Gnothi Seauton

2009-03-28T20:47:00.003-05:00

It's been over a year since my last post. Wow! It's customary to say things like "How time flies". In my case..not quite. It seems like Fuqua was a million years ago. But maybe that's because I had pretty much tuned out school life by the 2nd half of the 2nd year anyway. Things have definitely changed since my last post. I am now the proud owner of another Masters degree. I live in a great city, not the sorry excuse for a city that was....D. Okay, so it wasn't that bad, but it sure as hell can't stack up against SF. I have a job that has actually turned out to be everything it promised to be (so far). And life on the personal front is great.

So with that short, innocuous blurb to bring my blog up to speed, I will go back to blogging about random things that strike a chord with me....and will hopefully be back here before another year goes by!

8 days

2008-03-18T04:48:00.004-05:00

Your muscles tighten up. You're tense, yet exhilerated. You can feel the blood pounding through your head. The adrenalene rush is unlike anything you've experienced in a very long time. All your senses have reached a level of alertness where you are aware of and can respond instantaneously to the most subtle movement or noise on any side. You can not lose. You will not lose. This what you do. This is what you are. This is where you belong. You will not give an inch!.......as you approach the "red light crossing" and the auto wallah, the cycle rikshah walla, the cabbie in the hideous yellow fiat and the 5 spoilt delhi brats in their new Hondas and Toyotas all move in to gain that extra inch on the road which will give them that instantaneous high, as they do the intricate dance of avoiding pedestrians, potholes, dogs and cows!

Welcome back to driving on the mean streets of Delhi!

I'm back from the motherland after a whirlwind 8 day trip and everyone I meet tells me that I look really "fresh", whatever that means. I must confess, this ranks right up there as one of my best trips back home. It was all about sitting back and relaxing with the folks and catching up with the the bazzillion relatives I have in Delhi. There was no drama with women, no pressure to meet up with friends, no self induced need to go out partying, no stressful meetings with immigration officers and such. All I focused on was reconnecting with the extended family that I grew up visiting every Diwali and on my never ending efforts to stay connected with the ever morphing culture in India.

The country is obviously nothing like what I remember from approximately eight years ago when I decided to leave. The surprising thing is that it seems to have gone through about 20 new incarnations even when I visit after a span of 1 year. I often feel like the old "aunties" and "uncles" I meet who have been in the US the last 30 years and are so seperated from reality that they make my grandparents look emancipated. But then I turn on the TV, and see the 40 news channels all reporting the same thing.....cricket! and everything seems just the same.

Fall 2

2007-10-27T12:37:00.000-05:00

Sitting here in the balcony of my apartment on a gorgeous Saturday afternoon after talking to my friends in Chicago and New York, I finally find myself at peace with my decision. 3 days of conflict, soul searching and excruciatingly painful analysis seems to have been worth it. The line from my friend that stays with me is..."Dude, it's f'ing 35 degrees here". Ah, not for me, that kind of nonsense. So for the weather and about 27 other well thought out (I would like to think) reasons, I chose DC as the city where I will start my consulting career. A fun weekend exploring the museums by day and getting wasted by night (the patrons and bouncers of a certain club on F and 9th, can probably attest to that) further convinced me that I had made the right choice.

The new school term started on Thursday but I'm still in vacation mode. It was a minor shock to my system when I heard people setting up team meetings for the weekend. Um...didn't we just finish that crap?! The joys of a 6 week term.... The good news is that I'm finally taking a course that I'm thoroughly excited about. It's taught by a guy from MIT and one of the official text books is Freakonomics. Need I say more?

Adding to the joys of Fall 2 is the fact that I will have the benefit of having 2 fully functional hands (easy boy, lets not jinx it), which will make me a lot more efficient. The downside of course is that with the cast coming off, I've lost a great conversation piece and ice breaker....but it's worth it. Now I need to make sure I stay in one piece for my Barcelona trip next term. About a week ago, I informed the good people at ESCADE, that MJ shall soon be leaving the comforts of Durham to grace the shores of Barcelona for 6 weeks starting Jan. I'm pretty excited about that but just learned about some annoying immigration issues that have popped up. Hopefully I'll figure that out before end of term.

So I think I've procrastinated long enough. Time to go figure out how I want to embarrass myself at the Halloween party tonight (how do I always get myself into this shit?!)

The Fun Continues

2007-09-07T20:52:00.000-05:00

"Ah, I'm back in sleepy ol' Durham. Herniated discs, lost luggage, missed flights etc are things of the past...Back to a fairly predictable existence" .... so thought I. HA! Not so much.

On Tuesday night I proved all the naysayers right. "It's a deathtrap" they said. "It's not a question of whether you'll put it down, it's a question of when and how bad it'll be" they said... None of it fazed me. But after 10 years of an impeccable record, it finally happened. I laid down my bike (I had a motorcycle accident for those uninitiated in biker lingo).

After spending 10 hours in the ER, I finally walked out with a broken arm, a separated shoulder and some nasty wounds. The only saving grace was that it wasn't worse than this and more importantly, my friend who was riding with me didn't get seriously injured.

So for all you riders out there, drive safely! There are a lot of idiots on the road who don't follow even basic traffic rules.

ps: It's amazing how you don't realize that you rely on both hands for practically everything in day to day life!
pps: This post was written with one hand..

I am now employed...

2007-08-25T10:01:00.000-05:00

...sort of.

Finally done with my consulting internship! Feels good. I can't believe I have to be back in class in 2 days! But I can't really complain at this point. The summer turned out just fine... a bad back, minor personal drama and a tough project assignment notwithstanding. And I ended up with a full time job offer which is pretty sweet! I can now concentrate solely on being a bum all year and passing on words of wisdom to the naive first years as they look up to me with worshipping eyes.... I kid of course..
It's going to be a crazy year. I've already signed up for way more than I can handle and it'll only get worse. The good news is that I can choose not to deal with the stress of interviewing and such, if I don't want to. Still undecided on that.
Time to get back to the rigmarole of B school life. Bring it on!

Catching up

2007-08-05T01:26:00.000-05:00

Ahh...my much neglected blog...
So much to talk about, so little time..oh who am I kidding, it's just 2:30 AM...and I have the rest of the night..so ramble on!

So continuing where I left off, the trip to Asia was "awesome"! Between drunken sake induced renditions of "Beat it" (complete with inappropriate hand gestures and air guitaring), crazy hotel room parties and endless rounds of being "buffaloed", I actually did manage to learn something about Japanese and Chinese culture. And I'm not just talking about the fact that the women in Hong Kong *really* like to party or that you can't walk 2 minutes in an upscale hotel in China without being accousted by women trying to get you to let them give you a "massage" or "play games" (yeah, you read that right)!! No, no. I'm talking about actual, honest to God stuff like learning about how they live, how they think, their behaviour, their perception of americans...all the good stuff that I find way more fascniating than company visits and such.

And since I've gotten this question a zillion times, I'll just throw it out there... the best part of the trip for me was the Great Wall. It is truly one of the most awe-inspiring things I have ever seen. The other hot favorite for folks on the trip was the Japanese Hot Sprin g. Not so much for me...primarily because I refused to get co-erced into walking around nude with my buddies! Fuqua would never have been the same if I had seen Francis in his b'day suit....
aside: One of the funniest things on the trip was when we were "disrobing" in our lockers... one of the guys who worked there, kept pacing outside shouting out "guys, keep your underwears on!". priceless!!!

So after 15 days of a "rollicking good time" (see S, you can totally use that in a sentence!), I finally headed off to Bangkok to see the folks. And that's where it started. The most incident filled period of my life in the last 7 years. I swear, I have not gone 1 day without something crazy happening. It could be me being detained by immigration authorities in a foreign country, it could be me getting my license suspended (and then getting pulled over twice in the same month!), it could be me suffering my first veritgo attack, it could be me herniating my back, could be me losing my brand new suit without wearing it even once...the list is endless and keep in mind I'm keeping out the really embarrassing stuff since this blog is only semi-anonymous! It's been interesting to say the least.

And in the middle of all that was the job.
"It's been great! The team's been great. I've learned so much. It's been interesting working directly with the client, trying to balance their needs and demands with our own priorities and schedule"
I can rattle out some variation of the above snippet in my sleep now. You've always gotta be "on" in case someone high up in the firm asks you how your summer has been. Of course you're always doing a JD in your mind... "Oh, it's been great! My back hurts like a B. I gotta sleep in hotel rooms every day with no friends around and with the pressure that I'm constantly being judged. Some of the stuff I'm doing is stuff you could get a trained monkey to do in it's sleep. The rest of the time I have no clue what people are talking about and am just trying to not look like the dumbest person in the room. So yeah, it's been great."
But seriously...it actually has been great. I've learned more than I could in a couple of classes combined and surprisingly I do like the travel and the above mentioned challenge of trying to build credibility and gain the trust of the client under less than perfect conditions.

3 more weeks to go and then I go back to the high school environment, also known as Business school. I still haven't decided whether I'm dreading that or looking forward to it.

Half way there ...

2007-05-01T01:30:00.000-05:00

... and yet I don't quite feel that smart! Wasn't I supposed to have figured out quite a bit about how I could take a floundering business and turn it into this money making machine, by now? Wasn't I supposed to have had these life altering experiences that would stay with me for the rest of my life? ....

So tomorrow marks the official end of my 1st year as a Duke MBA and as I sit here taking stock of the situation, the first thing that strikes me is..... why the F am I still up and writing this inane blog when I have a Market Intel final at 9 AM tomorrow.... and the answer is... I just feel like rambling about what lies ahead over the next month or so.

I need to decide whether I want to move from my current apartment. Then I need to find someone to sublease my place to for the summer. And then there's the minor point of finding a place to stay for myself in DC over ther summer. All of which needs to be done over the next 3 days before I leave on another one of my marathon trips. Ah, that should be fun. Everything seems to be in place and some unforseen visa glitch notwithstanding (P.B., I'm talking to you), I should be in Japan 5 days from now! Note to self, talk to D about things to do in Kyoto/Tokyo, talk to C about Beijing and Hong Kong. I still have to figure out whether I want to fly directly to Mumbai from Beijing and then go to Bangkok or whether I should go to Bangkok and then go to Mumbai.... decisions..decisions.

With all the stuff going on, I haven't even had a chance to get excited about the impending India trip!! Don't know whether I'll get a chance to visit Ahmedabad and Delhi, but Mumbai should be fun. Hopefully A will be in town to show me around.

I'm not entirely sure whether it was such a good idea to plan on getting back to the US just 3 days before my internship starts. Don't think passing out in front of a client would be such a good idea. Which brings me to the other issue nagging away at the back of my head. I really want to create a good impression over my internship and convert it into a full time offer. The one thing worrying me is not the number of hours I'll have to put in or whether I'll understand whatever industry I end up working in, or whether I'll be able to apply all the princles I have "learned" in business school, ...no.. all that I got covered, the thing worrying me is my Excel skills or lack thereof! How did I not ever use Excel when the whole world and their mama seems to have lived on it all their lives!

Anyway, on that note, time to go to bed and dream happy dreams about conjoint analysis and backward market research.

Spring break, motorcycles, BDW ...

2007-03-28T10:19:00.000-05:00

Term 4 has started on a crazy note. After 5 days in Florida and 2 days in DC during spring break, I was still in a relaxed, partying mood for the first week of school. 9 days into the term, I find myself desperately trying to catch up! I had meant to do a detailed post about some of our shehnanigans in Florida but in the interest of time, I'll just mention that the trip involved a lot of booze, cigars, bikes, speeding tickets, getting thrown out of bars and such. After 4 days of debauchery in Daytona Beach, we decided to top if off with some wholesome family style entertainment at Univesal Studios, Islands of Adventure. Nothing like getting on one of those roller coasters with a bad hangover and major sleep deprivation. All in all, a good trip! I got back to Durham and had to head to DC for an event with my internship company which was also fun (I love DC!).

So as you can well imagine, all thoughts of pre-assignments, coursepacks and readings were banished to deep, dark corners of my brain and I pretty much sleep walked through the first week of school, going out every night. It took a graded homework assignment in Competitive Analysis, that took me 6 hours to do, to jolt me back to reality. Now as I sit and take stock of the situation, things are interesting, to put it mildly. I'm not entirely sure how I was planning on taking 4 courses and getting by with no studying, but it's obvious that that's not going to happen. Time to hit the books! The good thing is that I'm actually interested in the courses I'm taking this term so it should be fun.

Somewhere along the way, the weather finally changed in Durham and it's become nice and warm. You know what that means? It means I get to fire up the motorcycle! Spent 3 hours cruising the streets of the triangle on Sunday. "Awesomeness"!

Finally, this weekend should be fun. It's Blue Devil Weekend and I have a bunch of activities lined up as I try to convince prospective students that the solution to all their problems and the path to all their dreams, goes through the halls of Fuqua. Should be fun. On that note, if anyone reading this blog has quesions about Duke or Durham or needs any assistance during BDW, they can contact me through the email address on the blog. Just another one of about 2000 offers of assistance you'll get once you land at Fuqua.

Internship search done!

2007-02-03T16:44:00.001-05:00

Thought I'd come visit my much neglected blog. I *should* be preparing for the Operations mid-term or working on the Managerial Accounting case or doing something constructive along those lines but I'm so not in the mood for any of that stuff right now!

So my big news for the week is that I'm finally done with my internship search! In hindsight it was quite painless (except for the week from hell when I had 8 interviews and a huge project due!). The really cool thing is I ended up getting an offer from my top choice company (amongst the ones I interviewed with). I'm still waiting to hear back from 3 companies but it's extremely unlikely I'll take up any of those even if I get them. Which means I'll spend 10 weeks over the summer in DC, trying to figure out whether consulting is indeed what I want to do after B school.

California

2006-12-30T15:26:00.000-05:00

It's good to be back in California! I was here for NY's eve last year but it feels like I haven't been here in ages. Besides, this time I got to visit S. Cal (after over 3 years!) for 4 days and got some sun n surf which was awesome! Met up with J after several years and it was like we were back in high school and college again! With T and C arriving today, that's going to take the count up to 9 folks from the good ol' city. It's almost going to be like a high school reunion (which is a good thing)!

I've been trying to not think of the stupid course I took at school over the break and in the same spirit I shall not write about what a dumbass move it was and what a bitch it is to think about the project report that's due once I get back. Ok, I'm done with that.

I do however, at some point, need to start thinking about the interviews I have coming up in January. My case interview skills are still at a level where the interviewer might start laughing uncontrollably and I haven't really worked on any of those accursed STAR stories for my non-consulting interviews. Okay, so now I've taken stock of the situation. That's enough "work" for the day. Time to head to Alcatraz. Yes, I am one of those annoying tourists (or rather, have chosen to be on this trip) you see walking around the city.

Funny stuff

2006-12-07T13:19:00.000-05:00

This is a completely irrelevant post (as opposed to the other brilliantly constructed, incisively wise, unerringly witty posts that I normally publish.....um..yeah).

It's been a while since something I read made me laugh out loud. Nothing particularly humorous about cash flows, income statements, CAPM models and such. So it was a welcome change when I came across this piece of brilliance. Maybe it's just me but I thought it was hilarious. I just had to save it on my blog for posterity.

On why he will never blog, No von Mises says:

Most Highest Metro One, I am with you mon frere. The fray is here, you and I are up there, in the company of one-hand clapping.

I am a dynamic figure, often seen scaling walls and crushing ice. I have been known to remodel train stations on my lunch breaks, making them more efficient in the area of heat retention. I translate ethnic slurs for Cuban refugees, I write award-winning operas, I manage time efficiently.

Occasionally, I tread water for three days in a row.

I woo women with my sensuous and godlike trombone playing, I can pilot bicycles up severe inclines with unflagging speed, and I cook Thirty-Minute Brownies in twenty minutes. I am an expert in stucco, a veteran in love, and an outlaw in Peru.

Using only a hoe and a large glass of water, I once single-handedly defended a small village in the Amazon Basin from a horde of ferocious army ants. I play bluegrass cello, I was scouted by the Mets, I am the subject of numerous documentaries. When I'm bored, I build large suspension bridges in my yard. I enjoy urban hang gliding. On Wednesdays, after school, I repair electrical appliances free of charge.

I am an abstract artist, a concrete analyst, and a ruthless bookie. Critics worldwide swoon over my original line of corduroy evening wear. I don't perspire. I am a private citizen, yet I receive fan mail. I have been caller number nine and have won the weekend passes. Last summer I toured New Jersey with a traveling centrifugal-force
demonstration. I bat 400. And sixes.

I resurrected chivalry in Lesbos and delivered lectures on the Prebisch-Singer thesis in Reykjavík and Ulaanbaatar in the same day.

My deft floral arrangements have earned me fame in international botany circles. Children trust me.

I can hurl tennis rackets at small moving objects with deadly accuracy. I once read Paradise Lost, Moby Dick, and David Copperfield in one day and still had time to refurbish an entire dining room that evening. I know the exact location of every food item in the supermarket. I have performed several covert operations with the CIA. I sleep once a week; when I do sleep, I sleep in a chair. While on vacation in Canada, I successfully negotiated with a group of terrorists who had seized a small bakery. The laws of physics do not apply to me.

I balance, I weave, I dodge, I frolic, and my bills are all paid. On weekends, to let off steam, I participate in full-contact origami. Years ago I discovered the meaning of life but forgot to write it down. I have made extraordinary four course meals using only a mouli and a toaster oven.

I breed prizewinning clams. I have won bullfights in San Juan, cliff-diving competitions in Sri Lanka, and spelling bees at the Kremlin.

I have played Hamlet, I have performed open-heart surgery, and I have spoken with Elvis, Piaf, Rafi and Touré.

The Mutineers may be renaissance men and women but I am the Renaissance. I am savoir-faire.

And I will not blog.

Serenity now.

If you thought that was funny, check this out.

Tapes on a plane

2006-11-29T11:47:00.000-05:00

People who know me, know that if there's one thing I'm shit scared of, it's flying (scary movies don't count S!). Yes folks, this wannabe consultant who will (probably) spend half his life in a frickin airport/airplane is terrified of flying. I try not to think about the irony.

But now I'm convinced I was right! You don't know what kind of shit goes on out there man! Check out this video from YouTube that was posted on Sepia Mutiny. They're using Duct Tape to fix the damn wing!! Come on!!

Of course further reading tells us that it isn't really duct tape, it's "speed tape" and is a perfectly legitimate "fix", but WTF man! A tape is a tape is a tape. The fact that they use a found-it-in-my-grandmom's-garage rickety little ladder doesn't help either! And that doesn't look like an engineer fixing the wing, looks more like "Raju" from the cycle repair shop next door! I so shouldn't be watching videos like this...

Crazy week

2006-11-12T20:20:00.000-05:00

I still have it. I can still go 4 days with 9 hours of sleep and function productively. All those nights spent in the labs/libraries of USC have not gone to waste! With a finance quiz, a marketing quiz, a couple of projects due, 2 workshops, 2 presentations, the Deloitte case competition, 2 nights of partying and an entire day of admissions work, it doesn't get busier than this....and I'm loving it!

The Deloitte case competition was the highlight of the week (the desi party after Awaz was a close second!). We were given a case on Thursday evening at about 7 PM and were supposed to prepare a presentation by 7:45 AM the next morning! After staying up all night and some far fetched analysis, we were finally reasonably happy with what we had come up with. I decided to go home at 6:45 AM for a quick shower before presenting before the team from Deloitte. I don't even know whether I need to continue with this story....you know what's coming...of course everything that could go wrong had to go wrong (damn you Murphy!). I couldn't find my keys, had to run back to get them, got to the wretched green lot where I found I had been slapped with $100 parking ticket, got home and realized I hadn't ironed my shirt (which isn't good when time is at a premium), got back to school with 3 minutes remaining to the deadline, parked in the visitors lot without a parking ticket (and got a $40 ticket for that)....and ran to my team room. On the way, I passed my teammate M, and gave him a cheery "How's it going". If looks could kill, I'd be dead right now. He gives me this dirty look and asks me to go talk to the other people and walks off in a huff. The first thing that came to my mind was "F***! Did I mess up in some way". So I get together with the other folks and it turns out that we were supposed to burn copies of our resumes on the CD with our final presentation and of course we hadn't. This in turn meant that we had missed the deadline! As is often the case, it wasn't that big a deal and we did figure it out and fix everything, but that was definitely intense!

The actual presentation went really well. We didn't win but it was a great experience and I'd do it again in a heartbeat. UNC ended up taking the first prize with Duke coming in 2nd, 3rd and 4th. As can be expected, there was no shortage of conspiracy theories and analysis by us about this sinister turn of events :).

[The competition was set up as a Duke vs UNC challenge. 21 teams competed in the internal case competition at Duke out of which 8 were selected. The actual competition (mentioned above) consisted of 8 teams from Duke and 8 from UNC out of which 4 (irrespective of the school) made it to the final round in front of an open audience.]

After the long week I'd had and with the serious sleep deprivation, you would think that I'd want to take it easy over the weekend but for some reason I got it into my head that my life would be useless and totally not worth living if I didn't go out and party till the wee hours of the morning on Friday and Saturday. The fact that I had to work in the admissions office all of Saturday wasn't quite enough to stop me and keep me in. That was followed by a night of desi revelry. I must say that the Indian cultural festival (Awaz) was absolutely amazing. I was stunned by the level of talent that some of the participants had.

Figured I'd take it easy after the show but at about 11:45, I felt the need to go and dance to some desi music with all the cute desi women I'd seen at the show. A phone call to a friend and a short walk later, I found myself at one of the craziest parties I've been to recently. Ended up staying till 3:30 AM.

The last 8 hours have been spent cooped up in a study room with my ILE team working on the marketing case due tomorrow and studying for accounting. So all in all it's been a good week/weekend and it's not over yet...

Regression on my mind

2006-10-10T11:50:00.000-05:00

So after 3 hours of talking about intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation, stereotyping, "expanding the conversation" and such, I finally get to face the real fire-breathing dragon i.e. probability and statistics. That's right folks, the moment of reckoning is finally here. I get to face my biggest fear. In the next 10 hours or so I have to unlock the mysteries of regression and also figure out what the probability of me doing well on this test is *given* that I am sitting here wasting time on updating this blog. I say it's zero but I wonder what our friend Baye would say.

So last night wasn't too good. Couldn't get myself to focus on "Managerial Effectiveness". Too many things on my mind right now and this so isn't the time for that! It's funny how all the shit piles up at the most inopportune moments. Anyway, so the plan for the day is to shut myself down from the outside world and nail this stats thingie. Yeah, we'll see how that goes.

I'm back

2006-10-02T22:48:00.000-05:00

Greetings from the alternate universe also known as B-school. I have a million things that I should be doing right now but for some reason I decided to come and wander around blogland for a bit. I see that all the old people (the ones who're still updating their blogs) are having a blast. Here's MJ's unedited version...

Life's been crazy the last month or so. I have learnt to function on approximately 5 hrs of sleep every night. There's always so much stuff going on that I sometimes wake up a little disoriented in the morning trying to figure out what I need to be doing on that particular day. There are cases, club meetings, SIPs (special interest presentations) galore every day. Wednesday is going to be a crazy day with the consulting symposium which I am helping organize and 3 SIPs (BCG, Delloite and ZS Associates) planned for the same day!

I am also an admissions coordinator in charge of Super Saturdays and the first one starts this weekend so we've been having meetings trying to make sure we don't do screw up and end up burning down the building or something!

On the social front, there's always stuff going on. There's always a party to go to or a bbq to attend. We had the international festival last week which was a lot of fun! I got roped into taking part in the fashion show and the only saving grace in that was that I didn't trip over the "dhoti" (I was feeling particularly adventurous) I decided to wear on stage. We topped it off by heading to Raleigh for "garba" which totally rocked! So maybe I got a *little* aggravated and maybe I got a *little* pushy and maybe I got a *little* bossy as I tried to teach folks some of my moves but c'mon people, it ain't rocket science!!

We have a couple of big cases due this week followed by finals next week so I better get my sorry ass out of bed and start reading about 3M!

Early days

2006-08-22T17:25:00.000-05:00

16 days into life at Fuqua, I'm beginning to get the gist of what my life is going to be like over the next 2 years. I see a lot of alchohol, a lot of Franklin Street and late night cab rides home, a lot of high stress, a lot of group dynamics and a ton of memories (good and bad) coming up. This an exciting time for me. I've already started discovering things about myself that I would never have without this experience. Some of them are flattering and enhance my sense of self, while some of them are plain depressing. Either way, it all adds up towards my cherished goal of "self awareness".

Orientation week is a bit of a haze already. I know there were a lot of speakers talking about a lot of great things but that's as far as my memory serves me. I do remember all the bars we hit during the evenings though :). One of the highlights of O week for me was the scavenger hunt. I think that was an excellent way of throwing people into a fast paced, intense but fun situation that led to instant bonding. My team got lucky as we got a double Dukie who knew almost all the on campus locations. My contribution to the team in the spirit of team Fuqua was to shave my back and paint my face blue (paint) and white (with lotion. that's right). I decided not to go as far as getting a Mohawk. Not with official picture day the next day. My teammate C was a trooper though and took one for the team. A quick trip to Target, a cheap set of clippers, and one dirty bathroom later, he was sporting what was one of only 3 mohawks in the entire first year.

To cap off orientation week, the 2nd years organized a kickass 80s party! It was the first 80s party for a lot of people and people got totally into it! My personal wardrobe consisted of items from Wal-mart, Target, the salvation army center and the local thrift store. I thought I had a great outfit, so did the guy dressed up as Magnum PI, so did the guy dressed up as "maverick" from Top Gun....until the Ghost Busters arrived!! All four of them! Those guys were awesome. Needless to say, they picked up the "best dressed" prize.

This week is dedicated to the Integrated Leadership Experience which is essentially all about ethics, leadership, multi-culturalism and bonding with your classmates and study teams. I'm looking forward to the rock climbing thing tomorrow!

In between all the fun, I did get some studying done. Survived my first test at Fuqua, made my first team presentation and did some assignments with N.

ps: I just realized I didn't talk about the section olympics! So much to talk about, so little time!

Dr. Phil in Durham

2006-08-12T00:48:00.000-05:00

I'm just a little drunk. Scratch that. I'm quite drunk. Naa. I've had a lot to drink. Yeah, that's what I was looking for. 7 beers and 1 bacardi and coke is a lot of booze! The idea of mentioning this is to set the tone for the rest of the post.

Shoutout to N if you read this :). I decided to jot my thoughts down despite the reservations I talked to you about today.
It seems like some people do read this blog, so....Disclaimer: the following contains random thoughts and observations and attempts at psychoanalysis which are more than likely completely off base. I shall type out an actual account of the fun things going on in my next post.

Over the last 3 weeks in Durham, I've probably had more to drink than the last year! (okay so maybe that's a slight exaggeration, but you get the point). All people want to do is go out and party (read: drink). The 5 days of health sector bootcamp was the only respite I got from the non-stop socializing. I use the word "respite" because it was reaching a point where it was getting a little tiresome. Of course, I spent those 5 days freaking out thinking I'm the dumbest kid in class since I had no idea what anyone was talking about. And then they thrust this project on us that made absolutely no sense to me. We (my team and I) did figure it out in the end, but that was pretty stressful.

So coming back to the social aspect, the dynamics at play have been quite interesting. Everyone I've met has been *really* friendly and people are really nice out here. However, the fact is that B school is going to attract a lot of different personality types. So you have the extremely driven types, who want to meet everyone and do as much "networking" as possible. Watching them at a party/social event is like watching someone doing the speed dating thingie. They'll be really friendly with everyone but it's like they're constantly assessing your worth based on their own criteria. They'll determine your value, spend some time with you depending on your perceived value (the value could be social, professional etc) and then quickly move on to the next person. You won't really know why the person who was so friendly the last time doesn't really have time for you the next time you meet him/her.

Then there are the people I like to refer to as "hawks". These are the single people who're constantly making a different kind of assessment. They're trying to sample the "market" out there, figuring out what their options are and positioning themselves to have the best "shot" at a potential girlfriend/boyfriend. These people move quickly through the group and single out the potentially interesting/good-looking guys/girls and focus on them. This can be bad for your ego if you think you're the shit (to borrow from my teenage cousins' lingo) and people basically "pass" on you disdainfully :).

Then there are the people who're trying to get to know as many people as possible simply because they've moved to a new city and don't really know other folks. They want to make sure they give themselves the best shot at being included in any groups/cliques that might get formed over the initial days since no one wants to be left out. Everyone wants to find that group of friends that they can hang out with casually or just "chill out at home and sit on the couch and chat" as M said. They try to meet as many people as possible.

Finally, there are the people who are genuinely interested in their classmates and just want to chat sans agenda. They just want to get to know people, where they're from, what they want to do etc.

I do *not* think I fall in the last category unfortunately. Also, I haven't necessarily been guilty of or been at the receiving end of any of this.

These dynamics don't really lead to a bad atmosphere. Everyone still has a good time and I've made some great friends.

The other observation I have is about the international students. Despite all the talk about the diverse student body, I see a lot of segregation. A lot of the students from S. East Asia (China, S. Korea etc) and India tend to stay in their own little groups. There might be some interaction, but it's at a very superficial level. This body of students hasn't really been socializing with the rest of the student body. It might be a cultural (going to bars/clubs might not be everyones thing) and/or language (some people aren't that fluent in English) thing. Some (international) students might feel intimidated by the prospect of interacting with other people in a social setting where all the above mentioned dynamics leave very little room for talking to someone slowly, casually and without pressure. Hopefully this will change with time as school starts.

More on HSM bootcamp, settling in at NC, partying in Durham/Chapel Hill etc in next post.

New beginnings

2006-07-25T09:30:00.000-05:00

Hello Durham. It's good to finally be here after all the built up anticipation of the last several months. It still hasn't quite sunk in that this is my new home. This is the place where I will be for the next 2 years. I've visited the Raleigh/Durham area several times over the last few years and it's always been a lot of fun. Two of my closest friends live in this area so the move hasn't been as bad as when I moved from California to Florida and didn't know a soul there. Of course the down side is that I've spent the last 4 days partying with these friends and haven't done anything as far as settling down is concerned. Well, that's not true. I did unload my car and I did get some shopping done and I did set up stuff like my cable and power etc in my apartment (which I absolutely love!). But I've made no headway in terms of finding furniture.

Stopped by Fuqua yesterday to take care of some paperwork. This was my third time at Duke and I still hadn't explored the campus so I figured this would be a nice time to walk around. It's beautiful!

So the actual city. I think it'll take me some getting used to in terms of the way it's laid out and the number of people. It just seems a lot more spread out and less populated compared to the cities that I have lived in. There aren't as many clubs/restaurants/malls as I'm used to. I obviously knew that before getting here but it just sinks in a little more once you actually experience it.

The good thing is that there are tons of younger people around. I loved Florida. I did. But there really ARE a lot of older people out there and it's not always easy to meet people you'd want to hang out with. In the 4 days I've been in Durham/Chapel Hill, I've already hung out with people from France, New Zealand and Hungary, besides the US and India. These were students from the three major universities in the area (Duke, UNC and NCSU) , so I guess what I'm trying to say is that this might not be the best of places in terms of things to do, but it's still a fun place.

It's a shame that my friend C is leaving in two weeks. Would have been awesome to live in the same city as her after all these years. We've had some fun times together. Guess I'll just have to make the most of the time I have.

I still haven't started on the huge pile of reading I'm supposed to get done before the healthcare "bootcamp" on the 6th. There's just one word to describe the stuff they've unloaded on me. It starts with a B. It's got to be done though. I think I'm going to head to the Bostock library after my meeting with the fianancial aid assistant director and get some reading done.

ps: my post titles just keep getting cheesier.

The last week

2006-07-13T22:03:00.000-05:00

This is it. My final 7 days in Florida. Exactly a week from today, I start a new phase in my life. A new city. New friends and new experiences. I'm really excited. The last three and a half years in Florida have been awesome but I think I'm definitely ready to move on.

I had all these plans for a crazy last weekend in Florida. Don't know if that's gonna happen anymore. Have been down with the flu (?) the last couple of days and haven't been able to get out of bed. Sucks.

The preparation for the move has been coming along fine. Finally found a roommate. In fact I found quite a few people who were interested in sharing the apartment. The prospective roommates included a couple of really cute girls too! Unfortunately I had already said yes to this guy so I couldn't live out the fantasy of every straight guy: hot female roommate! Don't judge me.
Although I'm not entirely sure why the idea of a female roommate holds such a fascination for us guys. It's not like we'll be standing in the living room baking pizza and suddenly some chik-boom-chik-boom music will start in the background, like you've seen in every porn flick ever made......you know what I'm talking about, and we'll start doing it right there. So what's the deal? I dunno. It's a guy thing I guess.
Anyway, all that is completely irrelavent since contrary to what all my friends recommended I did not ditch my roommate and said no to the two girls.

Also sent out my request for a 'change of status' to the international office at Duke. I'm cutting it a little close since I've put down my last date at work as the 19th and the INS needs to get my documents before that. Hopefully it'll turn out fine. (A small plug for my school. The kind of assistance I have recieved from the folks in the international office and in fact all the departments at Duke/Fuqua has been absolutely amazing. )

In other Fuqua news, I received my Health Sector Management "bootcamp" course pack today. When the UPS guy came in with that big ass packet, I thought the health care program had probably sent me a bag full of gifts and maybe some reading material. I was expecting...I dunno...a shirt? a bag? a mug? HA! Was I mistaken! They sent me a 5 inch thick pile of sheets to read. Double sided. Before the 5th. And this is apart from the Accounting and Math CDs that I am supposed to go through. WTF! Whatever happened to the "enjoy your summer, don't worry about B school at all right now" advice that everyone and their aunt seemed to be giving me! Ok fine. No one said B school was going to be easy.

Back to reality

2006-06-22T02:47:00.000-05:00

After a fun 30 days, I'm slowly getting back to thinking about my so called B-school journey. I had completely cut myself off from that world for a while, which might not have been the smartest thing to do. I find myself going through all the mails in the mailing list, desperately trying to figure out what the hell people are talking about with their posts on "career assessment" sites and IDs n what not. My admit package, which would unravel these great mysteries for me, lies desolately in a remote locker in a distant land. After calling the IT department at Duke to get my ID and password, I now find myself staring at a June 30th immunization deadline with no documents ready! So last night was spent making frantic calls to the health records departments at USC and my office. The ~12 hour time difference is such a pain! I had to go looking for a fax machine in the middle of the night, which isn't the easiest thing to do in this city...where art thou Kinkos? But at least I managed to track down some of the records I wanted.

Now if only I can figure out my roommate situation, I should be all set. I thought I had that taken care of 2 weeks ago but the guy I was supposed to stay with backed out at the last moment. I have some choice words for him but there's a possibility that this blog won't be totally anonymous at school so I guess I should refrain from dissing a future classmate for now. The shitty thing is that I didn't follow up with the 4 or 5 other people who were interested and now they already have roommates. Oh well, I'm sure it'll work out.

I still have to figure out where to stay for 2 weeks when I get back to Florida. I could stay at a friend's place but that would mean a 1 hr drive to work and I don't even know whether I'd be comfortable staying there for 2 weeks. On the other hand, hotels are really expensive around where I work right now. Hmm.

Finally, I'm dreading going back and trying to sell/discard some of the stuff I still have lying around. The plan was that I'd just take whatever I could fit into my car, but despite giving away all my furniture and a lot of other stuff, I still have way too many things. It's not a big deal, but it just seems like such a lot of work which is so not something I'm looking forward to in my current mood.

I think I'm going to stop thinking about all that and go back to pretending I'm some rich sheikh who can eat, drink, sleep and party all day and all night. Ahmedabad has been fun, Bombay was as amazing as ever, now Delhi, here I come.

Europe recap

2006-06-12T13:46:00.000-05:00

As the first storm/hurricane makes it's way towards my city, it feels weird not having to worry about stocking up and being prepared. My car should be fine but I'm a little worried about my motorcycle which isn't in a covered parking. Hopefully it will be fine.

Moving on to more pleasant topics. I thought I'd jot down some of my impressions of various cities I visited.

This post was supposed to consist primarily of pictures (I took over 300 pics!) but for some reason I couldn't upload any images after the first 2. I get the "Done" message but don't see the images. If anyone has any idea as to what the problem might be, do let me know.

London

My favorite city in Europe. A lot of people are surprised when I say that I liked London better than Paris or Madrid or Florence etc. However, I found London to be the perfect blend of old and new. I thought that they have done a fabulous job of integrating their history with the present so that you find yourself making a seamless transition between different eras. There's a lot of touristy stuff that you can relate to or you can completely avoid that kind of thing and still have a great time. Also, contrary to what I had been told, the people were really friendly. And did I mention the women with their cute British accent are hot? Finally, the fact that they speak English was a BIG plus in my book!

As luck would have it, the weather was unbelievably bad (even by London standards) all the days I was there as can be seen from the picture of the famous Tower Bridge on the side. But of course I wasn't going to let some wind and rain ruin my plans so you would find me and my cousin trudging along the streets of London in those free ponchos provided by "The Original Bus Tour"company. Yes, we were too cheap to buy an umbrella or a jacket.

If you're visiting London in the next 6 months and need a cheap place to stay, I recommend The Regent Palace Hotel. It's clean and has a dream location a few steps away from the Picadelly Circus metro stop and the famous Statue of Eros in the heart of London.

My two celebrity sightings in London included Pele and Al Fayed at Harrods. Got pictures of both of them. It's amazing how someone like Pele, who is unknown in the US, can generate almost mass hysteria in Europe.

Paris

I'm sure the French are lovely people but the first thing that comes to my mind when I think about Paris is "The city is beautiful but the people are really rude". That seems to be the universal opinion and now I can say from experience that it's true. They just don't seem to like tourists. The lone exception is if you make an honest attempt to speak their language.

There are tons of things to do and see in this beautiful city. Despite being maligned by some as being pretentious and not that big a deal, the Eiffel tower is a truly magnificient sight. The Louvre is a place where you can spend days on end without getting bored. I recommend getting the audio tour for the permanent collection. I don't recommend getting the "Da Vinci Code Tour". If you're into that stuff, it's waay more fun finding the spots on your own! A lady I met at the Vatican told me about how she even found the restroom from which Sophie throws the tracking device onto the truck. She even had a picture.

The Champs-Elysees (aside: one of the highlights of the trip was me finally figuring out how to pronounce that damn word! metro riders in Paris are probably still wondering who that crazy dude was who insisted on repeating the station name every time it was announced on the PA system) is the place to go if you want to party into the early hours of the morning. I was out on a Wednesday night till 4 AM and the place was more crowded than the wildest Friday/Saturday night in the US. One day, as I was walking down the road, I noticed a club that had a line that went around the block and seemed like it was the place to be. The girls were cute and everyone was quite nattily dressed. So of course I decided to go there. Had a great time for the first few hours but then around 3 AM, the number of guys in the club seemed to increase exponentially and I was getting this weird vibe. I later found out that I had just visited the premier gay night club of Paris. The only reason there were so many women around that night was that it was ladies night and women drank free.

While waiting in line at the highly recommended Musee D'orsay (make reservations if possible! do NOT go on a Tuesday afternoon), I met a fascinating lady. She was a 65 year old retired art teacher. She wasn't all that rich but she had managed to start up and help support two orphanages in Africa and a school in South-East Asia. After 2 years of looking after her mother who had had a stroke, she had decided to go bagpacking alone and rediscover some of the art she loved so much. I was struck by the enthusiasm and zest for life she had and how she seemed to have found a way to do things she enjoyed while simultaneously finding time to do things that she believed in.

Finally, of course I had to go and get pictures of the infamous Moulin Rouge. Did not attend the show since I had been told it's a complete waste of time and money.

Madrid

Madrid is a walking city by day and a party city by night. If you enjoy shopping, you will love Madrid. There are miles and miles of streets that are packed with stores, big and small, cheap and expensive, shady and classy. And there seem to be thousands of people everywhere. Walking. You can start at the Puerta del Sol and spend hours/days exploring the streets originating from there. The road connecting Gran Via metro station and Sol is notorious for the hookers so avoid that if you want. Between all the walking, you can take a break and enjoy some Tapas and Sangria at the Plaza Mayor or at one of the million sidewalk cafes (look for one on one of the sidestreets for great authentic food).

Be sure to set a day aside for the amazing Prado museum and the Thyssen-bornemisza.

While standing in line at the magnificient Palacio Real, I met a couple of Canadian girls who were travelling across Europe. After chatting with them for a while, I found out they were of Indian origin which took me completely by surprise since the language I had overheard and thought to be Spanish was actually Punjabi! They were equally surprised to learn that I was Indian. So after an hour of chatting, we exchanged numbers and agreed to meet up for drinks in the evening.
I kept running into these girls at the weirdest of places for the next 3 days! Turned out that we were even in Paris on the exact same days and came to Madrid by the same train. To top it all, when I took the bus from Madrid to Segovia, they were on the same bus! A bus leaves for Segovia every half hour and I had planned on taking the 9 AM bus but ended up on the 11:30 bus and there they were! Weird. Even weirder was their behaviour. Their attitude seemed to have gone through a weird transformation and they were acting really odd. Anyway, I introduced them to the guy I was travelling with (the BCG consultant I mentioned in my previous post) and all four of us hung out together all day in Segovia. Unfortunately, it ended with me getting into a big fight with one of the girls (for the record, I did not start the fight. I just questioned her stats when she said that India has a male to female ratio of 1000 to 750 and she got all upset) and she walked off and dragged her friend along with her so that was the end of that. Pity. The other girl was really sweet and very cute.

Rome

Teeming with Americans! They're everywhere! By far, the most popular tourist destination for people from the States. Also, by far the most tourist friendly city that I visited. And everyone speaks English!

The trip started on a sour note when after standing in front of the luggage conveyer belt for half an hour I finally realized that I was facing the first snag in my trip and that my baggage had probably been misplaced. After half an hour of running around and dealing with incompetent groud staff and making calls to Madrid, I had to face the reality that there was a very high probability that I would never see my bag again. Being stuck in an unknown city at 11 PM with essentially nothing except the clothes I was wearing was quite unnerving. The first thing that I was worried about was my contact lenses. My glasses were in my bag as was my lens cleaning solution and container. Without my lenses I would be basically blind! I had to find some way to store my lenses over the night. So as I wrestled with that dilemma and tried to figure out how to validate my train ticket on the weird maching, a guy and a girl were standing by the next machine looking equally bewildered. The guy starts talking to me and after collectively solving the great train puzzle, we get on the same train and sit together. Turns out the guy is from Canada and his girlfriend is from Philly (Aside: I have known a lot of pretty women. I know actresses and models. This girl was one of the most gorgeous woman I have ever met...and she was super nice). Upon finding out about my problem, the girl very graciously offered to lend me some of her cleaning solution and I went with them to their hotel. The guy was Colby Armstrong from the Pittsburgh Penguins and we ended up hanging out together.

The city itself is a tourist's dream with tons of stuff to see. The Italians are super nice people always willing to chat. One of the highlights of the trip was the "audience with the pope" where I got to see and take a picture of the pope from a distance of around 5 feet.

I did throw a coin into the Trevi fountain. In fact I threw two. And although I didn't fall in love in Rome, I did develop a crush on a cute English girl I met at the Vatican if that counts.

Florence

Florence is another city inundated with American tourists. The Duomo wasn't that breathtaking but Michaelangelo's David is a true masterpiece that even a layman like me could appreciate.

Amsterdam

What happens in Amsterdam, stays in Amsterdam.

Hello, bonjour, hola, ciao, hoi and namaste

2006-06-07T12:24:00.000-05:00

So as I sit here enjoying my vacation, blissfully oblivious to the "mba world", people are already working on resumes, attending workshops and such??? Hmm....

Well I did run into that consultant from BCG in Segovia. And I did introduce him to the cute Canadian girls I had met. And I did hang out with him for most of the day listening to his boring stories. Talk about some hardcore networking right there!.....That's just me convincing myself that the summer hasn't been a complete waste from a professional standpoint. Not that I care.

The vacation has been absolutely amazing so far. It's been all that I expected and more. I shall upload some pics in a couple of days from each of the cities I visited and also talk briefly about my experiences in and impressions of each city. And then there are the people. I think one of the most interesting things about travelling alone is the people you meet. The people I ran into and spent time with were as diverse as a 65 year old retired art teacher, bagpacking across Europe all alone, an NHL player vacationing in Paris with his girlfriend, a guy who was writing a 3 part book on "the subcultures of bagpackers, bikers and S&M enthusiasts" and many many more. Shall talk more about these folks in my next post.

Of course there were the occasional hiccups. Vueling Airlines losing my bag on my flight from Madrid to Rome and leaving me with nothing except a jacket, my passport, my wallet and my "Let's go, Europe" book wasn't excatly my idea of the ideal first day in Rome. Then there was the fact that one of the engines on the plane taking me from Turin to Amsterdam decided to die on us right as we were preparing for take-off, leaving me stuck in that tiny airport for 6 hours. But these things just add to the experience and every thing turned out fine ultimately, so it's all good.

I have finally arrived in the motherland! It's unbelievably hot and the sheer number of people around me always takes me some getting used to. And of course, every time I go out in my car, it's like I'm entering this video game in which people, vehicles and animals can come at me from every direction and if I lose, I die....but this is home and I love it!

The journey begins

2006-05-17T07:38:00.000-05:00

So it's finally here! Time to pack my bags and leave sunny Florida for good! Well, sort of. I'll be back for a week in July but for all intents and purposes, "stick a fork in me, I'm done"! Donated all my furniture to the Salvation Army. Took care of all the million things that go with moving..address change, disconnecting services, returning equipment, putting things in storage etc etc. Trained my replacement at work. Gave my official notice about quitting work in July. It's been a fun 3 and a half years in the Sunshine state but I'm definitely ready to move on.

With all this stuff going on, I've barely had time to plan my trip in terms of what I want to do and what I want to see in my extremely touristy journey. But again, as my friend said, planning out everything would be really geeky. You can't beat the fun and unpredictability of spontaneity. So I've got my bagpack, I've got my camera and I'm ready for adventure!

I'm really excited about my first trip to Europe (the trip as a kid doesn't count). But honestly, I'm even more excited about going back home after two years. Nothing can beat the feeling of being back in your old room, eat at your favorite places in your city, spend time with family and reconnect with old friends.

So the itinerary finally includes London, Paris, Madrid, Rome, Florence, Amsterdam in that order, followed by a trip to India (Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Delhi). I'll be gone till the 1st of July (leaving late tomorrow night) so this blog might go quiet for a while although I'll probably make some entries while in India. Thought I'd let my loyal readers know. All two of you.

Finally before I leave, I'd like to wish IWMI, Sorebrek, Forest, C'est la vie, Laserlikefocus, Brownski and everyone else still waiting for a decision, the best of luck! Hope every one of you gets into your dream school!

Confucius say(s):

2006-05-11T21:16:00.000-05:00

I haven't had a chance to blog lately with all the craziness in my life right now. But on one of my (now) rare visits to the BW forum, I was struck by the number of people doling out free advice. It was not so long ago that most of these people were slightly nervous and confused applicants, not sure of what lay ahead...not sure of which school, if any they were going to get into...and now it seems like every one could be the next Sandy or Alex.

It reminded me of my favorite line from a FuquaVision video I'd come across earlier this year.
"I once was Smart.......but now I'm just Wise" :).

I didn't want to make another post for this so posting it here. If you needed any more proof for the insane craze/competition/interest amongst Indians for an MBA, check out the top 6 out of 10 cities in the Google trends site for the word "MBA" (have fun putting in other key words!).

To legalize or not to legalize

2006-05-02T10:52:00.000-05:00

I had refrained from blogging on this topic since I do not believe I understand all the issues at stake in this debate. Most people that I have talked with have a very myopic view of the situation and more often than not have a kneejerk reaction one way or the other. However, after reading Jacek's post and the subsequent comments, I decided to try to put down some of my thoughts. Some of my ideas might come across as half-baked but I guess that is part of understanding the problem. The more I talk about it, the more I hear other people's opinions, the more I'll learn.

So what is the issue here? The issue is illegal immigration. It is important to distinguish between illegal immigration and legal immigration. Ostensibly no one is saying they have a problem with legal immigration. It is the illegal aliens and thier status in this country that is up for debate. The reason I bring up the legal/illegal thing is that I have found unfortunately, that that line gets blurred sometimes and people club those two categories together.

Now, I think we can all agree that illegal immigrants *are* necessary for this country's economy. Or put another way, the jobs done by these illegal immigrants are jobs that your average American citizen is not going to be willing to do. Manual labor, housemaids, landscaping, serving in restaurants are just some jobs that come to mind. You will not find a lot of Americans willing to work for 6 dollars an hour to do that kind of work. You might find some school/college kids but that's about it. Also, if you divert some of the workforce towards these kind of jobs, there are fewer people available to do mid-level jobs in the workforce. There is lesser R&D. The country's growth might be affected (?).

Having said all that, I absolutely do not believe in granting illegal immigrants citizenship. That just wouldn't be fair to the hundreds of thousands of people going the legal route, paying taxes, paying their dues, contributing to this economy and waiting patiently for 5-10-15 years to become citizens. If every illegal alien who had lived in this country for 5 years automatically became eligible for citizenship, that would place an unimaginable burden on the INS which would be completely unfair to the legal immigrants. This is the first reaction that came to my mind given my own status and the situation that a lot of people I know are in or have been in i.e. legal immigrants on an F1 or H1 visa. However, on thinking about it a little more, I realize that to just consider my situation would be extremely myopic. This is a much bigger problem.

Another sticking poing is that people can’t just break the law and then demand certain rights. That just doesn’t sound right. That seems to imply that they should not be held accountable for their actions. But we can’t keep ignoring these people. They have families and kids. They have risked their lives to try to live the American dream. They are trying their best to build a better future for themselves. Purely from a humanitarian standpoint, they should be able to use the resources of this great country. Most times these are law abiding citizens who will be more than willing to contribute to society. Surely a country built by immigrants will find some place for them?

So the country does need a lot of these illegal immigrants, but we can't ignore the fact that they *are* illegal which means we shouldn’t just grant them citizenship. So what's the solution? A temporary worker program. Get them into the system but don't promise them citizenship. Make them go through the regular route if they want to be legalized citizens of this country. That way, you have addressed the security concerns, the humanitarian issues, the job scenario AND you have more taxable income. These people will even have to contribute to Social Security even though they won't get any benefit out of it (as is the case with legal immigrants).

To conclude, I must add that I haven’t really read a lot about this topic and won’t pretend to understand all the intricacies of the issues at stake. These are just my views from an average layman’s perspective.

Current affairs

2006-04-26T18:04:00.000-05:00

Move

Preparations for the move to Durham are in full swing. I've turned in the notice for my apartment. Now I need to buy that digital camera ASAP, take pics of my furniture and try to unload it on some unsuspecting schmuck! Heck of a reason to drop $300 on a cam huh? Of course having a camera during my vacation won't hurt so it's all good. Having never sold stuff online before and living in a city where craigslist isn't as huge as say Boston, Chicago or SF, I'm a little worried about having enough time to sell off all my stuff in the next 15 days. I did consider renting a UHaul and taking everything with me but that just seemed like too much of a hassle and not really economically sensible. I might as well buy some new stuff for the $1100 (plus gas) it'll cost me to rent the UHaul. That still doesn't solve the problem of transporting my motorcycle though. Apparently I can't rent a motorcycle trailer for a one way move. Hmm. I'll just have to get it shipped. There goes another 600 bucks.

Duke

After a couple of emails to the International Office at Duke, I finally sent out all my paperwork for the 'Request for Temporary Visa' to get my I-20. I'm most definitely going to take a loan to fund my education but decided it might be a better idea to show my own funds as part of the paperwork. I didn't want to deal with the uncertainty of the INS trying to figure out if I would be able to support myself or whatever. As for how I got all that serious cash (at least for me), it's nice to have a rich sister :).
That's all the legal paperwork I need to take care of for now. Will have to file for an official COS (Change of Status) once I get back in early July. I am a little concerned about the loan though. The Duke website states that the paperwork for the private loan will be available in May. Hopefully, I'll have enough time to take care of that before I leave.

Vacation

I need to start spending a little more time researching and figuring out what I want to do on my trip. I'm all for being spontaneous and taking things as they come but it would be a shame to miss out on something that I would really want to do while I'm visiting all these beautiful places.
I recieved my flight tickets today and finally got my Schengen visa a couple of days back. Should have my British visa in a couple of days. Looks like the trip is definitely on! While I'm super excited about travelling across Europe, I'm even more psyched about visiting India. It's been 2 years since I've been there. Will be fun to visit some of the old haunts.

On my mind

A few weeks ago, I had blogged about a story I came across about a young Indian-American author who had landed a $500K deal to write a book at the very young age of 17. On Sunday, the Harvard Crimson came out with a story that suggested that certain passages from the now released book: "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life" by Kaavya Viswanathan (Update: The book has been withdrawn by the publishers), bore a striking resemblance to passages from the books "Sloppy Firsts" and "Second Helpings" by Megan F. McCafferty. There were numerous reactions to this article, most notably on Sepia Mutiny. Surprisingly (or maybe not), this story snowballed into one of the biggest stories in the popular media over the last few days with articles written on literally every major news site and an appearance by the author on the Today Show. There have been several reactions to the story including condemning the author and a passionate call for compassion (considering her age) and suspension of judgement by some. My reaction to the latter can be summed up by the following passage that I posted on SM in response to a post by Anna in which she talks about several things including jealosy.

when the story about her book deal broke, she was universally applauded. i blogged about her as did several others i know. there was no jealosy involved. just pure appreciation for an amazing achievement. i did not stop to ponder on how she landed the deal, whether she got someone else to write for her, whether she had "connections" or any such random thing you can think of.
when the story about the plagarism accusation broke, she was universally condemned by most people that i talked to. this reaction again was not based on jealosy or the need to kick someone when they were down. it was based on the feeling that plagiarism is just plain wrong. it was based on the feeling that we were misled. of course we're basing our judgement on the passages posted in the news story.
the fact that she is 19 is definitely something that you must consider, and sure you feel sorry for her. that does not mean it is wrong to discuss the story and say that what she did was stupid. also, you can be foolish and immature at 19, maybe enough to copy your math assignment due the next day, not enough to plagiarize on a book for which you've been paid $500K. that of course is just my opinion.

However, over the last few hours, after watching Kaavya's interview on the Today Show, I can't help but feel sorry for this young girl.

i still believe that she lifted at least some of those passages verbatim. however, the punishment should always fit the crime. what KV has gone through (and will probably go through for a long time) should be enough to make her realize what a big mistake she made and hopefully learn from it.
at a personal level, if she remains in a state of denial and refuses to take responsibility for her actions, it will only hurt her in the long run and that would be really sad.

i watched the msn clip and she seemed genuinely sorry to me. it's been said that she comes across as arrogant, brash, priviliged etc in other interviews. if that's the way she is, i probably wouldn't be able to stand her if i knew her personally. but all i saw was a young girl in an extremely tough situation who handled herself remarkably well. she seemed genuinely contrite (was her voice quivering?). she did not come out and issue a full blown apology (although it seemed like she inadvertently blurted out "im sorry" before adding "even though it was unintentional"), but to expect that would be a lot from anyone, more so from a 19 year old, especially on national tv. her parents/friends/handlers are probably advising her on what to say right now and if they told her that to accept any wrong doing could ruin her career, you can not expect her to do so of her own accord.
i have forgiven people for much worse than what KV did. KV does not need my forgiveness. she did not wrong me in any way. she did not hurt me. i did not buy her book. i did not read her book. all i did was admire her and blog about her. that is not reason enough to hate her. all i feel for her is sympathy. yes, even if she did plagiarize (and more so if she didn't).

Sure she might end up with a lucrative book deal or a nice movie to tell her story. That would be a shame since I don't condone plagiarism. But I don't feel the need to hate her or keep critisizing her. We'll see how this plays out.

Monkeys, haters and mirror neurons

2006-04-19T19:34:00.000-05:00

The last few weeks, there was a spate of negative comments left by anonymous posters on various blogs including those of MBAJ, MBAC and TyCoon. The phenomenon even spawned a post by Where'sMyDesert trying to preempt the haters by posting possible anonymous comments herself! I didn't (and don't) feel the need to engage in this discussion for several reasons, so I won't get into that.

I did however come across a link to an interesting post that is sort of related to this, on Instapundit, which he teased as 'WHY READING NASTY BLOG COMMENTS (and blogs) can be bad for you.' Apparently there are scientific studies out there that suggest that we do indeed mirror the emotions of those around us and that negativity (or something positive) can affect our behaviour.

Spend time with a nervous, anxious person and physiological monitoring would most likely show you mimicking the anxiety and nervousness, in ways that affect your brain and body in a concrete, measurable way. Find yourself in a room full of pissed off people and feel the smile slide right off your face. Listen to people complaining endlessly about work, and you'll find yourself starting to do the same. Link. Mirror Neurons. Business Management.

So I guess there might be some merit to moderating the comments on your site to get rid of the negativity. More importantly, this theory encompasses so much more than just some random anonymous comments. Now that decision about which B school to choose takes on a whole new aspect! Do you want to go to a snotty, cut-throat school or would you rather go somewhere else (SFW, just that link though, dunno about the rest of the site, I've never even heard of it :) ), where you're surrounded by happy people. It's going to affect your brain after all!

Frustrated

2006-04-15T18:55:00.000-05:00

File this under "Venting"

This is getting really really frustrating. I've been so psyched about my Europe trip the last 3 months. Unfortunately, it seems like I misjudged the craziness also known as "visa applications". (These are the times I regret (not really) the fact that my parents decided to return to India from the US when I was a kid. If they'd stayed, I would've been a citizen by now and would be laughing in the face of all those annoying consulate officials!). So I was already dealing with the Schengen visa for Europe. Was gonna take a day off on Friday and drive down to a city far far away to get my visa stamped. I would then mail my passport to NY to get my British visa stamped and that would be the end of it. Ha. Or so I thought.

So first I wake up at 5 in the morning on Friday and start driving to make it in time to the promised land of the French consulate. An hour into the drive it strikes me that those lazy French might have decided to take "Easter Friday" (yes, there is such a thing) off so I call a friend to ask her to make sure they're earning their daily bread on that day. After cursing me for 10 minutes and ruing the day she met me, she finally tells me that the consulate was indeed closed. And was it just me or did I sense that she took some joy in telling me that....

So anyway, being the glass half full kinda guy that I am, I took it in stride with the attitude that at least I didn't drive the whole 5 plus hours before finding out. I came back, got breakfast and decided to set up my visa (to return to the US) appointment in India (I need to get my visa renewed) so that way the morning would not be a complete waste. So after filling out 3 forms over an hour, I find out that there are no dates available till September...say what?!?!... As Douglas Adams would say "Don't Panic". I recalled looking at something about "emergency dates". So I browse back to that page. I'm sure I'll be fine. So the "emergency dates" are available on the exact same days as the regular dates! WTF!

Okay, no worries. I'm an enterprising guy. I'm going to B school this year. I'm going to be a future leader yada yada. I can figure this out. So here's the plan. I'll drive down to get my Schengen visa on Tuesday. It gets mailed back to me the same week. I'll fly to NY and get a Canadian visa stamped sometime next week. The next day I'll swing by the British embassy/consulate (what's the difference? I could look it up but I'm too lazy) and get my visa to England. Then I'll be off to Canada, get my US visa stamped and be all set! Of course there's the minor problem of spending all that moolah and using all that PTO, but what you gonna do?

Of course it didn't quite work out that way. There are no dates available in Canada for AT LEAST the next 3 weeks. Hmm. Okay, maybe I should go the Bahamas to get it stamped....I'm exhausted.

Of course in the meanwhile I'm supposed to confirm my reservation with my travel agent by tomorrow which I can't do since if I can't go, I'll have to pay 500 bucks cancellation fees. Of course I've already spent money in getting tickets from London to Paris since I need to show those to get the Schengen visa so there goes that money. My friend (my ex girlfriend actually) who was gonna join me in Amsterdam backed out since she didn't want to get tickets till I was sure and now they're going to be too expensive.

There are a bunch of other issues but never mind, I think I'm just gonna go sit on my couch and watch tv. Seems more and more likely that I'm going to be doing a lot of that all summer.

Breaking up

2006-04-12T16:30:00.004-05:00

You know I really like you. I think you're wonderful. The problem is not you, it's *me*... Please don't feel bad...This is hard...I know you'll find someone a hundred times better than me! Someone who will love you and appreciate you more than I ever did. You deserve someone better.
I had an amazing time with you. You made me feel special and wanted. But.... I just want more. We kind of drifted apart. Our personalities were too different. I realized we weren't meant to be together... No, there's no one else! How could you even think that. Well, maybe there is someone...but that had nothing to do with it! I hope we can still be friends...

Darden and I officially parted ways today.

Ice-ice baby.

2006-04-08T11:24:00.000-05:00

Calling Dan Brown. I see a 50 million book sales market right here, eclipsing his previous work. A new study by a professor of oceanography at the Florida State University, claims that Jesus may actually have walked on ice.

Doron Nof, a professor of oceanography, said a rare combination of water and atmospheric conditions in the Sea of Galilee 2,000 years ago may offer a scientific explanation for one of the miracles recounted in the Bible.
Nof said a patch of ice floating in the Sea of Galilee, which is actually a freshwater lake, would have been difficult to distinguish from unfrozen water surrounding it. Link.

With reports of a new manuscript surfacing, which claims that Judas was actually Jesus' most favored disciple, the renewed interest in the Bible, the Catholic Church and the intrigue surrounding the life of Jesus can only continue.

An early Christian manuscript, including the only known text of the Gospel of Judas, has surfaced after 1,700 years, and it portrays Judas Iscariot not as a betrayer of Jesus but as his favored disciple and willing collaborator. Link.

I can just see Messieurs Brown, Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln, in a wild scramble to see who can capitalize first on this new goldmine.

What if..

2006-04-05T15:00:00.000-05:00

So MBAJ's post got c'est la vie thinking, and her post got me thinking....

A friend of mine is dating this guy. They're reasonably happy together. However, sometimes I get the feeling that she's evaluating her choice...what if she weren't with him...what if she were single...what if she were single AND had met that lawyer dude from Chicago....what if she had waited...

I guess as we go through life, we are bound to face several "what ifs". Very similar to the "what if" in my friend's relationship is the "what if" that a lot of applicants face when they find themselves in a situation where they have been rejected by their top choice schools and are trying to make peace with the fact that they will go someplace that is not their first choice. They might begin to wonder....what if they really have the potential to be at their top choice? What went wrong this year? What if with just a little tweaking of the application, they can get in at their top choice? What if they are short changing themselves by going to their second or third or fourth choice?

These questions are bound to pop up since we put in a lot of time and energy into these applications and no one likes (perceived) failure. So I guess it comes down to knowing yourself and managing your expectations and figuring out what you truly want. So you got rejected by your top choice, school A, but are in at your 2nd choice, school B. Should you let the "what if" factor creep in and try again for school A or maybe feel like you're settling for something less? Not if you approached this process in the correct fashion.

At the end of the day, an MBA is a means to an end. We want to develop a certain skill set and become a part of a network that will open up new avenues in any given field. Moreover, the MBA experience should provide us with the opportunity to develop as a person and to be exposed to new people, cultures and ideas. And last, but not the least, it should be a fun and enjoyable experience. Ideally, if you did your research right, school B will provide you with all these opportunities too. So why the "what if" regarding school A? More often than not it comes down to prestige/brand factor, perception of you by your friends/family/peers and the fact that you did not succeed. The last point is a blow to your ego. The fact that you know that school A is *considered* better than school B by some (and maybe even by you) and the fact that after the process, you truly believe that you had a good shot at getting into school A, clouds your judgement slightly and makes you question whether maybe you're settling for less than you deserve. You might lose sight of the real question, which is whether the school you are in at will add value to you as a person and to your career in the future. The answer is ususally, yes. That is why you applied there. Of course it is very possible that no matter what metric you use, school A is indeed better than school B. It still doesn't matter as long as you gave it your best shot. As with several other things in life, it is useless to dwell on what could have been. It is better to focus on what can be.

Most candidates who enter this game believe at some level that they have a good shot at getting into their top school choice. Before this experience, most people have never taken the time to evaluate their lives and to take stock of their achievements to date, so by the end of this process, *most* people are very impressed with themselves :). This leads to the belief that they deserve to and probably can get in whereever they want. Unfortunately there are a limited number of seats, and not everyone can get in everywhere. While believing in yourself is an admirable trait, this thought process might again make you lose your sense of perspective and make you feel less satisfied with an excellent school even though that school will fulfill all the expectations you have from an MBA.

Ultimately, I think there are many paths to success. Not getting into your top choice school or not getting into a school at all, or not getting the job you want etc are all just minor bumps, if that. You just have to take stock of the situation and reroute your path towards your definition of success.

Blue Devil Weekend (with addendum)

2006-04-03T14:12:00.000-05:00

I can barely stay awake. Functioning on 13 hours of sleep over 3 nights does that to you. In my infinite wisdom, I decided to stay in Durham/Raleigh one extra night to hang out with friends in the area and flew in this morning. Of course I hadn't informed anyone at work that I wouldn't show up till pretty late in the morning. First thing I know when I land, I have 4 voicemails from work, of people trying to track me down!

The weekend was amazing. I got in early Friday morning and since they'd put us up in this swanky hotel with an amazing golf course, I decided to make use of it. After a (frustrating) round of golf, I decided to head out with another admitted student and his wife to check out some apartments that weren't going to be covered in the apartment tour on Sunday. I don't know if it's a NC thing, but I was pretty surprised by the lack of professionalism at all the leasing offices except one.

We had registration at 4, after which we walked over to Fuqua where the various student clubs had set up stalls to talk about what they do and how we could get involved. Met some really interesting people there. Dinner (and my meals for the rest of the trip!) consisted of salad and desert. Ah, the joys of being vegetarian. We wrapped up the day with a night out in Durham at George's on 9th street. Got crazy crowded there in a couple of hours and some people, mostly first years i guess, got pretty wasted (including 1 super hot chick who kept telling me how she was single and how I absolutely had to come to Fuqua since I'm single too). Well, now I have a reason.....
I had a reasonably good time but after a while I got a little bored since the music was really loud and there's only so long I can scream and carry on a conversation with complete strangers. Got back to my room at around 1:30.

The next day was scheduled to begin at 9 AM. ^#*$&^##$)!!! And to make it worse the stupid front desk forgot to call to wake me up (or did I sleep through their call? hmm..). Luckily, someone called me at 8 AM (who calls at 8 AM on a Saturday?!?!) so I managed to barely make it on time. Was a packed day with an academic preview session consisting of two classes (marketing and finance), both of which were excellent, talks on health care managment, entrepreneurship, consulting etc.
..........I really *am* interested in consulting. The cute girl on the consulting panel had *nothing* to do with me going there first and sticking around for 15 minutes after the session was over......

So after a whole bunch of other stuff, it was finally time for the closing party at the Nasher museum. It started off pretty slow with people standing around and chatting, going through the same ritual they'd been practicing the last 2 days. (Hi, I'm XYZ. I'm from ABC. I work in XYZ. I want to do ABC. I'm deciding between XYZ. I'm having a great time. You go.) But as the crowd started streaming in and the alchohol started flowing and people started running into familiar faces and the music got better, the party really picked up. So much so that they didn't stop even after the 1:30 deadline. Everyone headed back to the WaDuke for an afterparty that went on till almost 5.

Sunday consisted of an apartment tour which started at 9 (what's wrong with these people!?) and ended at 1:30. Spent the rest of the day with friends in Raleigh.

A couple of observations. While I had an amazing time, I realized a couple of things. I am going to have to make a conscious effort to network and be a little thick skinned and start up conversations with people. Don't get me wrong. I'm as arrogant and narcissistic as the next guy. I absolutely think I'm one charming b**tard. But lets face it. Barging into a group of 3-4-5 people who are chatting amongst themselves, and trying to pick up a conversation with them has never been something I've enjoyed and that's what you had to do as you tried to meet new people. Women have it slightly easier in this regard since more often than not, guys will approach them to strike up a conversation.

The other thing was, I was amazed by the diversity of the people I met. I met a girl from Japan, another girl from China and a guy from Hungary among others, all of whom had flown in just for the admit weekend and they had some really interesting experiences to share. The sad thing is that almost 80% of the people I personally met had multiple offers from schools incuding Harvard, Kellogg, Wharton, Michigan and LBS and were still undecided about whether they would be at Fuqua in August. It's sad from a purely selfish standpoint as I really liked all these people and would love to have *all* of them as my classmates (which is unlikely, although quite a few said they were leaning towards Duke). That's right folks, I have turned in my deposit. I am now officially a Blue Devil.

Note: I received an email from an Associate Director at the Office of Admissions at Fuqua, who had come across this post and the line about me surviving on salads and deserts, and wanted to apologize for the fact that I could not find something suitable to eat at BDW even though she had made a special effort to ensure that this would not happen and she wanted to know if I had any suggestions. I thought this was a really cool thing to do and is just one more example of the amazing people and culture at Fuqua, where people care about ensuring that everyone feels like part of the team and has an enjoyable experience. For the record, there were indeed vegetarian options other than salad and desert available!

Summer plans

2006-03-30T00:44:00.000-05:00

Had a meeting with C about my job and where the program is headed and all that jazz. She's assured me that my position isn't being terminated (damn). Apparently they're hiring new people to take over my boss' job so they'll need someone to continue doing what I've been doing. So I'm going to have to either help them hire someone new or train someone from within the company. Uh oh. No one (well, almost no one) in my company really knows exactly what I do. I am an enigma....or rather my job function is :). Now everyone's gonna find out what a bum I was and how I used to basically just sit in my office looking and sounding important and busy, while doing nothing :).

Anyway, so what this means is that I get to go on my vacation and come back while I'm still employed, which is pretty cool since it saves me a lot of paperwork. Now I gotta drill down the details of the Europe trip. I'm planning on leaving sometime around May 15th, spending around 15-20 days in Europe and then heading on to India for three weeks. As of now the tentative list of cities is Madrid, Barcelona (maybe), Paris, Milan, Rome, Amsterdam and London. My rich and snotty colleagues at work who vacation in Spain and Italy every year, have made it their life's mission to plan out my trip for me. That's all they talk about with me these days!

Visiting and spending at least a couple of days in all those cities might be a little ambitious but I think it should be possible. If it gets too crazy, I'll take out Barcelona and Milan from my plans which will leave me with 5 cities (now that should be easy huh?). The plan is to fly in to the South (Madrid) and then work my way up by train and finally fly out of London. It sucks that the Eurail pass does not cover some of the local trains. Hadn't factored that into my budget (which is around $5500, maybe someone who's done this can tell me if that's about right?). Spoke with a couple of travel agents about air fares and they're still pretty reasonable but I need to act fast. Prices will get crazy expensive since summer is tourist season.

There was a message on the Duke admitted students group about setting up a website which would act as a centralized database for information on what everyone's plans were for the summer. That would allow people to possibly meet up if their travels were taking them to common places. I think that's a really cool idea. I'll also try to get in touch with future Duke classmates in all the cities I'm planning on visiting, once my plans are finalized.

And finally, if *anyone* from our little blogging community is planning a trip to any of those places (calling Wheresmydesert and MBA Cutie!...although I think MBAC is travelling with her family) or would like to plan something out together, drop me a line!

The invisible school

2006-03-29T15:22:00.000-05:00

Got waitlisted by Stern. I had put together that application in literally 2 days. It wasn't that hard since I already had the toughest essay (the last one) taken care of from the time when I considered applying last year. The rest, I just copy/pasted/modified from my other schools. I applied there, even though I was in at other schools and wasn't sure I would go even if admitted, for very personal reasons and didn't tell anyone for the same reasons. Those reasons are moot now.

Mentioning my admits at Duke and Darden in the optional essay might not have been very smart. Especially since I talked about going into MC as one of my goals. Since these schools are so closely ranked and since Duke and Darden are generally considered better for consulting (Stern is obviously considered better for finance), maybe adcom didn't think I would attend even if admitted. If they thought my application was good but were concerned about yeild, a waitlist makes more sense from their pov, since now they can get a feel for my true interest based on how actively I pursue (or don't pursue) the waitlist.

Or all the above analysis is bull and they waitlisted me cuz that's what my application deserved. Anyway, it's all good.

ps: The invisible school refers to the fact that Stern has always been listed on the sidebar on the right, it's just been invisible i.e. "commented out".

Show me the money!

2006-03-27T17:08:00.000-05:00

Ahh....everything happens for a reason. It is destiny. There are better things in store for you in the future, you just can't see them right now....etc etc.

I suddenly find myself in a philosophical mood (although it's hard to be philosophical with that huge grin on my face :) ). The above remarks are to be taken in the context of the rejection from Wharton and the subsequent events. The good folks at Duke have finally seen the light and realized how lucky they are to have me. As soon as they received that scholarship reconsideration request from me, there were high level meetings called, the dean was dragged out of his bed, students started picketing outside the admissions office threatening to go on a hunger strike if MJ was not given some $ and life as we know it came to a standstill in Durham, NC. And what did you expect? The inevitable happened. The scholarship committee decided to cough up some much needed dough for moi!

Ok, so maybe it didn't happen quite that way. But the end result was still pretty sweet. Duke has offered me a scholarship for which I am really grateful.

It all started after that resounding DING from Wharton. I was feeling pretty shitty about that (despite all the rationalization about already being in at a great school). I was feeling really restless and needed to do something..anything. And then I started thinking back to the time when I was about to start grad school at USC. I had just gone with the flow. I wasn't proactive. I had just accepted the status quo and never really attempted to get a scholarship. This was in sharp contrast with my sis who used to sit up all night as she sent out a million emails to different people trying to land a research or teaching assistantship (which she did) before she started school.

I decided that this was the perfect opportunity to learn from my mistakes and at least make an honest attempt to try and get a scholarship. So I sent out an email to adcom at Duke. The email was a combination of how I was God's gift to mankind (merit) and how I would probably have to sleep on the street and survive on ramen noodles for the next 2 years (need) if they didn't give me some money. I got a polite reply within a couple of days about how scholarship considerations were strictly merit based and that I would have to send an official scholarship reconsideration request to the scholarship committee. The way I saw it, at least they didn't start laughing and tell me to take a hike. So I drafted a letter and sent it out the same day.

So I get an email today with a subject line that says: "The Duke MBA - Financial Aid Reconsideration Request". Hmmmm...cryptic. Not looking good. So I open the email and quickly scan through it, looking for that dreaded word "Sorry". Instead I see a numeric value :). Numbers have never looked more beautiful.

D vs D

2006-03-18T11:13:00.000-05:00

It's time for the inevitable 2nd guessing and questioning game. Darden or Duke? Duke or Darden? I've been leaning heavily towards Duke since the day I got admitted. I had a great time during the campus visit. Loved the people. Loved the vibe. Loved the class. The facilities are state of the art. Loved the touch of hanging international flags in the hallway.
Darden was a great experience too. The campus is absolutely gorgeous. The students, teachers and staff couldn't have been nicer and more helpful. The class I sat in on was probably the most enjoyable one that I have attended at any B school.

I am sure I would be comfortable in both environments. So in terms of fit, I see myself being happy at both schools. The next thing to consider would be future career goals. I plan on going into management/strategy consulting. Both these schools have the reputation of being excellent management schools and are listed in the top 10 for general management on both Businessweek and US News. The list of companies that recruit at both schools is comparable. All the major players seem to visit both schools.

So why was I leaning towards Duke? (some of these things are extremely minor but they are still things that come to mind)
1. Overall brand name. Duke University is a much better overall school than the University of Virginia and has more name recognition.
2. Teaching methodology. While I absolutely loved the case method class at Darden, I have to bear in mind that I was a silent participant which is very different from being in that class. Having never had any form of education based solely on the case method, I can't be sure how I would react to it (Darden is 100% case based). Will I be able to put my inhibitions (such as thinking something is too silly to bring up or thinking something is too obvious or becoming self conscious) behind me and be able to be an active participant in class every single day? Class participation is a major part of the grades at Darden. One of the things I hope to gain from B school is to be able to go out of my comfort zone. To be able to challenge myself. I do not think questioning whether this teaching method is best from me, qualifies under shirking a challenge.
These are of course things I should have thought of before applying, and I did and thought I'd do just fine. But now I'm reevaluating the whole thing from a different perspective where I have the option of an alternative.
Duke by contrast has what seems to me to be the perfect blend of teaching methodologies. There seems to be a good mix of lectures, simulations, cases which might suit my learning style better. Some theory/lectures might be a good thing for someone with no prior knowledge in this field.
3. Course rigor. Darden has the reputation of being one of the most intensive programs in the country. This is not necessarilly a bad thing. The average Darden student might come out better prepared to crack cases and such than a Duke student (not necessarilly but lets assume that for the sake of argument). But again, an MBA is so much more than just the education. It's about the experience. It's about networking. Meeting new people. Experiencing new situations. Developing as a person. I believe the more balanced life at a school such as Duke might be the way to go.
4. Uncertainty. As a career switcher, it is possible that once I go to B school I might realize that I am not cut out for consulting or might find that I am more interested in finance or marketing. Duke might be a better school overall in case I decided to do something other than MC. Moreover the Health Care Management program at Duke is one of the best in the country. With a background in health care, it would be nice to have that option open to me.
5. Interaction with students at Duke. I realize that part of the reason current students and alumni reach out to and contact admitted students is to increase the yeild and figure out who seems to be inclined to attend. However, they also seem genuinely enthusiastic about the school and seem to want to go out of their way to help. Although a student from Darden called me too. I did not get the same feel from her.
6. Blue Devil basketball!
Duke gets a very minor edge over Darden in each of these points (except the last!), the cummulative effect of which makes me think Duke is the better option.

So if I seem so convinced that Duke is better for me why the debate? Employment statistics (Full time for class of 2005 and internships for class of 2006) and rankings. Looking at figures such as the % of international students employed at graduation and after 3 months of graduation, Darden seems to have an edge over Duke (100% vs 84%). Darden is also slightly ahead of Duke in terms of average starting salaries for international students. In fact all the numbers seem to be higher for Darden across the board. Darden is also ranked higher in a couple of rankings (although Duke is ranked higher overall in Bweek and US news). Moreover, there seems to be a lot of buzz about Darden amongst people in the field that I have talked to. The rankings obviously will never be a good enough reason to choose one school over another but as they say in MBA speak, they are one more data point in the entire package.

Soooo...where does that leave me? I guess I'm still leaning towards Duke. I shall be attending Blue Devil Weekend at the end of the month. Hopefully that will make things clearer.

Iraq in transition

2006-03-17T17:04:00.000-05:00

The debate about the pros and cons of the war in Iraq and how it was handled and whether it was even necessary invariably leads to strong emotions. Regardless of your personal views on the matter, this article from the Christian Science Monitor gives some fascinating insights into the day to day life of an Iraqi family. Irrespective of whether you support the war or not, you can't help but feel for the bleak (?) future these kids seem to be facing.

Different organizations/agencies have quoted the number of casualties (comprising mostly of civilians) as anything between 30 to 50 thousand (these are the numbers that I could dig out). That is a huge number of human lives. The Tsunami claimed approximately 240 thousand lives and there was an outpouring of help from the entire world community. How come we don't see a similar drive to help the people of Iraq? Everyone seems to be too busy debating the war and the right time to pull out US forces to consider the plight of the people in that country. A lot of those deaths were caused as a direct result of the invasion. Doesn't the world community have a moral obligation to try to save the Iraqi people and give them a better future? It can be argued that that is the very reason the US forces are not withdrawing immediately (among other reasons). They want to bring some stability and peace in the area.

However, I am talking about the common (wo)man on the street in the US. There does not seem to be much sympathy for the condition of the people in Iraq such as which is seen when a major disaster strikes different parts of the world. This is understandable to a certain extent since people are more worried about the safety of their own friends and relatives serving in Iraq. However, this still does not change the fact that the situation there is in some ways the direct result of an invasion led by the US and it is equivalent to a disaster in terms of how it is affecting people's lives, so the lack of any significant financial relief/aid funded by the people and/or charity organizations is surprising.

I don't know how such aid would help. In fact, ensuring political stability might be the best way of improving the lives of these people. But people helped out after the Tsunami, they helped out after Katrina, I wish there were a way (and desire) for an average person to help out after this disaster too.

The big D

2006-03-16T13:39:00.000-05:00

"You don't understand! I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I could've been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am."

Okay, so maybe not getting into Wharton doesn't quite make me a bum, but it blows nonetheless. That's right, Wharton showed me the dreaded big D. I can't say I wasn't bummed out about it. I was. I still am a little bit, but I'll get over it. On the bright side, there finally seems to be some resolution to where my life is headed. I can start thinking about moving, apartment hunting, roommates, getting tickets etc, so that's a good thing.

I've resisted the temptation to do a post ding analysis so far and hopefully I can keep it that way. Hindsight always has the benefit of 20/20 vision but it's useless now. I am headed to a school that I genuinely like and which will provide me with all the opportunities to succeed in my chosen career path (MC). Like I told my friend, I would definitely have gone to Wharton if I'd got in, but Fuqua is pretty good too so no regrets.

Finally, a little bit of soul baring. K got in to Wharton. I'm genuinely happy for him! However, considering that he wouldn't even have applied there (or at any other top school) if I hadn't convinced him and helped him with his essays, I felt a momentary pang upon finding out that he was in and I wasn't. Petty? Yes. He's one of my best friends so I'm not proud of the fact that I felt that way even for a second, but such is human nature (or maybe it's just me).

Tick-tock

2006-03-15T20:13:00.000-05:00

Things to do on the eve of D day to calm those nerves:

1. Work out for over an hour - check
2. Talk to K who's also waiting for a decision tomorrow
3. Unpack the new TX and play with it!
4. All night movie marathon (Crash, City of God, Season 4 of 24)
5. Chat all night on the Wharton s2s board.

OR

Get drunk and pass out.

Change at the workplace

2006-03-14T17:57:00.000-05:00

So it's official. The big dog (my boss) is getting fired. Well, he isn't technically getting fired. His contract is not being renewed which is essentially the same as getting fired and it's not pretty. The man has been my mentor over the last 3 years so it sucks to see him treated like this. And it's interesting how even though no one seems to like him, and people can't stop bitching about him, his immediate staff was literally in tears when they heard the news. Of course a part of it had to do with the fact that their jobs are intrinsically connected to his (as is mine in a way) so there is now some uncertainty regarding the stability of their jobs, but I believe their reaction had more to do with the fact that despite his obsessive compulsive behaviour and God complex in the way he treated people, he was always fiercely protective of his staff. I guess the regular, sometimes extravagant gifts for everyone didn't hurt either. Besides, the staff has been together a long time and now it seems like the entire practice is collapsing and no one likes change. After the news about M became public, T was let go, C might be next and people already know I'll be leaving this summer. (FYI: That's the Donald with Conan's favorite "You're fired" cobra move)

So now things are going to get interesting for me at work. Are they going to decide to let me go or are they going to reason that since I shall be leaving soon anyway, they might as well save the severance and wait for me to leave off my own accord. I need to figure out a way to use the six weeks of paid time off I have accumulated before either one of those scenarios. Ideally, I would leave on my European/Indian vacation in mid May and return in July. The problem with that is that if they decide to lay me off while I'm gone, I won't be able to return without getting a student visa (as opposed to reentering the country and filing for a change of status) which is a pain. This entire line of thought is moot if they lay me off sometime in the immediate future (April) but I doubt that's gonna happen considering the entire department starts panicking if I'm not around even for 1 day :). There's even a strong possibility that they would want to keep me around since G is not leaving. Who knows. Guess it's time for one of my heart-to-heart talks with CT to see what's going on. I hate those conversations. They're almost worse than the "where is this relationship going" conversations you're forced to have with women :)!

My friends keep asking about my Europe plans. P keeps pestering me about whether I'm still on board for the one week in Germany for the World Cup. Things should be a lot clearer in a couple of days once the Wharton results are out. I've given up on MIT so I should know by Thursday whether I'm headed to Philly or Durham (Charlottsville seems unlikely at this point). This will help me since then I can figure out when I want to be back in the country depending on the dates of pre-term/summer school etc for the school I'm headed to.

Re-applicants

2006-03-08T17:59:00.000-05:00

This post started off as a comment in response to B School Diva's post but morphed into the mama of all comments (sizewise) so I decided to post it on my own blog.

I had applied to 2 schools (Wharton and Columbia) last year. I had jumped into the process without doing a lot of research. I even committed the cardinal sin of not reading Montauk's book! *gasp* (okay, I hadn't even heard of montauk's book :) ). Needless to say, I got rejected at both schools. At the time, I felt I had put in a reasonably strong application. However, after some introspection, I realized that there were several areas that I could improve in. The feedback I got from Wharton really helped me with this. I believe duke provides feedback too. This is an excellent starting point.

Some of the things I worked on were, improving my GMAT score, getting more involved in extracurricular activities. making a conscious attempt to take on more leadership responsibilities at work and finally doing a *much* better job with my essays (specifically, showing career progression and doing a better job of elucidating short and long term goals).
The fact that you have been through this process really helps, since you have a better perspective on what is expected and what adcom is looking for.

Another big dilemma for me (and one which a lot of people who get dinged face) was that I was tired of my job at the time and was really looking forward to a fresh start. I considered taking up a new job. At the same time, I knew I would reapply for an MBA the next year.

The problem with the new job scenario was that I would have to ensure that I could justify my reasons for taking up the new job in terms of career progress or some such. But having put forward that justification, I would then have to show a good reason as to why I wanted to quit this new job 3-4 months into it (since I had decided to apply round 1 of next year). Moreover, there would be the issue of recommendations. I believe it is always best to get a recommendation from an immediate supervisor. My supervisor at the new company would have known me only for a couple of months and would not be able to provide a convincing enough recommendation (in my opinion). Also, I didn't think the new company would be very pleased upon learning that I planned to quit within less than a year of joining them.

Finally, I was concerned with how different my app could possibly be in a couple of months. there's only so much you can do in 4-5 months.

After a lot of thought and introspection, I came up with the following strategy:
1. Not to change my job.
2. Go out of my way to be involved in projects that would look good in my app.
3. More extracurriculars (I have always been pretty actively involved in volunteering but I figured doing more of something I enjoyed anyway could only help my app).
4. Retook the gmat.
5. Decided to apply to a wider spread of schools. This is very important. I did not end up applying to all the schools I planned on primarily because I got admitted to Duke on Dec 16th so lost the drive. But i had planned on applying to 6 schools.
6. Decided to apply to as many schools as possible in round 1. This leaves you with a lot of options. (Ended up applying to just 2 but that was not the plan)
6. Decided to apply to wharton in round 2 because I figured that would give me more time to set my application apart from the application that got rejected.
7. Completely overhauled my essays.
8. By default, I would have 1 more year of work experience.
edit: 9. Made sure I coached my recommenders on the uniqueness of each school (for example the 100% case method at darden) and made them familiar with my application/essays. I had not done this the first time.

I decided not to change my job, but I do believe it is possible to overcome some of the concerns I mentioned earlier, even if you decide to change jobs. It can be shown that it is better to change a job for a few months rather than continue in a dead end job. Changing a job does not mean that an MBA is not right at that time. Also, regarding the recommenders, it is always possible to get recommendations from people at the last job since they had been working with you till recently so that should not be an issue.

The catharsis of writing

2006-03-06T19:04:00.000-05:00

When I started this blog, it was never meant to be a "MBA applicant" blog. But since most of the other blogs I have been visiting recently have been B school related, my blog has taken on a distinct "b school journey" flavor. The very few people who even know about this blog are some fellow applicants to the class of 2008. I sat down to blog about something today and after saving the post as a draft, realized a couple of things. I was bothered by the fact that I had said nothing about my applications or my interview (or lack of one) or my preparation to make the transition to B school and it was bothering me. I ended up adding some pretty boring stuff (to me) about the planned trip to Durham and a conversation I recently had with a Fuqua first year. The second thing was that I realized that I was subconsciously assessing what impression I was conveying by what I wrote. I was worrying about what people would think of me. Would the reader think I'm funny? Smart? Witty? Was the post coming across as interesting (to the reader) or was I putting them to sleep with my meandering style? Or worse still, am I coming across as whiny or immature or silly? Are they gonna read my blog and think "ha, this guy is so gay"...oh my..i used that word in that sentence. It's just an expression. It has nothing to do with the literal meaning of the word. Is that politically incorrect? Don't wanna give the wrong impression............. And I started editing my post. That is such a sell out. I am who/what I am and I write for myself. I write as much for the catharsis of writing as for saving some of my thoughts on various issues. An online journal/diary? Not quite. More like a record of my thoughts on some topics, which gives me some direction and helps me understand myself better.

So what had I blogged about previously? What was it that set off this chain of thought? A surreal weekend night. A date that wasn't a date but one which seemed very much like a date...one such as which I haven't had in a long time. It started at around 12 AM. There was wine and talk and a movie and more talk and flirting and more wine and a morning walk along the beach. There wasn't even so much as a kiss at the end of it but it still put a smile on my face for all of the rest of the day. So different from most other dates with all the pressure and expectation and desire to make a good impression. So different from the meat market kind of feel when we sometimes go out clubbing and size up the women while they do the same to us. A lot of my friends are still in the "lets go to a club and hook up with a woman/man" phase. Or in the desperate "I need to find someone" phase. I'm not judging them. I'm not saying I'm better than them. I'm just saying it gets really tiring after a point.

So where will this go? Probably nowhere. I'm no cynic. Far from it. I've been told I'm the eternal romantic. But I just don't see it happening with this girl. It's a gut feeling. Also, I don't think I would want to start something right now since I'm gonna leave town in a couple of months. It was a great night nonetheless.

The city of brotherly love

2006-03-02T00:53:00.000-05:00

So I finished my Wharton interview today. No surprises. The interviewer asked the expected "Why MBA, why now, why Wharton" questions and I stuck to my usual shtick. I've repeated it so many times I'm actually beginning to believe some of it :). In hindsight, the one thing I could probably have done better was communicate a little better. I think I was speaking too fast and rushed through some of my responses. The school visit part of the trip was fun. Met some really interesting people. The caliber of some of the students at these schools continues to amaze me. Sat in on a 2nd year marketing class which quite frankly I did not enjoy but I had to make sure that I looked interested and laughed at the right times at the prof's lame jokes and nodded intelligently when he was addressing someone in my vicinity. Why, you may ask. Well, cuz I'm Mr. Paranoid. The guy who interviewed me happened to be in the same class and I assumed he had nothing better to do than to observe me for a solid 90 minutes and draw conclusions based on my body language and determine whether I would be a good fit at Wharton etc. In other news, I believe Martians landed in my back yard and Elvis is still alive.

A good thing that came out of this trip is that I found out my license has expired! I showed up at the car rental place and was just turning on the charm in the hopes of getting a free upgrade from the cute girl behind the counter when she went all cold on me. Turns out my license expired 2 weeks ago. Sh*t. Had to go back to the airport, take a cab etc. Got to head to the DMV tomorrow. I'm gonna use my motorcycle till I get my new license. Cops rarely pull over someone on a bike.

Seems like the MIT interview invites are trickling in. Quite a bit of activity on the businessweek forums about this (besides I_Will_Make_It and wheresmydesert reporting interview invites). Luckily I've finally reached a point where I'm beyond caring anymore. I'll be happy if I see the invite in my inbox but I'm so over obsessively checking for it everyday.

And finally, I finished 'The World is Flat'. Will probably blog about my thoughts on the book sometime in the future.

The Overcoat

2006-02-27T19:24:00.000-05:00

To buy or not to buy, that is the question. So I leave for my Wharton interview tomorrow evening (the interview is on Wed morn) and the plan was to go over my application and essays and think about my answers to the standard "why" questions one last time since I won't have any time all day tomorrow. Instead, I've spent the last 2 hours at the mall pondering on whether to buy a winter overcoat or not and if I decide to get one, what kind I should buy and how much I should spend. ..Or should I just borrow my friend's? I mean, sure it's probably 2 sizes too small for me but who's gonna notice? Do I even need one?...Maybe I don't need to worry about it and I'll be just fine with my suit jacket....think, good man, think!....This is just the price I pay for never having lived in that miserable cold for an extended period!

A few frantic phone calls to friends in the north and a couple of hours of intense thought and internal debating later I had an epiphany. The decision about whether to buy that coat or not isn't really going to define my existence for the next 50 years ya know, so maybe it's okay to make a quick decision in like 5 minutes....... And suddenly it all made sense, the world was a beautiful place again and I had found peace.

So I think I'm all set.....*now* I can read those essays......oh wait....should I rent a car or should I take a cab?............

Debunking the great myth

2006-02-26T23:20:00.000-05:00

"Yeah, but you know how it is man. Being one of like a million male/indian/IT guys, it's really tough for me to get in at a top school.". I just nodded along and made appropriate sounds indicating my complete agreement with his assessment about how life is a bitch for some people. I just didn't have the energy to get into a long debate at that point.

But now that I'm confortably ensconsced in bed with a hot mug of coffee after an enjoyable albeit tiring day at the golf links, I can pontificate on my views on this topic. Yes, there are a lot of guys that fall in that particular category. However, I don't completely buy the argument that that makes it tougher for these people to get in. Every applicant at a top B school needs to put together a unique story in their application. They need to demonstrate leadership potential and a track record of continued success and career progression along with decent community involvement/extra curriculars. These are the only factors by which an applicant can really seperate himself from the pack. This is true irrespective of your nationality or profession. No one is going to be admitted *just* becase of their high GMAT score and number of years of work experience (so it's not like the Indian IT guy is missing out on getting admitted since every other Indian IT guy has a great GMAT score too) and no one is going to be rejected *just* because of a GMAT score that is lower than their particular demographic (which is what the IMT guys often imply).

The white male with a GMAT score of 730 and 5 years of work experience at SUN including being the project lead or 5 years of work experience in some generic field on Wall Street, but nothing else, has just as little chance of getting in at a top school as the Indian dude lamenting the fact that it's harder for him because of his particular demographic since he has to set himself apart from all the other Indians. He doesn't. He needs to set himself apart from all the applicants. The non Indian tech guy or the non Indian banker will have to show something to set himself apart just as the IMT would.

The argument is made that if there are a 100 seats available and 35 Indian IT guys are applying for those seats as opposed to maybe 10-15 guys from any other given demographic, it implies it is tougher for the Indian dude since the school is looking for diversity and is unlikely to admit more than a given number of Indians. While it is true that schools are indeed looking for diversity, I don't believe they would pass on a truly deserving candidate just in the interest of diversity. If you can show in your application that you bring something unique to the table within the *entire* applicant pool, you will be admitted irrespective of nationality. This remains true for the Indian IT male, the American banker male and the European consultant male. It's not just about setting yourself apart within a particular demographic. It's about proving your worth within the entire candidate pool.

The logic cited by Indian guys is that since every other Indian guy comes from IT and has a strong GMAT score, it is harder for him. By reverse logic, that implies that the same guy would have had it much easier and would have had a great chance of getting in if he were not Indian and/or not from IT. Which means he would have had it easier if he were an European but with the same profile i.e. a generic IT job? Or he would have had it easier if he were an Indian from a non traditional field?

I believe the first statement does not hold. If his nationality were different i.e. not Indian and the rest of the profile were the same i.e. generic IT job, solid GMAT, good acads and nothing to set him apart or make him interesting, his chances of getting in would in no way be better than the Indian IT guy. So his Indian/IT tag is not holding him back. It's the lack of other things that a business school looks for, that is.

The second statement might have some truth to it. But then that holds irrespective of your nationality. If you come from a non-traditional field you *always* have an advantage since your application stands out.

The bottom line is that the Indian IT male has as much of a shot of getting in as anyone else. It's not just the world that is flat, the B school application field is flat too. If you can put together a unique/solid application that can stand up against the entire applicant pool, you will get in. I don't think there's ever a situation where adcom decides "all these Indian/IT/male applicants have *great* stories, but since we can take only X number of Indian/IT/Males, lets reject the rest". Neither do they say, "we are going to take X number of Indian/IT/Males. We have 40 applications and they all seem pretty similar i.e. great GMAT, decent work ex and good acads. Lets accept X number of them even though nothing really stands out except these things i.e. no intangibles, no leadership potential etc".

So how do we explain the fact that such a small percentage of total Indian/male/IT applicants make it to top B schools? Maybe they just don't fit the criteria? Just because a large number is applying and a large number has good GMAT scores does not imply that a large number has the other qualities required to be admitted or succeed (at B school).

If every Indian/IT/male applicant had a great story about how he found a cure for the bird flu virus or how he started an orphanage or something, and a majority of these candidates were rejected, then I would agree that they were indeed being rejected because adcom wanted to maintain diversity within the class. Otherwise, the Indian/male/IT guy is playing by the same rules as the American/male/banker guy i.e. show some kind of unique leadership or set your application apart in some way, or get dinged.

PS: I decided to jot down these (extremely disjointed) views despite the fact that I realize that I may be way off base in my reasoning here, since it seems to be conventional wisdom backed by several esteemed admission consultants that the Indian/male/IT demographic is indeed a tough one. Also, this post is in no way meant to disparage any demographic.

"How Opal Mehta Got Kissed....."

2006-02-23T00:13:00.000-05:00

As someone who's starting B school this Fall, the Harvard name always catches my attention (well any top B school name for that matter). Throw in a name like "Kaavya Viswanathan" and my interest is piqued.

Kaavya arrived at Harvard as a freshman in September 2004, and as a 17 year old landed a .5 million dollar book deal leading to the oh so juicily titled book: 'How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life' (due out in April).

Michael Pietsch, the head of the publishing company says: "I've been in this business since 1978, and it's my first experience signing up an author in her teens; in fact, with several teen years to go." There's enough early buzz and interest for at least a 75,000-copy first printing.

That's pretty impressive. The idea of writing a book about one's B school experience or any kind of school/college experience for that matter is not that original. Quite a few people have thought of that. Heck, I have thought of that! There are even a couple of good books out there related to this. I can see a publisher going for something like that since there seems to be a definite niche for that kind of litrature.

But for a publisher to go out on a limb and sign up a 17 year old kid to write a work of fiction speaks volumes for the kind of talent this girl must have, not to mention the fact that the publisher is even willing to take such a risk. Read the entire article here

(and of course I couldn't resist sending in this story on the SM tipline)

Europe et al.

2006-02-21T22:49:00.000-05:00

I should be preparing for my Wharton interview. Maybe working on my resume? Coming up with specific leadership examples...Going over my essays maybe?

Of course I'm doing none of the above. Before I received my invite and when I had all the time in the world, I spent hours and hours refreshing my inbox and application status page. In a zombie like state, I sat before my computer staring at the screen till the words started blurring. With all that time at hand, not once did I open a website to research my big European vacation. Not once did I open an airline website to find out what the airfare might be. Not once did I sit and try to figure out the logistics of my move and when I want to quit my job before travelling to India/Europe/Bangkok. And most importantly how I want to handle my visa issues i.e. file for an F1 or just go with a Change of Status?

So what's the problem? The problem is that right when these things should be farthest from my mind and I should be concentrating on preparing for my upcoming interview, I find myself spending hours at end on sites such as this planning my big trip! There is so much groundwork I need to do. The plan is to spend around 24 days in Europe travelling to London, Paris, Southern Italy, Amsterdam and Spain (Madrid? Seville?) before heading to India (these plans might change if P gets world cup tickets and I decide to go to Germany). I looked up ticket prices and they seemed pretty reasonable right now. I need to figure out where I want to fly in, whether I want to get the Eurorail pass or whether I want to rent a car, I need to apply for the Schengen visa and visa for England, the list goes on and on. Then I need to figure out whether I'm gonna sell my furniture and if so, when I should start. Or if I decide not to, then where I am gonna store it after May. And should I quit my job before going on vacation or should I come back while I still have a job and then change my status...questions questions.... And here I go again....This is so not the time to be thinking about this stuff!! Focus man focus! My life right now should be all about "Why MBA? why now? why wharton?"

ps: Philly is expensive! Just got a hotel reservation for the 28th.

The long wait

2006-02-15T15:34:00.000-05:00

There's been tons of stuff going on lately. Just haven't felt any inclination to blog about it. Works been pretty boring but the frenzied gossip surrounding the possible firing of my boss has more than made up for the lack of anything productive to do. (Yeah, that just sounds sad). The personal life has been crazy what with playing Dr. Phil to S and still figuring out the nature of my relationship with R. Although, we finally seem to have reached a place where we've both moved on and are comfortable with being just friends. Had a great time with her when she visited a couple of weekends ago. Valentine's day of course was as boring and uneventful as ever.

Dunno why I felt obligated to write all that down! It's like I was apologizing for the prolonged absence (to whom?!) and trying to do a quick recap of "the story so far...". Okay, so now for the big news. FINALLY heard from Wharton and no it's not a Ding! They want to "discuss my application further through an evaluative interview". Well, what do you know! I might get some love from Wharton after all! K keeps telling me how I shouldn't be stressing out about this since I'm already in at Duke and Darden, which sounds logical. It didn't stop me from checking my status 20 (as I said before, who am I kidding, more like 50) times a day the last week or so. Not sure what it is. Could it be that I coudn't bear the thought of being rejected twice? Naa, I think it's something else. Something that I could sit and psychoanalyze as is my wont, but I won't.

For now, Wharton interview...wohhoooo!!! Gotta start going through all those interview prep websites now.

Rang De Basanti

2006-01-29T02:11:00.000-05:00

So after a brief (okay, pretty long) hiatus, I think I'm gonna get back to blogging. Given that no one knows about this blog of mine, it doesn't really matter whether I blog or not in the general scheme of things. Nonetheless, I felt like making that grand announcement......

Jotting down random thoughts and recording events from my completely uneventful existence might keep me distracted from obsessing over my stupid B school applications! Have been checking the B school forums (the crackboards as our effervescent DKNY calls them) 20 times a day! (naa, who am I kidding, it's more like 50 times a day). and this despite the fact that I'm already in at 2 schools and know that MIT is like a black hole and it's unlikely I'm gonna hear from them for at least a month....okay, all this needs to go on another entry! onwards to a brief review of one of the better hindi movies i've seen in recent times....

watched it on friday night. excellent movie! i'm no movie critic/expert but it was easy to appreciate the crisp direction and great acting all around. one of those movies that has multiple layers. different people will come away with different personal impressions after watching it. beneath all the fun and humor, you get a glimple of the real india, a glimpse of the good ol college days, friends bonding, the attitude you see about day to day life in india. and by the end of it, you can't help but feel that nationalistic fervor rise in you.

one of the things that might be different for people born and raised here (unless they have made a conscious effort to learn about these things) as opposed to in india, when they watch the movie, would be knowing the stories the movie talks about. most folks who grew up in india would know the stories of chandrashekhar azad and bhagat singh and lalaji and the train robbery and how azad killed himself rather than be taken alive etc. so maybe it's easier to identify and follow along. watching the scene about jalianwalla bagh reminded me of all the patriotic songs that i used to know back in the day...from a distant past...one of the songs had the line... "jalianwalla bagh ye dekho, yahan chalin thi goliyan, khel raha tha bacha bacha yahan khoon ki holiyan...."

the actors were brilliant. every one of them. (aside: the english girl looked like a cross between kyra sedgwick and calista flockhart). it was really cool that amir khan was treated as just one of the 5 in the latter half. not given any special treatment/camera time because of his superstar status. there were quite a few instances where the movie could have turned pretty cheesy and melodramatic but i thought the director did a great job of preventing that.

finally, loved the touch of not talking bout azad's story till the end, when amir is cornered and then blending it in.

wish they hadn't killed them all off though. "i want no survivors"...what the hell was that..that didn't quite make sense...oh well.

all in all, one of those rare laugh out loud funny movies that actually had a message in the end. never seen desis clapping and applauding at a theater. happened both at the interval and at the end of the movie.

ps: it's 3:30 AM. aussie open finals are gonna start. this is gonna be good. that baghdadis kid has some serious talent. federer in 4 sets says my crystal ball.

55 Fiction

2005-12-09T12:56:00.000-05:00

My first attempt at Nanofiction inspired by Sepia Mutiny. In response to Andrea's passage:

Three years later, she’s cruising, top down, stereo up, the vocals bells drumbeat sending her spirits soaring. Life with him was sparkling, flashing… nights that didn’t end before sunrise, parties, the music… he’s gone now, but the music is hers to keep. Deep down, she knew that was all she wanted in the first place.

Three years later, he rests in peace. Beyond the wild crazy nights, the never ending parties, the drives through mountains and valleys, all to give her the life she desired. At the end of it, he had no more to offer. Except the music. The music was his to give, even when the music died.

The curse of brown

2005-12-09T12:06:00.000-05:00

In all the years I've lived in the US, I've never had to deal with racism in any form. I've attributed that to a variety of reasons. The (metropolitan) cities I've lived in, the way I speak, the way I look(?), the way I dress. All of that came to naught the other day. I guess I always knew at some level that with the current political climate and the "everything goes in the name of security" attitude it wouldn't be long before I would have to personally deal with this issue. However, that didn't in any way prepare me for the little incident that occurred.

I speak hindi and gujarati in public all the time (on the phone). Have never gotten grief for it and have never thought twice about it. Except this one time. I was at a Blockbuster walking around trying to find something good to watch on a Friday night. As is my wont, I was on the phone chatting with a friend asking him for suggestions on what I should rent. I'd passed the "Action" movies aisle a couple of times and I realized that this redneck assh*le was mumbling something under his breath and making these weird noises (literally - "puk, puk, puk") every time I passed him and I thought I heard the word "foreigner". My mind didn't register what was going on for a minute. When it did, I literally froze in my tracks. Went back to the guy and confronted him. Asked him if he was talking to me. Expected him to kind of back off and deny the whole thing. No way! The moron tells me "you people" can't talk in public like that! I can't describe in words the sheer and utter *rage* that filled every part of my being. I literally started trembling. And of course I didn't let him get away with it. Cussed him out, called him a f*cking racist and stood a foot away from him, stared him in the eyes and continued talking in Gujarati. Not a very mature way of handling it? Maybe.
I was just scared at that moment. Terrified in fact. Terrified of the fact that I might lose control and physically assault him.

This wasn't even a major incident. This wasn't profiling. This wasn't someone suspecting I'm a terrorist bent on blowing up some building. This was just some narrow minded asshole being a jerk. But it puts front and center the issue of being Brown in this country post 9/11. How humiliating and enraging must it be to be seperated from a crowd or to be treated differently just because of the way you look, as happened to Dr. Bob Rajcoomar a US citizen and Lt. Colonel in the US army.

Cricket

2005-12-07T17:53:00.000-05:00

My whole body hurts like crazy. Result of an over enthusiastic weekend of cricket. Hadn’t played in several months and I felt obligated to play to keep my good standing in the “club”. I did after all talk about how actively I was involved in this “organization” in my essays (which is true). It’s interesting how what started as an attempt to meet desis (felt it would be nice to have some indian friends along with all my other friends at the time) in a new city has morphed into this monster that I can’t seem to slay. These guys are so damn passionate about the sport, I don’t have the heart to tell them it bores the shit out of me right now and if I had to choose between being asleep at home at 10 AM on a Sunday morn and playing cricket, the latter would be a DISTANT second. Not that I don’t enjoy cricket. I do. Maybe once a month.

So anyway, we were playing against this team from Antigua and I kicked some serious ass! Got to open the batting for a change (I normally open the bowling attack). Derived great pleasure from smacking this particularly obnoxious 6’6” monster for 4 sixes. The bastard had treated my bowling with utter disdain and had this really annoying habit of coming down the wicket after he’d wacked me for a 4 and telling me how he’d always had a gift for hitting fours on the off side! Ah, revenge *is* sweet!

So why am I blogging about this? I don’t even like cricket that much. Well, because my brilliant batting cost my good friend Y $400. I managed to clear the ground *and* the parking lot and reached the sidewalk on a particularly big hit and shattered the driver’s side glass of his Accord. Justice has finally been done! Y can’t stop laughing about the time I agreed to one of A’s “brilliant” ideas of trying to push my car out of the sand (where it was stuck) by *gently* nudging it with his Accord. I have a big fat dent on my bumper to show for that. A broken window for a dent. Fair enough. I’m one vindictive Ahole! (not really).

The right to choose.

2005-12-05T11:57:00.000-05:00

An Op-Ed in the NY times got me thinking on an issue that I haven't ever thought about.
The right to choose. Or more specifically, a man's right to choose. How much of a say can and should a man have in the a woman's decision to abort. The basic point Conley was trying to make was that the man who has fathered the child should have some say in the woman's right to choose.

NOBODY is arguing that we should let my friend who impregnated his girlfriend off the hook. If you play, you must pay. But if you pay, you should get some say. If a father is willing to legally commit to supporting and raising the child himself, why should a woman be able to end a pregnancy that she knew was a possibility of consensual sex? Why couldn't I make the same claim - that I am going to keep the baby regardless of whether she wants it or not?

That paragraph I believe captures the gist of Conley's argument. He seems to miss the basic fact that it is the WOMAN's body. It is the woman who has to risk her life, who has to deal with cramps and morning sickness and what not. How can a man ask a woman to unwillingly go through that experience or ordeal (depending on your perspective)?

However

A man invests in a relationship. He has feelings for someone. That someone gets pregnant. He wants the baby. To him, that is his son/daughter. The woman does not want to "deal" with that at this point. She gets an abortion.

A woman and a man have sex. The woman gets pregnant. The man wants no part of it. The woman has the baby anyway. Now she can LEGALLY demand child support. She can LEGALLY alter the course of that mans life.

Conclusion: If something does not sound fair, it normally isn't right.

Of course, the right to choose ultimately has to be the woman's. That's a no brainer for all too obvious reasons. So what's the solution? How about absolving the man from the legal obligation of being financially responsible for the child? At pregnancy, if there is a disagreement over the child and the man does not want the woman to have the child, how about having a legal document that can be signed, freeing the man from all obligations, financial or otherwise, related to the child?

But what about if a woman is against abortion but does not have the financial ability to sustain the child. Shouldn't the father be held responsible in that scenario? Just because he decided he did not want to "deal" with it, does not mean he can just walk away.

Whichever way you go, the law is going to end up being unfair to someone. I guess the way to go is to look at real life data instead of indulging in theoretical discussions, and determine which side is more vulnerable to exploitation. In this case, it would be women. Hence the law is obligated to protect women. This means that some men who might be put in such an unfortunate situation might suffer, but that's just the way it's going to have to be.

I'm sure I haven't even begun to scratch the surface of the issues at stake here. Need to do some research and find out more about this issue.

Double standards?

2005-11-24T00:43:00.000-05:00

The Debra LaFave case has been all over the news the last two days. More so in my listening area since it’s a local story. It’s pretty obvious she got a sweet deal. Most experts seemed to agree that there was no way she could avoid jail time if the case ever went to trial.

So we come to the question that has been asked a million times over the last two days. Would a male in a similar situation have gotten off this lightly? Hell no! He would have been branded a paedophile and would have been rotting in jail. No brainer. So isn’t that a double standard? Of course it is. However, unlike a lot of other double standards (some quite justified IMO), no one seems to be particularly outraged over this.

Is it because people reckon a 14 year old guy isn’t really the victim here if he got to have sex with such a hottie? Does that make what the teacher did acceptable? Then why even have a law regarding statutory rape? Why even make it illegal for a person over a certain age to have sex with minors? Why not just formulate a new set of laws stating that as long as the sex is consential and as long as the minor is a boy who wants to get some ass, anything goes?

What makes this even more outrageous is the fact that the gist of one of the arguments of the defense attorney was that she’s too pretty for prison. That she would just be victimized in prison. Sure. Poor helpless Debra LaFave. Let’s just let her walk shall we?

There has been a trend of letting women off lightly in such cases. This is the 3rd teacher (all the teachers are female) in Florida who has been charged with having a sexual relationship with a student. Aren’t teachers supposed to be held to a higher standard. People are trusting their kids to these people. Whatever happened to fiduciary responsibility. If anything, the penalty for such a crime should be even more severe for these people!

The logic behind not seeing the need to send these women to prison is that such an act or incident affects young girls very differently than guys the same age. Moreover, the chances of a woman being a repeat offender are minimal (let’s forget the Mary Kay Laterneau case for the moment). A man in a similar situation is more likely to be a threat to society and children and needs to be locked up. I don’t necessarily agree with this reasoning in terms of the conclusion drawn ie women need not serve time but I do see the logic.

Wasted weekend

2005-11-20T19:48:00.000-05:00

Feel like shit right now. Another wasted weekend. Did not accomplish much. I really need to get my act together. This blog is symbolic of what my weekend (and my life recently) has been like. Stilted, with no direction and focus.

And it's not like I don't have tons of things going on. The Darden application is due on the 1st of Dec and I can't get my sorry ass to sit in one place and concentrate on trying to figure out how "my past experiences have influenced my leadership style". These corny essay topics that business schools choose make me gag! The thought of smart men and women sitting and going through reams of BS written by prospective students on how they are the second coming of Michael Dell, with their business initiative or Mother Teresa with their "humanitarian" side, is hilarious (and in case, some adcom ever comes across this blog....i keeed)! But I digress....

So I decided to cut myself off from the limited social engagements that I did have for the weekend and finish off my essays in one marathon session. That shouldn't be too hard...I should be able to sit and concentrate for 2 days straight....No biggie...YEAH RiGHT!

The master plan was that I'd sit at the local library, this breathtakingly gorgeous building by the beach and sip on a latte and brainstorm. Got lunch, turned off the cell phone, got the laptop, picked up the Darden brochure and headed out. I had a sense of purpose. Let's go! You know where this is going right? The plan, the preparation, the build up.....and then...kaput! I get there and there's this HUGE fair going on the grounds outside the library. Apparently all the frickin geeks in the area had chosen this weekend to converge on the good ol local library for a Pirate's Convention. Yea, you read that right. A pirate's convention! Try brainstorming and thinking about leadership and career goals when you have grown men dressed as pirates performing these elaborate routines complete with sword fights and singing! And we're not talking a couple of pirates. We're talking hundreds of them. And the women. Ah, the women. I'm surprised those dudes could even concentrate on their intricate sword moves with all that cleavage around! So needless to say, after an hour or so of valiantly laboring on, I gave up the whole essay thing as a bad job and joined the revelry.

So we come to Sunday. Have no fear kiddo. All is not lost. You have an entire day ahead of you. You know you can do it. Once those creative juices start flowing, you're gonna have those essays done in no time. RIIGGGHHTTT. Sunday morn I realize I had set up a lunch "date" with this girl I met recently! Dunno how that slipped my mind. Well I do know. Had something to do with a certain hottie from London but that's a story for another day.

So the "date" went pretty well. Will probably see her again. But for some reason, the thing was kinda stressful. Didn't have my A game on. Wasn't really feeling good about it. Decided to sleep it off. And sleep it off I did. For 3 hours! And here we are.

Got on my comp to finally get some work done and succumbed to my latest addiction. Blogging. Well not blogging per se. More like reading other people's blogs. There's a voyeuristic pleasure in following what's going on in the lives of people and sitting and judging them and the decisions they take. Kind of like a bad soap. The Sepia Mutiny group blog is kinda interesting. Frequented by some very smart and insightful people, but they sometimes come across as stodgy and pompous. Gets annoying. That blog led me to a couple of interesting blogs including Rupa's blog and Anna's blog among several others. First impression: narcissistic loser, completely in love with herself (i couldn't have been more wrong obviously). HOWEVER, isn't there a certain element of narcissism in *all* of us? Especially, those of us who blog about our personal lives or thoughts. Or is it just a need for attention and validation? More on this later. And then of course there are all the usual suspects..App, Rupa, DT, Shreya and a ton of others. Getting addicted to that shit.

Rituals and customs.

2005-11-18T02:34:00.000-05:00

And so the journey begins.........

I was having this discussion with a friend about Indian culture and the relevance of certain rituals in the lives of Indians in this day and age. What her argument came down to was that certain Indian rituals are rather silly and pointless. Her reasoning? She wanted an explanation and the history for everything that is part of our culture, else it didn’t make sense to her. Got me thinking.....

Is it really necessary to understand the history behind every tradition or the meaning of every shloka or ritual? Is it really essential to know why you make a rangoli on holi or why a sister ties a rakhi on rakshabandhan or why you light firecrackers on diwali? Does the meaning of those funny sounding words that that funny looking priest in those funny looking clothes chants when people get married really matter? And what exactly is the significance of that fun dance we do every october?

It’s great to know the meaning of these things. Iin fact, thats what I woud strive for .It’s great to understand your culture, and where you come from, to whatever degree you’re comfortable with or curious about. But at a certain point, maybe it’s okay to say that this is part of my heritage which goes back several thousand years. These are the traditions that have been assimilated over a period of several centuries. Maybe I can’t understand all of them. Maybe I can’t learn the history and the roots of every single ritual. But maybe I don’t need to. Maybe I’m just proud of where I’m from and like following those rituals because they are a part of me and my roots..

I guess what I am getting at is that not being able to understand or rationalize it is not reason enough for me to give up something like my heritage.