Game, set and match!

The year of MBA at INSEAD is over! Time somehow seems to accelerate and fuel itself to faster speed. This year has rushed passed so fast - what did I want to achieve, what did I want to reflect on, what did I want to build into my personality - somehow all these questions still seem to be a blurr. May be time is the only solution.
How has his year impacted me? I've met some great people and also some not-so-good people. These friends will remain for life. I know that when I speak to some of them; their concern is genuine, their warmth is penetrative. Finally, management is about two things - people and negotiations. I think the business world just replicates these two simple factors of relationship management.
We have our graduation next week. This might be the last time I will be seeing many of my classmates. Some of them are on their path of become rich and famous; some of them are set out on journey to make a difference to the world; some of them as clueless as me and some of my mates. This year was supposed to be a year of reflection, a year to clear the muddle in my head. If anything else, I think the muddle's only increased; my confidence definitely been eroded. It'll take time to absorb the showers of knowledge blasted on this year; it will take time to know what the value of this MBA is; and most importantly, the message to be taken from this year will remain forever ...

Good job, bad job!

So we are entering the last day of classes at INSEAD. A bit nostalgic, a bit hurried, a bit weird and a lot more restless. This year has opened so many options for many of us, and at the same time we have priced ourselves out of some other jobs. This is an interesting point in life to reflect and think of jobs!

One of my first bosses at work told me once that work itself is a bad thing – so why do you differentiate between good and bad jobs. I had used this on some of my reportees too – it’s basically a tool that managers use to fend off questions on change and challenge. Coming out of b-school and especially now, one faces a set of choices – not that there are many in my case, but even to justify to myself on what is it that I would like to do in the long run …. I had yet another bunch of questions asking me why I thought I was suited for a particular role and I had to rant off my usual answers. it’s amazing how the human mind works vis-à-vis job search. If there are many obstacles, you get eliminated anyway. If the selection is easy and straight forward, the the mind suspects it’s not going to be a challenging job!

As a friend once pointed out, for the first time in the history of mankind, the upper classes wants to and will be working much more than the lower classes. There is this drive to work harder and do that bit extra to impress someone in the business organization to get that extra bit of recognition. There are going to be situations in our professional lives from now, when decision making will be key. Till now, I’ve had it easy in a lot of situations being in operational roles, but increasingly, I will be moving to more front line and top line roles. Where is everything headed, time shall unwind and reveal itself ….. till then, I have to complete coursework and a few residual interviews.

Desi Week - We like it hot!

Dec 4-8, we celebrated the Desi week at INSEAD. We called it Desi week to accommodate our neighbours Pakistan and Sri Lanka into the party. It was a lot of work by some people - but the end result was awesome.

Many thanks to the sponsors - Infosys, Nokia, Smirnoff and Taj Hotels. And very interestingly we got amazing help from India tourism with the Incredible India! posters, brochures and a bhangra troupe that cracked the show during the party. We had a splash of colours, desi-ness, food and party into one week.

The pinnacle of the week was on Wednesday when we had the Desi dinner and party. As part of the party arrangements, we scouted around the whole of Singapore looking for places for the party and finally zeroed in on the New Park hotel in Little India. It's a nice place for the occasion. The music was completely Punju types and all our friends from the whole world had a blast!

Some pictures that should speak for themselves.
















The decor in school for the Desi week - good number of posters from India, a few from Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

The decor for the bazaar - where we brought vendors from Little India to setup stalls. We made a good impact in terms of the cultural exhibition, unfortunately couldn't plan enough for the business events.

With Abel during the party! We smacked every one's forehead with teekas. The party was a hit everyone swinging to bhangra numbers - we had an awesome bhangra group lent to us by India tourism office in Singapore.

Happiness and relief

And I have a job offerJ. It’s such a relief to be on the other side of the fence! So I got a job offer from Westpac bank in Sydney, Australia – the same place where Pooja already has an offer. So it’s a big relief and joy that we will be in the same city without compromising on our careers. Never thought at the beginning of the year that we would go to Australia. After all this roller-coaster, there is happiness and relief. I’m really looking forward to joining the labour market again to contribute to the GDP growth of the world.

So the role is in technology strategy of a retail bank. It sounds exciting and it covers functions across risk management, finance, marketing and HR. I still haven’t been to Australia but trust in my sweetheart’s judgement about the country, its people and specifically the people who we’ll be working with. So, this is a General management career path and that sounds pretty exciting. I have a chance to be a ‘leader’, thinker and do-er.

The interview process itself gave me time to reflect on what I want out of a career or a job. I realized that it was not the type of job that was important – but more of a list of criteria that should be satisfied by a career path. I will discuss those traits in a letr post. In the meantime, business school is meandering to an end. I will graduate with an MBA degree in 3 weeks’ time. It feels too sudden, but at the same time feels like it’s been a drag. It feels great to be part of a global community of big achievers and yet feels like we’re all shallow running after we don’t even know what! Or like a friend put it, it feels like a good movie that’s coming to an end. And a good movie is never the one where you can predict the end! I believe this is just another beginning. Career is important because we spend more than 70% of our waking time at work. But, at the same time, it’s good to enjoy the God of small things J… Sydney – here I come.

Place to live?

For the first time in life, I’m at a point when, I don’t know where I’ll be next month on this date. I mean, literally, not figuratively! As job search goes on and on forever, my stories also have their own ups and downs. From being a super-duper people manager to a strategic thinker I have played my part to the dances and tunes of the recruiter. This week’s going to be busy – with interviews and coursework. Talking of interviews, I’m a bit all over the place in terms of location, function and industry. Well industry not so much, but the other two definitely.

So INSEAD and a 1 year MBA in general is not that great for career changers. By career changer, I mean change any two of this set :  {function, geography, industry}. It’s pretty tough to define these terms, but even after making the most drastic adjustments to your own expectations and also of the recruiters, it’s still so bloody tough to get a job!

Anyway, the scenarios and options look promising. Just the fact that I could be working anywhere from Sydney to London to the US – the geographical spread is broad and wide. But, Singapore stands out as a desirable place to live in. There are three main reasons to it: convenience, saving potential and proximity.  It’s easily the most convenient city on earth to live in.  One doesn’t need to own a car, the air, water and land are clean. Food is available cheap and plenty outside of home. It’s saving potential os great because the taxes are low and salaries though not that high, is still quite good for a decent life. Proximity to India is an attractive attribute for us – one can just land up in the airport and take a flight home. Not too many places in the world from where we can do that!

So – back to the hunting and hoping for the best!

Risk aversion

I realized that I have been so risk averse in life. An example to illustrate this - I cut my losses when I lost 2 $ in a slot machine in a Casino whose entry fees was probably 10$!!!! I wonder whether risk aversion is a genetic/upbringing thing or a huge deficiency in self confidence. Or is it lack of ambition?

My upbringing has been so conservative in terms of financial risks and thoughts, that probably the idea of taking up an MBA itself was quite a daring thing. When we were coming for the MBA, everyone thought we were taking very big risks; we always wondered where the risk was! So …. What do we want to take away from all this? Will I ever have the balls to become an entrepreneur some day?

Release ..

I want this blog to be a release point .. release all my pain and frustrations … so I can look back at it and laugh at it some time in the future. What matters and what does not today, suddenly feels very irrelevent in tomorrow’s context. Some decisions and their basis shape our journey; and those decisions finally define who you are!

Anyway, a few things happening right now in terms of interviews and career. Only time will tell where these decisions take us.

The indian team’s performance yesterday was nothing short of pathetic. Unfortunately, our Desi week at INSEAD, the theme is cricket. It’s pretty sad and too late to change!

Random rambling ...

Dale Carnegie once wrote a book called “How to stop worrying and start living” – I used to know how to do that a while back. But now, I seem a bit uncapable of doing that.  Self- doubt is the worst enemy from within in times such as this. Loads of work to do – and the mind starts worrying thinking that there’s so much to do without actually doing them! It’s an interesting way in which our mind and body work.

Outside of abstraction, I have a lineup of interviews and I hope really do well in those. I guess everyone hopes that way, but somehow the heart beat is killing. Tension le le ko nakko, a friend of mine from Bangalore always told me. But,  when you are at striking distance from a goal, and you have just stood there for a while, it’s a tough tough world to be just standing there. Add to that a very big eveil – peer pressure. Before an MBA, you always heard of those life transforming experiences. You go thhrough the whole thing in terms of effort, but not yet in terms of results. I agree there’s time and it’s only a question of time, but still that’s the way the humand mind works.

Among other things, I actually sat through classes the whole weekend doing a course called Art of communication. The less said about the class, the better. Anyway, back to real world …. Logout from the blog world for today!

Countdown to graduation

So the INSEAD story is enterng its last phase. So more and more interviews are coming – not that many actually; but just that I know what I’m going to be doing next week. Besides, I have also loaded myself with academics! I have taken 4 courses; 3 credits though. But the courses are really good ones – Industry and competitive analysis, Business planning workshop, Pricing strategy and Art of communication.

I was talking to a potential recruiter today and for the first time I felt my confidence coming back. A very interesting exercise I learnt from my Negotiations professor came in really handy. He said that he had identified 78 interests when he joined INSEAD as a prof. I did a similar exercise myself through some soul searching and found that it is an effective way of convincing yourself of an interest in a particular job or position. The way it works is like this – you manage to convince yourself of why you want the job, it’s half the work done. The other half is then convincing the interviewer why he needs you. That process can similarly be built up – I haven’t done that yet with any employer, but I’m definitely going to try it out with some of the leads I have.

Finally – b-school in general and INSEAD in particular can be such completely different experiences depending on who you are and how secure you feel. When we were coming to Singapore for the MBA, lot of people were telling us that we were taking a big risk. But we never realized why they were saying that! The point is that when you are sold to a concept especially like that of an MBA, you see only the upside. The downsides and the risks somehow get lost in the pile of examples. Of course, the risk downsides are not really that much of a downside – but risks certainly exist. And these can be extraneous. The diversity itself gets us down in many situations. There are so many Indians; software background and speak good English. How the hell will a recruiter differentiate Krishnan from Rama from Ajay. Everybody is equally talented or mediocre!

So much has happened!

The blog Gods won’t forgive me for not penning down this last month or so of my life. It’s been very exciting roller coaster! I have had so many dings in applications for jobs at various stages of the recruitment process. Firstly, the consulting companies gave me a total pass except for one mistake. Marakon called me for an interview and I got disposed off in the very first round. Reason: well, you are not structured enough! A very pleasant way of saying, “Who the hell short-listed this guy?”. Then I get some calls which were very doable. American express interview went pretty well by any standards; but again the result was the same. Reason: Not known! Google was supposed to be dream company. I interviewed with them for 2 positions. I screwed up by telling the less glamourous role’s interviewer that it was my second choice. And the more glamorous role of a product manager was anyway too good to be true! Result: Ding again!!

In the meantime, there was process that was going in parallel that always looked promising. BT – British Telecom. The call for the final interview came – I flew to London to give the interview. There were 5 interviews in 7 hours of a day. The undoing of Prashant was again in a case interview! I got the ding there also – which was the most workable scenario for us – that one of us finds a job in the UK; and the other goes there and finds a job in a short duration. Anyway, some positives from the trip – I visited my uncle, aunt and cousin in Dartford, south east of London. I had a very relaxed time and for the first time in life, I played with a dog. Their pappion is a cute fellow called Oscar. I also really enjoyed walking around London. For some strange reasons which people call Global warming, London wasn’t cold!

Back to Singapore now and back in the grind. Back to sending zillions of applications. I am going to fight it out! Come what may, I shall not get bogged down and somehow go there and fight it out at each subsequent interview. I need to increase my aggression quotient – not possible in the short run, but the business world demands of me to become aggressive. How I can achieve that in the short term, I don’t know. This is the age by when people are trying to sober down, but I’m going to be trying the opposite direction. Only time will tell where the drift takes us …  as of now it looks like the Sydney harbour bridge!

 

Somebody give me a job

So lots of things have happened since the last time I managed to write something on this blog. P4 courses are going on in full swing, writing cover letters and getting dings from companies. My wifey is going great guns in the meanwhile. She has an interview with Bain coming up – I really hope she cracks it and gets an offer with them. In the meanwhile my job search has taken proportions of greater geographical spread. I now need to start applying to Australia also – chasing my sweetheart as usualJ. Anyway, the long term plan is to let her go and earn the money, while I can sit home, philosophize and do some home jobs. Sounds like fun eh? ;).

 

Business world is a bad world of lies, cheating and increasingly of lower ethics. People just tell white lies in their cover letters – makes me feel I haven’t done anything in my career so far. Looking back at my career, there are so many things I could’ve done better. May be the bottom line of my career has been lack of ambition. I have been easy to satisfy in terms of happiness. I guess I will continue to be so – but there’s this new burden of a loan that’s accumulating interest at an alarming rate. Anyway, as the saying goes, everything happens for goodJ.

Bollywood song

An american friend described a Bollywood song as "an expression of love between a man and a woman in the company of their 60 best friends of either sex". I just found this quite hilarious! We get to watch Tamil and Hindi movies on the regular local channel in Singapore - called Vasantham central. So the other day, an Irish friend sat through and watched "RHTDM" of Maddy and Diya Mirza fame - and he said he was watching without his wife's knowledge ;). He didn't want her to catch him watching a hindi movie :))).

Where is Ramar Pillai?

Has anyone heard of what happened to this guy called Ramar Pillai. This guy claimed to have invented the 'herbal' petrol. He apparently demonstrated that he could convert water and a concoction of herbs and boiling water into petrol. He was then supposedly harassed by all oil companies. Then scientists from IIT, Madras proved he was a bogus. To refresh your memories of what then, here is a glimpse from history.

 

Today we are talking of bio fuels and bio-diesels from Jatropha plantations. What's the difference? Taking a long shot, could he have accidentally found jatropha like herbs? He was apparently selling this herbal petrol stuff near his village for a while. Hmmm .. food for thought!

Vande Mataram

Today's India's Independence day! We are 59 years old now. Despite all the cynicism and apprehensions on where we are headed, it's time to look back. We have definitely progressed - may be not as fast as Ashoka's chakra is supposed to have - but still we won freedom on this day. The famous Tryst with destiny was delivered by Nehru on this day.

Independence day could mean so many different things to different kinds and types of people. To many poor people, it might not just mean anything. To the poor and unaware, it might not even make sense. To the ultra-rich, it means a day to recover from last night's hangover. To the political class, it's day to deliver big promises of words and garlands on the thousands statutes. To the Armed forces, it's a day of pride and hoisting the tricolour. To the middle class child, it means a proud moment at school and a little sweet distribution.

The day means different to various people because the country or the nation itself means so many different things. But one thing in common to all people, who live in the country, who were born in the country, who have even visited the country - India is this nearness to life! It's this land of uncertainity - a roller coaster ride. It can take you up on a such high one moment only to drop you down to feel like an inward spiral. It's a land of enormous beauty and charming people, to a country mis-governed and wronged by so many rulers.

The day is to remember the sacrifice of a generation - of Gandhi's leadership and Nehru's statesmanship and of all the millions of grand fathers and grand mothers who gave their everything to see the light at the end of the tunnel of foreign rule. Parts of Northern India(Delhi region) were free for the first time in 800 years on this day!

Saulte to the motherland! Vande Mataram!

Zen and the art of network maintenance

Till six months ago - networking meant only one thing! Computer networks. Layer to layer protocols and stacks. Never really got the full hang of it, frankly!

 

Then came business school. Networking means talking to people and making acquaintances of them. There are events called 'Networking events' to facilitate people who want to make these superficial conversations - unite! There are websites like Linked in that help maintain and grow this 'network'.

 

When we started b-school, this was such a big deal. You had to land up at every party to make these so called insightful conversations that evaporated from people's brains when they woke up the next day. Though I must admit there are some people who are much better people when they're drunk - in sobriety - I don't even want to stare at their faces!

 

So networks again can be classified as professional or business related and social or fun networks. Very often you can cross-pollinate between the two types of networks. In fact it's the informal or fun network that gives you better insights into a problem than the formal or professional network.

 

There are some people who have mastered the art of networking. For a lot of others, it's a science. It's a formula. So they land up in these parties and start talking the same stuff. When you are standing with them, and they see a new node in the network walk in, you somehow seem to have become transparent to them - you are only a node in the network - if a peripheral node, too bad! There are some others who make you feel like you are the God, you are important! And they seem to give that impression to everyone they meet.

 

Just like a motorcycle, a network needs maintenance. It needs some oiling and service. Very often people walk in and older people walk out - a huge churn occurring all the time. The most important in networking is conversation. Conversations are your fuel in the tank. Networks don't work without conversations - they need to be interesting and likeable - to the listener of course!

 

I like stereotypes now. That's what business school teaches you. The idea is to get a general idea - that's why stereotypes are useful. Conversations are of several kinds in different settings. When a bunch of desis have a long conversation, especially in b-school like ours, we always end up analyzing the current situation in India - give a competitor analysis .. take the best case example of Singapore works and conclude and recommend how the problems facing India should be solved. When it's with a bunch of south Europeans - it's always single track - how do you get the women! When you speak to Americans, they talk so much in circles and bushes - you have to dig deep into the conversation to find information content in that! Now, these are stereotypes! I know there are a million exceptions and sometimes it's tough to tell which is an exception and what is a rule.

Happy birthday Singapura

Today's Singapore National day. The country's 41 years old now. It's pretty sweet how there are national flags flying around and the brute capitalistic malls are making business out of the national day. No harm done - I completely support the business environment that's created here.

I managed to read Lee Kuan Yew's book - "From third world to first world". It's the story of transformation of a sleepy British outpost from a near nation of slums to what Singapore is today - a real first world country. In fact, in my opinion, it's ahead of most first world countries in a lot of respects!

So today was a holiday. I decided to work from school. When I was walking in school, it felt good to be back to student life. In the past month and a half I've been back in the corporate world. The comparison between school life and corporate life is striking. We have had the chance to sample both during this one exciting year in INSEAD. In fact Pooja's got to sample to two companies and a school!

Corporate life is the same old - lot of cynical people, challenging any new thought saying - "Yeah! what's he going to do that I didn't try earlier!". There are no real synergies between divisions, departments, regions and markets. School life is just the opposite. There are discussions and opinions floating around so much - everyone has a solution to every problem!

Being Vegetarian

My jounrneys in search of food in Singapore have led us to the weirdest of places and taken our thoughts to even weirder directions. People eat stuff like the intestine of a pig - the picture is put on the stall! Other things eaten I believe are turtle soup - for which they just slow boil an unsuspecting turtle till it breaks up to shreds. Even listening made me puke one day.

Luckily there are one or two Buddhist places in the foodcourts where they serve vegetarian food - which is definitely edible, but not too very tasty. Taste and fragrance are very subjective matters, I agree! It's a bit unfortunate that I get to try only Indian and Italian food in the whole of Singapore. But the Indian food here is yummy - pretty much like how it's made back home - and more importantly available in plenty.

This led me to think of why am I a vegetarian. I am a vegetarian by upbringing - my parents and folks do not eat meat. As a child I always thought that people who ate meat became like the animals they ate. Somehow, the same concept of people eating plants becoming trees never occured to me then. But, anyway childhood aside - at different points in my life I have come in close encounter with meat eating. Again there used to be a time when I couldn't stand the smell of meat - fish especially. Now, as survival becomes more important, I can even remove the stuff from my plate and eat the rest. But I still can't eat meat. I once chewed into a chicken piece in salad. Now, I think that's the most cruel thing a chef can do - put a chicken piece into an otherwise vegetable looking salad! I somehow tried to chew it up and said to myself that I would somehow swallow this one! But I just had to run to the loo to throw it out.

There are different types of vegetarians - spiritual, psychological, health and vegans of course! I am by upbringing a spiritual vegetarian - which means I was always told that meat eating is not good. Then I guess I have become a psychological vegetarian now. Even as I was chewing that piece of chicken in my mouth - I could here the slaughter and screaming of a poor unsuspecting bird. I once mentioned this to a buddhist friend and he told me I was very lucky to be able to be able to 'feel' for life. I don't know why I feel for life.

The other argument is what I read in Anand Bhavan in Little India, Singapore. The restaurant has a whole wall dedicated to explaining the concept of vegetarian. There's a quote from Thiruvalluvar on the wall explaining why man should be vegetarian.

Then there is the intestine and stomach comparison. The intestine of humans is long resembling that of a horse or cow. Predators on the other hand have small intestines because they do not want meat to rot in the tummy. The acid levels in carnivores is also 20 times more than that of the herbiovores. We are pretty close to the herbivores again.

The final argument is that of instinct. If you gave a child that has just developed teeth, an apple and a chicken - the kid would automatically eat into the apple and play with the chicken. If you did the same thing with a cat, the cat would eat into the chicken! That explains how by physiology we might be herbivores. Then there are these arguments like - we drink water more like horse and cows by sipping; whereas carnivores put their tongue out to lick water! Again, pretty convincing.

A lot of people keep asking what percentage of India is vegetarian. To be honest, it's so difficult to generalize about the whole of India. Again many are vegetarian by religion, many by economics! So I would guess it's around 20-30%. Atleast in the south, especially in Karnataka I think there are a lot of vegetarians.

I also read that if the amount of land used in growing crops to feed livestock was put to use to grow vegetables and crops, we would not have to destroy any more forests! There will be enough grains to feed everyone in the world. I really hope that the movement for vegetarian food grows. A lot of times, I am shocked on seeing what all people eat - and they seem enjoy and relish the taste! How long is it before we become cannibals? Afterall, human flesh is also food - who knows may be it tastes really good :-(

Killing myself with Caffeine

I am back to work - at least temporarily! It's a break from break neck school life - good or bad - I'm not sure yet! I have been given a challenging project. I really like the challenge in the work. But I am also tensed about my ability to deliver. This is not a game any more - where all that matters is a stupid grade in school. This can make or break a company!

I lead the life of a normal working man in Singapore. I use the MRT to commute to work. I walk 10 minutes in the sweaty sun to reach the station. I can stand in a packed commuter train to reach one station - change lines to another train and reach the destination station. I then walk another 10 minutes to reach office.

Office is like any indoor place in Singapore - freezing cold. They all have some tie up with wool manufacturers in the world. There are two seasons in Singapore - inside and outside. Inside is cold and freezing - they probably maintain it at some 15 degrees. Outside is like any other coastal city in the equatorial region - hot and humid. Evenings are better - windy and pleasant.
I sit in office with a lot of data to mine. I need some data and I don't need some. I need to use my brain. I feel happy about that part. But I feel scared I may not deliver. No bright ideas have struck me yet. But I kill myself with Caffeine. I eat biscuits and cookies - as if they would funnel into my brain and give it some energy. Am I really dumb - I wonder!

I look at the news - when I see what's happened in Mumbai - I get angry. I read a lot about India. A lot more than I used to when I lived in Bangalore. I feel happy for the country - its people are awesome. We do so much in spite of so many obstacles- those created by external and internal forces. I pray and hope for the billion countrymen that we find our way in the world.

I switched on the news channels the other evening - watching live pictures from Mumbai. My friends use the trains all the time. It could have been one of them. Luckily, all near and dear ones are fine. But, what's in the mindless killing?

I see the contrast in people from developed countries. People in Singapore have no clue what terrorism means. We did this project on terrorism in the last period. A bunch from Germany, France, Singapore and us - two Indians. They thought terrorism meant Al-qaeda. I told them what we've been through. They still don't understand. These people are most worried about the destination for fishing, the weather in that destination and of course football. I think of the millions of people who have much more basic questions - will I live to see tomorrow? I know so many of my Kashmiri friends - they were thrown out of their homes. They were told to leave by the loud speakers from the mosques. They were told to leave if they wanted to live. They are refugees in their own country.

Back to sipping my caffeine - I need all the luck in the world. Going by where the world's headed, there isn't much luck left in the world! Okay - let's go out in search for extra-terrestrial luck. Let's spread the scum ...

Okhil Babu's letter

I got this forward from a friend.

Okhil Chandra Sen wrote this letter to the Sahibganj divisional railway office in 1909. It is on display at the Railway Museum in New Delhi. It was also reproduced under the caption "Travelers' Tales" in the Far Eastern Economic Review

Okhil Babu's letter to the Railway Department :

"I am arrive by passenger train Ahmedpur station and my belly is too much swelling with jackfruit. I am therefore went to privy. Just I doing the nuisance that guard making whistle blow for train to go off and I am running with 'lotah' in one hand and 'dhoti' in the next when I am fall over and expose all my shocking to man and female women on plateform. I am got leaved at Ahmedpur station.

This too much bad, if passenger go to make dung that dam guard not wait train five minutes for him. I am therefore pray your honour to make big fine on that guard for public sake. Otherwise I am making big report to papers."

Any guesses why this letter was of historic value?
It apparently led to the introduction of toilets on trains in India.

Pallavi Anupallavi

From the world of macroeconomics to the politics of the world, here's my contribution to the God of small things. Pallavi anupallavi is an old kannada movie - in fact the first movie made by Mani Ratnam. It had Anil Kapoor in the lead role.

Among other good things in the movie was the music of Illayaraja. The guy was a true genius. The best song from the movie is called 'Naguva nayana'. This is a must listen - it melts my heart every time I listen to it!

http://www.kannadaaudio.com/Songs/Moviewise/P/PallaviAnupallavi/NaguvaNayana.ram

Sri Lanka in war

Just tune into TV or surf the net - all you hear are about wars everywhere. Islamic militia have taken over Mogadishu, Chechen rebels beheading people, 12 killed in Afghanistan and n killed in Iraq every day. It is sickening how we just can't stand each other and how we don't mind taking each others' lives for whatever cause or reason.

The one war that disturbs me personally is the Sri Lankan civil war. The Tamil tigers(LTTE) are back in action. The Sri Lankan army must be a greater terrorist organization as they don't mind bombing hospitals, churches and civilian areas.

I have fond memories related to Sri Lanka from my childhood. Our neighbours in Pondicherry are of Sri Lankan origin. They are Catholic Tamils from the city of Jaffna. Back in the 80s, India was still confused as to what it wanted to be - a socialistic democracy was the intended destination. Sri Lanka on the other hand was far more developed socially. Social indices such as literacy, life expectancy and capitalistic economy were more towards the South East Asian model rather than the South Asian poverty paradox. I remember my neighbours visiting Ceylon and bringing back gifts for the neighbours and kids in the entire locality. I had a soft ball and a puzzle book from Ceylon as gifts from them at different times.

Rupavahini is the official TV channel of the Sri Lankan state. We had three antennae on our terrace - one for local DD, one for Madras DD and one for Rupavahini. The quality of the Ceylon TV programmes was much better than our own DD's Krishi drashan and magic shows. I remember watching 'Woody wood pecker' on Ceylon TV and would be in awe of what quality programmes are shown there.

That was also the time the entire LTTE movement started gaining ground. There were supposed to have been some training grounds for the LTTE around the woods around Pondicherry. There was a huge amount of sympathy for the Tamil cause - because of the horror stories of suppression by the Sinhalese majority of the minority Tamils in the north and east of the tiny country.

India's own stand was that of sympathy for a long time until the Rajiv Gandhi murder in 1991. Well, that has a lot to do with further muddling in politics by the not-so-great-visionaries of the Nehru-Gandhi family in India.

India's experience in the late 80s made it a very silent spectator of the entire Sri Lankan fiasco. In my opinion, we should have taken much more active interest in the whole issue. It's one thing not to interfere in another country's affairs, but it definitely affects us in a big way. To see what I'm saying, just a visit to the refugee camps in Rameshwaram or Point Calimere would give a perspective on the burning issue there.

Sri Lanka lost a golden chance to resolve the crisis - but the turning point again was the election of the Sinhala hardliners in the Govt. Mahendra Rajapakse is a hawk - and with a terrorist leader like Prabhakaran - it's only expected that the situation would get worse. Today, India will face another refugee crisis. The north and east of Ceylon will go through another ethnic cleansing by both parties.

Those cherished days of a prosperous Sri Lanka where they showed woody wood pecker will just remain a dream. It's funny to see how two countries deal with minorities. In India we go overboard to make sure everything is okay for them from the Govt point of view. In Ceylon, votes are won on the basis of who is more oppressive. And all this is under a so-called Buddhist Govt? This confirms the theory that religion has nothing to do with the agenda of oppressive Govts and even more brutal terrorist organizations.

Missing Bangalore

We've been on this missing Bangalore trip for the last two days! The weather has turned quite Bangalorish here in Singapore - and that always reminds us of the beauty of addiction called Bangalore.

Also chanced upon some snaps of the blooms in Bangalore - felt very nostalgic about the cool crisp air, the blooms of the Gulmohars, the tabebuois and the flame of the forest. A trip to Lalbagh and you can see the nagalinga pushpa. The last time I saw that flower was in Phnom Penh in Cambodia. The hot idly breakfast - though it is possible to have that in Little India here. The walk in DRDO colony to head to expose ourselves to the sun ... Hmmm... have to get back to Macroeconomics now. Enjoy the picture of Lalbagh from last monsoon.

Knock, knock! Who's there?

The biggest worry from the capital markets fluctuation of the past few weeks is that everybody's confused. The consumption data shows slowdown, job growth shows slowdown and there's confusion especially in the emerging markets. India has been badly hit the flight of capital from the stock markets is inexplicable - atleast with my limited reading abilities of analysts' reports.

Ben Bernake has a bit too much in his magic wand. What he says and what he breathes is interpreted, mis-interpreted and re-interpreted depending on whether one is a bear or a bull. The inverted yield curve from 4 months back is gone now. But the signs of confusion are more than visible. Emerging markets like India depend so much on temporary FIIs. This is an awesome video by Columbia guys on how much lies in Bernake's control : http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/?p=2478

The real problem also seems to be with inflation. With oil climbing skyscrapers, it's unlikely that this shock will not slowdown the economy. Historical evidence shows that similar shocks have always resulted in a slowdown. How much does the economy slowdown, determines if there's a recession or not. Anyway, it's a bad time to be in b-school waiting for the big jobs to be made. With inflation, people postpone consumption, which leads to loss of jobs and business downstream and this in turn fuels further slowdown. The govt must react with cutting down interest rates immediately, and encourage consumption so that the economy downstream heats up and propels the engine forward.

What does recession mean to a country like India? To begin with, lower job creation. We've been such fools in not carrying the economic reforms ahead. The left parties always hold back reforms and the Congress Govt itself does not make any bold moves with a puppet PM in place. What it means for b-school would be graduates like us is - possible unemployment! Really hope that doesn't happen.

We are living in some of the most interesting times in the world. The landscape of the world is getting altered like crazy all over. It's only a question of time now when Bush is thrown out of office - China's becoming more powerful and just when Japan is recovering from a long period of deflation and recession, the world's heading the same way again. Latin America and Africa are own their trip!

Anyway, coming back to the topic, the only way out now is some tough talking and action by Bernake and his tribesmen in all countries and hope for the best. Rest is up there!

Salaam Singapura

There are constant debates on where to live and how an Indian is treated in different parts of the world. Whether there is life in a city, the weather, the people, the culture and the language - these are some of the factors that affect decisions in this regard.

Our first week in Singapore was quite traumatic! We were really tired, we couldn't see much vegetarian food food - we saw these massive electronics malls with food courts that had dead ducks hanging all around the walls.... Disgusting - was the only way we described the place. But gradually, when things started falling in place - one starts we started to appreciate the way this place works.

Imagine an immigration authority that welcome you with a smile. Asks your normal questions unlike the stiff upper lipped white man asking " Why have you come to the united States?". "What business brings you to Belgium?". The city-state is really green - the harmony between development and greenary is unmatched, atleast compared to poorer parts of Asia. The air is clean and there's public transport that keeps people connected in a human way. The multi-racial society accepts Indians in particular and any foreigner in general, in an objective manner. The taxis work day and night are so affordable. Just the efficiency of the place takes care of everyday daily activities. And then, you get the time to think of more strategic things for the business or academics! Now that is what is attractive about this place.

Take the story of good vegetarian food. There are plenty of Indian vegeterian restaunarnts in the city. And very affordable even as a staudent. There are movies running at 1 AM everyday. There is no crime at all. Even a woman can walk back home late in the night! The weather is a bit humid and hot - but you can't have everything. The air-conditioners take care of these comforts. Overall, I think it's an amazing place to live in! The regualr rains remind me so much of Bangalore ... imagine Bangalore without the traffic and the pollution ... Yes - Salaam Singapura!

Random bambling

So many thoughts crowded in that grey matter! Whatever, is there of it!

The roller coaster is still on. Who is a friend, who is not a friend, who is nice, who is not nice? Why is someone nice or why is someone not nice? What wrong did I do? What wrong did I say? A multitude of questions, multiple answers … human psychology is insane, perverted and complex! I am sensitive, should I be more sensitive, should I just ignore and lead my own life? Another set of rambling mumblings! There’s so much shit happening in this world. So many people dying as I write so many wars for god-alone-knows-what happening in every nook and corner of the world. The other side of the spectrum, people talk about parties, about how their weekend was – damnit! I don’t want to know!

Should we be cynical and let the world be should we say “No – I’m going to change this world!” Likes, dislikes – endless possibilities, and multiple combinations. What do I want to do, where do I want to be, am I a leader, am I a follower- questions, questions and more questions! Should I think abstract, should it be more solid. Questions pounding the head, questions pounding the brain …. Will return to pound the head and use the brain!

One step forward, two steps back!

Is this how one should best describe India? There is so much optimism that a giant has finally woken up and in the process improve the lives of millions of its children. But the politicians of the country don't care. It's the divide-and -rule policy that continues and only the ruler has changed. The latest row about reservations is in the 'three step back' mode.

Yesterday, in class there was a discussion on the corelation between democracy and prosperity as measured as GDP per capita. There seemed to a fair corelation in most of the world. The outliers were - Singapore, Hong Kong , UAE on the upside. But the loner exception on the downside was India. It pains when you see that everwhere else where there is freedom and democracy, there is prosperity - but not in my beloved country.

Theories to explain the anomaly? May be culturally, we never wanted to improve. May be we are just not ambitious enough a people! The other theory can be that inequality has been created as a result of the caste system. That people have been suppressed for centuries and this is the way they think of life! Whatever the explanation, I would really like to see us go with the rest of the world and converge to the line of corelation. I really wish it does ...

It's the last Compre :-)

Compre is a term in BITSian parlance meaning – exam. It actually stands for comprehensive exam. And like everything else in Bits, it has a nice convenient shortened version. What we are going through in INSEAD makes one feel philosophical. Sometimes, you lose focus of the end goal and get lost in the world of doesn’t matters! Well, I know I’m making no sense here – but I shall type where my fingers take me.

So, all but 1 exam is left. We’ve been doing bad and worse among us. If we thought that the previous period exams were bad, this one’s running at worse right now! So, keeping fingers crossed for now. An easy exam is bad because everyone cracks it and we make the silly errors. A tough exam is bad because we don’t even understand the questions – so in short I hate exams. We hope and pray that this will be the last of the real serious exams to be written in INSEAD and hopefully lifeJ.

Coming back to the last compre phenomenon - we had this thing in BITS wherein the last compre was always neglected in terms of studies because everyone’s excited about going home from a God forsaken desert. Back to the niceties of getting pampered by parents and getting some rest and peace of mind. And guess what, INSEAD is turning out to be exactly like that in those terms. But unfortunately we’re all grown up adults now and the break is over before you even sleep through it!

Hopefully, this will also kick start my ability to write down and document things. Like I’ve always maintained, it’s so important to that in life – I think that’s where we Indians lost out – we forgot to document. It’s the chronicle of experiences that’s nice to go to later and have a laugh over. I’m also going to be playing in a basketball game tomorrow. That’s also not happened for a while now!

Till then …. Back to studies!

Cheers
Duncan

Life's tough! But we're ok :-)

So that’s the new mantra or slogan to keep ourselves calm at b-school! There are so many ways one could get stressed in an environment like this. There’s the whole ordeal of cultural diversity and socializing … trust me it’s not that easy. Especially with the kind and quality of social events, it’s a tough life out here.

Then there’s this whole thing with summer internships. I have got dinged by everyone so far... not one interview call! I was supposed to be a smart guy. But I’m hoping that our day will also come. The work load is pretty crazy – I find myself toggling between studies, applications to companies, networking with peers and alumni – and the list goes on. So it’s tough to do all at the same time … but you still got to do the best of the 43 500 Euros L.

Among other things at school, we are making a few friends too. A few... Mind you! The importance of networking is driven and nailed into the head repeatedly and I understand why now. Okay – this was one scrambled attempt at bogging after a long gap. May be I will be in a better state of mind the next time I feel like bogging … and hopefully my mind’s also clearer than the way it’s behaving now!

One period over

We survived! One whole period. We have 5 periods of 2 months each for the MBA.

So we completed 1 period today with our last exams getting over today. It was a big dejavu only far more intense and the chances of failing are BIG. We have this weird system  of a z-curve in which the mean is at the center and up to to 3 std deviations on either side is tolerated. Beyond that we have to repeat the course :((. The exams were tough and competitive and we still have no clue where we stand in the class. It's very highly likely that I might fail in 2/5 courses - but who knows if somebody screwed up more than me, then may be I'm saved!

So it's time to relax now. We're off to Cambodia for the break - Angkor Watt specifically will be our main destination. I've been dreaming of going there since class 9 I think. It's the largest temple in ruins in the world. Just google on the name - it has very huge Indian influence. That is in fact one thing I've observed in South east Asia - the influence of Indian culture and languages is huge all over. Bali is a Hindu majority state in Indonesia where you find names like Yudhishtir and Pandav even now - where as these names don't exist in India any more!

Anyway back to the topic, end of period - lots of new resolutions taken and lots will be forgotten soon :). It's that time when you sit back and reflect on what went right and what we did wrong. This MBA is a big step, I repeat. It's not a joke to be in with people with such varied experiences - with people who have worked on the stuff your learning in class.

Hello again, Blogworld!

Dear Readers,

Sorry for the break in my communication. Pooja and I are both in INSEAD now. We started session on Jan 9th, 2006. It's been a life shaking experience since then. We're slowly coming out of the shock!

Okay - imagine you are in a cozy little tent by the river side. You know that you can't live just by the side of the river and never even venture into it. You know that the river will be cold. It's a Himalayan river after all! You know that you can't sit in your cozy little tent all your life. You decide to shake up and wake up and prepare for your venture into the mighty Ganges. So you start arranging for the logistics, prepare yourself mentally.

But when the time for the plunge actually arrives, and you take the plunge - you feel the cold. You are mentally prepared but still reality bites! The river's flowing at an alraming pace - it's icy cold! People who've been ther before are doing much better than you. Your raft is going through rapids and rocks and beaches. The river's flowing downstream, there's no way you can row against the current and get back upstream!

MBA is the same story. So those of you sitting by the shores and waiting for God-alone-knows-what, think about it! The river's calling .. Can you hear it? May be you won't hear me that often while I'm in the river.

Log off for now - but promise to be back soon.

Cheers
Duncan