Thanks Gulliver, I will take it from here !!!!

My return to the blog this time marks a bad week. Why? Arsenal suffered massive losses this week. Carling Cup 2-1 to birmingham and Champions League 4-3 on aggregate to Barca.

Absolutely Gutted !!!!!!

What brings a cheer , however , is that I am off on travel again. Just finished a 40 day trip of India and I think travel should have been last thing on mind. But come June, I will be so neck deep in work, I cannot have much better time to go and travel as much as I can. First stop - Amsterdam. Then possibly Paris, Malaga , Cologne ...and hopefully Prague. Let see how it shapes up.

Next up will be an update on my India Tour. And will post regular updates on my weekend trips. This entry is dedicated to Gulliver's Travel and inspiring me to explore some places that I have never been. Thanks Gulliver , I will take it from here...

Cheers

PS

Exams Done....Bring On the World Cup

Well, no more exams. One thing that students across the globe just love to hate - EXAMS. I am done with it for atleast this lifetime. And wat an awesome time to get free. World CUP begins today. Just planning to catch up on the opening ceremony. It's definitely going to be nice summer. Job hunt + thesis+ Work @LSE + World Cup. I still don't know when my post about 2 years in LSE will happen. But i think over the summer i aim to finish that account and post it on here. Hopefully it comes out as a nice description of my 2 years here.

Ok..south africa vs Mexico now...Off i go..

"Go Library"

This is that time of the year when ...every student at LSE...just raves about library. I dunno wat the buzz was about. There were frequent thoughts that crossed my mind " Come on guys...u can study at home, why follow the herd when u can peacefully study in ur own tiny room".

Well, last nite i was too curious to see what exactly it was that attracted people to library during the exam time. Was it the sheer amount of resources (books, computers, journals.. etc etc...) or was it something else. Well, I was surprised, it wasn't the resources. It was only because of peer pressure that u are able to focus well in the library. For first 15 mins...I was having a look around. I saw many students just lost in their own world of Betas, Deltas and epsilons. A peculiar thing I observed was...as soon as someone's mind starts meandering ( well...right from awesome sushi for dinner or check out the bombshell...3rd row 4th seat from left...or any other wandering thought) one realises that there are 3000 super workoholic kids around and are going crazy scribbling some math formulae or deriving the Black Scholes. When this happens....immediately u dive back into books. So it's sheer strength of good old "PEER PRESSURE".

It worked on me too...and now I too believe the philosophy... "Go Library" this exam season.

Finance 1 and Cross Cultural Mgmt....Here I come..........

Home Stretch .... Last 1 month

Well, in last 2 years I have thought of blogging many times to keep a log of what's happening in my life currently. But as you know, I have never been regular enuf ...apt word wud be "LAZY". I was too lazy to prioritize blogging in my schedule. But these 2 years have been an interesting journey. Well....i will document it soon. But before that in the most stressful period of my life "my exams", i intend to keep u updated with how people prepare for exams at this famous university in london.

Today is 3rd may..exactly 1 month to go for my exams. Planning to work a bit on course taught by Long Dou. Most of my friends find it very easy. They may be very good at it. But I am not. So have to struggle. Many times I have realised that u r the best judge of what you know and what u dont. So shut out those comments like " yeh to 4 din mein ho jayega" . U know ur capabilities and LIMITATIONS well. So i wud rather look into those and plan accordingly.

So Mr long dou's...course gets mornings and evenings wud be split between courses by SuiL and Gnyuh's course. Gnyuh's course is the dark horse - " CCM". Hoefsted and Trompenaar....pls be kind on me.

Last but not the least.....I am trying to keep away from facebook , ICC t20 worldcup and Skype. I am easily distracted by the magical "ping" sound...and hence i dont realise how next 3 hrs went by. So...sorry fellow, friends and country men....."pass" hone ke vande hain...ab online aana band. Exam key baad chat skype....sab pey online miloonga.

Well..rather than procrastinating more , I dive straight into studies now. Will c u tomorrow.

PS:- important...baniya is coming to take the suit. Bastard...never in his life has he called me when he doesnt need a thing. BEEP BEEP BEEP.... well writing down ill feelings certainly helps to stay calm when u have to be diplomatic. Will see how it goes....

Too Nice is not nice afteralll

B'days in HEC are usually fun. It was nice to have a B'day celebration tonite. Champagne, beer, Vodka, Whiskey....all was flowing. But sometimes it can be ridiculous when u plan something and it goes haywire. I guess sometimes i need to just let it go and not bother. I cant say wat went wrong cos its no one's fault...but sometimes i feel too much philanthropy makes ppl take u for granted. And because of this i will be selfish from now on. No need to do anything extra for anyone apart from ur folks, siblings or special ones. Rest will just forget u..and wont even remember u when u r on ur death bed.

Learning this moral...now i am going back to the party. I am going to enjoy the time and not bother.....sometimes being a nice guy is not so nice afterall.

end of random drunken ramblings....hopefully i will be sane when i read later wat iam posting rite now.
till then ...... Cusson timesssssss !!!!

Revival

I know its been atleast a year since i have started writing again. Life has turned quite a lot since i last wrote. Got into LSE Masters program. CEMS program application was successful and now almost nearing the end of my exchange term in HEC, Paris. It has been a good year and a half. Yet lots more happening. Hopefully I will not lose touch of writing again.

Though one fine day i will put a post on the wonderful times of last year and a half...to kinda fill the missing pieces. Also as i see the posts i havent finished the traversing from blah blah to MBA. I will try and finish that too.

Last year and half has been wonderful since i went from ABB to LSE to CEMS to now almost about to join a different environment.

For the first bit of news from paris....Started my first bit of touristy stuff....last night. A month and a half...after coming to paris. Yea, u r right. I am not much of an art connoisseur. So in paris which is an artist's paradise...is somehow not that eye-catching to me. But, there were some things which i liked about it.

The hourly shimmering lights on eiffel were spectacular. It feels as if there are fooljhadis (a type of fire cracker used often in india for celebration) on every piece of metal on the tower. Next, was the most famous museum "Louvre" which has the famous leonardo da vinci's Monalisa. Found it a bit over rated but then again a disclaimer....I am not an art lover and my views are subjective. So don't sue me if u find it awesome.



There is still a lot of touristy bit to do in paris. As and when i travel...i will post the details.
Cya for now.

Traversing from a degree (engineering) to another (MBA )- part 1

Every guy graduating from a tier 1 engineering college , dreams of a plush job. So was the case with me. In 2003 , I had given CAT in november. Don't knw how much I scored but it was no where near the target score that the IIMs wanted. Now, there had to b a twist n we all know now that November 03 paper was cancelled. So again we were supposed to go thru the grind in feb04. The period from nov to dec...i wasted like a CH$$$$TH.....

Feb came...n i SHATTTTTTT ( shockers lingo for goofing up.... ) big time. No calls. Fortunately(or unfortunately as I later realised ) I had a job in hand. So wasnt worried...but before moving to workplace it was drilled into me that this is temporary arrangement,may b a couple of years, NOT more than that...."AFTER THAT YOU HAVE TO GO FOR MBA....." was the cry even my cousin studying in 6th grade kept reminding me of. Parental pressure and Peer Pressure rocks!!!!!

I dunno how the scene has changed from 2004 to 2008 ( life flips 180 in matter of days...4 years is such a long time ) but I still feel that on graduation day every engineering grad feels that this degree equips him to go out there and create something , design something, invent /rengineer miracles. Sadly 80 to 90% of engineering grads realise, within first few months into their work , that the kinda jobs they have been dreaming are far beyond their reach unless they stick onto their firm for 5 or 6 years or join the firm with an additional qualification. The day a MT ( short for management trainee) or a GET ( Graduate engineering trainee) realises this, it's the end of his desire to give 100 % to his first job outta campus and beginning of the never say "give up" attitude to crack CAT, XAT , SNAP ....n plethora of other exams. Countless sundays are spent writing tests , analyzing papers, contemplating n strategising for the next test which is generally scheduled on the following sunday...n this cycle repeats till that fateful day in Novemeber ( It was 19th for me ...god knws wat it is this year) when 3 lakh aspirants slog it out for that elusive freedom from their current jobs or wrongly selected engineering/arts / science /commerce profiles.

My experiences from 2004 to 2008 in this journey from an engineering job to MBA applications and finally some admits in 2008 will b dealt in detail in this multi part series. Part 2 would b on first year of the job...generally known across firms as the "honeymoon period". So keep watching this space for more info on this.....
ciao