How I didn’t meet your mother and other things……

So I know it's been a while since I've posted. Partly because my eager readers in Kennett Square, PA, Bracknett and LA don't egg me on to keep posting (yes, I do check google analytics to see who's reading my blog!). And thanks for the readership and emails.

But that's besides the point! On a sunny Friday (for London) afternoon as I stand on my balcony and look at traffic whiz by, an existential question crosses my mind – Why are most London taxis black while the rest span the spectrum from white to crimson to blue to silver? And this existentialism is spurred by the two glasses of Cava that I've just quaffed. Funny how life becomes lucid after a few! The best advice I've given my clients during consulting days was at dinner after a couple bottles of Penfolds '06 Bin 389, including such truisms as "It's not how smart you are that matters, but what you can do!" and "Hope is a particularly bad strategy!"

Oh well, silent jubilation is in order today owing to an offer from Nomura to join them full-time next summer!

In the meanwhile, my second internship with UNITAID has left me a bit wanting – mostly because I wonder if I will walk away with the feeling that I could have made a difference, but I didn't – the one chance I had in my life! To put it in perspective – for the losses that one of the big banks suffered during the economic downturn, one could provide anti-retroviral treatments to anyone in the world who needs it! And this coming from a non-commie, non-tree hugger!

The focus of the work I am doing is (succinctly stated) "Incorporating an agency that would serve as a conduit to effect the price-reduction of HIV/AIDS drugs for use in low- and middle- income countries". SNAFU's abound thus far…..nuff said! Here is an interesting article in The Guardian regarding this -- GlaxoSmithKline urged to pool its patents on HIV drugs.

On other fronts, the bright eyed, bushy tailed MBA2011 class just joined London Business School and its members have been downing pints at The Windsor Castle like old pros in their efforts to fit in. Bravo and welcome!

As for the title of this blog post….I neglected this CBS show for a while, but finally got down to watching the pilot…..and I admit, after checking my brains at the door, the show was a laugh!

On being quoted in BusinessWeek….

I was quoted in BusinessWeek. Its sort of a rite of passage, methinks! Long ago, I used to read the B-school blogs and articles on BusinessWeek which got me interested in the B-school concept. Funny, that life should come full-circle this way!

Here is the link to the article. Summer Reading List: The B-School Edition: Looking for a little light reading to while away the hours? These books might be just the ticket, by Francesca Di Meglio

……Business lessons can continue long after the classroom doors are closed for the summer. That's why BusinessWeek asked professors and students at top business schools to share the five books they'd put at the top of their personal summer reading lists. Titles ranged from the classic novel to contemporary nonfiction, but when read together create an encyclopedia of leadership, just the thing to productively while away a summer as the financial crisis continues. A rundown of the most popular picks follows. For the complete list, visit "Summer 2009 Books: MBA Reading List" on the Getting In blog……….

It is 12:01 AM and I just returned home from the bank. I have to admit that even though taking the customary black Mercedes or BMW back home after late nights on the job sounds sexy, often the Jubilee Line is much faster than London traffic. This city never sleeps and its streets are not the grid that MannyHanny is - so it takes way longer driving through the London maze than the quick zip up to the Upper East/West side from mid-town or Wall Street.

IBD has been everything they promised and then some – the 14-15 hour days, the modeling, the powerpoint jockeying (although much less jockeying than I was used to in consulting), and the intern 15 (a la the freshman 15 – I need to get to the gym on the 7^th floor). I'm working in Lev Fin, rumors of whose death, as it turns out, were highly exaggerated. I finished a week of training and Deal Maven exercises, while preparing a pitch for a Private Equity firm trying to acquire a French company. And I discovered debt! Equity i.e. stock occupies a much more outsize space in the public psyche than it warrants, thanks to IPOs of yore – so much so that debt, and the beauty of its intricacies are lost in the white noise. Simply said, debt, especially high yield, mezz and leveraged debt is fantastic! And sitting on a call with a PE sponsor makes one feel small, so small. Its beautiful watching how this gargantuan belching pump called Lev Fin, sucks in debt at one end and spits out equity at the other end with a gurgling chuga-chuga-chuga! And covenants – ah covenants, so Biblical and evocative of Aaronic burnt-offerings of heifers and turtle-doves – covenants are so dynamic, and with so many moving parts. The entire picture is an exercise in pointillism, you focus on the details, but then you have to step back to enjoy the whole picture. I could go on and on!

My favorite (and arguably the most famous) pointillist painting)

Seurat's "Sunday on La Grande Jatte". See the original at the Art Institute of Chicago

A micro-blogpost:first day on my IBD internship

I'm super-psyched about Day 1 which was mainly orientation. Amazing how the ADD does not kick in when one in NOT attending 3 hour B-school lectures!

I've been assigned to the Corporate and Acquisition Finance Team within Global Finance. Translation – a little bit of Restructuring, a dollop of Acquisition Finance and a whole load of Leveraged Finance, and I likely get to dabble in all three over the summer. I love the entrepreneurial spirit in the company and am very bullish on it. Another reason why I'm psyched - based on information that is already public, this year's biggest European purchase by a private equity firm, was handled by Nomura. Troubled Candover agreed to sell energy research firm Wood Mackenzie to rival Charterhouse for an enterprise value of 553 million pounds ($905 million).

Off to bed now, its an early start and a late finish tomorrow.

My new digs. 25 Bank Street,

the Old Lehman Building in Canary Wharf

I discovered School of Seven Bells in the midst of finals….

I tend to blog a lot around mid-terms and finals. It has now become another form of cyber-procrastination a la Facebooking, Tweeting and Flickr'ing.

I'm almost done with four in-a-row finals. Financial Statement Analysis and Management Accounting weren't bad at all. Tomorrow is a double-header of Operations and Technology Management and Capital Markets and Financing. The key to MBA exams is a good cheat sheet. It's hard remembering what the Black-Scholes formula for Warrants and Convertibles looks like after an all-nighter. And here at LBS, one gets rewarded for logical and analytical application of theory, like most other B-schools I presume.

I am looking forward to "cultural sensitivity training" for my Accenture Development Partnership internship on Monday and Tuesday next week. Topics include "A Buddhist model to development". "Neoliberalism perspective", "World Cycle of Disadvantage", and "World Development Balance Sheet". Certainly different from the Balance Sheets that I've been analyzing lately.

I still have to figure out my 2^nd year electives. I'm specializing in Finance and Private Equity, and would like to take more block weeks and modular courses, instead of term long courses that drag on and on. That way, I can have at least the fall or the summer trimester free, in order to focus on my 2^nd year project, do a month-long PE internship and hopefully, travel a bit.

By now you've figured out that I'm a music nerd. I just discovered School of Seven Bells (SVIIB). They are getting me through finals week. If you like Imogen Heap, PJ Harvey and Sigur Ros, you should check them out. One angle on good bands is having identical twins for vocalists. Think Tegan and Sara. SVIIB delivers on that front. I'm partial to Alejandra, the one with the wild bangs. Other bands like SVIIB – Stereolab, Raveonettes, Bat for Lashes, M83 and Prefuse 73. Very NYC, very cool!

This is "Half Asleep" by SVIIB, give it 45 seconds to warm up and set your equalizer to Electronic.