Blog

i guess we all knew of this before we came to ISB. however…now that it happens we wish it wasnt true. i am talking of the ‘fly-in-fly-out’ professors who come to ISB. its unfortunate that we dont get to spend as much time as we would want to…simply because these guys are like the best…and perpetually in demand. even though they leave behind a positive mark…i for one would want them to stick on for a little bit more and give them the opportunity to…maybe transform my life…!

and yesterday was one of them. Anjani Jain…our DMO (decision models and optimization..or whatever…) prof left after a brief stint of 2 weeks. and boy..did he rock. there was something magical about him…maybe the way he dressed up…or maybe his immaculate articulation…or maybe his unassuming self…(inspite of what all he is in today’s world). and the last few minutes of his class yesterday went towards understanding (and more importantly appreciating) the importance of morals, ethics and humanity in the world of business.

this leads me to the 1.5 hr discussion that i had with S from the CAS office. both of us were of this opinion that as soon as an individual enters b-school…its as if he looses an integral part of himself. its as if the individual submits part of his character to the sole purpose of getting a job…and with this motive behind him…suddenly everyone whom u smile and talk to…is an enemy. which is sad and unfortuate…and something that cannot be escaped as well. and it is in this world of b-school competition that one’s morals, ethics and respect for individuals makes the difference between a leader and a follower…!

phew…dont remember the last time i blahed so much…i deserve the alumni of the year award from my alma mater now..

life is good…and busy…but good…

~a

and the best thing is that i was reminded of this by ms. anonymous (wink wink!). which…(and i would want to believe that there are many more similar souls) leads me to the fact that people actually wait for my updates…! wow…! when did the world insanity figure rise up…

life has been awesome lately…and i have to admit to my nerd self that its more to do with the fact that term 2 has been coming down on us in the same manner that people would want to come down on kumar gaurav after watching his movie. submissions have been deadly and the coming week seems to bring more of the same. but its fun…no seriously…something about it is real fun.

markstrat decisions came out…and we are royally screwed. i mean…royal royally…in all dimensions. we dont have the money to even buy clothes for the salesforce…and we are advertising door to door now…with the ceo taking care of 20% of the city. its that worse…

however…slightly deviating from the above…i am so so happy with my group. they are the coolest dudes…and its so much fun to work with them. everyone of them is a gem in themselves and thus the entire dynamics works out effortlessly. touch wood…!

hmmm..what else. oh yah…todays marketing class was one of the most awesome classes till date. and what gave the class this title was the sheer character and personality of raju saab. that dude is some genuis. and its so awesome the way he is still connected to the country…he feels for it…(unlike some professors who work with comp-rable dhatah…!!!!). you know…he goes…we and them..referring to india and US. for all u know he might be a us citizen or something…and yet so indian within. respect…!

saturday was fun…atul kasbekar…india’s hottest fashion and advertising photographer…had come over for a session with the students. and boy…didnt he rock. more than the photography…it was his anecdotes that enthralled the audience…he was funny…! and comical…

and somewhere within me…he just made me realize the pleasure that i derive from photography…how if given a chance i would wanna be him…and how now i wish to earn shot loads of money…quit one fine day…and just click for the rest of my life…!

E would kill me if i dont mention how much of a sweetheart she is…and i would kill the person who says that she isnt a sweetheart. hi Eeeeeeeee….! :)

life’s good…

~a

term 1 sure left some sweet memories…so sweet that it started tasting bitter after a short while. finally got all the answer scripts and boy…what a remarkable term. i have officially branded myself as a looser and will invest my lifetime towards the upliftment of self…! and as is expected…’term 2 will be better…’

but yah..its scary…enough to intrude during dreams and convert them to nightmares…enough to make me hold me back for things that i would have done otherwise…enough to make me miss R to the extent of tears…but surely not enough to let me give up within…!

the classes are going on great. Markstrat is rocking…in both senses of the world…i guess we spent some 8 hours yesterday strategizing on what our decision should be. P…the enthu guy that he is…gave us all designations…so i am brand manager for SONO…we have 2 CEOs as well (who we are trying to impeach…!). the simulation is cool and makes you think like a true brand manager. everything is just the real world…except for the screen you are feeding in your decision on…!

Sardar is over for the weekend and its awesome to have him over. i guess we are meeting after some 1.5 years or so…and well…he hasnt changed….oh no no he has…he now wants to enter pro football…(and dont ask me whatever happened to photography, singing, theater…!)

but this damn weekend isnt allowing me to spend as much time with him…which i have a feeling he is happy about..! anyways…lets see..

R’s mumbai trip went well. work is keeping her a lot occupied…which is great. however we havent been able to have a decent conversation for quite some days now…even though we talk everyday…every mind seems pre-occupied…!

baaki sab badiya…life is good…could have been a lot better…but then who am i define what is better…?

~a

and submit…submit this friday…then submit this saturday…then submit monday and keep submiting for time infinity…cause this term calls for a SUBMISSION EVERY F***ING THIRD SECOND MAN…!!!

i mean…holy shit…we have MDM going in for the Ms Submission Universe title or what…? 3 cases, and 6 Markstrat (a marketing strategy simulation game)…in like 3 weeks. followed closely by ‘anjaaanaaaaaaaa….anjaaaniiiiiiii….begaanaaa begaanaa begaannniiiii’ DMO…3 assignments and 2 cases…! and naturally that isnt the entire story…cause we have competetive strategy with a case to be read every class and 3 cases due in the term as write-ups…!

PHEW….!!

got the marketing management scores today. have done decent though definitely not as good as expected. however thats the case with most…no partial credit has been offered and if you are wrong…you are a looser who doesnt know anything about marketing and thus you may seek refuge in any I-bank or something…cause marketing…no no…!!!

and then of course…i have to show to the world wat a wise crack i am…cause aparently the TA had a heart stroke while grading my questions. the reasons are below:

– 5+1 = 4 in the world of warikoo math (net loss: 4 points)
– if a machine is used for 3 minutes at the rate of $100/hr, then the cost incurred is (3/100)X100…!!!! i mean for god sake…werent there 100 minutes in an hour the last time around…?? (net loss: 6 points)
– generally 3/5 gives you 0.6…however in some unusual circumstances..such as the absense of an entity called the brain…you can come up with 3/5 giving you 0.3…! i mean…3 is there in the numerator…so DUHHHHHHH…the answer has to be close to the numerator….CMONNNNNN…!! (net loss: 2 points)

so…i could have easily been 12 notches above my current stand…however…thats not to be. the TA i am told is recovering from the impact…

life rocks…more importantly…i rock…!!

~a

as of yesterday there were some 347 odd dogs on campus (i include female dogs…usually addressed by a more respectful name…b******s)…going ‘barc barc’. however…since we are not your usual kind breed…(cmon..no one would pay 15 lacs to become a dog…) we were going ‘barc-o barc-o’ instead.

life has been hectic this week and seems to be driving more towards the same. we had our first ‘Marketing Decision Making’ class today…and people were waiting for the class as if it was being taught by jennifer lopez or something. well..instead of JLo..we had JRa…aka prof raju…the HOD of the world’s best marketing department (Wharton). and you can see why.

infact this term is Whartonian in nature. we have anjani jain…the vice dean there…guiding us through ‘Decision Models and optimization’ and then JRa of course. no firangs this time though…hence sense of humor takes a backseat.

the elections for the VP-Placom at ISB has drawn more activity from the batch than if Baywatch’s next episode would be shot here. i mean…you have to read the spam flowing around…a typical one reads like this

“since i have paid f****ing 15 lacs to be here…i surely would want to see lord krishna as the VP-placom. however, since that translates into a logistical nightmare, may i request the candidates to provide us with the following information:
– size of the team handled at previous job
– ‘real’ size of the team handled at the previous job
– revenue generated as per your resume
– revenue generated as per company records
– number of clients the last 4 years
– number of clients who werent related to you…in the last 4 years
– how many seconds in a single day…(hint: there are 24 hours in a day)”

so…its been kind of fun the last 2 days…watching 346 guys floating mails around as to what the next VP should bring to the table…and 3 souls not bothering to even read their mails…!

anyways…the soap box happened today. V was good…N was too…though the general feeling is ‘not as much’. M was more like…”baethe baethe bore hue…karna hai kuch kaam…”…more preparation would have done him good…

all the best though to all 3…may the one who answers the last question win…

R is leaving for mumbai tomorrow for some conference…(yah right conference…they have a bloody wine tasting party tomorrow…conference my foot…!)…and then she leaves for Cal next week. she is now handling delhi and cal…for DTL. awesome shit…!

…bark bark..wuff wuff…wag wag…lick lick…

~a

so friday night rocked for ISB. the 25 student elected for the GSb threw a party for the remaining…(and i am sure atleast 80 didnt even know what GSB stands for..!). the party spelled A-W-E-S-O-M-E right from the beginning…afterall check the compnents:

• free booze
• the best DJ of town
• friday night
• 4 submissions due next week which no one remembered…

and i think it was by far the best party at ISB…

life this weekend has been pretty much normal. saturday was lunch at A’s place…awesome food…awesomer house she has. i would die to have one for myself. her dad’s an interior designer and i guess he is good at his job..it showed…!

there are 4 submissions next week…with classes till saturday. hence loads of work. i guess sardar will come down this week or so. which should be fun as long as he doesnt act stupid and do ‘stuff’ which he shouldnt. however it will be awesome meetin him after so long.

R’s dad was hospitalized because of a fall. he is doing fine but she was quite down last evening. was fine after she went to the dance and got to dance with every tom, dick and harry in the class. how happy does it make her…!! :)

its been awesome weather since last night. it was especially awesome around 4 this morning…and i was out with S recalling my life with astronomy till about 2 years back. i guess it was the first time i felt bad about leaving it…

it’s all good…

~a

so its been the introduction of only 2 courses so far into the term. the first is competitive strategy…which sounds awesome…and also is to a large extent. however…reading a full fledged case every other day is worse than getting married everyday…! global economics on the other side is so boring that i bet i saw the prof sleep during the class today. mr prof will move at his own snail pace…then realize that he was a leopard back in the US…then again come down to snail…snore for 5 minutes…give a break for 20 mins…show a movie of 12 mins on self-cleaning toilets…and then snore through the remaining class….! awesome shit..!

got the score for the stats exam. did decently well…could have been better…had it not been for the fact that 0.02 seems higher to me than 0.05 in answering one of the questions. and if that wasnt enough…i commited the same…mind you..the same…thats like…the same…mistake in yet another question…!

life otherwise has been kind of…i dont know what to say…dry wont be the right word..maybe i could use…duller…than term 1. probably its got to do with the fact that most students havent done as well as aniticapted..in the finals. and everyone has got done to some serious working…atleast for the first few weeks during which the motivation is high…

oh hooo…big big news. guess who writes a mail to eight_humesa today. Mr. ‘ohhh i can charm any god damn girl on this earth’…! and much to his reputation he creates a poll…”which is the strangest place you have kissed…”…to which i would have answered ‘in front of my CEO’s office 5 minutes before i was to meet him..”…till i found the options to be ‘lips; ears; back of the knees..(!!!!)…etc etc”…! okkkkkkk….whatever……


G’s elections happened today. she has a fair chance to win…more so after the ‘churning’ guy gave the best performance in a drama series…at the soap box. the other dude was too stoned to even recall the post he was standing for…

life’s good…

~a

• got up at 7.00 for the 8.30 class…realizing that it was 5.00…!
• got up at 7.00 for the 8.30 class
• had plans of sleeping thru the class
• was the next guy to be cold called…and the class ended…!
• eco ‘viewing’ got postponed
• had plans of sleeping back home
• took care of N…
• had plans of eating lunch…was hungry like anything
• made soup for N…got late for lunch
• discovered what zero food in a day does to one’s body
• got the eco grades…i think i died…
• my next life…slept for 2 hours
• went to check on N
• studied…wondered about the grades…studied…wondered…
• called R…was missing her…i think i cried…
• slept
• studied….wondered…
• dreamt about the future…
• dejected…
• dreamt about the future
• smiled
• laughed
• studied…didnt wonder anymore…
• slept…

good day….good times

~a