Blue - A review

Yesterday I blew 140 bucks on Blue,

sadly none of the actors seemed to have a clue.

Lara doesnt leave much to imagination,

sanjay Dutt seems to have a perennial bout of indigestion.

Akshay Kumar looks more like a goat,

The biggest role in the movie is that of the boat.

Zayed falls for Katrina's guiles,

The lacklustre comedy fails to even bring smiles.

Fail to see where all the money was spent,

this mindless drivel wont even earn enough to pay rent.

N since I'm running out of rhyming verses,

I'll stop before you ladies hit me with your purses.. (sorry kuch aur ja nahi rahi tha)

Pigs can fly!!

We had a few creative snaps taken for the Placement brochure. After the photoshoot was done it was time for some of our own creative juices to kick in...

                Step 1: The constipated look on our faces

                     Step 2: Take off!

                                                                

                                 Step 3: In full flight!

Good times... Sure is fun to be a student again!!

Placecom

Got into the Placement Committee! Yipppppeeee...

Tidings from Manamai...

On a lighter note here are a few images near Mayajaal (that's the huge mall around 50 kms from the Manmai Campus)The name of the shop is " Cargo Security and Detective Bureau" - Pretty impressive cover they have though... inside the shop they sell tea. Talk about diversification :)

 

Another picture I have is of two insects mating at Manamai beach. Now why do you have to go to Manamai beach to get a picture of two insects you may ask. Well go ahead and ask. To this my answer would be - it's my blog, I can pretty much put up whatever I want...:P

The last picture I want to leave you with, is when we went shopping to Mahabalipuram. They have these 4 seater rickshaws here in Chennai. Now sometimes they are a little stretched a little further than their capacity. On this particular occasion

 there were 13 people in one rickshaw! N guess what... Chinmay and I were part of the lucky 13... enjoy!

Week 1: Moving in..

March 22nd: We took the first flight in from Pune and reached Chennai at 7:30. The flight actually reached 15 minutes early, which was a novel thing for me. We moved to the old campus at Saidapet initially for registration. Later we were taken bag and baggage in tow to Green Coconut, a resort on the East Coast Road.

The next day we set off for our Outbound Training Camp called 'Adventure Zone' . The two day camp consisted of Rappelling, Rock Climbing, Obstacle Avoidance and an Orienteering schedule. Having had some prior experience at Rappelling I aced this easily. Rock climbing was a bigger challenge owing to my not so inconspicuous tummy. The Obstacle course and Orienteering was a lot of fun even though lot of us ended up with scraped knees. Nights consisted of people getting to know each other through idle chit chat, animated discussions and 'sutta' banter.

After the adventure trail,we were taken back to Green coconut. The next 3 days we basically spent watching the IPL, gobbling up gargantuan amounts of food and attending the occasional lecture in between.

An important event during this period was the inaguration of the new green campus and the convocation ceremony of the outgoing Champions batch at the Chennai Convention centre. Shashi Tharoor was the chief guest. Hearing him speak was a revelation. In fact he was by far the most effective orator I have heard by a long shot.

The new campus was inaugurated post lunch by Adi Godrej. Also present were Jamshed Godrej, Madhur Bajaj and T N Seshan besides of course the effervescent uncle Bala.

Another noteworthy episode in the first week was the first lecture of T N Seshan. This gentleman walked in at the stroke of 10. The first thing he said to the students was " I have to go back home at 12!". What followed during the next two hours was amazing. The normally boisterous crowd sat rapt in attention, as Seshan proceeded to recount his entire life story. He spoke of the days when he drove a bus as a transport commissioner. He spoke of the time he defied Rajiv Gandhi as his security in chief , to cut short his Sri Lanka trip in the light of a security threat. He spoke of the time when he was 'transferred' 7 times in a single day. He also proceeded to give us a brief history of India right from when Aryans migrated down south to India, right till Narsimha Rao brought liberalisation to India. Unbelievable to say the least... The best moment of the day was his answer to a student's query as to how he dealt with the stress of his long public service. His response was (and i quote) " Cheee.... Whaaaat stress! There is no such thing as stress!"

True to his word he left at 12 sharp leaving us all richer for the experience.

All in all a pretty satisfying week which set the tone for things to come... Cheers!

Change is here...

                   So it's official. I'm leaving the cosy desk job at IBM to pursue an MBA at Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai. For the uninitiated, it's a young college still finding it's feet. They offer a one year PGPM degree. Now for the reasons why i decided to take the plunge.

1. It's one of the few good 1 year programs in India, besides ISB and IIMA's PGPX.(Both of which have really steep fees, so were not as attractive in the current scenario). A one year course makes sense right now, given that I have 3 years of work ex under my belt.

2. The founders are the same as that of ISB. The Dean, Bala Balchandran (or Bala Uncle as he is fondly referred to by Glakers), a formidable Northwesterner conceptualised the institute and it has achieved a 100 percent placement record right since it's inception 4 years back, which is remarkable feat for such a fledgling institute.

3. Till recently Glakes was a non residential MBA program. But that's all set to change with the Patriots (batch of 2009-10) to move into a platinum rated campus near Mahabalipuram.

4. The rich and diverse profiles of the Greatlakers of 2009. The average batch experience is around 42 months. I have seen a doctor and a guy who's spent the last 3 years on a ship overseas amongst the current. That' speaks volumes for diversity.

5. I was also very impressed by their screening process where they took a holistic view of an individual into consideration. The entire interview, conference room meeting, profile marking  process was impressive to say the least.

6. The single occupancy rooms :-)

7. The empirical study with Yale and the option of dual specialization.

8. Lastly, high time I shift base from Pune. I've been in Pune for the first 24 years of my life and there is a general feeling (I wont take names) that I'm incapable of fending for myself.I want to put that theory to test. A year at Chennai would help put things in perspective.

SBI- Slowest Bank in India

It's that time of the year again... Dec 31st-  the mad scramble to fill in IT declarations... after a lot of goading from my parents, I made my way to SBI for my annual Dec 31st ritual - that of investing in something that takes minimum effort- The PPF.  I also needed to get my net-banking activated for a savings account.

        On the way to office I parked my bike and walked into the NCL Campus SBI branch. Shouldn't take me more than half hour I think to myself...The first thing I encounter is a full blooded fight between the watchman and one of the numerous credit card agents. They were having an in-depth discussion about each other's ancestry and to pass time whilst waiting in the line I decided to keep a count on the 'maa-ki' gaalis being exchanged. I reached 79 in a little over half an hour, when the portly branch manager intervened.  He sternly admonished both of them and having robbed me of my only source of entertainment,  proceeded into his cabin.

        I deposited my meager annual savings (the remains of my wanton frivolity), where after I was informed by the brusque clerk that the printer was not working cos their server was down. I put on the most innocent expression I could muster, and explained that I needed to submit investment proof in my company before 31st Dec. 

        Sensing a chance to dispense free advice, he started, " Toh pehle karneka na beta... tumhara generation na.. sab kuch last moment ke liye chod dete hai... " 

        I kept up my doe-eyed expression and finally he melted... " Voh darwaze ke paas madam hai na.. unko bolo... unke desk pe server chalu hoga"  Immediately the wiseass in me retorted..." Kya uncle, server har jagah chalu hota hai na.. udhar chalu hoga toh idhar bhi hoga na? isliye toh usko server bolte..."  

        Ignoring the dirts he gave me, I walked to the 'darwaze ke paas ke madam'...A huge line had built up in front of her so I decided to get the net-banking registration done first. Now in SBI, the branch manager issues online account IDs so I strode into his cabin...

 

The manager had the watchman and credit card agent in front of him and was giving them a mouthful...

 

Manager:- ( to the watchman) tumhala me atapasun paise nahi denare... purna paiseche daaru piun ithe hungama kartat...Ani tya agent la kiti shivi ghatle tumhi? Asa chalnar nahiye.. umhala aadhich sangun deto. 

(I wont pay you your salary from now on... U blow the whole thing on booze and come here stone drunk.. why did you abuse that guy? I won't let this happen..)

Watchman:- (surly expression on his face) Saaheb ata pasun nahi pinar... tumchi shapath..

(Sir I wont drink from now on... I swear on your head)

 

         He simmered down and asked the two warring parties to leave. He then turned his energies to me..." So you want online banking facility huh?" He asked, giving me a once over.

He proceeded to punch a few keys on his computer and  painstakingly entered my  account number. He kept punching every digit on the keyboard with a vengeance.

          5 minutes later when he finally finished entering the account number he realized with a grunt that he'd gotten the number wrong, deleted the entire account number and proceeded with the entire action again. Just when I'd begun harboring thoughts of calling my manager and taking the day off since this was gonna take a whole lot more time than I'd imagined, he looked up at me, asked my for identification proof..

          He scrutinized my PAN card carefully, then looked at me a couple of times...

"Photo toh match nahi ho raha hai..."

Me: Sir, yeh kafi time pehle nikala tha...

Manager: Han... tumne kafi weight gain kiya hai... tabhi patle the... (Damn you!  )

Me: (now losing my respectful patience, but somehow holding it in..) Han sir, voh toh hai...

Manager: Accha thike.. (gives me an envelope) yeh thik se rakhna bete.. Isme tumhara username password hai... Kisi ko batana nahi.. (There goes my plan of shouting out my password from the rooftops..) Ab yeh tumhara responsibility hai...

Me: han sir... thanku..

          I scooted from his cabin hoping I'd reach office in time for lunch... I went back to the never ending line near the darvaza... I reached the window and the lady says... "Aaj ka toh bandh ho gaya sir line" A little haggling with her, and I get the passbook updated and I'm off...A full two hours late..

         In these days of uber competitive banks and eager-to-please agents, the nonchalance of SBI is indeed a refreshing if not frustrating change....