Indian culture not suitable to westernes

One more day and one more reveling information..

We had a guest today, a Dutch lady who did study for three years with westerners managers having well educated Indian workers.

The study is an eye opener...
Westerners (in India for 3 years) think
Indian's do not value time, do not take initiatives. They also think Indians though can speak like westerners but the cultural divide is large (is it new ?).

On the other side;
Indians thinking about themselves
don't see any of these problem.

There is certainly a mismatch somewhere in terms of thinking, and if India wants o become global sourcing destination, she will have to change some of the practices while also demanding westerners to change...

One last thought .. are a lot of Indians not coming back because of this cultural divide or is it the standard corruption, pollution issue.. a worth to study..

Meeting Dave Martin

This is one of the best thing that could happen to my life.

A CEO of a company who gives pharma companies run for their money. Every minute, I was getting to know him listening to his business model and small thoughts were melting down. I was learning about a man's pursuit to divde the bridge between so called money maker and controllers and the poors.

He has developed a software that finds fingerprints of how a human mind writes when thinking flawlessley and when trying to cheat - he calls it lingustic genomics. On that basis he has been able to identify patents that were purjuries be it pharma, telecome and others.

Once identified, he does the due dilligence and works invaldate the patent. Wow what an innovation ...

Ofcourse in doing so, he has created a rightfull $27B cmpany too. I'm happy i went to dinner after exhaustion fo the whole day...

And special thanks to prof. Gupta...

NID Garba

This year I hope to make most out of A'bad with garba. What better to start the season with NID?

NID (National institute of design) organizes garba all of the nine nights. I guess they only allow students for first three nights. We went there yesterday, our first garba of the season.

Not knowing what to expect if they did not let spouse and kids in we went there. Nevertheless, they did allow every one in. So start our garba adventure.

Wow!! The pathway about 150 ft. long was decorated with diyas (like candles). All I can say is that’s why they are best in design.

Next thing was garba ground. It was less than 1/5th full. The music guys were awesome, one of the best traditional music folks. (I have not seen it all though, my opinion may change).

Anyway, so we had 1.5 rounds and than our daughter wanted to go home so we came back. However, memories still remain and will stay forever...

Lalu came and left

Sorry, I forgot to write about the visit....

OH yeah one caveat: I did not attend the session, as it was not madatory for folks not taking SCLM (supply chain and logistics management) course.

However, I heard a lot from my colleagues and other folks...

I guess it was a visit we will remember for good time... why? It was a different type of visit...

We had some expectations/apprehensions. Some were overran by his team, by prof. we (at least I) also saw another side of Indian media...

How?

Laluji was prepared so was his team, he answered the apprehensions the folks had about IR turn over... (One -ve his team had more data than we did).
He set in as another student and let prof. Raghu take control (not true what media reported -- he taught).
However, with out teaching there were learning our team draw from him on being prepared, leading by empowerment and using charisma to subdue apprehensions.

He also went to LKP (the famous Louis Kahn plaza) for speech after class with PGPX and (few pgp and ABMS).

Anyway, life is back to same. He is gone and next thing is confluence 2006 (PGPX will be missing It. we will be away for a month internship)



So what did he do good/bad?

He was very prepared for questions

Shree Laluprasad at IIMA

We will have Mr. Laluprasad at IIMA today...

It's a big hype created by media. I guess it is the same in west when Mr. Clinton goes to a univ. for lecture...

It is no different for us than having a CEO of a company as a casing point, except 1. He is giving us gyan for multi directions
a. Govt
b. leadership in a chaos (after all railways was a chaos)
c. Knowing Indian railway's story for success from the person who was/has been there on turn around

Oh yes there are few intangibles
We have every media at our door step a
we have all things chamkaofied


So anyway, the session is happening... I’ll write the experience later...

the grades are coming

Oh yes.. had two so far ... have not been butchered yet... managed to stay afloat...

I have actually changed my dbab name to "I’ll be at hospital soon"... The best part about grades is even though I do not claim to care I do want to look at them and find how professor has evaluated me...

With Strategy and Macro Economics out seven more to go.

Is Gandhigiri next big thing?

We saw lage raho munnabhai other day. I could feel, it is much needed for today’s India. Why? Simple answer is Gandhigiri in my opinion is allowing all those who are helpless/faceless/voiceless to have a say of their own. But, the say does not have to be irresponsible, it does not have to hurt any of your enemy and most importantly Gandhigiri and satyagrha goes hand to hand.

In my opinion, Gandhigiri gives folks who have no courage and have left hope a hope of fighting that suits their style. I still remember the scene about that old uncle in the movie undressing and embarrassing the govt. servent asking for bribe.

Anyway so is it next big thing? I’m not sure if I can predict that but it is possibly a big thing. With RTA (right to action) and media Gandhigiri as they call can become big thing…

It has really been long time

Yes, about two months and 4 days...

I have been a lazy blogger. Ofcourse I was not that lazy elsewhere. Working in so many comities was one part but working with innovators, learning new subjects, meeting new people and last but not the least exploring myself as new me has been what I have been doing.

In last two months four day some of the memorable events that I would not want to forget are
1. Learnt finance from corporate and market side
Now I now how to value options and how to value stocks and a company. Now I know what is the difference between stocks trading based on fundamentals and technical analysis.
2. Went to Singapore for a week long vacation
Wow...... Singapore is a great city/country. If some one claims there were a better city than Singapore, I would want to debate with him/her. We did a lot of site seeing and had a lot of fun/massages and more massages.
3. working with NIF (national innovation foundation)
This topic needs it's own thread...
4. few business ideas
5. Munnabhai
How can I figer lage raho munnabhai, ofcourse main hero was Mahtma Gandhiji and we had Sanjay dutt too.

India in the news

I'm watching Maria barteromo on cnbc and India is being featured on cnbc, but the reason is not that I would ever want to see. My home city Mumbai was bombed 7 times. 160 + ppl dead. This is just not right we had a small riot in Mumbai few days ago and now these blasts and few more in Jammu and Kashmir. Something is wrong..

It's about 5 + minutes and the show "closing bell" is still covering India report. i have not seen CNBC USA or any other US press doing this before. i guess, how much does capitalism and growth gives a weight to India in world economy.

anyway, I wish India had gained news in better way...

Another thing to note.. the resilience of Mumbai Junta i saw on tv was commendable. No police on the accident spot for 45 minutes and folks were taking care of the situation.. One thing i can commend the Indians for, how ever careless they are in good time, in bad times they come together.

Closing remarks . infy stock plunged 4 % and recovered during the day and in +
Nandan nilekani will be on the CNBC show tomorrow with is company's earnings report ..

Doosri barish

yes it's been 20 odd days and we had no rain. The temperature had topped up to 44 plus degree. For those in US it was Celsius about 115 F.

Anyway it's been 20+ days I have not written, a lot has happened that I would like to summarize...

I had gotten sick during my exams with loose motions, fever, infection and allergies.. Yes I'm talking about one person having all of these at same time... But managed well and I'm back in action..

We finished exams in 2nd week of June. two a day for three days .. Oh boy it's fun .. I have not seen something challenging like this for a long time .. Last time GSMLS project..

After we finished we cancelled our plans for a 2.5 days vacation..As I was sick and than D. Anyway no regret, 2.5 days let me rejuvenate..

One thing I forgot to mention in my earlier blogs, I have been actively participating in a lot of activities besides school. One of that is industry interaction event, we had a CEO of a private Equity firm visit us. Another memorable session of life about how deals are done behind the scene.

It's been about three weeks in term II and I'm loving it, finance is fun, macro economics is just too good.. ofcourse all other subjects are great too.. Now I can listen to mark haynes (CNBC) and understand when he speaks CPI, PPI, GDP and Valuations ... I mean just understand not do anything with that info.. :-)

This is my story so far for last three weeks.

Hope to get back in writing mode.. stay tuned.

Pehali Barish (First rain in Monsoon)

I mean to write this blog a few days ago, had been caught up some much in work and other tasks.

The monsoon has arrived and we missed the first rain. Yes we were studying in the class when it was raining. A kid inside me wanted to leave the class and just go run and get wet.

The song was running through my mind "Yeh daulat bhi le lo, yeh shauhrat bhi le lo, bhale chin lo mujh se meri jawani, magar mujhu ko lauta do bachpan ka sawaan, woh kagaz ki kashti woh barish ka pani." ( Take away all the fame and wealth, take away my youth, all I want is the monsoon rain the game of paper ships".

I was this close to achieving it ... it was not meant to be :-)

Everything else is good otherwise. I'll be 32 in few days. I am 32 times knowledgeable in last two months. The school is fantastic so is studying here. Looking forward to final nine months. A new me to born .

It's been two months

Yes it has been two months. We are nearing our first term. The finals (6 left) are just around the corener. Two a day , it'll be an experince for me to give two exams a day, each of which is 3 hours long. :-)

Not many things to write. On acadmics front please see pattus log on JIT. I wanted to write about it, but could not have written any better than that.

The other learning that i'm inventing india in terms of busiess and management. When i had left about 9 years ago, i was a programmer and my perspective was narrow in terms of position and industry (software).

The cases from india like Adanis, M&M etc and the folks from indisutry as my batch mate are breaking my sterotypes on how legit business is being done besides the red-tape (my sterotype).

One of the friend mentioned about FMCG that how the company has saftey standards for employees(almost same as world), how ethics are followed and persued (specially for a FMCG -- who has to deal with govt on day to day basis). Just by the sheer weight the company carries. For me this is whole new world, shattering my sterotypes.

Anyway we have an emimenet quiz tomorrow on FRA so get back to studying on ratios, lease, tearing apart balance sheets and P&LS (i have a long way to go though).

Very very interesting case

We had Microsoft case for our group discussion today (FRA). Our focus was on accounting policy details of MS during 1999-2000. The time they were being investigated for it's revenue recognition policy as well as expense/cost recognition policy.

Some of the interstice points that were raised
1. Is google doing something similar
2. Microsoft was caught by SEC in 1999-2000 while Enron was cooking/starting to cook the book --- no one caught them. A mice was trapped but the cat got out
3. How to see thro' the earnings, P&L and Cashflows (using accounting practices) to find a lemon (My FAM class)

A class to remember for a long long time :-)

It's getting better

The stock market is down, providing me a fresh opportunity to invest.
the FAM exam was good, the temperature has been better (though a bit muggy).

What more ? .. I have been to few more restaurants and some of them were so good I should revise my ratings system to get them better ranking.

went to a place called Zodiac on Wednesday (in midst of finals fever). Food was good, service was good, we were too early about 7 p.m. that we were only customers. This mad me think about the hotels no of waiters per table. Anyway I would recommend this returned for a casual dinner.

The other one we went to was -- Vishala - yesterday eve we went to Vishala and I was just spell bound .. The restaurant is a small village in itself. No doubt a bit on expensive side for only food (225/pp for a thali), the experience was worth. All star for certain special occasion trips.

Next stop was Mocha for a cup of coffee, another surprise, it was deceiving from out side. But this is a hukka bar/coffee shop. A fun place to be, except I thought it was too much of smoke around.

Enough of restaurants hoping (last time I used this word was 4/5 years ago.. When we were bar hoping in Village (NYC)).

I have another finals this Saturday . This time it's marketing. The prof got almost a standing ovation when the course completed last week, so one can imagine how the quality learning was.

On the lighter side

I have written a lot about my busy schedules, 18 hours studies, quizzes (tornados), lets write something about some fun stuff in A'bad.

Drinks are banned here in the state (Gandhiji's State) officially. Thus it's a hazard to beat the heat but A'badis (Natives of A'bad ) are fun loving people. They have found various ways to have fun.

The Disco scene is big here. I just hear about it. One of the major attractions here is Hukka's (The old big cigarette of Kings). I'm not sure if these hukka's are toxic (not yet tried) but every where I hear it's hukka's in the restaurants.

Speaking of restaurants, we have been exploring restaurants avg a week (All I get is sunday/Friday -- no more cribbing). So we have explored about a restaurant a week.

The places we have tried are

Pakwaan - Gujarati thali restaurant -- good food - okay ambiance - on the cheaper side 80 rs a thali ( an unlimited meal ) -- *** out of *****
Gowardhan - another Gujarati Thali restaurant -- good food again -- very nice ambiance - a bit expensive than pakwaan (100+ rs a day) -- **** out of *****
Sankalp - a south indian restaurant - very good south indian food -- alright ambiance -- expensive --- **** out of *****
Dhuaan (some kind of fog) -- a bit expensive roof top vergiterian restaurant -- middle Eastern influenced mughali/punjabi food -- a bit expensive -- ****.5 out of *****

I'm collecting more names to go this week after FAM-Economics Finals.

Alright get back to counout, NASH and prisoner's dilemma-- theories of economics:-)

The heat continues

The mercury has reached 46 degree cent. I believe about 115 F. A friend told me today it's few more weeks and the temperature will go down. I hope so.

I wish the case was same at Studies front. We had our first final. The next one is this Saturday and than next and so on .. 10 courses in 9 weeks .. It's beeen a one heated ride.

As I mentioned earlier, have leant a lot and unlearnt a lot ..

Oh yeas some of the notable news today

Mumbai market down 400+ points
Gold down about $30
Crude below 70
Us markets below 11500
US $ down
Indian rupee down


What is going on? Is it that the whole world is feeling the heat?

the heat is on ..

The heat is on.. The comparison for today's temprature

Iselin , San Diego and A'bad. Need i say anything more :-)

Three days with out Quiz.

Is that not a good feeling? It seems we may not have quiz this week. Finals for few subjects have been announced.

Gosh… when will I get time to breathe?
I guess August, may be or may be not. Let’s not be too optimist.

Writing with tablet is fun. It’s got high character recognition capability. Though, I’m still evolving in to a tablet pc user.

I see US market behaving nicely into a slow and steady upstream and Indian market like a kid who wants to fly. Just a few days ago I was thinking that markets have same number (around 11K) and today BSE sensex is at 12K+. How do I interpret this? I’m not familiar with Indian markets that much but one thing I know the one that goes up should come down. Question Is when?

# 13

No thirteen is not my luck no. or something. Though I used to believe that. Growing up during my school times, I used to get Roll call 13. I got so used to it; I started saying my lucky # was 13.

Anyway 13 is the blog no I’m writing today. So what brings me here...
Gold at 660, oil at 75... May be. More importantly Bhairavi and Drishti have gone to Bombay; I feel a part of me is missing. I had mentally prepared myself that I will not miss them, I guess some place preparation hurts.

Oh yeas finally I broke the jinx. I got good grades in DOMD. I would like to think I’m natural at the subject, but I guess the case was easy and SM has been good. One thing is for sure; here I’m not learning major formulae or anything. This was more of something I like to do analyze and put things into perspective.

I still remember the day I gave the quiz, it was kind a fun writing after all those quizzes.

Enough of being happy, it does not last for ever. I’m sure there will be few more tornados coming our way soon. Looking at historical data, probability is high. It could be tomorrow or day after tomorrow. Let’s prepare well...

three days ...three more tornedos

I guess I’m getting used to these touchdowns.

Just like the folks in Midwest. Twisters are not new for them and Quiz is not for me (US). I heard some one saying if we don't have quiz tomorrow I’ll feel weird. I fully concur.

Anyway three quizzes (all surprise) were fun; I think I did well in two. Especially with the level of my preparedness.

Also I got results for the ones I gave a week ago. One result I'm handicap. Handicapped by the tools (Excel). I did not do the calculations right. Results are not worth sharing.

For some, time is not going too fast and for me it's just racing and I’m running out of fuel here and there. I guess working out may be a good idea. When and where? Is another question.

Oh yeas Pres. Bush announced he is opening up the reserves. I guess I can predict events too. I can't though predict which quiz is lined up for tomorrow.