Google+ seems promising, for me at least. This is why:

• I don’t need to open a separate browser window. I google millions of things each day and having a tab on top to help stay in touch is effective.
• Google has had a previously built up reputation of erring on the conservative side so far as user privacy is concerned, save for when it got all ‘Buzz’ed up. Facebook, on the other hand seems to have had a policy of “We know it might annoy our users. Let’s implement and enforce it. If we are pushed back, we can go ahead and tweak features to reduce privacy-related complaints.“
• The prima facie logical grouping in circles (already present on facebook, but somewhat painful to manage on its UI) might help make communicating between different groups more effective, given how our personal circles are expanding at a considerable rate.
• With all the good, positive ways that google has used to help change lives as we know it (not drastically, but in small, cumulative ways that add up to be greater than the sum of the constituent parts), this would help too. Admit it, the odds of staying in touch with and subsequently putting blade on (hitting on) people you’ve met in real life has increased drastically since the time of Orkut previously, though Facebook has now taken that role up effectively.
• Lastly, do check this video out. I quite like the soft, lilting background music interspersed with voice-overs that has me sold completely on Google+.

Granted, it will be a pain to migrate from FB to google, but I’m sure there’s ways and means that this product will have to facilitate a smooth transition.

With Amazon hitting the Indian shores, there’s enough heat being generated in the domestic front along with this battle between Google and Facebook to keep us all intrigued on the competitive strategy front.

I think it is time to sit and re-read my Competitive Strategy course pack from B-school, this time without exams in mind and with more relaxed time lines to boot.

I have always been fascinated by t-shirts because they are comfortable and trendy. One can use a t-shirt to make a statement and they are an apt reflection of one’s personality.

Just like everyone else, I want my t-shirts to be unique and ‘cool’. The coolness factor associated with a t-shirt is inversely proportional to the number of people wearing it. That is one of the reasons why, starting 2008, I began getting my own designs and having my own t-shirts done.

This continued all through B-school in 2009 and 2010 and I’ve taken great pride in collecting weird / funny / interesting (all synonyms as far as I am concerned) t-shirts.

From a career perspective, I’ve been strongly mulling over the idea of moving towards a portfolio of jobs in the future. The idea is to work on a few things that will serve as revenue streams instead of banking on a single source of income. In addition to diversifying risk, this approach tackles the need to satiate the needs of the left and right brain too, or so I hope.

It is with this intent that my friend Krithik and I have started off on a t-shirt firm named Urban Banyan. The name came about when Krithik and I were having a fun discussion on random t-shirt ideas. Being in Gurgaon does strange things to normal people. The name too, resulted from similar circumstances. The Banyan bit refers to the vest and not the Banyan tree, and must therefore be pronounced accordingly.

We’ve registered presence on facebook, twitter and on tumblr in addition to getting our URL registered. Please follow us on twitter, “like” us on facebook and keep us bookmarked for when the time is right.

To ensure that the coolness quotient associated with an awesome design doesn’t drop, only 200 prints per t-shirt will be manufactured. There are lots of ideas afoot, but all will be revealed step-by-step in good time.

One of the interesting things that I would like to do, in addition to getting this t-shirt design + manufacture venture off the ground and up and running is to open-source the entire process of setting up an online retail firm.

While providing those that read this blog with updates on Urban Banyan, it will also give other aspiring internet entrepreneurs a real-time, ringside view of how to go about setting shop. They can learn from mistakes that Urban Banyan makes and also help provide us information to correct our course midway in case we’re going FUBAR extreme.

In addition to getting good internet karma, an involved audience will also help prevent us slack off too much.

So if you’d like to know what is going on, bookmark this site / our tumblr blog on your feed reader and follow us. Spread the word and see how things take shape. Get involved and help us when we’re on our way to make cool t-shirts for everyone!

Perplexed, he walked along the corridor and repeated said action with Divya. “Skin colour!”, he said and had a near death experience when she slapped him and this almost resulted in him being decapitated by the force exerted in her action.

He walked along to class, twice bitten and mouth shut, wondering why it was ok for those women to discuss what colour their bra was in public, but that he was mauled for it merely because he said what was on their facebook status message back at them.

The times are changing, or are they really?^*

PS – My dear cousin, Devrat wants to raise awareness of testicular cancer by doing something similar with male underwear, based on his last facebook status.

Well, here goes – Brown checks in a Tartan pattern. Yes, they make boxers in psychedelic colours. Go figure!

^*Incident depicted above is fictitious and any resemblance to anyone living or dead is because you’ve got a warped, perverted mind and only the hot shrink lady next door can save you.

As someone pointed out, life on campus is like an expensive holiday so far, with everyone hitting the gym, indulging in all-night Bacchanalian orgies, hook-ups, random conversations, people trying to use the power of association to remember names and what not.

I’m amazed at many things happening here, true to my ‘harithekid’ tag, and one of the most exciting things for me is the fact that the entire campus is fully wi-fi. I’d never been given a laptop at the office, and was confined to being at my desk, but with my trusty typewriter now being converted to a B-school ready powerhouse, I’m walking around all over the place, squealing with delight at the fact that I can access the internet from wherever I want to, minus wires.

I think my old-school nature is making itself significantly evident, but it is fun anyway.

In case you haven’t already figured out, and I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t, the title of this post compresses into an acronym that is used frequently as a synonym for ‘cool’ in my quad, which comprises of three other supremely chilled out guys, with whom I’m getting along like a house on fire. Touchwood.

As inhabitants of Ground Zero (which is what our apartment is soon going to be famous all over campus if it hasn’t been already), random acronyms rule the roost. One of the rules for parties we intend to throw is to have all participants get their own Beer Or Other BevrageS.

Being big on symbolism, the first act I performed post registration as a student was to go with a few other friends and have some chilled beer (or child bear as some cute, hopefully unintentional typographical errors might display on the signage) and drink to being a student again.

A trip to the Salar Jung museum on sunday, after bunking some sessions that were organized for the class of 2010 led to my using my student ID to get a discount on the entry fees. Adults are charged INR 10 while students are charged INR 5, and even though the amount wasn’t huge, the very act of being able to weasel out of five bucks seemed like a privilege that I am thankful to have received again.

There are many things happening on campus, and the mind boggles at what one is missing, but I think that I’ve had pretty much all my friends go through this entire rigmarole a few years before me, and some of the advice and fundas they’ve given me should hold me in good stead for the year ahead.

My phone number has changed, and I’ve updated it on facebook for those who want to know. As promised in the previous, I’ll try to tone down the whole jazz, although quite frankly, there’s nothing much else that is happening in my life that is worth mentioning.

The standard definition of ‘alma mater’ is ‘Nourishing Mother of Studies’ and once you’ve joined the institute, you’re an alum, de-facto. Plus, by the time most you read this, I’d have coughed up some cash to join the alumni association in any case. (I was unaware of this funda of being an alum as soon as I joined myself until someone pointed it out to me on 31st March this year.)

I still have a full year ahead of me when I will have to slog my butt off and work hard to ensure that I make enough in a job post-college to pay the EMIs for my education loan. But I’ll see about that when the time is right.

This is not a post extolling my awesomeness, as you might expect, but more an admission of how I am significantly relieved that I have finally, after four failed attempts at writing the CAT to make it to an IIM, and two half-hearted attempts at the XAT, managed to make it to a good, reputed B-school.

Sure, there are thousands of debates about whether ISB is better than IIMs or vice-versa. I wish to dissociate myself from these arguements once and for all, so please don’t involve me. Just like how I relate to the Beatles song,’I'm so happy just to dance with you’ , I also relate to ‘I’m so happy just to study again’, and should you ask me which is better, all I have to say is that you’re not asking the right questions.

So this post is more about my being modest, because you’ve not had a chance to see that side of me, thanks to all the pseudo trumpet-blowing that I have so copiously indulged in. What was that bit about empty vessels making more noise?

I’ve got lots of funny, interesting memories of my various attempts at writing the CAT and so many other things associated with it, and I sure hope that I can write about it here in due time. I know for a fact that a few chapters in my book will be dedicated to that exam which remained my bug-bear, but I am glad now that I don’t have to write the GMAT again either.

The closest I came was in CAT 2005 when I had a call from IIM Lucknow, but I was waitlisted at the end, and didn’t clear it. Subsequent attempts at the various exams somehow never saw me get decent enough percentiles to warrant a call, even though the mock tests saw me getting double digit all India ranks.

I’d labelled myself with the ‘choker’ tag, and I am glad that I can cast it aside, at least partly for the time being.

I’ve never owned a proper belt after finishing school, and I had to borrow one that belonged to a friend of mine when I was in Hyderabad in the end of December, appearing for an interview at the place I’m currently at. Quite ironic considering I was all suited up for the first time in my life, and I felt like Superman.

I now have two belts and I have packed a substantial number of decent formal clothes which I hope I don’t have to wear much on campus.

All those of you who follow this website can rest assured that this will not be converted to a blog that is only about my life in a B-school. Sure, this is a big deal for me, and I will write arbitly about things here and there that transpire due to my life on campus. But this is not the only important thing in my life. There’s only so much nonsense out there in the world and I need to ensure that I do what I can to contribute to it and ensure that the cut-off quantity is mainttained.

So, don’t expect posts about subjects, study groups, quizzes, things I did on campus (unless it involves some major funda or concept worth documenting) and all that just so I get my hit counter on overdrive. I am able to do that with a decent SEO in any case, thank you very much. Props to headspace.

So yes, for those of you who have my Karnataka mobile number, please do save it for I intend to use it whenever I am in Bangalore / Mysore, and I shall get in touch with you. In the interest of experimenting, I am trying to see how long I can subsist in Gultland without a mobile, and good luck to me for that. If I do get a number there, I’ll update it on facebook so you can get it off there.

(If I’m not on your facebook, add me already!)

Harithekid goes back to school. So far, I’ve been relieved and not celebrated wildly. Guess its high time I did that, and here goes – yay!

Yup, thats it. I’m done. Onward to Bangalore and then to Hyderabad now.

PS – I will miss out on voting for the elections this time around. Jai only.

PPS – Don’t be surprised if this is the ONLY MBA / ISB specific post on my site. I’ve got gazillion other things to blow my trumpet about.

The autographing was around the time I interviewed him for a cover story for RSJ, in April this year, which finally didn’t happen for reasons I’m not sure of.

I’ve also written a review for that album and sent it to the guys who’re supposed to launch the new version of gigpad, though I’m going to check with them if I can post album reviews on my site as well after addressing any potential cöpyright issues.

However, on 16th November 08, Sunday, I had been to the Landmarks bookstore in Swagath Garuda Mall, where I got a chance to see a live performance by him. I guess Facebook does wonders, and it was through an invite on it that I was even aware that such an event was taking place.

According to unconfirmed sources (me), apparently, for the first and only time in its existence, Swagath Garuda Mall finally had a sizeable number of footfalls, as people gathered en masse to see Raghu live, and mysteriously disappeared thereafter when the performance was over.

There’s something magical and nice about unplugged performances. They are quite intimate, and aren’t as high-adrenaline as the fully plugged ones. I’d witnessed TAAQ play their first ever ‘unplugged’ show at Alliance Français last year, and the unplugged accoustic jams that our band has, with my bass guitar being the only instrument that requires amplification (I am a cheap guy without an accoustic bass) are also a whole lot of fun.

Raghu Dixit was accompanied by Vijay Joseph on guitars, and while I wasn’t really sure whether Landmarks would be able to have enough space to cast aside for a performance along with a crowd, they did manage to have a good setup, and the sound quailty was impeccable, atleast where I was standing, which was right up front.

Junta turned up in hordes, for it was a free concert, and Raghu Dixit’s playful banter with the crowd, I am sure, won him some new fans.

He started off with a song (I still love you) that I’d last heard being performed on 5th May 2001, when I was standing in the first row at the Bryan Adams concert, and it brought back fond memories of that day when everyone in the front row got spat on by Bryan Adams when he was singing ‘back to (thoo) you’ and all that.

Aside from that, he played ‘Mysore se Aayi’, ‘Gudugudiya Sedi Nodu’, ‘Hey Bhagwan’ and one of my favourite songs by him titled ‘Ambar’. The last song’s rendition was, I felt, quite magical, as I closed my eyes and just immersed myself in the song.

Most unplugged songs tend to sound somewhat different from when the artists perform a fully plugged set, but in this case, Raghu’s powerful voice, combined with some masterful guitar work by Vijay Joseph made me not miss the other instruments, including, surprisingly, the bass guitar as well.

The crowd got quite noisy around the time when Raghu began performing songs from his movie ‘Psycho’, for everyone present there seemed to know the songs, and sang along uninhibitedly.

Most people were too busy taking videos to enjoy what was happening on stage, and this tendency to record or take photographs, in my opinion, kills the moment when one should rather be immersed in the music than be doing something to record it for later. Unless their memory sucks.

I was not able to bear the noise after a while, and decided to make a gracious exit around twenty past seven, when I knew Raghu would be almost finishing up.

Here’s hoping to see more of his performances in the days to come.

Being thrown out of class was something I was supremely thrilled with, because it provided me with a grown-up’s endorsement to go out, play in the school grounds, sit and watch slugs move and leave their slimy trails behind, help the aayah in school in ringing the bell, a few minutes earlier simply because I liked the sound of it. This was more enjoyable than attending class on some occasions, and the propensity towards missing out on classes only magnified further as the years progressed.

This particular train of thought veered towards what the future generations would think of us, the first generation of bloggers. I can only imagine my kid reading about my ‘Dorky Guffaw’ adventures, or about how strongly hippie I have allegedly been, and wonder whether his/her image of me many years hence will be the same as what I’ve portrayed now through my online content.

Our generation has been simultaneously privileged as well as encumbered in some ways due to the revolutionary changes having been brought upon us due to the internet. While communication channels have been made so easy, and long lost friends separated over space and time-zones can still stay in touch as if they were only in the next room, and information of all sorts is available to us within a few clicks, I am led to wonder whether we’re really better off compared to previous generations.

The internet has also brought about a significant invasion of our privacy, and a lot of time is spent on the internet instead of in getting a first life. The future generations might be even worse off than we are, or might ridicule us for our extreme involvement with the net. Nothing exemplifies it better than the constantly changing arbit facebook status messages.

For instance, my current facebook status is as follows: “Hari is astounded at how make-up can make the prettiest women look majorly scary.”

While I might think it is funny right now, or at least, somewhat vaguely relevant, this is just going to be arbit nonsense once I end up saying something else.

While those bloggers who have a defined intent which leads them to blog, and have something topical to write about will have their work appreciated over time, those who use their websites as a means of unleashing arbit (case in point being yours truly) might just as well be better off covering their tracks, lest our children get inspired to do crazy stuff and then conveniently state how their folks’ blogs provided them with the inspiration.

In any case, such an eventuality is quite a long way ahead, and we shall cross the bridge, if it shows up, when we come to it.

For those still blinking at the ostensible spelling error – it is plugging my blog. If you don’t know what plug is, kindly refer urban dictionary.

After having engaged in significant drum beating via facebook on its status message, on orkut by finally enabling my updates to be visible for junta and courtesy of twitter and the usual gtalk status message build up, which has resulted in quite a few junta visiting this site, I was having a discussion with SKimpy about other innovative and unconventional ways to blug one’s plog, and we came up with the auto-rickshaw idea.

It would be quite awesome to get some bumper stickers printed, with the blog URL and have it pasted on the backs of auto-rickshaws, so that footage can be provided in the weirdest and coolest way possible. I have seen autos with stuff like ‘Hai! Want to Friendship me?’ and ‘Love leads to death’ and other such nonsense.

I am not sure how much auto drivers would charge for such advertising, but before I go ahead and print stickers, I sure would like to find out. If you have a plog that needs blugging and want me to help by getting stickers printed, drop me a line, and I’ll see what I can do after I’ve done the background research work.

Any further ideas apart from the conventional ones to engage in shameless publicity are most welcome as well. Please don’t tell me I need to write well to make this happen, I’ve been trying for ages to do so and I have now finally abandoned that approach, in a ‘grapes are sour’ type situation.

Edit: Urban dictionary defines blugging as bad blogging. An unfortunate coincidence, I’d say.

This time I searched for Sania Mirza, just to see if she might actually be on facebook and one quite funny profile I chanced upon was that of someone who’s got a picture which says I’m NOT Sania Mirza, the Tennis player.

Link is here.