The Euro 2004 wave surging across the IIM-B campus is terrific. All around me people are getting into small little cabals and talk about England screwing up their chances, Greece making major gains and stuff. All pretty much Greek and Latin. Shanmu keeps talking about it all the time. At the end of all this, yours truly got so tired of the soccer stories that I decided it is upto me to do something about this grave issue.

Poor little Vishu was never really interested in Soccer. Or Cricket. Or hockey. Or any other game for that matter. The entire realms of my sporting imagination have been constrained to the latest versions of Unreal Tournament, Age of Mythologies, and the like.

Always keep wondering why people so obviously intelligent keep worrying about whether or not some unknown chap from god foresaken places like Bulgaria/Cameroon/Romania hits a goddamn ball into a post. So what if that absolutely disgusting, funny haired guy from Britain with multiple sex interests in life screwed up a penalty shoot-out? The concept of 20-odd jobless people running around a simple ball is so pointless. And the funda of a million people watching this pointless pursuit is so much more pointless. And a billion people poring over the sexual pursuits and love SMS's of a good-for-nothing else soccer player is so much much much more pointless.

The game itself is so nauseating. The very idea of a game of people kicking balls is so disgusting...



And it just doesnt stop with the game alone. Consider the associated hooliganism. Even worse. But come on..

Football isnt always that bad. It has its own sweet moments. Like lets say this one. There is this wonderful colorful side to football. It's so much more fun to watch. And so less publicised. Well, mebbe this is the kind of game that shud be made popular...



Now that is the kind of game that appeals to ur senses. But so sad that events of this "really entertaining soccer" kind hardly get any publicity :-((

And so I have changed my blog template. The change in template is in celebration of the 400th Page Load that this blog has received. Yesterday was also the day when my blog had its 100th unique visitor. Figures are not entirely discouraging. This site is now indexed by all major seach engines. A search for "Viswanathan RJ" or "Vishu" or "Vishu's Blog" or for any of the content from my ramblings, is likely to throw up my site. Good.

After I doled out some 25 odd GMail invites, they didnt send me the daily quota of invites yesterday. Already have a queue of ppl waiting in line to receive the next set of invites. Hoping that GMail doesnt repeat yesterday's act today again.

And I left this line of discussion somewhere in between... PSG Tech's IT department is the best in the state. Implying that urs truly had the privilege of studying in one of the best courses available in the state. Or is it because of ppl like urs truly that the curse is where it is today?? Hehehe. I guess the performance of the first batch of students wud have had a lot of role in determining the college's rank.

Schedules are getting tighter. The workload is growing exponentially. Cases, projects, quizzes, etcetera etcetera have started in full swing. And Im still continuing to blog. I always knew I had my priorities messed up in life. But then, who cares ....??

There are these few moments in life... When u make major changes to the way things happen...Nobody knows why such decisions happen, but well, they keep happening all the time. Vishu has made such a change... He's now a confirmed convert..

Today, at around 11:30 AM, when I was perfectly jobless, and had some 4 more hours for my first class in the day, I made the momentous decision. Something inside me kept telling me that what I was doing was right. That what I was about to do, had to be done. That I dont care a hoot about sombody invading my privacy. It was a tough decision. I had to go deep into my soul, into my values, into my very being, and find the truth... before I got converted.

Vishu has converted to GMail. Switched over from my previous four ids to my new one... viswanathan DOT rj AT gmail DOT com. Till today, I kept using my rj_vishu@***.com, where *** could literally be any of the major email providers. I had accounts at Yahoo, Hotmail, Rediff, Mail.com and more. I even had one that said, rj_vishu AT mad DOT scientist DOT com. Used to think it was a pretty cool id to have. Till someone pointed out the truth.

The days of fragmentation are over. I have made the transition. Now the plan is to have one single major external id. GMail is going to be my new door to the world. But still, I'll maintain my Yahoo and Hotmail id... Till Google comes up with a messenger equivalent. And they would eventually.

So all ye loyal junta who have still stuck on to reading this blog(and the stats tell me that the number is declining rapidly...) send all ur future mails to my new mail id, courtesy GMail.... And, if possible, keep reading.. This MBA isnt doing anything good to my writing ambitions. :-((

Getting back after some days. Had a hectic week. Had taken up almost eight courses this week, and have finally arrived on the six I want to do. Going by the current course schedule I should be having a relatively easier time during the earlier part of the week, and the going will get towards the end. This is also likely to get reflected on my frequency of blogging.

Competition is good. Nah... it's terrific. Google's gmail may not end up being successful, but it sure as hell has done a world of good for us, the consuming junta. For one, with their promise of a 1 GB account, they have forced Yahoo to follow. Even local players like Rediff have now started providing the same one GB of storage space. But I do like the Google/Orkut way of marketing: adding exclusivity to ur product by basing them on invites. And they are sending out invites on a pretty huge scale these days. Well, let's see where GMail ultimately ends up. Currently Im pissed off with its initial slow loading time.

That brings me back to what I learnt in strategy yesterday. Innovators may not necessarily appropriate the value out of their innovations. For example, GMail altered the Email market structure with its 1 GB offering. But will this help it succeed? That's doubtful. Because now the host of imitators, starting from Yahoo to the local Rediff, have increased the switching costs for their current users by providing thm with adequate storage. If I get a 100 MB or a 1 GB of space with my current id, my switching cost to GMail is automatically higher than it was earlier, in the absence of these imitators. NOw it remains to be seen, if the few better features of GMail and its invites only model help Google succeed in this market. Afterall, going by Gmail's current business model, its success is directly proportional to the number of users it gets...


More later... Gotta read up for today's classes.

Classes start tommorow. Already getting loaded. And did I here someone saying "What about Vishu's blog?" Let's see. Today I made an effort to ensure that I put in atleast a blank post like this one.

And, I have a few GMail invites left. People interested, try to convince me why I should give u the invite. And I'll think about it.

Mebbe I'll come up with something more worthwhile tomorrow. Till then byebye ..

Saw the movie today.


Great ingredients. Ordinary Recipe. The package missed the small minor something that often differentiates great movies from good movies. Aaytha Ezhuthu was a good movie.

Expected more from Mani Ratnam. The winners curse. Everyone expects too much from him.

Mani's characters usually endear themselves to u. They are ur typical next door guys and girls. They are normal chilled out people. But not in this movie. Some kind of image building seems to have happened with the main characters. They dont seem real. And for a political movie with a message, it lacked that "punch"...It maybe my personal bias, but well thats the way I found it.

Rahman's music was a class apart. But guess it's a bit elitist. It's not the popular kind of music, like let's say "Gilli".

And I know it doesnt sound "pseud", "classy", "fashionable" or "elitist", but I did like "Gilli" the movie. Good value-for-money and good timepass.

Well, better luck next time, Mr.Ratnam. Lets hope u appeal to a wider section of audiences the next time around.

This is a summary of what Google has to say on Viswanathan. All thanx to http://www.googlism.com for this entirely comprehensive and insightful analysis:


viswanathan is very active in research in the area of physics and technology of semiconductor devices ( Vishy and Physics. Opposite poles, yet never attract)
viswanathan is not the ideal candidate (I didnt think the truth would be out so soon..)
viswanathan is the author of the international bestseller "am ia hindu"? ( Why not??)
viswanathan is an associate professor of finance at the fuqua school of business(Yup, with my exceptional skills in Finance...)
viswanathan is a saxophonist and jazz vocalist with extensive performance and teaching experience in the us and canada(Im a even better singer)
viswanathan is the hen (Thank God it's a hen and not a C*!# )
viswanathan is now working on pure abstracts (Always works on abstracts)
viswanathan is a househusband to his wife meena ( Ahem.. Uh? Eh? Cud u repeat that? )
viswanathan is also a male – chauvinist(I never knew people took it so seriously!!)
viswanathan is constantly in pain and cannot complete the work alone
viswanathan is the managing director of strategic investments for intel capital
viswanathan is presently completing a book to be titled
viswanathan is true
viswanathan is also connected with vashi tamil sangam another leading institution catering to the tamils living in vashi
viswanathan is a recipient of brown's barrett hazeltine award for outstanding teaching and service and the john rowe workman award for outstanding professor of
viswanathan is off to live in montreal
viswanathan is his wife
viswanathan is today apprising the assembly of the council's decision
viswanathan is at present working as a software engineer with extricity software
viswanathan is unfazed
viswanathan is one fir who lives in an off
viswanathan is disappointed by the apparent lack of a “middle ground” in student opinion
viswanathan is a adjunct professor and management consultant based in chennai
viswanathan is an expert in special effects shots so widely used in this type of films
viswanathan is now seriously toying with the idea of presenting such a programme with the
help of his disciples
viswanathan is blaming the western media
viswanathan is his surname
viswanathan is toying at present is forming an association with insurance agencies to explore the possibilities of medical insurance
viswanathan is an associate professor in the nanyang business school at ntu
viswanathan is an enterprise web application developer
viswanathan is with hofincons
viswanathan is based in bangalore and replaces n narayanan
viswanathan is a prominent political figure at herricks and served as student government
executive board vice
viswanathan is a native of mumbai and knows the city inside out
viswanathan is currently employed as a lecturer in the department of computer science and
software engineering at the university of melbourne
viswanathan is one of the most well known astrologers in tamil nadu
viswanathan is an electrical engineer from the regional engineering college
viswanathan is a friend of my father
viswanathan is currently associate professor of medicine and deputy medical superintendent at the sri ramachandra medical college and research institute
viswanathan is professor of electrical engineering and chair of the uc academic council
viswanathan is currently in india on a personal visit
viswanathan is really known for creating the new genre of light music
viswanathan is thatched and has terracotta flooring
viswanathan is using the newly established electrodiagnostic facility at the borish center
viswanathan is also a distinguished scholar and teacher of indian music
viswanathan is a first year doctoral student in biostatistics from sathyamangalam
viswanathan is a professor of finance at the fuqua school of business
viswanathan is a frequent speaker on the subject of microsoft's new
viswanathan is still in negotiations with a 70
viswanathan is not just a name of a person
viswanathan is the greatest of
viswanathan is professor of english and comparative literature at columbia university
viswanathan is also contributing much to the field of music
viswanathan is all for the test
viswanathan is the company representative to be contacted for any matter regarding the yarn division of icl international
viswanathan is chairperson of the new york state sickle cell advisory committee
viswanathan is director of the mba programme in technology and operations management at the nanyang business school
viswanathan is baffled that banks are not impressed
viswanathan is a senior manager and technical fellow at epri
viswanathan is looking forward to competing at lafayette
viswanathan is the international glaucoma association research fellow at the institute of ophthalmology and a locum consultant in the
viswanathan is a member of the onondaga county and new york state bar associations
viswanathan is eye catching especially the way he has captured the lush green munnar valley
viswanathan is healthcare information systems senior industry analyst at frost & sullivan
viswanathan is one of the most accomplished flutists of his generation
viswanathan is confident about his new venture
viswanathan is director
viswanathan is also pleased with the results of the self
viswanathan is the director of strategic investments
viswanathan is presently an associate professor of comparative literature and east asian
studies at brown university
viswanathan is a science graduate and an associate member of the institute of chartered accountants of india and the institute of
viswanathan is our deputy editor
viswanathan is a businessman dealing in porcelain items
viswanathan is now available as part of the gams modeling package

We had our reorientation beginning today. A great concept. After finishing the first year, and having a glimpse of the corporate life during the summers process, the reorientation serves as a mirror. You stop for a couple of days an look back at the year that has been. Try to see what went right(if anything did) and what went wrong(if anything didnt). An introspection of sorts. For it often happens that people tend to lose track of the bigger picture in their pursuit of their daily hectic routines. Nice little concept. And it stops there. We also had a great session on Business ethics. Trying to understand some real real deep fundaes after a rather heavy lunch. Entire hall was in max atttention. Two more days yet, to try and reorient ourselves.

Met and caught up with the summer experiences of all friends. Quite a mixed bag of stories. Nice time generally. Wish I can use the same words once the classes start on Monday. But well, that isnt to be the case. They have already given most of the books fo my electives. Some real huge voluminous tomes and case booklets as usual. But well, this is not so shocking now.

I still remember the first time I walked in to the PGP office to get my books. Had some 8-9 huge tomes in my hands, each not much smaller than a large sized pillow, including the bright red marketing bible by Kotler. "Well", I thought,"this much amount of books is not bad for the first year". It was almost like the normal engineering load.

And then somebody had to disturb the pleasant state of affairs. Somebody passed on the rather shocking message with not so much as a kind consideration for the state of a poor soul like me that, the books were for the first three months alone, and not the year. That was only the beginning of the shocks. Now I've grown pretty much resistant to such silly periodic shocks. The IIM dosage is pretty good for the human immune system. It builds up ur shock resistance levels to a considerable height. And does lots of other things to u without ur conscious knowledge.

More stories later on...

Or Back to B ...

Back at IIM-Bangalore. Yet another trip on Jet Airways. Really helpful people. I was caarying almost two and a half times the normally allowed baggage, but the good souls didnt crib or charge me for excess baggage.

Another significant event today. Elysia passed on a GMail invite to me. Thanx, Elysia...

So I have now joined the select GMail community .... GMail works only on IE 5.5 and above ... Not really tested it much. Have just signed up.

Will post later abut how life at IIM-B goes on...

Sun TV-A C Nielson Survey results

Best Mechanical Engineering Course in TN : PSG Tech.
But not in civil though...Third there

Will keep adding results as they pour in...

Couldnt get tickets for Harry Potter today..damn rotten luck. Wanted to see the movie in the dome theatre thingie that they have here...

But this surely is.

Due to an unforeseen transportation crises, my exit from this place is getting delayed. And with nothing better to do, Im back to the blog.

Im currently debating as to what I should write. It is so very crazy, here Im trying to write something so that I aint bored. But then Im getting bored as I have nothing write either. What do u call this kind of a pointless exertion of mind, electricity and internet bandwidth?

Today, Sun TV is showing the results of its Annual A C Nielson survey of the best engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu. Im eager to see which of the top 3 positions my college gets. I guess it would be second, but there's a fair chance of hitting the first place too. Let's wait and see. I wont be able to see the program actually, but will get to know the results anyhow. Will comment on them tomorrow.

Whatever, my mind is too blank and dumb to plod on further ahead. So bye for now...

Good night, all ye loyal visitors.

p.s: If u happen to be from the other sides of the world, Good Morning, Good Evening or Good Afternoon. Whatever suits you...

Project over officially. HR interview done with. Returning back from here for the last time.


Bye bye ....

Andhra taking the left turn

With around 63 seats in its pocket, the Indian left front has never had it so good. It now remains to be seen how far towards the left can these 63 people tilt the entire government. The "Reforms with a human face" promise of the current government has a strong leftist under current to it. In what has been one of the most shocking and startling results in any election in this country, the emergence of the left has been the only part that is more surprising than the result itself.

It is curious to see the verdict returned by the Indian electorate. At a time when most "left countries" are going in towards some form of "capitalist orientation", the Indian electorate's decision has been surprising, but surely not shocking.

There have been several resons cited for BJP's defeat, but I guess the most major of all these would be the fact that India Shining was not entirely true. While BJP adopted the Trickle Down approach to economics and waited for the benefits it gave the upper middle class and higher classes of the society, to trickle down to the masses, the masses never really had the patience for the trickle down to happen. And the BJP was not helped by the fact that most of the direct beneficiaries of its policies never vote.

Now, the next five years are going to be "pretty" different from the last five years. I guess this change in government has been good for the economy as a whole. This time around, the government is likely to focus on sections of the population who hadnt directly benefitted from the BJP's pro reforms policies. Not that the current government is anti-reforms.

But still I have some worries about the role the left is about to play in this. The left governments in Kerala and West Bengal dont have much in concrete to show as an evidence of the success of their policies. But still, West Bengal is currently being used as an example of "left-ishtyle reforms" all over the place. Do we want the whole of the country to adopt the West Bengal model? I for one, am surely against it.

The defeat of "rightist" governments in AP, Karnataka and TN has been disappointing. The defeat means the slowing down of the tremendous pace at which these states were growing. Andhra has already turned into a populist government that has started going to extra-ordinary lengths to provide a hman face to its actions... Amma, down south in TN, has also reversed a lot good things she did during her tenure, and Karnataka is also make a jump to the populist mode.

All this puttogether, I have a creeping doubt in my mind as to whether we are reverting back to the pro-socialist mode of operations of 1947-1991. Let's hope we are not...May God bless us and this country....

The Great IIM Fee Debacle comes to an end

The tame end to a high-profile, absolutely pointless issue

India is a nation of misplaced priorities. And this latest IIM-fee cut debacle is just another example of the way we have mishandle issues. Why does no one see the obvious irrationality of the whole issue? For a start, forget whether the IIMs should really cut their fees or not ... That really is a secondary issue. Instead take note of a few other statistics:

1. The number of hunger deaths and poverty induced deaths in India is as high as, or in several instances, more than that experienced in some of Africa's most poverty stricken nations.
2. India has the highest occurrence of every major disease mankind knows, ranging from AIDS, TB to Heart Attack in this part of the world.
3. Unemployment rates in India are amongst the highest in developing economies
4. Roughly, 40% of Indians dont have access to "real" basic education

This is just a sample of the problems facing the Indian government... Add to this the problems of communal harmony, social development, and other pertinent issues, and you would be excused for assuming that the Indian government has much more important things in its hands than reducing the fee structure for some of the most privileged students in India. I guess the policy makers and men-at-charge of the country have a real problem with anything that works well in this country.

Mr.Joshi's had earlier supported his decision saying he would increase the government grant to IIMs. Now why on earth did he want to subsidise the education of students who would be earning at levels several times over the average Indian per capita income? Isnt it common sense that what India really needs is much much greater investment in primary education? Add to this the fact that nobody ever gets chucked out of an IIM due to lack of fund. And add to this another fact that all IIM students have extremely easy access to bank loans. With all this, Mr.Joshi's stance looks all the more funny.

Thank god, the issue has been settled now. The current government has displayed a great degree of common sense by letting the IIMs take their own decision. But it is a rather tame end to an issue that was blown out to such high proportions. I wish there had been some element of drama in the climax to the whole thing. And though I am and was ideologically against Mr.Joshi's stand, I would sure have liked a fee cut, for reasons not so pure. But, ah !! Things had to end this way...

Ok, dear readers, this is my first attempt at some serious blogging/writing ... Im writin in a big hurry, so I guess the piece is "a bit" disorganized, and "quite a bit" amateurish, and the issue is damn outdated ...but Hell, I dont care...I guess this is the direction that this blog will be taking over time... Me planning to do lots of these commentaries....

Last day of summer project. In another two days, it'll be IIM-B again. Planning to do some shopping tommorrow. Also planning to see Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban if possible... Let's see how things work out.

Bade farewell to some close summer project friends. We had some good fun over the past two months.

I have atleast 2-3 returning visitors to my blog now.

Bhars got an e-book for being the first person to comment on my blog. But I wont comment on the content of the comment itself.

Gotta go now. Have a nice time, I wont be on this blog for a couple of days.

Oops... Cant finish off project today. Will have to wait till Monday. All due to these petty exit formalities.neways, i dont mind...

Good Morning, World!! One more day of blogging.

Today is likely to be busy. Im trying to finish of all exit formalities for my summer project.

Next 3-4 days I may be off line. So may not be able to blog then.

Finally got done with my report. Its way shorter than what I wanted it to be, but that's ok I guess.

Absolutely Topicless right now.

Let me see what i manage to post today.

What's the point of this blog? Time pass ... I have started this with a sole objective of keeping myself entertained. I dont like to remain idle. I always rot when Im idle...

But still I would like it very much if people read my blog ... and even more if u actually post a comment... I will be extremely flattered if somebody bothers to actually read the whole load of crap that I have been churning out? Any of u reading the whole thing ... plz plz let me know ... U can have the satisfaction of having made one poor little soul happy.

Im expecting atleast some comments tomorrow ... Let us see who has the honor of writing the first comment in my blog ... May be I can send a cute little e-gift for the first/best/most comments in my blog...

That would be it for today I guess ... Gotta pack and leave ...

Good night visitors.

p.s: If u happen to be from the other sides of the world, Good Morning, Good Evening or Good Afternoon, as the case may be.

Current Mood: Tired of life

I'm currently in an extremely bored state. After two months of living the corporate life, me longing to go back to good, old IIM-B. It is so funny .... When I was at college, I kept cribbing about the hectic workload. Now that IM in a real life project, I find that Im really missing all the hustle-bustle of IIM-B.

I guess after a year at IIM-B, my system has got so much used to the daily pressure, that now I find it difficult to spend time with only one project at a time. My blogging and Orkut chakkars have started only due to this lack of activity...IIM was hectic, but it never let you get bored.

My boredom has been all the more aggravated by the intense effort I have been putting into the making of my report. Report making is an art, and a science. It is actually a combination of the worst aspects of both.... A PPT is much more enjoyable... Anyway, I have completed my report now. Only some minor formatting stuff remains. And formatting a report is even more painful than doing the report.

Tomorrow I have another formality called the HR exit interview ... After that I'm more or less done with my project at Mumbai and will head back to Hostel, sweet Hostel...

This vacation has been my first true vacation in a long long time ... During most of my engineering vacations I had actively over engaged myself with multiple internships ... This time it was much more relaxed. Saw lots of TV and lazed around a bit.

The best part of this summer was definitely the travel. Went on project trips to Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai....

Will write more later...

U bloody project report ... Here I come ... Let's get working.

My team took us trainees out for lunch today. Went to a place called Chinagate in Mumbai. The food was good. Gorged myself on it limitlessly.

Now Im sleepy...So will finish here. My shortest post in 2 days.

My dad has had a transfer in his job, yet again. So, we are shifting our homes today. But thankfully, this time the transfer is within Mumbai itself. Relocating from one suburb to another is not that big a deal.

The new home offers a view of the sea, and has some excellent ventilation. It;s quite breezy in that place. Today morning 5:00 AM (!!!) we had a small pooja at the new place to mark the beginning of our stay there. That reminds me, I should somedy write something on Indian poojas ...

I cant believe it still now. I have lived in 15 places in the past 22 years. The new home would be my 15th. If I include my hostel stays, it would be my 18th. That implies that, on an average, I have lived in each place for 1.222 years....Should be a record.

I'll shift home to a new address in a couple of days, and after a few days I would immediately shift my base of operations to IIM-B hostels.

With this kind of experience, I should have some excellent skills in change and transition management. Recruiters please take note of this .... hahaha.

My second day ...

The webstats Im getting are unbelievable. I have had some visitors, thankfully enough. And Im able to exactly drill down to the specifics of each user who has logged in. In most cases I could exactly say who each of these visitors are, bcoz I sent a mail about my blog to only a very few people.

Apart from this I also get the access time, the geographical location, a world map showing where the site was accessed, where exactly was this site referred to, and stuff of this sort. A few people from US, a few from Europe and majority from India. That is my user composition. Total pageloads is still only 30.

Also surprised to find that my blog had a few references that came from search engine results. There was this guy who has visited my blog from Finland through some search engine result.

But well that opens up another major issue, that of privacy. Why do I see the Webstats? Isnt it like intruding on the privacy of my dear visitors? I hope not. Im just doing this out of curiosity ... And there's no commercial intent. And come on, this is only a weblog ..

Visitors, one request though ... Please leave some comments and messages in the blog... Me getting bored.

Have added a chat box. Also a stat counter... And 3 posts in a day is not bad for a beginner. Not sure if I should add a guest book. Tried one already, but seems like unneccessary overhead.

Guess this would be last post for today ... Gotta go home ...

Good night visitors.


p.s: If u happen to be from the other sides of the world, Good Morning, Good Evening or Good Afternoon. Whatever suits you...

p.s.2: Oops, this is the 4th post. Fast beginnings usually have an even faster death. Let's hope my blogging experiment is an exception...

My summers project is over. Actually I completed the project almost 20-25 days in advance. Have been refining it ever since.

Did my final presentation yesterday. Still working on the report. The report is going on & on & on .... The project has been a good experience. Got introduced to critically important areas ... Retailing and government policy. That was my project title more or less.

The best part of the project has been that I had the opportunity to interview a lot of big shots. I met the CEOs of some of India's best known retail chains. Also interviewed real estate guys, lobbyists and government officials. Great learning. Good exposure.

Blogging feels good. Atleast on Day 1. An excellent opportunity to break away from the monotony of typing a report, while Im still sitting in my desk.

gmail swap

My latest quest has been a desperate attempt to obtain a GMail account. And it is to no avail. How long do I have to wait before I get access to GMail? Or shall I let it to be a case of sour grapes? Whatever.

I really like the marketing genius of google. The amount of buzz being generated by what describes itself as technical company would put professional buzz marketers to shame. How does Google manage to do this?

Think of their IPO. I cant any other single IPO receiving so much global attention as this .... I guess the key for Google has been its unconventional nature ....

Another reason for Google's popularity could be that everybody loves a maverick winner. And Google is as maverick a company as u can ever find(Check out its IPO offer document) and as successful a company as there ever has been in the internet market.

And there is one major thing that goes in favor of Google. They have an excellent product ... Their product is faster, cleaner, more effective and damn easier than anything else that even tries coming near.

So is Google's success an exception to marketing theory or is it just another conventional case study of a company getting its product/place/price/promotion in place effectively? I would say it is more of the latter than the former. Though Google may choose to portray itself as a maverick, its business model is almost as conventional as every other successful company. It had a great product, it was at the right time, did some good promotion and succeeded. People may say the promotion bit was automatic. I guess it could be. as far as I remember Google became popular more through word-of-mouth than through conventional means.

Will continue later when I find more time.

HELLO WORLD

When I learnt C, C++, Java, HTML, VB, ASP etc etc, I always started with a Hello World program. And so, I start this blogging effort of mine with yet another ode to the Kernighan-Ritchie tradition that I faithfully follow.

I begin with a prayer. A prayer to all the gods of the blogging world. Oh Gods! Please hear thy humble supplicant's prayer. Me not asking thee for wealth, glory or fame. All I want is sustainability. Please help me sustain my blogging effort. May this not be another wasted effort ....