It’s been quite a while since I’ve been blogging – call it a bad case of writer’s block, or so much going on in life, that its overwhelming to sit down and write about it.

So what has been going on?

Transition to Facebook

I wouldn’t say I’m hooked to FB, but it’s the way to network now. I like Orkut more still for its simplicity, but I guess it is time to move on.

MBA Dreams

It was tough to finally realize it has happened, after 2 years of long waitlists and rejections. I’m super excited and happy to be going my top choice school and to be in a city as super as Chicago. It was one my favorite cities of all the intra-US traveling I did last winter. And I am totally in-sync with my school’s motto – “To be the best business school for the world, besides being the best business school in the world”

Sports

It’s been a real case of severe up and downs for Liverpool and Ferrari this year. More on that to follow in subsequent posts.

Here’s hoping I get into the flow of posting….

One of the most exciting Formula-1 finales of my time. The rookie, the pretender and the king, all locked in a fierce battle for the crown. The pretender triumphs – and the world championship is back in the Ferrari stables.

This was the season Kimi grew up – stopped acting like a spoiled brat, and gave his machine some respect. Maybe he realized the enormity of the shoes he was asked to fill, maybe it was being associated with the most legendary name in Motorsport or maybe it was the silent practice of Omerta – he fought his battles on the racetrack as his rivals washed dirty linen in public.

Never one to talk much, couple of incidents involving him stand out:

- In Brazilian GP qualifying, his final hot lap was disturbed by Hamilton. Not a word to the press.

- Accused of being unfriendly with reporters, he said “I’m not supposed to be good at this. You are the guys with polished speaking skills. I drive a car faster than anyone else around – thats my job. If you can do my job better, do it.”

Kimi has been my favorite for a long time, and it was disappointing to see him at McLaren. When he moved to Ferrari, my loyalties in Formula-1 were not conflicting with each other anymore – and I hoped he would eventually get his deserved championship one day. In his first season with his new team – thats a fine start.  One of the unsung heroes of this great victory will be Felippe Massa, donning the role of Barrichello in hopefully what is going to be the beginning of the Raikkonen era.

Interlagos on 21 Oct, 2007  reminded me of Istanbul on May 25, 2005.  Maybe its about underdogs beating the odds , or maybe its just about painting canvasses red.

This fictional piece of writing is a supplement to http://amitdas.wordpress.com/2007/07/19/lalaji-ki-kahani-chotu-chaiwale-ki-jubani/

For those who don’t understand what we are saying – you were never meant to!

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Once upon a time there was an engineer , who went to work with the biggest snore in the Indian BPO dream (the same firm chotu chaiwala worked for once upon a time). Nobody knew him and nobody paid attention to him (infact it seemed nobody paid him as well!).

As it happens, he interviewed – he pleaded – he didn’t want to write or test codes – he wanted to deliver business impact – he wanted to work hard, he was creative, committed and passionate. Then one day it happened. He went to a state of the art chai shop at the very far end of the Millennium City. He met Chotu Chaiwala, and liked the cup of tea he was served. ChiMAN Sallu and ChoteLAL were next (somewhere in between was a old red mare..she’s long gone now though…replaced by Catbert). An offer was made, and the offer was accepted with joy.

The fairytale began. Chota Chotu liked it. Sardar khush hota tha, shabashi deta tha….kabhi kabhi gaali bhi deta tha…raat bhar chai ki recipes change karta tha….Chota Chotu didn’t mind – he just mined – data, text – he did them all. He kicked off his BOOTs, lived in the office like a CAMPer and soon he was termed as a good catch (PAKaDD) by his bosses. He felt loyal, and though offers were soon to start pouring in, there was no chance of inFIDELITY. There was an AMERIcan PRISE waiting for him.

While Chota Chotu was working hard, a Rashan ka dragon swallowed up Lalaji’s Chai Shop. Soon, Chota Chotu’s fellow helpers were leaving, and when Chotu Chaiwala himself left (due to bulls making MERRy while Chotu Chaiwala was getting ILL), Chota Chotu thought hard. He wanted to move with Chotu Chaiwala to the new chai shop, but somehow the other chai shop’s tea flavor promised to set in a year later. Chota Chotu stuck to his old chai shop, and got back to work. He served OUTSTANDING tea, but alas, there were no tips. He was promoted to Senior Chota Chotu (SCC), but he got paid as much as any other Chota Chotu. Meanwhile, the chai shop was no longer only a chai shop. FARMERS were producing grain day and night, and TRAVELERS were busy trying to sell it during the day. The mediators were getting all the pay hikes, while those who toiled and traveled got pay cuts. Somewhere along the way, the big lalas continued to visit the chai shop, and talked about integrating the chai shop into the rashan ka dragon – well they thought, rationed sugar would sure make the cost of the tea cup go down due to synergies!

Thats how it stands…the chai shop is still being integrated into the rashan ka dragon, and Chota Chotu (now Senior Chota Chotu) is still working hard….the number of chai shops in the vicinity is now in hundreds, and while Chota Chotu (now Senior Chota Chotu – he reminds himself very often – too often it seems) thinks about switching chai shops, the sands of time are flowing as before…

If you were looking for a fairytale ending to this story..I’m sorry it doesn’t exist (not for now anyways)

To my fellow Chota Chotus and ex-Chota Chotus – this story is dedicated to all of you. I’ve grown fat and bald in my times with you, and I hope sometime in the future our paths will cross again at other Chai Shops and Rashan ke dragons – and sometime I hope we can start our own Coffee shop, where the beans are always fresh, the coffee is always hot, and we have self-service instead of table service!

Updated (March 2008) :: Lalaji is now gone, ChoteLAL has become the new Lala, Singh is King (promoting his pawns), Bonus cuts, Catbert ignorance, ‘Father’ deserting his sons, and god knows what’s next! Sit tight!

Investment Banking (IB) is a sure shortcut to huge money – that is one thing everyone agrees on. My life happens to be full of graduates from “Double I” schools of India – as my bosses, peers, friends, siblings of friends, distant relatives etc. – and one thing you can gauge from the voices of people who are not investment bankers is that they would like to do that more than anything else in the world.

Personally speaking, I have never seen the thrill in the IB game, partly because of my ignorance and partly because of my belief that I am never going to be good with money matters (not that I don’t open my eyes wide in mock amazement when I hear figures of year end IB bonuses – amounts of money that I won’t probably earn in 10 years).

Liar’s Poker is a wonderful attempt at recreating the IB life – from a beginner to a seasoned I-Banker – and the story of the most successful I-Bank on Wall Street. The book also dwells fairly deep into the technical level details of the game, though certainly it is not to be treated as a “Trading Mortgage Bonds for Dummies” title!

What I understood from the book? Certainly, the work environment is not for the faint hearted (or should I say don’t carry your heart to your trading desk). When people in the same firm are out to screw you, there’s really no use of saying something like “watch your back” – as a full frontal attack is allowed and part of the rules. You’ve just got to hope your screwdriver works better than others and the screws at the top of your head are in place.

Bosses who pay themselves too much, and are taking the firm towards annihilation – I guess they are everywhere. Since the game is all about making millions in a flash, and everyone is trying to do the same thing, it should not come as a surprise if the boss pays himself like there’s no tomorrow. Unfortunately, if the same boss talks about virtues like loyalty, he would not find many listeners.

While the book traces the history of Salomon Brothers, I cannot help but compare it to my current workplace / domain of work. As a quick and dirty sequence of events:

A small firm doing exceedingly well in its area of work –> A brilliant new diversification idea –> Firm makes lot of money –> Merger / Acquisition (read as “people at top get rich quick”) –>Profit sharing absent for people at the bottom –> One bad season –> Panic –> Firm becomes talent seeding ground for competitors –> Too many players in the market –> Firm goes into consolidation mode –> Becomes just another player in the market as compared to holding several pioneering advantages earlier –> Business profitability heads south

Coming to the broader topics of “Evolution of Organizations” and Organizational Behavior (which are areas of my interest), there are too many of these stories floating around – and there is a certain sense of acceptance and inevitability of this kind of behavior whenever you talk of a startup. While the stock owners make very good money (and rightly so), people at the bottom (who have seen their careers grow with the firm and feel a sense of loyalty) are severely disillusioned. What I fail to understand is, if for a million dollars less in my kitty (out of several million dollars) I can make everyone feel an inclusive part of the growth and hold on to my prized talent pool for a longer period – why will I choose not to do that? And why will I choose to do that only in times of desperation when the hollowness in my heart is very apparent?

This is a question to several of the “leaders” I have seen so far. And hopefully, when I ask this question to myself one day, I will make the right choice.

True, it was unrealistic to expect a set of very average footballers to beat legends twice, but they were clearly the better side throughout the game – and they demonstrated their grit and dedication again.

What they lacked was inspiration – what they lacked was Steven at the top of his form – and lady luck deserting Rafa. They did it in 2005, and it would be very unfair to hold them responsible for the defeat – as I’m sure many Liverpool fans might be doing right now.

Milan had a minimal impact game from their star performers, and Inzaghi – I like to call him the “wild” card, scored each time he was not offside – intentionally or not, that is another issue! Not to be hypocritical, I would not have minded the ball hitting Crouch’s head twice and going through Dida’s fingers if it meant Liverpool would have been champions of Europe again.

What was clearly evident was, Football lost and the better side did not win the game. I am a huge fan of Maldini, and am glad he won his 5th Champions League title, but his contribution was nowhere as significant as it was in the previous 4 winning campaigns. Kaka and Gattusso are the real champions of this Milan side of 2007, and full marks to them. Milan know in their hearts that they hold the trophy, but it is Liverpool’s name which is written on it.

What do I get by supporting Liverpool is a question many of my football crazy pals have asked me, and they support clubs where the weekly wages of one of the players make up for yearly wages of most of the Liverpool players put together. What I get is inspiration – what I know is that you are most valued where you make your bones, not where the fans of the very club you play for jeer you if you do not perform in one game, or the club does not get any silverware for one season, or where you are viewed as a business acquisition than a human being.

But above all, what I get is that feeling of ecstacy, maybe for once in my entire lifetime, when I did not switch off the television at half-time during the early hours of May 26, 2005, and saw my team achieve the impossible. What I saw was how one man galvanised 11 foot soldiers into fierce knights, and when Istanbul was painted Red.

Go Pool – You’ll never walk alone.

Below is the text of a farewell mail one of my good buddies at work wrote when he quit. Makes you think….

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Dearest Friends/Seniors,

Kunal
—

There are some things you can’t quantify – which is the weekly frustration of travelling on NH-8 during peak hours…the time I lose (which I would have spent with my family), the dust I inhale, the damage the rickety roads cause to my car, and the frustrated mindset with which I reach home / office.

But here’s a very simple assessment of the situation from the economic point of view:

No. of car trips on NH-8 daily : over 1,00,000 (from a TOI article of 2005, this number might be much greater now) – http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1255299.cms

Peak hour trips = 70,000

Cars/vehicles on petrol = 65%, Diesel = 35%

On average, distance covered during one trip = 40 kms

Again, a conservative estimate of the extra fuel spent per trip = 1 L of petrol/diesel (for simplicity sake, I’m not considering different mileages for petrol and diesel engine)

Fuel loss cost per day for pertrol vehicles = 1 L * 0.65 * 70000 * 45 Rs/L = approx Rs. 2.1 million

Fuel loss cost per day for diesel vehicles = 1 L * 0.35 * 70000 * 34 Rs/L = approx Rs.800,000

Daily loss is to the tune of INR 3 million – this is a very conservative estimate.

Monthly loss – INR 90 million

Delay in this project – 20 months (deadline was June 2005) = Rs. 1800 million

Multiplying this figure by 1.5 (to offset the conservative estimates) = Rs. 2700 million

Total cost of this project = Rs. 550 crores = Rs. 5500 million (http://www.srei.com/media_del.htm)

So besides the non-quantifiable factors, fuel costs alone have cost 50% of this project’s value.

Other points:

1) Govt has a neat 16-24% share in petrol / diesel revenues

2) India’s oil import bill is over Rs. 1000 billion (this is a mere 0.3% of it – so not a big deal for the big babus)

3) Full financial disclosure from NHAI, Jaypee DSC (contractors) would reveal at least100-150 people who have become millionaires (if not billionaires) during execution of this project.

4) Noida toll bridge was constructed at a cost of Rs. 4.08 billion = Rs. 4080 million (within time, and with a superior quality of construction) http://www.ilfsindia.com/group_co.asp?gmchild=8

Here’s a consultant’s assessment of the team….done in Excel, filtetred, colored and the goods!

Hoping to spark off a fiery debate!

Update: Was unable to successfully convert the XLS to HTML – hence you guys need to download the DOC file

Update: New version of the teamsheet – Check it out (Feb 5, 2006)

indian_team_wc2007_aj_v03.ppt

I fell in love with this place in just about 15 minutes the first time I went there. It has become the “Inductis farewell party” joint for us in the past 3 weeks

The ambience here is a wonderful blend of dim lights, comfortable furniture and AMAZING music – whether it be their live band (Monday & Wednesdays) or their in-house DJ. None of your hindi, punjabi or english pop numbers here – what you get is choicest variety of Rock and Metal – both old and contemporary. When you want to jive, some pretty rocking dance numbers start blaring out as well. The clientele here is very young and its a place where everyone is very well behaved. You see a lot of the foreign faces around as well – and they add a lot of spice to the place. Ambience is THE USP of this place.

Coming to the drinks – the cocktails are simply out of this world! Their bartenders know how to make the usual stuff very well – you get wonderfully stiff LITs and Bloody Marys. The lesser known stuff – Beer Blasters, Mojitos and Lip Liners are better than almost all the bars / pubs I have visited in Delhi or Gurgaon. Their happy hours extend till 9.30 PM in the night – and they are kind enough to take your last drink orders at 9.29 PM and serve those drinks at 10.30 PM

The food is spicy, andI have almost never tasted something on their menu which didn’t please my tastebuds. Their Crispy Lamb is a must eat – and some other stuff you should have are their chicken drumsticks, fried fish and fried button mushrooms. The satays are also good.

All this said and done – their service is also top notch. These guys know how to take care ofyou. You will never feel even a hint of displeasure towards the service – and that takes some doing. During one of our sit-ins, we managed to spill one of the Tequila shots we ordered, and without our saying so, it was replaced for us free of cost! We ran up a bill of a few thousands – that’s another story though!

Ambience – 10/10

Drinks – 10/10

Food – 9/10

Service – 9.5/10

Its a place you don’t want to miss in Gurgaon!

There are 2 levels of this movie: when you consider it only as a movie, and take all the performances for face value. The second level is where you draw analogies to Dhirubhai Ambani’s life and try to dwell deep there.

At the Movie Level: Abhishek Bachchan stands out. If anyone had any doubts about his acting prowess (I never did, after his initial couple of movies) – they should surely be answered now. His dialogues are simple in words, but profound in effect. Of course, Mani Ratnam’s screenplay helps bring out the best in him – but this has to be Bachchan Junior’s finest performance till date. From schoolboy grins to young dreams to putting his detractors in their place, he does it all very well.The beauty of this movie is that characters have been in and out of the movie to highlight Guru”Bhai”Kant Desai’s life and times. Aishwarya Rai is the only constant feature – and delivers a better performance than her recent misadventures in Dhoom 2 and Umrao Jaan. Other actors – Mithun Da (in a worthwhile role after God knows how long), Madhavan, Vidya Balan etc deliver their little cameos effectively and fade out. The beginning is powerful, the middle enchanting and the end inspiring. The only thing which feels a bit out of place are the dance sequences – which do not gel that well with the flow of the movie. Mind you, Rahman’s music is as soothing as ever – though this is not one of the “to be remembered forever” scores from him.

At the next level, you are trying to draw parallels to the great Dhirubhai Ambani’s life – you would find ample common there. The facts shown in the movie (15000 bucks to start, paralysis of the right hand, the first Merc – the same model was shown in the movie) are right out of reality. There are small variations to the plot, most notable being that the movie shows him having 2 daughters – leaving out his 2 “illustrious” sons (and leaving out the possibility of a sequel as well!).

My take – go and watch it, and when the DVD comes out, add it to your collection. This is one movie you would want to watch once every few years – maybe just to realize that indeed dreams can become reality.

Update on Jan 15, 2007:  Bachchan Junior and Ash got engaged last night. Its a sad day.