@rgumental @dvisor

   This wasnt as exciting as Term-1.. An exceptionally hectic term with summer placement activities and some really hectic subjects...But still, some of the really nice moments..Some in my class..some in other sections.. 1.   " Millions of years ago there was a giant continent called Pangea..Australia separated from that and moved to .....  " ..Thats how an economics presentation of Australian economy started :-) ... Indeed when you have to give a presentation for 35 min, these things might happen :-)  2.   "This restaurant was not functioning optimally...because..because..it wasnt functioning optimally"   3.   "These are extremely impotent issues" Some Realizations ------------------- 1. There are two kinds of people when it comes to night-life @ IIMK..Those who play Counter-Strike & those who do not ..And I belong to the second category :-) 2. Most time in B-school is spent not on case studies,projects or assignments..But in highly intellectually s...

    In a not - so - usual pensive mood today..Some random thoughts sparked by a few incidents arbitrarily put under different headings.. Idealism  ----------       Its easy to advocate idealism... but not at all easy when you are at the receiving end..Being ideal might bring you nothing much but frustruation..And especially tempting when the alternate path to to idealism might be something thats not much of a compromise...Its easy to ask 'why ?' ..But its easy to ask back 'why not ?'  System -------      To reform a system, you have to be a part of the system..But at times, why  bother reforming it ? ...or if you can find a better system why not be a part of it rather than this ?  Pragmatism ------------           When to be pragmatic ...when to fight ?  Being a B-school student, I'm tempted to give an answer in terms of NPV :-) ..  But this decision is something thats very judgemental..And it cannot be brought down to numbers.. This is an art actually ..An art that...

The Mayhem in Mumbai has ended apparently...I'm not going to do a post-mortem of this..There are enough articles in almost all news sites over this..But couple of incidents that happened over this terrorist siege.. ----------------------------------- 1 .  Media has a habit of reporting statements selectively..Not sure if thats the case here..But if this guy really said this , no wonder he is often quoted as 'crown among clowns' .. What a practical joke.  ..   Jai Soniaji !!! ( PS:- Check the comments section of the news link ) ----------------------------------- 2.  Media's live war commentary --  The ATS chief is shown live on TV wearing bullet proof jacket & helmet as he enters the hotel... Later on, he is dead by a few bullet shots at his neck --Did the terrorists see the live broadcast so as to shoot at his neck ? Apparently it cannot be ruled out as media themselves reported that terrorists had setup command & control rooms in Taj & Oberoi..       NSG c...

Observations, learnings and quite more .. Now, in the midst of term II 1 -  Key skill enhancements/learnings during summer placement season          - How to dress up in business formals in 5 minutes .         - How to gas about virtually anything unknown.          - How to ask 'intelligent questions'          - How to change your  career preferences betwee marketing/finance/operations/consulting            as you hop between different company procedures.         - No matter what you prepare, your selection/rejection is mostly determined by your            communication skills rather than technical knowledge.                   2. As time becomes something of premium value , the usage of deodorants increases exponentially & that of bathing soap decreases in the same rate.  3. When you don't have time, why clean your room :) ..There is no value addition in that :) 4. If google stops working for one week, MBA courses would come to a screeching hault :-)  5. Initially peopl...

        For a change, third sunday of November this year will be a day when I'll be able to relax..For the last 5 years (Yes, FIVE ) , always this day used to be a crucial one for me.. Five CAT attempts..Or rather 2 non-serious attempts ( CAT - 2003, 2004 ) ..followed by two serious CAT attempts (2005   -- B call and kicks from waiting list , 2006 - better scores..no calls )... And in 2007, an unprepared attempt -- and I'm here in IIMK :-) ...Now that I'm on the other side , let me reflect a bit on this often crazy selection procedure and this much hyped exam.   Btw, all opinions listed below are extremely personal opinions. 1)  I know people who made it into ivy league schools like Kellog, Wharton and all, but couldn't crack CAT.. Just because of the fact that you cracked this exam does not mean that you are the most suitable candidate..and vice versa too.. Infact, the difference between 98 %ile ( no - IIM calls ) and 99.5%ile ( 5-6 IIM calls ) is often  2- 3 questions...

    About an year back, I blogged about Google Phone .. Quite a few developments have happened in this area after that..And a few days before, Google came up with its first Android based phone  , manufactured by HTC..        Quite a few of the applications in this G-phone or G1 happens to be similar to what I thought about last year.. quoting Larry Magid's article, " there is already an application called iSkoop that lets you make free or inexpensive international and domestic calls using Skype".. -- This is a key point to Google's overall strategy..10  years later ( or maybe even before that ),  G-phone will be a device just to connect to internet..No SIM card as such..U'll talk to people using G-talk ..Just take the g-talk in your phone, tap the person's user ID, and make a call.. No complicated maths like STD/ISD rates or anything like that..Infact, the much hyped about number portability will come into existance this way..i.e, as long as u have ur gmail ID...

Aging is a reality . On sep-29, I completed 26 years of existence in this planet.. Now when someone gets into this so called 'wrong side' of 20s, the pressure towards marriage starts building from all the sides... I notice a definite change in the way my elder friends & relatives tease me.. 4 years back: Hey, how many girl-friends do you have ? 3 years back: H ey, do u have a girl-friend ? 2 years back: Hey.. time to find a girl for you.. Any good looking Nair girls in your office ? ( yes, there were..but they were married :( ) 1 year back : Hey, all of us thought you'll find a girl on your own..u have disappointed us..Shall we find one girl for you ? There is this girl, who is my second cousin's grand mothers's uncle's daughters' son's neice. .. ( damn..why are relations so complicated ) Now : Hey.. heard ur Amma has started looking for suitable matches for you ? -- I see that over the years, the girl-friend factor in querie...

       Phew..Just gave my end term exam and now a 10 day break.. Lot of interesting incidents, a great batch and awesome campus..Quite lot of incidents..Below are a few quotable quotes which I came across in this term..      1. "Sir, When are you conducting the next surprise quiz ? " :-)       2. Company XYZ1, in the PPT .. "Sometimes work is 24x7..But it is satisfying" - WTF ???    3. A group giving a presentation - "Our presentation has 3 parts - Introduction, body & conclusion :-) "   4. Company XYZ2, in the PPT .. "Sometimes its a dog's life..But it is rewarding " :-)   5. "Guys..you have indulged in maal -practice :-) "    6. Prof( Asking a group which was doing a case analysis on Mountain Dew, with reference to the famous Cheetah Ad) : " How does the Ad signify the taste of Mountain Dew ? "        Presentor: " That, you'll have to ask to the Cheetah" :-)    ----------------------   Mathewisms - Take...

"How ethical are you ?" ..This is a question which quite a few people have asked me after coming here..Infact almost every mock interview / committee interview at IIMK had this question.. Long back during my schooling and early college life, I considered smoking & drinking as totally wrong and unethical ... I no longer hold that perspective.. I still dont smoke( but I do take couple of pegs :) ) ... The way I look at people have undergone a sea change.. Similarly, I considered abstaining from seeing pornographic movies as an ethical way of life..but thankfully or otherwise, those myths got busted early in NITC life itself :-) ...similarly many more stuff... If you have are caught in a situation where in you have to tell a lie to defend a promise,what would you do ? Most of us would tell the lie so that the promise holds... This might seem trivial, but few years back i was in such a situation which resulted in a big ch...

Certain observations/happenings/realizations/updates over Life @ IIMK . * I get up a day and struggle to realize which day it is..i.e, whether it is a sunday or friday or any other weekday, all are more or less equal now with workload. * I thought I'm decent in time management skills..Apparently, first month here has proved otherwise :-) ..I've missed quite a few things which I wouldn't have otherwise. * I buy Business Line & The Hindu..But unable to read those on most days..And I'm running out of space to put all those newspapers. * As a consequence of the above factor and my reluctance to clean, my room looks more or less like a dumping ground of newspapers, articles and books :-( * My home is just 22 KM from here and I have a bike..But have gone there only for a few hours in last one month. * I was caught sleeping in the class quite a few times..And the fact that my name begins with letter 'A' ensures that I'll have to sit in the front row..I'm e...

At certain points in life you feel you should have done something a tad earlier..I was almost certain that this feeling was to strike at me some point or other during this 2 year course...It did,though from an unexpected angle/source... Last week I came across 2 situations, wherein I would have had more freedom had I finished my education one/two years before.. And one of those did put me into a deep & prolonged thought.. Certain actions might seem illogical..But, not everything in life can be explained rationally/ logically..I'm thinking of resorting to an irrational action ... something that seems outrightly childish.. But, my heart asks me to try my luck :-) . ( PS:- This is not to discourage anyone having significant workexp from doing MBA..Infact, workexp makes you more mature and your takeaways from MBA would be much higher... All thoughts and actions contemplated are from a strict personal perspective ) Ajith

Orkutting is fun..Its even funnier with this thing called 'mutual friends'..I know that it is not recent, but still there are a couple of interesting stuff thats associated with this.. There is something called as 'Six-degrees of separation' .. What it means is not that every two guys in world would be connected by 'six hops'.. It just says that the average number of 'hops' would be six.. There have been experiments to verify this concept in facebook, where the average hop-length turned out to be 5.73 ( Strong validation , I should say ) In the last couple of months, my orkut friends list increased from sub-300 levels to 470+ ( and still growing ) owing to IIMK admission..I've started looking into the mutual friends list whenever I get a new connection..And there have been instances when I got literally startled like " Oh..How does he know HER ? " . . OR .. "Oh..man, she knows that bugger? How come? " ......

So, 3 weeks here @ IIMK and I finally get some time to blog... There is nothing very particular that I plan to blog..All are kind of arbitrary.. Often many of us ( including me ) tend to think that our life has been tough and we didnt get what we deserved.. Here, I've met some individuals who have fought of ( or, are still fighting off ) lot of adversities. And compared to them, atleast my difficulties seemed to be trivial.. I tend to realise that the difficulties faced by each of us are kind of unique..And there is no point in benchmarking those.. So, what else are the changes that have come up in me ? -- The total intake of tea & coffee ( Unlike quite a few people, I drink both ) has increased exponentially -- I dont feel like sleeping till atleast 1AM ( excluding the time that I doze off in class :-) ) -- There are basically two choices here..Either insulate yourself and concentrate on studies or study a bit and enjoy the life here.. Though I had intentions of...

Totally random semi-philosophic post :-) .. Quite long too..Read if you have plenty of time and no other work to do . There was a mail which I sent to a select group of friends four years back when I graduated..It was about what I learned about life during my graduation...Now , after another four years I'm again going back to college for my MBA . I think its time to have another writeup about my learnings during last four years of corporate life, both from a professional & personal perspective.. I'm putting those below.. This is all taken strictly from my perspective / learnings /conclusions.. I dont think many people might agree to all the points. Anyway, here it is.. 1) Beyond a level, money would not bring you satisfaction..There is something called as concept of marginal utility in economics. ( You can google out the definitions )..The idea is something like this.. If you earn 3L , an increase in salary to 6L would bring you more satisfaction than what you will hav...

"Eda..Coming with you to Landmark is like accompanying a lady to a Saree shop" .. I don't deny that .. And because of this, I dont drag people to this place :-) As I'm packing up my stuff to leave b'lore, I calculated an approximate sum of money that I had spent @ Landmark over the last two years..That would definitely come to about Rs.22,000+ i think ...People ask me why don't I go and buy second hand books that would come damn cheap ...Well, All I can say is, certain questions does not have logical answers.. the atmosphere @ Landmark is a factor..the awesome collection that they have is another.... maybe that 'freshness' in a book would be another... But rather than all that I'd say, its not possible to rationally or logically substantiate all your actions in life.. Certain things you do because you just want to do those...And you shouldnt restrict yourself from doing those because, you might regret later in life.. ( For t...

I went there with a desire to set winds for a change in a system..A system in which I'm going to have very minimal or practically nil stake..Five minutes into the process, I realize that I'm banging my head against a brick wall...When the underlying realities are harsh, words cannot be music to ears... Essentially at some point, I felt its not going to be of much use... The atmosphere is no longer cordial.. I lost interest.. Left the effort..Played on through the process..And it got over. When I think about it, I still ask myself... In such situations, should one persist and argue over things ? The downside of this being that the cordiality would be more broken than you can amend..And it goes against my 'God-father' principles .. What matters in life the most is your contacts & friends...And you shouldn't antagonize anyone for needless things... But then, it wasnt a needless thing..Its something that I really wanted to see happening, though I wouldn't ga...

A few posts through last few years in my life Jan - 2 , 2006 :- IIMB PGP interview call April - 11 , 2006 :- IIMB puts me in Waitlist - 47 May- 9 , 2006 :- Kicked out of Waiting list ---------------------------------------------------------- Nov-20, 2006 :- Better CAT papers..TIME,IMS predicts six calls based on a screwed verbal key Jan - 8 ,2007 :- Kicks from all IIMs.. One of the most disappointing days in my life April - 13, 2007 :- PGSEM interview April - 30, 2007 :- Taking PGSEM but disappointment over PGP still persists ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jan -10 , 2008 : CAT - 2007 results ( L,K calls ) -- People Dont believe that I got this without any major preps.. But thats the truth . April 11- 30 , 2008 : OBC quota issues, results delayed . --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- May - 1 : 2008 C...

I know it is a bit early..but couldn’t help. My soccer craze is sort of biennial .. Whenever World cup or Euro is round the corner, I dig up enough soccer material from net to add to the already esoteric collection of interests.. Euro-08, the once in four year soccer championship among European Nations will kick off in Austria & Switzerland coming June. So, this post is about soccer :) ( My “Ideal match” column in orkut profile has been reflecting the Euro – 08 interest ever since the tournament draw has been published :)) After having lived in a soccer-crazy engineering college campus where television broadcasts of non-descript matches in EPL & Italian League draw more attendance than lecture sessions, I’d say, club soccer has failed to captivate my interest. My knowledge in club soccer is largely superficial. I give a miss to even the champions league matches where perhaps the best individual soccer talents in the planet are showcased.. But, I’ve rarely missed...

They say two weeks :( ... And chances of further slippings.. Things getting tight by every passing day... Hmmmm.... I wish I could give some satire links..but, then it would become a different ball game . (PS:- Sorry..No explanations can be offered :( ) Ajith

These two snaps describe what happens when a group of IT pros , empowered with Sodexho coupons visit CCD :-) .. One glass of "iced eskimo ...." ( none knew what it was :-) ) shared using 4 straws. CCD people would have been accustomed to couples using two straws in one glass..But this would have been something new to them :-) .. And yeah, post won't be complete without how we paid them... Hail Sodexho :-)

Given my penchant for historical movies, I couldnt miss Jodha-Akbar for too long..Finally saw that last weekend @ INOX . I'm not going to write a big review about that..There are plenty of funny reviews available on net like this one :-) .. The movie is actually pretty average...like a semi-documentary.. The songs were good..especially I liked the 'Khwaja mere Kwaja...' one very much..And yeah, Aiswarya Rai still looks too good in some sequences :-) ..The camera work in battle sequences left a lot to be desired..Nothing much exceptional there..The last fight was a badly imitated one from Troy ( Hector - Achilles ) .. An interesting thing which caught my attention in this movie is how the prince/princess type people get privacy.. Usually they'll be surrounded by many servants ..and when the possibility of romance comes, they just have to shout "Ekaant" .. Thats an interesting way :-) ---------------------------------- This is movie which has raked up m...

There is a trivial part in 'A Beautiful Mind', the Oscar winning movie in which Russel Crowe plays the brilliant , but Schizophrenic mathematician John Nash... The FBI/Pentagon intercepts some transmission containing lots of numbers, thrown over a large piece of paper/screen..Nobody is able to make out any sense out of it..They call John Nash..this guy stares at that for hours altogether..And finally shouts "Get me a map".. He then proceeds to interpret the numbers in the transmission as latitudes and longitudes of various places.. Now I didnt invent / discover anything like that...But in today's CorpFin class, my state was almost like those clueless FBI officials.. An excel spreadsheet with numbers and formula being displayed on the screen..prof making some calculations.. inflation, NPV, discount rate, IRR .. numbers throughout that excel .. 1.3231, 23.2435 , 343.211 , 1.321 ...... It made some sense to some people.. But it reaffirmed o...

NITC/CREC Alumni , Please check http://nit-calicut.blogspot.com/2008/03/important-studentnitc-needs-assistance.html Thanks, Ajith

I get nostalgic frequently.. Some people say it is a sign of aging :-).. Last time when I visited NITC , this feeling was at its peak.. Now, the spark is something totally different..Called up home yesterday..Amma told me that our ancestral home ( 'tharavadu' - in malayalam ) is going to be demolished and built again.. That is about 50+ years old and the building is literally crumbling..75 % of the area inside the home gets drenched during rainy season as the old roofing is slowly giving up to its 'wear-and-tear'.. And it is literally not possible to stay there during monsoon time.. And if it stays like this for 3 more seasons , it may collapse itself.. So , definitely from a logical perspective it makes sense to pull it down and build it again... But even after all logical explanations, I dont know how to express the kind of emptiness that I feel when I hear that it is being demolished.. This place used to be the gathering point of a very large...

This gives a good preview of a traditional art form in Kerala - Theyyam. Its not just the visualization that makes it unique..Superb narration, background music ..All in all, a wonderful video if u know malayalam..This took me back to those wonderful school days when I really liked those malayalam poems/verses. Ajith

I've realized something over the last few days.. Unless I have a specific aim(s) , my life is kind of dull.. Infact, if I see no direct utility/purpose in what I'm studying , I tend to take it easy.. I tend to do well in subjects to which I can attach a certain personal/entrepreneurial interest ( not those which may help me in work ) .. During the last week's exam preps, I kept thinking again and again whether these type of complicated formulations would help me in anyway.. Even when I kept telling myself that these may help me at a later point, which I cannot forsee now, I somehow couldnt instil enough interest in myself.. It took back my thought process to a time when I was perhaps in a most inspired/motivated state ..That was during IIT-JEE preps.. Even though I couldnt get in , I still remember that entire period of 2 years during +2 was perhaps the happiest period in my life..And a major reason for that happiness was this motivated state.. or rather obsession...

I'm in an interesting situation... Few years back during my schooling , I came across a guy 'X' who played certain pranks on me..The pranks were not that serious , but sort of irritating enough for me to remember this guy even now... Much later I came across another guy 'Y', who really made some trouble in my life/career at-least indirectly.. And I was seriously irritated with him then.. Whether the changes that I made to get away from 'Y' was good or bad is another debatable thing.. But whatever, the connection between 'X' and 'Y' is that they share the same first name. Now, I'm increasingly interacting with another guy 'Z' - who shares the same first name.. Rationally there is no reason why I should be hesitant in interacting with him..but as some people say, intuition or gut-feeling is telling me to be extremely careful while dealing with 'Z' ... I'm just wondering .. have any of you been in such a situation ?...

Alright , here’s the NITC special post. The usual disclaimers apply.. This might seem extremely irrelevant for all Non-NITC/CREC visitors to my blog. Date of visit : Jan – 6, 2008 Quite a lot of things have changed since my last visit.. As I remarked in my last post, I was here for attending the wedding reception of my batch-mate, Ibrahim.. The first sight that kind of ignited the old memories… (1) Mamachan’s Ruins è http://picasaweb.google.com/ajithprasadb/NITC/phot o#5154167544479834402 They have moved a little bit ahead (2) The New Mamachan’s location è http://picasaweb.google.com/ajithprasadb/NITC/photo#5154167565954670898 After this, I stepped into the campus through the rear gate (3) This place hasn’t changed much..Isn’t it ? http://picasaweb.google.com/ajithprasadb/NITC/photo#5154167596019441986 Buildings everywhere!.. I lost count of the number of hostels that the college has..There a new PG hostel, old PG modifie...

I had to post this.. Or rather rediff gave me an opportunity .. See this news -- Impressed by Tata's One Lakh car, Sanjay Dutt chose that to gift a Tata Nano to his girl friend Manyata.. It also reports that he chose Nano over a 4 Crore car :-).. I wonder what Manyata's reaction was when she heard this 4 Crore - 1 Lakh swap ..Or call it economics of love .. Assuming he had 4 Crore money for this purpose, he can split it and give it to 400 girl-friends, past present and future.. Makes sense..Isn't it ?

No..I'm not cribbing about the time that I lose..But a different thing.... Something for which I yearned two years before didn't materialize then, but it did now..And now I'm in an entirely different situation...It the sense,it would have made me ecstatic two years back..but it is kind of making me indifferent now... Hmmm..Got to think . On another note..Who said two wrongs doesnt make a right ? It does atleast in software.. "Wrong Code + Wrong Test Case = Expected Results " -- I got that yesterday..Fortunately was easy to fix.. And over the NITC trip that I was talking about in last post - We went..But I need a big post and more time to describe those..Would do in a week :-) Ajith