Feast on the eve of New Year

Feast contents: Chicken Biryani, Deep fried chicken
Master Chef : Prajit

Eating Place: Lobby area of house

Eaters: Pramod, Prajit and myself

Eating Time: around 10.00 PM

Alcohols(from left): Soju, Vodka, Whisky.......with Sprite (finished the mid 2)

....Christmas Eve

.....at Suntec City around 8 pm

....at Orchard road around 9.30 pm

Christmas is one of the few festivals celebrated in Singapore with much enthusiasm , celebrations and lightings.....The orchard road view of crowded people is very rare otherwise.

Singapore Garden Festival

Visited Singapore Garden Festival with Prajit at Suntec City.

On Print media

The The StraitTimes and The Business Times in Singapore carried this full page advertisement on NUS Business School ...which has recently been ranked as the most preferred choice by recruiters for MBA recruitment in asia pacific region.

Another addition to cookery skills...

Ah after a long while cooked something which I liked and would be edible for others :))...... finally getting some interest in cooking with all good chefs around in the house...hope to move up the value chain from current job of dish washer mostly :).....was planning to skip lunch...but couldnt control after 3 PM..so decided to make something on my own...tired of eating Maggi noodles....the dish is called "allo-pyaaz ki sabji in Hindi"...translates to "Potato, Onion vegetable"........huum ingredients which I took.... Onion, Potato, sunflower oil, mustard seeds, salt, turmeric powder, cumin seeds (Jeera), green chillies, garlic and coriander......wasnt sure how it would turn out but task was successful. Unfortunately no roomies were around at that time in house.....So now assurity of one dish which I can cook decently......oh and ya one dish of eggs too......count expected to increase in near future :)

the Operations site....

The Language Of Feelings....interesting read

ah after long some reading again :) was looking to read something on human behaviour after finishing off with exams ......and got hold of this book after looking around through book shelves in Central Library......The Language of Feelings... by David Viscott.....book became part of NUS Central Library book collection in 1985. Truly a worthwhile read. Written in a very simple and plain language without psychological jargon... prmilarily dealing with issues of feelings of hurt, loss, anxiety, anger, guilt and depression.....so more in tune with how to overcome negative feelings.......I definately gained some insight after reading the book ...though the book has been written much with american perspective in mind many of the concepts explained are universal.....next to read will be other book on same topic but written with asian perspective.....i.e by an asian author.

Some Notes I made while reading :).......

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In a real friendship both friends understand that they will occasionally hurt and be hurt. They can accept this not as a weakness but as a proof of their humanness. They don’t see hurt as an excuse for discounting an honest friendship.

Our hurt is a reaffirmation of our ability to form attachments, to become emotionally invested in the world and to find meaning in it.

What should one do when one have been hurt?
If someone hurts our feelings, or causes one pain, express our hurt to that person as directly and honestly as possible. The simplest way to say is to say,“ You hurt my feelings when you did this and so.”

Industrialization has often progressed at the expense of the individual. When one experience a feeling without hiding it, it passes most quickly and drains one the least.

One don’t have to be seething with rage to qualify as being angry. Indeed, most of the anger that people feel is not violent or difficult to control.

How much anger needs to be expressed to balance a hurt?

It varies from person to person. Some can merely mention their hurt to the person who caused it and their anger is over and done with. Others have so much pent-up anger that they go into a rage at getting a wrong number.

Important points to remember:
1. When someone has hurt one tell them so directly and openly and also tell them exactly why.
2. Do this in Private
3. Don’t unnecessarily set them in defensive. It will only make them feel like retaliating rather than listening.
4. Be firm as one need to be to get our point across but try not to be punitive.
5. If one feels other person hurt one on purpose, say so.

Expressing anger properly is healthy and restoring. For some people feeling angry makes them feel badly about themselves, and so they keep their feelings bottled up. People fear getting angry for different reasons, depending, to some degree, on their background and past experiences.

Dependent people are afraid that being angry will prove they are unlovable.
Controlling people tend to equate showing anger with losing control.
Esteem seeking people often suppress their anger by hiding behind an act of some kind.

People are generally mixture to the 3 types in different proportions.

Becoming totally honest is the first step to becoming free. Expressing our feelings openly is the second.

The proper expression of hurt redirects negative feelings outside of ourselves and is vital to restoring our emotional balance.

Our moods colour our world and shape our reality.

Our feelings can tell one a great deal about the world and ourself, but they shouldn’t be considered evidence to prove our worth.If one feel something, one need to have courage to express it.

Getting angry and crying, is not being out of control but merely expressing intense feelings. Some people don’t think its “nice” to have such strong feelings. Such a notion of what’s nice is itself stifling. The very fear of losing control often can result from denying the urge to let out feelings.

To happy consequence of getting free of burdensome emotions is to become open. To be open one need to understand what one feel, know where the feeling comes from, and be able to express that feeling to whomever is appropriate. Feelings tell the truth. When one are open , needs still exist, but one can perceive them clearly because one is open to feelings that define and interpret them.

Feelings without honesty are defences
The world without honesty is an illusion
Memory without honesty is only a fantasy
Time without honesty can never be now
Space without honesty can never be here
Love without honesty is possessiveness

It’s bad to have a conversation with somebody who cant or wont let through what he/she feels about you. These unspoken feelings generally surface in some form at some other and less appropriate time anyway, causing great mischief, confusion and probably further defensiveness.

The road to each person’s highest self is paved by feelings honestly perceived and straightforwardly expressed.

A loss in the future is perceived as fear.
A loss in the present is perceived as pain.
A loss in the past is perceived as anger.
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One more review on this Link

Jaju's wicket down

Manish Jaju: bowled out on 10th December 2006

Recieved wedding invitation from my very good friend Jaju( first name Manish)......marrying to Srishti...to whom I had given sort of induction training from QA's aspect when she had joined Nucleus ...just about the time of my departure from Nucleus to do MBA at NUS.....Jaju , missed all action man....roughly total TAT of 16 months :)....same as my MBA course....so both finish off with different degrees :))....oh and I remember ex-roomie and MBA batchmate Dipankar(.... he has also lost his wicket...) calling up during the same time(...i.e induction training) for talk...which I postponed....Dips now u can figure out the reason why :)).......

Visit to Chinese Garden

Pagodas

Inside view of pagoda

...view at the entrance to the garden

Confucius statue

Pai Hung Chiao (white rainbow bridge)

Really cool place.... 4-5 visits more definately.

To know more about the place, check this link.

Chinese Garden MRT station is 5th from the left on green line in map below....

here comes the rain again.....

from scratch to the verge of Operation...huuf

I never knew this could one of the scariest things happening to me. About 4-5 weeks back , I saw suddenly some foul smelling stuff coming out of the belly button area.....very little....i wondered if the umbilical cord stiches have opened and its unwinding.....scary...slowly lose all stomach stuff :)..well just ignored it...then slowly the discharge became larger and now combined with blood...huum...strange stuff....never really knew about any such injury.....to add to the problem.....it was not visible as to what was wrong in the region....but the blood and fluid kept coming out...not a flow but i guess 3-4 drops a day.....and strangely there was no pain either....over a period the discharge was increasing now....huum no more under ignorance limit so checked out a doctor....ah some bacterial infection causing formation of a small lump he said... due to scratching around the belly button area.... damn... scratching proved a costly affair..... doctor gave some antibiotics and antibactrial stuff to try out for 4 days....and then report back if there is any progress...huuf...no change when I went to see doctor after 4 days...ahh and so he said operation necessary to prevent the lump from growing big.....huum got no choice....so fixed up an appoitment with other doctor at operation clinic at NUH....date just next after last exam on 28th......waah thankfully by the time appointment date 29th came ....it looked like condition was improving ....just wanted to be doubly sure so went to meet doctor of the operation clinic in NUH ...and relieved to find out that the lump had gone........... gained additional knowledge of the region of infection being called belly button area :).......

Bday and drink PANNA.....

......huum one more year older..........decided to spend the afternoon sleeping......and in the evening went to Raj with Prajit, Balu where Dips and Surabhi joined us.Dips got the cake (...unexpectedly... :)..) with all candle stuff so celebrated cake cutting and blowing off the candles in the restaurant itself.

But the limelight of the evening was the drink PANNA. Balu and Prajit had ordered the drink earlier after lot of discussion of what to drink. Somehow the drink never arrived first along with starters ....., nevertheless gungho about tasting this new thing under Juice menu they again ordered Panna...and this time Dips and Surabhi also happily gaves a thumbs up to same drink. Nobody checked with the waitress first as exactly what it was. The assumption was the drink was panah--a drink made out of raw mangoes and considered to keep the body cool....famous in northern India . I didnt feel like taking any and was contended with plain water. Finally after a wait the drink arrived and every one was curious as didnt look as per expectation...... ..everyone looked at each others face , studied more the contents on the packaged bottle, tasted it.........it turned out to be mineral water from the Hills of Tuscany in Italy..... :)) ....all bursted out with laughter after realizing the mistake.....looking again at the Juices Menu revealed that even Mineral Water was also mentioned in the same...just beneath PANNA......though it didnt caught anyones attention while ordering.... Nevertheless.....all dranked Panna with relishment and juice style :))))).....

Joked and laughed around for some time after dinner......with Balu finishing with PANNA as desert item....kept it till the last :))

3rd season of Singapore

Haze season currently since past 2 weeks because of forest fires in the sumatra region of Indonesia. More info here.

Transformation.......

Gillette Presto- 0.5 SGD
Dettol Shaving Cream- 0.66 SGD

Gillette Mach3 Turbo- 16 SGD
Gillette Mach3 Nitrogel- 9.50 SGD

Being Cool.....

Something to ponder on, How to deal with difficult people ?.....some always tend to behave like that and some having a roller coaster ride sometimes.....what to do in such scenario? .....I tend to remain calm and let the other person speak till he/she has oogled out whatever is bothering him/her or try my very best that he/she does that. Sometimes this can be really stressful but I try to be cool as nothing will be achieved if I also get defensive and replicate the same behaviour. This approach lets the other person cool off rapidly also :) and here I found proof of my belief --aaah cool.
(......ahh but I am not perfect as well and sometimes land up in argument but usually retrieve back to coolness pretty soon)

Vikram & Betal

Looking out for something light and fast to read after all those case readings which always leaves one perplexed...thought of Vikram & Betal triggered in...so just googled across to read some stories of one of my most liked telelvision series of short stories-- Vikram Aur Baital (Vikram and the Vampire) ....those good old days :).....anxiously waiting for the program on television with an uncertainity of whether electricity would be there or not.

Google did not gave any link to full list of stories so turned to Project Gutenberg which helped...justed keyed in Vikram in title word search and bingo.

Here is a very brief introduction to the book: King Vikram is entrusted with the task of fetching a vampire that hangs from a tamarind tree. Having brought down the vampire and slung it onto his back, Vikram is on his way, when the treacherous creature begins to speak. He tells Vikram a story (25 stories in all, eleven of which appear in Burton's book) and asks him a question at the end of each. The conditions are that if the king opens his mouth to answer either from vanity, or conceit, or from the vampire's treachery or from a moral duty, the vampire would leave him and go back to hang upside down from his tree. Only if the king remained silent out of humility or ignorance would the vampire accompany him to his destination. And so the tales begin. Time after time, Vikramaditya cannot help but answer the vampire's mischieviously designed queries. Time after time, the vampire, in an explosion of triumphant laughter, gives him the slip. Time after time, Vikramaditya pulls him down again and sets off on another journey, on another story. More here.

Origins of V&B :
Brihat-katha, written in the 5th cent BC in the Paishachi dialect.

full version of 11 stories in pdf.

I always love knowledge imparted in the form of a story telling......though MBA also does that in form of case studies but the complexities are much higher and without the solution part....only the problem part stated mostly....solution can vary as there are always many possibilities of next action and thats where you got to apply whatever you have learned in that particular MBA module. Sometimes interesting but sometimes huuf damm confusing....

Draft version of POHA

Aah with all good chefs living along(Prajit , Balu and Pramod).....I also got hooked to some cooking today. First try at POHA and decent enough to eat :).

Crossdocking

Some gyan after a long time.....hardcore knowledge. While going through the first chapter of the supply chain management book came across the term crossdocking....though heard a lot of times but had not got a clear idea of what exactly it is. So spent an hour researching on the same. So what exactly is cross docking..... huum before that
Traditional method of goods management :
goods from vendors----warehouse----retail outlets/customer
Here generally warehouse has 4 activities--receiving, storage, order picking and shipping.

CrossDocking helps in removing the storage and order picking activity from the above activities of warehouse. Crossdocks are essentially transshipment facilities to which shipments arrive in carriers(usually trucks) with goods that are loaded onto outbound carriers mostly within 24 hours.

In the traditional model warehouse maintains stock until a customer orders, then the product is picked , packed and shipped.When replacements arrive at the warehouse they are stored until the customer is identified. In crossdocking, the customer is known before the product gets to the warehouse and there is no need to move it to storage. Inventory holding costs also get minimized, space required is also less (warehouse Vs crossdock).

RETAILERS

VENDORS

Wallmart has executed it successfully and almost 85% of its products are crossdocked.One of its major competitive advantages against its competitors.

But implementing crossdocking has its own challenges. First coordination among all members, vendors and retailers/customers. Also establishment of system information system requirements is a major barrier in implementing crossdocking successfully. Hence still its not that famous but the trends are positive as the global competition increases and efforts to reduce down costs on all fronts increase.

Crossdocks generally have rectangular shape with some in L, H or T shapes.

Links Crossdocking Keeps A Knocking , Crossdocking

Runners Up at SYNERGY 2006

Had been working on the business plan for Synergy 2006 (a patent commercialization business plan competition ) organized by NTU with 6 of my other group members since June. Finally the efforts paid of well with our team PLASMA CORP. winning the 2nd Prize in the competition with cash reward of 3000 SGD on 23rd Sept. It has been a great experience working with the team. Synergy effect was definately there among all, which made such outcome possible. Excellent team, though too much perfectionism , including myself :) . Really amazes me of people with such diverse backgrounds and nationalities( Indian, Singaporean, Chinese, French and American) can form such a strong team. Truly global yet highly synergized. I personally had to struggle a bit over my fear of public speaking before final presentation...too much nervousness ...I feel very jittery whenever I am supposed to speak in front of a big crowd. Team members helped a lot in boosting up my confidence,thanks to their efforts, hoof finally somehow I managed to deliver decently. Now next time its going to be much easier.I wonder why as I use to easily give training sessions to 30 people with much ease in my last job. May be the comfortability factor I had made the difference earlier. Only the speaking part is troublesome when its like a monologue......Q&A after the presentation , all that jitter goes away...strange. May be I should practice more of speaking in public to overcome this phobia. Just typed in google on same (fear of public speaking) and wooooh 21,300,000 search results, no wonder there are many out there like me :) . Found some interesting articles : 1, 2 .

Amazing virtual world....connecting to real

Opening up of the internet era has virtually opened a new platform for introverts like me. Now when I look at my friends list in Orkut , I wonder am I actually an introvert or may be an ambivert. Orkut is just amazing....a brainchild of Orkut Buyukkokten, a google employee.I got connected back to some of my school days friends after nearly 10-12 years. So easy to remain in touch with those you know and get connected to those u had known so far but were not in contact anymore and get connected with more like minded people...no geographical boundries. I feel more at ease to speak virtually with many and I guess its the same with many others (esp. intros and ambis). Ya its virtual to start with but once one get at ease virtually, its easy to get at ease in real ....internet just fills this spot for many who are reluctant to start of a conversation directly and find a place where they can start at ease being their own self.....messengers, blogs, online communities...all do wonders..... (personal opinion, u can have your own views).

Piece of Art

An artistic piece which has taken a long time of about 18 months to get into its current form. Really a lot of work as can be seen from its present status. Its a rarity in Singapore to find such items. The main ingredients to have such a piece are laziness, dont care attitude and living as a bachelor.No more in use now.....

Running against time...

Huuf....the developments in the past week have shook me off the ground with the new internship. Suddenly there is a dire need to do planning, saving on each bit of time....its become a 24*7 working hours...one thing or the other keeps coming in to keep me occupied. Internship work is challenging and interesting but needs to be done in a short period of time.Still cant do without some blogging and online chatting/games.....now becoming a necessity like food(refreshment) :) . Testing the limits of streching yourself, its fun to go through this experience though...u get to know your capabilities and how much u can handle.... ah all comes under MBA experience...part of the deal. You got to organize, plan.....smooth waves are no more.....time for a rough ride....

Final semester begins.....

Final semester commenced on 14th August 2006. 4 modules taken in this semester. Supply Chain Management, Product and Brand Management , Competitive Marketing Strategies & Business Forecasting.So far all look ok. Competitive marketing strategies is the most interesting of all. Huum looks like I have forgotten holiday as saturday & sunday.....with all meetings and professors internship work...all days seem the same. But one thing good in this semester is that all classes in evening, except product management on saturday mornings. Matching owl timings :) .Phew....one year passed by so quickly....

Anagrams of last seven elective modules :
Services Marketing --Avengers sick merit
Technopreneurship--Hot, nicer penpusher
Managing Change--Hag, menacing nag
Supply Chain Management-- Up maniac's elegant nymph
Product & Brand Management-- Goddamn! Unpenetrant , mad crab
Business Forecasting--Boastings if censures
Competitive Marketing Strategies--VIP to emetic, tastier, smarting geek

Artistic display by school students....

On way back from Zoo...noticed these 2 students of International School putting on an artistic stance just outside the Woodlands MRT station.

Singapore Zoo--20th Aug

Zebra

White Tiger

Bat

Giraffe
White Rhino

King Cobra

Orangutan

.... pic at Zoo entrance

Website

Bird Park Visit

Flamingos

Royal Ramble Crowned Pigeon

Penguins

With Manish , Meena and parrots


Website & Map of Bird Park.

PLASMA CORP.

Technoprenuership module was the most challenging module in the MBA course so far. So finally I have some knowledge of what all goes into making a business plan. The team [from right:Sharon(China) , Manish, Sophie(France), myself, Abhi with Guekhar(Singapore) at extreme left and Ann(USA) at the back]. The biggest team I have worked in MBA so far and the experience was just amazing. Great Team. I seriously felt the impact of collective power when all in the team are alligned to a common goal. The title of the blog refers to the company this team formed to launch an innovative product for the treatment of diabetes.I also reflected back on the effectiveness of team versus individual.
Also this module was unique as first time Indians in the class were minority, with majority stake taken up by norway people, who had come on exchange program for this module.


-spot the unique feature in this pic, easy :)