Tuesday 5 May 2015

Midnight Financial Crisis


Finance, a subject I consider to be one of my most dreadful nightmares. A subject I was always inclined to give up, and not a surprise, to which I lost every time. I left no stone unturned to just get a mediocre result. However there were many small battles I fought en-route to Finance. I never really understood what expenses will go under operating, financial or the investing activities. Earnings, understood, but shouldn't it stop there; no there was retained earnings. Same was the case with deferred taxes. On top of that the biggest enemy I had was the balance sheet which was the most imbalanced thing in front of me. Every time I would dive in thinking how difficult can it be, Money gained could be just added and money spent could be subtracted. Every time I would be taken aback by the big words like liability, which at the end was added to equity and had to be balanced with even larger things like assets.

Such was my equation with Finance since the beginning of time. Even in my school board exams, the one question I got incorrect was of Profit and Loss. In class 12th as well was a Part C in the mathematics paper, which I never dared to touch. Part C was commercial mathematics and the word itself scared me. I worked day in and out on part B which was an alternative and more of physics. This was my strategy to evade Finance. The problem was similar when I had to open investopedia every time I read the Economic Times.

The days in IT kept me isolated from the exasperating reach of the subject. However my journey of MBA opened the gates ajar. MBA curriculum has it all - Reports, statements, Accounting, Institutions and more, bringing all my fears alive. Of course there were few smart finance lovers in my class and they were very helping. However, the frequency of my doubts made it very difficult to reach out to the fellow students every time. I had to seek online help. I started viewing video tutorials by Ramana Sir, one of the greatest teacher's in Finance streams in my college. His tutorials were very informative and cleared most of my concepts.

But soon came the time to implement my learning and crunch the numbers. Assignments, grueling and demanding every bit of my concentration, piled up. Few days of extensive struggling, went in vain. A friend of mine recommended JugaadClass, a platform to find great tutors who could help online. With little hope logged in at midnight and added Finance to my interests. I started looking for tutors and to my surprise I found a great one, with  great ratings, online. He was ready to schedule a class for assignment help at 12:30 AM. The whole process was very quick and smooth. I posted my question and the tutor assisted me in solving it using excel, online white-board and other audio tools. Owing to the desktop sharing and online classroom feature of JugaadClass, I could learn the concepts in a very interactive way. The tutor also helped me understand the concept by assisting in some similar problems. He was from IIM Kozhikode, a major in finance. On asking why he was registered on JugaadClass, he said he wanted to share his wisdom and laughed. Relieved, I submitted my assignment and content, that I could learn something so clearly that day.

After delving deep and learning the subject for 3 terms, I realize how important it is for a manager. Starting from understanding the current financial position of a firm, to formation of new businesses, everything is captured in those numbers. It allows businesses to take advantage of opportunities to grow along with the strategic use of financial instruments, such as loans and investments. Moreover, financial trends have impact on the economy on a global level altogether. Little did I know that the subject so challenging can so interesting at the same time. Coming from a non-commerce background did make the learning tough. However, whenever I stumbled, I always had my friends and JugaadClassJugaadclass- Online Tutoring, a bank of great tutors on the subject, with a firm grip on the subject and rich industry experience are ready to clear your doubts on-the-go. Now I have made peace with the subject, and yes it really feels good that I know, not very much but at-least a little bit of Finance. My quest to explore it still continues. 

As said by Patton “Accept the challenges so that you can feel the exhilaration of victory”.

Wednesday 29 April 2015

Learning Online

Music is something that has always helped me through strenuous times and I have always kept it close to myself. For Plato said, music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. The 4 years of engineering gave me a lot of time to pursue my interest. I could join the music club and interact with peers with similar interest. However, the pressing academic schedule of an MBA life has made me just a listener for quite some time now.

And then, my love for music took me to my dream instrument. It has been 4 years since we met, but I never really got a chance to learn to play it. My guitar lies there all by itself and no fingers run over its chords, or none do strum it. Then again of course I have to be in my class and attend my lectures. Sitting in my classes, I always wonder, Intellectual things have been draining hours, months and several years of my life. But I yearned to learn one thing for myself and was unable to do it. My relationship with my guitar was definitely going to end on a sad note where all the blame would have been mine "for not trying at all.”

The fact that I could learn guitar sitting at home always tempted me, but being a bit old schooled I waited till I could get a personal tutor. But with time, my work grew and the time I could spare for my passion shrank, and of course I had too many excuses to give to myself. Just when I was about to give up on it, I thought to myself, ‘let me try the last option I have’. I googled “learn guitar from a personal tutor online” and to my surprise there were several results to my search query. One particular site that caught my attention was livemusictutor.com. The site had several engaging features and the navigation was very convenient as well. I could learn any instrument at my own pace, paying a charge for the classes from highly qualified tutors. They would arrange for live video classes, which were personal and interactive.

The instruments they taught were mostly guitars, violin, harp etc. But then again the Indian side of me kept popping ideas about the beautiful instruments which are mastered and sourced mainly in India. The instruments like Sitar, Iktara, Flute, Harmonium, Tabla etc. These instruments are equally amazing. A thought crossed my mind, is there any site which teaches all this in India. Can there be an Indian platform where music could be taught through online classroom? And behold, Google never disappoints. As said by Tolkien “Not all those who wander are lost” and my search led me to a remarkable finding.

JugaadClass - A site that promised to provide an innovative fix to all my learning requirements. Indeed it is an amazing platform with state-of-the-art features like that of any renowned international website. I could search for tutors for musical instruments and the amazing part was I could personally message and interact with them, using the live classrooms facilitated by audio, video, live streaming and other tools. JugaadClass was the perfect answer to my query.

It was a real pleasure to find such a website with fresh ideas. On top of that the experience of using the website was really cool. I could find several credible tutors registered with it.  JugaadClass corroborated my belief in the emerging MOOCs. This is sure to be the next big thing where anything and everything could be learnt online. JugaadClass is an indigenous initiative is all set to give a new face to the experience of learning and making it participative, flexible and much more fun. It has inspired me to keep my passion high as there is no limit to learning; And with a platform like JugaadClass, which has made learning so convenient, I can learn anything I want, sitting at home. Knowledge is just a few clicks away.