Bangalore Bytes

Hey folks! I'm back. After a real long time, scores of procrastinating sessions (mine) and complaining emails (by friends), I realized it was time I finally punched some thoughts onto my keyboard.

A lot has transpired ever since my last blog post... I have reached an important milestone in my career with the completion of my MBA at SPJ, Singapore. The last days of the program were all about mixed feelings. The 'not-so-good-feeling' about the program coming to an end was kind of neutralized by my parents’ week-long visit to Singapore and the wonderful time I had with them. And then we had some wonderful company in the form of Delnaz’s family.

My time in Singapore can be termed as one of the most memorable days of my life. However, following my career objectives had (earlier) ensured that I would be heading back to India post my MBA; for India is where the action really is.

Before I got from B-School back into the rat-race, I got a much needed opportunity to spend some days at home to unwind, relax and get in touch with myself. My stay in Mumbai was dotted with chance encounters and meets with some good old friends. These included 'Amjed Bhai' who kept running away from all Questions related to Shaadi.com, 'Mr. All Smiles' Rajesh who never missed an opportunity to pull everyone else's leg at Prashant's wedding in Thane, 'Chocolate Girl' Prachee who just kept that chocolate smile on, no matter how many bags (mine) she had to carry :) and the 'Maratha Prince' Rahul who still is in a dilemma about whether to get married first or go for that elusive MBA first. Net Net...Had a great time and by the time it was over, I was left wishing I could spend some more time with my family...

Next, I found myself headed for Bangalore to join i2, where I am based at present. A beautiful but sleepy garden city, Bangalore is still grappling to come to terms with the fact that it is now a major power center for India - thanks to IT. I am fortunate to have the company of other friends from B-School and beyond. 'The Almighty Lord' Easwar who can express even the smallest and simplest joys of life through the odes on his blog, 'Biscuit Queen' Delnaz who kept praying that Brittania doesn't post her to Mizoram, Shillong or some other remote Indian land to sell Biscuits, 'Juni Maitrin' (marathi) Shweta whom I got to meet after a really long-long time (21 years to be precise) and refresh some long forgotten memories. Thanks to them my transition to this garden City was really smooth.

That's all for now... There is a whole new bunch of interesting people I have come across in Bangalore. But more about them in my next post. Watch out!

The Nizam's Heritage Block.... The latest Buzz at S P Jain, Singapore!

I had promised to come back with more pics of the latest buzz at S P J - The newly restored Heritage Building... and here I keep my promise as always! :-)

I was always intrigued by the name "Hyderabad Road' ever since the day I landed here.
Yes, that's the name of the road on which the S P Jain, campus is located in Singapore.
Last month the new Leadership and Executive Education centre was inaugurated at the hands of the Education Minister of Singapore, Mr. Tharman Shanmugaratnam. Read more about the inauguration here.

On a quiet rainy evening after the inauguration, last week I sneaked into the new block and got trigger happy with my camera. :-D Here they are!!

Me at the entrance of the New Leadership centre...


The Leadership Centre was earlier a Royal Vacation Mansion of the Nizam of Hyderabad... That's why "Hyderabad Road". :-)

And now... let my pictures do the talking!

One of those cosy corners...


A close up of one of those frames is shown below... Take a quick glance... What do you see? a Horse jumping over an obstacle? Bingo! There you go... Wrong! Observe carefully now! Its actually a Camel!! and not a horse. :-)


An ornate but pricey glass chandelier...


A close up of a portrait of the Nizam...


The entire leadership block at S P Jain, Singapore is full of more such antique pieces... When I was done clicking my pics, I decided to take a look at the Garden, which is now being restored to its original royal beauty by the S P Jain administration.

And that's Vineet at the Amphitheatre Outside...

Finally, take a look at the open garden on the other side of the Heritage Building... which is a part of the campus too.

Singapore from the 72nd Floor of the 'Swiss Stanford' - EQUINOX

We reached the place early so we don't miss the beautiful sunset. However, the smog ensured that the sun disappeared behind it prematurely... thus ruining our chances... Yet we made the most out of it! :-)

Perched on the top of the Swiss Stanford, the Equinox is an elegant palce and a recent hit with Top Class Singaporeans.


I was lucky enough to find a cushy and comortable place near a glass pane and that kept me trigger happy with my camera :-D Was fun watch those cars go about the sqares with crazy madness while here we were on the top of the world... doing... JUST NOTHING! Felt like God. :-)


Singapore... minutes after sunset.

Singapore through the wine glass...

Amazing View of the Singapore river along with the city horizons.


The view of the CBD (Central Business District) includes Corp HQ's of Finanial & Telecom Companies like HSBC, Maybank, OCBC Bank, DBS and SingTel etc.

The Majestic Chinese Gardens

All set to exploit a rare free day... College Entrance as seen from the Library Reading Room which by the way is a designated Heritage Building... (more about it later)


The Breath-taking beauty at the entrance of the Chinese Gardens...


The Japanese Pagoda...

Spiral stairs Inside the Japanese Pagoda... (reminded me of the Boot House in Mumbai)


The breath-taking scene from the top of the Japanese Pagoda...


In the Bonsai Gardens... (The small tree in the green vase to my left was more than 80 yrs old and had miniature fruits on it. Amazing! Isn't it??)


The trail winding its way to the smaller twin pagodas...



And that's Bala at his best... :-D

Visit to Singapore National Museum

The Grand Old Museum Building...


Interiors of the Museum Entrance Dome...


A Typical Singaporean Family Tree in snaps...


Trace your roots at the Ancestral Family Tree Exhibition in the visitors' lounge...


On the way back... VIVO City Mall - the latest attractions among Mall-crazy Singaporeans.

European 3PL Summit and Outsourcing Logistics event

Recently came across this website about Europe's biggest Industry Conference held in Brussels, Belgium. Quite informative, specially if you are some one interested in the Supply Chain & Logistics Field. You will especially find it useful to understand who are the leaders in the SCM Space (Ya! Capgemini - my previous employer and i2 my next assignment share spare under the same roof here :-).

The website also lists info about latest in the Transportation and Logistics space.

Interested already?

Check it out, now!

Night Safari

Ambience at the entrance...

A specially made collage of the Night Safari Trip...


With friends at the Night Safari... (Looks more like a Benetton Advt. ! Doesn't it??) :-D

Another collage with folks in the Tram Ride...

Earthshaking EarthQuakes...

Day Tuesday, 6th March. Time - @ 11-11:15 AM.

I was in my room watching 'Notting Hill' when I felt someone hit my bed and move it... I ignored... It happened again and then again until the point I couldn't ignore it anymore!! I knew something was wrong. That it is an unexpected, unpleasant and earthshaking earthquake became evident when HP (Hiral Patel for the uninitiated :-) ) came to my room... hairs ruffled and shouting... "Hemant bhai bhagoo!! earthquake aya hai..." (Hemant!! Run, It's an earthquake!!").

And he wasn't alone... the entire passage was full of people running to 'save their souls'. I too joined them. We ran down 5 flights of stairs, hearts throbbing as if they are gonna pop out any moment out of their cabinets. Trust me... I never ran down 5 stairs at such an amazing speed ever before. Had it been an actual race, I bet I would have won hands down! :-)

On a serious note, Google News later revealed that there was a Major Earthquake in Indonesia that day followed by similar seismic activity a couple of hours later. It left more than 70 people dead. And the number of injured ran into thousands.

And now as I write this mail, there's newsflash on FT.com of fresh tremors in Melbourne, Australia and I wonder if this nature play is even going to stop.

My roomie, Jigar says next time you are in doubt, just watch the water in the glasses kept on our study tables. If there are ripples, you better take cover. Being from Ahmedabad and having experienced the Bhuj quakes first hand, he should know better.

I pray I never get to see those ripples though!! For handling earthquakes is definitely not my cup of tea!!

Either You Sell or you Don't !! There are no two ways about it !

Ah... Another refreshing Marketing experience! Kind of brought back memories from the BRAINWAVES era at Finolex when our publicity team had to do a lot of Institute and event selling to ensure that we achieve the sponsorship targets!

The occasion was the Career 2007 expo held annually by the Education Devp Board, Govt of Singapore. Growing rapidly in size and strength every year, the CAREER Expo Series has become the Largest and Longest career and educational event in Singapore and the region. It has maintained an impressive track record over the years with increasing number of quality exhibitors and visitors at each year’s exhibition and as a full time student; yours truly got the opportunity to represent S P Jain at the exhibition.

This year there were 3 different pavilions in the education sector:
Renowned Local & Foreign Institutions and Universities (S P Jain, NUS, NTU, UNSW etc.)
The European Pavilion (Les Roches, IMI, Switzerland etc.) and
Special Interest Pavilion (the most popular being the Casino Training Institute!!:-)

It was a kind of a totally different experience...

It was a kind of a totally different experience for a variety of reasons...


For one, I had never met so many people (more than a thousand) belonging to different races, ethnicity, occupations, countries and backgrounds; all in a span of just 3 days


Secondly, the event gave me a wonderful opportunity to model and develop my own elevator pitch for S P Jain and I can safely assume that by Day 3 I was able to optimise the pitch to 100% effectiveness.

Third, it taught me how to focus and market to the target audience. Not everyone can be given the same AIR time you know!

and fourth, it taught me much needed endurance in a typical sales role. It was very tiring to stand and interact with the seemingly never ending queue of visitors... (I almost crashed out after Day 3!! :) )

Some funny incidents...

It happened a couple of times that when I tried pitching the S P Jain, 1-year Dual City MBA model to a parent, he heard me out patiently and then said... "Dude, you know what? You have just sold my own MBA degree back to me!" I was flabbergasted! "How on earth can that be!!" I wondered...
“Yeah! I am an MBA from SP Jain, Mumbai - Batch 4, 1985, now working as a MD with a leading financial institution!", came the quick, assertive reply followed by a appreciative grin. :-)

And then there was this cute Chinese girl on day 1 who came to our stall and uttered "Easpee P ee Jaineee?"... I took off with my elevator pitch for the next one minute or so, she listened intently and then after I had finished my pitch, she innocently said "no Englisaa... only Chineseee...."
"Uh Oh!!" How I wished I vanished somewhere that very moment! "Puff...!!"

And then there were many interesting people I got a chance to work with... Nirmala Ma'm, who has got a helluva lots of enthusiasm that is utterly contagious (wow! she sold helicopters at one point in her career! How cool!!), Neethu, with whom I worked with for the World MBA tour as well, and many other including a 20-strong team of budding MBAs who just joined the S P Jain GMBA program.

I met some very famous people too... the Education Minister of Singapore, head of the EDB, an industrialist from Pune (India), a journalist from India and representatives and academics from leading universities.

We had a really good time I must say! And although our batch of 2007 is at the fag end of our mba life, I'd like to have the opportunity of an encore.

Placements...

Finally its that time of the year… ‘so called’ most important part of an MBA… Placements! I however think its nothing but a mad rat-race to nowhere. Ya nowhere! For most of the cos that come recruiting are the Bhed-Bakri Software Recruiters (ya that’s my term for cos hiring in bulk as if they were buying livestock!). And I know once you become a part of those glamorous names, you loose your identity and just become a part of the crowd. You soon realize that no one is actually listening to you…. that the race you ran on ‘Day 0’ of placements so madly, actually led you nowhere! But alas its too late!

And then you stop worrying. Who cares anyways you think? Why should you care?

With the vulgar imbalances in the Rupee to Dollar ratio, who in the Indian software industry cares a damn shit about those lesser things like better productivity, resource utilization, turn around strategies et all? None! There are no challenges to face! Their entire life just focuses on how they can ‘bill’ thy clients per hour and keep the cash registers ringing. You become Bean-Counters (remember what Lee Iacocca said about MBAs? :-). You soon start wondering if all the Org Behavior, the Research Methodology, the Financial Management and other courses you took were good for nothing!

And that’s precisely why some people consciously opt to work for more satisfying roles in smaller companies. Because they know that they will find the perfect roles there… roles that will not just improve their self-worth, but give them that feeling of responsibility, achievement and an ideal launch pad into the real world of business... where making profits is not a joke! For when you do not enjoy the blessings of a cash-rich employer, you have to go the extra mile to clinch that next deal, and thus learn a lot in the whole process. This habit of going the extra mile then becomes your USP. And this USP makes you even more successful...

Because at the end of the road you realize that....

it’s not the final destination that matters...
...it is the journey to that destination that makes all the difference!

Gururaj Deshpande-TiE Singapore

As a member of the ENC Club at S P Jain, I got an opportunity to meet and Interact with Mr. 'Desh' Deshpande, leading Venture Capitalist and founder, Chairman of Sycamore Networks, Inc. KK, my classmate has jotted down his thoughts on this meet. Click here to read more about the interesting interaction!

BRAINWAVES is BACK!

Tonight while I was surfing the web in my Hostel Room, I decided to take a detour and opened the FAMT website. And I was absolutely glad to see the BRAINWAVES’2007 name flying high in the news ticker (http://famt.ac.in/brainwaves/ .

Ideally, the preparations must have already begun. My experience says that the last 20-25 days before the event are the most hectic... planning the food, accommodation, the stage backdrop, food menu, even the basic things like purchasing Mosquito repellents for use in the Participant accommodations and much more… The list is infact endless… I know this is just the tip of the ice-berg!

I still remember the wonderful time me and my 120 member strong organizing team had during BRAINWAVES'03. Those late nights and weekends, sleeping on a hungry stomach at times... and not sleeping at all at times (like at the time of dispatching the posters and getting the backdrop ready before D’Day)!

I Miss all those good old days… the rush of adrenalin that we used to get on receiving dozens of entries from every nook and corner of Maharashtra (BRAINWAVES was state level then!)…
the way Committee Coordinators motivated and led their committee members...
the Charismatic leadership of Sajiv Nair and Aditya Nogriya and the way they led the 1st State Level Brainwaves...
the hot coffee that Shintre Kaka (our very own Security Guard) prepared for all of us when we stayed in the college till late night…
the mouth watering Wada-Pav that someone (usually Anup Talwar) used to bring at 3:00 AM, from the middle of nowhere to our utter delight and which we ate with utmost relish…
and the happiness that we felt within for each pat on the back by our faculty members appreciating the work done by the entire BRAINWAVES family.

I am sure the legacy continues to grow with each and every passing year!

Over the year BRAINWAVES has brought about tremendous name and increased awareness and visibility about FAMT. BRAINWAVES, makes me a proud Finolexian even today and I am sure it has contributed in its own way to every single person’s life who has ever been a part of the BRAINWAVES family!

Sajid has already established a BRAINWAVES community on Orkut it’s adding new Ex- BRAINWAVESians every hour.

Keep up the good work! All the Best for making BRAINWAVES’07 a Thundering success! Yet AGAIN!!

Shine Always!

New Years Eve In Singapura...

On New Year's Eve this year all roads in Singapore seemed to lead to just one destination... the Siloso Beach on Sentosa Island.

Picture this:

- A spectacular display of lasers, moving lights and pyrotechnics,

- Singapore's biggest beach dance party,

- a giant dance floor under the stars,

- a fantastic line-up of non-stop party music from Hip Hop, Retro, Trance and Chill Out music,

- Fire-eaters, dancers, stilt-walkers, temporary tattoos, palm readers,

- Singapore's and Indonesia's best M-TV DJs battling it out as they pumped up the volume from an 18 feet tall tower,

- Hottest Music jointly produced by M-TV and the Sentosa Trust,

- The Hottest Tourist Crowd from across the globe,

- and above all an explosive countdown to a brand new year!

That's how we celebrated this New Year's Eve, my Best New Year Bash so far by any means!! This was the first time in months that I got a chance to spend a chill night out with mah friends and let me tell you... we just rocked! With Just Exhilarating fun with non-stop events throughout the night and the foam dance that went on till dawn, we wished the night would never end. It felt awesome to celebrate the New Year by welcoming the New Year's rising sun... something I always wanted to do.

In retrospect, 2006 was a very eventful year.

June 6th saw the turning point when I bid good bye to a wonderful job at CG to set sail on a journey called an International MBA.

The first six months in Dubai had their own ups and downs. The white turbaned sheiks and their burkha clad 'wives' (no, the plural is not a mistake), the white sand flying all over the place and the air-con villas, the Dubai construction boom complete with the cranes and mushrooming malls. The never before seen cars and the affluent lifestyles. The way the Arabs do business and our futile attempts to try to understand why every damn Company name had to start with an "Al".

Net-Net it has been an awesome learning experience all the way with Singapore now turning out to be a totally different ballgame altogether.

Let’s wait and watch and see what the New Year has in store for me... Tell me how was your experince this new year's eve. Let thy comments flow in!

Ciao!!

Warming Up...

Things have finally started getting hotter by the moment now. Classes have started full throttle and I have started feeling the heat despite the cool rainy Singapore weather. But I don't attribute all that to the deadlines or the packed schedules. Many other things have changed too.. A kinda new phase. Some people who were close have gone away and some who were far off have barged in. Some had to be intentionally pushed down the 'relationship priority list' while others have come up now. A challenging thing to face I must add! However then, that's what adds spice to life and it's bound to happen all the while. Imagine, how dull life will be if you got to see all the same people around all the time? :-)

Life on the academic front has been busy too. First there was this classy truly intellectual lecture series on IT Leadership and Strategies by our Dean which included a video titled "The world is Flat" by Thomas L. Friedman. Then there was this young MBA student "Vijay Rao" from the Nanyang Business School presenting his ideas of how to turn blogging into a profitable exercise. Innovative idea I must say! Then was the much awaited ERP series by another senior faculty from Paris (who also happens to be an ex-IBM’er to the core). The ERP series concluded with a lecture by a senior person at IBM Singapore about the SOA Architecture and IBM's strategy behind it.

And now… as part of the Visiting Wisdom Series, we have Robin Sharma, the renowned author of "The Monk Who sold his Ferrari" coming on campus on 26 January 2007. I have read almost all his books and am looking forward to see him in Singapore. Will be a great learning experience I guess.

Hmm… That’s all for now! Got to attend a meditation session tomorrow morning at 7! Got to sleep now to cool down a bit… Zzzzz.

Welcome To Singapore

I can't really believe that it has been exactly a month since I last updated my Blog! Time just flew by and I did manage to do a lot of things. Flew back home from Dubai for a very short 14 Day break, completed my SGP formalities, met up with some friends, did some pre-departure shopping et all... and finally landed in Singapore on 19th Nov.

But hey! What did I do all this time after I came to S'pore? Hmm... Well I must say, I just did 1 thing... explored... explored... and just explored. And let me tell you; it was FUN!! The Beautiful College campus, Marriot's VIP lounge, Vivo city Mall, Harbor Front et all... Singapore is very much like India and sooo much 'Unlike' Dubai. Even the names of some places are like India... Crawford Market, Little India, Dhobey Ghaut, Hyderabad Road and Mustafa Market to name a few.

In fact Singapore is such a happening place. It rains a lott and yet there is always something happening all the time. I also zeroed down on the Maharashtra Mandal in Singapore (click here) where I found that the Maharashtra CM, Mr. Vilasrao Deshmukh is on a visit to the beautifully planned City State on 1st Dec '06.

I also got a chance to have very informative interactions with a lot of Indian Students studying in leading Universities like NUS, NTU and they have helped me in understanding the local culture better and very quickly. Singapore feels like a home away from home. It definitely has something that makes you feel at home... that welcome feeling which you will only get in some serene Indian cities like Pune.


That's it for now. It's almost 2:15 AM. Need to catch up with some sleep. Don't want to fall asleep in Class tomorrow :-)

Catchya soon!!

P.S.: Here's the link to some snaps I uploaded on Yahoo! Photos... Check 'em out by clicking on this Post's Title "Welcome to Singapore" above

I'M BACK !!

Aha!! I’m done with the Exams finally. Feels Great! And with all the stress out of my head, I now have some time “Just for me”. It’s so different to have nothing to do at all. The last five months in Dubai have just whizzed past. Today as I soaked lazily in the hot water bath tub, I realized how much time comes at a premium in a 1-year MBA program.

We did however make the most out of any free time that came our way. I try to recount some of these memorable moments that we had in term 1 in Dubai in this post…

Our first group outing was to the Jumeirah Beach in Dubai. One incident I do recall vividly is when ‘bugzee’ almost scared the hell out of us when she (sort of) fainted and remained submerged under the waves for a few ‘tense moments’. Thanks to some of us who were nearby that “Bugzee’ was pulled out to the shore – safe but terrified. None of us had a clue how she fainted but the explanation we got was that ‘a huge wave’ had caught her unaware and so blah blah blah… Now that’s what I call ‘an absolute thriller’!

Then there was the overnight trip to Fujeirah beach with the entire Dubai Cohort. We started late evening from campus and came back in the wee hours of the next morning. The beach was great… clean white sand and the place seemed much cooler than Dubai. However this time too… there was something more in store for me.

Two hours into the fun (soccer, volleyball, waves, getting wet, food, bar-be-que etc.) and Gaurang got himself into trouble when he injured his knee while scoring a goal. Seeing his agony and the tears in his eyes, we feared it might be a fracture. After a futile attempt to ease the pain using painkillers et all, we quickly swung into action, summoned a vehicle and rushed him to a nearby hospital (this was the first time I found myself searching fanatically for a hospital at 2:30 AM, in a completely unknown city). Luckily we found a Government Hospital soon enough. A careful examination, an X-Ray by a sleepy apprentice, a painkiller injection and an hour later, the Doc beamed “It’s just a bad sprain young fella! Nothing to worry about.”

We were relieved and glad it was nothing serious. Gaurang was even gladder and in his eagerness he asked the doc, “Can I play football tomorrow?” A long pause followed. I couldn’t believe my ears! Neither could Kaushik or Alok. This chap, who was writhing in pain just 10 mins back, now wants to play football again! “Can You?” asked the Doc in reply; breaking the awkward silence in the room. And we all burst into laughter.

Gaurang took more than a month to recover, thanks to a wheelchair and crutch (courtesy: Damodar Sir) and lots of caring friends ;-). The hospital incident made my Fujeirah trip even more memorable. Thanks to ‘PC’ and gang for making this trip happen! This trip meant the end of Term-1 and helped us rejuvenate for the upcoming Term-2 in SPJCM, Dubai.

Term-2 brought along with it more work and still lots of fun too. But more on that, later in my next post… Catchya then!

P.S.: I clicked a snap of the Dubai Creek side last night with my new SONY Digicam. And it came out just fine. I have just uploaded it in this post. Hope you'll like it!

I'M BORED !!

Uh.. Oh!! I'm sooo... bored!

It's so unlike Diwali over here... Hmm.. Well.. 2 reasons.
1. "Diwali in Dubai" is not such a wonderful idea after all !
and...
2. The End Term exams of the 3rd (and final) term will begin soon.

But I still managed to get some time off click some snaps on my new SONY digicam and surf the Net... Came across this kinda different survey site. Check it out here if you want to know a thing or two about your own self... :)



Hmm... SCM is the 1st paper. Guess I need to get started. Better late than Never ;-)

Ciao!!

DIWALI in DUBAI !!

LOL! It just gets crazier... Can you believe it, there is a 3rd Term exam, a Final SGP (Special Group Project) Report submission and several other assignment submissions... all scheduled for next week! I can’t believe it myself! But hell, this Term 3 pales out in comparison to the First and the Second terms. We had all the BIGGIES then... Accounting, Marketing & Finance!! Phew, for someone who has no idea of any of these, man, these BIGGIES were a challenge in itself!

Ok, now let me stop complaining... looks like I am doing a lot of it these days... (I bet my friend PC will agree with me on this point at least :-) ). This blog has been like ‘give-vent’ kinda things where I can crib about the amount of work! To all those who are trying to make it to their dream schools, I don’t really want to scare you away but just want to tell ya that it is not easy! Of course, I am learning & my li’l mind is expanding in exploding proportions & my vocabulary has just incremented exponentially to include many complicated jargons just so, I can get away without the other person even realizing what actually happened. ;-) (If you didn’t really understand that, let it pass... it was nothing worthwhile anyways !)

Term 1 was bad in terms of Time Management... Term 2 was a li'l better... Guess I need to 'strategize' much more henceforth. So, all my dear friends out there (mostly in India), maybe you may not see many posts on my blog this Term. But I will try my best! Okie, now, got to rush to my Telecom Management Class!! Ah…And did you know money had time value attached to it & not just value! LOL!

PS: Have been losing sense of time here! I almost forgot... I will be missing all the Diwali fun and the crackers this festive season...
Neways, A Very Happy Diwali/Deepavali to one & all! Have a BLAST folks… while I blast my deadlines over here and join you on 5th November’06. Ciao!!