X League

Well, this is not a new football league launched by FIFA or AIFF. As a part of our marketing project, we are conducting a survey to understand the awareness about the football in our target market. We have created a survey which would help us to gauge the awareness quotient.

Please click here for survey.

It wont take you more than 5 minutes.

Thanks in advance for your time. Your inputs are very crucial for the success of the project!

I will soon update the blog with the details about this project and X-League in general. Keep watching this space for more action!

8.33% MBA done

It’s been one month since I landed at XLRI. How do I feel? Well, to be honest, first week was hell. I (and almost everyone) felt why the hell MBA? Wasn't working on client requirements in air conditioned cubicle easy than sitting in Ethics/human behavior classes? But now that feeling is no more. May be I am used to these things now.

If you ask me, what different I have done in last one month than I did in recent past at work? I would say nothing significant. Still I sleep for around 6-7 hours (excluding sleep in classrooms). I have watched around 10 movies in last one month, played more TT than I used to, went to restaurant almost every weekend. Hmm, but I have started going to Gym once again, have started playing Tennis, studied subjects different than software related ones, started writing blog again and most importantly got rid of my hydrophobia.

I agree this life isn't certainly so called "MBA life" but I am sure it will become one soon with quizzes and term exams knocking doors.

So what is my plan for next 11 months?
1. Do at least one different thing that will put me in altogether different league.
2. Maintain above average grades in all subjects
3. Expand professional network
4. Start trading using derivatives (mainly short term trading)
5. Reduce weight
6. Swimming
7. Watch all IMDB top 250 movies
8. Most importantly, as harsha bhogle said at IIMA, develop attitude to achieve excellence through giving 100% in whatever I do.

Well, this is minimum (common) program I would say. I am sure that above list will change at every milestone, but I hope to do at least 70% of the things listed above.

You have a job to do, let me know your opinions on my plan and feel free to comment on anything. I will be more than happy to change my plan.

Merci beacoup! À bientôt!

Last few days have been really hectic for me. Two back to back movies, one 3 day adventure program, two quizzes, and one expected but not conducted quiz, this was my last week!

First thing first, Thursday night I saw Aamir. I must say it is a fantastic movie. It leaves impact on you not because it is fast or is different from "love" or "action" movies, but you think that you can be in position of aamir some day. I would strongly recommend it. A cup of coffee and then I saw Black Friday. Another must see movie. Watch it if you get time.

An outbound adventure program (organized by TSAF: TATA Steel adventure Foundation) was scheduled on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It was one of the best things I did in recent times. Obstacle race (crawling, walking on rope, monkey rope, Tarzan rope etc.), rock climbing, rappelling, caving, chimney climbing were the few activities we did in an area which was absolutely jungle. It’s fun when you have to set up your own tents, your day starts at 5 am and you have lots mosquitoes to accompany you when you go to sleep.
Third day was fantastic. We went to Dimna dam for water sports. We were divided in groups of 6-7 people. We drove our raft in the middle of dam and just with life jacket, I was thrown into water. Trust me it’s not fun when you have hydrophobia. But then I started enjoying. Now I regret I should have learned to swim quite early. Nevertheless I would do so now.
I will upload photos of adventure program soon.

Apart from that we had 2 quizzes viz. accounting and Marketing. And then there was rumor of Economics quiz. Now I think mostly it will be on Monday. This weekend another batch is going on adventure program, so I have free time. Quant quiz, Marketing project and economics assignment and couple of movies are just few things that are in line, but I am going to update my blog frequently henceforth.

Before I log off, here is one question for which I couldn't get satisfying answer - Subject is accounting. See if you can help me.

In balance sheet, we show assets at book value (original - depreciation). And we call balance sheet is the document that indicates financial health of an organization. Is it then really true? A firm like TATA might have bought a building in Fort area of Mumbai for couple of thousand rupees and today it will be worth of many crores. So when TATA shows the value of building in terms of book value (may be in thousands), isn't it underestimating its financial health?

I got following two answers for this:-
1. Doctrine of conservatism tells you to underestimate assets
2. If you show assets at market value, you will have to show profit in your Profit and loss account and ultimately pay tax on that. No company wants to pay tax on income which is not even generated.

I accept both of the answers, but still it does not answer my question, does really balance sheet indicate financial health of company?

You may find the question very stupid and I don’t give a damn if you find so. If you have some convincing answer, leave a comment here or reply on my email: niraj.thegreat@gmail.com

You must have noticed that previous post dates back to December 13, 2005. And then you might ask why did I stop blogging after that wonderful :-) post? Well, it is not that I stopped, it is just that I have deleted all of other posts, just because they were "irrelevant" :)


I am going to start blogging once again, right from XLRI campus. You can expect all kinds of weird things here, so get ready for fun/gyaan/everything unexpected, mostly about Bschool life.


You are most welcome to comment on anything you like, love, hate or anything.


Here is campus of XLRI. Enjoy!

http://picasaweb.google.com/niraj.thegreat/XLRICampus02/photo#5218713944521918898

Neal n Nikki

Well, it happens only in movies, books or in case of friend’s friend…it never happened to me…

Hold on, I am not going to dissipate any gyan about any software or share market or all time hot topic of CAT…

It was Friday evening and I was bored with 19 compilation errors that came unexpectedly in a 8 liner simple program which took not more than whole 60 odd minutes to locate and 6 odd minutes to fix it!!!! Friday night and movie is a obvious choice for a crap worker….but there are many evils as always created by fellow software engineers of hinjewadi or studious pals of FC road…..

It was very unlikely that I will get any ticket even for “taj mahal”…but u never know…what can happen??....my friend got tickets for a movie in E-square…”Neal n Nikki” ..

As always, I reached E-square half an hour before just to locate any good looking (need not be brained) females….and yes, there were many typically E-square types…which one hardly bothers to look at…11.05 ..I entered theatre and it took not more than 90 seconds to locate my seat…last row ..3 rd seat from right corner….well, did I say anything interesting? Yes, seat just besides corner seat(s)….i just prayed in a fraction of seconds ..send any good(smart ppl will read this as babe) looking girl….however dumb she might be…and of course, it is 99.99% guaranteed that a girl watching a show at 11.10 at E-square has to be dumb…and to my wonder it happened..

A beautiful (and equally dumb..this I could infer because she sat besides me instead of far end seat, on the other side of which there was no seat and on one side it was her only(?) boyfriend) girl came walked in..

Well, my favourite ad was going on…Vicco Turmeric …the ad which if I see..i think I have recovered at least 10% of the money I put for movie tickets…then it was followed by some trailors of English movies..then of 'Ek Ajanabee'....from where I could infer amitabh is the only hero in this movie..and certainly this movie isn’t for masses as trailor didn’t show any item song or for that matter any heroine..

Movie started…An ugliest looking creature (titles called him as Uday chopra) and a equally hot female (Tanishka mukherjee) appeared on screen before I could guess what can happen on corner seats. Nothing spectacular was going on – on screen – except for good roads of Canada, hot females roaming on road and beaches and most importantly indifferent attitude of guys there…these things would have been more than enough for any Indian unmarried guy to get excited..but constant bombardment of emraan hashmi films and similar showcase of female anatomy in films has made Indian male youth insensitive towards such things to an extent…

Our hero (trust me --very difficult to recognize with his dark reddish lip sticks) and heroine were not loving each other when they met. Neal’s aim was to find out any hot chick (to be precise one per day) in last 21 days of his bachelorhood…(and what he was going to do with these chicks..only he or director must be knowing…looking at his far far resemblance to male gender)..and nikki our heroine – was there to take revenge from her ex-boyfriend…so they are moving in Canada…mutual help…you know…great lesson from our great bollywood…

Useless dialogues, unnecessary showcasing by nikki and constant attempt of proving to be from male community by neal, made me to loose my patience …until what limit one could digest which one cant understand…and I surrendered before interval…but as I had already spent 100 bucks for watching “great love” …I decided not to move out of theatre…

Well, to my surprise surrounding people were watching movie patiently..or tolerating it…well how do I know this? I looked around…ahhhhhaaa…beautiful girl on my right side was in the arms of her so called boyfriend…and they were constantly talking in low tone …

Man!!! This is height I mean…I tell you frankly there is no fun in watching it…in fact it is frustrating…I had paid 100 bucks for the movie and these people were disturbing …anyways I thought why to disturb others…and I tried to watch movie again..I tell you I could concentrate only next 15 mins or so…nikki’s clothes were reducing in an exponential manner and so was stupidness of neal…I just wanted to go out of hall (locating and fixing compilation errors was a better option..I felt) ..but couple besides me was not allowing me to go…I mean they just ordered my mind to sit back and watch..what?? movie or them? Don’t know…

Neal and nikki’s idiotic actions were growing and the most common action of today’s hindi movie..a kiss…it just happened on screen…whatever frequent phenomenon it might be on bolllywood screen..but we Indians are not matured enough to ignore it…and I am no exception…it was the only fun time in movie ..in just 10 seconds I felt like that I have recovered some 50 Rupees or so…but when you have bad time …good time or silver linings as arts guys call it ..last no longer…

Couple besides me got inspired by neal n nikki and started kissing….this was real frustrating..now don’t ask why? This is a common frustration of not being in act…and it was not only me who was getting frustrated…many around me were feeling the same…20 seconds passed and still there was no sign of getting abated…suddenly a middle aged uncle’s (who was there to watch movie with his wife and kids) volcano erupted ..and he shouted looking at couple..will you please stop? We are here to watch movie…we all were stunned…I mean yes, everyone was getting disturbed, but why to ask anyone to stop doing anything…after 5 seconds of shock we looked back at screen and to our dismay..neal n nikki got married..in next 3 seconds …THE END appeared on screen…

Needless to say, it was the most memorable movie time in my life….Neal n nikki..you are great….

(This is work of fiction...)