Spring is in the Air

All those who are in Bangalore, did you look up into the sky recently? If not, its time you did! For all those towering trees that looked the same the last few months, have burst into a melange of beautiful colors. Especially, in the roads near Jayanagar and Lalbagh. Whereever you look, you would be sure to spot those violet beauties! And there's something about such a 'fertile blooming' (for want of a better description!!) that makes you stop and think "Life is beautiful after all!" For a person who had a commited "beach is my life!" attitude, Bangalore sure has changed me!

Wheel of Fortune

Here is something that came up in my Tarot reading.... I find this absolutely true- just stuck a chord in me today. Reflect on it!

Wheel of Fortune
The central theme of what is traditionally called the Wheel of Fortune is cyclical change. The Wheel keeps on rolling, churning events in a ceaseless progression of ups and downs, either way freeing us from the past. No one can escape its cyclical action, which can feel somewhat terrifying -- no matter whether we are rising or falling. When one is balanced on top there is a moment of crystal clarity, but the only part of the Wheel not going up and down is the hub, which is your eternal Self, the Source of Freedom.

Every one of us will occupy all the points on the wheel at one point or another. The cycle of the wheel is its lesson -- and we can learn to take comfort in it (as we do when we celebrate our birthday). If you don't like the look of things right now, just wait -- things will change. Of course, if you do like the look of things right now, enjoy it while it lasts, because that will change too!

Courtesy:Tarot.com

Yepee...it's over!

Ok, Alright.......Thats over and done with! Am talking about the first academic year! Yepee....All my exams are over and now I can relax for a while!! But sadly, I will not be going home to dear Chennai for my one week holiday because I still haven't got a confirmed summer project :( Well..its entirely a mistake of my mine, I accept! Know the saying that goes something like "Dont put your eggs in one basket"? Look where it had got me..........

My first year of management studies is coming to an END!

Oof...That was two days of intense competition, nice food, some learning and great networking! Yep, attending management fests has become an habit with me and man, oh! man, are they fun or what? And my chief aim is that before I finish my MBA, I should have seen all the major places in India (My college is generous enough to spend everything for us!) and maybe some outside Bharath too? (I can hope, right?!)

The whole fiasco started off innocently enough- I was never the "I attend all inter-collegiate/school fests" during my undergraduation or school but after taking up my PG, I has this crazy idea to write a paper atleast once in my life- u know, try to put all those so called original ideas on paper?! and Bingo, the very first month, XIMB came out with a paper contest on HR- my fav subject to give gyan on! I did not have it in me to let the opportunity pass but what do I know about HR except the fact that it is supposed to be my favorite subject? But what is the Internet for? So there we went (I pulled in a partner!) trying to write and rewrite essays, and had a really difficult time coming up with a model on our own!!

But alls well ends well! And surprises of surprises, our paper got selected and we were asked to come all the way to Bhubaneshwar- an all expense paid trip! Hooray!! And after that, it was trip after trip for me- Indore, Coimbatore, Hosur and a dozen colleges in Bangalore(ok, thats a bit of an exaggeration in the last part!) and it was really an heaven sent favor for a person who had never stepped out of her hometown! But sadly, I could not go to the place I most wanted to- IIM Lucknow- we had an exam! :(

So, my agenda for the next academic year is very well planned out- Another trip to Indore (Thats the All India Management fest), Lucknow, Calcutta, Bombay (which college in Bombay? Hmm?), Delhi and ofcourse Jamshedpur!!

Funny!

Heres something funny I got in a forwarded mail! It attempts to liken mythology characters to present day terms! Enjoy!

Brahma Systems Installation
Vishnu Systems Support
Lakshmi Finance and Accounts consultant
Shiva DBA (Crash Specialist)
Ganesh Documentation Specialist
Narada Data transfer
Brihaspathi Chief Information Officer
Yama Reorganization Consultant
Chitragupta Personal Records
Apsaras Downloadable Viruses
Devas Y2K Programmers
Surya Solaris Administrator
Rakshasas In house Hackers
Ram Hardware Support - Single user specialist
Ravan Internet Explorer - WWW
Kumbhakarnan Zombie Process
Lakshman Support Software and Backup
Hanuman RS6000
Baali Windows 98
Sugreeva Win 95
Angadh Win 3.1
Jambhavan DOS
Jatayu Firewall
Vishwamitra Sr. Manager Projects
Valmiki Technical Writer (Ramayana Sign off document)
Krishna SDLC ( Sudarshan Development Life Cycle )
Hastinapur Silicon Valley
Dharmaraj Yudhishthira ISO Consultant (SEI Top CMM level )
Arjun Lead Programmer (all companies are vying for him)
Abhimanyu Trainee Programmer
Draupadi Web Server - Free Access (Five Users)
Bhima MAIN FRAME
Nakul System Architect
Sahadev Gartener Reporter
Duryodhan Microsoft Product Written in VB
Dhrutarashtra MS Visual C++
Gandhari Dreamweaver
Sanjay OLTP (online transaction process)
Shakuni Bill Gates
Karna Contract programmer
Shikandi Steve Jobbs
100 Kauravas Microsoft Service Packs and patches

The Beer Game

We have a paper called "Supply Chain Management" this term which is pretty much a repeat of last term's "Operations Management"! Or so we thought! So, I for one, never used to pay much attention in SCM classes, save for the time when the prof comes up with questions for us to answer! Then my supreme need to assert myself as an OM expert (I was the topper last term! and it was my favorite subject too!) would come to the fore and my mouth will go blabbering! And if by fluke, some part of my sentence matched the answer, the Prof was always kind enough to never call attention to the other words! But today,I totally, badly got stumped!

Bright and raring to go this morning, I sat down before the computer and decided to give the Beer game a shot and test my real life SCM knowledge! And Lo and Behold, how the mighty fall!

Well, for the unaware few, beer game is a simulation designed by the MIT Sloan School of Management, to portray a real life imitation of the chaos that often reins in a badly managed supply chain. You would be required to take on the role of either the supplier, retailer, manufacturer or the distributor. And just like in real life, you get to decide the number of goods you want to produce or pass on to satisfy the customer orders! And there are ofcourse unfulfilled orders and stockout costs! The bullwhip effect would naturally come into effect too!(Dont have much patience to explain what the hell is a bullwhip effect! Sorry!)

I tried my hand at this online version of the game, one Near Beer Game by Forio, a company that produces simulation software. The aim of the game is to get your chain balanced at the shortest time possible in 50 weeks, given that customer order fluctuates at first and remains constant thereafter. My first attempt ended at 17 weeks, a pretty bad time frame! The next was not much better at 10 weeks (Not when my friend got it to balance at 4 weeks after just two trials!) and my last was 5 weeks before my intersest waned out! I kept at it one more time though and finally got it to balance at 4! Bad record for someone who hopes to top SCM this term!