Taking stock

Starting off with a pic has become a habit. So, in continuing with what has now become tradition, this is a pic of Student Village 3 at night. This is where I stay.

Sitting in the atrium with a cool evening breeze blowing is almost the perfect setting to be in since the mid terms for this term got over today. 2 exams - total of 3 hours - done!

Not blogged for ages, so here are a few snapshots of happenings, perspectives, thoughts over the past few days -

1. Watched a couple of movies - 'Barbarians at the gate' (takeover of RJR Nabisco via an LBO (leveraged buyout) by Henry Kravis and his group), also 'Wall Street' (excess greed of Wall Street legend Gordon Gekko played by Michael Douglas in his Oscar winning role). Anyone even vaguely interested in stock markets, equity, finance has to watch both of these movies. Very highly recommended.

2. Change of guards - Prof. Krishna Kumar (Global Economics) finished his 2 week tenure with us. Amazing guy, very approachable. Showed us parts of a 6 hour documentary called 'Commanding Heights' - a tale of economic history and analysis of issues from the early 20th century to the present. Will very very strongly recommend anyone and everyone who aspires to know even a wee bit of what has shaped our past to get us to the present economic condition to watch this documentary. In terms of application to real world scenarios and correlation with current and past real economic issues, this class has had the maximum takeaways so far at ISB.

3. Guest lectures - One of most fascinating guest lectures we had was by the Mumbai Dabbawalas, a group of people with average literacy levels of class 8 functioning at 6 sigma accuracy (1 error in 1.6 crore 'dabba' deliveries, approx 9 errors in 1 year) with zero technology. The simplicity of their approach is bewildering where they use a simple combination of alphabets, numbers and colours to denote the source and destination of each 'dabba'. Please do not confuse the 'simple' approach with an 'easy' approach - some of the most simple things are often the toughest to execute.

4. Exchange program - ISB has an exchange program with around 30 b-schools across the world like Wharton, Kellogg, Fuqua, Darden, London Business School. I wish to go to one of these schools, however it would clash with placement prep and interviews. Need to take a call on that one.

5. Grades - Got grades for 2/4 subjects for Term 1 - economics and statistics. Got a 'B' in both. Not too much to be read into the grades. Almost 2 in 3 students get a 'B'. So, not much differentiation in that sense.

6. Finance Club - The fin club activities have started. I will be heading the focus group on equity research. Am extremely passionate about that, always have been.


In other news, the Admissions task force for the admission activites of the class of 2008 has kicked off. Intend to be a part of the application evaluation team. We will be carrying the ISB brand for the rest of our lives. The number one thing that builds a brand for a b-school is the quality of students. And I hope that as far as getting into ISB is concerned, the bar is raised higher every year, the next batch should be much better than our batch.Maybe I'm too passionate about ISB. But thats the way I've been. If I dont believe in an institution, idea or person, I will not be a part of it. 'Compromise' is an addiction once you're hooked on. I dont want to be.

Warren Buffett donated about $ 37 billion of his wealth to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation @ $ 1.5 billion every year. See the video of to the 2 smartest (incidentally, the 2 richest) men in the world dicuss about it here. Apart from the fact that Buffett is my personal 'God' as far as investment styles go, I do share a common belief with him - viewpoint on inheritance. I'm firmly against any form of inheritance. Let each generation earn its own success. Providence (of being born in a particular family) should not give you the right to wealth.

Although this is just in the 'kicking around ideas' phase, I'm thinking of starting a weekly column/email letter on 'value investing' - concepts, techniques, approaches, practical examples of in depth company valuation, etc. - all from my personal perspective. Of course it would be biased since these would be my learnings and beliefs. Lets see how that works out. Enough for today I guess. The grind starts again on Monday. Song in background - 'A Hazy Shade of Winter' , Simon & Garfunkel.

Exams? Huh?

Mid terms come our way tomorrow again. Last one hour - was sitting with quaddies generally joking and chilling, ordered food from local Punjabi dhaba nearby, watched 'Sleepy Hollow' on HBO. Did someone mention exams tomorrow? Welcome to Quad C9-C12, SV 3.

The rate at which I'm posting updates on my blog has become a perfect example of 'flattering to deceive'. Song in the background - 'Let It Be', The Beatles.

Eponymous

Busy times. Have a lot to write about. Unable to put fingers to keyboard. Getting to be a regular story. I promise, this is the very last time. Look out for a detailed post on Monday night. Until then, as always, a piece of heaven, taken from Warikoo's flickr account. Student Village 2 at ISB, in the still of the night.

Soca madness!

Brazil are back in rockin' form and how! After a wake up call from Japan (it hit the 1st goal in the match), Brazil responded in a way only they can, 4 rocking goals! Ronaldo with 2 goals is the top scorer. Are Brazil back or what!!!!!

The meaning of 'time' changes when one comes to b-school. 3 a.m. in the middle of the night seems no different from 3 p.m. in the afternoon - watching football, eating Maggi, pav bhaji, kebabs n biryani & sipping Coke. Will finally call it a day. A new start tomorrow. Buenas noches, amigos!

Rains

Superb pic from Bharani's blog. Its raining these days here and believe me, ISB looks absolutely heavenly in the rains - current students & alums will testify to that, am sure!

Quantum Leap

In 'Snapshots From Hell', Peter Robinson talks of his 1st year at the Graduate School of Business, Stanford Univ. in 1989. Having done his undergrad in English litreature, he found it tough to cope with heavy quant based subjects. In this superb book, he mentions about few of his interesting classmates. When chatting with one of them, he is asked why he came to b-school & he replies that it was because 'it was one year shorter than law school'. Peter asks the same question to the other chap, who, very seriously answers 'to take a quantum leap in the area of financial services'.

Although this book has real life experiences written with a perceptibly humourous underlying theme, the term 'quantum leap' is important. At some stage in life, all of us need to take this leap. Some of us are born winners (brilliant, superb time managers, amazing productivity, etc.) , others mould themselves to be winners. The best thing about the latter category is that it is possible for anyone and everyone to do it provided he/she makes a concious decision to work on it and has above average abilities & intelligence. Today, at breakfast, I was talking to a friend of mine whose brother in law was our alum last year. This guy (the alum) was a 'super acheiver' who not only was in the Dean's list but was part of most other activities. My friend was telling me about how this guy had been an achiever all his life & what mind boggling time management skills he had. Last year, he acheived a dream job in a dream company, made it to the Dean's list, was president of the most sought after club (did an absolutely terrific job as president), was part of many extra curricular activites & what not while being married & taking care of his kid who, unfortunately, did not keep well. Point I'm trying to make here is that people like this do well all their life. Others, at some point in time, make the 'quantum leap' to becoming super achievers. What changes? Maybe their focus, maybe the approach, maybe working harder, maybe working smarter, maybe the realization to raise the bar higher every time, all the time. I have seen people who have done well & suddenly after some point start doing 'extraordinarily' well. They make the quantum leap. It is always good to surround yourself with people who are far better than you. As Newton said in a letter to a colleague 'If I have been able to see farther than others, it was because I was standing on the shoulders of giants'. Go ahead, introspect, apply and make your quantum leap.

This post is in the name of the best within us all.

Aadab arz hai, Golconda.

Term 2 begins tomorrow. Hope to shape events instead of things being the other way around the way it was in Term 1. Lots of lessons learnt from Term 1 which are of use only if they're applied conciously during the coming term. Our section has a much better schedule this term in that we have both classes before lunch which gives ample time to indulge in other activities in the afternoon or just to have a nice siesta.

RG (aka T1) was here during term break & we had a good time. Went to Golconda fort one evening & experienced the sound n light show. It was superb. It was as if the fort was talking to us about its 500 year history & for 1 hour, I was taken half a millenium back. The fort is also an engineering marvel in many ways. Definitely a must see.

This term also has interesting sports action most notably being the FIFA World Cup and Wimbledon. There is a 15 feet high screen which has been set up outside the Recreation Centre here so that people can sit across the lawns and enjoy football. Good fun. I had talked of a philosphical post this time on my blog. I seem to be going through a case of 'blogger's block'. Should get out of it soon.

Of ANOVAs and champagne supernovas...

Howdy folks!
Term break is on. Had so much to say. Still do. Inertia pulls me down. Intended to write something about the Profs in Term 1. Also intended to write a bit about learnings from Term 1. When someone else does a better job of things, it is good to direct readers to those readings. Hence, run along to this one for Profs and this one for learnings from Term 1. Also, this one for analysis of the petrol/diesel prices hike.
Am in the process of rejuvenating and getting life back on track. Excuse the gap in blogging. Expect something nice over the weekend. For sure.
Keep the faith.

P.S. - Have updated the Blogs section section. You may want to check it out. Also, the pic on this post is from Chandoo's blog. It's Khandala in the rains.

Farewell to the Gods

Another set of Gods were bid adieu to today. Richard Waterman (Stats prof from Wharton) and Rakesh Vohra (Eco prof from Kellogg). To call them anything else is an insult. Rarely do you find individuals with so complete a grasp over complex subjects and with so supreme an ability to transform such complexities into a simple narrative. Term 1 classes ended today. Left us all thirsting for more gyaan from the Gods.

End term exams beckon on Monday & Tuesday. Junta seems to care not. Numerous parties tonight as well. Was party to a few of them myself. Sort of shuttling between them. Notable one - DD, my study group mate. Pizza, chips, coke (in all its meanings including the cola) flowed freely as few of us sat with music and free spirits amidst a cool breeze, grassy meadow beside us. Will probably blog after the exams. Will probably be in a philosophical mindset. Will probably be a long post. Hasta la vista, amigos!