Arbit Scratchpad

Phew! The last two days went by like a storm. Demand - supply curves, balance sheets with assets and liabilities and SWOT analysis related to case studies including one on Robin Hood's predicament kept me busy these last two days @ IIMB along with a biz domain Fun Day celebration – an evening full of fun @ office which I co-hosted (master of ceremonies) along with a colleague. Awesome fun it was on Friday with the evening @ Radiant Resorts off Banerghatta Road – we conducted several contests, karaoke rounds, individual talent rounds including singing, skits, a superb group dance performance and much more! It ended with a dinner and an open dance floor which left everyone exhausted by the end of the day. Ended up winning the funkiest dress (thanks to a colourful kurta) and the best singer awards (thanks to the romantic number 'Kehna Hai' by Kishore da from the movie Padosan). Addressing a few members, say ten is boring, whereas chatting or conversing with a single pe...

Well what if you underwent an orientation camp for two full days in an institute - wouldn't it be rather tiring as also energy sapping? It was exactly the opposite this last week when I was inside the IIM Bangalore campus attending the three night, two day orientation camp for the PGSEM Batch of 2008. I am in awe after getting a feel of what a fine institution can be like. Never before have I had an experience quite like what awaited me as I entered the hallowed portals of this elite institution, which was setup in 1973. As cliched as it may sound you got to experience the same in order to believe it. Actually last Friday (30 th May 2008) the IIMB PGSEM (2.5 year part-time programme which I joined ) was having their summer event called L-CUBE (Leadership, Learning and Leisure). It started off with the aptly chosen words of Saint Iqbal: A grand vision, beautiful speech and a compassionate soul are the true characteristics of a caravan leader . This was followed by the inaugural ...

Rabidbrain, Glumchum, Bottleneck and Hohum. Sitting over a bottle of orange rum, Checking pockets for rupees, some. Sweetie swine, friend of mine; Blabbers Neitzsche and explains Einstein. Joining in on RocketScience and BellyDaince; Who can lecture on anything from Relativity to Psycho Conscience. Glimmerick, FattyChick, Two of them who are always sick, MonsterMani and Always Funny. Call out for some extra dose of Nimbu Paani. SubhoRat Ri and Namastewaali; Talk of Hemingway's vices, of Picasso's folly, Eclectic ViolinVaasu and Erudite Jhaptaali! Argue on Mozart, Ravishankar and fight over Salvador Dali. Over uber intellectual talk they dine. Reunion done, feeling sleepy and having gorged on Meat of a sheep or perhaps a porcupine? Raise a last cheers, break and move on. Back then at the college campus, Among enlightening adda and general ruckus. With coffee, tea and half-cooked snacks; life was fine. For professors, study and exams the mind will always pine. Ah! College Campus ...

I managed to watch a very good bengali play titled 'Daibaddha' at Ranga Shankara yesterday; which was accompanied by some very good acting by members of the theatre group 'Sayak' from Kolkata. It was an intense experience with a not very complex, but emotionally charged story that chips away at the rigid dimensions of the society that we live in today. More here: Daibaddha - SYNOPSIS Lately I have been losing interest in reading; which has been my favourite pastime. Having started reading several books I seem to be lacking both the energy and the interest to plough through them at this juncture – not sure if there is something like a reader's block akin to writer's block (which is also something I feel I am in the grips of ) – or perhaps 'book fatigue' – which apparently has set in for a while now. Among the ones in the 'Currently Reading List' for more than a few months now, none of which I have completed yet, are: 'The Tin Drum' by Gun...

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The Exponential Wish Granting Ring “One ring for the absolute luckiest one, once worn shall it not be taken off” – Ancient wisdom. Her father would often lament, “Those days are gone. Back then values counted more than wealth, nature was a constant companion and the human touch was visible everywhere”. She didn’t know what was so great about all those good old days that her father, a government servant kept talking of. Their culture was different, our culture emphasizes the frugality of everything – non-possession, renunciation, poverty and charity as the true virtues, was a constant lesson she had grown up to. However, as if just the opposite she’d picked up an almost constant whim of wanting to possess – just as her well off friends did. Possess this and that, a new toy when a child, a new shoe, that gorgeous handbag when she grew older and now newer toys like the brand new gadget and then that lavish new car. Not that she was always denied, once in a while...

If the movies of Satyajit Ray recreate reality, and portray life's grief brilliantly without a hint of melodrama – those of the idiosyncratic Ritwik Ghatak are filled with vibrant melodrama, disillusionment, trauma and sorrow of everyday life that would squeeze your heart dry and yet, it is as if you wait for that elixir becoming available to the protagonist, that hint of hope present like the shadow, everywhere. You feel the recurring tragedy (most of Ghatak's films have heavy doses of the tragic, or have a strong hint of the same) and wait eagerly for it to melt as if hoping for some light at the end of the tunnel – not exactly in the way good destroys evil in the contemporary fare of movies but more like the myth of the phoenix – the self-effacing protagonist facing and undergoing even enjoying the pain and somehow reviving from it all. Not that any of his movies directly end with a light at the end of the tunnel, but they leave chinks of hope in the patina of absolute darkn...