Meet Florence...

Meet my new Ford Figo, codenamed "Florence".

Yes, it has something to do with Florence Nightingale... I started the lookout for a car after I rammed a dog at 11:30 in the night on my two wheeler. So, Florence will ensure I reach home in one piece...

The best thing I like about it is the space inside; after I push the front seat backward, as much as possible, the back seat still has enough of space for the person behind to sit comfortably.

Besides that, the insides are comfortable, the fuel economy is good, the handling is surprisingly very good and very easy, the air conditioning beats the Swift and the Indigo, the boot's got plenty of space... and the list goes on.

It even got a review...

"I don't like the front seat 'cos the ceiling seems low, but the backseat is excellent!"

- Ritesh Rajani

Hard-nosed product critic

3 Goals.. One Lifetime

It's quite something to be caught between three goals in life...

following a passion to make technology work for people, ...

running a business which makes ample amounts of money, ...

making people in touch with me happier...

... and having a ball doing all three. Each goal points in a different direction. Each one requires a different behaviour-response pattern. Each one requires a different knowledge set. Each one has a set of multi-variate whatever whatever...

I look at them and my mind goes blank... and then it goes wild... why not ALL 3? The mind focuses, pupils dilate, adrenaline pumps,... yeah.. all 3 ;)

College Art! Class A... by Harmeet Kaur

After the rousing response I got for the Office Art! post in office, I was reminded of a College Art! photo I took in my MBA class in Feb 2007. Here it is:

Whiteboard-Marker on Whiteboard,

Created by Harmeet Kaur,

In the 10 minute break, I believe.

It was simply too good to let it be erased off... so I immortalized it.

Some details of the photo itself:

Yes, I am still proud of my E50, the slim phone which Sindhu introduced me to.

Office Art! : What if Newton...

Issac Newton wondered "Why did that Apple drop down?"...

My office colleagues wondered, "What if Newton was not under an apple tree?"

(That piece of Office Art was captured from a whiteboard in our R&D room. Credits: Jenila, Selvi, and the quote by Ritesh)

How to take a call before getting a load off your back...

Clinton's Travel Log, Earth date 26.01.2009

Was walking on the streets of Pondicherry when I came across this rice loader. He was moving rice from a transport vehicle to a shop when he got a call. To my amazement, he let one hand go of the rice bag, fished the cellphone out and answered the call.

To my greater amazement, he stood in that position for 5 whole minutes. What a back!

World class vs. Local class

What is it to be world class? It means to be a master in the field. It means having solved 80% of the problems in that field. It means knowing more than 99% of the rest of the world in that field. World class stuff cannot be denied.

Local class on the other hand is comparing yourself with yourself, or with your peers. It means being better that what is immediately visible. Being top local class in one place implies that you can be bottom local class somewhere else.

So question is, should one be world class in everything?

Turns out, its practically not feasible. World class demands time and effort. Dedication. Discipline. Deliberate practice. You can't be world class at more than two fields. And for most of us, its just one.

World class has its perks, but has a price. Trying to be world class in everything actually moves you away from life, away from friends, away from fun. And then any new thing you have to do, you suddenly set such high standards for yourself, you end up hating to do it, rather than having fun doing it.

So lets be practical Clinton, one world class item... please,... and we'll be GREAT at it.....

Yours truly,

Your Brain.

Leaving behind dots to connect the picture

Steve Jobs, in his speech at Stanford says 'you can connect the dots backwards...'

Just realized, if you leave more dots, the past picture becomes clearer... useful when you become a leader to recall what thoughts you had when you were a follower....

Here's one of those dots.

Imagine you were standing there... at 38000 feet up..

SCMHRD is 4th in Business Today's Best B-School Survey

Symbiosis Center for Management and Human Resource Development (my college :) has been rated as the 4th Best B-School in India by Business Today's Best B-School Survey (ON THE STANDS October 18, 2009).

Business Today bases its results on the opinions of critical stakeholders - aspiring MBA students, current B-schoolers, and corporate recruiters, on parameters of the Nielsen's "Winning Brands" model.

Kudos to the Director (a.k.a Subbu Sir) and his team of faculty...

Here are the scanned images of the magazine...

Auto Art @ Chennai

Chennai's autorickshaws are famous for their quarreling drivers who are masters in over charging their customers. Fact apart, there are lesser recognized for the graphic art works that adorn the inside and outsides of their vehicles, which I might add, can be quite interesting. Not only to they depict local tradition, local hero worship and the fads of times current and past, some of them even go international, for instance, this one who's picked up a ... ahem... well known American cowboy phrase.

Fwd: Dosti bole toh...... !

This might be out of tune with this blog's theme, but it's the funniest description of friendship ever...I've got to put it here... Kudos to the creator....life has been captured in all its reality!!! :D

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Astuti <...>
Date: Thu, Oct 8, 2009 at 10:43 AM
Subject: Fwd: Dosti bole toh...... !
To:

Friends,

Friendship is not about "I m sorry "
its about "abbe teri galti hai "

Friendship is not about "I m there for u" or "I missed u "
it's about "kahan marr gaya tha saale.."


Friendship is not about "I understand "
its about "sab teri wajah se hua manhus"


Friendship is not about "I care for u "
its about "kamino tumhe chhod ke kahan jaunga "


Friendship is not about "I m happy for ur success "
its about "chal party de saale"


Friendship is not about "I love that girl"
its about "saalo izzat se dekho tumhari bhabhi hain "


Friendship is not about "R u coming for outing tomorrow "
its about " nautanki nahi, hum kal bahar ja rahe hai "

Friendship is not about "Get well soon "
about " Itna piyega toh yehi hoga"

Friendship is not about "All the best for ur career"
its about "bahut hua, abhi toh switch mar saale"

--

You can catch me blogging at:
(http://astutalks.blogspot.com
http://officiallyspeaking.blogspot.com)

Mumbai Subway

This pic is of a Mumbai subway. Impressive.
For the non-indians, a subway over here currently means a walkway under a busy road.

Waiting for the Yearbook

My two years in SCMHRD are almost over. Convocation, or the "Commencement Ceremony" as they are calling it this year, is on the 20th of April, a week away.

I'm waiting to get my hands on the yearbook. This one was actually designed by Mohit, Tawheed, Rathi and I. It's got Tawheed's awesome graphics. I wonder where the guy gets his inspiration from. Simply amazing, simply undeniable.

And it's really the last thing we'll be doing for the college and that makes it special. What makes it sweeter still is that we have kept the last page for the yearbook all to ourselves. Well, we did take the initiative and the effort to do this. We deserve every piece of that last page for the work we did.

Anywa, waiting for the hard copy... one week is simply too longg.....

Diwali Eve @ UBS

The SCMHRD Birthday Bash

Birthdays in SCMHRD always begin with ritualistic celebrations. They are the most awaited of events; spiced with fun, joy, laughter, revenge and plain old violence.

The ritual starts off with the preparation of the sacrificial lamb - in this case the birthday boy/girl. At 11:55, the roommates wish the lamb with a warm hug and a birthday greeting.

One minute later, the town criers arrive at the door. "MAAARRRROOOO!!!!" (Maro is a hindi word, which translated means "Hit Him"), they bellow. The cry echoes through the corridors and alerts all the souls to the upcoming ritual. This cry is uttered several times until a considerable "sena" gathers outside the door.

The lamb is then escorted down to the ground floor, to the place where the holy cake is placed. 

 

Last minute greetings are exchanged before the sacred, plastic (recyclable) knife is placed in the hands, err.. paws of the lamb.

While the cake is cut, the closest of friends stand close, so as to be the first ones to deliver the birthday kicks.

 

They will also be the first ones to be given a piece of the holy cake and they will also be the first ones to smear the cake on the lamb's face.

 
Then the lamb's face is smashed into the rich chocolate pastry and rubbed in, to ensure the butter softens the skin. (you need to look good on your b'day, right?)

 

Ritualistic rule #12: Do not spare any leftover cake. Ensure it is all on the lamb.

 

More kicking by some of the lamb's friends.
(Tip: Hold your butt tight. It mitigates the impact. So does the shorts inside the jeans)

 
Then is the water wash under the fire-hydrant.
(Tip: a nice way to get rid of the cake!)

 

Post event photos

                           

 

Then the lamb goes back, battered and bruised, soaked and buttered back to its den. After a wash up, the closest of friends join in for another cake cut. This time, for eating.
(Tip: Cutting the cake with a dental floss rather than the knife keeps the cream in tact and gives a cleaner cut!)

So ends the ritual. A few more hugs and wishes may follow. Then comes the part where the phone calls must be answered.

Then finally, for those who wish to keep their room clean, there is the cleaning ritual. But that is entirely optional :)

More photos at: http://picasaweb.google.com/clintonrozario/Birthday25

The most obstacle ridden day so far

This has been quite a day so far and I'm not allowing it to pass without noting the kind of obstacles I've faced. May it be a reminder of how bad things could possibly get, yet how I could be able to wade through it all.

Late start to the day with the 8.00 am call by Vetrivel. I remembered I had to wake with my alarm at 5 that morning. I had my Financial Statement Analysis assignment and the brochure of Priya Kher to complete. Already my study group was complaining about my lack of involvement in the assignment and my submission to PK was late by a day.

Conveniently ignoring these facts, I proceeded to complete my ablutions wondering how fresh a beer the previous night and a good night's sleep can make you. Good start to the day. Innovation workshop was scheduled at 9.15.

The innovation workshop was devoid of people. The 30 students had lost interest. In the midst of all the confusing PPTs people were going thru (I was not very active in the Innovation Workshop either) I ot a call for e-cell work. Strike One. Had to co-ordinate in the midst of the class for the Mira Bazaar, a fete in which we had to participate on Saturday, being part of the e-cell.

Strike Two came at 12.30 when my outgoing cell phone service got disconnected. The Airtel representative I had paid the bill to 10 days back had disappeared with the money. 850 bucks down the drain. And I was handicapped.

Strike Three was when different people kept giving me an unusually high number of missed calls and expected me to call back, which of course I was not able to do so because of my impaired phone.

Strike Four was when I found out I was to make the Innovation Workshop presentation to the client because Ashish and Sushrut were opting for the Branding Seminar to which I had offered them entry passes the previous day. I was happy that they were taking it but I was concerned because my level of knowledge on the project was very little.

Strike Five was when we found out that the regular bus to the city had a puncture. We were going to be late for the presentation to the clients. We were late by 10 minutes. The people at the client's end were top executives of a particular insurance company in India. Damn. Bad for college.

Strike Six was when we reached the Reliance Video Conferencing and realized that the facilities were not ready yet. We kept the clients waiting for a whole 20 minutes, with the video conference on, as we corrected the technical obstacles.

Strike Seven was when we found out that the client was not surprised by our findings. We seemed to have found nothing new. Ok…. So perhaps it was a problem on their side. Now we find out that our project is far from over.

Strike Eight was the biggest. Found out that the semester exams this time were postponed. Instead of ending on the 30th of Oct, college had postponed it till the 3rd Nov. I had already booked my tickets for the 1st. Air tickets. What's even worse, I had booked the air tickets initially on the 4th. Due to a free ticket scheme, I had forwarded my tickets to the 1st in order to get a 1800 Rs benefit. Now I will be losing 2600 bucks in the process. Damn! Financially correct decision at that time, strategically wrong!

Strike Nine. After the video conference I missed the bus back to college as I paid my Airtel bill. Now I wait in the Café Coffee Day outlet and type this over a cup of Ethiopian Quawah. Phew….. What a day.

And tomorrow morn I have to leave at 3 in the morning to accompany a guest from Mumbai for an Integrated Marketing Seminar at college. Apparently the guest is close to Subbu, my director. One screw up there and I'm dead. And he's in some part of Andheri. I have no idea of Mumbai city.

One day down… tomorrow, here I come!!!!

I'm Google-able~~!!!

Joy Supreme! I tried searching for "Clinton Rozario" on google... and guess what! I'm on the first 5 results!!! WHOOO HOOO!!!!

Damn, that feels good.

Now I can brag to new people who I meet, and say "Google me".

Weeee..... I love my name.

Experiment # 3440: My first self-bought Kurta

I walked into Fabmall one day with my roomie Denis Pillai,  as we waited for our other roomie Aditya Vetrivel for a discount lunch at Kobe's, the sizzler joint. I saw it, liked it, bought it... the kurta.

I must give credit to Ritesh and Maneesh for buying me my first kurta for my birthday three years back. And then credit to Maneesh again for my first kurta which I could wear for a friend's wedding. And now this is my first. I ust admit, these things are mighty comfortable. The only downside is carrying stuff in your pocket... the pocket tends to sag on a side. But overall, I like this piece.

Result: Experiment # 3438: Review of Foxit Reader 2.1 - The Light Weight PFD Reader

I've been using Foxit extensively in the past couple of days while doing the JPMC case study "The Deal" (which I mentioned about earlier); most annual reports of companies are best viewed in pdf format. Here's what I feel about the software:

(+) Foxit is very responsive. It opens up quite fast and closes (or at least disappears from screen) quite quickly. I'd say 3-5x times faster than the "other" PDF reader.

(+) It definitely lighter on memory. Yeah, maybe not with a 2mb footprint, but muuuccchh lighter than it's counterpart.

(+) The free-to-use tools are superb. Especially handy is the annotation tool, I find myself using it in a lot of places to note down ideas as I read my case.
I haven't used all of the tools extensively, but the line up is impressive.

(+) The free pdf writer and the pdf editor are also highly appreciated. But when it comes to pdf's which I have to send to other people, I would prefer to use PDF995. Foxit leaves an evaluation mark "Generated by Foxit PDF Creator © Foxit Software" on each printed page.

(-) The "Find" dialog box is a pain. It appears right in the middle of the window. I have to constantly move it around in order to see the text that it finds. Either it should move around automatically to reveal text that appears behind it, or the "Find" textbox should appear in the toolbar, like Firefox or the "other" PDF reader.

(-) There's a screen painting problem sometimes. When I open a 165 page document and search, the page on which the word is found is not drawn properly. It seems like the previous pages have overlapped it. When I minimize the window and maximize it again, the window draws itself well. It does not happen always. I think when too many programs run it happens.

Final Rating: 4.5 out of 5.
I've made Foxit my default PDF reader and kept the "other" reader as backup. If Foxit proves that it can handle all that the other reader can, then next time I format my system, I might simply "forget" to install the other reader. :)

Experiment # 3439: The Deal - A JPMC Case Study

Learning for an MBA student is in the form of case studies. You do get used to the 20 odd page case study in a couple of months... but then comes along those competitions, where they stick you with a big-fat one... 165 pages in this case!

JP Morgan had launched a nation-wide competition called "The Deal". It's a case study competition in which, if you win, you get a PPI (Pre-Placement Interview) from JP Morgan. Quite a lucrative deal! Good motivation to drudge thru the 165 pages.

The case is about the takeover of Safeway Inc (SWY) by Morrison (MRW). The former is in the US and the latter in the UK. While the actual takeover/merger did take place in 2004, this is still a case worth solving because the current global situation will affect the way the takeover is financed.

However, Mohit has his conspiracy theory. Says that JPMC is short on staff, that's why they are looking for a few good men (and women, of course).

I got good team mates, Ramachander Shenoy and Lakshman. Right now Lakshman's done most of the valuation and the finance stuff...(frankly, I've not understood some of the stuff he's done and said... he's gone that deep into valuation and financing options....) I'd say he's done a great job!