Ganpati bappa Moryaaa

Hey guys,

September 11th 2010

5.40 PM

Posting this after a long break. Just came back after the Ganesh Chaturthi Celebrations. Let me warn you that this post might be full of typos and grammatical errors cuz I am fully loaded with Modaks and sweets.

India sometimes can get very irritating with frequent festivals and all the political parties trying to beat each other at organising mega events and blocking roads. However I experienced the real essence of Ganesh Chaturthi or a Festival for that matter today. Met my extended family some of them who visit the country only for the Festival once a year. The experience of meeting everyone and catching up with them. Not to forget the food and delicacies that were dished out made it all an unforgettable event.

Below is the picture I managed to get of the Lord!!!

Friendship Day... Dedicated to my group at Alkesh Mody (ADMIS)..:)))

Hey Friends,

I just wanted to tell you guys that the past year has been on of the most amazing years in my life.. Its not that I didnt have friends b4 comin to ADMIS, but this bunch is the most special one.. I think it would be a huge understatement if I wish you guys a Happy Friendship Day cuz I've been living a Friendship Day since the day I attended my 1st lecture..

Its more special cuz there have been a few who have been with me thru out with all the ups and normals (NO DOWNS FOR ME... EVER!!!).. you people have made-what wud have been the most boring times- into a laugh riot!!! I cant end my day witout talking to you guys and neither does any hour go where i dont think about you ppl..

Also I know it for a fact that whatever may be thrown at us, we have the capacity to sail thru and become successful, reach the pinnacle of achievements and fulfill whatever dreams we have nurtured..(ITS A DIFFERENT ISSUE THAT MY MAIN DREAM IS TO GET MARRIED NEXT YEAR..LOLZZ) but jokes apart.. We are the best and we might go down as one of the finest batches ever to grace the corridors of ADMIS..

THANKYOU SO MUCH FOR BEING A PART OF MY LIFE AND ALLOWING ME TO BE A PART OF YOUR LIFE THRU THIS VERY SPECIAL BOND OF FRIENDSHIP..

HAPPY FRIENDSHIP DAY TO MY BESTEST (!!!!) FRIENDS...

AG

Long time.. No c.. :))

Time : 11.21 PM
Place : Mumbai

Hello Fellas..
Hope you all are doing great.. As soon as i signed into blogger i got a popup that my last post was way back on 7th may 2010. That's ages ago considering that amount of events that take place now a days in our lives isnt it? Fathom this.. On 7th may 2010 I was tensed as shit about my exams due to begin 10 days later, the Gulf of Mexico was bubbling with life and not crude oil, hardly any one knew who Warren Anderson was, France and England were strong favorites for the FIFA world cup 2010 and so many other things.

I've been caught up with loads of things professionally and personally and so havent been able to post as much as I'd like to. Cleared my second semester by scoring a decent percentage and everyone at home was proud of me. Little do they know how things work in MBA colleges in Mumbai so I am enjoying the blessings and adulations I am getting since past 2 days from my Family and especially my Fiance. :P :D.
Also I got an opportunity to work with Kotak Mahindra Bank as a part of my summer internship project and got to observe things from the other side of the counter. believe me branch banking is as hectic as it can get and kudos to people who run the show.

Working on my report now, so gotto sign off.. Hopefully will post regularly henceforth..

AG :)

Fate of the Confused Soul !!!!

Heyaaaaaaaaaaaaa...

So how u guys doing??? M updating my blog after ages cuz had to get past my 2nd semester exams and then cudnt help myself but chillax for somedays.. So here i am all recharged and living to die another day !!!!!!!! :P

I was thinking bout how confusion kills the best of opportunity for you.. The more confused you are the more opportunities go by.. I was planning to take up finance as my specialisation in 2nd year and hence was very happy with a stupid summer internship offer at a PSU bank. Now one fine day it dawns on me that I am not cut out for finance as even after knowing the questions in the exams, all i knew were the formulas for some problem.. I wont be capable of churning out numbers for my company and telling them where should it invest.. Any layman can tell them that their investment in me as a financial expert was not worth the effort.. :D :D Come on!!! there are CAs , ICWAs and a bunch of other financial experts who can work that out for them without breaking into a sweat unlike me.. Its like asking Nehra to get 100 runs in 10 overs when you have the likes of Sehwag, Sachin and Dhoni sitting in the dressing room.. :D No company in its right mind can do that.. (Except if it wants to write off expenses.. :D :D)

So the problem is i got this realisation very very late!! and now, i am scampering across trying to get a marketing project.. thanks to my millions of friends the process doesnt look as tedious as it looked at the outset but still the situation looks grim..

Anyways.. lets hope for the best.. will keep u guys posted on whats happening..

Have a great weekend ahead..

AG.. :)

Tension Tension!!!!

Mumbai
11.54 PM
11th April 10

Heyaa Frnds,

Let me confess one thing right at the beginning. I am shit scared of my fate in the semester exams due to start from 16th April 10. Its not that i am tensed but its like facing Malinga with 36 to get from 1 over. Possible but highly improbable!!!! Same's my situation, Its possible that i might come out with flying colours but highly improbable.

Many questions run thru my mind everytime m in this mess during the exams... Y the hell i didnt start studying atleast a month prior to exams?? What was the need to scamper here and there like a rat for notes, important questions, and in the worst case SYLLABUS as well.. :D. And its not that these things are recent phenomena, its been happening right since i was a kid and the 1st exam that i gave. Some people never change.

So now i gotto do 11 subjects + 2 assignments in the next fortnight.

God save me.. That reminds me of someone who can take me out of this mess -
Shri Siddhivinayak Bappa !!!

HELP!!!!!

Signing off

AG :)

Girlfriends, IPL and Branding!!!! :D

Mumbai
12.15 AM
4th April 10

Hey friends..Hope you are doing great. My week has been pretty good with most of the things being better than expected. Spent 2 full days with my sweetie so its been really great for me.. "Quality Time" as girlfriends say it.. Its kinda wierd concept- Figure this out.. Both of you are watching IPL sitting on the couch, this is boring and waste of time, and time not utilized properly.. Dailouges like " We get so little time during the week and STILL you wanna watch stupid IPL and not talk to me" or "Its been so long since we had a decent conversation, its all cuz of this stupid IPL." are thrown at your face and you wish to go away to some serene place with your TV. But the same Girlfriend thinks that watching reality shows like Dance India Dance or Splitsvilla or for that matter any abusive laced show sitting on the same couch is the TIME OF THE HIGHEST QUALITY spent with each other.. Double standards I tell you...

Anyways, talking of TV, I was watching a programme on ET NOW called Brand Equity, which talked about rebuilding the brands that have lost thier charm. Namely- Tiger Woods, Coca Cola post the insecticide saga, Cadbury post the worms disaster, Nokia after the BL-5C nightmare etc. I reialised that only communication to the masses wont help you regain your market. The communication has to go vertically downwards in the company or else its gonna be a horrible experience for the consumer. Lets take the above example. Coca Cola and Cadbury used Aamir and Mr Bacchaan effectively and conveyed to the people that thier products were absolutely safe. The dealers and retailers were also told to take special care of thier cunstomers and hence they reclaimed thier market share after the crisis. Great marketing and advertisement helped them tide over rough times.

Nokia on the other hand has been constantly losing market share. The Communication head of Nokia gave a big BHASHAN about how Nokia cares for its customers and how it has used marketing strategies to pull back the crowds, But in reality, due to the swamping of the markets by Indian players like Maxx, Micromax, Karbonn, Lava, Spice etc thier market is suffering. However this is not the real issue with Nokia. If you want to find out why the brand's going down, go to their service centres. Its absolutely horrible. you need to wait endlessly with your token number, then watch your fone being ruthlessly disassembled and then put in a plastic bag and sent to the inhouse "technicians". Another endless wait. After that the genius technicians conclude that the problem is a major one and the fone has to shipped to the head office in Delhi and will take 15 days. whatever your problem might be, this is the standard answer. This might not have happened with everyone but definetly happend with me and a few of my buddies. Try and email them your problem and the website throws up a server error message. Call them and the executive is as merciless and clueless as thier Techicians.

The problem here is all the strategies and plans chalked out for Customer satisfaction enhancement go down in drain as they dont percolate till the bottom level. If this issue is resolved then Nokia might be able to claw back its market share...

Hope you liked my observation and analyisis...

Signing off

AG

Rollercoaster Week that was.....

Mumbai
12.30 AM
29th March 2010

Heya people... How you doing???

Now that's self confidence for you.. As of now I've got only 4 followers for my postings and that includes me and the greetings makes u think that at least a thousand people religiously follow my blog. :)
This week has been one of my best so far. The reason is that I saw my childhood hero Sachin Tendulkar bat in all his glory LIVE at the Brobourne stadium.. Believe me guys, its an amazig experience to watch the IPL in the stadium. The atmosphere, the crowds, the lights, the noise, the adrenaline rush u get each time there's some action on the field and of course the cheerleaders.. LOL.. :) Its very different from what we see on the television. On TV it seems very simple, but the hardwork, dedication and the fitness of the players is amazing!! Its just a pleasure to watch Sachin scamper between the wickets like a school boy.. Trust me, he runs like a hare- Very very fast.. Sourav Ganguly is not such a mug at fielding as he is made out to be and does put in loads of effort.. Malinga's bowling is very difficult to pick up by the naked eye at the stadium. So all in all i observed that playing cricket was actually very different on the grouund to as seen on the TV. The cameramen do a fantastic job following the ball and getting it right most of the time.. Its worth the 1000 bucks that you spend for the ticket..

Later in the week we had an Industry Meet organised in the college which was another great event that i happened to be a part of. It was great to listen to the people who have spent thier entire life in the industry and still so enthusiastic about sharing thier knowledge with the students and trying to help them out with their careers. I learnt a very valuable lesson.. The More Knowledge you share, the More respect and love you receive form the world. This will be inscribed in my mind for as long as i am alive that i need to share my knowledge in order to gain more knowledge myself...

Lastly this week was awesome for me due to one more BIGGGGGG reason.. Its been a week that me and my Fiance havent quarreled on some silly stuff. I know she's gonna kill me on this cuz she thinks whenever i say this we fight..:P Girls and thier stupid misconceptions.. :D

Hope she's proved wrong..

Signing off..

AG

Auto Industry Boom!!! - Doom for India?

21st March 2010 (Happy bday Dad!!!),

2.54 PM

Mumbai,

Hi There,

This has been a very very hectic week for me!!! Have been very busy taking rest, doing nothin and fooling around wid my wifey.. :) and as you all know if you are doing nothing, there's nothing specific that you think and hence difficult to pen it down..LOL..

Anyways.. Now that I've been going to the university regularly for the past 3 days, i was hopeful of getting a topic for my post. And voilaaa!!! it struck me right in the middle of a major traffic jamm in Kurla. We as a country are very happy that the auto industry is booming, growing at the rate of noughts. The last time i checked most of the major players had posted a record quarterly sales and were growing at more than 50% year on year. Great news isn't it?? Also the government is willing to put more money in the hands of the common man and facilitate options for him to buy more cars. Tata motors will churn out around 300,000 nanos alone from thier Gujarat plant alone, leave aside the other products in its portfolio. Maruti Suzuki, the market leader had sold 95694 vehicles in January and 96650 in February. That's really great news for the shareholders. Ford coming up with its dynamic small car Figo, Nissan coming up with Micra, GM with the spunky Beat... The list is endless. In another piece of news, Volkswagen wants to takeover Toyota as the biggest car manufacturer by 2018, and to do that, it has to put over 10 million cars on the road.

What's the message that we all get from this? The message is that we are gonna be surrounded by cars and trucks by the end of next decade!! Is our infrastructure ready to handle this tsunami? MMRDA and the government takes more than 3 years to complete a simple flyover. It took us eternity to complete the sea-link. Where are all the cars gonna travel? In Mumbai a trip of 25 kms by car takes almost 90 mins. Every road is dug up with no one having a clue about what's the work being done. Good roads are dug up and bad roads are left to deteriorate further. Can you imagine with this kind of administration what are we heading to? With no space to drive and no space to park, this auto boom monster will be the second biggest problem that we are gonna face after our population explosion.

Shouldnt the Govt plan the infrastructure first before approving the manufacturing plants of these auto companies? Instead of promoting car loans at higly reduced interest rates, cant the public transport system be spruced up? And finally if a guy like me can think of these questions at the back of my mind while commuting through the city, cant the people in power think and do something about it?

The problem seems complicated.. But the answer lies in two simple words, "COMMON SENSE"........ which is not so common these days..:)

Think bout it people, or we wont even be able to cross the road in times to come.

Signing off..

AG

Presentations!!!

Time : 12.09 AM
Date : 17th March 10
Place: Mumbai

Heyaaaaa... ( Dipeesh and Ashish didnt like the "hellozz" in the last blog.. :P)

This week is almost halfway through by the time I realise that a new week has started. Time reli Flies doesn't it? It seemed like a week back that i celebrated new year's eve with my wife and more than couple of months have flown by. This week brings with it the biggest pain in the ass of MBA course- Presentations for internal assessment.

Its always said that MBA is all about giving presentations improving interpersonal skills, communication skills etc. But when you actually get into MBA you realise that this mess is more messy than you had imagined. Just figure this out by yourself,

-11 subjects in a semester,
-internal assesments for all of them,
-Disintersted professors for most of the subjects,
and the most demotivating factor... Everyone gets almost the same marks irrespective of whatever you blabber!!!!

You know that one thing I used to worry about was would i be able to speak in front of the crowd?? Or will my vocabulary and whatever little knowledge I have desert me at the time i need it the most?? The reason was not lack of confidence, but the fact that i had never spoken on a stage yet. Add to it projectors and powerpoint ppts and it got even more challenging in my imagination. But then GOOD LUCK prevailed and i've managed to sail through the mini crisis that i had in my mind back in semester 1. Now things are totally different-- Give me any topic, any audience, any day, any time and I'll handle it. Do u think its good for me?? I dont think so.. The reason is I am used to people who are either not interested in the topic or they dont know anything about the topic, they are discouraged to ask questions due to lack of time and people who really prepare well and try to educate the crowd are told to hurry up. What we get in bargain is underprepared presenter and a totally out of sync audience which is busy in socializing on thier laptops instead to listening to the crowd.

Will the corporate world accept such half baked cookies?? Are they goin to be satisfied with people who have fake confidence and no real knowledge which can pack a punch instead of their sparkling cufflings and tie-pins?? But who cares?? Absolutely no one.. So things go on as they have been for all this while and its time for the next year's admission where the same thing will be repeated.

Also.. A news report this morning completely baffled me.. "GOVT GREEN SIGNALS FORIEGN UNIVERSITIES IN INDIA" with a beaming smile on Mr Kapil Sibal's face. The same government had ordered to shut down the campus of Northumbria University where I had taken admission like a fool without enquiring about things. Was left stranded in 3rd year and lost a year because of a case being filed by the students in the Supreme Court. God bless Indian democracy!!!

So I've 7-8 presentations in the next 2 weeks with mostly the same friends in my group. Everyone will try to do something on thier own and when everything else fails, will turn to Google and download something already created by someone else and vomit it in front of a half sleepy crowd... DONT WORRY ABOUT THE MARKS !!!

Lets see.... (searching, searching, searching...) yesssss!!!! Downloaded a readymade presentation.. 6 more to go!!!!

Signing off :)

A G

Hai ye Garmi !!!!!!!!!!

Time : 12.22 AM

Date : 13th March 2010

Place: Mumbai

Hellozzz...

M tryin to post something from the past two days but dont have the energy left by the end of the day. There is only one word which is hammering on my earbuds for the last two weeks.. SUMMERS.. Now this simple word is troubling the whole of India currently cuz of the soaring mercury and humidity. Me and Mayur've been in the most inconvienient place in this heat-THE MOTORCYCLE. Riding the bike and going to college which was such a pleasure all this while has become the most feared nightmare. We actually fear the heat and attend some lectures to avoid getting baked on the highway. Today when i was getting home at 3 pm, (Stupid thing to do...) I felt like I was melting and gonna drain down the road.

Anyways... Enough of this self pity.. The "SUMMERS" word is troubling one more set of people more than the rest. Those are the colleagues at my B school university. No one waits as eagerly for SUMMERs as B schoolers as its time for internship. People are dying to get into some big MNC with the hope of learning new things and hands on experience. Others are happy that they'll be away from college and the same irritating faces for atleast 2 months. So all in all my life currently is an effort to solve the problem of these two SUMMERS.

IPL 3 has begun and so has the T20 craze. This is the best lesson in marketing excellence. The transformation of a gentleman's game to that of a Disco King has been nothing short of a phenomenon. Its hard to imagine how things have changed from women clapping from the stands, wrapped in their decency and dignity to Half naked ( or half dressed, depends on your point of view) cheerleaders dancing for the public to Bollywood music. Its exactly as my Professor Mr. Srinivas says- " Grahak dekh ke pudi bandhneka.. " How true !!! Kolkata have managed to win the League opener and hope Sourav manages to turn things around this time...That's the only thing positive in the IPL according to my Fiance. :D

Signing off :)

Life after my Jayanthi ... :)

Time : 2.15 AM
Place : Mumbai
Date 8th march 1985

Hi there... Birthdays are cruel arent they?? We wait for them like waiting to see a comet and before we know its over. And the worst part is it leaves us a year older numerically and with plenty of useless philosophical questions like- "what have i achieved in the past year?? " "what significant contribution have i given to my family in so many years??" and the worst of them- RESOLUTIONS!!! . But there's no reason to worry as these stupid questions and resolutions decrease exponentially and are totally forgotten by the 2nd day post your birthday.. People are back to wasting time and doing exactly the same things that they resolved not to do.

The reason I was not able to post anything for a couple of days was because I was busy reliving my Engineering days. Nahhh.. was not going thru the engineering books but mindlessly copying down assignments for my operation reasearch assessment. Took about 4 hrs but was very happy as my mind was in the hostel room of my B.E college where me and my friends used to copy assignments while talking bout everything else than the subject itself !!! was worth the pain though, as i got 20 precious marks for it.:)

Also I've reiterated and warned myself for the umpteenth time to start preparing for the monster semester exam coming up on 16th April but i know that I am fooling myself as i wont actually start till 8-9th April...

I've have to admit that as of now the only person that reads my blog is my Fiance. She's been a real sweetheart ( No Hun, m not talking about the 25 gifts!!! ) but just a great companion. Thanks :)

Cya soon...

Signing Off

AG

25 not out !!!!

Time - 11.35pm
Date - 4th march 2010

So... In another 25 minutes, i'll complete 25 years of existence on this planet. Amazing isnt it?? Time just flies after you get through your teens. Its as if God is playing a prank on you. In your teens when you want to grow up fast and take on the world, hours, days, months and years pass painstakingly slow and once you are in your 20s and want to chill and enjoy every moment to the fullest, time zooms by. I can give you an example of this- Remember any of the silly parties we used to have as teenagers whenever our parents were out of the town?? Getting past 12 AM was a great thing to achieve and brag about later on to your friends the next day, and now, its almost 1 AM by the time the venue of the party is finalized and by the time the scene starts warming up, its time to pack up and go home !!!!

Any ways... the last two days have been pathetic for my self confidence. The other day I casually hopped on to the weighing machine and was is for a rude surprise-- the display read 93 kgs.. I dunno how i managed to put on these 3 kgs. I've been weighing 90 kgs for about a year now. Guess the added responsibility of being engaged on my shoulders is around 3 kgs. :) :)
So out comes a diet planner and exercise schedule is scribbled on it. I seldom skip my workout session but i had to be more serious if i had to knock off some extra flab. I've taken some pictures for the "before" and "after" analysis.

The phone will start ringing in a few minutes and good wishes from all my great friends will start pouring in. Its an awesome feeling to be loved by so many friends.Touch wood!!! My fiance has planned a surprise for me so lets see what's in store...

Signing off :)

The 1st blog!!!

Time - 12.15 AM

Date - 3rd March 2010

Hi there... So finally after years of reading other people's blogs I've decided to take the plunge. I know its too late and by may be by the time i start posting regularly and something meaningful blogging might go out of fashion and be replaced by something more trendy; like Facebook is replacing Orkut or for that matter My Fiance is now replacing me and becoming the centre of attraction and the subject of affection of my parents :). Good for me though... It's been a difficult task to handle all the stardom in my family all alone for 24 yrs and 363 days as of now :)

I've been inspired to start posting indirectly by my brother-in-law Nilesh (Who says in laws are bad people?? :P ). Was going through his profile on a social networking site and clicked on his webpage. The guy can use some real nice sounding and impressive words :D

Thats all for the 1st blog.. Will post again soon.. Time to hit the sack.. Listening to "Hotel California" and thinking about the boring lectures that I've to attend tomorrow..

Signing Off.. :)