Two days of incessant rains has caused havoc to all the Delhi Roads. They have become worse than village roads and driving car on them reminds me of bullock cart ride in my village fields. Summer this year has been quite sever compared to last year, July was the worst and August was irritating, I hope the winter will not be severe.
I managed to pay a visit to Golden Temple in Amritsar lat and planning to visit Jaipur sometime next month. I loved the Ghee dripping halwa prasad. Visit to the Langar and having food there was a great experience. Kesar Dhaba was a big let down. Despite the fact that there was so many people thronging the place, it is poorly maintained. However dessert was very good.
Work has suddenly peaked and for the first time I have spent a completely sleepless night yesterday. Did some focused work that was quite satisfying; similar to one of those nights spent of Adv Corp Fin assignments.
Happened to watch an excellent ad after a long time - Ad of Teri's Solar Lantern, amazing lyrics, music and concept. Unable to find the video online but it is a must watch. All said and done, first 3-4 years post-MBA is a testing period and I hope to utilize it for Deliberate Practice
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Two Banias
It is mere coincidence that I have been reading stories of two banias who influenced modern India. In my view it is also coincidental that the two happen to be banias; however even as they appear to taken two completely different paths one cannot help notice the the striking similarity between the paths. To begin with, for both of them, their way was the only way, both started their career abroad and came back to India to pursue their dream, for both of them children were a part of achieving "their" dream, role of their spouses, though not recognized as deserved, was very important, both developed huge following (both pro and anti), they both loved being called bhai and so on and so forth. If you have not guessed it by now, I am talking about Mahatma Gandhi and Dhirubhai Ambani.
Both the stories happened to have little more of whatever I was expecting and they both did disturb me a bit, in fact they left me a little unsure about the path I am treading now.
As I have started this post with mention of a particular caste, I would also like to make my views about caste also clear. I don't belong to the bania caste and I never consider myself of any caste except that I come from a peasant family. I enjoy anything related to agriculture, anything related to production and value creation in general. I have never used my caste for any favorable benefit and even dislike people using it for favors. I believe in equal opportunity and fully believe that given enough time and opportunity, any individual can achieve what any other individual has achieved if he wants to. Extreme cases may come to mind immediately but then don't take in the literary sense, look at it from a macro view and you will appreciate it.
The stories of the two banias did teach me that to achieve goals one has to be relentless and should persevere and never forget the beginning. Like Glinda, the Good Witch of North advises Dorothy in Wizard of Oz, "It's always best to start at the beginning." Let's get started
Both the stories happened to have little more of whatever I was expecting and they both did disturb me a bit, in fact they left me a little unsure about the path I am treading now.
As I have started this post with mention of a particular caste, I would also like to make my views about caste also clear. I don't belong to the bania caste and I never consider myself of any caste except that I come from a peasant family. I enjoy anything related to agriculture, anything related to production and value creation in general. I have never used my caste for any favorable benefit and even dislike people using it for favors. I believe in equal opportunity and fully believe that given enough time and opportunity, any individual can achieve what any other individual has achieved if he wants to. Extreme cases may come to mind immediately but then don't take in the literary sense, look at it from a macro view and you will appreciate it.
The stories of the two banias did teach me that to achieve goals one has to be relentless and should persevere and never forget the beginning. Like Glinda, the Good Witch of North advises Dorothy in Wizard of Oz, "It's always best to start at the beginning." Let's get started
Sunday, August 2, 2009
My Friends
As everyone else is celebrating Friendship Day around, I thought I would celebrate it by writing about my "Friends."
I am the eldest in my family and me ad my brother grew up at separate places except for few years, which meat we never strongly bonded in childhood, today we rather share a friendship than brotherhood. This meant that throughout my childhood, I was making friends anywhere and everywhere. I would not try and describe each of my friends but just try and list them in a chronological order; may be I will attempt to write about few in later posts.
Before I start listing down, I, with my whole heart, thank GOD for giving me such wonderful friends, who stood by me in difficult times despite my shortcomings and foolishness, who stand by me, if not physically but with a shadow of their soul hanging around me. As an extrovert, it was never difficult for me to make friends; one can always see me in the open hands posture for a new friend. Some of you might say that friendship develops over a long period of time but for me it is instantaneous and few of you may say that it must be mutual but for me it need not be. I don't know where I read this but I vaguely remember that it is from Gita that God is present in every living being including oneself and from that moment I tried experiencing it and despite being a judgmental person in nature, I started regarding everyone as a friend even if I had a reason to hate/fight them.
Let me get started with the list now:
1. Earliest of my friends is Mahendra from Govindaraopet, Warangal. He studied along with me till class 3 at Kakatiya Public School
2. Suraj was the next friend I can remember. I met him at United High School, Adarshnagar, Hyderabad
3. Next I remember Raghu who provoked me to study hard and come first in class in class 4 again
4. Then come my friends who are still closely in touch with me - Allam Praveen Kumar, M Srikanth, Chandrasekhar (chandu) and M Srinivas from Unique Public School, Suryanagar, Hyderabad. Two female friends Kavita Bandari and Praveena Reddy, I will never forget in my life
5. One of my closest friend with whom I share an intimate relationship - Amuda Vijaya Partha Saradhi, my diploma classmate
6. Ravi Kumar Popuri, a very generous friend and Ravi Sankar, my intellectual friend again from my diploma days, Sampath - a confused friend
7. Another friend, to visit whom, I specifically traveled to remote locations, Siram Srinivas, is special one. He stood by me in one of the darkest hours of my life. I can never forget the question I asked him and the reply he gave. He stood for what he believed and from that answer I built a new life
8. Ramakrishna Pavuluri - a colleague but more of an uncle and friend, MAS Charyulu-again a uncle friend colleague from Bakelite Hylam days
9. My boss friend - Rajendra Kumar Kandikonda
10. My guru friend - Nanduri Jagannadham
11. My enlightened friend - Sadanandam, all the above from Bakelite Hylam again
12. Trimurthy Ragi, a friend from whom I learnt how to live life
13. Sivakumaran - a dear colleague
14. Rummy Sharma, Rohan Kashyap, Ritu Raj, Poulomi Ghosh, Shibabrato Ghosh, Sawan, Satya Prakash, Chidanandam, Bhaskar, Srinivas Reddy, Prashanthi, Suryanarayana DSN, Sireesh KK, Ram Goutham from Middle Earth Consultants, Hyderabad
15. Venkata Raman Govada, a special friend again from Bakelite Hylam days
16. From ISB, if I have to list there are many but those who come my mind are - Rao Korupolu, Suhail Abrol, Anandram Narasimhan, Gauravjeet Singh, Sudhanshu Bankata, Viswa Kirti, Nidhi Reddy, Sonali Sighal, Ratnakar Gore, Arun Kumar Singh, Alka, Amit Goel, Ankur Agarwal, Ashish Naredi, Dhiraj Kumar, Dinaz Vervetwala, Karthik Polasani, Krishna Chaitanya, Narayanan Krishnan, Nisha, Deepthi and Sumit Gared, Parag Rastogi, Pradeep, Pradyot, Swati, Pavana, Shikha&Amit, Shallabh Pal, Varun Khullar and many more
17. Deeptha and her husband (who helped with my AIMA project)
17. Aman Tripathi (where are you)
18. Peter Ballem, Rajeev Kumar, Rajender, Pandyan, Rimjhim, Shirisha Boda, Sarat Sahu, Sujata Joseph
19. P G Venkateswaran and family - my dearest friend
20. Sravan Dasoju - a friend who showered me with his goodwill
21. Sunil Godavarthy (AIMA friend)
22. Anil Rawal, Anil Chilukuri and Abhishek Ranjan from ADAG
23. 100g - a special friend
If I have missed someone, I apologize but if I recall a name, will append this list. I once again thank each and everyone and many more for making my life a worthy one.
I am the eldest in my family and me ad my brother grew up at separate places except for few years, which meat we never strongly bonded in childhood, today we rather share a friendship than brotherhood. This meant that throughout my childhood, I was making friends anywhere and everywhere. I would not try and describe each of my friends but just try and list them in a chronological order; may be I will attempt to write about few in later posts.
Before I start listing down, I, with my whole heart, thank GOD for giving me such wonderful friends, who stood by me in difficult times despite my shortcomings and foolishness, who stand by me, if not physically but with a shadow of their soul hanging around me. As an extrovert, it was never difficult for me to make friends; one can always see me in the open hands posture for a new friend. Some of you might say that friendship develops over a long period of time but for me it is instantaneous and few of you may say that it must be mutual but for me it need not be. I don't know where I read this but I vaguely remember that it is from Gita that God is present in every living being including oneself and from that moment I tried experiencing it and despite being a judgmental person in nature, I started regarding everyone as a friend even if I had a reason to hate/fight them.
Let me get started with the list now:
1. Earliest of my friends is Mahendra from Govindaraopet, Warangal. He studied along with me till class 3 at Kakatiya Public School
2. Suraj was the next friend I can remember. I met him at United High School, Adarshnagar, Hyderabad
3. Next I remember Raghu who provoked me to study hard and come first in class in class 4 again
4. Then come my friends who are still closely in touch with me - Allam Praveen Kumar, M Srikanth, Chandrasekhar (chandu) and M Srinivas from Unique Public School, Suryanagar, Hyderabad. Two female friends Kavita Bandari and Praveena Reddy, I will never forget in my life
5. One of my closest friend with whom I share an intimate relationship - Amuda Vijaya Partha Saradhi, my diploma classmate
6. Ravi Kumar Popuri, a very generous friend and Ravi Sankar, my intellectual friend again from my diploma days, Sampath - a confused friend
7. Another friend, to visit whom, I specifically traveled to remote locations, Siram Srinivas, is special one. He stood by me in one of the darkest hours of my life. I can never forget the question I asked him and the reply he gave. He stood for what he believed and from that answer I built a new life
8. Ramakrishna Pavuluri - a colleague but more of an uncle and friend, MAS Charyulu-again a uncle friend colleague from Bakelite Hylam days
9. My boss friend - Rajendra Kumar Kandikonda
10. My guru friend - Nanduri Jagannadham
11. My enlightened friend - Sadanandam, all the above from Bakelite Hylam again
12. Trimurthy Ragi, a friend from whom I learnt how to live life
13. Sivakumaran - a dear colleague
14. Rummy Sharma, Rohan Kashyap, Ritu Raj, Poulomi Ghosh, Shibabrato Ghosh, Sawan, Satya Prakash, Chidanandam, Bhaskar, Srinivas Reddy, Prashanthi, Suryanarayana DSN, Sireesh KK, Ram Goutham from Middle Earth Consultants, Hyderabad
15. Venkata Raman Govada, a special friend again from Bakelite Hylam days
16. From ISB, if I have to list there are many but those who come my mind are - Rao Korupolu, Suhail Abrol, Anandram Narasimhan, Gauravjeet Singh, Sudhanshu Bankata, Viswa Kirti, Nidhi Reddy, Sonali Sighal, Ratnakar Gore, Arun Kumar Singh, Alka, Amit Goel, Ankur Agarwal, Ashish Naredi, Dhiraj Kumar, Dinaz Vervetwala, Karthik Polasani, Krishna Chaitanya, Narayanan Krishnan, Nisha, Deepthi and Sumit Gared, Parag Rastogi, Pradeep, Pradyot, Swati, Pavana, Shikha&Amit, Shallabh Pal, Varun Khullar and many more
17. Deeptha and her husband (who helped with my AIMA project)
17. Aman Tripathi (where are you)
18. Peter Ballem, Rajeev Kumar, Rajender, Pandyan, Rimjhim, Shirisha Boda, Sarat Sahu, Sujata Joseph
19. P G Venkateswaran and family - my dearest friend
20. Sravan Dasoju - a friend who showered me with his goodwill
21. Sunil Godavarthy (AIMA friend)
22. Anil Rawal, Anil Chilukuri and Abhishek Ranjan from ADAG
23. 100g - a special friend
If I have missed someone, I apologize but if I recall a name, will append this list. I once again thank each and everyone and many more for making my life a worthy one.
Friday, July 31, 2009
Can we think differently
As an ISB classmate put it, what I gained after ISB is perspective about life. I am reproducing a small reading from ET for you, which I found different and interesting. Do read it and leave your comments, if any
THE MORAL CONSEQUENCES OF ECONOMIC GROWTH
Benjamin Friedman
OUR conventional thinking about economic growth fails to reflect the breadth of what growth, or its absence, means for a society. We recognise, of course, the advantages of a higher material standard of living, and we appreciate them. But moral thinking, in practically every known culture, enjoins us not to place undue emphasis on our material concerns. We are also increasingly aware that economic development — industrialisation in particular, and more recently globalisation — often brings undesirable side effects, like damage to the environment or the homogenisation of what used to be distinctive cultures, and we have come to regard these matters too in moral terms. On both counts, we think of economic growth in terms of material considerations versus moral ones: we weigh material positives against moral negatives.
I believe this thinking is seriously, in some circumstances dangerously, incomplete. The value of a rising standard of living lies not just in the concrete improvements it brings to how individuals live but in how it shapes the social, political, and ultimately the moral character of a people.
Economic growth, a rising standard of living for the clear majority of citizens, more often than not fosters greater opportunity, tolerance of diversity, social mobility, commitment to fairness, and dedication to democracy... when living standards decline, most societies make little if any progress toward any of these goals, and in all too many instances they plainly retrogress.
My Comments: From a micro perspective, economic growth is relevant only till the survival goals os a human being are met post which over focus on economic growth slowly grows into an excess. However corporations/firms are created mainly to drive economic growth, expecting anything else creates distortions but then we need to know what level of importance we need to give them in the modern society. Do we want our civilization to be known as the one that printed money and got lost in that mirage?
THE MORAL CONSEQUENCES OF ECONOMIC GROWTH
Benjamin Friedman
OUR conventional thinking about economic growth fails to reflect the breadth of what growth, or its absence, means for a society. We recognise, of course, the advantages of a higher material standard of living, and we appreciate them. But moral thinking, in practically every known culture, enjoins us not to place undue emphasis on our material concerns. We are also increasingly aware that economic development — industrialisation in particular, and more recently globalisation — often brings undesirable side effects, like damage to the environment or the homogenisation of what used to be distinctive cultures, and we have come to regard these matters too in moral terms. On both counts, we think of economic growth in terms of material considerations versus moral ones: we weigh material positives against moral negatives.
I believe this thinking is seriously, in some circumstances dangerously, incomplete. The value of a rising standard of living lies not just in the concrete improvements it brings to how individuals live but in how it shapes the social, political, and ultimately the moral character of a people.
Economic growth, a rising standard of living for the clear majority of citizens, more often than not fosters greater opportunity, tolerance of diversity, social mobility, commitment to fairness, and dedication to democracy... when living standards decline, most societies make little if any progress toward any of these goals, and in all too many instances they plainly retrogress.
My Comments: From a micro perspective, economic growth is relevant only till the survival goals os a human being are met post which over focus on economic growth slowly grows into an excess. However corporations/firms are created mainly to drive economic growth, expecting anything else creates distortions but then we need to know what level of importance we need to give them in the modern society. Do we want our civilization to be known as the one that printed money and got lost in that mirage?
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Business Ethics
This post is an outcome of a random chat with an acquaintance. The random chat after the initial rounds of pleasantries moved towards a controversial topic, which is Business Ethics. Phrases like "healthy competition," "drama of bidding," "business ethics are not applicable for every thing you do," "if i talk about ethics i wont grow," etc were freely used to justify the way contractors engage actively to form a cartel. I tried to argue but then quickly realized that it is difficult to convince a person about ethics in a chat conversation, they have to built on a much stronger foundation.
This conversation also bought along with it another question - how does the current generation regard ethics and morals? In my interaction with many acquaintances, I generally found that people are generally good by nature and would want to help others but then when it comes to things such as ethics that are created by humanity while creating the society, opinions swing widely. But I can clearly say from my past experience that sticking to certain basic principles and ethics is NPV positive in the long-term and long-term means a time horizon of 2-5 years. Many times who take shortcuts quickly loose out but then they never realize that it is their deeds that resulted in their side-tracking; rather they keep blaming luck, situation and unfairness around, which in fact they have been actively contributing to.
The person with whom I chatted also called me idealistic but then without ideals, would we have the so-called civilized society and the life that we all are trying to lead. How does it sound when two thieves divide the houses that they are going to steal and how ethical would it be if two rapists starts sharing who they would be raping next; sorry for the harsh words but then that is how I felt when the person started justifying sharing of contracts between the parties that are supposed to be competing, which is nothing but sharing public wealth (tax payers money) privately.
I have not been blogging actively, which is not because I've been very busy rather it is just the opposite. Corporate world has failed miserably in engaging me while ISB was exemplary in that. Just learned that a batch mate is joining a Phd program in US, which I think might be for similar reasons. Having spent about 5 years in Training, academics do pull me but then hardcore academics may not be for me. I'm trying to engage myself by coming up with ideas and discussing with classmates but then overcoming the laziness to develop them into full-fledged B-plans is proving to be a tough thing but I'm working on it. One of the biggest pains post-ISB has been the steady payments to be made for education loan. I am just weathering away the dull times while trying to bring in some cheer. Hope Varuna, the Indian Rain God shows some mercy on us and shower us with his blessings and the much wanted rains. Good bye
This conversation also bought along with it another question - how does the current generation regard ethics and morals? In my interaction with many acquaintances, I generally found that people are generally good by nature and would want to help others but then when it comes to things such as ethics that are created by humanity while creating the society, opinions swing widely. But I can clearly say from my past experience that sticking to certain basic principles and ethics is NPV positive in the long-term and long-term means a time horizon of 2-5 years. Many times who take shortcuts quickly loose out but then they never realize that it is their deeds that resulted in their side-tracking; rather they keep blaming luck, situation and unfairness around, which in fact they have been actively contributing to.
The person with whom I chatted also called me idealistic but then without ideals, would we have the so-called civilized society and the life that we all are trying to lead. How does it sound when two thieves divide the houses that they are going to steal and how ethical would it be if two rapists starts sharing who they would be raping next; sorry for the harsh words but then that is how I felt when the person started justifying sharing of contracts between the parties that are supposed to be competing, which is nothing but sharing public wealth (tax payers money) privately.
I have not been blogging actively, which is not because I've been very busy rather it is just the opposite. Corporate world has failed miserably in engaging me while ISB was exemplary in that. Just learned that a batch mate is joining a Phd program in US, which I think might be for similar reasons. Having spent about 5 years in Training, academics do pull me but then hardcore academics may not be for me. I'm trying to engage myself by coming up with ideas and discussing with classmates but then overcoming the laziness to develop them into full-fledged B-plans is proving to be a tough thing but I'm working on it. One of the biggest pains post-ISB has been the steady payments to be made for education loan. I am just weathering away the dull times while trying to bring in some cheer. Hope Varuna, the Indian Rain God shows some mercy on us and shower us with his blessings and the much wanted rains. Good bye
Sunday, June 21, 2009
After Harry Potter, it's Percy Jackson
Since last 10 days I've been engrossed in the Percy Jackson's series after reading a book review in Business Standard. While this series is completely different from the Harry Potter series, lot of similarities can be noticed in the vocabulary. Both the Heroes have similar character and they would easily give their life for their friends.
I've just bought the final book - "The Last Olympian" and eager to finish it but at the same time concerned a bit that this is the last book.
Coming to personal life, my office got shifted from Nehru Place to Gurgaon - 7 kms becomes 15 kms. This is one development I don't I would like despite the fact that I've been given a separate cabin.
Work otherwise has been a roller coaster ride. Working with a company that is serious about a specific sector is a great advantage. You go deep but then as the sector is in nascent stage, things wouldn't be smooth. I never thought I would be thinking about Energy, Power and Electricity after leaving Bakelite Hylam but then God always has a plan. Last week I received a mail from an old colleague with whom I worked for very small period. But this guy managed track me, get my mail id and sent me a message. There are many more Go-Getters out there who are making things happen.
I've just bought the final book - "The Last Olympian" and eager to finish it but at the same time concerned a bit that this is the last book.
Coming to personal life, my office got shifted from Nehru Place to Gurgaon - 7 kms becomes 15 kms. This is one development I don't I would like despite the fact that I've been given a separate cabin.
Work otherwise has been a roller coaster ride. Working with a company that is serious about a specific sector is a great advantage. You go deep but then as the sector is in nascent stage, things wouldn't be smooth. I never thought I would be thinking about Energy, Power and Electricity after leaving Bakelite Hylam but then God always has a plan. Last week I received a mail from an old colleague with whom I worked for very small period. But this guy managed track me, get my mail id and sent me a message. There are many more Go-Getters out there who are making things happen.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Right time for an IPO
With the equity markets in a upward swing, I think this is the best time for an IPO. Situation is similar to the one prevailing Reliance Power IPO issue. Everyone is bullish and demat penetration has gone up significantly, which means lots of applications. If other things are taken care, any IPO in the next few days, though procuderally very difficult, will be a big hit.
I have decided that instead of trying to write long and in-depth posts, small thoughts can be easily shared and thereby keep the blog active.
The current upswing can be explained only in Indian terms as normal valuation models fail to explain the fall and rise. What changed in two months - a stable government, mixed signals from US (minimum impact from Obama's taking charge), some stock specific signals, lots of big investors missing the election-results rally making them go after midcaps, etc etc.
Real estate is still precarious, trust levels between the developers and buyers at an all-time low and job-loss worries at an all-time high in the IT sector. But the prices have still not come down to reasonable levels and therefore better hold for some more time before taking the plunge.
Class of '09 appears to be placed fully now and I hope this placement season acts as a warning for the modern day gold-hunters, who assume that just by getting admission to a good B-school would ensure a high-paying salary.
Having run around for 14 years, I have decided it is time to hit decelarate button for sometime and allow others to go ahead and instead spend time on more important things in life. Lot of time is now going in to reading fiction, playing squash, watching movies with family, buying vegetables etc etc.
Delhi weather is becoming more agreeable and I think coming weeks would be much better
I have decided that instead of trying to write long and in-depth posts, small thoughts can be easily shared and thereby keep the blog active.
The current upswing can be explained only in Indian terms as normal valuation models fail to explain the fall and rise. What changed in two months - a stable government, mixed signals from US (minimum impact from Obama's taking charge), some stock specific signals, lots of big investors missing the election-results rally making them go after midcaps, etc etc.
Real estate is still precarious, trust levels between the developers and buyers at an all-time low and job-loss worries at an all-time high in the IT sector. But the prices have still not come down to reasonable levels and therefore better hold for some more time before taking the plunge.
Class of '09 appears to be placed fully now and I hope this placement season acts as a warning for the modern day gold-hunters, who assume that just by getting admission to a good B-school would ensure a high-paying salary.
Having run around for 14 years, I have decided it is time to hit decelarate button for sometime and allow others to go ahead and instead spend time on more important things in life. Lot of time is now going in to reading fiction, playing squash, watching movies with family, buying vegetables etc etc.
Delhi weather is becoming more agreeable and I think coming weeks would be much better
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