Fabulous First Week in Seattle

It has been a day and a week after I landed in Seattle, the largest city in the pacific northwest and in the state of washington. I had a horrible journey consisting of multiple delays and one miss because of thunderstorms and immigration rush respectively. But apart from that, everything has been the opposite of horrible. September is one of the best times to arrive in Seattle in terms of the weather. People say it rains a lot and I have already seen almost all kinds of weather in my first week, but the weather is fantastic. It is very different from India and sweating is something that you will see only if you hike or cycle or do some physical exercise.

My first week was hosted by 2 Indian students here in the university. They are part of an organization that helps other Indian students with the initial accommodation and other things till the students find something for themselves. The word fabulous in the blog's title was added as a result of their hospitality and their good will. I really appreciate their efforts to pick students from the airport, accomodate the students, help them with apartment hunting, cooking, phone connection and what not.

The University campus is magical. It just grows on you and you feel like going back there again and again. Although my classes have not yet started, there is something or the other lined up almost everyday until the classes start. So, the pre-MBA time has just showed me what lies ahead of me. But the whole class and the atmosphere makes you feel comfortable. I met many of my class mates and they are all wonderful. It is really exciting to go to school again and interact with so many nice people. I will keep posting updates as and when I get the time. I really would like to write regularly but I am not sure if my schedule will permit me.

Bangalore - My dream city

It has been a long long time since I blogged about something. There were numerous things that kept me busy. One of them was saying good bye to Bangalore. As easy it is to write, the harder it was when I realized it. So, some of you must be wondering what made me to write this post. These days I have not been doing anything and still do not feel restless. Home has always been like that. On one such day of nothingness, I was chatting with one of my school friends and she told me that you should write a blog since you must be having lots of free time. That is true as well as false. More on that later. And then I thought about writing on a topic that I have been thinking since the last one month.

Bangalore has been my dream city. It has given me almost everything as far as my career and my friends are concerned. It is a city that I would love to settle down someday. Although the recent power cuts did frustrate me, but there still are a lot of positives about the city. Now I know that the traffic is worst, population is increasing, the city is expensive etc., but there is a unique charm about Bangalore especially when the city has given you so many things.

Some things that I can never forget about Bangalore are listed below. Please note that the list is not sorted according to the best or the worst. The list contains the things that come to my mind when I think of Bangalore.

• First impression of the city: Majestic and the massive Bus Stand there.
• Excellent bus services that continue to this day as well.
• My college
• College days spanning 4 years
• Canopy - although I do not remember much, just the place.
• Attending classes
• My roommate in college
• Department HOD
• Cricket Days
• Numerous Friends from college (some of the best ones)
• My other friends in Bangalore
• Placement Days - all the hulla bulla.
• College fest
• Internship Days
• Job/Office days
• Excellent colleagues at work
• Friends at office
• Cafeteria at office
• Promotions
• Demo at 4 in the morning :)
• Angaan/Earthern Oven/3 quarter chinese/beijing bites in college days
• Samarkand/Sahib Singh Sultan/Angeethi always
• Corner House - Who can forget it.
• McDonalds' day in office :)
• Mocha
• CCDs
• Excellent excellent darshinis
• Breakfast trends - Dosa Idli Vada - one of the most nutritious breakfast options available in India
• Barbeque nation and one friends' commission
• Buffet at Cafe Masala
• Little Italy - awesome
• Purple Haze
• Legends of Rock
• Styx
• Bike rides
• Calm and serene surroundings of Jayanagar
• MTR Lalbagh
• Worst Traffic days
• "Getting wet in the rains when on bike" days
• My first rented house and the flatmates
• My second rented house and the flatmates
• Multiple cooks
• Fly like ride in Volvo Airport Shuttles
• Cruel Autowalas - most of them
• Nandi Hills
• Rock culture in Bangalore
• IPL match
• Aero Show
• Awesome awesome climate
• Tremendous energy in the city and its people.

Well, there were more things, but I thought of writing a more detailed post some other time.

Cafeteria Musings

Almost 5 years is the time I have been working in the software industry and there are no better ways to describe the lives and stories of people working in the software sector than the Cafeteria. Cafeteria brings out the best of expressions, reactions and emotions out of a person. At least in my workplace. Regular floor pantries are very small and they only allow for a very official 2 min conversation. So, Cafeteria is where you get to meet people (both known and unknown), to see others expressions and faces and what not, to relieve work pressure, to get a bird's eye view of the city and obviously to eat and drink. Cafeteria is also the knowledge center. From the minute details on the prices of sun mica/plywood to be used in a new house to the ideal financial investments one should make to cricket matters to school admissions, you get the whole perspective.

There are many types of people that you encounter in the cafeteria. Well, in a workplace like mine, you would know at most 30-40% of the people sitting at any point in the cafeteria. What about the rest ? For the rest, facial expressions and behavior are sometimes enough to know them. And sometimes not. Sometimes, you meet the unknown. Sometimes, there is definite eye contact. Sometimes, there is fear and other times, there is cheer when the Indian Team plays cricket. Cafeteria allows the person to vent his/her anger on the higher management, very seldom peers and very very seldom loved ones.

Apart from the usual bitching or backbiting people do in the cafeteria, there are an equal number of positives present. You get to gain a better understanding of this world by listening to the stories of so many different people. It is similar to a very well defined training program, where you grab what you want to use at almost the right time. You also get to seek other people's opinion on something and then judge them. Another positive from the cafeteria is the fantastic view that it offers of the city. Sometimes, you discuss the new buildings coming up and sometimes you predict the time it will take for the rains to reach this part of the city from another part where it is blurry and dark. For the office masses, it is perhaps the only hangout.

Watching facial expressions and observing people is another high point. You see a beautiful girl (which is quite rare in our building) and you completely lose track of the discussion on your table. Sometimes, you look at someone and you get a good amount of eye contact. These are the best times. You think that you are on top of the world even though you know the return eye contact was unintentional or was a mistake. Sometimes, you get the eye contact every few days. And sometimes you get back the "I-will-slaughter-you-and-eat-you" look. Sometimes, you observe someone for a good time and suddenly you see that someone wearing red-and-white colored wedding bangles or wearing the vermilion on the forehead. This is the time when you feel like a loser who missed an excellent opportunity. Sometimes, you do not see a person for a long time and suddenly you get to know that that person has left the company.
Best are the times when a female dresses in the "look-at-me-I-demand-your-attention" style and the males all cannot get their eyes off that female. I know it is completely normal and gratifying for the males to leer and the females to know that they are the talk-of-the-cafeteria, but sometimes watching the reaction of the males is more fun than the "out-of-place" dressed female.

So, these are some of the Cafeteria musings I have written. There is actually a lot to write about what happens on our cafeteria table but I will refrain from writing about anything too personal now. I know the above musings are a little bland and generic, but writing about the spicy and the specific is too risky given my social networking habits.

Search for the Apple

I know most of the people would by now have read or heard about the rumors of Apple developing a Search Engine in competition to Google. I did not put much thought into it before. Now, the more I think about it, the more it makes sense. I would give my justification very soon.

Jumping into selling mobile phones was something everyone was betting big a few 4 or 5 years ago. But at that time, there was no company to whom we could stand up and say "Hey. Look what those guys are doing. Didn't I predict that ?". Apple gave a big bolt to the Mobile industry by coming up with its iPhone. The reason why it shook the industry was the fact that someone, at last someone thought of the Mobile Phone as a computer albeit with limited capabilities. The whole "Mobile Phones are going to be the next wave of Information Technology Revolution" thing was born. People were predicting this for a long time (at least since 2003 I guess), but there was no clear direction before. As I write this, Mobile Phones are going to become the number one device for accessing the Internet. This is what drew Google into the mobile handset software/OS industry. And as they say, rest is history although not old at all. Google's Android Mobile OS based devices have outsold most other devices in US for the last quarter. The entry of first Apple and then Google into the mobile handset industry (hardware & software) is what is giving sleepless nights to Nokia, a company which relies on Symbian OS for most of its devices. Palm was almost dead before HP bought it. Motorola, Sony, LG and Samsung are adopting Android at a frantic pace.

Consider the enterprise software industry. Oracle has been gobbling companies by the dozens. What is that they want to achieve ? Obviously, they want to become the number 1 Application Software Company in the world. Apart from that, the biggest reason is the integrated offering that they would be able to offer customers. IBM has also been buying more companies in the last 2 or 3 years. Same with HP. SAP just joined the bandwagon by buying Sybase. Every company wants to offer integrated systems. They realize that the marriage of hardware and software is very essential for the survival of the Computer World.

What do we get from the above 2 examples ? Consolidation, Integration and sometimes Area Overlap. This is what is happening in the Cloud world or Web Apps world. Google with its enormous amount of cash from advertising is increasingly entering into other companies' territories. Although, they are doing everything differently. They believe in the concept of the Web becoming the soul of a computer. And they seem to be right. They are offering everything on the cloud. Using their ubiquitous brand name and their innovation prowess, they are blasting their way into every aspect of our life that can be improved through technology. How and why are they doing it ? They are doing it using the billions of dollars they earn through advertising. The reason is they can do it. Its because they have so much information in this world that if they sell it (which is not possible off course), I think they can afford to buy another Planet. They are going to integrate every such thing with their Search engine, their cloud based apps, their highly optimized data centers and most importantly the WEB. They are developing the infrastructure for the next Information Technology revolution. Although, more than 80 % of their revenues come from advertising, I am sure this will change in the next 10 years.

Integrating with the WEB is one thing that most companies are already thinking about. And some like Microsoft are investing huge sums of money to get some head start in the next technology revolution. I admire them for sticking onto their beliefs. And what better example than Bing. Bing is still very small, but it is something that has the potential especially with a company like Microsoft behind it. In this next information technology revolution, where is Apple? Apple, just 2 days ago, became the biggest technology company by market share. But, the WEB is the place where they are a little behind. That is the reason why they have to enter the Search Engine business. I hope they enter it one day and will do it by "thinking different". Someone has to stop Google from making humans overly reliant on it. Its not only about the money, but also about the infrastructure, the devices and the applications for the next wave. Although, entering the Search business just for money is also justifiable given the huge market. Apple has to take some steps. Although it will take a good 6 to 8 years for Google to achieve its long term goals, companies have time. And I am not saying companies are not doing anything. Its just that we do not know. I am hopeful of Apple innovating endlessly. Its going to be an interesting battle.

Stick a fork in me, I am done.

My B school application journey 2009-2010 has come to an end. Finally. It is not like I got an admit into my dream school. But it is more of an achievement to stick for so long facing numerous hurdles and learning a lot. I am the old-fashioned type who believes that you always learn out of what you do sincerely and honestly. It was tough to manage work life, social life and to apply to B-Schools. One thing it has surely taught me is to become restless. Not that I was laid-back, but I now have learnt to make good utilization of my free time. Time Management is the cliche here. Another thing that I learnt is to handle failures. I got rejects from 3 major schools after coming so close. I would not call them failures but disappointments. There were a few other things that I learnt but I do not want to bore you all with that.

Coming to the point, here is the list of all the schools that I applied to during my journey and their results:

1. ISB (First round) - Interviewed, Dinged.
2. Duke (First round) - No Interview, Dinged.
3. Haas (First round) - No Interview, Dinged.
4. Foster (First round) - Interviewed, Admitted.
5. McCombs (Second round) - Interviewed, Dinged.
6. Kenan-Flagler (Last round) - Interviewed, Dinged.

So, that is my story in short.
To be honest, I really did not have high hopes from Duke and Haas. McCombs was the most disappointing after a fantastic interview. Kenan-Flagler was dicey since I applied very late but it still gave me hopes after a decent interview. ISB was not that disappointing since, to be honest, I never found ISB that attractive. May be it is their one-year course (which is actually good in a lot of ways) or their large engineer student base (I am an engineer myself). I will write more about that later.

I really missed out on Kelley and Goizueta this time. I would have loved to apply to both of them as well as McCombs and Kenan-Flagler a little earlier. But, I simply could not. In fact, I was so beaten and bruised after my initial 4 (before Foster came out with its results), that I did not have the courage to get up. Some amount of motivation from friends and mentor prepped me up and I finally applied to McCombs and Kenan-Flagler.

Foster is a relatively low profile school (at least in India) that is particularly good at entrepreneurship. Its Accounting and Marketing are also very well known. So, I am excited about Foster and about entering the business world.

Interesting analogy

I just came across an interesting piece of analogy between pleasing a B-School and pleasing a girl. One of the many bloggers in the MBA Blogosphere (whom I follow in my Google Reader) has written a hilarious account of how wooing a B-School is similar to wooing a girl.

You can read it here.

Well, to some extent, the writeup explains why I have not been that successful in wooing a (cough-cough-uhu-uhu) girl till now. Strange glances. I know. I know. Not that I have been successful in wooing a top B-School, but that is a different story.

Housefool, Housebull et al....

There are awesome movies. There are good movies. There are watchable movies. There are avoidable movies. There are bad movies. And there are worse movies. Having watched Chandni Chowk to China (which by the way was my last Akshay Kumar movie) in a multiplex, I can safely say that Housefull falls somewhere between the avoidable and bad ones. I was inclined more towards the gap between the bad ones and the worse ones, but I did laugh at times while watching the movie. And mind you, these were not pity laughs. I fondly remember watching CC2C (Chandi Chowk to China) since I can definitely consider it the worst movie I have ever seen in a movie hall. But Housefull does not stoop that low to levels that were achieved by CC2C. Thank God for that.

To be honest, Housefull could, I repeat, could have been a better movie had there been some originality into it. Everything in the movie seemed to be taken from some other movie or well known jokes except a few scenes. There were glimpses of Hey Baby, Om Shanti Om, Dostana, All the Best, Namaste London, CC2C, Singh is King etc. And most of those were our own Akshay Kumar's movies. How many more movies will you (Akshay Kumar) have to do before you realize that you are doing the same mistakes again and again ? To be a little lenient, no bollywood hero except Akshay can depict the Loser in common man better than anyone else. Huh, did I say loser ? I should have said "Panauti" (Pronounced as Pa Naughty, meaning a person who carries nothing but bad luck). A loser who does not know how to switch off a vacuum cleaner. A loser who does not know the difference between a tiger and a parrot. A loser who comes right in the middle of a couple about to kiss each other. A loser who fights for a phone with a Monkey. Am I being sarcastic ? You bet I am. I did not understand why Aarush (Akshay's character) was a Panauti. A man who wears decent enough clothes, has origins in London, had a girlfriend like Malaika Arora, has Jiah Khan as first wife, has a fake wife like Lara and a girlfriend-wife-to-be like Deepika cannot be really a Panauti. Isn't it ? Well, I am all confused if I am asked to choose.

Some scenes were so irrelevant that I forgot whether I had come to watch Housefools or HouseBulls. A talent like Boman Irani is wasted, an over actor like Chunky Pandey is shown as irritating as he can be and a decent actor like Lillete Dubey has very little to do. The only good thing about the movie are the ladies. Two of bollywood's most ravishing ladies definitely add glamor to the movie. If you like Lara or Deepika, you will not be disappointed. Trust me. As far as the review is concerned, I am not jjjjoooookkkkkking (heard in Chunky's irritating style).

Twitter witter

It has been around 6 months now since I created an account on Twitter and it's been 3-4 months since I have spent like 70 % of my so called "social networking time" on Twitter. For beginners it is a bit difficult to understand it at first. But when you get the hang of it, you know what was missing in your online life. You can say this post is more of an awareness campaign for my friends of which only 10 or 20 % are there on Twitter.

So, What is this Twitter witter ? As per the About page on Twitter "Twitter is a real-time information network powered by people all around the world that lets you share and discover what’s happening now. Twitter asks “what’s happening” and makes the answer spread across the globe to millions, immediately." In short, its a online platform for social interaction, news, jokes, views, marketing and anything that you can imagine. You can post only text on Twitter. Although you can post URLs to images or videos or anything that does not qualify as text. The best part is your post (rather your tweet or your update) cannot exceed 140 characters. An added advantage is you post directly via your mobile device just like you can do on Facebook. And the speed is awesome. All this has combined to make Twitter the best (or may be the only one) real time search engine. Even Google Search these days shows results from Twitter updates. You can imagine the potential and the popularity of Twitter in today's world. When I wanted to read any news or updates about the recent riots in my native city, I used Twitter for 2 reasons. First, there was no option as a very few news sites were covering it (forget the TV channels). Second, I could get real time updates by the minute and you can say that those updates are mostly trustworthy.

Most of the online social networking geeks know that Orkut is dead. Facebook is still there and safe, but it will have to evolve to keep pace with Twitter. On Twitter, you get to create your own handle and post updates. The updates may be your creation or someone else (Retweet option). You get to follow interesting people on Twitter apart from your friends. People like celebrities (SRK, Deepika, Farhan, etc.), politicians (Shashi Tharoor), TV anchors, Journalists, columnists, social entrepreneurs etc.

So, will Twitter be a threat to the ubiquitous Google ? I think yes. In fact it already might be giving sleepless nights when the real time search is concerned. Twitter currently does not have a revenue generating model yet. But I hear that some advertising based model is going to come very soon. Twitter has a projected 25 million users at the end of Q4 2010. And it is estimated that the number will go up to 1 billion by 2013. Like Google is called "the face of the Internet" or the "doorway to the internet", Twitter is called "the SMS of the internet".

Twitter or rather the Twitter community has its own limitations. Some people tweet every little happening in their lives, which not many are interested in. The people you choose to follow should not bore you or fill up your Twitter time lines with senseless tweets. Even Twitter should consider an improvement to its user interface. There is no obvious problem with it. But sometimes when you want to read what happened last night, you need to go way down to read Tweets from that time. Also, there is no such button like "Go to Top". Sometimes it is annoying. It should introduce a time slot based tweet reading mechanism. Till then, Happy Tweeting.

An interview to remember

I have attended quite a lot of nightly work related meetings/conferences in office. I have given some MBA admission interviews on phone (mostly night time). And I have given few MBA admission interviews by the day when I was all dressed up wearing a coat and a tie. When you combine all these, what do you get ? An MBA admission interview at night on Skype video chat. What does it mean ? It means I had to dress up in formals wearing a coat and a tie (its a different thing that I wore formal pants as well) sitting in front of my computer and giving an interview.

This was an important interview and I could not have taken the risk of not sitting in the full interview attire. So, I got all dressed up at 11:30 pm roaming in my house in all formals. A lot of people laughed when I told them that I will be sitting in front of my computer dressed up in formals at midnight. Well, even I laughed at myself. But, what needs to be done needs to be done. The internet worked fine (thanks to BSNL's uninterrupted service since the last few days) and there was no power cut (thanks to the government for not considering 12 am to 12:30 am time slot in their daily 5 to 6 hour power cut schedule.....frustrating it is, I know).

The interview went well and I answered almost all questions. I know I am yet to post questions of my previous interviews with Foster and Kenan-Flagler. But I will do it sometime this month. The questions for this interview will also come sometime soon. Well for now, this interview will be remembered for its awkwardness. I hope I also remember it for all the good reasons. If you know what I mean. MBA. Admit. McCombs.

PS: I would like to thank Hari (fellow MBA blogger) for his tips on a Skype interview.

Still running....

While most of the MBA Applicants would have already zeroed in on the B Schools to apply for fall 2011, I am still running with my fall 2010 application process. To be more accurate, I am slated to give an interview this coming week and I am waiting for the final result of another school.

I know the competition is much tougher than the first round, but I do not have any other choice except to give my best. On the other hand, there have been so many months of MBA Application process that I find it hard to give my best. It has become a little "same thing, different day" kind of thing. Anyways, I am looking forward to overcome that feeling and try my best. Oops I said it again.

Having an offer in hand sometimes is very helpful. It may make you complacent but it also gives you the confidence. Another thing I am looking forward is to completing ahem actually start writing my scholarship essay for the school where I have been already admitted.

It becomes all the more difficult when IPL is going on and especially if RCB or MI are playing.

The Hurt Locker

How can a woman director create such a film ? A film that is as much about soldiers as about a man's passion. This was the question I asked myself when the movie credits started rolling after the movie ended. The film is about the soldiers in a bomb squad in Iraq who are called on to disable bombs in the city mostly. It is about their emotions and their behavior in a land where they can die anytime. Although the film is very good, but I personally do not think it to be an Oscar winner. You will find the reasons later.

The movie has some very engaging scenes where the protagonist William James tries to diffuse bombs after bombs. Those scenes are interesting at first and then they lose the intensity for they seem to be overdone. But there is something that still attracts the viewer. And that I would say has to be the uncanny character of William James. Jeremy Renner has done extremely well to portray his character of William James. The man has a passion to win over bombs. When he is doing his work, he seems to be at so much ease. He does not feel the danger of losing his life when a bomb explodes. He is just engaged in diffusing bombs. His passion is evident when one of his team member finds out bomb parts hidden under his bed and he explains their presence as a souvenir collection. Not that he does not have a mind or heart. He is very pragmatic. One of the memorable scenes where he removes his bomb protection suit and says "There's enough bang in there to send us all to Jesus. If I'm going to die, I'm going to die comfortable." For him, war is a drug.

Some of the scenes capture the life of soldiers in Iraq. It displays their mental state. Some of the dialogues are crisp and unforgettable. Like when one of the senior officers asks "What's the best way to... go about disarming one of these things?" and then James replies saying "The way you don't die, sir.". The movie is not about the reasons behind the war or the state of people living in Iraq. Though some of the scenes do capture a little bit of that and it deeply hurts to even think about it.

But Hurt Locker does not deserve an Oscar. Avatar with all its effects and the hard work behind it definitely had to be the one. Even though Avatar seemed like a commercial film rather than a critical one, the amount of work and innovative thinking gone into making it certainly deserve an Oscar. And I am not saying that Avatar is boring or bad. When I saw it the second time, I liked it even more and was able to find new things that I did not notice in my first time. There is so attention to detail in Avatar that you will surely miss it when you watch it the first time.

Now looking forward to watch another male dominated movie - Invictus.

Buzzare Jokes

It has been more than 10 days since Google launched the "Google Buzz" and it has already come under a lot of criticism for breaching people's privacy. Buzz seems to be a combination of Facebook and Twitter especially Facebook since there is no limit on the number of characters one can post. I have seen some people post entire 4 paragraph length blogs on Google Buzz.

Well, I personally feel that it is very convenient to use from right inside GMail and it seems like an enhanced version of Twitter in terms of posting pictures and videos. But, there are certain things I do not like about Google Buzz. Not only that, Twitter has its own charm. First of all, Google Buzz "now" offers Buzzing only among contacts you add by yourself. Sometimes you even get to see other people's profile on some friend's Buzz. Clear lack of privacy. Although not as bad as Facebook where you can go to your friend's profile and see the photos of that friend's friend who you are not directly connected to. Also, you need to add people you want to Buzz with by knowing their Gmail IDs. That might be debated to be its single biggest disadvantage (lesser people buzzing)or rather its biggest advantage (more number of Buzz users). Google Buzz can never make any celebrity join or rather Buzz his/her updates. GMail ID of a person has become the single biggest identity since the last 3 or 4 years. And nobody would like to put that identity at risk.

Buzz also cannot match the speed of the updates that Twitter offers. An example is you go for a small coffee break of 15 mins and when you are back you see that you have 20 new updates on Twitter. You just click there and it shows you all of them in descending order. For Buzz, it is very similar but to actually see the updates you have to click and goto the Buzz sidetab. Additionally, twitter is an excellent example of a real time search engine. I have used it many a times when I need to read about something that has just happened and the Bloggers of this world or the Search Engine robots have not updated the pages or their databases. Twitter is really great at that.

Till Buzz becomes more of a serious competitor not just in terms of the number of users but also in terms of the features or the uniqueness of Twitter, here are a few Buzz jokes. These jokes have been contributed by a lot of my friends and by yours truly as well. Here they go:

Ab Buzz bhi karo.
Buzz aur kuch nahi
Buzzy bee
Buzz itna sa khwaab hai.
Buzzigar o Buzzigar
Na kuch tere Buzz mein na kuch mere Buzz mein
Buzzting into laughter
Ghungru ki tarah buzzta hi raha hu main.
Buzz ek pal.
No Abuzzing.

Ok fine. My apologies for all the bad buzzare jokes.

ISB interview experience

I have been monitoring the percentage increase in the number of users visiting my blog and till now Google Analytics shows an increase of 433 % over the last 15 days. Interesting. All such stats remind me of the quarterly financial statement of a company. I wish one day my company would do that. Anyways, back to the real world, I decided to further increase the number of visitors to my blog. Seriously I should stop now. I actually wanted to give back to the MBA blogger community by posting an interview experience with the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad.

I know I am late and I regret that. But I could not help it. I was invited for an interview at Hyderabad when I had applied to ISB in the first round. The interview was on a Sunday and I left Bangalore Saturday evening. Since the interview was at 3:00 PM I took the risk of leaving just the day before. I reached Hyderabad in the morning and went to a friend's place. I just spent the time chatting with friends and eating breakfast at Chutney's. No pressure of the interview till now. I had bath and got all dressed up. One of my other friends came and he took me to the ISB campus. I met another class mate from college at ISB who took admission last year. It was 2:50 PM and I had to report at the reception.

I got a sheet of paper and a topic to write about for about 15 mins. The topic was "Banking". I wrote whatever came to my mind and was sitting quietly in one corner. I observed other applicants talking to each other about their work experience, earlier interview experiences, GMAT scores and what not. It seemed like those guys had arrived a good half to one hour back. It was 3:20 PM and I was still waiting for some panel to call me up for the interview. There were 4 panels I think. Suddenly I felt the urge to yawn. I thought it would be fine. As I was halfway to my yawn (read as mouth wide open), a lady came by and asked for my name. I somehow tried to hide my yawn and gulped it. I thought to myself "What a loser I am ? What a great time to yawn !"

I enter the interview room and I see 1 guy sitting on his chair. The other interviewer was the lady who called me. They had my application open in front of them. They introduced themselves to me. One was an Admissions committee member and the other was an alumni. The following is the transcript (not exact, but very close) of my interview:

G = (Guy) : L = (Lady) : M = (Me)

G: So you play guitar ?
M: yes.
G: Since how long ?
M: Since last Jan.
L: Why did you learn it now and not before ?
M: (hmm. good one. I expected this) I always wanted to since college and never really had the time or the push to learn. It just happened last Jan and I enrolled myself.
L: But you have written that you are a guitar player. So do you play somewhere ?
M: No. just at home. (noticing that the lady is not convinced)
L: So which newspapers you read ? (Note that this was somewhere mentioned on my application)
M: Mint and Hindu
G: What do you like in them ?
M: Mint i like it for its wall street journal's columns and the last 4 pages expressing different views. Hindu for general news and sometimes I read Paul Krugman's column.
G: What was the last column that Paul Krugman wrote ?
M: (Oops. What was it ? what was it ?) I suddenly remembered the headline of his last blog and told him the same.
G: Do you think the US job market will improve ?
M: Yes it will but not so rapidly. Its kind of a W shaped recession. I would have loved to explain here but I just could not gather the thoughts and the next topic came.

L: So you applied before also ?
M: yes
L: When ?
M: Last year round 2.
L: So what was the feedback you got and what have you done ?
M: Blah blah feedback. And I did this and that to improve on it.
L: Hmm..some more questions on my community work.
G: So why do you want to do MBA ?
M: My usual answer.
G: What kind of work you do and how you think it will help you in your future ?
M: Prepared answer.
L: What are your plans for future at work ?
M: this and that.
L: Have you taken any steps towards that ?
M: (Obviously thats why I applied...kidding). No. right now I love what I do, had lots of opportunities here and I did not see any reason to jump from being a developer to a Business analyst or some managerial role.
L: hmm...
L: Can you estimate the number of computers in the campus. We just want to know your approach and not the exact number.
M: (cool). Number of students + teachers + different departments + library and other things + other staff. I just arrived to some number close to 800.
(I actually got the number of teachers wrong.)
G: So you know how many departments make up a B school ?
M: Admissions, Placements, Corporate board, Hostel, Different centres, and ummm....
(Later realized I could have said more like Media, Company relations etc.)

G: Do you think Facebook can give Google a run for its money sometime ?
M: (something that I read a lot about) Yes definitely. The number of users is phenomenal. It can leverage that to may be beat google at search. May be develop new ways of earning revenue other than advertising. Social networking is big and all that. Facebook is the leader in that right now.

G: what should google do then ?
M: It should develop a new Social Networking website. Rethink from the bottom. (this was before Buzz came in)
G: But they already have Orkut.
M: I know. But Orkut is way below Facebook. Although there are certain ways it can improve Orkut. (This was also before they renovated Orkut..am not being visionary but it is just true..may be that guy was at google :D )
G: How ?
M: Improve performance and user interface (was that too geeky). Improve user registration. Currently anyone can do it as against Facebook which requires us to provide a mobile number and a code to confirm online. That will result in lesser spam on orkut. (Seriously there is way too much spam and fake profiles on orkut, may be facebook is slowly approaching that).

G and L looking towards each other.
L: I think we are done. Do you have any questions ?
M: yes sure. (I asked my question and they answered it).

All in all, I did not feel that it was a very good interview and I smashed it. But it was not that bad either. I did some mistakes but I answered some things very well. Probably.
I hope you enjoyed reading it and benefit from it.

Happy Valentine's Day

While I am watching nice romantic songs on all TV Channels since morning, I would like to wish all people reading this blog a very Happy Valentine's Day.

Multiplex Prices in Bangalore

I have been wanting to write a blog on the ridiculously high multiplex prices in Bangalore. I think it was 3 Idiots and Avatar that made me sit up and take notice of the insane prices across Multiplexes in Bangalore. I have been in Bangalore since the last 8 years and have never seen any movie ticket selling at Rs. 350. It is not that I cannot afford it. It is simply not worth it. Paying 350 bucks for a huge block-bluster in an ordinary multiplex with an average seating capacity of 150 just does not make sense. I am not saying that 10 years down the line the movie tickets will still cost 200. I agree the inflation is high but it is not that high. I agree that Bangalore has tremendous buying power but that does not mean you punish the average middle class movie freak.

The same thing happened this time when I checked the availability of MNIK in the theaters. I could hardly find a couple of shows (all morning) that had tickets less than 240. All shows in the big multiplexes are above 260 and most are above 300. I have seen this trend for the second time after Avatar and 3 Idiots release. I do not know the cost-benefit analysis, but common sense tells me that making the ticket price 350 will definitely attract lesser crowd in the first few weeks the movie is released.

Till then, I will wait till I get a ticket for 200 or less. Its a different debate that even Rs 200 is a huge price for a movie ticket. Add to that the costs of buying popcorn or cold drink and you will realize how ridiculous and senseless the multiplex ticket and food pricing has become.

MBA Tour. New concept. Refreshing.

Some 20 days ago, I attended the MBA tour event in Bangalore. The very reason that I dedicate a full blog post to it is because it was different and refreshing. It was much more informative than the earlier MBA tour that I had attended. This MBA tour was called the MBA round table workshop. It had a different concept than the earlier ones that are primarily held during September each year. This MBA tour had 8 round tables, each table marked with numbers from 1 to 8. There were only 8 or 9 schools participating and each school's representative (usually the director of admissions) had to spend 10 mins on each table.

Not many people knew about this event and even if they knew, the timing was quite odd given that most of the schools just got over with their Round 2 deadlines. Not many people care about such tours during the months of Jan or Feb. But I think the reason I liked it was lesser crowd and greater interaction with the school representatives. The MBA tour in September was analogous to Bangalore Traffic where a lot of vehicles ply on narrow roads and then there is chaos. The earlier MBA tour also had lots of attention seekers and time wasters. Surprisingly, a lot of people ask questions about average GMAT score and placement numbers in the schools when all this information is easily available on the internet. The recent MBA tour did not have such chaos and many such people.

Although 10 mins was a bit too short, but it seemed like the MBA tour committee was trying out something new. I really liked the concept and felt that it was informative. Each representative talking about their school and answering whatever questions they could answer within those 10 mins. Yes, there were always the "crowd-surrounding-admissions-director-clearing-doubts" type of sessions at the end of the event. But the new concept would work only if there are fewer MBA aspirants attending or rather if the space were much bigger and more schools were participating.

The benefits of failure

I am sorry for stealing this blog post (topic as well as content) from a fellow MBA blogger (MBA Bubbles). But I could not stop myself. It is just too good. J.K.Rowling (author of Harry Potter book series) delivers a commencement address at the Annual Meeting of the Harvard Alumni Association.
Each and every line of this speech is so important and so true. Some of the lines are forever embedded in my memory. Before I admire it more and more, you should yourself watch it and experience it. Here it goes:

J.K. Rowling Speaks at Harvard Commencement from Harvard Magazine on Vimeo.

For the full text version and video visit http://harvardmagazine.com/commencement/the-fringe-benefits-failure-the-importance-imagination

Application Status

Its been a long time since I have updated the blogosphere with my application status. Getting yourself involved in so many activities always keeps you super busy. That is exactly the case right now with me. I have lots to tell and lots to write about my MBA Application experience. It will be done gradually. Here is a summary:

1. ISB (Round 1) - Interviewed and Dinged
2. Fuqua (Round 1) - Dinged without interview
3. Foster (Round 1) - Interviewed and Admitted
4. Haas (Round 1) - Dinged without interview
5. McCombs (Round 2) - Submitted.
6. Kenan-Flagler (Round 3) - Will submit by this weekend.

Blogs about my interview experience will be up shorty. All I needed was a "wake up sid" type of blog by MBA Bubbles to get me started on my daily blog writing activity.

Well, I do feel sad when I think I came so close, but I understand the decisions of all those schools that have given me rejects.

PS: MBA Application process is Rocket science :)

Why is Federer the best

Roger Federer, one of the greatest players of all times is not considered the best after all. I am not saying this. But a lot of my friends who are Tennis enthusiasts believe so. They feel that Federer is lucky to not have some of the most competitive players around in his prime years. I do not think that is true. I am a huge Federer fan. It is not his record grand slams or his ATP rankings. It is because of the way he plays, his elegance, his skills and his low profile personality.

This made me think about writing a blog about the reasons that makes Federer the best. I went inventorying about Federer's records in grand slams. He has won a record 15 grand slams. As I am writing this, he is on his way to the 16th title having a one set advantage over Murray in the Australian Open. He has reached the semi-finals or better of the last 23 grand slam tournaments he has played. That is in a span of 6 years. Simply amazing. I will come to the debate about his opponents being weak or not. He has held the No. 1 ATP rank for a record 237 consecutive weeks. He has a record of reaching 10 consecutive grand slam finals and appearing in 18 of the last 19. All this can be attributed to his motivation, fitness and off course experience.

All that was for the record. If you ask me what I like about Federer the most. I think the most obvious thing is his amazing backhand. I have seen very few players who can play backhand with so much ease as Federer. Most of the players play using 2 hands. The way Federer plays is so elegant and effortless and that too with one hand. I have seen almost nil double faults from Federer. He is very disciplined. Another significant thing about Federer is his mind. He always focuses on winning the first set. When he does not, his strategy is affected. Well, he should be thankful to Nadal for overcoming this now. Federer is not the same person as he was when he won his first grand slam in 2003. He has improved a lot and learnt on his way. His serve is not as strong as Sampras and cannot be compared to Goran Ivanisevic. But his returns and his patience to play long volleys are remarkable than them. His drop shot is equally brilliant.

Now coming to the debate (Am now rejoicing that Federer is on his way to winning the second set). Most people believe that if Sampras was young, Federer would not have been so great. Well, I do not agree. There has been a considerable change in the way Tennis was played during the times of Sampras and Agassi and the way it is played nowadays. Greater stamina, longer volleys, increase in baseline plays and decrease in on-the-net plays are some examples. First of all it is unfair to compare both of them. Even if you compare them, Federer's back hand would probably have won him more matches against Sampras or Agassi.

As far as the point of people supporting Nadal or Murray or Djokovic or Del Porto is concerned, that is completely natural. An excellent article on the art of innovation by Mahesh Murthy explains this. There are leaders and then there are followers or the second best/third best in the category. Most of the times people root for the 2nd or 3rd ones since they know they have more fighting spirit and the desire to become number 1. But he also talks about exceptions to this. There have been industries where the leader consistently reinvents and leads the pack by innovating. The same holds good for Federer as well. His defeats against Nadal and Del Porto must have taught a lot to him. I believe it was his bad luck that Nadal was out before the Wimbledon finals. He would have definitely won a match against Nadal given the loss he suffered in 2008.

It is always good to see someone defeat Federer consistently. That would be the beginning of the end of Federer's era. An era of unprecedented dominance.