The wrong things to focus on

A semester comes to and end and leaves in its wake 4 days of idleness. People have left for home and the campus lies in a silent reverie.

Accelerated programs don't allow time to think. It is upto the individual to realize that its not just about the courses. Economics and Statistics are not really going to work in the workplace. The networking and knowledge gathering is what is going to matter. I try to remind myself about it every day. And amongst the sad, dejected yet aggressively competitive classmates, you keep forgetting it.

Things that are enjoyable and are a part of any business student's daily diet are lost. Newspapers are not read, articles are not consulted. Just courses after courses and exams after exams.

Competition in the skin of collaboration

It is disheartening to see your school do nothing buy manage expectations of its batch. ISB is a paradox. It is a school that would like to think that it is based on international standards. It tries hard - several faculty are foreign (albeit many Indian professors settled abroad), the course schedule is like that of foreign b-schools and the classroom interaction is set on the same pattern. 


However, it fails miserably when it comes to the attitude it expects from the students. The expectation is that we work in a collaborative environment, leverage the experience of each other to take strides in their careers etc. etc. Hogwash! The class comprises of Indians! We are 1.1 billion strong country. We are born into competition. We will always compete. For grades, for jobs and for the limelight.

Smart not hard ... but well done

I keep reminding myself that the motto to follow in ISB is to work smart and not hard. There is an immense amount of comfort in conforming to the path laid down by professors but it may not be the best path in terms of time.


There are several problems that can be practiced in economics, statistics and accounting if need be. But is there a need? I think the courses at ISB are patterned in the same way as their application process was. Just like the essays to be written were restricted to 300 words, to elicit the facts rather than verbosity, the courses hope to develop a breadth of understanding rather than a depth. However, a breadth does not justify that you do not understand the concepts well. Understand them well, but there is really no need to cut, dice, mash, eat and imbibe them into your system. It is a bschool for crying out loud, not a PhD institute. 


I would think that the people who realize this earlier are the people who will sail through with ease (and without losing too much sleep). Realizing this will free up time for other 'non-academic' activities (which might turn out to be equally important in securing a job) as well. 

Updates from ISB

Its been several days since I set foot on the campus of ISB. Its been good so far. However, I am still trying to work around my old shortcoming - getting lost in a crowd. Doesn't it happen to you? It is easy to talk to people one on one but when there are several around, it is just easier to stand back and stay mum?


The day passes uneventfully. The workload is light and is nothing compared to what is going to hit us from the next week onwards. I think they should have ramped it up from day 1 rather than do it slowly. These first impressions of a relaxing ISB are not going to last. 


The food is very rich and on an average, tasteless. It is going to be difficult to stay fit. Talking about fitness, I am really impressed to see the number of people who regularly hit the gym or are up and about playing sports. I wonder how many will continue with their healthy habits in the coming months. 


Networking has started with a bang. Every other day, you can witness groups of people huddled together in the Atrium (common space) hatching ideas and strategies (god how many times will I use this word) for the year to come. For someone like me who considers all of this quite distasteful, it is going to be a tough ride. 


I have taken up the mantle of the artist in the batch. My kurtas and 'jhola' help support that impression. I am enjoying cartooning again and I hope to make a lasting impression on the campus before I leave. 

To smoke after a month

The wireless has started working, the wireless has started working! For more than a week, the inefficient IT department of ISB relegated us to the corner of our rooms to check our emails and catch up on news. 


For me, that is not possible. I need my space and the freedom to sit wherever and read. To be asked to go sit in a corner is almost like being punished! That too with about 600 new people around, you really don't want to be the guy who sits in his room all day long. 


I am glad to be back and glad to be writing. The absence of a mobile laptop allowed me to get back to cartooning though which is good. I look forward to posting the art on the blog.


Oh, this feels so nice :)

Wasting Time

I am currently wasting time at home. Patna is supposed to be a capital city but the pace of life and the infrastructure is nowhere close to its title-hood. I am a victim to its pathetically slow internet.

One of the problems about being at home is that you don't get too much to talk about. There are a few generic features eg. the persistent invitation to eat something, the constant fuss about your health and the TV soaps. This used to be commonplace, something I took in my stride 10 years back but today, it is a challenge.

I look forward to my one year at ISB where I will hopefully come across people with different takes on life. Though I was unimpressed by howls of adoration for a buddhist monk or a over-achieving handicapped individual who will 'grace' our batch. All I say is that let us judge them on their merit in class and not on their background. Everyone should get to start equal in a new batch.

Independence and Exclusivity

Mutually exclusive and independent events are where my train gets stuck. So this is the definitive attempt at establishing the difference. The crux is that independence comes into effect if there are more than one events as part of the experiment! If there is just one event, then its just a question of exclusivity.

What is the probability of getting a head after tossing a coin OR picking out an ace from a deck of 52 standard playing cards?

Ans: These two events are INDEPENDENT! Hence the question doesn't make sense. The answer is EITHER the probability of the first event or the probability of the second event. Each experiment is separate and the outcomes are separate.

What is the probability of picking an ace OR picking a king from a deck of cards?

Ans: These two probabilities are part of the same event! Moreover, they are exclusive. Each card in a deck for that matter has its neat little space which does not interfere with the other's space. Hence we can add the probability of each and get the answer.

A country within a country

We are a country of a billion people and more.

As I make my return journey to Delhi (with my heart, I believe that it is my adopted home, I always return to it), I start to remember how easy it was to get a train ticket in France. Not only did you have the liberty of buying it on the spot, but in case you postponed your journey, you could use the same ticket to make a journey later. All thanks to a low population compared to ours. Will we ever get to that stage? I don’t think so. We will never be able to decrease our population or increase the size of our country. Hence I will never enjoy that luxury.

This makes me think about our population and its rate of growth. I think the growth is unequally divided. Men and women of my generation don’t think of having more than two kids. The urban centers and the educated are getting wiser and seem to know better now. The bulk of the growth rate can be attributed to, in my opinion, the uneducated and the poor. This is a premise. But suppose this premise is true, there are some things that come to my mind. First, if we can concentrate on the urban middle class of our generation, we might see a country within a country. This concept is not novel. When we talk of India shining, this is the country than we refer to. This country has a high average income and excludes the poor and the uneducated from the villages and the cities (slum dwellers). The population of this country will stabilize. As people get more and more ‘western’, living together and not having any kids might even become a possibility and the population might even decrease (oh I wish!). Though the overall population of the country will increase, the other half will be sidelined and become invisible as they seem to be currently are. Second, the competition that we went through for a career and jobs, and our worries for the impossible condition of our children might come to pass. This is again based on an opinion that people from one half of the poor and uneducated country, whose population is the one that is increasing, will rarely transit and become competition for the other half – the educated and the privileged. They will compete amongst themselves for land, labor-jobs, auto-driver and security guard positions. They will not know of the McKinseys, the Goldman Sachs and the Sequoias…

The second world war

History, when read voluntarily, is fascinating. Be it the history of finance or of human civilization.

I am currently going through a marvelous National Geographic feature on the Second World War. Though I have come across several dates and several broken accounts of the war, this one seems to promise the most. The series is appropriately named - Apocalypse, The second world war.

The account is quite simply put. Hitler comes to power in 1933 and slowly gains the confidence of the masses. Around the beginning of 1939, he annexes Austria, alarming the British and the French. However, they don't react. Then, he moves towards Chezkoslovakia. Tired by the first world war, Britain and France accept his move demanding that he stop there. However, Hilter had other plans. During the 1st World War, Germany had been split into two, to allow Poland to gain access to the sea. Hilter joins the two parts together, by conquering that part of Poland in September 1939. He assumed that Britain and France would not mind it too much. His mistake! France and Britain declare war on Poland a few days after. This is when the cat gets out of the bag pretty much.

Another theory on obesity and heart disease

I read something pretty amazing on the Economist's science section recently. A new theory by two scientists in the University of Texas challenge the entire interpretation of obesity and its linkage with heart disease, diabetes and liver failure.

The normal notion is - you get fat and since you are fat, you get a host of other problems. Not so!

The real troublemaker is still the excess fat that we consume. When we do intake extra fat, the body starts to accumulate it as blubber (using fat here makes the description confusing, so I use blubber). This kicks into action two hormones - Leptin and Adinopectin. The latter diverts excess fat inside the body to be stored as blubber. The production of this hormone decreases as the amount of blubber stored increases. The other hormone, Leptin, is however at the heart of the obesity saga. Its job is to consume the fats. Its production 'increases' with an increase in blubber storage.

So how does all hell break loose? Well, when Leptin production is hampered by some reason, the trouble begins. First, cells start seeing a lot of fat in the bloodstream and react by becoming resistant to Insulin. This happens because insulin makes cells absorb glucose from the bloodstream and make even more fat! Why make more fat when there is so much around anyway, say the cells. Secondly, all of this fat goes ahead and damages pancreatic and heart cells causing another further trouble. The key to this theory is that Leptin production/no-production causes all the complications.

If this theory survives the test of time, it will mean a radical shift in treatment strategies. Liposuction will be a strict no-no since it will decrease Leptin production even more. Insulin injection for diabetes supposedly 'caused' by obesity will also be a bad idea since we really don't want cells to make more fat. What will remain a time-tested strategy is a healthy life-style with little fat and a lot of exercise.

Tentative steps

I am not an old blogger. I started primarily because writing is a skill that needs to be honed. But now that I do write publicly once in a while, I am trying to branch out as much as I can ...

I have been proactive enough to join the ISB 2011 blog, but the challenge is to write something productive and interesting on it. My blog is fine. Its my diary and I can post whatever suits my fancy. However, when you are writing on a portal which people actually follow, I think you are laden with a little more responsibility. For example, ramblings like these would hardly be considered appropriate. Hence the picture on the side.

The comments and the breadth of knowledge of my peer group seems impressive. However it is going to be yet another big blood-bath come placements next year. Here is to sleepless in Hyderabad :)

Public Debt

The Indian budget was unveiled recently. Amongst other things, it talks about reducing the budget deficit from 6.9 percent of the GDP to 5.5 percent of the GDP.

This is heartening. The budget deficit essentially refers to the balance between spending and earning by a country in a fiscal year. So the less the deficit, the better it is. However, another parameter called the public debt is another matter altogether.

The public debt, also expressed as a percentage of the GDP, is the overall debt the country is in. The figure on the left indicates the public debt of the world. I have little respect for the fiscal policies of the US and the UK. Which is why, their public debt of close to 60% doesn't surprise me. However, what worries me is the stark difference between India and China. Our public debt is close to 40 percent whereas China is sitting comfortably at 10-20 percent.

The good thing about percentages is that they hide the reality a little. In absolute money terms, with a GDP 3 times as that of India, a ten percent deficit of China is almost similar to a 40 percent deficit of India. However, that shouldn't be a reason for joy.

I also noticed the grey colors in the map. Either they have non-existent GDP, no public debt or the data is not available. Considering that the countries seem to be West African ones or Mongolia, it seems to be a valid question :)

One-tenth of the real money

Banks issue much more money than they have in reserve. However, the central banks play a central role in developing the illusion that all is well.

Money used to be the overall sum of goods and services put together, remember. How does more and more money come to represent the same amount of goods and services then? Well, because at the heart of the problem is the allowance of fractional-lending, where banks can lend much more than what they have in reserve. This reserve is not the reserve in their own bank but the reserve they maintain in the Central Bank of the land they operate in.

Banks are required to make an initial deposit to the central bank when they start operations. Lets say $1000. By the allowance of fractional-lending, the bank can now loan a maximum of $10000 to someone (the maximum ratio being 10:1). Lets say Adam gets that loan. Adam buys a car from Ann for $10,000 and Ann goes off and deposits this in another bank. Yes, the new bank has $10,000 now. But (and thankfully) the new bank cannot apply fractional-lending on this sum. It cannot give a loan of $100,000 based on this $10,000. In fact, the deposit of $10,000 is 'divided' by the fractional-lending ratio and reduced to two parts - $909 and $9090 (the sum coming to $10,000). The balance-sheet for the new bank will show the complete $10,000, but it can loan money only over the $909 dollars now. The next maximum loan is, hence $9090. This is an important step. To take a step back, in the first loan, $1000 was inflated to $10,000 but as soon as it was deposited, it was deflated back to $909 for the purposes of providing loans. In-spite of this 'deflation', each bank will earn interests on each successive loan, even if it is of a slightly lesser amount (first $10,000, then $9090 and so on). If this series keeps going on, and we add the maximum successive loans, they add up to $100,000!

There are two take-aways. The first is that fractional lending allows banks overall to earn interests on loans of money that is 100 times that is deposited in the central reserve. Also, that the money in circulation is 10 times what is deposited with the central reserve.

Hence, go open a bank. And remember that a new car is really worth just 1/10th.

The Gini coefficient

The Gini coefficient is an interesting number. It ranges from 0 to 1 and shows how equitably the GDP of a nation is distributed amongst its citizens. 0 is the most equitable and 1 is the least. The index is not very clear but some examples are : Purple is around 0.5, Cyan is 0.35, Red is greater than 0.6, light green is 0.35 and pink is about 0.55

The map on the left shows how different countries fare on this scale. The capitalist mecca is purple, where you would expect a big difference between the rich and the poor, a hallmark of capitalism. However, Canada and Australia are light green, which might come as a surprise. It shouldn't actually since even though these countries are developed and progressive, the salaries are only a fraction of what high ranked executives get in the US. The poor probably earn about the same as they do in the US. Hence the ratio lowers. South Africa is bright red, which correlates to a very rich white population and a majority of poor blacks. It is interesting to see that China is also purple like the US. That should be an eye-opener. In spite of a communistic regime, China has opened its gates to privatization and capitalistic forces in several sectors. That clearly has colored it purple. India is light blue, like Japan. However the reasons couldn't be far from different. Japan has a very strong social security net that covers most of its citizens in times of unemployment and disabilities. The salaries of top executives are not outlandish like the US either. Hence, a reasonably equitable distribution. However, in India, it is light blue not because of a social net (it does not exist) or welfare programs. It is because 70% of India's population works in agriculture and manufacturing and earns modest wages. The light blue exists since most of the people are collectively poor rather than collectively rich.

Taxation vs austerity

The more you read about world economics, the more you are surprised by the mess politicians make of a social-science called economics.

Europe is reeling under the pressure of massive debt that these countries have taken over their GDP and potential earnings. The way I understand it, countries don't have the luxury of investing the stock market as individual investors do. They primarily operate through the bond markets. This poses a large restriction on their earnings. Greece, is currently running a budget deficit of 12.5%. It is trying to finance its deficit through further bond issues (seemingly the only was of sourcing external money) but the world isn't buying. So what can it do then? Well, introduce 'austerity measures'! These austerity measures are nothing but asking the consumers of public-sector revenues to cut back. The people in focus would be pensioners, public sector employees and public-infrastructure projects and services. But guess what, the public isn't amused. They point to another way the government can get money - taxation. Interestingly, taxation raises money from the richest and austerity from the poorest. Ideologically, you would want to support the former that the latter. But according to economic principles (which I am not too clear about), austerity is the better way to go : (http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?story_id=15606221)

House ownership across Britain and the US

Property ownership was a British concept to begin with. Not that people didn't own property other than the British but the association of strength and power with ownership of property was something of very British origin. In the 1700s, the power to vote resided with the wealthy land-owning aristocrats, the people who came to occupy the House of Lords in the parliamentary system later.

But as with any financial tale, this one did not have a very happy ending. These men-to-the-manor-born borrowed heavily to pay for their extravagant lifestyles, with their land and the agricultural revenues as collateral. However, come mid-1800s, as the prices of agricultural produce went down, so did the backing for these loans. As these aristocrats put their heads together to sort out finances, most of them realized that their borrowings were way more that the worth of their estates and their agricultural revenues put together. Most of the houses were acquired by the lenders and several of the rich elite had to move into rented houses, a big step down considering the opinions of those times.

That was Britain. Now the US.

Owning a house makes sense. It gives you security and ownership. However, before the great depression, only two-fifths of the US population owned their own homes. As the great depression struck, the few home owners there were, were also forced out of their homes for lack of mortgage payments. So how did this miserable situation turn around? The New Deal! Mr. Roosevelt took several steps to encourage people to invest money in house ownership. The government ensured that the money invested by the public to a bank as part of mortgage payments would be ensured by the government even if the bank went bust. A federal housing administration was setup to offer longer, larger and lower interest loans (20 to 30 years). And it also setup the 'Federal National Mortgage Association' which goes by the famous nickname - Fannie Mae - to stimulate the mortgage market.

Well all of that seems about right. What went wrong then? Well, the way it began was that these mortgages were not given out to any tom, dick and harry. They were only given to 'prime' candidates. The rest you probably know ....

Bonds and the American civil war

Then came the bonds. Bonds are not the most popular of financial instruments. The returns are low and there is always the risk of inflation catching up or overtaking their rate of return.

However, bonds are no small time contenders. The bond market is many times the world's stock markets put together. Moreover, they have been an instrumental tool for governments in times of economic strife. Cotton backed bonds were the main source of money for the Confederates, the southern US government, to get money to finance the war against the North. These bonds promised interest like any other bond. However, they went a step further. In case the interest could not be paid by the government, these bonds were exchangeable for cotton! Cotton, a rich cash-crop was an excellent backing to these bonds. Several people became interested and bought the bonds.

With money sourced from these bonds, the war dragged further. Finally, the North, understanding the importance of this crop in the scheme of things, played a master-stroke. Devoting a large section of their military strength to it, the North secured the port of New Orleans. New Orleans was the main exit point for all the cotton the south exported. With the port under northern control, the promise of cotton in exchange for the southern bonds to the bond-holders went down the drain. Their value plummeted and so did the source of money for the South contributing greatly to their defeat in the end.

The Medici

To look back at the ascent of the concept of modern day money, we need to take notice of Italy in the 1200s. Money, in token form, had come into being by then. However, lending was still not a profession of good standing. Christianity forbade usury, the practice of charging interest on the loan doled out. However, if a money-lender didn't charge interest, how would he make a living? How would he cover the defaults?

Jews were the answer to this riddle. A different religion allowed them a different set of rules. In Florence, sitting behind their benches, they gave loans without compunction or fear of the after-life. Dealing with numbers for generations on an end has clearly made them a smart bunch of fellows. The Christians could only sit in the side-lines, working away at their 'legitimate' professions.

This changed in the latter part of the 1300s. Giovanni de Medici, of the notorious Medici family in Venice, rose to clear his family of their stamp of infamy. Using his sharp intellect, he hit upon an ingenious way of tapping into the money business, and still remaining within the remit of the Christian laws. He started to work on Forex! There was no low forbidding a commission on changing currencies at the time. The commission, after all, was not interest. It was just a commission. And once this happened, there was no stopping the Medici family. By spreading their services far and wide in Italy, they grew in scale, allowing lower operating costs. Low costs and higher profits - the family became richer and more powerful. Two (three) queens and a pope eventually came from this family.

Meaningless conversations

There is a channel called 9XM. It is a good channel. It plays current Hindi music videos. However, the videos are interspersed with short clips of characters that the channel has come up with. They seem to serve no purpose other than separate successive songs from each other.

But the nature of content that these characters talk about is abysmal. Some of them say out front to not think but just listen to what they have to say. Why? Because they have nothing meaningful to say. One character, a slimy slob, has conversations with another one of its kind which ultimately leads to one of them yelling 'bakvaas band kar'. What is the point of having such a video? There are no promotional ads featured on the screen while this video runs. So ad revenues are definitely not the reason for them. I kind find any rational reason why a channel would feature such kind of meaningless content. And the absence of a rational reason makes me speculate that the video is just a representation of commonplace humor/conversation to change the flow of the music. That makes me sad... There is too much money and time going around and we, as a generation don't use it to talk sense... God help the next generation...

Fractional Reserve Banking

The history of money is fascinating. And it is not easy to get your head around it in one go. The way I understand it, banking began with goldsmiths being entrusted by normal people with their gold for safekeeping. They realized that at any point in time, only a fraction of the people (say 10%) will come back to demand their gold back. This fact allowed them to lend out gold to others, gold that was not theirs to begin with, and charge interest on it. This was the birth of fractional-reserve banking.

Most banks work on the same principle nowadays. Each bank has to maintain a capital ratio, a ratio of the amount of money in reserve, and the amount of money it lends out. This ratio changes, but is always less than one...

The masters of money ...

I have come across some fascinating documentaries tracing back the history of money and how economics had a major role to play in world affairs since the beginning of organized society. I might dedicate a few blogs to how things were ...

Wasted Years

I was wondering. 40 years back, salaries were low, progress was less and there was little to go around. However, the number of kids you had was alarmingly high. There may be exceptions but in general, people used to have 5-6 kids at least. Where did they get the money to support them?

We argued that lives were 'simpler' and people spent less outside. They cooked at home, spent time at home, at parks and other places where spending money was not necessarily part of the equation. With that kind of a 'safe' lifestyle, Looking back, compared to present day hustle and bustle, things do seem idyllic and relaxed. Who wouldn't want those days back?

However, the counter-argument is that the days when the majority of the country was enjoying this idyllic existence, partly because they didn't have the money to explore, learn and innovate (due to the expenses of raising 6 children), the developed world was doing exactly that. The computers, the science and the innovation was not happening here, but there. Anyone who has had any experience in experimentation will agree that it takes some risk and money. With a close-to-the-chest balance of money, there was no money to spend thus.

Wasted years :(

Ancient Inventions with Terry Jones

It was bound to happen. With me watching so many of these marvelous documentaries, I had to come back and tell you about one that is phenomenal.

"Ancient Inventions with Terry Jones" walks across centuries to discover inventions which we would have assumed are modern day but to my utter surprise (and I am sure yours too, if you care to investigate) are thousands of years old.

The grid-plan in modern day cities was 'invented' in the Indus valley civilization and simultaneously in the Aztec and Mayan cities of South America. It was shamefully, and quite unsuspectingly copied by New York in the 1800s when they decided to bring some order to the city plan. An interesting corollary is that the 'Wall Street' was actually a street with wooden walls to separate the British and Irish settlements from the native Indians.

Cities were marked by some other characteristics that date back centuries as well. For example, cities are marked by eating joints and the ability to find and eat food without having to cook for it yourself. Well, these fast-food joints and restaurants were common in Rome around 1 BC. In fact, one of the dishes quite resembles the modern day hamburger!

Another invention to interest you would be books. Romans at it again! The city of Parthenon came up with the first library of over 20,000 papyrus scrolls for the intellectual stimulation of their residents. However that prompted jealousy by the Egyptians. So what did they do? They banned the export of Papyrus, of course. That prompted the Romans to find an alternative source of 'paper', I guess. I don't know how many animals were sacrificed for them to find it, but they finally struck on the right writing medium - Parchment, i.e dried skin of sheep. These skins, for all their inefficiencies compared to papyrus had one good feature. They could be sewn together. And lo and behold - the first books!

Enough advertising, now go see the documentary...

Side-stepping

You know what the problem is?! The problem is that in this country, people side-step too much. There is no accountability of the government machinery which leads to underdeveloped roads, loss of power and unclean drinking water. How does the Indian man respond to it? If her can afford it, he lives in areas which are blessed with the few well made roads, he lives in an apartment which has a power backup (and a monthly bill of it) and finally, he buys an RO system for his house. With all that side-stepping, it is a shame that we dance like numb-skulls. What do the people who cannot afford it, do? Well, they develop a wrecked body from the unsuspecting hops and skips of their bikes over the potholes. They learn to live without power, interpreting an unproductive wastage of hours as an idyllic life-style. And finally, they learn to drink the filthy water, complimenting themselves on their superior immune system.

But apart from all of that, do you know what all of this leads to?! Elitism! People fight for their share and start living lives that are marked by how they can differentiate themselves and prove themselves better than others. Its true that people differentiate themselves around the world. But the better way to do it is usually through their actions, achievements or skills. In India, the differentiation is done through money and a basic standard of living. Paying Rs 80K for an apartment that still looks like shit from outside (in Bby) is a pointless way of differentiation....

Done better, could I have?

How much is enough? Now that I have gotten through to one of the best b-schools in the country, I ask myself "could I have done better?". The answer is unfortunately, yes. However, when I try to sift through the positives and the negatives of the options I have, the answers and the reality seem to be a little different.

The round of introspection goes as follows:

q1. Do you want to do a 2 year MBA ?

a1. No. I think doing an MBA is fundamentally a waste of time. The less time I waste, the better. However, the world will not pay me my worth unless I do an MBA. If I have to, I would prefer to do a one-year MBA

q2. Of the good one-year MBAs, where else do you think you could qualify?

a2. I could get into INSEAD. I probably wouldn't have gotten through this year which is why I didn't apply. however, considering the job options I have, I might not make it through the next year either. I do understand that ISB is one of the best places to do a one-year MBA from.

q3. Do you want to settle abroad, live abroad or work abroad?

a3. Truth be told, I don't want to feel stuck. I guess, settling down and committing to someone and some place is difficult. However, I understand that you do have to settle down somewhere eventually. I wouldn't want to make India my home base. However, I do not want to feel stuck. I should be able to work and travel abroad once in a while.

q4. Do you think that your profile will get more traction in INSEAD or in ISB?

a5. Well. I had conceived the notion that in a great b-school, everyone will get awesome jobs. However, I realize that that is not going to happen. In fact, some of my friends are having bad luck in finding good positions in foreign b-schools. From that perspective, the IIT tag behind me will provide much more of a traction in an Indian b-school (like ISB) that a foreign one, like INSEAD. It should be kept in mind though, that the number of IITians in ISB has been rising constantly over the years as well.

q5. Finally, isn't a bird in the hand .... ? Also, if a one-year MBA is what you are looking for, how many options do you have really which are better than this one?

a5. I agree. The bird saying does hold true. It is a good school. I will just have to pull up my socks and differentiate myself there as well. Considering the fair amount of mess I am in, career-wise, it makes sense to hold on to this life-line and move. Had I gotten an awesome job to extract me out of this mire of second-rate consulting firms and non-profits, I could have reconsidered. However, looking at the possible job options I have, it makes sense to stick with what I have gotten.

I have also realized that many of my blogs are about me. It is very self-centered of me. I promise to be more informative and productive in my writing moving forward. I just hope that my imaginary readers will excuse this phase of my life. It is very difficult to make such life-changing decisions.

Impressions of childhood

Some impressions seems to remain for life. I remember years ago, when there was only a single doordarshan channel and the world was a slightly better place, how much fun it was going through the Times of India review early in the morning on Sundays. The shiny paper and the longer cartoon strips (9 boxes instead of the regular 3) were a high-point of the week. The four comic strips that colored the page were - Beetle Bailey, Garfield, Hagar the horrible and the wizard of ID.

Some impressions remain for life. One of the first Sundays when I began this ritual of going through these comic strips, my brother casually advised me to steer clear of the Wizard of ID and Hagar the horrible because they would be, in his impression, difficult for me to decipher at my age. That stuck! Even to this date, 10 years hence, whenever I come across these two strips, there is a part of me convinced that maybe I won't get it. Some impressions ...

The power of the internet!

Ok. I am going to write fast and am probably going to make tons of grammatical mistakes. But, I am trying to mark an end to the days when I was a consumer of information and transition into an era where I produce processed and useful information from what I see, read and learn.

There are several things which people fret about when they compare the developed countries to the developing ones. I refer especially to people such as myself who have spent time in both of them. The weather is more conducive and the competition is less are familiar comments. However, I am slowly and painfully realizing that the speed of the internet ranks high on that list as well. The typical model of getting information in the US used to be to stream it directly from the net. In India, the internet is used like electricity. Just as you charge your laptop overnight with power, so do you charge your computer with information over the night (via downloads). As one might suspect, there is however, no cross-selling of information in the latter scenario. What you download is what you see the next day. If you want to find more information, you just have to painfully wait for the next night to download it. And if you are human like me, you tend to forget what you wanted to search for in the day, by night-time. So all in all, a very inefficient process. Yes, you might underestimate it by thinking that nobody needs so much information and knowledge anyway, right? But no! Imagine day after day of pointless waste of the precious few hours you get after work. It is these hours that people in developing countries waste over trivialities and slow-inefficient actions that people with faster internet and information capitalize on.

Hence, the moral of the story: Get a fast internet connection and don't split it amongst your flatmates. It is one the most important expenditures that you can make from the salary you earn. Consider it indispensable, like clean underwear. And then, once you have it, use it wisely!!

Look Around, being a workoholic just doesn't make sense!

Its difficult to say which side is right, at least for me. Is it the one that supports an undying devotion to its profession, one so single-minded and committed that it fails to see how other things work in this world, or is the one that never immerses itself in its work, treating is as a source of revenue to sustain a world-view and the freedom to spend time on it. The more I see the world, and take in experiences first-hand, the more I come to the conclusion is that the former seems to make more sense, if it is accompanied however, with a slight clause. I feel that people who are committed to their profession do seem to be happier and more sorted out than others. However, just like you need a dose of guy friends to get away from the sweet, cloying love of your life, similarly you need to step back from a very interesting occupation to look at the world around you. People justify working really hard in their professions as a justification to be numb to the world’s problems and their responsibilities towards it. After all, working on a complex excel model for the entire length of day is damn draining. Why wouldn't I want to kick back with a beer and just relax, right? Sorry, the right answer is ‘wrong’! Unless we own up to a share of our roles, and just stop being like greedy kids who want things quick and without responsibility (the context being nature, wildlife and our natural resources), the world shall die, slowly and painfully…. and us and other lives with it …. Hence, my practical advice is to read, watch, observe, comment and critically analyze the world around you .... TED, Blogs, Articles, Opinions, Documentaries, NOT crappy movies, NOT soaps, NOT baseball, football and basketball around the year!

Or maybe we and viruses are alike (courtesy ‘The Matrix’)…

Blast in Koregaon Park

Woo Hoo … something exciting to tell my grandchildren about. There was a blast in Koregaon Park in Pune at the famous German Bakery. The bakery is around lane A. I live in lane C. And the lanes are not that far apart. Ok, time for familiar comments: “I am shocked out of my wits”, “This is unheard of (but actually it is, remember 26/11)”, “Pune was supposed to be a safe city” etc etc. But seriously speaking, now that I am close to the scene of the crime, it is quiet difficult to be nonchalant about it. I did the stupid mistake of walking over to the bakery only to hear in the news later that an unexploded IED was still around in an auto. (Note: remember to tell this part to grandchildren as well, if I learn from my mistakes i.e.). The place is a shambles. Thullas are everywhere.

Flatmates

I am interning in a non-profit for the experience. Part of the experience is a very modest stipend I get for work done. Though I am guilty of living in an expensive part of town, I stay in a small room in a PG to keep my costs down. I don't mind the room but its definitely not a place I would invite friends over (quiet simply, there isn't enough place to sit anyway). Along with the PG, comes the free company of a flatmate.

He is a straight-forward simple fellow. However, what is amusing yet disturbing about him is his ill-informed perspective on almost every other topic that comes up in casual conversation. He is a sales rep by profession, which may explain his confidence in everything he says, but the gross inaccuracy in knowledge is just pathetic. A few examples of his words of wisdom are as follows: "So Sumit, what is this H1N1 visa that you need to work in the US", "I dont like sugar with saunf, I like Misri, because it is good for your haemoglobin", "Enemy at the Gates is set at the time of the cold war (since they is so much snow in the movie)" and "Mr. Musharaff, Sheikh Hasina, Imran Khan were leading lights of Pakistan"

Now I don't really care how people live their lives and how much they learn. But if this is the state of graduates in our country, then its definitely not good. I can see how his ignorance will continue this way for years to come considering a very hectic, meaningless job that occupies his day from morning to night. Then eventually he will get married to a girl as ignorant as he is, spawning children who will look up upon them for guidance and opinions in their formative years. They will grow, biased and confused and the cycle will continue ...

My external worth

I have been the victim of a spate of thefts in the office recently. First, I lost my sunglasses. By the time I recovered from that loss, my earphones went missing. I am trying to get to the bottom of it, but I am not very hopeful of the outcome.

These events made me realize that our average worth, based on what he wears daily, is pretty high. It might be an interesting exercise to do a quick estimate of your worth, i.e the worth of what you wear daily. Forget the depreciation to make it easy. For me, a couple of days back, the estimate would have been as follows:

Shirt/ Kurta = 340/-

Jeans = 2500/-

Watch= 2000/-

Earphones= 1000/-

Iphone= 25,000/-

Boots= 5000/-

Socks= 40/-

Wallet= 500/-

Sunglasses= 3500/-

Total= 39,880/-

Imagine walking naked with a that much money in your hand.

Give away a few bucks

Give away a few bucks to the poor once in a while. We have been taught since childhood to oppose begging. "They should try and earn a living", is what is commonly suggested. But who offers jobs to the poor? Are they so easy to come by? Where does a product of an unjust, ill-managed, tottering education and social system get employed? The only avenue of work would be to start a small business, selling things to begin with. But how easy is that to secure? To the budding entrepeneurs I ask - is setting up a business that easy? I wouldn't think so. Maybe the beggar makes more of a profit begging that selling wilted flowers at a traffic signal that no one buys anyway. Shouldn't he go with the 'profession' that gives him a little more dough?

I don't think most beggars are organized in syndicates as movies such as 'traffic signal' suggest them to be. I think many of them would use the money themselves. Yes, they may go and buy some cigarettes from it. So what!? Why do they have to be burdened by our expectations for them to go buy 'parle-g' biscuits. We make stupid decisions with our money. Give away a few bucks and let them make their own judgements. Allow the poor to be human.

I just don't want to get sick

I am sick. I do not understand why women get so worked up if you suggest that you don't want to 'mingle' when they are sick. A cold or flu is communicable and will pass from one person to another irrespective of the good intentions of the person who is sick. If I do not have any problem mingling otherwise, why is the simple explanation that I do not want to get sick enough?! And guess who conceded in the argument that ensued? Well, I am sick now, am I not :(

Shiny Swanky Malls

Voo Hoo,

I am free enough to attempt to put some words on my screen.

Living in Pune makes me miss Delhi.

Maharashtrians are nice, unpretentious people. At least, the previous generation was much more than the present one. Give a Marathi lady her gold mangalsutra, a pair of nice earrings and gold bangles and she will be content with her conventional sari and attire. Very few of them branch out to wear ill-fitting jeans and tight tops in an attempt to catch up to the 'modern' style of dressing. However, what may appear to be a good attitude to have has its own downsides. For me, the downside is that these 'maushi(s)' (the equivalent of Aunties here) spoil the look and feel of the swanky, shiny malls and shops they frequent. Everything about malls is meant to be attractive and enticing. They entice people to come, look around and eventually get sucked into one shop or the other. But, the people themselves, as they cross the glass doors, become a part of the mall. So while in Delhi, the well dressed folks add value to the surroundings, in cities such as Pune, they bring down the fanciness by a few notches.