Rollercoaster

Unravelling ...

Friday, October 30, 2009

Great Lakes Controversies

Posted by Varun

Every place has its own history and share of controversies. Writing few of the controversies happened at Great Lakes. Howsoever harsh or bad it looks right now but I am sure these controversies will be cherished by us whenever we will memorize them later or cross our roads after this 1 year meet @Great Lakes.

1. May, 09; Campus going haywire: New campus however many basic things not proper, bad internet speed, no water, AC not working, spamming, conundrums.

Actions: Lot of work happened at majot scale after all this drama. Gradually Patriots got settled at no man's land and made it the home. 

2. 27 May, 09; Scorpion at my room: Mail fragment will suffice thewords:

" Tonight I found a 3-4 inch long scorpion in my hostel room. It was curled up in my laptop bag. To say that I am shaken would be an understatement. At the moment, all I can think is that I am lucky to be alive. I am thinking my stars that I noticed it because I was studying till late.
The only way it could have entered my room is through the gap below the doors. Please get some sort of fitting done in the doors so that dangerous insects and snakes cannot crawl into our rooms. I personally do not feel safe at the moment after this incident.
Patriots: Always make sure you check your shoes/sandals, bags and other stuff lying on the floor before you pick them up.
Hoping for a quick response."
Result: Sprays in campusto avoid snakes, rats etc
3. 28 May 09; Updates and Rules by Stuco: There was lot of spamming happening due to new campus going haywire. Another bomb flashed soon by Stuco. the mail snippet by Stuco:
"There have been lots of unnecessary mails floating around to the class ID and the solution to that is a fine (of Rs 100/-) that will be levied on any person who sends a mail which isn’t of any value to the whole class. The fines that will be collected from this initiative will be held by the Student Council till the Honour Code Committee is formed and thereafter they will be the custodians of the money collected."




The mail got fire instantly and soon there were more spams than ever. The meeting with Stuco after this has been the most heated discussion happened till now. 
Result: Rule overruled
4. Specialization drama: Student not knowing about which specialization to take. 
Result: Spamming and unnecessary meeting with Profs
5. 13 Jul 09; Safety and Medi-claim issue: Raised by me to Stuco
Result: Fire extinguishers kept, Railing were put, mediclim happened after 3 months.
6.




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Monday, October 19, 2009

HBR on Managing Your Career : A Review

Posted by Varun



Recently finished this awesome HBR-Managing Your Career. The book contains classic article on how to personally manage your career. The wisdom talks from the career managment experts ask for changing our hard wired mind-set. The book takes completely practical outlook while narrating the real life examples. The books says that individuals themselves should take sole responsibilty to build and manage their career, life and success in them.  T

The topics in the book are:
1. Reawakening Your Passion for Work by Richard Boyatzis, Annie McKee, and Daniel Goleman;
2. Goodbye Career, Hello Success" by Randy Komisar;
3. The Right Way to Be Fired by Laurence J. Stybel and Marianne Peabody;
4. Managing Oneself by Peter Drucker;
5. A Second Career: The Possible Dream by Harry Levinson;
6. Five Strategies of Successful Part-Time Work by Vivien Corwin, Thomas Lawrence, and Peter Frost;
7. Managing Your Boss by John Gabarro and John Kotter; and
8. Managing Yourself: A Survival Guide for Leaders by Ron Heifetz and Marty Linsky.


This collection of articles talks gamut of topic ranging from career challenges, effective time management to part-time arrangements to launching a new career.The book not just preached but also tell you the complete strategy of how to follow them what is said.


Few topic were just a treat to read and will definitley make you to think of changing yourself in the way you see your career. Few topics from the chapter which I loved and influenced my thoughts are:

"Reawakening your passion for work" make you think and reflect that why and what you should be working for.
"Goodbye Career, Hello Success" tells about pursuing passion driven career which is the only way of being successful in life.
"The Right Way to Be Fire" is yet another practical approach which says that you should always be prepared for the turbulent times. So, always remain on toes, be vigilant and keep yourself most sought after.
"Managing Oneself" talks about introspection and finding about yourself before making your moves to the outside world.
"A Second Career" prescribes for keeping alternatives career mainly in your areas on interest and passion, as this could become your primary job after retirement or a feeling of achievement after doing mundane things in your primary job. I loved the concept of realising and writing your Ego-Ideal.
"Managing Your Boss" talks about shining your boss to shine yourself.

The book has something to learn for every professional. A must read for all MBA and other professionals too.

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Sunday, October 11, 2009

Malaysia-Singapore Trip Log

Posted by Varun




Members: 36 Great Lakers and Allen (the guide)
Start time: 6:00 PM, Monday, 28th Sept, 2009
End time: 11:30 PM Monday, 05th Oct, 2009
Total travel: 7000 KMs
Total expense: 50,000 INR (package + personal)
What went right:
- Awesome experience as expected.
- Covered almost all tourist destination and theme parks
- Party all nights
What went wrong:
- Less of a study tour
- Lack of planning by management
Total duration: 7+ days
Going: Manamai - Chennai – Kuala Lumpur - Singapore
Coming: Singapore – Kuala Lumpur – Chennai - Manamai
Weather Conditions: Humid/Pleasant/Cold
Vehicle: Plane, Train, Bus, Taxi, Mono-rail, Metro, Luge, Cable Car



28th Sep 09
Manamai - Chennai
18:00 hrs – Departure from Manamai
20:00 hrs - Reached Chennai Airport
23:45 hrs – Departure from Chennai



29th Sep
Kuala Lumpur: Putrajaya - Gentings - Hotel Manadarin court

6:00 hrs – reached Kuala Lumpur


7:15 hrs - reached Putrajaya – palace of Malaysian King

8:30 hrs – Batu caves sri subramaniam temple

10:45 hrs – Reached Genting Entrance for Cable Car Travel
The 20 minutes Cable Car was an awesome ride and an unforgettable experience. We were sailing through clouds all round the travel.
11:20 hrs – Reached Genting http://www.rwgenting.com/
The Genting Theme Park is located 51 kilometers away from Kuala Lumpur. This entertainment park is constructed in the lap of Ulu kali Mountains. The soothing scenic beauty adds to the glamour and glitz of the amusement park. Innocence and spontaneity is heart felt in this part of Malaysia. This park is sub-divided into indoor and out-door compartments. This park treasures skilled games which are highly technical and computer based. The mysteries of Genting Theme Park of Kuala Lumpur will take you in the uncharted terrains of Harry Potter and Hogwart’s whomping willow.
20:30 hrs Reached back to Hotel
30th Sep
Kuala Lumpur City Shopping: UNITAR – City Tour – Beach Café


 9:45 hrs – Reached UNITAR, got some dose of Guest Lectures.


13:30 – Petronas Twin Power Photo Shoot




13:50 – City Shopping and Strolling


19:00 – Window shopping
22:00 – Beach Café
1st Oct
Kuala Lumpur City Shopping: City Tour – Minara Tower – Petronas Twin Tower
11:00 hrs – Check out of Hotel and started City Tour
13:00 – Lunch at an Indian Restaurant – The Olive Tree – Great Indian Food


14:00 - @Minara for a 360 degree of Kuala Lumpur.
15:30 – @Chocolate Outlet
16:30 - @Petronas Twin Towers

17:45 - @Reached at Twin Tower Bridge at 185th floor
19:00 – Sight seeing
21:30 – Departure from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore via Train
2nd Oct
Singapore: Merlion – Night Safari and Halloween
8:00 hrs – Reached Singapore

9:00 hrs - Sight-seeing



13:30 – Hotel Check-in + Rest
18:00 – @Night-Safari with Halloween theme

with Vodoo Queen...piercing my heart :)
 
Hitesh and I met Fairies too!!

Joker (above) and Gladiator (below)

3rd Oct

Singapore: Shopping
12:00 Chinatown


 16:00 Orchard road 


4th Oct
Singapore: City Tour – Sentossa
9:00 hrs – Breakfast @ our Citihub hotel
9:30 hrs – @Merlion

@Merlion

 
Got Chinese Kudiyaan too

10:30 – @Chinese Temple 

11:30 - @Gem Factory
14:00 hrs - @Sentossa Island Beach walk



15:30 – @Sentossa’s Dolphin Show

16:30 – @Sentossa’s Grand Aquarium
17:30 – Luge ride @Sentosa
19:30 - @Sentossa’s Songs of the Sea – An awesome experience
5th Oct
Singapore: Visit to Singapore Indian Ministry of Commerce – Singapore Airport

10:00 – Visit to Singapore Indian Ministry of Commerce, Guest Lecture and Lunch

14:30 – Aravind and me Rushed to Sim Lim Square to buy camera
16:00 – Out of hotel
17:00 – Singapore Airport
Singapore Changi Airport or simply Changi Airport is a major aviation hub in Asia, particularly in the Southeast Asian region, and is the main airport in Singapore. Located in Changi on a site of 13 square kilometres (5.0 sq mi), it is about 17.2 kilometres (10.7 mi) north-east from the commercial centre.
 19:30 Depart from Singapore (Singapore Timing)
23:45 Welcome back to home – India (Indian timing)


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Wednesday, October 07, 2009

Great Lakes Guest Lectures & Events

Posted by Varun

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Saturday, September 26, 2009

Great Lakes Term 3

Posted by Varun

A very tiring yet the most memorable and eventful is Term is over.


Great Lakes Term 3 (10th Aug to 25th Sept)
Course Name
Facilitator
Positives
Delta (No negatives)
Any Comments
Human Resource Management
Dr. PVR Murthy,a Product of IIMC (FPM) with close to 30 Years experience in
HR- currently CEO, Exclusive Search Recruitment Consultants, Chennai Mr. R Shantaram, XLRI Product with close to 20 Yrs rich HR Experience Ms. S Vijayalakshmi, a product of XLRI, currently with Unilever Ms. Vidhyaa M, a product of XIMB, currently with Orchid Pharma Mr. David Nallathambi, a product of XLRI, currently VP HR with Standard Chartered Mr. V Balaji,Head HR with HCL -BFSI
The course has been experimented first time at Great Lakes in which 7 HR managers/heads from top companies of India were invited to give session on Human Resource Management. The sessions were full of practical knowledge about industry HR practices through the vast experiences of the industry experts. Most of the sessions were like open session - "coffee breaks" where any kind of question was welcome.
Due to many facilitators, the course was not well organized. Lectures were not well connected with each other. Less Student connect due to less time available with each facilitator.
The course was a big time experiment. However, the course was successful to let student take-away the experience of HR experts. I liked the lecture of V. Balaji and Orchestra video showed by him in his class
Investment Analysis
B Venkatesh, Founder of Navera Consulting
Among the best course of the Term 4. The facilitator is just awesome. He doesn’t deliver you the bookish knowledge instead gives you the practical insights about what really happens in the market. His personality, voice, tone and expressions all are in complete alignment of his ideas and thoughts that he deliver.
Bigger class size
Awesome facilitotor. Very professional. The kind of person you would like to be.
Information Technology for Managers
Prof . Sunil Rai (NMIMS)/Prof. Sundar Raj
Didn't get much problem due to my IT background. The presentation system was good to make all 262 participate.
The second half of the course was highly research oriented and theoretical, which made course tiring to study. For non-IT, the course was incomprehensible.
Research studies could have been avoided instead the future of IT in simple term and language could have been introduced.
Market Research
Dr Bharadwaj
Great course and the facilitator. Practical and interesting. Smaller class size
Slept sometimes due to information overflow.
Good course. Lot of information in last few quant lectures. 
Organizational Behavior
Prof Jayavelu (IIMK)/Prof Irudayaraj (XLRI)
The course was full of common organization/leadership/team issues and operations. It’s exciting to see that intellectuals have done so much about human and social psychology. What all thought process happens has been penned down by people already.
Prof Jayavelu was not able to establish great rapport with students. Conflicts happened into the class. First half of the course just went without much learning.
Prof Irudayaraj is a great facilitator for the course. This XLRI professor could motivate and mesmerize from is simple yet effective small lecture. Great learning from him. His way of teaching just makes subkect like Org Behavior so interesting. Hope to have complete course by him next year. Feedback has been given.
Strategy
Prof Sriram
Fun to read varied strategies of top business honchos and resolve the complex business issues just by simple but out of the box thoughts. Prof Sriram is a great speaker. All cases what we discussed were on tips.
The cases were too old and did not bring the vision of the future changes and strategies which is about to come. Few strategies are obsolete to follow in current scenario.
Actually my expectation from the course was a lot more. How the strategy are created from scratch? how to select strategy out of many option?
Mandarin (Chinese)
Prof. Devakunjari
Great teacher. Should write a book - "Chinese made easy" from his written hand-outs. Lot of material collected to master Chinese anytime.
The course has become boring due to same pattern of pedagogy from last 2 terms.
Teaching style is too motherly and caring. Highly lovable teacher. The pedagogy should have many flairs like videos, Chinese guests to keep the interest level high among students. Anyways I can proudly say that I know Chinese.


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Sunday, August 23, 2009

17th Aug, 09 : The Birthday "Bakra" & "Baratis"

Posted by Varun

Main programs by/for the birthday "baraat": 
Waiting("baraat" waiting) -> Planning("baraat" planning) -> Spamming("baraat" spams) -> Scaring(("bhai log" scaring me) -> Pulling -> Pinching -> Washing(at Lakes)  -> Patting (beating) -> Rolling (in sand) -> Smashing (the cake) -> Dancing(Choli ke peeche) ->Singing(dhak dhak) -> Drinking(RC) -> Fighting (not known) -> Thanking(to u all:)

Count: 100+ Baraatis
Food: 1 Bakra
7th August, 2009 - Today is my birthday. Never thought that the day will be such a memorable day. Great Lakers already planned for almost “Ending” me on my Birth.

Reason: I have not spared even a single person from the merciless birthday bumps and didn't leave even a single opportunity of smashing the cake/ice-cream. I just love to do all that even after trying to stop myself. But “butt”, could not help ;). So everybody was waiting from a long time to kick my ass. People already started spamming and planning how to butcher me. I was pretty perplexed with the whole situation. :D

Few Preparation by me: While I didn't tell anyone but here are the few preparations done by me. From 9:00 PM, I started mailing personally to few people to support me. Also visited few “bhai log” to meet personally and to keep them less aggressive at least. After taking few consolations from “bhai log”, I started padding work at 11:00 PM. The padding included 1+1+1 under wear, then a cushy towel, then my swimming costume, then my rugged short-pant, then hankies in the back pockets. All this to save my sweet ASS…;)

All guys started collecting near to my room by 11:30 PM itself. Few were waiting to start slaughter game and others wanted not to lose the fun. Whatever it is most importantly I am the GOAT here. It was as if before Dusshera Ravan’s effigy fire, children become too excited about the fire-game.
Correct at 12, people pull me out of the room and started beating, pulling and what and what not. 

(Pinching: Left to right: Sushil "Burnol", Varun "Bday Bakra", Mitesh, Manjit "Daarji", Gaurav, Angad "Chota Muthu")
Soon there was a full “baraat” to have fun of the slaughter.  I think there were around 100 Great Lakers. I tightened my Ass as anybody out of 100 would have screwed them up anytime.
The “baraat” then dragged me towards the pavements. Now few of the “bhai log” wanted to kick me, so they tried to take me towards the basket ball court. But there was another “bhai-log” gang who wanted to take me for a bath in the dirty lakes of Great Lakes.  Yukkkk…whatever was the final decision I was the BAKRA. Finally the latter gang won and I have been dragged towards the “great” lakes. Hitesh, Aravind, and Mohit were busy in taking picture of the BAKRA and the “baraatis” while Charu was taking full fledged LIVE video of the grand BAKRA event.
Santosh, Sushil and Akhil were highly excited to throw me into lakes as soon as possible. Finally, CHAPPAAK,  I was immersed in water. I made a history here. The first person to take a bath in lakes of Great Lakes...;) Then CHAPPAAAAK, Sushil was also in the water. People pushed him. Bechara!!!     

(Creating History: The first person to take bath in the lake of Great Lakes)
As soon as I came out of the lake. Everybody started hitting wherever possible. Well the padding was also of no use after getting soaked in water. Moreover I didn't do any padding for my back :P.
Then “baraatis” took me to our sand volley-ball court. I have been asked to lay down on sand. As a slave I followed “bhai log” instructions as it was their day. I could not utter any word against any one as I made and will make ball for rest of the 364 days. As soon as I lay down, people started rolling me on sand. Damn…it was sand everywhere and it pricks too.  
(Sand rolling)
Vignesh was already ready with the cake just after the sand rolling. He was holding the cake in hands. I understood his wild intentions. The cake is not for consumption but it’s only for a Smash on my face. So as soon as I put the knife into the cake, the whole cake was “licking” my face.

(Pic: Super Smash Cake presented by Vignesh)

My eyes holes were all full of cake and unable to open eyes as if somebody put the fevi-kwik between eye-lids, people were singing happy birthday. Then asked few people to remove the cake from eyes. Meanwhile few people took advantage and kicked a few. Right timing…the guys are still safe even now due to temporary sight loss. Wished I should have kept few “khabris” in the “baraat”. 
 (Smashhhhhh!!! will not leave u Vignesh...wait for ur next bday)


After "licking", I mean removing cake, danced had a couple dance with Mukul after making him equally dirty by hugging. 

(Pic: Dance with Mukul, Left to right: Anuj, Varun "Bday Bakra", Mukul, Santosh, Himanshu "HeManShoo"
Then “barattis” took me at Great Lakes Piazza for next ”bakra” round. Manjit was asking all kind of questions which he generally asks from everyone. I tried to avoid it as it meant inviting bigger troubles. He he…
“Baraatis” as well as “Badmassh launde” wanted to be delighted by some show. I have been asked me to dance on “Choli ke peeche kya hai”, so they sang and I did a SEXY dance on “Choli ke peeche kya hai”. After that “baratis” asked me to sing something hot. Not to disappoint them I stated singing Madhuri’s “Dhak-dhak karne laga” and kept giving Madhuri’s dancing steps just to keep all guys laughing and happy.
 (Guys after Cake Smashing event, Left to right: Kumaravel, Ankur, Gaurav, Santosh, Vignesh(back), Akhil, Sushil "Burnol", Manjit "sardarji", chauhan and jay)

People were very happy with the overall event happened after 12. Vignesh specially congratulated me for such an eventful night. No other birthday has been so successfully “launched” till now. 
(Ending the Ceremony, Left to right: Kumaravel, Gaurav, Anuj, Aravind(front), Varun "Bday Bakra", Mukul, Himanshu "HeManShoo", Ayush "Body waale baba", Mitesh and Manjit) 


No party without drinks. The arrangement was all done already in advance with the help of M, V, H etc. Few dignitaries from “Baraat” were invited to enjoy the Daroo party. We drank like pigs, danced like peacock, sang like nightingale, played like Sachin and later fought like Bulls. Yes, few “launde” including me lost balance after daroo and had a big fight on some issue which I didn't know but just fought. LOL



So that’s how my 2Xth birthday has been celebrated. Hope to see more birthday celebrations coming and adding unforgettable and cherishable moments to our life at Great Lakes. Thanks to “Baraaati”, “Bhai Log” and “Badmas Launde” and all Great Lakers to make it such a memorable and grand moment.
PS: Thanks a lot to Hitesh, Mohit, Aravind for pics and Charu for taking the videos.

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Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Microeconomics in Real Life – Household TV

Posted by Varun


By: Varun Khandelwal
Indian Television Household industry is a great real life example of application of Microeconomics. Till late 80s, Indian Manufacturer like Crown, Salora, Texla, Oscar and Beltek were the market leader of Black & White TVs in India. However, advent of Color TV technology which was great substitutes of obsolete Black and White TV led new market leaders like Videocon, BPL and Onida emerge in TV market. This is a great example of Threat of Substitutes (Color TV overruling B&W TV market) and significant impact of Technology on firms.
Below is the industry analysis of the TV market incorporating Porter’s Five Forces model:
Till late 90s Videocon, BPL and Onida enjoyed leadership and apparent oligopoly in the TV market. However, advent of MNCs such as AIWA, Akai, LG, Philips and Samsung changed the landscape of TV industry. Especially Akai and AIWA which used to work upon procurement/assembly based model brought upon the cut-throat price war in TV market. For an instance, earlier prices of Color TVs used to be around Rs 20,000 for a 21’ TV. However, Akai and AIWA through its smart operations and marketing strategies brought down the same TV cost to almost half. Moreover, it brought concept of TV exchange for the upgraders and rebuyers leading to same TV cost mere Rs 5000. At the same time, world leaders like LG and Samsung started Sales on Volume strategy to push their quality product in Indian market.
From the above table it could easily be observed that with increase in demand the nominal price of TV has decreased significantly and hence obeying the Demand-Supply rule. New Technology advent and price war also led to significant shift in Demand and Supply curve many times. Another point to note is that demand of TV is highly seasonal in India. During festivals and marriage season, there is always a high demand for TV. TV market has become highly competitive market and the life cycle of any new TV has become too small. Currently, TV industry in India is undergoing tremendous changes in terms of Technology and customer segments. New augmented features in TV, becomes in expected and generic within months. New technology based television like HDTV, LCD are replacing traditional color TV very fast. The few important things TV manufacturing/marketing firms should keep in mind are:
1.       Research and Development and Innovation are the key to become successful in TV market.
2.       Quality and trustworthiness is important. TV is still bought by majority consumer for a long term basis so they want good quality.
3.       Smart Pricing strategy is required to have an edge among so many competitors and no product difference.
4.       Consumer Segmentation is important for every TV
5.       Increase in disposable income in India will lead to further increase in Demand of TV.
Hence, we can observe practical application of microeconomics in Household Television industry of India.

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Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Changing Consumer Landscape

Posted by Varun


Introduction

World is changing too fast as never before. The revolution in technological connectivity has opened the new market gateways and markets are emerging from different parts of the world. New emerging markets have increased spending in the world overall. According to a survey, by 2015, the consumer's spending power in emerging economies will increase from current $4 trillion to more than $9 trillion. Today, information is readily available to everyone leading to commoditization of even high values goods. Markets have become global and consumers have transformed themselves to Global Consumers.
Global trends survey results: Two Views of the Future: % of Respondents Indicating a Significant Impact of Global Trends in 5 years – By Nationality of Organization
On the hindsight, the markets have also become dynamic and highly sensitive to changes. Recession causing rising anxiety has lead consumers to view the marketplace in new ways - demanding ever greater value. Companies are facing unprecedented challenges on all fronts like retail, consumer, competition and growth. Rules of the business are changing everyday and conventional management is failing to produce results.  Markets and companies need to align themselves efficiently and strategically to combat these trends and stay in the business else they will soon be losing their sheen in the dynamic market with changing consumer landscape.

 Changing Values of Consumer

The recent slowdown has brought down a significant change in the mind-set of the majority of consumer all over world. The consumers have become highly realistic and could not just accept anything.
Brand loyalty is diminishing as consumers have become more value driven and diverse in their purchasing decisions. Retailers and manufacturers are resorting to price cuts to help stimulate demand, resulting in downward pressure on margins. However, reducing price is not the only option as consumers are willing to pay given that he gets the desired value in the transaction. Consumers also are becoming more segmented (e.g., economic disparity, ethnic diversity, age stratification that is fragmenting demand and increasing product complexity). In such scenario, products will need to give better value. For sustenance, it’s imperative for markets and companies to understand changing attitudes & values of the target consumers and overall consumer landscape.

World is Flat: Information and Technology Revolution

The information and latest digital connectivity revolution have made the ground for competition, communication and interaction flat for everyone. The businesses are shifting online making the unique form of market place at a global level. Online markets have created price transparency and increased commoditization of products. According to recent reports, in 2008, there are 1.46 billion people online and traffic has grown at the rate of 57% in 2007 and 62% in 2008. It has been predicted that the numbers of user will double every 2 years at least until 2012. As the percentage of consumers with Internet access increases, e-commerce will become more and more viable. As the differences are shrinking due to transparency, trends in market are becoming largely macro.
In this abundance era things can be cloned, faked or reproduced very easily, however, reputation, values, attitude, love, and care are still priceless. Companies need to position themselves effectively and strategically different to combat these trends and stay in the business else they will be caught in the cycle of commoditization, declining prices, excess inventory and slower growth. Innovation in products, designs, customer-offering is the only way to perform well in such a changing consumer landscape. Gaining Technological advantage to cope with the dynamic consumer landscape may give an extra edge to the firm over companies.

Changing Demographics and Aging population

Changing Demographics is another significant factor in changing consumer landscape, which companies should take care. Increase in global population with exponential increase in Hispanic population will create a bigger diversity in every part of the world which in turn depletes the concept of brand loyalty and long-term satisfied customers. Large populations and population growth rates in emerging markets is leading to new avenues for consumer goods product growth. These markets desires for efficient but low-cost product. Aging population has increased demand for health and beauty aids. The buying shift of this demographic group is blurring the distinction between consumer goods and pharmaceutical companies.

Web 2.0 economics

Web 2.0 which is the second generation of the web development and web design has become the latest buzzword of development in the current world. It includes social-networking sites, video-sharing sites, wikis, blogs and mashups.

Everyday thousands of people are getting into the net of Web 2.0 and contributing in this new space of communication. It’s becoming an important tool for communication in real time with whole of the world.

 The concept is already creating the huge waves in media industry with a new name as Social Media. It provides the tools for information, participation, interaction, collaboration and contributions. Soon companies need to focus upon this complete new avenue to promote themselves and their products.

Modern ways of Advertising

Advertising needs to become value-oriented. Modern day consumer can't stand traditional advertising anymore. The advertising should be oriented with providing information, guidance, education, utility and help etc. The advertisements should not be thrown upon the customers rather it should be customized for the customer same as the products.
The customized, text based advertising by Google while searching on www.google.com or reading mails on Gmail is a great example of the new age advertising. Similarly, JustDial service in metro cities of India which provides free general consultation/query services on phone does the focused advertising for the consumer. It sends message and calls users with the relevant advertisements for which user have queried them on call.

Conclusion

So, getting more “real”, “authentic”, “ethical” and “environmental” is the need of the hour. The financial crisis may just be the catalyst that created a true vanguard of change in many of the developed economies. Changes in consumer values, changes in Consumer Demographics, advanced developments in Information and Technology, especially Web 2.0 are few key drivers in Changing Consumer Landscape. Brands and products need to reflect these changes in their proposition, making any transitions as smooth as possible in order to maintain relevance and ensure success in the ‘new consumer landscape’.
The market has gone global and has become like an arena with scenes changing very fast. It will take no time to fail if companies stop innovation, make smart and visionary strategic decisions and remains pro-active in anticipating and adapting in a market with Changing Consumer Landscape.

References:

“Meet the Brand Killers,” Fortune.11, 2003.
1.       “The Changing Landscape of Self-Care”, AESGP 45th Annual Meeting, 2009
2.       2003 GMA Logistics Study, Key Industry Trends in the Food, Grocery and Consumer Product Supply Chain, by Roland Berger, April 2003
3.       “Meet the Brand Killers,” Fortune. August 11, 2003.
4.       “Stimulating Consumer Demand Through Meaningful Innovation,” Accenture Institute for Strategic Change. November 2002.
5.       Breene, Tim, “Redefining High Performance,” Outlook Journal, Accenture. October 2003.
  1. www.bordbia.ie
  2. www.luli.com.br  
  3. What Sets High-Performance Companies Apart in the Changing Consumer Goods Landscape, www.accenture.com
  4. “Perspectives of Manager”, IMD International – 152, Nov, 2007
Regards,
Varun

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Monday, August 10, 2009

Great Lakes Term 2

Posted by Varun

Yet another term over within no time. A fair feedback.


Great Lakes Term 1 (22nd June to 7th August)
Course Name
Facilitator
Positives
Delta (No negatives)
Any Comments
Financial Management
Prof.  Narendar Rao, Professor of Finance, Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago, Illinois, USA
The course has been taken very systematically and in a well organized manner from the Prof. The slides are really useful. Prof Rao is also a great motivator and thinker of life. His inspirational thoughts were really good.
Most of students were just beginners in the finance. The lectures were too sleepy sometimes. Prof should have added some spices in the course to make it interesting.
I like the motivational style of the Prof. Especially, a very old song “Hum hindustani” played in the last lecture was just awesome. Hats off
Managerial Accounting
‘Padmashri’ Dr. Bala. V. Balachandran
Professor Emeritus of Accounting Information & Management,
Kellogg School of Management, Founder and Dean, Great Lakes Institute of Management
Who else could teach the course better than the Uncle Bala who is among the highest echelon of the Accounting. No more words.
Bigger class size
The energy level of Uncle Bala is just unmatchable. His each and every word motivates you to the core and puts so much confidence in you.
Marketing Management II
Dr Krishna Ram/ Prof Paul Prabhaker
Great course. Taught in a great way. Krishna Ram is just straight and he knows what should be relevant for the experienced people. Prof  Prabhakar is a genius of marketing fundas. The beauty of such Professor lie to create the interest for the course rather than just delivering the course.  Prof Prabhakar poured in amazing principles and new dimensions of thought which no book speaks about till now.
Bigger class size in Prof Prabhakar lectures
Great course and facilitator. Wished there could have been more time with you.
Micro Economics
Prof. Mankad/Dr. Rakesh Singh
Dr Mankad is has been the Prof of Economics for Dr Rakesh Sing. So anybody may understand the stature of the person. Each and every word out of him is like a pearl. Excellent speaker. http://kwlvarun.blogspot.com/2009/07/dr-harkant-mankad-economics-is-life.html

Dr Rakesh Singh has been the facilitator in term 1 as well
http://kwlvarun.blogspot.com/2009/06/dont-jump-to-conclusion-too-early.html
Bigger class size.
I perfectly enjoyed the classes. I remember that Micro Economics end term was with one more subject. I planned to give more time to other subject but end up in reading Economics just in the sheer urge of knowing more what have been taught in the class.
Operations Management I
Prof. Vaidy Jayaraman,  University of Miami, School of Business, Florida, USA
A great facilitator and a great actor. I loved his pedagogy and interest he developed among students. His tones changes, dashing style and teaching everything on board helped a lot to absorb most out of the course. I think if everyone teaches in his way then I am sure any course could be successful in giving most out of the sessions. Hats-off
Bigger class size
Great teacher. Best take away course of term 2.
Quantitative Methods
Prof. P K Vishwanathan
Lot of knowledge and practical insights of solving real world problems through statistics. Loved his funny style of teaching with lots of "Googlies"
Bigger class etc. Did not grasp very long and confusing sentences spoken to understand the concept by prof.
Fun to study. Would like to study the subject deeply.
Mandarin (Chinese)
Prof. Devakunjari
Great teacher. Should write a book - "Chinese made easy" from his written hand-outs. Lot of material collected to master Chinese anytime.
The course is slowly losing its charm because of study pressures of other subjects.
Teaching style is too motherly and caring. Highly lovable teacher.


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Friday, July 24, 2009

Ladies Quota!!

Posted by Varun



The story includes two guys: Mohit and Varun, with 4 girls A, B, C, D playing the main role. Guest entry: Mukul, Ayush and girls XYZs.
 
Day 1:
Mohit and I decided to participate in JnJ case study competition. The case has a very special requirement. The case wanted “Ladies Quota” in which there should be maximum 4 members in a team and minimum 2 should be females. Phew…never thought that "procuring" girls will be so much difficult than Case study itself and I would be writing a blog over it.
 
Day2:
Next day Mohit told me that girls - A and B are interested to join our group. It was a good news as all guys in Great Lakes were hunting for girls. I sent a “Welcome” mail to A and B and asked them to be ready with resumes.
 
Day 3:
Mail comes from Girl A that she will not be joining our group because of some personal reasons. Later on I came to know that A wanted to do the case with another girl C who was her very good friend. There were 2 option: either let A go, keep B and arrange for a new girl OR let B go, let A and C join us, hence keeping 2 girls. While later option was lucrative but even then we chose “ethical” first option.
I asked Mohit to “arrange” a new girl as without 2 girls entering into competition was  impossible. We pinged few girls but all were “engaged”.


Day 4:
Mohit told me that girl B has also joined some other group due to the confusion that girl A and C will join our group. About girls A and C we had no idea, most likely they would have joined some group by now.
So, now we need to search for 2 girls again. Huh.
 
Day 5:
Mohit told me that girl A and C will work with us as he has confirmed it from A. I was happy to hear that as it relieved from a big hassle of pinging each girl with shame to join our group. I sent a “Welcome” mail to A and C and asked them to be ready with resumes.
 
Day 6:
Girls C informs that there is a big confusion. She is working with A in some other group. Truly I banged my head, harassed poor Mohit for his poor girls arrangement skills. :D
So, we started again for hunt for 2 girls. It was much more difficult to find even a single girl now as all girls were reserved in some or the other group.
 
Day 7:
Mohit informed me that girl B is still with us and news about her exit was not full-proof. Hail Mohit bhai!!!
The days were coming near, 1 more girl required. I pinged and called so many girls but in vain. All were engaged moreover - “Nobody wants to be the second choice”. L
 
Day 8:
Mukul(another friend) and me were going for dinner when he said that there group have just one girl D for JnJ, so they are quitting. Ho ho…I asked the girl name and also told the same situation of ours. I asked him to outsource their one girl to our group. Or probably we may send both girl’s name in both group. Anyways without wasting much time, I talked to girl D and closed the deal formally with her that she will be working in our group what so ever happens. Sent a “Welcome” mail to girls B and D to send their resumes.
 
Day 9:
Ayush(another friend) who was highly frustrated from this crazy rule of females’ quota called up JnJ office to give some tolerance in rule. JnJ bluntly told that Great Lakes is not is their list of college and can come in list only next year. So basically JnJ competition story which created huge waves in Great Lakes came to an end. Suddenly, all girls were released. LOLzzz
 
Mohit and I decided not to be disappointed with that news and do our Karma without thinking of the result. So we still encourage girls B and D to send their resumes to complete registration process.
 
Anyways it was a big learning for me. I related this event with the boss/manager at my job who used to face harsh situations of/like people suddenly exiting from company. Sometimes the resources used to be high importance for the project. Whole project used to come upon knees once the person left. Even then we managed and came out with flying colours after few day. Nothing is Impossible. Managing people, forming/managing team is a part of business for managers. So better learn it here at school than experimenting on job.
 
Thank you to all Girls (A, B, C, D and all girls to whom I bugged) with special thanks to JnJ for giving us such learning and strange experience. J
Hope after reading my entry and our struggle for their competition JnJ will accept our entries or will give us the consolation prize. Hope for the best.
 
Summary:
Girls available
Day 1
A, B, C, D
Day 2
A, B
Day 3
B
Day 4
None
Day 5
A, C
Day 6
None
Day 7
B
Day 8
B, D
Day 9
All girls

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Thursday, July 16, 2009

Dr Harkant Mankad: "Economics is Life"

Posted by Varun

Sometime back I dedicated a blog to Dr Rakesh Singh, our professor of Macro economics in term-1. In term-2, we have a course on Micro Economics and guess who taught us. It was Prof Harkant Mankad, the same professor who taught economics to Dr Rakesh Singh during his post graduation time. So, you may understand that what is the stature of this person. In a way I must say he is the "baap" of economist (Dr Rakesh).


This young man of age 68 is full of charisma and fascinating stories about the history and whole world. Even after having 3 hours of continous lecture, you crave for more time with him. He choose very simple words to communicate, relates economics with the actual situations and most importantly never utter even a single irrelevant word. Each and every word just fits in the context like pearl. No more or less word may do the right job. BTW he is just not an economist but a complete knowledge data-warehouse. He taught us BCG matrix, Du Pont far better than we read in marketing.


The very first lecture was highly thought provoking and meant to orient ourselves in the right direction for future. He commented about importance of demographics which I never-ever thought of. 

The evolved 6 stages of life in this modern world are (earlier it was just 4): 
1. Childhood
2. Adolescence
3. ODDYSSEY GENERATION(New entry): People with never say die attitude. Don't want to settle, don't want to marry, expermentive, creative. These people are running the world now a days with rolling money and innovations everyday.

4. Adulthood
5. ACTIVE RETIREMENT(New entry): People who are not giving up against age and still active.
6. Old age: Now, old people have money to spend on themselves


Few of Prof Mankad sayings and my learning which I still remember:
- Economics is Life.
- There is always a trade-off.
- Value is about what we perceive.
- "Stock markets are guided by irrational passion, for dispassionate rationality."
- Rationality is a myth. But economics is based upon rationality. (what a contradiction)
- Perception of value keeps on changing with times
- Recession is state of mind.
- Don't let the competitor kill you. Prevent erosion of your market share.
- NEVER be ONE buyer and ONE product company. 
- Market share is the most important(even more imp than profits) for companies. Quality is second most.
- Stand by your commitment, whatever happens.
- Reduction in cost (while keeping quality) is the need of today.
- Once you are out of B-school, PLAY your OWN GAME. (while saying thanks)


It was really great to learn from you, Sir. Alas, we could have got more insights from you. Finally, a big thanks to share your part of knowledge with us. Keep smiling as always.

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Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Great Lakes Term 1

Posted by Varun

Time is moving too fast. It was just sometime back as if I joined Great Lakes and Term-1 is over. Drafted my insights upon the course of Term 1.




Great Lakes Term 1 (4th May to 21st June)
Course Name
Facilitator
Positives
Deltas (No negatives)
Any Comments
Intelligently Interacting with Others (IIO)
Dr. Venkat Krishnan / Prof. Zubin Mulla
As compared to other subjects of Term-1, I think I absorbed most in IIO. The reasons behind this success were definitely the Profs behind the course, who made such a course based upon philosophy, religion and psychology so interesting to read. Definitely, there must have been a lot of preparation involved in designing the course. Prof Venkat and Zubin, both allowed the class discussions up to its complete extent. It was fun to watch the Great Lakers debating among themselves. Moreover, the strict rules for pre-reads have made us study the subject even on busy schedules. Smaller class size was another big factor. Group dynamics was big treat to learn. The videos shown were great.
Probably the course of Phase-1 (about Indian culture) should have been made slightly smaller or should be customized accordingly. Many of things there are repeated several times or are just not understandable easily.
Loved the idea of chocolates on mobile ring. Professors were very calm and composed in each and every class. I have never seen any exam in which professors would have given so much effort to design every single question. Too tough and thought provoking examinations.
Financial Accounting
Dr. Surysekar
http://kwlvarun.blogspot.com/2009/05/bid-adieu-dr-suryasekar.html
Bigger class size
Great teacher
Statistical Methods for Decision Making
Prof. P K Vishwanathan
Lot of knowledge and practical insights of solving real world problems through statistics. Loved his funny style of teaching with lots of "Googlies"
Did not absorb many concepts because of the frequent speaker/mic problems, long class-hours and bigger class etc. Unable to solve problems in class test in a small span. Did not grasp very long and confusing sentences spoken to understand the concept by prof.
Fun to study. Would like to study the subject deeply.
Macro Economics
Dr. Rakesh Singh
http://kwlvarun.blogspot.com/2009/06/dont-jump-to-conclusion-too-early.html
Bigger class size. Wrong impressions during initial classes.
Thought provoking sessions. Great teacher
Marketing Management I
Prof. T N Swaminathan
Lot of interaction happened in the class. I liked his QnA methodology to realise any concept. The learning from Case studies was unmatchable. Great to start with Marketing(my favorite) finally.
Bigger class size, not all hands raised were taken care of. Didn't get chance to present. Probably all group should have been scheduled to present atleast one Case study.
Fun to watch Great Lakers bombing a group's Case study into pieces.
Business Communication
Ms. Lalitha Maheswaran
Lot of energy during the class. Highly interactive session. The 2 minutes presentation gave the best practice for public speaking for the geeks like me. I build up lot of confidence in public speaking.
Some people were less participative than others (I was medium-less one). Probably the communication equally by all should have been encouraged.
Energetic speaker. Great videos.
Mandarin (Chinese)
Prof. Devakunjari
Great teacher. Should write a book - "Chinese made easy" from his written hand-outs.
NA
Teaching style is too motherly and caring. Highly lovable teacher.
 

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Monday, July 06, 2009

Money & Power : "The road to riches is open to everyone”

Posted by Varun



Money & Power – The History of Business. Howard Means, David Grubin (2001). John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 2001. 274 pp.
Reviewed by: Varun Khandelwal, Great Lakes Institute of Management. (Roll no: 9265, Group G2)

Money & Power is a lively and fascinating documentary on how modern business grew and developed. The book outlines the history of business, industry, commerce and power from the year 1065 to the recent time up to 2005. The book is an excellent resource to students, educators, business man and even to a common man for understanding important economics’ concepts and issues in business and monetary operations at micro as well as macro level in a very simple manner.

The book is chronologically ordered into 12 chapters like a story, in which each chapter highlights one of the most charismatic business personality and event the world has known from as early as 1065 to as recent as 2005.

The story begins around 1000 years ago with an early peddler-merchant, St. Godric. He was among the most successful entrepreneurs who began to freely pursue business for profit. However, due to the church and prevailing belief during those times, profit-making was considered to be sinful, so he gave up his business to become hermit. However, he proved to be a model of wealth creation through emerging free-market capitalism. The trade kept on flourishing even in the absence of the much desired capital markets. During renaissance at around 1400, the founder of modern banking Cosmo de’ Medici made Italy understood the alchemy of modern banking system. This made Florence, the financial capital city of the continent. The Cosimo efforts led to power shifting from men of Church to men of Business. Even till early 1900, banking was highly based upon the trust and influential people. J.P. Morgan, the biggest banker of 18th and 19th centuries bailed out markets three times – the panics of 1873 and 1893 and the Wall Street crisis of 1907. After Morgan, the Federal Reserve System was created in 1913 to fulfill the critical economic role by controlling macro and micro economic factor and to avoid handing power of such scale with one man.

The author also tells tales about the wasteful use of fortune by Philip II of Spain in wars during late years of 1500 which led to Spain into the most perilous situations of the era. It tells about the power of greed to move market in irrational directions, citing story from Netherlands, well known as “Tulipmania” in which investment bubble arose through unprecedented investments in unlikely commodity – tulip bulb.

All great inventions and applications begin with great ideas. The author tells about the conglomeration of business and innovation. The book tells about the equally important contribution by Matthew Boulton, the ever experimenting entrepreneur, in the invention of Steam engine by the father of Industrial revolution - James Watt by putting his idea into a real working machine. The same theme has been continued by Henry Ford who created a mass market for cars through his innovation of assembly lines for mass-production and low price.  There is a chapter on John D. Rockefeller's creator of the Standard Oil trust who slit all his competitors in Oil industry and came out as a baron of the Oil industry in late 1800s. He used latest technology, resolved the logistics riddle, created advanced selling methods, vertically integrated Oil Corporation and put modern management to run his oil business. The book also describes about the partnership between government and private interest leading to Transcontinental Railroads in U.S. during 1860s. This ultimately led to development of new industries and markets in U.S. ultimately leading to strongest economic power on earth.

There are also the success story of Robert Woodruff of Coca-Cola who turned the sweet syrup into the most powerful and fist global brand. A chapter on Time Warner tells about the strange partnership for profit-making in business of public-media and communication.

Finally, the book covers the success story of the most famous business tycoon of the modern age, Bill Gates who proved that in the modern and fast changing world with Information Revolution - “the road to riches is open to everyone”

Truly, Business is all about Money & Power as emphasized by the title of the book itself. The book is a great literature in terms of understanding the business from its root and then formulating it well to come to the conclusion of the modern business operations which are still having a big scope for creating efficiencies.

The last line “the road to riches is open to everyone” is so true in the era of Information Revolution. Any common man with a great idea in mind and aspirations to face the tough times may easily make money and power. Change is the only constant in this world. Rise and fall of economies, businesses, nations as described in the book are the great examples of timely change in the world. In today’s world, technology has become a powerful tool to make the changes in whole world at the tip of the finger. Innovations are happening at an unprecedented rate, forecasting next technology orientation have just become next to impossible. People can interact anywhere to anyone. World is open and full of opportunities as never before. I feel there is a big opportunity lying into the technological growth. That’s where the future business and economics rest.

Money & Power is a must read for all. It provokes to think about what could be the next moves into the market. Finally, concluding the theme of the book – “Where there’s a greed and ambition you will find Money & Power”.

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Wednesday, July 01, 2009

My Lingerie Shopping

Posted by Varun

He he...I know u want to know quickly what is this goof up...


One of my good friend - Mr X is getting married today. Sorry mate, due to exams here at Great Lakes I am not able to attend your wedding. Hope dedicating this article to you will cushion the aftermaths. Remembering our good old bachelor days.


One day X called me up one day, he made lot of stories initially and then came to the point:

X - Yaar, I promised my GF to buy lingerie for her. 
Me - Ha ha...
X - We will go together...

Me - What...u idiot can't u go-around with a girl simply without foolish bets...Gurr...there are so many gifts to give...u found just this gift for her...

X - Yaar...please...u know it's so difficult to go alone to buy lingerie.
Me - Ok...$#@%$#@#@$@#


Finally on weekend we started for "disgusting" Lingerie spree...Went to the Mall 1. A lingerie shop was there. 
Me - All your please go and shop "your" lingerie...(grinning)
X - Yaar...please...u know i cud not go alone...
Me - Boss, u will cause serious trouble in my life...

Went inside with a full embarrassment...


Sales Girl: Yes Sir!!! (Serious...she thought we came by mistake or not serious about shopping)
Me - We want to buy lingerie.
Sales Girl: Ok Sir!!! What's the size?
Me to my friend: Now what's that? Call ur GF and ask about size u duffer, we should have been ready for it....!!!

Call made instantaneously...and data received...X's GF was also highly interested in the shopping...huh...alas she would have stopped this idiot from causing such an embarrassment....
Trying to re-collect some of the Roles in Consumer behavior here:
1. Initiator (Person who sows seed to buy product): X's Girl Friend
2. Influencer (Influences decision process): Me.
3. Decider (who actually takes decision to buy the product): Mr X

4. Buyer (who buys the product): Mr X
5. User (who used the product): X's Girl Friend
6. Gatekeeper (who facilitates the flow of information): Sales Girls



X to Sales girl - Ok the size is XYZ. 
Sales girl: Sir in wot range do u want to see?
Me: Ur range starts from?
Sales girl: Sir our range starts from 900 Rs. 
Me n X: Wot....??? (damn...it start from 900...so costly)...All right please take us to ur lower range items...
Sales girl: Please come here sir.


(By this time I wanted to hide somewhere except behind lingerie and now girl don't want to leave us...thankfully nobody recognized me at the shop...:D)


Finally lingerie range in front of us. See, feel, touch any or all of them in front of sales girl...hahaha...wot a typical shame on us...

Me to X: Boss...wot do u say...? Do u really want such a small and so costly item?
X: Seriously, it's just out of our imagination yaar...so expensive...and see this 900 waala lingerie looks so cheap...see that one...it looks so beautiful..

X to Sales girl: Wot's the cost of this one?
Sales girl: It is 4500 Rs, Sir
Me: Boss...better give a diamond ring to ur GF which she may show to the world and to u most of the times....hahaha
X: Yaar...it's too expensive here...let's try somewhere else...
Me: Haaaaaa!!! More embarrassment...?
X: Hey..please yaar....we will go somewhere else...


So we exited lingerie showroom shamelessly...went to Shopper's stop where it was more or less same situation...good lingerie was really too expensive...


Me: Try bra only yaar...don't go for such an expensive stuff...give a ring with Bra...it will be much more useful and wonderful gift

X: haan yaar...u r saying right... :(

X to sales girl: Where are bra?
Sales girl: size sir....?
X: Oh...no problems...the size is XYZ...(X became perfectionist by this time)
Me: Dude...we are seriously shameless...hahaha


The bras were so moron and dull after seeing the range of lingerie...
X: Yaar...i am not liking any bra...so dull...:(
Me: Seriosly yaar...not worth to buy a bra...better go for panties...(hehehhe)
X: #@$#$...it will again be dull man...we will buy lingerie only...let's look for value for money man

Me: Ok..let's do one thing...why not go to Big Bazaar and find out...they have really "Cheap" stuff there ....after all it's just a lingerie...so quality may not matter...not sure if lot girls wear lingerie many time or anytime...(Note: any girl reading it...please clarify through comments)


X: Haan yaar....good idea...let's go to Big Bazaar and get something...


Left shoppers' stop and went to Big Bazaar...reached to Women's section.

Sales girl: Yes Sir...

Me: We are looking for ligerie...
Sales girl: We dont have lingerie out here sir...(Till this time I always though that lingerie is just panty + bra)
Me: Oh...wot else do u have in such stuff...(totally shamelessly..:D)
Sales girl: Sir...it's out there...u may go and see...(Poor Big bazaar girl never thought that such guy will ever come to her...embarrassed)


Reached to a container, full of colorful but dull Panties and white Bras only...huh....Hail Big bazaar guys!!! Checked one or two stuff when we perceived that nobody was watching us...All stuff was too bad...!!!

Me: no man...nothing to buy here...we already got the high end stuff in Mall 1...so could not buy such a cheap items now...
X: True man!! We should go back and buy that 1500 waala pink lingerie...
Me: No man...too tired now...just because of ur panty and bra...will go back to sleep...u r completely trained and knowledgeable now...u shameless (laughing)

X: (Laughing)...Truly bhai..now I may shop it from anywhere...i have shameless now ...(grinning)
I left for home...while X went for a spree to buy the lingerie...finally X called me that he bought "the stuff" ...

Never thought that Lingerie could be such an expensive item...anyways I know now...there's a big market/business opportunity there as well...


Learning: So guys never promise for getting a lingerie for her...it need a lot of gallantry efforts...and girls always ask to get a lingerie from him to have the great fun and make best "mis-use" of him...:D



Truly a brave effort...
Have a great and happy married life ahead man!!!
Best Wishes,
Varun



PS: No offences meant for anyone. Sorry for grammatical mistakes as article has been written in a flow.

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Saturday, June 27, 2009

Pondicherry Trip: "Give Time a Break"

Posted by Varun

Pondicherry: Trip Log 
Members: Mukul, Sushil, Varun & “Raja Hindustani” (the auto-driver)
Start time: 01:45 AM, Tuesday, 23rd June, 2009
End time: 07:15 PM Tuesday, 23rd June, 2009
Total travel: 200 Km
Total trip in city: 40 KM (auto), 4 KM (walk)
Total expense: 2500 INR (approx) 
What went great: “Raja Hindustani” – the auto-driver. He showed us the full Pondicherry with full warmth.
- Passing night @bench – awesome adventure experience
- Covered everything on low budget in Pondicherry
- No hotel-checkin done
What went wrong:
- Time – Reached Pondi at around 3:45 AM without any pre-plans
- High price cab booking – Booked a taxi on very high rate from Manamai to Pondi (1600 INR)
Total duration: 1 days
Going: Mahabalipuram – Great Lakes - Pondicherry
Coming: Pondicherry – Great Lakes
Weather Conditions: Very hot/Humid
Vehicle: Car, Auto, Bus
After a long time...I am back to back-packing mode. It was slightly strenuous for my leg which is still recovering after accident. But still it was quiet a good exercise and check before getting into trekking trails.
Mukul and I were planning to go to Pondi after exam on Monday but somehow due to sleep deprivation because of exam lot of “promisers” did not turn up and even we cancelled our program with a poor group strength.
Went to Mahabalipuram in evening (5 guys), took few “bottles” and reached to the Mahab beach. Had the gala-time there. While coming back to Great Lakes, Sushil who was in FULL MOOD after having the “Som-Ras” declared that he’s not going to college instead we will all go to Pondi. He was sponsoring it and we will be the organizers. What a TREAT?
We all booked a cab on an extravagant rates, on which no one would have ever gone to Pondi. Finally, an “Ambassador”, that too non-AC came to Great Lakes gates (At least should have given the AC car on such a price…huh no value additions). I hurriedly put my (or rather Bharat’s camera, which I am not giving him back shamelessly…LOLzzz) cam in a bag, also took sunscreen, goggles, phone-charger and few first-aid medicines.
Finally at 1:45 AM we 3 (sushil, Mukul, Varun) were talking to air and sleeping “non-sensely”.  Driver asked me where to drop us, I told him on beach. :D
Reached at around 3:45 AM to Pondi @Prominade beach. There was “Le Cafe” – 24 hrs coffee shop nearby. We went there but oops there was nothing in the café till 4:30 AM. What a 24 hrs café?
Anyways we went to a 24 hrs tea shop nearby (India is still a bigger service provider than those western services, there was no board on tea-shop about 24 hrs service but still it was giving service more than it might be promising. After tea-session, we returned back to beach and quickly slept on the benches on beach near Le Cafe. Thanks to Pondi Government. It was around 5:00 AM by then.  By the time, Nupur’s and Sandeep’s group was there in Le Café. I took a quick stroll at the place keeping Sushil on bench. Took some pics with Mukul and alone. The place where we were is called a Promenade Beach.
Promenade beach 
The 1.5 km long promenade running along the beach is the pride of puducherry. There one can relax or take a stroll at any time of the day. On the sea front are several land marks. The War memorial cold and dispassionate throbbing the memory of last dreams, the statue of Joan of Arc blazing an inspiration, the heritage town hall, the statue of Mahatma Gandhi standing tall, Dupleix statue, old light house, the remains of the old pier, the old customs house, speak the splendor of the by gone era. The well furnished tourist information centre is situated in esthetically heritage building facing the sea to cater to the need of visiting tourists.
I took few pics of the place and again slept on my bench ;D. People, dogs and crows were all around us. Even then, the hangover on all 3 of us was keeping us in full confidence for lying there….LOLz..
At 8:30 the sun became unbearable to me and I asked both guys to make next plans. Sushil was in big time difficult mood and wanted to take more rest. We decided that He will take a room in hotel while we both guys will explore Pondi.
Pondicherry Tourism office is on the Promenade beach. I enquired there and came to know that bus starts at 9:30 AM. We freshened up ourselves in the restrooms in tourism office. I must say that toilets were really clean and well maintained. Generally we don’t expect such things in govt. Then we started searching for a restaurant for breakfast. Sushil in the meantime started searching for Hotel to sleep. Oopps…Hotel rooms were too expensive…none less than 1500/day…Sushil finally gave up the idea to take a room…We made a big mockery out of him. Bechara!!!
After breakfast, reached back to Tourism office and found 3 giggling south Indian girls on reception. Hmmm.. .govt is playing smart here. The ticket for local trip was of 250 INR and bus starts from there only if there are 10 people. We waited for 7 more people to come but no body appeared. Disappointed and cribbing in front of those girls who were still giggling…huh…we came out after waiting there for 1 hour. As soon as we came out, a autowala came and finally at 400 INR, he decided to show us the Pondi. The auto driver name was – “Raja Hindustani”. He knew Hindi and  English very well and boasted about roaming whole of the India in an auto. During that time we never knew that was the best decision we took after coming in Pondi. J
10: 15 AM - The puducherry Museum
Reached to Puducherry museum where lot of collection from Chola dynasty and others have been kept. I generally like museums and took a lot more time to explore and kept both guys waiting for me.
The puducherry Museum is located on Saint Louis street and is open on all days except Mondays and national holidays between 1000-1700 hrs. The museum is located in the former Law Building. The museum has a collection of rare bronzes and stone sculptures from the Pallava and Chola dynasties and artifacts excavated from Arikamedu (an ancient port just 7 kms. from city that had trade links with the Roman empires).
 
     The Foyer and Courtyard have various stone statues and a fossilized tree trunk.
 
     On the ground floor, the major attraction is the central space with 3 curious transport mechanisms - a coach, a palanquin (sedan chair) and a pousse-pousse (an earlier version of the rickshaw) which required two attendants, one to steer and one to push.
 
     The bronze gallery displays the images of gods and goddesses together with a wide collection of temple lamps; used across different dynasties down the centuries.
 
     Pre-Christian relics which you will find here, such as remnants of Greek and Roman jars, pieces from the Tsung Periods in China and beads made from glass and precious stones were dug out from the Arikamedu site, just south of puducherry.
     The museum also has a Geology room, a shell and fossil room and a collection of handicrafts, coins, church relics and French furniture.
10:45 AM - Manakula Vinayagar Koil
The Raja Hindustani took us to  Manakula Vinayagar Koil temple. There is an elephant called Lakshmi outside who blesses if you put coin in his/her trunk. Somehow I managed to get the photo clicked. I was little bit afraid but later felt too happy to get the pic.


     This temple is more than 300 years old and is dedicated to Ganesha. It has a golden spire and walls portraying forty different forms of Ganesha. The temple also has a smaller shrine dedicated to Lord Murugan, who is Ganesha’s younger brother. Over 5000 devotees flock to this site everyday. The temple compound also plays host to ‘Lakshmi’, the temple elephant, who uses her trunk to dispense blessings and to collect coins from the devotees.
11:15 AM - Shani Temple
Later we have been taken to a very new temple of “Shani Dev” coming up near Pondi. The temple does not show up in Pondi tourism but it was Raja Hindustani’s idea to show the temple to us. The temple contains 9 planets Gods with Sun in between. The temple is very new but very amazing. Truly it was worth watching to see the temple. 
12:00 PM  - Auroville
Reached to Aurovile at 12:00. Raja Hindustani told that the place is mainly meant for foreigners and Indians are less inviting to participate in Auroville. We had a lot of fun talking about Auroville. On entering, we have been shown a video about Auroville. Later, we started out “trek” to Golden Gobe which was around 2 km away from gate. Golden globe remain open for public only upto 1:00 PM. We  rushed for the place as it was already 12:30. Too hot, peak hour of heat. This small trek seriously drained out everything out of all of us. Thanks to Mukul who kept on motivating us to walk fast and reach before time. Finally we reached to Golden Globe and took few pics there. 
 Auroville - or the ‘City of Dawn ’ - was conceived as a place of research into the ideal of human unity by the Mother, the spiritual collaborator of Sri Aurobindo. The idea is to build a futuristic city where people of goodwill can live together in peace and progressive harmony, above all creeds, all politics and all nationalities. Auroville came into existence in 1968. Its Charter says, “To live in Auroville one must be a willing servitor of the Divine Consciousness”, and describes it as “belonging to nobody in particular, but to humanity as a whole”; as a place “of constant progress”; and as “a bridge between the past and the future.”
     Located around 8 kms north-west of Puducherry, Auroville was designed by the French architect Roger Anger. Around 2,000 people live there in settlements with names like Grace, Fraternity, Fertile, Certitude and Transformation. Nearly two-thirds of the residents are non-Indians.
 
     Architecturally speaking the buildings are a combination of modern western and traditional Indian elements, set in a rural landscape of deep red earth and widespread forestation, with narrow earth roads linking the settlements. The residents are involved in agriculture, administration, commerce and handicrafts, alternative technology, education, healthcare and development projects, the latter including AuroRE Systems, an international award winning unit involved in solar photovoltaic and thermal systems.
     The central Matrimandir, which is not a temple but a place for individual silent concentration, is set in an area of 62 acres at the centre of the emerging township, and is seen as “a symbol of the Divine’s answer to man’s aspiration for perfection. Union with the Divine manifesting in a progressive human unity.”
     During the inauguration ceremony of Auroville on 28th February 1968 , soil from 124 countries was placed in a lotus-shaped urn and mixed to symbolize universal oneness. This urn is today sited at the centre of an Amphitheatre in the Matrimandir Gardens . The Matrimandir’s 12-sided white marble Inner Chamber has a 70 cms diameter optical-quality glass globe at its centre, onto which a shaft of sunlight is focused by way of a roof-mounted heliostat. The light falling on the globe acts as a focal aid to concentration.
     The Auroville Visitors Centre (Ph: 0413 – 2622239) is located near Bharat Nivas, the Indian national pavilion in Auroville’s International Zone, and is open from 0930 to 1730 hrs every day. This Centre has a permanent exhibition on the history and philosophy of the project, an Information Service offering books, brochures and leaflets on various aspects of Auroville, three boutiques, a bookshop, and a cafeteria providing refreshments and international cuisine. Introductory videos on the township and the Matrimandir can be seen at the Centre by request.
While coming back we took few pics at Big Banyan tree which is the main centre of whole of the Auroville estate. I managed to take few more pic here and there while both guys were waiting for me outside. :D
Badly exhausted due to 4+ km of “sprint”. We were truly hungry and had our lunch at a decent restaurant near to Pondi Beach.
 3:00 PM Paradise Beach :
After dinner to went to Pondi sand beach, and passed a serene time there for around 30 min
    
Located 8 kms. from the town, along the Cuddalore Main Road this beach can be accessed from the Chunnambar Resort. Flanked by a quiet flowing creek on one side, the beach can only be accessed by boat


3:15 PM  - Sri Aurobindo Ashram
Reached to Aurobindo Ashram and took blessing from at Samadhi.
The Sri Aurobindo Ashram located on rue de la Marine, is one of the most well known and wealthiest ashrams in India, with devotees from India and all over the world flocking to it for spiritual salvation. Its spiritual tenets represent a synthesis of yoga and modern science. It is open to the public daily between 08-1200 hrs and 1400-1800 hrs. Children below 3 years of age are not allowed into the ashram and photography is allowed only with permission of the ashram authorities.
 
     The Ashram was set up in 1926 by Sri Aurobindo Ghose, one of India’s greatest philosopher-poets, who originally came to Pondy to escape persecution by the British. It was after arriving in puducherry, that he was drawn into the spiritual realm and discovered the power of yoga. His philosophy deeply rooted in yoga and his writings inspired a number of followers.
 
     One of them was a Parisian mystic, painter and musician called Mirra Alfassa, who was so inspired by his philosophy that she stayed on in puducherry and was instrumental in establishment of the ashram. After Aurobindo’s death in 1950, the running of the Ashram was entrusted to his chief disciple and companion, Mirra Alfassa, (also known as ‘The Mother’). The idea of Auroville or the “City of Down” was conceived by ‘The Mother’. She died in 1973 at the age of 93.
 
     The ashram’s influence can be felt in most of puducherry. The main ashram building is where the mortal remains of Aurobindo and the Mother are kept. Their ‘Samadhi’ or mausoleum, which is generally surrounded by supplicating devotees, is in the central courtyard under a frangipani tree and is covered daily with flowers.
     Some of the ashram’s facilities like the Library and the Main Building (during collective meditation) can be accessed, only after obtaining a gate pass from the Bureau Central or some of the Ashram Guest Houses.




3:40 PM - Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Reached to the beautiful Church.
Located on Subbayah Salai, this white and brown neo-gothic church is one of Pondy’s finest Catholic churches. It was built by French missionaries in the 1700’s in a contrasting Neo-Gothic manner, with towers flanking a central gable and stained glass windows on the side. The church has an imposing entrance and the beautiful stained glass panels depict incidents from Jesus Christ’s life. Further along the southern boulevard is the cemetery which has some interesting tombs with ornate marble decorations.
We were completely exhausted and asked Raja Hindustani to take us to Liquor shop to buy some syrup  for us back to college. Raja Hindustani in auto itself showed us few more monuments most of us which were on beach road and we already had a glimpse of them in early morning. Simply putting the description as got from tourism website.


Children’s Park & Dupleix Statue

   It is a seaside park with a statue of a Dupleix. Marquis Joseph Francois Dupleix was an integral part of puducherry’s colonial past. He was the governor of puducherry between 1742 and 1754. The 2.88 m tall statue of Dupleix stands at the southern end of the park. Even though Dupleix left puducherry in 1754, French recognition of his contribution came only in 1870, with the commissioning of two statues-one in puducherry and the other in France.

The Mairie

   Located on Goubert Avenue, this charming white building, facing the sea almost transports you to France. Use your imagination a little and you could very well be on a French sea side resort. Today it houses the offices of the puducherry Municipality.      



Le Café
It was once the port office when the railway ran along Beach Road from the South Boulevard to the old 240 meters iron pier. A cyclone in 1952 largely destroyed the pier whose remains can still be seen poking out of the water.

Gandhi Statue  
This is a highlight of puducherry. A four-meter statue of Mahatma Gandhi is surrounded by eight magnificent granite pillars, which were supposedly brought from Gingee, a fort some 70 Kms. from puducherry.
French War Memorial
The French War Memorial on Goubert Avenue is solemn reminder of those brave soldiers who laid down their lives, for their country during the First World War. Every year on the 14th July (Bastille Day) the memorial is beautifully illuminated and homage is paid to those brave martyrs.
19th Century Light House
This light house was used for the first time on July 1st 1836 and continued to be used upto the year 1979. This now- abandoned lighthouse stands on the edge of the sea.
Daaroo time


Finally came the most important part. Buying “Daroo”. Pondicherry is among the few of the places in India where you get duty free liquor. Raja Hindustani took us to a good liquor showroom from where we bought 4 Half, 4 quarter of Signature, 4 King fisher can. Gave one beer can to Raja and he took us back to beach. We sat on beach and had a gala time with beer. We rolled our cans in newspaper so as to keep public eye away from us. I think it was the best part of whole of the Pondi trip. Sitting on rocks, at beach, waves splashing water on you with a beer in your hand. J
After passing a leisure time at beach we packed our bags finally to go back to college. Asked Raja to drop us at bus stand. Had few pics with him to keep the moments with him memorable.  At 5:00 PM we caught the bus for Chennai. By 7:15 PM we were back to college. Amazing, unforgettable trip.
Truly, as Pondicherry tourism says – “Give time a break”. We gave a full break to our “time” J
References of visiting places: http://tourism.pondicherry.gov.in

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Saturday, June 20, 2009

Don't Jump to the Conclusions too Early (Dedicated to Dr Rakesh Singh)

Posted by Varun





The write-up is dedicated to Dr Rakesh Singh - the Economics professor of Term-1 at Great Lakes. The first lecture was just an introoduction session where he wanted to know about the expectation of MBA crowd. I thought the lectures will be great as no one else has dedicated his lecture in this way.
For next few lecture I did full pre-reads and expected that I would learn a lot more from the lecture but utter dismay happened when he gave big assignments, taught a little in class and asked questions when people were not even much aware of the financial terms. Probably. his expectation were too high. My interest in economics was going down day by day. Finally when I was required to give the feedback where I gave the worst feedback, as I didn't add much of a value to my perspective of economics. 
Point to be noted - there were 3 more lectures remaining when I gave my feedback. Those 3 lectures were the total transformation. In these 3 lecture, Dr Rakesh Singh taught so well that it changed my total perception about him. Whatever he taught was so crystal clear and thought provoking that I read and googled to know more about subjects he taught in the lecture. He didn't tell just the concepts but he taught the ideas, real application, practical utility of economics which were truly necessary for creating interest and boggle the mind. 
Finally the last lecture - "The Story of India (Economical)" was truly captivating. The way he narrated the story of India was highly touching and emotional for me. I felt like as if I am really present when the Indian story was getting written. The way he connected geo, political, cultural, social, technological, global perspectives to the economics of India and also the way he compared Indian economy to other economies of the world was just so real and absorbing. Sometimes, I felt why the hell I am following the same mundane things what everyone is doing. There is so much to do for India, for our people, for our villages. The place called "India" as well as "Bharat" (as Dr Rakesh Singh divided India into urban and rural respectively) is so much of full of opportunities yet we are not able to utilize them. I may never forget this session.The lecture was full of commitment, honesty of thoughts and fact/figures. 
Probably I have got interest in economics too. Yesterday I read an article in Economic Times about "India WPI going negative". However I forgot WPI when it was taught initially (because of no interest creation that time) but just because of the getting a passion to know about India from depth. I googled and tried to understand all economical terms (WPI too) of the article and finally interpreted it well. Truly, it's just the passion that drives not the lectures.


Hats off to you, Sir. I think you exceeded our "expectations" and I am your ardent FAN from now onwards. I apologize for coming to conclusion and perception about you so early. It's the learning for me. Hope you will 
forgive. Thankfully, I have changed your old feedback with a new feedback and saved myself from a big blunder. :)


PS: 

Dr Rakesh Singh's blog (hope people may be interested)
Books by Dr. Rakesh Singh 

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Friday, June 19, 2009

My 2 Minutes Presentation

Posted by Varun

2 min | Solo speaker | One speech | Patriots | NO PowerPoint :(
Today was my first solo presentation at Great Lakes. It was for Business Communication where I was required to speak for 2 minutes in front of the whole class on any topic. I am not a good speaker and my mind processor is too slow in words-generation on stage that even 2 minutes looks to be a life to complete...i hope stage fearing people must be knowing what i am talking about...probably that's the reason that I write blog instead of speaking publicly...LOLzzzz...anyways hope my public speaking fear will be removed, which will be one of the takeaways of my MBA from Great Lakes...(so sure :D).

Choosing a relevant topic was truly difficult task. The aim was that the topic should be able to interest people, people should have fun and most importantly they should remember the speech forever. 
I short listed few of the topics like: 
Experiences kind: Trekking, Himalayan Expedition, Biking, Entrepreneurial, Blogging
Informative kind: RTI, YHAI, 
Demonstrative: CPR

Unfortunately, I didn't want to tell about my trekking, biking, blogging, entrepreneurial experience to MBA junta because experience not delivered properly may become a failure. Moreover, people already told their hell lot of experience. 

Informative was ok but people don't show much interest in information after IT revolution because they have google which is much smarter than me.


I still remember my training of CPR (first aid technique) in 2005 in MindTree Consulting where the speech for training was highly hypnotizing. The speech was so effective and well delivered that even now I remember CPR and its concept. Finally I targeted the "new segment" (as in marketing :D),i.e. the demonstrative style of presentation which looked to be unique to me. I chose CPR as my topic and googled each and everything  about it. The idea was to have a Doll with me on which I would be showing CPR technique.
   
How to do CPR?


Downloaded material 1 day before and in the evening before the day of presentation made a draft structure of the presentation. Went to Bharat to present it while it was in draft version. The ideas were not well connected during that time, but even then Bharat understood the overall presentation and gave his invaluable feedbacks. He told me to structure it properly and get ideas in a better flow. In night i collected the Krithika's Doll from Akansha. 

During night, drafted a final version of my speech and this time victimized Mohit to listen me, who came for tea-session at 2 AM. Practiced it 3-4 times at around 3:00 AM. (Insomniatic, Biological cycle distrubances). Before going for the class, practiced it 4-5 times alone and once in front of Bharat again who was highly impressed with a phenomenol improvement in my speech. He gave few more tips which i kept in mind. It looks to be a good preparation overall.


The final Show

Finally in class, before getting my number, I don't know, suddenly my heart strted beating badly...Stage Fear was creeping inside me again...huh!!! My turn came, I reached on stage, class laughed, murmured because of doll with me. 




Took the mic and tried to anchor it, but damn...mic just din't want to fit inside my pocket...tension building up...finally it tucked somewhere...huh..
Started my presentation as expected...took it till the end with Sara (my doll's name) smoothly...the practiced work...but in the end of my speech I just forgot the  punch line which has said by Albert Einstein...phew...what the heck...why just the last line...I already told junta - "As Einstein has righly said - "....mow what i dont remember whot he said...I ultimately blabbered something...which only few people understood and they told it was right... :)...sheer Serendipity...LOLzzz

Overall, I think presentation was received well from audience. In fact Aravind was so excited that he started singing - Sara Sara (name of my doll)...LOLzzz...other guys were amused by my demo (or rather say inappropriate actions), however few ladies felt offended without any reason. The purpose to keep presentation interesting and unforgettable has been achieved. People are still talking about "Sara" - the doll...hope such fun will keep going on...:)


Thanks to the good preparation and help by my friends...hope to perform same in future too...complimenting and patting back myself as we generally do before going for any Himalayan expedition -- "Sabash, Sabash, Sabash". (Ask me if u want to know how we do...it's fun)



Coming to most important part for me


Class Feedback:
Positives: Great Idea (Yes, that was, as in Marketing we say - "Differentiation"), Confident (Ooooo it's a great news...i was feeling so nervous inside...thankfully it never came outside...), Informative, Well prepared, Demo was a great show

Delta (I don't assume that there is anything negative in a feedback): Bad closing (Forgot the punch line in the end...so bad :( ), Left side faced only (oh dint thought about it), Pronunciation (few words I said in my Desi language...Lolzzz...need to improve truly), making the Doll as secretary does not fit in such a serios topic (hmmm...point taken), the speech was becoming vulgar at times (mmm not sure if I tried to enact any vulgarity...but may be CPR's actions by me looked like that...oops people were thinking about Smooch, Intercourse...what a point...now i think i am totally successful...LOLzzzz)



Special thanks to Bharat (consultant), Mohit (influencer), Akansha (doll deliverer), Krithika(doll owner), Aravind (for singing Sara) and all audience for valuable feedback.



Finally  putting the presentation if it may be useful for someone:

Hello friends this is varun  and meet my beautiful secretary - Sara. Together we will demonstrate ABCs of CPR.
Sara can you please lay down.
CPR means Cardio Vascular Pulmonary Resuscitation.  It’s life saving technique in which you can help a person who has stopped breathing, and whose heart may have stopped beating. Thousands of precious lives are lost every year due to cardiac arrests, electrocution, accidents.  Many of them could be saved just by giving CPR at right time.
I will come to demonstration part which is as simple as ABC in which A is Airway, B is Breathing, C is Circulation. So, Sara, the victim have got cardiac arrest and she is unconscious.
A - AIRWAY
·         Shake victim gently and shout "are you okay?" (use doll)
·         If no response, call emergency medical system -112 or 101 then,
·         Tilt forehead back and lift chin carefully to open victims' airway (show on self)
B - BREATHING
·         Look, listen, and feel for breathing (make expressions for all)
·         Then we will give the “Kiss of Life”. (hand gesture for quotes)
·         If not breathing, pinch victim's nose closed and give 2 full breaths into victim's mouth (show one breathing demo)
·         Make sure that the chest rise while giving the breaths.
C - CIRCULATION
·         Check pulse (use Doll)
·         If there is no pulse, begin chest compressions.
·         For it hold your hands like this (show the crossed hand),
·         Keep elbows straight (show straight elbows)
·         Put hand on sternum which is nothing but the bone where all your rib bones converge (tell thru rib and chest)
·         Depress sternum 1.5 to 2 inches. (while demo)
·         Perform 15 compressions to every 2 breaths.
·         2 compressions per second.
·         check for return of pulse every minute.
When performing CPR, keep in mind that the person you are working on is clinically dead: You cannot make the situation any worse.
Nothing could be great than saving someone by giving the kiss of life.
Albert Einstein has said: “Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.”
Thank you!!!
Sara,  wake up…Sara…(lighter note)
END of speech!!!

-----------------------------


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Monday, June 15, 2009

The 10 20 30 rule of PowerPoint

Posted by Varun


I like the 10/20/30 principle of PowerPoint by Guy Kawasaki. Read on...
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source:
http://www.presentationhelper.co.uk/10-20-30-rule-powerpoint.htm
Guy Kawasaki is a venture capitalist. He listens to hundreds of people trying to pitch potential products to him. In this article Guy evangelises a technique to keep all presentations to less than 10 slides and no more than 20 minutes and a font size of at least 30.
I suffer from something called Ménière’s disease—don’t worry, you cannot get it from reading my blog. The symptoms of Ménière’s include hearing loss, tinnitus (a constant ringing sound), and vertigo. There are many medical theories about its cause: too much salt, caffeine, or alcohol in one’s diet, too much stress, and allergies. Thus, I’ve worked to control all these factors.
However, I have another theory. As a venture capitalist, I have to listen to hundreds of entrepreneurs pitch their companies. Most of these pitches are crap: sixty slides about a “patent pending”, “first mover advantage”, “all we have to do is get 1% of the people in China to buy our product” startup. These pitches are so lousy that I’m losing my hearing, there’s a constant ringing in my ear, and every once in a while the world starts spinning.
Before there is an epidemic of Ménière’s in the venture capital community, I am trying to evangelise the 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint. It’s quite simple: a PowerPoint presentation should have ten slides, last no more than twenty minutes, and contain no font smaller than thirty points. While I’m in the venture capital business, this rule is applicable for any presentation to reach agreement: for example, raising capital, making a sale, forming a partnership, etc.
Ten is the optimal number of slides in a PowerPoint presentation because a normal human being cannot comprehend more than ten concepts in a meeting—and venture capitalists are very normal. (The only difference between you and a venture capitalist is that he is getting paid to gamble with someone else’s money). If you must use more than ten slides to explain your business, you probably don’t have a business. The ten topics that a venture capitalist cares about are:
  1. Problem
  2. Your solution
  3. Business model
  4. Underlying magic/technology
  5. Marketing and sales
  6. Competition
  7. Team
  8. Projections and milestones
  9. Status and timeline
  10. Summary and call to action
You should give your ten slides in twenty minutes. Sure, you have an hour time slot, but you’re using a Windows laptop, so it will take forty minutes to make it work with the projector. Even if setup goes perfectly, people will arrive late and have to leave early. In a perfect world, you give your pitch in twenty minutes, and you have forty minutes left for discussion.
The majority of the presentations that I see have text in a ten point font. As much text as possible is jammed into the slide, and then the presenter reads it. However, as soon as the audience figures out that you’re reading the text, it reads ahead of you because it can read faster than you can speak. The result is that you and the audience are out of synch.
The reason people use a small font is twofold: first, they don’t know their material well enough; second, they think that more text is more convincing. Total bozosity. Force yourself to use no font smaller than thirty points. I guarantee it will make your presentations better because it requires you to find the most salient points and to know how to explain them well. If “thirty points” is too dogmatic, the I offer you an algorithm: find out the age of the oldest person in your audience and divide it by two. That’s your optimal font size.
So please observe the 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint. If nothing else, the next time someone in your audience complains of hearing loss, ringing, or vertigo, you’ll know what caused the problem. One last thing: to learn more about the zen of great presentations, check out a site called Presentation Zen by my buddy Garr Reynolds.

This article was written by Guy Kawasaki at Atherton, California. Guy is a managing director of Garage Technology Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm and a columnist for Forbes.com. Previously, he was an Apple Fellow at Apple Computer, Inc. where he was one of the individuals responsible for the success of the Macintosh computer.
Guy is the author of eight books including The Art of the Start, Rules for Revolutionaries, How to Drive Your Competition Crazy, Selling the Dream, and The Macintosh Way.
You can read more articles like this on Guy's Weblog at blog.guykawasaki.com

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Gaining back the Confidence!!

Posted by Varun

 
After a long time of hibernation from sports due to accident, today I played badminton full fledged. After my accident I thought I will never be back to the sports. But life is not that bad either...:)

After accident in December,(http://kwlvarun.blogspot.com/2009/04/lifes-been-rollercoaster.html) now the leg is much better condition now but it still needs a lot of improvement...quadriceps muscles are still weak...A screw (out of 4 screws fitted inside my leg) have started paining during movement of leg...it pierces my knee muscles while walking ...getting more ROM(range of movement) of my knees is becoming more and more difficult because of the surgical screw...it pains a lot on waking up in the morning...I want to get rid of it asap...hope I will get some vacation from Great Lakes soon...


Coming back to sports, I could not run and still unable to make fast moves...even then it feels so great to be back on the court...
Football probably will remain no-no due to huge risk of injury...:(

Hope my leg will improve soon and I will be back on athletic track and Himalayan trails...Currently my leg ROM(range of movement, flexion) is around 115 degree while normal is 145 degrees...hope for the best...


Back to Life, back to Sports...Welcome Self...:)

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Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Got the Crew Cut!!!

Posted by Varun

After a long time, I have got crew haircut again...it feels so comfortable to be in military style.
All right but this time it was just incidental that I got this amazing cut...The story of my first hair-cut at Chennai:
8 Jun, 7:30 PM, Manamai, Chennai
Reached to barber shop...No barber at shop..inquired nearby...barber in park reading newspaper...
Me: Haircut?
Barber smiles and come to the shop
Me: Use zero machine for slight trimming...(it's hot in Chennai better to have trim)
Barber: He smiled...I understood that he didn't understand...(Language blues...during my stay in Blore it happened several times...barber never says he didn't understand wot u say...)
Me, I didn't like the haircut.
Me: Ok,  Please do the crew cut - "Military cut".
Barber: Smiled...as if he wanted to do this at first time itself...
Me: No troubles...(I whole-heartedly love the crew cut, Reasons: No hair-maintenance, no comb, less wash, less oil...he he...I am not hair lover)
So finally I got the Crew cut....plz do join the Crew cut community with me... :)

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Sunday, June 07, 2009

Working for EDF

Posted by Varun

All right so finally I am into my own space. I have been selected in EDF i.e. Entrepreneurship Development Forum at Great Lakes. During my form submission, I wrote about my interest in Entrepreneurship, joining and working for EDF at Great Lakes and now finally I am into it.
My first meeting with Professor Veeravalli, an esteemed and well nature gentleman with a great industry exposure, happened yesterday. There have been few strucure in which EDF will work and I will keep sharing.
Currently I am working for EDF Branding and Marketing where I need to sell EDF@Great Lakes everywhere.

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Saturday, June 06, 2009

My Space Journey and Customer Services

Posted by Varun


I saw a nightmare tonight...I hired a spaceship for the space adventure trip for my family for 3 days. They took us on a great tour for 2 days. We enjoyed Moon, Mars etc. After 2 days of tour, the driver asked for the payments as he needed to refuel. Happy from my last 2 days tour, I gave him full 3 days money i.e. one day money in advance. The next day when the spaceship came at my home, he was late then they took a full round of the city by road. They had cigarettes, guthka everything as these local bus waala do. Finally when I asked what the hell they are doing still on earth. They told me that they can not go because of some problem in the spaceship which may cause danger in space.
I felt cheated. I asked for my money back. The driver said that they don't have any money as it has been given to the owner. There was a lot of altercation. Finally, evening arrived, exhausted we reached back to our home. The last day has just messed all fun of whole trip.

Well that was a nightmare...but this is the condition of Services in India...There are hell lot od promises when you go with money but once that money has been handed over, the show ends. Then, you see the real picture.
There is a lot of work and improvements still to be done on customer service part in India.

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Monday, June 01, 2009

Group Cohesion and Development

Posted by Varun


 (Picture taken by Supriya. SK16)

Recently, I saw an English movie – Miracle (as asked by Prof before session). The movie is a real story about young, restless and individualist hockey players transformed into a great US hockey team, who later won the 1980 Winter Olympics. The movie is about building THE team, raising the team spirit to higher levels, sense of belonging. The most important message it conveys is about group cohesion which increases the performance of the team significantly.

What is cohesion in the group? It’s the feeling of attraction, connection, positivity towards the p for the reason of friendship or due to the pride one feels on joining the group. Many groups use the “hazing”, in forms of sacrifices or doing something extraordinary to before joining the group. It increases the cohesion of the members between each other as well as towards the group as a whole. Organization and institutions follow a difficult procedure to select the right candidates. It’s just a modern ways of hazing, so as to get right people in the group. Also, organizations spend lot of moolahs just to create a great cohesion between team members.
I still remember the great cohesion developed between members during Sarkundi Expedition, one of my very difficult Himalayan Expedition. Our group name was Sarkundi-16. Within 10 days the members developed a great cohesion for each other as well as for the SK-16 as a whole. We passed all difficulties with a great co-ordination, shared the food, water and basic necessities with each other. The great cohesion of SK-16 became as the benchmark for all other groups later.
 (The Sarkundi Expedition - SK16 group)
(SK-16 group at the base camp after completing the expedition safely. Even on having people of extreme demographics, the group developed a high cohesion and friendship in just 10 days. Probably the difficult goal put us together. Most of us are still in touch with each other. Miss you SK-16.)

But I was surprised with a study being done upon the relationship between group cohesion and performance. It was found out that performance of the group have higher impact on cohesion than vice-versa. Hence,
Performance à Cohesion == Higher Impact
Cohesion à Performance == Comparatively Lower
It nullifies many assumptions that cohesion may lead to better performance. Instead, the focus upon increasing better performance may lead to greater cohesion between team. However, most of the organizations focus upon increasing team cohesion, probably because it is objectively achievable or it’s the HR’s bread-butter. :-O

Another interesting study was the importance of group norms. Norms are major deciding factors of a team to accelerate or retard its performance. Let’s say the people in the group made the point of working less or being unproductive then on having a higher cohesion the group’s performance will significantly decrease. Hence, keeping right norms for the group is highly essential to get a high performance team. The role of the leader here is highly significant as he needs to set productive norms for the team while keeping the team cohesive.

Group Development happen in stages like Forming (members become familiar), Storming (tensions among members for status), Norming (establishments of rules, roles, structure, relations etc), Performing (achieving goals) and finally Adjourning (termination and completion of tasks). Also, each group members passes through various quantum of commitment towards the group which happens during entry, acceptance, divergence and exit from the group.

Leadership
A leader needs to know the importance the cohesiveness in the group and how to leverage it. He should also know about the group development and group life-cycle to articulate his decision and actions accordingly. Leadership is important to get high performance team by increasing cohesiveness of the group and keeping productive norms in place.

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Sunday, May 31, 2009

Individualism v/s Collectivism

Posted by Varun



Why do people join group? Human being is social animal. The answer lies behind the human being mind set to discover oneself, to be a part of something and to go beyond what he is. People lived life in solitude have either possessed super natural powers or they experienced the harmful affects like madness, illusions, memory loss.
The group behavior could be categorized in two worldviews: Individualism and Collectivism. All the people you find around could belong one of these categories or they may show one of the above characteristics at a particular situation. Individualistic could be termed as “I” or “Me” while collectivism as “We”. Individualist or Idiosyncratic theory revolves round the benefit of oneself before the group while the Collectivist theory put the group’s goal on priority.

World of Individuals
Everyone in this world in unique and in my opinion, whole world is just full of individualist. But if it so, then why a person sacrifice his interest for a group or society. Why shouldn’t he always do what he wants to do? Well, the answer lies behind the benefit the individual reaps by putting himself into social/group norms. Hence, it’s a trade-off between individualist and collectivist.  An example of it is that many people do not want to marry, or spouse does not want to conceive a child but just to conform to the society principles, these individualists do these against their will and in the result they reap benefit of affiliation, social status, power, and respect from society. Hence, unknowingly the individualist for their benefits shows collectivist behavior. This is how society works as Collectivist from Individualist. Coming to myself, even I believe I am an Individualist with Collectivist compromise with society. :P

Human Psychology
Most people prefer not to admit their faults, limitations. People readily embrace +ve feedback, but they question comments that are critical, they make mistakes they blame external factors but when they succeed they quickly claim credit.
One very important fact is about social comparison and social support. It has been found out that Misery Loves Company, Miserly Loves Miserable or More Miserable Company, Embarrassed Miserly Avoids Company. I could relate it with my real life examples: I met with an accident thrice, got fractures and hospitalized. The misery it brought me to lead me to keep searching for people like me with whom I may discuss, share my misery. It used to give an ultimate satisfaction. Even today if I find someone is some kindda same situations, I can easily empathize.

Leadership
As people have different minds, it’s important for a leader that he must understand the individualist and collectivist behaviors of people and act accordingly. As people do not like critics, leaders should always try to give positive feedback for improving people rather than criticizing them. Recognize their achievements and bring open and conducive environment so people even admit their mistakes. 

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Saturday, May 30, 2009

My Unravellings

Posted by Varun

 Learning should never stop. Hopefully, someday, sometime my quotes will be said by someone with my name under it. :)
I will keep writing my unravelling. It could be an excerpt from any book, my thoughts, my take or my experience.

1. Never criticize anyone as it is always taken negatively, always give +ve feedback for improvement.
2. Chocolate distribution to all students is the best way of punishment in classes. 
3. Every manager should learn how to manage their mail-box.
4. "One cannot be everything to everyone but one can be everything to a select few."
5. " Recruiting the right genius for the job is the first step in building many great collaborations." - Bennis and Biederman
 


Keep checking for more everyday...

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Thursday, May 28, 2009

Group Dynamics and Leadership

Posted by Varun


A group is a collection of people with a sense of attachment. It could easily be differentiated with a category which is just a collection of people with something in common. Basically the idea of group is very vague and depends a lot upon the context and situation. A real life experience with me makes it clearer. I was required to catch a bus from Delhi to my native, Meerut. When I reached at bus stand, there was a huge crowd waiting for the bus from a long time. I started waiting with them when bad news just passed that buses have stopped plying for my city. Suddenly that collection of people who even did not know each other became together and went to talk to Bus Stand Manager about this unannounced decision. After long hours of altercations, the manager agreed to the “GROUP” of people and started the bus services. The example makes it so clear that when a mere collection of people become a GROUP of people. A group is a strong entity and has strong connection of belonging. However, we may have high sense of Group feeling or low sense of “groupiness” depending upon the situation, type of group, members and lot many factors. On very important quality of a group is that many a times the quality of the group could be very different than the members of the group. Also the outcomes of the group work could be outstanding many a times but could be worst of the entire world sometimes. This is what the Group, it could be miracle and could be a shackle. :)

Remembering another recent experience where Group created miracles was during Great Lakes-OBT where the difficult task were made just a game of tic-tac-toe by the various groups of Great Lakes.
(The tyre game during OBT )
(Our group celebrating after finding one card after a long time during Orienteering game at OBT which is just like a treasure hunt. From left to right, Varun - the member, Harsh - the counter, Tanya - the navigator, Venkat - the pacer, Swapnil - the reader, Jagadish - the runner. It was all great group work.)
Understanding groups’ dynamics is a complex task but it’s important to understand how a group behaves and works to become a successful leader. Sometimes, the members of the groups are highly varied in nature, quallities or what so ever but still they are required to be oriented towards a single goal. Orienting all the group members towards one goal requires team skills as well as great leadership powers. So anybody who is interested in honing leadership skills must know how group works, how they behave in a group and how to manage a group.

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Monday, May 25, 2009

Bid Adieu Dr Suryasekar

Posted by Varun

Dr Krishnamurthy Suryasekhar – School of Accounting, Florida International University

Sometimes you meet with people who in just a small span of time put a great influence upon you. You just never forget the person. Well I must say Dr Surysekar is one among of those unmforgettable people with whom I met in my life. He is the visting faculty for 20 hours, for financial accounting at Great Lakes, Chennai andhe started with his course in 1st week of May, 2009. He is super cool and his attitude and ways of teaching are just awesome. The Best thing of Dr Suryasekar was that he take each and every question of student with complete sanctity and ensures that not even a single question MUST not remain unanswered. His ways of teaching made accounting a lot more simple (not that simple though ;)) than my expectations. He don't teach through any book, rather put his experience and his fundas of accounting directly into real application which makes subject far much easier to comprehend. It was disappointing to let Dr Surya go after completing his course but it's all business, honey. In a rush, I managed to get a snap the HERO with me after his last class. He is the HERO of Term 1 at Great Lakes and everybody at Great Lakes misses him.
Thanks Dr Suryasekar to come at Great Lakes. It was a privilege to be your student and part of your wonderful and knowledgable sessions.

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Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Great Lakes Calendar 2009-2010

Posted by Varun

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Friday, May 08, 2009

Karma yoga - The yoga of Action

Posted by Varun

Karma yoga - The yoga of Action by Swami vivekanand.



8th May, 2009 - Karma yoga session at Great Lakes by Dr Venkat Krishnan

So this is the next topic. Believe me reading all this could make you and your life better in one or the other way. I am not saying that the complete text is an enlightenment. But yes, it contains many topics and common issues of life with which you may relate yourself directly or indirectly.
The books definitely contains something for everyone.

The Karma yoga tells about the significance of work in our life, what are our duty and what should we try to get out of our work. It says that all works are great in his own place and it's the devotion to your work which matters. Work through Freedom, work through love, work like master of our own mind not like slaves for the physical matters. Selfish work is slave's work. So work with unselfishness. Karma yoga talks about what is duty. It also tells that when we do something good, we actually help ourselves not the world because it is a great privilege that for us to be allowed to do something for the world. The world owes nothing from us while we all are debtors of this world. Attaining Freedom is the ultimate goal of all things in the universe. Freedom from bondage, happiness and pains, wealth and miseries. The freedom comes from unselfishness, non-attachment, complete self-abnegation. Karma yoga gives us the method to help us in giving up all attachments, though it is indeed hard. There are two ways to attain freedom and non-attachment: Neti(not this) and Iti(this). Neti is the negative way in which you give up attachment directly by reasoning and the mind & body obey the will. It's very very difficult way. The other way - Iti is the positive way, the way through the world, making use of all the bondages themselves to break those very bondages. It is done slowly, by knowing things, enjoying things, experiencing them until the mind let them all go at last and becomes unattached. This way makes you attain non-attachment throght work and experience.
Neti is part of Jnana yoga while Iti is the part of Karma yoga.
Good and evil, light and dark are the part of the world and any of them will never be vainshed until another one is eliminated. The idea is in attaining this intelligence and work for non-attachment and freedom accordingly.

The fundamental of unselfishness and non-attachment is really hard to comprehend in the real and mean world but Swami Vivekanand tries to clarify them beautifully with examples. Working without selfish goals really looks to be impossible but it's true that we have become mere slaves of these goals. We remain unhappy even after attaining our goal because probably thts not the ultimate goal and life means something else.

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Thursday, May 07, 2009

Jnana Yoga - The yoga of knowlege

Posted by Varun

Jnana yoga - The yoga of knowledge by Swami vivekanand.



6th May, 2009 - Jnana Yoga session at Great Lakes by Dr Venkat Krishnan
Yes I am reading it at Great Lakes.
We have been asked to pre-read few topics upon Jnana yoga before coming to class. Initially I was a bit apprehended about reading such topics while in MBA. But just after reading few pages of the Swami Vivekanand's book, I have understood the importance of the subject. The subject is not meant just for MBA but it is meant for the life and you as overall. BTW preachings of Jnana yoga are not for common man because it tells you to practice non-attachment directly which is actually not possible by everyone. There is another school of thought and priciple - Karma Yoga, which is the better way for a common way to self-realization.

Some of the important precepts from the Jnana Yoga are as follows (Thanks Mithesh for help):
Religion:
The book says that Religion is necessary. It is a force to mould the destiny of man, more powerful than race, descent, brotherhood. All religions claim their supernatural origins, not from logic.
Two theories of origin of religion:
i) Ancestor worship (egypt,china) : to keep the memories of the dead, alive.
ii) Nature worship: (aryan)

There are two big questions:
i) What happens after death?
ii) What is the power of nature?
These cannot be answered by the senses, need to go beyond.

Dream is a wonderful state, like a transcendental state. All founders of religion have gone into the trans state to get a glimpse of the spiritual kingdom, certain facts from it. Every religion puts forth an ideal, for every one to achieve. Man runs after infinite power and pleasure, trying to achieve infinite through finite. Ethics call for renunciation, the basis of ethics. Ethics based on society do not work, as society changes , they have to be based on religion.
There are two natures:
i) External nature: material focus
ii) Internal nature: working of the mind
Religion should be broad based, open to change and inclusive.

Real nature of Man:
The book poses inquisitions about what is the the real nature of man. What is real? If everything is momentary, what is real? It put forth lights upon various schools of thoughts based upon reality: Nihilism: which says live in this moment, only this moment is real. The other thoughts are of Vedic people who believe that we need to search for the real. The book also tells that this age is a corruption of the former self, degeneration continues till annihilation and then a fresh start will happen. It also counters the thoughts of scientists who say that this age is a evolution. Hindu belief system says that it is in waves, evolution pre-supposes an involution.

It also discusses about Religious superstition VS scientific superstition. Today we believe blindly about everything science says but don’t believe upon religion teaching and principle. Why so? In fact, religion should have the more or equal validity as science because it has been preached, practiced from thousands of years. It also ponders upon if the soul brought the body or vice versa? The answer to it lies in The Atman (which is independent of space, time, and causation) which controls the body via the subtle body (mind). Since the atman is Infinite , it is unique across and is just one. All soul are just the part of that infinite, Atman. The nature is hiding the reality, we are already perfect, we need to assert the Self, the Atman. Finally it tells that The Self (Atman) is the real nature of man, which every religion is trying to explain, Self is the centre of all ethical codes.

The utility of pursuing Self is happiness. Separation causes misery so to attain Self practice non-attachment. Realating to its practicality in the society, it says that Society has to accommodate the truth, not vice versa, the society has to be modeled to make truth applicable. So practise truth, practice, practice, practice. It narrates a beautiful Sheep lion story in which a lion is reared among sheep and start considering himself to be a sheep. It’s just one day that another lion make him realize that he is not a sheep but a lion. Same is the story of us. We human-beings have all that inside. But we try to seek everything outside. We need to recognize ourselves. We see outside what we are inside. Finally, book concludes to Teach everyone strength, not weakness. Tell everyone that they are the Atman and have come here for a big and noble cause i.e. Self realization.

Maya:
Well that’s my mother name as well. So it was obvious to read this topic with interest.
Few precepts about it are:
1. It is not a illusion, it is a statement of facts, what we are, what we see around us, the way the world works. Clinging on to senses, life, bondage, this is Maya. We are living in a contradiction of existence/non existence, optimism / pessimism. Inhuman progress is creating new avenues for pleasure and even greater number of avenues for pain. Vedantic philosophy takes things as they are, accepting their contradictions. The infinite is trying to express itself through the finite, when it realizes that it is futile, it enunciates itself, this forms the basis of religion.
Agnostics believe that Maya is everything while Vedantic says that maya is just a curtain beyond which we have reality of the Self. It also poses intelligent question like if every thing is maya then why should we work? It answers it wonderfully and logically that it is required to increase knowledge, decrease fanaticism from the world. To lessen misery, to remove ignorance is the only true source of happiness. Finally it concludes that Absolute freedom leads to personal god.

The conception of god

The book intelligently speaks about the conception of God. We must not perceive someone’s ideals/motives/gods by ours i.e. everyone must be judged according to his own ideal not of anyone else. Early religion had no good or evil, as society grew it needed restraint , so it modified gods as the ideal, powerful altruistic being which codified ethics.
It answers about why we have evil in this world in a way that good and evil both go together in this maya. There are to ways of attaining self: Paravratti and Nivratti. Para says “do” while niivrati says “Do not”, means Nivratti tells to control your desire, raise sprirituality while Para tells to do some given action which is part of Karma yoga
It says that Life is a Tantallus Hell: Sad are those who live in the senses, sadder are those who seek something greater, as it cannot be realized through senses or logic. India has social barriers not religious barriers.(buddhism , charvakas). All ideas emanating within maya are maya. Only freedom may lead to growth: one cannot control and yet let you grow. If their is any evil, then go to its root and remove it, denouncing does not help.

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Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Readings I conquered !!

Posted by Varun

This is after a long time, that I got good time to be free whole day as well as my spirits are high to write about.
Today I just thought of writing all the novels/books I have read to satiate avid reader inside me.
So here you go:
1. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone by JK Rowling (first novel I read)
2. Harry Potter and the Chambers of secret by JK Rowling
3. The Road ahead by Bill gates
4. The alchemist by Paulo Coelho
5. Making the minister smile by Updhayay
6. 5 point someone by Chetan Bhagat (full gap shap, filmy)
7. 11 minutes by Paul Coelho
8. The Code book by Simon singh (very boring)
9. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
10. Monk who sold his ferrari by Robin Sharma (good read)
11. Deception point by Dan Brown
12. Digital Fortress by Dan Brown
13. Angels and Demons by Dan Brown
14. It's all about the bike by Lance Armstrong
15. Night @Call centre by Chetan Bhagat
16. You can be healthy by BM Hegde
17. 12 Red herrings by Jeffery Archer
18. The God Father by Mario Puzo (good read)
19. Rich Dad Dad by Robert Kiyosaki (Loved this book, big fan, must read)
20. Freakonomics by Steven Levitt & Stephen Dubner
21. Harry Potter and Prisoner's of Azakaban by JK Rowling
22. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand (ultimate characters but too long)
23. Karma Yoga by Swami Vivekananda (thanks IIO (Intelligent Interaction with Others) subject that I got opportunity to read such books, meant for everyone)
24. Jnana Yoga by Swami Vivekananda (too tough and thoughts are sometimes impractical, courtesy of IIO subject)
25. The Upnishads by Swami Prabhavananda(very very tough, IIO)
26. Lectures from Colombo to Almora by Swami Vivekananda (treat to read the complete compilation of Swami Vivekananda speech and preachings, IIO)
27. Practical Vedanta by Swami Vivekananda (easy and brief, another short compilation of Swami Vivekananda speech and preachings, IIO)
28. Bhagavad-Gita The Song of God (pocket-book, however tough to understand by simple plain reading, IIO)
29. Money & Power by Howard Means (Great documentary of 12 business tycoons of the world)
30. HBR on Managing Your Career (2002, an eye opener, must read for all)
31. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand (ongoing, stopped reading till MBA)

In addition, I am ardent fan of Chacha choudhary, naagraaj, super commando dhruv, doga, bankelal and dilbert too. :)

The best part of reading all these novels is that I did not buy most of these novels except three (2. Harry Potter and the Chambers of secret by JK Rowling, 9. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown 19. Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki).

All other novels which I bought, I never read them. :P
So my principle is - "Maang kar padho" :)

This is just the start ... be ready for my begging if u have the novel on my top-list...(will come up soon with the list)

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Rotibaazi

Posted by Varun


Date: 5 Apr, 2009,1:30 PM Maid not coming...Mummy having aggravated arthritis pain due to extra burden of her absence...prepared everything except rotis to serve them hot...but as always I was not ready...her well prepared dialogue about - "meri koi kadr nahin karta"..."main 24*7 kaam karti hoon"..."tum logo ko saturday sunday off milta hai I never get even a single day off."..."why do u irritate me"....$#$#$@@@...

As always I kept grinning...then i said something new..."Alright I will prepare roti"..."Bahut suna liya"...fact is I never tried but she was delighted to listen that...she threw everything instantly and went to bed..."Let's see"..."Now u will know"...

Thankfully prepared flour was there...phir kya tha...i started making them...formally i was trying it first time...I made really good roti that anyone cud be jealous of even my mom...:D...ab to inko "Bahu" ki bhi jaroorat nahin hai...LOL...Probably my experience of advising my various cook for 8 years...and watching them worked here...
The pic is here:Dad had full lunch from my patli patli roti...:) and then I made it for myself...Mom had so called VRAT as always ...thankfully dad started washing utensils by that time...soon all kitchen was set...mom was happy...
We declared that we will be making dinner too as we are fed up of cribs and altercations everyday...which everybody knows were the hollow promises...
I went out at 6 PM with my friends and came home at 10 PM...dinner was ready as alwaays mummy prepared it...
So how is the roti...? :)

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Friday, April 03, 2009

Finally !! Great Lakes calling !!

Posted by Varun

Writing post to remember the series of events happened for my admission to Great Lakes:

After giving CAT and getting moderately good percentile(96.8). It was in Nov-Dec 2008 when I was simply browsing few B-schools to apply for when I came to know about Great Lakes...It was giving 1 yr MBA which only few colleges are providing till now...soon I researched few more things about colleges, found to be highly suitable for my profile, decided to apply for Great Lakes in December 08.

Some of the important events and dates of my journey to Great Lakes admissions:
Application:
Applied for the Great Lakes on 9th Jan, 2009 through online mode, the last date was 16th Jan, 2009. As to my assumption, it was good time in advance to apply for any college. But to my surprise Great Lakes application was a complete exception to any other B-school application in India.
There were range of sections to complete.
1. Personal Information section: Simple
2. Academic profile: Simple
3. Non-academic profile: Ok to complete
4. Work Profile: Simple
5. Essays: Very Difficult, the biggest surprise in the application. There were 4 mandatory essays and 1 optional essay to be written to complete application. Colleges abroad (GMAT based) accepts essays but any Indian B-school asking essays of such intelligent level was completely new for me.
The essays were:
i. Strategy is defined as synergy between values and goals. How do you think Great Lakes fits into your strategy? (400 words)
ii. Character comes out in crisis. Please tell us what do you think of this statement. (400 Words)
iii. Heart has its reason which reason knows nothing of. Comment. (400 words)
iv. It is alleged, that B-School students are driven by Money and Power and not Service and Sacrifice. Do you agree and if so how will you change this in Reality? (300 words)
Optional
v. Please provide any additional insight or information that you have not addressed elsewhere that may be helpful in reviewing your application. Complete this question if you feel your candidacy is not fully represented by this application. (300 words)

6. Recommendation: Difficult, 2 recommendations from people you worked with/under.

Soon after filling the form on 9th, I realized that completing the essays is a mammoth task. Anyways started giving my best to it and planned to write 1 essay each, finish them by 14th and review all of them on 15th and 16th so as to submit them on 16th Jan. Essay i and iv were completed by 13th. There was a lot of pressure to complete essays on time with a good quality.
Moreover the recommendations looked like very difficult to get on time from my busy managers.

To my utter happiness, a good news floated in my mail box on 13th, that last date for form submission has been extended to 30th January. It was a big sigh of relief as it was ample time to complete essays as well as getting recommendations in time.

I started re-writing all my essays + wrote kind of appraisal for my recommenders listing my achievements, learnings etc on work so as to make information handy for them while writing my recommendations. Guess it helped a lot.

One of my recommendations got submitted on 26th Jan, thanks Satish, one of my recommender.
Finally submitted my application on 28th January, 2009.
My another recommendation from Gowrish was pending yet and he was not getting enough time for it. Finally pushed him hard on 30th Jan and got it submitted on 30th late night. :)

So my application was all set and done by 30th Jan. It was a big relief.

GD PI shortlist:
On 9th Feb, 2009, received a mail about my shortlisting for GD PI to be held on 21st Feb, 2009 in Nehru place, Delhi.
I was aware of actual GD PI events from my last experiences and knew it very well that your communication, ideas in a flow and confidence matters a lot in the tough situations of GD PI where fish market is a common scenario.
I was bed-ridden due to leg fracture during that time and was completely out of GD PI and communication environment. So to make up for it, I started reading newspaper and magazines all aloud in the room. That was an effort to raise confidence level to speak in public. Twice or thrice I called up Bulbul from my neighbour to come for debate on some of the highly common topics. She used to be highly enthusiastic about debating topics like women liberalisation, student power, india kashmir issue. I kept it as debate so as to oppose her and to raise my confidence levels to speak in opposite. Sometime the debate became too hot but there was nothing personal.
Surely, all of it worked. :)
Last 3 days I gave just for reading newspaper, googling major events of last 1 year and increasing GK as much as possible. My GD PI for Great Lakes was on 21st Feb and before that I had GD PI of IMT-GHaziabad on 20th Feb which has happened to be like a mock GD PI for Great Lakes. :)
So on 21st Feb, reached at
Venue:
Paharpur Business Centre & Software Technology
Incubator Park,
21 Nehru Place Greens,
New Delhi 110019. Time: 3.45 PM

I reached at around 2 PM with my father and Ravindra, was on crutches and limped all around. :)
Group discussion:
The process started at around 3:30 PM by giving psychometric test within 10-15 min. Then at around 4:15 PM we were called for GD round. There were 2 judges inside, too young but matured. We, 12 people started with small introduction.
GD was on a case study which was something like this: XYZ is a CEO of cloth company which manufactured a lot of cloth and treated with some PQR chemical. The chemical later found out to be cancerous and got countrywide ban. There is huge inventory of the cloth and company may incur huge losses if cloth is scraped. XYZ decided to export the cloth to eastern countries. Was that a right action?
I put few good and unique points like finding out the validity of research about the chemical, putting a statuary warning upon use of the cloth and treating cloth with some other chemical to reverse the harmful effects. So I got 2-3 sound entries to speak my points.
I must say the GD PI was best among all GD PI experience I had ever had. People were matured and gave speaking opportunity to everyone. While there were some people who again tried to capture whole show but even then everybody got a good enough chance to speak.
After 10 min discussion, the judges asked to write the thoughts on paper and soon asked randomly to give monologue of the case study. I gave judgement of Mr XYZ to be unethical.
Interview:
Soon after that I got my documents verified. At around 5:40 PM, I got the call for interview. There were 2 panelist both in their 40+ I suppose. Soon they started with their volleys like:

1. why MBA? >> entrepreneur
2. fees is 10.2 lacs, can u manage tht amount? >> saving + loan
3. money is not important for a B-school aspirant? >> not tht imp
4. ideology can not be followed without money, true or false? >> false
5. Example except Gandhiji who followed ideology without money? >> Sardar Patel, Subhash chandra bose, vivekanand, dayanand
6. Courage and stupidity which is true, if somebody put gun on u? >> scenerio and situation dependent
7. Soldiers who die in war...courageous or stupid? >> depends
8. Charity can happen only by money >> not true, may happen thru time and wrk too.

I suppose I gave my answers quiet well and convinced in most of my answers except question 6 and 7, in which probably they wanted to grill me more...but instead of getting grilled i grinned :P
All in all, I got positive vibes from the whole session.

Result:
So finally on 2nd March, 2009, I received the mail about my selection to Great Lakes.:)

to be continued...

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Thursday, April 02, 2009

Life's been rollercoaster

Posted by Varun

Rollercoaster

Writing after a long time...Life has been like a rollercoaster from last 1-2 years and somehow i just gave up the writing...I experienced my best as well as worst days of my life in such a small span of time...just memorizing few important dates which put of lot changes in me, ofcourse made me a much better and matured person. Few events are extremely personal and are left blank.
3 Aug 2007 - Left MindTree,blore after 2+ yrs tenure, sad
6 Aug 2007 - Joined Sapient, blore happy...got project soon, happy...got enormous repsonsibilities, happy...worked day-night, sad
9 Sep 2007 - Most imp decision of life, very tense
10 Sep 2007 - .... Happy
12 Nov 2007 - ....Sad

7 Dec 2007 - Road Accident, banged with a truck, right hand fracture, operation next day, sad
22 Jan 2008 - Plaster opened, happy
2 Mar 2008 - ...Sad
24 Mar 2008 - Shifted to Sapient, Gurgaon, sad
7 Jul 2008 - ...Happy


4 Dec 2008 - Another road accident, banged with truck (i was pillion rider), left knee badly fractured, operation next day, 1.5 month bed ridden, sad
20 Jan 2008 - Plaster opened but no weight bearing on legs, happy
6 Feb 2008 - Partial weight bearing on legs, happy
21 Feb 2008 - Great Lakes GD PI, happy
2 March 2008 - Great Lakes result - selected, happy
6 Mar 2008 - Full weight bearing on legs, happy
24 Mar 2008 - Still recovering...will update more soon...

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Nagtibba Trek

Posted by Varun

Nag Tiba Trek: Trip Log

Members: Satish, Lokendra, Varun(me) with guide Gajender

Start time: 10:55 PM, Wednesday, 01st Oct, 2008

End time: 11:15 PM Sunday, 05th Oct, 2007

Total travel: 800 Kms

Total Trek: 10 KM (uphill), 14 KM (downhill)

Total expense: 8948 INR

What went right:

- Awesome adventure experience as expected.

- Many areas covered and multiple stoppages.

What went wrong:

- Time management - led to night driving on last day

- Lack of equipments arrangment for such a trek

Total duration: 4+ days

Going: NOIDA - Ghaziabad - Dehradoon - Mussorie – Kempty - Pantwari - Nagtibba

Coming: Nagtibba - Maglauri - Thatyur - Musoorie - Dehradoon -Meerut

Weather Conditions: Humid/Pleasant/Cold

Vehicle: Train, Bus, Car, 3-wheeler


1st Oct 08

Noida - Ghaziabad

9:15 PM - Rushed from office after taking bundle of print-outs, most of them without reading :D

9:45 PM - Reached Ghazibad station and met Loki.

22:55 hrs - Start Ghaziabad Railway station(Train - Mussurie Express)

2nd Oct

Ghaziabad - Dehradoon - Mussurie - Kempty falls

8:30 hrs - reached Dehradun

9:00 hrs - brother's abode for breakfast

11:00 hrs - reached GMVN's Drona hotels/travel for Nagtiba trek knowledge and for renting tent/sleeping bags (No help except Mussorie brochure). got to know that we may get tent etc on rent from moti bazaar.

12 hrs - Wandered into moti bazaar (2 km). Asked for tent/sleeping bags on rent from several trekking equipments shops but no success. No one rents only buy-buy policy.

One thing fortunate - We met a trekker in a shop who told us about trek and adviced us to start trek from Pantwari rather than Thatyur village (opposite route what we had planned).

12:30 - 3 ppl 3 views - big confusion, Ideas - go to IMA, civil lines or mountcraft, ghantghar (or whatever), go to Rishikesh for renting tent..LOLzzzz, go without anything...:D, buy stuff. finally decided to buy sleeping bags. Phew...!!

13 hrs - Reached to a Sardarji's shop, finally bought 3 sleeping bags and 2 rucksacks after decent bargain. :P

14:30 - Walked towards railway station to catch bus/taxi for Mussorie.

15:00 - Finally started from Dehradoon

16:15 - Reached mussorie. Enquired about trek/route and bus/taxi service. Came to know there is a trek equipment shop in Mussorie who may rent out tent too.

16:35 - Had a boiled corn :D...too good...(that's why writing about it) with delicious imli chutney...

17:00 - Reached to equipment shop...no success..no bosy rents stuff now a days. phew.

18:00 - Hiread taxi, Left Mussorie for Kempty.

19:00 - Reached Kempty, checked into a lodge and went to a small fall which comes before Kempty.

19:15 - Had fun it very cold water.Had lunch...oops dinner :D

19:30 - Satish's mobile had a "bath" in water and got "cold"...:P

19:45 - Reached back to lodge. Had dinner

21:00 - Dinner and night walk

3rd Oct

Kempty - Pantwari - Nagtibba

6:30 hrs - Woke up, had tea, packed bags and started treekking for Kempty falls

7:15 hrs - Reached Kempty falls and had lotta fun

Kempty Fall

Fun time

Group pic

9:30 hrs - Catch a shared taxi and sat on roof of it. :) Big fun

11:30 hrs - Reached Pantwari, searched for restaurant...which was actually not there

11:45 hrs - A chai waala agreed to make lunch. Started preparation for aloo parantha

12:00 - Got a guide - Ganjender.

The Guide - Gajender who acted as guide, porter, cook, photographer and interpreter.

13:00 - Had lunch

Trek START

13:30 - Started trek for Nagtibba

Nagtibba is an ideal place for trekking and adventure. Nagtibba offers an excellent opportunity for adventure loving people to perform all kinds of adventure sports in the place. The area near the Nagtibba is full of dense forests and natural beauty. Tourists in Nagtibba can have a panoramic view of the Himalayas.

Situated in the valley at the bank of river Algar, Nagtibba lies at an elevation of 3048 meters above sea level where you can have a spectacular view of glaciers. It also provides a picturesque and captivating view of the majestic Himalayas, the hill station of Mussoorie, beautiful Doon Valley. Nagtibba is popular to the adventurous tourists due to the unspoilt wonder of nature around it. You can reach Nagtibba by bus.

Nagtibba near Dehradun has no accommodation system; so you should carry tents. You can even climb down to the picturesque village of Pantwari-gay. Famous for trekking in India, the beautiful valley of Nagtibba in Garhwal Himalayas is visited by thousands of adventure sports lovers. You can avail those specially designed trekking tour prepared by certified mountaineers as well as travel agents if you wish to make your travel economical and affordable. Hunt for good travel agents or certified mountaineers who will provide you with service as per the world-class standards.

The famous Nagtibba according to old sayings, is said to be the domicile of the Nag Devta. The shepherds and the local resident of the Aglar Valley near Jaunpur worshiped the Nag Devta. The wondrous Nagtibba gives a panoramic view of the Gharwal Himalayan peaks. (Source: http://www.mapsofindia.com/dehradun/nagtibba.html)

Sarso ke khet

16:00 - Pics with "Sarso ke khet"

Sheep and Goats

17:00 - Pics with Sheep and goat.

18:30 - Unexpected Night trek through jungle.

19:15 - Reached Nagtibba and opened guest (dirt) house.

19:30 - Arranged utensils and Went to get milk etc from villagers near by.

Busy for Diner preparation: Satish and Gajender

20:00 - Started dinner preparation...thnks to our guide Gajender

21:00 - Had Pulao, Kheer with lot of pure butter.

21:10 - Satish suffered from mountain sickeness, had no lunch.

22:30 - went to sleep..very tired and very cold + sleeping bags were small to fit in.

4th Oct

Nagtibba - Magalauri - Thatyur

7:00 hrs - woke up, had tea...again thanks to our guide, Gajender

8:30 hrs - had fun with villagers and their animals :)

9:00 hrs - Went to Nagtibba mandir, filled "very clean water" (as told by Gajender) from a well there.

9:30 hrs - started for trek ahead

10:30 hrs - Reached Tal - a small pond on the peak

11:30 hrs - Halted near to a waterfall and had bread-pure-butter.

12:30 hrs - Reached to a Devalsari valley view from a big stone.

15:30 hrs - Reached Maglauri village, bought toffees from a samll shop for village children, had tea at a villagers home (actually they were relative of our guide).

17:30 hrs - Finally reached to a motorable road 5 kms before Thatyur, bargained with Taxi driver and reached Thatyur

18:00 hrs Reached Thatyur.

After reaching thatyur big confsion happened if we should stay in Thatyur, else go to Mussorie, else go to Dhanulti else go to Dehradoon. Finally decided to stay at Thatyur.

18:30 hrs - Checked into a hotel and finally paid our guide handsome amount (he really deserved that - guide + porter + cook + bargainer)

9:00 hrs - Dinner and night walk

5th Oct

Thatyur - Mussorie - Dehradoon - Meerut

7:00 hrs - Woke up, got fresh, packed bags

8:30 hrs - Had tea-pakora breakfast

10:30 hrs - Left Thatyur after shared taxi got his full seat (1 hr waiting)

11:30 hrs - Tyre got punctured.

I thanked God for that. Reason being I was feeling nauseatic due to descending. Loki already puked..LOLzzz

12:00 hrs - Reached mussorie. Wandered on "The Mall" road. Has ice-cream, corns again

13:15 - Saw aquarium in Musoorie.

14:30 – Left Mussorie

15:30 – Reached Dehradoon

16:00 – Reached Motibazaar to replace sleeping bags. Got them replaced

17:30 – Reached brother’s abode in Dehradoon.

18:00 – Had lunch/breakfast

18:30 – Left Dehradoon by car for Meerut

23:15 – Reached Meerut, Dinner

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Wayanad Trip

Posted by Varun

Wayanad Trip:

Total Journey: 1023 Kms

Start time: 11:45 PM, Friday, 16th March, 2007

End time: 12:15 AM Tuesday, 20th March, 2007

Total duration: 3+ days

Going: Blore – Mysore – Sulthan Bathery – Edakkal caves/trek – Karapuzha Dam - Sulthan Bathery (stay) - meenmutty waterfalls/trek - kalpetta - pookot lake - Kozhikode beach - ghat sections (punctured taxi ;D) - kalpetta(stay) - Soochiparra/Sentinal rock waterfalls

Coming: Kalpetta - Bangalore

Weather Conditions: Sunny

Vehicle : Taxi:-Chevrolet - Tavera

Friends: Adarsh, Sailesh, Rachna, Neha, Suruchi, Sonu, Tushar, Dhramendra, Varun AND Driver - Srinivas

Expense: 1000 INR - taxi + 928 INR (food + drinks + lodging + miscellaneous) ≈ 1928 INR

CLICK HERE FOR PICS

Article by Varun:

KWL gang was planning was goin on to go and freak out somewhere in the coming long "Ugadi" weekend. I was a bit skeptical about the program and was also keepin the track with my all time favourite - bikerzz. :)

Lotta mails sharing, somebody saying Goa other's list included Kerala; pondicherry; Bandipur, and me betting for Kemanagundi or Dandeli (Both are ultimate adventure areas). Finally Rachna came with a full proof plan to go to Wayanad. The way she prepared the trip was so unblemished that no body was raised any discocern.

There was lotta trouble about the members participating for trip. Finally Rachna sent a mail to remove all doubts and misunderstandings. See Rachna's Mail (Regarding misunderstandings)

Below are some of the confusion and misunderstanding:

Suu: Wanted to attend her college's convocation, where she was about to get a so called "Degree".

Neha: Goin behind Su to ask her prog and finally got confused totally about wot to do. Later after getting pissed of without any reason she wrote a stinker mail which nobody on the world understood. LOLzzz See Neha's Mail (RE: Reg misunderstading)

Sonu: Everbody was brawling around and another hero entered into the show. See Sonu's mail (RE: Reg misund, Inhume the hatchet).Like Neha again he wrote a lotta crap (no offences meant), there was a word which is worth mentioning - "Inhume the hatchet" means something like to forget the enemity etc etc...which i will never forget in my life time due to all this discussion. Thanks ooo sonu....;)

Now after lot of hue and cry I came to know that only Rach, Adi, Shailoo and me was goin for the trip. So we planned to meet up @Commercial street. i reached there Rach and Adi were already there and Sailoo was on the way...Rachna told me that Neha and sonu are also coming...gurrr...wot's tht...probably I could never understand the how we human beings work and think. Anyways I was more than happy to be with them. We were having some more seats vacant so we thought of asking to some of more friends if they wud like to join us... Oops before that I got a call from Tushar, my soccer mate and a nice guuy, who was highly interested to go for some bike ridezz on his new jaggernaut - "Enfield" :D. i told him that we are leaving for Wayanad tomm and have vacancy for two and yippie he was a game with his friend Dharmendra...Wot a great coincident my brain just thought of someone who could be ready for comin for the trip, I got him in a flick...Kewl...!!

I don't know but there is some problem with me I like to meet up and know the new people and many a times those strangers even become more important for me than some old buddy. Yaa even that is how I met a lot of nice people who became an important part of my life.

Finally we had parantha @Lalitha parantha, commercial

Night 1:

Blore – Mysore – Sulthan Bathery (lodging)

The program was to leave Bangy by 10:00 PM so as to reach to destination early morning but as always transporter's prob, the cab , the driver nothing was there by tht time...huh...finally they hitted my home at 11:45 PM, by that time I was with half a energy as I was waiting from last 1 hr 30 min for the cab..BAD..probably thats why I like BIKING, you are solely responsible for everything.

Finally cab arrived at my home @11:30 PM , ooops wot is this Suu was also there....huh...wot's goin on... she was going for her degree..human species hve gone to complete brain wash or what...god knows how this brain works...how it prioritize-cache-buffer things...

Started at 11:45 PM, Driver - Srinivas was heavily drunk...he he...it's OK for me, I drove and rode drunk multiple times with the blessing of GOD...:D...today again "Maa ki duyaen" will help us...LOL

Seating arrangement: Me and Adi was sitting @front with Driver, Neha, Su, Sonu, Dharmendra - middle & Shailesh, Rach, tushar - back

We sang songs...ppl in the group are fully untrained singers...they know a lotta songs and simply sing them by heart...more than enough..actually..:). After all throats were tired there was only one gud casette of Kishore Kumar which remained the all time favourite for whole trip....That was all fun...

Adi bhai...thankfully was keepin a full eye on driver, so that he shud not sleep as already he was drunk...

Finally reached to Cafe cofee day @Mysore road at 2:30 AM, had some fun and started again..reached Mysore @4:30 AM had tea and started again...Driver was in bad sahpe by thatt time as poor guy dint sleep after booze so much @night...

Day 1: 17th March

Sulthan Bathery – Edakkal caves/trek – Karapuzha Dam - Sulthan Bathery (stay)

Sultan Bathery, also known as Sulthan's Battery lies approximately 25 kms. from Kalpetta. Associated with Hyder Ali and Tipu Sulthan, Sulthan's Bathery no longer has a fort. It is worth visiting for the Jain temple, which has some interesting stone carvings. Sulthan Bathery can be seen on a drive from Kalpetta to Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary, Muthanga.

Finally reached Sulthan Bathery at 7:00 AM, searched for the hotel. Got a nice hotel(see pic below) but with no bargains. Just checked in then...

Ppl were very tired so evrybody including me went to fast but small sleep(just half an hour)...took a bath...had breakfast of idly, sambar and more than delicious coconut chutney, I ever had in my life...I actually drank chutney :D

Edakkal caves:

Started of from hotel at 10:30 for Edakkal caves. Some important info about Edakkal caves: