a whirlpool in my cup

Arghhhh I am making a statement now : I don't know what to do about my MBA.

I am done with my applications and as I had mentioned in my earlier post : "My cup almost brimmeth over", I have got admits from a couple of universities.

Now the problem is I don't know on what factors I shud decide on the final university. Personally I don't like to take loans, it's is not something I am very comfortable with. But sometimes i feel that the entire USA runs on debts only.

I had asked a few doubts about these universities to an uncle in the USA who is in a very good position and his wife was asking why I didn't apply to the top 10 universities ???
I know that the job situation for international students is not easy, but i think I can manage with that.

I also have to decide whether i shud attend the IIM-K interview on Feb8th, but it is unlikely that I will get in as I read in ET that K has sent nearly 1500 calls which makes the probability of getting an admit a 1:6 ratio after the interview.

Even between the US universities I shud decide whether I shud go for the one that offers the greatest aid or the one which is better known. Since I didn't apply to the ivy league there will be no on campus recruitment on any of the univs I had applied to.

Also I am not sure when I shud start preparing my financial proof statements and setting up the visa date et al.

Thank god atleast in the work front , i am only unofficially working for a project now, as I am officially on bench now; so this means a lot less tension & a bit more free time :).

Alrighht i have ranted enough, i think things will clear up soon.

A twist in destiny

The twist in destiny is unfortunately not my experience. It is my friend from NIIT days : Ram Mahesh's.
I attended a 2 year course in NIIT ( wherein I was supposed to learn a few of the software languages), anyway I met a guy called Ram Mahesh who lived very near to my house and we became really good friends.
He did his Mechanical engineering in SRM and then got a job in Cognizant technologies like several other engineers who passed out in 2003. Of course yours truly had gotten into Infosys at that time.
Though we were not in constant touch i did meet him sometime in 2004 and we stood and discussed Harry Potter for nearly 1-2 hours at the end of my street :-). At that time he was in CTS only and he said that he was not going to try for an MBA ( i knew that he tried CAT in 2003 but didn't get in). So at that point of time I assumed that he would be like me and would continue in the IT field.
One fine day in 2006 I met him in my street having really long hair and almost having a hippie kinda look, and when I asked what he was up to ; he said he was one of the SPORTS Journalists for SPORTSTAR and also the Cricket writer for THE HINDU. Oh my GODDDDDD I was stunned because The HINDU is the most famous newspaper in the south of India and SPORTSTAR is a very famous sports magazine from the HINDU's stable.

I got to know that our protagonist had quit CTS in 2004 and joined a journalism school ( Asian school of Journalism i think) and managed to top his class too. During my infrequent interactions with him earlier I knew that he was a real sports enthusiast and would remember a lot of sports statistics.
Anyway since he topped his class and since one of his profs was in The Hindu he got a chance to prove his skills, and man has he been doing good. He has been to Zimbabwe and SriLanka to cover the cricket matches, he has even interviewed our Ganguly after Gangs was dropped from the team and I am sure he will be doing a lot more stuff.

To think that he started as a mechanical engineer went on to be a software engineer but ended up a sports journalist. I think he is the most happiest in this but then again I shouldn't be speaking for him.

I wish him all the best in his life.

What I wonder is how many people dare to think different and take a different path ???

My cup almost brimmeth over

It is Jan17 2006 ... I have completed admissions interviews to TAMU, NUS & Univ of Wash and have got admits to all of them :)

I got 99.00% in CAT 2005 and a call from IIM- Kozhikode.

Just one more thing is pending: an onsite opportunity on which the client is still dragging his feet on. If the client signs off on the agreement then I may have to go to the USA to work for sometime.

hmmm my cup is full ..but i am waiting for any calls from the other univs too ;). let's see what happens....

One down 3 more to go

Well I had mentioned earlier that while I was in college I was in a gang of 4 guys and 4 girls. After college the contact with those girls diminished but the 4 guys still were in touch.

3 years down the lane one is in IIM Bangalore, One is in Oracle Hyderabad and there were 2 of us in Chennai (Me & RJ). I had assumed that RJ wud be travelling to the USA soon but his opportunity was constantly getting delayed , but finally the dude has struck gold.

I think he will enjoy working in the USA and he told me that this was a long term assignment that means definitely more than a year. I think he will come back to India for his marriage :-).

So from the gang of 4 he is the first one to travel outside India , I am happy for him and I hope I will be able to meet him soon in the USA.
I know he reads my blog, so all the best RJ ..go have a blast man.

We will miss you and your bargaining skills.

The global trade

There is an ad for DHL which shows how different materials required to make a blouse are acquired from different countries and how the final finished product is bought by a girl called Annie in USA.

I had a similar experience recently. My cousin brother came to India from Boston, USA. He gave me a Reebok cap which had some NFL (I guess) team called Vikings' logo on it.

Inside the cap I found a tag which said that the cap was made in BANGLADESH.

Bangladesh is right next to India, I also learnt that India exports a lot of stuff to Bangladesh which includes clothes material.
So the cap made in Bangladesh could have some base material from India itself. The Cap would have been made by some poor tailor in some little hell hole in Bangladesh and it would have been sent to USA and finally billed for 22 Dollars. And this great product was bought in America by my cousin and then gifted to me.

When 22$ is converted to Indian rupees, it comes to around 970Rs. I can approximate it to 1000Rs.

In reality the product will hardly be 50 - 100 Rs worth, as the mass production of it will obviously bring down the price.
But what kind of salary would that tailor have got for this 1000Rs worth product, not even 10Rs.

You must probably think what is my point now ??? Well my point is the global trade agreements have created a very large difference between the under developed countries and the developed countries.

The developed countries are making huge profits, of course there have been some good things because of such free trade but I still feel the benefits are not evenly spread.

Anyway the Cap is really nice and I do like it, but I just am amazed that it was made in my neighboring country but bought in the USA.

The deadly pause

I am trying to find a solution to the silence that occurs during a conversation between people. Generally when close friends talk , there is no obvious pause but let's say you are talking to one of your extended relations in some function or even when they suddenly drop in to ur home... Eventually there is an obvious pause in the conversation neither of us knows how to continue the talking ????

Is this kind of situation common in India ?? It is so discomforting when such a silence occurs .. I mean the other person doesn't know if it's the end of the conversation and neither do we. And each one doesn't want to offend the other by stopping the talking.
It's a vicious cycle wherein I would think that it's over and wait for him/her to say his goodbye .. But suddenly after bout a minute he/she will try to talk about some subject. I experience this when I talk to distant relationships or when I talk to new people whom I wud probably never meet again.

But this is were the "Kadalai" ( one of the most stupidest terms I learnt in college which means a guy & girl talking bout all & sundry ... I mean what's wrong in trying to prolong a conversation with a girl huh ... Einstein himself has said that when u talk for an hour with a beautiful girl it wud seem like just 5 mins) experience pays off. Anyway during such conversations the guy & girl will think of a whole range of topics & the goodbye itself wud last 15 minutes ;-)...But it is definitely not the same with a conversation with a new person right !!...

Anyway I am just rambling.. I definitely don't have the answer on how to avoid that gap in a conversation. Anybody out there has an answer ???????

The Cat shall rest in Peace

Woooooooooo Hooooooooooooo

Well I am glad to tell u all that I got a call fom IIM-Kozhikode :-) :-)



I honestly don't know if I will be able to make it to the Feb 8th interview, if I am in India I will attend it.
But realistically speaking the competition will be in a completely different level.. I mean there are people that pay money and learn to tackle GD & PI, while people like me rely more on our own experiences.

This was my last attempt for CAT and I am glad i am signing off in style with atleast ONE call. I was actually pretty stunned by the result , I never even calculated my score this time. I know i attempted 40 q's ( 7 Q, 10 A & 23 V) but I have no idea if i got all of them correct.

I am completely satisfied with my efforts , this was the result of 3 years of hard nut-crunching effort ( of course i am being melodramatic) , for CAT 2005 I just perused thru the Basics on Nov 19th and wrote the exam very coolly. The result did not matter to me, I just wanted to take the exam and wait for the score. As Morpheus wud say "I freed MY MIND !!!!"

I do feel a little sad for all the guys that paid good money to the coaching classes but did not make it... thank god I didn't waste my hard earned money on those leeches. I don't understand how these so called classes can help someone, as on the D-Day it is the person's self-control and confidence that can do the trick

I am not saying I am a CAT specialist just because of a call, but i have always considered myself a realist. Anyway the CAT is Dead Long live the CAT. ( this is based on the saying the King is dead Long live the King).

sayanora ...