The Storm...

I'm sitting in my office...though this is far from a normal day...Aila has hit Calcutta some 3 hrs ago and is creating havoc here...more so in the vilalges of south 24 parganas...mud houses are breaking, roofs can be seen flying in the wind, 4 people have already died and the news channels are saying that things will worsen as the day progresses...one of my craftsmen has already lost his home's roof and a part of his work-shop's roof... :( :(

As I look out of my office window, I can see felled trees and empty roads...news sites are saying that around 200 houses have been damaged in the districts...so many people would have lost whatever they had today...May God give them the strength and opportunity to regain whatever they have lost soon...

Am worried about my staff...some of them travel around 1.5-2 hours to reach home from office...I can't send them home and don't want them to stay here either...its not safe here as it is, they might as well be near their family members...but then, the office is probably safer than their home...

The news channels have just reported that banks near Canning have started to flood and various mud  embankments have been broken...hmmm....Will it flood in cal this time? Keeping my fingers crossed...

The Best

There are so many memorable moments of the time spent on campus...and once realises that they are "memorable" only after checking out of campus...now that I have enough time (and no other option) to reminicize about "those days", I feel an urge to capture them....

Please allow me to make an honest admission: I have a fear in Life...the fear of what if someday I suddenly lose my memory....what if I suddenly forget certain things!!? If somebody's reading this, I am sure he/she is laughing....but it's true...I fear that! and so, as a "back-up", am making this small effort to capture "My Bests" in XL (This is a partial list...Maybe someday I'll come up with an "addendum", just like I'll do for my "What do I miss most about XL" post...)

So here goes...My Best..

Wetnite in XL: 26^th January, 2009

Words I have heard on waking up: Good Morning! :)

Music that I have heard on waking up: My Phone ringing :)

Lunch while at XL: At Tango, at Dosa King

Food: Au Gratin with Garlic Bread, Pav Bhaji Dosa, Bull’s Eye, Litti, Golgappe

Sunrise: (i) At Campus, after a night out of gap-shap with my best friend and (ii) At Dimna in the 6^th term

Breakfast: At Regent…2 days in a row with the best company I could ask for :)

Movie Experience: Notting Hill, Jodha Akbar (saw it on a projector in my room!!!), DDLJ in the 6^th term and a host of others!

Interview experience: All CRISP Interviews!

Committee Experience: CRISP, Team Services (equally)

Grax experience: In Services Hub!!

Presentation experience: In ISE course (presented for only 9 mins as against the required 30       mins, still got the highest!)

English I’ve spoken: With Highly!!! (We invented a new way of speaking!!–Liking!!)

Eatery on campus: Bishu Da!

Of his offerings: Cheese Fried Maggi, Aloo Paratha and strong coffee :)

Marketing Prof: Govindrajan Sir

Fin Prof: Prantik Ray (No! Don’t die laughing!! I was just kidding!!), UD Sir

Dholki I’ve seen in XL: Well, the same opinion that SAC has! ;)

Dinner on campus: Thepl@xi Dinner, of course!

Horror movie experience: The movie 1408, In Sheela’s room in 6^th term with him, Highly and me…and Highly’s howls being more scary than the movie itself!!

Pizza’s in Jampot: At Pizzapuram

Why Aren't You Doing A Job After MBA???

It’s been almost a month since I’ve come back home from campus…been meeting a host of people – relatives, clients, karigars (sub-contractors working for me)…and everywhere I go, I’m always asked the same question – “Why aren’t you doing a job if you’ve done a MBA?”

I have faced this question a thousand times …since the time of my XL interview – was asked the same question there (“Why do you want to do a MBA if you don’t want to do a job?”), by friends once I actually got through the interview, by my paternal uncle (“If you are so sure of not doing a job after your MBA, you are wasting the institute’s seat!”), by different batch-mates all through my stay at XL and now by relatives (again!), clients (also!) and karigars too! (They are village folk; they don’t know what degree I have done, but they just know that bodo da – bade bhaiya – has done some “hi-fi” studies which pays a lot!)…

Some of them look at me expectantly after asking this question, as if I will just now start speaking about my plan of “How-will-I-build-my-hazaron-karodon-ki-industries”; some ask this question with a subtle smirk which says “Didn’t/Couldn’t get a job, huh!?”, when they don’t know that I had not even sat for placements; some ask this with genuine curiosity because they haven’t seen anyone not doing a job after MBA…but everyone is curious to understand why I didn’t go for a job at an MNC with a plush salary in a great building with a fancy designation…Why?

In the course of my interactions with these different groups of well-wishers, it seems to me that they believe that MBA is some kind of a magical course…that the Institute is a sacred Hogwart’s castle… that they teach “The Secret Formula for Quick Success in Business” in a B-School and the person who leaves a comfy job of 10-12-15 lakhs per annum is either mad or has a crystal clear plan in his mind that is going to earn him crores, starting the first day he joins/starts his business!!

I have mixed thoughts when I hear this question from such people, for I truly believe that some of them have a lot of experience (businessmen, older relatives who have seen a lot of Life), some of them have above average expertise in their chosen field (fellow MBAs, businessmen) and most of them have a practical reasoning ability…are they trying to test my clarity of thought by asking my plan of action? Are they trying to tell me that I am a fool to expose myself to greater risks of doing business than have a secure steady income of X lakhs per annum? Or are they trying to elicit an answer from me about a question which they themselves haven’t been able to answer? A lot of my clients and relatives doing business believe that time has come when small and medium businesses won’t survive for long…it’s time to scale up or ship out…So are they underestimating me?

Anyways...I have to go now...will return to you at a more apt time again, for sure...

Then and Now...

Y’day was talking to my younger bro…and he said something very interesting in a matter of fact way…he said, “Bhai, I think it’d have been a better world if we were still in the pre-civilization age…back then, Man had no tension…all he’d have to do was wake up, find food, eat it somehow, find a resting place and go back to sleep again!”. I said, “But back then, he was in constant danger of getting killed…”… “Aren’t we now?” he asked me.

First Brush!

My first brush with the industry (albeit indirect), after completing my course and returning home…

The Setting: An informal chit-chat between my client and my father

The Background: The ongoing recession and the contribution of MBAs in ‘creating’ this recession (!!!!)

Client: Arre Mr. Kataria, I am telling you…its these MBAs only who have brought about this recession..

Dad: How?

Client: Lemme explain how Sir…you see, we all have not studied as much as them…right?

Dad: Very true Sir…

Client: Hmmm…Bhai hum log to mehnat kar ke khaane wale log hain…we strive our whole lives vying to make our businesses as big as possible…so when our business attains a decent size, we think of making it bigger…of ‘professionalizing’ it because everyone says that running a business in the typical ‘Lala’-type manner won’t take it far…so we hire a couple of these kids from these Hogwarts-castle like colleges…

Dad: Haha…Sir, you put it forward in a nice manner…

Client: So these kids walk in, and the first thing they want to do is analyze your Balance Sheet and P/L account…they find out YoY growth rates and CAGR and all that fancy stuff…and then tell you that despite your phenomenal growth in the last 2 yrs or 3 yrs or 5 yrs, you have actually lost XYZ amount of business and these 1-2-3 areas are the root cause for your losing business…your turnover is at such-and-such level whereas it could have easily been at least 30%-40% more!!

Now the moment you hear this, your brain is sure to go for a toss!! I mean, ye ladka abhi abhi aa kar aapko ye bata raha hai ki aapne actually itni demand haath se nikal jaane di, whereas till yesterday you were patting yourself on the back on your growth!!

The next thing they will do is ‘analyze the market’ –find the market size, number of similar players…and do some more fancy stuff and tell you that in the next 5 years, the market is going to go from ABC level to MNO level and hence you should gear up for it…you should “plan” well in time so as to take advantage of the market conditions at that time…

You will also think, “Well said!” “Well thought out!” … and you are all ears…the MBA will say, “Sir, I think there is a desperate need for you to increase your production capacity…otherwise you won’t be able to meet the desired supply level after 5 years. Rather than going in for a huge Capex at that time, I suggest that you go for planned, incremental Capex Plans from now only, so that you won’t put too much trouble on your financials later.”

You will also agree to this point, obviously…you also understand that incurring so much Capex at one time is very difficult…sucks out the liquidity from the business.

Dad: Plus, it takes time to build capacity, and it’s possible that you might have missed the bus by the time you are ready…

Client: Very true…to hum bhi unki haan mein haan milate rehte hain…

Then he will tell you that you must set up your manufacturing facility in such-and-such place and that will entail a total of so much expenditure…”But don’t you worry about that…I have figured out a way for that too…your Balanced Sheet is unlevered till now…its always better to have some amount of debt because it reduces equity risk…and banks will lend to you at very reasonable rates…and your Interest Coverage Ratio is also very high, etc etc….” aapko saara logic samjha dete hain, and trust me its all convincing!

So you start setting up your facility…which will invariably be up and running in the next 2 years…the MBA will say, “Its apt time because now you can start increasing your production and supply” So you start doing that, realizing only a little later what you have done! You have actually created a money-guzzling monster! You can’t stop production and the market’s demand doesn’t quite increase as smoothly or constantly as it is shown on paper…moreover, not everyone in the market is your customer and not everyone will become your customer…and you will see liquidity drying up irrespective…either in your stocks or in your receivables…slowly but surely, you will be overstocked with whole warehouses of goods…you will be literally begging your customers to buy some more but to no avail…arre baba, even the end consumer has to buy na…she will look at 50 sarees and then buy 1…but you have already made 500 in the hope that she will buy more, that you will “create a niche”…now if the whole bazaar does like that it only means that the market will be overflowing with sarees…and all this will happen before the predicted 5-year “boom”…you will only go “bust” and never live to hear any other sound except the “boom” that you created!!!

Mr. Kataria I can’t tell you how many have suffered this way…ye padhe likhe log hi market ko kharab kar dete hain…. (!!!)

What Will I Miss Most About XL?

It’s so weird…how much a place can affect you…

I’ve never been too emotional…have always believed in the power of the mind, logic, practicality…during my undergrad days, my friends used to call me the guy with a pace-maker instead of a heart (and somehow, I used to like it too)…but XL has made such an indelible mark in my life, perspectives, personality…that its impossible to stay for a long time without thinking about XL..Impossible to spend a day without missing it…

I guess it’s true: You can take an XLer out of XL, but you can never take XL out of an XLer

I have always believed that this place has the overwhelming power to change a person…and any generous soul who has ever had the patience to talk to me on XL has heard this from my mouth :)…I have changed too, in a lot of aspects…and now that I am out of the campus, feel a void within me…

“What will you miss most about XL?”, someone had asked me recently.

 A lot. Everything, actually.

I’ll miss my classes, where I was always so punctual (always 5 minutes late is also ‘punctual’, right! [:-P])

I’ll miss my projects and those never-ending project meetings....I’ll miss all those case discussions, where I’d invariably be half-asleep and Highly, RJ, Bandit Queen or Chandu would fill me in with the details of the case and then would come the output (for which we have received appreciation also!)!

I’ll miss the people here…so many of them, each one so different from the other…since I’ve always liked staying among lots of people, have loved each and every moment spent with every one of you…

I’ll miss my committee work a lot…Services, CRISP, Crescent, even CII-Yi (very new relatively)…have learnt so much while working in them…learnt how to, above all, work with people who might not share your concerns, who don’t think like you…I’ve always believed that being in a committee isn’t everything; one must prove that his existence in that committee is justified…loved the pressure of proving one’s worth by making one’s ideas / contribution count…

I’ll miss Theplaxi…its been absolutely amazing to work for it…for organizing the Dandiya Nites, the Thepl@xi dinner last time (am very sad not to have been able to organize the dinner this time :( …am worried too, about how the tradition will be carried on by the juniors, since they don’t know what exactly to do…)…I’ll miss the Dandiya, the Garba, teaching enthusiasts whatever little I know…seeing people enjoy the program…the music, the halogen lights…the post-event cafeteria delights…

I’ll miss planning the 1001 things under the sun…with none of them even getting started!!

I’ll miss talking to Profs...not only like a student, but as a professional too....or in personal capacity. I have been able to speak to them more frankly in the second year. You’ll be amazed to see how receptive most of them are if you talk to them frankly…

I’ll miss criticizing the system (though I can do that for some time now! [:-P])…will miss defending the system…

I’ll miss Bishu Da and his amazing parathas and cheese fried Maggi…and the bakar sessions and Gyaan sessions there…and yes, even those two most irritating dogs on the face of the Earth!!

I’ll miss even the mundane tasks of coming out of hostel and entering my room…they have become so much a part and parcel of my routine that not pressing the lock code of my room for some time makes me think something’s amiss…

…will miss the amazing nite-outs, the long walks, the case-taking, the breakfasts @ Regent and Madsam, Litti @ Bistupur (yummm!!), watching movies in LH, gym top, the Learning Centre staircase, the Admin Building stairs, the faculty quarter roads, the photo-shoots (will always think of Chandu and Gunji whenever I think of the word “Photo” [:-D]), the biking sojourns, Budhaxi, all the “axi” ‘s, the highly chilling sessions!, my friends, my best friend…I’ll miss Life.

I’ll miss Life.

Put Your Glass Down...In Time...

One of the thoughtful forwards I have received in a long, long time...I think it's really important for all of us in these times...

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Professor began his class by holding up a glass with some water in it.  He held it up for all to see & asked the students -

 "How much do you think this glass weighs?"

  '50gms!' ..... '100gms!' .....'125gms'  ...the students answered.

 

 

"I really don't know unless I weigh it," said the professor, "but, my question is:

What would happen if I held it up like this for a few minutes?"

'Nothing' ..the students said.

 

'Ok what would happen if I held it up like this for an hour?' the professor asked.

 

'Your arm would begin to ache' said one of the student

 

"You're right, now what would happen if I held it for a day?"

 

"Your arm could go numb, you might have severe muscle stress & paralysis & have to go to hospital for sure!"... ventured another student & all the students laughed

 

 "Very good. But during all this, did the weight of the glass change?" asked the professor.

 

 'No'. Was the answer.

 

 "Then what caused the arm ache & the muscle stress?"

 

 The students were puzzled.

 

 "What should I do now to come out of pain?" asked professor again.

 

 "Put the glass down!" said one of the students

 

 "Exactly!" said the professor.

 

 Life's problems are something like this.

 Hold it for a few minutes in your head & they seem OK.

 

 Think of them for a long time & they begin to ache.

 Hold it even longer & they begin to paralyze you. You will not be able to do anything.

 

 It's important to think of the challenges or problems in your life,

 But EVEN MORE IMPORTANT is to 'PUT THEM DOWN' at the end of every day

 before You go to sleep..

 

 That way, you are not stressed, you wake up every day fresh &strong & can

 handle any issue, any challenge that comes your way!

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I too believe that we don't put our glass down in time...in fact, sometimes (somehow) holding it up gives us a sense of satisfaction / achievement / testing our own mettle...sometimes we don't keep it down in the hope that if we keep holding it, maybe the weight will become less...sometimes, we fail to differentiate between our ego and our perseverence...

Love Life...Love its moments...What comes today must go after some time...if you cling to it to make it last forever, it will deprive you of the other wonderful moments that will invariably light up your life even more than the previous ones... Put the Glass down when it starts to hurt...

Live in the present, with your eyes on the future...for it holds promises that must be realized...

The past is a tree that has borne its fruits...the present contains the seeds of the future...for the future to seem as nice when it becomes a 'past', the seeds in the 'present' must be sown with great care and love...

As someone has rightly said, be not sad that it has come to an end, be glad that it ever happened...