Marching towards 2007!!

Christmas eve celebrated... Annual Alumni meet, Solstice 2006 celebrated.. what remains? The new years eve.. but what will you find me doing? Studying for my 6th end term exams.. :) But no qualms.. why? Because I will mostly be on my way to make every new year to follow a memorable one with the kind of job I will probably get.. I mean I at least hope it to be that way.. :)

What do I see in retrospect? 6 terms at ISB.. added with 3 months at Infosys.. the ecstacy of at last making it to ISB after 3 years of following this institute.. the feeling I had when I finally got a mail which mentioned that I have been moved to the "admit" list from the "waitlist".. the response I got from so many of my friends whom I had pestered over these three years about me doing an MBA... the feeling on entering the campus of this grand institute.. the 6 terms of hard fought battle with assignments, projects, presentations, workshops, seminars, guest lectures, classes etc etc.. the new friends I made here and who will remain dear to me for years to follow..

What do I see in near future? One main final battle still remains.. the placements.. two more "xerox" terms remain.. though I feel it will be lighter than before.. then the grand day of graduation, will be ready to throw the hat in the air.. :).. then the first day at the new job.. the reputation of being an ISB grad.. all this awaits.. and how excited I am to take it on.. so here is a heart warming, bear hugging welcome to the year 2007!!... ROCK ON!!.. :)

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Team ISB Cricket!!

This is the email alias we have for the official ISB cricket team... and we played, most probably, our last match on 16th December against Virtusa. We won it, though I wont say comfortably.. after all we should at least behave the way our Indian cricket team does.. try and snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.. but seems defeat defeated us after all and we managed to win.. :)

I used the word "most probably" because we could not make it to the next round and with placements coming up in the next month.. the students wont be able to participate in the tourneys for another 2 months.. come March, we would have just one more month at the ISB and no tourney gets over in just one month.. so theoritically, it was our last match as part of the ISB cricket team..

Added to other things that ISB offered, I really am thankful for they had this official cricket team.. I could not have imagined a year without playing cricket.. and ISB didnt let me down.. :) The moments on the ground.. playing under floodlights on a field that could not have been any greener.. it was an experience I was not expecting at all when I joined ISB.. the fun of still going for a match with your end term exams hanging over your head for the next day.. but then after the exams feeling that it was a good decision to go for the match as any amount of preparation for the exam would not have helped... All these things were some things I would have to take another life for experiencing.. as I dont think I am in the mood of doing another MBA in this life of mine.. :D

So ya.. I had to write a word for the contribution cricket has done to my life here at ISB.. HAIL CRICKET!!.. :)

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PAEV comes to an interesting end!!

If you have been a frequent reader of this blog, you would have observed that there was one post which talked about this elective course we had, PAEV (Planning an Entrepreneurial Venture). I had taken it up as I felt this would give me a holistic view of planning, launching and running a new business. While on the journey to finish this course, we experienced a lot of hurdles.. not the traditional ones that one would expect in launching a new business...these hurdles were of a different kind. These were the assignments, presentations, projects we had for the other courses we had taken. We had to literally pull time out of our schedules to prepare a good business plan. I had Sonali and Anshul, my ever dependable friends to give me company of this journey.

Finally last week we were done with the final submission of our business plan and heaved a sigh of relief. Not because we didnt like the course but because one load was off our shoulders.. :) But then came the testing times, we were fortunately or unfortunately shortlisted for the ISB B-Plan Competition, where in you are mechanically made to volunteer yourself as you had taken the course. With over 4 assignments to take care of over the weekend, we were a bit scared to devote the whole of Saturday into this. We made some stupid excuses to our dear Professor and he picked those up quite brilliantly, leaving us high and dry, and at the mercy of the judges for the semifinals on Saturday morning.

Then came the prime time with the "Escapades!" team (yeah that was our team and project name) standing in front of the judges giving a 10 minute presentation, only to find out that they could not finish their presentation within the stipulated time.. :) They didnt know whether to be happy or sad.. happy because this might have saved them half a day and sad because there was this opportunity to gain some satisfaction for the effort gone into it in past 3 months. The results for the finals were declared by Dr. Nicholas Burns, Undersecretary of United States for Political Affairs. To our surprise and shock, our name was called out 4th from the 9 finalists.. the expression on our faces was worth watching with all of us standing with gaping mouths and clapping for ourselves.. :) The finals went well with us finishing the presentation in time but we didnt bag the final top 3 slots.. we werent sad.. it was a really rewarding experience for the effort which lasted over 3 terms. I would say the experience was really worth it.. and I am sure my colleagues would definitely agree to it!!.. :) A satisfying end to the course, I must say!!

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