Cities I've visited!

Here's all the cities that I have visited! Still a lot more to cover.

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Randy Pausch

A really long video!! So, I'll keep it short.

WATCH IT if that's the last thing you do!!

Holi Hain

Holi. Holi in India. Holi in India after five years. Holi in India after five years at IIM-A. First of all, a very happy Holi to all. May the colors of the season color all our lives!

I played Holi, proper Holi with colors and all after such a long time that I had almost forgotten what Holi was all about. In the US, you didn't even get a holiday, so Holi had meant just another potluck in the week-end.. (Of course, there are places in the US, where a sizeable Indian population means a very colorful and bashful Holi!)

Holi at home would have been fun. But as the forces would have it, I had to spend Holi at IIM-A, which was not really such a bad alternative, but yes, to be honest, I did miss my family very much.

Holi at IIM-A started off with the usual morning dunking, a round of water wars and then we all trooped over to the common grounds.. IIM-A Cult-Com had done a good job, and there was the gulal tanki, the balloons, the pukka rang, and most importantly the junta. Even the profs came over to play Holi, and for a change it was fun to dunk the very same profs who customarily dunk us with fundae in class day-in and day-out.

Holi over, the bath - half a bar of soap and frantic rubbing and the colors of Holi still refuse to get off - Good!

Namesake

Well, I watched Namesake today. Yes, its not a new movie, yes, it was released last year, but for some reason, I just never got round to seeing it till today. A very nice movie (though initially I thought it was rather slow) - the kind of movie that makes you all mushy and strike all the poignant chords, the kind that makes you think.

After coming back from the US, I never really thought too much about it, but strangely enough, after seeing the movie, the single thought that I had was that one of the best decisions that I have made is to have come back to India. You might laugh at me, I mean how are the two related - Namesake and India. I guess I don't really have an answer. Some things don't need to have an answer. You don't really need to figure out whether there is a God. Its better to let it 'blow in the wind'. And so, I am just going to let it blow in the wind. Not think too much, not analyze too much, nor dissect too much.

Just feel so happy that I am back in my land. Just feel so happy that I am close to home, to everything that means anything to me. Just feel so happy that I was able to visit home more times last year than I have in the last six years.

Great movies, they make you think, great movies, they make you cry and laugh, great movies that make you feel you are after all only a human.

Inclusive Growth.

At the cost of being termed 'nerdy', I shall use this medium to think aloud my thoughts on the current talk of the town - Inclusive Growth. (See, I have invested so much time and effort the last six months in my MBA program that there have been spill-over effects and I have begun to believe that the trade is closer to my passion than engineering. Then again the last statement was fairly strong and is subject to the standard disclaimer: Strong statements are subject to market risks and are expected to change and temper with time.)

Well, coming back to the issue. A lot has been said about Inclusive Growth and no doubt a lot more will be said.. Now here's how I see the problem.

I believe that the issue of inclusive growth is a 'principal agent' problem (Google for principal agent problem in the economic context.) The agents being the haves and the have-nots. So, then if a particular section of the society is disbarred or prevented from sharing the profits of the entire community, it could act in accordance with its own interests and, thus, create market disturbances.

In simple layman terms, the interests of the entire community, society or organization need to be well aligned. For this to happen, the implication is that the rewards of progress need to be fairly distributed to all the stakeholders. More importantly, no one should get the feeling that they got a raw deal. This does not mean that you reward poor performance. On the contrary, poor performance should be punished and the agent should be told in very clear terms the basis on which his performance was judged, why he did not perform and what steps he could take to improve future performance. Similarly, excellent performance needs to be adequately awarded, thus, incentivising the agent to perform even better in the future.

Simple problems have simple solutions and complex problems have even simpler solutions. The concept of the principal agent problem is applicable in most disharmonious organizations and societies, and my limited knowledge would suggest that it applies to the problem of non-inclusive growth in the Indian economy.

Wise cracks!

In the mood for wise cracks today, so here goes!!

- Everyone's after the time value of money (read interest rate), but what about the money value of time (read opportunity cost)??

- When there's a gold rush, everyone runs after the gold, a few run after the spades. Guess who make the fortune?

Encounters of the marital kind.

First post for the year. So, by default, has to have masala. And in good measure, while I am at it, am gonna spike up the drink.

Ok, I am new to the marital encounters and while I do offer consultancy services to many a friend, many of whom have been blessed by my advice, this was a first for me.

In all earnestness, this was like the driving test that I took in the US. I go to the driving school. The instructor tells me go drive the car. I take the car out into the streets, do my best to make sure I don't ram into that truck, and scare the bonkers out of every car that dares to come near me. Fifteen minutes later, the guy says let me out, you passed the test. I go what the!, smile and get my license.

Ok, so lets play "Meet the parents."

Conventional Indian arranged marriages go: Guy and his family and uncles and aunts go to the gal's house. The gal comes in with a tea tray laden with goodies, and delights everyone with her culinary delights, and shyly says my name is Mira.

Fast forward to 2008, I had the gal's family come over to meet me at my house. No gal, just Mommy dear and Papa dear, who wanted to take a good hard look at me. Talk of men's liberation or the changing times. Whatever, I come in with the tea-laden tray.

Mommy Dear: "So, beta, did you make this samosa?" I nod my head in glee. "And how much 'moin' did you put?" This is worse than an I-banker's interview but hell I am prepared for this! "Two tbsps!" Mommy dear pacified, its Papa bear's turn.

Pappa Bear: "And what are your hobbies?" I shag. Well, couldn't tell him that, so I talk about my stamp-collecting and coin-collecting interests. Papa Bear is impressed. Beta's gonna take good care of my stamps and coins, he thinks..

Well, mission accomplished. Mommy Dear and Papa Bear gave the green signal. Now I move to the second round of interviews -this time with the gal. But then that's another story, another day!

Getting older...

The good thing about getting older is that you have so many memory lanes down which you can walk, and reminisce of old times.

The bad thing is that its so easy to get lost in them!

Go Rajat Nagpal !

The last days of WIMWI second term.. The examinations.. The last straws.. And as I tried to recover from the onslaught of the mighty QM and EEP end-sems (See what exams can do to your grammar, et al), I you-tube my way to some of the finest documentaries and music videos out there - all directed by the one and only Rajat Nagpal. The fact that Rajat was my class-mate at Don Bosco does not in any way bias my opinion of him as one of the most promising director that Bollywood has to offer. You can sample him at:



Sadho Re



Mahamaya



Keiner




Yahin Kahin


Mahamaya not only has a very rich sound-track and video, but also has a very visual and powerful message and philosophy. A perfect blend that compares very well with Nirvana. Sadho Re, visualises the world through a child's eye. Again, lovely music and visuals.

Rajat's Yahin Kahin brings you up close and personal with contemporary India and the climax is just that - climaxical (Repeat: Exam-time and my vocabulary is full of distasteful business lingo which I am sure you don't want to read. So 'climaxical' will have to do for now!) Keiner seems to be revolved around a similar theme but based in Germany.

Well, a very welcome break from all the characteristic muggai of fuchchadom at WIMWI.

Take a chill-pill !!

Corporate Finance - Brealey/Myers/Allen. Chapter 20 - Options. End of chapter - Summary:

"If you have managed to reach this point, you are probably in need of a rest and a stiff gin and tonic. So, we will summarize what we have learned so far and take up the subject of options again in the next chapter when you are rested (or drunk)."

The authors are obviously very highly regarded in their field. The text-book is a standard for most finance courses taught in business schools the world over. What is even more striking is that these guys have a sense of humor (Actually, its not so striking if you have ever been to the US, and interacted with the brightest and the best professors - the Gods.) A very common feature amongst most of these professors is their humility and sense of humor - something that I can attest to since I had the honor of being taught by Prof. Deiter Schroder (Semiconductor Characterization) and Prof. Douglas Montgomery (Design of Experiments), both stalwarts in their respective fields. Maybe, one of the reasons why they are what they are is because they truly enjoy what they do, and enjoy laughing at themselves once in a while..

I compare the styles of American authors with the text books written by Indian authors. For the most part, the Indian contemporaries are formal, succinct and BOOORING...

(Important Disclaimer: There are some very refreshing and notable exceptions - Concepts in Physics by Prof. HC Verma. If you are into Physics, you wouldn't be able to have enough of him.)

But the point that I am making is that the norm amongst Indian academic authors is that they rarely ever make you laugh. So, why this lack of humor amongst Indian academia. Is it that the academia would always want to be taken very seriously? Is it that the academia scorn at any attempt to belittle them and/or cannot laugh at themselves? Or is it that Indian academia does not always truly enjoy what it does, that it is frustrated and discontent with the resources given to it and this is what comes out in its publishings?

Well, I don't want to play God here, but I do wish that the Indian academic community would cheer up, laugh a little more often, or in simple words, take a chill-pill.

Of resolutions.

Before joining IIM-A, I decided to make a resolve. (Before doing anything new in life, you always want to make a resolve, right? Something akin to the poojas and et al that our forefathers did.

I thought that this was my last fling in acad life. So, I better do what I missed out in my earlier acad life. I made a list of all that I did, and what I didn't. Lo behold, try as hard as I could, I could think of only one item that I didn't do, and that was studying... I stared at the list and then chew up the list...

Moral of the story: Make resolutions if you absolutely have to, but never, never, Never try to dissect ur earlier life. It only leads to pain and suffering.

Everything changes and nothing does..

Change.

People say that the only thing that's constant is change. And while the skylines and the top-lines (ok, five months of intensive accounting, and whether I like it or not, my language is peppered with all that jazzzz.) change every year, the core values and the bottom-lines (there I go again!!) just don't change.

Yes, let's face it, its very difficult for the basics to change. You might get complicated in your expressions, and make life complicated for you and all around you, but the core basics, philosophies of life just don't change. Your garb of sophistication and self-righteousness melt away in times of crisis and you unleash your animal and guttural instincts of survival out into the world.

Don't believe me, well, look what happens around you in the world. When Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, even the cops feared to enter certain districts..

The physical violence has transformed into the even bitter mental violence. Instead of the battle-ground, in lieu of our precious lives, we prefer to settle our differences in courts. The basics - human conflicts, differences - have not changed, our medium of resolution has.

Which one is worse? Mental or Physical, I'll leave that out to you. (One of the cool T-shirts that I had had this caption - Stop F**king me with your brains.)

Well, as the brook said, "For men may come and men may go, I go on forever."

The Taj - a monument of love or ...

Ok, today, I am in a really expansive mood. Two big posts in a WIMWI day!! Or maybe its because of my last post #13. I am not really a superstitious type, but if you are in an expansive mood and if you just want to write to your blog, you can indulge in such luxuries.

Ok, reader, never mind the above. They were just place-holders. Cut to the quick, the Taj Mahal, India's entry to the seven wonders of the world is considered a monument of love - the insignia of a weeping widower in memory of his departed wife.

The emperor of India spent millions to build his saga of love, and when the monument was completed, he cut off the hands of the twenty thousand artisans who had built the tomb - so that they might never again create a better masterpiece.

As I stared at the Taj Mahal on the back-cover of my marketing note-book, the white Taj suddenly turned red (or was it my eyes that desperately wanted some shut-eye). Either case, I cannot disassociate the beauty of the Taj with the brutality of its emperor in cutting off the hands of his artisans.

History is full of examples of emperors and conquerors and kings. Of great battles and romances. Of how Alexander almost conquered the entire world, of how Ashoka spread Buddhism, of how Gandhiji fought the British. But history almost never talks about the populace which made it possible. The common man is always common - too common to be written about or talked about, and yet it is his commonness on which the glory rests.

Me better than thee.

Ok, I don't have anything against competition. Humankind has progressed partly because of competition against Nature's elements, trying to pull a fast one whenever Nature wanted to put Man in its place. Really don't know whether Man won all the time. Nevertheless, Man competed and competed to win, to prove that he was better than thee.

Yes, sometimes, competition does bring out the best in you, and sometimes, Mr Hyde overshadows Dr. Jekyll and has a field day! Be it as it may, competition does kick one into activity. So, in that sense, competition certainly has a role to play in one's life.

Sitting in my room in WIMWI, I wonder should one always try to compete, when should one compete, what should one compete for, how should one compete, why should one compete, where should one compete.. (See, I am already competing against my limited vocab to chalk up a list of questions to ask!!)

No, seriously, is competition all there is to it? Twenty-seven years of my paltry experience cries out in defiance. NO, there are better things out there. Life is not just about one upmanship or stupid brownie points. Life is about... (Ok, I need another post for that.)

A friend asked me tonight, "Hows Life?" A simple question, really, and yet a thought-provoking one. I used it pretty often myself.

"Life is beautiful", I replied, not reading too much out of that. An hour later, during my hourly break from mugging, I start brooding on the answer, and write this post.

Yes, life is not about me better than thee, Life is much too beautiful than that..

Difference between R&D and Production

R&D Boss to R&D Employee: Dude, I sent you the data last month. Maybe you could think about it for the next three months, and then send me the results next year?

Production Boss to Production Employee: What the f*%! is wrong with you, you lousy piece of dumb-shit? I sent you the data a second back, and you still don't have the F%!%!#@ results?

Sick in IIM-A

Well, yes, I was sick but that is past. I finally got well, (Tonight, I felt normal, no head-aches and so well!) What did I do to celebrate this wellness of being. Yes, you guessed it. Did a night-out to try catching up on all the acad-stuff.

In the world, there are two types of people. People who like to be normal, do normal things, live simply, and love and laugh, and live a happy life doing normal things. And then there are some who just can't be happy. They like to do abnormal things. They love to make life complicated, stressful, unhappy. Guess, a good way of saying it is that they are happy being unhappy, and making things complicated.
Why do I get this numbing feeling that I am graduating to the second category of people?

YE Gods that have borne me so far, Convey to this desolate mind some news of a life that he shall see no more. Amen!

Flying back to the land of serfs and servants.

Ok, I finally did it. Everything working like clockwork and if all goes well, I should be back home in the next six hours. (Currently, I am 36,000 feet in the air!)
I am returning back to India in style. Air India, the national carrier, and for the record, the lousiest airline in 2007 (I haven't flown Biman, but I think Air India might just beat Biman!)

So, anyways, here I am flying on Air India, and since I have nothing to do, am doing what Indians excel at- bhat, gup-shup, adda. Indians have an opinion on everything and what's more love to share it with you. They love to know what's going on in the neighbour's house and air their opinions on human behavioral norms. Well, a civilization as old as ours, can be trusted to revel in the human element!
Conversations with strangers can be strange and if you tell them that you are killing the American dream and returning to the motherland for good, you better be prepared to hear a mouthful. SO, here goes a commentary on some insights I got from my caring neighbors.

A green-card holder middle-aged lady running a motel in California:
"Returning to India?? Are you nuts? I am tearing the world apart, trying to get a green-card for my daughter (Why her daughter did not get a green-card, though the mother did is a question best answered by the Gods of Immigration and Naturalization Services of the United States of America. We'll take that up some other time please!) and you!! Well, nothing like the luxury of maids and servants in India, but returning back to India for that! Well, well, well!

Elderly parents visiting their son in the US:
"My son doesn't like it here as well. Good that you are returning back! In the US, you gotta do everything yourself! No maids/servants!"

Well, there were a lot of reasons for me to head back to India,but servants and maids never really figured in any one of them. But what do you know? The next uncle/aunty who asks me WHY is going to get exactly what he/she wants - "No servants in the US."

Customer first, ALWAYS!

Five males were competing with each other fighting for the attentions of the lone female standing close by.

After some time, one of the males walked out of the fight and joined the lass, a bored spectator to the males fighting each other. The male offered the female a cup of coffee at the cafetaria. Seeing her lucky break, she walked away with the male leaving the other four male fighters fighting.

MORAL of the story: Understanding the market, catering to the needs of your client. Customer first, always!!

Why do the people who we see as devils turn out to be angels?

Yes that happens and I am pretty ashamed of myself.

Of Corporate shit, dirt and politics

Yes, business is not for the soft-hearted. Yes, business demands nerves of steel and resolve. Yes, business is not for the faint-hearted. But does business really require shit, dirt and politics?

I am going to IIM-A and the WIMWI seniors have already preached us the first lesson in moral science and ethics. Good, I say, or is it? Has the corporate world really given up on the corporate shit, dirt and politics? How will moral science and ethics teach me to deal with the corporate crooks and scoundrels.

According to Isaac Asimov, one of the smartest sci-fi authors of modern times, we are moving towards the knowledge and information age, where the human brain and spirit will be the greatest resource to create wealth. We no longer live in the religious age, military age or the economic age where religion, military and economic might dictate nation's destinies.

With the advent of the information age, new economy companies have to redefine their core philosophies around the people that work in them. Case in point, Google. It empowers its employees in numerous ways such that Google employees think they are working for themselves, not for an evil corporation. More and more companies are going the Google way.In fact, they better do if they are to retain their human resources. So, then where is the space for corporate shit, dirt and politics?

Well, the reality is that there is still a lot of room in today's corporate world for corporate shit, dirt and politics. The truth is that the corporate world is still not prepared for the new information age.

SAD!