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Words. Wisdom. Winners.
first impression…
the one thing that i realize…work wont really be ISB…and hence…posts wont be that frequent..! nevertheless…this time around…it shall be the quality wins over quantity scenario….
so…work started may 01. thats labor day…and in the words of my boss…”we arent laborers…so we dont get a day off!”. alright…accepted…!
the office is plush. in one of the best office complexes in delhi. the 14th floor allows u to measure the dust particles per microcentimeter…in the atmosphere…standing beyond a 12 inch thick glass that doesnt allow even the smallest ‘particle’ of airconditioned air escape the office. on the house tea/coffee/juices…u ask for water and they fetch an unopened kinley….and u go…”no..i want water that doesnt taste…the one that my grandad used to have for his morning gargle..!”
the day was pretty much spent on logistics…bank account opening…credit card opening…forms that allow your family to make money if u die…or r hospitalized…! and that was pretyt much it. the new joinees r pretty smart people. 2 frm IIMA, 1 from IIIB, 1 frm IIMC and 2 frm ISB. thats delhi. mumbai has a slightly different ratio…with no one frm isb in there.
come tuesday and we left for gos for our orientation. stayed at the taj village resort…pretty decent place…and had it not been for the humid weather, i wud hv largely appreciated the greenary arnd as well. anyhow…so we took the kingfisher flight…which has a stopover at bangalore. the entire flight took us 4 hrs…which btw is 2 hrs less than what it takes one to fly half the world..! what was best was the flight back…5 hrs…!!!!! and it got delayed by 1…which basically meant that we spent the time it cud hv taken to reach london…in simply sitting in an aircraft…watching the indian laughter challenge…! sic!
and then…we hv to give to mr mallaya. i mean…u get balls of steel to get yana gupta to speak hindi…let alone show how to unbuckle a seatbelt. the words tht she used were last used in 2000 BC…when the aryans were taking their first bullock cart ride…! i mean…who in gods name…uses “sunishchit…!!!” nowadays. i am sure in some part of the plane…a lady wud hv gone….”there…thats the name of my 1st kid…!!!”
and the funniest part was blowing the lifejacket. it looked like a lipstick ad…! guys who travel kingfisher…watch out for this…! funny…
so anyways…moving on…! the 1st day was awesome…the taj guys had planned a treasure hunt for us..to bond and all…! and with 11 guys and 1 girl…bonding was meant to take whole new different heights…! :) but it was awesome…we did mountain climbing…rapelling…some tree climbing…and rope jumping…and weird shit. wonderfully organized…and loads of fun. in the end we did manage to ‘bond’ well..
and then the next day we had a raft building session. which was mind-blowing. we mad a raft using tyre tubes and bamboo sticks…and the entire operation was to reach the other side of the backwater and fetch a flag. we did manage to travel 20% of the distance when the currennt took over…and we realized we had covered the distance that we were supposed to….horizontally…!!!
the classroom sessions started…meant to sensitize us to the consulting process and the A.T. Kearney way of doing things. V and D did a terrific job…they held us together…and thats a difficult task when u r sitting in a conference room…next to the pool…in goa…wearing formals…(typically the people outside wudnt be wearing as many clothes combined…as wud be one of us sitting inside…!!!)…
and then the exercises…and the feel good factor created around what we shall be doing in the time to come…etc. it was great fun…and along the way we realized…and this is a frank opinion…that Kearney didnt do that great a job selling themselves on campus. i mean…as of today…set aside the fact that i am now part of the organization…i can say that Kearney is surely up there. one of the best consulting firms in the country…and a leader in quite a few verticals. our position in auto and energy is quite widely accepted as being the best…and it reflected frm the kind of work we have done…and the feedback we have received.
overall…i felt proud being part of this team. even the people who have worked here for sometime say…that the best part about the organization is that everyone is happy. which is so very important…and at the same time so tough to achieve as an organization.
we all left saturday…and it was an amazing 5 days spent. totally worth it. have to thank V for organizing the entire thing and putting in..what was clearly…a lot of hardwork and time. atleast from my side..it paid off wonderfully…
monday today…looking for the real work to start.
life’s good…
~a
good times…!!!!
Life post ISB…is quite exciting…!
8.00am:
Get up to drop sister to college. Stopped the 1st day to ask her what exactly did she used to do when I wasn’t here. The look I received was the same that our president gave when someone asked him who his barber was. I didn’t bother asking again…!
8.45am:
Come back and read the newspaper. Realize on the 7th page that sleep has better chances of increasing my IQ than this shit…!
10.30am:
“get up and bloody have your breakfast…and that includes milk”
“I haven’t had milk for the past one year…and the same goes for breakfast. Please understand”
“WHEN IN ROME…DO THE ROMANS…”…or translated in english…”when back home…u better have everything that is liquid and white in color…excluding whats on your dirty filthy mind right now…!!”
11.30am:
Plan the day. Call up people…! realize that people actually work till 6 in the evening…or so they claim…
12.30pm:
Step out…yes…at this hour…to buy some grocery for home. Or vegetables…or fruits…or just step out…yes…at this hour…
1.30pm:
Lunch…! That’s if an invitation hasn’t come from the 8967786973 ISBians of the batch of 2006 spending their time at delhi at this precise moment…!
3.00pm:
Go to the car dealer to scan for the best deals…
Conversation are usually like this…
“I need a quote on maruti swift”
“which model”
“LXi”
“sit!”
“thanks”
“want to get it financed”
“yes…do I look as if I have the money”
“that’s also true…!…salaried or business”
“helooooooooooo”
“ok ok…salaried…whats your monthly income”
(an obscene figure is exchanged”
A long stare follows….just the same way as the dad-in-law would view his to be d-i-l. right fron bottom to top…stopping for a few seconds on the face…
And then the rather loud…”what the…!!!!”
“what happened??? U ok…”
“nothing nothing sir. What will you have…tea…coffee…we serve really good cold drink sir”
“no thank you…can we proceed with the quote please”
Now…it really doesn’t help that the college I come from also boasts of a crorepati…! The entire bloody equation becomes unbalanced…and the entire bloody world seems to know abt this crorepati…if not the school…!
Anyways…so the conversation will have some small talk as well…”how was ur experience at IBS…”…(its ISB for god sake…how hard it that…I – S – B )…! “At Kearney is a very nice firm…” (yah…at the precise moment you stop called it ‘at’ and actually call it A – T…it will begin on its path to becoming a good firm…so please…!!!)
Phew…!
5.00pm:
Leave for daily darshan. Either go to her office…or meet at some place…eat something…get a lowdown on the day…exchange some future plans that were drafted in the dreams last night…get into a heated argument…sulk…get normal…and finally its time to leave
8.30pm:
Reach home…wash up
9.30pm:
Dinner…with some serious heart rendering emotional (and jewellery) display on the soaps…!
10.30pm:
On the net…daily mails…reply to atleast 7 people…6 of which didn’t even mail me…!!!
12.30am:
Read my book…then think about all the possible secret societies of the world and the holy grail (and if you haven’t observed…I AM FINISHED WITH THE DA VINCI CODE…6.5 HOURS FLAT…!!!!)
1.30am
Retire to bed…!
Life is good…miss ISB though…! Had an awesome lunch today…with GP, KS and Banno. Went through ISB all over again and cracked our brains on the statistical improbability of 8 people (out of the maximum of 16) from a single block…in a single SV…to have been caught in the honor code. We drafted a mail then and there to JH…requesting him to get that block sanitized…!!!
Work begins this monday. And we are off to goa (for an orientation…!!! HAH!!!) for the next 5 days…! My tryst with E continues…!
Good times…!
~a
was back…am back…
It always works for me…and I am so glad I know that it does…!!!
Going back to ISB helped…! Now the ‘missing’ is at a different level…! I know that things wont be the same…but then something convinced me that they wont be bad either. The same happened the 1st time I came back to India from the US…after that torturous first year…! I didn’t miss home as much…cause something had changed…! That something…worked this time around as well…
So these 6 days were mindblowing fun. The best was meeting E…cause I never thought I would…! And somehow…meeting everyone gave me a rather soothing feeling…! Its like…”they will be there always…so don’t worry…”…! Had a blast everyday…partying all night…DJ199 also played…and the entire atmosphere was surprisingly very nice…!
The new batch is awesome…to say the least. An extremely hyperactive…hyper-hectic…and supercool bunch of young people…! And some exceptionally talented individuals…and some awesomely experienced set of professionals…! It was lovely interacting with them…and a wonderful feeling to be on the other side…
It’s funny…and weird…! I left for the orientation on the 15th…exactly a year since I 1st reached ISB. And things have changed so much…the nervous questions have been replaced by the confident replies…the anxious thoughts about the placements have been replaced by the proud “I shall be joining AT Kearney at their Delhi Office” statement…the lost look amongst 345 odd students…replaced by their names…their faces…and their friendship…!
And this is what life is…! In 2 simple words…MOVING ON…!
Looking forward…and this time really so…for a totally new chapter…!
Lots to things to do…
Sell off my bike
Buy a new car
Find an alternative source of funds…credit cards and R’s money not allowed anymore…!
Buy formal wear…
Collect my books frm V’s house
Read up on my MBA main courses…!
Finish the ‘Da Vinci Code’…FOR GOD SAKE…!
withdrawal….
i normally think of myself as an emotionally strong person. yes…i am emotional…no doubt…! but then emotions have rarely influenced the way i behave…in a negative manner…or in a manner that is ‘not me’…
but not this time. something as gotten over me…! i just cant stop missing isb…i just cant get myself together. everyone back at delhi is questioning me…”what the hell is wrong with you”…and i hv no reply…! i really dont.
its surely not ISB per se….i know its the people…! i am missing the girls…i am missing the marketing guys…i am missing being in my room and being knocked at on the window…am missing listening to my music with the dimlight on…am missing the late night coversations with E…and the tickling of S…and the pranks with P…and teasing B on everything under the sun…
god….withdrawal sucks…!
the last night was torture. S’s parents…the girls…me and my parents had gone to paradise for dinner. came back arnd 10ish…picked up A on the way….and were hanging out at E’s place while she packed. remembering all that happened the past one yr…! it was depressing…! i just cudnt get myself to smile…! i cudnt get myself to feel ecited abt anything tht lay ahead of me. its was jst god damn depressing…
then we went for a brief walk to the pool…came back even more depressed. the flight was at 4.30…and it was 2.30 already. so G and S went to sleep. E and i went to my room…for the ‘last supper’…! i went abt my usual gyan…do this in dubai…dont do this…etc etc. and yah…while saying all tht…i had tears…! she cudnt stop herself as well…! it was agonizing..! i never thought i wud be feeling like this for someone…if one had asked me a yr back. the only thing worse…though far far worse…was talking to R the 1st night i spent alone at MSU. i remember what a vacuum i had felt tht time….and this last night at ISb reminded me of that…!
unfortunately…due to our delayed arrival at te airport…i didnt get a chance for a proper closure with E. and what sucks is that we wont meet again….for a yr now. i am meeting everyone else for the orientation…but she isnt coming.
anyways….life moves on…is what they say. and i wud believe them. an awesome yr of my life has come to an end…and i cant thank got enough for it. it was much much more than i ever thought it cud be….in more ways that anyone can ever imagine…
withdrawal sucks…
~a
was back…am back…
It always works for me…and I am so glad I know that it does…!!!
Going back to ISB helped…! Now the ‘missing’ is at a different level…! I know that things wont be the same…but then something convinced me that they wont be bad either. The same happened the 1st time I came back to India from the US…after that torturous first year…! I didn’t miss home as much…cause something had changed…! That something…worked this time around as well…
So these 6 days were mindblowing fun. The best was meeting E…cause I never thought I would…! And somehow…meeting everyone gave me a rather soothing feeling…! Its like…”they will be there always…so don’t worry…”…! Had a blast everyday…partying all night…DJ199 also played…and the entire atmosphere was surprisingly very nice…!
The new batch is awesome…to say the least. An extremely hyperactive…hyper-hectic…and supercool bunch of young people…! And some exceptionally talented individuals…and some awesomely experienced set of professionals…! It was lovely interacting with them…and a wonderful feeling to be on the other side…
It’s funny…and weird…! I left for the orientation on the 15th…exactly a year since I 1st reached ISB. And things have changed so much…the nervous questions have replaced the confident replies…the anxious thoughts about the placements have replaced the proud “I shall be joining AT Kearney at their Delhi Office” statement…the lost look amongst 345 odd students…replaced by their names…their faces…and their friendship…!
And this is what life is…! In 2 simple words…MOVING ON…!
Looking forward…and this time really so…for a totally new chapter…!
Lots to things to do…
- Sell off my bike
- Buy a new car
- Find an alternative source of funds…credit cards and R’s money not allowed anymore…!
- Buy formal wear…
- Collect my books frm V’s house
- Read up on my MBA main courses…!
- Finish the ‘Da Vinci Code’…FOR GOD SAKE…!
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
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