Blog

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

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…!

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 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

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

Term 6 has started…as expected. Its 3am and I have got done with my 1st assignment. The instructions on the assignment were:

1. do not spend more than 1.45 hours on this assignment
2. it should be 3-4 pages long

my side of the story was something like this…

1. I started working on it at 5pm…took a dinner break in between…for 30 mins
2. my 3rd page had just one statement… “and thus I recommend the Japanese inventory financing option”…which when translated means that after god damn 10 hours on this I figured how to write 2 pages…!

Anyways…

Have got all the 4 subjects that I wanted. 3 fin and 1 faf. All courses and the profs seem to be pretty good…atleast from their 1st class. Looking forward to a hectic and meaningful term…


Poseidon is my current crush right now…(ahem…! U know who…!)…and is taking quite a bit of my time. And its awesome fun. Managing so many events…people…their expectations…and how to get our expectations registered onto them. Its all an amazing ride.

Lots of troubles as well…but then dealing with them is the real challenge. You know its funny how people have a parochial view of everything. They think about their event…their club and their direction…while there is a complete set of people who have to look at the bigger picture. And dealing with all this is a tremendously learning experience.


Something really strange is happening to me today. it started at 11am…and hasn’t stopped till now. Bloody hiccups. And trust me…I have tried everything under the sun to stop it…

• started with drinking water (thanks to me)
• stopped my breath (thanks to me)
• lied to people (thanks RB)
• drank 8 sips of water without breathing…one at a time (thanks KS)
• closed my ears and nostrils with my 2 hands…pretty much how bully dinosaur would look when trying to scare baby dinosaurs (thanks GC…it did work…for 15 minutes)
• drank sugar and water mixture (thanks AP)
• and this is the best…asked people if they were born ulta (head first…!) and then touched their toe to my body…(and NO…IT DIDN’T WORK…thanks AG anyways…)
• slept down tired…really tired…this is worse than watching a ramsey brothers movie with all the jerks and all…!

Anyways…good nic…!

~a

The exams went well.

Financial Reporting was as straight forward as the prof had said it would be. But then…you see…accounting and me…we are like bother and sister…of different parents…! So…I am supposed to love it…because I am for god sake a fin major…but then I cant get myself to do so.

I mean how….how tough can it be to simply make a registry in excel…this is the money that went out…and this is what came in. and I am sure it started off being that simple. But then…the accountants had to do something…to avoid being taken over by martians…! And thus came accrual accounting…and accrued accounting…and accruable accruging accounting…! What the……

So anyways…it went fine. I had to mess up a bit of it…and gladly I did…!

Fixed Income today was good. This subject makes sense…so I guess it works for me…


Apart from that…nothing much. Have a nice 3 day weekend lined up…going out tomorrow night for a dinner…then working on some papers on Friday and Saturday…have an ELP presentation this Sunday.

Looking forward…to something except acads…!

Will see u soon…

~a