off to home

The exams are over and i am going home for the vacations

End Term Exams

I am having End Term Exams from today till the 18th. hopefully they will go well.

Pakistani Angle

The Pakistani angle has again emerged in this WAR ON INDIA. The terrorist have come from Karachi. the terrorist caught alive is from Faridkot in Pakistan. The Indian government is still doing its diplomatic retoric of talking to Pakistan. They asked the ISI chief to be sent to India. the pakistani govt. first agreed then reversed its stance. This is a clear indication that the govt. of pakistan is not willing to fight terror. We must take decisive action against Pakistan and force it to act against terrorists or else we will do it on our own. Pakistan is a unstable and a failed state and we should not rely on what they are saying or doing. Instead we must take matters in our own hands

India's Heroes

The whole of India is today immensely proud of its heroes. The N.S.G. commandoes, Army Personnel and the Mumbai Police who killed and neutralized the terrorists who had laid a seige on Mumbai.  My hearfelt condolences go to those who laid down their life while helping to protect us. People like Hemant Karkare and Major Unnikrishnan and all others like them who led for the front are real heroes and I salute them. May they rest in Peace

WAR ON MUMBAI

SHOCKED, ANGRY, BETRAYED, HURT, GRIEVING  There aren't enough words to describe my feeling today.

My condolences goes down to all those who lost their life in the WAR ON MUMBAI. This was not a simple TERROR situation. It was a WAR and I am sad to say that though we finished off the terrorists they were successful in their aims. As it is being shown on N.D.T.V.  "Enough is Enough" 

The people of this country are hurt and angry. No one can feel safe anymore. Who could have imagined going to have dinner or to the railway station to see off someone and not coming back. The lives of Indians have lost their value. Anyone can just come in and just do anything to us. I feel that India has been RAPED and RAVAGED by these terrorists. 

They are not Hindus or Muslims or Christians they are the devils own creation. The terrorist who they have caught alive is a 21 year old. Hell he is younger than me and he has reportedly said that he has no regrets. Why should he have any regrets. We are Indians who should by now be immune to such attacks. 

Every month there is some attack or the other and our government is unable to do anything. An attack of this nature takes months and months of planning. These did not just land on a boat and said that today we will just rape and ravish this city. It requires crores of rupees to execute. Where are our intelligence agencies? 

I think blaming this on the politicians is no good. Our home minister is oblivious to criticism as he is under the chatrachaaya of Madam. What I dont understand that even she lost her husband and Mother in Law to the terrorists. Doesn't her heart go on to the innocent Indians. 

Instead of blaming the politicians we ourselves are to blame. It is we who elect or more likely don't prevent such politicians to be elected by not voting in the elections. I am ashamed to say that I have not voted till todays I don't have voter ID but I am determined to change this situation by time of general election and vow to do my best in helping this country. I feel that all of must have a DUTY to vote not just a RIGHT to vote. As is famously said that with great power comes great responsibility. It is our responsibility to vote for people who can protect us from the scrouge of terrorism instead of dividing us on narrow issues.

It is being said that it is our 9/11. Let us never for 26/11/08 the day the soul of India was attacked. Let this be a day when India wakes up from the deep slumber and finally takes concrete steps in scourging out this menace once and for all. Lets us all take a pledge that we will do everything in our power to help in fighting this monster. Let us cooperate with the security personnel when they frisk us. Let us have a police verification done of our tenants and servants. Let us ourselves be willing for a background check if our landlord so demands. Let us be PROACTIVE RATHER THAN REACTIVE. 

Lotus Temple

Today I and two of my friends visited  the Lotus temple after visitng the industry. It is a very nice and peaceful place. We took a lot of photos and really enjoyed the visit

industry visit

We visited K.K.Printing Machines Mfg. Co. pvt ltd. to make a video of the working of the industry so that we can complete the project in OM. the vist was very fruitful and we enjoyed knowing about the working of the industry

Night Long Case solving for OM

Last night I spent in the hostel while trying to solve cases in OM. we started at 5 pm but even till 2:30 am we did not make much progress and called it a night. but now we know what to do and now it will be easier

result

In my first term i got a cgpa of 2.71. the breakup of the marks was

Eco B

OB B

Mktg A-

DMM C

Manac C

Business Comm B+

IT B+

Diwali Vacation

I am going to Orai , my mausis place, for diwali. I have the train today evening at 5:30. I will be leaving with Ashrut my cousin

Alumini network

There was a meeting with 4 alumini in the college yesterday evening. they talked about their career their experiences and shared great insights. The main point they raised was that in these recessionary times you should not worry about the pay package and just go for the job. You will profit in the long run

Genesis 2008

We has a management fest genesis 2008 from 17th to the 19th of this month. it was overall an ok fest with participation from many colleges. I had also participated in the Ad-Mad show (where my team came 3rd) and was an audience in the panel discusion on the state of the economy which was covered by N.D.T.V. metronation. 

The start of the show had a lot of problems the biggest damp squib bein the Rock show where the ban could play only 3 and a 1/2 songs because of the time problem by the management. It was so humiliating and upsetting that i even wote a mail about it in the yahoo group of the batch.

The rest was O.K. and the fest ended on a positive note with a cultural evening but there were ample scope for improvement. hopefully the next time it will be better.

Asian Paints

Asian Paints had come to our college for summmer placements. I had sat for the GD but could not clear it. I will try to prepare more for other companies that will come for summer palcements

Summer Placements begin soon

Our paper was not selected in IIM Bangalore fest but that did not disappoint us as it was the first ever attempt to write a paper. That chappter is now closed and something much more important has come which will surely keep us on our toes. The much avaited summer placements are starting very soon but the exact date is not known yet. among the first companies that is expected to vist the campus is Asian Paints with the offer of the marketing profile which is the profile I wish to major in. So i have filled the form for asian paints and started the preparation by downloading the material about the company. If I get into Asian Paints it will be a very good boost for my career. I will get exposure in the marketing and sales department of a multinational while at the same time also earn a good stipend (Rs. 10,000 per month) hope everything is alright and I get into the company whenever it conducts the interviews

Happy Dusshera

I want to wish everyone a very Happy Dusshera! May the good (Common People) triumph over the evil(The terrorists)

pocket picked

Yesterday I had palnned to go to haridwar for economics project work. unfortunately the trip did not materialize as my pocket got picked either in bus to ISBT or at ISBT itself. i have filed an FIR in ISBT station and also blocked both my ATM cards. I will apply for new cards as soon as possible

IIMB Vista

IIM Bangalore is conducting an intercollege competition. I and my room partner have sent a paper a case analysis and are planning to sent a CSR project. If any of them is selected then we will go to IIM Bangalore for the competion. The paper is on Evolution of Organized Retail in India. Lets hope it is selected

term 2 begins

The second term began today after a break of just two days (saturday and sunday) We had a registration for the term (again!!!) and then their were a couple of classes. there are 8 subjects in the term Bstat, Mktg, MANAC, CF, OSD, OM, ECO & NIT. it may be a difficult term as the number of subjects have increased and all the teachers are new. We will know the status as the term progresses

End Term Exams

My end term exams are going on and they will end on friday. I will post on friday or saturday.

Fantasy turns into fact

First of all I offer my heartiest condolences to family members of the victims of cowardly acts of terror taking place in the country. We must not let this terror interfere in our daily lives as this will fulfill the wishes of those cowards.

I find a very disturbing similarity between what is happening in India these days and the events portrayed in the fantasy world of Harry Potter by J.K.Rowling. The terrorists can be compared to the death eaters who strike any place any time without fear. They claim responsibilities for the attacks by sending emails to the news channels. In the books the death eaters claim responsibility to the attacks by using the dark mark.

The govt. of India is totally unable to do anything to stop these attacks instead it parrots the same line that we will go after the terrorists and punish them according to the law (when there is no terror law) after each such attack. In the books initially the Minstry of Magic was in denial about the very existence of Voldemort and later they could not do anything to stop the death eaters who had a free run of Britain.

The police forces and the intelligence groups are restrained from unleashing their full power against the terrorists. They are not allowed to bring in the terror suspects for questioning from the 'minority community' dominated areas by the govt who plays the dangerous game of Vote Bank politics. In the books the aurors are equally helpless and are not allowed to collaborate with the order of the pheonix as the ministry sees dumbledore as a threat to their power. In both the cases the government's desire to be in power allows the terrorists/death eaters to go scot free.

I fervently hope that we find our own version of Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix to end this scrouge of terror.

presentation after presentation after presentation

With the end of the term near a lot of presentations are taking place. Our Economics presentation which was to take place on friday had been postponed to monday thanks to the efforts of our group member and C.R. Pallavi. It was good as we had not analysed any of the data.

Today there were three presentaions for me. 1st was an O.B. presentation on the leadership qualities of Ratan Tata. Next was on the Marketing campaign of Virgin Mobile. Finally there was the economics presentation. Additionally in B.C. there was a group discussion on two cases. 

Overall from 11am to 7 pm I was attending presentations and group discusions. A really hectic day !!! 

Data Data everywhere not one bit analysed

Me and my team for the eco project are in a jam. we had a project to study the price discrimination in airline industry. I had collected data for over a month and then when we showed the data to our sir he said it was not ok and he needed more factors. till 9 last night we were in the college collecting data. we have to give the presentation today but the data is still not analysed. I had sat till 12:30 am last night and got up at 6 today morning. i have some ideas for the analysis of data. at present i am in the college waiting for other team members. Praful has said that he has done some  analysis and made graphs and regresion models so i am hoping it will be alright. we have not yet made the slides and we will make them now. The presentation is at 3:30 pm

Markibrand summit

On saturday i attended a marketing summit Markibrand organized by FMS Delhi. it was an informative summit in which senior executives from Pepsi, Pizza Hut, Apple, Star TV and BBDO an ad agency had come. they gave presentation on how brands evolve over time. it was very informative. I also got a participation certificate for the summit.

Projects Projects and More Projects

it is a season of a lot of projects. As the term comes to an end we have to do a lot of projects. An overview of the various projects I have to do
Eco A project about price changes in theairline tickets Delhi Mumbai sector
Mktg A project about a new product which has been launched (Big TV)
A project about the advertisemetn campaighn of a product
MANAC A report on the annual report of a company (Berger Paints)
BC Long report on the business comunication in O.N.G.C.
IT A report on the EPINET project of O.N.G.C.
So I shall be extreamly busy with the projects

mid term exams

I am having my mid term exams at present from 7th to 11th august so there is a delay in posting. 4 exams are over and now only one (marketing) is left for tommorow. after that i plan to go for a movie. will post on monday or tuesday

Bangalore Ahemdabad Surat What Next???

The terrorists have become bolder by the day while the govt. is caught napping!!! Two major attacks within 24 hrs and one aborted one in surat just two days later. While the politicians indulge in blame game (Sushma Swaraj of B.J.P. called it a congress conspiracy to take interest from the Cash-for-Votes scam and some congress leaders have demanded Narendra Modi's resignation) and empty statements of horror the terrorists are going scot free. The failure of the intelligence agencies is really acute and the intelligence reports are too vague. We can only guess where the terrorists will strike next. Only way to rectify this glaring flaw is a revamp of our intelligence network. We need a central agency like F.B.I. or K.G.B. to gather intelligence and prevent the attack instead of locking the doors after the horses have fled and spending years in investigating the attack. It is high time we started and Indian Intelligence Service just like I.A.S. or I.P.S. and give it enough powers. The govt. should not be interfering in its functioning and the intelligence posting should be seen as a promotion. To assuage the states who say law and order is the state subject we should amend the constitution to make it a joint subject between state and center and the I.I.S. should be under this schedule

Blasts in Bangalore

I am deeply saddened by the fresh terrorist attack on India this time in Bangalore. My deepest sypathies go to the victims of the attack. Terror is a regular reminder that we have fared miserably in the internal security fund. Bangalore the IT hub of India has joined the long list of terrorism hit places like Delhi, Mumbai, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Kashmir etc. It is quiet clear that the govt. seems to have no power to stop the terrorists who carry out the attacks with impunity. We need strong laws and strict enforcement of these laws.
We should take the example of the U.S. which has a very efficient anti terrorist policy. The terrorist's main enemy is said to be U.S. But they have not been abe to strike there since 9/11. This is because of the no nonsense and highly skiled inteligence gathering. The U.S. politicians don't care for the so called minority vote bank. The police is given full power to search and detain the suspects. In India the police under the presure from the self serving politicians is afraid to go and launch a search and investigation program in the muslim dominated inner city areas while it is clear from the investigations in the previous blasts that they are carried out by sleeper cells of disgruntled muslims who live in these areas and are easy prey for the brain washing techniques of the terrorist organizations like LeT. Even if the terrorists like Afzal Guru are caught then also this govt is afraid to hang him fearing a backlash from the muslim community. The fact of the matter is that no patriotic muslim will oppose to action against the anti nationals like Afzal Guru. I don't say that all muslims are terrorists. the list of honourable muslims is long and impressive like Dr. Kalam, Shahrukh Khan, Shabana Azmi, Zaheer Khan etc. But it is increasingly evident from not only in India but also around the world that 90% of the terrorists are muslims. These terrorists sully the name of their religion because no religion preaches killing of the innocents but these terrorists call this islamic jehad.
There is a strong need to bring back strong laws like POTA and TADA. We can also look at the Patriot act of U.S. which has proved very effective in controlling and preventing terrorism. When will Dr. Manmohan Singh wake up!!! Sir please remove your narrow mindset and implement strong laws. No patriotic person whether Hindu or Muslim will oppose you. Congress calls itself a secular party but acts like a communal party with an eye on the so called muslim vote bank. If you spend more time and money on police and intelligence reforms rather than buying MPs for clinging on to power then India will be infinitely better off.

Death of Democracy

On 22nd july it was one of the saddest day in the history of Indian democracy. Though there had been allegations about the bribery of the MP’s but on that day the proof was shown to the world in a dramatic fashion when three MP’s from B.J.P. showed wads of currency notes they were payed to vote for the govt. This naked show of curruption undermines the credibility of Dr. Manmohan Singh's govt. even though it has won the trust vote. There should be a probe by the C.B.I. for the allegations and if found to be true then the guilty MPs should be suspended from Parliament and barred from the elections. Dr. Manmohan Singh should resign because the victory in the trust vote was not a clean victory. Though I am a strong supporter of the nuclear deal I feel that to sign this deal by getting mandate through currupt means is unethical. It is a sad commentry that the ethics and politics don't seem to be together.

Freshers Party

We had a freshers party yesterday 19th july at the college auditorium. It was one of the most mismanaged party or event I had ever seen. There was no coordination amongst the organizers. They did not even have a cd player to play the songs for the dance performamces and had to resort to asking the students if anyone had a laptop. The sound system was pathetic and no one but the front rows could properly hear what was going on in the stage. There were large gaps between the items and they had no filler items to capture the attention of the audience who were hooting " 1 2 3 4 band karo ye atyachar ( stop this torture)" towards the end.
The performances were good specially the dance performance by Dheeraj who I learnt ran his own dance academy in Greater Noida. His performance was the saving grace of the function. He was also crowned the Mr. Fresher.
Later the DJ started playing but it had played for merely half and hour to 45 minutes when it was asked to stop by the police as the rule in delhi is that you cant have DJ performances after 10 pm.
The food arangement was OK and there was a choice of both veg and nonveg items. overall it was not a memorable party.
The humiliating thing was that the party was watched by three french exchange students. This was the first function at FORE that they watched and I shudder to think what impressions they may carry after seeing this mismanaged party.

Anubhuti Session

Today we had our first anubhuti session. The anubhuti sessions are the corporate interaction sessions. Today an official from K.P.M.G. a consulting firm had come and told us about Six Sigma. Our college is proposing to conduct a program for six sigma certification in august. I think it will be a good program and will help in my future career objectives. I will talk at home about the program and then lets see what happens.

Teach India

Teach India is the latest initiative by Times of India group after the highly successful Lead India campaign which had focussed on finding the future leaders for the country. This campaign goes a step further and asks the people to participate in the nation building process by helping build India by teaching the underprivalaged children. A literate India will be a prosperous and developed India.
I have also registered for the initiative. I feel that giving a couple of hours a week for the noble cause is infinitely better than just sitting back and critisising the "system". We have the power as well as a responsibility to change the system. If this campaign can become really broadbased then it will do a world of good for our country. We will get the chance to actually to make the slogan "each one teach one" true.

Groups Projects and Induction

Finally my groups for all the subjects have been finalized. We are also working on group assignments in economics and marketing. In eco we have to study three research papers on any topic and give a small review. In marketing we have to interview 3 consumers of a product about the purchase and the decision making process for buying the product.

Today we also had the induction ceremony in the institute where we took the oath as FORE students. M.P. and minister Mr. Jyotiraditya Scindhia was the chief guest of the function. It was a good function and we were formally inducted as part of the FMG 17 batch

Laptop

I finally got a new laptop yesterday. This is my first post from the laptop. The laptop is a Compaq 784 TU with the following configuration
Intel core 2 Duo 1.73Ghz
2GB RAM 160 GB HDD
15.4" screen
Windows Vista Home Basic
Webcam WiFi (No Bluetooth)

Decisions Decisions

Today was the day of decisions.Which laptop to buy? Which group to join? Group dynamics is very complex. Our teacher has said that the group must be a mix of engineers , non engineers; boys, girls; experienced,freshers and should be a of 6 members.The problem is that about 75% of the class is engineers and there are only 15 odd girls so it is a veritable headache.I don't have a group now but hopefully by tomorrow the picture will be clearer. Laptop is another tough decision though I think that 99%I will buy a Compaq. Lets see what tomorrow brings. I also joined a yahoo group for receiving the official mails and assignments.

First Day

Today was the first day of the term 1 for PGDBM 2008-10. Got a feel of the management education. Got some reading materials for various subjects and some assignments. The course load is a bit heavy but it seems to be interesting. Met a few people. We have to form groups for doing various projects and assignments so lets see how it turns up