A Suspended Particle in Brownian Motion

My Tenth Week of Internship

2007-08-03T14:39:00.001-07:00

I have fallen in love with Austin. Frankly, it is because of this lovely City that I have been able to do so many things in the past. I started working out (well now on irregular basis yet there was a start) and I could quit smoking and I could enjoying partying again… the best of the city came about this weekend. But before that the things at work…

Monday was the Intern cultural event at Dell and we were supposed to cook something and take it to office. I realized it when I reached office and saw my calendar for the day. So, Abhishek and I decided that we will cook some Pakoras and take them. Having Mak's wife Arundhati at home really helped us a lot. Surprisingly, it was an all-desi affair it seemed, but for one Chinese and one Korean. Dude are we already number one in terms of intelligent population at least :)

The whole week was marked with executive lined up to speak with us. Starting with Ahmed Mahmoud, I met with Ron "the Moto Razr" Garriques, Don "the airline guy" Carty, Steve Price and Mike Cannon. I little search on these guys and you would know why I didn’t reply to your mails, why I didn’t write any blog and why I was so busy soul searching off late :) Mann… one thing is for sure, having such a battery of people to talk to sure is the best part of my work. And if this was not enough, I also happened to meet and ask questions from Mark Jarvis this week.

Now coming back to the lovely Austin, this Friday one of my friend Nikhil and another friend Shashank with his wife Shweta came from Dallas and we headed to Sixth right after playing some Beer Pong games! Saturday was booked for some fun and we went to Town Lake for some Kayaking. Unfortunately, our Kayak toppled because of my stupidity (I am trying too much I guess) and to my horror I was in water with two people (Shashank and Shweta ) that had no idea about swimming. All my assurances went light as I saw the horrified couple holding on to the Kayak. We floated for sometime until finally rescued by some people!!! Coming to think of it, I think it was a lot of fun for me… but for the fact that the whole responsibility thing :( … Decided to take the evening cool and went to play bowling… A bad first game followed by some cool 2,3 strike in a row game and I was back in the league.

If you are thinking Saturday's incident hampered my love for water sports, you are absolutely wrong as I headed for some tubing on Guadalupe river on Sunday. 3-4 hours of chillax tubing and I was so happy about myself. Also I could satisfy my craving for IHOP while coming back. As I went to sleep on Sunday, I could hear myself singing love songs for the Live Music Capital.

How to manage your career

2007-08-03T14:02:00.000-07:00

This was incredible. This was probably after a long time that someone spoke so much sense to me in an hour's time and changed my perception so much. Steve Price, the speaker, is VP of HR at Dell and his presentation on "How to manage your career" really helped me a lot. So i thought why dont I share with you all and here are the six bullets that Steve had for us -

Have a point of view about your career - So many of us don’t know what they want to do, how is still far off and almost all of us know that whatever we plan we will do thing differently from that planning. However, having a point of view can at least lead us to make the right moves. So here is my vision statement - "I want to be an entrepreneur is next 10 years." I might take different, difficult path or even a longer time. But at least I have a vision and I would try to move towards that in whatever I am doing. So have a point of view and keep it broad enough to modify and narrow enough to get a direction. one thing that can really help you in choosing this is "why are you not doing so many other things" - Note down everything you hate about those jobs and then start narrowing the ones you chose and have similar attributes. Finally prepare what I call "A-Career Model"

Think Self Inc. - This is probably the most important take away for any one who has not thought about this. So here is one concept from past - "Do your work sincerely and the company will take care of you" (I guess this is only relevant in context of Mafia now a days…or may be not even there). Now this concept worked very well for the generations before us. When Capitalism, Socialism and Communism were co-existing in the world, and each was trying to prove one is better than other. In today's capitalist world - I see this fallacy hurting too many hardworking employees. Steve talked about his father and I was thinking about my Dad the same time. "No the company will not take care of you, you will have to take care of yourself" and having understood this the next step is to think about "Self Inc". Think of yourself as a company, as a product and try to sell it. My pitch reads something like this these day "I am a creative problem solver and a transformational manager who understands technology well enough to solve business problems" and I know this is bad, but I am working on it big time. And here is how I am planning to work on this - Mind you this is my own 3X3 model for Self Inc. (which has not been used by anyone thus far and so I don’t know how useful this will be)
Three Story - Three Versions Model

For my boss For my friend For my Mom
30 Minute Narration .....
5 Minute Story .....
1 Minute Pitch .....

I think once I am done with the above-said exercise I will be good to go anywhere and everywhere.
Follow your passion - Yes, and this is not too hard really. Many people have said it in many ways. The gist is do not do something for which you are not passionate, for people will see that and you will be tagged failure for no reason of yours. Keep that practical aspect of earning your living aside… if you are reading this and thinking seriously about your career chances are you don’t need a job you really need a career.
Focus on building your career portfolio - You have this wonderful opportunity and you are think what should you do next. Let me show you this diagram before I say anything -

So now that you have decided on following this 2X2 for making quick decisions, let me show you another tool that can help you a great deal and I call it skill-fit portfolio management.
Own your career - Let me step back a bit and go to the "Career Manager" concept at Evalueserve. It was an interesting concept taken as it is from McKinsey like many of the other processes. But what's funny is that I managed more careers outside the 10-15 odd analysts assigned to me. In fact I never mentored these 15 and 100s other in the company used to come to me for advice. 6 of these 15 people left the firm later and I didn’t even know where the hell they went and for what reasons. Most of them lied to me during our meetings, made sure I give them a good ratings and present their cases well in front of management. BTW what happened to the people that didn’t lie. Let me ask this to you. There is this great analyst working under you and he is about to be promoted and move ahead… would you ever like to loose him… ??? The concept of career management was a recipe for disaster now that I look back. Sure you need guides, but no one is more responsible for owning your career as you are. I was asking my mentees to work hard when I was preparing essays for my B-School. At the same time, my managers wanted me to stick with my employment when they knew an MBA will be great for me! Oh BTW here is what one of my mentors at Dell had to say -
"Have at least 5 mentors any time. Two inside the firm and three outside. Believe it or not it is the outside mentors who will ask you to stick with the firm and learn more before you make a switch!" and on one other occasion...
"Also have three people in your life - one a senior, one a peer and one a junior - they will really help you grow in your life"
Be prepared "Life Changes" - And you don’t have to be a 2001 or 2002 graduate to know this (of course if you are one then it helps to understand this even more)… however this is even more important for you working people. At times we are so stuck up in the day to day roles that we forget the world beyond. You may be the best person in your role but if there is somewhere someone doing it cheaper companies will desert you… so automation, outsourcing, in fact the changes in market forces are key factors. Be aware of them and keep adding new skill set to yourself. Every 3 months stop and see what did you achieve in the last quarter. The Sunday post the Q-end is probably the best time for this.

So having said all these, remember to work on these three components day in day out - Transactional (day to day activities - will earn your bread), Strategic Business Initiatives (business plans, done by some one else some where else and you champion them - will earn you rewards), and Innovation and improvement (deep thinking, your ideas, your business, strictly to your work - will earn you respect).

My Ninth Week of Internship

2007-07-31T16:12:00.000-07:00

Overall a great week and I am beginning to enjoy my time here now… pity it is happening so late. Went to San Antonio on Tuesday and visited Six Flags. Seeing those huge rides reminded me of the Acrophobic person I have become off late and boye did I not scream on those level 1 rides. Anyways rain then spoiled it all for us as all the rides were shut off in no time after lunch. So far so good… coming to claiming it, I would have gone to all those rides if it were not shutoff due to rains :) … Anyways the rains also spoiled any chances of our going to River Walk or for the San Marcos malls. Good thing was - as we spent the entire day in San Antonio, it was a 4 working day week once again :) (Okay okay for all my friends in I-Banking internships … I am working really hard some of these days - such as going at 9:30 AM and coming back at 7:30 PM!!!)

As for the work, I have started working more around the ideas of working in Analytics. Probably one of the best places for me as I love numbers, business problems and working on solutions… pretty generic you may say - but let me also add I like to work in isolation for most of the time and I am geeky by nature. I talk to numbers in dark and I hate to sleep over problems. Add all these and you would want me in Analytics for whatever life I have.

Anyways, I also met with some very interesting people this week. Starting with my meeting with Richard first. An academia turned corporate Richard is an expert on Taxonomy. Click here to see his profile on LinkedIn. Sensing that I would join at the same level from B-School as him, really made me feel bad for him and boy I was thoroughly unprofessional when I mentioned this to him. Anyways, It was great to hear his thoughts on PhD, academia, his past experiences and then about his new role.

I also got to meet with Michigan Alums this week at the University of Michigan meet. Its funny how we were discussing about Michigan snowfall and how weird this summer has been in Austin than talking about any serious job related thing. Also, how the talks then shifted to how we beat MSU in number of people attending the event… I guess that is Michigan for you. Another interesting meeting was with a family friend working here. After discussing work related stuff for around an hour in that accentized language, it was but hilarious how we shifted to Jaatu as soon as we started discussing about our villages and childhood :) Both these events tell me the roots are hard to change no matter where you are and whatever you do.

Came Friday, and I headed off to Dallas to meet Nikhil and Shashank. Nikhil was my class mate in high-school and I met him after 10 good years and yet it seemed as if we hadn't changes a bit. Celebrating his birthday over the weekend, I went to his funny place called Abacus. More on that here. Spent my weekend in and around Dallas and came back to Austin on Sunday evening. Once again happy to be in small Austin when compared to the high profile Dallas.

High Class Dining Experience - Some suggestions

2007-07-31T16:09:00.000-07:00

So here are some of my thoughts on preparing for High Class Dining when next time any friend asks you to go out.

Find out if they require you to wear something weird - If it is a dinner jacket minimum - stick to minimum requirement until you want to look really loud. I suggest you call the restaurant and say that your jacket is with dry-cleaner and you didn't have time to pick it up. Wait for their response - most of the time they would say they are not strict - if that’s the case do not wear one. You will find out that the dry cleaners in the town are having some busy customers sitting in that restaurant that night!
Remember, there is no link in name and kind of restaurant - Stop believing in stereotypes you racist! And for once stop fooling around the idea of Abacus being a Chinese restaurant. This happens to be a European Restaurant where you find only sea food!!! So what looks,smells, and tastes like a Sushi is really spring rolls, and yes they may serve it with Wasabi but then why do you think they are high class.
Make sure you have eaten well before going in… eating a Big plate for $40 may not be your idea and specially when that big plate is really small. God forbids, if you forgot to eat before dinner, jump on to all the free bread that they serve… your friends may be hungry as well.

I think besides these points, it will be a good idea to make up some excuse and avoid going in the first place. You don’t want to be humiliated by some waitress for not calling "Prime Beef Carpaccio with Organic Baby Watercress and Shallot with Black Pepper Vinaigrette" right!

My Eighth Week of Internship

2007-07-16T14:56:00.000-07:00

This was a happening week in all respects. Went to bowling games, to lakes, to parties, to meetings, almost everywhere. So much so, that I took full rest on Sunday and didn’t go anywhere. Highlights for the week included -

Tuesday - Bowling Game - Seriously my score had taken a hit ever since I have been here. I had been scoring 150+ consistently off late and suddenly it went to sub 120s in my first two games in Austin and I lost my sleep. The spare-king (as I would have loved to call myself given my very high conversion on spare pins) was suddenly out of touch … even on the simple single pins in corners, in middle… everywhere. And so I went to Bowling again this Tuesdays and started slow with the right weight, right posture, right release… basics really… and then I did it - Scored 168 finally :)

Thursday - Cocktail Party and Salsa - Phew… I hate when this happens to me… I had been waiting for sometime for this Thursday so that I can go out with my team and they all dropped in the last minute. I was feeling pretty miserable until this new member in our team saved the day for me by agreeing to come over. Still far for the best thing - But I still went and sat in the corner - not bothering to talk with anyone while I enjoyed my Sam Adams. Things got worse from there as I headed to down town for Salsa classes. I was told that you don’t need a partner and I happily paid for the classes and then I saw all these pairs dancing to glory as I stood in the corner… duhhh… I so much wanted to drink more… Alas I decided to come back and sleep

Friday - Austin Bats and Sixth Street - Read More here.

On the work front I met a lot of people this week to discuss the opportunities here. However the most notable of them was Lunch with COC team. For once I felt as if I know why things are happening the way they are and this information itself seems so enlightening.

Weekend - Saturday and Sunday were full chill out days - Didn’t Do anything :)

Bats of Austin - Night Wings

2007-07-16T14:55:00.000-07:00

One thing that makes me wonder if how Americans are so good at marketing. I have heard so many times statements like -

"Oh you must see that tree… it is great... More than 100 years old… it is said that when such an such person came here he sat under that tree" - Gosh give me a break, I am sure there are many trees in my farm that are older than this one… and probably larger too and then once in a while…

"This is a great historical site - to a house which looks around a century old not much" Oh yeah well so is my house back in India!

But I saw the ultimate this Friday. July 13th the Friday was the day for "Run for Bats" 5 mile race in Austin and I thought it will be a good idea to see these 1.5 million bats. Gosh I waited for more than one hour along with this large crowd that had gathered much before I went… then it was pitch dark and then we saw a few bats hovering under the congressional bridge… Dude the bats in my house were far more exciting as I used to hit them with my towel! Think about it, not only people are making big voices out of these Bat stories they are also making big bucks by arranging events like these. Only if I can ask for people to walk up to Taj to save it from vehicle pollution… any thoughts?

HP Computer Service

2007-07-16T14:48:00.000-07:00

Once in a while, you can't help but praise your competitor. Well today is one such day. By the way, I own an HP PC that I bought just after coming over for my MBA (so I had no clue about my summer and also I was carrying a lot of corporate brand image from India). My PC had been giving me some trouble on and off with the "stuck shift key" problem and whenever I thought to send it over the net day everything was working fine.

Finally, in the first week of June, it decided to start troubling me forever and went permanently stuck. I called up HP service center and they asked me to send my PC over. Having all your data on your hard drive can be a big problem and I soon realized that when I started making copies of that on DVDs. It took me 3 weeks to get DVDs, get DVD burner software and finally to make those DVDs. All this while I kept using onscreen keyboard.

Having sent me PC, I was expecting some phone calls saying "you dropped water over your keyboard… there is a scratch etc etc. (which happened to me when I sent me Mobile phone to T-Mobile) and that you will have to pay so much for this and that… " I was ready to shell some dollars frankly.

What happened was not only surprising it was delighting. With-in 3 days I get this email that my PC in on its way back - no questions. I saw this information in the box that my keyboard was so damaged they had to replace it - again no questions!!! I give them this time - thanks a lot HP people… You were awesome. Next time you will call me to review my service contract - You will be hearing a Yes from a very happy customer!

Cold Turkey - Continues :)

2007-07-10T15:44:00.000-07:00

Yes it does, thanks to all those congratulatory messages I have been getting. The first day went well with Nicotine Gums helping me a bit. I was having this severe headache all this while. Then next day, thanks to insufficient funds in my bank I was deprived on buying the gums and since then I have survived well.

Cigarette count since quitting - ZERO

Side effects - Feel hungry almost all the time. Have started eating a little more than earlier - However have been controlling the calories in take well. Bit of nervous energies in the beginning - no more the case. Overall feeling much happy these days - Have been able to taste and smell much better :)

Thanks everyone for the support.

My Seventh Week of Internship

2007-07-10T15:39:00.000-07:00

Key things this week at work -

Getting busy with analysis spending hours staring at those huge files of data
Working on various creative ideas to analyze the report
Still another week with 4days :)

Outside Work -

Out of cash for the first time in US - with more than $6,000 in cheques sitting at home, I was out of money in my TCF account and this meant getting over $400 as service charges @ $33 per transaction from the idiots for all the transactions I was making. So, when I bought a gum of 99 cents I ended up paying $33.99 for that because my account didn’t have sufficient funds. The worst hit day was Thursday when I forgot to take those last $20 from the trouser I was wearing on Wednesday… reached office and then came the best shot… why on earth does the team lunch had to be cancelled this Thursday only!!! Anyways survived the ordeal with one of my friend depositing the cheques in Michigan finally :(
Watched/celebrated the 4th of July - Went to Zilker park to see the fireworks. Fun time.
Roamed around Austin on Saturday - Saw Capitol finally and went around other parts of Austin.
Cases and resumes - Worked on some cases on the banks of Lake Austin and redid my resume to include the MAP and Dell experience.
BTW forgot to mention all this while - I have been back to regular swimming now :)

Cold Turkey - Finally!

2007-07-05T07:47:00.000-07:00

I never thought it is going to be this difficult, but finally I did it. After thinking for years and years and breaking countless promises, I quit cigarettes finally. There was no particular reason why I started it, but for an act and there is no particular reason why I stopped… may be it curtains to this act. So how do I plan to go about it - I read a lot and lot before making this decision this time and went through the do's and don’ts well this time. Let me share some of those here -

Telling my friends - This was the first thing I did soon after deciding to quit - Tell your friends, family, all around... that I am quitting, so that they know and are ready to help. i was looking for some motivation and fishing for it among friends… afterall the more congratulatory messages one will get the stronger will be one's resolve.

I want it - I am proud of it - Even after the support from the world, it is so much a personal choice here. So, I keep reminding myself that I really want it and I am proud of my decision.

Millions have done it - Another thing which is helping me getting over it. I am not different - Millions have done it, most of them worse than me and I can do it as well. The biggest example is that of my dad itself - he has been a smoker for almost 20+ years before quitting it one day - Never to go back again.

Rewarding myself - Oh yes, some calculations did help… now I am not doing a year on year how much I would spend on smoking… just one at a time… so after every two days, I would add $5 to my no smoking piggy bank and at the end of the month that is my reward for not smoking. (Additional point - I have already decided to give 50% of that money to organizations helping other in quitting!)

Last Smoke - July 3, 2007, 0900 Hrs CST

My Sixth Week of Internship

2007-07-05T07:46:00.000-07:00

Done with the sixth week and I celebrated the half-way mark this week end. So much done and so much more that can be done :)

The important activities around the week included a Round Rock Express Game on Monday. Supposedly Dell has paid some 2 million for 5 years of marketing deal with Express and it is no wonder the diamond is called Dell Diamond. However, when the team you are supporting shows you a no-hitter game you better be prepared to cheer for something else and this time we did cheer for something else, our schools. So in the shout-off among schools, Umich was adjudged joint-first along with … I don’t know which school :) On Tuesday, I went for the Associate for the day program and spent half day on shop floor. It was after a long time that I was with these machines, finding my way out of the assembly line mazes. So we spent some good time understanding the entire process and then started working on the putting the parts required in boxes. I guess it was a light day and the slowness of the entire system thanks to parts not available was making things even lighter. However one of the person did comment that I was good at the work :) Oh BTW you can read this to know more about the process at Dell.

With rest of the week being part of usual here, the weekend came out to be good (again!). Played beer pong on Friday and Saturday, went to gym on all days and practiced some cases with others. With my PC in bad shape I was not able to do much of the surfing at home but I did manage to finally burn all my data in to DVDs and I am prepared to send that on Monday. For those of you wondering why am I not replying to your emails - well don’t have access is the short answer.

My Fifth Week of Internship

2007-06-25T10:04:00.000-07:00

The week started with a big bang of having an opportunity to attend Michael's presentation. Well it is not always you get to meet someone in the list of Forbes richest men and this one was definitely special for the shear amount of growth Dell has had in the last few years. There were a lot of questions related to the recent changes in Dell, both on corporate level and strategic level and it was good to hear the leader taking a "I believe" stance. However, what caused me the most surprise was that in an organization spawned on Michael's entrepreneurial ideas - there has been no big names coming even close to the high command. Anyways, the positive thinking was surely reflecting in the entire meeting.

On the work front, things were finally moving and I was able to hit the cracks a little harder this week. On Friday, I had a one-on-one with Mike Rosenstein, Director for Global Tech Product Mgmt, and it was a great experience in short. We discussed about our project and it seemed he was really impressed and interested there. Talking about Dell in general it was good to understand that the executives realize the challenges and opportunities at Dell and are concerned to make a change.

I think of two things when it comes to changes at this 80,000+ man-powered elephant:

Finding information here is like finding "a needle in the hay stack"
And trying to execute something really require championing your ideas (Reminds me of this - "Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world" - Archimedes)

The weekend was pretty productive this time - We were able to finally sit down and do some case practice. Man!! Was I not rusty this time. Anyways, I am finally able to get some dirt out of my analytical side. Gym routine is going fine in to the fourth week and I am happy to say that I am really beginning to enjoy the experience. On Saturday evening, we went to do some community services organized by Keep Austin Beautful at Stephenson Preserve as a part of our internship experience at Dell. Well mulching in the rain was not the best way to show interest in community and I was horrified to see the conditions of my shoes later. The night was "King Pong" tournament (Beer Pong) at Mak's place and I was happy to get on the third spot. Boye it was a crazy night :)

Watched Ocean's 13 on Sunday - Decent movie - I guess you start expecting things in a particular fashion in these sequels and this was no different (but for the fact that this was much more hilarious/humorous). Also watched Cheeni Kum and Jhoom Barabar Jhoom - enjoyed both of them. However the music for "Jhoom Barabar Jhoom" rocks!

The feeling of nearing 30+

2007-06-20T07:23:00.000-07:00

Statuary Warning - If you are in the age bracket of 30-45 please do not read this!

Well it hits everyone… and this time the victim goes by the name of Manish Dabas! It is hard to define this feeling, but I have finally got the answer… a hard way though because this feeling makes you wonder how far you have come in life and how much more is remaining of it… it makes you wonder if you need to set or change your priorities, above all it makes you see life in a different way for sure… and yet you sort of wonder when did it hit you the first time!

When we were kids, we looked around and wondered how these 30+ uncles and aunties are going through the routines of life… how they were getting stuck in to the long and eternal circle of one day to another and how they were meant to be that way for a long-long time! Thanks to the changes in the recent Macro-economic environment we no more suffer from that syndrome. But there is one thing that still needs to be taken care off… your body! Youth! Ah this age :) - Probably most of you would agree that 25-30 are the best years of anyone's life… true some people succeed earlier than that and some later, but I am not talking about success here, I am talking about the capacity to enjoy that success. How fit you are and how much energies you have to enjoy life… okay weird… let me take a step back. In childhood, one hardly cares about what one has to do… eat, drink, sleep, run, play… you have so much to do… then as you keep increasing the candle on the birthday cakes, as you keep loosing hairs, as you keep increasing those inches to your waist… wait a second…

Not that I haven't experienced some of these syndromes, adding inches to my wait was certainly not my idea to grow old. Still as I move towards the 30+ side, I am growing more and more concerned about it. When you are 18 and you are drinking those beers, you don’t care, there is a lot of time to be back in shape. When you are 22, you just start working, sitting on the office desk for 14 hours and in front of TV for next 4, you don’t care either… when you are 25, you are still good to go for another 5 years and you feel so full of energies like never before… and then suddenly one fine day you look at your recent photograph and see a little overgrown tummy bulging out… you are concerned now… you go for a jog for 3 days and you are back to square one… then one fine day, you are looking at that Album from yesteryears and you seem puzzled, although you haven’t noticed it all this while, you used to look so skinny in your college days - "I was always healthy man, how can this be…" you wonder!!! You make sure you take that Gym membership while coming back from office and months goes by… you fill your Gas from the Gas Station one block away, you do your groceries in the same compound, still you don’t have time to go to Gym… what are you up to? You try to make sure you get good shirts to make you look slim, you try to hold your breath while getting photographed (trust me it is difficult to do so while smiling at the same time), still one day one of your friend scraps you on Orkut - "Dude you have put on so much Weight"!!! Time has come to take that Gym membership!

Three months pass and you have still struggled to go to the Gym beyond the first week and now you do the ultimate thing… your start uploading your upper profile only by clipping those pictures… and that to me is the right way of defining the feeling of nearing 30+ for me … Now some of us may choose to accept this fate and carry on with their lives… and by the time they reach 40+ think about walking in the park to avoid any more heart related problems… some of us even choose to cut down on those high calorie diets and keep their blood sugars in control… and some brave ones among us can chose to change this, actively delay this aging process and start hitting that mat on the tread mill the next day, and the next day and keep on hitting it until the joints start to pain… I have decided to take the last option and I think I am ready for it NOW!

Oh by the way, its not that this thought has come to me for the first time - no this is no Eureka moment - I had been an ir-regular at gym at Evalueserve (doing all sort of exercises for 2 days and then repenting for those the next 5 days)… I in fact went to a Gym for about 2 week in Telesoft in bangalore and even odd exercises at during Logic Eastern days… but all this while I never thought it is now or never. There was always next six months to look ahead for those six-packs. There was always something gravely serious for me to have any time in life. There was always that small window of hope… not this time and I know this is serious stuff.

So the plan right now - Well to burn this fatty tyre around me in the next 2 months. I wonder how easy it has been off late to run for 3 miles on the tread mill - I still recall the race organized by Hindustan National Glass in Bahadurgarh and how I didn’t have enough fuel to take me full distance… I ran pretty well for almost 3/4th of the race before falling behind on second place as my Dad looked at me - He was the judge for the final leg and I could not keep it up :( well no longer dad… and that’s a promise!

My Fourth Week of Internship

2007-06-20T07:19:00.000-07:00

Well two major things happened during the week at large - one I finally got a go-ahead for my KM project and second we went to Lake Travis on a Dell Sponsored welcome party on Wednesday afternoon! Now I know how much fun it is to be at the barge along with 50+ more people on an afternoon but then to be paid for that is shear orgasmic :) (pity they didn’t have any beer that day… never mind)

The weekend was pretty happening too - Friday was an all-boy hangout and with one of my intern friend (Abhishek Mitra) celebrating his birthday, Saturday also happened to be one. Went to sixth street and as Abhishek wanted to have some chilling time at Coyote Ugly (please use discretion while opening this link) we let the "Bad Boy" have some fun. After a lot of club-hopping at 2 o'clock we finally decided to head back. Sunday was a relaxing day after the week's hard work ;)

By the way, I think I forgot to mention this earlier that I have been trying to be pretty regular to gym these days. Finally, there is some reason to head back from office early and not feeling guilty about it!

My Third Week of Internship

2007-06-11T20:40:00.000-07:00

The fun has just started to begin. I started working on my first project last week and by the end of this week it seems to be almost nailed. So when my mentor asked me how long will it take me to do this and the surprise he showed when I said "Two weeks" … Now I think I need to slow it down even further.

Monday-Thursday were all boring stuff with nothing much happening besides project work and a lot of reading. The only good thing happened all this while was the team lunch on Thursday and I had my tummy stuffed to the brim on this occasion. Came Friday and I tool off - yes this was the third week in a row that I would not be working for a 5 day/week. Compare this to my I-Banking friends who are spending most of their Sundays at work working till 2 A.M!

So what did I do - well here is a small itinerary -

Friday - Went to these beautiful dry caves in San Marcos, 35 miles South of Austin, called Wonder World Caves. These caves formed due to seismic activities between the two tectonic plates that form Texas state and divide the whole state in to two almost equal halves. It was great to see the earthquake from inside (almost 160 ft deep). The funniest part though was to go to the near by wild park and feeding Dears!

After spending some time there, went to Barsana Dham, a temple/aashram in the south of Austin. In case you are wondering since when this Atheist has gone believers way… wait till you hear this. Barsana Dham is supposed to be one of the largest Hindu temple in the States (probably after Swami Narayan Temple in Illinois. Strangely enough, I travelled on Route 59 all the way here and still missed that one… may be this time when I go back I will see this.

Saturday - The best day here so far. The lazy day started when I got up way past 11 and headed for Café Mozart around noon after having my brunch. After having a nice hot coffee on the cool deck near Lake Austin, we headed for a walk on the nearby trail - which we soon realized was meant for Dogs only! From there we went to Windy Point on Lake Travis and I simply could not resist the temptation to jump in the water anymore :) Having spent some time there, we went to restaurant Oasis and this time we didn’t have to wait at all to get some nice seats near lake. Boy isn't this place beautiful… and rocking as we soon realized as we headed to Sixth Street in the evening. Going to an 18+ club was not the best ways to enjoy the evening, but I didn’t mind much after such an eventful time. The only thing that troubled me was that music was all Latino and I could not get a single word of the songs we were dancing on… Night was young and bright but tiredness finally loomed over me as I headed home from there… but not before dancing Bhangra on Latino music!

Sunday - I was dead thus far and yet wanted to do so much more… went to this Pakistani restaurant for lunch and after a gave a little "why Pakistani restaurants are not good for business" I realized how corrupt my brain has become off late with the problem analysis business. Anyways, I didn’t count the poor food quality in to it and I was rightly corrected. A lazy start for the day turned further lazier with Sun glazing in its full glory on this June day… Hitting the pool seemed to me the best idea and so I did… Sure I survived thanks to my Pigments :) In the evening went over to some friends place and played few rounds of Poker before letting all-in and getting all-out! Also met a batch-mate from IIT (Ashutosh Chakraborty) after four years and man it was fun to remember the sad-loonie days of IIT. Tried to sleep early… Alas the thoughts surrounding … 'its going to be a long week" didn’t help much :)

Why a Pakistani restaurant is not good business in US?

2007-06-11T16:03:00.000-07:00

Seriously this goes beyond the first thought of the rivalry between the two countries and trust me so far from the sub-continent we don’t really care as long as the skin is brown (I am in fact starting to feel for my Mexican brothers). Ask anyone who has experienced the ghost biryani or a stuffed naan in a Pakistani-Indian restaurant and he can almost swear by the mouth watering taste. I am in fact a great fan of all the Pakistani restaurants and yet wonder "Why is it that most of the Pakistani restaurants I have been to look deserted?"

First thing that came to my mind was that compared to some of the not so good restaurant, I found these restaurant were located in far-off, obscure locations. Could this be the reason - and this leads us straight to understanding of the Causality - Think of this in business perspective - is the location a factor or a result… or is it just another Spiral reasoning? I soon figured out that for a restaurant to exist you need a customer base - a large loyal regular customer base and if you don’t have that you better go to a place where you can survive even on a very small even ir-regular customer base - in other words cut down on the fixed costs as much as possible. Although I agree location is a factor... that alone would not help and thus Location has little to do for the Business here - it is more of a result than a cause.

A simple way to look at this would be to understand the sub-continent population in the US - A majority of which are Sikhs (would not eat in a Pakistani restaurant because of the way meat is cut), Gujratis (mostly vegetarians), South-Indian (a different league altogether) and Bengalis (who can not do away with their love for fish :)). So that leaves with a very small population base that patronizes these restaurants. Even this population is bounded while traveling with a person from the above-mentioned communities. So we get the mathematics in place now. What stop from Americans - well the spices and people who recommend - Think about it, why would I go to an Italian restaurant when no Italian is talking about it and on top of that they serve me food which is bland. A spiral reasoning again!

Thinking on these lines, compare this to a Indian fast food chain kind of a thing - Yeah Indian Fast Food. All you need to run this is some punjabi Chats, dhokla and paav bhazi, idli, vada and some variations of dosas. Add a normal $5 thali or a $8 buffet to it and you have the shop in business. How often will people turn up - as long as you have a weekly menu - I guess they would come. Keep the drink like "Chai" on a low and add some more snacks like Bhatoora and Samosa to fill your counter. I am also tempted to keep some indian style hookas to add that little touch… How about this for a business plan! Oh BTW, name it anything but Shalimaar :)

Preparing for MBA - Part II - Submitting the Application

2007-06-06T15:57:00.000-07:00

1. Secondary Research – For all those school that you are interested in, I suggest you start your secondary research somewhere in May-June (for people applying in Second round add1- 2 months to the whole process everywhere).
a. Website - I think this is the best source to start with for any school. See what their flagship program is; see the curriculum, the teaching practices, the focus areas for the school, the recruiting teams, the student activities, relevant club web-sites, what is school really proud of, diversity, class size, desi population, etc – in nut shell everything etc. It should take you around 4-6 hours roughly to browse through the entire content for the school.
b. Next I recommend you to start looking for information about the school from site like Business Week, MBA blogs etc. Business Week is a good source… should also check out on some message boards there.

2. Primary Research -
a. Contact alumnus and students you know of (try to get hang of some referrals if you don’t know any or some people that are non-evaluative). Ask them questions besides “What are you thinking after MBA” and least of all “Why MBA” (I hate this one question the most… ) Ask questions such as “Why this school”, “How is it different from XYZ”, “How is ABC as a place to stay” … "Tell me something about what you do outside the class"… "I am interested in this, do you think there are enough opportunities" … remember they expect you to know the basics, but surprise them about their school by asking some pointed questions – I enjoy it when I learn something new about Michigan from some of the prospective students – something that even I am not aware of!!!
b. Talking to some of the student ambassadors of the school is also a great idea. They have been trained well by the ad-com so they know a lot to satisfy most of your queries. What more… you can also refer them back in your essays highlighting how their answered helped you pick that school!
c. If you are based in US, you are in an amazing place to just pick up the phone and talk to them so use this to your advantage. This is true for a lot of people in India too, so do not hesitate. I would love to talk to anyone calling from that far :)

3. Contacting Admission Committee – This step should start somewhere in July beginning (they are relatively free by that time to answer to student’s queries). Write a short e-mail to them telling whatever you have done - Start with a brief intro and your interest in the school, your brief background and then move on to tell them that you have been to the school website and also gathered some basic information through other websites and blogs, tell them that you have been interacting with the students.
a. Once you have established that you are really keen about their school, ask for more information – this could be one of the question that other people have not been able to answer, or just contact of one of the school ambassadors, admission committee member or alumni near you for a one-on-one chat about the school (if you have not got a chance to talk to one by now). Again get as much information on why your school OR how do you differentiate yourself?
b. Again if you are in US, You should ask if you can get a "Day in MBA life" sort of help from them in order to understand their admission process, the school culture and teaching method better … This will go a long way to showcase your interest in the school and would also give you very good inputs as to what they want to hear when they ask "Why XYZ B-School" … This will also help you to make your essays very strong and pointed with respect to that particular school.
c. All these schools try to differentiate each-other on the basis of culture (a lot of which is outside the classroom experience) so make sure you understand this aspect well. Even from an experience perspective it will be important for you to understand where will you be able to fit the best (trust me it is different – some schools have very competitive class and some are very laid back… It can be an amazing thing to notice)… also believe it or not, though they all sound like another B-School they think they are very different from one-another and you can not replicate the experience at one place from another.

4. Start working on your essays
a. Once you have done this work, you should be fit to start working on your essays by the end of July – First week of August. Also, you would know what the admission committee wants to hear so you will be able to tweak your story a bit. In addition to that you would also be able to write different things for different schools rather than a generic applications – remember one size doesn’t fit all!
b. Now essays writing is a specialists job and I might not be the right guy to tell you how to sell yourself. However, this is what I can generalize from my discussions with others and therefore I am daring to suggest the same :) –
i. Write all the things/stories you want to highlight in your application (A must step if you don’t want to sound like everyone else)
ii. See what qualities you are able to highlight through those
iii. See the missing link between – desired and provided. You should be having a fair idea by now about the profile these schools are looking for so you can see this easily.
iv. See if you can get some more examples – it can be as simple as helping a junior with her exams to helping your CEO save his chair… However don’t try to make a fool of yourself by trying to cover things. If you don’t have a good GPA/% don’t blabber about how you were so mastering the art of Clay modeling in your engineering school. If its there, its there… I suggest you better not say anything about it until probed.
v. Once you are done doing this – look at the questions and see how you will fit those stories and start writing – This way you will not miss anything.
vi. Start writing the essays and finish writing by Mid-August.
vii. NOW is the time to look at some of the sample essays that you have got from your friends (yeah I know we all do it… why even hide) and to compare them with yours. Don’t try to copy the styles but see if you are too verbose or otherwise. They will also give you some ideas that you would like to incorporate ;) (However I have seen some gross stories about people writing whitepapers in their college mags that impact Irish foreign policies… STAY SANE).
c. Finish by end-August for sure.

5. Adding a few things - A lot of people have also been asking me about the relevancy of NON-PROFIT experience. Does it matter? Well yes and no… it depends finally on the complete story. However, if you have done something for the cause of others do highlight it. I would even suggest you go ahead and start doing it even for the sake of your MBAs… at least this will inspire some 40,000 applicants to do at least 2 months of social work :)

6. QC, QC and more QC
a. Run those essays through as many people as possible. Set-up times in late Aug to Mid-September. Make sure you use some of the people you had talked to in earlier stages. Please stick to the timelines given by these people (they are helping you and I think they deserve this).
b. Run essays through some of the native speakers and existing students too. This will help you find some of the "subjective objectionable items"… I suggest you also use some of the non-MBA resources. I took help from one of my Aunt who was a teacher in high school (trust me that was good!)
c. Once you get the reviews, QC, QC, and more QC… (QC – Quality checks)

7. Follow-up - After you have submitted those essays, follow it up with the admission committee people thanking them for all the information and also letting them know that you have submitted your application and you look forward to hear from them soon. I realized this is one thing we are not too good at… following-up. It is amazing to see motions turning in your favor if you are able to strike a good relation by following up - after all there is always a human-element to every process here.

I think if you would be able to follow this, you should be good to go to places :) Having said that, feel free to take your own course, I am sure you would find something you can better here. Also, do let me know so that I can add it here :)

Preparing for MBA - Part I - Taking the GMAT

2007-06-06T15:53:00.000-07:00

Frankly speaking I didn’t do much prep with GMAT and was shear lucky to get some good score… but that could be because I was already studying for CAT for that whole year. However, here is what usually people think –

Time Required - Three months preparation time is a good time frame, more than this and you will start feeling bored… less than this and you might feel under-prepared… but again it is good to set a good timeline for yourself knowing your weak/strong points.

When to take GMAT - March-April is probably the best time to shoot for it. This will leave you with ample time to meet most of the first round deadlines and also give you some buffer to re-take the exam if something doesn't work out well.

What to do on first day of preparations - Register yourself and get a date. I cant remember myself working for it, until finally one day I got myself a date. This to me was the MOST IMPORTANT STEP. Then start with a mock-test on Day 1 itself to know where you stand and what areas you really need to work on.

Preparation - Many versions are available for this - From joining a coaching institute to studying from every book under the sun. However, I suggest that you go through Official Guide at least 4 times (so much so that you can recall the answer to 59th question is ‘D’’). I think preparing CAT-level maths (which I think it more difficult and time-wise more demanding) would certainly ensure that you would score full in Maths section. I never went below 400 in any of the mock in Maths. Verbal was always problematic for me so you might like to hear someone else for this.

One another important thing besides following Official Guide to GMAT (see it is important to be mentioned twice) is to take your MOCKs SERIOUSLY and in an EXAM LIKE ENVIRONMENT. A lot of people skip essays, don’t even think about it. GMAC publishes a list of essays (now I didn’t know that all essays come from that list only but this is a fact - bad thing is the list has almost 200 odd topics, but one can try!) … so pick one from there if you have to. Remember we haven't had the practice to be attentive and sit for 4 hours for a long time now, it is good that you practice this EVERY TIME you take a MOCK,

On Test Day - Well I don’t think if I helped you anyways so far, however, I can certainly tell you how not to prepare and still crack the examination…. You can try that form the word go in your Mocks too!

1. Reach the examination centre at least 45 minutes prior to the exam. My exam was scheduled for 1300 but started at 1240 itself. I reached at 1230 so you may think what condition I was in to.
2. Once you are in the exam hall, make the grid that you would use for the answers on the paper before you start the test and filling in the other information. It saves time. Trust me although every book talks about it, no one really do this in mocks and suffers later. Practice this in mocks.
3. Remember the list of universities you are sending your scores to. You will not be allowed to take even a scrap of paper inside so by heart this information. This includes the exact state, university and most important of all course names you want to apply for. GMAT requires you to fill in the choices prior to your exam so beware that you might like to keep your options open there.
4. For the Issue essays please think 4-5 minutes well before starting to type. Also keep 4-5 introductions and conclusions ready-made. Don’t waste time in thinking there; else you end up reiterating the stem like me. After you are done with 4-5 minutes of thinking and jotting down the main points, start with the ready made introductions and write down the approximate conclusion you want to end up. Then start writing the most important point. Take a stand right in the beginning, it helps to keep the flow and helps the construction. In about third paragraph, state a few pros of the alternative thinking and then go on saying however this is not the complete picture.
5. For the Argument essays, same thing with regard to initial 4-5 minutes and introductions and conclusions. Here a template will help you even more as you would not like to start with something, “Right from the known history, man has loved to battle for territory”. Rip apart the argument. There will be on an average at least 4-5 assumptions of data fallacies you will be able to spot. Start with the major point, and keep building in order of preferences. Another important thing to note here is that your e-rater will judge it against other essays to don’t try to be unique, you might loose points there.
6. Take a break after essays. Essays are the most brain-storming section as far as GMAT is concerned. So take a break here. Even if you loose a minute or two extra here, if won't matter much in quant (again not true for everyone… please use your judgement).
7. Quant: Caution, checks, double checks, think hard and read every statement carefully. There is no reason why you can’t solve any problem in GMAT. However, the traps are to be avoided at all costs. For DS, it might be good to read the second choice before first; you may be able to avoid a few of those traps. Leave your mental calculator outside the hall, do it on paper. You might be say the answer will be same, but writing will help you re-read the question, will slow you down and help you find that hidden “Positive” next to “Integer” or a “non-zero” just before the “real number”.
8. Verbal: Time the section well. For non-English speaking people like us, it is all the more applicable. Take almost 2 minutes in the beginning for around 10 questions and then speed up before you are left with no time in the end. Use the grid well here. Once you have strike out an answer choice it will help you not to read it again and again. Read the GMAT official guide from start to end, especially for CR. You will find a lot of reasoning in the same pattern. It helps.
9. Breaks: You will not be allowed to take out anything from your locker without prior permissions. But you can keep a chocolate or two. No one frisks you prior to exam, but during the exam everything is recorded. You are not allowed to eat or drink in the exam hall. So don’t even think of drinking water side by side. But as soon as you are out for break, don’t waste time, grab that chocolate and increase the body glucose, and enjoy life!
10. Attempt all questions - the MOST IMPORTAN THING - and I have to add it after hearing the shocking thing from a friend - PLEASE ATTAMPT ALL THE QUESTIONS. You are penalized the most for not attempting, so do it. If you think time is becoming a issue for any section, guess randomly… but at all cost don’t leave anything un-attempted.
11. Submit your exam - Contrary to the existing belief, most of the B-schools don’t care if you have taken GMAT umpteen number of times. So even if you are in doubt submit your answers and get a score. Guess what I was scared as hell when I gave my GMAT and I thought I didn’t do good at all… it was in fact worse than all my mocks and history has it I got 760 :) … now even if you don’t score well (and I don’t see why you wouldn't but hypothetically) you have time with you to take it again… in the end its just a 4 hour question answer thing and no one should be allowed to make a judgement on your capabilities based on this.

On a side note - If you are planning to take TOEFL, it will be a good idea to take TOEFL first as it will really prepare you for the big show. Not many universities really care about TOEFL score until it is above a required range so feel free to take this on. At the same time, it is interesting to note that TOEFL is not a requirement for most of the school so you might like to check that first.

I think this is all from my side. If anyone wants me to drill on anything in particular please let me know.

My Second Week of Internship

2007-06-06T15:51:00.000-07:00

Well after spending the weekend, which included Monday (memorial day holiday) as well this time, lazing and gazing around... I thought second weekend of my internship will be fun. After all I had my computer with me now! Alas… this wasn't supposed to be the case. So on Tuesday morning, when for some strange reasons I was feeling too tired to go to office, when my mentor gave me a list of projects (yes projects!) to be done this summer, I was least excited. However, hiding that I ended up reading some white papers on the search engine on the net. Trust me reading in your new office is not all that fun. First of all you don’t know how much others know so you tend to read more than required. Secondly, at the end of the day you hesitate to share your learning for the fear of sounding trivial… and last but the most important thing is that you don’t have anything to show as productive at the end of the day. However, I decided to showcase my knowledge and asked some questions at the end of the day (for some strange reasons my mentor thought them to be "Great"… now that’s one adjective I am most afraid of… it is okay? good? Or simply confusing… never mind! Wednesday and Thursday again went by in more reading and more questions. To add to this, I have been to these funny events organized by the HR team here - Rooftop party at 6 in the evening (when it is crazily hot here and you have to keep smiling all the while to avoid any suspicions from HR that you are not enjoying your project) and Ice-cream socials (where the HR team-member kept of rambling about the ice-cream vendor - how she started, how they serve, how many shops are there, how have they expanded… and yes it is Authentic Austin… in the end it turned out to be good for a Kroger Chocolate Vanilla combination). By the way, I forgot to mention that so far my third project (of which I have no clue so far) has been changed twice already! So came Friday this was and came the big launch night and oh boy that was fun…

So to build the context here, we update our website twice a year and Friday, June 1st was that time of the year. My mentor asked me if I am interested to see things, and seeing some opportunity for excitement, I readily agreed. Little did I know about that… Accepting that offer meant I get Friday whole day off and I had to show up at 10 in the night to office - thus staying till 6 in the morning of Saturday night!!! There goes my plans for the Friday night partying… on top of that spending the whole day doing nothing once again was not to cool either. What did I do - actively searched for the friends I have lost touch with on Orkut (yes and why else you wonder that I have suddenly added 200 friends in my list!!!)… At 10 in the night the office was sort of alive (much alive than at 5 PM on most of the days)… and people started testing the applications of which I had no clue. So I sat in the corner of that meeting room and as I was rightly suggested by my manager to bring my laptop there, I made full use of the same by learning things that have troubled me the most ever since I have come here - Baseball, Poker and Golf. After reading about then for around 5 hours - when I suddenly felt the feeling of - "I know kung-fu" (Matrix I)… I started searching for some articles on TV programs, Economists views on Child Labor, how to plan a trip on east-cost etc etc. It was a fun night finally. I think the most important thing for today was to find the freakonomics blog today. It is really a great evening read once you are done with the work. Anyways, I will come to that sometime later… so having spent my entire time with that, search finally went live at 4 AM and I did my bits by running some test cases. At 6, I was done and over with everything I wanted to know and came home.

When your weekend starts on the note of "I need to go to bed now" it is harder to sleep and you cant even call anyone for fun at 6 AM in the morning! So I went back home and straight away went to the pool. Swam for a good hour or so and the chlorine effect further delayed my sleep by a good 3 hours! My body was almost swaying with tiredness and I simply could not catch any sleep… watching "Ek Chaalis ki Last Local" finally helped.

The summary of the weekend - Swimming pool (3 hours), Grocery Shopping (2 hours), and a wonderful tour to Lake Travis and dinner at Downtown (Good Saturday evening)… By the way on Saturday, while roaming around these lakes around Austin, I finally realized what a beautiful place Austin really is (thank goodness for that)!!!

My First Week of Internship

2007-05-28T15:41:00.000-07:00

It has been almost a week I have been here and life still is moving at a snail’s pace. At the end of the first day of orientation, I met with my manager for the global online division. Interestingly my mentor was coming on Wednesday only so I was lined up for some meeting in his absence to get some idea of the division. Also, interestingly, I was told I would have my laptop by next week only, which essentially means I as a summer intern of Global “Online” division of “Dell” would not be able to do anything!!!

Damn!!! Tuesday was still fine with the meeting lined up for me; however I was bored to death on Wednesday… save alone the arrival of my mentor. I went to a few meeting with him as I didn’t have anything else to do and was almost dozing off there. Thank goodness I was carrying loads of books with me all this while from Delhi to Mumbai to Ann Arbor and now to Austin. Finished 2 books in 2 days and got paid for that as well. What more can one ask for in such circumstances! And as if Murphy’s law wasn’t good enough to explain things here, we have a big weekend to start here with Monday off. God only knows how much I need a break right now… so be it. Met with a few friends here but spent most of my time watching movies at home. I need to start working pretty soon :(

Are People Really Reading This...

2007-05-23T19:00:00.000-07:00

At times it makes me wonder if there is any reader for whatever I write and then suddenly once in a while I keep hearing things like it was great to read this, that and all... well to all you silent readers, can I ask for just one favor... leave your comments here so that I know what you like, dislike, want to read more etc etc... Just a simple plain request or is it...

... too much I am asking for :)

And miles I went before I slept...

2007-05-23T18:56:00.000-07:00

One of the things that have fascinated me for a long time was to drive long distances and though I had been traveling some long distance in India (trips being from Delhi to Rishikesh and one to Chandigarh recently… okay stop laughing now)… I had been looking forward to an opportunity to do the cross country for once.

Well I had planned one all India trip some time back before coming to B-School but I could never find a company to take it to execution. However, this time I was determined to go all the way from Canada border to Mexico border no matter what… I asked a few friends to join me as I take my car to Austin from Ann Arbor, but as luck would have it all of them got out one way or the other. So was I ready to call it off… No way here and I started my 1400 miles journey on my own (well for our Indian readers it is slightly more than Delhi – Bangalore Distance!)

I started on Friday, May 18, in early morning (11 AM to be more precise) and as I had decided to split my journey in two days with break at Memphis, I thought of covering 750 miles on Friday and remaining 650 Sunday after taking a day off in Memphis with my cousin. The 750 miles were further split in to three stretches – first one being after 300 miles near Indianapolis, next after 550 miles near St. Louis and finally at Memphis. However, as I started my journey, I was tempted to go on and on.

After taking my first break after crossing Indiana, I just didn’t feel like stopping. Of course the scenes in the way and the mileage of the car did help me to continue. In fact, one of the most memorable moments was to cross the Mississippi river between Illinois and Missouri. As I was crossing the bridge, the shear force of water underneath the bridge made my heart skip a beat of two and though the speed sign still said 65 miles an hour I could not stay on more than 50. For Indians, rivers have always had a mystery attached to them; however I had not seen something this big ever before. Gosh, it was hard to believe having seen the state of Ganges in Kanpur recently when it seemed nothing more than a canal. Even in Rishikesh, I have seen some people driving motor boats along the river; but seeing motor boats running from one bank to another was something I am sure not many Indians can digest easily. Anyways, after completing whole 450 miles in a record time (the distance equal to Delhi – Bhopal Journey), I finally reached Memphis at 10 PM local time. Some of the facts of the entire day –

Miles Covered – 750
States Covered – Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee
Major Cities – Indianapolis, St. Louis, Memphis

The Second Phase

It always seems easy to do less in the second phase; however the biggest hurdle becomes the boredom and lack of surprises. I had been chatting with myself for a long time now on the road and finally as I started to bore myself, I found something really occupying and this time it wasn’t Cowboys or Horse of Texas, it was the Texas Traffic. This leg of 650 miles was split between two states only, Arkansas and Texas, with one major stretch on I-30 being more than 320 miles. So as I was getting ready to cover this stretch and reach Dallas, I was illuminated with the truth of American city traffic; which I had been missing all this while in our small town of Ann Arbor, and there by I had been posting blogs on how different and difficult it is to drive in India. Sorry about that and here is the story – I was heading towards exit 44 on I30 from exit 48 (which means 4 miles of distance) and seeing 1:30 PM on my watch I was smiling to have covered so much in such a short time… so much so that I was thinking of reaching to Austin at around 4 (much ahead of my scheduled arrival at 5)… and suddenly I saw a whole sea of cars stopped in front of me… and on this highway with speed limits of 65 miles an hour it took me slightly more than an hour to cover 4 miles!

The journey there on was engrossing from the fact that I was constantly in the middle of this sea of traffic and getting my way forward was becoming increasingly difficult. Sooner I realized another fact about Austin. No matter how accurate your map may be, it is always difficult to find your way here and I lost my sense of direction in no time. Thankfully I had phone number of a friend of mine who had volunteered to help me in case I get lost and as he sat in front of his computer, it still took us nearly an hour to finally reach to my apartment from the nearest exit… phew!!! Even after reaching my apartment, things didn’t work out the way I would have like. From 1212 apt I searched all the way to finally reach at 2121… in between I had to call a few people to check my emails and as my phone gave up, I tried to get my computer hook on to some insecure wireless connection… got my way around the pressed shift key (my comp has this funny habit of getting the shift key on when I need it the most… those stupid practices of keeping numerals in your passwords are so crazy in these times)… all said and done I was home and on my bed at 7:00 PM… after completing a great journey all alone!

Miles Covered – 650
States Covered – Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee
Major Cities – Hope (Birth place of President Clinton), Dallas, Austin

Coming back to US – Is it real!

2007-05-02T14:40:00.001-07:00

Well finally that MAP is over and I am back to Ann Arbor, one of the thing that has struck me is how easy it is for me to make a transition these days from one place to another. Yeah jet lagged for a day and tired for a while but when it comes to transition it was smooth as ever both in India as well as states. One day is all I took to get back to the Indian lifestyle and same here. In fact the feeling of coming back has not really sunk in to me both times. It was as if I had been here ever since. Don’t know if this is for good or not, but I am really amazed by the abilities. As I go ahead with the coming break, I am wondering how to make the most of the time at hand. On one hand, I am thinking about reading a lot and building to the knowledge base and on the other hand I am thinking of taking this long break and get energized for the coming year. Well as the dilemma continues, I am looking forward to the internship with Dell – The Austin Powers are soon to be released!

MAP over – FINALLY!!!

2007-05-02T14:39:00.001-07:00

After fighting a numerous times among ourselves, draining out every iota of energies of me and leaving me silent for days now… the MAP is over. I am sure I would be hearing it from many more in Ann Arbor but the feeling of “Never ever working with any of these people” was the strongest in our team for sure. The things got further worse with Anjani sending out her feedback to the entire first year club with her wonderful illustrations of what she thought of the contribution from a few team members. I tried to keep my cool all this while but this was going too far with your personal agenda. To hell with it, I am feeling so relieved by the mere thought of having pulled it through that I don’t even care for what grade I get now. The first experience of the shared leadership is not really something to be proud of; however, there have been many take away for me in terms of my own learning – Firstly, I learnt to deal with ambiguity in a more systematic approach and also to deal with the multiple and conflicting interests. Secondly, to manage the expectations of your faculty and sponsor at the same time is something that will help me in long way; and thirdly and most importantly, it taught me to keep the loose ends tight in a project environment – something that I started in Evalueserve but experienced to this degree only in the shared leadership environment.

Kudos to the MAP – for being finally done with!

Arrival of the Little One

2007-05-02T14:37:00.002-07:00

One of the reasons for choosing MAP in India was the expected arrival of a little one in our family. When Meenakshi told me the expected date is around 18th April, I knew I would be seeing the baby here in India, no matter what. On 14th of April, I got the call from Ashok about Deepu being blessed with a baby girl – Awesome… I tried almost everyday after that to get the next flight to Delhi and see little Samhita (Sam – as I am going to call her)… alas all in vain… well not entirely. On 20th just a day before my flight to US, I got the tickets and as I reached Delhi, I could not wait any longer. As I drove past everyone in that Delhi traffic, Dad and Ashok were biting their nails… and so be it. The little one was sleeping on the bed in the house and boy she looked so tiny even with the tones of clothes over her. As I held her in my palm I could not help but wonder at the cute Sam’s lack of fear. The little girl didn’t cry even for once in my entire stay on few hours. God bless the child.

The last few hours in India

2007-05-02T14:37:00.001-07:00

I had never been cheated like this before in my life. Reached Mumbai domestic airport from Delhi and decided to take a taxi for the international airport. As I came out one guy asked me if I need a taxi and I nodded. The usual black and yellow cab came and as I asked the guy about the fare he said he will show me the chart. Thinking that it will be the usual cab chart, I was fine until I got this weird chart stating the rate for domestic airport to international airport as 1350!!! “Stop the cab right now…” I shouted. Already pissed off with so many things in life I didn’t want to get this dirt on me anymore… I blasted the guy and just then the thought of being in Mumbai – the land of vanishing people – dawned up to me. I finally negotiated the price at 500 and reached the highway. Seeing me a little restless the guys led me to another taxi and flew away from there is no time; however not before sharing their loot with this taxi driver and requesting him to drop me to the airport. Man, only if I had some time in my hand and some more energies… the last few hours in India been a reminder for me – for a long time.

The service industry in a service-dominant country

2007-05-02T14:35:00.000-07:00

For the entire duration of this MAP, one thing that has been haunting me in the service levels provided to us in this service-dominant country. I had been hearing about the Government sector having been clogged by the corruption and things not moving from one table to another and it will be a folly to compare my getting a driver’s license in less than 24 hours here in the US to the things back home; however what surprise me or rather shocked me this time was level of services in the private sector in India. So let me start giving you a few examples before I start –

First Time

Being a telecom analyst, I had believed that India has one of the most advance services in the world simply because we are a late arrival and do not bear the weight of legacy networks. However, here is what happened when I applied to Data services of Reliance. First of all, I had to furnish all the documents ranging from my passport to the letter from J&J in order to get a connection – the reason given: We are a country suffering from terrorism and we need to be doubly sure – my only contention was that if I can produce a forged driving license and a forged passport how long should it take me to forge a company’s letter head. Anyways those fell on deaf ears anyways. So after 3 days, I had my connection working and as I was heading to Delhi the same day I was happy to have some way to connect to the rest of the world on my field trip.

31 March – I reached Delhi and the connection was not working. After I called the customer care, I was told that I need the STD to be activated for using the internet services in Delhi as I had a Mumbai connection. Why on earth did they give me this connection, when I told them specifically that I would be traveling to North India in 3 days and I need to use it there. Anyways, the agent told me that I need to wait for 3 hours and this will be taken care off.
4th April – I kept calling the customer care every three hours since the last time I called them, and kept getting the same 3 hours crap. I finally lost it all and asked them to connect to the manager. I told him that I have lost 9,000 USD as my connection is not working and I am unable to sell my shares online and he better get this thing sorted or I will go to the consumer courts and sue reliance. He said it will surely be done by 9 AM tomorrow. It was 11 PM that time.

5th April – The net was still not working and this time I was told that the STD is fine but the roaming facility is not activated and it will take 3 hours to get that started.

10th April – The net was finally working – two days before I had to leave back for Mumbai!

The Second Time

Well this is a story about net again, I got this 80 rupees an hour card from my hotel and found that the net in my room I not working. I called up the maintenance and they asked me to do all sort of weird things ranging from changing the nodes of the network wire, starting the PC again to holding the jacks with both hands and trying again! Finally as I asked the guy to come to my room and sort it out, one lazy fellow reached in half an hour and tried some funny things again before declaring that the cable is not working and I need to get another cable. I said well fine, get me one… “It will cost you 35 rupees…” “To hell why?... this is supposed to come along the internet card” “Yeah but that is not working” “So what can I do, it is not working and I should get a replacement” “No sir, this got damaged here in this room and you will have to pay” “Okay go ahead and get me another one” I had to budge. It was 35 rupees more against the sunk cost of 80 rupees. Te guy brought another cable in another half an hour and after trying for some more time declared “Sorry sir, the cable on this floor was destroyed by mice last night so that might be the problem”… “So what can I do… you change my room” “Sir please call the reception for that…” and the guy left without even waiting for a response. “Sorry sir the hotel is completely booked and we cant give you any other room… ” Everyone is too busy to listen for a response… anyways it was pretty late by that time and I decided to sunk the 35+80 rupees and some prestige with that.

The Last Nail

It is funny how you get delayed in these flights and then the whole world crumbles around you. After reaching at Mumbai at 1:00 AM after a delay of 5 hours, I decided to check with my hotel to ensure my booking. “Yes sir, we have your room ready”. 1:45 I was at hotel and yet the room was getting cleaned… 3:00 AM still the same and I was loosing my patience in the hotel lobby, sleeping over my luggage… finally we got a suite for us… A SUITE!!! We wanted two separate rooms so that poor Nitesh can sleep without listening to my singing the whole night… what happened to our rooms. “Sir I don’t know, you talk to the manager in the morning”… to hell with it, and Nitesh and I decided to wait until we get another room… at 5 we had the other room and this suite and I slept in the luxury of a suite for the first time. Not for long though, as I got a call at 7 AM telling me to be ready to shift to my room. Again the guy didn’t bother to listen to my side. I called up reception this time and found the same guy… after asking him if he was the one who called I said I slept at 5 in the morning and there is no way I am shifting now… if he has it come upstairs and try to wake me up… this was my time to click the phone without bothering to listen… well I could not sleep after that and finally called the guy again to shift my room at 7:30… “I am just sending someone upstairs sir” and then I waited again till 10:30!!!

The state of the Fourth Estate

2007-05-02T14:33:00.000-07:00

Did you catch the recent debate on Indian Cricket team’s dismissal performance on any of the news channels? That’s another thing that these debaters were themselves the non-performing cricketers for a long time, but that’s a different story.

OR, did you catch the big Aish-Abhishek wedding coverage, with all the incidents of look-alikes going to meet Aish or that of an actress going to media claiming to be Abhishek’s wife. The wedding itself was a bonanza for the paparazzi.

OR, god forbids if you caught the “Mat Chuko Chauhan” episode on one of these 24X7 news channels. The poor major was not allowed to speak a single word in the entire half an hour program amid numerous breaks.

If this is the state of fourth estate in India, I wonder how long informative journalism can breathe there. The scandals (be it exposed or created) and taking upper slots and high TRP rating, whereas the news or the real stuff is being thrown away somewhere. If you want to find out the turnout in UP election, you may have to stay tuned for more than 4 hours to see a small clip in the bottom; however the Bob Woolmer’s death was covered to the most specific details possible.
The media in India is on a suicidal track and I see no looking back for it now. Even the print media has been reduced to Page 3 and the cartoon paper these days. There was not a single day that I didn’t find a poor grammatical error in any of the newspapers I picked. Whoever reads this and why? Whoever watches the crap that comes over on those 24X7 news channels? How long can we really blame our middle class house wives for all the garbage on the Idiot box? How long should we buy the newspaper for our hostel wall collages? I think we need to find the answer to this sooner…

From Phoenix to Nightclub!

2007-05-02T14:31:00.000-07:00

Having spent so long in Mumbai for the MAP, I think it would be ridiculous to say that I was not thinking about partying late lights here. Well I did, almost everyday… and yet could manage only two nights to really go out and enjoy the Mumbai nightlife – Two very different and contrasting experiences.

The first time was a club named Phoenix (wonder why such a name) where I went with some other MAP teams in town. The long queue outside was an entire college going crowd – I was told, and yet it was hard for me to believe that until someone told me the college in Mumbai starts right after class 10th. Welcome Mr. Uncle look-alike to this party! Anyways after paying 750 rupees as the cover charges (which people told me is more than what they charge in NY), I entered in to this crowded dingy looking place (the walls had this weird graffiti which symbolizes the independence of today’s youth I guess). After getting over with the initial hiccups, I headed for the bar for a drink and voila – welcome to the hell. By the time I could order a beer and get one, I was thirsty for another one and yet headed in the opposite direction for the fear of being crushed. The dance floor, the same scene and I got sick of those rap tunes and reggae beats sooner than I thought. The smoke in the room was irritating my eye and the couches around the floor were all taken by love-birds making it out in the privacy of few vodkas I sense. I was once an 18 year old and I was trying to save 20 rupees everyday by not eating at the canteen or avoiding that ice-cream. I was once an 18 year old that was afraid to hold the hand of his girlfriend and I was once an 18 year old that used to study long hours in the night. I wondered if that 18 year old would have been there in my place today, how he would have reacted. My folly, I am sorry… I am growing old finally I guess!

So what was the second experience like – wonderful to say the least. I was once again frustrated with our MAP team and decided to go out and have a beer. 1 o’clock in the night and the only place my friend knew that was open for beer at that time was Night Club – a dance bar this time! The manager asked us to pick seats as the whole place was almost empty. I chose the corner most place as I watched this orchestra playing in the middle and few girls roaming around that. The chilled beer was served in no time and as I was enjoying the cold sips of beer, the gazals were making my mind soother. Did anyone disturb us or anything… well not even once after we said we need to talk some things. Did any thing disturbing happened around us… well I saw nothing more than a few drunkards giving away 10 rupee notes to the girls there and feeling happy for in the bright sun shine I think this girl would not even spit at him. So after having some good time, I came out, left a 20 rupee tip and got the royal treatment throughout.

It is interesting to debate, if I would have got more time in Mumbai where would have I gone, very interesting indeed…!!!

Around the India in 12 days

2007-05-02T14:25:00.000-07:00

As the MAP went little warm and we started to travel a bit, the temperatures went soaring in to 40s in India. The first city on the list was fun loving Pune – or at least this is what I though of the city last time I was here – more than 4 years back!

As I traveled to the places again, it was a funny feeling, be it Ferguson Road, Aundh, or even Kothrud… Last year when I was here, I was in dilemma to go back to Germany or to work here. Last time I was here on a Job hunt and it was a messy situation. Not that much has changed either, I am still on a job hunt and I am still wondering if I can work here. Anyways, as we were traveling to all these nursing homes treating the doctors as customers for the first time, it was surprising to see how some of them play demi-god and make decisions on our lives. Evening was spent with in meeting Shivani, Taposh and Nishtha and it was good to see so many people waiting to read through my stories here. Good to catch on the old times as well.

Our next stop was my own Delhi and this time we traveled to place varying from Uttam Nagar to Lajpat Nagar to Patel Nagar. Now for an average Delhite like me, this was a strange contrast. Meeting doctors who don’t even care as to what they get in the operation theaters to surgeons that want to be in-charge of every decision making process. Surgeons that are in their early 70s and might have delivered some of our parents to surgeons just fresh out of college and wondering how can they sell more to the patients. It makes you wonder where is the whole India rising thing happening when you see these know it nothing doctors. Meeting doctors that complaint that their patients don’t buy a 2 rupee iron pill post child birth. Meeting doctors that choose patients based on the affordability and meeting doctors who are ready to treat them all. It made me wonder as to how the same Delhite delights on Kouton’s sale and buys himself a 750 shirt and not be bothered about what his doctor is prescribing to him. How we would go place to get a good tailor to stitch our coats, and not be bothered what suture is stitching our bodies. This was a city of contrasts, but then that’s Delhi for you, where youth and heritage live side by side. Anyways, talking about Delhi’s best experience – lunch at Haldi Ram’s (undoubtedly the best!)

After finishing Delhi on 4th, Nitesh and I drove to Chandigarh and although we started at around 5 from Gurgaon, it was only around 3 AM that we could make it to the Hotel Mountain View. The traffic at Gurgaon has far worsened and it took us more than an hour to cross just a flyover. All those 6 lane roads are a myth really, considering the traffic here. Are the planners in India failing to react or the reaction is too slow. We were discussing how easy loans have made it easy for an average middle class Indian to own a car, once again taking me to the Suture debate of not using a 200 rupees suture in a child birth… anyways when I research I found that total number of cars in India roughly equals to the cars sold by GM in the US and for those of you who know the state of GM in the states against Japanese giants, this is not a number the middle class Indian should be proud of. So, why is there still not enough infrastructure on the roads, or may be there is and yet when I want to get ahead of everyone on that road, I am taking the whole system for a ride. I don’t have an answer for that now. Anyways, it was a smooth ride thereafter and I had enough energy to drive through the night. In Chandigarh we covered Mohali and Panchkula and then started for Ambala on 6th. This time the contrast was much less and it was fun to drive in the city of Charles-Edouard Jeanneret popularly known as Le Corbusier. The roads were wide, the traffic much smoother and to top it all we were welcomed by warm, helping people on the streets. Yo Chandigarh!

After an hectic week of primary research we stopped on the week-end at Delhi and I got a breather on Sunday to celebrate my 28th Birthday with friends and family. A small function at home and a lot of relatives to meet – One could not ask for more.

Monday morning and like all consultants, I was off to the airport to catch my early morning flight… from a busy Delhi airport, where delays due to congestion are a norm, we flew to Lucknow and to my surprise many of us walked to the Airport gate from our plane! The city had worn this yellow color during the election time and to my surprise there were no banners, posters and loud speakers in this election. Kudos to election commission for being able to achieve this much to the relief of citizens (some fools call this “murder of democracy” where a leader can’t even be heard… but then who wants to listen to these leaders anyways). Lucknow still holds on to its rich culture to a great extent among all the big cities in India and although I was not lucky enough to experience the “Pahle Aap” styles much the Paans, the mosques, the imam-badas still keep it the queen of old Awadh royalties.
Having spent two days in Lucknow, I headed for Kanpur on 11th. Strangely enough the land of the Best IIT (yes I say it with a hint of sarcasm) does not have a decent hotel for the team to stay let alone an airport! So we had to travel by Car from Lucknow in the mornings and return by the same in the evenings. It was also strange to find that a city once known for its industries is loosing it all to the metros now. Another funny incident was when we crossed Ganga Setu (Ganges Bridge) on our way and I suddenly realized the small stream of water beneath is Holy Ganges! If this is what it looks in Kanpur, I wonder what keeps it running till Bay of Bengal. Reminds me of the Bupen Hazarika’s number “Aye Ganga Bahti ho kyon?”

Anyways, after getting over with Kanpur, the field trip got over and it was time for us to go back to Mumbai. What if we didn’t hear the loud speakers there was no dearth of Politicians on Lucknow airport and we saw a few waiting with us for the flight. However, it turned out to be a long wait as the flight kept delaying time and again. To make things a bit more complicated it was not a direct flight and we had to go to Delhi first and from there to Mumbai. Once again the delay in Delhi sky to land and then a long wait for the strip to get ready for us… From 5:15 at Lucknow, we reached Mumbai at 1:00 AM!

Starting of MAP and initial Hiccups

2007-03-27T11:49:00.000-07:00

March 16th – Although MAP had started from the day the orientation was done, our MAP officially kicked off today with our meeting with J&J team. As Sanjoy and others took us through the various aspects they want us to cover for the Nursing home division in India, the facts they were stating in the healthcare sector were nothing but alarming. Can you imagine that only half a percent of total deliveries in India use absorbable Synthetic sutures, yes that is 0.5%!!! Most of the population is still being served by midwives and the 3 A’s of healthcare in India – Access, Awareness and Availability still remain a challenge for a company of the size of J&J!

Anyhow, went through the initial HR stuff till the evening and headed to the guesthouse that J&J had arranged for us. I went to Olive right after putting my stuff at the guesthouse and joined the IIT gang for the remaining of the night.
March 17th – It was only in the morning that I realized that the team had some problems with the guesthouse (see pictures) and they shifted to a hotel in Byculla overnight (1:30 AM to be precise). It was hilarious to me to say the least but then looking at the seriousness on most of my MAP teammates, I was better off being silent. Things were really hot still as some of the teammates were still not happy with the affairs of the Hotel we were staying currently and I could see this as one of the biggest jolts to the start of any team exercise. Almost everyone in Ann Arbor was watching this development closely and I was starting to get worried with e-mail exchanges from faculty, sponsors, and MAP staff.

Changes amidst stagnation

2007-03-27T11:48:00.003-07:00

I was in the hospital for most of my time on the last few days in Delhi, until Deepu called me to be home. Reached home pretty late in the night but not before experiencing the Bus services from Delhi to Bahadurgarh. It was after almost 4 years that I was standing at this place again and it is funny to see how certain things never change!

It was the second last day for me in Delhi and still there were so many things to do. Went to meet relatives in Bahadurgarh and then to Delhi. Again that strange feeling of “same yet different” kept hitting me. On way also passed by our village and I was surprised by the way city has almost engulfed the while area. Something do change!

On my last day in Delhi, I rushed to Gurgaon post afternoon and reached Evalueserve around 4. Met with some of the old gang, but there was hardly anytime to really catch up as I was rushing to catch my flight. Just when I was about to move, I heard the news of a 1600+ strong Evalueserve team, with operations starting in Chile as well. Call is change or just stagnation?

As I flew back to Mumbai, here is the summary of the mode of transports I used – my car, an airplane, a taxi, local train in Mumbai, a rickshaw, an auto-rickshaw, finally a bike to get some groceries. Phew!

…and I was home finally

2007-03-27T11:48:00.001-07:00

March 8th – What to say about my preparations for India! In the excitement to be back home, I checked my passport too while I sat in the taxi on my way to Detroit airport… alas I forgot my I-20!!!

Shopping? Well the list wasn’t too long and all I did was to pick as many brands of chocolates as were available in the Wal-Mart. Finally as Nitesh and I traveled together to fit everything in a Lincoln, I started thinking of home. Since I wanted it to be a surprise back home, I didn’t tell it to anyone but to my dear cousin Gaurav. Theoretically too, I don’t think I could have told it to anymore people, given the way the plan was finalized in the last minutes and my own schedule. Met Anjani and Sidhura in the plane and I decided to see some movies to catch a breather finally. Saw Rocky Balboa and felt a relief that I didn’t spend my precious dollars to see this one in theaters.

As I caught some sleep on my way to Mumbai airport, I think I dreamt about home almost all the while. Getting out of Mumbai, I saw my friend Amit waiting for me and to me this was the first welcome from India!!!

The taxis from the Airport zoomed their way to Andheri and I was re-introduced to the chaos that I had so long not been used to. Whatever time you have spent in India, if you are not used to Mumbai, it’s autos, taxis and trains can surprise you every time you are here. I spent the whole night discussing the old tales with Amit and watching his wedding album.

As we talked the whole night, I spelt just 5 minutes before starting my journey for the airport again. Good thing that Nitesh and Anjani were there to wake me up. Funny thing I was mumbling something like “Negative 1” in my sleep I was told!!!

Reached Domestic airport well in time and met Antra for the first time. The couple (Nitesh and Antra) were very shy to talk anything about themselves and to me they certainly didn’t look like they were getting engaged in 3 days. Anyways, Nitesh can actually be very funny in his own ways. I called mom from the Airport only to find that Dad is hospitalized due to high fever and blood pressure. Man, I was not looking for this in my surprise package.

Anyways, reached Delhi and called Gaurav to know his whereabouts. The poor guy was thinking I will be coming in the night and then was waiting outside the international terminal for an hour. In the meantime, I was also introduced to Delhi heat outside the Palam Airport. Reached home at around 2 and mom and Meenakshi had these looks of disbelief on their faces! I think I managed to surprise Nana Ji also this time! It worked!!! Had a quick lunch and started for the Hospital to meet Dad. He was still running high fever and it became clear to me that he won’t be home before 3-4 days at least.

From hospital, I went to meet my relatives. One funny thing that I was not able to come to term with was the level of difference or indifference I had to show as I am back here. People aspects you to have undergone a transition and at the same time they want to see the past of you as you walk side with them. I seriously think that having spent some time in a different land may have disturbed my driving skills a little bit but besides that I am still the same person as I was 8 months earlier. An MBA may have changed my perspective a little but certainly not my stay at Ann Arbor. I think it is high time people stop looking for that change in me J… anyways as the day was not coming to an end, my eyes gave up and I slept while talking to everyone on the couch itself… see same old me!The next morning, I went back home and I think I am coming in tune with the fact that I really need to unlearn my Michigan driving and keep that license I am so proud of in the boot for a while. As I managed to zoom past my way across those crowded roads to be back home and then to meet old IIT friends, I think I was able to make the much-desired transition.

Holi-celebrations in the School

2007-03-27T11:47:00.002-07:00

After taking charge of the ISBA, celebrating Holi was going to be our first opportunity to showcase the energies and enthusiasm of the new team and I don’t think we disappointed anyone here. Swapnil really took a lead in making sure all of us start an early preparations and Jayant took charge of execution to near perfection. And if the support from the board members was not enough, a lot of people came out on Sunday evening to help us with the decorations for the next day. The operation machines started carving out paper water-guns (pichkaaris) to decorate the Executive residence and a lot of the better halves gave their dupattas and saris to help us decorate the hall. Chits and I took the responsibilities for the posters and we were able to do some good stuff at the end. The end-result at 2:30 in the morning was looking really good and all we desired now was a dissent turnout for the function. With most of my day spent in shopping for the event and finding colors for the Rangoli competition, and night being in the executive hall, I was in two minds with regards to next day’s MAP orientation. But I did make it to the hall, only to perform my way to glory. This was by far the maximum reach I have head with respect to head turns in my life as I slept on the last seat making four rows turn towards me with my snores!!!

After catching my sleep in the Rackahlm Auditorium, it was time to wait and see the effect of our hard work… we were also worried that because of the first day of MAP not many people would come to celebrate Holi with us… all speculations came to an end as I reached the Executive residence and seeing all those Desis in their colorful Indian outfits made me really proud. As I went to take part in the Rangoli competition, the crowd build-up really put up a stamp of success. The food, the colors, the rangoli, the decorations, everything generated enough curiosity among our class. Even the name that Ross is so proud of, a la (C.K.) Prahlad helped us in our cause! The hero of the festival was reminded to many who had not even heard of the festival.

As the day closed, we went to see “Rang De Basanti”, a special screening in the school to showcase the colors of today’s and yesteryear’s India… and as I watched the movie, I missed my India all the more… good thing is that this time the wait would not be too long.

The worst exams ever in five years

2007-03-27T11:47:00.001-07:00

It was the third week of February and as I was going for my finals for Winter A there was just one thought on my mind, why didn’t I take this stuff seriously. As I studied overnight for my accounting exam or did those operations exercises overnight, I felt a sense of guilt deep with-in. I should have studied harder, more and should have enjoyed these subjects all this while. I felt sorry for those professors, the hard working Michal Matejka, the passionate Eric Svaan, and that know it all Cindy Schipani.

Anyways as the day passed on, I was thinking more and more about the spring break ahead and my India trip just after that. So much so that I lost all my hunger to perform even during the exams. The exam on Legal Aspect of Entrepreneurship was the worst of all. I just could not jolt enough fire with-in to study the subject. Very much like my mid-term paper submission. Wish I had some more time with this one particular subject, but then things were too far now. Having said that, I think I performed well with the other two exams. Just that I knew my class participation would be a null pointer in most of the subjects besides operations.

Another thought that kept my enthusiasm dull was the fact that this was going to be my last exams before September 2007.With Winter B being all about MAP and then a Summer project in line I could not have asked more to revive my thirst to perform better.

Good-bye classrooms for a while now!!!

Elections and some responsibilities

2007-03-27T11:46:00.000-07:00

The second week on February was full of elections in various clubs at Ross. Looking at the shear number of clubs, I would be surprised if any of us would be left without being a VP of any clubs… especially if you really wanted it to shine on your resume J… jokes apart, I just thought to concentrate on my dear consulting club and Indian Subcontinent Business Association (ISBA). As the elections approached finding two dear friends going for the same president position in consulting didn’t help me much. Anyways, I decided to stay away from dirty blame-game and to concentrate on the dirty and yet fulfilling job of our casebook. So stood for the VP of casebook and thanks to support of dear all, made it to the board rather easily.

However, ISBA was a different story. First of all, it was the passion for the club that I wanted a key position and secondly I not only wanted a key position but to go with a team that will change the way ISBA performs and operates at Ross. Having made this clear to my fellow Desis, the difficult part was to convince them to be a part of this change management team. Anyways, thankfully we were able to gather a few good men (and a woman) in our team with I going for the president’s position.

Another good news for the community was to have Abhishek Gopalka and Sonal Singla as the presidents of Consulting Club and Finance Club respectively. With this team of MBA1, I am sure the next year will have a great time here. Good luck to the newcomers!

Chicago – the windy-city; Austin – the sunny side

2007-03-27T11:44:00.003-07:00

One good thing about the whole recruiting process was that I got a lot of opportunities to travel with the firms. Call it bad luck or luck, the location of Ann Arbor is so isolated that we have to travel far for most of our recruiting activities. With a couple of second rounds scheduled in Chicago, I was fortunate enough to visit the always honking downtown, enjoy the skyline and even have some Indian delicacies at Devan Street. Having spent some considerable time in Ann Arbor and the only big city around being an old and sparse Detroit, it was a good break to get back some urban (in)sanity around.

If I liked Chicago for its rushing running pace, Austin gave me a welcome break from the Michigan or Illinois cold. After what may seem like an age, I was welcomed by warm Texan breeze. The sun was refreshingly hot and the shiny to almost blind me. Sixth street had its own flavor as I roamed around this university town in its full spring glory. The trips organized by Dell with-in their premises and outside were really amazing and I must also add the hospitality of the town was equally warm.
My only wish would have been a company in Texas from Michigan. Alas! Even with a lot of offers to fellow Rossians it seems I would not be having a lot of people from there. Also, with the temperatures going in above 100 ranges in the summers here, I am not sure how much of this I am going to enjoy once I am back here. Just keep reading here as the event unfold :)

MAP (Multi-disciplinary Action Project) – Hello India

2007-03-27T11:44:00.001-07:00

Now before I start talking about MAP and the things related, let me talk a little more about MAP for people who are not from Michigan or haven’t applied here J

MAP happens in the second quarter of our winter semester in order to prepare students for the various aspect of real-business problem (remember Action Based Learning). It is the flagship program of Ross and of course you can find more about this at the MAP webpage but to me this is a great time to prepare yourself for the summer internship and gives you a great exposure to the various aspects of the business.

The process to pick-up MAP is also interesting. Students first go through the descriptions of over 100 projects. Having done that they give their top 10 choices to the MAP office. As iMAPs (International MAPs) are very much in demand every year there is an allocation issue with regards to iMAPs. So after all the students send in their choices, MAP office finally allocates the projects to various students depending upon the team structure and the individual capabilities.

I picked 6 of my 10 MAP bids in India. You can choose 7 iMAPs at the maximum and I chose Papa New Guinea as my seventh choice. No particular reason beside the desire to be back at home, so I chose the one with the longest time in India plus a travel opportunity to Delhi as my top choice. Until the results were announced, I was keeping my fingers crossed. Thankfully, I got my first choice at Johnson & Johnson Medical India and an opportunity to spend 5 weeks in India. The euphoria was further extended with the extended time in India (around 6 and a half weeks) and announcement of sub-teams with my team spending most of the time in the North-India, Delhi included!!! This certainly was the best news thus far for me in the month of Jan. What a relief to go back to India and relax a little in the warmth there. Mann I miss my country all the more now.

The longest month of my life

2007-03-27T11:43:00.002-07:00

The bad part about IIT experience was that I never had to undergo a recruiting process as such. Applied to 3 firms and before I knew I got in one of those. Story ends… over here things were very different. January started on a good note and thankfully I managed to get in to a lot of close-lists. Surprisingly enough, not many people I thought networked well got in the final call but then they had a choice to bid… most of them did. Even I had to bid for 2 of the consulting firms here, but overall I was left with a lot to spare in the end.

With recruiting taking the fulltime focus, classes became increasingly boring and sadly I decided to miss them to gain that extra inch in the interviewing process. I am sure they chose the subjects too accordingly. The operations management was all about primary mathematics and managerial accounting, although an interesting course, was made to feel like to most boring classes to go to, specially on Monday 8 o’clock. Surprisingly enough, I didn’t find the elective on Legal Aspect of Entrepreneurship to be interesting either.

In addition to classes and coming back to an all-important recruiting, I lost nerves too once in a while. While I made it to second round of some very good consulting firms, I was never sure of myself in the second round and I think the lack of self-belief did cost me a great deal in the end. Also, all these trips to Chicago and overnight stays at various hotels made me think about consulting as fulltime career a great deal. The worst was at BCG Chicago, where I simply could not sleep the whole night and made a complete mockery of myself with the partner. So this guy was an Aussie and anyone following Indian cricket knows how much we hate the people from down under. Besides the point, I was asking some stupid questions on Mathematics Olympiad and likes… gosh I knew I am done there. Goodbye consulting! OK, at least for the summers L

What was even more interesting about the whole month was to see was the changing colors and behaviors of the fellow-classmates. A minute before sad and out fellow turned in to a near-celeb with just one phone call. Asking about the internship became a norm and even then people without an offer thought it to be offending at times! Good that I didn’t crack this way and had a nice time overall. Managed to get some good offers and decided on product management at Dell. Also, once I froze my choice there was no fishing for some more bucks for me. However, all said and done, some of feedbacks were really humiliating and I felt like giving back some harsh comments once in a while. Thankfully, I didn’t let these comments bog me … for example “Manish, you are probably the best profile, but we are looking for brand ambassadors for the summers” gosh I could not stop laughing over the poor guy… just cause I am not from a specific color or sex that they want to make ambassadors the fellow is making this up and expecting me to take it good humor I guess!!!
Anyways all said and done, it’s going to be Austin for the summers and I am really looking forward to it now.

The real celebration of the New Year

2007-03-27T11:43:00.001-07:00

The real celebrations started with Raka visiting us in Ann Arbor on 28th Dec. Started the long party on 29th night, continued on 30th night, 31st morning and then in the night as well. With a couple of MBA1s preparing in this semester break for the coming recruiting-month, it was easy to get along with a few on the 31st night and we had some good time together. Raka also introduced me to the Glen named drinks and am I impressed with the choices… you bet!!! The smell, the color, and the taste… three things that distinct the great drink from others, if you leave the hangover part aside!!!

Had some long overnight parties and the hangover didn’t go until the school started again. With Amiya out of town in London, I was very much to myself for most of the time and spend much of that in preparing cover letters and running through the close lists. It was also pretty difficult to take on phone calls wishing you new year on 31st starting 5AM in the morning until 12 PM from different parts of the world… just another skewed problem with the globalization… and about those avid Orkut users, people get a life outside sending the damn messages to everyone in your friend list… you might just be offending people like me who are not really celebrating.
Good thing about this whole break was that I am an official driver now, much better than I had expected out of myself and I have continued to improve my squash skills. So far so good!

Sunny Christmas

2007-03-27T11:42:00.000-07:00

I know it’s been long due and that I had not been regular off late, but then there are situations that demand time and resources and then there are situations that command time, energy, focus, resources… whatever it takes. Anyways, without beating around the bush, let me straight come to the postings and to start with we had a warm Christmas and a warmer new year in Ann Arbor!

I used to wonder how someone can think about weather so much so to start every conversation with that. Not until I came over here. Recalling my time in Berlin, I think we had some great time there as far as weather was concerned. German summers, with sun blazing, breeze blowing, and walking next to Spree were Almighty’s gift. No more so here at Ann Arbor. The snow has grown over and over and the atmosphere is gloomy to say the least… and it does impact you, your energies, even your thoughts. However, there was a ray of hope this winter as we were reminded of Aussie summers this Christmas and January 1st.

So what did I do then? Well I prepared my cover letters to be submitted during December-end and January-beginning. Also, did more and more case practices with other MBA1s searching for life in Ann Arbor. With the sun heating and healing in here through out later half of December, the plans to go for Skiing went down the slope! My long due visit to New York remained longer due now. Thought of going out on Christmas night but alas! Not a single shop was open the whole day (not even a café)! Thought of going for some shopping in the evening but met with the same fate. The plans to go to a Church were also remained mere plans… Hey by the way, I got my driver’s license done in the break and also got this 2000 Mitsubishi Gallant finally.

How Internship process works @ Ross

2006-12-21T14:19:00.000-08:00

A lot of people have asked me what is taking me so long to find an internship for myself. So let me explain here the whole process for finding a summer at Ross.

Step 0 – Find a career – You will go through some of the psychometric tests and sit with career counsels to identify your career objective. Yes all those essays on short-term and long-term goals really don’t matter once you are in the B-School.
Step 1 – Resume Building – Having decided on the career, you will start working on your resume and resumes for various functions (yes a lot of them to be sure, why else I would call finding a career as step 0)
Step 2 – Network with firms – Start networking with all the firms that you want to target. Make sure you spend enough time on these firms before you touch base.
Step 3 – Resumes and Cover letter submissions – This is the step at which I am on these days. You drop your targeted resumes along with cover letters to these firms and pray every day.
Step 4 – Close listing by firm – So almost 75-100% of the interview seats are decided by the firms based on their interactions, resumes and cover letter. For remaining 25% seats you bid.
Step 5 – Bidding – So this is how it works. You get 1,000 points in the beginning of the process and you can bid various amount to get in the remaining 25% slots for a firm. For example if McKinsey has 60 slots, 40 will be close listed and remaining 20 are open for bidding. You can bid as many points from those 1,000 or remaining points and if your bids are in top 20 you will get a slot and will loose the minimum clearing points (MCP) for that firms. Simple, isn’t it. Just that you would never know how much to bid for. For example, last year McKinsey’s MCP were close to 460, which essentially means you will be able to bid for 1-2 companies maximum after this. Lehman went as high as 800! So that leaves you with nothing once you are through Lehman. Well its just around the corner now and I am sure its going to be fun!
Step 6 – Interviews – Two round of interviews. One at schools and second at firm’s office. You get paid for the trip; so that translates in to lesser people in second round… around a third of the first round candidates. After the second round… well it’s a simple go or no go decision after that.
Some of the ratios for the future MBA1s… people focusing on consulting… around 180… internships on offer… around 50 (upper side…) Happy Summers!!!

Summary of Fall B – Still Shining – The Seven Star

2006-12-21T14:18:00.000-08:00

Positives – Going back to last quarter’s resolutions, I think I was able to keep at least two of them. One, I did network well this time and second, I did follow football a lot. As far as the good things on last quarter are concerned, I certainly built a little further on that. Adding to the list of friends, I did manage to get a descent standing with-in my international peers as well. The research for summers was heightened to almost Nth degree this fall. I continued on my learning this amazing country. However, one thing which I am really proud of is that I continued to perform well in my classes and of the three subjects for which the results have been announced, I have got an excellent for all… making it a seven star performance for me. However, at times it seems I am competing among incompetence or non-competence to a certain degree. People here do not really care about the academics and grades or so they say and thus getting in to the top 20% is no big deal. At times, all these excellent grades seem far less deserving than my GPA at IIT (oopps… did I say that… forget it please)

Negatives – Well I still haven’t got in the mode of reading newspapers on a daily basis and I certainly should have done much better in Marketing.

Take Away – Making sure, I do not loose anything next semester. Manage the time well.

Action based learning at Ross

2006-12-21T14:17:00.002-08:00

I am sure most of you would have heard the phrase “Action Based Learning” when discussing about Ross. So what is Action Based Learning… trust me most of us here are not sure whatever it means… most of the Umich people will start talking about MAP and ABL in the same breath. So is that all… guess not… I am trying to answer this here; however again don’t quote me on this in your essays :)

Action Based Learning – When we discuss about various mode and methods of learning, some of the prominent ones come are… academic learning followed by practical (as followed by most of the schools in India and to a certain degree even in the states)… then the case study method in which you will be given a real life problem and will be asked to find the solution of the stated problem in the case and thereby making you learn the hidden academic concepts. I have also learnt a little on the story-based method, though I really haven’t seen any examples of the same. The Action based learning approach works as a superset for the case method though. You will be presented a real life situation in which things are not moving smoothly or at least as desired. You will work on the problem definition, develop your own hypothesis, find the relevant data, propose a solution, and then try to implement the same. Thus not only it encompasses most of the benefits of case study method it takes you closer the real business problems and also makes you work hands on. Let me tell this with an example, so in the Managerial Behavior class, that started with some cases initially, we moved on to team exercises. You get a task and you work in a team, trying to solve a real life problem taken from MAPs or industry projects from the past and the problem is defined through interviews with people. So you define the problem, you search for data, find probable solutions based on assumptions and that is learning through actions.

Then a lot of time you have to prepare cases even; for example, in marketing you make cases and thus learn much more than just solving a case. Again it’s not necessary you get cases in all classes but you may read articles in some. For example, for world economy class, the cases or action based learning really doesn’t work as you have to update the whole thing every year. So the professors make you read a lot of articles before every class.

Finally a Vegetarian

2006-12-21T14:17:00.001-08:00

Time to announce the resolutions for the New Year and here is the first in line… I am going to turn in to a vegetarian from the next year. Well it might certainly surprise some of you who have seen me ripping through those Tandoori Chickens and Mutton curries… more so because I had been asked by so many people and I never favored them over the meat. However, I guess the final call has been made and the only reason for that is that I was not finding the meat, in the states particularly, healthy anymore (check the Meatrix for more information and some cool animations) and decided to say quits.

Say hello to Green Life :)

Section 4 Rocks - Karoake Night

2006-12-21T14:13:00.000-08:00

Our section celebrated the end of the semester with a mega-bang – “The Karoake Night”. For those of you not known to the concept (I sure was one of you until last Friday) this is how it is done.

The video and music of the song keeps running in the background and lyrics are displayed in the bottom half. As the lyrics move on a cursor keeps running with the lyrics and that’s your clue. Sounds easy isn’t it… add a sound proof room, some bottles of Whiskey, Vodka, Rum and a few cans of Beer and you get an atmosphere ready to explode… add some cool Section 4 people and you get a supernova!

The party began at around 7PM when we went to a classmate’s house. There some of our classmates celebrated Hanukkah and sang Hanukkah song for us. Post that we was time for more games and party. I took part in chubby bunny contest. The event requires contestants to pop one marshmallow at a time into their mouths and say "chubby bunny" to amuse spectators until they can't say it anymore. Well, I got third place with my small mouth which to me seemed like a feat none the less. After getting a little drunk, we headed to the Blue Karaoke for the event of the evening. We started with some of the more talented lot, until finally settling for every one and anyone singing. It was fun to see everyone in those moods after the sick looking faces during the exam time. I headed back home at around 12 and instead of going to bed started discussing with Amiya and Anuranjan about the times ahead. Later went to a friend’s house to be joined later by the celebrity of the day Mr. Vikram (my section-mate). Drank some more and had a long chat regarding what all means people use to get in the short list here and if we can do so or not… anyways my mouth was still sweet with Marshmallows and humming Hanukkah songs... :)

Problems of Plenty

2006-12-21T14:12:00.001-08:00

"Yeh jigar jala kar peete hi Ahsaas ki narmi hoti hai...

Yeh baraf ki chaadar kya samjhe kya khoon ki garmi hoti hai!!!"

Some time back, I was wondering as to why am I being left out in this race to networking and as I pressed the pedals on this front, I found myself with too many things to do. Here is a day every MBA1 focusing on consulting dreaded… both haves and have nots…

The First Thursday of December was when even the calmest minds would have gone crazy. There were just a few consulting firms that had tried to network with dinner invites etc. till then and then it poured. I first grabbed dinner invite from A.T.Kearney and I felt relaxed to have networked well with them this semester. However, what followed it was just crazy. I got the dinner invites from BCG, BAIN, and Booz for the very same day. I am sure the restaurants were running a discount that day. On top of that I had office hour appointment for Bain and Co and for BCG in the afternoon. Things didn’t stop here as McKinsey decided to have its case workshop the very same day. How many things you can do after all... I had to decline BCG and Booz and went to the other events rushing through one stop to another, eating 2.5 dinners in less than 3 hours and finally managing to network. At the last hour during my Bain dinner, my cheeks were paining finally due to the 7 hours long smile and I gave it up.

Dine with glory – Another problem discovered during these invites was how to make sure you can connect to the person on the other side of the table. How can you weave a chat around similar areas of interest? So if Computer games (Super Mario) saved the day for me while chatting with one of the principles, I was completely out of place while talking about skiing in Denver or Ice Hockey in Boston… it seems there is a lot to learn here.

Solution – I have asked a few of my American student to help me with the dinner chats and guess what I am using poetry and drama to understand this. So I will be reading some of the contemporary plays and poets to ensure I can talk a little about the mile high city next time :)

Loads of movies and drama

2006-12-21T14:11:00.001-08:00

This may sound a bit ridiculous for people who have known me as a hard working busy MBA1; however, I have not let that affect my creative side at all. So, here is what I am planning for the time being…

Started writing two plays; almost done with one
Applied for a part in Follies (the annual skit at Ross, see some of the videos from last year)
Resolved to finish at least 70% of the 100 best movies of all time; finished 40% already J
Watch some funny videos and advertisements on youtube as and when I get time
Start on my poetic front again

So far, I have made a head start with first 4 by utilizing most of my thanksgiving break with movie marathons (count out the time for Sleep and I was right there), using breaks between the classes to write and by ensuring I give a descent audition for the Follies.

The world is not enough…

2006-12-21T14:09:00.000-08:00

… Certainly not if you are taking “World Economy” with Proff. Linda Lim. The Professor from Singapore has the distinction of having many students as Finance Misters in the South East Asian countries during the SEA crisis. Her knowledge on the SEA and her command on the third world countries’ economies can be matched by a few, if at all. However, when it can to taking classes she has a tough stick to guide us. No missing classes, no nonsense in class participation, 5-6 articles to read before every class and cold calls each time. She was any first yearite’s nightmare come true, especially if you are planning to skip classes to attend companies’ presentations or planning for a trip to an I-Bank in NYC. Starting from trade deficits to Current Accounts, monetary policies, Dollar devaluation, Yuan controls, IMF, World Bank, trade disputes, and culture we learnt it all in this capsule course thanks to this strict no-BS policy. So did I enjoy the class… the answer is tremendously… why… for besides the topics I mentioned earlier I learnt about cultures and economies of different countries from my classmates… for example Indonesia has third largest Muslim population in the world, Puerto Rico has a comparative advantage in Bio-tech and guess what in Beauty Pageants J… Singapore is planning on opening casinos to keep its metropolitan culture… Thailand’s Nike plant has the best labor standards in all its plants, and child labor is not bad from an Economics stand points… and last but not the least, finally…

… it brought back brought back the belief in me…. “That tolerance will succeed, that people will wake to the dawn, and that I would be able to keep some of my sensitivity outside the class to have free flow of ideas.”

When love was in the Air

2006-12-18T13:25:00.000-08:00

So what do you expect from a finance lecture. A lot of slides explaining T-bills? Well this is slightly far fetched I know… how about a lot of formulas to calculate NPVs, IRRs, Cash Flows, PVs, payments, FAF, PAF, Share value, Debt, Equity, Betas… hmmm… lets say maths? Yes, a lot of numbers for sure… right!

This is how Gautam (again no Professor) liked it…

"so what is the most enjoyable thing in the world… its love, so as long we talk about love forget finance." Finance to Gautam was the second most important thing in the world “pity the difference between first and second is too big…” (seems like heard before, go back to “The scent of a woman”)… "

The output, I didn’t study at all for any assignment yet numbers flew in front of me as if the answer itself is searching me than other ways, I didn’t study before mid-sem and found myself writing answers as if I had seen these things 100 times before, I danced for my final preparations, I danced during the exam-hall too :)

Overall, the kind of bond Gautam had with the class was never seen before. He would know every student, their problems and their thought even before they spoke. Did I learn finance? I don’t know… anyways who care when love is still in the air :)

United we stand team...

2006-12-18T13:24:00.000-08:00

The most dreaded class this semester for me was Management Organization! How I felt so sorry for getting up early in the morning for this HR lecture (yeah changing the name does make it a bit exciting for sometime). The cases began and I felt all the more sorry for the class to be a part of this torture... What is the final result going to be of all this… and then I saw some changes around me…

As the team activities in the class began, I saw more and more participation from all. Guess what I starting getting on the edge of my seat… I loved arguments put in the class… I enjoyed playing parts in the practice evaluation sessions and finally I saw people recognizing each other’s contribution more than ever before. People that were quiet generally starting speaking, people that were aloof started mixing, and most of all people that didn’t care helped! I think no other class brought the feeling of a section as much as MO did and finally, I think I will miss the Tuesdays and Thursday morning for once.

From puppy channel to male condoms for females

2006-12-18T13:13:00.000-08:00

Yes it all happens in the marketing class. Different teams are supposed to prepare case studies for the class and then present their finding with respect to the big picture in the beginning of the class. Think about some product that you think marketers are concerned about and lets match with the list our class came up with… Let’s start with the easy ones first eBay… Chevrolet… Coke zero and Starbucks… okay okay I won’t bore you any further… some of the out of the league topics – US Army “Army Strong” campaign (I was a part of the team), the puppy channel (a TV channel that just shows dogs and puppies all time), eHarmony (the dating site that finds your match using 29 psychological matches), Abercrombie (the all white male dressing) and elexa (the male condoms for females!!!).

So as you can imagine the discussions on the marketing strategy, from acquisition to retention, from stimulate demand to steal share, from dynamic to key variables, from target audience to positions and all remaining 4 Ps, were bound to be heated, exciting, thought provoking. Never before, I was so interested in Marketing and I believe never would I be. At the same point of time, I think it has ruined my life. I used to enjoy advertising. I used to critique them for the subtlety they had, for the humor they provided and for the relaxation they brought. Off late, I am just wondering why are they playing on the dynamic variable when they ought to be stealing share. Is this placement right? What if we decrease breadth of the product? What can improve credence here… I am ruined :)

Oh BTW, some of the worst thing happened during this class... I think I mentioned how I slept once in the class and my head banged against the desk and how Proff Nordhielm was all angry with me... in the last lecture of the semester, we presented our findings. I was cursing myself for being the last group to present and how it meant getting all sorts of questions from all angles and coming to the class even on the last lecture. Suddenly, as you expect, somethings went little sentimental and Proff Nordhielm decided to give "Marketing Star of the Year Awards" to 5 students. Having known the fact, that I hated marketing to the core, I was sure I will be busy clapping and for once I was happy to be contended... however there it was... "Manish Dabas - for asking those brilliant questions and for making class alive!!!" Gosh... I mean ... MARKETING :)

I have to see this movie now... "Gods must be crazy"

A good day in the life on an MBA

2006-11-17T22:31:00.000-08:00

Wow!!! You get really nice feeling while writing such stuff... pity you dont get many such days...

You get up at 9:38 AM in the morning... you think about how would you make it to the Organizational Behaviour class at 10:20 ... you see a spilled beer bottle in the side... you wonder when did you come here in the room at night, the flash backs runs for a minute... okay so the party went a little too long yesterday... you smile :)

You take a nice bath, come out... stand near the window, mesmerized by the sunny day outside... who cares for the MO class anymore... you see one of your batchmate going for his car, you shout out loud and run for your bag... pack your comp, papers and down in a flash... 10:15

10:21 you are in the class... you grab a bottle of orange juice on your way... there is no case for today and your classmates share with others the artifacts they relate to Ross School of business and what values they stand for... all sorts of things from scraves to umbrellas to footballs to name tags to Finance assignments ... its all there... it really funny!

You come out refreshed and go for this chinese restaurant nearby... Cashew Chicken, Egg Drop Soup and fried rice... awesome combo!

You enter the Finance class at 2:10 in perfect siesta mood... there is no class topic today and you will discuss the assignment problems only that you did the day before... you know it all... the proff starts explaining and you have a doubt... you ask...

"So Gautam how come the resume rrr... shhee... on mann... oh I meant resume... Sheize... no... opppsss... revenue in two years is remaining costant!!!"

Guess what... Gautam comes over to your seat and gives you a high five... :) (BTW Prof Gautam Kual is probably one of the best in the Fin dept and he prefers to be called Gautam so I am just following his guidelines here)

You cant stop laughing over the self created joke again and again... no wonder when you are spending too much time thinking about the consulting resume all the time.

Classes get over at 4:30 and its time for presentations... you go to this firms presentation and see that they have a nice booklet with all the information on the consultants present there... including emails... Nice... for this only means you dont have to smooze them hard to get their visiting cards... you quickly see if anyone had worked in Telecom (just one... nicer)... you go over to him, introduce yourself, show your interest, ask a few dumb questions and head back to B-School... a quick change and you are ready to get back home... its 7:50, exactly 3 minutes for the bus and you reach stop 2 minutes late... the bus was late too and you see it coming right there...! You are home at 8:15... there are noodles in the cupboard and you test your new microwave... there are only 3 mails in the inbox... all are spams...

You think you should do some reading now but its thursday so you have the whole weekend for that... you check fridge again... you have 3 ice bottles left from yesterday's party... you sip them with the dinner and hit the bed at 9:30... you sleep in less than microseconds.... AMEN!!!

A bad day in the life of an MBA

2006-11-17T21:53:00.000-08:00

So this is how a really bad day would begin... you would have slept at 4:00 in the morning after working through two of the question of your Organisational Behaviour mid-term submission while working on the third question... you would get up at 6:00 in the morning after dreaming about this submission all along... trust me you do not have a Eureka moment in your dreams.

You would start working on the third question and wonder wonder... you would fall asleep on the table at 6:30... not for long though as your alram clock will wake you up finally at 7:05 after 5 snoozes (@ 5 min/snooze)

You would wonder why you have to go for this Marketing class so early, but then do you want to miss the 30% marks for class participation... naah... you would get ready and dash for the 7:29 bus... and just when you would be dashing you would realize you forgot your wallet... you missed the bus...

Good thing in life come at a distance... no wonder your B-school is so far off from your house... you walk through the empty cold streets running, jogging, sweating in -3 degrees... in class at 8:01AM!!!

The first break would happen after an hour and a half... half an hour later than usual (the presentations were very interesting and the class was really buzzing today... remember its a bad day) you make a dash for the coffee and ask for Mocha... and come back to the class.

Unfortunately the human body has some limits... you are no different... so you would start getting these power naps on and off... now it is perfectly normal to sleep in the class... but not when you are sitting on the middle seat of third row of this audi... the perfect place for the proff to make eye ball contact with you... and not when you snores like begal tiger!!!

So the proff catches you sleeping and calls your name... "So Manish, tell me what fo you think about this?"

"About what!!!" you murmer... "Well I think it is a great tool to help companies decide on their marketing strategy but I am still not able to get how will this help in retention or acquiring new customers" you say (Its a marketing class what else can you say ... ) However by this time half of the class is raising their hands and you know you are done...

"Reid??" Proff calls your next seat neighbour... who of course was not sleeping (damn I dont know why he didn't prepare for the MO assignment... what about team work?)... anyways now you think you should have missed the Marketing class... so far for the Class Participation....

10:20 class over and the world economy class is beginning in 1 min... you dash for the coffee again... this time its a normal expresso... no sugar!

Economy class begins and you are back to the normal roaring/snoring business... just when the proff again calls you... this time you see the clide properly and answer why India should not manufacture automobiles and how will this impact global economy... BINGO!!! No hands this time... good show.

12:40 Economy class is over and you have to submit the MO assignment in next 20 minute... you grab a chair past in the corridor... make last minute changes, make the font bigger, double line spacing and check if it is fitting in 5 pages now... well it does and you click the dreaded submit button finally... 12:59 ... there is still a minute before your Finance group meets to discuss the assignment (to be submitted tonight)

You go slowly over the coffee counter, order black coffee... no sugar :)

Finance group meeting goes on fine, you make good assumptions for solving the case, you go ahead with entering all numbers in the excel sheet, you color code all the calculations, numbers... you make sound assumptions, your group questions those, there is a healthy discussion taking place there... untill 3:00 PM when your group realize that its only one hour before they have to part... no one questions assumptions anymore, they all want answers now... you write down the answer, there is no thought on coloring, there is no time for all that now... you copy paste formulaes, do the tough maths through brute force in Excel and at 4:08 you are done!!

You come out, check your emails, see the schedule for today's presentations thankfully there is not much for tonight but for a single company presentation that you want to attend, you go to the locker room, you wear your wrinkled Blue Jacket on your striped brown shirt and black trousers... you decide not to wear tie on the striped shirt... in mens room you check again... the jacket is really wrinkled... decide not to wear that... you look again without jacket, you haven;t shaven in days now... you look at the watch again its 4:30 you missed the bus... you decide no more presentation, you call up your friends to check if they want to go for Badminton game...

Three hours of squashing helps you a bit... you take out your frustration by hitting the ball as hard as you can... oh yes you didnt play badminton because the court was not available (sorry I missed that earlier)

Come back home at 9:00 all tired and you are hungry... there is nothing in fridge... anyways Kroger is just 10 minutes walk (remember Only good thing in life come at a distance...) you buy groceries, come back, cook food and sleep on the floor near Kitchen just after eating... at 11:00 PM you get up again... go back to your room, think about checking you email and sleep ... you open the computer, you are hooked on to the comp for the next three hours... at 2:00 AM you wonder why the hell this day not ending, you get this email about learnings from todays Marketing class and start reading all over again...

Finally you sleep at 4:30!!! Good night :)

To Bob and Shanon...

2006-11-12T19:09:00.000-08:00

Let me dedicate this post to two of my section mates Bob (Robert Flynn) and Shannon Baker… Bob is originally from Boston and Shannon had spent a lot of time in Spain, including a short visit to India, before coming over to Stanford for her bachelors. So why these two Americans to start with… Well because I think to find better examples of level-headedness was difficult for me.

I met Bob first time in my Game-theory exercise. When you are playing such games in a B-School it is very hard to keep the Universal output above zero. Bob decided to stay bubye to any prisoner’s dilemma and went ahead with the agreed proposition. My team decided otherwise and I still owe one to Bob… As I started knowing him more and more, I noticed one thing more and more… when it comes to established beliefs, Bob always liked to question them, he always had a different not necessary difficult approach to solve problems and he came as a very friendly person in most of his conversations. Finally, I also saw his openness with respect to cultures, countries and communities, which was a great relief for me. As a fellow section mate, I think it is great to have him in the class. Oh before I forget, Bob was the second fastest runner in our class during the MBA1 Games. I am sure there is a long distance to travel for him!

Shannon…!!! Her intellectual, spectacle-laden face almost covers/hides that bubbly smile of hers. With-in this Stanford grad lives a little kid that still wonders in the Spanish world she grew in, and blushes on the Economics’ grades most of the time. Shannon naturally comes as a person with a lot of academic knowledge and her comments in the class generally attract a lot of praises for the impact they have. However, that’s not why I am talking about her. When it comes to respect for cultures, countries and communities, I think she matches Bob all the same.

As a fellow section mate I think it is my privilege to have these two people in my class. Thanks a lot to both of you!!!

ISBA Diwali-Id party

2006-11-11T21:22:00.000-08:00

Last week was Diwali-Id celebrations at ISBA (Indian Students of Business Association). Yes it was a bit late but better late than never as they say. Went over there with full party mood and had a cocktail of music, masti, and hangaama. The fun part was when the music stopped playing due to some fault with the system and we, MBA1s, started singing songs. Joined by MBA2s it went in to some small Antakshri Competition and I was rocking :)

Danced till I dropped, my feet are paining now… and went to one of my batch-mates place for post-party celebrations. Had a couple of nice incidences the whole night, including how my flat-mate Amiya kept on sleeping at 4:30 AM leaving me stranded in sub-zero temperatures.
Seeing the photographs next day, it was difficult to imagine that I was sober the night before. Of course no one believes that I danced so much with out loosing myself!

It was also a nice occasion to meet and mix with some MBA2s, while creating a mix response among them. Some thought we are some energetic first-yearites while others maintaining that we are a bunch of hooligans… well its all perception as the end of the day… Happy Diwali!

Perfection is my goal...

2006-11-11T21:10:00.000-08:00

...… excellence will be tolerated

When I last read this on my hostel wall in IIT, I think I had no clue as to what it meant. But as with a lot of meanings in life it also got cleared lately, with a bad taste too.

Last semester, in our Strategy class, it was announced that top 2 students from each section will be chosen to compete for “Strategy Scholar of the Year”. So that means among the 6 sections professors will choose 12 students that have excelled in the strategy course. These students will then compete among themselves in front of some of the major consultants of McKinsey & Company to be the “McKinsey Strategy Scholar of the Year”. As McKinsey is one of the key companies I am eyeing here, I thought it will be a great opportunity to present my skills in front of them and I had put a lot of efforts in my Strategy classes. People in my class really thought I made a great impact in terms of my class participation and I think I really cracked the final exam too. It was as good as it gets and I was almost sure I would make it to top 12.

However, as the results were announced a few days back, I found I didn’t. To make things worse, a lot of people, upon finding out that the results are out, came up to me and congratulated me on making it… going back in surprise upon learning that I didn’t.

This was really a BIG thing for me so I am feeling a bit sad about this. With 4 excellent grades in as many subject I was feeling very bad today for my last semester. Anyways, I think I have managed it well now and I am focusing on the things ahead. There are many ways to make it to the top firms and if not this one I can certainly try for others :)

Cases, Cases and more of that...

2006-11-05T02:47:00.000-08:00

So this is how it is going for me... I thought for my consulting intern, I need a resume that says winner of A,B,C case competition.

Impact - I ended up taking part in A,B,C....,y,z (pls note the change is case... to account for more cases )

Short Term Result - So far I have been lucky to sail through most of them but for a real bad example of BCG case (it was a one day assignment, so that means you cant do anything else, and I had a lot to do and cant manage to submit even.... shear waste of 4-5 hours efforts)... anyways lets look at some of the good stuff...
Finalist in the ATK global case competition (further results awaited)
Third prize in Medtronics case competition...

On Target - Abbott Case Competition, and Loreal Challenge

So is that all... well actually NO... now consider I have MO class on two days a week. That means studying through these long boring Management Organization cases before the class along with additional stuff... Marketing class on 2 days (same cases and cases...) and World Economy (Cases AGAIN!!!)

You would say its fine... afterall thats academics... read this... I have 2 case groups to prepare more for my case interviews and we meet twice a week and discuss CASES!

Long Term Result - I am already thinking everything in cases terms. I try to analyze everything from a problem perspective, I am looking for hard data, I am making pie charts in my brain... I make recommendations when not even asked for... I have become a CASE CRUNCHER :(

Summary of Fall A

2006-11-05T02:35:00.000-08:00

Things that I did wrong

Networking - I think I really did a bad job here. In India, you meet these people that are no where connected to you and you strike a conversation, you talk about Ganguly and BINGO!!! they have an opinion... you talk about government and how less it cares... you get statements, you argue, you question... you talk about malls in Gurgaon, about crime in Bihar, about curruption in Haryana, you even talk about Tsunami!!! the crux is you are able to talk....
... and here I have met these people day in and day out with whom I cant connect, there is no link, I dont know the QB of Ohio state (okay QB = Quarter Back in (American) Football), I dont know who is running for the governer of Michigan, I dont even know the difference between a mall and a store, there is no tlk of corruption here (they have given networking a different meaning now), and worst of all I dont know what cyclones have hit the florida last summers... I dont have a common ground to talk over... and now... there is no effort. I think this needs to be changed sooner or ...
Follow-up - Though I was okay to build a channel with most of the recruiters here, I think I need to make that channel flow more often. Shall be my priority for Fall B.
Steps -

A lot more football games this semester.
A lot more newspaper reading.
Efforts to make connections with more Americans and to learn their issues.

Things that I did right

Focus on Academic - Well I wanted to focus on my acads in MBA and I think I did pretty well here. I think most of my section-mates liked/hated me for interrupting the classes with my doubts but then I think I wanted to get the most academically also. Icing on the cake - of the three courses for which the grades are given I have "Excellent" in all :)

Summer Search - I think I was able to manage my expectation well and focused well on consulting. It was really helpful in saving my time by eleminating other options. However, I think I will have to work on my back-up option the next semester.

Small but close group of friends - Yes I did fail in Networking on a broad scale but then I think I was able to carve out some small space for myself in a close group of friends and I think that is what I am... So far so good.

Learning Culture - One of the good things that I managed was to learn the American way of life... not that I am on top of it now; however I certainly made a lot of improvement on my speech, words and phrases, and also in terms of learning things about the culture here.

Sunny Valley - Here I come

2006-10-29T00:16:00.000-07:00

Most of the B-school student head to different forums during the fall break, depending on their respective field of interest... for example, Fin guys headed to NY, Healthcare to Boston, Public Adm to Washington etc etc... so where did the consulting people went... mostly no where... but then I headed to West Coast Forum along with High Tech Club to meet some of the technology firms.

Reached there on 24th night and stayed at one of my IIT friend(Gaurav Chopra)'s house along with my flatmate at AA (Amiya) and here is the summary there on -

25th - Met with representatives from Apple, Medicalert, Genentech, PRTM and Microsoft. In the evening, stayed for the alumani dinner and met with some very interesting people, including some of the alums from '79 and beyond... :) What was really interesting to see was their enthusiasm wrt the Umich teams and its program and how willing they were to help us....!!! anyways came back to Stanford at Gaurav's house and kept on talking with his brother Rishabh and few more friends (Rahul and Raghav)... While they were still wondering about the plans for the night I quickly slipped in to deep sleep.

26th - A lazy day, with most of the activities taking a back step when Amiya and I missed our bus to ebay and Intel trip. Came and worked on the ATK case. Went to a great Indian restaurant here (Shalimaar) and had loads of fun the whole evening.
27th - Roamed around Stanford and admired the beautiful campus most of the afternoon... the Palm Drive, the corners, church... its really very beautiful. Went to see San Francisco in the evening... with Wax Museum being my focus. Took the plane back to Ann Arbor in the evening.

Thus far, it was a great relief to away from the AA cold and B-School's shadows... :)

Diwali and Eid

2006-10-28T23:59:00.000-07:00

It was just a day after exam and I started seeing all these messages on my Orkut full of Diwali Wishes... man at times you think why you get these and at times thanks everyone for remembering me... anyways through these crests and throughs I saw the Michigan game on Diwali... went to play some squash and Badminton in the evening and then headed for Lansing late night.

At Lansing, for the first time felt like coming home... performed the rituals and ate our dinner. More I thought of the Festival the more I missed the excitement... the joy... sweets... crackers... in fact of the only two festivals which remained enjoyable for me, holi being the other one, Diwali was really missed this time.

Hey Mom, stop all this, there will be better occassions trsut me :)

Egg-jams Over!!!

2006-10-28T23:43:00.000-07:00

Finally the day came, with the marathon 6 hour startegy paper over, it was curtains to Fall A.

With the Halloween party just over with Manny and company, I was in my worst shape in the entire semester... guess what I was studying till the last hour for each exam and was never easy untill the Strategy paper got over. Here is the summary of the finals -

Statistics - Finally it all boiled down to the finals. With only 20% marks been decided till date (with 3 quizzes and class participation) a 80% weightage was enough to give anybody shivers. So I entered this exam hall with all hope pinned on my Excel File that I had prepapred for the exam. The exam was slightly lenghty and I sailed though most of it thanks to the excel sheet. (was able to revise it twice before fianlly resigning to fatigue... after the nightout). Overall a great paper I think.
Accounting - I had been on class average till now and was cursing myself for letting it slip when I could have done so much better with my accounting. Afterall, I had been seeing all these balance sheets all this while in my worklife. So it was another nightout for me (second in a row) and I went through each and every problem posted by our Proff. Even in the morning, I was calling up friends to check their answers and was distant enough with my confidance while going in to the exam-hall. Praying for a hard paper, so that I can differentiate a bit, I saw the questions and wow, besides the numbers here and there the statements were almost same as the pratice problems. So far so good.
Economics - Came back from Accounting exam and went to Mckinsey's presentation. Post that went to one of our classmate's house to study and it was almost 3 AM when I came back... if two nightouts were not enough I simply could not sleep the whole night and with exam in the afternoon it kept troubling me the whole time... slept at around 7 finally... and gave the exam at ease.
Strategy - This is how I prepared for the exam - went to Diamond's presentation in the evening, went to Nidhi's house again and kept on playing games there till 2 AM. Back at home and so sleep again... oooopppppsss.... it was scary man for I had this exam starting at 10 AM going on till 4 PM and I was sure I would fall asleep. Took the case at 10 and studied that till 12. Starting writing at 12 and for four continous hours kept on typing at same maverick speed. Over and OUT!!!

Thought of some fun post-exams and kept wandering till 9 in Ann Arbor and then slept like a log then on.

Winter is Here

2006-10-28T23:30:00.000-07:00

It was a bright day on October the 5th and I was thinking of wearning my new t-shirt for the school and then suddenly... I get this weather warning on my desktop system about some snow showers and before I realise it was snowing next to my window... man it was kind of scary at first place seeing this sudden change... anyways since then the temperature has been hovering around single digit (+/- both) ... so is it the time for your big guns... ?

"NO" say a lot of experienced lot... it is just the begining; however, the winters are here to stay :)

So these days when I walk back from the school, I see these leaves all over the road, the wind makes the hush sound with black skyline creating a Ramsay movie scenario... :)

Halloween Arrives Early!

2006-10-28T20:46:00.000-07:00

It was the weekend before my final exams and guess what... Manmeet Singh Vedi, my dear IIT days friends living in Detroit was looking for some fun. So he made plans to come over to Ann Arbor. With utmost politeness I told him to come on Saturday so that I can study on Friday, we can have some fun on Saturday evening and he can then leave on Sunday, giving me another day to study and this is what followed...

I got up with a phone call on Friday morning...

"Oye Pappe kitthe ho?" - Vedi
"Yaar main ghar pe hoon... kyon" - Me
"Abbey to darwaaza khol na yaar" - Vedi!!!

So the Halloween party started... along Vedi came my dear Srikanth and then we went to Moody, Aparna and Kundan's place along with Amiya. Had fun time going to their place with some real-time directions from my side and of course that poor Vedi not following them in real time. Went to have dinner at an Indian Restaurant and came back with full mood to get high. Had some blast!

Just when I got up on Saturday still recovering from the hang over, I was thinking today I must study... guess what goes a call to Lansing and we have Ashwin, his roommate Manju and a "few more guests from Lansing"!

Went for the lunch together, came back slept a while while trying my best to study in between... comes evening and their the party was flowing once again... had a lot of fun playing "Who's line is it anyways" I guess it was one of the most creative after-effect I had in years...

Sunday, got up at 11 and with everyone parting in batches... it was almost 3 till my house was again back to normal... No points for guess what I did next...

"Yes I slept"!!!

Wolverine Weekends

2006-10-24T10:04:00.000-07:00

With the football team doing great all the saturdays (including the home game against MSU)here have been more of less wolverine weekends... here is the story so-far -

Sep. 2 Vanderbilt 27-7
Sep. 9 Central Michigan 41-17
Sep. 16 Notre Dame 47-21
Sep. 23 Wisconsin 27-13
Sep. 30 Minnesota 28-14
Oct. 7 Michigan State 31-13
Oct. 14 Penn State 17-10
Oct. 21 Iowa 20-6

Mentoring candidates

2006-10-24T09:41:00.000-07:00

Another responsibilities that has come to me naturally (and a must if I need to suceed in my consulting career) is Mentoring. Starting with GMAT preparations to writing resumes and essays, I am doing it all. A ONE STOP SHOP!

And it is from almost everyone and anyone... people in EVS, old IIT friends, people I met on blogs, Orkut, people I met 10 years back... in the beginning it was going fine, untill now when I was managing this with my exams. Man, it was grilling... and I completely understand their problems and queries with deadlines on their heads, at the same time I am finding it more difficult with everyday to be on top of every essays and application :(

In the same light, it is interesting to know that Ross AdCom didn't think I was good enough to be an ambassador for them. Gosh!!! Why didnt they conduct a 360 feedback for this... anyways their loss is all I thought. BTW, having said that I think now I can help my own friends better way. All the best guys... and hope to see you here soon!!!

Resume Reviews

2006-10-24T09:32:00.000-07:00

Another B-School concept unfolds for us... and this one is called "Resume Reviews"

Here is how it goes... one of the recruiter company on the campus will come over to "help" the students make their resumes more impressive. It is a 15min-typical exercise and here is how it goes - First five min about the firm and why they are doing the exercise (in case you missed on something already), next five minutes on how they would look at your resume... "okay if I had been a recruiter (as if they are not) I would go through your education first... ohh IIT, I have heard about that school... then to your additional side... blab blab..." and finally the last five minutes "do you have any question specific to your resume or about our company specifically" ... think about it, you are doing this whole exercise to get a good internship and if you put yourself (read your resume) above your interest in that company the whole exercise would be a waste. So you make a good question, say thanks and Voila! it all done!

Whats your story
Another interesting phrase that I came acorss this sem when a recruiter asked me "so what's your story?" ... "I am sorry, I didn't get you, I have no story here...!" ... "Oh what I meant was why do you want to do strategic consulting"... "Ah... so that's my story!!! hmmm...."

"Whats your story"

Class Buster!

2006-10-24T08:07:00.000-07:00

It is happening finally!!!

After streching for sometime in the back-benchers' domain, off late I have been an active prticipant in most of my classes... (but for few 5 min power-naps that I keep taking during the class... :) )

However, off late some of the professors have started neglecting my raised hand in the classes when they ask anything… alas! They have to ask me finally for it is the only hand raised in the whole class of 70!!! Its like the good old school days, it is so fascinating when I see people around me congratulating my team members for being in MY TEAM!!! :)

Quizzed and Mid-Semmed

2006-10-24T08:04:00.000-07:00

Well this is how it typically goes… the professors will give you material to read before the class (hardly anyone reads that but for some smart students like me!!!)

Then he will explain everything in the class as if he is teaching some dumb people in a mentally retarded ward… (it gets really boring at time and I have dozed off too a couple of times in the class)… and then he will give an assignment to complete on the same topic that he covered (which will be exact replica of the example he solved in the class just then… which you were supposed to do as a part of class preparations… )

Anyways things don’t end here, just before the quizzes they will post at least 2-3 papers from last years for you to go and practice and then they will give almost similar paper in the exam. No wonder people score high here… For example, I am taking a stats course here and I remember taking one back in IIT as well… I haven’t gone beyond my first class at IIT which the proff here had taken 6 classes to cover… however the difference is I don’t remember even the first class of that course I took in IIT besides the fact that I read something of that sort… and I am equally sure that I wont forget anything they are teaching me now…

Another striking difference that I can think of is the use of electronic media in studies… the course material is online, assignments are online, you bring your laptops to the class and solve things in excel in seconds which a normal scientific calculator also would take minutes to solve. It amazing to see the application side of things and the relevance of that to life than to just mug up the formula and solve the problem.

Case Solved

2006-10-24T07:59:00.000-07:00

So here is how it goes… I took part in this case competition sponsored by Medtronics. As I had never done any case competition before I was really nervous, but then I think our team did a good job finally. We reached to the final five and after Cory (my bacthmate here) presented our recommendations in front of faculty and some of the top executives from Medtronics, I was really sure of a position. Finally it was - Third Prize to A-Squared!

Sports in Ann Arbor and Ross

2006-10-24T07:57:00.000-07:00

MBA Games
On the first Friday of our program we had MBA1 games. I took part in three games, lost Soccer in the first round... the other team had a Russian forward Yuri who supposedly had played in some Russian club team... the bugger almost broke my knee... anyways also took part in Ultimate Freesbie and came third in that... then came Volleyball and I really spiked a little there... got first position in Volleyball... overall our section stood third. The events started at 0900 in the morning and went till 1600. I am so tired right now that every bone in my body is yelling why did you run that much... but it was awesome fun

Football
On Friday (Sept 1) we had a great seminar for the international student... guess on what... understanding Football!! So, now I now all about touchdowns, QBs, Wolverines, Notredamm etc etc. Was sheer fun. BTW if you want to talk to anyone from Ann Arbor, make sure you have kicked that oval shaped ball once in your life. More on football in my next posting...

Schedule

2006-10-24T07:56:00.000-07:00

Although it varies on everyday, normally the schedule looks more or less like this...

0630: Get up
0630 - 0700: Morning routine...
0700 - 0710: Start packing my bag for the class, looked at notes, quick e-mail check
0710 - 0725: Prepare quick breakfast and lunch (mostly Maggi for lunch and eggs, juice and bread for breakfast)
0725 - Rush for my BUS
0729 - Take bus for B-school
0750 - Reach class
0800 - 1020: First class (on two days I don’t have morning class, which means doing some self study)
1020 - 1240: Second class
1240 - 1410: Lunch break
1410 - 1630: Third Class
1630 - 1900: Activities in School (clubs, discussions, assignments, library, recruitment events etc.)
1923 - Bus for home
2000 - Reach Home
2000 - 2100 - Break, bath and rest
2100 - 2200 - Dinner
2200 - 2400 - Studies

Class Finally

2006-10-24T07:54:00.000-07:00

Voila! First day of the class... and started with Statistics. Was supposed to be boring but Proff. LoveJoy is a joy to watch. Amazing fun class. Revised my probability fundas and decided it will be an EX for sure in this course. Stats was followed by Business Economics (micro-economics to be precise)... again great atmosphere. The other two courses I am taking this semester are Accounting and Strategy. Strategy Proff. Kale (IIMA alum) is taking the case study approach and is really great to learn from.

One thing that is strikingly different in here vis-à-vis the Indian education system that I am used to is the informal environment in the class. So, the four letter words are common... the Proffs will treat you like equal (though we are not for sure...) and the best thing is you are always encouraged to ask questions (by giving marks for class participation, as high as 30%)
Another thing that differentiate is the emphasis on “make sure they know before you test” rather than “test them before they know”. I know how little Proff. Back home used to tell us about a particular quiz and how they will make sure they test us on things which we didn’t know rather than helping us learn. Over here it’s an overdose always. You will get practice problems, problems to be done before class, after class, in the class, a practice quiz before the actual quiz etc etc. (although making sure you do it all makes sure you are studying always)… On top of that the marking is much lenient so no wonder everyone scores high… well that reminds me… here are some of the marks I have got in my subjects till now... Stats (24/24), Accounting (27/30), and Eco (62/65).

BTW before I forget to mention, all the instructors here think its only their subject that we are supposed to excel in to so loads of work :(

Ross Leadership Program - Phase III - Some solace

2006-10-24T07:50:00.000-07:00

At the Penultimate day of the RLP, we went through modules on "World in 2020" and Diversity at work... one thing that I really liked about these modules is that every presenter I have seen here is a great orator... something that I want to develop on soon and the way even the boring topic such as Diversity is being taught and presented. We have had slides with most updated figures, movies, live skits with the characters explaining why they said that and why not... etc etc.

The second half of the day was spent in the team-building games and I had some good familiarity with my section mates at least now. Completed most of the games well and I was also chosen the leader for my group by the observers (which felt so good after my initial bad-mouth experiences)... in the end it was "Hale to the victors!"

Our last day of RLP was followed by some very emotional and shaking experiences of some great people. Eleanor M. Josaitis, the founder of "Focus Hope", was the key speaker for the day and she really touched me with her experiences with community services. In addition to that, she also reminded me that I would need to do something for my community as I grow in my life... so here is what I have decided... going forward for all the years I will working, I will donate 10% of my earnings to the community development.... anyways now that RLP is gone by, its time for Accounts, Statistics and Finances...

Ross Leadership Program - Phase II - Lesson on Citizenship

2006-10-24T07:47:00.000-07:00

With RLP in the middle stages, we had seminars on Ethics and Citizenship. In the seminar on Citizenship the proff showed a movie on outsourcing, showing a simbly-southy character with a peculiar accent doing work for an MNC and as a result a smart red-neck loosing his job that he was doing for 16 years at GE. The smarty guy now is working on a gadget that helps him remove dog-shit from lawns of other fellow red-necks and he gets paid $10/dog/month... the last line read something like this...

"Are you ready to pick dog-shit, when the good jobs are going to India"

I was so furious seeing this that I could not resist the temptation to raise my voice there... and there I went...

"When Americans were selling Soft drinks like Coke and Pepsi in India, and I am not using the word pesticides here and someone raises a voice you call them anti-globalization... when Indians do your dirty Y2K jobs they are stealing your jobs... when Dell and IBM sell there PCs in India, Microsoft with there Windows bring money home, its globalization, but when we use tools provided by Americans and make programs that work, we are forcing them to pick dog-shit.... and why Dear professor you think it is only taking money... I have worked in a Patent Company in India and helped many innovators to focus on what they are best at... innovation... I have worked with Telecom firms with their Global marketing plans... bringing more dollars back home... I think its time US realizes that they are loosing on good engineers, mathematicians because only 4% of your student want to go for complex things like those... I think its time US realize the potential of economies like China and India as an equal partners rather than just mere markets for its outdated products"

Needless to say, there was silence in the section for quite some time and as the proff began to give explanation that he is also pro-globalization and it's just something that he wanted to share with the class on the upcoming challenges US economy faces... I added again...

"... and respected sir, just to add your economy is still good enough to pay to people that carry dog-shit... in my country people don't have pet for they cant feed them... and they carry cow-dung so that they can use that as a fuel in their kitchens... please!"

Post-class I think I had undone my non-networking skills to a good deal, with people coming from all spectrums, including Americans, to tell me those were really valid points etc etc.
So far for my citizenship lesson!

Ross Leadership Program - Phase I - Alien Land

2006-10-24T07:44:00.000-07:00

Started my Ross Leadership program here and was quiet intimidated looking at the classmates here... boy did they think they are from a different planet or something... everyone had this air/flair around him... to top it all, we were sitting on these lunch tables in a big auditorium and I was seated with 7 other Americans.

To tell you the truth, in the beginning I could not even understand what the hell they were talking about... I mean Hockey was simply Ice-Hockey, Football and then the politics in Minnesota and where not... finally I had a lady on the table to my rescue who didn't like too much of anything I mentioned either and the men then went on to Beer!! Came Germany and came Almighty... I think having seen it all first hand helped me to teach them a lesson on Bavarian Beers and Dunkel Beck's!

However, taking nothing away from the program, I think it was a great exercise, the focus of the school is to get more and more leaders out rather than consultants, Marketing managers and financial analysts, which to me was a great exercise.

Oh BTW, did I mention that the program begins at 0800 hrs in the morning and that I am getting up at 0645 these days to catch my 0729 hrs bus... :) Another good thing of RLP is that you get breakfast between 0800-0830, followed by good continental lunch... so far so good... the only problem is that everything is so cold here... bread is still fine; however even the boiled eggs are ice-cold!

Anyways, Coming back to RLP, we had full-day session with Jim Loehr on "How to make a corporate athlete" ... they guy had worked with people like Pete Sampras, Jim Courier, helped Monika Seles with her game and attitude post her injuries etc etc. Not just there was a session on focus and intensity in whatever we do, we went through a session on Physical fitness at work, re-energizing oneself and on nutrition! Wonderful and very full-filling day... but for the cold breakfast and colder people :(

Crossing the Atlantic for the first time

2006-10-24T07:35:00.000-07:00

Started from Delhi airport with slightly heave heart and wet eyes (wonder since when I have got this soft heart in me, anyways!). Reached Frankfurt airport to find things are not the same post world cup days in Germany. I think people had too much of beer during the games and were looking relatively fatter! ... or may be Berlin is a better place to stay healthy... anyways it was a short but nice stay there. Almost missed my flight when they changed the gates ... and to my surprise and shock kept another US airways flight at the same gate. Anyways I had to rush in the last minute to get on to the right flight. On board, finally found a TV screen (my dad's fav Lufthansa is not the same any more ... had no personal entertainment what so ever)
Anyways just woke up as we were nearing Philadelphia and saw the beautiful eastern coast line of the states... it was a mix feeling again as if there is a vast sea on one side and land of opportunities on the other and I was always hoping this plane does not plunge in the blue ocean below... (kind of an analogy I think)

At US immigration, no problems what so ever... however I had to take my checked-in baggage back to take it through another round of inspection... as I had only 2 hours I tried to rush through every gate as fast as possible... but alas missed the flight by mere 5 minutes... the next flight was 5 hours later and I had all the time with me to go to downtown Philly and come back :) Took the 8:30 PM flight to Detroit and reached around 11. Took a taxi to my friend's (Hitesh Handa) place, dived in to the chicken that he had prepared for me and plunged in to deep sleep as soon as I could.