I don’t to how to start this blog, so many things have been happening in my life both emotionally, academically and non academically. We had a convocation ceremony held in college few days back. Well I am not here to write a memoir of that event. Few learned personalities were present to give away the mementos. They said some wonderful things which are still lingering in my mind. I was dead busy with so many activities there, sitting at the last row, couldn’t even see who that gentlemen was but amidst so much chaos I just heard few things and trust me I will never forget that.
“Now that you have stepped up in the corporate world, as you move up the ladder you will meet lots of challenges, but remember that you build your character and never and never compromise on that. Because you may fail once or twice but if you have a strong character you will be recognized for that and you will be valued. So always have a character of repute, be a man of commitment and always be honest to yourself.”
Those words touched me and I have locked them in my heart. I don’t know what happened there after that, whom I met with, what I ate and what I did. But when I see those things in retrospect I just remember those powerful words.
When I see myself who I am now, where I was few years back and where I am moving, I know that I may be little late in life but I will reach there, not today ,not tomorrow but one day no matter what it takes. Life is taking its turns and at the same time it’s giving me valuable lessons.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Love-Hate Analysis!!
There are things which are like in this college and things which I hate.
•I don’t get enough time to read. I haven’t done some serious reading from a long time. Wondering how people in B schools find time to read.
•I like the speed of the course. As I am writing this blog, I am just 1 paper away from my 1st term to end. Life is flying; I am riding on it and just enjoying the whole journey. Speed is something which keeps me going.
•I like my library because of its richness but hate its rules. Why can’t I borrow books after 5.30? Why can’t I borrow reference books? Why don’t we have reading room to study peacefully?
•Like everybody does this good-bad analysis of college I will also not spare my canteen. Not that it’s customary but the fact is our canteen is really bad. The menu is same from last 3 months without any change.
•I don’t get enough time to read. I haven’t done some serious reading from a long time. Wondering how people in B schools find time to read.
•I like the speed of the course. As I am writing this blog, I am just 1 paper away from my 1st term to end. Life is flying; I am riding on it and just enjoying the whole journey. Speed is something which keeps me going.
•I like my library because of its richness but hate its rules. Why can’t I borrow books after 5.30? Why can’t I borrow reference books? Why don’t we have reading room to study peacefully?
•Like everybody does this good-bad analysis of college I will also not spare my canteen. Not that it’s customary but the fact is our canteen is really bad. The menu is same from last 3 months without any change.
Networking is Key to Success!!
One thing I have learned in my MBA is the importance of socializing. I have come to believe that networking is very crucial to your success in your career. Hard work does pay off but having good contacts improve your chance of success by a big margin. Till some time back I used to ignore it a lot but as I am beginning to get exposed to the corporate reality I am dead assured that to get the job you want you need help and you have to take help. People are there to help you only you have to just approach them.
I know some people who are smart and talented but they lost the opportunity just because they were loose in making contacts, somebody got a good job in a big MNC only because he had 'good contacts’, someone was able to do internship in a good company in a good profile only because he had right contacts.
You have to learn to connect with people, you just can’t ignore it, no matter how smart and hard working are you but to make it to 'THE PLACE’, you need an opportunity and that can only be possible if you are recommended.
Now that seniors are leaving the campus slowly and slowly to join their companies am beginning to feel the need of mentorship more than ever. I can tell you one thing for sure that it really gives you a sense of emotional support to have seniors in the campus because you know that you can always reach out to them for help.
Luckily I am in the Placement Assistance Team,will be in constant touch with reality and the edge of business communication. Having said that I also have to admit the fact that I am bit hesitant in communicating with people. You can use the word as shy, introvert or anything but the fact is I have to talk to people. Especially those from operations background. I must and must have an excellent rapport with them.
Till some time back in engineering I was under the belief that your success is only because of your knowldege, talent and skills. Hard skills were in demand there. I have to shed this belief because the conditions and scenario is completely diffrent.Mba does not teach you any specialized knowledge but it makes you mould into a socialist, thinker, stress handler and team player. You need to give considerable more weightage to soft skills now and shed inhibitions, meet people, know them, build relations and keeping all that in mind always and always build a positive character.
I know some people who are smart and talented but they lost the opportunity just because they were loose in making contacts, somebody got a good job in a big MNC only because he had 'good contacts’, someone was able to do internship in a good company in a good profile only because he had right contacts.
You have to learn to connect with people, you just can’t ignore it, no matter how smart and hard working are you but to make it to 'THE PLACE’, you need an opportunity and that can only be possible if you are recommended.
Now that seniors are leaving the campus slowly and slowly to join their companies am beginning to feel the need of mentorship more than ever. I can tell you one thing for sure that it really gives you a sense of emotional support to have seniors in the campus because you know that you can always reach out to them for help.
Luckily I am in the Placement Assistance Team,will be in constant touch with reality and the edge of business communication. Having said that I also have to admit the fact that I am bit hesitant in communicating with people. You can use the word as shy, introvert or anything but the fact is I have to talk to people. Especially those from operations background. I must and must have an excellent rapport with them.
Till some time back in engineering I was under the belief that your success is only because of your knowldege, talent and skills. Hard skills were in demand there. I have to shed this belief because the conditions and scenario is completely diffrent.Mba does not teach you any specialized knowledge but it makes you mould into a socialist, thinker, stress handler and team player. You need to give considerable more weightage to soft skills now and shed inhibitions, meet people, know them, build relations and keeping all that in mind always and always build a positive character.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Things which Mba makes you to do(PART 1)
•When the tube in the bedroom goes fuse, you have to use the toilet shit pot as your sit pot to write your blog. Well I have been studying information systems half inside the bathroom from last 1 hour and believe me I could actually concentrate more. Remember the famous line by alquee padamsee’I carry a notepad and pen in the toilet when I go to loo because that’s when I think more clearly. Shah Rukh khan has said in an interview that his favorite place in his grand mansion ‘mannat’ is his palatial bathroom. After solving so many case studies and analysis I am feeling very tempted to do some analysis on ‘toilet think therapy’. Wondering what does Ben Bernanke and Alan Greenspan would be thinking in toilet during the recession.
•You feel terribly thirsty and still don’t waana go to get your bottle filled and find for drops of water in your neighbor’s rooms. If you’re unlucky and very desperate you take the bottle and climb 20stairs to fill your bottle and when you come back to your room, you again get to drink only drops of water because by that time other people come to know that you are going to get water and they are waiting for you like devils.ofcourse you can’t say no,’ every dog has his day’..
•You know some wonderful, close and old friends who live nearby and they call you on weekend to meet with them, have fun and you still have to stay strong and have to say no to them because ‘you have to study’. you turn them upset, dislike it, you hate doing it, you feel really bad and then you keep figuring out the entire Sunday whether your decision was right or wrong and because you think on it for the whole day you just don’t do any study..
•You have a event waiting for you where you are selected, you have to take your dinner and you are least bothered about all of that and sitting in your loo writing this blog happily..
•You wear your mba’s shoe at e9 in morning and remove it at 4 in the next morning.
•You have slept for just 4hrs in the night and you wake up at 9.25 in the morning and have class at 9.30 and find the bathroom already occupied, you somehow manage to reach in class at 9.36 only to discover that its accounts class. You fight too hard to differentiate between 'proposed dividend' and 'dividend payable’. Since you have to avoid falling into your much needed sleep you fill the class with unwanted, irrelevant discussions on its differentiation knowing fully that what you have been saying it’s just plain stupidity (or is it not)!!!
•You feel terribly thirsty and still don’t waana go to get your bottle filled and find for drops of water in your neighbor’s rooms. If you’re unlucky and very desperate you take the bottle and climb 20stairs to fill your bottle and when you come back to your room, you again get to drink only drops of water because by that time other people come to know that you are going to get water and they are waiting for you like devils.ofcourse you can’t say no,’ every dog has his day’..
•You know some wonderful, close and old friends who live nearby and they call you on weekend to meet with them, have fun and you still have to stay strong and have to say no to them because ‘you have to study’. you turn them upset, dislike it, you hate doing it, you feel really bad and then you keep figuring out the entire Sunday whether your decision was right or wrong and because you think on it for the whole day you just don’t do any study..
•You have a event waiting for you where you are selected, you have to take your dinner and you are least bothered about all of that and sitting in your loo writing this blog happily..
•You wear your mba’s shoe at e9 in morning and remove it at 4 in the next morning.
•You have slept for just 4hrs in the night and you wake up at 9.25 in the morning and have class at 9.30 and find the bathroom already occupied, you somehow manage to reach in class at 9.36 only to discover that its accounts class. You fight too hard to differentiate between 'proposed dividend' and 'dividend payable’. Since you have to avoid falling into your much needed sleep you fill the class with unwanted, irrelevant discussions on its differentiation knowing fully that what you have been saying it’s just plain stupidity (or is it not)!!!
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Winner of the Week!!!
This week has been pretty busy and stressing for me. Though I have found enough reason to slip under my bed around 3 am and I just wonder how. The classes end at 4 pm and the pressure with the assignments have also reduced considerably. We had a great event this week called INSPIRO 09’ by the seniors of international business stream. Luckily I got a piece of Cake by bagging the first prize. The competition consisted of general awareness quiz, treasure hunt, rapid fire round and followed by wheel of fortune(I delivered extempore in the final round).
The event was a refreshing for us especially the treasure hunt. It was simply maddening with students running helter skelter all over the campus in night searching for the clues. The sight was worth watching. For the first time in my life I realized the importance of google.com, appreciated the invention of Wi-Fi and my irresistibleness. I cleared all the rounds easily except the treasure hunt and that too because of a goof up in the question but finally ended up with the 1st runner up. Kudos to all the seniors and the volunteers from our batch, who worked for late nights, skipped their meals to make this event possible. It was a very well managed and interesting thing was there were just no glitches and no tensions about anything. I need to learn event management from these smart guys.
I would say the tasks were pretty easy and it just needed little bit of awareness to clear the round. Though I don’t want to boast about myself but I just wonder how low is the GK of my collegues.what they don’t seem to realize is that this lack of habit of newspaper reading will only come to haunt them in the future.I learnt the hard way but they need to wake up.
Today we had a qualifying round for the essay writing competition organized by Noida management academy. We all had to prepare the presentation on that and present it in front of our coll director, seniors and faculty. This time again my luck was with me and I was selected to represent my college for the competition. I am honored and very grateful to the jury for giving me such an opportunity. This will mean that I will now have to work more harder, think more logically and continue improvise on my content because the stakes are high as there will be students of lots of business schools who will be my competitors and most of all I have to ensure that my college comes to be the winner and I will fight till my last drop of blood to make it possible. And even if I fail to do so my competitors are going to have really tough time to win it from me.
If any of my batch mates are reading this then I want to give some feedback (though u may justify my naivety).I saw that participants were reading from the slides and were not clear with the topics. They just dint knew the subject from the deep and had a superficial knowledge. In fact that just made me to think that why do people just fail to think or why don’t people think that they should think. I see them indulging in all sorts of activities in hostel apart from what they should actually be doing. I might be harsh but I think they lack something called ‘common sense’. You need to be focused, know why you are here, and why have you spend such large amount of money. They laugh at me because I am different while I laugh at them because they’re all the same. Is that my problem? When will I see the quality, my idol??I’ll wait for that day when ill meet the person and I can tell myself that this is the person whom I want to be.
Coming back to the essay, I knew my topics very well and could have answered any damn question on it very well. This helps to boost your confidence when you know that what you know is good enough. I too faulted in my presentation because my ppt lacked the facts and data to back my claims which is very essential to make a lasting impact but I just loaded my ppt on slideshow, went to the audience and delivered it without looking at the ppt. I don’t know if that was a right thing to do or not but I have a problem and that is that I can either talk or I can read from the slides. I can’t read from my slides and talk at the same time. I simply embed the points in my mind and say as it comes and I feel very natural and comfortable that way. I believe that if you don’t remember the points and only refer to the slides now and then, then you just lose the attention of the audience and you tend to lose the quality of your presentation too.
That being said, I know that I have a long way to go and there is lots of work to be done, I am thankful to myself that I like to experience things.
One thing I can safely say that this 2 yrs of MBA will make me a good public speaker, good listener, more understanding and ability to handle my ego. Remember all that can be taught in b school but handling ego and ability to handle the pressure situations is what makes the MBA different from others.
May be now I am beginning to realize what is that MBA makes out of you and why companies are ready to pay high salaries to Mba.
The event was a refreshing for us especially the treasure hunt. It was simply maddening with students running helter skelter all over the campus in night searching for the clues. The sight was worth watching. For the first time in my life I realized the importance of google.com, appreciated the invention of Wi-Fi and my irresistibleness. I cleared all the rounds easily except the treasure hunt and that too because of a goof up in the question but finally ended up with the 1st runner up. Kudos to all the seniors and the volunteers from our batch, who worked for late nights, skipped their meals to make this event possible. It was a very well managed and interesting thing was there were just no glitches and no tensions about anything. I need to learn event management from these smart guys.
I would say the tasks were pretty easy and it just needed little bit of awareness to clear the round. Though I don’t want to boast about myself but I just wonder how low is the GK of my collegues.what they don’t seem to realize is that this lack of habit of newspaper reading will only come to haunt them in the future.I learnt the hard way but they need to wake up.
Today we had a qualifying round for the essay writing competition organized by Noida management academy. We all had to prepare the presentation on that and present it in front of our coll director, seniors and faculty. This time again my luck was with me and I was selected to represent my college for the competition. I am honored and very grateful to the jury for giving me such an opportunity. This will mean that I will now have to work more harder, think more logically and continue improvise on my content because the stakes are high as there will be students of lots of business schools who will be my competitors and most of all I have to ensure that my college comes to be the winner and I will fight till my last drop of blood to make it possible. And even if I fail to do so my competitors are going to have really tough time to win it from me.
If any of my batch mates are reading this then I want to give some feedback (though u may justify my naivety).I saw that participants were reading from the slides and were not clear with the topics. They just dint knew the subject from the deep and had a superficial knowledge. In fact that just made me to think that why do people just fail to think or why don’t people think that they should think. I see them indulging in all sorts of activities in hostel apart from what they should actually be doing. I might be harsh but I think they lack something called ‘common sense’. You need to be focused, know why you are here, and why have you spend such large amount of money. They laugh at me because I am different while I laugh at them because they’re all the same. Is that my problem? When will I see the quality, my idol??I’ll wait for that day when ill meet the person and I can tell myself that this is the person whom I want to be.
Coming back to the essay, I knew my topics very well and could have answered any damn question on it very well. This helps to boost your confidence when you know that what you know is good enough. I too faulted in my presentation because my ppt lacked the facts and data to back my claims which is very essential to make a lasting impact but I just loaded my ppt on slideshow, went to the audience and delivered it without looking at the ppt. I don’t know if that was a right thing to do or not but I have a problem and that is that I can either talk or I can read from the slides. I can’t read from my slides and talk at the same time. I simply embed the points in my mind and say as it comes and I feel very natural and comfortable that way. I believe that if you don’t remember the points and only refer to the slides now and then, then you just lose the attention of the audience and you tend to lose the quality of your presentation too.
That being said, I know that I have a long way to go and there is lots of work to be done, I am thankful to myself that I like to experience things.
One thing I can safely say that this 2 yrs of MBA will make me a good public speaker, good listener, more understanding and ability to handle my ego. Remember all that can be taught in b school but handling ego and ability to handle the pressure situations is what makes the MBA different from others.
May be now I am beginning to realize what is that MBA makes out of you and why companies are ready to pay high salaries to Mba.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Delhi-A TriPPy Sunday!!!
Ever since I have come to Delhi never ever my stay here was as much happening as it was today. Two reasons:
1. It was a weekend and I was terribly frustrated and needed a much needed break.
2. It was my long time friend’s b’day who coincidently happens to work in noida.
So I decided that this weekend I am not going to stay in the campus and I will go to my friend’s place, have fun and see the real Delhi. It was amazing. Lots of experiences and a nice change.
How should I go about writing about it? Okay so first things first:
Akshardham temple:
I was accompanied by my buddy and his girlfriend and nice thing was we had a car so no bike hassles. I found Akshardham temple to be huge and marvelous. It’s a temple of Swami Narayan who was an ascetic born in 17th century. The temple is made by donations from rich NRIs,gujjus and its trustees. The whole area is spread in 100acres and the intricate craftwork done on its temples is just worth watching. I was mesmerized by the whole concept of temple more as a mode of amusement than for some religious reasons. The temple is one of the most tightly secured, well administered temples I have ever visited. They had well manicured sprawling gardens and fountains.
Bad thing is I am feeling pity that I couldn’t get a chance of watching the movie which is shown in its audi.I have heard that if you go to Akshardham then watching its movie in its giant screen is a must do. But fate had other plans and little later I came to the realization that the plans were for the better for mine.
Castle 9:
yes the nouns of these two headings do appear very unanalogous and you guessed it right. After so much of bhakti and spiritual realism we needed some salvation. So upon advice of pallavi we went to this lounge called castle 9 which is in Connaught place. To just sum up how this place was, after divine blessing from Akshardham this place was a nirvana and an abode of moksha(plzz excuse me for too much spiritual jargons, just an odd combination of deity and booze concoction).
honestly it was one of the best lounges I have been in delhi.And what else could you expect when it’s your friend’s bday treat, sitting in a upscale lounge amongst beautiful Delhi women on a sunny winter noon, having your crisp, chilled foster beer, watching over the entire CP from your table window and splurging over a great sumptuous meal consisting of Lasagna,Tandoori Chicken and Lamb Rogan josh and I have every reason to believe that I felt very luxuriously treated. Not to mention the happy vibe quotient was added by pallavi (ankit’s girlfriend).she was such a sweat girl to talk with and one of the rarest intellectual and sensible person still alive on earth. We all had great great time driving all over Delhi, pulling ankit’s leg (which was pretty expected), having a meal, strolling over CP and enjoying metro joy ride.
METRO RIDE:
I simply can’t stop praising E SHREEDHARAN for his vision, unflinching dedication and his effort in putting Delhi in the world map and giving delhiiites a gift for a lifetime. He is going to be remembered by generations and generations for giving people such a fast, hassle free and cheap mobility. I found the metro infrastructure and its shuttles of truly international standard. Everything is just superbly planned and the best thing which I noticed is that people too have such a great civic sense, you don’t find any maddening rush and scuffle anywhere, nobody is littering the floor and platforms. Everything is such well organized that it’s very easy to find the train and platform.i can say that Sheila dikshit’s govt is chosen to power again only because she had shown results and with commonwealth games approaching, infra development is at a fast pace with a plan to connect noida and other neighboring places to delhi.delhi is going to take a quantum jump in years to come.
Came back to hostel and got the news that tomorrow we have economics class from 10 to1 and all my dreams of waking up late have just dashed. But feeling very rejuvenated after such incredible Sunday. My heartiest thanks goes to ankit for giving me such a magnanimous bday treat and to pallavi for offering to drive us down to Delhi and showing temple, for suggesting us CASTLE 9 and last but not the least for being such a sweat and nice girl!!
Bon la viva!!!Adios!!
1. It was a weekend and I was terribly frustrated and needed a much needed break.
2. It was my long time friend’s b’day who coincidently happens to work in noida.
So I decided that this weekend I am not going to stay in the campus and I will go to my friend’s place, have fun and see the real Delhi. It was amazing. Lots of experiences and a nice change.
How should I go about writing about it? Okay so first things first:
Akshardham temple:
I was accompanied by my buddy and his girlfriend and nice thing was we had a car so no bike hassles. I found Akshardham temple to be huge and marvelous. It’s a temple of Swami Narayan who was an ascetic born in 17th century. The temple is made by donations from rich NRIs,gujjus and its trustees. The whole area is spread in 100acres and the intricate craftwork done on its temples is just worth watching. I was mesmerized by the whole concept of temple more as a mode of amusement than for some religious reasons. The temple is one of the most tightly secured, well administered temples I have ever visited. They had well manicured sprawling gardens and fountains.
Bad thing is I am feeling pity that I couldn’t get a chance of watching the movie which is shown in its audi.I have heard that if you go to Akshardham then watching its movie in its giant screen is a must do. But fate had other plans and little later I came to the realization that the plans were for the better for mine.
Castle 9:
yes the nouns of these two headings do appear very unanalogous and you guessed it right. After so much of bhakti and spiritual realism we needed some salvation. So upon advice of pallavi we went to this lounge called castle 9 which is in Connaught place. To just sum up how this place was, after divine blessing from Akshardham this place was a nirvana and an abode of moksha(plzz excuse me for too much spiritual jargons, just an odd combination of deity and booze concoction).
honestly it was one of the best lounges I have been in delhi.And what else could you expect when it’s your friend’s bday treat, sitting in a upscale lounge amongst beautiful Delhi women on a sunny winter noon, having your crisp, chilled foster beer, watching over the entire CP from your table window and splurging over a great sumptuous meal consisting of Lasagna,Tandoori Chicken and Lamb Rogan josh and I have every reason to believe that I felt very luxuriously treated. Not to mention the happy vibe quotient was added by pallavi (ankit’s girlfriend).she was such a sweat girl to talk with and one of the rarest intellectual and sensible person still alive on earth. We all had great great time driving all over Delhi, pulling ankit’s leg (which was pretty expected), having a meal, strolling over CP and enjoying metro joy ride.
METRO RIDE:
I simply can’t stop praising E SHREEDHARAN for his vision, unflinching dedication and his effort in putting Delhi in the world map and giving delhiiites a gift for a lifetime. He is going to be remembered by generations and generations for giving people such a fast, hassle free and cheap mobility. I found the metro infrastructure and its shuttles of truly international standard. Everything is just superbly planned and the best thing which I noticed is that people too have such a great civic sense, you don’t find any maddening rush and scuffle anywhere, nobody is littering the floor and platforms. Everything is such well organized that it’s very easy to find the train and platform.i can say that Sheila dikshit’s govt is chosen to power again only because she had shown results and with commonwealth games approaching, infra development is at a fast pace with a plan to connect noida and other neighboring places to delhi.delhi is going to take a quantum jump in years to come.
Came back to hostel and got the news that tomorrow we have economics class from 10 to1 and all my dreams of waking up late have just dashed. But feeling very rejuvenated after such incredible Sunday. My heartiest thanks goes to ankit for giving me such a magnanimous bday treat and to pallavi for offering to drive us down to Delhi and showing temple, for suggesting us CASTLE 9 and last but not the least for being such a sweat and nice girl!!
Bon la viva!!!Adios!!
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