Hitchhiking Life

Alive and kicking

2006-07-20T18:35:00.000+05:30

Alive and very much kicking. (For those who have me blogrolled :-))

Homeward bound

2006-05-18T23:44:00.000+05:30

After nine long months in the US of A, its time for me to head back home. In my nine months here I have travelled the length of the east coast. I have gone skiing in the Appalachians in the snow laden slopes of Boone county. I have watched the Blue Ridge mountains turn into an orgy of colors in fall and seen those very slopes laden with snow in winter. I have marvelled at the riches of Biltmore

Seth Godin's - All Marketeers are Liars

2006-03-09T10:09:00.000+05:30

A must watch. Available for free on Google video

What makes a leader?

2006-03-05T02:18:00.000+05:30

We come across people in leadership roles in most activities in life. Starting from the class monitor in school, to the general secretary of a college student body and to the boss in a workplace. More often than not I have been let down by most of the leaders I have encountered in my life. The reasons for a person not measuring up to my ideas of a leader have been diverse. I have felt that some

The future of blogging

2006-02-25T00:54:00.000+05:30

In an absorbing interview with Businessweek Meena Trott of Six Apart dicusses the future of the blogging revolution. According to her the future of blogging beholds: Multimedia intergrationMobile bloggingCustomisable interfacesInergration of news media and blog media Lets wait and watch.

The great escape - 2

2006-02-22T10:12:00.000+05:30

We started on our journey to Gatlinburg at 5:00 in the evening. After driving for an hour on the Interstate we reached Maggie Valley NC. That was when we started noticing the amount of snowfall in the area. The mountains were all mist covered and all the treetops were white. It was abundantly clear that the Smokies had recieved a large amount of snowfall. Something caught our attention and we

The great escape - 1

2006-02-21T07:22:00.000+05:30

I had a teriffic weekend. As I had mentioned in my earlier post, I had gone on a road trip to Biltmore Estates (Asheville) and then on to Gatlinburg. The journey took me from Central NC to the mountaineous western boundary of the state and then on to Tennessee (damn! I always get the spelling wrong). We(me and Surya) started at 5:00 in the morning. The first thing to do was get an economy sized

Long Weekend

2006-02-19T08:08:00.000+05:30

Got a long weekend finally; thanks to Abe and George. 20th of Feb is celebrated as President's Day in the US. This is the day when Americans honor all the men who ever sat on the HOT SEAT. Well now moving on to other things. Today it snowed in Durham for the first time this winter. But I was indoors all the time and by the time I was out all of it was gone. I havent been blogging frequently

Whats up???

2006-02-04T11:26:00.000+05:30

Just to keep folks updated on what I have been up to lately. Joined the RTP toastmasters club, which by the way conveniently convenes on EMC premises :-). Bought a Sharp Zaurus 5500 Linux PDA (204 Mhz Intel StrongARM processor). Its a complete Linux box that fits your palm. Went to DC over the weekend. Had a great time visiting the Smithsonians, the memorials and the other museums. Am

Does your name have POTENTIAL

2006-01-11T03:36:00.000+05:30

Here's an innovative way to find out if your NAME has business potential. Just go to Google and run a search on your name. If the results page has targeted ads on the right pane, it means that somebody out there is making money using your name. Neat!!! Scary how Google determines the relation between Nouns and Verbs. By that I mean that Google displays how a Noun is used in content over the

Tech Talk

2005-12-16T21:29:00.000+05:30

A lot of interesting things have been happening in the tech arena. Microsoft unvieled its Freemont Project in response to Google's Base Project. Though both claim to take on Craigslist, it seems obvious that they plan to take on each other. I like Craigslist though. Clean, easy and minimal. Then there was Yahoo's acquisition of Del.icio.us. The folksonomy thing really seems to have caught the

Color accent

2005-12-11T08:23:00.000+05:30

The S2 IS has an interesting feature called COLOR ACCENT. When you focus on an object, it lets you select colors from the ambience. When you hit the button, the camera extracts just that color from the ambience, keeping the surroundings in black and white. Cool huh???? Notice the blue in the bottle in contrast with the black and white background.

Rolling Thunder

2005-12-11T08:10:00.000+05:30

Thats me on a Harley-Davidson. Had been to Smithfield, an hours drive from Durham. Saw a Harley showroom there. Couldnt resist taking some snaps of this legendary bike. There were several Harley's parked outside and I started shooting from the hip. Then Kevin walked in. I didnt know it at the time but he's the Chairman of the local Harley Club (Rolling Thunder, I think). He asked me where I was

Mezcan con Gusano

2005-12-04T07:23:00.000+05:30

Hmm ever had a bottle of firewater with a worm in it? Thats what I ended up doing, not by choice though. I went to our local ABC Liquor Store with the aim of getting some Tequilla for myself. I have been a Tequilla fan for quite some time now. If you want to feel your digestive tract in 3-D Tequilla is just the drink for you. When you gulp a shot of this firewater you can feel your gustatory

Thanksgiving

2005-11-30T07:25:00.000+05:30

I have not unpdated this blog for a long time. A lot has happened since I last updated the blog. My wife joined me here on Nov 12th. Keep busy at home too now. I bought a car. Its a pristine 1996 Toyota Corolla with low miles on it. I bought a camera. Its a Canon S2 IS. Had been wanting it for a long time. Life is better here now. No more waiting at the bus stop for hours. No more rubbing your

Two types of people

2005-11-06T09:44:00.000+05:30

According to Earl Nightingale there are two types of people. Goal People Most of us are undoubtedly familiar with goal people. They are the individuals who write down their objectives and timetables for reaching them, and then focus on attaining them, one by one. By laying out a roadmap of future achievements in front of them, goal people give their creative minds a clear set of stimuli to

Smokey Mountains - Gatlinburg Part 1

2005-10-21T00:34:00.000+05:30

The next day of the trip was spent in Gatlinburg, a picturesque town nestled in the Smokies. The strangest thing I noticed about Gatlinburg is that unlike other American towns, Gatlinburg goes to bed late. One can see shops open and people walking around even after midnight. Ripleys has a big presence in Gatlinburg with a Aquarium, Belive it or not crypt and a haunted house. The

Grandfather Mountain - Blue Ridge

2005-10-19T19:12:00.000+05:30

Almost Heaven, West Virginia Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenendoah River. Life is old there, older than the trees Younger than the mountains, blowing like a breeze -John Denver. Grandfather Mountains are a part of the Blue Ridge's. They boast the tallest peaks on the eastern coast of mainland USA. The view at the top is breathtaking, with deep valleys and lot of fall foilage. The wind

Smoky and Blue Ridge - Parkway Drive

2005-10-19T03:47:00.000+05:30

This weekend we had been to the Smokie and Blue Ridge Mountains. These mountains are bordered by North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee. The sights become breathtaking during the fall season. The mountains are awash in an orgy of colors.

Snapshots from America - Home

2005-10-19T03:38:00.000+05:30

These are pictures from where I live. Magnolia Aprtments at Durham, NC.

Open Content Alliance

2005-10-04T03:34:00.000+05:30

A initiative to assemble humanity's creativity in one free and easily accesible store. This is backed by O'Rielly and Yahoo. Definitely something to look forward to.

The right conversion factor

2005-09-30T08:19:00.000+05:30

The first thing that occupies ones mind in a new country is the darned currency conversion factor. How does one decide that an article or service is expensive or cheap. This is a big problem for people from countries like India where one has to down-convert the US dollar to get an estimate of the price in Indian rupees. One USD is approximately 44 Indian rupees. A newly arrived desi goes to the

Bugmenot

2005-09-29T02:10:00.000+05:30

Here is a link to an interesting site i came across at Slashdot. It provides valid usernames and passwords for sites that require free registration for viewing content. http://www.bugmenot.com/

Got my SSN today

2005-09-24T04:25:00.000+05:30

Finally got my SSN today. I didnt have to wait long though. Just took 8 days to come through. The trick here is to wait for at least two weeks after entry, before putting in your SSN application. I dont know why, but lot of people have told me that applying too early for the SSN actually delays the process. It seems that for the SSN application to pass thru, the immigration details have to be

Hi Fever

2005-09-15T21:49:00.000+05:30

I know I havent posted for a long long time and I am extremely sorry for it. Took me a while to open my eyes to the American Dream. Fast cars, plush houses and big tomatoes ;-). Yeah! these are the things that amaze us desis when we set foot here, though not necessarily in that order. Another thing that takes us a while to catch on to is the American way of exchanging pleasanteries. You walk into

Pennywise

2005-08-22T16:02:00.000+05:30

I saw a very innovative form of accounting in a Hyderabad pan-shop. Well, the problem is this: How do you keep track of the daily sales of different varieties of candy? Hmm.., I could keep a ledger for each variety of candy and make an entry for each sale in the ledger. Nah! that would be too cumbersome and my stationery costs stand the risk of hitting the roof. Enter Ashraf Panwalla. Ashraf

Corporate Blogging

2005-08-19T20:33:00.000+05:30

More and more employers today encourage their employees to blog. I came upon Heather Hamilton's blog. She works for Microsoft and her blog is endorsed by MS. For anyone who wants to peep into MS Windows (pun intended), this blog is quite informative. She recounts interesting experiences like the HRTrax trip to BG's house. I wish my employer realised the immense value-add blogging can have in a

China's education scenario hots up

2005-08-03T12:38:00.000+05:30

Had been to Hyd over the weekend. This article seemed interesting. http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0729/p01s01-woap.html

Queen of Hills

2005-07-20T14:47:00.000+05:30

I spent the weekend at Ooty with my wife. It was sort of a delayed honeymoon for us. Ooty is a mountain retreat situated in the heart of the Nilgiris(Blue Mountains), a southern Indian mountain range. It is a nature lover's delight, with mist covered mountains, exotic flora and fauna. Every summer, hordes of tourists seek refuge here from the intolerable heat of the plains of Southern India. The

PILLigrimage

2005-07-15T14:39:00.000+05:30

I chanced upon an interesting article in the Economic Times today. It explained how India was emerging as an attractive destination for buying prescription pills. After IT outsourcing, process outsourcing and health tourism, pilligrimage seems to be the next western fad. The phenomenon is mainly driven by the flood of generics in the Indian pharmaceutical market and the hassle-free availability

What B Schoolers are reading this Summer

2005-07-14T13:22:00.000+05:30

An interesting article on BWeek. Summer Reading for B Schoolers Here are some books on the list: The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005) The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy: An Economist Examines the Markets, Power, and Politics of World Trade (John Wiley & Sons, 2005) The Kite Runner (Riverhead Trade, 2004) Tempered

Me in Outlook (wow)

2005-07-12T17:35:00.000+05:30

An article about the project I was involved with earlier in Outlook(a leading weekly in India). http://www.outlookindia.com/

Mugged again

2005-07-11T16:48:00.000+05:30

I got mugged for the second time this year. Last time it was my digital camera, this time it was my footwear. I got up late(9ish) on Sunday morn. and had just finished my morning ablutions when one of my PG mates started searching for his leather sandals. The search took him to the main shoerack where the 10 of us keep our shoes. To mine and his amazement the shoerack was virtually empty, with

Controversy.TV

2005-07-08T13:26:00.000+05:30

I came upon an interesting piece of news today. Somewhere in the 2000's the small island nation of Tuvalu(never heard of it before) decided to sell its domain name that interestingly was the catchy sounding .tv to a Canadian based corporate. The corporate in question Dot-TV corporation started registering the domain names at exhorbitant prices (~$1000). This caused furore in the internet

A hectic weekend

2005-07-05T10:09:00.000+05:30

This weekend saw me hauling my ar** to Hyderabad. I had booked tickets a week earlier and to my surprise, by the time I got to the station my WL 56 had magically transformed itself into a side lower berth. The journey was uneventful and I reached Hyd early in the morning. Home was such a sweet sight. After months of staying out nothing smelt sweeter. My wife had made some delicious pooris for me

Folksonomies (as opposed to taxonomies)

2005-06-29T19:30:00.000+05:30

I have been watching a new technology that has got tongues in the online community wagging a lot lately. Its called the folksonomy phenomenon. It is a distributed way of tagging content on the web. It is inherently different from taxonomy which is more rigid in nature. It may be defined as loose taxonomy. Here content is tagged based on social perception and situational context. A remarkable site

Dell theory of conflict prevention

2005-06-27T14:37:00.000+05:30

Heres a very interesting article that appeared in the Times of India. It talks about how globalisation ushers peace in troubled nations. Friedman, a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner for journalism and rated America's most important columnist by the New York Times, puts forth in his book what he calls the "Dell Theory of Conflict Prevention ". This stipulates that no two countries that are

Web content the Ajax way

2005-06-24T16:58:00.000+05:30

In continuation of my killer apps series, today I am posting on a killer app that's taking the web experience to new heights. Its called Ajax(Asynchronous JavaScript + XML), and what it does to the user's web experience is something that all of us experience everyday but fail to take note of. Ok, this is the technology that drives Google Maps, GMail, Flickr and Google Suggest. So whats new about

A day at the consulate

2005-06-23T16:10:00.000+05:30

I had been to Chennai with my wife on the 22nd to get my visa stamped. We were booked for a 1:30-1:45 slot but reached the consulate a good 30 minutes in advance. On reaching the consulate we was surprised to find a long queue at the entrance that was growing by the minute. Like the good FIFO's that we were we too joined the fag end of the snaking queue. The heat was oppressive and within minutes

Killer Apps (The future of computing)

2005-06-17T12:23:00.000+05:30

I have decided to make a running list of technologies that I percieve have the potential to change the rules of the market-place. This will be a list that will be updated frequently. A direct link to the list will be available from the side bar under the section "Technology". Killer Apps Open SourceAjaxFolksonomies

OSS vs Microsoft. Who will win?

2005-06-17T12:15:00.000+05:30

Here is a very interesting article(HBS) that I read on the turf war between Microsoft and the Open Source Community. An interesting conclusion of the article was that "Piracy actually helps Microsoft keep inflating prices and make more profits". Sounds confusing??? Read on . . . Microsoft vs. Open Source: Who Will Win? Related articles: An organisational model for Open Source The secret of how

"Thou art tagged"

2005-06-14T14:48:00.000+05:30

Count me in the tagging game. I was tagged by Metal. Thanks dude. Would be fun to know where this chain spreads to. :-) Behold, Thou Art Tagged For Life. I Christen Thee "Lords of Blogosphere". Metal MIB Arundhoti Yashodeep Wilson List of my Must Reads(chronological) HMS Ulysses - Alistair McLean A gripping WWII tale of courage and fortitude. It is the story of a doomed

Steve Jobs Graduation Day Speech at Stanford

2005-06-14T14:43:00.000+05:30

Below are excerpts from Job's speech: PALO ALTO, California -- Steve Jobs told Stanford University graduates Sunday that dropping out of college was one of the best decisions he ever made because it forced him to be innovative -- even when it came to finding enough money for dinner. In an unusually candid commencement speech, Apple Computer's CEO also told the almost 5,000 graduates that his

The Porcelain Express

2005-06-10T11:08:00.000+05:30

My favorite pastime this week has been taking rides on the Porcelain Express :-) . Have been taking as many as four rides daily. Naturally, the past year and a half had been good to me. Home cooked food and proper sleep . Now, I am again at the mercy of the elements. Add to that my roomie's penchant for rich food and you get the perfect setting for a stomach on the loose. The other day I met

A wet wedding

2005-06-03T17:51:00.000+05:30

Had been to Chennai for a couple of days to attend a wedding. One of Priya's cousins was getting married and we thought that it was the perfect oppurtunity to meet up. The wedding was a grand affair with the usual hustle and bustle that is routine down south. The girl was a Tam Brahm and the groom was a Keralite. We reached the venue on time to find that everyone except the bride and the groom

Rites of Passage

2005-05-30T19:48:00.000+05:30

Surprisingly, the weekend turned out to be quite hectic. Saw Star Wars - The revenge of the Sith at PVR. Finally the saga ended. The movie was true to the star wars tradition, with brilliant visuals and unbelievable special effects. This was the link that connects the prequels to the sequels. In some ways its a bridge that connects two entirely different generations. People who watched the first

Naina

2005-05-24T18:14:00.000+05:30

Watched Naina over the weekend. The special effects (almost all of them) looked like they were straight out of a Hollywood movie. Despite the spine tingling trailers the shockfactor of the movie would be 3 on a scale of 5. The story was well scripted, except for some small creases which the director ought to have ironed out. Urmila plays a blind girl who has a retinal transplant and ends up

PG Acco at Bangalore

2005-05-23T13:25:00.000+05:30

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } PG, originally uploaded by thoughtcurry. Someone asked me to describe my acco at Bangalore. Well here is how it looks. And would that someone please identify (him/her)self?

Study Woes

2005-05-20T18:04:00.000+05:30

Bangalore is leaving me completely out of steam. The long hours spent commuting, the pathetic PG acco, eating out on a daily basis and a complete lack of association is taking its toll. I had planned to start studying for my second go at GMAT a week back, but all I managed was a measly 10/12 pages. I hope I get serious soon and take up my studies earnestly. Its weekend and I have got nothing much

Smoking Janes

2005-05-18T19:38:00.000+05:30

I have probably never seen so many ladies smoking to glory at one place as I have in ITPL Bangalore. Female smokers are about as common here as cows on Indian roads. One cannot help noticing them. Standing in groups and smoking to glory. The trend seems to be more pronounced in the BPO junta. I am a relatively open-minded dude. But so many femme-fatales at once gave me the heebie-jeebies.

Bangalore Blues

2005-05-11T17:55:00.000+05:30

Bangalore has become a pain. Everyday I spend a mind boggling 2.5 hours on commuting to work. Traffic snarls, pollution and noise have invaded this once sleepy city. And all this thanks to the glorified software industry. The city seems to survive on the octamer. Be it housing, utilities, transportation or entertainment, everything seems to be tailored to meet the needs and fancies of the

Last post from Hyderabad

2005-05-06T16:45:00.000+05:30

Its time to bid Hyderabad goodbye and in doing so moving on to the next phase of my life. The city has been really good to me. Got my first job here, made really good friends, got married and now its time to move on. I am having mixed feelings at the moment. Part of me wants to stay here with my wife and friends while another part beckons me to go on and experience other things in life. I am

Gmail Lite

2005-05-05T15:36:00.000+05:30

Herez an intersting link. Gmail is now a click away . . . . Gmail

My MBA Blog

2005-05-04T12:30:00.000+05:30

I have decided to decouple my personal stuff from the MBA related stuff. Henceforth all MBA related stuff will be posted on my MBA blog.

Larry Page at UMich

2005-05-03T17:43:00.000+05:30

Herez an excerpt from Larry Page's address at UMich. Would like to thank Suhit for the content. Your son wants to leave his PhD program in Stanford and hasn't graduated yet, would you let him go off and start a crazy company? Your supposed to nod. So maybe not, I guess its really important for people to take risks.One is that, doing bigger things is easier than doing smaller things. I know that

Warren Buffet's Advice

2005-05-03T17:33:00.000+05:30

Picked this up from Wilson's Blog today. Fabulous advice and fabulous summarisation. Warren Buffet is really astounding. His clarity of thoughts is something that has to be experienced to be taken as true. Herez the link..... A day with Buffet

Dignity of Choice

2005-04-29T14:31:00.000+05:30

After months of speculation, upsets and failures I feel a bit relaxed now. I know where I am going now and I know what I have to do next. I have quite a few things up my sleeve at the moment but have decided with finality the move I am going to make next. Just hope it all works out at the end. I decided to refrain from accepting IIMB's offer for the PGSM program. The same goes to job offers from

Dogs of War

2005-04-25T09:32:00.000+05:30

Cry "Havoc" and let go the dogs of war. - William Shakespeare. An apt phrase describing India's software crowd. We are India's hi-tech mercenaries. We fight for someone else's cause in someone else's land. I have given up wanting to fight for my cause. Now all that I care about is a long drawn war in some foreign land, that leaves my wallet a mite heavier.

MIB Dude

2005-04-21T09:37:00.000+05:30

Met honorary blogger dude Made for IsB yesterday at Deccanpark. He looked well fed to say the least :-).

SANity

2005-04-20T14:17:00.000+05:30

Right now I am busy learning the ropes of network storage, never mind why. Well seems like the entire gamut of technologies used for network storage are abbreviated some permutation of the letters S, A and N. Now thats funny. When you can do cutting edge research in storage technologies, why not do some research on naming and come up with names that at least look different. Thats what I call "All

PGSM interview experience

2005-04-18T09:49:00.000+05:30

The interview window was 9:30-11:00 a.m. on Friday. I reached the venue half an hour early. There were already a bunch of people waiting. After verification of my testimonials I joined them on a series of chairs arranged in an open corridor. Struck up a conversation with a couple of guys. All were from companies like SAP, Oracle, Intel and Infy. Quite a few of them had reservations about the

Bangalore bang!

2005-04-16T02:11:00.000+05:30

Am posting from Bangalore. Its 2:15 at night. Had a hectic day today. Attended the PGSM interview at IIMB. Have positive vibes about the interview but have negative vibes about the course. Anyway, who cares now. Have another hectic day tomorrow. Have to meet some distant relatives (smirk). Have to meet aunt N.S. Sofiy and aunt Rupa (a bit of Da-Vinci Code here). Have to discuss the details of an

The most influential figure in the 20th century

2005-04-08T10:41:00.000+05:30

This is a question that is doing the rounds of most Indian B School interviews. People with come up with all sorts of answers to this. Some say Hitler, some say Saddam and there are others which say Gandhi. Now to me the influential means the ability to influence directly or indirectly, mentally or physically and openly or in guise, the lives of other individuals. Sadly for humanity the most

Vasella's Speech

2005-04-06T17:25:00.000+05:30

Below is an excerpt from the speech Daniel Vasella made on the passing out day at ISB. He has summed up in simple words what many of us will take years to learn from experience. I hope that you join a firm that inspires you by the purpose it fulfills for society. Work should not just be about money or power, but about an aspiration to contribute. As leaders, people will expect more from you than

Have been keeping busy lately

2005-04-06T09:38:00.000+05:30

Have been keeping busy lately. Plan to post later.

The Fortune Must Reads

2005-03-30T12:23:00.000+05:30

Booms and Busts The Great Crash 1929 by John Kenneth Galbraith (1955). This concise, insightful history has never been out of print since it was first published. Why? "Every time it has been about to pass from print," Galbraith himself wrote in 1997, "another speculative bubble ... has stirred interest in the history of this, the great modern case of boom and collapse." Extraordinary Popular

The Best Advice I Ever Got

2005-03-29T12:35:00.000+05:30

This article that featured in Fortune, chronicles the best advices that great names in business and industry ever got in their lifetime. I quote some advices that I found to be profound. Warren Buffet, Berkshire Hathaway (Ben Graham) You are right not because others agree with you, but because your facts and reasoning is right. Richard Branson, Virgin Group (Freddie Laker) Make a fool of

Prisoner's Dilemma

2005-03-28T17:58:00.000+05:30

Was reading up on Game Theory lately. Came across a very interesting problem called the Prisoner's Dilemma. The root cause of this problem is something called Dominant Strategy Equilibrium. Here goes . . . . Two burglars, Bob and Al, are captured near the scene of a burglary and are given the "third degree" separately by the police. Each has to choose whether or not to confess and implicate the

Festival Of Touch

2005-03-28T10:11:00.000+05:30

India truly amazes me. Indians celebrate each one of their senses, be it taste, color or sound. They also celebrate each of nature's elements be it fire, wind, water or earth. There are a few festivals that transcend all barriers of relegion, caste and creed. Holi definitely is one of them. It is a day when India's seething masses unite to celebrate the most cherished of senses, color. The entire

Days of langour

2005-03-23T16:43:00.000+05:30

My days at the library seem to stretch into infinity either way. I havent been allocated yet. Suddenly there seems to be a dearth of openings for guys with 3+ years solid C++/Unix/Team Lead experience. I have started developing mixed feeling about the entire episode. There are feelings of professional inadequacy with an artificial sense of relaxation. One good thing though is the quality of books

The Prophet

2005-03-22T10:43:00.000+05:30

I found a harbound 1962 edition of Kahlil Gibran's, The Prophet in my father's collection in Kolkata. I found it to be profound and offering tremendous insights into life and its processes. I and Priya both liked what he had to say on marriage. So simple and so true. Then Almitra spoke again and said, "And what of Marriage, master?" And he answered saying: You were born together, and together you

Mugged

2005-03-22T10:22:00.000+05:30

I did it. I did it big time. I managed to get my two month new digicam stolen. The said gadget was lodged inside my unlocked suitcase, which in turn was tucked out of harm's way under a lower berth seat of the two-tier AC coach of Falaknuma Express. The camera along with the charger and four AA NiMH cells were neatly removed from the suitcase so as not to arouse any suspicion. Monetary trauma

Back in Hyd

2005-03-21T15:44:00.000+05:30

After nearly a week in the City of Joy, I am back in Hyderabad. The stay is Kolkata was enjoyable. As expected my mother went into a culinary overdrive and I am sure that Priya and I must have gained a kilo each. Kolkata is a far cry from Hyderabad's glitz. The entire city is covered in layers of soot. The transportation is rickety at the best, with creaky buses and yellow taxicabs. The taxicabs

Kolkata Ahoy!

2005-03-11T09:59:00.000+05:30

Havent been blogging too much. Yesterday, I decided to finally make that long deferred trip to Kolkata. Somehow managed to get two tickets. Man, travelling in India without intricate planning is pain. Maybe that is what this country teaches you. Nothing here is easy gotten. Every day is a struggle, with teeming millions competing for limited resources. It starts right in the morning with me

CSI ISB

2005-03-03T15:49:00.000+05:30

Case : Murder of my ISB aspirations. Crime Scene: Hyderabad. Time : 5:00 pm, 28/02/2005 Profile of Victim Name: Sankha Subhra Som Age : 25 Profession: IT/Consultancy/Bioinformatics Company: TCS Limited Experience: 36 Months Role: Module Lead of a team of 10. Qualification: B.E. Computer Science & Engineering. Undergraduate Institution: REC Silchar GMAT: 680 + 5.5 AWA CAT: 95.3%

Days of langour

2005-03-02T12:21:00.000+05:30

How does it feel to be an unallocated resource? Hmmm. not bad, maybe for a while or so.Holed up in the "Recycle Bin" of TCS-DP(thats the library for the uninitiated), with lots of time to kill and lots of books for company. No timesheets to fill, no supervisors to report to and no screen to stare at. Started my day with yeterday's newspaper(the budget special). Tried to figure out how I can make

The Finale

2005-03-01T17:41:00.000+05:30

My MBA 2005 dream ended yesterday with ISB invites being sent out. In line with expectations, I didnt make it. A quick look at the profiles of admitted candidates turns up interesting facts. Most of the admitted candidates have a GMAT score of more than 700. I saw at least four 760's. Another interesting fact is that most of them have aeons of work experience behind them. I figure, that the

Quitting Project

2005-02-22T16:48:00.000+05:30

I asked for a release from my project a few months back. Am getting released next Monday(28th). Was thinking of going into Telecom. These were the guys who had offered me an onsite for a year. Guess 28th will be a turning point for me. It is the day when ISB results would be out and it is the day when I will be quitting my Project of three years and moving to a completely new domain. Creepy . . .

Hit ya Miss (Continuation of the ISB saga)

2005-02-18T12:35:00.000+05:30

Had my interview yesterday. Venue : ISB Hyderabad Duration : 4:30 - 5:05 Panel: Mr Menon and Manu To tell you the truth, I don't know what to expect. The interview started with Mr. Menon and Mr. Manu greeting me and asking me to get seated. The questions were - 1)Tell us something about yourself, your family and what you would like us to know about yourself. (Was interrupted time and again

Some useful information

2005-02-15T15:28:00.000+05:30

Here is some useful information for ISB wannabees. This information is particularly useful for a case study question. Here is the estimated market size for goods/services that are commonly used PC Market – 12 million Internet - 5 million Cellular Market – 39 million Primary Schools in India – 665,000 Secondary Schools – 220,000 Higher Secondary Schools – 135,000 General Colleges – 9000 Technical

The wait is over

2005-02-15T11:26:00.000+05:30

Dear Mr Som, We are pleased to inform you that you have been short listed for an interview by the ISB Admissions Committee. The schedule is outlined below: Date: 17/02/2005 Time: 16:30 - 17:00 hrs Venue: Admissions Office, ISB Campus, Hyderabad Please bring a copy of your resume to the interview. Confirm your attendance at the interview by return e-mail. We look forward to meeting

ISB fever worsens

2005-02-14T17:21:00.000+05:30

Called Adcom today. They said that a one week wait is to be expected. Was going through interview questions posted by R2 candidates in the isb-pgp group. These are questions that can be asked to someone with my profile.(IT/3+/Team Lead) Take them with a pinch of salt........ Questions from R2 Please feel free to drive the show and tell us what you want to say about yourself, about yr family,

ISB fever

2005-02-09T13:10:00.000+05:30

Got a mail from adcom day before yesterday saying that my application packet was complete. Now begins the terrible wait. In other news, I got released from ATC and am on the lookout for projects that have an onsite promise.

Memoirs of n MBA

2005-02-07T11:57:00.000+05:30

A really funny one. Read along. Memoirs of an MBA... July 26 Dear Diary, I can't hold myself down. My FIRST day on the job!! And I like it already. "Assistant Junior Deputy to the Vice Chairman - Manufacturing". My dad was thrilled when he heard my designation. "What the f!@#!!!" was his exact words. Oh I love it when my parents are happy... Need to meet HR in half an hour

TCS IPO, facts and figures

2005-01-25T11:38:00.000+05:30

The Kumbhakaran of the Indian IT industry woke up in 2004, ending speculations about an impending IPO. The IPO put the stock markets in a tizzy and established TCS as a public limited company. I have collected some facts and figures about the IPO. Need for the IPO To change TCS's image from a division of a private firm to a globally driven, independent organization. To provide Tata

Temple Management

2005-01-24T15:23:00.000+05:30

This weekend I and Priya decided to take a bike ride to Chilkoor, a temple on the boundary of the Gandipet reservoir. We started out at 9:00 in the morning and after driving about 25 kilometers through idyllic suburbs, we reached Chilkoor. True to the reputation of any public place in India, the temple was crawling with devotees. There were people there from all walks of life. People in big cars,

Swaminomics

2005-01-20T14:18:00.000+05:30

Recall Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar, the man behind tha fabled Swaminomics, the weekly columnist for Times of India. His column elucidates the most complex of economic theories into easily assimilated forms. Well, the guy has a website where he has kept all his articles that were ever published. Although some of the links are dead, the archive is a treasure for anyone who wants to browse

Golconda

2005-01-20T13:19:00.002+05:30

Last weekend, I and Priya and Ritu and Anoop rode out to Golconda. Golconda is a magnificient fortress built on a solid granite foundation, by the Qutub Shahi Kings around the 15th century A.D. The fortress is a architectural accomplishment and imbibes in it the best of Hindu and Islamic architecture. Here is a list of snaps from the trip. Stony path to the entrance Full frontal

The Barbecue Story

2005-01-19T15:32:00.000+05:30

Herez an article I wrote for Vibeindia The Barbecue Story

The Andamans

2005-01-19T13:24:00.000+05:30

Here are a few facts about the Andaman and Nicobar Islands: Geography These are a group of 572 Islands located in the Bay Of Bengal. They lie in an arc covering a north-south distance of approximately 800 kilometers. They are divided into two groups, the Andamans and the Nicobars, seperated by the Ten Degree Channel. Port Blair the capital of the archipelago is located in the South

VAT of contention

2005-01-18T18:21:00.000+05:30

VAT has been one topic that is doing the rounds in most of the nation's media. I have collected a series of links that demystify VAT and bring it in perspective. What and Why VAT? Who benefits from VAT How does VAT work? Bye, bye sales tax; VAT's here

Smallville

2005-01-18T10:28:00.000+05:30

I have been a small towner probably most of my life. I had my entire schooling in Port Blair, a town with a population of about 1.5 lakh. I recieved my undergrad education at REC Silchar. Silchar is a small, laid-back town in lower Assam. I sometimes start wondering about the influence my small town background has on my personality and how it has moulded me into the person I am today. Probably

Product Development Life Cycle

2005-01-17T11:56:00.000+05:30

There are a nunber of methodologies that are in use for product development. I have tried to summarize the most prominent methodologies in use and their salient features. Later I try to identify the methodology that we followed while developing Tata Bio-Suite. There are certain

TRIPS and the Pharma Sector

2005-01-13T18:46:00.000+05:30

In this post I plan to deal with issues of TRIPS implementation in India and issues facing pharma companies post-TRIPS. The Crux Of the Issue The Indian govt. agrees to enforce TRIPS by 2005. Indian pharma industry has grown by almost 30% for the past few years. At S$13.6 billion it is the third largest in the world in terms of volume. It is 13th in the world in terms of value. By reverse

Computer Aided Drug Design and Pharma Industry

2005-01-13T15:11:00.000+05:30

This post is intended to justify use of Computer Aided Drug Design methodologies for accelarating the drug discovery processes of the pharma industry. Phases in Drug Discovery Pre-Clinical Research This includes synthesis, purification and animal testing. Phase I Clinical Trials Phase I studies may be conducted in patients, but typically involve healthy volunteer

Phase III begins

2005-01-13T15:00:00.000+05:30

As part of my interview prep I went through my 600 word essay and arrived upon a list of 24 questions that the adcom might quiz me on. I intend to be able to answer any of these questions at the drop of a hat. Subsequent posts will dwell on each of these questions. Questions How do you think the

Father of Indian SW Industry

2005-01-12T18:08:00.000+05:30

F.C. Kohli, father of the Indian IT industry and ex MD of TCS, spoke to us today. He narrated his experiences from his early days at TCS and then went on to make predictions about the future of the Indian IT industry. He placed a lot of stress on hardware and predicted that in ten years time India will have a hardware industry worth $100bn. Half of that amount would be generated by the local

ISB Application Submitted

2005-01-12T17:56:00.000+05:30

YES! after several iterations through the write, review and refine cycle, I am finally done with my application process. I kindo enjoyed the whole thing. Applications such as these make one think through things. Tons of thanx to Krishna, Chaitanya and Dr. Vikram Raj. Thanx to Priya for going through half-done essays and coming up with useful suggestions. And above all thanx to Raj and Sita for

The Great Indian Software Industry

2005-01-06T14:09:00.000+05:30

Source : Dataquest India THE HOT VERTICALS: The Great Indian Software Revolution From $12 million in 1980 to $9 billion in 2002—this long journey took some stumbling around and a lot of grit. This is the story of Indian software, one that’s never been told this way before The software industry has come a long way. And like all big events of history, it happened part by design and

Dragon Vs Tiger

2005-01-06T10:56:00.000+05:30

Not long ago, I read an article that talks about China's achievements in comparison with India's. The author concludes the article with an ominous warning about the price we have to pay to attain the same level of growth that China has shown over the past 25 years. Here are some excerpts from the article: Praise heaped on China by western organizations and media. World Bank President James