Nothing to write about...

This blogging habit of mine has become a fairly addictive thing over the past few days. I want to keep writing on it even if there is nothing worthwhile to mention. Now, going over the last couple of posts I find that there is that 'spark' lacking in the posts. Eek! If it is like this to write an ordinary blog and sustain the interest of the reader (myself in this case :-)) , imagine what it would be like for an advertiser whose bread and butter is made by sustaining the interest of the target customers (who are nowhere as kind as I am while evaluating my own literary efforts :-)).

That has led me to decide that I will update my blog only if I really find some meaty stuff to write on. (Oh, I am a vegetarian, by the way... the 'meat' allusion was just a figurative one). So why am I blogging now? Actually, I am feeling wide awake even at 3.30 am in the morning today and don't really know what to do!

Come to think of it, I think my next post will be on sleep, its aftereffects and side effects...
More stuff is just around the corner...

Sitan

Thinking through...

Another amazing Finance Class happened today. Man! Our professor for this term was truly awesome. Today was the last day of classes for the second term and we have the weekend to prepare for the end term. I have a lot of catching up to do and this therefore promises to be a short post...

During the Finance Class today, we were discussing some complex concepts and the professor did an amazing job of guiding us through the concepts... He is fond of the words "Run the logic on _____ situation ". He makes us think logically through the steps that are involved in an action. Invaluable I would say. The problem however lies in building rigour into your thinking process so that you do not make mistakes or skip any steps while conceptualising a problem. There is a good chance that you will come up with the wrong solutions or conclusions otherwise. What is required for this? Well, apart from the gift of good brains (so often taken for granted, yet so invaluable to success), it requires logical thinking and phenomenal concentration. I mean, if you have to really conceptualise at that level, you must be able to shut out all external influences (believe me , our class gets quite noisy at times :-)), and then take a thought process to its logical conclusion...

As managers of the future, I believe we all have a responsibility to ourselves to develop this wonderful habit .... Not an easy task though. It requires a lot of trials and frustrations (as if we do not have enough frustrations already)... But then as Churchill once said,
"Success is the ability to move from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm"

:-))

Discipline

I am feeling pretty philosophical right now, especially after I know I have wasted time much better spent more productively. This series of blogs will help me focus on that strangely elusive quality called "Discipline".

Discipline is a pretty strange creature. She is the pet of those who can sacrifice the present for the future. For those cursed souls who can't do that, she is more elusive than the Loch Ness Monster...

What is it that makes one waste time when one knows that there is work to be done? Or, more relevantly, what is it that helps one focus on the work and keep the play for later? Discipline, of course!

Yeah right- pretty obvious answer that. But, talking about it is never enough. Nor is wishing for it ever going to help. It is a way of life. It is what distinguishes the good from the bad, and the great from the good. Mundane, yet powerful, discipline works in strange and wonderful ways to improve productivity manifold.

I quote a few memorable quotes on this topic:

"Half of life is luck; the other half is discipline - and that’s the important half, for without discipline you wouldn’t know what to do with luck. "
Carl Zuckmeyer

" When you have a number of disagreeable duties to perform, always do the most disagreeable first. "
Josiah Quincy

"The successful person has the habit of doing the things failures don't like to do. They don't like doing them either necessarily. But their disliking is subordinated to the strength of their purpose. "
E.M. Gray

Nice quotes, these and very true too! One of the most important things discipline allows you is the ability to have a peaceful sleep every night. Once you have done your work for the day and achieved what you set out to do, nothing more matters for a hearty sleep. And believe me, in a place like IIMA, a guilty conscience is the last thing you want to have while hitting the sack after a long, tiring day...

Well, I have to discipline myself as well. Must log off now :-)

Sitan

Of Profs and proofs

We have this finance professor called Ajay Pandey (I am proud to say that he was one of the panelists who interviewed me during the IIMA admission process). Oh man! His fundas in Finance are the strongest I have ever seen! The man truly knows his subject. In fact, I have never seen him at a loss even once when handling some fairly tricky questions from the students. He seems to be a storehouse of knowledge and I am not the only one who feels that way. Even guys from IIT, who have had exposure to some pretty great profs rate him very highly indeed. It makes me really proud to have made it to IIMA, you know. Having exposure to some of the best faculty in the field is a rare thing and it really is upto us to maximise what we get from the classes.

Talking about maximisation, I have been maximising my sleep off late. While my colleagues are slogging away and sleeping barely six hours a day, yours truly manages to snore away for at least 7.5 to 8 solid hours :-D. Initially I felt guilty about it. But later, I realised that sleep was not a bad thing after all. Some people consider it a waste of time. It is not that we do not "waste" time otherwise. The most important thing is that we manage to stay productive during class hours and absorb whatever is being taught. I mean, imagine if one were to sleep even for a few minutes in the Finance class ( and mark my words, if you keep having less than 7 hrs sleep a day, you are bound to 'sleep' at least for a while in any class), one would miss a few pearls of wisdom from the prof. The profs here are unbelievable, especially Ajay Pandey. But the thing with his classes is that you have to be constantly attentive. One small lapse is what it takes for some fin funda from being highly interesting to being pure Over Head Transmission!

Come to think of it, I have never learnt Fin the way it has been taught here. In CA, all we used to do was to accept certain statements and formulae at face value and never bother about the foundations. But here everything is about proof - not in the technical sense of having to prove how a formula came about but more about understanding the theoretical foundations of a formula. I realised that I had been conditioned to accept whatever explanation was thrown at me without really questioning the motive behind it. That I realise no longer applies. I must learn to question and analyse the underlying ideas. That is when I get true insights into the concepts and can use them in a variety of situations.

This approach also ensures that nobody is able to pull the wool over my eyes in future managerial situations as well. If there is one thing good about IIMA, it is the way it teaches one ot question one's assumptions and re-examine truisms in a new light. I realise that it is a whole new way of thinking. God help me change my mindset now!

Blogging off

Sitan

Uncommon Sense...

Another day, another marketing class... The company being discussed today was Procter and Gamble, one of the worlds best marketing companies. The students were asked to prepare the case before coming to class (At IIM A, the case method of study is THE preferred pedagogical tool. I don't entirely agree with the insti on the use of this method, but then that is my raw material for another blog.:-)). The entire outlook of the case transformed before my very eyes in the classroom. Our prof took us through the processes the company used/would want to use when faced with a particular decision problem. The way we looked at the case was totally inadequate.

But, in retrospect the entire approach seemed driven by common sense. Common sense ... I have never come across a more uncommon characteristic among people. One of the vaunted characteristics of this institute is that it implants some common sense in its alumni before they graduate. I can see how it does that. The professors here, knowingly or unknowingly, help us get a perspective on a common sense approach to a business problem. I could also analyse the P&G case a lot better after the perspective offered by the prof. Common sense is indeed uncommon. But, with some practice, I am sure we will do a good job as managers in the future.

Today I came across a message posted on our electronic notice board ... the title is "KISS" (acronym for "Keep it simple, Stupid!"). It goes like this.

1) When NASA began the launch of astronauts into space, they found
out that the pens wouldn't work at zero gravity (Ink won't flow down
to the writing surface).In order to solve this problem, it took them
one decade and $12 million. They developed a pen that worked at zero
gravity, upside down, underwater, in practically any surface
including crystal and in a temperature range from below freezing to
over 300 degrees C. And what did Russians do.....................??
The Russians used a Pencil!!!

2) One of the most memorable case studies on Japanese management was
the case of the empty soap box, which happened in one of Japan's
biggest cosmetics companies. The company received a complaint that a
consumer had bought a soap box that was empty. Immediately the
authorities isolated the problem to the assembly line, which
transported all the packaged boxes of soap to the delivery
department. For some reason, one soap box went through the assembly
line empty. Management asked its engineers to solve the problem.
Post-haste, the engineers worked hard to devise an X-ray machine with
high-resolution monitors manned by two people to watch all the soap
boxes that passed through the line to make sure they were not empty.
No doubt, they worked hard and they worked fast but they spent
whoopee amount to do so.

But when a rank-and-file employee in a small company was posed with
the same problem, did not get into complications of X-rays, etc but
instead came out with another solution. He bought a strong industrial
electric fan and pointed it at the assembly line. He switched the fan
on, and as each soap box passed the fan, it simply blew the empty
boxes out of the line.

Moral of the story: KISS (Keep It Simple,Stupid) i.e. always look for
simple solutions. Devise the simplest possible solution that solves
the problem :-) So, learn to focus on solutions not on problems

Ample testimony to the usefulness of common sense I suppose... :-))

Bloggin' Off
Sitan

Memoryless Systems and my experiences with QM

Oh My God!

We had a Quantitative methods class today... the prof was talking about exponential distributions and some illustrations of the same. Ooof! Are they ever hard to understand! All the theory he taught seemed to make sense...then Kabooom! He thrust some seemingly "simple" problem on us.
That effectively destroyed whatever confidence I had in the subject. It was Overhead transmission pure and simple... I could hear the whooshing sound of all that gyaan passing right out of my brain.

Eeek! If a CA like me (who has had a prior exposure to Probability and distributions) can resist QM like a bucking bronco, I can well imagine what it is to have a non-maths background. It must be like a rustic Greek being caught in a Tamil Nadu village.

There was this concept of memory-less property of exponential distributions being taught in class. Memory less... Memory less... Memory less... What was actually taught ? Oh..I feel my memory is getting progressively lesser. ;-). I thought of me having a good head for data...Facts, figures, trivia - everything was right up my street, or so I thought. But this has been a rude awakening. The way things are taught here are a lot more about concepts than mere facts. Abstracting the concept from the data is extremely important...Thankfully, I have a set of very helpful friends who can make sense of the distributions, probabilities and stuff.

Actually it was not as bad as I paint it to be, once I get some help... God bless the IITs(and the other Quant focussed colleges) and Thank God for the Mathematicians of the batch! And God bless their helpful hearts! After the event I actually feel that Quant is not such a tough subject after all. All it requires is some acquaintance, a helluva lot of practice and some common sense. As future Managers, all of us will be required to use/interpret large quantities of data and this is a useful way to make sense of it all...

That's enuf for now....
Sitan

End of an epoch...

The Goddess of Devotional music, MS Subbulakshmi passed away a couple of days back...

I could barely believe it when I read about it in the papers. Yeah, granted that she was not young any more and was reported to have been admitted to hospital. She had also stopped singing since her husband died. But then, it still was difficult to come to terms with her demise.

Having been brought up in a conservative South Indian family, MS was a part of my life from a very early age. You could find most South Indian Households reverberating with her "Kausalyaa Suprajaa Raama Poorva Sandhyaa Pravarthathe..." every morning. My initiation into Vishnu Sahasranamam was through a half - hour long gramophone record carrying her rendition of the same... I still remember feeling all restless and wondering when the recital would get over. But now, I can not have enough of it... Strange how things work.

However, even at a young age, her singing in the film "Meera" attracted me. Later, this attraction changed to fascination. I simply could not get enough of her songs! In fact, one of my first uses of Sharescan after coming to IIMA was to find out the availability of MS Songs on the LAN :-)). Her voice would seem so soothing and mellifluous. But what made me really pick her out of all others of her generation? Was it the Clear tone of her voice? Was it her impeccable fidelity? Was it her purity of Shruti? Was it her incredible attention to pronunciation? Or was it something more?

I found the answer one day while I was waiting outside a temple... I had heard the song "Dolayaam" (which is supposed to be sung when Lord Vishnu and His Consort are together on a swing) sung by a prominent Carnatic musician of our times some time back. Then I heard the same song sung by MS being played... The difference could not be starker... It was clear to me then that what was a direct conversation with God for MS remained a mere song for ordinary mortals...It was that Bhakti that really came through in her songs...

Her devotional songs had the ability to transcend the boundaries of the earthly world and take us to a different plane altogether. It was almost as if she could see the Deity she was singing about. That to me was the difference...

It also taught me a lesson on what is uniqueness and excellence all about. What made her stand out like a shining light among those illustrious exponents of the noble art of Music? It was her involvement in what she set out to do...She could do it better than anyone else because she put her entire Soul behind her effort. That to me is the key lesson her life holds for people, irrespective of country, religion caste and creed.

She also used to consider herself a student of Music till the very end...That gave her the humility that endeared her to all music lovers. Her contributions to charity were not to be sneered at either.

Thanks to all the technology we still get to hear those divine songs, but her demise leaves a void that cannot be filled. She was the Don Bradman of Carnatic Devotional music (or Kalidasa, for the more poetically inclined :-)). Others could always try to wrestle for the second spot, but the foremost place is hers and hers alone, in my mind at least.

May her Soul Rest in peace...
Her Lord has called her to His abode...

Logging off
Sitan

Abstraction...

This piece is about how important it is to get beyond the details to arrive at the concepts. It is one of the keys to long term success. The ability to extract the concept from the detail is what distinguishes the "men from the boys" so to speak ( or the "women from the girls" for those who might think that I am a chauvinist pig after reading the first phrase :-)). IIM-A does actually place a lot of emphasis on this aspect. Maybe it is why this institute creates such outstanding managers.

We were sitting in finance class today and I was feeling lost in a jumble of maths and graphs . Then the prof reiterated the fact that the weird caconography that he did on the board was only a tool to arrive at the basic concept underlying it all... It then dawned on me how easy it really is to get lost in details and miss the forest for the trees. At the same time, it is important to read, understand and interpret the data carefully and arrive at logical conclusions based on it. Tough going huh?? Yeah, I bet it is.

When I was at the Taj I was talking to this really high up official who probably revealed the key to being a successful analyst and an effective decision maker at the same time. He said that the most valued ability for an analyst is to be able to get immersed in the detail that he/she creates. That is what helps him/her create outstanding reports. Once the report has been created (in draft), it is necessary to get into a totally different frame of mind and approach the entire thing from a totally different point of view. The ability to "move out" of the data and take a bird's eye view was, is and will always be highly prized.

As entry level graduates, many of us will be involved in writing reports rather than interpreting them, at least initially. Later on, roles will change. But the truly outstanding performers will be able to abstract away, even at the entry stage, from the data they created and view their efforts in a conceptual and managerial framework that will make the final outcome much more lucid and relevant. This will also help them avoid the oft-criticised failing of the MBA, viz. being good at giving theoretically sound but practically useless suggestions.

Rest in next...
Sitan

Clarity of thought...

This is turning out to be one series of articles on pseudo-philosophical and moralistic lines. But then, I like thinking about all these things. Now, there are a couple of lines in Sanskrit that I know which go like this...

"Buddhir balam yashodhairyam nirbhatavamarogataa
Ajaahyam Vaakpatutvam cha Hanumat Smaranaath Bhaveth"

"Taddrshtva Vyaaditam Chaasiyam Vaayuputrassubuddhimaan
deerghajihvam Surasayaa sughoram narakopamam..."

I am not too good at understanding Sanskrit, but these lines are in praise of Lord Hanuman. The first verse just invokes His Name and says that those who remember Lord Hanuman will be blessed with Intelligence, mental alertness, diplomacy, strength and clarity in speech.The second verse just praises His presence of Mind. Lord Hanuman was supposed to be an epitome of clear thinking and this is what is painfully lacking in many people today (me no exception).

This lack of clarity in thinking is found in many aspects. Take academic learning for instance. Our course requires a lot of clear thinking on many concepts that are taught in class. In fact I believe that a lot of our problems in understanding the concepts taught will be solved if we give ourselves the time to sit back and ponder over what was taught in class. Now there is nothing that prevents us from doing it but sheer laziness. Thinking is one the toughest activities one can ever do. The rewards are great but so are the efforts and the distractions!

Clarity in thinking is a difficult thing to achieve but it is amazingly productive...Believe me I have seen some very live examples (within my study group here at IIMA) and firmly believe that there are few things more admirable than instances of clear thinking. That is what I am trying to emulate myself. It is incredibly tough to really get to the brass tacks and think uninterruptedly. Then again, the rewards are great.

Take another instance of confused thinking... Career choices! Do I want to go into marketing? Finance ? Operations ? Strategic administration? Most of us do not even have a clue. Things here are purely driven by mob mentality and introspection often takes a back seat. As a result, many people take up jobs they are not comfortable with and this does bring a lot of unhappiness in our lives later. The turnover rate among fresh graduates at IIMA is incredibly high and I would probably put it down to lack of clarity in thought (Of course, there are also some cases of lack of opportunity, but then clear thought and action creates its own opportunities!)

Oh I could go on and on about this instances. But I think this is too long already. I need to blog off and spend some time ..... THINKING !

Sitan aka Rangarajan

Law of Averages

In the long run we all get what we really deserve...Nobody can stay 'lucky' in the long run. This might sound a bit cynical, but I have found this to be absolutely true in my short life so far. Everytime I think I have been unfortunate in some aspect, a windfall comes my way and things even out. And naturally, the opposite also happens quite frequently.
The worst part is getting caught in the ups and downs rather than thinking "Long term". It is tough to escape the rut but it has to be done. I am currently in a phase where I am frequently subject to both ups and downs. The bad part is that I am finding it difficult to get out of the cycle of happiness and disappointment...
I came across this inspirational poem called "If" written by Rudyard Kipling. I quote,

" If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;..."

This is the toughest thing of all. I am trying hard to put it into practice...
My peace of mind depends on how successfully I execute this ... Oh well, time is a great healer. Let's see what happens :-)

Sitan

Pride in work...

My Blogging rate has increased exponentially over the past few days...Is it that I don't have anything else to do? Of course not. Somehow, I have fallen under the spell of blogging and the strange mix of openness and privacy that it offers. And then, when it becomes a sort of necessity, I can always find the 10 minutes required somehow :-).
There are many incidents taking place nowadays which teach me the real meaning of some fairly commonplace words. One word which really got meaning for me a few hours back was the word "Pride". By this I mean taking pride in one's work.
My friend was disappointed at a poor performance he put up in one quiz sometime back... I thought, "Hey what's the big deal? Everybody makes mistakes in some quiz or the other..." . But then I realised that it was not the actual grade that he got that mattered so much. What really bothered him was that he had "failed" (in a relative sense of the term :-)) to do well in the subject that he loved most. The pride which he took in his performance was a lesson for me as well.
I realised that we need to take pride in our work for us to really excel in it. A "chalta hai" attitude may still result in our doing good work, but it does not promote excellence. In the world today, where excellence is the name of the game, pride in one's work is an absolute must.
However, this has a caveat attached. Having pride in one's work is all fine. But one should not let it get overboard and feel dejected at having made a mistake. Disappointment is fine only to the extent one can learn from it.
Life will keep teaching me new lessons everyday...the only thing is that I have to be a good student and keep the learning spirit and take each lesson as an invaluable contribution towards the development of my personality

Bloggin' off
Sitan aka Rangarajan

Loneliness...

The second year students broke for their term breaks around one week back (they get 3 weeks holidays between the fifth and sixth terms!). The dorms generally wear a deserted look without them around. It is almost as if the place is devoid of life. There is no music constantly blaring out, no shouts of "Muggo, Fachhon, Muggo!" ... and so on. We do not realise the value of all these things when they are there but feel bad when they are not present. The pervasive feeling is that we can't wait for them to come back. The presence of the 2's does a lot to bring "spirit"(no pun intended :-)) into the dorms, which we all miss sorely.
All we facchas get to do is to attend a few company talks and mug on as usual. Btw, there was this BCG talk on strategy on Sunday. It was very interesting indeed and threw some useful insights into what a consultant really does.
The thing that impressed me most during that talk was the definition of strategy one guy gave us. He said strategy is all about making hard choices in order to get the best out of the available resources. I then realised that it was what I have been missing all my life. Everyone needs to make hard choices if they have to reach the top. Naturally, it is a painful process. But running away from unpleasant decisions will only delay the inevitable. The "winners" are the ones who can take the challenge head on and be decisive. More important is the commitment to the decision once it is made. Once these two things are there in place, a formula for success is already brewing. Add to it a recipe of grace from God's Hand and voila! Nothing can prevent one from going to the very top...
This musing seems slightly philosophical to me, but then I am coming face-to-face with myself while writing this blog. I know that I have not been required to make the kind of tough decisions, many of my batchmates have had to do so far. I have generally enjoyed the best of many worlds, with my parents always ready to provide me the support I needed. But now, if I have to go out into the real world, I have to develop the skill of explicitly making hard choices . Even as I write, I am making a choice of what I want to do with my time at IIMA and the choice I am making, I feel, is helping me see things in black and white.

This blog somehow resembles a diary of sorts, where I can really let myself go... I think it is good for me. Let's see what I do from now on...

Sitan

Diminishing marginal returns...

We had a marketing class today where the professor talked about the concept of diminishing returns applying to life in general ( I don't remember the context in which he mentioned it anyway, but then, in Marketing I guess it really does not matter :-)). Coming to think of it, the law of diminishing returns is at its punishing best in any performance driven scenario. Take IIMA for example. Here we find most students braving sleepless nights and nightmarish loads in the first year to struggle to be among the top. Beyond a point, it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain productivity. Often it is the case that people drop off to sleep while poring over their books. The less sleep we get and the more work we put in,the more difficult it becomes difficult to get proportionately higher grades. There are a blessed few, who manage to extract the best out of their productive time and manage to beat the law of diminishing marginal returns. But for the rest of the people, this law is a poignant reminder of our failings (ironic...me saying failings, when many people would give an eyetooth to be here and think that the privileged ones who make it to IIMA have near divine status).
But then, one of the greatest challenges in our lives is bound to be one of extracting the most of our productive time to achieve the sort of results and fame that we often dream of... But how to go about doing that? I am reminded of Lord Krishna's immortal saying here:
" Karmanyevaadhikarasthe Maaphaleshu Kadachana "
"Do your Best without expecting the fruits of your efforts " and leave the rest to God.

I have never come across a more profound statement...
Now why am I blogging without getting down to studies? Fact is, I am feeling sleeppy after a very nice dinner (They actually serve good food in the mess sometimes :-)) and thought a bit of blogging will wake me up nicely...

In fact, this exercise has been so effective that I lost sleepiness halfway thru this blog and started feeling guilty :(...so that's all for now.

Blogggin' Off
Sitan aka Rangarajan

Amazing Class...

We had an awesome marketing class today, with participation pouring in from the students. The class was on demand forecasting and the students came up with some innovative ideas to fit a curve to the given data and use it for predictions. The teacher also did an excellent job in directing the course of the discussion. His statements in hindsight just seemed to be common sense. After a while it seemed that there was no insight gained during the class. A further thought made me revise my opinion. There are some who disagree with me but I think Marketing as a course is just a lot of common sense which often gets missed out.
What's more important is the fact that the case method of study followed here does force people (sometimes) to grapple with real issues and deal with situations where there is unavailability of data and a high degree of uncertainty...
Whatever it does, it certainly makes one think logically and systematically through a problem, which will be of great use when we enter the real world...

Proud to be a WIMWIAn
Sitan

I know what I do this summer...

I will be working with the Corporate and Investment Banking Division of Citibank this summer... Whew! It is a real relief when the summer placements process got over...The tension inside the faccha pool (that is where all the first year students are asked to assemble) hits you like something solid! Seeing the anxiety on the faces of some of the best and brightest in the country really makes me wonder about the system. What is it about Day Zero jobs that makes people go ballistic, trying to rush headlong into areas they (often) know very little about? Is it the money? Is it the prestige? Is it the glamour? I think it might be a mix of all the above three. But anyway, is this process not just another step in a long career and more importantly, a longer life?
I know many of my batchmates will not agree if I say that the summers/final placements process does not really matter in the long run. On a personal note, I would like to be in a job that at least keeps my sense of self worth intact and helps me lead a balanced life with work and fun mixed in ample measure. I myself got placed in Day One and many feel that those who do not get Day Zero placements will try to console themselves saying it does not matter really... but believe me, I have heard reports from some of my seniors about the nightmarish work hours they had in I-Banks and the immense pressure trading jobs put on them. Pressure is good till a limit, because it brings out the best in you, but an overdose is not really healthy. Then again, it is just my view (which by the way, matches with the lazy outlook I have on life in general :-))
Life is long and is to be enjoyed well...Why waste it trying to think about competing with others. I compete with myself and try to my job better every time. That is more than enough for me.

Logging off
Sitan

The hottest winter I have ever experienced

The title of this blog has absolutely nothing to do with the weather (which is Gorgeous, by the way, at least by South Indian standards) . It is summer placement season here and things are literally heating up on campus. Life is becoming more and more hectic as the funda sessions start pouring in from Placecom here. Moreover there is a lot of muggin to do before the summers start.

That's all for now...really don't feel like blogging now
Sitan

Stable Change

I am not referring to horse stables in my heading :-)
I was prompted to log in after i finished filling up my TAS application form for the Summer recruitment process.
I really am at a loss to understand why companies insist on us filling out these long painful forms that apparently seem to serve no purpose other than make for good creative fiction writing...
But then, maybe it is intended to cultivate patience in our minds, a good characteristic of managers. Maybe I will look back at this experience and say it was all for the best, but then, maybe not :)
I am editing this post ages after I actually created it. Now I am absolutely determined to publish it!

Logging off for now
Sitan aka Rangarajan

second term at Central Jail (oops! IIMA)

the second term here started with a bang. we had two submissions the very first day of the term.
we were cursing our seniors who had promised us that we would have a really chill term
but after the first couple of days, things seem to have eased out. i don't have anything much to do for the weekend (except prepare my cv for the summers!!!!)

coming to the summers placement process, it is strange how one gets the writer's block as soon as one starts to have some intention in mind ! i started to think about what i wanted to put in my cv.
ideas start flowing all around me, yet i am unable to pin down one really satisfactory cv point.

oh well, i guess it is going to be a painful process.

Labour Camp _ IIMA

Wow!!
What a week we have ahead of us.
5 submissions and 1 quiz in the week leading to the end terms. One of our seniors had told us that the first year at IIMA is a labour camp. Now I see why.

The worst part is that the city is getting hotter and hotter again. The level of my laziness, I have found, has a unique relationship with the external temperature. It is inversely proportional once the temperature starts going down below 25 and directly proportional once it moves above 34.

But overall, I would say that this has been a good learning experience for me. I have probably learnt more about management in these three months than I have done in my previous 22 years. No wonder this insti has such a good brand image.

Proud to be at IIMA

Philosophy??? naah...just practical lessons I learnt

The last few days have awoken the sleeping philosopher in me. I thought I had done a decent job during my mid term exams. Only now do I realise that I have come up woefully short in meeting the expectations of the teaching assistants who actually correct the mid term papers.

What does this all have in store for a guy who came to the best b-school in asia pacific with a truckload of expectations?

A lot, coming to think of it; and this is probably true for all people who find themselves messing up one exam or another.

Learnings:
1. do not try to jump to the skies with just a pair of sneakers on. You need the ammunition to do it.
2. better take to the skies in a set of small jumps than try to fly. You will most probably land with a thud if you are too ambitious.
3. be realistic in your expectations . You cannot expect to become a genius overnight. But what you can do is to keep plodding away steadily.
4. Never let your efforts slacken. Giving up is simply useless.
5. Have faith in god at all times.

singin' in the rain

it has been raining continually for God Knows how many days here at IIMA. The campus is getting flooded and we have to wade through gallons and gallons of water to get to our classes.Mr.Louis Kahn probably came from a Desert. So he apparently forgot that there are such things as rains. The drainage system at IIMA is adequate testimony to this...

The rains of course have brought their own power cuts to this place. We have been having Economics sessions in pitch darkness (there is hardly any natural light in the classrooms). Talk about knowledge dispelling the darkness of ignorance.

We also have this thingy called T-Nite at IIMA, where all first year students ("facchas") have a whale of a time trying to out-shout and out-perform their colleagues from other sections. The seniors say that this is the most memorable time that we will ever get to spend at IIMA. I don't doubt them. The fever runs really high and loyalty to your section really comes through. The fun is even more when we have to rush out in the pouring rain for buying stationery, bugles, ribbons and stuff .

This week promises to be really hectic, what with having to keep your preparations for class up to the mark and simultaneously trying to see that your section emerges on top... But then, as McDonald's slogan goes:

"I'm luvin' it"

Signing off.

path breaker...

This is my first attempt at blogging. I must admit, blogging has a sort of addictive quality to it... I have come across quite a few witty blogs during my stint of just over a month and a half at IIMA and thought I might join the crowd.

My mid term exams just got over :) . What better time to set about doing something I haven't done before?

That's enuf for my first post. gotta go frontlog on some sleep.