New Coordinates

I now blog on cricket at Drinks Break See you there! :-)

Some cricket rantings ....

After a long hiatus, I've written an article for Sify Sports again ... here it is: http://sify.com/sports/cricket/fullstory.php?id=14017351 Comments, as always, welcome :)

Me and My God

Whoopie ... I met the man himself!!! :) Charming, poised, humorous and energetic, Harsha Bhogle had the whole of SPJIMR captivated during Business Today's Acumen, an inter b-school quiz and debate competition held on our campus last week. I've always been a huge fan of his, but now after watching him effortlessly carry off a live performance in front of hundreds of shout-till-your-sore b-schoolers, I'm a total convert. He was also a model of humility and grace off the stage, greeting everyone with that characteristic disarming smile and entertaining innumerable autograph and photo requests. I ran up to him just after he was through with lunch and managed to snare both the magic sign and a handful of snaps with the maestro ... the latter are reproduced below :)

Tenjewberrymuds!!

Check this out .... an absolutely hilarious one ... it's apparently been nominated for the Best Email of 2005! http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1486675/posts

Comeback Capsule :)

Now into the fourth month at SPJIMR, I'm genuinely ashamed to find that my last post refers to me being two months old at b-school. A zillion apologies folks for the prolonged absence from here ... The latest news from this part of the world is that the first trimester has wound up with a harrowing set of end-term exams and the grind of the next trim has well and truly begun. Sleep was of course the first casualty at exam time, but what also had to be given a miss was my cricket watching. I managed to catch a few exciting moments from the Ashes, but otherwise mostly missed out on the historic action. And post-exams, cricket news has been confined to the Ganguly-Chappell crisis, which has been deeply depressing and painful, to say the least. More on that from me soon ... :( For other events of note during my period of blogging abstentia, here's a quick blast from the recent past ... MBA (ummm, PGDBM actually!) ... Trim 1 meant "quizzes, tests, quizzes, tests". And the happy reality is that Trim 2 means "quizzes, quizzes, tests, tests, quizzes, quizzes, tests, tests"! SP Jain's brilliant multiplicative workload model, somehow doesn't bode too well for Trim 6 :) We were fortunate to have some excellent faculty though in the last trimester, especially for Financial Management and Macroeconomics. Marketing was interesting in parts, especially the industry presentations we made (see below). This trim, however, there is much more substance in the marketing course, as we've got into domains like distribution and pricing. No Mumbo-Jumbo this ... we also had to make a big end-term presentation on a company in an industry assigned to us. My academic group worked on the retail industry and we took up a study of Jumbo King, Mumbai's hugely successful "branded" vada-pav chain. The highlight of the entire exercise was an enlightening morning we spent with Ms. Reeta Gupta, Jumbo King's marketing head. An MBA herself (from Symbiosis in Pune), Ms. Gupta eloquently talked us through a wide spectrum of practical marketing and management issues, and how they as a small start-up handled them. Somehow, one can't help but feel that marketing cannot be learnt purely the Kotler and text-book-cases way ... it is integral that we get opportunities to go out into the field and interact with people who have made on-the-ground marketing successes out of their dreams. Committee Capers ... At SP Jain, all students are involved in some committee or the other, running the show on various fronts and hopefully acquiring some administrative acumen in the process. My committee, IT Comm, is responsible for the IT infrastructure in the institute. What that in effect means is that we are the favourite whipping boys (and girls) of our batchmates and seniors when the internet goes down for even a couple of minutes! We were also seen as being party to certain restrictive administrative decisions regarding IT usage in the insti, which did a brilliant job of beating down our popularity! However, we have subsequently recovered lost ground by some rather persistent negotiations with the institute's powers-that-be, and by engaging in an aggressive PR drive with our batchmates. We're now seriously considering having a crisis management case study modeled around our experiences :) Out into the field ... SP Jain has always had a very strong link with NGOs across the country, thanks to our active Centre for DOCC (Development of Corporate Citizenship). The DOCC committee recently organized a visit for all first years to the Yusuf Meherally Centre in Raigad district. The Centre has been able to generate fairly large-scale employment in surrounding villages by promoting and supporting small scale industries. They produce natural soaps, oils, furniture and pottery, all of which are sold in the open market, and have even set up a vermiculture unit within their premises. Overall it was an enriching experience to observe what they have termed as a "replicable model for rural development"

Fibs and TWIBS

Cut out for the limelight, that's what I am. No wonder all the business newspapers around town have been queueing up to catch a few pearls of wisdom from me and elicit my views on subjects of national import. Given my media-shyness and pressing schedule though, I invariably have to disappoint them and send them home empty handed. However, occasionally when I'm not flying across the globe or busy in client presentations, I eke out a few minutes to oblige them. Last week, the beneficiaries of my generosity happened to be a team from the Business Standard, who waited for four hours for a 30 second sound byte from me. As is usually the case, my views were plastered all across the next day's paper. If you missed it, here you go ... Click here PS: I'm at present suffering from an ailment called TWIBS: TWo-months-Into-Bschool-Syndrome. TWIBS affects all those who over a period of time write tests/quizzes for more number of hours in a day than they sleep in two. The most obvious and serious effect of this deadly disease is to lapse into denial mode and not accept reality. Some victims are known to have said "life's great" after an eighteen hour working day; others have turned to philosophy and postulate that our purpose in life is to "add value to customers". And yeah, after a newspaper recently spoke to one victim and devoted an entire 'line' on Page 9 to what he said, the poor chap believes the entire media world is waiting for his expert opinions. :-)

Flatties foray!!

There aren't too many "free" evenings at SPJIMR, so when one made a guest appearance a few days back, Flat 203 (my abode!) was abuzz with plans of where to go and how to maximize the utilization of such scarce resources (that should please the eco profs!) The initial idea was to catch a 6-to-9 at Fame Adlabs, but the Saturday-factor (read sky-high multiplex prices!) buried that plan before it took serious shape. Eventually, we decided that going out for dinner would be the best option -- apart from being a much-needed outing, it'd also mean some respite from the fare dished out at the mess. Deepak, who doesn't live too far away from campus and knows the area inside out, suggested pizzas at Smokin' Joes, which was where we all duly headed. Avinash, the most enthusiastic and energetic member of our flat, was unfortunately feeling a bit under the weather that day and had to give our outing a miss. Vasav, our undisputed flat-scholar, wasn't able to make it either. So that left Tanmay (who we later found out is close competition to Avi in the energy department), Sumesh (who has the distinction of inhabiting the only single-occupancy room at SPJIMR!), Stambhit (Stamdada, who's motto for the evening was pretty clear: "Only Non-Veg"), Deepak (the only veggie amongst a bunch of carnivores, but a sporting one!) and myself. Two hours and couple of nice heavy pizzas later, we left the restaurant and headed for a soothing walk down Juhu beach. This was followed by a quick cold-coffee at the jam-packed Shiv Sagar. Our thoroughly satisfied quintet then returned to the hostel, where a brief flirtation with our neglected textbooks ensued. Soon, however, we thought it wise to flash the white flag, and we collectively called it a day! On the whole, an enjoyable little outing, but something I fear the hectic routine here won't allow too much of in the future. Anyhow, just as good batsmen claim they take it one delivery at a time, we live life here one day at a time ... fending off the pressure-cooker ones and waiting eagerly for the fun ones!