The Year that was: 2010

3 trips to remember
Beauty of Mountains: Shimla What a break it was indeed, after a grueling schedule of shuttling between Panipat and Delhi. It came as a breather, staying in shimla for 3 days, roaming around like crazy, a great dine and a lil old wine, and all this with 2 of my best friends.



Catch the future: Bhubaneswar: Business at its best. A summit that attracted intellectuals, investors, government bodies and investment seekers- A great recipe for future.



Back to roots: Telanwali After a long time, the whole family was together on the occasion of Diwali. Laughter were left loose again, memory lanes were visited, sweets were on every menu, farmhouse visits, cricket at farmhouse and an unusual guest. All the more fun, all the more folks.


3 Books that left an impression
A Brief History of Time- Stephen Hawkings (Science)
Rich Dad, Poor Dad- Robert T Kiyoski (Business, Finance)
Twilight- Stephenie Meyer (Love Story, drama, Thriller)


3 People who met and are there
Pankaj Chaudhary: My teacher for my CAT prep and now a colleague. Nice to get back in touch with Pankaj. But this time, as a friend, not as a teacher. A great, down to the earth personality with expertise knowledge in his area. We are jelling well with lots of fun around.

Mr Ramachander, T.I.M.E. Delhi A very creative, helpful person. Played a big time role in setting up my business. BTW yet to meet him in person.

Tanvi ‘cutie pie’: Friendly, tension free, ready to jump for new things and a girl with unparallel devotion to her work. You will never feel bored in her company. A good friend.
An extended list
My Christmas Gift: Too early to comment anything.



3 incidents that still scare me
Brand Factory: Bought a new T-shirt from a mall and was wearing it for the first time. A few praises and a few likings. But this girl (a friend of mine with whom I just started spending some time) had no effect of this t-shirt. It became a routine wear. And then suddenly one day, when I was wearing this T-shirt for nth time, the small logo which was hidden near cuff area was visible. “PUMA, Oh my god. Wow. Nice T-shirt yaar” screams the girl. Last time I met the brand factory.

Finals of Badminton
Intra College Badminton championship was going on. I was playing really well and semi-finals in no time (both categories single and double). And then it struck. Fever. Lasted for three long days. I got my matches shifted to the extent possible. Finally had to withdraw from Singles. Thought of giving a try at Double where you can still play with your mind and your partner’s strengths. BTW got two Red Bulls as well, so relying on that strength as well. But due to too much of shifting, my semi-final and final of doubles were on the same day. Two Red bulls lasted only for two sets of Semis. In final, we were beaten like hell. We were no match for opposition. My legs were not moving at all. A bizarre ending to a long and almost everyday badminton practice.

3 Days’ torture
From dad’s warnings to mom’s emotional atayachar, 3 days were really hard to pass when they threatened me to marry. Was being called from Panipat on a note of unprecedented love. As soon as I unpacked my bags, a bomb blasted “Tomorrow we are gonna see a girl. Get ready at 9AM.” I was dead. Mere sab friends ki gaaliyan asar dikha rhi thi. I know how it was to avoid it all for threeeeee long days of my stay.

I would remember this year as a transition phase to business life. Liminal phase I must call it.

Going to miss my Alma-Mater

3.30 in the morning and I am not feeling sleepy at all, despite a tiresome day. It’s my last day at SIBM Campus (‘Symbi Resort’ as we fondly call it), last day of my MBA experience, may be last day of my official student life. Fascinating has been the discussion tonight with four of my close friends about the 2 year experience. Revised the whole chapter over few hours and a couple of drinks. From the day 1 of SIBM campus and 1st round of drinks; we started the analysis phase leaving no teacher or student unturned. From personality analysis to one word definition, from fresher to farewell, from awesome personalities to nerds awards, from eccentric groups to serious couples, from academic rigor to well shaped figure; we discussed about almost everything under the roof of SIBM.

Two years seem like 2 days; as if it was just a few days back when I started from home with my bags packed. Came to campus with an open mind ready to see a new world, observe, involve and learn from it. A fresher Economics Graduate, coming out of his state for the first time had a clean slate to get prints from the real world. And now sitting at the last junction of these two years, I can safely say that my expectations have been met with panache. Leaned a lot, laughed a lot, slept a lot (not only in the class but also in the room), partied a lot and most important of all- made friends for a life time. Where else will I get such a talented bunch of people with diversified knowledge, who also happen to laugh, dance, shout and cry with you.

Certainly going to miss this place a lot. Going to miss tapri (and delicious omlette it serves), badminton court (where 23% of my awake time has been spent), card games late at night (fight to become ultimatum bluffmaster), Goa visit at the special request from College (!!), Chandna (Ye Khopcha kahan hai tumhe pta hi hai) and LemonTree (of course for its famous Lemon Tea), regular commentary in the class, late night debates and ever flowing music in the room. WILL MISS MY ALMA MATER ! WILL MISS SIBM.

size matters (even in recession !! )

Even before the debates on estimates of cost of sub-crisis are subdued, a new debate has started whether economies across the world are reviving. At least in India we have got enough reasons to believe so- a significant rise in IIP index, increased freight movement across ports, companies going on hiring spree etc. The pace at which banks were collapsing at one time has been shadowed by the pace at which economies around the world are recovering now.

A large part of this fast paced recovery should be attributed to governments across the world which have left no stone unturned in paying honest tax-payers money to crooked institutions. From Greenspan’s cheap money to Bernake’s cheap money has been a scintillating and fast journey. And mind you this is not applicable to one or two countries alone; this has been the trend everywhere. Globalization in true terms!!

But what signal is it sending to the companies? Go and enjoy the world till the sun is shining; when there will be night some Fed will come to save you. “If you were not taking risk and making money, you have been a fool, is the message which companies are getting by all this”- says a noted economist. But I have just a correction to make here. “If you wanna take risk, which is not even comprehensible to yourself, please make sure that your size is big enough.”
Small fishes are not entertained here – Fed Reserves.

economics with cuteness......

Okay c’mon tell me what is wrong in studying economics in graduation?

It came to me striking while I was having a lovely chat with a few lovely girls in a café recently (I don’t know why everything related to girls comes striking to us?). I was sitting with the friends of a friend of mine so I thought to concentrate on her friends (of course to make them feel at home); especially to one whom I found really cute. Our jokes were understood by each other very well followed by an extra ounce of laughter. As a group also we were going nicely, discussing the latest movie- NewYork, dressing sense of Katrina and John, then we went on to discuss new movie launches in pipeline (I was dreaming the future prospects) until one of them raised a technical question (I hate it when girls raise technical issues and that too in between nice talks). The question pertained to my studies. Economics Graduate I said. And after that the reactions changed from wow feeling to Oh! "Oh the number stuff? Why even after so many economics theories we can’t prevent a recession when it comes? Why everything in economics start with hypothesis?"

Oh my god this was not where I wanted to land.

And then started what I may call my nightmare. My cutie pie asked- Did you take Human Resources Management as your specialization to give yourself a human perspective after this economics degree or you were genuinely interested in taking up HR? I tried to lighten up the environment by cracking actually it was because of pretty girls in HR that I took HR. But my jokes were not jokes anymore. I could have understood if it were from one or two girls. May be a breakup with an economics guy or some time table guy (remember Dil Chahta Hai?); but there I was with four girls just hell bent to post mortem my decision of taking Economics at first place and then the dare to follow it up with an HR.

So finally I had to take up the stage to clear things about economics. Yes economics guys are a little enticed towards numbers (when somebody asks us how many hours you slept yesterday we tend to say 8 hours, 33% more than my average sleeping hours and so on). Yes economics theories did fail to solve the problems many times but believe me I had nothing to do with those theories. So finally 43 minutes later, after 7 arguments in favour of economics and 3 proofs about economics guys being human (even without studying HR), we came to the conclusion not to ostrich economics people from society. But in the process of reaching to conclusion my cutie pie was lost somewhere. My future dreams which had started coming in the beginning of the talk were forgotten in between somewhere. What an opportunity cost of discussing economics!