It happens only in India... at least we hope so!

"New treatment norms pull plug on inflated medical claims" Business Standard, Bangalore Edition on the 3rd of December 2007. Folks if you get a chance, just read through it. It gives amazing insights into what are the actual average costs incurred for treatment of around 35 common diseases in Hospitals of different sizes as researched by the Armed Forces medical college, Pune. The article is what prompted me to dash off this one between a lunch break and a Management Communication class!

The author remembers (although he prefers to forget) a harrowing experience that he and his friends had 2 weeks back. It was a Saturday evening and we were planning to go out for dinner. We were in a friend's car and were just crossing the Bannerghatta Road in front of the IIM campus when a speeding motorcycle with a licenseless, helmetless rider and a drunk pillion rider rammed against the driver side door of the car. Yours truly remembers a deafening sound, the vehicle shaking and fibre glass being showered on him. Well, the driver side door got screwed with its windows and all accessories. The guy who was riding the bike had cuts on his neck and face which were bleeding profusely. The car driver had an injury on the forehead. The pillion rider was nowhere to be seen....So much in a few seconds!!

Well, there are 2 big hospitals opposite IIM Bangalore and the junta that had gathered sent the bike rider to one of them. My driver friend was also taken there. Now the real story begins....

The Hospital (a very prominent one with a number of branches all over India) took both patients into emergency. As first aid was being administered to both the patients, doctors said my friend needs a few stitches on the forehead. A while later, the Doc attending the Bike rider comes and tells us that he is critical and would need an immediate surgery. He asks us to pay a deposit at the reception if they are to proceed with his treatment. I mean the whole thing was not our mistake in the first place. We were angry for a screwed car, an injured friend and a spoilt evening. On top the hospital wanted us to pay for the person whose carelessness caused the whole thing. We say no way.

A while later, 3 doctors come one after the another and psyche out a friend of mine saying that the biker guy's life is in our hands.. every moment we hesitate to pay the guy is gonna die.. why dont we allow his treatment to be started n all that.. Well, when he came and said this to us, we thought .. well ok.. If that guy dies or something we would always think that we could have a saved a life and we chose not to.. so we went to the reception to pay the deposit.. the lady at the billing smiles and says "Pay at least 35000 rupees sir!'.. WTF.. 35000!!!... Another friend of mine paid the amount. On hindsight, we should have asked the doctors what their duty was.. If they were so concerned about a patient, why do they insist on someone paying the amount and not start treatment right away and then bother about the money!!. They said he was gonna die!!!

Walking back to emergency, after making the payment, we overheard the surgeon tell a doc that the Bike rider's wounds were superficial and would need some stitches. thats all!!!.. We could have killed someone then and there.. we fumed.. nothing could be done now... For my driver friend they claimed they did a plastic surgery for the 0.5 inch cut and billed 2550.. Well, it turns out they just put some normal stitches..Not even the ones where the thread would dissolve into the skin after a while.. these had to be painfully removed!!!... B*s*a*ds!!

Next day, we went to enquire if anything was left of the 35000 "deposit"... well, there is no standard charges that apply to these procedures in this hospital... the Doc says what he wants.. te hospital takes what they want.. finally they told us almost 30000 has been used.. the guy is in Surgical ICU which would make the bill 35000 by end of day.. A guy who had a few stitches on the neck for some superficial injuries was put in a Surgical ICU!!!

The guy's family was extremely poor.. the hospital guys knew there was no way to extract more money.. so they just finished off the 35000.. well, they would have done this otherwise also.. may be not so quickly.

When a patient is brought into THIS hospital, he is first asked if he has a medical insurance. Depending on the answer, the lines that the treatment takes differ. If the patient has an insurance, the bill is a 5 times multiple of the usual, for the same treatment that is done!!.. and the patient is repeatedly said "You don have to pay anything.. coz u r covered by Insurance.." The poor patient signs a number of forms so that "he does not have to pay anything".. what a way to make money!!.. an Advocate who I talked to recently on some other matter was telling me that the courts have begun to take notice of this Medical Insurance racket!!...

Well, emergency situations are when no one cares about how much the hospital is charging or how much the doctors are asking.. we want our loved one to be out of danger as fast as possible.. exactly the same emotions that are exploited by hospitals like these... so much in the name of Humanity and Service!!

One hell of a process called SUMMERS @ IIMB!!

Well.... How do I start??.. hmmm.. Let me start by saying that had I not been here, I would never have applied to 110 companies!.. not in the whole of my life!!... here I did it in less than 3 weeks flat.. Resume uploads, SOPs, Motivation letters and what not!

Summer Placements at IIM Bangalore would easily top the richest experiences of my life... well.. at least as things stand today!... man!.. 250+ students placed in 4 (..and a quarter may be) days flat... Hats off to Placecom... What an incredible job!

The second year guys who were the trackers presented yet another amazing job.. I salute the guy who developed the whole process.. some brains he would have had.. at any point in time, trackers could exactly know where each first year person was... that is some process i would say!!...

Yours truly managed to crack his summers with a firm called Ocwen Financials.. God Willing this summer I would travel to the US to work for them. Life definitely has taken a turn I guess now.. I hope it is for the better!

Many of my friends into finance jobs. A few into consulting and very very few or none into marketing. This is not to say that no one takes up maketing jobs. It is such an awesome field. Just that all of my close buddies seem to have got into either Fin or consult jobs. That is like a trend. Herd mentality.. group behaviour.. whatever you might want to call it....

Hmm.. when I am able to open blogger and type in a few lines.. it feels so nice.. possibly I should have done this right after the summer placements.. coz more details of emotions, processes and whatever else ... have long been buried under the renewed weight of surprise quizzes, assignments, presentations, blah blah blah..

Ok then... cya people.. The watch says 2:56 am Dec 03, 2007. I might get back to studying.. or may be sleeping ;)

Onam @ IIM Bangalore

Well, Onam celebrations at IIM Bangalore was not exactly how i thought it would be. It turned out to be much more colourful. The enthusiam was simply amazing. The 2nd years had told us that we would have to do all thenecessary things as they were busy with their submissions and stuff. We thought "well!!.. let us rock the place!!"... and so the malayali 1st years at IIMB set out to show the insti how it looks like when we get going....

The gals zeroed in on a design for a pookkalam(flower arrangement), while the guys arranged for the flowers and the food. I think Linu Koshy, a good friend of mine, deserves a special mention here...He is the man who ran around the most. He good mundus for all of us, was the lead bargainer at the flower market and the camera we used to capture the celebrations was his. Kudos to Linu!!.....

At 00:00 hrs we started sorting the flowers and by 2 am we were ready to attack the mess floor. The pookkalam was ready by around 3:30 am...We took the lamp and placed it near the pookkalam and we were done for the time being. Well... next day's class had a quiz.. so i dragged my back to my chair and read till 5:30 am before crashing.

Tiruvonam Morning.

When the alarm went off at 7:30 i couldn'tmake out where that irritating sound was coming from.. and I searched my bed, under it, around it, under the mattress. God knows where all.. before i came back to my senses and understood it was the alarm. Ok!!.. so I then made myself stand straight, cursed out loud and then did all my morning chores in Fast forward. At 8:30 I was in class wearing the traditional mundu.. Yeah... We did it for the first time I guess.. the entire mallu males from the batch wore mundu to class.. and some of our enthusiastic non mallu friends too....

When the class was done.. we ran back to the mess to serve the sadhya(feast).. the food was good.. people liked our enthu... and the mess chat group on BRacket(internal chat) was overflowing with praises!!!!.... It feels good when someone appreciates all the effort that you have put.... after everyone had their lunch, we, the mallu gang sat down.. ate to our heart's content.. we had got special palpayasam for us... drank it till it started coming out through our noses... stood around and joked... and then went and crashed!!!....

It was good!!.. it was awesome!!.. the kinda work that we had done.. the effort that we had put in when faced with threats like surprise quizzes and tests was beyond words of praise...

We Rocked!!...and all of IIM cheered!!!

Happy Onam Folks!!

The Aroma of the feast wafting through the air.....

a beautiful "pookkalam"(flower arrangement) welcoming you everywhere.....
damsels in their "settu mundu" making you go weak in your knees....
just looking around gives you so much joy and peace....

when nature is at its beautiful best....
with surplus everywhere after the harvest...!!

Welcome to God' s own country....!!!!... my land.. my heritage.... my people....me!!

The culture, the food, the country liqour, the damsels, the greenery, the backwaters, the hospitality, the massages, the naturopathies, .... nowhere in the world will any place come anywhere close....

I love my land, my people.... proud to be a malayali!!!!

Happy Onam to everyone!!!

Fffffffffffinallyyyyyyyyyy....!!!!!!

Aaahhh!!!.... Finally I am able to give myself sometime for this blog... the one place I thought i could unwind!.... No.. there is no new place I have discovered to destress... just that I haven't had the leisure....

Hmmm... Its been more than a month since I landed at IIMB and what can I say???.. So many things have happened during this time.... Elections, Club Selections, Talks from people like Chris Gopalakrishnan (CEO, Infy), James Abraham (Partner, BCG).. Ed Cohen coming down in a couple of days.., uncountable number of quizzes, resume submissions.. you name it!!....

Whew!!!.. I have seen most of the sunlight and moonlight since 25th June... and I am very sure that the situation will remain the same for many many light years to come!!!.... It is not a complaint... It is just stating a fact...

Well, I dont know about other B Schools, but here at IIMB many times you would feel if 24 hrs were enough in a day.. There is always something to be done, read, submitted..... and what not... But I have begun to enjoy the craziness of it!!.... and it is only true that the situation is not any rosier at job. So what the heck!!!.. I might as well do it and enjoy doing it......

Having talked about the hectic life that one lives here... there is more to life @ IIMB than just studies.... We have had 3 L square parties till date in this term..2 with us and one without.... the 4th L square is coming in another 10 days at Ecsatcy when the hunks and babes of bangalore's colleges come down to IIMB for a cultural fest..... We have had Aarambh, conducted entirely by PGP1s(first years).. we have had all kinda sports competitions .. including tsepak... and the next interblock sports meet is just around the corner.... IIMB team is leaving to IIM Calcutta this weekend for the IIMB-IIMC Sports meet... Umang, the intersection cultural competition is now going on....Oh my God!!!..... So much to do here.. and so less time!!!!....

And yes.... I am just done with the mother of all confidence breakers.. my mid terms... No.. Dont even think of asking how I did!!??!!.... but this is not the end.. I have to put in tremendous effort I beleive... Looking at topics like probability and Probability functions is making me go nuts!!... Hmm.. anyways...

I wanted to keep my writings humorous!!!.. Who would wanna read stuff like what I just wrote above!!!!... But I think that slowly I am realigning to that Business writing kinda thing.. I should stop that.. may b the next time I feel like writing I would do a much better job... May be not.. who knows!!..

Vacation is Over!!!!..... Mummyyyyyyyyyyyy :(

Waaaaaaahhhhhhh…….. wwwwwwwwwwwaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!!!.. I don’t want to go to school!!.. waaaaaaaahhhhhhh……

My days of lazing around are coming to an end!!.. and my back is gonna be on the grinder from next week!!....

Well, I was having a gooooood time at home being busy with nothing but eating and sleeping. Man!!.... You really start looking forward to vacations once you start working!!.. and pursuing studies after you work for a couple of years... after you lose touch with writing notes and all that... after that break.. oooohh.. It is the second hardest thing to attempt in life!!…It closely follows pursuing your studies otherwise!!.. he he..

Hmm… so Yours Truly is heading to IIM Bangalore on June 25^th…Hope everything goes fine.

So, If someone happens to read this… please close your eyes and say “God!!.. Please help this Cherian do ssssomething there…!!”.. Thank you.

Ok. Will be back blogging after I settle there...(Here, I am presupposing that someone cares!!)

Global Warming - In Vogue?!?

I was watching Devil's Advocate on CNN-IBN the other day. Lt Col Kirorilal Bainsla, the Gurjjar leader was Karan Thapar's (I admire that guy!!.. Man! He screws every guy's happiness on that show... Great Going Mr.Thapar) prey this time. The questions were razor sharp and I must say Kirorilal Bainsla was doing a good job in putting up a solid face. I like the show for its anchor. Sometimes you can really see him corner those politicians and see them try to wriggle out of it. Like once there was an interview with MDMK leader Vaiko. Man!!.. that was half an hour of plain Comedy. Vaiko possibly didn't understand many words that the anchor used and in the end came out looking really bad. I was watching the show with my room mate and we laughed heartily at every answer. If that Interview could have been used during election campaigns, then the MDMK leader would have look for "The Bihar means" to get votes. Such Blunders!!!.. Anyways, coming back to what prompted me to write this one....

The show was progressing well when it suddenly took the inevitable irritating Commercial Break. There was a scene of Ice Melting and suddenly John Abraham comes on screen to say "Our planet is facing a big danger..blah blah"...Then Abhishek Bachchan "Global Warming ..blah blah.. danger.. blah blah".. Then Bipasha Basu "blah blah.. blah blah....[;)]." Lara Dutta "Save our Planet... blah blah".. By this time there is this good build up about Global Warming, its dangers and appeals to save our planet. Then comes our Amitabh Bachchan himself and says "Avoid Global Warming.. Do Something cool today.. Watch the IIFA Coolathon!"...

Whhhhhhhaaaaaaattttt????!!!!????

... Yes that is correct.. He said "Watch the IIFA Coolathon".. This was a trailer for the telecast of an award function held a couple of weeks back. I thought .. what crap... They took such a serious issue and made a mockery of it!!??!!

Now, I really am not aware if the IIFA Awards this time had anything to do with Global Warming Awareness or something.. If it does not.. then well.. What can I say.. the guy who made the Trailer has nuts where his brains should have been... Countries are spending billions of dollars for its awareness. Scientists are working towards avoiding a catastrophe... and this is what we can do???.. Make a trailer for some worthless award function??..

C'mon... I feel this could have been avoided... and that we are responsible enough to do something better than this..

Anyways, now I sincerely hope that this years IIFA awards has something seriously related to Global Warming... Otherwise it would be so .... so....... what...stupid!!(being decent here).. Right???

Clambered On Board... almost lost it!!!

Hmmmm.....

So arrived... finally!!.. Phew.... well I have been thinking for a long time to do this... to start my own blog.... First I thought what I would write... then I thought would anyone wanna read what I write..... (eh??.. How stupid!!.. So who do u think u are Cherian??... Orhan Pamuk??.. thinking about readership and all???)

Finally when I made up my mind and got up to create a blog... Blogger asked me for a name for what would be my blog...

eh???... Name??..Whats in a name???

and the help said "Please have a meaningful name"... so I deleted the "shdgfhsgd" that I had keyed in... closed the window... kicked the computer table... and disposed the idea off.....

Then I got busy with CAT and all... forgot all about this....

Well, today again this blogging thing stung me...This time I was intelligent... thought of a name and url n all... entered... WTF??!!??... Blogger told me "Sorry this name is taken"...

...... ok don't lose hope Cherian....

... 2nd attempt... sorry taken... 3rd.... taken..... eh??.. Is something wrong with Blogger??!!..

...Then I saw that Ray of Hope... Blogger was telling me "Please try something like Cherian-what you want"...

hmmmm...... wogay... that is the way...

... so I started thinking in that direction.... and what you see now is what struck me then....

.... Lucky...for the computer...
If Blogger had said "taken" this time... i would have pushed the monitor down... plucked out the Start button from the CPU...like if it was its eye.... and banged my head on the key board...
..... Frustrating it was.....

... Here Cherian was... waiting to unwind……… and in the end he got all worked up....

I guess I am a late entrant... Very late entrant ... anyways... now it should not be a problem....

I have managed to clamber on board... so now I guess I should be able to unwind...

…………………………………………..Hopefully...........................................