Journalism at its best in India..

After a goof up in the case with Moninder Pandher, throwing allegations on Air Deccan without any substantial proofs, IBN is at its best in journalism and they are now diversifying into publishing the SMS. Email and MMS forwards. The latest in their ranks is cricketers photographs with alternate job options. See it for yourself. Well, if disclaimer is something to care about then you can publish all sort of jokes about national personalities like Gandhi (Mahatama, Indira and Sonia) and incest stories. I am wondering that maybe if this is the quality of the journalism, then maybe that day will come soon.

Hit a hundred. Earn a citizenship..

Well, even then Indians cant deliver. Mat Hayden hit a century (fastest in WC) in St. Kitts and was awarded the lifetime membership of the golf club and a honorary citizenship of St. Kitts (Cricinfo report) . I don't know whether Hayden needs it or not but poor Indian players (not literally poor) may need a citizenship of St. Kitts because they are not going to be accepted in India for long long time. You can make that out from the images of Rahul Dravid speaking to media and hoping that no physical damage would be done anywhere. But poor Rahul you say that its just a sport, then where is the passion for the sport. For Australia also its a sport and not even their most popular sport but can you point a finger to any of your player and tell that he can match even the worst Australian player in the commitment and passion? Well, the only one player Mohd. Kaif was missing from the ground. I don't know what you people are thinking about but truth to be told, you all didn't play cricket like sport. Anyways come home, many angry fans might be waiting for you at the airport. You have brought shame to us and now time for you to face the shame and humiliation. Dont shy away from it, you guyz have earned it.

Two great articles before the Big Match..

As usual, was reading through the pre-match stories of expectations and beliefs about Indian team, I don't know whether we will win or loose but then perhaps this will be a match people are not going to forget easily if we loose today, and if we win here people will start building up expectations for the next and then next. Well, read the articles.

• Anand Vasu
• Rahul Bhattacharya

Door Darshan's Family HIV education..

Fulfilling its corporate social responsibility job, DoorDarshan has crossed all the limits of innovative advertising. Sehwag hits a six and the next moment you see a guy making passes on a girl and thinking that when a girl say no it still means an Yes and then the girl rudely say to him that we are just friends and the guy agress. What a sensual portrayal of a "desire" turning into pure friendship. And then the next over from Bermuda. DD is so involved in its role that sometime they even forget to show the last ball of the over and suddenly instead of Sehwag or Ganguly you see a character playing carrom (where the hell is cricket?) and then a dialogue from background that "Are you going to touch the electric wires with bare hands?" and then the guy replies "Pagal samjha hai kya bhau" (do you think that I am mad?), the ad culminates by advocating the need for condoms. And then, in third series you see HIV affected person jumping, laughing and celebrating.

Over the years, the quality of the advertising has deteriorated, these messages need to be conveyed to the public but then the audience you are addressing (youth) is not the only one watching TV. When a cricket match come, chances are that the whole family (you call yourself a family channel) is watching it and there you mix up the message. I dont know what kind of thinking goes behind media planning for these ads that even when there is a need to convey these messages to society, their process is entirely ineffective and not called for.

The Google Phone.

A recent acquisition of mobile application development company, another acquisition of mobile software company Android, and rumours about Samsung and Google coming up with bundled offer of handheld device plus softwares (google search, earth) is all giving air to the smoke that google is working on a mobile phone project which will most probably use VOIP for its telephony services. If its true that we are going to enter into a price war between various VOIP players and even between the mobile operators. Indian mobile companies being the low cost players have not to worry too much. But the future looks bright as given the thin profit margins, the competition will be on functionalities and that means keeping our fingers crossed.

Read the full article here

When to know that you have progressed in your life?

When you start feeling that your friends do not fall into the sample set of your simple market research project. Not making any sense? I guess most of the B schoolers will understand.

Time to focus on other sports..

They started with "Hu Haa India, Aaya India" - India came and lost in the mini world cup.

They changed to "Hu Haa India, Phir Aayega India" - They went on a loosing streak and recently lost against Bangladesh also.

They need to change to " Hu Haa India, Haye Haye India" - This is more rhyming and even when they launched the first version, it sounded like Haye Haye only. But they calrified it by putting stars like Ganguly, Shahrukh, Shreyas (Iqbal) and others that it's "Aaya India".
Anyways, India's performance will keep up fluctuating, who knows they might actually create a record of sorts today or again get close to loosing. Don't know but most of us suffer from the same mindset. Take things easily, and when it gets tough, blame external conditions. Task for Indian team is easy that Bangladesh played better but for corporate India whose thousands of crores is hinging on India's performance in world cup there is no such excuse. Why the hell these people are hell bent on promoting cricket when people are actually running away from watching this 8 hour long lazy game. It's time to invest money in sports like football, hockey, Kabaddi and even for that sake in Kho-Kho. Remember Yuvraj broke his leg/hand (don't know whatever) while playing that. Time to put in money in all those sports and make them more glamorous.

I am dying to write something on the various advertisement which are centred on Team India. Will be ready with that sooner.

Bob Woolmer 'The death of an Era.."

The way he died, many controversy stories will sprung up in near future and all of them will strike a chord with audience because we all like to see things consistent with what we already believe. Two days back, I wrote here on my blog that the way Indians react and the way Pakistanis react towards defeat are entirely different. Indian story is marked by shamelessness where your Captain comes up on the stage and says that we were 30-40 runs short, So? there fore? I guess even teams like Bangladesh and players like Habibul Bashar can make mockery of our great team and great captain any day. Chappel has made no formal announcement, Dravid has done nothing. The only clear signal is that Indians lack the passion for cricket. All they care for is their stardom, their egos and their bank balance. Pakistanis even if they are lacklustre on the field but still passion is there. The way Inzamam announced retirement and Bob Woolmer died of cardiac arrest (not clear) shows that the shame is unbearable for them but I guess I will see all the Indians players showing off on the ground against another minnow Barmuda today. They will perish to flashy drives and will throw everything at the ball but then boys, whatever you do, if you are not getting the cup home this time, Indians will not forget you for long long time.

The death of Bob Woolmer has signalled an end of an era. He fought against the system, against the attitude of players, against all the odds just because he was a perfectionist. He took South Africa to the hilt of success but was unlucky they didn't win the world cup (Gibbs to be blamed) but then, he changed everything in South African cricket. Pakistan was a tough nut to crack but he managed somehow. All he did was right and if something has happened wrong in the Ireland match then only players are to be blames. Coach is not going to keep your bat straight, he can only teach you how to play with a straight bat. Coach can not stop you from showing off in the ground, he can only tell you that how to keep your calm. Well, coach can not do all the things for you but you should be feeling lucky enough that this coach has gone one extra mile to save you all from humiliation by laying down his life. Public will surely sympathize with Pakistani team and as a matter of the fact with Indian team too as they are going through almost the same situation except that they got a warning shot.

Come on guyz, if you don't need a martyr coach or a player better play your heart out.

A finance student's perspective :- On India loosing to Bangladesh

The Indian cricket players are needed to be told that they finally earn their bread and butter out of public money and time. We spend our time watching all those stupid matches and advertisements and we pay taxes so that DD can use that money to broadcast matches. And Darling if we stop doing any of these you will be out there like Zimbawe players or Canadian players selling insurance or repairing vehicles. Some might have to go again driving Tractors or may be fishing also is not a bad idea. So we all are stakeholders of this mighty Indian cricket empire.

Now, suppose a company which have lost everything in a Day what is the moral responsibility of the band of their top line officers? If you loose out your stakeholder's money in a night then either you will be fleeing over night with your suitcase (and girlfriend maybe) or you will be sitting in your bathroom with your veins cut or as most of these players like to drink, you might be drinking some champagne with that extra bit of heroine or some other lethal drug to sleep and never wake up. Or you might prefer to jump from the fourteenth floor of your apartment building so that atleast people can see that you went through the same pain, you suffered the same, you felt what they were feeling, you also lost something and you care for their time and money as well as they do. Comeon guyz they don't want you to bat for Pepsi or Coke or Bank of Baroda, they want you to bat for India. They want you to actually go out and make a statement that we are the best.

How long we will keep hearing "Hu Haa India, Haara India". If you have some shame left in you, go and do something which proves that you are also as hurt as we are. Go break your TV, go shoot your hand, go have an heart attack, go try and jump from 14th floor. Don't hide behind that its just a mistake and you will try to improve. This is not just another mistake, this is as good as giving a murderous dose to an ailing patient, you just saw the death of cricket there come on go do something with yourselves. We want you to see hurt and in pain. We promise that we will forgive you for whatever stupid you will do with yourself. We love you ofcourse.

But then, Indian team is a bunch of shameless people (some of them call themselves great also) who go out there without any preparation and push everything on plain luck. These people don't even have the shame to sit there in their rooms and reflect on what went wrong. These shameless creatures are only good enough to give angry look to 17 year old youngsters and then shamelessly will watch him to come out of the crease and hammer them for long sixes. Zaheer should be the first one to learn some modesty. You did the same thing in last world cup final and if you have forgot the hammering, pick out the record book and watch your bowling figures.

Dravid should lock himself in a room and do whatever he want, Ganguly should celebrate a little, Yuvraj can have a bottle of his regular drink and for rest of them, West Indies is a coastal area and people say that the sea there is deep. Come on guyz, jump off what are you waiting for? Do you want people to go around and break your window panes? Well, you are lucky that you play for a country where people easily forgive mistake. Just wait and watch what happens with Pakistani team if they lose to Ire-land. They would run out of places to hide their cars in Pakistan. And may be for hiding themselves too.

Collapse of a mighty Indian Side..

Most of the news papers will be flashing headlines like "Bangladesh Stuns / humbles / defeated / upset India in a interesting / thrilling/ easy encounter". But that's not it. What happened in WI is end of one story and beginning of another. Its the emergence of a team which is no minnows and have the talent to take on any other side. Last week they beat New Zealand and the clinical manner in which they changed the gears shows us something that they have arrived.

But for India, it's the beginning of an end. Chappel/Dravid/Sehwag/Sachin they are old, they are lazy and they are making statements only off the ground. Sachin is coming out on TV with all kinds of ad, Sehwag is talking that how Dravid's decision is justified and Dravid is talking the same. Chappel do not talk much but by now people have come to know that most of the things that he talk about are bullshit.

Suprises :- Dravid/Chappel combine is out there to surprise people. They are changing the batting order, playing only four bowlers, keeping Kumble out (why the hell you have taken him when he is not your spinner no.1, bcoz we all know that the no. 2 is Powar) and then today the best surprise was batting on a wet wicket. Awesome decision making. This shows that they are under a lot of pressure by mere presence of Ganguly in the team. They know that their future is in danger. Mr. Dravid do some batting on the ground also don't just save it for advertisements.

http://friends.unicefusa.org "Identity theft issues"

You can contribute towards charity by just clicking on this link. At-least the site claims that. The domain name is a subdomain of UnicefUSA.org and even the web template is a look alike. So if confuses you for the actual UNICEF USA. Now, to sign up for a news letter on actual website you just need to give your email and they do not promise anything like donating dollars for just signing up which is absolutely ridiculus idea until and unless some billionaire wants to become millionaire. That cast some doubt about the modus operandi of this website.

Identity theft issues:- For sending invitation to your friends they ask you to enter your email id and password so that they can send a custom invitation to all your friends. Now, the mother Teressa syndrome inside you will surely prompt you to do all this and give away as many dollars as possible for charity as long as its coming from outside. But then, the flip side is that most of your friends might treat it as SPAM and don't bother to click on the link or you may be giving away your password to someone whom you don't know and who might be making false promises to donate dollars for a charitable cause. I can not understand that why the hell a person wants to donate money in somebody's else name unless he/she has a lot of black money. So your cause of concern should be about protecting your identity. In any case don't give your password to them. They are not a secure website and can distribute your ids to other spammers. That is one way of making money.

Well, don't get sad if You still want to donate those virtual dollars there is another way out. Try opening the website on your computer again, you will find your home page with a link like this (which you can scrap) to your friends or can post on your blog but please warn them and don't just watch your friends giving away their passwords to someone who is promising big bucks in your name http://friends.unicefusa.org/r/09c7daae25b0102aa29c .

Cool New Military toys..

Being surrounded by hostile nations, Israel has to remain at cutting edge military technology. But then, if it is giving some earlier signs then probably we are heading into an era where all the war casualtites will onle be civilian casualities. We are moving into miniaturization as well as automation of war toys which will reduce the direct involvement of military personnels and everything will be wireless or laser. The tool on the left is "Viper" a robot capable of sniffing bombs, carrying explosives and can be shot from a laser gun from 100s of meters away.

They also have come up with a flying object which is one of the biggest Unmanned Air Vehicle and can carry a large payload. Named "Heron" it is already creating waves. Well read the details on the Israeli Blog ..

Life of Happiness or Life of Meaning?

There is a time when one should ask themselves that what exactly they want from life, a life of happiness or a life of meaning? The idea is that you cannot have both at the same time because they are two entirely different paths. A life of happiness means a man should only live in present and has nothing to do with the past or future. Earn for today, spend it today, have fun and do not care about relationships (these people are sometimes the happiest soul). But for a life of meaning the man is condemned to wander in the past and to be obsessed about the future. You have to worry about the uncertainities of life and then have to make your decisions based on your past experience. You are wise but then this wisdom has come at a cost. The amount of pain and suffering you have endured has made you like this and you have taken everything inflicted on you just because you believe that all this has a meaning.

Well, a dialogue between Linderman and Nathan (in the pouplar TV series HEROES by Tim Kring) made me think about this topic that what is more important "happiness or meaning"? Well when we say that these 2 are different basically we assume that "happiness has no meaning at all". But I guess it does have a meaning. These 2 are different paths but then the different roles you play in your life, you can always find a trade off to become a better person. Being obsessed about future and carrying the burden of past does not mean that you loose out on the finer aspects of human life or your present. Life is really beautiful and everything has a meaning. Happiness too has one.

Why we need minnows team for the cricket world cup?

Different teams may have different perspective on this. My take on that is:- Read part 1.

Australia (Current world champions) : - We need minnows so that we can teach those fu***** a lesson that it takes a ponting or waugh to win a world cup, a Lee to test the strength of the ribs of opposition players. They need to be taught that how cricket is played and gone were those days when it used to be a gentleman's game. You Sonovabitch, you need to pounce, bounce and drill into opposition to play at world level. (Arrogant team, honest answer)

Srilanka :- We need more participants at international level to make the game popular (saying it for the heck of saying) We need minnows so that Murali can go upto 1000 wickets in One day cricket. You know we need our share of representation in record books.

New Zealand:- See Mcmillan and Oram are in fine forms, playing against minnows ensure that they boost up their confidence and then we can experiment around a little bit. And we need these team to boost up our confidence as a team as well. (Flemming is a real nice chap and coolest Captain I have seen ever).

Pakistan:- Inshaallah! Allah created every one equal and we all have equal right to play. These people need to come at international stage and play as much cricket as possible. If we keep on playing against these weak teams then none of our bowlers will need to take any drugs. It's good for us and it's good for the cricket both.

Others have to say something also. Though it's not important as we already have some idea that what these people gonna say, but still I will continue with it.

Life is not a closed book examination..

1 am in the night, a presentation due at 9 am in the morning and then you enter our rooms you will hear some crazy laughters erupting. What is happening? Well, we people are having fun with finance. A 10 page case, over some 150 slides to read, some 10 exhibits to analyze, the net effect of all this is sleep deprivation but then after eight months of education we have become smarter over time and expert in data mining. And that is what is all needed for a manager because we firmly believe that life is not a closed book examinations, it's simply an examination.

The gurilla joke..

Well, something lighter to read on. Nice joke.

It was a beautiful, warm spring morning. A man and his wife were spending the day at the zoo.She was wearing a loose-fitting, pink dress -- sleeveless with straps. He was wearing his usual jeans and T-shirt.As they walked through the ape exhibit, they passed in front of a large, silverback gorilla.Noticing the wife, the gorilla went crazy. He jumped on the bars, and holding on with one hand (and 2 feet), he grunted and pounded his chest with his free hand.He was obviously excited at the pretty lady in the pink dress.The husband, noticing the excitement, thought this was funny.He suggested that his wife tease the poor fellow some more by puckering her lips and wiggling her bottom.She played along and the gorilla got even more excited making noises that would wake the dead.Then the husband suggested that she let one of her straps fall to show a little more skin. She did, and the gorilla was about to tear the bars down."Now show your thighs and sort of fan your dress at him," he said.This drove the gorilla absolutely crazy, and he started doing flips.Then the husband grabbed his wife, ripped open the door to the cage, flung her in with the gorilla and slammed the cage door shut. Then said, "Now, tell him you have a headache. You always do that to me now try convincing the gurilla".

From French fries to Chapathi and Dal..

Watching the French research student eating Chapathi, Dal and Vegetable in the institute's canteen was really delighting (the transition from french fries to Dal Chapathi must have been difficult for this girl but still). IFMR gets a lot of research students from universities all across the globe and it also houses the research wings of ICICI bank like CAFS (Center for Advanced Financial Studies) and CMFR (Center for Micro Finance and Research) both the institutes are at the cutting edge of research backed by ICICI's strategic vision. Presently around 10 PHD and research scholars from universities like Boston University, Columbia, Yale etc are undergoing their research projects here in our campus. At around 2 this scholar walked into the canteen who was perhaps not aware about the timings but then canteen people are nice enough and she found herself with a plate full of curd, dal, chapathi, Korma (a dry vegetable which is an assortment of many things like cabbage, peas, potato etc) and sambhar. I was watching her reactions but then she calmly took her seat and happily (without making a face) started eating the food and was enjoying it too as she didn't try to finish the food hastily or threw it away. I was surprised because sometimes even we can't stop making faces at the sight of the food (may be due to repetitive effect) and this foreigner who perhaps have never imagined about getting this kind of food is eating that happily. Well, something for us to learn and something for us to cherish both.

Writing a journal article is easy - Reading is tough..

The journal in question is the South Asian journal of Marketing, which I accidently picked up from the shelves and went on to read an article titled "Consumer's attitude towards brand extension". Well, I don't know whether I got something from that article or not but then I guess now I know about how to say a simple things in 15 pages. Writing a journal is an art of putting things together from let's say some 100 other publications. Not an easy task but then reading it is a hell lot of difficult too. At the end of every sentence you will see the source and you will feel frustrated that what the hell is this? And some of the most popular sources were Keller, Kotler and blah blah whom we have come to question and hate. Anyways, atleast now I know that to write a journal article you need to be very well read and perhaps you have to be prepared that nobody will ever read it. May be even the author might not have read it ever again.

People have started talking about Sehwag now..

Hope Rahul Dravid will get a breather after West Indian's thumping victory over Pakistan because Indian media (who seems to have a very little memory) have already started speculating about Sehwag clearing the boundary ropes too often in the coming matches. The sight of small grounds, Smith and Samuel plundering Pakistani bowling attacks and slow pitches must be a mouth watering scene for Sehwag. Indian Media has very low memory retention as they forgot what they were talking two days ago. The whole country was questioning Dravid's decision to include Sehwag in the team but then today almost all the news channel are talking about "What Sehwag can do in this world cup". Honestly speaking he fares a decent chance to grow his appetite playing against minnows first and then preparing himself ahead of the big match. He has the potential, all he need to do is to let his bat talk and the music better be arrogant.

Familiarity breeds Contempt..

So what does this mean? Well try to make out on your own. Read on.

Right from the day 1 we are seeing this professor toiling hard with us to knock down some basics of finance in us. More than eight months, over 3000 powerpoint slides, a number of cases, midterms, end terms, surprise quizzes and there he was again repeating his golden words after eight months "Familiarity breeds contempt like when you come to know about something and it becomes repetitive you kind of start hating it".

Well, don't know about hating him but I have lost my interest in finance for sure. I remember that before joining IFMR which has finance as its middle name, the only specialization which I could think about was finance but then, last October everything changed (looks like a movie tagline, will come to it later) and the focus of my life is to earn a specialization in marketing (other things remaining constant).

Coming back to familiarity thing I guess we all do that in our daily lives. It do breeds contempt. After a certain period of time we start taking people for granted. even those people who are important to us and are significantly affecting our lives directly or indirectly. Sometimes you feel bad about this and sometime you just move on leaving everything on time. But equally true that we express our anger to only those whom we really love and care for. Familiarity do breeds contempt in certain cases but then it also tells you that you are someone close and hope that contempt will fall through and familiarity will be the only thing remaining .

Sehwag must be happy watching the first match.

Slower pitches, smaller grounds.. Sehwag do have a chance now, chance of a life time I guess. The way Smith slogged it all over the ground by throwing his bat at almost everything, it seems that suddenly India's chances have brighten up. Uthappa, Sehwag, Dhoni, Yuvraj, Pathan they are all specialists in that. So the worldcup is wide open. According to me while chasing, Pakistanis will miss Afridi for sure. Let's see, what happens to the fortune of "Kar lo Duniya Mutthi Mein" fame Virendra "Mayur" Sehwag.

Shameless politicians..

No, its not going to be an exhaustive list (it can not be, the place is too small to publish such a list) but if you see after advent of Tahelka and discovery of an entirely new breed of reporters, the expose stories are becoming common in India like west. CNN IBN recently is involved in the scandalous expose of Congress MP Moni Kumar Subba who is claimed to be a murder convict from Nepal who fled to India after breaking jail and then finally built an empire of gambling and lottery business in Assam. He was elected MLA thrice and was elected twice for MP (poor public and money, always a winning combination) but then the confidence of being the local favorite made him commit mistakes like submitting a different age-proof and a different birth date every other time. Cool.

Gandhi Madam is also silent and BJP people are counting each steps of theirs as they dont know that how many of their MPS have submitted incorrect date of births and age proof. So as a matter of fact nobody is speaking up. Mr. Subba only give one answer that the matter is in court and they will decide. There have not been much instances in our democracy where a MP has actually been declared guilty by court but then a lot has changed from the days of independence. If something has not changed then it's the attitude of people like us towards politics and perhaps this is why youth are shying away from politics. Well if this continue then Subbas will keep dominating the politics. People like him who finds that opening a lottery and gambling unit is more profitable than opening a school, how come we expect them to lead the country in 21st century?

Boozing and Finance..

No, I am not going to talk about how to finance the booze parties or what to do when you run out of money and you need to booze. I am going to touch rather a funny issue that if you are a MBA finance student, how boozing is important for you. Yesterday night after spending some 2 hours with chapter on "Options" (from the classic Brealey, Myers), the summary section says that "If you have probably reached this point, you are probably in need of a rest and a stiff gin and tonic. So get rested or drunk and then we will move to the next lesson".

I am seriously repenting on the thing that why I didnot started reading backwards. I should have read the instruction first. Hahaha not because I would not have taken the effort to complete the chapter, rather because where will I find Gin and Tonic at 2 am in the morning? It's Chennai, most of the shops close by 10.

Youth For Equality Running elections.. Each one of us counts..

So finally, youth for Equality is running MCD elections in New Delhi. Right now they are sending mails to all the registered members which will be followed by SMS and other mass media. With a group of IITians forming a political party and contesting elections in UP and this Youth For Quality endeavour, I guess its high time when all those people should come forward and create a noise who like to discuss politics only in their drawing room. I have cribbed my share about how politics has ruined the morale fiber of this country and why talking about all this is nothing but bull shit. But then, with all these odd laws, bills and acts being approved by parliament like anything (without any rational backup) this is the time to take Indian politics to the next level. We have leaders like Jyotiraditya Scindia, Sachin Pilot, Rahul, Varun, Priyanka, Umar Abdullah who are all young and well educated but still they are blinded by their political affiliations. Let's give them a jolt by shaking their faiths in the party. Youth force has changed the destiny of many countries, I guess in India our task has been cut short as we just have to refine our political system.

Don't vote for any party, for this time try voting for equality, and when we talk about equality each one of us counts.

Regulating student's life.. It sucks

You put them through a grilling competitive examinations and churn out only the cream of the cream who are entitled to walk inside those golden gates in pursuit of glory and re-inventing themselves. You bombard them with thousand hours of lectures, presentations and assignments and then you wonder that why they are under stress. You put them through a gruelling routine where a student can't see beyond his monotonous life and gets frustrated thinking that this life will always be the same. Hour by hour minute by minute and is not going to change. Well, his next act is jumping from terrace, taking drugs, injecting himself with deadly morphine or heroine or something else. hanging himself with fan and then again you wonder that why students of today can't absorb stress.

I have a simple answer. I agree that in your age there were not enough schools, colleges, opportunities available but also lacking was the competition. You did not have to carry all the burden of expectations of your parents who are exposed to so many situations. You did not face competition from all around the world. So, when you do a comparison you always chose to discount the change happening around us. If a guy in US comes with one software we are all affected and may be thousand will loose their job. You never faced situations of this kind and all you want is to put regulations on the student's lives.

It could work but then it should come from a participative style and not a forced approach. Banning internet is not a solution to your problems, it's your mindset which shows that this is the source of all the stress in their lives but my dear old friends, it's not internet, its you who are tormenting them and tearing their brains apart. Dont distrust the wisdom of your students, don't discount that they have toiled hard and probably many of them knows where they belong. Don't take their toys away from them. Let them play, let them have fun. IIT'ians are also normal human beings with a little extra knowledge.

Read the article about ban on internet in IIT

How to write a book and then Sell it?

Most of the writers claims that a book idea can come from anywhere. From a travel experience, from your home, from your neighbours, from the guy working in the next cubicle, from a girl travelling in train with you (I doubted this but Chetan Bhagat claims this for his boon one night @ Call centre), from a guy sitting and chatting with you in a restaurant (I don't know how many people are there in the world who is going to start a conversation in some restaurant and end up giving you a book idea but some people claim that in the preface of their book). It could come from the gutter which never stop stinking, from politicians the size of whose bellies is directly proportional to the ministry that he held now (or have held sometime back), from the policemen who always ask for a bribe (even for lodging a FIR), from the firefighter whose firetruck was always in the thick of the action (bloody why he didn't ever ask for a transfer), from my bathroom from your bathroom or from bathroom of the neighbour, from your pet dog, cat, rat, rabbit, cow, monkey, donkey whatever pet you like, from the family of Bhahadur Shah Zafar who never got his share of money back from East India company, from history (always at the receiving end as nobody is there to sue you), from that poor girl whose husband went to Dubai for 2 years yet she became pregnant after 15 months, from the door delivery guy, from your college life (yeah! this thing is catching up fast and poor thing is that everyone is making bucks out of it). In short, an idea can come from anywhere for example what about google? Good enough right?

But well, this gentleman has crossed all the boundaries and came up with this wonderful idea of writing a book about the world's top ten books (first question mark). Well at least he had this thing in mind and ended up compiling a list of some 500+ summaries (making the life hell a more difficult or easy it depends actually). The author claims that it's pick of the world's top 125 authors (another question mark) and he has done a lot of number crunching to arrive at the final list of top ten books in different field (3rd Q. M). Anyways writing is one thing and selling is other and guess what works best in selling your creation? Simple answer yaar, no idea only controversies. Let people put question marks at-least for the answer's sake they will read it for sure. Well whether it sells or not, it has given a new hope to poor writers who can now look forward to google for a subject.

Chicken Eating Cow..

When 48 chickens went missing from house of Mr. Ajit Ghosh (a resident of Chandpur, west Bengal) he decided to keep a watch of his cowshed which also served as a hoop for the hen. To their utter dismay, they saw their young calf tiptoeing into the chicken hoop and grabbing the small one's and gobbling them alive. Well, we are at the top of the food chain and can eat whatever we want but then a chicken eater cow is truly unbelievable. But yeah, maybe the cow should be taught that bloody you are not on the top of the food chain so you have to go slow in evolution. You can't just start becoming a non-veg suddenly. Or may be people should feel happy that next time they order beef they are going to get something which has taste of chicken in it too. Two in one. Tango.

Read the IBN article here.

Food- that is what we all live for..

If you disagree then ask any hosteler living away from home. And if you still disagree then ask any north Indian trapped in the middle of Chennai that how much they crave for that illusive north Indian taste. By all standard our hostel food is not bad and have an assortment of Rice, Rasam, Curd, Dal (some black looking which sometimes they claim as Rajmah and sometime as Dal Makhni, funny thing is that you can't really make out what is what), Chapati/Parathas and vegetable (of all colours ranging from black to fluorescent). Well, no problems with the food but then it's the repetitive effect which has a killing impact on our appetite and we are surving on Gobhi manchurian and Parathas home delivered by local restaurant Crescent at 2 in the night. Instead of quenching our hunger this Manchurian thing also strengthen our craving for home food or for that north Indian taste.

I am writing this just to share the happiness of my soul and my stomach both after last two days of awesome food. First was at Rain Forest, a small theme restaurant in Adyar and second at Rajasthani Dhaba in Anna Nagar. Now, the fact that these 2 places are located in 2 different corners of Chennai strengthen this fact that for good food we are willing to do whatever it requires. Rain Forest has 100's of things on its menu and we poor veggie ordered Nan, Dal makhni & Kadhai Paneer hoping it to be decent (they made us wait for 45 minutes). But then, the food was worth it. Can't expect a better north Indian taste in Chennai. But then, another restaurant which is entirely different from Rain Forest (minimalistic in interiors and all they offer is good food) Rajasthani Dhaba offers you a selection of Rajasthani and north Indian dishes. We tried thali and though we were so full after some time we kept eating as if behaving like a camel in a desert who is not sure after how long they will see the same food.

So happy is our stomach and happy are we. Looking forward to another hectic week with classes, lectures, presentations and quizzes. God bless us.

Statistical Significance and Managerial Significance of Sehwag's selection.

Vengsarkar:- "Sehwag was selected because Dravid insisted on picking him up".

Dravid:- "Sehwag is going through a lean patch and we have to back him up as he has raw power and the hunger to go against all kind of attack so I have picked Sehwag hoping that he chose this time to get back into form".

The statistics has a different story to say. In last few matches Sehwag reached above forty only once. Got out every time flashing his bat outside the offstump or by showing off an over ambitious shot. The statistics by all way indicates Sehwag is on a slide and a scenario analysis with Mcgrath or even with bowlers like Chaminda Vas will tell you that he is not going to reach even 30's before he will be out from team forever. The statistical significance is that Sehwag should not be picked and may be batsmen like Badrinath, Dhawan or for that sake Mongia should be given a chance.

But then the real life has many unpredictable variables and a simulation study can tell that if Sehwag scores a blitzkrieg 50 odd runs, the chances of India winning the match increases by let say 30%. As a statistician people can ignore this but then as a manager when Rahul Dravid has to decide his team he has to consider all the options available with him and then take the decision. We cant doubt his abilities as a captain based on some statistics because the writing on the wall is that " What is statistically significant may not be a significant information for a manager and what is significant for a manager may not be statistically significant".

The picture on the wall is not of Hasan Ali.

Ed officials are unable to get a single picture of Hasan Ali till now. Now, people are saying that Hasan Ali was a popular name in the Pune party circle and was very much into racing. Though nobody ever came close to this knowledge about 35000 crores being safely parked into his bank accounts but still he was popular among the who's who. Now I guess that even when people are telling the IT officials that "you see the picture on the wall, the man standing on the right side is Mr. Hasan Ali" they are shrugging the allegations off by saying that hush how come you say that? He is not a simple man, he is a 35000 crore man. Well! may be they will only recognize him after he pays them for doing that.

Have also heard that they walked into his Hyderabad house where his first wife told them that she doesn't have a photograph either. Lagey raho IT and ED department. You guyz are great.

The 35000 crore man went missing..

Well, as predicted first the man went missing and then after someday the money will also go missing. Poor IT officers, they have to run from pillar to post for all the money which is lying into swiss bank accounts and into real asset property. By the time they will freeze the account the money will be wired to some other accounts. This always happens in India and we are reminded of those movies where police always use to come honking long after the crime occurred.

THE NAMESAKE " another one from Mira Nair.

Based on the novel The Namesake by author Jhuma Lahiri, Mira Nair is releasing her new movie in US this weekend. Well, I didn't like the novel much and would rate it as a "NOT so Boring" novel on a "Boring" train journey. But then the movie promises much. The presence of Irfan Khan is itself sufficient who when given his own freedom can turn any performance as if you are hearing that same character verbatim.

Kal Penn is another name which is though not too much famous but I have watched his two movies "American Desi" and "Harold and Kumar going to white castle". He looks like an American born confused desi and he acts like one. He is simply awesome in funny characters. So it's worth watching how he fared in rather serious and demanding role.

Tabu plays Ashima in the movie and I have no doubt in her capabilities as a brilliant screen performer. She will definitely add some value to the character of Ashima ganguly who in the original novel reluctantly accepted the American culture and just keep craving for Indian. The movie will be an interesting watch for someone who still have passion for theatre art. I will watch it for Irfan Khan. He fits well in those characters which involves a lot of talking. let's see how he fares here.

Digging around.

We are moving to internet 2.0 and what does that mean? Well, that means that we are now moving into the world of user generated content and the early signs are visible with the emergence of Picasa, Digg, Flickr and wikipedia. Out of all this Digg is making waves among the online community. I was also digging for something and actually got one of my favorite's music video by Vitamin C.

watch the video GRADUATION (FRIENDS FOREVER)

India in Pictures..

The best slide show on India.. Take a look. Everybody show naked sadhus, half naked kids as a representative of India. Some enthusiast photographers have tried to capture the vibrant colours of India in picture. Go straightaway.

The image on the right is from Barapni , Upian Lake in Meghalaya.

Chidambaram's plan to use the money nabbed from Hasan Ali..

Action Plan

1. Take the money from him and use it to give more subsidies to dog food and for that vet department. (The healthier and the more the dogs, more the dob bites, more the need for anti rabies shots). See, the system's approach to problem solving.
2. 33000 crore that means he is in 30% slab. So 9900 crore. Well that's tempting (even bigger than fodder scam) but well where I will be able to hide that? No! but then he mentioned that he has a diary with all the other names okay so let those names come out and then I will decide how to distribute the money. (some will be needed to pass over to the media also to do the coverup act)
3. I am forgetting about the Unani, Siddha, Naturopathy department. Will increase their grant. If common public don't know about this department then atleast these fatso leaders will need that to keep their pot bellies clean.
4. And last but not the least, we all can use a little of that money to modernize the toilet compound of the parliament. Even locals are complaining about the foul smell. Though some of our MPS don't mind using the sulabh sauchalya outside but still modernizing toilets is all the more important.

Contingency:- What the hell I am thinking about, who the hell cares for the country and the economy and for that matter who the hell cares for Aam Aadmi. Let them go to hell, I will ask this man, what can he do for me, I guess he knows more than me on hawala and swiss bank.

read more about the india's fourth richest man

The fourth richest Indian - Poor guy.

Richest because Income Tax people are claiming that the person has about $ 8 billion worth of assets.

Poor because he was not given any credit by any form of media till now. I don't know its a system failure or a media failure. But anyways dear Hasan Ali now you are all set to become Indian media's eye candy (that too without hiring a publicity agent or without considerable media spending). So get ready for all the light camera and action. And yeah, don't worry about the IT people yaar. Give them 3000 crores and they will be more than happy to pass a part of this money on to big dogs (in form of dog food subsidies of-course), you will still be left with more than 30000 crores which will be enough for you and your horses.

Read more :-

Mom! how many times you will get married?

The little kid in the picture is Damien (Liz Hurley's son) who is looking half puzzled probably mesmerized by the exotic India. The six day long (marthon) second leg of the wedding of her mom will leave him with enough memories to grow old with (at-least he will get a new set of father, grand parents, aunts, auncles and extended family). Well, out of all things I guess one thing this poor kid must be wondering about that how many times his mother will get married? Anyways kid you are one of the lucky ones so enjoy all the parties.

The diving spirit..

With so many senior players around in the Indian team, the fielding standards are bound to be hit. So no wonder if we find Uthappa, Kartik and others fielding for senior players like Ganguly, Sehwag and Kumble. I have heard rumours that these seniors players are conditioning themselves to the international standards but I wonder that how they define standards.

While all the players were having a pool side party suddenly Kumble rose up and dived in the pool. Before people can think of something they saw that a cricket ball came rolling by and then stopped near the edge of the pool. Kumble came out shaking his head and said, bloody! I have been practicing this so long and again?.

You see, people are bound to fail when they try to do something extra. Get your basics right men in blue or you will soon be in Blue.

However hard you try..

Preparation of any degree is not sufficient to take one full session of a marketing and that's one statement that I can make out of all my experience. You read the case two day before, you read it even five times, you do everything possible, you even explore the i-world to check what exactly the company is doing now or how similar business models are working now but then the moment the professors walks in, it seems that time stops for the next two hours and all you can experience around yourself is a dumb awkward silence which normally comes with the feeling that in spite of all the preparation you did, you still do not know anything.

The professors give you cues, and then blast you off and then again try to stimulate your thought process and there is a point of time when you enter into full submission with a desire to listen to him on and on. Kotler is blasted like anything and perhaps out of all business schools in India this is one school where students hate the Kotler most not because it's too tough to read or have increased in size and content over years but because of one simple reason that it's not going to help. We have come to believe that "Kotler fellow can write anything and his USP is to provide all the latest marketing jargons in his book but at the end of the day what matters is your abilities to think through". So, in the end it all boils down to this one thing that however hard you try, it doesn't matter because all your Kotler fundas are going to be hit for a six. IIM K people got a hint of that when they were here to participate in the advertisement contest. They were pretty annoyed/impressed only after 15 minutes of probing. Guess, we have to go through all that thrice a week.

Holi @ IFMR

I remember that 6 by 6 pit outside our boys hostel in my engineering college which was watered for 24 hours and was then used to throw people one by one flat on their back. Everybody refuses to be a part of it but then the moment one is thrown inside, he wants to pull the other one with him and then the other one and then one more and the chain goes on. You know now that you have a team now with ego boundaries blurring and inhibitions giving way to a fun-filled experience seeking mindset.

Well I thought that B School's holi will be much different from normal Engineering college's holi which is rowdy and rough and more boyish you can say. But then my fundas went for a six. The spirit was unmatched given we had a viva next day and those people who were completely reluctant to start were the ones who enjoyed most. The coloured water washed away the line between seniors and juniors and painted faces did the rest. After half an hour people can make out each other only by the vague recall of the body shapes as every visible part of the body was either painted blue, green or golden.

I missed that pit thing from my engineering college but then MBA is all about managing well within the constraints. People were spot on in realizing that the open tap and the covered enclosure gives a feeling of a pool and with a little digging with our feet can turn it into a mud pool. So there we are, throwing the people one by one in that pool and making up for the depth by the use of buckets, hands and legs (splashing muddy water) to paint the whole body into mud. (Glad that guyz didn't get plaster of paris that time or somebody would have carried all the weight around him/her for at-least next 4-6 hours).

Girls were equally enterprising and they seemed to be knowing the use of mud well as it was all splashed around their hairs, neck, face and all over their dresses. Guyz didn't know the proper use so they generously put as much as possible on each other (use as you want style). After two hours of jumping, shouting, running, tugging, pulling, pestering, forcing, arguing, convincing, debating, cajoling, luring and co-ordinating finally somebody evoked the need for Bhang. But then, in Chennai this is one rare commodity. (Not so rare if you know the right people). So finally we had to do away with specially prepared "Thandai" with only the colour of Bhang in it. Finally somebody shouted that we have viva too and then there came the break.

I don't want to miss on the story of washing the dirty clothes but then that is again a long one. Will continue.

Guilt and frustration..

Missing out on blogging for even a single day is making me feel guilty and frustrated. Well, was seriously busy since the past couple of days and partly because of the colourful holi celebration and partly due to the viva scheduled on 5th. So, I was seriously reading something academic for the first time in IFMR. But then in the end I realized that guilt and frustration is not only because of missing out on blog posts but also due to missing out on one chance to revise the whole thing. Anyways, there is always a next chance and there is always a better opportunity.

Looking forward to an interesting weekend but lot many things scheduled for the next week.

The festival of colours is here..

Hope this year brings you all the beautiful and happy colours in your life. Have a great Holi, Have a great year.

My little Poem..

There are times in your life when you suffer from identity crisis. You are identified as a group, as a batch, as a class or just as a part of the crowd and somewhere deep inside you feel that you are just an extension. Like an arm, or a leg and not a full body. Well, in one of those moments of frustration I wrote this little poem of which I remember only the first four lines.

Bheed se alag ek adad mukam chahta hoon
Apni rooh, apna jism, apni Jaan chahta hoon
Loot lo tum chahe ye saare sitare
Main to bas ye khula aasmaan chahta hoon..

The poor translation will be something like..

I want to get away from this crowd and achieve
a life, a body and a soul which I can claim as my own
You can have all the stars and the moon
all I want is this empty, endless sky

My Tryst with Poetry..

sometimes back I use to write poems but never thought about posting as most of them were written in Hindi. I am not well read but I specially like this small piece written by Robert Frost - Which asks a simple question that will the world end in a great and big moment like fire, or will it slowly just fade away like ice?

" Fire and Ice"

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction
iceIs also great
And would suffice.

But then I guess I can post some of those lines that I use to scribble whole day on the last pages of my notebook. So if you are a reader of my blog be prepared to get some poorly translated text from my poems.

The Big "W"..

Another Big Fat Corporate Wedding

Corporate India is busy talking about the big fat wedding of TaTa and Corus, Birla and Novellis and even of its NRI son Mittal and Arcelor but then much ignored is this another coprorate son who will be holding hands of his bride and walking down the red carpet by the time this post becomes available on my blog. Finally Arun Nair is getting married to Liz Hurley, first a christian Wedding and then a Hindu wedding on the cards. The smile on their faces are real believe me. Well, we can all now talk about how successful this new merger is going to be. No doubt TATA has the requred synergies to take over Corus, Birlas are doubtful but guess how long this real wedding of this young enthusiastic corporate Indian with the Damsel is going to last?

BJP's yoga Bad, UPA's yoga Good..

This was the same Congress and UPA which created much fuss on the issue of MP govt's decision to make yoga a compulsary part of the curriculum of all the governement schools. Now, on friday they submitted a report in Lok Sabha which recommends making yoga a part of the curriculum and their reasoning is that " Yoga will act a role in shaping up the mental and physical growth of the school going population". The only difference is that BJP added the word spiritual and reasoned that it's for the holistic development.

Now, I guess the only point of difference is the "holistic" issue. Well if UPA don't want that then they could beg to differ. No wait, there is another point of difference. An member of the committee is Mr. Rahul Gandhi. So actually it's "G" force.

Life as an Outlier..

Many of my friends say that I am an outlier. Well that's absolutely true, I have always been like that and have come to appreciate this way of life as it gives you the sense of satisfaction of being on your own. Okay I tell you that how life as an outlier is completely different from that of normal people (who falls within the range)? Well ... being an outlier ... I can clearly see the others trapped inside some boundaries. Isn't this true for all outliers?

How important is team work?

If you are in a B School, it's ofcourse very very important.