Muthukrishnan - A prof remembered

Somethings make you feel you should have attended classes properly! Especially if the prof happens to be the best guy for the subject in the country. Muthukrishnan- the best prof for Operations.. ever volatile.. spirited.. ethusiastic.. humane.. but now will remain only in our memories. He died of a massive heart attack recently.

One of the regrets I would harbor from NITIE days is missing out on attending lectures and interacting more with Muthu sir. I remember the time when he asked if I ever attended his classes in module 1. Another incident which I would remember is about the time when I asked him if I could skip his lectures for the week- I was going to some B School debate/case study competition (I do not remember which one, though I vividly remember Muthu sir's reaction- 'Kya IT job karna hai kya?').

You see for Muthu- there are only 2 jobs where worthless people can end up- IT or Banks :-) His impression about me considerably improved towards the second year after he came to know that I was a guy who did not get through 13 interviews in summers after clearing all GD's. I even ventured to borrow couple of books (one of which I never returned- never read as well... I need to read it someday).

One of the things that hits you is- How would people remember you after you are dead? Most people would not even be worth remembering (aam junta... usual feeling is chalo.. 1 person less in the world).

With couple of recent deaths in family- I have come to the realization that wantingly / unwantingly people in their old age become "don't cares" or "its only a matter of time" types. Also, old age is like time bomb. You know its going to end.. you know you cannot live on.. everytime you fall ill- you feel its time (only to get a small reprieve).. the wait is tantalizingly painful.. god save people from old age!

Yeah, probably that is the reason they say that good people die young. Its better to leave with a feeling that the promise was yet to be complete than leave with a feeling of living beyond expiry date!

This is precisely why one feels so much for Muthu- lots of unanswered questions like 'who can fill his shoes', 'can there be a more commanding guy with Ops?', 'will the companies have the same awe when it comes to Ops recruitments.. now that the pillar is gone'.. these and many more! The condolences seen for Muthu is also worth mentioning- right from old students (dating back two decades) to all the present lot, colleagues, industry friends, everyone has a small tale/story to share about their association with the great man. They say legacy lives on..

A small thought does pass by- 'will we be remembered at all when we are gone?"
Only time will tell.

Ciao till next time...Harsha

What's missing?

Thats what I have been asking myself over the past couple of weeks. Is it some sort of withdrawal symptom??, am I an overtly emotional individual (I suppose I am emotional, but.... not overboard), Is it just a normal thing that happens to every individual who comes out of those 1200 odd MBA institutes every year?

Ah.... I know I've yet to introduce my problem here- something has suddenly gone amiss after the hum-dum of NITIE! Ah... technically I have yet to complete one more module @ NITIE before I could call myself an Emmmmbeeeeyeaaah grad, as I am yet to complete my winter internship still; but for all practical reasons my further stay there would be only during the final presentation sometime during May and after that- will get restricted to the yearly Sansmaran (the alumni meet @ NITIE)..

Well, what is it that has suddenly gone amiss? Lemme just list down the top 10 here-

1. IP messages.... ah, u'll definetely understand if you are a B-School student. The lifeline of the batch is the inimitable IP messenger!
2. Night mess....nescafe outlet....ataria....general masti@PPO road. Uh, will these just remain as memories now? that's how it seems.....
3. Parties....where else will one find them...
4. IMpress!!! how can I forget my committee.... the late night meetings... the trips to south mumbai... media summit... (how can i forget how we changed 3 speakers on day before it took place:)) and off course all the parties we went out to...
5. Mastishk..... uh, was a real passion for last few months... and my phone expense in one of the months was 2000+.... how can I forget how we got sponsors after much catchin up :)
6. B-School fests... case study competitions.... debates... B Plans...oh, all getting in some handy money whenever my bank account looked dry :)
7. Friends.... and those few GODs who made life simple for us mortals with their notes... one particular mention has to go to an Associate Consultant with SAP GDC :)
8. Some unforgettable getaways- pondside, MDP hostel terrace, short ride to KB, SP and likes..
9. Uh... sometimes I think even the classes were bearable...mess food eatable.... ethics money gathering (urggh...laundering) passable and placement meetings pleasant!
10. Sleeping.... and yeah reading (i was surprised to see that I had bought up nearly 2 carton full of books when I was there, sadly not many text books; but everything apart that)!

Well, contrast this to the everyday life that I am leading now- good food, atleast 8 hours sleep, TV to watch, a handy bike to roam around.....etc etc...

But I just realised one thing that I'm missing more than anything else......- 'The pretence of being occupied, being busy with something or the other, doing things- more than one at a time... and what more, keeping myself up late nights to work on things which may now seem trivial- but felt earth shattering then!'

Hmmm...... let me get back into the 'I'm busy mode'!! Cypress.....bring on the winters fast!

Ciao till next time...Harsha

Placements knocking.... tic tac tic...

It is in the last few days that I have come out of the vicious cycle of pointless work- assignments, cases-studies, events and energy sapping committee work.

Its been a tough journey so far, but just wondered if the last year and half could have been much different if situations were different! Well, pretty difficult to say... If there is one thing that should have been different is getting more theoretical knowledge in areas like -finance (yeah... they are bloody hard to learn if one's not ready to put in an extra effort).

Well, that apart... a NITIE MBA has offered me everything else. Now, with 2 months to go before the placements, I feel that I've been on the right track- though, been walking slowly! Need to speed up things now...

Time to switch back from 'sleep mode' to 'power up'. Watch space for updates...

Ciao till next time...Harsha

Ennerving interviews.....!

Well, it seems like ages since i last posted!! Lotsa things have happened and many more in pipeline... whatever it is, a B-School life can never be called "boring".

For a change....have been thinking of studying for a certification course which i have taken in finance, also in pipeline are moots to write some papers for certain competitions, placement/impress work, etc etc....

One good thing to happen was the selections for IMPRESS 13 (the media cell @ NITIE for the uninitiated). Narrowed down on 8 people from 95 applicants, totally exhausted with all the interviews and final shortlists!

Seriously speaking, taking interviews is no joke-

1. Usually you start off with a cliched question- "Introduce yourself"
2. Gradually move on to what the person thinks about the work we do (Hardly 10-15 guyz knew what we did as a committee?! ..hmm some food for thought- 'do ur homework, it helps in any interview')
3. Guaging how sincere/hardworking the person is... Here lies the biggest opportunity for people to post rosy picture of their own. Usually people tend to shift towards the 'white' side of things whenever there is an opportunity for shades of 'grey'.
Lemme explain - Rate urself on 1 - 10 on "ability to contribute in committee work when your acads get seriously affected". Ans- 8 to 10. That was the most common answer... But seriously, if someone is so neligent of acads (that too in a B-School where you have come here to study in the first place), is he/she worth taking at all?? dicey question...

Hmm, pretty tough task to conduct 20-30 interviews....that too for 2 days (nights rather). Usually interviews kick off at 7 PM and go until 3-4AM.... I really pity the HR ppl who's sole work is taking interviews!

Well, lemme get back to do some studying now....hoping against hope that I clear this Fin thingy...!

Ciao till next time...Harsha

Its 'Summers' time folks!

Summer internship or 'Summers' in short was 8 weeks paid holiday in Bangalore.....or that is how I literally felt. It feels good to be in Bangalore amidst the familiar crowd, back to same old friends, weekend bashes, our own 'Sakkath hot - Radio Mirchi', 'swalpa adjust maadi' type of bustling crowd and yeah... 'yella ok- cool drink yake?' type of local pubs!

Well, now amidst all this I did have a lot of 'learning' to take back from my Wipro experience (The summer internship is called WiSE @ Wipro....now don't ask me the expansion, have just forgotten!). Worth remembering are some of those late-night telecon's with analysts from Ovum, IDC, iGR, etc.. was quite surprised to see how helpful some of these analysts from international research agencies are! Ironically it is the Indian ones which shrug from interacting professionally...

Yeah.....also worth not forgetting were those lunch-time outings to that typical Andhra restaurant next to Wipro M1 with all those by-now good buddies of mine- Karthik aka 'beta' from IIM L, our own Bishnu aka 'French Detective' from NITIE, Joydeep the 'amazing attitude guy' from XLRI and yeah.....the HR woman (well.....better be in her good books) Vijaya from TISS....

Well....thanks guys for making my office time worth every second.....all those talks, movie outings, PH visit, analyst meetings (especially Karthik!) and yeah.....innumerable tea breaks, mini lunch breaks :)

In between all this.... most of us slogged our a**es off... for the better part of 8 weeks, trying to gain some domain knowledge in Telecom sphere and also try to give back to Wipro some useful insights which they can use in the coming year. Worth mentioning are some useful interaction with top brass in Wipro....trying to understand their perceptions on various business relevant issues.

Well... 8 weeks rolled by, another bunch of good friends, another new environment experienced and most of all some sweet memories to treasure.........

Ciao till next time...Harsha

Ironies of Life!

I have just started understanding what my summer project is, but unfortunately... have to submit my report by next weekend. Can things get any worse? don't tell me they can.

Life as they say is made of two parts- 'past' and 'future'. Between these two phases is a thin line dividing both called as the 'present'.

Most of us tend to live in what I may call as the rosy future- true dreamers as most of us are! Building castles in air is a pastime to most of us.....yeah, someone wrongly (according to me) has said- 'castles in air, precedes castles on earth!'. How wrong can this sentence be... There are others who talk of the gone-by days. My Granny is one classic example of this. She always has a story or two to tell about the golden years of 60's and 70's and the 80's....how she was the epicenter of so many people's world! (she had 5 children, yeah....must have been quite a time dividing attention!).

In the midst of planning for the future and brooding over the past, we miss a trick or two... and forget that the line that divides the future from the past is slowly inching ahead. The line of 'present' is very difficult to grasp!

Well, atleast I have 10 more days with me to grasp the line and make this present a memorable 'past' when I look back in 'future'..... As another saying goes- 'You may be on the right path, but still be run over if you stop moving ahead!'

Just signing out on this note:

Yesterday is, but a dream
And tomorrow, only a vision.
But, today well lived makes...
Every yesterday, a dream of happiness!
And every tomorrow, a vision of hope!!

Ciao till next time...Harsha

Alum meet @ Bangi

Alum meet in bangalore was supposed to be an eventful one with atleast around 90 odd people expected this time.....and also representation from all batches right from IM1 to IM11.

Well, somehow....the number of people who actually turned up was a little less. Exasperating, though not dissapointing.

The meet:

Though the time to kick off was 7 PM, most of the alums trickled in by 8 PM (Indians are Indians everywhere.......MBA, BA ya CA.....we turn up late!)

It was heartening to see the IM12 junta religiously turn up by 6.30 PM ....something to cheer about! Even Pratap had postponed his all important Chennai trip to be there on time! (well, the kid is surely growing up quite fast).

After the initial round of updates from NITIE, the round of introductions started. Well....its rather surprising that many ppl have jumped more than 4-5 jobs in a span of 3 years! Ironically ppl from older batches (say IM1, IM2) have stuck to the same company for over 10 years (Roma from HLL and Prashant from GM are shining examples of the same).

This time we had formulated a new game called 'Down the memory lane' to break the ice instead of the usual musical chair. Worked out pretty well.....after that, ofcourse the refreshments poured in.....bringing back the memories of parties at NITIE... a real walk down the memory lane for the pot bellied managers who have bourne the twists and turns of corporate life with elan.

One great dissapointment was the NITIE level of female turnout......was hoping against hope that somethings change :P

After thoughts:

Deepak and Ankit did a wonderful job calling all the people and finalising the venue. It is really sad that not all of us in Bangalore from IM12 worked for the alum meet from day1. There are a lot of thoughts though worth pondering on-

• The alums could have been better contacted through combined efforts of all from IM12 in bangalore (around 15 of us). Calling up/mailing 10 people individually is better than 1/2 individuals calling up 70-80.
• A need to pitch in for some partial sponsorship for the event... more along the lines of 'sansmaran'. The entry fees of 600 was really on the higher side (may be this was a reason why not many alums turned up?)

Hmm......some points for IM13 to carry forward...

Ciao till next time...Harsha

Holi@NITIE!!

Have we redifined holi as a game of not just colors, but also mud, slime and dirt!!??. Holi here is a never before and a never after experience......here are some pics of the same:





Ciao till next time...Harsha

Long time no see?

Well, its been an awfully long time since I last blogged (yup, 2 months is quite a long time)....I somehow feel that I have slowly mastered the art of feeling and looking busy on the outside, though on the inside.....things may be monotonous, a bit boring.

Yeah.....may be I have fallen into what one may call as 'routine'......have been lately having some regular classes and assignments which have somehow kept me occupied, along with extra heavy dosage of IMpress wrk (student media relations committee of NITIE).....drudgery, hah.

One good thing which has brightened my spirits is the excellent, fantabulous placements. Placements went along on expected lines....bringing smiles to all 98 ppl in the senior batch. The important factor one needs to look into a B-Schools placement figures is- the lowest salary one bags.

Well, frankly speaking its amazing..... that the gap between the highest and lowest salaries at NITIE is very small (according to me the difference is the smallest among all the top 10 B-Schools in India). Its an awesome feeling if a fresher from an engineering college with no work experience at all gets a minimum of INR 6 lacs p.a., on passing out from NITIE!!!!

Well, that has been the scenario this year (I hope we can expect the same next year!!). The average and median pay packages have been another comforting factor (both zooming well over and above the 8 lac mark).

Ah.....am I boring you with stats?? oh,oki......tats enough about placements.....!

The other important thing which has just come out is the the GD/PI shortlist for NITIE. Good to see a lot of prfile based selections (more like the SP Jain model) than just selections on sole criteria of CAT scores!

Ciao till next time...Harsha

Bye bye 2005!

With a herculean effort I could sustain my interest levels for a week and complete the second module exams. Am sure this was better off than the first module exams for most of us at NITIE. The reason being, all of us studied more after the debacle of module 1.

Year 2006 beckons as we say adios to year 2005. It brings with it new hope, new resolutions, and newer surprises. The year gone by has been one of unexpected turns and twists for me. It all started with me getting settled down in SAP Labs as a Development Specialist....was really thinking of settling down in the job probably for a year or two and rethink my options later. CAT scores were pretty good, felt a little unlucky to miss out on the IIMs and really did'nt have any great interest in joining NITIE either.

After speaking to a few people about career prospects and a few more people about moolah aspects, finally settled down on taking up an MBA at NITIE. Leaving SAP was never too easy though, with my manager none too happy with my decision(as he put it.......why are u going to NIIT?.....oops sorry NITIE), I had to give a months notice and say quits.

NITIE beckoned and everything seemed rosy and a little too cosy( check my blog on Life in a B-School??!! ). In the meanwhile lots of stuff have happened- mandi, summers, prerana, mastishk and more recently laterals. Yeah with all that to add some twist, there was the nature's fury to reckon with, what with Mumbai flooded for a couple of days and creating much havoc and bringing untold miseries to the common man.

Meanwhile India has been emerging as a stronger location for MNCs to set base(Agriculture and Industry have maintained the Gandhian growth rate though). The BPO industry has moved again at 63% CAGR, and estimates are rife that it will continue to do so. IT companies continue to set up shop in India inspite of crumbling infrastructure. The year saw more than 200 companies set base in Bangalore alone(talking of the saturated infrastructure in the god*** city!). The forex reserves stand at a all time high of 143.8 bn$, relations between Pakistan has been more sweet than sour and UN Security seat to India seems a mirage once again.

The world has moved too, what with Bush weeding out Saddam(yeah, finally after spending 30 bn$; for heaven's sake that man would have voluntarily walked in for half that money!), terrorism remains as rooted as ever with Laden bringing his bag of tricks here and there, with a smattereing of sarcasm at the hallowed powers of the western world. Disaster has been the second name of the year and 'Tsunami' seems to be the second most searched word on the net(none can beat that first word though).

Finally to sum it up, rich have grown richer, the poor more poorer. Common man has again withstood everything and still hopes to become rich as in the desi bollywood films(by the way, film industry has done decently too...). Me too thinking of doing better than the soon forgettable year 05.

Will finish this off with one of my favourite poems by Oliver Goldsmith:

Hope, like the gleaming taper's light,
Adorns and cheers our way;
And still, as darker grows the night,
Emits a brighter ray.

Ciao till next time...Harsha

Lats ka 'funda'.....and the looming test mein 'anda'

The 'laterals' happened at NITIE a few days back......boy, was it a roaring success!! Well with salaries zooming up up and above, it does sprain one's neck to keep a glimse of the salary figures.

For the uninitiated, non-B School junta, lemme explain wats this Lats....the people with a minimum of 20 months work experience have a chance of entering into lateral positions in the organisation in this phase of placements. The funda behind is very simple. Some companies coming down to campus have a minimum work experience criteria for recruiting people....so, such companies were bundled into the 'laterals' placements day. Well, the obvious result of such a scenario is that salaries just crashed the roof and flew over the top of everyone's expectations....with salaries repeatedly crossing the 7 digit mark.

Yeah, just came back from Chennai after taking part in 'Latitude', the fest of Great lakes Institute of Management. We were accomadated in a beach side resort....nice stay for 2 days....won some prizes and at the end of it.....a feeling of 'ye dil maange more'...still lingering!

Exams looming in the sights, but have'nt started my preps......gotta sit and slog, else will surely be topping in the reverse direction this time too.....so will be signing off with this trademark calvin clip just for u all!




Ciao till next time...Harsha

Mid mBa life crisis..!

The lack of posts from my side can be squarely blamed on what one can call as 'Mid mBa life crisis'....yeah, been pretty retrospective about how things have been unfolding here. Its been more like riding a car without brakes.

Last few weeks have been a period of soul searching and sleeping types....what with all the marks for our first module pouring in one by one and giving me a clear indication of where i stand in my class.. I was somehow hoping against hope to salvage pride atleast in some subjects, but alas...that was not to be. Finally i find my rank hover somewhere in the lower middle half of the class. Yeah, a nose dive from my engineering days.....(this i think is the reason i have been listening to 'tose were the best days of my life' nowadays..). Well....hopin for some luk tis time atleast:)

Well....other than acads everythin's been rockin...been makin some money from winning in B-school fests(yeah...its the season for many fests...). I hav sort of decided to enjoi life and participate in as many fests as possible....after ICFAI, IIM A and SP Jain lookin at the othr fest frm Great Lakes, IIM C, FMS....etc. More abt these in future posts......

Lemme tell ya a funny incident at IIM A's Confluence(yup...tats the name of their fest).... The ppl at A generally hav a wee bit of wat i may call as 'head weight'....most of their games are usually won by teams frm IIM A only( well, well....i don't think its gotta do much with superior standards, lol). Found an interesting mention in their comments book from someone, here it is...

'First prize-IIM A
Second Prize-IIM A
Third prize-IIM A
.
.
.
the saga continues'...

well, interesting really.

Seriously, other than this...it was a pretty gud learnin experience, no other fest would attract such large participation from foreign B-Schools. Also worth noting was the fabulous list of speakers...which included the who's who of corporate world from Mukesh Ambani to Sunil Mittal. With more importance to 'interaction based' events and 'workshops', it was gud to be part of it.....

Some of these incidents hav made me think abt common perceptions ppl have. One thing that rankles me is the mental glass wall that people usually have about the differences in various B-Schools. Afterall the difference between say, a guy from IIM A and NITIE for example would be '2 marks in CAT'......so, practicaly speaking the intellectual standards are not vastly different(rather i would say there's no difference at all..). Still the percieved difference is vast....which is both incorrect and based on wrong assumptions. I strongly believe that the most important value add anyone gets in a B-school is the interactions one has among his/her peers in the institute.....which according to me is not much different among the top 10 B-Schools of the country.

Ciao till next time...Harsha

PS: Well.....crossed 1000 mark... yo...thnx to all readers of my blog.

Bac to 'amchi mumbai' from 'namma bangalooru'

Nearly 10 days in Bangalore and it still feels as if its yesterday i came here...... yeah, time sure flies and im jus findin that i need to catch the flight bac to mumbai today not knowing where i just lost all the time i wanted to utilise and enjoi in bangalore!!

Too bad to figure tat now....anyways...as i came here,
1. I could see that the famed pot holes hav jus started takin dangerous sizes with surface of road resembling more and more like craters of moon
2. Traveling from koramangala to banashankari(about 12 kms) took me nearly 2hrs.....yeah, last time i could cover the same in an hour;)
3. Rains followed me everywhere, wen this time of the yr is supposed to be just the startin of spring here!!
4. The city authorities have started another demolition drive, razing illegal buildings while new ones are comin up in a frenzied pace...
5. There seems to be more people speaking other languages(than kannada) from the last time i came here..
yeah....the list can go on.....

A few days bac, i was watching a program on NDTV......heard Deve Gowda(a former PM, who has come right bac to state politics after futile attempts to make any progress at the national level) speaking abt resignation of Narayan Murthy as Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIAL) head. Here's a funny answer to one question posed to Mr. Gowda:

Q: Did you feel sad that Mr. Murthy resigned as head of BIAL?
A: No no....i only felt bad when Sir M Visvesvarayya resigned as Diwan of Mysore....( funny that Sir MV resigned as diwan in 1918, when Gowda was not even born!!)

Well.....with such ppl around no doubt all changes in bangalore hav been for the worse than gud!

Hope that there's a miracle frm somewhere to change things around........i'm just hoping, yup may be hoping against hope;)

Ciao till next time...Harsha

Some photos of BT-Acumen with Harsha

Harsha Bhogle during the Quiz

Achoring the debates

Well, some snaps from the debate......it was a nice experience being face to face with Harsha Bhogle, who was anchoring the debate and quizzes.


Ciao till next time...Harsha

BT-Acumen debates

With life leading towards outwardly monotonous and singular pointlessness, was looking at some reprieve from daily routine(yah....i know u wold'nt have understood), BT-Acumen happened. Me and Vidyashankar(he's one dude u would want in a debate...) got selected to represent debate from our college...nice experience going to SPJIMR for two days because of this.. ;)

One thing that constantly bugs me(everyone else.....also) is the distance that seperates NITIE and rest of Mumbai......yeah, we talk about NITIE being the only place in Mumbai not connected with the local trains. Yeah, its really a pain to travel without the locals...

Yeah, comin back to the debate itself, the initial rounds were pretty commonplace...with not many institutes showing good talent. The later rounds were tough though. The sad part is we lost in the semifinals to SP (i think marginally, though... tats how one would feel like!!). The gud part is the gift vouchers for 5k tat came along......

Ciao till next time...Harsha

'MastishK'- the brain game and the 'Ranking'- rat race..

Had lotsa things to post but very less time to organise and actually post all these days......was quite busy suddenly after my first module exams. Have recently been involved with too many things that leave increasingly too little time for myself...!

'MastishK' has been on the minds of too many people nowadays........just what is this thing 'MastishK'??? yup, lemme explain-
1. Its the first online gaming event launched by any B-school in India!
2. Last year, being the inception year......we had close to 20,000 hits in just 15 days....
3. This year in just 2 days have more than 5,000 hits and more than 800 registrations.....

Boy, isn't that gooood.....so, if you have'nt registered yet, do it NOW!

Have been involved in the Informalz section here, do try out all the quizzes.., some cool prizes to be won....all the different strategy games will go live on 2 Oct, 05. Take care not to miss any of those.....;)

Also, as part of the media relations, have been majorly involved with rankings(BW, AIMA, CFORE surveys....). Most of these rankings have come up with some surprises(as always.....). Most of the rankings have given quite favourable ratings to NITIE.
1. AIMA has given the niche A+ rating....if one adds up the points for all the B-schools, NITIE tops with respect to overall scores!.....tat sounds real cool, after all the trouble reaching out to these rankings its good to find us right on top.
2. BW gives a top 10 rating again....they have not given rankings to those within the top 10 though...
3. CFORE gives a 6th position to NITIE in terms of score, but just screws up some parts with the launch of new sectoral B-schools funda(whoever thought that IIFT gives a general management degree!!)

That quite sums up my activity for the past week.......life is moving pretty fast these days.

Ciao till next time...Harsha

Have I gone into hibernation....

This has probably been one of the few time i have not posted on my blog for a week.....since i became a regular blogger. Yeah....having major module exams going on....hoping to clear with decent scores(the way its going, seriously startin to doubt tat!).

It reminds me of my engineering days at RVCE, not soo long ago(lol....its just been a year i'm outta engineering....though it somehow seems like eternity).......anand, arun, kiran, chetan, ganesh, deva, pradeep......how we used to do some serious last minute reading(read kramming)!! Where the hell have most of these ppl gone?? Strange, i have lost touch with some of these ppl now.

Its strange, how fast we lose touch of gud frienz and move along as if nothing has happened at all.... Is this wat's usually expected of us?? well, donno......well, if by chance any of u guyz are readin this stuff(tut tut....) plz respond!

Yeah now, i'm going back to my world.....have a marketing test today. The cycle continues.....but can i be a little different this time?

Well time will tell..
Ciao till next time...Harsha

PS: Oh....my my....noticed just recently, am constantly getting regular hitz on my blog(atleast 7-10 a day!)......but sadly no comments. Is it just passing interest?, or no interest at all!!.... in what i write tat does not motivate or should i say encourage the reader to leave any comments;)

Yeh NCFM kya hai??

There's this craze among some of our ppl at NITIE to take up certifications in finance to add to the CV's. To get into a finance job, some certifications might help.....generally since that is the view, i followed too...

Yeah, promptly went to NSE applied for one of the basic modules.......(yeah, had to shell out 1000 bucks too). The initial enthusiasm somehow did not translate into hardwork or real interest in finance! Somehow, may be because of summers and other pressures had no time to prepare for side events like certifications....

So, started preparin for the NCFM test yesterday night(yeah, today was the test...) did get a lot of insight into finance from the nice booklet the NSE people handover during registration, but i guess studying for one night is not enough to pass the exams........oh yeah, flunked...by a whisker! Pass marks was 60, and i got 59.25....was hoping against hope that i would somehow get through! well, as fate would have it somethings are bound to happen....

But the stranger thing is, went out to have a party with IMPRESS teammates...(lemme give u the background--i am part of a committee called as IMPRESS, which does media management work at NITIE....we had a successful event called 'Media Samiksha', a panel discussion organised today, with some big shots from media coming down to our campus...).... No, doubt the party was to celebrate the success!

So, the moral of the whole episode is: "In a B-school, you can flunk in some things and still have parties", or....... am i wrong??

Ciao till next time...Harsha

Summer placements.....blow hot, blow cold...

Summers as we call it, is a 5 week project carried out in Module 4 of the MBA course at NITIE(starts usually around April...) Usually all B-schools have this concept, so wats great or special about it?? Lemme give a peek into what it means for a first yr B-school student and my general funda.....

Summer placements in a B-school are mixed with a lot of feelings- anxiety, frustration, desperation, hope, anger, happiness, relief, satisfaction...... All these are faced for the entire period of day or two during which the placements take place...it comes all over again and again couple them with GD's and interviews. One has a feeling that after coming to a B-school its a full stop to GD's, Interviews, etc. But the problem is it only gets worse and worse...

I faced the same set of emotions for the last few days....its frustrating to see some things just not going right and some other things simply clicking even without trying. I find these placements just as a game of cards. The connoisseur at the game will always win. All that matters is how you position yourself....how you sell youself to the companies, donno if its good or bad...

Well coming back, summers are always an opportunity for ppl to try out different fields....say a guy with experience in manufacturing will want to do his summers in an IT firm or vice versa....they also are an opportunity to get into the company through the PPO route....so guys are damn serious when it comes to competing for the best jobs....

I had some very bitter-sweet experiences for past few days, will be a good reading if i write down my experiences......but again, where's the time? and why bore everyone with funny and frustrating experiences......

Yeah the main thing is, i made it to Wipro-Marketing.....lets see wat's in store....!

Ciao till nest time...Harsha

Some general info about 'Insurance' :)

Was reading some stuff on insurance....finance is a very booky(well....did'nt get a better word!) subject. If i could sum it up in short, this is what it would be:










Ciao till nest time...Harsha