. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .F.R.I.E.N.D.S. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

To My Best Friends
Asha and Pankaj

Without Whom I Wouldn't Be What I Am

Friendship isn't easily described, I mean there aren't many words to describe the relationship or the feeling and we usually end up using many adjectives.......viz Close friend. Best friend. Childhood friend. Intimate friend. Trusted friend. Beloved friend and so on and so forth.....
But whether you use adjectives or different words, few could deny the nearly infinite meaning in such a simple word.......We do not choose our family members and we are definately limited in how many family members we have, Society and mores (and often our own conscience) dictate we select a single mate and we also do not get to chose our relatives, but we chose our friends.....
Friends are special people, because they make you what you are (atleast they get the best out in you, though in my case what came out was a bag of crap i know but what the heck I am still better because I may not be the best but hey at least I am not like the rest)......Its like our friends, in a very real sense, reflect the choices we make in life and the kind of person that we truly are......
Best friends are a separate deal altogether (Boring fact but best friend comes before family in the dictionary where as friend comes before relative).....My best friends occasionally(i should use often but hey this is my blog and i am entitled to use whatever may damn please me) bring out the worst in me and yet, they love me as unfinished and sometimes as broken as I am.....While I am yet to learn how to comfort myself, somehow they can and they do.....
This is one topic where I can go on and on and on.......My friends are my life......

Love All Of Them & Hope I never Lose Contact With Them

"Cut off the talk, and many a times you cut off the friendship". - Aristotle

iTs JusT aNoTheR TesT....

I do not understand what the fuss is all about...Tests, Quizzes etc...As in aren't just another one of a bunch that you have already gone through...Haven't we been giving tests for like ages...अब तक तो आदत हो जानी चाहिये थी.....पर ऐसा होता नही है....लोग अभी भी एकदम hyper हो जाते है...
Cheating नही करते..गलत answer बता देते है ताकि कोई उन्से ज़्यादा number ना ले आए...That too in b school...
Too childish and immature but hey who am I to pass a judgement...I was merely wondering is it bothers me only or others too....Gawd when are people going to understand that it is not just grades that matter, it is more about what you really have and what you can really show to the interviewers which matters in the end....And then again in the job what really matters are not grades but what mettle are you made up of....It is an entirely different ball game there.....
:-p

PaiD ToRcHeR : @TTeNdaNce

Now why is attendance compulsory??...Why is attendance taken at all in b-schools??...

Come to think of it, thousands of students slog for more than an year (some for many years in a row) to get into a b school but then they don't attend classes...Why do you think students want to get in college but not attend classes??...
As far as i know I came to college for a number of reasons, none of which were that 'I wanted to study'...There was the reason of taking a break from work (Phew two years of work was taking it toll on my health!!!), the monitory reason, the 'other' reason...;-)...
Anyways now that I have made it into one of the top 10 b schools, I wanted to chillax but that just doesn't seem to be possible...There is this constant fear of DGPs...(Deficit Grade Points) which means that you miss a couple of lectures and you are screwed for your MBA life !!...
I think, no wait, I know it for a fact that no amount of classes can do you any good if you do not want to attend them...besides, medical science says that an average human can not concentrate and listen for more than 45 minutes...50 minutes tops...(Though the recent internet survey suggest a more believable figure of 10 mins or so.....)Then imagine the plight of the students in two hour lectures....

I guess colleges need to understand that -

"You can take the horse to the river but you can not make it drink !!!"

aFTeR 'CAT' iTs a RaT RaCe !!!

A little over 2,00,000 graduates apply, only a handful get through to being 'branded for life !!'....
The rest either get motivated to try again or demotivated to take the next best college while some get demotivated enough to never try again...No prizes for guessing that I am talking about the CAT exam !!!!
Well I am not patronising CAT or taunting people who didnt get through....All I wanted to say was, "Been there Done that"
This is a sequel to the string of lies that I earlier wrote about....Again I was told, "Get into a good B school and then life would be a bed of roses.........". Agreed that they meant the IIMs but hey one of the top ten is good enough for me.....
Now the problem (as always) that I have is that the competition the urge to be better does not end with CAT, it was just the start....There is this race (I like to call it rat race...) to be better, to be known, to be judged the best......No one seems to understand or realise that even if you win it you are still a rat....This is fine to an extent but spice it up with a tinge of crab mentality (not a tinge but a bag load of it !!) and you have the recipe of a typical B school.....
Only a handful get a hang of this fact but then they feel that they are being bogged down by the hyper achievers that even they join the race (heartlessly and grudgingly)......

'la estupidez conquista todos' i.e. stupidity conquers all !!!

PResENTaTiOnS GaLoRe !!

Name starting with an 'A'. Is there a special reason why almost 18% of the people of india have their names started with that specific letter. (I know...I know I made the statistic up but sounds correct...doesn't it??)..But the parents who christen their children do not seem to understand that what the 'A's of the class of the have to face through school and college and in my case b school too...Being first on the roll call does not mean being first in the class similar to the way that being a front bencher does not mean that he/she would be a topper...It just means First Day First Show for all presentations, case studies, viva voce and almost everything else there is to do...
Anyways I think it is unfair for people of a certain kind to be punished for no apparent fault of theirs...But guess what the misery does not end with just that, being in 'Section A' also has the same drawbacks...All lectures at 9 being one of them...The list is endless and I cannot hlep complaining...
Wish there was someone who wud know the concept of rotation or the use the idea of luck/chance and use it for scheduling the presentations, case studies etc etc etc........So that the sad little 'A's of the world can breathe a sigh of relief.....
:-)

mY FaVoURiTe QuOTeS !!!!

People are like islands, no matter how close they come they can never touch!!

Money is NOT the most important thing in life....LOVE is, fortunately i LOVE money !!!!

I don't know why they call it heartbreak. It feels like every other part of my body is broken too.

Man's unique agony as a species consists in his perpetual conflict between the desire to stand out and the need to blend in.

Sometimes, when one person is missing, the whole world seems depopulated.

The eTeRNaL LiE !!!

Remember our golden years when we were little children and were told that lying is bad and that we should never do it....But there is one lie that almost all children are told and funnily enough it is not even considered a lie....This is my story so let me say it my way.....
I distinctly remember the times before my 10th board exams....I was told, "बेटा ये तुम्हारे लिये बहुत ही ज़्यादा important exam है । बस अभी मेहनतकर लो फ़िर पूरी ज़िन्दगी आराम रहेगा । "
Then came the 12th board when the 'IIT-JEE' fever catches on (For some people Medical fever too but that inconspicuous in comparison). Then came the extended version of the above statement, "सोनू, ये last मौका है सुघरने का....अभी भी time है, थोडी मेहनत कर लोगे तो पूरी life आराम करोगे. एक अच्छे college मे admission मिल जाये तो फ़िर कोई tension नही होगी life long।"
Then came the extended extended version of the above statements when I finally managed to get into a college. (well not good but a decent one for sure). It went like, "एक बार अच्छी नौकरी मिल् जाये तो फ़िर कोई भी tension नही होगी.बस ये आखरी बार है।"
When I finally managed to scrape through college and get a job. Then I realised that there is no end to this. Because then it comes down to a अच्छी company, अच्छा job and अच्छा pay.
This is just a vicious circle of lie that all children are told.....So that they keep running after a better life and an easy life.....Its like we are race horses programmmed to run....n keep running.... And the best part is that when we grow up and have children of our own, we, in all probability would do the same.....Like a elder sibling's hand me downs or a family heirloom this lie is going to percolate through generations and will be told to every gullible child...... Unfair isn't it??..But hey try complaining about the same when you have your own kids..... ;-)

Sum 'MAR's aka SuMMerS !!!

Since when does summers mean being 'SUITED UP', trying to sleep with eyes open while attending PPTs and listening to pompous HRs talkin endlessly about the greatness of their companies for which they have been working for a little more than an year......How every company is a great company with every growth opportunity for everyone...with a great work life balance...with a great learning experience...

Long gone are the days when summers meant ice creams and vacations.....Where is the playing of business during the day and cricket in the long hot evenings.....

Welcome to MBA.......!!!!!!

Its said that MBAs grads never go to hell, its like been there and done that for them.....The hell is called a b school and the punishment PPTs including the ones that they themselves give during for various subject evalutaions.....

But hey thats where the fun lies....Because ppts mean, internship, money, PPIs or better still PPOs and hence the ultimate goal of each and every B school aspirant and graduate....
:-)

GaMeS PeOpLe pLaY !!!

What is it with the world !!! (I call it so because every college is a self sustained planet in itsefl because you can see every facet of life and experience everything in a college in a matter os a few months)...Everyone seems to be busy or at least seems busy to people like me...Studies, games, dating, competitions...Something or the other keeps them busy...Where as I feel I have all the time in the world to sleep (though I hardly seem to catch any of it !!)...Good thing about colleges is that there is no dearth of movies or sitcoms to watch on your lappie if you dont mind staring at it for hours together...
People are so busy that at times I begin to wonder if I study in the same college or not...
It is like I am by stander watching all the action from somewhere else...It really seems that I am a bystander watching the people pass by in apparent hurry as days turn into night and nights into days...I guess I have to start and start soon because it is already half time ..And these games can be fun...Today I helped a few of my friends with their game...It was pretty easy but I could not really solve it in time...Which means I have to really work hard at it...
But as I have always said, "I like the word indolence, it makes my laziness seem classy !!"

BacK To ThE GrINd !!

Now that the first trisem is over, we thought that the next would be easier on us but there seems to be no respite from the rigorous schedule....
Mind you , i am not talking about classes because we hardly have those anymore...It is about the b school competitions that are supposedly the most important part of an 'mba experience'....
Now every waking moment and every conversation and every action ultimately aims at one of those competitions...
But most people just take part in order to take part....As in what good is participation when the effort is not up to the mark????
But i guess that the cat race that got us into these prestigious b schools continues albeit in a different form and under a new guise...But this competition gives rise to crab competition and this is what ruins friendships...This is what ruins lives of others...And this is what I was running away from....

MaR-Ke-TanG [Aka Marketing]

I have question: Why do people study text books for marketing??

As in, isn't it all about experience....Tell me one thing that works for two products or companies....Doesn't every company have a separate and different marketing strategy??..They do and thats why we have so many case studies in the first place....If thats the case, what is the point of this rote learning??..Kotler wrote a book in four years but we are supposed to read it, understand and repeat the same for our end term....Which is easy for the book worms and the hyper performers but what about poor little souls like me???

Infact when people ask what marketing is all about, the kotlers and porters of the world come up with fancy words to describe the same, but ask a person who does it day in and day out and i am sure he will have a different story to tell....Nothing really works as per the written script....a story which will actually tell what marketing is all about....
Newaz i dont think we have many options though....It's Kotler for us....Lucky for us that we have a lady Kotler (she will probably kill me for this) amongst us who voluntarily helps us out....

Nonetheless the subject marketing which is supposed to be fun and interesting still seems as drab and boring as ever and makes me wonder if I am in the right place and if I am doing the right thing....