The madness that is life

I've spent the last two plus months with extended family in town and they continue to be here. Its been exceptionally hard on me (and im sure my wife as well) given that we are so culturally different and htat my mom and her parents are just, well..different. The crazy combination of this nitro-and-glycerine mix along with the restrictions that i personally have to face due to a conservative family is a daunting one. We've had a few unpleasant evenings about this, discussing in our bedroom how we want things to work, each of us with a different perspective and me, feeling terribly unwanted given the language switches and the fact that a certain father-in-law has no room for improvement...its hard on both of us.

Wife's been great this weekend with giving me my space, but I wonder how long this madness will last before it does some permanent damage to our relationship. I'm all for family, hosting and being there for them, or am I? At a junction of your life when you want to take a step back and ponder over what works for you? Is is family values whereby you are forced to deal with people and their eccentricities, or is it yourself, where the madness REALLY begins? As usual, my wandering through life with no real answers.

One thing I do know.. I love her dearly and hate it when shes upset about anything, anything at all. I try very hard to make sure shes happy even if sometimes its a little bit of an inconvenience to me, just to see her smile makes it all worth it. In case there's any doubt in your mind, I'm talking about my wife, so don't let your mind fall into the gutter. This ones for us, to see us through the good times, those grey moments and those especially dark ones involving family, this ones for us sticking it out in the long run and making it work as a team.

deal of the century perhaps

Wanna Save $884,275.01 on an Intel Processor, apparently buy.com thinks so.. ..

George Carlin

Saw it on the news late last night..RIP George Carlin, thank you for making me laugh and think about materialism every time I heard your standup act...

The bucket list

Wife wasnt doing well this week, so we've been renting movies @ home. Just saw "The bucket list" as it was released on DVD today, what a super movie. Reminded me of a certain someone who passed away with cancer, and how he was robbed of his opportunity to make his bucket list.

Here's my 5 minute bucket list (i suppose this will keep growing as I think things through):

• Skydive Once -- This scares the crap out of me (acrophobia)
• Take a trip to Italy (Rome, Tuscany) with my wife, she's always wanted to do this and I derive a lot of my happiness from here
• Help pay for my neices education (perhaps leave her some money to help do this)
• Drive a nascar / F1 car on the track (need for speed!)
• Participate in a life changing activity (by this I mean community service, helping provide vocational guidance to poor kids/families)
• Hit a pub in England, have a pint of some real bitter and some english pub food
• Go to a English Premier League football game
• Meet Sachin Tendulkar (even if it is to just shake hands and say "Hey, I'm awestruck by your ability in the game")
• Watch the Philadelphia Eagles win one Superbowl (well even if im not around to see it, it will be worth hearing the news) -- Update: even if i'm not around, put some flowers on my grave and a picture of swoop / the vince lombardi trophy.. it will make me smile wherever i am :)
  

Graduation Ad in the WSJ Paper

The university finally put the ad out, here goes:

A myth called reality, shadows that hide the face,
mine, is but another one, no differentiator.
Hiding behind that glass, what you see is not always what you get
unless you are that inner circle, i'm watching out, for that inner circle

Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman

Wow what a weekend. Drove up with my wife to cornell to attend the graduation ceremony. Finally done with two years of anguish going thru my MBA. It was so worth it. Photo below with some good friends and their families.

The Light at the end of the tunnel

i'm now faced with a new problem.. i need something to worry about because the last two years of my life have been a partial living hell between the MBA, Work and everything important in life..

P is happy im finally done and frankly so am i. i now have the ability to not be distracted in conversations with her anymore wondering about what paper i have due next...and i promise to make it up to her for being such a great pillar of support while i faced some trying times....

Done with the MBA

Saturday was the final day doing our private equity presentations. Was too tired to deal with much of any drinking when we were done. Ended up on the rented bus that rode us down to NYC. Started off at a pub called Kanvas and it was kinda empty. At this point Joe suggested that we head down to Copper Chimney for an Indian dinner and some Taj Mahal beers. Best suggestion ever. Returned from dinner to meet Martin @ the Cookhouse. Martin and I (with the rest of the school gang) ended up at a club called Lotus. very nice place but way overcrowded for my suburban ass.

all in all, im glad im done. its been two brutal years and my wife has been more than understanding letting me get away with it..thanks babe

End of the MBA ?

the program has almost ended. we have one more weekend session to go and we're home free. of course this is going to be difficult as its the private equity project and requires a huge write-up. that said, our management simulation ended and the professor sent out some thoughts about running a company. thought i'd share with the readers (???)

• Danger of group think – need to think “out of the box” (seek “diversity” – break “Not Invented Here” syndrome) – someone needs to challenge the “status quo” with respect to strategy and tactics

• Note the shifting that occurred in your team discussions over time of energies and focus from “us” to “them” and how them affects our in-place strategy (dynamic strategizing)

• Power of keyboard control – you need to be concerned and work on sharing the sense of control with co-managers

• Importance of recognizing small victories in difficult times (e.g. – getting to positive cash flows from operations, positive operating income, etc)

• You don’t have to “kill” the competition – if you do a good job creating and executing a fundamental strategy (with dynamic adjustments), the competition will fall by the wayside (or at least have limited success). Years ago the Boston Consulting Group introduced the notion that only 2-3 firms can compete over the long run in a given market. While the definition of market is crucial to this concept, it is widely believed to be operative. Jack Welch lived by it.

• Importance of taking calculated risk – winners take risks – but don’t bet the firm unless there is no viable alternative. If the equity is effectively gone, management might as well make negative expected NPV bets as long as they can get their hands on other people’s money. This is why most loans have restrictive covenants – constraints that keep such agency issues at bay.

• You can make good money in mature markets – being new doesn’t always equate to best profit opportunity. One of the best firms was solely in "PROD-X" at the end.

• Economies of scale in R&D – getting the most bang (volume) for your buck (spent dollars that produce saleable products in many markets). Especially in Y and Z, which took large R&D investments each year to remain competitive, being able to sell those products in the EAST, WEST and EC spread those R&D costs over greater volume – making it easier to compete on price as well as quality.

the past week

wow what a week.. between the crisis at work, trip and promo presentation to the partners in boston, catching up with E out there, the return to NYC, boys night out in NYC and finally back into class -- im exhausted.

its sad to know that a lot of people from class will turn into strangers soon, and some will continue to stay close to me. i guess that as i have started to know people better, i've liked them less for their attitudes, behavior and generally lack of any forseeable commonalities in friendship that we may have.

back to boston: nervous as heck while practising my presentation in front of the mirror, but it eventually went well. managed to get some feedback from my mentor and it suggested that things were okay, im happy.. im not the best presenter, but i think the practising helped me this time. it pays to know every slide on your deck!

the evening was equally good, met up with E at the Oak bar inside of the Fairmont Copley and then on to Cleary's for dinner/sandwiches. what a fun evening, even Juan (an old colleague who has since quit the firm) managed to join us for the first part of the evening.

and now.. back in class, its 4.10 pm and im worn out; the team wants to drink tonight but i dont have it in me, im too tired!!!!!

Monday Night Assurances

I'm on a cornell conference call for Branding. Our choice of brands is for Palm Treo, and its a very nice conversation. I'm impressed with my team GGQ, Vinod, Ranjan, Joe, Selom and Mahesh. Good arguments, good content but no real direction.. :)

As for work: tiring day prepping for the leadership meetings. a colleague had a baby last week and he's real cute (the baby not the colleague). amazing how vulnerable they are and how much love and care they need.

Back to the topic of School: I can't go on, its the longest yard. yeah i know, im whining and we're 9 weeks away from graduation, we'll get through this.

In the AM

4.16 am and im starting to wonder if i need to switch jobs. the work has gotten way too hectic for me, and they certainly don't pay me enough to do this anymore. had a great evening with my wife, making mexican food...now to replicate this when our friends visit today.

hoping that today is just ho-hum at work and not too intense, 8 am meetings or what we call the "huddle"..that term is catching up on the team and everyone seems to misuse it. I suppose misuse is also a form of adoption so i should be proud.

Tonight

had a glass of wine today and am sitting at home with my wife. we've made some dimsums and are enjoying our alcohol .. gosh that sounds so bad.. its actually Paneroz Jumilla spanish wine..saw it at the store in Marlton NJ and was rated a 90% by Wine Spectator.

Its been a long day and i'm happy to be home with someone i really care about; work hasnt helped with the large conflict and lack of direction from our so-called leader, but, hes a good guy and means well, so life goes on.

As we move into a new phase of this client project, i'm wondering how i am going to keep up with school (branding, financial markets and private equity) and the testing scenarios that are going on at work. ive slowed down on the alcohol (yeah i know i started this post with a reference to a glass of wine i was currently sipping -- so put a lid on it already!).

Signing off right now, its a nice day, 60 degree outside...maybe we'll go for a walk around 10 pm, after all, its rare (keep fingers crossed about global warming) that we get days like this in the dead of winter....

2008 Begins

Ok, so its a little late to title it that way. Just got done with first on-campus week @ Cornell and its a pleasure to get that over with. The whole class was down with flu and bronchitis and i think i may be the next victim. Already got that sore throat and fever, so lets see where this goes.

Whats happened between december and now? well i grew a balbo-style goatee and only just shaved today after a month. Wife hated it tho, and so did many other folks I knew. Its funny how people said it changed my look... will find some "before and after" pics...

Back to work tomorrow to keep a project on track and a slightly panicky boss, happy....

Back

Been offline for a while and in the meanwhile headed out to Mauritius for a bit, completed the business analysis for a certain university and then finished off my third sem @ Cornell. So far so good.

Was reminiscing on the old days of bandra and realized that Eddy Grant used to be a very popular singer in every maka-pao's heart.. remmeber those saturday afternoons circa 1985-1989 where eddy would blast out on any available stereo?

Here goes:

Tired

Im exhausted. Its been a busy week and its only wednesday. Flew out to Indy and back thru all day meetings monday. Got back home in time to watch the eagles suck like a hoover vaccuum in the fourth quarter and lose.

School work is starting to ramp up BIG TIME. We have a global project item due this week and i will be responsible for gluing all the hard work and research the team has pulled together - I hope not to let them down. Mauritius is looming on the horizon, and i am looking forward to both the team visit as well as having the families visit. I think we will stay at the Villa Latanier. Thanks to you Sly.

80s music again

Listening to some music on youtube, decided to search for some old (well 80s) goodies.. here goes

Noel: Silent Morning


I did think Noel (or Noel Pagan : his real name) was one of the better freestylers of his time (circa 1987) and that led me to check where freestyle has gone....

well, heres Billy Wingrove with Football Freestyle

The weekend

Had some friends over from Virginia. An englisman married to a peruvian / japanese girl. Craig and I have been mates for over 8 yrs now, we met at the job i currently work at (hes since moved on). Had a lovely time with my wife enjoying the company as well, did the whole philadelphia sightseeing, lots of english premier league football... of course bustin on how bad Blackpool was in the Champions league and that they would continue to be relegated...ah, that can piss an englishman off... pics below:

Bharat Rakshak

Was reading up on the Indian army and came across this website I had long ago visited. Very up to date and some great stories of valor and patriotism through the wars of past.

What struck me about this was the one image (which I have copied here, but is owned by the webmaster). The direct link to that image can be found HERE

The slogan of this image applies to every soldier fighting for every free country in the world, including our very own US forces in Iraq.

Lest You Forget Me

When You Go Home, Tell Them Of Us And Say,
For Your Tomorrow, We Gave Our Today.