Games Friends Play

Now this post is triggered by a book that am currently reading “Games Indians Play” (now this is one way I say am reading something ;)). Though in the book the author uses a lot of tools like economics, mathematics, statistics, psychology, finance, game theory, behavioral finance and lot of other such subjects and concepts that I never understood, I am gonna just use 2 tools – Reality and Assumption (yea I know u’ll say assumption is one thing most of the above subjects use, but its ok, I have to copy at least something from the book right?!)

So let’s see what kind of good/ bad/ funny games friends play!!

(I’ll use he instead of always saying he/she, though it may be a specific he or she in certain cases, still let me just stick to he… it’s a lot easier to abuse a he than a she u see :P)

- When he says “fine”… its simple, he just wants to say – lets not talk about it anymore… whatever!!

- When he says “I’ll try”, he means “am sure I won’t”.

- When he says I’ll call u back – he just means “why did u call??, anyways bye!! And don’t call back!!”

- This friend wanted to convey that he got engaged (met him after a long time at a party)

He – hey so u engaged??

Me – no not yet..

He – oh!! Y??

Me – nah I just finished my mba… so (now come on, am not over age, that u r Y’ing it like that)

He – ok cool… anyways that pretty girl in white there… she’s my fiancé!!

Me – oh congrats!! Nice ur engaged (now I know why u Y’ed me like that)

- When he says “ill be there in ten mins, just left home”. It means - I just thought about getting ready so how about seeing u there after an hour (at least) or so?!!

- When he says “keep in touch”, it just means – I won’t, so keep in touch if u like to.

- When he says “I don’t give a damn!!”. This time he means what he says :D :D

- This friend wanted to know if I had a girl friend!! (I wish!! :P)

He – how’s life dude

Me – usual yaar, nothing much.. ok ok

He – so wat else?? wat r u doing these days??

Me - not much yaar! routine life, office-home (as if u dint know!)

He – oh!! So how many girl friends do u have??

Me – LOL!! I wish!! Why would I be talking to u now, if I had even one?! So do u have any??

He – yea man I have 2 -3 !!

Me – oh wow gr8!! (now I know, u just wanted to rub it in!! and at least be sure if the no. is 2 or 3 dude!! :D)

- When he says “sorry I forgot”, he means “what if I remembered?, I just dint want to …..!!”

- When he says “nothing much”, it just means – there’s a lot, but nothing worth telling u!

Will try and add more of these soon, just a short peek into friends mind this one ;) I have just read few pages of the book so far, so will be able to add more once I get more things to copy from the book!! :D

P.S – Any statements resemblance to any one either friend or foe is purely coincidental. You should have read it at ur own discretion ;) and now don’t start interpreting each statement I make the next time we talk!! I am no game!! :D

Today’s Favorite Line – When all eyes are on u, don’t close ur eyes, instead put on ur coolers! U’ll look cool!! :D

Today’s Favorite Song – Lonely (Akon)

A cop, a signal and a car!!!

Just after sunset he left home, riding at the speed of 60kmph on one of the busiest roads in the city on a Sunday, not expecting to see a cop on the signal on a Honda Activa. He still made sure he wore a helmet, had his ears filled with headphones and music full on.

He wanted to forget the world all along his ride and just listen to the lovely song by Akon “Beautiful”. To his surprise he saw a cop waving his hand exactly to him amidst many other passing vehicles, while he was moving his head and feet with the beats of the song when the lyrics went as “I wanna get with u…..”. He thought to himself for the 1 second he got to think and react tat why was the cop stopping him while he was wearing the helmet and also looked one of the age who could drive.

He just obliged to the gesture of the cop and slowed down not sure why but he dint want to flee cos he had all the documents just in case the cop wanted to make a quick buck. But to his surprise the cop with a tomato shaped belly and complexion so dark tat his face and his cop shirt looked to be in perfect contrast, he still looked like just another traffic cop in the city with a moustache tat was the only other sign apart from his belly and uniform tat he was a cop asking for a lift.

No the surprise was not the fact that the cop asked for a lift, that’s something usual, he had given lift to cops plenty a times. While he had his headphones plugged into his ears he hardly could hear the cop, and obviously he forgot that he had to take the headphones off to listen to the cop cos he was totally tuned to the lyrics of akon’s beautiful, but he still managed to understand that the cop wanted him to take a left immediately. To his fortune even he wanted to go left so he dint mind taking a left, but then the cop showed him a car, a dark red Honda Civic, the look of which would make anyone envious. And then the cop said “I want you to follow that car!!!”

He was amazed for a second, he dint know what to do. Though by this time he had managed to pull out the headphones from his ears so that he could listen carefully to whatever the cop had to say, he still dint know what to do, whether to speed up like Abhishek Bachchan does in Dhoom or to drive normally (under 40kmph as per the rules) as a cop was his pillion rider. Anyways he chose to do neither and stay in between speeding and normal driving.

He dint have to drive a lot, just a few hundred meters and there was a signal and fortunately for him the signal was red and the car that caught his eye from long distance stood right there at the signal. And even more fortunately for the cop there was no other vehicle adjacent to the car he wanted to catch hold of, so the cop asked him to stop just next to the car and got down without saying a word (not that he expected anything, still).

Now it was time for him to see some drama which usually one gets to see in a movie, as he stood waiting for the signal to turn green he kept looking back at the cop and the car.He saw 3 guys in the car, all of them looking about 18-20, tall thin guys who are out seeing the city around. No need to mention they looked rich dad’s kids, one of them sitting next to the one driving held a hi fi mobile in his hand wearing a grey round neck tshirt, the one sitting behind was moving his head to some music in the car with a stylish hairstyle copied from some bolly flick. The guy driving the car wore a dark striped shirt, his hair looked nicely gelled and the concern in his eye as soon as the cop knocked the window of the car confirmed the fact that it was his car and not of the other 2 in the car.

30 seconds still to go for the signal to turn green, other vehicles piled up around the car, everyone looking at the drama going around, no one even looking at the signal. The cop kept knocking at the window asking the guys to open the door. They kept looking at each other to figure out what to do, at once they dint understand what was going on, as the music in the car was loud enough for them to get their senses back in a moment. The guy sitting behind stopped jumping to the music, the cop tried to open the door himself but as expected it was centrally locked from the drivers’ seat.

The guy driving the car tried to turn quickly to look at signal just in case he had a chance to flee, his eyes told that he was looking just to find if that opportunity existed but unfortunately for him there were 2 other bikes in front of his sedan, so he decided to lower the mirror of the round neck tshirt friends end as that’s where the cop stood, but the cop just kept shouting, asking him to open the door as if he wanted to pull the guys out of the car. Looked like those guys either broke a law or the cop suspected something else, he thought it could be anything, may be they are underage, may be drunk, could be anything.

While these thoughts filled his eyes and all the other vehicle riders standing by had their eyes glued on that car. He kept looking back and forth from the car to the signal and vice versa, the signal turned green, 2 seconds passed and no other vehicle seemed to move or even bother that the signal turned green. But he chose to leave the spot as he wasn’t interested in the drama, he already was having a mixed feeling, cos he put those guys into trouble, though it was none of his business to bother about having put them in trouble, he still dint feel nice staying there anymore, so he just opted to move on.

He pulled the throttle of his bike and kept an eye on his rear view mirror, and figured that he was some 200 meters past the signal and not a single vehicle waiting at the signal moved from the spot. He thought he was the one who was a part of this drama, at least in getting the cop there and he himself missed all the action. But that’s how it is, he just wasn’t interested, he stopped by after another 100 meters or so and plugged the headphones back into his ears and now the song was “Let her cry” by Hootie & Blowfish.

He sunk his mind back to the song just thinking he helped the police, though it was just a lift he gave, which ideally he wouldn’t have given if it was any other common unknown man… and finally he forgot the incident wishing he stood there and found out why the cop wanted to stop that car and what happened and all that, but then he just thought if there was something really worth it, it’ll get published in tomorrows daily ;) and he can boast about the same to everyone he knew!!!!

P.S - Its yet another try to say things as a third person.. not sure if its up to some mark yet...

Today's Favorite Line - "And all I really want is some patience....."

Today's Favorite Song - Papa Kehte Hain (Qayamat se qayamat tak)

Spotting them young!!

I grew up reading about corrupt politicians, scams, hatred speeches and all sort of things which would make any sane human hate the political system or better put the politicians. Amidst all this I had to choose some political party, some leader as my favorite. I couldn’t live ignorant all my life thinking all of them are the same. So as I started understanding things better as I was in high school I started developing a liking for the party that has been trying to change the leadership in the country away from family owned kind of setup which has been building over the years after independence. That’s one reason I never developed a liking for this party who kept using a family name to gain peoples acceptance term after term. More than that I obviously won’t support someone whom I hardly know about, who doesn’t have any track record! So I started supporting this veteran who was respected by one and all. But then his party ruled the country for a few years and then it was time again for family legacy to continue. But to everyone’s surprise that dint happen and one of the most deserving person got the hot seat and still continues at the top job!! I have been feeling good since the day this job came to hands of this person irrespective of people calling him just a puppet. With his wisdom and commitment am sure even if he has been used as a puppet he’ll do the right things and as seen for the last few years he has!

Now coming to the key aspect of this article… and being a management student the kind of emphasis I lay on building the organization one belongs to rather than worrying about its leadership. This youngster (at least in terms of politics) has actually caught my attention in the last one year. He has done things that have changed the way his organization works, he has almost become pretty close to someone whom I’d like to be updated about, may be learn something from his skills and ideologies. Let me just try to scribble a few things that made me actually write about this person and think highly of him.

Recently as the top leader of one of the organizational units he barred people with criminal records from contesting local organizational elections. (Strong signal of building an organization with people of good background right at the bottom)

He also advised/directed party members not to use red/ orange lights unnecessarily, and made it explicit that action will be taken against people who use/misuse the same. (If implemented as per his words this would help in cutting down a lot of attitude and ego that a ruling party member carries with him, making the life of common man miserable)

Won congress the electon, single handedly, took charge of states like UP where Mayawati and SP have always fought the battle and congress was always trying to find the right match for an alliance. Due to his sheer hard work congress was able to give them a huge shock, which normally wasn’t thought as possible over the years.

He simply ditched the option to be a cabinet minsiter, which people across his party and country hoped for. But he chose to be an organization person than a leader. (That’s the sign I see of a person who doesn’t need power to change things, he just could make things work by building the organization with right kind of people and a proper vision for the same)

He was also touted as the to be PM of the country for a long time by various fronts, but he simply rejected the rumors regarding the same too and simply made the point clear that he wanted to build the organization first. (I strongly feel this is right kind of leadership, this is the kind of leaders/politicians our country needs.)

Now I can say this is the kind of people the country has to find and groom!! And when? Spot them YOUNG!!!

P.S – I don’t think there’s a need for me to even name the person I am talking about, its just clear!!

Today’s Favorite Line – I am lost but am hopeful!!

Today’s Favorite Song – If I let u go (Westlife)

Call it choice or chance?!?!

Some one who has always lived life without taking risks, doing things in a very calculated and conservative manner, does something against all odds!! Nothing in mind what so ever, all he knew is he wants to do something (different)!

Ask him what something and he’ll give you a blank look and that’s his answer… ask him but why? And he has all kinds of silly reasons and logic! May be you’ll buy them too… but he has really made a statement, an empty statement, that says nothing (at least at the moment). Only time will tell!!

All he knows is he likes to live by choice and not by chance, he’s just taken a chance, a huge daring step with nothing in mind unlike usual. All eyes on him, he’s already lost trying to figure out what and how. Some think he needs time off, some think he is stupid enough to remain idle and some just are happy with what he is doing. He’s listening to all of them and he’s glad that irrespective of what all of them have to say, they are there for him!!!

He’s just looking forward to get back there and be someone he is and do what he is meant to! He doesn’t want to make it big; he rather just wants to make it for now. Does he have what it takes?!?! He dint seem to have it in him something required for the last change that took place in his life and that’s why he has changed his choice so soon!!

P.S – It’s Just an attempt to say things as a third person, not sure if I was objective enough.

Today’s favorite line – When I see you, I run out of words…

Today’s favorite song – Beautiful (Akon)

Change Management

Sitting at one corner of my living room, reflecting up on the different facets of my life today and comparing them with the same facets in the last 2 years, I see a sea change in my life. This is a really crucial juncture of my life, where I have taken certain decisions based on what ever options I had in mind few months back. And at that point in time I thought this is the best decision I could have taken as per the situation and control I had on my own life. But after having lived a completely new life in the last 3 months I am yet to completely settle down with the new kind of life I am living and I have a lot of new things to do and face in the near future for which I have been waiting now for almost 10 weeks but things seem to get delayed due to some reason or the other and the more the delay, more am I feeling insecure about my near future and the more are my concerns and fears about the direction of my life.

In the last 2 years I used to be the guy next door, someone who would be as busy as one could get, as lively as one could be, to put it in short, Full of Life!! I was a guy with great ambitions, lot of self belief and someone who walked with command. I was THE person where ever I was. I could say I lived a high profile life. The only thing I lacked was certainty about the future of my life which I believe no one has, but I had my own thoughts and plans and I acted as per the same and did certain things so that I could have if not the same at least a life in which I would be as active and happy as in the last 2 years.

Today I work in a company where I am in the team which anyone would love to be, at times it is the most happening team of the organization in terms of the kind of work going on and the kind of people with whom one gets a chance to work. I with all conscious and willingness took up this job to work in this company with this team and was given a great opportunity the moment I approached them, which was itself a blessing in disguise, at a moment while I was wondering about the future of my life. I took the opportunity with both my hands, though I had and have my own concerns.

After having worked with this company for 3 months now, I haven’t actually done much, neither have I learnt much. Someone told me “the first 3 months of your job are like honeymoon, enjoy it while u can” As 3 months of my job get over I hope the honeymoon period is also on the verge of getting over (I at least hope so). Looking at the way things have been happening in the last couple of months am not really sure if I am moving as per my plans and in the right direction, the long term plans that I had seem to be getting hit because of the way my life is heading now and that’s actually making me feel worse. To be blunt I haven’t yet been able to face this major change in my life and am finding it really difficult in terms to face the reality. I wish to go back in time at times!!! I cant undo the things that I have done but I feel like getting certain things right in my life now if I can which is highly unlikely but am not really sure if what am doing is right or what I wanna make right is right. This is a very tasking thought and I seem to be occupied with it during a major part of the day.

I at times feel I don’t belong here, I never belonged here. I guess these thoughts arise just because of the complete change in the way my days pass. The guy, who used to be buzzing with activities and meetings all the day, does things these days just for the sake of it. But I guess that’s the way life is, you don’t get to do the things you like to do always and more importantly the way you like to do it. I am trying hard to face this change and come to terms with it. The most daunting thing in this total change is the need for change in the mindset. The whole battle with the change and me has more to do with my mind and nothing else. It’s been really difficult to have my mind in my own control. It’s just thinking and considering a lot of things but nothing seems to be clear at the end of the day. Here am still at the same corner of the living room and have successfully passed one hour during a boring Sunday at home. Thinking how to make good of the rest of this one day off at home, because it’s gonna be again the same old story again tomorrow.

Why Majority? Why not just form a Government??

Is it necessary to form a government only with a majority or coalition of parties? Just for the sake of a thought is it not rational to have a government formed with the elected MP’s and not with a particular party. If you are wondering what am blabbering just read on and you’ll know.

Let me just give an argument of why this thought came to my mind. Yesterday was the final phase of the polls and I got the opportunity to vote second time for Lok Sabha Polls and I voted for the same person I did during 2004 polls. I voted for that person since I know he is well educated, has performed well during his tenure as a minister and brought a lot of development and investment to my city (& the country). I am indifferent to his party or to the government he is a part of at the centre, I don’t believe in their ideologies and am not sure if that is the best party to rule the country. But I am confident that this particular individual is the right material for an MP and for the growth of the country and my constituency. More over he has no criminal charges, can communicate really well, as mentioned earlier is educated enough and so on. So I had no second thoughts while pressing the green button on the EVM yesterday. Though most in my family differed with me, they voted for some other candidate (just cos he was from the opposition). I heard the name of the other 36 candidates for the first time in my life, how could I vote for someone whom I don’t even know just based on his background (political party he belongs to). In my view one should know enough about the candidate they vote for and take an informed decision (I spent an hour’s time reading about this person last week). Though I dint argue with my family members but I just knew why they dint vote for the person I did, they felt not much development took place in the last 5 years, prices rose blah blah (which I don’t agree to completely) and so they thought it was time for a change, but I still kept wondering – change doesn’t mean voting for someone whom you haven’t ever heard about in the past just based on his affiliation to some political party.

So this is how the thought of a government to be formed just with the elected MP’s and their affiliation to any political party to not matter came. The idea is quite simple, though am not sure about its feasibility. There would be 543 elected MP’s representing various political parties (or independents), these elected MP’s will form a government irrespective of their background. Those who are interested to take up certain ministerial roles will have to show their interest for the same and a voting amongst the members would happen inside the parliament for each of the post. For instance for the post of the Prime Minister if 20 of them are interested they will have to register their name for the same and they will have to address the house about their plans if they become one and why should they be made the same, so this way for each important post such voting process would take place and these elected MP’s would decide the fate of who becomes what based on their expectations from someone or just based on favor (cos that person may be from his own party). So this way we have higher chance of getting the right people at the right place and then this newly formed multi party representing candidates would discuss the issues of national interest and do the best as this particular decision would not be biased based on some particular parties ideologies and it would be of the people who elected the person they thought would serve the country the right way.

Now the question would be, then what does a political party have to do at all if these elected MP’s act as individuals? The answer to this is, the political parties still play a huge role, in fact unlike now under this system all the parties will be active always and there will be no opposition, all parties can have a say if someone from their party is an elected MP. If this kind of an arrangement is possible, I think democracy will be at its best and policies though may take time to be implemented but we can be highly assured that it would be of common interest and not prejudiced to a particular party’s views or benefit. The individual MP’s shall bring the view of their party while discussing important national issues and this way the ideas that are supported by the majority will get implemented and bills will be passed as usual like now.

Does this seem feasible? Practical? My only motivation behind this idea is the fact that if I vote for a person knowing his capability, he gets the right post in the parliament irrespective of the fact that his party has a majority or not!! He as an individual is what I look at and not his background. Why should we have an uneducated dumb minister just because the educated & mark free (criminal) one’s party wasn’t able to get majority to be able to form a government. I don’t think my idea is bad because this way we get the best and most eligible people at the right posts (at least the probability is higher). I guess everyone votes for the candidate and not for the party when I exclaim about such an idea!

P.S – Hope my idea is clear to you! Else do let me know… I’ll try to build further on this thought!! Do give your thoughts on the same too…

Love Life to Live a Life is My Way

(Beware! Extremely lengthy Post, one of the lengthiest so far!)

After a short stint in the Corporate world it was time to get back to the student life and what better way to start that off than interacting with 83 fresh minds (few of them straight from the corporate world and others still fresh enough). Before the academic session began, it was indeed fun to have the (Official) Ice Breaker session with the new entrants into the campus. Ice breaker session was a success and flop in itself, success in the sense that it broke some ice among the juniors or at least among the seniors around and the juniors (few of us at least) and a flop because it was not that well planned due to lack of time and spontaneity, but I strongly believe it was fun and everyone enjoyed a lot minus my jokes. Then it was summer internship presentations which spanned across for 5 days, it felt even hectic and tiring than having a faculty speak for hours... Jokes apart all my friends had done really nice projects and had put in a lot of effort to bring out the best reports but listening to so many people continuously on different issues ranging from renewable energy to stock market to weather insurance would get any one sleep in the speed of thought. But overall it was an extraordinary learning experience for most of us, especially for the once who entered the corporate world for the first time.

While things were settling down again in the campus a lot of activities and interactions were happening and being planned with the juniors in the Campus including introducing them with the norms of the institute, giving them an overview of the activities and events that happen in the institute and much more. But two most interesting things happening were the innumerable ice breaker sessions that were being conducted at anyone’s discretion and convenience and the hi-drama Book Review presentation (I was unavailable for which Sigh!). The Book review thing was indeed something which changed life in the campus and its aftermaths can still be felt day in and day out without any doubt. Lots of things spoken off and lots of them ignored; faces, names and thoughts seen and understood. Still I would just say whatever that happened was not good and things could have been dealt with a bit more carefully if at all there was no “I” factor which without any doubt was existent. All said and done, life moves on!

Amidst all this drama and experience there was other important stuff happening which was choosing electives for the term and the puzzle of why this and why not that. At the end of all the speculation in the mind I had selected 5 of them which everyone had to and I think those were the best 5 I could have had from the options available. Let’s see how I faired in each of them or how much justice did they do to me.

International Finance – It was indeed an international experience, almost a world tour from a single place. And no, I can’t ever forget the group with which I had to do the Project. The process and approach followed to choose the project topic, the methodology of doing it, the ways of reasoning things, it was quite an experience and all of us did realize and understand it. Overall it was No Pain, No Gain.

Project Finance – High expectations I had of this elective but dint put the required effort so dint gain to the extent I wished to. Things got a little boring beyond a point of time and most of it must be attributed to the laid back attitude towards the elective. But overall a really important one and it did make sense.

Financial Derivatives – Started off in a great way, infact this was the elective I was looking forward to in the term, but dint actually get a hang of various things, quite a few reasons behind it including more questions than answers, dint have the fundas at place when most required i.e. during exams (still fear that I may be screwed). Over all not a huge value add as expected but surely did make various things clear and improved understanding of certain things.

Asset Pricing – The expectations from this elective was quite unclear when it took off and still remains the same way. But the elective surely did teach about the trade off between incentive and work (the incentive to attend the last class was, there was a quiz + an assignment to be submitted + an article to be read when there was FD exam in the same morning). The course covered certain aspects some of which made sense and the rest seemed to be just another model. Overall a good paper in terms of theoretical application, I dint find much practical orientation but was a nice experience.

Product Management – This is the one elective where I was a unique fellow in the batch, no other Finance majoring student dared or wished to take this elective for reasons known to all. But I infact took it more as a challenge and dint want to miss on the learning opportunity of such an important paper. To my mind it definitely made sense apart from all the GAS and it did add value and at the end of the course I was and am Glad I chose this elective. The most important aspect of this elective with regard to me was, I spent most of my time on this elective than the total time I spent on the other 4 electives, that shows the level of interest it generated in me, but there were hiccups in this paper as well including the re-do mania. Overall I felt this was the best elective I had taken in this term.

Overall all the electives were thought provoking and did add value some way or the other minus the lack of effort from my side.

During Freshers Party '08

Beyond all the academic activities, there was much more that I was involved in both in terms of organizing and participating. And these activities consumed most of my time in the past few months. To begin with was the Fresher’s Party ’08 “Rang De India”, which I was completely involved in organizing as well as Hosting, yes I was back in the hosting arena and I enjoyed it thoroughly. It was fun hosting the event with Rashmi, though most of our preparation had to go for a toss because the juniors turned up just 2 hours late and there was so much on the platter that we had to cut down on a lot of fun filled stuff! But over all it was a wonderful experience minus the lack of participation from the juniors in a few games which took a lot of time for us to make sure that at least the required number of people participate in every game. I still can’t forget the final meeting we had in my class to decide about the fresher’s party and after so many long and short discussions and plans we got this one finalized and hosted.

While all this was being planned there was another thing we were involved in which was something new at IFMR, the interviews to select representatives for Clubs was a new way our batch opted for to get the best people for the job. It was even a learning experience for us being on the other side of the table, just made us realize how difficult at times it could be even to be on the other side(as interviewer) of the same table. With all the speculation and hype around it I assume we did a decent job without any prejudice or bias what so ever.

Before I go any further I couldn’t resist sharing the dream which a few of us saw but weren’t able to realize before this term, it was about the CEO Summit which we planned about for more than 2 months, lot of ideas, too many meetings, innumerous obstacles and obviously speculation, the result we weren’t able to organize the so called “Varchaswa” (not sure if the spelling is right). There are few of them who worked damn hard for it and also got screwed at places but the lack of certain essentials had lead us to drop the idea completely and I was one of them who suggested to call it off looking at the situation we were in, but still it remained a dream, something we thought we could pull off some how!

What if we weren’t able to pull the CEO summit off, we still have Abhyudaya to show all our charisma and zeal. So the juniors rightly started off work on Abhyudaya early this time, at least earlier than we did. The work has been going on at some pace which I feel is a bit slower; work is going on well though. There have been a few ups and downs with Abhyudaya even by now and things look quite complicated at the moment looking at the condition of the world economy and financial markets. But I can tell you, as ever Abhyudaya is coming up with newer and nicer events and I hope we make it lot better this year too. Will surely come up with more on Abhyudaya soon! This must have made it clear to an extent that I am game for Abhyudaya even this year, without any doubt.

I haven’t ever mentioned about TEC earlier, I think I can do that now; it’s the entrepreneurship club at IFMR, started a few months back by some 20 of us. It has been on my mind for quite some time and I have been trying to get something productive and new out of this initiative, though we haven’t done anything special so far apart from a couple of events, never ending number of meetings which only quite a few attend and a couple of issues of the magazine which was ought to be issued every month. It has given quite a few learning’s to me personally as well, I initiated the idea with a lot of passion and commitment which I think I have at the same level even now. But without contribution and collaboration nothing succeeds is a major learning in the last 8 months of my endeavor for TEC as its representative. I would not blame anyone for not being active or so, but it’s true that something of my interest and passion might not be of someone else even if they have committed to do things. So I had to slow down my pace and am trying now to somehow keep it as active as possible and there are at least few whom I can name in a moment who are quite active and supportive and I am sure they will take it ahead and not let it die once I am out.

There’s another thing which I and a few others have been driving hard in the campus, which faced a set back early this year and since then even after various attempts the few of us haven’t been able to set it back due to lack of effort (I wont say lack of time). I feel bad that for the past 2 months or so we haven’t been able to do much about it, but still are trying to get it back while something else has caught up in the campus. Am not naming what I am talking about since its still a conspicuous thing for most of them in the campus that I am involved in, and am not being a coward by not disclosing it, I am just trying to maintain the level of privacy involved so that it does not become that easy for people to actually know, though most of them know who and what, and can also say by reading this what I am talking about. I still remember the days when I heard left and right about this particular thing but did not mention a word that I was a party to it, but again I wasn’t being a coward, was just trying to maintain the professionalism we had decided as a Team (the few of us), but yea I will surely talk about it some time soon, though it doesn’t make a difference even if I do that now, but I don’t want to spoil the fun.

Between all this how can I forget the high profile meeting that we had which spelt out a set of new rules in the campus, I couldn’t resist my laugh for rules like going home before 9pm and taking permission if one wanted to stay back beyond that. I couldn’t even compare this with my school days where I used to go home only beyond 6 after all the sports and activities while classes used to get over by 3 or 4. While here the amount of group work and activities involved at least don’t give me an opportunity to go home before 9 most of the times (for those of u who think I don’t do either of it, we can talk about it later)

And when we talk about meetings, my favorite and all time best meeting in the last 3 months without any doubt has been the one on the Clubs issue, I know the outcome of the meeting has been interpreted in a different way than I would subscribe to, but that’s part of the system and am game to take all that comes up. But as I have been making clear time and again to different people, my intentions and agenda were clear and I put forward what the right thing was so that people don’t confuse things. But I also know quite clearly that if things don’t work out the way they are expected to, I am the one who’ll be looked for just because I was the one who drove the issue forward and I still stick to my point, as I had just put across the facts and never initiated the talk on vitamin M or the quantum of it to be precise. But as known it was and is being seen as my victory and not of the issue in hand something which I don’t subscribe to, but yes I agree that I played a major role in the overall dialogue but never bothered about the quantum of vitamin M, I just stressed on the need and the why part. May seem like I am defending myself or what so ever which I don’t need to anyway, but still it makes me relaxed if I make my point clear.

After Convocation with Seniors and Friends

Leaving aside all the controversial stories there were few other important occasions that happened in due course including the Convocation of my seniors which saw the presence of biggies like Mr. Vaghul (Chairman ICICI Bank and IFMR) and Mr. Sundaram (Director, Hindustan Level). The seniors were all merry after getting their graduation certificates and just gave me a feeling of how close I was to this moment in my life (assuming I would clear all, ha ha). The alumni meet was another joyous day with a new record set of the maximum attendance so far at IFMR, it again required a lot of thought and effort to pull it off well and the few of them involved did it really well apart from the issues they had to face till the end. I would still like to mention here that, the plans for it were initiated long ago than the actual plans began by the authorized team, but again due to some lack of action and response it lead to the death of all those ideas and plans. But yes the one that was conducted received a lot of praise and acclaim which it absolutely deserved and I am hoping next year when I am supposedly an alumni it would be even better and bigger.

In a Jolly Mood after the Alumni Meet

Issues of placements have been on a high all through and will be the same way till all of us get placed, but so far things have been quite complicated and this is something which everyone is bothered about unlike other things and strangely this is something I am (at least so far) least worried about unlike other things. So hoping for the best, don’t want to put salt on what ever has happened and take names and issues from the past. So I am just wishing things to be smooth and easy, and not as hyper tensive as they have got.

Participation in the event of NITIE on MAK lubricants was really fun; the overall experience was really exciting as it made us (Bharat & me) think in real terms for the first time and not getting selected was not that disheartening because I did expect that and the meeting with the BPCL official couldn’t be forgotten.
The visit to New Life Charity also was a refreshing experience, the time spent with the kids was really special.

Outside New Life with Kids and Friends

To sum things up I have got a new name in the campus which most of them address me with, all this is the result of the amount of interaction I am involved in and I know the importance of all that as most of u know too. And thanks for the new nick folks! But trust me you may not call me that way soon! Over all the first few months of the final journey at IFMR have been fabulous, days are just passing like hours and I have thoroughly enjoyed the journey so far and hope to keep it the same way! Adios till next time.

P.S – This write up was not to highlight any particular issue, it’s just a usual practice which I have been following of summarizing all that I have been involved in and share the same, so if anything in the above has hurt you or made u happy or something, please leave a comment LoL, am expecting a few at least to this article.

Friendship as a Commodity

At a stage in life when I have more than two times the number of friends I had just 2 years back. This thought hit my mind on a lazy day when I was just trying to recollect as it is holiday time now, whom all am I supposed to call and say a Hi, whom all am I supposed to meet and know what's up in their life and whom all I am in good contact with now should I give some time and space for a while. During this duration of recollecting names and times we spent, I got this concept of marketing hit on to the other side of my brain.

According to what I have learnt in Marketing, every product has 5 levels in which it can be placed and there are various factors which determine which level the product belongs to (Core benefit level, Generic Level, Expected Level, Augmented Level and Potential Level). Don’t worry I am not going to talk about the concept much, just wanted to lay a platform for the thought that hit my mind.

So to further delve with this thought I just tried to place a few friends in this product level framework and I was clearly able to see how a friend moved from the Core Benefit level to the augmented Level and now is back at the Generic Level. To explain this better I’ll try and share an illustration – Say friend X and I studied together in School and were just classmates for a lot of years where we being friends was at the Core Benefit Level i.e. every other classmate was a friend by default whether I spoke to him or not, so by default every class mate becomes a friend in the system.

Then came times when we shared (X & I) certain things in common, say we used to reach school at the same time or we used to sit adjacent to each other and then we started saying each other hi when we met in the mornings and used to wish each other goodbye when we used to leave for home in the evening. Here we reached the Generic Level where we went beyond the Core Benefit level and we were no more commodities like friends, we had something more than just commodity like treatment in our friendship.

Say after a few weeks since we sat together we started talking each other, sharing each others thoughts and so on, sat together on the lunch table and so on, here we reached the Expected Level where one meets his friends everyday talks to him, tells him what happened last evening and discusses other issues of life but with a pause at times. And then slowly as we remained at the Expected level for a while we reached the final year of school and then we felt we have had great times and so we started sharing more with each other, we went out together, met on weekends, called up each other to know what's up, have I studied or not, cleared doubts, and so on and so forth. This was a stage when there would not be a day when we did not speak or meet up more than once, we used to share secrets both personal and family level. And we were really best friends as one likes to call and this was the time when we reached the augmented level from the expected level.

Then there was this day when school got over, both got into different colleges (we tried a lot to get into the same college, but fate dint allow) and then the really nice friendship existed but the level of interaction slowly started fading away as both got busy into our own college lives and other things. So we started meeting only on weekends or may be call up on weekends if we weren’t able to meet and here we were back at the expected level from the augmented level. And it went on for a while and then the frequency decreased from a week to a month for us to meet or talk. I had my own set of new friends and other things going on in life and same was the case with him.

We still shared a good level of understanding, but then our friendship surely started going to the generic level from the expected level as the frequency decreased even more from a month to several months or may be just certain occasions when we used to meet/ talk. So currently we are at the Generic Level and we cannot go to the Core Benefit level until we actually stop thinking about each other even once in a while. The day when it takes a moment for me to think of this friend, that day he will fall into the Core Benefit level and would be known as “was a friend” types and our friendship will become a commodity as it does with lot many friends whom I even don’t wish on occasions but still they are my friends.

So getting back to my thought I just realized I have so many friends whom I share a really nice rapport with but most of them I am not in touch with at least not frequently. So I was somehow able to clearly see a lot of them in different levels both the new ones and the oldest ones. Few of those might be subjective but to some extent I could see for myself that how certain people sailed from the Core Benefit level to the augmented Level very fast while others were in and around the expected level and how these levels changed in the course of time.

Then I tried to figure out what are the main aspects which determine the increase or decrease of level of my friendship with someone. And it stood out quite clearly that TIME and EFFORT were the key aspects which determined where one stood. The time and effort could be from the other person’s side or from my side but it surely did matter (time and effort can be expended in today’s context in various ways such as calls, chats both on mobile and internet, meeting each other and a few other ways). There are certain people whom I like to spend time with and also extend some effort to keep the rapport on in different ways because I like to be friends with them and at a higher level. There are also people who try to spend some time and effort on me which I may acknowledge or ignore depending on which level I like to have them in. So at the end of the day it depends on both me and the other person that which level do we actually take our friendship to and rest is just the matter of time as the level may rise and fall in the passage of time.

There are also friends who have risen to the augmented level, then fell to the Generic Level and are now back at the Augmented level so this interplay of levels will go on in life but what matters is how important is the relationship to the two of us and how much understanding do we have irrespective of what level of friendship we have in terms of the product level.

So a Big HI to all my friends irrespective of which level you are in, and now you can start wondering which level do u actually think we are in???

Cheers

Yo!!

P.S – I haven’t dealt with the potential level at all because that’s a subjective area, something which is potential may be augmented to someone else and most importantly potential level is always open as once u reach the potential level you indirectly fall to the augmented level as something else becomes potential by then. So generally speaking I feel augmented level is the peak which I could analyze things in as potential level is at any point empty or at least gets empty very soon.

Also this framework can be applied to any relationship, though I just tried it on friendship.

Just another post

Hi.....
Its again been a while since i last posted ... so just thought to put across what all is in my mind at the moment and would come up with a couple of posts soon.

The markets (Indian Stock Market) are bleeding and investors have one of the worst times of their lifes with no end in sight or no clue where the numbers are headed to ?? Everyone has their own version of a story after the markets actually fall and all predictions and recommendations seem to be euphoria.

It rained very heavily this afternoon and streets were flooded with water, had to stay back at college for a couple of hours but rain never seemed to take a break, so i just left for home when it slowed down a bit and was caught in a waterlogged street with water to the level of my waist (almost). so had to pull(push) the bike along for some distance as it would actually not run with so much water having gone inside it .. somehow reached home in an hours time with so much traffic around while usually it makes only 15 mins to reach home.

The coming week seems to have quite some things to be taken care of .... plans and thoughts are always made but how many of them actually get executed is quite subjective... lets see ....

Lot of things need some good amount of attention and effort in the coming days/weeks including Abhyudaya, Placement, Certain important occasions at home and much more.

Just dropped in to share whatever was in mind (ignored a few things from actually writing it down), so that it makes it easier for me to get set for a real nice post soon ! so till then, Adios !! take care !

OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY

The blood bath of money going on all over the world is depressing and people around the world have started losing faith from financial institutions and markets. The losses being accumulated are huge and unimaginable. Amidst all this different governments are trying different ways to safeguard their people and institutions money and life. Quite ironic but yes the governments are literally trying to save life’s of thousands of people and through monetary support they are getting them back to business. So it is something which comes naturally during all this bailouts and waivers going around in the world that it’s all about Other People’s Money (whether it is being lost or being used to safeguard).

In early 2008 Government of India passed a Bill in the Parliament to waive of loans worth sixty thousand crores of millions of farmers throughout India. There was a huge hue and cry throughout the country for and against the bill passed during the budget for financial year beginning April 2008 but none of the political parties dared to oppose it since it was a matter of millions of votes and the bill got successfully passed with another increase in the waiver amount later which required beyond seventy thousand crores in total. And as per my assumption the waiver scheme must be going on well and a good amount of the fund should have been cleared of by now as it has been more than 6 months since everything was approved.

Now lets come to the latest rescue operation which got approved by the Fed and Government of United States of A. US has approved a bailout plan worth $700 billion to save various financial giants in the US of A including insurance companies, investment banks, government agencies and so on. Again the bailout plan was being contested by various parties as being unnecessary and huge. The bailout has just been approved so it may take some time to actually see how well it is being executed and how much does it help those institutions to get back on track and make a living on their own.

It seems individuals and institutions make mistakes or fall prey to circumstances and lose huge money and then governments have a huge role to play in their rescue. Could these individuals and institutions have been more cautious when they made such huge investments, or is it just that the circumstances led to their current situation. In all the arguments for and against these rescue plans one underlying feeling among the people is, whose money are they using in rescuing these individuals and institutions, it’s the tax payers’ money! Where else will the government get money from. So it seems logical for the governments all over the world to be more proactive and have better mechanism to handle such situations. What if the 60K crore waiver does not improve the situation of the farmers of India, what if the $700Bn bailout does not improve the condition of the financial giants of US. Is there something that these governments have thought about for such negative outcome, or is it just that they feel once they rescue these institutions from their liquidity issues their role is over. Or will these governments again in the future go for few more such waivers or bailouts. It’s important that everyone understands that when we talk about all these rescue operations, we are talking about “OTHER PEOPLE’s MONEY” so we better deal with it appropriately.