Blog
Words. Wisdom. Winners.
life is finance like…!!!
Life has been moving at 100mph lately…and its not even funny at times. With 4 fin courses…the world seems to be one hell of a ride…assignments enough to create 4 PhD reports…and classes enough to put Einstein to sleep…!
And to think that this might be my bread and butter for the next 30 years…woopsieee…!!!!
Saturday was an easy day though…we had a talk by Sanjay Bhattacharya (acclaimed painter) and Shekher kapur (yes…the film maker!). Both of them outstanding personalities in their own right. However I shall have to admit that Sanjay swept me off my feet…with his art…his humility and most of all his straightforwardness towards life.
When asked time and again as to what is his inspiration…he got irritated and went, “arre…kuch nahi hai yaar yeh inspiration vinspiration…!!!”…! to us it might be a flippant remark…for him it might be his truth…who knows.
Shekher kapur was stoned…! I mean literally…! He started with describing his place in the matrix of the universe and went on to explain…or confuse, whichever way…as to how we are mere mediums for decision in this universe to be executed. So when I say that I choose not to drink…is it really a decision that I am making…or is it that the decision has already been made and I am merely re-emphasizing…! And if this reminds you of the matrix trilogy…join the wagon…!
Then we had dandiya night on Saturday. It was awesome fun. Everyone was looking stunning in their traditional outfits. Needless to say the girls too. E was rocking in a saree…or maybe since it was the first time I had really seen her in the outfit. I clicked to my heart’s content…yet…the conversations were funny…
“dude…how many have you clicked…”
“ummm…close to 50 or so…”
“what…50…? I am on my 200th or so…! Dude…what’s up…????”
“dude…I am on a film camera…it will god damn cost me 500 bucks to see my results…!! Now u know what’s up…!!” – that was me…! :)
The organization was pretty amazing…and even though the singers reminded me of Bappi Lahiri singing…”yaaaaaaaddddddd aa raha hai…tera pyaar……”…overall the experience was terrific. Professional quality
Sunday was not expected at all. Here is what happened…
8.00am: got up…daily brushing…shitting…emails…etc…
9.00am: breakfast meeting
10.00am: start with fixed income assignment
11.00am: fixed income assignment
12.00: fixed income assignment
1.00pm: fixed income assignment
2.00pm: fixed income assignment
2.30pm: lunch break
2.45pm: fixed income assignment
..
..
7.30pm: corp fin assignment
..
..
9.30pm: corp fin assignment
9.45pm: dinner
10.00pm: corp fin assignment
..
..
And just so you know…no…I wasn’t paid to do all this…! It was the longest…most tiring…and the most challenging day of my ISB stay here…phew…
The week started ok…classes going on…ELP going good…loads of work regarding Poseidon and Placom…and thankfully I am doing juts good…(though A, K and G will disagree…but what the heck…!)
Life’s good…life’s finance like…! (I have no idea what this means)
:)
~a
Term 5…and life…
I hate myself for being this irregular blogger…trying to convince my own self that its because of lack of time. While all these years I have harping on the fact that time is always a matter of decision. If you want…you shall always have time…
I am guessing people wont be interested in the above gibberish. So I shall move on…
The past 15 odd days have been awesome. And intimidating lately. The break was supercool. Delhi, as always, was a pleasure to live through. Went for movies, dinners, dandiya and a road trip as well (which was planned 15 mins before we stepped into the car…!). amazing fun…coupled with the usual feeling of ‘damn…I don’t want to go back…!’
Coming back has been quite an experience as well. I have taken up all 4 Fin courses and believe me…the feeling is at times of ‘so…who do you think you are…superman…!”. So much so that to display the same I was wearing a superman tee day before…much to people’s amusement…!
But then…the courses are pretty good.
Advanced Corp Fin is something that I didn’t want to miss taking. However, the professor’s reputation precedes him. the 1st class was some kind of a trailer of what is to follow…however I have a feeling that it wont be as bad as it has been projected.
Fixed Income was good…and easy in the 1st class…though it could be simply because of the fact that most of it was a repetition from last term’s course. The prof reminds me of Rob Stein (Term 1)…and seems to be pretty cool. Is a prof at the Institute of Management at Tel Aviv…!
Financial Reporting and Analysis is something I am dreading…given my experience with accounting. I don’t know why…the balance sheet hasn’t really registered inside…and same with the income statement. Maybe I am trying hard enough…
Options and Futures by the Dean. The course was never meant to be ‘oh u know what…this is an option…which sells for Rs 10. So if you buy one…how much do you have to pay…?’ course. It will surely be one hell of an analytics driven course…and I guess the 1st class psyched people out. Lets see how it uncovers as time goes along.
Loads of things to look forward to this weekend. We have a talk by Shekher Kapur and Mohammad Khan (Ad Guru) Saturday afternoon followed by Dandiya Night organized by the Spouses Association. Our group also has the ELP client meeting this Friday. We have come up with some really fundoo recommendations…however they are quite drastic in nature. So lets hope the reception is good.
Apart from that…placements have started to take a serious turn. Preparing the CV…working on this and that…and what not…and with Deustche Bank coming for recruitment…(yes…I am planning to apply)…it makes the entire deal all the more rigorous.
I just realized…this is the most serious entry ever…! Damn I have killed myself…! (
~a
of exams…and their effects…
6 months have passed by…and time presents itself as “oh my god…6 months…it was just yesterday” and also as the occasional… “I feel my mom left me here as soon as I was born…!”
And the culmination of the core courses was the exams.
Management of Organizations
Question 1: People like you if you like them…! True/false (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
Question 2: Analyze the situation through the 4 lenses
Me: “what lenses are these…? Damn…!”
Me: “ok…cool…chill…I shall wait till my neighbour starts writing. I shall gather the 4 lenses from him and then plug in my thoughts…!”
15 fifteen later…
Me: “why the hell isn’t he writing…he seems to be done with everything else…”
5 more minutes…
Me: “DUDE…HE IS WAITING FOR ME TO WRITE THE SAME ANSWER…DUHHHHHHH…!”
Strategic Analysis of Information Technology
Tick whichever is applicable:
Question 1:
India will benefit from Outsourcing IT only if it develops:
- Price arbitrage
- Quality arbitrage
- Efficiency
- Effectiveness
- Option a, b, c
- Options b, c
- Options c, a
- Options a, b, c from the previous question
- Options b, c, from question 23
- Options a, b, c incase you didn’t read option e
- None of the above
Question 2:
Remember the day we had that IT seminar? Yah yah…the last day of the class. Ok…right at the time when you decided to take a power nap…ummmm…it was 4:37 pm…I guess 47 seconds down…some dude by the name of Narsimha rao made a statement. What was the last word of the statement…?
- Thanks
- Bye
- You
- Infosys
Investment Analysis
Question 1:
Bacho…yeh hai humhaari daaton ki banaawat. Now calculate the present value of your teeth upto the 32nd decimal point…and then find out why you should go long on a call option for the same. If you don’t have any clue of the above, then leave the room…cause the next 9 questions are of similar nature…!
Government, Society and Business
Question 1:
Population of India is
- 1.01 billion
- 1.011 billion
- 1.012 billion
- 1.013 billion
Question 2:
Human Development is all about:
- Quality of life
- Security of life
- ACs in your rooms
- 24 hours café at SV1
- HDI
- PQI
- CGI
- PMS
- HIV
- AIDS
- BCG
- ATK
PS: there is one and only one correct answer
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
It was surely a great ride these 2 days. Studied like a dog and realized that it just wasn’t your day…! But then…its over…and that’s good. Am looking forward to the coming week…relaxing at home…chilling out with R…and just having a great lazy time…!
Have loads of word to do as well. Innovation challenge, ELP and then resume building etc…! So won’t be entirely vain all this while…
For the 1st day today…I am spending a day just by myself…with nothing to do. And it’s such an awesome feeling. However, the course packs for the next term tell me that I shouldn’t get used to such days…!
Chalo…dekh lenge term 5 ko bhi…!
Will be off for a week…have a great time everyone…!
~a
fascinating…!
this is one of the best pictures i have ever come across. i could give away my left arm if i get to click this….its absolutely breathtaking…(and surely not as easy to click as it seems…)
enjoy…
~a
SAIT and faff…!
Course: Strategic Implementation of Information Technology
Presentation: Introduction – Session 1
Slide: 53
“Firms create competitive advantage by assembling, integrating and deploying tangible and intangible resources to create organizational capabilities and competencies”
What is it…buzzword competition…? And then they expect us to give ‘insightful’ comments…!
What the…?
~a
So much to learn…
The last few days have been busy with a lot of things…and marked with a lot of learning.
U, S and I got shortlisted for the research paper that we were working for. We had to go down to Mumbai for the competition, which was being held at the Taj lands End. Awesome hotel with the most breathtaking view of Mumbai. The event was wonderfully organized as well…and we had one of India’s top brains presenting their content. We did manage to do good for ourselves in the end…and it was a pretty amazing experience.
Wonderfully, had a chance to meet R as well. she too had come down for a business conference and was flying down to Delhi Friday evening. So hung out at the airport itself…was heaven meeting her after so long.
Met A as well…and had a beautiful time. Dressed in business suit…doing the rounds of the Ghatkopar café coffee day…she went… “The girls of ghatkopar wont let me live now…!!!”
In Mumbai…E kept me abreast with the music competition that was being held back at ISB between the sections. G won’t the best vocals…which was awesome news. Sadly section C didn’t win the best team award…and given that I had attended the practice the last night…it did come as a surprise to me.
Anyhow…came back to Hyd Saturday afternoon…and had a chance to see the video of the competition. It was…humbling…! All the performers were brilliant. I didn’t know that R was such an awesome mridang player. His performance left me with tears…I mean literally. Here is this dude…one of the ‘purest’ guys on campus…and it took one fine evening to discover that he holds so much within him. God has given him the most spectacular medium of expressing himself…and I am just lucky to have been a witness. Hats off dude…
G was brilliant too…evidently so, since she managed the top award. Her rendition of ‘My Immortal’ did complete justice to the song…and to my likeliness for the same. However, the surprise of the night was E. She was gorgeous on stage…I didn’t even have the slightest inkling that she was that close to being a singer. I guess her eccentricity shades a lot of things that she is capable of…keep it up lady…!
Today…we had the last of our section days. I cant even begin to express the beauty of my time with section C. have got so much of love from them…so much of respect…more than I ever deserved. And I have got to learn so much from them too. Each one of whom I interacted with…left me with a respect for them. Everyone is such an achiever in their own right…I just feel oh so lucky to be part of this group. And I shall surely miss the comfort of their company.
There is so much to learn in this world…I wonder if I have even started…!
I am gonna miss a lot of my 6 months…
life…at ISB…
Life at ISB took a different turn for a lot of people today. We just completed with our bidding system for the electives. With 4000 points in everyone’s kitty…to be distributed over the 4 terms…people displayed fabulous levels of game theory concepts. Here are a few of them:
- If you bid at 800 for a course and it clears at 400, you get 400 back. Hence, some dudes came up with the grand idea that if they bid 1000 a piece for 4 subjects, they will surely get all of them. And then will get points redeemed based on the clearing price. What they fail to understand is that everyone is thinking the same way…!
- No no…is their argument. Even if everyone thinks the same way…everyone gets screwed. Right?…wrong…! with 200 people expressing an interest in marketing and only 120 landing with a course of their choice (at the high bids) there will be 80 odd people who shall have the points to play the same game in the next term. And then the original set will get screwed…!
Anyways…after a day of horrible rumor management, collusions of the highest order…and ‘underpromisin – overdelivering’…the results came out this evening. Some disappointments…a sense of relief primarily.
The term is coming to an end…and so are the core courses. From now on begins a revision path…building on the concepts of these 6 months. With an all FIN portfolio…I shall be against the top brains of the batch. And its not going to be easy. Lets see how it goes…
Life…at ISB…has a lot to learn from…!
~a
my world…your eyes…
after much deliberation i decided to showcase one of the best works that has come out from the camera.
needless to say the photographer’s talent in this case is negligible. its the subject that makes the entire art come out prettier than it ever was. she is R… and this is my world…your eyes…
~a
fun weekend…rocking week…
Phew…! Long weekend…great time…loads of word got done…and loads got added…!
Friday was the midterm of Management of Organizations. I regret not having taken my calculator along with me…the numericals were mindblowing. We had to calculate NPVs of decisions…how the option value of mistakes change from profile to profile and how exactly does the Carnegie model help the financials of company. And if that wasn’t enough, there were some 15 questions to be answered in 75 minutes…
Yah right…!!!!!!!!!!
Saturday went totally in Druid Duels II. The marketing club debate. There were 2 topics…India as a brand and what it represents, who are its customers, competitors etc…and what makes Ekta Kapoor and her serials tick? M and I thought about it a lot…researched the net…read text and text…and then finally chose the topic that we feel represents the true essence of every India…something that’s close to everyone’s heart and is currently the most raving topic of discussion. Ekta Kapoor and her serials…!!!!!
Not to mention that 9 out of the 13 teams that made it to the finals also though that ekta Kapoor was worth spending 4 hours of their lives.
We stood 2nd…! Lucky day…M was really impressive…
Saturday night was rocking though. So I sit down at 12 midnight to watch a movie…but before that I put my clothes for a wash. The movies ends at 2.30 and I go to pick up the clothes…anticipating the sweet Tide smell to fill my living room. What I find to my horror is that the machine wasn’t working…it hadn’t bloody moved an inch since I had left it there 2.5 hrs back…! And then the front door of the machine wont open. It just wont. I started calculating the loss…for god sake the jeans itself is worth some 25 bucks…(after depreciation…!)
And so I call the maintenance guys…they come after 20 odd minutes…force open the door…I sigh in relief…then put the clothes in another machine…and then wait for another 1.5 hrs before that damn machine churns out fresh clothes.
I sleep at 5.30 after a battle well fought…!
Got up at 11.40am…yes…that’s exactly 20 mins before the time people call afternoon…!
Met with some people..sat down to study…met with some more…study…dinner…chatting…movie…sleep…Monday morning…!
And this afternoon we get the awesome news. The research paper that U, S and I were working on has got through the top 3 ranks…and we are to attend the inauguration of the Brand India Summit on September 30th in Mumbai for the awards…! Wasssaapppp….!!! :)
I am really happy…these guys worked their bum off for this…and I am just glad that my incidental presence fetched me the shared recognition…
And best of all…R has a conference in Mumbai till the Friday…SO I AM GONNA MEET HER…how cool is that…!
Rocking week…looking ahead…
~a
Meetings…meetings…
I haven’t had so many meeting in my entire career (spanning an illustrious 2 years…!!) as I have in the past one week. Its like Brownian motion dude…from one point to another…with no interior sense of direction. Crazy…!
But fun…!
Working some bit on Poseidon. It is going on good…though the progress is slightly a cause of concern. However I am sure that given the competent team handling it…things will be on track pretty much soon.
Then, I am conducting a quiz tomorrow…the teasers for which have been running for the past 4 days. I managed to get some good responses from people regarding the same…just hope that the turnout is complementary.
And last of all…the classes…phewwwww…it is crazy…! The MO gentleman is in my ‘point of view’ one of ‘that kind of part’ professors whose sole purpose is to make an interesting subject die a natural death… ‘therefore’ eliminating all ‘point of views’ in that ‘kind of part’…! And if you didn’t make any sense of what was that…JOIN IN…!!!
The IA prof is still on his bullet train with hindi subtitles…! And as the course deepens in mystery, its not hard to see why the ride ahead will not be smooth…
Mudit bid us adieu…and it was a class very well taught. Genuinely. He is a fun guy…and nowhere did it come across that we were his first MBA batch. Pretty impressive.
Banker saab…(IT) is one hell of a proponent of the outsourcing model. Well…he has done that effectively for his course. And the worst part is that people get points for absolutely random CP. Eat this…
Student X: “mobile industry has a lock-in, since I cant use a T-mobile phone for a sprint connection. It is locked…”
CP points awarded…and that’s fine
Student Y: “thts not true…the cellphones can be unlocked nowadays”
CP points awarded…!
Student Z: “there is a place in delhi where I can get the phone unlocked”
CP points awarded…what the…???
But then…the great CP is not hidden as well…and I am just glad about that…!
There are a lot of attractive competitions that are coming up…looking forward to participate in them…some awesome exposure…and not to mention shit-loads of moolah…!
Should be a fun weekend…
Subscribe to warikoo wanderings