1 year...

Tomorrow shall be the last day at ISB…in terms of classes. What started almost 11 months back…shall be reaching a sweet finale…and trust me…it’s a lovely feeling to have been a witness to these 11 months…!

A look back…

Then:
Class starts at 2.30pm. 90% of the class is on their seats at 2.15pm…the professor comes at 2.25!!
Now:
Class starts at 2.30pm...9% of the class in on their seats at 2.30pm…the professor comes at 2.29…!

Then:
Assignment due Monday 8.30am. Work starts on Friday…with an hour of discussion. Followed by a group discussion on Saturday for 2 hours or so…and then writing up the report…together…for the next 5 hours. Turn it insunday 10pm
Now:
Assignment due Monday 8.30am. emails goes out on Saturday. No response…! Reminder email Sunday afternoon. No response. Sunday 5pm…email goes out distributing the questions within the group members. 1 guy incharge of collation. Monday 4am he gets all the questions. Copies them onto a final doc…prints…turns it in…Monday 5am…!

Then:
Case to be discussed for the Wednesday class. Tuesday night…open the coursepack…read the case…make notes…enter class…do CP…and I mean insightful CP…go home victorious
Now:
Case to be discussed for the Wednesday class. Wednesday afternoon…finish lunch by 1.30…chat till 2pm…start reading the case…finish the 1st page by 2.30…enter class…follow the discussion for 15 minutes…raise your hand… “I wished to state the same fact…you see…Gillette is a shaving products brand…and blah blah blah…”…go home victorious

Then:
“What was that guy’s name…what was that guy’s name…shit…how could I forget…what was that guy’s name…”
Now:
“what was that guy’s pre-ISB salary…what did he get now…shit…how could I forget…what is he getting now…”

Then:
Get up at 8…go the gym…then classes…read up in the evening…hv dinner…read up again…sleep at 12…
Now:
Sleep at 8…wake up at 10…class…come back and sleep…class…come back and sleep…gym…dinner…movie…chatting…surfing…reading…sleep at 4…wake up by phonecall…talk…surf…porn…sleep at 8


1 year…completely changed me…!

1 year…

~a

PS: the next post shall be the best and worst of moments, things, people (?)…shall hv to work on it a bit though…!

yay..!

GSB organized a party after 40 days…and boy…people surely missed having one all this while…if the speed with which the booze flew was any indication…! Scheduled to start at 9.30…there were 5 guys at the party by 11.30…3 of which were the organizers…! Our hypothesis was that people will come straight to the party after turning in the ‘world literature’ assignment at midnight.

And we were right…

At 12.30…there were atleast 60 odd people…swarming the bar…sucking the ‘honey’ out of it all…! DJ199 was trying his hard to bloody get those people moving their arse and start to boogie-woogie a bit…but to not much success. He must have tried everything under the sun…rang de Basanti 3 times in 10 minutes…(the song is 2 minutes btw…!)…tera suroor…uska suroor…summer moon…winter sun…what not…! But nahhhhhhhhh…liquor comes first dude…

And then comes VS… “boss…aisa hai…thoda sa Amitabh chala do. Phir dekhna”. WTF…! Amitabh???? What is this…? The 80s…! what are we…? AB addicts??? But then…you know sometimes…it’s a good thing that people who are older to you…are there to tell you what to do. We got a CD of his originals…and started… “o rang barse…bhege chunarwari…rang barse…”

The crowd went mad…!

1.30am…atleast 100 people on the dance floor…
“jiski biwi kaali…o kaali hey kaali…jiski biwi kaali…uska bhi bada naam hai…”

It was pretty much an exciting ride from then on. Music went up till 5.30 in the morning…non-stop…from bangra to trance to rock to pop..! mind blowing fun…! I danced like crazy…

At the end of it all…I had been kissed…ok…on the cheek…and ok…by 4 guys…! not to mention that atleast 5 more had threatened to kill me as well…for the music that was being played…! :)

Good fun…


The quiz is happening at 5…! Should be fun…only if people turn up in the right numbers…! Lets hope…!


Looking forward to the week…the party on the 1st…and then the goa trip…! Yay…!

~a

we won....

life was awesome today...as always...

attended the classes...realized that R was a god in his past life...and when i say god i mean those individuals who know everything...so much...so so much...that ideally they should have graduated to the level of god in this life...! sadly..the motion didnt pass in the parliament..and here they are..as a human again. anyways..so back to him..that dude rocks. i mean...rocks real 'hard..'. he knows a lot for his age and size (and i mean the height here!)..! it so awesome to hear him speak about individuals whose parents would have taken 2 days to pronounce their names. we were discussing 'Thus Spake Zarathustra'...and Nietsche's philosphy...! and he brilliantly went through the ideas...!

at times i feel that even though i am never satisfied with myself...i never really work towards reaching that next level. i wish i could...and its disgusting that i dont...knowing very well what i have to do. i loved the discussion on emerson today. his idea of non-confmity set me thinking. if i were to categorize myself i would call myself a conformist. i havent done much in life against what society has laid down in front of me. ofcourse...except for the decision to not go for engineering and coming back to India while pursuing my PhD at MSU. however, i wont really pride upon these...! for me...non-formity should be largely emotive. if i feels that someone is not being nice to me...do i kill myself and still act nice to him/her...jst cause thats the 'right' thing to do..! the entire idea of emerson was to follow what you truly believe...even if it doesnt fall in place with societal norms...!

anyways...

so..after lunch...behavioral finance happened...sleep happened...and after an hour i realized that i rather sleep back home than in class and abuse the professor. so i left...for the first time at ISB...midway...during the class. felt weird....but no much as soon as i reached home. :)

read khuswant...and then slept for a good 2 hrs. went to the gym...took a shower...had dinner...and then went for a 20 question competition..teaming up with G and S. and...WE WON...G was great at the questions...S at answering them...and me at coming up with stupid comments all through...with least value add. i did do some fair bit of guessing...and so did G...such as this one time when we had fictional characters as the round. she asked me...is it a cat...i replied no...and she goes...garfield...?????

200 bucks each...sweet money for an hour of fun...!

i might go for a mass this friday...really looking forward to it..!

fun times...lifes good...!

~a

life...the last 2 weeks...

· Days are passing…

· Emotions are sounding more like their definition…

· Academics is experiencing the worst neglect in years...

· There are more movie DVDs on my table than E’s hair (!!!!)…

· More books than the DVDs…

· Have started clicking randomly with my digicam (finally!!!)

· Sleep at 5…wake up at 9…both a.m.!

· Gym for 2 hours

· 3 magazines everyday

· Khushwant singh rocks in “truth love and a little malice”

· Went out for an awesome dinner to Waterfront with E and S…brilliant food…fun company…!

· Played cricket for 10 hours over 2 days

· Have finalized a trip to goa in the 1st week of april.

· Am conducting a quiz this weekend

· Open air screening of movies shall begin from tomorrow

· Feel sorry for the behavioral finance prof every Monday and Wednesday…but then…

· Totally enjoy the world literature ‘discourses’ by Rajeshwar…!

· Only 2 weeks to go…

· Only 2 weeks to go…

Life…!

~a

PS: shall be uploading a lot of snaps clicked during this period. The 1st set is available at http://www.flickr.com/photos/warikoo/sets/72057594086540951/

then...now...life's good...ditto...

It’s the herd effect…or maybe everyone is actually housing the same feelings within. Suddenly all the blogs are talking about the same things…

…how ISB has changed them in this one year…
…how they shall miss this time…
…how what the alums said turned out to be EXACTLY true…we didn’t think so at that time…
…how…
…how…


So why not…another one in the chain…


Then: There are smart people…not so smart people…and some people who choose not to be smart…
Now: There are smart people…smarter people…and some people who just can’t help being smart

Then: How hard can a 1 year MBA be…I mean…24 hours in a day…that’s close to 86400 seconds dude…
Now: Yeah right…!

Then: Stock prices increase because people buy them…or what do I care…as long as they increase…
Now: Hmmm…so that’s how they move…u can actually write an equation to explain the human behavior...!!!

Then: Relationships formed during an MBA are similar to relationships that you form with the driver in the car next to you…while waiting at the traffic signal
Now: Yeah right…!

Then: ok…I do know that it shall be fun…but aren’t these guys exaggerating…for god sake…its jst a course right…!!!
Now: Phew…! That was some ride…! Once more…!

Then: I am worth atleast 10+ in the job out of ISB
Now: Why the hell was NIS even paying me in my last job…did I know even shit…!

Then: If you are nice to people…people will appreciate that…all the time…who wouldn’t…!
Now: Yeah right…!

Then: People are awesome…no matter who they are…where they come from...what they do…and whether they like you or not…
Now: People are awesome…no matter who they are…where they come from...what they do…and whether they like you or not…

Then: life’s good…
Now: ditto…!


~a

any clues...!!!???

Longggggg time…! A combination of feasibility and laziness…!

Had gone down to delhi for 5 days…! Wasn’t really planned till very close to the departure…following which I requested R to fix up meetings with a gazillion people…! And chalked out m itinerary. Had an awesome time…as always…the weather was mindblowing…it rained like crazy one night…and the effect lasted for the entire trip.

Also watched the memoirs of a geisha. Very nicely done…beautiful art work…though the story is something only a native can truly appreciate. I for one couldn’t understand why a 40 year old would once ‘make’ a 12 yr old fall in love with him…so much so that she grows up to become a geisha one day and be chosen by him…and lo behold…after 20 odd years that does happen. Ofcourse the fact that these 20 years don’t show on that man…is a different movie altogether…! The story was close to the taboo series…! :)

Met with a lot of people as well. and R didn’t stop bragging about my compensation…something with the right intention but with disastrous effects on my face...which usually turned blood red and was chosen by the guy sitting on the next table as the most expressive face of the year..!

The flight out of Delhi was a pain in the most sensitive part of the anatomy…! Scheduled for 8.00…it left at 11.45…and I was finally in my room at 2.45am…! Thankfully...met with a very interesting Canadian couple…husband working at Bangalore for the past 1.5 yrs…in a company that is into movie animation software Maya (the same was used for the movie Matrix…30% of which was done at the Bangalore site). Unfortunately…they are closing shop in July and moving back to Canada. They say that India has become costly for them…! Which is pretty weird. Because everyone here is being fed on the ‘low cost market’ dose…!

It was fun though talking about their experiences here at India. It was funny how we got started though…! There was this gentleman in the queue for the boarding pass. He was carrying luggage which would have probably kept an entire family running for a year. And Air Deccan was probably experiencing the worst day of its existence…! So huge line buildups…and what nots. And suddenly this gentleman ‘feels’ that the dude behind him…has managed to break the line and come ahead. And he starts off…BLAHBLAHBLAHALBHA $%#%*&%&@%#@^@#...ofcourse it takes only 1 microcell in the human brain to figure that if you are in the line…have a ticket…and there is only 1 guy who has managed to creep ahead of u…then the chances of you getting on that plane is almost 110%...!

But no…! sher-e-punjab…! Picks up a fight…! And guess who is right behind that guy in the line…yup…the Canadian couple…scared out of their wits…almost peeing in their pants…! So I basically asked them to simply step aside…handed them coke and large popcorn…and give them the enjoy go-ahead…!

Anyways…

Came back this Monday…and have been lazing around and busy doing that ever since. Placements almost nearing an end…so large plans are floating around for the remaining time at ISB. From dunking the dean…(??????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!)…to trips to Goa…to parties and what have yous…! Seems to be a good time ahead…!

Something funny happened on Monday. I get a call from a Hyderabad number

Caller (a girl): Hello…is this Mr. Ankur
Me: Speaking
Caller: Good morning sir. I am calling from ICICI. We give off something called personal loans. Would you be interested…!
Me: (Give off…???? Wtf…!!): ummm…no…thanks for asking
Caller: OK sir. Sir…one more thing…what does Ankur mean…?
Me: (Ankur means answering the most wacky question ever asked by a telemarketing person)…ummm…it means a seedling…why do you ask?
Caller: ok sir…thank you…

?????????!!!!!!!!!!

Any clues…????

~a

The post...or the individual...

I would say that the person in the post is incidental. It was simply the President of the US who had visited us…not an individual. This can be validated by the sheer fact that the placard displaying his identity also said Prez and not bushes and hedges…!

The experience was amazing. The setting was perfect. The atrium had never looked prettier! And the school never as excited.

He was scheduled for 1225 hours. We had to start assembling at 1000 hours…which we did. The security was tight…the frisking was equivalent to the US port of entry…! These ‘manual scanners’ must have the weirdest feelings within…about their job. I mean…how cool…or the opposite of it…is it to feel 300 guys in under an hour. And I mean…feel…believe me…if you are thinking on ‘those’ lines…you are actually not very far from the truth…!

So we take our seats and it’s a wait for the next 2 hours. We had good fun though…cracking monkey jokes…general arbit CP…trying to second guess his jokes…and very soon it was 1210. at that precise moment we heard the copter fly over us…the pre had arrived.

The next 15 mins were very similar to the pre-interview experience. The butterflies in your stomach suddenly realize that there is more room for them to dance than they ever thought…! And my stomach…oh u bet…there is an entire airfield…!

In comes Condaleeza Rice with Rajat Gupta (Chairman ISB Board and what not…check the link…!!!) I don’t know if you felt this…but it’s a pretty weird feeling when the person whom you have seen so much on TV…read so much about…is suddenly in front of you. its not a feeling of “oh my god…she will feel I am nothing as compared to her…”…but more like… “oh my god…she is actually real…and lo behold…looks the way she always does…!!!”

And then…

“Ladies and Gentleman…please welcome the ambassador Mulford…and the president of the United States”

And in come the 2 gentleman. It was pure basic instinct for everyone to get up. For all that he is worth…no one can deny the gravity of his post…

What followed was a 1.45 hour session with a select panel…and us as the audience. Some observations:

1. He was definitely wittier than I though he would be…very impressive…


2. He is totally bullish on India…!


3. And he was repeating this so much that he didn’t quite end up answering the exact questions that were asked…!


4. He has made some bad decisions in life…and we won’t ever…come to know why. But I do accept that his is not the best position in the world…I mean…I don’t for one envy his position…because everything that he does shall always have opposition. But then he has to take a stand…


5. “American is a nice country…and Americans are decent people. They are nice. You probably don’t like America because of me…”. Now that’s a humble statement according to me. I didn’t think this guy was capable of saying something like this…

Overall…great experience. Wonderful opportunity for ISB especially to put itself on the world map…which has started in a tremendous way with the kind of publicity this visit has provided. Phenomenal to say the least.

After his departure…students were interviewed…I was too…! By TV9…that’s the world famous Hyderabad channel…watched by close to 23 people…22 of whom work for the channel…! But what the heck…atleast someone watched…! :)

The 1st 10 mins of his time at ISB:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/03/20060303-3.html


~a

waiting for tuesday...

Today…I want to write so much about something that I can’t…! I am feeling helpless…at some level amazed at the image people actually have of me…and the difference between that image and the one projected to me. I then wonder if someone actually knows me…the real me…does someone really understand what I stand for…and why I say the things I say…and do the things I do…

Suddenly all that you have done…is not worth it…anymore…


Chuck…


So the big news…Bush is tentatively scheduled to visit ISB on Friday. It is not confirmed as yet…but then I don’t think it will be confirmed till the last minute. So the preparations are on full swing. The security is tight…we had a briefing this afternoon on the same…and its all very exciting. It is surely a matter of great honor to host the president of the US...and the person in that position is merely incidental. The visit will surely add a lot of value to ISB…in terms of recognition. Yah…this also makes us a possible terrorist target…! :)


Just came back after spending some awesome time at the amphitheater. I just love the cool night breeze on campus…it’s the best thing in the world. I simply lay on the grass…closed my eyes…and felt myself being lifted up…towards the sky…! There are times when I really miss astrophysics…! Sigh…!


Life is chilled out during term 8. Have taken 4 courses...

Negotiation: Awesome start to the course. The prof is very nice…and the sheer thrill of learning something such as negotiation is pretty strong. Looking forward to an exciting time in this course…

Retailing: Simply an add-on. Am not a marketing guy…and this was just one of the few marketing courses that I could have taken. The prof seems decent…definitely very knowledgeable.

World Literature: Rajeshwar returns. This guy rocks…if I could be even half as read as him…I would kiss my own feet. I mean…he is astounding…his oratory skills…his depth of subject…and the way he holds his audience is awesome. Rocking…!!!

Behavioral Finance: Quite contrary to what I thought this would be. Was really looking forward to this…but then the 1st class is perhaps not the best measure of its worth. Lets hope for a better time ahead…



Waiting for Tuesday…


~a