Countdown.....

Finally got the chords for 'Baby, I love your way' by Peter Frampton (the Big Mountain reggae version is good too). Have been playing them on my guitar & boy does the song sound sweet! :) Its past midnight & have gotten into this schedule of sleeping around 1 a.m. With a cool summer breeze blowing, the night time is quiet enough to contemplate. A lot of the ISB student blogs are full of what the key learnings/experiences were through the year. Was thinking that I need to firm up my thoughts on what I plan to get out of this year. There will be so many things on offer - acads, networking with the batch, sports, extra currics, clubs (finance, music, etc), partying, participating in b-school fests, writing papers, etc etc. I need to decide depending on where things stand in the 'value' vs. 'priority' matrix for me.

Been seeing a lot of movies in the past couple of weeks -
1. Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2 - Classy, violent but enjoyable!
2. Lord of the Rings 1 & 3 - All time favourites.
3. Reservoir Dogs - Had heard so much about this debut film by Quentin Tarantino (had seen the Hindi version 'Kaante' too) that I just had to see it. What a film! Short (about 1.5 hrs) but awesome.
4. Farenheit 9/11 - A very well made doc which starts on a humourous plane but ends on a serious contemplative one descrbing the situation in Iraq.
5. Black - One of the most brilliantly different Hindi films.
6. Snatch - One of the funniest Brit films I've seen. A Guy Ritchie film.
7.Crash - Superb! Makes you want to think so much about things you thought you knew about yourself - perspectives, reactions, what you stand for & so much more.

nanna Bengalooru

Am writing this post from the city I have come to love - Bangalore. Met up with WSR and ST from my old company. These guys were my bosses and are all the inspiration behind my desire to be a purist value investor. At about 36, they are doing exactly what I would like to do at that age in life. Had a good time discussing prior investments, interesting stocks, drinking beer, getting b-school gyaan from both of them ( & their wives! ) and generally having a great time. The more I interact with these guys, the more I'm convinced about what I want to do after b-school - get into domestic equity research. But as both of them told me - 'Keep an open mind, learn as much as possible & see how you feel one year down the line'. I would be taking their advice.

The past week has been really busy. Reached Mumbai on Friday morning & had a nice lunch with R (aka the original T). He has got admits from a couple of really good US b-schools and he may take up one of them as against applying to ISB next year. Saturday was spent waltzing around Bandra with R (not the original T! :) Evening, met up with a group of ISBians at 'Out of the Blue' near Carter Road. It was a nice place & the company was even nicer. i continue to be impressed by the diversity that ISB is offering. The group consisted of engineers, CAs, a guy from the hospitality industry, a guy from advertising who had done some tsunami relief work in Sri Lanka - the list goes on!

Sunday morning left for Mahableshwar - it was heaven. Perfect weather, long winding roads with spectacular views of small villages tucked in valleys between the Sahyadri range, rivers winding down, the usual 'sunrise' & 'sunset' points that all hill stations have to offer along with stories about each point (most of which had to do with the British since they were the ones who discovered & developed this place). One of the nicest experiences was plucking fresh strawberries out of a field & having them - yummy! Did some nice horse riding at Panchgani, had a lot of Bacardi, played a bit of carrom & table tennis, walked quite a bit! All in all, a very good break.

Reached Mumbai back on Wednesday afternoon & immediately left for the airport to head for Bangalore. ( Met Sehwag at the airport counter! :) Started to chat with him about the test that we lost but he didn't seem too enthused by the topic & so I just cut the conversation short! ). Am putting up at G's place - I have known him since when we were 4! Yesterday night, again had an ISB get together. An open terrace, Bacardi Breezer, bitings, a nice chocolate cake we cut for good luck during the year ahead all ending with swigs from a bottle of white wine made up a fabulous evening! Just trying to soak up as much of Bangalore as possible while I'm here. Sleepy now. More after I reach Ahmedabad!

I really respect people who take up jobs where they love the work irrespective of the money. I used to be like that at one point of time & hope to be like that after ISB too. Instead of aiming for the lucrative jobs which BPO, I-Banking & Consulting firms offer, I hope to join equity research into the Indian markets - an area which has none of the sex appeal that an i-banking job offers, none of the awesome salaries that BPOs offer and none of the brands that consulting offers BUT if done with dilligence will be very close to my heart & will be far more lucrative than all the aforementioned jobs in the long run i.e. in 10+ years. I hope that I don't follow the crowd one year down the line.

Travelling light...

Executing my much awaited travel plans - Ahmedabad -->Mumbai--> Mahableshwar (this was supposed to be Goa in the original plan, but what the heck!) -->Mumbai -->Bangalore -->Ahmedabad. Will post in greater detail once I'm in Bangalore.

return of the native!

home..home again...i like to be here when i can.. when i come home, cold & tired...its good to warm my bones beside the fire.. ok...not such a good start to the post with borrowed lines from Pink Floyd....but you get the picture! have finally packed my stuff, said goodbye to colleagues @ work, spent a day out with R, had a teeny weeny farewell thrown for me by my roomies & R and FINALLY landed in Ahmedabad. Would you believe it, it actually rained the day I got here. Both Mumbai & Ahmedabad looked completely confused by rains in March. One would expect sweltering heat, never rains... but well, such is life..often the unexpected happens.I've spent the last couple of days getting my bearings, filling & finally dispatching the educational loan forms and sticking to my resolve of 1 movie/day - so far its been 'The Motorcycle Diaries' -a Spanish movie about the coming of age of the most famous revolutionary of them all - Ernesto 'Che' Guevera. Che took a 4 month trip across South America in 1952 with a close friend on an old motorcycle. He was 23 & on his way to becoming a doctor when this trip changed his life. Definitely a movie worth watching. Tonight just finished watching 'The Assasination of Richard Nixon' - an average movie but for the brilliant Sean Penn. This guy never fails to amaze me everytime I see him on screen; the previous ocassion being 'I am Sam'. Time seems to be flying - there is so much happening. The huge diversity of topics I see on the isb-pgp yahoo groups is quite impressive. Right from issues about which laptop to buy to decision making queries on whether to choose IIMA/IIMB/ISB to the knowledge sharing initiatives with people from different backgrounds offering to open up their individual treasure trove of knowledge - the list is endless. I hope to contribute my bit to the knowledge sharing plan by having a basic presentation on value investing. Am a major value investing buff and like to devour everything on & by Warren Buffett - the God of investing. There is so much to learn from this man's professional as well as personal life. The emotional disconnect he has towards wealth in spite of being the 2nd richest man in the world ( current networth - $ 42 bn) is totally unbelievable. Check out the links on my blog for more on investing, careers, life itself by the great man. I hope that my CFA will help me contemporarize this subject which first started off way back in the early 20th century. A common theme I see on the blogs of the current ISB students is that all of them seem perceptibly relaxed. They seem to be in a mood of reflection and are looking back to the year that was @ ISB with fond memories. Many of them have put up links of blogs of the Class of '07. I believe that interesting, informative & responsible blogging is one the wonderful traditions that seems to be passing on from one batch to the next. I hope my blog will me as wondeful as some of the blogs that I've been visiting over the past few months. Now that the educational loan forms have been dispatched, I hope to have time to do the things I'd planned - reading, brushing up on my Spanish, travelling, getting my guitar back into shape.

the weekend..

Its the 2nd last day at work & I'm still trying keep my eyes open after a whirlwind weekend. On Friday, after work I went to meet my granny (I had not met her in spite of the fact that I'd been in Mumbai for almost 3 months! ). I was supposed to take her out for dinner - my treat for getting into ISB. We went to this nearby Pizza Hut outlet. It was quite a different experience to go out with her. As we were talking, I realized that most of what she said was so reminiscent of the past - attitudes, insecurities, perspectives. As I munched on my pizza, I silently wondered if I would become the same in 2050 A.D. - a vestige of the 20th century. But all in all, I had a good time since she is a very sweet person! (most grannies are! :)
Saturday started with getting down to making 'to do' lists - the lists are just getting bigger & bigger. From wrapping up things at work, to settling down things related to my apartment to planning my next month of travel to planning ISB! Had a leisurely lunch with R & 2 of my roomies. Dozed off for a while before leaving for the ISB Mumbai admits meet. About 20 of us were scheduled to meet at Bandra. Eventually about 17 of us managed to make it. This was my first interaction with fellow ISBians for the class of '07 & it felt good! Amidst the banter, we discussed common issues - loans, laptops, housing, commuting, the % of women @ ISB et al :) I realized that this was the beginning of a year when I would be sharing my life with these guys, leveraging their skillsets & offering mine to share. I plan to change my travel plans to Hyderabad & instead of flying there directly from Ahmedabad, I will be going by train from Mumbai with a group of fellow ISBians.
Since I had to catch a bus for Shirdi that night, I couldn't stay for long. R, 2 of my roomies & I left for Shirdi at about 1 on Saturday night & reached at about 7 a.m. Watched 'Zinda' in the bus at night - not a bad movie at all ; atleast it managed to hold my attention for the whole time! :) Shirdi has changed tremendously in the past 5 years. I have been going there since I was a kid & suddenly I realized that the old world charm had given way to the demands of managing a huge following of the faithful. Gone were the 'kachha' roads, the small 'Swamy' place where we would have an early morning breakfast of idlis & filter coffee. All that has now been replaced by queues of over 2 hours through organized hallways, huge hotels offering everything from Gujarati thalis to North Indian cuisine, lines of Volvos. I guess this was inevitable - ensuring that such a large number of devotees can take their darshan in a disciplined manner is no easy task. Still, I miss the old days!
Got back home last night dead tired. All in all, a good weekend. Am now faced with the last 2 days at work. Although I've been here for a short while, it will take some time to uproot myself from the comfortable routine one settles into & push myself into another one.
P.S. - One more thing happened over the weekend. Dubya visited ISB. Great visibility for ISB - it truly deserves it. Check out the details here and here . Also, as I write this post, the Oscars are being announced - 'Crash' is Best Picture (unfairly) beating the touchingly better 'Brokeback Mountain'. After all, haven't the Oscars always been politically correct?

old friends, soft music...

Had dinner with R (aka the original T) and his wife N yesterday night. I have known R since when we were in engineering college and we had a great time chatting away to glory since all 3 of us have been in the same mould more or less - engg + mba intentions. We met up at a Barista and both of us were armed with our laptops in order to exchange old photos & other stuff. Time always flies by when you meet up with old friends & before we realized it was past 10. We thought it was time we had dinner & at R's reco, we went to this small place which served a sumptuous fare of tava sabzi & roti. R had applied to ISB for R2 & had been shortlisted for the interview. Unfortunately, he did not receive an admit & was understandably low about it. But looking at the way he has developed himself as a person over the past 8.5 years that I've known him makes me sure that he is gonna do great in his life & that he will get into the b-school of his choice sooner than later. As I was discussing with him yesterday, I feel that getting an admit is about 30% luck & once your time comes, things just move smoothly.
Its now the last 4 days @ work & soon I will be a free bird for a month after that. I will be leaving for Ahmedabad on the 9th of this month. ISB put up its microsite for the batch of '07 yesterday. This site has details of acad courses, financial info, registration, housing, meals, etc. where you're supposed to fill in the relevant forms. Good start I would say. Finally booked my ticket to Hyderabad. I will be flying there on the evening of 14th April. Registration, orientation & pre term will go on for a couple of weeks before Term 1 begins on 1st May.
Hopefully, my blog for the next month will contain posts on all the fun I'm having & places I'm travelling! :)