Marketing world starts...!

Started a new phase in my life...finally out of the software world...!

New job....with new status of married and employed!

The new phase starts in retail/marketing profile in a retail apparel manufacturer!

Can you imagine from software codes to apparrel (i m staggering to spell it only..:) )? However, i think this will be interesting. I have already spent past few days in visiting various malls (as i have been doing since my MBA started..) and my roommate is already cribbing about how i keep dragging him along.

Branded Apparel from some estimate i read last time is around 9000 crore market in india, and each brand is doing a miniscule amount of it given the spate of brands in the market. And given the population advantage, young poulation, increasing incomes...(u must have read it hundred times i guess..), this market is a big opportunity. And truely so, each brand is trying to put up some presence in malls, high streets, tier II, III cities..wherever they can find a manageable rental (thats kinda rare these days...).

However, as marketing bhakt, i always wondedred how cool is FMCG to start a marketing career..but i realize now that apparel market is very tough....given the no of brands ( i heard that it was 28000 on last count in India), and the kind of least u can do in product differentiation....ppl have already tried segmentation - pricewise, genderwise, occassionwise, designbased...agewise...whats left? The kind of retail formats thru which apparel is sold are again umpteen...LFR, MBO, EBO, SIS, MOMPOP, ....And promotions? - buy 2 get 6 free, flat 50 + 20 + 5 + 3.45 + 2.657 % less (what does that mean???), a gillete on 2 trousers, .....again u start doubting am i buying the right stuff...

SO, the big question i am asking these days is that what i will do as a marketing person in apparels?? Whats left?

Lets see....how things move!

Proxy!

This post is a proxy!

The same proxy which respected participants used to practise in the pious corridorrs of an institute...

My life has changed with lots...

1. MBA Over! (Alas!)

2. Life Over....err bachelor life (u can understand...it sounds the same!)

3. New life calls...(joining in june)!

4. No Newsgroups to refresh :(

5. No more vella chai-friends to bakar with..

6. No indori poha :(

7. No MERCURI activities...

8. No Tension (???) - thats another problem

9 No workload :(

10 No late nite maggi-chai-omlette

....

...............

You can understand!

Bored!

~nits

PS - written in the spirit of blogging....however i am happily married :)

Finding 'THE ONE' of your life!

These days, i am being confronted by marriage questions from my family. I am trying to provide them an important reason - My MBA completion, but they consider it only a lame excuse :(

So i tried to find out as to what bloggers say about the question of marriage? Finding that elusive one which is 'The One'. Few years back i read, Richard Back's 'The One' one the same subject, and found it interesting. It talked about multiple time-space combinations competing against each other to execute your lives in different ways. But who is to decide, which one? That is, author says in the hands of the person - he/she has the right and power to choose his/her life whatever way he/she wants! But it requires will-power to actually choose that path. Got it? Huh!

So, what i found on blogs, is an interesting way of understanding 'Finding the One process'! Read on:
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It might help if we understand which elements of marriage are common to many potential husbands, and which are unique to ”the one”.

First, marriage offers economies of scale in production, particularly production of children. Husband and wife can each specialise in different skills, according to their comparative advantage. I fail to see why you cannot realise these economies of scale with almost anyone. Second, there are economies of scale in consumption. One garden will do, so will one kitchen.

For more click here.

********************************

Its really scary & crappy process !!

~nits

2007 - Resolutions

Whether it was projections/vision/targets/benchmarks/...
My mind has really been corrupted by the MBA virus!!

Well after few hours of word-crunching i realized, that new year always had RESOLUTIONS.

So, what this time, as always it never takes too much of a time to write them :)

1. I will read my newspaper everyday :)
2. I will go running down and up-hill everyday ;)
3. I will play TT everyday
4. I will try to learn a new good-thing this year - dont know yet what it will be...may be some musical instrument??
5. I will not waste time in pure timeless banters :)))

& last but not the least ' I will pre-read' ;()

Lets see how it turns out!

Good thing is that.......they came! THANKS!!

Post Type - Personal

This is going to be a senti post :) Have recently visited Mashal, and there was this kid of 12-13 yrs singing ghazals of Ghulam Ali and Jagjit Singh. On a chilly night, with not much in my head going, the ghulam Ali's 'Hum ko kisi ke gham ne maara..' & 'Chupke chupke' highjacked vaccuum of my brain...

Flashback 8 yrs, 1998...i was a simple run-off-the-mill guy with nothing in my repertoire of hobbies/talents. And then it happened. I entered my graduation college of 'SGSITS, Indore'. And things never will be same again...

Ghazal listening happened. Actually, when you get into a state where you need to appreciate the beauty of life and god's creation, then you got to listen to ghazals and thier marvellously written lyrics...and the unique thing is you will find them relevent at different points in your life with different interpretations each time! Soon Jagjit Singh became my life line with ghazals like - 'Pyaar ka pehla khat', 'Jawaani ke heele haya ke bahane' and 'Apne haathon ki lakeeron mein basale mujhko' ruling the roost of my brain and heart...err not heart..it was already!

Repercussions till 2006 >> was called 'Jagjit singh in my infy days', etc.. THANKS!

Then what? Well got into singing....when your heart doesnt stop singing 'positive' songs and you think that these songs/ghazals have been written for me...then...its for sure...your system is 'virus infected'. Thats what happened with me...

Repercussions till 2006 >> now i am one of the so called singers here @ planet I...(though my first performance of 'Ab toh aadat si hai...was huge hit :) and generally seen singing 'national Anthems'). THANKS AGAIN!!

Ok thats fine, didnt get the connection yet....! OK, then this is something pathbreaking...got into poetry! Wrote nearly 100 short poems which circulated every morning to my friends and special ones @ infy. Some ppl liked them...some didnt...some liked only the poems :(

Repercussions till 2006 >> became popular with the 'poet' tag @ infy and people tend to send me thier responses of how thier day went after that poem...it was really good to make a difference to all of them in small manner. Also won one award on poetry.com..THANKS AGAIN nd AGAIN!!!

Convinced...no? Started sketching....and major activity was in my grad days..though sketched some really 'special' ones recently. THANKS again....!!!!

...
....
.....
and the list continues as to how my life changed! Well a nice quote comes to my mind to conclude this post -

'God send some ppl in your lives, to make you learn a few things; to bring the best out of you.....and when thats done....thier purpose is met and they go away!'

Good thing is that...........they came!

THANKS!
~nits
( in full sobriety)

Branded for life??

Some Intra-communication -

The message is clear now: Come out of shit yourself or be labled ' Mediocre for Life'!

Time for Renaissance!!

~nits (thinking Loud)

Somebody has to respond....!

I have recently won second prize in Rural Marketing contest @ IIM-I...
and we did a rocking job.....! But i still am sad??? Why??

Somebody has to respond...!
Somebody has to at least re-route my life...!
Somebody just cannot snap ties just like that...!

Why did somebody...........??

Doing rewind of few things....few poems...which have
become the alcohol of life.....

Introspection

One day, I sat there analyzing hard
The things that happened And those that never;
And then came to the conclusion
“Never give up” motto doesn’t work here, ever.

Then I remembered events That never happened
Then the dialogues That never were spoken,
Nor heard and the Places we never went
And everything else that was never there but
Only Left some inerasable
Marks Deep inside.

Dream and follow them passionately,
I said always never knowing,
How enervating that following might be;
Stop, Stop said the leftovers of
My unproven and baseless faith in somebody,
Only to leave the idea for
A while and pursue it again
After a break.

So I kept following the everlasting
Un-ending search for a destination
Which was never there in my destiny.
And finally one day,
I fell down and all the things,
The dream and the unending journey
Came to a standstill, only the
Sound was left reverberating
In the surroundings:

I Give Up.
I Give Up.
I Give Up.

And I did give up.

~nits
P.S. - I know its bad....but thats what it is.......I am bad, I was bad...I will remain!!

LOVE???

This is a nice piece being picked up from shveta's blog. Goes like this...

"LOVE"
If You Love Someone . . .
If you love some one because you think that he or she is really gorgeous ...
then it's not love..
it's - Infatuation . . .

If you love some one because you think that you shouldn't leave him because others think that you shouldn't ...
then it's not love..
it's - compromise . . .

If you love some one because you think that you cannot live with out his touch ....
then it's not love ..
it's - lust . . .

If you love some one because you have been kissed by him ...
then it's not love..
it's - inferiority complex . . .

If you love some one because you cannot leave him thinking that it would hurt his feelings ..
then it's not love ..
it's - charity . . .

If you love some one because you share every thing with him ...
then it's not love..
it's - friendship . . .

but if you feel the pain of the other person more than him even when he is stable and you cry for him ..
that's - LOVE . . .

if you get attracted to other people but stay with him without any regrets..
that's - LOVE . . .

If you let him go knowing that he has to go but he doesn't want to..
that's - LOVE . . .

**************
How much true?? You to decide..and if u wanna share some of the continuing thoughts, please leave them as comments on this post!

~nits

Jaggi back again in life........

Yes I am in IIM Indore.....and yes it rocks! The dream has been achieved...I am in the revered B School family in the country.


The other dream shattered a day before i landed in indore....i never knew weekends can be so cruel...dont know why people are so confused that they even dont care about their own life! Though this poor guy was thinking that 'back to Indore' might be a special surprise for me...Alas I was wrong...again!

Khair I am back to my jagjit ghazals......jaggi you rock again in my life!!

Sab hawaaein le gaya, mere samunder ki koi;
Aur mujhko ek kashti baadbani de gaya!!

~Nits

The GREAT INDIAN TOUR contd

So here ends my GREAT INDIAN TOUR before I start my lease of new life from next week in IIM Indore. And what a tour it was!!

It was a result of a resolve at client site in US where I hated my beeper support of 24 hrs, that I will chill myself completely in Indian waters before I try a dip at IIMs. And boy oh boy! I lived it throughout. From the rigorous hiking at Vaishno devi to tortuous and torquous (I mean it) biking (Pulsar-ising) at Mussorie, I lived in every moment. From the dangerous rides at Wonder La, Park in Bangalore to amusing chilling waters of Robber’s Cave at Dehradun, from the ever-welcomed ‘Lassi’ of Vrindavan to ‘Bhuttas’ at a height of 2000m at Mussorrie, I simply ROCKED!

Let me start with my auto-travelogue (J), with special thanks to the main characters of the tour apart from yours truly –

Tom, Sam, Gupta and Sapre – Bangalore
My parents – Mathura-Vrindavan-Mehendipur-Balaji-Kaila devi
My bro (Girraj) & Nitin - Delhi-Vaishno devi–Dehradun-Mussorie

The places –

Dehradun/Mussorie-

I never really thought that Dehradun can be such a nice place, it gives you right mix of everything – cool weather, calm surroundings of mountaineering terrain, hustle bustle of McDonalds and lots of good bunch of good looking junta ;)

Sahastra-dhara is a traditional spot to chill in waters but what took my qualms away was ‘Robber’s Cave’. It is a must see for adventure enthusiasts. Basically it is a narrow passage between two mountains with fresh water gushing in between from a fall. As you might have guessed already, its name comes from its notorious use by robbers.

City is small but dotted with institutions like FRI(Forest Research Institute), IMA, etc. Plus is a 30 Km drive to Mussorie, which rocks if you pulsate the terrain of heights and tortuous track if biked with right bikes J. The top is always busy on weekends as lots of honeymooners and people from Delhi throng the place. There is a good rope-way but wait time is a price to be paid. A fall called Kemptee Fall is also there, but nothing in comparison with Niagara of US/Canada J.

Vaishno Devi/Jammu

With a resolve in mind to seek the blessings of the great goddess of Mountains – Vaishno Devi, we started our hiking in the evening at 7:30 and reached the Bhawan at 1:30 am. Though the journey up the mountain was okay but the gross mismanagement at the top, took my breath away (U see I am getting into management na J). The number of devotees was I guess in lakhs and the number of lockers that the trust there provides is in hundreds that too I guess not more than 400 – absolutely free!! What catastrophe might ensue out of this is no secret. People who are lucky to get the locker, take it, get the darshan and never come back until they get a sound sleep! And the line for putting in the luggage remains increasing in the wait of people coming to retrieve their belongings! I was amazed to see such a big fallacy in their model, why not keep an hourly fee, so that traffic keeps moving? Result – We waited in the line throughout the night…..I remembered the days when I did my night-outs at infosys…@##%!^&*

Well we had the darshan next day in the morning and then after coming down, slept for 12 hours straight. Well, all is well if it ends well and that’s what happened. We left happily for Jammu, where did some city-viewing…though there were lots of police check-posts which I guess were signatures of the relationship we have with our neighbour. We then headed straight to Dehradun.

I guess this post can go on and on…..with Bangalore trip still to be portrayed in the right manner it deserves..so I guess wait till the next post! Its now time for some serious packing and preparations at home as I leave for Indore next week! Bye for now.

~ Nits

THE GREAT INDIAN TOUR

I am on THE GREAT INDIAN TOUR these days.
Thought that life would be full time MASTI @ IIMI hence why not make most of the days left with me. Hence thought of giving a surprise to my classmates of GS in Bangalore.

The weekend rocked! We went to Shiv-samudram falls which is somewhat 120 kms from the IT City. Did some serious hiking till we hit the falls. After chilling in waters for some time, came back to have a blast next day in wonder la, amusement park Bangalore. And really I was amazed to see the management at the park..no titter-tatters…no hustle-bustle for tickets or entry…gud to see. Well here are some pics from the Blore trip….and there are lots of videos…for which I guess you need to come to me. Also been to a religious family visit to mathura, Vrindavan, Balaji...i guess to thank for the blessings.

Right now am on my trip to Vaishno Devi day after tomorrow…so till then wait n watch this blog!!

~ nits

M.P. and Indore - A foot forward

I dont know why my life keeps coming back to INDORE...?
May be for good.

For starters, i did my graduation from Shri GS Institute of Technlogy and Science, Indore in Electronics & Telecom engg in 2002. And here i am again into Indian Institute of Management, Indore!

Well, will not beat around the bush, M.P. and especially Indore is catching up with the rest of the indian states now. Here is the story . Gud to know :)

~nits

Infosys - the grooming grounds!

Today, when i am writing this post, i have already divorced a dream-fairy which picked up my imagination(along with my resume) and gave me a near-perfect world of dreams( that came along with the appointment letter!). It simply seems like a dream that is over after 3 years, 7 months and 13 days. It was like an arranged marriage(?)...it was turning sour after those many years :). The dowry was huge when i got married to this cute looking coding-job, as i was sent on a honeymoon to Bangalore Campus (Huge number of buildings, food courts,etc). The early days were great as i made new friends from different places and speaking different languages. I still remember the days, when i used to sing ghazals of jagjit singh in the bus and later they would label me as 'jagjit singh' (poor jaggi :(). But as in all arranged marriages...sweet days were soon over and i was sent to Bhubaneswar(city of temples)...probably as a penance for ruining jaggi's name!

Life started again with memories of big building of Bangalore...being replaced by ancient temples of 'Lingaraja' and 'Jagannath-puri'. But, i guess the place gave me perfect entry into my utopian world - where there was arts, poetry, opportunities for social contribution and visiting challenged-children(deaf & dumb, orphans) along with coding and testing in the black mainframe world. And i was more than happy to grow and learn from all such non-technical acts - be it 'The Orators Club', 'Akanksha - social forum' and 'Horizon - The literary newsletter'..and two years went away! Though i don't want to put down the nitty-gritties of pathetic appraisals, bandings, the following cribs, bad bosses...etc....i guess those are part and parcel of each and every job. I also interviewed M.D. PAi (CFO, Infosys), Basab Pradhan(then Marketing, sales head - Infosys) and the feelings were special each time....i mean when you are shaking hands and having tea with people which are the poster boys of business dailies and magazines...its really special. I guess, hanumanji(monkey god) had something else on his mind as i got the visa for a long visit to our client in USA.

Phew! That was my reaction when i boarded the first international flight of my life(no..its not that i have never been to any foreign country..have been to Nepal..would have been to Pakistan as well but probably they(Paki officials) detested(at that time) my date of birth...it falls on 15th August!). I was sitting in a plane with 80% junta being white...i remembered Charlie Chaplin movies where he used o land in difficult situations in foreign land...well landed safely to the 'Melting Pot of World'...and soon 'Starbucks', 'Dunkin-donnuts'..became usual part of life. Have been to various places which i only earlier saw on silver screen. The times were also a bit difficult here as being at client site can be anything between bad to worse...in initial days. 'Beeper Support' is something which i will never forget from this 1.25 years stint...throughout my life. I mean its really pathetic to be on call and work through nights and days....continuously. I still remember that beeper was the culprit behind my frenzied receding hairline(probably my wife-2-be will condone it..if from the IT world). But, i guess, i learnt a lot about work-place and specially in software...be it politics, client relationships, etc which i guess will come handy through-out my life.

As, i wrote earlier, because of some unavoidable circumstances and inner-calling, had to fight to come back to the motherland....Hey this post is turning into a travelogue...missing the point...time to get back on track. After coming back, i worked as a module leader and really enjoyed the work as its more towards people management, resources-management, etc which i really would say love to do. All in all, it wouldn't be excessive to say that Infosys has really helped me a lot in transforming me into a person who is more of a professional rather than a plain rustic from a small city. I still remember on the last day so many people replied to my adieu mail(don't know if it is just a custom to reply)...but it really gives a unique feeling to know how many people still remember you may be for different reasons...be it your poems, sketches, ghazals, writings...or may be plain mediocrity ;)

Here ends my arranged marriage with Infosys....i will miss you, my darling :)

~Nits

The Road Ahead!

Life has been alive once again!
With news of getting the dream, people are pouring in congratulations. Even people who haven’t talked to me since my engineering have called. Some of much more qualified people than me have mentioned me as a role model, some of them have written things which you will always dream off in your sleeps! And last but not the least; my parents are now thankfully playing a different tune, than the wedding bells 

Thanks-you Almighty! As they say – ‘Tere ghar mein der hai per andher nahin hai’ (Its late in almighty’s listening of prayers not never).

Now, coming back to the reality grounds, India from the heavens of fantasyland; I was amazed/shocked/petrified to see the birthday database of the IIMI PGP 06-08 yahoo group. The feelings – just what a dianasaur feels when he gets into 2006 . Most of the people are from 1984/85 bracket….and me 1980  (looks like an old vintage car amidst Ferraris). Well, but I am not cribbing; its better than an IT work-force to be with 

Apart from that, I was amused to read through the yahoo chat of our group, as well as queries posted by some of my classmates-to-be. Though I believe they were genuine concerns, and I detest mentioning some of the weak ones here. But, being a lesser mortal, I just cant resist this one…which made its way to the ‘Hall of Fame’ – “Whether we get milk in the canteen or not?” I am sorry if somebody reading this post is cursing me, but I simply coudnt understand the criticality of it!

I conclude that it would really be great fun at Indore to be with ppl from disparate places with different academic bkgnds, different interests, different ages and of course different tastes – some preferring whiskey, some vodka and some pure milk 

On a more serious note - It would be my world with my dreamed characters in it! A school with good infrastructure, professors, and books, books which will be on Management, marketing, kotler, Porter, Watermann, Prahalad, Ghaoshal, Debono, i was just waiting for this day....when my utopian world will engage me out of chills and thrills of IT for at least some time. Discussions, case studies, presentations, strategies, quizzes, non-stop jargon, management funda!..........ahhhhh! I am coming IIM-I...i am loving it :)

Will keep writing regularly now!