The Extremes of B-School Life

The best fun at B school happens when you work together on Industrial projects. Everybody follows the cycle of hardworker, lesser-work-mode, the complainer mode, Listener-but-not-doing mode and free rider mode. This would be the knowledge supply chain at group projects, with every one contributing his best and his worst across a given time period. This pic was taken during the Coke Project, where Rajesh is seen explaining to us, with Vinay Krithik, in more than a dormant mode. The alacrity in taking a quick shot, made me awake, or I too would have dozed after a tired day. The whole COKE project was a great excercise in getting to know the various moods and ways in which peers operate and dealing with frustrations of non-performance of various factions from time to time and also dealing with the brilliance of the same group the very next day. But as they say ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL, the project was an immensely succesful project, as the smiles on the faces of the Coke honchos said it all!

Twenty20 World Cup Final-India Vs Pakistan

See Saw Clashes.... Mother of all battles, was what it was branded, and the match for sure, did give a heart patient, a serious run for his life. The way the match kept on swinging fortunes, only showed the resilient spirit both the teams. The last shot lasted more than the 6 seconds..it lasted a million seconds. The way Misbah advertised that he was going to play that hoick to fine leg, even as Joginder came into bowl, made my heart skip a beat.Then when Misbah, connected, that sublimal fear stretched all through my back, an unpleasant feeling, not wanting to listen to the commentator, believing that it was going into the bull ring. My friend who was online, not accesible to TV, must have shreaked when I typed 6... but much to my shock..Misbah had not connected and Shastri's scream " its in the air" which would be the ideal prelude to either a 6 or a wicket, confused me as my eyes, was in its last stages of closing, a sense of frustration,mouth slipping in bouts of saliva, prefering to skip a beat and THEN.......

My Grandmother jumps in joy with her hands up!.... AHOY! what do we have here!!! India won..

I immidealy jump back to my laptop and type " India won" and the message transcends through continents to a probable victory shout on the other side of the Google Talk messenger. OOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHH 2 close India Pak matches and Sreesanth keeps his cool in both the moments in Durban and Johannesburg,closing the lid on the match.


Those 6 seconds, I went through a multitude of emotions and it would probably last a life time. India has won a world cup, an against whom!!! the dream match against pakistan...and Pak would have to stare hard at the scar of not winning against India in World Cups.

My views:

Misbah deserved the player of the series, 4 awesome innings, 2 magical but greek hero type loss, and 2 victorious innings under pressure to win. Afridi was out of form, but the numbers helped him win the Player of the series award.

Dhoni looked in command and had nerves of steel throughout the tourney. Good changes and great work from the support staff of Venky Prasad,Lalchand Rajput and Robin Singh. I specially liked the way Dhoni supported Sreesanth after the first over of 21 runs( A Shoaib Akthar-esque over... for retaliation) and the way Jogi was persisted against Australia and Pakistan.

The youngsters came to the fore, and I keep wondering if Rohit Sharma was caught on the Long on boundary, would the match have come so close? I say that because Abdul Hafeez, not only dropped it, but also let it for a 6, which would have otherwise been a boundary.

If Misbah had connected that fatal last ball, Joginder singh would have become the tainted piece of history(that Chetan Sharma has now become). His career would have ended as soon as it started(My friend Arun, agrees with me on this).

The turning point? Imran Nazir's wicket... He was looking great guns and at no point did we look like getting him out. His wicket brought India back into the game. The second turning point was Sohail Tanvir's wicket and of course the last wicket of Haq, which he could have well waited and got the runs.

Click here to watch the Innings brief highlights...

1) Pakistan Wickets
2) Gautam Gambhir's Innings
3) Sixes of the final

Video Courtesy! ( Flicked from ESPN)

Photographic Snippets from B School

There are times during coninuous assesments,case studies and night outs, the class room during the day could just be the last thing on your mind. Just to lessen the embarrasment for the prof, we tend to look for a strong well built male/female in the front seat and bask in their shadows as the AC just lulls you into sleep.


Sparks fly in a Placeom meeting. Any casual remark can set the eyeballs against you! This was shot in a meeting we recently had for discussing the status of our work assigned to us.

Some of the best ways to fool a prof is to say you have conjunctivitis and close your eye, but my friend Ashutosh is doing something far removed from that. This is a pic taken in Prof Shriram's class on Strategy, where Ashu was subjected to a blind test, to check whether his tounge could detect the different cola brands as part of our case analysis of Pepsi vs Coke. Lucky Dawg! Got free cola in class :-)

Oh! These so called discussions for presentations. If each one were to work individually for 10 minutes and then present his views life would be a lot easier and productive, but given the hi-fi management students that we are, we use the laptop to convey ideas, files and presentations. I found out the other day when we were to analyse a case in class, every body was speaking arbit things and fiddling their ideas on the lappy, and with 3 minutes to go, we couldnt help noticing that we had hardly progressed, and then the mouth just worked, with a ramshackle of 3-4 basic slides. So much for technology!!!

When one was working, it was all about the fight of "I-will-pay-the-bill", followed by the first few weeks of going dutch at B school outings. Now after Management Accounting, we follow Activity Based Costing strictly when we hang out at high priced shops.

Did You Know This?

Right to Emergency Care:

The Supreme Court has ruled that all injured persons especially in the case of road traffic accidents, assaults, etc., when brought to a hospital / medical centre, have to be offered first aid, stabilized and shifted to a higher centre / government centre if required. It is only after this that the hospital can demand payment or complete police formalities. In case you are a bystander and wish to help someone in an accident, please go ahead and do so. Your responsibility ends as soon as you leave the person at the hospital. The hospital bears the responsibility of informing the police, first aid, etc.

Please do inform your family and friends about these basic rights so that we all know what to expect and what to do in the hour of need.

My Thoughts on Chak de! India

When I saw the movie, Chak De! India, what struck me was the excellent direction and screenplay of the movie.No additional floss and running around trees. From a Management perspective, it was all about the spirit and attitude required to succeed and act professionally in larger team interests. Suprisingly this was the 5th sports based movie to come out in the last 20 years and the 3rd in the last 6 years. The ones I am referring are Avval Number starring Aamir Khan, Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar and Lagaan starring Aamir again, Iqbal with Shreyas Talpade and now Chak de!India The common thread in the last 3 sports movies has been on great direction, where not too much light is shown on the main character in the movie.

Generaly movies revolving around such themes depend a lot on good music complementing important moments in the movie, and thats where Iqbal and Chak de India! have been ruling the roost apart from brilliantly etched out characters.

The scene involving the Hockey federation speaking to the coaches was a true reflection of what ails Indian sport, in terms of the lackadaisical approach of federations towards the development of sports. Chak De India, I recently heard, was the point of discussion of a case study at SPJIMR and offers a great insight into what a leveller sport can be in India. You are on top of the world when you are doing well, with everybody wanting to be assosiated with you, but when you fail, the whole world seems to be up against you in arms. I guess any Indian cricketer would vouch for that post the World cup debacle earlier this year, and they almost earned the ire of the nation when they allowed Pakistan to chase 39 runs of 13 balls in the 20 20 league phase :-).

Do the Indian's need to change their gung-ho extremism attitude towards cricket? I guess that needs a seperate blog post with a lot more of thinking. My gut feel is that the attitude of the fans cannot be changed, but India as a team, needs to get more professional and need to stop the frequency of vacillating between being magnificent and insipid between matches.

I happened to come across this article, written by Apurva Purohit, CEO of Radiocity on Chak de! India relating to her real life experience. It was a good read, and even good to know that she was from Chennai, having her alma mater as Stella Maris.(BTW Apurva was formerly the CEO of Zee )

Reaching out to People via Commentary!

Whoa! What A night?

India just won the bowlout...and it was fun celebrating it with close to 40 people. Lets see how the 40 add up. Most of these guys did not have access to cricket as Cricinfo and Cricbuzz, as the sites werent responding, probably due to the heavy rush of traffic. I was at home and there were 6 from my college, who were in their room. I spoke on Gtalk with them....and gave running commentary for the last half hour. There were about 25 people who were in the college library and seminar halls who were pinging me on GTALK for the scores all assembling at one point. So I give commentary on Gtalk to Bhaskar and he types every word out to the 4 focal point guys in college. Can corporate India be far behind? My friend working in a Financial services company called on my mobile, and put my conversation on speaker mode for his team mates. There I was doing commentary and answering questions on my laptop.

Here go video highlights of the match Presentation and the video covering the Pakistan innings and the finale of the bowlout.

Indian Batting at Durban

What is Marketing?

I have 2 Marketing Projects and 3 case studies over the last 2 days. I have finally learnt what Marketing is all about.

It Happens Only in India

500 Men stripped Naked to examine their body for injury signs, after a Rape case was reported. Now In Criminal Trial, Identification Parade is done by the Police in order to ensure that the eye witness to a crime is able to clearly and independently identify the culprit from other suspects.

I dont know he authenticity of information, but I found a Blog at Sulekha written by a certain Seshadri S.

Media: Sex Sleaze and Entertainment: CSR For the Media! What About that?

One of My friend's -Kishore, sent me a forward last night and it was chilling feeling feeling to have read that mail. I am reproducing the contents of the mail below. This brings to the table a few questions. The media often questions the corporate world about what the corporate does for the society at large, but I guess its time the media did some self introspection. Should CSR for Online/Print/Television media also exist, in terms of covering socially relevant issues at the cost of TRP's?

Read the forwarded mail Further on. This mail was circulated quite some time back, given that Greg Chappel's name was quoted in the mail.

-------------------------------------------
A MUST READ.......
Dear Editors of HT, TOI, IndianExpress and TheHindu,NDTV, CNN-IBN, I got the mail below from a friend of mine and following the unwritten code of conduct, I am forwarding it to my friends but all efforts of people who have been forwarding this mail would go waste if this mail doesn't reach YOU......
Something to think about..!!
Shame on Indian Media??? Really what a shame...


By the time u guys read this news, the body of Major Manish Pitambare, who was shot dead at Anantnag, would have been cremated with full military honors.

On Tuesday, this news swept across all the news channels 'Sanjay Dutt relieved by court'. 'Sirf Munna not a bhai' '13 saal ka vanvaas khatam' 'although found guilty for possession of armory, Sanjay can breath sigh of relief as all the TADA charges against him are withdrawn' .

Then many personalities like Salman Khan said 'He is a good person. We knew he will come out clean'. Mr Big B said "Dutt's family and our family have relations for years he's a good kid. He is like elder brother to Abhishek". His sister Priya Dutt said "we can sleep well tonight. It's a great relief".

In other news, Parliament was mad at Indian team for performing bad; Greg Chappell said something; Shah Rukh Khan replaces Amitabh in KBC and other such stuff. But most of the emphasis was given on Sanjay Dutt's "phoenix like" comeback from the ashes of terrorist charges. Surfing through the channels, one news on BBC startled me. It read "Hisbul Mujahidin's most wanted terrorist 'Sohel Faisal' killed in Anantnag , India . Indian Major leading the operation lost his life in the process. Four others are injured

It was past midnight , I started visiting the stupid Indian channels, but Sanjay Dutt was still ruling. They were telling how Sanjay pleaded to the court saying 'I'm the sole bread earner for my family', 'I have a daughter who is studying in US' and so on. Then they showed how Sanjay was not wearing his lucky blue shirt while he was hearing the verdict and also how he went to every temple and prayed for the last few months. A suspect in Mumbai bomb blasts, convicted under armory act...was being transformed into a hero.

Sure Sanjay Dutt has a daughter; Sure he did not do any terrorist activity. Possessing an AK47 is considered too elementary in terrorist community and also one who possesses an AK47 has a right to possess a pistol so that again is not such a big crime; Sure Sanjay Dutt went to all the temples; Sure he did a lot of Gandhigiri but then........ ..
Major Manish H Pitambare got the information from his sources about the terrorists' whereabouts. Wasting no time he attacked the camp, killed Hisbul Mujahidin's supremo and in the process lost his life to the bullets fired from an AK47. He is survived by a wife and daughter (just like Sanjay Dutt) who's only 18 months old.


Major Manish never said 'I have a daughter' before he took the decision to attack the terrorists in the darkest of nights. He never thought about having a family and he being the bread earner. No news channel covered this since they were too busy hyping a former drug addict, a suspect who's linked to bomb blasts which killed hundreds. Their aim was to show how he defied the TADA charges and they were so successful that his conviction in possession of armory had no meaning. They also concluded that his parents in heaven must be happy and proud of him.

Parents of Major Manish are still living and they have to live rest of their lives without their beloved son. His daughter won't ever see her daddy again.

So guys, please forward this message around so that the media knows which news to give importance, as it is a shame for us since this Army Major's death news was given by a foreign TV channel!!!

Mandira Bedi on the Star Cricket"Dream Job!"

Cricket and Bollywood are two prime passions for most Indians. Mandira Bedi is one lucky girl, who got to live both. For six years, this actress anchored Sony's pre-match cricket show, Extraaa Innings. While she infuriated the connoisseurs, she succeeded in attracting the female audience to cricket.

Now, Mandira will continue her tryst with cricket as a judge on ESPN-Star's reality show Dream Job, a talent hunt for Sports presenters.

Mandira speaks on her Dream Job, Cricket and more in an exclusive chat with Mayur Lookhar.


You're one of the jury members of ESPN-Star's Dream Job. How has the experience been?

We've just auditioned for three weeks. We've covered Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore. In the coming days, we'll be going to Kolkata. So far, it's been a great experience. What has really caught my eyes is that in these three weeks, we've had at least ten women contestants in each city.
Do you take the credit for inspiring these women to be part of cricket?

I deserve no credit. It's their love and passion for the game that has brought them here. I was pretty impressed by one housewife, who came dressed as one. We didn't expect much from her but to our surprise she impressed all.

What is it that you are looking in a contestant?

Spontaneity and confidence. You get just 30 seconds to prove yourself. Thus, it's in those thirty seconds that you can either get nervous and throw your chances or make the most of it. Within this period, you should be able to think on your feet.
Any particular contestant that caught your eye?

There was one 23-year-old guy from Mumbai. Tough to recollect his name. He's progressed to the next round. He did a real good job. He also entertained by imitating Ravi Shastri and Harsha Bhogale. I expect him to go all the way. There was also a 61-year-old preacher who did well.

For over five years, you were associated with Sony. Were you surprised when ESPN approached you?
My contract with Sony was till the World Cup. And, with the channel not showing any cricket in the near future, I thought my association with cricket was over. To my surprise, ESPN buzzed me and briefed about the offer. In the given circumstances, this was the only thing that would have connected me with the game
In the past, certain ESPN-Star guys were critical of your work on Extraaa Innings. Now you're working with these men. Your say on that.
I'm fine with it. You can't please everyone. However, I'm glad that I've been able to change their mind. If earlier they criticised me, they praise my work now.
You must have met the commentary team of ESPN-Star. What's your take on them?
Actually, I haven't but I'm quite impressed with their set-up. The likes of Gavaskar, Shastri, Wilkins are all pioneers in cricket commentary. Ian Chappell has filled the void left by Geoffrey Boycott.
What about Wasim Akram?
I'm looking forward to meeting him . He'll join us (Dream Job ) from October.
Who should be the Indian coach?Presently, we are doing well without one. However, if a coach is to be selected, then it has to be a foreigner. (Although the Graham Ford episode is fresh in our minds) I felt that Dav Whatmore would have been a good choice but he failed to make the cut.

The veteran Indian cricketers will soon kiss the game goodbye. Do you think that we have the bench strength to replace these guys?
That's our main concern now. No doubt, these men will be hard to replace. I guess, the Twenty20 World Cup will really show us how good our younger players are.

What's your take on women's cricket in India?

The merger with BCCI has indeed yielded financial benefits but women's cricket is still not popular with the masses. Sadly, cricket is still a male-dominated sport. On my part, I always make it a point to visit one of their matches.

You have been replaced by Mona Singh on Extraa shots. Does that upset you?

Extraa Shots went off air two years ago and I only did it for eight months. I don't think I've been replaced by Mona. I've worked with them for over five years and as such share a great relationship with them. It was wonderful experience for me. There was no break-up of ties; we parted ways in an amicable manner.

Did your decision to join Dream Job result in this partition?
The moment I received an offer from ESPN, I called Sony and briefed them about it. They were pretty cool with it. My contract with them was over and since they didn't have any cricket to show, I was given the leeway to do Dream Job.
Finally, is your association with ESPN-Star limited to Dream Job itself?
Yes.
What's next for you then?
Well, I hope I continue my association with ESPN-Star post Dream Job as I want to stick to cricket.

Courtesey: www.tellychakkar.com

I stil havent heard from ESPN regarding the next stage results. But after some googling and a few adverts on Television, I see that Star Cricket is all set to air the Dream Job Auditions from the 20th of September, every Thursday. Another advert said that 21st Sep, 8 pm would also be the time. I need to probably download the schedules from the site and then confirm.

Mandira's career seems to have panned out very well, from the shy blushing girl of DDLJ, to the confident woman of SHANTI the mid 90's soap on DD, to hosing reality shows.I personally liked her wicked role in Kyunki Saas Bhi Kaabhi Bahu Thi, where she plays a possesed lover,even after knowing that the relationship may not be given a formal name. That possesed love approach to love and life, couldnt have been better exemplified by Mani Ratnam, when he casted Shahrukh in the lead.

There are times when one waits like a 4 year old kid, eyes always on the postbox..and the times are no different now. I dont wait at the postbox, but every call and email that comes, there is a pregnant silence, whether this could be the "dream job selection mail". I remember waiting like that, to get my first 2 job offers when a few HR's decided to take their own time to send me the appointment order in 2004.I ultimately rejected Polaris and ended taking up Infy, but the experience of waiting for the both the appointment letter was a long wait.

Dream Job.... ....I Am still Waiting.. (as the song would say!)

Power Talk: Mr. Rajesh Gupta, MD, Bearing Point

MD, Bearing Point, India addresses students at Great Lakes

In continuation of power talks arranged at Great Lakes in the month of September Mr. Rajesh Gupta MD & General Manager of BearingPoint India entity (a captive unit of BearingPoint, Inc.) addressed students at Great Lakes here. Mr. Rajesh Gupta is responsible for development of business operations strategy for global sourcing assignments covering strategy and assessments, developing sourcing business models and conducting operational assessments, building service provider capabilities, and managing relationships. He is currently managing a team of 350+ professionals in India centre. For about 2 hours he spoke elaborately about the topic, illustrating it with quite a lot of examples from his own experience as a consultant and as a leader of a top notch company with consulting as the mainstream business.

He defined consulting as “sale of advice” – unbiased recommendation and solution to problems faced by various client firms with an “outsider looking in” approach. He said that, the three fundamental steps in a consulting project are: to diagnose the problem, device solution and implement it. He stressed upon the importance of knowledge management in a consulting business ie… knowledge acquisition, consolidation and exploitation. It is important to learn by experience dealing with customers and apply this knowledge appropriately for a new problem and a new customer. He observed that it is difficult to always find all the right people a customer wants in terms of specialization and credentials, in which case it is necessary to collaborate with competitors and exploit the synergy of resources. He also touched upon the fundamental differences in the way core consulting firms like Bearing Point and other multi-business companies with consulting as one of their verticals operate in Indian scenario.

Talking about the growth opportunities in India, he noted that global clients increasingly want to exploit the off-shore advantage which India provides. The overall domestic demand is also on the rise due to booming sectors like financial services, knowledge management, entertainment & media, aviation, hospitality and retail sector. He was optimistic about the upswing in global demand for both analytical consulting based on data crunching and management consulting by working closely with clients.

Towards the end of the lecture, he spoke about the values, ethics and passion that one needs to inculcate and the need to align what one does, sees & says, for succeeding in a business. He cautioned that while starting a business, one has to be conscious of the following: wrong reasons for choosing a business, importance of being passionate, choosing the right team, right business plan and how one is different from others while doing that business.

The session was an eye opener for the large group of students at Great Lakes who have ambitions in consulting career. The lecture gave a holistic view of the challenges and opportunities in consulting business and the thumb rules to follow when one gets into it. The audience enjoyed the experience and it showed in the enthusiasm with which they interacted with the guest of the day. Mr Gupta on his part expressed happiness on the high level of participation and enthusiasm displayed by Great Lakers and pledged his continued association with the institute.

Greek, Latin and a Million Dreams!

There are times, when you put a lot of enthusiasm into a project or a case study, but things dont always have to work out in your favour. I seem to be having quite a lot of problems deciphering questions on tests. You feel deflated when some of the questions seem greek and latin, and you realise that the whole night went by without any use, even though one has put so much effort for tests. A few more tests like this and it could be like driving a bike through a road of rusted nails always. 3 terms over and I have just stepped into term 4.


The Past week went off so quickly. After a Bangalored Weekend on September 1st,which was eventful for the following reasons- ESPN STAR CRICKET DREAM JOB, BANGALORE AUDITIONS, DAY 2

7 am: I get up at Prasanna's house.

7 20 am: All set to leave Malleshwaram, and I have no cash, and Prasanna fills my purse with 2 hundered rupee notes.

7 21 am: I get an Auto and ask it to go directly to St John's Auditorium, which takes a lovely fresh morning ride and at the stroke of 8 I am at the place with a suitcase and a laptop bag

8 01 am: Tempted to taste the Bangalore Sambhar, as I was feeling hungry.

8 20 am. The ESPN team asks me to wait outside the gate and the folks who have come with all dreams and ambitions (me too!) feel neglected


Mera Number Kab Ayega?


Waiting till Eternity... for the Gates to open

9 20 am: We are still waiting near the Gate while the walk in starts, and to pass time, I see the ESPN anchors interviewing some candidates from yesterday's selected list. Giving an Interview is a Mallu B school Professor, and a Die Hard cricket grandad from Tiruchi


Thats the Mallu B School Prof being Interviewed



Nothing More looked surreal than Shaan's song

Ankhon mein Sapne Liye

Ghar Se Ham Chaal to Diye

Jaane Ye Raahen Ab Le Jayegi Kahan

Mitti ki Khushbu Aye

Palkon mein Asoon Laye

Palkon pein Rah Jayega Yadon ki Jahaan

Manzil Nayi hain, Anjaana Hain Karvan

Tanha Dil, Tanha Safar,

Dhoonde Tujhe, Phir Kyun Nazar


Tanha Dil, Tanha Safar

9 30 am: I get entertained when a presenter decides to do "bytes" with me. I might come on ESPN when they telecast the Dream Job, Bangalore Auditions

10 am: Finally, I get to go inside St. Johns College...but have just moved 5 mts from the gate, and thats when Gaurav, the former Channel [V] Vj spots me with my luggage and asks me a few questions on the journey so far. 2 Interviews in 30 minutes, not bad.... celebritydom calling heh!!

10 30 am: Allowed to park my rather tired legs inside the auditorium, but since they have focus lights all over the place, the room is like a cinder. They keep playing cricket and footbal clips in repeated mode for folks to practise, before their turn comes.


11 am: The first 2 contestants are through, while the next 10 are not. Getting insider info from candidates that judges are tough and award a green card only if a majority like the tone and confidence of the commentary. The judging panel is Mandira Bedi, Steve of ESPN Sportscenter International and Sheryl, a producer of ESPN Sportscenter.


12 pm: Hunger Strikes

1 pm: Nature's call, stomach stops rumbling

2 pm: Frustrated, create a scene with the officials about delayed time. They seem to get things done faster, but nothing really improves.

3 pm: All I want is a glimpse of Mandira Bedi, thats enough for me to say "take-aways from the Babe-a-lore trip"

3 46 pm: Kartik Kannan, where are You.... My Name is on every one's lips, as my turn comes next, and I snake through quietly to backstage as the producers of the show seem tense and nervous and pass on instructions to me, to stand at a point, and hold the mike at an angle. This instruction is repeated 10 times and at 3 55 pm, Folks.... Kartik Kannan is greeted with a genial smile from Mandira Bedi...and once Mandira smiles at you, with her V Cut dress, I start to melt..

A few questions on Blogging( Thankfully, I do this in every interview to confuse the interviewer and make them ask questions on that, the old ruse still works!!) and podcasting and the commentary bit of 30 seconds gets completed in 20 seconds as they seem to be pretty much ok with my voice and modulation. I get the coveted " GREEN CARD"


3 59 pm: VJ Gaurav meets me outside the hall for what would be my third interview


4 15 pm: The camera crew and anchors want to do a profile shoot with me, and I am encouraged to go on boasting till one of the studio lights goes Kaput. 4 interviews, no food, and NOT A bloated ego....thats a Cricket Fan for you....


5 15 pm, After scores of re takes, I give up and excuse myself for what would be my first morsel of food in quite a few hours...a samosa outside Koramangala BDA.


6: 00 pm: I take another auto heading to Bangalore Majestic, where I meet up with my friend Prasanna, and we rewind to our engineering college days, and as usual we have our dinner at "Hare Rama Hare Krishna", our favourite meeting place right next to the Railway Station Booking Office



Conversations around Dinner end up like this when the bill takes a little long to come.



I boarded a bus to Chennai and arrived on Sunday, the 2nd and quickly went home for a bath and was ready to go to ICFAI Business school, where I was invited as the guest faculty for taking a 90 minute session on E-Commerce and E business in the afternoon. The session went off very well, with no body sleeping in my session. That was a benchmark I generally observe. If folks sleep during a lecture, it might mean that the person delivering the lecture is not really making an eddort to connect with the audience. The only occaisson I remember people dozing and waiting to get out was a Lecture I delivered in early 2006, at the Rotary Club in Boat Club Road, on Corporate Blogging, where a bunch of 50 plus men, were all set for the booze booty that was awaiting them.


Soon after the lecture and a few accolades, I went home and slept like a log.The Week started with the usual hectic lecture and in this melee of ESPN Dream Job, I missed a Chinese test at college and I have to get another date to take the test.

2 Tests scheduled last week,MANAC 2 and FIN MAN2 and both have been moderately bad, and today's Marketing reasearch paper took the cake as it was a statistics paper in disguise that was waiting to a heap a rude massacre on most of the students. You feel like a worn out and overused socks at the end of such question papers, but today was different, as one glance at the paper revealed, It was instant death.


The Paper said it was 70 minutes long ....and here I was feeling for the first time that we had been allocated overtime for a question paper, and come to think of 70 minutes( Sattar in Hindi), I was reminded of Shah Rukh Khan's speech in Chak De India, ..... and rephrased it in my own words as I was glumly staring at the question paper.


Sattar Minut Hain Tere Paas


Shayad


Tumhari Zindagi ke sabse "Khaas" Sattar Minut


Aaj tum Acha mark karo ya Bura,


Yeh Sattar Minut tumhe zindagi Bhar Yaad Rahenge ( Kyun Nahi....? )


Kaise Mark score karna, Aaj tumhe koi nahi baatayega( Oye ! Kisne Padha Hain?)


Jao


Yeh Sattar Minut Jee Bharkar Mark Karo...aur Khoob Maro


I couldnt help laughing.... but just to get facts right, I used only 20 minutes, before I gave up my paper, as it was tough using probability to answer questions of the True or False Type...

There ends a week, a long one, that started with a milion dreams of Celebritydom, and soon nadir followed with the three tests. 5 weeks to go before I become a 50% MBA.

Venu Srinivasan at Great Lakes

A power talk was organized by Great Lakes on LEADERSHIP and the speaker was Mr.Venu Srinivasan Chairman & MD of TVS Motor company Ltd. and MD of Sundaram Clayton Ltd. He is also a director on the boards of Cummins India Ltd., Lucas-TVS and Sundaram Fasteners. Coming from one of the most well known business families of India, namely from the TVS family, he has worked hard for more than a decade towards successfully reviving the business of TVS Motor company from the hard times it faced during early 1990s. He has been instrumental in making the company stronger and finally by 2001, strong enough to split with Suzuki on favourable terms and start manufacturing on its own. Under his stellar leadership, the company won the coveted Deming International award for quality management in 2002 for its successful Total Quality Management (TQM) practises.

Mr.Srinivasan talked about the characteristics of a successful leader, namely integrity and vision and related these to quality of leadership and quality of processes. He said every institution has a finite life and quality helps in making this life respectable and determines its relative longevity. Quality supported by standardization of processes results in costs becoming less finally. Total Quality Management is an approach towards this, focussing on breakthrough in selected areas identified strategically and continuous improvement in other critical areas. A system of excellence is built by appropriate training, discipline and ordering of things - the manthra of Japanese quality covering the breadth and depth of processes. Such a process doesn’t give birth to extra-ordinary people but brings out extra-ordinary results from ordinary people. A typical TQM model involves identification of critical problems, finding solution, standardization and passing it on for control and further improvement.

Such a model is applicable to all cultures and countries. Talking about entrepreneurs, he said the greatest challenge for an entrepreneur is to make his creation bigger than himself and TQM would be an effective tool to achieve this. Finally he talked about the respect that every employee in an organization deserves and the importance of moulding them as leaders. Leadership builds culture in an organization and culture builds next generation leaders. This ensures that there are quality leaders in pipeline, which is the concept of sustainable leadership.

The speech was profound in thoughts about quality leadership and inspiring for the students. After the formal questionnaire session, Mr.Venu Srinivasan stayed on for a while for an informal chat with the students and it proved to be an enriching interaction for them. This session was again indicative of the respect Great Lakes commands in the industry. Needless to say students couldn’t have asked for more!

This write up, I owe a lot of Thanks to Ashu for neatly composing for the College Blog

My Sports Shows this week

The part 2 of the ESPN dream job audition would come latest by tommorow morning and this weekend would also have a review of CHAK DE, which I managed to finally see.

Till then, get some dosage of sports events around the world, through my sports show

Part 1 and Part 2

The other shows so far

Episode 10

Episode 09

Episode 08


and for the rest check my Cricket Blog

Conversations during the 6th one day International

I had come home to watch the one day match, while my friend Bhaskar Sahay, decided to stay back at his place, as it was raining heavily and taking the hike back to college library was put on hold till the rain stopped. He was on Cricinfo, and the update was a ball or 2 late, and I was on Google Talk and this conversation happened...........as the match went on.Relive the match in the last 10 overs, through the agonies and joys of text messaging on chat.

Bhaskar Sahay: Chak de India !!!
kartik: Hey Bhaski
Can u send me Murthy's slides
Bhaskar: ok
r u on gtalk ?
dont c a send file option in this window
kartik: yes
Bhaskar: let me relogin
kartik: ok
gambhir gone
234/5
84 off 57
Bhaskar: still cant
u relogin
kartik: ok
Sent at 9:53 PM on Wednesday
Bhaskar: You cannot send files because Kartik Kannan is using chat in Gmail or is using another chat program.
kartik: why dont u mail me then:-)
Bhaskar: oki
wats ur mail id
kartik: kartik.kannan@gmail.com
Bhaskar: sent
kartik: thanks yaar
how many ppts totally?
Bhaskar: 5
kartik: ok
Sent at 9:58 PM on Wednesday
kartik: 4
Bhaskar: this is gonna go down the wire
kartik: is it
these guys are struggling
u need to watch them play
64 of 42
Bhaskar: their bowling looked pretty weak to me man
till the time sachin was there
kartik: all runs coming by byes and wides
Bhaskar: then i came home
kartik: dhoni and uthappa are strugglng
Bhaskar: hehe
:((
Sent at 10:04 PM on Wednesday
Bhaskar: 65 off 44 is gettable
kartik: not with these duds
Bhaskar: that bloddy yuvi over costed us this match
kartik: serious man
5 sixes is 222222222222222 mcuh
Bhaskar: consecutive
kartik: colingwood in 2 bowl
64 of 42
uthappa starts
Bhaskar: y arent u watch the match in lib ?
kartik: 4
at home man
grandma is alone
Bhaskar: oh wow
kartik: so cant leave her alone
Bhaskar: ok
kartik: 60 43
60 41
59 40
56 37
56 of 6
Bhaskar: man
m missing tv
:((
kartik: u sure are :-)
pu ur earphones on. I can give live commentary
Bhaskar: haha
kartik: shall i call
Bhaskar: i hv got an infection in ears
cant use earfones
its paing man
no thanks mate
kartik: ok
dot ball
Bhaskar: m avoiding all calls
kartik: single
55 34
Bhaskar: its raing
else i wud had gone to coll
kartik: strugglng
anderson rocks
54 33
dhoni sucks
Bhaskar: shit man
kartik: yorker single again
great bowling
all 140 plus
Bhaskar: nnnnnnnnoooooooooooooooooo
kartik: 53 32
Bhaskar: we need 1 big over now
kartik: uthappa 2 thrdman
1 run
52 31
Bhaskar: m checkn on cricinfo
its fast
kartik: 4
misfield by pietrson
uthappa
is it as fast as me :-)
Bhaskar: i think i need to goto coll
no yaar
chal c u after match
kartik: ok
Bhaskar: goin 2 coll
Sent at 10:13 PM on Wednesday
Bhaskar: itsraing 2 heavily man
:((
kartik: dont worry
u arent missing anything
fuckers bastards
struggling
11 an over
Bhaskar: wtf man
kartik: 44 of 24
Bhaskar: looks tuf now
this is THE over for india
kartik: anderson in now
4
shiit
saved
2 only
Bhaskar: wwwaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh
oh no
kartik: great fielding by mascarenhas
42 23
39 23
Bhaskar: yuvi ki maa ki yaar
kartik: 4
Bhaskar: saale ne hara diya
kartik: uthapa
over slips
full toss
35 22
amazing noise
Bhaskar: ya man
kartik: lbw
appeal
not given
34 21
Bhaskar: run ?
kartik: anderson 147
leg bye
Bhaskar: man
kartik: dhoni single
amazing overthrow
1 more
32 20
Bhaskar: wow
its all hapng
this is gettable man
1 gud over
kartik: partnership 51 38
Bhaskar: 15 runs
kartik: 6
6 o r 4 wait a sec
full toss mishit
Bhaskar: ssssseeeeeeeexxxxxxxxxxxyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
kartik: 4
not 6
Bhaskar: oh
kartik: 2 mts away from the boundary
28 19
Bhaskar: ah
kartik: fulltoss long off sngle
27 0f 18
Bhaskar: hmmmmm
kartik: so ction begins
27 off 18
bal being changed
Bhaskar: can v pull it
kartik: broad to bowl this over
8 1 32 1 are his figures
Bhaskar: hit himm man
kartik: bit of a delay
ball change
Bhaskar: wat drama
kartik: broad 2 dhoni
in he comes
full toss
only one to long on
26 off 17
Bhaskar: oh shit
y cant they hit full toss man
crap
kartik: uthapa now
batting on 23 21
fuck
dot ball
Bhaskar: ssh
kartik: tried to improvise, missed contact
26 16
Bhaskar: shit
cum on guys
kartik: one
long off
Bhaskar: lets do it
wtf
kartik: 25 15
Bhaskar: v need 2 4s now
kartik: all deliveris full and straight
india not being able to put away
Bhaskar: cross bat shot is needed
kartik: full toss again
straight to bell
at long on
Bhaskar: shucks
kartik: 1 run :-)
Bhaskar: lost
kartik: 24 14
Bhaskar: pathetic
kartik: uthappa
full toss again
to bell again
1 more run
Bhaskar: oh man
kartik: what the fuck
Bhaskar: seriosly
kartik: 23 13
dhoni bowled
Bhaskar: shit yaar
wowo
kartik: broad says fuck offf
Bhaskar: hehe
kartik: india fuck de
Bhaskar: yo
kartik: dhoni 35 37
Bhaskar: wtf man
kartik: 23 12
Bhaskar: so slow
in these situations
kartik: good he got out
he was strugglin
Bhaskar: whzoz next
kartik: AA
Bhaskar: he is such a sucker
kartik: agarkar at non strikers end
Bhaskar: than god
kartik: 4
Bhaskar: wow
kartik: uthappa
Bhaskar: whoz bolwn
kartik: 3rd man
anderson
19 11
Bhaskar: club him man
gone down the wire
as i said
:)
kartik: 1 to sqr leg
18 10
agarkar facing
slapped away for 1 to covers
17 of 9
300 up
Bhaskar: v need a 6 now
can RU do it
kartik: 4
Bhaskar: sahiiiiiii
kartik: fuck uthappa is lucky
Bhaskar: once more
watevr
kartik: all his 4's have come because matt prior is dumb
Bhaskar: v need runs
kartik: 13 8
Bhaskar: wow
closer
kartik: monty misfields
2 runs
11 7
Bhaskar: gr8
1 4 man
or a 6
kartik: down the pitch
agarkar run out ?
1 run taken
Bhaskar: hehe
kartik: 3rd umpire decesion waiting
Bhaskar: k
kartik: out
agarkar out
10 of the final over
Bhaskar: doesnt matr
RU on strie?
kartik: yes
Bhaskar: gr8
kartik: 10 of the final over
Bhaskar: whoz bowln
kartik: i guess broad
ad showing
Bhaskar: k
kartik: 2
Bhaskar: 8
kartik: 8 off 5
Bhaskar: come on RU
u can b a hero tonite
kartik: fielded
out
zaheer run out
Bhaskar: fcuk
kartik: 309/8
Bhaskar: oh man
kartik: ru on strike
Bhaskar: shit
kartik: 8 of 4
romesh powar comes
he's at the non strikers end
Bhaskar: mota saala
kartik: 4
Bhaskar: wah
kartik: uthappa chip to fine leg
smashing man
Bhaskar: yyyyyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
kartik: fultoss
4 off 3
Bhaskar: sexy
wat a match
how cud i miss it
:(((
1 4 man
kartik: broad is runing in
Bhaskar: k
kartik: fine leg gone back
straihjut
4
india win
Bhaskar: yyyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeeeeee
kartik: long off
misfield
indian team on the pitch
outsnading shot
3-3
lordsmatch on
u there dude
Bhaskar: wow
calln u
cant get u
pic
ppl r shouting here like crazy
kartik: espn playing CHAK DE INDIA
song
Bhaskar: yyyyyyyeeeeeeeeeeeee
india rocks man
kartik: uthappa's a hero
Bhaskar Sahay: Chak diya India !!!
Bhaskar: surely dude
wat a match
i missed it big time man
ssssshhhhiiiiiiiiiiitttttttttt
kartik: yes u did
check the highlights
Bhaskar: i hv to
Sent at 10:46 PM on Wednesday
Bhaskar: whoz MoM
kartik: presentations not yet started
I would hand over to uthappa
Bhaskar: i think sachin wl get it
Sent at 10:48 PM on Wednesday

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

The Bangalore Weekend with Mandira Bedi

This post will take some time coming, as the pictures, each of them are around 2 MB. I have decided to upload them in my Picassa album and then use the pictures of much lesser size, a little later in the day. Till then, I would leave my Blog visitors with a picture of Mandira Bedi

ESPN-STAR Cricket Dream Job-Auditions

Pappu Pass ho Gaya.....

Yipeee!! I got selected in the prelim stage of " Harsha Bhogle ki Khoj". Mandira Bedi was pretty vocal in supporting my candidature as a comentator based on my commentary. It was a great feeling to have got selected. More on the Bangalore weekend, later tonight, when I upload pictures. Till then..

Day 1 at STAR CRICKET,Harsha Bhogle ki Khoj

It is maddening out here,seeing the way ESPN treats people. There's a guy Vinal, who has come from a remote village in Gujarat, starting at 3 am, using a bus, train and a flight to reach Bangalore at 12 pm. There's a senior vice president, 95 IIMC Passout, of a company in Vizag who's spent an unresevered trai journey from Vizag to Tirupati and a flight from Titrupati to Bangalore. There are many more such stories of people who have dreams of becoming the next Harsha Bhogle. I have passed round 2, and round 3 would happen today.