One for the year

Unmaad 2009 v1: The Spirit if India was alive and kicking at IIM Bangalore as we celebrated Unmaad keeping aside all the shit that was happening in the world. The sponsorship had dried up, and people realised the worth of each penny. But K K was too hard to resist and no wonder why. He enthralled us all with a breath taking performance. I missed the Unmaad L square as I was in a dry run.

Final Placements 2009: Speaking of dry run, I come to my next big thing at hand. The final placements for the batch of 2009. It was a horror show as we saw the effects of the crisis take its full toll on the batch. The job became tougher and longer owing to the market conditions. Nevertheless, it was an experience worth living and hopefully cherishing in a few years..

Morgan Stanley, Hong Kong: Yaay!! my first trip abroad!!And the person who was always there was Rahul Bajaj!! (Chuck the rahul out.. :) We had loads of fun in Hong Kong, roaming around, shopping, cooking food, the Macau trip, gambling all night and getting a DB employee to join IIMB.. :P What say Bajaj!!The two months away from home made me so so fall in love with India.All the thoughts of Reema telling me about exchange and how intern changes your opinion came right back..

Back to B: Yes indeed! I opted out of exchange. It was a culmination of various reasons. Term 4 was fun to begin with. A new batch of students coming in, the whole dunking and hoax week, the recruitments for the clubs, the treats the parties et al.. But none gave more pleasure than receiving that certificate from the Director. :) The academics were now a mundane job but the time I had spent with my friends new and old was just memorable.

Term 5: I write term 5 because, if I had to choose one term where I "came of age", it would be that. It was shitty, it had pressure, it had responsibility. And I am glad, all of them were delivered. Unmaad happened, not without pain, but this time the Unmaad L square drove all of it away. The biggest compliment was when a professor called me and said that he was glad his student organised all of it. The rain gods were on our side and India didnt qualify for the champions trophy semi finals. Everything fell in place.

Phase 2 of term 5 is the insomnia period. The summer placements were much different from the finals experience, it was a lot tougher, a lot more people to be managed and now I know what Vibhu must have felt like in term 3. It was an experience that i will carry along in everything I do.

Phase 3 was academic phase which is better left unsaid.

Amar Bhaiya's wedding: Finally, my dear bhaiya is married and I am so glad he is. It was tonned of fun being a part of the celebration. I wish him all the best ahead.. :) I will put up the pics as soon as i lay my hands on them..

And after so much.. there is still a month to go.. Picture abhi baki hai mere dost..

Aim: Look Below :)




What a year 2009 has been. A quick count on the fingers shows that I was part of 2 Unmaads, 2 placement processes (one of senior and other of junior batch), one quick dirty live project, one summer intern of my own, one new country, three academic terms, 2 academic awards, two first cousins biting the dust and amidst all this, lots of fun. Hoping for a great finish to the year..


Special mentions: Sukrut, PDM, Mayur, Kapoor, CEO, Vikas Bansal, DD, Chusli, Sahay, Vibhu, Purvi, Aishwarya, Kshitij, Aditi, Ganesh, Jyothsni, Tushar, Deepthi, Hari, Lintu, Sid, Pappu, Mak, Rishov, Pulkit, Rajat, Prakhya, Saikat, Ladha, Mario, Vicky, Abdul, Oleti, Mande, Banka, Rawale ......

The long wait and the ecstasy...

361 days of staying away..
270 long minutes of searching eyes..
48 very short hours of ecstasy..
10 days of chit chat..

And now time for a long wait again..

About Akshay, Macau....

For 21 years now, I have inevitably spent my summers at Hyderabad, my hometown. Be it the internship or the summer classes, everything brought me home. But, second term into IIM Bangalore gave me the first chance to spend a summer outside home. In fact, I was destined to spend my summer at Hong Kong interning at Morgan Stanley (read the post below for further details). I was excited as hell, not just because I pulled off a decent summer intern, but also because I was the last of the six (read as KAPAAG for who know it) to step outside the country. And after a yearlong grind at the dungeons of Bangalore, I finally arrived at Hong Kong.

From the very first look of it, the infrastructure was impressive. The airport express, that took me to Kowloon, and the cabs that took me home, were all too luxurious for a first timer. The service apartment itself provided quite a few amenities. I was glad that I didn’t have to clean it, change bed sheets, or in short live like I do in hostels. I intuitively knew, being as lazy as I am that I will not have to clean clothes for most of my summer. So, with all the mundane and boring routines out of the way, I had two things to figure out. The first being how to survive, and the second, how I could make my stay adventurous. The survival part was sorted out soon, as we decided to go with a mix of ready to eat, cooked and of course dining out.

In terms of adventure, the first good thing that happened to us was Mr. Akshay Jain. People do wonder who the guy in my pics is. Sometimes, a sadist and sometimes vulgar, but he was always cheerful and humorous.

• He had absolutely no love for his parents till the point in the plane where he said, I don’t hate my parents so much.
• He must have tried everything Hong Kong had to offer, from raw fish to seahorses to salmons
• He loved spending money (he wanted to spend every cent of the 14000 dollars that he was earning more than us)
• He had a huge fetish for this IIMB girl, after lots of up and downs
• His current market value stands at INR 5 million (a very cheap buy)

The only event that was close to thrilling was our visit to Macau. I have often read about volatility and all the fin stuff, but the Macau experience gave me a taste of it. I was up 250 bucks, down a grand and a half and then up 3 grand and finally ended up with 1.5. The game was fascinating, the dealers noteworthy and the entire experience addictive. In a way it gave me a world full of lessons of stop losses, entry and exit levels that I could not have learnt back in school. The Venetian was beautiful and the singer on the boat awe inspiring.

Overall, I think Hong Kong was worth a visit but not something I would want to do again and again (except the night at Macau). I had a good time interning and now keeping fingers crossed for the outcome.