Back...

Back to Blogging after 4 months! But I have to start on a sad note. Fatima Arunkumar Marneni, a batchmate of mine, passed away yesterday. I don't know the exact details of how it happened. I am shocked and sad. He was such a nice guy. I have been thinking hard about life and death lately. I am unable to comprehend either of them.

I am back in IIM after a 5-day log vacation at my hometown in Bilaspur. All I did during the holidays was to eat and sleep. Need to start working out to get into some decent shape. Jogging, which I did a lot the past 4 months, has not helped much. Or may be I didnn't stress myself enough.

Bought a book, which I had planned to finish reading during the vacation, but barely managed to start. It's The Idea of Justice by Amartya Sen. The topic is quite interesting, but Amartya Sen's style of writing sucks big time. Each of his sentences runs 5-6 lines of printed text - so long that when you end the sentence you forget the beginning, and almost 80% of it in my case. Many times, when I finish a sentence and try to think what is being said, I go blank for a while, a long one at times. I wish Amartya Sen wrote in English that is more contemporary and simple, one almost like the spoken form of the Language. But I am sure he takes pride in his ability to write in such English, of whatever style that is (Victorian?) and hates the current simple style. Can guess that from his hatred for the reply "Good" for "How are you?", rather than "Fine". Incidentally, and interestingly, I too at times find "Good" quite weird, having been taught by Anglo-Indian ma'ams and sirs. But have now understood well that "Good" is the contemporary, American way and you better use it if you want to sound normal. I do sometimes use it now, though with noticeable reluctance. I still prefer "Fine" though. That's why I don't blame Amartya Sen for sticking to his old 6-line-long-sentences-wala English.

I've read 75 pages so far, of the 400-odd pages. Will finish it, no matter how painful it is to read it, and how little of it really gets into my head. Coz starting a book and not finishing it is very very frustrating (for a book-lover). Can you notice analogies with something else? ;-)

Chat with Amit on the future of the Internet... (Y is me)

Y - abey how is a matrimonial site that ensures dowry free shadi

amit.vatsa - no site ensures that

Y - ya, will start one
i am gradually becoming a serial entrepreneur...

amit.vatsa - if dowry will be demanded...anyone among us will go and marry instead:)

Y - yeah
incentives for employees
we offer 100% shadi guaranteed services to our clients... we will keep stock of guys who will marry in short notice
good IIM/IIT guys

amit.vatsa - yup

Y - oh

amit.vatsa - nice b plan

Y - mannn
TV is also based on ad-model right?
internet was started fitting it into the TV wala model
TV channels earn only from ads

amit.vatsa - yes

Y - what cud be a better model to earn money for any media company?

amit.vatsa - ads, we will give address of NGOs and will take money from them

Y - didn't get it

amit.vatsa - we will change our model...NGOs will be our clients...all the women welfare organisations :)

Y - mann, i will tell u how internet is going to change in future

amit.vatsa - we will provide branding services

Y - computers r gonna be wiped out.... the current model is too sick

amit.vatsa - so that these NGOs get maximum donations :)

Y - people the world over are sitting in front of these screens
this is gonna drive us nuts if it continues
so internet will move out of computers
u will find internet getting other devices into its loop

amit.vatsa - yes

Y - and gradually computers will go away

amit.vatsa - mobiles, banners on the road, railway stations

Y - yes
u will get information wherever u need
as u walk, without needing a huge device like a computer
or rather, computers r gonna change in the way they look feel and function

amit.vatsa - blackberry

Y - but they r not convenient for stuff like searching, browzing, blogging etc.
it will continue to be crappy until things r integrated with the human brain
and once that happens, the whole paradigm is turned upside down

amit.vatsa - leave it yaar....baa (baad) mai discuss karte hai :)

Y - upload wikipedia to your brain and u know virtually everything
spending all life putting stuff into memory isn't a sustainable model
one may argue that the slow process makes one capable of judging, forming opinions and taking decisions
i guess that makes sense
what do u think?

amit.vatsa - let vaibhav continue the discussion :)

Y - saale
am shaping the future and u r not interested in participating in the revolution

(some time later)

Y - oye
am gonna put this chat session on my blog
no problem na?

amit.vatsa - no prob

Y - ok
thanks
take care
bbye
say bbye

amit.vatsa - bbye

"few"

"After all, few foods improve in the refrigerator. They don’t improve in your freezer, either, but they degrade more slowly, especially if you keep the temperature at 0 degrees or below. Check it with a thermometer, and re-check every few months. Note that full freezers are more efficient than half-full ones, a further inducement to freeze more."

source: Freeze That Thought

- A good example of the usage of the word "few" without a preceding "a", where it actually means "none at all", rather than "small in number"... Prof. Sudha Shastry at IITB used to stress a lot on this... I think the one above is a good example becoz the second sentence is a negative sentence with an "either" as well, Indicating that the first one also has a similar negative implication, something like "no foods improve in the refrigerator."

CAT is now a CAT!

The Common Admission Test (CAT) will now be a Computer Adaptive Test (CAT). I totally support this move and am glad the IIMs did it. But in addition to it, I'd suggest, that they give more weightage to work-experience, and consider applications on all parameters instead of just the CAT score for the initial shortlist. They do assign weightages to various parameters and have complicated formulas to evaluate applications, but that is generally for the final offers, where your GD and PI scores also matter. But for the inital shortlist, i.e., for GD-PI, a high CAT score is generally a must. I believe that on the one hand, MBA does not make sense without having worked and experienced the real Business world. On the other hand, CAT scores and the sectional cut-offs, I think, are not the right criteria to judge people's capabilities to become good managers or leaders. IIM Lucknow is the only one among the IIMs to have taken steps in this direction. Right now, both the batches at IIML have a very high average work-ex by IIMs' standards - somewhere between 3 and 4 years, which is neither too high nor too low for a 2-year MBA, and almost perfect for the guys, and the few girls, to appreciate the course content of the program. Right now, IIML has arguably the best people in it (and I am one of them!) among all the IIMs and of course all the B-Schools of India, as far as the 2-year MBA programs are concerned.

Some Thoughts...

I was totally out of my mind when I discovered today that Pantaloon has already implemented all of my business ideas in the food & beverages space. It opened Brew Bar for selling beer, Cafe Bollywood for selling Indian street food, Chamosa for selling chai and samosas, Food Bazaar - the supermarket, and Sports Bar. Each one of these is a great concept in itself and is sure to make good money (if it's not already, because of the recession).

Came across this interesting concept called Reverse Mentoring, wherein those in the senior positions in an organization are mentored by those lower in the hierarchy. The funda is that those higher up usually belong to an older generation and can learn a lot about contemporary stuff, like latest technology, trends, fashion, preferences, thought processes, etc. from the youngsters. It's more important in markets like India where a majority of the consumers are young, while the CEO's and the decision makers are middle-aged. Reverse Mentoring helps you understand the consumer psyche by directly interacting with and learning from the youngsters in your own organization who belong to your target segment (for most products in a young country like India). The concept came from GE's Jack Welch and makes a lot of sense. So for best results, the organizational framework must facilitate and ensure both forward and reverse mentoring, so that the organizational thought process is aligned in the direction that serves all interests best.

I wish we had Reverse Mentoring in our political parties too. But the biggest hindrances to its success are - the inability of the senior person to suppress his/her ego, accept that there is a need to learn and it can be done best from a subordinate, and to develop a will to do it. Considering that and our current political scenario, Reverse Mentoring doesn't seem feasible in the near term. That's sad. I think if our 70-80-90 year old politicians understood today's India better, they'd never have assigned top priority in their manifestos to stuff like building a useless temple or protecting submerged rocks in the sea, stuff which any reasonably informed young Indian does not give a damn about. Nor would he/she vote, coz he/she sees no good options, nor does he/she have belief or hope. It's a vicious globe. Amir Khan's flying back to Mumbai from North America just for a day in the middle of his vacation and Shahrukh's taking one day off from IPL to cast their votes are not gonna help. I don't have solutions to suggest. Nor can I say 'go cast your vote', coz I am not convinced it helps.

Twitter!

It took me just a few minutes, after I signed up, to transform from a non-believer in the twitter concept to an obsessed fool. I was trying to figure out why twitter works in the first place and went to the site to see for myself. I was astonished by the urge that surged within me to tell the world what I was thinking, doing and feeling each moment, as I initially saw others doing it, and as I increasingly grew impatient and anxious to stay ahead of them, to be all over, to let the world know, to be the one seen and talked about, to have as many people following me as possible. Never before did I witness this side of mine so explicitly. I was both enthused and scared about whatever was happening to me. I did a lot of twittering yesterday, though no one among my 11 followers seemed to be following me. It was crazy, and I fear it's going to get crazier. I hope it doesn't.

My Twitter Profile

Jobs and Layoffs

Layoffs are happening everywhere these days. There was a time when getting an IT job was so easy that you could quit your job, purely on impulse, on any day and find another, that paid at least 30% more, the very next day. It was fun! People were always looking for newer jobs in IT. Companies paid exorbitant salaries to people of no worth, just coz they were the best they could find in spite of having all the dollars from the clueless clients in the US.

And now, you never know when you'd be asked to leave. Losing a job is painful, and then, if you have a family to support, you are in a big mess. I am lucky to be spending two years of the recession doing my MBA! It's almost certain that the job opportunities a year from now, when I'd finish my MBA, would not be any good either - that being either the recovery phase or one of deeper recession. But I am not really bothered. I don't like jobs anyway. Whenever I do something for which I get money or grades or rewards in return, I don't feel interested in it. I would otherwise have done a similar activity just out of interest, fought hard to complete it to perfection and enjoyed each moment of being a part of it. So for me, no job is good job. But I have to make money to survive. And support a family too which will come out of nowhere a couple of years from now.

I need a perennial, hassle-free, huge and reliable source of money to support me forever and then, I will go on and do whatever interests me at any point in time. I guess everyone wants this, but...