Lessons

1) Never eat stuff from café after attending a bartending workshop. (or something similarly alcoholic)
2) Electral powder solution is the yuckiest tasting liquid on planet earth. Yuck ------------
3) Cosmopolitan (the drink) and Caiprirojka are on my can do list now-- and I liked the Cosmo better. Herbie suggests not to make it public.
4) Medicines will never be available easily when you need them. Have good friends to rely upon to get them.
5) Everything has its own merits. At times, ppl would fight not to let you do the group assignment. And they would do a fabulous job. Thanks guys
6) Companies will come to campus. In certain cases, you would never figure out why a particular profile would need an MBA when you did the exact same work a few years ago without one. Yet, many ppl will apply and you may also apply since many ppl are applying.
7) There will always be more than one answer (sometimes contradictory) by current students to the questions raised by candidates in the yahoo group. I don’t know why.
8) Macquarie bank would show you the video of last year’s recruits from India and one guy would say “ I am doing things which I could never imagine doing in India”. Wannabes would immediately start making list of things which they have never done in India. (Trust me this is sticky!!)
9) You will always get sick only when the workload is highest, 1 trillion good intl companies are visiting and a zillion other things are happening on campus. Take everything in stride.
10) I truly HATE electral solution.

Diwali Dhamaka : The ISB way

Diwali for me at ISB is all about inferring how the festival of lights and crackers compares with life on campus.
So going back to classes after a so called10 day break is something like the 14 year exile of Lord Rama which culminates into Diwali. But did he have fun during the exile? Well a little bit but there was a fair bit of work to be done as well with--- you know a lot of things to take care of----

The bidding game was like one big war fought in Lanka. Some casualities but it seemed very simple in the end –something like Ramanand Sagar’s version. You bid high I will also bid high and both will get screwed up much like the arrows meeting each other in the open sky---a classic work of pathetic animation. Something like--In the end we know what will happen but we sure have to make a big deal out of it.

And then the return to Ayodhya happens. Everyone thinks that life will be goodie goodie now. Term 5 Elective no tension—I chose to be the king with my own subjects--- But wait----there were problems. You listen to ppl—and don’t use your head-- that’s bound to happen. So whats the comparative of dhamaka? Classes before Diwali---classes after Diwali---assignments in truckloads immediately after---Placement pressure building up----gyan sessions---resume sessions---insane hours---Interview prep ha –welcome to the new life Mr.Ram. And then he realized that Assignment and classes are passé ---there are more important things to concentrate on now.

Oh yaa and since Diwali is also a festival of lights and not only noise—there is plenty of it at ISB. I can see that the companies have already started PPTs—seems like enuf hope of some serious light in everybody’s life and then a grade for a subject in which surprisingly and for a change I did well. Good stuff.

And in the end again much like Ramanand Sagar’s version you screw it up all by writing a blogpost which probably no one can understand and get curses for causing public torture.

Wishing everyone a Very Happy Diwali. Enjoy all the Dhamaka and may the lights guide you.

PS: My knowledge of the Ramayana is limited to the Ramanand Sagar’s version I watched on the TV, between commercials, as a kid. Therefore, any inconsistency with the real version may please be ignored. There are no blasphemous intentions here.

Term break---

That’s what is going on. Started on Saturday after the exams and the postponement drama. Whole campus was behaving like circus and spam mails were coming at the speed of light. And then the exam got cancelled ultimately only to happen again on 18th.

I decided to stay on campus again for a few reasons. What I am telling ppl is that I love this place so much that I don’t want to get out of here. The real reasons are partly inertia, lack of planning and mainly ELP/ PAEV related stuff. So heres what I have accomplished till now.

1) Yes we did work on ELP and PAEV. As usual-- not as much as I would have liked to but still we did a bit of work.
2) Went out every day some time more than once all thanks to Herbie and his car which is usually over packed and still like shameless buggers we keep ushering in more and more ppl. Some times I feel really bad ( not for Herbie but for the car )
3) Worked some more on ELP and PAEV
4) Had all junk food possible from wherever in Hyderabad --eating from various places.
5) Admissions related work—(Hush hush cant say more on this)
6) Celebrated Mr Serious’ bday. Another outing and good food—
7) Worked again on ELP and PAEV.
8) Slept really late daily. I mean really late not the usual ISB standard. Some days due to work. Some other days for certain other reasons.
9) Played with consultant, the longest game of Snooker ever in the history of the game. Boy this has to go into the guinness book. Both of us were so pathetic that it took –mmm (I ll keep the no of hours we took a secret-- for obvious reasons)

Some ppl are back after wherever they wanted to go and some are still going. With term 5 starting on Monday, most junta is expected to be back by Saturday/ Sunday.

I would have loved to go away for a couple of days—but this is not bad either. Still have to decide on the fourth subject I have to take. Thinking ---

No Option, No Future!

The bidding euphoria is on a full swing at ISB and people are really using all the management fundas like game theory, influencing, extensive number based analysis etc to calculate how much they should bid for each subject .It works out to a BIG number no matter what method you use. So an eccentric soul like me is faced with questions

Them: How much are u bidding for Fixed Income?

Me: Not taking

Them: I thought u ar a CA. Y are u not majoring in Fin?

Me: I am but no Fixed income

Them: Options and Futures?

Me: Not taking that either

Them: r u nuts? Which I- bank will recruit u if u havn’t done Options, Futures and Fixed Income

Me: not really interested in I banking

Them: Then? Consulting??????

Me: May be.There is other stuff also

Them: What other stuff? U got grades?

Me: @#$%&%$#

Them: Dude u are making a mistake

Me: really!

Them: NO I banking means no future for Fin major. U got to apply to Goldman and Deutsche

Me : uhhh

Them: Take Options and Futures. Bid 1500 points

Me: [Wondering]

Is there an option or a future apart from “Options and Futures” and will I be able to earn a fixed income without the “ Fixed Income” course? I don’t know. But I don’t see how the situation would change even if I take these courses. As far as first round of bidding goes I am not taking these no matter what "they" say

Last day of Sec A. Term exams in 2 days. Lots to do.