"Aloo ka Paratha in Chennai"..

My friend called yesterday night and asked whether she can drop by to have breakfast with me as she had to go to some church in Chetpet with her roomie. Well, we planned to eat a Punjabi breakfast. Nungambakkam is supposed to be one of the most cosmopolitan area of Chennai and with all the famous eating joints located within a radius of 2 kilometers, it sort of try to live upto that reputation. There is Pizza Hut, Pizza Corner, Cafe Coffee day, Barista, Mocha, New Yorker and many others to list including Dhaba Express. Some 20 restaurants are located within 2 kms and I guess that most of their menus have listed "Aloo Paratha". So i was confident that we can easily get Aloo Paratha and would try to revive our taste buds for Punjabi food.

Well, the search started at 9 in the morning. WE went to Raj Bhavan and learnt that they serve parathas only after 1 PM, Sangeetha offered paratha but of different varieties, Most of the restaurants open after 11 so it was like we were walking to each restaurant, asking the first question and then walking out. It continued till 10:30 and we reached Dhaba Express only to find it closed. Finally we returned to Sangeetha and settled for a quick Cheese Sandwich and a cup of coffee. We finally tried one Sambhar Vada and found it really satisfying.

Well, I remembered my CAT preparation days, when I use to leave my hostel at like 5:30 in the morning to travel to Chandigarh which was about 100 Kms from my college. North India is famous for its bitchy cold. The plains of Punjab are famous for enveloping fog which refuses to go before spending three days on the land. Well, even during those months of cold also I use to find a lot of eating joints in Patiala and even in this small town Sangrur (which is closer to my Institute) which serves you hot "Aloo Da paratha" with curd and tea from 7 in the morning. I use to walk in one of my favorite restaurants at 7 as the first customer and in a matter of 15 minutes I use to see all the seats occupied for morning breakfast. I am still wondering that typical south Indian dishes like Idli, Dosa and Vada was also available at 7 in the morning. That was something amazing.

I am not trying to draw any comparison. The early morning crowd in "Sangeetha" was enough to explain that the eating out habbit of North Indians are almost same as that of South Indians who go for heavy and rich breakfast. The only thing is that may be there are not too many takers for the North Indian breakfast here and poor people like me have no option other than to convince our Punjabi friends to eat a Sandwich or to try Sambhar Vada... ANyways, it was fun to go out and hunt for Aloo Ka paratha. We were really looking like two fool out there at the wrong place. But then these small things are what I am going to remember about Chennai... Slowly developing a strong liking for this place..

Abhyudaya- Rising Sun, Growing Challenge

Abhyudaya is our annual B School fest and we have taken the responsibilities of organizing the second edition. Back in engineering college we use to have about 30 student committees with 15 members in each who share the burden of the daunting task. Now, here we are only 27 people taking up this seemingly impossible task to rope in sponsors, plan the event, send invitation, arranging the boarding and lodging of the outstation participants and then make this whole event a unique experience for the participants.

In a way, this is going to be the most challenging exercise for us as most of the other B schools have large number of students involved behind organizing activities of the similar magnitude. We don’t have the number advantage but then we have the advantage of working in a closely knit group where each one of us knows the other person inside out. Now, when I look back at my text book, I don’t think that reading about “Customers Experience Management” from Kotler’s marketing manual is going to help us making this event a unique experience. All that it takes for delivering result is a clear vision and holistic efforts towards turning your vision into reality.

Let’s see how far we can go ahead with this. The going is surely tough but when the going gets tough, the tougher gets going. That’s suo-motto.

Between Competition and Complacency..

I think that these two words represent two extremes of characters. You can survive your under-graduation easily being complacent but for a professional post graduation degree, being competitive is the key. Now, again it’s a matter of personal values and attitude which subconsciously moulds your character. First trimester is over and with 2 A- and one B in 3 subjects here I am, feeling the heat for being complacent for all this time.

Studying hard and working like a dog has never been my priority and I think that till now, whatever I have achieved even if it’s not substantial at-least is significant and that is where complacency creeps in. My feeling of satiation with whatever I have achieved or with the pace of my life is the thing which is becoming the matter of concern for me. I see life as a set of priorities. You assign weightage to them and the way a person decides and assigns weightage to their priorities makes them unique in their approach towards life. For some a good salary could be of higher priority then having a family or vice-versa. However, the priorities keep changing depending on the environment. And again the pace of change varies from one individual to another.

In a B-School setup, I think that the change is pre dominant. The pace of this change gives you the competitive edge over others. People have started complaining that I have changed but when I try to see around me I think that they all have changed. The change is everywhere, in their conducts, in their behaviors and in their level of academic commitments. I might have changed too but then I still sleep for 10 hours a day. I tried to think about it but then decided against it as it’s not worth that much of my time. Analyzing people’s behavior and molding my behavior accordingly is now out of my priorities for the next one and half year at-least. “A rough exterior is what you need to protect that softness inside”.

I still remember that during our initial days of confusion and chaos here, one of my friends asked me that what these people are going to do with us to transform us into managers? I was unable to answer this question then but now I think that I have an answer. They will teach us how to get our priorities right. And that’s all.

NO Subject..

One trimester ended, one is about to begin. So here I am sitting at the threshold of one and initiation point of another. On Friday evening we were informed to collect our books and other materials immediately after the exams. The sight of Kotler - Kellers Marketing Management book and the book on corporate finance was just enough to make me week on my knees. I felt numb holding the book as if something is being forced on me and intruding into my peace for the next three nights three days. I don’t want to give myself any credit but I can’t deny that I have tried my level best for the papers except for the economics paper where I was really bamboozled by the paper. The point is that in our Engineering College end of the exam meant a lot of fun for at least a couple of weeks.

Well the speed of the life has changed. Maturity is slowly creeping crawling into our system. Movies are only subject of discussion during weekends, girls are no subject now. Wine and Vodka is now a part of fantasy, Food doesn’t matter anymore. However bad it may be, people will eat and complains are restricted to the dining table only. Sleep is unimportant for most of us (exceptions are there). Sleep deprivation is compulsory. Suddenly any distance above 5 kms sounds too far away and silence seems to be too good.

I remember how we use to drive for like 40 kilometers at early hours in the morning to get something to eat. Here, everything is available on a click of the phone but take the fun, frolic and friendship out of my food, and food has no meaning for me then. MBA has started making sense for me. It’s really about unlearning and relearning. I am unlearning the meaning of fun for me and relearning about how to make this fun into a Business plan. Well, the thing is that I just can’t complain. The pseudo Punjabi factor in me makes me gregarious enough to enjoy whatever I have on my platter. Be it the food, the amount of free time I get, the friends I have here and well also my MBA. Classes from tomorrow, I think I will get enough to pen down.

They really sucks..

Well, this is not an actual image and is just an example of how image morphing is becoming simpler day by day.. This is just an online banner facility where you just write whatever you want to see on the banner and the script will do the rest. The reason I chose this text is that B school Rankings by these magazines fail to fulfill some of the basic statistical requirements. A common complain is that they are biased well, I will delve a bit deeper into the reasons behind this bias and will try to explain some other things related to the whole procedure. I am thinking about putting my three months of statistical learning to some good use without making it sound like statistics actually. Have two more papers to go and after that three days of life (One is Dry Day ofcourse).

I almost forgot about the banner. Try this link and have fun. Who knows, may be someday you will be a B school student, and have to sit tight in your room with your books even on your birthday. So Enjoy..

http://www.lintukoto.net/viihde/mielenosoitus/kuva.php?teksti=Happy%20Birthday%20Raji..%20

MAC Run..

For the entire trimester, I had only seen my friends runnning frantically from their room to computer lab and then to faculty room three times. And without any exception all those three frantic attempts were for just one subject. Management Accounting 1. It's better to call it MAC run. We were provided with the course catalogue in the beginning and Prof. himself makes sure that he gives us atleast a deadline of two weeks. Prima facie, every assignment looks okay but the moment you get indulged into it, it goes on stretching you beyond the normal working hours.
Latest, we finished our financial statement analysis assignment and 29 students means we anlysed the financial position of 29 companies. If we club it all together it will be atleast better than the A*B*C* Business magazine rankings which probably do not beleive in a proper statistical analysis.

Well, with midterms on, it was really worth watching everybody making a valiant attempt for the MAC assignment. We had an exam till 5 and the deadline for the submission was till 6 PM. So the scene was that someone was crying foul over the stapler, some were cursing the printer, someone suddenly found that the printer driver in their laptop is missing and they can't take the print outs. While one person was busy giving the finishing touch to his assignment the person sitting next to him suddenly ralized that she didnt do the analysis properly. With the rain god obliging us with a rainy relief today, It was all messed up. For me, I first went into the lab thinking that I have transferred the things from my computer to my friend's laptop but then I realised I need pages. I climbed three flight of stairs and then the moment I came downstairs it occured to me that I forgot my books in the lab.

Well that's why we chose to call it MAC Run. This is the only subject which is making us feel that what's the life in a B school like? Well life is getting tougher but then it has its own share of fun and pleasure.. If I have to follow up my life here.. I can say that I am Lovin it.

Writing on the wall: "Implementation is difficult"

Another compulsory seminar but well this time I was more than enthusiastic to attend this in spite of the fact that tomorrow I have to write the end term paper for the most dreaded subject and my decision making go well with the theme of the talk. We Indians really give a lot of emphasis on emotions rather than facts and figures and the moment I saw the name of Edward De Bono, it immediately clicked to my mind that I gonna enjoy the discussion.

Well, the fact is that I have done little for the accounting paper tomorrow (in a sense haven’t started actually) but still due to some emotions attended the seminar (making it compulsory obviously helped). It’s true that the most difficult art to master is the ability to think. As per the speaker, days of logical thinking is over and now is the time for creative thinking. To add to it, if I take my case, my thinking is completely unorganized so I need a certain amount of logic to be rational in my thinking. In a sense I rate logic as a measure of whether I am thinking in the right direction or not and creativity as the measure of how far I can go on that path. We can’t take out the importance of logic from the individual thought processing but being too much logical is a problem as you are putting a bound on your thoughts.

Another important point that clicked me is that “Out of the box” is not a process, it’s again a framework. I remember one instance when we were doing a presentation and the point of debate between the group members was that we were not able to think out of the box. I thought for the instance that what exactly is this “Out of the box thinking”? Is it just a flash of spark which will come to your mind when you keep saying to yourself that “I have to think out of the box?” I guess “no”.

Well, in a brief period of about one hour Mr. K. R. Ravi who has trained under legendary Edward De Bono, explained us the issues related to our education system, common mistakes that we often make in taking decisions, importance that we give to emotions and the way we tend to overlook facts and figures to drive home a point. This is something that we have inherited from our culture and my personal opinion is that reading books and merely thinking about thinking is not itself sufficient in infusing a dose of creativity in our thoughts as the most difficult thing to do is IMPLEMENTATION. I am going to write it on my wall in a bid to make it a part of my memory that “IMPLEMENTATION IS DIFFICULT”. I honestly believe that this one idea has the capability to change your whole life but then again implementation is difficult. Isn’t it?

In-"dulL"-gence

What is the worst indulgence before a big examination? Probably a compulsary seminar. Well, that is the perception with us. Friday we have a big examination of the most dreaded subject (for engineers atleast) and today we were made to sit up for whole two hours in the afternoon for a seminar. The organisers were wary of our response so they made this compulsary to attend. So, half asleep, half awake I finally reached the hall and occupied the seat in the back row. Well, the first five minutes and we were there in the first row, listening to every word and pondering over every graph. Economics is interesting but only when you somehow relate to the subject. Well, the Canandian professor was comparing the disposable income figure of Indian household with other developed countries and we had a laugh to see that India figures at the bottom. He started comparing the infant mortality rate and most among us shared that laugh again when we found India at the top. Well, he had to cut short his presentation due to time constraints but what we thought to be boring and monotonus initially, came out to be a good learning exercise in the end.

Well, do you know about this another indulgence which ideally shouldn't be there before exams? That's blogging. But here I am, with my favorite companion-my blog. I feel like talking to it at times when I have nobody to talk to. The good thing about this companion is that it has always been a patient and silent listener.

Santa Claus in US..

The way we have been taught micro-economics here is simply superb. Equations followed by derivation which again involves equations. It is another thing that most among us hate microeconomics for the same reason, too much of mathematics. Well, one of the complains that I normally hear from my peers about this subject is that, where the hell we are going to apply the knowledge of micro economics? Well, atleast I found one case where it makes a lot of sense to have knowledge about the govt. regulations (well, all the govt. regulations keeps into account the microeconomic principles)..To award a green card to Santa Claus or not. I have adapted this from Exploring Microeconomics by Robert L. Sexton.

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IT'S a good thing Santa Claus lives and works at the North Pole rather than in the U.S. If he had his shop in this country, Santa would have to function under so many laws and regulations that the federal government would likely close him down, leaving millions of boys and girls disappointed on Christmas morning.

Just consider some of the government agencies that could threaten Santa's work:

The Fish and Wildlife Service. Santa's sleigh is pulled by reindeer. But while reindeer are not an endangered species, flying reindeer are quite rare, and there is only one red-nosed reindeer known to exist. So under the Endangered Species Act, Dancer and Prancer might be allowed to continue working, but Rudolph would have to be placed in a safe habitat.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration. It is not at all clear that Santa's workshop would pass federal OSHA standards for workplace safety. Does Santa have too many elves packed into a small room? Are there an adequate number of fire extinguishers and fire escapes?

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. It is clear that Santa hires a large number of vertically challenged people--elves. But all of these elves appear to be white males, which leaves the suspicion that Santa is in violation of the Civil Rights Act.

The Federal Aviation Administration. Santa's flying sleigh would need to be equipped with seat belts to be used on takeoffs and landings. Since he flies over water, his sleigh would need a life preserver. The sleigh would also need the proper lighting--a real problem since Rudolph's nose is red, which would normally indicate the rear of the flying object rather than the front.

The Commerce Department. Santa is involved in the transport of consumable goods, which means he would be subject to certain weight restrictions and proper placarding of his sleigh if any hazardous materials were on board. Furthermore, regulations limit the number of hours a person can operate a vehicle transporting goods. After 10 hours behind the reins, Santa would probably have to take an eight-hour break, impeding his ability to finish his world-wide job on Christmas Eve.

The National Labor Relations Board. Is Santa using cheap elf labor, or is he paying his elves at least minimum wage? Is he giving them a lunch break? Paying overtime? Providing elf health insurance? A retirement plan?

All of these issues are important, yet Santa is avoiding them by doing business at the North Pole. Which raises another vital concern: By "dumping" toys in the U.S. at below-market prices (to wit, free), Santa is subjecting U.S. toy manufacturers and dealers to unfair competition and putting countless Americans out of work.

There's only one solution: Washington should impose stiff tariffs on goods imported from the North Pole, lifting them only when Santa ends his unfair trade practices and brings his operation up to American health and safety standards.
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(About the original author:
Mr. Matthews is vice president of domestic policy for the National Center for Policy Analysis in Dallas. )

Open Ended Questions..

Quantitative methods was my favorite subject at the beginning of the session. And call it Pygmallian effect or simply "self fulfilling prophecy" the professor saw some sparks in me which I honestly beleive were non-existent. Anyways, as the trimester progressed, as usual I slept into my undergraduate mould and decided to study only when it's absolutely necessary. So here are we now. We have a big presentation coming on wednesday and the case that is given to us is "Open Ended". I didn't realise the actual meaning of this jargon "Open Ended" until I did a google search on the case "Hershey Food" and found that the case is also non-existent on internet.

Well, I was not the only person who was brainstorming on this case. Everyone tried their luck with google and answers.com but well only the spark worked. PK Vishwanathan is not someone who gives you cases which are considered to be "baby food" he will rather wish to grill you down. Well, that is another case that he gives you fill in the blank questions which he only can fill and the very moment he mentions the word " Analyze,Criticize and Explain" that drives the whole batch crazy. We have still not answered his question that "What is the correlation between electricity and buffalow"? I guess that Lalu Yadav can answer this question well but that too will be possible only when he gets time out of his IIM lectures.

Now less than 36 hours are left for this case presentation and I am still struggling whether to perform this statistical test or that test. Truly its an open ended case. Anyways, this is life in a B school. Open ended. Always open ended.