Move over Cricket Commentary...we have another one here!

Most people would say yes, if I asked, whether they have heard Cricket Radio Commentary. Ditto for Cricket TV Commentary. What about a Marriage Commentary? Ever heard about it? Hmmmm, I hadn’t yet. Today I did.

Well, the marriage in question is obvious, the “Abhi-Aish” wedding, the commentary, well, I heard it on NDTV, the rest of the news channels, well, your guess is as good as mine. Let’s hear (or look at a sample)…

“One bus has just reached Prateeksha Bunglow. The doors have opened. Someone’s come out. Oh…that’s Anil Ambani. He’s in a white sherwaani. No, it’s off-white. Amitabh seems a bit cross with the media because they are jostling for too much space. Jaya is by his side. She also seems upset. Another bus turns up. Seems like Abhishek in it. There is a black horse somewhere nearby. They say it’s of the best breed. Abhishek’s sister and his nephew are with him. Amitabh looks much more relaxed now. So does Jaya…Now, let’s take a break, before Abhishek gets onto that Horse”

Guys, that was NDTV. And not one word of exaggeration from me. Well, almost. Apparently one of the best news channels in India. I really shudder to think about the rest of ‘em.

Unfortunately, the Indian Selectors decided to come out with the Cricket Team for the Bangladesh Tour on the same day as this other Event. For a change they would be feeling left out. Barely any media around them. Serves them right, some would say! Anyways, the match commentary is still on, don’t wanna miss a “ball”. Will be back with reports on the Cricket Team which has also been announced as I write this.

ERP...Tendulkar's Birthday...and all that

Four done. Two bigwigs out of the way. Just five more, beginning tomorrow’s ERP. Or, “beyond” ERP as the joke goes. The obsession with the word is so high that it rivals the sizzling sound of “ssssssss….” that some think is the highlight of NMIMS. So high, that, as I scroll through my GTalk List, I see most of my classmates, with awesome, one line, Punny statements with the word “Beyond” very much a part.

Why the obsession, is beyond me…!

Incidentally, 24th April, the day my exams get done, is also the Birthday of the maestro Sachin Tendulkar. Now, for all the team pasting that it received in West Indies, it would be loads of fun to read/watch the news on 24th April. Or probably 25th April. I can already visualize the Headlines.
“Tendulkar cuts cake on his 34th Birthday with a Kolhapuri Knife”
It may further go on like this…”Tendulkar cut his 5.8 kg weighing birthday Cake with a sharp shining Kolhapuri Knife, weighing 500 grams, brought to him in a silver tray that had a diameter of 7 inches.” On the other hand, another debate would begin. Former Cricketers and common man asked his opinion about Tendulkar’s impending retirement. “So, do you think that the time is right for Tendulkar to announce his retirement?” Oh, we all have been thinking that time was right since he probably made his debut in International Cricket, aint it? Though I am not an ardent fan of Tendulkar, I make no bones in accepting that, had I been in his shoes, I would have retired/been forced to retire long time back. This man handles pressure like only he can. Sometimes, I wonder whether he has a Television back home, does he watch any at all? And what about Newspapers? Mustn’t be reading that as well! Would make for a perfect Brand Ambassador for Fevicol.

How he manages it, beyond me again!

Anyways, waiting for the 24th for more reasons than one…no more college for some time, first World Cup semifinal and….Tendulkar’s birthday!!!

Beyond me that I am not already excited!

My Perceived Purpose

Must really thank Orkut. In times of utter dismay and despair, Orkut has provided me a reunion with some of those old friends, with whom, I could talk about some of those good ol’ times. School and Junior College Times. And that’s another advantage of chatting/orkutting, no-one ever realizes you not feeling too good.

Anyways, just recently, I had a nice, long conversation with an old friend of mine. We were in the same School and Junior College, and she’s currently not in Mumbai. After the pleasantries had been exchanged, she asked me about my Blog. Updates n all. Tol’ her.

Her: So, Suneer, you seem to write alrite.
Me: Thanks buddy !
Her: Temme something, whats your Purpose in Life?
Me: Huh?

I was taken aback. Where did this come from? For the first time, I wished this was an MBA Interview, it suddenly seems to much easier answering this question there.

I thought. And, I replied very honestly. To do things that make me Happy.
She asked me again. And what about others? Don’t you want to make them happy as well?

I thought again. Now, there’s a difference between wanting to see others happy and making others happy. I certainly want people around me to be happy, but do I make anyone happy? Do I do things that would make people happy? And Most Importantly, should I do things that would make people happy? I had very few answers.

“Well, I replied, apart from a certain close few people, I don’t think I do things to make people happy. And, talking about those close people as well, I try to do things that I perceive would make them happy, but now that you ask me, I am not sure they are.”

The rest of the two hour long conversation seems pretty hazy now, though I must admit, there was a feel-good factor about it. But that question stuck, is it my duty/responsibility to make people around me happy? Is that also one of my sub-purposes in life? (if not “The Purpose”)

Her own take on this was simple.

Me: So, is ur purpose, to make people around you happy?
Her: Hmmmm…One can only be oneself, and with a few tweaks here and there, one must remain the same. And try your best to make close people happy, but most importantly, don’t expect that they would get happy. You be happy that you tried !

I smiled. Doesn’t this get linked to the same thing, the Heart versus the Brain Conflict? Brain says, its alrite, Heart says, at least you deserved something back.
Vicious Circle this!

Me, an Economist speaks...again!

Actually, Economics is not that bad. It’s worse.
But, no. This post aint about Eco-bashing or anything even close to that. In fact, its quite the contrary. I realized, that some of the Models used in Eco. Could very well be the factors on which I could base mine. Yeah, they would be taught in MBA Schools some decades later, and no, the subject won’t be Economics.

Lemme warn all, if you from NMIMS, and have just taken the Economics paper, this is not what you would want read. Seriously !

So here goes. Let’s compare two people. Mr. X and Mr. Y.
Assumption – 1: It is very important to note here that both X and Y are guys. We will handle the case with gals later, in later sections.

Each of these friends, have their own set of family and friends. Each of the family member or friend has their own expectation (Demand) from X and Y respectively. Both these guys have a price (Price) that needs to be paid to meet these expectations.

Assumption 2 - X has many more friends and relatives than what Y does. So, the requirement of love and affection from X would be higher as well.

Now, higher the sacrifice that X makes, lesser would be demand from the people around him. This follows the assumption that the people around him are very understanding. Also, more the sacrifices he makes, more demands of those around him would he be able to meet. This would have been shown by the usual Demand Supply Curve, with the Equilibrium Point E. Similarly, the same holds true for Y as well.

However, it is possible, that X may not be able to supply all the needs of the all the people around him. This is true for all point before the Equilibrium Point E is met. At E, Mr. X achieves his objective of meeting everyone’s needs.

Consider the case with Y. He does not have many people around him.
Assumption - 3 that he is not sad, but pretty alrite with this fact.
He can meet the needs of people around him pretty quickly, i.e. by making lot less sacrifices than X, and has still something left in his reserves.

Assumption 4 - Let X meet Y, and let them become friends. (Trade happening)

So, each time the Demands at Mr. X’s place rise (probably because the people back home have become less understanding, and thus more demanding), he can approach Mr. Y for help (Import). On his part, Mr. Y is already without too many people, and has lot to offer (Export). He agrees to help X. And helps X. This is subject to the fact that X is not able to supply what is demanded of him. At Equilibrium Point E, he wont require Y’s help.

Now comes the Interesting part. What happens if X is a gal? i.e. Mr. X becomes Ms. X. What are the chances of Ms. X adding a “Tariff” for the “Imports” of Y? Here is where my Model changes. It goes as follows:

Ms. X adds tariff (t) on the Help offered by Mr. Y. But, Mr. Y still helps. She further adds tariff to the help given by Y. Y helps more. This process will continue till the Threshold Point ‘Th’ is reached. At this point Y gives up helping X. X realizes the true worth of Y. She tries to get Y back into her life. Depending on how badly the threshold of Y is broken, he either comes back or….finds another gal, Z (Remember, we had not assumed that this is a 2 country…oops, person model !!!). This is called the “Playing Hard to Get Theory of Bollywood"

This can be explained with the equation below:
Sy = e^t at t < Th,
Sy = 0 at t >= Th,

Where,
Sy is Y’s supply of help and love to X,
e^t is the exponential growth of tariff t that X applies,
Th is the Threshold Limit of Patience and Perseverance of Y.

Learnings from MBA - End of Year 1

The Countdown’s begun! Just another few days and I would be half way through being an M of BA (M in BA?!). So what did I learn in the past one year? Hmmmm….lemme think. Thinking……Still thinking…..
…….
…..
…
Yeahhhhhh, I learnt how to look at Balance Sheets. Or did I? No wait. Let me try another one in that case….
……..
……
….
Alrite, I did manage to understand what a Normal Curve looks like. It looks like what I used draw as a Mountain in my Pre-Primary Drawing “Period”. I also learnt that Mahindra sells an average of around 40000 Scorpios per month. Or was it 4000? One of them, can’t recollect which one. I also learnt that the History of Internet was very closely related to the History of the World Wars. This falls in my “Ripley’s Believe it or not” section. History of Internet related to the History of World War. Moral that I learnt was, had there been no World War, there would not have been any Internet, I would not be writing this. Thank You Adolf.

Lemme dig further into the deep recesses of my brains. Aaah, wait, I remember. I learnt that Johnson is not only a leading Pharma. Co., but also the name of a Leading Tile Making Corporation in India, and learnt the process by which the tiles@Johnson’s are actually fit on the floor without the loss of any cement and with no breakages whatsoever. Profound, ain’t it? I learnt who Gattoo was. I also learnt who Dazzler and Mello were. I also learnt what the true meaning of I-See-I-See-I is. (after that I realized why I make no profits in my ICICI demat account !). I learnt that some elderly people crack worse jokes than me. Much worse. And unlike me, expect the others to laugh as well. I learnt to laugh at such jokes.

I learnt that MacDonald’s replaces Chicken Burgers with Free Veg. Burgers, if they make mistakes. Also, if the victim is a kid, they give them MacToys with the burger. I learnt that it is much more difficult to make Wine than to make Cheese in some places. Also, it is much more difficult to make Cheese than to make Wine in some other places. Same holds true for Roses and Computers. Did not learn about other products.

I learnt that its useless trying to “humor” people with the meaning of my name. Especially professors. I learnt that Pink Slips are not always a bad thing. I learnt the Expression, “Bloody Bull”. I learnt the Importance of “How to Copy and Paste, without using any Adhesive”. I learnt to Gas without overeating. I learnt who Graag was. I learnt that Modigliani was not a Sindhi, but an Italian. (Another Ripley’s Believe it or not!).

I also learnt that watching an Ireland-Bangladesh World Cup match is far more interesting than studying for Corporate Strategy. So is listening to Bhooley-Bisre Geet on Aakaashwaani. Or watching Doordarshan on a Saturday Night.
Actually, doing anything is.

The Yesterday that was...

Exams commence in some hours from how. Somehow, the hearts not there. Somehow, I don’t even feel that there are exams approaching. Somehow, I do not feel too bad about not getting a good GPA, nor do I feel too worried about Finance or Economics anymore. I feel numb. They rightly say, “Ignorance is Bliss”. Its bliss. 10 days and the semi finals would be here. Couldn’t care less for anything else. Anyways…

Have got into a strange mood these days. Listening to English numbers that I last heard long, long back. Some, even date back almost 8 years, when I was a teeny weeny kiddo, just on my way outta 12th. (Yeah, that makes me about 25 years of age.) One of ‘em was an all time favourite, and if I were to rate it, would be in my all time top - five list.
Don’t Speak by No Doubt. Awesome music. Better Lyrics. Would put them down sometime. Another one is Europe’s “The Final Countdown”. Rank it number one all time. Makes me nostalgic. Anyways…

Had been to Mayur’s place yesterday to study. Talking to him always reminds me of Mastek. Always, without fail. And the happier times associated with it. The “Increment Fiasco” nothwithstanding. Well, such kinna stuff happens in every organization, no point blaming anyone. And if I discount that, and be true to myself, I had an unusually awesome stay at Mastek. Reminds me of our rendezvous to Friday Night parties we had. Mayur, me and the rest of the gang. Too bored to name ‘em now. But it also reminds of one hilariously stupid incident, when we had gone for this “movie” called Haunted Mansion. 90 minutes of the movie, and 90 minutes before and after the movie, we just did one thing. Laugh. Dunno why, there was no joke, and nor did anyone slip on a banana skin, no Politician or Cricketer jokes. But, we laughed, and we still do, remembering that particular day. None of us knew why we were laughing, but 8-10 of us, were just laughing as incessantly as the Mumbai Rains in July. We clutched our stomachs in pain, laughing, Mayur clutched his back. His back was never the same again. Anyways….

Spoke to Peeya about her Bbay trip. Our Bbay trip. The visit seems light years away. Hopefully will turn out good. For both of us. In more ways than one. She seemed looking forward to it. Me too. Tried making a To-Do List for the same. But, I guess, we will need to take it as it comes, when it comes. Take it a day at a time. I would say, the Bazic Vision and Mission has been made, now just need to allign the Goals to the Trip's Vision.
Guess, studying Corporate Strategy has it's own advantages. And Disadvantages as well. Dunno whether mixing CS and Blogging is advantageous or no.

Had a start-stop talk with Pallavi as well yesterday. And, as I write this, I realize that the songs I am listening to are also the songs that are Pallavi’s favourites too, and we have had intense discussions on the same in the past. “Final Countdown” and “It must have been Love”. She promises me the umpteenth time that she would get to Mumbai in May. With Chai of course. Both get “phatkey” each if they don’t. Anyways...

The lyrics of Don't Speak. Awesome is the word. Sad, but Great. Will try posting the song here, if I get it online.

His Back against the Wall...

The back's against the wall...
His back's against the wall,

he cringes in the corner,
the rooms gone dark,
silence is the only sound
that adds spark....

he tries a motion,
stutter is only wat he can
his light frame falls to the ground...
expression remain deadpan

his back's still against the wall...

blood on the forehead trickles down,
for a second, his eyelids blink
the rumbling of the floor below...
his heart's feels itself sink

the pit of his stomach
churns out nothing but fear,
amongst the others he wishes,
he wishes there was someone near

his back still remains against the wall,

as the cerebration take him...
to the times that were his,
Times that were colourful...
when Life were a God's kiss

as if the thoughts were a spur-on,
regardless of the current strife,
he tries to rise
again, from his wreckage called Life

he cares a damn about the wall...

Me, An Economist speaks...

Here come the exams.

The nights without sleep and the claustrophobic library. The smell of kerosene on the Xeroxes and that of sweat in the heat. As if, it wasn’t enough already.

Or else, why would I want to know how much cheese would Country ‘A’ produce to have an Absolute Advantage (???) over another Country ‘B’. Assuming there are only 2 countries in the world? Why? Isnt it a fact that there are more than 220 countries? So why consider only 2? And why talk about cheese and chalk (or wine or whisky or vodka for that matter), when we could talk about so many other things? Are we Swiss? And then to make matters worse, we have a diagram depicting the same. There is a straight line that cuts the y-axis at so-n-so point and the x-axis at another one. So? How does it matter? How would it have mattered had it not cut at that precise point and some where else on this earth? And then come another half a dozen assumptions. And some more equations. A couple of properly preened graphs that remind you of nothing but….but…..nothing, just plain pain and boredom. And we got to write all this in our exam paper. 3 hours of bullshitting, gassing, faffing, chaffing, laughing, crying, ducking, hooking, weaving…and all those verbs that u can think n put down. Why?

Because, they call this International Economics. They also call this MBA. I call this Absolute Disadvantage. I also call this a two year unpaid leave from office, with Opportunity Costs = SD2 – T + NMF, where
SD2 = the salary I would have drawn for the two years
T = the taxes I pay to the Govt.
NMF = the College Fee.

And you know what’s worse, I am talking like one of ‘em.

The Match between the Heart and Brain !

This is the “and all that” portion of the Blog title.

The March-April phase of this year has been a not-so-good one for me. Especially, vis-à-vis people around. It has been sad to say the least. Some people have gone, some want to go and I don’t want them to, while there are a few again whom I don’t want them to go, but may just have to let go. Sad, sad time. Cannot be helped. Life needs to go on.

I was wondering, what makes it so difficult to let go? For now, I was thinking about people, there are other entities that one finds difficult to let go as well. Well, one does not know them before knowing them, and one is happy, and then, once one knows them, does not want to let go of ‘em. Ain’t logical. But then, not everything in Life is logical or practical. There is where the Heart-Brain conflict arises. And unfortunately, it is next to impossible to resolve the conflict. It seems that there are two people who talk. Who debate. And one wins. Always.

Unfortunately, in my case, it has been the Heart which has won so far, hands down But , just like Bangladesh has the potential to upset a few big teams in World Cricket, my Brain too can beat the Heart. It has done it before. I see no reason why it cannot again. Probably, just probably, the brain thinks that it is logical for the Heart to win, and that is why it allows it to. But there comes a time, when the Brain realizes, that Match Fixings do not help. It needs to play to it’s potential. I think, that’s the stage my Brain is in right now. Enough leeway given to the Heart. Now, just may be the time for the Brain. Because, Life needs to go on

Probably, a better result could be a tie, or an abandoned match between the Heart and the Brain. I really haven’t figured out how that would happen, but I guess that would be an ideal result.

Coming back to where I started from, the people, who matter. Again, I don’t know what the future holds, but, one thing’s for sure, my Hearts gonna win most of the time. The Brain may cause an upset sometime, but, it would not have the firepower to be consistent. At least for now. At least for the immediate future. Till it changes, Life goes on.

India's (World) Cup of woes...

India is out of the World Cup. The public is enraged for now. Heartaches and Heart Attacks were reported. Gloom has spread all across.

But, sanity will soon prevail. People will soon realize that there would soon be no late nights for most “Indian fans”, no more red, weary eyes in offices/colleges/schools/anywhere you name it, and spaghettis of Mandira Bedi will be replaced by those of the Kkusums and Kaavyanjalis in the Drawing Room Television (those two were just random, arbit names I have heard my mum use, no, I don’t watch ‘em plz!)

But the question still remains, what happened there? I hear my friends moan, “the best batting line up in the world lost to the “minnows” Bangladesh. Hmmmm, minnows? This word that has become a part of the local panwaalah’s vocabulary simply means, “a person or thing that is comparatively small or insignificant”. Insignificant? When they have already beaten Australia an year back, and NZ in a warm up match before the World Cup, apart from “stunning” the best batting line up of the world. And if my memory serves me right, we have already lost them once earlier a couple of years back, aint it? So, why consider them minnows?

Now, comes the second most pertinent question. Did we deserve to win the Cup? Forget the cup, did we deserve to reach the semi finals? I will be very frank, I never expected India to crash out in the first round, but an equally blunt confession would be, that even my heart did not say that India would win the cup. And yes, I do have that ever so famous tool called ‘hind sight’ with me, but, I also have some kind of a bad intuition, that this was a long time coming.

Why do I say this? As a great detective would say, elementary folks! Our great batting line up, which apparently fails to deliver in crunch situations, is the key. Did I hear correct, great? Naah, I am not being cynical post the event, its very easy been that. I would want to pull out a set of statistics to prove that I am not blabbering my frustration out, and that I had seen this coming.

In the last 15 odd matches that India has played abroad, our average runs per over is around 4.5. 4.5 RPO over 20 matches played abroad, think it is decent. I don’t think so, when you look at 20 over Power Plays, better pitches, smaller grounds, and a “Great” and an experienced batting Line up like ours! I am sure that if I dig up statistics further, India would not feature in the top 5 of the teams vis-à-vis runs per over. Now comes another shocker. In the same period, we have scored runs at an average of less than 20 runs per wicket!!! Dravid’s average is 40, Tendulkar is 44 and Ganguly is 41, add a Dhoni with almost 50 to that. What does that show? In the last one year, individual averages have also gone down. It may be ever so slightly for players who have played 300 plus ODIs, because that’s how Statistics works! Still think ours is a an awesome batting line up? Guys, grow up, and accept the fact that we have a decent batting line up, but the rest of teams are way ahead.

And what’s the solution? Wish the same as easy as the patches that Microsoft sends us every time they find a bug, no, enough patch work has been tried, it is no longer a question of a stitch saving nine, or even replacing the cloth. We need to drill down to the basics, the crop of cotton from where the cloth is made, the domestic circuit, where in, which we need to make much stronger. It may be a long, excruciating what-you-call process (that word again), but, it is the right way of going about it. I am brimming with ideas for the same, but I guess it can wait, till after I am made the CEO of BCCI. Mr. Pawar, are you listening? :-)