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HYD-BOM-RUH

Last year on the same day I reached Riyadh. I never thought at that time that I would be here one year from then. I still remember I was 75kgs then and the most important goal was to cut down my weight :). That was my second innings in Saudi. I was much more relaxed than my first innings. Unlike the first visit I was not that keen to stay there so was bindaas and enjoyed every moment.

Riyadh Airport, taken on 30-Nov-2007

illogical stuff!

I got this message from a friend of mine when I was in a very bad mood. I was so frustrated with a lot of things that this is how i responded then. now it seems  too funny :)

vinod: 26 DEC-TSUNAMI,

26 JAN KUTCHH EARTHQUAKE,

26 FEB GODHRA ISSUE,

26 JUNE FLOOD IN GUJARAT,

26 JULY MUMBAI TRAIN BLAST,

26 JULY BLAST IN AHMEDABAD,

26 NOV TERRORIST ATTACK IN MUMBAI

unknown: so

vinod: ne yabba so enti

26 is bad for india ani cheptunna

unknown: MAR,APR,MAY,AUG,SEP,OCT are still not affected kadha...so half the year 26 is not unlucky

vinod: hmm letseee

unknown: illa theesukunte...everyday ekkado akkada edhokkati jaruguthundhi

illogical stuff

vinod: sarelevoi

unknown: no

vinod: ippudu dani post mortem cheyalsina avasram ledu

unknown: cant accept silly stuff like this

inka cheppalante..anni calamities ni theesukoni okka mathematical series form chesi.. ee sequence lo problems vasthayi ani cheppali

vinod: babu nannu dengaku

unknown: okka pani cheyi regression analysis cheyi... weighted exponential smoothing cheyi

vinod: cheyi nuvve :)

unknown: tarvaatha jaragaboye calamity ni predict cheyi.. inka extra info kosam nostradamus predictions theesuko...prathi page number theesukoni dhaanitho inko series form cheyi

vinod: ok

unknown: inka terrorists la date of birth theesuko.. nee date of birth ki add chesi sequence form cheyi.. dhaanini regression analysis chesi...adhi time reversible Markovian chain form avuthundho ledho check cheyi

ardam ayindha?

vinod: ya

unknown: emi ardam ayindhi?

vinod: mooyi be

unknown: thidthav entra

vinod: ant e appu salu chestha ani

unknown: sare chesi result circulate cheyi

vinod: vakay

Life at IIM Cal - part I

It's not even 4 months and I feel as if it's been ages here.

My room, dirty as always.

Sleep is one thing, I miss a lot here.

I flicked this mickey from someone's Bday cake (thinking it was made of cream :)

Coca Cola story!

Interesting stuff

Anything can happen in an year. Dow made a lifetime high exactly an year back and now it's still not settled down, yet to find its base.
It fell almost by 40% in this one year.

Today Dow fell by '678.9' pts, isn't it interesting :)

An interesting comment by Marc Faber, investment analyst.
" The federal government is sending each of us a $600 rebate.

If we spend that money at Wal-Mart, the money goes to China.
If we spend it on gasoline it goes to the Arabs.
If we buy a computer it will go to India.
If we purchase fruit and vegetables it will go to Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala.
If we purchase a good car it will go to Germany.
If we purchase useless crap it will go to Taiwan and none of it will help the American economy.

The only way to keep that money here at home is to spend it on prostitutes and beer, since these are the only products still produced in US. I’ve been doing my part."

Aliens!!!! Please save us

Inspite of all the rate cuts, bailouts etc...
markets just follow the 'true south' policy

Hope some alien investors come down to earth and invest in our markets॥

Winter Sale – Rates slashed hurry limited period offer closes soon

Ø The Fed reduced its benchmark rate to 1.5 percent

Ø The ECB's main rate is now 3.75 percent

Ø Canada's fell to 2.5 percent

Ø U.K.'s rate dropped to 4.5 percent

Ø Sweden's rate declined to 4.25 percent

Ø China cut interest rates for the second time in three weeks, reducing the main rate to 6.93 percent

The Great Recession

Two major recruiters vanished on one fine day.

No one ever thought this could happen.

One is a 158 yr old and the other 94yr old, both of them went through the 2 major world wars,the great depression,9/11 etc, finally gave up in this recession period.

Who knows history may label this period as the Great Recession period.

A lot of people had dreams to get into these companies till yesterday.Now people are scared about their future.

I see risks for me in both short term and long term. In short term as a trader and long term as a prospective Ibanker.

Last night, dow crash was worse than 9/11 :O

Tips for effective presentation

Content

• Understanding the concept of analysing, it involves a lot of questioning and giving reasons and not just labelling things
  
• Questions to be kept in mind are Why? Where? What if? This applies to case study analysis.
  
• Keep in mind the structure of the presentation and accordingly prepare the ppt and also have minimum number of slides. Slides have to be prepared depending on the time. For a 15min ppt the number of slides should not be more than 12
  
• Don’t load the slides with data, keep it simple and sexy :)

• 
  

While speaking

• Expression is very important. Smile at the crowd and don’t look at them as if they are your enemies. Many times the words you speak and your body language don’t match. Keeping hands in pockets, folding hands,keeping hands behind, rubbing palms are signs of being scared/not confident
  
• Use hand gestures and show some passion in the topic.
  
• Even the best of the best speakers will have some kind of inconvenience before starting a speech.
  
• To get rid of this situation the first thing you need is sometime to settle before you get into the crux of your presentation, also you need to know the seriousness of the crowd and their energy levels so that you can act appropriately.
  
• Prepare some questions for the crowd and ask them to get their opinion on that. This has 2 advantages teh first thing is you can involve audience in your speech and the second thing is you can get some time to settle and also judge about the audience knowledge.
  
• Speech should not be monotonous.
  
• Usage of connotations should be kept in mind
  
• Stand and face the crowd and don’t stand sideways. If a presentation is ppt based the normal tendency is to stand sideways looking back at the slide and talk, this should be avoided
  
• Say something different from the slide, just reading slide would actually offend the audience cos they are expected to be literate enough to read the slide by themselves.
  
• Know your voice and accordingly use mike if need. Don’t shout to be heard.
  
• To avoid dry throat drink some water while speaking
  

Questions & Answers

• First of all appreciate the person who asked the question cos he listened to the presentation. 'Thank you', 'Good question', 'Interesting observation' these phrases can be used to make the person feel better.
  
• Have some slides for Q&As also if needed and you may show that later, this shows your level of preparedness.
  
• Many times you run out of time and have to rush and finish off the presentation in time and in this process you may skip some slides. You can use the Q&A session to talk on those, obviously if the question is related to it.
  

Group presentations
The people who start off the presentation are never under pressure to finish off it in time so they tend to take more time than intended, to avoid this appointing a time keeper is best practice.

Medium of communication affects the message being communicated

Communication is very important for life and it has played important role for all living beings from time immemorial. Communication is far more important in an organizational setup. There are cases when a message poorly communicated resulted in unfavourable consequences whereas good communication leads to positive benefits as all of stakeholders understand the message in its entirety.
Communication is as process of conveying information from one person to other through a medium which is understood by both the parties. The key parts of this process are sender, message, channel, receiver, noise and feedback. The message is initiated by sender by encoding his thought. The channel is medium, which is our topic of interest, through which the message travels and reaches the receiver. This message is decoded into a form the receiver can understand. The noise represents the communication barrier that distorts the message clarity. The feedback is acknowledgement by the receiver confirming his understanding of the message. The sender, receiver and message being same can have different channels of communications. And each of the channels chosen will have different impact on the receiver. Oral, Written and Computer aided communications are three broadly classified types of communications.
Oral Communications includes speeches, one to one conversation and group discussions. Under this type of communication there are three types of mediums which are live, audio and audio-video. This is effective in communicating the idea and receiving the feedback on the same. In case of live it also gives scope for the sender to use body gestures in communicating the idea more effectively. The disadvantage with this medium is it can lead to multiple perceptions of the same idea by different receivers if the number of receivers is huge. Since each one has his own retention power and listening skills the idea would be perceived differently by different people. It is also dependent on the amount of time spent for the discussion. A good example for this could be a class of 80 people listen to the same Professor’s class but when it comes to performance in the exam each one has a different result. In case of audio the receiver will not be able to perceive exactly the idea what the sender intends to because the sender is not present physically. Telephone, audio cassettes are some examples for this medium of communication. Audio-Video unlike audio will be able to communicate better because of the body gestures but this medium doesn’t provide scope for feedback which is also a key part of communication process.
Written Communications includes all written form of messages like letters, faxes, and emails. Under this type of communication there are two types of mediums which are print and electronic media. Companies prefer to get recommendations letters in written forms because it is tangible and verifiable unlike oral communication. Since every individual has his own listening and understanding skills a written communication provides enough time for him to understand the topic. Also a lot of information when discussed orally may lose the essence and hence written communication is used as supplement to convey the message. This form of communication is used when the information to be shared is very complex and lengthy as it forces the receiver to think more thoroughly. Typical examples of print media are pamphlets, notices, text books, certificates and circulars. The disadvantages with this form of communication are it is bit time consuming and is not spontaneous unlike the oral communication. There is absolutely no scope for an immediate feedback for this kind of communication hence doesn’t guarantees that the receiver has perceived it as it was intended. Another disadvantage with written communication is it never conveys what exactly the sender feels emotionally but this purpose is achieved to some extent by the technology in electronic media where one can include a smiley which displays the expression of emotion which was lacking earlier in the traditional paper format of written communication.
Electronic Media includes instant messaging, intranet links and video conferencing. This can be considered as an extension of print media the only difference being this is real time. Increasingly many organisations are opting instant messaging as means of communication for performing the daily chores of job. The following are advantages for using this channel. It is very quick in sharing information. It provides scope to discuss. With technology even multiple people can chat together. Even this one has smiley to convey emotional expression. People can share files real time over internet and it is very quick. It is most economical way to communicate between people who are spread across the world at different places. Ex:- I was working for TCS Saudi Arabia and we had another team located at Mumbai, initially we were using telephone to communicate. After a certain period of time it was observed that the telephone expenditure increased a lot because of the long durations of speech and also some fraud calls which were inevitable. That is when we decided to opt for instant messaging as it costs are negligible compared to the traditional form of communication. Intranet links are the discussion boards which are present in every organisation. This is again quick and provides scope for feedback.
Videoconferencing is a combination of oral and written communication. In this global village, where we have companies doing businesses with people spread across the world it becomes difficult to have a face to face conversation with every individual. This problem is solved by the advent of videoconferencing technology. With this companies can have meetings with people live. This reduces the need of a person to travel different places to communicate, which is a very expensive and hence is an economical way to communicate information. Many Universities in USA which get applications from students all over the world use this technology to interview the students.
Depending on the importance of the information one has to consider the specific medium for communication. Very important information like a change in policy in company which is likely to be raised issues by different parties is ideal to be discussed in a forum. According to Stephen Robbins & Timothy Judge “The choice of one channel over other depends on whether message is routine or non routine. Ex: Mr Patterson CEO of Cerner Corp, who was upset with the staff, sends out an email intimating them about the imminent layoff. Within hours of this email the information was circulated outside the organization and the result was the stock prices plummeted by huge percent” This real incident mentioned in the book by Stephen Robbins & Timothy Judge clearly suggests how important it is to select the correct medium for communication. Had Mr Patterson selected a discussion forum or face to face meeting with individuals it wouldn’t have lead this unfavourable consequence.
Another important aspect to be checked before deciding the medium of communication is the usage of resources. If information can be communicated economically and creating same effectiveness by one medium when compared to others then that medium to should be selected. Again this decision is contextual. Managers should consider trade offs while making their decisions.
The first thing which comes to most of our mind when a person speaks about ‘Da Vinci Code’ is the book but we are aware of the fact that there exists a movie by the same name. That shows how effective was the medium of communication. Having seen from the above that there are many channels and mediums of communicating an idea it is evident that a real challenge to a manager is to select the right channel and medium for the appropriate message.

Points to be kept in mind while quitting

Never ever trust people at work, specially the person who benefits from you.He will be only looking for his advantage.People exploit you for their own benefit.

There is no place for friendship in office.Its professional life so let it be like that.

Dont get emotional at all.Just think how you will get benfitted from some one/thing because everyone else thinks that way.

Be careful when you send out mails because they may be used against you also.

Dont ever confirm in mails, it might be risky at times, but always get confirmations through mail only.

Being frank always helps you.Dont ever try to hide something and put a false reason which you cant defend yourself.

Before convincing some one first learn to convince yourself.

There will be many who talk softly with you as if you are their closest friend when they need some work to be done by you but when that is done they go back to their normal mode of back stabbing.They think they are ultra-cool managers.

A very important thing is get yourself clear with policies of company.This will help you always, because ignorance is suicidal in this case.

Happy Birthday

I am glad that my blog is still alive to celebrate its 3rd bday, but the sad thing is not many readers are there to share the joy :(.
Last bday blogs.
Zeroeth year
First year
Second year

Cricket,Profit from it.

Cricket has become a buzzword oflate so this is what I’ve got to say about this sick sport.
6 days to go for IPL, many people are eager to watch this,but am not one of them.
cricket is never my cup of tea. I hate the ads in between every over and even the fastest version of cricket I feel is very slow.I prefer to watch just highlights.

BCCI :O
In the last few days the attitude BCCI has shown pictures them as villains. Starting IPL as a reply to ICL,commercialsing the game and banning other media people in covering the facts.BCCI started IPL as a response to Essar backed ICL lead by Kapil. Till then there was no concept like this.

Why do we need IPL?
In IPL almost all players are the ones who are already representing their nations. So this is a bonus to them. Rich cricketers are becoming more richer. The gap between rich and poor is widening further :O.I read an article in TOI ,It seems our hockey and football players get 1000 a day whereas our cricketers get around a lakh during match days. so much difference :O

ICL vs IPL?
I feel ICL is doing a better job, They don’t have big players like those in IPL but they are doing some justice by encouraging budding cricketers and all those people whose lives got ruined because of politics.
But whatever may be the case cricket in recent times has got a lot of change in India.Our middle class families, who normally don’t take up sports as a career, can think of taking up cricket as a career in realizing their dreams.
But there are some disadvantages cos of the new forms of cricket
People will forget Ranji and Duleep trophies( till now people know atleast there exists something like that)
For other sports like Football ,Hockey which always faced step motherly treatment now the situation will be come still worse. No one will take up them as career as cricket is more lucrative
During cricket matches the productivity of people goes down(match time+post-mortem+predictions+highlights), now with this new IPL, we get more cricket more people waste a lot of time.

But why cricket?
Now the problem with other sports like Football and hockey.
It takes more money for playing the other sports. whereas cricket on other hand is played everywhere cos all you need is a ball and a bat.In football and hockey you need shoes,shin guard which are very important part of the sports.Next important thing is space. people play cricket even in rooms.
Finally cricket as they say is gentleman sport, in footer and hockey you may need to charge on some one,a lot of physical strength needed,which in general we Indians lack when compared to westerners. so all these add up to the interest in playing the sport. whenever a group of friends meet up they play cricket. Even in companies most of them tend to play cricket as it is not that tiring. We have TV channels dedicated for cricket. At times cricket is shown in almost all sports channels. Now people watch even U-19 matches ,thanks to our tv channels.
Now the other sports don’t receive funds from corporate, as well as lack encouragement from govt, because of which they don’t perform that well in the international arena, now again because they dont perform well they don’t get encouragement. Recent disaster in Hockey India didn’t qualify in Olympics.. So it becomes a vicious circle. If this continues then there will be no takers for the other sports. Already many people are dropping out. Viren Rasquinha left hockey for MBA.. may be it is his hidden desire. But definitely our current scenario of sports would have encouraged him to look out for alternate career.
The other sports should be encouraged at all levels. I mean schools, colleges, companies and societies. Govt should guarantee jobs and provide financial support both to the players and the boards.

New aspect of cricket
Cricket was religion a few years back now it is business. The day will come when the cricket clubs will be listed on NSE. Already we have new businessmen like Shahrukh and Preity Zinta who started this and many new ones joining them like Mithun Chakraborthy,Juhi Chawla,Akshay Kumar etc.Shahrukh publically stated that he is purely into business. These people are not interested in doing some good.They are just interested in the ROI.

Risks
With the clubs being named after cities this could create regionalism among people effecting national integrity
Ricky Ponting will practice more with Ishant :D who has been a surprise package in the last Australian series and it will become more difficult for Ishant to take his wicket unlike in that series.

Cricket and me
Personally i hate cricket not because of any of the above reasons. I am a terrible batsman. I can never connect the ball with the bat. Always touches by fluke . And when I go for bowling the batsmen break records. I always preferred to play football and hockey. Readers I take this as an opportunity to tell you all that I represented my college in Athletics and was a long distance runner.

How can one cut down his weight by 10 kgs in 2 months??

We live in a world surrounded by myths. ‘PEOPLE’ say that it's harmful to cut down weight drastically but I haven't experienced anything of that kind. As long as you eat healthy, sufficient enough to do your daily chores and to fight against diseases nothing will harm you. I am not a doctor but I've read quite a lot on health, fitness & diet and I would like to share my ideas and views in this post. ‘PEOPLE’ interpret things the way they want it to be and rub those ideas onto others, Perhaps I am doing the same thing.



The first and fore most thing you need, to cut down your weight is not an ab-crunch, neither the Atkins diet nor the good old sauna belt. But it is your 'will power' which matters the most because it needs a lot of will power to control temptation. I have seen a lot of ‘PEOPLE’ who say that they are on diet control but when they pass by a KFC they keep all their resolutions aside, the yummy broasted chicken becomes the most important thing in the world at that moment. Hey you better keep this in your mind 'yummy is yuck'. No one likes the healthy stuff. Even medicines taste bitter. So I conclude this paragraph by saying that
                “Strong determination is the most important thing”.

The other things which you need, to cut down your weight are very much tangible.
The next most important thing rather the only thing that can make a person look handsome/beautiful is a good balanced diet. ‘We are what we eat’. A healthy diet will never make you obese. Another myth which I have seen among ‘PEOPLE’ is 'Just go to gym everyday and work out on dumb-bells, that’s it you automatically cut down your weight'. I would say it works the other way. 'Eat healthy and don’t even go for work out you’ll never put on weight.' It’s better if one gets his diet prepared by a dietician. Otherwise there a lot of websites, which provide valuable information about different kinds of diet.





Some basic Gyaan(Knowledge) on food

Understanding Carbs- Low-carb diet is a buzz word among all those who are under diet. Carb is an acronym for carbohydrates. If a person is obese then in most of the cases the culprit is carbohydrates. So let’s understand what these carbs are. There are 2 kinds of carbs i.e. simple and complex. The simple carbs are the direct sugars like chocolates, cool drinks, sweets, rice etc. Complex carbs are like carrots, potatoes etc which take some time to digest and mix in blood.
Complex ones are observed to be the best carbs to have. A person who takes carbs in excess more than what he needs to run his body will accumulate all the carbs and fats making him obese. I have seen a lot of ‘PEOPLE’ who drink coke or pepsi for no reason. For them it’s a fad to get pepsi to their workplace and sip it while working. They don’t realize how much harm they are doing to their body.
We should engineer our body. We should realize what is good and bad for our body and understand how much of essentials are needed by our body. Anything in excess is harmful. Even a medicine when taken in excess will kill you. :D

Understanding fats- It’s very clear from all of my sources of info that if we have just enough carbohydrates and then do a little workout, it will do wonders. It can cut down the flab.
Fats are broadly classified into 3 categories
a) Saturated fats- Fats we get from meat, dairy and eggs and also in some plant sources like coconut and palm. One should avoid these fats as much as possible. In the meat again it is not advisable to have red meat which is from goat, sheep etc. as it increases the cholesterol levels in blood. White meat is supposed to be the best option. It can be obtained by consuming fish and chicken.

b) Unsaturated fats- These are obtained from plant sources like peanuts, soy, olives etc. There are some studies which suggest that having these fats may actually lower the bad cholesterol and maintain good cholesterol in blood.

c) Omega3fatty acids- This is very critical for our health but cannot be manufactured by our body. Good sources of omega3 fatty acids include coldwater fish, walnuts, soy etc.

Understanding proteins- These are the building blocks of body. According to me protein is the hero. It’s very essential in building muscles and healing tissues. Good sources of proteins are chicken, eggs, fish, sprouts, Soya etc. Fish is my favorite food :). Again I would like to remind my readers that anything in excess is harmful. Excess of proteins is observed to have caused kidney problems. There is an interesting concept which I found in one of the articles I read. Some eatables individually are not sources of protein but when eaten in combination form a very good source of protein. Rice and Peas, both individually are not a sources of proteins but when had together provide proteins to the body.

Things to be kept in mind
The following are the tips which I followed strictly and I’ve seen a significant change.



1) Avoid chocolates
2) Avoid Tea, Coffee; if you take milk have it without sugar
3) Say strict ‘No’ to soft drinks
4) Say strict ‘No’ to junk food
5) Eat 1,2 garlic cloves everyday
6) All Non-veggies your order of preference should be like follows
a) Fish
b) Egg white
c) Chicken
d) Mutton


Note:
1) Carbohydrates- Excess of carbs may lead to diabetes, obesity and heart problems
2) Fats- Excess of fats may increase cholesterol and lead to heart problems
3) Proteins- When taken excessively affects kidneys
4) Fish- Contaminants like mercury might affect your health :(


So what did I do?

My diet comprised of the following
Breakfast - 2garlic cloves,2 tomatoes ,2 carrots,1 plum,2 rusks, half capsicum,3 boiled eggs only the white part and lemon juice with salt. Believe me it’s a heavy breakfast.
Lunch - Salads containing onions, carrots, palak and tomatoes. Occasionally I used to have 2-3 slices of bread.
Dinner - Boiled vegetables and oatmeal. It was very difficult in the initial few days. But I made up my mind that am on sick food and have to follow this religiously or else I would die. It really needs strong commitment to stick this rigor.

Another suggestion at this point, ‘don’t stuff yourselves in one go rather have in small quantities and more number of times’.

Last nail to the coffin :), the workout.

Enough of eating now let’s think about how to burn those calories. I think a person needs to hit the gym for at least 4 days a week. Cardiovascular exercises should be compulsory part of your workout, specially if your aim is to cut down the weight. There are a wide variety of cardiovascular exercises like cycling, running, hiking and swimming. Depending on the availability you should try to do at least 2 of them so that you don’t get bored doing the same thing everyday. Another myth among ‘PEOPLE’ is that 'Running fast will make you sweat a lot and burns a lot of fats & calories'. My take on this is like this. Running fast will only tire you soon but one has to keep in mind that the ultimate purpose is to burn the calories, cut the flab and not to get tired soon and crash on the floor gasping after a burst. One should enjoy while working out in gym. Its better you team up with some one so that you will have some motivation. Also invest some time and money in buying nice attire for gym; even it helps in motivating you to go to gym.

Before going to gym I used to have one banana so that it gives me the instant energy. Then I used to run or cycle for 5km every alternate day followed by regular stretching and dumbbell exercises. One should understand that a heavy workout with insufficient diet actually cuts down the muscles and is not healthy.

Any soft risks?

A potential risk I have noticed among people, who indulge in serious diet and fitness program, is being outcasted by friends. It is a natural tendency among human beings. Everyone wants to be fit but only those who can fight the temptation and be focused can achieve it. So the friends who cannot control this first start by discouraging the person and then slowly start avoiding the person. One common thing I have noticed is the person will not be invited to parties and other gatherings. So these things also have to be kept in mind and it is important for the person to keep good relations and yet be focused on fitness. This is from my personal experience.

Finally I would like to conclude it by saying that “A healthy workout supported by a good balanced diet will keep you fit and handsome/beautiful”
After following the above suggestions strictly cutting down 10kgs is bound to happen and I am a living example.
If you have any queries do contact me I don’t charge for consultation ;P