iknalos is here

The Twisted Tales of Karwa Chauth

2011-10-16T06:08:00.000-07:00

Story's based in Mumbai. It was a Karwa Chauth day and we focus on a working couple living in the suburbs of Mumbai.
PART I
To make matters tough for the Girl, she had to go to office while the Boy could leisurely at home (It was a Saturday- some companies work on Saturday while most don't). To build a better perspective, the boy is a typical lazy guy who mostly likes to sleep on weekends. He could keep a fast for only one meal at a time and hence he is unlike some of the modern husbands who accompany wives's in their fasts on Karwa Chauth.
So, work + fast for the lady and sleep + no-fast for the boy. Girl, however, asked for a simple favor. She wanted the boy to

make preparations for dinner so that time would be saved when she prepares it in evening.
keep home tidy
get Pooja material for Karwa Chauth.

Evening comes and W is about to leave her office for home when she rings H. She wanted to give H a surprise reaching early at home and tells him that she would get late But the boy also decides to give her surprise by reaching her office to pick her up.. He started in his car. W arrives home (she had the alternate keys) and finds that the house is very untidy. She tries to find out if H has done any preparation for dinner. She searches for Pooja material and finds nothing. It was 6:30 and she was mighty hungry and thirsty. She felt agonizingly bad as H had not done anything but slept the whole day; he could not even bring the Pooja material !! She calls him and he answers that he is on the way to her office. He returns home after getting to know that she is already home.
20 minutes later; H enters home. He sees that W looks utterly sad and she actually starts weeping. She complains that he does not care about her and takes her for granted. H finds out that she is sad because he didn't do anything.
Perfect plot for a tragedy!!! But wait, is it actually? H soothes W and shows her that

he had actually cooked whole dinner for the first time and hide that to surprise her;
he was also carrying a bag along in which he had kept all the Pooja material, water and also some sweet that he had prepared- he carried this along since he wanted her to do the pooja and end her fast in the car itself as soon as he reaches her office.

Getting to know about the facts, W started smiling and then laughing. She had got the perfect gift from H, more than what she expected.
Funny ending!!!

PART II
Fast forward, 2 hours. H & W are waiting on the roof top for the moon to show up. Technology comes handy as they could locate the exact position of moon through an Google Sky Map in W's android based mobile. Moon was slightly above the horizon but could not be seen because of tall building plus Mumbai atmosphere. 1 hour wait and still Moon is not to be seen. Although Google Sky Map showed Moon to be located clear of all the buildings but clouds spoiled the party. At 10, Moon is still not visible. Technology savyy couple decides to do the Pooja in front of Moon visible through Google Sky Map. One lady seeing this inquires as to how they we able to see the Moon. The boy explained that there is some feature in their mobile which helps locate the Moon. He also forecasts that Moon might not be visible till 12- 1 Am considering the envelope of cloud all round the sky. The couple comes back to their flat- just beneath the roof. The Girl overhears the lady taking on phone that moon would not be visible till 1 and one couple had done the pooja using some phone.
W drinks water and the couple start having their dinner when the bell rings. One aunty living in the flat opposite theirs was at the door and inquired about the magic phone which came to their rescue. The boy understands the situation and takes the phone along with him to accompany the lady to the roof. All the ladies along with their husbands are waiting for the magical phone. The boy explains the features to one of the curious husbands. The ladies were not exactly confident that the phone was showing actual Moon (though it was not! but since clouds had rendered human eyes incapable of visualizing Moon the technology had provided a close approximation of reality). The husbands somehow convinced the ladies into believing Moon's presence. What happened next is a picture of modern India. In a perfect association of Tradition and Technology, the ladies performed the rituals in front of the image of Moon in the mobile!!! and the funny part was that they were doing it in front of boy (holding mobile) instead of their husband
( Seems like a lost opportunity for android phones in India- this story could have multiplied the sales by at least 2 times) Though, the ladies would never know whether the Moon that they saw was real or not but then its more about faith then about visualization.
End of PART II

.....and then I became a trader

2011-03-19T10:04:00.001-07:00

It dates back to sometime in my engineering days. Solving puzzles used to be a lot of fun. I used to find and solve puzzle from websites, had subscribed to a daily puzzle mailer and was mostly lost in one puzzle or another. It was the third year of my 4 year graduation degree and things were going smoothly. A significant amount of time was spent on PC- mainly FIFA, puzzles and browsing randomly. A meaningful chuck of time was being spent on cricket, volleyball and football fields (especially at nights, in Hostel lawns). And B-Tech..oops, yeah I used to manage the cut-off attendance to appear in exams.
So, puzzles then. It was more of a ego issue to solve any given puzzle then anything else; though I loved spending time on them. I was good at solving the straight logic, mathematical ones- probability ones. It was the lateral thinking ones which usually gave me tough time. And then there is this thing about puzzles that you can't get it out of your mind until you solve it or get the answer form some where.
It was around the end of third year that the anxiety about future (post B-Tech) started to grow big. People were attending MBA coaching, personal development classes, other exam preparation classes etc. And it usually starts to bother you also, when everyone around suddenly starts getting serious. Two or three companies came for "paid" summer placements (You see, paid internships in engg. were a rarity that time; don't know what's the scene now).
Its then I started seriously thinking about what's going to happen. Though, I never got any close to qualifying for any of those internships but the jolt was received.
I liked solving puzzles as I mentioned. And from the given options- Job/MBA/Civil services; MBA attracted me the most. It was more because of CAT then anything else that motivated me towards MBA; more specifically IIMs. CAT was (is?) one of the toughest entrance exams in the country and it mostly involved aptitude based objective problem solving. And I liked solving puzzles!
Don't know exactly when, but I started preparing for CAT. Probably it started during my summer internship (@ TATA Motors, Lucknow). Chapra Ji and Rahul (PG mates at Lucknow) had loads of MBA prep material. It was a boring time both at the company and apartment and the prep material got to my rescue.
Then, back in college (4th year) I accelerated the prep. Mostly used to solve test papers borrowed from people who had joined some test series or the other. Since, those days around 150 questions used to come in CAT and the cut-offs were around 50 ques hence one question paper served two rounds of Mock Test prep for me.
CAT happened and I got a decent percentile. And that was it! That was the end of my planning. All I wanted was to crack CAT!! Nothing more, nothing less. But now the GDs and interviews loomed large. I had never been good in those (and haven't improved much yet!) and actually hated preparing GD-PIs. Though, eventually got through one of the IIMs (the GD-PI stories not relevant here). I chose Finance and Operations as majors since I could never withstand the gyan of Strategy and Marketing and more importantly, was poor at CP (Class Participation).
So, Finance then. And I learned about markets, trading, derivatives etc.

Interesting then! Dots joined? Puzzles->CAT->Finance->Trading

And now straight to trading. I like this game, because in order to succeed:
1-You don't need to market yourself
2-There are no unwritten rules, no side shows, no backbiting
3-You don't need to agree with any one else, nor do you have to convince others to agree
4-You take a call, you take the award/loss
5-Most importantly, there are no favorites

But its not just a game; its a university in itself. You would learn more about human emotions/psychology then anywhere else. It was a healthy green start for me; but it all turned red in a blink of an eye. You see, the fall is always steeper then the rise! As the returns turned from green to red so did I; from investor to trader.
So what are the learnings till now? There are quite a few and will detail out in coming posts. For the time being, the summary:
- Please, please, please decide before hand how much you want to make (exit point) and how much you can afford to lose (stop loss)
- Never get carried away with your initial view; ultimately market is the king (Bhav bhagwan che!)
- Please share all investment and trading details with your spouse. You see its always better to at least have emotional support in case you lose the financial one

Good bye for now. Promise, the next posts would follow soon.

Why not to marry?

2010-12-23T08:55:00.001-08:00

Ok then. Here's the most awaited blog, post my marriage. Apologies for the delay, to those who got married in the mean time.
There's been much written/talked on this topic before and I won't repeat the theory. I am writing based on my personal experience.
So, here goes the list:
- You get home-cooked food for lunch (at office); otherwise you would have got the luxury of eating the "delicious" canteen food; or better, the healthy snack at McD.
- You can no longer keep wearing the same clothes until the color changes.
- You can no longer ignore wishing birthday/anniversary to relatives/friends; now even the fufaji of your mamiji's brother gets a birthday call!
- YOU HAVE TO BATH EVERYDAY!
- You have to start saving; and you can no longer spend at leisure
- You can no longer sleep the whole day and stay awake the whole night (I miss those days when I used to pull all nighters and complete 1-2 seasons of PB, 24 ..!)
- Your get poorer on stress level and burdened with happiness

And there are many more cons; but then this is the only life long relation that's not joined by blood but still holds you stronger. The feeling of love and togetherness that you get in return is truly priceless; and you won't get a costlier-priceless thing in the world. So go, get it.

And correction on the title of the post; it should be "Why not? Go n get married."

Another one of those "I am back" blogs

2010-12-18T07:15:00.001-08:00

Some learnings from other blogs/articles/personal experiences etc.:
- Don't invest in ULIP- buy a term plan and a pure investment product instead. ULIPs just charge you extra for bringing both the feature together.

- If you have recently bought a Broadband data card and somehow the Broadband mode is not working (and you are ignorantly using hybrid mode instead), call up the Call-Centre now to get the Broadband activated plus ask them to increase your validity equal to the extent of gap. (Based on experience with MTS data card; got the mode changed after a heated battle of 5-6 days, fingers crossed for validity extension)

- Tata Swach is a cheap purifier. But beware, the battery (which gets exhausted in 2-3 months) is a scarce commodity; you won't get it from anywhere but rather have to purchase a new set of purifier. (The purifier costs 1000/- and the battery 250/-).
I had to buy a new one; though, I have tried Aqua Sure this time (cost 2300, one battery free).

-Electronic Gadgets on EMI, at no extra cost: Very lucrative, but don't end up buying electronic items just because there's this cheap EMI option available. On the face of it, the option looks a good bargain; but then take a step back and understand why companies are foregoing the time value of money.
Simple! The value of electronic items go down with time and go down more than the value of money. Hence, you are being lured to buy that LCD 1 year before you actually want to buy and more importantly at today's price (which would be any ways greater than the price 1 year hence). Got the deal?
But if you are planning to buy a gadget, do look out for these EMI deals as it would be cheaper. Buy if you had planned and not because there's an EMI deal.

More reviews/watch outs coming up

Chocolaty Life-Raju aur Basant ka Atyachar

2010-01-15T01:05:00.001-08:00

Act-1, Scene-1
Place: Cadbury Guest House, Worli, Mumbai
Time: Around 7 PM, sometime in July

Rahul-"Raju bhaiya kuch nashta bana do"
Raju-"Abhi khane ke time ho gaya hai, nashta nahi milega"

Sunil takes the TV remote in his hand to browse for channels when Basant strikes.
Basant (Quickly robs Sunil of remote)-"Ye remote ko hath nahi lagana"

<span style="font-style: italic;">The Context</span>:
Raju and Basant are the care takers for this Guest House of Cadbury. And they have been here eternally; as confirmed by seniors. The new joinees are initally provided accomodation for some time. And that is the time when we cross our ways with R&B. Both are from Nepal as is apparent by the accent; by the TV channel which runs when we enter the guest house.

Act-2, Scene-2
Location: Same
Time: Not relevant

Aditi-"Bhaiya ye kapade dho dijiyega"
Raju-"Nahi, wo huum, ladkiyon ke kapade nhi dhote hai"
Aditi (Disappointed and slightly annoyed)-"Acha koi baat nhi, par kapado ko iron to kar dijiyega"
Basant-"Woo, ladikon ke kapade iron nahi karate hai, kyuki jal jaata hai"
Aditi get even more annoyed but had to manage it herself.

The Debate-Test v ODI v T20

2010-01-14T05:20:00.001-08:00

All right, all right; I am a bit late when already enough has been discussed on the issue. Questions have been raised over the future of pure cricket-Test and off late people arguing whether ODIs should co exist with T20 or be done away with. And then there is all this debate over excessive cricket and player burnout.
But, let us take a step back and find out why this debate. Players all round the world want to represent their countries and play as much as they can; and I don' think good players are in short supply. The national cricket boards would ideally want more and more quality cricket and also cricket which attracts audience and in turn revenues. And then there are viewers all over, cricket pundits, commentators etc. who want more and more of exciting cricket. So, if players want to play, administrators want to arrange and viewers want to see then why this whole debate on cutting down on matches and different formats hurting each other. And I feel every thing boils down to this-the number of players representing a country. Every team wants to field the best 11 players for each and every game of each and every format. This leads to 7-8 players constantly involved in one format or another all the year round. I strongly believe there won't be considerable difference between the skill level of top 30-40 players for any country. Agreed that there would be 2-3 super natural match winners but apart from these the skill level does not fall too steeply within the top 30-40. So, if the national boards can dilute there obsession with fielding the best 11 every time then a very simple solution exists to all the above problem. All three forms can co-exist and the number of matches/year actually be increased without the fear of one format competing against other and burnouts.
Every nation can rotate players for different series/formats. There can even be parallel matches between same teams in different formats (Ind vs Aus-test and T20 being played together)
But for this to happen every stake holder has to forgo a little bit of obsession with winning. Everyone wants good cricket and more cricket after all. Players would then not be forced to retire basis age, youngsters would get exposure to international cricket early on and there won't be appeals for less cricket/

Checking-Blog using Email :)

2010-01-11T11:21:00.000-08:00

Hi there.

If you can read this then congrats!
You can now publish blogs via email

Chocolaty Life

2009-08-23T07:56:00.000-07:00

Enough of MBA, life and grievances! Its been more than three months since joining Cadbury and its time now to move beyond the theories of b-school to the practicalities of job. And there's enough news from these three months. I would bring out all the experiences in a series of posts called "Chocolaty Life".
The most easiest format to jot down everything would be to move chronologically. But that would be too boring. So I have decided to make it a connected series of posts with incidents picked at random (so that the traffic doesn't die out :) ).
So lets get going with the series with the first short play.
--------------------------------------------------
Place: Some village in Baddi, Himachal Pradesh
Time: Around 12 noon; sometime in July

Aditya- "Wahan pe kafi saara stuff mil jayega, chalo udhar"
Sunil- "Abe Solanki tune to kafi maal ikattatha kar liya hai"
So, what are we doing and what this stuff/maal is. We are in this village for a sanitation drive organized by one NGO called RUCHI. With masks on mouth and hand gloves we are picking up all the plastics crap that is lying on the streets and filling up our respectives polybags (The same black polybags used for collecting garbage).
The purpose of this drive was to sensitize villagers about the issue. So, we scolded/educated/guided everyone who came out of his house to see that 14 boys and girls from Cadbury were cleaning the street drains and gutters.
Some village lady-"Bhaiya aap safai kar rahe hai kya?"
This was asked to me on seeing me, along with three foreign students (all girls! from England associated with Engineers Without Borders- some orgnization involved with development work for underprivileged nations), cleaning up a gutter.
Same lady-"To bhaiya hamare ghar ke saamne bhi kuch safai kar dijiye"
Me (a little annoyed, the other three couldn't get annoyed because of communication gap :) )-"Haan kar dete hai safai. Aap roz gadagi karna aur hum roz aa jayenge safai karne" (I hope you got the sarcasm intended here)

So, this stuff/maal being talked about is the plastic litter. The drive ended at the village Pradhan's house. We along with the NGO workers explained the problems associated with plastic waste and asked the Pradhan to take forceful actions in this regard.
------------------------------------------------------

*******Next day********

Place: In front of a temple in Baddi
Time: Around 2 in the afternoon

Rajeev- "Paani laao yahan"
Me- "Yaar ye joote uthar ke galti kar di, watt lagi padi hai"
So, what are we doing now?
We are planting trees. Its a plantation drive today and we are supposed to plant around 150 trees. Though we managed to achive only half of the target eventually :)
There was this open field where 3X3X3 holes were already dug and we were to plant the saplings, fill up the hole and water. But it was not that simple task. With the afternoon Sun shining bright and hot it was painful working bare foot. But why bare foot? 4-5 of us thought it would be better to work bare foot and keep our shoes clean. Quite a sensible decision indeed :(
Looking back it was a great experience and a tiring one too.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So, why are we doing all this?
What is the purpose?
Who has organized the campaign?

These activities were part of the CSR module of our induction at Cadbury India. The particular village was adopted as part of CSR by Cadbury. The campaign was organized by our colleges at Baddi in association with an NGO-RUCHI.

Next Up in Chocolaty Life- "Raju aur Basant ka Atyachaar"

My Grievances: Part II-"HAIR-ka-TEL"

2009-08-19T10:21:00.000-07:00

It all started when I decided to take a HAIR-ka-TEL postpaid connection. By simple logic of time value of money, a postpaid should any day be preferred over a prepaid (assuming the rental cost is covered by the call rate difference or other discounts). But then simple logic does not always serve the purpose. Practical experience, more often than not, brings out the clear “filthy” picture. And that was the case with me. The RM showed the various plans available and to get all the required documents. The SIM card was provided on the same day and it was promised to activate the number within four hours. An upfront fee of 500 was charged towards activation. The SIM got activated the next day. The RM came again to take my signature on some document that he missed the day before. But before the poor RM could submit the missing document the HAIR-ka-TEL people found out the mistake and as per their policy of “Zero Errors” my number was blocked. (They must have found out that I was talking way too much on the phone and hence, as a CSR commitment, they blocked my number so as to protect me from excess exposure to electro-magnetic radiations). The number was activated the next day. I again started to exceed the maximum allowable “exposure” limit. This was the limit, of their tolerance. So they found out another way to treat me a lesson. They blocked my account, again, on account of address verification failure. (They actually visited my apartment, “during office hours”, only to find out the care-taker, who confirmed me residing there. But how can they believe him; I should have been there to confirm) So, I was again saved from excess EM radiations. Thanks HAIR-ka-TEL-“the super saviours”.
After 2-3 days they finally verified my residence and my number was up again. Soon the credit limit of 500 was breached and I was told to pay up within 6 hours. (Remember it is a postpaid and I have already paid 500+500=1000 even when I have used only half of this amount). I had to pay.
Since they also care about customers’ family and friends so they increased my credit limit to 1200 so as to enable me “discontinued talktime” for a longer duration. And I breached that limit too!
The next month they again lowered my credit limit to 500 so as to keep a check on my exposure to EM radiations. And on my payment they again realised the customers’ need to socialize and hence again increased the credit limit to 1200. As always I again breached the limit. So I got a message to pay within 24 hours. But I being a lazy guy paid only after 20 hours when I found out that my number was already blocked, AGAIN! (I think they thought that this guy is not going to pay and hence decided to block before the stipulated time; just to be “proactive”)
In between all this blocking-unblocking, my first bill arrived. The RM had given me a hard copy of the bill plan which mentioned two discounts- some local minutes at lower rate “AND” a double digit discount on billed amount. (Please note the AND operator). HAIR-ka-TEL also provided me with the bill plan which mentioned the above discounts in slightly tricky manner as below. The catch was to be found out only later.

So the catch was found out when I received the bill. I was given only the discounted local mins (that worked out to a hefty SEVEN rupees!). Just to mention, the discount billing amounted to a meagre amount of approx. 300 bucks; and that was not provided. So I inquired. I was told that “only one of the above two discounts” was applicable and “I” have chosen the local mins one (It was only then that I got to know that I had supposedly chosen the local mins options. May be they had done a deal with me in my dreams or nightmare as you call it). As of now the talks are on, let’s see where it ends.
BTW there’s one more CSR initiative being undertaken by the company. They are providing switching signals (switching on/off at the frequency of 1 switching every 2 mins) in my area. This reduces continuous exposure to EM radiations and hence keeps the exposure under control. The way it works is that whenever you make a call or receive one, within 2-3 minutes the call gets disconnected. You dial again, it disconnects again. And out of frustration you have to limit an half hour talk to 4 or 5 two minutes call.
I was happy with the prepaid connection and then I applied logic of time value of money.

My Grievances: Part I-"Shahar ka Bank"

2009-08-14T11:21:00.000-07:00

Following is a piece of letter that I would love to write to the CEO of “Shahar ka Bank”-Name changed because I love to do so :) and yeah there is this extra thrill for readers (yes you!!!) to discover the correct name.
(The deep-down emotions/grievances are included in brackets.)

The letter goes here:

TO,

.......CEO,

.......“Shahar ka Bank”

Sir,

This is to bring to your kind notice that how good the customer service of your bank has been. I believe your bank churns out good profits every year. And during my recent experience with your bank I have unearthed “the best practise” that you have been following to turn red bottom line to green.

During my college days I was given this Credit Card that carried no charges for the first two years; as a promotion offer. And being an extremely opportunist person (WARNING!!! High Sarcasm Detected) I could not resist that offer.

I got the Credit Card in a few days and along with it came all the “GOOD” things in the world. The card was supposed to carry my photograph, but I think the photo pasting guy at your company did not quite like my face and hence he obliged me with a photo of some random guy. That was quite helpful of him and I offer my heartiest thanks to him (Extreme Sarcasm Alert!). And now since that photo of mine that I had submitted is of no use to the company, can I please get that back. Or may be the photo pasting guy is planning for another photo edit. In that kindly suggest him to pardon my photo.

(The twist in the story goes here) That was the start of really adventurous ride. As a policy of your bank to provide total health comfort, (Wait! This was a bank when I last checked!!!) I was provided with a random health insurance policy. Some 1400 bucks were charged to my account. I think it’s a commitment your bank to care for the health of the customer as well (along with wealth). Very concerned Bank indeed!

Some days later I got a call from some guy telling me about all the good things your bank does. That person also mentioned about the health policy and I, out of my total negligence for health, denied subscribing to the service (WARNING!!! Yeah, again that sarcasm one). It was confirmed on the phone that the policy is reversed. So I was a happy soul. (And equally happy was the bank, as I would later on get to know that the policy still remained in my account)

All during this, I was getting a monthly letter from the bank at my home address. There was a mention of outstanding amount second month onwards. And so my father got worried. I kept convincing him that the amount is wrongly accounted and would be cleared subsequently. (IMPORTANT: Always listen to you father, if you don’t then the following has to follow)

2-3 months passed. Now as your bank has a very good policy of reminding its customers frequently through letter mails and emails, I was constantly in track of the outstanding amount which remained around 1400 rupees all this while.

So one fine day I wrote to the bank about the policy that I didn’t subscribed to and in plain simple words explained that their business in my college would get seriously affected if they continued to bother about my health (WARNING!!! Yup, sarcasm strikes again). So a cool dude from the other end replied, immediately, that the amount is being reversed. Me a happy soul again and so was your bank. But how?

Your people did a nice trick. They had bundled one more policy along with the health policy and now that policy remained in my account.

I tried reaching to them about the outstanding but after 4-5 transfer of calls I used to end up being ON HOLD. So me being an extremely “kanjoos” (readers can help me with the English translationJ) guy, stopped trying. As it had already cost me around half the amount that I was supposed to pay and I hoped that one day your bank will realise the mistake and close the account.

Also somewhere during all this I applied for discontinuing the credit card service. Don’t know when, but your bank did listen to me; only after some 100 rupees worth of phone calls were made.

In the meanwhile I lost my wallet during a train travel. So, the card was lost and unfortunately (Yeah that WARNING again!) the card blocked.

So now the story stands at- some 300 outstanding on my card which I lost and got blocked and which I have applied for closing and got to know subsequently that it was closed.

Around 18 months had passed by now since my subscribing to the card and then I met two of my friends who told me about CIBIL. So I got a little worried because you will be sending the “very good credit history” that I have with your bank to CIBIL and would never mention the “equally good customer service” that you provide. I again spent some money on the phone calls to know the exact details as of date. I was told that some 350 rupees were outstanding. But, thankfully (IMPORTANT- No sarcasm here), the account was finally closed. I was told to pay the outstanding and clear the account.

But you must know have known me; 350 bucks! never! So I inquired further and was told to mail about the issue. I wrote a mail explaining the details. A self-generated mail came saying the good guys would respond in 3 working days. And 3 days hence I got a glossy mail stating that the amount outstanding is on account of a health policy (it was here that I got to about the second policy of the bundle!), some amount was charged for cancelling the earlier health policy and further some amount for interest charges.

So, I replied in “sweet” words that I never wanted the “health benefit” since I am extremely irresponsible towards my health and hence reverse the policy. Now the self- generated mail asked me to wait for 5 days. Five days passed by but no reply came. So, I again mailed with the sweetest words in the world and lo! a reply came on the same day stating that all the amounts have been reversed.

Such a concerned bank for world health! It should get funds from W.H.O. for its support for improving health standards.

BTW, the profit that can be generated though this CSR activity is enormous. So the bank has a potential of churning out around 300-400 bucks from every card holder. If the customer is very “dheeth” (again, translation please!)then also the bank can gain something by tying up with the telecom company on account of customer care facility which is not toll-free.

So overall even if they manage to convert 10% of around 50 lakh card holders they can easily make 20 crores/year of PBT!!!

Yours NOT SO Sincerely
IKNALOS

MSD bowled by Tactics

2009-06-15T08:11:00.000-07:00

After all the hype created about Team Indian; with the advantage of IPL experience and a young brigrade, Team India failed to re create the magic of 2007 as they crashed out of the World T20. As Harsha Bhogle mentioned-"Team India tend to do well when they are the underdogs". The champions tag does not quite help!

Although very much disappointed at the defeat and very unhappy with the performance; I would abstain from lamblasting the technique, temparament or effort. I think tactical faults caused much damage than anything else. It was quite uncharactersitic of MSD to get beaten on tactics. Time and again MSD has been spot on with tactics-choice of team, batting order etc. But he was clearly out of sorts in at least the last two games. In the hind sight it is very easy to point the failure of Ravindra Jadeja at no. 3. But I would be totally rubbish to start questioning his ability or passion for the country. But even as he was sent in at no. 3, the situation was not at all i comfortable-in terms of run rate, the pressue being put by disciplined England bowling. And, hence it made all the more sense to stick with Yuvraj. MSD thought of "preserving" him for the end; but it was too late for Yuvraj when he came in to bat. He missed the point that it is only a 20 over game and it hurts dearly when someone is not able to put bat to ball. All sympathy for Jadeja but clearly he was at not the one to blame. Also, against the WI, MSD promoted himself up the order only to waste precious balls and later on it was evident that those wasted balls made all the difference.

It is always dishearting when Team India lose but it becomes all the more painful when simple options are given way to complex decisions.

A roller coaster ride!

2009-03-22T09:38:00.000-07:00

Let me tell you before hand that I am scared of riding roller coasters; but this one was something not be missed out. 20 months of jam-action-stress-fun-life-learning-sorrow packed ride of PGP (and not MBA!) at IIM Lucknow. It was once-in-a-life-time experience (DISCRETIONARY WARNING: TO BE STRICTLY EXPERIENCED ONLY ONCE) and one experience of a complete life.
As I sit back and reflect on those moments, I can't imagine me going through and doing all that I have done. But then all that has happened and I was a part of that grand journey. Its difficult to imagine reliving all those moments. Its difficult to sum up what are my take aways and what have I really learned over this period. Because this is a course where most of what you "study" won't appear to be of any use in professional life; the real learning lies a little beneath all the bookish knowledge- which according to me is to be "resourceful" (to be able to pursue any kind of assignment) , to "execute" projects (carrying through activities till the very end) and "multi -tasking".
These terms may appear to be routine and GLOBE but having gone through the "ride" myself I can attach a fair amount of specificity and purpose to these terms. There are times when one has to forget everything in the world and concentrate on one simple power point ppt and still get screwed during the presentation. The above mentioned qualities are not something that come naturally or through perfect execution of tasks but rather through step by step learnings imparted by failures-big or small. And to talk about failures, there are all versions of it- casual/serious, tiny/mammoth, silly/fundamental and so on. But one has to move on after every instance of it; there isn't any time to reflect. And thats when one learns, not through self-assessment but through an unconscious adaptation which is natural to living beings. Although the process is much faster as compared to the natural one. But then things do move fast at hell. One minute you are preparing for the project presentation the next minute you are mugging up the syllabus for term exams and blink of an eye later you at in the movie hall.

In the midst of nothing!

2008-12-28T12:39:00.000-08:00

The happenings in campus are almost nil, for the first time in hell. Actually its the first time that I can virtually see the seconds on my watch pass by. Reflecting back at the last 17 odd months, (although this may not be the right time to reflect back, better would be to prepare for the up coming placements otherwise only "reflecting back" would be left with me :D) it has been a long journey in the sense that time travels at such variable pace here; remember the last 5 minutes during exams when it is at its fastest and the same 5 minutes take an eternity to get over when its an afternoon class (although I think classes at other times are equally painful). I have learned so many things in those passing months that its difficult to sum those up in a small blog post. The significant learnings/take-aways/achievements are summarized below:
1. Giving presentations (read "speaking in English for more than 2 sentences", although I am at the "giving presentations" stage only and there's a long way to go to be able to "sail though ppts").
2. Being finally able to win some competitions.
3. Appreciating the essence of team work- its in the way you gel together that is important and not how "equally" the work was divided and done.
4. "Excelling" :D, one of the most critical tool for managers. (Excelling- its "the 'art' of converting simple situations into complex MS Excel spreadsheet so that the same simple things appear more complex and more importantly, more MBA like).
5. Completed "24", "Scrubs" and "HIMYM"-all seasons and currently up to date with "Heroes", lost track of "Prison Break". Rest all sitcoms are not of my liking.
6. Finishing-off projects and yes, I have done many of those.
7. Made great friends for life; but the list is still completely biased towards only one gender :( and I am happy with it (no! no! I am not ga#)
8. Got to know that IIM grads are also human, speak hindi, and "don't" earn in crores (or even lakhs).
9. Also got to know that logic is still the scarce commodity and common sense still scores heavily.
10. "Networking" drives the whole corporate world, but still I don't care a paisa about it (readers are encouraged to use their own preferred word instead of the bold one)
11. My belief got stronger, "Sachin is still the GOD".
12. On the topic of GOD; Hell has now two Gods- Shantanu Parmar joined Sharad Dagar recently by becoming the ICON-"young business leader" at FMS's management fest. (Those who don't know why Sharad Dagar is God are advised to please find time from their busy schedule (of classes, (useless) committee activity, batch mails) for campus activities.

The length of this post is exceeding my average and hence its better to end it; so that the regular customers don't get irritated.
PS: Watch out for the most awaited post of the year (next post)-"The Branding Bubble".

The World of One Dimensional Performance Measures

2008-12-26T17:14:00.000-08:00

I think the topic needs a little bit of explanation. I feel most of us tend to rate people based on a single character attribute- students based on grade/CG, professional based on salaries, neighbors based on "acres of land",friendship based on favors done and so on and so forth. You can pick any profession and you will find that there's one dominating characteristic that draws all the attention. This is a good way of assessment and makes the life of the analyser a lot more easier. Since not every one is an expert in every field so it becomes handy to have a single performance measure, so that people from unrelated fields can easily build their rankings. A perfect example can be GDP growth rate being taken as a proxy for a nation's economic development. So it becomes easy for general people to gauge performance of nations without going into the depth of economics. But then a healthy GDP growth does not always translate into healthy economic development. There may be cases when the economy grows only on account of rich getting richer and poor not touched at all and hence economic disparity increasing. And economists have created indices to capture all of this, but then it becomes hard for non-economists to understand these indices.

But then what is the problem?

The problem is this-People (generally) try to extrapolate that one characteristic into other dimensions (attributes) and try to create a holistic picture out of single characteristic."

So you can see what is the problem. People try to draw the complete charactristic profile of an individual based merely on a single charactersitic. Examples are numerous-

-Kids being characterised as bright and dull on the basis of a single number- "percentage" (does TAARE ZAMEEN PAR rings a bell?)

-Professionals on the basis of "salary" earned and "growth" (in salary) achieved;

Although it is very essential to meaure performance and these single characteristics are very handy to take decisions; but those decisions should be taken and that's where it should end rather then extrapolating that single measure into other attributes and charateristics.

I believe there are "as many number of attributes/qualities as there are people in the world" and hence everyone has that one dimension of superiority over others; or in short everyone is special. But the hard fact is life has been modeled around just a few attributes; and mostly people try to move on those lines without trying to convince themselves of their inherent attribute. This herd mentality does not get properly scrutinized till the time it becomes extremely essential; when the question is slammed across the face (for instance 1-Why MBA?, 2-Why this job?...the only ones which I can think of and relate to at this point of time)

And this herd mentality gets ingrained even before we start to think about ourselves. The Kids are virtually forced to attend coaching classes to get into the elite engg. colleges and they get into some branch of engg. based on their rank. [mostly] It is never asked as to what a kid's aspirations are and never do parents try to find out what's the "core competency" of their child is. Kids get into engg. college, find out everything being taught is useless, try to find out more fruitful avenues. Some find MBA much brighter (moneyer) than engg. and start preparing for MBA entrances even in 2nd year of their engg.; before they even get to know what their stream of engg. is all about. To a great extent the fault lies with the (false) branding being done by most of the top MBA colleges. And then this mentality drives most of the MBAites to streams with wealthier job avenues.

So what is the solution?

Its simple! make friends on the basis of friendship attributes (not because someone is a rank-1, hey! but that does not mean leaving out the rank-1 compulsorily); rate people on the basis of the interaction that you have (rather than what their bank balance suggests!).....

As always there was more of problem searching and less of solutions; but then its more important to identify the problem. Everyone is wise enough to find the solutions, or should I say solutions are better left for individuals to be found as those are to be implemented by themselves.

Of "Advanced" Oral Communication, My analytics account and 3 lettered acronyms

2008-12-23T14:28:00.000-08:00

Attached is a screen shot from my google analytics page (the site which keeps count of the visits to my blogspace) and it says in plain language "pathetic". And I believe thats the purpose of me signing up for analytics, at least I can have a feedback.
Oh WAIT! Where am I going? This one's about AOC- "Advanced" Oral Communication. Theres something about MBA courses that I am yet to figure out- Why this fascination for three lettered acronyms? CFM,SFM, MFS, SOM, CBM, CRM, SCM and so on. You can create any permutation of three letters from the alphabet, ending or starting with M and lo! you will end up with a MBA course name.
So whats AOC? This one is the only non-finance/operations course in my elective list for second year (apart from one Econometrics Methods). That is to say this is the only so called "soft" course in my list. Its exactly what the name suggests- an advanced level oral communication course; aimed at improving one's already acquired communication skills (from the previous two compulsory courses on communication in first year). My motive to take up this course was to get engaged in numerous presentations and thus get ample "net-practice" before the final placements.
So far two sessions have gone by and the course has already gained pace. The prof. has conducted these sessions mainly to gauge the level of skills already present so as to organise the rest of the sessions accordingly. The primary tool was 1-2 minutes Impromptus on general topics- "Leadership boils down to character", "The tale depends on who tells it", "I was born intelligent but education ruined me" and something on "two skills most needed in present job market". Overall it has been a nice experience and I hope to get some improvement in the level of my oral communication skills [written part is already on the right path :)].
The other two courses that I have in this term are International Finance (an apt name could have been Global Financial Management, so as to fit the 3 lettered acronym condition and to have the most prised word of business language, "Global") and Operation Strategy (lo! another exception to the 3 lettered acronym rule but strategy saves the day for OS and gives it the perfect feeling for a MBA course).

Ethical and Nonethical: Why only two options?

2008-11-30T04:45:00.000-08:00

There is a common tendency among people to move everything or to adjust everything (and everyone) towards the mean (or is it the central tendency?). What it means is that people on the superior half do not get appreciated as they should be in an absolute manner and people on the other (inferior) half get unnecessary sympathy.
The point that i m trying to make is in reaction to some of the questions that i have confronted recently. The quality that i m talking about is the morals and ethics being practiced by people.
Qualities/attributes/performance are generally measured in a relative sense, a person's wealth (rich and poor), knowledge ("he is more knowledgeable than me"), class performance (ranks) and so on and so forth. But when it comes to ethics and moral values people generally tend to make judgment in a more absolute sense rather than relatively. Not even Lord Ram was sparred in this regard (yes, i m talking about the "agni-parikhsa" of Maa Sita).
So, why this bias? The answer to me lies in the same old central tendency and even more in the tendency of human beings to "pull" or downplay others' qualities so as to justify one's inability to stick to the right path.
When it has been generally agreed upon that attaining 100% in any measurement is close to impossible (one of my learnings from MBA) then why do we try to impose 100% compliance in ethical behavior. People generally try to find out that one-off incident/instance to totally negate a certain person's otherwise "morally/ethically" commendable behavior. But why this discrete function of ones and zeros, we are humans not machines! Can't we assign a percentage rating to the level of ethical soundness.
[THIS POST NEEDS SERIOUS REVIEW AND I'LL BE BACK WITH A MORE THOROUGH AND ELABORATE POST]

PS: Comment is a scarce commodity here, so every kind of it is welcome :)

I m back!

2008-11-18T17:06:00.000-08:00

My google analytics shows that the weekly trend of no. of visitors is on a declining spree recently (after showing strong positive trend for quite some time- although the visitor count never exceeded 9/week). And so it requires some drastic measures to be put in place. So, here I am back to the writing board.
Things have changed way to steeply that even "change" does not aptly explain the happenings. I-banking lost its existence, markets went hay wire, I got 7.8 in IV term [is thr a negative correlation between economic growth and my CG? :)], I lost my wallet, Jumbo and Dada retired, Aby came second for the first time in IIM L and ...
To start off with cricket, the retirement of Dada was really sad and even though it was time for Jumbo, the way he had to bid adieu was unfortunate. The story of these two great contributors was kind of compressed in their final appearances; while Jumbo held onto his final wicket as a C&B with stitched fingers (which speaks of the commitment that this man has showed over and over again), Dada's final test was an equally apt summary of how "Bollywoodish" has been his journey- he missed out on a hundred in the first innings (that 85 will still be remembered as his final reply to critics) and the first ball duck in the second innings which happened around a loud applause from within and outside the ground.
The "Dadagiri" which changed the whole mindset of Indian cricket will forever be remembered as the most crucial mile stone in Indian cricket and had I not witnessed Sachin I would have ranked Dada as the best Indian player ever. And when I say, "best player", I look at the whole package that this man brought to the game. He was instrumental in Indians becoming fearless abroad and more importantly becoming the ones who look straight into the the eyes of the opposition rather being stared at.

Blogger's Block

2008-09-15T13:29:00.000-07:00

Its been almost 2 months since my last post and that is why this post. Although many blogs are in the pipeline [typical MBA jargon :)] but it will take time to come up with the next blog (or is the wait over?). Just to commit myself to the posts and to accelerate the process of pipeline to blogspace, i thought of putting up a list of up coming blogs. Although not in order but here's a tentative list of what I am supposed to come in next one month or so:
1. The Theory and Practise of "Nightouts": An Empirical Observation
2. The World of One Dimensional Performance Measures
3. The Blogger's Block
4. The BIG picture
5. Term IV review- What have we learned?
6. Valuation- How subjective can you be?
7. EXECUTION- The need of the hour!

Wait and watch!

The BIG Picture

2008-08-24T04:58:00.003-07:00

I knew this would happen. But I am happy that it continued for a while and now I am back. The thing I am talking about is the string of posts that I could manage (a total of 10 posts in 3 months); and I did a great job going by my historical trend.

So, where's this post headaing. I want to focus it on the "big picture" concept; but excuse me for if I wander a bit [or may be 10-20 bits :)]

So what's this funda of BIG picture. Its one of the mangement/intellectual jargon of looking at things/processes/systems/business/organizations from a high enough point so that the whole of it is clearly visible. Or in other words simply- "looking at the big picture".

But why? The point is to have every aspect of a particular system in mind before making any decision or understanding the whole system; and not merely looking at the tit-bits. For example: if you have to understand MBA; merely falling for the huge salary(and that too is an well articulated illusion) would not give a complete picture. There are a whole lot of more important things that one must consider before making up an opinion about MBA.

I think that one went out of the "BIG picture" arena and into the why MBA debate.

Anyways coming back to the big picture idea; its important to incorporate such vision into your outlook and I feel it is valid for all aspects of life and not just management.

But then what's the point. If its important then let it be; why this post???

There you go! You learn the most when you don't do it right. And having learned it the the hard way....(unfinished)

Mid Term Review Continued...

2008-07-17T10:30:00.000-07:00

Commercial Bank Management that is! Quite interesting as the course started off. Its mid term time now and feels like nothing has been learned till now. This seems to be the problem in every course; all seems well and fine (understanding seems to be settling in) until there's no examination and every learning seems to pass bye during the time the same is required the most.
The course is basically about the banking industry. We learn about the organizations taking a general framework so why there's this need to dedicate a full course on a single industry and more importantly why is this course oversubscribed. The answer to the first question lies in the inherent nature of banking sector which makes its quite unique as compared to most of the other industries.

There is too much of debt
We compare performance through ROA
Since debt is a part of operations hence too much of it is there, and thats why strict regulations for capital ratios are there to check exccesive leverage (risk of bankruptcy)

Service Operations Management-This post is meant for academic purpose only and thereby don't expect it to be interesting unless you really are interested in the subject.
To cut the story short it is my mid term exam day (SOM exam i mean) and hence this post to elaborate my understanding.
I would take "education" as an example of service to explain the concepts learned.
Definition
"Any act of creating an intangible output through and interaction between the customer and servers"
So education is-
"A service where the customers (students) interact with the servers (professors) to undergo a n experiential transformation (gain knowledge)"

Role
As per the book there are some classifications of services-VAS, Manufacturing, Personal and so on. By those classification, education fits into Government Service, but then what about private institutes and even non funded national institutes (IIMs). I can't find any fitting classifier for these.

Mid Term Review I (Strategy Management)

2008-07-15T22:38:00.000-07:00

~~~~~~~~~~~~~DISCLAIMER~~~~~~~~~~~~

THIS CHAIN OF POSTS CONTAINS POTENTIALLY HARMFUL MATERIAL AS THE POSTS ARE HIGHLY ACADEMIC IN NATURE AND MAY IMPART SERIOUS INJURY TO THE INTELLECTUAL HEALTH OF THE READERS. THE WRITER WILL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE FOR AN SUCH CASUALTIES.
So mid term exams are here again. I will try to pen down my learnings from the various subjects till now. The first one in line is SM as it is the first in the exam schedule. As is clear from the course name this one is about learning strategy as being formulated and practiced by corporates. The course structure has been designed around a number of case studies. The discussions basically build around the case facts and to identify strategic elements from the way a particular organizations reacted or pro acted in various periods during a period of time.
Although it is always a good exercise to extract learnings out of "success stories"; which is mostly the content of all the cases but I feel it would be handy to look at the "grand failures".sfs

Learnings from cases:

Arvind Mills

This case highlighted one of the most important aspect of strategic planning-"settings objectives with specific time frames". The company realized the need for structuring its business strategy in wake of unfavorable environment for the industry and set time based objectives.

The approach taken by the company can be understood through the Abell's model of business. The company first extended its product line (customer functions) and ventured into Denim manufacturing realizing its favorable resource capabilities. Then it gradually extended its target market (customer groups). The company also identified and incorporated new technology for manufacturing to improve quality.

Walmart
The case highlighted the operational aspects of strategy particular to retail sector. The company's CA was cost leadership. It employed numerous measures to ensure highly competitve pricing and yet maintained relatively high margins. Moving along the value chain firstly it enjoyed high bargaining power with suppliers mainly because of rationalization and development of supplier network. Then it created high operational efficiency through standardization of merchandise, computerized inventory control, efficient distribution system. It ensured employee participation/contribution to business motive by pegging bonuses with profits and also discouraged luxurious spending by top management. The other end of value chain was taken care through ploys like local pricing and higher display area in stores.

Service Operations Management

2008-07-09T10:07:00.000-07:00

There is a quiz tomorrow in Service Operations Management (SOM) and i thought it would be nice to write within this realm. This course is primarily structured to develop an understanding (rather an appreciation) about operational aspects in services. The course seems very similar to most of the ops courses where we talk about quality, 2X2 matrices, ....
The course has been divided into two sections with each section being taken by a different faculty. The difference between the two sections is quite visible in the topics being covered; the initial section is about a broad outline about services and role of operations in services while the latter part is more about the application of operations tools in solving problems related to services (supposedly).

The CP phobia

2008-07-03T18:10:00.000-07:00

Its 6:30 in the morning and there seems nothing interesting to study. Past few days have been really lazy with average sleep time peaking again.
So CP phobia. This is the fear of being asked to put some "valuable insights" during a case discussion in class. This fear generally aggravates in courses with a higher proportion of theoretical/mandatory globe (obviously the "observed/practical globe" is much more and thereby it does not differentiate between courses). There is a predetermined weightage of CP in these type of courses.
So, that was the general description and background about CP. Now coming to the practical aspects and the mechanism of CP and its phobia. Lets take some course to illustrate the mechanism and what would be more fitting than Strategic Management (my favorite for intellectual sarcasm). We are required to read a case for each class (a different one each time!) . Cases, typically, elaborate the golden or stoney (phew!...i mean opposite of golden, the internet tells me curst and unpropitious as close antonyms) history of some global organization. The discussion starts with some aspect of the organizations action being discussed and we are supposed to score on the CP front by telling the professor some points about the aspect. It basically turns out an exercise of "summary preparation in group".
And then comes the all important part. Now those who haven't pitched in are randomly "caught" and asked to comment in some way or the other. But the problem is that now most of the discussion points have been exhausted and the person has to rely on his/her ability to put in a "random speech" with some valuable insights so that it is as close to the topic being discussed as possible. To illustrate this situation of "forcibly asked for useless talk" I have one personal example :)
The case for the day was on Apple Inc. It was basically about the numerous turnarounds that Apple had gone through with CEOs being replaced like national football coaches. Our group was one of the three to come prepared with the presentation and we were the unlucky ones. The presentation went for about half an hour with me mutely nodding my head through the whole of it (just to appear as if I also contributed in the ppt preparation). Post ppt, the professor put in his precious insights and it was about time for the class to end. But with just ten minutes remaining the prof wanted us to rate the various CEOs that Apple had seen over the years. And that was it. Although I had read the case but wasn't in a position to comment which one of the CEO did a good job and which one didn't. The prof paused for a while and then looked around for the members of the group who presented the case and I was the obvious target as I was the least vocal during the ppt (least= nil). And there I was, stumped while defending the ball. But then you have this liberty in MBA to talk uselessly for as much as you like and still manage appreciation. I described the characteristics of the CEOs and concluded that each one did his best based on his competency and I am not sure which was the best. No appreciations for that, but at least I passed on the ball. The prof reacted saying "He got away telling the story".

The Phobia Unleashed
This was the story as it went. But then where's the phobia. The phobia arises when you do not have this expertise to gather a random collection of sentences based on the case facts and to present them as if you have discovered/resolved the mystery behind the black holes.
This phobia is directly proportional to:

Lack of GK

yes GK! So that you can play around with some coll facts to support your theory of "black holes"

Ability to think logically

thus the more logical you are the more you are prone to this phobia

Understanding of the fundamentals

there's no point in the useless talk that happens if the fundamentals are clear.

That's it for now. May be will add to this one sometime latter.

Summers

2008-07-01T12:46:00.000-07:00

This post dedicated to my co-interns at SEBI- Ayush, Anjan, Aniruddha, Gopesh, Piyush, Shankar and Rohit.
It was the summer of 2008 and we arrived at humid Mumbai for our internship at SEBI. We were put up in a SEBI guest house at Malad. The apartment was semi-furnished and we were allotted two flats, each comprising of two rooms, a kitchen, a dinning hall and two bathrooms. The office was in Bandra Kurla Complex, some 25 kms away. There was an employee-managed bus service that helped us out for easy conveyance. A typical day started with getting up at around 7:15 am and getting ready to start off with the bus waiting near our apartment. The bus used to battle its way through the Mumbai traffic for around one hour to leave us at SEBI office in BKC. Then it was time for morning "paid" breakfast in the office canteen. Then we moved to our desks and get involved in our core activity, surfing the net. The "free" lunch timing was from 12:45 pm to 2 pm; and we used to be the first ones in the queue. Post lunch it used to be time for "getting aware of the happenings around the world" (also called reading newspaper) in the library. The office hours were till 5:30 pm and that was the time for evening "paid" snacks
and then getting on the bus for another 1 hour 15 mins ride through the thick traffic.
Listening to "Dekhta hai tu kya" (from crazzy 4) on Radio Mirchi all those memories of internship flashed across my eyes. Although it was neither my first experience of summer training nor my first time out of home; but still it was kind of different in many ways. The people I mentioned above were each with their own set of uniques and it was quite a time with them at Mumbai.

It Depends (Management Jargons Part I)

2008-06-18T22:45:00.000-07:00

It depends! One of the most frequently used phrase in management and more so when one is answering to some query. The phrase in itself looks small and also gives an impression that the person using it is trying to make up something when he/she actually does not has an idea about what is being asked. Although it true a number of times, but sometimes it is the very nature of management issues which do not have a clear yes or no. But, again, it is difficult to distinguish between the two.
Management is not a subject of accurate/pin-point explanations and results. And even the thrust is also not to formulate standard methods/results otherwise what will be left for the managers to do. Management is, to me, a science of trade offs and that is way "it depends" has a very large proportion in management talks. One has to some how "manage" the two extremes of requirements- urgency vs accuracy; soft talk vs hard banging...can't think of more practical ones except for the usual operations examples.
How should we increase sales?...."it depends"
Where should we put our plant?...."it depends"
What kind of advertisements should we make?...."it depends"

And even...
Sir, what is the cut off for passing the course?
Doctor, what injection should we give to the dying man?
Pilot to the technician at the radar station- Which is the button for automatic landing?
...OR may be
What is your goal in life?...."It depends [short-term, medium-term or long term :) ]"

Really useful (the "it depends" tool)....right?

Any Questions
The professor (After a presentation or a verbose explanation) "Do you have any questions?"
"Well, if you don't have any, it is presumed that the concept is understood properly."
Simple logic...isn't it?
But that's not the way it should be. I believe one can only question when one really gets the understanding and if one doesn't get the thing right then, to my "understanding" the only question that can be asked is-"Can you explain the thing again?"
But then that's how life is. You are forced to ask some random questions and carry forward the discussion.

Strategic Management (SM)
It was asked to define this term. The first thought that came to my mind was-"It is the management of strategy." Then I looked at the term and understood it is actually-"strategic management." So, what is meant by that. This in core management terminology............ would not be explained by me. i would take the analogy of business with the game of football and try to explain the term.
In football the analogy with a company would be a club. And there are clubs with a large degree of variations similar to business which will help the cause. The are clubs with the stature of Wal Mart, Microsoft, Reliance, Tata and the like. We have Manchester Utd, Arsenal, Real Madrid and so on to match their counterparts in business and then we also have clubs like Southall United (remember "Goal", the bollywood one of course ), Mahindra Utd, Mohun Bagan, East Bengal (don't know much about the lesser knows European clubs, but I know there would be plenty of them) to show us the other side.
So from football's perspective, SM means to carry out the functioning of a club with some thing in mind to achieve and thereby choose those alternatives that would take the club towards those things. To put it simply it is "to think before implementing".
And I feel most of the clubs do that, because even these tops clubs operate in the way business is carried out globally.
The club managers are loaded with targets and they go about formulating their strategy to fulfill those targets. They have to decide about how much to spend and which players to buy through the transfer markets, which players are to be sold out, which players need to be retained, what formation to be chosen, how much to spend on technicians, support staff, publicity and infrastructure, when to rest your star performers and when to give chance to the youths and so on.
All these form a part of the Strategy- "the game plan to beat one's opponents".
And then we move on to something called Competitive Advantage. In terms of football the competitive advantage can be strong financial position of the club, a brigade of youth, and experience in terms of player skill and like wise. Teams/clubs try to leverage their most significant asset/attribute and try to build around that. A rich club would try to rope in good technician and invest in support systems to reap benefit; on the other hand a club full of young players would go about building a strategy around these players to succeed.

Watch out!!! More GLOBE coming up. [Jargon Count= 5]

Strategic Management

2008-06-17T08:11:00.000-07:00

As promised I am here with the first post of the series of discussion about my courses in II year.
This is the only subject qualified as GLOBE in my portfolio (although most courses have started off on the same note). The first lecture was all about strategy and its role in management. Lets look at the various jargons of the subject being taught/discussed till now.
Business Objective
In pure management language it means "to maximize value for the stakeholders; alternately to earn profits which in turn deliver value to shareholders and on a more macro level brings value for the economy.

To illustrate the concepts let us put football in place of a business. There the objective of a team, which is analogous to an organization in business, is to continue winning games.

Strategic Management

The terms refers to management by strategy; that is, to run a business keeping in view the objectives and there by adopting various plans and tactics to achieve the objective. One important point here is that the objective, vision as we call it in management jargon, is itself a product of strategy.

The analogy with football would be the way professional clubs are run. The club managers are required to fulfill certain objectives as set by the board. These objective themselves are determined based on some thinking considering the past performance, player ability, financial status and so on. The mangers have to formulate the game plan- the formations, team combination, transfers, technical assistants etc. This approach to managing the game where a lot of thinking is put into place even before the actual game starts can be compared with strategic management as carried out by corporates.

In sport’s sense a definition of strategy would be “to formulate the game plan which will enable a team to defeat its opponent”. Thus it a game plan around which a team works in order to realise its objective- achieving victory.

Most of the professional clubs have well defined game plans or strategies to achieve their respective objectives. (.........unfinished)

My Portfolio

2008-06-15T04:01:00.001-07:00

The second innings has started at hel(L) and it isn't looking too comfortable (chill) at all. Classes from 8 to 9; yes 8 in the morning to 9 in the evening!!!

But the returns are only as good as the choice of your portfolio.
And mine is quite a heavy weight one. I have 3 fin, 2 ops and 1 eco course in this term along with a compulsory Strategy course. So I expect quite high returns (read burden) from my risky (heavy weight) portfolio; without much diversification (no fillers) of the risk.
Only diversification is with respect to time; the sessions are diversified across the whole day and even run into the night :(

This is the first weekend but the week isn't over.
Yeah the week is not over! We count time at helL by weeks and this time around the "week" has started mid-week. Change of schedules, change of class rooms, change of sections; but there is no "positive" change in the burden. It has only got aggravated.
The first half week went just fine. This part of the week (the latter half-thu/fri/sat) is like a three-day management workshop for me- classes start at 8 in the morning and continue up till 9 in the evening with 1-3 hours gaps in between. The day goes by in classes, , traveling to-fro and mess. The latter part is on a chiller side- 2pm to 8pm; only two classes scheduled at the maximum separation possible.

Most of the courses started off with the "mandatory" globe (read introduction) that is a a necessary condition for any course to qualify in a management curriculum.; although not a sufficient one, there is need for more globe latter on. Although it has been promised (by??) to gradually phase out the global part in the coming lectures. Lets see!

My portfolio goes as:
Corporate Valuation and Restructuring (CORVAL);
Managing Financial Services (MFS);
Commercial Bank Management (CBM);
Manufacturing Systems Design (MSD);
Services Operations Management (SOM);
Econometric Methods (EM); and
Strategy Management (SM).

Coming up next:
My take(perception/expectation/understanding) on these courses.

Hast la vista baby!

2008-06-07T22:03:00.001-07:00

Hasta la vista baby! This famous phrase means "see you later". But no, I am not going anywhere! The only reason for this phrase being the post heading and my status msg on gtalk is that its the only quote that I know from Spanish and I think one of the most famous ones as well (corrections welcomed). So why Spanish? why not Brazilian, Portuguese or just plain English?Since, Brazil do not play in Euro; I am not a Portugal fan and England, unfortunately, didn't make it to the Euro-08 finals.
So its clear i m backing Spain. This is the team with some really exciting players- Torres, Fabregas, Ramos, Villa, Puyol and Casillas in the goal. La Furia (name given to the Spanish national team) are going to remove the "underachiever" tag this time around.
"La Furia goines thes Champianos" (No, this does not mean anything; just put some random words to sound like "Spain are going to be the Champions")

Rajasthan Royals and IPL v Test Cricket

2008-06-03T11:21:00.000-07:00

Lets start with IPL and the fairy-tale story of Rajasthan Royals (RR) dominating it and eventually winning the tournament under the inspired leadership of Shane Warne. Although many people knew about the impact that Shane creates both as a player and thinker on the game but same wasn't supported by live examples. But we have got one now and we can now see how immensely talented this man is. Although I wasn't able to watch IPL but from the initial perception of RR and the team composition I was of the view that this team wasn't one of the best if not the worst. And the contribution of Shane was a very important aspect, at least according to me.

So IPL is the next big thing in the cricket world and there are talks of it being held twice every year. Now this a good news for the viewers all over and the sponsors, a sort of mix bag for players and certainly a bad news according to the traditional Pundits. The problem with IPL or T20 is that it makes cricket a whole lot different from the way it has been played traditionally, but the same impact was created by 50 overs cricket as well. So why this hue and cry now. The point is that the shorter you make the game the less certain and hence more arbitrary the game becomes, at least according to the traditionalists. On one hand this brings in more excitement from the point of view of viewers but on the other hand the element of orthodoxial fineness goes away. And that is why the traditional Pundits are worried. No matter how they put it but the essence of their view is that cricket should be played in the manner in which it has been played over the years,with technique and patience as the main ingredients of success. They want to preserve what they were a part of and hence the apprehension. The same apprehension was there when 50 overs cricket became popular. But still that required technique and patience to some extent. And now with T20 those elements are certainly becoming less relevant as per the traditionalists.
The whole problem is that people are trying to see all forms of cricket from one eye. There is a need to understand the difference in order to enjoy and appreciate all the forms. Test cricket is the "test" of a player's "traditional technique" and patience; T20 lies to the other extent which requires "improvisation techniques" and "rapid transitions" and 50 overs is mid way between the two. And thus saying that T20 is a game of arbit hits" is totally illogical. Technique is an important factor but this technique is not the same as in test cricket.The objective is to minimize the probability of not getting out in tests while in T20 the objective becomes "to maximize the runs scored/ball". Both forms require immense hard work and commitment and just because the techniques differ does not mean one is inferior to the other. It would be very easy to accept T20 if we can view T20 and tests as two different sports rather then fitting them under one category and then comparing one with he other.

EPL and IPL

2008-05-15T23:54:00.001-07:00

Let us begin with the english football- Manchester United won EPL for the second consecutive year and have the CL final coming up with Chelsea.

GO United Go!!!
CHAMPIONS for the second season in a row. An this one was even more satisfying as the run went down to the last day of the season and Chelsea on the receiving end. I guess that is what we love to see in football and for that matter in any other sport; the shear tension, pulsating nerves and the joy of celebrating the triumph of our favorites. With Ronaldo in RED hot form, the seniors showing emmense resilience at the dawn of their careers and even more exicting youths in the line-up, United are on a golden run. And with Sir Alex as the boss United would certainly like to make it a double this season.
The season has turned out to be a classic in all respects with Arsenal running the show in the first half of the season, United surviving a tough middle phase to reach the top spot just before the final stage and Chelsea handing a defeat to United to set the stage for a really exciting season FINALE. But the story is yet not over with the CL final coming up. What more would the fans want?- a deciding final day of season and now United vs Chelsea in the CL final.
Way to go United!!!

Cricket going the football way
First twenty20 and now IPL, cricket is certainly en route to Europe. Twenty20 has brought the one thing needed to make it a global sport - PACE. Its not that cricket does not pump adrenaline but those moments are quite widely spread on a time line. So its a huge step towards making cricket a global brand. And what has IPL bought?....fierce competition. The teams are well matched both in terms of star power and young guns. Not that this kind of structure was not there in cricket (courtesy County Cricket). But why IPL is different is because of its GRAND APPEAL to the most enthusiastic cricket fans of the world (yes I am talking about Indian spectators). The promoters have done a great job in brining together the best bets from the cricket world and to bring every possible medium of marketing communication into picture- Ads on TV and Radio, Celebrity appeal and so on. Its looks like cricket-business has become more professional with its new product-T20 and IPL becoming its most coveted brand.
So cricket is going the football way. The IPL format will bring in more support with time with elements like fan following, club rivarly etc. shaping it into more of a culture than a sport. This is the case with club football in Europe. If this revolution can be sustained then there's nothing stopping cricket from becoming a global sport. But we Indians have to be prepared enough so that cricket does not go the Hockey way, where we lost our domination (even existence) on the world stage as it became popular in Europe.

20 minutes at the station

2008-05-13T01:36:00.000-07:00

THIS POST IS FOR THOSE WHO TRUELY BELIEVE IN THE LEGACY OF "NETA". FOR THOSE WHO AREN'T AWARE OF HIM PLEASE SKIP TO THE NEXT POST :)

SPOILER ALERT: NETA IS THE COMEDIAN!!! (err...........matlab isi ki wajah se hasi aayegi)

***************************************************************
Scene-1, Act-1;
Characters: Me and Neta
Location: Dadar Station
Date n Time: 10 minutes to 10 p.m., 2nd May

Neta: "Ye Amul to aaj double pitega (One for the IIM C convert and other one.....read on)."
Me: "Lekin tune hi to use 10 baje tak aane ke liye kaha tha?"
Neta: "Haan to 10 to bajne hi wale hai. Pehle to use 8:30 hi aana tha, wo to maine hi use kaha ki jyada jaldi nahi hai wo aaram se relatives se mil kar aaye. Lekin agar wo 10 baje se pehle nahi aaya to uski kher nahi."
Me:" Theek hai aane do usko, khub pelenge saale ko."
***************************************************************
Scene-1, Act-2;
Characters: Me, Neta and Amul.

Its 10:15 p.m. and Amul is seen walking towards us (me and Neta).
We greeted Amul and both of us landed tw0 kicks on his bumps. I thought the issue was resolved but Neta was hungry. He could not stand the fact that Amul was 15 minutes late. Its business as usual for Neta as most of you must be knowing.

So Neta thought that this was the time to hit back, with me supposedy in his favour.The two of us were together for past 4 odd hours and i did not pull his leg even once.

Neta (to Amul): " Tumhe thoda jyada time rukne ke liye bol diya to tumne to had hi kar di."
Me: "Lekin ye to sirf 15 min hi late aaya hai, isme kya problem hai."
Me (to Amul): "Yaar ye Neta hadd karta hai, khud hi ne 10 baje tak aane ko bola aur baad me khud hi jalla raha tha ki 2 ghaante station par wait karna pad gaya."
Me and Amul: LON
From here on it means Laughing on Neta; this acronym will be frequently used in the following paragraphs with various variants,like:
LNON- L Notoriously ON
LEON- L Effortlessly ON
ELON- Everyone LON
LWON- L Wickedly ON

Neta: (Caught with his pants down....since he wasn't expeccting this sudden change of sides from Me) "Abe saale Kholu(me)!!! tu to itni der se meri haan-me-haan mila raha tha, ye achanak kya hua?"
Me: " Dekho Neta ek funda samajh lo:"
(..........ahem ..ahem .......pay attention! this ones a deep funda)
"Jab bhi sirf do log saath hote hai to wo ek dusre ki nahi udaate"

Me n Amul: LNON, Launghing Nototriously on Neta.
Neta:"Are! ye kya matlab hua?, par hum donno mil kar Amul ki bhi to udaa sakte the."

Me: "To ab suno dusra funda:"
"Jab bhi teen lgo me ek Neta hota hai to usi ki maari jaati hai"
Me, Amul and everyone else at the bus station: Laughing on Neta or in short ELON
********************************************************

So this was how the journey began. There still much more to come from our trip to Pune.....two full days...remember this was just a 20 min trailor.

Next up: "The Pune Trip".

For a change

2008-05-08T02:56:00.000-07:00

Enough of copy-paste, let me have something original. Am pretty much occupied with work these days- chatting, blogging (more of collating other's posts), creating accounts on social networking sites.....and yes!! interning at SEBI :)
The past 30 odd days have been some of my most monotonous ones in quite few years. The day starts with a boring and sleepy bus travel to SEBI, then we have our breakfast there followed by a three hour net session. Then we have our lunch (which is quite good here) followed by a mandatory visit to Library- no!! not for books, but to unfold a newspaper in front of yourself and take a nap in the cozy chairs over there.
Next comes another three hour seesion of- cricXchanging, chatting and all. We leave office at 6 and reach the guest house (in Malad) by around 7. Then starts another wait, now for dinner (dabba) which gets delivered at around 9:30 (the person started delivering it at 8:30 but gradually learnt that we are not his"critical customer", so has scheduled ours as the "least priority order").
Before going to sleep we manage to save time to either watch a movie or two, or 4-5 episodes of some series (I recently finished "24"..all seasons).
And thats how the day ends. Nothing challenging, nothing much exciting either. Now i realize HELL's not actually hell at all.....its heaven in all respects (the second one that i have visited).
..............sorry for the abrupt end, but its time (sarkari office hai bhai, they are very particular about the closing time :) )

Status Message Mania-II

2008-05-06T21:45:00.001-07:00

From HELL--------
"divya....kahaan ho tum"----

"wake me up for the 8:45 class..................plzzzzzzzzzzzzz"---

"i am conphuzing"---

Funny---------
"Whenever I find the key to success, someone changes the lock"– Tarun

"Set status message here" -GG

"Somebody suggest a good status message"—Amul

“TO-LET……….this space is available for rent...... contact 9935943830”---

Bade log----------
"If you take my whole life and condense it to one day, it looks impressive" --- George Costanza (i dont know this guy :))

“there's no "I" in "team." There is a "me," though, if you jumble it up” ----Vinayak

“Sometimes, Most Easy sentences verbally, are most difficult to speak” ----Ish

Read at your own risk----
"Let us not believe that we have received the divine kiss , if we know the truth without loving it or love it without understanding it. But blessed is that kiss whereby not only love is recognised and felt but also both of us are loved , for there is never full commitment & trust without perfect love"---Kimi

"In umr se lambi, sadkon ko Manzil pe pahunchte dekha nahi Bas, Daudti firti rehti hai Hamne to theherte dekha nahi Is ajnabi se sheher me, Jaana pehchana dhoondta hai..."---KK

...........to be continued

Status Message Mania-I

2008-05-05T22:24:00.000-07:00

Some of the best status msg...............
" The presentation had 250 slides; 25th was "thank you" slide and after that there were insights"
-------Pitaji.

"The msg has been temporarily shifted to APJ's account"
--------Your's truly.

"Jab tum kisi cheez ko dill se chaho..toh poori kaynaat tumhe usse milwane me lag jatee hai’
---------Shri Shri 1008 Parmar...the GOD.
"LOVE TRANSCENDS THE DIMENSIONS OF TIME,SPACE AND THE SELF.SO LET IT FLOW AND THE UNIVERSE SHALL MERGE UNTO YOU."
------GOD again.
........................................................................[GOD at the height of desperation :) ]
"umr daraz ho gaye 4 din meim, kuch aarzoo mein gaye aur kuch intezaar mein"
----GOD .

"yeh saari global warming delhi me kyun ho rai hai"
----Pitaji.
" http://status.msg.com" (this url doesnt point anywhere :) )
-----Me

"Its better to die rather than trying hard and failing in ur endeavours as well not being able to live upto the expectations of ur beloved ones. I sincerely hope to die quite early. hope god is listening"
------Kimi

"Joining B school just for getting a job is like getting married just for sex"
------Motin
"playing .........midterm-madness...."
------
" 'Brand atchitude, brand reconition....all this things you know'...........well i don't"
------
"Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway"
-----courtesy Amul

"The Knack of Flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss!!!...."
-----Sonam (M)

chapter 2 coming soon.......

The BEST time @hell

2008-03-23T14:35:00.000-07:00

Exam time!.......the best time???.............
Are you serious?.......................
That might not be true at most places and in most contexts, but that is how things go here at the hell.
No boring classes, No ppts, No projects..................the crux-"no deadlines to meet".
And exam time is the best, coz you dont have to study much unless you are in the rat race.
So it begins today with one of the four GLOBE subjects of the term. I am not in a mood to read any more and so thought of starting something useful during my "best time of the day" (after 3'O Clock in the night).
Learnings from the course:
Course: HRM,
Type: Globe of the highest degree (there are Globes of lesser degree, then there are courses with technical Globe and some with specific Globes)
Instructor: A good teacher, but had to deal with so much of Globe.
We learned that there are provisions for the workers in organizations in order to have there say in the conditions of the job. Deep legal fundae "enriched" with definitions made the course very dull.

2007-10-28T14:09:00.000-07:00

What are your goals???
Short term; long term ; medium term!!!
Give me a break.
I want to live life to the fullest and longest :-), isn't this enough to justify that you are focused!
OR may be
I want to earn a lot of money and to have all the comforts in life, isn't this a statement signifying a high level of motivation?
Then why waste 200 words!!!
(...incomplete, wait for the mid terms to comlete)

Memorising vs Understanding

2007-09-01T01:32:00.000-07:00

Memorizing n understanding, seem to be synonymous in meaning to LEARNING, but are they really?
Memorizing or loading some observation in the human storage device-BRAIN-hard disked (permanently) or RAMed (temporarily), is the first step to learning.
The primary step in the development of a human child is HARD –DISKING. Children start memorizing things that are helpful to them-calling out to parents, walking, picking things-all these include the storage of observations permanently. Hence it is but natural for every human to have a reasonable HDD. But as the HDD starts to store data the memory space goes down and like PC-HDD’s humans do have a limitation to their storage capacity. Hence, in the course of time, as the child gets mature, he starts to economically and resourcefully fill the HDD. He, now tries to learn things-have a common memory for similar things (understanding)-so that not much for HDD space is used. Now this thing, understanding, is a whole lot different as to memorizing.
In the process of understanding, there has to be a widely open mind that is
a better PROCESSOR. All have a different level of PROCESSOR speed-understanding capability- some have high speed processors with better cooling system while some others can’t afford to run their PROCESSORS fats enough because of fan problems.
As there are differences in each human being-physical, mental-so are there differences in their HDD n PROCESSOR combination. Some have high capacity HDD-very powerful of memory-while some have high speed processors-highly understanding ones.
Now the main thing-which one is better or superior?
Well, I don’t want to give a verdict as to which one is better,I just want to present my views about the two types.
Memorizing, gives an impression of something good. As adults and particularly students we certainly have to remember a lot-names, addresses, passwords, course material etc. But people try to extend this process to a large dimension. They develop a tendency to directly write to the HDD without even bothering to run their PRCSRS. Memorizing is a good thing but every body has a capacity.Also storing data in HDD requires quite a lot of time-by reciting again and again-very boring process. You can also store data in RAM but it has limited capacity and life.
But certainly this HARD DISKING is a lot easier method than PROCESSING-which requires a wide open mind to think.Hence most of the people incline towards HDDing.
Actually we students in India are groomed in such an environment where theres too much to remember and too little time to spend and thus most child develop this ability and tendency to HDDing and suppress the more logical way of learning thing.
I am a supporter of former approach, as is clear from the above views. I don’t want to waste time in reading over and over again the same thing till it gets stored in the RAM or HDD, I like to devote my time to learn phenomena and process from the basics and there by storing little amount of information but having access to a very large store of data. Still I have to HDD when it is the only feasible path butnot by heart. I sometimes don’t spend much time in reading as do others and hence is able to remember less. I don’t like the method of mugging up without any PROCESSING and also devoting much time in order to write to the HDD. Whether I am right or wrong I don’t know and als I don’t want to know but I certainly want to show that the HDD approach certainly not the way that I like.
What do you expect a student to do-mug up a pile of crap and reproduce it in ink? Certainly most of the students will do that to score,but I am not of that class. I don’t understand how can you judge someone’s learning ability through this process of CRAP TRANSFER. Learning is a different thing and mugging is a different one.
You can remember things through constant attachment to the process. Remembering stats of, say, some sport involves constantly following it. Remembering words involve constant attachment to literature. There are so many examples but each indicate one common thing-you have to devote time and interest. And thus each person has a HDD containing information relating to his interest and time devoted. But the amount of DISK space and utilized space varies from person to person according to the habits and mentality of each.

What Went Wrong?

2007-03-28T01:23:00.000-07:00

As a lover of cricket, as do every third person of our country, its hard to believe that WC-07 is over for us before it has actually started (the super-8). And like any one of the cricket followers in the country I have a question in mind n heart and most of us have a varied no. of answers (or solutions) to this Q- WHAT WENT WRONG? Well most of us will say "what is left to debate?" over or may be "there's no point in discussing over such a useless topic", but I know and most of us will agree that we can't help but to think over it and have an opinion about it. And that each one of us has a feeling deep in our hearts that India will win the WC. And each one of us has view on how to improve things which come up either during a discussion with friends in the lobby, or watching TV and giving a tip to the Men in Blue on how to improve their running betw the wkts, how not to give away extra in crucial matches, how to contain opposition in slog overs, how should the superstars play and even the minute of the tech faults like playin on front or back foot, moving the feet , etc. So like each of us I too feel very much disappointed after India's exit from WC-07. But what next-who is to blame?- the coach (for excessive expts), the captain(not inspiring enough), the senior members(letting the team down at imp. occasions), the selection committee(not picking the right blend of players),the pitch(not much help fot the spinners :)), the playing conditions(why didn't it rain?), or Bermuda(why did they lose to BANGLA), BAngladesh(why did they played so well), the followers (why they didnt pray with intensity?), LUCK (why didnt Sachin survive the Lemon cut while every other batsmen did?), or any other TOM, DICK and HARRY for reasons of no sense. But blaming a single person, condition or factor is like slauter of a cow for the sake of rain. And I feel even blaming the whole team would not be appropriate. So who's to blame? the answer lies in one of the observation of Imran Khan. He pointed out the difference in the level of domestic cricket in Indian sub-continent (particularly India n Pak) and some other nations like Aus. even at the lowest level the ground conditions are of international level in Aus- that is the place and time for a player to learn slinding on the field.If a player has been playing cricket from his childhood on poor grounds then either he has to stop thinking about sliding or end up in the hospital. We have a large no. of teams competing at the domestic level(nearly 28 odd) as compared to about six in Aus and that is quite logical as the population is also propotionately higher. But can we ensure quality cricket with so many regional boards which depend soley on the BCCI for funding and despite BCCI being the richest of all cricket boards in the world, its impossible to maintain the standards with such a large no. of boards. our domestic cricket system is also quite individual performance based- mostmatches end in a draw not because there are only four days to play but because every team wants to bat for most of the part and score points on the basis of 1st innings lead and in the process players aim at not scoring runs but occuping the crease. There no feeling of a team at that level mostly beacause all of them know that one good season and they will be the the 'TEAM', TEAM INDIA. And that is why most players play for themselves rather than for the team. ANd if the sense of team spirit is not aroused in the players at the initial level then its hard to imbibe it when they play for the country. But the feeling eventually comes because of the driving force of playing for the nation. But they are not able to express that inner spirit because they simply dont have the skills- fielding, running betw, etc.So what needs to be done?- the best way out is to avoid the same cycle being repeated over n over. Start from the teenagers.Change the way players grow from initial level onwards. There is a need of individuals with the in built passion for cricket in the BCCI so as to mobilize changes.And mind you it is one of the least popular sports in the world and god knows what will happen to the system when it becomes popular in Europe, if that happens and the changes in India dont then cricket might become another sport like hockey in India.