wolframalpha the new way of searching.

I understand we are a generation who is confused if google is a verb or a company. Where searching is synonym with Google. Challenging Googles supremacy is foolish.
But I personally think it has been beautifully challenged by http://www.wolframalpha.com/

I think the site attacks the mind set. Its a total new way of searching. Ofcourse koshnix tried the same thing but I personally believe what koshnix tried is what wolframalpha perfected. Basically if I am searching for a thing. I would appreciate if I get the complete info at one click. This precisely is what it does. The down side is either you hit the jackpot or return empty handed.

Background:

• Its basically a search engine.
• It can very well be a Google killer.
• Designed by a prodigy who earned his Phd at I think 21 from caltech.
  
  Imp
• I think it either gives you complete accurate info or gives useless data.
• It actually tries giving a complete holistic view
  
  Good Example:
• Try searching India or Adobe and you will see the diff.

Bad Example:

• Try typing Tanay Anand in Google and wolfromalpha. ( Google gives me what I need and wolfromalpha gives me what I don’t)

I know its a fancy word but I think it has the potential of being an answer to google.

Till then

Happy Googling

Reasons why one should visit Calcutta

No let me clarify at the outset only that I dont have any roots there nor am I a Bengali.But I went there sometime back on a trip which covered IIT KGP , Shankerpur beach , Fort wiliam an IAF Air base and ofcourse sweet Calcutta.
Infact the most surprising part was Calcutta , I had certain pre concieved notions about the city which turned out to be both true and false
To experience them you should visit Calcutta atleast once:

Probably the only city in India where all means of transportation exist Buses , Trams , TAxis , Boats , Rik shaws etc

• You will see the kids playing football and not cricket
• Those nostalgic yellow taxis.
• A marvel in sorts by the name Victoria Memorial
• Park street a pretty upscale market and in a way only one of its kind
• Chelo kabab of peter cat
• People who are Honest.
• Taxi wallahas who unlike Delhi doesnt cheats you.

I am tempted to write Fort William but for an Army enthusiast like me I will take that as two different entities all together.
But there are few things thats pretty interesting and that's the concept of Service Industry or the concept like "Customer is the king" thats pretty non existent there. These things caught more of your fancy when you are a Newbie MBA and are travelling with a group which share the same educational traits.

• Well as I have been told and experienced almost all shops ( In many parts of calcutta and west bengal) are closed between 2 - 5 PM just because they think its hot.


• I saw N number of processions there ( Being an illiterate when it comes to bengali) I cant figure out the intention.It could be because my trip co incided with May day.


• This ones take the cake : We a group of 12 people made an advance booking for a hotel and informed the manager that we would be late reaching at about 12 midnight. As Mr Murphy would have it we left IIT KGP at 12 midnight and then it was app a 3 hour drive. Well on reaching the hotel the manager said he wont give us the rooms now because " We are late by 3 hours". It took 12 MBA guys 35 minutes to convince one Manager and during discussion his only grudge being " Why are you coming late".

All marketing concepts gone for a toss

Not the end of story yet he then declined to open the main gates so thet we can reach the beach again citing rules, that to at a beach with no known history of shark attacks and the prevailing human race that cant predict Tsunami. Ofcourse we walked those few kms by jumping the gates.

But all in all West bengal is different and I will pray to God left ends up loosing all the seats in the current lok sabha elections, becaue I think they are behaving like ostrichs not allowing the winds of change and time to sweep through W Bengal , eventually they will sweep through but by that time they will be two steps behind the world.

The Railways and the sceptical me

Well I was just wondering why was I so much sceptical about the turn around story of Indian Railways probably the main reason being the public face of all this is a politician who doesnt find favours with the educated class. ( Oh yes I might not deserve but I still count myself as one) Had the person being a bureucrat or academician probably I would have been much more convinced.

Well few days back I got a chance to interact with Dr Goel a very senior figure with Railways and man behind E ticket / Tatkal , Ex MD IRCTC etc. I think the main benefit of being able to study at places like IIMs is you get a chance to meet people whom you would otherwise only meet from a distance of few meters.

There have been few interesting learnings:
Primary Ones:

• Railways is a pretty good business man (Humanizing railways)


• They are run by people who are fundamentally honest and talented


• The turn around story is for real.
  

Secondry Ones ( Tit bits of info):

• Palace on wheels is booked for Next 3 years


• During kargil war app 600 trains were diverted to western border in 48 hours


• Railways offer app 160 types of concessions


• The source of money is mainly freight business


• Strangely they don't have any monopoly in any business


• There variable cost in most cases is very less


• The growth in transportation is app 1.4 times that of GDP


• They are investing app 50K crore in developing a dedicated freight corridor


• They have been substantially able to control leakages because of computraization


• They actually have a well defined HR Policy for 1+ Million employee.
  

The railways turn around story:
Its for real
Some of the reasons behind it.

• The groundwork was prepared by previous minister


• Heavy investment in infra development was done previous to Mr Lalu


• They kind of legalized over loading. ( App 8% )


• 30% of seats were moved to tatkal


• They moved to aggressive dynamic pricing


• GDP grew and so did transportation


• They aggresively took lot of B to B initiative

Futuristic:

• They are trying to come up with a portal where the tickets will actually be auctioned.

These were just few of the tit bits, if you are interested in more just send me a mail will share with you the slides.

Tanay Anand
IIM Lucknow
Noida Campus

The exams and some honest confessions

No its not written by me, just read it from somewhere.But undoubetdly it so correctly conveys the meaning.

मैं कभी बतलाता नहीं... पर Tri-semester से डरता हूँ मैं माँ ...
यूं तो मैं दिखलाता नहीं ... grades की परवाह करता हूँ मैं माँ ..
तुझे सब है पता ....है न माँ
किताबों में ...यूं न छोडो मुझे.. chapters के नाम भी न बतला पाऊँ माँ
वह भी तो ...इतने सारे हैं.... याद भी अब तो आ न पाएं माँ ...
क्या इतना गधा हूँ मैं माँ .. क्या इतना गधा हूँ मैं माँ ..
जब भी कभी ..invigilator मुझे .. जो गौर से ..आँखों से घूरता है माँ ... मेरी नज़र ..ढूंढे qstn paper...सोचूं यही .. कोई सवाल तो बन जायेगा.....

I am offended but why ?????

The Dark side of the B School Sledging

Before Clicking on the link remember two things:

• The Students in the video belong to IIM C or XLRI.
• The content is highly expletive and beware before opening it

Well after I saw the video yes I felt offended but the interesting part is I am not sure what or why ??

• Am I feeling offended because I am part of the IIMs and I think this is far below our dignity ??
• Or am I offeded because its the girls who are using these expletives. am I a male chauvinist who still has one set of rules and regulations for Boys and other one for girls. ?
• Or is that thing inside me which my Moral Science teachers always talked about ??

So I am not sure why did I felt bad but I am sure had it been an all boy's video with a backdrop of an average Engg college my reactions would have been totally different , I might not even had reacted to it. But since this is the IIM crowd and the Girls suddenly I am saying " Oh My God" where are they heading as if I am worried about them.

But just wondering what all it points to

• Falling standards of the Temples like IIMs
• Or the boundary between Male and females getting blurred.

Whatever it is there is something that doesn't seem right and interestingly the people here are the cream , the cream of the corporate world. the darlings of the Media ,

....are they doing justice...... ?

Tanay

The video has been downloaded from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrSfWjaOYII&feature=related

The first visit to IIM Lucknow ( Main Campus)

Well so finally I visited the fabled campus of IIM L. Honestly, these are one of those few institutes which become more like a legend in there own ways especially, when we talk about in a context, where education coupled with a brand is considered dynamite.
Well so finally on Sunday the journey started preceded by wheather which suddenly turned foggy resulting in a four hour delay of my train which just further constrained my already constrained time schedule. Anyways, so after enquiring from few people for the distance of IIM L from my hotel, ( The distance varied from 15 - 25 kms depending on whom you asked) I finally took an auto which honestly asked me a very fair amount but the Delhi wallah in me
said " How can auto wallah be honest Bargain for a reduced price" anyways I took an auto.
The interesting part was almost everyone I met in Lucknow (Autowallahs/shopkeepers) semed to know about the institute.
It wasnt just another B School it truly is IIM L. So finally after driving roughly for 14 kms we reached the IIM Lucknow. On the way I have to tell auto wallah twice " Bhaiya I
am a poor man and if you are planing to kidnap me we won't be able to pay the ransom " ( Honestly the campus is in a far off place) Anyways so here I enter and the first thing I noticed( In absence of a better word) was a charming face who very clearly was not from IIM
L but the chivalrous character in me went to her and asked " Where are the main events for Manfest going on" which actually kind of boom-ranged because I was wearing an IIM L sweat shirt and she looked at me in a way that reminded me of 1091. ( She missed reading the Noida campus part)
The second thought that struck me was " Its a campus or a jogging track" so much of greenery and plants all around you that I literally thought have I reached the right place. But then I realized I am inside IIM L not a concrete jungle.Infact there are peacocks and peahens in substantial number.
The moment you enter the campus you will realize that its not only green, its huge. So I decided to walk and try to deal with the suddenly overwhelming feeling of Awe. So after walking for close to 10 minutes I reached the PGP area where the manfest was going on. It was actually the third and the last day. With differnet B type events like "The next CEO", simulations excersises etc going on. However, the first thing that came to my mind was the sharp contrast between similar festivals in Delhi univ and at IIM L. Here everyone meant business , a no nonsense appraoch. There wasnt a scene that would require crowd control issue but almost everybody I interacted seemed focussed on winning or knowing what they want to do. Anyways, partly because of time constraint and partly because of the fact that I was alone I decided just to be an audience and not the participant in any of the competitions. There seemed to be a substantial industry participation with almost every competition having one or the other sponsor like Sahara/Cognizant/TATA to name a few.
Honestly after visiting the campus for a fraction of second I felt jealous of the people who are studying in such a campus where you can play hide and seek with nature for hours without anyone running out of places, but then I realized its IIM the place with one of the toughest entry criterias.

As they say picture speaks a thousand words, you can find some of the pics at the following location: http://picasaweb.google.com/tanayanand/IIMLucknowMain_Campus#