Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Stepping stones to Success

So what was that 'thing' which served as a steeping stone to success? .. Failure .. Failure? .. Hmm. Yesterday was a successful day.

Two is company, three is a crowd they used to say .. So the first 'thing' to give me company last evening was the RBI. They probably realised after my interview that I might start a sting operation and embezzle all their money out! .. Fair enough. I'd asked them for a project to correlate RBI's policies with the immediate and prolonged repurcussions it had on the stock market. Guess I asked for a pie-in-the-sky! .. and I also asked the interviewers exactly what all they'd do with the Forex reserves to mark-up or mark-down the value of the Indian rupee - which technically isnt a right question to ask or answer. Well, I probably asked for more than I should chew and promptly paid the price for it. Whateva!

The second one to give me company was goody goody google. How? .. by duly rejecting my ad-sense account application. After 6 hopeful days of nurturing dreams of becoming an instant karode-pathi (crorepati) -- a young 'n' successful "daat caam" millionaire entrepreurner ;), here is what I was informed:

"We're unable to approve your AdSense application at this timebecause we feel that your site does not comply with the Google webmasterquality guidelines. More specifically, we believe that your site does not add value or provide unique content. For a complete list of the webmaster guidelines, please visit http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769"

Ah well .. "Don't be evil" they say, eh?

And there was one more .. but I'd rather not mention that one here!

Alrite, I'm not in my modest best. I'm in a bad mood .. so what?

--
Update at 6:35 am. Back in action. Sure all these would help. forgot the silver lining. The COMA test went really well. See I forgot! :)

Monday, January 26, 2009

What did the Black Cats do on Republic day?

Meow!!
So what were the black cats really up to on Republic day? Good question (will blog something about this phrase some other time .. an incident that kept me running all over the office). However, this is not about the Black Cats that guard the high and mighty and are entrusted with the security of the nation. I have a lot of respect for them, and my respect knows no words.

The black cats I'm writing about are LIBA's very own Black Cats, who were a part of outbound@dawn - the outdoor equivalent of Samanvay '09 at IIT Madras. To all those pigeon-holed chipmunks who chose to sleep safe in their burrows .. here is a sneek peek on what you guys didnt deserve to be a part of :)
There were 9 teams of about 8 - 10 members each and all the members of every team had to participate in all the 9 physically enduring games: Tunneling, Cross Country, Lake Rafting, Monkey Crawling (rope hanging and reverse locomotion), "A" Frame, Trust Fall, Snake Rings, Caterpillar Walk and Burma Bridge (rope).
Enough of words ..
the Black cats (minus one cat)


And I still don’t believe that man came from monkeys :) Jus kidding! .. A class act by Christo


Who else? but good ol' Sayuj .. fastest team member in that event.


Treasure(less) hunt ..


Wassup Boni?


Where's Burma? Tell me, quick!

Cost of capital (participation): Cuts in the palm and a handkerchief that dived into the water while I was crossing the burma bridge.

Sincere thanks to the IIT-DOMS folks (Dept. of Management Studies IIT-Madras) for organising Outbound@Dawn and Prof. LSG (the last letter is 'g' not 'd'..) for his kind personal invitation. Thank you once again, Sir. Way to go!

Meow!!

Saturday, January 24, 2009

I Believe ..

Can be dismissed as being forwardsy (and it is!) .. But its good and worth the time. A diamond among the rocks. Read on .. slowly.
I Believe...
That we don't have to change friends if
We understand that friends change..


I Believe...
That either you control your attitude or it controls you.
(and the same applies to money)

I Believe...
That you can do something in an instant
That can give you a heartache for the rest of your life.


I Believe...
That it's takes a long time
To become the person one wants to be.


I Believe...
That you can keep going long after you think you can't.


I Believe...
That we are responsible for what
We do, no matter how we feel.


I Believe...
That heroes are the people who do what has to be done
When it needs to be done, regardless of the consequences.


I Believe...
That money is a lousy way of keeping score.


I Believe...
That my best friend and I, can do anything, or nothing and have the best time.


I Believe...
That sometimes the people you expect to kick you
When you're down, will be the ones to help you get back up.


I Believe...
That sometimes when I'm angry I have the right to be angry,
But that doesn't give me the right to be cruel.


I Believe...
That maturity has more to do with what types of experiences you've had
And what you've learned from them and less to do
With how many birthdays you've celebrated.


I Believe...
That it isn't always enough, to be forgiven by others.

Sometimes, you have to learn to forgive yourself.

I Believe...
That no matter how bad your heart is broken the world doesn't stop for your grief.


I Believe...
That our background and circumstances *may* have influenced who we are,
But, we are entirely responsible for who we become.


I Believe...
Two people can look at the exact same thing
And see something totally different.


I Believe...
That at times your life can be changed in a matter of minutes
By people who don't even know you.


I Believe...
That even when you think you have no more to give, when
A friend cries out to you - you will find the strength to help.


I Believe...
That credentials on the wall can never make you a decent human being.


I Believe...
That t
he happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything;
They just make the most of everything.
--
"Its okay if you have tried and failed, its not okay if you haven't even tried"

Friday, January 23, 2009

Weekends here .. say cheese .. smile please!

Here is an interesting sequence of 3 pics clicked in the order presented. All these creatures co-inhabit the 3rd floor of the LIBA Hostel (where these pics were shot). The grad-day ceremony of Batch '08 was just moments away. Way to go (un) mask-eteers!





Have a wonderful weekend everyone .. Say cheese ..

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Crack-Jack

Last morning we dicsussed the research design aspects of a HBS case: "Boston Fights Drugs". I found this short poem interesting enough to be blogged about .. notice that there are no 'powerful' words, all are common-place lingo and yet this ad of the mid-eighties caused a stir among the drug-dazed student population of greater Boston (population: 3 million). This post has been very loosely titled crack-jack (in fond memory of the sweet-n-salty biscuit snack I loved during my school days), the implications though are rather deep. Sample it ..

"Take me out of the ballgame,
Take me out of the crowd,
Buy me some pieces of crack, Jack;
I dont care if I never come back ..."

Whats in Reserve?

Well yes, I was interviewed by the famed 'Reserve Bank of India' for a Summer Internship position. My my .. I couldn’t believe what I saw. The interiors were so plush I'd rate it just half-a-shade lower than a 5 star hotel, by which I mean the Taj Krishna and Taj Banjara in Hyderabad and the Taj Hotel on MG Road, Bangalore (I forgot the name). I mean there were marble floors, leather sofas, full-glass tea-poys, professional bankers, a powerful a/c, top of the line cutlery, jaded carpets, pretty high profile .. and certainly a far cry from the dinghy "teller" counter I used to deposit my pocket money in -- as a little boy many years ago.
Was a bit unwell and trembling with shivers while interviewing. The HR General Manager, a kind gentleman, personally took care of me with coffee, medicines and snacks and propped me up for the interviews. By God's grace I did the interview to my satisfaction - the results will be out in another week or so. FYI, my interview was held at the RBI Governor's office (RBI Gov is the guy whose signature is there on the indian currency notes). So what else did I see at the RBI Headquarters?
I'd love to tell you, but .. hmm .. I'm so sorry, I've signed that non-disclosure policy.
... Too bad :(

I did see a lot of other *very* interesting things, though - stuff worth writing home about ;-)

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

suddenly SOMETHING ..

Yes..ss..ss! I did it. I've made it! .. Yes, I've done the third best-thing-to-do while at b-school. This '3rd best thing' will serve as a cogent black-board for me and double-up as a 'johari' window for those who are curious enough to know what I'm fiddling with from time to time .. thoughts, ideas, people, experiences and of-course .. just about anything. Going by the number of '.com' success stories and instant crore-pathis, I can perhaps dream that this web-site (an unappealing way of addressing a 'blog', stripped down to its functional skeleton) would soon catapult me into the 'been there, done that' category .. well, enough of counting the chicken, before even the eggs have been laid!

Guess what the top 2 things to be done at b-school are?
First is f**l i* l*v*, second is g*t a g**d j**)

Your comments, wise-cracks, suggestions (some hyd folks may identify the source of this famed phrase) .. all except physical manifestations of the same are welcome!