Well, the last of the 5 am assignment submissions. The year had more than its share of such back breaking assignments but now it's gone and there is this hollow feeling. The realisation that it's over! At last!



Good thing about this particular paper was the super group I got. This was the first time SH, SD, SM & me worked on a paper and we rocked. Total ease, absolutely relaxed....in short, fun.


The last drop box....SD, SM & me from left to right, SH being the shutterbug.

Ok, so the look changes again. Hopefully this time I'll not have the stupid photobucket issue again. While it's fun to change the template it's really irritating to redo all the widgets and put in links etc all over again. Surely, the geeks should have found out a way to import the old widgets into the new template.

I asked SH to check out the look and he said it looks "Floydish". He asked whether I wanted such a look. I said anything Floydish is game on for me. Actually, the denim look seemed more in the line of retro types to me. Told him so and before you knew it the talk turned to cowboys and then cowgirls and then hot pants & foam when we thought it was prudent to put our wild imaginations to a stop.

All said & done, I like the look. I think the double columns on the right look better than having columns on both sides. Feedback is earnestly solicited.

“This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

Do I find a corollary with this and our state of being at ISB at this moment? Even with the current state of the job market, nothing has ended. But it is the end of the starting year of a new life, new dreams and aspirations. I would like to think that is the case.

Incidentally, this was said by Winston Churchill after the 2nd Battle of El-alamein, which finally stopped the Axis expansion into Africa and finished off Rommell and his Afrika Corps. Very powerful.

So in this term we have this paper with this amazing of scheme of marks for written submissions. Let me illustrate:
1. Response paper - 3 pages - 1.67 marks
2. Application paper - 3 pages - 15 marks
3. Network plan - 3 pages - 30 marks

I mean, how? 3 pages of each assignment will contain the same number of words/lines. How does one differentiate between 1.67 and 30 when you are writing the same stuff. Defies logic, baffles imagination. But well, there is always a silver lining. Actually the silver lining is that it is only 3 pages. Normally for a 30 marks assignment one is expected to write at least 15 pages. And there lies the saving grace and the reason why I'll not indulge in cribbing.

But I still don't understand the marking scheme. How? Why? Who?

Thanks to Mohor, I got hold of this very ancient picture of us. This was a trip to Puri & Konarak (the Sun Temple is on the background). The unique thing about this picture is that it is the only picture of all 5 of us - Dada, me, Joy, Kunal & Mohor. Did any of us back in that day know where life was going to take us? Today with Dada in Bangalore, me in Delhi, Joy gone forever, Kunal in US & Mohor in Calcutta, each one of us are going their own way in search of individual dreams and happiness.

One life, you gotta do what you should,
One life with each other, sisters...brothers,
One life but we are not the same,
We get to carry each other....carry each other

If you have been here before it cannot have escaped you that I have majorly revamped the look & feel of the blog. Me thinks this is quite jazzy with the background, the fonts and ofcourse the majorly cool tattoo thing on top.

The thing is far from finished, by the way. In my utter ignorance of all things technical, I had thought that all I needed to do was to copy the html code from a site and paste it here and voila, all of it shall get done. I was wrong. Very wrong. All my tabs, widgets/gadgets had disappeared. There were numerous tabs on top which led to nowhere. I could not go back to the dashboard as that option had disappeared as well. Facing these deadly odds, I did what any man would do. I called for help. SD & SM were duly pinged. The problem is probably with the stylesheet, they said. What? What is a stylesheet? The only sheets I knew were the A4 type and the thingies they put on beds.

I told SD I frankly have no clue whatsoever & I certainly don't want to come across as a dumb ass moron who put tabs on his blogs which lead nowhere. Gracious as ever SD offered his help. The offending tabs were hidden & a crash course ensured that whatever is on show right now works. But I also needed those tabs to work. Damn cool they were and I wanted to put some neat stuff there. I guess that will have to wait till the weekend.

In a week or so, I hope to bring this page to its new revamped sexy look. All I hope now is that people continue to read it.

Why was I away for so long? There have been so many times when I felt inclined to write but somehow that final urge was just not there. Funny actually, considering I quite enjoy writing. I even thought that I'll forget writing down things just so that 10 years down the line I could open the blog and relive my year at this place.

Well, very clearly all that never happened. Result being that there were 1000's of things to write about, small funny stuff which I'll probably forget over time. Sad that. Hopefully I'll be able to be a little more enthu these final few days.

It was a day in July '07. I was sitting rather bored and irritated in office because the Client was delaying in providing information and I had no work. As the saying goes - "the idle mind is the devil's workshop". I suddenly realised that I need a change. Actually the need to change my job and do something else is a thought which springs to my mind rather frequently. However, this was probably the first time I had any clarity over what I wanted to do. I knew I needed a career shift. But my work experience and background was a hurdle to shift to any other careers. The only possible way out was if I take a break and go back to school.

This however brought to the foreground my biggest fear, my biggest phobia - "STUDIES". I thought that it was all over & done with back in 2003 when I passed my CA exams. The day my results came out, I had made a solemn promise to myself that I do not want anything to do with books or classrooms ever again in my life. It's funny how life comes back in a full circle. The thing I wanted most required me to do the thing I hate most.Still....I decided to take the plunge. My decision to do so ranged from wholehearted support...from my Dad (Good decision) to scepticism...from Mousumi (do not drop the plan after 2 weeks) to total incredulity....Why? Why? Why? (Mainly from friends).Too a large extent I was afraid of myself....I tend to give up too easily. What the heck? I already have a good job. But to my credit and I believe, to the surprise of a LOT of people I stuck on.I gave the GMAT, got a pretty good score, considering the fact that I could only study late at night after coming back from office and after Arya went of to sleep. Once this was done, there was really no turning back.

Sitting here in Mar 2009 as I think to myself, state of economy and job market notwithstanding, all that effort was worth every bit of effort.

There was a lot of talk of how Term 3 is the most hectic term in the entire academic year. There was also lot of talk of how the work pressure sort of reduces once one gets into the elective terms. Me, being conditioned to always look for opportunities which lets me get away with not doing much work, had pictured a rosy future at the end of term 4.

Sadly, I was wrong. Very wrong, actually. This term is easily the toughest of all we have gone through till wrong. Agreed, the mad rush for CGPA & the dean’s list is not there. But for a person like me, whose best academic performance was coming 4th in Class 3, the above 2 indicators were never a factor anyways. I judge a term purely by its workload and in that Term 5 wins hands down. There is just too much to do. Period.

The entire term sort of peaked over this last weekend. Everybody in campus had, on an average, 4-5 assignment submission to be made on Monday/Tuesday. Everybody was running all over the campus, different subjects, different studygroups, always on the phone. Among all this, also cram in a soft skills workshop, a case study prep session with Deloitte, a talk from Google, CV review sessions and so on and on. Of course, there were the obligatory weekend booze sessions which further reduced available time – first, the time spent drinking (usually starting around 8-9 pm and going on till 2-3 at night) and second, the entire next morning spent sleeping or walking around like a zombie.

Well, one of the high points of the entire year (at least for me) took place last weekend. A bartending session was organized by Tulleho. So, we learnt to make 4 cocktails and the deal was that whatever one makes, one consumes. So we had about 40 very happy people at the end of 2 hours. Forgotten were assignments, deadlines, placements and other myriad worries. The mind was freshened, the body was charged. I only wish I had taken some pictures.

Coming back to the acads, one of the major pain points is that the old study groups no longer exist. For good or bad, some kind of synergy (apparently the 2nd most abused work in MBA land *) existed in the study groups. Over 4 terms, we know who were good in what and work responsibilities were divided accordingly. With electives all that’s gone. So now I have 4 different study groups & every member of my study groups (18 in my case) have 4 study groups themselves. The result is there is an astonishing amount of pull from all directions for everybody. It’s hard to fix up a meeting, there is constant juggling of the calendar and even when you meet ultimately, the phone just doesn’t stop ringing.

“Have you done this” / “have you done that” / “when are we going to meet” / “but you said you will meet at 10.30” / “it will take only 30 minutes, please come yaar” / “don’t give me crap about assignments, we all have assignments” / “Boss, can’t take this anymore, nobody is responding to meeting invites”…..different outcomes but the same common pain….just too many assignments!!

On a totally unrelated note, people tell me that Café has a new menu and it’s actually quite good.

p.s.
* in case anybody is wondering, the most abused word in a B-school is ‘intuitive’

Ok, so term 4 end terms are from tomorrow. I really don't know how we are expected to prepare for 4 papers with only 1 day available between end of classes & the exam.

The thing which is worse are the subjects. 3 theoretical subjects, with hundreds of pages of reading and for which I do not find either the conviction or the desire to study. Sadly, the other paper, which I really want to study is so damn hard that no matter how hard I work nothing seems to penetrate in.

Ah, well.....I guess these things happen. So the only way to handle it is just say that I care shit for all this crap. We'll handle things as & when they come....

So I celebrated another birthday couple of days back. Only this was probably not just another birthday.....the first digit of my age changed. Pretty significant, you would agree. I am now solidly into middle ages, which is not really a nice thought.

30 years is a substantially long time to have spent on the planet. For people who have spent their lifetime accumulating accolades and surpassing milestones one after the other would probably look back at me with disdain. But am I bothered? Frankly speaking....NO.

How does one measure success? Is it whether I am happy or not. Whether I have any regrets or not? Do I keep looking back and think of things that may have been?

Maybe I have not been a great achiever....and maybe I'll never be. I really don't give a damn. I am happy. And what are the things that have contributed to this?

I have been blessed with a wonderful family where I have been encouraged to think, debate and present my opinion from a very young age. We were expected to be well read, have an independent opinion on things around us. We never had decisions imposed upon us and all that was expected was that decisions were taken by us after thinking of all alternatives.

I have been blessed to have the most amazing woman who for some reason known only to her agreed to walk the journey of life with me. We have also been blessed with the sweetest baby, someone who has changed our entire perspective to this life.

Today I know that whatever I do or not do, wherever I go or not go my family would be beside by me. They are my rock, they are my pillars. They are the reason I look forward to each day with optimism. They are the reason why I am happy with life and the fact that I am happy makes my life a success. This is what I wanted out of my life and I have got it.

I wish life was easier. I wish things were less hectic. I wish I could sit back & enjoy this one glorious year.

6 months have passed (almost). The next 6 will also pass by in a whiz and we'll be out of here. I wish I had more time in my hands. Maybe not for studies, in fact, definitely not for studies. But just to enjoy this one year, get to know these wonderful guys better, do something more tangible (I don't know what that is).

I wish...I wish...I wish...

Sigh.....

The flood in Bihar has reached horrendous proportions. Anybody who is following the story is getting more and more appalled by the enormity of the destruction and the conditions of the hundreds of thousands who have been rendered homeless and are fighting for survival. It initially started as one more story of the usual floods that happen in India every year but very rapidly we realised that this is different. An entire river, charting a totally new course due to the deluge of water following heavy rains in its catchment area, it has caught the entire state or rather the entire country napping.

For my readers from abroad, a comprehensive coverage of the calamity can be found by referring this link.

This was the time to stand up, do something and be counted. Gone were the times of making patronizing statements, say the obligatory words of solace and then go on with your usual life. This was the time to walk the talk.

Some of us had stayed back in campus during the term break and they actually set the ball rolling. We brainstormed, we networked and by the time the batch had come back & Term 4 had started a concrete plan was ready. We wanted immediate action. That sort of ruled out making contributions to the Prime Minister's Relief Fund or any such other fund. While noble, these funds did not let us see any tangible benefits. It was like a case of fill it & forget it. We wanted more than that.

Some of us got in touch with a NGO working in the field in Bihar. Accredited by UNICEF & CARE, this was a reputed NGO & we could be sure that stuff we direct to them would reach the intended population. The next thing was to decide on what to send. Money, probably was the easiest thing. But these people on the brink of life & death don't need money now. They need food, they need safe drinking water, they need clothes and medicines. So what we decided was to raise the money in the campus and then buy the essential stuff. Already orders have been placed for an initial batch of medicines and we are also doing a cloth collection drive at the campus. We have also contacted the Indian Railways to book space for all the stuff we are going to ship out. This should reach the NGO in Patna who will in turn direct it to the forward areas.

We had our first collection drive yesterday. It was really really heartening to see the spontaneous response from the batch. We have not yet lost touch with reality. Even more heartening is the response people have shown to volunteer for other small activities all of which are essential to making this entire thing a success.

This is but a small start, a small drop in the ocean. This cannot be solved by 450 students sitting in a B-school. This requires monetary contribution and physical efforts which is beyond the current batch. This requires huge amounts of money & relief material. This also requires massive work on the ground to ensure that all that is collected & donated reach the needy & do not get "lost in transit".

At ISB, we are trying to tap all avenues and all the contacts that we have to get funding. Our solemn promise is that this is going to be run professionally and there would be total transparency & accountability for each & every rupee collected. If any of you out there would love to help/contribute/do anything in this regard you can drop me a mail at Sumantra_dasgupta@pgp2009.isb.edu or to Rajarshi Ray at Rajarshi_ray@pgp2009.isb.edu. Any kind of help would be appreciated.

All the best.

Long time no blog. Ya...it's kind of sad and there is only one word for it- Procrastination. So many times have I logged in to my blog & then logged out again. But anyways, getting down to stuff.

Well, Term 3 is coming to a close. Funnily, I seem to be blogging just when exams are around the corner. Seeing my grades, I sort of should know better than to spend time like this. But, and I admit this sadly....I do not know better. Actually I do know, but I couldn't care less.

There was this hype about Term 3 from even before we landed up here (courtesy blogs of the last batch). Till about a week back I thought those guys were exaggerating or that our batch was a class apart. The pressure just wasn't there. Sure, we had assignments...loads of them actually, but nothing which was not manageable. Man, have be all been proven wrong. We have 7 assignments due this week and with just a few days left for the end terms things have really gone out of control. The mother of all assignments - the entire entrepreneurship project is still pending. For the uniniated, this is a project in which the study group has to do a live project on an entrepreneur - sort of understand the why's & how's of his career & then somehow connect it to our course learnings.

Well, the problem of writing after such a long break is that there is too much to write. Too many things have happened and I'm having this thing like a slideshow going through my head. Guess I have to apply a ruthless filtering process here.
So here goes the more important things to have happened in the last few weeks:

- The Net Impact club organised Bandhan on 15th aug. This is one of the most important dates in the entire academic calendar. About 300 kids from city NGO's come to campus and spend the day here celebrating with us. Or rather we celebrate it with them. My study group went to meet our Aikya family that day. Probably that outing would have given me some cool oppurtunity to do some networking but after going through this day all I can say is that I would not have missed this for anything. It was unbelievable to see the campus that day. The enthusiasm of the kids had actually rubbed off on us and we sort of underwent a change. Some of these kids are so damn talented. Probably all they need is a helping hand & somebody to have some confidence in them. One of our guest speakers last month was talking of something he called the "Ovarian Lottery". In India, your success depends on which part of the country you are born in & who your parents are. It's so damn unfair. I mean, we were talking among ourselves & we were thinking that we easily could have been in their position, looking for happiness in things we take for granted. I don't know how this can be solved or who can solve it. I doubt if it can be done in 10 years, 20 years or probably in our entire lifetime. But it is so important that we try & we start.

- Another matter of concern we had was the amount of food that was being wasted at the Dining Hall. We are trying to find out ways to segregate the waste at the root and are looking at ways to do in-house composting rather than throwing it in municipal waste. We have got a couple of contacts of experts in the field & are pretty hopeful of pushing this through. There are a host of other things which are being done by us - the 'Green Team' under Net Impact. A very critical thing which we have already got implemented is a default 2 sided printer setting for all campus printers. In one stroke, this should drastically bring down paper consumption in the campus. There are a host of other interesting things we have got lined up.

- ISB is launching an official blog to be run by the students. Yours truly will be now be one of the official bloggers. But this will be a more formal affair & not where you rant & rave about things.

- Another very important thing. Profs apparently read our blogs!!!! I was so damn psyched to know of this. Even more scary were the circumstances in which this revelation came about. But this is MY blog....my conscience is clear. Good thing out of it was that now a very large percentage of the batch knows about my blog. I got about 200 hits that day. Ah, the trials the famous have to go through!!!! On a very very cheeky note...thank you Prof. My blog enjoys its new found popularity :)

- Recruiters have started to come to campus in large numbers now. So we had Accenture, BCG (again), Oliver Wyman, Goldman Sachs, TCS, Cognizant etc etc in the last few weeks. Got a chance to meet up with Kaustubh. At last we had some plain talk from a senior & not the usual patronizing statements....thanks dude.

Cheers....

I'm generally a pretty positive person & more or less like everything happening around me. So it's surprising (even to me) to admit this, but I HATE DMOP. Period.

Exams start in roughly 10 hours time. All I hope for is that I don't screw up (again) & undo the reasonably good work done in the mid terms.

The only silver lining is that in roughly around this time 2 days later I should be on NH-8 towards Gurgaon & home!!! Man....can't wait to go back...

Laters....

Not again. Seriously...not again. I have been here for less than 3 months & this would be the 4th time I would be writing exams. Last time when I was in the business of writing pages & pages of bullshit was during CA...& those were like once in 6 months. At times I curse myself & the imbecile decision which took me out of my cosy cocoon & planted me in this mad mad place.

Enough of cribbing...I do love this place. But that doesn't actually shift the focus away from the exams. There I go again...I think the crib factor is a bit too high today, so please bear with me. I just thought that I have written a lot about the fun we have around here, the parties, the all night-outs, the general chill out sessions. Let me portray things from a different point of view today. Make no mistake about it, ISB is a seriously tough place to be in. You loosen up a bit & you are like miles behind in the race. So here goes my account of a typical day:

10.25 am : Wake up (after ignoring numerous snoozes on my mobile)
10.45 am : Rush for 1st class (usually with breakfast in hand)
11.45 am : Break...mad dash for coffee
12.15 pm : Feeling sleep taking control....man, gotta do some CP
12.45 pm : Class over...rush to Goel...more crap food....why can't they have some decent food for a change
1.15 pm : General chit chat in the Atrium...thinking whether to go for the 2nd class or go to studio & sleep
1.45 pm : The class wins...sigh
2.00 pm : Asleep in class....(nudge from my neighbour - prof is looking at you)...who gives a damn
2.45 pm : Break....mad dash for coffee
3.00 pm : Asleep...again
3.45 pm : Class over...tell study group that I need to catch up on my sleep
4.00 pm : Asleep....at least now I am in my bed
6.00 pm : Stumble into LRC..
6.00 pm - 8.00 pm : Refine Markstrat decision & mail to TA
8.00 pm : Dinner
9.00 pm : Markstrat decision....we got $150 mn this time!!!
9.30 pm : Start reading Eco...Solow Curve & Y, K, L etc etc
12.30 am : Enough of Eco...oh shit, had almost forgotten about the DMOP homework submission -> Start DMOP
2.00 am : LRC closes down...down to CCD
3.00 am : Still DMOP
4.00 am : Still DMOP
5.00 am : Stagger back home....gotta do compstrat pre-read...the case is only 60 pages long
6.00 am : zzzzzzz......(pre-read can go to hell)

Sort of the way the day pans out. It's brutal, it's killing....but there is a sense of joy & accomplishment when we actually drop the assignment into those stupid drop-boxes. Life is tough but we are really living upto it.

A great thing we did in this term was to run away to Hampi for a weekend. You can read about it here. I thought of writing about it but then ID is a poet...he does & will do a better job anyday. Also if there is a remote possibility of anybody wanting to see the pics of the trip they can be seen here. Now that the travel bug has bit us, we plan to do Pondy after the mid terms in Term 3.

By now, all the clubs have get their teams in place things are hotting up. Lot of activities/new initiatives are lined up (yours truly has volunteered for quite a few & is expected to co-lead a couple of them!). We had a session with BCG, Microsoft & Google. But the best thing probably was a chat by Dr Ric Charlesworth on lessons of business from sports. Dr Ric was an olympian & world cup winner with the Aussie hockey team. Plus he coached the Aussie hockey team to 2 successive Olympics Gold Medals & 2 World Cups. Plus he was a member of the Australian Parliament for 10 years. And oh....he is also a doctor. Seriously inspirational stuff. Kudos to VR (ex India hockey captain himself) for arranging that.

I go home next week for the first time in 3 months. I am taking quite a lot of work to Delhi. Have a pretty big agenda...meet folks back in office, get some industry contacts, find out what PwC is thinking about recruitment this year...& so on. Let's see how much I can get done. Apart from that all i want to do is loaf around & get some proper food inside me. Also have to find out if any new food joints have opened up. I seriously miss Sabina Sehgal Saikia's reviews in the Friday TOI. Miss Flavors, Big Chill, Mainland China & other fab places. But what I miss most is some good old fashioned true homemade rice & fish curry.....

So long...

Mid terms finished a few hours back. As far as exams go, this was pretty ok. Only time will tell, whether I am on the mark or not. I thought that my stats exams were also ok...and look where it has left me.

Anyways, the good thing is that I'm pushing off for a weekend holiday. 9 of us from Sec E are going to Hampi. We take the bus tonight & will be back by train on Monday morning. Luckily, our classes are in the afternoon, so we'll be back with plenty of time to spare!

Apparently, in the last batch, the earliest when anybody pushed off was after core terms....and here we're only in the middle of Term 2. Well, any achievement is there just so that somebody can come along & improve on it. On that note, I'll leave for the day. Full update on the trip once we get back. Apparently there is a sort of hippie village near Hampi. Something tells me that this trip would be good fun!

Cheers

We are fast coming onto the midpoint of Term 2. Man, am I loving all that's happening. Killing does not even half describe the schedule we have till now. We have "only" 4 papers but one can clearly see that the gear has changed from last term. Even though last term was hectic it was nothing compared to Term 2. If it was the sedate pace of a Maruti 800 then this definitely is a Ferrari, hurtling along as if there was no tomorrow.

As far as the subjects go, they are mostly building on the concepts of Term 1. The entire batch unanimously fees that the Strategy course is the best we have studied till date. It's a treat to watch Prof Kale in action. He takes a 25 page case & over a period of 2 hours rips it apart. The way he links apparently unconnected and remote things is just amazing. Another great thing is he does not tolerate any arbit CP. Everything one says has to be backed up by data. There is no scope of "I think" or "Maybe" in his class. The other faculty in this half of the course are, in my opinion, not so good. But I guess you will rarely find that you admire everybody who comes & teaches you. I'm not saying that they are bad. In fact, they have fantastic pedigree. It's just that their classes are not so interesting.

As far as Term 2 goes, there are classes and then there is Markstrat. Anybody who follows other ISB blogs, whether of the current batch (links on the side -->) or of earlier classes will see that around June-July all the blogs talk in length about Markstrat. So what is this beast? It's basically an online simulation game where you are given charge of a company in a particular industry and you compete against other companies in the industry. So what one has to do is basically decide on the products one is going to launch or withdraw, pricing strategy, production, marketing plans, R&D strategy, budgets etc etc. All this is wildly interesting, but the icing on the cake is you compete not against the computer but real people...i.e. your batchmates. So, you see huddles all around the Atrium, the LRC....people discussing strategy in hushed tones, people slamming down their laptops moment they see people from the same industry approaching, people trying to guess what their competitors are upto. Even conversation in the dining hall, the classrooms, SV lawns has veered towards Markstrat. What's the profit of your group? Are you doing R&D on a new project or a cost reduction in an existing project? And so on.....

The Markstrat game actually is part of our Marketing paper this term. Apart from the game, I dislike the class intensely. This is what happened in the last class:
So, I was sleeping peacefully in class. The class was just after lunch & I had a good lunch of Pulao, Mutton & Kheer :) and then in class the inevitable sleep came over me. All of a sudden, heard my voice & sort of jumped up in my seat.
Prof: Now, Sumantra will explain what happens if ......blah, blah, blah
Me: (Having no clue to either the topic being taught or the question posed to me) I'm sort of switched off at the moment
Prof: (Clearly pissed off) So maybe you need a water or coffee break
I mean, why? I was not disturbing the class....neither was I doing useless CP & disrupting the flow. This kinda stuff does not really endear a Prof to his students. Luckily he has only class remaining in the term. But this guy apparently comes back to take an elective course. Whoever signs up for that course, Sumantra Dasgupta will not be one of them.

The entire student body has now been elected. Apart from the GSB core which was elected sometime back, all the professional & social clubs have elected their presidents. So now what remains are posts under individual clubs & under GSB areas. But these are all posts which are filled via interviews. No further election happens. I've got quite a few close friends in important positions which I hope to leverage in the coming months :)

We are having a competition sponsored by NIIT this weekend. It's basically a fun thing where you can try working in a small team so as to see whether you can continue working in the same team when ELP's & the bigger B-school competitions come around. So this competition gave us 5 products - light bulbs, aerated drinks, DVD's, balloons & toothpaste - and we had to come up with alternative uses for any one of these products complete with a small business plan about target market, pricing etc. As per last count 60 teams have submitted their entries

Apart from that, activites are increasing day by day in the campus. So we have Dance, Language, Guitar, Vocal classes. In the pipeline are Fitness, Drums and God knows what. I have taken up French classes and probably will do Fitness as well. There is actually not a moment of idle time during the week.

And finally we have the Euro. The tournament is entering its business end. There have been some great matches already. Being a die-hard Dutch supporter, I am happy. I particularly enjoyed the Italy & France maulings. Go Oranje....keep it up. We'll probably have the Finals screened in the Atrium. Unfortunately, the semis are the day before the mid terms. So that meant, that we couldn't really have a screening of that. But, I guess all of us will continue to see it. As somebody remarked - it happens only once in 4 years. It's slightly unfortunate that it clashes with studies but then we are very clear as to which one has priority. So, all we have to say is - screw DMOP & screw Global Eco. Give us football any day, any where, any damn way.

Happy watching...

It's been a long hot summer
Let's get under cover
Don't try too hard to think
Don't think at all
I'm not the only one
Staring at the sun
Afraid of what you'd find
If you took a look inside
I'm not just deaf and dumb
Staring at the sun
Not the only one
Who's happy to go blind

Sort of what I feel post grades of Term I.....never felt so useless in my life :(
The blog date is kind of misleading as this stayed as a draft for quite some time & kind of fell in place once the end term exams came out.

p.s. Lyrics courtesy Staring at the Sun by U2

Why am I here? No, this is not a philosophical question where you look to explain the fundamental questions of life & existence. This is a question which directly addresses the reason why am I here at ISB. So...why am I here? Seeing my mid term marks I question these very reasons. As mentioned earlier, all i aspired was to be above the mean.

Till last evening I could proudly say that I was meeting these very ambitious targets. So what happened next which shook the foundations of my belief. Well....the mid term Stats marks were released. And to put it succintly...I sucked. Big time. To be very honest, I had modest expectations from this paper. But I never expected this. If the marks distribution is a sort of a pyramid, then I'm probably the foundation, dug deep into the earth, which props up the entire structure. To top it, my marks in the Stats quiz is following some sort of a rapidly downward sloping curve. I see no hope.

The classes for Term I get over tomorrow. Prof Waterman & Prof Kumar were outstanding. I have talked before about the pedigree of the visiting faculty. If possible, they were even better than Prof Stine & Prof Bell who taught the first half of the 2 papers. I'll not talk about Eco here as I have quite strong sentiments, albeit in a different way, about the faculty. So that brings us to the End Terms. It's funny that by this time next week the exams would be over & I am wasting time writing a blog nobody gives a damn about. But then again....I have already reached a zen state.

On a different note, the GSB Core elections are through. Happily for me everybody I voted for, except for the President, has won. Only time will tell whether mine & others confidence in these guys will be repaid properly. I was initially disappointed at the Presidential elections. I was supporting a friend of mine and helped in writing his manifesto & preparing his speech. The winner, to be very honest, was a complete dark horse. But I & a few others have interacted with him on quite a sensitive matter over the past couple of days & he's turned out to be a great guy. Being an Army guy, he may not have an exposure to the Corporate world, but he's a great people's guy, a very good organizer & man-manager. And after the Army, I think he'll be upto any pressure situations this year will throw at him. ATB, Major Saab.

We celebrated the 1st birthday of Javed's daughter today. His studio was full of kids & I, as always, felt a lump in my throat. It's been almost 1.5 months since Bubu & Arya went back. In between my schedule of assignments/reports/classes/booze sessions all of a sudden I feel overwhelmed. I wish they were with me. It's becoming so difficult without them. The good thing is that they will come for 4 days the next week.

We bid farewell to Arunava tonight with a small party in the SV1 lawns. He's leaving for IIM Bangalore this weekend. Over the last few weeks I have really grown to love the kid. Being a juniour from school he insisted from Day 1 that he'll call me Dada. Because he sits next to me, he has tried to keep me awake every single day in class & only lately has he given up totally. A crazy sense of humour & extremely sharp intellects....the whole class will miss him.

Finally....I got a mail from my office today. My F&F has been processed (at last!). Some welcome additions to my bank balance.

Cheerio

So the first month is over. And what a month it has been. But I am getting these conflicting feelings. At times it feels like I walked in yesterday....at times it feels as if I have been here for ages.


There are a lot of things happening around us. The foremost has to be the mid terms. Now, I am sort of mentally okay with the exams thing. But there are 2 things I am definitely not being able to reconcile with:
1. No study leave before exams
2. No chilling out period after they get over

I mean, how can ISB do this to us? We have classes till thursday (for which we are expected to do our pre-reads), our exams are on Friday & Saturday & then on Monday we have a Stats quiz & a marketing assignment due on Tuesday. "Bachhe ka jaan loge kya?"

We have new profs from tomorrow. We had our last classes with RS, AB, DB & MV over the last 2 days. I have spoken at length about their quality & the finesse with which they have conducted the class. It speaks volumes for their ability that each of them got a standing ovation from the entire class. I do hope the profs to come are of the same standard. It's a pleasure & privilege to learn from the masters of the trade. I loved the small poem MV left us with. I don't remember the exact words but the basic meaning was - we'll meet again and we'll be happy to see each other & if we aren't happy then this parting probably makes more sense. Even RS gave a superb closing speech...in one year you all will forget me, forget the stats class, but you will have a great set of friends....learn together, enjoy together, grow together...AB also had a fantastic closing. Undoubtedly the last 1 hr was the best he taught during the entire course. DB deserves a very speciall mention here. He had, to my opinion, the driest subject...marketing. The enthusiasm he brought to the class, the involvement he managed to extract from us (CP or no CP) was simply awesome. Hats off to all of them. They are simply the best people I have ever learned from.


Section E wanted to have a dress code for the day. We actually woke up sometime late last night to get something going. Around 2 at night we had reached a consensus. The theme was Blazers + Shorts (preferably with a tie). As always, this decision was not unanimous. In the end, around 8 of us turned up like that...but, there were almost 40 other guys who wore blazers. So all in all, a good showing.

I leave you with a couple of pictures taken in the last couple of days. My next post will in all probabilities be after the mid terms. Till then.....ATB

It's been another hectic week. Actually only 2 weeks have gone by & we are already staring at the mid term exams due next weekend. The general response to a "How are you dude?" elicits either of the following responses:
a) "I am NOT good"
b) "Fati pari hai yaar"

- It's not been a smooth sailing. In between my last post & today we have been neck deep in Eco assigments & Marketing case studies. The Gillette case study gave me more agony than very few other things have ever given me in my life. Our team spent close to 200 man hours to come up with a solution & write a meaningful report. Somewhere in this, I feel we need to realise that at one point we just need to let go. More you analyse, the more you will find new things and more will be the debate that follows. So, the idea should be that once you reach a sort of consensus on something you just move ahead.

- Sadly, I have nothing rosy to report on Eco & Stats also. Prof B who teaches Eco says that there are 4 possible answers to a situation - Yes/No/Don't know/Don't care. I am rapidly moving to the "Don't care" scheme of things and don't really think that it's going to get much better in the short term. We started with the notion of doing all the pre-reads, progressed to just about managing post reads....and now, have given up altogether. Not that we are lazy/inefficient/stupid. I guess we all had some notions on how to crack this before the term started and all that has been blown off. So it's back to the drawing board for most of us so as to find the best way forward. I guess everybody has to find out his or her best fit to the circumstances.....and hopefully by the end of mid terms all of us will find out their own study patterns.

- My team for the accounting project met for the first time last night. This being a cross section team I met a couple of guys for the first time. There was a very high degree of enthusiasm. Carbon credits is a topic which interest a lot of people and our preliminary research has thrown up a huge amount of data. I do hope we come out with decent grades out of this. Most of my friends, who have been doing accounts for maybe the last 2 weeks, have got 95 or 100 out of 100 in the 1st accounts quiz. Probably the regular class was the easy way out. But I generally never look back on my decisions, however illogical or spur of the moment they may be, and think...what if? So now that I have taken the plunge....I am sure I'll reach the other bank.

- One of the most important things you need in a new place is to build up a support group quickly. A small circle where you can be you, where there are no pretensions, no artificial smiles. A group with whom you can just chill out and talk nonsense. This is what DD & I were talking about last night and he also was of the same opinion.

- Thursday nights as usual were full of parties. This & Friday are actually the weekends at ISB. I played some basketball last evening. All the sports activities I undertake reminds me that I am in woeful shape. Anyways, I played for about 30 minutes and then decided to play snooker. Now, this is a game which suits my physical & mental state of affairs. You take a shot & then keep walking around the table as if you understand everything that's going on. I have played pool in the past and trust me snooker is much more complicated. For one, the table is much much larger. The rules are also somewhat more stringent.

- The "Calcutta Chimneys" had planned for a dunking session at around 10 in the night. This is probably the only city specific group which has sprung up in the campus till date. Thank God it's unofficial. It just throws the diversity angle out of the window. Thanks to PA who suggested the idea to have a blast & leave the frustration of the assignments back in the pool. All the members turned up & AM & CM were also invited over. CM was actually extremely sporting and agreed to get dunked even though she was the only girl around...

- We also dunked Sidharth last night on his birthday....Happy Birthday, dude....have a great year.

- We have got a new mailing list exclusively for spams. After a lot of hue & cry over the spam levels in the first 2 weeks (totally unwarranted, in my opinion), somebody took the initiative to arrange the mailing list. And man....do we love spam. Every 5 minutes we seem to get a stupid mail from someone. Actually, I find these mails a nice diversion....specially when you are sitting at 12 at night & staring like a zombie at your laptop.

- We have a inter-section basketball tournament later in the evening. Also there is the regular weekly footie match today. Also, somebody has taken the initiative of getting a movie screened sometime later during the night.

So all in all, we are having a pretty good time here. If only there were no studies......

My blog count has crossed 1000. A high five to that & thanks to everybody out there who have contributed to that. It does pamper the ego.

Now this is what I call a totally Arbit blogpost.

Term 1 has started and time has duly moved on to our first weekend. I say weekend, but this my friend, is unlike any other weekend I have ever seen. Weekend to me, at least after my CA, meant curling up with a good book, going to a movie or just lazing around the house like a mindless oaf or if I really had some inspiration then indulging in a bit of cooking. And before I can hear the surreptitious sniggers...I am a good cook. But coming back to the point. I had no idea that 1 week could drain me out so much both mentally & physically.

I mean last week around this time I was quite confident of the whole scheme of things. There are only 2 classes per day. Surely that gives me enough time to go home & revise the day's stuff & also do the pre-read for the next day....I rationalised. Man, how wrong I was. I seem to stumble along from class to class & after that the day passes in a blur. By the time you start to recollect on how the day went you realise it's around 2 at night & you better hit the sack for next day's class. And so goes the cycle.

To my defence this week had the Champion's League Semis. And me being the die-hard football freak, no way was I going to miss these matches. I watched both the matches....& for once had both the results going my way. Yippeeeee to that!! What this also meant that I slept at 2.30 or 3 at night & next day had to somehow wake up & run to class. My state of agony can be further understood from the fact that it's been 5 days since I last had breakfast. In hindsight, my decision to opt for only lunch & dinner seems to be a smart one.

The classes, I must say are amazing. We have this whole bunch of amazing profs....among them 2 from Wharton & 1 from Duke. The pedagogy is absolutely brilliant & the way they orchestrate the class is just mind-blowing. After my interaction with some equally oppositely amazing profs in my B. Com days I had a very clear picture of Indian profs & the education system in my mind. And man....has it been blown apart. If this is the standard of faculty & the quality of teaching then this probably has been the smartest decision of my life. Though I am struggling with the subjects it is more to do with the fact that I am a moron rather than the Profs. I mean, I just get blanked out at times.

That said, I am having a gala time in the Accounting class. According to Prof M, who is taking the class....the CA's can do this stuff with their eyes closed. But I am taking....as the Prof said, the "Red Pill". Basically he's given all the CA's an option of doing a team report on any accounting issue of our choosing. It's probably much more difficult than the regular Accounts course & I may be running a risk of loosing my advantage in the only subject I know something about. But the way I look at it is not the short term grades (which anyways will be a disaster) but maybe a medium term picture. Our group has taken up the topic of "Carbon credits and accounting implications". I actually have been quite keen on this area for quite some time and had been thinking of doing an independent study on this sometime later during the year. So once the topic was proposed I just jumped at it. Prof M was also very encouraging. During our meeting today, he said that this is a topic about which he also doesn't know much & would be looking at us to enlighten him!!! So officially, I am now out of the accounting class. No attendance, no quiz & no exams.

Coming to 'CP'. Now I still do not understand why 'CP' carries marks. To top that, it's been 2 classes & I am yet to open my account. It's not that I have not tried. I have raised my hand a lot of times. But like some other enlightened people I cannot do it all the time simply because I don't have an opinion on everything. We have had Arbit 'CP' which to the uninitiated means 'CP' just for the heck of it. These are the people who gets everybody's goat. Section C had a novel solution. Their CP master has been mass dunked around 16 times couple of days back. We probably have to something on similar lines. A new term which has been doing the rounds lately is Despo 'CP'. This typically happens sometime later during the term. Essentially the guy realises that he has still not done any CP & now to get his marks he has to resort to CP at any cost. I believe in there lies my destiny.

Finally, we had a big dunking session last night. All the people born in April were dunked along with the prospective CP king of our class. And then it was time for mass dunking. Around 30 of us jumped into the pool at the same time. Man....that was fun. After that we had another PARTYYYYYYYYY. By this time I was blown. I had played tennis in the evening & when I turned up I was already dog tired. To top it, there was no beer. I mean, how can a party run out of beer? Even funnier was that even the glasses were finished. So you had this bottle of whisky sitting beside rum/vodka etc & there was nothing to drink them from. Somebody had a great idea & got those cups which are kept with the coffee vending machines. So I ordered a vodka. The guy said that they have only Fanta to go with it. So at 2 at night I ended up drinking a vodka with Fanta out of a stryfoam cup. How much more weird can life get?

While I was walking back at 3 in the night, I saw another gang staggering on the way to the party. Apparently they already had a binge in their rooms and were going to the party to get even more sloshed. I met one of them in the Atrium today around 6 in the evening & he said that he needs to have his breakfast!!!! Man, I am in love with this place

We also have assignments/reports/quizzes. I'll not dwell on them as studies tend to be inherently boring. Maybe in a rainy day when I've nothing else to write about I'll bore you with all that crap.

Folks, the day is today. The day we had all been waiting for. With bated breath, wide eyed, slightly scared, very excited & lot of apprehensions. What if we turn out be idiots? What if we fall asleep in class? What if we are called upon to speak & realize that we left our voices behind at the SV?

After 2 classes & the end of Day 1, my take is - it's not too bad. I didn't sleep (my biggest fear) nor did I make an ass of myself. However, something did get my goat. My name tag was not there in either of the class. Being the odd one out of 75 did not make me happy. No, it did not. It's just a simple printing job, why couldn't the bugger, whoever he or she was, do it correctly....I asked myself. On the brighter side, I can remain incognito. But I am not sure how good that is once CP season starts. However, I see a silver lining in the class arrangements. I am in the last bench. Now, whoever knew me in school knows my affinity for the back benches & all who inhabited those off-limit territories.

Lunch time saw this huge line in front of Goel. People comparing notes, professors & what not. Sections with classes in the noon were all the more curious....dude, how did things go? They went fine, I guess. But it would be only a matter of few days before all the class quizzes, assignments & stuff pour in.

One small anecdote from Prof Bubna's class. We were discussing what Economics got to do with having All Ladies Nights at pubs.
Prof : So why do we have these nights?
Student : Girls are allowed free entry & the men want to meet the girls so they are willing to pay more...
Prof : So why don't they do it more often? Do men want women only 1 day in the week?
All hell broke lose......table thumping & laughs from all corners of the class...
Prof : Hang on guys....that did not come out the way it was supposed to....

School should be good fun....

Its' not been a good day. No my friend, it has been not. Kolkata lost in the IPL & Man U lost in the EPL. Why do all my favourite teams falter on the big days? Ah...I hope I had the answer to that one. A few of us had thought of ganging up & watching the IPL. The only good thing out of it was the Tandoori Chicken & the beer we had. Seeing the meat find its way to oblivion lifted our spirits to a high which no sports can achieve. On top of it, we are still not getting ESPN/Star Sports in our rooms. In a way that's good, because our fragile spirits probably cannot handle seeing both of our teams losing on live TV at the same time.

On a different note, the pre-terms are coming to a close. I had spoken about my disastrous encounters with both maths & stats. So I decided to use my superior intelligence & came up with a solution - I will not attend any more classes. To be frank, I feel better off. I am positively chirpy. It's infinitely better to sit in the sidelines knowing that you don't know rather than the fact getting hammered into your mind, body & soul in the classroom.

We had our first session of consultant gyan yesterday. Couple of alums from BCG decided to address the fertile minds of the current batch. Catch the students raw....they have been here for what? Only 2 weeks. That fortunately or unfortunately was not a deterrent. So we had the session from 10 pm. By the look of it nearly 250 people turned up crammed into a room which could take not more than 80 people. I along with SD & DD turned up around 10 mins late & we could not get anywhere near the door. We immediately beat a retreat.

Somebody had done a great job & summarized the entire discussion & sent it to the whole class. Unsurprisingly, I saw nothing new in the whole discussion. I have been in PwC for the past 5.5 years & I know how consulting functions & what the work entails. Like in all discussions/forums at ISB there were arbit questions. Got these gems from one of my friends who attended the session.

Student : So what is the exit policy of BCG?
Alum : ?????????????
Me (on hearing) : ??????????

Student : So where does BCG rank among the consultancy firms?
Alum : Well, the Tier 1 is Mac, BCG, Bain then 2nd tier is ATK, Booz, Accenture & so on...
Student : So where is McKinsey??
Me (on hearing) : Did you think Mac means McDonalds????

I have taken part in a lot of arbit discussions during my stint at PwC. I have been part of teams where a deal has taken 6 months to close & we have had meetings for an entire day from which nothing has emerged. But they have been cases where there has been a difference in the opinion between the 2 parties on the table. I mean, guys, have your fundas in place. Consulting is glamourous but it is tough to get into, it is tough work & the life you lead is also very very tough. It is not a career meant for most people.

If the first question or even the tenth question you ask from a prospective employer is about their exit strategy then all you can say is Bye Bye. Why would you even want to know that at this stage? Is it because you are not convinced that this is a right fit? In that case, why are you here at all?

As of now, I am still in the sidelines looking on at all that is happening. What's the hurry...I tell myself. We've only just been here. Like I laugh at the enthu people mentioned above, they also must be laughing at me....this idiot sits in the atrium all day, he's falling behind. Hmmm....food for thought. But I have seen pressure like few other professions have, all thanks to PwC. I know how to meet deadlines...& I have worked & made my team work for 30-35 hours at a stretch. The work pressure doesn't scare me, the prospective time schedules don't scare me. What scares me is my utter lack of knowledge in all these subjects. And that my friends, is not a nice thought.

Cheers

So couple of day back I was sitting on my desk staring like a zombie at my laptop waiting for somebody to pop up on G-Talk. All of a sudden I hear "splatch" just outside my window. Was it a monkey? The alums had spoken about this bunch of monkeys who had come into the campus once. I carefully moved the curtain aside to see the offending object. And what did I find? It was a diaper which had apparently fallen from the skies. A soiled diaper, as a matter of fact.

Now I am no stranger to soiled diapers thanks to Arya. I have had my fair share of taking them off & putting them back on a child who prefers equilibrium i.e. he refuses to have his clothes taken off & once they are off he refuses to put them back on. So me, my baby & his diapers are stories of daily struggle.

What pissed me off was why do you have to throw the diaper out of the window. The studio above me should be a mirror image of mine & in that case I know that they should have enough dustbins available. Why can't they have put the damn thing in one of them, I ask.

Surprisingly the usually super efficient ISB cleaning crew has not spotted the offending piece as yet. Is it due to the fact that it's on the backside of the SV or do they have a personal vendetta against me? I would like to think it's not the latter.

I was bored today. Also I needed some confidence booster after the drubbing in the hands of Maths & Stats. So I decided to sit for the accounting pre-terms. You are a CA....some of my friends mentioned. Doesn't matter....I needed some familiar ground before I tread onto next week. To be honest, I also wanted to see other people struggle to pamper my suffering ego.

So right after lunch I landed up at the Accounts class. The class today was basically about the following things:
a) Golden rules of accounting
b) Debit-credit & writing a journal
c) Posting to ledger accounts & drawing up a Trial Balance

Seeing the class I was overcome with nostalgia. I did these things in the 1st year of my college...back in the prehistoric days of 1997. It was a struggle for me as I had science till high school. Seeing these engineers suffer in the same way throwed me back to those days. Writing pages & pages of journals, doing problems of Trial Balance for weeks on end. Accounting is all about logic, but I must say, the logic is not very apparent initially. Why cannot this be debit? Why cannot a liability be negative? There were, to me, very very basic questions from all corners of the class. At times I wanted to jump up & shout fundas....see guys, I am a super-dude. But I must say, the instructor was very good. She was extremely patient and answered all the queries...however silly they maybe.

Seeing her, my mind went back to my Accounts teacher. I went to him a greenhorn & something he did put the love of the subject in me. It's entirely due to him that today I am a CA.

But I am digressing. Coming back to the class, man was I relieved. If I struggle in stats, these guys do in accounts. My rationalisation logic says that it will all even out. I guess we will find out in a few days time. Monday is almost upon us.

Cheers & ciao

The Pre-terms have started & with it I'm officially back to studies. I have signed up for the Quants & Stats pre-terms. Obviously, I don't need to take the Accounts module.

I always thought that I was pretty decent in both Maths & Stats. I was in for a rude shock. Time has rusted all my basic math skills. I cannot remember anything. Period. I walked into the class on the first day with a swagger but now I'm scared. I feel so hollow about the concepts, that their application seems like a distant mirage. The only solace is I can see the other guys struggling in equal measure.

The alums had mentioned that the pre-terms are useless & to an extent they are correct. The speed at which it is going is ridiculous even if it is meant only as a brush-up exercise. Howver, the good thing is that it gets you in the classroom groove and prepares you for 2 long hours in the class. I mean, we always had 40 minute periods in school & college to the extent I always felt that this is some sort of a global norm. 2 hours???? First time I heard it I thought that it must be some sort of joke. But I will survive.

Another habit which I seem to be carrying forward from my school & college days is sleeping in class. We had 3 Stats classes till date & I have slept for some duration in each of them. The scary part is that we have all our 1st term classes early in the morning. I seriously hope that I don't snooze onto glory in them. That would be some embarassment.

On a different note, groups are beginning to form among the students. I am still floating around. I know most of the Calcutta gang & some other common interests have helped in knowing other guys.

Finally, 7 of us ganged up to watch the Chelsea vs Liverpool match last night. I having an empty studio, was the host for the night. Tosh brought over a few beers. We expect a more substantial participitation for the Man U - Barca match tonight. Already quite a few guys have confirmed. It's much more fun watching the game in a group than sitting up alone at 1 in the night.

Cheers & ciao

Like I mentioned in one of my previous posts the food here will not win any culinary competition anywhere. I miss my fish & a whole lot of other good stuff. Last night as we were having biriyani outside (pretty good, I must say) I was thinking back to the food scene back in Delhi. Now anybody who's been in Delhi knows that Delhi rocks in terms of food.

Admitted there are lot of traditional goodies which I have not tried out - kulfi, chaats etc. I have not been to Chandni Chowk, Parathewala Gali or other such places. But I have been to some good places some of which both me & Mousumi ended up being quite 'fida' about.

Italian at Flavors - There is something very quaint about place. It's our favourite joint in the city. Sitting outside beside the lawn, the general confusion in the service & the fab food. We've been here umpteen times during the close to 4 yrs we've stayed together in Delhi.

Chinese at Oriental Bloom/Mainland China/China Club - All these are great places. Mainland China is the most affordable while Oriental Bloom has the most amazing dimsums I've ever had.

Spanish at Sevilla's - Ooh la la....what a setting & what great food. But very very steep on the pocket. I would definitely recommend this for celebrating a special night.

Bengali at Oh Calcutta - Food which went out of vogue with grandmothers. Traditional delicacies which these days you only may get to taste at weddings. Intricate cuisine which me & Mousumi will probably never be able to cook. Go here to find out why Bengali cuisine is probably the best cuisine in the country.

Food wise Hyderabad is also quite hep. The only problem is that the city is a distance away & it's not feasible to go there all the time. But we shall endure....& wait for our first royal meal at the City of Nizams. Till then I can keep thinking about Delhi & the days gone by.

O-week is finally over. And what a week it was. Days starting from 9 in the morning & ending at 5 in the next morning. Jam packed itinery, endless sessions of gyan, activities, sports etc etc. Today there is nothing on the agenda. Last night only at the party we were discussing this & were saying that today will feel helluva strange. All of a sudden the entire day is ours. We don't have to rush to Khemka at 9, there is nobody to tell us what to do. It's a slightly strange feeling after the high we were in the last week.

I have a few takes from my first week here.

My mind is numb from all the activities. My mind is numb from all the thousands of things that I can do here. My mind is numb from meeting the same 450 people over & over again & re-introducing myself not knowing that we have already met.

I miss Bubu & Arya. The day goes super fast & I just don't have anytime but at night when I go back to my empty studio I feel very alone. I wish they were here with me but seeing my schedule here it's probably better this way.

There will always be some people who want to impose themselves from the very first day. Super active dudes....sending mass mails...let's do this, let's do that....always extra enthu in class. These people generally have an opinion about everything, whether it is relevant or not is a totally different issue. I understand the human urge to show-off but it's only been 1 week. There will surely be lot of time for all this exta hyper activities.

The food served here deserves a special point of mention. The dining hall serves a new menu every day. They have some kind of a 14 day no repeat system. What that means is that we get new stuff to eat everyday. What it does not tell is that all of it is bad. Seriously, all of it.

Nothing is ISB is "free". There is a hidden or not so hidden cost to everything. I think we'll find out in more detail as the year progresses.

Probably the most important thing I have to do here is prioritize. You possibly cannot do everything. There would be lot of things which you would probably not experience at all. the key is to make sure you do the things that interest you & move on. Don't look back on the things which you could not do. It is not humanely possible. Just move on.

I was very impressed with the alums. They spent a lot of time organizing the O-week & they ran it beautifully. Full marks to their enthu & their org skills. One good pointer to that is if one year later we are capable of doing this for the Class of 2010 then we are at the right place!!!!

It has been an exhilirating week. If this is a pointer to the rest of the year then I am quite impressed. I think the year should be good fun.

It's been a long time since I have been part of a Section anywhere. I have studied in sections B, D, D2 (!!!) & C for various durations during my school. I'm not really counting college here since I hardly ever attended it. I obviously knew that in ISB one is divided into sections for the core terms. But there was always a doubt in my mind about how this is going to work out. I mean, you take 75 strangers, all from different cities, qualifications & work experience & put them in a room & say that you guys are going to study together for the next 6 months. It's kind of weird.

The registration day is when one comes to know about his section. I got Section E. I was slightly sad....only due to the fact that I would have preferred C or D as these were the sections in school where I had the most fun. But, section selection is absolutely the pregorative of ISB & if I had gone to them with a request on the above mentioned grounds they probably would have asked me to go back to South Point again. We are, however, all given Section T-Shirts. The Sec E T-shirtis cool. It's in black with the E written in a zany style in purple. As the alums told us, we are generally required to wear it for any inter-section activity like sports & stuff.

Also, apparently all the Sections have their own chants. Some of them are pure shit....like D's Go-D-Go & Sec F's 4-3-2-1 Sec F is no. 1. On the other hand ours i.e. Rock-E-eeeee & Sec C (Sec-C rhyming with sexy) is pretty cool. The alums took us through the paces & soon you could feel the Audi just pulsing with 450 people screaming their own section chants. Right at that moment, I realised....ISB has got this bang-on. Apart from the logistical simplicity of dividing people up, it gives an amazing oppurtunity to get to know people better & to foster a feeling of competition & rivalry.

Sec E formally met for some classroom sessions on Thursday. As the entire section introduced themselves, one thing was very apparent. There is a fantastic diversity among the people here. We had people with just about 2 yrs of work-ex to people with over 10 yrs, people from IT, Media, Consulting, Financial Services, Manufacturing, Event Management, Doctors etc etc. It would be fun learning with them & also learning from them.

We also had the Sports in the last week. Football we lost out on goal difference & could not qualify for the semis & in cricket we lost in the final. Both, incidentally, were won by Sec C. We won the quiz though. And tonight is the talent nite. I, obviously, will be just a part of the audience. Once that's over the inter-section points for the orientation week would be announced. As of now, C probably has the edge. But we won't be much far behind either. Tonight would be the key night. Let's see how things work out.

It's been about a week since I landed here. I am blown away by this place. No, seriously. The place is to be seen to be believed. I mean, this place is freaking amazing. In India can you have a place like this? If you had asked me before coming here the only thing I would have said is a BIG NO.

But dude.....I am really really lost for words. I really do not have the skills to put this down on a piece of paper. I hope to upload some pics with one my later blogs. That will probably give everybody a better idea of what this place is like.

An easy way to have an initial idea is to go through http://isb.edu/Campustour/. I hope to give the place a different perspective through my pictures.

Last saturday onwards we're having the orientation week. It's killing. The Class of 2008 basically organizes the orientation which is part of hand-holding & part-informative. It's starting from about 9 in the morning & goes on till about 9-10 on an average. And then there are the PARTIES. Man....does this place know how to partyyyyyyyyyy............It's been like 7 days since we came here....& there's already been 3 of them....
1) A normal regular dance party which went on till 3.30 in the morning
2) A get to know get-together....more normal times...upto 2 at night
3) Bollywood theme party.....ended at freaking 5 am in the morning
And I don't know how we're manging this but we were in class at 9.45 sharp!!!!! Oh man....life is so difficult....

Coming on the party drift we have realised what is THE religion at ISB....beer. Erm, did I say it's in the Top 20 B-schools in the world. Whatever it is....beer is always available. Party...beer, but obviously. Tennis...beer, football...beer, night cricket...beer, still okie dokie. But group activity & beer.....BRING IT ON, DUDE....

I think that's enough for one post. We have the sports finals today....will write about that in my next post along with the Section thing....

My journey at PwC began sometime in Dec 2002. From then I spent close to 5.5 yrs with the firm gradually moving up from a trainee to an AM level. It was fun, it was hectic, it was killing & most importantly it was great learning.

The learning was not only with respect to the work I did. It was also largely to do with the kind of people I interacted with. My seniors, peers & juniours. So the thought which has been going around is that I pen down something about these wonderful guys before I move onto the next level & the next destination on my journey - ISB.

AG - Manager with whom I spent a considerable time working. Great guy, amazing sense of humour and gave an immense amount of independence with regards to running the team & the assignment. The best part however was that he transcended the boundary of a senior-juniour relationship & became a very good friend. Wrote my recommendation & gave me lot of leeway in terms of practically not working once my results were close. An amazing guy...

DT - The person I probably admired the most in office or for that matter elsewhere also. Always positive no matter what the obstacles. Tackled massive personal problems in life headlong & alone.....winning most of them. Was my single biggest inspiration in office for the whole GMAT & ISB thing. Here's to you dude.....keep smiling

VC - Unpredicatble, impulsive & argumentative, he was one of the first friends I made in PwC. Always full of grand plans....ye karoonga woh karoonga.....& then after some time....plan dropped, yaar, kuch din bad phir sochenge....What is not unpredictable is that he's been a good friend since the 1st day we met. Hoping to see you in ISB next year yaar...

SK & JKG - Dada's & good buddies. Had lot of fun chatting, drinking & generally passing time with them.

AG - At one time my best friend in office. Rapidly went to the person I hated the most....rather have the reasons not disclosed here...though DT & VC know about it (they suffered equally from the situation). Spoke to him after almost 1 yr when I cracked ISB. Maybe we'll patch up relatively someday....time heals lot of things....

NS - Another great person I've worked under. Always supportive, always encouraging. Tell him a problem & he'll take it to whatever forums required to resolve it. Admire you buddy....

The order in which these names appear are not really significant i.e. I am NOT trying to rank them in the order of their importance. It's only that there are hundreds of images which are going around my mind & they are in no particular order.

Also I have not spelt out the names. The initials should suffice....in any case you guys know who you are....

In all fairness, these are not the only guys. There have been many many others who have contributed to what I am today. Thanks to all of you....I will forever be in your debt.

I have been away for some time. Mostly due to the fact that I have been quite busy with winding up my activities and also partly due to the fact that my broadband at home has conked off. I should also mention that I have been LAZY.

Hopefully I'll get back on a much more regular routine from now on.

ISB is just around the corner. I intend to dutifully write about all that transpires there apart from my normal random posts and updates about Arya.

This was the first wedding Arya attended. Like all parents, we wanted him to be in top condition....we were so keen on showing him to our friends & relatives back home.
Unfortunately, the poor guy was bit by some insect a few days before the wedding. Though the infection had gone down....what was left were red marks on each cheek....or so to say, beauty spots.

I am also a contributor to the ISB blog where I'll write from time to time. Today was my first post in the common blog. You can read about that blog at http://isbclassof2009.blogspot.com/

It's actually very interesting to see the way kids can understand what exactly they should not be doing! Same is true for Arya.

Generally we drink water direct from the bottle and do not usually use a glass. Couple of days back Mousumi & I decided to have a drink after dinner. Of course, vodka is not something you take direct from the bottle. Out came two glasses and we were sitting & chilling out.

Till now Arya was happily playing with his toys. Moment he saw the two glasses on the side table he was aroused. For him, glasses were a new thing and he decided that he wanted them. All the toys were forgotten and he crawled & tottered on his tiny feet upto the table.

We had kept the glasses well away from his reach but had not totally removed them just to see what he was going to do. To give him credit he tried his best. From one side of the table, then the other side he made an all out effort to get hold of them. He even caught hold of one of his nappies and tried to flap at the glasses with it.

Mousumi was extremely critical and said you have to see whose son he is. I guess the men are blamed no matter what. You say anything & you get branded as an MCP. But I'm digressing. Coming back to Arya....

Poor chap, ultimately, gave up. And like with all other things which do not go as per his wishes this also had one outcome. He started to cry. Ok....time for corrective measures. Picked him up in my lap and took him to the kitchen. He has this strange affinity to the kitchen. No matter how much he is crying or being grumpy, moment he enters the kitchen he is happy. All smiles. Can't say 32 all out because he still has only 4 teeth. That solved the problem for then. In the future I guess we can only have a drink once he goes off to sleep.

If I leave here tomorrow
Would you still remember me?
For I must be travelling on, now,
'Cause there are too many places I've got to see.
But if I stayed here with you, girl,
Things just couldn't be the same,
'Cause I'm free as a bird now,
And this bird you cannot change,
Lord knows I can't change.

One of my favourite songs, this gem from Lynyrd Skynyrd epitomises so many things that go on through our mind. The desire to break free, to see new things, to test yourself to the limits.

My interview for ISB was smooth for the most part. There were hardly any difficult questions and most of it was general conversation about the economy & the CA profession.

One of the panel members was a CA, though he did not tell me that initially. He had put forward the question "Do you think the CA profession is getting commoditized?" By commoditization what he meant was that is it only about the fees being quoted or is the quality of work also taken into account. This was a question where we had a healthy debate...almost 10 minutes went into this.

My take on the same was basically as follows:

1. The quality is definitely taken into account. I gave an illustration of a recent assignment which we won for a listed Company which is part of the Sensex. This was a prestigious assignment not only because of the brand name of the Client but because the scale & scope of the assignment was unprecented for the CA profession in India. It required about 50-60 people working full time on the assignment across different locations in India. Further, all the Big 4 had put in very aggressive proposals for the assignment.

2. In the end it came to us. I don't think this was solely because of the fees we had quoted which in any case was quite high. The team which we had put together for the delivery was of the highest quality. It involved specialists from respective fields and were headed by the Service Leader of the Practice for India as well as the Territory Senior Partner for India. Also we had planned to involve Senior Partners from overseas territories (one from US & one from Malaysia) who would be involved hands-on with the Project. Added to it was the deep experience PwC already possessed in this field. I believe it was the strength of the team which we brought across the table which ultimately clinched the assignment for us.

3. On a different note, I feel that fees quoted should in any case be a major issue. If all the Big 4 are bidding for a project, logically the team expertise & experience across them would be more or less similar in nature. So in a situation where there are 4 options, all equally good, for a Company to choose from, it is logical that it would choose the cheapest option. In the end, the Company has to look to its bottom line also. If you get equal quality of service from X for Rs. 1 million why would you select Y & pay him Rs. 2 million.

4. The problem would arise if you are just concentrating on the cost rather than the quality. In a situation where the Big 4 is quoting Rs. 10 Lacs & ABC Co. is quoting Rs. 2 Lacs and the assignment is awarded to ABC without regard to the fact that the Big 4 can give a much much better quality output then there is a problem. It would mean that the Client is just interested in getting the job done from a regulatory perspective and not from the point of value addition & possible improvements.

To summarize, I guess the problem is not with the profession but the mindsets of the Client Management. They alone can decide their perspective - are they interested in better quality or is it only about cost control. That I believe is the major differentiator and also an indicator to where the CA profession is heading on a long term.

One of the traditions at PwC is that all articles who complete their CA throw a party for the entire office. It is part celebration & part initiation to the CA profession. One progresses from a student to a professional. There are very few more satisfying feelings.

The last 3 pass out batches threw their combined bash on 15th Feb. It was a special evening for me. I have never been to a pass-out party before. Till the time I qualified, I had decided not to attend a single party. All parties after that, including my own party, I had to miss due to various reasons....most usually due to the fact that I was travelling for work. In a way, this was the first party I attended and also will be my last. After close to 5.5 yrs, this was going to be last time that I was going to share a drink with these wonderful guys as colleagues. It felt nostalgic and there was a feeling of sadness as the evening wore down.

The party was true to PwC form a success. There was ample booze. There is something about consultants and free booze. So accustomed are we to the fact that someone pays for our drinks that we don't think before downing more than one's usual quota.

Quite a few of the partners turned up also. It feels good to see the top guys turning up for a celebration which is essentially thrown by the juniormost guys in the firm.

In the end I believe it's all about personal relationships. As I left, there were quite a few juniors who walked up to me & said "We're going to miss you". That I believe is the greatest positive I am going to carry from PwC. Best wishes & love. Nothing can beat that. Nothing.

One of the pitfalls of having no work is having too much coffee. The amount of coffee you have is indirectly proportional to the amount of work you have (Note: if you are working after 9-10 at night, then again the two become directly proportional).

As mentioned in an earlier post, I hardly have any work these days. So, anybody I know who is going for a coffee break asks me to tag along. And I, having nothing better to do, oblige. The result is that I am having atleast 8-10 cups a day. At times, I have to pretend to be deep in work to refuse somebody. But they are quick to look through the charade...."Yaar, we know you are not doing anything....come on, na..." And there I go to the vending machine for the n-th time.

The sad thing is that I seem to be losing the taste of good coffee...the type my Mom or my Wife makes. So used have I become to the "Capuccino" I get at work....I am being forced to drink tea at home.

I hope to get back the taste again. Because, coffee is what is going to sustain me through the endless nights that's staring into my face. Just over a month to go before I land up at ISB. God, just thinking about it makes me want another cup of Capuccino again.....