Merry X-Mas and New Year

Time passes by so fast.. suddenly its been two weeks past our final presentations.. ..
I m still in sleep mode.. which means sleeping 10-12 hours a day (0600 - 1600 hrs).. specially during daytime .. very typical of an engineer be it from US or from India.. we cant sleep during night..
hmm on top of that u include movie time (4 *2 = 8 hours) .. chatting n food (in the remaining time).. n there u go . no time left for nything else.. I wish I had 30 hrs in a day.. but just wondering if that could have really helped..so as usual time is less n so many things to do.. one need to prioritize.. thts one of the 'guru matras' at MBA .. time management.. how to keep devoting time to the important things.. while working on least important ones at the back-end.. Before coming to Sauder I was bad at it.. but now may be I have improved 10%.. still a long way to go.. hoping that I will be good in it oneday.. Vancouver the best city to live in.... yet needs to be explored.. need to go to places.. downtown.. waterfront.. skiing .. snow boarding.... I wonder if its possible to do all this in next ten days.. wait n watch.. as of now.. got some time to clear the mess in my room .. my living room.. then some cooking.. n then aah.. movie time..
catch ya later.. till that time scionara.. whatever..

Merry X-Mas and great New Year..

... ... ... Its not important how long you lived BUT how u lived ...

Life without MBA CORE

... is no life.. believe me.. .. feels like we have nothing left.. those 3 months were so hectic that now everything else looks so easy going.. nothing challenging.. i need my "core life" back.. hv been told my best days of life are over.. the realization is hard to accept.. but I guess they are right..

Spending time watching movies.. playing basketball with frndz... sleeping.. its all useless.. nothing is as great as MBA core.. now picked my subjects for next semester.. picking the toughest subjects.. just kidding.. hv picked the easiest subjects.... to enjoy my life during MBA.. got some plans..consulting club activities .. sports.. internship hunting.. later job hunting.. networking.. still lot of action left.. lot to learn.. lot to adapt..MBA really transforms a person..
as of now in vacations.. working on my cooking skills.. learning new dishes.. having 'pot luck' parties..its all fun.. trying out different dishes from Germany to Korea, Toronto to China, France to States.. its amazing.. I am lucky to be part of this amazing group.. we got so much to share and learn from each other. ..

Oops.. X-Mas is around the corner.. need to buy gifts for my frndz.. i will catch ya later..

Learning for the day: The most important aspect of life is 'To keep enjoying.. suddenly u may realize that the days u thought were ur worst were actually the best days of ur life..'

Core No More...

Hurrayyyyyyy

Most of us are finally through with the core.. with grades out all of us did good n are now busy making plans for the vacations.. Suddenly after 15 weeks.. we have some time to think bout ourselves.. our lives.. n no work to do.. wow.. its amazing feeling BUT somehow somewhere I wish it should have been there for some more time...it was not as tough as it seems to be.. I checked my earlier blogs.. was it really that tough.. dont know.. good thing is we did it..experienced it.. n we are now a bit better person than before we started it..

It was tough.. intense and enriching experience.. we had fun.. we cried sometimes.. we were bruised .. hurt.. felt helpless sometimes.. but at the same time I felt strong sometimes.. sense of achievement .. contented.. after weeks of hard work.. believe me one has to experience it to understand it..

We had our 'Core No More' party.. everyone was relaxed.. recovering from the last four days of effort put in for presentations.. some nervous.. some never cared.. some really happy..
They all have some plans for coming vacations already.. some going back to meet their families.. some for Skiing .. some got long Shopping list (u know whom I m referring to...)
For me ...ummmmm..I am pretty clear on that front.. I have a long list of 'To DOs' for myself..
1. Sleep
2. Sleep
....

4. Finally some sleep..

Lesson learnt: No matter what happens in life.. The motto should be to move on..'Keep Walking'

End of Core is near...

Alrite. .. we can see the summit now...we are almost there..
after sleepless nights.. anxious last minute submissions (0830 hrs in morning.. one min late is late..).. most of are now working on final project submission and final four hour BIG exam.. Its gonna be good.. some are tired.. some sans emotion.. n some are riding high on 'second wind'.. I dont know where to put myself.... umm.. lets see I can sense 'Second sense' coz I m hoping that end is gonna be good.. so giving my best to it..

Major exam.. Oops.. I have to moving out of current nest to my next dwelling on campus a day before the final exam.. the craziest thing I have done ( guess so) after coming to Vancouver.... that one single exam is worth one fifth (20%) of our total grades.. I hope its not that bad in the end..hoping.....

Project work.. we made the mistake of taking it like just another project.. and assuming that it will be a cake walk..BUT as they say.. 'the last mile' is always difficult n the most expensive.. and there we (my project team like other project teams ) were.. rather than celebrating after major exam we were slogging as if our life depends on this project.. team meetings stretching to more than six to seven hours.. appreciating the power of Word and Excel and Powerpoint.. tension was high .. it was intense.. very easy to break away but we kept our control

Thinking about MBA at this stage makes me wonder.. whats the purpose of all this.. is it all about learning.. or something bigger than that.... is it just the ends at this point which matters or is it still about means to achieve those ends..(my personal philosophy).. but whtever it is.. given the interesting ( I call this phase the most interesting phase) life every decent MBA grad goes through while dreaming about those magical six figure salary and comfy cushion power seats in board room..:) i feel there is a bigger purpose behind all this.. which I hvnt figured out yet..

No time to ponder about it at the moment.. at the moment its about execution.. "knocking off" things which are on my way.. one by one.. hour by hour.. in the best possible way.. making my way through group discussions.. research.. talking to VCs.. studying finance and economics.. net present values game theories.. thinking about marketing mix and value proposition.. pondering the sustainability of competitve advantages.. life goes on..

My personal motto in first three months 'Keep the damage to minimum.. ' has kept me afloat.. Hoping that all this hard work pays off some day.....

Days during MBA Core

Profs say work on business plan projects..
Group mates say I need to complete my notes on IT and strategy and share it asap..
Planned to work on external business plan competitions.. which looks a distant dream now..
Have to submit two assignments tomorrow..
Also got a case study to take care of..
No reading done for past week.. my participation grades in the class are heading southwards..
Also need to work on something for the consulting club which I am President of..

Sounds things are under control.. except the fact that I havenot slept for more than eight hours (in total) in last two days..

This is a typical scenario when we at school are near a so called "Pressure Point" and there were many during the three month long famous "Integrated Core"...

Dont get into the fallacy that I am not good in time management and others in the class are better placed than me.. BUT the fact is I am a very fair representation of the class.. ofcourse one will always have some High fliers .. but overall situation was not good for most of the class ..

I thought that MBA would be a cakewalk after working for intense deadlines in my five years of professional life.. but 'boy' I was terribly wrong.. those deadlines now look like easy weekends.. n relaxing weekdays..
I couldnt help it but had to consult prof where so much of pressure is taking us all.. couple of pals actually left n couple more were thinking of following them.. I was told MBA is fun.. really ?.. not any more.. we were told this course is building us for pushing our capabilities (including a factor of safety of 10).. so that every deadline from now on.. will look easily achievable..
suddenly the realization that the deadlines and schedules in the my projects (at my firm) were indeed planned by the MBAs.. so there I was at crossroads.. wondering whether its for good of bad.. how will I manage these things.. is it ethically acceptable to have tougher deadlines for non MBAs.. lol....
Ooopsss... I got a buzz on my clock .. its 0200 hrs.. need to catch up on my pending list before morning before 0830 class.. of accounting in which I cant afford to be late even by 15 sec.. and cant even think of missing the class .. that would be the cardinal sin.. in first sem..

Catch ya later..
Wish for me..