In Paris during first and second week of December

I was in Paris for an exchange program at HEC Paris. I was thinking what to right about. About Paris, the Louvre, La Eiffel Tower or so many famous places in Paris, but the idea which struck me was the difference in life style between an Indian and French. The question was raised by one of our fellow classmate from France. He was telling about his life and the point was that his father lived a better life than him while he and his father both are engineers and according to him this is happening since the so called emerging countries are asking their share of the pie. Although it is very obvious that with a higher growth rate the lifestyle of people in emerging countries is getting better, it is nowhere near to the lifestyle of people in developed countries. And I wondered is the development is a zero sum game and is India's or China's development will bring degrade the development of other countries. And even if it is doing so it is justified to some extent. We are growing it is because of our own capabilities and competitiveness, if we are getting jobs it is because we have the manpower and capability to do that.

The other thing which was interesting was a lecture by Indian ambassador in France. He was also trying to answer the same question and according to him this is the transition phase and things will take some time to settle. I think this is a period where world is moving towards equilibrium and people are feeling the effects of disequilibrium.

The most positive thing I think is now people from other countries are very much open about coming and working in India. Most of the students with whom we interacted showed their desire to work in India.

Coming to what we enjoyed most in Paris. We traveled to Champagne and tasted best Champagnes in the world. Boat trip on Seine was awesome and going around Eiffel tower was lifetime experience. Another experience which I enjoyed most was when I have to take trains and walk for 2.5 Kms with my luggage after I missed the taxi which came to pick me up at Airport. It was slightly scary but quite adventurous to walk in the woods to reach HEC.

After a long time

How can people become more disciplined, on their own or by control or they can’t be. Yesterday I met a person in BESCOM while working on a project. He looked very much annoyed with society .When we asked the question what BESCOM (Electricity supply company) is doing to bring down transmission and distribution losses and reduce power theft his anger just burst out. He related it to everything starting from bank failures in USA to all the problems with capitalism. He cursed everything from government, politicians to bureaucrats for problems of state electricity boards. But as a firm believer in free markets (Now) , I was almost out of sync with his ideas, I wanted to ask him a lot of questions but respecting his age,experience and passion for his thoughts, I asked very few. The problem with his ideas was that he was supporting something which spoils the tax payer’s money. Why the tax payer’s will pay for the inefficiencies of the SEBs. If SEBs are supplying power at low cost, eventually the tax payers are paying for that and then there are inefficiencies involved with tax collection and administrative expenses of SEBs. Why not directly pay that money for power. Then the question comes what about people who can’t pay high prices for electricity. First there is a need to find out who are people who can’t pay and then we need to target the subsidies to them. Why give free power to every farmer which causes over consumption, instead charge the marginal cost and use that for other development programs and other infrastructure development programs which will help in development of society. According to the person in BESCOM the conductor losses due to poor wiring is very high and government need to work on that , again who will pay for that tax payers, but why can’t SEBs do that by making profits and utilizing that fund instead of going through the tax mechanism. His argument was proper metering will not stop power theft; the question is why it can’t, how private companies are able to do it while SEB’s are not. Is it due to corruption of employees or due to less disciplined society? I think the technology is advanced enough to stop these thefts if it is used properly. My overall argument is no one should try to justify something which has some inherent problems, he was correct in pointing out the problems, but I differ with solutions he was suggesting.

Last blog of 4th term

Terms come terms go, we learn something , we don't learn many things. The question is how these learnings affect the way you think. Sometimes I feel they affect, during final year of B.Tech a prof told start looking at things like an engineer and I started trying and really it changed my view of machines. Same is now, now I also look at billboards on roads side. Enough is enough what am I writing.

I was reading articles of WSJ , one article was about Indian entrepreneurs, it talked about Dhirubhai and Sunil Mittal, how they built their umpires from scratch and how they fought the system and overcame all the hurdles, another story was about Muslim girls in Kolkata learning boxing to make a career out of it. I wanted to draw some conclusion from this, if life gives everyone a fair chance, if these girls have options will they still go for boxing or they will look for options which can yield better results. How they are forced to choose boxing as a career when they know that only one or two will become successful.

We went to IIMC for the sports meet and won the event there, every time I go to Kolkata I feel like this city will never change, it is the same for last 4 years, same Trams , no change in the shops, same old Taxis. Met a college friend after long time, it was nice. Saw a movie named " Love Aaj Kal", I don't know what the directors think about the viewer. If viewers will digest any rubbish talk. As told by one of the friends "nice movie if it is on mute".

This post is dedicated to Mr. Tyagi for his writing skills

Things around you affect your life in a big way

Life is such a journey you always find some thing in the way which forces you to change your path. For a long time I had the feeling that I am in control of my life. But as life started unfolding I realized that things and people around you control your life in a big way. They not only has the power to change the way you move forward but also the way you think about your life and future. A thing which always bothers me is " How much we learn from mistakes committed by others". And if we learn how much we use that learning to make our life better. I asked the same question from one of my friends and he presented a very different perspective, " a mistake for you might not be mistake for some one else". Did I ever thought in this manner, probably no. When you go to learn in a class room you not only learn from what you study but you actually learn from the people in the class room. During one of the classes today, I picked up a nice thought " Running your own business will be the most humbling experience in your life", you will learn to respect people. Coming again to mistakes, whenever I feel that I have committed a mistake, every mistake I can remember which I have committed in my life comes in my mind and I try to correlate the mistake I committed now to mistakes committed earlier by me. This helps me at least in taking one resolution, I will not commit this mistake again.

Trying to write in length on suggestion of another friend. I got a chance to go to the place where I started my professional career. Whenever I go to Hyderbad , I feel like this is my home. I don't know why this attachment is , why people at that place are so nice and supportive? Last month I met many people who worked with me, everybody is still the same( nice, supportive and encouraging) . Thanks guys!

Reflection on last one year

Today was first day of the 2nd year @IIMB. During the reorientation program we tried to think back and find out the changes which took place in everyone during the last one year. As they say “Change is the only immortal thing in life”, last one year has changed every one in IIMB. We filled one form which asked many questions on changes that can take place. When I was going through that questionnaire, one thing on which I was sure that I am now more open to people and their ideas. I know how to get the best out of some one and how to avoid some one @times. Life now looks as a place where you need to compete hard with an aim to achieve greater heights. When I look back and think about some incidences and my reaction on those, I can’t stop laughing. I don’t know the changes which I might not be able to see in myself happened for good or for bad , but surely there are some changes.

Free riders

I am thinking about righting on this topic for quite some time, but was not able to shape in which direction I should write.
Although I am still not very sure what to write, but let start writing .
"Free Riders" in IIMB lingo are people who just sit back and enjoy things while others are doing things to complete projects and presentations. But don't confuse that these people are less competitive or not interested in grades. They are the people who get best returns on their invetsments ( in terms of time). They think about themselves and don't bother about the victims( other persons in their neighbourhood).
This free riding is not limited to studies, it is an allround attitude of these people.
Last line should be " The people who are free riders are free beause others are allowing ".

one more milestone in journey called life

So, here it comes , end of 1st year at IIMB. Made new friends, met some old friends. If 1st year can be summarized in one word it will be "Interesting". MBA tought me how to work late night or sleep only in the day time. How to keep patience when things are not going your way( although this was the case every day here). Some new words added in the dictionary( r.g, c.p etc...............). 

Problem of selection

You always need to make choices in life, choices which will decide how well or worse you are going to be in the future. I am facing this dilemma now in choosing subjects for the next term. With markets in a slump, fin subjects are not on the priority list, but if markets are up by the time we pass out, not taking finance subjects can hurt. Marketing is necessary looking at the present market scenario and I like operations. What to choose, should I try to hedge against the losses. At this time hedging looks the better option to me. Take subjects from all fields, “Jack of all trades, master of none" condition.

Keep things Simple

At IIMB life becomes so complex and you do so many things you don't know how to react. My class mate and friend Saransh keeps telling me "Don't become part of the system"(although he himself is one), and live your life as you are. It took me more than one trimester to understand that. So the simple funda for me now is keep things simple. I am putting the photographs of our victorious cricket team from IIMA and IIMK. It's time to say good bye to seniors and best of luck to them for their future.  

Education might not change the way people think and behave

Last weekend I was in IIM Khozhikode for sports meet named Sangram. The way people behaved and treated each other reminded me of a nursery school. A school where people don't think before reacting. One might think that life is a all about learning and achieving the next level. But as told by some researchers your behaviour is determined by your past and IIMK guys showed that.

Some positives were that our cricket team won the match convincingly and we survived what ever happened there.