Karthik`s Pensieve

Time of flux and frustration

2010-09-27T04:58:00.000-07:00

Currently faced with the perennial question, after one has exhausted the opportunities in the current frame of reference, how do you move on to bigger and better things!!

This is certainly a happy time in life, where we are now expecting our first baby by the new year!

However, Iam also faced with a period of flux, where Iam consciously trying to move back to india and startup my career there on a strong footing! Iam Currently discussing a good set of leads, but none of them moving to a conclusion....all hanging in the air, for more than a month now!

This is a period in life where iam just generally feeling frustrated and impatient, looks like life is again teaching me a lesson in patience :-(

I am just hoping and praying for some positive news soon, so that we can enter the next phase of life for the three of us , where growth is balanced with happiness......the two things which invariably never go together :-)

Waiting, getting frustrated and hoping for a breakthrough soon!

More later......and good news I hope.

All over europe

2010-06-09T04:44:00.001-07:00

Recently, I have had to do a bit of travel to Europe and much more to follow very soon.

A couple of quick trip to Milano...saw the duomo cathedral and a huge castle in the centre of town! The hotels so far have been quite bad..even the hilton was pathetic for the money paid.

The place is not too great in terms of food....I ate the same chicken sandwich 3 days in a row for dinner.....the pizza and pasta in italy was not upto my expectations!!...all in all Milan was boring.

Next up is paris, then off to Holland and belgium for a few days and then finally a possible trip to the UK.

I know that all this travel seems fancy and nice, but when you have to do this on work...believe me, its not pleasant!

I always wanted to see new places and experience newer cultures, but i think iam growing older and tired of all the experiences now!! I think i just want holidays now, not travel on work!!

Thats it form me now....see this space for much more exciting news very soon.

Cheers...

My first house!!

2010-04-11T00:48:00.000-07:00

Well...I guess I am following the general trend! Like every other normal tamilian boy who is turning the bend of 30, I have now invested!!...This is quite a change for someone like me, who has never saved or invested in the past! Well, I guess this is a good start...

The funny part is, I have ever seen this house, nor did I visit India at any point during the course of the signing, this was completely remotely managed from here :-)

Cheers, thats it for now.

Busy Busy....

2010-03-24T03:48:00.000-07:00

Well..the last six months have been one of the busiest times in life! Constant travel...to the extent that my wife sends me a message one late evening " When do you plan to visit my house " :-)

And if I thought it would be over now, fate has it that I already have a packed travel schedule well into the next 4 months at least!

Well...At least I am getting closer to my plan of travelling to as many places as I possibly can, when i can!

the IPL3 is here and that's the only solace nowadays, apart from an otherwise slightly boring personal life.... don't get me wrong, but we seem to have saturated practically everything there is to do in Dubai!

Guess have to get more creative here, to spice up the evenings a little more.

i am blogging after a long time, coz I have just not been inspired enough to do so. I have lost touch with a lot of my friends and family and Iam making too many new friends either.

I guess this is one of those phases in life!

Well, Thats it for now....more later, hopefully.

BTW... Iam off to Milano for a couple of days...hope i will get to go there for a full fledged holiday!

Ramadan Slowdown

2009-08-26T02:25:00.000-07:00

Well...sigh! Yet another Ramadan season is upon us and what was already slow has now trickled down to a snails pace!

Well, I am trying to get away from this place...Me going back to India for a reasonably long break and I am really looking forward to it now. This will be my break after practically one whole year......

On the work front, i have now been promoted as a senior manager, with PnL responsibility for a significant market close by. well, it certainly is going to mean a heck of lot more travel and hopefully a lot more excitement in the coming days!

Next month we have also managed to organize a mini break to Kodaikanal...hopefully it will do my attitude and energy levels a world of good!

Another big reason for this trip is basically for a complete physical overhaul. Over the past year, I have truly suffered with Backaches ( which has later been diagnosed as a Disc prolapse), persistent Allergic cough and also one of blood tests suggests that I might be Anaemic!

Well...i hope to come back refreshed, renewed and with greater levels of vigor and excitement into my new role here.

Well that that's the update from me....More soon I hope.

cheers!

My trips to the Maghreb! Tres Bien!!

2009-07-08T03:01:00.000-07:00

Well, I am finally back after a loong time. I just haven't been motivated enough to write anything on this blog till now.

Over the past couple of months, Life experiences have certainly been interesting and times of change. Finally, my family in Dubai is complete with the arrival of my wife for good. We moved into a new house, which has a full fledged club house with an awesome pool, steam n sauna...the works....

Now finally I feel a little settled in this country. Apart form this, work has been interesting to say the least. I have been travelling to Algeria ( not Nigeria !!) quite often recently, helping a client with their market entry strategy. It has most certainly been an eye opening experience. This whole region is Franco-Arabic and the language barrier is immense. Very few people speak English and I absolutely don't understand French or Arabic. Well I did overcome this handicap with the use of a a lot of sign language and contextual understanding. I think learning deal in such difficult environments enhances your ability in understanding situations, and also does help in removing the fear of the unknown!

From a marketing perspective, We Indians don't fully realize the potential Brand India has across the world. I was literally a superstar, just for being an Indian in Algeria!! Indian products and services are in great demand thee and we command huge respect form the locals...they seem consider us very smart, cultural etc.l and look up to India for some strange reason.

Anyways, I have one last trip left to the Maghreb and the Mediterranean beaches and then a trip is pending back to Spain for the final presentation.

Net-net, things are OK now, hope I can keep up the momentum.

ta ta till I visit the next exotic location :-)

A Wii bit of magic

2009-02-25T23:41:00.000-08:00

Finally, something truly fresh and interesting to write about....with my own twist on a business concept I have been mulling over for a while now......

I recently got my a Wii gaming console with a whole bunch of exciting games.....Now I have tried the PS2, PS3, PSP....the works...but nothing comes close to the interactive element this brings to the table. A brilliant idea which the converts the sedentary gamer into an energetic one....The concept being simple: What do people really want in this day of closed doors and self sufficiency? To be able to bring home everything they needed to leave home for.....Home Theatre systems are good examples of the same and so are treadmills at home.

Now, when you play a game of tennis or boxing in Wii, you can actually interact with another entity, either the machine or a competitor....

Swing your arms, learn the visuo-spatial tricks and truly experience the outdoors...but indoors!

My question from a marketing standpoint though…..is this the future of things to come? Will computers in the future be made like this? Will this be the equivalent of touch screens in mobile phones?

Wait n watch I guess….One thing it has succeeded in is….bringing non-gamers into gaming….. and made it into a pastime…rather than a niche hobby for youngsters!

I believe, gaming parlors based on the Wii have already opened up in different places…..just imagine the possibilities!! This will make the next wave in general entertainment, not just the movie theater or the amusement park. It’s the new virtual reality entertainment business coming your way very soon. Keep an eye out for it.

I can’t wait for it to unfold.

Ciao

The Year that was....2008!

2008-12-30T03:57:00.000-08:00

Well it has been more than a year now in Dubai, and it has been a mixed bag.

2008 started with me coming out of a period of extreme activity, into a period of dullness.

By April, I was all set to be married, but I probably had the most distracted and busy weeks of my life just days before the D-Day!

The highlight of the year! - I got married and spent the most wonderful time in India, and then it was time to move back to the grind in dubai.

Then, I got into a series of business development activities and the moved into a project in Egypt.....

And then started another remarkable set of experiences..working mostly out of Cairo....and ended the assignment with a fabulous trip to Europe (Spain, Germany and France!)

Then came the gloom in the form of this global crisis we all face.....inerrupted by some brief yet fun personal moments.

As I end this year, I have moved into a new house, but all the while Iam now thinking of one thing....What next, Stay or Move, India or Dubai, enjoy the present or work harder for the future.

As this year winds down, Iam just hoping for the new year to present opportunities which will keep me excited and stimulated.

I just want to be keen on Work and Life!

Hoping for a fabulous 2009...HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Later

Back on the banks of the Nile

2008-07-04T08:54:00.000-07:00

Well....Blogging again after a very loong time.

Well thats coz I got married in May and man,......now I understand why married people are just so busy all the time!

There seems to be so many more interesting things to do :-)

Anyways, now Iam back to being a bachelor again now! I recently cracked this deal with a spanish client looking to enter egypt. Iam currently working out of cairo doing a market assesment and entry strategy for this client.

For starters, Working in cairo has definitely not been the most professional experience! Language is a barrier, Too much politics even to get a simple interview going and very opaque when it comes to releasing information.

But, of course the plusses are, the hours are not half as bad here compared to dubai....very chilled out people here. Further, we are located on the nile....a simple breathtaking view everytime we look out the window.

Next weekend we are off to alexandria and the following weekend to luxor and aswan! Looking forward to these and of course my trip back to india the following weekend to see the missus.....it feels stragely odd to say that, ill settle into it soon enoug i guess.

Well Ill leave you with an interesting fact about egypt: The men to women ratio here is about 1:4, but its not easy to get married here because the prerequisite here to get married is a car and an own house.....I mean lotsa choices for dating (slightly difficult in conserrvative circles), but Cant gett married easy :-).......You cant have your cake and eat it too :-)

Neways....more soon.

In a Holding Pattern

2008-02-19T21:56:00.000-08:00

First things first.....ISB has been ranked as the 20th Best B-school in the world by FT. Well timed before placement season i should say.......its going to be a mad rush on campus this this year....hats off to the ISB management team.....Somebody please write a Case study about ISB will ya?

On to more mundane updates, The past few weeks can be best described as me being in a "Holding Pattern". Let me explain.....Work has been hectic with meetings everyday and deadlines every other day! But somehow, I seem to be holding and waiting for something around the corner....its a wierd feeling, that something significant is just around the corner....

On other things, since my last post, I did a quick trip to india.....as always it was a great trip! After that I had been to muscat for a day trip.....This period at work has been my attempt at serious Business develpment work. Iam just realizing that BD can be fascinating and frustrating at the same time, especially in the consulting / knowledge based businesses. Its really not about selling a product or service, but its about scoping the need or even sometimes creating the need.

Now, I know that sounds fancy, but its much tougher than that because one has to keep thinking and adapting at all points......Well, fancy this: I have gone from Mechanical engineer to Research associate and then Product development engineer; onwards to Business strategy and marketing then flipped over to Management consulting and now slipped nicely into Business development.....Whew!

I really need to figure out what exactly i like out of all this soon, frankly I like it all in bits and can be good at most of it!

Well lets see whats next around the corner for me......Hopefully a really strong career and some realy good money :-)

On other things, last week my mother had visited and we had a blast...or at least she did. All I did was run around behind her and provide as much cash as I could :-). Sign of things to come??? Hmm....

Well next trip to india in early march and hopefully my holding pattern will break then.

Thought for the day: Lets get going already!!

Giza Gazing!

2008-01-15T11:46:00.000-08:00

Another interesting day started off with a visit to the famous pyramids at Giza.

Of course they were magnificent, but i seemed to be rushing through the sights of this great monument. Such brilliance, yet come to think of it, this entire area was secluded as a cemetery in the ancient times! They seemed to be obsessed with the thought of life after death...these Pharoahs!

As it ought to be, i got hassled by salesmen on the site, and was made to buy some worthless trash at some exorbidant rates, but i have to agree that egyptian sales men have mastered the art of push selling!

Also I visted the burial chambers inside one of the large pyramids, but the route to get there was this 3ft X 3ft tunnel, which got me very claustrophobic! Post this, I saw the Sphinx which was a huge disapointment.....it was like small broken down monument, not really worth all the hype.

The highlight of the day however was my visit to the perfume factory, where i was treated to a wide array of concentrated perfumes...quite exotic i should say!

Later on I also visited a Papyrus shop, where i got my self a couple of neat soveniers for family back home.

After all this, I had a very insightful meeting with the minstry which rounded off a very egyptian day for me at Cairo!

Thought for the day: 1 Wonder down...6 to go!

Clueless in Cairo!

2008-01-14T01:24:00.000-08:00

Well well.....Iam in cairo, and not in my wildest dreams would i have imagined being here like 6 months ago. Iam Here on a business trip which has been reasonably successful so far.

Iam back from a long hiatus for finally i do have some inspiration now! My visit here has been interesting from the moment I landed here. Firstly, I dont understand arabic and noone here understands english!! So currently iam learning the art of sign language and body language to get a simple thing like a loaf of bread!

Cairo is one of the most polluted cities I know, and one of the very strange things here is, everyone seems to own a car!.....and Egypt is not one of the richest countries i know....it is similar to india in many ways.

Yesterday I visited the Cairo museum and the highlight was visiting the Room of the mummies! That was a scary but interesting tour. Iam now looking forward to visiting the pyramids and the local market Khan el Khalili.....old style market place here.

This is my first visit to africa, and so far it has been an interesting visit, even though i have been greeted with some very very cold weather. More to come and Iam looking forward to my third trip back to india later this month too!

More later.
Arabic word for the day: Ezayk : How are you?

Happy times....

2007-11-19T14:09:00.000-08:00

Well, the D-Day nears! My engagement is scheduled for next week and it marks the beggining of my transition from bachelorhood to a marriage.

My thoughts at this stage are just to go home and enjoy the occasion with friends and family. But the strange part is, I feel like iam just attending somebody elses engagement...one of my freinds recently asked me " So are you ready and set for the engagement?" and my response was " What do I have to do?, other than just being present and smiling" :-).

But it marks and end to the first phase of a remarkable change period in my life.....new work, new place and new life!!

My currenty thought: Cant wait for the next phase to unravel

Zeitgeist....Mind blowing!

2007-10-25T15:57:00.000-07:00

Well this is probably one of the most revealing movies I have seen in a while!

In one fell sweep it answered my long held suspicions of the common roots most modern religions, the lengths a few people will go in order to makea profit and the most elaborate plans to conquer the world!

Well, some things i was not aware of:

The US fed is a privately held bank
The US has signed an north american union agreement which will yield the amero currency soon
The ancient egyptian god Horace was the original reference to gods son, which mean the SUN and the whole of christianity was based on mythical story about the SUN, light and darkness!

I have always felt that religion exists for the purpose of control in modern society and nothing else! But the thought that a group of international bankers and governments would kill so many millions just in order to yield power and make huge profits is still hard to digest, but the evidence is almost incontrovertible.

I am sleepless again tonite, but thats because Iam intellectually stirred! I would recommend this movie to everyone....It was released exclusively on the web and cannot be accesed through conventional media...try it out.

Cheers

Sleepless in Dubai

2007-10-19T15:51:00.000-07:00

Finally...My insomniac days are back.....!!

After a loong time Iam unable to goto sleep tonight. Lets see now, I have had ths condition only during times when i have had extreme anxiety , either due to a current depressive state or a current state of nothingness....

Right now, I think I suffer it because of the latter.....Or the simple reason could be that I had a little too much caffiene through the day and a little too much sleep last night ;-)

The worst bout of insomnia i had was in the US, where I could not sleep before 4 AM everyday, real worries about the future then! Then it was followed by forced insomnia at ISB, so much work, so little time n yet it all seemed so pointless!

and then onwards to bangalore, where I had doubts in the future of my job and the prospects.....

Now I think the anxeity is not about career, but about my pointless separation in dubai....

How to solve this? In the past, I have gotten over it by occupying myself compltely or tiring my self out with a lot of physical effort. Or else, I have managed to be on the phone....

Now, I intend to just ride out this night...the best solution, get a lot more physical activity going!

That said....lets hit the sack now!

Cheers.

And the loop is complete.....

2007-10-06T04:38:00.000-07:00

Yes....Finally, it all seems real now and Iam loving every minute of it. Only now, I have to start refocussing on work again......

The trip to india was memorable to say the least....I never knew I could smil so much in a 6 day period!! It was action packed time, with the first 3 days being spent in bangalore....beautiful, beautiful bangalore!....perfect time spent with friends and the familiar hangout spots.....

Then onward to chennai......between all the dinners, lunches and shopping we did manage to sneak out some time to drive out of the city.....again its funny how even the heat doesnt bother you as much when you are having fun!....

Now after meeting everyone back home, the loop somehow seems entirely complete.....

Ramadan boredom.....

2007-09-18T08:09:00.001-07:00

Well....I got done with my first very interesting project and have now started work on the second. Iam working out of Abu dhabi for this one and it is not even remotely as interesting as the first!

To compound it, its ramadan season is here in the middle east and most of places are closed.....there is almost no life during the day and the working days are very short......Iam practically bored of this situation.

What Iam looking forward to now?...its a trip back home to india and more so to see the situation back home with so many things having changed since i came here......I dont even think I realize the extent of the change that has happened over there.

Of course...cant wait to get to bangalore either! Well, just waiting to see what other surprises are in store for me when I get back.

Cheers

And Life has changed again.....

2007-09-02T03:16:00.000-07:00

Yep!! Firstly, I found true love and am getting married to her...now how many people are that lucky?? I dedicate this post to my dear wife to be: Welcome home :-)

the month of August has been truly remarkable!

Finally found my soulmate and let myself act on my hearts command!
Accepted a new job to move to dubai
Shopped like crazy and completely changed my wardrobe!
Walked straight into a minefield project and came out victorious....worked like a dog though!
Finally, end of it all i was left wondering why I left so early???

Well.....now life has played a cruel trick.....found the one for me, but iam having to stay away for what seems like ages!....not fair!

Cheers,

(Happy Karthik)

Dubai Ahoy!!

2007-08-18T11:42:00.000-07:00

Well.....the far seas beckon again...this time Iam leaving the country for the land of black gold...in search of a little gold myself.......only I struck gold right here .... :-).

During the past week, I have found myself in an inextricable dilemma.......to be or not to be....to say or not say.......Catch 22 as it is rightly put!

Well...Iam moving to Dun & Bradstreet in a consulting role and the role will be very very demanding of my capabilities and skill (!!).

More later....

It doesnt get any better than this!

2007-08-05T23:24:00.000-07:00

Well...it most certainly does not!..... No more am I feeling bad leaving, cause My heart is firmly rooted here.

I found love and more so...I found home!

I leave to dubai on the 19th and have a whole lot to get done before that, but Iam in such a state of bliss now, its inexplicable. Its like a scene right out of a movie that I never imagined I would ever be in!

God...please make this last forever!!!

Laterz

Win some ......Lose some!

2007-08-01T00:31:00.001-07:00

There are some remarjable phases in every individuals life which he/she will always cherish. I think I just such a remarkable phase in the last month or so.

I have been given some really wonderful things, but somethings very dear to me have been taken away :-(.......Iam supposed to be very happy...Iam moving to Dubai for a consulting job, but I feel very sad for leaving something very dear to me behind.

Life rewards you whatever you ask for, but it also takes what you hold dear!!

This phase of life will only be filled with fond memories and no regrets.........I want to capture this snapshot forever!

Thought for the day: Life always plays a fair game....its us who are confused !

My First Car!

2007-06-24T23:35:00.000-07:00

Yep....Finally. It is my 28th birthday gift to myself :-). Its yet another addition to a long list of black automobiles that I have owned.

Black TVS Champ - 1994
Balck Kinetic Honda - 1996
Black Honda Activa - 2005
Black Pulsar - 2003
Black Apache - 2006
Black Santro Xing - 2007

I guess that leaves a black merc sometime in the future!

A prediction for the future: I will gift myself a black BMW/ Merc on my 38th Birthday!

Well....life is good :-)

Ciao

Another year younger !...Its a hap hap happy b`day to me :-)

2007-06-11T01:53:00.000-07:00

Well...not really.....I feel older!! I turned 28 today, and alomost feel like people are looking at me differently now ;-)......

Down memory lane:

11th Birthday: Was having fun in the U.S......but desperately wanted to be older...the number was 28 I think!!

13th Birthday: Revelling in a lot of importance having turned into a teenager......was also opening up a lot of gifts post my poonal ceremony :-)

16th Birthday: Was gifted my freedom in the form a TVS Champ....my first two wheeler!! How I tortured that poor vehicle!!

18th Birthday: Got myself a Kinetic honda....dissapointed cuz I couldnt buy a bike!!.....Didnt how how to change gears:-).Celebrated my 18th birthday with my first beer (At least thats what all of my family thought :-))

23rd Birthday: Celebrated in the US....bought my self a 1984 Camry for $300!!! the leaky vehicle cost less than the amount of money I paid for a speeding ticket that i got... :-)

25th Birthday: Celebrated this bangalore.....I remeber this day vivdly....I was so engrossed at work, I was late for my own Bday party.....it was a very low key family thing!

26th Birthday: Another memorable birthday........I had broken my leg and i was brought cakes by both my very considerate frinds and later on by family.....

27th birthday: Celebrated in a pub in chennai with some good friends...it was a rollicking time!!

28th Birthday: Spent most of my time writing about my earlier birthday and sitting around at work......probably the lowest I have felt during a birthday in the last few years!

30th Birthday : ????????

I cant believe Iam 2 years away from being 30 yrs old!!!!......And I have done almost none of the things that I set myself out to do:

Travel to at least 20 countries
Make enough money for me and everyone close to me....
find true love!!
Achieve some thing so significant..that My name will become a brand!

Well iam not even close to any of the above.....!!! lets see what the years to come have in store for me.

Ciao.

BOOORRRREEEEDDDDD.......

2007-06-04T04:24:00.000-07:00

Well...that covers my sentiment today!! After a lot of travel and a whole week off, Iam back at work and doing what I dislike the most.....Typing out a report!!

Last week was possibly one of the worst holidays I have had a while...spent the entire time at home in chennai !!!! Imagine that.......Compare it with last years holiday in the himalayas!!!! AAH....really bad deal this year!

What Iam not clear about is whether Iam bored with this job, or am I bored with work in general???

Is it a question of motivation?? or is it of laziness??.......

Nyways....i think I go through a phase like this every summer...booring summer!

6 out of the last 7 years, I have basically spent the entire month of may doing basically nothing!!

Maybe everyone is meant to have a holiday, but frankly Iam not ready for a holiday yet you know!!!...so much to do, so much to see.....yet that inertia holds me back.....

Wild idea for the day: Just quit now and leave for a world tour..... :-). What an exciting thought!!

More later....

Karthik Bhai.......

2007-05-15T21:17:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was one of the most remarkable days I have had in a while! We were to meet around 10 motorcycle customers and have a chat with them about thier preferences and buying behaviour. My biggest insight here was that in the hindi belt of our country, the education levels play a big role in terms of the media mix that can be applied for this category of products. Also, the level of industrial growth vis a vis IT sector growth plays a major role.

We met customers from various income classes, right from bhel puri walas to teachers in udaipur. The remarkable thing here was that lower the education levels, lower was the interaction of these customers with conventional media like newspapers and TV. Key influencers and Word of mouth play a much bigger role in such cases. Also, with a large number of self employed people in these areas, the best medium to effectively communicate and influence them is activities in the marketplace with activities and demos. Almost none of them had any recollection of the communication and even if they did, they did not back thier judgement to make a choice based on such communication.....This has a grave impact on the way companies in such categories go to market with thier products and promotions!

Buzz is the key word , and those who master the art of buzz and build trust effectively will be the eventual winners!

Coming to the interesting part of the day, Our guide for the day was an ex-don in these areas who is under the cover of having turned over a new leaf in the eyes of the police. Initially, he was very quiet but as time went on , he started talking about his escapades and his less than enviable criminal record!.....It was a little scary, but end of the day he was a perfectly nice guy....Bhaigiri is just a way of life, and it was nothing out of the ordinary for people around us. The personality change was so apparent as soon he started talking of the past: "Kyon Bhai....ek dum chakaaas....." with the ostensible accent we all hear only in the movies :-).....

Anyways.....good times....looking for more such experiences....

Thought of the Hour: Education is the only way to liberate the indian hinterlands!

Life is but a movie.....

2007-05-14T19:32:00.000-07:00

My life in the last two weeks has been like a scene out a hindi movie......I was talking to a very interesting lady, circumstances lead me to a potential two timing situation and then the classic miscommunication between the characters leading to some heartburn...but now Iam back on track.

This weekend, one of my friends got engaged and he wanted to surprise his bride by turning up for the event which he was not going to be there for initially......this dude tavelled thousands of miles completely undercover and I was the chief enforcer to ensure that the surprise was well executed. I virtually halted the the engagement for a 15 Mts period in order to " deliver my gift" :-).......but alls well that ends well! it was an amazing surprise and it was a very joyous occasion.

Finally, work has brought me to Udaipur Rajastan. I think fate has it that I will have to travel to every nook and corner in this country and make up for all the time I spent cozy in corner of the country for almost 20 yrs of my life! Till I was 21 the northernmost point in my life was Bombay!!....In the last 1 year, I have travelled to Dehli, Bombay, pune, Calcutta, Interior tamilnadu, Kerala, Upper reaches of the himalayas, Manali, Himachal pradesh, Chandigarh, AP and now Rajastan.....Whew that quite a lot!!

Anyways, The Mood of the Hour: Patience is a virtue, but will it get you anywhere??

Travel Travel...till you Unravel !!!

2007-05-04T23:13:00.000-07:00

I have never travelled so extensively in my life thus far, I have never seen so much of india thus far, and yet Iam very excited about yet another short trip tommorow (for entirely other reasons :-))

Last saturday, I started from bangalore to chandigarh and then onto Nalagarh in Himachal pradesh.I had been there for the opening ceremony of our new plant there.The highlight of the place was this amazing Hotel that we stayed in. Its called the Nalagarh fort, which used to be the Maharaja`s house. Supposedly he had 365 rooms for each one of his wives...ideal for a hotel huh!! The view and the amazing regal Bar just added to the fun, but the place was a little disconcerting...I mean there were bats flying around and the bathroom was filled with furniture...how wierd is that!....

Then came delhi....now this is one city which is really starting to scale up to international standards in its infrastructure....the metro was just amazing! Then we visited Karol bagh for some dinner and shopping...the hustle and bustle was simply amazing.

Next day, we moved onto UP....Ghaziabad. It was largely uneventful and we returned to delhi the very same evening. The next day, we started our pilgrimage to the holy city of Varanasi. Now this is when it struck me as to how backward india still actually is!! After dusting off some work, we visited the Kashi Viswanath temple on the banks of the Ganges....it was a nice experience and very different from south indian temples. The again tried to shop , but failed miserably....Im just sooo impatient!

Next day, we visited markets like Mirzapur and then to Allahabad....my impressions were further worsened. Supposedly, all that we see in the movies is very true in eastern UP. Allahabad was tense with the oncoming elections and there gunmen all over the place....

Finally, some solace when we finally came to Lucknow...now this place seems to be developing rapidly and did wipe off some of the nasty memories. Hey, on the way there, we were encountered with a freak storm called Aandhi. It was a wierd sandstorm after which it rained.
Finally we ended out trip in the gandhi stronghold of Rae bareilly.

Whew..that was a tough trip especially in the heat! But great experience though....

Thought of the hour: Customers behave remarkably similarly across markets, corporates are the one who are different across markets

Recap of the year

2007-04-26T11:30:00.000-07:00

Hmm....Its exactly a year since i started work post ISB....this is a wrap up of what I have done (accomplished??) ;-)

Started the year with an unexpected raise!!
Understood that no role as defined to me existed and that i had create one for myself
dipped my feet into market understanding..a subject on which I was clueless!
Worked with all the departments across to get alignment to a common stated goal
The realized there was no such common goal :-)
Started feeling the pinch of working in an organization which was going through tough times
Felt like quitting, but wanted to continue...noone calls me a coward :-0
went on a trip to indonesia, mostly spent in a hotel with all corporate types !
Conducted a Corporate war game in india...which was widely appreciated
Then the lull before the storm.....The taskforce
Got inducted into a taskforce to improve sales in Tamil Nadu
3months went by in understanding the problems, facing up to it and addressing it adequately
Designed and developed my first set of marketing campaigns....which was wildfire hit across the state
Learnt that strategy is best communicated thorugh actions and result for rapid scaling rather than words
Worked on a organizational motvational program, learnt the fine art of editing in the process :-)
Exited the taskforce on a very happy note...very successful, to the extent where the competiton copied the campaign that we designed :-)

On an aside, I also decked up a proper house with all the electronics a guy could want....Well done !! Towards the end, also started looking forward to the next phase of my life.

During these last 12 months, I thought life was very chaotic, but it all seems to be following a nice plan...lets see what the next year has in store for me!!

Cheers.....

Of Mairrages and Conversations......

2007-04-23T23:37:00.000-07:00

Well......I have finally started looking out for a life change. I was a little worried and confused, but Iam realizing that the only way to live through it is to go with the flow.

So far, I happened to meet this one very interesting lady.....fiercly independent yet practical. One of the more interesting personalities that I have met so far.

One question which has bugged me for a while now! Should I look for someone similar or someone opposite.....should I look to be constantly challenged, or for a harmonious subdued relationship?....I dunno!!

One thing is for sure.....i definitely enjoy good conversations.......but for the worry that the evil twin will come out soon enough to spoil the party :-)

So net net.......what is the most important consideration parameter?

Thought compatibility
physical attraction and chemistry
bit of both
none of the above and I dont have a clue :-)

On other aspects......work is interesting, but dealing with politics is extremely draining. I really want to move on to better things...... my interest span for this job has now officially expired!!!

Mood of the hour: Cant wait for whats next ;-)

Rapid Action Taskforce!!!

2007-03-05T04:02:00.001-08:00

Well....as the title suggests, I got my stint in a sales function. A group of us were given charge of an entire state and asked to improve volumes and marketshare significantly....Well, We certainly did!!!

It has been a hectic couple of months and the amount of travelling I have done, I need to be paid more!!

Life is Hollow now and Iam convinced that I need a change.....change to what is the big question!!!

Anyways, some of my old friends are visiting this week and I shud be meeting up with them after a loong time now....shud be fun.

Thats it for now, More later....

Round and round on the merry go round

2007-02-18T04:28:00.000-08:00

Well....thats the current mood. The pressures of daily life are always at loggerheads with longer term aspirations...looks like I will be revisiting some of my ideals ......

I have been travelling a lot in the recent months...exciting but tiresome. There have been a few bright spots: made a new friend, looked at new opportunities, learnt many ground level realities in the marketplace.....

Life is turning a littlepointless recently though....what is the purspose? why neglect my self at cost of a career?...I have not been able to anwer these questions with any certainity!

Well....I guess I need to go round on the merry go round...will come out a little dizzy, but can say that I did get on it :-)

Updates...

2007-01-05T04:18:00.000-08:00

Looong time since I last blogged!! Anyways, life chugs on, the new year briefly brought some cheer (Thro some highly concentrated ethanol ;-) ) but it is dreary again now.

"Boriyath katharnaakh ho sakti hai!!!": tag line of a recent ad......I totally agree. It gets your mind to wander and look outside for other forms of excitement. I have started doing exactly that!!

The most recent book that I read was called "Punchtantra". I read it while I was extremely bored in an airport where the flight was delayed for more than 4 hrs. Review: well it was trashy, it took a modern day view on the panchatantra stories with a funny yet pathetic twist. All in all it just reemphasized that kaliyuga had truly set in and if you still have an idealistic view of the world in the context of the hindu scriptures...well change quickly, cuz you WILL get swept under the carpet if you keep it up.

On an aside, I have always considered myself young, but now looking at a few of my much younger cousins, I realize that Iam getting older now....much more than I would like to be !!!

Hint...Hint: Is it time to settle down and live a Happily?? married life. I really dunno the answer, but iam not one to cringe at change.......wait and watch!

The highlight of the past few weeks was my trip down memory lane at ISB. I had gone back there for our alumni reunion "Solstice". great fun...met a lot of friends, future CEO`s, entrepreneurs and danced like a mad dog. It was truly a memorable weekend...I miss ISB :-(

Well thats it from me now....more later (Hopefully regularly )

Cheers

Travelouge from the Himalayan trip....

2006-11-12T23:47:00.000-08:00

Iam posting a rather lengthy description of our Trek. Read at your own liesure......

The people: Me, RT & hubby namit, Ayshu(rts friend from school) & hubby Deepak, Santosh(my friend from school, santo from now on) & Karthik (deepaks friend from college, gku from now on) ….. (that truly was one link list J)

The guide: Shubhranjan Thakur (from now on ranjan)

The time: The week of 15th august (so we could save on a days leave), a total of 9 days in which we planned to trek for 6 days.

Since the planned trek was a strenuous and longer one (than my last trek) the next month saw a few of us (yours truly included) gymming away to glory while the rest hoped to rise to the occasion. As the trek grew nearer my life revolved around shopping, getting the tickets booked, getting to know all ‘the strangers who were to be my fellow-felli trekkers, and telling the rest of the world about the planned trek & making them jealous. A week before D-day we did have one major setback when ranjan called to tell us that there had been a landslide on the route we were planning due to heavy rains in Manali. A decision had to be made if we would go on as planned or reschedule (Santo actually spent two sleepless nights in the fear that this dream trip of his would not happen). Thanks be to God we went ahead with the hope to change the route or the destination based on the situation in manali once we got there.

Finally on the 12th of August the seven of us flew into delhi at different times and met up at ISBT (the bus terminus) to board the Volvo for manali. Like all times before, much to the others envy I slept through the twelve hours of traffic jams, bad roads, tunnels and breaks. Just as we set foot in manali the clouds burst out in our welcome and lo, our acclimatization trek was in the water. We headed to Guptramjis (GRJ) home in vashisht. After freshening up and a quick lunch we went on a short walk along the roads. During dinner (lemme mention the yum chowmein) along with ranjan and a topography map we looked at all the alternative routes to chandertaal (since the original route through hampta pass was not possible due to the collapse of one of the bridges along it) and all the alternative destinations. At the end of it ranjan decided that we would go to chandertaal through the motorable route through Battal.

Day 1 (August 14, 2006)

After a good b’fast of parathas we packed our stuff & ourselves into two sumos. Other than the seven of us & Ranjan, the group consisted of our ace chauffers, the wise Birbalji & the daredevil pavan & our chefs, Prakashji & Arjun. The first part of the route was the ascent from manali (6000ft amsl) to Rothang pass(13000ft amsl) where we were treated to the view of lush green valleys of manali with its roaring waterfalls at intervals and the clouds enveloping it at the top (the first of the many picture postcard backdrops we were going to witness on this trip). At Rothang myself and Gku walked to the ledge to look at the other side of the valley, which is brown in stark contrast to the greenery on the opposite side. Then we headed downhill where we encountered a cavalcade of about 30 army vehicles heading to the plains in order to stock up supplies for the cold winters.

DYK (Did You Know): That places like Leh & other areas to the north through Rothang pass are cut off from the rest of the world for about 6 months a year due to snow covered roads. Currently a 13km tunnel is under construction so that Rothang no longer will remain a bottleneck for access during the cold season.

Where green had been the artist’s master color so far from here on brown and black were the dominant colors in the landscape surrounding us. We lunched at Jagath auntys dhaba, a roadside dhaba. The point that struck me about all the roadside dhabas was that though these had small & compact stone kitchens they were always neat and well maintained. From here on for the next few days we always had the gushing brown waters of the river Chandra on our side to keep us company.
A note on the roads(so called), absolutely no metal, hugging the mountains on one side and the river chandra on the other, many streams run through it and sometimes the road is the stream & the stream is the road. There was absolutely no human habitation for the next 30kms before we reached our camp site for the day, chatru. Here the distance time funda is staggered since we only average about 20kms/hr.

DYK: Basic requirements of a good campsite in the mountains
1. a freshwater stream
2. Not too close or in level with a roaring river (What if a flashflood must happen?)
3. Not near a mountain face than has boulders or stones (what if a landside must happen?)
4. Some boulder cover nearby for your crapping & peeing sessions
5. Preferable if is a plain surface (easier to set up tents) and there is some land cover on the side from where the wind comes

Chatru is one such location, our cute little tents were set up. Then Ranjan took us on a short (but steep) acclimatization trek where he judged our stamina & fitness. It was a tough climb and we were panting by the time we reached the target. From there we could see the snow covered deotibba peak. Returned to base, had our dinner and settled down for our first night in the dis-comfort of sleeping bags & tents. As luck would have it, it poured that night and so we slept to the accompaniment of the gurgling waters of Chandra, the roaring winds of chatru & the lashing rains.

Day 2: Aug 15, 2006

When we woke up the next morning we could see fresh snow on the higher peaks. After a quick b’fast we set out on foot. The plan was to trek the first 8kms to chottadara on foot and then do the rest of the way to Battal by sumo. As you walk through those roads you feel like every few steps a new landscape reveals before you, from bouldered mountains, to jagged rocks, to steep straight faced rocks, to grey loose soil mountains and moraines. Now we got to see lots of glaciers in between mountains at higher elevations. The only other living beings we saw were the shepherds with their flocks of sheep and mountain goat, and not too forget the good looking thick furred shepherd dogs. The way this set climbs the steep faces of mountains does make one jealous at their prowess.

DYK: Old snow takes on a black colour and Ranjan told us that if we were to hit this hardened snow with an ice-axe it would clang as if it were hit against metal.

On the way we got to hear tragic stories of how trekkers who had camped in a relatively safe looking location got washed away by the river during the night due to flash floods and how 3 sumos carrying Japanese trekkers got washed away by a landslide. So the key takeaway is that always be careful in the mountains, never venture without a guide & listen to what your guide has to say. After a good walk we reached Chotadara (A point to be noted here is that each of these landmarks like chatru, chotadara, battal etc have only one or two dhabas to mark human habitation and nothing else but mountains). From there we completed the rest of the trip to battal by jeep. Battal was to be our home for the next 3 days. We found a good camp site and had the pleasure of having the jawans of Dogra scouts as our neighbors. After setting up our tents again and lunch we set out once more on the road to chandertaal on foot. We just trekked about 3kms. Rt had the first signs of altitude sickness in the form of a severe headache. This road is so narrow that at some points it is just about enough for the fourth wheel of the vehicle to make it on the footing of the other 3 wheels. We could see the Chandrabagha peaks. These peaks are numbered for names and referred to as CB-12, CB-13 etc. The dogra scouts were to summit CB-13 and one more target for their mission was to look out for the remains of a airplane crash that happened in 1968 (blackbox is still missing). I did some googling and found this about the airplane crash in ‘The tribune’.

Jammu, August 6 2003The Army and Air Force today abandoned the joint aerial recce of the 35-year-old air crash site on the South Dakka glacier (16,000 ft) in Lahaul-Spiti district because of bad weather. The recce was to be conducted with a view of formulating a strategy for extricating the bodies of the 102 soldiers who were killed in an air crash 35 years ago and are lying buried under snow since then.
The AN-12 aircraft on its flight to Leh from Chandigarh with 102 persons on board, including six members of the crew, four officers and 92 jawans of various regiments, went missing on February 7, 1968. The defence authorities continued the search for six months and then abandoned it as no signs of the wreckage were detected

This was a search mission organized in 2003 and today another attempt is being made to recover any remains of that crash.
On the way back myself & santo chatted up with two jawans. It seems most of the guys were locals and took to the mountains like fish to water but one of them had suffered the same problems of acclimatization like us. Got back to base, all of us sat holed up in our dining tent trying to recover as most had some ache or the other.

Day 3: Aug 16, 2006

Today was the day we had been waiting for. Set out by sumo for chandertaal. The drive was truly adventurous and not meant for the weak hearted. We truly had pledged our lives in birbalji & pavan’s hands. We trekked the last 5kms to chandertaal. The first view of the turquoise blue waters of the lake is truly beyond words. Thankfully when we reached there it was not windy and so from atop the hill we could see the reflection of the surrounding mountains on the placid waters of the lake. We then went down to the shores of the lake and the guys took a dip in the cold & crystal clear waters. The lake is supposed to contain herbal properties and thanks to its inaccessibility it still remains virgin and unspoiled. We then went for a walk along the periphery of the lake, about 3kms. On the way we went up to see the green meadows of sudarshan. This raised plateau was surrounded by rivers on either side and one wondered how the shepherds got on top of it. The face of the plateau along the river was very very picturesque. We then returned from there and started our trek back. By now the altitude had begun to play and most were too tired to walk. Myself, Santo & Ranjan trekked back to the meeting point for lunch while the others took the sumo. After this drive we were all in awe of the prowess of a sumo, it truly is an all terrain vehicle.
DYK: New local buses are used on this route for about a year and then sent down to the plains (now you know why the local bus is in a bad state ;-)
Back to camp and noone had the energy, so we just sat holed up in the warm sumo and played many (actually few very long) rounds of uno. Dinner and then back to our tents. Sleeping at Battal was an experience in itself, we would take around half an hour each night to add on many layers of warm clothing in order to catch some sleep in those sleeping bags.

Day 4: Aug 17, 2006

Today our destination was Kunzum La(the second highest pass at 4551 mts amsl) and the village of Lossar. The entire route offered us a changing landscape with parts looking just like the pics I have seen of the grand canyon. At Kunzum-la is a small tibetian temple. All vehicles passing through here do take a deviation and circle the temple. Every vehicle sticks to this ritual no matter how many times they pass there since it is supposed to bring bad luck otherwise. In this temple are two small rocks which have some magnetic power, and the belief is that if you have a pure mind the coin you press against that rock will stick to it. Amidst that brown landscape the village of Lossar springs as a surprise in green. Here I tasted the sweetest of green peas I have ever had. The village is very well planned. We checked out the monastery and museum. After 4 full days we had the luxury of using a proper loo at the pwd rest house there. Since this village is cut off from the rest of the world for a full half year the people spend the winters celebrating festivals and other religious activities. The women weave woolen garments during this time. From the caretaker at the pwd house we came to know that every family that has more than two sons have to send one to the monastery to train to be a lama. It is a completely tibetian culture in this part of the country. After a simple and healthy lunch we started back. On our way back myself, ranjan, rt & namit did a short trek from kunzum-la to a point where there were many tibetian religious flags along the path that connects this pass to chandertaal lake. From that high elevation we could catch a distant glimpse of the blue waters of chandertaal lake. Evenings were the toughest to while away with the chill winds coming in. We spent a lot of time in the warmed up sumos playing cards or sitting in the warm kitchen tents and chatting with the others and listening to interesting local stories and scary ghost stories. Since this was the last night we were to spend in the mountains we looked forward to surviving the cold and awaited the morning.

Day 5: Aug 18, 2006

The day to bid adieu to the mountains & battal, we packed, took some pics with the jawans who were also moving to their main base camp below the glacier and started off on foot. In the next hour or so we walked like there was no tomorrow and managed to cover a good distance (about 8kms) before the sumos caught up with us. On our way we stopped at chatru and handed off all the remaining vegetables and chocolates to the kids of the workers who take care of clearing those mountain roads. We went into one of their houses and again though very compact it was very neatly arranged and maintained. My heart went out to those kids who have nothing but the hills for company, no schools, no friends, no toys, no parks, no tvs just lots and lost of mountains and the only break to their routine is the vehicles that pass and trekkers who camp there. Now after reaching rothang and crossing over from the brown to the green side, the valleys looked greener than when we left them thanks to the rains in the days past.
Now after lunch at madi we returned to try our hands at para gliding. We decided to take the medium level but we did not realize what we had bargained for until the gypsy that was to take us to the take off point kept climbing higher & higher. We were gasping for breath by the time we climbed from the road to the launch site. This was really scary and at least 3 of us had second thoughts on whether we wanted to be doing it. The heavy weights were to go first and the sight of them running along with their tandem jumper and two others along their sides down a rugged steep slope for take off was not in the least encouraging. Finally everyone did manage to take off & I was the last to go. My first attempt was unsuccessful & when we got the next gust of wind I did manage to take those 3 steps needed to take-off (benefits of being light). That feeling of flying is exhilarating…. The magnificent view of the lush green valley before you and the clouds at your level was truly out of the world. Suraj let me steer the chute for some time but the landing was again amazing when you descend at full speed in a series of pendulum like maneuvers. It was a smooth landing and we left there after collecting the video recordings of our great adventures.

Back at vashisht it was time to scrub ourselves clean after 5 days of no bathing. In the evening we got to see a religious procession where the main deity in the vashisht temple was returning from a trip outside to a mela. The pujari got possessed in the course of the proceedings and made some predictions which nobody understood. The men carrying the deity kept swaying & falling on their sides, it is said this happens since the weight of the deity keeps changing. That night we decided to check out the restaurants of vashisht. This place is a weird combination of the traditional locals on one side and lots & lots of doped foreigners on the other. All the eateries here offer international cuisine and we dined at a roof top café called aryavratha. Lovely dinner there, where we all chatted up. The food came in slow but it was worth the wait since every dish was delicious and I think this was one of the best conti food I ever had. Worthy of mention is the smiley waiter here who managed to make us say we were not hungry in response to his innocent (big smile) question of ‘aap ko bhook nahi lagi hain’ at 12 midnight when we were actually dying of hunger. We then went back to our rooms and feasted on the yummy yummy cakes from the german bakery.

Day 6: Aug 19, 2006

After bidding good bye to GRJ and his family we did the regular touristy stuff at manali, I think the place is too commercialized. Checked out the hadimba temple and one monastery. Started back for delhi in the evening after some confusion in the bus stop. Reached delhi by 10am the next day and back to Bangalore late aug 20th.

I have tried my best to use the “look & sound” in words to convey and capture what we saw, felt and learnt on this trip.

Back after a loooong time :)

2006-11-11T23:48:00.000-08:00

Well, Im back. The past 3 months have been hectic and boooring, interesting and frustrating alternatively. But thats not the reason why Iam have not blogged, this website is blocked at work and I have been spending a lot of time at work.

Anyways....an update on the hapenings. In august i went ont that whirlwind trip to the lower himalayas and I will add a detailed post on that trip soon.

In september, I visited indonesia for a week and conducted an entry strategy workout for the upcoming business there.

A couple of friends got married, couple got engaged, and a lot more changed jobs. I still maintain status quo (at least for now).

Met a lot of my friends during the recent business trips and have really been burning up the skies with these trips :)

Well.....more later

Got tagged...Here goes nothing!!

2006-07-17T01:55:00.000-07:00

Aaah..got tagged by Ram. This is my shoddy attempt at opening out!

I Think

That I should get whatever I wish for, elese it is not worth thinking about

I wish

I could execute routine activities with a little bit more interest...but it is so darn boooring

I want

To live a life less common......Leave a footprint in the sands of time

Iam

Probably the laziest person on earth, but am happy about the sheer of inertia of motion evident when i do get started on something.

I look for

Simplicity and honesty in people. Also constantly look for change

I miss

The good old days of free money and no real responsibilities (I mean undergrad college)

I hate

Beaurocracy.....and of course incompetence

I love

Company of good friends and harmonious relationships

I talk

A lot....in words of my boss "reticence is not definitely a virtue that you possess"

Laterz......

Overdose of "Strategy".....

2006-07-11T19:48:00.000-07:00

This is word which is thrown around rather casually without understanding the true import of implications. Especially in my role, I hear it everyday and am trying to change the way we think here.

Work is tiresome at best with such extended timings with comparatively lower levels of value addition. Only bright spot in the horizon is a wild trip that I have planned to the lower himalayas

-- Around 7 of us have gotten together and decided to venture out on a 10 day trek through the mountains through a mountaneous region near manali. Check out the attached map.

Of the lot, Iam probably the most out of shape and given that I have a bad ankle....god alone can help out during this trip.....But Iam still going for it!!

Thats my mood nowadays...."GO FOR IT". It keeps me from getting too risk averse.

Well thats it from me. My trip to bombay this weekend is put on hold because of the horrendous blasts yesterday....the poor souls who had to give thier souls for some absolutely useless and pointless cause....

A moment of silence please : -

Motorbikes and the countryside!

2006-06-20T19:58:00.000-07:00

Last week I finally ventured out into the market on a whirlwind weeklong trip across tamilnadu.
First I took a chartered flight from our office to Coimbatore (Which was a funny and ear deafening experience i might add). Couple of days in and around coimbatore and tiruppur, then onto Chennai.

It just so hapened that I landed there on my birthday, so obviously I had a good time. Cut my cake in a Pub with a bunch of drunk people singing me birthday wishes :)

Next I went onto Madurai and adjoining Dindigul and Theni (Close toKodaikanal). What was I doing in all these places.....Well I was visiting customers and channel partners to sort out something which has propped up in the field. OH OH lets not forget....Spying on the competition was an important aspect of the entire trip.

All in all, It was a hectic but great experience and I hope to travel up north next month.

Laterz

A whole month down....

2006-05-29T07:05:00.000-07:00

I was dreading this very moment....that I would be marginally bored after the first month of work.....it happened at my last job too, but it quickly changed with the first assignment. Anyways, Iam now comiong to grips with the role and if looked at seriously, I can make a difference......

Fingers crossed.....Welll the book that has made the greatest impact in the recent days...."Siddhartha" by Herman Hesse.....It seemed like the story of my life when I was reading it :)

Laterz

Why do we read self help books???

2006-05-08T03:44:00.000-07:00

Really.....I just recently asked myself. Not that I read too many self help books, but recently I have found my self reading books like 7 Habits of successful people, Blue Ocean strategy etc. None of the stuff written there is directly applicable...recalling Bacon's essay on education, He rightly says there are some books u need to chew and digest, others merely as snacks and a few which are to be bitten and spat away.

Now, this really makes sense, for this way you will develop a discerning sense of good and bad, right and wrong, due to experience and practice. Is that the reason highly successful read a lot too?

Anyways, my book review on blue ocean strategy..... One heckuva good book, if you are looking for answers. Again, nothing groundbreaking in my opinion, while reading it you will find yourself expanding the canvas of opportunities and be not be constrained by the dominant truth underlying your industry. Iam still in the middle, hopefully the excitement will last till the end.

Anyways, I joined work last week, and Iam slowly discovering that I have to sculpt this role myself to make a real impact. Coming from product development, this is a sea change, even though underlying skill sets still apply: Team work, People Management and creativity.

One final thought: It feels good to fall asleep right after you hit the bed, after a good days work!

Laterz

Back in bangalore after just about a year

2006-04-30T06:35:00.000-07:00

Well....its back to fun, crowded and young bangalore. This time to work in an indian company. Will be sharing an apartment with another ISB friend who works at Amazon. I basically wasted time over the last two days as I had closed my deal very early in the piece.

I start work on Wednesday and in a wait and watch mode to see how it goes rite now.

On an aside, I consider this blog like dumbledore's Pensieve and when i upload my thoughts on it i feel greatly relieved. One such thing has troubled me over the past two days....after reading V.S Naipaul's work on india....He may be a booker prize winner, but i feel he has over represented the downsides, which are out in the open unlike some other countries in the world. His work is so depressing, that anyone who wants to come back to india, would drop thier ideas.

Naipaul's critique on gandhi however, was very interesting and his observation of the short term memory of the people of india over the centuries is indeed inspiring. But what he fails to realize is that he judjes the level of development as compared to western countries, which have a much shorter civilized history as compared to this country......He talks of the failure of the hindu Religion, but fails to realize that Hinduism is a way of life rather than a religion.

His point of view is rather short sighted and I do not understand the reason behind such a critical work on india...maybe he was in denial that he also was part indian!!!

Anyways....I feel lighter now!

Laterz

Floating books in a Dirty Port!

2006-04-19T06:51:00.000-07:00

A bunch of us visited a floating book fair on board a ship which was docked in the chennai port.....
Even though it was an utter dissapointment, at least we did something new.

However, I was dissappointed at all the attention that was given to this boat. It was nothing but a floating christian evangelistic mission. Most of the books were on Christianity and there were free books being given away promoting the religion. So many innocent kids took these books and will most probably get influenced by it. This is what infuriates me about these missions, even though I personally have nothing against the religion.

SO many such missionaries have tried to convince me when i was in the US and I sometimes wonder if they will ever stop. I agree that the religion initially grew through such evangelism, but the context then was totally different. Then, the positions of power were held by religious leaders but now wealth is the universal oppressor and religious oppression is not really widespread anymore. I believe that Now, Religion exists merely as a spiritual support mechanism and also to provide a sense of belonging.

Now that I have bashed them up, the one positive take away is....How well they market thier religion. All aspectsof association, aggressive salesmanship, customization to local conditions, promotional incentives to convert (Education, food at the church etc.), extreme opportunism when it comes to prospecting for new markets for growth, excellent top down communication of targets....this religion runs more like a very well structured business!!

Anyways....I think the heat has finally gotten to my head now!!!

More later!

Simple pleasures in life.... :)

2006-04-17T22:52:00.000-07:00

Now that Iam totally relaxing, I have started rediscovering some simple pleasures in life. Yesterday, I went to the gym and wanted to take swim later on...as it turned out, it rained cats and dogs (!!!!!...in chennai) and the plan got shelved. However, I just winged it and drove out into the rain on my motorbike.

the extent of my joy was indescribable....On an open road , on my favorite bike driving through Ice cold rain. Then I followed it up with a hot cup of tea in a local shop and had a nice little conversation about the weather with some random guy in the tea shop.......

I dont think I have felt happier, even when achieved something great in the past. This is the second instance in past year that I have felt inordinately happy for such simple things, last time around it was because I interacted with a large group of prospective students at ISB.

At the end of the day, hopefully all of us just want happiness...it is upto us to discover what makes us happy and go towards it. For me, the formula is rather simple..Independence, friends and casual interactions.....

What makes you happy??????

Laterz

Main aisa kyon hoon???

2006-04-16T23:00:00.000-07:00

Before I came back home, I promised my self that i would return to normal 11PM to 6 AM sleeping hrs......no use....Iam still sleeping at 3 and getting up at 10......I cant understand why I refuse to let go if ISB life and get organized!!!

I have even postponed my trip to bangalore till 28th...hopefully I will get a house then!! The days arer now just floating by, without any real purpose, without any assignments or homeworks, without the anticipation of the end terms exams and the term breaks afterwards.......Gosh, how I miss the rush and the relaxation afterwards.

I have been catching with some friends and relatives and its been a lot of fun. But only one gripe....Everyone keeps talking of mairrage. I have now come to agree that I will get married eventually, but NOT right now.......Hopefully, nothing will come up before 2007! But dont take me wrong, I really do appreciate the concern that near and dear express.....I guess its the growing pains that every guy/gal goes thro in this period.

I have been seeing all kinds of movies recently and I have become even closer to my laptop than earlier :).....I really cannot exist without a broadband connection and a laptop!

Well enough rubbish for today.....more later :)

Jobless Post ISB!!!!

2006-04-13T01:04:00.000-07:00

Well....thats because I have another 15 days to go before I go to bangalore......and after the hectic year, normal life seems very pedestrian. The year gone by was like extreme sports compared to normal life, which is like a slow game of golf. Iam not ready for Golf YET!!!!

Anyways, a few of us have been meeting regularly (We actually dont know what else to do with our excess time now :) ). We all met up with a few students from next years batch to impart some gyan....this has noe become a Chennai-ISB meet tradition and hopefully it will continue for years to come!

Now its time to move this blog away from ISB topics onto more generic topics of interest (Namely Marketing in my case). Since Iam moving a work profile in that general area, I will keep trying to add some insights.....hopefully some of which i will try to look into at a later stage in my career......

Pssst.....hopefully there wont be anymore confused posting written under duress(like last year).

Sanity shall prevail!!!!

Laterz

Good Bye ISB

2006-04-04T11:07:00.000-07:00

Well...its farewell to ISB and the by far the best year of my life. The campus is strangely silent, and all I have to look forward to is Graduation day (8th April). The next phase of life commences at Bangalore...lets see where it leads to next.

Class of 2007 students located at chennai....Let me know when you want to meet the alums in chennai (Preferably 11th April).

I will try and gather a crowd of guys to meet up and share any info you need. Last year we met at the coffee shop "Amethyst".

My email ID: karthik70@yahoo.com

Next post from chennai!!!!

Well...Its all over now, but everything else is just getting started :)

2006-04-01T04:30:00.000-08:00

I just submitted my last assignment last night. With that I complete all the requirements for the course and will officialy graduate by the 8th of april. Quite a few of my near and dear ones will come for the graduation ceremony and it will be a very emotional time for all of us (Even for a person like me :) !!).

To capture the experience in a nutshell, the year at ISB is like self inflicted torturous change that a choice concious individual experiences after admission to the school. Then you get here and think that you can tackle it with ease...then you realize that it s an entirely new ball game with the rules of the game being totally flipped.

Then the happy part sets in, for you feel part of something BIG and thru all the struggles, you make some great friends, a lot of contacts and definitely get transformed in some sense. ISB preaches Trauma Transformation. Frankly, It really works. A meek person goes out feeling more confident than ever, Some one who cannot handle stress will definitely handle it better now.

Then come placements season....some people happy, some people sad...Some people Overjoyed at the results!!! If anyone tries to measure the entire year on a monetary ROI metric, then sadly you are making a mistake. All that i can say is, Wait a while to see success of all the ISB grads in the next few years and you will know what Iam talking about now.

ISB is a one of its kind instituion in india with a lot of people wanting to see it become successful in the years to come. Every new student who enters next needs to keep the following in mind:

Do whatever you are best at at full throttle.....academics is not the only thing to do in this 1 year
Maximize your learning through interactions with your peer group for academic learnings are very pedagogic and will only take you so far.
Make a lot of friends and have a lot of parties.......it helps you feel more refreshed for the next challenge.
ALWAYS be honest to yourself....even if you make mistakes and are caught in the act...accept and move on......under all the stress, there will be all kinds of opportunities to go astray
Be a real brand ambassador for you institution, for it furthers your career at every stage. Remember, your reputation from this point on is closely linked with ISB's now!
Finally, Have fun but never drop your gaurd completely...always be alert and attentive.

Have a great year guys.....and I wish you all the very best in life.

Karthik

Two days to go....Eternity awaits!!!!

2006-03-28T13:08:00.000-08:00

I have only two more days of classes at ISB and my current feelings cannot be described with just words. On the one hand, Iam sad and apprehensive about leaving ISB, but happy to have ridden the storm reasonably successfully. So many new friends made, but so many will be lost after I leave hyderabad.....so many comforts endured at ISB, yet I will miss all the hardships faced during the year that was.

To put in perspective, this is my third educational adventure and third group of friends made and left.....I think Iam in denial as I have pretty much accepted the impermanence of relationships.

I have lived in a microcosm over the past year...but the real world awaits me all over again. How many times will this repeat......everytime I tell myself NO MORE!!!!

This year felt like an eternity....everyday!!! but now it feels like a nanosecond......its done...no more night outs, no more all night parties, no more insane deadlines to meet (I Hope!).

The same question keeps bothering me now...what next and Why???

Signing off from the best year of my life thus far....look forward to coming back next year for solstice :)

Senti karthik

Heights of competitve intelligence

2006-03-16T11:39:00.000-08:00

Yet another trend that i have noticed in quite a few of the ISB blogs...in the comments section, which goes as follows:

Anonymous said...
Hi, I am sure that you guys have beaten the USD 193 K salary, but have you guys beaten the highest domestic offer of 34 Lakhs ?I hope you guys have !

Cheers

This could be only one of the following three:

Some naive(???) student from a competing B-school, who thinks he can get info from unsuspecting ISB student by patronizing us like this.
Media guys who are really impatient.
Prospective student who is just really eager.

I have a sneaking suspicion that it is the first choice. If so....guys if you are reading this......We are also MBA's and I think we understand what you are trying to do here!!!!

All your impatience will be answered in due course once the ISB admin is ready to release the figures....all that can be assured is that you will not be dissapointed :)

Laterz

Marketing Analytics- Future of international marketing??

2006-03-07T08:07:00.000-08:00

Over the past few days, I have observed an interesting trend in the geographical location of the people who visit this blog(Through the site meter facility). Earlier, the mix was heavily in favour of the US....my guess is ..largely inqusitive people checking it out.

Now, the world map is cluttered with hits from within india...makes perfect sense as a lot the guys from the next years batch are looking for any kind of info about ISB and are excited at the same time!!! Believe me I was no different tis time last year.

The power of such analytics tools is unbounded......watch out for more such techniques in the future. I can now design the content of this blog well suited to the majority of the readers in this time frame!!

Quick Gyan for next years batch.....Chill out during the pre-terms, Concentrate on accounts, have a lot of parties and get to know people.

Term 1 will be a tough ramp up, but the excitement will carry you through
Term 2 is a lot more fun with Marksrtat and Global economics, but even tougher than term 1
Term 3 is probably the toughest and you will be very constrained for time.
By the time you reach term 4, you already know how to crack the system or you have given up on trying to do so :)

Term 5 brings on new hope with elective subjects you may like to learn
Term 6 is when rumblings about placements start and you start working on your resume
Term 7 will be all about placements...did not learn much in this term!
Term 8 is strange time if you already have an offer and you are just happy leave unscathed, but sad to leave behind so many friends, experiences and comforts.

Just a brief snapshot of the year here, but Iam quite sure of you will have your own set of unique experiences.

Later

Sustainable Strategy

2006-03-05T23:04:00.000-08:00

This term, I have three strategy courses and all of them have really got me thinking about the validity of an american educatiion in the indian context....except for the broad frameworks suggested.

In Marketing strategy, We read about the three parameters of differentiation: Price value; Performance value; Relationship value....efforts focussed to shift mature, undifferentiated products to a relationship value direction from performance to avoid price wars.

My view is, the firms who produce the maximum Price-Performance combination value will be successful rather than any single vector like relationship. The relationship value direction is NOT a dominant strategy in a dveloping market like india, where purchasing power is still evolving.

Got it!!!

2006-02-27T10:42:00.000-08:00

Today has probably been one of the better days I have had in a quite a while. I travelled to bangalore to meet up with a company which was interested in my services....went with no pre conceived expectations......met a lot of smart people .......committed to the job and I have no real second thoughts now.

Come May 1st I will be joining TVS Motors as Manager - Strategy and Competitve Intelligence.

Its going to be a tough job which will most probably stretch all my MBA resources to the limit in order to be successful......

Iam feeling very satisfied today!!!

More Later

And the portfolio theory backfires......

2006-02-22T11:05:00.000-08:00

I had a dream start to the placement season...Infosys made me decent (but way undersold) consulting offer in my own domain...and I readily hedged my portfolio as planned. The sad part is, I think I may have to take up the offer as Iam not exactly cnverting other opportunities. I have exactly three opportunities to go in the next three days....and Iam willing to figth tooth and nail for my marketing jobs......I had a good fight today for a awesome marketing job, but to no avail :(

Come to think of it, I really didnot have adream job....I came here with the idea of exploring opportunities inproduct marketing and my options are slowly but surelydrying out quickly

I may even end up working in IT because the pay is better......and the roleis pretty good too (as per my understanding)

As you can see...Iam extremely confused and marginally dissapointed right now.

Only god knows where iam headed next!!!!

Hopefully better news next time around

The Portfolio theory actually works!!!

2006-02-16T10:36:00.000-08:00

Welll...a Quick update on the happening....so far I have had 3 shortlists and all to IT companies!!!

The role with Infy is interesting to say the least.....for a total non-IT guy, it seems good.

None of my other marketing apps have come through yet and so its wait and watch now I guess. All of my apps have a inherent bias....the trend suggests that I do not want jobs which will involve travelling too far north, else its all been for international jobs.

Have an Intervew on sunday and I dont know what to prepare for it yet!!! Another GD tommorow....I seriously hate the fact that such experienced students have to attend group discussions like kids or whatever!!!!

Thats the price we will have to pay for being such a large batch....

Thought for the day: I NEED more shortlists to come through to have any options at all!

Later

Farewell to the exchange students

2006-02-12T08:31:00.000-08:00

This year at ISB, we have had close to 50 odd exchange students from all over the world come over for a term or two. Thier presence has been quite conspicous, be it at the parties or the noise from thier all night quad parties (Every day...I might add).

I thin it was different experience and it was great fun interacting with all of them....here are a few of them saying goodbye

Hi everyone -- Today is my last day at the ISB. The last five weeks have definitely been the highlight of my MBA. I want to thank you all for making my experience here so great.
You can find my contact information below. Please keep in touch and don't hesitate to drop me a line if you're ever in San Francisco.
-Josh

The time has arrived for me to bid you farewell. I am so grateful to all of you that took the time to make me feel comfortable and at home. I hope that someday I can return the hospitality when you visit South Africa.

The University of Cape Town, Graduate School of Business is one of the most spectacularly located campuses in the world, surrounded by Table Mountain and the city harbour. The beaches are 10 minutes away and the vineyards about 20. Furthermore, you get good value for money holidaying in SA as compared to the UK or US. I'm almost certain that our school will be only too excited to host you even after you have completed your programme at ISB.

If you would like to stay in touch, here are my details:

Visegan Subrayen

and my favorite.....this one is from pakistan!!!

Dear all,

Faisal and I are off tomorrow morning, so we just wanted to thank you all for everything.

On a personal note, I can say that this has been one of the best experiences of my life. I wish that I could take many things back with me, but fortunately I take back what is most important i.e. great memories and friends who I know will be there for life. In the years to come, we will all be busy working and someday you or I may need each other for a cross-border business deal…and I know that I can count on many of you, and please remember that I will be there if anyone needs my help. But lets ensure that it’s not just business that keeps us in touch. I have said this many times “Please come to Pakistan”, and I will say it here again “Please DO come to Pakistan”. As they say in Spanish (as rusty as mine is) me casa es su casa, i.e. Your house is my house, so you all are welcome, and you can stay with me in Karachi.

As far as LUMS and ISB is concerned, many of you may not be aware, but this is the first exchange program between two colleges from India and Pakistan since partition. What is interesting is that partition was used to separate us, but initiatives like this are wiping out any boundary that exists. I think we all need to do many things in our lives for our countries, whether we hate the system or not, and we should work towards making relations between the two nations better. The ISB and LUMS partnership is an excellent example of a place where the minds of two countries meet, and we need to emphasize the need for such things later on in our lives. Maybe have a forum, or a ‘young professionals association’ that can meet once every year and discuss issues, locate opportunities and find synergies. Both the countries are booming economically, but we all know that one war can set us back 30 years. I feel that if people like you and I meet more often and create bonds, then we can speed up the change that is needed.

I could go on and on, but every good thing must come to an end. I thank you all for your hospitality, your support, your warm welcome and obviously the partying.

Special thanks to a few who I know I will miss dearly. So, Major, Pavit, Sunil lingo, Abi, Gary, Nilofer, Elaine, Shipra, Mallu, Pahwa, vivek, Mayank, Samir, Aleem, and last but not least, who can ever ever forget the Liqueur Baron of ISB, Mr Rajesh Mani. Obviously, if I have forgotten any names (as absent minded as I am right now with all the lat minute stuff), please…you all know that you are my special friends.

Last but not least, I hope that I did not offend any of you. If I did, I apologize and I doubt I ever meant it. Also, I hope that you all will encourage future ISB students to come to Pakistan.

For those who are interested Please add me to your MSN or GTALK. Also, I am getting my laptop formatted, so please, if you do reply to this…send it to

The importance of knowing your target customers!!!

2006-02-08T14:24:00.000-08:00

Yet another attempt at understanding why certain events occur from a marketing standpoint.

We had this prof KK who taught us this awesome subject "Macroeconomics". He was recently voted the best professor of the year(second year in a row!). His background: Bachelors and Masters in computer science and Phd in economics. His teaching stlye was unconventional and he did generate a lot of interest. But as some people already pointed, he is not neccesarily the best in his field...then why is he so successful at ISB??

Well this is my take on it:

The majority of the crowd at ISB are engineers and the course was taught as an engineer would appreciate, with graphs, equations and theories.....not like a typical economist would teach it.
Brief, concise and to the point: tailored to the time constrained crowd at ISB
Subject matter very relavent to practical realities and it makes an attempt at clarifying real life occurances through frameworks, formulae and videos...tailored for an engineer by an engineer
The professor projected a highly differentiated and extreme point of view on the subject, which the ISB students related very well to

See here, KK did most things right: Designed the service as per the requirements of the ISB students, delivered it very effectively and created a unique positioning through extreme differentiation....and above all he added percieved value to the student body as a whole.

I do not want to detract from KK's achievements, but I just think he is an excellent marketeer and a good professor...thats all.

If I was this good at tailoring my resume to the recruiters requirements, I would have been inundated with shortlists by now.... I guess I have a looooong way to go :)

The placement season is getting hectic and the job postings are pouring in...but like any good MBA I have hedged my portfolio evenly across roles, industries and functions. Hopefully this will at least yield me the average returns promised by the portfolio theory for I have given given up the strategy of focussed investment in a single area (read as marketing).

I guess Iam more risk averse than I think Iam....May the force be with me during the next two weeks ( This is where you step in and say that everything will be OK :) )

Ok...tata for now and more later and definitely more regularly.

P.S: I voted for KK too!!

Competition and Individuality

2006-01-18T12:03:00.000-08:00

For a novice, these two words may seem to be synonymous. Sadly, Competiton depletes ones individuality if he/she is not ready for it. I see myself and every other person getting pressurised by preparations of the so called competition around us. More than half of our available time and resources is spent on matching and bettering the efforts of the tangible competition.

My point of view on this from a marketing context is that innovation and differentiation is the only winner. In a competitve environment, if one tries to beat the competition all you do is end up wasting your efforts. Think of this in a typical prisoners dillema situation. All we will end up with at the end is more of the same, which frankly will not be sustainable in the long run.

Instead, if each of us spends more time in developing individuality, conversion of opportunities is definitely more probable.proof of this concept is seen in everyday life in companies like Apple, 3M, Google, Amazon, Linux etc. Sure, it took them a while to get there, but they are here to stay and grow.

The list of short-sighted losers is long and pathetic: TATA mobile (will feel the pinch soon enough), IIM's 1 year program, more of the same IT companies. I frankly cant remeber anymore because they never really become popular.

Anyways, this is yet another of my attempts to apply marketing to real life situations.

More later

Preview of the placement season

2006-01-10T13:19:00.000-08:00

The last two days have given many people on campus a sample of things to come. Complaints, ecstacy, despair, cluelessness and absolute paranoia...all rolled into two days induced by this major recruiter who came campus recently.

Thos who got in are obviously happy and those who did not...extremely dissapointed and clueless about the one question....why not me and why the other person????

This is a very philosophical question and i wish people would would stop looking at any event as a one shot zero-sum game.....all i try to tell them is please wait for life to unfold its wonderful surprises and dissapointments...

Well...thats as much philosopy as i want to impose any unfortunate readers of this post.

As for your truly....Did not apply for this particular MNC, but another one and promptly got rejected. I have been led to believe that i could have done better by doing the reverse, but hey...what the heck.....I cant control it.

NOW people are really serious abt placements and all that we have heard so far about placements can be summed up in one word "HOT". Each recruiter who comes in has got huge reqirements this year.

Quote of the day " Jo Jeeta wohi Sikandar"

Later

Is Blog marketing ethical???

2006-01-02T11:22:00.000-08:00

Recently, i checked a few of the comments on my blog posts ; the internet marketeers are getting smarter by the day.It initially started out as mindless SPAM, which was then deemed ineffective.
Then they tried to bring in some credibility by using some phony names to induce clicks.

Now, it has reached all time highs...they link to another actual blog, describing a person's life, but interjected with some very implicit advertisements.

It is a well known fact that the most effective advertising strategies are both credible sources and they mostly appeal to the subconcious mind....makes sense right!!! As soon as a semi-intelligent average Joe knows that he is seeing an ad, his attention shuts down on you.

Is advertising through credible sources like blogs the next wave?? And is it ethical to trick consumers just in order to gain "Mind-share"???

Well...I have a feeling that will be a raging debate in the years to come.The true era of commercialization of the internet will come when it becomes the predominant medium for both entertainment and information!!

Apart from all the global gyaan....finished up with another term...getting into placements now though!!! Recruiters...here i come :-)

Later

Finally got my bullet point :)

2005-12-17T05:34:00.000-08:00

Over the past few months, ISB junta have been travelling all over India and also to thunderbird in the quest for glory.They really have created waves everywhere and I was too lazy any to do any of this stuff.But, if most resume's have bullet points like this, I felt i should ave at least one.Picked the marketing case competition at Posiedon and we got the 2nd place and my coveted bullet point.

Thats that and got some decent cash from the whole exercise too :)

Overall, I found my self becoming way more confident than ever before and I really stepped into the audience...however a couple of takeaways...

Actually listen to the questions before you answer them :)
Do not be defensive if encountered with a difficult question!!!

Now that Iam back into marketing, grades have started picking up again....finally some good news.

Posiedon was very well organized and yesterdays fashion show was rocking and it seemed as though we were looking professional models on the ramp....simply awesome

Hats off to the Posiedon Core team!

Laterz

75 days to go

2005-12-07T04:48:00.000-08:00

Placement fever is picking up here at ISB and consulting is the most attractive option(as usual).....I wonder why though.Before i came to ISB, I had not even considered the option seriously, I was thinking more on the lines of marketing and product management roles.

The latest Gas is tha consulting prep can get you ready for all other types of interviews!!! Well.....Bullshit. Each of the other types of roles require different forms of prep.

This term Iam doing the following courses:

Customer focussed product development
Investing in private equity
Pricing
Global operations management

This has been alukewarm term so far....but lots to come yet.

Later

Interesting times....

2005-12-03T15:02:00.000-08:00

The past few days have bee very interesting for me.I finally started participating in some inter B-school competitions and finally got through in for the Marketing competition for Poseidon (ISB).Apart from that, We(AHEM! I) worked on this really awesome case from IIM C.It was set by Mckinsey and it basically covered concepts from Microeconomics, Operations, Marketing, Optimization etc.I worked on the numericals tirelessly and actually enjoyed it :)

The heat has started for interview prep and its focus groups galore.I had a couple of interesting cases today but I will have to review some concepts pretty quickly to stay on level keel.

My current thought, as Ford prefect put it "Sleep is overrated ! "

NOW...Iam enjoying my stay here....good set of friends, interesting courses and the end in sight....it is so palpable that i can almost touch it ;)

Later

Business law and Tortious liability!!

2005-11-12T09:36:00.000-08:00

Tonight, we had a session on business law and Mr.Sandeep was awesome.The entire session was centered around contracts and definitions of liabilities.The most interesting form of Liablility is called Tortious Liability, which states that a service provider can be held in breach of contract if the service provided if in anyway harms the the consumer and the firm was in a position to expect the effect in advance.

This has formed the basis for many litigations, especially in the US where they sue for emotional distress, mental torture etc.....same applies to coke in India.

Today, I evaluated a few more applications and was a very time consuming process! These were good applications, but i had to take a call and I did. the upside is that i got to have free pizza :)

Have so much work pending, but Iam in no mood to do anything constructive......tommorow is gonna be a very very busy day to get all this stuff done.....

Quote of the day: "Procrastination will only augument the inevitable torture"

later.

Resume positioning and integrated communications

2005-11-07T13:26:00.000-08:00

"This years placement season is a mass market operation" : Quote by Ajit Rangnekar.

Given this, think of your self as a product being sold to a heterogenous set of buyers A.K.A recuiters. In any competitve scenario, the buyers wants the best price for the product in the category, unless he/she derives additional value out of it.

Basically means that you need to be percieved to produce additional value to the recruiter.

Now, we can look at the problem through the Awareness - Knowledge - liking - conviction - purchase continuum : as the process of shortlisting.

Your resume is your ultimate communications vehicle and a well written, customized resume may land you multiple shortlists i.e high trial rate.However, in the typical brand share model, actual repeat purchase i.e 2nd and 3rd interviews happen only if the product attributes actually add value to the consumer/recruiter.Even this can be managed to large extent by customized communication, but in the long term product-customer fit is essential for either party to apropriate value

Also, if you spread your applications too thin across segments, you wont have an integrated communications strategy and can have a very low probability of success.

The placement week can be thought of as a large market place trying to match a heterogenous batch of students with a even more heterogenous set of recruiters and that is the key difference between a regular market operation and placement season.No real world markets take resonsibility for complete customer satisfaction, but they merely provide a convenient way for buyers and sellers to interact.

Having defined this entire issue from a marketing standpoint, i feel no less at ease with the process......Iam like......Lets get it over with as soon as possible!!!

G'nite.....

Confusion

2005-11-07T02:53:00.000-08:00

Today, Deutche bank is interviewing on campus and looks like its gonna be a loong placement season ahead.I did not apply....Iam most definitely not a fin guy.We got our first list of companies and it looks extremely comprehensive. As my friend SM would say, All this is just information overload and i feel like one of those rats trapped in a maze of options, not knowing which one will be the best.

I have broadly decided to focus my campaign towards three clearly defined segments.

Companies who do stuff I know
Companies who do stuff i dont know
companies who pay the most ( viz. Consulting :) )

With such a comprehensive strategy.. I cant fail :) . Anyways, this just shows how confused Iam, but he best thing i can do is "Blink" (from my earlier post) in simple words, go with my gut....

Later.....

back to marketing...and a lot of fun!!!

2005-10-30T14:40:00.000-08:00

Finally...Iam back in my comfort zone.Pure unadulterated marketing which gives you all the room to faff off and wiggle out some strange numbers.All you need to is state the assumptions.

But seriously, if i was ever in doubt as to where my MBA competencies lie...today is the best example.I worked on Consumer behaviour and Marketing implementation and I just feel great now. Contrast this with how i used to feel during any finance case discussions...the verdict is clear.

On an aside...i was just reading one of my frinds blogs and it was absolutely hilarious.....SM you rock dude. You have to know this guy to appreciate his wry sense of humor.

http://ihavewaytoomuchtime.blogspot.com/

Well thats it for now.....when will i ever feel sleepy????

Yeh toh "Arbitrage" ka zamaana hai!!!

2005-10-29T15:47:00.000-07:00

For once..let me start on a funny note....some one told me this joke recently.

'pehla Ram- raj & Ravan-Raj chalta tha...uske baad Liscence Raj bhi hua tha...par aajkal tho sirf "Arbtrage" Chal raha hai :)..... Iam quite sure only a B-school student would find that funny!!!

Anyways, as usual back to cribbing about what is wrong with my life. I seem to be in dazed and defocussed state nowadays. all my organizational abilities seemto have but evaporated.Cant make up my mind on almost anything and have started procrastinating almost everything.

These are not good signs and i need a good strong kick in butt to get me out of this reverie.

Moving onto global weather patterns over the last year...I dont know if any of y'all have noticed, but there have been a mutitude of freak weather related incidences across the global just in the last year or too. It almost seems too concentrated.

Tsunami in south asia
Mumbai and new orleans floods
floods in bangalore and chennai

add to that, over the last five years, there have been quite a high level of terrorist activities and these guys are running amuck.And on top of all this, consider that i have just finished watching "The core" (Yet another world is coming to an end-- story) you can surely make out by now that Iam either going mad or reeeeeally sleep deprived.

Ill get to bed now...more later.

Term 5....all's well that ends well :)

2005-10-23T05:03:00.000-07:00

This is our first elective term and I intend to major in marketing and operations if possible.the first few days were a little depressing as i had not been alotted marketing implementation by Prof. Nirmal Gupta....finally he raised the number of seats and i got in....no more gripes.Iam ONLY doing 4 courses Vs almost the entire college taking up 5!!!!

Started some serious work on my resume and it is shaping up pretty decntly as of now.Trying to review core term courses and hopefully i will be able to complete all of them by february! It almost seems that the entire college is just focussed on the placements right now and the electives just happen to be there:).

My other three course's are Supply chain management, Consumer behaviour and Negotiation analysis. The last class is a wonderfully interactive and educational, but it has only reinforced my belief that Iam a sub-standard negotiator:)

later

Words of wisdom

2005-09-06T11:19:00.000-07:00

Some words of wisdom from bharani's blog.Funny how these appeal to you the most under duress!

1.Don’t give up on anybody, particularly people close to you.

2. You may be concerned about others. You may be really worrying about someone. But it’s of no use, if you don’t express it.

3. MBA is thrusting a false confidence. Sometimes injecting arrogance into your soul without your knowledge. If you find it at the right time, cleanse it. Else, the arrogance will cleanse you!

4. Follow the 3 principles that Bhagwan said. Praise others generously and indiscriminately. Be enthusiastic. Be Optimistic.

5. Follow the 6 steps to greatness that Rajeshwar suggested. Reverse the way you think. Look for the good in people and situations. Learn to greet people. Establish some symbols in life [to which you can anchor upon]. Give importance to physical well-being [Exercise, yoga, meditation etc.,]. Feed your mind.

6. Don’t think twice when your praise others. But Think twice when you express your anger or frustration.

7. If you are in full flow and able to complete your work quickly, do more than required. Similarly, If you are unable to do your work, atleast let the team know, so that they will plan for you. Otherwise, there will be expectations on you and you will only disappoint them.

8. If you have improved as a human being, as a person, then that’s the biggest takeaway from ISB. The readings, formulas, cases, book knowledge don’t last long (unless you apply them). Emotional quotient is becoming very important in organizations. EQ is essential ingredient to make it to top.

9. Sport a smile ALWAYS. It’s free of cost, less taxing to facial muscles and relieves the pressure instantaneously.

10. Telepathy works! If you are thinking about a person in a positive way, the other person reacts the same way. If you are thinking about a person in negative way, the other person reacts the same way! I have no substantiation for this, but I have seen this work. So use this to your benefit…Always think positive about a person!

Cioa....i think this is a pretty comprehensive list!!

Blink!!

2005-08-29T09:27:00.000-07:00

Blink...thats what we al have to do when we face uncertainity.At least that what the book claims.The book is BLINK by Malcom Gladwell.Have been reading it for a few days, and he talks about thin slicing situations and people and how us humans tend to disregard our intutuins and tend to reply purely on rational judgement.

I guess, with the kind of exams that i have had today...thats what i will have to depend in tommorow`s exam.Its corp fin and its multiple choice..... The subject is stil very vague and seems like we need to develop some intiution for it still.

Thought for the day...trust your judgement...Blink!

Life and the law of averages......

2005-08-25T12:14:00.000-07:00

Events in our lives sometimes cannot be explained away by logic or "Causal Reasoning" (Ref. Matrix reloaded).We all try hard enuf.....Dont get anything to show for it....Just when you think its all done and dusted....A windfal comes your way!The law averages really do work..... we just dont have the foresight to realize it.

My takeaway for day... Dont crib when things dont hapen for you, Someday you will get unexpected windfalls and you will actually claim responsibility for those fortunes!!!

We live in such a Stochastic World!!!

Dazed!!

2005-08-17T13:55:00.001-07:00

I ask myself..what day is it? No answer...at least the date....no clue...but i still reme,ber its august!! Thats the current state of affairs.5 course running paralelly...god knows how many assignments...Overwhelming guilt of not doing enough with my time.....IS THERE ANY MORE SHIT THAT CAN BE THROWN ON TOP OF THIS PILE!! (I picked that out of "My cousin Vinny")

As the title suggests I have had that kind of a day.....more so bcos of the 2 pcycho movies i saw today... The aviator and Eye of the beholder. The former scared me a little...can I go mad like that too? About the latter...i really did not get the ending!

Anyways...this must the 1st posting i have written without talking abt ISB.On a personal note....renewing some old friendships at ISB ( and to think its only been 4 months since i got here) Whew time does fly past and at the same time stretch out like crazy!

Stay Dazed Y'all

Back to classes after a fabulous weekend

2005-07-31T10:20:00.000-07:00

This was probably one of the best weekends i have had at ISB so far.Had a closed SV1 party on thursday night and yesterday, we had this awesome party organized by the GSB.This was just all fun, what with the tug-o-war competition between sections, the baloon breaking competition which literally all the guys and girls chasing each other (Ahem....To break the baloons tied to thier feet) It really was a funny sight.I think this party was really successful because the excellent spirit shown by all involved.

To top it all off we had an information session for prospective students today, and somehow talking to so many people really energized me ( i had volunteered for the admission comittee)....maybe this is something i should take forward into career...more people intensive, team oriented activities i guess.

Well back to the rigmarole of Cases, Classes and Class Participation next week....but definitely more energy than i had last week.

More later

Fresh from a break!!

2005-07-27T02:49:00.000-07:00

Term 3 just started this week and most of us seem refreshed after the term break(At least i can talk for myself).The Leg has healed as per schedule and Iam back up on my feet.Ia very happy to be mobile and active after these past 1.5 months.

Classes are in full swing and we have five courses this semester -- Operations management, managerial accounting, Entrepreneurship,Corporate finance and Leadership development program.This is a like a real core term and I expect this to be the most intensive one which will probably require the most effort.Funny, though, because it seems like every term is pretty tough and the next one seems even tougher.The course we do are just rushing by and its a wonder how much i will retain by the end of this year.

This term Operation seems the most promising, followed by entrpreneurship and corporate finance.Something that i keep reiterating, i dont think any other B-school will get the kind of of portfolio of professors that we are exposed to here at ISB and I really feel our syllabus is cutting edge.Its great to see the kind of energy each of these profs have and hopefully it will all rub off on us.

Hoping to be completely back to normal in the next couple of weeks and then its back to the grind of the final exams ;(

More later

middle of the 2nd term

2005-06-30T01:09:00.000-07:00

We are now at the smack middle of the 2nd term and I have a Global economics midterm tommorow......No complaints with this one...its one heck of an intersteing subject....Microeconomics really fades in comparison with this subject.....Imagine being able to read ito all the financial press that we all ave been reading over the years and actualy be able to analyze them with some reasoning!!!

The leg is getting beter, and i wann get out of that freaking chair as soon as possible.This term so far has been way more enjoyable than the last one with lot of group work and collective suffering.....(any day better than individual suffering).We have this ultracool marketing strategy game for one of our courses this time....and we have been doing reasonably well....I think we are placed 2nd in our industry and hope to conquer this industry soon with all our amazing strategies ;)

More later

Recovering from a horrible accident

2005-06-14T10:22:00.000-07:00

Couple of weeks back I had a bike accident and i dislocated my right foot.This happened at a very unfortunate time just a week before my finals.I really had to fight the pain and the drowsiness of the painkillers to get up the exams, but all my friends were really helpful through this period.

3 out of the 4 exams were pretty tough, and Iam hoping for some decent grades in all the subjects.Fingers crossed !@#$%

term 2 has already started and this week is kind of slow....but next wek is gonna be a real killer.On one day we have classes from 8.30 in the morning right upto 9.30 at night.

The courses this sem are really interesting and iam hoping to learn a lot during the course of this sem!

more later(hopefully more regulary)

PS: My major peeve from this accident is that iam not allowed to play anything or the next 6 months!!!!

Final exams loom large

2005-05-24T12:36:00.000-07:00

Stats midterm over...went OK....Marketing case submitted...went pretty OK...now comes the acid test.The finals are coming really fast on us and i dont i think iam mentally ready for 4 final on two days.We had a change of guard in marketing and stats and the new profs are not half as much fun as the other 2, but life goes on.

Sadly one of our alumni from ISB passd away today and it is a sad day for the batch.The election tommorow have been postponed in mourning.

On an aside, i think our study group is starting gel and work well as team now after the initial hiccups.Hopefully we have done better on our marketing case this time around.the days are rushing past, but the weeks seem to be dissapearing faster.....more later.

Into the business end of the term!

2005-05-16T06:03:00.000-07:00

We are into the 3rd week of the course and i think everyone is starting to feel the heat a little bit now.The course load kind of fluctuates for each of the courses during the term but towards the end, its like all hell brike loose.We have just passed halfway point now and the speed is definitely picking up.

Today we are hosting a party for a couple of the faculty who are leaving back for the US tommorow.Bob stine for stats and scott ward for marketing.I really did enjoy bob`s classes and he will be replaced by his counterpart richard waterman now.Asim ansari from columbia univ is taking over in marketing.

@ the halfway point of term one and mid term and final exam jitters have already started now.When will this term end....and when can i head back to chennai for this well deserved break!!!

More maybe over the weekend (Read monday evening, Sundays are usually screwed up with assignment submissions.)

First week@ISB winds down

2005-05-07T11:05:00.000-07:00

Whew.....this really has been a hectic week.Most of the i.e upto thursday we have only just been catching up with studying for each of the four courses, and then came the weekend, when were supposed to relax and chilout etc ;).......Oh No....I have a case submission and an economics assignment due monday, not to mention having to practice stats and accounting (I think my vision kind of blurred at the end of the last accounts class...no sleep i guess)

Well, all said and done, it has been a busy but good week.there was a party at SVI (where i live) which was kind of a flop show.Our study group is very focussed and we were able to complete most of the case writeup by today.I think tommorow we would primarily be focussing on completing the Economics assignments.

If You are wondering why I have not been talking about any of the extra-curricular activities in the last few posts.....thats bcos, i have not had any !!!! I guess i need to start squeezing more time from my schedule.

More tommorow about the fiasco with Student Jungle 1 ;)

Into the first week of classes

2005-05-03T04:26:00.000-07:00

We are well into the first week of classes and I can now see why this course is so hectic.We have to self study for almost every class .Almost the entire day is taken up by these classes and work.On top of this we also have to keep up with the assignments and practice problems if we have to make any sense of the classes and the big exams at the end.

Already there is a case submission next monday and an economics assignment on the same day.Also there some practise problems in accounting and stats to be looked at.I think detailed scheduled needs to be started now!!!!!

Stress and time management required :)

2005-04-29T06:08:00.000-07:00

Orientation week coming to an end and we have alum party tonight.Also we have a session on stress management, which i think most of us @ISB need to learn.I was just trying to keep up with the required reading for next weeks classes and for the study group meetings.

My feeling right before the start of classes....The guys who will do well in this course are only those who manage their time extremely well. This is would be attributed to the compressed format of these courses and myriad of diversions in the form of parties and extra-curricular appointments (which are by no means counterproductive).

All set for the start of course.....Fingers crossed and taking the plunge....more later

Orientation week and the Leadership development program

2005-04-26T11:58:00.000-07:00

This week we started our orientation week and it has been hectic so far.We had the First session of the leadership development program yesterday and had our welcome dinner and orientation from Alums today.

The leadership development program was conducted by Prof.Rajeshwar Upadhyaya and i was really impressed by the class.We were asked to take a Myerly-brears type indicator test before we went to class o get our respective profiles.I was was classified as E(Extrovert), S(Sensing), T(Thinking), Judjing.I was initally not convinced witht this test.During the class he asked for a volunteer to to verify the test and i volunteered.He asked me to narrate any typical incident and the entire class judjed my profile.I was reallly amazed when each of them got it right and so was the class.Tommorow we have a class on listening and team bulilding and some classes on meeting etc are scheduled for the rest of the week.

I really enjoyed Dr.Upadhyaya`s class and i think this is one of the unique programs at ISB.Also we had a career perspectives forum today, where a group of top CEO`s cam in and shared their B-school experiences and their veiw on the future markets and career opportunity.It was conducted in a debate format with questions at the end and it was an enjoyable experience.

Overall...this is going to be a busy week leading upto the start of term 1. Have a couple of case studies to prepare before the class, and iam jsut getting started.

Also had a some decent sessions with the alums to get their perspectives on the career oportuntiies and the type of roles offered.

more later.

First parties @ISB

2005-04-22T11:46:00.000-07:00

Pre-terms are coming to an end and orientation starts next week.In the last two days i attended a couple of parties and both were fun in their own ways.One was a typical bachelors drinking party and the other a typical sober spouses party....even though booze was there also.I think thats like a common string i all ISB parties ;)

Got to meet a lot of people and had a lot of interesting discussions.Most of the folks out here have gone to the opening of a Pub called Liquids in town, but i wasnt really keen.I think we will have a mega startup party this weekend before the term starts, befoe we get into the seious stuff.

cheers

Sports galore

2005-04-21T12:59:00.000-07:00

Over the last few days, I have started playing a host of sports like Tennis, Basketball, badminton etc and my evenings are really full.Anywhere you go there is someone to play with....man have i missed this over the past two years at bangalore!!!

Our pre-term in accounting got over today and overall, i think it went pretty well for our section.We got through our topics smoothly and i think we have a pretty decent understanding of the topic now.

See.....the diversity @ISB is realy useful.There always an expert around the corner.Yesterday i had a concern in the accounts class and i got to know a CA who very kindly helped us out.I guess as engineers will be able to help out later on.Te student body here itself is so diverse that it helps in the entire learning process.To add to that list, we have a host of entrepreneurs etc who can give the common folk an entirely different perspective.

Inter-stats starts tommorow and i need to get sleep now...more later

Sports, meal plans and over ambitious students!!

2005-04-18T10:50:00.000-07:00

Today was an interesting mix.Had my classes in the afternoon and after that went to the cafe to pick up a quick snack.The WI-FI network here is so cool that i was able to eat , check email and have a conversation at the same time ;)then i went to the rec..played basetbal for a while, then ran for a while in the GYM.Plan to start tennis also from tomorow.Hopefully, i will be able to increase my level of activity in the coming months.I have sorely missed it in the past 2 yrs and it shows ;)

we got the info about the meal plans and looks like the cheapest meal will be about 4500 per month...sometimes i feel so guilty paying 70-80 bucks for a meal..no doubt, the stuff is pretty tasty.This cost is still within budget so should be OK i guess.

SPAM mails to the entire student have started just like our seniors had warned.People keep sending useless mails to the entire group and trying to display leadership and get visibility with the entire group.Sometimes its ffunny, but if i decide to run, I may also have to start doing stff like this.

will come back with much more interesting snipets in the days to come.

Pre-term starts today

2005-04-18T02:41:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we had an introductory speech from asst dean savitha mahajan at the khemka auditorium.She had very liitle to say but mostly a lot of questions to answer.She indicated that this years batch would be around 340 approx.

Today, i have been trying to get into the mood of studying and so...iam in the library ;)Lets see how this continues.

got a class now..so later

First day @ISB

2005-04-16T12:55:00.000-07:00

Just completed registration today and pretty much nothing else to do.found out who my study group mates are and made first contact.turns out one of them is actually a person with whom i had a major tiff with in the yahoo groups last month....Oh well..i guess we all have to forgive and forget....Its just a lesson not to get overly aggressive with anyone;)

tommorow is the india Pak cricket match and we will get togeter as a big gang to watch the match i guess.Wild drinking parties have already started, but iam realy not into any of that now. Preterm classes in accounting and statistics start next week and things should be pretty relaxed till the main term starts early next month.

more tommorow

Iam Here at HOT HOT HYDERABAD !!!!!

2005-04-12T06:11:00.000-07:00

Just got into hyderabad today and its reeealy HOT.Iam coming from chennai though so i should not be complaining.Got very little ISB work done today except for the Bank loan.

The placements for last years season is up and its been really very encouraging.I think this has settled most of our jitters and all set for the course.I think this years Average salary has moved up to 10 Lacs...consistently 1 Lakh up every yr from its inception.

Our batch should ideally do even better given the profile.Looks like even a 273 student batch has not deterred the recruiters...still at 100 % and quite a few multiple offers.

Will be reporting @ISB on the 15th.More from there.

Ciao

Adieu to GE and Bangalore!!!

2005-03-30T00:25:00.000-08:00

Its finally here.....My last week at work and getting all the details in place.i had given a 2 month notice period and it has been a really harrowing phase for the past few weeks.

I took the advice of some seniors and bought the Marketing management book by Kotler.Read a couple of chatpers and was reasonably interesting...most of the case studies were very good.
It was great to see GE mentioned as a premier strategy comapany and frquent mentions as a benchmark company.I feel proud to have been associated with GE over the past couple of years!

So much to do over the next few days....so little time.

My next post will be from ISB.....

Singing off,
Karthik

Pre-Term Courses.

2005-03-13T06:19:00.000-08:00

We recieved information about all the pre-term course at ISB before our classes start....sadly i dont seem to have any kind of profeciency in any of these...business statistics, accounting etc....Looks like ill have have a tough ramp up period.

More about the ciurse and the profile of the class.The different types of people and the kind of incoming work experience is sometimes daunting....thankfully i felt the same way when i went to TAMU and i know things will sort themselves out on their own...no point fretting about it now.

Planning to leave for Hyderabad by the 11th of April from Chennai and will have a few days off in chennai before i leave.

Fingers crossed...getting really geared up for the upcoming course and year ahead.

My First Post!!!

2005-03-11T02:42:00.000-08:00

This is my first posting on this Blog. The ISB Admissions for this year are done and we have one helluva batch this year!! The diversity in this class of 2006 is beyond imagination of any normal B-school.Iam personally from a Hardware design / Manufacturing Background and am currently at GE Healthcare Technologies, Bangalore.

My Background....I have a BE from Sri Venkateswara College of engineering, Univ Of madras and then immdly went on to do my Masters in Mechanical Engineering from Texas A&M University. I decided to come back to India......now iam really happy bcos i get to goto a school like ISB now ;)

Will keep updating this blog as often as possible with my experiences pror to and after joining ISB.