Life without Indian Food

A sudden craving for Indian food…… 22:30
Realization of nothing being available in the vicinity...22:32
Going to the Indian store....22: 45
Trying in vain to find something fresh...22:55
Sudden discovery of Gram flour on the rack...22:55:02
Obliging to buy it and happily back....23:05
Onion, gram flour, oil, water, tomato sauce arranged...23:10
Quick trip to neighboring dorm of Italian student to borrow hotplate...23:20
Managing somehow to fry some crisp Bhajiya (pakoda) with my limited cooking...23:50
Bhajiya and coke to accompany the completion of tommorow’s strategy-management case study: Yumm @ 24:00 ......

By the way, this is the humble Indian store located 2 minutes from my place.

Read the name of the store..?? As funny as it may sound, but it's called as 'Rajah Bazaar....'

(The king's market:- translation for the unfortunate souls who dont speak Indian languages)...

I wonder since when the kings started visiting neighborhood grocery stores..!

Private Equity LBO's Vs. Venture capitalists : Fundamentals

• Private equity firms will focus on turnarounds by buying distressed debt, file for protection from creditors under insolvency law, and lead a restructuring. Venture capitalists will historically invest in seed stage fundamentally strong businesses.
• PE's will change the existing management and hire either a consulting firm or their own team to act as top management in the interim. On the other hand, VC's obviously believe in the entrepreneurs whom they funded and hence they dont alter with the operating management but they generally sit on the boards of such firms.
• For the PE, an exit will generally mean appointing a permanent top management and either sell it completely or partially to achieve a target of anywhere from 15 to 80 percent returns. For the VC, an exit generally means taking the firm to a successful IPO and venture out with similar returns.

Lean Banking....anyone?

Well, I am always amazed by these 1 room, roadside banks in France…. This is a branch (agency; as they call it) of LCL (Le credit lyonnais: if I got it right) bank just down the road from my place. Accepted that it’s in a residential area, but still how lean can it be? And despite that, you can do almost everything in the branch may it be International wire transfers or opening an IBAN.

To my amazement there are only 2 people working there and one of them is the branch manager. The other guy is a one stop shop for everything starting from exchanging Forex to learn signing a French chequebook (Yes, it’s different). If you drop in to take a look into the branch manager’s area, she will offer you some chocolates and some help if you want....!  Atleast the branches I visited till now   have a bowl on the employees table’s filled with candies & chocolates and you can help yourself while the guy is stamping your tc’s.  I had heard a lot about French bureaucracy, but atleast I haven't experienced any till now. 

Oh..what a gruelling time...

The day I landed in Paris was a very hectic one. I had a morning 6 o' clock flight from Mumbai and I hadnt slept almost the whole night before. Infact the situation was not too different from the time of the GMAT....... The exam preparation, exam, the app' ing, the calls, interviews, conversions, scholarships, edu loans, packing, forced shopping, resigning from TCS..... The process was already taking a toll on me.

After finalising the packing until 3 AM, I still had an hour before I had to leave. I decided to use it productively by sleeping. I was also counting on the time during the journey to fullfill my quota of sleep. But I could barely sleep and the clock moved on. It was 04:30 already. In between cursing myself for careless-ness & checking the luggage for the last time, I hurried towards the airport.

It was a boring flight with people asking for an exchange of seat citing the reason of their kids. The sight of a lady with 2/3 kids looking furiously for a potential hunt to exchange her seat warned me of the trouble brewing up....two 7 year olds with their giant mother entered with a wretched smile on their face and a searching look in the eyes. I am not sure whether its written on my face that I will oblige, but her eyes rested on me and with a winning shine of having found the hunt, the family approached me. I dont know how but these creatures dont bother about their seats while boarding and once inside, then their search starts.....And I find myself meekly obliging to see the kids and their mothers seating happily together....Long live everybody!

Thanks to my exchanged cranky middle seat, I was not able to catch up my sleep. When I reached CDG airport , it had totalled 32 hours since I had last slept. I was tired as hell but still I had to go to my university city of Grenoble which was a further half hour connecting flight (to Lyon & further). I was hoping to have a nice sleep after reaching Grenoble soon. But some more testing times were served for me... Just after my arrival at CDG, there was a bomb hoax at the airport and all subsequent flights were frozen for the time being. I decided to catch a train and after 3 more hours I finally reached my hotel in Grenoble.

There it was.... A cozy bed and a blanket....What more can a tired soul ask for.... needless to say, I threw my luggage and slept with peace......

Aspirations of the herd....

Few years ago and until last year, it was the time of software engineers. Every Tom in the neighourhood wanted to be a software engineer because of the attraction of high bucks, social status and trips abroad. These Toms didn’t know where their own mind or strength lies. They just felt happy to follow the aspirations of the herd. They spoke excitedly about latest trends in open source, neural networks and artificial intelligence. The wave was so intense in the period of 1998 that software engineers were seen as demigods. This phenomenon lasted quite long until 2002/03.

Then the herd collectively changed its mind and thought that oh, actually finance is also a good profession, isn’t it? Now the same Tom in the neighbourhood started talking about balance sheets, hedge funds & private equity. He still didn’t know where his own mind or strength lies. He was again following the herd.

The same story had happened with Tom’s uncle Mr. Harry in good old days when the herd was unanimous that either medicine or government or administrative or accounting or xyz is infact a nice profession. Being Tom’s uncle, Mr. Harry was not much of a thinker and he didn’t know where his own mind or strength lies. He was just following the herd. The same story is poised to happen with Tom’s daughter, Elena. And will probably happen with her son & grandson.

May be I should have used Indian names rather than Tom et al, but the fact remains. No wonder that our nation doesn’t produce enough sportsmen, right? Because everyone believes in following the aspirations of the herd. The attitudes seek fast money & fame and go with the profession of the era. So first you have a less supply & higher demands but the demand curve takes a ‘U’ turn in a relatively shorter time because of the Toms and Harrys. Isn’t this attitude a potential threat to the nation? May be I am wrong, but I believe that the real long term problem for the nation lies not in less that expected GDP growth, not in burgeoning population, not in indirect effect of subprime crisis, not in increasing foreign debt, not in rising wages & potential threat to outsourcing advantages by more cost effective nations like Philippines, BUT it lies in the attitude of the nation to follow the herd.

Let aside a sportsman, try to think whether the Tom in your own neighborhood will ever aspire to be a professional violin maker, for example ? Or to be a behavioral economist ? Or to be painter, an author, a clay animator?

The answer is ‘Never…’ .He/she will follow the attitude of the herd. The nation will loose one more sportsman or pianist. The story will go on…