It’s so odd that the New Year's Eve is like every other night; there is no pause in the march of the universe, no change in the way the air blows and the birds fly, no change in the way we work and we learn; and yet no man has quite the same thoughts this evening that come with the coming of darkness on other nights.

If only we knew how to convert all days and all nights into New Year’s Eve, wherein even when we party, we do it with the enthusiasm large enough to drive any task to completion. Wherein even if we sleep we do it with the comfort and excitement of the next day. Wherein even if we are alone, there is hope for better days. And wherein even if we pinch ourselves in disbelief, we pray for that happiness to remain.

Here is wishing you a 2006 filled with New Years Eve...each and every day. May all your wishes and plans, work out just the way you wanted them to be. And may the 365 days of 2006 make you realize what an amazing thing life is.

(Inspired)

~a

am in love....

99 days left for graduation. I was just discussing with G…as to how life will be after ISB. She is mighty kicked at the prospects of leaving this place in the next 3 months…! :)

As for me…its still an undecided thought. At times I feel very attached to the place…the people…even my room. And it feels sad to think of the day when my room shall be empty…with my bags all packed up…waiting for the new occupant. And then there are times when the future excites me to no end. I want to see what life will be like…after ISB. I want to start working…and contributing…! I want to travel…and click…do so much…

And I know…very soon I shall be blogging with just a day to go. And I don’t quite know the feelings that shall be within me…

Anyways…

So…I am in love. And this time its for real. Last night I spent 4 hours with ‘her’…and the feeling is something I cant express. I love every part of her…every sound of her. I can feel her…though cant touch her…! I am seriously in love…

The new song by strings… “Yeh hai meri kahaani”…from the movie Zinda.

Breathtaking delivery…awesome composition…powerful lyrics…wonderful rendition by strings. I am so totally in love…! The song hasn’t stopped playing on my computer since yest…repeatedly…

…Yeh hai meri kahaani
Tanhai ki zubaani
Har zakhm khil raha hai
Kuch mujhse keh raha hai…

…chubte kaante yaadon ke
Daman se…chuntaa hoon
Girti deewaron ke
Aanchanl mein
Zinda hoon…

In awe…!


Term 6 ended…and it was an awesome term…in terms of the course contents and the profs. I just have 1 exam…and 2 take-homes…which should not take more than 2 days to get done with. So am targeting the next 2 days for that…following which I have to wind up my ELP…and then prepare for the exam as well. Next week shall be placement prep at full bloom…!

And oh btw…I got my 1st new year DJ assignment…! I shall be ushering in the New Year at ISB with my music…on the 31st party…! And yes…thanks for your concern…I have purchased a head gear…I shall be wearing enough clothes to protect myself from mini bombs…and as the final precautionary measure I shall carry a AK-47 for my protection…!

Sorry guys…no other choice…! :)

~a

past...and the present...

Have been pensive all day long. I think I know why…however at times I don’t think that’s the real reason. Lately a lot of stuff has been happening to keep me questioning…about reasons…effects…impact…the learnings…life!

Finance tells you…decisions can be safely taken based on NPV calculations. You have the right discount factor…and the future values…and you bring everything down to the present. This gives you the present value. If more than the current cost…you go ahead with the project.

And then you question… is the past really the past…? Does it truly have no role to play? I know of sunk cost…but how sunk is sunk…? When at each and every step your past is what brought you to your present…then how can the present and the uncertain future be so powerful to let people decide on what to do. Would you have been here if a different path had been taken…? If a different history had been scripted…? The answer is obvious…

Yet…the present always wins. And rightly so…because at some level you are always hiding the past. And your present is what people see…and judge you on…and that present…with each passing day…becomes the ‘new’ past…stronger than the original past…!

And in the end…its so amazing. Different people have seen you differently…because they were part of a different present…and thus a different past…! The same individual is not the same…anymore…!

Amazing…! And so beautiful…

~a

life...and death...

I thought life after Poseidon would be slightly easier than what it was. Not so much…! Have been flooded with assignments and what have yous, ever since. Its either placement preparation…or some case…or the agony of what’s going to happen in the future…to sheer lack of sleep (for stats knowledge…till about Tuesday my sleep count was 14 hours in the past 120 hours!!)

However…even with its share of fire fighting…poseidon was a sheer pleasure to handle. I am not quite sure whether I would want to go through the path again…it’s a tricky call. At some level you find yourself asking “at what cost”…and the very next minute you feel like abusing yourself for asking the question.

My learnings from Poseidon:

1. Never work with a tee shirt company whose name starts with an ‘e’…and ends with an ‘a’ (and has the alphabets t, a, n, t, r, a in between).
2. If you really have to work with them…definitely avoid a lady whose name starts with an ‘a’…ends with an ‘a’…(and has 4 other alphabets in between)
3. If you really have to work with her as well…DEFINITELY DON’T HAVE K in your team…otherwise he will surely blow her up…!

4. Never call a music competition…a music competition. Call it a rock show…if that’s what it is…or a soft music competition…if that’s what it is…
5. Even if you call it a music competition…check the profile of bands coming in. They might just not gel together…
6. Even if everyone turns up…please for god sake get a better sound system. You never know what happens ‘after death’…!

7. Ultimately…any fest…or for that matter any event…is not so much about what you ‘serve’ but how you serve it. Students from all b-schools left with such a wonderful feeling…I guess we managed to make them feel special.

The event pinnacled with the greek theme party. We had thrown it open to the ICFAI students as well…and much to our embarrassment they outnumbered us all through. However, the party was awesome…and A yet again did a remarkable job. I didn’t enjoy myself as much as I thought I would…maybe the physical tiredness settled in. And then something happened that shouldn’t have…which upset me…!

Overall…AWESOME EXPERIENCE…as K would put it…I have technically completed my MBA. Have learnt so so much from Poseidon…its intimidating to think back…and recognize the amount of effort and time everyone put in. hats off guys…!


Evidently…my academic front has slackened a bit. So had a lot of catching up to do…which took a lot of energy. Assignments were not forgiving…and the next 2 nights after Poseidon were spent awake….!

It was only yesterday…after so so long…that I spent some relaxing time. This weekend shall be busy though…have classes on Saturday as well…

Which brings me to the topic I wanted to write about. Anurag Gupta (our risk management prof) faced a tragedy last Saturday. His ma expired…from a cardiac arrest. Naturally his Monday class was cancelled. However, he turned up for the Wednesday class. And in a state that cant be explained in words.

He started off telling us about the tragedy…and how it was totally unexpected. And then he said something that shoke me… “till about Saturday I didn’t know how it felt to loose your mother. And even though I knew of people who had…I could never feel what they felt. But today I do…and its not easy to come to terms with it. so if you can…in any which way…please pray for me…”

I was in tears. On one hand I was feeling disgusted with myself to actually expect him to teach us. Here I was acting as a spineless capitalist…trying to maximize my returns over my investment…and here was this guy who had lost his mother for god sake…and was attempting to teach. Was attempting to speak. He was holding his tears…I could see it…I could feel it…and it was the most horrible feeling ever…

I can’t possibly start to imagine what all he might be going through. It takes a lot of courage to do what he is doing. I personally can’t imagine life without ma. I shudder at the thought that one day I will realize that I will never get to see her. For me…I wish to lose my senses before it happens…so that I can escape the pain of going through it all.

And here he is…back on his duty…3 days after the tragedy. Trying to act normal…trying to put up a brave front…!

I am sorry Prof Gupta for making you go through this. And in awe of your courage…! Thank you…


~a

PS:
1. life and death…! R became an aunt yesterday. Her sister-in-law delivered a baby boy…!
2. sorry for turning the blog into an emotional spill…!

over....

Poseidon finally over…

And I have so much to share…but not the luxury of time…!

Sometime very very soon…

~a

PS: and oh btw…if you really want to know the true me…search for the comment right after ‘educatedunemployed’ in this post (really very funny…not to mention insightful)

poseidon...

Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Assignments Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Assignments Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Assignments Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Assignments Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Assignments Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon Poseidon


Life…!

~a

ISB...

Phew…!

Imagine this…

The advertising agency of Barista comes down to ISB because ISB has hired the same. They land here on Dec 9, 2005…in the evening.

Towards night…around 10pm…they are working real hard on the assignment. The brief is to make a kick-ass ad…like never before. And suddenly… “wtf…what’s this deafening noise…? Sounds like music…but what the hell is with the decibels man…!!!???”

They step out only to see that SV1 is hosting an Arabian Nights party for the alums, as part of Solstice. “Fine…its 10pm…this would probably run till like 2am or so. The deliverable is day after…! We can think about it tomorrow morning.”

The party ends at 6.30am…!!!!

Next day…same schedule. 10pm…high decibel…can’t work…deadline tomorrow…2am…party still on… “what’s up with these people…I mean…2 parties in a row…do they a concept of hangover here…?”…6am…almost coming to an end…7am…silence…!

10am…deliverable time…and the ad guys actually have an ad…!

ISB
Academics are what we indulge in…
…between parties…!

1. I haven’t danced this much in my life…trust me…I am weighing a kg lesser…!


2. No one has drunk this much in ISB before…trust me…everyone is a kg heavier…!


3. No one has danced this much ever before…trust me…everyone thinks they are a kg lighter…!

Had such a rollicking time…its not even funny. It was one of those moments when I didn’t think of acads…or Poseidon…or placements…or any such shit. Just talked to alums…and had a blast. Total blast…

Looking forward to Poseidon…!

~a

finally...!

Finally…!

Life since last Thursday...(and my last entry) has been quite amazing. Its moving at the speed of light…things are still pretty much dark at times…and there is so much of stuff happening around that even excel sheets are not working as part of an organizing strategy…!

Had gone to TAPMI for the Young Business Leader competition. Now at 25…I wont call myself exactly old…! But then once you go to other b-schools…you realize you are of the prof’s age…(well…even we have someone like that for our private equity course this term…will talk about him later)…and people kind of get intimidated that I come from a school with average 5 years of experience.

But then…its only time before they realize that this individual is not quite what you believed him to be. For one…he randomly smiles at every other person on the street…is painfully cordial…and doesn’t quite bring much to the table…!

I can surely say that the amount I learnt those 3 days at TAPMI…was much much more than I could have possible given back…no matter what my past credentials might indicate…!

The 3 days were rigorous. It surely wasn’t anything I expected, when I left. We slept for all together say 5 hours…and we were working…and I mean…seriously working…throughout this period. There were team games, individual games…games that simulated the right side…and the left side.

1. ad making


2. debate


3. negotiation


4. trading simulation


5. business plan presentation


6. obituary making


7. designing of a business game


8. interviews with the director


9. quiz


10. trekking


11. psychometric tests

we went through this all…! Made awesome friends…very very smart people…all of them true business leaders…or almost on their way.

In the end the IIM-B guy won. And he truly deserved it. Extremely smart chap…very confident…awesome inter personal skills. I gave him a special invite to Poseidon…lets hope he makes it.


Doesn’t it happen to everyone? When you come back from a vacation…you feel dreadful. Cause life…and not a very comfortable one, that is…is waiting for you. Hands on the waist…giving you that “you thought you could escape me” look…

That’s what happened. Monday was a strong reality check. Assignments, missed classed…Poseidon overload (though I have to admit that G did a breathtaking job of handling my responsibility while I was away)…and what not…

Have managed to get back to rhythm…


Solstice is happening this weekend. That’s out alumni reunion. Last night was the party…and as always A did an outstanding job of it. I see a lot of dedication in that guy…and his hecticness (similar to P’s) is somehow very catchy. He is a kid though…and its very easy for him to get swayed by his own ideas. Nevertheless…he is surely going to kick some mighty ass in the future…! I would love to work with him one day…

Anyways…so…alumni…! Quite a few of them have turned up. 176 in all. The campus is lively…and its fun to see so many people all around. This makes me look forward to Poseidon…(with the added selfish motive to get over with it asap…!!)


Term 6…! Awesome in terms of the profs…and the courses are rocking too…

Financial Engineering.
People took this with scared looks. I mean…history tells that 3 out of 4 suicides in the past 30 years have been financial engineers…! Last year’s stats told us that the work load would drive one to insanity…or…insanity…whichever comes earlier…!
Krishna (the prof) changed it all. He is god…no let me repeat that…HE IS GOD…! Absolutely outstanding…so awesome that I think I get a small orgasm every class (dude…whats up with your orgasms man…!!!). He makes the entire subject sail through as smoothly as we could never imagined. A total pleasure to be in his class.

Private Equity
Vinay (the prof) was the lyricist for Alanis’ ‘Hand in my pocket’…if you know what I mean. I had heard a lot about him from A, since he was A’s senior at IIT-M. he was an RJ for the Chennai FM…a state level cricket player…some governor’s medal recipient…and was technically the last person in the batch who could have become a prof. He is an assnt prof at Wharton…! And a smart one that is. Girls are falling over him…and he does (admittedly) have a personality that solicits the same. Oh…btw…he is a good prof too…! :)

Risk Management
Anurag is one smart guy. The course is very interesting and he makes it even more so…no exams…only 6 assignments comprising 1/6th of the grade each. Straightforward course…some bit of numbers…lot of thinking…! good stuff…

Managing in a global environment
Kevin reminds me of this typical lansing guy I would met at MSU. US village guy…very different from the usual American guy picture. He is a fun guy…and the course suits him a lot. He speaks very openly about the US…the rights and the wrongs. And engages the class in some very interesting discussions. Rather nice course…even though it falls in the ‘faff’ category…!


Life’s good…! extremely engaging…but very good…!

~a