my updates

Dear friend,
Just few more days left before the D-day when our MBA program starts formally. Almost all the profs we meet scare us by telling it’s going to be a grueling fall/winter session. We are getting mentally prepared for the worst.


The past 3 weeks have been a completely different experience for me. Never ever have I stayed away from home for this long & that too so far away. Every now & then I’m reminded of mom & dad, I think “should I have listened to dad & stayed back in my home-sweet-home?”

Each time I have something at McDonalds or Subway, I’m reminded of those occasions where mom used to prepare some curries that I didn’t like very much & she used to plead “eat this one time son, I’ll prepare your favorite mutton curry tomorrow”
But each time such emotions run through me, I’m reminded of the moral of how even gold needs to be heated & melted in order to make it an aesthetic jewel.


Nagaraj uncle & his family are a great respite for me. Staying with them, I feel as comfortable as I would have staying with my family.
Internet has also been of great help. By visiting some of the Kannada websites, we can ‘almost’ feel at home. I frequently visit kannadaaudio.com, thatskannada.com & prajavani.com. I am constant touch with all my dear friends through mails & chat.


I happened to visit a few must-visit places in & around Toronto such as the Niagara falls, Toronto islands & the CN Tower. We decided we’d rather visit them now, since there may not be much time later to go around.
We had also been to the Toronto Blue Jays baseball game with Boston Red Sox. It seemed more like a networking session where I got introduced some of my Rotman classmates.


In the past 3 weeks, I’ve stayed at different places in Toronto such as Brampton, Dundas West, Elmhurst, Lansdowne & Toronto Downtown. The one thing that completely impresses me is the cultural diversity that’s made this beautiful city. I think you’ll find people from almost all places in the world such as Ethiopia, Ukraine, Burma, China & India (of course).

I think Toronto is a blown up version of Bengaluru. Just as you’ll find people from every corner of India in Bengaluru, you’ll find people from every corner of the Earth here.
SABA (South Asian Business Association), a Rotman club, had organized a very useful session on PR (Permanent Resident, equivalent to US Green Card) application. This has given me some josh to complete the formalities & submit the application. Will have to dedicate some more time this week & weekend for this.


Most of the recommended book list for this quarter is out & most of the students have started preparing seriously. Even I need to start off now, hunting for the books i.e :)
Ok, too much info in this 1 posting. Bye for now..

Charles Schultz's philosophy & future of the Internet

Came across this nice article: http://www.rogerknapp.com/inspire/schultzphilosophy.htm.
I think this article very aptly represents the recent trends of the Internet. Of late, social networking sites & sites with user developed content such as photos & blogs have been the most popular sites.
So, what has led to this demand for such community based sites? I figure out sociological & technological reasons for this.
Technologically, as memory becomes cheaper, websites can host more users for much lesser costs.
But at a sociological level, I think its our growing passion to share our world with our near & dear ones and also our excitement to know more about the people we care.

tips for a good presentation

1st week of International Student Orientation Week just finished today & the air is filled with so much competition.
There was a presentation competition where all the students were split into teams of 4 (mine being the last team had 3 members), each team had to give a presentation on a chosen topic. My team's team presentation on Operation/Supply Chain Mgmt. was a big disappointment. Although we had some very good visuals & had aimed at reducing text in the ppt to as low as possible, the judgment panel had a Logistics Prof who grilled us thoroughly.
Although, we didn't quite manage to get to the finals (any surprises here ??), I did managed to compile few tips that need to considered when giving future presentations. This was a collection of feedbacks that our & other teams received from the panel. (after adding Soumak's contribution)

When preparing the presentation:

1)1^st word of each bullet should be of same case (upper case/lower case).

2) Show slide number, date & ppt title on each title.

3) Diagrams must be easy to read, non-cluttering & not confusing. If too big, cut it & split it to the next slide.

4) To impress the subject expert, try to cover the future trends of the topic.

5) Use humor, but let not the humor be criticizing the topic.

6) Ensure there's a logical structure to your presentation. For instance, it must have a contents & conclusion section.

7) Do not have too much text.

During the presentation:

1) Dress code should be uniform for all the team members.

2) Support a team member if he’s stuck at a particular point.

3) For guys, having hands in the pocket is a big no-no, since it may seem that the presenters are bit laid back for the occasion.

4) Beware of the time constraint.

5) During the presentation, don’t “read out” what’s on the slide. Don’t turn back to the display to refer to it. Look at your laptop in your front to get clues if you are stuck.

6) Its better to not move around. Too movement may distract the audience.

I'm sure you'll have more tips that could be added. Please add them as comments, I'll consolidate them.

Update on Sep 9th, 2009:
Here's an interested read on this topic: LINK

a week that was..

phew..
what a week this was..
It was in this week that I've embarked on a new life of sorts. New place, new role, new friends...
With so many new changes, there are bound to have quite a few commotions.

Since I reached Toronto a week later than most of the Indian guys, accommodation turned out to be quite an hurdle.
On a particular day, Ramit & I walked almost 20 kms & 5 hrs around the Downtown area but in vain.
I was temporarily staying in my dad's friend, Nagaraj uncle's house. I finally managed to move in with Pavan, Vinay & Sid.

Getting adjusted to Canada takes some time. Back in India, we are so used to chaos that a sudden wave of discipline & orderliness takes you by surprise.
Say you were crossing a Toronto road, you see a car speeding towards you, you wait for it to pass, but as the car nears you, the car waits for you to pass. Both you & the driver are at confusion for few moments, waiting for each other to pass.

Traffic rules here are pedestrian friendly. Well, its supposed to be the same in India too, but here the difference here is that the rules are strictly adhered.

Toronto is a superb city, innumerable number of skyscrapers, interspersed with older Victoria styled structures dating back to late 1800's, wide roads, beautiful boulevards all will leave awestruck.

In the past week, I've seen almost all the cars I used to dream about since childhood. Here's an easy way to see you fav car in Toronto: 1) think of ur favorite car: a Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborghini or a Mustang 2) go to Downtown 3) close your eyes for 30 secs & 4) slowly open your eyes. You'll see that car speeding past you.

TTC is another great feature in Toronto. Trians come, people get down, people get in, a music indicates the train is leaving & the train leaves. Everything happening in perfect precision. So much precision that sometimes life may feel too mechanical for us Indians..

I must say, the way we associate Germany to engineering or Italy to design or Japan to technology, we must associate desciple & order to Canada.. :)

One more thing we Indians need to get adjusted to is deal with an array of coins. Its coins & coins wherever you go.. $2, $1, 50c & so on till 1c. It'll fill ur purse so much that in the end you'll be forced to donate some of them.

Overall, its a beautiful city, so much to explore & learn. Hope to buy a camera soon & capture some of the snapshots here.



P.S. This article was started on Saturday evening but due to all sorts of pressures, was able to complete only on Tuesday.

a glutton's dream come true..

Just have look at my this week's (last week in India) schedule. It's sure gonna make the glutton in u get mouth-watering dreams.. :)
Tuesday dinner -- @ Vinay's house. As usual Raj had come late, but was trying to pass the blame on me & Machi. But we are well-versed with his ways. The food was typical South-Indian Vysya fare. His mom had taken pains to prepare some wonderful coconut obbattus. Plus there were lots of other sweets, tasty fried items, sweetened sambar, etc & ending with the typical serving of puffed rice!!

Wednesday lunch -- treat given by me to my Alcatel-Lucent team. Dominos Pizzas with various delicious toppings. Had to make a hard negotiation with the cashier to get a decent discount.

Wednesday dinner -- @ my cousin's house. His wife had prepared some amazing kababs, chicken chops & mutton curry; all giving a terrific combination to the ragi mudde.

Thursday dinner -- @ Raj's house. As usual, he was late, making all of us furious. But our furiousity was dampened soon by his mother's cooking. Although non-veg was the main course, his mother had taken pains to prepare vegetarian food for the vegitarian parties of our gang: Vinay & Manja. For the non-vegitarians, we had chilly chicken & mutton fry & a very thin mutton curry that my mom occassionally prepares. In no time, each of us had downloaded 2 generous servings of rice..

Friday lunch -- gave a treat to my Sasken team. Yet again, it was a pizza treat, since nothing seemed to fit my "tight budget". We got a good number of pizzas & everyone were quite filled in the end..

Friday dinner -- @ Manja's house. His mom comes closest to my mom in terms of taste. I reason out this could be because both of them hail from the same geographical area of South Eastern Karnataka (his mom is from Kolar & mine is from Devanahalli, just 40 kms apart) & hence a similar use of ingredients & preparation methods.
Ok, analysis apart, his mom had prepared wonderful dal obbattu & jamoon (esp. for Raj & Vinay). As such, even I am not a very big connoisuer of obbattu, but its preparation is such a tedious & pain-staking process that you need to eat few as gratitude for the cook. The dal rasam was so delicious that I helped myself with some more servings of rice.

Tomorrow's breakfast is in my home. Mom has said she'll prepare Vegetable Palav & jamoon.

So this was my eating itinery for this week. Now, dont u think this wld make anybody's mouth water?

Before I end this write-up, my heartfelt thanks to all my friends & cousins & their families for showing so much love & affection towards me.