Gurgaon Post

1780 kms...covered in 2 hours 40 minutes…jet lite helped me in the endeavor :-) Reached delhi at 4.45 pm. Delhi gave a warm welcome. At 35 deg Celsius, it couldn’t be warmer! Took a pre-paid taxi for DLF phase 3..300 bucks. A black thing that used to be a maruti 800 in its hey days comes to a screeching halt in front of me. The kid driver (donno whether he was above 18) came out, got busy n hurled my luggage into the backseat. He had a ‘navigator’ cum his Man Friday in the front seat. Off we go. In under 30 minutes, we are in the midst of a caravan of beautiful, well built buildings. A caravan..except that they don’t move. Neither does the traffic in front of them.. in peak time, that is. Got treated to dust therapy. Fished out pg acco contacts that Saurabh had sent. Started calling up..The voice of the land lady says that the acco is in phase 2. Took the taxi till there and then bid adieu to him. The caretaker of the acco took me around the building. I thought I could do with a better option.

Quite an adventure to have 4 pieces of luggage on your shoulders and hoping to find some shelter. Took a cycle rickshaw (‘risk’shaw, actually). Next stop – Sahara mall. Sahara, City Centre, Metropolitan malls are all in a huddle..Kamall hain yaar! Itz almost as if the city police want to get all the traffic to same place and then catch some 'wanted' criminals..Good good. Got a call from Tarun..he gave me the address of his acco where there was a vacancy. Saviour! Took an auto rick…played merry-go-round in sectors 23,22,21..and finally reached the house. Nice place plus apna Tarun in the same building. Settled down. Had great dinner. Slept like a log.

Good morning Gurgaon! 2 paranthas + 1 katori curd + butter + chai for breakfast. From zero breakfast in Mumbai to this + that + one more that in gurgaon..its a good life. The cycle riskshaw will now balance better as I gain weight. Sector 21 to Shankar chowk. I give 100 bucks. No change. None of the road side hawkers gives any change. Plan b..bought a banana. Now comes a khool sales model. He does not have change for most denominations…and there is ‘something’ to give away for every denomination instead of cash. If he does not have 50 paisa..1 mentos. Does not have 1 rupee..2 mentos. 2 rupees…4 mentos. Some learning here! In coupla months I would have collected enough mentos to set up a shop in Manesar or Kancheepuram. Perfetti! Btw, check out mentoshelpline.com

Shankar chowk to Sahara mall. Auto? He says he will take me to IFFCO chowk which is ‘near’ the mall. This..for 5 bucks only! Bulk breaking anyone? Zillions of companies line up the sides of the highway. Indiabulls to multinational bulls..they are all here! Met up a chap in the rick…who is working with Denisco. Started talking about 3PL.. Now, this auto rick is no laila from rgv’s aag. It is a more-space (wid due respect..Logan kinda more space) auto rick. 4 passengers outside..facing outside, that is. 8 in the middle and 4 on the driver’s seat! It is difficult to figure out who among the 4 is actually driving the rick. After 10 minutes..I kinda figured it out. Yes! It is the guy who turns back every 10 seconds! The other 3 are too scared to move and keep their eyes on the road :-)

Saw a hotel board that offered ‘Madhu’ Vada at 5 bucks..hehe.. Soft data, u know. I guess this place has great potential for goggles and sun screen lotion. It is still underserved. Very sunny! A hoarding here is heralding the onset of India’s first jus-for-women radio station. And hold your breath…itz called Meow 104.8 FM!! Thppbt!

Cheers,
Ganga

Mein kahiin kavi na ban jaoon...

What do you do when you have end term exams boxing you in the face..
And you have had such less sleep that you dont know the difference between yesterday and tomorrow..
Submissions galore...!
And loads of management funda books waiting for you to dig your head in them..
GULP.. GASP..
Well.. maybe the most creative things are born out of despair.. :D

Here is what spun out of ADY aka Aditya on one of the usual multi cast chats of the evening before the deadly Managerial Economics exam! :D

Ashima ki Aparna apaar hai,
jiski pratibha itni Ruchira maye hai ki Ras iska...
Ki Ras iska Ram ya maan ka ish hai,
is ish ki ipsita ke kinjal maan ki awaaz suni ti hai
Radhika aur usko aah shoo ke nikal jaati hai,
pir bi harsh in ki anko me aanso ban jata hai.....!!!

The girls of the class are beaming, trust me! :)
Kudos to ADY!
Lage raho!

Cheers!!!
Aparna

Did you know??

Cheers,
Aparna

shiftHAPPENS

The year that was...

GI offer RDB Exit Interview yahoogroup amitabh bachchan preLearning getTogether@Forum ScholarLoan SBI mrGore Volvo SPJIMR pgdsm mit 03 theLakeMile building27 202-C orientationDay bistro induction floods PGlab duke’sPoint bharaari imprintz marginalValue Solverrr ayyappan saar 4 Ps balbirPasha IMC Kotler Al Ries Jack Trout CKP centra blackboard GHS popQuiz bistrobanter FlickPic ColosSeuM Prahelika VedAntA IndependenceDay DanceDrama DandiyaRaas GitaShibir Xpressions Kurukshetra Confluence Fiesta Neev Ensemble Kshitij L'Oréal e-Strat Mavericks Spandan Aarohi Advitiya Lakshya Crusaders Bankerz Innovators GEDay Anveshan CricketChamps SPortzChamps Intaglio Amatheon Holi DOCC RTI UNDP PCGT salamBalak gwaalbaal pgdsm mit 02 Farewell Convocation biskutScrap MUIMUN agriBuddy.com lakshya.com loanMela.com McDbuddays vrindy shetty’s KolkattaClub Chenab Sasural Juhu Daara’s Infinity Fame newClassroomSM2 newChairs SM2

It's hot n humid...but

In the midst of humid summer, see where our batch is goin...


Cheers,
Rohit Upadhyay

dreamZhunt deadline extended

Dear All,

This is the excerpt of the mail from SGS Technologies. NEN members can make use of this opportunity.

*********************************************************************************

As some of you have requested us to extend the dreamZhunt deadline, we have extended it until April 7th. This arrangement is exclusively for NEN members.

If you don’t know what dreamzhunt is (or didn't look at my previous email on this), this is a "funding" contest for IT professionals with some good business ideas. The details of the event can be found at www.dreamzhunt.com

Please check that and make full use of this opportunity. Feel free to buzz me (or dreamzhunt guys) anytime. You can contact Malini ( malini@dreamzhunt.com) or Jaishree (jai@dreamzhunt.com) too for any clarifications.

Thanks & Regards
Manoj Kumar

Business Manager

SGS Technologies P. Ltd

************************************************************************************

Cloud so far...

cloud so far, words so few
in the rainbow, brought colors new

skies shone bright, birds sang
in the spring, brought flowers new

joyous moments many, dark clouds few
in my life, brought meaning new

in the rain, on the dew...
where are you...

cloud so far, words so few...

- Ganga

Kamala

From Kamala’s endearing artless simplicity to Sarita’s doomed resignation, to Jai Singh’s chauvinistic bravado to Kakasaheb’s tired wisdom to Kamla Bai’s in-the-face repartees to the way things are , the cast of SPJIMR’s theater group GASP (Guild of Actors at SP) brought Vijay Tendulkar’s play ‘Kamala’ to life on Sunday evening at the SPJIMR audi. The GASP production of Kamala was brilliantly directed by Anu Mishra and Jyoti Prakash.

Kamala is an indictment of male society in which women are mere stepping-stones in a man’s quest for power and fame. For those unfamiliar with the background of the play, it was based on journalist Ashwini Sarin's path-breaking investigative series in 1981 on the flesh trade in Madhya Pradesh. Sarin ‘bought’ the woman, Kamala, for Rs. 2,300. The journalist then wrote a series of articles exposing the prostitution trade and involvement of bigwigs in politics and police in early 1981. The original play was scripted and directed by Tendulkar and staged 150 times in 32 cities and in seven languages and it was made into a film with Deepti Naval playing the role of the tribal woman Kamala. Vijay Tendulkar’s works have a crucial rural character (Sakharam in Sakharam Binder, Lakhaniya in Aaakrosh, Kamala in Kamala etc.).

The play, very sensitively, brought out the helplessness of oppressed women, and equally of women in high society, who, on the surface, seem to have it all. Kamala mouths the most poignant line in the play when she asks Sarita, “And how much did he buy you for?” A shocked Sarita comes down from the sofa and sits on the floor…next to Kamala. What remains on the wall behind sofa is the shadow of Sarita. Subtle and meaningful. Great lighting by Divya Anand and Jay Tharoor. Kudos to Daisy D’Souza, Amshuman, Priya and Raji for excellent co-ordination and stage management! The sound design by Archish Mathe complemented the very many layers of emotions of the characters. Archana Iyer and Pragya Chaturvedi did a commendable job with the costumes.

Tejaswi turned in a balanced performance as the hapless Kamala. Sameer Walzade was brilliant as Jai Singh, the brash journo. So powerful was his performance that the character of Jai Singh evinced a marathi ‘hai’ in the minds of the audience. Meghana Kedar as Sarita, brought out the patience and frustration of a wife who has to hide her identity and intelligence in her husband’s shadow. The audience that broke into spontaneous applause every time Kamla bai came into the scene was clearly charmed by Kirti Ramnath’s portrayal of Kamla bai. Abhijeet Awasthi essayed the role of Kakasaheb who plays the perfect foil to Jai Sing’s brash bravado. Yogesh, in the role of Jai Singh’s reporter friend, shines in the scene (drunken) after the press conference. Sandy Cashyap was the enigmatic voice of Menon on the phone.

What was in Sarita's mind at the end of Kamala? Guess Sarita was just awakened and she is going through self-realization. She is now determined and confident - she knows she will leave Jai Singh because she will not put up with the situation any longer. However, because of her tradition and her sympathy for her husband who just lost his job and is in despair, she will stay with him for the time being. May be. Just may be.

I would not mind traveling all the way to Phaltan to catch a re-run of the play! Would happily buy my ticket too.

Cheers,
Ganga

Tomar shur amar shur..

Special reporter of bistrobanter, Chandan Chatterjee covers a conversation between two people travelling in Mainline Barddhaman Local of Kolkatta..

Scene: A lady and a middle aged man talking about India, showing tremendous love for their nation.

Lady: I see US of A's hand in making Kalam the president.
Bhadralok : (as perplexed as one would be) US ?
Lady :(Showing all her geo-political intelligence and knowledge) Yes! Kalam was about to make the world's biggest bomb which woud have been a threat to the US. So, they got Kalam to be chosen as the president.
Bhadralok: He can build a bomb even now.
Lady: No! Since he is a president he has become very busy and he has no time to build a bomb. All his time is spent on visiting other nations. US has, therefore, become the safest place to live on earth!

Cheers,
Chandan Chatterjee, Bistrobanter - Kolkatta

What’s your story?

Folks! This is the debut article of Ruby Singh...Read on!

This article which is based on HBS case study will guide you how to justify a drastic career change with grace, confidence & conviction. . Most of us confuse this transition as a time of loss, insecurity, diffidence & uncertainty. This article will emphasize on the importance of a compelling yet genuine story to back up your move.

“All of us construct narrative stories about ourselves-where we’ve come from, where we’re going wrong. The kind of stories we tell make an enormous difference in how well we cope up with change”
-Harvard Business Review

Stories are integral parts of our life because they define us. To know someone, it’s imperative to know her story -the environment that has shaped her, the turning points, challenges & odds that have tested her.

Case study says “Seldom a good story so needed, though, as when a significant change of professional direction is underway-when we are leaving one profession without yet having left it and moving towards another without yet having gotten there. In a time of such unsettling transition, telling a compelling story to interviewers-inspires belief in our motives, charcter & capacity to reach the goal we have set for ourselves.”

Creating & telling a story that matches with our condition & convictions also helps us believe in ourselves. Most of us confuse this transition as a time of loss, insecurity, diffidence & uncertainty. We vacillate between holding on to the past & embracing the future.why? It’s because we have lost the narrative thread of our professional life. Without a compelling story that lends meaning, unity & purpose to our lives, we feel lost & rudderless. We need a good story to reassure that our plans make sense.

The question is why these transition stories are so important? This is because the person who will be facing the transition consequences will be you & what’s at stake is your career. Only love, life & death could be more important. Transition is always about a world that’s changed. You’ve somehow decided that your life doesn’t work anymore the way it was working in past. Perhaps you have reached a point of no return-one that marks the end of a period of frustration & struggle. This much of effort requires a systematic approach to get maximum return.

Hence, a good yet genuine story is essential for making a successful transition.Yet most of us fail to use power of storytelling to match our conviction & goals. Or when we craft a story we do it badly, this may be because many of us have forgotten how to tell a story.

Let’s discuss key elements which will make your story successful

· The story must be about a person or group whose struggle listener can relate to.

· The story should include the catalyst that compelled the person to take major decision.

· The obstacles, frustrations, conflicts confronted by the person should be integral to the story because it reflects the strength of the character to fight against odd.

· Turning point, a point of no return should be the crux of the story. The person can no longer see or do things as he did in past.

· A resolution, in which the person either succeeds magnificently or fails tragically.

Coherence, it’s an essential narrative element because it earns the listener’s trust.


- Ruby Singh

Make a wish

sweet smell of cake on ya face…

dancin’ flame on the candle that says..

moments wid friends are much like here-caught-now-flew butterflies..

gonna miss ‘em as the years pace..

- freshly brewed and dedicated to pgdsm mit 03!

Cheers,
Ganga

Native talk

This time, when I was walking past through the familiar roads of my native town, Madurai, the way I viewed the happenings around me was far more different than how I used to see the same place during my childhood days. There happened to be no change in the mindsets of people though. Their customs, traditions, perspectives about life and the expectations from life all remained the same.

The people here are a set of contented group for whom there is no better heaven than Madurai. Goddess Meenakshi was there guiding them in every walks of life. Though the children from many of the families have got settled in metros and places abroad, their parents felt at peace in their small homes that they had built in the past out their scrimpy savings as a govt employee of those good old days.

I happened to accidentally meet few girls who were my childhood schoolmates. I made no delay in recognizing them as they looked the same they looked when I left that school after my 10th class. But the case was not the same with them. As I never looked like one of them. After leading more than 4 years of life in metros anyone would have evolved from a small-town girl look. When I was enquiring about what they are doing and also about few other frens of mine, all I got the answer was that most of them were married with at least a kid. I even got to meet one girl who was always marveled as the tallest girl of our school (particularly by me ;) ) with her 3 year old kid.

For a while I was shocked to see that girls still don’t get to follow their dreams in most of the families in towns like this. But then the reality was different. Many of them liked to be what they are though apparently for reasons that this is what any normal girl’s life at Madurai would look like. Maybe people lacked the courage to go chase their dreams or even to dream rather. Or they just are forced to abide by the custom of the society.

In any case these girls were happy. After all what do we live on this earth for? Ultimately to be happy! And that I could see in their eyes behind all those buried dreams. Although there was a trace of longing for a life like mine, there were no regrets about their present. This does not tell all about the city and its people. This city had traces of everything. People like me and people like the girls I met.

The economy here also has seen its boom these years and the bustling activity in and around the city and the town hall says it all. You don’t see flashy cars much on the roads but the air is fresh and free from any pollution. You would not like to drive through the narrow crowded roads and broken bridges but behind the conservative minds of the people you certainly would love the warmth they show. There is a truth in the way they live and people don’t regret for what they have in life.

Above all they live and let live!

Cheers!

Sukanya.

Lage raho Munaf bhai!

Coming back home has its dividends. Yep, Siyaram had warned us. An India v/s England cricket match to start the itinerary. Some real khool line and length bowling by Munaf. He earned his first of many MoM awards. Irfan looks like he has laid his demons to rest. His in-swingers are as sleek as… well, got a glimpse of Honda Civic..It is sleek, sexy and that some thing that the BMW design philosophy moved away from. Has lush interiors and a 1.8 l pet engine. Also, they have got their 4 P's just right. Now, this one’s a man’s car. This car is gonna catch eyeballs and lotsa awards this year.

Speaking of awards, ET awards telecast was a treat to watch. Mr.P.M.. the sardar of reforms, Mr.Ahluwalia..chote sardar of reforms, Mr.F.M, Dr.Y.V Reddy were representing the Reform Club..(guess they were part of reformCom in their respective schools). They looked at the Indian economy and its 15 years of reforms with X-ray goggles. These days shops are open even after 9pm in tier 3 cities. Families go on a picnic on Sundays irrespective of the petrol price. Corporate India spent $ 10 billion to acquire foreign companies. Something is happening out there…PC observed. We will see more fruits in the next 3 years. Out of the 700 corporate invitees, most of the nominees were children of the reforms. Those who had built their enterprise in the last 15 years…because of the economy..not inspite of it. That was the heartening part of the dazzling evening.

Dazzling diwali gifts are on display in Louis Vuitton, Frazer n Haws and Ravissant in Mumbai. With a 2.5 lac Swarovski Ganesha, Frazer n Haws are definitely asking Ganesha to…pudhecha varshe laukar aa! Well, I’m expecting some gifts from my TCS friends. TCS has declared a Rs. 3 per share interim dividend. Coming back home has its dividends…you know.

Cheers,
Ganga

LiFe at SPJIMR- My perspective

My 123 days so far at SPJIMR..

It all started with an aim to "Bell the CAT". Finally the struggle came to a halt when the hallowed portals of SPJIMR stood wide open infront of me. There was no time available to taste the fruit of hard work but to take up the gauntlet. The first few days at B-School were remarkably hectic and wonderful. Presentations, quizzes, team events and what not? 11 pm became a normal hr to get back to hostel. Day doesn end there though..Woosh! got a quiz in the morning followed by a presentation..Gaaawd! when do I sleep then.. Still everything was enjoyed minute by minute.. Thanks to our seniors (PGDSM MIT 02) for all the time they took out and gave us a lot of valuable inputs in those first few days.

Still can't forget the day when we were given a task at 09:00 pm to present a B-plan next day morning. None of us slept that day. And the strength to stay awake till 5 am and come back fresh to college by 9 am is all an entrant to B-school gets to adopt in the first few days itself. Of course i need to agree that i used to feel sleepy during lectures.

Quizzes!! They are an integral part of any B-school. Quizzes on QM and MicroEco!! I used to get even dreams on quizzes (Or may be I slept while writing the quiz and so I feel so… Well! I don remember in both cases what happened)

Now don’t conclude that there was no time for fun. Well! the main course of life at SPJIMR starts only now. With a wonderful batch of people making up the set of PGDSM MIT 03 fun is filled in the air and is all pervasive. There we have Mr. Sudhir Kumar Jena who makes the whole class roar with laughter with his comic strips on each of our batch mates. On the other end we have Mr. Siddharth Dhar busy throwing out fundoos on six sigma and Manufacturing. Girls are no less active. There I see Ms. Navneet Nayyar questioning Profs who go haywire after listening to her. And this time Mr. Partho inherited some of the attributes from Navneet and proved that even he is no lesser in confusing Prof. Tom.

Hey! You cant miss out the “Chintu” of our batch sitting cool and calm. But behind the pardha you surely would miss out the chat window. ;) There always is a row at the back that keeps wondering whose socks stink. But suddenly one will hear Mr. Aditya Baliga’s “I Disagree” though not from no where. Whats our RJ-Rahul doing? Making a movie on PGLAB or a video on “ Gandhigiri”?? Kit-pit-kit-pit…there I hear Shireen’s typing sound. It goes on and on and on. She would seem busy typing something important yet with all her ears in the lecture. All on a sudden a question pops up from her from nowhere to just hold the neighbors for a surprise who were all the time listening to the kit-pit-kit-pit.

How can anyone be let to doze off during lecture? That too when am an Acadcom member!That’s our dear Shruti Gupta ready with a question. There goes on the inbuilt microphone with a sufficient amount of decibel that would even wake our sleeping Javed bhai up with a thud..( ooops! where am I??) When all this is happening Nats is lost in her own world. Still Pallavi is in the quest to find out why is that her number in roll not 1 but 2. Well! Who cares is what our GClisa feels.. Merrily playing “Hangaroo”.

Sorry friends for pulling you all. But all these are those moments that we would all be cherishing in the future. As far as I am concerned these form part of my take away from SPJIMR. I have learnt a lot from each one of you in someway or the other.

Now! From the lecture time to party time! McD our favo.. Tx to NIMITT ;) We celebrated Moon’s birthday out there ( Hey! not that Chanda Mama this is our very own Moon Nagar). Ankur, one of the staffs of McD still remembers our dear Moon. That’s were our enthusiasm for parties started..And Wednesday dinners?? There is no need to ask about it… Yippee! no mess food today.. There you can see Ganga, Sidd, Vishal, Amit, Myself, Moon et al deciding on the place. Hey! we are free this week end. Chaaalo chalthe hain.. Movie or restuarant? And how can i forget the way i tortured Amit Kumar for translation while watching OMKARA. Well! Laghe raho without any native slangs was easy enough for me . :-)

BistroBanters owes its genesis to all those wits and jokes cracked about each other sitting in the Bistro having VadaPav and Masala Chai. Ganga and myself used to sit for a long time even after our favorite hot pizza gets over. And that’s the time when a lot of creative thinking happens. Also major activity planning for PRCOM takes place :-). Sipping a lemon tea and having a debate on “Spirituality suggests liberation from pain is through liberation from physical identity- is that so?” was one of those ever cherishing moments. Ganga! The topic is still not closed.

This is just a glimpse of my 123 days at SPJIMR. There are lot more incidents that are beyond the scope of explaining by mere words. The much enjoyed RJ-Chintu radio, our very own IP messenger and Multicasts and at last not to forget our movie server which houses resources almost comparable in quantity with our libserver (he he ;) ) will all form part of everlasting memories.

And now comes the time for us to explore ourselves during the much awaited Gita Shibir. Management on books alone doesn make a wholesome Manager.

A Manager with values is what SPJIMR produces.

LiFe at SPJIMR Part II can be expected after Gita Shibir

Seeya guys for now!

Cheers,
Sukanya.

Today is my day

Hey readers, this is not my first attempt at blogging but I am not a professional blogger as is Godfather “Ganga” - as I fondly call him. Seriously speaking I really do not understand some of his serious blogs like the one about night canteen. But that doesn’t really matter. As a matter of fact what more can you expect of yours truly who has made fewer appearances in Eco classes than the same of a guest faculty at SPJIMR. But thankfully my classmates do recognize me as one of them and don’t ask me awkward questions like “Are you in PGDSM MIT?”

I would like to just throw a beam of light into the life of a PGDSM-MITian through this blog. But it’s from my point of view, which would of course match with that of Ambar, Amit Maheswari, Parag, Taha, Pramod and rest of the ‘most sincere’ participants of PGDSM MIT 03. Topper’s league consisting of Shireen, Maulik, Rakesh, Pranav, Praveen, Partha, Sonia, Anamitra and others are better off in Pamplin…hehe. There was an ip from heaven that there is an urgent need of ‘Smart Working’ people for Business Analysts and higher profiles in the “Soul Chain Management” (SCM) wing over there and would be paid handsomely. So, I forwarded the resumes of all people in the topper’s League. As of Praveen, he can always carry his Halo over there. The rest like me can enjoy ‘Welcome Party’ in hell. The ones left out are very much invited to do “Dandiya’ tomorrow.

Don’t blame me if Prof. Tom comes next day into the class and says “Today, you have to make a rational rose model of Dandiya at Virginia Tech”! I really do have amazing B-plans. Otherwise, how do you think Bansal Polishing Company made it to Fortune (- 500) list. It’s this much from me right now. But before I leave I really promise one thing. PGDSM-MIT will have its own mirror blog site on intranet soon. Will be of great use during all those hours of no-internet! Bye for now.

- Sudhir Jena

The Independence Day @ SPJIMR

14^th august. Dr. Luiz DaSilva’s first day of contact session. 9am... Sid and Su had made arrangements for the posters (about the Virginia Tech contact session) to pop up at all the vantage points including the 'B mile' notice board (Bistro mile - walkway leading to the bistro). The day before that Sid, Su and I sat for a poster review. What was supposed to be a 5 minute review, update, save to pen drive and dash to royal Xerox itinerary, turned out to be an hour long session. Mumbai baarish notwithstanding, we ran to Andheri station…hurriedly crossed the bridge and walked into royal xerox. Now this is a pigeon hole of a photocopy, printing, designing and publishing dukaan. Well, not that you could expect more real estate for a photocopy enterprise in Mumbai.

The open book-open lappy quiz at 1.30pm was bit of a learning curve and was fun. Dr. DaSilva’s class ended at 5pm. It was pizza time at bistro. No sooner had we silently polished off pizza, vada pav and samosa, Pallavi joined us and told us about the rehearsals going on in GW 2. This was for the morrow’s cultural program. She did a good job of convincing us. Soham, Su, Moon and I walked up the flight of stairs.

At the far end of GW2, Shek (Ranjan) and Rohit were singing to glory behind what looked like a massive piano waiting to grow up…it was the synthesizer actually. Nishant was effortlessly getting his chord right. Adi was on the acoustic guitar. Zoshi was busy practicing ‘raghupati raghava raja ram’. Couple of paces from there, RJ and Sai were busy crafting a brilliant feminine silhouette in a tricolor logo. Saurabh was back with FlickPic posters and carried a festive zeal. Pan to the center of the hall…There was a motley group of 3 or 4…Maulik, Sonia, Rakesh and Javed. Tarun and Chandan joined soon. Shireen and Sonal were choreographing the theme dance. They both are wonderfully talented dancers. What more, they can even infuse synchronization into a willing group of dancers. We joined the party.

Javed, Subir and I had the quintessential negative role…that of stoking communal hatred. After bharariYummy-Yam, the mould is cast. The angels of peace (read Shireen and Sonal) lift the pall of gloom and make good Samaritans out of us. We run with saffron, white and green pieces of satin cloth while Shireen and Sonal make the chakra with blue satin cloth prop. Umpteen number of rehearsals and improvisations, we seem to get it right. Everybody is dead tired. We call it a day and plan to meet at 8am next morning. Slept like a log of wood.

15^th August. SPJIMR campus wore a festive look. The blush of the saffron, the tranquil of the white and the verdant green were everywhere - paper flags, flowers and those lovely kurtas. National flag was hoisted at 8.30 a.m. The cultural program started pretty soon in the audi. PGP guys started off with poetry recital and patriotic songs. PGPX staged a street play called ‘Mumbai meri jaan’…a thought provoking one at that. The way the actors translated the local train and Mumbai street scenes onto the stage medium with little or no props was amazing. We, PGDSM MIT, had kept the best for the last. Shek, Rohit and Zoshi gave mellifluous rendition of patriotic songs while we alloyed the dance-drama into the songs. The finale was when we made the flag formation with satin cloth props. The audience gave us a resounding applause. Two sounds were very clear for PGDSM MIT. One was a pat on the back. The other was a gentle push showing us more sky. CultCom, take a bow!

c u soon,
Ganga

Moovy Review - Omkara

“Shart ghodon pe rakhe jaate hain…sheron pe nahin” roars Omi to a rival henchman’s sidekick. The unwitting sidekick freezes while the screen glows with the incandescence of Ajay-Omi-Devgan’s presence. Omkara aka Omi, a henchman in the hinterlands of U.P, is next-in-command for Bhai saheb (Naseeruddin Shah). Omi makes Kesu (Viveik Uber khool) his lieutenant while Langda Tyagi (Saif gaali Khan) feels insulted. Langda hatches a scheme to falsely implicate Omi’s love Dolly (Kareena) in a love affair with Kesu.

What unfolds is a saga of love, innocence, loyalty, jealousy, greed and revenge. This adaptation of Shakespeare’s Othello is deeply rooted in the Indian milieu sans the hyper hamming of the usual flicks. The genre is trademark Vishal Bhardwaj. The genre is coming of age Indian cinema. From Makdee to Maqbool to Omkara, this guy is upping his creativity bar every time. Trust me, his work is manna for discerning movie buffs.
Body language of the characters speaks realms about the machinations of their mind. Darkness laments about the inevitable. The crystal clear skies and swelling streams talk of love and innocence. Bhardwaj’s control of the medium is simply sooperb. For those of you who have read or staged Othello in high school, the beauty and the difficulty of writing Omkara’s screenplay will be evident.

Langda Tyagi…bahubali! Langda Tyagi bahubali! Saif is first rate with his mannerisms, dialogue delivery, yellow teeth and all that. The moment of truth for Saif’s acting prowess, according to me, is the scene when Kesu is made bahubali. Just watch his expressions ranging from warped loyalty to a benign smile to sinking insult to simmering hatred. All in 5 seconds! Too few actors in contemporary Indian cinema can handle this scene with conviction (sorry Tarun…SRK would lose 4 seconds in keeping his head straight). Langda’s conversation with Raju on the river bank…he wearing the stolen kamar-bandh on his head and giving an eerie laughter…Saif is gonna walk away with lotsa awards and walk into the hearts of zillions of fans.

Ajay Devgan is his usual best. His ability to convey emotions without any dialogues is amazing. Kareena sans make up reminds you of Refugee and Yuva. Viveik should try giving voice over to animation movies. Konkana Sen is a class apart. Has great screen presence. The scene where she confronts Omi about his suspicion on Dolly will form a lump in your throat.

Great movie. Catch it on big screen. You will hear more expletives than you would have heard all your lives  Kudos to censor board. They have started to believe in the maturity of Indian cinegoers. But Amit had a difficult time explaining to Chinti that all those expletives just meant either stupid or fool..hehe.. Vishal, Sid, NaM, Manas n GC were all chipping in with comment tidbits. We had a good time. Now I need to catch some Fin Mgmt. I don’t want SBI to write off my loan as a ‘bad debt’!

All the best for Marketing presentations,
Ganga

of butter noodles & credit market imperfections...

Night canteen @ spjimr boys hostel is a melting pot of various case studies. Jayaram operates this stall with dollops of enthu and oodles of knack. Kya Sir..kya chaahiye? Question is seemingly multiple choice. Only one answer fetches the highest marks and the fastest delivery. Butter Noodles! Jayaram has a happy process of making upto 4 plates of butter noodles in a deep pan. Khool entrepreneurial snack, this one...wonder who invented this. The Chinese connection points to TG :) More on that later. Oops! Didn't get my wallet! Hmm, well..I can see my roomie Nitin in the vicinity. Then there is NaM n GC...laughing n smoking repectively. So, we bail each other out when the money supply is low in the graveyard shift. This is our quasi credit union. Fulltoo non-profit. Very co-operative. The depositors run the show. Only that there are no formal deposits. As yet J I- don't-know-whom-to-pay-how-much. .. Well, I guess this is happening at all- india level too. High credit offtake. Low deposits :) Jokes apart, guys.. you would have read Praveen's mail regarding the benifits of such a pool account. Pour in your thots pls..

Know wot…Edward Filene discovered credit unions in a village in India in 1907. He had stopped in Kolkatta and met a government official who took Filene out into the countryside. There Filene first observed a village credit union in operation and immediately was interested. He had begun profit-sharing plans for his employees, instituted other novel fringe benefit programs, was the founder of the "bargain basement" idea in department store operation, allowed his employees to engage in collective bargaining and arbitration, established minimum wages for female workers, and advocated a five-day, 40-hour week. In the early 1900s, such ideas were revolutionary. Besides his creative approach to business, Filene was also one of the founders of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Now this one is interesting…An inefficient credit market can make for a higher rate of savings and thus spur economic growth. In Italy, the average age at which people buy their first homes is 41. In the US and UK it is 28 and 29 respectively. In order to buy their homes, Italians have to save for many years, and then some get help from their parents or other relatives. Without such gifts or transfers Italians would have to wait another two years before they could buy a house.

One reason why Italy is so unusual is the way the mortgage markets work. Maturities of loans are relatively short – 10-15 years, and down payments are often above the legal minimum of 50% of the cost, itself a rule, which inhibits ownership. Fewer than 2% of mortgagees borrowed more than 60% of the total equity, and were able to do so only because of borrowing for repairs and additions.

So, it is said that “gifts are a poor substitute for efficient credit markets.” But they add, “On the basis of this finding, mortgage market imperfections remain a potentially powerful explanation of the high Italian aggregate saving rate and of its powerful correlation with the rate of economic growth.”

The results make for a fascinating contrast with the credit markets in the United States and Britain where borrowing is far easier and saving far lower. In recent years, however, the differences between growth rates in these countries and the traditionally higher Italian rate have changed and have even been reversed to some extent.

Pls do share your thots about macroeconomics and credit market imperfections...and what about our credit union???

c u soon,

Ganga

PGDSM MIT. Only Management can change the System.