Where is the Midfield?

I know, I know. Its still early days and definitely too early to start moaning about Manchester United's performance this season. After all, its just one defeat. I didn't see the match last night but can't say I hadn't seen it coming. The United midfield looked sordid in the Community Shield and in Saturday's game and all it took was a team with some spunk and toughness like Burnley to hand us that inevitable defeat.

The Detractors are truly out this time, sharpening their blades, waiting for this weekend's trip to the DW. Normally I do not give much credence to their never-ending tantrums choose to put my faith in Fergie instead but this time around I cannot help but feel that there is substance in what they are saying.

So I went through the squad and came up with some combinations but failed to come up with a XI that would win us matches week in week out. There is no bite, no spark( whatever you want to call it) and I think the problem essentially lies in the midfield. Yes, Our injured list in the defence is long. With both Vida and Rio out we always look a bit shaky back there. The right backs have been a source of headache for three seasons running now. Gary hasn't had a good season in years and looks lost when he plays. Wes Brown and Hargreaves have been perennially crocked and now I hear that we are planning to extend Hargreaves' contract....SWEET! The Da Silva twins are too immature, especially Rafael. They are good going forward but can't defend for their lives.

The Midfield
I refuse to talk about Ronaldo here....Enough has been said..Lets look at the squad we have.

Fletch is good, hard working, a fighter but he is no Roy Keane. He can't get you the goals nor is he creative as Scholesy. Scholesy plays a good game once in a while but age is catching up with him and I can't see him playing two games a week come the Champions League. Carrick has never looked threatening especially when the opponents have been able to pressure(read muscle) the midfield. The Champions League final against Chelsea was a great case in this point. Carrick had a really great first half but once Chelsea tightened the screws in the second he was struggling to find his feet. Anderson and Nani are the worst buys we made in years and I am shocked Fergie has persisted with them. I haven't seen any improvement in either for years and they are just plain "shite". Valencia is a good runner and crosser, again, I can't see him giving us the goals. Park is a runner and hard worker, and the new kid Obertan, I have no clue.

Giggsy has been our best midfielder over the past year. He is aging like wine. That pass in the Community shield to Rooney for the late equaliser...What a peach!! But he has the same problem as Scholesy....too old for the league.

Now, I can't put together a four that can win us matches consistently, far less the Champions league and the Premiership.

I think its time Fergie dipped his fingers into the transfer cookie jar and came up with some quality. David Silva on the left would be a nice addition....Swap him for Nani plus money, I say.(though I don't think any self-respecting team would pay for Nani..but I thought the same about Adebayor...worth 25 mn pounds now!!) At 23, he would be a great investment for the future. He is a wonderfully creative passer and has a pretty good goal-scoring record . His critics rant that he has no right foot but Nani doesn't have either!!

Rafael Van der Vaart is also a great option....At 12.5 mn pounds he is a steal. He can add that creativity that our mid is lacking so badly now and he can score goals and take free kicks. He is also young enough and has a good fitness record( not another Hargreaves, please)

For about 25 mn I think we can have a couple of very decent midfielders and shell off Nani(what a relief!!) Hey, when we gave 30 mn for Berba we can afford to give this much for two players who I am sure can set us right for this season and the future.

For all those who think I have panicked after a loss to Burnley I would like to say that I am glad we have lost early. History has it that we have done best when we lose early in the season. I just hope we have enough ammunition to turn it around this time.

Economics for the Soul

i just wrapped up my first set of mid-terms at IIM Bangalore. I barely scraped through the three hectic days(six subjects)....had to make do with only 4 hours sleep in that time!! The results are not out yet but I am not worried. Its not because I have done exceedingly well, just that my studies have taught me a couple of things(at last!!) that serve as a balm for the losers and the depressed. So I decided to go ahead and share them here to ease the pain of others ;-)

Concept 1
Sunk Cost
I learnt this in micro-economics and it goes like this: sunk costs are costs that cannot be recovered once they have been incurred. Any future action will not take this cost into consideration. In English, this would mean that once we have done something we should not worry about it and it should not affect our future action. Drawing the corollary, just don't worry about anything you have done.Its sunk..its gone.( Economists have just stolen this from common sense, I guess.
(Check out this for more on Economists....http://www.youtube.comwatch?v=VVp8UGjECt4)

Concept 2
Hindsight and the Curse of Knowledge
You may not believe me but this is actually a concept, not in economics per se....But it finds application there. So I went ahead and included it under the head anyway. So here is how it goes....
Suppose I did not study for the exam. Before the exam I felt that my time would be best spent by watching a movie/ playing a game/ chatting up random girls ( things that would have made me happy then or what I thought was best for me then) . Now, If I fare poorly in the exam then I can console myself with the argument I had based my earlier decision without knowing that the paper was going to be tough. Based on the information that was available to me before the exam I had made a rational decision. So what I had done was right. So what am I crying about now if that is so??
For the more mathematically inclined, I am recalibrating prior probabilities on hindsight which I cannot do.
Really Cool Concept!

I guess If I fail at everything then I will turn to Economics . I have many such useless(read useful) pearls of wisdom in my bag which I can dole out to poor MBA students.
So go out and enjoy life...there is a perfectly good reason for you to do so now.

PHEW!!

This has taken a long time coming. I had stopped blogging a few months back since I felt that my writing was too impersonal. I sometimes felt as I was writing about someone else. Now that crazy phase is over( Humans are fickle animals!!), I will hopefully keep it coming.

Alright, a status report....That interview you see below may have been miserable but it got me through to IIM Bangalore. So I am in Bangalore now and trudging my way through the dreaded first term. I also underwent a surgery last month for a torn knee ligament.(remember my limp in the IIM interviews??) This will keep me grounded for some time to come. I had till recently been using crutches to walk.
So thats it guess. Hopefully I will become more active in the blogosphere again. I am thinking about writing on the life here but that would be so cliched. So till I can think of something to write. Adios.

MY IIM BANGALORE INTERVIEW

The first of the so called "BIG THREE". It was on 5th March at the huge and imposing Indian Habitat Centre, New Delhi. I lost my way inside this sprawling maze of a place. My knee had still not healed and so I was in some pain before I reached the small two-room centre in some basement of IHC. Nobody was there. I did not see any other soul there and so, vexed, I opened the first door that came my way and walked in on an interview. The interviewer glared at me and I made my exit with a meek sorry....Talk about getting off on the wrong foot!!

I found myself a seat nearby and started studying some economics notes that I had taken from my juniors. Slowly the crowd trickled in..There were only 14 candidates in all...7 in a panel, by far the least among all IIMs.

GD:
It was a case study. Something about people not joining the Army, and its problem in recruiting people due to its inability to offer increased pay etc...We were asked to identify the problems and arrive at a consensus..We were given 20 minutes for the GD. Since there were only 7 people it was a great discussion. We ran out of pnts after 15 minutes and winded up before the allotted time. Then had to summarise in 10 minutes.

PI:
I was a bit nervous before I entered. [One of the "BIG THREE", questions on acads(After the eco debacle of IIMK I was pretty scared of acad stuff.)]

Two young profs on the panel: P1 & P2


P1: Hello Karthik. Sit Down.
Me: Good Afternoon Sir.
P1: Sit Down.
Me: Good Afternoon Sir(to the other one)
P1: Sit Down!!
I sat.
P1: Karthik, Tell me....What do you want us to ask you?
Me: Puzzled...(the last question I expected...hemm-hawwing...)
P1: Come On ...Be quick..
Me: Sir.....Acads, Extracurriculars..
P2: Karthik...Are you placed??( Saved..Thank You P2)
Me:Yes Sir, Futures First....a Futures Trading Company.
P2:What is a futures contract?
Me:Some Fundae...treading on thin ice..
P2: Starts laughing...
Me: (Defensive) I just learnt some basics from my Seniors and the company's PPT.
P2: So you took a job two months ago and do not know anything about it now?
Me:Sir... I was focussing on my interviews.
P1:(smirking) What will you do if you do not get into the IIMs??Will you go to the job without knowing anything?( They exchange sarcastic looks)
Me:I will be fully prepared by the time I take up my job...fundae...
P2: Karthik, You have in your SOP said that playing basketball has honed your team skills?
Me: Yes..
P1: Did you not know about team work before that?
Me: Basketball taught me ....team work answers that I had framed in practice...real beautiful actually..
P2: But in basketball you get so many opportunities to score...Tell me how may baskets are scored on an average in basketball per game??
Me:35-40...(in professional leagues)
P2: Ok...Now take a game like football....how many goals are scored per game..the average?
Me:2-3
P1: You are an engineer...Is that an average?
Me:2.3(How did I arrive at this number??)
P2:Ok...Now tell me is team work more important in football or basketball?
Me:Equally important.
P1:In which is it more important..even slightly..
Me:Probably football...there are 11 players...more difficult to coordinate...and the match can be won by a single goal...
P2:So what did you learn from basketball if teamwork is less important there(huge laughter amongst themselves..I just paste a smile on my face)
P1: Karthik, Coming back to the question I asked you...What should we ask you questions on?
Me:hmm.....
P1: I'll make it easier for you...What should we not ask you questions on...
Me:hmmm...1 second..
P1: Over....(loud laughter) Tell me..I'll give you 10 seconds to tell me the answer...
Me:Finance, economics[ :) ]..
P1:So I can ask you questions on anything else...you are an expert on everything else,huh?
Me:....(silence)
P1:Ok..I'll ask you 10th standard civics...What are the fundamental rights of India?
Me: I dont know...
P1: What do you know..You just said you are an expert...(laughs)
Me: I dont know civics..
P1:Ok..Politics
Me: Oh Boy....
P2: The elections are coming up right.....Tell me what are the major coalitions possible?
Me: Told..
P2: But the BSP?Is it not part of the third front?
Me: It was...but at the tme of the elections I cannot predict....Many leaders not comfortable with Maya as a Primr Ministerial candidate after the debacle during the n-deal majority vote last year...(smiles all around)
P1: But right now you would say its in the third front?
Me: Yes...
P1: Write it all down...
P2: How many seats are in the Lok Sabha?
Me: A few seconds Sir...542...
P2: Close...very close...its 543...
P1:Good...Can you tell us how many seats each party will win?
Me:The three major coalitions??
P2:Yes...Do that...The real fun begins after that...
Me: I start thinking....
P1 shows P2 my SOP and says "Look at what he has written.." They laugh out loud...I am perplexed...Then they go on in Bengali....
Me: Done sir...
P2: So this is it?? So tell me how many seats in Lok sabha from UP??
Me:Not Sure...But I think It must be around 80...(luckily it turned out to be right)
P1: So ...Tell me how many do you thik BSP will win?
Me: Told...
P1: SP?
Me: Told...
P2: Ok....If you make it to IIMB we'll definetly talk about the results and your predictions...
Me: Definetly Sir..
P1: Thank You Karthik...You can Go..
Me: Thank You Sirs...

Thats it, I guess..It was a feel good interview...All smiles, all laughs...But thats how it was with everyone in my panel...

MY IIM KOZHIKODE INTERVIEW

My IIMK interview was on the 24th of February....I had eaten well and had a packet of biscuits with me( Didn't want a repeat of the Indore hunger pangs!). It was at the International Management Institute. I reached early and spent an hour reading up the latest economic shit from the net!!(ah..the things you have to go through for the interviews)

The GD/PI process started at 1400...
GD : About the Commerce Ministry's decision to ban Chinese toys..Was it really health concerns or protectionist policy??

The thing about this gd was that all was were seated very closr to one another...our elbows were almost touching!! Was a good discussion...I managed to put across 3-4 good points.

Interview:
Had a very cool panel. Two middle-aged profs. One of my worst fears come true...Was an acads only interview....100% pure acads....
If I go into the details I am sure I will bore the shit out of people...

The first 15 minutes I was asked about the Indian paper Industry. I wa asked to quote every conceivable figure related to it.....eg: production, capacity , demand, amount of pulp imported, Amount of waste paper imported, amount of waste paper colected in india and the list goes...

Some were really weird...Average cost of paper in India ...How is that possible with so many grades so many different sizes..

Luckily I had studied all this and was able to answer 90% of the crap they asked.
They also extracted my opinion of the Indian paper Industry and the future I see it heading towards.

Then came economics...
3 questions......supply demand curves.....answered but in part only...asked to determine the independent/dependent variable...gave the right answer but got confused and in the end Imixed it all up..

Consumer excess.....drew a graph...they laughed loudly on seeing it..."You got an A in this subject??" was one of the questions they asked me...

Inflation.....was almost right ...got confused between price index and inflation rate....was asked whether an increase in inflation rate corresponds to a rise in price......Gave the correct answer in the end...

That was it.... A pretty boring interview....Was glad it was over!!

FUNFACT: I had torn a ligament in my knee the previous week and so was limping...The interviewer pointedly asked me if was a general candidate as I limped out the room!!

P.S.: I have no idea how any of my interviews went....Your evaluations are most welcome.

MY IIM INDORE INTERVIEW

The interview was at the Indian Social Institute on the 23rd at 1330. I reached an hour early and generally asked around for feedback. Everyone had had a tech interview. These guys were really keen on acads...

I was limping around due to a damaged ligament on my right knee and was very hungry.....so was pretty uncomfortable all together.....I had a couple of biscuits to assuage my hunger pangs...

(a word of advice: eat something before going to the interview...my stomach growled so bad I that my panel may have heard it)

It was around two when a Prof walked in. He split us into 3 groups(of ten each) and we were off to the GD.

Topic:

A Question on ethics...About an MBA-grad sales manager questioning some of the company practices. We had to decide on his course of action...

An good GD....very civil...was able to put across a lot of points.

Interview:

I was the first to be called in.

IThere were two guys on the panel....A real cool guy(CG)...the other was and inquisitve guy(IG)...and there was me.(ME)

They went over my form and my folder. Silence reigned for 5 mins.

IG: ok....Karthik....So you are from Pulp and paper??Is it a part of Mechanical??

ME: No Sir....An extension of chemical.

CG: Its in saharanpur right??

ME: Yes...Go on to explain the two campus theory.

IG: So you have done a course on economics?? What is value addition?

ME: answered

IG: More grilling on Value added and its role in gdp calculation

ME: answered.

IG: what is labour market?

Me: I dont know.

IG: persists.

ME: ditto.

IG: High level eco shit...statistical demand etc...

Me: Ditto

IG: It dawns on IG that my course was a basic one...Then asked something on stats..

ME: Answered.

IG: you have done microprocessor applications, Tell me some industrial applications.

ME: I start on calculators...

IG cuts me short..: Industrial!!

ME: Instrumentation, Process control, Automation.

IG: How is it used in traffic lights, a couple of random equipments..

ME: Blank face....IG intreprets quickly...:You haven't studied all this??

ME: No sir,

IG: Then why is the name of the course Applications...It should be Study of Microprocessors..

ME: Dont know Sir...I tell him about applications in the paper industry...Go on for 5 minutes about how it is used in digesters ...seems satisfied....

IG looks to CG

CG: SO...a sportsman Karthik.....tell me do you think India will win the 2010 world cup...

ME: There is a bright chance,Sir.

CG: But our bolwers are inconsistent. How can we win it ??

ME: Go on about recent form, Dhoni as a captain, Zaheer's form and maturity, T20 being a good platform for One day bowling...He seemed happy..

CG: Know about any recent rankings of Indian legends?

ME:I dont know..

CG:Very Surprising...Based on Statistics...

ME: No Sir.

CG: What is a top spin delivery?

Me: Gave fundae( I am a leggie...so was easy)

CG: Googly??

Me: Answered.

CG: Doosra?? Difference between both??

Me: Explained satisfactorily.

CG: Name a great Indian googly bowler..

Me: Anil Kumble(No)....Laxman Sivaramakrishnan(No) .......B. Chandrashekhar( No)

STUMPED!!

Guys and Gals....Any clues???

CG: What is the International Date Line and where is it located??

Me: Fumbled horribly..got most of the details wrong..

CG: Ok...What is this West Indies?? Is it a country??

Me: No Sir... Group of islands...named them..

IG: You forgot Cuba? Is it not in the Caribbean?

Me: Its on the Caribbean Sea..But its a par to of S. America??

IG: Sure??

Me: Yes Sir..

CG & IG share a laugh...Ok You can Go..

Thats It....Thats all I can recollect...It lasted for half an hour ...my longest interview....I'll post the rest shortly

P.S.: I have no idea how any of my interviews went....Your evaluations are most welcome..

OF CUPS AND PUBS...

Sampras' endorsement, Laver's presence, History beckons.....but a fighter from Mallorca huffed and puffed Federer's dreams away. Never has the Swiss master resorted to such an overt display of emotion as in the presentation Ceremony after the match. Not since he turned Champion, at least.
I remember a match at Monte Carlo, I think, three or four years ago between Federer and Nadal...Nadal was leading 2-0 on sets and had broken Federer in the third. After a wayward shot Roger smashed his racquet , a most Safin-like act. He was at a crossroad then....You see, unknown to many, Roger was not always great. He was said to be a great talent but did not have the temperment or so the experts claimed. Believe it or not, he was once fined by the Swiss Tennis Federation for breaking too many racquets!! But then things changed, Federer changed, hot blood had turned ice...curiously enough it coincided with his meeting Mirka, a fellow tennis player in Swiss team for the Sydney Olympics....maybe a woman is behind every great man ;)......So, back at Monte Carlo, Federer could have lost his temper and his composure and hence the match. But the emotion of breaking the racquet stirred him up. He rallied to win the third and decimated Nadal in the next two.
Oh, and It was on clay.

On Sunday, I felt that Federer was at such a crossroad again. The ice, it seemed, had melted to flow through his eyes. This may be the point where he decides to shrug off Nadal, Murray, Sampras etc and claim his rightful place at the top of tennis or slip off into oblivion or as far away as people with 13 grand slams can slip off to. The onus is on him....or Mirka,perhaps. Maybe the lady has to work her magic once more ;).

Speaking of ladies, I can't let the events in Mangalore slip me by. The moral police were out in force wielding the big stick of culture. The victims were young women and men and the Indian culture!! The Ram Sena workers took law into their own hands..no....they became the law. Mr. Muthalik and many others felt that whiskey and women are too dangerous a cocktail for us. The NCW came dangerously close to sounding pitiful for the perps. they said that the poor guys were just emotionally outraged that their women were indulging in such a moral travesty. Talking of culture, Is beating up women a part of ours? There is a moral brigade out there against the rising hem lines and dropping necklines and women drinking and the "pub culture " in general. But if you care about women so much, why not stop prostitution and eve teasing first? And if you want to shut down the pubs then shouldn't we start with the liquor shops? Oh, its fine as most are state-run...The revenue helps and its only the men doing the drinking??
Moral policing should stop at the doorstep....Maybe its time we came out and talked about this in the open. Supressed emotions are not good, be it for Federer or the Ram Sena.

A Few Pinches of Shame!!

The extraordinary follows me when I travel, I guess( which is why I stay in the room most of the time!!). Today I was traveling by bus when it came knocking again. I was on the phone when the conductor came to my seat to give me my ticket. I fished the wallet out of my pocket and took out fifty bucks. The note slipped off my hand and landed on the seat beside me. The guy beside made a motion to pick it as finished up my call and then I waited......Well? Why was he not giving it back?? I thanked him and asked for the money to which he astonishingly replied that it was his. Now he had taken it in front of my eyes and he had the guts to claim it as his. Anger was my first reaction and in my best terse voice I asked him to return it. He said that it was his and that he had taken it out of his pocket. I was perplexed. Then I started a slow burn wherein I was losing my temper and tried to snatch it off him. Then this sudden attack of ...well call it pity or the sheer stupidity or whatever I let go and told if he really needed it he could keep it. I just wanted him to own up to his theft. He didn't. After a while I started to talk to him. His name was.........(nope, no names...we look for religion in names), a carpenter by profession. And I , in my most polite manner ,must have asked him at least a dozen to own up without fear of retribution. The one hour journey ended with his denial...." I am not that sort of a man". The shame I felt, not for myself but for him, at that moment is indescribable. Fresh out of a Group Discussion on Gandhian values my "moral index" was high and shame made me cringe. Compulsive lying for fifty bucks!! He could have had that fifty bucks even if he had been truthful to me and yet he wanted to live a lie. In retrospect, given another chance maybe I would given him a resounding slap and dragged him the police or pried it out of his fingers. But somehow what I did felt right then. Right or wrong..I do not know.

Back in the campus...I heard that students are being suspended for sexual harassment. Twenty years of education. Years together in college and it comes down to this!! I am blaming neither party involved nor am I passing judgement on which side is correct in its actions. The issue and the way it has unfolded(through hearsay) are repugnant. When the "educated " youth of a premier institute, be it a boy or a girl, get down to this sort of behaviour I can but bow my head in shame. Is this the precedent we want to set of our juniors? Is this what it should come down to?

Yeh Dil Maange More!!!

There are times when i desperately wish I had a digicam which I can carry around to capture on tape some of those timeless moments that pass me by. Memory autosaves I guess, but sometimes the joy is in sharing the moment with others.

One such moment passed me by the other day. I was on the Tamil Nadu Express on my way to Delhi from Chennai. So as we neared Delhi a group of small kids (a lot like Salim and jamal from Slumdog Millionaire). Torn clothes, pencilled in moustaches, bright eyed, sharp toungued and wonderful voices singing to the beat of a couple of couple of stones.

There were three of them, a couple were around 8 and the youngest must have been around 5. The little imp was a lively customer. He went around collecting money while the others doled out the music. So the kid reached my seat and I sent him off with a shake of my head. He gave me a baleful look and seeing no returns set off to a young couple who sat beside me. He began a very determined appeal for money. The guy resisted and shooed him off in three languages(Hindi, English and Telugu) but the lil' guy wouldn't yield. Then the lil' guy got really excited about something and was doing some feverish pointing. The man's resistance collapsed and he took out his wallet and took out ten bucks and handed it to the boy.

The boy pushed away the money and pointed again. Our eyes turned as one to where he was pointing to. Hanging inside a polythene bag inside was a bottle of Pepsi. The little chap had somehow seen it and now he was determined to get his hands on that. The couple looked at each in shock. The boy was literally pleading now. His companions had moved on the next compartment and he was desperate to join them. He took out from his torn bag another half full bottle of pepsi and pointed it to the man as if the guy were hard of understanding and couldn't get the lillte guy's message. The man looked helpless. He turned to his wife who looked out the window wanting no part of this little tirade.

He finally gave in and handed the boy the Pepsi. The boy gave out the most resounding shout...Yeah...PEPSI!!!..... and scampered to join the others leaving us wide-eyed and open-mouthed...

Never have I seen a better ad for Pepsi.....Ah....How i wish i had a digicam...My words can never do justice to that scene....