A Tribute to the Operations Maestros of the Batch of 2011, SIBM Pune

I, am Operations.

I have seen 3 batches of students pursuing their MBAs in studying various aspects about me from SIBM Pune and this is the 4th (pun intended). It would definitely not be wrong on my part to say that this is the best bunch of people to have ever adorned the tag of Opscians

I can vividly remember 3rd August 2009 when 25 people from different educational and professional backgrounds gathered in X101 to join hands for the next two years. With a good mix of freshers as well as people with good work experience (across diverse sectors), engineers and non-engineers, this batch was all set to embark on a rocking journey.

There were Guri, Shreyas, Zoozoo, Antoz, Kedar and Tudu who handled the mantle of responsibilities of the class CR with utmost sincerity and dedication. Budhwar was the Lone Wolf, the undisputed topper of the batch. Sunainaand Rakhee ensured that the population of the fairer sex was the best ever in the history of Ops, growing by a good 100% over the previous year. Jain Saab was undoubtedly the most knowledgeable person in the class. Hailey was an expert faffer and Nitin was the one who always finished first (in the exams). Grover was the first to get a PPO in the class and Gaurav Jain was the man for Jugaad & Gossip. Then there were the Chor Brothers (Kunal & Vivek), both of whom had made us proud in sporting activities. Our very own Rajat, who was known for his love for ABN Amro Bank. There was Anirbond, who along with Cheti and Kunal filled in for the Senior Citizen post of the class. Chawla, our very own friend from Purdue gave an international flavor to the class. Milind, Kaushal and Ankur were eternal meditators in class. Chandran & Anubhav were the visiting students.

Known for their solidarity and compassion, camaraderie and bonhomie THIS batch is, without any ambiguity, the batch with the closest bonding on the campus. They are the only people who have had the privilege to go on Educational Tours to industries fully sponsored by the Institute.

After two years, as this fun filled yet focused, enjoyable yet disciplined journey comes to an end, I hope everyone leaves this place with all their wishes, personal and professional, fulfilled. I am glad and consider myself fortunate, that each of these 25 most amazing people will adorn MY tag for the rest of their life. I am sure they will miss each other as I am sure to. I also hope that they stay connected and as closely bonded as they are all today and end up being successful in their chosen paths of life.

Over the Decade

A new decade has started. An old decade ended. Someone was right when he said “Every beginning has an end, and every end is a new beginning”. This New Year’s eve, I sat back and pondered over the major happenings of the decade. As I was at home, I couldn’t stop looking at things from the perspective of how they have changed in Udupi. I am sure the story would be similar for most other towns of India. I would not be looking at one time events, but try to list out gradual changes that have taken place over the decade.

1. Cellphone revolution

200X has marked the decade when the pagers have become obsolescent. People, who used to boast of having pagers for communication, have had to quickly switch over to mobile phones. The Doctor community was the most affected. The tower of the Motorola pager and the office still exists where it did, but I am not sure whether at all it is used for anything.

Everyone today has atleast one mobile. The upper cut off varies. Prominent among multiple mobile users are the school and college going students who make extensive use of the free messaging and free incoming calls facilities offered in the Students’ Plan by most telecom operators.

2. The entry of Big Bazaar

Big Bazaar made its entry into a town as small as Udupi as well. And believe me, when that happened, it was a sight to watch. In the initial months, it would not be wrong if I say, more people visited BB than the Sri Krishna Temple, which is a tourist destination. People from all nearby villages flooded to see and feel the escalators, the automatic doors, the bar code scanners and automatic billings and so on. Till then, the maximum that people of Udupi had perhaps seen was an Airody or a Little Pai superstore. But BB was a totally new thing for them. Whether this rush has turned into good sales and whether BB is profitable, I do not know for sure.

3. Improvements in roads and traffic infrastructure

Metallic roads have replaced the tar roads in almost all the major roads in and around Udupi. With this, the usual troubles during rains, accumulation of dust and water, eventually leading to diseases have reduced. Metallic concrete roads also mean lower maintenance. Overall, perhaps the best thing to have happened.

Roads have also widened in most parts of the town. Most of the bottlenecks have now cleared leading to free flowing traffic in the town and savings in time for the citizens.

Traffic signals have come up, though they blink amber most of the times. Traffic density is perhaps not all that strong to warrant traffic signals at this point of time. There was an attempt made in the 90s also to enforce them. But when the city isn’t ready for it, really doesn’t make sense. Maybe the administration is being way too proactive in this case.

4. Up gradations in Public Transport

Unlike most other places, the city buses in the city are not state run. Private operators run the city buses and increasing number of players in the market has led to a healthy competition. New buses have been added in a lot of routes that were hardly known earlier. Buses plying within city limits now bear numbers based on the routes and the destinations. This has made identification easily. Crowded places have different platforms also.

Auto rickshaws have also moved almost entirely from I don’t know what make they were earlier, to the much more comfortable Rear Engine Bajaj make and now more recently to TVS makes. Fare meters have been made mandatory on all the auto rickshaws and this has drastically reduced cheating by a large extent. However, the Govt. has perhaps done its part. Now it’s the citizens’ responsibility to ensure implementation of the same by insisting that they pay only by the meter.

5. Advent of the Satellite TV

Doordarshan has literally been replaced by Satellite Television by Private Cable operators and now by the likes of Tata Sky, Airtel Digital TV, Dish TV et al. Life has indeed come a full circle for the cable operators, who once had a monopoly in a market saturated with Doordarshan.

6. Functioning of Business Establishments

Sundays always used to be a very dull day in the city. Except for restaurants and health care establishments, no other commercial unit used to operate on Sundays. I remember seeing people play games like cricket and badminton on the roads without any fear. Not anymore. Though not all shops open on Sundays, the fraction of the shops that remain open on Sundays has drastically gone up. These days you can find a lot of other shops also being open for business on Sundays.

7. Awareness towards higher education

More and more people have realized the importance of professional education and are moving outside Udupi for their graduation. The number of Post Graduates from the place has also grown up drastically and the number of people going abroad for studies / job prospects has also grown up. This can been seen by the long queues outside the Post Offices for getting the Passport applications reviewed, as post offices also do not have much to do with the advent of the Internet.

8. Ownership of vehicles

A humble farmer or a trader who used to travel miles together on his old and rusty, trustworthy mate, a bicycle has now graduated to a Moped or even an ungeared scooterette/scooter. And what more, the frequency of replacing it has also gone down greatly. Earlier, he would not have replaced his bicycle for atleast 10 years. Today in the same 10 year gap, he would have owned atleast 2-3 new two wheelers.

Four wheelers also have gone on the up. 3 out of 5 houses (statistically I may be wrong), perhaps have a 4 wheeler now. This can be seen by the sheer number of vehicles on the road or the number of vehicles getting registered monthly. Another proof for this is the number of 4 wheeler Dealerships that have come up in Udupi. Maruti and Tata have set up Main dealerships, Hyundai is in the process of one. All other major 4 wheeler manufacturers have atleast a sub dealership in the place now.

9. Buildings & more buildings

Another major change that can be seen in the city is the number of buildings that have come up. In the initial days, buildings were solely restricted for commercial units and business establishments. Shopping centers and arcades were the first ones to make way. Residences were almost always independent houses or villas with maximum one floor. However, now things are slowly changing with lots of apartments coming up in the town. People have also changed their living styles accordingly.

10. THE Internet

This has without doubt been a revolution of the decade. It has made information and communication more accessible to almost everyone for their various day to day uses. Initial part of the decade was characterized by the mushrooming of Cyber Cafes and Browsing Centers at every intersection in the town. There used to be long queues and often the waiting times ran into hours. The charges used to be as high as Rs 80 per hr for an AC parlour with separate cabins for privacy to as low as Rs 40 per hr for an ordinary set up. And people were willing to pay that much

Today, with the advent of Broadband, and again the intense competition in the market, the common man has benefitted. Internet is available in almost all the households, again used for various purposes like education, games, chatting with a son or a daughter staying abroad, business, share markets et al. Cyber cafes have almost disappeared, and those that do exist, do not work solely on that business for survival.

So effectively over the years, the place has seen a great shift from being well known only for Sri Krishna, the annual Janmashtami festival and the bi annual Paryaya festival.

Never Give Up!!

It was very heartening to see the World No.1 Indian test side bouncing back from the bottom and squaring the ongoing series against hosts South Africa. After the humiliating innings loss at Centurion in the first test, where the only positive was perhaps Sachin Tendulkar’s 50^th Test century (Yes, I really doubt if people are aware that Rahul Dravid becoming only the third player in Test History to cross the milestone of 12000 runs in the same match); after India lost the toss in Kingsmead Durban; with injuries grappling the team at the critical moments, it was very easy to write the Indians off.

But that was not to be the case. In what I had suspected and what could have very well been the shortest test match played ever, Indians emerged victorious by 87 runs. Being bowled out for a little above 200 in the first innings, and bowling to a strong South African batting line up which had amassed 600 plus runs in the first match losing only 4 wickets, it was easy to give up. But that was not to be. Hardly did anyone believe that the same batting line up will crumple for 131 runs in the first innings. Disciplined bowling aided by apt support from the fielders helped Indians restrict the mighty South Africans.

The second innings was studded with one and only one diamond and that was VVS Laxman. What a man, what an innings. I am just curious to know how many matches this man has won for India and how many matches he has saved for India. It would be really great if someone can compile and compare what percentage of his total Test runs have come in innings which have been of some consequence to the Indian team (either winning the match or helping salvage a draw from the jaws of defeat) vis-à-vis that for other “great” batsmen India has seen.

The bowlers delivered the final punch and it was heartening to see the quickies make good use of the conditions. The best dismissal of the day according to me was of Kallis unable to read a quicker short ball, something which has traditionally been our weakness. Zaheer setting up Steyn’s dismissal was also heartening to see. Of course, there were some umpiring errors too which fortunately favored us, but let us not take the credit away from the bowlers and their disciplined effort. Whatever it is, a test match is always won by bowlers. You need to get 20 wickets in order to emerge victorious.

Over the years, it has been great to see this Indian team evolve as a thinking unit. A great part of this transformation should go to captain Dhoni and coach Kirsten. I can vividly remember Dhoni demonstrating similar tactics during the finals of IPL 3 last May to get rid of Kieron Pollard which had locked the doors for Mumbai Indians.

In another venue Melbourne, on the same Boxing Day however, the much hyped Australian team took on the in-form England. Again, on a test match battled over just three and a half days, it was England written all over the match right from the word go. What was missing, from the once invincible Australian team perhaps, was the commitment and the will power. After being bowled out for 98 in the first innings and after failing to take any English wicket on the first day, it seemed as if they just gave up. This is in stark contrast to the reaction that the Indian team gave in much a similar situation.

It is indeed great for the Indians to finish the year with a bang. Let us hope that they take the momentum forward into the World Cup and into the coming year where as a friend pointed out, much stronger challenges like the tours of England and Australia lie ahead.

Commonwealth Games - All the best

As I write this, the inauguration ceremony of the XIX Commonwealth Games starts off in Delhi. I can only hope that everything goes on well for the next 12 days. Looking at the controversies that have marred the Games over the last few months, the entire episode is expected to be a rocky affair. The entire world has its eyes on Delhi, thanks to the publicity given to the happenings by the media. What remains to be seen is how things will be executed over the next two weeks.

The Games, being held in India for the first time in history, has given us an opportunity to showcase our strengths as an upcoming superpower of the world. As a developing nation, with an economy growing sustainably over the last few days, the success of the games will lead to a lot of significant decisions being made in the international circles over the next few months. If we are able to pull off the games successfully, we can expect a rise in foreign investments in the country over the next few years, a rise in employment levels which can in turn lead to a rise in the standard of living of the people of the country.

So much of hue and cry has been raised about the misappropriation of funds by the Organizing Committee. Media started putting it up on the world scene and what was known about the Indian system about corruption only to us, was made known to the entire world. What would have otherwise simply passed on as just another event, has now caught the attention of the whole world. I am in no way trying to appreciate the actions of the OC. I agree that the media had to play a role in making getting these things to the attention of the people. But in doing so, and in the competitive world that everyone is playing today, they perhaps failed to realize that their actions could make more harm to the reputation of the country.

What happened? As and when participants started arriving, the Games Village and infrastructure provided became the central point of attraction. The media still had not learnt the lessons. They again started broadcasting the poor conditions at the village and perhaps made things look much worse than they actually were. Again, I am in no way supporting the poor construction done and the collapse of an overbridge outside one of the venues. The result? A lot of athletes and well known participants pulled out of the event, which obviously doesn’t augur well for the country.

What was shown was probably the bottom 5% of the whole work in terms of quality. How many newspapers have shown photographs of the fantastic infrastructure that has been laid in place in different parts of Delhi for the Games? How many news channels have telecasted the good thing about the Games? How many media houses have actually brought the positive comments of athletes about the Games Village, especially in comparison with the Beijing Olympics to the public’s notice? Why do we always attack the negative side of things and fail to appreciate the positives? Till I received a mail, which had photographs of the other side of the story, even I was ignorant.

There was another group of people who were totally opposing the conducting of games in the country. They say that the same amount if spent on people and the poor, would have led to different results. What these people fail to realize is that these games have actually done a lot more to the infrastructure of Delhi, which otherwise would not have been possible. Flyovers, underpasses, grade separators, multilevel parking lots, drainage systems and lot more. This would help in decongestion of traffic on the roads of Delhi for the years to come. This would have led to the displacement of a lot of people from the centre of the city. But this was bound to happen sooner than later. So it’s rather good that it happened today.

Opposing the games on the ground of poverty in the country is actually stupid considering the fact that the very games would in turn bring in investments which would perhaps help us get rid of the same poverty. In fact, not many would have forgotten the intense lobbying done by Tony Blair and Jaques Chiraq for successfully bidding to conduct the Olympics in 2012, which London successfully won. When developed countries can go to such an extent, one can understand what exactly is at stake.

Another issue is the mountain made of a mole hill of the comment by the OC Secretary about the difference in standards of hygiene between foreign countries and in India. But hey, wait!! Isn’t that true? What is the condition of toilets in our Govt. offices, airports, railway stations and bus terminals? Again, that is not any excuse to any shoddy work done in any case. But who are these people to raise fingers against that when the pride of the nation is held at ransom?

For all that we know, the Games may just end without any major hurdles. It might just be one of the most successful sporting events India has ever hosted. Pray that nothing serious happens in the next 12 days and we all stand up in pride, as citizens of a proud nation. But let us not forget what happened in the background. The guilty need to be punished. And proper steps need to be taken to ensure that such things are not repeated in the future. But on the other end, the media also needs to know where to draw a line. There is a fine line of difference between being the first to report and holding national pride at stake.

Signing off with the hope and prayers that the games would be a grand success.