CB blog 3 - Sach Ka Swyamvar

The two latest reality shows to hit the Indian audiences - Rakhi Sawant's Sywamvar on Imagine and Sach Ka Saamna on Star. And so India's tryst with reality TV continues.

But what bothers me is the shows that are branded under the concept of Reality TV. A very thin line separates the reality shows from the usual dramas of the Ekta Kapoor serials. The major difference is that these usually feature the ordinary people like you and me who are given a chance to be successful and chase their dreams and that is what makes some of them exciting.

It all started with KBC (but still that was not called reality TV), and from then on channels have been on the lookout for shows that brings out the personal life of the contestants. All this helps to garner more TRP's and thereby ad revenues but at times one's talent and committment is overshadowed by emotions (We Indians just love emotions). Several shows have come up since then with the notable ones being Indian Idol and its copy talent hunt shows, MTV Roadies, various game shows, Fear Factor, Big Boss etc.

Now jumping over to these two shows. Rakhi Sawant the goddess of Indian media (doubt if someone else receives more coverage than her), in her quest for marriage, or just another publicity gimmick started her own Swyamvar, deciding to marry a prospective groom from among the choices. On one hand was hailed as a never before thing on Indian television with talks of sex parity and women being given the say in choosing their grooms, it was slammed on the other end for scandalizing the sane institution of marriage. And from what all was seen on-screen I believe that the latter is true. These men were not showing of their skills to prove themselves as a worthy suitor but were rather acting as puppets in the hands of Rakhi to garner their 10 secs of fame. And the latest announcement of the change in decision of marriage to an engagement further intensifies the claim of it just being a publicity gimmick. Nevertheless the show managed to garner high TRP's putting 'Imagine' into the limelight.

The second show - Sach Ka Saamna is still a relatively new show. Based on 'Moment of Truth' the show quizzes contestants on a variety of personal question while they are attached to a polygraph (the lie-detector). And contestants are rewarded with money for confessing the truth to questions that are most of the times embarrassing and if not for the money, one would dare not confess it to close friends as compared to national TV. And the audiences are lapping up to view people( including some celebrities) revealing their dark secrets. The show is being labelled as testing one's greed for money over one's relationships. The show being discussed in the Parliament with a call for banning further enhanced the viewer's curiosity and gave it huge publicity. Let's see how many people in the audience are ready to lap up these truths and also the big question remains whether there could be someone truthful enough (or rather shameful enough) to win 1 crore .

CB blog 2 - Summer vacations

With time the kids grow. But not too much. By the age of 9-10 ie class 4-5 onwards the summer vacations turn into an ordeal for parents. Schools to showcase and promote themselves hold exhibitions and the work falls not on the students but rather on their parents.

How can you otherwise expect these 9-10 year olds working using cursive writing on charts, cutting and pasting thermocol (something I find extremely difficult even now), making model of things they do not even have a clue of ???? When i was young i used to look forward for my aunt to visit us so that i could get my homework done. And nowdays my aunts look forward to come and visit so that my sister and I can help with our cousin's homework.

This demand for models/charts has resulted in quite a few shops propping up that specialize in the craft arts. So the homework which should have rather been a way of parent children bonding has been reduced to a buy-sell deal. And school teachers instead of recognizing the mediocre but original work also show preference for the professional work.
Parents too believe that by buying models they are actually easing their kid's life but they are losing out on the time of interaction. This is one of the most crucial time they can spend and help their kids with.

Well the summer vacations are not just about homework, these are seen as the best time to engage in some extra curricular activities. These were the times when kids could engage in some art/craft, learn their favourite sports etc. But now this too has been turned into a means to beat the rat race. There has been a spurt in summer camps, classes for kids to learn varied stuff. All this would have been good had the child's interest been of prime concern. But what workshop the kids join is usually dictated either by peer pressure ( among the parents that is) or parents trying to impose their own unfulfilled desires on the kids.

CB blog 1- Primary education

The primary needs of food, clothing and shelter have also created the need for education. Anyone who wants to succeed in today's life needs to education as a stepping stone (baring a few exceptions - in which case too these people had more of practical learning than committing themselves to higher studies).
So all this has created demands for schools, colleges and institutes for higher learning. But these are not enough. The demand for good institutes far outstrips the supply and so all this demand has created a further demand for stepping stones into these institutes.

Lets start the discussion with primary education. In most of the schools today the age for admission into nursery is 3 years. But the dearth of good schools and facilities ( including both the teaching skills, the quality of student interaction, the extracurricular activities ) has led to mushrooming of pre-schools. In my younger days all the education that i got was from my family. My grandparents, my uncle and my aunts, besides my parents were the ones who taught me the basics. And that was all the training I required for my interviews for admission to school.
But now with the huge competition ( heck for three year olds) what we have are scores of preschools which act as a precursor to your primary education). The nuclear families cite their lack of time availability as a major reason for admitting their kids to such play-schools. And these play-schools not only provide facilities for grooming your child but also have grooming sessions for the parents too ( to polish of their interview skills. Teach them how to respond to commonly asked questions..
But can these actually teach you parenting???)
Now an arguments arises - Is it fair to push your kid into the rat race so early? Aren't you spoiling his wonderful innocent years by pushing him into the rat race?.... But the counter-argument says that if you don't do so then are you prepared for the consequences? If you want your child to be successful are you ready to leave your child's interviews to chance?
Now both the arguments hold true given the admission structure and the huge demand-supply gap. So the government decided to scrap these interviews and use a point system for admission or even use lotteries. Although this leaves everything to chance and circumstances but is it fair? Given the supply-demand gap this may be the best alternative but tell this to the hundreds of parents for whom the admission time is a harrowing experience. After spending so much on play-schools and still not getting admitted one does feel a let down for the child's future is at stake...

Can't really say which is a better system for we are now so accustomed to the competition around and the huge cries of meritocracy going around there is a huge support for the earlier system too.

Beauty

Had another interesting Consumer Beahviour class today. The topic of discussion was motivation. What exactly leads a consumer to buy a product? What does he actually look in a product and how marketers exploit this?

And what better topic of discussion than the fixation with fair skin.. The advertisements of fair and lovely and that of the recently introduced fair and handsome. These ads have received a lot of flak for depicting dark skin as low in confidence and a thing to be ashamed of. To try and emulate the fair models and have a better life. These thrive on the fixation with fair skin that has been imbibed in our minds. The counter argument says that these ads depict the reality of the society..

Some say these ads show negativity and then the use of the fairness product leads to positive results. Well isn't this same as showing an add for healthcare products?- You are shown bad conditions that happen when you do not use the product.. These are forms of Negative Reinforcement..

But the difference lies in the fact that these ads thrive on social stigma, and instead of allevating them they elevate it..

And this aspect is common to nearly all the beauty products. The fixation with artificial beauty has led to severe effects on young girls who are exposed to the world's fixation with the artificial beauty (anorexia, fair skin) and causing mental trauma. Spoiling their childhood.

Well to counter this trend there are some ads like Dove's campaign for self esteem which talks about rising up and educating the kids about true beauty. To make children aware that their role models as in Barbie doll figure are unsustainbale (A real life Barbie would not even be able to stand let alone walk)

But it is a irony given the fact that the company Unilever which is the owner of the Dove brand also owns Fair and Lovely, Axe.

So this brings to the big question..

What is real beauty?

I am no philosopher to ponder on such a subject so i'll leave it at that.

Didn't know it still existed

Well just a few days ago my mid terms ended. So to celebrate the occasion and to take a break from all the rigour a few of us decided to have a blast at Wayanad.

Off we went with three cars making merry of the way and the awesome weather..We found a nice homestay in a calm and serene location with bread and breakfast. It was away from the busy cities with most of the people living their own life with little interest in the outside world. It is here we witnessed an act which i do not expect to see in any of the big cities where everyone is money minded and tries to look at ways to make easy money.

We faced a few car issues for which we had the help of a few workers there. As a reward we gave the Rs 200 and started checking out. But the management there told us that the money we gave was way too much and it is their duty to help us and so will not accept the money. At first we were taken aback. Where in India would we see such a thing??

Although that day did not go too well in terms of transportation issues but this small act just reaffirmed my faith in humanity

Derivatives - The sophisticated satta market

Had my first class of financial derivatives (FD for short) today. The prof went gaga over how they are instruments for hedging risks as well as their random use for speculation. We were introduced to the various forms of derivatives in the forms of forwards, futures, options and swaps with the introduction session focussed on the first two.

Now we know that futures are exchange traded and have cash settlement as opposed to the forward contracts which are OTC and have physical settlement. But these forwards can be cash settled too if the contract is so made. This means I can enter and speculate on the price of a commodity, the volatility of the stock index, stocks etc. legally to enter into forward contracts with a third party.

So how different is it if I would like to extend the same to the success of India in the T20 world cup or the number of wickets taken, the probable score to be made and so on. Why is it called a satta then? Is it not the form of a futures contract in which I decide the underlying, the price, the mode of delivery as well as the payment date?

Why is speculating on stocks allowed and this termed illegal? And the argument of gambling doesn't hold as that is exactly what you do in stock trading. The future price of the stock is not actually related to the exercise price, it is just a value derived from the current price to which certain risk premiums have been adjusted and in no way reflects the spot price of the day.

So isn't this whole derivative crap a slightly sophisticated gamble??? Let's see what happens in the future classes and whether my doubts are dispelled.....

Three day vacation

Its time for the second year to begin. the registration date given was 10th June which meant that I had to leave on 9th morning to make it on time or else pay a Rs.1000 fine/day.

The flight was full with around 15 of our Komrades on the same flight and so after a lot of harrowing i managed to get my ticket. A 6 hour journey which took us 7 hrs for the flight we were made to sit in the plane for an hour (Delhi's traffic is not just confined to the roads). And above it my book got lost or apparently stolen by the security at Coimbatore who made away with it thinking it to belong to some transit passenger....

So we finally reached K around 3 and made for our supposed new hostel. But the hostel is just not complete. Our whole floor is unfurnished and so we were left to choose rooms on a fist come first serve basis to spend the night and hope for studcon to resolve the matters the next day. The best thing about the room though are the working AC's.

The next day we were hopin to have our registrations done, collect the books and start our classes, but when we saw the timetable it was just *$#^@**. My classes were not supposed to begin before Saturday, givin me 3 days to just rest and relax in my new room which is no less than that of a 5 star hotel ( wish I had a camera to show u all the pics). Just collected and transferred all my stuff from the old hostel which took around 4 trips of carrying the heavy stuff.

But the three days after that were pure bliss. Sleepin for 12 hrs a day, with not an ounce to worry about the studies and stuff. Just relaxing in the beautiful Kerala and having the vacation that I hoped of enjoying through my internship. Ahh its great..

Too bad the classes start tomorrow which also means an end to all the weekends which I am supposed to have

The last day...

Thankfully it is here....

After having to go through that ordeal for the pst two months, was just waiting for the day to come...

Working the ass off on even Saturdays....

Having regular late nights...

Not being able to catch a proper nap in office after the day my VP saw me sleepin..

Thanx to doc for being there, so I could atleast roam a bit around Bangalore, else would have lost the opportunity to see the beautiful city and just spent my time lazing around in the room (that is exactly what i did after doc left)

Just can't wait to get to Delhi and spend the 4 precious days with my family and then life returns back to the luxury @ K

Missed K like hell...........

Its 3 in the morning now. Just had 5 mins of sleep in b/w but the excitement of going back is acting stronger than caffeine.....

another 3.5 hrs here and the smile on my face widens.

17.5 hour workday #@$#$ **#$@^(#

As if yesterday was not bad enough there came today. After spending a f***$% 15 hours in the office yesterday all I managed to get was barely 5 hours of sleep. Meaning like all other days, today too i was feeling sleepy but somehow had so much work that i did not have the luxury of dozing off, like i usually do. (The hours from 12-1:30 PM are the worst. Am usually never able to control myself in this duration and have a few small nap breaks of 2-5 mins)

So I returned from office at 1:30 in the night. Could have gone off to sleep and had good rest for 6.5 hrs but I had just started another Grisham's novel yesterday and was really hooked. But managed to read only an hour or so and finally dozed off at three.

Morning had the alarm set at 7:45 but woke up only after 8. Hurriedly had a shave and a bath and the cab was here by 9. An hour's journey to office (Bangalore's traffic is hell) and there I was ready to begin a new day. But i had not imagined that this would be one of the longest days of my life.

Work kept pouring in, with the output rate being a fraction of the input. And not all of it was interesting. Some or rather a lot of it was pure manual labour (or better called shit work). And the time kept dragging. ManU's loss to Barca added to my miseries ( did not see the match though the TV was on, just heard the commentary). Time kept dragging on... and a good night's sleep still eludes me.

Finally got the day or rather the night off at 3:30 Am. But this was not the end. 17.5 hours stay in the office. But i had to come back too. It again took an hour - there were 3 of us and i was the last one to be dropped. Made it to the campus at 4:30 and still have not gone off to sleep. All for elaborating my nightmare, else with time the gory details are forgotten.......

Well have to get up at 8 tomorrow, so better have some sleep now........

Sunday Filmed

Had a really tiring week with firstly the flu getting to me for which i had to take a day and a half off. Unfortunately also had to compensate for the same by workin on a Saturday when the others went to the Legend of Rock and had a beer cannon. I fuckin hate this work.....

But i had a real good Sunday. Doc's friends in his company, for which he so called works ( have really seen him goin to office for more than a few hours and that too only 2-3 days a week) had organized a so called outing to the Innovative Film City, and I got the chance to go along too. Thankfully it was an informal trip and of the eight people there no one knew more than 3 of the others so it really went well.

Our trip started in the morning when I was woken up by Doc who was too anxious for the trip (or meetin the so called friend of his) barely 4 hrs after i had slept ( NO matter how much tired u r but u rarely sleep early on weekends). And we reached the meetin place Wockhardt Hospital Bannerghata Road, a bare 5 min walk from the campus gate. There I met the gang with whom i was gonna spend my whole day.

Off we left at 10 and after an hours drive reached our destination. Located in a remote area the place was crowded with several families who had also come to have a good day. The place is really expensive for we sheeled out Rs 800 each for the ticket which allowed for so called 16 attractions for which the individual tickets would have otherwise costed Rs 1350. A 100 bucks extra for the camera and we were inside.

Our first stop was an old theater which played 10 min of scene from Sholay and charged 20 per ticket, but the hooting and hearing Gabbar sayin "ab tera kya hoga Kaalia" made up for it. After a click click here and a click click there and we clicked almost everywhere we started getting things knocked off from our ticket.

There was the mirror maze which was really fantastic, with everyone movin around in circles and bumpin into mirrors. The dino park was fun with pics being clicked in different and funny poses. But the fossil museum was a bore - bones had been placed in a hall with a T rex structure at the centre, it was all fake..

By 4 we had only 4 things ticked off with another 12 to go and we did not think we would cover it all. The next stop was the haunted mansion a scary place for kids and enjoyable too. The ripley's believe it or not and the Louis Tussaud's wax museum were great.

Wanted to go for go karting .. to lay off my last years fears of the broken hand but alas it was a huge line. Got a chance though at the very end but since it had gone dark we were given those bigger family cars which were way too slow and the only fun i had was not lettin doc get thru ahead. The Mini golf started great but after the first 4 holes everyone lost enthusiasm and the rest 14 were completed in a hurry and by stroking the ball any which ways and from just about anywhere.

The 4D theater was good. (was my first experience with the 3D glasses too and it was great. But the 3D effect was told is better in IMAX ). The rumbling of the seat, the sudden gust of air as well as the squirting of water made the experience great. But the best part were when the rats jumped at your feet and one feels a tickling sensation by the wires that come out from under the seat.

But the part I was lookin forward to the most was the bungee jumping. But it turned out to be a damb squib. It was actually Bungy jumpmin, the equipment one sees in malls in Delhi where one gets in a harness and is pulled up and down on a trampoline. I was however not able to do it due to the funny sensation that i always have in my stomach ( get the feelin while riding the swing too) and so had to stop after just a few seconds..

It was way past 8, everyone was leavin but still none of us wanted to come back. So we went to the skatin rink where music was playin and started dancin and enjoyin. Call it luck or whatever for a small boy of around 12 broke his hand from a skating accident and there we were with 2 doctors among us to handle the situation. A sling was made and tied before he was sent away in the ambulance by our very own Doc......

Sunday BANGed

So the third weekend arrived after a really hectic week. Was very late coming back from office on Friday, with my body all tired up and showing full signs of the lack of sleep that i had endured the past week.

But still its funny how the concept of a holiday the very next day fill u with some sort of adrenaline to actually keep u awake that night no matter how tired u really are. So i watched a couple of movies before finally hitting the bed at 4. But it is also true that ur body does need its rest and so i finally woke up at 5 in the evening - a good 13 hours of slumber. And i would have definitely slept more had it not been for the informal fresher meet that we had scheduled for 5:30.

Ironically when at K 5:30 would have meant 5:29:59 here we (5 of us) left IIMB only at 5:25. We reached Leela Palace where our meet was scheduled at 6:30, the get together still on but a lot calmed out. I still remember how a year back i had asked 3-4 seniors the same damn questions about the stay at a hostel (it being the first time), but this time I did not find any enthusiastic junior. Don't know what will happen this year????

Finally people started leavin around 7 and there were just 12 of us left, when we decided to go out for drinks and a good dinner.

Next morning aka Sunday enthusiastically i woke up around 9 coz had planned to go on a second albeit a much better sightseeing trip. So me and Doc finally commenced our journey at around 11.

Boarded a bus to MG road/Brigade road (am still not able to distinguish where they exactly are and which is which). Our first destination was the Vidhan Soudha around 1.5-2 km walk from our bus stop. On the way we came across a post office which did not look anything less than a 5 star hotel from the outside.

A long walk but it was definitely a place worth seeing. Although it has now been closed and one cannot go inside but the architecture and the size was really awesome.

Our next stop was supposed to be Cubbon park but having already visited a park last week we just went along its boundary and did not spend much time inside.

It was almost 3 now. Had spent our time walking and so were feeling tired. We grabbed a quick bite @ McD and headed out to the Visvesvaraya industrial and Technological museum. It brought back memories of when i was a kid and was highly intrigued by science ( I still am). we spent a good 2-2.5 hours enjoying the wonders.

At six we made for what was supposed to be our last stop UB City mall, a highly expensive place where we could not even dream of stepping inside any of the shops given our shallow pockets and the hefty prices. Its another matter of fact that i had my office dinner scheduled at Khansama there later in the night.

On our way to drop Doc back to the bus stand we got a chance to tick off another item on our to do list. Had a chance to have the famous Death by Chocolate @ Corner House - Bangalore' s most famous ice cream. After it I went back for the dinner. Had a couple of drinks too but the best part was the food, which was totally awesome and really worth it.

Finally got back at around 1 and so was not able to have a good night's sleep for it was office as usual the next day, this meant i would again doze off in my chair but now i had to be more careful for i had already been caught napping once.

The world is expanding.....

The world is expanding....

Or atleast Bengaluru is...

that is what the autowaalahs will make u believe.

I have taken an auto from IIMB to my office on 4 occasions and the fare reported was Rs 71, 85, 91 and 99. Now how can it be so if u take the same route unless the world is expanding. And this is not thermal expansion also coz Bangalore is pretty cooler than other areas.

Bangalore autowalas are one of the roguest breed of people I have ever seen, always ready to con u. The auto rates are pretty high at Rs 7 per km but still no one is actually ready to go by the meter. They demand exorbitant rates as high as thrice of the actual fare. And their arguments are totally foolish - If i take u by the meter i will take a longer route and it will waste ur time as well as cost u more. Now how baseless can that be.

And of the few who are ready to ply by the meter they have tweaked their meters to show a higher reading. In my last trip the guy kept pressing his wiper switch on and off continuously while we were on the road (the wiper was non existent) and so instead of the 11-12 km the reading showed 14 km.

And all this happens because there is no control. People earning fat checks working at the numerous BPO's and other MNC's pay and so it is the common man who ultimately suffers. The police does absolutely nothing.

Why Not to be an I banker

well my internship started at XYZ company in Bangalore. Joined on Monday and hoped of having a good time and get a feel of how and what exactly one does on a job. Well we had our training sessions on the first two days in which since we were only 3 people we could not sleep no matter how boring it was. We used to go in the morning at 10 and leave by 7:30 which was still acceptable.

But trouble started on Wednesday, when we were assigned our terminals and projects. To tell about my division it is quite small but and there are a few highly enthusiastic people because of which it has reached its present level as well as is burdened with work. The problem however is that these people have absolutely no life. The come in the morning, some around 9 and leave late nights often after 1. Also many even prefer to work on weekends ( Now they prefer or are forced is a divided issue ) but still, this is insane. And to top it off they get only 9 holidays a year ( besides the weekends that they do come on).

Still i would not have minded it all except for the fact that they would like me to share their views on the same. So had to go the whole week (Good Friday turned to a Bad Friday), had a 12 hour workday at least, spend 2 hours commuting to and fro. And above all they expect me to put in weekends too.

Spent the last three days reading some silly reports without any idea as to what exactly is to be focussed on. And as for some of my friends in the same company but different division they enjoy just a 9 hour workday and weekends off.

I seriously don't think that I would like to ruin my life like this.

PS - the feelings expressed above are the author's views only and not to dissuade fellows vying to be an I Banker. The views are highly company specific so the situation may differ from company to company.

The Night and Day at IIMB

So as I mentioned earlier, am putting up in IIMB for the next 50 days. Arrived here at around 9:30 and was issued a room in a far flung corner, the last hostel block (i believe) and that too the third floor. Although this saves me from the insects that usually plague the ground floors but lugging my heavy bags and making this long journey, staying away from rest of my fellow mates is somewhat of a torture.

Finally got things settled by 11. Had to have dinner etc. So switched on my Mac and connected to the net. And what do i notice??? there are absolutely no restrictions besides not being able to run chat softwares (as i am not able to configure them), but everything else is accessible ( naughty naughty), alongwith downloading. So am awake till 3 when i realise have to get up before 7 to reach safely on the first day.

The IIMB campus - Located quite near the main city or rather the city is now located quite near the campus now. Lush greenery everywhere but the paths are pretty confusing. Everywhere it looks almost the same and one can easily forget one's way. The rooms are no match for those at IIMK but are not too bad also. The one thing that is good is the availability of playing space between the hostels ( but don't know if I will make any use of it or not, still its something very good) ( although all these sporting facilities could do nothing for IIMB in saving their face).

Waking up the next morning at 7 i got ready and had breakfast in the staff canteen. Must say the food was piping hot and tasty. The canteen was newly built and was clean and tidy. The workers even wore shower caps. Finally made the walk outside and caught an auto to take us on my first company experience ( most probably the topic of my next post). The auto charges are Rs 7/km which are way way high. Don't know then what the taxis must be charging.

Am waiting for a holiday ( tomm. doesn't seem to be one despite it being Mahavir Jayanti ) to explore the campus as well as the city.

A very short stint and the very long wait

Half done or half left, one can say whatever one feels but the relief I felt after the dreadful third semester was unmatched. Like always the ending of the exams meant holidays and a trip back home, but this time it was different. Had only 3 days to spend at home due to the training that is supposed to start from 6th and I need to reach Bengaluru by the 5th.

So left Calicut on the Fool's day to endure a 6.5 hour flight journey for Delhi. Was able to reach home only by 9:30 in the night. The next day received one of the biggest shocks of my life. Had never anticipated such a situation, and it shattered all my plans, coz I just did not feel like meeting up with my friends. These holidays turned out to one of my worst and the thought still haunts me, don't know what will happen on doomsday.

with this i left home at 8 on sunday, hoping to catch the 9:30 flight, but alas the airlines had changed the airplane. the no. of seats reduced and the vacant seats in J class disappeared. I was left stranded at the airport with my father waiting with me. The next flight was at 4:30 which also by the looks of it was somewhat overbooked. This meant an extra wait of 7 hours at the airport. Thank goodness for the Sunday papers (tried my hand at Sudoku after a very long time) and the net which helped me pass my time. The seat was confirmed only at 4:15 when the supposed passengers didn't turn up and I got a seat. Just rushed through the check-in counter for the flight had started boarding but it wasn't going to be this easy. The guard wanted me to open my attache. he ruffled through my stuff and removed my Victorinox Swiss multipurpose set (a miniature version with a 2 inch blade) and a matchbox. These people are afraid of a two inch blade but what about the steel crockery one gets on the plane??? I managed to return it to my father who was still waiting and he somehow got it sneaked inside to be delivered to me. But i being the non risky type refused and handed it back.

Reached Bengaluru by 7:15 and got outside 15 minutes later. IIMB being 45-50 km away and knowing the high rates of taxis, i decided to try the shuttle service. As i went towards the bus there were taxi drivers outside looking for a fare. Talked to 3 different people with the rates at ech level falling from 850-750, 700-650, 600-500. Boarded a shuttle to JP Nagar (the closest option I could find), charging Rs 80. After 1.5 hours i was at JP Nagar with not much clue as to what next. Tried looking for autos but to no avail. Got a cab which was waiting there, he did charge a lot Rs 75 for a 4 km odd drive, but atleast and at last I was at IIMB.

P.S. - Describing IIMB - Saved for later as haven't seen much and am yet to explore.

The Holi Special - Who am I??

Date - 11th March 2009

Venue - IIMK, Kerala

Occassion - Holi

Time : 8:45

Damn, had to get up early on what is regarded as a holiday all over the country, but not so at an IIM. Had not one but two classes in the day - HR and Marketing. one tolerable and the other a nuisance. But still there is a 90% attendance rule and so the class was almost full barring a few batchmates ( who were either too lazy to come or were enjoying their 10% leeway)

Also the India - New Zealand was underway with Sehwag in an awesome form... Match was closely followed via cricinfo during the class and then seen in the mess after 12 (barring the too frequent rain breaks )

Had a special lunch organised for the occassion but it was a dud. The food didn't taste too different from the awful food we get everyday except the sweetdish.

Finally it was 3 and the scheduled time for starting the Holi the IIMK way had arrived. A massive tank full of water which saw nearly everyone on campus being lifted and thrown inside. Both gulals and grease were freely used.. the effect will be clearly visible in the classes tomorrow and it remains to be seen how our profs will react. It was totally awesome. My first Holi @ hostel and it totally rocked. With chilled thandai (with bhang added ) and some raunchy songs being played it set a rockin mood.

In the pics above everyone has his tees removed not because they may get dirty or it was hot, but because the tees no longer existed. They had been ripped apart to leave everyone topless.

BBQ night @ K1

Its already two weeks now since we had that awesome BBQ night. All this time I waited just because I could not lay my hands on the pics for the day, and this was one awesome night which just cannot be explained by mere words.

So lets start from how it all started. The previous day another of our hostel had its BBQ party in which they used a small pot like substance as the BBQ vessel. Well we also got a bit excited and so asked them to lease it for a day for our very own party. But they refused and this was a huge blow to us. We were now determined to have a bigger and better BBQ and so two of our angry hostel souls ran from pillar to post to arrange the stuff. They had to plead with the guy to complete it on time. Panner, vegetables, fish and chicken were arranged from the NC and masala and all was bought from the outside. With the refrigerator full of beer it was going to be a great night.

The preparations started on a grand scale. Ingredients were mixed and the respective dishes were marinated by our very own budding chefs. The lighting of coal was an experience in itself. Huge amount of financial newspapers had to bear the brunt(rather were burned). It took more than half an hour to get it started and to have an even burning (constant airing required by frantic waving of newspapers).

The marinated stuff was skewed and placed on the red hot coals. It took ages to get it heated from the inside for the outer layer had been burnt black but the inner layers were still pretty raw. The skewing was not proper for whenever the stick was rotated the food too adjusted itself to return to its original position. But as time passed and more and more food was prepared the quality started improving.

Non veg had to be kept for over half an hour to get a good taste whereas the paneer barely survived a few minutes as the pieces kept falling at regular intervals but this was not a major problem for panner can easily be eaten even if a bit undercooked but the same does not apply to non veg stuff.

Standing next to the hot coal with a chilled beer in one hand and munching on the BBQ chicken with the other, it was priceless......

Delhi-6

Saw it today. In the beginning it revived some old memories but as the story passed further all that was left was the story of the monkey man.

Do u remember the monkey man???

That one creature that caused panic in the whole of Delhi...

But to make a movie on that subject (even though it was so that the story-line used it to portray a deeper meaning of communal tensions and people's foolishness) but still to make it a central character?? Why??

This wasn't expected from Mr Mehra after RDB... 

Give the movie a definite miss or see it for Miss Kapoor but do not expect anything ...

sheer waste of a couple of hours 

Specialization goes under the Hammer

Confused???

Me too....

Its another first at IIMK.

Well this year our student council has come up with an innovative idea to auction off the courses in the second year, i.e. we need to bid for the courses so that we can at the end of the year have our specialization. And with what to bid? Our CGPA of course.

Replacing the old system of allotting the courses on a first come first serve basis as per CGPA the new system has been introduced to allow those who do not have the first say to try and get hold of subjects they want. But at what cost? If marketing is the most preferred courses this year then those who wish to specialize wish to get three subjects that semester, but due to the high bids and lack of sufficient credits they may lose to those who wish to take up HR or IT and have marketing as a minor because the cutoffs for their own subjects are dismal.

After various beta testing and even a final run (which was scrapped due to both lack of participation as well as server crashes) i do not know if it will be successful this time around. But this form of auctioning a student's future (even though it is a B-school and one is taught to beat the market) such a system is more likely to fail than succeed. Let's see what happens coz if it fails this time there will be reversion to the old system and then any further changes, even for good, will be harder to make...  

Another Exams end. Yipee....

Ahh, the feeling of having it done with, the ending of another series of exams, I am back after my hiatus. However have written a lot about my exams, more than 3 posts. How long can I go on criticizing these stupid ventures, which involve just gassing around with absolutely no learnings.

So lets change the topic. Well it is the V-Day tomorrow, and another year will go by with me just waiting and waiting and waiting...

When will the situation improve? when will I find the one?

But then do I really care that much. Really is it too big a thing?

well after reading some of my previous posts one may wonder why this change of a heart, but this is no change. I have always had this feeling but then its been a constant struggle just like as it is between yin and yang. Sometimes it is one way and others I feel its futility. And no this is not because just like the fox I feel the grapes to be sour. 

Warning Signs

This is a signboard near a railway crossing attached just next to the gate. Firstly the language is hilarious, not just in english but also the hindi version (the third version is beyond my scope of understanding).

Also secondly the board is placed right next to the crossing, so we read it only after we had jumped around 15-20 vehicles standing there. If u want a queue must be maintained u need to provide a prior indication for the same.

 

Bekal Fort - Tu Hi Re......

Ahh... after three odd weeks in the campus we get two and a half days of freedom. And this definitely called for an outing. Countless plans were made with a variety of options considered- Bangalore (well i have to spend 2 months there so not now..), Munnar - the awesome tea estates, Allepy- the wonderful backwaters, Wayanad - ahh this is rather too close (we can visit it some other day), Mahe - cheaper liquor and good beach. But the final decision came out to Bekal fort -190 km journey (it is the same fort which featured in Bombay's Tu Hi Re.

Okay so it was decided then came the problem of how to travel- bikes, hired sumo or even a self driven car. well of that too  both a sumo and bikes were finalized given the uncertainty of the car's performance. The day was decided as Saturday- to go in the afternoon, stay overnight and be back the next day. But again here some people backed out and made alternate arrangements and there was a problem with getting a bike (it took 22 days for a friend's bike to reach here from delhi and above that the transporter made us wait more than 2 hrs in his office for the delivery.)

finally were able to leave on sunday morning. from the ETD of 6:30 we were already over an hour late. had my best breakfast for a long time- hot idlis and vadas (with gr8 emphasis on hot and tasty). we finally reached our destination at around one. with the sun high upon us and lack of food our sightseeing of the fort lasted only half an hour after which we left for the beach. Ahh.. the cold water, the smooth sands and no odour that plagues many of our other beaches- the rotten smell of fish or other dead creatures. 

After more than an hour in the sea it was already three and there was no sign of good food. We had to make our way back and find some good bar and restaurant. we reached calicut only after 9 but the ride back, driving over a 100 km stretch on a Karizma was awesome. we initially went to the kappad beach resort for dinner but there had a fight with the guards and the manger. Things would have gotten hot but we decided not to take it further and call the police after it all - Don't these people have any business sense on how to treat guests....

Our journey thus ended at Coffee Beanz one of the favourite hangout places.  

Another series reaches its present stage

In another year and a quarter i will have my degree. 6 terms of torture and little learning. But of the few thing I have/will be done/doing, is watching a few or rather a lot of the TV series on campus.

Mind u I never saw a single one during my engineering days- may be coz i was a day-ski but now spending my time in the hostel it is the best time pass or rather wastage of every second of my precious time I could/should have spent studying or putting more efforts towards my classes and assignments. but what the hell it would never have been so interesting.

So doing a check what all have i watched yet-

• Prison break 
• Heroes
• HIMYM
• Smallville
• Big Bang Theory
• Knight rider

And the next one in line is Lost....

So what should be my next target???? Suggest some good ones...

Happy Birthday

Had my 22nd birthday last week. For the first time in the last 22 years I was alone without my family on the day. For the first time in the last 22 years I did not blow a candle on the day. For the first time in the last 22 years I did not cut the birthday cake.

The day too went like any ordinary day. Nah!! I had more work than the other days. Slept at 3 in night, got up at 7:30 and then again was able to hit the bed at 3 again in the night. That somehow does it the longest time I spent awake on my birthday. 

But still I do not regret the day howsoever it passed away. But it would have been better if some of the people would have remembered it and sent a greeting or two. :-(

Athos, Parthos, Slumdog

So the million dollar question goes- Who is the third musketeer after Athos and Parthos??

Win one million or lose all?? and what does our protagonist do..... takes a random guess A) Aramis. Well if a slumdog who has never seen such kind of money take such a risk hell bet he is more of a musketeer than these three and D'Artagnan. 

Slumdog millionaire by Danny Boyle a rags to riches story of a Muslim boy Jamal who gets a chance on Who wants to be a millionaire and goes on to win the big prize. But how does he do it?.is he a)genius, b)cheating, c)luck or d)fate.  As the police torture goes - when doctors, lawyers and engineers cannot do it how can a slumdog.....

Watch the movie to find out.

The movie may have its flaws with the show being showed live and having a phone a friend question (in the age of internet how can u even think of this), a blind begging kid who would never have seen a dollar knows that a $100 note has Benjamin Franklin on it. And many others.... but still the actual storyline, the real Indian slum experience, great camera work make it a must watch movie. 

Choosing a bride

Well as we were told today once again an MBA is all about decision making. Various models exist for the same as i studied in my Organization Behaviour II in the last sem with these being: Rational model, Carnegie model, Incrementalist model, Unstructured model and Garbage Can model. 

Time and again we have studied the rational method to be the best for it requires examining all the options. May seem inviable and impossible and so there is the concept of bounded rationality. But do we really go about using them in our lives. When it comes to corporate decisions then we make use of several models and different evaluation criteria for optimality but when it comes to our personal lives the answer is totally different.

Like an example discussed in our marketing class. Selection of a bride. This is one of the most important decision of our lives but how do we go about it????

Most of us outsource the decision to a third party (parents)- But is it so that when and if things go wrong we have someone to blame for the same.

Or if we take our personal decisions we may examine a range of possibilities but do not go about the process in a manner that can give us an optimal answer.

So how to go about this task. Firstly we need to identify the attributes. As per some study the major ones are- A,B,C,D,E,F.

Age

Beauty

Character

Dowry (something i am against)

Education

Family

The second step involves quantification. We need to assign values to these attributes for each candidate. Qualitative attributes can be assigned relative values. 

Now all that is required is a simple use of excel and solver to get an optimum value that maximizes our utility.

But would a girl go about marrying a guy if she comes to know that such a method was used?????? (maybe yes- she may even be proud of being the best among the list and love you for that)

So is this a good way......... Decide for yourselves 

Dilli Ki Sardi

So am back after the extremely short term break that i had (short coz it lasted only 10 days and very short coz in winters days are smaller). It was great to be back in Delhi and enjoy the winters as opposed to the ever hot climate of Kozhikode. Sitting or rather lazing in the quilt, eating peanuts and gajjak, oh what a bliss it was. 

No worry bout waking up early (sleeping till 11 in the morning - couldn't help it, not when its warm in the quilt and freezing outside), having great home cooked food (finally have realized how good it is after hating it for the earlier years of my life (before 6 months), celebrating the new year with your parents watching a bollywood flick- priceless....

And how can i forget a meet with friends, however regret missing the appointment i had been looking forward to since the last six months. What was i thinking? i don't know. Maybe i wanted to escape from the harsh reality and forget the past, but not like this......