Have a Dream....Go for it

What is beauty?

2012-01-17T22:04:00.003+05:30

Many a times, this discussion keeps coming up...what is beauty?!

Sadly, most of us end up only admiring admiring the physical part of it. But there are some "beautiful minds" out there too. But, alas..they are not so much "sought after."
http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif.
Today, I stumbled upon this article. All the points are relevant in today's world and according to me, all these 'fairness' cream commercials should be just banned with immediate effect.

Quoting a line from the above article.."But perhaps we should also attempt, at least occasionally, to praise not just their looks, but also their brains,..." This immediately reminded me of this brilliant commercial

I think the ad says it all :)

Just WOW service from ICICI

2012-01-13T21:10:00.003+05:30

Last week, I gave an ICICI cheque to another bank for payment of a loan. Initially, this cheque was given as a PDC,but later I took it back from the bank and deposited it again last week. This time though, I just had to add the A/C number on the payee column.

Next day, I received a call from ICICI inquiring about this cheque. I told them its a genuine cheque given by me only. The executive asked me if the same needs to be cleared or not and I replied in the affirmative. He told me that he has called as the cheque had two different inks used on the payee column and hence, it was a confirmation call!

I am super impressed by the alertness of this person :) How I wish that all ICICI executives were so proactive and alert.

THUMBS UP!

The BEST buses

2011-04-23T22:26:00.004+05:30

For the uninitiated, the word BEST is not an adjective but an acronym given for the Govt. bus service which runs in Mumbai. BEST stands for 'The Brihanmumbai Electric Supply & Transport Undertaking'. I was a regular traveler in the bus when I use to visit city during my breaks in engineering or when I use to work.

Once I went for my MBA, then the visit to the city became sparse and even less traveling by bus. The only change I noticed over the years was installation of Vodafone payment drop boxes inside the buses.

But today, I was forced to travel given the bad situation of parking when I was supposed to go. And to my utter surprise, I saw printed tickets being doled out by the conductors using a handheld device. My friend tells me that it helps to save time and conductor does not need to check fare and then issue one. Now, he just punches in origin and destination and voila; ticket is printed. Also, at the end of accounting has become easier with introduction of technology.

Another visible difference was installation of LCD screens which were running ads on them. And the best addition was fire extinguishers on board. I just hope that they work needed! :D

Coincidences in ICC Cricket World Cup 2011

2011-04-06T21:03:00.004+05:30

Since the Cricket World Cup was being held in India, Indian team was in great touch, this was possibly the last tournament for Sachin Tendulkar (though I would like to see him go on and on...), everyone wanted to witness an Indian victory.

But sometimes, rather uneventful events throw up interesting coincidences or patterns and looking in hindsight, following are such events in this World Cup.

1. Sehwag scoring a score of 175 against Bangladesh in the opening match of the tournament. This was exactly the same score scored by Kapil Dev in the 1983 World cup match v/s Zimbabwe.

2. India tied a match with England. MS Dhoni as a captain had a tied match in IPL, World Cup T20 and Champion League in the editions which he won.

3. After defeating Pakistan, I personally saw a pattern and posted on facebook here "India defeating teams in EXACTLY the same order in which they were crowned champions in the past - West Indies (75,79), Australia (87), Pakistan (92)....wasnt SL the winner in 96 ;)"

4. In the meanwhile, another coincidence came up which said that calenders of the year 1983 and 2011 are same.

5. And a day before the final, SMS forward told me that all captains whose last or first name started with 'S' were being evicted - Shahid Afridi, Strauss, Smith, Sammy and so next in line is Sangkarra.\

6. I had posted this on facebook before the world cup

Cricket WC - Sachin - India

1. 1992 - did not open - out after first round
2. 1996 - opener, highest scorer - losing semi-finalist
3. 1999 - did not open - lost in super 6s
4. 2003 - opener, highest scorer - losing finalist
5. 2007 - did not open - out after first round
6. 2011 - will open....!! :)

Though, it was updated after the WC as Sachin was India's highest scorer, tournament's second highest scorer and of course, India WON!

Harassment continues by India Today

2011-01-20T13:24:00.002+05:30

After troubling me intially, India Today kept on pestering me. Finally, I decided to terminate the subscription with them. But alas, even that is not happening smoothly. Finally, I was advised by one of them to go to court if I was having so much problem and hence I sent a letter to them regarding the same.

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I subscribed to India Today in name of my mother. This was done online and a confirmation letter dated 23rd June, 2010 (photocopy attached) confirming the amount of Rs. 1,200 for one year and assigning the subscription number was sent. And this is where my ordeal starts.

It was promised that the first magazine will be delivered from issue dated 12th July, 2010 but sadly this did not happen. After waiting for some time, the helpline was contacted. If I say that they were cooperative and helpful, then it will be an appreciation from my side. Just nothing was done to rectify the same. Kindly refer to the mails sent. The same are attached. I felt as if I am banging my head to the wall. After wanting to cancel subscription and infinite follow-ups, finally first issue landed on my doorstep in mid-Aug. Since there was a delay of 6 weeks, my subscription was extended by 6 weeks at the ending date. I would like to point out that this was also NOT done by India Today on a pro-active basis but only after I insisted on getting the same done. This was confirmed over e-mail and the same is attached.

The first magazine was delivered by the distributor himself and his contact number was taken by me for a ‘just in case’ scenario. But, alas, I was so wrong! Not a week I remember where I NOT had to call him requesting him to deliver the magazine. The magazine was delivered on a Friday or a Saturday of the week as compared to it hitting the stands on a Monday. On asking the same, I was told that it is the norm. Though completely not acceptable to me, I still continued to live with it.
Come Diwali in the first week of November, I received the issue dated Nov 1, 2010 on which the Bollywood superstar Salman Khan was on cover given his recent hit “Dabangg”. After that, magazine stopped coming. Personally, I was traveling and I inferred that weekly calls not being made have led to this failure. Upon calling the distributor, his reply left me shell-shocked! He was at native place and was given as an excuse of this. What kind of screwed-up distribution is this? You want me to believe that distribution at the last mile is person dependent?

This really left me irritated and hence, I decided to finally stop my subscription from India Today. Kindly understand that magazine not subscribed for adding woes in one’s life. I called up helpline to complain but the waiting period too tested my patience. After working my ways through, I was finally able to get the number of Mr. X in Mumbai. After explaining the case, he assured me to look into the case. He did back to me requesting for one more chance. I clearly explained that I have made up my mind to get it canceled and hence I just wanted to know the procedure. I was also told that it will take 3-4 weeks to get my refund. He also assured me that I just need to mention the cancellation part on mail and he will send a separate mail to take care of the same. I mailed for cancellation on Nov 27, 2010 which is attached. But, it seems that India Today has made up its mind to harass me more. I was again asked a ‘reason’ to cancel and similar non-sensical stuff was thrown at me. Kindly see the chain mail attached for details.

For example, upon demanding a breakup of refund, I got an immature and naïve reply that system generates it. Do you think such an answer is acceptable by any standard? Also, I was told that start date has been taken as July and end date as December for calculating the refund. The new start date of August came from your end and it was sad to see that records were not updated! Moreover, as already mentioned last issue received was Nov 1, 2010. This was clearly told to Mr. X in the telephonic conversation and he agreed in principle.

Even after follow-ups, I keep getting standard replies and no answer to my case. I followed it up with Mr. X too but sadly nothing came out. We are sitting in January now and still no communication on my correct refund which should be around Rs. 950 as per calculation sent by me on e-mails.

I last talked to Mr. X and was told that my case is being ‘considered’. What is there to consider here? I clearly told him that I am running out of patience and he gave me the advice to go to court. This telephonic conversation took place on Jan 7, 2011.

Upon his direction, I am writing this letter as a first step of filing a court case. Either refund my Rs. 950 (approx) as per correct calculation with interest@15% w.e.f Nov 1, 2010 + Rs. 1,000 due to harassment caused to me or let us sort out with the path suggested by Mr. X.

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I hope they sincerely act on this letter of mine.

Honesty pays!

2011-01-10T17:02:00.003+05:30

Given the fact that I travel so much by autorickshaw, I am bound to meet some interesting people in Mumbaiand Delhi.

Today morning, I hired one to come to office. Since, I am used to travel the route daily, I know how much it costs to reach office from home given the traffic conditions. Midway only, I realised that meter of this person is fast by all standards.
So, I interjected him!

Me: "Boss, aapka meter fast hai." (Boss, your meter is running fast)
He: "Maloom hai. Aap wohi dijiye to sahi hota hai." (I know. You pay whatever is the correct fare)

I was taken back by his brutal honesty and handed him some extra bucks on my way out. Its not everyday I meet such 'honest' people ;)

P.S. - Adviced him to get his meter fixed asap too!

Height of copy-paste

2010-12-22T20:42:00.003+05:30

Though I am not really a big fan of our National Daily The Times of India, but the least I expect from this plagiarism!

But this time, they have exceeded my expectations and have done exactly that.

Article in TOI, Mumbai, Dec 21, 2010 - http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=TOIM%2F2010%2F12%2F21&PageLabel=25&EntityId=Ar02502&ViewMode=HTML&GZ=T

Source - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sachin_Tendulkar#Early_years_and_personal_life

And yes, Wiki had it up first as I had almost by-hearted the Sachin Tendulkar page :)

P.S. - Both links were last accessed on Dec 22,2010 at the time of writing this.

Luck By Chance!

2010-09-04T18:21:00.003+05:30

Last night, I happen to meet a very old neighbour of ours with whom last meeting was more than 5 years ago. Since then, we sadly lost touch and yesterday's meeting rekindled that bond once more. More than anything else, it was pure luck which made us meet and that too on the road...quite literally. I was just coming back from a nearby HDFC ATM (which I never visit though) and didi (our old neighbour) jus got off a car on the road. I was surprised to see her and took some time to confirm if she was the same person! Finally, I was sure that she is same person and she was equally surprised and happy to see me. She came home and it was great to be in touch again.

But, why do I say that this was a pure lucky meeting...thats the best part. As I mentioned, there is no reason for me to go that HDFC ATM ever. But on Friday, my boss was supposed to collect someone's salary cheque (a person posted in Hyderabad) and hand over to someone, who would have in turn deposited it HDFC account of that Hyderabad guy. Now, unluckily this 'someone' was absent on Friday due to eye flu and since I was sitting there, my boss told me to do the needful and hence, I ended up being at the ATM at that time.

As for our neighbour, she was on the way for a client dinner with her boss in his car. But one of her friends who was in town for some work missed her flight to Bangalore (thanks to traffic!) and called up to tell didi that she will be coming to her house to stay over. This made didi abandon her dinner plan and decided to get off then and there as her house was in the opposite direction as compared where was headed!

And so, we met! I dont really remember such a lucky coincidence happening before :)

Dynamic Pricing in Cinema Halls

2010-08-31T22:34:00.003+05:30

In the digital era, everyone wants to beat the ‘queue’ and hence, online ticketing is such a hit in the country – be it Airlines, shows, IPL matches, trains or movies. But as the case is, not all programs are planned in advance and hence, most often than not, we see people rushing in at airports or railway stations at the last minute to buy a ticket. But this is more true for a movie ticket as such plans are spontaneous! Alas, not always there is time to book a ticket online in such a scenario. So, people rush to the cinema hall to catch THE movie but thanks to traffic (especially in cities) and Murphy’s Law, people are late. The ticket price is the same (average Rs. 150 in a decent multiplex) and sometimes people prefer to spend time in the mall or a coffee shop. What the cinema hall has not realized that it has lost a great opportunity!

Assuming an average movie length of 135 minutes, no one minds missing first 5 minutes and will be ready to shell out the complete price for the movie. But generally, after 5-10 minutes, people are not interested in going in for the movie even if decent seats are available. At the same time, if the cinema halls drops the price to say a 100 (on base of 150), I feel they can make a decent sale!

I feel there is some catch here which I am not able to figure out and hence I have not seen this approach being taken in the country. Or maybe, if it is happening then I have not encountered it till now.

Passport blues

2010-07-26T23:10:00.001+05:30

After a horrific experience in Calcutta Passport office, I found out the procedure to apply for a passport in the Mumbai office. Apparently, it is compulsory to take an appointment in Mumbai passport office, so had to go through the same. Got an appointment for 12 noon for a date which was 10 days away (earliest available) and was advised to reach 15 minutes earlier. Once I reached there, I was astonished to see the number of people who were waiting before me. Basically, what they had done is that ‘appointment time’ enables one to be a part of the line which runs upto the required counter. Well, I got in the line but seeing the rush, I was pretty sure of not reaching the counter before 4 in the evening.

Finally, after standing in the line for 4 long hours (after seeing a 45 minute lunch break), my turn finally came. The lady started checking my documents and told me that I am short of one address proof!!! I was shell shocked as I had checked and rechecked the requirements given on the website. I told her that it is as per the website, but this fell on deaf ears and told me to come back the next day with the complete documents. I requested her to at least check my other documents and tell me if everything else is in order, which was indeed the case. But, I had to come back the next day as my one more request to consider my application did not move her!

I was also told that there is no need to take a new appointment and my old application stands valid for 10 days albeit, I need to go another counter if I am not coming on my appointment date. When I went after 2 days, I was instructed to go a general line which looked after cases of coming on non-appointed days. Here again, the wait was an arduous task as I reached at 10 when the office opened and turn came at 3:30 in the afternoon. The lady asked something in regional language which I did not understand and requested her to either talk in English or Hindi. At this, she got furious that why don’t you learn Marathi and random stuff like that. Now, why is that a problem!!! Well, I controlled my anger and told her that I will soon learn the language :P Next, she told that since my passport is damaged (which was smudged due to water), so I won’t be issued a 60 page booklet (I asked for the same instead of 36 page one) as that is a rule! I was little surprised but since it was a ‘rule’ there was nothing I could do. She cleared my application and was sent to cash counter. Here, the cashier asked for a fee of Rs. 2,500 whereas the fee is Rs. 1,000 for a 36 page booklet and Rs. 1,500 booklet! When I opposed the same, I was told that mine is ‘damaged passport re-issue’ case and hence the fee. I told her that it is a ‘expiry re-issue’ case! After some investigation, it was discovered that the first counter lady and had done a blunder in reading my application…how irresponsible are these people. Again, I had to go to the main counter and some corrections were made. Now, a new thing came up. Since she had written that my passport was damaged, now I needed an affidavit for the same from a police station which essentially meant that I need to come back again. Now, I lost my temper and told her that no-way this is gonna happen and I want to meet their senior. I went to the passport officer and had to give a small application and finally my 60 page booklet application was submitted. The whole thing took around an hour. What a criminal wastage of time I thought!

The next step is police verification in which the individual needs to go the area police station once their application reaches there. This usually takes 3 weeks but my application reached after more than a month, followed which police came for enquiry after 2 weeks at my place! I was told to visit the police station where the verification offer was working in the slowest possible speed. Since, he had to harass me, so he came up with this weird excuse that ‘road name’ was missing from my application and hence same would be rejected. I told him that there is no need to get into all this nonsense now…so in return he asked me for a ‘gift’. When I asked what specifically was needed by him, he kept quite! Well, in the meanwhile my documents were checked and I was told to meet his senior also (part of procedure). The next evening I went to meet his senior which was not a problem at all but once we came out he again asked for his ‘gift’ and again the talks went into negotiation mode. He threatened me that he is rejecting my application but then I after some more discussions, my application was finally approved!

Even after that it took more than 6 weeks (normally 2 weeks) for my new passport to come my place.

I recently read this article and was not surprised by it. When such lazy and greedy people are involved in the passport issue system, numbers are bound to come down (Verbatim from the article - in fact, last year saw a reduction in the absolute number of new passports issued). Luckily, I was not working when I had to renew my passport but for working people, it means loss of 2 full working days for standing in the line! How sad and pathetic situation is that….

India Today!

2010-07-25T22:20:00.002+05:30

Ya, I am talking about the magazine but at the same time, it reflects the state of our country’s attitude too.

I subscribed to the magazine using the online portal and was informed that subscription will start from 5th July onwards. When the magazine did not reach us even by 8th, I called up the helpline and asked the issue. They had no answer apart from ‘getting back to me.” Next week again, no magazine arrived at my place and this time my mother called the helpline, but got the same answer! The situation remained same till 20th, I decided to cancel the subscription and called the ‘help’line for the same.

I asked the executive on how to cancel the subscription and out of their process, he asked the issue, apologized and similar stuff. When I persisted for the refund, his reply was “Sir, you have called only once, why the cancellation??” This reply of his really angered me and gave him a piece of my mind. What do they expect, that I should keep calling them!!!

Well, the e-mail for cancellation is already underway and now the same request of non-cancellation keeps coming over the mail. I have not changed my stand on the issue and now waiting for my money to be refunded.

Such careless and insensitive attitude is really disgusting and that too from a group of stature of India Today…

LIC Roxxx

2010-07-22T00:21:00.000+05:30

When all payments are moving towards the online mode, it was little surprised to know that Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) had started an option to pay premium over the net. At the same time, I had my apprehensions of it working to perfection. Nevertheless, I decided to create an account and go through the portal.

It’s a pretty neat work, I must say. The menu so created is crisp and clear and the instructions are prominently displayed on the site. Policies taken in my name were added without any issues here. Then, I tried to create an account for my father too. There is a provision for creating profile for spouse and kids too in an account. So, I was trying to add some policies taken in the name of my mother but the system was continuously throwing an error and was not able to add it.

I called up the helpline and they told me to mail the issue. I sent out the mail and was pleasantly surprised to receive a reply within an hour and that too, on a Saturday! I was able to issue after this after exploiting a loophole in the programming logic :D

Overall, nice work by LIC!

‘Welcome’ by Vodafone

2010-07-20T22:44:00.000+05:30

I took a Vodafone corporate connection as I moved to Mumbai for my job. After all the verification was done, my number was activated in a day or so. In all the while, I did receive calls from them informing me about the billing cycle, call rates, helpline numbers etc.

But after a week or so after the activation, I received a SMS from them which read like this “Kindly call on XXXXXXXX (a landline number) and fix up a appointment so that we can welcome you to Vodafone.” Now, this was unheard of (atleast for me!) but on second thoughts, Vodafone did care for the time and privacy of its user.

Nevertheless, I did try the number to fix up an appointment but alas, was not able to get through even after trying multiple times. I thought, maybe there are too many people who wanted to be ‘welcomed’! ;)

Amazing Grace!!!

2010-07-01T22:48:00.001+05:30

In the last few months, my travel by auto rickshaw has drastically reduced as I drive myself now. But today morning, as the car was needed at home, I had to restore to the good old auto for reaching the office. I got one which was standing on the road in front of my building only but the driver was busy in buying ‘dhaap’(coconut water) from a road side vendor. I asked him if he is ready to go and he told me to sit. He continued to be busy in buying the coconuts and it was good 5 minutes before we started our journey as he buying in bulk and it took time to search, cut (partially) and pack them.

When we were just 2 kms away from my destination, he took a turn to the gas station for filling CNG. I protested a bit as it takes quite some time to fill the same. Moreover, there are perpetual queues at these places. Since, he had already taken the turn, I moved out of the auto and waited outside the pump (as this is the rule! – is it????)

Upon reaching the office, according to the meter reading, I calculated and told him that its Rs. 78. He was fine with it but told me that I should pay him 70 bucks only. I was taken aback a bit and asked the reason. He told me that since he made me wait initially and at the gas station (which was NOT counting in the waiting time as initially journey had not started it and he stopped the meter while at the gas station), so he was charging less as these activities wasted my time. I told him that it is fine and he should take the full fare only. But he was adamant to take less…this was something I had never faced before! So I finally told him that take atleast Rs. 75, to which he agreed and left.

In the end, I was moved by his thoughtfulness and this incident again showcased that still there are many people who are considerate in the world!

The Irony continues...

2010-06-19T19:20:00.004+05:30

As mentioned here, the same was the case in the final placements too. This post is not to criticize anyone or any industry/ organisation but just to let people know that life is not rosy as it seems to be!

During the final placements, few of the I-Banks also came for recruitment. But, the shortlisting criteria was a little confusing to see. If one had a bank internship, a shortlist was more or less assured. But on the other hand, a ranker (read top 5) who was not an intern in a bank (though a PPO holder from a leading FMCG) could not make it to any of the ahortlists.

According to me, its quite unfair as again the performance during the MBA is counting at all! It is not that grabbing a bank intern is an easy task but to large extent, it depends on one's pre-MBA track record...

"Strange" is the only word that comes to my mind after witnessing all this!

Traveling on the Burning Train

2010-06-02T19:32:00.005+05:30

After shifting base to Mumbai for over a decade, I never got a chance to travel to Pune though I had an opportunity to use the Mumbai-Pune expressway for my 2 trips to Lonavla and Khandala. But when recently, I had to stay in Pune for 2 weeks for my job, I got to see the city.

Since it was a 2 week stay, I decided to come back to Mumbai over the weekend to my home. Pune Mumbai travel was done using Indrayani Express but for the return journey, I booked on the very well known Deccan Queen Express from CST. It is indeed fast train skipping some important station like Dadar with clean coaches and courteous staff. Everything was on track and we were cruising on time. Just a kilometer or so, our train stopped. Since it was an abrupt stop or something, I thought maybe its a routine signal stop. I was engrossed in the music and did not sense anything wrong but a lot of people were moving in and out of the compartment.

After 15 minutes or so, when the train did not move, I got a little curious and asked my co-passenger if there is any issue. I was shell-shocked by his answer. He told me that the ENGINE WAS ON FIRE!

Knowing that this is an unheard incident, I decided to get down and walk to the engine to see it. The thick smoke coming out from the engine had engulfed the complete area. It was more than 20 minutes already and no fire-tender was in site. Some of the pictures of the same are here.
After an hour or so, the first fire tender arrived but the fire was just too much to handle. In the next hour or so, 6 more fire tenders came in and doused the fire. After that, a new engine came to our rescue and we started our journey back on. The only saving grace was that lights and the AC was working in the compartment.

A total of three and a half hours were wasted. Add to that the delay of other trains on the same line and cancellation of local trains which run on Kalyan-Karjat line. This incident clearly highlighted the pathetic emergency handling skills of the railways. This fire did get some space in the press!

7 Cs of Life@IIM-C

2010-06-01T10:47:00.003+05:30

Following my post on Ps of MBA, here is my post on the Cs of MBA life and especially true for IIM Calcutta!

1. Crashers - These are basically sessions for information dissemination about anything and everything. They are generally conducted by placement team for giving out requisite information, or by Student Council for knowledge ramp up for the incoming batch, or by the seniors for juniors for the summer placements regarding CV making, subject knowledge, interview prep et al and finally by the subject experts before the exams so that whole batch is able to scrap through the upcoming rough waters..!!!

2. Competitions - For people who want to showcase their talent in any field, there is no dearth for platform to do so. All the major B-Schools in the country have their cultural and business festivals annually, which is a huge opportunity to participate in various facets in functional events like marketing, HR, finance etc and also in talent events like dance and music etc. Adding to that, there are sports meet which happen with XL, IIM-B and IIFT-Kolkata, so sport enthusiasts also have opportunities to showcase their competencies.

3. Curriculum - The backbone of any B-School! Curriculum in the first year is pretty much fixed but a lot of options are available in the second year to choose from. Also, the first year subjects keep undergoing changes according to the new knowledge generated in the outside world.

4. Case studies form an integral part of pedagogy. Though, it is not 100% case-based in C, most of the subjects cover a decent number of cases for practical understanding. On a personal note, more than anything else, these case studies add to one's general knowledge a lot! If one fails to analyse the case, the key take-away can be the GK enhancement. Also, case studies are used as a tool during examination times by some of the faculty. Exams sometimes just consist of the case and questions are related to them. Also, case can be distributed a night before or during the exam.

5. Campus life is possible because of the residential nature of the program. The sense of time table is clearly broken when staying in a campus. With deadlines sometimes being 3 in the morning to 7 am, the sleep cycle goes for a toss. Also, staying in the campus 24*7 makes it possible to have things running throughout the day and night too! One never feels lonely once inside, as always there is atleast other person who is awake at any time of the day.

6. Culture of any B-School is imbibed in every soul who has been a part of the institute. It may be the inter-hostel competitions or the intra-hostel ones to exam taking strategies or treating a sister institute ;) or dealing with a particular prof! But my personal take away has been never-say-die attitude of so many people around which made me believe nothing is really impossible.

7. CV - No discussion about MBA is complete without mentioning about placements. And, nothing holds more value than one's CV, as this is the first impression a company receives about an individual. Trust me, sometimes it is not easy to pen down your life of about 23-25 years in one page highlighting the peaks of one's journey on this planet. But, the effort put on CV is a major determinant for the things to follow...

Height of Copy-Paste

2010-05-26T17:05:00.003+05:30

I received a mail some minutes ago from i-mint, to which I was forced to enroll as a ICICI Bank Credit Card Holder. This was because ICICI bank transferred all the reward points earned directly to them, although after doubling them :P

Well, on reading the mail, I could not help but laugh at the carelessness of the person who was responsible for sending it! Please see it for yourself and enjoy :)

HSBC = HaraSsment Banking Corporation

2010-05-21T12:33:00.003+05:30

Though I was pretty impressed by HSBC, the way it treats its customers, but events in the past few months have left a bad taste in my mouth and hence I have canceled my credit card with the bank!

The issue started way back in Sept/ Oct 2009 when I received my credit card statement and had to pay up by Oct 3. I dropped in the cheque by 28/ 29 Sept in one of the ATMs. Also, I dropped a cheque for credit card of another bank on the same day. The cheque of the latter got cleared on Oct 4 but strangely HSBC did not encash the cheque. I received a call from HSBC on Oct 4 informing me about the same. I told them that cheque is already dropped and they should receive the money anytime now. Nevertheless, the cheque got cleared the next day and everything was fine (atleast I thought so...)

The drama was awaiting me in the next month's statement. I was slapped late payment charges and finance charges and some interest charges on the amount, which were coming out to be a total over some 6000 INR. I immediately called up the helpline and told them the issue that the delay was from their side and I had dropped the cheque on time. But the executive told me that he was helpless in reversing the charges. I demanded to speak to the manager who was RUDE to say the least. I told them to cancel my card with immediate effect and told them clearly that I will pay whatever I have used my card for and no way I was going to pay for the inefficiency of the bank!

After this, I stopped receiving any communication from the bank and more importantly, I was not receiving any e-statements. As I was away from home, e-statement were only way to communicate with me.

In Feb 2010, I started getting calls from the bank informing me that there is an outstanding on my card. On repeated inquiry, I gathered that the fine so levied in Oct statement were going into the non-payment mode and further interest, finance and non-payment fines were getting levied. I made it very clear to person over the phone that no way I am responsible for it and I am not going to make the payment. These phone calls were coming on a daily basis and daily same conversation was taking place. Since, I was not budging from my stand, I was advised to mail the bank on info@hsbc.co.in to deal with my issue.

I first mailed them in March giving the background and detailing about everything. Also, I demanded soft copies of the statements for the past 4-5 months and to my amazement I discovered that the bank had started levying charges for Reward Points Redemption! I had no problem in paying them but I was not informed about it. Well, as always HSBC was not ready to reverse a single penny but the correspondence continued and as a 'service gesture' they reversed non-payment fine for 3 months. My mails sent henceforth were getting replied in standard manner which pissed me off to the maximum and I was forced to write a strong mail which is below.

**************************************************

I sincerely hope that my mail is read completely, thoroughly and is
first understood by HSBC. It seems that that no attention is being
paid to finer nuances here and hence again and again I am receiving
standard replies which are of no use.

I paid payment for Oct 2009 for what I had the used card for. It had
late payment charges and finance charges for prior month which are the
root cause of this dispute as I had dropped cheque on time, but bank
was late in encashing it! HSBC took a stance as if I dont know how to
make a payment and all and blatantly did not entertain any request
even though the fault is not mine. I DID NOT make the payment for late
charges and finance charges and hence the difference. If bank can do
simple additions, then one can easily conclude that I paid payment for
what I HAD USED MY CARD FOR, correct to the last paise.

Also, from where are these bonus redemption fee being levied!!!!! I
WAS NEVER INFORMED ABOUT SUCH A DEVELOPMENT. How do you expect me to
pay it! AND I REPEAT, I WAS NEVER EVER EVER INFORMED ABOUT THESE
CHARGES. I have redeemed bonus points many times in the past and I am
hearing this for the first time. Also, it seems that this charge was
levied in Dec 2009 statement which seems to have failed to reach me.
It would be great if a soft copy is sent (though I am supposed to
receive soft copy every month which I am not from time immemorial).

Kindly do not harp on reversal of some charges on the pretext of
'service gesture'. After doing a dis-service, then harassing the
customer and reversing a part of the amount is no good. Dont repeat
what I know. I have thanked for it already and will do it again now.
THANKS! But this is not solving the problem.

I am repeating myself here - Every paise for which my card was USED
has been paid back to the bank. All these outstanding amount is a
result of YOUR INEFFICIENCY beginning Sept/ Oct 2009. I am no way
going to pay these finance charges and whatever fancy names you want
to give them.

Please feel free to write to me if further clarifications are needed.

********************

After this mail, I was told to wait for 5 days and finally HSBC did reverse the whole amount :) After this, I also made the payment for Reward Point Redemption as end of the day it was a legitimate charge!

All said and done...HSBC has lost a customer!!!

4 Ps of MBA

2010-04-22T15:24:00.003+05:30

Anyone who is remotely interested in MBA must have heard about 4Ps of marketing and no MBA discussion is complete with this Philip Kotler framework. But here I will list the 4Ps of MBA itself. And anyone who has gone this course will (hopefully!) agree to these ones.

1. Presentations – Power point presentations become the order of the day for an MBA student. Everyone seems to use it at the drop of hat. Most of the books have their chapters in ppt format now, all (almost all) professors use them for teaching, companies use them big time for luring students to join their organisation, some subject require us to make ppts for a particular class and some profs are just too smart when they ask everyone to make it and pick up anyone randomly to present his/her presentation! At the end of the day, we become just too ‘good’ in making presentations and attending them. In the first few weeks of MBA, making a presentation eats up like few hours but by the end of it, it does not take more than 15 minutes ;) with number of slides not being a criteria. And ya, even the quality improves. At the end of 2 years, making a presentation is a piece of cake but cannot say the same for the attending part :P Just another thing here – subjects like statistics and courses in finance which are supposed to be ‘quant’ oriented also taught through this medium.

2. Projects and Peer group – Now, there should be a reason also to make a presentation...right?! Projects are those reasons in a B-School. All courses have their own evaluation criteria and more often than not, projects are a part of it, supplementing exams (mid-term or end-term or both) or case write-ups etc. Very rarely, projects are done individually and hence we work in groups of size of typically 3 to sometimes 10 also! When we work in a group, that is when the diversity part of a batch kicks in and we are able to appreciate each other’s viewpoint and experience. When working in a group, I personally realised my own strengths and weaknesses. The infinite brain storming sessions, conflict management times, crisis handling etc are all learnt in a project. From deciding on a topic to contents to be covered to work allocation to its final closure – each is a mission in itself. Working in different groups allows one to interact with some amazing individuals who are pretty sharp, peaked in whatever they have undertaken and yet so humble. I believe, it is true to say that learning is there in the classroom, no doubt about that but in a B-School peer group takes the learning to another level all-together. Adding to this, working on projects also enhances the learning. Over the course of 2 years, everyone does at least 20 projects on various functions of marketing or finance or strategy. This contributes to the knowledge gained beyond books, as it is said.

3. Placements – Let’s face it, 99.99% students come to a B-School for placements. So it is not surprising that placements, rather the allied activities, do take up a lot of time. It all starts when we enter the B-School as summer placements are the first BIG thing to happen on campus. CV making is the first step towards placements. I never realised that writing about me in an A4 sheet would turn out to be such a difficult task. Mentoring from seniors, help from our batchmates and sometimes alums from companies really helps one to create THE CV, albeit after typically 20 to 25 iterations. Coupled with that there are company presentations to attend, ‘gyaan’ sessions on sectors for internships, preparation sessions, mock interviews and what not. Of course, the placement process days are an experience in themselves. It is a test of confidence, resilience and one’s toughness (mental, physical, and psychological). The same process happens for the finals and the laterals (people with prior work experience) although it is comparatively less stressful and less grilling. This is due to the fact that some people get PPOs (pre-placement offers) or some don’t take participate for higher studies or entrepreneurship or going back to original organisations. The excitement and thrill witnessed during those days is just phenomenal and is really an experience of a lifetime.

4. Perpetual fight between I-bankers and consults – This is something which really left me amused in the complete stay in IIM Calcutta. Investment banking and consulting firms really vouch for talent in the B-School and the way it is done is really hilarious. The references made to other professions in a presentation or the way ‘take-aways’ are pitched vis-a-vis competing industries is a treat to watch.

Well, there are many facets of life in a B-School which would be covered in my next post – 7Cs of MBA!

Cleartrip knows how to delight customers

2010-03-08T05:13:00.004+05:30

Few days back, Cleartrip sent me a mail asking to fill a survey for them on booking international tickets. Since, I have used the site for domestic airline tickets booking and did consult the same for the US Trip too. So, I could contribute to it. Also, I was supposed to receive a Rs. 500 cash voucher after completing the survey.

I completed the survey and was promised that voucher will be sent within few days. I did receive the cash voucher on e-mail but they gave a Rs. 1,000 voucher but valid only on international tickets. I appreciated the extra offering but replied asking for domestic ticket voucher as I dont travel international!

Within a day, I received a reply which really delighted me. I was offered an extra 500 rupee cash voucher over and above the first 1000 voucher!

Now, thats customer delight I must say :)

Frustrating experience for the passport renewal in Kolkata

2010-02-08T16:49:00.003+05:30

It has been 10 years since I got my passport made and its validity expires on Feb 14 this year. Since I am staying in Kolkata for the past 2 years, I decided to do so in the city itself. Though, rules allow me to apply in Mumbai too (as that is my permanent address) but verification and all would have been a pain as my stay in Mumbai never exceeds a week.

When I inquired about the process and expected time for Kolkata, I discovered that I don't have enough time to go through the normal application route and it would be great if I use the tatkal scheme. Though it is 1000 bucks, I hoped that atleast I will have my new passport in no time! After getting all the formalities from my end (which were lotsa), I went to the passport office today morning.

Though the counter opens at 10 in the morning, apparently there is a token system for the tatkal ones which as the site suggested will begin from 9 am. After leaving the campus at 7 in the morning, I finally reached the passport office at around 0820. Upon reaching there, I was just flabbergasted by what I saw. There was atleast a 500 m long line already made for the submission of applications. I went to the main gate and tried to know about the tatkal token thing. I was told that I need to be a part of this line only and it will be done in some time. Well, I waited for 15 minutes or so when 2-3 people around me told me to go and check near the gate only for tatkal. Then I met a 'middleman' who was offering 'services' at a 'service charge' of Rs. 1,000/- and 'guaranteed' me the passport being processed itself. Well, he also confirmed that tatkal people need to be at the gate. I went there at around 0850 and found a policeman writing names of people who were there for the tatkal process.

I got my name written and the serial number was 80 and then came the revelation which left me astonished to say the least !!! There is some arbit rule which says that only the first 60 people are allowed for tatkal! So, at 9 am 60 people were let in and others were told to wait. At around 0940, 8 more people were lucky to let in as maybe some of the people let in initially did not have proper documents or something. At 10 when all counters are open, it was declared that no more tatkal applications will be accepted and they can leave for the day.

I investigated on how this token 'actually' works and to my horror I came to know token number starts from 7 in the evening of the previous day!!! And people spent the WHOLE NIGHT waiting outside the passport night.

How screwed up is that a system! A person ready to pay extra for a service and for something as critical as a passport has to go through such pains. As for me, I am letting my passport expire and will apply in Mumbai only once I am done with my course at IIM Calcutta.

SPIC MACAY @ IIM Calcutta

2010-02-07T13:46:00.003+05:30

After being associated with SPIC MACAY in NSIT, I was little sad to see that there is absence of the same in IIM-C. And I knew that it was pretty active till a few years back. Luckily, I found company in Justin, my junior from NSIT and was also an active volunteer in SPIC back then.

Both of us wanted to do it in our first year but paucity of time did not allow us to pursue. Nevertheless, we were able to arrange a small talk by none other than Dr. Kiran Seth in the campus. After this, there was lull in our enthusiasm levels too given the schedule in the campus.

But in the second year, we decided to make sure that atleast one performance is held in the campus before we leave in March 2010. We took this up with Kolkata chapter and after much persuasion and negotiations, we could bag a performance from Dr. N. Rajam.

Since it was a first performance in the campus, we needed some support and it was really heartening to see so many students volunteering in the arrangements for the performance.

The program was successfully held on Feb 4 with an amazing response from the audience in terms of turnout and participation.

Hope this continues now!

Numbers do lie!

2010-01-31T10:03:00.004+05:30

The motivation behind this post is recent recall by Toyota and Honda. And this comes an exact year after Toyota became No. 1 in the world in terms of sales.

This highlights the classic "Means v/s Ends" debate. Has Toyota cut corners in race to concentrate on sales and sales only? And this recall is NOT an one off event for a company which is known for Quality, an organisation which gave the concept of Q.U.A.L.I.T.Y. to the world. For the uninitiated, read here.

Such issues creep up when giving out various awards like best salesman in an organisation, World's No. 1 company in revenue etc. Are the methodologies adopted being equally scrutinized here? I am not pointing fingers against anyone in particular but since in these recent times, these awards have become so important that achieving numerical position sometimes overrides everything else these days.

Even 3 idiots had this dialogue when Boman Irani says that he has brought his college to the position of No.1. And Aamir replies, "What exactly is No.1?"

I feel the question still remains unanswered....

Empires of the Mind

2010-01-10T09:01:00.003+05:30

This is one of the events in Intaglio, the Annual International B-School meet of IIM Calcutta. It was an on-campus round with prelims and a final round.

Prelims round consisted of a treasure hunt followed by solving upto 12 puzzles. We were given 6 clues which pointed to 6 different locations in the campus. We had to find out those locations, note down the phrase written there and rush back to the place where it started. On submitting the phrases, we were given 12 puzzles to be solved then and there. And this whole thing had to be done in a maximum of 2 hours. We solved around 9 puzzles and thought it was decent enough.

And it was decent enough :) We were invited for the finals in which there were 5 more teams with us. The final game was even more interesting as it involved both game theory and strategic planning to the max! We were 6 mafia gangs and first had to bid for raw materials to make 3 types of weapons. All three weapons used 3 types of materials, though in different quantities and we had a limited sun of Rs. 20,000. Also the weapons so made had different attack and defense capabilities and total available raw material quantity was fixed too. We first thought of right 'weapon-mix' and then bid accordingly for the raw materials.

Our bids were good enough and we made the requisite number of weapons as planned. In the next round, teams were given option to buy more raw materials but a higher price or sell extra raw materials but a heavy discounted rate. The next round involved open negotiations between teams for trade weapons if the need be. We tried with 2 teams to negotiate but they failed. In the end, they did not hurt much :)

Next round was even more interesting in which teams could make alliance with 1 or maximum 2 teams. And then it was WAR time where teams had to attack each other. Points were given according to attack and defense capabilities of each team. Following this, teams were given extra cash and weapons at a fixed rate and we could buy as per need.

The final round was another war but this time no alliance were allowed as each team was on its own. The final score was the numerical sum of the attack and defense abilities and the final result is here.

Some prize money is on the way...!!!

When Facebook was all colours

2010-01-09T00:43:00.004+05:30

Jan 8, 2009 -> The chill in the air was less than the usual in Calcutta. It also marked the beginning of our festival. As always, I got up and got ready to attend the various competitions. But as an avid net user, I made a point to check my mail, notices and facebook. But something was different on facebook today! Some people had colours had their status messages and the only common chord was they were girls who had done this. I did not pay much heed to this and ignored it.

In the evening, however when I checked facebook again (after like 12 hours), this disease of putting-clour-status-message had spread like fire in the jungle and even had colors on gtalk statuses..!!

So, as curiosity would have it, I decided to find the reason of this. But I was lucky that a friend of mine put this link to tell the reason. Please read it and then you will understand how ridiculous the whole thing is! I mean the cause the fine but the way it is done is absolutely crappy. Using facebook to vent my feelings, I updated my status and result is there to see.

Some of the better ways

1. Having a dedicated online portal for this or open a discussion board in facebook.
2. Use print media like newspapers and ladies-magazines like Femina et al.
3. Prime-time serials attract the target women to the max and hence it would be best to do so.
4. With FM radios back in vogue and ladies equally interested in listening to it, I don't think we are far away from the people whom we want to reach out!

I feel that because we have internet and facebook, makes it imperative to USE them too...

Newsmakers of 2000 - 2009

2010-01-06T01:53:00.007+05:30

First of all, I don't buy the argument that decade has ended; it will end in 2010. I say so because there was no zeroth year, i.e., there was never a date like January 1, 0000. I am sure it started with Jan 1, 0001. So, if we count 10 years starting from the latter count, then decade starts from 2001 and ends with 2010. Well, since everyone is hailing it as an end of decade, so it be!

Here I have to tried to list of some of the highlights of the past decade and will try to break from the clutter of general stuff like Wall Street collapse or terrorism (read 9/11, Mumbai attacks et al). It is not that I don't feel that they were defining moments in the past years, but enough has been documented about them and I wont be doing justice by writing on them. So, here are my personal top-10-top-of-the-mind-recall..

1. Amitabh Bachchan - If the pre-2000 years were his worst years, then 2000 was the year of his comeback. Thanks to Kaun Banega Crorepati, it helped him to come out of difficult financial situation and also a comeback in Bollywood. He acted with some big names in Mohabbatein, Aks, Ek Rishta, Aankhen, Khakee and above all Black, which earned him a National Award for his performance.

2. Google- Though started in 1998, it gained prominence starting 2000 or 2001. The company has replaced the word 'search; from everyone's dictionary now. And the company is not known in search only; its other offerings have been instant hit and made life easy for millions across the globe. Be it GMail conversation or Google Talk simple interface or picasa to upload pics or Google Maps...you name it and its there.

3. Roger Federer - What started with a victory in Wimbledon 2003, no one thought that FedEx (as he is popularly known) will dominate Men's tennis as he did it till 2008-09. Though the grip seems to be loosening a bit now, I personally feel he will achieve a Grand Slam in a calendar year.

4. Twenty20 - How can we forget this new format of the sport of cricket?! When ODIs were introduced, people were thrilled to see the new format. But with fast paced life, even an ODI seemed to consume a lot of time and the interest in the game was diminishing. Since, need is the mother of invention, T20 was invented to bring back the interest in the sport. Involvement of players has made ODIs an high scoring affair and increased the result percentage in tests!

5. Airbus A380 - An engineering marvel! It made 850 people (all-economy) flying possible. Though marred by continuous delays and other issues surrounding it, no one can take away the sheen of the biggest bird in the sky today. Waiting to sit in it some time soon :)

6. iPhone - Only an Apple could have created such a hype for something like a cellphone which forced people to queue up outside its stores way before the stores were to be opened. The 'touch' experience was the USP and Apple made us aware that even aesthetics matter in something like a cellphone. On similar lines, I would say even Moto Razr took the world by storm when launched. Razr was the world's largest cellphone in aggregate terms for a long time, only to be beaten by iPhone.

7. E. Sreedharan - The person behind Konkan Railways and the Delhi Metro, seemingly impossible tasks given the constraints. Though Konkan Railways opened in 1998, he shot to fame after taking up the herculean task of building metro in a well-established city of Delhi. More than that, the project is running within and ahead of schedule and even surviving the pressure to complete a larger network before the Commonwealth Games 2010 in the city.

8. Telecom companies - Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance, DoCoMo, Idea and the list goes on and on. The sudden mobile explosion that took place in the country is because of presence of such companies. Though the industry is regulated, the prices are unthinkable when compared to world standards! 1p/sec or 50p/min is like half-a-dollar for a minute and that too for a STD call. No wonder, we have more mobile phones than land line phones and this helped many sections of the society as they are used not only for talking but also for information dissemination. For example, farmers get wholesale prices, fishermen receive weather updates and an investor can easily track market movements...the benefits are many :)

9. Capt.Gopinath - He wanted every Indian fly and most of them do fly now, if not everyone. The pioneer of Low-fare airlines in the country, made air travel affordable for many. It also made Indian Railways to improve it services and in the end, it is the consumers who are benefiting the most.

10. IIMs - This is a little biased, you can say. But if we really think of it, then media just gives too much attention to whatever IIMs do...be it CAT leaked in 2003 or opening of new IIM or the summer or final placements or the salary figures and above the online CAT...rather its fiasco :P I feel there are more pressing issues than salaries being offered in IIMs which require media attention.

2009 - The year that was for me

2010-01-03T19:49:00.004+05:30

Jan 1 - Party in OH with JBS performing

Jan 28 - Eveready Contest Finals

Till March first week - Term III

March second week - Delhi trip :)

March 13 - Came to know about being posted to Thailand for the internship

March 15 to April 5 - Chilling out in Mumbai

April 5 - Induction in Aditya Birla Group and flying to Bangkok in the night

Till May 30 - in Thailand

June till Aug - Term IV which which meant lots of projects and helping out juniors for their summer preps in the CV department

Aug 22 to Sep 7 - US Trip :) :)

Sep onwards - Term V with Durga pooja break and mock interviews for juniors and the summer placement process

Sep 30 - Oct 4 - Gangtok sight-seeing

Dec 5 to Dec 11 - Trip to Shillong et al

Dec 12-13 - In Surat for Ameya's marriage

Dec 24 - Watched a cricket match for the first time in a stadium and that too in Eden Gardens!

Dec 25 - 3 Idiots!

Dec 31 evening - Avatar 3 D

Dec 31 23:59:50 - Reached the party venue in the campus :)

Wishing everyone a happy and prosperous 2010 :)

The Eden Experience!

2009-12-27T16:35:00.003+05:30

In August, I came to know that an India-SL ODI match will be played in Eden Gardens, thanks to many venues opting out owing to security reasons. And by round robin allocation of matches, Kolkata got its match after a gap of 2 years. I was elated as a cricket fanatic to view a match in Eden and frankly, coming to Kolkata is not something I envisage in the times to come. When I got through IIM Calcutta, I had this wish to watch a match in the stadium. But the happiness was shortlived as this time, CAB (Cricket Association of Bengal) decided not to do any public sale of tickets and issue only passes for the match. And with this went my all hopes of watching the match.

But a day before the match, a class mate of mine messaged me informing about an extra pass (read FREE) for the day-night encounter. And I jumped on to the opportunity! Finally, I was going to watch the match first time ever in a stadium and that too in Eden :)

We reached the venue well in advance as we were warned about the mad mad crowd which result in a long queue. Here, I must salute the security arrangements made by the city police. The approach road was closed for all vehicles and we had to walk down quite some distance to reach our gate as different blocks had different entrances. We (3 of us) had to wait for classmate to arrive with the passes. In the meantime, we got our faces painted (I did not) and bought Indian flags to cheer the team. Companies were freely distributing the 4 and 6 written placard outside the stadium and hawkers made quick buck by selling food-stuff for 200-250% the price!

After a long wait, we finally made our way to the gate.Here, security frisked us atleast 5 times and did not allow any water bottles (Eden has a bad track record, remember the 1996 World Cup semi-final with the same opponent) and the only flags were allowed as people were told to remove the wooden sticks with them.

We entered and it was not easy to locate our stand as it seems that only our stand did not have any directions. After a lot of hunting, we managed to located our seats. The view from there was just amazing! It was one level up and when we entered, all the players were practicing. The crowd was cheering Indian team like anything. The toss took place at 2:15 which India lost and we had to witness India field first.

The best part about the live match viewing is the environment in the stadium. The crowd is always on its feet, cheering every ball, every run saved, a 50 or century scored (even by opposition) and creating the mexican wave. I personally enjoyed the mexican wave participation to the maximum. It just starts in one stand and keeps moving again and again...after 4-5 rounds it stops and people then clap for themselves for the commendable performance ;)

The other thing which is different is the speed and ease with which players change the field between overs or between deliveries when the batsmen change. The bowler just walks to his run-up and in the meanwhile, the field is so quickly changed. Also, when a batsman hits a ball cleanly for a boundary..the sound of timber sounds like WOW!

When India came out to bat in the lights (which were switched on at 3:30 pm), the stadium was looking just too awesome to be explained in words. The bat carried by the batsmen looked like shining armour waiting to assault the ball. Sadly, Sehwag and Sachin got out early as we wanted to experience some fireworks. More sad was that we had to leave when India were on 150 as we had more important engagements back in college. It would have been just great to be a part of winning celebrations of India in the stadium :) :)

I am surely booking the tickets for the WC 2011 final in Wankhede, Mumbai to relive the experience!

More of New York!

2009-10-23T09:48:00.002+05:30

After exciting first two days in New York, we started our day with full enthusiasm. We once again had to settle with an American breakfast though this time we went to another eating joint, which was adjacent to our hotel, called ‘Deli’ and has multiple outlets in the city.

We started our journey once again with the subway and got down at Central Park. We crossed the Central park on foot and its beauty in daylight was even better. The lush green grass really looked scenic. We reached the Metropolitan Museum of Art or MET and here again the security was quite tight. Now comes the interesting part of paying the money to enter. There is no ticket as such here but 'recommended' donations of various amounts. It was 20$ for adults but 10$ for students. I fell into the student category, thanks to my International Student I-Card. We diligently paid 50$ and moved in. Later, we realised that we are NOT obliged that amount. We could have paid just 5$ each and moved in. Nevertheless, a lesson learnt :)

This museum is just amazing with art ranging from wood to sculpture to painting to musical instruments to Egyptian etc etc etc....We did not realise when did we spend time there. The most famous thing about this museum is that it houses the very first painting of Michelangelo. As expected, photography is allowed everywhere but this painting.

It was lunch time and it was more than 2 days since we tasted Indian food. Luckily, we found a good one near Times Square which served buffet and Indian tea. Our taste buds enjoyed the food to the max and feeling of freshness just entered our tired bodies.

Next destination was the Empire State Building. We bought consolidated ticket of a skyride and for visiting the observation deck of the building which is essentially the top of the building. The skyride made us sit on a floating platform which gave us a feeling that we are flying over New York skyline. Good fun! The line for the Empire State Building is quite long and one needs to take into account this waiting time. But once we reached the top of the building, the feeling is just too awesome! NY looks just so more beautiful from there with skyline kissing the sky, water on two sides, so many bridges and horizon in the backdrop :)

We started clicking pics and did not realise that we had already spent around 3 hours being up there :P and it was time to move out. We walked back to our hotel and decided to call it a day but my other two friends went out to watch a show in Broadway, meanwhile I caught up with some old friends over the phone who are in the US.

New York continues....

2009-10-23T09:11:00.003+05:30

The day started with an American Breakfast in the cafe just adjacent to our hotel called cafe Edison. The options in vegetarian are really limited and since I am an egg-itarian, the options increased a little. One more interesting thing we noted in US. Since all 3 of us always ate together, and whenever we asked for the bill, we were asked whether we want separate or a consolidated billing?! Initially, we felt a little awkward but then we understood the culture and started asking for a consolidated bill right away.

Today, we decided to hit the Grand Central Terminal first thing in the morning. Its the central station in the city of NY from where one can get long distance trains to most of the places. It also showcases the amazing architecture which is evident in NY throughout. There are multiple terminals inside it, just like an airport, which are made according to the direction in which one wants to travel.

We moved out and headed for Chrysler Building. The interesting fact is that Chrysler and Empire State started their construction almost simultaneously and both were trying to edge out the other one as the tallest building at that time. According to initial plans, Chrysler was poised to become the tallest standing structure, but a last minute addition by Empire State builders robbed Chrysler of this stature.

United Nations headquarters was our next destination and there is a tour which can take inside it. The tours keep happening every 20 to 30 minutes and there are tours in other languages apart from English. Our tour guide was from Peru and he took us to inform about the history of UN, how they work, processes followed etc etc. We also saw the General Assembly hall where all the countries sit during a conference. Here, we were informed that all countries sitting position is rotated after every round of talk, thereby giving giving country to sit right in the front :) We were also informed about the various programs for the needy undertaken by UN through UNESCO and UNICEF, their development goals and similar activities.

Once this was over, one of our friend took off to meet someone and we 2 decided to hit the 5th Avenue. We visited the Apple Store near the Central Park, which is quite attractively made. Its an underground store with a glass enclosed entry and transparent elevator which takes one to the basement. Of course, staircase option is also there but life gives a panoramic view of the store ;) Since, I am an avid fan of the TV series The Apprentice, it made a lot of sense to check out the Trump Tower. Its open to public for few hours of the day and houses some of the elite restaurants of the city.

Next destination was Central Park, where all TV serials and movies are shot for any scene depicting any park of the country! Its covered over a huge area covered over 50 streets in length. One can spend hours exploring the park which has vast greenlands, special cycling lanes, playing area and what not!

Once it was dinner time, we decided to check out the famous restaurant called 'Hooters'. It was quite good but not much up to the hype. Since we ate a little too much, we thought of walking down to our hotel. Late into the night, my friend wanted to have some drinks and we went to two bars, found a place in one and spent some quality time there. On the way back, we saw that Times Square was completely basking in its glory with thousands of people enjoying this amazing place of the city. The best thing about Times Square is that one can sit and talk and enjoy the view and will not the time of the night. It is always so crowded, be it 11 in the night or 3 in the morning! We finally the left the place at 2 after spending like 3 hours !!!

Credit Card v/s Debit Card

2009-10-06T00:32:00.002+05:30

Recently, I went to eat dinner with a friend of mine to celebrate a long due party from his side. At the time of paying the bill, he took out his debit card and did the payment.

Once it was done, I asked him that why uses debit card and not a credit card. To this, his reply was that since debit card instantly debits money from the account, its easier to keep a check on the spending.

And this is the exact reason I personally don't use a debit card. First of all, personally I believe that holding a credit card does not make you a reckless spender and debit card stops it. If that is indeed the case, then someone has a shopping problem and needs medical help :D

According to me, there is no good reason to use a debit card over a credit card as a credit card is much better and here are the reasons for the same.

1. Since my account is instantly debited when using a debit card, one loses interest on that amount for not one but 2 months. The amount might seem to be small on the face of it but add all the amounts for a month and then calculate the loss. And for people who are thinking that how one loses 2 months interest, here's the maths. Suppose one spends on 29th of a month, the credit card statement will come by 15th of the next month and the payment needs to be done by 5th of the month after that. So, if one had used my debit card on 29th itself, the money is debited but credit card payment is done in the next 2 calender months.

2. Credit card gives more control in terms of security any day! God forbid, if someone loses debit card, then the account is under threat but credit card prevents one from that too.

3. Using credit card gives one reward points too which can be redeemed later on, which is not the case in a debit card.

4. And credit card allows one to spend much more than my account balance if the limit is quite high. This is really useful in case of emergencies and some bulk purchase if one needs to do.

So, personally I see no reason of using debit card apart from it being used to withdraw money from the ATM!

There are cities and there is New York!

2009-09-21T18:45:00.004+05:30

Continuing from where I left in the last post, our flight touched JFK airport albeit an hour late from the scheduled time. The feeling was ecstatic :) After traversing through countless escalators and travelators, I finally reached the immigration counter. As is the case with all the immigration counters, here also the divide was between the American citizens and citizens from other countries. And the number of people in my category was huge. A friend of mine who reached JFK few months back had to wait for one and a half hours to get passed the immigration. And looking at the number of people there, I was sure of spending that much time myself too.

After waiting for some 30 minutes or so, some of us got lucky and starting from the person just ahead of me, we were redirected to the US citizen counters which were running comparatively empty. My number came in next 10 minutes and the immigration officer. He was a friendly guy and asked some general questions. In the middle of the conversation, he asked me, "So, you doing your masters right?". I replied in the affirmative.

Officer: " Is that the IIT?"

Me (Not very suprised): "No, they are engineering institutes for the graduate degrees. I am doing my management from the Indian Institute of Management."

Officer: "Oh! You from an IIM!"

Me (all smiles): "ya"

Officer: " Which one?"

Me: "Calcutta"

Officer: "Good!"

This made me even more happy :D After this, he gave me some random gyaan on body building tips so that I am able to impress Kareena Kapoor and Preity Zinta. To which, I told him that I am not interested in them ;) The conversation ended there and I moved towards baggage area. My suitcase came in quickly and I made my way out of the airport expecting my friend to be there.

But as the case most of the times, he was not there. I searched for him in all the possible places but no use. Finally, I decided to call him but pay phone there accept only quarters for which I needed change. Before making the call, I decided to look for him once more and this time, I was lucky :) He justified his arrival time by considering his immigration wait of one and a half hours :P

Well, we made our way out for the city and took a train from the airport to the nearest MRT station. From there, I took the underground train for Times Square, where my hotel was. It was a long long journey to Manhattan from the Airport and took it me around an hour or so to reach there!

Finally, I alighted at the station and came out in Manhattan.

The feeling was OVERWHELMING!!! The city just hits you! It seems that one is inside a video game where one is surrounded by people and tall buildings and taxis and what not! Its just so so so difficult to explain the feeling in words.

On the way to the hotel, I saw Times Square, NASDAQ and world headquarters of Morgan Stanley. After a bit of rest and freshening up, all of us planned to go to Statue of Liberty.

We took the Subway as that is best way to commute in New York. But the subway network there is not so easy to understand. There are multiple lines and they change over the weekend. Sometimes, there is repair work and regular maintenance going on which adds to confusion ;) But at the same time, very detail maps are available to understand the network. Also, the fare is uniform of $ 2.25 irrespective of boarding and destination station.

We reach the downtown area and walked to Wall Street and saw the stock exchange - NYSE, memorial hall and other bank buildings. Also got a chance to see the famous Merrill Lynch Bull :) From there, we moved to Battery Park which is the place to board the ferry to the Statue of Liberty. Since, we were a little late in the evening, it was not possible to cover Ellis Island too. If one wants to cover both, one should reach there by 2 in the afternoon. Nevertheless, we took our tickets and headed for security check, which was equivalent to airport level checking :P

Finally, we were on the ferry and the view is alluring when one is on the ferry. Downtown skyline, Jersey skyline and Statue of Liberty - all 3 together give a view which is out of this world. The journey was spent in clicking pictures and same activity once we reached the statue too! Moreover, the return journey was made more enjoyable with the setting sun and the cool breeze.

Once back on land, we decided to visit Macy's, the famous 7-floor shopping store, though did not buy anything. Since, it was dinner time now, we tried out Sbarro's pizza which were quite good and the dining area was underground. The interesting part was that this dining area directly opened into a Subway station :D

We reached back our hotel, after spending some time at Times Square. Any amount of time can be spent at Times Square, especially in the night!

Not a bad start to the tour, I thought :)

P.S. - I know I am very late in posting all this but I will cover my complete journey for sure in the coming days.

A journey of thousands of miles began with a well....a small chat!

2009-09-20T16:48:00.002+05:30

As I had mentioned it here that 3 of us planned to go to the US for a trip. Now, a little background of how this trip happened! My one friend and I were just discussing over gtalk that it has been a long time since all of us went out together somewhere, the last trip being to Kerala in December 2007, where we celebrated the new year too!

We continued talking and discovered that both of us are free in the last week of August and our third friend is also planning to take a leave that time around. Both of us thought of some options like Andaman or North East and similar stuff.

He suddenly said that we should go to the US! I was like, come on...thats never gonna happen. He said if he give ourselves 2 weeks instead of a week, we can surely cover US. With one of another very close friend in San Francisco, it was workable and he can also join in. I could see the feasibility of the plan and ended the conversation by gaining some time.

After contemplating options, financial considerations etc, we planned to go ahead the US plan. We planned to cover 5 cities - New York, Boston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Francisco. The list was finalised after many talks over the gtalk and phone calls and google search and what not! Same was the case with flight bookings, hotel bookings, car booking (we planned to drive from LA to SFO) amongst other things. Also, both of my other friends were flying from Delhi and I was to fly out a day later from Kolkata as I had my end term exams for the 4th term.

Finally, Aug 22 dawned and I had my one of the toughest paper! In the evening, I was slated to leave for New York via Dubai as I took Emirates. As per convention, I reached the airport 3 hours prior to departure but this was really not needed. The check-in was through and through till destination and was smooth. There were very few people everywhere and so was the immigration.

The immigration officer asked very routine questions about why I am going, whats my current status etc. After all this routine stuff, I reached the waiting lounge. Since I had 2 hours to my disposal, I decided to call my family and folks and friends.

When I was done with my talking, I looked around the airport (and thought about the preceding areas) and felt sad at the pathetic condition of our airports. I still wonder why other countries have such amazing airports and why cant be the same with out own airports??!!

Well, finally the boarding was announced and it was a small aircraft for the Kolkata-Dubai leg with 2-4-2 configuration. The economy of Emirates is good! And I was pleasantly surprised by the leg room offered by them.

The flight took off and thanks to my Asian Vegetarian meal option (it was a special meal), I got my dinner pretty fast. In the meanwhile, I enjoyed the entertainment system by watching a movie and listening to some songs. Moreover, it was just 5 hour journey and I had planned not to sleep on this leg of the journey so as to tire myself for the next one, sleep there and reach US absolutely fresh! Moreover, the food is pretty good by any standard and the quantity was adequate.

We reached Dubai before time and it is just amazing to see the area over which the Dubai airport has been built. There are atleast 4 runways there and I saw another aircraft just landing besides us and another one taking off at the far end when we ended taxiing. A bus carried us to our terminal which seemed to be like in another world. We kept moving and moving passing infinite aircrafts parked at the airport. It was a good 15 minute drive before I entered the Emirates terminal building. The building is a massive structure and equally neat and clean. The unique point about it is that it has only Rolex clocks and that too one after every 200 m.

Now, this was the arrival departure and nowhere I could see the sign for transit or departure passengers. I almost reached the immigration and here I finally saw an Emirates help desk. He guided me to take the lift and go to the next floor and then directions could help me to reach my gate for the flight to NY.

When I went inside the lift, man...it was huge. The lift was designed to carry 120 passengers at one time and here I was alone in it. Its amazing to see the engineering marvels in Dubai. Upon reaching the floor, I could see the departure gate signs but since its a massive airport I reached my gate after a 20 minute walk. Before hand, I knew that Dubai Airport offers free Wi-fi and I thought of updating my folks about it. Since it was just a 2 hour transit, there was nothing else which could be done. Ya, I did check out some duty-free shops :)

My boarding was announced on time but the flight was delayed by 45 minutes due to an incoming connecting flight getting delayed. The moment I hit my seat here, I slept off; only to be woken by the hostess to offer me my another meal. I ate a little bit and slept off in deep sleep.

Bad weather caused some bad jerks and I woke up at that time. The view inside the aircraft was night like. The aircraft was pitch dark and they even simulated night by lighting up stars in the roof! Since, I was too tired, I slept again but the hostess woke me up again, this time for the breakfast. Now, in the breakfast I got the least expected item - 'Poha', a rice dish which I just love to eat.

In an hour or so, I heard the announcement by the pilot, "We are going to land at the JFK, New York in some time now." Yippee...I was finally here! :)

ICICI Bank Customer Service SUCKS!

2009-08-16T04:30:00.003+05:30

I am an ICICI Bank Credit Card customer for more than 5 years now. I was issued a silver card back then and was upgraded to Gold Card 3 years back owing to my clear credit record. I am a Gold customer since then and have maintained the same clean record.

Last month, I forgot to make the payment on time (just slipped out of my mind) and made it 2 days late. On Friday, I received my bill on which I was slapped a Rs. 400 fine and some service tax on it, taking the total to Rs. 440 something. When I called the customer service, I was told that bank is not considering any reversal. I asked to speak to the manager and was told as he is busy with some other call, I cant speak to him. I told the customer support guy to atleast take my complaint which he did. I was given the assurance that I will hear from the bank about this by Saturday night.

Since I did not receive any reply, I called the helpline once more few minutes back and told my case. The phone agent told me that no complaint was lodged on Friday and no communication is pending from bank's side. I was shocked to say the least! The previous guy had blatantly lied to me. I told this person about fine reversal and he too told me the same about no reversal being possible. I told him, well in that case ICICI should cancel my card and I will clear the outstanding without paying the fine. Then I was told to hold the line.

After 3 to 4 minute of holding the line, I was informed that my reversal is accepted and a confirmation SMS will come to me within an hour. I also lodged the complaint against the person who bluffed me on my last call on Friday. Lets see what happens.

I think ICICI should take some lessons from their competitors in customer service.

Class Statements III

2009-08-10T11:27:00.005+05:30

After publishing the second edition here, following are 3 more brilliant statements made in some of my classes this term.

3. There is a concept of Class Participation (CP), wherein, an individual is evaluated on the basis of valuable inputs made during the discussion in a class. Since it involves marks, everyone tries to pitch in. So, sometimes people just speak for the heck of it and it is labeled as DP or desperate participation. Though, CP marks are given on the basis of contribution made throughout the course, some people realise it very late in the course that they have not done any CP till date. This happened with one of my classmates in one of the subject called "Strategic Human Resource Management in Services." In one class, he just started to make "too much" contribution to the discussion and the Prof. understood this. So, after some time, Prof. finally said, "Enough for today, you have already got 0.00001% of your CP marks today." ;)

2. In the same subject, we were discussing a case on a particular Airline and discussion was on how to motivate different employees of an airline - crew, staff, ground handling people, pilots etc. For every category, we came up with solutions to motivate them except for pilots. The argument was that pilots are already well-paid, command a premium as they are rare, given facilities etc., so nothing extra can be done to motivate them to perform in their job. This is when one of my classmates came with this - "Pilots have a personal interest in performing in their job." Implying non-performance will result in death ;)

1. I have taken a subject called "Fixed Income Markets." As the name suggests, it deals with fixed income instruments like bonds, T-bills etc. So, we had an excel based quiz in which questions needed to be solved using Excel. The test was really tough and all of us were really hit hard by it. After the test was over, the faculty understood the situation and said, "Now you know why are bond traders paid so much!"

Samhar 2009: IIM Calcutta v/s IIM Bangalore

2009-08-09T19:33:00.002+05:30

It was ‘Samhar’ time in IIM Calcutta for two days. Samhar is an annual sporting event between IIM Calcutta and IIM Bangalore with each campus hosting it every alternate year. It started in 2007 with IIM C playing the host.

IIM B had won the previous two editions and last year 15-2 overall score against IIM C was hurting to say the least. This year, the incoming batch showed a lot of enthusiasm right from the time of admissions on the Google group formed for them. They discussed the various sport facilities on the campus, people who had prior experience of playing at respectable levels offered their coaching skills etc. The enthusiasm level was visible this time when we reached the campus. All the courts were always occupied with both batches putting in their best of efforts. I am sure all the captains had a hard time in selecting the players this time!

Finally, on last Friday (August 8, 2009), the contingent from IIM B arrived and was a ‘grand’ welcome (can’t explain here for obvious reasons ;)). There was nothing scheduled for Friday night and the matches started on Saturday morning.
Some of the events were held outside the campus like cricket, hockey, snooker and swimming. Other events like carom, basketball, volleyball, badminton, chess and tennis were held inside the campus. Cricket was one sided in favour of IIM C for a long time but B did a fight while chasing 190 in 25 overs. They lost 7 wickets under 100 runs but ended up with 200 runs odd. Football was 0-0 till the end of the match but C lost 3-0 in the penalty shootout. Girl’s basketball team from B was too good for us but the reverse trend was seen for men’s basketball. One result which we did not expect was losing men’s volleyball and that too in straight sets. C won in snooker, chess, men’s TT and B won in badminton (both men and women), girl’s TT and carrom. C completely dominated athletics and swimming and were easy victories for us.

The final score line read 9-7 in favour of IIM B. Tennis was not completed owing to rains and was tied at 1-1 with one more match to go. In the end, C showed great improvement from last year but B took the trophy third year in a row.

Airlines plan strike on Aug 18, 2009 - Will it work?

2009-08-01T10:10:00.003+05:30

India's leading private airlines - Jet, Kingfisher, IndiGo, SpiceJet and GoAir (as of now) - have decided to go on a nationwide strike on August 18 to compel the Government to reduce tax on ATF and reduce rentals on various services availed by the airlines. This would mean around 12,000 cancellations on the D-Day. The strike is planned as airlines are continuously losing money and it is estimated to the tune of Rs. 10,000 crores.

Is the strike really a good idea? First of all, Jet and Kingfisher cannot blame the Government for their losses. The reason of their losses, to a large extended, can be attributed to the takeover of Air Sahara and Air Deccan respectively, which were loss making entities. Jet made a blunder by acquiring an all Airbus fleet when it had its owning Boeing fleet.

Second, the so called LCC (low cost carriers) in the country are NOT LCC in principle. They are just LOW FARE airlines. As compared to other countries, such LCCs have a different business model. Those airlines operate out of less congested airports, hence pay less airport tax and even pay lesser salaries to their pilots, crew and ground staff.

Even if the strike goes through, Government still not might relent. Rather, it can see this as an opportunity to add few bucks to NACIL, which is under heavy losses currently. Also, NACIL has extensive reach in the country and passengers, in principle, can avail their services.

Finally, the airlines need to realise that they are digging their own grave by doing such an act. If they go an indefinite strike, they need to refund passengers which will be adding to more losses.

Personally, I feel that Airlines stand to lose with this act of theirs!

Why can't HRD leave IIMs alone?

2009-07-31T22:53:00.004+05:30

Our HRD ministry seems to be in love with the IIMs. They started with the proposal of decreasing the fee to Rs. 1 lac some years ago, then quota implementation, quota for teachers and now have given this brilliant idea of having integrated interviews.

The idea is a great one, on the face of it; given the fact that right now there are 7 IIMs and it is planned to increase to 13 (which will spoil brand IIM - different issue though), so a student will have to undergo just one interview instead of multiple rounds. And the reference is given to the Civil Service selection.

This would have made sense had all IIMs had the same selection criteria. With all IIMs giving different weightage to different things like CAT, past academic record, work experience, extra-currics or recommendations (IIM B is the only one as of now asking for it), the student will have different shortlists. Moreover, how will the composition be done for the panel who will be interviewing? Currently, it is the professor or alums of the particular IIM who interview the candidate. Lastly, there are some clear skills which a particular IIM looks for and that is reflected in the GD or case study handed out or the types of questions asked. For example, IIM Calcutta always stress on 'quanti' stuff and asking puzzles and lots of maths in an interview.

The advice given out is fine but it would have been better if HRD had its homework. And my sincere advice to HRD - leave the IITs and IIMs alone; please focus on primary education. That's where the problem lies in the country!

And finally got it...

2009-07-29T18:05:00.005+05:30

After interviewing for the US visa, the wait for passport delivery begins. Now, the embassy gives us 2 options to collect the passport. One is to collect from VFS office (the agency handling the operations for them in the city) near Park Street or get it couriered to one's place by Blue Dart. Since, IIM C campus does not fall into the delivery zone of Blue Dart, the second option was ruled out and instead I could collect it from Blue Dart office at the Airport!

Moreover, collection is possible from VFS only the next day of the interview and that too from 1400 hrs to 1600 hrs; else they will send it to Blue Dart office. I called up VFS office in the morning and inquired about my passport. They checked their records, had no information about my passport and advised to call at 2 pm. I was scheduled to meet a company official for a project near the airport and so I left for the same.

Once my interview was over, which went quite fine, it was 3 pm and it suddenly struck me to call VFS office. I tried their number multiple times but the sad Airtel connection did not allow me to connect. And even if it did connect, the call dropped multiple times. I decided to use the SMS service, but as the luck had it, the message was not getting delivered! After more trials, I finally got to speak to VFS operator and indeed my passport was lying in their office and I had just about 50 minutes to reach their office from the Airport.

I hired a cab and he very confidently told me that even with traffic, we can make it in max 40 minutes to the destination. Little did I know that Calcutta Metro would have been a convenient, cheaper and faster option. Trusting him, I jumped into the cab and thus began the journey. Luckily, he took me through the by-pass route which promised no traffic which was indeed true. But, nothing comes for free and I could see the taxi meter moving like Akhtar's deliveries!

While in the cab, I received an SMS that my message for passport enquiry has been delivered and Airtel 'thanked' me for using this tracking service. I was amazed to read this but when I read the next line, I was shell shocked! I was charged Rs. 10 for this service !!! The point is that it was never mentioned that I will be charged that amount for the service. I thought it will be a normal Rs.3 SMS charge for a service when a message is sent to a 5 digit number. Moreover, somehow any visa activity seem to give license to everyone in the world to charge any amount of insane money. I experienced this when went to my photo clicked for the visa form. The US visa have strict photo specifications and everyone has to get them clicked, come what may! When I went to the photographer and asked rate for photos, he told me its 50 odd for normal passport pics. I asked photos for visa and rates skyrocketed to Rs. 300 for 4 pics. I was dumbfounded. That's daylight robbing going on! I negogiated and finally managed to bring it down to 275, but still it was too much to pay.

Nevertheless, no point in thinking about this now. The taxi had beaten a majority part of the traffic but finally I could not escape the traffic moving at snail's place. It was 1540 and cabbie assured me of me making it there in max 10 more minutes. But the traffic refused to move and if it did, it was not more than 50 meters in one shot. I still kept my cool as I had a buffer of 10 minutes. The traffic moved, albeit slowly and steadily but in some time I realised that I am going to be late for sure. The cabbie was also helpless as there was just no space to move. I decided to call the helpline and inform them that I will be late by 5-10 minutes and if possible, please consider my case. But as the Murphy's Law exists, it was bound to happen. I just could get through the helpline at all :(

Amongst this crazy setting, we moved out of the traffic area and then the cabbie rammed the accelerator and we were moving at a frenetic pace. But alas, I was late and reached the building at 1607. I was late but I still wanted to take a shot. I paid the cabbie and ran into the building. I asked the guard the floor of the office and it was on the 14th floor of this 14 floor building. Why the top floor only?! Well, I went inside and saw that first lift was meant for first 7 floors, moved on to the next one to discover that it was for 7th to 14th floor but was out of order. Grrrr!!! Saw the third lift, it was for all 14 floors and was working too. 2 more people were waiting with me for this lift. The lift arrived and all 3 announced "14" as the destination floor to the lift-man. He closed the door but another guy stepped in by putting his foot between the closing doors, which reminded me of Amitabh Bachchan doing it in Deewar :D He had to go to the 12th floor, which meant some extra seconds for me!

Thankfully, lift was a high speed lift and I reached the VFS office at 1610. Now the guard did not allow me inside as officially the time was over. He was doing his duty and he was right in doing so. I pleaded him saying that I am a student of IIM Calcutta, and will need to go to airport to collect it from Blue Dart as Joka is not in the delivery zone. He was not budging at all and I told him to allow me to speak to someone, to which also he did not agree. I gave him my IIM Caclutta I-card and requested him to speak on my behalf to the officer. He agreed to this proposal and went inside. He came out after 2 minutes and allowed me in. I showed the required identification and collected the passport. I must have thanked that officer some 100 times for considering my case.

I opened to check my passport and was delighted to see a 10 year, multiple entry visa stamped! I came out and thanked the guard again and again :) :)

As it is said - All's well that ends well!

US Visa Interview experience

2009-07-27T14:55:00.005+05:30

Two of my friends and I are planning to go to the US in August end/ Sept first week. Now, how this plan was made will be covered in another post soon. We booked our flight tickets first and then took the visa dates. I was given the 9 am slot for today July 27 in the Kolkata consulate.

Before taking the date, I had to do a lot of groundwork for the same. Applying for a tourist visa calls for a groundwork. Since, I had already booked my tickets, I felt rather peaceful about the whole thing. Then I needed to show my bank statements, Income Tax returns, got a bonafide certificate from my college, PAN card copy, Credit card copy etc.

It is advised to reach the consulate 15 minutes prior to the appointment but I reached at 8 30 only. The appointment letter and HDFC bank receipt (used to pay the visa fees) are checked. No mobile phones and bags are allowed inside the consulate, so it is better not to take them in the first place.

After a brief security check, a queue is there to see the basic forms of the visa. Once the verification is done, one is asked to wait. The name is called out for fingerprinting record. After that, starts the wait for the interview call.

I was called quite quickly for my interview. I greeted the lady across the counter and the interview started.

She: Why are you going to the US?

Me: Sightseeing, leisure

She: You know anyone in the US?

Me: No, all my relatives and family are in India

She: What are you right now?

Me: A second year student in IIM Calcutta MBA Program

She: Who is funding your trip?

Me: I am, from my savings.

She: When did you graduate?

Me: 2004

She: Where and how long you worked?

Me: HCL Technologies for 3 years.

She: How much was your salary?

Me: Told her...

She: How long you have been in IIM?

Me: Joined in last June

She: What all subjects you studied last year?

Me: (stumped, not prepared for this one) umm..marketing, marketing, stats, marketing.....(long pause) strategy, economic and political history, risk management..(took some more names)..(she looked little suspicious)....should I tell my subjects in this year?

She: Its fine.

After some data entry and paperwork, she looks up again and says "Your visa is APPROVED. Com after 4-5 days to collect it."

The whole thing took max 50 minutes. Surprisingly, no one checked any of the documents taken along but it is always better to take them.

Go Kiss the World - Part 2

2009-07-26T20:22:00.004+05:30

Now I was not able to hold myself back and completed the book today itself. So, as promised here are some more amazing quotes from it.

1. Mother Teresa once said “God does not require us to succeed, he asks only us to try."

2. In worst of the times, the job of a leader is to let his or her people know that there is tomorrow.

3. All that good parents can do is to inculcate in their children the sense that "when they make a choice, they also choose he consequences."

4. Open your mind before you open your mouth.

5. Many professionals shudder at the thought of physical displacement, yet crave rapid mobility and growth in their careers. When you are continuously displaced, you make friends easily. You have low expectations from the unfamiliar hence you are more pleasantly surprised than frustrated when faced with life's many ups and downs. You explore everything around you, develop curiosity - new lands, customs, food, and ways of doing things begin to draw you in. You learn to survive on the strength of who you are, just for this day, today. You build ingenuity in order to survive. You trust strangers and, hence, strangers trust you. You build intuitive capability to sniff trouble - which can tell you when to leave a bar! You become an interesting person, because you have lots of stories to tell. Finally, you learn to move on.

6. And finally the last line of the book - Making it in life is not about material benefits and carving individual success; it is about moving from brightness to greater brightness, while taking people along. It is not about making it big, but about making it good.

Go Kiss the World

2009-07-26T12:43:00.004+05:30

I am reading this book written by Subroto Bagchi. He tells about his life experiences since his early childhood and is an interesting read. I am half way through and wanted to quote of the wonderful lines he has written. I am sure I must have missed some of the ones from the first half of the bok, but I will cover them in my next post.

Here they are

1. Sometimes, not handing out punishment when it is most expected is the best way to bring lasting pretence.
2. Success is your ability to rise above your discomfort, whatever your current state of wealth.
3. If one is good is in his work, the designation does not matter in the long run.
4. One has to start with a sales job to make it to the top.
5. Most people covet good jobs great posting higher salaries than their friends and a rather elusive elixir called job satisfaction.
6. Negative public opinion most often has some basis and we must have grace to accept it.
7. While it takes time to build perception, it takes even longer for perceptions to change.
8. No decision is without risk, but when you take the time to think things through, you take very few regrettable decisions.
9. The first three jobs do not shape one's career.

More will follow soon...

You have no right to complain, Mr. Ponting

2009-07-14T11:04:00.005+05:30

High stake tournaments in any sport brings out the best of any player and the worst too - be it World Cup in Soccer or cricket or Wimbledon or "Flash Gordon" in IIM C ;) (I just hope some IIMCian is reading this and will be able to appreciate it) or much hyped Ashes series between Australia and England.

No doubt, Australia deserved to win the first win after a fantastic batting display and some superb bowling in the second innings. But thanks to last wicket partnership, England was able to save the match.

And now comes the statement of the century. "England did not display sportsmanship. They used time wasting tactics in the end." This came from none other than, Mr. Ponting. Are such people allowed to make such statements?! He needs to refresh some memory of his and go back only one and half years.

The matter of the fact is that Australia is not able to come terms with the fact that the last wicket partnership held nerve for 40 minutes and saved the test. Come on team Australia, you also tried it way back in 2005.

Learn to give credit to opposition too :)

Nokia 7210 Supernova

2009-07-01T15:19:00.004+05:30

After experiencing an airline ticket purchase online, I am here to write my experience on a mobile buying these days which is much more time consuming and involves physical labour too ;)

I was contemplating to buy a new mobile handset and finally last weekend, I set out to a nearby (well, not so near) 'Mobile Store'. When I reached there, I found that a 'Hot Spot' outlet has also opened absolutely adjacent. As Hot Spot has some 'assured' prize winning scheme going on, I decided to give this place the first shot.

I told my budget of 5 to 6k and a NOKIA phone, come what may, preferably no camera :D He showed me 7210 Supernova with a price tag of 5300 and music express 5130 or 5310 for 5800 INR. Then he brought this Sony W 310 for 5000 and according to him was the BEST phone. The seller was really pushing hard for this model. Now, my MBA has taught me one thing - if a dealer is pushing for a lower priced product at the same margin, then something is definitely not right somewhere. I really liked Supernova model but with a 1 GB card, I was not getting the data cable!

I moved to Mobile Store next door and was shown the same 2 models of Nokia but no data cable again with Supernova. He also showed me an awesome Samsung slider phone too, again for 5100. When I asked for his advice, he quietly told me to go for Nokia, coz its a Nokia :) Here, I enquired about Sony W 310 and was told that production has been stopped and anyone selling it would be clearing an old stock (which confirmed my previous apprehension. I did indeed checked on the net afterwards and found that Mobile Store was right).

Last, in the line was a Nokia Priority Dealer, who was offering Supernova model for 5,300 INR WITH a data cable! I had no question in mind to go for this model now. This model is fully loaded - 2 MP camera, 1 GB card, data cable, video recording, expandable memory upto 2 GB, Radio, MP 3 player, Bluetooth, excellent sound quality, absolutely sleek finish :)

Its turning out to be a good buy till now atleast!

How can so varied people make the same mistake?!

2009-06-28T15:20:00.003+05:30

Last year, when I arrived in Calcutta, I obviously took a new number. And I mailed many people informing them about my new number. And they did it without any issue.

Now, there are always some people who either ignore such mails or do not take action right away and some people are inadvertently left out from mailing list. These people asked for my number over gtalk and I gave them my number then and there.

Here, starts the interesting part. All and yes, I mean ALL of my friends who took my number over the chat got it wrong. My number ends in '336' but all of them noted it incorrectly as '366' When they tried calling and could not get through, they pinged again and asked and got it correct this time. I thought that maybe I wrote it incorrectly but that was not the case, thanks to saved chat in Gmail!

What prompted me to write this today was the time when the same thing happened again a few minutes back. A friend wanted to talk about his MBA admission and all and took my number over the chat. And ya, he got it wrong too :D

Cant think of any conrete reason for this ;)

CAT finally goes online!

2009-05-14T09:18:00.001+05:30

With CAT going online, all aspirants are set to gain. First and
foremost, by giving a 10 day window, the aspirant can choose the
convenient time and day to take the test. Secondly, the test
environment is going to be same for everyone and hence quality of test
center issues will be taken care of. Moreover, the current generation
is tech-savvy to a large extent and hence working with computers is
not a new thing for them. Also, some of the graduation level entrance
exams are already online so it won’t be much of a change for them.
Since, the notification has come 6 months in advance; aspirants will
get ample time to practice too. Online exam also eases the process of
center-change for taking exam which is not a possibility right now.
Most importantly, the test conducting agency is a global veteran,
teething problems won’t arise. Moving forward, the test can be
conducted in centres outside the country maintaining the test-taking
time window. This will give people abroad to take CAT/GMAT both for
admissions to the IIMs and other institutes.

Online CAT was long due and it’s good to see it coming finally.

P.S. – Business standard newspaper liked it so much that they decided to hand me out a reward of Rs. 500 for this! Check out the edition dated May 11, Page 15 on the top right hand corner :)

Arbitrage at its best

2009-05-14T09:17:00.001+05:30

It has been over 5 weeks since I arrived in Thailand and there is no doubt that electronic items are definitely cheap as compared to India when it comes to laptops, medium and top end mobile phones, cameras and TVs.

I recently went to the Bangkok International Airport to drop someone who was going back to Mumbai. At the Bangkok International Airport, even a non-passenger can enter the airport building, can reach the check-in areas of airlines, roam around inside the airport and is stopped just before the immigration check. Nevertheless, both of us went to airline check-in counter. Next to us was the check-in counter for the Calcutta flight for the same airline. And I saw a big group of about 30 people there, each carrying a set of LCD TV! Now, this amazed me that how on earth can one need so many TVs back home?! I carried my curiosity back to my place and forgot about it.

After having a chat with someone here, I came to know about this “arbitrage” which is going on here. This is how the arrangement works. Same model of LCD TV costs around INR 75,000 in India and in Thailand it is around THB 30,000 (~INR 42,000; 1 THB (Thai Baht) = 1.4 INR approx). people buy TV here, pay a minimal duty of 2,500 in India, take this to “grey” market in metro cities of the country and sell it there for around INR 60,000 and receive cash for the same. The difference is almost sufficient to get a Bangkok return ticket from India! The dealer in India can easily sell the same set at a better margin now :)

Now that explains those 30 TVs being taken checked in :P

Spoilt For Choice – Online Airline Bookings

2009-05-14T09:10:00.001+05:30

I always thought that searching for a house is one of the toughest activities to undertake but now I am not sure about it. Something which gives a close competition to house-hunting process is…online airline ticket booking.

The reason for this is that virtually every day we have new travel portals coming up and offering some wonderful discounts. Add to that the older players like www.makemytrip.com or www.cleartrip.com or www.yatra.com. They also offer great packages on airline booking. The issue complicates when they also offer discounts. Now, even with the discounts are on some airlines when booking is done with some particular credit card on some routes and other trillions of conditions applied.

Furthermore, all airlines have their individual website which also give out offers. For example, SpiceJet offers discount on return booking, just like international carriers. Indian Airlines also gives a flat 10% discount if a ticket is booked 30 days in advance. (These offers were on when I am writing this :D) And for reasons unknown to me, GoAir does not figure in any of the travel portal searches. Since, they don’t fly to Calcutta, which they might now given that they are flying to Guhawati and Bagdogra now, I don’t really need to check their offerings. Else, I need to check their site as my experience has been really good with them in the past.

So, when I had to plan my travel from Kolkata for some places, I had to take the plunge in the vast ocean of websites. I started with travel portals and checked out the timings of available flights. Moved to individual websites of the airlines to compare fares and they were much lesser as opposed what was being offered by portals. I chose to compare fares being offered by some of not so popular portals like www.ezeego1.co.in and www.travelocity.co.in and much to my amazement, the latter one was offering tickets less than what airlines themselves were offering! I chose the last one for my booking finally and I am quite sure of getting the best deal possible on the day of booking for my travel dates.

Moreover, in the end I would strongly recommend that please do check airlines websites as for some strange reason some of the flights are not shown in the search results of the travel portals. For example, there is a 1450 flight from Calcutta to Delhi (which suited me best and finally booked this) which was not coming in the search result of some but I got to know about it from the JetLite website. Also, please do see the breakup of the fare being offered by any website. Some of them charge for insurance, which is not needed and also charge if one blocks seat at the time of booking!

No doubt going online has eased the process of booking airline tickets, it also calls for a lot of prudence and site-searching.

Catching up...

2009-04-11T14:49:00.003+05:30

Let me inform you at the outset – This is going to be a long post, so read in leisure time :D It has been a long time since I updated my blog, owing to rigor in IIM Calcutta, a real hectic week long trip to Delhi, and a 3 week holiday in Mumbai. On top of that, no regular net connection also kept out of action for almost over a month.

Well, I completed my first year of my MBA (ya again!) and headed to Delhi to catch up with relatives and old friends. It was a week-long trip which was quite hectic, coupled with not-so friendly weather there. All in all, it was great to meet some people after a really long time in life :) And more importantly, finally got the chance to see the Akshardham Temple, near Commonwealth Games Village with some of C classmates.

Then, I headed to Mumbai for a 3-week stay there before joining my internship. Here also, I met with old friends and watch the famous play – ‘Class of 84’ being played in National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA). It was a nice play and I would recommend it to anyone who has not seen it till now. And those have seen it, would agree with me on this :)

This time, I also got a chance to watch 3 plays in the Performing Arts Festival of IIT Bombay. They were absolute brilliant performances and one cannot stop admiring the efforts put in by every student there.

In the meantime, I got the news that I will be interning in Thailand in a phosphate plant of Aditya Birla Group located in Samrong, Samut Prakan province, about 20 kms from Bangkok. I was excited to say the least :D

Finally, the D-Day arrived. All the group interns were to join by 5th April evening in ABG’s training center called ‘Gyanodaya’ in Belapur, near Mumbai. I reached around 8 in the night and was shown by room. My room partner was one of my batchmates from C only. The rooms were just WOW and so were all the arrangements.

The evening was left to us to socialize with fellow interns from other institutes. Post-dinner, we batchmates from C, caught up on lotsa things on campus talks, year gone by, internship projects et al. All of us then started playing cards and this continued late into the night.

Morning was reserved for formal introductions of all the interns, and HR professionals from the Group. All in all, there were 40 interns across 5 campuses of IIMs A, B, C, L and XLRI. We were given a lot of information about the various group companies and the activities undertaken by them. It was an informative session and made me aware of many new things about the Group. Post-lunch, we were taken through administrative formalities, getting our tickets, passport, details of stay and other rules and regulations.

We (4 of us are interning in Thailand, albeit all in different locations) were to fly Indian Airlines later in the night, so had ample time in life to chat around, sleep and watch some sitcoms :P

We departed for the airport and against all expectations, made it to the airport in just 2 hours. The check-in was smooth, and so was the immigration and security check. This gave all of us to explore and enjoy the NEW Mumbai International Airport. It has undergone major revamping and has some amazing duty-free shops now. My reference point of comparison is Dec 2007, when I last used it as a tourist to Thailand. Though, the airport is good, it’s a no match to other international airports across the globe.

The flight was on time and boarding was announced was also timely. But, I was surprised to see the aircraft was not more than 40% full. Apparently, Thai and Jet Airways were offering lower-priced tickets than Indian Airlines! I would like to mention here that IA has also undergone a sea change in level of service and cleanliness. Dinner was OK and in-flight entertainment was below average. Watched ‘Rock On!’ for some time, listened to some old hindi songs and then caught on some sleep for around 2 hours.

My sleep was broken by pilot’s (I still don’t understand why is he called a ‘captain’) announcement of landing at the Bangkok International Airport. The arrival terminal seemed familiar :P and it was a long walk to the Immigration department. Apparently, Thailand has waived off its visa fees and also it has visa on arrival. It was longgggg queue at the Visa terminal at the airport. Enroute to the immigration, I got 10 USD exchanged to Bahts as I was not sure of encountering currency exchange counter soon. Here also, immigration was smooth but customs people insisted that we should get our luggage scanned, which we did without any hiccups.
Now, when we came out, we were expecting (as told) a person with a placard; but no one to be seen. And in Thailand, English is not that famous language. After talking to some people, through sign language, we figured out that there are 3 (atleast) exits in this airport and our person could be anywhere. We started moving towards the next one and spotted one person having a placard with just 2 names! Again, there was a language barrier and we got the message that he was here to pick up only 2 of us – another intern and myself. So, there has to be another person. Making that person as a part of search, we eventually found the person who was there to pick up the other 2 :). We parted ways there and moved on towards our destination.
My place was around an hour’s drive from the airport, thanks to the traffic. Distance-wise, it was around only 30 kms odd. The other person left in some time to his location which was a further 200 kms away. I was shown my guest house and room and got to meet the caretaker also. I was glad to see the place – it’s a plant location which is self-sufficient. And everything is inside the complex. I slept for some time (flight sleep was not enough by any standards) and joined in the second half of Tuesday.

I met key people and got the drift of project. Last few days have involved meeting a lot of people, understanding current systems, my project and I am sure of one thing – its gonna be EXCITING!!!

Thursday, April 9, was festival ‘Sankrat’ (not sure of spelling ;)), which celebrated with water and white powder. It was good fun and the water part came after a pooja in the office. It was like ‘holi’ without colours :P Now, Thai New Year (Songkran) is coming up and hence it is off here. I am off to Bangkok in few minutes and will be there for next 3 days!

Attaching attachments in Gmail

2009-03-06T18:19:00.004+05:30

Recently, Gmail changed how one can attach an attachment in the mail.

Though, its a welcome change, allowing users to attach multiple files at a time and also see the progress of the same. But, I am facing this issue all the time - whenever I select a file(s) to be uploaded, the uploading invariably fails in the first attempt. And this is not restricted to a particular type of file like .doc or .pdf or something but is a uniform phenomena.

Is it only me or someone else encountered this? Though I have reported it to Gmail, I am not sure if its a specific problem or other users are also facing it!

Tatkal Booking

2009-03-02T13:19:00.003+05:30

'Tatkal', a hindi word, means 'immediately' or 'on the spot'. So, our beloved Indian Railways started this service some years back for passengers who are not early planners or need to travel on a very short notice. Details are easily available on the web and even online booking is possible.

But me as an individual never got the opportunity to avail the facility, due to the combined effect of lesser frequency of traveling, low air-fares, advance planning and lastly having a relative working in the Railways. But this time it was different!

Our academic calendar is made well in advance and accordingly, we had booked our tickets for leaving Calcutta. But, there were unanticipated changes in the schedule and we had get put tickets advanced by 2 days. Since, the tickets were wait-listed on all trains, beyond the hope of getting confirmed, we decided to use the service this time around. Moreover, the travel date would be the 7th of this month, booking was scheduled to open at 8 am on the 2nd.

I got up well in time and was ready to hit the online booking counter in time. When I tried to book at maybe some seconds before 8, the system did not allow me (nice checks, I must say!). Finally, at 8:01 am, I was able to search for the train in which I needed the booking. Now, see this - there are 120 tickets for 3AC to be booked for tatkal in the train and when I check the status, the number of available seats has gone down to 108 already. When I click next, I get the wonderful message of "Service Unavailable" which basically means that site is choked and my whole exercise till this time turned to be futile.

I had to relogin and do the whole train searching business again but same result. Finally, after like 6-7 attempts, it started working for me. But, in the meantime, the number of available seats had gone down to 104. When I entered the details and proceeded to make the payment, the system took more than average time and again, 1 more seat was gone! After selecting payment gateway and entering the credit card details, I paused for a moment and thought "What if the system fails or does not work at this crucial moment?!". But, there was no other option in life, I took God's name and hit the "PAY" button.

The message on the left corner of my browser showed "Waiting for www.irctc.co.in..." with processing going on but right corner showed no progress in the progress bar. I had nothing else to do but wait and wait and wait. After some time, when nothing had happened, I started to get jittery (as I know how much time an online payment takes) but there was nothing I could do.

I decided to get some fresh air and come back some time. As soon as I entered the room, the page changed and I saw Indian congratulating me on booking the ticket. I heaved a sigh of relief after getting confirmed tickets.

Just out of curiosity, I checked the number of available seats and it had gone down to 84 or something. After 10 minutes, it was 68!

What I personally feel is that opening booking 5 days in advance (excluding travel date) is first of all little too wide a window. It should be 3 days IMHO. Secondly, website needs to be revamped to handle such a large number of requests. Though, the percentage of times it happens is really less but the discomfort and frustration caused is enormous.

Hope, railways does something about it. But a great service, do doubt about that :)

Answer this question?

2009-02-27T21:56:00.004+05:30

"Which place you belong to?"

I am sure one is confronted to this question atleast once a week. Now, in this present scenario where one is moving so much, what is the "correct" answer to the above question?

Whats the answer to this - the place where one was born and brought up, or place where one did his/her schooling from, or place where one's parental grandparents stay, or city of the current address, or the base location of the job, or the place where one "basically" belongs to, which can be easily concluded (with certain degree of confidence) from one's surname!

And more importantly why are people so interested in knowing that in the first place?! How does it matter to which place I "belong" to. Well, if one is interested in knowing my current residential address, so that one can hope to get a free stay when next time one visits the city, then ask the right question :D

I have never been able to understand this which-place-you-belong-to stuff...

Airbus v/s Boeing

2009-02-19T21:39:00.006+05:30

At the outset, I would like to clarify that I am not playing a aircraft manufacturing critic or something. This is just a rudimentary attempt to compare the two aircraft manufacturers based on my traveling in the recent years across various airlines, both in domestic and internationally. Also, if you feel that some of the stuff written here is FACTUALLY incorrect as on Feb 19, 2009, then please free to comment about the same.

In India, all but 2 airlines operate with Airbus aircrafts. The popular model is Airbus A320. On the other hand, Jet Airways (including JetLite) and SpiceJet are Boeing loyalists having a fleet of Boeing 777. I have always encountered Boeing 747 when flying Air-India, Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines.

And without an iota of doubt I feel that Boeing aircrafts are better than Airbus. Firstly, the leg room is much better in Boeing. Secondly, the noise level, while flying, is considerably lower in the former. Thirdly, the landing is smoother in Boeing, somehow. Ya, landing, to some degree, depends on the expertise of the pilot but there is a remarkable difference in the jerk felt. So, I am quite convinced that Boeing has a better landing mechanism or something. Also, while take off, Airbus aircrafts shake a lot which add to irritating noise of 1000 things shaking.

But suprisingly, in the recent past Airbus has beaten Boeing in number of orders bagged. This is largely due to A380, which has been under the scanner for long now. Maybe the 787 Dreamliner series is able to reverse the trend.

Why this rule??!!

2009-02-18T20:16:00.003+05:30

In a B-School, many competitions are floated - some by other B-Schools and some by corporates. As with any competition, there are some rules and guidelines which are laid down by the organisers. The participants are told about expectations, team size, deadlines, deliverables and prize money.

But one thing which just beats my imagination is this rule - "All team members must be from the same B-School." This is understandable for companies which generally float competitions in select campuses (from where they generally recruit) and making intra-campus team will increase work load for them. Also, they generally follow a format of campus winner and then a National winner.

But why this rule in a B-School fest??? I find no logic in having such a limitation. When a competition is open for MBA students of n number of colleges, there is no reason why there should be such a restriction. I am quite there are very limited competitions which allow only one entry per B-School and there it makes sense, but otherwise, this rule has no relevance.

Or maybe I am missing something!

MTNL Woes

2009-02-16T19:48:00.003+05:30

Our landline phone in Mumbai is a MTNL connection. But it was in the name of the company for which my father works. Owing to some issues, we had to transfer the phone in our name. This requires just submitting an application and *supposedly* the needful should have been done in 1-2 days with no hassles. But some organisations never fail to disappoint us.

Firstly, from next day, our phone just went dead. After complaining for the same and waiting patiently for 3 days and receiving no response, the issue was escalated to GM, MTNL of the region. Its our best guess that after his intervention, our complaint was finally attended to, but after a time lag of 2 days. We do receive a call from the exchange who have 'fixed' our phone. But when we called on a mobile to check if the number is working fine, we got shock of our lives. They had interchanged our phone number with some other number! And on top of that, we kept receiving calls from the exchange asking if the phone was fixed or not. We told them everytime that the phone is fine but the number has changed. One kind person finally noted our original number and got back to us in an hour or so.

He dropped the second bomb now. He informed that according to MTNL, our original number is dicontinuted (for which we have given an application) and yes, another line has been wrongly fixed for us. We explained him that its just a transfer of ownership and no application for disconnecting has been submitted. After following it up, the confusion was resolved, we finally got our phone up and running with the correct phone number :)

But, agony was not over. Morons had withdrawn the STD/ISD facility for no good reason. Again, the issue was brought to MTNL's notice and thankfully the kind lady fixed the same in like 30 minutes! Good speed, I must say.

Last icing on the cake was still left. MTNL had disabled CLIP (Caller Identification) facility now. For this, a separate had to be initiated with the exchange to get it activated. It has been more than 10 days now, this small complaint still needs to be resolved.

I fail why MTNL complicated the whole operation. It was just a transfer of ownership of the phone, something which, in my opinion, needed documentation level changes. But it turned to be a long-drawm process for no reason.

I sincerely hope that MTNL strives to improve their working style in the times to come.

Eveready finals

2009-01-30T17:52:00.003+05:30

After winning the campus round, we had to work only on toothpaste/toothbrush industry and drop the biscuits idea. There were other specific instructions from the company asking us to work on exact requisite details - Positioning of product, target group, launch, geography, marketing plan and even the financials for the next 3 years.

We thought the best way to move forward is to contact our faculty. we mailed some profs and 2 profs were ready to help for the same. Firstly, we met our strategy prof and got some inputs for the same. He advised us to knit everything around the core competency of the company and also to drop the toothbrush launch. According to him, it is always better to focus on one product only whenever a launch is planned by a company. After garnering some more inputs from him, we started to work on our project.

Google is the best friend for such stuff and we searched analyst reports, company annual reports, competitor's reports, industry setup etcetra. Making a strategy involved elaborate discussions amongst ourselves, difference of opinions and even heated discussions! But everyone had a point to put forward but in the end, it brought to table many issues which are difficult to think when working single-handedly on such stuff. This is where, I believe team dynamics make a phenomenal difference.

After 4 days of sleepless nights :D, we met our marketing prof also, but one night before the final competition ;) We spent concrete 2 hours with him and got honest feedback, improvements and excellent suggestions. With less than 12 hours to go for our final presentation, we still decided to incorporate the changes. In the end, all of us were quite satisfied with our final outcome.

After managing a 4 hour sleep, I had to haggle with my prof to give me attendance for the class which I had to miss to attend the competition. He was quite cool about it and gave me attendance without much problem. As the presentation was to be held in ITC Sonar Bangla in Kolkata, Eveready arranged a pickup for us from the campus.

Upon reaching there, we met our competitors from IIM B, L and XLRI who had arrived in the city the previous night and were accommodation in ITC itself! It was quite a socialising session for all of us and we also did not miss out on the opportunity to click some pics of the scenic beauty there :)

The competition started at around 11 with Board of Directors being a part of the audience. The judges and the audience consisted of all division heads of the company and various other senior and respected people from the industry. Deep down, I really felt honoured to be making a presentation in front of such an august gathering.

XLRI was the first one to present, who proposed the idea of Eveready foraying into personal care products. Next came IIM L, which told them to move into portable chargers using USB ports. IIM B was up next, advising them to launch gamut of products for men only, which they divided in 2 categories - pre shave, shave and post shave! Our team was the last to go and the strangest thing happened with us - not a single question was raised for us after our presentation was over. We thought, we weren't so also ;)

Well, it was lunch break and results were due after it. Lunch gave us an opportunity to interact personally with senior people from the industry. We had a talk at length with a gentleman who had been in the marketing field for the last 35 years and worked with leading brands like HUL, Colgate and Airtel to name a few. He pointed out some of our mistakes and it was quite insightful to talk to him.

Once the lunch was over, we got together for the results. As always, the teams were called in increasing order of performance. We were the first ones to be called i.e. we were the 4th best team, XLRI being 3rd, runners-up were IIM B and IIM L were the winners.

The concluding part of the competition was a group photograph with the judges and all the participants.

Ya, its sad to lose but 50k prize money was some consolation though ;)

Our marketing prof is still more than happy with our efforts and wants us to write a case study on the same. Lets see, how does that turn out to be.

Forgotten Attachment detector

2009-01-27T07:42:00.003+05:30

Gmail introduced this feature in September 2008. I really liked this feature because after working for 3 years,I realised that forgetting to attach a file is one of the most errors that happens while one is sending like umpteen mails daily.

But, when it was introduced, I tested it twice or thrice and it did NOT seem to work. I decided to give feedback to Google for the same but discovered that many other avid Gmail users seem to have noticed that this feature is really not working. But I did not disable this feature from the Lab Settings.

MBA, to a large extent requires a lot of e-mail exchange throughout the day and lot of attachments are exchanged on an hourly basis. But my memory seem to have never disappointed me and I almost never forgot to attach the required file in the mail.

But today morning, it happened! I wrote a mail to a prof and hit that sent button and voila, a small pop-up window was there, staring at me and saying - "It seems you have forgotten to attach a document". I thanked Gmail from core of my heart for coming out with this brilliant feature :) :)

Just wondering, if MS Outlook can come up with something similar!

Eveready Innovation Contest

2009-01-26T00:42:00.004+05:30

B-School is all about 'learning' and grasping new concepts et al (you get the drift of what I want to convey) So, apparently many corporates believe that since we are assimilating so much knowledge, its good to put our brains to work for solving some of the real-life problems of them.

On similar lines, Eveready Industries India Limited (EIIL) launched a competition in the campus. This competition is launched in 4 campuses across the country - IIM B, IIM L, XLRI and IIM Calcutta. The competition is launched to identify a new business opportunity for EIIL. They are already a leaders in batteries, have recently moved into tea and mosquito repellent distribution in the country, launched their own set of torches and lighting etc amongst other products. They basically wanted to explore a line of business in which they could capitalise on their distribution network, association with colour 'Red' and should be able to generate an expected revenue of few crores in the coming years. The event was open only for first yearites and that too in a team of 4 members. Also, the format of the competition involved two rounds - one campus and one final. Teams would be competing within the campus and only ONE team per campus would be battling it out in the finals.

We also jumped into this competition and pledged to work to the best of our abilities. We need work on it for some time but a far-off deadline decreased our effort rates. But sense of urgency creeped in when the submission deadline came knocking our door. We started working on it and started exploring opportunities in possible industries. We listed down the industries or areas in which the company could explore. After boiling down to around 8 industries or lines of business, we had to narrow down to 1 or maximum 2. This involved reading analyst reports for the particular, future growth potential, competitors and most importantly penetration levels. After rounds and rounds of discussion amongst ourselves, it finally decided to foray into toothpaste/toothbrush and also in biscuits market.

After making a satisfactory ppt with all numbers, growth projections, SWOT analysis etc, we waited for the campus round to begin. We were lucky to be the very first ones to present in front of the company officials. We were cross-questioned to quite some depth. Some questions we were able to answer but some of them really left us thinking and little loss for words. In the end, we were not really happy with our overall performance.

After a few days, the cultural secretary of our campus, who was coordinating this event, calls me up and asks for my room number. He promises to be there in 10 minutes and informs about the news we least expected - we had WON the campus round :) :)

After the news sank in, we got the mail from the company official too informing us about our victory and what was expected out of us in the next round. The final round will be in Calcutta only but in the front of company's Board of Directors!

The finals are on Wednesday, 28th January...wish me luck!

ICON Concluding part

2009-01-19T19:53:00.004+05:30

Upon reaching the campus in the morning, he came to know that the time for the next elimination has come. Only 4 out of 8 would move ahead.

The people who were moving ahead were called out and I was NOT in them those 4. Hard luck maybe! But the journey till that time was really awesome.

I decided to stick around for some more time and watched the next round. Here, again they played in a team of 2 and had a role play task. One had to be a lawyer and had to pitch for this teammate to become the ICON. After the first round of pitching, lawyer from first team teamed up with client of the other team and vice-versa. Now, the roles reversed and person who played lawyer last time became client this time and client became the lawyer.

The last and final round involved an interview in front of an audience which is I am very sure not an easy task!

The winner was the person from IIM Lucknow - Mr. Shantanu :) :)

Also, I got the time and opportunity to spend more quality time with my friends in FMS and the trip was worth the effort!

Brilliant game, team ICON :) :)

Class statements II

2009-01-19T19:43:00.004+05:30

After some brilliant statements made by the faculty listed here, there were some more instances in the following months.

So, here are 3 more brilliant statements from our faculty.

3. Cost Accounting faculty, when asked about the question paper for the exams, got a little irritated and told us that it will be application based etc etc. To put the point across in a better way, she remarked "Class is for absorption, hostel is for reflection and exams are implementation!"

2. We have Human Resources course in this term and has two part - one is about theory which was covered through case studies and other half was personnel economics which involved a lot of mathematics. And the faculty was different for both the parts. The exam is scheduled on 23rd January and HR is popularly labeled as a "Globe" or a "GAS" paper, which essentially refers to writing anything and one would get some marks. The faculty for the latter part warned us that he would restrict the space for writing answers and warned everyone "Who are in verbosity, save your pearls for the next course" ;)

1. We had a course in business ethics this term and the faculty was explaining some concept from war in the Mahabharata. He told us that when Arjun was not comfortable to fight in the war upon seeing his own family members on the other side, Lord krishna took the chariot and parked in the MIDDLE of Bhism Pitamah and Drondacharya's chariot, facing them. "This", he exclaimed,"is the first known case of WRONG PARKING!" We could not help but laughed our hearts out :)

ICON Part V

2009-01-17T18:53:00.004+05:30

After testing us on finance, sales and marketing and communication, debating and general awareness levels; only one other vertical was left to be tested, i.e. operations. So, we all were quite confident that this was up next and we were not wrong.

This is how the game looked like. We were again spilt into teams of two and this time my partner was the other person from XLRI. The whole DU campus was the playground for us. We had some tasks to be completed and we would awarded points for them. We had 3 modes of transport - car, cycle and of course walking or jogging. There were costs associated to undertake any mode of transport. The car was most expensive followed by cycle and walking was of course, free :) The successful completion of a task gave us some points for the same.

Now, here come some constraints. We could not use same mode of transport for 2 consecutive tasks, some tasks required a particular mode of transport only, some tasks had to be done before a stipulated time and some after a stipulated time. Also, a buddy was assigned to each team who will be us all the time. Moreover, there were these news flashes which added more uncertainties in the game. And to complicate things further, number of cycles and car were restricted which meant the planning can go haywire if the next mode of transport which we need is not available and time will be spent in waiting only!

Both of us first of all identified tasks which were possible to do in the given time frame. The game started around 10 30 in the night and was to continue till 7 in the morning. Both of us were game to be awake till the morning, come what may! We set out to finish tasks one after other in the planned fashion. Even some news flashes were helpful also. Like, the moment we finished a task involving a car and planned to walk for the next one, the news flash came which resticted any vehicle movement for the next 30 minutes but walking was allowed :) Another time, wherein we had to buhy something and deliver it at another place, we got this news flash that anything we bought would be at half price :) :)

We kept on working when around 1 am we got this flash that a "curfew" is imposed from 1 30 till 5 and hence nothing can take place. Basically, this was to allow us all to catch up some sleep. We returned to our rooms at around 2 30 and were ready to go again at 5 in the morning. We completed some more tasks in the Delhi winter and I was enjoying jogging in the fog. The game was supposed to be over at 7am and we were our way back after completing our last task possible. We got this news flash which allowed us a bonus task which required us to cycle from a location to VKRV Rao hostel (where I had stayed in FMS days). That was the end of a wonderful round for all of us.

We went to Gwyer Hall (adjacent hostel of VKRV) for a cup of tea but everyone was quite hungry and tired and it was decided to eat the breakfast there only. It was a feeling a nostalgia for me as I remembered the umpteen hours I had spend in that canteen when I was there for one year.

We were required to report back at 10 30 in FMS campus again fully dressed (formally) and this gave us an hour or so for some sleeping. I had to pack too as I had an evening flight to catch.

Upon reaching the room, tiredness took over me and I slept :P Working on the JIT (Just-In-Time) syndrome, all of us got up, packed and left for the campus where an important announcement awaited us..

Coming up next, concluding part of ICON series

ICON Part IV

2009-01-16T16:13:00.003+05:30

After the lunch break, we again assembled for the next round. Here, came a little schoker for us. As the event was totally under the wraps, we had no clue what was coming our way next. It was eliminate 2 people now as the per original plan. But since only person from IIM A already left due to personal reasons, the organisers decided of elimination just one more as they wanted to keep an even number of people in the game. The dreaded time came and the participant from IIM L was eliminated.

Now, the details of the next round were disclosed. This was in partnership with Cafe Coffee Day (CCD). We were made into teams of 2 (total 4 teams) and were assigned a CCD outlet each in Connaught Place, which has around 7 CCDs :D Our task was to maximise sales for CCD when we were there for 2 hours. And the sales were not through coffee or ffod, but through the merchandise CCD sells in each of its outlet. It includes, cookies, mints, discount cards and many other things.

Apart from this, each team had to come up with a business plan in order to boost CCD sales. The evaluation was on the basis of sales and the B Plan submitted to the CCD management.

I was teamed with a person from FMS and both of us started making the plan while traveling towards the assigned CCD outlet. We were assigned the Shivaji Stadium CCD outlet. Oh yes, forgot to mention! We were required to wear the CCD cap and Apron alongwith the ICON sweatshirts. This dress really gave us the feel of the task at hand.

Once we got there, I got down to making the B Plan and the other person started the selling part. He was quite successful in selling stuff in first 30 minutes but dearth of new customers really did us in. For some time, we together worked on the B plan and finished it once for all.

For the next one hour, we had more customers in the outlet and they did listen to the offers very patiently (apparently IIM C and FMS were enough to make an impression ;) ) But somehow, no one was interested in buying the stuff. After long persuasion, we were able to sell one more merchandise only after the initial success.

The results were not officilly out for this round but I am sure, we must have lost it. But we did not lose the lesson - SELLING IS TOUGH !!!

Continuing with the excellent hospitality, we were taken to Rajdhani restaurant in CO only, which is famous for the Gujrati thali menu. And my friend from IIM A was not really happy to go there :P :P but other were! It was an excellent meal and we were told to stuff in as much as apparently a "tough" round was due next.

About the next round, it will be in my next post...

ICON Part III

2009-01-11T01:20:00.004+05:30

Since this event wanted to test an individual in all dimensions of management, an absolutely new event was in store for us. Forgot to mention, that finally only 5 B-Schools could make it. ISB and IIM-B were not present due to other commitments back in campus.

This round was the "Private Equity Round". Here, we were made into 5 team of 2 people each, randomly made by the organisers. I teamed up with a person from XLRI. The task was follows - we had a virtual sum of USD 2 Billion. And we were given a list of 15 real companies, mostly from emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China. Each team had to analyse each and every company and create a private equity investment pitch in 5 hours (10 pm to 3am). We had an option of investing in none, 1 or any number of companies, even all! 3 am deadline was o do analysis and make a proper presentation which the team would be presenting in front of external judges the following morning. Only resource available was the omnipresent internet but no chats allowed et al.

In our team, we split the task of analysing the companies. My partner took 8 companies and I took 7 companies for analysis. We set aside 2 hours for self due-diligence of all the companies assigned to this. This involved going through balance sheet, profit and loss accounts, industry in general, policies in that country etc. If the company was not listed, then I worked on the limited data available. Some of the companies had not even started commercial operations like Virgin Galactic. It was really difficult to analyse such companies with no data whatsoever and on top of that limited finance knowledge.

After 2 hours were over, we exchanged our views on which companies to invest in. We segregated companies according to risk and return they offered. After discussion for hour and a half, we finally ended up deciding to invest in 4 companies. Also, we took care that our portfolio was quite diversified in terms of risk and return - one company was high on both parameters, another was medium risk high return, third one medium on both and the last one giving medium returns with low risks. "Low","medium" and "high" were quantitative percentages attached to each category based on analysis and self-set cut-offs.

With only around 75 minutes left, we had a full ppt to make. Starting from our approach, to industry analysis of each company selected, to analysis of each company; everything had to be covered and that too for a 15 minute ppt. Its really not to easy to compress 4 hours effort in a 15 minute ppt. Well, we thought that we did a pretty decent and neat job.

After hectic day, I hit the bed at around 5 am and had to get up by 8 to be ready in time for the next day activities. Upon reaching the venue, we came that one of the guys has backed out from the ICON event owing to bad health. But his team mate was still there and was ready to give presentation alone. The show must go on as they say!

The judges came and each team had their efforts ready in form of ppts. 15 minute ppt was followed by 10 minute Q&A session by the judges and other teams if time permitted. In our ppt, my team mate started first and ate up 9 minutes instead of planned 6 minutes and there was heavy penalty for overshooting the time limit. When I took over, I went in with full throttle, trying to rush through some of the parts of the slides and made sure that our analysis part got the requisite airtime. We handled Q&A in the best possible manner and both of us came out really satisfied.

After all the ppts were done, it was result time and our team WON this event! Not a bad start to the morning :) :)

Here, we were given ICON sweatshirts which were compulsory for the next round. We were given food coupons for lunch in the stalls inside the FMS campus. It was great to eat Delhi delicacies after such a long time.

In the end, I thought corporate finance is not that tough also ;)

ICON Part II

2009-01-10T18:55:00.003+05:30

The first round was suppose take in the Seminar Hall of the institute. Sitting in that place as an audience (most of the times) for one year and now in the spotlight; it was a new experience all together.

We were formally welcomed for the event, explained all the rules and regulations etc etc. The first round was named "War of words" and it was designed to test us on our level of knowledge on current affairs, views on Indian economy and more importantly, communication skills.

This round was played as an institute team format. The first task was to pen down our thoughts as a team on 3 priority sectors for the Indian Government. Basically, we had to act as consultants to the Govt in which concrete steps and plan of action had to be given. All this had to be done in 15 minutes in written format. After submission, teams went in one by one to voice their opinions in 2 minutes. This was followed by Q&A session by the esteemed panel of judges.

Second leg of the round was called "Devil's advocate". Herein, a topic was picked up randomly for each team and then one person had to speak FOR it for 2 minutes, other one AGAINST for 2 minutes, then both will debate for 5 minutes and lastly, judges could ask questions. We were the first ones to go and got the topic "Should I-bankers be tried in criminal courts for siphoning off public funds". My team mate wanted to speak FOR it and I wanted to speak AGAINST the motion. The performance went fine till I was asked the last question about how ethically correct it was for a CEO to securitize his future before quitting on the expense of public money. Apparently, the judge was not really happy with my viewpoint and the debate extended for some time. Well, it was a good topic on speak on and I thanked my Macro Economics faculty and all the summer internship preparation for the same.

In the end, the results were announced. FMS won the round as a team and my teammate was adjudged the best speaker!

It was break time for all of us. This gave me time to catch up with more friends although for a short time. The ICON organising team introduced themselves over dinner (which was quite good) and we got ready for the next round...

ICON Part I

2009-01-04T20:32:00.003+05:30

In the times of business fests, there are just so many competitions floating that it is impossible to keep track of all the events. But one event which I caught my eye was the ICON - the flagship event of Fiesta, FMS Delhi's annual management fest. It entailed several rounds of different events to test a person on all the different dimensions possible and hence choose just one winner, who would take it all.

Only 7 B-Schools of the country were sent an invite - IIMs A B C L, FMS, XLRI and ISB. Each institute had to conduct its own selection procedure to send its 2 representatives. In IIM Calcutta, a faculty was appointed to undertake the same and all the interested students were required to send in their CVs and an EOI (Expression of Interest) followed by an interaction with the faculty. In the end, another PGP I (1st year student) and yours truly ;) were selected to represent IIM Calcutta.

FMS now required us to send in a CV, a SOP (Statement of Purpose) and 2 references from past professional/academic life. I was thrilled by the thought of going to Delhi and especially FMS. It was homecoming for me - meeting all my old classmates.

Well, the event instructions came to us requiring us to carry formal clothes and informal clothes and sport shoes. Also, it was told that some amount of physical strain would also be involved. Nevertheless, we took the challenge and headed for Delhi.

But alas! Weather God had other plans for us. Bad fog delayed our Rajdhani by over 3 hours. It was frustrating to move like a bullock cart sitting inside Rajdhani but had no choice. Finally, we made to the New Delhi station and thankfully Delhi Metro came to your rescue. Connectivity between New Delhi Station and Delhi University has become just awesome because of the Metro. Working on JIT (Just-in-Time) syndrome, we finally reached FMS campus at dot 1400 hrs.

It was a feeling of nostalgia for me and finally met my old classmates after a gap of around 9 months. But the meeting was shortlived as all the ICON participants had a secluded accomodation :D and we were required to report back in 2 hours. All the pick up and drop were arranged for us.

We reached our home for the next 3 days and I must say FMS guys did a fantabolus job in hospitality :) :) We got ready for the first round of the event...

Continued in the next post!

Day Zero

2008-12-28T11:32:00.003+05:30

Ya, its about placements!

But this was an event organised by MDI, Gurgaon in their annual fest 'Imperium'. It was an operations game and this is how it went.

There was an online elimination round like any other B School event. We were given a set of 10 puzzles to be solved in an excel sheet and a time window of 2 hours. The game started at 12 midnight and submission deadline was 2 am. We were a team of 2 and did 8 questions in 90 minutes and submitted it. Rest 2 questions were not really worth trying, so we gave up.

Next day, a notice was put up (they had created a blog) that two of the questions have been canclled as there were some mistakes in them. We had not attempted one of them but the other one's mistake was minor and most of the participants had apparetly rectified on their own. There were lots of comments on this and I am still not sure what final decision was taken. They were quite firm in taking only 8 questions into consideration.

The results were finally out and we had made it! Next round was to be played in MDI campus, which meant a Delhi trip for me :) :) Going back to Delhi after almost 6 months was something I was really looking forward to.

Well, well...we reached Delhi after a delayed 4 hour train journey :D The on-campus round also had 3 rounds, so to say. The objective of the game was to "place" maximum number of students in a simulation game of 2 hours but before that lots of gorund work had to be done, which were the submissions in the previous rounds.

Firstly, we were given a profile of 50 students and details of 20 companies. We had 1000 points and had to bid as well as rank a company. There were 6 teams in the finals and all had to do the same. The restriction was that a company will visit maximum 3 campuses (i.e. teams) based on points bid by the team. If the bid clashed, then the team which has given a higher rank to that company will get it. We were given 2 hours to go through profiles of all the students, write-up of all the companies et al. Finally, we had to come up with the bid points for all the companies and their rankings too. Also, each team will get 10 companies in their kitty.

After doing this, the next round began in which we were told which 10 companies we have got. We got 9 out of our top 10 choices :) Well begun, we thought! Next task was to "slot" the companies. There were 5 slots and each slot could have just 2 companies. This is where we made 2 blunders. We gave wrong slots to 2 companies (which we obviosuly realised very late :D) and hence it hit us hard, really hard, in the end.

After the slotting business was over, the simulation game started. At the outset, I must say, the MDI guys had done an excellent job in making that simulation game. The programming, interface, logic, ease of use and just everything was too good about it. Here, they had introduced some uncertainty too. For example, if I slotted a company at 8 am, it could come earlier or later also (it was quite close to real placement process). Moroever, they gave us details of 5 rooms where interviews could take place. The condition of all rooms were different and there was a waiting room too. There were two more concepts - motivation level of companies and motivation level of students. Both were at a level of 100 to start with and varied according to many parameters. For the comapny it was dependent on room given, quality of candidate sent, waiting time between 2 candidates, number of candidates they selected, if rooms were full then the time spent in the waiting room (there no interviews could take place) etc. For the student, it decreased according to waiting time, interviews attended in terms of time and numbers and number of rejects. It was clear that once a person got selected in one company, he/she is out.

The simulation game was for 2 hours and the time frame in the game was from 7 am to 11 pm. Those 2 hours were intense as companies kept coming, space had to be allocated, students who had applied only to be sent, keep a track of students being selected and kind of students which need to be sent for a company etc. Finally, we were able to place only 26 students and we lost. But, in the end it was enjoyable experience :)

An excellent effort from MDI.

The MBA effect

2008-12-27T09:15:00.003+05:30

When one has completed 1/3 of MBA, some of the concepts learned are bound to have an effect in decision-making and analysis.

My term 2 ended on 12th Dec and term 3 was scheduled to begin on the 15th itself. I was supposed to go to Delhi for 13-14th weekend for a competition in MDI, Gurgaon and next weekend (19-21) again in FMS, Delhi, again for a competition. I planned to leave on the 12th evening, come back on the 15th morning and then leave again on the 18th evening; thus minimising my number of classes being missed.

When I told this to one of my classmates, he advised me to stay in Delhi for a week, which was not such a bad idea given 4 days in Delhi would be a fun-filled stay. Well, I told him that I would miss one-week classes and its a matter of 5,000 bucks for a trip. Now, this is where cost management concept creep in :D

I told him that our term fees is 60k for a 10 week course and hence 1 week classes cost me approx 6k, so missing them does not really make sense. But he said, our fees is a sunk cost, so it should not really be considered for decision making. Then we discussed at length about how can we find if spending extra 5k is worth or not. We concluded that if somehow are able to 'quantify' the value added and it turns out be more than 5k, then missing classes wont matter!

We laughed in the end that this is what MBA does - complexifying (if that word exists) such a simple thing :) Well, in the end I did went to Delhi twice in a gap of 5 days and not because of 'value added' but because of attendance issues!

My Delhi trip, experiences in competitions in MDI and FMS will be posted soon.

Summered

2008-11-16T11:06:00.003+05:30

Summer placements – they seem to be a national talk whenever IIMs are going for them. Yes, they are an important part of our curriculum but somehow media is more interested in it than we guys are!

It all starts with CV making which I never thought will be such a long drawn and time consuming process. Writing each line very meticulously, in the most precise manner, adjusting margins and fonts and layout, hoping to getting the right message conveyed, showing to seniors and batch mates, getting feedback and making changes – it is really an exercise. One thing is for sure, one will not take too much time from now on to make a CV once he/she has gone through this process here.
The time crunch is felt when we have companies making their presentations on campus, and regular classes being held with quizzes, assignments and pre-readings. Once the CV is done, we go into the prep mode and this is where our seniors are again at rescue. And I think this is the best part of IIM C culture, seniors helping out a lot. This was what they got from their seniors and now we will pass it on to our incoming batch.

Next in line is the application process to companies one wants to apply. Some are relatively easy and on the other end, there are quite a few which consume a lot of time in filling up. The questions asked are quite comprehensive and require much iteration to come up with the final version of the answers.

Prep has no meaning if there is no one to test you on it and yet again we turned to the senior batch to do the needful. Mock interviews are conducted by them and the best part is that they never refuse any junior. They are also doing all this when they are bound by their classes and other academic requirements.

Amongst all this madness and rush, we had our mid term exams and diwali celebrations too :) And I believe this is what really “management” is all about!

Well, moving forward, we had company interactions lined up and as the D-Day approached, the campus was gearing up for the upcoming placement season.
Finally, the day dawned and everyone dressed in their tuxedos was all charged up for the upcoming interviews. For me, the day started at around 9 in the morning and was done by 2 in the afternoon. Taking back to back interviews is not an easy task but I think it is test of knowledge combined with resilience, pressure handling and keeping a high energy level during the day! Some of my closest got offers in their dream companies and it were great to be a part of their joy and happiness. But the day was not that lucky for me but I knew that next day will be my day and it turned out to be that only!

For the record, I will be joining the Aditya Birla Group (ABG) for summers starting in April 2009.

Mandi 2008@ IIM Calcutta

2008-10-27T22:17:00.003+05:30

Have you ever jumped into a pool without asking about the depth? Have you ever driven a car without knowing the complete controls? Have you ever taken part in a competition without knowing all the rules? If the answer is no, then read on. If yes, you would empathise with me and still read on!!!

Here, in IIM Calcutta, we have a club called “Census” which organised an event called Mandi (Marketplace). Herein, the only instruction we imbibed was that we may to sell something in a team of 4. So, we just a made of team (which was dramatic too) and registered for the event.

The prelim was an online quiz of 45 minutes in which “Googling” was allowed. One team member was not there to help us and no Wi-Fi was effectively just 2 laptops in use. Yeah, I told my wingies to help me for the quiz which they did. After the stipulated time and sending the entries, we realised that we had missed a sitter and forgot to answer one question, which was also not that tough. Cursing our luck, we forgot about it.

The prelim result came out and we were pleasantly surprised to see our team making it to next round. Around 60 teams had participated and being one of the 8 teams to qualify, really felt good! Then there was a meeting called for all the finalists to explain about the next round and this is where we got the biggest shock of our lives.

It was an elaborate process which all the marketing concepts and game theory and business ‘strategy’ had to be used. We had to sell a product, price it appropriately and promote it like anything inside the campus. For everything, we had a capital of Rs. 2,000 only. The final evaluation was on basis on promotion, feedback of students, and our product as such and finally the profits of course.

The first task at hand was to select the product we wanted to sell. We had a brainstorming session and finally came up with the idea of keeping card games, luck 7 of dice and the most popular breaking the glass pyramid with the tennis ball. To incentivise, we offered double money if the person was successful in any of the events.

Second task was to bid for the promotion place. For this, every team had 1000 points to bid for all the spots. Some bids were secret, some were open and some were online. Net net, we got a decent deal as we got the best place for our banner, a decent place for a poster and fundoo place where our stall was to be put up. Designing poster and banner was the next task at hand and we worked for like 12 hours non stop to achieve the same. Forgot to mention, the bidding process and previous brainstorming sessions had already made up sleep-deprived. On top of that, classes and assignments and submissions and pre-class readings were already in place. To make matters worse, we had our CV submission deadline for the upcoming summer placement. But all of us were just so geared up that everything was happening with just 1-2 hours of sleep.

We also had option of getting 3 pamphlets printed and had to submit at least one promotion video for the same. All this also had deadlines too. We thought about insane ideas for the pamphlets and made 3 videos. Also, the institute has a IP messenger in which one of our team member was really active, which helped us a lot. He created a rage by promoting day in and day out.

After promoting to the best possible according to our capabilities, we prepared ourselves for the big day – the Mandi day where people will actually come and play in our stalls and see the “competition” too. The event was to last 3 hours only and this was the time to rake in profits.

We started a little slow as it people went to eating stalls but there is a limit to which one can eat! Some people start coming in and started winning too ;) Cash excites everyone – this word of mouth started spreading like fire in the forest and people just rushed in to our stall. The crowd was beginning to get unmanageable and people were ready to wait even 15-20 minutes to try their luck. Since, we had a cap of Rs. 2,000, that was the maximum we could give out as prize money. People continuously thronged our stall and since some were winning too, we ran out of cash to give prize money at around 11 pm, still one hour to go for the event to close. We were in profit without an iota of doubt but had a liquidity crunch. But, we had to earn more profit as it was an important criterion for the final standing.

Then, we invited people just to people the game of breaking the pyramid and we were surprised to see that people were playing it without getting anything in return.

In the end, it was an effort which ended on a good note. We were really happy after this event and gave a sense of achievement.

Result for us – could not finish in top 3 but got to pocket Rs. 800 which were our profit and Rs. 1,000 were given to our team as a 'special appreciation for the incredible spirit we showed.' This was due to the fact that we were the only team which met ALL the deadlines for the event.

Life on ultra fast track

2008-09-20T16:55:00.003+05:30

Well, well….never thought I will be so occupied in life! I thought that end of term I would bring some relief, maybe just for 24 hours, but now I am sure that thinking of getting a break is like “hoping against hope”.

With so many things to talk about, it is little difficult to figure out from where to start. Let me start from my exams. There are some things which are just too good here. Firstly, every exam has a random seating arrangement in a new room for everyone. This virtually eliminates the possibility of forming a cartel to one’s advantage. Even if one tries to use unfair means in an exam (even for a quiz for that matter), an expulsion from the institute is a possibility. Secondly, the papers are so meticulously prepared and conceptual, that without sound basic concepts in place, one just cannot perform here. Be it any subject – economics, accounts, stats or behavioural science (organisational behaviour). One lesson which I learnt, and the hard way, that last minute preparation is not gonna work here. It is hoped that I will put in little more extra in the next term.

Something which has never happened to me, ever, happened here in the accounts exam. The paper was expected to be tough. Knowing this, I had put in effort before the examination week. Even on the last day, I burnt the midnight lamp to see it through. I am sure I had not put in more effort in anything else in my 25 years, than what I had put in for this exam. But when I got the question paper in my hand, I was just shocked. I kept turning pages to figure out from where to start!!! I did not know a single question and yes, I had NOT prepared the wrong syllabus. First 15 minutes were lost to evaluate how and where to start from. 15 minutes count a lot for a 90 minute paper. Somehow, someway, I did whatever I could and left the examination hall 10 minutes before the scheduled time. My mind had stopped working and given all hopes to clear this paper. But soon I realised that everyone (ya..apart from select few ;) ) was screwed left, right and centre. Waiting to see at least some grade in front of my name in this paper. GOD, save me, please!!!

After our end-terms we had some literary events on campus organised by one of our clubs. Wanted to take part in Hindi debate but paucity of time (lame excuse, I know) was a bottleneck. But there were some on the spot events like Hindi and English JAM. It was fun to take part in them after so many years but sadly lost in the prelims. Last event of the day was antakshri, organised as a part of Hindi Diwas on the campus. The day ended on a high with our team finishing 2nd :P :P

Term 2 began and with a bang. Some of the faculty is really strict and we had a surprise quiz in the second class itself!!! According to me, my performance was pretty decent but nothing be said for sure. The number of assignments has increased exponentially and while I am writing this, I have like 2 more group presentations to work on apart from class readings and case analysis submissions and what not! Although I have just 15 hours of classroom teaching in a week term , but the subjects are intense and faculty is pretty demanding.

I have joined a new club on campus called “Sunrisers”. Herein, we are a group of people who believe in early rising but somehow are not able to do it. This is how it works. A leader wakes up 3 people. In turn, those 3 wake up 3 more and the chain continues. So, I have slept at like 4 in the morning but still woken up at 6. Getting up early again gives me an opportunity to play badminton, take a long walk of the campus and enjoy the scenic view amidst pure air :) Rest of the sleep is compensated in the evening. But my average sleep has come down to 5 hours.

Buying a bicycle has been one of the better decisions. It allows me to save a lot of travelling time and results in bit of exercising too ;) ;)

Amidst this life-going-on-a-rocket-like-speed, I am still able to watch Prison Break season 4 episodes on Tuesdays itself, without fail. With more TV series scheduled to start pretty soon and my schedule expected to get more hectic, it will be difficult if not impossible, to watch the episodes so regularly.

Sports are also underway big time now. I gave my name for TT and badminton, but could not make it on time for badminton match due to other commitments and hence, my opponent got a bye. My TT match was pretty interesting. I lost the first set 21-19, won the second set on deuce. Third set started badly for me. I started with my serve and score line read 1-4. My opponent extended the lead to 8-2 with his serve. I worsened the situation by making it 4-11. But it was over yet. I broke this serve and made it 11-9 :) :) Here the battle got really fierce and getting one point was contested hard. I finally lost the set 21-16 and, of course, the match too. Maybe, lack of practice before the match did me in.

Oh yeah! Forgot to mention. A marketing game has been organised by a club inside the campus. Prelims was an online quiz and our team has made it to the finals, even after missing 2 sitters in the quiz :D :D The finals will start sometime soon and hope to crack that too! After all, some good moolah awaits us ;) ;)

Durga Puja break is coming in like 2 weeks and can't wait to go home...

Amidst all this – I just wonder one thing. Why are there only 24 hours in a day!!!!

Electronic Mail

2008-09-05T13:23:00.003+05:30

This is really strange, what happenned with me lately!

I had to get my friend e-mail some stuff really urgently. This was on Tuesday, September 2, 2008. I told him around 12 pm to do so and he did the needful instantly. But suprise suprise...I am not receiving that mail for some unexplained reason. Or maybe Murphy's Law was operating at that time. I waited for like an hour and got really impatient.

My friend was in the US and hence it was sleeping time for him. So, I did not want to disturb him. Ignoring this delay, I went for my class and checked it back at 4 pm and still no trace of that e-mail. I pinged him on gtalk but apparently it was still not a great time to be up in US (my bad luck !!!).

Somehow my prayers got answered and he responded around 4:45 pm on gtalk. I told him about this and he instantly sent me an another e-mail. Oh, forgot to mention that I needed that mail by 6 pm; come what may.

But somewhere someone was against me. I am not receiving the second mail too. GMail is delivering all spam, my other mails and but not this one! Well, I calmed my nerves and waited more. But at 5:15 pm, I requested him to send me another one but this time gave my yahoo, rediff, hotmail and all other ids which I have :P

As he was in the process of doing this, a small notification popped up in gtalk; informing me about a new mail and I was delighted to see that I have received his mail...finally :) :) This was the first one which he sent out.

I informed him about receiving the same and abandon the third e-mail sending operation. I received the e-mail at around 5:30 pm, after around 5 hours of it being sent and just 30 minutes before I needed it!

Now, comes the best part. He had sent me 2 mails and I had received only one. Right. Little did I care about it. But, when I checked my mail some time back today, Voila - there it was...mail no. 2 :) :) This means an electronic mail took approximately 67 hours to be delievered.

Cant get slower than that :D :D

Something worse possible is not receiving an e-mail at all which was sent out.

September is here :)

2008-09-02T13:35:00.004+05:30

Come September and we have all the TV series back!

Strating with Prison Break Season 4; the first episode is already available here. I am waiting for How I Met Your Mother (HIMYM) Season 4 and The Big Bang Theory (TBBT) Season 2 to start from the 22nd.

Given the relatively less number of classes in my term 2, I am pretty hopeful of watching the episodes on a regular basis.

Also, it is the month of birthdays in family and lotsa people on campus; so can expect a few parties too ;)

Well, I have been writing for the Business Standard newspaper regularly, and they found my response to be good enough; for the second time today. They did the first time here. Hope to continue the good run.

Things coming up - End Term Exams, selections for Badminton (less hopeful) and Table Tennis
(more hopeful here) Teams for the institute, lotsa Business Competitions of other B-Schools and some being floated by the companies.

Wish me luck!

Class statements

2008-08-31T18:04:00.005+05:30

As Term I is almost ending here for me in IIM Calcutta, I just looked back and thought about the learnings and experiences I had in the past 8-10 weeks. But I concluded that such a post demands a lot of time and energy and effort, so I postponed it for mid-September after my exams.

Well, there were really some funny incidents in the class and some classic statements made by students and Professors. Below listed are my personal top 3 favourite statements given out in the class.

3. Our Statistics Professor - "I agree that statisticians are crazy people, but there are exceptions, and one of them is standing in front of you."

2. Accounts Professor - "Its better to be roughly corect than to be precisely wrong."

1. Let me give a little background for this. We have a non-credit course on Managerial Communication and we were discussing how to respond in a particular situation to a person. The class started discussing with eveyone pitching in their view points, but some of us (me included) were pressing on the point that the response depends on the interaction with that person, time spent with him/her and many other variables. Now this is the way one guy had put it - "Since the space-time continuum is elastic, my response to someone depends on which part of the elasticity curve I am operating on at that time."

Should CAT go online?

2008-08-28T12:55:00.002+05:30

The recent spurt in the number of CAT applicants had led to a situation where a paper-pencil CAT exam has become unmanageable. This has led to the thought that CAT should be made online. Though a good thought, it has its own set of problems.

Firstly, making comparisons with GMAT is little misplaced as GMAT is a qualifying exam and CAT being an elimination exam, have different goals. Since CAT is an elimination exam, then it makes more sense have it at the same time throughout the country.

Secondly, If IIMs plan to have it on different days, then it needs to take care that difficulty level is maintained across and percentiles received are uniform.

Thirdly, the obvious concern would be of security and high setup costs, but one time investment is really needed for future test takers.

Moreover, this might facilitate CAT being held outside India as sometimes applicants have to come down to India to take the exam.

It is agreed that online CAT will be definitely a better idea but implementing with fool-proof ways will be the challenge. The best part would be that score would be applicable for more than one year, which will reduce hassles to a great extent, of taking the exam in that very year only.

Strange is the human mind!

2008-08-22T02:45:00.003+05:30

There is this game which brings about the best and the worst in people. It seems to be a simple game of group decision making. A group of people is divided into 4 groups. These 4 groups are to seen as four different department of the same organisation.

Moving on, as a group, people have to decision. Here lies the interesting part. The group has to decide choose between an “X” and “Y” and needs to tell its decision secretly to the moderated. If all four groups choose “X”, each of them receives 1 Bn $ from the organisation; if 3 groups choose “X” and one chooses “Y”, then groups who have chosen “X” lose out 1 Bn $ each and “Y” group gets 3 Bn $; if 2 groups choose “X” and two groups choose “Y”, then groups who have chosen “X” lose out 2 Bn $ each and “Y” groups gets 2 Bn $ each; if a group chooses “X” and three groups choose “Y”, then group who has chosen “X” loses out 3 Bn $ and “Y” groups gets 1 Bn $ each; if all four groups choose “Y”, each of them gives 1 Bn $ from the organisation.

On the face of it, the first instinct is to choose a “Y”.

But here lies the difference between cooperation and competition. Everyone thinks to take a “Y” and end up losing but the best strategy is when all take “X”.

When I played this game for the first time, we were a group of 8 people and somehow instantly 3 of us realised that “X needs to be taken; though we also went through the choosing “Y” instantly syndrome. Nevertheless, the group saw the logic and we went ahead to put an “X”. As expected, we were the only one to put it and rest of the groups put a “Y”.

This game is played in several rounds and same was the scenario in the second and the third rounds too. At this time, each person from a group was given an option to negotiate with other group representatives. When all of us met outside, it was decided that everyone will put a “X” as this was the win-win situation. But alas, world is not utopian; some one team betrays. In the next round, another team breaks the promise and next 2 rounds see all 3 teams putting “Y”. We were consistently putting a “X”.

Here, the second chance to negotiate was given and now no one was willing to tell who put the first “Y”. Well, it was again decided that “X” will be put by all but its’ easy to break a promise and we went into the same loop :)

This was the first time I played this game when I was going through my induction in HCL Technologies way back in 2004.

Second time I got a chance to witness this game in FMS in our Organisational Behaviour class (I opted of the game as we were asked that people who have played can work as moderators). Here also, everyone knew that putting “X” is the best strategy but no one did it!

The third chance came my way 2 days back here in IIM Calcutta, again in the OB class; difference we just started the game and option to opt out was not given. Same story was repeated.

It just amazes me that how come a set of rational human beings knows what is best thing to do but still acts selfishly :D How come no one is able to see the larger interest and if is able to see, then why is not able to decision to take the same!

Some things are best left....unanswered !!!

Unusual

2008-08-16T22:37:00.001+05:30

Something unusual is happening this year for me.

Its August time and I am not doing something which I have done for past so many years. Its giving me a feeling of being incomplete :D The difference is not filling the CAT form this year ;) ;)

After doing it so many times, it became a part of my life. It was like an annual ritual like let's say Diwali or Holi! But this year :) :)

Well, November would still keep me busy, not because of CAT though! Keep watching this space to know what's in store.

Management Game

2008-08-10T08:58:00.002+05:30

IIM Calcutta has done a lot of changes in its curriculum this year. A number of new courses have been added; some courses have been done away with; some courses have a new syllabus and one of the major changes is in the introduction of Management Game in the first year.

The concept – Management game involves running a company by a group of individuals in changing scenarios and conditions. This game was always played in the 6th term till now but with the new curriculum in place, it will be played in both 1st and the 6th term. The underlying logic being to check if 2 years of MBA has added value :D

The Game – We 300 of us were divided into 5 sections of 60 students each. Each section had to compete within them. Now these 60 students were divided into 8 teams of 7-8 people. Every section had 4 regions and in each region only 2 firms operated initially.

Every team had to appoint a CEO first. In my team, owing to my age ;) ;) I was offered this position but I quietly declined the same and took up the COO role instead. Other posts were CTO, CFO et al.

Initially, the game rules were simple. We were operating in one region and it was a controlled regime, i.e., a lot of Government control existed. We were given the balance sheet of the company and all the relevant details. Oh, forgot to mention, it was an oil firm which everyone was working on.

We were operating in quarter 1 and had to strategise to increase bottom line, market share, build capacity for future use, control inventory etc. Since all of us were quite raw, we applied very basic instincts and worked on a very limited knowledge.

Moving ahead in every quarter, the ground rules kept changing. The control regime was removed, we could enter other regions, other firms could enter our region, we could raise equity, build new plants or warehouses etc etc.

We were supposed to strategise for every quarter and rules kept changing in the next quarter. So, basically we had to plan knowing the known and anticipating the unknown.

In the end, we finished third in our section of eight. Pretty decent performance, we thought :)

It was really good to work with people whom I had not got a chance to interact as we were put in a group by the college and was not a self selected group. Putting in opinions, defending them, changing strategies mid-way, arguing out one’s thought really gave a feel of the management working!

Really looking forward to play a similar game after like one-and-a-half-years when everyone will have the concepts in the place; it will be a war to watch out for :)

Silence Communicates

2008-08-06T07:59:00.003+05:30

Silence also communicates. Sounds little oxymoronic but holds true.

It communicates acceptance when someone is being accused of something. Another instance where silence really works is showing your anger. Nothing is more killing for a person when someone close is angry and displays it by complete silence. Moreover, when someone is in a state of shock; one really loses the power to communicate verbally.

I thought these were the only ways in which it was possible to communicate through silence. But when I came across this example, I could not stop appreciating the power of slience.

“Sherlock Holmes once solved a murder mystery based not on what happened but on what didn’t happen. Holmes remarked to his assistant, Dr. Watson, about “the curious incident of the dog in the nighttime.” Watson, surprised responds, “But the dog did nothing in the nighttime.” To which Holmes replied, “That was the curious incident.” Holmes concluded that the crime had to be committed by someone with whom the dog was familiar because the watchdog didn’t bark.”

1/12 MBA

2008-08-02T01:24:00.002+05:30

Time just flies by! 6 weeks have just gone by and I am already 1/12 MBA. These have been fun-filled and just terrific days for me. Here are the things I really want to talk about.

1. Exams – Just had my mid-sems. The quality of paper being set is just too good. Basic, very basic concepts are tested and no amount of mugging can help. One needs to remember all the basics at the same time. And preparing at the last time is a sure-shot suicide. Some faculty is way too fast in giving out result. The exam held on Monday had its result finalised by Tuesday, which is less than 24 hours. But they were put up after our last exam today!!!

P.S. – No query about my performance will be entertained ;)

2. Food – Everyone seems to ask this question :D So, here’s the answer. It’s pretty good in my hostel which is known as New Hostel (actually was built in 1993), popularly known as NH in IIM-C.

3. Tests/quizzes/assignments – Surprise and announced quizzes are the in-things in IIM-C. This is just to have continuous evaluation and to ensure that not too much weightage gets on to one particular exam. One thing I would like to mention here is that IIM-C has ZERO TOLERANCE policy regarding plagiarism. If one is caught, it is very very very severly dealt with.

4. Time Management – Something which comes automatically to an individual in a B-School. With so many things to do together – classes, quiz, exams, assignments, group assignments, sport, gym, swimming, clubs...one can’t help but prioritize and reprioritize the events in life. So much so, that my walking time from hostel to the classroom has reached 7 minutes from initial 10 minutes. I am sure, it will touch 4 minutes by the time I leave the campus.

5. Flash Gordon – This is a tournament which is held in NH. It is the footer-volley championship held between the different wings of this hostel. Just to add, our wing won it this time :) :)

Well, this is enough for now. Many things are in store for the coming weeks – management game, a trekking trip which I might go to, World War and many more.

Keep watching this space!

New Lappie!!!

2008-07-18T21:33:00.003+05:30

Buying anything new always brings joy to oneself, especially if it’s a laptop! I got my new ThinkPad R 61 with 3 GB RAM - a GAMING machine.

This is the first time I am using Vista and I must say that it’s a beauty. People have been complaining about it being slow and hanging a lot. Thankfully, I have not till now encountered such issues. The graphics are really superb. I thought XP was beautiful, till i used Vista. Driven by Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz processor and NVIDIA enhanced graphics card makes it work like rocket. One can feel the difference while playing games ;) ;)

But, as always, a ThinkPad loses out on the looks but I think what could have been better for Rs. 47,000 – Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz, Enhanced Graphics Card, 160 GB HDD 7200 rpm, Vista Business Edition, 3 GB RAM, DVD Writer and a back pack!

It’s a steal!

Settled

2008-07-11T16:13:00.002+05:30

Right, I know a post was long overdue from my side. Today is THE first free evening wherein nothing is lined up for tonight or tomorrow and I have a net connection and lotsa time at my disposal
Hey, this in no way means that IIMC is chill or something! It’s all relative ;) When one has no deadline to meet in the next 12 hours, then it is considered to be a gala time.
Umm…from where to start!!! Fine, I reached the hallowed portals of the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta.
1. Campus - Its just breathtaking. And scenic too. The moment one enters, one cannot stop admiring the scene in front of the eyes. The very famous lakes, the jetti, the Howrah Bridge and many more things make the campus so special.
2. Faculty – A.W.E.S.O.M.E. Not even a single class has happened where I thought of looking at watch and wonder, when is this gonna get over??!! The faculty is so gripping, involved, knowledgeable, approachable and yeah strict too ;) The focus on quant is seen from the first class. What more proof one needs if I tell that stats used in HR
3. Peer group – This is one thing which is an integral part of any B-School. You think you have achieved enough; there are 100s to prove you wrong. I have met JEE double digit rank holders (yet very humble), people having their patents, interned in NASA, National level players in chess, hockey, volleyball, cricket…think of any sport people. Quizzing level is at another level all together; amount of reading some folks have done just amazes me!
4. Weather – Upon reaching here, it was very humid and discomforting. But some heavy rains in the past few days have brought down the humidity levels but apparently a lot of rain is still need to be seen.
5. Hostels – 3 hostels are just enough to accommodate all of us but though construction is on big time for the future expansion plans. Lotsa inter-hostel activities are there and then one can the unity a hostel as a unit displays
6. Seniors – The PGP2s. They are just WOW. The amount of help they offer is just….dont know what to say. Any, I repeat any senior is approachable any time of the day. And yes, they will NEVER refuse.
7. Extra-currics – There are more than 20 clubs on campus and ALL are really active. With so many activities, going on at the same time; it becomes difficult to prioritize. I think this is one thing that really sets IIMC apart from other institutes. One can do so much when on campus that 24 hours seem to be less
8. Academics – This is what is MOST IMPORTANT. One just cannot afford to lose focus on acads. 2Fs and you are standing outside the institute gate. But it is not that hard also to manage so much going around, faculty ensures that one studies a bit too – by giving assignments and quizzes and surprise quizzes. Every 5 weeks, we have exams, so one has to be regular.
Well, I think that’s enough for first 3 weeks on campus; a lots in store for everyone here in the coming weeks/months/2 years and will try to keep giving an update of the same!

Irony!!!

2008-07-05T14:46:00.008+05:30

Most of the B-School aspirants want to make it to a consulting firm or investment banking. Let's leave the consults outside this post as I will come back to them later.

Now, these days with salaries touching new peaks, thanks to I-Banks, people are big time interested in making it to an I-Bank. Now here's lie the catch. Most of these banks come for summers and GENERALLY give PPOs (Pre-Placement Offers) and hence the number of such firms coming for finals is really less.

As for the summers, one gets a shortlist on the basis on what (s)he has achieved/done/accomplished till now in life!!! Here's lies the irony....If I want to get into an I-Bank, then I should have been quite an achiever and then make it to a B-School and then hope to get a shortlist in Summers, convert it and fight to make it a PPO :) :)

So, basically my M.B.A. course per se is not helping me to make it to an I-Bank. Ya ya people can argue that one can move to an I-Bank once you are out in the market; but everyone also knows how easy/difficult it is to switch once you are out there ;) ;)

This is not so true for a consulting firm as most of them generally come for summers and for finals too, so an option still remains to crack them!!!

Some things in life are left better not explained ;) ;)

Auto Ride

2008-07-01T20:04:00.004+05:30

This should have been posted long back but it’s never too late.
Around a month back, I had to go FMS to cancel my admission. I took an auto from Dhaula Kuan for the North Campus. The auto driver agreed to go by meter (a rarity in Delhi) and I set out for my journey.
All the conversation took place in Hindi though. A = Auto Driver, M = Me
A - You a student in DU?
M - Yes
A - Which course?
M - MBA
A - Ok, so you in FMS?
M – (Utterly surprised!!!!) Yes, I am
A – So, it is IIM A better than u?
M – (Completely zapped) Yes, it is!
A – So, where does FMS featue?
M – ‘Explained the rankings’ (Auto is being continuously driven) How do know about MBA and all?
A – I read the newspaper, these B-Schools are all over the place now. Placements, 1 crore salary etc.
M –‘Explained the “real” salary scene’
A – Tell me one thing, what does MBA teach coz according to me, its one capabilities which shapes a person. Like Ambani, Tatas and all are not MBAs but have such huge corporations
M – Yes, its about capabilities but MBA teaches about business as a whole etc etc.
Some more discussion followed and somehow topic shifted to cars. Meanwhile, I must say this guy was informed.
A – Do you know the origin of name Mercedes Benz logo?
M – I only know the reason of its name, it was name of its daughter.
A – Ya, that’s right! But the daughter had this design in her ear-rings and that’s how it became logo of this car company.
M – How do you know all this?
A – I watch Discovery channel.
M – What else you do?
A – I watch Nat Geo too and invest in stocks!
M – (Flabbergasted) Stocks? How?
A – Online accounts, 2 of them, 1 in ICICIDirect and another in HDFC. I have PAN, so not a problem. Also, I just play long term in the stck market as short term does not give good returns.
M – That’s really good. ‘Some more exchange of stock market talks’
A – I followed what once “Warren Buffett” said.
M – (Man, this guy is informed) What did he say?
A –Always buy stock of sick companies. I followed it once and made a killing. Took 15,000 shares for Rs.4 of a company, it reached Rs. 104 and I made cool Rs. 15 lakh. Bought a 10 lakh house and reinvested 5 lakh in stocks.
M – (Already floored)
A – Do you invest in stocks?
M – No
A – You should, you are MBA :D
M – Yes, will do in some time. By the way, stock markets are driven by MBAs only in the backend.
A – I know, its all the job of ‘analysts’.
M – (WOW!!!!, in complete awe of this guy)

There were other many discussions which I don’t remember now. How I wish I had a recorder at that time! It was really an awesome experience meeting that guy. It was hot June afternoon and the journey time was around 45 minutes but I was so engaged with him that it did not feel a bit. It was great meeting that person.

Wishing him all the best in life! I hope to meet him again when I go back in Delhi or maybe sometimes in future when he makes some headlines :) :) I am not joking people; he had the potential.

Reached..

2008-06-30T11:17:00.003+05:30

“The train is running two-and-a-half-hours late.” This was the way I welcomed into the city of Calcutta, my home for the next two years (minimum :p) on the 17^th of June. Well, we (me and my parents) took a train journey from Mumbai to Howrah which was supposed to be 33 hours but in the end, it took us 36 hours to reach from commercial capital of India to the capital city of India till 1911. Why cant Railways introduce a faster train between these two stations…well that for later!

Anyways, rain God was too happy to receive me and gave us a wet welcome. Rain would have bothered me but 2 years of stay in Mumbai has made me tough and no rain is enough to make me nervous (especially when I had through Mumbai rains on the famous day of 26^th July, 2005). After getting for the day, we set out for the journey to report to the institute.

Oh yes, forgot to mention the amount of water-logging I saw in the city roads. It was supposed to be “pre-monsoon” shower and the water was knee deep already. Maybe, I am yet to see the worse. More updates on that whenever I witness it.

We hit upon Diamond Harbour Road, on which IIM is. The journey never seemed to end; and after like 40 minutes, I saw it – the board – INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT, CALCUTTA. A chill ran down my spine. It was here…finally J J. Well, I went in, got the room, shifted in and etc etc.

Cut to Friday the 20^th of June. It was our orientation day where we were formally welcomed, introduced to the faculty and IIM C in general. The evening function saw the august presence of our Director and the CEO of P&G, India (alum of 1983). It was an honour to hear people with great academic qualifications under their belt and with varied experience.

This was the first night I was going to spend in my hostel room and for the rest of my days I was staying with my parents in the city. This was the first time I got a chance to interact with my neighours, people in my hostel and other batch mates and I must say some of them are just incredible. People in my batch are JEE rank 14 holders’, world’s 7^th best debater, rejecting an Kellogg admit, 100 percentiler in CAT English, National level Quizzers, Chess players and you think, a person will be present.

Saturday first half was fixed for the city tour organised by the institutes and executed by our seniors. It was really well organised and coordinated and I think no amounts of thanks are enough towards seniors for doing so for us.

Our classes were scheduled to start from Monday. In one week, I have had classes of all the subjects but since multiple faculties teach a particular course, so I am yet to interact with all the faculty members. The faculty is just...I don’t know what to say! Their qualifications, their way of teaching, the course content is all just A.W.E.S.O.M.E.

Also, since the faculty puts in so much effort for these classes, they expect us to be the same; i.e., reaching class dot on time, reading the prescribed of the class before hand, quality assignments, and on similar lines.

In the end, it has been a dream first week here in IIM Calcutta and I am really excited to explore the next 2 years now. Keep watching this space for more!

Teething problems

2008-06-03T15:48:00.004+05:30

I went to Bangalore recently and was little thrilled to know that we would be landing at the new airport. I took a Spice Jet from Delhi on 24th morning. Our flight reached B’lore at 0800 hours and was one of the first few flights to use the new airport. But this is where the honeymoon ended (our scheduled arrival was 0815 hours).

Our aircraft cleared the runway within a moment but was stranded for a long time. After like 5 minutes, the pilot announced that the allotted parking bay was already occupied and new instructions are still not received. After a wait of 15 minutes, finally the aircraft was parked.

Then, the doors were opened and everyone stood up with bag and baggage ready to get off the plane. But one needs stairs to get off; which were not in place. After 15 minutes of waiting, pilot announced that the passengers should be seated as the ladder is on its way. Well, the ladder did arrive after 15 more minutes.

Then, we entered the airport. Man, it was huge and swanky. It did give an International Airport look. Next we moved to the baggage collection and we were not surprised when we did not see our baggage. There was no intimation when will our baggage arrive and more importantly on which belt!!! Well, that information did come up but not more 20 odd minutes.

Next, the belt refused to move. The luggage did start coming in but somehow only one or two pieces were coming at a time. After an agonizing wait of 40 minutes, we got our bag and were on our way out.

Something funny which we saw on our way out was that there was lotsa luggage on a particular belt but no passenger to receive it :P :P Watch the video here

Well, the flight which landed at 0800 hrs had its passengers coming out of the airport terminal at around 1030 hours.

This is criminal wastage of time.

Now for the return journey. I used the Volvo shuttle service for the airport. I took the bus from Kormangla and the journey costs Rs. 150/- But the given the distance, Volvo bus’ comfort and AC, it’s a fair charge. I later came to know that cabs are asking for 700 one way @*&$(@

Anyhow, the departure area is huge with over 60 check-in counters. The check in was smooth and so was the security check. But the waiting lounge was cramped and small and was just not enough to accommodate the expected number of passengers. Luckily, we got seats and were comfortable.

The announcement system is BAD as there is too much echo inside the waiting terminal.

The flights were getting delayed for no good reason and this was all attributed to chaos and confusion at the new airport ATC.

Our 2130 flight finally took off at 2310 and all the delay was too much confusion at the new Bangalore Airport. The journey was also not very pleasant due to bad weather in B’lore and never in my life I experienced so many jerks inside the aircraft. The plane dipped twice, lost height, titled sharply and what not. In short, I was badly scared :D :D

The authorities were still stupid to shift ALL the operations from the old airport to the new one. Had it been done in phases, it would have led to less confusion and frustration. I hope the same mistakes are not repeated for the Delhi and Mumbai upcoming International Airports.

Traveling by Bus in Delhi

2008-05-22T12:53:00.003+05:30

Mumbai: Local Train :: Delhi: DTC Bus. DTC stands for Delhi Transport Corporation, the bus service which is operated by the Government of Delhi. It claims to be the world’s largest bus service which is operated on clean fuel.

Anyhow, that’s not the point I want to make. I regularly used DTC in my 11^th and 12^th standard to commute to and from my school. Even in my first semester of college, I had to rely on DTC. It was then a long break when I started using the bus service regularly again. This is when I noticed the difference.

The initial regular traveling years were from 1998 to 2000-2001. And it is now 2008. When one travels the same route every day at the same time, one sees the same set of people, the same conductor and driver and the same amount of traffic etc. Initially, people who traveled together felt connected with one other. We use to smile at each other, although people might have never talked to each other. Even if someone had not made it, everyone ensured that the bus is held for few minutes to wait for the person who has not made it. Some people had made their groups and use to chat generally in life and even had their seats fixed. It was the same scene and I use to really like it.

But now, this is all gone now. No one just bothers for anyone else. Although, I meet the same people every morning, no one seems to recognize each other or feel connected. I was little taken aback by this attitude especially in Delhi, which is known to be generally an extrovert city.

I thought and finally came blamed to one thing which everyone uses these days (I am not sure if that is the real reason but could not think anything better also :D) – the cellphones/ mobile phones/ MP3 Players/ iPods of the world. Everyone is chatting over the phone, or busy listening to music on their MP3 player or iPod or radio in the phones. I also do the same and realized how cut off I am getting from the world around me.

As Nokia claims to be “Connecting People”, I am not very sure about it ;)

Call to the helpline

2008-05-21T15:47:00.003+05:30

I recently called my credit card issuing bank with whom I am very happy regarding the service, customer care and anything and everything. I called up just to enquire something.

Now, when someone calls up the credit card helpline, it takes time to reach the phone banking officer. I reached there without much effort and told my card number. Here, it use to take some time to retrieve the details. Previously, I use to hear “Please be online sir, I am retrieving your details.” But this time, it was something else. She asked me, “Sir, are you watching the IPL match on TV?”. I was little surprised, I responded and we engaged in conversation for some 30 seconds.

In the meanwhile, details were retrieved and my query was solved with utmost satisfaction.

In the end, I realized that these companies know that customer is king and go any length to keep them happy. I was pleasantly surprised by the innovations that they come to keep the customer engaged and connected while on a call also :)

Good work HSBC !!! Keep it up :)

A Journey called CAT

2008-05-19T09:59:00.012+05:30

IIM – The acronym every B-Schooler aspires for in India. I being not too different from others had similar aspirations, desires and dreams. Oh yes, forgot to mention the common full form of IIM is Indian Institute of Management; but I came to know of another full form during this journey, which will be eventually revealed to all

Umm…from where to start…let me go back to April of the year 2000. It was the time when my sister made it to the well…Joka land, i.e. IIM Calcutta. It was the time when I was preparing for my engineering and already made my mind to make it to an IIM.

First two and a half years of engineering went fine but it’s generally in the third year when one starts thinking about what next! Then I joined Career Launcher in Delhi in my fifth semester and little did I know that I was not the only one aspiring in my batch. I met junta of NSIT there. The classes started and very soon I realized the weakest link for me to the ultimate goal – the VERBAL part. Anyhow, my senior gave me this wonderful advice to taking CAT in the third year to get a “feel” of the exam. I liked the idea and finally took it. And yes, at that time, CAT had no rule which barred people taking the exam who are not in their final years. I think it is coz of people like me that they thought of this rule. It’s good to be a reason which made IIMs take a policy decision.

CAT No. 1: Year 2002 in November

It was a normal 3 section paper in which I had no pressure to perform. The paper went fine and it was the first time wherein the percentiles were to be revealed. Moving to the results, QA was 99.5 % with an 86 odd in DI and some 65 in verbal. This clearly told me where I had to work on – as if I didn’t know it before.

Jan 2003 – Oct 2003 – The time when all of my friends, classmates and everyone and anyone was a CAT aspirant. It was good to be in excellent company and I think that competition forced me to prepare for the exam which eventually I think I did.

CAT No. 2: Year 2003 in November

Was I nervous??!! I WAS. This was the day, the time, the 2 hours which are going to decide the future for me. I still remember how the exam went. The sound of opening the sheet, the answer sheet being filled, the sweat, the tension – everything is still like a movie in my mind. Anyhow, in the end I was quite happy with my performance in DI and QA Also, I knew that I had did well in Verbal because 2 RCs which I attempted in the exam were luckily from some of the test mock papers of the institutes.

But then disaster stuck as soon as I crossed the gates of the school of my center – my mother telling me, “Amit, CAT is cancelled. The paper got LEAKED last night.”

I was like noooooooooooooo, it’s difficult to give your best again. Well, with no option left in life, I started preparing for my semester exams.

Forgot to mention this, 3 weeks before CAT, I had a disc collapse in my back which forced me to take bed rest for 2 weeks which meant no studies, nothing but I think that did not have any adverse effects on my CAT preparation.

Year 2004 has come I had already done the greatest mistake of my life by filling just 3 forms – CAT, XAT and MDI. The XAT exam was next and so much verbal focus, I knew it was difficult to clear it. But then trying was important, which I did and eventually failed also. But since CAT was still there, I thought to myself that I still have a chance to make it to my dream school.

CAT No. 3: Year 2004 in February

After been there already, I was not as nervous but yeah, pressure to perform kills you. The exam was little on the tougher side but it went fine. In this internet age, the solutions were out by the evening but I had decided not to check till the next day.

Next day, I started checking my paper. As always, I started here also with Quant. The performance was sufficient enough to clear the cut-off. I don’t know what prompted me to check verbal next. I did and was amazed to see my score and was already jumping in my room…but hang on…story is not over yet.

I checked DI then and my world came crashing down. I attempted 4 case lets and got 2 of them ABSOLUTELY WRONG!!! I scored a single digit in DI; it was something I was not prepared for...why why why!!! After not able to make it in IIT-JEE because of Maths then, again DI did me in.

Crying made me no better and I knew that it was bye bye IIMs and MDI.

The results came out as expected and I was prepared for it. Some of my close friends had all six calls or single calls or some calls at least. Most of them made it and then we parted on our different paths in life.

I joined HCL Technologies in Delhi in July and was sure of cracking it this time. Some intelligence which I did this time was widening my B-School list – IIMs, XLRI, NITIE, MDI, SPJain, IIFT and FMS. This meant I had to take 4 exams this time and that too with my job. Also, somehow I got a really good project in the company which required me put in a lot of effort there. I could have avoided work but somehow it’s in my nature not to give 100% which is entrusted on me. That year, I went to office for 29 days in October, 2 days off being 2^nd October (Thanks to Gandhiji) and Dusshera (Thanks to God Ramchandra); else I would have been in office then also. Adding to this was a family problem which required me to spend 3 months nights in hospital as my grandfather was ill. When I look back, I wonder how I managed all this. Oh one more thing, my sister wedding plans were also underway which required my inputs and participation too.

CAT No. 4: Year 2004 in November

The exam time came. CAT, XAT, IIFT and FMS. Results: calls from IIM-L, MDI, IIFT and NITIE. I was confident of converting one call at least this time. CAT percentile overall was 98.94%. Also, this was the time when PaGaLGuY shot to fame with that result link getting exposed and all ;) This was the first CAT in which differential marking was introduced.

Jan 2005 – MDI interview, my first B-School GD/PI experience. Somehow managed the GD and went in the interview. Interview was okie-dokie. With next 3 interviews in March, I had loads of time to prepare for them.

Feb 28, 2004 – MDI results are out. Not selected…not even in the waitlist..am I that bad. Maybe yes. With around 10 days to go, I left no stone unturned to prepare for the GD/PI. Next interview was NITIE in Mumbai on 8^th March, 2004 (which was my birthday too J).

March 7, 2004 – Disaster will be an understatement with what happened. I slept with a little back pain but just could not life myself up from the bed. The pain in my lower back was killing me and even lying straight was not helping me. We rushed to the hospital and I was diagnosed with slip disc. 3 weeks bed rest, no movement nothing. My NITIE was next day, IIFT in 3 days and IIML in 10 days. No way was I going to miss them.

I had to get admitted in the hospital and doctor did not allow me to move at all. This meant, all pleadings for attending interviews for NITIE were waste. IIFT also went by and I sat there who could not do anything about it – just cry a bit…ok..not a bit but a little more.

I had my mind, come what may – I will attend my IIM interview. When doctor heard the word “IIM”, he also became a little soft and said that try to get it postponed as much as possible. We tried our best but date was still within my bed rest period. With a little change in is heart, he allowed me to take the interview.

The GD was bad for me as the pain was still there and it was bad. I had to wait for nearly 3 hours for my interview and this aggravated the pain. Somehow, I braved it and faced the interview panel.

It was an above average PI but performance in GD was still enough to ensure that I don’t get in.

The results came and I was waitlisted at 107. This is when I joined PaGaLGuY and my first post was on the IIM L thread. After months of praying and tracking the WL day and night, it closed at 102!!!

I applied for a transfer to Mumbai to stay with my parents and take care of my back. Eventually the company did transfer me and here I landed in Mumbai. I joined the TIME test series and was doing pretty fine but the office culture here was really bad. For the first six months from July to December, there was not a single day when I did not contemplate resigning.

CAT No. 5: Year 2005 in November

I added one more exam in my list – JMET. Exams came and went and somehow I screwed ALL of them. CAT 97 %ile, XAT 99 %ile, JMET – 500+ Rank and similarly all. All but one – FMS. Had calls from both the courses and went to Delhi for the interview. MS GD was average, PI was also average. Then came the FT day. That time, people having both FMS calls did not have process the same day, unlike today. Since I had become quite visible on PG, I met many familiar people. GD was excellent and PI was also good but FMS thought otherwise. My name did not figure in both the list, not even the waitlist. This was the very famous 1:1 ratio batch of FMS, i.e. , the number of girls selected was exactly equal to the number of guys selected ;)

One interesting thing about XAT. Had a 99.9+ in both DI and QA but 86.80 or something in Verbal. Basically I missed the verbal cutoff by .01% L

With 2 years work experience already in my kitty and entering my third year, GMAT option was also available. (just hang on for a bit, the other IIM is coming now J ) In April, I registered for a June date for my GMAT and also joined TIME classes for CAT preparation. I knew it was NOW or NEVER. PaGaLGuY was a really big help for GMAT and after 3 months of study, I scored a 710. This is where I found the other IIM which stands for Indian IT Male. Most of the applicants from India fall in this category and no wonder it is really difficult to get in US B-Schools when being an IIM ;)

Had plans to apply to 3 schools only – ISB, CMU Tepper and Goizueta Emory. The application process in these is a pain but in the end, it is quite insightful. One comes to know so much about oneself. Coupled with this, I was attending classes in TIME and going to my job also. Somehow, I stuck the right chord in Mocks and was posting on PG big time. Also, I disclosed my MBA plans in my office as I needed the recos of my superiors. Surprisingly, they were really cooperative and appreciated my efforts and plans. Also, this was the time when I made two of my greatest friends in the office. I still owe my success to both of them (incidentally both are females :D ) as they listened to my agony, failures and were happy on my success. I really miss them as they are still in Mumbai with me roaming all around. But thanks to internet, its not that difficult to keep track and be in touch.

Oct, Nov 2005 – Had interview calls from all 3 schools – ISB, Tepper and Goizueta. CAT day was also coming. I was done with my ISB interview (which was very very arbit) and Tepper interview over the phone before CAT. The last interview was scheduled in Mumbai in December as a part of the World MBA Tour. Both the US B-School interviews were pretty straight-forward – Why MBA, strengths, weakness etcetera etc.

CAT No. 6: Year 2006 in November

The 5 options paper for CAT…man I had seen it all Started with Quant and killed it. Moved to the most arbit verbal paper ever and then did DI. When the solutions came in the evening, verbal had left me hanging…well almost. Btw, SP Jain was out of the hit list.

Dec 2006 – Jan 2007 –> Worst time of my life. Rejects from ISB, Tepper and Goizueta. CAT result out. 100%ile in QA, 95 in DI and 82 in verbal. It was over for me. With just 5 days to go for XAT, I had no option but to give it my best. It was verbal and verbal and just more verbal.

7^th Jan, 2007 – In the XAT paper itself, I knew that finally verbal is cracked. Meanwhile, JMET had given me a rank of 39 and calls from IIT B, D and KGP were on. MDI also found me suitable for college, even NITIE thought the same

20^th Jan, 2007 – The evening before the FMS paper. Just went online for something and saw the XL result link. With all my confidence, I punched in my roll number and saw the line “Sorry….” WTF !!!! how how how….then clicked on the scorecard link. QA 99 something, Verbal 95.42..scorecard is not over yet..DI 77 %ile This is just not possible…gave up all hope of MBA.

Took the FMS exam and also prepared for the upcoming GDs and PIs. Then someone advised me about the MAT route to JBIMS and MHCET was also added on the exam taking list. MAT went awesome and 99.99%ile with a composite score of 800 ensured that JBIMS was there now. All the interviews came one by one and I attended all of the,. Some in Mumbai, some in Delhi…GOD it was maddening. Filling forms, carrying the requisite stuff etc was quite arduous.

Finally comes the news I was waiting to hear all my life. 13^th March, 2007 2230 hrs. A friend of mine called from FMS and here it was – WL 1 Yipeee!!!! FMS it was. MS was WL 7. Btw, I attended my MDI and IITB interviews after my FMS convert. Though, people advised me against it but they had taken a lot of my hard earned money ;) so I decided to take them.

Well, in the end, I had all converts – FMS (both), JBIMS, IITs (all 3), MDI and NITIE. It was Delhi again for me.

I resigned from my job and then decided to utilize my time by teaching in TIME. This is where ARKSS Sir (ARKS Srinivas, TIME Director, Mumbai) said to me, “Amit, CAT ek baar aur likh de.” I was like no, never sir. I was tired of writing it. We left it there.

July came and I was in here – FMS J Met some of the sharpest people in the country and some awesome faculty. After one month of grilling, I called up ARKSS and told him that FMS is not chill at all. And people, I am serious. During that phone call, again the CAT thing came up and he said “Mere liye likh de.” I told him I can’t do it now anymore, no time to study and all. He somehow convinced me to fill the form and I did it. I just filled the form and did no prep. No test series. There was no time in FMS. There was lotsa work there, then summers, then exams..everything was packed. And whatever time I had in life, I ensured that I sleep well.

CAT No. 7: Year 2007 in November

CAT was on the 18^th and our first semester exams got over on the 15^th evening. 15^th and 16^th were spent in chilling out in life and 17^th was taken away by room cleaning. The only sane thing I did on 17^th was sleeping at 2230 hrs ;) Next day, I went to the exam centre which was nearby to the hostel, thankfully. From there, I called ARKSS again and told him that I still don’t know why I am doing this. Finally, the paper started and it was exciting to do Maths after so many months. Did QA first followed by Verbal and finally DI. Came back to the room after the exam and slept. In the evening, got up and checked the score. QA and DI were fine but as always a 20 in verbal according to TIME keys. My score varied from 15 to 25 depending on institute keys. In either case, I was not clearing cut-off for verbal according to any of the institutes. So, it was over.

Life moved on, then came the day of the results. However bad one performs, there is always a desire to check the result (umm..fine...i have it ) The link given on the CATIIM site was not working from the hostel. Then I came to know about the result by SMS thing. I SMSed and received the following reply.

QA (%ile) 99.98 with a score of 70

DI (%ile) 99.97 with a score of 76

Verbal (%ile) 96.40 with a score of 30

Overall (%ile) 99.99 with a score of 176

YES YES YES I HAVE CRACKED IT !!! Calls started coming in and had all 6 calls. I was elated. But then, I had another problem. What will I say in the interview. FMS is awesome, why should one leave it. I had no clue what to do. The interview schedule came and the forms from the IIMs too. Took a lot of help from ARKSS sir for the same and prepared for the interview. I knew what to prepare – MBA acads and why chuck FMS for an IIM.

The first interview was IIML. A pretty decent GD and average PI. Next was IIMK. An average GD and bad PI. Indore was next but had a very important class to attend in FMS; so decided against it. Btw, both K and L asked about FMS.

The Big One was next – Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. And man, I was nervous. The essay was fine and PI was a dream one. They just could not believe that someone wants to leave FMS and come to IIMA. I think I did a pretty decent job there and rest of the questions varied from work experience to MBA Acads to general stuff in life. The in-depth knowledge of the profs is really mind-boggling. I don’t think there is anything which they don’t know about.

IIM Calcutta was next. A decent case study discussion followed by stress interview. Was asked Maths, Sub Prime, Telecom War, Quiz, FMS and everything.

Bangalore was the last one to be held. The date clashed with my second semester exams of FMS and it must have taken like 10,000 calls to them to get it shifted. Finally, it was shifted to the evening slot of the same day with my exam in the morning and another exam the next morning and interview sandwiched in between. The case study was the Scrablous one and the group was quite decent in discussing the stuff. I was last to be interviewed. It was HORRIBLE. It was so so so bad that they would have left a seat vacant in the college rather than taking me in.

With interviews over, summer internship was something which was coming up. But, Supreme court had other plans. I was also a part of the waiting pain but had no window to vent out the frustration coz it was a secret I wanted to keep. Btw, my FMS classmates came to know about my calls in January itself. I know who did it but have not done anything to that person J But I know what to do to him.

May 1 was about to dawn, I slept without much tension in life. Was woken at 7 a.m. by a friend’s call informing me about IIMB results being out last night only. I checked and as expected, did not get through. I had to go the office and was on my way. Meanwhile, another friend called me and told me to check the WL of IIMB. He checked for me and no; I was not there L as expected though.

I reached office and realized that Wi-Fi was not working on my laptop (Murphy’s Law at its best). I went to IT guys and they needed “some” time to fix it. Just then, another person called me to tell me about IIMC results being out. I sat on the IT guys head and wanted my laptop back up and running. After 20-25 minutes of patience, laptop was handed back to me.

First thing I did was, checking the IIMC result. Opened the link, entered my details and my heart was beating fast as never before. And there it was. CONGRATULATIONS!!! Just could not believe. Tears of joy tricked down my eyes :) :) I was IN...FINALLY IN!!!!

Got through L and K too but surprisingly A ditched me. But no issues…JOKA I AM COMING

I want to clarify 2 things here about which I was asked a lot once I made my result public. 1.Is FMS not good? - People, it is an awesome college; I just took CAT for the heck of it and my stay in FMS had nothing to do with it. So, please don’t get me wrong here. Go ahead and join FMS without battling an eyelid. 2. Justifying interview panel about leaving FMS and going to IIM – The answer was a very planned out one and was structured in a way so that no cross questioning was possible..thanks to ARKSS sir again.Some of the quotes which I had heard over so many years are really true 1.Patience pays 2. Efforts never go waste 3. Samay se pehle aur kismet se zyada kuch nahin milta.But my personal favourite is the one which my cousin said once she heard the result – “Finally, CAT ki aatma ko shanti mili”

New Blogger

2008-05-09T14:36:00.004+05:30

I have been contemplating blogging for past few years now. But there was nothing special happening or something so strong that motivates me to start one! But, finally an admit to IIM Calcutta, my dream destination has given me an opportunity to start it.

So, here I am - an new kid on the blog.

Keep watching this space for more happenings :)

I am thru !!!

2008-05-09T14:14:00.001+05:30

Indian Institute of Management Calcutta

PGP ADMISSION RESULTS

Congratulations!

You have been selected for admission to the post graduate programme(s) of IIM Calcutta as stated below :

NAME : AMIT AGARWAL

TEST REGISTRATON NUMBER : 9320422

Programme Selected :PGDM