This post is second in the series.
Stage 4: GMAT
I think I bought Kaplan in December 2007. Without really knowing about it, I had started off my preparation by buying the most difficult material. The "theory" and exercises in the book were alright enough, but the practice tests! - I used to go into a depression after attempting the practice tests! Only much later did I realise that I should not be taking the Kaplan scores as the Gospel truth about my preparation. My GMAT was scheduled in March, right before the Easter holidays. I scored a 660 in it (Q 48, V 33 - I think). I went to UK to visit my friends during Easter, which was a good thing. It helped me get over the disappointment of my score. My friends encouraged me to schedule the GMAT again since they were certain that I could do better than this. I came back from UK brimming with enthusiasm and determination - although I couldn't really get back to studying until much after that. Work became taxing and then, it was spring. :) I love spring. There are music festivals here and I went on so many roadtrips - it was awesome. Anyway, coming back to the serious stuff, my GMAT preparation never really took off again. I bought the OG 11, but looked through it very half-heartedly. Some time in July, I attempted GMAT again and scored slightly better at 690 (Q - 48, V - 35). Somewhere around this time, I ensured that I contacted and spoke to the people who I would approach for the recommendations. It was important that they knew about this and my ambitions in advance.
Stage 5: The IMD experience
Now that I had the requisite criteria to appear for a one-year program in India (ie I would be 27 by the time I start the program and I would have stayed abroad for 3 years), in my research for the right B-schools to apply to, IIM-A was a given. Honestly, at that time, ISB was something I was thinking of only because it was Indian and reputed. I had not really found out anything about it, the way I did for IMD, Lausanne.
Lausanne is only about 80 km away from Geneva. So, it was a matter of convenience for me to go on a campus visit to IMD in August 2008. We were about 8 visitors to the school that day. The campus is very unlike the campuses in India, in that it is smaller. The MBA program at IMD was just one of its programs - the bread and butter comes from their EMBA program and corporate programs. However, what impressed me was the synergy between the companies and the school. The infrastructure was not dazzling but it was sufficient. I liked the concept of the class size being kept constant at 90. Compared to this, INSEAD (France) seemed a little bigger - where the potential of being lost in the crowd is higher. I came back from the campus visit highly impressed. But I knew that it would be a marketing strategy ;) and so I approached a person working in my company who is an alumnus of IMD. I'll call him T.
T was very helpful. First, he tried to see if IMD and I "fit" together. He explained to me how important this "fit" is. You have to be an advantage to the school, the way the school will be an advantage to you. Don't apply to a school in desperation or just because an MBA from anywhere will do. Find out exactly what are the principles driving the school. Look at the previous performance of the school - which industry favours it, where are the alumni based, what was the placement record, was your "dream job" offered regularly in the past. When I started with the application form of IMD, I contacted him again - "Would he please read my essays and give me some feedback?". The IMD essays were traumatic. I had to write 13 essays! Of course they had character limit and of course they asked you everything about your life! When T reviewed them, he was brutal. For some of them, he laughed at me outright! (Hmph! I still can't decide whether to find him obnoxiously conceited or graciously helpful!) Apart from him, I asked a few of my friends to review the essays, too. Finally, after all the feedback, I edited my essays and managed to submit my application right before the last deadline - September 1st 2008.
Two weeks later, I was invited for the interview. Now, interview at IMD is a slightly different affair - it is a day-long affair, to be exact. I was sent a case by mail when I confirmed that I would be available for the interview. When I showed up at IMD, there were probably another 7 people there - each from different walks of life. One was a marketing manager from Russia while another was a programmer from Brazil. If I had to give marks for diversity of the candidate pool, IMD would have scored big time. Anyway, we were taken to a room. Two of us were escorted for our interviews, while the remaining were given a sheet with mini-cases. We had to choose the one we liked and make a presentation on it. We were given the markers and transperancies. They gave us half an hour to do that. After this, I had 15 minutes of break followed by the "long" interview. It was taken by one of the admission committee seniors. This interview was mainly probing. In a very subtle way, they wanted to know the usual questions - why MBA, why IMD, why now. Apart from these questions, they wanted to know my background, how did I come to be here (in Switzerland), what's my work like. Now that I think about it, I think I fumbled many times during this interview. I took it too casually.
The interview was followed by another "short" one where I remember being asked if I had enough funds to make the first payment if I was offered a seat. This interview was supposed to inform the candidate about the living costs here, etc. Since, I already had an idea about that, the session didn't take too long for me. After this, we all had a lunch break, where each of us was "hosted" by a current student. We could ask them a lot of questions about the curriculum, the placements, the Discovery expeditions, etc. My host and I got talking and we forgot about the time - I had to gulp my dessert down and run for the next session of the interview day - which was the case study part.
First, each of us got the chance to present our mini-case. We had discussions after each presentation. Then we were told to agree on one mini-case and present it as a group. Having done that, after the usual round of questions, we took a break. This was finally followed by the main case study. We had a faculty member presiding over the discussion - a very humble and humourous man, but very very good at what he does. His task was to get all of us on one page about the case. Then, we were divided into two groups, told to bundle off and discuss our "solution" and then come back and present it. Finally, it was over. The director of the program came by to have a few words with us. IMD had just been ranked #1 by the Economist and they were justly proud.
When I finally left IMD, it was 5 pm. The day had begun at 8 am and there wasn't an instant where we were allowed to relax. As I drove back to my friend's place for the weekend, I thought that given the kind of experience and backgrounds of the other candidates and current students, IMD was probably not the right "fit" for me.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Sunday, January 25, 2009
The Road Less Travelled
or something like that :)
This post is the first part of a summary of all my relevant experiences until now - related to my quest for an MBA.
Stage 1: The vague idea
It was probably during the last years of my engineering program when I decided that I could, in fact, enjoy management more than the technical equation of life. This realisation dawned upon me partly due to the various committees I was involved in during fests and partly due to the slight lack of inspiration towards the curriculum. Dutifully, I attempted my CAT in 2002, ending up with a decent enough score for the first attempt. However, I lost out on DI and was assured of no call-backs that year. I realised almost at the same time that without some work experience, the program would not really make much sense. So, I went ahead with my first job, putting the idea of an MBA at the back of my mind. I promised myself that 2 years from then, I would do a revaluation of the whole idea and its relevance in my life at that time.
Stage 2: A certainty
Fast forward to 2 years later. I was working and was, at that time, pretty happy with the job and its challenges. However, as promised, I paused to rethink. Now, more than ever, I knew that I would not be doing something technical at 30. I wanted to move to the management side of the industry. I had 2 options - work hard and patiently wait for recognitions which might aid the transition (notice the various factors at play in this option) or invest in the master's to be on the fasttrack towards what I wanted. A lot of discussions and thought into the matter convinced me to opt for the latter option. I prepared for CAT this time and applied only to the IIMs. It wasn't that I was overconfident and obstinate about it. :) Yet again, I was practical enough to realise that I was not really ready. CAT 2004 was a dry-run - something to help me judge myself. I needed to know how much more was required from me. This time, the verbal section held me up. So, now, after the results were declared, I knew I had to work on both, the quant and the verbal. I spent the next few months with quite a busy schedule - work taking almost 14 hours a day and studying in the weekends.
I took a month off before CAT 2005 - I just didn't want anything to disturb me during that time. And as is usual in such cases, just about everything did! :) There was a medical complication in the immediate family and I finally received an opportunity to go on-site (the famous "on-site" for the IT crowd) for long term within that one month. I refused the opportunity after a lot of deliberation - it just didn't seem worth it. My boss was not really expecting that response and I almost received a veiled threat that I would not be considered for any more of such "opportunities" since I refused this one. "Too bad", I thought. "Time to look for another job after CAT". A week before D-day, however, he called me again - this time with another "opportunity". The "on-site" this time was at the client HQ, to do the kind of work that I always wanted to do. You don't know how confusing it all became. I really really really wanted this experience, but the time was right for an MBA. I was prepared for CAT. I had applied to the institutes I wanted to apply to and I was confident. Then again, I just distanced myself from the immediate situation and thought ahead. I decided that the experience was worth postponing my MBA dream for a while. "Soon", I promised myself. I went ahead with CAT 2005 however and thought I had the most difficult test in the world! I was sure that I didn't perform well and secretly was glad that I had another viable option in my life at that time. I left for Switzerland as 2006 began and about a month later received the much-awaited calls. Sigh! There I was again - torn between a professional commitment and a personal dream. There was nothing to do but let one pass - I continued working on my assignment.
Stage 3: Disillusionment and desperation
15 months into the assignment and life was slowly getting all too predictable. As I saw it, the fact that I was at client location made it even tougher for recognitions to come my way. After all, wasn't I being rewarded enough by working there? The trade-off did not look all that tempting anymore. I was homesick and worked to the bone. It was time to do something drastic to get my life back on track. It was time to go home. I timed it so that I could get back to India, settle down and prepare for CAT 2007. This time I also thought about GMAT. I wanted to apply to ISB and the international B-schools as well. But life had other plans. Before I knew it, I was back in Switzerland with another job.
That winter I tried to explore options for a part-time MBA in Geneva and the surrounding region. I spoke to my manager about the possibility of my leaving earlier a few days of the week. I had spoken about my plans to do an MBA during my interviews with this company. So, I was confident about being supported by them. However, after sitting in at few of the classes, I was discouraged. The level of detail that I expected from the program was missing. The part-time program had not enough time to dedicate to each case - and of course, the pre-reads were relatively enormous! What now?? It had to be a full-time program for me. So, I was back at my books and began researching.
This post is the first part of a summary of all my relevant experiences until now - related to my quest for an MBA.
Stage 1: The vague idea
It was probably during the last years of my engineering program when I decided that I could, in fact, enjoy management more than the technical equation of life. This realisation dawned upon me partly due to the various committees I was involved in during fests and partly due to the slight lack of inspiration towards the curriculum. Dutifully, I attempted my CAT in 2002, ending up with a decent enough score for the first attempt. However, I lost out on DI and was assured of no call-backs that year. I realised almost at the same time that without some work experience, the program would not really make much sense. So, I went ahead with my first job, putting the idea of an MBA at the back of my mind. I promised myself that 2 years from then, I would do a revaluation of the whole idea and its relevance in my life at that time.
Stage 2: A certainty
Fast forward to 2 years later. I was working and was, at that time, pretty happy with the job and its challenges. However, as promised, I paused to rethink. Now, more than ever, I knew that I would not be doing something technical at 30. I wanted to move to the management side of the industry. I had 2 options - work hard and patiently wait for recognitions which might aid the transition (notice the various factors at play in this option) or invest in the master's to be on the fasttrack towards what I wanted. A lot of discussions and thought into the matter convinced me to opt for the latter option. I prepared for CAT this time and applied only to the IIMs. It wasn't that I was overconfident and obstinate about it. :) Yet again, I was practical enough to realise that I was not really ready. CAT 2004 was a dry-run - something to help me judge myself. I needed to know how much more was required from me. This time, the verbal section held me up. So, now, after the results were declared, I knew I had to work on both, the quant and the verbal. I spent the next few months with quite a busy schedule - work taking almost 14 hours a day and studying in the weekends.
I took a month off before CAT 2005 - I just didn't want anything to disturb me during that time. And as is usual in such cases, just about everything did! :) There was a medical complication in the immediate family and I finally received an opportunity to go on-site (the famous "on-site" for the IT crowd) for long term within that one month. I refused the opportunity after a lot of deliberation - it just didn't seem worth it. My boss was not really expecting that response and I almost received a veiled threat that I would not be considered for any more of such "opportunities" since I refused this one. "Too bad", I thought. "Time to look for another job after CAT". A week before D-day, however, he called me again - this time with another "opportunity". The "on-site" this time was at the client HQ, to do the kind of work that I always wanted to do. You don't know how confusing it all became. I really really really wanted this experience, but the time was right for an MBA. I was prepared for CAT. I had applied to the institutes I wanted to apply to and I was confident. Then again, I just distanced myself from the immediate situation and thought ahead. I decided that the experience was worth postponing my MBA dream for a while. "Soon", I promised myself. I went ahead with CAT 2005 however and thought I had the most difficult test in the world! I was sure that I didn't perform well and secretly was glad that I had another viable option in my life at that time. I left for Switzerland as 2006 began and about a month later received the much-awaited calls. Sigh! There I was again - torn between a professional commitment and a personal dream. There was nothing to do but let one pass - I continued working on my assignment.
Stage 3: Disillusionment and desperation
15 months into the assignment and life was slowly getting all too predictable. As I saw it, the fact that I was at client location made it even tougher for recognitions to come my way. After all, wasn't I being rewarded enough by working there? The trade-off did not look all that tempting anymore. I was homesick and worked to the bone. It was time to do something drastic to get my life back on track. It was time to go home. I timed it so that I could get back to India, settle down and prepare for CAT 2007. This time I also thought about GMAT. I wanted to apply to ISB and the international B-schools as well. But life had other plans. Before I knew it, I was back in Switzerland with another job.
That winter I tried to explore options for a part-time MBA in Geneva and the surrounding region. I spoke to my manager about the possibility of my leaving earlier a few days of the week. I had spoken about my plans to do an MBA during my interviews with this company. So, I was confident about being supported by them. However, after sitting in at few of the classes, I was discouraged. The level of detail that I expected from the program was missing. The part-time program had not enough time to dedicate to each case - and of course, the pre-reads were relatively enormous! What now?? It had to be a full-time program for me. So, I was back at my books and began researching.
Friday, January 23, 2009
A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose.
Finally, I could take it no longer! So here's a post clarifying the mystery. For the clueless, Reetu / Ritu means season.
My name is Reetu. It says so on my passport and on all my valid documents which could pass as various forms of proofs of identity in many countries. This is thanks to the lady who was registering me as a 4-year old into the school records. I imagine the conversation to have been something like this:
Lady (in a bored voice): So, what's the little angel's name?
Dad: Ritu
Lady: Huh?
Dad (and this is probably what he shouldn't have done): Ri-tu
Lady: Ah! Ok!
And so, amidst smiles and general feelings of a job well done, I was registered as Reetu. When we realised the mistake and tried to change it, we were politely informed that we would have the chance when I appeared for my board exams (which would be about 11 years later from the unfortunate mishap). And don't you think that 11 years is enough time to get used to something? :) Besides, I just had to ensure that I signed as "Reetu" while my family and close friends continued to call me "Ritu". Finally, when the time came, we realised that it was just too much trouble - petitioning to a court, announcing in the newspapers apart from all the paperwork involved. I decided that I could live with "Reetu" - it meant the same thing and moreover, it was a part of my identity now.
Doesn't make much of a difference really.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
My two cents
I am going to be writing for a long time - that explains the bottle of juice and chips by my side. I have a lot to say and bring you up to speed on. And it is going to be in random order again and I shall digress often - because I have a lot of time on hand. :)
Now that the disclaimers and warnings are out of the way, I can tell you that it is Friday evening and I am tired to the bone. One of my friends is going back to India for a vacation tomorrow and two of us volunteered to help her pack and check-in tonight. Let me just say that her baggage exceeded the limit so remarkably that getting to the airport was a hilarious struggle. The suitcase decided our speed and direction of walking. Once at the counter, when we realised that it would not be accepted "as-is", we began the rigamarole of unpacking, removing stuff, packing, weighing. The iteration was repeated twice before the extremely nice and polite lady at the counter was satisfied, while I was dehydrated by the end of it. And before this, I had to run for the bus today. I decided to sell my car and it is now at the garage. So, my experience with the public transport began again. After work, as I was picking my way on the heavily frosted road to the bus stop, I squinted far ahead to see the bus on its way. I was about half a kilometre away from the stop and I took the decision to run for it. As an aside, I think people run fastest for the bus and the train. In fact, if someday I want to compete in a sprint, I am going to visualise a bus "just there" near the finishing line. Invariably, the bus reached the stop much before me. Thankfully the driver also must have squinted into the darkness to see a small compact mass of denser darkness moving swiftly towards the bus and must have correctly guessed it to be a passenger. And he waited... Bless his soul! And thus, I am really really tired...
I have been conspicuously silent on the Mumbai terror attacks, famously termed as the 26/11 by the media. (If they had to copy the logic of 9/11 completely, it should have been 11/26, but I digress again...) As mentioned before, I try to post only when I begin thinking objectively about the subject. The nature of this subject, however, was such that I could not really think objectively about it for a long long time. Enough has been written already on it - the audacity of the terrorists, the heroism of the common people who worked with what they had - their presence of mind being the most effective, the lop-sided sensationalisation of the media who kind of "forgot" to cover the story at VT where the poorer Indians travelling by trains lost their lives, the heavily under-armed Mumbai police trying to control the situation with fisticuffs (Yes, they captured the lone surviving terrorist at a checkpost after a raw physical fight). As with any crisis, the best and worst of human nature was showcased. Politicians appeared to be tripping over each other to commit gaffes, only showing how starkly disconnected they were from the public sentiment, while the saviours of the day got into the BEST buses to go back to their barracks, self-effacing and gracious - only saying things like "Hamesha, jab bhi zaroorat pade, kadam-kadam pe milte rahenge" ( Always, whenever needed, we'll be there ), "We just did our duty".
So, what now? Are all the other Indians doing their duty? After a million talk-shows and "this ought to be done"s, I really don't see anyone feeling any safer in India. Our wonderful government decided to go on a "diplomatic offensive" to try and garner international support against the "friendly" neighbour who seems to be heavily embroiled in this mess. The attacks sealed the fate of the home minister who had to step down dishonourably (I am not sure if that is an apt word for an Indian politician) to give way to someone who was a performer in quite another area. The old trick of stalling has worked again, while Indians slowly get busy with their daily life and demands for accountability grow far and in between. All said and done, the US, having lost 6 of its valuable citizens, seems a little more on the offensive than India who lost more than 150 of her children. Why? Are Indian lives cheaper? I don't understand this. Even today, the news of 3 Indians taken hostages by Somalian pirates was tucked away in a nondescript corner of a major Indian online news journal. Why? Why don't we value our lives enough to raise a hue and cry about such injustices being meted out to us? What is wrong with us?
!A deep breath later! Apparently, I still can not be emotionally detached on this topic. :) Maybe we don't appreciate each other enough. I mean, we don't even value labour equally. Try going to a restaurant in an international location and give an order without saying "Thank you" or "Please". You would be considered rude, not only by the people who wait on you, but also by the others around you. Then, why don't we do this in India? We give the order, sometimes even say "Thank you" - but would it hurt to look the waiter in the eye and smile while thanking him? I was in Bhopal last summer. There was a small kiraana shop (a shop around the corner) where I went to recharge the credit on my mobile. It was a hot afternoon, the old shopkeeper was in a foul mood. I paid for the credit and when I received the confirmation by sms, I smiled, thanked him and left the shop. That guy treated me as a special customer after that - getting his assistant to get me a chair to wait while he was busy with another customer, calling me "beti" (daughter) and things like that. And it was because I smiled and thanked him, always. Anyway, I digress again. My point is that we don't value each other equally. Once we change that, no one can hurt one of us and get away with it so easily.
I went home for Christmas. :) My niece, Nishttha, had started trying to crawl on her fours (Now, she's good at it and has started standing up by herself, holding on to something sturdy). One night, she was in the mood to play and stayed up with her aunt until 2 am. It was comical when she finally began feeling sleepy - she kept trying to remove a pattern from the bedspread for about 20 minutes, took a deep breath, looked around and after some unintelligible words to me, fell onto her side - asleep. :D The first week at home was bliss. If someone left me unattended for 10 minutes, I used to fall asleep (but not quite the same way as I just described Nishttha do). I met up with my friends from Satyam. One of them, Sudhi, was married already while another, Usman, got engaged right before I left. This leaves only 3 of us from the group who are still single - the three stooges :D Although, I am almost sure that the social status of the other two guys is going to change soon. I saw the movie - Ghajini. The movie itself was not so great, but I loved the experience of watching it on the big screen - with hoots and whistles whenever Aamir made an "appearance". Heheh. I so regret not being able to wolf-whistle. I met one of my college friends too - probably after 2 years. It was nice meeting him :) Then, I also managed to have coffee with some of the Bangalore-based future classmates of mine. The meet-up was alright but maybe I had had a long day and I was a little out of sorts - I did invite a "And why are you so quiet?" from them :D Well, they'll know just how much I talk over the next year...
Talking about ISB, we have already started the "networking" thing. The mails and then some more mails from the group keeps me quite busy. I am honing my skills of selective absorption. :D Apparently, ISB student culture has spam-mails as an integral part of life - the closer the end-term exams, the higher the mail exchange within a whole class of students. So, I am hoping that this new skill will be well-utilised. By the way, I must ask someone if "my two cents" has been adopted as the phrase of the year by my class. I seem to have missed the announcement and suspect that it is so because only this would justify the abuse of the phrase in our mails. ;) (I know you guys are reading this :D)
My post has finally come to an end and it is not because I am done saying what I wanted to, but because it is late and I want to sleep. I'll continue this post another time. Don't wait for it. :)
Song of the day: I'm yours by Jason Mraz
Now that the disclaimers and warnings are out of the way, I can tell you that it is Friday evening and I am tired to the bone. One of my friends is going back to India for a vacation tomorrow and two of us volunteered to help her pack and check-in tonight. Let me just say that her baggage exceeded the limit so remarkably that getting to the airport was a hilarious struggle. The suitcase decided our speed and direction of walking. Once at the counter, when we realised that it would not be accepted "as-is", we began the rigamarole of unpacking, removing stuff, packing, weighing. The iteration was repeated twice before the extremely nice and polite lady at the counter was satisfied, while I was dehydrated by the end of it. And before this, I had to run for the bus today. I decided to sell my car and it is now at the garage. So, my experience with the public transport began again. After work, as I was picking my way on the heavily frosted road to the bus stop, I squinted far ahead to see the bus on its way. I was about half a kilometre away from the stop and I took the decision to run for it. As an aside, I think people run fastest for the bus and the train. In fact, if someday I want to compete in a sprint, I am going to visualise a bus "just there" near the finishing line. Invariably, the bus reached the stop much before me. Thankfully the driver also must have squinted into the darkness to see a small compact mass of denser darkness moving swiftly towards the bus and must have correctly guessed it to be a passenger. And he waited... Bless his soul! And thus, I am really really tired...
I have been conspicuously silent on the Mumbai terror attacks, famously termed as the 26/11 by the media. (If they had to copy the logic of 9/11 completely, it should have been 11/26, but I digress again...) As mentioned before, I try to post only when I begin thinking objectively about the subject. The nature of this subject, however, was such that I could not really think objectively about it for a long long time. Enough has been written already on it - the audacity of the terrorists, the heroism of the common people who worked with what they had - their presence of mind being the most effective, the lop-sided sensationalisation of the media who kind of "forgot" to cover the story at VT where the poorer Indians travelling by trains lost their lives, the heavily under-armed Mumbai police trying to control the situation with fisticuffs (Yes, they captured the lone surviving terrorist at a checkpost after a raw physical fight). As with any crisis, the best and worst of human nature was showcased. Politicians appeared to be tripping over each other to commit gaffes, only showing how starkly disconnected they were from the public sentiment, while the saviours of the day got into the BEST buses to go back to their barracks, self-effacing and gracious - only saying things like "Hamesha, jab bhi zaroorat pade, kadam-kadam pe milte rahenge" ( Always, whenever needed, we'll be there ), "We just did our duty".
So, what now? Are all the other Indians doing their duty? After a million talk-shows and "this ought to be done"s, I really don't see anyone feeling any safer in India. Our wonderful government decided to go on a "diplomatic offensive" to try and garner international support against the "friendly" neighbour who seems to be heavily embroiled in this mess. The attacks sealed the fate of the home minister who had to step down dishonourably (I am not sure if that is an apt word for an Indian politician) to give way to someone who was a performer in quite another area. The old trick of stalling has worked again, while Indians slowly get busy with their daily life and demands for accountability grow far and in between. All said and done, the US, having lost 6 of its valuable citizens, seems a little more on the offensive than India who lost more than 150 of her children. Why? Are Indian lives cheaper? I don't understand this. Even today, the news of 3 Indians taken hostages by Somalian pirates was tucked away in a nondescript corner of a major Indian online news journal. Why? Why don't we value our lives enough to raise a hue and cry about such injustices being meted out to us? What is wrong with us?
!A deep breath later! Apparently, I still can not be emotionally detached on this topic. :) Maybe we don't appreciate each other enough. I mean, we don't even value labour equally. Try going to a restaurant in an international location and give an order without saying "Thank you" or "Please". You would be considered rude, not only by the people who wait on you, but also by the others around you. Then, why don't we do this in India? We give the order, sometimes even say "Thank you" - but would it hurt to look the waiter in the eye and smile while thanking him? I was in Bhopal last summer. There was a small kiraana shop (a shop around the corner) where I went to recharge the credit on my mobile. It was a hot afternoon, the old shopkeeper was in a foul mood. I paid for the credit and when I received the confirmation by sms, I smiled, thanked him and left the shop. That guy treated me as a special customer after that - getting his assistant to get me a chair to wait while he was busy with another customer, calling me "beti" (daughter) and things like that. And it was because I smiled and thanked him, always. Anyway, I digress again. My point is that we don't value each other equally. Once we change that, no one can hurt one of us and get away with it so easily.
I went home for Christmas. :) My niece, Nishttha, had started trying to crawl on her fours (Now, she's good at it and has started standing up by herself, holding on to something sturdy). One night, she was in the mood to play and stayed up with her aunt until 2 am. It was comical when she finally began feeling sleepy - she kept trying to remove a pattern from the bedspread for about 20 minutes, took a deep breath, looked around and after some unintelligible words to me, fell onto her side - asleep. :D The first week at home was bliss. If someone left me unattended for 10 minutes, I used to fall asleep (but not quite the same way as I just described Nishttha do). I met up with my friends from Satyam. One of them, Sudhi, was married already while another, Usman, got engaged right before I left. This leaves only 3 of us from the group who are still single - the three stooges :D Although, I am almost sure that the social status of the other two guys is going to change soon. I saw the movie - Ghajini. The movie itself was not so great, but I loved the experience of watching it on the big screen - with hoots and whistles whenever Aamir made an "appearance". Heheh. I so regret not being able to wolf-whistle. I met one of my college friends too - probably after 2 years. It was nice meeting him :) Then, I also managed to have coffee with some of the Bangalore-based future classmates of mine. The meet-up was alright but maybe I had had a long day and I was a little out of sorts - I did invite a "And why are you so quiet?" from them :D Well, they'll know just how much I talk over the next year...
Talking about ISB, we have already started the "networking" thing. The mails and then some more mails from the group keeps me quite busy. I am honing my skills of selective absorption. :D Apparently, ISB student culture has spam-mails as an integral part of life - the closer the end-term exams, the higher the mail exchange within a whole class of students. So, I am hoping that this new skill will be well-utilised. By the way, I must ask someone if "my two cents" has been adopted as the phrase of the year by my class. I seem to have missed the announcement and suspect that it is so because only this would justify the abuse of the phrase in our mails. ;) (I know you guys are reading this :D)
My post has finally come to an end and it is not because I am done saying what I wanted to, but because it is late and I want to sleep. I'll continue this post another time. Don't wait for it. :)
Song of the day: I'm yours by Jason Mraz
Friday, January 09, 2009
The Fall into Disgrace
The Satyam fiasco. A nightmare that can't be wished away.
For the uninitiated, you can find here the scanned copy of a confession that might change a lot in the way business is done in corporate India. This is being termed as India's Enron - a dubious honour we could do without.
Under the arc-lights of media frenzy and mass hysteria, a great Indian dream is biting the dust. As an ex-Satyamite, I was proud of that company. All its accomplishments, were also mine and vice-versa. Of course, I had my frustrations with the HR, the middle-level management and so many other things that irked, but never was I ashamed of being a Satyamite.
It was the first company I started my career with, grew with for 3.5 years and where I made some lifelong friendships. I looked up to Ramalinga Raju - I had met him once when he came over to Vevey for a management meeting with Nestlé and then had the time to sit with our team here, and just talk. A soft-spoken humble man. Rama Raju was present when I received my first client appreciation certificate. So many memories - mostly pleasant.
And today, the man is being made out to be a monster on the TV screens. All the shady dealings are under scrutiny - by people who must have been bribed to pass those aforesaid dealings. His confession letter gives the image of him locking himself up in a room to edit the balance sheet. That just can't be right. There had to be others in the know although the buck stopped with him. All those individuals should be punished. I remember harsh HR repurcussions on associates who failed their BG checks. These "corporate honchos" should suffer the same indignity. Time will show how accountable the investors would make these individuals for destroying so much of value.
Write it down as wishful thinking, but for the sake of all the stakeholders, my investments (time and money) into this company, and for the sake of many of my friends who are still there, trying to come to terms with the sudden uncertainty in their lives through no fault of theirs, I wish Satyam, the company, manages to ride this wave. It would have to start with a clean slate again and maybe with twice the effort to salvage the situation and reputation, but then which honest Indian is afraid of hard work?
For the uninitiated, you can find here the scanned copy of a confession that might change a lot in the way business is done in corporate India. This is being termed as India's Enron - a dubious honour we could do without.
Under the arc-lights of media frenzy and mass hysteria, a great Indian dream is biting the dust. As an ex-Satyamite, I was proud of that company. All its accomplishments, were also mine and vice-versa. Of course, I had my frustrations with the HR, the middle-level management and so many other things that irked, but never was I ashamed of being a Satyamite.
It was the first company I started my career with, grew with for 3.5 years and where I made some lifelong friendships. I looked up to Ramalinga Raju - I had met him once when he came over to Vevey for a management meeting with Nestlé and then had the time to sit with our team here, and just talk. A soft-spoken humble man. Rama Raju was present when I received my first client appreciation certificate. So many memories - mostly pleasant.
And today, the man is being made out to be a monster on the TV screens. All the shady dealings are under scrutiny - by people who must have been bribed to pass those aforesaid dealings. His confession letter gives the image of him locking himself up in a room to edit the balance sheet. That just can't be right. There had to be others in the know although the buck stopped with him. All those individuals should be punished. I remember harsh HR repurcussions on associates who failed their BG checks. These "corporate honchos" should suffer the same indignity. Time will show how accountable the investors would make these individuals for destroying so much of value.
Write it down as wishful thinking, but for the sake of all the stakeholders, my investments (time and money) into this company, and for the sake of many of my friends who are still there, trying to come to terms with the sudden uncertainty in their lives through no fault of theirs, I wish Satyam, the company, manages to ride this wave. It would have to start with a clean slate again and maybe with twice the effort to salvage the situation and reputation, but then which honest Indian is afraid of hard work?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)