Author: SK

is that i crib too much

For the better part of the last five months, I’ve been listening to Pink Floyd. I occasionally switch to other bands such as Dire Straits, Maiden, Beatles, etc. but I quickly get bored and switch back to Floyd within a day.

Deep Purple, however, has turned out to be totally different. I added them to my playlist last Monday and am yet to change the playlist. There’s something about their music which I haven’t been able to get off my head. Probably it is the heavy use of long instrumentals, a la Floyd. Probably it’s because of the not-so-heavy vocals (in most songs, except for some like Highway Star). Probably because it’s much more melodious than a lot of other bands. Probably it’s because it’s psychedelic. Stuff makes you go high instantaneously. (btw, does purple get classified under “psychedelic rock”?).

The biggest claim to fame of the song child in time, from the album Concerto for Group and Orchestra, might be that Aisa Zakhm Diya Hai (Akele Hum Akele Tum) has been “inspired” by it. What sets this song apart, however, is the rhythm. The three beats in the beginning of the cycle, followed by a long gap which is sometimes filled with rolling beats, is simply too amazing.

It’s probably the first time that I’ve liked a song mainly for the rhythm scheme. Just darken the lights and play the song, and simultaneously drum a table using a hand and a spoon… you’ll soon be transported to another world. Another beautiful world where you are king… Where you get so lost that you forget what you wanted to say… Where you start writing a piece and then in the middle start wondering what you wanted to write… Where you start writing a blogpost and soon realize it’s going nowhere… but you want to ramble on and write something.

Incredible.

It is a hard time at the peak. You know that you simply can’t go higher. And it’s lonely out there. There’s nothing to do. And it’s hard not to do anything. And any small slip up and you’ll slide down. Nothing you can do to prevent yourself from slipping down…

than the feeling of having done a good job…

In order to show every recruiter who comes to our campus that we are extremely enthusiastic about their company, there is a certain attendance requirement for pre-placement talks (PPTs). Of course, everyone need not attend every PPT but there are methods to fill up the lecture halls when the company comes calling. The exact implementation of this, however, varies from B-school to B-school.

Now, some people cribbed last year that there is no point asking someone to attend a PPT which he/she is least interested in, while people who would be really interested in the company wouldn’t attend because they need not! For this purpose, our placement committee has introduced a system of “swaps”. In other words, proxy has been made official. One just needs to post on the message board and attend the PPT on behalf of someone, and sign for him/her. This, in effect, has created a market for PPT attendances!

The product in question here is the negative of attending the PPT (call it -PPT). Given that most companies don’t exercise brevity during the PPTs, most people hate attending PPTs. Thus, the product you would pay for is to “not attend a certain PPT”. Now, the valuation of a -PPT is a little tricky. How much would you pay someone so that he/she wears formals and sits in that classroom for an hour or two on your behalf?

One clever way of solving the problem is to indulge in swaps. Suppose I am more interested in company A than in company B. And you prefer B to A. Suppose the attendance roster says that I have to attend B and you A, we simply trade. I go to A and sign for you, and you return the favor at B. There is even a “swap folder” on our discussion boards for this, and it acts as a clearing house for -PPT swaps.

However, it is not always possible to find someone with opposite preferences so that you indulge in a straight swap. Of course, sometimes three-way or four-way swaps also take place. The best thing to do, however, when you don’t want to go for a PPT and can’t find a swap, is to pay someone to go for you. The data that follows is empirical.

It must be mentioned here that the fine for not attending a PPT is Rs. 400. Hence, logically the price for a PPT should settle down somewhere close to, but below 400 in case of a perfect market. However, B-school students are far from logical and the market far from perfect.

The “going rate” last year was Rs. 150 per PPT. A senior of ours was engaged and he simply put an open offer of Rs. 150 for anyone who could take his place. The market quickly converged at that rate and all was fine.

This year, however, the market has shown some strange dynamics. Our juniors seem to be desperate for money and in their attempts to attend more PPTs and thus make more money, they have started undercutting each other. Of course, there are these ignorant seniors who still pay the old rate of Rs. 150. And there are juniors who exploit these.

However, fact is that the price has gone down. Last week, when I was away at Madras, I was able to sell two -PPTs for Rs. 100 each. Rs. 100 seems to be the new ‘going rate’ for most deals. However, there are still a few interesting situations.

There are juniors who go for you for free because you live next door. Or because you had gone to the same undergrad college where you had ragged them. Then there are these meek juniors who feel that it is “not done” to ask a senior for money. And if you are a girl, it is even more peaceful. Just a promise of a chocolate or a coffee (just a promise, not necessarily delivery) is enough to get enough takers. Then, if you figure out which junior is going to intern in that company, you can get to go for you for free (since he’ll want to butter up his bosses before the internship so that it may increase chances of a PPO).

One thing, however, people seem to have missed out – that the length of PPTs are different, and people should be actually paid on basis of length. If I am a guy who hates PPTs, the amount of pain I go through a 2 hour PPT is twice that of in case of a 1 hour PPT; and hence should be charging (or willing to pay) double for it! This is one point that our oh-so-NOT-logical B-schoolers seem to have missed out on!

To conclude, this would be an interesting study for someone doing behavioral economics. And the study would be much harder because of the absence of the law of homogeneous expectations here. Here, two different people are likely to value the same product very differently – probably that is the main reason the market here is so imperfect!

Saw this movie yesterday. Second show at Rex. Felt it was totally overhyped. Didn’t find it as great as many of my friends have.

The lives of a bunch of TDCs changes forever when a firang gives them gyaan about India’s great freedom movement and asks them to act in her movie documenting the same. Then they go on to do some arbit stuff (don’t want to play spoiler here). The end is one of the most hilarious I’ve seen in recent times. Perhaps I can call it ridiculous. Definitely not a kind of ending fit for a movie with patriotic overtones such as this.

My fundamental disconnect with the movie was that I couldn’t identify with any of the lead characters. Looking back, most of the Hindi movies I’ve enjoyed are those where I could easily identify with one of the leads; and lived his life for the next 2-3 hours. Dil to pagal hai (shah rukh khan), Yuva (vivek oberoi), Dil Chahta Hai (both aamir khan and saif ali khan), etc.

In Rang De Basanti, the characters in the first half are overtly TDC. And in the second, they become overtly patriotic. Not that I’m not patriotic. Just that their way of thinking doesn’t quite gel with mine.

Then, of course, there are these side plots which could’ve been safely dispensed with. The director takes his liberties and indulges in a lot of BJP bashing. A little would’ve been ok, but when you bash the BJP in every other scene, it does leave a bad taste in the mouth. Then, of course, you have the gyaan about Hindu-Muslim bhaichara. It seems like the director has taken it upon himself to give a lesson in morals to the youth of the country. And it doesn’t seem like he’s quite succeeded.

To end on a positive note, the performances in the movie have been superb. If only the script were a little more refined… And yeah, the ride home at 1 am on a bike borrowed from filled up the empty spaces the movie had left…

I just finished setting my last question for the Grand IIMB Open Quiz, to be held as part of Unmaad 2006. It’s been a month of hard work googling, wiki-ing, digging out fundaes I had made a mental note of ages ago, noting fundaes for probable questions in a grubby little notebook, scouring papers and mags. Finally it’s done. I have my quota ready. Just need to stick my ass to the chair for a couple of hours now and put the whole thing down on a PPT. Feels so good.

The open quiz is on 4th (Saturday). Prelims are at 11:30 am and the finals at 3 pm. The whole thing will be held at the Management Development Center. Prizes of 15K, 12K, 9K for the top three teams. Lots of audience prizes also.

Aadisht, Kodhi and I have tried our best to give you guys a good quiz. Research started a couple of months ago. We have tried our best to make sure that all questions are approximately of the same level. We have tried not to put “peters” or “chimps”. We sincerely hope that everyone who comes there enjoys the quiz, irrespective of their performance.

As for other events at unmaad, has put a whole post on it (which looks like the official invite). Please refer to that.

“Basically the funda is there were two guys called X and Y. Now, X did this and Y did that and then something happened. And basically, macha, X got hajaar pained ok. And he did something. And then something happened and that led to something and then that something led to something else which led to something else and finally Y decided to do something about it and did this… blah blah… (goes on for another 10 minutes)… Hey, open question 24 da. Show the first two visuals. These are visuals of X and Y doing something. Basically put fundaes da.”

Eight young men look up and only see stars. Some of them even happen to see the moon, bright side of it, and get some inspiration. And take their shot at putting fundaes. “See da, basically the funda is, when X was putsing with Z, Z was putitsing with W and … “. Another 10 minutes for each of them to take their guesses. Those who have seen only stars pass. At the end of the ordeal, another “clue” is given and the question put on the buzzer. One guy buzzes and loses a point. There is a stunned silence for the next couple of minutes. More clues are given. The question is put on bounce again. Another five minutes before the answer is given out.

Few people have understood the question. Fewer have understood the answer. However, that doesn’t matter. The sparse crowd (of a hundred or so) bursts into spontaneous applause and cries of “hifunda da” rent the air. The show goes on. Oops, did i say “show”? i’m sorry, this is not a quiz show, this is a quiz!

There are a few basic rules regarding the IIT Madras Saarang LoneWolf Quiz. The finals should not start before midnight. The last few questions of the finals cannot be visuals, for, by then the OAT would be bathed in sunlight. And each question should be at least five minutes long. Accompanied by a couple of visuals. And maybe an audio which typically takes a long time to play.

The questions, well, they are about the most esoteric stuff. Most of them are on European history. Some on hollywood movies (probably the best of the lot) and maybe a few on Manga comics. You know, the Saarang Lone Wolf Champion is divine and should prove himself at stuff that are totally beyond us ordinary mortals. God only really knows where they get these questions from!

Then did I not tell you about the language used in the questions? Most questions are in IITian English, which has been created by us divine IITians which we think are out of bounds for lesser mortals. So if an outsider has to win this quiz, he better learn our hallowed language. Some keywords are “put fundaes”, “puts”, “macha”, “slysha”, ok i’m not going to give away more of our rich heritage.

Then of course IITM quizzes are not supposed to be put on Powerpoint slides. “It’ll make it too organized da”, they say. The prelims question paper (prelims are never put on powerpoint) has to be at least six pages long. Apart from the dozen or so visual questions that is. Some of us do try and break the shackles, and are given long lectures as to how we are playing with tradition.

And for the record, I have the record for writing the prelims of the lone wolf maximum number of times and not qualifying even once! And this is NOT a phenomenon of sour grapes.

The quiz goes on…

love can be explained through the AIDA framework. (i first read about this framework in Kotler (marketing management) and figured out a few months ago it can be applied to love also)

AIDA, as explained by Kotler, stands for “Awareness Interest Desire Action”

Awareness – I come to know about your existence

Interest – I find you interesting and believe that we might just hit off together. So I get down to investigating as to whether I really like you and whether we’ll be compatible and stuff.

Desire – Following due diligence, i’m convinced that we cna hit it off together. So i’m fida over you. Now it’s upto me to find out what you think about me. SEnd feelers. Try to somehow figure out what you’re thinking about me.

Action – I propose to you