To paste a short story long

Here I am, without my laptop, without the keys to my room, with a back that aches from the day trip from Bangalore to Calicut, and with some wonderful memories of the past few days spent at ISB. Even though it was another fruitless venture in a way, (I did not win any prizes and considering that there were some very mouth-watering ones, it is indeed bad) all the same, I did enjoy most of the experience personally.

I had a chance to meet Richa and Sushant again within the space of a week. And this time, it was much better in spite of the lack of real big time spent together. For the first time, I got to hear about how far things have reached between Sushant and Richa. I always had my ideas but got it from the horse's mouth only this weekend. That makes it two couples of four that were a part of our training days. Puneet and Banhi, despite our best intentions :-), were not really interested, and as for me and her, the less said the better.

The journey from Bangalore to Hyderabad, though uneventful, had its own share of adventures on the Bangalore side. With another visit to Yeshvantpur (but first to the railway station), I got to gloat on the memories of IISc and Jawahar Guest House while passing through the area and seeing the auto meter inch up to three figures, slowly but steadily. Yeshwantpur railway sation, not much bigger than that of Buxar, had a small chaiwalla who met my gastro needs for the time, that is before we got on to the train and had bouts of bhelpuri as I struggled with my laptop to make something of the debate topic.

The contingent of eight from IIMK landed in Hyderabad at the ungodly hour of five in the morning and hoping against hope for an escort from ISB, we were pleasantly surprised when we actually got to reach ISB in a jiffy, what with the Qualis and the Esteem from ISB giving us the royal treatment. Despite the twilight hours, the first impression of the campus was massive. As things got clearer and I came out from the bath in one of those ISB apartments (with four air-conditioned bedrooms, a living room furnished with sofa sets, television, fridge, hot plates, two three-star-hotel-standard bathrooms, and people coming to clean up the 'house' and change bed sheets everyday), I realised that ISB campus was actually a class apart. Although it is very difficult to compare the campus of ISB with that of our own IIMK, I could get a better parallel for the ISB Campus with that of Infy.

In fact, starting from the lawns to the rooms, to the food courts, to the cafes and stores, to even the rest rooms, the campus was exactly like what Infy or Wipro would typically look like. It was actually a nice feeling and for me, a nostalgic one too, as we moved on from one place to another in their huge attrium and the central building holding the entire academic block and a tastefully built auditorium (more close to a PVR-esque theater, actually).

As for the event I had gone to participate in, got a missile thrown on any hopes of a a good performance. I started badly with stutters and pauses and by the time I was half way through my talk, I knew that I had blown it. Since we did not get a chance to listen to the other speakers, I really do not know how bad we were (or conversely, how close we were to the grand prize :-)) With the tech quiz guys bombing out too, the situation for the IIMK contingent did not look all that rosy. So it was that I teamed up with Rajat and Gaurav with Suraj to enter the technology on-the-spot case contest. A good desision it turned out to be for me, with the Patni people (who were sponsoring the event) giving away tee shirts, pens and pads to all participants :-).

Two teams of Gaurav-Suraj and Baid-Sinha reached the finals of the Biz Quiz and as I joined them after the dismal performance in Antakshari prelims, I got some much needed solace with the entertaining questions and quiz format of VV Ramannan (of the Hindu Young World fame). The Antakshari prelims, where I had teamed up with Rajat and Anupam, had us aslmost done over (what with our not being able to recollect the chak dhum dhum song from Dil to Pagal Hai) till the fateful time in the middle of the biz quiz. Hearing my name all of a sudden from the quizmaster's PA system, and being compared to Mukesh and Rafi was a surprise. It appeared that the Antakshari organizers had actually selected us for the finals and since Rajat and Anupam were nowhere to be seen, I had to form a team with Pragati and despite the disadvantage that the organizers kept reminding us of, we decided to have some fun and go on stage. In the end, it actually turned out to be great with both of us belting out song after song and having a whale of a time. Despite her protests, Pragati actually turned out to be good and actually made sure that we finished fourth out of the five finalists :-).

After the disappointment of the biz quiz, where neither of our two teams could make it to the prizes, the fashion show and the party made up for a lot. ISB does have more than a fair share of girls and of these girls (58 out of a batch of about 250), most are actually good-looking and more than that, smart and bold. In fact, the attire at the party took me by a bigger surprise as compared to that at the fashion show. This was one party where people actually came dressed up for the ocassion. After an hour of wondering how and when I should get on to the dance floor full of unknown people (the others from the IIMK contingent having given me the ditch), I finally got in and what a time I had. With so much choice, there was not one song for which I could not get a decent partner...in one word, it was awesome.

Having danced till about 3 in the morning, another early morning was a pain that had to be endured, however, for the excellent breakfast that the ISB guys served. The food, in toto, was amazing and it was not just the variety that amazed me, but even the ambience of the place, combined with the food's shear taste and quality, that took the breath away. They do pay 90K for the food, though :-)

The second day was a little better with Gaurav and Suraj actually winning a prize for IIMK. The tough stand that they took against meaningless acquisitions by Patni and their actually spreading their competencies instead of consolidating on them earned them recognition from the judges and more than that, the second prize of 15 thousand rupees. Pragati's finance paper presentation was up last and by the time the high quality stuff (I know now that I need to work really hard if I am to be anywhere near the standards of those people) ended, it was already six and the chase was on for the train at 7:25 from Secundeabad.

With an hour separating us from the railway station, we made a Just In Time start at 6:30, hopin to make it somehow. The auto driver that took me and Gaurav along excused himself from the job by handing us over to better hands of a younger guy with a younger and meaner (!!!) machine. However, in the process of rolling over from one auto to another, my laptop refused to be rolled aside and was left in the Auto No. 1. By the time we realized the loss, we were halfay to the station. Hoping against hope that the auto sriver would have handed the laptop over to the second auto coming right behind us and carrying Rajat and Pragati, we decided to make it to the station first and think later.

Gaurav was actually pretty bogged down with the jinx that he said follows him on all trips. However, we did make it on time to the station with the train being delayed by half an hour, too. A call to the security gate of ISB allayed my fears, too with the information that my laptop was safe with them. Ramit, one of the coordinators for Poseidon, the ISB festival, has my laptop with him now and he will be managing the thing's getting to Bangalore shortly. I will have to go down some weekend (probably this one) to collect it from there.

I did want to spend a day in Bangalore, what with having already missed Prof Saji Gopinath's presentation and with the chances of a good birthday-cum-prize winning treat from Suraj, but with Pragati intent on making it to Calicut by the day bus, I decided to carry forward with my earlier plans. Believe me, the day trip to Calicut, though not all that uncomfortable, was a lesson and a memory, what with playing hide and seek with sun filtering through the windows, and making it just in time to the bus after the lunch halt, loaded with a bunch of raw bananas.

All was hunky and dory enough till I reached the hostel and realised that the key to my room was in the case of my laptop and as such, I was stranded till I either broke my door or found a suitable alternative. I could do neither and despite the flood of spam linking me with long haired people and talking about people I wanted to sleep with, I finally made it somehow through the night, out of my room and living, as Shounak remarked, out of my briefcase (in this case, though, it was Somas' bag). Luckily, I could get the duplicate keys to my room this morning and since the laptop should be here by the weekend, too, I have no real worries on that count.

In the meanwhile, things had heated up back at IIMK, too with another of the email wars following a seminar (this time, it was Horizons 2004, the annual management festival of IIMK). The senior-junior debate that ranged from people questioning others' achievements to sending sarcastic mails, raged on and on, so much so, that I had 101 mails in my inbox by the time I could make it to the CC to check my mails. The ITC Business Plan Contest was also over and with two teams having won (and probably qualified for the finals), congratulations are in order. Congratulations are also in order for the 14 people who got through Wipro and the five that made it to IBM in the laterals placement season for the seniors here at IIMK.

Ultimately, after all the fracas and the fun and the tension and the experience, I am back at campus with the last phase of the term approaching fast. It is going to be another spate of assignments, projects, submissions, and examinations for me, as we fight it out to finish another 1/6th of our MBA course.

The other perspective

 

It is strange but true. People seldom try to put themselves in other shoes and get the other perspective before thinking and talking about something. Vikhyat was speaking of the fun and spirit of the game day before yesterday when he was not a part of either the people getting the points, nor of the people losing them. Today at Antakshari, when his team was liable to lose because of the small issue that should have been neglected from the fun point of view, he came up shouting and was even talking about being given a second chance if the results were to be too close...talk of different languages being spoken in different situations.

Anyway, Konnect was not at all satisfying today. With only 15 odd teams turning up, it does take your enthu down...what with all the time that we spend publicising, organising these events and then finally seeing only 50 people turning up out of a total of 250. C hostel did not come at all, not even with a token participation...ah well...

There was another minor skirmish apart from the one that I was mentioning about in the initial few lines of the post. Vishak was the time keeper and all of a sudden, he vanished into thin air (he had an urgent call and could not inform anyone before going). This resulted in the team from F (the first team) getting a little extra time and finally, when it was Team G's (Mayank, Prashanat, etc) turn and I refused them the same despite the circumstances being similar, things got a little heated up again.

In another instance, Prashant jumped the gun and before my accepting or rejecting the answer, started talking about his own version of the answer, forcing me to cancel the question from being passed on to the next teams for bonus points. By the way, this was what angered Vikhyat and made him lose sight of the bigger picture of having fun :-)

Jokes apart, I am really wondering about what else I should do to get a better response from people. I know that ITC is coming up and so are the end term submissions for seniors and cases aplenty for us juniors, but all the same, I don't think that two hours are all that scarce. We plan to have Dumb C finals and Pictionary prelims on Monday...let's see who all turn up.

I shall be leaving for Bangalore tomorrow night and from there to Hyderabad to participate in the debate at ISB. I am still feeling guilty about leaving so many classes and especially the student presentation due in Prof Saji Gopinath's class...but then I have to take the call... can not really expect to have the cake and eat it too.

Konnecting priorities

So many things have been happening that I have completely lost track of my priorities. Somehow I feel that I am fast going on the track that I was on during my college days. With so many inter institute festivals coming up and myself trying to participate in as many of them as possible, things on the academic front have taken a backseat. With Dr. Chowdhury's Class Participation marks being based strictly on attendance, I am likely to miss out on quite a lot on the grades front. I am not even reading up anything on Fin and Ops either. With the term end coming closer, the load is only going to increase and if I carry on like this, it is certainly going to be a tough, tough time for me. In fact, even the supposedly comfortable subjects like Org Theory and Macro have started changing their faces, what with all the presentations, assignments, and projects lined up. BTW, the presentations in OB were good fun, with some nice stories in the mockingly smiling JC style as well as some draggingly non-stop folded handed montone from Pavithra, in addition to many others.

In the midst of all this guilt that I have been heaping over myself, I have also become a party to the team that has gone ahead with this initiative called Konnect. Last night witnessed the first of the events at Konnect and as Sandipan said later, I got an idea of what to expect in future. A decent gathering of about 60-odd people did make sure that Konnect has a decent chance to be sustainable in future but all the same, the kind of format that we have thought of for Konnect, actually (and even expectedly) resulted in a minor skirmish.

It all happened when Mustu and Ramesh's team at dumb charades depicted the figure of the alphabet A while trying to guess "A Suitable Boy". As I had already mentioned at the beginning of the event, any codes for alphabets were not allowed. When I tried to disqualify the team from this round, Hostel D residents, with Sandipan and Vinay shouting the most :-), started creating a ruckus. Things were going fine and I was trying to explain my logic on top of allegations that similar behavior had been excused earlier in the event. I was trying to tell them that earlier, I did not see it myself but now that I had seen it happening, I could not swallow the same. I thought that this would sink in but it was then that some more people got in the act and with Rohit, Sandipan, and Ravi (Konnect's bouncer???) going in for the pushing matches, the situation went from bad to worse.

Vikhyat says that I was wrong in finally ruling to disqualify the D Hostel team because after all, it was all meant for fun and the this was the bigger picture. Rules were minor issues that could be modified in view of the bigger picture. Though I did not tell this to him last night when I just heard him out and was rather weary of people not understanding the idea behind it, I do think otherwise. As far as my understanding goes, when we (Vikhyat included) thought of Konnect as an idea, the big picture was not just fun, but establishing a tradition of fun. I know that it sounds like a lot of crap and heavy stuff but it remains a fact that you can not really expect people to take something seriously if that some thing has no structure. This was also why I did not want too much flexibility in the events that we were organizing...why I did not want the event to be declared without making sure of the prizes, venue, clashes with other events...why I did not want to send a mail retracting the team size from 3 to 2...

Whatever happened, it actually resulted in something good for Konnect beacuse this is what we were looking for...a feeling of belonging for your own hostel and a sense of rivalry with others (the tone of the rivalry could have been kept down a bit ideally but then again, chalta hai).

Amongst other things, after the not-so-successful stint at BT Acumen in Bangalore, I am all set to go for the debate at ISB, for which we already have the topic and the information that there are about 20 odd teams registered and more expected. Gaurav is a good speaker and I just hope that I can do enough to match up to him and give the IIMK team some character (and not take away from it :-))

The campus seems to be full of ITC Business Plan banners and despite what Gagan says about it all being a compromise to reach a position where we don't have to compromise, I am still sceptical as to whether we are heading for a habit of compromising. At times, such a strategy, instead of adding to your image, actually erodes whatever there is of it, but then again, as Abhijit says, this thing might as well be happening in IIMA, for all I know. Whatever be the case, here's wishing all the teams who have qualified for the contest the very best of luck...Kolkata shall be ours.

Of parties, emotions, and Konnect

The party last night was one of the best that I have attended for a long long time. This does not reflect on the parties earlier but more on my mood last night which was, in one word, good. It was as if all was right with the world and everything was in its place. At the same time, it doesn't take away from the hard work that Reuben and Rahul did to make the party a success. Though their idea of introducing games in the party did not really take off as it should have, the party was fun.

The effect of the party was diminished to an extent by people not turning up, especially those who have not been placed so far. In my own humble and personal opinion, if the reason for not turning up was only that the party was being thrown by people who have been placed and as such, was disrespectful and perhaps even mocking towards those who have not been placed yet, then I must say that a wrong trend is being established here. Going by this logic, who do you think will be a part of your celebrations whenever you plan to have it?

Last night's party had all the usual ingredients, the booze for boozers, the snacks for snackers, the dance and music for dancers...but more than that, the part of observing people take their skins off was the most interesting. That is what people tend to do under the effect of spirits, take their skins off and show their real self by actions and words...and that is what happened last night, too...Abhinav, Rajat, Vikhyat to a small extent, Sumit, Deepak and so many more...

On different lines, Aditya raised a very pertinent question this evening as we were getting ready to go for an outing to Kadavu Resorts for dinner (by the way, the ambience is good at Kadavu but the food, not all that great). He said that a person (I have a fairly good idea of who the person is, though Aditya refused to even give me any hints as to his identity), while discussing my blog with him, was wondering why I keep writing my emotions in public.

Telling a story, relating the happenings, cracking a joke through a publicly read blog are all fine but why do I, knowing fully well that my blog is being read by a lot of people, tear open my wounds and emotions that should normally be kept to oneself? On second thoughts, Aditya said that even he wondered the same at times about my blog.

I know that it is difficult to make any one understand because even I am not very clear about why I write what I write....but I will try, not because I need to explain my actions to anyone, but because there are moments of self doubt where even I am unclear as to why I make such a public show of washing my dirty linen.

It is like this...whenever I feel the pinch of something, I want to get it out of my system but not totally so. I want to talk about it to someone and take the load off myself. Since I am generally not able to get too comfortable about talking to people about my problems, I generally write them down on my blog and with others reading it, it feels as if I have washed my hands off the suffocating feelings. The blog also helps me keep track of my feelings and emotions in such situations and as such, record my life as it happens, thus ensuring that if, after ten years in my life, I take a look at my blog archives, they will tell me exactly what I need to feel blessed about and what I need to be careful against.

I know that it may sound like a lot of bullshit to many but then again, it is my blog and it is my reasoning and that somehow ends the entire discussion, doesn't it? :-)

Another thing that has been happening recently is Konnect. It is an intiative that some of us here at IIMK have planned. With big goals of setting a tradition, Konnect is all about connecting people in teams and fostering the hostel, batch, and institute identity amongst the junta. A series of cultural events have been planned, and the winning hostel might actually get a good deal as a prize (if our negotiations for the sponsorships pay, that is). The logo and the ads for Konnect have come out really well (and might even land me up in some trouble if I am not careful enough with dropping names). The teaser campaign that we ran for Konnect, though not garnering enough mail spam, did raise a few eyebrows and more than a few questions.

Since today's call for volunteers, there have been four of them already and hoping that others will join in, I believe that there is indeed going to be born, a new tradition at IIMK.

BTW, as Vikhyat says, the logo of Konnect is actually Tee Shirt Material :-))

Payment for a lost punchline

I was going to Bangalore after about five months and though this was, by no means, the longest that I had been away from the place, I was excited to be finally able to go there from Calicut. In fact, before I had joined IIMK, I had promised my Infy gang that I will keep coming to Bangalore every now and then (what with the place being only 6-7 hours away).

This particular journey to Bangalore, however, was for a specific purpose. A hastily organized and sparsely participated debate on Friday saw me being selected to represent the institute in the two upcoming debates, one at ISB on the 27th of this month and the other in Bangalore on the 19th, that is yesterday. So it was that I, Deepak (as members of the debate team), Sanjeev, and Gaurav (as the quiz team) stood in front of the college gate waiting for the Kallada Travels bus to Bangalore. With an immensely uncomfortable journey under our belts, we reached Bangalore early in the morning, all ready to take on the world. While the other three went on to Gaurav's house (he belongs to Bangalore), I decided to give a visit to Sushant. Richa was also there and was busy filling up the recommendation guidelines for her PL. She has taken GMAT and scored an amazing 740. On top of that, she doesn't want to go abroad and is applying, for the time being, to ISB (which I believe, will lap her up).

Chatting with them, I lost track of time and by the time I was ready and could get an auto, it was already quite late. I reached the venue in Kormangala at about 10 minutes past the scheduled time and was surprised to see no one there, apart from our team and another from the neighboring Christ College Institute of Management. Soon, we came to know that the eliminations were to be held at IIMB campus and they had already kicked off the process there. We managed to hitchhike on the bikes of the Christ College people and somehow reach the new venue in time for the eliminations. Eliminations were a cake walk, I thought. The topic of the debate said, "Opportunity is more on building Indian Brands than building Brand India". Each team was supposed to speak two minutes for the motion (one speaker) and two minutes against it (second speaker). I decided to go against, and after a spirited show by Deepak, managed to give some decent finishing touches to be able to qualify into the final eight from a group of 42 teams.

The quarterfinals had an interesting format and of course, a different venue. The two IIMs in the south zone were (probably intentionally) kept in two different quarter finals and the topic for the first quarters (which saw some lop-sided competition with IIMB and Christ College simply stealing the show) was "Indian Advertising: Imitation or Innovation?". Some bad performance by the other two teams and some decent going by IIMB and Christ College saw them through to the semis. The next quarters, in which we figured, had the topic "Celebrity Endorsements: Does it pay?". An interesting topic with a lot of arguments and counter-arguments, it made the debate lively. Deepak from IIMK opened the debate by setting the context of the discussion, defining what a brand stands for and how it can come to gain from celebrity endorsements, giving the examples of Amitabh Bachchan and Cadbury's and above all, quoting some fake figures from some fake reports, too :-).

The opposition speaker from ICFAI, Hyderabad who opened against Deepak went on to question the match between Amitabh and Cadbury and also talked about the cost factor of involving celebrities in the ad campaigns (played right into our hands as we were prepared for these questions and had anticipated them with precision). My turn was next and I believe that I made a good start (in an unusual way, with the Rapunzael poem). I went on to mention my points about how cost factor can be neutralised if the advertising strategy is chosen correctly and the celebrity endorsements are used during growth phase of the product life cycle. What I did not do was reply to the Amitabh-Cadbury link and finish my speech with the punchline that related my start, body and conclusion (completely forgot both of them).

I had started with saying something that went like, "Rapunzael Rapunzael, let your golden hair down, says the prince. Rapunzael lets her hair down and the prince climbs up the tower and the two lovers meet. Love, anybody? Ladies and Gentlemen, Love is when Romeo meets Juliet, Love is when Laila meets Majnu and not when a rose is shown brushing against a sunflower for minutes on end without any purpose."

I went on to mention how celebrities give a physical form with which the customers can associate the brand, gave the example of Preity Zinta and Pentafresh, and more importantly, talked about the necessary marketing startegy decisions that need to be right for celebrity endorsements to work. The punchline that I forgot and that I wanted to end with went somewhat like this: "A Veer Pratap Singh and a Zaara Hyatt Khan will in deed have the desired effects, provided that they are backed with the typical Yash Chopra style."

So far, so good...but that is when the lightning struck. One of the judges stood up and said that he wanted to bring the discussion into perspective and asked the teams to discuss more about how exactly does the celebrity endorsement pay or not pay. Completely unfair to our team where both of us had spoken, this came as a jolt. BIM Trichy, the second team for the motion, however, got it as a Godsend and capitalized fully on it by starting their argument with the tangibles and intangibles that companies can obtain from the celebrity endorsement ploy. The moment they said this, the judges were seen nodding their heads as if those guys had struck a goldmine all on their own.

The opposition teams, the ICFAIs from Chennai and Hyderabad were both pathetic but as luck would have it, both the pathetic teams were in the opposition. As we came to know later, the policy was not to choose the best two teams from each quarter final for the semis but to choose one Government (that is, team for the motion) and one Opposition (that is, team against the motion) from each quarter final. We had already lost to our partner team in the Government on account of the judge intervention and though we did try to salvage the situation somewhat in the Q&A round, it was too little too late.

The semis were interesting with IIMB, ICFAI Chennai favoring the motion, "M-commerce: Myth or Reality?" and BIM Trichy, Christ College against the motion. More interesting than the opening arguments, the Q&A session saw some tempers flaying and some good use of rhetoric by both Christ College and IIMB. The other two teams were completely outclassed as these two teams (luckily, one in the Government and another in the Opposition) went about murdering each other. The IIMK contingent asked a few questions, too and in my opinion, Gaurav and Deepak could have done better than losing thier tempers. I completely agree to their point that the IIMB guys were acting too smart and that Gaurav was specially irritated because we were made to wait for the quiz prelims results since the morning...but then again, it came across as if IIMK were sore losers. Whatever be the case, as Amitabh said in Sholay, "Partner, ab bol hi diya hai to dekh lenge", and so it was that even I was poised to ask a question of my own but luckily for IIMB, time for Q&A ran out before I could put my own poser to their arguments.

The day ended rather dramatically for us with Gaurav making his displeasure known to one of the ladies in the organising committee. Though she did finally relent and told us that we were through to the quarters of the quiz, Gaurav wanted more (perhaps an apology?). Sanjeev made the peace and that was when we finally left. I stepped out at the Forum, did some window shopping, got me some posters that I wanted to have in my room for long, and then finally went to Richa's house. Having asked Deepak to book tickets for the 9:30 bus, we were waiting for Sushant to come and take us out for a good dinner. It was not to be, however, as Deepak told me, just in the nick of time, that we had got tickets only for the 8:30 bus.

It was all a blur there onwards as Richa literally dragged me along till I reached the bus stop with about ten minutes to spare. Sushant came to the place directly from his office. Thinking back, I felt lucky to have such friends who, if they wanted, could have left me on my own and said their good-byes but who, in reality, made sure that I made it to my bus and escorted me all the way as if I was a kid and would not be able to make it on my own. Thanks guys for all this and much more.

On the upswing!

IIMK is on an upswing and it is not just because my blog says so. IIM Kozhikode, the fifth-to-be-set-up amongst the Indian Institutes of Management (or the IIMs, as they are popularly known) has had a brief but eventful history. About to complete a decade of operations, the institute is all poised to take over and reach up to the best in the business. However, it will be pointless to say that there have already been events that prove the forward march of this institute beyond doubt. In fact, seen from the realistic angle, there are miles to go before the institute can even count itself amongst the top few in this country.



But then again, the signals are all there. One strong signal was last night's talk by Dr. PJ Nayak, the CMD of UTI Bank. The kind of professional display and the quality of interaction that the students of the institute put up during this talk would have impressed even the most hardcore of cynics. The talk on Banking on Clutter: Marketing, Segementation, and Risk Mitigation was not really hard core fin. However, the sheer brilliance of Dr. Nayak's elocution combined with a receptive audience made the talk really interesting. The faculty's presence in the talk was another encouragement that, according to me, actually made the students participate more than they normally do.

In fact, for the past few seminars and talks that I have been witnessing on campus, there has not been much of quality participation from the audience (except probably for a part of the IT Seminar, due to widespread familiarity with the topic). This time, things were different partly on account of the short, simple, and yet meaningful nature of the talk by Dr. Nayak and partly due to his delivery which was, as I have already mentioned, impressive.

Dr. Nayak talked about how one of the oldest institutions that have survived in the market is commercial bank and how despite being written off by many as being liable to disintegrate into the asset side and the liability side, these banks have carved out a niche for themselves while at the same time, not letting go of the bundled service that they provide to their customers.

However, this ability of banks to survive, Dr. Nayak said, is not sufficient if they have to actually grow and flourish. Modern banks have to take care of customer relationships by moving towards more intimate relationships with their customers. At the same time, they have to look at another scale of completeness of service and make sure that they provide as comprehensive a package to their customers as possible and all this at reasonable costs.

As he pointed out and as came out in the questions later, this leads to a paradox. Banks try to provide comprehensive facilities like ATMs, internet banking, etc by which they remove the low value tasks from the branches but at the same time by doing so, they have fewer chances of talking to their customers face to face and establish a relationship with them to either up-sell or cross-sell products and services. To counter this, banks can go for mailing communication supported by data mining techniques to ensure that things continue to go on smoothly on both relationship and completeness scales.

An ethical question on such techniques, however, was well received by Dr. Nayak as he said that there has to be a balance and self-restraint that banks have to adopt because if not, it will result in prohibitive legislations in the long run. Personally, I believe that before tapping the small market that it already has, the banking sector should look at expanding the customer base which they do not seem to be busy doing. Calling up a person who has three credit cards with three different banks (which is what the data mining software is likely to recommend) and trying to convince him/her to change to/add on a new card is useless. Creating awareness about Indian banking and its modern face amongst those who are not current customers of the sector at all, is a more prudent strategy and in the long run, a more paying one.

That was what I thought about the topic. However, there were quite a few quesions to Dr. Nayak from the students about things different from the topic (varying from asking for his comments on as brow-raising topics as HSBC's interest in UTI Bank to as eye-raising as role of GFIs in the Indian scenario). I must say that this batch seems to be more of the Fin-Mark kind than any other. I am eagerly awaiting the Finance and Marketing Seminars and can just imagine all the action that is going to come.

The long weekend

The long weekend of Diwali and Eid is well over and the classes scheduled for this week seem to be bringing things to a head for probably the first or second time this term. This does not, in any way however, take away from the immensely eventful weekend that the past one has been. With three free days in a row owing to some sincere efforts by the Student Council yet again, the mood was upbeat with a lot of people packing their bags Thursday evening for places like Bangalore, Goa and Kovalam.

For the people left on campus, there were plans for Diwali celebrations. Even the night preceding Diwali was very interesting. Having gone to sleep after watching a movie or two at about 3:30 in the night, I kept having dreams of a very noisy and boisterous Holi for some reason. When I woke up in the morning, I saw that the entire hostel had water and more water everywhere and the sweeper was having a hard time figuring out the reason for this downpour inside the building. It was only later that I came to know of the water fight that had broken out in IIMK on Diwali eve. Spread across hostels, the splashing extravaganza saw some interesting highs like Gagan's hydrophobia, people being woken out of their sleeps and water being poured over them, reactions of some such people to such treatment in so-early hours of the morning.

That notwithstanding, people were all geared up for the Diwali celebrations with Puja planned at 7 in the evening. Before the Puja however, Veer-Zaara happened. I still go by my opinion that the movie will do well because of its being designed for the masses. Anyways, Diwali Puja was up next as we came back to the hostel (just in time, considering that the rains were following right behind). Lots of kurtas, saris, unspoken mantras of the priest, uninhibited and free flowing revelry in the midst of the Puja, some real hard work by the organizers, and the Swedes with their huge camera were some of the attractions of the Puja.

The dinner that followed had its own fruity flavor with two sweet dishes thrown in the Diwali bounty. I must say here that I really appreciated what Rajat did to regulate the food distribution. Such conduct is rarely seen and the only recent example that I can think of is what Priya did at the hotel in Munnar where like Rajat, she was busy carrying the puris and serving them to the rest of us.

The very first number called up in the Housie won me a prize (a shooting star) of 100 bucks but I more than made up for it by losing some 550 rupess in the late night (went on till 5 in the morning, actually) game of cards...so much for the ill-effects of gambling (and to think that at one point, I was winning around 400 bucks). The fireworks display made up for the teeny weeny little bit of home-sickness that had started creeping in and by the time the fireworks ended (though a little tragically, what with the injuries to Sandipan, Abhineet and Devroop), I was in a complete festive mood.

Saturday was pretty uneventful as I got up at about 1 in the afternoon. The only change from the typical lazy day routine was yet another movie, this one decided at the very last minute. Naach turned out to be disappointing and so did the India Pakistan cricket match that followed and resulted in yet another loss for India.

Sunday was spent lazing around and trying to read up on the case for Monday's Operations class. That I managed to do much more of the former as compared to the latter is obvious. I even managed to watch The Italian Job...had heard a lot about it...nice movie, but not as good as you would expect after the rave reviews...personally, I think that Ocean's Eleven or even Mission Impossible was much better...but then again, each one for his/her own.

Diwali night is also the ocassion when I get in touch with my family like I never do in the normal course. I make it a point to call all my relatives, cousins, friends on Diwali and despite a one day bill that normally goes beyond 500 (it even touched four figures once), it gives me a lot of satisfaction to be able to connect to the people who really matter in my life. It is not that I do not talk to them normally but Diwali is a special ocassion when people expect calls and greetings from their near and dear ones and a greeting at such times is received as being the most affectionate of all.

Naach Naach ke Duniya Hila De

Berang Zindagi hai...raftaar chahiye

The above line sums up what goes wrong with RamGopal Verma's latest, Naach. The movie was made with very good intentions but soemwhere along the line, the writer, director and the screenplay people got lost.

Abhi is a struggling actor in the Hindi film industry who can do anything for fame, money and recognition in the movies. Rewa is a budding choreographer with a very strict set of rules and conducts that she will not compromise upon, not even for success and fame. Despite this basic difference in idealogies, the two characters come together in a bus as Abhi and Rewa are both coming back from a production office.

Abhi persuades Rewa to teach him dance, which he badly needs for his first break in the movies. While learning and teaching dance, Rewa and Abhi fall in love. Abhi becomes a big hit after his movie and achieves all that he ever wanted to. Rewa, however, is thrown out of the movie because of some petty reason. Before the audience could even think of all this leading to a happily ever after ending, comes the jolt. The idealogical differences between Abhi and Rewa come to a head and they decide to go their separate ways with some cruel words by Abhi marking the separation (somehow, the scene reminded me of Amitabh in Abhimaan).

As Abhi gets more and more busy with his movies and fans, Rewa does not let go of her ideals and ultimately succeeds as her work is recognized by Diwakar, a young director who launches Rewa in his music video. The video is immensely successful and Rewa becomes an overnight star. Diwakar launches a musical with Abhi and Rewa in the lead, little knowing the past story of the two. Being professionals, both of them carry on putting the garb till one fine day, when it becomes too much for the jealous Abhi who is not able to prevent seeing Rewa and Diwakar together from affecting his work.

As Abhi decides not to work for Diwakar's musical any more and breaks down in his proclamation of his pining for Rewa, the movie ends (rather abruptly, as Ravi says is the hallmark of Ramu movies) with Diwakar, too, declaring his love for Rewa and Rewa making the final choice.

The movie, as I said earlier, lacks speed. What it has in plenty, however, is realism. Right from the first bus scene where the conversation between the lead pair is interrupted periodically by the conductor's bells and the coming in/going out of passengers, to the scenes on the movie sets with aparent hits on candy-floss genre, the movie is as real as they come. Not that being realistic takes something away from the movie...rather, it only adds to it. However, all this realism needed to be at a pace where it made sense. The sluggish nature of the screenplay leaves hardly any scope to identify and appreciate the nuances that make Ramu such an acclaimed movie-maker.

At times, the sets and the costumes go over the board, too. The sleaze show that Antara Mali presents for the B-crowd starts getting to the head after some time, too. Instead of slowly appealing, as Urmila was in Rangeela, Antara tries too hard and does an overkill (yes, despite showing all flesh that she could probably have without the movie getting an A certificate). Abhishek, on the other hand, does not seem to be trying at all. Though the character does need the intense, brooding, and even arrogant part that Abhishek looks, there are ocassions when he plays it in too subdued a manner, which again adds to the overall sluggish and dull feel of the movie. Ritesh Deshmukh, as Diwakar, will surprise the audience with his credible peformance. After Masti, I had almost written off this actor who proves with this movie that he is made of sterner stuff. A very restrained, and to-the-tee performance should surely earn him some browney points.

The direction, as in all Ramu movies, is a little hatke. The shades of darkness and light are mixed to perfection, and so are the facial expressions in the dances and the scenes. Inspite of being based on dance, the movie surprisingly lacks good music (except one or two catchy numbers). Though the dance is there, it looks more of a gymnastic performance than dance. Given that dance, like gymnastics, requires fluidity of body, but does every step requires twisting your legs back in some sparingly believable postures? But then again, from the point of view of the choreographer, the movie's dance steps might look appealing...so, nothing against them as I do not have enough expertise or even knowledge to talk about this area.

The typical Diwali movie-goer who is looking for a bit of all-in-one, will be disappointed with Naach. Although he will get more than his dose of sleaze, he will, in all probability, find the movie a little too heavy and dull and slow. Despite some very interesting scenarios that could have been built in the story (especially when the movie starts with Abhi and Rewa in the lead), the screenplay fails to capitalize on them and disappoints the public. The domain experts (that is the dancers, choreographers, et al) will probably like the bits and pieces, but even they will not be satisfied with the overall effect. As for the parallel cinema enthusiasts, it would be difficult for even them to appreciate this half-escapist, half-realistic movie.

Main, Kaidi No. 786, jail ki deewaron se baahar dekhta hoon,
to wahaan ek pari si dikhaai deti hai,
wo kahte hain main unsa nahi,
phir kyun wo apni si lagti hai

The latest offering from the Chopra stable comes to town this Diwali amidst some very high expectations and some tough competition in the form of three more movies making their presence felt the same weekend. Veer-Zaara, as the promos and Yash Chopra's reputation (which is not to be underestimated any day) suggest, is about love...love between an Indian Air Force Officer and the daughter of a Pakistani politician...love between the junta of the two neighboring countries of India and Pakistan that goes much beyond the cacophany of political slogans.

Squadron Leader Veer Pratap Singh is a rescue pilot with the Indian Air Force with an uncanny :-) habit and job of rescuing and airlifting girls from precarious positions. Some day, he plans to fulfill his Babuji's dream of working for the upliftment of their village. All is going well with his life till he rescues a girl who changes his life.

Zaara Hyatt Khan is the daughter of Jehangir Hyatt Khan, one of the influential politicians of Lahore. Jehangir Hyatt Khan has dreams of fulfilling his father's wishes of making their political party successful, at any cost. Zaara's Bebe (played in a short but effective role by Zohra Sehgal) is on her deathbed. Having taken care of Zaara and her family for years, Bebe now wants Zaara to fulfill her last wish of being immersed in India after her death. Zaara brings her Bebe's ashes to India and that is when her bus has an accident and she is rescued and airlifted by Squadron Leader Veer Pratap Singh, who not only saves her life, but also changes it completely.

In return for the help that Veer provides Zaara in taking her to her destination in India, Zaara promises to spend a day with Veer in his village...give one day of her life to him, as is said in the movie. This one day turns out to be the most special day of Zaara's life with Chowdhury Sumer Singh and his wife Saraswati Devi (the uncle and aunt of Veer who have raised him up) giving her love, respect, and even naming the girl's school after her. Zaara also finds place in the hearts of the Punjabi-Madrasan couple as both of them encourage Veer to open his heart out to Zaara.

Before he can do so, however, comes in Raza, the fiance of Zaara who has come to India in search of her. Our hero, nevertheless, proclaims his love saying that he can die for Zaara if need be, but since she is engaged to be married to someone else, he might as well say good bye for now :-).

Even after the good bye, Zaara can not forget Veer. Zaara's friend and confidante, Shabbo (played in a most effervescent manner by Divya Dutta) calls up Veer to tell him about Zaara's coming marriage to Raza (which is a poltically motivated decision of Zaara and Raza's fathers) and her love for Veer. Veer resigns from Indian Air Force and comes to Pakistan to claim his love. Though he does create a scene at the dargah on the day before the marriage, he is soon persuaded by Zaara's mother (Kiron Kher, in another Devdas-esque role) not to ruffle the lying feathers and return to India. But return to India, he can not, because of certain plots and plans that result in his spending 22 years in a Lahore prison with the news of his death reaching his dear ones.

Veer is destined to live his entire life without Zaara in a prison, but not so easily if all goes as per the plans of the gutsy little advocate, Shaamiya Siddiqui. Shaamiya is going to court for the first time with the re-opening of Veer's case and despite the biggest barrister in town (and also Shaamiya's former boss) as the opposition, she spares no efforts to bring justice to Veer. She even goes to India in search of this justice and in turn, unravels some things that had been buried and forgotten for a long long time.

The story, as can be seen, is not very original, and yet it is not the quintessential boy-meets-girl-loses-girl-fights-bad-men-wins-girl-back-lives-happily-ever-after story either. The movie comes across as a sincere attempt to please the masses. Whether it be the little bit of the wedding festive mood thrown in, or the des prem emanating from the songs in the sarso ke khet, the movie plays to popular themes. The only place where Veer-Zaara fails is probably the elongated sequences of emotions that the characters go through in the movie and the fact that it is, in one word, sweet candy floss.

The music, derived from the original works of Late Madan Mohan, is excellent and haunts the viewers for quite some time (I am still humming some of the tunes). The picturisation is typical Yash Chopra, all green and happy and sunny and rosy. As for the actors, Shahrukh Khan seems to be improving with age and Preity Zinta is becoming more and more beautiful. Rani Mukherjee does the job of walking fast in long corridors pretty effectively and that is the only thing that she is actually required to do in the entire movie.

If the lead actors are not considered, the best performance comes from the supporting artists or the special appearances, as the title says. Kiron Kher as Zaara's mother, Anupam Kher as the prosecution lawyer, Hema Malini as Veer's amazingly beautiful (still!!!) Maate, Divya Dutta as Shabbo, and above all, Amitabh Bachchan as Sumer Singh, Veer's Babuji, are all a class of their own, as they lend to this movie, what the lead actors could never have hoped to provide. In fact, it has been a recent observation of mine that a good string of supporting cast actually sells more than a strong subject with the lead pair performing very well.

For all those who are Shahrukh and Preity fans, the movie is a must-watch...for all those who want time off from their busy schedule to relax and be happy about it, the movie is a must watch. The movie can, however, be avoided by people who want the realistic touch...people who are fed up of too much sweetness in the world...and people who think that this movie is another India Pakistan war movie.

The Festival of Lights

Long long ago, in a land far far away, the return of a King was celebrated by his subjects with a city decked with lights and hearts overflowing with happiness.

The doors were kept open for the deity of wealth to come in the households and leave behind the eternal blessing of long-lasting happiness and wealth.

These and many more legends reflect what we know of Deepawali, The Festival of Lights. Celebrated all over the country (and even abroad, amongst Indian settlements), Deepawali is not just these legends...not just the victory of good over evil. For children, it is one time in the year when they are not scolded for making noise and having fun. For teens and semi-adults, it is the time when they meet new people over sweets and delicacies and rise over petty disputes to bridge gaps and (re)form friendships. For the middle-aged, this time of the year means a time-out from their busy schedules to re-affirm family ties and engage in some networking with neighbours, relatives and friends. For the old, it is time to sit back and enjoy the lights emanating the youth that they once felt, while wondering at the timelessness of it all.

India, a land of so many religions and cultures, seems to unite under the umbrella of this amazingly celebrated festival with Hindus, Muslims...Punjabis, Tamilians alike, none knowing any bounds to the joy and enthusiasm that Deepawali symbolises. In fact, I still remember that the biggest and most varied collection of fireworks in our mohalla used to be that of our Muslim neighbors. Not having been home for the past few Deepawalis, I don't know if somebody from down south has now occupied the frontrunner position but what I do know about and can still smell, sitting at all this distance from home, are the sweets of Deepawali, the new clothes, the view from the terrace, with the absence of stars and moon on an Amavasya more than compensated for.

As I sit here today morning writing this post n my blog, I want to reach out to everyone I know and wish them all a very happy and prosperous and joyous Deepawali. I will be calling up some of them, meeting in person, another few, but for all those I may not be able to communicate with on this auspicious day, may they all be blessed with all the happiness that Deepawali brings with it.

We do have a party tonight at IIMK to celebrate Deepawali the traditional way, with sweets and lights and fireworks...there might even be a movie lined up if some of us decide to go for it...I just hope that it is a night to remember for all of us, a night to cherish for yet another year till we come across and join together to celebrate another Deepawali.