whats in the name ?
” whats in the name ? ” , said Bard centuries ago .
I say a lot. Especially when you share your name with 7 other people in the class . Today the class was asked to sit in Alphabetical order and to the astonishment of everyone , we realized that there are 8 Abhisheks in class occupying larger part of first row 
.
Now I had unique name all along thru my life , and whenever Apoorv or Appu was called for , I was the only one to answer . Not any more . Apurva , my namesake lives couple of doors next to me. Many times I need to answer the door bell only to find that next door Apurva was the one who was being looked for . Most of my namesake`s not so good deeds seem to be mistaken to be that of mine from time to time .
If this is the sort of confusion I am facing with 1 namesake , imagine how bad it would be for 8 Abhisheks .
Bottomline is Be careful when you name your kid and let me him be as unique as possible !!
The Magical Three Hours .
Its been fairly long time since I wrote the last one about life here at great lakes and this one too , I am writing this post in the middle of all the chaos going on here . These days , I am somehow keeping up with deluge of presentations , quizzes , exams and most important , sleep.
It seems to have happened in distant past but I would not be able to forgive myself if I don’t write about much talked about last class of Prof. Rakesh singh’s Macroeconomics class .
Throughout the semester , we all were struggling with the assignments he used to give us ( assignments ranged from Inflation in India to Singapore exchange rate management to US current account deficit to India on the move to name a few ) . Most of us had the first taste of rigors of B-school once his classes started . Fondly known as ” Rocky ” among student community , Prof. Singh is an economist who would make you appreciate good things about india and at the same time , he would make you think hard about problems faced by India in general , and rural india specifically . Within span of 20 hours of his classes, students started talking in terms of GDPs ,WPIs , CRRs , Repo rates when they talked about nations .
I vividly remember one of his quotes , ” I still want you guys to remain confused and do the good job with assignments ” . First 17 class hours , most of us were clueless which direction classes were heading . But it was last 3 hour class where Prof speaks about ” India on the Move ” when it all made sense .
There usually is lot of hype about This last class, what with all the seniors telling you at length about it .
Prof easily exceed all my expectations and all the hype in those three hours . when I sat through those 3 hour class , I , rather none of us realized that its been 3 hours . Prof went on speaking for 3 hours , he did not take break to drink water or take a breath . Right from india`s economy in 1950s to Indira Gandhi`s tenure to liberalization to role of IMF in forcing india to open up the economy to Rural india growth to Enron to Anna Hazare to PC chidambaram to comparison of india and china , he simply went on and on .
And when the class ended , the entire 230 students stood up for standing ovation for Prof .
Rest of day was spent doing research about so many things he told in class ( There is a joke , that Prof. Singh speaks in hyperlinks . you could spend hours after each class analyzing various things he talked about , and you still wont be content ) .
Hats off to you sir ! Those three hours were the most precious hours of my life as a student . And today our Dean , Prof. Bala Balachandran sent the weekly mail stating that there will be many more such wonderful experiences over next 10 months !!
B school Grads : Looking for job in times of recession
I had to summarize an article from business week related to job hunt in the time of recession for MBA grads for placement committee. Thought I will post it here too , as it makes good read .
The article keeps MBA class of 2009 as target audience and draws examples from students class of 2002 as both classes entered the market at peak of recession . Article states that finding job , career switching becomes extremely difficult in such times . Students need to be patient and many cases, they need to put their ambitions on hold for few years before market starts looking up again .
Aaron McNally graduated from UC-Berkeley’s Haas School of Business in 2002 . McNally was looking for a tech job after spending his pre-B-school career in the TV industry . After MBA , he worked part time on campus to make ends meet for an year while hunting for job parallelly . Finally , he gave up on Tech job and he started with job in TV industry in 2003. He was running financial analysis on new projects for the company’s satellite properties. He continued there for 4 years and in early 2007, a position opened up at Google in its newly-formed TV advertising platform which was perfect match for his earlier ambitions .
The poor job market forced Aaron to be flexible about the kind of positions he was looking for. Ultimately, he reverted to his former career path, but in the end he arrived where he wanted to be .
Amy Brooks graduated from stanford in 2002 after leaving her job at Sun microsystems .Her initial plan was to use the MBA to break into the sports industry, but based on the job and internship outlook, she put the career switch on hold. She had interned with Bain & Co. and returned back to school with job offer from Bain . She wanted to find job in Sports industry by the end of college though .But when that didnt happen, she joined Bain as consultant and worked there for 4 years .When the sports job she had been longing for came around in the form of a marketing partnerships position at the National Basketball Assn., Brooks was ready, thanks to her experience at Bain.
It’s true that the position she accepted right out of B-school was not exactly on the path she was seeking, but it led her to a job she wanted. “If you can see a position as a stepping stone to where you eventually want to get to, take it,” she says.
Aparna Narang graduated from Kenan-Flagler School of Business in 2002 .Aparna was keen on finding a position in renewable energy which was a fledgling industry then .she got involved in the Sustainable Enterprise Program on campus, which gave her exposure to people working in the industry. A few of those individuals worked for Dupont and were able to help her secure a summer internship at the chemical company working on a “solar initiative.”By second year , job climate had worsened though . She continued her job hunt over next few months .She began talking with a contact who worked at General Electric whom she had met earlier in the year. Over the next six months, the talks with GE became serious until finally, in April, she was offered a position in the company’s renewable energy leadership program.
The article concludes with emphasizing on importance of networking in these times of recession . Few quotes of students which deserve special mention about networking are :
“You’ll have better success finding jobs through who you know than what you know,” Murphy says.
“The people I know who find jobs the fastest tend to be the ones who take advantage of the network and who aren’t afraid to ask people to take a look at their résumé.”
For the above members of the Class of 2002, the job search was much different than expected, but with focus, flexibility, patience, and a little luck, each was able to find the position they were looking for. It just took a them a little longer.
If there’s one thing the MBA Class of 2009 can take from the experiences of the 2002 grads, it’s that nothing’s forever. It definitely can get frustrating . It may not feel that way right now, but anyone that’s had access to a great education is in a good spot and things will work out eventually.
The article can be read at :
Life in Nutshell :)
Soldier : “Sir, we’re surrounded!”.
Army Officer : “Excellent. We can attack in any direction now !”.
Thats life in a nutshell right now .
With deluge of assignments , journals , pre reads , term end exams lined up this and next week , there is no space to breathe . chunk of efforts are directed towards assignments of economics . The more you read about factors contributing towards trade deficit of USA , the more perplexing it gets . Economics has been easily my favorite subject so far . It doesnt mean that I am the best at eco of all subjects ( relatively that is 
. I am equally bad at all the subjects ) , but I find it difficult to put the eco books down . To top all these assignments, Prof. Rakesh singh has asked us to go through a book related to macroeconomics ( non syllabus book that is ) over next few days and come up with the learnings out of it . Needless to say , this too needs to be done within next 2 weeks again .
This week , its going to be end term exams for Accounting , IIO . busy times ahead till 23rd june .
and Its already been a month !!
. and now after 2 years , its time to shed the weight i gained then . Thanks to the hectic schedule here at Great lakes , I finally seem to be melting down . Its been a month and I already feel bit lighter .Accounting principles of credit and debit and depreciation seem to be at work ! . Time just flew by over past few weeks since I landed here . . 2 years ago , when i was preparing for Gmat , I used to do two things . I used to study a lot and I used to eat a lot ,thanks to my mom ( off the topic : Those were the golden days seriously . prawns ,fishes , chicken . I would get anything I ask for , coz I was studying ) . and now after 2 years , its time to shed the weight i gained then . Thanks to the hectic schedule here at Great lakes , I finally seem to be melting down ( my melting down has got nothing to do with global meltdown , its got to do with pure veg food we get here ) . Its been a month and I already feel bit lighter .Accounting principles of credit and debit and depreciation seem to be at work !
oh btw I am 1/12th MBA now , having survived through the rigours of first month . Time just flew by over past few weeks since I landed here .
Quick updates from the campus : yours truely could get into The much coveted Placement commitee . Financial Accounting – 1 classes ended , I thorughly enjoyed classes of Prof. Surya sekhar . With heavy heart ,we bid good bye to him . I casually looked for his profile on school of accounting – Florida Int. University website and was completely at awe looking at the accomplishments of the Gentleman . We will miss you , sir !! Prof. Krishnan`s classes ended too , relieved in a way for I wont need to go through texts of Upnishadas , Geeta and Vivekananda`s speeches as pre reads here after .
Its been fun so far . Throughly enjoying life here , there is huge scope of improvement for me . I am taking longer time than I should to work at optimum limits . My perenial bete noire , bad time management , has not completely been taken care of . I hope to be better when it comes fighting with sleep in forthcoming days .
And am back to Land of Rajni …
And I reached chennai to start off with MBA . and as it happened in the past , the autowalla took me for ride again . I hope to be smart enough by the year end at Great lakes to handle these chaps in better way , thats the yardstick to gauge how much I could make out of MBA .
And before I write anything further , well this space is going to talk about my life and experiences during rigours of 1 year MBA for time to come .
Its been 3 weeks in chennai now , after fun filled first week at a resort on ECR road as part of orientation , we finally packed our bags and shifted to new campus on ECR road . I must say this place is slightly far from chennai , but one year MBA hardly gives you scope to fool around . It feels great to be part of bunch of 260 folks with avarage work ex of about 4 years .
Classes started a fortnite ago . assignments , tests followed too and then the fun began . I am completely clueless how I am going to cope up with 3-5 hours of sleep a day , having slept for more than 8 hours a day for my entire life .
with couple of weeks , we had mid term of Accounts , a test of Marketing and Statistics . And we got going with our Empirical study project for Yale – Great lakes Empirical research projects .
Having worked for 5 years , I was skeptical about my decision for personal reasons and for the shape of economy . Whatever doubts I had about my decision evaporated when I sat through convocation of senior batch . I think thats it for now shall keep on writing as and when I get some time . yeah , time is the most precious commodity here .
winds of change !!
I am back again from another long spell of stupor . so many things happened in past few months I guess . after courtship over an year and a half , I got married with the girl I fell for . Attended couple of interviews for MBA parallelly and made it to Great lakes institute of Management . I would be joining GLIM which means I would be moving back to the land of Rajnikanth after hiatus of about 4 years. I have fond memories of 15 months stay in chennai when I joined cognizant 5 years ago . The fully residential campus of Great lakes is situated on scenic East coast Road . Didnt go for a drive to pondy last time , got to do that this time .
After having planned for my MBA year after year , I am thrilled when the time has come to get going with MBA , finally .
Mr Shivraj Patil , Please Go .
Dear Sir ,
Only thing you have done consistently over your tenure as Home Minister of India is to utter as many senseless statements as you could . Having been raised in the constituency which you represented for long time ( you did absolutely nothing for the place , either ) , I cant help but feel the shame . you have been playing old tape blasts after blasts . There has been no action from you or your ministry which could convince common man that they are safe in India . Yes sir, people across all metros are reluctant to venture out of their homes on weekends for more than an year now . I dont feel as much annoyed for these terrorists as I feel about you today . You call terrorists cowards . I really am not sure who exactly is one . So far, you blamed all terrorist attacks being planned across the border . But now when the threat is clearly home grown , and IM is claiming the responsibility for attacks , I am sure you are running short of excuses . Terrorists would plan attacks , and lest you forget ,its job of you to ensure internal security is in place to handle this menace . Terrorists are not as big a concern as you are ,today .
when you ham the statements like these , blood of distraught people is boiling . I seriously doubt you comprehend the menace of terrorism enough when you say that those are our brothers who have taken up the wrong path of terrorism and its our responsibility to bring them back to mainstream .
For god`s sake sir , Please quit before people lose the faith in the internal security of nation . Half of major cities had blasts during your tenure . for love of other half metros , please make way for someone who can do better job .
- A concerned citizen .
Back !!
well , its been ages since I wrote something , isnt it ..last time I wrote was way back in Dec 2007 . Phew , long time indeed 
. In my defence , I did start writing many a time , but didnt complete the effort .so I shall scribble whatever I can today and see if I could complete this one . so many things happened in last 8 months around the globe . The ones mentioned below had me thinking though .
Mr. Musharaf is finally out of the office . His tenure sure was mixed bag . Few things I admired about him were his policies which led to better life for pakistani women , his practical stand on J&K and his efforts to make pakistan more liberal nation . He indeed lost plot along the way over past couple of years but a decade down the line ,he will be remembered as someone who did good for the cause of pakistan .
We won 3 medals at olympics , another 3-4 indians made it to quarterfinals . We got to know about the hardships the olympians face without enough financial support . I sincerely hope enough money is pumped in sports by corporates over next few years and get to see better showing in olympics at london .For some reason , I enjoyed watching Pugilist Akhil kumar fighting it out there in middle ,even though he lost in quarters .I wish he will be around next time around ( considering that he is 27 right now ) .
Future of The nuclear deal is still hanging in balance and lefts are out of the govt ( yeyy !! ) .
And me is in hyderabad at peace with life , its almost been an year since then . I just dont know how time flew by so quickly. The other day a friend was saying , 8 months of 2008 have passed by already . It doesnt seem long time since I jotted down my memoirs for year 2007 and the time to write about 2008 is approaching at fast pace .This year witnessed record number of marriages so far among my friends . Every other day a friend or the other uploads snaps of engagement / marriage on orkut .The regret on this front has been I attended close friend`s wedding at a place which was 70 kms from Panaji in Konkan and we could not extend the trip to Goa thanks to work at office .
My association with my employer entered into 5th year in May . For some reason , this bond has been pretty strong . Chennai , Hyderabad , NJ and back to hyderabad . Its been eventful 4 and half years .I am one of the buzurgs here right now , many of them either moved on to other companies or are working somewhere in US / UK .
on personal front, life has been good . oh btw , I bought a Bean Bag , something I wanted to buy for ages . I wanted to buy a recliner chair too. yeah , loved the one Joey has got in sitcom FRIENDS . That indeed is being sold in Hyderabad . But 45,000 for a recliner chair , ahem . so I leave it on future me for time being .
when we are sitcoms , I stumbled upon this sitcom ” How I met your Mother ” and thoroughly enjoyed watching 3 seasons of it .
On Movies and Novels front , Read The Namesake and thoroughly enjoyed the book for its excellent narration and character portrayl. There have been no notable desi movies so far to talk about . Enjoyed watching english Movie Wanted starring Angelina Jolie though .
Phew , so many things to write about I guess. Shall take a break right now .and pen down something else very soon .
oh btw , Do go thru this one . Nice read.Did help me to put many things in perspective .
Eid Mubarak , Merry Xmas and Appy New year !
There is this feeling which makes me happy many a time . someone is sitting there up in heaven who protects me all the time , prevents me from taking wrong decisions , brings me back on track again and again .There were moments when not so good things happened with me . I was left sulking , wondering why of all me ? , why did things not shape up the way I wanted them to be . But when I look back and ponder over all those not so good things , it all makes sense .
It does not look all that bad now . I realised that there is difference between the way I want things to happen and the right thing . It was like someone was trying to tell me , ” young man , there is right time for everything and this sure is not the right time . “
All the risks I took did pay off , my luck never deserted me when I needed it the most . some things happened recently which further strengthened my belief .
Reminds me of the quote , ” I had my time, I had the power, I am yet to have my finest hour ” . so here comes 2008 . And I look forward to this year and I am sure there are lot many goodies in store this year and this sure would be my finest hour , I hope my guardian up there feels the same way .
Bye bye 2007 , you have been very kind to me too .
“Got no checkbooks, got no banks,
Still I’d like to express my thanks -
I got the sun in the morning
and the moon at night.”
~Irving Berlin, “I Got the Sun in the Morning,”
Wish you all a very happy festive season and a great year ahead !!
