Oxford MBA and what next???

Thanks to Twitter

2011-06-14T15:43:00.000-07:00

It became very hard to post continuously, but I dont want to miss out on my habit of writing. I will start writing on Movies and Cricket, my favorite timepass topics now. Well, let me start writing soon - starting tomorrow :)

Freezing!!

2010-12-12T02:48:00.000-08:00

Been in -5 to -10 for last 2-3 weeks. When I went to Stavanger couple of days back it was -1 or so and I felt its quite warm!! thats life...

Time for a bit of rehash

2010-07-19T23:32:00.000-07:00

Gathering energies again to be a regular blogger...

Thinking of following themes:

1. Travel

2. Movie Reviews

Will continue...for good....regularly....soon....

Started tweeting...

2010-04-09T20:59:00.001-07:00

you can follow me at nagsforfun1 tweet id...looks like its much easier and faster way to connect than blog....

Busy new year

2010-01-23T05:30:00.000-08:00

New year started with 12 hours travel on road on January First, perhaps an indication on what it is going to be in the following months. Its long time I have blogged and I dont want to excuse myself saying that I was busy. I am busy but the spare time I get to use for activities like blogging, I just felt very lazy. After couple of hours of sleep today I am feeling energetic and thought I will write down my thoughts again.

Its long time I wrote, and last 7 months had been exciting. In fact very very exciting. There were tough times, there were interesting conversations, there were jubilant times, and in a nut shell I am quite happy for what I am doing. We are growing, both in the scope of services that we offer and in numbers (employees and revenues). Quite happy to see people use VFC (for Value Function Consulting) as an acronym when I speak to them. I have reconnected with few of my mentors in school and am thankful to all of them for lending advice on the direction we are taking.

New developments on professional and personal front are passion for the renewables. There is quite a market across the world and there is certainly a level of urgency being shown by people across to utilize renewable energy as an alternate source. Its a blessing to have chosen Europe as our market for other players to enter since countries like Sweden are already generating a lot of power through renewables. This throws up a lot of opportunity for technology transfer across countries.

I am planning to visit Oxford some time in March first week or so during my visit to Europe. Wanna refresh my memories, play some cricket if possible and meet with up with few like minded people. I hope that I will become more active in writing things here, after all it can be a good diary down the line for me to recollect what I have been doing......

iPhone

2009-07-05T03:11:00.001-07:00

Trying my new gadget to post....iguess I will post frequently now with this

Value Function Consulting

2009-06-21T20:38:00.000-07:00

is what we named the firm....Primary activity is to help Indian companies enter Europe, helping with market entry advisory and sales execution services.....Its a good start signing a new customer already for an year contract, hoping to succeed in the new journey....

Finally starting a new firm.....

2009-05-20T21:42:00.000-07:00

Details soon.....Resigning today at office....

New Interests: New Blog

2009-02-16T00:54:00.000-08:00

Started a new blog: http://electricity-eu.blogspot.com to share my commentary on Electricity markets, IT implications because of rapid changes, new trends etc.., in EU market

Have a look if time permits!!!

Keeping it Alive!!!

2008-12-25T03:58:00.000-08:00

Its so tough to keep it alive as you can post a lot of stuff during your B-School, but not so much once you start working, because of confidentiality/sensitivity/other crap!!!

Was in Hyderabad couple of weeks back and visited Ramoji Film City. I remember my first post in this blog is when I visited RFC first time. Nothing much changed in the RFC, but Hyderabad has changed a lot, with many flyovers, new multiplexes etc.., Amazing to see the way India is developing, though I have spent enough time in India during the development.

I am thinking of certain things to keep this blog alive!! I am surprised to see there are still regular hits to this blog, which encourages me to blog more and more......Let me take this week to think through and coin something by New Year

Merry Christmas to all the visitors!!!

In Germany

2008-11-08T11:57:00.000-08:00

After a long train of 6 hours, I have finally reached Dusseldorf. As winter is peaking, I hope my business trip to Germany will yield good results!!

Hearty Congrats to Obama for winning the hearts of Americans, and I hope he will bring in the change that he promised.

Catch you all later as some hot dinner is waiting for me...

France - The first impression

2008-09-05T00:10:00.000-07:00

It's been a month that I am in France and the experience has been fantastic. I have been to 4 cities - Paris, Lille, Lyon and Rennes, and some other small towns like Quimper, Brest etc.., and all the places are welcoming, and impressive. I have just started learning French and honestly I should have done it long back. But, with a mandate now I hope I can catch up as soon as possible. I hope I will be able to write a post in this blog in French some time :-)

Paris vs London - A difficult comparison, but I would say Paris has a bit edge for the beauty in the city compared to London, which is more disciplined in the way life goes. I have been loving Brittany region for the people there, who are very helpful. I was told that Bretons has a history of sailing, and so they are more open to foreigners than other parts of the France. I must thank Mr. Darin Beach, who has been helping me set up base for us in France. He has been very helpful in terms of making me understand territory as well as some French here and there.

Moving to France

2008-07-27T00:07:00.000-07:00

The next adventure has began with me moving to France next week to set up our operations in France. With new language and new culture in France, its exciting for me to experience this phase of my career!!!! Very soon I will move my blog to the website I am planning to host my blog....and many more updated will follow on my journey in France...

Mean while if any readers are in France, or have experienced France, please mail me at nagendra.s@gmail.com so that we can get to meet!!!!!

Where abouts of me now?

2008-06-16T04:05:00.000-07:00

Its long time that I had written, and I must really say that the time in B-School was awesome and you have so much that you can write, compared to the position I am in now. I am still with the same company ( :-) ) and will be completing an year next month. I have taken up a new role though, to be Business Manager of France. Will I move to France - May be!!

I thought I will write about Vijay, the ward officer in Pune whom I have interacted with, to get birth certificate of my little one. Contrary to the popular belief and perception that the Government employees are ineffective and are corrupted, I found Vijay extremely good in helping me get birth certificate without any issues in just 1 day. Salaam Vijay!!!!

Our Placement Report has been out and can be found in SBS website. The average is 65K GBP which is the highest so far in any B School history it seems. Its glad to know that my batchmates are placed in good positions all over the world with fantastic salaries.

An year into job, how does MBA helped me? well in one of my earlier posts if I have spoken about some areas which I put into practice, in the last few months, there are certainly other areas which I learnt doing MBA are coming handy!!

Arjun Yadav is the IRONMAN

2008-05-09T02:46:00.000-07:00

Have been watching IPL regularly as it just takes 3 hours from you and the matches are played from 8PM in the night, which mean you finish your work by that time. Though I am a cheer leader of Deccan Chargers, I must say I have lost hope now of them reaching semis, after their continuous flops. This guy Arjun Yadav who is supposed to be a specialist batsmen comes at No:8 after all rounder Sanjay Bangar which clearly shows the capabilities of this guy. He is really an Ironman as he was there in almost all matches Deccan Chargers played, despite of his poor performances and no shows in the field.

It is very clear that Politics in Indian cricket had reached its peak with Arjun Yadav who average a mere 28+ in first class cricket has got so many opportunities compared to Ravi Teja whose average is 48+ and who got no opportunities so far. Is really IPL useful for budding cricketers? Certainly yes for some players who had shown class so far in the tournament. But, its difficult to digest that players such as Laxman, Dravid, Ganguly, Venu Gopala Rao, Sunil Joshi, Anil Kumble etc.., are getting more opportunities to play than the youngsters. These guys are definite NO in one day cricket for India, and I dont see a reason why they keep on playing these games at the price of youngsters. I would vote for ICL as a real good test for youngsters than IPL for the sole reason that you get more opportunities in ICL and the conditions are totally different over there!!!

Is Indian IT Industry a Maturing or Declining industry?

2008-04-16T03:41:00.000-07:00

Apologies for calling IT as an industry, and let me restrict it to this discussion. Since a month or two, I have been observing that Indian IT companies are focused on reducing costs left and right, to sustain the profitability that they have been maintaining since few years now. With reducing dollar, uncertain financial services industry, increasing cost competition from large MNC's, its certainly not an intelligent guess to presume that the profitability will be maintained. Further, Indian IT is no more a darling to the Stock Markets.

Interestingly, I was reading a strategy related article written by some HBS grad about Maturing and Declining industry. It is in the declining industry that one will "harvest" and generate maximum cash flows from the business, in contrast to, maturing industry where it makes rational for a company to chose either to be a cost leader or differentiator. My observation is that most of the Indian IT companies are trying to be cost leaders rather than differentiators. And the approach is same across the company, rather than a differing strategy for each territory they work towards. I believe that a different strategy for a different territory will work better than having a common strategy across. USA and UK are pretty much maturing industries for outsourcing and offshoring, where as rest of Europe, Middle East and AsiaPac are still emerging industries. I would bet my money on a company which treats each market as different and act accordingly rather than reducing costs left and right across.

Blessed with a Baby Girl!!!!!!

2008-02-04T19:24:00.000-08:00

I am blessed with a baby girl today morning at around 3:00 Clock GMT. Both Mom and Baby are doing fine. Here are some of the snaps...

FT Business School Rankings

2008-02-04T02:51:00.000-08:00

Off late, I have checked the following link:

http://rankings.ft.com/global-mba-rankings

and was quite surprised to see that Michigan, Kellogg and Duke were not in Top 25!!!!!!

We are maintaining our 19th rank for couple of years now. I am happy to see that we are in Top 10 for CSR stuff, which school is really really good at.

My another surprise was to see ISB at 20. However, when I was checking details, I see some misrepresentation of numbers for ISB, which I have written below. I believe FT should check the stuff twice before publishing them as many of the prospects depend on these rankings to make a decision. I am just probing into ISB numbers here as I am well versed with Indian markets. I have same doubts about numbers of CEIBS, ESADE and IESE in Top 30 schools, as I believe they are more local in nature than international.

Here are the numbers I believe should be checked at:

1. Average Salary of ISB : 155,938 USD, Weighted Salary: 169,000

I guess this is just average for people overseas and might not represent the entire average of school. I cannot imagine an average of 6.2 million rupees in India for 2004 ISB passouts just for the fact that my company CEO is paid close to that salary, and ISB grads in my firm are not close so far to catch him up. Also, the average of this year's class is some 1.5 million INR which shows that the above said salary is at the best mis representation in a large way. This is definitely not an overall representation of the class since the overseas offers are around or less than 20% in every class.

(For information: highest salary that was offered in 2004 is 151,000 USD as per ISB (http://www.isb.edu/pgp/PlacementStatistics2004.Shtml))

2. Average increase of Pre to Post MBA salary: 129%

When you say Average Post MBA is 156,000 USD, your pre-MBA average would be 68000 USD. An Average of salary of 2.7 Million Rupees before getting into ISB is very difficult to imagine.

3. What is more surprising for me is to find that ISB tops salaries in Finance and Consulting compared to IT, where it is not even figuring in Top 10.

4. If school charges 40000 USD for MBA and the average salary is 156,000 USD after MBA, I dont see any reason why the value for money rank is 16 for ISB. It should be 1 without any doubts.

Putting it simply:

Numbers bring in perceptions. Perceptions will set expectations. I believe that these expectations will kill one's MBA experience. I have seen people facing this problem in my class and in general with other MBA's. For those who cannot manage their expectations, bottom line will be to get the above said salaries rather than to do other activities that could build them personally. Or putting it other way, people will think that if I do MBA from so and so school I need to get so much of salary other wise the school is not good!!!!!

Post MBA Salary is a major driver for many people doing MBA, and any misrepresentation there might mislead to a lot of frustration for those guys getting in because of these rankings!!!

Tail Piece:

Kellogg should have ISB as their alliance in their website than ISB having Kellogg, for simple reason that ISB is ranked 20th and Kellogg is ranked 28th!!!

Reviving the blog

2008-01-24T21:24:00.000-08:00

Its a long time that I posted. First of all, belated wishes for the new year to one and all. It was an exciting time for me in UK as I have been meeting many of my class mates and listening to their stories of where they are. Not surprisingly, every one got fantastic jobs and especially got into what they aspired to get into pre-MBA.

I met Seth again couple of days back and I must thank him for his continuous mentoring on me. Its very important for one to have a mentor to ensure that you can discuss the issues that you face at your office.

I wanted to share with you all one of my friends story, which was recently telecasted on NDTV.

Ishant - May your soul Rest in Peace. You are definitely an inspiration for many people.

http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/videopod/default.aspx?id=22630

I am hoping to get some exciting news soon!!! Will touch base soon!!!!
I

Back in Slough

2007-12-09T05:01:00.000-08:00

Its cold!!! But who cares? I am back in UK for couple of months on an assignment. An initial impression of this assignment tells me that it will be very similar to that of my Dell assignment earlier. Well, it doesn't make life tougher as I have already experienced Dell.

Its a good time to be in UK. All the streets were decorated tremendously for Christmas. I have missed out last time, but will be enjoying the Christmas this time in UK. I was interacting with some of our batch and I am pretty happy that most of them got jobs and are settling down. I am getting most of the queries on admission process etc., I am sorry that I was unable to reply some of the mails as I am caught up with other stuff. I recommend Pagalguy.com and yahoo groups such as IndiansatOxford for people who are looking to get into Said, as these covered most of the information. Good luck!!!

3 things that I learned during MBA that were useful now!!

2007-11-27T22:37:00.001-08:00

Well, last 6 months of the job was a quite an experience in it and I thought to share 3 things which I learned during MBA that are helping me to be more effective in my job.

Networking: Well, this is a huge buzz word among MBAs. But, I can clearly see that I am a better person to engage others in conversation now than I am ever before. How important it is?? Well, I cannot quantify it now, but I am sure will be able to do that very soon when things get going.

Financial Modeling: I always hated finance when I am at school. When I did a modeling recently, I had to go back and check our old slides from the classes that I attend. Surprisingly, Finance is not so bad :-) I could understand it much better when putting it in practise. This will definitely help me going ahead, when I start my own venture.

Outsourcing: Value or Cost!!! which is important is what I learnt from our IBGG classes at school. It definitely helped me so far in looking at things at a broader perspective. Needless to say this will translate to a much better relation with clients. Thank God that I am not confused between outsourcing and offshoring like many others in the industry.

The learnings of Dell assignment are enormous that I use them in most of the activities I do. So what next?? Let me wait and update!!!!!

Pune - MBA - Job

2007-10-31T05:39:00.000-07:00

Well, I was told a lot of things about Pune before I came here. What I found is it is just one another Indian city, which is growing fast without proper infrastructure. Not sure, when this vast growth of real estate ends, but what ever money you earn, will look like peanuts for sure. After spending an year in UK, and getting used to the life there, I am feeling like going back to UK would be good for me.

Yeah, I might be travelling in 3rd week of November back to UK. Finally the MBA results are out, and I am officially an MBA graduate now. So, the struggle of doing an MBA has ended. Does it?? Not really!!!! I need to repay my debts and see how good my MBA was. Before doing my MBA, I mentioned in my blog that I will update on whats my ROI. I will do that once I pay back teh stuff!!!

So whats happening with the job? Its a mixed bag. Some stuff is exciting and some stuff is boring. But, thats how most of the jobs would be. I am atleast now satisfied that I have options to do what I like rather than being a software junkie.

Why am I not posting regularly? Firstly I became lazy and secondly I became lazy. This month everything is gonna change and I promise myself that I will come back to my normal...i.e. being energetic.

Some one posted a comment on how many Indians and how many jobs in UK etc., etc., Tired of answering this, but for one last time. There were around 60 Indians in our class. By Indians, I mean of Indian origin. And most of them are staying back hunting for jobs. Most part of the class is reasonably placed by now. And as usual, I will say dont worry about these stats. The MBA should prepare you to be the best, it should not make you rely on placement office to get you a job!!!!!

Posting after a long time

2007-10-10T05:43:00.000-07:00

I certainly missed blogging for a long time now, but neverthless have enjoyed my last week at SBS, a vacation in South India and finally am back to work now.

Last week @ SBS was cool with the new Capstone course. Very late to write about this as the new batch might have already started working on some of the assignments in first place. It was exciting as well as surprising to understand more about Global Warming.

I have been to the Oval match where India trashed England by chasing 316. But, who will remember that after we won T20 WC?? I am very pleasued to start my holiday by watching all the matches of the worldcup.

I have visited Bangalore, Mysore and couple of surrounding places and it was a nice break after a gruelling year's work. I started working in Pune for an MNC as a Marketing Manager. I started working with them in UK in July and will be continuing to do so from Pune from this month. I am hoping to be back ASAP in UK though :-)

Last but not the least, my overall experience of Oxford is pending for quite some time. I will ensure that I will post it ASAP. Put it simply, I will give a rating of 7 out of 10 for my experience in Oxford. Will post soon about Oxford as well as my Post MBA job experience!!!!!

What will be exciting for me?

2007-09-04T04:16:00.000-07:00

Technology!!! Technology!!! Technology!!! Its every where...10 Years down the line I would definitely like to lead a start up in the technology space. A build up for it starts with my current marketing job. Though services is different from products, there is so much you can learn that you can replicate most of it. I was listening to some of the webinars yesterday about how to be an effective product manager. Its no different from the principles that I learnt during MBA. So what did I learnt during MBA?

Well, a lot. But, a few that I wont miss for life are:

- Convergence (the marriage of telecom, media and technology)
- Entrepreneurship - what it takes to be successful

These 2 struck me a lot and excited me, for which I reason I told I want to lead a tech start up in 5-10 years.

End of SCP

2007-08-28T09:42:00.001-07:00

Finally last friday we have presented our findings to Dell. It was a good experience to get a real feel of consulting. The work didn't excite me since its more of strateg (assumptions - ??) than operational issues. As an aspiring entrepreneur, I am more keen on understanding operations of a company than the strategy. I believe strategy is a key, but it in itself will not bring anything, unless one understands how to work it out operationally.

Another 2 weeks and its the end of MBA!!!! One year has gone by just like that. Great learning happened and good amount of relations formed. I will keep continuing the blog to update on whether my job will use my skills that I acquire doing MBA.

Back again!!!!!

2007-08-03T04:20:00.000-07:00

After a long gap of unable to update things regularly, I am back now with full access to internet. So whats happening these days??

Trinity results are out and I did managed to pass and get a decent percentage. This leaves just SCP and september session to finish the MBA. I still have a review of Oxford pending and I decided to do it next month once I finish my SCP and september session.

Dell is going good so far and we are planning to present our findings in 3rd week of August. So, some work is still pending on that end.

Played cricket for Hetairoi and looking forward for the match this week end as well. But, its difficult to play by taking long gaps.

On the jobs front, I have heard that many people have received offers off late - Ruzbeh, Sunil, Samuel, Sumit, Saif, Pawan, Sathya etc., Congrats for all of them.

Slough is good and better than Oxford in many terms. Firstly, its close to London and secondly its very cheap. I have been to Eastham last week and I suggest Indians@Oxford to pay a visit to eastham to get some good south Indian authentic food.

Logging off for now!!!

Disconnected!!!!

2007-07-06T12:18:00.000-07:00

I dont even remember the last time I am disconnected from Internet. And its hard to digest that I am not checking my mails every couple of hours!!! I am posting this from a internet cafe and its so damn difficult to do stuff without internet. The penetration of internet into our lives is so much that its a big commodity that one cant afford to take out.

I could not give a review on Oxford as promised since I havent prepared to type it now. I will probably do it in another 4-7 days and upload it next time I am connected!!!

Lotta work to do...c ya later

Exams week!!!

2007-06-25T01:42:00.000-07:00

Couple of exams to finish off Trinity in this week!!! Will come back after a week to review my entire Oxford experience during the three terms so far!!!

Till then enjoy this solid defense of mine with a game against OUCS (Oxford Uni Computing Services)

End of Trinity and Inter College Cricket League

2007-06-16T22:53:00.000-07:00

Well, the exams are still left, but the classes are all over on friday. Another 2 weeks and its almost end of my life at Oxford except for a week during september. Its very fast than you will realize that you are done with your MBA. Will be back again into corporate life soon.

Last week had seen my best performance in the season with the ball. My figures were 2/19(8 overs) vs Corpus, 3/8 (3 overs) vs St Catz and 1/25 (8 overs) vs Lincoln in 3 matches that I played in 3 Days. We won 2 out of those 3 which were crucial first eleven matches, but were left in the group at 5th place in the league

http://www.oxfordintercollegecricket.co.uk/First_X1_League_Tables.htm

Sad thing is that it happened because of rained off matches with comparitively weaker teams than us. In that list, we have beaten Magdalen and Lincoln which are above us. Being in Top 2, we would have been in the first league next year, but given that Linacre was not even in any of these 3 leagues few years back, this is the best performance of our college so far. I was happy with my batting as well scoring crucial 23 runs (N.O) vs Corpus when we were chasing 188 and were down 5 for 128 with 13 odd overs left. I liked that first Six I had hit of the season to won the match when we needed 1 run (a bit of Dhoni style :P)

I captured few pics during the end of the season and here are they:

All these pics are captured during the game I played for Hetairoi against Whitchurch cricket club

Dinner @ Christchurch

2007-06-08T03:49:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Rahul, I dined at the famous dining hall at Christchurch yesterday. The ambience was very good and that makes a complete Oxford experience. With just 3 weeks to finish the last term what more could I ask?

I had a solid last week that I have met 3 CEOs :) The first one of Symbian at his guest lecture at the school last week. He was very informal and its good to know how Symbian emerged in the late 90s to what are their plans for the future. The second one was of the firm that I might be joining. Leading a 4000 odd organization, he has a very cool head when I met him at his residence in London. I got to know clearly what the "Tag" besides the name of the firm really mean after meeting him. The third one was in the garage leading a start up which has gone through one phase of funding so far. A pretty Enterepreneurial, ambitious and energetic guy he is.

Cricket season is coming to an end, but I discovered Hetairoi club for which I can play my rest of life for. 8 Assignments in the next week!!! uff!! Let me get back to work!!!!!

End of Week 5, Trinity

2007-05-27T12:09:00.000-07:00

This week saw a loads of assignments for me..Now I am heading to couple of weeks which doesn't have many assignments. With only 3 weeks to finish the classes of Trinity, there is less activity at school and I am almost skipping every class. These 7-8 months went on very fast and I guess it will be same with rest of the SCP and September session.

As far as jobs go, I think around 10-15 Indians got jobs so far excluding chaps who already have sabbaticals. And as far as information I gathered around 35-40 students got jobs so far, again excluding sabbaticals. This is around 20% of the class and is a good number with 3.5 months still left to finish the MBA. I guess this will go up to around 80% by the end of the course as this is the period during which most of the activity happens.

KPN international and Rolls Royce are the two companies that are happening on the campus now...Logging off for now...

Dean's list, SCPs and Media Comm Summit

2007-05-19T01:34:00.000-07:00

One thing that excited me in the last couple of days is that I am named in the Dean's list. I am happy that school is watching all the moves that students make in deciding people in the dean's list. Frankly, I am not in the Top 10% in the class in terms of percentage in hilary term, but my active participation as chair of Technology OBN might have got me in there.

My team including me, Samuel, Somesh and Subrata got an offer from Dell for Consulting project. It is in bracknell and mostly we might accept it. Most of the SCP offers were out. Sampath will be going to Intel in US, Pawan and Gaurav will be working with Nokia in Finland and UK, Rahul and Ashish will be working with electro components in Oxford, Ruzbeh, Rakhi and Anuj are heading to work with SEB Merchant bank in Germany, Diptendu will work with Infineon in Germany, Ravi, Sumit, Shariq and Ashutosh will travel to Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and Newzealand for Infineum, Saptarshi and Murtaza will be working for Volkswagen and many more......I am not sure if I can reveal the names associated with each project, but I guess we will be starting an SCP experience blog soon, where I hope all of these will participate.

One thing I forgot to mention in the last post is about 3rd Intl. Media Comm summit that happened last Monday. I was not there for most of the session, but the one I attended was good with more videos loaded, as it was from VP, Corporate Alliances of Disney. There were delagates flown from US and incoming students should mark their calendars next year for this. This year's theme was customer experience and Amdocs sponsored the event, with their clients AT & T, Sprint, Virgin etc., attending it.

India Vs Pak Match, Dell SCP, Seth's session, Hilary results and more....

2007-05-16T01:20:00.000-07:00

Last week end saw an exciting match b/n India and Pakistan societies in Oxford. With so much of rain, we played a 20-20 and as you guessed, India won the match by 16 runs. Batting first, we score 99/9 in 20 overs and Pakistan finished their 20 overs at 83/8. Such a great game it was in a pathetic weather...

Our team was offered Dell SCP and we need to decide whether we are going to work with Dell this summer or not!!! So many things around I will update in my next post whats happening on this...

Seth Nesbitt, an alumni of school and VP Marketing at Amdocs visited school last friday on my invitation to speak with students. We had a fantastic session and he outlined us all the possibilities of a career in Product companies. I have discussed with him about a possibility of Summer Internship and I must say that I am getting better and better options as days are passing by...

Hilary results are out and I am a pass..I have not checked my marks sheet, but found that most of the students have passed...I met Country Manager of the firm which has given me an offer and we had a very good discussion on future plans of the firm. Pretty excited, but waiting on for negotiations to complete, to accept the offer....I had an interview with one another firm yesterday which also went decently well....

Somebody asked about my ROI calculations...After MBA its NPV calculations now :) Anyways, I have not touched on that part as I wanted to come back to that only after I finish off my loan...you never know about salary which can even double, triple or quadraple in an year....so let me come back on to that once I finish repaying my debts, as I feel its too early to look at that....

Back on to loaded assignments..see you all later....

Offer made!!!

2007-05-07T23:39:00.000-07:00

Finally, an offer is made by an Indian IT firm in business development role, most likely I am going to accept it....Now I am slightly skeptical over taking SCP or withdrawing from it. I have an interview with Dell today and might be my last one regarding SCPs. I have already decided to pull out of Intel!!

Stelios, founder of Easy group will be at school tomorrow giving a seminar. I might not go because of prior commitments. Have been enjoying cricket so far!!! Will come back with more information soon...

Oxford smashed Cambridge

2007-04-29T22:37:00.000-07:00

Oxford had smashed Cambridge on the MBA sports day (atleast in the cricket we literally smashed them) on saturday. Takashi had grabbed some of the pictures and here are they:

http://picasaweb.google.com/takashi.forester/2007_04_28MBASportsDay?authkey=Ssfip6AKZTM

I umpired the cricket match (on the field for 40 overs!! huh!!). We batted first and scored 240 in 20 overs. It was a treat to watch Murtaza being on the field, who scored 149 with 8 sixes, very similar to what Gilchrist did on the same day with Srilanka :-) Cambridge were all out for some 70 odd, thanks to Aditya who had taken 4 wickets. Yesterday, I played for Oxford India Society against University club and we had a wonderful wonderful match. We managed to get 218 and were all out before 40 overs. It was so easy ride for us till 20 overs when the score of Univ club read 75/8. And then 9th wicket partnership of 100+ had taken the match so close and finally we were able to wrap it up on the last ball of the match with 3 runs. I was on the field for close to 100 overs in both the matches on week end and will be for another possible 150 overs in these 3 days as I am playing for Linacre on the trot on today, tomorrow and the day after.

Really this is a fantastic Oxford experience and I must say, the college grounds and facilities are world class (after all, I am also diving in the field) and its so good to play. Incoming Oxonians, dont forget to plan for this season (plan now with some cricket wear and plan for your electives to not clash with matches).

On the other hand, I had couple of interviews with couple of firms, and our team lost Infineon SCP. I applied for Intel now and need to see gow it goes. Wipro presented on the campus last friday and I must say the presenter is really good and one can easily make out why Infy, Wipro and Tata are top class companies in the world.

Consolidation of Semi Conductor Industry

2007-04-25T23:44:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I attended a speach by Dr Ek Thorsten Heyen, VP of Strategy and M & A at Infineon on consolidation happening at the semi conductore industry. It was a good one to understand the drivers of semi conductor industry and the changing landscape. The Asian domination in gathering this pie of the business is clearly visible from his speach as well as the direction towards which industry is moving. On the other side, our bid has been shortlisted by Infineon and we will have an interview today regarding SCP. Dell did a presentation yesterday and it looks promising too.

The first match of the season was awry with Linacre losing to St. Catz by 110 runs. Batted first, st. Catz score 185 or so and we were all out for 75. My contribution was meagre as well as I was unable to field for entire 40 0vers of the game due to fitness problems. I have given away some 25 runs in 4 overs and scored 8 runs before being out LBW :( Probably my first LBW of my career. Now concentration is on Cuppers first match that will be played on Monday.

British Summer - Other side of Oxford

2007-04-18T04:05:00.000-07:00

Oxford is so wonderful since couple of weeks as I am able to roam around in my sandals rather than shoes. Its so good to see sun setting at 9 PM and the temperatures hitting 20 degrees. Walk around port meadow and you can see an altogether different place, thanks to summer. I have been to a park from port meadow (forgotten the name of the park), which is like a small forest with dense shrubs and trees and what not!!!

And not to forget the Cricket season beginning. Linacre had so many games lined up and we had our first practise session last week. I have been playing cricket at SBS, thats more of a kids game with tennis ball practise. Its tiring last week to have practised with cricket ball. And we have nets today!!!!

Trinity's classes are starting from this friday for me. This will be another busy term with SCP presentations and assignments and importantly job search. I am already missing first match of Linacre next wednesday because of Infineon presentation. And to clarify a few, the situation of placements is no different in other leading schools such as Insead and LBS, as being informed by students of respective schools to SBS students, at a recently concluded competition at Insead.

Summer Consulting Projects

2007-04-08T01:36:00.000-07:00

The busy times started again with the listing of consulting projects. So far around 30 projects were listed and 22 more are supposed to be listed soon. Though the description of projects cannot be revealed for the confidentiality issues, I guess I can discuss about the names of the firms which offered projects. EBay has listed 2 projects which are based at Germany, Intel has got one based at US, Infineon has got one at Germany, Infosys has one at Bangalore, Cognizant has got one at London etc., These are the ones that I focused on as they are IT firms. Others which looks impressive were Volkswagen, Nokia, Walt Disney, NY City, China mobile etc.,

Dell and Cisco are underway as far as I know, which means we might not run short of projects in IT sector. Trinity is going to start in a week and it promises to be another busy term with so many SCP presentations and assignments.

On the other side, I have been to London couple of days back and visited London eye, London tower and Aquarium. London tower is the one that I will suggest any visitor to visit first (atleast we have our own kohinoor there to watch). And its easy to make out from my trip on why London and UK, in general are why referred as costly places to be in.

My previous post on Placements

2007-04-03T17:08:00.000-07:00

hmm!! I am not sure if I have sounded that negative with my post that lot of people pinged me to find out if the post is REAL NEGATIVE. I have just checked a thread in BW forums to compare between Ox and Cam job offers after MBA, based on my previous post. My intention was to just to inform incoming students about how they are going to get job offers rather than whether they are going to get job offers or not!!!!!

In a nutshell, my previous post means that you need to do good amount of networking to get your dream job rather than relying on careers services. And people comparing US schools and Insead to mention things are great there. Keeping all the hype aside, I am very curious if people who are mentioning this enquired about Indian nationals or foreign nationals in those US schools or Insead. Particularly, I am very curios to know how many Indians in US are sponsored H1s by companies to stay back or how many people in Insead are sponsored work permits by any firms. The REAL TRUTH is that very few people would have been sponsored visas to work with them. Infact I have been rejected by 3 firms so far though they liked my profile because they want to take it forward only after I get my HSMP.

And again, the quality of education, the brand, the networking opportunities etc., take a front seat for me than job offers. Ofcourse careers data is important but not to an extent to override others. And my experience just means that you need to work hard to grab that dream job rather than just selling on school's brand. Think of it: Do you wanna sell yourself or do you want school to sell you?, do you just wanted to contact HRs with the help of careers service or do you want to contact the REAL PERSON whom you will be working with, with the help of a networking opportunity??

And there are no free riders....Either its US B School or UK B School or IIMs or ISB or what ever, your experience is very important and your one year's MBA will not change what you are in the past.

Hope I am clear now as I complete my century (100 posts)

End of Hilary and Information on Placements

2007-03-23T13:58:00.000-07:00

Finally, exams were completed today and its the end of Hilary. Though we have couple of assignments due, I will be finishing everything by this week end. Except for Financial Management, there were no big surprises in the exams. Since a lot of people who got admissions in Oxford are now in a phase where they are taking a decision to pay initial deposit to confirm their admission, based on many requests in mails, I am here with sharing my experiences about career management that you can do while you are at SBS. Disclaimer is that these are my PERSONAL VIEWS.

First things First: There are some prerequisites that one need to work on before they arrive here at SBS:
1. Decide on what career path you want to take - You have only 1 year and if you are jumbling across Management Consulting or Investment Banking or Industry once you come here, you will be left soon without any options and in a complete chaos.
2. My advise is to not change your sector. I know 90 out of 100 will say, then why do MBA? First of all I wanted you to ask yourself why change sector? MC or IB are so sexy because there is a lot of money that once can earn. But, be practical. On an average people coming to SBS are having an average experience of 6 years. If you work for 6 years in a particular sector then why change your sector and reduce your value in the market? If you work in the Industry and wanted to move to MC, you might have some probability of getting in. If you are from IT and getting into a 1 year program to work in MC firms, I would say you have chance of 1 out of 100. What ever crap MC companies boast about their process, the fact is that they are least bothered about people worked in IT as IT people dont carry industry experience with them .
3. Be prepared with your CV even before you come to Oxford. Start working on your CV right from Aug - Sep.

What to do once you are here:
If you have less experience (till 4 years), try Analyst jobs at MC or IB firms. Most of the activity for this will happen during first term at the University, with no involvement from SBS. Now, big problem for people is to apply for these jobs is that egos come into play that we are MBAs, then why apply with graduates. In UK what I saw was that a lot of firms look at graduates and post graduates at the same level (by Post Grads, I mean Masters other than MBA). Only few firms have special entry points for MBAs, but if you have experience in other sector and wanted to move across, applying to Analyst roles will be a best option than competing with other MBAs who might have experience in relative fields

What can you expect from school:
The Opportunities to network. There will be innumerous events that will be happening. Some may help you and some may not. In general, I observed that if you are looking at Finance and Entrepreneurship you will have many options that you can work on. The events related to others are relatively lesser in number

What should I do if nothing is happening in sector I wish to work
Leverage the brand of Oxford and you start doing things on your own. After all we have so much experience and maturity that one need not spoon feed us every thing.

So, does this mean that careers service do nothing?
Well, they will coordinate and do their best to help you to get any contacts in the firms that you are looking for.

What about companies coming to campus?
A lot of firms come and present only to give a corporate pitch. They will ask you to apply online typically. SBS is working with companies to have a specific recruitment for SBS students. Few companies do come to campus and do the interviews. Recent examples are P&G, Std Chartered and Tech Mahindra. But, this activity is low.

What about Judge, Manchester, LBS, Insead etc.,
As far as I understood by interacting with current students at all these schools, I found that things are more or less similar. The main problem is that most of the firms dont have an MBA program in place. BT is an example on what happens if a firm has specific program for MBAs. US is better comparitively because they have these programs.

So what do you say finally?
I would say MBA is beyond placements. I personally believe this way of getting jobs helps one to develop his skills better. At the maximum, any careers service can get you contacts in a firm to send your CV and the rest is on you to get that job. I believe only 5-10% of effort is needed in getting that contact and so I personally dont mind whether I am receiving that from careers and doing it myself

Whats happening?

2007-03-16T03:40:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned earlier, the term was so busy that we are reaching the climax with exams in next week. I am sorry that I am unable to respond to lot of mails that I received because of the time pressure with a lot of activities that needs to be taken care of.

I met up with Graham Webster, Sr VP of O2 and had a fantastic session with him on how his career progressed and what were the lessons he learnt. The most important take aways for me from the session is that he learnt a lot from his customers. Typically we always wanted to learn from our sub ordinates, bosses or some leaders we admire. Once we are in a relationship we always will be in a mode of serving them well and most of the time act as if we like them a lot. But, honestly one can learn a lot from the customers is the argument that Graham had stating an instance when he worked woth Tesco management during Tesco Mobile JV that O2 worked on. As he was an alumni from LBS, the session was more important in terms of expectations management one need to work on, right after MBA. All in all, had a wonderful time with him. Though I might not apply to O2 for a misfit of my profile, I had a lot of take aways after I met him.

Entrepreneurship project is also reaching a climax with only submitting business plan being pending. We did presentation exceptionally well yesterday that we have hopes coming out as the best team of SBS to go to Texas for Moot Corp competition. But, again you never know what are other people's plans and how their presentations have been. Keeping fingers crossed on this.

Time to read some stuff to get rid of 'em by next week. Signing off!!

Fantastic Anjan

2007-03-01T00:22:00.000-08:00

Mindtree's Exec VP and Head of Europe, Anjan Lahiri visited school yesterday and talked about "Managing a Business in Crisis". It was a fantastic session and I am very happy for tw0 reasons, firstly for the best session I attended so far at SBS for the kind of knowledge I extracted from it (and in fact its the same opinion for a lot of people who came to session) and secondly, it was my initiative to invit Anjan for this session which certainly paid off. This re-emphasizes my belief on Mindtree's Top Management which I believe is THE BEST in the Indian IT industry now. The way he had shown energy and the experiences he shared on how they struggled hard in 2001 during IT slowdown was truly amazing to hear.

There were some key take aways from the session yesterday:

One specific quote, "We have to do what is right for us...not what others are doing" from Ashok Soota during one of their meetings when they started the firm shows the FOCUS they have on what they were doing.

Other Key points Anjan mentioned were:
-- Believe in urself...in ur team...absolutely...blindly
-- If you can work completely COMPLETELY without an ego, you have won 98% of the battle
-- Communication has to be a Key Strategy
-- Collect Info like a Maniac...but act on only 2% of it
-- Mgt Philosophy..NOT "If Tomorrow comes" BUT "Tomorrow will come"
-- No Matter what happens, define & report on quarterly and annual goals...Reviews are the bedrock of Management

Our program of inviting and meeting leaders of the Industry is definitely paying off.

On other fronts, I visited Loreal UK Headquarters tuesday to celebrate our success in eStrat business competition. We had opportinity to explore about careers in Loreal as well as got some goodies in terms of perfumes and all. I dont see a good fit for myself in Loreal in all the functions, except for Operations. Hmm, I am leaving it to time for this decision to be taken on whether to apply to Loreal or not. I interviewed with Tech Mahindra yesterday. Kiron Gupte, Sr. VP of Tech M had taken interview and he was a very cool guy and it was a more of a discussion rather than an interview.

We are almost at the end of Week 7 and so many assignments and the Hellary term is closing up very fast. We still have 6 assignments due in the term as well as 6 exams to follow and the entrepreneurship presentations to be made :) Wanna grab a job ASAP and take a refreshing break in Easter...Let me see how it goes!!!

Hilary - Hellary

2007-02-26T00:22:00.000-08:00

I heard of some one saying Hilary term as "Hellary". With so many assignments to do, so much of job hunt to do, so many guest lectures to attend and so many.....The list can go on and on...we have entrepreneurial project on top of all these to complete....and we are now so close to complete the term......Every one is on job hunt now and the most happening companies in the tech community are BT, Google and Tech Mahindra. BT has invited few people for 2nd round and I am glad to be one of them. They are doing 2nd round for most of the chaps at school in March 2nd week, but I opted out of it as I thought of taking more time and do it after exams.

Google is hiring for many roles and I got a call from Google India for Tech Account Manager role. They have sent me a questionairre to fill on my tech skills, which I was wondering on how this data helps. Tech M is suppose to do campus hiring this week. A Bunch of deadlines were over last week and there were a bunch this week as well such as Standard Chartered. From Science and Tech OBN, we are meeting people in the Industry to get a first hand feel of what kind of roles these people perform. As a part of this we met Stephen Moss, Managing Consultant of Logica CMG last week. The meet went really well and he explored us to various opportunities for us at Logica. This week is more happening for me as I am moving to Loreal tomorrow to celebrate our success in eStrat competition and I invited Anjan Lahiri, Exec VP and Head of Europe at Mindtree to speak at school this wednesday. And with few more assignments to submit, its all more work - no play for few more weeks.

Impression about Cambridge

2007-02-16T00:46:00.000-08:00

I have been to Ox-Cam fair yesterday at Judge Business School, Cambridge. As I have read earlier Cambridge is a village and I feel better when I was back at Oxford. The business school literally doesn't look like a business school at all. Some one told me that it was an hospital earlier and they are still operating there. But with 15 years of background for the business school, its hard to imagine that they are still running that kind of place. Anyways, that was not my core focus yesterday and I thoroughly enjoyed talking people from various companies. Especially I spent more time with Cognizant, Tech Mahindra, Accenture, Deloitte and Cap Gemini as I am impressed with what they were offering. A bunch of deadlines are today. Google, Bain , Tech Mahindra's deadlines are today. But, Tech M moved it to next week to let people more time to apply.

And I completed 2 years of blogging now. I celebrated my bday and marriage day this year with our entrepreneurial project mates sunil, gaurav, ruzbeh and rahul last sunday. Its hard to take out some time with Hectic schedule of Hilary. Looking back on what I posted in these 2 years, I posted hell lot of things, which some people might have thought what the crap am I posting. But, it all boils down to the fact that I don't know the definition of Blogging. Be it good or bad, I wanted to write my own diary which can help me in future to look back and learn how matured or immatured I am at all stages of my life.

Professor Jaswant Singh

2007-02-07T19:07:00.000-08:00

Professor Jaswant Singh was there in Oxford yesterday giving a talk on India's current affairs and what he foresees as potential challenges. If you are wondering who he is, he is none other than India's ex-Defense Minister, ex-Finance Minister and ex-Foreign affairs minister. He is currently a visiting professor at Oxford and it was good to listen to his experiences when he was sitting at the office. He certainly dont want to be called as Prof. and wanted to be called as an ex-Army guy. There were questions ranging from "why their party have not won elections" to "India-China relations" and he answered them very patiently. One good thing I extracted from the whole thing is him mentioning about how powerful an idea can make a person. He mentioned that a good idea is more powerful than someone sitting in the PM office. And he was very honest to mention that "When I was 28, I resigned from Army (meaning I wont get even pension now) in an illusion that I have all the answers for all problems facing India". This is certainly true and I see a lot of resemblances in the thinking pattern of youth now as well.

On other hand, we had Citigroup and Roland Berger presentations in last couple of days. Citigroup sounds very ambitious of their plans to ramp up EMEA operations and it sounds very promising. I have come in contact with Mark who is one of the Oxford alumni and in one of the prominent positions in the IT industry. He sounds very intellectual in advising me on my career front. Good to see things happening in a positive way. Next week will all be busy with Ox-Cam fair in Cambridge. Looking forward to explore Cambridge a bit and see the difference what it makes from Oxford!!

First Term Results Out!!!!

2007-02-03T01:21:00.000-08:00

Michaelmas results are out yesterday and I did well in exams compared to group assignments in 5 out of 6 subjects. My percentage puts me in race for a distinction, but I need to get 6 individual 70s, which I have not started yet. This reminded me of my engineering where I got 69.98%, just 1 mark short of distinction. After 4 years of gruelling course, I lost distinction by just 1 mark. That way, I now least bother about losing distinction by couple of marks in couple of subjects this term. First Class was there for me anyway if not distinction!!!

Good news is that we reached Semi Finals of Loreal eStrat. We stood 3rd in our Zone and need to beat the other 2 in this round to reach the finals, which will be played at Paris in Loreal HQ. Cesar and Diego, my other partners are very enthu to go and beat the others to reach the finals.
We had Spectrum and Booz Allen presentations in last couple of days. Spectrum had a lot of focus on TMT and looks like they were looking for people specialized in TMT. Booz Allen is quite impressive and I need to prepare a strong case for them.

Mean while our Entrepreneurial project is becoming more and more interesting with interesting discussions. Our team myself, Ruzbeh, Sunil, Rahul and Gaurav is looking to grab the SBS venture fund of 50000 GBP by throwing in our idea. With a lot of things happening around, the term is becoming more and more intensive. But, thats how life that I have chosen is!!!

And there was snow

2007-01-26T12:39:00.000-08:00

The changes in the last week in the weather was followed by a snow fall couple of days back. Its fantastic to experience it for the first time. At the same time its pathetic to ride a bike to the school with so much of cold. Good thing is that, the temperature is increasing after the snow fall and after a long time, I felt the heat today.

The heat is really on the other side as well since there were couple of presentations this week which reminds me again and again to grab an offer as soon as possible so as to enjoy Oxford better. Bain and BT were the one which were on campus and I have my first round of interview scheduled with BT on Feb 12th. On the other side, our team OxBlues is doing better in Loreal eStrat and I am pretty confident that we will reach the Semi Finals as we are placed No:2 in the Zone 1 now. Being so close gives us a better chance to reach finals as well. I am pretty happy to see Cognizant and Tech Mahindra lined up to recruit at Oxford. Indian companies really are going places. Way to go!!!!

English Weather

2007-01-18T10:02:00.000-08:00

15th Jan - A Chilly cool Day
16th Jan - A Nice Sunny Day
17th Jan - A Rainy Day
18th Jan - A Windy Day

Well, its getting worser day by day. I was unable to ride my bike today because of the strong winds.

http://content-ind.cricinfo.com/england/content/current/story/276833.html - This article means that I am better off riding my bike as I am not hit by any roofs. The weather was so unpredictable since I came here that you generally wont feel to go out. It was 0 Degrees during November and now its around 10-11 degrees. I am unable to figure out when did winter started.

How ever, nothing else is so unpredictable in the school and the Booz-Allen's Crack-A-Case session yesterday was good to throw some inputs on handling case interviews. Its time for me to operate gears and speed up my applications this term.

Back with a Bang!!!!!

2007-01-14T21:17:00.000-08:00

Its long time that I posted on my blog. After a horrible assignment week which followed by exams, I have taken a 3 week vacation in India and back in Oxford now with renewed energy to take on the Hilary term which starts today.

I spoke to lot of people while in India, who had questions about my experience so far. Here is my small review of the first term at Oxford and my experience as a whole:

In terms of Careers: Well this is the first question in every one's mind and let me start with this. There were around 120 companies that visited Ox Univ Campus in the first term. Having said that, they are not specific to school (not specifically looking for MBAs) but you can attend them if you wish to network and wish to know more about companies. Most of the finance companies visited School in the first term exclusively for MBAs and MFEs. First term is meant for Finance companies and Second term is meant for Consulting companies. So, if you are targeting Finance first term is the one you need to be prepared at. If you are looking for a career shift, you should be prepared to get in as an analyst.

In terms of Academics: Not to worry about this part as every one knows what Oxford brand is famous for. I liked Financial Accounting the most followed by Decision Science. There were loads of assignments followed by exams which will keep you busy through out the term. Expect to work more so as not to get surprised when you are here. Typically assignments comprises of 60% marks and exams of 40% marks. Class work will be 21 hours per week. And most of the time will be spent with your study groups to discuss the assignments as most of them were group work.

In terms of Others: Well there are lots of other stuff which you can do while you are here. Specifically, I wanted to throw my opinions on Diversity, Networking, Events & Entrepreneurship, Other Stuff. Diversity is what you get every where. Go to college and find people who are studying subjects ranging from Arts to Humanity to Environment to Theology. In the school, you find people from wide backgrounds ranging from doctors to Producers to engineers to CAs to what not!!! The ages range from 22 to 42 and you can find people from Japan to India to Africa to Americas. Well, this is the typical environment you will find in the growing multi national corporations and its absolutely necessary for you to learn how to work with them all. Coming to networking part, Ox will provide you lot of oppurtinities in terms of bringing senior practioners to the school, conducting panel discussions from people in the Industry etc., In addition to these, Oxford Business Networks (OBNs) are the another way to interact with the alumni in the area you are interested in. Events and Entrepreneurship is what I enjoyed most so far here. If you are looking for entrepreneurship (whether normal or social), this is the place to be in. You will be connected to scientists as well as VCs so many times that, if you have genuine business idea you can definitely start it. The events so far are good which brought many industry leaders to the school. Apart from all these, you can enjoy the college bops and play some sports, do salsa if you can adjust your schedules.

All in All, I rate Oxford at 8/10 and I am completely satisfied with the way things are shaping up here. One might ask me what are the negatives of the school and I would say they are very minor and negligible. I had an oppurtinity to dine with Dean and I communicated the negatives to him, on which he promised a positive action, where ever possible.

All the Very Best to the next batch and I promise that I will blog continuosly in the busy terms ahead as well to help people who wanted to find out more about the happenings at the school.

Silicon Valley Comes to Oxford

2006-11-23T03:33:00.000-08:00

One of the most anticipated events at SBS, the Silicon Valley comes to Oxford happened this monday. There were quite a number of executives from a lot of companies in Silicon Valley who attended it. I attended master classes from Chris Sacca, Head of Special Initiatives of Google and Tom Esselman, Founder of Altran Holdings Inc., USA. Sacca's Session was amazing and you can good insights into Google and what they value. Tom's session was around Innovation in Science and Engineering. He is also professor of this subject at Harvard University and it was interesting to get to know about the challenges that one can face to do problem solving with Scientists and Engineers.

The master classes followed by the Panel Discussion which was attended by Matt Cohler (VP Strategy & Business Operations, Facebook), Reid Hoffman (CEO, Founder LinkedIn), Allen Morgan (Managing Director, Mayfield ) and Chris Sacca. It was moderated by Jonathan of FT and we had an interesting discussion on Colloboration which included blogging, the network sites et all. I had an oppurtinity to dine with these executives at Oriel college later. I had a chance to have a detailed discussion with Kevin Waudby, Head of Innovation at Cancer research institute UK and Villy Wang of Baycat. All in all it was a fruitful day with a lot of insights into various things and this will be/was an amazing oppurtinity for budding entrepreneurs.

On the other end, the time is running up and we will be completing our first term next week. I am able to get some 60s and 65s in the assignments, which are not bad enough considering that most of the scores in the class are around 60s and 70s. The exams are due starting Dec 11th finishing on Dec 14th. I will be taking a long break from Dec 19th to Jan 12th in India.

End of Week 5

2006-11-13T10:53:00.000-08:00

Have been busy off late and there was a big lag in the updation of the blog :)

A lot of activity is happening as usual. Am getting ready for exams due in Dec 2nd week marking the end of Michaelmas. So surprised that term is getting over so early. Time is running fast & fast & fast &....

Here are some of the snaps over this period:

MBA Class of 2007 in Sub Fuscs for a group photo - what a wondeful view is that?

One more view of same!!!!

Yes, this is Lecture Theatre - 5 one of our lecture theatres

Preparing for the group photo!!!

A Closer look!!!

Here is our beautiful lawn. We played cricket here last week end in preparing for MBA Olympics

hmm...Camp fire @youlbury that I went with Scouts and Guides in Oxford..

People enjoying the fire in the winter...

Here is a scary photo of us in youlbury before setting up fire!!!

End of Week 3

2006-10-29T09:57:00.001-08:00

Time has been running very fast and I couldnt believe that we are almost done on half of the term. It has been very tiring as well as exciting so far. To start on where I left on the blog, the Software Entrepreneurs was a very good oppurtinity for us to meet some of the great leaders. I was able to catch up with Pat House, Co-Founder of Siebel for a lot of time. She was very down to earth and she discussed with us on how she started Siebel, why she started Siebel, what are her plans going on, her career before siebel etc., Its really exciting to find out how one should tap at the oppurtinity. I hosted Charlie Muirhead (Founder of Nexagent, www.nexagent.com). He is one another great entrepreneur out of a bunch that came on that day. He is very open on discussing what things one require to be successful as an entrepreneur. His success is a best example of what he told us. Met few more who had some good food for thoughts.

Oxford Alumni meet at Deutche Bank HQ in London is one another event that I attended this week. It was a good experience to meet some successful alumni and to learn what they would have done differently in the school, looking back. They had shared their experiences on job search and Summer Consulting Project. It was more of finance focussed, but I would say it added a little value to me as well.

I attended the presentations of Diamond Consultants and IBM at the business school. These were pretty much the beginning of the Consulting presentations. I happened to meet some of the prospective MBAs at the first open day of the year which was held last friday.

India-Pakistan community's Eid celebration with a good dinner was a kind of star of the week. Getting good food is looking finding Oasis in the desert for me now.

This week has a deadline of selecting electives for the next term. Though I havent spoke much about whats happening in the class, I have been spending close to 6-8 hrs on an average per day for class work. We have submitted 4 assignments so far which will be assessed. Our group got 60% in the first assignment which is not bad of a first attempt. People targeting for distinction might find this hard, but not me :)

Here are few snaps to look at:

Dinner during Alumni meet @ Deutche Bank, London

The Logo of Deutche embedded beautifully :)

Archit at the Deutche Reception moving out

One of the speakers at Software Entrepreneurs event delivering a speech

Alumni delivering speech at the meet in London

Charlie Muirhead giving some gyan at the Software Entrepreneurs event

Pat House was sitting in the middle when another entrepreneur was delivering some gyan

The Market on wednesday at Gloucesters Green

Wondering whats this?? This is how Air Traffic network will be during the day time

Another view of the Market

Matriculation Ceremony

2006-10-19T00:39:00.000-07:00

Was very late in updating this which happened 4 days back. I dont say that I havent had time, I admit that I am a bit lazy here :) Time, yes its really a constraint, but picking up on this. I dont want time to dominate what I do.

Back to Business, whats matriculation?? Hmm, as far as I understand its a way of university welcoming all the new graduates. Unless until you are a part of this ceremony you cannot call yourself as a part of Oxford. So, now I am officially part of Oxford :)

Why its so special?? You will be wearing the sub fusc for this. whats that? its better to check that in the photos yourself than me explaining about this. THIS IS TRADITIONAL OXFORD that havent changed since 800 years.

And then we had a matriculation Bop (Party is called as Bop in Oxford) which was crowded by even other college people as our college is the only one which had this party in the town. And people who are looking to come to oxford and finding it difficult to chose the college, Go Linacre. Its the best in terms of food it serve and the bops it organize.

Week 2 was as strenous as week one. we had assignments which will be assesed for our degree like in wek one. I have enjoyed the Financial reporting class by Tomo and getting used to classes now.

On the careers side, I have attended Mercer Management Consulting presentation and I am certainly impressed with them. We had a management consultancy fair yesterday and the companies whom I met are : Accenture, IBM, Marakon, Mckinsey, Bain, BCG, Booz Allen Hamilton, Diamond, Ernst and Young, Monitor Group, LEK Consulting, LECG, MMC, Price water House Coopers, PA Consulting, OC and C Strategy, Roland Berger, SG2, Spectrum, ZS Associates and let me stop here. There are few more which I cannot recollect. Had a load of information now which I need to analyze and decide which ones to apply and when to apply.

At school, we had a presentation by ABN AMRO yesterday and JP MORGAN couple of days back. Again I have not attended as I was not targetting Banking.

Ok, let me leave here as I have some thing else to attend. Here are few of the snaps attached:

Myself at Sheldonian Theatre dressed in Subfusc on the way to Ceremony

In the Sheldonian Theatre

People waiting for Vice Chancellor of Oxford to come and conduct the ceremony

One more view of it

Ha, a better view

Here is the vice chancellor giving a brief speech

People on their way to take their seats

Linacre college students rushing into Sheldonian

The Sheldonian at the Bodlean library

The MBA gang @ Linacre - why is this underlined?? Dont have time to change the settings now

Parson, Suman and myself before matriculation

The long queue outside sheldonian

Megagbhomestudio - Telugu Original Tune

2006-10-15T15:23:00.000-07:00


One of Megastar's fans doing an own music composition. This is too good that I am posting it here. Here is his description of his work: Megagbhomestudio comes up with a Stunning Original classical - Creation is Fun. Creative labs You can wish him @ megagbhomestudio@yahoo.com

Week One - a Quick Review

2006-10-13T14:52:00.000-07:00

In a nutshell, I had a taste of what lies ahead. The schedules will be jam packed and its difficult to get your priorities right if you cant plan properly.

So, whats week 1?? hmm its a notation followed by Oxford. They break the year into 3 terms: Michaelmas, Hilary and Trinity. Michaelmas is the first term and it will be run during week 1 to week 8. week 9 is for revision and week 10 is for exams. And the same will repeat for the other 2 terms as well. So, this is what I called as the week one in the heading. So, theoritically completed 12.5% of the first term already!!!!

what was good?? The Decision Science lecture was the best so far with the professor being as cool as umpire billy bowden in his style. Having said this, other professors are also very cool and jovial in the class, which I havent expected with the degrees and the knowledge they have. After all they are teaching at Oxford!!! huh!!!

I have been to Hindu community meet and had some good free samosa, pani puri etc., Good break from the junk thing I am cooking daily.

And the important one for lot of people who are targetting SBS, the Careers. Contrary to the perception about the UK market and the oppurtinities that SBS provide, there is a hell lot of activity happening over here. Only thing every one is worried is its timing. You really need to be ready when you start here.

Week One activity in Careers:
Presentations by Lehmann Brothers, Bear Sterns and Barclays Capital in the business school.

Apart from the business school, a lot of activity happens in Oxford, thanks to the active Univ careers office. There have been presentations from Bain Consulting, Shell, Price waterhouse coopers, Newton Consulting, UBS this week. There is a big Consulting fair coming up this wednesday.

Not much of photos, as I am tied in the classes most of the time, but here are few. I promise I will get some cool ones with the MATRICULATION happening tomorrow.

The Asian Dancing troop introducing themselves. They are the ones who are standing in the right.

HUM - Hindu society meet @ Oxford

The Hindu committe team explaining about Divali event they are planning to conduct

Hmm, a Gift I received from St Catherines Church

Ceillidh @ Linacre

2006-10-07T02:33:00.000-07:00

Whats it like being @ Oxford?? Hmm, you can see the Traditional as well as Westernized events here. Yesterday I have been to Ceilidh (Call it as Kay-lei-dh) where I tapped foot for some scottish style of dances. This is followed by a western style party @ common room. I met my mentors, current students, freshers and a lot many. I dont know how much time I will be getting to go to college events once I start my classes next week.

Back @ School, I have attended Science and Technology and Management Consulting OBNs (Oxford Business Networks, formed by students of the class to coordinate events and arrange what ever that is required related to that specific sector/industry/function). I will be investing more time in Science and Tech (Part of 5 people chair committe of this OBN) and just participating in MC OBN.

Had a nice cool weather since couple of days with rain on and off

Here are some snaps that I captured during last couple of days:

I met Ashish at Linacre bar yesterday. BTW the above one is Linacre bar at the college. He is doing D Phil @ Oxford. I have met a lot of doctors at college neverthless

One more photograph of crowded linacre bar on the eve of the party yesterday

My apartment garden which I have not noticed so far :)

People getting ready for Ceileidh

and yes they are starting to dance

The band of Ceiliedh. I am telling you, they did a wonderful job in getting people enerzised

Yes, my new Bike. I am feeling like really going to school when riding a bike

Typical English weather at this part of the year

Said Business School from another view (if you look from Railway station)

YHA - the place where you are supposed to get cheaper accommodation for members of youth hostels. I met there to visit MSR, the 2006 MBA

Lane opposite to YHA. Well there is still a lot of Oxford that I need to explore

The Freshers Fair

2006-10-04T12:26:00.000-07:00

I have attended the Freshers Fair today @ Examination schools today and was surprised to see more than 100 communities that you can be a part of. I am telling you guys, you cant have atleast a min of spare time in Oxford. You can do a lot and lot of activities over here provided you have time. I have joined so many communities today that I am sure I need atleast 40-50 hours per day atleast to get along with all of them.

I have also attended Oxford Management Consulting OBN session today. More on what they are later. I have bought a bike today for 129 Pounds. Thats pretty costly but you cant do much over there. Here are few of snaps of my ride today:

Botanical gardens of oxford??

A View of Cowley Road where u will find lot of Indian restaurents as well as Indian people

New College Ground

I guess this is some church

One more view of Botanical Gardens from the main road

haa, the Freshers Fair

Umm, Final look at the Freshers Fair at the last stall

The Sports communities at the Freshers Fair

Whats this?? Hmm, Cant recollect!!!

St Cross College, very next to my college - the Linacre

Major on the left side from US. Strangely he is a Major and his name is Major

So many brochures I got from fair with some goodies as well

Takashi on the right, the oldest person of the class by age, but one of the younger community in Enthu

Hmm, a Team Building Session yesterday

Hmm, Another Church may be!!!

So much information to digest!!!

2006-10-03T14:56:00.000-07:00

The first 2 days @ Business School was very tiring, but the wealth of information I have been explored to, is enormous. I will be heading to college induction from tomorrow. As far as the class profile goes, the class size is 216 with as many as 71 Indians in the class. Surprisingly, at least half of the Indians are not from IT background and most of them are Indians by origin and not by the place where they lived prior to coming here. And the Avg Age is 29 with ages ranging from 22-44. There were as many as 41 nationalities represented in the class.

I have seen wide diversity with lawyers, doctors, army, naval personnel, sailors, english scholars, producers, CAs, Industrialists, IT people, Scooba Divers, and what not...We had Amgen's CEO Kevin Sharer as the Introductory speaker and he delivered a wonderful speech. Wondering whats amgen?? I was in your shoes before the seminar. Its the biggest pharma company in the world, if I got it right with 16 Billion USD in revenues. So, you can imagine the character of CEO of such a huge company. He had taken Amgen from a 3 B USD in 2000 to where it is now. Its a wonderful speach to start things with.

Here are some of the snaps of these 2 days @ b school

This is the famous Nelson Mandela Theatre where we had our induction program.

I cant recognise properly, but some one is trying to crush a lot of info to us :)

Well tries a lot to rotate this photo, but couldn't. Its Stephan Chambers, the MBA program director addressing us.

One view of the Future CEOs sitting together

Another view of the CEOs

And the Dinner reception of the first day

One more photograph of the first day dinner

This embarassing photo was when I tried to take a snap of myself with my camera. I couldnt get a better one than this

This is today, the second day when I was about to get on to stage to introduce myself to the rest of the class.

This is one more view of the Incoming Class

PS: I have been to Pitt Rivers and Univ Museum last week end and will upload those photos and experiences as and when time permits.

Oxford Pursuit

2006-10-01T04:13:00.001-07:00

Informally yesterday was my first day @ Business School. Oxford Pursuit was a game conducted by SBS so that all the incoming students will meet each other and get to know about each other as well as the Oxford city. It's a kind of treasure hunt and we did a lot of walking (around 3 hours). Our randomly picked up team was myself, Prasanth, Mario, Marella and the other swiss guy whose name I couldnt recollect (Lot of people I met yesterday that I coulnt get anyone's name properly. There were some 10s of Richards and Andrews). The diversity is really amazing. I am sure I wont leave Oxford unchanged.

The Oxford weather is so abnormal that it will rain for a while and then stop for a while. Yesterday it rained on and off around 20-25 times. Here are some of the snaps I had taken during these couple of days:

The building beside Radcliffe Camera...

@ Business School after Pursuit with a fellow Indian classmate. If I recollect correctly he is Shreesh Shreya

Prasanth and others very seriously running around to find the next clue during Oxford Pursuit. Its close to Bodleian Library

In Business School

A Farewell party to Seong Mo, the Grey Shirt on right middle. Seong Mo who was basically from North Korea was doing research on Theology left NOOC last friday. You can see Saheb on Right side from Bangalore who is also studying Theology. On Right, the lady in white is Wendy from Australia (named so as she was born on wednesday!!!! :-)) and partly seen is Fatima from Spain. I need to be forgived as I am not aware of names of the 2 guys on the other side of the table (I havent had formal intros with them :D but we meet often in the dining hall)

A Busy City Centre on Saturday

Said Business School Entrance

Road opposite of SBS when viewed from SBS

Another snap of the farewell dinner. Kai Tian, the first one on the left is doing research on Public Adinistration. Incidentally he is Asst Professor at Beijing University and is one of the rare achievers to have become asst professor at such an young age. Tao Guo, the man in red is another good pal of me at dining hall. The Japanese couple can be seen sitting next to saheb.

And the Journey begins!!!!!

2006-09-29T01:22:00.000-07:00

and here I am posting from Oxford!!!

NOOC is pretty cool for my accommodation for the interesting people that I have met here. I coulnt remember their names from first go, but I have met a North Korean, Couple of Chinese, A German, an Australian, a Srilankan and couple of Indians. We had interesting debates on various topics during dinner in the last 2 days. I am sure my journey wll be more enthralling with these people around.

Went to SBS yesterday and the building is a stand out in Oxford compared to other old buildings. Went to Linacre college and received the welcome kit. There are lot of parties and dinners that I need to attend in coming days :)

Here are some snaps that I had taken when I moved around yesterday.

Is this the Univ Museum?? Hmm it takes time for me to remember these buildings as most of the colleges, museums etc., looks alike with foundations laid some centuries back

Entrance of my College - Linacre

A close up of my college Entrance :D

On the way to SBS from City Centre

This is a very good view of few similar apartments painted in different colors. This is on the way to Banbury road from Univ Museum

Anothee view of my college

Close to City centre

My Dining hall @ NOOC

A Click from University Examination School..Dont know what exactly this building is !!!

This is a street close to my college

Signing off from Hyderabad

2006-09-26T05:58:00.000-07:00

Boarding my flight in another 5 hours. Bye Bye Hyderabad!!!!

Will post next from Oxford :-)

2 weeks to go!!!

2006-09-11T20:27:00.000-07:00

2 weeks from now, I will be moving on to Oxford for an exciting 1 year ahead. Looking back, my MBA preparations started more than an year back when I was in US. Things that I can ponder over these period:

June - Cancelled my GMAT in US as I returned back to India well before than I expected
July - I decided not to go for MBA when I came back and planned to do H1
August - Back to square one, decided to go for MBA
September - Researched about schools
October - Taken GMAT and applied to Oxford, ISB
November - Taken Interviews with Oxford and ISB and relaxed a bit
December - Offer from Oxford. But, No Loan from them. Decided against Oxford and applied to as much as 6 US B Schools and attended few of their interviews
January - No Final call from ISB. Nothing much moved on other US B Schools. Extended Oxford deadline as I thought of trying my chances to take a loan here.
Febrauary - A project that CSC was about to bag had brought in flying colors as I was expected to travel onsite for longterm. Decided that I wont go for MBA for another 2 years so that I can become financially stable.
March - No project for CSC. L1 got temperorily rejected. No calls from other US B Schools
April - Decided to go to Oxford. Worked on the loan. Started borrowing my friends. Mobilised all my resources
May - Paid Initial Deposit for Oxford. Loan got approved. Every thing started working out.
June, July & August - Worked on the rest of financial resources and finally paid the complete tuition fees. Got accommodation @ NOOC. Blessed with a baby boy. Got Visa..........

It was a mix bag of yes and no decisions. People had stared at me for few of the decisions that I had taken. Doesnt matter. Here I am now getting ready to board the flight. Go Oxford!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Some times being Lazy helps!!!

2006-09-08T05:29:00.000-07:00

I have been running from pole to post since a week to pay my tution fees through SBI. As I have expected they have taken a week to do a telegraphic transfer of my fees (Guess what!! I have done the same in 5 mins thru ICICI when I paid the deposit). The education loan I have taken from them had forced me to do the money transfer from them. But, sometimes being lazy helps. These people have pushed my transfer for a week which had saved me around 75000rs. GBP was @ 89.45 when I first went to them. Today I have transferred money @ 86.76 which is a saving of 2.69rs per pound to me. Finally I had something to smile :)

Driving classes are going fine. Shopping is almost done. Finally I am feeling a bit relaxed as most of the arrangements for my travel on Sep 27th are done. I am going to Mantralayam this week end to visit my aunt as well as to visit Raghavendra Swamy temple.

I had a busy last week with the activities with pawanfans.com. We have adopted a school at slums near HITEC City and presented an STD booth to a physically challenged person on Pawans birthday i.e Sep 2nd. Photos of the same can be seen @ http://www.tollywoodinfo.com/modules/xcgal/thumbnails.php?album=513 & http://www.tollywoodinfo.com/modules/xcgal/thumbnails.php?album=514

I will share my wonderful experience a lil later as I am busy with few things. Signing off...

Challenges

2006-08-30T02:25:00.000-07:00

The Japanese have always loved fresh fish. But the waters close to Japan have not held many fish for decades. So to feed the Japanese population, fishing boats got bigger and went farther than ever.

The farther the fishermen went, the longer it took to bring in the fish. If the return trip took more than a few days, the fish were not fresh. The Japanese did not like the taste. To solve this problem, fishing companies installed freezers on their boats. They would catch the fish and freeze them at sea. Freezers allowed the boats to go farther and stay longer. However, the Japanese could taste the difference between fresh and frozen and they did not like frozen fish.

The frozen fish brought a lower price. So fishing companies installed fish tanks. They would catch the fish and stuff them in the tanks, fin to fin. After a little thrashing around, the fish stopped moving. They were tired and dull, but alive. Unfortunately, the Japanese could still taste the difference. Because the fish did not move for days, they lost their fresh-fish taste. The Japanese preferred the lively taste of fresh fish, not sluggish fish.

So how did Japanese fishing companies solve this problem? How do they get fresh-tasting fish to Japan?

To keep the fish tasting fresh, the Japanese fishing companies (still) put the fish in the tanks. But now they add a small shark to each tank. The shark eats a few fish, but most of the fish arrive in a very lively state.

Like the Japanese fish - "Man thrives, oddly enough, only in the presence of a challenging environment."- L. Ron Hubbard

Challenges are what keep us FRESH!

Instead of avoiding challenges, jump into them. Beat the heck out of them.

Enjoy the game. If your challenges are too large or too numerous, reorganize the challenge, team up, be resourceful and do not give up.

Failing makes you tired.

If you have met your goals, set some bigger goals. Once you meet your personal or family needs, move onto goals for your group, the society, even mankind.

Don't create success and lie in it. You have resources, skills and abilities to make a difference.
Put a shark in your tank and see how far you can really go!

Pawanfans.com Charity activities

2006-08-19T23:09:00.000-07:00

As an active member of Pawanfans.com team, I am very proud of the activities conducted by our team in recent days.

Our team has been to Sriramulavaripeta, one of the severly flood affected village in West Godavari District. The place has been surrounded by water and it had become remote with all the connections with the rest of world being cut. Our team had reached the village in a boat and had given them all the vegetables that is required for them to cook and eat. We have also donated them blankets and fruits. Helping 400 families is a great gesture by our team. I am very sad that I couldn't participate in this event because of the time I had to spend with my banker to get the final cheque for the education loan for MBA. Neverthless, I am very proud that we were able to help people. Here are some of the photos of the event:

http://www.pawanfans.com/modules/xoopsgallery/view_photo.php?xoops_imageid=780&set_albumName=album25&id=5_G

We are donating Rs 50000 to the needy tomorrow celebrating Megastar's birthday. I will post more of the details later on.

I will be starting my driving classes tomorrow and very happy that finally I am starting it :)

Got Visa!!

2006-08-14T21:40:00.000-07:00

Got UK visa stamped till May 31st 2008.

The Alchemist

2006-08-05T23:48:00.000-07:00

This is the first book I have read @ one stretch so far, during my journey to my native last week end. It was a good one, with witty oneliners from the Alchemist:

"The Fear of Suffering is worse than Fear itself"

"Every Search begins with beginner's luck. And every search ends with victor's being severely tested"

"Every thing that happens once can never happen again. But Every thing that happens twice will surely a happen a third time"

"No matter what he does, every person on earth plays a central role in the history of the world. And normally he doesn't know it"

The final page has this good quote from Thomas Merton

"The truth that many people never understand, until it is too late, is that the more you try to avoid suffering the more you suffer because smaller and more significant things begin to torture you in proportion to your fear of being hurt"

Like the boy Santiago, I am also looking to achieve my personal legend and I am looking to clear all the things come my way so that I can smile as a victor at the end. This is a good read for people to get motivated and inspired.

This week will be a happening one for me as I will be applying for my visa and will subsequently be finalizing my travel dates. The buzz will continue next week, as I look to pay the fees, complete my shopping and put in papers at my company. Signing off for now....

Two Apprehensions people have in their mind before starting MBA

2006-07-27T01:00:00.000-07:00

Just 2 months now to start my new journey @ Oxford. I believe that one year down the line will be all learning, filled with fun. I met few prospective MBA students recently and they had same apprehensions of what I had an year ago. Recollecting, July last year I was in Kerala, God's own country for a leisure trip. I had thought of not taking an MBA for quite a few reasons at that point of time. But, later I have come across them and here I am.

The major 2 apprehensions that comes into an average Indian's mind during his research are:

1. How are the Placements?? Can I get a Job etc.,

--- This is pretty much the first fear I had in my mind. After paying such a huge fee, what if I am unable to get a job?? I can't statistically comment on this one, but one thing I suggest people who ask me about this is that, its a calculated risk that can be taken. Just think for a while, what will be your career graph if you dont go for an MBA?? Where will you be, say 10 years down the line? Getting a job is a short term struggle which can be taken care of, if this is your worry. Having said that, I believe that getting a job wont be a big hassle as we fear about it. Have belief in yourself. If you can be selected to a Top premiere school with an acceptance rate of 20% or so, if you have say 3-5 years of experience in the industry already, why apprehend on this??

2. Will we able to finance so much of money??

--- This is a question pretty much for people who think of European schools. With the fees and living expenses coming to around 35 Lakhs, one will definitely fear about whether he/she would be able to arrange so much money for MBA. If you follow my blog, I faced this crunch a lot of times, but I was able to get through. It's easy to give up, but dont give up. Yes 35 Lakhs is a big money, but one can arrange it in some way or other once he gets his admission. Remove this apprehension from your mind during your research. Infact I havent applied to LBS because of this apprehension. Dont care about this, you can some how get through this one in due course of time.

All the Best for the people who are applying now for the next year. If you need any help during your research ior preparations, you can reach me @ nagendra.s@gmail.com

Accommodation @ NOOC

2006-07-19T22:50:00.000-07:00

My accommodation is fixed @ NOOC during my course @ Oxford. If anyone who is going to Oxford are looking for accommodation, www.nooc.org.uk is a good source. Thanks to MSR for providing this lead.

Indian Govt had banned blogs, those who are unable to access blogs, can do it so from
www.pkblogs.com/(blogname), for my blog its www.pkblogs.com/nagsblog

On a personal front, we named baby boy as Tanuj/Nischal. Tanuj will be the official name in the records. Nischal will be the one we call @ home. For my record, I wanted to note down few details of my baby:
Born on 6th July 2006 @ 11:14 AM in Hyderabad, Vishaka Nakshatram 1st Padam, Tula Rasi and Kanya Lagnam - These details are important atleast for the sake of elders who are very particular about these.

New Arrival!!!

2006-07-06T06:06:00.000-07:00

I am blessed with a Baby boy today morning @ 11:14 AM. Some stuff to follow up!!! Catch u later

Lack of Killer Instinct

2006-06-27T07:01:00.000-07:00

Rahul Dravid is really the wall of India. Yesterdays test match was a classic example of India lacking Killer Instinct. Sehwag, Jaffer, Lakhsman had brought India close to victory with India requiring some 6-7 runs per over in the last 17 overs when Dhoni got out. With Yuvraj and Dravid in the crease, it was really awful to see that India hadent gone for a victory. Are they afraid that India cant survive even 17 overs with 6 wickets in hand?? This is where Australia scores against India. And I really say hats off to their killer instinct when it comes to winning matches. They dont do wonders, they simply do things in normal way and have that instinct to win.

I am following a bit of football these days. Argentinas 6-0 win over Serbia (dont remember the name of opponent exactly :)) was the best one I watched so far. I believe Argentina had a fair chance of winning the WC, but Germany played really well in the last match which had made Germany - Argentina Quarters tie a must watch.

Break the High Court Code!!!!!

2006-06-24T23:57:00.000-07:00

High Court had given judgement last wednesday to remove a ban on Da Vinci Code and to release it. I went on friday with a lot of anxiety to a theatre where it was supposed to be screened. When I reached there, I saw a lot of Activists doing a protest to ban the movie. The protest was a violent one where in they had broken the counters of the theatre it was about to release. It was a real stupid move that police haden't taken action against them as they were breaking the high court rule which judged that the movie can be screened. More over, more than half of the people there look like illiterates and I really doubt if atleast half of them had read the novel.

Any ways, this had given me a chance to watch Krrish. This is one of the best movies I watched recently with very good technical values. Way to go bollywood for such kind of movies.

On another front, I will be applying visa very soon. Accomodation had become real problem for me. Need to get it straight soon to move onl.

Funnier Rules

2006-06-22T09:05:00.000-07:00

I have come across a funny situation today where in one can find out about the way rules are applied in India. I tried to book a ticket to london and I came to know that I cannot book a ticket unless I get my Visa to UK. On Contrary I can book a ticket online on the airways website without having a visa. When I enquired on this with a travel agent, he told me that they cannot book it because of stricter rules now when doing paper work for the ticket.This is one of the worst and funny rules I have come across off late.

The Sabattical policy at our company is even more funnier. I dont wanted to get into the details here as I am not interested to talk about such crappy thing.

On another note, I will be applying to Visa very soon and will be booking my ticket to London for Sep 27th 2006.

Long time and here back I am

2006-06-13T02:56:00.000-07:00

My SBI loan is officially sanctioned for 15 Laks and I recieved a sanction letter from them. Now the catch is to arrange the remaining amount. Thats under process any way. Looking to apply to Visa by June end or First half of July. Got very good oppurtinities back at office (if any of these had come before I have paid the deposit, I would have re thought about MBA :)) but left all for MBA.
Was very fed of going to office now as I know that I will be leaving office very soon. Couldn't concentrate much on work. Mean while I am planning to build a full fledged website, but was getting bugged with it too. Any ways I have uploaded this one photo with Powerstar during launch of www.satyagrahi.com

http://nagendra.s.googlepages.com/MewithKalyan.jpg

Will come back with more updates soon.....

Have you experienced "The Terminal?"

2006-05-29T08:52:00.000-07:00

I was a Tom Hanks last Saturday spending almost 10 Hours at Delhi Airport, ofcourse for a different reason than that had been showed in the movie. But, my experience was horrible. I have been to Delhi on the Oxbridge Scholarship interview and was done with it by 11:00 AM. Being too cautious, I have booked the return flight for 7:50 PM Departure which had wounded me that day like anything. After my interview, I thought of getting to have a look at the India Capital for some time. But, the Delhi's scorching heat had kicked me off and I was almost hitten by a Stroke within short time. Some how I am able to get to a near by PVR Cinema and thought of going to "Davinci Code" movie, but couldnt as the show is scheduled for 4:30 PM which can create some havoc for my return flight.

I thought of going back to airport and relax there a bit. These are my experiences over there:

1. No AC in Airport. There are few fans here and there, all of which are not working though
2. No Seats to sit and relax. I have used one of the trolleys that people used to carry luggage, to relax
3. No restaurent. Only one restaurent available and they have only 'samosas'. But, I cant afford 50rs samosas, as eating one or two samosas can do nothing to my big belly. One thing to be noted is, though low cost carriers came up in India, airports are still under a notion that people who travel by air can pay like anything for even smaller things.

With a lot of difficulty I have spent time till 7 PM and then prepared to board. But, to my agony the flight was further delayed by 2 hrs. I completed a novel, battery was nullified in my laptop, read couple of magazines and then saw myself getting into securtity check finally at 9:30 PM. You know what?? After I had been into security check, the flight was further delayed by another 45 mins. Some how I reached Hyderabad at almost 1:30 PM. This is one hell of the experience to forget.

And ofcourse the interview went well and I need to wait to listen from the committe. I did well, but who knows about the competitors? Need to wait till the fat lady sings.

MBA in IIMs, Engineering in IITs and Medicine in AIIMS

2006-05-24T08:01:00.000-07:00

These are considered as a matter of pride to India till now. But, not any more. With Govt. of India announcing 27% reservations to people of OBC caste in these institutions, I really pity the condition of these institutes and us in our country now. Now 50% of the seats in the country's prestigious institutes are reserved for OBS, SC and ST Caste people, thanks to the corrupted politicians. If you cant change it, better to stay away from it. I certainly feel now that I should stay away from this situation here now. Aaah!!! Right time I am going for an MBA. May be I can settle down in UK if I like the place. I saw a lot of people who got converted to christians just to get that reservations so that it will be easier for them to get in good instutions as well as get good jobs. Now, real damn thing might happen with even more people changing their castes.

These things aside, I am getting ready for the interview in Delhi this week end. I hope to get that scholarship to ease the financing a bit. I am in the verge of completing the Pelican brief, which is a good one from John Grisham. Planning to learn car driving some time in August. Signing off for now.

The Davinci Code

2006-05-19T04:10:00.000-07:00

Just completed reading this Fiction Thriller. I am really fascinated by the narration which had made me complete this book in just 3 days, which is a great record for me having said that I have nack of losing interest on a book after reading it for some time. Dan Brown is really good as I am able to complete 2 of his novels - Angels & Demons and Davinci Code. Pelican Brief is one another novel by John Grisham which had attracted me and I hope I will complete this book as well. People might be wondering what the heck that I am reading these books now which are very old. I am really really new into this business of reading. I am literally not doing any work in office and need to find a way to past my time for these 4 months till I go for MBA.

Meanwhile, I joined Orkut and u can reach me @ nagendra.s@gmail.com in Orkut. I am looking forward to watch the Davinci Code movie which might release next week in India. People are really nuts in protesting a movie. Religion is Faith and if a movie can shatter that faith, i dont know what to say. Signing off for now....

I am officially in....

2006-05-10T21:36:00.000-07:00

After waiting for a lot of time for the growing pound to come down, I decided its time and paid my initial deposit yesterday to Oxford. So, I am officially in now and lot of work is pending from my side before I get to MBA. Need to get a lot of things done before I leave to Oxford. Working on googlepages website as well. Signing off for now.

The Goal

2006-05-08T05:50:00.000-07:00

I have just completed reading the book "The Goal" by Eliyahu M.Goldratt. I suggest this book to all of them, who are planning to become managers. I am sure that one will get a fresh perspective of looking into a problem once you are done with this book. The book is pretty much straightforward and it speaks a simple truth: "Identify the Core". I use to get annoyed earlier that I was not so productive in the company. But, this book has clarified me on why I am not productive. The terms Throughput, ROI and Cashflow will be there in my mind for ever, for the impression this book has created in me. The way it is told is also amazing. I felt like reading a novel rather than a management book.

I am now reading the book "The Mind of the Strategist" by Kenichi Ohmae. The first chapter I read pretty much tells me on why Japanese are successful. I hope this book will help me to get a good understanding of what kind of questions are to be framed to succeed as a strategist.

Some good news is that I am shortlisted for Oxbridge Scholarship interviews that are to be conducted in Delhi on 27th of May. Let me see how it goes.

what to do in this 4 months??

2006-04-27T06:56:00.000-07:00

Before going for MBA, I wanted to do few things:
1. Learn Driving
2. Learn French
3. Get my Intermediate Cert

..and few other Junk

I am not sure if I can learn french as I have less time to do so...

Mean while,

http://nagendra.s.googlepages.com/MultiSearchEngines.htm

One of my colleague posted this in our company bulletin board which may be useful if you wanted to search using more than one search engines.

I am looking ahead for the grea clash starting tomorrow in the Tollywood...

Signing off for now..

Why these can't be made Private??

2006-04-17T06:39:00.000-07:00

Last week end I was in my Native and have faced the same situations I have been facing since long time..The policemen harassing the public, the Govt employees not responding to your concerns etc.,

The compulsion of wearing a helmet for 2 wheeler drivers has been going on and off for a while. People dont prefer wearing helmets because of 48 Degrees heat. When I was in my native last time, this rule was removed for a bull shit reason. You know what, the police claimed that they were unable to recognise the Naxalites because people are wearing helmets. This statement is, as if they can catch the naxalites by just looking at them which is utter crap. There are a lot of un masked criminals roaming around who are left at no expense by them. Coming to the situation here, the rule of wearing helmets is brought in again with no notice to public. They suddenly started stopping the bikes and collected the fines..You know what, out of some 20 bikes I have seen, 19 bikers havent weared helmets. When some one demanded the explanation for why the rules are not so strict related to having the traffic lights, dividers etc., there is no response from any police.

State bank of India - un doubtedly the largest bank in India. Boy, this should be privatised for hell lot of reasons. The bank was closed at 11:30 itself last Saturday and a lot of customers were aghasted by that. I dont know the funda of each branch of the same bank in the same town having different timings. People were cursing them like anything for not operating properly even after they went for strike and halted operations for a week before. They want me to have an Introducer to open an account there. I think these people still live in some rock and stone age. They should go back to Day Zero and should think of the Introducer of its first customer. The people there are not service oriented and soon they will be counting the chickens.

Why India Can't be No:1 in Cricket??

2006-04-13T03:25:00.000-07:00

Here are my observations:

1. Experimentation with the Team: When we are winning, our team will experiment with all the places in the team. Last match team was a classic example. You cant have a pace attack of RP Singh, VRV Singh and Munaf patel who havent played atleast 10 matches to their name. Its always better for us to get one at a time and let them play under seniors so that they can learn. If we win matches we will rest out all the main players and experiement with the team. Dhoni being rested in last match is absurd. How can Dinesk Karthik be motivational if he knows that he will be playing only one match?? Also, I havent seen at any time Australia playing a lousy team like this during their winning streak even against Bangladesh.

2. Maniacs about Heroes: Sachin is a Master. Agreed. but, he is out of form now and he should get out himself. My suggestion is that he should concentrate in one days and get retired from test matches as Jayasurya and Afridi had done. After all his arena, its important for him to get a world cup for India. Sehwag and kaif should be taken away from the team. Recent form is important in any game rather than past history. As long as they keep on playing these out of form guys, others will lose morale.

3. BCCI Politics: Though it doesnt directly reflect anything, it does have a hand to play here. Politics during selections should be avoided.

More over, BCCI is not interested in Cricketing interests of the audience as they handed over the contract to Zee or Sahara. Its horrible to watch any match with these channels as you will miss out 1st and last ball of the over for Advertisements. They should change the way they give contracts and should look into these issues as well.

SBI getting off the Strike - ISB Placements results

2006-04-10T07:29:00.000-07:00

It was reported some where that State Bank of India does 50000 Lakh rupees of Transactions every day. Their 6 days Strike had halted almost 3 Billion Rupees worth Transactions in India. Most of the banks had run short of cash. When I was a kid, I heard a short story of how Japanese people do these strikes. I heard that some time back a japan Shoe factory's employees went on for a strike. Rather than stopping the work completely, they have done it differently. They have produced shoes for only left leg. This had made sure that the management came down to get the things done for the workers. Thats the best way of doing strike as far as I see it. The heat of SBI's strike is felt every where and they have called off the strike for good (and of course because of the goodies offered by the Government to them) yesterday. The heat was more on me because my loan with SBI was just getting delayed. I met couple of other banks during this time, but found that the max any other bank offers is 15 Lakhs. Now, I am much more relaxed that they have called off the strike.

ISB had announced the placement results and they were quite astonishing IN NUMBERS. The highest of $ 233,800, it seems was offered by ITC Infotech for a 10+ years exp guy. I am looking for a detailed placement report where in some one like me can check whats in store for 4-5 years exp people. These numbers are always threats that they will carry you away to think big, where its not so big about the college. I look forward for ISB to grow, as an Indian inst having its name on teh world map will definitely make us proud. But, to achieve that they should be much more transparent and should stop the war of announcing the highest salaries in connection to what IIMs do. All the Best to ISB!!!!

A tired week end

2006-04-03T09:28:00.000-07:00

Last week end was very slow with me getting very bored. Looking forward to get to Oxford ASAP. Got a salary increment which is a good news. Watched Taxi Parts 1,2 and 3 and Sri Ramadasu over the week end.

The estimation of the property had come to 20.5 Lakhs which is slightly over the 20 lakhs loan i require. I need to get back again to Kadapa this week end to complete the formalities to apply for the loan. The heat at Kadapa is scorching and I was sweating all the time I was there.

Created new blog

2006-03-26T23:38:00.000-08:00

http://pksatyagrahi.blogspot.com/

Lots of fun last week with me meeting Pawan Kalyan...Let me update in my next post down the week end. I am in my native now, busy with the loan thing for Oxford. Signing off now and let me come back in the week end...

Dream Companies to work for...

2006-03-23T01:23:00.000-08:00

After all, after doing an MBA one will wish to work in his dream companies with his dream positions. What are my dream companies?? hmm..I dont have any dream companies as such. I have dream people whom I want to share my desk with. These are they:

1. Bill Gates: Certainly the Badshah in the IT revolution. I want to work with him to find out how one can maintain the TOP LEVEL in the market despite of challenging products in the market which are better than theirs (Linux for OS, Mozilla/Netscape for Browsers etc.,)

2. Michael Dell: Competing with IBMs and HPs, its real difficult for one to go ahead. This guy had done it with his immense capabilities. Why should one deny to share a desk with him some day?

3. Narayana Murthy: The Out Sourcing guy. I certainly want to know a lot of things from him which I cannot discuss here for confidentiality ;-)

hmm..And of course let me see where I can go after my MBA and whom all I can meet....

If you want to work in India, you go to ....

2006-03-21T04:14:00.000-08:00

I heard from lot of people in various forums and groups about this suggestion of picking ISB if some one is looking to choose b/n ISB and some X College. Is it really true??

In my opinion, this is completely faltoo. Why should one go to ISB over Yale, Insead, LBS etc., just for the sake of working in India?? If you are unable to arrange the finances, then probably you can go with ISB if you have no other options. I believe that Yale, Insead, LBS etc., can give you International Mobility and finding a job in India with degrees from these colleges is not a big deal. Also, I dont understand why people look after Overseas Placements if they want to stay back in India after ISB ;-)

I was giving same gyan earlier, but I dont see any reason to go to ISB over the Intl reputed colleges and that too if you are getting the same ROI. The 10 Lakhs Avg Salary with 5 Years of Avg Exp is no big deal for an institute like ISB. As of now I see that they are just as good as IIMs in terms of recruiters expectations. So, if you are investing 17 Lakhs and getting back a 8-9 Lakhs job, its not so easy as one think to repay it and get a better ROI.

Where to Invest?

2006-03-17T02:51:00.000-08:00

A lot of my friends are investing their money in Real Estate, Mutual Funds, Gold, Shares etc., But what about me?? yes I am also investing in my education. Like them I also want to check my returns. I formulated my own formula for calculating my ROI. In 5 years with my current earning capacity at CSC, I will be earning around 200,000 GBP with all promotions being taken into account (Very optimistic here in assuming that I will be working for CSC UK continuosly for 6 years). The lost Salary and the expenses that I am incurring now along with the interest paid for MBA loan will come to around 92000 GBP. Assuming that I will getting the average salary what an Oxonian got last year I would be able to make around 320000 GBP even if I assume that there are no salary hikes which is very unlikely (In fact I am just assuming the base salary excluding the other benefits). So, still I would be able to make a decent return of around 3% on what I am investing now in 5 years, year on year. Though this is very less, this is a very pessimistic estimate of my ROR after MBA. I am sure that this would cross around 20-50% realistically. The best way to calculate is to ??

Come back and re visit this after 5 years...

Signing off for now...

Chasing was never so easy!!!

2006-03-15T05:12:00.000-08:00

I was watching the SA Vs Australia match the other day. SA chased the whopping 434 that was scored by Australia. The way they scored was astonishing. They made it so simple. This remembered me of a match that we(college team) played against our brother's team(team formedby people residing near my home in my native). My brother's team scored some 120 odd runs in 16 overs. Chasing 120 was not so easy on any day and I opened the innings. We were down to some 20 for 3 in 5 overs. It was then Babu came into crease. We have the target of 100 runs in 11 overs and we cannot afford to lose another wicket. I was not a big hitter and I am generally good at nagging and getting 1s and 2s. The asking rate was 10 per over and we decided to go at a rfate of 9 for over for first 5 and 11 for over for next 5. Babu almost hit 1 four an over in the first 5 overs. This had made us accomplished the first target which gave us the confidence to drive along. For the first time in my career I had hit couple of 6s and we cruised to victory with 2 overs to spare. This was the same happened to South Africans. As per Smith, their target was 195 runs in 25 overs and they scored around 220 in 25 overs which had made the task easy.

Now lets play the real game. I believe chasing targets is pretty much easier than setting the target. You definitely know what you want to accomplish and its pretty much easier once you set the target and plan the execution. Its the same thing happened to me. My target was to do MBA this year. I had dings from Cambridge, ISB, Chicago and Michigan so far. Except Chicago I had interviews at other schools followed by dings. I am yet to hear from Kellogg, Stanford, Yale and Tuck. At this point I dont see much chance for me getting into those. Does all these matter?? No not at all. The Oxford was there for me. The first college where I was admitted. I definitely know that 41000 GBP is what I need. For the first 2 months I was just thinking of the huge amount and was unable to get the finances. I changed the game plan and divided 41000 into different components. I said to myself, let me get 20000 GBP first and think of the rest later. This strategy helped me to achieve the bigger goal as I was always thinking of the smaller parts. Now, this means that I AM GOING TO OXFORD THIS YEAR.

Yes and finally some good news that my brother got into Accenture and Satyam. Hes taking Accenture and joining tomorrow.

Management Consulting

2006-03-10T00:06:00.000-08:00

One of the most aspiring careers for B-School goers. Infact I have also decided to look for a career in MC and have IT career as a back up. I have solved couple of sample cases given in Mckinsey.com and some other sites and felt confident about my problem solving skills to take up a career in MC.

On the other front, a lot of schools has started releasing decisions and I wonder about my candidature as my apps in few schools were marked complete only last week. This whole B School procedure is getting to be over very soon and as of now I have decided to go to Oxford. My L1 Visa was temperory refused for insufficient documentation and the Consular officer asked me to come back with few documents. But, I might not go back as I dont have plans now to continue in my job.

Loan Procedure of SBI

2006-03-07T01:09:00.000-08:00

A lot of people who visit my blog asked me for the procedure of the bank loan that I am gonna procure. Here it is for those interested:

--> You definitely need to have a collateral Security of around 150% if you are going for a loan of more than 400,000 Rs. The bank will tell you 100% but you reuire 150% for the following reasons:
1. Bank will ask you to get an estimate from one of the bank vendors (Yuvraj Planners in my native in my case). Typically those planners will give you a very less estimate than what you will think of. For my brothers house, my estimate was 1,200,000 where as they have given 860,000. Infact the value of site itself is 400,000+ which means that for a house which is One storeyed with all posh tiles and all they have estimated 460,000 which is very less. This has happened for the other properties that I have given top them also. I found that this is a practise followed by those planners.
2. Once you get an estimate bank will again discount it by more than 20%. So, for my brothers house bank approval will be for the max of 688,000rs which is not so much higher than the plot value.

So typically after all these cuts, if you want to get a loan of 100% you need to have a collateral of 150%. Once you get the collateral it will be a cake walk to get a loan. After all we are giving a lot of security for the loan...Few FAQ from what I understood:

1. Can we get a loan with out collateral??
A. Mere impossible if loan is more than 400,000

2. Will the Oxford brand count?
A. I dont see it because bank guys just checked my document once and always kept talking about the collateral.

Hope this helps. Any question leave a comment.

Snakish Dreams --- Bush Visit to Hyderabad

2006-03-04T18:30:00.000-08:00

One fine day I am going on the road and sudden say one snake started catching me to kill me off....argh!!!!!!! This is just one of the Snakish dream I got...I should get into Guiness records probably for the most snakish dreams I get......On an Average once in 2-3 days I will get a Snake in my dream...Probably its because of my name - "Naga Raja" which means "KING of SNAKES"..hmm..But the best part is that its good to get snakes in dream and its even good if they kill us...

Bush's visit to Hyderabad was fruitful atleast for the reason that US Consulate is getting started in Hyderabad in Oct 2007. Hyderabad is one of the happening places now with Fabcity news, Univ of Vedanta and Georgia Tech, and now US Consulate starting up.

Cambridge Interview

2006-03-02T06:40:00.001-08:00

Cambridge Interview went decently and I see a 80% chance of getting in. Decision will be communicated on Monday. Oxford placement report is out and I am pretty much impressed with it. The questions of Cambridge interview are pretty much the same as what they have asked others like digging more on why cambridge and my profile.

I am travelling to my native tonite to talk to Bank people again and follow up. Need to get a lot of work done on this behalf for Oxford. But, I havent given up as I see a 500,000 gap which can be filled. I am travelling to Chennai this week end for L1 stamping. So, a hectic schedule around and I am hoping to get all things right.

Update o n Oxford and Cambridge

2006-02-25T22:59:00.000-08:00

Money hmm....The Differential of the value of currencies of GBP and INR means a lot....I am almost there in arranging the finances of Oxford...Just 500,000 INR more to go....Will I be able to take up Oxford?? Not sure at this point of time but will be confirmed with in a month

Cambridge had set up my interview on 1st of March..So As a lot of people had, I might be in a situation to choose b/n Oxford and Cambridge

Chicago Ding

2006-02-20T05:17:00.000-08:00

Last week was just a pass by one with nothing much happening apart from Chicago Ding. I expected this a week back as I havent received any correspondence from them. Kellogg mailed me that I missed out my transcripts. I need to call them and clarify this as I have sent this. They have spent 1.5 months and just updated that my transcript was missing. Damn slow was their response. Stanford updated that my app is under review now. No info from Tuck and Yale. Are they still sleeping on my app?? :-;

I enjoyed my anniversary and birthday but not as much as I have done last year because of slight fever I got. This week I have been to Rang De Basanti finally to PVR and its a well made movie. No information yet on the project in the office and my L1 appointment is on March 6th in Chennai. Am I going to US on an assignment??? Still not sure as I heard that we are facing stiff competition to win the project.

Oxford and Cambridge - hmmmm...Not sure whether I am taking them either...If at all I am going onsite for long term I am gonna defer my admissions to next year...

25 Done!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2006-02-11T09:44:00.000-08:00

I will be entering 26th year in my life in an hour....Now I am 25 years old :-) This is my 3rd Marriage anniversary tooo....Just thought of forgetting about MBA and Onsite and wanna get back into my life and memories so far.....FRIENDS...Ones whom I have won and admired so far are the ones I am memorizing as I feel they are the only ones whom I earned so far...

First 10 years of my life: Reddy Rajeshwari and Tulasi...I dont know where RR is now...But shes the best friend I won in my initial phase of life...Tulasi...hmm yeah shes in Emmiganoor now and I met her recently....we had THE BEST OF THE TIMES during my school days...shes married with a kind now any wayz...
10-15 Years of my life: Sailu, Manohar and Asha....People with whom still I am in touch with...Asha is in CSC now and I had a very good friend in her since some time...We were in same school, tuition, Inter college, Engg college, and now working in same company...This is what I call sheer coincidence....Sailu has taken his fathers job and hes planning to come to Hyd to get into software...I will help him out to find a good job for sure....Manohar and me will meet most probably during movies on the first days....He has completed his MBA and I am not sure when he will go for a job...Sailesh and Manohar had helped me a LOT and LOT when I started my institute and I will be remembering them for lifetime for sure even i dont stay in touch with them...
15-17 years of my life: Hari, Charan and Pavan.....The relations during this phase continued thru out the engineering tooo....Pavan is in Qualcomm now and though I am unable to meet him often, I know how good a friend he is for me...Hari is in Delhi/Blore for some Mech company....Charan is in Patni now and I am unable to reach him on his phone these days :-(
17-21 years of my life: Bhanu, Anu and the mech batch...Had a Great time during the college days...Bhanu is married and in Blore now..She calls me for sure on few days - My Bday, Friendship day, New year day and few festival days...Anu is in Seattle married to Sampath...Mech batch of Ramesh, Subash, Kishore, Capt Kishore, Sudarshan and others....most of them are settled and few are in the process of settling out...
21 - 25 years of my life: My own Inst and my software job...The best network I have got in these days is of Chiru fans from discussion board...Few other notable friends I made in the corporate world are Nilesh, Rashid, Jovin, Surendra, Vijay, Karunakar, Ravikanth, Kannan, Tanveer, Sujeeth, Hari and others....I am sure of being in touch with all these for most of my future....

Mentioning few names doesnt mean that others are not my friends....Every one whom I have spent my time with are very important friends of me as I enjoyed my life so far.....I have been hearing that life expectancy is 100 years for all (Practically its some 60s though :-;)....So my first quarter results are out and they were pretty good with an excellent profit in terms of a lovely wife....Second quarter will be more fruitful I guess as it is starting with my kid....Signing off for now...

One Year of Blogging - Chronicles of Narnia

2006-02-09T06:21:00.000-08:00

I have completed one year of Blogging...Though I would admit I am regular to blogging only from last November....When I checked my first post I mentioned "Bangaram" might release on July 24th of last year....How ever I am expecting it to release atleasy by July 24th of this year :-(...Planning to go to native this week end to get passport of my wife.....I just wanna make sure that she also get stamped if I am going to US on L1....So this anniversary might happen in native...

Went to The Chronicles of Narnia Yesterday...Cool Visual Effects...I wont regret spending 100 bucks for these kind of movies...Entertainment basically is what we look at in movies and they will keep u enthralled through out....Rang De Basanti is in pipeline now...Unable to get tickets to it still :-(

Not much of news from Business schools....Yale had just updated that it received my GMAT score....Stanford is still not complete :-( Just crossing my fingers on all the decisions...Signing off for now...

Movies of Mega Heroes

2006-02-07T02:55:00.000-08:00

My interest on movies is slowly fading off these days mainly because mega heroes were unable to deliver hits. I am disappointed by Anji, Andarivaadu, Jai Chiranjeeva, Happy, Bunny, Johnny, Gudumba Shankar and Balu. I have a small analysis of what went wrong and what can be done better.

What went wrong: Every one knows what went wrong. Some of them are Routine story lines, low production values, De glamourized presentations of heroes, bad heroine selection etc.,

What should be done:
1. Play the Number Game: GS and Balu deserves more number of 50 day centres rather than what they got. People will least bother about how much a movie collected. The number of days itself will leave a mark. Balu getting lifted from Jagadamba for 37 days is Absurd. More 50 days centres means hero's image will be built continuosly.
2. Get to new producers: Geeta Arts, Vyjayanthi should be kept away for some time. Vijaya Bapineedu, Devi Vara Prasad, M S Raju and others are waiting for dates from these heroes. But they are sticking to the same old bunch which is giving routine junk movies.
3. Dont miss creative subjects for bullshit: Sukumar-Ram combination subject is very creative and good. This movie with Bunny might have created wonders. But, for some crap this movie got into hands of different people. Do some off beat movies and Experiment. Those becoming flops will do no harm than Andarivaadu and Jai Chiranjeeva. Doing these routine Junk and regretting them later will do no good.
4. Reduce the remuneration: If Big B, Amir and Sharukh charge less than 7 Crores with so much Market, why should Chiru charge so much?? Reducing the remunerations can get very good casting into the movie. Chiru-Shankar, Chiru-Rajamouli combinations are viable if Chiru reduces his remuneration.
5. Increase the publicity: I should say publicity was utter waste so far in recent days. Increase the publicity.
6. Table Profit: Well known fact is that Producer will get a handy table profit for Boss movies. Distr should get into a syndicate and should not pay much for even Boss movies if they know that they will just get break even even with a hit movie.
7. Budget: Recently I met a person and he asked me: "Honestly tell me whats there in Andarivaadu that it will cost 15 Crores?" AV costing 15 Crores is absurd. Production costs cannot go up with an experienced hero. It is crap to say that AV costed 15 Crores.

Finally, they should remember that hiking the prices to recover costs are temperory. A good movie is what people are looking for. People do have creative stories which will suit the image of Mega heroes. But, they cannot reach them. Make sure that there is a channel for people with creative minds to reach you. All the Best....

Cambridge Interview

2006-02-02T21:39:00.000-08:00

Got a Cambridge Interview invitation yesterday...It was scheduled for Feb 27th at Cambridge...But travelling for me to Cambridge is impossible to me at this moment. Need to re schedule it as a telephonic if possible and see how it goes....

Oxford Loan

2006-02-01T05:39:00.000-08:00

Last week was a pretty fast one as I was in my native :-) I was able to catch hold of Mr Nagaraj Rao of SBI who helped me to get an assurance from SBI for a 20 Lakh loan. There lies the catch...Now I am in even more dramatic situation...I will be having 23 Lakhs in my Kitty now taking into account the committments from few of my friends....Need to see if I can make it 32...Though its a long one you never know....

Mean while back in the office, CSC started processing L1 for me for a project that is gonna start next month....situations keep on changing as you can see from my blog.....if I am unable to get money for Oxford shall I defer it and go for a long term onsite oppurtinity so that I can save money?? Huh!!! Tough decisions and a very good padmavyuha to be in....Lets see whats in the offing....

Happy............yes I watched this movie and it looks average for me..and the same is the BO situation...