My Story - ISB and beyond !!!

Please access http://ramsabode.wordpress.com

2006-07-18T09:16:00.000-07:00

My blog has moved to http://ramsabode.wordpress.com

Migrating to wordpress

2006-07-18T09:15:00.000-07:00

Came to know today morning that the Indian government has apparently asked ISPs in India to block a few sites and *.blogspot.com where my blog resides seems to be one of the unfortunate ones on that list. Read more on this in Greatbong's blog here.

As a result, I am forced to move to wordpress.com, a move I have been contemplating for some time now. The URL of my wordpress blog will be https://ramsabode.wordpress.com .... just replace blogspot with wordpress in the present blog's URL. All my previous posts on blogspot should be available there, though the formatting I had done in many of the earlier posts is now missing. There are also a few mis-aligned snaps here and there. Please bear with me while I set them right.

Please link to the new blog of mine and continue reading/commenting on my posts.

Signing off with the hope that government doesn't start targeting wordpress next. I can't go along hopping from one place to another for long.

Bangalore Gayana Samaja concerts

2006-07-17T19:45:00.000-07:00

Bangalore Gayana Samaja is organizing its 38th music conference from the 13th to the 20th of Augus 2006. The concerts scheduled for this period are as follows:

13th Aug 2006
Saxaphone: Kadri Gopalnath
Violin: A. Kanyakumari
Mridangam: V.Praveen
Ghatam: Vaikkom Gopalakrishnan
Khanjira: A.S.N.Swamy
Morsing: B.Rajasekar

14th Aug 2006
Carnatic Vocal: Bombay Jayashri Ramnath
Violin: Mysore Srikanth
Mridangam: Satish Kumar
Khanjira: Rajagopalan

15th Aug 2006
Carnatic Vocal: Madurai T.N.Seshagopalan (my all time favorite)
Violin: H.K.Venkatram
Mridangam: Umayalapuram K. Sivaraman
Khanjira: N.Amruth

16th Aug 2006
Veena-violin jugalbandi: Jayanthi & Kumaresh
Mridangam: Arjun Kumar
Ghatam: Sukanya Ramagopal

17th Aug 2006
Carnatic Vocal: R.K.Padmanabha
Violin: Mysore Manjunath
Mridangam: C. Cheluvaraju
Ghatam: G.S.Ramanujan

18th Aug 2006
Carnatic Vocal: T.M.Krishna (one of my favorite vocalists of the present generation)
Violin: R.K.Sriramkumar
Mridangam: Palghat Raghu
Ghatam: Giridhar Udupa

19th Aug 2006
Carnatic Vocal: T.V.Sankaranarayanan
Violin: Mysore M. Nagaraj
Mridangam: Srimushnam V. Raja Rao
Morsing: Vyasa Vittala

20th Aug 2006
Bharatnatyam: Sridhar & Anuradha

The season ticket for the complete conference is Rs. 150 for non-members and Rs. 120 for members. Alternatively, once can buy tickets for the individual concerts for Rs. 30.

All concerts are from 6PM to 9PM.

Most of the concerts are by artistes who are very well known in the field. The accompanists are also class artists themselves. For example, some of the best senior mridangists are playing in this music conference (Umayalapuram K. Sivaraman, Palghat Raghu, Srimushnam Raja Rao). Eagerly looking forward to these concerts.

Sikkil Gurucharan @ Bangalore Gayana Samaja

2006-07-16T21:44:00.000-07:00

Sikkil Gurucharan (SGC) performed at the Bangalore Gayana Samaja auditorium today. The highlights of the beautiful concert were the kannadagowla raga alapana and alapana & kalapana swaram for the main kriti in todi raga. On a day when there were 4 good concerts, all clashing with each other, especially the ones by Gurucharan and T.M.Krishna, I am more than happy that I came to listen to this concert, though there is a bit of sadness on missing the lecture demonstration by T.M.Krishna. Anyways, I am really happy that there are two more T.M.Krishna concerts scheduled this month and the next in Bangalore and I will try to attend them at any cost.

Here are the details of the SGC concert:

Vocal: Sikkil Gurucharan
Violin: Charulata Ramanujam
Mridangam: H.S.Sudheendra
Ghatam: Srisyla

List of songs:
1) viribOni (varnam) - bhairavi - kanda ata - pachimiriyam adiyappA
2) sidhi vinAyakam - mOhana kalyAni - Adi - harikEsanallUr muthiAh bhAgavathar
3) murugA murugA - sAvEri - misra chApu - periasAmi thUran
4) kamalAmbAm bhajarE - kalyAni - Adi - muthuswAmi dIkshitar (sung on special request from a female fan :-) )
5) sogasujUda - kannadagowla - rUpakam - thyAgarAja
6) pAhi pAhi - malayamArutam - Adi (tisra gati) - prAnEsha vittala dAsa
7) chEtasrI - dwijAvanti - rUpakam - muthuswAmi dIkshitar
8) mAmayUra - bilahari - Adi - mazhavai chidambara bhArati
9) gajavadanA - tOdi - Adi - kumara rAja ettEndra
10) gOpAlam - viruttam in rAgas sumanEsa ranjani, sindhu bhairavi & behAg
nanyAku badavanO - behAg - kanda chApu - purandaradAsa
11) manamE kanamum - bImplAs - Adi - pApanAsam sivan
12) thillAna - hamsAnandi - Adi - srImushnam rAjA rAo
13) pavamAna - sowrAshtram - Adi - thyAgarAja

Kyun kiya tumne aisa .. kyun

2006-07-15T01:36:00.000-07:00

Thats what the world seemed to ask Zizou after the head-butting. Zidane may have said "Is kyun ka jawaab nahi hai mere paas" but here is a take on might have led him into doing that when the whole world was watching.

Matterazi pulls Zidane's shirt, suddenly smells something and asks: "Zizou tum bhi ..... yeh duniya mein sab log chlormint kyun khaate hain?"
The head-butting happens ...
Zidane heard muttering to the fallen Matterazi: "Dobara mat poochna"

Concerts this weekend in Bangalore

2006-07-14T09:53:00.000-07:00

Carnatic music concerts scheduled for this weekend in Bangalore are as follows:

15th July 2006 - Saturday

1) 6PM: Carnatic Veena Recital by Nirmala Rajasekar @ Ananya Sabhangana,92/2 ,4th Main, Malleswaram, Bangalore-560003

16th July 2006 - Sunday

1) 5:00 PM - Carnatic Vocal by Sikkil Gurucharan @ Bangalore Gayana Samaja, K.R. Road. Accompanying artistes are Charulata Ramanujam (Violin) and H.S. Sudheendra (Mridangam)

2) 5:30PM - Lecture Demonstration on Sangeetha Sampradaya Pradarshini by T.M.Krishna (one of my favorite singers) at Ananya Sangraha, 94/1, 16th 'A' Cross, West Park Road, Malleswaram

3) 4:15PM - Carnatic Vocal by Nagamani Srinath @ Indian Heritage Academy Hall, 6th Block, near Police Station, Koramangala

4) 4:15PM - Carnatic Violin duet by Lalgudi GJR Krishnan & Viji Krishnan @ Gokhale Institute of Public Affairs Hall, 11th Cross, East Park Road, Malleswaram

There are so many good concerts happening at the same time on Sunday ...... really confusing as to what to attend. Its a pity that there have been no such concerts throughout the week and then all of them have to clash on Sunday.

I, the tagged one

2006-07-13T00:05:00.000-07:00

Not long ago, two people decided to tag me. So here goes something akin to what everyone who gets tagged seems to do .....

I am thinking how should I go about this tagging thing thrust upon me by Snoop and Baarney

I said once to my best friend that I am an extrovert who loves living with people all around and I realize every bit of that right now, sitting alone at home

I want to pursue a career in music at least in parallel to work, if not full time

I wish someone would just pay off my ISB loan ... the thing stares in my face at the beginning of every month and plays havoc on my bank balance

I miss the days spent in my quad in ISB with Alok, KP, Sallu and Dood ... I will cherish those moments throughout my life

I hear what most other people say or at least try to do this most of the time as I have learnt a lot in life doing the same.

I wonder how would life have been had 'age-shortage' not prevented me from taking up the medical profession

I regret nothing ... there is something or the other to learn from every mistake done

I am Ram .... how insightful ... rite?

I dance pathetically

I sing when I am alone or with enthu people

I cry very rarely. The last time I vividly remember myself crying was when grandpa passed away. He meant so much to us.

I am not Raavan .. shit .. that was a real poor one ...

I write real junk stuff ...... you needn't have read this far to discover the same.

I confuse between people who pretend to know and people who actually know, especially in areas of discussion new to me.

I need ghar ka khana badly .... would love if it was cooked by granny .. she is the best cook ever

I should continue the learning process throughout my life

I finish and liberate you from reading this shit any further ..... well just a sec ... one more important thing

I tag:
Alok
Ferrari
Gurucharan
KR
MK7
Vijay

Muhahahahaha ......

A trip to Srirangapatnam/Mysore - Part 3

2006-07-12T09:08:00.000-07:00

Click Part 1 and Part 2 to access the earlier posts on this topic.

The last place in our itenarary was Mysore. We first visited the Mysore Palace. Its construction culminated in 1912 at a cost of Rs. 41.5 lakhs then. There were apparently three palaces at the same site earlier, each of them having been destroyed either through demolition or by fire. You would have to set aside about an hour if you want to see the palace fully. You can see artifacts and paintings belonging to the Wodeyar dynasty in the museum. There are also some beautiful paintings by Ravi Verma. Though cameras are not allowed inside the palace, you can get some internal pictures from the counter for Rs. 4/snap.

We then visited Brindavan gardens. We reached there at about 7PM, went up to see the dam over river Cauvery and then came back to see the garden and the fountains. The musical fountain is one thing that you should not miss here. The show they have put up is really nice.

Here are some snaps (the ones taken in Brindavan Gardens are not very clear as my camera battery had almost drained out and the night mode shots didn't come out well):

1) Mysore Palace:

2) Brindavan Gardens:

A trip to Srirangapatnam/Mysore - Part 2

2006-07-11T09:57:00.000-07:00

Part 1 of this post can be accessed here.

After seeing Sangam and boating in a coracle there, we went to Ranganathittu which is a bird sanctuary spread over many islets on the river Cauvery. Located about 3 kms from Srirangapatnam, it is considered to be a paradise for bird watchers and a beautiful, calm and quiet place to spend time well for those uninitiated in ornithology like me. We again went boating here. The short boating trip of 15-20 min took us around a couple of the small islets and we got a chance to watch some species of birds (including crows .. yes, crows are there everywhere) and other animals (read alligators) too. There is also a longer boating trip for about an hour that takes you to other places along the river and you might be able to spot other kinds of birds, if you are lucky.

Here are a few snaps from Ranganathittu:

Thats Sriram ... ready to take off

(L to R) Kaustubh & Murali

If you joom .. sorry zoom this (I think I have been watching a lot of Captain Vijaykanth movies), you will see an alligator with its mouth open. This is all we could capture since it was very far from us
Some of the birds we saw

Aieeeen .... magarmach aka alligator

One of the rarest species of birds ... the great CROW !!!

Click here to access Part 3

A trip to Srirangapatnam/Mysore - Part 1

2006-07-10T09:30:00.000-07:00

Six of us went on a one day trip to Srirangapatnam and Mysore on Saturday. Though there is a package tour offered by KSTDC, we rented a qualis for the trip as the cost per head wasn't coming out to be much different from the KSTDC package and because it gave us more convenience to visit the places we wanted. We started from Bangalore at about 7:30AM and reached back at midnight.

Srirangapatnam is an island surrounded by two tributaries of the river Cauvery and is about 125 kms from Bangalore by road. It was the capital of Mysore when Tipu Sultan ruled it for 17 years from 1782 to 1799. We visited:
1) the spot where Tipu was found dead after being killed in war during the siege of Srirangapatnam
2) Tipu Sultan's Lal Mahal palace, not much of which is left to see. It is believed to have been destroyed in a fire
3) Ranganathaswami temple, which has the deity - Sri Ranganathar (Vishnu) in a sleeping posture
4) Dariya Daulat Bagh (garden) and Tipu's summer palace
5) Sangam, where the two tributaries of the river Cauvery join and proceed ahead

You can also see the Jumma Masjid on the way to the Dariya Daulat Bagh and Gumbuz, the place where Tipu lies buried along with his parents on the way to Sangam from Tipu's summer palace. We could also see whatever little is left of the fort that once surrounded Srirangapatnam.

Here are some pics taken in Srirangapatnam:

1) Lal Mahal (Tipu's palace):

This is all that is left of the palace now

2) Sri Ranganathaswami Temple:

Kaustubh & Ramki

3) Jumma Masjid

4) Dariya Daulat Bagh & Summer PalaceBagh; the summer palace is the one seen at the rear end

Bagh's entrance

Trees in the baghRamki ... whats he up to?
Cannon

5) Sangam (confluence)

The two shivlings at the confluence - the small one at the bottom-right corner and the larger one in the centre of the pic
Boating ... you can start from the ghat, go around the shivling and come back for Rs. 20/person
The larger shivling - up close

You can visit this link to know more about Tipu Sultan. The link also has a picture gallery worth watching. It contains snaps of portraits and belongings of Tipu Sultan that you would see in the museum inside Tipu's summer palace. The site also describes, along with photographs, what all you can see in Srirangapatnam.
.
More snaps and details of the rest of the trip in part 2 and part 3.

Captain - thou art the greatest

2006-07-07T08:19:00.000-07:00

He can defy laws of physics, give shock to electricity itself, lend bouyancy to sunglasses, stop bullets in their path, show how primitive man could have lit up fire without even using stones, make goons fly with a simple touch to his moustache and do data entry work in windows media player. Did I hear you say what about saving the damsels in distress? Nay .. thats too human a task - one that even Shah Rukh Khan can do. There are greater things in life to be taken care of. Meet the greatest of the superheroes, the man who has saved the world from satan many times, the man because of whom thousands can live without fear of the evil - our very own Captain (to be pronounced as gabtun) Vijaykanth.

What superman, spiderman, batman and all can do is nothing but a tiny subset of what Captain can. In fact, the latest kid on the tarmac, Tom Cruise, has borrowed scenes from old movies of our very own Captain. What is Superman? S? Our Captain, as aptly put by one of my colleagues here, is SSS - Statistics, Sentiment and Slap. When Satan personified stands in front of him, Captain starts his rehabilitation by educating him on some very relevant statistics that would put successful sales and marketing people in the world's best known FMCG companies to shame (recall the number of villages in India, number of households stuff .....). Then starts a round of sentimental dialogues that would even melt rocks. The final part of the treatment is a slap that can result in one of many things, to know more about which you will have to watch one of Captain's movies.

Wondering who is this really famous personality about whom you have not heard much and does anybody care about him? Read this ... when Brian Lara, captain of West Indian cricket team came to India sometime back, he went to watch the shooting of one of Captain's movies. This link has more info about this, though in tamil. Captain being a really accomodative person, welcomed him with open arms and took him on a tour of the studios. And then there is this friend of mine from Rajasthan, who has recently become a devout fan of Captain. He scouts TV channels every evening in search of darshan of the great man, much to his wife's annoyance due to inability to watch the Kkkkk serials and her ignorance of the issues plaguing the world that are being solved by the captain.

I know what you are thinking next ... what is an Indian hero without punchlines? Can Captain lag behind here? After all he is a superhero. So here are some of those great ones in the history of world cinema attributed to Captain (though many of these lines loose their punch when translated to English, I have still tried to do the same in the interest of the masses):

* currentukku 3 phase... indha narasimmavukku 1000 face (current has only 3 phases but this Narasimha has 1000 faces)

* enakku sock kudhuttha currentukke sock adikum (If you try to give me an electric shock, current itself will get the shock .... BTW, spell shock as sock for the exact effect)

* Captain, after looking at a scanned photograph - konjam joom pannunga (joom it a little bit ... we mortals would say it as "zoom it a little bit")

* dai indha nattula amaidiya irrukka idam library angaiyum unga velai arambichitungila (the place for people to live in peace in this country is library and you have started creating trouble there too?)

* puyal adichi pozhachavan irukkan aana thavasi adichi illa (there are people who have been saved from lashing storms, but there is no one who has been saved after getting beaten by Thavasi ..... Thavasi is captain's name in the movie)

* tamil la ennakku pidikkaatha ore vaarthai "mannippu" (the only word I dislike in Tamil is pardon)

* unna kolrathu enaku kashtamilla, aana athula enakku ishtamilla ("killing you is not difficult for me, but it is not to my liking" ... shit ... I destroyed the essence)

* yaei nee ennai gandhi-ya matharadhum netaji-ya mathradhum unn kaila dhaan irrukku (its all in your hands - I can change into a Gandhi or into a Netaji)

* we will meet, will meet, meet

There are many many more, most of which have to be heard from the mouth of Captain to get the effect. So I would leave you to enjoy the same through the countless Captain movies. Meanwhile, you can access this link which has a few of Captain's clips for your viewing pleasure:

Situation under water

2006-07-05T23:22:00.000-07:00

Here are two of the many snaps I got through email depicting Mumbai during the rains every year:

Paani paani re ... car-mein paani .. sorry paani mein car re

Chaahe duniya doob rahi ho .. hum hain (saas-bahu) serial ke diwaane

Don't know how authentic the second picture is but balcony mein khade bechare pati dev ki haalat pe zaroor gaur farmaana

The Cut of Hamlet

2006-07-03T09:38:00.000-07:00

I had gone to Chennai over the weekend to attend my apartment mate's betrothal ceremony and had the opportunity to watch my first English play titled "The Cut of Hamlet", courtesy KR. There were four of us from the ISB - Class of 2006 at the Sivagami Pethachi Auditorium in Chennai on Saturday to watch the afternoon show. Two of us - Kost & I were there 'time pass karne ke liye' and to have some fun watching the comedy. The third guy, KR had come there mainly because the lead actor in the play Kartik Kumar was his favorite RJ Shuchi's husband. The fourth one (Clickie), I suppose, was there for the same reason as Kost and I were, though he claimed to have enjoyed the play a lot later.

The Cut of Hamlet, an English play by Evam, is enacted in two parts. The first part is the "Cut" which starts off as a play with some comedy sprinkled here and there and then turns into a play-within-a-play-within-a-play ... and so on when after every shot, the director of that shot or the sound guy or some other guy emerges from the audience to himself become a part of the next shot. The "Cut" is introduced to the audience by the three main characters in the play - Kartik, Sunil Vishnu and TMK (or TKM ... don't remember the exact name ... TM Krishna is one of my favorite singers and TMK is what comes to my mind). TMK doesn't want to do the play and Kartik chases him around the auditorium trying to convince him to do it. There was a scene when Kartik chases TMK to the exit and TMK grabs a latecomer, who incidentally is wearing a Superman shirt, swearing to kill him if Kartik chases him further. Sunil Vishnu then gets the "Cut" running while he leaves to get Kartik and TMK back. Though a bit confusing and entertaining to begin with, the "Cut" gets more predictive as time passes and I must say, a bit boring too. The characters in the "Cut" are supposed to be newcomers and they try their best to give a good performance. I especially liked the expressions shown by the guy who played Satan.

The second part of the play "Hamlet" starts just when you start wondering during the interval 'yeh kahan paise duba diye maine'. This is enacted by the three 'professionals' - Kartik, Sunil and TMK, and is the part that can help you justify the money spent on the play. To enjoy this, it is necessary that you read the abridged version of the original Hamlet available outside the auditorium. The acting done by the three apart, what made the play all the more enjoyable was the way they involved the audience in it. For instance, they got a girl from the audience to do Ophelia's scream. Kartik then came running into the audience to pick up a 'bakra' and he chose my friend Kost who was made to do what he does best - run from one end of the stage to another waving his hands. Then he asked a part of the audience to wave their hands and shout "may be, may be not". The people in the balcony were asked to shout "Cut the crap. My biological clock is ticking. I want babies ....". The whole sequence was then repeated and things like this kept almost everyone in the auditorium involved. Will not describe the play any further, lest you decide to watch it and miss out on its funny parts.

KR played a really good host to us during this trip. Must thank him for the same.

Concert @ Infy, Bangalore

2006-06-30T00:08:00.000-07:00

Played mridangam accompaniment in a 2 hr carnatic classical concert yesterday at Infosys campus, Bangalore. Details are as follows:

Flute: S. Datta
Violin: B. Lakshmi
Mridangam: R. Ramkumar (thats me)

List of songs:
1) Era nApai (varnam) - tOdi - Adi - pattanam subramaniya iyer
2) bAgAyanaiyya - chandrajyOti - Adi - thyAgarAja
3) paridAnamichitE - bilahari - kanda chApu - pattanam subramaniya iyer
4) nenarunchinAnu - mAlavi - Adi - thyAgarAja
5) paramapAvana - pUrvi kalyAni - Adi - pUchi srinivAsa iyengAr
6) thillAna
7) pavamAna - sowrAshtram - Adi - thyAgarAja

Hope I didn't miss any songs in the above listing. Lakshmi played the violin really well with beautiful raga alapanas of bilahari and pUrvi kalyAni. I think she has a really bright future in this field.

Cricket humor

2006-06-28T10:27:00.000-07:00

Some light moments from the game Indians are mad about ..... don't know whether these actually happened, but thought these are worth sharing:

1) Boycott was facing a torrid over from Micheal Holding . After playing his first 5 deliveries somehow, he got out bowled the last ball. When Boycott entered the dressing room, one of his teammates remarked something about the supposedly best test opener of his times.

Pat came Boycott's reply: "If it wasn't for Boycott, England would have been 0/6 by the end of that over".

2) "Man, it don't matter where you come in to bat, the score is still zero." -Viv Richards to Sunil Gavaskar at Madras 1983.

Gavaskar had decided to relinquish his opening position and come in at no 4 for that test. But, Malcolm Marshall fired out Anshuman Gaekwad and Dilip Vengsarkar for ducks, setting the stage for Gavaskar to walk in at 0/2. And he thought there would be less pressure!

3) Greg Thomas was bowling to Viv Richards in a county game. Viv missed a superb outswinger, and Thomas said "It's red, round and weighs about 5 ? ounces."

Next ball Viv hits Greg Thomas out of the ground for a 6 and replies, "Greg, you know what it looks like. Go ahead and find it ! !"

4) Fred Trueman bowling. The batsman edges and the ball goes to first slip, and right between Raman Subba Row's legs. Fred doesn't say a word. At the end of the over, Row ambles past Trueman and apologises sheepishly - "I should've kept my legs together, Fred".
The reply is classic Trueman, "Not you son, Your mother should've ! ! "

5) Then there's this wicketkeeper who quietly asked the new batsman: "So how's your wife, and my kids ? ?" Guess who.........Rod Marsh....to Ian Botham!!

6) New Zealand vs South Africa: Daryll Cullinan was batting, attempting a comeback from a complete bamboozling from Warne in earlier games. Cullinan played the first ball from Chris Harris very carefully back down the pitch, and keeper Parore yelled out "Well bowled Warnie !!"

7) Australia fighting for a win nearing the end of a Test Match, Fred Trueman at the crease. The Aus captain has plenty of close in fielders, whose shadows fall on the wicket. Fredie finds this objectionable. 'Ere, if you lads don't back off, I'll appeal for bad light !!"

8) (Incident described in "From the Pavilion End" by Harold "Dickie" Bird)
"Bomber" Wells, a spin bowler and great character, played for Glocuestershire and Nottinghamshire. He used to bat at No.11 since one couldn't bat any lower. Of him, they used to paraphrase Compton's famous words describing an equally inept runner; "When he shouts 'YES' for a run, it is merely the basis for further negotiations!"

Incidentally, Compton was no better. John Warr said, of Compton "He was the only person who would call you for a run and wish you luck at the same time." Anyway, when Wells played for Gloucs, he had an equally horrendous runner as the No.10.

During a county match, horror of horrors.......both got injured. Both opted for runners when it was their turn to bat. Bomber played a ball on the off, called for a run, forgot he had a runner and ran himself. Ditto at the other end. In the melee, someone decided that a second run was on. Now we had all four running. Due to the confusion and constant shouts of "YES" "NO", eventually, all of them ran to the same end.

Note: At this point in time, the entire ground is rolling on the floor laughing their behinds out.

One of the fielders - brave lad - stops laughing for a minute, picks the ball and throws down the wicket at the other end.

Umpire Alec Skelding looks very seriously at the four and calmly informs them "One of you buggers is out. I don't know which. You decide and inform the bloody scorers !"

R. Vedavalli @ BTM Cultural Academy, Bangalore

2006-06-26T06:32:00.000-07:00

"Sangeetha Kalanidhi" Smt R. Vedavalli sang to a packed house on Saturday at Sri Ramana Maharishi Academy for the Blind, 3rd Cross, 3rd Phase, J.P.Nagar, Bangalore. The concert was organized by BTM Cultural Academy. Strict adherence to tradition, step-by-step build up of raga alapanas with all important patterns covered were the highlights of the concert. In short, an enjoyable evening of classical music for the audience and a great learning opportunity for any (young) musicians present there. Here are the details:

Vocal: Smt R. Vedavalli

Accompaniment:
Vocal Support: Sumathi Krishna
Violin: Charulata Ramanujam
Mridangam: Arjun Kumar
Ghatam: Sukanya Ramagopal

List of songs:
1) sAmininnE nEla (varnam) - kannada - Adi - ?
2) mahAganapathim - nAttai - chatusra Eka - muthuswAmi dIkshitar
3) divAkaratanujam - yadukula kAmbOji - chatusra Eka - muthuswAmi dIkshitar
4) mErusamAna - mAyAmAlavagowla - dEsAdi - thyAgarAja
5) nIvada nEgAna - sAranga - kanda chApu - thyAgarAja
6) chEtasri - dwijAvanti - tisra Eka - muthuswAmi dIkshitar
7) O ranga sAyI - kAmbOji - Adi - thyAgarAja
8) na jAnAmi (viruttam) in ragas sAvEri, varAli, kApi, yadukula kAmbOji, sindhubhairavi and surutti, followed by
pathiki hArathI - surutti - Adi - thyAgarAja
9) pavamAna (mangalam) - sowrAshtram - Adi - thyAgarAja

R. Vedavalli - The Living Legend

2006-06-24T22:38:00.000-07:00

"Sangeetha Kalanidhi" Smt R. Vedavalli (refered to as RV henceforth) is considered to be a living legend. In a career in Carnatic Classical music spanning over five decades, she has enthralled audiences in India and abroad with her staunch adherence to tradition, deep understanding of and vast knowledge about Carnatic music and manodharma (improvisations). Though in her 70s, she continues to give quality concerts even today.

Though I had been hearing RV recordings for quite some time, I had never got the chance to attend her live concert. I came to know about a month back that BTM Cultural Academy is organizing her concert in Bangalore and had been eagerly waiting to attend the same since then. Having attended the same today, all I can say is that it was truly a great experience.

During my childhood days, whenever I heard old maestros sing, I used to wonder why people liked them so much. The quality of recordings would be poor and All India Radio would add to the woes through its poor broadcasts. A beginner in Carnatic music at that time with no one to teach me the nuances, I would get pissed off upon hearing such recordings. As I started hearing Carnatic vocal more, I learnt more and more by myself and started appreciating the nuances. I then started hearing recordings of old maestros and then realized why they are revered by many even today. For example, we had this old audio cassette of Shri T. N. Seshagopalan (TNS) at home. It was one of the very few audio cassettes we had at that time. The quality of the cassette was not all that good and I could never understand why my father used to praise TNS so much. I happened to hear the cassette again when I was in Class X. Though having heard quite a few musicians till then, I had never heard anything like what TNS had sung in that cassette before. I instantly became a fan of his and he continues to be one of my all-time favorites even today.

Coming back to RV ...... will write more about her concert in the next post.

Diary of an MBA

2006-06-23T06:18:00.000-07:00

Diary of an MBA ..... a hilarious mail I received from a batchmate of mine recently .... couldn't restrain from posting:

Dear Diary,

I can't hold myself down. My FIRST day on the job!! And I like it already.

"Assistant Junior Deputy to the Vice Chairman - Manufacturing". My dad was thrilled when he heard my designation.

"What the f!@#!!!" were his exact words. Oh I love it when my parents are happy...

Need to meet HR in half an hour. I can't wait to get my first Employee ID Card and cubicle. I hope Parthasarathy Whatayblouse Crappers (PWC) is the beginning of great things.

P.S. I have brought my favorite textbooks back from the institute OD, OMand HR should help me grow rapidly in the organization. And I WILL handle soft issues before facing hard issues here at PWC.

July 28th

Dear Diary,

Had a lot of fun with HR yesterday. The guy who had recruited me had left a month ago. So they didn't know I was joining. We had a hearty laugh over that one.

I'll get my cubicle in a few days time. For the time being I am sharing a nice one with Claire. She's with Corporate Communication.

The phone doesn't work though...

August 2nd

Dear Diary,

Met my boss today. He spent a lot of time with my CV and then asked me how I managed to get a job with them. (Even he knows how lucky they are to get me..) He told me to review our material ordering system in the err... umm... the... the "big yellow and blue noisy machine section" of the plant.

Claire is working on an "Our Employees Love Us" campaign. The office boy had just resigned. So she got me to pose with an apron and a tray of cookies for a photo. They are going to call me Ramon and use it for ads. I am going to be famous.

August 7th

Dear Diary,

My first breakthrough. I have decided to order nickel ball bearings using the EQO.. QEO... whatever formula. It takes into account item cost, holding cost and weight of ball bearing I think. The purchase guy gave me a funny look when he saw my annual requisition contract form. He is obviously not an MBA...

Claire resigned today. She told me carry on with the "Our Employees Love Us" campaign.

P.S. Lesson for the week. You cannot order 0.7564 of a ball bearing. It has to be in whole numbers.

August 11th

Dear Diary,

I just got a shipment of 4384 ball bearings. I checked up with Engineering. They said that should be enough for around 14 years of requirement. I gave them 3 and stashed away the rest in a cupboard in my room. If prices of ball bearings go up, I see a lot of potential savings.

I have decided to develop informal channels of communication. From tomorrow I will spend a little time next to the coffee machine to understand the unspoken messages within the underbelly of the firm.

(That OD book is good)

August 14th

Dear Diary,

I sent my first official letter today. It was to our Facilities manager Merry Le Bian. She is a hottie. I told her that the Coffee Machine takes too much time to reheat between refills. Wrote it in a WAC format and all with a table of contents and everything. She is sure going to be impressed!! I spell checked it in MS word and emailed it to her an hour ago. No reply yet.

They scrapped the "Our Employees Love Us" campaign. The photo shoot was taking up too much time, and people were being forced to stay late without extra pay. Someone finally went and vandalised the banner. It now reads "Our Employers Shove Us". I offered to model for all the snaps and videos. They called me a dickhead. I was delighted. Dickhead is internal slang for "Big Stud". HR told me. Everyone calls me that...

P.S. One more shipment of ball bearings came. Again
4384. The contract can't be changed now. I dont have
too much space left in my cupboard.

August 25th

Dear Diary,

My letter came back. It had a pink post-it on it from Merry. "Please proofread" it said. It was CC'd to my boss. How was I supposed to know MS Word would spell check her name and change it to Merry Lesbian????!!!!

Where's natural justice?

Today five minutes before a meeting the cupboard door broke open. It took me ten minutes to pick up all the ball bearings from the floor. I had to run to the board room for the meeting and slipped on a bearing which rolled under the door. I fell on the coffee machine and tipped coffee powder into the polymer mixing matching tray. No one saw anything.

P.S. Sorry for the long break. My computer crashed. There was a mail from an old friend. She's now married into the Welchia family I think.

Crashed after that. Strange name that Welchia...

September 2nd

Dear Diary,

My boss told me I may not last the probation period. I was mighty thrilled to hear that. Imagine!! Permanent in less than three months!!

That should be some sort of company record.

I made a presentation to all the staff yesterday. Some300 people were there. I think I sent good vibes. Everyone was smiling and nodding their heads during the presentation. Someone later told me my fly was open the whole time. But I don't think anyone noticed. The presentation was on "An Open Culture: Let the feeling show!!"

p.s. 17156 ball bearings. I floated a scheme to give each employee a ball bearing for every year of service. The HR manager immediately convened a meeting with my boss. Every suggestion counts here at PWC.

September 4th

Dear Diary,

I have been transferred to the office in Sub-Saharan Africa. I will be heading the Room Heater and Hot Water Geyser products division. They have also told me to pay for all the ball bearings I bought. I think it speaks much of the entrepreneurial spirit. I have been told to leave immediately for Kujumbinana.

P.S. A foreign posting in under a year!!!

September 5th

Dear Diary,

I am in Kujumbinana. We don't have a branch here...

Hilarious blog

2006-06-22T08:41:00.000-07:00

Ford Prefect's was the hilarious blog I used to visit a lot till some time back. I do read his blog even now but there is one more that I have been frequenting these days - Great Bong's blog @ http://greatbong.net . I have been hooked to this blog ever since I received a link to a post on the great Mithun da sent by my ISB batchmate Giks. Read the blog to know why.

Rudest city in the world?

2006-06-21T09:18:00.000-07:00

A survey done by the magazine Readers Digest has resulted in amchi Mumbai being termed as the rudest city in the world, when it comes to common courtesy. Sao Paulo and New York have been found to lie at the other end of the spectrum. Click here to read more.

Are common courtesies so common in India? Some of them aren't and at least don't seem to be a part of the culture, in general. For example, during the time spent at my previous company and at ISB, I have met or come face to face with a lot of non-Indians. I have observed, for example, that most of the times you pass by an American, he/she will smile and wish you even if he/she is seeing you for the first time. Same thing is true when holding the door for people coming behind you. In general, I have only seen fellow Indians who have been to the US for some time doing the same. Holding the door for others was however a common practice in my previous company. Whenever new recruits came, they would generally not do the same but would start doing so once they saw others in the company doing it.

If common courtesy demands a few things which most of us lack, how do we make the change happen? Expecting a person to change on his/her own is a bit difficult, especially because of lack of realization that such courtesies should be extended. A better way probably would be for companies to make their employees aware of these. If more and more people start becoming more courteous through this route or otherwise, others around them might observe and change themselves too.

Sikkil Gurucharan @ Music Academy

2006-06-20T01:04:00.000-07:00

Sikkil Gurucharan performed at the Music Academy Mini Hall in Chennai on Sunday in a 4 hour long Carnatic Classical Vocal Concert organized by Sarvani Sangeetha Sabha. He was accompanied by S. Varadarajan on the violin, K.V. Prasad on the mridangam and Vaikkom Gopalakrishnan on the ghatam. The (partial) list of songs rendered is as follows:

1) ninnukOri (varnam) - vasanthA - Adi - tAchUr singArachAri
2) vakratunda mahAkAya (viruttam) - kAnadA
mahAganapathE - kAnadA - rUpakam - kOtIswara iyer
3) paralOka - mandAri - Adi - thyAgarAja
4) kAmAkshi - bhairavi - misra chApu - syAma sAstri
5) nAdha sudhA - Arabhi - rUpaka - thyAgarAja
6) anjezhuthinai - rAgavinodhini - Adi - m m dandapAni dEsikar
7) mAravairi ramani - nAsikAbhUshani - Adi (tisra As) - thyAgarAja
8) ambA nIlAyadAkshi - nIlAmbari - Adi - muthuswamy dIkshitar
9) kaligiyuntE - kIravAni - Adi - thyAgarAja
10) kAnavEndAmO - srIranjani - rUpakam - pApanAsam sivan
11) rAgam tAnam pallavi - kalyAni - misra triputa
(pallavi words: un thiruvadiyinai, anudinam thudikka nI, varamarul shanmugA, guruparA, sharavanabhava)

Had to leave during the pallavi rendition to catch the train back to Bangalore.

Sikkil Gurucharan is said to be one of the rising stars in Carnatic music today. He stood true to his reputation delivering a good performance once again. I feel it is just a matter of time before he is recognized in the same league as Sanjay Subrahmanyam and T.M.Krishna, who incidentally are my favorites among the present day singers.

S.Varadarajan (violin), I think stole the show. All his experience, having played for so many concerts in the recent past, showed in the way he accompanied Gurucharan during the songs as well as in the way he played raga alapanas, neravals and kalpana swaras.

K.V.Prasad and Vaikkom Gopalakrishnan provided good support on mridangam and ghatam. Vaikkom Gopalakrishnan, in some places, played in sync with K.V. Prasad and in others, complemented him well, which made their accompaniment for the songs very pleasing to the ears.

All in all, a good kutcheri experience for the rasikas.

A busy weekend

2006-06-19T10:04:00.000-07:00

Went to Chennai this weekend to spend some time with my parents who had come there but ended up spending most of the time with friends. Met with a few ISB batchmates in Chennai on Saturday. It all started with the 4:15PM show of the Tom Cruise starrer MI-3. The movie is a good timepass with lots of stunts that actors in apna bollywood can use for their films in future. My friends told me that a couple of scenes in the movie looked to have been lifted straight from Captain's (Vijaykanth's) tamil movies. I think bollywood need not look outside the country for stunts anymore.

After the movie, we went to Amethyst where we recounted the wonderful days spent at ISB, over coffee. Most of the time was spent talking about Rajani. Though his activities are the usual topic of discussion whenever we all meet, there was lot more excitement in narrating Rajani's escapades as his fiancee had also come with him. The best part is the sporting way in which Rajani takes everything. He would come second only to KP (my quadmate at ISB) in this. We then had dinner in Saravana Bhavan and went to KR's house to watch Ghana thrash Czech Republic in the World Cup.

Sunday was spent in buying albums of my favorite singer T.M.Krishna that I do not have in my collection yet and in attending Sikkil C Gurucharan's 4-hour long carnatic vocal concert at the Music Academy Mini Hall. More about the concert in the next post.

I am connected

2006-06-15T09:59:00.000-07:00

We have an internet connection at home now and that too one that works real quick. Setting up our home is almost complete except for getting the washing machine to work.

Ramki and Kost, my apartment mates went to see the movie Omen yesterday. I couldn't accompany them as I had to go to Chennai for a day to attend a family function and the thought of having real good food and meeting up with my folks was too strong a driver for me to go there. There is apparently a scary scene in the movie that appears all of a sudden and when that scene came, the guy sitting next to Kost (not Ramki) jumped up and grabbed his arm all of a sudden. Poor Kost ... pity his condition .... a scary scene on the screen and some real life scare too. Ramki, I bet would have been busy eating pop-corn and wouldn't have even batted his eyelid.

More concerts in Bangalore

2006-06-13T00:01:00.000-07:00

Details of some more concerts scheduled to happen in Bangalore. The venue for all these concerts is Mangala Mantapa, NMKRV Women's College, 22nd Cross, Jayanagar 3rd Block unless specified otherwise.

15th July 2006 - Sudha Raghunathan (Carnatic Vocal)
27th July 2006 - R.K.Srikantan (Thematic concert - rare kritis in rare ragas)
15th Aug 2006 - Shubha Mudgal (Hindustani Vocal)
9th Sep 2006 - T.M.Krishna (Carnatic Vocal ... one of my favorite singers)
14th Oct 2006 - Malladi Brothers & Gundecha Brothers (Jugalbandi)
1st Nov 2006 - Gurukiran & SP Balasubramaniam (Special program; venue is Palace Grounds)
15th Dec 2006 - Mandolin U Srinivas (Mandolin) with Zakhir Hussain (Tabla)
31st Dec 2006 - Music Nite (Venue is Palace Grounds)
1st Jan 2007 - M.Balamuralikrishna (Carnatic Vocal)
10th Feb 2007 - Pt. Jasraj (Hindustani Vocal)
10th Mar 2007 - R.K.Srikantan (Carnatic Vocal)

All these concerts are organized by Advaita. They organized the Sanjay Subrahmanyam concert about which I wrote in my last post. The entry fee for Sanjay's concert was Rs. 45. Don't know whether these concerts will have entry fee too.

A memorable concert

2006-06-12T08:57:00.000-07:00

Sanjay Subramanyam sang at Mangala Mantapa, NMKRV Women’s College, Jayanagar, Bangalore on Saturday, 10th June 2006. He was accompanied by Nagai Muralidharan on the violin, Guruvayur Dorai on the mridangam and Rajasekharan on the Morsing. Sanjay always delivers but what was special about this concert was the top class artists who accompanied him and made the concert, one that would stay in listeners' minds for a long time to come. All in all, it was one of the best concerts I have heard in recent times.

Guruvayur Dorai on the mridangam was just too good. Age doesn’t seem to mellow him down at all. At 71, he is still one of the best mridangam artists around. One could see how one could play soothingly for songs, yet show one’s intelligence through calculations in the way he accompanied Sanjay.

Songs:
1. ee vasudhA – sahAnA – Adi – thyAgarAja
2. aparAma – pantuvarAli – rUpakam – thyAgarAja
3. ninna nambidE – mukhAri – Adi – purandaradAsa
4. amma rAvamma – kalyAni – kanda chApu – thyAgarAja
5. ennaDu jUtunO – kalAvati – Adi – thyAgarAja
6. srinivAsa tava charanam – kharaharapriya – tisra Ekam – pApanAsam sivan
7. ennEramum – dEvagAndhAri – Adi – gOpAlakrishna bhArati
8. nijagAdasA – sindhu bhairavi – Adi – jayadEva
9. vizhikku (viruttam) - kApi followed by sOdanai – kApi – Adi – pApanAsam sivan
10. rAdhA samethA – misra yaman – Adi – UthukAdu venkata subbaiyar (?)
11. thillAnA – kAnadA – misra chApu – tAnjore quartette
12. pavamAna (mangalam) – sourAshtram – Adi – thyAgarAja

Upcoming concerts in Bangalore

2006-06-09T08:46:00.000-07:00

Details of some upcoming concerts in Bangalore:

Organizer: Suswaralaya College of Music, Kalashrithakalpaka & Ananya Cultural Academy
(#12, 28th Cross, Geetha Colony, 4th Block, Jayanagar, Bangalore-560011; Ph: 26545655, 26633623 Mobile: 94480-59595 Email: suswaralaya@yahoo.com)
Venue: Ananya Sabhangana,92/2 ,4th Main, Malleswaram, Bangalore-560003

11th June 2006 (Sunday), 10AM
Vocal: K.N.Roopa
Violin: Mathur Srinidhi
Mridangam: Renuka Prasad
Ghatam: S N Narayanamurthy

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Organizer: BTM Cultural Academy (Ph: 57616693, 41212522, 26680836)
Venue: Sri Ramana Maharishi Academy for the Blind, 3rd Cross, 3rd Phase, J.P.Nagar, Bangalore

24th June 2006 (Saturday), 5:30PM
Vocal: Sangeetha Kalanidhi Smt. R. Vedavalli
Violin: H.K.Venkataram
Mridangam: Arjun Kumar
Ghatam: Sukanya Ramagopal
(Should to be a treat to the ears …. One of the greatest living vocalists of the older generation)

22nd July 2006 (Saturday)
Venu, Veena, Violin Ensemble directed by H.S.Sudheendra, Principal, Suswaralaya College of Music

19th August 2006 (Saturday) – Special concert
Vocal: Ganesh (of the Ganesh-Kumaresh fame)
Violin: Kumaresh
Mridangam: V.Praveen
Khanjira: N. Amrith

23rd September 2006 (Saturday)
Hindustani vocal concert by Pt. Keerti Kumar Badsheshi & party

21st October 2006 (Saturday)
Vocal: S.S.Vignaraja
Violin: B.Lakshmi
Mridangam: N.Vasudev

M.S. Sheela @ HN Kalakshetra, Bangalore

2006-06-07T08:32:00.000-07:00

M.S.Sheela gave a carnatic vocal concert at Dr. HN Kalakshetra, National College, 7th Block, Jayanagar, Bangalore yesterday. In contrast to her previous concert on Sunday at the Bangalore Gayana Samaja, the auditorium here was sparsely populated, may be because it was a working day and/or because not many people might have known about the concert. Highlight of the concert was the brilliant violin accompaniment by Charulata Ramanujam.

'Song list' is as follows:

Vocal: M.S.Sheela
Violin: Charulata Ramanujam
Mridangam: H.S.Sudheendra
Ghatam: Sukanya Ramagopal

Songs:
1. chalamEla (varnam) – darbAr – Adi – tiruvOtriyUr tyAgaiyyar
2. vallabha nAyakasya – bEgadA – rUpakam – muthuswAmi dIkshitar
3. nIkeppudu – AbhOgi – Adi - mysore sadAsiva rAo
4. intakantE – kannada – Adi – pattanam subramaniya iyer
5. a) endigAga (viruttam) – pUrvikalyAni
b) EnavEdalO – pUrvikalyAni – kanda chApu – purandaradAsa
6. evarani – dEvAmrutavarshini – Adi – thyAgarAja
7. srI raghuvara – kAmbOji – Adi – thyAgarAja
8. srihari kAyO – bAgeswari – Adi – purandaradAsa (?)
9. thA tha thadimi – brindAvani – Adi – purandaradAsa
10. harE venkata – sindhubhairavi – Adi – rAma vittala (?)
11. bavamAna (mangalam) – sowrAshtram – Adi - thyAgarAja

Check out the link http://www.indianarc.com/index.html for a bizarre sport. This link was sent to me yesterday by my friend S.

M.S.Sheela @ Bangalore Gayana Samaja

2006-06-06T08:17:00.000-07:00

M.S.Sheela sang to an almost packed auditorium at the Bangalore Gayana Samaja, K.R.Road, Bangalore on Sunday, 4th June 2006. The main highlights of her performance were the detailed kalyani and kiravani raga alapanas. Here is the song list:

Artists:
Vocal: M.S. Sheela
Violin: C.N.Chandrasekhar
Mridangam: H.S.Sudheendra
Ghatam: Sukanya Ramagopal
Morsing: S.V.Balakrishna

Songs:
1) varnam (ninnukOri) – vasantA – Adi – tAchur singArachAri
2) garuda gamana – nAgaswarAvali – rUpakam – pattanam subramaniya iyer
3) patti viduvarAdu – manjari – Adi – thyAgarAja
4) gOvardana girIsham – hindOlam – rUpakam – muthuswAmi dIkshitar
5) himAdri suthe – kalyAni – Adi (tisra As) – thyAgarAja
6) Ishwari rAjeswarI – Abheri – Adi – harikesanallUr muthiAh bhAgavathar
7) paramapurusham – lalitha panchamam – kanda chApu – swAti tirunAl
8) chEtasrI – dvijAvanti – rUpakam – muthuswAmi dIkshitar
9) kalikiyundE – kIravAni – Adi – thyAgarAja
10) hare vEnkata – sindubhairavI – Adi – purandaradAsa (?)
11) bavamAna (mangalam) – sourAshtram – Adi – thyAgarAja

(could have missed 1 or 2 songs in the above listing)

M.S.Sheela is also scheduled to perform today at H.N.Kalakshetra, Jayanagar, Bangalore at 6:30PM.

Sanjay @ Bangalore Gayana Samaja

2006-06-05T08:11:00.000-07:00

Percussive Arts Centre celebrated "Talavadhyotsav", its music concert fest last week at the Bangalore Gayana Samaja auditorium in K.R. Road, Bangalore. I came to know about the fest only on Friday and hence managed to attend Sanjay Subramanyam's vocal concert that day. Sanjay, as usual, performed really well. The kamboji raga alapana was a treat to the ears.

Need to mention about the mridangam artist Anoor Ananthakrishna Sarma. I had first heard him about 2-3 years back in an Akashwani Sangeet Sammelan concert in Delhi and was quite impressed by his control over the calculations and over the instrument as such. I could witness the same control and brilliance on seeing him play for Sanjay too. His misra nadai in the taniavartanam was just too good. Though I am no authority to comment on any artist, the one area where I feel he can still improve is playing accompaniment for songs. The more he plays for songs, the more he will be able to play along with the song without giving the audience a feeling of the main artist's singing and his mridangam accompaniment running as two separate tracks.

Here is the song list of the concert:

Vocal: Sanjay Subramanyam
Violin: H.K.Venkataram
Mridangam: Anoor Ananthakrishna Sarma
Khanjira: Guru Prasanna
Ghatam: ?

Songs:
1) varnam (manamOhana) – mOhanam – kanda ata – harikesanallUr muthiAh bhAgavatar
2) jaya jaya – nAttai – kanda chApu – purandaradAsa
3) srI lakshmI – AbhOgi – Adi – muthuswAmi dIkshitar
4) rAma ninnuvinA – sankarAbharanam – rUpaka – thyAgarAja
5) Eti janma – varAli – misra chApu – thyAgarAja
6) evari mAta – kAmbOji – Adi – thyAgarAja
7) mallAri – gambhIranAttai – kanda triputa - ?
8) jayadEva ashtapadi – sindubhairavi – Adi – jayadEva
9) karpagAmbigai – behAg - ?
10) a) petra thAi – viruttam – surutti
b) Adiya pAdathai – surutti – Adi – gOpAlakrishna bhArati
11) bhArata sAmrAjya – dEsh – Adi – mAyuram viswanAtha sAstri
12) bavamAna (mangalam) – sourAshtram – Adi – thyAgarAja

Fa-Naa .... naa .... naaa

2006-06-02T08:59:00.000-07:00

The perfect example of how a movie could be spoilt despite having a good star cast is Fanaa. Saw the movie at PVR, Bangalore two days back. Though Aamir Khan and Kajol try their best to infuse life into a otherwise dead movie, their efforts bear no fruit. As my friend Ramki put it, "we are still searching for the story". If you have not yet watched Fanaa and end up sitting in a movie hall that is screening it, things that you can still watch out for are Aamir and Kajol's acting, some really good photography and of course, Sanaya Irani, who plays Bobo, one of the girls in Kajol's troupe. You end up wondering what is Sanaya doing there ... she should probably have been given a role of higher importance in the movie. Bharani had written in his blog - "Worth watching half-the-movie…Which half depends on your preference!". Sanaya certainly makes the first half worth watching :-)

Having said all that, I would say you should go ahead and watch Fanaa if you are an Aamir Khan fan like me.

A day in heaven

2006-05-28T18:04:00.000-07:00

One of the places on this planet which could qualify as heaven for employed youth is the Infy campus at Mysore. Our batch of B-School grads who joined Infy this month went to the Mysore campus for a day to participate in a session on team building and needless to say, had a lot of fun. We reached there Friday night and spent a lot of time cycling around the campus and looking with awe at the facilities and infrastructure. We also spent quite some time at the bowling alley there. The rooms at the Employee Care Center where we stayed were also well furnished and equipped with all that one would probably need apart from his/her clothes and other personal belongings during his/her stay there. For people who have stayed at the ISB Exec Housing, the rooms in the Infy campus were almost similar. There is also a cricket ground there with side screens. All in all, a great place to be working in !!! Googled out this link where you can find some snaps of the campus: http://www.flickr.com/photos/88185180@N00/

Just read sometime back that Saina Nehwal won the Philippines Open badminton tournament, thus becoming the first Indian woman ever to win a tournament of this level. Hope she continues and adds many more feathers to her cap. With tennis probably being much more of a craze than badminton among the Indian masses (have no figures to back this up), it would be interesting to watch whether she starts endorsing products like Sania Mirza soon.

ISB Alumni Meet

2006-05-24T16:24:00.000-07:00

ISB alumni in Bangalore met over lunch on Sunday. The alumni from our batch outnumbered the alumni from all the other batches. We primarily exchanged contact information with alumni from the earlier batches and came to know a bit more about those who were present there. I think the interactions will pick up as more such meetings are organized.

News on the admissions front ... this one is a bit old and may be you know about this already, but just in case there are some people who haven't heard about this: ISB has been invited to join the board of The Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) and will not from now onwards accept GRE scores for admission. GMAT scores will be the primary means and CAT scores will be accepted for provisional admission.

Venice of India?

2006-05-19T11:54:00.000-07:00

Thats what you would probably call Bangalore if you are present in the city just after a 10 minute downpour. Even a prolonged drizzle is enough to convert the roads in the city to waterways. The consequences? Of course, traffic jams everywhere (they would be there even without the rains), but then the auto-rickshaw drivers start charging astronomical amounts. For instance, a rick driver asked us to pay Rs. 150 for a distance that would have otherwise cost us just Rs. 15. Lack of proper infrastructure is apparent. Trees start falling after a drizzle. There was a photo in the local newspapers today of a tree falling on a car parked underneath it.

Another problem that is very apparent is the use of just the local language for displaying routes/stops on buses. Why can't the same names be written in English along with the local language? Why not when this city is supposed to be the IT capital of India?

But all said and done, the weather here is far better than most other places I have been to. Some of my friends who have been here for ages, say that the climate used to be even better some 7-8 years ago when there was a lot more green cover and lot less vehicles.

As I get more acquainted with the city day by day, I have started liking it despite all the problems. Looks like I will have to learn Kannada alphabets so that I can travel in local buses and save some money by avoiding ricks.

Found a house at last

2006-05-17T22:54:00.000-07:00

After searching for a house for nearly everyday after office hours along with two of my batchmates, I have managed to finally find one and shift in. I will be posted in Bangalore, at least for some time to come.

The stop for the office bus is at a manageable walking distance and the buses ply frequently. Most of the buses operating in the morning on Bangalore roads seem to be Infy buses. I have heard that about 200+ buses ply one way to fetch people in the mornings at different timings. I guess the way the admin staff manages the bus operation is really commendable.

On to other things .... I have been wanting to write about my learnings/views about B-School application process, writing resume etc but have not been able to do so primarily due to lack of a stable internet connection. Having gotten the basic stuff necessary to stay in a rented house, I guess TV, internet access etc will come next and I will then try to share my learnings.

Life these days

2006-05-14T10:14:00.000-07:00

Here is how a typical day of mine looks like these days:

5:45AM - Wake up
7:00AM - Catch the bus to office
8:30AM - Induction starts after a good breakfast. Go and SIT (Sleep In Training)
12:30PM - Time for lunch
1:30PM - Post lunch session start
5:30PM - Leave office
7:30PM - Reach home
8:30PM - Go out for dinner
10PM - Watch TV
1:00AM - Go to sleep.

The initial days of induction were somewhat boring with all the usual process related stuff being discussed. The last two days have been really interesting where we had a really good sales related training conducted.

Looking for South Indian food in B'lore?

2006-05-10T21:24:00.000-07:00

If you are looking for some really good South Indian food in Bangalore then come over to MTR. Ramki took me and two other friends to Mavalli Tiffin Rooms (or MTR in short), a very old restaurant located near Lalbagh, just a few feet away from the Lalbagh-Fort road today for dinner. Locals know the restaurant well, but if you are not one, it might be a bit difficult to spot it. But the restaurant is so famous that most people would be able to guide you to it. The food (basically meals that cost us Rs. 80 in all) was simply awesome, probably one of the best South Indian stuff I have had in a long time.

Some observations

2006-05-06T18:20:00.000-07:00

* The number of ants in the office campus seems to be much less than the number of employees :-)
* The time taken to return from office is more than the time taken for a class at ISB to finish (2 hrs+)
* The number of one-way roads in Bangalore will probably be more than that in any other city I have visited. But for these one-way roads, traffic at many places here would not be moving even at the snail's pace at which it does now
* The amount of smoke that you inhale here by stepping out on a busy road for 10 seconds would be more than the amount you would inhale in ISB and the area around it in probably 10 years (if it remains at the condition at which it is in now)

First day of work post-MBA

2006-05-04T19:52:00.000-07:00

Nothing special .. just the typical formalities and a few presentations.

Arrived in Bangalore yesterday ... found the city real crowded with lot of traffic problems and pollution ..... yet to explore it much though I did roam around with Ramki and Rajani, my batchmates from ISB who are also here. First impression: didn't like the place much. I am put up in a hotel in the city along with Ramki and Rajani. The room that Ramki and I are in ends before it starts (remember Munnabhai MBBS?).

Kaun hai woh karorpati?

2006-04-30T12:37:00.000-07:00

I had ordered an external hard disk from a Hyderabad dealer just a few days before the orientation week for the new batch came to an end. This is how the initial part of the conversation with the guy (HDDwala) who came to deliver the hard disk went (just imagine that guy speak Hindi Hyderabadi style):

HDDwala: Aap foreign jaa rahe ho naa?
Ram: Mein samjha nahi?
HDDwala: Naukri ke liye foreign jaa rahe ho naa? Yahaan toh sabki naukri baahar hi lagti hai?
Ram: Nahi .... meri naukri abhi toh India mein hi hai.
HDDwala: Kyun? Aapke number ache nahi aaye kya?
Ram: What? @#$%^$#
HDDwala: Maine suna hai jinke number ache aate hain unka naukri baahar lag jata hai
Ram: (Thinking .... poor McKinsey guys .... got such good grades but will be based out of India)
HDDwala: Matlab aap kabhi baahar jaa hi nahi paaoge kya?
Ram: (Thinking - abe bas kar yaar) Nahi maine aisa nahi kaha ... naukri mein ho sakta hai baahar jaana pad jaaye
HDDwala: Acha ... aapko ek crore ka tankha (salary) mila kya?
Ram: (Thinking .. when will this guy stop) Nahi
HDDwala: Kisko mila
Ram: Woh mein nahi bata sakta
HDDwala: Aapko kitna mila?
Ram: Woh bhi nahi bata sakta .... aap hard disk ki baat karenge please?
HDDwala: Haan ji ... waise naye class ke log aa gaye hain kya?
Ram: Haan ... hard disk laayen hain aap?

.............

Snaps from outbound activity

2006-04-26T13:02:00.000-07:00

A group of students from our batch (including me) went for an outbound activity at the beginning of last week to Greenfields, located at the outskirts of Hyderabad, near the Usman Sagar lake. We had two full days of fun, fun and just fun. We played a lot of games, learnt and/or reinforced our learnings on a lot of stuff and also decided what all games to include for the new batch of students, to be conducted as a part of the "Bind Unwind" activity during their orientation. Here are some snaps from the same .......

Girish a.k.a Giks getting his harness strapped from Piru (one of our hosts at Greenfields)

Thats me on the Burma Bridge

Thats a sample of the greenery @ greenfields for you

Ashok, who was one of the guys in my group, doing the group's dance

A group of students has their hands knotted while playing the "Knotty Game"

Thats probably how worse the knots can get

Zenobia, our sweet instructor, doing CP ... i.e., explaining some fundae

My group having some real fun moving around playing "Tied in a rope"

Zenobia in action ... fundae again

Our tents getting drenched in the rain

The landing terminals prepared by the three groups in the egg-drop game

Thats the entire group of students

Sample gyaan

2006-04-20T04:17:00.000-07:00

Here is a sample gyaan given by one of my batchmates during orientation:

"Your mobile phones should be switched off when you come to class. Else you can use your vibrators" :-) :-)

Most activities planned for the orientation week have been completed. Some of us left yesterday to go back to our homes. Many are leaving today, including me. The rest few will move by this Saturday after the "Talent Nite" happens. I think my next visit to ISB will be during "Solstice", our annual alumni reunion ...... don't know if I will get a chance to visit this place before that.

I will soon post snaps from the outbound activity camp that we went to recently, to play and select games to be played by the new batch during the "Bind Unwind" activity. We had lots of fun there.

Thats it then for now from ISB ...... goodbye.

Alum life during orientation week

2006-04-19T23:27:00.000-07:00

This is how a typical alumnus, if you could think of one, would spend his day at ISB during the orientation week:

9:30AM - Get up wondering if it is already past 10AM and if breakfast would have already been over (Sarovar closes breakfast session at 10AM). Happy that it is not 10AM yet. Make up mind to get up, do morning ablutions and rush for breakfast

10AM - "Chodo yaar ... kaun jaayega itni door breakfast karne ... lunch kar lenge". Go outside the room, do a lot of timepass, talk to others who have just gotten up.

11AM - Go to the atrium or to the auditorium to either give gyaan (read "talk to a fresh ISBian") or listen to what gyan others from his/her batch are giving

1:30PM - Time for lunch. Bitch about Sarovar food still being all the same but eat it to heart's content

2:30PM - Time to go back to the atrium and again start talking to batchmates or to the new Class of 2007 guys/gals

5PM - Time to go back to Executive Housing, the place where we are put up

5:30PM - Come back to our rooms, check mails and talk to people around

8:00PM - Time for dinner. Move slowly to the dinner hall

9:00PM - Time to go to the auditorium for gyaan sessions during the night

11:30PM - All gyaan sessions over. Time to move to the party that is happening in one of the student villages

4AM - The number of people who are still left dancing is very less. It is time to move back to room to catch some sleep

5AM - Come back to room and start sleeping

..... and the cycle continues

Orientation Time

2006-04-18T02:49:00.000-07:00

Its orientation time for the new batch here at ISB. Till now they have been tortured with all the official presentations and they are spending most of their day in the auditorium here. We had the treasure hunt and some of the student club presentations today. The presentation of the day was by 'Bhakti Club' and ATA, its president was awesome, as he always is. The kind of questions that were asked by the new batch during most of the presentations have made us stay rest assured that they will be able to do CP relentlessly and keep the flag flying high.

I went to my quad today to check out who were its new occupants and to my surprise found it empty. Only a few housekeeping guys were there doing some work. Looks like the quad has not yet been allotted to anyone yet.

Tomorrow we have an event planned for almost the entire day called "Bind Unwind" which will keep the new batch occupied outdoors for most of the time. We have really enjoyed putting this event together for them and we hope they enjoy it too.

Back at ISB

2006-04-15T04:12:00.000-07:00

Yaahoooooooooooooooo ..... I am back at ISB. Had a wonderful view of the campus at night from the sky just before landing at Hyderabad ..... could clearly see the main building, the SVs, the road to the main gate, the campuses adjacent to ISB etc. The ISB swimming pool was shining. In case you are landing at Hyderabad from any place to the north of it, you should mostly be able to see ISB from the air if you are sitting towards the right side of the plane (works for flights from Delhi and Mumbai at least). You will be able to identify it clearly if you already have some rough idea about how the campus looks on the ground and what is where.

It feels great to be awake in campus at this hour without any assignments to be submitted. We have been just chatting and roaming around the campus since we came here. Some of us, including me, will be going out of campus for two days. I should be back here on the 16th night.

I m home

2006-04-12T17:27:00.000-07:00

Imhome. Reached here yesterday afternoon and since then have been sleeping and eating home made food for most of the time. Spent the day watching India get thrashed by England in cricket.

Got a call from KP yesterday just a few minutes after I arrived here and it felt really nice to talk to him. We, along with Alok and Vikram, had a real cool time as quadmates for one year. Wonder who will be allocated our quad in the next batch and how lively they would keep it. The housekeeping guys at ISB, while doing the exit formalities, told us that ours was the most lively quad they had seen in the last 2-3 years they had been here. Something or the other always used to happen in our quad ... either movie screening or general chat or bitching sessions or something else. Miss them a lot now.

Next post will most probably be from ISB.

Last day at ISB

2006-04-10T00:01:00.000-07:00

Today is my last day as a student in the Class of 2006 at ISB.

The campus looked so full of life today morning, but since then a lot of people have left this place and there is a strange calmness all around now. When I went to have dinner a few hours back, the student dining room was empty with just one or two people trickling in once in a while. The realization that I am no longer going to be here did not dawn on me as much till then as it did when I saw the empty dining hall. It was a really strange feeling and I just didn't want to leave this place. I generally get attached to places but have never experienced such a sense of belongingness ever before. The one that comes closes to this is the feeling I had when I left Motorola/Freescale to join ISB.

I will be leaving for Delhi in a few hours time and intend to come back to ISB on 14th of this month for next batch's orientation week. May not be able to blog for the next 2-3 days time. Will be back with more graduation snaps and news from the orientation week then.

Last but not the least, I would like to thank all the people who have been reading this blog and have been leaving comments regularly to make it lively. Hope I continue to blog and hope you continue to support this blog by visiting it whenever time permits.

Love you ISB .......... goodbye ........ will try to be back soon.

Graduation day - Class of 2006

2006-04-09T00:05:00.000-07:00

Here is a press release about our batch's graduation ceremony which sums up the event well. I think this should be up on the ISB site also soon. I will also try to post some more snaps from the event soon. So here goes .......

ISB Celebrates its Fifth Successful Graduating Class

Hyderabad, April 8, 2006: The Indian School of Business held its Graduation Day for the Class of 2006 at its campus in Hyderabad today. Three hundred and forty five students were awarded certificates for the Post Graduate Programme in Management at the school’s Fifth Graduation ceremony. Mr. Ratan Tata, Chairman TATA Sons Limited, the Chief Guest for the evening gave away the certificates to the students who got on to the stage in black gowns adorned with the School colours, as family and friends watched them glowing with pride. Mr. Rajat Gupta, Chairman of the Governing Board of ISB and Members of the ISB Executive & Governing Board were some of the distinguished guests present on the occasion.

Addressing the ceremony, Professor Rammohan Rao, Dean, Indian School of Business said, “Our students have done exceptionally well. The talents of our students have been well appreciated by the corporate world, and we have had yet another outstanding placements season. It has been our endeavour at the ISB to provide an environment to suit the changing trends of the global business scenario so that the graduating students are well-equipped to take-up meaningful and challenging assignments. We wish all of our graduates the best as they venture off on the paths they have choose to travel.

In an inspiring speech replete with encouragement, the Chief Guest, Mr. Ratan Tata, Chairman Tata Sons Limited said that the graduation was, “A great moment for the students because it marked the termination of a curriculum which is amongst the best in the country and also because you head into the business world in India at a very exciting time-a time when India is being seen by the world as a country on the move. And you have an opportunity to play a role in the future development of the country.” He went on to say, “If you believe in what you are trying to do and pursue it and stay with it in a determined manner, I am sure you will succeed.” He concluded his address by wishing the graduating students, “I hope that a class like yours will leave your mark not only on your colleagues in the industry but for future generations to look back on you.”

Thanking the faculty at the ISB and the family members of the students for helping them achieve their goal, Mr. Rajat Gupta, Chairman of the Governing Board of ISB asked the graduating class, “Go with a learning mindset. You will learn from everything you do, but only if you look and have the mindset.” He encouraged the students to help others succeed, “If you make other people successful, they in turn will help you succeed.” He requested the students to learn the habit of giving, “You have got a lot from the society and the institution. Give back to both in whatever measure for it will hold you in great stead.”

Jubilant cheers rent the normally calm atmosphere that characterises the Academic Centre as the Class of 2006 came up to the stage to collect their certificates. The crowning moment of a year that has seen the students achieve many firsts, was witnessed and celebrated by their families and friends who had come in from all over the country, ISB Board members and many corporate honchos.

The School launched with pride, yet another batch of very bright and energetic change drivers to unleash their managerial magic in the industry. At the graduation Shankar Prasad and Gaurav Bansal were awarded the ISB Scholars of Excellence Awards in recognition of their all-round exceptional academic performance. The ISB Merit Scholarships were awarded to the top 53 students of the class for their distinctive performance in various spheres during the year of study.

Shankar Prasad, a proud student and one of the top performers of the Class of 2006 said, “I was thrilled to be a part of a student group drawn from all over the world with diverse backgrounds. It’s been a challenging year but every moment has been worth it. We would like to thank the ISB for giving to us an environment of learning and instilling in us a drive to achieve this monumental goal. We owe it to the world-class faculty for being our instructors, mentors, and friends during our memorable stint at the ISB.”

The outgoing class organized successful summits and knowledge sharing sessions in different spheres which saw participation from eminent business and political leaders, leading academicians and young achievers. Some of the notable ones being – organizing the ISB Leadership Summit which provided a platform for evoking thought leadership in a global business environment, Ikshaa -The Marketing Summit giving valuable insights to the marketers of tomorrow and the healthcare summit giving an overview of the healthcare industry which is becoming increasingly diverse. The varied experiences and approaches adopted by the students through the year contributed to enriching the learning experience at the ISB.

As the evening came to a close moods of joy slowly faded to one tinged with a touch of sadness as the realisation dawned that the incredible experience that is the ISB had come to an end for another class. The young men and women who said the final hurrah at the campus this evening were now moving out, ready to script their individual destinies.

About the ISB

The Indian School of Business is a research-oriented independent management institution that grooms future leaders for India and the world. Its association with the Kellogg School of Management, The Wharton School, and London Business School make it one of its kind in Asia. The School offers a one-year Post Graduate Programme; short-duration, high-powered Executive Education programmes for CEOs and senior executives; and a two-year Research Fellowship Programme. The origins and distinctive research of our faculty members ensure that our programme content is contemporary and global in its perspective, and develops our students’ understanding of modern management opportunities and challenges.

For more information, please contact:

Bhuvana Ramalingam
Director - Communications
Indian School of Business
Tel: 09394568016

Chief Guest, Mr. Ratan Tata, Chairman Tata Sons Limited with Rajat Gupta, Chairman, ISB at the Graduation Day Ceremony of the Class of 2006 at the ISB.

Professor M Rammohan Rao, Dean , ISB shaking hands with the Chief Guest Mr. Ratan Tata, Chairman Tata Sons Limited during the Graduation Ceremony of the Class of 2006 at the ISB.

Chief Guest Mr. Ratan Tata, Chairman Tata Sons Limited , speaking at the Graduation Day Ceremony at the ISB.

Graduating Students of the Class of 2006 at the ISB

Some snaps from photo shoot and award ceremony

2006-04-08T08:45:00.000-07:00

Here are some snaps from the batch photo shoot and the award ceremony that happened yesterday:

Snaps taken during photo shoot

(L to R) Vikram & I

Thats me

Thats me again ...

Some of my batchmates from my section (D)

ISB Yound Leader & ISB Torchbearer Award (YLA & TBA)

Ankur Warikoo (YLA & TBA)

Krishna Gopal Depura (YLA & TBA)

Thats me (YLA & TBA)

Rohit Kapoor (YLA & TBA)

Anand (TBA)

Barney a.k.a Bharani (TBA)

Do not have snaps of the other TBA recepients.

Professors & TA of the year

Prof. Krishna Kumar (Best Professor - Core Terms)

Prof. Nirmal Gupta (Best Professor - Elective Terms, my favorite)

Muzaffar Jamal (Best Academic Associate of the year)

Tomorrow is the big day

2006-04-07T19:21:00.000-07:00

Its graduation day tomorrow - officially the last day of my year at ISB. We had the dress rehearsal of the graduation ceremony along with the batch photograph session today afternoon. We also had the awards for the Best Professor of the Core Terms, Best Professor of the Elective Terms, Best Academic Associate and the ISB Young Leaders and ISB Torchbearers award presented today evening. Please click here for more details on the award ceremony.

The near and dear ones of many students are there on campus for the graduation ceremony and many areas on campus suddenly look so densely populated. Dad's on campus too and seems quite impressed by the infrastructure here.

Will post snaps from the graduation day and batch photograph sessions later. Since I am disconnected from the ISB network (as a part of the exit process), I can no longer access internet as easily as I used to do earlier. Hence the delay in posting the snaps and in replying to some of the comments.

Will be back with more news from the graduation day tomorrow.

News about Class of 2006 Placements

2006-04-06T07:48:00.000-07:00

You can check out the following links for some news about the Class of 2006 placements. A word of caution in case you are planning to apply to b-schools: Though ISB has broken many records w.r.t b-school placements (highest international salary offered etc), please do not judge a b-school just by the highest or the average salary that a batch got. There is lot more to evaluating your fit with a B-School than just this and there are lot more good things about ISB than just this. Here are a few links:

ISB achieves its best ever placement results
Lateral Placements and Career Shifts: Pioneering Concepts by the ISB
Growing Focus on Job Satisfaction
Media Emerges as a Hot Sector

Official Press Release about the Placements

Graduation day draws closer

2006-04-05T09:20:00.000-07:00

Just three more days to go to graduation !!

Went to the Golconda fort yesterday in the evening. The sound and light show was impressive (they basically tell you about the histrory of the fort and the narrative is supported by lights thrown at different places in the fort so as to maintain your attention on the story). Went to a movie after that.

I have given my laptop for formatting to the IT department here today as a part of the exit formalities. This essentially means that I will not have the luxury of sitting in my room and accessing internet any more.

I plan to come back to ISB for the orientation week planned for the next batch. Will be a good experience to actually meet people with whom I have been corresponding till now through mail/phone.

One more piece of information before I sign off ..... ISB is officially declaring the placements results of our batch today. Heard that there are press conferences today in Delhi and in Hyderabad.

Enjoying the last few days here

2006-04-04T04:30:00.000-07:00

I am just chilling out and enjoying the last few days on campus as a student. It feels really strange to no longer have any assignments to do or bulkpacks to read.

Went to see the movie "Being Cyrus". The movie has a powerful cast (Naseeruddin Shah, Dimple Kapadia, Saif Ali Khan, Boman Irani etc) who have done their job well, but I felt the storyline lacks the punch. May not be a good choice for a movie in case you are one of those types that wants a good return for the expenditure made on the ticket(s), but ok to watch in case you just want to do timepass.

Came back to campus close to midnight. Aditya, Vikram and I then decided to hit the tennis courts (on campus) and had a lot of fun playing tennis for 3 hours from about 12:45AM to 3:45AM.

Graduation ceremony is on the 8th and the admin guys have almost completed setting up the AC hangars for the same. Pictures are available on Barney 's blog. Students have started getting the required clearances on their exit form. Many have gone to Goa for 3-4 days. Alok has gone to Tirupati to get rid of all his sins and should be back tomorrow. The quad will be up to full occupancy then and it will be even more fun with everyone busy taking KP's happiness :-)

A trip to Nagarjunasagar

2006-04-03T10:06:00.000-07:00

A group of us planned all of a sudden during the party day before yesterday to go to Nagarjunasagar and hit the road yesterday morning. Nagarjunasagar is the world's largest masonry dam and is located about 150 kms away from Hyderabad. The dam was inaugurated on 10th Dec 1955 by Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India and construction was completed in 1966.

We left ISB at about 9:15AM (had planned to start by 7AM earlier .... blame it on the party) on 3 bikes and a Tata Indica and reached Nagarjunasagar at about 1:15PM. It should usually take about 3 hrs to travel to Nagarjunasagar but we got delayed thanks to a rally or something that was happening near one of the villages en-route. Driving a bike to the place might be a good idea if the weather is pleasant but it might prove to be a bit difficult if the weather is too hot. Luckily for us, though the weather was bright and sunny, it wasn't as hot as usual and the people who rode the bikes enjoyed the experience.

When we reached the last stretch that would lead to the dam (the last stretch essentially being a road that curves around the lake formed by the dam) we were told that cars would have to take a separate route to the place but bikes would be allowed to proceed ahead.

The road from where this snap has been taken is the one used by bikes. The road that you can see curving below this one is the one that is used by cars.

View from the road used by cars and heavy vehicles

When we reached the dam, we traveled over it using bikes and had a very good view of the dam and its surroundings. Its really amazing to imagine how they would have built it back then. Cars are a strict no-no here. People who have come with cars can take auto-rickshaws that will take them over the dam and bring them back. There are also boat rides to the Nagarjunakonda museum that is located on an island nearby and the last trip to the museum is at about 1:30PM. We decided to skip the trip and instead spend more time at the Ettipotala falls (thats how it was spelt at the entrance to the falls).

A distant view of the dam and the reservoir

After seeing the dam, we had lunch at a restaurant called Samagamam in a place called Vijay Vihar nearby. The food was South Indian and it tasted good. The side dishes were manageable.

We then left for the Ettipotala falls which are located about 15 kms from the dam. There is one single road that leads to the falls but you have to be very careful not to miss a small board that indicates that you have to take a left turn to the falls from the main road. Here is a snap of the board and you can see for yourself that it is kind of difficult to see it (and of course read the stuff that is written, in case you don't know Telugu) unless you know about it and are on the lookout for it.

The Ettipotala falls are formed from the rain waters of the Nallamalai hills. More details on the same below:

You can do two things here. To have a good view of the falls, you can buy tickets (Rs. 15 per head for adults and Rs 10 per head for children) and have a good look from top and/or you can proceed downstream and take a bath. We decided to take a dip first and spent about 2 hours lazing around in the stream that emerges from the falls. Though the water isn't very deep, the rocky bed is very slippery due to a thick layer of algae that has formed over the years. The water, due to its flow, also tries to pull you downstream but there are rocks to hold on to. Here are a few snaps:

L to R: Rajani, Raam (not me, the other one ... note the extra 'a' in the name), Rishi, Ram (thats me) and Mani. Murali and Karthik, who are the other members of the gang are missing from this pic.

Karthik a.k.a KR a.k.a KaRa

Chandravanka and Suryavanka that constitute the Ettipotala falls

The falls

View from the spot downstream where we took a dip

There is a light show that happens when it gets dark in which you can see the falls lighted with different colors. We decided not to stay for the show and started our return journey at about 5:45PM. We reached ISB at 9:45PM. Here are some more snaps:

The falls

A group of folk dancers performing near the falls

More parties

2006-04-02T01:36:00.000-08:00

S had invited some of us to his home for dinner. I had home-cooked food after a long long time and I must thank S and his wife J for the same. Felt really nice eating such good food without using fork and spoon (with hands of course) after such a long time. Vatha kolambu (a South Indian dish similar to sambar) was prepared real delicious. Unable to move around after stuffing ourselves, we all then sat at one place and sang a lot of songs. After that we moved to K's house where he and his wife P had kept desserts ready. Watched a real old, hilarious tam movie for some time after that. We then went to the party (April fools day party?) that was organized here.

Life has suddenly become real cool ... not that it was real sad types earlier, but then there used to be at least something to do almost everyday. But now, the only main thing that is left is getting all exit related formalities completed. The rest of the day looks so boring.

We have planned for a trip outside Hyderabad and we plan to travel the entire distance on bikes. The time we get up tomorrow, or should I say today, will decide whether we go on the trip or not. I think I better sleep off now if I have the slightest desire to make the trip.

Till the next post then ........ zzzzzz

Its all over !!!!!

2006-03-31T13:47:00.000-08:00

Yessssssss .... I am through with all my exams and have completed all acads related requirements here. So god willing and profs and academic services office permitting, I should graduate next week. So what am I doing right now .... relaxing, writing this blog entry and exploring the Yahoo Mail Beta that has come out with this new outlook kind of look. I feel it is much better than the older interface.

I was thinking yesterday night about all the people who have made a difference to my life, if you could term it that way. Here are the names that came up immediately (apart from immediate family):

Rajnish - my best friend who has always been there by my side. He was the one responsible for my applying to ISB and consequently spending this wonderful year of my life here.

Shri T.R. Dhandapany - my mridangam guru. Though teaching the art of playing percussion instruments is the only means of earning livelihood for him and though he charges very modest fees, he has been kind enough to teach people who couldn't afford even that much, for free. Whatever little I know about playing percussion instruments is primarily because of what I learnt from him.

Mrs. Sophy Jacob - my biology teacher at school who has been a strong influence. I can never forget how much she helped all of her students. Had it not been for fate and my not meeting the minimum age requirements for medical entrance exams, my interest in biology and the way she taught the subject would have possibly taken me on to a career in medicine.

ST2 gang @ ST Microelectronics (Anil, Lippika, Gurpreet, Sarika, Don, Rao & Jyoti) - These people changed my life completely (for the good). I would, in all probability, have been a different kind of a person, had I not met these people.

Dr. Bhuwan Agrawal - my manager at Motorola/Freescale, a very frank person from whom I have learnt a lot in life. For the four years that I worked there before coming to ISB, he has mostly assigned me work that was at the cutting edge of technology and completely new or that was the "in thing" so to say, for the company and for the semiconductor industry. I have always enjoyed working with him and would have never left my group there had it not been for the urge to do an MBA, a lot of push from Rajnish and the desire to proceed ahead in a different track altogether in life.

Dr. Vladimir Zolotov, Dr. Mahbub Rashed, Dr. Ertugrul Demircan & Dr. Rajendran Panda & his team - with whom I had the opportunity to work on a lot of the new stuff at Motorola/Freescale. Vladimir is probably the most intelligent and knowledgeable techie I have ever talked to. He has this knack of explaining complicated stuff in 'a simple and easy to understand and appreciate' kind of way.

The "IN" gang (mainly Ritu, Jassu, Katya Bhai, Vutu & Amitabh) - with whom I have spent probably the happiest days of my life. We used to freak out like anything.

I have to also thank my quadmates Alok, KP and Vikram and the entire Class of 2006 with whom I spent my year at ISB. Having interacted at least once with almost everyone in the batch and having interacted regularly with so many people, I am sure there are a lot of batchmates who will continue to be my (good) friends for a long time to come, if not for life.

Last Class @ ISB

2006-03-30T13:38:00.000-08:00

Just came back from my last class at ISB - the last lecture of Managing Markets by Prof Nirmal Gupta. It was an awesome class, especially because of the case chosen for analysis today. It was a two page case after reading which none of us could have possibly predicted that such a detailed analysis could be done just from the data given.

I just can't stop raving about how good Prof Nirmal Gupta is. I just feel like becoming his disciple for ever and just keep following him wherever he goes teaching. Of course my hugely negative bank balance and responsibilities towards kith and kin (duniya ke bandhan yaar ..... aur kya) won't allow me to do that. But one thing I would surely say to the next batch and to the batches after that, at the risk of being responsible for increasing the bid points for Prof Gupta's courses, is that his courses are a 'must take' if you have interest in sales/marketing.

I have an exam tomorrow (the same course - Managing Markets) after which I will officially complete my term 8 and whatever is required of me from the acads side. Just waiting for that moment to arrive (not for the start of the exam but for its end).

Section D Collage

2006-03-29T10:05:00.000-08:00

Here is a Section D collage that I prepared along with the section video and other stuff for the section party on Monday. It contains the snaps of all guys and gals of my section (D). You can zoom in to see the individual snaps.

Insightful CPs - Part 4

2006-03-28T02:01:00.000-08:00

Yes ... its time for one more of the insightful ones made by our batch .... and this one happened as recently as yesterday in the international marketing class. I haven't taken this subject but got to know about the CP at the section party yesterday. So here goes .....

Professor shows a slide depicting a graph that shows a higher percentage of population in the age group of 15-60 yrs in China than in India.

Student: Prof, this means that the reproducing population in China is more than that in India

Prof (thinking): @##$#$^$%$#$%$#%

Parties Galore

2006-03-27T23:57:00.000-08:00

Admissions dept threw a party on Friday for all the people who had been involved in the admissions process. Spouses were also invited. It was certainly one of the best parties we have had here at ISB, may be because the party was of a different type - it was a party cum cruise in Hussain Sagar lake, here in Hyderabad. Needless to say, we had lots and lots of fun. Booze, food and whatever else you could get in a party were all on the house and people got drunk real crazy ..... some were unable to distinguish the lake from the rest room on board :-) . We had lots of fun on the way back too with Rohit K a.k.a McBaba in the best of form. We pulled each others' legs a lot through modified versions of bollywood songs with McBaba leading the way.

The sad part however is that the Hussain Sagar lake is being maintained real bad. Many people don't think twice before throwing rubbish into the water and one can feel the stench when standing near the water.

We had a batch party on Saturday with Warikoo a.k.a DJ199 in full swing. Then we had a party yesterday at Barney's apartment and had some real good fun. Today we had the section D party ... and this one was after a looooooooong loooooooooong time.

Term 8 for me officially ends this Friday when I should be done with the Managing Markets exam. There are some people who are through with their ISB acads today itself. Lucky guys :-(

Will post some snaps from the parties later.

Professor of the Year - Elective Terms

2006-03-25T12:57:00.000-08:00

Prof Nirmal Gupta (Marketing) has been voted by our batch as the "Professor of the Year - Elective Terms". Earlier, our batch had voted Prof. Krishna Kumar (Macroeconomics) as the "Professor of the Year - Core Terms".

As I have written before, Prof. Nirmal Gupta is the professor I have liked the most here. The way he teaches marketing is just phenomenal. He has taught us two courses in the elective terms - Marketing Implementation in Term 5 and Managing Markets in Term 8. I must say that all people in the next batch who are planning to major in marketing should take these two courses. I think the next batch is really lucky to have him do a session during their orientation on learning through case studies. He had done this for our batch very late in the year and we had requested him to do this before Term 1 starts for the next batch. If you are joining ISB Class of 2007 and you are reading this post, then mark this - attend his case study lecture, pay full attention and take adequate notes. All things may not make sense right on the day you hear them, but as you go through the year and solve cases, you will be able to appreciate the stuff more and more.

One of the key benefits to me of coming to ISB has been getting the opportunity to learn from some really good professors like Prof Gupta. For example, the professors for the subjects I have taken in Term 8 - Profs Cathy Tinsley & Stephen Nason (Negotiations Analysis), Prof Francesca Cornelli (Advanced Corporate Finance) and of course Prof Nirmal Gupta (Managing Markets), have all been real good. These professors have also been making some very serious effort to take feedback on the courses from the students and incorporate it in their future lectures or for the next time they will be teaching the course. For instance, Prof Stephen Nason was standing outside the examination hall yesterday and talked to some of us after the negotiation analysis exam about the cases we discussed in class to find out what cases were really helpful and to get feedback about how he can make the course even better. It is really good to see even profs with a lot of teaching experience behind them do this (apart from the feedback that ISB collects from us for the courses).

The Year @ ISB - Part 5

2006-03-24T03:08:00.000-08:00

dUnKiNg GlOrY

There was a dunking competition between the sections organized close to midnight. A poll had been done earlier in the batch to crown the dunking dude and dudette of our batch and they were dunked too. Here are snaps from the event ..... all these snaps come courtesy "Vickie - The Clickie", our batch's most enthusiastic photographer. He and his camera are inseparable.

Dunking Dude & Dudette of the batch

"Arey .. yeh kahan fenk diya logon ne mujhe"

Spin of the year

"Paani bahut thanda hai bhai"

Section C team in the team dunking event

"Aaja beta .... tu bhi aaja"

Insightful CPs - Part 3

2006-03-23T01:45:00.000-08:00

This one could go on to become a strong candidate for the CP (class participation) of the year .... well, as told to me, this happened in the Behavioral Finance class today (technically yesterday, since its around 1:45AM now) .....

Professor: "..... and research shows that married women have lesser number of kids than married men ..."
Student: "Excuse me professor, but I thought a kid only happens to a married man and a (married) woman"

:-) :-) :-)

The Year @ ISB - Part 4

2006-03-22T09:19:00.000-08:00

Student village parking lot

Rang barse .....

Rang-bathing

Aaj mein uper .....

Exchange student A & his pyjamas

The Year @ ISB - Part 3

2006-03-21T09:13:00.000-08:00

Way 2 go (waise apne desh mein har cheez ke liye line kyun lagta hai yaar?)

Frisbee match in progress

Volleyball !!

Ek aur din nikal gaya

The (lighted) lawns in front of the acad center

The Year @ ISB - Part 2

2006-03-20T11:48:00.000-08:00

Kya baarish mein chai ka mazaa isi ko kehte hain?

Mass Dunking

Abe kab khatam hoga yaar ye sab??

Lifeline for some ..... or should I say many

Ab saare funde clear ho gaye hain

The Year @ ISB - Part 1

2006-03-18T19:21:00.000-08:00

The year @ ISB is almost getting over for our batch. I have spent some of the most wonderful moments of my life here and have thoroughly enjoyed being here. Here are a few snaps of our batch to recount the wonderful experience (with due credits to my batchmates who took these snaps) .......

Time for a family to go to school

Bas beta .. thodi der aur.. mera assignment poora ho jaayega

Wow ... dad has gone to school ... and I am FREEEEEEEEEEE !!!!!

Dunked

Maslow's "Hierarchy of Needs" for an ISBian

Concerts @ Hyderabad

2006-03-17T09:59:00.001-08:00

This one is for music lovers @ Hyderabad. South Indian Cultural Association (SICA) is organizing its annual festival of music and dance from 15 to 22 March, 2006, daily at 6.30 pm. The venue is Telugu Lalitha Kala Thoranam open-air auditorium, Public Gardens, Hyderabad.

The concert schedule is as follows:

15 Mar 2006 (Wed): Bombay Jayashri Ramnath (Vocal)
16 Mar 2006 (Thu): Urmila Satyanarayana (Bharathanatyam)
17 Mar 2006 (Fri): Malladi Brothers (Vocal Duet)
18 Mar 2006 (Sat): Kadri Gopalanath (Saxophone)
19 Mar 2006 (Sun): Shoba Naidu & party (Kuchipudi dance ballet 'Vipranarayana' )
20 Mar 2006 (Mon): Priya Sisters (Vocal duet)
21 Mar 2006 (Tue): Madurai T.N.Seshagopalan (vocal)
22 Mar 2006 (Wed): Sriram Parasuram and Anuradha Sriram (Hindusthani-Carnatic Jugalbandi)

I want to attend the concert of Madurai T.N.Seshagopalan, my all time favorite singer, but the schedule of classes here is playing spoilsport. Trying to work things out.

Trivandrum Smt. Jayashri Shankar, who is the wife of a batchmate of mine here and a resident spouse at ISB is giving a vocal concert on Saturday, March 25th from 6 to 8 pm. The concert is organized by Kalasagaram, Hyderabad at Plot 59, Krishnapuri Colony, West Marredpally, Near Government Music College, Hyderabad. Admission is free.

ISB - Amazing View

2006-03-16T20:10:00.000-08:00

Here is a snap of ISB taken from an aircraft by one of my classmates here who is an exchange student ....... real good view of the campus.

and here is the same snap with text indicating what is where ......... click to enlarge

HAPPY HOLI !!!!!!!!!!!!

2006-03-15T10:50:00.000-08:00

Wishing you a HAPPY HOLI !!!!

Here are some snaps from the Holi celebrations @ ISB .......

Who are these hooligans?

A trip to "God's Own Country"

2006-03-14T04:09:00.000-08:00

Six of us - Ramki, Rajani, Murali, KaRa, Clickie & I went on a trip to Guruvayur in Kerala. Guruvayur is home to the famous Guruvayurappan (Lord Krishna) Temple. I had visited the temple only once before this when I was about 9 years old and have very vague memories of that visit. I had been wanting to go back to the temple for many years now and am happy that I could finally make the trip.

Guruvayur is about 30 kms from Trissur in Kerala. There is only one direct train to Trissur from Hyderabad called Sabari Express and it takes about 24 hours to reach there. From Trissur, we took a bus and reached Guruvayur in about 45 minutes at around 3:00PM. We had a slight difficulty in finding accomodation, may be because of the festival going on currently in Guruvayur but finally managed to locate a hotel that had rooms to let. After taking bath and getting ready, we went to visit the temple. The temple has a rule that one can't wear shirt, pant, lungi, pyjama or chudidar inside the temple. In fact this rule is there in many temples in Kerala. Like most other devotees, all of us were wearing veshtis (a traditional apparel for men down south which is basically a long, unstitched cloth wound around the waist and looks very similar to the dhoti).

We were lucky to find "seeveli" happening when we entered the temple. Seeveli is a ceremonial procession with caparisoned elephants, usually done towards the end of morning and evening pooja. In many temples, elephants feature in seeveli only during festive occasions but I am told that at the Guruvayur temple, they are a part of the seeveli daily. The elephants are bred and trained at "Anakotta" which is about 3 kms from Guruvayur. The procession is led by people playing panchavadyams (an orchestra played with five instruments; for more details, click here). The panchavadyam is a treat to the ears, especially if you hear the complete performance which is essentially a crescendo starting with slow beats and reaching the peak towards the end.

After watching the seeveli for sometime, we joined the queue of people waiting to have the darshan. The structure of the inner temple is such that it has oil lamps all around the outside walls. We had the privilege of lighting many of the lamps while we were standing in the queue. We finally had a good darshan and then went to the temple pond. Murali had planned to do angapradakshanam (circumambulation around the inner temple) and had to take a dip inside the pond before the same. Ramki, KaRa and I accompanied him and cleared the way for him while he did the angapradakshanam 3 times.

We then went to the Mammiyur Lord Shiva temple which is about a km or two away from the Guruvayur temple and had a good darshan there too, after which we ate our dinner. Murali and I went back to the temple and came back to our rooms at around 11PM. The six of us slept for about 2.5 hours after which we got up, took bath and got ready to visit the temple at 3AM for the "Nirmalya Darisanam". We did not expect the temple to be crowded so early in the morning and were hence surprised to see the huge turnout. After waiting for a lot of time, we again had a good darshan and after having breakfast outside, proceeded towards Trissur. In Trissur, we visited the Vadakkunathan Temple (of Lord Shiva), which is a very old temple. The temple had a very big enclosure with a lot of open space and many trees. There were three shrines inside the temple dedicated to Lord Shiva (Vadakkunnathan), Lord Shankaranarayanan and Lord Rama.

After visiting the Vadakkunathan temple, we had about 2.5 hours to have lunch and kill time before boarding our train back to Hyderabad. We had planned to go to the beach but then decided against it as we were told that the beach was far off and because we might not be able to be in time to catch the train if we went there.

Rajani's relatives living in Coimbatore met us at the Coimbatore station and brought some delicious home-cooked food to sustain us during the return trip. I just can't stop thinking about how tasty the food was. Need to thank them a lot for the effort that would have gone into the preparation.

I will try to post a few snaps from the trip in one of the later posts. Meanwhile, the following links could be useful in case you are planning a trip to Guruvayur and want to learn more about the place, the temple etc ..

Temple location and how to reach
Accomodation
Temple Customs
Sanctum Sanctorum
Some snaps of the place

Yearbook

2006-03-10T01:14:00.000-08:00

Work has started on our batch's yearbook. There was no concept of an yearbook at my engineering college. It will be really wonderful to open the yearbook many years from now and recount all the wonderful things that we did here. It would also be interesting to read all the 'masala' laden khabar from the yearbook once it comes out. I am eagerly looking forward to its release. Hope I get to write about KP there ;-)

The placement cell has asked us to summarize our interview experience. This should form a good repository for the batches to come. Having been a part of the application evaluation and the interview process for admissions to the next batch, I am also thinking of putting together some dos and donts for prospective applicants.

I am going out of Hyderabad today on a trip and should be back by Monday. May not be able to blog till then. More details on the trip on my return.

30 days to graduation

2006-03-08T19:05:00.000-08:00

Only 30 days remain before I graduate from ISB. Here is what most of my batchmates are busy doing these days - the 8th term coursework, finding out which of their near and dear ones will be coming to graduation and making travel arrangements for them and for their return back home, contacting movers/packers for transporting stuff back home, catching up with some well deserved sleep after slogging for 7 terms and going to the gym to wipe out any signs of prosperity that have appeared.

Holi is on March 15th. Since classes have been scheduled on that day, the Students Family Association (SFA) and A, the guy who organizes all our parties are zeroing in on 12th March (Sunday) as the day for celebrating Holi on a large scale. But what is a Holi that is celebrated on any day other than the "Holi" day. I am planning to go out of Hyderabad this weekend and will miss the celebrations if they happen this Sunday. Hope we have everything happening on 15th itself.

Ending this post with interesting snaps sent by one of my batchmates Giks today. Have a look at the proud new owners of cars parked in one of our student villages:

Insightful CPs - Part 2

2006-03-07T14:21:00.000-08:00

Here are some more .......

------

Student: This industry is not very attractive
Prof: What do you want to say? Is the industry attractive or not attractive?
Student: I am not very sure!
Prof: Again, what do you want to say? Are you sure or not sure?
------

“Actually, I think ......"
------

"As we know, man proposes and god disposes. So .... "
------

There was this student in our section who would always do the following:
Student lifts his hand to ask a question.
Prof: Yes
Student: Actually, I have a question
Prof: Yes
Student: Well, actually I have three questions
------

Admissions director is sharing interesting stats about the batch during orientation when he sees a bullet point in his slide which says "Student XYZ has been certified ..... as @#@$%$%$*%#$$##$sg#$@#$ (some certification worded in Portugese) in the Portugese language"

He asks who this student is and then asks him/her: "How do you pronounce this?" (He is refering to the @#@$%$%$*%#$$##$sg#$@#$ certification)

Student replies (knowing or not knowing what he is refering to): It is pronounced as "Portugese"

There is laughter all around.
------

Prof Jagmohan Raju's style of doing cold calling is unique here as he hits the return key on his laptop and a student's photo pops up who has to answer the question that will appear next. Once Prof Raju in his cold calls in Term 2 came up with a question that was not directly related to what we had learnt so far and the guy who was supposed to answer it was told to try his best. Even if he couldn't answer, the whole class could collectively think and try to arrive at the answer.

Prof Raju: All right. So what is the answer?
Student: Am I allowed to use a lifeline?

There is laughter .....
Student: Can I phone a friend?
Prof Raju: Whom would you like to call?
Student: Prof. Scott Ward

The whole class bursts out laughing.

(Prof Scott Ward taught us Marketing in Term 1)
------

Have to rush to a class now ...... more later ......

Insightful CPs - Part 1

2006-03-06T13:08:00.000-08:00

I was just sitting in my room today doing nothing, as usual, when memories of being in Section D in the first four terms came flooding in. The first thing that came to mind after that was the CPs that used to happen. Here goes some "insightful" class participation (CP) that happened courtesy our batch ..... more to come in the next few posts on this topic. Since some of these are attributed to other sections or to classes I am not a part of, what is written about such CPs is what was told to me.

------
"The best form of communication is mouth-to-mouth communication"
------
"IT may not give you a sustainable competitive advantage ... but not having IT can result in unsustainable uncompetitive disadvantage"
------
"One of my batchmates here in this class once quoted Rudyard Kipling who said that the strength of a wolf is in the pack and the strength of a pack is in the wolf. This means that there is a lot of benefit in collective learning ....."
------
"The $1 tax cut argument won’t hold because it will violate the principle of fallacy of causality"
------
Student: The way I see it…I personally feel 25000% inflation is cruel to society.
Prof: We’ll discuss philosophical issues after the class.
------
"I prefer to buy my diapers from Costco !!!"
------
Student: Isn’t this sad?
Prof: Yes .... it is tragic.
------
"The target segments in IBM Thinkpad ad are: (i) Males and Females, (ii) Those who use laptops and those who don't"
------
Prof: Human beings are the only ones who drink milk of other animals, that too when they are adults.
Student: What about cats?
Prof: Oh yes domesticated cats, too.
------
Prof: “So why is Wal-Mart so successful?”
Student: “What we’ve learnt so far from the Dell case and the Intel case is that nothing succeeds like success.”
------
“Is no culture also a culture ?"
------
Student: If you read the case you will see that ...
Prof: You mean I’ve not read the case???
------

Bloggers in the next batch

2006-03-04T19:06:00.000-08:00

The next batch is scheduled to join ISB on 15th of April and has quite a few bloggers. The following are links to some of the blogs of soon-to-be-ISBians that I know of and visit:

Abhishek Jain
Alok Jain
Anuradha Sunku
Chiranth Chanappa
Deepak Mittal
Disha Rustogi
Kapil Mantri
Karthik Bharathy
Kiran Cavale
Kishore Krishna
Krishnan Ramaswami
Kumar Rajendran
Mahesh Shenoy
Manu Karan
Nikhil Kamma
Piyush Kheria
Priyanka Rath
Rishik Ghosh
Sabyasachi Mohanty
Santosh B S
Shivangi Tiwari
Sowmya Velayudham
Sukalp Sharma
Sumit Poddar
Sundeep Tibrewal
Swapnil Deopurkar
Swapnil Nadkar
Venkat Raman
Vithal Donakonda
Yashovardhan Gupta

Have also added links to these blogs on the left side of the page.

Dubya comes calling

2006-03-03T19:27:00.000-08:00

US President George W Bush visited the ISB campus today. There were so many security personnel here that it looked like the whole of Hyderabad police force had been deployed at ISB. Needless to say, it was entertaining to watch/hear the president speak :-) I was not among the ones who chose to be in the audience at the atrium where the rendezvous happened. Instead, I watched a significant part of the proceedings on the TV at home.

You can find some coverage of Bush's visit here at the following links:

President George W Bush Visits the ISB
"I am Honoured to be at the ISB” – President Bush
"ISB is a Centre of Excellence" - President Bush
Pictures & Video Clips of the visit
Has a US Prez ever visited your campus?
Bush favors outsourcing
The world needs India: Bush
President Bush Meets with Young Entrepreneurs at the ISB

Dis-orientation week for "Almost Alums"?

2006-03-02T14:53:00.000-08:00

Got a mail today from the admin people here that addressed us as "Almost Alums". The mail had details of the graduation ceremony. The week before the ceremony has also been termed as dis-orientation week (The first week on campus was termed orientation week). Upon reading this, a few of us (idle minds ... what else) started thinking about what might be planned for the dis-orientation week. When we came to ISB from the real world, we had nothing to do except study, work hard and utilize the facilities provided. Drinking water could be got from any tap on campus. Housekeeping guys would come to change linen and clean the room. So many other hassles which one would face in the world outside were suddenly non-existent. "AC" started commenting that the disorientation week probably was to condition us for the real world. Housekeeping guys would probably stop coming, we would have to cook our own food or order food from outside, washing machines will not be operational and we would have to wash clothes on our own with our hands etc etc ..

Dubya is coming to campus tomorrow (in all probability). Security people are all over the place and security checks are being carried out at many points. There was a security briefing held yesterday afternoon by the DIG of police and by our dean. There were many humerous moments during the briefing. The DIG warned against going near US security men/snipers out of curiosity :-). We will have to warn KP (arey .. saadda KP .. apna quaddie .. who else) against doing anything like that and keep him indoors tomorrow :-)

Courses this term

2006-03-01T23:54:00.000-08:00

After sampling the courses, I have finally decided to choose the following three:
1) Managing Markets - Prof. Nirmal Gupta
2) Advanced Corporate Finance - Prof. Francesca Cornelli
3) Negotiation Analysis - Prof. Cathy Tinsley (Sessions 1 to 5)/Prof. Stephen Nason (Sessions 6 to 10)

Decided to drop the "Leadership Lessons from World Literature" course after much thought. Though the prof is good and I like to listen to him speak, there are just 3 courses I need to do this term to complete the required credits and the above three courses came out a shade more important to me.

Attended all the three lectures yesterday. Found all three profs to be really good. If you are in the next batch or plan to join ISB at any point of time in the future and plan to take courses in marketing, then you should surely take any courses that Prof. Nirmal Gupta teaches. He will, in all probability, be the best professor of marketing you will ever get to see.

Results of this year's round 2 of ISB admissions are out. We have just a month more to go before we leave this place and make way for the next batch which will join here on the 15th of April.

Term 8 begins

2006-02-27T14:01:00.000-08:00

Term 8 started today. I have to take 3 subjects this term. Have got 3 and am waitlisted in 1. So would have to choose 3 out of those 4 after sampling the classes today and tomorrow.

I had just one class to attend today - "Leadership Lessons from World Literature" by Prof. Rajeshwar Upadhyaya. As written by the professor in the introductory part of the course material, "To use some of the best-written books to cull out the meaning of leadership and our roles as professionals, is an overarching objective of this course". I had chosen this course because I had been influenced quite a bit by Prof. Upadhyaya when he took the Leadership Development Program for us earlier in the core terms. He is a really good speaker. There were moments in today's class when there was a pause for a few seconds between two lines that he spoke and I could actually hear the wall-clock ticking (I think it was the wall clock :-) ) as there was pin-drop silence then. People were listening intently to whatever he was saying. He is one professor to watch out for when you come to ISB. There is a very high chance that you will like him.

I have three classes to sample tomorrow which means that its going to be a really long day.

Just a little more than a month to go before my ISB stint comes to an end :-(

Bush to visit ISB?

2006-02-24T03:01:00.000-08:00

US President George W. Bush is expected to visit ISB when he comes to Hyderabad during his visit to India. More details are available at http://in.rediff.com/news/2006/feb/23bush5.htm