For the past 1 week, I am receiving many calls from my relatives and old friends. I conveyed to each of them about my plans to pursue MBA education in ISB. Unfortunately none of them knew about ISB, which is quite understandable because of its relatively new entry into the market. To make matters worse many of them didn’t know about IIM’s too!!

I have left the efforts to make them understand the calibre of ISB. I am just telling them that I am going for higher studies and that it will be over in one-year.

One of my neighbour’s son is doing distance MBA from IGNOU. The total cost of education is 12,000 Rs. The total cost of my education is 15 lacs. Why so much price difference for same degree? This is another question that I receive. In spite of my best efforts to make them realize the quailty of student body, opportunity to network with some brilliant minds in business, lifelong bonding, faculty quality etc., I am unable to convince them on the cost of education. I have started facing the pressure now…In case something goes wrong (can’t rule out this option completely), no.1 response will be around the 15 lacs!

With all due respect to ISB, 15 lacs is a huge sum of money in Indian context. Only very few appreciate the intention to spend such a sum on education in India. I am happy that my parents are in the very few. That’s enough for me..

I have decided to follow the silent saint philosophy..I will get on with my pursuit without getting disturbed by responses and ignorances of others. When I get the results, world (my environment) will take a notice on me..Until then, BE HUMBLE, BE SILENT..

When I was in Belgium, I was determined not to worry unduly about the cost and to enjoy the one-year ride whilst being focused. But now after one week’s of stay in good-old home conditions, the cost factor has increased the pressure on me.

One of my aunt (quite elderly) is going to Muscat to visit his son living there. She will be there for 6 months and this is her first abroad trip. Visited her on Sunday and wished her. In order to not waste my valuable trip to chennai city, I purchased some casuals from Chennai silks. One job finished.

When I left Belgium, I thought I will not look at some stupid, rubbish tamil films. Alas, I have fallen in the trap of tamil films..Somehow, I have started watching films..Cricket was disappointing. Very sad to see the state of Sourav Ganguly. The very leader who was cheered across the nation is now booed relentlessly by all sections of the crowd! Guess, this will be his last captaincy in tests…He is heading towards the abyss of his career..

I planned to revise some statistics concepts and maths concepts. But I am struck and unable to overcome the inertia. I have signed for Intermediate Statistics and Intermediate Quantitative methods pre-terms.

I was happy to see the visitors count for my blog crossing 10,000! Also, my blog turns up first when someone searches for “Bharani”. Good!

A get-together among chennai admits is planned for the upcoming weekend. A lunch and movie session is planned I guess. Will be good to meet up some fellow ISBians.

Talked with Kaushik, Karthik and Vijay. Each one is different in a positive way. Planning to talk with Prithvi, Arun and Krishna sometime this week. By hooking with more people, breaking the ice will be relatively easy once I am in ISB.

My blog provider has upgraded the Wordpress engine to 1.51. So there are some minor imperfections in the blogs. Especially my layout of the sidebar is weird. Hoping to rectify this as soon as I get the facility to modify the templates and CSS.

The internet connection in home is dead slow. This is discouraging me from making the posts ..Thankfully, my blog reading is still on with wonderful Feeddemon. RSS rules! A bliss for such slow internet connections.

Atlast I am back in India, enjoying good-old home conditions..Weather is the biggest change. Hyderabad will be worser than this!!

Have been sleeping, eating mom’s food, watching cricket and chatting for past 2 days..Will be same till sunday..From monday, I will start networking with admitted students in chennai, purchase dresses, order blazers, finish eye-check up (if possible and compatible I will go for Contact lens!), finish general health-checkup if possible…

Lot of changes happening..hot weather, no job, to studies, no more salary, etc., and expecting cultural shock (in working conditions, interactions etc.,)..Everything will be fine by the time First term starts..

The last day in J&J, Belgium was very memorable one. I received lot of well-wishes and I need those . There were some emotions going on within me, but I prevailed over them. It’s always tough to say good-bye…Well, Now I can proudly say that I have very good friends in Belgium..

Also had a long exit discussion with my boss. He provided some promising insights into his future plans. By the time, I complete my studies, I might have some interesting role through him..I will wait and watch..If the role is interesting, I am all for them..I received Experience certificate and Reference letter from him too..

I gave away the cycle, exercising weights and some small things to my colleague. He was kind enough to take them.

Since there is no internet connection, I am writing this as a draft..Will publish it once I am online..

Tonight, I will try to finish as much packing as possible. Tomorrow will be busy day with formalities in bank and other stuff. Tomorrow night I think I will not sleep, as the taxi will come at 3:00 a.m the next day..I will catch all the sleep in the flight.

I have spent 3+ years out of my 26 years in Belgium. Almost 12% of my completed life When I look this way, it appears a long time..

All in all, a very enriching experience. An experience which brought me out of the pigeon-hole..Now with the new set of wings that I have developed during my stay in Belgium, I will try to fly as high as possible..

Here I come ISB and India….

Today I gave farewell lunch to my colleagues. The Lunch was good. The restaurant was surprisingly quiet today and it provided a isolated environment for us..

My colleagues presented me a nice Executive bag. A very thoughtful gift and I will need it in my B-school and in my job as well. They also gave me a nice write-up about my experience here..Great gesture! They took care to remember all key happenings during past 3 years. They are an amazing group of people..It was a privilege to be part of such wonderful group…..Hmm..my heart is getting heavier as the D-day approaches..A mixed feeling..I will miss belgium, workplace, serenity, peacefulness definitely…and choclates…

These are the moments which is leading me to a question…”Am I taking the right decisions? Is the sacrifices that you are making worthwhile?”..

2 days to go…

The weekend was one of the best weekends I have ever had in my life!

The weekend began with a trip to Zeeland. All 40 people turned up for the team-event. The Bus departed exactly at 9:00 a.m. I was surprised to see a heavy breakfast as against the promised ‘light’ breakfast..(May be light for belgians, just kidding). Around 8 people were picked up in Antwerp. During the travel, the Vice president of Treasury team announced the agenda for the upcoming hours. He had split up 40 people in to 6 groups. The division of groups was based on random number generation and it was good to see a good mix of diversity! Each team was asked to choose a captain and a name for the team in 15 minutes. I suggested a name ‘Atlas’, for his mightiness and for its representation of world (Indian in a team!). It was well received by the team and was accepted unanimously as the name of the team. Finally the VP announced the names of all the teams..Fun to see some names!

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The client team has organized a team-event for next 2 days. All of us [around 30 people] are going to a place called Zeeland, Nederlands. It’s close to the beach. Well-known for water adventures. The stay has been arranged in a hotel. The transportation will be by bus. The actual agenda for next 2 days is secret! Let me see what’s in surprise..I will be back by Saturday evening. Will be fun…Looking forward to it and I need this change..

Tomorrow morning, the internet connection in home will be disconnected. That makes the current post, the last post from my apartment in belgium…

My next post will be on Monday from office! I will miss my blog and yahoogroups very much, for 3 days..

Will make my gear ready for tomorrow’s activities now…I am feeling slightly feverish, will go and get a good night’s sleep..

Each and every time I interact with kids, I love the experience..Yesterday my colleague brought her kids to office. A 3 year old girl and 8 months old boy. They were such a dolls. Cute looking. The little girl was not reacting to anyone. I tried to interact with her sometime, and I managed to bring a million-dollar smile on her face..She was beginning to feel comfortable with me..I felt so good..I seem to have a good knack of getting along well with kids quickly..

Today, while I was travelling in bus, there was good crowd. A little boy came and sat beside me. He should be around 4-5 years old. After some time, he started sleeping by leaning onto my shoulder. I didn’t disturb him and I didn’t even move for quite some time…I felt good while he was sleeping peacefully…

Whatever tension, worries you may have, everything vanishes when you look at/interact with kids..

I went to hair-dresser today. There was a good crowd there too (At last spring has started in Belgium and days are becoming longer). The hair-dresser was trying to cut a little boy’s hair. It was great to watch him get on with his business while engaging the kid with some dialogues..If there is one thing that I see across all type of workers here, it’s the passion for their work..Be it painter, cleaner, shop-keeper they love their job. This manifests in the way they behave to the customers..

Well, my internet connection will be disconnected by this Friday. Life at home will be so different then. I am used to high-speed internet connection for more than 20 months, and I will miss the internet badly in home. May be this is a god-given free time to give rest to my eyes! My blogging will be sporadic till I reach India.

Nothing much happening. Just enjoying my final programming days and days in Belgium.

Blogsome is giving me jitters…My blog was down for most of the day..What’s strange is that only few users of blogsome were affected and I happened to be in that lot . If something happens to this blog, I will not restart all over again. I will just maintain my own private diary..Looks like even blogspot faced problems somedays ago (Unable to comment and server was slow), but it has been reliable for so long..After all, these are all free services, we can’t sue them if something goes wrong..Best option is to buy my own domain name and web hosting package. Will run this thought in the background for sometime..I think I am sounding as head-weight in some places, infact I am not..It’s just the excitement manifesting in the word form..

Well, there was some good news for me today Ebloggy managed to retrieve their old databases, and I got access to my old blog..Still, 7 days of post were lost, made during the key period near the admission results. Anyway something is better than nothing..I have ported all those entries to the current blog [Can be accessed through archives/November]..It was great to relive those 2 tense months!

Eklavya (a.k.a MIB) mentioned that the average GMAT for this year could be well above 710! Hmm..I don’t know what to say..just imagining the brain power of incoming batch…

For past few days, the visitor count per day has been increasing. Most of the hits are coming from Google Search and Technorati (Blog search engine).

I just went to Technorati Search Engine and searched for “MBA”..Mua came in the top search results! But this keeps changing as and when new posts are being made..Now search for “ISB”, all the ISB bloggers post will turn up! That’s cool..Technorati is gaining popularity very fast, as the one-stop search engine for blogs..So if we manage to get ISB related blogs on top for the search phrase “MBA”, that’s a great contribution to the school…I will dig deep now!

There is something called tags, which allows the post to be categorized. Search for the Tag:MBA…Cool huh?

Today I received the settlement figures from my company. I was greatly surprised to see a considerable settlement amount. I was grudging on ISB not sending out scholarships for overseas applicants, but this amount from my company has more than compensated. For personal reasons, I am not disclosing the exact amount, but I can say that it is equivalent to almost 2 months of salary!

I have been smiling throughout the day

Invited my colleagues to Farewell (Lunch and Drink). Booked a slot and table in the restaurant on my pre-final working day. Enquired about Telephone and internet connection termination, was pleased to see no issues there.

OK, to the ISB front..I was bombarded with loads of forms to fill out. Pre-term registration, Health-form, Photo-form, Feedback-form, CAS Form (Listing career progression and 5 most preferred companies and roles after ISB etc.,). The CAS form (Career Assistance Service) will serve as the starting point for CAS personnel.

I took the evaluation test for Pre-term subjects, Business Statistics and Quantitative methods. After seeing a pathetic score, I am now seriously thinking about taking up the Business statistics Intermediate course. Even though I did moderately in Quantitative methods, I am confident that I can learn/revise the concepts on my own. So no pre-term for Quantitative methods. Well, I didn’t even bother to take up the Accounting evaluation test, I am taking up the course anyway. Therefore my pre-term expense is (4000 + 2500 = Rs.6500/=), for now!

Things are moving in fast pace. Only 9 more days to go in Belgium!

He..He..3rd post of the day!

Well, Just saw the Apprentice - 3, Episode 8. This week’s task was to produce a live music auction for FUSE TV to benefit The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatrics AIDS Foundation. Each team would be randomly given five of the biggest artists in the music industry. They would have to negotiate with each group or artist for a personal experience to be auctioned off during the live segment. The team that raised the most money would win; the losers would be back in the boardroom where someone would be fired.

There was a twist this week. The project leader should be one who hasn’t led yet. After the project leader was chosen, the project leader was asked to give away two members to the other team. This is very tricky. You would have to be absolutely mature enough to make these decisions on the spot. You have to ensure that you retain your best people with you, and sometimes making the choice is too tough!

Both teams did well to raise lot of money. But Magnacorp (previously just book smarts) did a smart job by winning two very good negotiations which almost fetched them the sum total of all five negotiations of other team put together.

The candidates that I am seeing now and that I saw before are totally different in personalities. True colours are coming out. John was pathetic last week and this week he was too dominating and he paid the price..One thing is becoming pretty clear..Abrasion is dangerous..

Hmm..so John, Audrey are out..Only two of my remaining predictions are left..Kendra and Craig..

Lesson learnt this week: Win-Win Negotiations

5 days ago, I said that the blog count stands at 5 (including me). Now the blog count has risen up to 14!! WOW! simply Wow! There are 2-3 people who are planning to start blog effective April 16th..This is just to my knowledge. I am not sure how many more fellow bloggers are out there…

This years batch is better than previous batches in terms of talent, diversity and overall quality. This is reflecting in blogs too..One striking difference in this batch is that the blogging has started way before the MBA Program has begun…Which means people are fossilizing their pre-school thoughts, feelings and emotions as well..The build-up to this year’s batch is very good. Even the feedback from current students reflect that the quality of the incoming batch is very good. The official release from ISB on the statistics of 2005-2006 batch should reveal the mystery…

ISB has published lot of details in the Admitted students section. The details like date of arrival, pick-up details, directions, Meal options, Terms and associated subjects, faculty list, books to buy are provided.

A self-assessment questionnaire is provided for evaluating the need for pre-term. Will take it up. I will go ahead with Accounting for sure. Quantitative methods and Business statistics remains to be seen.

Just filled the form for pick-up. I am travelling to hyderabad on 15th of April, by Air Deccan. I will leave chennai by 9:30 a.m and reach Hyderabad by 11:00 a.m. The flight cost is around 1700 Rupees. Not big cost. It gives me convenience and safety for my electronic gadgets like Laptop, camera (It’s been years since I travelled in Indian railways, so don’t have any idea abt it now).

After a week long hiatus, I showed up in Fitness center today. Played squash for around 1 hour. After my colleagues left, I have been playing squash alone! Main intention is to hit the ball as hard as possible..For quite some time, I am practicing with left hand, and I am quite pleased with the improvement so far!

Full day is dedicated for washing & ironing clothes and for cleaning up the whole house..Will continue my cleaning..

I am planning to blog the career related research, for IT+MBA. I will update this as a series under the tag “Careers” .

To start with I am presenting the link for career possibilities in Microsoft-India.. Microsoft India provides five major Business paths to choose from. They are India Development center, Sales & Marketing Service Group, Global Delivery Center India, Global Technical Support center and Microsoft Research India. You can read about each business path by clicking the links.

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The Permanent return syndrome has engulfed me. I am seeing each and every object in home, office and my town in Belgium with so much affection that I have never displayed before. As If I am going to space and I will never return!

Yesterday, I pooled in all the coins that had accumulated silently for the past 8 months and was pleasantly surprised to see the figure close to 200 Euros! Hmm.. I didn’t had this in my financial planning, so I am marking this as “Unaccounted income!”.
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There is only one thing in the world which when spent cannot be regained. It’s “Time“. The Time becomes even more important when one shells out loads of money towards one’s personal and professional enrichment, like in B-school. Inspite of one’s intellectual capacity, talents, the success in any ventures in life, invariably depends on Time Management and on the Art of prioritizing and being organized. B-school is no exception.

There are certain things that I have foreseen as important to me. Based on that I tried to come up with a typical day’s plan. Instead of dwelving more in to the exact timing and details, I just assigned time to the tasks. My main intention is to figure the number of hours I will get for Case studies, readings, assignments.

Which leaves me with 8 9 hours for assignments, learnings, discussions, readings, networking, socializing, club activities etc.,

If I am hard-pressed for time, the first thing I would cut back will be on on fitness, then on blog, then on eating [Eat fast!] and then on emails…Hypothetically, I can gain 1 hour from Fitness, 1 hour from blog & emails. If that’s still not enough, I can cut back 1 hour of sleep, then 2 hours of sleep and….

There will certainly be socializing in cafetarias and fitness centers..but I am treating them as added bonus..

The biggest “X” factor in time-consumption will be parties. Hopefully the 4 hours gain from no-classes on Friday/Saturday/Sunday can be used as a compensation!

Let’s see how well I manage my time.

When it comes to English songs, I am a lost kid. I have decent collection of English songs, but rarely have listened to them fully. My first preference is always for Tamil Film music [A.R.R and Illayaraja], Hindi Music, Carnatic and then comes English and others..Needing a change from Tamil music, Today, I listened to some Bon jovi numbers and Bryan Adam’s numbers. Couple of lyrics made so much meaning to my ISB adventure. I have added these two songs to my favourite list..

Bon Jovi..
“..It’s my life
It’s now or never..
I ain’t gonna live forever..
I just want to live while I’m alive.

This is for the ones who stood their ground
For Tommy and Gina who never backed down
Tomorrow’s getting harder make no mistake
Luck ain’t even lucky
Got to make your own breaks ..”

Bryan Adams
“..Here I am
This is me
There’s nowhere else on earth I’d rather be
Here I am
It’s just me and you [read ISB]
Tonight we make our dreams come true

It’s a new world
It’s a new start
It’s alive with the beating of young hearts
It’s a new day
It’s a new plan
I’ve been waiting for you [ISB]
Here I am..”

Good news for future applicants of ISB…The number of bloggers among admitted ISBians is on the rise. I have already identified 3 potential bloggers. Today I discovered one more.

“I think therefore I exist”.

Including me (humility…ahem), the count stands at 5. The more the bloggers, the better for the school. Also, future students get deep insights into the life, learnings and culture at ISB. I also found a blog from a female blogger…Will link it up as soon as it has taken a shape..

I sincerely wish that the diversity represented in ISB should also reflect in blogs. Mine will be more like a diary, with once-in-a-while ‘pearls’. Thought Leadership is planning to run a theme on his unique thoughts..Sandeep’s is more like diary (like mine)..CodeCutter and Yuktheshwar haven’t posted much..

Well, Going by the trend, I foresee ATLEAST 10-15 active bloggers this year…Blog is an excellent medium for spreading messages, publicizing..Infact, ISB should publish official “student diary”..

UPDATE: More bloggers are coming out of the dark..
B-School Scratchpad
I, the absolute
Srini Musings
ISB-MBA [By Vingmat a.k.a VK]
Life’s Haywire

A small request to future bloggers, if you are planning to start a new one, try out www.blogsome.com. Sample is my blog..It’s fast and possess exhaustive list of features…and is based on Wordpress.

Today I was in a pretty good mood throughout the day..Got lot of things done..My boss agreed to credit my salary for this month and final settlements before March 15th..He has been very prompt towards these things in the recent times..I highly appreciate it…

I haven’t received the tax returns for the year 2004 yet, so pushing the matters on that front too..

Today was my client Director’s last working day in Belgium. He has been promoted as IM-Head for Australia & Newzealand region and he is heading to Sydney on wednesday, along with his family for 2 years.We had a official farewell party..Many big shots turned for wishing him success..I was very happy for him…Gifts and speeches were exchanged..As usual lot of non-vegetarian snacks served, had to say No..embarassing I thought of taking beer to go by the crowd, but then saw quite a few of them taking orange juice..so went for it…People were conversing in small groups in Flemish..Every now and then, they engaged in english conversations with me..They are very friendly people..It would have been great, if only I had learnt dutch..I miss the native fun involved in their conversations..Blame it on my offshore trips and uncertain working terms here..Couldn’t commit myself to regular dutch classes.. (Was never sure that I would stay for such a long time here, what with contracts extended every year)…Looking back now, the uncertainity is baseless…but during those times, it was uncertain..Strange…that’s life…The evening changed my whole mood..no body is to blame..only my mind…

I have been staying alone for little more than 3 months..The euphoria of ISB has kept me away from the claws of loneliness..But now, the loneliness is lifting it’s head up..missing home very much ..When I get back to India, I am going to make sure that my folks get my complete attention..After all, I am going to miss them for another year…It’s been years since I stayed with my family…For past 8 years been away either in hostel/mansion/rentalhouse/abroad..I can understand their inner feelings of missing their son..hmm…may be If I am a parent, I will know the real pain..That’s one of the main reasons why I am returning to India…(No, not to become a parent !, but to be closer with family)

Apart from ISB and Family, there are some more things I am eagerly looking forward to..Food, Cricket, Indian movies, the Indian atmosphere..For next one year, food is not going to be a problem..big relief

I think I should refine my thoughts before I blog..Or should I not?? Well, I don’t care ..For some more time, this blog is my Companion, my pet, my wilson (”Basket ball” in film Cast Away)…

Came across this good article about Case Studies and steps to analyse a case study…Will be helpful for potential MBA grads..

“..Little can be learned from a case without preparing it carefully and discussing it with others. Cases are not designed to present you with a right answer which you can memorize in the hopes that you will remember it if you ever encounter a similar situation. Similarly you won’t gain much from listening to what others think is the right answer. The learning comes from actively participating in the search for solutions. Cases are the raw materials that permit simulation in the classroom of actual discussions carried on informally among managers.

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I watched Apprentice -3, Episode 7 today. This week’s task was to build a minature golf course and manage the business for one day. The team that makes the most money wins. Audrey led the street smarts (Networth) and Stephanie led the Book smarts (Magna). Street smarts lost the task and Audrey was fired for her immaturity and lack of respect among team members.

Two weeks back Stephanie was accused by the whole team for displaying negative attitude. After returning from the boardroom, she apologized in an emotional tears and offered better cooperation to the team. Today, she won the task in an excellent fashion. That’s what I call as come-back. Audrey on the other hand, worsened the relationships with the team and got herself doomed. Sometimes, you need to think about others..

I was glad that Carolyn was back. The more I watch her, the more I like her personality. Initially, I didn’t like her that much, but now I like her and respect her a lot..

Lesson learnt this week: Creative Marketing: Thinking out the box

It was almost a week since I cooked, so I cooked Dhal fry, White kideny beans curry(I donno how it is called in Hindi,Rajma??) and potato fry and Rice.Had a full lunch. The cooking will last for dinner and may be for tomorrow too

I went to Antwerp for doing some window-shopping. It’s been a long time since I visited the electronics super market [Media market]. Lot of new products have arrived. It’s amazing to see the technological growth that’s happening now-a-days. No matter how latest you buy your product, it’s going to be shadowed in 2 years and may be obsolete in 5-10 years time…I bought a Flash-based-Mp3 player for my brother. He was asking for a USB Flash drive for a long time. I saw this deal where Creative MuVo TX FM [512 MB] was sold at 100 Euros. Bought it. Hope he will be happy to see much more than just Flash drive..

Next week, lot of things SHOULD be completed. I don’t want to postpone till the last moment and pressurize myself. The important thing is to transfer my saving to India. Euro is hovering around 57 Rupees…Well, it’s fine if it doesn’t drop further..[though It will be nice, if it increases further ]. Pushing my boss to credit the settlements before March 15th…

Just saw my statistics, and the visitor count has already touched 7000. Not bad. I carried over the same counter from my previous blog. Today I received confirmation that my previous blog is gone for ever ..I had some good posts there..Was hoping to recover them somehow..Anyway, I learnt my lesson and backing up my current blog on a regular basis..

Eagerly waiting for the ISB Placement report. I am interested in finding the industry wise placements especially in Consulting sector. The foreign placements would be interesting to watch too…Hope ISB publishes the details before March end..

I had my Driving test in Belgium today. The test comprised of 2 parts. A Manoeuver part and On-the-road part. The Manoeuver part consisted of parking in between two vehicles in reverse, Coming out of garage, Turning back in a narrow road, Passing through a narrow passage in reverse. I successfully cleared it. Having passed this phase, I was asked to pick a card from a bunch [for choosing the location of test]. I picked up a card and was happy to see a neighbouring town come up on that.

I was ready to begin the next-phase. This time there were people accompanying me in the car. There was an instructor to my right, an examiner on the back right and a translator on back left. The instructor was there just to use emergency brakes in case anything went wrong. He may not do anything else, otherwise a beep will be heard..Since the examiner gave the instructions in dutch, I had to take the service of Translator (had to pay him 30 Euros for that!)..So it was a full house in the car. I carefully digested the instructions that came through translator and acted accordingly. Everything was going fine until I came across a market fair. There was a traffic diversion and I couldn’t decipher which path to take. Examiner was silent. I noticed a No entry sign and decided to turn left. I overlooked a direction arrow beneath the no entry sign. Due to this I ended up taking a wrong route! Due to the nervousness caused by this, I turned to the left in the next junction, without using indicators. Though I was sure that no vehicle was behind me, it is a serious offence to turn so without indicating. I knew then and there that I am flunked…The remaining part of the test went lifeless, mechanical. Towards the end of the test, I stalled the vehicle and I had to restart the vehicle..I totally lost my cool, and did many minor mistakes..one-too-many…

After the test, the examiner announced his results with reasons why I failed. He was ok with all my other mistakes, but not using indicators while turning was a serious offence and he was not ready to overlook that. He failed me on the “on-the-road” test..Fair enough!

I have a certificate which says I have passed the Manoeuver part but failed the Road test. I don’t have time to take the test again, as I am leaving for India on March 24th. Atleast I utilised the oppurtunity well by learning to drive a car. If I had practiced with my own car, I would have passed. Lack of practice is the only reason I can attribute the failure to…It’s a pity that my company which decided to sponsor my test couldn’t provide me a car temporarily to practice…No regrets anyway…Was an experience

I received my reference letter from Client Director. He was pretty happy to give me the letter and wished me success. I will be getting the reference letter from my boss next week.

I collected some links for Pre-MBA. Unfortunately, I couldn’t go through any of these websites, as I have enough work. It might be useful for others:

http://www.quickmba.com
http://www.netmba.com
http://davidmlane.com/hyperstat/
http://www.access.wvu.edu/class/acctutor/tableofc.htm
http://www.kr04.net/
http://people.hofstra.edu/faculty/Stefan_Waner/RealWorld/pdfs/QM1Notes.pdf [Thanks Venkat]
http://www.simplestudies.com/Downloads.htm [Thanks Asha]
http://www2.gsb.columbia.edu/faculty/pglasserman/B6014/
http://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/ [Corporate Finance]
http://webprofesores.iese.edu/PabloFernandez/INDEXtables.html [Valuation Methods]
http://planetmath.org/ [Statistics] [Thanks Vineet]

I have initiated a mail in groups, requesting people to share the links they knew..Would be finding more soon..If any of you know any useful links for MBA prospectives, kindly leave a note here..

I had downloaded quite a few audio books two months ago. I am listening to them during the free-time I get. Important among them are “7 habits of highly effective people”. Steven covey himself has done the talking here. He is pretty articulative person. Just listening to him, glues one to his lectures..Another topic is “How to make friends and influence others”. Another very good book. Wish I had listened to this book earlier. Rest all are like “How to read body languages, how to read people’s minds, how to increase quality of sleep..etc.,”…I don’t think I will ever get time to listen to these. But Someday these things might come handy..

My driving test is on Friday. I am going to the test with 0.1% hope of passing. I have never gone to any exam in such a frame of mind..Would be interesting to see how things unfold on that day…

Signing off…Going to bed early today..

Round 2 Admission results for ISB are announced. Some made it, some didn’t. Some of the candidates I bet on didn’t make it too. The competition this year was tougher than previous years, even more so in Round 2. The general opinion is that the profiles of R2 Applications were stronger than Round 1. I will have to wait for knowing the diversity in Round 2 as not many are registered in the yahoo groups.

There has been sharp criticisms about ISB giving enormous importance for GMAT and not evaluating the application as a whole. But I think ISB did a fair job in evaluating the candidates. When the applications are very strong, selection becomes very delicate. One cannot set a objective selection criteria. There has been some casualities in the form of some deserving candidates being left out, but I believe it is far less compared to the many who got in. I hope the selection process will be fine-tuned in future to satisfy as many people as possible.

From this years admissions, I sense that Academics, GMAT and Essays have played a major role more than anything else. Interviews were used only as a means to confirm the integrity of the application. Towards the later part of the admission process, some candidates reported about increasing stress-patterns in the interview. Some were interviewed through telephone and some were interviewed personally. Some had key people in the panel, some had alumni’s and non-key people in the panel. Going by this, I believe Interview was just given a lesser weightage.

In the coming years, ISB might increase the seats (may be 500+??). By then, I hope students from non-traditional backgrounds will have a fair size of quota to compete for.

So, the admission episode of the year 2005-06 is finally over. The spirit and feeling among admitted students is fantastic. The onus is now on us to take the legacy of ISB one step (or multiple steps!) forward. Hope we will be able to do justice to that while upgrading our skillsets personally and professionally…

22 more days to go in Belgium..Sometime back, days were moving very slowly and I was trying to propel myself forward, now the days are flying past in express speed…no matter how hard I press the foot on the brake!

Huh! I managed to blog every single day in February..I will do the same till March 15th..After that my blogging will be sporadic..