Friday, November 18, 2005












Taking stock !
After being at this place (IIM, Bangalore) for a better part of two years and now that the beginning of the end is near, I decided to make a balance sheet of sorts which would let me know the kind and the amount of "value addition" that I have achieved over here (Alumni tell me that as the programme draws to a close it is normal to get feelings of this sort). So I too decided to give vent to my feelings. However even after trying for an hour I could not point out something concrete.........now this was a particularly disturbing thought....Is it that I have gained nothing?...but how could that be??........People around me say that I have changed such a great deal (for better or for worse? results in a mysterious smile........however i assume positivity).....parents tell me that I have become more focussed ("now you can sit at one place for more that 20 min at a time........a feat unthinkable of in your previous 'state' ")........friends tell me that now I have that killer instinct, the urge to go for the jugular ("yaar....aajkal tu bike badi fast chalata hai...aur aaj to tune us bandi ko 'u're welcome' bhi keh diya uske 'thanks' kehne ke baad").....however my mind needed something more convincing, something that says empthatically that Sunil Khaitan has not put his father's hard earned (and hard stolen from under the taxmen's nose) money down the drain.
I generally refrain from counting things like maroing fundaes (though I assure that I am no mug at that, ask any facha here) and putting gyan on any topic under the sun (a friend of mine emphtically and proudly points out "Yaar ek baat to tumhe manni padegi.....main chahe DML(Director's Merit List) mein na hoon par main ab fundae aur gyan to kisi ko bhi pila sakta hoon") to all and sundry, wiling or otherwise. However desperate situations called for desperate measures and if this situation was not despo enough I don't know what will ever be (my maadu mind had already started calculating the opportunity cost of my two years stay over here......which went like: Straight cash outflow of Rs. 3,54,000 in tuition and mess fess....chakravarti byaj on this @ Rs 2/sankda for 1.163 years (as cash flows were intermittent) add to this what i may have earned had i gone into the family business.....and my head starts reeling)......
My search still continues........

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Indians and Human Genome project
Yesterday I was travelling from Mumbai to Bangalore on Air Deccan and was rudely shocked when i heard the air hostess telling us over the Publc Address that they have been experiencing some life vest thefts (those that are "kept under your seats and are to be inflated in case of an aquatic landing").
That got me thinking....Wat is it about us Indians that we somehow manage to things which are tottally wacky??? C'mon u can understand ppl taking away bulbs from railway compartments, manhole covers from open roads.....hell even electric fans (size 3ft radius) from trams in Calcutta but stealing life vests???
U can at least try to explain the other thefts on the basis of bad economic conditions, huge unemployment etc etc (actually i was travelling with a foreign tourist group who were totally taken aback...some even tried checking if Air Deccan had re-stocked them......one even went as far as accusing his wife of stinginess which would get them killed, for making him travel in an Indian Low Cost Airline) but you really have nothing to fall back on when u r trying to explain the theft of Life Vests.
So I thought "offence is the best form of defence" and tried inudating him in statistics about how American Kleptomaniacs are ruining the American Retail Industry and how Amnesty International found that one in every three Americans has polished something off or intends to do so and that somehow managed to calm him down (surprising how tolerable ppl can be towards others' follies once they realize that they themselves are not very different).
But that still left this questions hanging in the air.....Why would anyone wanna steal a life vest??? Having had an exposure to marketing theory in my 1st yr ofMBA i understand that ppl who travel in Air Deccan are not from the most affluent customer group however even then theft of a life vest reamins tottaly inexplicable.
That made me think that we have some gene that is tottaly our own...i mean it is an Indian speciality.....the gene i mean........it makes us do somethings that not many races in the world even contemplate......so herez a research hypothesis for Human Genome Group....is there somedistinclty indian gene........i mean there has to be....how else can it be........

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Dr. Arindam Chaudhuri's Qualifications

M.A with Honours in Economics, Post Graduate Diploma in Planning and Management (MBA) and Fellowship of I.I.P.M.Professor Chaudhuri has been amongst the toppers during his B.A. Economics, M.A. Economics and MBA. He was the recipient of the Academic Gold Medal while completing his Post Graduate Diploma in Planning and Management from IIPM.

Now this is really cool !!!!
This guy has a gold medal from his own college. How big was the batch size????......Since he got all these wonderful ideas ("Dare to think beyond the IIMs" & courses called "What they don't teach you at IIMs") after completing his highly esteemed degree from the highly esteemed institute and only after that could he start fleecing gullible ppl....it will not be exxageration to assume that he was the only student at that point of time......A GOLD MEDALLIST INDEED !!!!
The B.School That Lost Its Cool
There was once a B.school
That lost its cool
Over an article in JAM
That exposed a sham

It responded with suits
Clogged the blogs with jhoots
Resorted to vile name calling
And indulged in petty brawling

When it saw a bloke resisting
It opted for arm twisting
Called up his bosses
And warned them of losses

"If the bloke does not express regret
We shall burn laptops," was the threat
The bloke gave a reply, befitting
By announcing that he was quitting

That one move by a plucky bloke
Reduced the B.school to a joke
Now its reputation is in tatters
And it faces a mob of irate spatters

by anantha narayan

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

This is the fine print in IIPM advertisement in Hindustan Times Delhi edition.
(Link via Dilip D'Souza).

IIPM believes that it is the #1 B-School in India in terms of COURSE CONTENT,
GLOBAL LINKAGES & INDUSTRY INTERFACE
.
The above rankings don't reflect the same
due to the inferiority complex and intellectually dwarfed unquestioning
attitude
that the industry and the media have developed towards the IIMs over
the years. Through its various academic, research, global and industry
consulting activities, mentioned in this ad, IIPM aims to make sure that the
industry and the media develops the intellectual ability to come out of this
unquestioning attitude and accept the reality, very soon.

IIPM surely can be sued on this count alone...the institute as well their reverened director have been exceptionally vocal in tarnishing the image of IIMs.....not that they count or that their views matter.....but what the hell lets just do it for fun
I think it is time to take the fight to the IIPM......there have been numerous times when Sri Sri Arindam Chaudhuriji Maharaj has gone to public saying that IIMs are a part of an Education Mafia, which is involved in artificially jacking up salaries by keeping a tight leash on the supply of business graduates....thereby he has taken up this noble task of mass producing MBAs in their 'scenic and infrastructurally wonderful' campuses at the rate of dime a dozen......Lets just make the number of blogs 'tarnishing the holy image of IIPM' so numerous that they no chioce but to give up and accept the bitter truth.