Requires time, and time seems to be something that we here dont have at all. Suddenly the buzz in the campus has caught on and you have some so many things happening that you can be a part of ( atleast theoretically given that you are not bothered about that important thing called grades) that its mindblowing. From language classes, to dance classes, to photography competitions, to speaker sessions, to recrutier events ( yes the official ones have already started) - phew!!!
And of course you have your academics to attend to. We have had some really interesting subjects this term and for me personally the phase of enjoying a class continues. I admit though that the initial classes i seemed to be getting back to my losing concentration habit, but i hopefully am back on.
Anyways coming back to the subjects, we have a course on global economics and our second professor has been phenomenal. and the most interesting part of the course is a documentary called "Commanding Heights" that talks about how the global economy and how it has evolved over the past century. Very interesting stuff. Go catch it at pbs.org.
Then we have a course on competitive strategy. With a purely case based discussion pedagogy, the course has discussed about some of the ways in which businesses in various industries have tried to strategise themselves to achieve their goals. An interesting basics course on someone wanting to know more about strategy.
For the mathematically oreinted there is the Decision Models and Optimization, which tries to use mathematical models to solve optimization problems in business. This one is a fairly involved subject, requiring time and effort to understand, especially for someone who might not have been very strong in mathematics. That said, with perseverance, one can do well. and it really would form a basic for someone intending to pursue operations.
But i guess, and i reserved my last for this, the most involved and to atleast those who are on top of the list, interesting subject has been Marketing Decision Making. And this is not just because of the subject itself, but more because of the online simulation game that we have to play. Called the Markstrat, its simulates an industry with five firms competing against each other to sell products in the Sonite and Vodite market, with a view to maximising profits. The game is extremely exciting and sees you applying a number of concepts to take your brand management decisions and all. And boy it can be addicitive to some.
Besides this, we have our student body structure in place, with all professional and social clubs formed and acitivities starting up. It sometimes does become difficult to balance one's activities with academics in this short period. But then i guess thats what a number of us here are for, to try and learn that balance. Some do well some dont but you all learn a lot.
Of course, this is the utopian veiw to a lot of things, you might say, since we are here to get the best placements too. But for the time being, id leave that in the background, and focus on trying to do the best. Aah, how idealistic i seem dont it. :). wait till i come up with the next post.
Hmmm, this ones become a little more serious than i thought. Maybe next time ill talk about what goes on in a usual class around here.
till then
adios
Sunday, July 06, 2008
Saturday, June 07, 2008
1/8th and going on
So the first term at ISB ended this tuesday, and thats what i mean by that 1/8th. I think it was pretty decent, but then my exams are always decent, its the grades that become obscene. God do i hate this relative stuff !!!!!
I spent the past three four days basically catching up on sleep. Not that i was one of those sleep deprived zombies that could be seen roaming around the campus, but i still needed to sleep. So the day the exams ended, i go to bed at 11 in the night to get up at 11 the next morning (which essentially meant i missed another party :(). A day later i repeat the feat, this time totalling a good fourteen hours. talk about being an active MBA student.
Of course i have managed to do things other than sleep. The other day me and my quadi D went on a shopping spree, and though the motive was that D wanted to upgrade his wardrobe, it was I who ended up spending an enormous 15 grand. Of course that did include an I pod, a pair of shoes, but then again it was he who wanted to shop and he spent 1.5 grand. :D.
Then i also watched a couple of movies from my to watch list - Blood Diamond and The Pursuit of Happyness. The last one i just finished an hour back. Both of them awesome movies. Loved them.
The campus has been silent these past three days, what with a large number of people having gone home. I could not. What with a leadership session yesterday, spending just two days at home at a cost of close to 12 grand did not seem good by the MR = MC equation by any means :p. I will probably go next term end. would get a longer break then.
And now term 2 beckons, and they are saying itll be worse. I say thats when the fun begins. I mean imagine this - academics that get tougher, activities that only increase, projects, assignments, activities, clubs, speaker series and so on. what else do you want in Heaven???? :D
But before that two more days of bliss, of a party or two, some good music, and home made food at chachi's place. It Feels Like Heaven for sure.
Adios
Chaos.
I spent the past three four days basically catching up on sleep. Not that i was one of those sleep deprived zombies that could be seen roaming around the campus, but i still needed to sleep. So the day the exams ended, i go to bed at 11 in the night to get up at 11 the next morning (which essentially meant i missed another party :(). A day later i repeat the feat, this time totalling a good fourteen hours. talk about being an active MBA student.
Of course i have managed to do things other than sleep. The other day me and my quadi D went on a shopping spree, and though the motive was that D wanted to upgrade his wardrobe, it was I who ended up spending an enormous 15 grand. Of course that did include an I pod, a pair of shoes, but then again it was he who wanted to shop and he spent 1.5 grand. :D.
Then i also watched a couple of movies from my to watch list - Blood Diamond and The Pursuit of Happyness. The last one i just finished an hour back. Both of them awesome movies. Loved them.
The campus has been silent these past three days, what with a large number of people having gone home. I could not. What with a leadership session yesterday, spending just two days at home at a cost of close to 12 grand did not seem good by the MR = MC equation by any means :p. I will probably go next term end. would get a longer break then.
And now term 2 beckons, and they are saying itll be worse. I say thats when the fun begins. I mean imagine this - academics that get tougher, activities that only increase, projects, assignments, activities, clubs, speaker series and so on. what else do you want in Heaven???? :D
But before that two more days of bliss, of a party or two, some good music, and home made food at chachi's place. It Feels Like Heaven for sure.
Adios
Chaos.
Monday, May 12, 2008
What day is it?
It was Mother's day yesterday. I would have said today had the clock on my mantlepiece not told me ( and glaringly so) thats its past three in the morning.
Coming back to the point, while working on one of those never ending assignments, somebody declared that it was mother's day and we ought to be wishing our mom's on the day. Now in an ideal, very different day, the day would be spent of course wishing moms, then indulging in the debates on the pros and cons of celebrating these Archie Card initiated card revenue increasing days ( at last count, i believe they had covered almost 100 of the poor 365 days in the year, am still waiting for the day when they call it Chaos Day though), and then finally not giving too much of a damn ( i mean do you really need a day to remind yourself how much you love your mom or pop or sis or bro for that matter).
But Ennada Rascala.......Mind it ( and thats a word ive picked up, about one of the most useful learnings that ive had so far, :D). This is ISB dude, and sometimes all you know is the sun went up and the sun went down. Thats all.
So its been two weeks of classes, and classes, and more classes, some group assignments, futile attempts at making sure your head does not leak like a worn down bucket all the time, and of course those moments of marvelling at how long you can stay up without sleep. I assume i still have some more energy left in me for some more marathon sessions, but its best to save your best for the worst right?
Oh and yeah, the elections for the GSB of the school are due to be held soon. Should be fun, given that i am not the one standing. You know, the humble me, giving way to other people and letting them have the chance. :D.
We had the Dumb Charades competition the other day, and well my team won. Chalo, kahin to nautanki kaam aayee. Was really beginning to wonder whether i had done anything of use in the past 25 years of my life. :-s.
But one thing about an MBA education is, and something id always like to point out, it tends to always ground you a lot. I mean you might have developed a hundred ideas about how things should be, and then you interact with people with so many backgrounds and you realise things might not be the way you perceive them. No that doesnt mean you change your opinions, its just that you begin to appreciate more about the mutiple sides of the coin.
Heavy stuff? wait lemme give you this problem about building the confidence interval to decide the hypothesis testing conducted in a controlled variable scenario with alpha , 0.000028.......:D
relax .......kidding.
Adios till another random of these responses.
Chaos
Coming back to the point, while working on one of those never ending assignments, somebody declared that it was mother's day and we ought to be wishing our mom's on the day. Now in an ideal, very different day, the day would be spent of course wishing moms, then indulging in the debates on the pros and cons of celebrating these Archie Card initiated card revenue increasing days ( at last count, i believe they had covered almost 100 of the poor 365 days in the year, am still waiting for the day when they call it Chaos Day though), and then finally not giving too much of a damn ( i mean do you really need a day to remind yourself how much you love your mom or pop or sis or bro for that matter).
But Ennada Rascala.......Mind it ( and thats a word ive picked up, about one of the most useful learnings that ive had so far, :D). This is ISB dude, and sometimes all you know is the sun went up and the sun went down. Thats all.
So its been two weeks of classes, and classes, and more classes, some group assignments, futile attempts at making sure your head does not leak like a worn down bucket all the time, and of course those moments of marvelling at how long you can stay up without sleep. I assume i still have some more energy left in me for some more marathon sessions, but its best to save your best for the worst right?
Oh and yeah, the elections for the GSB of the school are due to be held soon. Should be fun, given that i am not the one standing. You know, the humble me, giving way to other people and letting them have the chance. :D.
We had the Dumb Charades competition the other day, and well my team won. Chalo, kahin to nautanki kaam aayee. Was really beginning to wonder whether i had done anything of use in the past 25 years of my life. :-s.
But one thing about an MBA education is, and something id always like to point out, it tends to always ground you a lot. I mean you might have developed a hundred ideas about how things should be, and then you interact with people with so many backgrounds and you realise things might not be the way you perceive them. No that doesnt mean you change your opinions, its just that you begin to appreciate more about the mutiple sides of the coin.
Heavy stuff? wait lemme give you this problem about building the confidence interval to decide the hypothesis testing conducted in a controlled variable scenario with alpha , 0.000028.......:D
relax .......kidding.
Adios till another random of these responses.
Chaos
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Enter the "Monitor"
"Life at ISB is tough. Be prepared to lose your deep sleeps, your recreation period, change the notion of a 24 hour day to a 28 hour day.........blah blah "
Wait a minute!!!. Did anyone forget something. Did they not tell me about the abundancy of flora and fauna around. Or rather certain kinds of flora and fauna, the ones that look deadly at the very least...?? Oh yeah they did, but they said they only lived outside in the grounds, the fields hidden by tall grasses. Yeah Right!!!
So i am going back to my room after a this long winded session of classes, where i found myself revaluating (once again), whether i should focus on this field where i could hardly say anything in the class ( how about one poor word against the books being delivered verbally by some !!!), and i am totally looking forward to a cozy bed to catch up on sleep. And i walk straight into Mr Monitor Lizard, lounging gracefully in my living room..........!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now for the record monitor lizards, or atleast most of them, though carnivorous are not extremely dangerous creatures and in fact are revered as pets in some parts, ( one of them was used by Shivaji's captain to scale some fort too). And like most animals you have nothing to fear from them, and they fear you more. Okkkkkkk........tell that to someone who bangs into a 2.5 feet long slithering monster on the ground of your living room, declaring victory over the domain. ...............
And so i screamed. I screamed so loud the poor lizard lost its wits running helter skelter. My poor roomie fell off the bed he was sleeping on in his room, came running out, and then shut the door on seeing the monstrosity. And so here i was trapped in my room, with Mr lizard for company, nowhere else to go to. My room is locked with route blocked by the diligent patrol. Or so i thought atleast.
Finally my roomie tentatively opens the door and beckons me in. Trying my best to avoid Mr Lizard, i scrape through in, and we call our pest control department to ask for help. In the meantime i radio in my other roomie, who i realised is actually from the "Friends of Lizards" organization and is keen to meet the new sentry. So he is rushing over too now. In the meantime however, our keen gaurd has vanished, no doubt sensing the extra attention being paid to him. And so when the pest control guys (PCGs) arrived, armed with all the stealth equipments, our gaurd is nowhere to be seen. We take the enemy has retreated.
But were we wrong??? Temporarily in relief we retired to our rooms. and as expected dropped off to sleep. But when my roomie wakes up, and walks sleepily to the living room, he finds Mr Lizard again, this time lazily perched on the window, viewing the scenery outside serenly ( no doubt looking for his Ms Lizard). And so we raise our alarm again.
This time the pest control guys (PCGs) came in better prepared, with more sophisticated instruments ( a long hard lathi, and a cast iron pipe) and with a determined look on their faces. They literally turned over the living room, and finally found the lizard hiding in a corner. And well, they killed the lizard. But not before it fought a valiant fight. Unarmed as it was, it tried to hide, and it took the guys almost 20 mins to fell the warrior.
On a serious note, we werent particularly happy about the killing. We expected these guys to capture the lizard and release it in the open. But trust me there was this manic frenzy on the faces of the PCGs almost as if they expected a feast.
Anyways one hell of day it was. This is what is a true test of ones courage ( or the lack of it :() under fire. I failed :((. but man, so would you. For god's sake.........mujhe kya maloom kya bala this woh. And no i feel bad it had to die, it shoudl have been let out in the nearby jungle anyways.
To conclude, to the general lizarding fraternity. Next time please announce your arrival before coming. I swear ill welcome you, and feed you too ( no not me, but something better). Trust me i hate surprises.
Adios
Chaos
Wait a minute!!!. Did anyone forget something. Did they not tell me about the abundancy of flora and fauna around. Or rather certain kinds of flora and fauna, the ones that look deadly at the very least...?? Oh yeah they did, but they said they only lived outside in the grounds, the fields hidden by tall grasses. Yeah Right!!!
So i am going back to my room after a this long winded session of classes, where i found myself revaluating (once again), whether i should focus on this field where i could hardly say anything in the class ( how about one poor word against the books being delivered verbally by some !!!), and i am totally looking forward to a cozy bed to catch up on sleep. And i walk straight into Mr Monitor Lizard, lounging gracefully in my living room..........!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now for the record monitor lizards, or atleast most of them, though carnivorous are not extremely dangerous creatures and in fact are revered as pets in some parts, ( one of them was used by Shivaji's captain to scale some fort too). And like most animals you have nothing to fear from them, and they fear you more. Okkkkkkk........tell that to someone who bangs into a 2.5 feet long slithering monster on the ground of your living room, declaring victory over the domain. ...............
And so i screamed. I screamed so loud the poor lizard lost its wits running helter skelter. My poor roomie fell off the bed he was sleeping on in his room, came running out, and then shut the door on seeing the monstrosity. And so here i was trapped in my room, with Mr lizard for company, nowhere else to go to. My room is locked with route blocked by the diligent patrol. Or so i thought atleast.
Finally my roomie tentatively opens the door and beckons me in. Trying my best to avoid Mr Lizard, i scrape through in, and we call our pest control department to ask for help. In the meantime i radio in my other roomie, who i realised is actually from the "Friends of Lizards" organization and is keen to meet the new sentry. So he is rushing over too now. In the meantime however, our keen gaurd has vanished, no doubt sensing the extra attention being paid to him. And so when the pest control guys (PCGs) arrived, armed with all the stealth equipments, our gaurd is nowhere to be seen. We take the enemy has retreated.
But were we wrong??? Temporarily in relief we retired to our rooms. and as expected dropped off to sleep. But when my roomie wakes up, and walks sleepily to the living room, he finds Mr Lizard again, this time lazily perched on the window, viewing the scenery outside serenly ( no doubt looking for his Ms Lizard). And so we raise our alarm again.
This time the pest control guys (PCGs) came in better prepared, with more sophisticated instruments ( a long hard lathi, and a cast iron pipe) and with a determined look on their faces. They literally turned over the living room, and finally found the lizard hiding in a corner. And well, they killed the lizard. But not before it fought a valiant fight. Unarmed as it was, it tried to hide, and it took the guys almost 20 mins to fell the warrior.
On a serious note, we werent particularly happy about the killing. We expected these guys to capture the lizard and release it in the open. But trust me there was this manic frenzy on the faces of the PCGs almost as if they expected a feast.
Anyways one hell of day it was. This is what is a true test of ones courage ( or the lack of it :() under fire. I failed :((. but man, so would you. For god's sake.........mujhe kya maloom kya bala this woh. And no i feel bad it had to die, it shoudl have been let out in the nearby jungle anyways.
To conclude, to the general lizarding fraternity. Next time please announce your arrival before coming. I swear ill welcome you, and feed you too ( no not me, but something better). Trust me i hate surprises.
Adios
Chaos
Monday, April 21, 2008
Dunked!!!!!!!!
Yes!!!! and that too three times in a row.......even when my birthday was ages away. Once i volunteered for it as we ran on a treasure hunt, the second time was the price for watching a senior getting dunked, and well the third.......because we had won. But trust me its heavenly......the feeling of being chucked into the air and the flying through it to land into cool blue waters at 1 AM in the night.
Confused??? well thats ISB for you. The tradition of dunking the birthday boys and girls into the swimming pool has been there for sometime now. And having fun dunking and being dunked is just one of the number of things i have done over the past one week here.
The orientation week that got off to a roller coaster start last saturday just went on and on. From heavy dosage gyan sessions by alums and administrators that left one reeling, to the "really really" invigorating breathing exercises, from the treasure hunt across the campus on a hot hyderabad afternoon, to the cheering of the teams on the sports, and finally from what seemed like a never ending talent night to the four all night parties thrown in, and what have you. We had fun, met new people, learnt a lot about learning and so on and so forth. And guess what, this is supposed to be just the beginning and not even the real thing.
And theres this one thing about going back to the academic world that i have always thought to be extremely relevant. Not only does one get back to the books and the academic grind, but it also is that time when you can perhaps sit back and introspect on that one particular aspect about you that you can improve on. I mean of course student life is hectic and yet perhaps you might just be able to tailor it towards building on that one thing youve wanted to. Or you might rediscover something about you that did not. In fact as i see it, its not just a professional sabbatical, but a personal, emotional and intellectual sabbatical that should do wonders for you. And yeah, at the end of it, you might just also land up with a good job. he he he.
Hang on, am i dishing out more and more gyan to you???? christ, only a week and i become a gyan guru. So let me shut and up and go off with the promise of keeping the space updated.
adios amigos
Chaos
Confused??? well thats ISB for you. The tradition of dunking the birthday boys and girls into the swimming pool has been there for sometime now. And having fun dunking and being dunked is just one of the number of things i have done over the past one week here.
The orientation week that got off to a roller coaster start last saturday just went on and on. From heavy dosage gyan sessions by alums and administrators that left one reeling, to the "really really" invigorating breathing exercises, from the treasure hunt across the campus on a hot hyderabad afternoon, to the cheering of the teams on the sports, and finally from what seemed like a never ending talent night to the four all night parties thrown in, and what have you. We had fun, met new people, learnt a lot about learning and so on and so forth. And guess what, this is supposed to be just the beginning and not even the real thing.
And theres this one thing about going back to the academic world that i have always thought to be extremely relevant. Not only does one get back to the books and the academic grind, but it also is that time when you can perhaps sit back and introspect on that one particular aspect about you that you can improve on. I mean of course student life is hectic and yet perhaps you might just be able to tailor it towards building on that one thing youve wanted to. Or you might rediscover something about you that did not. In fact as i see it, its not just a professional sabbatical, but a personal, emotional and intellectual sabbatical that should do wonders for you. And yeah, at the end of it, you might just also land up with a good job. he he he.
Hang on, am i dishing out more and more gyan to you???? christ, only a week and i become a gyan guru. So let me shut and up and go off with the promise of keeping the space updated.
adios amigos
Chaos
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