My mood: Irritated

Tomorrow my freedom, my space will be officially taken over and I will have to learn how to share. I am getting four roommates! They are architect students who will be doing their internship in Bangalore for around six months. I have been rearranging the rooms, the cupboard, the almirah and I still am to get a bunker bed. That's the major part, shopping for one which is reasonable.

In this process, I have not been able to do any extra studies, go for my internship or work on my reports. I have also not been able to write a new story :-( that's the saddest part coz I already have so many themes to write on. InshaAllah another one or two days we will all be settled in and hopefully by this weekend, I'll have finished my pending reports. Then it's take it as it comes and definitely keep sometime aside for writing.

We had a placement session on the usual dresscode. I wouldn't want to comment because I personally feel that wearing a suit does not imply you are good. You may feel good and you may look good. Short term gains.. ok but long term- Naaa, it's your work and only work that counts. Dressing no doubt is important but from what I see especially in my school, it's overemphasised wrt academics and personality development. I think if the placement works more on these and less on 'how to create a first impression', it'd help us not only on our first impression but also last. Well the sessions are not over so let's see what next they have for us. I so far have disliked all the two sessions. They are not talking to us on a one to one level but rather talking down at us - don't expect this or don't expect that and you are this and that - This has been so far the least fun class but rather a demotivating class.

I am going to focus on my studies and learn as much as I can. I took up MBA to LEARN and not to get a job. If I wanted a job, I'd have gone for it long time back and all this job stuff is really irritating me. I'm not worried about it and it's too early to worry about it. I know that if I am good, I will get one InshaAllah. My focus should be on becoming good. The rest will follow. There are millions of avenues and millions of city where I can work under millions of profiles. Being a jack of all trade you know you can fit in anywhere and excel in it.

Almost there...

Well I am almost there... Another 2/3 days and I will be fit and fine :-)

My maid has shifted states and has gone back to her home state. I actually wanted to release her months back but she is really a good worker. She comes, cleans and leaves. I can leave the house on her care and don't have to worry about my stuff and money. Even if my wallet is lying on the table she will not bother. Very rare to find such people. She liked working for us because we didn't treat her like a maid or commanded her to do this or that. Even when we needed some extra bit of cleaning to be done, we'd talk to her politely and cajoling her. She never felt she was doing extra. I will miss her. In a way she has inspired me to be a good worker like she is. God bless you!

Saturday classes: Two of the professors 'Bunked'. we had 3 hrs free and finally Corporate Tax. Am I so glad I took finance specialisation. I am learning soooo much and all that I wanted to understand but could not. In class it's systematic and from the basics and I love it!

I met good old friend Elizabeth. Her daugther has grown big! 2 1/2 now. Wow time does fly by fast, doesn't it? That was my saturday.

Today we have a family celebration at one of the restuarants. My cousin got 91% 10th STD ICSE examinations. We are all so happy. She is not only beautiful but also brainy. Unfortunately, didn't get through my college, Christ College, cause she didn't apply for PCMB but rather PCME and so has settled for Jain College. Anyways, I firmly believe, whatever happens, happens for the best and we all are there backing her up and supporting her to excel further.

My driving classes will be over in another four days. Yipeee! and no more swamy. Actually now he is better but really! One day I saw REVA and asked him how much it costed, he answered me back in an angry tone implying 'How dare you open your mouth! You are just supposed to shift gears and turn left and right!" Perceptions. Wrong or right, that was the message taken and well good to get over with the classes and the tutor.

Well I am off to work away on my sunday. Pray you guys sunday is a sunny day :-) Ciao!

When will I get in form?

By 6.00 p.m I am dead. Oh gosh when will I get back into the routine. My back pains, my legs are swollen and this head just wants to stop thinking.

No need to get worried. This is my usual start after a break (Exams or Internship). Getting back to the class routine, the studies and all takes me a week to adjust. I remember my first day in II sem BCA, I couldn't walk back to the hostel. I was like 100 ft away and I felt I was going to fall. Got on track in the second week. Same pattern is replaying. InshaAllah I hope I get into routine fast.

I am eating out now that classes have started and it's affected my health. Trust me hotel food is bad for health. Especially on a regular basis. I have to start cooking as well early morn and take my tiffin to school.

As for as classes, we had brand management : what would you do as a brand ambassador and studied branding of luxury goods. MacroEconomics where we looked at GDP,GNP,NDP,NNP, Per capita Income, the whole ecomony structure. Our first finance class began today and we have Prof. Narayan Swamy. He is too good. I like him. The way he explains the concept and he is the first lecturer so far who has taken time to outline the syllabus, what we will learn in each chapter and how it will help us. It gave us and overview of the whole subject and that is THE most important thing especially for students going into a new subject.

Am at home now and want to finish two of my essays and start my paper of Organizational Development. I think I will rest for sometime before I do it coz this back of mine is protesting.

The 12 hour schedule is here.

There is nothing like an evening filled with rain as misty light filters through the window. You sit by the candle light and think of how lovely it feels. The rain drops, the cool air, the white sky, the dim room gently lit by a long golden flame.

Its rained after a long time and I enjoyed it tremendously. Yesterday we had Distribution Management by Prof. J.P. Tiwari. He has taught us Market Research and Consumer behavior earlier. Prof met with an accident on his bike and his right leg is fractured. My heart goes out to him to see him walking with a crutch. He is one who is always jolly and joking with the students and I simply can’t bear to see him this way. Get well soon sir!

From the class he took, I got this much: Don’t think you can do away with your distributors. We did a case study about Arvind Mills in the 1990’s when they had introduced their denim jeans ‘Rough and Tough’. It was a runaway success until one day they decide to do away with their distributors and the whole business collapsed. I will have to do more research on the company and get the details.

After Distribution Management we had Brand Management by Prof. Joy Chokraborty. She had taught us Advertising Management II trimester. We did a basic introduction about what exactly is a brand, brand equity, a brand to the user and a brand to the company. Prof. asked us to forget all the jargons and just think like a normal person out there. What do they look for? We came down to qualities like Variety, Quality, Design, Package, brand ambassador who we like so we like the product. I must say it was pretty difficult to think normally after having read and read about branding and marketing. Jargons like brand identity, brand awareness, top of the mind recall were the only words I could think of coz now I’m so used to the terms and their meanings. I think I learnt a lot from this process of: Think like a user. What are you looking for?

Finally we had Services Marketing which was again lots of fun. Prof.Raj got two of my classmates to play a role play. One as the customer and the other as the sales man of an air line. We evaluated on the kind of service he provided, his attitude, whether he achieved the given purpose of providing great service. We drew the tangibility spectrum which has a perfect product at one end like salt and a perfect service on the other like teaching. There are 7Ps n services compared to the 4Ps of Marketing. The extra ones are P=>People, P=> Physical environment and P=> for Process. I got the text of Services Marketing by Zeithaml and Bitner from the library. I think this subject is total fun. I have to write an essay on the uses of Internet or benefit of it in the service industry. I have already done my research (took me an hour) and I will sit and make the first draft.

By 7.30 pm last night I was dead. I thought I’d rest for sometime before continuing and got up at 3.00 am. I have been up since then. Getting my resume ready for the placement cell. I submitted the resume to Mr.Akash who heads the placement cell and he was pretty impressed! J Let’s see how impressed the recruiters will be when they come down. I told Mr. Akash that I can’t sell. He said, well you gotta start from there. I know but it still doesn’t change my mind. I dislike selling – the kinds were you gotta follow people and ask them if they would be interested in your product. Please spare me! We have left it at 'open for discussion' but I am still convinced. I have done it, I know I can do it but I have a choice now and I DON’T want to do it.

As for today’s class: We had Project Management which will be taken by Prof Anil. He is a project manager at Hewlett Packard, India and handles 2500 people. Cool! HP was my company so hey, I’m quite biased you can say towards any HP’ian :-). We had a fun class and he taught us through examples the difference between a project and an operation task. One is unique and uncertain while other is repetitive and certain. A project manager would need to plan and try to convert the project into an operation task, manage risk and handle people as the project goes on. We will be referring to the PMI book from Project Management Institute.

Next was International Marketing or Global Marketing. Prof. Kumar saw me in the library going over the Economic Times and gave me thumbs up sign. I simply adore him. I saw Prof. Sunil Pevekar and waved at him. It feels so good when your professors like you. Prof. Pevekar is from IIM Ahmedabad and I really value his opinion same as Prof. Kumar. IIM has a class no one can compare. In Global Marketing we talked of how the general marketing mix varies from one country to the other. We discussed how the political factor plays a major role in a developing country while on the other hand for developed countries; it’s the economic and technological factors. We took a look at 4Ps, the selling and marketing concept. As usual Prof. Kumar asked us Qs on our general knowledge and well thankfully I could answer here and there... may be I’m improving!! Hehe

Final class was Organizational Development. A brief intro to resistance to change and how we accept it in the long run and a case study to conclude that it’s the people at the end of the day who matter coz what’s the use of all the policies, procedures and what not of a company if your people do not accept it. Point. Prof. Neena Kamal will be guiding us through the sessions and we have already got our first essay on the History of OD and it’s development. We have also got to submit a paper as a team on the OD procedures implemented in a huge way on a financial company in the past ten years.

My 12 hour a day ‘Process’ begins again ;) A lot of planning, risk management and people management will have to be done. And if I don’t stop talking like this soon I think I will need the hospitality industry to provide excellent service in the field of health care to one who have been overloaded and pressured into performing to the optimum level and produce results.

Didn’t get that? Neither did I.

Swollen feet to elephant feet: Wecome to Second Year MBA!

Yes, as my heading suggests, i came home only to realise i had baby elephant feet. I mean what am I doing??!!

How did my first day go? Late by 5 mins. I thought I'd make it on time, but not, the biological clock in my body and the one in the living room are arch enemies. I just wish at times the living room clock would win. Anyways I will try once again. Like dad told me "Try and try and try" (I think it's supposed to be a proverb)

The first class was of Service Marketing and we went into the definition of services and products and their differences and why should we as MBA grads, learn about service marketing. My Professor is Prof. Rajashree Chakroborty (Hope I spelt it right!) and he is a great speaker! I like his style and he can retain the concentration of the students. I think that's quite a feat.

The second class was "Strategy Management" by my favorite Prof.B.K.Kumar and what to say.. I'm just so happy to have been teach me this trimester. I think he is adorable. He must be elder than dad and he loves quizzing us on everything to see our General Knowledge. Today I hid my face less he ask me who Captain someone was. Hey I was trying to remember what Strategy was and where did this captain come from?!

I am in Finance 1. There are around 50 students in my class. From last year around 15 from my section A. Devendra Pratap happens to be one of them. LOL he is still in Delhi so I plan to scare him by saying he is not in my class and he better ask someone else for notes. Ohhh, I'd love to see his expresssion.hi hi.

My sis read the blog on swamy and is defending him! Says when you are learning how to drive you should go slow. You know what I did today? I stepped on the accelerator while I turned left and he had a fit! You should have seen how he scolded me then! Hello, excuse me, I'm here to learn and not to race ;) ..hehe

Oh well that is all from me. All in all I am damn happy classes have begun and am totally busy. Hey! Sharay came back from Czech and got the whole souvenier(I don't know the spelling) for me. A pen, a mug, and a flag. Was it republic day when you left? Just joking! :-) Thanks for Czech. I think I am being to feel it was me out there. Sharay looks horrendous in his mustache but now I am getting used to the scary movie.

I better go rest my feet now else I might actually turn into a baby elephant..

Blown up

Swollen feet I can understand but swollen hands? The right hand in particular? This was the mystery I began to solve since I got up in the morning. Was it something I ate or was it the cockraoch spray I had sprayed liberally when I saw one daring to scuttle in front of my eyes! Hey Doctors, if you get sprayed by doom, do you swell up?

Apart from that, I cleaned up the house, neately arranged my clothes, my files, my computer files, got my books ready and wrote a new story. Tomorrow I start my second and final year of MBA. Sigh! Time passes so fast and I know another one year, I will no longer be a student :(. When I was not a student, I didn't want to be one and now that I am, I wouldn't want to be anything else.

Reminds me of a nice analogy I heard. Life is like a train journey. There will be good stations and bad stations. Everyone wants to stay on the good station forever, but then one has to board the train and leave, for our destination is not a station.

Hmmm (Introspecting)

Hybernation

What do you call those days when you simply don't feel like doing anything but cuddle in bed with a thriller and a few m's and m's? Lazy days.

Today was one of those days... I simply didn't want to budge. I have loads and loads of work to do and I could even surpass the president's things to do list, but nope, I wanted a Lazy day.

That was all it was today... I just chilled out, read, cooked, wrote and wondered why my feet were swollen.

Internship

At the moment I am frustrated coz I just got over the phone with one of the people in the world who think I am 'aggressive' and talk to me as though they just don't want to talk to me. Hmmm, me and aggressive. I wish. I think I am too timid!! ;) So well I have this horrible feeling in my stomach. I hate this kind of days where you have to interact with them.

Let's talk about something I love! My internship at Star Drugs and Research Labs! This is one absolutely fantastic company. The best I have worked so far and I have got the greatest manager I can ever hope to get. We have a fun quotient in our relationship and though you are working, you really don't think you are! How many managers can achieve that ;)?

I worked under operations, finding out their process cost and ways in which we could cut down. It was fun! I also got to see how a pharmaceutical works- right from purchase of chemicals to their processing, packing and delivery. The various managers of all the departments sat with me and made me understand what each department does and how they are interlinked with each other. I saw in details both the work in the factory as well as in the administration. I am yet to learn how the marketing is done which is what I really want to know and with time, InshaAllah I will.

My internship trimester officially ends tomorrow on Saturday and Monday I begin my 4th trimester where I start my specialisation in Marketing and Finance. I have to admit that though the studies are stressful and just unbearable at times, I will miss my MBA days immensely. I loved doing MBA, my first year was great. It had ups and downs and brushes with all and one and I lost my temper many times - especially during deadlines- Uff, horrible! However, I loved each moment and the end report.. it's great! I love it!

Coming back to my internship, I had not mentioned that I wasn't really focussed on getting into a company quick. I kind of took my own time. The only interview I gave was to Mahindra Finance coz a friend got me the lead, they wanted salesman for selling their mutual funds (Horror!!) and I never got a call from them. LOL. A lady and a lady in veil. Nope, not the candidate for a salesmanship job, zooming across bangalore on the bike in the summer!

Star Drugs happened just like that. As if it was a miracle. I got it through a friend's friend and one call saying "Your welcome to do it here". I think I am so spoilt :-) My sister calls me a brat. The good thing about me, put me in anything and I will fit. I am the jack of all types kind of nut. Of course all the credit goes to my wonderful company and all the people I have worked with there.

Flip. Talking of not so good tutors, my driving tutor! My sis learnt it from him so I thought he must be good and friendly...schreeeech, who am I kidding! He talks to me so rudely! The first day or so I couldn't make it coz I had gone out of Bangalore and rushed to the class and I simply can't describe his attitude. So well, I go, I don't even say Hi, I just sit in the car and drive. He says turn left, I turn left, he says turn right, I turn right. He makes me drive at 20km/hr, I drive with grinding teeth ( I want to learn how to drive a car not a bullock cart! Even the cycle guy rode faster than me!). Today he seemed ok but hey I still don't like him. Another 10 more classes and hopefully I never get to see him again. (I know it's harsh but really. The same way I feel about all those 'other' guys)

A few more days to go, finish up my internship and start off the next chapter: Trimester IV. The sales report is pending and I have simply no inclination towards doing it and I know it's v.v.bad but I can't help it.

LOL: May be I should see a therapist! What say you? ;)