mere funde

The past week has been super hectic, even by ISB standards. I attended an equivalent of at least 18 classes (2 hours each). Read so many cases and papers that my head hurt. And was showered by as much information as can be humanly digested, and then some more.

ISB and Wharton hosted, perhaps a first, joint course on Healthcare Innovation in India. Attended by 30 participants each from ISB and Wharton the course was compressed over two and a half days and talked about all aspects of the healthcare sector in India, from lifesciences to delivery, and from insurance to social investment funds. It was like a crash course, just a little faster.

Though the course was a lot of fun, it was very demanding too, and I spent the entire day today going through motions and somehow dragging myself through it. Almost know how zombies move around.

And have a dunking to attend to at midnight – so no sleep before that. With the placement season coming up, blogging will be sparse, unless of course I get one quickly

PS: Cricket is a wonderful sport. I connected so much with a South African exchange student, talking almost only about cricket. And he was as avid a follower as anyone else, and ’twas a nice long chat with him

So I thought that I would do a customary year end review of the year that passed by in, what seemed, like a flash!

Professionally it was a mixed one. I was selected for a conference and I could not attend it due to visa issues. I took a sabbatical to complete the MBA. A lot of people from the team I was a part of have since quit, and it would be almost like joining a new place. The job search here at ISB has not started in earnest, but the things are looking positive so far and I think it will be a good 2010 for all of us on that front.

The biggest news was the ISB admit. After a lot of consideration, I decided that I wanted to join, and boy am I glad. The time here so far has been brilliant. Met a lot of new folks, made some life long friends, and learnt a lot of new stuff. In between the hectic schedule, also found a lot of time to party!! I know I will carry some fond memories from here even though I have spent very little time here. Special mention here for my study groupies – Kirti, Malavika, Megha, and Sunil – you guys were awesome. Almost forgot my quaddies here – Sam, Avin, and Raj – keep rocking!!

Another big change was that a lot of close friends decided to join the dark side to get married. Misra and Parul, Sudeep and Divs, Yatharth and Akanksha, and Kaustubh and Shubbu jumped on the marriage bandwagon. Congratulations and best of luck all of ya!! A few others are joining it in 2010 and the trend seems to be on the upswing

One major upside of all the marriages was meeting all the friends after a long time and loads of fun was had. Misra’s wedding trip was one I will never forget all my life!! The look on Sudeep’s face when Thax flew down for his wedding was another priceless moment.

As Misra RTed one of his friends -

Beginning of the decade – Started college, making new friends and aspiring for a great job! End of the decade, still doing the same! Life comes a full circle.

Happy New Year people!! May it bring joy, happiness, and health to you and your loved ones!!

Has been a long time since I wrote anything. Have been just too tied up with loads of stuff to think about writing. The sleep cycle has gone for a toss, and I don’t at times know what day of the week it is. The rescheduling of classes has just made the task that much more difficult.

However, it is in times like this that some totally unexpected thing happens and pleasantly surprises you. One such thing was the surprise thrown for Nikhil (batchmate) and his wife for their wedding. Complete baarat with ghodi and band baaja. Totally loved it. Sohel and Sarosh – kick ass work folks!!

More details on ISBWeblog.

I sometimes wonder if we will ever be able to get rid of “free riders“. At least on two occasions here at ISB, a team member has shirked responsibility and contributed nothing to an assignment. Nada.

Then someone in the group suggests reporting the incident to the ASA, and somehow we decide against it. Once I was against it, because the past record of the team member was good. After all we are humans and are allowed to make one mistake.

This time, I wanted to report the matter and others suggested that we drop the matter. It might cost the person the course grade and eventually might hurt placements. Is it too large a punishment? Should we have behaved differently?

I guess a part of the problem is that such incidents are not reported too often, and when they are, the culprits are generally made examples of. This prevents others from reporting them any more. Is the solution to deal with the offence differently? Maybe instead of effecting the grades you could have some other punishment. Like wearing a t-shirt saying “I am a douche bag and don’t do my work!” for a day or so. Or some public service like preparing a course summary alone and sending it to everyone – and grade that instead of the said assignment.

This was supposed to be the easy part. However, after coming to ISB, I have realized that I am even below the baseline as far as having a so called good resume goes!!

Another thing is that business grads do not have any sense of aesthetics when it comes to resumes, and we are taught to cram in as much information into that single sheet as possible. It looks like a really badly printed novel. No thought is given to the readability of the entire document and the smallest size fonts are used. I was almost in tears when I saw one of the “better ones” from last year’s batch.

Sometimes I am saddened by this lack of any imagination that is ingrained into business grads. Though the entire MBA is one huge learning journey, I sometimes wonder if there is also a huge loss of creative thoughts in the entire process.

INVA Suchs!! Don’t blame me, its a family blog people

Anyway, it really does. One course at ISB I don’t know anything about. However, going by the MGTO experience today, won’t make much difference, will it!!

The most amazing day @ISB so far!!

Aditi with balloon

I just got a Canon 50mm f/1.8 II lens a couple of days back, courtesy Akanksha, and I am in love with the lens. More pics to follow once I get some time.

Today will be my first night out at ISB. And from what I hear, it is definitely not the last one. And to imagine that it is only the second day of the third term!! How the rest of the term pans out is a scary thought!!

Anyhoo. It seems that there is supposed to be a total solar eclipse today, and that doesn’t happen for another century or so. I somehow seem to miss totality everytime. In ‘95 it did not pass through Siliguri, and now Hyd misses it, while I think Siliguri is pretty close to it. Even then I think I will catch up with Mr. Rahu for a while, and then take a nap.

However, Hyderabad has been experiencing pretty amazing weather over the past month or so, and today has been no different. Rains have brought the temperature down significantly, and the skies remain pretty clouded. How successful the eclipse watch is going to be, only time will tell.

The scariest semester at ISB is upon us. Term 3 is expected to be one hell of a ride, with more than one submission due everyday, or so I hear. Hopefully I will live to tell the tales!!

The term 2 break was used creatively. Completed the Comp Strat project report, and learned a lot about the pharmaceutical industry in the process. Watched some crappy movies like “Hitman” and “Chaos”‘.

Also watched “Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince“. The movie was a letdown, and I would rate it 3 on 5. Somehow I feel that short movies do not do justice to such books. However, the movie has some sparks of brilliance. Helena Bonham Carter is the highlight of the movie, as she plays Bellatrix Lestrange to perfection. Michael Gambon’s part is also good. Emma Watson is brilliant, and is still being swooned over.

PS: The title of the post is from the Harry Potter movie – just in case you wondered.