Larry Page's University of Michigan Speech

Google co-founder and UMich alum Larry Page gave the Graduation Speech.
Hear or read it here:

Canada beckons Indian students

Changes have been made in two areas: the rules that guide a students eligibilty to work during the course of their studies; and their ability to remain and work in Canada once the course is over. “These are probably the most significant changes in Canadian student immigration policy in the past five years. It is something that will ensure that Canada is as attractive a destination for potential international students as other competitor countries,” says Maria Mathai, manager, Canadian Education Centre, New Delhi. Canada currently plays host to over 130,000 foreign students, plus the many who head there to learn English and French


Miss Canada is crowned Miss Universe this year.

Best (Non Metro) Cities in India

There are 5,161 towns in India—384 of them with a population of over 1 lakh and 35 of them with a population of over 10 lakh—qualifying for the label of ‘city’.

The six major metros—Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad—have been left out from this listing.

Ahmedabad: Best for starting a Business

Jaipur: best PRESERVEs its glorious past

Bhavnagar: Best for disabled people

Pune: Best for pursuing Higher education

Patna: Best for politics

Surat: Fastest growing

Panaji: best for revelry

Surat: Cleanest city

Puri: best beach

Coimbatore: shopping hub

Chandigarh: sports

Mysore: The most culturally vibrant city

Pondicherry: Best international city

Coimbatore: health care

Kochi: Safest for women

You will be missed


Sunil Dutt:
June 6, 1929 - May 25,2005


A Popular Film star
A versatile actor
A peace activist
A strong secularist
An extraordinary politician
A supporting father
An encourating sports minister
A nice human being.
A good soul


Dutt Sahab,
It will be difficult to replace you.

Meeting Mr Menon


An exhausted me after playing tennis at office lands up at Food World to pick up some stuff for home to cook.Iam in a tee short and shorts and full of sweat. I pick up the stuff in a hurry and I stop at the cash counter to make the payment.

A man with a french beard is on the other side. I look at him and instantly recognize him.He looks at me and then gives me a smile.. but then tries hard to recognize who Iam.I walk up to him and say that I was the man who had applied to ISB last year and had got waitlisted.I was a part of the team that had "designed a Hovercraft".

"Oh Yes!".He instantly recognizes me .I had been to ISB the day I had reached India after my US stint and had met Mr Menon. We had a long discussion where he explained me the process of admission and how my GMAT score had got me waitlisted.
He tells me to "feel free to visit ISB" and "apply again next year".

I thank him and go back home..I had never thought that I would meet Mr Menon, the admission director of the Indian School of Business at a shopping center.


PS: Thanks to my Big and Tall personality, people hardly forget me once they see me. :)

Watch out what you say!!

By comparing the US with the much-abused middle finger in her speech at the graduating ceremony of Columbia Business School, Indira Nooyi, the powerful CFO and president of PepsiCo has stirred up a blog-storm.

The Powerline blog (http://powerlineblog.com/archives/010492.php) brought this issue to the atention of the world and there has been mixed response to Indira's remarks.

Pepsico co took no chances and posted the entire speech at this site:
http://www.pepsico.com/Speech-ColumbiaBusinessSchool.pdf

And here is the message from the Indira Nooyi clarifying her stand.
http://www.pepsico.com/msgfromindra.shtml

Here is an extract from her speech:

"
First, let’s consider our little finger. Think of this finger as Africa. Africa is the little finger not because of Africa’s size, but because of its place on the world’s stage. From an economic standpoint, Africa has yet to catch up with her sister continents. And yet, when our little finger hurts, it affects the whole hand.

Our thumb is Asia: strong, powerful, and ready to assert herself as a major player on the world’s economic stage.

Our index, or pointer finger, is Europe. Europe is the cradle of democracy and pointed the way for western civilization and the laws we use in conducting global business.

The ring finger is South America, including Latin America. Is this appropriate, or what? The ring finger symbolizes love and commitment to another person. Both Latin and South America are hot, passionate, and filled with the sensuous beats of the mambo, samba, and tango: three dances that – if done right – can almost guarantee you and your partner will be buying furniture together.

This analogy of the five fingers as the five major continents leaves the long, middle finger for North America, and, in particular, The United States. As the longest of the fingers, it really stands out. The middle finger anchors every function that the hand performs and is the key to all of the fingers working together efficiently and effectively. This is a really good thing, and has given the U.S. a leg-up in global business since the end of World War I. However, if used inappropriately –just like the U.S. itself -- the middle finger can convey a negative message and get us in trouble. You know what I’m talking about. In fact, I suspect you’re hoping that I’ll demonstrate what I mean. And trust me, I’m not looking for volunteers to model."

Jugaad -The secret of India's success

In our engineering days,during the placement season, the seniors often used to give us gyaan.
The kind of gyaan varied..some days they used to give tips on the dress code..and other days how to make ur resume look good...on other days some fundas on technical subjects so that we could impress the interviewers.

But one word that often came up during their gyaan sessions was the word "Juggad"

Juggad is a hindi word. Some times, it meant networking,on other days it meant determination and on a lot of occasions it meant fighting the odds and carving out your identity.

Vikram Chandra, a leading anchor at NDTV believes that 'Juggad' is the secret of India's success.

"Indians have that great sense of working in situations where there is no concrete answer to a problem. That's where the fertile Indian mind starts to work," said Chandra. "We thrive in chaos and in many ways that makes us world leaders.

Read more about Juggad : http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1113321.cms

Queen's MBA at international MBA fairs


The Queen's folks have just finished finalizing a 28-city world tour! Please check the homepage at www.mbast.com for details in the near future.

The next event is in Karachi (Pakistan) on May 29&30.
(http://www.asianstudentfair.com/).

I have been following up with the adcom and the admission folks and had a few questions and recommendations.
Here are a few updates:

- A few MBA bloggers who would be posting their B school experience at www.mbast.com.The admissions department has promised to have at least one Indian student blogger.Great!

-Study loans for Internation al students is under investigation.Currently only canadian residents are provided financing options at this time.

- The school has started instigating scholarships for the first
time for the Class of 2006.

Myers-Briggs Personality Type


I had some time to kill today .So,in the office library gave the Myers Briggs Personality test.

Nah, this is not the exact MBT test but is a kind of free online test
(http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp) that comes close to the real test.

My personality type:
ENTJ
Extroverted Intuitive Thinking Judging

Strength of the preferences %
56 38 1 1

The Myers-Briggs test is used in all schools to form the student teams.
You can get a more detail analysis of your persoanlity type in this site
http://www.typelogic.com/

List of ppl with whom I have interacted over the past few months and who are really enthu about making it to a B school.
Iam sure all of them will do well in life.

Bharani - I have followed his blog ever since the day he wrote his first GMAT.

NeverGiveup: Perhaps the only lady who got WL at ISB. Going to NUS this summer.

Sankha Som: The friendly smile wala who aims big in his B school aspirations.Heading to US soon.
OK-Iam Dumb: Hez not that dumb after all. Hez going to NUS

Metal: The true soldier. Believed that he could do it and he did it . Going to Mcomb's.

Suresh: Answering all queries at the NUS group

AM: We belong to the same state.We got the same admits. But he heads to SP Jain

Dip: The family wala guy at ISB

SP Jain institute of Management and Research has offered me an admission to the 1 yr MBA program this year.
They have asked me to pay Rs 1 Lakh in 3 days to confirm my admission.

I would like to go to Queen's next year. Yet, the thought of working in India in the long run and perhaps landing up with no job after graduation at Queen's next year makes me a bit insecure.

Should I just let go all my dreams, ambitions and plans and settle for a B school that will not even provide me 1/10th of the exposure that an International school will provide. I don't think so.

Dad was keen on me joining SP Jain . That way, I wouldn't waste 1 yr and at the same time I'll be in India.