With little to do in Chennai, a TV in my hotel room, and bored watching the same debates on NDTV, I settled down to watching ‘Kuchh Kuchh Hota hai’ on Sony. Now, as all of you know, Bollywood Movies are made up 80% of emotional stuff. As I watched the scene when Shahrukh chases the train carrying Kajol away and tears flowing down their eyes – I reflected back upon the days when I was seeing my friends off about an year and a half ago. The real life, at least in my case, was quite a contrast to reel life as shown in such movies. Most partings were merry and we always parted smiling and laughing at the jokes we had cracked during our campus life. Did that mean that we weren’t sad at friends leaving for good? Or did it mean we did not love our friends? Well … not quite. According to me, in real life – emotions are the domain of the solitary mind. It is mostly when we are alone that we are taken over by emotions and philosophical thoughts. Emotions are seldom exchanged when people are in

Note: Trademarks and other confidential terms have been replaced with Block Characters (X,U,V,W) for professional prudence The day I applied to KPMG violating my sacrosanct policy of not applying to non-core-IT companies, the only thought was that in a consulting firm I could get to see more than one IT company rather than just one. Some year and half later, that decision seems to have paid off. I started my internship feeling slightly disappointed when I realized that I was working mostly in Banks and Financial sectors and IT seemed far. But I kept up my diligence towards work. The moment of self-assurance came just when I did not to go for the UK trip (most work there too was into the Banking and Financial sector). I was sent to Hyderabad for 3 weeks to help '§' get a SAS 70 certification. The opportunity was rewarding – I was able to observe all detailed processes from Software development, Software Quality Assurance, Infrastructure maintenance to HR management and training

Read the article Can MBA teach 'hunch' and 'inspiration'? on PaGaLGuY.com But the real question to ask is - Should MBA teach 'hunch' and 'inspiration'?. Transacting business does not always need 'hunch'. Most business transactions require insight, they need the ability to look through the obvious, through truckloads of mundane data and spot the right trend. What Ms. Gauri is probably talking about is Entrepreneurship - her examples of Microsoft and napster indicate the same. The question one must ask is whether even today Microsoft is being managed by Harvard dropouts?? Microsoft is headed by Steve Ballmer who graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor's degree in mathematics and economics. After college, he worked for two years at Procter & Gamble Co. as an assistant product manager and, before joining Microsoft, attended Stanford University Graduate School of Business. Same with Napster whose CEO is Chris Gorog. However, one sho

Just finished reading Five Point Someone. (Don't Scream! atleast now that I have read it). There are many criticisms of the book available. I agree that if the book does not depict the life of a five-pointer accurately, it does injustice to the subject; also that the story is filmy. But I would like to take the content with a sense of humour - just like one does while watching Govinda Movies and Munnabhai MBBS. So, here's my take on FPS .... What makes FPS interesting is the writing style ... its a very honest style of writing ..... Chetan writes as if the character is himself plotting his thoughts on paper .... without using special words and of course without civility ... An Example (my favourite!) - ".. then she placed her foot on the accelearator. Now may be it is because I am an engineer, but that was hot!". FPS is interesting because it describes events as if they unfolded in reality ... not the Ayn Randish style where the deeper meaning behind every event is a

"I've resigned because it's the right thing to do. Aur main Rae Bareli se election zaroor, zaroor ladoongi." No one has made as much a mockery of the Indian political system as Sonia Gandhi. Sonia has demonstrated to one and all how powerless and utterly ridiculous the Indian Democratic System can be made, provided you punch the right buttons. I salute the lady for her achievement ! While leftists and rightists both tried their best to argue to the public about the lacunae in the political system, Sonia has demonstrated the same by example; also in turn demonstrating the impotency of facts and arguments ( tark-aur-vimarsh ) in the current set up. The current case is ridiculous in more than one way. Sonia Gandhi had held many offices of profit even before she became an MP, primarily due to the distinction of being the Desh ki Bahuraani . Obviously so, otherwise how could the widow of an ex-PM survive while affording the pomp of the Gandhi family. But anyway, I digress.

"Refusing to hobnob with the bands of merrymakers, we lock ourselves at home, catch up on the latest blockbuster on the DVD and hope to goodness we are not disturbed. " - BRIEF CASE: Holi Nostalgia (TOI 16-03-2006) Well! That's what I too did on this Holi - finally found courage to sneak out of home in the evening to watch Taxi No 9211. Nice movie; a fresh theme and noticeable performances. I finally confess that I had misjudged John Abraham - he's not just-another-model-trying-to-become-a-hero; he's pretty good at acting too ........ Change of thought ...... Two movies back to back - Bluffmaster and Taxi No 9 2 11 have showcased Mumbai City. In fact the titles at the end of Taxi No 9211 start with the proclaimation - 'Shot Entirely In the City of Mumbai' . To that effect Indiafm's review about Taxi No 9211 was exact - and for those who do not know, the bulk of the movie is actually shot in the suburban belt of the city (to be exact its the Powai-A

Countries like India, which were not prosperous enough for development to be funded in each corner of the country, felt the pinch of the neo-capitalist economy. In prosperous nations, in spite of centralization, economic prosperity was widespread. But here, lack of resources coupled with corruption, slowed down the developmental rush of the early independence years by 1970s; the 1980s was marked by confusion in economic policies. Come the 1990s; with communism fallen, decentralization and liberalization on, a new wave of enthusiasm crept in the economy. But this all is probably happening too little and too late. The argument in favour of high-taxation for the rich is that this money would be utilized for the uplift of the poor. What has been observed on the ground however, is that it is the middle class (and not the rich) which feels the pinch of taxation, while the poor do not seem to be benefited at all. The reasons behind this phenomenon would be the topic for another write-up and I

1NDIA , One Nation, One Billion People, One Dream, One Voice One India The OneIndia (by Reliance and now BSNL, MTNL ... and ... Airtel) campaign is another step towards equalizing (or rationalizing) the mobile tariff schemes. Another step in the direction of universalizing telecom availability! Are these simply marketing promotions or indicators towards the new ways of economic thinking that are entering our policy making corridors? By the early 1900s, the theory of free markets had firmly established itself. The rise of the United States, as a formidable economic power, ahead of Great Britain was a proof to its success. However, towards the end of the economic crisis, in the early 1920s when industrialization was in full swing in Europe and in its infancy in countries like India, communism also rose with its own philosophy of state controlled ‘factors of production’. Meanwhile the economic crisis of 1929 loomed large over the capitalist world; as a result even capitalist governments s

You can take me out of NITIE. But you can never take NITIE out of me. - Shubham Choudhury* I could not help but (re)post this comment made by Shubham on my previous post. By the way, Junta! I am going to go be in a nomadic life for the next 15 days, so might not be able to post :( References * Choudhury, Shubham; URL: http://my-mind-space.blogspot.com Born July 19, 1980; NITIE, PGDIM-X, Class of 2005 Co-Creator: Arbit Choudhury - World's First B-school comic character

Another Saturday that was; hectic yet fun. Started the day by rushing my bike to the service station in Mulund - rushed ahead to KPMG Office in Lower Parel to attend a training. While the training entered its last leg, I ran away back to Mulund to collect my bike and then braving through the traffic jam, reached home - exhausted! Had a late dinner @ 10:50 PM and then decided to go for a short stroll. So me and Somnath set out on foot to stroll in Hiranandani . It was looking very beautiful - empty but lighted streets with the marvelous structures. Both of us simultaneously had thoughts of taking snaps and incidentally Somnath's camera had just a few strips remaining. So we went back, grabbed the camera and set out roaming on the bike at 1:30 AM to take snaps. We took snaps in Galleria, Olympia, and old-Hiranandani areas; but with a few shots still left, we were both overcome by a wish to visit NITIE and take a few snaps there. So here we were, two souls in Shorts and T-shirts, ente