It was a wonderful summer which included a great experience at lootstreet, getting to meet Harsha Bhogle, the slightly more consequential fact being that I got thrashed by 2 cricket "pundoos" ( nerds to those unfamiliar ) from Anna University who are now my good friends, catching up with long lost friends who have suddenly become scousers  ( Praveen ) and getting introduced to more interesting things , like the Hyderabadi Biriyani for one. I am back in Pilani and the usual laziness attached to college accounts for the lack of activity and the uncanny similarity to a Sloth as explained by Kutts last year at a similar stage. 

Are you planning to buy anything soon ? Please remember that you have the chance to bargain for it at lootstreet and get it delivered to your doorstep for no additional costs. Mr.Bag is always ready to negotiate with you for any of the products he has. So, log onto lootstreet to discover how effective bargaining can be.

Since, there are many products in our work-in-progress, in case you do not find the product of your choice at Lootstreet, you can mail in your requests at : wishlist@lootstreet.com . For any other related query : navin@lootstreet.com . If you want to know more on bargaining, possible rates for anything in particular mail me . Our product catalogue includes - Nokia,Samsung,Sony Ericsson,Hewlett Packard,Apple,Lenovo,Canon,Titan,Nikon,Seagate, Funskool, CD's, DVD's and books(any title of the last 3 will be available with us, drop in a mail and we will get back to you, if you do not find it on the site) . Please register with Lootstreet and start bargaining for any product of your choice.

The Internship at Lootstreet has been a wonderful learning place for me so far and in particular , I had an opportunity to visit IIM Ahmedabad last weekend. The trip was for the IIM Ahmedabad Entrepreneurs meet 2008. The meet intended to bring together all the entrepreneurs who had graduated from IIM A and hence try to pass on some valuable information to the current batch of students. The visitors list at the conference was a long one with many familiar ventures, but not-so-familiar founders - naukri.com,makemytrip.com,Subhiksha and Sintex to name a few.

The 2 day event was a good place for old friends to catch up, to network and get mentored by people who had done it all.There were a few panel discussions on start-ups, ecosystem etc and I managed to throw a question during one of them which was about the involvement of a VC with a start-up - 2 things about which I had minimal knowledge before May 19, 2008. It is not everyday that you get to be in a gathering where there are people(that too many in number) whose net personal worth runs in excess of Rs 500 crores and sit down and talk with them as well ! I believe that this visit has prepared me to interact people with experience in the corporate sector without any fear , which I hope gives me some additional advantage during my Placements and interviews that I will have to face over the next few months.


Through the course of my stay at Lootstreet, I have managed to gain a lot of knowledge about almost everything to do with a start-up, some bit on management,business development, interacted with a lot of people at different levels in their organisation and the best ways to get things done. The trip to IIM A was one more great experience that this internship has given me. To visit an institute where you aspire to be in the near future and meet a few of your "potential" seniors and interact with them is bound to be something that drives you further to make sure that your dreams come alive . At least for me, that has been one of the take-back's from the meet. As I stepped out of the campus on Sunday evening, I could only hope that this was not the last time that I walked out of those gates.

I have been in Hyderabad, the Nizam's city for more than a month now and the city never ceases to surprise me. Over the time I have been here, there are a few things which have been new to me, thankfully most of them for good.

As a person who has been in Chennai for almost my entire lifetime till now, I am used to the notorious behaviour of "Autorickshaw wallas" , where I have to engage in a 5 minute "about-to-fight,about-to-leave" encounter with him before a reasonable fare is agreed. So, I was all geared up for the fight when I waved out my hand to stop and Auto . I said "Banjara Hills, kitna loge ? " and I gaped in disbelief, when he told me "Meter" !! I did not know whether it was a genuine or tampered meter ,but he was not ready to engage in a conversation regarding the fare with me. I agreed thinking that maybe only Chennai drivers are notorious, but this guy did not fail to surprise me by taking me on a ride for 5 minutes before taking a U-turn and then reaching a place right opposite to where I started and the meter was ticking thick and fast already. Yes, autowallas did live up to my expectations here.

Another thing I noticed on the second day in the city was that just like your pizza order, buses in Hyderabad come in 3 different varieties - Small(Setwin Service ), Medium ( RTC) and Large (Metro) . Each of them have their own "differentiating factors". The Setwin buses are for those who desperately need to reach their destination, are willing to fit themselves into the smallest available and cry in despair when you find one of the other varieties overtaking the bus you are in. They are a very hospitable family and are ready to accomodate any person who stretches his hand out on the road, irrespective of whether he is in the Bus-stop or not. The RTC and Metro are just your regular buses, the former being the older traditional rattled buses which has withstood long years of rain and shine while the latter is a newbie on the roads. In striking contrast to their Chennai counterparts, I hardly find any of the drivers and conductors getting down for a tea at each and every terminus, the bus just seems to be on a non-stop schedule.Live for yourself too, are'nt you a government servant - defined as those who manage to spend more time drinking tea and eating refreshments in office hours than working ? Why don't you join the gang ?

Next thing is undoubtedly the restaurants in Andhra. As Arun informed me yesterday, an average Andhraite eats 1.75 times the amount of rice as an average non-Andhraite. Anyone new to Hyderabad will be amazed at the amount of rice served to you for one "Hyderabadi Biriyani". Do not venture into it alone unless you have been starving for quite sometime, they do taste excellent when had at the best places - I have tried them out so far at "Hyderabad House " and of course "Paradise ". Being a vegetarian, I am apparently not enjoying the real thing, still it is a taste to savour.

Something that I mentioned in passing above, the riduculous nature of Hyderabad roads. I have travelled quite a few times on official purposes with Arun and often end up having to travel 2 kms forward despite seeing the place that you want right opposite to you - to take a U turn. The design is just beautiful- makes you enjoy your ride, drink loads of petrol everyday and pollute the planet more as well, what more can you ask for ?

I have enjoyed my stay here so far, both at work and off it. I am yet to see the "sights" of the city - Charminar for one , Golconda and of course the biggest Film Studio in Asia - Ramoji Rao Film City. I hope to find someone who can accompany me to these places before my stay here ends .

I have been working for nearly a month now and am forced to reflect on what Srihari predicted around a year back that I will turn out to be a workaholic once I start working . Sadly, I have realised that he might be correct. Maybe it has something to do with the excitment of my first "job" or the experience of being in an alien city with nothing else to do , the truth remains that all I have been doing since I reached Hyderabad is work.

Despite the fact that I have been enjoying my work and have been singing it's praises to most people I know , I am surprised at the energy levels with which I turn up for work everyday morning. I am enjoying the work, but am I really supposed to be ? I am yet to use any of my permitted "off" days and am always thinking about the work that might be affected if I dont turn up ( working in a firm of 5 members, it really matters if 20 % of the workforce is off on a day ) . I am more than happy to stay back late to ensure that work is completed or take part in brainstorming sessions till 8, even though it takes me nearly 1 hour to travel home in a cramped bus in the usually "chaotic" Cyberabad traffic.

Over the past 1 month, my only "hangout" spot has been from the R.T.C bus footboards and the only places I have visited in Hyderabad besides my office are the ones where I have accompanied my boss Arun Balakrishnan on his bike on "official business" . Saturday afternoon's are reserved for team lunches at our office and when a plan had to be put off , I ended up sitting alone in a family restaurant with absolutely no-one to call for company .Believe me when I say that Hyderabadi restaurants are totally paisa vasool for heavy eaters , but a complete loss for a BITSian like me whose appetites have been destroyed by the messes - one Hyderabadi Biriyani is meant for a family, not for a person , try how much you may you can never finish it alone.

All this to me looks like symptoms of the disease " Workaholism" and I have seriously decided to fight this chronic disease ( as a first step, I am using official internet for non - official purposes :D ) . I am hoping that the enthusiasm does not last forever and does not repeat with my future endeavours at employment.

I am working as a Business Development Intern @ lootstreet. I have been working in Hyderabad, visiting the city again after a gap pf nearly 10 years with absolutely no memories whatsoever from my previous visits while my father used to work here. To all those to whom I haven't already explained about lootstreet , we are an online start-up venture headed by 2 IIM-A graduates. We are the first website in India that provides platform for bargaining and negotiation of prices before a buyer and seller strike a deal. This is the standard line that I use in my work everyday.



As a business development intern, I am responsible for trying to woo sellers onto lootstreet and hence make a larger bargaining market for all the buyers on website. This would be my job description, but I have enjoyed working here with 2 people who have left behind hefty salary packages from their placements in IIM to take up the challenge of bringing their own dream venture alive. I have already learnt much from my first two working weeks here and am also sure that this " work experience " will enhance my knowledge about many things that happen in the real-time working of a firm( unlike what Principles of Management,POM teaches most BITSians ) . This seems to be a lot more enjoyable than working in a 1000 member strong workforce right now, but I am completely unaware of what that feels like. I am yet to sit in an interview for a job myself, but have already interviewed 2 people for a post here, so you can guess the kind of experience I will be deriving out of this. Also, I managed to visit ISB and sit through an engaging discussion between an ISB professor and an IIM graduate.


This summer sure looks very promising and interesting for me.Despite this hampering my CAT preparations , I am still happy that I managed to contact lootstreet and join them here for a brief period in these initial stages of this interesting venture.Do visit the website and try your hand at bargaining - something which am sure all of you do when you go shopping, try it online too now .