...I still still have a dream!

Movie List - (Depression killers)

2009-02-07T11:24:00.000-08:00

Was recommending few movies to my friend..then i thought it would be cool to put the movies i like most in my life...especially movies which inspire you and create a burning desire to achieve your dreams/goals. (Though it is just a thought..some people believe in it..some dont)Anyways hers the list -

Extremely Powerful Movies

The Shawshank Redemption (Life turner for me!!)

The pursuit of Happyness

Cinderella Man

Schindler's List

Brave Heart

Gladiator

Patriot

Its a wonderful Life

Powerful ones..

Men of honour

The Insider

The last Samurai

Seabiscuit

The Fountainhead

Jerry Maguire

Hindi ones

Black

Mein Aazaad Hoon

Swades

Will add more...and also put in ur comments, movies which inspired you!

Marketing is missing..

2009-01-12T09:18:00.000-08:00

Dream lives on & still a dream!

Even after years of persistence to enter the world of ideas, business plans, marketing warfare...the marketing world remains elusive(lost). Why?

Blame the subprime crisis, it rocked US & EU, and had an indirect effect on the economies of the world including india. Indian financial sector has been marred in a way it will take 1-2 years at least to get back to normal. Stock Markets....you already know!!

However, people tend to say that consumer-driven sectors like retail & FMCG should be shielded from such meltdown. This isnt true. Retailers have been hit really hard this year 08-09. Consumer Spending declined given the fears of rising inflation, melting equity market & increasing interest rates! Also, the apparel exports declined like anything as lakhs of workers went without jobs and mills closed given the lost business demand from US & EU.

What else, 26/11 happened and drove away consumers from shopping malls, giving them a run for thier invested money (rentals, inventories, promotions...). Diwali season was a 'Diwala (bancruptcy) situation. SALE SALE SALE...everything was on sale...but what got sold were those banks in Us & EU...including the prestigious 'Lehman Brothers'!!

And now the latest from India itself...to add to all the worries...'Rajugate' - 'Satyam' got its balance sheets fudged & kept running in the inflated fashion for 7 years...The only problems i have with Mr Raju...is that why this time only - to clear the burden on your conscience! - To put us in burden....??? So, 53000 people might soon be in the run for a better job...er rather for a job! Raju will not be associated with 'Chacha' anymore!

Given these times...MTs are yet to get into some meaningful profiles - personally i have been through cost-cutting task forces, Rental negotiations, Warehouses, Logistics, Competition Scan, Product Cycle Project and blah blah blah....

Marketing is still elusive,....and the dream continues!! Long live Kotler!

~ Nits

Info on Education loan

2008-09-06T02:49:00.001-07:00

Tax benefits on education loans help you reduce the overall cost of the loan.
You can claim a deduction under section 80 E of the Income-Tax Act for the interest paid on an educational loan.
You will get the tax benefit on an education loan only if the loan is in your name and is taken for the purpose of higher education of yourself, your spouse or your children. Education loan taken for the higher education of siblings (brother or sister) is not covered in this regard.
Earlier, only the lesser of the two amounts was eligible for tax deduction: either the total amount paid during the year (principal repaid and interest paid) or Rs 40,000. Now, this has been done away with; you can deduct the entire interest amount from your taxable income, without any limits. No deduction, however, is available for the principal that you repay.
These deductions are available only for a period of eight years starting from the year in which you start paying the interest on the student loan.
Do remember that you cannot claim tax deductions if your employer, family or friends gives you an education loan. You can get tax benefits only if the student loan is from a financial institution, bank or an approved charitable institution.
Tax benefits are not available in respect of interest paid on a loan taken for any course. The course has to be for full-time studies (no part-time courses covered) for any graduate or post graduate course in engineering, medicine, management, or for post graduate course in applied sciences or pure sciences including mathematics and statistics.

Marketing world starts...!

2008-06-24T09:14:00.000-07:00

Started a new phase in my life...finally out of the software world...!

New job....with new status of married and employed!

The new phase starts in retail/marketing profile in a retail apparel manufacturer!

Can you imagine from software codes to apparrel (i m staggering to spell it only..:) )? However, i think this will be interesting. I have already spent past few days in visiting various malls (as i have been doing since my MBA started..) and my roommate is already cribbing about how i keep dragging him along.

Branded Apparel from some estimate i read last time is around 9000 crore market in india, and each brand is doing a miniscule amount of it given the spate of brands in the market. And given the population advantage, young poulation, increasing incomes...(u must have read it hundred times i guess..), this market is a big opportunity. And truely so, each brand is trying to put up some presence in malls, high streets, tier II, III cities..wherever they can find a manageable rental (thats kinda rare these days...).

However, as marketing bhakt, i always wondedred how cool is FMCG to start a marketing career..but i realize now that apparel market is very tough....given the no of brands ( i heard that it was 28000 on last count in India), and the kind of least u can do in product differentiation....ppl have already tried segmentation - pricewise, genderwise, occassionwise, designbased...agewise...whats left? The kind of retail formats thru which apparel is sold are again umpteen...LFR, MBO, EBO, SIS, MOMPOP, ....And promotions? - buy 2 get 6 free, flat 50 + 20 + 5 + 3.45 + 2.657 % less (what does that mean???), a gillete on 2 trousers, .....again u start doubting am i buying the right stuff...

SO, the big question i am asking these days is that what i will do as a marketing person in apparels?? Whats left?

Lets see....how things move!

Proxy!

2008-05-27T03:22:00.000-07:00

This post is a proxy!

The same proxy which respected participants used to practise in the pious corridorrs of an institute...

My life has changed with lots...

1. MBA Over! (Alas!)

2. Life Over....err bachelor life (u can understand...it sounds the same!)

3. New life calls...(joining in june)!

4. No Newsgroups to refresh :(

5. No more vella chai-friends to bakar with..

6. No indori poha :(

7. No MERCURI activities...

8. No Tension (???) - thats another problem

9 No workload :(

10 No late nite maggi-chai-omlette

....

...............

You can understand!

Bored!

~nits

PS - written in the spirit of blogging....however i am happily married :)

Learning from Class...

2008-02-17T09:16:00.000-08:00

Had just finished one course called Rural Marketing in Term 6 of MBA programme. The professor was a 66 year old veteran in rural marketing..Mr. Rajan. He tought a lot of new things and most importantly key insights about rural people, rural markets in India from his vast experience of 3 decades!

He concluded the course with few things on personal front, which i believe really do matter:
1. Success of a person is not measured by the money he earns or by the status...but whether he/she played all his/her roles perfectly be it son, parent, husband, brother, employee, etc
2. Dreams = life, else you are dead! Whats the point in living a life of compromise....dreams should lead your actions!
3. Nothing is impossible. Create a balance sheet of all your assets & liabilities (which you think) and revisit them periodically in life....see that most of the liabilities have been moved to assets side.
I guess real nice learnings from life. Thankyou Sir!

~nits

Vibrant Advertising on our Campus! - Marksman

2008-02-05T13:39:00.000-08:00

This post is for all Marksman fans!

Posted on my other blog - Who is Kotler?

~nits

Walk the talk...

2007-12-09T09:27:00.001-08:00

Nice message to start afresh and practice..the things you always talked..

Walk the talk

When hopes died...

2007-08-06T00:31:00.000-07:00

Why i am sad today? May be because I know. I know that one of my neighbour isn't in his room. And i know that he will never return! I also know that another friend of mine, who was "'the' effervescent soul" of our campus also will not be there with us, forever!

At times, knowledge is painful. I would rather not like to know few things, that they happened. I would rather stop the time and rewind it. Alas, science proves it wrong!

But science cannot understand, as to what is the difference between a person live and dead...apart from that one's heart isn't working anymore. That the cells, tissues, molecules...etc don't function anymore.

However we know. That the difference is immense. We know that a 'geminithegreat' will not be available on my gtalk. We know that the mornings at IIM-I will not wake two souls anymore. We know that two of the seats in some of the classrooms will be vacant. We know that an LAB class's performance will be a swan song...that a certain calm and shy chap will not be there on the N-floor..

How painful can knowledge be...

May the souls of Nitesh Agrawal and Neha Singh, PGP-II IIM Indore rest in peace. May god give immense power to their parents and relatives.

Click Here for the unlucky day at choral river.

~nits

Give your life....a meaning!

2007-06-04T23:27:00.001-07:00

The most important about a goal is....
Having One!

Some really awesome quotes with stimulating music
Click here!

I am sure it will rock you!

Planet I Rocks!!

2007-05-24T03:21:00.001-07:00

Beautiful Academic Bloc
Originally uploaded by ImInMate.

really...........come n feel....!

Meeting on Audi stairs

2007-05-24T03:19:00.001-07:00

Meeting on Audi stairs
Originally uploaded by ImInMate.

Feel your audience....

Sunset near Insti Entrance

2007-05-24T03:18:00.001-07:00

Sunset near Insti Entrance
Originally uploaded by mr_quipster.

More.....

Shining Bright!!!

2007-05-24T03:17:00.001-07:00

Shining Bright!!!
Originally uploaded by ImInMate.

The Hillock in the night!

a-different-view @ I

2007-05-24T03:12:00.001-07:00

a-different-view
Originally uploaded by D Raw El Payne.

IIM-I rocks!

courtesy - Jo!

MBA v/s Engineer

2007-05-23T02:16:00.000-07:00

Recently had a discussion with a friend on who is better an engineer or an MBA? And the jokes cracked were like:

1. An engineer & an MBA were camping; and spent night in a tent on a hill! Then in the night suddenly both woke up and then MBA being more creative person there(assumed by my engineer(only) friend) started saying see the beauty of stars and the moon....Engineer chipped in and said - ' Beauty lies in the finesse of the thief who has stolen our tent!'

2. For an unfixed huge tower, MBAs measure the height by putting all the staircases they had....while an engineer puts it down and measures the length; and all MBAs laugh saying we asked for height while he gave us Length!

Well the anecdotes/jokes quoted were funny, here is another take from Arbit Chaoudhary! ( I still wonder why Choudhary? is it a spoof on Arindam Chaoudhary (IIPM - the biggest B-school on the planet!!- yeah, they published it in this manner in newspapers!).

In case you have some good reasons on the differences, plz comment with your interesting ones.

~nits

Finding 'THE ONE' of your life!

2007-05-01T02:54:00.000-07:00

These days, i am being confronted by marriage questions from my family. I am trying to provide them an important reason - My MBA completion, but they consider it only a lame excuse :(

So i tried to find out as to what bloggers say about the question of marriage? Finding that elusive one which is 'The One'. Few years back i read, Richard Back's 'The One' one the same subject, and found it interesting. It talked about multiple time-space combinations competing against each other to execute your lives in different ways. But who is to decide, which one? That is, author says in the hands of the person - he/she has the right and power to choose his/her life whatever way he/she wants! But it requires will-power to actually choose that path. Got it? Huh!

So, what i found on blogs, is an interesting way of understanding 'Finding the One process'! Read on:
********************************
It might help if we understand which elements of marriage are common to many potential husbands, and which are unique to ”the one”.

First, marriage offers economies of scale in production, particularly production of children. Husband and wife can each specialise in different skills, according to their comparative advantage. I fail to see why you cannot realise these economies of scale with almost anyone. Second, there are economies of scale in consumption. One garden will do, so will one kitchen.

For more click here.

********************************

Its really scary & crappy process !!

~nits

Jagjit Singh Live in Concert - In Indore!

2007-02-10T12:25:00.000-08:00

Finally it happened!
I finally got the chance to listen Jagjit Singh - The indian King of Ghazals, live!

Missed it twice in my life by small whiskers once in indore (undergrad days) and once in BBSR(infy days), finally it happened in indore (post-grad days) :)

The unquestionable maestro of Ghazal gayaki, started the proceedings with Hoshwalon ko khabar kya...However, the sound system wasnt that good, being cursed by junta and Jagjit both many times. Finally in his own unimitable style, jagjit sahab dedicated one of his ghazals to the sound-engineer -

Tumne badle humse gin gin ke liye..
Humne kya chaha tha is din ke liye..

And public appreciated the sense of humour...and sound-engineer as well! The sound quality after became nice. Then, it started, he sang: Kagaz ki kasthi, Aahista aahista, tumko dekha to yeh khayal aaya, tera chehra kitna suhana, tere aane ki jab khabar mahke, kabhi yun bhi to ho...

The troupe also reached the climax with a jugalbandi between tabla and violin. Jaggi ended the proceedings with Hoton se chhoo lo tum...and a punjabi number.

And now i am back to jaggi after 4-5 months!

Also, belated birthday to the ghazal maestro, 8th Feb was his birthday!

~nits

2007 - Resolutions

2007-01-01T10:21:00.000-08:00

Whether it was projections/vision/targets/benchmarks/...
My mind has really been corrupted by the MBA virus!!

Well after few hours of word-crunching i realized, that new year always had RESOLUTIONS.

So, what this time, as always it never takes too much of a time to write them :)

1. I will read my newspaper everyday :)
2. I will go running down and up-hill everyday ;)
3. I will play TT everyday
4. I will try to learn a new good-thing this year - dont know yet what it will be...may be some musical instrument??
5. I will not waste time in pure timeless banters :)))

& last but not the least ' I will pre-read' ;()

Lets see how it turns out!

Good thing is that.......they came! THANKS!!

2006-12-02T20:25:00.000-08:00

Post Type - Personal

This is going to be a senti post :) Have recently visited Mashal, and there was this kid of 12-13 yrs singing ghazals of Ghulam Ali and Jagjit Singh. On a chilly night, with not much in my head going, the ghulam Ali's 'Hum ko kisi ke gham ne maara..' & 'Chupke chupke' highjacked vaccuum of my brain...

Flashback 8 yrs, 1998...i was a simple run-off-the-mill guy with nothing in my repertoire of hobbies/talents. And then it happened. I entered my graduation college of 'SGSITS, Indore'. And things never will be same again...

Ghazal listening happened. Actually, when you get into a state where you need to appreciate the beauty of life and god's creation, then you got to listen to ghazals and thier marvellously written lyrics...and the unique thing is you will find them relevent at different points in your life with different interpretations each time! Soon Jagjit Singh became my life line with ghazals like - 'Pyaar ka pehla khat', 'Jawaani ke heele haya ke bahane' and 'Apne haathon ki lakeeron mein basale mujhko' ruling the roost of my brain and heart...err not heart..it was already!

Repercussions till 2006 >> was called 'Jagjit singh in my infy days', etc.. THANKS!

Then what? Well got into singing....when your heart doesnt stop singing 'positive' songs and you think that these songs/ghazals have been written for me...then...its for sure...your system is 'virus infected'. Thats what happened with me...

Repercussions till 2006 >> now i am one of the so called singers here @ planet I...(though my first performance of 'Ab toh aadat si hai...was huge hit :) and generally seen singing 'national Anthems'). THANKS AGAIN!!

Ok thats fine, didnt get the connection yet....! OK, then this is something pathbreaking...got into poetry! Wrote nearly 100 short poems which circulated every morning to my friends and special ones @ infy. Some ppl liked them...some didnt...some liked only the poems :(

Repercussions till 2006 >> became popular with the 'poet' tag @ infy and people tend to send me thier responses of how thier day went after that poem...it was really good to make a difference to all of them in small manner. Also won one award on poetry.com..THANKS AGAIN nd AGAIN!!!

Convinced...no? Started sketching....and major activity was in my grad days..though sketched some really 'special' ones recently. THANKS again....!!!!

...
....
.....
and the list continues as to how my life changed! Well a nice quote comes to my mind to conclude this post -

'God send some ppl in your lives, to make you learn a few things; to bring the best out of you.....and when thats done....thier purpose is met and they go away!'

Good thing is that...........they came!

THANKS!
~nits
( in full sobriety)

Academic flexibility is one reason why the IIMs are awesome institutions...

2006-11-18T10:42:00.000-08:00

Came across an interview of Harsha Bhogle, an IIM-A alumnus. Here is a particular question i liked...

Which was your most memorable day or event at IIM A, when you were a student there?

One event is tough to pinpoint. In retrospect it would be the day I knew I had met the person I would spend the rest of my life with. The first term was devastating and the last day was a bit emotional. While I didn't yet realise how important
the two years were going to be, there was sadness at the fact that it was over and that is why I tend to go back as often as I can. There was one other event that was crucial for me and that is when the PGP chairman, now director, Prof Bakul Dholakia, allowed me to miss my second term exams to do my first test match as a television commentator. I did my papers after I came back and that kind of academic flexibility is one reason why the IIMs are awesome institutions.

read for full interview

IRIS 2006 - A glimpse

2006-11-13T12:08:00.000-08:00

It was indeed 'Larger than Life'.

Arbit Choudhury - World's First MBA comic-strip

2006-11-12T14:00:00.000-08:00

4Ps of MBA education - Ppts, Parties, Placements & Pay-packages. So true :)
credits - www.arbitmba.com

They came, They tested and We Conquered!!

2006-11-05T12:37:00.000-08:00

Hi All readers,

It has been real hectic time for PGP-1 folks at IIM Indore! It was the time when we wore suits throughout the days and the nights for 4 days...!! Yes, it was summer placements at IIM Indore.

And what a rocking time it was - with our unforgettable experiences as well as the history that has been created with sheer number of offers and the companies visiting!

95 companies showed intent, though 180 students got placed with the first 58!
Total 199 offers from 58 companies with 133 offers on the first day itself!!

Guess, Placement committee of IIM Indore does deserve a real standing ovation, which they did recieve from our batch.

So, was it really simple....no not at all...it was one of the biggest operational event in IIM-I stable....to be followed by another big one - IRIS(9Nov-12Nov). Whole PGP-2 real hard, we might be the running blood of placements week but they were the backbone making everything work 'just like that'!
A whole lot of thanks to them as well!

You might think that why this guy is writing stuff which resembles an oscar or filmfare speech...but no matter what it appears...these 'thanks' are just cant be forgetten! So, non-IIMI readers please bear with me.

So where did i got placed??
Well, to the relief of some people, it is matter of great pride for me to say that despite having an IT workex of 3.5 years(some of you, will understand why i am using the word pride :)), I am finally getting into core marketing internship at a company called 'Astro Malaysia'.

So, it might be a mumbai or delhi! I will inform you all...once i know..so that you can invite your marketing-mad friend at your homes :)

I have a lot to write about the tought times that one goes through when people get placed on day 0 when there are no shortlists for some on that day...people share gyan when on the next day they arent one who wear the suits...then there are the crazy times when you just give up in frustration and start playing cards or do whatever you can...so its a mixed bag of trials and tribulations as well as fun and glory...!!

but since the time doesnt permit....and the grades that i am getting here in my subjects..i will close this post here.

But wait is now coming to end - IRIS is around the corner of this week!
We will.....we will....rock you!
See you there!

~nits

Few lines on Diwali

2006-10-22T13:15:00.000-07:00

*********************************
Today will start with
a ray of light entering
your life in a different way!
Its the festival of light called
DIWALI that will bring with it some
365 goodies one for each day!

Each dream that you have woven
with so much detail and finesse
will come true this year day by day...
each obstacle that you encounter
will vanish from ur path of success
gradually, month by month, day by day!

Life will be prosperous, love will
be abound, Hope will make
your confidence increase day by day
prayers will be there, and friends
will be there to help you all the time
of your need..............day by day!

Wishing you all a very
Happy Deepawali with loads
of wishes for each day!

*************************
under copyright @ creativenits 2006