A Big Hello all,
With just 2 more months left for the completion of my MBA (now that I have decided to complete in 17 months), I might as well gather enough time to post at least now regularly!
The past 5 months have been exhilarating in their own space, - with about 1.5 months in Chennai, and again the classes starting back in July here. I am going to give a quick overview of these 5 months that went by, and the 2 months that are remaining. For me, these 2 final months are going to be the most crucial, where I think I can seemingly apply as much as possible practically things learnt thus far!
May 2009: We, as part of the Student Council were supposed to go to Philippines (Manila), but thanks to the swine flu, all outbound official travels from NUS were barred. Hence, preponed my ticket to Chennai by a week and reached there by the 10th of May. Awesome time back home - particularly after the nerve cracking semester 2 - very tough one that was.
Spent a cool 10 days in Kanchipuram (the yearly Bramhotsavam), the rest in Chennai (attending concerts, having molaga (chilli) bajji at Chennai Marina beach, preparing the plan for the next semester for the Student Council, and of course, having lots and lots of plain dosai and oothappam! Absolutely, that's life for me. Chennai the heaven on earth!
June 2009: Spent the month visiting people, and spent a good time with my grannies. Overall in the past 3 years, (since the time I had been to the UK), I had spent only 12 days with them collectively. So, this summer I decided I will be with them as long as they can tolerate me. Later, couple of more visits with friends and of course a shame that I couldn't meet Vinayakaram, but poor boy, he too was 'busy'. :)
July 2009: much to my Mother's sadness I had to bid her bye for the last and final semester at the NUS Business School. My Dad was in fact eagerly enquiring if there was ANY chance of me completing my final semester through a distant-learning mode from Chennai. :) Of course, he he he it was surprising to hear that from Dad too! And at that moment at the Airport, I solidified the decision that CHENNAI IS WHERE BELONG, RIGHT AFTER MY MBA!
Had a special course term: Had taken "Legal Issues in Business" and "Services Marketing". Man, the second was a thorough rupture of iron saw into my small intellect! The subject is good, but should have been taught as a mathematical modelling format - should have been more on the business front. What to do - some professors do have a long way to go to see what the students really want! "Legal Issues" was fantastic! I was in fact very good at it - need to probably thank my dad for that legal bent of mind. And sure, I think I would have been been a successful advocate, had I listened to my Dad's words after my 12th!!!
August 2009: The new batch of students are in. I was the MC for the 2 day orientation programme and conducted the programme on behalf of the Council too.
The last and final semester started: with the following electives.
Finance: Options & Futures: http://www.bschool.nus.edu.sg/staff_profile/cv.asp?ID=2358
Finance: Fund Management: http://www.fba.nus.edu.sg/Programs/GEARS/Timetable/AY06_07/aaron%20bio.pdf
Strategy: Negotiations and Conflict Management
Strategy: Asian Religion Impact on Business (on MBA exchange programme with ESSEC Business School, Singapore).
Prof. Aaron Low is a hedge fund manager based out of California. An NUS Engineering alumnus, completed his PhD from UCLA. For his passion for teaching, the prof. flies in every week from California to Singapore! :AN AWESOME, FANTASTICALLY GIFTED PERSON! A simple and humble human being above all!
Prof. Cherian is from MIT and Cornell, and had managed just about USD67 Billion as Asset Manager at Credit Suisse's derivatives division. An expert teacher, and a perfect commentator.
Both these professors rock the floor because they are the best blend of industry and academia - in a 50-50 footing!
September 2009: On with the Council work as well as usual. Studies coming along quite fine. Absolutely drained down on time due to the multitude of activities. Attended a few luncheon parties organised by the MBA Office along with the Deanery, and now-a-days giving speeches after the Dean in almost every function. Working closely with the Global Alumni Network Office as well! And now have joined as the co-lead for Cerebration 2010 - the annual flagship business case competition organised by NUS MBA. Currently in the fund raising hunt for the same!
Unique experience, in total!
October and November: Are going to keep me pretty busy - for sure. October end, I need to organise the election for the next Council team from the junior batch - and then I will be relieved from November end. But lots to do before I step down - and so far we seem to have done a good show, at least that's what our deputy dean believes! Let's see how well we can transition.
The biggest event of all (on a personal front) is the career search! I have come up with a 'Career Algorithm' based on my own experiences , opinions and thoughts, and will publish that soon. The next step for career is to be in India - in the Banking & Financial Services Domain of any technology consulting firm. If you guys know someone already, please let me know :) Should get my resume dusted and ready soon! :)
Would be eager to hear from you folks as well. And I shall ensure that I am updating this space regularly at least from now. I think the last 2 months moments have to be captured pretty clearly!
Any comments, reviews, please feel free to add!
More to come!
Cheers.
Saturday 26 September 2009
Wednesday 20 February 2008
What's ILLUSIONS?
Well, while I was wondering why I named my blog as 'Illusions', it didn't take me more than a second to recall that excellent novel by Richard Bach, regarding the saint like 'normal' being.
The story goes like this: a man (let's call him Guru) is very much passionate about flying his glider, and is tremendously obsessed with it. At the same time he has some gifted powers (people said that he was blessed with it) and he said that he got what he aspired for. He was quite often consulted by people, seeking solutions to their problems, and in the initial phase he used to save them from their woes. But it wasn't long before when people (of his followers, you could say) started depending on his 'Divine' insight for anything and everything, right from which car to buy to which day to select for an operation. Guru realised that this wasn't the purpose of him being around, and changed his approach to the people based on their hapless and unnecessary dependence on him. He now quite often turned down the request of his 'followers', and asked them to find the solutions themselves. They wondered that their 'divine' master was not in a good mood or health. They let some time pass. But slowly they realised that Guru had by now consistently started telling them one (most irritating thing according to them) sentence for all their queries: 'Think for yourself, analyse where's the problem, seek who you are, and then decide what's best for you, because the truth is only YOU are capable of helping yourself!'. Guru knew that he was speaking the TRUTH. But people were not willing to accept this version. They gathered momentum in branding Guru as an imposter, a cheat and a person incapable of donning the 'divine' position of a Guru. Finally Guru is forced to evict the place by this very own 'followers'. And the story goes further. More than just being an interesting read, the book does try to magnify the 'illusions' of the mind, the continuous streams of vagaries, that quite often daunts everyone.
As, Bruce Lee's Guru (in the movie Enter the Dragon) says, "The Enemy is only an image, you break the image, you break the enemy!". Probably, the foremost plague of any mind is the ability to consistenly stir out one illusion or the other about the self, people around and world. As I restart my public writing after months, I want to remind myself of this concept every time I login to see my mind through. Hence the heading, ILLUSIONS.
The story goes like this: a man (let's call him Guru) is very much passionate about flying his glider, and is tremendously obsessed with it. At the same time he has some gifted powers (people said that he was blessed with it) and he said that he got what he aspired for. He was quite often consulted by people, seeking solutions to their problems, and in the initial phase he used to save them from their woes. But it wasn't long before when people (of his followers, you could say) started depending on his 'Divine' insight for anything and everything, right from which car to buy to which day to select for an operation. Guru realised that this wasn't the purpose of him being around, and changed his approach to the people based on their hapless and unnecessary dependence on him. He now quite often turned down the request of his 'followers', and asked them to find the solutions themselves. They wondered that their 'divine' master was not in a good mood or health. They let some time pass. But slowly they realised that Guru had by now consistently started telling them one (most irritating thing according to them) sentence for all their queries: 'Think for yourself, analyse where's the problem, seek who you are, and then decide what's best for you, because the truth is only YOU are capable of helping yourself!'. Guru knew that he was speaking the TRUTH. But people were not willing to accept this version. They gathered momentum in branding Guru as an imposter, a cheat and a person incapable of donning the 'divine' position of a Guru. Finally Guru is forced to evict the place by this very own 'followers'. And the story goes further. More than just being an interesting read, the book does try to magnify the 'illusions' of the mind, the continuous streams of vagaries, that quite often daunts everyone.
As, Bruce Lee's Guru (in the movie Enter the Dragon) says, "The Enemy is only an image, you break the image, you break the enemy!". Probably, the foremost plague of any mind is the ability to consistenly stir out one illusion or the other about the self, people around and world. As I restart my public writing after months, I want to remind myself of this concept every time I login to see my mind through. Hence the heading, ILLUSIONS.
Cheers.
Tuesday 19 February 2008
The life ahead
Well, This is the first blog in many months that I am posting, and definitely not the one to explain the reason for the delay. I think moving ahead I shall be more regular than earlier at blogging, and probably view this as my means of stress busting.
Well, for the first one, I would say that my greatest learning through 2007 is that problems are so meticulously divided for everyone pretty equally, and am not the only one suffering from one issue or the other. Life's to take anything and everything positive and to move ahead as well as possible, seeing an opportunity in every slide. While I write this, I recall Dhoni's statement in an interview 'There's a slick of a difference between foolishness and bravery, and the end result will determine what it was!'. Am just hoping that the result for me doesn't prove the former!
BTW, Hello all!
Well, for the first one, I would say that my greatest learning through 2007 is that problems are so meticulously divided for everyone pretty equally, and am not the only one suffering from one issue or the other. Life's to take anything and everything positive and to move ahead as well as possible, seeing an opportunity in every slide. While I write this, I recall Dhoni's statement in an interview 'There's a slick of a difference between foolishness and bravery, and the end result will determine what it was!'. Am just hoping that the result for me doesn't prove the former!
BTW, Hello all!
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