but then end of the day I think I got one more sample to prove this hypothesis that HR is more about applying Common sense and less of mugging up theory.

Management Dilemma Continued..

Understanding People:- Why this is so difficult?

I have heard some of my good friends saying that the best way to live life is that don't expect anything from anybody. The irony is that they are the one who will crib most when their expectations from others are not met. They feel hurt even a simple things go wrong against them and they always end up with a bitter feeling about others even when you disagree on simple things. The reason is that though they believe in the philosophy they still hate to practice it and they do expect a lot from others. Any deviation from this expected behaviour can make them feel bad about this world in general and that person in particular.

Well, then people have said to me time and again that they don't get hurt on stupid things as these are part and parcel of life. Everybody make mistakes and one shouldn't get hurt if the deed is unintentional. But then, they are the people who are most vulnerable to even smallest of your misdeeds. You do one simple thing and there they go, reacting and over reacting. I mean sometimes you wonder that where their sense of humour is actually? They will start misinterpreting things and will be ready to jump guns on even a small disagreement. I wonder that where is the knowledge of OB 1 and OB 2? Is it really sinking in our heads?

Anyways, I guess I shouldn't feel bad about all these things but then I think I am one among those who themselves are difficult to understand. I can't deny that I expect a lot from those who I think matters to me a lot. But then, this closeness thing is a relative and vague term where each one has their own definitions and criterias.

Well, this behaviour leaves me with endless questions about friendship, relations, expextations from each other and predictability of behaviour. Gosh! I guess someday I will get some answer to some of these questions at least.

Five things that have changed over last 3 months..

Well, difficult to find out but I am feeling sick that I am unable to find even a single reason which have helped improving me my grades. Anyways, am starting from the things that have changed over the past three months.

1) Sleeping schedule:- Last trimester I use to sleep for like 8 hours on average. I was very serious during the first month (was excited about MBA actually), was attending most of the lectures (most of the subjects were new and confusion level was low as I didn't know a thing about them). This trimester I utilised for sleeping. The average stood somewhere around 10 (a conservative estimate, something greater than this figure exactly).

A possible explanation could be that when you sleep more, you feel fresh and active and have a better retention capacity (but only when you study something, so ofcourse this explanation is a crap).

2) Going out:- The frequency increased and the interval got shortened, Twice in a month became once in a week and sometimes two, three times a week. The number of DVDs increased in my room and not a single one of them is educational. Spencer plaza and Sathyam cinema looks so familiar now, thanks to the second trimester.

3) Mobile Phone usage rate:- Drastically increased and it seems that I discovered suddenly that most of my friends are working professionals now and they are unable to forget me. So my phone can't stop ringing and then Mukta (you will keep seeing this name more often in my blog) contributed in her own special way. Poor girl, she had to endure all those OB theory and marketing Jargons though she has nothing to do with all that. But I am glad that she stayed there and went through all the blah blah blahing of mine and the worst part is that she was paying for all those 30:01 minute calls.

4) Bunking rate:- If not comparable to my undergraduate days, at-least it increased over the last three months. The one and only obvious reasons to bunk was to sleep.

5) Study hours:- Well, surprising they also decreased. The only subject I studied was marketing where I ended up getting a B+ (the highest grade this time is B+) and that too was more like "Say nO tO Kotler".

Well, so these were the five major things (apart from my grades) that changed over the past three months. Though many more things have changed but then "Whatever happens, it was bound to happen" so its okay. Life teaches you many things and in the process it makes sure that you remain up on the learning curve. You see people changing, their beliefs, faiths, perceptions and even loaylty changing and then you see yourself becoming a part of all this change. If you resist there will always be a repulsive force from the opposite end and if you don't you run the risk of loosing your real self.

Anyways, one serious thing that changed in the last trimester was that I got rid of my illusions about a MBA with finance specialization and settled for a major in marketing. On a casual note, my level of confusion about HR issues also drastically increased. God knows, its for good or for bad.

Grade Conscious..

So finally the dilemma is over. Grades for the second trimester are out. Last time it took only few days before the grades were announced, this time it took a little longer. But the irony is that last time, the shitty feeling that you normally get after getting grades stayed for a little longer than this time. My god! it's only 6 hours from the announcement and for most of the us, the feeling is long gone. So I guess we are all either becoming too professional or too unconcerned.

I remember this trimester starting with a small debate against forming a marks cartel and then out of all people I was blamed to be grade conscious. Man, I remember how emotions came out pouring down from everywhere, every corner and even some of the best of my friends went all the way to convince me very sweetly that I was wrong and what I was doing was essentially a marks cartel.

A sneak peak into my engineering days and my grade consciousness:-
I never tried to find out my rank there as I knew that out of 60 odd people I will be somewhere between 30th and 40th students. My father never enquired about my rank and I never mentioned it to him. 70% was an illusion (for students like me) kind of thing and I was surprised to receive honours on my grade sheet as somehow I managed to crawl past the 70% barrier. I ended with 70.013%. So, the idea is that marks or grades never really mattered to me not in school, neither in college and was surprised to learn that people (some of the close friends here) thought that all I care about are grades.

Well, so my wise classmates made sure that no such formation of marks cartel can take place and they lived happily attending one group meeting for one subject and four other meetings for four different subjects. Time and again, our HR professor tried to prove her point that we should focus on team building approach and not just waste our time and energy over resolving group issues and scheduling meetings. But then, MBA teaches you also that "HOW NOT TO BELIEVE OR TRUST YOUR PEERS".

I was branded grade conscious (which anybody who knows even a single bit of me will strongly object to)and I am thinking now that what was it which brought me 3.4/4.0 GPA. Was it my hard work? I am not sure for that as I don't know such a word like (Hard Work) existing in my daily vocabulary. Can't attribute any specific reasons to this jump in grades (from 3.27 - 3.4) except that there is a strong positive correlation between the number of hours (in excess over last trimester) I spent napping this trimester and the improvement in the grades. Also, I went to more number of movies, shopped more and then played computer games for more and more.

Last but not the least, I remember this famous quote from one of my classmate that "Books don't help much, in the end the only thing that helps is your brain". I guess that clicked for me fine.

Surprise..Surprise and more Surprises..

MBA is full of surprises. You expect the lecturer to finish 25 slides in 30 minutes and he takes forever to complete that. Next you expect 40 slides in the presentation and you are surprised to see there were only 21 and they got over within 2o minutes. Suddenly you are full of energy because of an early end to the finance lecture (I guess finance people won't agree with that but guys you have seen me yawning in the lecture right??) and start discussing about the next HR lecture. A pleasant surprise is still waiting as you prepare for the presentation plus a HR quiz scheduled at 2 pm and you get a mail on your outlook that both the things are postponed till tomorrow. So here we are, free on a monday afternoon (I know most of you like me hate mondays so friends this indeed was a awesome thing to happen) and nothing to do for the entire day. We were ready for the quiz and presentation so its okay, we can breathe easy for the day.

Now come round 2. I am truly amused by the way day has unfolded so time to surprise your friends. I call up Mukta (this really cute friend of mine, most of the guys here will of-course agree to this "cute looking claim") and ask her out for a movie for which she replies that her house is about half an hour by auto, the show starts at 12:45 and there is no way she can make it as she didn't even had her bath. Anyways, I hurried up to the Sathyam complex to get the tickets and she was there exactly before the movie started. Now, I always play a spoil sport to her plans but today everything happened at amazing speed. We missed lunch as she has to catch up with her office (where she was only 2 hours late) but then sometimes you just let it go for one moment of togetherness where you are at complete peace.

Man! I am still wondering that how come a lazy guy like me can make it on time and that too for "a not so interesting" (okay type) movie. But yeah! it was a surprise and we did enjoy the popcorn and coke. Wait the day is not over yet, there are many more surprises still there waiting. One was my dearest friend getting placed in Deloitte and then I ended up on the winning side of the volleyball matches, teased and fought with another friend (well that's not a surprise as it's kind of mandatory for both of us to fight at-least once a day), got to eat banana chips again (which I honestly don't like and whcih is more like a evoked need as I see everyone around me liking that). I guess there might be another surprise waiting for me in the form of mess food.

The day is not over yet. I am wondering what next?

After Eklavya: Here is the "Swamvar"

I was reading this article that Vidhu Vinod Chopra took five years to write the story of Eklavya in which he challenged the wisdom of Eklavya and the punchline says that "Dharma borns out of consciousness". Dharm is what your consciousness claims.

Well, I don't know what story he is talking about when there is no story in the movie. All you see is clever camera angles and beautiful cinematography. Rest is all so confused that for two hours you keep looking for a glimpse of that five years of hard work behind the story.

Anyways, it took me five minutes to write the story of "Modern Draupdi" where her father holds a Swamvar (to chose the Groom). Now, Amitabh is playing the role of her father who is also a retired boxer. Now he is managing a boxing academy where Saif, Jimmy and Sanjay Dutt are students. Someone from rival academy challenges his academy and ask to fight it out in the boxing ring. Amitabh Discovers that Saif is in love with his daughter and so are Sanju and Jimmy. Jackie is the challenger. So after a song and dance sequence with Saif and Vidya (a dream sequence) the real story begins.

Jimmy looses in first round against Mukesh Rishi. So it's 0-1. The next match is fought between Saif and Mukesh and he beat Mukesh Rishi. It's 1-1. Jackie comes in the ring and he beats Saif like anything. He mercielssly pounced him in every corner of the ring and leaves him bleeding. So the score is 2-1. Now Sanju is so charged up that he gives the same treatment to Jackie and make the score line 2-2. Jackie is in hospital and so is Saif. Now twist in the tale. Sanju discovered that Vidya Balan is extra caring for Saif and he knew that they both love each other. Final match is one month away. One last match where Jackie will challenge Sanju for one more time and in the darkness of the night Sanju leaves the city.

Amitabh has to train Saif now to take on Jackie to fight it all out. There the intermission and movie will start with all that stress training. In the end, the D-Day is here. Saif is again in the ring against Jackie. Now after eight rounds, Saif is bleading from everywhere. Suddenly during the time out, Sanjay shows up and inspire Saif to stage a comeback. Saif is up again, starts with a hook and then an upper cut which leaves a bruise at jackie's left eye. And then a couple of more punch and Jackie is down. Saif is suddenly all over, hooking and cutting and jabbing. Tenth round and Saif unlock that mighty blue which cracks one or two ribs and count to 10 is over. There he is. The new yodha. Amitabh is so proud of him that he is ready to give anything. Sanjay do the kanyadaan and Saif and Vidya are happily married ever after.

Well, all it took me to write this is 15 minutes. But I can claim that this idea was back in my mind since last 10 years. (That was the first time when I watched Rocky series of Stallone.) So you see, copy something from our history, copy something from the hollywood, make them compatible by doing some adjustments (which won't take five years for sure) and there you are. With a forward looking film which takes you backward into those ages where Swamvar was really a part of the culture.

I think I have done a masterpiece, let's do it producers. With so many multiplexes coming up and with so much dispoasable income. Even if 1% of the target population watches this I will be breaking even or even make a profit. Hats off to the blabber king. Jai ho..

"Person - People fit" Does they really fit in HR jargons?

My Management Dilemma 2.

I don't know but I am more confused now than ever before. Recently we were discussing about "Person job fit" and "Person organization fit" in our HR lecture but now, I am wondering about this one class "Person People Fit" that where does they exactly fit? What I mean by person people fit is not those people who wear fake smiles and involves a great deal of personal touch and who laugh their hearts out at things which sometimes do not even convey any meaning.

A person who is people fit is not again about that Microsoft advertisement of "People ready business" but yeah its something like that. Microsoft emphasizes on customization of their business solutions depending on the people specific or firm specific needs and what I am talking about is People becoming ready for people.

I have seen quite a few people in my short life who goes one step further to make your first and only encounter worthwhile and they come in all shapes, sizes and at all the level of IQ. They are found in all kind of places like restaurants, banks, railway stations, roadsides and even in governement offices. Well, they do not ask for anything in return and leave you with happy memories. Now my doubt is that does the organization while recruiting and hiring try to delve deeper into this side of the personality? THey essentially ask questions about handling ethical issues and making compromises but would they ever try to venture into finding out whether the person is people fit or not?

My dilemma is that a person can be trained to be an Organization fit or a Job fit but you can only train a person to fake his people fitness. That fake smile of the girl sitting behind the counters who gets irritated only after the second question from customer reminds me the same. But then another question is that what is the right metric for measuring this aspect of the personality? Gosh! I am becoming more and more confused.

My management Dilemma.. Managing By Common sense

Well, I am updating my blog so infrequently that even those friends are complaining who like visit my blog once a month. So taking note of that, I came back to flood this space with all the blabbering I can muster. The complain seems to be valid which is evident from just 3 articles written during the past one month. So thought about writing something which I use to bug my classmates and friends.

Jargons have become so integral part of my life that I am speaking in marketing lingo since last few days. Even while discussing about movies I am asking questions like what is the target audience and what is the value proposition? Jargons are everywhere around us and its better if we pick up them in our daily language. JEM (Jargons every Minute) is our SM (Suo Motto). Now most of them are actually TLA (three letter acronyms) which we use for the heck of using (JLT:Just like That). The humorous side is that it's really funny to use these TLA (some of them are made "OTS" which is on the spot and not the usual Opportunity TO See) and they make the moment lighter and also in a way shapes up your management thinking.

Well, in one line I think my expertise is that I am someone who can make your life HOH (Hell of Heaven) depending on what kind of mood you are in. Most of the time, I do not make any sense but then, who the hell want to remain in their senses. MBA has enough in it to confuse you and I feel that the one thing you loose after joining a B school is your common sense. In desperate attempts to become more logical and organized and someone different you loose your appetite to crack or take PJs. Anyway, my only Jargon which combines MBA and life is MBC. Management By Common sense but ya! at the same time I think it's more like MCS (Managing Common Sense). I know I am not making any sense and going on blabbering but then I told you.. It's JLT (Just LIke That.)

Eklavya : Dont expect anything.

Seldom you see a congregation of so many star faces, seldom you expect poor show from Vidhu Vinod chopra and seldom you expect Amitabh to be a part of such a poor thing. But well, all of that has happened with this movie Eklavya which I think is a sheer waste of time and money. To comment about story, i think that there is no story and it's just an idea to bring some stars under one flag and make them act pretending that you are going to make a movie of the lifetime. Sanju baba has no role to play and he is out there only for a couple of scenes. I think the director could have saved a lot of bucks by putting any tom dick harry in his place. Same could be said about the role of Jacky and Jimmy Shergil. They are again out of place and a poor fit to the movie plot.

The story is set in Rajasthan somewhere in 70's or 80's and Amitabh is serving as guard to the royal family and he has some secrets which he will take to his grave. His father laid his life to save the highness and he is supposed to do the same. Raima sen is again a waste here in a role of girl who is half insane or half sane (I mean the way you like it). I was unable to comprehend half the dialogues they were saying and there was this scene where Amitabh shoots at a pigeon with blindfold on and catches the ghungroos. Man, any tom dick or harry can catch ghungroos with a blindfold on.

Well, I think that I was sleeping in theatre holding my head after a long long time (I don't remember any such instance after Trimoorti). Well, for me it was really a bad bad experience. So my advise is that don't expect anything from this movie.

Of IIT's and IIM's .. the fishy things in their business fests..

I remember that during one marketing case discussion session when one of the students used the term bribing the prof strongly objected to refrain from using these unethical vocabulary. He said that though some may use all this to overcome competition, the danger is that there still might be some ethical options left which you are ignoring.

IIM and IITs are considered to be the pioneer in the technical and management education but still some of the future managers who will resort to these unethical means to prove themselves the smartest and the best may be from these premier institutions also. Though I don't want to spark a debate but still I have few examples which indicates a trend.

IIM Lucknow holds it's Manfest every year and is proud to do it on a mega scale. They had a cricket simulation game called Corporate Lords for which I still have no idea how they played it and on what basis they calculated the final score. Everything happened behind the scene and then they came out with the final results saying that out of the six teams that qualified two belonged to IIM L itself. I am not doubting the intellectual capabilities, my area of concern is the manner in which the game was conducted. Their website failed (poor management when they have best of the brains), the excel sheet format was not transparent and nobody know what formula they worked out to get the final list.

IIT Delhi went one step further and declared one of their fellow students as a prize winner of 20000 Rs. cash when one not IITian had higher net worth in that game. Now that LBS girl is spreading the word around but then end of the day these IIT fellow will come with an excuse that they didn't notice or may be they will tell they took the round figure and then as two people qualified, they flipped a coin. Well, I wonder what these group of people are going to do in their organization. This was not enough. After 10 days of breaking their heads with the treasure hunt people discovered that nobody was declared the winner as nobody reached the final stage. Well, if I put a question like When did Lallu's white buffalow which he bought on 17th Decemeber last year delivered it's first baby? I guess nobody will be able to crack this puzzle (not even Lallu, here lallu is the small tea shop owner near IIT gate). So nobody will get the reward.

IIM Bangalore takes great pride in hosting one of the biggest cultural fest in India.. That's good but when the professors inside classrooms and the student after mugging up the whole Kotler's book talk about Customer Experience Management, i think the accomodation arrangement was pathetic. The sight of girls carrying a bucket and walking about 50 meters to get to a nearest bathroom reminds me of Indira Gandhi days when the family to toilet ratio was 4:1 or even lesser in some parts of the country. For 3 days IIM was even poorer on that ground. You can't hide behind this fact that it was a mega event. I think that with a budget of more than 1 crore (as claimed) you can do a better job.

Well all said and done, I think that we a bunch of 27 people did a fairly better job with our own fest Abhyudaya. The hospitality was damn good with a personal touch. We vaccated our own rooms to accomodate outsider and we take great pride in this fact that the facilities provided to us in our rooms is beyond comparison with some of the big business schools in our country. The manner in which we conducted our fest was if not great, still better than those who talk about scaling up and seeing the big picture but then consciously ignore the smaller parts which constitutes the big picture. Economist Schumacher rightly said "Small is beautiful" well it has a message. Even when you become big.. don't loose the beauty.

Humour**

Red bull is very strategically targetting all the institutes for promotion. Well in our college they rather met an old custome who happens to be our favorite marketing prof. He asked that cute looking girl that what is so bullish about Red Bull? and is there something Red in it? After enquiring about the cost he asked that will it last for like one week? If not then do you think that you will be able to find sufficient number of customers? Well, that girl had no answer but Red bull has to find for sure to sell the bullish drink.