SHANDE

Students' Exchange experience

2009-11-01T20:30:00.006+05:30

Last week we made a presentation to the faculties at our institute for sharing about students' exchange experience at European School of Business(ESB), Reutlingen. In order to make presentation for interactive we chose majority of experience thru video.

The first video covers the experience from academic point of view, highlighting the diverse environment.

In the second video we presented the fun part of the exchange program, highlighting trip-n-tours we had in 6 weeks.

Regarding detailed account on trips-n-tours, I have published about Lake Konstanz so far, pending posts are about City Tour of Reutlingen and Tübingen, Strasbourg, Switzerland, Munich and Heidelberg.

Lake Constance(Konstanz) - Bondensee

2009-10-16T10:41:00.011+05:30

First weekend in Reutlingen, we(5S) were about to start off our very first brainstorming about places to visit, an obvious thing for a group of people staying in Europe, many options parceled with constraints. But the process was killed prematurely when the international office came up with a conducted tour to Lake Constance(Konstanz), locally known in Germany as Bodensee. The major significance of the lake is that it's more than 500 sq km and borders with Germany, Switzerland and Austria, also source of drinking water to nearby regions.

For the trip, the meeting point for students was Pestalozzistr in front of the university at 8 am, a very inconvenient place and time people who are staying in downtown dorms, especially on Saturdays when frequency of city-buses are very less.
We got up pretty early on that day(5-Sep-2009) which is unusual in a weekend ( I mean weekend for the real world, not as per SP-Jain standards). And took the 7:07am bus from Bismarkstr to Stadtmitte. At Stadtmitte we skipped 7:15 am in order to have breakfast Keim, as the next bus was at 7:30 am. Later, we realized that the decision to have breakfast at Stadtmitte itself was pretty wise one, as there was damn breakfast available in/near the University.

At the meeting point, we were twenty minutes before time, very unusual for typical Indians and waited for other international students staying in dormitories around the campus to join us. The journey started on dot at 8.00 am, in lines with typical Germany punctuality. The bus journey was sufficiently comfortable to overcome our sleep deficit. One of our German language teacher was giving commentary at regular intervals in mixed German-English. Her explanation revolved around how the typical german landscape, how the typical village looks like with a big church at the center and also she was pinpointing some landmarks here and there, one of them was Liechestine Castle which was on top of a hill next to the road in which we were traveling.

We reached our first destination Pfahlbaumuseum around 10.30 am. After getting down from the bus, from the parking lot we walked for 10 minutes to get to the museum. There was an initial briefing in English for 5-10 mintues, about the place, its significance. The major and the only highlight of the place was group of houses on stilt. Other than that, there was not much see at the place, especially from perspective of Indians. The mini museums inside houses were are not appealing to us, as we have seen several such places in India. For example there was one man enacting like a BC era human, which not very exiciting to us.

After finishing the museum visit, we explored the place for food. There were many small continental restaurants offering expensive food. Our search stopped at Turkish kebap corner which offered a nice Kebap for 3 EUR. It so filling that I didn’t feel hungry for very long time.

The next in line was ferrying on Lake Constance to reach Constance(Konstanz) town. It was really amusing travel in such a large body of fresh, clean water and experiencing cool but heavy breeze. After reaching banks of the town, we were again in the exploration mode. Artem from Ukraine who was one of photography enthusiast among international students, accompanied us in the exploration. First along with Artem I tried out some street photography. The town had typical feel of tourist destination, lots of people walking around in a casual mode, doing window shopping at shops on stree side shops. There was a street musician playing, who asked us to pay when we took his photo. After paying the musician, we continued our street photography, taking snaps market place, distinct buildings etc. Artem was very much particular about unique signs and logos on buildings.

Moving randomly here and there we reached banks of the lake next to Imperia statue. At first glance, we get an impression that it is some ordinary statue. But, the statue depicts a prostitute who is holding Pope is one hand and king other hand. It has lot significance w.r.t history of the Constance(Konstanz tone). Read more at Wikipedia-Imperia Statue.

Our last destination in town exploration was the Cathedral. We climbed by steps to top of tower and witnessed breathing taking of the town, the lake and blurry alps mountain at a distance. Decent weather, blue sky with patches of white clothes made the view even more exciting and of courses from photography perspective.

After spending some time on top of the tower we came to bus parking lot at 5 pm as per instruction. While returning to Reutlingen, myself and Artem( who was incidentally sitting in front of my seat), chose discuss about photography. Since Artem was looking forward to own an SLR, most part of discussion was fueled by him and his desire for ownership got multiplied after he witnessed the power of 50 mm lens.

The trip concluded, when bus dropped us back to Pestalozzistr. Kudos to the staff of International office for well organized trip, which had an investment of just 10 Euros per head!

Have look at more photographs in slideshow below.

Learning German Language at ESB

2009-09-18T18:42:00.005+05:30

The very first course of the exchange program i.e. German Language course at ESB has been an amusing experience and very different regular MBA courses. Unfortunately, the course came to end today, wish it was there for a longer time ! Anyways, the memories of the course, will be cherished by us for lifelong.

Initially, we were bit apprehensive to take up the course and then our ESB co-ordinator made it mandatory to attend it. The course started with a surprise test on german language skills, which was used to partition candidates among expertise. The bouncer on the first day further dampened our low-enthusiasm to learn the language.

But, the equations changed when the actual classes started. The main factor was nice innovative pedagogies used by our faculty Toni Stoiber. She started from basics of what's your name, where are you from etc ... and then changed gears and taught us a German song, the emphasis was given on learning by feeling. The funny part of sessions were Thomas and Juta sequences. Have a look at the video in which my bactchmate Sachin(as Thomas) is delivering german dialogues to Yunyu(as Juta)!

Today, the last class of the course, was concluded with a song on Oktober fest.

In order to develop vocabulary of the language, Toni conducted many interested games which were essentially like musical chair. For example one, two, three in German got embedded in our brain in a giffy.

The other distinct feature of the course of us was the diversity.

Myself, Sachin & Sameer from India.
Ling, Yunyu & Xi from China
Luke and Tom from U.K.
Ilya, Natasha and Egor from Russia.
Yosuke from Japan
Chelsea from Korea.

It was not only language course there were several other activities.

Bodonsee(Lake Constance) Excursion.
Black Forest Excursion.
Reutlingen Treasure Hunt.
Reutlingen City Tour
Tübingen City Tour and Boat Ride.
Liechestien Castle Trip
Intercultural Training.

Due to some other priorities I could take part in some acitivities, but blog post on the rest next time !

At ESB Reutlingen !

2009-09-11T00:30:00.005+05:30

Update after a long time ... at present I am at ESB Reutlingen(Germany) for students exchange program and also for an academic project with the team 5S - Sandeep, Sameer, Sachin, Sivaram and Sankar.

Getting to Reutlingen:
Traveling aboard as a student is different experience altogether, especially for people who traveled abroad by business trips. Everything has to be done on your own, right from visa application & air-tickets booking to insurance and forex. Thankfully we got a good deal in Emirates which has kept our expenses under control so far ! The air travel was good, but getting to Reutlingen from Frankfurt was sort of a pain, even though we covered major part of journey through ICE. We had carry to carry our big baggage in the train which are meant for Regional travel.

German Language and Culture Course:
It's the very first course of the exchange program. After the initial bouncer of surprise test the german language skills, the course has been amusing so far. Our faculty is using nice pedagogy to teach. She has already taught us a German song and some of sessions she is asking us to enact a situation in a pair. A very good way for internalizing a language.

Reutlingen Treasure Hunt.
One of activity in German language course was Reutlingen treasure hunt. 120 students were divided into teams, ensuring that each team has members of varying level of german language expertise. The teams were given a treasure hunt questionnaire( in German) and which has supposed to be filled by exploring landmarks of Reutligen downtown. Being a beginner in the language, I could not really contribute to the group initially. Amazing part of the activity was the team-diversity in the team an Indian, an Russian, an American, Mexicans, a Irish !

There have been several other activities in the course last Saturday(5th-Sep) we had one-day excursion to Lake Constance and on Monday(7-Sep) there was guided Reutlingen City Tour.

Celebrating Birthday Overseas.
Last but not the least, I celebrated my first birthday being outside India. First of all there was a confusion whether celebrate at 12 midnight IST or 12 midnight German time. And the signature moment was the getting wishes in German in the language course class. Our faculty taught the class german happy birthday song.

Zum Gebunstag viel Gluck.
Zum Gebunstag viel Gluck.
Zum Gebunstag alles Gute.
Zum Gebunstag viel Gluck.

Sameer and Sachin demonstrated the wild way of wishing birthday in India. She also showed us the decent way of wishing birthday in Germany.

That's all as of now, more to come in next posts.

Jurong Bird Park

2009-08-29T09:34:00.006+05:30

One of the must visit place for photography enthusiasts. The park has collection of birds from all geographies. The not-to-miss places are aviaries in which birds are kept natural habitat like enclosures. Other features of the park are birds-of-prey show, parrot paradise, highest man-made-waterfall etc.

Carribbean Flamingoes

Birds-of-Prey Show

Pelican

Yellow Billed Stork

Artificial Waterfall

Lorry Loft @ Aviary

Parrot Paradise

Singapore stopover trip

2009-08-25T11:42:00.009+05:30

This is a trackback post on four day stopover trip in Singapore, while coming back from Seoul. The trip materialized because of generous hospitality of my high-school friend Ajay Bargur, who was staying at Singapore. This posting has been pending for a long time and have managed post in this pre-ALP break.

Applying for the Visa: Unlike many SEA countries, Singapore doesn't provide visa-on-arrival to Indians. So, I had apply for Visa in Seoul itself, at Singapore consulate(Seoul Financial Center). The process was pretty smooth. One of the important item to be furnished is contact address of your acquaintance staying at Singapore. For further details refer the link of Singapore Consulate - Seoul.

Thursday Dec-18th, 2008: Onward Journey from Seoul
[ People who looking info related to Singapore only, can skip this para ]
It was time say good-bye to Seoul, the biz-trip which was supposed to be for a month, (un)fortunately got extended to full visa validity duration. I chose to travel by evening flight as it would be convenient for Ajay to receive me when I land at Singapore in night. The check-in process took a lot of time, due to a long holiday queue. My luggage weight was just below 25 kg and there were no complaints from check-in staff. Then after exchanging Forex, I moved towards the security check. At the entrace, a lady stopped me asked me to weigh my trolley suitcase. It was 13 kg ! The lady didn't allow me to proceed even after considering that my bag had a laptop and some text-books. She asked me get an approval from the airlines. I immediately went to manager of check-in process and she asked her subordinate to weigh the bag. After looking at the weight of the bag which I already checked-in and the lady responded you have to pay fine, 14100 KRW per kg ! Well, I had no choice just to tell some stories that I had stayed in Seoul for 90 days, my luggage is full of winter clothes and also I was carrying some text-books. The conversation went on for five minutes, since the time was running out for boarding, the check-in counter staff after listening to my stories, printed a baggage tag and wrapped around handle of my suitcase and said it's check-in baggage now! After sigh of relief, I boarded the flight by carrying laptop in my hand. For major part of the journey, I was sleeping and was awake just to have genuine Indian Vegetarian food thousand miles above China Sea. Thumbs up to Singapore Airlines !

Arrival at Singapore:
The plane landed safely at Changi Airport and immigration process was smooth. Ajay was already present at arrival terminal to receive me. We took a taxi to his shared apartment at Chou Chu Kang. On the way requested the taxi to stop at a 7-11 store. Since we took some time extra for buying fast-food items, the driver got frustated and started shouting on us. Suddenly I realised I am no longer in Korea, the behavior of driver was very contrast to polite taxi-drivers of Korea. We somehow managed to convince him and made him to wait for some more time. After reaching apartment, before going to sleep I had brief chat with Ajay's friends who were staying with him.

Day-1: Friday 19th Dec: Bird Park, Little India
I got up late after having a deep sleep, by that time Ajay and his friends ready to leave to their office. Ajay gave me some suggestions about places I can explore in his absense. Firstly, I started my (re)search on Singapore. Found some good blog-links and later on noted down important points from wikipedia and wikitravel. Short-listed a few places and got some info about transport in Singapore , which really helpful as I had to start exploring on my own.

I chose to visit Jurong Bird Park first. From Ajay's apartment I walked to Chou Chu Kang MRT station. Bought a EZ-link card for 15 SGD and took MRT to Boonlay with a changeover at Jurong East and from there I took Bus#194 to reach Jurong Bird park. For entry I took combo ticket 'bird park+zoo+night safari' for 40 SGD. The bird park turned out to be perfect place for photography. There are so many varieties of birds from different geographies. The major features of the park were Kite-show, Parrot paradise, Aviaries. More about the bird-park in a separate post.

Then after coming back to Boonlay station I bought a Singel SIM for 10 SGD, in order to have hassle-free communication. [It really made things easy for next three days]. Then I came back to Ajay's home at 7.00 pm and within half and hour he was also back from work. After taking a brief break we headed to Mustafa street in Little India by taxi to have genuine Indian food. Of all the hotels, we decided to have food at Sarvana Idly shop. Yummy Idlies and Dosas after a break of 3 months, priceless !

Later, we explored Mustafa shopping center. The market was essentially like National Market of Bangalore, fully congested and very less breathing space. Not sure how come such a shop is able run legally in Singapore ? Some people say that the owner of the complex is very close friend of Prime Minister.

After doing a brief window shopping at Mustafa we decided to go Orchard Road to witness Christmas decoration. All the malls and shops were decorated with one common thing .. i.e. with a Christmas tree. The time was way past midnight and we decided head back home. We decided to take Night Rider Bus which provided us the view various prominent locations of Singapore. The major part of the ride I was dozing but Ajay used to wake me when some important stuff used to pass by.

Day-2: Saturday: Marina Bay, Night Safari
We got up late to recover from late night visit to Orchard Road. First went to have brunch at Food Court of Chou Chu Kang MRT mall. Surprisingly not even a single decent vegetarian dish available there. For a moment I felt Korea was far better than Singapore. It might be an "exceptional fallacy" as the Chou Chu Kang is mostly populated with people of Chinese origin. we started sightseeing with a visit to Esplande. After having photo session at terrace of Esplande we headed to signature of Singapore i.e. Merlion Statue. Next to statue there were a few tall building of financial district and also Hotel Fergusson, oldest hotel of Singapore which is wanna-stay place for many top-notch people. Then we had a Coffee break at Starbucks outlet near the statue. While having coffee Ajay showed me that the buildings under construction on other side of the bay are Casinos which going to be functional by next-year. Truly tourism department of the country is trying all means to woo people.

When the day reached the twilight phase, we decided to head towards Zoo for Night Safari and to be in time for night animals show. We took a MRT to Avai Kia Station from there to the zoo by Bus#138. First we witnessed night animal show which didn't like much (personally). It might be very entertaining for children. Then we took a tram ride for the Night Safari. I had to pay additional 10 SGD on top of my combo ticket for the ride. The safari ride was pretty decent but frustrating for people who prefer to take photographs as there won't be sufficient light to shoot. After night safari activities we had dinner at Indian Tandoor in the foodcourt. I had vegetable biriyani for 17 SGD, though expensive it was good enough to annul my afternoon's disappointment at food court of Chou-Chu-Kang Station.

Day-3: Sunday: NUS, Sentosa Island
Ajay was occupied with some preparation for his work next day. I had no choice to explore on my own and decided to meet my other friends and colleagues. First I met Yashas, my engineering classmate who was doing MS at NUS. He asked me to come to Clementi station. The temporary Singtel connection was a big boon to have seamless communication. We had lunch at some south-India Hotel near station. Then, Yashas took me his PG room and from there to his university campus. After a brief photo session at the campus, I decided to move on meet my colleague Sampath, who was in Singapore for biz-trip. From NUS campus, I took Bus#95 to Boono-Vista station. I took MRT to City Hall station and walked for 5 minutes to Carlton Hotel, the place where Sampath was staying.

I forced Sampath to pre-empt his issue reproducing work and join me to visit Sentosa Island. Before leaving to Sentosa we made a brief visit Sun-tech City Mall and took photographs here and there. For getting to Sentosa we took MRT to Marina Bay. The exit of the station directly took us into Vivo City Mall. We explored the mall, took some photographs in front of huge Christmas tree in terrace area of the mall. We bought some stuffs at 2$ shop. In the mean time, we really forgot that we there at the place for visiting Sentosa ! Later we looked at options of getting to Senotosa from Vivo-mall. Of all the options we chose Sentosa Express, the ride is free with entry ticket of 3 SGD. In the same counter we bought tickets for 8.30 pm 'Song of the Sea' show for 8 SGD per head( 7.30 pm tickets were sold out !). Song the sea show was just awesome, brilliantly choreographed with usage of latest technologies. Later, after taking a few photographs in the park, we decided to get back to hotel. At City-Hall MRT station, we roamed around looking for a place to have food. Unfortunately none of the places we found had proper vegetarian food. Then finally we decided to have some food at 24/7 McDonald. Even there also there was no option for vegetarian. I ordered for a customized burger without meat. It wasn't stomach filling but was sufficient to keep me alive :).

Day-4: Monday: Singapore Zoo
After staying overnight at Sampath's place, I left very early in morning to be in time before Ajay leaves to his office. After taking keys from Ajay, I started last leg of trip by visiting Singapore Zoo. I was not really keen visiting zoo again, since I had seen many animals in Night safari itself. But for utilizing my combo-ticket and take a few photographs of animals, I decided to carry on with the plan. There was a direct bus to the Zoo from Chou-Chu-Kang bus terminus itself. I explored the zoo in detail, read description of name plates and of course took photographs. The highlight of the visit was Orang-Utan feeding session, which happens everyday at 11 am. I had lunch at yet another food court, and had biriyani again and the price was around 8 SGD ( almost half of Night Safari food-court).

After Zoo visit, I thought of visiting some other place, but since I had catch evening flight to Bangalore, so decided to terminate my sight-seeing and got back to Ajay's home. After packing things, I took a taxi to Airport. On the way I requested to taxi driver go in front of Ajay's office, so that I can handover apartment-keys to him. The Taxi bill was 26 SGD, which included peak hour charges. The check-in process at the airport was smooth, thanks to co-operative Singapore Airline staff, who helped me to distribute my luggage weight properly, as airport officials were allowing only 8 kgs in the carry case. After doing some window shopping at duty-free shops, I boarded the flight, bringing curtains to short and sweet Singapore trip.

Thanks:

Ajay for his hospitality and initial guidance.

Sampath for agreeing to carry my excess luggage, I managed to avoid hiccups while flying from at Singapore airport. Actually the stuffs were of someone else who had requested me to carry from Seoul to Bangalore.

Visit to Bangalore TMC

2009-08-22T22:23:00.012+05:30

It's 11.30 am, and a hot sunny day in Bangalore. A middle-aged lady is rushing towards a marriage hall in an auto. She was looking forward to be in time for signature moment of the marriage i.e. Muhuratham. Unfortunately her ride gets delayed by five minutes .. thanks to ethical and obedient auto-driver, who comes to screeching halt at one of the busy signals en-route to destination, and refuses to jump the signal !

Frustrated lady asks the driver - ಯಾಕೆ ಸಿಗ್ನಲ್ ಜಂಪ್ ಮಾಡಲಿಲ್ಲ ? ನನಗೆ ಲೇಟ್ ಆಗ್ತಿದೆ [ Why didn't you jump the signal ? I am getting late ]
Driver replies - ಮೇಡಂ ... ಟ್ರಾಫಿಕ್ ಪೋಲಿಸ್ ಅವರು ಎಲ್ಲ ಕಡೆ ಕ್ಯಾಮೆರಾ ಹಾಕಿಧಾರೆ. ಜಂಪ್ ಮಾಡಧರೆ ರೆಕಾರ್ಡ್ ಆಗ್ ಬಿಡತ್ತೆ, ನಾಳೆ ಫೈನ್ ಚಿಟಿ ನಮ್ಮ ಮನೆಗೆ ಬರತ್ತೆ [ Traffic police have put cameras everywhere. If I jump the signal, it will recorded and tomorrow fine receipt will be mailed to my home]

Surprisingly, the auto-wallah is telling plain truth ! This was confirmed, when I visited Bangalore's Traffic Management Center(TMC) at AshokNagar. The visit was conducted by members of Praja community - a citizen networking platform of Bangalore.

The upgraded TMC has all latest technologies to manage notorious traffic of the city.
- First is the traffic monitoring screen. It receives feeds through dedicated 4 Mbps lines from around 100 surveillance cameras placed at various junctions in the city. To zoom level of cameras is very efficient enough to read even number plates of vehicles. The registration number of vehicles standing beyond the stop line is noted by people at TMC and the notice is sent to the owners immediately. The feeds of the cameras are archieved upto 20 days and stored in 24 TB memory.
- Other salient features in center is usage of mobile density to make an rough estimate about traffic density. Next to it was a fault monitoring console, which provides real status about surveillance devices. In case of any fault, the automated system sends a SMS to concerned area manager.
- Enforcement cameras: There are five such cameras at critical locations, to capture most common traffic violation i.e. jumping the red signal. The cameras are sophisticated enough to freeze the motion, even at night time.
- The next section in the center is Traffic control system. Vehicle actuation system is main part of this system. On major junctions there's a magnetic loop plate placed below the road surface. The system runs with 4 second timer, when there's no activity, a notification is sent to system which appears on the dash of the control system. If the allocated quota of signal time is very high compared to used time, the controller can change the duration of the signal. The enhanced version of this system will based on video analytics, which will decide the signal duration by automatically counting number vehicles piled up.
- Signal Progression system: This is used to implement synchronized signals in series. The system has already been implemented at Devanahalli Airport Road Corridor and J.C. Road. A green signal at one junction means, green at every junction in the route. If timer at one junction updated based on vehicle actuation system, then the real time update is done at subsequent signals.
- Area Traffic Controller: It's a graphical tool developed jointly by Microsoft and BEL. The tool which is still in alpha-beta mode can be used to remotely monitor full traffic controls of junction. Signals can be switched off or can be put on blink mode etc.

Indeed a nice set of initiatives by authorities. All these solutions are implemented under consultancy of a multi-national firm. In fact the person who gave us the presentation was the consultant from the same company who had worked on implementation of the project. [ he had requested not to quote his name and the company].

Now, the question is this system sufficient to manage 24 lakhs vehciles ? Well, it's a good beginning and efficient+consistent monitoring and reporting by authorities will inject self-discipline into citizens to follow some basic traffic rules and thereby making life of other people comfortable.

[Photographs are taken Vinod Shankar's mobile camera]
More at:
Praja-Bangalore: TMC visit thread.
Bangalore City Traffic Police: Traffic Management Center

Story of Japanese Fresh Fish

2009-08-08T23:13:00.007+05:30

Are B-school faculties running short of examples ? Not sure .. some examples keep on repeating in every other subject. For ex: Customization = Dell, JIT = Toyota, Globalization=McDonald, Innovation=Apple or new addition is Tata Nano and so on. The same is applicable to students too, we also keep on repeating same examples.

Yesterday the saga turned to be too much .. in afternoon our prof of IT-Strategy concluded the session with a small story. It was about how Japanese used the concept of 'Continuous improvement' to keep their favorite delicacy i.e. fish 'fresh'. Then we had an evening session on IT-in-Banking by some external faculty from XYZ bank. Guess what ? He started the session with same story of 'Japanese Fresh Fish'. What a coincidence? I had to literally control my laughter while listening to the story second time in a span of 1 hour :)

Here is the story. Copied it from a link. [ Slightly buzzy+lazy to write on my own ]

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

The farther the fishermen went, the longer it took to bring in the fish. If the return trip took more than a few days, the fish were not fresh.
The Japanese did not like the taste.

To solve this problem, fishing companies installed freezers on their boats.

They would catch the fish and freeze them at sea. Freezers allowed the boats to go farther and stay longer. However, the Japanese could taste the difference between fresh and frozen and they did not like frozen fish.

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

So how did Japanese fishing companies solve this problem? How do they get fresh-tasting fish to Japan? If you were consulting the fish industry, what would you recommend?

How Japanese Fish Stay Fresh:

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

Have you realized that some of us are also living in a pond but most of the time tired & dull, so we need a Shark in our life to keep us awake and moving? Basically in our lives Sharks are new challenges to keep us active and taste better...

Hariharapura visit

2009-07-18T12:57:00.009+05:30

A year ago Sudhir a.k.a Ski had commented to my "Travelogues are boring?" post that .. How about making a audio-video presentation. That's exactly I have done for my recent trip to Hariharapura(my native place). Snaps are composed into a video embedded below.

Some highlights of the trip

Getting to Hariharapura was equivalent to a mini-adventure. Normally it's just an overnight journey, atmost 10 hrs. But the day I traveled was an exception. By the time I was supposed to be in Harihurapura, I witnessed my Bus moving here and there in Balehonnur finding a way to Sringeri. Due to incessant rains on one of the routes(via Koppa) the bridge was completely submerged in water and the other route(via Jayapura) was blocked by a fallen tree. So we were forced to halt at the bus-stand for 6 hours! Guess what I did for 6 hours ? I just slept in the bus to annul the sleep deficit I had accumulated for last one week !

When things were getting back to normal (by afternoon), our Nishmita Motors driver was missing and busy taking a nap at his relative's place. So instead of waiting for him, I along with other co-passengers decided to take the first TCS bus to Koppa(via Melpaalu). Well, TCS means Transport Co-operative Society not the software firm based in Mumbai :). And from Koppa I took another bus to reach Hariharapura.

My on-the-spot companion for this brief journey was Umesh, an employee of Syndicate Bank(Belgaum). He had recently completed training in Bangalore and was getting back to his duty at Belgaum. He taken a day break to meet his parents near Koppa and was too worried about wasting his precious 6 hours at Balehonnur. Enroute to Koppa (via Melpalu) Umesh showed me schools in which he studied and also showed me Tea estates owned by big industrialists and tea factories adjacent to the estates.

In evening along with Harsha I visited some prominent locations of Hariharapura to witness the havoc created by heavy rains. The water level was so high that Asvata Katte in front of Sri-Matha was completely submerged and the level was just 4-5 feet below Tunga Setuve(hanging bridge).

Second day I visited Hacharu house, Someshwara temple and Sri-Matha. To be on safer side I left Hariharapura early at 6 pm by taking a bus to Sringeri. There after completing darshana at Sharadambha Temple I boarded a night bus to Bangalore.

Related news items:
- Rain disrupts normal life.

Transportation Sector in India

2009-07-15T12:40:00.006+05:30

View more presentations from naanushande.

The presentation made for Transportation Sector India as part of Business Environment course.

Following is the introduction video we used to start off the presentation.

Jist of Presentation Script

1. History:

British India Era: infrastructure focused on colonial requirements.
Independent India: India’s infrastructure vision was top down and govt got carried away with trying to prove to the world what India was capable of. The urgency to turn a desperately poor country into a gleaming industrial power had promted the state to emphasize higher education over primary power plants, steel factories and massive dams over rural roads, and building new cities over reforming older urban pestholes.
For most governments, investment were anyway a lose-lose option. With govt so unstable, it was likely that the next government would take credit for what you did.

2. Comprehending Transport

Sometimes difficult to fully comprehend the significance of transport to the economy
When there are problems in the power or water sectors its immediately visible
Lights go off or taps run dry –the public immediately knows –medical analogy is a heart attack
Transport sector grinds to a halt slowly –like lung disease –slowly crippling the body
Public comes to accept poor transport as a way of life –the economy runs slow, quality of life bad, people die in accidents –media must enlighten, focus attention

3. Road

Network of 66,590 km of National Highways, of which 200 km are classified as expressways.
Umbrella project: 7-phase NHDP

4. Railways

18 million passenger daily.
Tariff policies: overcharge freight to subsidize passenger travel

5. Intra City

New initiatives, low floor A/C buses, Bus rapid transit(BRT).
Delhi Metro. under construction in Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai

6. Water and Sea

12 major ports and about 180 minor and intermediate ports in India.
Underutilized water way: 0.1% of the total inland traffic in India, compared to the 21% figure for the United States.

7. Aviation

System untapped. 90 million passenger annually. Railways do that in 5 days!
Upgradation of existing airports. Greenfield airports.

8. Investment

Investment requirements $492 billion in the next five years
Of this, $147 billion to come from private investment
Share of private investment in total to rise from 17% to 30% by 2012.Investment to touch $1.48 trillion by 2017
Role of IIFCL: It's a SPV to provide long term finance to infrastructure projects
Overriding priority to PPP projects, Finance projects in sectors like roads, airports, ports, power, urban infrastructure etc

9. Challenges.

India’s roads are congested and of poor quality.
Rural areas have poor access.
The railways are facing severe capacity constraints.
Urban centres are severely congested.
Ports are congested and inefficient.
Airport infrastructure is strained.

10. Way forward

Expanding Construction Capacity
Improving Contract Management
Report cards on delivery of services by PWDs
New programs/projects public consultations
Performance statistics, e.g. road accidents by public transport buses (DTC example)
Regular columns responding to citizens queries about transport

11. References

Imagining India - Nandan Nilekani
Planning Commision Website.
World Bank Report
Asia Development Bank Report.

iBizSim Xperience

2009-07-03T15:05:00.011+05:30

iBizSim is a business simulation game which reflects many real world situations. A good way of internalizing how exactly a firm does business . One of the best subjects we had in General Management Module, we got a holistic view of tit-bits we had learnt previously. After the sessions, seeing my status in Gtalk, my friend Raveesh asked me to explain about the simulation and share its experience in brief through text chat, here are a few excerpts from it.

-We had iBizSim sessions for 5 days conducted by Prof. Prem Chandrani.
- The class in divided into companies and industries
- It's a nice experience, to get a holistic view how a company works
- Actually, it's tough manage when numbers are in millions
- Gut feelings can't be applied always !

- In the business, you produce and sell goods, before that you should have estimate the demand
- Depending on the estimated demand you plan production.
- For production you should have raw materials, which should be ordered in advance
- After producing you have sell goods in different regions
- You have to check how the economy is performing in that country depending on that you have to book spot xchange rate or hedge it to future.
- A small fraction makes a lot of difference.
- There was an exception i.e. compulsary vacation for workers for 3 weeks in a quarter.
- For that you have plan before 2 quarters in advance and decide whether to do overtime or extra shifts.
- To have sufficient inventory levels in vacation phase to meet demand.
- There's one more option instead of producing you can buy finished good from outside. this can be if your manufacturing costs are very high.
- After all this u have to make profit and capture market share consistently.

3 years !!

2009-06-25T09:00:00.006+05:30

naanushande.com is 3 years old now.

Following are popular posts for last one year

Favorites:-
-Going to office by BMTC: Experiences of commuting by BMTC. Sharing some amusing moments.
-Skiing at Bearstown resort: Maiden Skiing experience at Bearstown's resort in South Korea.
-Skandagiri Expedition: Welcoming new year atop Skandagiri betta.
-Harsha Bhogle - Career in these times: An inspiring speech from India's top cricket commentator.

Top contents statistically:-
-Rottikallu Homestay: A weekend getaway near Sakleshpur. Several adventurous activities like trekking, river-walk are conducted.
-Brand Equity Quiz - Finals: Experiences of the quiz show hosted by Derek O'Brien at Leela Kempinski, Mumbai.

Contents of previous blogging years which are still popular:-
-Photography Workshop - Kalyan Varma: Whenever Kalyan announces dates of his next workshop, this post sure to get a few hits.
-Kudremukh Homestay: Two and half year old post still getting sufficient hits.
-Sitanadi Rafting: A trip with Ctrl-Esc group.

Imagining India - Transportation Sector

2009-06-18T10:11:00.010+05:30

Currently I am reading Nandan Nilekani's Imagining India - Ideas for the new century. In the book the author takes the reader through various events in Indian history which has led to globally competitive Indian economy. We are not yet there but are on the way. The nice thing about the book is that the author has put together many known and unknown tit-bits in a structured manner.

I referred the book for an academic presentation on 'Transportation Sector in India'. Other than transportation Nandan discusses about various unique characteristics of India. How governments plan to introduce Hindi as an official language was resisted by some southern states. And we continued with usage of English for official purposes. It was a blessing in disguise for the nation in general.

Following some solid excerpts from the book regarding history of Transportation Sector and Infrastructure sector in general.

India now presents us with a bewildering landscape – of vibrant, private enterprise choking up as it meets crumbling public infrastructure.

Yashwant Sinha, the finance minister under NDA government, has remarked that all centuries coexist in India.

For British India, infrastructure meant building roads and rail that focused on colonial requirements, rather than responses to popular demand.

After 1857 revolt, security became British India’s core obsession. Triggered massive expansion of rail infrastructure. Rail connectivity grew from zero trains in 1850 to a network spanning close to 10,500 kilometer by 1875.

View of roads and railways as an investment towards safety – to move people and goods in and out quickly, and avoid being concerned by enemies – has plenty of precedent.The Romans built Britain’s major road systems when they had occupied the restive island, and many of these still exist. Another parallel was the Eisenhower-era expansion of roads in the United States during the Cold war, to ensure the rapid rollout of the army in case of an attack at home.

Indians road Congress, 1930. development of rural road. First road plan released in 1943. Ambitious agenda for roads was meant to be carried our over 2 years. Enthusiastic plans, soon gathered dust.

Between 1950 and 1970 – while passengers and goods traffic increased more than thirty fold, road length went up only five times.

Rail network increased – 0.5 percent in 1950s, falling to a barely detectable growth of 0.2 percent in 1960s, 70s.

First major railway project since British Left India, the 750-kilometre Konkan railway on India western coast, came up only in 90s.

India’s infrastructure vision was top down and govt got carried away with trying to prove to the world what India was capable of. The urgency to turn a desperately poor country into a gleaming industrial power had promted the state to emphasize higher education over primary power plants, steel factories and massive dams over rural roads, and building new cities over reforming older urban pestholes.

Short-horizon Indian governments have favored short horizon initiatives, expanding subsidy policies and freebies that have an immediate, big bang in PR, even if the real effect in a whimper. For most governments, investment were anyway a lose-lose option. With govt so unstable, it was likely that the next government would take credit for what you did.

From 1980s India has remained in ‘perpetual election mode, as every one or more major states face the voters’.

Indira Gandhi – Ramped up subsidies – food, fuel, electricity which elbowed out investments in more universal public goods such a hospitals, roads, railways.

Subsidies – always tempting – guarantee instant pay-offs for government.

Incredibly low user charges for road transport and railways – more the state built more it lost.

Vinayak Chaterjee – heads consultancy Feedback Ventures Ltd: ‘When you talk about building highways, canals and rails in a country like India, you come up against a big constraint – land’.

N. Sheshagiri describes politics of infrastructure in India – ‘ ten quarreling men holding each other’s bit of hair, and no one is willing to either pull or let go’.

After 1991 reforms: There was no clean break ideology when it came to India’s infrastructure sector. Infrastructure actually touched a new low in the post reform period. The focus during these years was on rapidly expanding the role of private enterprise, including an infrastructure – it was a thirst long denied and it had to be slaked. In 1992-96 the government drastically cut back its own investments, leaving the glass half empty in the hope that private funds would pour in.

Infrastructure investment has been a roller coaster of policy in most countries, as when British nationalized its utilties in 1940s, but later reversed it and introduced private but regulated systems in the 1970s and 1980s.

Markets do not work well in infrastructure, and this springs from the nature of public goods – which are ‘expensive, durable and immobile’. This makes private infrastructure vulnerable- after all a company cannot recall a road if it proves to be a loss. And because of this, governments may be tempted to break promises with companies by reneging on the terms of public-private partnership or forcing them to lower tariffs.

Infrastructure boost: NDA, Vajpayee, had a penchant for announcing infrastructure projects with poetic flourishes at Independence Day events. 'Vajpayee made infrastructure politically fashionable, something that it had never been before'. says Vinayak.

Another key innovation of the NDA government was the highway cess consumers paid on all fuel to fund the national highways. This created a seperate revenue stream for NHAI to build roads. UPA government used a similar strategy when it levied a cess on air travel to support airport development.

Both the NDA amd UPA governments have also attempted to address the delicate issue of land for infrastructure with bills to amend the 100-year-old land acqusition act to ease up land purchases.

Praful patel: air reforms - permission to buy airplanes for private aircrafts. 50 airports to 80 airports.

Sudhir Kumar, secretary to the railways minister, notes that the sector which was written of as 'a debt trap in the terminal stages' in 2001, had nearly doubled its operating margin by 2007 and had profits of Rs 250 billion in 2007-08.

Towards better infrastructure in a demand-driven, ‘grow-first, build later’ model, in direct contrast to China’s slickly top-down, supply driven approach.

DuckTales Wohoooo !

2009-06-14T23:59:00.002+05:30

Remembering those childhood days ... when we used to watch back to back cartoon series Ducktales and Talespin on DD-1.

Core South Indian Food at Mumbai

2009-05-14T17:23:00.008+05:30

Cafe Madras, Matunga

After trying out all major eat-outs at Andheri, somehow I couldn't not quench the desire to have core south Indian food. Finally it when I went to Cafe Madras, Cafe Mysore at Matunga twice in a weekend, once with my friend Tassa and other time with my batchmates. Not only one can get the proper south-indian taste, but also w.r.t price the food is very affordable.

Cafe Mysore - Oldest Restaurant in Mumbai for South Indian Delicacies.

Mysore Masala Dosa.

To have food in a darshini style compartment plates after a long time was a different feeling altogether.

Filter Coffee

Mysore Paak

To get there from Andheri:
Going Matunga from Andheri is relatively easy. One can take Harbour Line trains which start from Andheri at platform 6 and 7, get down at King Circle's station. From King's circle one has to walk(5-10 mins) towards Arora theatre to reach a park-cum-circle. At the junction one can find both Cafe Madras and Cafe Mysore. There are other famous eat-outs at the same place. Will try those in next visits.

View Matunga in a larger map

Brand Equity Quiz 2009 finals

2009-05-10T23:56:00.022+05:30

[image source]

Rohan Khanna and Sandeepan Chaudhuri of Accenture(Delhi) lived up all the hype and emerged as clear winners of Brand Equity Quiz. The margin of victory was so high that the last buzzer round was played just to decide who is 2nd, 3rd and 4th. The venue of the quiz was Leela Kempinski's Grand Ballroom and the host of the evening was Asia's No.1 quizmaster Derek O'Brien. The evening started with two semi-finals(buzzer round) in which ten regional winners were filtered into four finalists Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore & Chennai.

Overall a decent quiz, but the suspense and intensity as it was in Mumbai regional round was missing due to over domination of Accenture(Delhi) team. IBM(Bangalore) came second in contrast to speculations done by media i.e. it's going to be contest between Mumbai v/s Delhi.

Some Questions: [in a random order, interesting ones]

Why is the roulette wheel on a casino table is commonly known as "Devil's ring" ? --- sum of all the numbers on it (from 1 to 36) is 666, which is the 'Number of the Beast'.

Cicardium rhythm stress is commonly known as ? --- Jetlag

If RoI = return on investment, then what is RoTI ? --- Return on Training Investment

Which company operates most playgrounds in United States ? --- McDonald's

What is "Client Golf" ? --- Deliberately losing a golf game against a client for winning a business deal.

Which five letter proper noun(as a part of username) was banned by yahoo mail for a brief period ? --- Allah

What's so special about the company which has Australian Stock Exhchange ticker DPL ? -- Daily Planet is one of the first brothels(establishment dedicated to prostitution) to be listed on a stock exchange [read more].

What are “chicken cutlets.” ? --- It's the common term used for a silicone bra insert that is used to create the illusion of larger breasts.[read more]

What special thing was done when Pope John Paul II visited Hollywood in 1987 ? ---They removed the one 'L' from the sign to make it HOLYwood.

What is Fong Kong ? -- Products with fake designer lables.

This Russian has a European patent for a "Method of playing a lottery game" ? --- Gary Kasparov.

Why for a brief period in 2003, banks in China quarantined currency notes ? -- SARS outbreak.

Why in Oct 2008 a clock at Manhattan ran out of digits ? --- The 'National Debt Clock' ran out of digits because US National Debt debt exceeded $10 trillion for the first time.

In the world of business, what is ABCD ? --- ABCD (Aaya, Bai, Cook, Driver) is a customer segment.

One can find free ads of which organization in NCERT Class XI textbooks ? --- Indian Army.

In early dot-com era five rivals of Microsoft were represented by an acronym NOISE N-Netspace, O-Oracle, I-IBM, S-Sun Microsystems, What is E ? --- Everybody Else.

Which type of Mangoes are used to make Frooti drink ? --- Totapuri.

Landmark Quiz 2009, Mumbai

2009-05-09T18:08:00.008+05:30

The first edition of Landmark Quiz Mumbai was held on May 1st 2009 at St. Andrew's Auditorium - Bandra. The quizmaster of the show was Navin Jayakumar. The quiz started off with preliminary round of 40 questions. For the final round out of 164 teams, eight teams were shortlisted . The winners of the quiz were the team by name -"Swami and friends". Overall the quiz was good but unfortunately there were minor goof ups and also there were some boring moments also.

Some highlights:

It was first landrmark quiz at Mumbai. The annual city open quiz has been conducted since 1988 in Chennai. From there it was moved to Bangalore, Pune and now to Mumbai.
Many questions in the quiz were related to Mumbai. There a few questions on common mumbai slangs and one-liners. Some of those questions turned out to be bouncers to us.
The cut-off score for final round was 32. We were very far from it !
Navin Jayakumar did the job well. But somehow he could not match the flair of Derek O'Brien. The spontaneous humor, suspense build in the last round, as done by Derek were missing in this quiz.
The end goof up bit silly. The quizmaster had forgot that he has give trophy to the winners.
'Swine flu' was the buzz of the evening. Many teams had name their team based on it. In fact best team name was "Pigs Fly .. Swine Flew".

Winners

Questions:
[ I have noted that most of the questions .. will update here after composing it properly].

IPL 2.0: It's a surprise package

2009-04-30T11:55:00.003+05:30

The second edition of Indan Premier League started off on April 18th exactly on the same date of the first edition. Like the first the second season will definitely won't have the novelty factor. However different country, different conditions have changed the equations. Also, there have been a few surprises in the script so far. The team which finished at the basement in first season "Deccan Chargers" are on the top with 100% winning record. Last year's champs Rajasthan Royals have experienced mixed season so far. However their trump card Yusuf Pathan has already scripted two awesome victories.

Personally, the experience has been different than previous year. I along with my PGPM batchmates are taking a few minutes off from our busy schedule to watch a few overs of some matches together. Seeing a cricket match in hostel is a different experience altogether. Also the internal PGPL game, a superselector type game conducted by Kalpesh has enriched the experience. Each one of us has formed a thirteen member team and every match we will score cumulative points depending on performance of the players. Instead of Oooh, Aaahs, Howzzat we will be shouting 15 points to me, 25 points to me!

Cross posted at ipl-buzz.blogspot.com

Some highlights of last two weeks.

The first day belonged to veterans. Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid came out with flying colors with solid batting and ensuread victory for their team. Anil Kumble made a difference by his extraordinary bowling figures 5/5.
Spinners are key players in bowling attack. Anil Kumble, Piyush Chawla and Yusuf Pathan are keeping batsmen on their toes. Even part time spinners like Suresh Raina are able to check the scoring rate. In yesterday's match RCB v/s KKR, 15 overs of RCB were bowled by spinners. Who had speculated this before the start of the tournament ?
Malinga has been the best among pacers. The Sri-Lanka bowler representing Mumbai Indians has been a tough customer to handle with his toe crushing yorkers.
Gilly and Hayden are still the best. Former openers of world beating Australian team have been major scorers in the tournament so far. Their breezy innings had given solid foundation to their respective teams.
Rains have been major villains in this IPL. Two games were completely washed out. Also results of two matches of Kings XI were decided using D/L method. On both occasions Kings XI were on receiving end.
Super Over is a super idea! The first tie of IPL was the match betwen RR and KKR. The winners were decided using a new format super-over, a format in which both teams will given an over each to score maximum runs. KKR scored 15 runs and RR's Yusuf Pathan chased the runs in just 4 balls! The format has been welcomed by many cricketing experts.
Ajantha Mendis is not a mystery anymore. The KKR bowler who had been nightmare to batsmen is no longer a mystery bowler. The bowler gave away 16 runs in just 4 balls in a super-over decider. In other match againt Mumbai, the opening combo of Sachin and Jayasurya dismissed his deliveries to stands several times. In yesterday's match the mystery bowler was out of playing eleven.
International T20 stars may not be IPL stars. The major example for this Robin Utthappa. The T20 specialist who RCB had exhanged from Mumbai in place of Zaheer Khan is yet to bat beyond first over in the tournament. Not only batting he had been sloppy in the field too. In the match against DDD he dropped a catch at crucial juncture. At that point the match could have gone both ways.
One anonymous blogger has created flutters in the blogosphere and entire cricketing world by posting many funny inside stores of team KKR. The KKR team management is yet to find out who the mole is. It is some internal person or an enthusiastic bloggy on cyberspace. Still a million dollar question ...
Last but not the least - Strategy breaks! .. Lalit Modi's marketing brain's idea has received tons of criticism. On several occasions batting team has lost a wicket within first over after the break. For the viewers too it's a patch in the extertainment quotient of watching a T20 game.

Brand Equity Quiz 2009: Mumbai leg

2009-04-26T01:15:00.009+05:30

The Mumbai leg of Brand Equity quiz was held at Chavan Center(Nariman Point). The quiz was open only to working professionals in India Inc. So being part of student community(this year) the only option to experience the live quizing as an audience. The quiz master was Derek O'Brein. He kept the audience entertained with his usual spontaneous humour.

The format of quiz was similar to Landmark open quiz which had attended previously. The difference was that questions had something do with business. Overall it was a good quiz and Derek brought the house down many times keeping janta entertained.

Some highlights of the show

Generosity in giving away audience prizes. Sometimes the entire row used to get hampers.
Advice to Unilever team as they failed to qualifying for finals by 1 point : For next two years take a transfer to Indore as qualifying would be a cakewalk there.
When AXIS Bank gave away some clues for a question without answering it, and SUN capitalized on the mistake to extend their lead. Derek said " AXIS bank is making sure that ICICI Bank(who were second) should not win this quiz!".
The build up of tension and suspense by Derek when there were only two teams in the race. Without even acknowledging whether the answer of ICICI Bank was right or wrong, Derek called upon chief quest and his prize distribution volunteers to give away prizes to ICICI bank. Then he announced the show is still on as the answer of ICICI bank was right.

Some nice questions

Corrections Corporation of America is the largest operator of _____ in the U.S.A
You can win an ipod from the website nailthethief.com by throwing rotten eggs on whose face?
Which district of Uttar Pradesh is nicknamed as Suhag Nagri because it fulfills everything a Suhagin wants?
In 1983 Korean Airways flight was shot down by USSR for intruding into their airspace. After this incident what did then US president Ronald Reagan ordered the US military to be available for civilian use ?
What is Poorism?
What is wife acceptance factor ?

Find all prelims questions at
- The Curious Quizzer - BRAND EQUITY QUIZ -09 MUMBAI EDITION

Megapixels Galore !

2009-04-16T09:01:00.005+05:30

Megapixels Galore is my new photography blog. The blog is hosted on my almost defunct domain shande.in. The URL of the blog is photos.shande.in. The blog is my first endeavour using wordpress CMS. Suggestions and comments from any perspective are welcome.

In beginning for first few days, I will post all my best s captured in last 3-4 years. There will be one post per day.

Alibagh Trip

2009-03-20T19:40:00.003+05:30

It was a holiday for Holi and my enthusiastic batchmates of PGPM planned for an outing to Alibagh, one of the nearest weekend getaway from Mumbai. After taking suggestions from mumbaites in our batch we decided to take a ferry to Gateway of India towards Alibagh.

As per plan we left Hostel at 6.30 am, took a fast local from Andheri to Churchgate and from took a taxi to Gateway to India. While some of us were standing in the queue, others including me roamed around the gateway of india doing photo sessions. 26/11 events have really changed our mentality. In contrast to my previous visit last year this time I chose to capture the image of Taj Hotel first, not the famous Gateway of India! Surely it was an effect of image getting burnt on my retina due to media coverage.

Ferry travel and Sea Eagles
At 8.30 am the ferry departed from the jetty and we were on the sea waters which were used by terrorist to enter into Mumbai. After 10 minutes of initial journey the ferry was followed by several sea eagles. They used to catch the food items thrown by generous travelers by using their maneuverability skills. Looked like it was a day-to-day activity for sea eagles. The phenomena turned out to be challenging task for me capture by camera. I managed to get a perfect composition after 25 attempts.

After an hour journey we reached Mandwa Jetty, from there we took a tempo to Alibagh. Our first obvious activity was having breakfast at an hotel near bus stand. The menu of the food items turned out to be very amusing. There were about 30-35 variants of masala dosas. After useless brainstorming I just ordered Masala dosa, Krishna and Sivaram ordered Idly Fry and Puri, just to minimize risk by diversifying. But in actual all three were not upto the mark. Then after getting suggestion from Kedar in second round I ordered for Misal Pav, a flagship product in many hotels of Maharastra. Takeaways from the breakfast activity, always have the flagship in an eatout.

Kashid Beach
After breakfast we took a bus to our final destination, Kashid Beach . The plan was to find an accommodation right next to the beach. But against our wishes the surroundings of the beach were deserted, I mean there were no concrete structures. Our accommodation hunting campaign ended after waking a km from the beach. After checking into the lodge we had light snacks and headed towards the beach skipping the lunch. Majority of the boys got into the beach immediately but I chose laze for a while on hammocks in front of one of snacks shop in the beach simultaneously enjoying scenic beauty of the beach.

Later when sunshine crossed its peak I decided to get into the water to enjoy the waves. But the water was hopelessly saline. I just spend an hour in waters and cameback to rest on the hammock. When the time was 5.30 pm, I got ready with my camera to capture sunset at the beach. In between we were regularly having solo-n-group photo session. After the sunset I handed the camera to Balaji and accompanied Puneet for a casual beach jog. It was an amazing experience on a nice, clean beach in dusk time. Later we were back to Lodge in order fresh up and desalt our bodies. Since we had decided to return by 12 midnight bus, we utilised buffer time to have dinner in a relaxed manner and also had ample time to play teen-patti.

Return journey
Just half an hour before the arrival of the bus, Sivaram came up with his theory that we won't be able get seats! As many people will be returning back to Mumbai after Holi vacation. The bus arrived at 12 midnight on dot and Sivaram was bang on with his theory. As the next bus was at 5 am in morning we decided to board the bus without any second thoughts. The bus was so crowded that we didn't had any room to stand. Initial part of the journey for half an hour I just stood on the footboard. Later we got standing at normal positions but no signs of getting seats. We made ourselves mentally and physically prepared to stand entire journey. To keep ourselves awake we engaged in some tit-bit discussion like 'As a manager what's the learning from this' etc. Even when we doze for a while, the jerky ride used to break our minimal sleep.

Finally we were back to Mumbai at 4 am and got down at Dadar. Then we decided to take first local train from Dadar station to Andheri, expected the train to be empty. But in contrast to our wishes the platform was fully crowded with people. We managed to get into one of compartment of the first train and again encountering a standing journey we got down at Andheri. We were back to hostel at 5 am concluding the memorable Alibagh trip.

"Career in these times" - Harsha Bhogle

2009-02-22T16:00:00.005+05:30

Renowned cricket commentator and journalist Harsha Bhogle was invited to SPJIMR campus on 14-Feb-09 to share his opinion on “Career in these times” . The inspiring talk was part of institute’s maiden business fest OJAS. The speech was packaged with Harsha’s usual spontaneity, sense of humour, innumerable references to cricket(sports) and other aspects of life. One of the humour was a self directed comment on his new hairstyle after hair implantation.

Following are excerpts from the speech. (in some lines I have used second person directly to share the phrases/words as it was delivered by Harsha)

Howz the current situation ?
Before economic meltdown an individual who was earning Rs 100 per day and was saving Rs 50 per day. But due to excessive greediness, the person was spending Rs. 110 (on credit) on same day thinking that he/she will save Rs 50 tomorrow. Now the current situation is the same individual spends Rs.50 for basic needs and then he spends Rs.45 on luxury stuffs and finally end up saving Rs.5 ! So the situation is not so terrible.

What’s the advantage ?
Every situation can be looked in different views. Crisis is bad for many but it’s good for some. The current situation can be compared to a batsman making his test debut at No.6 position. His turn comes when 4 wickets are down, 2 runs are on board, on a seaming pitch, under overcast conditions! It’s a fantastic opportunity for a debutant to prove himself. But things were different in job market 1-2 years ago, which can be compared to a debutant coming bat when the score is 250-4 on a flat pitch. If tough times come early in life, one won’t be pampered like it’s done usually in good times. Being more solid, you will be mentally prepared for every tough situation in future.

Shortcuts in Life ?
The moment you see an empty parking space in Mumbai you should think that there’s something wrong. One should hang-on and evaluate why someone else has not taken the shortcut. This kind of evaluation was not done by B-school passouts a year ago, and decided their career on salary, prioritizing money above a job which had more satisfaction and better career growth. Harsha made a point that he’s yet to meet a person with a very good career and simultaneously facing financial problems. There’s life after tomorrow, choice should be created by judgment. If one thinks the salary is less, he/she has to imagine situation in 1985, by whatever method of valuation the minimum salary of current era will be more than an MBA graduate in those times.

Working in teams
The biggest problem corporate India is facing today is that people are unable to work in teams. Only team a person know is his/her laptop. If one has to go up in career first he/she should be a good team player and subsequently should be able to lead a team. Basically, a person is accessed by how good a team player he is, how he understand and relate to other’s problems, but not by how much cash flow or financial ratios he’s aware off. It’s unfortunate that today young people communicate by scraping on books or writing on walls.
Harsha referred to a line he read a few days back “Good coaches coach players, great coaches coach people”.

Getting Hands Dirty.
Today lots of people don’t like to get their hands dirty. One of the problems with management education is that it's creating slots, and graduates go into those slots. It’s nice thing to see that people these days talk about entrepreneurship and social movement etc, irrespective of whether they implement something or not. Some of the best marketing people are the people who work in small towns. So if one gets a great career opportunity he should go for it, a good job early shapes an individual’s career. The reason Hindustan Lever has been producing greatest marketing minds is mainly because of first 2-3 years stint in a small remote town where the managers gets an opportunity to understand the market. So don’t hesitate to get your hands dirty. There’s nothing wrong in starting a career right at the bottom. Never let prestigious degree come in the way of your goal. Prestigious degree does is that you wont know what you really want to know. That’s the sole reason today city boys and girl are getting their pants taken off by small town boys/girls, whether it’s in cricket or getting into IIMs/IITs. They understand India better and they have been getting their hands dirty in every area of life.

Bodhgaya – learning from a SriLankan Monk.
Harsha also shared experience of meeting a SriLankan monk a Bodhgaya and learning a few meditation tips from him. The major suggestion from the monk was that an individual should take all things from his mind and focus on one thing. “Maximize your present” is one of the motto of Buddhism. Just give your 100 percent. Never know who is watching, you might be featuring in a small program but someone important person might watch you while switching between channels. Take example of Brad Haddin, if he had scored runs of last two matches a week back, who knows he would be having million dollar offers IPL franchises. Never know what will happen when!

Coaches in Sports
In sports players have become too much dependent on coaches and supporting to this fact is that these days in a team support staff is bigger than playing staff. For example in cricket, if you have a bowling problem you go to a bowling coach, if you have a fielding problem you go to a fielding coach. It’s not the right way to grow in career. It's like a person goes to Mc-Donald and seeks solution for whatever problem he has life. So, don’t be in search for coaches.

Bad times come in real world.
One can’t just say in real world "Ok guys here I am” like star sons usually do. Such people with godfather manage to stay in limelight at most for 1-2 years and ultimately disappear. Every successful person has been through a bad phase including Himesh Reshamiya ! ( burst of laughter from the audience).

Fitness and health.
B-school should teach an individual about fitness, diet and health. These days a norm is a B-school is that sleeping for 4 hours is ‘way to greatness’. There’s so much glamour associated with sleeping less. There are so many misconceptions. Unless one won’t have a puff he won’t get a great idea. For some people Rum has become a ‘must have’ to put themselves in right mood. Bottom-line is that if one can’t take care of his health, how other people will have confidence in him? Focus doesn’t means obsessed with health. World is beyond inches of biceps or whatever number of packs!

Other stuffs.
- Keep reading good things and always challenge whatever you are reading.
- There’s no need to watch news channel because in two months as they will be taking about only politics and IPL.
- Greatest best time in the world to be a young Indian. Five year from now you will value that the current situation was tough.

Q&A session.
After the talk Harsha opened the house for questions and sincerely requested audience to avoid questions like “Why Dhaval kulkarni was not picked” or “ Why Krish Srikanth is biased towards players from Chennai ”

A few major questions
- What’s ur opinion on peer pressure? .... “No harm being better than someone else. But in process you may forget you own strengths”.
- Is it difficult to maintain spontaneity speaking to a billion people ? ....“I just speak to lens, however I behave in such a way that I have actually entered viewer’s home.”
- Has IIM-A tag helped you in moving ahead in career ? .... “Not always, but sometimes it has helped a lot”.

The other questions were on regarding sharing experiences with fellow commentators and in the end there were a few stereotypical questions “How do you rate Dhoni as leader?”, “Do you believe in faith and destiny?”.

The special session was concluded by breakthrough vote-of-thanks speech by SD.

Going to office by BMTC

2009-02-02T11:12:00.006+05:30

This is a trackback post. I had conceived this post last year in August, but was not able to post as it pending for refinement. Then in mid-September I traveled to Seoul and stayed there for 3 months. I deferred from posting as I didn't want share my thoughts on BMTC travel being miles away from Bangalore. Then after coming to back to Bangalore I got busy with personal work and getting set for my B-school endeavor. Finally today ignoring that I am out of Bangalore, making this post to see light of the day. The post is basically regarding my experiences from Feb to Aug 2008.

With the advent of cost cutting measures in Indian IT sector, the travel to office changed a lot. Our admin team first increased cab fees and then all of a sudden rationalized the routes. 18 routes were merged make only 3-4 routes long routes. And the vehicle selected for the route was 32 seater Swaraj Mazda (?). According a trusted source Swaraj Mazda is one of the hopeless passenger vehicle running on Indian roads at the moment. The chasis of the vehicle is actually meant for a goods vehicle. It will be like a hell sitting inside the vehicle and experiencing the bumpy ride.

Rubbing salt to wound was the rescheduling of pick up time as early as 7.00 am, a time of the day when most of people will be doing various morning activities or jogging in a park. Also leaving early doesn't mean that you will be reaching early. The cab used to do detour and reach office at 8.45 am. One and half hours in swaraj mazda(!!). For the all these reason I chose to opt for BMTC for going to office, and for returning to home there were free office shuttles after 7.30 pm.

First things first, some advantages of traveling by BMTC

Flexibility: I could leave my home at my own time.
Normal BMTC buses are way comfartable than Swaraj Mazda.
Constructive activity: Even though I spend one and half hours while traveling, I was doing some constructive like reading a magazine or even sleeping`
An opportunity to travel in BMTCs premium service Vajra - commonly known as Volvo service.

But with the comfort and flexibility, many not so desirable things come part and parcel. There was no direct bus from my home(Hanumanthanagar) to the office Sigma Tech Park(Varthur Kodi). There used to be a constant daemon running in my mind about which option to opt with varying comfort, convenience and cost. Finding the best option in terms of cost, time and convenience had become a NP-hard problem. In six months I managed to find a optimal option in terms cost, time and convenience.

But from a different perspective the activity was a fun mainly because I was breaking pattern everyday. Sometimes patience used to pay off ... other times it didn't use to pay at all.

Let's look at the route options(in detail) I had:

Via K.R. Market
From my home there were innumerable buses Market and from market to Varthur Kodi there were many direct buses. It was most economical option as the cost was only Rs.17(6+11). But it was the most inconvenient. Just imagine, how it will be getting down and boarding another bus in K. R. Market. All the buses starting from market will be loaded with baskets of fruits, vegetables and flowers.

Via Richmond
There were very less buses from Hanumanthanagar to Richmond. Also in peak hours it used to be crowded like anything. But from Richmond there were better options towards my office. I could take direct, infrequent 333P volvo to office or else I could break the journey by taking frequent 335E to Kundanahalli gate from there any ordinary to bus Varthur Kodi. The major inconvenience with this option was waiting for a bus at Richmond. I had to scan name of plate of several buses to find out is the bus for to your destination. In addition to this, the reschedule of school timings to 8.30 am was a major nuisance. After 7.45 am there were frequent deadlocks at the junction, courtesy parents dropping their kids by car. The trip cost varied depending on service I opted. If I took a Volvo bus from Richmond, the trip cost will be Rs. 42(7+35 or 7+30+5). It's was the most optimal route w.r.t distance and travel time. Sometimes I reached office in an hour even after changing 3 buses.

Via Majestic
In order to avoid the process of number plate scanning I switched to option of going via Majestic. I could take 45G(via goodshed) to majestic and from there a Volvo to or towards my office. Eventhough it was round about option it is one of convinient one. I can patiently wait for my dream bus 333P(more about it later) without any number scanning task. My usual target used to be 8.15 am 333P which will be always on schedule except in May, when there was a problem for a week as some BMTC resources were moved to Airport shuttle service. The major target at that time were drivers and conductors of 333P! One day I waited for the bus for 45 minutes at KBS. After one week patch things were back to normal. But due to longer distance there is high time variance of travel. But with the introduction of 45-G Volvo, via majestic option became more convenient. Some days I could make an end-to-end Volvo journey from home to my office.

Via Corporation
Finally, I switched to via corporation option to make the journey more optimal w.r.t time and cost, compromising a little on convinience. I used to take the same 8.15am 333P bus which used come to corporation bus stop around 8.25 am. I couldn't avoid number scanning process, but waiting under huge canopy of tress next to cubbon park, experiencing cool breeze evened out a little bit of inconvenience. Also because punctual Chandru(my colleague) the waiting at corporation bus stop annulled. He used to give me missed call after the departure of bus from majestic. Total cost of Rs.47 was bit economical then 'via majestic' option. But with the introduction of Suvarna service(no pass and one and half charge) bus.. brought down my expense. Suvarna 333E was a direct bus to my office and the ticket cost Rs.15 from corporation brought down total cost to Rs.22.

333P, the dream bus
My eyes lit up when I used to see the number. Since the frequency of the dream bus 333p was very less, many a times I opted for more frequent 335E upto Kundanhalli. But getting down at Kundanahalli from 335E was always an ardous task, as the bus directly goes to ITPL and always loaded with IT people going towards ITPL.

Some other thoughts
- In Ordinary Service - I had to be careful to avoid stepping on someone's legs. Otherwise the resultant was usual bashing towards IT professional.
- On some occasions I became on the spot route expert at Majestic bus stand. If one person asks bus number for a particular locality, after my response there used to enquiries by several other people surrounding me.

In Volvo service

the ACs were intolerable many times, and driver used to ignore our request to increase temperature.
If a co-passenger farts, the feeling used to be like staying in a hell. The comfort of paying premium price was all lost.
In seating leg room was the major deciding factor. In the back section of the bus I used to prefer only front and last row seats.

Different co-passengers everyday
Unlike traveling in company cab, I used to travel with co-passengers everyday. The experiences were sometimes not so good. One day I was sitting next a lady who was arguing with her husband on phone for the reason that why she slept early last night. Some other times passengers are accompanied by a person new to the city. Whole journey there used to be running commentary showing each and every landmark on the way "Look this is Kanteerva stadium, this is HAL airport, this is Mayo Hall etc"

Last few days in Dec-Jan were bit comfortable with increase of frequency of 333P service. In fact on last day to my office I managed have an end-to-end Volvo ride because of more frequent buses. Things seem to be improving gradually. There has been discussion Bangalore's Infrastructure forum - praja.in to rationalize BMTC routes into zonal routes to reduce travel and waiting time. Let's see how it materializes and hope for the best.

A career break in times of change

2009-02-01T00:41:00.010+05:30

Last to last week I joined SP Jain (Mumbai) for pursuing PGPM program ( 1 year full time MBA). It's a residential program and I have taken a break from my work. The decision to join the program and leaving a cosy job was really tough one, especially at a time of trillion dollar meltdown. But following two sayings helped me to stick to my decision.

"An investment in knowledge pays the best interest." -- Benjamin Franklin.

"Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful." -- Warren Buffet.

The actual decision to join was taken well before the collapse of Lehman Brothers. It was first week August 2008 when I had got an admission offer. The decision to take a plunge was not so easy considering monetary investment and one year holiday from work. First I did a self assessment, looked back at my track record, reevaluated my aspirations and goals and came to a conclusion that it's a right time to join.

Then I consulted many of well wishers, cousins, friends etc. I also contacted a few career advisors too. Here are some of excerpts of chat and e-mail with some of them.

Gautam Puri: MD of Career Launcher.

SP Jain is a good institute and its 1 year program is well regarded. Given that you have work ex of over 4 years, I would not recommend a 2 year MBA. I would suggest that you join this program. If possible, please talk to an alumni of this program to check out placement record.

Aditya PK: my classmate in Engineering, now working at Google.

It depends on what you want to do if you want a long term career as an IT manager or maybe even Program Analyst then it's a very good idea.You can probably even drift to other sides of management after your MBA slowly.

Krishna: my cousin

It's a good program and like investing in a mini car. If u ever thought you wanted to do a MBA - now is the time when you have the luxury, the mindset to do it and the right approach. As u proceed in ur career it becomes tougher to take this step - especially in India.

Ritesh Kamath: classmate in Engineering, doing PGP at IIM-C

An MBA should make u something like - brand mgr, asst brand manager in a marketing firm, an analyst in a financial major, a consultant in top 4 consulting company, an area head, a person managing 500 Cr business in retail & shopping. however i still feel doing this prog is going to give u leverage than not doing it . it will push u atleast 5 yrs ahead in life.

Rashmi Bansal: A Career Advisor, Editor of Jammag, Blogs at youthcurry.blogspot.com

I think even if immediate return is not that good in the long run an S P Jain MBA will help ur career and mobility across industries. Also a 75% jump in salary for 54% of the students after 1 year is pretty good. Cheer up! Course architecture etc is of no great consequence. It's all about learning from each other and the overall environment. And getting 'branded'. So do join ... and good luck!

Sudhir Kumar: my ex-colleague

God has given u a chance shande man, go for it

In addition to this I contacted a few alums and candidates pursing program by searching for profiles in orkut and linked-in. In the process, I experience one funny thing on decision making day. In my Orkut's homepage "Today's fortune" very appropriate to state on mind!

To conclude for next one year there will be very less traveling and hence less travel blogging from my side. However in minimal free time I will be clearing all my backlog posts and also will be periodically posting some high fundoo gyan which I am expecting gain in B-school.

Skiing at Bearstown Resort.

2009-01-23T22:12:00.005+05:30

This is a trackback post, an account on Skiing excursion I had in Korea. The build up to the trip was amusing and dramatic, so sharing the experiences in detail.

In first week of Decemeber 2008, the desire to do skiing was ignited from a brochure of Yangpyung Resort kept in the lobby of Co-op Residence. Initially we were planning to opt for 'just enjoy snow' package of 45000 Won. After a few rounds of discussions we thought "Why not Skiing ?". But unfortunately the packages for Skiing mentioned in the brochure were bit expensive (cost starting from 80000 Won per head). So we were about to take a plunge for 45000 package. And also we were not very keen to create embarrassment in the resort, being a 'L-board' in skiing. But with the arrival of Rama on Friday (Dec-12th) equations changed. Since Rama had a prior experience of skiing in Korea at Jisan resort, we got a little confidence and decided to go on our own as the expected expenses were very less compared to conducted trip.

To get there:
- Distance: An hour journey from Seoul.
- Economical mode of transport is by resort shuttle.

Expenses:
- Entry: 29000 KRW for half day, 41000 KRW for full day.
- Equipment: 10000 per head.
* Rates vary according to peak season.

Here are chronology of events happened before we actually step our foot in the resort.

Saturday Dec-13 3 pm: We were bit reluctant to do skiing on our own and were having a brainstorming session. Our confidence level changed when Rama agreed to accompany us. First we called 'Jisan Resort' customer care. A lady picked up the phone on other side. According to her there was no shuttle facility to the resort(Not sure whether the shuttle was not there or it was fully booked). As per her information one had to visit the resort only by personal transport.

3.15 pm: With little disappointment we looked for options. But it was difficult to get details info thru google as majority of content was in Korean. I contacted Norix (co-worker at LGE) on gtalk requesting for alternatives to Jisan Resort. He suggested us 'Bearstown Ski Resort' and gave us details regarding shuttle timings, pick-up points and also contact number of the resort.

4.00 pm: After getting info I had brief discussion with Santosh and Manoj. The details didn't look convincing as the boarding point was at Euljiro(near Jamsil) at 8 am. It was very difficult to get up early in winter morning and reach a place far from our hotel. Also Santosh was not showing his usual enthusiasm as he was more concerned about booking a 'Tatkal ticket' for a train journey he was supposed to make in India after 6 days.

5.00 pm: I called up Bearstown resort, but unfortunately English speaking correspondent was not their in his/her seat. The person who attended the call, asked me to call after 30 minutes.

5.30 pm: We went outside to Yongsan market. While traveling in the subway, I called Bearstown again and the English speaking correspondent(Su Yang) picked the phone. But due to noisy environment I could not discuss with him properly. An he was not agreeing to give me pick up points of shuttle near our hotel, stating the reason that reservation for shuttle should have been done before 12 noon.

6.30 pm: Shweta who chose to rest at hotel that evening called me asking for status of skiing trip. I explained her about the situation and gave the contact number of number of Su Yang, to get as much details as possible.

8.00 pm: Later at Yongsan train station I tried to get info from a lady seated in the tourist information center. Initially she resisted saying that it's not her duty. Then somehow I convinced her to call the Bearstown resort to get details about the shuttle. But unfortunately she could not get much additional information.

8.30 pm: When we were on the way back to co-op, I called Shweta regarding her enquiry updates. It was very delighting to know that she had managed to get shuttle information including pick up points near our hotel, timings (7:20 am) and also number of the bus. But she had noted down pick up points which were dictated over phone and the names were bit confusing and were not precise.

11.30 pm: We went to co-op reception for help. They called up the resort but no one was there to attend the call. So we thought of confirming boarding points in morning before leaving (around 7 am). Also we requested the reception to give wake up call at 5.30 am

Sunday Dec 14th, 5.30 am: We got up after a wake up call from the reception. But the process of getting up very early in core winter season turned out to be tedious. The energy levels were down to minimum at sub zero temperature.

7 am: Somehow we got ready and went to reception for confirming the pick up point. The reception lady called up Su Yang and looked in a internet page for shuttle pick-up points. The nearest boarding points were Mopko at 7.10 am and Yendeungpo 7.15 am. Since we had to rush to the pick-up point, I requested the receptionist to arrange a taxi from co-op upto boarding point. I hurried back to the room and asked Manoj to preempt his Maggi preparation.

7.10 am: Taxi was ready. Myself and Shwetha were at the reception but Santosh(i), Manoj and Rama were still on the way. Since we were not sure of making to the nearest pick up point by 7.15 am, we asked the receptionist regarding next pick up point of the same shuttle. She wrote down the details "7.30 am Yeuido" (in Korean) in a post-it slip.

7.15 am: Santosh(i) and Manoj came but Rama went to the basement for withdrawing cash without hearing from us about the hyper time constraint. Whether this blunder from Rama cost us ? Read on ...

7.20 am: Rama came back with two unsuccessful attempts of withdrawing cash. We didn't even had time to argue. Immediately we got into the taxi and asked the driver take us to Yeuido in 10 minutes! Taxi driver who incidentally was Santosh's friend argued for while for 5 passengers but understanding the situation he didn't raised any major objection. The ride to Yeoudio was extremely thrilling. The thoughts of missing the shuttle we already the coming to mind.

7.31 am: We were at Yeuido bus stand. We thought that the shuttle had already left. But in 1 minute a bus came from behind and stopped at the stand. It was not usual Seoul City Bus so we expected it to be resort bus. Shweta asked the driver is it the bus for Bearstown resort ? Yes was his reply ... We could not believe our luck since we got the shuttle inspite of minor blunders !! Okay enough of emotions and we got into the bus all set for Bearstown excursion.

After 1 hour journey we arrived at the resort. As expected the temperature at the place was less relative to Seoul and infact it was -8 degree celcius. The landscape view of the resort was dominated by slow slopes being prepared by machines(sprinkling artifical snow) and air-lift trolleys besides the slopes.

Now we were at the resort, the million dollar question was "How to proceed ?". We observer many enthusiatic Koreans taking out loads of equipments from their car's bootspace. Without having any clues we went to the information center and explained about our zero skiing skills at the information center. A guy sitting on extreme right responded to our concern and took us towards the ticket counter. And that guy was Su Yang itself. Nice gesture from him as he helped us beyond his duties.

Tickets we had to buy separately for entry and equipment. For Entry ticket there were options too... 29000 for half day and 41000 for full day. Considering our endurance levels we thought it would too much for us spend entire day skiing. so we chose to opt for half day ( 9 am to 12.30 pm). Then for hiring equipment there was discussion among ourselves to hire for only 3 people and share. I overpowered everyone and decided to go for 5 equipments (4 skiing and 1 snow board) why to do "conjusi" of 10K each for equipment when we are already spending 29K for entry. The equipments turned out of more heavy than our expectations. Forgot about wearing it was even difficult to carry them. Somehow we managed to wear the skiing. But where do skiing ? Where's the beginners slope ? We called Suyang for help and he agreed help us in things which are not his duties. He took us to snow area and asked to ski :). Santosh asked a basic question to Su Yang. U know skiing very well ? Su Yang replied "I dont know Skiing". What an irony ? We were learning skiing from a person who doesn't know skiing :) Next in the line was process of wearing sticks, it turned out to be an ardous task. While wearing stick itself one can experience the slipperiness of the surface. Su Yang assistance was very much helpful as he literally held our hands while wearing sticks.

Now the highlight of the day, our first attempt of skiing. In our group it was Manoj who made the first attempt and as expected he fell down after proceeding ahead for a few meters. Rest of us could not control laughter. Same happened with santosh(i) and he was struggling to get up. Then it was my attempt and obviously I too fell down unable to control the slipperiness. But getting up was even more difficult I tried and tried to get up wearing the sticks. But later took help of a Korean to get up.

Later Su Yang took us to actual beginners slope and took a leave as he had do this duty. We were carried our camera so were regularly having photo sessions. Slowly and sleadily we got used to slipperiness. But difficult part was getting up after a fall. Also I turned out to be unlucky many a times to get an obstruction either from a kid or some girl and once I was skiing rhythmically without any obstruction, but the stick itself came out.

The major highlight of the skiing session was Santosh giving Chiranjeevi style poses during photo sessions. Rama was regularly taking breaks as he was very flexible using snowboard. wearing skiing equipment it is difficult to move around normally. At 12.30 pm we wound up the session finishing of our first date with skiing.

After returning our equipment, we spent half an hour in front of heater, just dry our wet clothes. Then for lunch there was a food court. Being lone veggie in the group I was in trouble as usual. I had no option had to eat only french fries at KFC. Then after so called lunch we thought seeing places around the resort since our shuttle was at 5 pm. We didn't find anything amusing. Since the shuttle was 5 pm. In order to do timepass we had photo sessions here and there and we got bored with that too we came back to the food court and sat at a place doing chatting n chatting. Rama narrated his one month dramatic story w.r.t onsites and visa rejections.

At 5 pm we came out saying thanks a ton to Su Yang. Just imagine if a person in India had helped liked this how much would have been his expectations regarding monetary tips. The shuttle started the return journey on dot at 5 pm. All of us had a nap to overcome sleep deprivation due to early rise. At 7.30 pm got down at a drop point near to Yangpyeong and walked upto our Co-op hotel concluding our fun-filled skiing excursion with pinches of dramatic moments.