(Sin/Cos) - Moy !

Tan-Gen Moy is embarking his journey to the University of Seattle this week. It has been more than a year since we joined NBS. I still remember the first time I met this guy ! It was at the ISC, where I had gone to submit some of my papers. Both of us chatted for sometime and I found one more engineer who is specialising in Technology. Kewl. Moy spoke very few words and it was kinda difficult to extract words from him. An introvert... that was the first impression of Gen Moy on me.
Many more incidents followed.
Gen Moy's roots were a mystery. Dada initially thought him as a fellow Bong and his usual "Bhai Hai Tu Mera..Bhai" were prominent in the initial few days.
While presenting a case on Toyota, Gen Moy wore a cap of Kaizen giving life to the presentation.
Gen Moy and I played frisbee opposite to Grad Hall. That was news for sometime at NBS.
Moy wore a sandal and went to Double O. Poor Moy had to go back and buy himself a pair of shoes and come.
His dances in the Grad Hall and his addiction to Saunf Wine came to be well known.
His dinner with So(u)m(e)-Man made news at NBS Grad Hall channel.
Finally his Shaayri this Friday showed us his poetic talents.

The guy slowly started opening up from the second trimester onwards and in third trimester the true colour of Moy as a jovial, fun loving guy came out ! The internship in Cisco with DV and Zaw saw the more responsible side of Moy. His presentations were widely appreciated by the Cisco managers. Good job Moy !

Now our General had decided to go and take on Uncle Sam. Google and Microsoft are waiting for you at Seattle Moy. We know that you can leave your mark at Seattle and make us all proud.

Wishing you all the best for a wonderful career ahead !

Man... You Rock :)

Energy Unlimited

Energy Unlimitd - This is what that came to my mind when I saw Shankar Mahadevan on stage. Same goes for Anuradha Sriram also. Srinivas, Tippu, Harini, Madhu Balakrishna, Binny were also there. Chitra was just awesome. It was close to 4 hours non stop music. Fell in love with the Singapore Indore stadium. What an infrastructure. Too bad we missed out ARR's show last year. Shivmani is god.... Drums were at his mercy yesterday. He is a genius. It was a great relief for me after a hectic week's work.

Also try this link this site folks, www.itwofs.com. Here is the intro by themselves.
"ItwoFS is simply Inspirations in Indian Film Songs! The motive of this site is straight and simple - to provide a comprehensive list of musical inspirations (sometimes subtle and intelligent but mostly downright blatant!) of Indian film music composers. The list is constantly growing and the most important source of additions is the mails from this site's visitors!"

Enjoy lah !

Discovering oneself

The past one month has been a learning experience in many ways. I am getting to know Arune as a person more these days. To my surprise, I find Arune can really be what I thought I could never be ! Probably it is due to work related stress or school having started and I am still recovering to that mindset. It could even be that I am starting a new relationship or I am staying with two centurians away from the hostel.

So what is up at my end? I have put everything in the previous para. Things are goin on as usual. The new Buena Vista center is a pain. I need to pull off two more trimesters there. God help me. Met Shamsher and Gogie after a longtime. Two courses this trimester. CBS and MA. After this I am done with my cores. Two more functional still left. Ka karein inka ? Need to ponder over the functional courses list ! I just dont want to take one more extra this trimester.

Nala Baagam

Nalan, the famous mythological king turned dwarf and served as a cook. Even today, cuisines served by men are called as "Nala Baagam". It is our turn to try out Nala Baagam at Orchid Park yesterday. We were eagerly waiting for the arrival of Mani to bring us food from Karus for dinner. But later he changed his plans and said he will arrive around 12 midnight. So I and DV decided to start. Yeah..we went to nearby stores and got ourselves the required utensils. Got vegetables and all the desi masala stuffs required..(thank god we have two desi stores nearby).
So it was rice in the microwave, Bhindi Masala as the subzee and Sambhar as the main course. Wow...wow... the very thought of it made me smile.

So, applying my MBO knowledge for the utensils, stoves, spoons and other kitchen stuffs, found that the Kadaai is the bottleneck. Went ahead in making the Bhindi masala. It was a success. Then when it came to Sambhar, halfway through realised that we did not buy Tamarind. Shame on me. I boiled drumstick thinking of putting it in sambhar. What to do ? No respite for poor DV. So went ahead with Dal Fry with drumstick in it. Sounded funny. But it turned out to be pretty good. Well..that is what DV said to me and I know DV is honest. ;-).

But Dont worry my friends ! DV is still alive and I think he had a normal time at the potty. Now it will be others turn to suffer Anna's Nala Baagam. Wow...wow..Nice way to take revenge on some of our folks. Dada said he wanted to have lunch with us at home.hee hee fancying my chances.

Bienvenue Freshmen...

The new batch at NBS have come in. Last week during our BI course(by the way, this was very much the repetetion of CRM course. So did not give me the fun though), when I was in GH, met up with some of them. Later yesterday during the orientation dinner, met up with them. Mani called me saying that Lee Lee has invited all of us and hence come over. Went to the dinner and saw the new faces with high hopes. Met Prof Vish after a long long time. Nice get together though...After the party, our guys decided to join at the lounge for some drinks. I thought the new batch would be joining us after dinner to spend sometime together. Hmm... to my disappointment none of them turned out at the Grad Hall lounge. I felt a lil strange...anyways forget it. We had our own share of fun at the Lounge with the Durian smell.

Welcome Freshmen! Have a great time at NBS. Enjoy your stay.

Btw, uske ghar pe Computer aa gaya hai. Chatted with her on google talk. Now the impact on the wallet will reduce. Thank god for that.

Joyeux Anniversaire

Congrats to me and all other NBS stalwarts for completing one year in Singapore and NBS. It was in July last year that we came here. July 13th was the day of registration and a couple of days later we had our orientation. Profs John Beck, Michael Connor, Ashish Lall rocked during the three days. Getting to know each other was fun. 14 Indians in Grad Hall from a single batch. What was one great contribution to the society ? Evolution of DVism as a phenomenon.

Naye bache aa rahe hain August 1st mein. Dada is sure gonna rock. He will be the most after dude in our batch. Let us wait and watch.

Happy Anniversary NBSers !

CRM @ the speed of .....

CRM @ the speed of light was one of those books which I rented from library and never read it. Having worked in MUST, a GEMS after sales service system, I had quite a decent idea as what CRM was and how things should work. Also after doing some sort of research for the Contact Center applications, I thought my CRM knowledge was quite decent, until I took the CRM course by Dr.Lakshmi Mohan.

Known as the mother of CRM, she is from State University of New York, Albany. What a treasure house of knowledge she is ! No words are enough to describe. Her energy level never ceases to decrease and it is hard to believe she is close to 70. Her background is simply amazing. A Ph.D in Maths from Columbia univ, 4 years of work experience in MR in HLL, Founder faculty of IIMC, Faculty at Sloan etc etc. She has been a consultant to all the top notch companies and taught in almost all the continents of the world. In tamil there is a saying.."Katravarukku sendra vidamellam Sirappu". She is a perfect example for that. We were dumbstruck by her classes for the past two days. What voice modulation, what case studies and what memory she has.. I was really lucky not to have missed her classes. My weekend has been just great. She is gonna teach BI for the next weekend. It is gonna be one more fun filled weekend. This is the first time in my life I am enjoying my weekend attending classes, preparing for lectures, getting ready for the assignments. Very rarely you come across people like her. Thanks NBS.

Well, as usual my ISD bills have been on the rise. Things are taking quite an interesting turn these days. I am getting to know her more these days. Life is gonna be a roller coaster after Feb. Aruneganeshaaaaaaaaa....... Take care.

Le Derniere Semaine

The last week of the ESSEC summer program was the most demanding week in the sense that we had to prepare really hard for partying. Since this was the last week, everyday we had to go out and party. I was lucky enough to escape around and be back before 12. Poor Ashish came home manytimes after midnite. On Friday he did a full nite out partying.

The week was full of action. We had a session on HR by Maurice and he was good. His talk about marriages and marriage counselling was good. Every marriage goes through three phases. First phase was the romantic phase. You like her. She likes you. The world is such a nice place to live in. This first phase is quite a shorter one though. Then enters the second one, the phase of Delusion. Here slowly reality strikes. The shortcomings of both the partners are exposed and the true nature of the couple shows off. The third one is the Acceptance phase, where couples accept their partners shortcomings and go ahead in their life loving the other. For the divorced couples, it is the delusion period that hits hard and they dont enter the acceptance phase but take the rejection option.

We had a visit to the Air France and Airport. Waht a wonderful waste of time. We were shown in the airport as where business class people check in, where economy class checks in, what is a lounge, what is there inside a lounge and all other wonderful things in an airport which any traveller is aware of ! Wastage of a day.. Could have slept the entire day for partying in the nite.
The next two days we had negotiation session with Alain Lempereuer. Nice sessions. Good cases and it was fun ripping Teelie with Dan during one of the negotiation cases. Enjoyed these thoroughly. Friday, we went to the ESSEC campus at Cergy where we had a session with Nicholas about Education from different parts of the world. Quite a decent session afterwhich we had dinner at a Restaurant situated at Van Goh's museum. It was the place where Van Goh stayed in his last years. The lunch was typically French with Rabbit and Lamb. For Ashish and me, they made special salads and vegetarian dishes. At the end of the day, we all went to Biere culture, where we partied. I came back around 9.30 to do the packing and also the key was with me. Next day bid adieu to Arun and Paris.

I should have taken the Air France flight from Chennai. Just could not help it. Took the Delta to Mumbai. Networked with a couple of managers on my way back. I am becoming a true follower of Dada these days. First Class and Networing. Was stuck in the Mumbai Airport for 7 hours for the next flight to Chennai. Lost my sleep all through the day.

Came Sunday. Came Chennai. Met my future partner once again and said yes to her! She came our house and we went to hers. It was a fun experience for me at my home when my relatives were taking me on in front of her. The same experience at her place too. Got to know her family.
It was a new experience altogether. Then went to Sarath's marriage reception. The guy has put on so much of weight ..seems so much of beer ! Got back in time for the night flight to Singapore.

Losing precious sleep all throughout the day. But hell, who cares about sleep. But the only pain in this trip was missing the world cup final. I was there cheering for France and Brazil during this worldcup in the bars of Paris. The final which France played against Italy was missed as I had to travel back to Singapore. Poor French, they lost it in the penalty shoot out... Felt sorry for them. Zidane going out with a red card, was not expected out of him. But what went in the field was something unsure. Why he got wild ? What was goin on between him and Materazzi ?
Not sure.

So the coming days promise to be more interesting and challenging. Got to register for my subjects. Shit loads of work is pending at office. Jet lag does not allow me to sleep. It is 4.15 in the morning and I am awake. Will take some time to adjust.

So long !

L for Luxury

This week, it is Luxury Brand Management. We had Simon Nyeck and Dennis Morrisset talking over the various concepts of luxury brand management. We also had a visit to Lous Vuitton Workshop, Museum and their Retail store. We got to know more about Fashion and Fashion brands. Atlast I found a subject which encourages me to watch FTV :-).

After this week, the final takeaway was that there is not much of a difference when it comes to Marketing of FMCG and luxury brands. Luxury brands make you dream, which puts them at the elite list. We also have the concept of Masstige, where some of the prestigious brands becoming accessible to commoners. All in all a nice one week of learning.

LV visit needs a special mention. Their workshop was on one corner of Paris. I was shocked to see Osterich, Alligator skins used as Exotic leathers for their bags. Also had a look at their museums, which had snake leather bags and seal leather bags. These guys get the leather from authorised suppliers and you need to have the permit to carry these leather bags for your travel. Left me thinking that we are taking the entire animal kingdom for granted for our luxury. The craftsmanship at LV is something that should be praised. Observed some of their employees making bags and trunks. Being a Mechanical Engineer I just could not help the feeling that if these processes were automated, they could en up producing more bags at a shorter time with much better quality. But it is for the craftsmanship they charge such a higher price.
Their museum had some special orders which were made for specific customers. Attained bliss on taking snaps with custom made order of Sharon Stone:-).

Friday night had the chance to visit this placed Caveaux de la Huichette, where Jazz was first played in Paris. As the name implies, it is a cave, where the Jazz band plays throughout the night and we have the old French men and women dancing. Swing or Lin-Hop was there to see and God it was so wonderful to see all these older people enjoying their time. Maybe I should take a clue from them.

Saturday, it was the France Brazil match and after the match was won by France, we went to Champs Elysees to have a look. Man it was chaos with cars honking and the traffic completely blocked. There were huge processions going on shouting Allez Le Bleu, ZIZOU and HENRY. ¨People were screaming, shouting, venting out their emotions. Made me feel a little uncomfortable,I should say. Here is the other face of Paris. This was completely opposite to the one that we saw at the Jazz place.

The third face of Paris was seen when we visited the artists village at Montmarte. It was a wonderful place with artists painting the portraits/caricatures of the walkers. I and Ashish got our caricatures done and it was really funny. These guys are geniuses in their own way. A couple of strokes here and a couple there, voila... you have the caricature of Arune ready! Later went for the boat ride at the river Siene.

One more week of romancing Paris still left. I just somehow dont feel that I have had enough of this place. Paris Je t'aime !!!!

Belgique! Here I am.

Friday was kinda hectic in the sense we had to dress up in full suit to Louvre museum(sounds odd) and then to Credit Agricole visit. Also we had to change from Arun's place to Jitin's place. Arun and Jitin said that they will take care of the shift. We also had plans to go to Normandie by car. I and Tom tried to arrange something on the net, but in vain. So we gaveup the Normandie plan. At the back of mind, I was having the Belgium plan, if Normandie fails.

We saw the match at Arun's place on Friday nite after deciding that we will take the Thalys to Brussels. Saturday we reached Gare Du nord around 9.30. Got the ticket to Brussels for the 9.55 train. We went Dada's style this time... yeah..First class! Called up Kama in advance saying that we are coming to Brussels. Reached Brussels Midi in an hour and 20 min. From there went to Brussels Nord. Got up with Kama. Met him after 4 years. The guy has become more stylish these days. I looked the new Kama and his specs.

After a good meal at Kama's place we went to have a look at Brussels. First we went to Grand Place where we met our very old friend Shiv Puram. The guy remains the same. No change in voice. Then we went to Mannekan Piss. Opposite to the piss, we had drinks. I recommended to Ashish the Cherry Beer, which he enjoyed a lot. Later we went around shopping and went to Atomium. Our bad luck, it was closed after 5.00 PM. So was the case of the miniature Park. Atlast came back and had good food once again. Kama cooks really well. Dost Thanks for the grub.

Sunday was the day! Went to Brugges the third time. I just dont seem to have enough of this place. Took us one hour from Brussels by train. We went to the City Tower(close to 800 short, steep steps). Nice view from there. Also had the canal ride. Then roamed the place as I did during the last time too. This time weather played spoil sport. It was drizzling all the time.
Bad luck. Came back around 11.00 to Paris Nord. Reached home around 12.00 and Jitin had cooked rice for us. Our friends have really taken care of us this time. Indebted to them a lot.

Rest of the first week

The week went off. The first week at ESSEC was quite okay. Except for the first day, the rest of the days were ordinary.

Tuesday, we had a Macroeconomic view of Euro, Euroconversion etc by Andre Fourcans. He was quite okay. Afternoon we went to Paris Stock Exchange. Took snaps at the exchange. Nice place for an exchange. Now it is fully computerised. We had a presentation about the Euronext, Derivatives (Sleepy....) by the people from the exchange. Later we went around Operah, St Michel. Came back and slept.

Wednesday, it was Macro once again. Afternoon we had lunch at Champs Elysees. Later walked all the way to St Germain via Concorde. Saw the match in a bar. It was Fete De la Musique in Paris that day. Went to two different places. The second place was the Ministiere D Outre Mer, where we had Carribean music by Mike Ibrahim. Later we had Polynesian tribal dance. Enjoyed the show thoroughly. Went to Odeon later. It was raining like hell, hence came back.

Thursday, it was Entrepreneurship. We had a case study in the morning. Later in the afternoon we had a talk by one of the ex ESSEC student, who is owning a company now. Quite a day. Roamed around in the malls of La Defense. Met a wonderful waitress, who liked like Drew Barrymore. Dil kho gaya re....

Friday, it was the Louvre visit and later it was the visit to Credit Agricole. Louvre visit was more towards the Dutch paintings, French painitings. Went and saw Mona Lisa. Too immature to comment about the beauty of these. So keeping my mouth shut.

Now it is Saturday today. Decided in the morning to to Brussels. Took Ashish and rushed to Gare Du Nord. Got tickets and now I am at Kama's place writing this blog. Quite an eventful week. Planning to go to Brugges tomorrow.

Had been talking to Amma and her. Need to talk to her some more time and come to a conclusion. Idhar Mobile international roaming mein vaat lagne waali hai. Cant help it.

Le premiere jour.. deuxieme fois

The first day.. second time... I posted the blog and when I was about to hit publish post, my sytem went down. Was cursing windows once again and now here I am giving the same piece of stuff second time.

The first day started with headache for me. It was still drousy and I somehow recovered and went ahead. Reached the La Defense building well in advance. Paris is the same except the stench in metros have increased. Once again I just could not help the feeling that the creator is really biased.

We had an introductory session given by Michelle and supported by Delphine (Jaws Drop!!!). They both explained about ESSEC, the summer module, the professors, the industry visits et al. Nice start. Had breakfast and then the real session started with Aurelion taking the stage. His session was team building, communicating and intercultural differences. We had wonderful games. Games like Beauregard price fixing (we also did exactly the same under John in his OB classes), Portrait, Different types of listening and intercultural differences were enjoyable. With his very pleasing personality and good command over English, his session was really good. Aurelion had worked with Ex Prime Minister of France as an advisor. He has strong networks. The Dada in me woke up to get his card. Too bad, somehow it escaped my mind. But we have three more weeks. Can get it sometime else.

The participants were from all over the world. There was a participant from Columbia, who was an ESSEC student. Americans, Japanese, Chinese, French, Koreans. Indians, Indonesian,Singaporeans all constitute the batch. Sheroo FYI, there were two Finns too. Nice mix.

Had lunch at an Italian restaurant (pasta and water). It cost me 6.20 Euros. Ah... Classes ended at 5.30. The Desi in me woke up. Guess it..... you were right. I took Ashish to La Chappelle, Gare du nord, Paris's own little india. hee hee.. The place is the same, nothing changed with some new restaurants. Had dosa at Pondicherry restaurant which sucked. Got some calling cards and rice and came back. On our way back went to Arc De Triumphe. The one bad thing is that the sun rises around 5 AM in the morning and it is bright till 11 in the night. Had to console myself that we are not in Norway for an exchange.

One helluva week!

I cannot explain my experiences last week any better!

To start with, I, Mani and DV decided to move out of Grad Hall. This was definitely was one of the sad decisions that we had to take coz we still have the luxury to stay inside the Grad Hall till December. We decided to stay near our offices and hence moved out of the Grad Hall. We saw three apartments and finalized the one at Yishun. It is a nice 2 BHK condo apartment with all facilities like Gym, Tennis, Squash, Swimming facilities. The house owner wanted to us to move in ASAP and we decided to do it last week. Also I had my France trip lined up during the weekend. Somehow moved myself out of the Grad Hall and landed up in the new apartment. Thursday night was totally washed off and Friday morning was hell. Managed to land up in office and leave out of the same early to catch my evening flight to Chennai. Landed in Chennai around 11.00 PM.

The next day, Saturday was the D day. Yeah. I met the first gal whom my parents have identified. Wanted this to be a very private affair with just me and the girl. But my dad arranged this to happen in a temple with both the families. I was pissed off and asked my Dad to cancel it. Then it happened in Hotel Sangeetha. But it was just not me and her. My Dad, Her parents and her cousin came along. I just couldn’t help it. They left us in a corner. We had a chat for an hour. Then I told their parents that I will get back to them after some time. They were really anxious and were insisting on a good result. I am quite hesitant and confused right now on this.

Then the same evening set to Mumbai, where I and Ashish had to catch the Delta flight to Paris.
PAHREEH……………. Here I come. Nice flight, which started half an hour late and landed in CDG at 8 AM in the morning. It was a nice chilly, sunny morning and the sky was as clear as it can ever be! The French babes…Sigh…. Man, this country makes me totally depressed. For a moment, I felt two eyes are not enough.

Odun was there to receive us. Saala budda ho gaya. Had food at his place. Went for a walk to the Eiffel. Huge structure made of just rivet joints. What an engineering master piece. Had the chance to visit it anytime during the one year I stayed in Paris last time. But this time it was special. The water fountain at the front has become a swimming pool for the public and they had a blast. The clothes were as minimal as you can imagine and I just could not help the feeling the creator is really biased. Phew..

From tomorrow onwards, got to start my ESSEC journey. Will try to update this blog frequently with my experiences. There are close to 30 participants in this program. Some nice faces. Will try to network my way with all of them. I am looking forward to it .

The Bliss List

Mani and I were discussing about the list of activities/things which brought ultimate satisfaction/bliss to us. Thought of posting those in this post. What a turnover from my last post where I have cribbed about that void feeling. Within a week, life seems bright !

Here is the list !
a. A Good Day's meal at Karu's or Komala's or at Khansama. You should have felt the hunger and desperation for a good/decent meal. We have been experiencing this quite often these days!
b. A wonderful tea with hot Pakoras and a fast paced novel/cricket match. Even chatting with friends bhi chalega. The chai should be real hot with tinge of ginger and elaichi in it .. Wah wah...
Add Sutta to the above list for Mani.
c. After playing/jogging taking a good hot shower ! This rejuvenates your entire body and soul. Water has such an effect on the body and the mind.. Just too good.
d. A good night sleep. Man, this what we all die for. Sleep at 10 and wake up at 6. You dont feel that tiredness and you just want to start the day with full josh... This is bliss in many sense.
e. Listening to your favourite band. When you are all alone, just pump up the volume and let the Doors knock !!!!!! Raja, SPB, Kishore, Rafi are also in the list. For Mani, it is ARR intead of Raja.
f. Vodka, Vodka, Vodka.. Get yourself totally knocked out.....This is exclusively for Mani.
g. When you see a child smiling and playing. This is one of my favourite past times when I travel in the MRT. The kids are so cute and man ....their smiles!... It makes me feel so light..
h. Taking a piss ! Imagine that urge getting built and you are in an important meeting where you cant take a break or you are struck in the MRT and you need close to an hour to reach the nearest toilet. How does that feel for Bliss ??
i. A wonderful movie with some terrific performances... Scent of a Woman/ Godfather/ Shawshank Redemption ...... Lots of these.........
j. Just letting your jaws drop on seeing a beautiful giggling damsel cross you !!!!!!!!!!! Hmm ..is this desperation ??? someways it is bliss too !! what say ?
k. Going to a new place where you have never been.... Nature abound... Mountains, Waterfalls, Sunrise, Sunset, Beaches etc....Where you get yourself immersed with nature !

There is one more thing which we discussed, but would like to defer that. We are not yet married to describe the same. Probably after a year :)

If you feel there are other things which we have missed out, go ahead and post them as your comments.

That Void Feeling.....

Hmm.... It has started all over again. You go through your routine activities of life. Go to job. Get totally stressed up. Rush to classes. Get totally pissed off on not reading the articles, cases. Return at late Night just to sleep in the room. The next day the same cycle follows. What has happened to me? I know being a Libran, I go through these cycles. But this is taking a toll on me this time. Tomorrow I have my Marketing Exam and here I am writing a blog. What has gone into my head?
Am I overconfident ? Am I careless ? I just dont know. Do I wanna sleep ...No ? Do I wanna see movies?... No. Come on yaar. What is this boredom dude ? Shame on me.....

Pacinophilia

Pacinophilia !

That is the one word to describe my current situation. Totally dumbstruck by his performance in "Scent of a woman". Have been watching this movie continuously. Very rarely you get a movie in Hollywood like this, where the protagonist steals the whole show. We infact were commenting the other characters like the Cat, the Limo driver and Chris Odonnell had equal part in the movie :-P

Coming to Pacino, the man is a killer. He is like the nasha which most of our guys are after. Undescribable performance. Deservingly, he won an Oscar for this ! The climax is the icing on the cake, with Pacino defending Chris for his actions. He is a master.

Have watched other movies of him like Godfather, Devil's Advocate, Any given Sunday etc. But Scent of a Woman is the movie for Pacino. Because of Pacinophilia, my condition has become from bad to worse. My assignments are pending. Not in a mood to look at them. Why am I like this ? Cantraal yaar...

Ok, Let us get focussed. Exams are nearing. Next week is the 12th week... Need to give my best shot. Ab blog wog ke liye time nahin hai... Ek aur baar Scent of a woman dekhna hai...:-)

Is winning the only thing ?

It has been a consolation this time for us in our Markops simulation game. We hit the rockbottom last time. This time though, we are three places up from the bottom. We brought in a new product and gave it some positioning and promotion. Also the other products gained market share. In the midst of this, we were shocked to find some of the strategies that other teams follow. Let me explain.

Markops is a simulation game we play as part of our Mktg. course. The game is a computer simulated one, with every team having its own version of the game. The game consists of 4 companies. Your team is one among them and the rest are computer simulated. So we have around 11 teams in the class. All the 11 teams have their own individual market place with their competitors. Whoever has the highest Share Price index (SPI) is the winner.

To promote each product, everyone gets 20MM, which the team needs to spend on Advertising, trade marketing and Promotions. Some of the other teams go in for the introduction of a new product, get the 20 MM, and use the 20MM on the promotion of their existing products. They leave the new product in the lurch. This becomes a Dummy product and the teams make use of the hefty money in their existing products. Assume it in a real life situation, you convince your Top management about the introduction of a new product, get yourselves the Production capacity and then on the day when you need to start producing, you say No. "We dont want to create the product. We did this just to get the 20MM marketing budget, which we will use it for the other products." Sounds logical ? I am not sure.

This was the topic of discussion yesterday in our class and it was quite hot. Everyone was in their own way defending/opposing this strategy. Yours truly was one of the vocal participant yesterday :-)). The Prof himself was undecided as how to treat this. Hmm thoughts to go on this....

But Think of it. Is it possible in a real life situation? The Marketing Department does not function on its own. The R&D comes up with a new formula, the strategic decisions are taken by the top management about the product launch and then Mktg goes ahead with the new product branding, promotion etc. I dont see the strategy being used anywhere in real life. When simulation games are simulations of real life, then why do we follow something that is totally impossible in real life? Am I ignorant here, of not knowing such strategies followed by companies in real life ?

Everyone plays the game fair. But when some team comes up with a strategy, which does not focus on Mktg, but on the creative aspects of Financing, then it is something that goes against the unwritten rules of the game. Will we do anything to get our way out of trouble and win ?

I disagree. There are many instances in my life where I preferred losing just to be on the right side. I know I am a winner in my own way. Had I gone ahead with any of these choices, I would have saved some bucks by fooling someone. But will my conscience allow me to take a peaceful sleep after it ? I doubt it. I just cant. Comparing those instances with just a simulation game may seem a too far. But just cant help the rant :-)

It is a long weekend this time. Hoping to finish some subject work. Ramesh is coming to Singapore. Will catch up with him this time. My ESSEC plans are getting finalised. I am gonna have fun @ France for the second time. I am looking forward to it.

The Baingan Barta experience

It was a four day official trip for me to Kuantan. Kuantan is a small town on the shores of South china sea in Malaysia and it is close to 250 kms away from KL. Good beach, Jungles surrounding the town( The place is flooded with Monkeys) make it an ideal place for a perfect weekend.

I happened to come across an Indian Bistro (restaurant & Pub) and was very happy that I could locate that for my very first dinner at Malaysia. Why is that I end up looking for an Indian restaurant anywhere I landup ? The whole world when travels around, tries different cuisines. I and some good old Indians are so nationalistic that we cant just imagine trying out any other cuisine.

It was run by an Indian from Singapore. I went in and asked for Chappathis and Baingan Barta. After sometime, I end up getting the dish and to my surprise all I could find in that dish was just Aloo. I searched for Baingan and to my relief was able to see four or five small pieces of the egg plant. Phew !!! When he said his roots are from Delhi, I should have guessed it...I was very hungy, hence did not complain and ended up eating the chappathis with the Aloo Baingan that I got.

The next day also it was the same. I went asked for Dal Makhni and imagine what I got ? I ended up getting Dal Fry. This time I politely told the owner that he should consider changing his menu card. Then he explained his entire story as how he was running the restaurant and pub separately and how he had got chefs from India. Now the business is not doing that well. He just had one chef and uses the same old menu. Hence the shock. Hmm..Not even an apology....Long way to go in terms of service. He knows that I will come to him without fail in my next trip. He had even had the guts to say that I should help him out by telling my colleagues (word of mouth..hee hee) about his Bistro and the craziest thing was that when he said "Hotel mein Dandora vandora Pito Yaar. Public Aati hai, aur Upar chinese restaurant chali jaati hai. Tell the receptionist about this wonderful Indian restaurant".

Grand Sweets & PSA

When I came back from India, I got good amount of rice-mixes which can be had with rice. Thanks to my Chithappa who introduced me to Grand Sweets sometime back, I have been enjoying tasty food here. These guys, though might be a little expensive for the common man are known for their quality of sweets and mixes they serve.

Their location and the way they run their business is a breath of fresh air. They try to make it as an experience. Liked it. They operate from a bungalow in Gandhi Nagar at Adayar, Chennai. The front part of their house is the place where the business happens. As soon as you enter, you get in touch with one of the sales person, choose your sweets after which you are given a token number. Till your order gets packed, you are made to wait. This is the time that people really look forward as they serve good amount of freebies to enjoy during the waiting period. You get hot and spicy Puliyogara or sweet Sakkarapongal or Kesari etc. They serve in such a sumptuous quantity that, by the time you are finished, your order is ready.

The concept of Broken Sweets is something which needs a mention. If you were to buy any sweet item it will cost you say X Rupees. The same item is sold separately at a lower rate because of mishandling due to packaging and this is quite a hit among the customers as they specifically ask for the Broken Sweets or Savories. Knowing that the broken sweets will cannibalise their unbroken sweets, they dont sell broken items regularly. They hold the broken items sales back and give them at intervals.

They just dont restrict their business with sweets alone. They have chaats/chettinad snacks/rice mixes/pickles etc in their menu for us to enjoy. If your order is more than 500 bucks, you get good discount on the books they sell. Yes they have a small collection of Hindu Philosophy, Mythology books. The junta keeps on coming to them just for the sheer experience and the quality of their products. You can go anytime and see the place crowded with the middle class mamas and mamis. I have been there many times but this time, I was observing them with real interest and could make out why they are succesful as they are.

"Athithi Devo Bhava" - Guest is like God and these guys truly know that their Customers are God to them. Kudos to them for their excellent service !!!

It was Good Friday and we had a get together at Arun George's place. I fell in love with the place. It was called the "Marina Garden" and the condo was huge. Nice Barbeque place they had and we went there around 7.45 PM and had fun till 11 PM. Later we went to Arun's apt and enjoyed till 1. Me and Mani were saying that we should shift to something similar to that place.
Networked (??) with a lot of new people. Siddharth and Shivani, Olivier, Serene, Siddharth and the other NBS stalwarts. Dada was having fun with full enthusiasm.

Moy and me were discussing about PSA on our way back and how they are slowly losing out to other terminals especially PTP terminal in Malaysia. Since I did some profiling work about PSA, I knew what Moy was talking. PSA, was one of the early adopters of technology. As early as 1991 or 1992, they implemented RFID solutions. Their CITOS (Computer Intergrated Terminal Operating System) and Portnet solutions were their pillars of strength. But their business is kinda taking a beating because of the concept "Commoditization of Services/Technology". Peter Keen also emphasized the point during his lectures. As the technology/service providers operate in a Product development mode these days, the technological advantage can be obtained by all. But PSA has also started to bounce back after 2001/2002 dip. Hope they get better and better. Now It is going to be tough for them though !!!

Orkut and Xeroxing !!!

Yesterday Mani sent me the invite to join the Orkut group maintained by Google. I am already a member of the yahoo groups and I never felt that I should be one at Orkut too. I accepted Mani's invite and went ahead in becoming a member. I was lost in Orkut for the next three hours. It is really a fresh air from others and the way you can connect across different groups, getting to know your friends, the groups they are into is cool. I got myself registered to 7 or 8 groups. Too bad that I am so late to join this group. But better late than never.

In one of our Marketing class, Prof emphasised that the concept of generalising a product with a brand name is harmful. I thought it was a success for the brand. But he was thinking otherwise. Example was Xerox. Now Xeroxing is the verb that we normally use for copying. But why should that be treated as detrimental to the brand. I am not sure. But recently I saw an ad by Xerox themselves saying that Xerox is a brand and not a product. Wondering if Google will also come up with something like this? The word Googling has come in full force replacing Searching on the internet. Is Google not enjoying the success ride ?