The stone corriders of power

The day began badly with the news that CH has contracted Chicken pox and will not be attending the IIMB interviews. I felt bad and decided to do my best to present his case in front of the IIMB people. So I decided to scrap my original plan of an A/C volvo and instead took an auto to IIMB. I reached there by 8:20 and found a friend from TIME GD/PI batch all tucked up in her business suit. "This is the first one of the innumerable suit clad aspirants I am going to see today" I thought. Of course I expected this when I dressed up myself in a simple formal wear(no tie, no suit). She helped me find our interview room and I found that CH and I am were in the same panel, now that makes it easier. I met the person in charge and told him the situation. Next I went on to meet my panel and found that 3 of the 4 guys in the panel were Arjuns. That was surprising, I always thought my name was not that common. :( Anyways it was a nice group and in a few minutes, we were all engrossed in chit-chat.

Precisely at 9, we were called in for the GD and given a case to read. The case was about how English is getting more priority when it comes to primary education and how vernacular languages are losing out. The various issues leading to the problem etc etc.

I think the GD went pretty well. I started the GD and gave it a direction with some historical examples. ;) Can't help it, somehow or the other history finds me everywhere. We discussed how and why English is more popular and important in the present globalized world. Then we discussed about how this is becoming an economic problem as government is not realizing this and is still going by its dilapidated policies. How it is tough to learn 2 languages if the script and grammar are completely different and how tough it is for people with vernacular language background to cope up with an English language syllabus once they go for professional education. We discussed on and on for full 20 minutes and I found it really tough to summarize the GD. (I hope the faculty were able to decode my summary) :(

Next came the long wait for my interview turn. Actually it was not that long a wait because I was continuously chatting with the people waiting around. Finally my turn came at 11:30 am. I went in and greeted the 2 professors - a lady prof.(P1) and a man(P2) who looked as if he is in his early 40s.

P2: What do you think makes you unique, Arjun?
me: Sir, I have a dream. Told about my dream to set up a loom based industry in Kannur and told him how you won't find a lot of people like me who will be willing to sacrifice a successful career and take such a chance esp. with the notorious name enjoyed by Kannur due to trade union activities. Added that how the dream is not only money oriented but due to the emotional attachment I have with my hometown.

This was a lucky strike because I wanted them to ask me more about these things. So the interview was moving in the direction I wanted.

P2: Define entrepreneurship
me: Initially screwed it up. But patched up some how by saying that starting something new, a new business with the intention to make some money out of it.

P1: Money out of it? Then what is social entrepreneurship
me: I really screwed up the definition here. Came back by bringing in the point of helping people and adding that it is not always money oriented

P1: Ok, then tell me social entrepreneur who made money
me: Mohammed Younus and gave a small description of the concept of Micro finance and how he helped the people in Bangladesh with his Gramin bank. Added that he also made money out of this business

P1 looked convinced

P2: So Arjun, you are an electronics engineer. Why MBA now?
me: Told him CAT 2008 was my 4th attempt elucidating how MBA was always my plan. Again told about my dream company and how I need excellent managerial abilities to make inroads into the matured industy of loom.

P2: Why Rambus and Noesis then (companies I had worked)? How had they helped you? There seems to be a disconnect.
me: Explained how the basic ideas of business never changes. How the B2B marketing will be typically the same in both the industries.

P2: Now that is too much of generalisation. I can related anything to anything in that case.
me: Explained a little about the textile buyers and told him how it is also typically B2B marketing. Explained how at Rambus the business was similar. Talked a bit about what I did at Noesis, explained how it gave me opportunities to innovate and keep an eye for new opportunities.

P2 looked convinced, asked for the certificates

P1: What do you think changed in you after 4 years at NITC?
me: Told how NITC changed me. How it created a completely new person.

P1: What do you think will change in you after 2 years at IIMB?
me: Told her that I am a highly receptive person and I am sure that being with a highly intellectual peer group and faculty will help me figure out the deficiencies in me and will help in correcting them. Added that if you ask me specifically which all new values will be added, I don't know.

P2: Have you thought about your electives.
me: No sir, I tried going through the institute website but found that I will need a good knowledge of almost all the subjects be it Quantitative methods or fin. account to do well as an entrepreneur. So I am keeping my options open until I get a clear idea of these subjects. I am sure that when I learn them in deep, I will understand that which one will be more useful for me.

P2: You want to go into textile industry. But you don't have any experience in the same. How will you contribute to the batch and IIMB?
me: Although I don't have any experience in the industry, I have been seeing the industry from outside and I accept that my knowledge in the same is perfunctionary. Added that I know that IIMB encourages live projects in various industries. Told him how I plan to do my 1st live project on this industry and because I have genuine interset I will gain knowledge fast and hence start contributing to the batch. Also told that I can contribute with my knowledge of semiconductor and education industries where I have experience.

P2: Ok Arjun, any questions for us
me: I was going through your website and an idea hit me. Can I share it with you?

P1 & P2: Sure
me: ok, so IIMB is an institute which gives a lot of emphasis on congenial management and tries to prevent Ivory Tower management. If that is the case, why don't you try to give a course for the top managers of our government. For instance, RAW has been having this problem since decades. And I think you should not even stop with these bureaucrats, you should go and train even the young generation of our politicians like Rahul Gandhi and Yeshodhavaran Schindia

P2: We are already doing it. We have a public policy managment and as part of it, IAS officers and other government managers visit us and undergo trainings. But yes, we have not got an opportunity to interact with Rahul Gandhi or others. What can we do if Rahul Gandhi don't want to interact with us

me: Oh I didn't know that. Sorry for the question then. Why I took the name of Rahul Gandhi was because he, Omar Abdullah and someother politicians attended a Zen teacher's session in parliament. If he is willing to learn from a foreign Zen master, I don't understand why can't he learn from this temple of managment.

P2: yes. I think that is a direction which we should explore.

me: Thank you sir. Thank you madam. It was a great talking to you

And I left. Took an auto and came to office.
Keeping my fingers crossed now for the results.

Where is my money?

This is a story I wrote long time ago. Never got a chance to complete this :)

Once upon a time, in a sleepy village, there lived 2 boys - Mangu and Tingu. They were inseparable friends, the bollywood kind. This was inspite that they were from disparate backgrounds - Mangu was the son of a farmer and Tingu's father literally owned the village. He ran a string of businesses ranging from farming to banking in that village. Mangu was good at studies while Tingu obviously was a 5 point someone(why obviously, come on his father is an ATM, he must be pampered). So far so good, doesn't it sound like a typical bollywood yarana.

Two friends lived happily in their worlds and got through their metriculation exams. The village schools like most other Indian village schools only had classes till 10th and so the buddies were in a dilemma what to do next. Luckily for our pair, this village like any other bollywood village had a learnt masterji who knew virtually "everything" about higher education. So our masterji (clad in his impeccable khadi) advised "Mangu and Tingu, go to the city and continue your education. Mangu, you learn Science and Maths because you got 90 % in metriculation and Tingu, you better learn Commerce as you got only a 50 % and your dad won't mind even if you won't get a job after your studies". Now the masterji told this because he was a southern masterji, there are masterjis in other parts of India who would have given an antonymous advice. Anyway kids loved the advice and so did their parents, but a slight problem - Mangu's father doesn't have money to finance him. Oh my, an emotional point - perfect setting for a song, sorry guys we don't have time for a song. So Tingu jumped in and proclaimed "Mangu will study with me and my dad will finance his education". As Mangu's dad was out of the camera focus, we couldn't catch his facial emotion. Anyway Tingu's dad agreed to finance both their education and on June 1st 1996, the boys embarked on their eventful journey to the city.

1996- Mangu loved Calculus especially the derivatives. Even sleep couldn't separate him from his limits, differentials and integrals, he dreamt from all night. Tingu loved the babes in his class and ofcourse dreamt them whenever he got an opportunity to sleep (which was scanty as he spent his time "productively" with them). So 2 years passed, Mangu passed out as the school topper and Tingu managed to barely pass - finally they both were ready for their college. As is the case with all the school toppers, Mangu opted for engineering and went to IIT Chennai to learn the intricacies of softwares and computers(I know you guys would be wondering about how he managed his finances - he got a scholarship :)). Tingu became a CA aspirant and started working as intern for a multinational auditing firm called PWC.

1998- Mangu loved everything about the computer engineering course. He meticulously learnt the erudite algorithms and computer theories and became the class topper. Tingu hated the books but he liked the MNC environment of PWC, so he loittered around. It was in his third year that Mangu heard about CAT and the mythical IIMs. One of his class mates told him "IIMs are for the best engineering graduates, only a guy really good at maths can crack CAT." (What a misleading statement :( )The omniscient friend continued "It is the rigour and competition, one is subjected to while taking CAT which gets rewarded with wonderful placements by the end of your MBA" (I have to agree to this, IIMs have the cream of the population - this is a big reason why companies offer such lucrative packages to its graduates). Anyway 2 aspects of this remark interest our Mangu - one was the idea that IIMs are for the best people (he thought he was the best) and second the prospect of a huge package when he pass out. So Mangu left his beloved algorithms and plunged into CAT preparations. He burnt the mid night oil cramming the Barrons and Wren and Martin.

2002 - Mangu was going to start his classes at IIMA and was happy that he proved once again that he is among the best. Tingu has finally decided that CA is not his cup of tea and returned back to his village. There he took over his father's business and suprisingly enjoyed it. It might have been in his genes because he started growing his father's unorganised businesses into a fantastically organised conglomerate. Mangu and Tingu constantly kept in touch, thanks to the communication revolution, through mail and chat and Mangu literally became a consultant for Tingu. The alliance worked wonders and Tingu was thinking of listing his company through an IPO. He planned to offer the CEO post to Mangu and be the chairman himself. But Mangu had different plans. He has hit gold at the placement season and has received an offer from the top investment banker Lehmann brothers. His posting was in New York and he was raring to go.

2006 - Tingu spearheaded a business empire. He never went for an IPO, he found an investor from Singapore who pumped in millions of dollars into his unlisted firm and helped him with expansion. His communication with Mangu has dried up after Mangu migrated to U.S. Although Tingu missed his friend, he has found a dozen of MBAs form IIMs to help him in his business and one night Tingu and Mangu found them online at the same time.

Mangu : Buddy how r u? long time ha!
Tingu : hey, true. really long time. Where are you? I tried reaching you a million times.
Mangu : Sorry yaar. I was so busy here. Anyways I am still with LB in New York and it is rocking here. I am one of their hot-shot money manager
Tingu : And when did banking get so interesting. What do you do there?

Intended to be continued but not really going to continue :)

Passion and Devotion

I have been hearing about Byju and his unique CAT coaching for an year now. Although I heard raving reviews about his captivating techniques from his students who were my buddies, I had never considered giving it a shot until I attended his intro-workshop. It all started with an ordinary but honest looking ad in hindu urging CAT aspirants to try out this "new kid in the block" and because it was free I decided to try it out.

Next day after I registered, I received a call from a guy who introduced himself as Byju himself. Now that was unique, we had a small chat and he told me that he is also from Kannur( I knew he was from Kannur the minute he started talking in malayalam :) ).

The Jyothy Nivas college auditorium of capacity 1000 people was half full on that sunday morning. Byju introduced himself quite confidently and told us all that he was a 100 percentiler in multiple CATs. I have always thought myself to be a supremely confident person, but the astounding confidence with which Byju went on introducing himself and his venture made me reconsider my guaging metric. Although I was impressed with his confidence alone, that was nothing compared to the high octane Quant class which was going to follow it. Byju flitted from numbers to Permutations & Combinations to Geometry to Speed, Distance and Time with unwavering ease. Each and every word in that session was a value add to a serious CAT aspirant. When it finally drew to close at 12, I suddenly realised that I have lost track of time and this session was unlike any gruelling Quant session I have ever attended and this teacher is someone with a real passion for math. In the end, Byju announced that he will start a CAT batch next week and interested people can lock their seats with a token advance. I really didn't do that, I coughed out the entire amount for I was convinced that this was the teacher I was looking for, if any one could help me get through CAT, it is this man - Byju Raveendran.

Epilogue:

CAT 2008 was my fourth attempt at CAT and I have tried TIME classroom classes in 2005 and 2007. In 2006, I tried IMS Simcats. None of them really helped me in CAT. Ofcourse the Mockcats were a good practice. So as I have already mentioned, I tried Noesis Education a.k.a Byju's CAT classes in 2008 and got calls from IIMB and IIMS. I needn't tell you what was different this year. Byju and Santhosh(VA teacher at Noesis) gave me knowledge, taught me tricks and gave me supreme confidence which culminated in a good performance at CAT.

Shalimar the clown

Shalimar had just an ambition in his life, to be the best, conquer the heights and be called a magnate. He focussed and concentrated on his aim mono maniacally and came out with flying colors from every adversity posted before him.But it all changed when he met her, Shalimar saw the world in different shades through her eyes - a pink shade, everything looked so beautiful to him.

The day they first met, not knowing each other, not wanting to know, not even a smile. Then they started with a blank smile. Then came "Hey, excuse me', then 'hi, hello' and all. They shared their days, hours and seconds. They made castles with their thoughts, moved mountains with their dreams.

Shalimar dreamed of a new life, new ambitions mushroomed out of his barren life. He enjoyed her company immensely and she was delighted by his anecdotes. They talked for hours daily, in fact communicated for hours through all mediums possible. He loved the feeling that a girl found him amusing, even interesting and she charmed him with her mellifluous giggles all the way through their chats.

Come Valentine's day and the cherub's arrows have long pierced Shalimar; he was all set to propose her. He was suddenly conscious of his filthy dress, his addled hair and his really dirty shoes. He bought a huge bunch of red roses for her, he revised and re-revised the plethora of romantic dialogues he snipped out of Mills and Moons. Finally Shalimar was ready for her.

He was an epitome of confidence when he marched into the cafe where they were going to meet. He must have waited for 10 minutes when he saw those luscious eyes looking for him. One look of her and Shalimar forgot all that he had mugged, lost all his confidence and settled down meekly before her, lost somewhere in her profound smile. They talked for sometime and he watched her heartily smile at all the cliche jokes he made. Finally with all the courage he could gain, he made his charge. He fell on his knees, offered her his bouquet to her and screamed with all his might "Marry me". The crowd around although disturbed by the obstreperousness, was unmindful as such jokers are common nowadays. She smiled at him, giggled, collected the bouquet from his outstretched hands and jokingly hit him on his head with it. Then she laughed at him and said "You are such a mandu". They settled down again and Shalimar with a pounding heart asked her "Can I take it as a yes". She stared at him for long time, her eyes dancing with wonder and finally asked "You mean you were serious" and she continued "You are crazy".

Shalimar rushed home after his "date" and opened his books. "This is where I belong" he thought and suddenly he felt very sad in his heart.

The city of dreams

"This is why I love to fly Indigo" I wanted to tell RGC when our flight took off in time from Bangalore airport. But RGC was busy checking his girl friend's message on his Motorola, so I kept my joy to myself. Contradictory to the Indian low cost airline industry traditions, we took off on time, but we never reached Mumbai on time and had to hover 1 full hour waiting to get a spot to land on the Chartrapathy Shivaji Airport. Anyways the time was a not a total waste, there were 2 good air-hostesses who provided us enough motivation. :) Finally our flight landed and I got the first glimpse of the "City of dreams" (Not first really, I have being to Mumbai airport and Kalyan railway station earlier during various journeys).

It may be because the landing was well ahead of my daily bed time (1:30 am in the morning) that I felt like those millions who comes to this commercial capital to realize their dreams. The city has something magnetic within it which tells you "Live your dream, I will help you realize your goals". Even at 2 am in the morning, the city was bustling with activity; Dev had no problems in finding us a restaurant to eat and a auto to take us to powai, his home. 3 friends meeting after 2 years, that night we never planned to sleep; we literally re-lived our hostel days; hours of chatter which ended at 7.

After our really late brunch(we woke up at 2pm), we started our expedition of Mumbai- the 1st thing I wanted to see was the Mumbai local trains - the lifeline of Mumbai, the fast and efficient transportation of Mumbaikkar. The station was an experience in itself, the place didn't look overcrowded the way I expected; but 2 minutes before the train came there was an avalanche of people which virtually annexed the platform. The train came right on time and I didn't have to do much, the crowd took me to the nearest car and within no time, my friends and I were standing inside the coach. The best part I liked about the system was the sense of lawfulness that existed within that system. There seemed to be an unwritten law which guided the system inside the car, like for eg. the rule which said that the nearest man was entitled to to sit when a fellow passenger got up. If you violate it, be ready to be subjected to the rage of your fellow passengers.

The train took us to South Mumbai and I saw 2 historic architectural splendors - The Gateway of India and The Taj - pristine as ever, little did I then know that the superb structure is going to subjected to some fanatics ire soon. We took a battered boat from the dock near the gateway and was on our way to the Elephanta caves - an ancient group of temples build by the Silhara and Rashtrakuta kings. I was overwhelmed by the extent of effort and perfection put into these statues; it is said that it took 400 years to build the full temple which has been build by caving the granite of the terrain. It is said that the generations of sculptures were born and dead here; monomaniacaly engaged in building these artifacts for their whole life.

The next day, we decided to explore the new Mumbai different from the ancient ones the previous day. We started with the malls of Andheri and after roaming around for hours exploring the cosmetics and baubles of consumerism, found ourselves in front of a theater which promised a 4 D show. I couldn't stop wondering how did this theater guy find a way to invent a projector which will project the images in Minkowski space instead or Cartesian coordinates. So out of our amusement, we decided to try it out and believe me it is worth the money you pay for it. The 4th dimension turned out to be the feeling sense as the logistics in the theater will create around you the same ambiance which existed within the screen. A rainy weather was mimicked with a few sprinkles of water and an underwater expedition with bubbles all around the theater.

The 3rd day was insipid as Dev had to fly to Ranchi for some work and I had the S.P.Jain interview to attend. Finally it was time to get back to the Garden city and we chose to fly Jet this time which reached Bangalore 2 hours late. But I really didn't care, I was not really keen about attending office after such a journey. I would have loved to spend my time reflecting it on my bed.

10 : 10 cricket

After the 20-20 euphoria, the Australian apocalypse, looks like Indian cricket team can do well only in shorter versions of the game. But empirically, India had only being good at any game until the opposition learns the new game(Remember hockey, we were the stalwarts until people around learned it). So our honeymoon in 20-20 is bound to last only till Aussies, Proteas and Paks gets accustomed with the game. Ergo, I believe we should start thinking about a newer version of cricket which will keep them boggled for a few more months, so that we can keep up the euphoria. It is when I thought in this direction that the idea of 10-10 cricket came knocking to me. 10-10 will abide with the following protocol:

1. Each team of 11 players will get 10 overs each.

2. Out of the 11 players only 6 of them can bat and have only 5 wickets in hand. The remaining 5 players who have not batted can bowl along with the player who remains not out during the innings. If a team bowls first and uses 6 bowlers, then one of the bowlers should remain not out by the end of the match, failing which 20 runs will be deduced from the total score of the team. Maximum number of overs any bowler can bowl is 2.

3. All the usual ways of getting out are also applicable in 10-10.

4. A batsman will be given only 1.5 minutes to reach the crease. Failing which he will be given time-out.

5. I think the 10-10 model will be blitz with the batsmen going for big hits in every possible opportunity. So to reduce the plight of the bowlers, a new way of getting out have been added which is called strike rate out. A batsman can stay in crease only if he has a strike rate of 150 after the 30th ball he has faced. If the strike rate is lesser than 150, the umpire will adjudge him strike rate out.

6.The wicket keeper is allowed to bowl under the condition that nobody else should guard the stumps when he is bowling.

7. To win a match the chasing team has to score runs decided by the following equation:

R1 = (Score of the 1st batting team) + (Net run-rate of the 1st batting team)*(Difference in number of wickets lost between chasing team and 1st batting team)

Similarly to win a match the 1st batting team has to get the chasing team restricted to a score less than:

R2 = (Score of the 1st batting team) - (Net run-rate of the 1st batting team)*(Difference in number of wickets lost between chasing team and 1st batting team)

If the chasing team ends the match with a score between R1 and R2, the match goes into bowl-out.

8. During bowl out, each team will be given 3 opportunity to castle the stumps similar to the stump out in 20-20. But it is not the bowler who is supposed to castle the stumps in 10-10. Instead the captains has to choose 3 fielders who will have to castle the stumps from pre-designated points on the field. If a result does not come from bowl out, the game goes into sudden death where each team is given 1 opportunity each to hit the stumps alternatively till the result is out.

This is 10-10 rules for you guys. I want you all to read through this and give me the flaws in this protocol so that we can have a fool-proof stuff. Addition into the rule book is also welcome.

Way Words Walked

Vocabulary, spellings and pronunciation were the three areas where I was dreadful at school. But despite of that, I always managed to get average grades thanks to maths and science. This set-up worked perfectly all the way through the high school and the engineering college, but I met with serious trouble when I started preparing for competitive exams which had substantial sections on English and cracking them meant having a good hand at all the aspects of English. It was then that I seriously started thinking about improving my vocabs. Mugging had never being my cup of tea, so found a better way to learn words. The strategy was simple: Learn the words logically or learn how they originated. In short, I decided to be an etymologist, at least an amateurish one. This might sound crazy for the reader(if anybody reads it), but believe me its a real cool way to learn words.

First of all it's amusing to hear the story each word has to tell. A story which may be spanning across decades or even centuries of the history. Let me share some of the interesting ones with you. Synonymously an orthopedician means a doctor who treats ailments related to bones, while entymologically it tells a different story. Orthopedician is made by the combination of 3 Latin words orthos ,paedos and ician. Here orthos means staightening, paedos means children and ician means an expert. Read together, an orthopedician is a expert in straightening kids - oh isn't that the teachers and parents do ? Then we should call them all orthopedicians. Now for the history ! This word was coined in the early sixteenth century when a large number of children was born with spinal cord ailments. These spine ailments were so common that there was a group of people specialising in straightening the spine of these infants. It was these people who were called as child straighteners. But I think these guys ran out of business soon and had to eventually expand their area of expertise to all the ailments related to human bone. But they went on using their old title even after their evolution.
We all talk about addiction. Addiction towards TV, junk food, cigars, booze etc etc etc. Addiction is derived from a Latin word dictus meaning to speak. Addiction etymologically means "unable to say no" and this is exactly what happens with all the addicts, they just cant say "no" to the addiction.
Another interesting story these words had was about the aversion of the people in early period towards left-handers. Words synonymous to left hand like sinister and gauche is synonymous to evil and awkward now( remember gaucherrie) and words which meant "right-hand" means gifted and tactful now(of course adroit). It would have been really painful or even deadly for left -handers in that era.
Have you ever wondered how the symbol of pounds is lb? This is another etymological relationship, the pound lb is actually Libra , do I ring any bells ? Yes, the symbol of the sun sign Libra is also a balance. Libra means weight or pound in Latin which is why it is the representation for a unit of weight.

Hope this one sounded interesting for all of you.

The Power within

This is not about any spiritual stuff as most of u will misunderstand from the title. I was referring to the power within each atom, each nucleus- the nuclear power. I am not going to bore the readers(if there are any) telling u guys about the technology and science behind nuclear power. Instead lets go directly to the talk of the day : Henry J Hyde India US Peaceful Atomic Energy Co operation act of 2006 (PAEC).
The idea of such a co operation was born during the 2005 visit of Bush to India and to remind you all the corporation between India and US on the nuclear front ended with our 1971 Budha smile's test. After that for 35 odd years India was in a nuclear winter, completely isolated from all other nuclear powers.(We cant say complete isolation because our old allie Russia was always with us both in terms of fuel and technology). India with Russia's backing have build up 22 nuclear reactors till the date which are generating electricity and meeting 3% of our power needs. But as we all are aware , we have been growing quite fast for last few years and with our stock markets, our energy needs also have been growing. So it became indespensible for our PM to ask Bush the ticket to return to the nuclear club. I completely accept his logic in that. We all know that we dont have enough thermal resources (potrol or quality coal) to generate power, neither are our depleating hydal resources sufficient to meet the new requirement. So only remaining feasible resource for quatified production is the atom.

Now lets look into the deal that the US have put forward. The plus in this deal is that it opens the doors of IAEA and the nuclear supplier's group and India will be able to buy Uranium for its reactors. In return India will became a full ally of US and help her in preventing proliferation of "nuclear poison" around the world.(and learn to forget that 99% of all the nuclear weapons are with big guys of IAEA). India will also get nuclear fission technology (supposed to be latest.......who knows ??) .
And the negatives: First is that US is not going to give India any enrichment or re processing technologies so we will have to figure out a way ourselves to complete our nuclear cycle. Second is that our credibility of being a good ally will be assessed every year by the US president and he will have the power to suggest to the NSG to discontinue our status as a peaceful nuclear nation. Thirdly we need to get the go ahead of IAEA and NSG before 123 agreement starting real co operation materialises making it trouble some for us to go back to NSG again for any last minute victory in negotiations we make. Another big problem is that we will have to open up our civilian nuclear facilities for US inspectors if the IAEA finds it powerless to send its own inspectors(Guess this will happen often) and finally we wont be able to exportl any of military technologies(expect some low range primitive weapons) or test any more nuclear devices. (This clause is going to adversly effect our plans to export Brahmos)

Although I may appear to be against this deal, its not the real case. I was just being diplomatic and explaining the cons. I believe we should go ahead with this deal because most of these clauses which appear trecherous for us now can be forgotten easily with the changing circumstances of the business. The biggest reason why I am telling this is because this deal is going to open up the very attractive nuclear sector to US businessmen and once they have investments here, they will take care of the senate and congress and even the Presidents. Another reason is that we are in a fit and there is no other way out to retain our competative edge as a investment destination.
The nuclear power market of the world as we know is in crisis. With the majority public opinion aginst it, most of the biggies have withdrawn from this business. An ideal example is the GE which said good bye in early 90's. They cant be blamed, US, Canada , Europe and ofcourse Japan with their memories from the world war 2 hates any more nuclear reactors in their country. So it is the developing guys like India and China were the market exist if at all. No wonder US is succumbing to Indian pressures or are they really ............

IT Gardens

Hi to all those guys who frequented my blog( I know there arent many). Anyway it s good to be back............leaving behind all the crap that I was through for last 6 months.
In this post I will write about my new home the garden city. Yah guys I am at present in Bangalore the IT capital of India. I still remember my 1st visit here in 1994. I was in 4th then and Infosys & Wipro were just glitters in the eyes of Narayan Murthy & Premji. So was Bangalore, then a favorite domestic holiday location(there were no foriegn tourists then in India). Bangalore was famous for its gorgeous climate then, a gift bestowed uniquely to it by the altitude and surprisingly the by the absence of the great nuetralising agent: the sea. But exactly this was its boon too. Absence of sea made bangalore humidity free & pleasent through out the year. So everybody visiting the rich heritage architecture of Mysore visited B'lore for its pleasentness & cheap goods. Once the favoured locations in Bangalore were the Lal Bagh and Tipu's palace but now they are Forum and Garuda malls. The paradigm shift is not shocking the culture of banglore have chaged a lot in last 10 years. No wonder it is no longer the Air conditioned city..........it now the IT city, the beautiful gardens are long gone and have been replaced by dirty streets and concrete grooves.........now people working in busy bangalore go to hill stations nearby in the weekends.What an Irony ???????

The Knowledge Bomb

While doing our final year project, the best reference help we got all through out was internet. The huge amount of knowledge available at ur fingertips was really a marvel. I believe, it is the new blogging culture which has contributed heavily to this terabytes of material about anyhting and everything available on net. But even when making good use of this knowledge, we all conviniently forget that this information is unedited and ametuerish. Mistakes mostly spellings and misjudged uses rule the internet now.
Let me give you an example:
"If you believe the internet is the font of all wisdom, giving free reign to exercise their vocal chords". This sentence now correctly written will look something like this.
"If you believe the internet is the fount of all wisdom, giving free rein to exercise their vocal cords"
Very frequently mis-spelled or misunderstood are words like fount(meaning a source of desirable quality) which occur generally in phrases. Other eg:s are free-rein(meaning letting horse loose) which is substituted with free-reign(pointing to free rule), vocal chords(chords means tones and cords means strings).
Other widely misinterpreted words include sleight(slight) of hand, buck(butt) naked, shoo(shoe) in etc.
A pattern can be clearly seen emerging from these phrases. These mistaken phrases are all old and ones which originated from other languages like Greek. The new generation bloggers and other frequent net users with heard knowledge about these phrases use them with assumed meanings. True! new words are born this way, but the process takes nearly 100 years.
Are we on the onset of a new era where a small percentage of people decide the way a new word is born or restructured? Lets wait & see!

The misunderstood leader 2

After the death of Rajiv Gandhi, when congress returned to power, finding him a successor and the new Indian prime minister was the problem that tormented the whole nation. After a lot of brainstorming, the CWC and the high command came up with a person who was virtually not heard of till then. He was none other than Mr.P V Narasimha Rao ,the person who was going to change India's perspective.
The new PM had a flurry of problems waiting for him, both internal and external. On one side, when the provinces of Kashmir and Punjab were being wrecked havoc by jihadis and sikh rebels, Indian economy altogether was facing major crisis with a high inflation, alarming imports to export ratio, and depleated foriegn exchange. But wilfully for us, the new guy was not one who gave up very soon. As any good manager, he started his work by inducting a new team, first memeber of which was the father of Indian economic reforms : Dr. Manmohan Singh (the then RBI governor was called upon to be the new finance minister). What happened next is history, India under Manmohan and PVN opened doors for FDIs & FIIs trying ard next five years to bring India back to her feet. PM under such circumstances had to be strict & tough, but this resulted in wide spread disgust against him in every possible arena. The supporting parties withdraw support and he had to finally buy an MP to protect his majority.
Narasimha Rao holds a lot of records. He was the person to get elected with the highest ever majority(around 7.5 lac votes), he was the PM who ruled with the lowest ever majority(1 MP in Lok Sabha). He was the PM who laid the base for our new age economic reforms, is believed to be the person who laid the base for Pokran nuclear test, was the only PM to have registered cases against him during his tenure( 3 cases...in all of which he was acquainted later on).Altogether we can call him a real loser, never got the credit for the great work he did. Even his own party deserted him after his tenure, the head office of which he left forever soon after his five year rule, only to be returned for a short respectful display as a cadaver.

The misunderstood leader

During one of those heated GD sessions we persued during our CAT coaching, at some point the topic drifted to Rajeev Gandhi. Surprisingly after the session our moderator started talking very emtionally about him. He highlighted the inability on his part to make decisions and held him responsible for 'Ayodhya'. Was it all true. Although Rajeev Gandhi is heavily criticized for his mismangement, I think we are forgetting his achievements. This reluctant politician who was responsible for the breaking up of many sections from congress was also the one resposible for the modernisation of our communication and transportation infrastructure. His techno-savy nature paved way for the entry of mobile phones to India which is an indespensible entity now. The youngest PM of India, the PM who ruled with maximum majority in Lok Sabha, also the PM who took largest world bank loans. We cant really blame him for that, our economy was in such a state. We were adamant about not allowing any FDIs or FIIs and our crude oil and defense import bills(thanks to our neighbour Pakistan) were always well above our meagre exports. So to persue modernisation, he had to go for loans. But its a golden achievement for him that India recorded a record economic growth of 10.5% in the last year of his rule. Needless to say he was efficient and far-sighted, but still couldnt manage India well. Simple answer, you cant expect a piolet to learn the intricacies & fallacies of Indian politics in a day and head a bunch of corrupt, crooked and cunning politicians with the help of an army of lazy, uninterested beaurocrats. Fianlly one of them or many of them under the one big one pulled him down & made a new party whose fragments are creating all sorts of problems in Indian politics now with their caste & religous vote banks.

Meet Rahul Devassy

It was my first introduction talk in NITC and we all were consoled by the HOD and professors that our choice of electrical was all that not bad. In the individual introduction to be made there we were asked to tell about our hobbies.After a long queues of monotonous reading and listening to music finally a sleepy looking guy emerged from the last benches who instantaneously reminded me of Bugs bunny.The similarity was stunning ,even their styles matched.He started "Hi ! I am Rahul Devassy.................................and my hobby is sleeping and sleeping only".
I dont know whether he really meant what he said, but he seems to be doing that after his hobbies of advanced physics and Linux programing.My first impression about this guy was that he was a stupid fellow who was at the wrong place.Although I was terribly wrong about my first impression, I still think he is at the wrong place (he should have been in one of the IITs or TIFR).
To put up his character sketch, he is a genius who thinks he can impress anybody with his simpleton behavior and "all world is a joke" attitude.This is Devassy on any ordinary day,but comes the exams and Devassy is a all new person who is well versed with any subject and finds new places to hide from story seekers.
Although popularly rumored about being unnatural ,we all know that he is only over friendly and expresses his friendship explicitly.But there is one more Devassy,highly unpredictable and hot tempered ,we are lucky we dont see this Devassy often.
So that friends is RAHUL DEVASSY, very likeable, very smart and very mysterious.

The Tale of two cities

Once upon a time there were two cities.One known for its intellectual richness and resourcefulness while the other for its passion for religion.Ironically they both took birth on a single day and had a lot in common.Through the ages they both maintained very strong armies much above their capability taxing their people passionately fighting eachother.
You would have understood by now that I m talking about New Delhi and Islamabad. Both of whom is rated among top ten of world armies.Their fights which dates back to 1947 were all for the paradise on earth called Kashmir.Pakistan still regards Kashmir as their territory but the when given the choice Kashmir wanted to join India after formation of India & Pakistan.(Not to forget even Pakistan people voted for Frontier Gandhi.I m talking about the elections when Khan Abdul Gafar Khan's party swept the polls in Pakistan and reduced Jinnah's Muslim league to a miniscule)But lets forget the past as we all know its no longer the people's voice is heard out even in a democracy.............Its loudest voice.Even if shout the lie its believed but do shout it.I don't believe the Kasmiri view is in anyway represented by hurriyat either in Kashmir or in POK because I sincerely believe nobody would like to have bombs blow and guns fire in their backyard.They all want peace and would love to live in harmony with their relatives in POK.Indian govt has taken a huge step in this issue by being very patient.Inspite of frequent terrorist attacks whose leads were tracked to ISI( Delhi bomb blasts) we have shown unbelievable patience in going on with cease fire.We tried our best to help in their dark times of quake but was kicked on face.Although Paks responded well initially to our peace reforms they are still trying to break the pace.I can understand an elected representative trying to make thing sluggish(as he has got an election over the corner every now and then) but a dictator..................That's something difficult to deduce.

Should Scandinavian cockroaches be given the right to speak

There had been virtually a pandemonium in early 90's about equal rights for males and females and subsequently for one third reservation in parliament for women. Now with return of congress, famous for their reservations of all kind the furor has returned.Do really reservations may it be for women or scheduled caste really something worthy and do they achieve their objectives is something we should think upon atleast when this reservation story has completed 50years of 'glory'.
I will compare this reservation story to my title about the non-existent cockroaches who were to be given the right to speak. The reservations originally brought about by Mahatma Gandhi to ennoble the 'harijans' and bring them in to the mainstream of population and subsequently to bring about equality in the society giving opportunity to even the most deprived ones.
The real story today, a bunch of educated and aware people use the opportunity of reservations for generations each time fooling the government by underquoting their salaries. They become richer and richer and add to the workforce more and more talentless people.Today every government office you can find people who still dont know what they are doing and what they should be doing ? I wont say that Indian government is not aware of this. They had started many think tanks to discuss and identify troubles in the reservations............but committees got confined only to the committee rooms.
Cure : I believe the government should understand that its high time to change its look towards reservations.Reservations must be allowed in the social setup but must be based only on income. The less income groups should get reservations not anybody else.

Belling the CAT

I dont think this is a good way to start posting on your blog. But this is the best time to talk about the mother of all exams. The arena is set and the warriers ready to go for the grand finale on 20th November. Although I have almost lost hopes for a call this year, I plan to board that ship sometime. May be as a lateral entry after 1or 2 years in L&T. There are a lot of attraactive aspects of a PGDM in IIM, the 1st of which is a very heavy pay package. Its not over ur also going to get to study with the best brains in India along with a very promising and satisfying career.
So for all those guys who are waging for it , best of luck.
For guys like me, best of luck in advance