Countdown to the New Year
Friday, December 30, 2005
Sleepless nights in the past week caused me go to crazy yesterday!!! I was like a bird left out of a cage... just decided not to go near my books :-) Played two hours of volley ball even though I was tired becos of lack of sleep! We haven't played for quite some time and it showed obviously, but two hours was enough time to get back to the game! We played till I couldn't see, even with the floodlights :-) and my body was dead tired by the night.
Decided to watch a movie before conquering my lovely sleep... and I did choose the best one...'Million Dollar Baby'... amazing movie... well directed and well acted. And at the end of it, I went to bed by 2 am, my earliest for this week... couldn't ask for better... The one thing for which my love has gone up considerably after joining b-school is... my dear sleep!
Doesn't feel like new year is approaching... have an in-class exam on 2nd and also the submission of a take-home final. The other two courses don't have exams... course requirements were completed through projects and assignments... today I have not done too much of work, though I tried to study... should get back to the grind soon again... no time for relaxing with less than 50 days to go for placements (the countdown on my desktop doesn't stop reminding me!)
Author: Raghini » Comments:
Revenue Management and Fleet Assignment Problem
Thursday, December 29, 2005
Have been working for the past two nights on a very interesting project - an Integer program for Airline Fleet Assignment – for the Revenue Management course. I had been reading some papers written by doctorates working in the airline industry and I decided to put my paper knowledge to practice! Trying to understand the complex equations and modeling them in excel was challenging enough for me to enjoy :-) Unfortunately, there is a constraint on the number of decision variables that excel add-in solver can take and so I can’t model a bigger problem… wanted to do the fleet assignment for the current schedule followed by SpiceJet… I have done the solution manually, but I am trying to build an automated model for the same! The model is ready but unable to verify :-(
Tomorrow I am presenting this in class… This project was my motivator for me learning something from this course. Since we are just 13 students in class, we are working on five projects which are going to demonstrated tomorrow and the prof is treating us for pizzas after that!
I have uploaded a couple of pictures (Thanks to Kedar) clicked during Poseidon - One of them, 'Dawn of Poseidon' won the third place in Eikona photography competition. I just liked the two, so putting them up here!
Dawn of Poseidon:
Face of Poseidon:
(do look for the face)
Author: Raghini » Comments:
A year back...
Monday, December 26, 2005
I thought I was taking a peaceful break… thought I could enjoy long hours of sleep, away from the pressures at work and life that was killing me for the previous couple of months… so I had taken an extended holiday to be in Chennai.
But I was woken up early, by a commotion at my home… I am bugged and ask my mom what is it? She says ‘an earthquake at Indonesia’!… the first thing that comes to my mind is how far would the impact be felt? Had one of my friends visiting Andaman and couldn’t wake up without a worry! My mom asks about him and I tell her it shouldn’t be a problem as that’s what I wanted to believe…
I stay at the other end of the city from the beach and so I didn’t hear about the ‘waves’ until I switched on the TV… was shocked to see the extent to which the area near the beach was shaken!! My fears worsened… there was no news about Andaman even in the TV… it was either Chennai or Indonesia! The constant repetition of the awful images on all channels intensified the terror. Closed my eyes to all of them!
Had a confrontation within myself on whether I should try to reach him… he was on a honeymoon and the last thing I wanted to do was disturb them, if nothing had gone wrong there! But I couldn’t wait for more than a few hours… knowing me, that was long enough! It was late by the time I realized all communication lines to the island had been broken! Now, I was frantic! I had avoided calling his parents as I knew what they would going thru’ but at the end of the day, that was the only choice I was left with… got news that ‘the couple were safe’… and that’s all that mattered at that moment! Heaved a more peaceful sign of relief in a couple of days when I saw him again!
I did not lose anyone or anything to the ‘Tsunami’… but I know many did… I hope they have put those terrible images out of their head and walked a step ahead in their lives… a difficult proposition, but an earnest wish!
Author: Raghini » Comments:
Christmas Kids
Kids in ISB never cease to amaze us with their talent. Below are some of the pictures from the Christmas Celebrations at ISB!
Author: Raghini » Comments:
A Life of my Own
Sunday, December 25, 2005
A beautiful half moon… a midnight walk… to a silent room… watch ‘ten whole yards’ on ‘star movies’… well it doesn’t last for a long time :-)
Now I am back to reading a CFA magazine, looking at my resume for the nth time and not satisfied with the changes, trying to read the Vault guide and a number of other things! After the initial CAS feedback on my resume, revamped it from A to Z and had 3 feedback sessions with my friends here… and now I have a big list of things to change again… a critical analysis through these feedback sessions have helped to get different perspectives and expose even the intricate mistakes.
Managed to sleep till 1.30 pm today though I had a class at 8.30 am… have no clue when the alarms went off!
Classes and assignments are slowly taking the back seat compared to placement preparations… have been having focus group meetings almost everyday… can’t help thinking why we didn’t start earlier! But need to make this more structured.
Have two projects to work on before my finals… have one take home final and one in-class final… two courses have no exams… for the GOMG project, had to interview the Global Supply Chain Manager of Asian Paints… when I listen again to this audio recording, I can laugh at my own voice… that was the first interview I ever took!
Some surprising happenings in the past days:
- Met someone about whom I have heard a lot… an interesting person, I must say…
- Mailed a long lost friend… out of the blue!
- Discovered hidden talents about someone I grew up with
- A close friend mails in with pregnancy news… am I getting old?
Back to work in the early hours…
Author: Raghini » Comments:
Ramblings...
Thursday, December 22, 2005
I haven’t been blogging again! It is becoming a practice that I decide I am going to come back regularly, but then end up doing so once a week… everyday I end up thinking what I should write and it only remains in my memory pad! Seems out dated when I at last find time to write!
Assignments seem to fill up all the time that is available… placement preparation fever is in full swing… I should allocate more time for this than what I am currently doing… have been working on my resume… should get to a good state by this weekend. Next term, I am planning to take only three courses of which only one is Fin… so should give me more time for preparations… I would finish my course requirements for ‘finance’ major this term… I guess I would complete ‘OP & IT’ major also in the 8th term.
I expanded my portfolio of grades at ISB, thanks to Entrepreneurship… But it was a course that I did ages ago in third term (I think!), and is my last worry! Been getting a bunch of course end term papers and it has just become a routine to see them and forget about it!!
Sometimes I feel I am reaching a saturation limit when there is no time to feel good about the things I would have normally felt good about! But the good part is I don’t have the time to feel bad about the things that would have normally left me gloomy… actually I don’t know if that’s a good or a bad thing… hope things don’t hit me hard some day… hope I am not taking anything for granted!
I lost my grandfather a couple of days back… he had been bed ridden for quite some time… guess he was just waiting for my cousin’s wedding to happen… unfortunately, he never got to see his grand-daughter in law. He died two days after his first grandson got married. The last words he spoke to me were ‘Keep studying and study well’. He is the first blood relation who left me… had to see him weaken from a very energetic man to being weak, thin and bed-ridden. Though he was a very generous person, he didn’t have too many people around him to take care of him… Have seen around him as to how money can create and destroy a person’s peace! May his soul rest in peace at least now!
Author: Raghini » Comments:
An event to remember ‘me’
Sunday, December 18, 2005
Today morning, I choose the easiest way to prove ‘how big a fool I am’
I was working on my GOMG project report in my living room and watching the IND-SL test match when Shruti got me the green leaves that she had used yesterday in the Greek Theme party to decorate her head! This might have been nice for a greek party but unfortunately I didn’t realize that she had left it on my head and disappeared… the unfortunate event occurred when 30 prospective students who were attending the ISB admissions event walked into my apartment to see the empty room in the quad! I had no idea that there was something funny sitting on my head and no one bothered to tell me so and after 10 lovely(!) minutes I realized what a big fool I had been!
Author: Raghini » Comments:
Poseidon 2005
ISB’s annual b-school fest brought in numerous institutes to compete in the Gachibowli grounds for the past two days. Lots of competitions and numerous winners… but the biggest ‘kudos’ need to be given to the event organizers. Great show ‘Team Poseidon’ and all other clubs event organizers – who worked hard before and during the two days of innumerable activities sacrificing time in between the academic and placement activities that run non-stop on campus.
Poseidon started with Odyssey – a business and general entertainment quiz, followed by Kryptos – an Ad Interpretation Contest, Olympia – The Technology Innovation Challenge, Negotiatus – the client interview contest, Cerebrum – Consulting case competition, Elysium – fashion show and a grand finale for the day Octavia – Music Competition.
The fashion show and the music competition had the highest turnout during the day – Fashion show was contested between ISB and ICFAI, Hyderabad and though ISB won, I must say ICFAI were equally good. The music competition had 4 diverse music teams participating – ICFAI, Hyderabad, ISB, Infosys and Badruka College of Commerce. ICFAI had good singers and good instruments, Infosys was the most lively band and Badruka’s heavy metal band had Khemka rolling their heads. ISB’s team never ceases to amaze us with wonderful talent – a remarkable performance by the whole team. Barduka’s team (After Death) finished first and Infosys team (C#) roped in the second place.
Day two had the finals of the Equity research presentation – Drachma, Debate competition – Rhetorium, Emerging Markets Presentation – Pegasus, Marketing case presentation – Symposium, Venture World event – Tempest and Energy Club presentation – Energia. Poseidon was brought to a closure with the Greek Theme party @ our SV-1 lawns which was rocking on till at least 4 am!
The past two weekends seem to have been big party time – Solstice and Poseidon – forcing everyone to forget the usual ISB life for once! The coming week is loaded with assignments and today we all need to get back on to the ‘sprint’.
Placement fever has caught on in the batch… some started early, some started late… but everyone is now on to the race of placement preparations – focus group meetings, resume preparations, mock interviews… would reach a peak next term as the placements are in between term 7 and 8.
Author: Raghini » Comments:
The gang...
Thursday, December 15, 2005
L to R: Praveen, Arvind, Deepak, Arun (Bridegroom), Padma (Bride), Divya, Ranjani (my sis), urs truly, kids Hruthika & Eashan
Author: Raghini » Comments:
Back after a long break...
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
All the entries posted below today were written in the weekend when I didn’t have access to the internet… Now I am back to the grind again… more to follow… have been trying to post some pictures for quite some time... but this ‘hello form picasa’ doesn’t seem to be working fine…
Author: Raghini » Comments:
Wedding Day... Arun n Padma
My mom is second among 4 sisters and 2 brothers… When we six families meet, we are 24 of us… the kids are 12 in number, the eldest being the bridegroom of the day… I love spending time with this set of cousins and there was once a time when we used to meet every New Year’s Day at my grandfather’s place and cause all the commotion possible!! My mom’s elder sister’s sons Arun and Praveen are the only cousins elder to me and we three form a gang with my uncle (mom’s brother)… Both my cousins have completed their Masters in the US and are currently working there… so I get to see them only about once in two years… This wedding was an opportunity to see the whole gang again, though at the end, my youngest sis and one other cousin couldn’t turn up because of 10th std exams L
The day started with a good two hours chat with Padma, getting to know each other… then met my whole family as they arrived from Chennai and next couple of hours went in filling in details to and from everyone whom I meet a couple of times in a year… Sent everyone except my two cousins on a sight seeing trip and we three sat together to have a long awaited chat about each other’s lives J
The functions began in the afternoon right after lunch… This was some kinda nail cutting ceremony for the bride and bridegroom where the guy who cut the nails earned a huge sum of money for a 5 minute job! (I am very ignorant about the necessities of these rituals, so they never stop being funny to me!) Couldn’t help thinking of how easy available alternate professions are!!
I wore a white saree in a Gujarati style with silver ornaments for the wedding in the evening… In our custom, it is mandatory to wear gold for the weddings and I have managed to break these rules for two weddings in a row now! Some other day, I should write on what are all the rules in our custom, I love to break.
I was the second official photographer of the day… I was fighting with the first one all the while as I wanted to occupy his space on the stage… I clicked every moment of the wedding and I was happy to show the results to my cousin n his wife just after the wedding got over! And my family did appreciate my photographic skills… and that reminds me of another alternate profession!
End of the day… another nice long chat with my cousins late into the night and I just couldn’t wake up to catch the morning train… Was very happy that I managed to attend this wedding and meet them all… I had a contented sleep in the train as all my books, courses and classes had been forgotten!
Author: Raghini » Comments:
Rajahmundry Train journey…
The travel from ISB to the Secunderabad railway station took a good 1.5 hours, thanks to all the traffic in Hyderabad city… reminded me of the journey every day via Hosur Road from Infosys to Koramangala when I used to work in Bangalore! As I had written earlier, I am sure I am going to hate traveling in any lil traffic from next april as staying in ISB has made me forget the worst of all traffics I have handled every day in Bangalore.
For the first time, I traveled in AC 3 tier in the train… The memorable train journeys used to happen every 6 months when I used to travel from Delhi to Chennai for 1.5 days when I was studying in BITS… the ironical part is that the travel from Delhi to Pilani for 6 hours was more tiresome than the 36 hour journey from Chennai to Delhi!! But I heard that the roads are much better now and the travel isn’t much of a hassle as it used to be!
Traveling with me were a couple in their late 20s, a guy doing his MBA in the US and coming down to get married and two businessmen… I have never spoken so long to strangers at any time! I guess we discussed everything from MBA courses - investor behavior – world politics - rules for today’s generation – higher studies – job market in US and India! We were people in around four age groups and the discussion did show the thought differences among different age groups – though it was a good talk for a train journey! And importantly, I did impress them all with my Telugu… for at least half an hour they couldn’t guess I am not from AP!!!
In the wee hours of Sunday, I reached Rajahmundry and I took an auto to the bride’s place (I had specifically requested not to send anyone to pick me from the railway station)… None in the family except for my cousin and his parents had seen her before this… so I was the first person other than the first family to see her… Had the privilege of waking Padma for the long and eventful day of her life!
Author: Raghini » Comments:
MBA and Time Management
The most difficult thing I am still trying to master during my MBA is Time Management… There is always something to do out here and deciding which to take up within the 24 hours available is the most challenging task… what is required in the next couple of days becomes the priority most of the times, though I know there are things like placements which require long preparations and cannot be taken up in the last minute.
With 2 assignments to do this weekend, I volunteered to do Solstice work too… Solstice is the ISB Alumni reunion which happens in December every year… Around 200 alums have come from all over the world… Since we have a one year MBA, this is one of the few times when we get to meet our alums… lots of placements related talks are lined up for Sunday… There was an Arabian Theme party on Friday, inauguration with songs and skit performance by Class of 2006 was on Saturday morning, a carnival lined with games and food stalls, songs performed by visually challenged children on Saturday afternoon followed by a rock show on Saturday evening.
I am currently traveling to Rajahmundry as my cousin’s wedding is tonight… so I will miss all the placement related sessions today… but this is one wedding I did not want to miss at any cost…
Author: Raghini » Comments:
Sec B smashes Sec A in the Volley Ball finals!
Monday, December 05, 2005
Today was the much awaited finals between the arch-rivals of ISB Class of 2006. Sec A had a comfortable win in the semi-finals before this match while Sec B was not in its best form yesterday, when we had to play three sets to win the semi-finals.
But today was a different game altogether… Sec B dominated right from the word ‘go’… no one was making mistakes… everything that we touched turned to gold… Arun’s smashes and Kalyan’s drops were right on spot and always caught the opponents off guard! I too had a good game and was happy with the way I played. We haven’t played a better match in ISB :-) For all the practice we have had, this is one game we had to win :-)
Another credit to our team… final scorecard read 25-10 and 25-8
Author: Raghini » Comments:
New term… new looks :-)
Thursday, December 01, 2005
Three days into Term 6… just finished the first assignment… have been sleeping rigorously for the past couple of days, making up for all the lost sleep of last term and term break… I hope this assignment brings me back on track as I haven’t started studying for any of the course till now!
This term, the pressure would be much lesser than last term (I am hoping so) as I have taken 2 finance course and 2 operations courses -
Corporate Control, Mergers & Acquisitions – prof (Sreenivas Kamma) is good and I would like this course.
Corporate Risk Management – there are 6 group assignments in this course and that makes up 100% of the grade… don’t I have an amazing group :-)
Global Operations Management – my first elective with a bit of faf in it!
Revenue Management & Optimization – a 15 member class taken by prof. Milind Sohoni (of LSCM fame) – I like this course, though I hope the prof is better than last term.
Volley ball match in the coming weekend – Both Section-A teams are already in the semis and one of the Section-B teams has lost. There is an A vs B semi this weekend and I am playing for Section-B… At least this Sec A team should not be let into the finals!
New looks – My plan to get a haircut last term at last materialized today… have got a short blunt cut (like Kajol in KKHH :-)) and I am a happy gal today as I have been getting a lot of compliments… the funny thing is that the hair dresser asked me a 100 time before cutting my (slightly) longer hair that for a minute I too thought I should not be going for such short one… but I love it now!
Author: Raghini » Comments:
