mere funde

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!!

Term 2 at ISB got over yesterday. While walking back to my room, a friend remarked that everything was flying past so fast that she was afraid. Out of sheer (false in hindsight) sense of bravado, I remarked that she shouldn’t be afraid, and that it was expected.

I don’t know how convinced she was, but as I got thinking later in the evening, I wasn’t convinced myself. I did not know what was it that troubled me, but there was some fear of months flying by in such hurry that you feel everything else is a haze. It seemed that people are so focussed on the end, that they miss the beauty that lies on the sides of the race track. It reminded me of a couple of line from this forward I once got.

Life is not a race.
Do take it slower
Hear the music
Before the song is over

I did not know what it was that troubled me. It was certainly not about getting a job. After a lot of thought I realized that I was afraid of missing a chance of knowing some amazing people I have met here. It is not about, a term I have come to hate, “networking”. I know I am thoroughly incapable of doing that. It is about making friends. Ones who will last a life time. One of biggest reasons of leaving a job and coming to BSchool was to meet some fantastic people. However, me being the kind of person I am, take a lot of time to open up to new folks, and I was afraid that I would miss a wonderful opportunity.

However, many of these ghosts were buried yesterday evening. We, the study group minus Megha, went out for a thoroughly enjoyed dinner at Ohri’s. This was followed by a gen laccha session at Kirti’s place with music and some fine Absolut and Megha did join us this time. A lot of gen discussions and bitching took place. We do a lot of gen laccha in team meetings, but yesterday was different. Yesterday, we did it without any other reason. Simply for hanging out together. One of the more memorable evenings here at ISB.

As Kirti said, hope we will have many more of these in the future!!

Listen to this.

This is all TK said before he made me listen to “Tere Bin Nai Lagda Dil Mera Dholna” (Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan). And, almost immediately, my mind was transported back in time.

It was Oasis of 2004 and Euphoria was playing during Prof show. Those were very sentimental times. Your last sem on campus, close to people you love. We (Bansal and I) had requested for them to play “Ab Na Jaa” which used to be our favourite since Misra’s psenti sem. And when he did, I remember calling Misra and others and making them listen to it on my cellphone, as me, my wingies, and some other friends got super emotional.

I don’t know which show TK was at today, but boy it felt awesome! He knew I love the song from the East India Company show we attended in CP a long time back.

Thanks man!! <hugs>

I must confess that I am tea addict. And ever since I have come to Hyd, I had not had a good cup of tea. You see, Hyd believes in this concept of over boiled and extremely sugary syrup that they like to call the “Irani chai”.

Having lived in one of the best tea growing areas in India, this just wasn’t good enough. Even Gurgaon had decent chai. From being someone who made at least a couple of trips to Subhashji’s place everyday, be it summer, winter, or rains, I had become someone who had not had good tea for four weeks!! Sheesh..

Anyhoo, the jinx was finally broken today. Megha, one of my study groupie, treated us all to authentic north Indian chai. Believe me, never had a cup of chai looked so inviting. It was pure bliss. Thanks Megha

By the way, my other groupies are Sunil (CA Sahab), the profound thinker Kirti, and the sleepy head, yet amazing, writer Malavika – go check her blog.

PS: Go watch Vinicius – a Brazilian documentary on the life of the brilliant composer of “The Girl from Ipanema“.

I have been at the ISB for a couple of weeks now, and I must say I am pretty impressed.

Anyone who has been to the ISB, will confirm that the infrastructure of the place is top notch. The only other place in India that comes close is the Infosys Mysore campus. The campus is well planned, beautiful, and extremely well maintained. The student lodging is very very comfortable, and the management does its best to keep useless distractions away from the students. The library is very well stocked, both with books and an assorted collections of DVDs. I just wish we get some free time to use it

As for the current batch, its amazing diversity never ceases to amaze me. There are folks from every possible industry, and every possible company. There are folks with a couple of years of experience, and there are people with more than 8-10 years of experience. While that also accounts for a lot of confusion during class discussions, it also brings to light a lot of questions that we could never even have dreamt of!! There are media folks, lawyers, doctors, people from the armed forces, family business, and what not. The kind of knowledge and queries they bring to the table is just mind boggling. Also, most of them are fun loving folks. We already have had 3 big parties, and umpteen number of section parties. One problem though is remembering the names. There are around 10 Amits, many more Goyals and in the end I remember only a small fraction of names

Lastly, the faculty. We haven’t really started on the core courses, but as soon as we do I will definitely comment on this part. But from what I have heard from the seniors and others, the faculty is really good and wouldn’t be a sore point.

PS: Lloyd Blankfein, CEO, Goldman Sachs, was on campus a couple of days back and he had a very interesting presentation about empowerment of women entrepreneurs through the 10000 Women program launched by GS. This was followed up by a witty QnA session with the students and the Press.

Long time no post. But then, I was in Siliguri for a couple of weeks with extremely limited internet connectivity.

I reached Hyderabad on the 11th of April and since then have been busy with the activities in the Orientation week. My brand new laptop (the Dell Latitude E5500n) was only given back by the IT yesterday after installing licensed version of all softwares ISB would want me to use, and since then I have taken some time to customize it and make it usable installing Firefox, Chrome and others.

Also, ISB has some media policy for the students, covering what they can or can’t write about on their blogs. I am waiting for that to be clarified before I start writing more frequently.

Till then c ya!!

PS: I turned 26 yesterday – and to quote Harry Potter – It’s not everyday that your young man turns 26 is it!!

… Well, not really. But almost there. 

When I landed in Gurgaon, in November ‘05, the first reaction was – Wow!! What am I doing in this God forsaken place?? But then I got used to things. Made friends. Work became fun. Trips were made to Pilani. And truly speaking, I am hating the moving from Gurgaon experience. It sucks!! 

Tomorrow morning there will be no more familiar faces. No Pooja, no Gogo, or Sanchita, or Rahul. No more cribs by Shivangi. No funny ringtones from Manju. No lunch with the gang. No chai with Anoop and Praguna. 

Damn!!

Just looking back at a couple of times from the many that I will cherish forever from the last three and half years at work. There are many more, but these are the ones most prominent in memory, as I go to work for the last time, for a year, tomorrow. Thanks to all my colleagues – you guys have been legendary!!

Where were you when India won the T20 World Cup?

I remember it very clearly. Conference Room 1, Tower A. With the Chemistry team, attending a Questel webinar on optimizing the use of the MMS database. Akshat was there. So were Nachi, Bala, Bong and others. It was one awesome evening. Listening to updates on the phone, and running all the way to Don’s house for the presentation!! Thanks guys!! The Chem team rocked!!

The first ever late night for a deliverable.

I think we were barely a month into our jobs at Evalueserve. Staffed on an urgent project from a large prospect. We had completed our share of the work, when the BR half of the work came in, under prepared. A decision was made. Me and Anoop stuck with research. Nawani and Charul worked on the final deliverable. We worked till 3 in the night. And a deliverable was sent, which the client appreciated. And Nawani treated us to lunch the next day. Oh, and we also took recruitment interviews the next day. Brilliant!!

The Big B.

20 people, one client, three months. And we came out of it very strong!! This was the big project. The big client. The brilliant organization of work.  The client became a regular, and all the people who worked on it, great friends. Special thanks to Pooja. Wouldn’t have been possible without her. Gogo, Sanchita, Praguna, Namita, Ankur, Mohunta, Shivangi, Mrinal, Manju, Akanksha, and I am still missing many more. You name the person, and he would have worked on it. Thanks a ton everyone!!

PS: Cherish was also the topic for my ISB pre-interview essay!!

… has begun. Including today, I only have a little less than six more days left in this part of the world.

And I haven’t even started packing. Well, I was supposed to pack over the weekend, but an allergy attack, which is still having some effects, had me sleeping for the larger part of the weekend. The skin has become dry and very irritable. There is some pain in my palm and knee joints. And I am feeling very very week.

Anyhoo. Thankfully, I am almost on schedule for my ISB related issues. I have taken all the pre-term course tests, and while I cleared Accounting and Business Stats, I flunked Quantitative methods – I took the tests while I still had fever. So not too bad I guess. However, I still registered for Accounting and Quant Methods. I have ordered a laptop to seeme through the BSchool stint. Some discount ninjas on the ISB mailing list got a sooper awesome deal on a Dell Latitude E5500 (supposesd to be sturdy business like), and we got more than 30% off the market price. I have included the specs below. All of this for 47k. Not too bad I guess.

• Intel C2D P8600 (2.4Ghz)
• 160GB 7200rpm
• 2GB RAM
• 3 Yrs – complete cover
• 9 cell battery
• Targus back pack

Now hoping to get better quickly and getting back to the last three days at work!!

… has begun to sink in. 

I told my first major client that I will be taking a break only yesterday. It was not a one I was emotionally close to, and it did not hurt as much.

Today, however, I informed a client, that I am personally very close to, that I will be leaving. It was a client that I helped develop. A client who allowed me to experiment. A client who taught a lot to me. And a client with a heart of gold. I could always get a good laugh from them. They always had a kind word, and always asked how I was doing. You guys are amazing.

Tomorrow is going to be worse. I will be informing my largest client of my move. The client I actually spent a lot of time working (I haven’t done much of it at EVS btw), and have seen growing to become one of our largest client. It was while working with this client that I formed some of the finest friendships at work. People I trust. People who trust me.

It is a shitty feeling. And it is not the work that I will miss. It will be people, on both sides, who I will miss. The client who genuinely appreciates your work. The co-workers who are ready to help me whenever required. Friends who were more eager about my app results than I was.

This is to everyone who I have worked with. Thanks people. I will miss you!!