Salsa, Statistics and Stifler

Week 4 at B School

This is the last week we would be having with only 3 subjects on us, as from next week we have 5 subjects. We stll haven’t managed to keep up pace with these three subjects as pre reading and case study’s still take a lot of time. We are still in the incipent stages of being a B schooler. Well if one does a lot of hardwork, should’nt there be some way to let off steam.

At 11 pm, when most of us at Lake Veeranam(A seminar hall at GL) are studying, some decide to break the monotony by playing Cricket 2007. An hour later, I see almost the whole hall playing Cricket 2007. The deadly virus has made its way into our study and the guy who propagated the virus is supposedly staring at his Karma(that’s me) and basking in the 16 degree air of the airconditioner proud of his effort to propagate his love for cricket. Cricket seemed to be a religion that night, with every one converting to it in a matter of an hour. Vivekanda’s theory of religion propagation was practically preached and practised and Vivekananda’s speeches no more lulled me. I started re reading the previous chapters with a new found zeal, before an alarm rang to remind me of the pending statistics case study.

I opened up my statistics book, and was just learning the ropes of how to play around with statistics on excel, when a few intelligent guys, bored of playing cricket had every one in the room to the count of 3…..every one hands up…. No Robber Policeman here, but the hands were immediately up, at the suggestion of American Pie 5 ,when it was announced what movie to watch at night.

We immediately had a movies club formed where one guy would use the projector in the room to air a movie. Each guy’s claim to fame was when he lent his laptop for the screening of the movie on his laptop. Generally the projector would be used for studying some general case study at night, when some thing needs to be explained to many people, but considering all of us were tired, that night Stifler seemed more important than Statistics. (Preferring Stifler over statistics would decrease our karma assets and thus liabilities in pending case study would increase on the balance sheet as on 3 am on that day.)

Statistsics seems to be the most interesting subject so far in term 1, beating Eastern Philosophies and Principles of Management. Our Statistics Professor Mr P.K.Vishwanathan, is an amazingly enthusiastic professor for whom teaching is like conducting a music sympony. His knowledge of the subject is excellent and so far, and his vibrant interest for math and statistics seems to attract even the last bencher who would have otherwise invested his time to doze off.

Apart from Statistics , last week’s attraction was obviously the salsa classes, which a group of folks had evinced interest to learn. More than Salsa, we ended up learning jive and Tappankuthu- A Chennaite would know this inside out.

Salsa classes happened on three days, more so eating into the weekend. We had roughly 2x males and x females, so when the dance was on, we would invariably have x guys who would be on “bench” waiting for their turns. Now the guys on bench would have guys of both types, the one’s who know how to shake their legs, the others were the one’s who were not so good at shaking their legs to the beat. The smart and shrewd ones kept a keen eye on the competition and tapped the guys who had a chick dancing. There were times when there would be advance booking for a girl to dance with upto three people waiting. The ones tired of competition would go around wandering just to see who gets free.

The girls had no choice, they had to keep on dancing. They rarely had a break as they were lesser in number. The only thing that the girls could do, to beat the sweat was to purposely dance in such a way that their body along with their partners moved to a place right next to a wall fan or air conditioner, which had to be competed along with the free loaders who specialised in admiring the beauty and the grace of some couples dancing.

The Salsa is all about dancing to the beats, and the initial “1, 2,3 ….” Steps were basically meant to teach the beginner to move their legs, more than acquire perfection in dancing. The one’s who really rocked were the one’s who were innovative in their steps and danced with gay abandon. The one’s like me, were more focussed on watching the leg movements and getting the steps right invariably got it all wrong and had to think twice before wanting to embarrass any girl with those dance steps.

Salsa was an advanced exercise in social networking beyond Orkut, and it did help most of break the ice between us. The guys who were tired of waiting for getting a girl decided to amuse themselves and dance with each other, and the comical thing was both the guys did the guys steps so the harmony was lost as every one thought thought the movements from the Male’s perspective, and when both of them realised what went wrong with their dance, they unconsciously switched to the female perspective and againt went wrong. Geez!!! Two hands are indeed needed for a clap!

There were a couple of tamil guys who were silent spectators, but when the Tappankuthu dance number’s turn came, these guys were into their elements. Learning Tappankuthu can also be fun, as the steps are easy to master and having them on Kollywood a hajaar times, that’s some instant respite for folks like me.

Learning dance, though largely unsuccessful can be a great mentally stimulating experience as it is charting through unconquered virgin territory that throws up a few challenges that initially can be embarrassing. It’s totally a mind and body game that can easily be a personality enhancer as the grace that a salsa gives to the dancer, apart from the applause is worth having.

So that was week 4, with a mix of Statistics, stifler and Salsa

Keep Tuned in for more updates….on my life at a B School.

All the Salsa Video can be found here

Mid Week Observations

An Integral part of B school life is getting one’s feet wet across all areas to decide which part of the horizontal ocean is one’s area of interest. At Great Lakes we have 2 options of learning through the Horizontals and Verticals. One is the regular Summer Internship where PPO’s happen. The other is an empirical project which we need to undertake for a year choosing a horizontal and vertical to specialise in.

One hard fact to swallow at a B school for a guy coming from a predominantly IT background is that, the best salaries at an Entry level business analyst come from the IT sector. The FMCG, Manufacturing and the Finance sector may initially not seem too enticing in terms of salary, but the long term benefits in terms of nature of work, growth and money are excellent. I am still considering options to understand each sector well before making a leap based on interest and of course ROI.

Given the spurt in Internet companies, I hardly see any internet company coming to recruit at any of the B School campuses in India(correct me if I am wrong). The Internet industry is alive and kicking in terms of the quality of work at the senior level and in compensation. I have worked in this industry for the last 15 months and from my knowledge this industry especially the social media companies are great places to work. Lets see if trends reverse this year at B schools.

So far we have had only 3 subjects and it seems quite hectic with pre reading and attending the classes. Yesterday’s Statistics test was an eye opener for me in terms of preparing better for statistics. Some times, all that pre reading doesn’t help if you cant act fast in a test. Our test was a short 10 minute 10 questions with each question displayed on the projector for only 45 seconds with no going back to the questions. It’s under stress that one’s thinking abilities come under the scanner and mine was no different. I guess I would have hit about 4-5 right, but since it was a group assignment, thanks to my team mates, we could hit 7 out of 10. Lets see, Negative components could erode into the meagre score. But since relative grading rules at B schools, one never knows which end of the pie one would end up. I could see a clutch of guys who were enthusiastic about their performance while some modest souls were ruminating that they would only get 8 or 9 right. Ok that was enough to drive me out to take a break.

Yesterday all the committees were announced and though I had given my names for a few committees, I didn’t find my name in any of those as my first preference was for placecom, which has a different selection procedure. I would still be happy getting into just placecom, as I can still contribute to other committees. There is also a selection process for the Internet branding in terms of the Official Great Lakes Blog, which has about 5 contenders battling out. So I start with a 20% probability of getting selected. We have the placecom selection today, by our faculty and a few seniors.

Expect a small write up on my next post- On Week 4- Stifler, Statistics and Salsa by Friday.

Confrontational Advertising!

Confrontational Advertising seems to be the order of the day, in the tug of war between Rival Brands
Jet Airways had advertised in a hoarding in Mumbai that “We’ve Changed”. Now Kingfisher puts a banner above that and says, “We’ve Made them Change”.Now that takes some guts and execution to have it splashed on an outdoor medium. Equs Red Cell was the advertising agency that created the ad for Kingfisher.

The Apparel sector has had its fair share of dog-eat-dog competition. Big Baazar launched advertising campaigns which went like this
“ Keep West-aside, Make a smart Choice”
“Shoppers! Stop and Change your Life Style”

In the online space there is the all famous spat between Times Jobs and Naukri.com, which surprisingly has resulted in 20% increase in resume registrations for Naukri, on whom the Timesjobs Advertisement was targeted. Call it the case of the hunter being hunted partially!

PMS for Men !!!!

Now did that send your head into a Tail spin?

It sure did send mine. I was browsing through Redif when an annoying ad opened up and showed up. PMS means - Poor Mobility Syndrome and not Pre/Post Menstrual Stress in this case and I thought the advertisement and the target page did capture my attention for a moment. Try Seeing the concept of the ad here

Good Old Summer Holidays!

These are times, when you thoroughly start missing school days. School days in April and May were synonymous with eat-sleep-play indoors-eat-sleep-play outdoors-tv-sleep. This schedule was practised day in and day out till we were exhausted. When parents used to come back tired, we laughed at them for not being able to enjoy life and being too worried about their workplace and managing naughty kids. I as a kid often wondered why are my parents not interested in coming home quickly to watch the Sharjah cricket matches that would end by 7 pm( 93-97).Why would they not be as enthusiastic in playing with us kids? so many questions then, but now, the answers seem to fall in place as tables have turned. I know how tiring and sapping work can be, especially if you have a troublesome boss(who’s boss is a God anyway?).On top of that is the hour long commuting jostling for space to ply on the roads and when you reach home, there are a 100 things that need your attention like a leaking ceiling, bad tubelight and a plethora of house hold troubles.

10-15 years back, I never cringed playing cricket in the sun. My Mantra then was to put a cap on and field near a friend’s home, from where I could have regular doses of water during my playing stints and these days, I moan, groan and throw up hands if I need to do an errand in the hot Chennai sun.

I never was so worried about sweating then. Today when I go for my morning walks, I have all my attention on my walkman, not getting any sweat seepage from my body or worse....head for the AC straight after a journey in the sun. Those days, in my Adayar apartment(Chennai), taking a breather meant sitting on the corridor, talking endlessly with friends, playing carrom and trump cards and never complaining about “how hot it was”.

Even I have to play cricket on my computer, I look at my worried face refelecting on my laptop, which seems to say"Do you really want to play, when you have a statistics case study, A 180 pages of pre reading and an emperical project to get started?" In short, I have started to question indulgence and measure indulgence in terms of opportunity cost.

I want to break free, play cricket everyday, plan strategies to beat the opponent, watch cricket matches in the morning and night, while doting on cricketing statistics provided by The Sportstar. At evenings, I would love to sit and feel the breeze from the besant nagar beach, even as neighbours sit down and advise me on the benefits of attending some math classes during the holidays,while my mind wanders on going on a nice summer vacation. That’s exactly what I did every year from 1990 to 1997 after which life was never the same, as I shifted places, friends shifted places and life became lifeless.

All these thoughts flood my mind as I see my kid cousin sisters who’ve gone to my grandma’s place to spend some time.

I long for going there, but to be frank, I have a lot of other things to do at B-school that need my immediate attention, and if I didn’t end up doing that, the guilt within of indulging would eat me. Its confusing to decide what to choose, but right now I hope I am making the right choice, as I cant complain too much. The B school is basically a conduit where your inputs decide your output, so I am making sure that I use the resources well enough for a year. But….even as I see family life and socialising slipping away, I guess I need to figure out a way to revive that too, as I hardly meet any old acquaintance or cousins.

I some how get the feeling that ambitions in life are more so like the proverbial wave that tries to outdo each wave that hits the shores. After a wave disperses on the shore, it comes back with renewed attempts at bettering the distance to which it can wet the sands slowly but steadily. Every attempt of ours makes us speculate deeply and we try harder at every attempt to grow better. As a wave, apart from hitting the shores, the other waves hitting the other end of the shores also needs to be looked so as to see if any improvement can happen. In the process of hitting the shore, the waves must make some time out to see the wonderful life that exists below it in the depths of the sea. That’s exactly synonymous to our life, where we sometimes fail to see beneath whats visible. In fact sitting and typing this is a good break from longer reading hours. Its not that I am complaining about life in a B school, but just the notion that I get into a nice rhythm that has time for everything, so that one doesn’t get to miss out on this lovely thing called life.

Even as I type this, I am thinking of a 5 pm quick dash to my grandma’s place sparing 3 hours in the evening, which would have to be compensated in other ways.

Images from Great Lakes- Week -3

Pondicherry- Giving Time a Break :-). A few of us decided to check out Pondicherry on the weekend. Suprisingly this was my first holiday at Pondicherry.

At one of the roads displaying a french touch

At one of the churches en route to the Puducherry Railway Station




A Backwater cruise to Paradise Beach Island



At one of the beach shacks at Paradise beach




Glorious sunset view from Paradise beach island

The shack we stayed close to Auro Beach(Baywatch Cottages@ 350 per shack)

View of our shacks during the stay at Baywatch cottages

The initial 6 who made it, the rest of us joined at night

Morning 50 buck bus journey to Pondy

One of the places we stayed during a program called outbound

which was a set of management games that we played as part

of our curriculum at Great Lakes.

This hotel is located at Mutukkadu and is called Coconut Green resorts and is a decent resort for mass programmes, but sucks when it comes to a private lunch.

A discussion of strategies on why teams succeded and failed during our management games

at the beach resort.

This was the best strategy game, I've seen in ages. A team of 16 on each sides, is required to cross over to the next bank,without faling into an imaginary pool. It required immense physical and mental energies and a whole lot of chaos while playing this game.

Thats a seat near a wall at our class.This room was used for the initial lectures and meet ups. I usually hid behind the wall. It has a power plug point, useful for charging the laptop and the mobile and also an excellent place to camouflage my dozing abilities, in case I do doze off.But now classes have changed and I need to be doubly alert.

Our subject called "Eastern Philosophies" has made me delve quite deeply into Indian culture and am seeing nirvana when I sleep. Spirituality, Hinduism, liberalism and all the damn words that end with an "ism" have started giving me sleepless nights. I tried understanding Indian Philosophy at 2 am this morning and after a hard fought battle with the book, sleep finally won.This subject already seems my nemesis in term 1. I also have to learn Chinese a little later, so sleeping can wait for a whole 6 weeks.

Indian Philosphy some times makes me think, whether I should run away and hide myself in a tree house. But MBA's are made for handling toughness, and I cant run away.BTW that tree house was clicked at Pondy.

A room with a view. This was one of the hotels we stayed during another outbound program. One good thing was the AC's were working just fine for us to sleep like logs. On days at the insti, I jocularly remember folks in my batch, sleeping next to the AC's in the various seminar halls, after a good night's case study. Being in Chennai, the Air Conditioner is easily one of the biggest tools we need to succesfully do an MBA, as the heat is just too sapping.

There are times I complain and groan when things dont get inside my head, but a few hours of power siesta restores sanity and balance :-)

My New companion - A welcome graduation from a second hand 2 stroke Bike to a 4 stroke Passion Plus. I just feel like flying while riding on the roads

A sepia shot from the side showcasing my bike along side the rural Madipakkam.

Week 2 at Great Lakes

There are times at a B school when you come with a 100 expectations that is built on a lot of premised fed into the mind due to innumerous interactions with alumni. I came with 0 expectations as, to be frank, I realy dont know where I want to go. I see that I have a certain inclination towards marketing, but given that the MBA program exposes you to a plethora of choices, made me to rest in peace and not worry about specialisations at this stage.

Monday

We were awaiting results of our tests and the wait is killing. In between we hear that we are to head off to a resort called Green Meadows in the evening for an interaction with our senior batch. The test results partially arrive and the news is enough to create a mini stampede as the din and the chaos that prevails, makes me say "to hell with my marks" and I decide to head to drink water, but damn there is competition even there. If that is not enough, the toilets and the lunch room is crowded too and I somewhow manage to wade in and wait till eternity. I have learnt my first lesson at the B school. Competition and clamour can be unnerving, but that's life.

The party at ECR began at 6, and the seniors manage to put on a decent show, that kept us entertained. I did manage to meet up with alumni of previous batches and got a clear picture of placements here. Uncle Bala, as we call him, is a big hit amongst the students for his witty nature and inspiration when he talks. He is the chairman of the B School and is a ful time professor of accounting at Kellogs, and is a member of the board of many comittees in India including serving as a member of the planning commission headed by Montek Singh Aluwalia.

I see an amazing sense of camaradrie and energy among the class of 07. They would be gone in a couple of days and we would be the flagbearers of Great Lakes. After a couple of hours, I had to give in to my stomach cringing, and ended up with a quick dinner, which was not so palatable.I had to drop a Bihari classmate of mine at a certain point, helping him with directions to reach chetput from Palavakkam. I headed back tired and terribly exhausted.

Tuesday-

The day started at 7 30 am, as I rushed for an 8 am class. I dont even remember what class we had.Must have been some orientation class explaining us how some functions work. I have found this awesome place in class, whenever I end up in one of those oreientation classes.This is right behind a pillar and if you doze off nor does the prof get to see you, neither do you embarass the speaker. The results arrive , I pass in Maths and Micro Economics, but end up flunking in Financial Accounting. I happen to see the results after every one has seen their results as I am fed up of competition. Another incident that competition forces me to do is stop eating Chappati's for lunch as the crowd for chappatis also forms a big line.

Its been some time since I interacted with folks outside the B School, so when I get a couple of hours free, I drive down to the Elliots beach and meet up my friend from Engineering days, Kishore. We end up speaking a lot of scary things on death and my mood is even more screwed.

I observe a bunch of kids who play football and hit an elderly gentleman,and the elderly gentleman gets a little serious with the kids and decides not to give the ball. I am so much reminded of my childhood where I used to fight with a lot of neighbour whenever I used to hit the cricket ball into their garden,balcony and house. I was very argumentative as I negotiated with them as my life depended on that "Cosco Cricket" Tennis ball.

After a couple of hours in the evening on the beach, I headed for the next party at Le Meridian,when I noticed a female who was traveling at zero acceleration and as I tried getting closer to give a piece of my mind, my eye fell on her hands, and found too much of hair on the hands. After driving 5 minutes paralelly with her, I realised it was a guy with long hair.

Once I reached Le Meridian, I got to interact with a few seniors and I spotted 2 known seniors from school, but sometimes known contacts still dont help when you want to find out about someother chick in their batch, as I found out. We welcomed the seniors into the discotheque and for me it was my first time at a disq. Initially I was happy sitting on the benches and observing people dance, but when some known songs came along, inhibitions were thrown and I joined the folks at the dance floor. I guess dancing is all about the body reacting to the mind and how music can be tranlsated physically.Given that I cant move my legs for nuts, I decided to just do three or 4 steps irrespective of the music, thanks to Pradeep's timely advice.Guess what... I had a few people even copying me. I had arrived..... I was no Hrithik Roshan, but left feeing like one :-)

In between we did have a few formal dance presentations which were choreographed well by the ladies in our batch, but a couple of guys also decided to showcase themselves.Publicity stunts during such important meets does raise "guy" recall factor.It was funny to watch events unfold, nothing against the guys, but I just felt there were better roadways to gaining attention.

More coming soon.

A Video from the Great Lakes Crusaders, Class of 07

When our seniors showed us their 1 year at Great Lakes, I was totally bowled over by the way they had shown it. One was this video presentation in a fresher party after their convocation.

Here Goes, Enjoy the Video

The Interview-In Three Parts

Interview with Mr S.Ramakrishnan,Indian Cricket Team Computer Analyst, PART-1 on Vimeo

If you arent able to see the video, click here to watch it


Interview with Mr S.Ramakrishnan,Indian Cricket Team Computer Analyst, PART-1 on Vimeo


Interview Part 2





If you arent able to see the video, click here to watch it


Interview with Mr S.Ramakrishnan,Indian Cricket Team Computer Analyst, PART-2 on Vimeo


Interview Part 3





If you arent able to see the video, click here to watch it


If you felt the questions needed to be better or any aspect of the interview could be made better please do leave a comment on this post.

Interview with Mr S.Ramakrishnan,Indian Cricket Team Computer Analyst

After 7 months and a few changed schedules, I finally have got an appointment to meet up with Mr Ramakrishnan.S. This is one interaction, I am waiting with unabated breath to understand how video analysis has I would be questioning him in an hours time at his office. The Interview would be on how Technology meets cricket and how he has made a career in that. The interview would be made on my Laptop, through the webcam and also via my Sony Erricson Mobile.

The interview should be put up sometime late tonight. Mr Ramakrishnan heads a company called SportsMechanics, which functions from the Chepauk Cricket stadium in Chennai.

Life at a B School-Week 1

It is 3 days since I joined and long class hours, are already making me feel drained out. This is only the starting and it can only become more intense as time rolls out. The seniors had their convocation yesterday and it was great to see them pass out in flying colors and their enthusiasm was just infectious in pepping most of us up. The first 3 days have seen a guest lecture, more so a CEO talk, which we have every weekday till the pre course classes last. We had R.Srinivasan, MD of ITC come over and speak on how he built ITC’s various business and how it is important to be either number one or two. It was a fast paced lecture and we were able to get a hang of some of his theories at the end of the session. These 4 days also had 3 tests. Our first series of Pre course tests in Micro Economics, Business Maths and Accountancy. The results would be declared today and would be interesting to see how I fared in the tests as apart from math, I had to rely a lot on my “Inky Ponky” skills(It was a multiple choice question paper).The only problem is you pass only if others have done badly in a relative grading system and my guess is pretty much that others used the Inky ponky between 2 choices, while I used it for 4 choices. Probability should help them score higher, but lets see if luck would have it otherwise.

Its week 2 and this week, its quite an interesting schedule with 2 days of ice breaking activities scheduled at a resort in ECR. Looking forward to knowing all the 162 of my batch(including myself, as my face looks like a confused dodo right now).

I hear that holidays are a luxury at Great Lakes, and it’s all about making the best use of the opportunities, without twitching and complaining of boredom. A one year course is expected to drain every soul, but the important aspect is that, as long as you have already set the bar higher and you are anticipating the pressure and the challenge, life should be back to normal, else one would not be able to see the larger picture emerge and end up being undone by the mundane rigor of maddening competition.

We have a lot of student communities at Great Lakes and I have decided that I would be in 3 committees, namely the Events, Magazine and Placement Coordination Committee. I also plan to extensively visit other B school fests and competitions and its time to refresh and old hobby of quizzing, that became dormant after college.

Match Fixing- Still There?

I still dont believe that match fixing exists at the player level, but there cant be smoke without fire right? A couple of weeks back at Nagpur, I met a man, who wanted to come to Chennai on a small South India Tour. During conversation,I found out that the guy has been to all major cities in India by trains, given his knowledge of connecting trains.Later I find out that his cricketing knowledge is pretty decent, and he has been to most of the matches India play at home. He didnt look like the typical educated, well bred cricket crazy guy, but more so a guy, who did this as a chore and didnt mind all the travel. He said he was paid to travel to all these cricket matches and got VIP tickets. He didnt reveal much though, as our conversation ended when I decided to go away to buy a Newspaper.

When I later came to my berth and laid my body to rest, I observed this guy, sitting in the lower berth talking with some guy of how his world cup plans were laid to rest, since India lost out. It was later that I realised through their conversations that this guy is paid to watch every match in the Pavillion and takes care of the betting syndicate by coordinating with various persons from the stadium. When I heard this, I got down and looked at him with forlorn eyes to which he gave a devilish smile and said " Bachoo, aise kya dekh rahe ho, kuch batein kahi nahi jaati, bas aise hi ho jata hain". He said could not tell me more, but just gave me a light hint that Cricket is not as Virgin as i thought.

As an ardent Indian cricket fan, I can understand if someone said the team was lackadaisical when performing abroad, but when their integrity is questioned its a hard pill to swallow.

An Interview with Ramky-Indian Team Computer Analyst

It was in this melee during last year's Challenger Trophy at Chennai, that I got to meet Mr Ramakrishnan, the Indian cricket team's Computer Analyst, who's now been with the Indian team for the last 6 years, under the tenures of Dravid and Ganguly, Chappell and Wright. I will be interviewing him, through my mobile phone, on how Technology plays a major role in sports and how has technology analysis helped Team India.This interview is scheduled to happen on Saturday, the day I will be giving three tests in Micro Economics,Statistics and Accounting on day 2 of my B school Life, which starts tommorow.

If You have any specific questions to ask him, please let me know in the comments box, I will have it put through to him(unless its a controversial question).

Finally a Midnight Beach Trek

Last weekend was one that brought back memories of college days. I spent the weekend with Prasanna and Arun(who studied in SREC, eee). My memories with arun date back to college days when he was my college mate Ganesh's room mate. We just decided in the 11th hour to meet up on ECR. Prasanna and I spent some time, next to the Maayajal beach, and waited at Mayaajal till 7 30, for a few friends to arrive. Kishore had to make a urgent trip out of station, Arry gave one of the most confusing reasons for not coming, and LAN was busy with work at Satyam. Arun did not have a vehicle in hand, so I asked him to come to the ECR road, in his cognizant bus. He hitch hiked 2 bikes to reach us at 7 30 pm. We decided on a round of Go Karting and guess who won.....ME .... I bet Arun at the last curve to emerge the winner. Prasanna was 2 laps behind us when the 5 minute time interval got over. We were not particular about a movie at Mayaajal and decided that 1 bike cannot accomadate 3 people and we decided to leave the bike at Mayaajal and take a bus to Mahabalipuram. We got a bus to Kovalam, where we spent 90 minutes revising our crazy college life, waiting for a connecting bus to Mahabalipuram. We finally got a bus to Mahabalipuram at 10, and thats exactly when dear LAN call us that his work is over, but I persuade him to return home, as it would be difficult for us to now, head back to mayaajal and then proceed on 2 bikes. We reach Mahabalipuram at 10 40 pm, and found the place pretty desolate with just a couple of hotels open. We werent sure of our plan for the night, so we didnt book any room for the night.Each of us were game to just keep walking on the beach till eternity(sun rise :-0 ). After a rather expensive dinner at a shack restaurant, we proceeded along the bylanes of Mahabalipuram and reached the beach. Just as we were a few metres away from the beach, an ambassodor stopped in front of us and out emerged a 40 something foreigner. From what we could see, she seemed drunk and was limping. She requested me for help, as she wanted to go to some beach party that was happening a little further away.

She held on to me, partially swaying on my shoulders while her hands were around my arms. She was a British lady, on the umpteenth visit to India and seemed to have taken a liking for the Indian beaches. Those 10 minutes across the beach, under the moonlight, seemed like eternity. We dropped at her at the beach party, which was a wild beach campfire. There were 10 other ladies in various avatars of skimpiness and under heavy alcohol. Supporting them were 6 local guys, who supplied them all the liquor and took care of them.

We bid goodbye to them and set out to a secluded spot on the beach and settled next to a boat. Then from 12 am to 3 30 followed a huge discussion about various topics under the sun( errrr….the moon now). Arun managed to catch some sleep, while Prasanna and I were awake throughout. Mosquitos invaded our privacy and when I had enough of it, I decided to take a dip in the ocean against the dark background of the awe inspiring sea and the night sky.


Once Arun got up, we decided that we should take the earliest bus back to Chennai and at 4 am, we took the bus from Mahabalipuram to Koyambedu. Before we did that we were also subjected to some routine questioning by the police, as to what we were doing at this unearthly hour. A few seconds into questioning the guy realized we were tee totallers and had no amorous flings.

We had to walk a couple of kilometers to find buses plying on ECR and once we boarded the bus, every seat was occupied to its maximum capacity as men were lying flat on the seats, fast asleep. Prasanna and I got down at Mayajaal, while Arun went all the way to Adayar to catch a bus to Alwarpet.

Since it was pretty dark and to avoid paying a bribe to active traffic police personnel, we decided to spend our time, next to a tea shop, lying flat on the cemented floor till day break(6 am) and then decided to take the bike and driveback home. We took 2 breaks in that 30 kilmetre journey as lack of sleep, was showing, and I was starting to fall asleep. The 2 breaks helped me recharge my batteries and just a few metres from reaching home, I was thoroughly drenched in the showers that followed that morning.

It was one heck of a rough trip, and I expect to do more of these time permitting.

Right now, the next adventure rough trip would be a Chennai-Goa-Chennai 1000 bucks journey for a week. Mode of transport- unreserved rail journey. Lifts through bikes and lorries. Would know in a week, how taxing my B school life would be for the next one year, so that I can plan accordingly.

Shilpa Shetty vs Richard Gere

Shilpa shetty's PR man friday must be reaping rich bonuses from her. This is another of Shilpa Shetty's shenanigans that's come to the limelight, breaking the nation to a standstill. Coming back to the incident, Richard Gere's sudden kiss does seem to have got quite a few agitated people. The "Kiss" or the hallowed action of Richard Gere, does not need so much of attention, to warrant the whole episode as "indecent", "against indian culture", etc etc, when the same group of people flock lustily to the tunes of "beedi jalailey" and "Rakshi Sawant's Jhatka's", which is so much "Indianised culture".

Though the deep lunge kiss would have a been a first of sorts(in a public place) amongst the people attending the event, I still assume that its a sort of hypocracy thats so deeply enmeshed in our thoughts that is making us make adverse reactions. People call it "Western Culture" and brand all kinds of social stigma's to it. That explains why the internet and the porn industry on the web, have so many hits from India(and more so from Chennai).Damn...this is the land of the Kama Sutra and still we need to sneak and hide to even say the word in a hush hush tone. After discovering this sensual art form, India slept off, while the western countries implemented all the lessons there and they get to make it the "Western Culture", which we Indian's brand them, when we see any amorous art form.

Shilpa Shetty must have learned quite a lesson from cooking Chicken and being Richard Gere's dineer for the night.

So here goes Shilpa's Manuals for Ladies to attract attention

Kaun Banegi Crore Patni?
7 Habits of Highly succcesful Scam driven Women


1) In India never kiss in Public, if you are in a rural centre, and when you are in a blessed Hypocrite Land called Tamil Nadu and always excercise your kissing strengths in the region between Bandra's Bandstand and Palolem Beach as there is no worry about moral policing there. India's sinning district also has a another territory set called NCR and Briagde Road, which also has a lotof supporters fighting for independence from their state's rule as they want a free kissing state, and have threatened to be in a liplock till their demands are met.

3) Always fight over Chicken meat and if you dont get a piece brand the other person as racist.

4) Always pretend to fight when a man kisses, and then when he doesnt give one, label him a racist.

5) When a man kisses you all over and you are the scourge of public attention, just say that you have been unfairly victimesed and you realised that only in the last round of the kissing binge.

6) Pretend as if you are running away from the TV camera and fall near the camera, and then use weeping aid immideately before the focus falls on you. Now slightly take the pallu which has fallen and cover your chest and keep your hands there. Nothing more moves Indian's when a woman is in that post and that is the best pose to evoke sympathy. I also forgot to say, please give interviews to the channels in Bhojpuri and Flawless english, which could land you a lucrative Bhojpuri assignment, beamed all over the B and C class theatre(By the way Shilpa and Shakila dont see eye to eye), or land you a half hour celebrity spot in Kofee with Karan, Rendezvous with Simi Garewal.

7) Incase you must and do find your way to Tamilnadu, a similar action would allow you to be on Lakshmi's Sob fest called "Kadhai illa Nejam", plus a lot of spots on Local "high culture and morality" channels like SUN TV, JAYA TV and STAR VIJAY. Make the pallu fall a little too often and you could have T Rajendar and S.J.Suryah treat you to A class Pamela Anderson treatment.

Update on the Chennai MRTS from Velachery

This is the view from the edge of the station, which is opposite the velachery fly over.The other side of the flyover will see the same line continuing to St Thomas Mount. The construction work still seems partially completed. One doesnt get to see a finished product.A lot of waste material surrounds the station.I just hope they have a small connecting walk through from the edge of the station to the bridge, from where walking across is done easier.


This is the part of the Line that connects the Velachery MRTS station to the Tidel Park station and this line should be operational by the 14th of April, but on having a closer look, the curves in the track more so seem like straight lines that are broken.3 days to go. Lets see how quickly things are mended.



These are the insides of the Railway station and it seems to only miss the odd coat of paint and beautification. This should be done in time, before some cocky minister comes to inaugarate it.

This is where the platform ends and work will commence soon on extending this line. The station looks pretty imposing when seen from this angle.

The tracks dont really seem ready for the trains to ply.It looks very rough and needs a coat of polish to keep friction at bay

Funny Musings at the Delhi Metro Rail

A couple of weeks back, I was in New Delhi. I happened to take these pictures travelling on the
Metro Rail from Karol Bagh. It was amusing to see that some college going kid was busy standing in a corner,while there were lots of seats to sit. Only when I was about to get down, did I notice his handiwork.

The Metro rail stations so far, does not have too many advertisers, but the DMRC is not going to feel crestfallen about it.They have launched some eye catching campaigns to woo advertisers to use the real estate in the suburban stations.

Simple Advertising

I happened to come across this advertisement for Camlin Markers. I find the advertisement extremely creative at the same time,down to earth connecting with the mass of India's population.

That's India Greg!

Wanderlust?

I happened to stumble across Anita Bora's Photo set on Flick R "Infy by Night" and it immediately opened the floodgates, for some nostalgia of my first employer. Infy Bangalore, was a treat to the eye, and in my honest opinion, I bet no company has spent the way Infy has, especially for the way the Infy campus is structured. Given that my Mainframes Training happened in Bangalore, some of the best moments in life happened at night, when the otherwise 15000 strong workforce was reduced to a mere 5%. The Long walk from Block 12,Trainig Room to the dorms near the Amphitheatre, the lovely moments boating in the pond, the secluded benches amidst the greenery, walks around Hosur road(gate1),the slow cycle ride with a walkman on....these are some vignettes that I would forever cherish in my life.

I had plans of visiting the bangalore campus this weekend,but I was too busy finalizing the laptop, raising funds for the remaining portion of the fees, and getting started with Micro economics. I needed to be in Chennai for a few domestic things and so the bangalore weekend plan did not happen.

I really admire Anita Bora, as she is one person to whom I look up to for her travel blogs on all offbeat places.I am still smitten by Gokarna, the sleepy hill side resort town(where Malgudi meets Baywatch), that she featured on her blog.I've been to Gokarna twice now, and time permitting, I may make a quick visit next week.If I do get to Gokarna, this time its a midnight trek across the sands.Gokarna beach is also an ideal monsoon holiday destination too, unlike the fake monsoon holiday world, I live in. I would love to do what she is doing, in terms of exploring offbeat places and setting a trend. As of now, my biggest roadblock is organizing trips with college mates, who seem to be vacillating between coming and not coming.I guess with, online travel communities, its time for finding travel partners online and enjoying trips, rather than known friends.

Phew...

The last few days have been lethargic, and I managed to buy a Laptop, after my so called search ended at HP 2214TU Pavillion. Great Lakes, generally gives Compaq laptops, but I decided to cut costs by going for a model which seems good value for money.The downside is of course a RAM hungry Windows Vista, but lets see, how things work out(I have 1024 MB RAM). All through the week, its been a lot of visits to the bank to get the loans procesed, with all the paper work,which has left me quite tired and mentally fatigued. Last night was a long one with a few classmates coming home for a movie meet up,which went in to the wee hours of today morning(4 am). I still did not feel sleepy, and wanted to take a early morning walk after two back-2-back movies, but Arvind's 10 minute lecture on Credits and debits made me fall asleep, before all of us got up at 7 am.

I have a colleague's marriage function coming up in Chengannur, but am mulling over whether I should plan a holiday somewhere close by in Malluland. But given the fact that I have been unemployed and without salary for over a month now, I guess finances would not allow me the luxury of a costly holiday.I guess a holiday along Coastal Karnataka is a lot cheaper in 100-Rs-a Night lodges. I have not planned a holiday yet, but If i make feair headaway in Businness Mathematics and Micro economics, I can look at a quick 2 day holiday, before I get down to a B schoolers life.

My Course starts on 20th, and I need to finish 3 books for a test on 21st.(Micro Economics,Biz Math and Accounting).

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.

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 :-).