Happy Birthday, Dad!

 

Happy Birthday Dad

Dear Dad, it’s your birthday, And I want you to know
You’re with me in spirit, Wherever I go.

So Dad, happy birthday; May there be many more
So we can enjoy, Our very special rapport.

 

My Last Week – Hectic, My Next Week – More Hectic

The last few 8-10 days have been very much hectic. The work load has been tremendous and on top of it, I had to write my essays for Fuqua. The deadline (November 12) is coming. I just sent the details of my recommenders for Fuqua. Considering the time constraints, I feel like I am already a part of a b-school.

On the work side, I had a major production release last week. This was an important release as this project is an extremely important project in terms of the complexity, the size and the importance to the company. Our clients (the front office traders – yeah the real investment bankers) are happy and have started using the system. They have successfully executed trades and we are receiving good feedback. Yes, my baby is generating money

I also had some good experiences in this one and hopefully I should be able to put in a few points or examples in the next draft of my essays for Fuqua. However, I doubt I will have much time to work on my essays in this month. Primarily because the release last week marked the completion of the first phase of our project.

From next week the Phase 2 will start formally. And this week, apart from doing the usual post release work, we have informally started the Phase 2. This phase is going to be very very critical as we have a limited amount of time and lots of work. Sounds very much usual stuff???

Actually it is not. This time this project is critical because it is already running in production and our work is to upgrade it in stages. If it would have been a new project from scratch (like the previous phase was) it would have been easier. But now the complexity is up. When I joined Lehman Brothers (Yeah – I work for Lehman Bros in India which is now called NOMURA India), I was given some historical facts of the importance of our work. One such fact was about the Opportunity Loss of  USD 150m+ that Lehman had to incur, due to a system failure for about 1 hour during trading hours in NY. Just imagine the impact !!! And my current project is generating more revenue with every passing day. Even a single change in this project can have a huge impact. My team and I are both pretty much excited to work on this one but the only issues is the time. I may have to put my essays on the back-burner for some time

However, I made some progress ont the essays on this weekend. I have almost completed my essays for Fuqua and the next draft will be the last one. I will finalize the Fuqua essays after that. Once that is done, I just intend to chase down my recommenders to make sure that they fill in the evaluation on time. I do not think they will delay it but I would love it if they finish it 2-3 days before the deadline. I still have 20-22 days for the final Fuqua deadline but I would prefer to complete my application by November 8.

Let us see how it goes. Pls wish me luck.

A weekend that was….

FUN. My last weekend was an extended weekend (Friday to Sunday … ) and as usual … I had plans to work on my essays and then visit a primary hindi school to continue working on my responsibility towards society. As it happens always, my plans didn’t materialize and had to be changed… albeit only half 

My best friend came home during his break from his MBA at MICA. He was here for only a few days and so we decided to chill-out in our best way. Take another road trip. But since we had only two days to spare we took a road trip to Kashid (http://picasaweb.google.com/sunil.chanchlani/KashidOctober2009#) this time. Kashid is a small beach town almost half way between the popular tourist destinations Alibaug and Murud.

Thats me with the Murud fort in the back ground.

I called in two more friends of mine and so we were now four. We left on thursday night and reached Kashid in 4 hours flat after making a small dinner stop in between. I must say that it was another wonderful trip to this beach as the beach was clean with very few people, the water was clear and the best part was our trip was our time spent on the beach early Friday morning. There was so much of Fog that it was almost impossible to view anything beyond 5 meters. Yes the Fog was so dense. And we went in the water in this Fog, something that will shock my mom if I tell her . We all had fun in this first-time-in-my-life experience and believe me you need to be there in such a foggy situation to experience it. But, do not try this if you are not a regular to beaches or are alone.

 

 

The small harbor

And later during the day, we went to Murud to discover a new spot. Yes it felt like we discoverd that new spot as none of the tourist guides had ever told us about it and no one except the four of us was present there. It was actually a small fishing harbor. It was so small and deserted (and peaceful) that it appeared to be a deserted one. But we were wrong. Some time later a few fishermen came in with their catch of the day. Although it was smelling very badly, it was amazing to see the live fish. I also tried my hands at pulling a small boat back into the harbor

Luckily we left early on Friday as later there were reports of a small storm along the Konkan coast line ( this includes Kashid) and of roads getting flooded due to this.

 

The next day (Saturday) I had to go to a primary hindi school in Kalyan (our neighbouring city) to spend some time with the kids and distribute some stationary as part of our drive at Umang Foundationto help deserving students. Some of my colleagues from my office came all the way from Mumbai (yes … my office is around 60Km away from my home) and the stationary was already there ( thanks to our plan that was executed efficiently) at the school when we reached at 10:00 am in the morning. We usually distribute stationary kits containing four to six notebooks, pencils, erasers, sharpeners and scales and we prepare these kits manually to save packaging costs. We prepared the kits in one of the store rooms at the school and I must mention how enthusiastic everyone was while preparing these. We were 12 members and we prepared the required 500+ kits in two hours flat

Later we had an amazing time while distributing the kits to these students and after this distribution was over, we all members had sessions with the kids in the class. We had sessions with kids from class 1 to class 7 and I was really impressed by the enthusiasm with which these kids were eager to study.

A Student at the school.

We had question and answer sessions with them and for each correct answer we were distributing pencils and notebooks. Man … the kids were so quick in answering the questions that I felt like everyone must be a topper in his/her own right. From answering 2+5+7 to naming all the months in a year and answering all the multiplication tables from 2 to 9 the kids in class 1 and 2 were awesome. I am saying this primarily because these kids are from a Hindi medium school. Answering my questions English shows their enthusiasm to learn this language.
 
May be it was the desire to study and excel or the upcoming exams before Diwali or the competition to win maximum number of pencils and notebooks that was driving the best out of them, all in all they were really good and we had a lot of fun while we spent our entire day with them. We have another visit planned next month after Diwali  at another school near Nerul and I we all (at Umang) are equally excited.
 
BTW … I still had the Sunday and I managed to make some progress on my essays. I didn’t write a new draft but I did indeed received some feedback from one of my reviewers and I made some changes to existing draft to apply the recommended changes.  The long weekend was indeed FUN.

Fuqua’s efforts to help the applicants

I just received a mail from the adcom at Fuqua (Duke) with the subject “A Message from The Duke MBA”.  It caught my attention immediately and when I opened it, I had a smile.

Duke University (and Fuqua School of Business) has gone one step further to help its future MBA students in reducing their financial difficulties in the current market scenario. It has announced a new program named “The Duke MBA Application Fee Reduction Program” under which applicants who will be visiting the campus or attending an MBA information session by Duke, to understand the school better will have to pay only $50 instead of the regular $200 as an application fee. This sounds a good way to help the prospective students who the are really serious about Fuqua.

Now I am delighted by the efforts Duke is putting into this but at the same time I am also a little disappointed by this news. This is because I do not see any upcoming Duke MBA information sessions in India. Duke will visit India at many places but it will do so via the QS World MBA Fair or The MBA Tour. From the given information, it appears that this scheme is only available for applicants who are about to attend the information hosted specifically by Duke. So this program does not apply to me for now, I guess.

However, I attended the Fuqua information session in Mumbai on August 15, 2009 and I will be applying at Duke (Fuqua)  in R1. It would have been great to have my application expenses reduced but anyway, I am also happy for many other applicants who will benefit from this initiative. I am extremely happy to see the initiatives Duke (Fuqua) is taking to help the applicants.

To apply or not to apply is the question.

After clearing all the required exams and doing my research I have started working on my applications for admission to an MBA course for Fall 2010. I have already applied to ISB as I believe it is one of the best schools for my future goals and now I was almost (90%) ready with my target list of schools for Fall 2010. My primary research tool has been the school web sites and some of my contacts in each school that I was targeting. After four weeks of research and after sending out mails to 15+ current students and alumni at all these school I am now in a state of shock. It looks like I may have to remove a few schools from my list. My target list is having mostly mid-ranked schools in the US. It includes Simon, Kelley, Owen, UNC-KF and Cox. I will now have to add a few other higher ranked schools that initially I thought are out of my range primarily for three important reasons:

First, it is the fact that these schools are highly ranked in most of the rankings and have very low selectivity. The selectivity at these schools is less than 15% each. On top of this, at each school the percentage of internationals is less than 25%. In some cases, class strength from India is as low as 2-3%.

Secondly, my profile for such schools is just an average profile. I stand in the average of each of the statistical parameter (age, GMAT, GPA, etc.) of the annual class profile. So getting an admit as an international student is bound to be tough.

Finally, I was looking for a decent financial aid in the form of a scholarship or an assistant ship at my target schools. Chances of getting a scholarship at higher ranked schools are low as the application pool is very competitive and they usually do not dole out huge number of scholarships.

However, after talking to people from my target mid-ranked schools I am bound to make adjustments to my list now. Each of my contact has recommended me to not to look at their as a first choice and take an admit only when I have no other option. I am still looking for more info in relation to the current scenario but  I am told that these schools are not so good in terms of brand value outside of the area in which these are located. They gave many scholarships in Fall 2009 but now many of these scholarships are withdrawn. Yes, I knew that each year scholarships are renewed but didn’t expect such a situation. Placements are pathetic. Some students have returned back to India. I now personally know a student who has returned from UCLA due to lack jobs in US. On top of this, he is under a debt of Rs. 50 lacs.

In some cases, the placement of the most recent batch (2009) is not even close to 65%. Even US citizens and green card holders are still looking for jobs. Schools that have gone up the ranking table have stopped giving many scholarships now. Most of the schools are out of funds to give scholarships any more. The money used to come from endowment funds that have booked huge losses and the alumni are also out of funds to donate. Schools that are in remote areas are affected to the max due to location problems. Schools that are close to other well-reputed schools  are having f****d up placement statistics as these areas produce a huge number of graduates each year. These include MBAs, MIS grads, BBAs, PhDs, etc.

Now, my friends have recommended me to apply to higher ranked schools so that I can easily get a non co-signer loan and at the same time, take an advantage of the brand value of the school. Some of my contacts from such higher ranked schools benefited from the brand value of their schools. They have managed to get a job in US after passing in 2008 and 2009.

Considering my future goals, the schools that appear to be relevent now are Haas, Cornell, Fuqua, and NYU Stern. I am still doing my research on these schools and have managed to get into contact with people (current students and alumni) from Stern and Fuqua. The responses are good and these two schools look to be promising right now. I believe I should be able to change my list now and add one or two of these schools in my list (offcourse after removing a lower ranked one).

Tasawwuf

I saw a holy man on the seashore wounded by a tiger.
No medicine could relieve his pain; He suffered much,
but he nevertheless constantly thanked God, the most high, saying,
“Praise be to God that I have fallen into a calamity and not into sin.”

A must read.

Here is a link to what people (of India) should read before voting during the upcoming LS elections:

Who is a Sharif Badmash? Who is a toothless tiger?

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Revering-sharif-badmash-Manmohan-Singh-and-Lincoln/articleshow/4329339.cms

However he is an architect. An architect of India’s economic reforms.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3725357.stm

 

Mr Clean or Mr Bull’s Eye:

He has a spotless track record and a very high success rate at the LS elections. He is one of the few politicians in India who refused to contest LS elections on moral grounds in 1996 when his name was linked to the Jain-Hawala scam.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/590391.cms

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/2075803.stm

 

The man who can fight with fire. A fire called Terror. Also a man who knows how to attract investment(s).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narendra_Modi

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1958555.stm

 

Finally, a man good with numbers. He has served his party very well. He has introduced new types of taxes to increase government revenes. He has put in efforts to reduce the government debt. But has he done something for the common man?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3741169.stm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P_Chidambaram

When somebody walked into my life.

What happens when somebody walks into your life? Somebody who is beautiful and has a mellifluous voice. You wish you had met her before but then she comes into your life only when the time is right.

She gives me a call every morning. I get up from the middle of my sleep (I am a lazy boy who hates to get up early during the winters) to talk to her. She spends her time with me and then suddenly disappears. I get happy and delighted whenever I notice she is there. But then I feel sad and embarrassed when she goes away.

I know it’s awkward but I can’t describe how I feel every-time I see her. She makes my day even brighter. Sometimes she allows me to touch her and she puts her hand on my hand. But this is all I know about her. I do not know what she feels, I do not know what she likes the most. I do not know whether this will continue as it is, I do not know what to do. I do not know what to do. I think I will continue to talk to her and I wish we stay together as we are now. I want to know more about her, I want to spend more time with her.  

The next morning she calls again. I start approaching her and suddenly I hear something. I hear a loud noise that gets on amplifying. I realize that it is a familiar noise, I realize it is the moment. It was the moment to realize that she was not there anymore, it was the moment to get up and start my day.

Chandrayaan-1

Chandrayaan-1. A lot has been written about it and a lot has been said about it. The only thing that has not been described much about it is whether India, the country that is home to some of the poorest people on earth, really needs such a thing or not. For those of you who don’t know what Chandrayaan is here is a brief description of it. Chandrayaan is an unmanned lunar exploration mission by ISRO, India’s national space agency. The estimated cost of the project is around Rs. 4 billion. This is a huge investment by India and I personally believe that we need it. YES!!! We need such a huge investment because of many reasons.

First of all, Chandrayaan-1 is expected to provide India with high resolution mapping of the topographic features of the surface of the moon. This will include the information on the mineral composition of the moon. Chandrayaan-1 is also expected to provide us with information related to the chemical and mineralogical of the permanently shadowed north and south polar regions of the moon. Such information is available in a limited amount across the globe. The various space agencies of the world (NASA, ESA, JAXA and CNSA) have limited information on the composition of the moon and it’s not easy for ISRO to get this information. The exchange of information has always been limited with India, primarily because of unwillingness from their side. However, NASA has been particularly helpful this time. It has provided a low power imaging rader for Chandrayaan-1. This will be useful to identify regions of interest for a future lunar base.

Secondly, Chandrayaan-1 currently carries more than 11 scientific insturments that will carry out several investigations. Some of these instruments are from other space agencies and hence in a way, the collaboration between ISRO and other such agencies has started. I hope this will continue and will result a in good outcome for everyone involved.

Chandrayaan-1 is to be followed by Chandrayaan-2 for more detailed research and then finally Chandrayaan-3. Chandrayaan-3 is a manned space mission expected to begin in 2015. This, even though very expensive and risky, will surely be a major milestone for everyone across the globe.  We need to step up our efforts to setup a landing base on the moon so that India has the ability to conduct such missions on its own in the future.

Speaking about the cost of the project, we need to understand that the cost is just a fraction of what NASA, ESA or JAXA would have invested to do the same thing. In a way this will be helpful for India in the long run. The country has already started launchng small satelites for other countries and can, at a later stage, start an outsourcing bussiness wherein it will launch similar lunar missions for other countries. This will help India in generating a source of income for its own research and hence the tax-payer will not have to pay for such missions.