3/29/2007

Just In!!

After I was initially rejected at Great Lakes, I have been shortlisted and I am slated to join their 1 year full time MBA program beginning April 20th, 2007.

So no more Pagalguy,no more Sunday pencil shading, no more CAT jargons, No more Mock Analysis, and ya...no more Admission Tensions. Life all of a sudden seems better. The past year, has been pretty sombre, with admission rejects from ESADE Business School, IIT(JMET-I donno why these say I qualified, as I did not get any interview call after getting through...I guess a 3000 rank in JMET gets you no where). SNAP, I felt I scored enough for SCMHRD, but I forgot to apply there before the deadline(I wanted to kick myself). CAT and XAT bombed, bigger than LTTE does to Lanka every day, and the GMAT of 620, did my ego no good at all. The single admit that I got from Germany at WHU business, school died down at the VISA stage, where the student visa did not arrive before March 1st(the starting of the course).

I was just beginning for another year of preparation and exams, when my name got selected in the waitlist. Right now Euphoric, but I realise that this may not be the best of Schools, but right now, it should be the right break, as waiting another year in the hope that some better B school may come would be slightly risky, given the increasing competition in Indian MBA's. I may have taken the softer option, but having a bird in hand is worth 2 in the bush.



Will write more about why I decided on Great Lakes, a little later. Just basking in solitude and sinking in the feeling :-).

3/23/2007

3/22/2007

Hooked on to this Video-IIM C

I happen to chance on this video, both through a friend as well as P.G. Awesome audio track...and of course images of IIM C

3/21/2007

Why Use Gmail?

I just happened to see this ad on Jammy's Blog. It's a rather simple ad, that lucidly explains why GMAIL rocks. Contrast this with the ad that Yahoo had, of a glitzy lady making you feel that Yahoo email comes with a pot of Gold-and-is-sexy kind of an advertisement. Such similar simple ads have done very well, in the past for brands like Amaron Batteries, and seem to connect with the user much better.

I am not criticisingYahoo's attempt, but just bowled over by the simplicity of the advertisement shown on Youtube.

On a Lighter Note


Will this Happen?


Follow the podcast on my cricket Blog with Updates every 10 overs

The Cricket Blog was dormant following a small 2 wheeler accident, near my home in Madipakkam.So the Podcast is back and so am I.Login at 7 pm IST and stay logged on to my cricket Blog for updates.

What's the Score?

Saw this at Besant Nagar beach 2 days back- Monday night, during the India- Vs Bermuda match.




Those days(in 99 and 96), World Cup matches were aired through on a large screen on the beach. I enjoyed watching the matches, along with my friends, munching ground nuts and feeling the swift punch of air, through our chatter.These days, I guess, due to stricter television rights and public broadcasting rules, these matches are not being telecast.

3/16/2007

Is it really that "Big"?

That's the ad line of Rediff, advertising its unlimited email storage. This ad is pretty popular on TV networks these days and double entendre ad's are the one's that have lasting brand recall. I remember Fitness one gyms in Chennai launched their gyms, with similar double entendre, bordering on looking like they are talking on sex. Rediff's advertisement was also bordering on a similar line. Rediff approached SUN TV for advertising slots, to air their ad, as the SUN Network is a huge vehicle to showcase a brand down south. SUN TV rejected the advertising bid, supposedly due to so-called-cultural-mandarins(a.k.a protectors of culture) attitude that they display. Tamil Nadu, thanks to these sidey politicians has become a state where politicians use the conservative nature of people to condemn any act which has a male female interaction/any sex related joke/bold statement.

Khushboo's rather true statement a year back, was misconstrued by the politician's who utilized it as an election gimmick to win the masses sentiments. The fact remains that if so much of moral policing is done, and every thing on sex is hush-hush, then all it does in the long run, is to make children unnecessarily curious about sex, and they end up screwing their lives. Chennai, is also blatantly a city where most parents, are driven by this herd mentality, to police their children into studying, and encouraged not to build relationships with the opposite sex.


Most decent schools in the city don’t advocate such measures, but a majority of schools in Chennai focus too much attention on studies/tuition and discourage an interaction with the opposite sex, saying that the time could have rather been used to study. Any average school or college goer(Sathyabama,RMK and the other engineering college students would have a lot to say) would know that, but would prefer to remain tightlipped about the whole thing.

Its a huge problem to comprehend as the rowdy politicians (any political party) who run the state, make all these mass practices to woo the average voter and in the process only instigate their rather conservative nature to such boorish bohemian laws.

Did You Know

My engineering college suspended a guy who happened to sit in a seat with a girl in the bus. The guy just came out of an accident and could not stand, so he sat in the seat, leaving 2 spaces between the girl.

In other engineering colleges, Male and female interaction is monitored very closely by "dada’s" of politicians, who run the colleges and severely reprimand/punish/suspend students.

Colleges have bars in buses that prevent interaction between students of the opposite sexes.

Boys and Girls have seperate stairs for walking.

In Technical symposiums Men and Women are not supposed to participate togther..... and so much of other crazy rules.

Chennai as a city is a great place to live in, and their conservatism is actually pretty mild, but the way the government uses them as pawns spreading this moral policing, is when things start to look ugly. The way the politicians and TV channels reacted to the Khushboo incident was crazy, where each channel behaved as though they were concerned about the Chennai culture and "were upholders of moral traditions". SUN TV is just making things worse by refusing the ad of Rediff. There may have been a different reason, but I frankly don’t see any other reason than the moral policing angle, which made SUN TV reject the ad. The AD is no where near a Rakhi Sawant or Shakila Video that needs to be thought through so hard, but still SUN TV has its way. Rejecting such an ad, and if it makes news that publicity is good enough for building a brand impression than the money they were to make, if they aired the ads.

God Save Sun TV


Related Links
Rediff Unlimited storage News Article
The Rediff Advertisement Video-


Earlier Article on the Khushboo incident written by me

3/15/2007

What if you lose your GMAIL password?

When Google crippled me for a day!

I was on GTALK yesterday afternoon, when I received a scrap note from a friend.I tried logging to Orkut, and found that it wasn’t allowing me, and it kept on saying my password was wrong for my account. Was I sleepy? I went to the washbasin and sprinked some water and went back to my computer to login again..and damn it didn’t actually allow me to login. I tried the same with Blogger and GMAIL and the results the same.

I went to the “forgot Password” link and quickly answered my password question, and also changed the password. I suspect somebody had got into my MAIL account and has changed my PASSWORD, that’s why I was not able to log in.

After changing the password, I tried logging into Orkut, and it would still not allow me inside !!!. I was peeved and wondered what exactly was happening. I kept trying my new password and it did not work. Now this really scared me, as from my GTALK widget, I was not able to login to my GMAIL and every possible way of logging into Google services failed me.I was now worried and was getting skeptical of what password I had changed a minute ago. When I changed my password, my mind gave me a million different potential tough passwords out of which one was selected. I was in doubt whether I typed any of the other passwords and that confusion ate me for the next one hour.

By the way, if you feel, when there is a secondary email address why worry? Then, you need to know one more piece of data. My secondary email address at hotmail, no longer existed and I never bothered to worry about a potential security problem. Now what was I to do? I felt like an orphaned child in the midst of a flash flood, or a lone survivor in a flight crash.All my Google data was gone, as Google would help me only in 1 possible way.That would be only possible if the hacker was inactive for 5 days, and which hacker would hack an id to leave it inactive? So there I was, staring at a bleak future...with all my data gone….just gone…Chole go chey, poye pochu…..the olden days IODEX ad just teased me in my mind. There was a mini catastrophe going on

In the midst of this tension, I had ignored requests for nature’s call, and I decided I may as well do that. Some times you start hearing music and strange songs in your mind when you are in the toilet.This time, I was in no mood for my mind to go haywire.Once I had finished passing urine, I felt refreshed and a sense of ease.It just made me feel better.

I went back to my computer and said to myself that the 2nd time password limit was a 8 character word and I knew I would have to potentially test out 8! Cases to figure out my password..actually even more if one also add numerical characters(typically (26*2*9) to the power 8 times..but I did not let math disappoint me.I tried to recollect combinations of my password and much to my surprise, I realized that whatever I had thought was different and typed was a keystroke away and this was explored in the 19th such attempt…and was I gleaming with joy…I was over the moon.

The next thing I did was to locate the secondary email address tab and change it to a different known id.If I did not locate my password, as per GOOGLE’s privacy policy, they wouldn’t help you in anyway. So be very careful about anything you do electronically.In fact, this post is the second time I am writing this, as I lost the content, when I typed the article directly on the Blogger editor. So in case you found this a useful read, do keep your back ups and password logic somewhere, where you can find it in an emergency…You never know when you would need what….I thought Google was the safest way of storing a friends phone number, a PAN number or some damn thing.If its on line, then I am fine…but sometimes overdependence on Online can kick you in the wrong place. BACK UP’S ARE DEADLY IMPORTANT….

People who learn from their mistakes are wise
People who learn from others mistakes are wiser…

Get Wiser!

3/13/2007

My Thoughts on the World Cup

I have written a new article here. I will be uploading my podcast later in the day here. I am all upbeat and waiting for the match with unabated breath.There were quite a few lessons learnt from the first Podcast that I did.

3/10/2007

Cricket World Cup Special

I have started a new Blog on Cricket. It basically contains my podcasts of cricket matches. I am starting with the World Cup. I have always thought of being a cricket commentator, but have never worked towards it. When I met Harsha Bhogle last year at a quiz, and asked him what I need to do, to get started, he advised me on recording my voice and hearing it, and if possible start with some Radio station as a part time jockey. Now which radio would want to hear a fresher, with no experience? I dont chat, nor do I engage in glib talking, there must be some way of living a surrogate cricket commentators life. Thats when I decided to entertain myself and showcase my interests via a blog. I decided to podcast my small modules of commentary and broadcast it via You tube. I have taken the video from my Cell Phone(Sony Erricsson w550i) and transfer it via bluetooth to my laptop, and upload it through youtube. Sounds interesting to get my hands dirty on this. Do keep checking the cricket blog regularly, and offer your comments,advice on my voice.I will be glad to have some feedback on this new hobby.

3/08/2007

Strange Sights in Chennai


Forts in Chennai? Ancient Castles? - Err...Its a Swimming Pool on ECR


Convertible Auto's in Chennai ?- I guess this one couldnt wait to get on the Roads without the top part.Very wel shows the importance the Auto driver attaches to revenues from the road.

Spotted Last Week

3/06/2007

Any Difference?

The World Cup is a few days away, and as I was watching this picture of a warm up match, I notice that most of the uniforms seem to be minor variations in the shades of Blue Green and Red. Gone are the days when you would wait with a suspense for the uniforms that cricket players would wear, Now its some insane logic via which they seem to design the uniforms.


Check the one Below, it seems to be almost similar. The Teams-England and Bermuda

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