Random Thoughts

Such is the pace of life, it changes in moments. Sometimes for the good sometimes for the worse. Things happen, people come and go, its all like a flash, by the time you recover from the gaze and look around, things would have changed. Remember that last time you avoided an accident and a split second later you wondered how the hell are you alive? Remember when you were so unsure and confused on where you are headed next and then suddenly a mail or a news pops up and you are on top of the world, suddenly you know where you are headed, you have a direction, that is the pace of life. But accepting the change or transition can be difficult at times.My point is accept the change and move on, maybe this is how it was supposed to be, maybe there is something better at the next turn, maybe its time to introspect and learn from your mistakes. Remember after every Summer there is always an Autumn. "For the times they are a-changin" - Bob Dylan

"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing "

Mid term exams start from Monday. Cost Accounting, Finance and Macroeconomics are the big ones this term. This exam will determine half of the grades that one will get this term. Time to study hard..

Its another diwali away from home. It has been 9 years since i went home for diwali or holi. But as always, will be celebrating Diwali with friends. Wishing everyone a very happy diwali 2010..

Huhh..it has been a roller coaster ride. Its less than two months since i started my B School life and the world around me has changed so much. The last two months have been really hectic. Although i did not do well in my subjects but i learned a lot. Learned a lot about life, friendship, trust, love and eventually what it takes to fail and come back. Did a lot of mistakes and a couple of blunders, but now i know what to do and what not to do. All i hope now is to put the past behind me and step into the new term with an open mind. It won't be easy but after all it was never meant to be a walk in the park. The battle has not even started, it is just the first war. Some will become complacent some will give us but only those who will focus on getting the 'eye of the tiger' will eventually get it. You win some, you loose some. For winning is a habit and can be cultivated.

Just love this song.. I'm better with my muscles Than I am with my mouth I worked the fairgrounds in the summer And go pick fruit down south And when I'm feel them chilly winds Where the weather goes I follow Pack up my traveling things go with the swallows And I might get lucky now and then You win some, you might get lucky now and then You win some I wake up every morning Keep on eye on what I spent Gotta think about eating Gotta think about paying the rent I always think it's funny It gets me everytime I wonder about the happiness and money Tell it to the breadline But you might get lucky now and then You win some, you might get lucky now and then You win some Now I'm rambling through this meadow happy as a man can be Think I just lay me down under this old tree On and on we go through this old world of shuffling If you got a truffle dog, you can go truffling But you might get lucky now and then You win some, you might get lucky no

At times we may do things that have very deep impact not only on our lives but also on the lives of others. Have you ever thought how many people are in the emotional chain that has the links with you? Please do not do anything risky. I know there are times when you don't have control over things. But people be very very careful. Life is precious.

I had my first bike accident yesterday night. A stupid dog came in the way and all I remember now is that the next moment I was on the ground. The helmet saved me from a skull injury but the worst thing was that I was not alone. Sakshi, who was with me on my bike, also fell and got hurt. Seeing her right elbow’s swelling I almost immediately knew that it was a fracture. I was overshadowed by the guilt conscience. It was her right hand and with so many quizzes and exams lined up, I only wished that my worst fears won’t come true. Surprisingly, Sakshi was cheerful, I am not sure how would have any other girl reacted in that situation. Definitely not the way Sakshi did. How many times do you get to meet people who have never say die attitude? People who always keep smiling even in difficult times? People who make the weariness wane and who infuse a new optimism in you. People who can see a silver lining even in the darkest cloud? Well, I must say that I have not met too many people of t

I hardly get any time nowadays. Most of the times i read the 2-3 day old economic times newspaper at one go and that too just skimming for the main news and articles. It is just one week at Planet I and i have written a Quiz, submitted 2 assignments, read 600-700 pages of study material and solved 7-8 case studies.. Phew, and the list goes on and on.. From Indore Marathon to Share to Equit-I, there is so much to do but so little time. I think time management and making the right choices will be very important. Who said that decision making is taught in the classes, you learn it every day in your life..

Finally i am in full packing mode. I could not wash my clothes in Bangalore because of sheer procrastination and later due to the malfunctioning of the washing machine. The first thing i did after reaching Ranchi was to wash all my clothes. Thankfully the LG washing machine at my house is a fully automatic one. So just put the clothes and detergent and come after sometime to find the cloths washed, rinsed and partially dried. Wow, life would have been so difficult without these smart gadgets. I got all my documents attested and did not have much struggle with anything unlike last time when i had to get my financial statements ready for my fisher i-20. I hope the good things continue atleast for some more time. I definitely need a break from the daily battle called life in India.

Decision making is such a difficult job, especially when you are deciding on things that have long lasting impact. Perhaps this is what justifies the high salaries and perks that key decision makers command in an enterprise. I think it was sometime around the same time 8 years ago after my AIEEE counselling, i had to make a choice between a Polymer Engineering or Civil Engineering at BIT Mesra or Electronics and Communications at Manipal (there was a chance of getting a better branch at BIT but as i said a chance). I was in a big dilemma then. On one hand I had the option of going to BIT Mesra with a not so hot branch at a price tag of less than 2 lakhs and on the other hand i has a good branch at MIT,Manipal at a price tag of 4.5 lakhs. I still remember what a difficult decision it had been for me. Finally i chose Manipal for the exposure. The fact that out of 400 students at BIT i already knew close to 150 from my 10+2 school and of these 150, approx 40 were from my class 10th s

Disclaimer: Someone at IBM asked me to post this for the benefit of those who are applying for Corporate Services Corp next year. This post in not meant to bore you or give any funda. Its just my way of giving back to my team at IBM. I had written this long essay, however at the time of submission I realized that the word limit was in Characters and NOT words. Nevertheless, having written the essay, I thought that it would be a good idea to publish it here! Content Copyright- Anil Kumar What, in your opinion, is the role of business in society? In particular assess if, how and why businesses should address core societal, environmental, educational and governance issues Veeru is in his village in North India and is rushed to the community hospital. He has sustained severe injuries in a fight that brewed between him and his neighbour over a bucket of water. It is the year 2030 and the river Ganges has dried up and the monsoon rains did not provide enough water to sustain the masses

Disclaimer: Someone at IBM wrote an email and asked me to post this for the benefit of those who are applying for Corporate Services Corp next year. This post in not meant to bore you or give any funda. Its just my way of giving back to my team at IBM. I had written this long essay, however at the time of submission I realized that the word limit was in Characters and NOT words. Nevertheless, having written the essay, I thought that it would be a good idea to publish it here! Content Copyright- Anil Kumar If selected, how will you connect what you learn to your current and future roles at IBM?Please highlight connections you expect to make to IBM's business priorities and your development as a leader. Today the challenges we face in businesses are far more complex than what is taught in colleges or schools. The changing dynamics of business world makes innovation and continuous improvement the key to success. Companies that invest in building key capabilities by investing in

Disclaimer: Someone at IBM asked me to post this for the benefit of those who are applying for Corporate Services Corp next year. This post in not meant to bore you or give any funda. Its just my way of giving back to my team at IBM. I had written this long essay, however at the time of submission I realized that the word limit was in Characters and NOT words. Nevertheless, having written the essay, I thought that it would be a good idea to publish it here! Content Copyright- Anil Kumar What are your personal and professional motivations for joining the Corporate Service Corps and why are you applying now?. During my undergraduate studies I was involved in various community initiatives. Through my volunteer work with the Indian Coast Guard during Malpe Beach Coastal Clean Up drive, I learned the importance of preserving our heritage and maintaining nature’s delicate balance. I learned the importance of saving valuable human lives through the blood donation during college. This

Disclaimer: Someone at IBM asked me to post this for the benefit of those who are applying for Corporate Services Corp next year. This post in not meant to bore you or give any funda. Its just my way of giving back to my team at IBM. I was fortunate enough to be selected in the IBM prestigious Corporate Services Corp (CSC), IBM's Worldwide Leadership Development Program. The program attracted 7500 applications from 60 countries and only 491 people were selected worldwide. From India there were more than 3000 application and only 21 people were selected. Yes, getting into IBM CSC is tougher than getting into Harvard (less than 7% of the applicants got through the CSC) or even IIM (if you consider only India's selection rate for the CSC, approx 0.7% of the applicants). In the subsequent blog posts i will share my essays that i wrote for the CSC program. The essay questions were intriguing and required lot of thinking and introspection.

After i had shipped most of my belongings, i still had two bags full of clothes and some other stuff. Because of heavy luggage and heavy airline fares, i decided to travel back home by train. When i checked the IRCTC website, i became doubtful whether i will get the tickets confirmed or not. The mistake i did was that i did not book the waiting ticket in 3AC thinking that i would get tickets in Tatkal. Well, the Tatkal story is a sad one, with more than billion people travelling everyday on trains and half of them trying for tatkal tickets, no wonder the IRCTC website is very very slow in the 8 am to 8:40 am time slot. I was not lucky even in the tatkal scheme and got a waitlisted ticket. To hedge my risks i decided to take a tatkal sleeper ticket as well. Well, my 3AC ticket remained waitlisted however my sleeper ticket got confirmed. And i decided to travel back home in Sleeper class!! Thinking that Bangalore's monsoon to be the representative of south indian monsoons, i was

Time just flies away so fast. My one month notice period is about to come to an end. When the sun sets on this Friday,18th June,2010, it would mark the end of a chapter of my life. I would be leaving IBM after four long years. Wooh..i can't believe this myself, four long years!! I must say that these four years have been interesting times. I met a lot of talented individuals, managers, and colleagues. Worked on exciting projects and got the opportunities to challenge myself. I still remember the June of 2006, after my college, I was highly confused whether I should join IBM or Infosys. I am not sure how things would have been for me, had i joined Infosys, however, I don't have any regrets for having joined IBM either. I was lucky to have excellent people managers, account managers and team leads. It is also very interesting that i stayed in the same account for all these years. Many of my friends do not understand why i did not move out of the Kraft Account or IBM. Perhaps

I have decided to learn German. I am taking classes from Mr Hari Joshi. My friend Sumit had taken classes from him and had recommended him. I think with one week of class, i have made some head way and am able to understand some German!! Mr. Hari is a good teacher and i proactive in clearing all the doubts that i have. I also found an interesting website for shared learning The real challenge is to remember all the German words and rules. Lot of hard work, perseverance and continuous effort is required from my end. Want to pick up Bengali as well, anyone willing to help?

******** Spoiler Alert: If you are yet to watch Into the Wild, then please do not read any further! ******* In the movie Into the Wild , Christopher McCandless, an Emory University graduate, who lives a nomadic life and keeps running away from the world, in the end realizes a unique truth. Before he dies, he pens down the most important learning that he had. He wrote ‘Happiness only real when shared’. How true indeed!! Sharing is a very powerful thing; perhaps sharing is what has transformed us from apes to humans. Imagine a world where there is no one to share one’s achievement, success, failure, happiness, sorrow. Isn’t it scary? Yes, it is. Life would become too mechanical and monotonous. There would be no motivation for innovation and creativity. In fact, life would not be life at all.

Ran the Sunfeast 10K OPEN marathon. Although i had prepared for sometime, today i found it bit difficult to run. Probably the heat and the sun took the toll on me. However, the good thing is that i finished the marathon in 1hr 7 minutes, i ran the last 5 kilometers nonstop in close to 32 mins. I think however much you prepare, there are still some last minute challenges and there is always some scope for improvement. Next marathon--> ??

Last year i was in Zurich when the Sun feast Marathon was held in Bangalore. Having seen the videos and the photographs of the participants, i had decided that i will participate in the Marathon this year, if i am in Bangalore. Fortunately, I am in Bangalore this year and will be participating in the marathon. I have been practicing for almost a month now, although there was a break of ten days when i went home. Yesterday, i inched 10 kilometers for the first time. Although it took me 1hr 15 mins to finish the 10 kilometers, I am now confidant that i will be able to run and finish the 10K marathon.

Finally, i have resigned from IBM today. Although,I had resigned some time back in March after the GLIM interviews, I had to withdraw my resignation because i got an interview call from IIM Indore. I decided to chuck GLIM and lost my hard earned fifty thousand rupees :( Earlier, whenever someone in my team left, i always wondered when would i resign. Indeed,the day came today. I had always guessed that i will feel some emotion while putting my paper. However, the new SAP HRMS is so quick that it just takes three clicks to raise a separation request. IBM has really made the resignation process simple leaving no room for emotions. Now that i have resigned,I have already started counting my days at IBM now. In fact, i am lucky that my team lead was supportive and has not press for the mandatory two month notice period. The only thing I hope that i have a smooth exit from IBM.

Well, my good friend Shashi Shekhar wanted me to write an article for his college magazine on Sustainability and Green Initiatives. After procrastinating for 2 weeks, i finally had to concede to his request. I decided to write the article in a case format. So here I paste the contents. What is the one of the questions that is one the top priority of all executives across the globe apart from the economic scenario? According to a recent ‘Top of the Mind’ study by ‘The Consumer Goods Forum’, sustainability and corporate social responsibility feature amongst the top three priorities of the consumer goods industry. A similar finding is resonated in the IBM Institute for Business Value study. Many of us would be thinking why companies and businesses are thinking about Green Initiatives, when they should be focusing their energies on growth and other strategic issues. Energy and water efficiency not only helps the planet, but also saves on bills. The technology employed to optimize logisti

Last week I visited Lord Venkateshwara Temple at Tirumala. It was a good trip and by the grace of the Lord,we had a very quick darshan. It just took us one and a half hours for the darshan. I was impressed by the overall management and cleanliness of the temple, given the fact that thousands of devotees throng to the temple every day to seek the blessings of the Lord. At the temple thousands of devotees contribute to the 'Hundi'. The legend goes that Lord Venkateshwara borrowed a huge amount of money from Kuber to finance his wedding to Princess Padmawati. It is said that the amount was so large that the Lord is supposedly still paying off the debt and the interest on the loan. The contributions to the 'Hundi' are supposed to go towards paying off the debt and people contribute to the Lord by offering whatever they can. It is said that the contributions go towards the payment of the Lord’s debt . Interestingly, I think that such legends have shaped the lending and borro

Watch out the tips on career from Shumeet Banerjee . Shumeet is an alumnus of St. Stephens and FMS Delhi. He did his Phd from Kellogg School of Management. Before joining Booz he taught at the Chicago Booth School.