Mid-Feb update

Like I told someone the other day, I am regularly irregular. I post once a month. On trivial things. Like websites and marriages.

February has been quite eventful so far. Good events and bad events.

Bad first. Of course. Increased pressure at work. The “recession” or “econamageddon” as someone called it on NPR’s Planet Money podcast isn’t exactly easy on capital equipment sales. And there are other issues too.

Then Voteyatra had to be put in the cold storage. This is all that’s left of it now.

Voteyatra in hibernation

So we’ll have to wait for another day, for it to rise like the phoenix. (pardon the exaggeration). That’s been the most startup-y thing I’ve ever done in my life.

Now for the good. Late January was a visit to Pondicherry (on work). There wasn’t any time for sight seeing, the way the whole thing was planned, but we sneaked in a detour at Mahabalipuram to take in the Shore Temple.

Shore temple at Mahabalipuram

Three weeks later, I was back in the south, this time to Chennai to attend a good friend’s wedding. More on that here.

The week following that was Startup Saturday Delhi #2 which was not as great a success as the first one, but quite decent enough. The networking session seemed quite a busy one. Surely a few things to be learnt from that experience. Ritesh has a more detailed post here.

Last weekend was wordcamp. With Matt Mullenweg, co-founder of WordPress and Om Malik, of GigaOM as honoured guests. Quite a lot of interesting (and boring) topics. Met a number of friends there, put some faces to twitter ids, and got acquainted with some new people. Wordcamp was trending on twitter, with the tag #wci. Of course there were a lot of non-specific tweets with that tag, but it gave a good account of the whole event along with all the happenings on the sidelines. A few people have blogged (and live blogged the event) and a google search for WordCamp India will throw them up. For me it was just an inspiration to start blogging again.

Next week is BarCamp Delhi at MDI Gurgaon. So its a trip back to the alma mater. Hope to meet old friends there. Not the twittering type.

Been quite a long post by my standards, and its been a good day.

What we learnt in class today

Mergers and Acquisitions are the result of three theories
Theory X
Theory Y
Theory Z

Theory X

is all about money. If you have money, buy companies. If you don’t, sell yours

Theory Y

talks about the motivational factors. Maslow’s motivational theories (?). If you feel motivated enough … buy a company or several. If you are feeling blue sell out.

Theory Z

Is about contingency. Buy and sell as you feel the need.

You can see a combination of these theories at work, when you research mergers and acquisitions.

People in HBR (Harvard Business Review) write nice stories which are good to read. You can read them and feel good. Sometimes they feel the need to use bombastic words, but generally they are easy to read and understand.

People of the level of IAS (Indian Administrative Service) also copy … word for word.

The West Bengal government is not a nice government

Lakshmi Mittal stayed in some building in Calcutta where a lot of other famous Marwaris also stayed.

“I” want numbers, I dont have any.

“I” love to spell words on the board.
===========================================

Learnings:
If you are hearing words for the first time, its high time you invested in a dictionary.
You came alone, you will go alone, so work alone.

In one word: Intreshting.

It rained or what reminds me of home

April showers bring Mayflowers
March showers bring me joy
The grey sky above the campus towers
I feel again like a little boy.

The rains remind me so much of home and of Goa. So I went around with a cam (thanks Jai) and took some pics.

Feel free to comment on the pics and the unseasonal rains.

Raindrops keep falling on my head (and everywhere else).

The washed roads glistened.

The sky was grey and calm and the trees swayed in the breeze.

This rose giggled.

The flowers were happy

This one was shy.

The Feel Good Factor or why I love Harvard Business School

High expectation
Its like a balloon
Sometimes there’s no sense
In looking at the moon

The moon has spots
And balloons burst
To avoid getting hurt
Do your research first

And all the castles I had built about Harvard students came tumbling down like a pack of cards. And just like all the spam floating around: MDI Rocks.

Our strategy professor showed us a video of a case discussion in Michael Porter’s class and I came away impressed.
At the level of my fellow students.

The only other differences between us and them are:
1) probably that their class is quiet
2) they have greater work experience

And I don’t think that they really prepared the case as much as our prof. tells us they do. But all said and done they produce more reputed people. Why?

1) Harvard has a “brand” name
2) They have a huge roster of alumni and consequently very dense alumni network
3) Well if they admit a batch of 900, atleast 10 have to make it big!

Thinkfart would probably have asked them to look at the “numbers”. Then he would send out an evaluation mail saying,

Dear students,

Today’s discussion shows that the rigour in ur(sic!) analysis was missing. You need to understand this from the gestaldt (sic) view. The requisite skills in number crunching are sorely lacking. I expect u to perform to better standards. I have attached a matrix on which your performance can be evaluated

Rigour of research and analysis (including number crunching): 3
Application of strategic thought: 3
Presentation Dynamics: 4

Regards

Thinkfart
COO
Get Another Job

Why my existence is complete or The Great Porno(b) show

I had heard a lot about the “man” well and I am happy to say that he stands shorter off the ground than I do.
So we went to the IMI bizquiz on Saturday which was also convocation day for the students passing out from MDI.
And when we got there we learnt that the quiz master was good ole Pornob (I kinda like that spelling, it seems to convey something sleazy about that man).
I’ll remember the next thing that Ramesh said, “Now lets have fun in the quiz”. Not win, have fun.
Interesting. The eliminations were decent enough and I thought as Rabi had said that he had “improved”. I should have known another Bong saying that. Pardon my naïveté.
We got to sit on stage. And then it dawned upon me. Wow! what a man. Pulling off questions off the top of his head like a magician pulling a rabbit out of the hat. And to complete the magician analogy, he is a master illusionist too. A few samples

1. Jagson airlines is supposed to have Pathankot airport as its hub which I think is just functional or yet to be functional
2. Peter Arnett was behind the branding of CNN, whereas he is the Pulitzer Winner, former CNN correspondant, accused by the former Bush administration of feeding viewers Iraqi propaganda
3. Village Roadshow Entertainment of Australia owns 51% of Fox Searchlight Pictures (well then how can it be a News Corp. company?)
4. The congress “hand” symbol was conceived by Arun Nanda at the behest of Rajiv Gandhi. It was actually the idea of Indira Gandhi. Nanda only came in after Rajiv Gandhi asked him to make ad-campaigns for the election campaign of 1989

Then we had some weird movies including one chinese movie made by a guy whose name sounded like “Wang Cor Wai” and is supposedly a master filmmaker.
Then the arbit scoring. Initially it was 10 direct – 5 pass. Then in the 5th round it became 10 pass-10 direct. Then in the 6th and last, he made it 10 direct – 11 pass. Huh??

I loved it when the “any topic under the sun” round came up.

Ramesh: Linux Kernel Device Drivers. (I am already
Porno: Lets make it the free software industry
Ramesh: We insist
Porno: I can’t let that.
Ramesh: Then, how about 3D FPS Games?
Porno: I’ll make it the gaming industry

But now he was quite pissed off and we were giggling like schoolgirls. Then came some obscure question about GTA San Andreas in which the character Carl Johnson is inspired by a movie character. Answer? Pat Garrett. Lets leave it at that.

At the end of it we were spilling our guts out laughing laughing all the way on the long ride back. All in all an experience. And I am sorry to say that his “disciples” did not win the quiz. Even with the eleven point scoring. And he did not read out our scores.

And I am definitely going to the next Porno Show, probably at DSE-MHROD. How can I resist cheap entertainment?
See all you guys there.

How I was saved and the star of the evening

The seniors are leaving. Good or bad.
It doesn’t really matter.
As clueless as usual I just amble around snapping photographs.
I was told that all the good stuff that they usually don’t serve at festive dinners like this one would make an appearance. “Its the goods this time, mark my words”. Thats what one guy told me.
Then the director invites us to dinner. A long queue. So I decide to take the matter in my hands. Just walk up to the counter where they dish out the plates.
And the food. Ugh… Off goes the plate

dumped!

Then I see ice-cream. Real milk vanilla ice cream. And what makes my day is the little brown bottle that screams HERSHEY’S. I am in heaven. And this is an image of my face.

satiated

And a satisfying sleep at the end of the day. Next morning is the convocation. Got work to do.

Radio Wars or how to start a fight without much ado

Ok. So you have a like 15 GBs of MP3s stored up on your hard disk. And you have listened to each song thrice and know all the lyrics by heart. So what do you do then? Start a hostel radio. Download and install the latest shoutcast plugins and server.Enqueue all the songs in winamp and push play.

There but who knows about it?

There is always MSExchange. Bill Gates’ beauty cum spammers’ dream come true. So you shoot off batch mails telling everybody what an awesome RJ you are and then wait for people to sign up. The names Radio K.A.O.S. All he can do is shamelessly rip off Roger Waters.

Oooh. Still no load? No problem. H. Shirouzu has just the thing for you. Its called IPMessenger. Every five minutes you ping the junta with messages like
For all the lovebirds: A Happy Valentine’s Day
Coming up Rock Hour
Bryan adams..and BOn jovi…just for u all!!!

Ok. We know no one wants your radio when we can choose our own songs. No. The gentleman insists. Then all the hatred goes public. Everyone lets loose all pent up venom and some want to hang him too. Oooh.
This is what my good friends think about it.

Listener

This gets too much for me. I can no longer chat with my good friend sitting two rooms away over the same IPMessenger. So much for technology. Sigh! Bill Gates and his ilk rule my life.

Song for my mood: Move by Miles Davis.

Random Fun or how to make your life enjoyable @ BSchool

Just Past Midnight, ground floor boys hostel

ME (Enter stage right, walk up beneath first floor railings look up and shout): Mansoooooooooooor. (Repeat thrice)

UNKNOWN FEMALE VOICE 1 (A tinny tone): Mannnnnnnnsooooooor
UNKNOWN FEMALE VOICE 2 (huskier): Mannnnnnnnsooooooor
RANDOM PERSON 1 (shouts): Mansoooooooooorrrr
RANDOM PERSON 2 (shouts): Mansoooooooooorrrr
PRANESH (looks up, shouts): Maaannnnnnnnsooooooooooorrrr.

MANSUR pops out like a beaver from his den. Looks dazed. Leans over the railing.

MANSUR: What is it?
ME: Which movie are you watching?
MANSUR: I’m doing work man, not watching any movie.

KARY (formerly unknown female voice 1): What about my write ups?
MANSUR: Huh!! (leans over a bit more.)

GORDON (in Mansur’s ears): Mansooooooor.
ME: Mansur, don’t jump. Pleeease.

A sizable crowd has collected. Unknown Female Voice 2(shrieks). Verghese comes down to the first floor. Everyone eggs him on to jump.

PRANESH (Opening his arms): I’ll hold you.

Verghese climbs over the railing and jumps. Pranesh moves away. Jandhyala steps in, but puts a hand between Verghese’s legs to catch him.

VERGHESE (screwing up his face): Dude, that’s not the way to hold a person!

All hold their sides, laughing. One sleepy soul, woken up comes out to check the fun. All disperse. He makes a sad face and goes back to sleep.

I come back to my room.

Song for the situation: ‘Round Midnight by Miles Davis.

Academic Rigour

The academic rigour is really getting to people here.
Placement season and approaching exams combined with dry runs have made us quite susceptible to this disease. Usually it acquires epidemic proportions but generally vanishes after exams are over. This periodic disease has only one known cure, excision of the diseased individuals from their surroundings. It is also to some extent contagious.

Symptoms include but are not limited to:

• Asking stupendously idiotic questions in class (these generally qualify for the Sayal Saab Rolling Trophy)
• Sucking up to professors and asking for probable examination questions
• Camping out in the library
• Mailing professors and other arbit people with questions like, “how can one get an Excellent rating in evaluation of rigour of submission” (Yeah, someone actually wrote that)
• Spamming people to ask doubts over the local mail exchange

And then there are people who claim to Think Vast and accentuate the academic rigour. These are the people who will send you detailed guidelines as to submission of assignments and the evaluation criteria, especially in response to above the mails.

Here is a sample

a few first level observations are:
– very original work with variation of language vis-à-vis the case study language (How about French?)
– beyond macro 1st level remarks
– having the Gestaldt view (or Gestalt psychology?)
– making observations that connect up with the academic concept of the case study

certain things are obvious:
– submission before deadline (if possible, make an early submission as this would kill any perceived impression ‘copying has been done’) (If you are so smart they why go by the perceptions?)
– a certain minimum length of analysis just as a certain maximum
– NOT sharing ur work with others (US has the academic culture of no one sharing his/her work as evaluations determine scholarships etc, in fact seniors also do not help; in India the smart students are actually dumb and act generous, though collaboration is absent in many Indian B-schools too…after all, the karmic experience of making a submission (aren’t we getting a bit too spiritual here?) on one’s OWN was the real learning, copying someone else’s work and submitting the same was sidestepping the true purpose of enrolling for a two year course)

I have just decided that I’m too bored to follow all these complex instructions. So I’ll just forget to submit all these assignments. And if you didn’t know, the purpose of all these assignments was just to prepare us for better class discussion.

Now if someone is so jobless as to sit and evaluate all these assignments and then give a grade like “VERY GOOD” with the comment “seem to have copied”

The ending comments on the message titled “Guidelines on Excellence in Submissions” are

– just as a chess player who can visualize 5-8 moves ahead without physically touching the pieces, or a sudoku player able to imagine multiple entries without actually penciling them in, same way a large RAM holding the entire case study generates quality analysis replete with insights

Which essentially means that we are big computers.

Song for the mood
Peter Gabriel: I Grieve.