An ode to Maggi

Blog Marathon Post 15

She looked into the pan as her mamma crushed the maggi and put it into boiling water. Masala was added next and the mixture was stirred into perfection. She waited for that two minutes to get over, with her mouth watering over the thought of her tasty snack.

"Mummy bhokh lagi, bas do minute! School se aate dhoom machaate
Ek hi baat pe manaate, Maggi Maggi Maggi!" - A jingle that we all have grown up hearing.

Maggi had always been my favourite junk food. During my childhood days, it was eaten once in a while, as a snack or when I was hungry at the odd times. I have a story of messing up maggi when I tried to cook it for the very first time :) Can someone go mess up maggi too? Yes, I did :) I read the package instructions so thoroughly that I timed my maggi and it ended up uncooked. Mom had to cook it again to make it edible. :|

Some years later, Maggi became my staple food. I was doing my internship in Mumbai, and I used to eat Maggi everyday, read "everyday" for dinner. I tried to experiment with Maggi a lot those days. I tried adding different veggies, scrambled eggs, etc. to make more tasty/healthy :) I never got tired of it and it was always the safest option. You can't mess up Maggi really. Can you? Oh ok, everyone is allowed one mistake in life, right?

During my MBA days, I discovered a whole new facet of Maggi. The whole economy of my B school survived on Maggi. We had plain maggi, veg maggi, egg maggi, onion maggi, fried maggi, chesse maggi, tomato maggi and any other variety of maggi which you can think of. We had all the eateries in our campus competing with each other to provide as many varieties of maggi as possible. Had maggi not been discovered, I think many of our batch mates would have gone without food for days :) Fond memories of those days include going to have maggi in the nearby eatery as late as 3AM in the night(or morning, whatever you want to call it), skipping dinner all together so that we can have maggi late into the night and having maggi for lunch, dinner, midnight snack or whenever we feel like. I told you, the whole economy survived on maggi :)

After a long hiatus, I had maggi three months ago in US. It was late into the night; I was too tired to cook anything and hungry. I looked through the cupboards, and found a maggi packet up in the shelf. Viola, I cooked it in no time and my favourite 'junk' food was ready. While digging into it, I remembered my days in B school and internship days when I survived solely on Maggi. I was so happy that day, as a little child who found her lost toy back.

Maggi, no matter how many McDs/CCDs or Baristas come up, no matter how much McVeggie try his best to lure me, no matter how much more packaged/ready-to-eat foods market themselves, you will remain my favourite junk food. I promise, no one else will take your place. Three Cheers to You, may you continue spreading your charm in two minutes always :)

What is your favourite maggi story? C'mon, don't tell me you don't have a maggi story, everyone has one :D

U.S. beckons

13 days, 7 flights, Delhi-London-Chicago-Omaha-NewYork-Washington-London-Mumbai, and experience of a lifetime.

I happened to be one of those lucky few who got the opportunity to be a part of the student exchange program between my B school and University of nebraska, Omaha, United states. Enduring a 28 hour flight from Delhi to Omaha in itself was a huge thing for me. But it was not as bad as i thought it would be. The hospitality of the organisers and students of University of Nebraska amazed to me to a large extent. There were eagerly waiting to receive us in the Omaha airport and take us to the hotel. Everything from accomodation to food to small things like 'no ice in water' were taken care of.

The highlight of the trip was attending the Annual ShareHolder's Meeting of Berkshire Hathway and meeting Warren Buffet. Spending one whole afternoon, amidst 30,000 shareholders of Berkshire Hathway from all over the world and listening to Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger(vice chairman:Berkshire Hathway) answering the questions shooted by investors with innate wit was a feast in itself. We also attended the workshop series organised by University of Nebraska, which included topics like
-Western Perspective on Indian Thought by Prof.Micheal marie Desmaris, author of Changing minds(A wonderful Canadian Lady, who knew about Indian Culture, Philosophy and sanskrit, more than us).
-Virtual Marketing by Jeremy vlcan who is the director of online marketing at Netshops Inc. an online retailer which
owns and operates over 200 online specialty stores
-Creating Wealth through long term investments by the president and vice-president of Mandarin Investment Counsel.

The trip also included company visits of Gallup Organisation, Mandarin Investment Counsel, infoUSA and Union Pacific. The way we were greeted in these organisations, how they took time to explain to us the working of their organisation and the eagerness they showed to interact with us is indeed commentable. While our days were packed with workshops, seminars and company visits, the evening were fun with cosmic bowling in Thunder Alley, picnic in the picturesque landscapes of Omaha where we even taught our American friends how to play cricket, visit to the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, visit to malls and a baseball game(I simply loved it) between Omaha Royals and some other team within Nebraska(Omaha Royals lost though, after giving a tough fight to the other team.) The organiser couldn't arrange the win for us. :)

After 8 days in Omaha, the place which i felt foreign in the initial days started feeling home. We were going to miss the warm hearted people we met, who took extra effort to make us feel at home, who showed keen interest to know about India and the culture and some who knew much more about India than us. We were sure to miss the people we interacted with and all the fun and rich experiences that we had. The last dinner brought everyone who worked for the trip together, the organisers, students, teachers and all the non teaching staff of University of Nebraska. The students of University of Nebraska picked up titles for all of us, and i was titled 'Female Warren Buffet' :). Some other interesting titles were 'Cricket Pro', given to a friend of mine, who sacrificed his wicket for an American player, 'Best lugguage Handler', to a senior whose lugguage came late in another flight, 'Unlimited Free Minutes', to a friend who was always on phone, etcetcera.

After spending so many amazing days in that picturesque, calm and serene place, it was time to move to NewYork. NewYork is a city full of life. In stark contrast to Omaha, its a city so vibrant with lights, colours and action. We visited NASDAQ, saw the closing bell ceremony being televised(wherein a famous personality ring the closing bell, when the trade closes at 4P.M.). The Times Square, Manhattan, Top of the Rocks(for the entire view of NewYork), everything was equally fascinating. The best part was the Broadway Muscial show 'Legally Blonde' which we managed to catch up on the last day. Truly an amazing experience, considering the effort and time they would have put in to produce such an awesome musical. NewYork is a city i fell in love with at the first sight, be it for its vibrancy, or their excellent subway transport. :)

NewYork trip culminated with a lunch at Ajit Jain's residence. Ajit Jain currently heads several reinsurance business for Berkshire Hathaway and has been touted as a possible successor to Warren Buffett, an alumnus of our Institute. Visiting his residence and family, having lunch with him, hearing him talk about his plans for Berkshire Hathway was an enriching experience. We were amazed beyond words when his wife came and told him 'Warren is on the phone'. Its not everyday that one get to hear this in one's life. :) A sumptous mediterenean lunch by the river side in the backyard of his house and a book containing collected writings from Charlie Munger, personally autographed by him, was the gift from Ajit Jain to each and everyone of us. His wife made a perfect hostess greeting us individually and taking time out to talk to each one of us. A man of that stature accompanying u to the bus and wavying you goodbye felt so surreal. The humility and knowledge exhibited by him, made me realise that these are the two essential factors to suceed in life.

Like all the good things, even this trip had to come to an end. All throughout the trip, one question that was consistently asked to me by Indians and Non-Indians alike was given a chance would you like to work in India or Us and I always had the same answer, India. The reason being, I dont think there is any dearth of opportunities in India at the present moment, and I have my family and majority of friends here. And I must say, they all told me that if they would have asked the same question ten years back, the answer would have been exactly opposite and they would not have left India if they had the same opportunities ten years back. So I feel I am so lucky to be a part of India's unprecedented growth process.

Summer Internships beckons and I took a flight from NewYork and landed directly in Mumbai, the abode for the next 6 months, were i will be working with a reputed investment research firm. Traffic jams, pollution, rush in local trains and high cost of living, Mumbai is characteristed by all of these, and I am liking every bit of it. Afterall not everyone gets to be a part of India Inc. growth story !!!

Happy Birthday to me, huh?

Six girls plan religiously for a dear friend's birthday.

Cake, candles, decorations, gifts, cards, everything is taken care of. Yours truly, with other friends, work really hard in background to get all this done, without her knowledge.

You send out a mail to the whole batch saying be there sharp at 12o'clock to celebrate her birthday.

So the whole batch assembles at midnight to celebrate her birthday.

She cuts the cake, we sing "Happy Birthday to you", wish her, put cake, water, eggs, n everything that we could see in the vicinity, on her :)

Suddenly the girls take out another cake and lights candles. Me, inspite of being in the core organising committee is totally unaware of this. I innocently asks the question "Why another cake"??

Thats when i get the biggest surprise of my life. They got the other cake for celebrating my birthday. Tomorrow is the last day of our exams and we are all going to be away for six months, for our summer internships. Seven of us are going to be in four different cities. So they planned to celebrate my birthday one month before so that they all can be with me during my celebration. My constant rant that 'no one of you are going to be with me on my birthday' prompted them further to do this.

I cut the cake and the usual rituals associated with the birthday happens to me also. Get bums, get drenched in water and cake, girls decorate my room, gives me a beautiful birthday card, books and perfumes as gifts. So I had a birthday celebration one month in advance of my real birthday. I dont know what makes me more happy - the way they cared for me and surprised me or the way they planned everything without my notice.

I am gonna miss this place for the next 6 months. No matter how far i am from my home, the people surrounding me, always makes me feel special.

Mn,Pj,Sh,So,Nl & Nv, you girls rock. I will miss you people a lot.

One of those memorable conversations :)

So what happens when two finance enthusiasts chat?

Before we move on to that, let me give a background of the story, we girls went for buying some things from our so called 'tech market', and while returning, we meet a bunch of guys from our batch. For one and a half hours, the two groups sit in front of an eating joint named 'veggies', demanding a treat from each other. In the end, girls back to their hostel, without eating anything.

So one of my good friends here, Md (also a Finance enthusiast) pings me in the night and so goes our conversation.

(Presented as it is, in the chat lingo)

Md: see...today we returned from the veggies w/o having anything.. :(

me: guys r supposed to treat girls not otherway round

Md: yeah agreed...but when guys dont have money then? :)

come on...atleast someday gals should lend them some money...so that they can treat the gals and then return the money...

me: return the money??? should we expect that :)

Md: wat !!!

why such bad credit rating? :)

me: credit rating of C for Md and S :)
(S is a common friend, who is always with Md)

Md: i have strong cash flows, good amount assets of piled up, lot of goodwill and AAA rating by other gals..!!! :D

i m not sure why ur company is not lending the money ..!!!

me: we don’t believe in other banks’ credit rating, i think all will agree to S&P(my) rating :)

Md: no ..actually their experience speaks in their credentials given to this investment bank..!!! u havent dealt with us...there are windfall profits mam..!!!!

me: we feel tht the company you have recently merged(S) have bad rating also, goodwill of tht company has degraded, esp after it has liquidated(with drinks) some of its assests and made some funny declarations :P

Md: no no..thats rumour in the market...we are not merged with that "Sachs" banks...there might be some transactions of securities but those are general and simple debt obligation payments..we are a stand alone white paper company..:)

me: ok, then we can reconsider your offer, let my principals do some more research and look at the market conditions, if the market feels tht investing in your company is a good option and returns r high and assured, then our bank will be able to lend u some money, and mind you, our credit rating goes a along way in giving confidence to other investors :)

Md: You are welcome...!!!! my books are open for due diligence..but you will have to do Systematic Lending. In which you will lend one ice cream every week till May 2009 and then my bank will start paying your bank in chocolate currency...:)

me: first of all we dont believe in systematic lending and we believe in a floating rate interest with put option, so lets see how we can work this out

Md: see Ice creams to Chocolates...the NPV is really delicious..:)
the risk is really worth taking..:)

me: with the exchange rates for chocolates fluctuating, we dont really believe in a transaction through tht currency, i think we can fix it in icecream currency

Md: ok no issues..!!! but i m telling you...chocolate rates are bound to go up only...as we will buy lot of chocolates in this KGP street, ppl will run to buy them as well..we can infact do a futures contract where you will get future chocolates at current rates..:)

me: i think the same applies to icecreams as well, so i don’t mind having a futures contract in that

Md: hmm...dont u think an icecream with a friendly gesture would have been much better rather than going into these tantrums..:)

me: we r investment bankers, we dont do simple things, we assess,hype up and then do the deal. U know we live life kingsize (courtesy “D”) :D

Md: yeah...that means that you can offer Kingsize icecreams to your fellow bankers also.. ;)

me: only if it comes back in the form of a double kingsize family pack icecreams :)

Md: cool...idea is actually not bad...!!! anyway it will mean that this banker will get more ice cream than normal times... ;)

me: sure, i think ROI is good in this deal :)

Md: you are welcome to announce the deal in the market...wat will be the deal declaration date and when will deal happen?

me: deal declaration date and deal happening will be informed to you in the due course of time, thanks for dealing with us, we hope to maintain a successful relationship with you in the coming years

Md: wow.. that was wondeful...i seriously never thought we can be this geeky..!!! :)

me: seriously :) it was fun :)

Md: out and out FinFinFin...God please let some recruiter see this chat..!!! :P :P

me: we will put this chat along with our resume and give it to placecomm(placement committee) :)

Md: he he..:) colleague recos :P :P

me: :) :) :)

Md: my head is so heavy with the stuff that i have to have one ice cream now :)

One of those memorable conversations which puts a smile on your face everytime you think about it. Dedicated to all the FIN enthusiasts around us :)

Untitled!!!

Almost five months since i blogged.

And yeah, five months since joined my B school.

Life had been full of new experiences since then, a whirlpool of casestudies, assignments, quizzes, exams, lots of new friends and lots of fun.

My latest crush - FINANCE. I never thought i would love this subject this much. I had almost decided on my specialization before joining the B school. But it only took a few days with my finance books to change my decision. Our finance prof. further piqued our interest in the subject by saying "No Money, No Honey", in the very first class. I must say, a very innovative way of generating students' interest in the subject :)

Ofcouse i can't boast that the so called "busy schedule" in a B school was the reason for my absence in blogosphere. But yes, i plan to make up for it and be a regular blogger from now on.