On Hostel Mess

If you talk to any person who has ever stayed in a hostel, 'mess' is a dreaded word. I am yet to see any person who says that he/she had good food at the mess during his school/college days. The Roti at any mess appears uncooked, there is always a significant amount of oil floating on the top of any vegetable, the dal always tastes bad and so on are some of the common complaints at most of the mess. In context of food, the word mess originates from some Italian word which refers to course of a meal put on table. However, we relate this word to the general meaning of mess i.e. chaos or confusion. The food over there is considered to be in a mess.

I've been living in hostel for quite sometime now and while I feel the same about the food many times, I sometime wonder about the possibility of making quality and tasty food for around 1000 thankless people everyday round the year. I feel that it is really a tough job to keep so many people happy every time.
I've concluded that because the food gets repeated after every 15-20 days; even though the food is good, people tend to get bored with the repetitive stuff and then start to complain about the food. Well, this cannot be helped then.

Apart from the food aspect of the mess, when I think of the mess, I remember the words of one of my professors (Man!. look at the number of degrees. A line isn't sufficient). He says that the mess is a 'great leveller'. No matter what the family background of a student is, he has to sit in the mess and consume food prepared by the cook. A great line of thought I should say, especially after this incident : P

For me, I have always considered mess as a great place to socialize. After from my room and the classes, the cumulative time I've spent in the mess has been the highest. I've had some of my most engaging conversations at the mess. I have started talking to a lot of people at UICT and SCMHRD because of the mess. Some of the people whom I first talked to in the mess are now some of my good friends. I've come to observe some of the most peculiar aspects about humans and human behaviours at the mess when I see future managers talking to the mess employees.

Thoda senti ho gaya w.r.t mess. Hope I am able to fast recover from the mess I've subjected myself to.

On relatives and conversations

Conversations plays a very important role in fulfilling the social needs of a human being. It provides a means for interaction between individuals. I believe that ladies have a greater need for conversations when compared to the males. This is amply proven by the way in which girls talk when they meet on roads or the way in which wives share their 'ghar ka rona' when they meet at the vegetable vendor or the amount of bitching done by fast friends.

I had been in Mumbai recently and got stuck up in a place where a lot of aunties and mamis had assembled for a function sort of thing. With no access to laptop, TV or a novel, I decided to listen to their conversations.

As is generally seen, the conversation went to the whereabouts of a person who has reached the age of marriage. A lady asked "Do you remember the name "Tamari Masi na Jeth ni Mama ni chokri?"" And in the next instance the name of the girl popped out from the mouth of the lady standing in front. I was awed by their ability to relate to people quickly.  Next I overheard somebody asing about " Pilwai wala Sumanbhai ni Bhanji na kakaji no 2nd jamai".

Upon hearing these terms, I realized how limited knowledge I have about my relatives. I know only a few of them. Hope to know many more and relate to them at a speed these ladies are capable of.

Hats off to all those Gujju Bens who are able to know so many far away relatives by names.

On meeting School Friends

I meet school friends intermittently whenever I come to Sangli. I make it a point to meet atleast some during each visit. (Though I meet Pavan everytime I come)  However, I happen to meet about 3 or 4 at max together. I do not meet all of them together. This was the first time around 11 of us met together after the school got over (after 9 years) all thanks to Shigen, Gaurav and Vishwanath for taking the initiative.

It felt great to meet everyone after such a long gap. Some of us looked the same (me included) and some of us had completely transformed into a new individual altogether. Some of us have now been married and a lucky one even has a kid. We had a chat for around 2 hours where we talked about all the major events happened at school and it was surprising that I wasn't a part of any, barring one incident of standard 4th. I found that there were some of us had a gala time at school harrassing the officials of the school and troubling the Principal of our school. Looking back I find that those pranks which I considered useless at that time made me laugh heartily tonight. We recalled most of our batchmates and our crushes at that time, had some pizza and lots of sandwitches. Finally, we talked what each one of us is doing with our lives and our future plans.

After coming back home, when I started to think about the life of each one of us, a strange feeling has gripped me. Most of my friends have either joined their fathers' business and have expanded their fathers business to a diffeent field. A friend whose father traded tyres has started a cafe at prime location of the city. Another one whose father has several factories has started a saree shop which sells high end sarees only. Another friend has expanded his fathers wholesale wheat trading business to a multi-distributor business. He now acts as a distributor to Wipro products, Vodafone products and a host of other major products in Sangli district. All of the above weren't very bright at studies in school. Yet, they have made the best of whatever they had and are now shoulder to shoulder with their fathers.

And here I am - still studying or trying to study and who is not clear what he wants to do in the future. I am in no position to overtake my fathers consulting firm (My brother who will do that hopefully and thankfully).
All I am going to gain after studying for so many years away from family is a job that too in some city that is not Sangli. : (
Out of the whole lot in school, I obtained decent enough marks to make it to UICT and then the journey to Herdillia and SCMHRD. Sometimes I feel that in case I had not obtained those marks, I would have been doing something here in Sangli like my friends with a certainity of what I would be doing in future.
Yet, I feel that I am so lucky to have experienced staying away from family, knowing a lot of new people from different corners of the country and learning a lot from them too. [Contradictory feelings together]
Hopefully, I soon figure out a right strategy in my life, get a decent enough job and eventually come back to Sangli with my own firm or a factory - with my school friends.

Wishing everyone a very happy Diwali and a Happy New Year.

Debit and credit card

Debit and credit cards have changed the way the urban India shops. More and more shopkeepers are now installing the magnetic strip credit card readers next to their billing counters. The advent of internet shopping and eticketing has changed the scenario of shopping and ticket booking for many especially in urban India.
Online shopping market in India is worth Rs 1,300 crore and the growth rate is upwards of 30%. (Reference). The online travel industry is expected to grow to Rs. 28000 crore.
More statistics about the ecommerce in India is available here, here and here.  Especially booking train tickets online has changed the way we plan for train travelling. No wonder 1/3rd of all the ecommerce transactions in India are through IRCTC.

It has been around one year since I have started making use of the eticketing facilities offered by irctc, msrtc, etc and I have been amazed by the convenience the service offers for a service charge of Rs. 10 to Rs 25. The whole experience of booking ticket has become cashless and ticket booking happens very quickly (Well, the internet speed acts as a bottleneck here).

While I am really happy with the convenience the service offers, there is something about the whole procedure that makes me a bit uncomfortable. The transaction being cashless doesn't give a feel that we have lost money. E.g: My last irctc transaction involved a sum of Rs. 2273. Now this is a huge amount and parting with such a huge amount under normal circumstances (when we book tickets through agents or ticket counters) and makes us feel that we are spending too much and should put a control on expenditure we make. But this eticketing experience did not give any feeling that I am doing a transaction involving a huge sum. Infact, I was tempted to book an alternative ticket just in case I couldn't make it to the train on that day. The idea that I will be locking in Rs 2273 again didn't bother me at all. The feeling of parting with ones' hard earned money (or parents' hard earned money) just doesn't come in. And this is what makes me uncomfortable.

It happened to me once - there was a book store cum library newly opened up in a town and I just went to see the shop and was really amazed by its collection. So, I was tempted to become a member. I was about to give my debit card to the store owner to register me as a member. But then I discovered that I had forgotten my card. So, now I had no other option but to carry out the transaction with cash. But as the feeling of parting with so much cash (around Rs 1000) creeped in, I decided against becoming a member. And now I am really happy I didn't become a member. (I have a great collection of ebooks to keep me busy for around 5 years alongwith a great library at SCMHRD). Had I brought that card on that day I would have surely been tempted to become a member and would have wasted Rs 1000 unnecessarily.

Because of such services, I feel that the savings of people will decrease and people will spend more and more even though there is no need. I've seen a lot of my friends and colleagues buying books from infibeam just because it flashed on their laptop screen without any need. (Temptation to buy). So, I feel that one of the major reasons why people in the USA have a lower savings rate when compared to the Asian nations is the wide spread use of debit and credit cards.

Conclusion: While credit and debit cards have made transactions convenient, we should restrain from using it unnecessarily out of temptation and try to do cash transactions (part with ones' hard earned money), wherever possible, so as to value money (eventually save more).

Partying

The meaning of the term "Partying" has been in a state of change.

Right from childhood the term partying has been in a constant state of evolution.
In school during primary days, partying meant an evening snack at some friends' house with some games like Housie lotto or musical chair hosted by the mother of the party giver. Birthday parties used to come with return gifts. Based on the return gifts, we used to rate the birthday parties. A bulkier return gift meant a better party.

As I evolved, the idea of partying also started changing. Now in my secondary days, parties did not mean celebration at anybody's home. Parties had to happen at a restaurant where the group had to have dinner followed by a desert. It was no longer cool to be hosting party at home.

As days passed and I got out of my junior college, the birthday parties lost a bit of significance. Now, party meant visiting a hill station or another town so as to help friends spend a lot of time together. Still the restaurant pattern did not change.

As I joined my first job, the idea of party remained more or less like a restaurant party but with only one change - The party needs to have booze. Infact, the term 'partying',  in my office and also in my B-school, is now synonymous with booze. The food aspect of the party is forgotten and now the site selection for party involves a place where good booze alongwith a proper ambience is present. As I started interacting with more and more people around, I have now observed a different trend. Now, partying means to spend an evening in a pub (in a huge group) where people get to dance around alongwith beer, wine. etc and then after getting tired, have some food in a restaurant if there stomach is still asking for more.

Thus, partying has evolved significantly - from the innocence of house parties to restaurants to the boldness of drinking at pub. Wonder what will be its meaning in the future.However, for me, one thing remains constant - a party means to spend quality time with friends and colleagues.

PS: The above post represents the view point of most of the people whom I go partying with does not necessarily mean that I drink at parties.

On Festivals

The fact that I stay outside home has led me to miss a lot of festival celebrations with my family members. Not only me, but most of the young people who stay outside their homes for work or studies tend to miss a lot of festivals.
During festivals when I am not at home, I tend to visit the heart of cities (or what we call the old city part of the town) to see how the festival is celebrated in the city. Today was such an occasion. Today was Dassera and so I had been to the old part of Pune (Deccan and nearby area) to see how the festival is celebrated. I was very happy to see the automobile stores, mobile shoppes and other shops geared up for the Dassera shoppings. [Hope that they have a good sales today. (Rain clouds lurking around)]. I saw a lot of people in traditional dresses but yet I felt that the feeling of festival was missing amongst people. The festival feeling was just like superficial. It was as if there had to be some ritual on Dassera because it was done by ancestors. The rituals are considered as a pain during the cosy holiday by most of the modern day nuclear families living in tier 1 or tier 2 cities.
I had observed the same during the festival of Ganpati - Most were invloved with worshipping their own at home idols.
When I look at why these festivals were started, I find strange to observe such kind of behaviour. These festivals were started for bringing people together. E.g: Lokmanya Tilak started Ganesh Festival to help people get together and plan for the freedom movement. I do not know who started Dassera but it also means the win of the good or the right v/s the evil or the wrong. So, ideally during these festivals people should meet together and discuss issues surrounding them. As such festivals should be an occasion of a get-together between people.
Yet more and more people, during these festivals, are opting to celebrate the festivals with their own families. People consider festivals as an occasion to be a time to be with their families.

So, I believe that there has to be a serious thought given on the reason why the festivals are celebrated - Is it because of our parents, ancestors [tradition] or are we seeing any value in it (other than, ofcourse, a holiday)

Dassera - I am missing the distribution of those apta leaves and taking the wishes of parents and elders.
(An interesting link of why the Apta tree leaves are distributed in Dussera. Click).

Wish everyone a very happy dussera.

Orange Cream Biscuits

I had fallen into this habit of eating orange cream biscuits when I was at Chennai during the summer season. Being new to the place and not knowing Tamil, I preferred to go to shopping places (MTO's) like Heritage, Spencers, Lifestyle, etc for buying the biscuits.
Now at the stores the following biscuits were available:

So, going w.r.t cost per 100 gram of the biscuit, we see that Parle is the clear winner and it offers the maximum weight for a rupee.
However, before concluding anything w.r.t value for money, we also need to consider other things like taste, hardness, etc.
In my opinion the taste of all the above biscuits except, the Complan biscuits, is similar and not much differences can be attributed to taste. (Complan biscuits taste a bit like medicine).
In terms of the hardness of the biscuits, I found that the Sunfeast Special orange cream biscuits were a bit tough and needed quite an effort to break inside mouth. The other biscuits were comparatively soft and could be easily handled by my teeth. (Meaning the moisture content in the Sunfeast Special orange biscuit is less as compared to other biscuits).
Thus, in terms of properties which I look for in an orange biscuit - Taste, Value for money (here weight), hardness, Parle Kreams is the best.  All this was w.r.t consumer’s point of view.
However, thinking from the point of view of the company, I feel that Parle is losing out w.r.t ITC and Britannia. Britannia is the market leader in cream biscuits market even though it charges the highest per 100 grams (Complan can be left out of discussion due to its taste and positioning as a complete food) Parle is charging less for what the consumers are willing to pay more. Why not cash in? Why is Parle not getting aggressive? ITC on the other hand is currently applying the best strategy. It has orange cream biscuits at both the Rs 5 and the Rs.10 price levels. In addition, I found that ITC biscuits were replenished every 5 days or so thereby keeping the shelf always filled with biscuits. On the other hand, Parle biscuit shelves were always half filled or so suggesting that the focus on the distribution of Parle isn't as good as that of ITC. Britannia's replenishment was moderate i.e not as frequent as that of ITC but not as low as that of Parle Kreams. Currently, Britannia is the market leader in the orange cream biscuit segment. However, because it is charging the most and new player like ITC is introducing new pack sizes at both higher and lower prices, I believe that ITC will surpass Britannia in this segment.
Thus, if we think with respect to company, I feel ITC is doing the right thing while thinking from consumers point of view, Parle is better.
 
Conclusion: It is not always necessary that the consumer is always right. If we think only from the point of view of consumer, we might lose out on creating shareholder value. Thus, marketing personnel should be aware that doing too much for consumer can be detrimental to the sole purpose of the company.

Decision Making - An irony in life

I have often felt that life is all about making decisions – be it with regards to work, children, parents or society. Every decision taken by a person is the determinant of what he/she is likely to face in the future. The path on which a person walks is shaped by the various decisions taken by him. An appropriate and a wise decision could get person lots of goodwill and success while an inappropriate decision could lead to misery. So, it is extremely important for individuals to take appropriate decisions.

Now, at every point of life we take decisions - be it deciding about which clothes to wear for a birthday or buying/ renting  a house or getting gifts for friends or choosing a stock in the market.  Some decisions have a short-term impact on our life while other decisions have a long-term impact. Ideally, for a better life in future, the long-term impacting decisions need to be taken with more care and thought as compared to decisions which do not have such a long-term impact. These long term decisions should be taken considering all the pros and cons critically. So, the time required for a long-term impact decision should be more as compared to short-term impact. But does it actually happen?

Consider the following situations.

1. Gift to be bought for a friend for his birthday - We do a thorough review on his belongings and find out what he is in need of. In addition, we also keep an open ear for his desires so as to know what is he longing for and so on. I typically start thinking about the gift 1 week in advance before the present is to be gifted. A lot of consultations and discussions occur before arriving at the final decision.  Thus, for deciding the time required to do a simple thing such as this, we take close to 7 days.

 2. Campus recruitment - Typically, in an engineering college or a B-School, students are intimated about a company 1 or 2 days before the recruitment day. The ppt by the company happens just before the process of recruitment begins. We are left with no more than 30 minutes to decide whether we want to join the organization or not. The exact details like the location of job, the salary package and the exact work profile are told only during the ppt. While it is true that in the 1 or 2 days when we have been intimated about the company, we can do some research by asking peers, seniors, etc about the company, the exact details are only obtained only during the ppt. So, a decision has to be made considering the newly added parameters within 30 minutes or so.

Thus, for taking a decision for a job which could have a long term impact w.r.t career and future, we are left with less than 30 minutes while for a trivial matter like a gift, we get full week for decision. Such an irony.

Yet, another example where the irony is visible is the arrange marriage decision. We need to take a decision about our life partner in around 2 or 3 meetings and that too short duration meetings of 1 hour each or so. I mean such a major decision - marriage - has to be taken by meeting a person (with whom we wish to spend rest of our life) for a total of only 3 hours.

Thus, I conclude that the time given to take a decision is inversely dependent on the amount of the long-term impact the decision is going to make in one’s life. Greater the long-term impact of the decision, lesser is the time given to take the decision and vice versa.

What else do you learn at MBA !!

I am a big fan of Bhel Puri and Samosa Chat. The taste, the variety, the mixture of different chutneys, the salt, the sev, etc all make my mouth water as soon as I see it some a Bhel Puri stall. During my stay at Chennai, I have found a lot of Bhel Puri stalls at T nagar and at Adyar area. However, the Bhel Puri at Chennai is quite expensive. The lowest charge of Bhel Puri I've found out is not less than Rs. 20. The average cost is around Rs. 25. I've tried Bhel Puri at many places like Sangeetha hotal, some tapris here and there, the Sri Krishna Sweets, etc. However, I haven't been satisfied with the taste of the Bhel Puri anywhere. The best taste (Chennai ka best) I've ever had was at a small stall near Adyar fly over. While the place where I found a good Bhel Puri isn't important, what I feel is worth considering is the young man who operates the Bhel Puri stall.

The stall he operates through is heavily coloured with the menu written on the front side and pictures of different chaat items on the sides. He calls himself a 'self employed' youth and makes it a point that people notice it. It is written in bold letters at the top of the stall.
As soon as I entered the premises, he greeted me with a welcoming smile, asked me what will I have and then quickly started making the chaat item I ordered. While he was preparing the food, he started talking to me about my whereabouts and telling me about his hometown. During the talks he said that the speciality of his stall was that it is the most hygienic Bhel Puri stall in the area. I had a glance at his table and I actually found the whole table very clean with different chutneys and other stuff stacked properly in the small space. He also kept his stove a good 1 meter away from other stuff, a rare sight at Bhel Puri stalls. (Generally, people keep all sort of things around the stove creating a potential hazard). He said that for customer satisfaction, hygiene is the most important factor 'Agar khana acha aur hygienic hai toh customer phir se aayega'. He chatted with me for quite sometime until he had other customer. However, even while serving them, he asked me whether I'll have chutney or any other thing for about 3 times. (Customer care and service).
As I looked around, I found that he had a covered dustbin a good 10 metres away from the stall, water (some mineral water brand I can't remember) too kept around.
After I was done with the chaat, he asked me whether the food was fine or not. (How many stall owners ask this?). The chaat was also not expensive. Infact, it was among the lowest charge I paid for a samosa chaat at Chennai. (Rs. 20). While going he asked me to visit again and gave me a masala puri.
He jokingly said - "Mera customer hamesha wapas aata hai. Hum sabse acha service aur khana deta hai".
Now that is quite an exaggeration but still, I will visit him at least once again definitely.

Why?
1. Good, hygienic food (Product)
2. Cheap compared to others around (Price)
3. Customer Satisfaction provided
4. Aims to build up a good relationship (Promotion)
5. Located at the heart of Adyar (Place)

What else do we learn at an MBA? A young Bhel Puri owner also knows it!

Thoughts on National Anthem

Today, after a very long time (because I've not been to cinema hall for a very long time now), probably after the 15th August last year (I missed the anthem on this Republic day too) I heard the national anthem tune being played on television right before the all important India - Sri Lanka 20-20 world Cup match. I'd seen the anthem played before the commonwealth games and the Olympics games but before a cricket match this was the first occasion.
The reasons why a national anthem becomes important before a sport may be as:

• Get inspired to perform to the utmost potential
• Get a sense of feeling that a player is playing for his national team (May act as a Great motivation)
• Get patroitic

But the most funny reason I obtained was -

• because of national anthem being sung, the players will atleast feel a sense of responsibility towards the country and not indulge in things such as match fixing and betting.

On a serious note, after hearing the national anthem tune I really felt a bit energetic. I felt like doing something for our country. I felt the urge to help develop our country and make it a global power.
Such is the power of national anthem. It has the ability to inspire everyone.

In India, national anthem is played at schools regularly. (everyday). But as one becomes old, as one joins college, office, etc one rarely hears the national anthem. Only when one goes to cinema hall for a movie or during National days, we listen to the anthem. One gets distanced from the wonderful song.
I feel the song should be played at more places and more occasions (and yes without any change in its playing rules like 52 seconds). This will help foster patriotism and help the country as the case with the players. Who knows playing national anthem in government offices daily  might help to reduce corruption.!!

Shopping Malls

I generally avoid going to shopping malls to buy household things like oil, toothpaste, etc. My intention is to provide business to small shop owners and help them in whatever small way I can. But however, in Chennai, because of the language barrier, I have decided to go to shopping malls for buying these items.
So, I entered a shopping mall at Adyar (one of the most expensive and better places in chennai to live in).
The mall provided a wonderful atmosphere to shop - ample of space and AC (Relief from the heat and humidity outside).
Things were kept in the best possible orderly manner. Everything was in its place and I could find FMCG items of almost all the I knew about.

I had pre-decided the items to be bought so that I do not have to waste too much time. (Only the brand decision was left to be done on the spot depending on availability). I was of the opinion that one should enter a mall with the list of items to be bought otherwise one ends up buying unnecessary things and spending lots of money. I've always given this advice to my mother and aunts.
But after I entered the mall the orderliness of the mall, the atmosphere there, the availability of things right in front of eyes and the freedom to touch the things couldn't help me resist buying a lot of things which I had not planned. I bought chocolates, biscuits, etc which I hadn't planned. The marketer just got the better of me. So, not I accept that it isn't possible to buy exactly from the list. I'll now stop giving advices to mom and others. No more suggestions


I observed one more thing in the mall. The biscuit section had biscuits - Britannia, Parle and Sunfeast. Each company had its own brand in each biscuit category. I found that for the same weight of biscuit (and same biscuit category), the prices of Britannia biscuits were Rs 1 or 2 higher than of other two companies. Seems like Britannia has milking as its corporate strategy. Also, I found one more thing. Bourbon biscuit which is a fantastic Britannia product is now sold as the original Bourbon name. It is sold still at Rs 12. However, I found that the weight of the pack has reduced. Thus, for Rs. 12, Britannia is now giving less biscuits (about 10 grams less). Not fair.
Thus, Britannia is following a milking strategy to by charging more or reducing the weights of the packs. Existing customers like me are bound to notice this and shift to other company products like I did and bought Sunfeast biscuit pack.
(Although biscuit was not in my list of items to be bought :P)

Summer Training - Is it really required?

It is summer time when people doing MBA are forced to do a 2 months summer internship job at some company. I am pursuing my summers at Ashok Leyland in the beautiful city of Chennai.
Some of the experience I have had with the company:

• The company HR started working on our projects only after we joined the office. No prior thought was given with regards to the project to be allocated.
• The HR just escorted me to some person in the sourcing department and then left everything about my training to the poor guy. He had to talk to his boss and after giving a thought for 2 days, he finally made up a project and assigned me a project called 'Costing of electrical wiring harness'. He then introduced me to some other guy in the department and asked him to explain me the project details. He tried explaining it to me but then he just gave me some excel files and said that I could myself do the project. So, on a whole, I have not been adequately briefed about my project and I have to find a way myself to do costing and fit the collected data in the excel sheet.
• Now I report to no one. The junior guy expects me to report the senior and the senior guy expects me to report to the junior.
• And so on....

I guess this occurs in almost all big companies where the summer internship is just meant for enhancing the company brand value and its ties with B Schools. (No motive of knowledge transfer)
And this attitude of companies is completely justified. I mean why should a big company incur so much cost and invest so much time on a summer intern who is just going to leave the company in 2 months time. Why waste time of an employee who could actually utilize the time for company affairs instead of training the 2 month summer trainee?
Some people believe that summer training projects should be really very thorough and should be live projects. Why should a company go through the pain of creating such projects, explaining it to the trainees and then paying them for work? And why should confidential information be provided to MBA students who will be out in 2 months ready to spill all the data out to the world? Also why should company give them tough and critical projects? I mean how can the company trust on the trainee's ability to solve problems which are critical to the company.
Also, the project may or may not appeal to the trainee.

Due to the above mentioned problems, summer trainees are given some simple jargonised projects which appear to be complex to keep them interested. A lot of jargons like Analysis, Feasibility, Modelling, Strategy, etc are used in the project titles. These projects aren't very critical from the point of view of the organizaiton and most of the projects aren't even read by the mentors. The project reports lie in the HR's cabin and serve no purpose. Summer training becomes just a PR activity nothing else.

This brings me to the point that if neither the company nor a trainee (no value addition) is to gain anything by the exercise of summer training, why should this exercise be made compulsory in a B School? It may actually prove to be counter productive - the company has to assign an employee to the trainee, which it could have utilized for a productive purpose, and the student could have learnt more over the internet and the library.
Some may argue that in a summer training, students are exposed to the corporate culture for the first time in their lives and this may prove to be beneficial when they join their final job. Now this arguement has some merit. But when we look at the demographic profile of the students at a B School, more than 50% students already have worked at some place. So, they have been exposed to the corporate culture and stuff like that.
So, for atleast these 50 % students, I feel that summer training is a redundant exercise. A lot of time is wasted and not much is gained. Why should 200 marks be assigned to such a futile exercise. Instead of the training where a trainee has to wait for the mentors attention, wait for data, wait for internet, etc. a student can read a lot and learn many many useful things in his field of interest in the 2 months.

Consider my case: I have been in the corporate office and have been assigned a very insignificant project which has almost no use. (Verify the cost of the material provided by a vendor). I have not much to learn from this project and at the same time, the company has nothing to gain from the project. It can be done by an experienced person in 2-3 days only. It is better I do not do this project and read.

Hence, I conclude that for a person with a prior work experience, the summer training should be optional and not compulsory.

Caller Tune

I have always disliked the caller tunes and I never prefer to have one for my mobile phone.

• Because the person being called likes the song the caller has to hear it. Ridiculous. The person who likes the song doesn’t listen to it but some other people have to listen to it. Doesn’t serve the purpose. A person pays Rs. 25 per month for others to listen to a song. (Don’t get the logic behind this).
• The song can actually act as detrimental if we are to believe that music affects a person’s thoughts and his mood is affected by music. A person who is cheerful and wants to tell the good news to a person who has put up a sad caller tune might become less cheerful while telling the news. Even bad is the opposite situation. When a bad news is to be communicated and rock music is played as a caller tune, it irritates the caller.
• Some time is wasted on commenting about the song which actually lengthens the call time and consequently we end up paying more to the telecom service provider.

An interesting situation occurred in the Ashok Leyland office.

I have been assigned the Strategic Sourcing Department there. The department comprises members who do purchasing jobs along with scheduling, costing, EOQ and other sourcing and purchasing functions. Here, there are numerous calls made to suppliers for quick and timely supply of the required materials. The purchase function is quite important here because the company works with low levels of inventory and so for the assembly line in their factories to function properly and not halt, the purchase section has to be always on its toes and get the materials as and when required. So, there is a lot of shouting and screaming, pleading over the phone that takes place in order to get materials. For suppliers where Ashok Leyland has a higher bargaining power, supplier is shouted at and made to supply the material at a short notice and when the supplier is big and has a higher bargaining power, the purchase managers request and plead over the phone for faster delivery. This is quite a common scene in most of the purchasing departments. (So much for background)
There is a man in his late 40’s quite frustrated with his job who walks into the cabin where I sit (or pass time playing games and reading books) everyday to make phone calls using a phone in the room. (Don’t know why he calls from the room rather than his desk). One day, he was quite angry at suppliers because a part required on Monday wasn’t shipped till Thursday and a delay of one more day in shipping would make it difficult to Leyland. So, he decided to call up the supplier. Very angry with the suppliers, he was sure going to blast the person who was going to attend his call. Generally, the man calls keeping his phone on loudspeaker mode. (Don’t yet the reason for this behavior). So, I could listen to him calling. As soon as he dialed the number, a caller tune started. The caller tune was not just a song of a movie or a pop album. The caller tune was a religious one - May be a Tamil Aarti or something. The caller knew the song and he started humming it. After hearing the song, the person appeared to be quite calm (compared to what he was before). Because of the song now the person told he supplier in plain words that he wanted the part asap– No bad words used nor there was any shouting. The caller tune changed the whole course of action. It made things go differently. The whole conversation was steered from being a raucous to being a dignified by a caller tune. Such is the power of a caller tune. The reverse may also happen and a conversation could turn from calm to a rowdy one because of the caller tune. Thus, it is better to not have a caller tune.

Chennai Central Station - Some observations

Chennai Central
Date: 11-04-2010.
While I was moving out of the Chennai Central station towards the parking lot with the two people sent by Hanif Bhai (Really thankful to him for arranging for my transport in this new city. Hats off to my father and his friends), I observed the following:
1. The Chennai Central platforms had very few shops where food, magazines, newspapers, etc are sold as compared to Mumbai or Pune stations where on each platform, we come across 1 or 2 such small stores (or khokas)
2. The Chennai Central had quite a lot of people working as a part of South Western Maintenance staff. These people cleaned the train and looked after the maintenance of the coaches from inside. (This isn’t observed in Mumbai Central or CST. Atleast, I haven’t come across such staff)
3. The announcements were made in a lot of languages including English and Hindi. Also, the announcement was loud and clear unlike many other stations in Mumbai and even Sangli where the quality of sound of the announcements isn’t so good.
4. The people in the station were quite disciplined. A waiting area is present at the Chennai Central station for sitting about 200 people. I observed the whole waiting area full of people waiting patiently watching Television (But Local language). There wasn’t any commotion as seen in Mumbai CST station. The waiting area at CST should be revamped and some arrangements like those at Chennai Central should be considered
5. A distinct thing observed at Chennai station was the existence of Dormitories – both for Men and Women and that too at cheap rates of Rs. 80 per person. It makes things easier for a person travelling alone and who has come for a day or two. There were also separate arrangements for AC and other upper classes. CST, Pune stations lack this feature. I feel that commercial places like Pune, Mumbai, etc should have dormitories in place so that people can change, have a bath there and leave for work directly from the station. It can also add to the revenue of the India Railways. They should at least give this concept a try.
6. Entrance/ Exit – I came across 2 exit points and around 2 entrance points to the station (There could be some more). However, they kept open only 1 entrance and 1 exit point for security reasons which I found good. (Other stations can also learn from such a security arrangement)
7. Parking/ Taxi area – The Taxi/ auto areas were clearly demarcated from the private vehicle parking area which prevented any unknown vehicle from coming near the entrance of the station. This arrangement also ensures that the coolies at the Chennai Central station get a good business transporting luggage from station to private parking space. Also, each private vehicle is charged about Rs 10 per hour or so. At CST, the rates are quite less while at Pune, I think it is free. (Valuable revenue lost by IR at these places).
8. Chennai Central station is able to turnaround coaches faster as compared to CST. (Only 1 data point available – still it proves). The train coaches at Chennai are cleaned, water filled and checked right at the stations, whereas at CST such a facility isn’t available. For water filling and other activities, the coaches need to move to a place between Masjid and CST, where such equipment are available. Hence, the train turnaround time is lesser at Chennai Central as compared to Mumbai CST.

Sangli - Chennai journey

After a long time battle of words with parents and relatives and after a lot of convincing (helped by the prohibitively high prices of Mumbai-Chennai Flights), I finally made my journey to Chennai by train and not by flight. The experience was amazing (as expected).
My train booking was such that I had to travel from Miraj junction to Hubli junction by one train and then catch a connecting train from Hubli to Chennai. The difference between the arrival time of the 1st train and the departure of the 2nd train was only 1 hour 15 minutes.
Now it so happened that the first train was running slow and it got delayed continuously. At Belgaum, about halfway, the train was delayed by 45 minutes. It meant that any further delay would have caused me missing my 2nd train. However, after Belgaum, the Dandeli jungles made the train driver press the accelerator and the train gained time. He didn’t allow the train to delay any further. Also, the railway officials ensured that the train isn’t further delayed. Due to presence of only 1 track, railway crossings had to be scheduled to make way for trains running in the opposite direction to pass by. So,one train has to wait at a station until the other opposite running train crosses it). The railway officials ensured that my train got preference at each crossing and the other trains had to wait. After some tension, I finally arrived at Hubli at about 2000 hrs barely 25 minutes left before the departure time of the next train. After crossing the platform (a tiring one due to luggage), I made it to the far away AC compartment at around 2010 hrs.

In the 1st train, there weren’t many people in the AC coach (should have taken the normal sleeper coach – missed the good jungle view in the AC coach). However, the 2nd train was filled with a lot of people. The AC coach didn’t sound much different from ordinary sleeper coaches. Noise was buzzing all around. Interestingly, the AC coach in which I was travelling had more number of Marwaris, Gujaratis (including me) as compared to the number of Tamilians. I, being alone, got a lot of proposals to change my seat. Since there were ladies with children, I also readily accepted the changes. After changing seats, I finally got into an interesting compartment. The compartment had a Tamilian couple sitting in it who also wanted a lower berth. However, I couldn’t help them since I had already exchanged my berth with other Marwari family. Then a girl came, who had a lot of luggage and who had a lower berth which she didn’t exchange with anybody. (Quite rightly) Then a Kannada person, in his late 20’s, joined us, who incidently had also changed seats with the same Marwari family. (Good for him – Saved him from a lot of their Bak Bak).
The Tamalian couple was typical and quite hospitable. They made adjustments for the young girl travelling alone and also chatted freely with the girl. They had their own food prepared in typical south Indian style and talked only in Tamilian. However, because of this girl talking so much, they too started conversing in English and Hindi at times. Now there was something quite peculiar of this girl travelling alone. She was an OKish looking girl. However, her speech was very good. She had good pronunciations and talked to others with a sense of respect. (I liked that). Later on, I got to know that she was married to a Gujarati boy who worked in Chennai for Reliance Industries Limited in their raw material department. In the morning, I had a chat to her and learnt that she was also pregnant. She also chatted very very freely and made talking very easy for people around. (Even I started talking to her and others in the train which happens quite rarely). She called me ‘Uncle’ once a while and also remarked that I look like a typical Engineer who was very serious and she also commented that I don’t have a girl friend (All these things just at the start of the conversation in the morning. Quite amazing) She later pointed out that we were quite opposites – she enjoyed talking, chatting, living aaram se while I was serious type of person. I sometimes wonder – Does my face really tell all these things? Need to change my looks then.
The other person who was travelling alone talked to her girl friend over the phone for most of the time till midnight. I couldn’t interact with him in the night. I could talk to him only in the morning. I learnt that he was quite philosophical in nature and read books related to spirituality, religion, etc. In fact, there was one more person in adjoining compartment reading books on Swami Vivekananda. He toh even asked me to stop reading novel and read such spiritual books from which I could gain something. (Quite a lot of gyan given to me in the morning time)
At night time, a big Marwai gang entered the train (They were about 10 in number – only ladies and their children off to enjoy their vacation at Chennai). Their noise woke up everyone and the way a lady fought over the luggage and her space (non-adjusting types) irritated me very much. Others in the compartment including me had a bitching session (when she was away in the morning) when we pointed out her misbehavior and the general tendencies of Marwaris. It was quite fun (Full marks to that young girl to have moderated the discussion in the presence of others)
After taking directions about how to travel in Chennai and other details like their telephone numbers, to my surprise, I found that we had reached Chennai (Before the correct time – (Indian Railways have improved on punctuality).
I have come to a conclusion that to know different behaviours of people of different castes and ages, a long train journey is just just right. It exposes us to different people and because there is no scope of any disturbance from family and friends, we can draw our own inferences. I feel that if we are to do market research on a new product meant for everybody (Mass marketing required), a train is the prefect place - Journey ka journey - Research ka research.

However, I feel that rather than an AC compartment, the sleeper 2nd class coach provides a better view outside in addition to more people and more diverse behavior. (An observation which Sudha Murthy also made in one of her short stories)
We can also make some new contacts in new places (like I made – I’ve been invited by the Tamilian couple for a lunch at their place)
I also realized (in fact learnt from that girl (Pooja was her name)) that I need to look less serious and be a bit aggressive. Also, realized that Marwari people rarely help others (even people in their own community) while Tamilians, quite selflessly, help people – especially young women.

Root Canal - A big Pain

This post will be a biased view on root canal because of the fact that I am currently undergoing a root canal treatment and am not able to enjoy home food (which I hoped to enjoy in these holidays).

RCT is explained very well in simple language in this link

This is the second or probably third thime, I am undergoing root canal treatment and I've come to a conclusion that the treatment is not long term. The tooth on which I had my previous RCT has been badly damaged despite the RCT. The cap put up has been dislodged and is now causing me even more pains. Now the dentist had come to a conclusion that the tooth on which RCT was done can't survive for long and now must be removed to prevent infections spreading to other nearby teeth.

Even today as I am undergoing the pain of the RCT of a different tooth and the removal of my older tooth, I know that this supposedly RCT reinforced tooth will not last for long and I'll have to again visit the dentist in some years probably 3 or 4 at max.

So, why is RCT being regarded as a long term solution to teeth problems. Why is it always projected as the ultimate treatment for a damaged tooth? Weren't the older methods like silver amalgam filling and the white cement filling
( bisphenol A-glycidyl methacrylate ) good enough? Atleast, they weren't projected as a long term solution and they weren't very expensive either.
The root canal treatment is really expensive Rs.2000 per tooth at Sangli and Rs. 4000 at Pune).
Yet, because the RCT being the ultimate saviour of teeth is taken up by so many people because of the dentist's recommendation.

Actually, I feel that RCT is small part of a cycle which helps a dentist fill his pockets at every stage. The first phase of the cycle is the RCT. Gradually, the crown dislodges and because of the food entering the RC, it infects the bone of the teeth. Now, comes the next stage, the dentist tells that the tooth is badly infected and nothing can be done. The only way to relieve the pain the the uprooting of the tooth. Because, we cannot eat without teeth, we go for dentures or other prosthetic measures - (the next stage of the cycle). These are toh more costly. Again these devices come in various variants like - nickel (for middle class) and ceramic (for upper class). These devices require maintenance and we need to go to the dentist atleast once every 2 years wherein he will always find some or the other defect in the dentures and make some more money. This goes on till the end.

What I feel is that we must ensure that the atleast the 1st stage of the cycle is eliminated. We must ask the dentist to uproot the damaged tooth directly and go for artificial tooth (prosthetic devices). Atleast money to the extent of Rs. 4000 can be saved.

It is said do what you preach. But I myself have not been able to do so - Partly because the dentist is my distant relative and partly because my parents do not reject his recommendation. So, inspite of my refusal to undergo the RCT, I have to go throught the pain.

Mind

The mind thinks in a lot of directions. Don't know why.

Like just now I was wondering how wonderful my life is at this point of time.
Not much tension. The academic pressure since the past few days has been not much with exams going on and we are having only 1 subject per day with odd holidays in between. In fact, now I want the exams to get over quickly and do something else.
I have been spending a lot of time with my learning group mates recently and laughing and having fun - enjoying the nature, talking to parents regularly, surfing the net. No other responsibilities at this point of time, and studying etc. - A relaxed sort of life. - Away from wordly pressures.

Next second, mind went in other direction - I started to think about - the responsibilities I have as an elder child of my parents, the decisions to be taken w.r.t my specialization, the kind of job I wish to do after SCMHRD, the absence of my long-term plans, the city where I want to take up a job, etc.

Then the mind again wandered to my life 1 to 1.5 years back, when I was earning and I had responsibilities (not much though still enough to make me feel it). I start to wonder how my life would have been had I not joined MBA course this year.

My mind isn't still able to figure out whether my days at Herdillia were great enough or my life at SCMHRD is better. Both have their share of memories and adventures. At Herdillia, I really learnt a lot about factory and other things (guess that was more than what i learnt in the 1st year at SCMHRD), At SCMHRD,I met (and will be doing so for the next 1 year wow) a bunch of really good people who are multitalented and from I really learn quite a lot. Also, made some really good friends (wish to be in touch with them for lifetime) - who made me (so boring person) to laugh and feel senti sometimes (which I rarely feel).

Again, mind changes track and reminds me that I need to decide upon the future course of action.

Strange are the ways of mind. It reminds of sadness when we are happy and reminds of happiness when were are somewhat sad.

Education not a provision for old age

There is a saying that 'Education is the best provision for old age'. This may be true when thought from the point of view of an individual. Education teaches a person to deal with old age.
However, when we look at the saying from the point of view of a parent, I think the saying falls apart. Let me explain:
All parents expect a child to be better than them and be with them in their old age. But this education has prevented the younger generation from letting this happen. In India, most children from all states aspire to be in top institutes in the country and then get excellent jobs. For this purpose, they leave their home and parents and join the prestigious colleges in some other part of the country away from their hometown. Later after taking up jobs in some of the best companies of the country, they start living in a city, away from their home. Children learn to live without parents and later on marry a girl and settle in cities away from their home. Children expect parents to leave their hometown and join them in the cities which isn't acceptable to most. (And thats quite valid. I mean why should they leave a place wherein they are well settled and enter an unknown city). So, most of the bright young students leave away from their parents.
If thats the case, how will a child be a 'parents' budhape ka Sahara'. The parent is left with no choice but to be dependent on their relatives staying nearby or neighbours. The child especially the boy from whom it is expected that he'll take care of his parents lives in a place far away from his parent when the parent most requires him. Especially when it comes to health problems and other things, the child reaches his parents' place at the last moment when almost everything is taken care of by neighbours.
The problem of getting leaves from workplace and other committments make the matter worse and the boy/girl tends to be away from his parents for most of the time.

I believe that this has become a trend in India (In Maharashtra, where I leave, trend is working in Pune, Mumbai or going to the US). While the child benefits from getting better prospects, it is the parents who lose by having to lead a lonely life away from their child.

I am one of such persons who stays away from parents and wish to really go back. However, now I feel that now I am caught up in this viscous cycle - B-School then a job in a city, then marriage and settlement in Mumbai or Pune. I feel I will never be living with them at their place (Sangli).

Thus, it is this education that has rendered me useless when it comes to be a provision for my parents' old age.

Best Practices followed

All the while in MBA we learn about the best practices followed by world-class companies to acheive greater customer satisfaction and as a result more profits. Be it SCM where Walmart and Toyotta have shown to the world the importance of techniques like cross docking and JIT or be it Dell where the 'Pull' system is followed in a market filled with 'Push' based players.
I learnt more about the Best world class practices when I read the summary of the book - "Future at the bottom of the Pyramid" and learnt more when I had the previlige of attending a seminar with Mr. C.K Prahalad, the books author - (Thanks to my college and Aditya Birla Group for allowing 20 students to attend the session. It was held at Trident, my first visit- excellent food too). So, in the session, I learnt that there is an eye hospital named "Aravind Eye Clinic" in south India where the largest number of eye surgeries are carried out at low rates.
Last couple of days were quite painful for me for I had a severe tooth ace and my face was swollen due to some puss accumulated near my check area on account of tooth infection. Because of this dental problem, I visited a dental clinic in Chinchwad, Pune. On seeing the name marathi clinic, I thought it would be a typical small dental clinic where a veteran would be treating patients. But to my surprise, I found the clinic to be very modern. It has great infrastructure - i mean the reception of the clinic looked almost like the reception of a multi-national or an IT company.
The interiors and decoration stuff was accurate but what was more astonishing was that the hospital had 4 surgical beds - or tables (whatever it may be called) and had 2 or 3 doctors. So what actually happened was that while a doctor was treating a patient on one surgical bed, the spare bed was being cleaned and sanitized by the nurses and as soon as the doctor was done with the work, he/she moved to other table where another patient was already present. So, in result, no time of the doctor was lost. A very good experience I thought. It was just like the Aravind Eye clinic I read about.
However, mind you it is also quite costly. Only the consultation fees anount to Rs. 100, simple abscess drainage Rs 500 (only prick at a place in the mouth) and root canal treatment for 3 teets amount to approx Rs 30000. But thats the cost you pay for a better service using best pracices some people may say.


Thinking deeply, I now feel that while Aravind eye clinic uses this best practice to treat more number of poor people at affordable rates, this clinic uses the practice to maximize its profits (lutofy people).

Yaadein

Its been around 8 months I left my job at SI Group India Limited (previously Herdillia) and the time has gone around really fast. I haven't been in constant touch with anyone from the factory. I am to be blamed for this. It takes just 5 mins to write an email or sms but my inertia has prevented me from doing so.

Since the past few days, I have been wondering about my life before joining SCMHRD and I feel that the two years spent at Herdillia will remain special and memorable throughout my entire life. In fact, I feel that these two years were the most well-spent days of my life till now. Even though after MBA I will be getting a so called "better" job which will pay me more and give me higher designations, I feel that the job at Herdillia was the best. I mean there was so much there which I don't think I'll be getting at most of the other organizations.

Some special things of Herdillia I recall (which I may not get at any other job) are:
1. The respect I obtained from one and all in the organization: I entered the organization only as a management trainee but still I was treated with a lot of respect by everyone around. People entrusted me with some of the important jobs.
Many senior managers and even the plant officials treated me with a lot of respect and always asked for my suggestions (which I obviously couldn't give) before making decisions. Whenever, I went to the factory, people actually told me the problems facing the plant with the expectation that I will solve the problems. (something which people talk to with long serving employees only). Eve the contract labour personnel and the maintenance staff helped me and talked to me with respect.

2. My boss: A PhD from UDCT, Dr. Animesh Chakrabarti, was my boss at my first job. He is a boss I feel everyone should have in the first job. He never imposed any big work on me and always exposed me to the problems faced by the plant and asked me for suggestions. He always asked whether I was confident enough for designing anything.
He believed in me when I said I was confident and that was the reason a fresh engineer coming straight out from college could design a pump in the first month (which he approved without much cross checking) and then a heat exchanger based on my hand calculations. (It was only after his approval that some others cross checked my calculations in a software). Although I did some boring work like preparing for ppt's for monthly reviews, I now understand their value and would really like to thank him for letting me do so. He was also the fastest growing person in the organization. He became the GM of the technical department when I joined and in 1.5 years he was made the VP of the entire factory. His name now has started appearing on the annual reports of the company. He was also very accomodating and always left me to my house when we had to wait after office hours. He always granted me leaves when I needed them (thodi mach mach hoti thi but finally he gave). He always any good work done by me - be it changes in the documentation or working after factory hours - in private which I really liked.

Senior Manager - S.T.Patil - He is the best mentor anyone can have. A very intelligent, logical and a perfect plant manager, Mr S.T. Patil is the person who is involved in almost all the decision - small and large taking place at the company. He is a person who always took me to the plant when required to let me see new happenings in the plant. He was a very frank person and always told me where I went wrong. Also, he was good at catching me when I lied (which I did sometimes). I learnt the actual art of managing a lot of stressful activities from him. He is also one of the most respectable people of the organization and his word is never questioned in the organization. He is not an engineer but he knows a lot about engineering and guided me about the use of formulaes. He is also very good at grasping new things- be it Six Sigma or Finance.

I guess this post will never end. Some of the things I miss are listed. Will write more about them later:
The morning breakfast
The bus service at Herdillia
The collegues
Mr. Solanki
Mr. Borwankar
Mr. Vichare
Plant
Freedom
Food
etc
etc
Can't stop writing about life at Herdillia . Truly unforgettable.
Hope the company does well in all affairs.

Aantakshari

While travelling in a bus or a SUV during long journey, it is a common practice to play aantakshari to pass the travelling time. I think that is quite a good option and travelling is made more fun that way.
I have myself been to many trips and have played aantakshri at most of the road trips. I had been with many different groups - Family, Sangli friends, UDCT friends and now SCMHRD friends. While each group was distinctly different (except me being common element), I observed that in almost all trips, the same set of songs were repeated more or less. I observed that the same old songs were sung by all. Not many new songs were tried by people. Everytime when Tha came everyone sang 'Thande Thande pani se'.. and when na came 'na na kaarte pyar ..', etc came to everyone's minds including me. Most of the songs sung were of the 1990's or at max the early 2000's. In my last trip, no other song of a movie released after Lagaan was sung.
What are the reasons for this? Have we all hard the old songs more than the number of times we've heard the new ones. Definitely no in this era of radios where we get to listen to the latest songs almost 5-7 times a day.

I believe that most of us have watched aantakshari played by elders who sung these old songs and so these have remained firmly ingrained in our minds.

Also the fact that the old songs had easy flowing lyrics which makes it easy to remember old songs. The new ones have slightly tough lyrics to remember or their pace is fast.

The most important reason i believe for not remembering the new songs are the fact the the new songs have their peak not at the beginning but somewhere inbetween. For eg- Say in the Iktara song from wake up sid... We all remember the words gunja sa hai iktara .. and so these words remain in our minds. The start of teh track (oh re maanwa...) isn't repeated a lot of times and so it doesn't remain in our minds. And the fact that in aantakshari we've to start from the beginning of the song, we end up not singing the new songs. Thats why the differing amounts of stress on different parts makes it difficult to retain the new songs.

Hope next time I play aantakshari, I keep in mind these things and try to sing new songs.