Nothing Specific

Travelogue: Lansdowne – Day 2

2011-02-26T20:35:00.001+05:30

A bitterly cold and rainy morning greeting us gloomily on the morning of 26th! By the time we sauntered down to have our breakfast, it was already 9:30AM and still raining. After having some hot aloo paranthas with dahi, the typical North Indian way, we headed out to Lansdowne to try our luck hoping that rain would stop. Our first stop was the Garhwal Rifles Museum and then the war memorial right by its side. By this time, the drizzle had stopped. Of course on the way, we made good use of the misty morning road and snapped some snaps!

We then headed to the Alaknanda stores where some nice purchases were made. After this, next stop was “tip in top” view point, also called the Tiffintop point. Then we had a decko at St. Paul’s church and headed back to Oak Grove Inn for a superb lunch. We decided to be a bit adventurous and started towards the Bhairavgarh temple which was at an hour’s climb from a defacto base. The final view from the top made the entire tiresome climb to the top worthwhile.

We started back quite tired but on the way managed to catch sunbeam playing hide n seek with the pine forest.

Travelogue: A trip down Lansdowne! – Day 1

2011-02-25T22:30:00.001+05:30

What better way to restart my blogging than to post a travelogue. The high-command decided that we visit Lansdowne for our Wedding Anniversary, and as any sensible hubby would do, I said - “Aye aye captain!”

She had done some significant research and had zeroed in on a homestay type of Inn called Oak Grove Inn( http://oakgroveinn.net). We had done advance booking (of course!) and hence started off from Gurgaon to Lansdowne. As usual, we had underestimated the power of sleep and instead of starting at 7:00AM “sharp” as we had planned we started at 7:15AM (not that bad, I know!). Cleared Delhi by 8:30Am and made our way to rutty Meerut! The road was bad, the traffic pathetic but it was nothing compared to what we had to endure in the “shitpit” called Meerut (sorry, Meerutians, but thats exactly what I felt when I drove into the place). Traffic helter-skelter, cycles, bikes occupying random places on the road, tractors coming on the opposite side of the lane. Gosh! This cost us a neat 45 mins. Lesson for rest: Take the bypass just before the flyover for Meerut and then take a right as in the Oak Grove Inn site.

We crossed Meerut with a huge sigh of relief and headed towards Bijnore. One the way, we stopped over at Monty Millions at around 11AM for a nice breakfast. This scenic restaurant is on the bypass of Meeranpur to Bijnore. The road was quite good and we made it in good time. Next was Najibabad and we were quite happy that we would be at Jaiharikhal by 12:30 types. Bummer! NH 119 was blocked and we had to take a detour to reach Kotdwar – a distance of 25 kms took us a good 1 1/4 hour, through barely tarred, dusty and heavy traffic village roads! Somehow managed to clear Kotdwar and then followed the directions as on the hotel site and drove a totally dusty, mud splashed Santro into Oak Grove Inn.

The place is nicely done up with the landlady who was waiting to welcome us. We had a small chat for sometime, and given that it was off-season were asked to choose a room of our liking. The cold is quite biting here, so we chose the room with a 16A power socket so that we could use our room heater that we had lugged all the way from GGN. We had our nice homely lunch with the Mrs. Neelam, our hostess and she introduced us to the super loving “Archie”, the Cocker Spaniel. This shameless doggy followed us to our room and slept off on the chair for a siesta!

In the evening, we went to Lansdowne hamlet sort of village, checked out the Bhulla Taal, went for a short walk around the park, visited the microscopic bazaar and came back to the Inn.

Mr. & Mrs. Rawat had organized a small fireplace event to celebrate our anniversary with some hot steaming soup and we spent the next 90 minutes chatting about everything under the sun. Had a super dinner and called it a night. Over all a memorable day!

The DSLR is finally mine!

2010-07-22T11:31:00.018+05:30

I had been thinking of gifting myself a nice li’l DSLR since quite a long time. The main hurdle was my ISB plan and the resulting drain on funds that it would cause. Now that the “education” thingie is behind me for sure, I thought of fulfilling my “long-cherished-funding-deprived-dream” of owning an “ok ok” DSLR.

And this is the combination that I bought last Friday. 16th July 2010 would be remembered for a long time to come (or till my bleak memory gets overwritten by something else, whichever is earlier!)

The Body – Canon 550D

The DSLR hunt has been a very painful and agonizing one. With the number of players in the market, it gets quite confusing as to what make to buy. The make is quite important as the lenses that are more expensive than the camera body are not interchangeable with other make equipments. A Canon lens would not fit into a Nikon body. So I read reviews and more reviews to get a general idea about the players. I had a bias towards buying Canon or Nikon only and did not consider Sony or Fuji ones. I opted for Canon cameras as the lenses were relatively cheaper compared to Nikon. And Canon seems to be at the top of the game by introducing advanced features in entry level DSLRs. Case in point 550D which inherits a lot of features from the stupendous 7D model and outpaces the entry-level professional segment DSLR 50D in terms of resolution (which is totally not needed) but more importantly the internal workings.

The 550D provides an additional benefit of shooting in HD but then it is irrelevant to me as I dont think that I’ll be using that feature! The reviews are here:

DPReview.com’s reviews are highly respected and have a HUGE audience base. http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos550d/
Camera labs: This is mainly for layman sort of reviews. OKish to get a feel for the features and then research more: http://www.cameralabs.com/reviews/Canon_EOS_550D_Rebel_T2i/index.shtml

The Lenses Collection

The pecking order for a terrific DSLR suite is the Cameraperson (note the politically correct non gender-biased term! :-p ), the lens and the camera body, in that order only!

Again, I took a painful internet research as to how the heck do I proceed in buying the right lenses for the camera body that I had shortlisted. Canon EOS 550D has two kits that are sold – One with the IS 18-55 IS lens and the other with the IS 18-135 IS lens. So I started off from the basics and readup on these articles:

So, to cut the long story short, I got hold of the below three lenses

This is the 18-55mm EFS lens for that can be used for wide-angle shots and for “normal” shots. This lens came with the Kit 1 configuration that I opted for. Bundled with the body. Cost: EOS 550D + EFS 18-55mm IS 48,000/- (MRP 51,995/- so it actually means 52,000/- for practical purposes!)

The problem with a “super-zoom” configuration of 18-135mm Kit 2 is that the snaps would suffer with distortion on the extreme ends of the zoom. Besides, the lens configuration was way expensive than the utility it provided.

Next came the “classic” lens of 55mm – 1.8. This is an inexpensive lens and highly suitable for portrait snaps and general purpose photography. The advantage of this over the previous one is the crisp image that it can capture given that the various clarity-zoom tradeoffs do not exist. Cost: 5,300/- (MRP: 5,595/-)

The EFS 55-250 IS is one of the best and adequate zoom lenses out there in the market. Clubbed with the other wide angle lens I get an effective optical zoom of 250/18 = 12.5x which is very sufficient for any “sane” photography (for me). Given that I am not considering going Pro, this would suffice for another 4-5 yrs or so. Cost: 11,000/- (MRP 12,275/-)

So now I have been reading up on the user manual, have ordered for a good photography book on Flipkart and have signed up for some free classes conducted by Canon to get a good start on the DSLR. I will be signing up for some paid classes as I go forward as well. Hoping to get seriously into this hobby of mine. Lets see where this goes…

All is well that ends well!

2010-05-29T22:12:00.001+05:30

And we are back in Delhi. Thankfully the temperature is not as bad as we heard in the news courtesy the showers! The entire 8 days, 7 nights trip went very well and we thoroughly enjoyed Sikkim and Darjeeling.

Exactly one day before our scheduled start, one of the politicos – Madan Tamang – was killed in Darjeeling and some protests and bandh were called in Darjeeling. As luck would have it, we started off our trip in Kalimpong where no tensions / clashes were reported. In Kalimpong and Pelling we escaped the rain that was just getting set. In Gangtok, we were again lucky to witness snow in Tsomgo Lake which it seems is quite tough to witness. Either it rains and washes away all the roads or it snows and freezes out the roads! In Darjeeling as well, the day we were there to see the sunrise, there weren’t any clouds and we witness a phenomenal sunrise We started back to Delhi today and there is some protest rally planned to mourn Tamang’s death tomorrow with around 5 lakh odd supported expected to descend in the already jammed and choking Darjeeling. Phew! Talk about being saved in the nick of time!

This tour has been one of the most memorable one for me – mainly because of the Tsomgo Lake experience. Looking forward to the next big one…

The Great Eastern Sojourn – Day 7 – Darjeeling Local

2010-05-28T21:51:00.001+05:30

The day started off very early for us, at 3:00 AM to be precise! The travel agent here had asked us to be ready by 4:00AM so that we could make it to near Tiger Hill to watch the most “awesomest” sunrise that one can witness in India. The cold was just unbelievable but the expectation of something too good kept us quite high-strung. The cabbie came exactly at 4:00AM and we were on our way to a lookout spot near Tiger Hill. And, mother of all surprises, there was a 15 minutes traffic jam en-route! A traffic jam at 4:30AM – beat that!!

Once we reached the spot, we made good use of the “crowd mentality” as people were just brainlessly queuing up at one of the areas whereas we found a clear spot where we could see the sunrise on the right hand side and Kanchenjunga on the left side. As the sun started its ascent slowly up the clouds, the peaks started to get the pink colored refracted light. Click on the below pics for a larger view

The pics below are of the sunrise (of course, obviously!) and Kanchenjunga..

Mt. Everest that was visible at the far end of the view point..

As the sun started to shine brightly, we started to observe the changes in the vegetation below. A few red pine trees amidst a sea of green, a lone surviving tree against the bright backdrop of the sun, just priceless moments…

This sunrise alone made the entire trip to Darjeeling all the more worthwhile. After this refreshing start, we went to check out the Ghoom Monastery which was quite nearby. The monastery was actually quite a let down after having seen the one at Pelling. But what caught our attention was the expanse that was visible atop one of the buildings in the monastery complex…

We then went to check out the War Memorial, also called as the Batasia Loop. It was already rush hour tourism and we found hordes and hordes of noisy and garrulous tourists everywhere. Managed to get a decent snap of the memorial and ran away from there…

By this time it was around 645AM and we headed back to the resort for the breakfast and also caught an hour of blissful sleep. Snagged a couple of snaps of the flowers that were for decorative purposes in the resort…

At 9:00AM we headed for the 7 point sight seeing trip of Darjeeling (3 of which were covered early morning and the remaining 4 post breakfast). First stop was the Padmaja Naidu Zoological Park (aka the zoo!). There were a couple of exotic and endangered birds caged.

The highlight of the day was the Red Panda enclosure. One of the pandas was strolling around, the other was sleeping blissfully and yet another was pacing its branch up and down.

The hyper energetic “Shinee”, the Red Panda…

Bhalloo and the clouded leopard…

The black leopard and the great Indian Tiger…

HMI (Himalayan Mountaineering Institute) was there in the same boundary.Nothing worthwhile to mention here.After this we went to the Tibetian Refugee Self Help Center that housed the refugees from Tibet. Bought 3 warm woolen shawls and hoping that they wont give way in their very first wash! Next stop was the Rangit Tea Estate, the view was something to behold. I was sorely missing a good wide angle lens!

As we came out of the tea estate a beautiful fern and some red plant caught my attention…

Our cabbie dropped us to our hotel and we had some more bad food at so called resort!

Tomorrow we start back for Delhi , get to eat our own cooked home food !

The Great Eastern Sojourn – Day 6 – To Darjeeling

2010-05-28T19:20:00.001+05:30

The day started very cold and this was the view out of the hotel room’s windows…

And as we started our long and winding journey to Darjeeling, we again came across some terrific landscape, unlike the harsh environment that had captivated me on the way to Tsomgo Lake, this environment was lush green and truly soothing to the eyes…

The route taken by our cab driver led us into the thickest of tea estates. Seems like almost all the estates in Darjeeling is owned either by the Tatas or the Birlas…

Breathtaking view of the tea estates makes one wonder if this is Munnar…

The depth of the valley and the subsequent rise of the peaks were a sight to behold…

And then as we entered the Fortune Central Resort in Darjeeling, we were pleasantly surprised when we were given a beautifully room that was done up in wood…

After dropping our luggage in the room, we dashed off to Kanika’s which was supposed to be a veggie lover’s delight. The food was at best edible and after a week’s search for some decent veg food in this part of the world, we gave up! After a short power-nap of 1 hour, we went to the Mall road which was 3 minutes walk from the place we were put up in. The hustle and bustle of the market belied the tension that was being reported in the newspapers after Madan Tamang’s assassination. Our cabbie told that he was assassinated at this very road…

And as we strolled around at the Chowrasta, we came across this protective mother taking care of its infant…

There were pigeons everywhere and combined with the Victorian architecture setting, we seemed to be transported back to the pre-independence days - “Beam me up Scotty!”…

The view of the mountain ranges from the Chowrasta was just beyond words. The view of the clouds struggling to cross over the mountain ranges was amazing to say the least…

The seating arrangements for the hordes of tourists who come over for a chilled out vacation made very good photography!

We came across a temple that was way up in one of the winding mountains and the colors were just too good…

The thickly wooded area gave me a glimpse of this birdie which was lightening fast and gave me a very tough time…

We went back to the hotel and opted to go for the 450/- plus taxes buffet in the hopes that our stomach would get the much needed respite from bad food.Eventually, the 1K spent went down the drain as well. Fortune Central Resort, Darjeeling seems to be the black sheep in its group. Pathetic service, pathetic food, through the roof prices!

The Great Eastern Sojourn – Day 5 – Pelling Local

2010-05-26T19:40:00.001+05:30

The De Regency culinary skills is like that of a new bride trying her hand at cooking for the first freaking time in her life. The food is pathetically bad to say the least – I am actually controlling myself not to desecrate my blog by blurting out expletives! Ok, enough of the rant, now onto the good stuff. We started off from the hotel at 830AM sharp after figuring out where our taxi driver was hiding. The first stop was Rimbi Waterfalls. The place was just overcrowded with loud speaking, no no, make it shouting tourists (I would call them semi animals!) pushing and shoving. I managed to get some good clicks by getting into places where not many were there…

We then left for the Rock Garden nearby and this was a good place for whitewater photography. Only thing was that I was thinking of getting a bit wet to get the right snap but was scared of my better half turning bitter and so like a good husband kept the thought to myself. This would be a terrific place to visit during the rainy season…

Next stop was the Wishing Lake (called as Khecheopalri Lake by the natives). This is a very holy place for the Sikkimese and the natural beauty of the place is seen to be believed. The entire 5 hour bumpy ride from Gangtok to Pelling was worth just this single place. The first place inside the boundary is the Meditation Hall…

The way to the lake is a botanist and zoologist paradise, with a assortment of flora and fauna found…

The trees had a symbiotic relationship with a lot of algae and it was fun remembering the basic fundas learnt once upon a time in school…

The Wishing Lake was as peaceful and beautiful as it gets. The pathway leading to the lake when devoid of creatures called Homo Sapiens is truly divine…

As we said ciao to the Lake, it started raining cats and dogs and we were quite lucky to have had a stroll without any hindrance. Post-lunch at the Chiminda International, which surprisingly was a veg hotel, was the Pemayangtse Monastery, a work of labor that is more than 300 years old. Photography was prohibited inside and so we had to content ourselves with the outside view…

From the Monastery some fort-like structure was visible and I don't have much idea about it.

We then went to have a dekho of the Helipad and got some stunning pics amidst the drizzle…

And when we returned to our room, the clouds drifted into the streets below…

The Great Eastern Sojourn – Day 4 – On the way to Pelling

2010-05-26T17:58:00.001+05:30

Though the itinerary for us said that we need to start off for Pelling after breakfast, we decided to take some well deserved rest after the memorable trip to Tsomgo Lake and start for Pelling post Lunch. The plan was to have lunch at a promising Pure Veg hotel named Rasoi on M.G.Marg…

The famous M.G.Marg where you’ll find all assortments of shops, brands and eat-outs. This was strikingly similar to the high-street in Redmond!

One of the hotels that was tastefully done up to look like a building from the Orients!

When we went to have our planned lunch at Rasoi, we got to know that the hotel would serve lunch only by 1230PM. But by then it’d be too late for us. So we went looking for another hotel and struck gold at Parivar, which was another pure-veg hotel. Ordered a Thali and heaved a sigh of relief after eating an edible version of food. We left for Pelling in a modified Mahindra Bolero that was as bad as a TATA Sumo…

This whole state is a true whitewater rafting addict’s heaven. A sample…

Looking at the trenches that have been formed due to the surging waters, I was wondering how the place would look and sound in the middle of a full-blooded rainy season…

And the god’s blessings showered on us…

The natives at Ravangla. We happened to stop at this sleepy hillock to have a cuppa of tea. The kiddo was too cute to ignore and the moment I trained my well-worn camera on him, a huge smile appeared and he seemed to tell his Grandma - “Look a city duffer taking my snap…”

The ghats were truly amazing. I have driven in Agumbe ghats which are supposedly dangerous, but when you see these, you get to know the definition of “danger”…

The flags that are found at all holy places and Gompas…

Sikkim gives tough competition to Kerala – Donno which should be called “God’s own country”…

And this snap was a complete fluke. I wanted to take a snap of the step cultivation and at the perfect moment that I clicked, the Bolero went into a ditch and I ended up snapping this…

At one of the turnings, beyond the bamboo shoots was a sheer drop…

And as we entered Pelling, the light situation turned bad and though I clicked and clicked and clicked, it was an exercise in futility. We checked into the now pathetic De Regency hotel and called it a day with my back, neck, ears and eyes aching due to the photography effort.

The Great Eastern Sojourn – Day 3 – Gangtok Local – Photoblog

2010-05-26T17:08:00.001+05:30

After experiencing the unforgiving terrain at the extremes of Sikkim, it was a welcome homecoming back to Gangtok. Both of us were very tired due to the travel that we had undertaken in first half of the day and came very close to calling off the local sightseeing. But, thankfully better sense prevailed and we decided to “give it a look”. And boy were we happier at the end of the day.

First stop at around 4PM was a handicraft emporium. There was nothing to click so Deepthi just bought a neat bag for her ear-rings! Then we headed to a flower exhibition which was just terrific. The beautiful orchids were in full bloom and we were left spellbound…

The colorful place ended up removing a lot of our tiredness and it also gave me an opportunity to turn on the Macro mode of my sturdy Canon S3 IS. I now have a newfound respect for this semi-pro point-and-shoot camera. It has now survived rain, chilly winds, snow and extreme weather conditions!

… the pink lilies (of a different type) were in full bloom and the pic says it all…

And as luck would have it, I found this small insect checking out this orange flower… amazing!

We also came across the rarest of the rare Lady’s Slipper plant. Its one of the choosiest plants that I have read about – choosier than Deepthi in its food – not to say that my wife is a plant! Just check out how tough it is to grow and see one in full bloom. It was just our day… a dangerous ride, landslides, snow, and this weird plant!

And just as we stepped out of the compound, the beauty of Gangtok was there for us to witness. The entire city has been very well maintained, the people do seem to have a lot of civic sense and you wont find any litter on the streets. The pathways are paved and neat. All in all a small but beautiful place.

We then headed towards Ban Jhakri waterfalls and on the way our taxi driver (not the Yo! Dude of the Tsomgo Lake but a new chap) made a pitstop for refueling. The petrol bunk was perched right at the edge of the hillock and this gave me yet another opportunity to go “click-click” much to the chagrin of my better half who now was well into the bitter mode due to my non-stop clicking!

Gangtok seems like heaven if there was one. Houses right in the middle of clouds, sun rays streaming in and out of dark rain-laden clouds, the cool pure winds breezing in. Couldn’t have asked for a better place to get rejuvenated…

When we entered the waterfall area, we were shell shocked looking the meticulous landscaping done. This could’ve passed on for any “phoren” place and it took us a while to believe what we were seeing…

The cultural aspect was visible everywhere, with the shelters designed in the form of Gompas…

The multiple water cascades gave a very polished and elegant look to the waterfall. Goes to show how a little planning can elevate a small “local” waterfall to a major tourist attraction.

The park can be developed a bit more but then maybe am asking for a bit too much…

The stunning walkway that enabled us to get onto the waterfall…

This was one of the best days of sightseeing that we’ve had in ages. A very good decision to come to this part of India. Tomorrow its on the way to Pelling – another isolated, not that crowded place that is supposed to be very near to Kanchenjunga.

The Great Eastern Sojourn – Day 3 – Gangtok – Tsomgo Lake Photoblog

2010-05-25T20:21:00.001+05:30

This is my first ever photoblog! Though I do not like the concept of photoblogs, I found that there was really no other way of capturing the stunning landscape that we encountered on our way to Tsomgo Lake and then Baba Mandir that is about 7 kms from the China border. And, as they say a picture is worth 1000 words, I thought of departing from my usually light on the internet bandwidth posts and post my first photoblog.So here it goes…

We started off at the Tsomgo Taxi stand where we had to spend around 90 minutes waiting for the permit letting our vehicle through to the border area. The ice-capped Kanchenjunga peak was clearly visible across the valley at the Tsomgo taxi stand

As we started the journey, within a few minutes the terrain changed to one of rugged and inhospitable…

And amidst this harsh environment, our brave soldiers are keeping a watch on our Chinese “bhai” who always seem to have one eye open for invasion!…

The tough terrain as in the example below, being “tamed” by our BROs – Border Roads Organization. Its just unimaginable as to how tough building roads would be in such conditions. We saw the “pace” firsthand as locals were digging the road in pairs – one helping the other in pulling up the shovel from the ground…

But as usual, no matter what man claims, nature always has the last laugh. The roads being wrecked by landslides of boulders day-in and day-out…

The continually sliding rocks made driving through the terrain extremely dangerous. It did not help much that our driver, a totally chilled out dude, kept reminding us that even if one of the rocks hit the Tata Sumo, we can kiss our ass goodbye! And just to drive home the point, he informed us that on May 10th, a fully loaded TATA Sumo went over the cliff when one of the boulders crashed on it, and all 9 tourists died! Grrr… And to make it all the more dramatic, he kept watching the cliffs for falling rocks “to make sure that he avoided any of the rocks falling…” We didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry!

But, the risks were all worth it, the mist/fog/cloud filled mountain where the visibility was hardly a few feet was just stunning…

Another set of extremely slippery “roads”…

Thanks to our Indian Army, a makeshift bridge that happened to connect the two mountains…

… and we were truly insignificant… buzzing polluting flies waiting to be squatted by Mother Nature…

The whitewater was truly white here…

Clouds trying their best to climb over insurmountable mountains…

… the great Indian Army base camp…

Lake Tsomgo view from the extreme end…

… and the snowcapped mountains on the other side…

… the temperature started dropping form 12 to 10 to 7 to 4 degrees as we approached Baba Mandir. The driver cum guide cheered us on cheerfully saying that we are extremely lucky to see snow here as yesterday the tourists that he had accompanied had to return back without a glimpse of the snow-capped mountains. It had snowed heavily the previous night and hence our luck!

Right at the edge of the Sumo was a sheer drop into the ravines below… one slip of the tyres and its sayonara…

We also came across some Chinese vehicles that had crossed the border as part of the “Hindi-Chini Bhai Bhai” facade trade…

… and we drove right into a snowfall that made this arduous trip all the more worthwhile

… finally we were at Baba Mandir. The driver told us that this is a replica of the mandir for tourists and army’s safety sake and that the original mandir is around 2 Kms from the Border whereas this is 5 kms away. Ok, just to clarify this isn’t any God’s mandir, this is dedicated to a soldier who slipped and fell to his death in the ravines.

… and the terrain after this last spot became tougher and tougher…

…seems like almost all the platoons pray here for Godspeed…

…while returning back, the snow fall had turned to a snowstorm and our friendly driver dude yapped that if this continues for another hour, we’ll get stuck and wont be able to make it back! Thank you very much for reminding that we were very close to having our butts frozen!

“Mera Bharat Mahan, Ham Hi Jitenge”… talk about the spunk of our soldiers! Jai Hind!

The supremely serene Tsomgo Lake… the 3-4 degree temperature, with high-chill winds that made even breathing all the more difficult made the moment just amazing.

… I just was so so pissed looking at the yak, totally fur-laden and warm. We had learnt that this place would be around 8-10 degrees but the the sudden snow and high winds, totally left us unprepared. Thankfully, the adrenaline of the journey had got me all hyper-excited and I could hardly feel the cold. But unfortunately, Deepthi was finding it extremely difficult to tolerate the cold and so we went down to one of the small shops and had hot piping Masala Maggie. I had never imagined that Maggie would taste so good in my entire life!

The Great Eastern Sojourn – Day 2 – Kalimpong Sights

2010-05-24T22:04:00.000+05:30

We checked out from the Sood’s Garden Retreat at around 9AM after having quite a forgettable so called breakfast (infact, we would have been better-off without the previous night dinner as well!). First stop was the Cacti House! Yes, you heard it right, a garden full of cactus in the chilly and hilly Kalimpong. And our timing was so perfect that almost all the cacti were in full bloom with beautiful flowers for my dear ol’ canon S3 IS! The garden was beautifully maintained and offered a breathtaking view of the valley below

The next stop was Durpin Dhara, a picture perfect suicide point! At just as we visited the place clouds came down from the heavens and made our snaps all the more memorable. Thought we could have filmed Raaz 3 – the Haunted Dhara! The cock-a-doodle was a bit late in realizing that it was already mid-day and was crying itself hoarse.

We then went to a monastery named, ahem, let me clear my throat before I attempt to type it out, so here it goes, named - “Zong Dog Palri Fo-Brang” gompa. The structure was ornate and its location all the more serene. The cute “kiddo-lamas” were totally distracted by me, Deepthi and the incessant camera clicks happening. Adjoining the monastery was an army camp and the tabletop view reminded us of Mahabaleshwar!

Next stop was a flying visit to the Kalimpong market. Its just the local market that we see in every small town. We just strolled around, bought some apples and had some tea & ice cream and were on our way to the next spot that was suggested to us by our friendly driver. This was Dr. Homes School that was established in 1938 and was quite a stunning place. I got to click more snaps and had a whale of a time. The day being a Sunday, the kids were happy at their homes and we were allowed unfettered access to the scenic campus.

We then went over to a guest house nearby that was unfortunately closed on Sundays. Managed to snap a few through the gates and we were left wondering as to the beauty that we missed.

After this we left for the arduous almost 3 hour journey to Gangtok through winding and bumpy road. We checked-in to the nice but insanely expensive Chumbi Residency at around 4PM. After a small nap, we went up the road to get some passport size photos taken for our next day trip to Tsomgo Lake (pronounced as Chon-go lake!) that needs a permit (which means 2 passport sized photos and an ID proof photocopy). We got the photos within 10 minutes and then went down the road to M.G.Marg. This marg is unlike any marg that we had seen, a fully paved pedestrian-only road with shops dotting either side and small benches and fountains in the middle of the road. The hot sunny weather suddenly took a turn for the worse and it started pouring. We waited the rain out and then sauntered back into the hotel. At night had some yucky food (again) at a pure-veg hotel called Serenade Manor which was a couple of minutes walk from Chumbi Residency. Came back almost drenched and decided to call it a day as we had to get up early in the morning to make it for the 730AM departure for Tsomgo Lake.

The Great Eastern Sojourn – Day 1 – Kalimpong

2010-05-22T20:55:00.001+05:30

Just before the trip, we got to hear the news that one of the local leaders of Darjeeling – Madan Tamang – was killed in a brutal attack. The Darjeeling subdivisions were supposedly shut! And, today morning when I turned on the TV to check the Darjeeling situation, got a sad jolt of the Air India Express crash in Mangalore. Nevertheless, we hoped that this long planned and long awaited trip would not end up in a complete mess.

We had booked the 10:15AM Jet Konnect flight from Delhi to Bagdogra and so reached the airport by 8:30AM. We were stunned to see the airport jam packed with travelers on a Saturday early morning! The flight took off 20 mins behind schedule but we landed at Bagdogra airport on time. MakeMyTrip, that has so relentlessly tried to destroy our trip had managed to place some person with my name on a sheet of paper. We started off for Kalimpong on a TATA Sumo which looked a true TATA product – with all parts barely hanging by their screws. We left the airport at 1PM, took a lunch break at 2PM en-route and reached Kalimpong, which is just 70 odd kms from Bagdogra, at 4PM. The roads are quite bad and in some stretches scary as well. At the place where we had our lunch, an exceptionally cute cat sauntered over with the full knowledge that Deepthi will massage it! The snap speaks for itself!

Kalimpong is untouched by the reckless tourism that we see in “famous” hill stations and it shows. The place is serenely quiet, unpolluted and “small-place” in feel. A very good getaway after the hectic pace of life at ISB! The Sood’s Garden Retreat is a comfortable place but is without much frills – no complaints though. The weather is a very comfortable 20 odd degrees – a welcome relief from the scorching 40+ in the dusty, dry and villagish gurgaon! Went for a peaceful walk at around 6PM (after a nap to get rid of my severe headache) and the place is truly serene.

Technology Terrific!

2010-04-23T17:51:00.001+05:30

I opened up my laptop at the airport in Delhi thinking of posting something on the immense muck of cricket in India. And just as I connected to the Wi-Fi network provided free of cost by Airtel at the airport, I started admiring the way technology has simplified our life. The simplification has just been phenomenal.

Its been such a long time since I stood at a queue for paying any of the utility bills, its been such a long time since I yanked out a cheque leaf for, say, a mobile bill payment or even for paying the monthly rental. With the full-fledged deployment of internet banking and core banking, its been ages since I visited a bank for either a cheque book, a demand draft or any sundry things! Wow! I don't think it would be an understatement to say that India has leapfrogged a lot of countries in the developed world in the adoption of technology, especially the velocity of adoption.

We keep in touch with our friends, colleagues, parents and everyone and anyone thru emails, chats and voice over internet. Technology has truly reduced distances and made the world a lot more smaller.

Technology has now enabled people like me to plan out trips, log onto sites and then book the tickets sitting right there in front of laptops in the comfort of their homes. I still recollect the days when planning out and undertaking a trip to a far out place was just out of the question if you hadn't had any relatives over there. And THIS technology is now helping people achieve a lot more in their 24 hour day than was earlier possible. Am sure its also one of the reasons that the productivity of white collar workers in increasing at a tremendous pace - you just need not worry about the sundry things in life (almost all other than the gas bookings, getting ACs and fridges serviced, etc) but can concentrate on the bigger ones.

Am just waiting to see what the future unfolds... its gonna be a terrific ride!

And I get “HOT” welcome

2010-04-18T22:22:00.001+05:30

What a freaking welcome to Gurgaon, the week I have landed here is supposed to have been the hottest in 52 full years! Thank god for the fact that I have had my childhood in scorching and arid places like Raichur, else am quite sure I would have had a severe case of sunstroke or worse! I have escaped lightly with a light sunburn that’s all!

This Saturday – the 17th of April – the temperature outside was 42.7 degrees it seems and I in all my wisdom was out house hunting. The heat was so severe that I had learnt to tie a kerchief around my face to enable me to breathe without burning up my lungs! And, I AM NOT KIDDING! It is that hot outside when travelling. Spent the entire morning checking out some decent houses but then the distance for my bitter half and the totally non-existent public transport made me decide against it. I have finally settled on a apartment in Jal Vayu Vihar, Sector 30 which is walkable distance to her office! But, unfortunately, its a 3 BHK apartment with a dining as well and so is quite huge for the two of us! The weird thing is that Gurgaon is full of very swanky 3-4-5 BHK apartments and ridiculous rentals but can hardly find a liveable 2 BHK apartment within commutable distance! And, taking an expensive nearby apartment on rent felt more sensible than buying a second car. Bu ho hooo!

Anyway, am planning to be back in Bangalore this weekend to move my stuff all the way up here. Am so so waiting for my car to provide me the much needed mobility in and around Gurgaon. Need to buy an AC and an Inverter to have a decent life here in this oppressive heat.

On Pins and Needles

2010-04-13T20:34:00.001+05:30

That’s the way I feel now that I have joined Schneider Electric as Manager – Strategy at Gurgaon. The feeling has nothing to do with the company but with the whole situation that I am in. I have never been to this part of the world, and Gurgaon, with its oppressive heat, dust, crazy traffic jams, absolutely no public transport (no autos, no busses, some taxis that’s all!!) and amazingly rude people can make a new comer feel totally out of place and lost!

Yesterday was my 1st day at office and after completing the joining formalities was whisked away to "observe” some activity at the strategy team. I was then asked to “observe” a conference call where the directors of strategy from 9 countries joined in to discuss some specific things. This was then followed by a McKinsey session on one of the focus areas of the company! Phew! What a first day at office.

Today, it was quite boring as I had to run around to open the salary account, submit the Airtel connection form and had to read through a huge 110+ slides ppt. I also got some contact number of house rental agents and initiated the search for a decent but affordable housing.

The atmosphere at the office is so so alien to me – I had prepared myself mentally for this, but then preparing is different and experiencing it is something else! The open office layout (no cubicles!), no fruit juices and poisonous sodas in the chiller - in fact no chiller, relatively noisy atmosphere and bang in the middle of all this a bloke whose been on the software side of the economy for all his working life!

The end result – feel dead tired by the end of the day. It might also be coz of the hectic pace of my life in ISB and absolutely no break afterwards! It might also be coz that I am trying to adjust to the new environs as fast as possible and get going. Interesting days ahead…

The cost of an MBA!

2010-03-30T14:26:00.001+05:30

Now that the high of completing my MBA has gone. Yeah, I know its rather fast, I tend to be in the excited state for a very small amount of time and my half-life is quite an exponential curve! OK, that was a digression… back to the topic. I came across a couple of articles that mentioned that the IIMs have increased their course fee to 13-14 lakhs (for the entire course) and ISB had already bumped it up to a staggering 21.8 lakhs (for non-bachelors)! And, with my visit to Andhra Bank that had provided me the educational loan for ISB, I got thinking about the steep cost of quality education in India.

If we just take a consider the “flat cost” without any loan or time-value of money complications. The total cost would workout to something like this:

ISB Fees et all – 21.8 Lakhs
Miscellaneous expenses – 1 Lakh
Lost Salary (on average) – 8 Lakh
Total Expense: 30 Lakh (approx)

And that's quite an expense! And if a candidate funds around 80% of the fee through a student loan with an interest of 10.5% then the EMI outgo would work out to around 30K for a 7 year period and 40K for a 5 year period! Aaah… that would definitely hurt!

Win7 is Ultimate!

2010-03-21T13:06:00.001+05:30

I have spent the last 3 days performing a clean install of Win7 - Ultimate edition, on both, the better half's laptop as well as mine! And heartfelt thanks to my buddy and MS Colleague Sidhartha who got the DVDs from the company store at Redmond. And, I must say (without any bias of an ex-Microsoft employee) that the OS “looks” and “feels” good and solid! No wonder Win7 sales are through the roof. Its good to see a good OS coming out of the MS stable after quite a long time. Win XP rocked for its time and hence was the biggest competition to Vista, which unfortunately did even not come anywhere close to the usability of XP, forget about being an “improvement” over XP! We poor folks at MS were forced to work with Vista installed on office laptops and only I know how much I have cursed that OS!!

I have installed the 64-bit versions of the OS on BOTH the laptops and have seen a visible improvement in the performance of the system. The 64 bit IE 8 edition that is bundled with the OS installation DVD comes very close to the performance of Chrome browser and as of now am indifferent to either browsers. This “indifference” means that I am averse to switching out of Chrome browser into IE8. Well, this is what you get if you release a pathetically slow OS (Vista) clubbed with a pathetically slow browser (IE7) – customers get used to a different product and unless you improve your product dramatically, customers will not switch out! The MBA gyan says that the improvement needs to be made by a factor of 3 for customers to embrace the new product, which of course, isn’t the case for IE8!

The hardware recognition has been breeze in Win7 compared to the nightmare that was seen in Vista. Further,Lenovo (R400) and Dell (E5500) have released advanced drivers for all their superbly crafted components that goes a long way in making the laptop as powerful (if not more) as a workstation.The display, the themes and the attention to detail for the small things have made computing life a hell lot more easier. The impact has been so favourable that I am now considering buying a 22” LCD monitor and a good keyboard to “convert” my laptop to a workstation equivalent! But, for that, I need to wait for my first pay day…

Takeaways

2010-03-16T11:12:00.001+05:30

I guess its as much a time for reflection and introspection for me as much it is for everyone else on campus at ISB. The past one year has definitely changed me as a person and as a professional. So, as I sat reminiscing about the past year that has zipped by faster than a Santro Zip drive, I was wondering as to what my takeaways have been in this tremendous year that I have endured and enjoyed at the same time.

MBA is just a course that equips you with a very broad based knowledge that you can build upon when the time comes. No wonder its known as the jack of all master of none course in the industry. But then I don't think you can do justice to the course if you expect students to delve deeper into the vast ocean of business! The obvious takeaways have been the concrete frameworks for marketing, strategy, operation and of course the best part of an MBA – finance. Now, suddenly, as I read the best selling business books, it make a lot more sense and I am in a position to understand and appreciate what the author actually means!

The stay here at ISB cannot be put into words. It needs to be experienced. I am quite sure that you wouldn't come across a set of ambitious, highly competent and highly competitive people at a single place as easily as here. Everyone wants to excel at everything and are ready to put in tremendous effort. The atmosphere that's created by such a peer groups is experienced to be believed. You have people here who have had their confidence shattered as they had never experienced any significant failure previously and ISB was their first reality check, and, you have people here who have thrived in such an atmosphere!

On a personal front, gone is my naive understanding of business. I can now make sense of what it is about. Gone also is my flaky reasoning as to why people behave the way they do. Course in Organization Behavior has helped me a lot in trying to understand the human psyche and I think this will be the best takeaway for me. I also surprised myself by really focusing and putting in a lot of effort in academics. After a 6 year long hiatus, I did not have much hopes of doing well in studies, but then found additional reserves or strength and stamina that I could deploy – ISB has pushed me to the extreme and pushed some more and am thankful for that! Of course, I have made some terrific friends and do hope that the ties forged here last the test of time and does not succumb to life! This one year has definitely changed me as a person and would always cherish the memories till my unusually fickle memory erases them out for good!

The December Dilemma

2010-03-15T20:46:00.001+05:30

The placement preparations at ISB start off during the “holiday” month of December. And, this marks the beginning of a lot of men who lose hair and women who lose sleep – all figuring out which profile should they target, what roles, which company, which sector… and a lot more questions to be answered.

The guys who aspire to be management consultants dive in deeply into case preps. Some guys get the hang of it within no time and some don’t get it at all! The guys who aspire to get back into their own field, start getting back in touch with the real world and immerse themselves catching up on all the developments over the past 8 months. The lucky guys (like yours truly) who are open to a lot of options start the painful process of figuring out which sector, role, profile excites them and thus begin their journey into the ether world of the unknown!

The Initial Intent

When I initially came to ISB, I wanted to explore other areas and get out of the IT field. Having had a “career on asteroids” with my professional responsibilities spanning development, technical leadership, project management, solution architecture and pre-sales I had the distinct feeling of “been there, done that”. The only viable option for me was to get into Business Development or an an Engagement Manager. The flip-side of this was that my MBA education would not be of as much value in IT as in other fields. And, so in all my wisdom, I made up my mind to “switch” out of IT. The sad part was that I was even ready to take a “pay-hit” to do the switch (In hindsight, it was absolute naivety!)

The Grass is Greener on THIS Side

Come November / December and the placement prep starts getting into gear – there are a lot of interactions with alums organized, lot of resume review sessions and mock interviews. The one good thing I did in this flurry of activity was that instead of mock interview sessions, I made use of the alums time to get a sense of the career growth and trajectory that one can expect. I actively sought out “successful switchers” from IT into Telecom, Power, Real Estate and FMCG Marketing and discussed everything under the sun frankly and honestly. One consistent feedback I got was that switching is risky and might actually derail your career in case you aren’t prepared for it! Further, one of the alums I met who was previously working for Airtel categorically said that I have a very strong profile and should not compromise on ANYTHING. IT companies would be more than willing to hire me. Further, at this stage I sought information as to the work culture in the different sectors and found that Real Estate was a option that was not available for me – its anyone’s guess as to why?! Telecom sector is currently in disarray and my career might get stymied in the current bloodbath. Pharma wasn’t as exciting as it provides for little growth in terms of market – I wanted to be in a promising sector that would enable me to growth within. I thought that I wasn’t cut out for FMCG marketing and in my interactions with the alums it got cemented – I consider myself more of the analytical sort and would be at a loss in “faff” profiles. So finally, I decided against switching unless my laundry list of priorities weren’t satisfied.

The Laundry List

It helped me a lot during the placements that I came up with a set of priority items that I wasnt ready to compromise on. IT or Non-IT did not matter. What mattered was that the company needed to have a check mark against each of these items below:

Growth Potential: The job needed to be in a sector that had good growth for the next decade at least
Type of job: I wanted to get into a job that give me the opportunity of applying at least 10% of what I have learnt here at ISB
Compensation: Absolutely no compromise on the compensation package. I had a reserve price and wasn’t ready to budge on it given that my profile seemed quite strong.
Access to Senior Management: This was one of the must haves for me. There is no better way to mould your thinking than by being in regular tough with the senior management team of the company.
Cross Functional: A wanted a job in a company that could provide me the opportunity to move across functions. This criterion usually gets satisfied as companies usually recruit MBAs and groom them into senior roles.

With such stringent criterion, I felt that IT was the only domain for me – especially due to the compensation non-negotiable aspect!

The Muddled Head

Come January and my world turned upside down on its head. I had applied to a set of companies in December that were for the “heck of it”. After the extensive research on the sectors / companies, I was not interested in some of these. And as luck would have it, I started getting interview shortlists from these firms! After walking away from three companies that were interested in me, my wife and parents ( and some of friends at ISB and their parents!) were ready to certify me as medically insane! But, finally, when one of the companies satisfied all the above criterion, I took the plunge and jumped out of IT to Energy! Phew… what an experience!

The Core Term Summaries – Part 2

2010-03-12T16:30:00.001+05:30

Continuing where I left off…

Term 3

This was THE worst term for me. The load was tremendous, I was already tired due to the previous two terms and we started experiencing study group problems – due to divergent goals, priorities and focus areas – but, well that’s life! On top of that I had to contend with two pathetic courses – one course was pathetic by design and the other was made pathetic by an incompetent professor who did not feel accountable for the paid vacation he was having here! One of the courses was Entrepreneurship. Now, someone please tell me how in the world can this be “taught”. This was the first joke. The second was that it was being “taught” by someone who had never in his life run a business, forget about owning one! He was a salaried professor his entire existence and was now lecturing on how to setup business and run them! Sheesh, I mean, yes I know that we were not all that knowledgeable in the field of business but we are not out right dumb to not to see the irony of it all. The second course was Managerial Accounting – a terrifically important subject being thrashed by a professor who was least interested in teaching the course. It seemed to be overly obvious that he had come to have a good paid vacation to India!

And as was expected, the grades were a disaster – 3A- and a B with my excellent (by my own yardstick) CGPA coming crashing down!

Term 4

By this time, I was totally numb – the hectic pace of the course had made me impervious to a lot of things. And compared to Term 3, the load was a lot less. Further, we had split up the group work to make sure that the free rider issue was minimized but also made sure that the damage was limited. By this time, I was waiting to see how the electives would turn out. I wanted to work with people who wanted to study what they were studying! I don't seem to remember any eventful thing happening in this term. Further proof that I was numb to everything happening around me. Also, the courses were not that interesting and I guess I just went with the flow.

On the grade front, 2 As and 2A- to cement an uneventful and tiresome term 4.

Overall, due to an acceptable term 4, my CGPA was well above the average mark and I was quite happy that I was able to be in the top 15% of the ISB junta whereas the strength of my ilk (5+ years experience and my chief competition set) accounted for around 30% of the total strength! Yay!

The Core Term Summaries – Part 1

2010-03-10T19:27:00.001+05:30

Just before the start of the placement season, ISB junta have this competition where students, in teams of two, are asked to prepare summaries for each of the core term courses that had been taught in the last 6 months. This event is called the “Core Term Summaries” and there’s a funny way in which the ASA communicates that they will intimate the recruiters of the “importance of this”. In hindsight, nothing seems farther than the truth; now that we know how much of a pull these guys have with the recruiters (none!), let alone informing and educating them. But, that is beside my point. I thought of “faffing” as to the Rollercoaster Ride Part 1 of core terms and thought of calling THIS one as the core term summaries which seems to do justice to the name!

Term 1

This was the term that was totally laid-back and chilled. I was yet to get out the rut and wasn’t really into studying. I was cheerfully attending classes trying to get used the mammoth two hours each of classes. Two classes every day. Four days a week. It would be an understatement to say that I felt numbed! And, the most memorable event was that of a Statistics quiz that was given in class. I had this guy sitting next to me (lets call him YM from TII-K), having so called 4 years of work-ex and, surprise-surprise, when the quiz was given, this kid was covering his paper and answering it! Ufff!!! That was the day I knew what I was getting into – that maturity and work ex are two different things. Some kids never grow up! And ISB is full of such kids who still define their existence thru the grades they score and the quick fixes they get in quizzes!

Within three weeks of the classes, came my first stumbling block – the mid terms! I was just about getting used to the classes as I had opted out of the three super-expensive pre-requisite optional courses on accounting, statistics and quantitative math – which was a very good decision actually. The only feedback of the base courses I got was negative to the extreme! Ok, I started to open the books / course pack with about 3 days to go for the exam. I went to the exam hall and had the same feeling that I used to get in engineering – What the heck do I write for any of the questions? Hope I get to answer at least one! The mid terms passed and then came the shocking results – I was below average in three exams and just above average in one! This was the proverbial last straw. Though I don’t obsess about grades, my intention was always to be way above average in the class. I thought to myself – buddy this is it, get your ass moving or by the time you figure out what hit you your CGPA would be marred forever!

The next two weeks slogged my ass off and the the scores in the exam reflected my effort. Thankfully I was saved the blushes and managed to extricate myself of the near mess I had got myself into. End of the term – 1 As and 3 A-s – not bad I thought as any score on or below average is an assured B!

Term 2

It seemed that the previous term never ended and we started off where we left off. The same grind – assignments, projects, cases, home-works and quizzes. Not to mention the unbearable, totally irrelevant, pointless and insulting CPs (or Class Participation). By the 2nd term, I was quite convinced that CP was either one of the two. One, a hopelessly tragic practical joke executed to perfection by the academicians of ISB to make sure that students learn how bad it is to sit through arbitrary jargon bullshit. Or, two – to drill it into our head that a lot of the students are definitely there to make up for the diversity factor and nothing else!!

As for the grades, I guess the pace that I had picked up in the fag end of term 2 helped me out in this term and ended up scoring 3As and an B!! The sole B was mainly due to the disastrous MarkStrat simulation which we honestly felt was rigged against us. Whatever we did ended up making us worse off and we did a phenomenal job in landing up 3rd in the leader-board –- from the bottom! But overall the term went well for me and the feeling was good – given that I was still sleeping happily for 7-8 hours a day without fail AND scoring well. Of course, the flip side was, I was skipping the useless parties (my personal take on parties!) and was careful in not over-committing to the plethora of events unfolding before me.

Rest of the stuff in due course of time… “Watch this space for more!”

Are you ‘fit’ enough?

2010-03-09T21:36:00.001+05:30

Well, that’s the question that most recruiters say they have on their minds when they come for campus recruitment over to the ISB. But, and its a controversial BUT, I believe that the fit question is a critical thing for a minority of the recruiters who say they look for fit. The ‘fit’ is just an excuse for the company to chuck out a lot of folks whom they know are out of their pay bracket they have on offer. And, this has been found to be empirically true for a lot of the companies that are looking for “terrifically fit” candidates and have gone on to offer terrifically low pay packages! So much for the drama of multiple rounds of interviews, talking about career goals, vision and mission of company, blah blah blah. In fact, I had this interview with a company that was in the news for all the wrong reasons in the past year and within 10 minutes of the 1st round of interview the discussion veered around to my incoming pay and my expectations regarding the outgoing pay! And they are talking about transformation and integration and of a new beginning! I was quite sure that this is not the company I was looking for!

Ok, coming on to the other side of the coin – The fit that a grad needs to find with his/her career goals and the company that he decides to work for. I find that a lot of students are clueless as to what profile they are looking for and what they want from a job. And this is the chief reason for a lot of blood being spilt and the accompanying depression / confusion during the placement season of a b-school, which is, without doubt the most strenuous of the MBA sojourn! So, for the student the question that needs to be evaluated is with respect to the company - “Are you fit enough for my career ambitions and goals?!”

And, I think that I was able to do justice to myself and the company I’ll be joining in a month’s time by using certain yardsticks. The top three/four items on my mind during the placements were:

The company I work for should be well-known in its area of work – if its a world leader, all the more better. The reason being that it feels good to work in a company of people that are the best at what they do and in case something doesn’t workout for you in that company, you have exit options!
It should be on a growth trajectory. They say “rising tide…”. The opportunities that one can get in an ambitious and growing company is unsurpassed. In my previous life at Microsoft, I was very well aware of the stymied career path as the company was very well established and the only serious market for them was, of course, the US. I did not want to make this critical mistake of being a non-entity in a bloated organization.
It should give me the opportunity to move across different functions, businesses and roles. I just want to make sure that I am able to apply at least a part of the gyan that I learnt here and have a go at applying some of the fundamental analytical techniques that I have been exposed to.
I wanted a job-profile that had an impact in and on the company and not just another cog in a huge wheel. I wanted to be the whole freaking wheel! This, of course, meant all entry level analyst profiles were out of the contention and so were any of the “associate” titles. Been there, experienced that! And, its not fun, seriously – I was done doing the grunt skunk-work for good. I wanted a job that was aligned to my soft skills and not just my analytical abilities.

So, once I got this clarity in thought, it became a matter of patience and “guts and glory” thing. I definitely knew what I did not want to get into – Pharma, Real Estate, Numbers oriented fin jobs, faff oriented marketing job, etc, etc! And the side effect – My wife, my parents, my well wishers – all worried that I have lost my senses and would be without a job at the end of the course! But, as they say, all’s well that ends well. Phew!

The year that zipped by!

2010-03-06T21:42:00.001+05:30

I remember the day that I walked out of the Microsoft Campus for the last time feeling a bit ambivalent – excited about the “journey” of ISB and sad about the fact that I was leaving a terrific company. A company that I had been part of for the better part of three years! The date was March 31, 2009 but it bloody feels like yesterday!

And now, I just cant believe that I would be out of this serene, peaceful & beautiful ISB Campus on Apr 4th. Again, the feelings are the same – mixed and messed up! I am quite sad that I would be moving out of this place (in fact I never thought that I would be nostalgic about leaving behind anything, let alone the campus!) but at the same time excited about what life has to offer going forward. I am sad that it might be some time before I get to catch up with some gem of persons that I have befriended but relieved that the “torture” will be finally over. Suddenly, I want to take in as much of the campus as I can. I want to watch the sun set, hear the birds chirping, go for a walk, sit on the benches and lie on the lush green grass. But, yes there is always that darned “BUT”, I have “miles to go before I sleep”. I am so preoccupied with other seemingly important things that I rarely make time to cherish the beauty of it all. As I said, its all messed up! Sigh!

And what a journey it has been so far! Gosh! More of a rollercoaster of everything than anything else. A rollercoaster of emotions, feelings, of achievements and of disappointments. The way I felt and changed as a person in each and every term cannot be put in words, it needs to be experienced and then treasured. This is one place which can either fill you up with confidence (the way it has done to me) or shatter it to pieces. Either way, you’ll end up reminiscing about the days that went by, the friends you met, the classes you attended and the professors you simply adored or those that you simply hated!

3 more weeks and it’ll be curtains for the batch of 2010…

From IT to Energy – It happens only at ISB!

2010-02-22T21:04:00.001+05:30

Its been quite a long while since I posted any post on my blog, though I promised to try to be a tad regular! But, well… that’s the way things are!

OK, now to the crux of this post. I got placed in one of the world’s largest energy players. I am not supposed to discuss this in public, so suffice to say that the company is a France based MNC and is the global specialist in energy management. Go figure! I would be joining as Manager – Strategy contributing extensively in strategic shaping of the organization for its Indian market. The job would involve drawing up market entry strategies of the new innovative products and energy management solutions that the company has to offer, competitive positioning of the company, business intelligence and monitoring the strategy being deployed across India. I am quite kicked about this role and in hindsight seems like the best thing to have happened to me here at ISB!

Though I had got placed on “Day 3” of the rolling placement window, I was a lot lethargic to type out any post and hence the stony silence. The placements are going on in full swing and we have seen a broad spectrum of roles being offered to students ranging from entry level analysts positions to business unit heads depending on the experience, relevance, skills and the maturity that the candidate has to offer to the recruiter.

The “switch” from IT to energy was quite a carefully thought out one. Calling it a career “switch” would be the understatement of the century I suppose! Its more of a leap of faith for both me as well as the company that has placed so much trust in me and I am looking forward to the new challenges that lie ahead of me. Given that I had done exceedingly well as a techie I was not all that gung-ho and desperate for a career switch… Well, that’s another long story – I joined ISB thinking that I would definitely switch out, then mid-way changed my mind against switching, started getting offers from tech companies that did not excite me and finally switched out to a role that holds tremendous promise – more about this freakingly complicated and confused state of mind that I was in for some 45 days some other day!

The Interview Experience

Messy! That’s the word that comes to my mind when I look back at the three days over which the interview, the offer and finally my acceptance was stretched to! I would not be able to give out the minutest details the way I do but would just summarize the turn of events, of course editing out the sensitive parts of it!

Day 1: My interview was on 30th Jan and the 1st round was with the Director of the company into whose function I would be getting hired into! This gentle, sharp, perceptive and intelligent French expatriate was the one who had been to the campus for the PPT about a month back and I was quite delighted to be interviewing with him. Nothing beats the feeling of being interviewed (and judged) by a member of the senior leadership team! As luck would have it, my interview was THE last of the day (they had shortlisted around 30 guys with two panels taking the interviews) and he was quite visibly exhausted. During the start of the interview he had informed me that this round would be quite short and of around 15 minutes and that we would continue the next day so that he has a fresh mind. I was very OK with this – better for me if he is in a “sane” state of mind rather than exhausted. And, as things would have it, by the time both of us had a look at the clock as I seemed visibly exhausted, the 15 minutes had stretched to a staggering 1 hour! I guess he liked me and he wanted me to finish another round of interview immediately. Of course, I obliged – if you are on a roll go with the flow – was my motto.

I found out that the 2nd round was supposed to be a HR round with the HR – Head who had come in from their Bangalore office. The amazing thing was that he was more tired than I was and upon his request we agreed to have the 2nd round the next day at 845AM sharp. I went home feeling quite numb, ate and slept quite well!

Day 2: We started the round two of the duel bang on time and this round lasted another 75 freaking minutes. It was more of a behavioral interview and I enjoyed the sparring with the HR guy. After this round, there was a 3rd round that lasted for 15-20 minutes as I had been in two outlandishly long interviews and I guess the panel took pity on me! Since, a lot of other candidates had to be interviewed as well, I headed back to my studio and was busy watching a movie. Then out of the blue I got a call from one of the volunteers that the panel wanted to talk to me. After a long series of discussions, they made me an offer. But, me being me, I asked a lot of questions (intelligent, stupid and dumb – all sorts!) and almost caused the HR Head to miss his flight! Finally, I asked for time till the next day before I could commit on anything.

The night of 31st Jan 2010 was the most painful and stressful of my life. I was tossing over all sorts of scenarios in my head – jumping from IT, in which I had done well, into energy, in which I did not have any background – am a Computer Science Engineer – gave me the creeps. I guess I would have slept for about 30 minutes the entire night.

Day 3: I wanted to get some clarity on a couple of things and so 730AM early morning gave the Director a call and had a small discussion with him. He has quite a good sales pitch I guess and I finally decided to make the leap of faith and give myself and the company a chance at something that holds the promise of a something good.

So, Gurgaon is the place that I shall be headed on 12th April 2010. I might be one of the first guys (non entrepreneur and non dad-owns-a-business) to get back to the workforce!

From IT to energy – it truly happens only at ISB!

The River Zumba!

2009-07-23T18:36:00.001+05:30

Given that this is the admission season of ISB, I though of sharing my essay from the previous year (2008 admission cycle). Cutting the story short, here is the question that we were asked to write an essay on followed by what my essay was:

CASE : You have been appointed to head the team to build a dam across the River Zumba. Success in this project is critical for your company and would earn you a promotion. Failure would mean that your company would be bankrupt and will take along with it, its investors and its employees. Building a dam across the river would result in deforestation of a portion of the rainforests and would mean relocation of the tribals and destabilization of wild life at Zumba. There is resistance from environmental groups against your project. You are meeting the head of the resistance movement in one hour wherein you would have to explain your decision. Describe what you would do and why? (You will be evaluated on the creativity and practicality of your solution). Word Limit: 300

Essay:

Given the technical, financial and economic feasibility of Zumba multi-purpose dam and with the State’s backing, I would prefer a collaborative issue resolution strategy to a confrontational one. Winning the hearts and minds of the people affected and building trust in me and the company will be critical to address successfully the social and ecological concerns.

To address social issues, I would propose to

Establish a Zumba Project Governance Panel (ZuProGoP) comprising of eminent ecologists, engineers, consultants, government officials and local panchayat leaders to oversee project construction.
The tribal’s resettlement will be “full-community” based with resettlement colony construction modeled on Public Private Partnership – land provided by the State, labor partly fulfilled with the affected people, and, roads, hospital and water treatment plant constructed by the company. The resettlement area identified is arable, is on the path of the irrigation canal and is of high cultivable value.
An optional compensation package to be offered as per the stipulations of the ZuProGoP.
Eligible workforce will be absorbed into the construction, operation and maintenance of the dam, hydropower project, canal and ancillary services that are expected to create 6000 jobs thereby addressing employment issues.

To address ecological issues

I propose to setup an independent Zumba Trust Fund with a sizeable corpus for replanting trees as mandated by Indian laws and to top-up the fund by a share of the annual profit for the first five years to explore fish hatcheries and stocking programs post construction.
Periodic release of water as per the Environmental Flow Requirements (EFR) and to have a controlled flooding to minimize the ecological changes and unforeseen downstream issues.
To build fish passages specifically tailored to the native fish species and drainage facility to desalinate water and protect surrounding ecology.

Thus, a mutually acceptable and negotiated agreement with various stakeholders will be possible.

The way I approached the essay:

Did a lot of research on the topic. Found a good strategic paper by the World Commission on Dams on which I based my entire solution on.
To cut the essay short, I assumed some critical things at the start of the essay and concentrated on the people and ecological aspects of the project .
Wrote a draft essay without the word limit in mind and then cut out the points that I found were not that important .
Got the essay reviewed by three people and when all of them came up with different feedbacks, I knew that the essay was good! (The catch was that if all the three had come up with the same points, then it would have been a bad thing!) .

Hope this helps future ISB aspirants… that’s it for now, out of time!