A Touch of Evil

Sunday, April 25, 2010

IPL

Just a bit of complaining is due after yesterday's torturous IPL game. Anyone who thinks watching an game live at the stadium is a wonderful experience, here are 10 reasons for you to reconsider:

1. It takes at least 90 mins to reach DY Patil stadium. That is if you know exactly where to go. Else you can navigate all around the confusing signboards and VVIP service lanes before figuring out how to get there. And the whole fuss about reaching at least 2 hours in advance is a complete sham. Feel free to come in at whatever time suits you.

2. Your e-ticket needs to be exchanged for a stadium pass. That means waiting in an hour long queue. And that too without cell phones. The organizers take special care to hand out passes as slowly as possible. Do you remember how staff passes were dealt out at Mood I?

3. Security - i was thoroughly frisked four times by various cops standing in a line with barely 15 feet separating each of them. I understand the need for security but four times pretty much amounts to groping! And the cops seem to love this frisking bit. Something eerie about this whole business.

4. Cell phones prohibited. I really wonder what threat could these possibly pose? Cell phones aren't banned at the English Premier league, at the Wimbledon or for that matter any sporting event that I know of. Then why here? What a massive inconvenience!

5. Refreshments comprise of watery cold coffee, mad donuts (i didn't see a single one purchased), odd tasting fountain Pepsi and melted gelato ice cream. So appetizing indeed!

6. The weather at DY Patil. Hot, sweaty and without a hint of breeze. That is unless you have have the rank and reach to get into one of those air conditioned box seats.

7. The view from the stands. 95% of the stadium crowd are at angels where they can't see any of the nuances that make cricket exciting: the line and length of the ball, the batsman's footwork, the spin and swing, the delicate shots. From the crowd cheers, I am pretty certain no one could distinguish between a wide ball, a caught behind and a slash and miss. The screens at the stadium are purely an advertising gimmick. Don't expect any replays!

8. The sounds. 10-9-8-7 countdown after every Max mobile time out. The high pitched pi pi pi pi pi siren thats plays every 5 mins (which for some reason elicits a roar every time from the crowd). The retarded MC with his cliched attempts to get the fans in a frenzy (ganpati bapa?).

9. The squabble for seats. Doesn't matter what seat number is printed on your ticket. Where you finally sit is entirely a function of what time you arrive at the stadium. Most people accept this reality and sit wherever they find a spot. Some decide to exercise their birth right and spend a good half innings creating a scene over their seats being occupied.

10. The game itself. There are certainly more one sided games in IPL 3 than in the first two editions. It took us 6 hours to get to our seats (starting from finding tickets, driving to dy patil, collecting stadium passes, finding a car park, grabbing a bite, security, etc) And Deccan Chargers rewarded us with a 35-5 within the first 25 mins of the game. We hoped in vain for some fireworks in the Bangalore innings. A 6 to 7 over finish would have brought in some excitement. But kallis took 32 balls to make 19 runs and Bangalore took 14 overs to win.

If you are really smart, you may figure out a way to get box seats. And if you are still smarter, you will just watch the game at home.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Europe calling

For many years now I have harbored a desire to go backpacking in Europe. Looks like this summer it will finally happen. 4 long blissful weeks :)
Here is the current draft of the itinerary. Suggestions are welcome. And if you can join in on any leg of the tour, you are even more welcome!

Jul 12 (Mon): Arrival in Frankfurt early morning, evening flight to Madrid
Jul 13: Day in Madrid, evening train to San Sebastian
Jul 14 - 15: San Sebastian beaches etc, maybe day trip to Pamplona to catch the festival of the Running Bulls
Jul 16: Evening train to Barcelona
Jul 17-19: Barcelona, Overnight train to Seville on 19th
Jul 20-21: Seville, maybe Granada or Malaga
Jul 22: Flight to Milan, evening train to Florence
Jul 23: Florence
Jul 24-25: Cinque Terre - a set of 5 villages built on the Northern Italian coast. Great for hiking
Jul 26 -27: Rome, Vatican
Jul 28-29: Naples and maybe day trip to Pompei, evening flight to Nice on 29th
Jul 30-31: Nice, perhaps Monaco
Aug 1: Train to Paris, evening in Paris
Aug 2-4: Amsterdam. Train from Paris on Aug 2 morning. Departure to Berlin on Aug 4 evening
Aug 5: Berlin
Aug 6: Prague
Aug 7: Back to Frankfurt
Aug 8: Flight to Mumbai

Essentially 9 days in Spain, 8 days in Italy and another 9 days scattered around Nice, Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague. One month seems like such a short time!

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Here we go again...

Yes I'm back and will hopefully linger around here for a bit. While the whole world seems to be migrating towards twitter (i fail to understand why?!), I still prefer good old blog format. Where have I been all this while? Here are month by month highlights from the last 9 months (in the hope that someday I may look back at this blog post and get overwhelmed by a sense of nostalgia :P)

July 2009: Having spent the past 7 months at CMS, my stint there was almost coming to a close in July. I was pretty much swamped with work for the whole month, running circles trying to solve union issues at CMS, interviewing over a 100 EA candidates for Rajiv, and going back and forth with our Investment committee on two deals. I made my first trip to Kerala as part of the CMS offsite. Amidst all this, where is the time for a social life!

August 2009: We had our annual Blackstone India offsite. The Wildflower resort at Simla was spectacular - an open air jacuzzi at the edge of the valley, all night poker games, tennis, fresh air and getting away from the madness of Mumbai (which honestly held little attraction for me in those days). I also enjoyed the convoluted term sheet negotiations and structuring that took place on one of my deals - my first hand experience in the intricacies of private equity buyouts. Besides tons of further interviews for Rajiv's EA, I pretty much pulled out of CMS in August. August also saw me getting serious about the whole essays and application business. Some personal life disappointments aside, this turned out to be another high octane month.

September 2009: September was all about essays. And recommendation letters, CVs and all that jazz. I spent countless hours at every possible coffee shop in south mumbai trying to figure out "what matter most to me" blah blah. I think I would have been the biggest customer for Tea Leaf and Coffee Bean in September. Not that Cafe Coffee Day, Barista and the rest had any reason to complain given they were seeing plenty of me too :P Then there was frantic diligence activity on my deal. This deal had every possible complication we could think of: legal, structure, tax, business issues, fraud, environment, management, ego conflicts etc! Managing over 10 consultants on a ridiculously tight deadline was bloody intense. September was also when that crazy phase took place which Ravi and I can laugh about in retrospect. But what haunts me most about September is receiving that most vicious, fatal personal blow in my life. A single phone call is all it took to shatter my conviction (I still get occasional nightmares...). So much action for one month! Professionally stretched, emotionally quite distraught and with the application deadlines looming ahead, this was indeed the most testing phase of 2009.

October 2009: So my first deadline was comfortably met (HBS). And then I put in a mad dash to get my Stanford application ready in the less than a week. Day and night I grappled with that cruel "what matters most" question, writing up notes in the morning only to scrap them by the evening. Not having someone to brainstorm with and review my Stan essays in that critical week only made it much harder... No sooner was Stan submitted than there was another rush to put together the materials for the investment committee meeting on my deal. 8 days in office where I seldom left before 2 am. Only after Diwali did things start looking up again. The HBS interview call came in and with it, a much needed quiet phase at work. Some breathing space at last!

November 2009: More diligence, more calls, more meetings. Final investment committee meeting on my deal was due in another 20 days. In parallel, the first half of November was about preparing for the HBS interview (no word from Stan). Many more hours at Coffee Bean. Or just strolling aimlessly at Marine Drive, punching in bullet points on my blackberry in preparation for over a 100 potential questions. The interview was smooth. I remember being asked over 25 questions in the space of merely 30 mins. Almost a rapid fire round! But what I remember most fondly about the interview day was the comment that Mr. Arun Nanda (director at Mahindra & Mahindra) made when he walked past me while I was waiting at the lobby. The one month long wait for the results then began. There was also that memorable dinner with Helmet and gang at the Tasting Room which set the tone for a crazy December.

December 2009: Still no word from Stanford. Check mailbox, check spam and check forums.. and then repeat all over. That was my daily routine for the first two weeks but the interview invite never came. December was the most peaceful month at work in all of 2009. In parallel began that crazy little phase which took off after Teng's bachelor party (and that incredible cake). 700+ lines a day! Dec 15 came and my world changed. HBS admit :) Next day was the Stan reject but it didn't really matter! Work took a backseat. Tote's happened. Goa happened. After a rough 2009, the year ended in style.

January 2010: New year came and with it came new resolutions. Economist subscription, tennis lessons, regular visits to the gym. I also made my second Kerala work trip as part of diligence on a new deal. My weekends ended up again sitting at Coffee bean - this time supporting PJ with her essays. Here was a phase in life when everything seemed to be going just great. Work was in cruise mode, personal life was at peace and fitness levels saw dramatic improvements. Only regret was losing an old friend with whom I had spent so much time in 2009. I don't know what got into him!

February 2010: I guess the preceding two and a half months had been too good to be true and peace could not sustain forever. There had to be some surprises in store. Attended Chetan's wedding in Hyderabad. Well not exactly the wedding but the youngster's party that preceded it. Hyderabad trip however ended up in a disaster with some painful discoveries. Again the mental toll! Grrrrr. My long standing weakness playing up again. Work also picked up after the lull in recent months with an investment committee meeting at the end of the month.

March 2010: Mad weekend in powai with a dozen old timers converging at panch leela on a Saturday night. I am surprised Ravi hasn't received a notice from his flatmates for all the ruckus we created. And then there was an incredible trip to Sri Lanka. On some wild impulse, mota, me and ravi packed our bags and took off for a 3 day holiday to the pristine sparkling Lankan beaches. The trip left us with some amazing memories and amazing photographs. March also saw some wonderful nights at bandra, marine drive and panch leela that were so reminiscent of the old times (late 2008, early 2009). The pendulum had now swung the other way. A new deal moved forward at work and this one should probably be my last real piece of action at Blackstone.

So that's a long post. Being a bit more regular from now on won't really hurt :P