Orkut Consumer Behaviour

I was thumbing through Orkut and chanced upon this. This happens to be a typical software engineer from Chennai, who's orkut intro page I have shown below.

Orkut shows this person as sexy, and cool, but look at the introduction. It says a line that he is friendly and then talks about the topic that the person is most comfortable with(programming, of course!). That pretty much explains the other rounded items in red below the 'about me'.

I guess most software engineers(Read: the kind that you encounter en masse at a company when thousands of people charge outside the office when the 5 15 pm bus leaves for home) are short of confidence and feel shy to express themselves, so end up putting something in the 'about me' column that they are most comfortable with, which unfortunately happens to be programming. I am not saying that people who have better looking intro's got laid instantly, but still the way the 'about me' part of orkut is written, reflects a lot about yourself.

Looking at the various kinds of intro's , there are the 'attention grabbers' who put their CV there or in order to show that they are intelligent, put some not-so-easily-understandable poem. Some use various symbols to show that they are rebels and are 'belonging' to a group, while some cleverly copy what they think will potray them in the best light. Some guys even use Orkut for hitting on women, and doing it relegiously. I knew a guy from Faridabad( who studied with me) who was a porn-ivororous animal, hunting down images of all the girls he saw in orkut in his laptop folder, and using it to fantasize. By the way the guy had a 2% physical sales conversion of all the girls he managed to scrap in orkut, and his 2% was quite high in number, so you can see the effort he put. So Orkut does help you connect, but there obviously is no right way for an intro or a wrong way, but its interesting taking a peek into the consumer behaviour of social networkers.It depends on the convergence of your target market, your sales techniques and the leads you get, or if you havent succeeded at this game, dont worry you can pay money and do the same at any of the marriage portals :-). Else tell the priest in the temple near your house, and finally gain Moksha! and even if this fails, try a Gtalk status of " Single and Ready to Mingle".

Ok, so where are we heading and what do I want to convey? Nothing much.... saw the orkut intro and a few thoughts were running through my mind, so thought I shall put them on my blog.

PS:

1) The guy who's orkut image is pasted is a good friend of mine, so nothing against him. Just found the intro funny.

2) The pornivorous friend doesnt read my blog, so dont have to worry much. If he does, I shall treat him to some Hyderabadi Biryani to pacify him if he does find out.

The Last one Year!

Life in the past year has been a roller coaster ride at Great Lakes. Life has seen the joys, the moments of exhilaration, the darker moments and disappointments also. When one comes to a B school, every body comes with the aim of becoming a transformed person who then goes on to make his mark later in life. Transformation- The English dictionary defines it as , especially extreme psychological or character change, as in the context and vocabulary, but a B schooler wants something more. Well to get an idea, how’s this for that something more? Financial transformations on the paycheque from being software engineer to a strategy consultant/investment banker. A Bschoolers life ideally revolves around first getting subscribed to the fact that this one year is going to be a no-pay year, and they would have to keep costs low, and manage accounts well. They are into the second month at B school and their accounts seemed to be managed well so far, until Financial/Management Accounting comes and reminds them that there is lot more to accounting than what meets the eye. They start to pay closer attention to terminologies like CREDIT and DEBIT, by looking hard at their online bank accounts, and figuring out that life could be so much more easier without so much complex accounting. If those were the first instances of troubling your normal life, here comes the killer whale in the dreaded Stats. Statistics, made us realise how important was it to stay afloat on the sea of numbers and formulae, and we all started paying serious attention to that ubiquitous software called Microsoft Excel that you borrowed from your friend. Apart from all this was to wait in Eastern Philosophy for the noose to be hung around your neck when your chance came to answer, and it was in those moments that I discovered my strengths of predicting my probability of answering a question right was far closer to what Aryabhatta called zero, and depended on arbit and desperate participation to get some points against your name.

B school life is not all that dull and boring, with exams and pre reads. It depends on how you want to make use of the time post dinner. Dinner at the nearby dhabas became a good networking ground for most folks and conversations frequently hovered upon how one got good North Indian food in Chennai, which would unanimously turn out as the next mass networking joint. When folks were too tired after dinner, and didn’t want to devote their attention to the pre reads that were outstanding from the previous information transaction called Class, a bunch of intelligent folks found out how to form a movie club and play movies in the classrooms that were deserted at night. The MNMC(Mid Night Movie club) had movies of all genres and at times even was the host of many stress breakers like the all night carrom tournament and the Counter Strike networking sessions.While some saw strategy in Kotler and Porter, others swore by Age of Empires. In between the din and chaos of the gamers, were silent souls who in other classrooms would be holding a joint meeting to analyse the case given the previous day even as sleep would threaten their logic and resolve.

3 months into B school, one is used to snooze sessions in between classes (for 15-30 minutes) to catch up on those divine moments of peace, extra snooze sessions in classes, and crazy expectation of profs to accomadate pre reads and case study analyses. We learnt the importance of qualititative multitasking and forming strategic joint ventures, so that the group did well in the next days presentations. We still pride ourselves for becoming detectives at night, solving cases all night, to discover that 10 other groups have done much better than your so-called-solution. I for one started hating the word competition for a while, competition in class rooms, cases, pre reads, and even competition to eat lunch beating the queues. Nirvana for a B schooler is snooze, and some like minded friends to step away into a utopian world for a while, as it relieves the stress of the previous day. Life at Great Lakes has helped us to bond better and fight better, keeping the larger objective in mind.All these interactions have helped us see the corporate world and the possible problems that may arise, and the attitude required to take firm decisions.

6 months into Great Lakes, we braved ourselves for the first monetary and functional competition in the race for internship slots. The internship was a peek into the big bad corporate world and just a reflection to remind you that the world out there is not as linear and utopian as a B schooler starts to think after what he calls his “best strategy” in the cases he used to solve.

9 months into Great Lakes, the Pressure and tension was at a all time high, with heavy courses and assessments, competing with monetary dreams, as placement season looms large. Placement season saw a battle that each one was fighting as an individual and as a team, for that was the most tangible take away from the course apart from the eye opening interactions during the courses. Placement season rained jobs and offers, and once that was over, you hardly have the inclination to put even half the effort into the courses scheduled after placement season. The challenge now is to come to college, and not about offering your 2 paisa worth arbit and desperate class participation.

Now as 15 days remain for the program to end, you realise that all that buzz and activity has now settled down in fine dust, that would leave behind traces of an era that just got over. The Junior Crusaders are passing out... and its time for some new wine in the bottle called B school. Long Live the B Schooler’s Life!

The Bangalore Weekend-A Photo Blog-Day 1

You know one has hit Bangalore when you feel the chill fresh breeze of the morning and when a 7 am, company buses fly past you in a race to reach Hosur road


I was going for the Dream job auditions and as I had classes
late till 9 pm the previous evening, I had little time to go back home, pack up and rush to Central station to catch the 23 15 hrs Bangalore Mail. I forgot my toothpaste,shaving kit , resume,passport photos and my formal shoes. So redemption started rather immideately as I headed straight to Koramangala, 2 kms from St. Johns College, where after some spirited searching I found a barber.



Now this was the first time, I was shaving at a barber's place and was curious to know how he would go about it. Pretty proffesional with 2 rounds of copius lather and dagger down my cheeks.



Ya, now it looks better. One task done 4 more to do, time left= 50 minutes. THE Time was 10 40 am, and my scheduled time of appointment was 11 30 am.



I needed to take a photograph and get it within an hour and my only saviour was of course Reliance webworld where it has this 3 megapixel camer put to good use for penniless students like me, with an offer of 30 photos for 30 rupees. The webworld, also allowed me to print my resume.By the way, I was referring to the RELIANCE WEBWORLD inside FORUM MALL.




The photo was available in a jiffy: TIME 11 AM


I took an Auto from FORUM MALL, to reach ST JOHNS College and had a lovely time wading through the woods. It seemed the ideal place for a romantic walk with the overcast clouds and the greenery around withing the medical college campus. I had to locate the auditorium which is pretty dee inside their campus.



Cricket auditions can bring you people from all walks of life and this was an example where a father son pair turned up to try their luck. They seemed to have a 10 am slot and were deleayed by the morning Bangalore traffic and were spritinting down the pathway. Imagine a father competing with son for a job!





A lot of freely roaming deers inside the campus, provided a lovely sight of being in some sort of forest reserve.


There I am the venue reached, but where's MANDIRA BEDI?



Apparently Mandira Bedi was'nt going to judge on August 31st, but only in the next round on September 1st. Today was a basic prelims to seperate the wheat from the chaff, and it was pretty easy clearing the prelims. Not having too much to do, I went back to forum mall, glancing at the chicks, and some books in Landmark.


Thats my friend Prasanna, who joined me later in the evening at FORUM. He seemed to be gung ho on buying a leather purse, but when he discovered that there would be no money to keep in the purse after he buys it, he decided to explore other options. A major part of my trip was sponsored by Prasanna, as I fell short of cash.


Recruitment Heights- There was this recruitment ad in the restroom zone. Bangalore is going all out to woo people to change their jobs and take up new jobs and what better place to start a conversation on a career change! THE RESTROOM


ORACLE has gone even more extreme by making their recruitment drive more visible to the common man.May their tribe increase :-)



The last straw. This is how a KSRTC bus form looks like, everything written in Kannada, and if u fill it wrongly(99% probability), you need to join the line from behind, so that the KSRTC operators time is not wasted, an in all probability in that time, the last 2 tickets from Bangalore to Chennai would have also been sold out.

EXPECT PART 2 IN A DAY.....

AND TO KNOW MORE ABT THE DREAM JOB COMPETITION CLICK HERE

It's All About the New Media, Honey!

Susan King at Great Lakes Institute of Management

Susan King of the Carnegie foundation was here last week. She spoke to us on the importance of corporate communication. She was stressing on the fact that if one doesn’t tell his story, somebody else will in this era where the better communicator wins. She was giving examples of how George Bush Senior beat Ronald Reagan in the US elections, thanks to a better branding campaign that was carefully built around a communication that made Bush more aggressive and Reagan more wimpy. She also touched upon the changing paradigms of competition in the new economy, and how communication has started to be more than just the print and TV media ,by extending across social media on the web like Blogs,discussion forums and social networking forums like Myspace. She also spoke on her role in the Carnegie foundation for doling out cash for organizations and causes. Susan was accompanied by her daughter and Rathna Mukherjee(Cultural Affairs, US Consulate)

Here’s a heads up of Susan King’s profile.

Susan Robinson King is vice president, external affairs, director of Journalism Initiative, Special initiatives and Strategy. She is responsible for the Corporation's relations with outside groups and devising strategies to ensure the Corporation's work has an impact on society. She oversees the Corporation's communications including its publications, web site and media and dissemination grant program. She leads the Corporation's Journalism Initiative, begun in 2005, which focuses on university based journalism education, its role in America's research universities, in preparing the next generation of media leaders and its commitment to strengthening journalism's seminal position in a democratic society. She spent twenty years as a journalist covering national and international issues and before joining the foundation served as Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at the Department of Labor.

During her years as a journalist, King was both anchor in Washington television and a political analyst known for cover story reports on politics, diplomacy and major issues of the day. She worked for ABC News and served as a White House correspondent during the Reagan administration. She has reported for CNN and served as host for CNBC's Equal Time, NPR's Talk of the Nation and WAMU's Diane Rehm Show. She began her career working for Walter Cronkite and became an on air reporter in Buffalo, New York.

Interview with Albie Morkel(South Africa)

Albie Morkel

I happened to meet up with Albie Morkel, the rookie South African Pace bowler, during the Afro Asia Cup. Here is a small 2 part Interview with him





First a heads up about him

"Albie Morkel, like Lance Klusener, is a right-arm fast-medium bowler and left-handed batsman. He rose to prominence playing for his provincial side Easterns against the touring West Indians in 2003-04 when he defied food poisoning to score a century and take five wickets at Benoni. Ray Jennings, his provincial coach and a former South African wicketkeeper, predicted some time ago that Morkel would become a world-class allrounder, and Morkel was promised his first taste of international action when picked for the tour of New Zealand in 2003-04. Morkel comes from a cricketing family, with father Albert having played for Transvaal B and brothers Malan and Morné having represented SA schools. Morné also plays for Easterns."

Source Cricinfo





THE INTERVIEW : (Taken on my Sony Ericcson W550 i Mobile Phone)


Part 1




Part 2

One Heck of a weekend

This Weekend, I am totally pressed for time. Podworks, India's biggest Podcasting Workshop is there on the weekend and in the evening on Saturday,we have a Beach house party at a resort on the East Coast Road.Click here to Listen to the music of the Podworks Tune

The Beach would provide ample oppurtunities to interact with like minded folks from the social media Industry and the beach house under the moon should be a great way to spend the night.

If That was not enough, there are more events that would attract me. That would be the Afro Asian Cup happening in Chennai with a double header match up on the weekend. Watching cricket at the Chepauk stadium has always been my favourite pastime, as it's an awesome experience watching the match and feeling the pulse of 30,000 people at the same time. Since 2002, after the introduction of the Electronic scoreboard that relays slow motion replays, has now made combined the home effect of watching the match.

Sachin is not there, but still its the spirit of cricket that matters amidst the din and chaos of the crowd at Chepauk. The last match I watched was the India Seniors Vs India B at the Chepauk, last October(Challenger Series), where I managed to get lucky, sneaking through to the players enclosure, managing to speak with Sreesanth and Harbhajan Singh, who were frustrated by the rain that had ruined play. What also helped was an excuse at work, saying I had an "urgent" work to attend, which brought me to the stadium at 4 pm.

Apart from that, I also need to prepare hard for my Financial Accounting terminal exam at College(Monday).

The mid term exam, a couple of days back was a disaster and there is all speculation that the second one could be more serious.Need to hit my Books :-)

My Own Travel Show Huh??

From the time, I was a kid, I enjoyed travel shows where they show around a place. I always wanted to do something like that.So as the saying goes..A Picture is like a thousand words, I say a Mobile Video is like a 1000 pictures...and so enjoy the videos.

I shot both these videos last week and it features travel along the Chennai and Delhi suburban trains. These videos are pretty amateur in terms of sound clarity, but am just dabbling with videos taken on the move.I had shot these videos and it lay wasted on my hard disc, so thought I might as well put them here and get some feedback.

My ultimate aim would be to create such small videos of all my trips so that along with the travellogue, more info about the places is also mentioned. I am thinking where to go in these remaining days. I might go to Tirupati, if a few friends are willing as thats the closest and quickest holiday one can plan on econo mode(I have to think of econo mode now, as I am a student, not a working proffesional for the next 1 year).
At Beach Railway Station

Beach to Egmore-Chennai Suburban

Mambalam- Guindy- Chennai Suburban

New Delhi- Metro Suburban Rail- Karol Bagh Station

New Delhi-Metro Suburban Rail- Rajiv Chowk to Central Secretariat

New Delhi-Karol Bagh- Cycle Auto Rikshaw Ride.

Chennai in Spate

As I sit typing this, in my office, I hear winds buzzing past my ear,even though the windows at office are closed.Trees in and around office,are shaking to the tune of the wind.I am in office,right now,because I cant dare go back home, where I am sure, water would have crept into my ground floor home.I have shifted some of my books and other possessions to the first floor, but since there is no current(power) at home, I had to get out of madipakkam, wading through the slush.

The whole city, is battered by the recent rains and every where I see, road blocks and diversions and huge traffic woes.I dont intend to go back home for the next 2 days.I plan to stay in office as the winds and the rains are threatening and menacing to any driver riding his vehicle on the road. As observed in the mumbai rains, people longed to come back home,but I kinda differ, I feel more at ease at office than, being at home, as its worse at home with no power and all water all around.My only source of worry, is that my mother and grandmother are at home,and are pretty much marooned back home. I just wish and pray the rain clears, so that I can try my luck going home in this rain. I couldn't start from office at all, with the heavy rains through out the day,and given the fact that I need to bike 22 km's, the whole journey seems so unsettling and scary.

Right now, I am armed with my chair and trying to take a nap, in my cubicle,even as the winds threaten to blow away Chennai.