Dont believe me see this 
I am told the reptile was abt 3 feet long. 
And sadly , I am also told that the reptile was sentenced to death for entering a students room :-( :'-( why cant humans make peace with other living forms,at least to the extent possible, monitors are traded as pets elsewhere in the world :-( :-(
--Badri--
Now this gal walks upto me and says - "hey arent u the guy who wears the white paint something on your forehead, why do you do it are you a shiv bakht". Nope i am not cheer leading for the Shiv Bakths squad(I dont mind actually) and hence its not paint. Its sacred ash and why do i apply it long story .....
I figured out that one way of keeping up my spirituality and spiritual leanings at ISB to get into some discipline and rituals (as much as i dont like rituals) so I do madhyanigam(a kind of pooja done in the afternoons by brahmins) everday. And when i do something with interest i do it properly so i smear the sacred ash at places where its supposed to be smeared and that my lady is the reasoning.
But what abt the shiv bakht part. Arunachala Siva , Arunachala Siva , Arunachala - I am a devotee of Arunachala .
--Badri--
I am amazed at my skill of coming up with new titles quite some improvement i would say. Yesterday wasnt that eventful so dint blog, Went to RK mutt, slogged with Stats and economics (Pre read for todays class, imagine having to do a pre read of 100 pages) till 2 am and it was all OHT (over head transmission)
Woke up scared this morning and took my place in the stats class(boy have i got good seats, even though the chair creeks a lot giving me unwanted class participation points.) Enter Bob Stein , he rocks , this is my first class with a foreign professor and I must say there is a marked difference between his teaching style and that of the other indian professors who handled some classes for us (who btw are from some very reputed B Schools in india). He was a bit too fast for my grasping abilities but well he dispelled my fears of lack of preparation and some how managed to drop some statistics gyan into me. (Never knew what i was talking about when i answered my isb interview panel saying "well i want to join isb cos of the great international faculty it has blah blah" now i do).
Economics class was interesting too, we played a game and I made Rs.3.50(I could have made 5 had i understood the concept better). I know its just one class and really too early to comment on faculty and teaching but so far so great.
My study group(a gang of 5 which is supposed to enrich each others knowledge by their diversity and work together on some assignments) met officially for the first time today and guess what - one person was missing ;-). Thats abt it so far wasted the last 2 hrs in chit chat , so i guess its time to get to studies - pre read for morrow's class
--Badri--
April 25th - Day 14th at ISB. we have received mails from the profs or the academic associates regarding the core term subjects. In a way its a bit scary. The core terms start monday april 28th.
The first proper (but informal) consulting meeting happened 25th night with two alums from BCG, the junta had several questions to pose and the alums patiently answered each one of them. Yet again it was proved that ISB's greatest assets are the alums.
Post the meeting there was a back to school party(remember core starts monday), the participation in this party was way lower than the previous 3. But nevertheless the party was on.
Folks have started purchasing books now for core 1 and some are also giving the books a read.Its weird that I am yet to gear up . I registered for the preterms to get into the practice of sitting in class for 6hrs a day and to do homeworks etc. But what do i really do, sleep till 1.30, skip classes never do home work, so much for match practice.
--Badri--
April 24 - Day 13 at ISB inauspicious you could say . It has been in a way, I am running low on enthu, something crept into me that says ISB is just another "Indian" school. Nah i dont mean to insult India or ISB by any means, but its just a thought , mebbe when i pass out if you cross me i will give u a totally different opinion.
Some how everything i see the folks (the majority) doing seems to be gearing towards the rat race , acting "smart" in class, asking utterly useless doubts (neither contributing to class or themselves), PR building to run for presidents of various clubs and activities, getting into cliques and working secret "strategies of combat" and above all wanting to go to consulting and especially mckinsey.
I was hoping i will discover my strengths and weaknesses, realize whats my passion and here i will see a class that has wide variety of interests. But then cant blame them either its our schooling and the way we are brought up. And yesit must be noted that i am a part of the system too and i behave much the same way.
Another note worthy thing was the discipline part, we are divided into sections and although it would be impossible to switch sections during core terms during pre terms it is possible and very easy too , since there is no attendance marked. So people switch sections at their will, making it a tad inconvenient for others to find seats also several attend the preterms without having paid the preterm fee (atleast thats what i hear several griping ;-) ). now that begs a question at ISB one of the leading schools arent folks expected to be more disciplined or ethical ? well u might want to pose the question as, is doing this unethical ? ..... hmm so lets just agree its a thing of perception .
Also from another angle, while we are at preterms I really cant understand why ISB cant make the preterms free.
--Badri--
P.S : did u notice the change in the title
I have been dunked 3 times so far at ISB, this one is the latest, just 2 hrs old.
April 23 - Moms bday so wished her at 12 am, woke up at 5.30 am thanks to appa's gift (the alarm clock) but went back to sleep to wake up at 7.45, rushed to the 8 am stats class but went in at 8.15 ;-)
Slept thru most of it, Accounts was good, post that from 1 pm to 4.30 pm spoke with seniors/staff and picked some gyan. Realized what i had been told several times before by seniors ...
-- if u are an ISB aspirant and thot reading my blog doesnt pay , well here is the news that might change ur mind and help u save 15k perhaps even more --
... the preterms arent worth it. I shouldnt have taken them(Talk about sunk costs ;-) ). Decided to walk out of the math class midway and went to RK mutt, came back at 11 and joined the swimming pool dunking party, although only 1 of the two bday boys turned up 11 of us got dunked and it was fun :-)
Cheers,
--Badri--
P.S :Can you believe it dozen days gone
One of my all time favorites, a bit dated but nevertheless absolutely wonderful. TMS as usual is extraordinary , Kannadasan in wonderful and Asokan is amazing in his acting. Sorry the quality of the sound track isnt that great
Movie: Vallavanukku Vallavan
Year of release: 1964
Music: Vedpal Verma
Lyrics: Kannadasan
Singer: T.M.S
Lyrics:
Orayiram paarvaiyile (of one thousand eye sights)
un paarvaiyai naanariven (yours i shall identify)
un kaaladi osaiyile (in the sound of ur footsteps)
un kaadhalai naan ariven (your love i shall identify)
indha maanidar kadhalellam (the love of these mortals)
oru maranaththil maarividum (shall change in one death)
andha malargalin vaasamellam (the scent of those flowers)
oru maalaikkul vaadividum (will vanish in one evening)
nam kaadhalin dheepam mattum (but the light of our love)
endha naalilum kooda varum (will continue to shine along forever)
Orayiram paarvaiyile
un paarvaiyai naanariven
un kaaladi osaiyile
un kaadhalai naan ariven
Orayiram paarvaiyile
un paarvaiyai naanariven
indha kaatrinil naan kalandhen (in this breeze i merge)
un kangalaith thazhuvuginren (and brush your eyes )
indha aatrinil oaduginren (in this river i merge)
un aadayil aaduginren (and in your dress i dance)
naan pogindra paadhaiyellaam (in watever path i take)
un poomugam kaanuginren (your flower-like face i see)
Orayiram paarvaiyile
un paarvaiyai naanariven
un kaaladi osaiyile
un kaadhalai naan ariven
ISB has started winning the battle I woke up a little early today at around 11am. struggled to sit thru the 4 hrs of classes, the profs rocked, but the mind and body arent tuned to sit and concentrate for 4hrs. But then that was the mission objective behind taking the 8 days preterm , to get myself geared up.
Folks have started studying , library or LRC(Learning resource centre) as we call it has issued several books today to the batch. the cliques have closed the shows and vacated the lawns, they are all locked in their rooms doing the one most important thing we came here for - reading. Learnt to day in statistics that " you have your head in a hot oven , and your feet in a freezer on an average you are very comfortable!!!" -
--Badri--
April21 : First things first i need a new title for this line of posts.
Anyways happily slept till 11-12 noon and went to the pre term classes that started at 2.30. I realized i have lost all my ability to sit thru 2continuous hrs of lecture. The body wont sit straight , the mind wont concentrate and the eyes wont stop closing and of course the mouth started yawning every time the prof looked my way.
The stats class that got over at 4.30 was interesting, never knew stats cud be fun. The math session although humorous was pretty long drawn and a bit boring. It went on till 7.30. Dinner, some chit chat and then the first internal club meeting. The guys took their enthu to the next level by organizing the first club meeting today, The consulting club meeting attracted pretty much everyone in the class. But it was just yet another gyan session. All marks to folks for taking the responsibility but it cud have been better.
Then played dumb charades for like 2 hrs from 12 -2 outside my village, interesting movies like "peticoat key neche kuni ...." came up(and there were gals playing with us). My calendar has no open slots left since from tomorrow onwards we have a series of internal meetings planned.
--Badri--
Of course we werent born knowing everything and we do require how tos to find out how to do certain things, even if they seem really simple and/or weird
So here are two interesting how tos i found today , well i wasnt searching for any they just showed up on google ads ;-)
http://www.wikihow.com/Wear-a-Pancha-Kachcham
and the most interesting
http://www.wikihow.com/Put-on-a-Loincloth
And for those of you who are wondering why to wear a langoti, well the first para of the how to page seems to answer that
--Badri--
Why why why do i have to surf the web till 7.30 in the morning sleep till 11.30 am spoil my health, reduce my sleep even when there is nothing compelling me to do so and my peers are effectively using the time to study.
20th april 2008, day 9 at ISB , I woke up at 1pm perhaps that how long u sleep after attending a party till 6 in the morning.
Today was a day off for us from a tiring 8 day stint, most of us went into the city for dinner, lunch or a hyderabad tour. I personally went to Ramakrishna Mutt and spent some time with Thakur.
There has been a bit of an unwinding today and folks can be seen loitering around, chit chatting , relaxing etc. The preterms begin morrow the 21st. Most who arent taking the preterms have left for their homes and will return once the core terms start on 28th.
We are being bombarded with mails from our batchmates these days. Everyone wants to discuss his/her field of interest, get to know like minded people etc So there are mails ranging from golf club to consulting club and oil and gas enthusiasts. Ironically everyone who sends out a mail seems to apologize for spamming. At the last count it was 124 mails in 4 days. which is interesting considering the fact that some of us are yet to get our laptops. I personally contributed 3 mails to the list of 124. but i wasnt discussing clubs so hope i wasnt spamming.
Spoke to the IT folks about mail lists , they cudnt impart much gyan so waiting to meet some of their bosses and get things sorted , hoping that with mailing lists in place (i see that the previous batch has created several) the spams will reduce.
--Badri--
P.S: is sending mails trying to collect like minded people a PR building exercise ;-)
P.S1: a good number of the class has started studying , some even seem to be studying in groups :-(
P.S 2 :I have been thinking I should add more pics to this blog and incidentally some batchmates suggested the same too, will see what i can do about that.
Does "This is the last time you will get to do something for them , they have done so much for you, so please contribute generously" constitute emotional blackmail ???
The 19th of april 2008 , started at 12.45 pm for me, thats right i managed to sleep that long even at isb. so what all did i miss out on while sleeping.
i) Some gyan sessions
ii) A guest lecture by someone from Azim Premji Foundation(which i hear was good)
iii) loads of study time.
What did i achieve about 10 hrs of good sleep. The "Talent Nite" took place in the evening , I danced with some friends and we spent most of the afternoon preparing for the same.
The farewell party scheduled for 11 pm started at 12 midnight , i was there till 2am but felt bored and sleepy. I guess event the party enthus wear off , like other things to which one is over exposed one gets bored about.
--Badri--
update : went back to the party at 3am and am back now(6 am), the party is still on, from the crowd on the dance floor i presume it will go on for another hour. There was a lot of emotional overflow , the alums were hugging each other and crying. I dint know this one year here could create such emotionally intimate relationships.
Barry Schwartz, a professor of Social Theory talks about the perils of too many choices in affluent western societies in this TED talk. His focal points are that when people are presented with too many choices, they either
- get confused and procrastinate decision-making
- make a hasty choice and repent for not making the perfect choice
- feel dissatisfied with even the best of choices for not meeting their expectations
Prasad in a blog of his with the similar title from which i have borrowed the above paras with professor , Prasad says people who cant make a clear selection when presented with choices are duds.
Well , what do you know, I find now that me and many of my batch mates at ISB are duds, why cos there are multiple choices when it comes to any activity at ISB and most of us are left confused.
You want to join a club well there are only 20-30 of them, you want to
specialize in something that should be easy only 5 diff specializations and 30 different career profiles for each of them .
Oh the choices !!!!
Of course choices are good but not in a one year course ;-) at least not for duds like me i am sure i am going to spend most of the next 6 months wondering where i want to go post ISB.
--Badri--
Today 18th April 2008 is our 7th day at ISB, i realized my blogging at 1 am and 2 am was leading to confusion about the dates hence the clarification. The orientation week is almost coming to an end. just 1 more day to go.
Today has by far been the most relaxing day in our stay here, I skipped the gyan sessions in the morning and that allowed me to sleep till 9 in the morning, Just one pedagogy session to attend at 1 pm that lasted till 3pm and then we were free to go.
The football and cricket finals are going on, the non-sports enthusiast that i am , i got to steal some time from there too and spend it at the swimming pool. There is the screening of a movie(which was made at ISB by a alum) at 11pm that i hope to catch. Some of us are preparing for the farewell party thats morrow. I helped design the invitation to alums(co08) for the same. There is also a talent night scheduled morrow and when i walked past the village i could see folks crooning and shaking their legs in preparation for the talent night.
--Badri--
P.S: - Everywhere I turn I see IITians or delhiites or Delhi IITites , so much for diversity :-)
Today was both good and bad
Good cos - I got to skip the gyan sessions
Got the wireless in my laptop fixed
Attended our first case study which was wonderful
Attended the leadership programme which was great
Had section gyan (sec E) which was good too but for the prolonged intros
Skipped the club gyans
Attended a party from 11pm to 4.30 am , danced so badly that my knees pain inspite of a good hot water bath
Bad : - Cos i believe its going to get more hectic going forward and i am yet to manage the current schedule properly
The class diversity and strength is scary almost everyone is a stud
ISB is not helping my spirituality,
I had known from what i had heard from seniors that the materialism and sexuality at ISB will be damaging to my spiritual pursuit. I had strongly followed parahamsas warning and tried hard to stay away from women and gold, But the seniors were proved right, constant chit-chats and flirting(or attempts at flirting) at ISB arent helping me. I know i got to stop but its too tempting. As far as materialism goes , well there is competition here, hence there is competitiveness and jealousy and that doesnt help too. I cant blame ISB for it , obviously its my perspective thats harming me but in any case i am mentioning it since the same has become an integral part of my isb life now.
I already feel that I have lost all the spirituality i gained by staying at thiruvanamalai for 4 days. (can people lose the good karmas they have earned ;-)) I guess only time will tell how well i stay spiritual through the course.
--Badri--
Loads of gyan(thru all of which i slept), cricket, football and one more prank by seniors should summarize the day. But i must mention that i am not able to comprehend why we are being bored with so much Gyan.
one Mrs. Middleton gave us a lecture today on Leadership and it was a great session. Nothing more worth mentioning except that the day was tiring like all others that i have spent here.
--Badri--
P.S: The cricket , football sessions showed that everyone in my class wants to be the captain ;-). Some smart ones amongst us took charge and started organizing a party for the alums at campus. They are smart cos they started without consulting others, of course this morning they made an announcement and included the others.
Nah I am not thinking abt writing a day by day update, just the orientation week and then on whenever i find time
yday was loads of fun filled tiring activities all played out in the hot sun, the objective was to get to know each other and build stronger team relationship, Post that we had an informal party at 11 pm. The activities themselves ended around 7pm.
I had abt 30 min to spend at the swimming pool yday and that was good, what did i realize, whatever be the field there are folks in my batch who are way better than me :-)
--Badri--
The morning started at 9 am today with a series of really boring lectures. I slept through most of them. Post lunch we had a treasure hunt , which although it made us run a lot was quite fun. Finally I got thrown into the swimming pool as part of the treasure hunt. ;-)
I got back my laptop today from the ISB IT team , they installed a new license of windows but removed all my drivers, took me close to 2.5 hrs to reinstall everything and I am still not done with the wireless connectivity. The internet connectivity is very fast here.
The series of informal lectures on the clubs here starts today , actually one such lecture on the placom is in progress right now.
There was a party last night, but i dint find it really interesting even though the DJ did play good numbers, i am told that post 1 am the party got real interesting.
Our study groups got formed today .
--Badri--
The day started at 9.30am today with orientation week.
Last night we partied till 3AM but yet i managed to wake up at 8.30 this morning.
There was a serious gyan overload this morning from 9.30 to 11.30 (we are having a break now, gyan continues at 2.15 , its 12.45 pm now). The breakfast in the morning was great.
The breakfast was followed by a gyan session by Prof. Ramachandran, which was then followed by a gyan session by Mr.Rangnekar. There was a presentation on the accomplishments of the previous batch , which was followed by the intro to the current batch(my batch) and our salient points.
Like
i) Rocket scientists
ii) Gold medalists in their univs
iii) Viren (X Indian hockey team captain)
iv) someone with 15 patents etc it was a bit intimidating but then I am a part of the class too so its ok.
There was some serious gyan sessions last night with the seniors , I am soon heading towards a pressure cooker syndrome and I am only into middle of day two.
:-)
--Badri--
Update : post lunch there was another 3 hrs of gyan on what each club at ISB does and what should one do if he/she wants to run the club.
Some "wake up" games were organized by the co08 which was fun.
The co08 made a desperate attempt at a prank when at 5 pm they called us for a medical examination. Although many of us had predicted the prank and wanted to counter it at lunch time itself we couldnt. Any case their prank was decently succesful , cos quite a few got scared by their skewed medical reports and one gal even started crying ;-)
Its 9 pm now , i feel sleepy, hungry but there is a party at 10 that i dont wanna miss.
--Badri--
Although I dont plan to write a day by day account of my life at ISB, I am convinced the very first day here that life here is going to be exciting enough to get recorded very often.
Today was the registration day, but for the long line for the Bank Loans the rest of the stuff was exciting and pretty smooth, the planner and the timetables that were distributed were scary... but I guess thats what we signed up for.
We were given a case study the very first day, one that talks about a problem at ISB. (more on that later).
My laptop has been taken away from me for scanning and stuff like that, once i get it back, will blog in detail.
--Badri--
Is it normal that I am shaken cold?
When I am passed this important baton to hold
Some are born great, Some achieve greatness
But seems the ISBian tag upon me has thrust greatness
Or is glory, were I will get if I don’t make ISB sorry.
While my own goals, clearly, I am yet to see
But only if I fight with tremendous success I can flirt,
Now having heard that I am scared to enter, leaving my comfort zone
But then I am promised, me as a person this place will hone
Its corny, sad and there are some drops of tears in my eyes
A million thoughts escape my mind but yet none spoken
As hard as i might try my closed lips just wont open
You are leaving me cos you feel I have changed
You cry that i am different and now with me you feel estranged.
I know not what will hold you back
For i know not why with me you set shack
I was dry, unfriendly , ugly and a jerk
But you soft, sweet and a beauty that made millions berserk
Yet you came to me and blushed that I am your match
Even as i said i am rock, you beautiful gold and I am afraid i will scratch
"The pungence is on the surface at heart you are honey,"
you said, "marry me for being together is our destiny.
I shall change you and make you all honey oh honey
in spite of the rudeness you are at times jovial and funny
I am sure those good things i can make stay for ever
am convinced once with me , all your bad from you will sever"
At your sight I was oh gal badly smitten
with the promise of a great new life i was into submission beaten
I took your hand for i felt the need
to become a better man , to make a tree of our just sown love seed
And now you leave me citing my change as the reason
Oh dear is this not with love playing treason
Honey you found in me and as a bee hovered around even whilst i was a bud
But now when with love when i blossom , you put me in the ground and crush me in the mud.
--Badri--
I was told they might never release the details but they did. The page of interest is here
http://www.isb.edu/Placements2008/Facts.Shtml
The average salary is at 19L now, I am happy , lets hope I am assured of atleast that much.
--Badri--
When I questioned Sri.David Godman as to whether all these realized beings are suffering from a syndrome, a disease that they think is the self and realization and if there really exists a god. He gave an interesting reply.
He said Bhagwan in general never spoke of god or realization all he said was, your understanding of who you are is incorrect, you are not what you think you are, for in deep sleep too you exists and yet this ego of yours is unaware of you.
Bhagwan said this true you can be found by practicing atma vichara. Thus there is no god or religion or self to be attained here. If you feel that there is something mysterious about you and the way you function then practice what Bhagwan said and get to know the true you.
Disclaimer : David's reply edited to suit my needs (a bit)
P.S: The tamil title is to test , Bloggers tamil transliteration.
--Badri--
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