Attention for those planning to use packers & movers services

For those who are planning to use the service of any packers & movers, kindly avoid SkyWing Packers in Bangalore. A friend of mine has narrated his experience with them here.

Summer of 2005

I don’t recollect exactly when this whole infatuation started. It intensified in the summer of 2005. Yes, it was then I had my first acquaintance with her. As Keats wrote “La Belle Dame sans Merci Hath thee in thrall”. I know that she had a similar history. But still…I was aware that she has deprived the sleep of many. And at the end of almost 3 years, I have done it. Yes I belled her, CAT 2007 and IIM Calcutta here I come.

GDP hits 1 trillion, but is India Shining?



I am back to the blogging world after a short hiatus. And there is one particular reason for that too. The day started off as usual, a battle towards finding a balance between my office work and my executive MBA at IIMB. But then I got a call from my friend Renga asking me to check LokSabha TV. I was surprised. I have seen that channel once or twice while browsing for some interesting programs. Ever since the MBA program started, I have started using the favorite program feature of Tata Sky. So nowadays I am not aware whether these channels exist or not. He said there is an interesting talk about farmer suicides and the speaker is very impressive. It will be worth watch to at least have a feel of how to present effective presentations.

The speaker was Mr. P. Sainath, Rural Affairs editor of “The Hindu “ and the topic was “Why there are over one lakh farmer suicides in India in the last decade?” As he mentioned a minute into the program I started getting the gravity of situation. Even though I have read the news and watched reports on this issue in the media, I never felt the seriousness of this issue. The moment he started putting figures and stating the inefficacies of the current administration, I thought of blogging this at least to create some awareness into the issue. Here are some of the key facts put forward by him.

· The worst hit states are Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Kerala as they account for 65% of total farmer suicides in the country.

· There were cases of farmers, poorest of the poor jailed for debt; where as non farmers enjoy the agricultural loans at low interests buying luxury automobiles and land.

· Some of the Grameen banks have invested crores of Rupees in Mumbai Stock exchange. Even though there is a cap on lending to poorest of the poor farmers and overall agriculture sector none of these targets are met.

· Most of the agricultural subsidies are provided to corporations and the benefits reach them and not farmers.

· The main reason for suicides among farmers is to get compensation.

Recently there were news of Indian GDP hitting 1 trillion dollar mark and India joining the elite group. But is India really shining, when the country which is the second worldwide in far output and whose sector which employs 60% of the total workforce is in a sad state. A thought provoking question…

You can check the speakers view in this regard and his other opinions in India Together. He is also the recipient of 2007 Ramon Magsaysay award for Journalism. Many thanks to Renga for helping me create awareness into such a crux problem, India is facing.



I know many will think what we can do to lessen the woeful plight of farmers, located miles away from our homes. But we can at least create awareness and I think we need to publicize such things so as to show at least some gratitude to those who are responsible for the food served in front of us.

Monkey Business (1952)


Its after watching the movies of Howard Hawk and Marx brothers I got to know where the source of inspiration for our early Hindi and other regional language films come from.The movie has got some hilarious moments, but the two things that stands out in the movie will be Cary Grant's performance and dialogues.Ginger Rogers played her part well and Monroe also did well in her cameo.The movie still holds up after 50 plus years and is better than the animal comedies like Jumanji or Dunston Checks in.The movie is really fast paced with a running time of just above an hour and half.This is a must watch for those like the silly wacky comedies.

IMDB rating 7.1

My rating 7.5

My Take on Cat 2007


An interesting thought came to my mind last day when I heard some of my friends betting on Formula One Championship. So I thought of forecasting some thing new. Being a veteran (after 3 attempts) let my give my views on a possible pattern of CAT.

3 sections with 20 questions in each session.
5 marks for correct answer.
2 marks will be deducted for a wrong answer and 1 mark for an unattempted question.

What do you people say...

1+4+0+8=13

After a long gap I am now back to the bloggers world. Now in an area which I am unfamiliar with, writing a movie review. Although I am a movie buff and love to discuss movies, I have never written a review. And all the readers can expect the movies from 30's (I am very much interested in Classics, and have seen many in an attempt to finish of Top 250 films rated by IMDB) to the latest releases.

My view might vary significantly to those of critics so I will be adding my rating as well as that of IMDB. Sometimes even I feel the critics are biased. As Harsha Bhogle referred during Bizarre an open quiz last week in IIM Bangalore about the movie, “A Clockwork Orange” as the famous King’s robe. As no one questioned what is so great about the movie, it got labelled as a master piece. Frankly speaking like Harsha, I wasn’t able to make out why the critics rated it as one of the best movies ever.

Starting of with a movie which I watched yesterday. Its 1408 starring John Cussack and Samuel Jackson in lead roles. When I picked the movie from a dvd library I thought it has got something to do with triskaidekaphobia (fear of no 13) as all the digits in the title added to 13. Got fascinated with the numbers due to another movie Number 23 starring Jim Carrey, who in the movie plays a guy obsessed with 23 and thinks that all the things happening in his life has got to do something with 23. After watching the movie I noticed that all the things associated with my friend adds to Number 19. This included his company ID, his birth year, his access card no, last 4 digits of credit card, and list goes on. Last but not the least his name started with 19th letter of alphabet. :)

Now back to the review part. The movie as expected is different from all those typical haunted hotel/house ones (Cusack himself starred in such a film, Identity ). It however drew inspiration from Stanley Kubrick's Shining . Though it started off well for all those who love such genres of horror, there were hardly any instances that cause an adrenalin rush and it disappoints those who have seen movies like Shining. But it stands apart from all those with all those graphical scenes to label it in a horror tag. John Cusack did a great job as the lead man. After watching the movie when I checked the wiki for all those trivia regarding the film, I found that it has got an alternate ending too. :( For all those seeking for a terror fest out here, there isn't much you can expect. But overall it is an ok movie to watch and those who love psychological thriller are gonna love this one.

My rating : 6.5

IMDB rating: 7.2

IMDB ratings followed by mine of other movies discussed in the post

A Clockwork Orange 8.5   6.0
Identity 7.3   6.0
The Shining 8.4   7.0
The Number 23 6.3   7.5

Next movie in the line is Howard Hawk's Monkey Business starring Cary Grant & Marilyn Monroe.

Better late than never

I was all set to write my next blog on Fedex with a title "Is he the greatest player ever?".But then I got a chance to visit the IIM, Kozhikode campus. Thanks to Jean, my friend who is studying there. That was not just a mere campus tour. It put a lot of questions into my mind.Being anMBA aspirant, I took CAt thrice and ended up in 89.4, 93.6 and 97.3 %les. So the first question that came to my mind was "Shall i wait for one more year to get into any of the IIMs?Or be satisfied with any other top non IIM institutes?

Now lemme explain why I chose this title.Some sort of ambition syndrome has gripped our youth and everyone wanna do an MBA.(I am also a victim of this).Some people may say "Don't hurry,Be happy". Just get into the right B school and you need not worry about your future.I dont wanna get into the philosophical aspect saying that there is no "Amrit" (elixir of life) invented so far and everyone is gonna end up in the same place.1.91 lakh aspirants took CAT this year and the number is exponentially increasing. Why there is so much moolah about "To B-school or not to be"?Why recruiters are paying such a high packages to MBA-grads from elite institutes?The reason is simple.Imagine you are a recruiter.You can either spend a lot of money and energy in searching from a wide lot of people or take the easy way out.The easy way is to pick it up from filtered pool of MBA grads from the elite institutions.Its all about filtration.There is no reason why hirers on zero slot at IIMs pick mechanical engineers with IT backgroundfor financial functions in international banks.Nowadays trend is that, if you want a high paying job,no need to bother about your specialisation in graduation.Just get into a high ranked B-school.

I have come across many people who wanna do MBA to run a business of their own.Even i belong to that category.So does MBA teaches you how to run a profitable business?Or are there any Waltons,Ambanis or Buffet out there to reach you the basics?the answer is no.But the positions of relative power everyone 10 years or so after passing out will be advantageous to each other. The one who sat next to you will be CEO or VP of some big firm.Or he might have ventured of his own.Each and everyone in that network is going to gain that way.

Many people have asked me you can get into B+ grade institutes and do your MBA.What i feel is that these institutes are not in the frequency range of good companies and they are not gonna make a difference to your career.I will say,save that money and invest in stocks or mutual funds...you ll get good returns.

Disclosures: I am still awaiting some calls. Lets see how its gonna turn out...