An eternity....

I have lots of updates since I did not find any time to blog in the last 2 months.
But today, I just want to say one thing:
"Finally....Finally got an MBA admit....from Foster School of Business"
Yey...

More blogs in the offing.

Third Milestone

Yes, I completed another milestone today. Submitting my third application just on time feels good. It takes a lot of team effort even while applying to B Schools. So don't just expect to indulge in teams and show your collaborative side once you get admission. Even while applying, you need to consult people, check out surveys and rankings, meet people, write essays sometimes discussing it with others, getting essays reviewed and getting the recos done. It takes a hell lot of team effort.

Looking forward to the next deadline in another 5 days.

A beautiful girl

Sometimes all it takes to remember a day is the face of a beautiful girl. And that some time was today for me. Since I had a long late night meeting scheduled, so I decided to grab some burger in the Forum mall near my office. I went along with my team mate and we ordered as per our tastes. There were only 2 seats available adjoining another table which had 1 girl and 2 of her friends (boys) sitting on it.
At first, I did not notice the girl. In fact, anyone there. Then I happened to see her when she got up to get something extra to eat. One of those rare moments when you just keep on seeing something for its sheer beauty. This was the moment. She wore a maroon salwar suit and maroon nail polish on her nails. She had beautiful eyes and was wearing fancy maroon slippers. I could hardly hear what she or her friends were talking about.
Anyways, with her face photographed in my mind, I return to my boring world of software projects, thinking about B School essays, B schools, writing Essays and occasionally playing guitar.

Essay Updates

Finally, I decided to gather the strength to think about MBA essays. Yes, I am partly kidding. I am actually taking a short break (around 4-5 days) from essay writing. Over the past 1 month, I was so exhausted by all the essays and the creative thinking that goes into it. The deadlines were the worst. They kept on revolving in my head for the past 1 month. The last week saw those deadlines orbit at enormously high speeds around my head. This forced me to relieve some stress and take a break.

By the way, I am in a fairly reasonable position as far as my essays are concerned.
Out of around 8 schools that I plan to apply, I have already applied to 2.
I have almost final drafts for 2 more schools (Foster and Haas). I will be revising them once more before the final submission.

So that leaves me to write essays for 4 more schools:
1. McCombs
2. Kenan-Flagler
3. Goizueta
4. Kelley

I know their deadlines and still I am taking it easy. May be I am used to it now. There are some essays from these 4 schools which require a totally new perspective. The rest of them can be created using the essays from the first 4 schools.
I think I will miss the deadline for at least one school. Lets see.

Taking a break while writing essays is very important. I did not and that's why spent several sleepless nights last week. Well, watching an odd movie or so does not really constitute a break. You have to completely switch off your mind and not think about the essays. Oops did I just write a blog on Essays ? Not again. Switch off. ssshhhhhh....

Thank You Clearadmit

Last weekend, I got the following message on Facebook:


--------------------
Subject: Clear Admit Career Guide Winner!

Dear S,

Thank you for becoming a fan of Clear Admit on Facebook! You have been randomly selected to win a Clear Admit Career Guide of your choice! You may choose to receive any one of our five Career Guides, Consulting, Investment Banking, Entrepreneurship, Marketing, or Healthcare.

Once you have made your selection, please e-mail thisperson at clearadmit dot com with your choice!

Congratulations!
The Clear Admit Team
--------------------------

I was delighted and immediately emailed my choice to the concerned person.
And today I received my guide and am very excited about it since it has a few schools of my choice. It may turn out to be a life saver or a bonus type of thing.

Wake Up Sid - Very Refreshing

Last night, I went to watch Wake Up Sid with my friends. Well, whatever the reviews say, the movie is very refreshing and vivid. I enjoyed the movie. There is no special story, no special dialogues, no glamorous locations etc., but the movie still makes you feel good.
The movie captures little moments in the life of Sid and Aisha. The music is simply awesome. I have been humming it since the last 2 weeks. The music has an easy going feel to it especially the song Iktara and Kya Karoon. The movie captures the Mumbai life to some extent. The pace is also nice and the background music again is simply fantastic. It beats at all the right moments.
Konkana Sen is once again brilliant. She is really an admirable actor who completely casts herself into the role she is enacting. Ranbir is also good and is an excellent fit for the role.
Overall, the movie is a good watch and will not let you down. Inglorious bastards is the next movie on my radar since my friend has labeled as a must watch.

Long time...no write

Its been around 2 weeks since I last wrote a blog. Yes, I regret that. Not because I did not update people with my writing, but because I missed writing for my own. Writing is a very different beast especially essay writing. I realized this when one of my reviewers pointed out my long answers and told me to be more succinct.
When I looked at my answers, I immediately got the point. They were not as precise as I wanted them to be. In fact, they were too long and wordy. There are several essay themes. Well, the kind of personal essay themes are difficult to write especially for a technical person like me. I wish I had taken some creative writing classes.

Anyways, the last 2 weeks have been a roller coaster ride. From completing essays for 2 different schools to a freak laptop accident when a curtain rod fell over it to wading through waist high rain water on double road at midnight. Well, the laptop incident was the most depressing one. To lose a laptop at this juncture is the last you want. Well, the screen and the speaker are the most damaged components. 2 of the keys have also become dysfunctional. For now, I have made temporary arrangements by connecting an external round (not flat) 15 inch monitor and a USB keyboard. Once the essay season is over, I will look towards buying a new one.

Get-together

Well, an Eid celebration was all that it took to socialize with old college friends. It was a nice get-together that brought a lot of nostalgic feelings along with it. It reminded me of the times that we had spent in college, those particular incidents, night-outs, endless computer game sessions and strategy making, talking about our friend's best rated hill station i.e. nandi hills (pun intended) and what not. There is no doubt that college days are the best.

Coming to the present, it was one of the few good home made lunches I have had in Bangalore. Thanks to my friend and his wife for hosting the get-together and doing the preparations. To call the food delicious would be an understatement. There was Veg and Non-Veg Biryani, Sevaiya, Cutlets, Chana and Dahi Bada. Even typing it in the blog makes me drool. I wish there were more such get-togethers.

The MBA Tour

This weekend is the MBA tour weekend in Bangalore and it is the first time that the MBA tour is happening over a span of 2 days. It is amazing that out of Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore, only Bangalore has an MBA tour spread over 2 days. That tells us a lot about the number of actual and potential applicants. I attended the event today and found it good but still below my expectations.

While going to the MBA tour, I did not expect so much traffic especially given that its a long weekend here. May be rains have forced a lot of people to rethink on their short vacation plans or many people are preparing for the next long weekend that is just 6 days away. MG Road is a total mess these days especially the stretch right before Trinity circle. I reached on time and registered for the event. I attended all the sessions before the fair and they seemed to be pretty generic. Given that this time I am better prepared, I was frustrated that some people had very basic or even irrelevant questions or may be I knew the answers. Whatever it was, I started feeling like the most knowledgeable. Probably the MBA tour is meant to spread awareness among the Indian applicants about most general questions and clear their doubts. Since I had attended one last year and am now well versed with the process by reading several books, I did not find it interesting.

Once the sessions were over and the fair about to start, I noticed that there are far fewer people this time than last year. But there seemed to be a lot of people either still in college or having just 1-2 years of experience. Not sure if that is good or bad. But the fair started very similarly to last year and there was huge crowd in front of all the big schools. I tried listening to the conversations on 2 of them and I understood that it is better to ask my questions after probably an hour when the crowd is tired and disseminates. So, me and my friends decided to eat something outside and come back. Well, it was worth it since most of the crowd started to lose interest and there were many empty counters.

I basically had some very specific questions. I first went to ESADE and asked my question. The director straight away told me laughingly that this is a very specific question. She drank some water and bought some time and then gave a general answer, which was acceptable given the other people standing surrounding me. She redirected me to an ESADE alumni and that guy (doing his internship in India) was very polite and answered all my questions. I felt very nice to know that he has the same undergrad degree as me and is into the same specialization that I am interested in. I then went over to HEC and the Rice University counters and had brief chats with their admissions representative. But I understood from my first interaction with ESADE that this forum is not meant for very specific school questions. Well, not exactly true, but if they have an alumni, the alumni will answer all the specific questions. I think the schools should bring along more alumni to help serious applicants. Anyway, there are always online channels to interact with them, but discussing face to face sometimes help.

First Application 2009

My first application for the year 2009 i.e. ISB has been completed and submitted. Although, there is still one recommendation to go, but I hope it will be in by tomorrow.
After going through the application once again, I finally decided to submit it and wait for the results. I hope this time I get at least an interview call. But, mind you, that is not the goal. The goal is to get in. The goal is to get admitted to one of the best B schools. Lets see how the application comes along.
It was an intense day for me. I did a lot of programming today and a lot of reading including the ISB application. It feels great after such a marathon. But, I have to admit that this was just a trailer and there are many more marathons to come.
I wish I could catch some action at the US Open final (01:30 am), off course on TV.

Update: The second recommendation has also been submitted.

Why foreign policy matters

Just wanted to archive a very good speech by Shashi Tharoor on "Why foreign policy matters". It is a must read. Click on the below link to read the speech.

Why Foreign Policy Matters

The Mint Lounge

Lets get straight to the point. I have been reading the Mint newspaper since close to 2 years and there has not been a single moment where I had to say that I did not like something in this newspaper. The paper is really a welcome change from all the other business newspapers available today, which is very few by the way (Now slowly more foreign publications have started to at least start an India-dedicated website).

The newspaper's presentation and its use of colors is simply awesome. Everything attracts you into reading everything. Started as a newspaper to change the way business news was read, in only 4 cities Delhi, Mumbai, Chandigarh and Bangalore, it has come a long way now being circulated in Kolkata, Pune and Chennai as well. I really do not remember who suggested me to subscribe to it, but I am thankful to whoever it was. I really like the articles where it focuses on mixing politics, business, economy, environment, development etc. particularly the "our view" and "their views" section.

Mint on Saturday comes along with Mint Lounge, which I feel is the star of the show. Lounge is one paper which can be preserved and archived for decades similar to the way our older generation used to do when Dharmyug was the trend in those times. It covers multiple aspects from a big shot's biography to at least 2 articles on travel to a fantastic recipe to movie, music, book reviews to enthralling articles by Shobha Narayan and earlier Vir Sanghvi. I really keep the Lounge near my pillow and go over it for the entire week until the next one comes along.

PS : I do not work for Mint :). All opinions are entirely mine.

ISB essays version 3.0

Now that the ISB deadline is really looming over me and probably most of the fellow applicants, its time I take a re-look at my essays and modify wherever needed.
I had had my essays reviewed by 2 of my friends and they provided me with valuable suggestions to make the essays look even much better. Reviews are very necessary as they give you an opportunity to look at your essays from a different perspective.

I think I am pretty much done with my ISB essays now except possibly minor changes to the goals essay. But I am not so much in favor of touching any of the essays. The time has come to submit them and kick start the submission cycle with ISB. I even reviewed my whole application again yesterday and I realized that I should have done it earlier because it took a lot of time to make some necessary modifications.

Beware that the ISB essays are pretty short i.e. 300 words, so you are in fast forward mode when it comes to explaining anything about you or your goals or your achievements. But all the other schools ask for relatively longer answers and it will be a completely different thing to elaborate on what you already have written for ISB or what you have thought of during your "digging your life" process.

How to tie a tie

ISB needs applicants to upload a photograph in a particular dimension and resolution. I had a photograph from last year, but it was with just a formal shirt. I thought I would get another one clicked in a formal shirt with a tie and a coat. Yes, you are right. I do not want to leave any stone unturned this time. So, I went and got myself a nice looking photograph in my pen drive.

Before going for the photo studio, I wanted to tie a tie. I have always watched the videos on Youtube about how to tie a tie and yet forget about it in a few days. I am not used to wearing ties and that's the reason I forgot how to tie a tie. I wonder how people before the search giant google emerged would have learnt all such things. Its true that our generation cannot imagine such a scenario.

Well, luckily I clicked on the first search result on Youtube and it was so good that I tied my tie in the first try itself. Literally no subsequent attempts. Here it goes:

ISB Essays - Drafts version 2.0

After attending Duke's admission event yesterday at the Taj Residency, I thought I would go back home and finish my ISB essays. I liked the confidence this time and little did I know that rethinking on your essays can be more time consuming than actually writing first drafts. So, I finished the first 3 essays and left the re-applicant essay for Sunday morning. When you do not finish the work that you planned for the day, the nights are pretty much sleepless.

So, I woke up late, wrote ahem rewrote the re-applicant essay and sent it across for review to some of my friends. I really like the way you stumble upon idea after idea while thinking about your essays and inventorying your life.

Now I think the ISB essays look neat and succinct. But, there is always something unexpected that will pop put at the last moment you hit the submit button on the online application. I hope I can now really start writing outlines for Fuqua, Kenan-Flagler and Foster.

PS: Resume creation is postponed to next week.

Revisit - TODOs

In a recent training session, there was a question about who prepares TODO lists. And there were very few hands that went up. I was one of them, but I said only for office purposes. The trainer said you should try making it for daily work too. Well, she was right and I do do it sometimes. But there often comes a phase when you forget all the TODOs and just go along with the flow. Its like there is someone telling you to not remember lists and take up all the tasks later. Then there is a phase where you do not have many TODOs but you try to create some just to keep yourself busy. Now that the essay season is in full swing, I wish for those phases.

Anyways, coming back to the list, here is what needs to be done:
1. Revisit ISB essays and give them a new look (learnings from a book).
2. Start writing Fuqua Essays
3. Prepare a Resume

All these TODOs should get over by this weekend unless I procrastinate.

PS: I have already sent my GMAT and TOEFL scores to all the schools that I plan to apply and there is no looking back now.

An Eye Opener - Almost

You (the faithful blog reader) must be wondering what am I up to. Well, I was not actually writing essays since the last 5 days. In fact, I was doing something that would help me in my essays. I was reading this book "Great Application Essays for Business Schools" by Paul Bodine. I have to admit that I made a big mistake to not read it much earlier. I would recommend this book to everyone who is looking to write essays for B schools. It was really an eye-opener.

In fact, I had my first deadline on 2nd September for HEC. But after reading this book, I realized that my essays have a lot of room to improve. It was because of this book and several other in the pipeline I plan to read that I took the decision to postpone my essay submission to HEC to the next round i.e. 26th October. And I think it was a wise decision.

There are some more books that I plan to read. I have heard a lot about Richard Montauk and Avi Gordon. Lets see which one I get to read. Its sad that many book stores in India do not keep such books at all.

So, last week was full of motivation and a self drive to do something. Starting from the influential book to a training on "planning and organizing" to meeting a Kellogg 2009 graduate, it was all full of gyan and about the desire to succeed.

Most Creative Essay question

One of the schools that I am applying to has one of the most creative essay questions that I have seen till now. The school is Kelley school of business and one of its essay question goes like this:


Suppose you had to choose three people-people alive now or people from another era-to travel with you on a cross-country automobile trip. Who would you choose and why? What would you hope to learn from them? (Think carefully about the company you want on those long stretches through Nebraska and Kansas.)

I know this essay will enforce many applicants to burn the midnight oil and think carefully. It sure will entangle all my brain wires.

TOEFL results out

Before going to sleep last night, I somehow remembered that I had given TOEFL almost 3 weeks back and the results should have been out. So, I thought I would give it another day and wait for an email in my inbox. To my surprise, even till now there was no email. I really do not know if they send a score report by email.

I decided to check the website and login into my account. The scores were available and I just wished that I could get at least 100. And yes I did get above 100. The score is 107 and I am delighted. On seeing the detailed results, I was somewhat bemused. I did very well in my speaking section and that was the section where I got the lowest marks. Huh...

Anyways, one hurdle gets out of my way and I feel a little relaxed now. The mounting essay pressure is not yet relieved. Next thing to do is to send my gmat and toefl scores to all the schools that I am applying.

A turning point

I was watching this movie on Youtube when I suddenly realized how important a dialogue in this film was in the context of finding some motivation while writing my essays.

Here it goes:
"Zindagi mein ek zabardast ghumav dena hai"

Have a look yourself:

Intellectual Atyachar

After writing so many essays, I have literally become frustrated. So, what now ? I was searching for some motivational videos on the internet and I actually found a very good movie scene that I will post in my next blog post. I was also listening to some songs and somehow I came with this:

Dedicated to the essays:

Shabdo ka hai dhoka ya hai koi bar...
tera intellectual atyachar....


(inspired by the song Emotional Atyachar Rock version from the movie Dev D)

Phew....some more drafts

Since the last 4 or 5 days, I have been busy writing HEC essays. I planned to spend the whole weekend on them and finish at least the draft versions. But, when did life go along with the plans ? So as usual, I finished the first draft 3 days late i.e. just now. It was painful. This is the first time I am feeling this type after writing B school essays. I did not know that it was so tough to answer the unusual questions apart from the goals or the challenging assignment questions.

HEC Paris has some really unique questions. Take this:
Imagine a life entirely different from the one you live now. What would it be ?

It took me 3 weekdays to finish it. I thought of a thousand possibilities and then finally narrowed down to one.

Another one:
What figure do you admire most and why ?

Apart from the normal immediate goals, short term goals, long term goals essay and significant life achievement essay, they have this:
Leadership and ethics are inevitably intertwined in the business world. Describe a
situation in which you have dealt with these issues and how they have influenced you.


Although I have written this essay, but I am not satisfied with this one.

Another incredibly intriguing one is:
Which other MBA Programs are you applying to and why? (100 words)

Man, for some of these essays, its difficult to find out what to write.

I have now exactly a week left to submit them and I have to go through all my essays at least 3 more times. May be I will get some reviewed from my friends.

Kaminey - itf fantaftic

After a long time, I got to see a gangster movie. Not exactly like Satya or Company, but more like Johnny Gaddar. The difference was there were multiple gangs involved here and the dialogues were unconventional. The movie was definitely fast paced like Johnny Gaddar, but the ending was not as thrilling as Johnny Gaddar. I think I should not compare the two of them here. All in all, a must watch. Vishal Bharadwaj stands up to his reputation yet again.

The movie's cinematography is really admirable. The background scenes are excellent in showcasing the Mumbai monsoon season with heavy rains and grey skies all throughout the movie. The music is good and the background sounds are awesome. I remember a scene where the brothers are to be exchanged among 2 gangs and the sound of the local train gradually increasing its pace is a perfect complement. Coming to the dialogues, without them, the movie would not have been that good. They are not exactly mind blowing, but they somehow add substance and at the same time make you laugh. Acting wise, everyone seemed to be good especially Shahid Kapoor. The song fatak is one of the most creative things I have seen for a long time in Hindi movies. It is an aids awareness song and the way it is choreographed and its lyrics and the music make it special.

Some dialogues in the movie are really memorable. Like the last dialogue of the film "yeh fofia hai aur yeh f ko f nahi bolti". The film's ending was a happy one and not unlike other anti-hero movies where the protagonist dies after doing what was necessary.

One more school starts accepting GRE scores

Just read this feed from ClearAdmit:

http://blog.clearadmit.com/2009/08/nyu-stern-school-of-business-to-begin-accepting-gre-scores/

So, now there are 4 schools accepting GRE scores and that too some of the top schools in the world.
1. Harvard Business School
2. Stanford Business School
3. MIT Sloan
4. NYU Stern

I have not given GRE but just wondering if its verbal section is as good as GMAT.

Revisiting the deadlines

Now that almost all the schools I am applying to have come out with their deadlines, I need to document them and remember them by heart. Here are they (in order of dates):

1. HEC, Paris -- 2nd Sep, 2009
2. ISB -- 15th Sep, 2009
3. Fuqua School of Business -- 6th Oct, 2009
4. Foster School of Business -- 15th Oct, 2009
5. Haas School of Business -- 20th Oct, 2009
6. Kenan-Flagler School of Business -- 23rd Oct, 2009
7. Goizueta School of Business -- 1st Nov, 2009
8. Kelley School of Business -- 1st Nov, 2009
9. McCombs School of Business -- 2nd Nov, 2009

The online applications are open for HEC, ISB, Foster, Kenan-Flagler and Goizueta. Other schools will also be releasing their online applications pretty soon.

Essays are out for all the schools except Kelley.

Cafe Masala - Everything good except the name

Last Sunday, it was a friend's treat and he did not know much about Bangalore's restaurants. There were only 4 of us and he had set a limit of 500 per head for the dinner. One of my room mates asked for my suggestion for a place not tried before. So, I suggested the 3 restaurants located in the Eva mall. We finally decided on Cafe Masala. Little did I know that their buffet would cost us 490 Rs, but my roommate insisted that it will be fine and then we are only 4.

There was no reason for me to say no now. Although there is this Vaayu Lounge right in front of it, but it is more suitable for a nice evening with a date. We wanted a wholesome dinner type of place. And I would say that Cafe Masala did not disappoint at all. If you see the price, then you would definitely say the opposite, but then most of the good restaurants in Bangalore cost more than 300 Rs nowadays. We sat down and the starters were served on the table. We did not have a look at the main course before munching on the starters. I wish we should have. So, the starters were very impressive and they were of all kinds. There were even prawns for people who like them.

We were quite full with the starters. Then, after some 15 mins, we decided to go and have a look at the main course and the deserts. On first look, it looked as though we should not have given so much importance to the starters. But what the hell, the starters were so good. We decided to take very small quantities and hence taste everything. There were around 6 or 7 varieties of vegetables, Pulao, 3-4 dishes of Non-veg, biryani and different varieties of Salad. We tasted almost everything and they were all delicious.

The deserts were the best part. particularly the moong dal ka halwa. Again, there was almost everything that you can think of. From jalebi to ice cream to gulab jamun to rasogulla to cake to jelly to fruits. All in all, a nice place if you sometimes have this itch of splurging. The only thing not good about the place is its name. It should have been something else. Cafe Masala does not sound like a place serving such delectable dinner.

The new TO DOs

Some of the to dos in my Gmail Task Bar are:
1. Complete HEC application.
2. Start writing Fuqua essays
3. Start writing Haas essays
4. Start writing Goizueta essays.
5. Start writing McCombs essays.
6. Prepare a one page helper write-up for my recommendation writers.

A long, long way to go.

The Reapplicant Essay - Profile Aaj Kal

I finally finished writing up my re-applicant essay for ISB. Although I have put it in exact 300 words, I am not very sure if it is fine. Although, there is almost one month to review and edit all my ISB essays, but the re-applicant one is the most daunting one. It is analogous to someone's profile Aaj Kal or rather Kal Aaj. My apologies for a very poor attempt at making a mockery of the "re-applicant essay".

I think I will have to dig one webinar from Accepted that focused on re-applicants. I would be really surprised if my essay has all the necessary ingredients that the webinar or the experts suggest. But all in all, ISB's "first draft" round is over. It may get revived if I come up with something for the optional essay.

If anyone reading this blog can give me tips on writing a re-applicant essay, it would be awesome.

Now, I would like to concentrate on HEC Paris, for which the deadline is almost a fortnight before ISB. I know I am talking crazy, but HEC's essays are similar to last year. Nothing new. So, some of the essays might remain same. For example: who do you admire the most and why? And some will definitely change. I dont know what I am gonna do with the recommendations. Might as well carry over my application to the second round.

Draft Versions for ISB essays

As i write this, my eyes are half closed. I really admire the speed at which time flies. Ok, that dialogue seemed to come out of a person half drunk or rather half asleep. But I wanted to write this post to express some happiness on finishing the "initial draft" versions of the first 3 ISB essays. The day was quite productive ehh... Although I decided I would finish at least 4, I eventually had to settle with 3. The re applicant essay is the most important essay, which is yet to see the light of the day. If I find something interesting, I might write the optional essay as well. Lets see..

More Updates from the MBA world:
Emory Goizueta released its deadlines and the entire application to public.

Done with TOEFL

Finally, the TOEFL phase is over. I was not able to even start writing the first draft of my essays because of the exam. Now that its done, I should start writing asap.

Some news:
Duke Fuqua has released its essay topics last Friday.
Berkeley HAAS has already released them some time back.

Although the application is not accessible for any of the US B schools where I am applying, the essays for 2 of them have been released.

Looking forward to the essay writing phase.

I know, you know, we know, they know

Many people have told me that you have the most common profile for an MBA applicant. These "Many people" also include one of the B schools which was kind enough to give me a one line feedback. A decent GMAT score, IT engineer, 4-5 years of work experience and a Male. All these parameters have made my profile the most common among MBA applicants. It is sad but true.

So, does that mean that you give up applying to schools. No. definitely not. All these parameters are pretty much hard coded i.e. you cannot do anything about most of them right away. MBA Admissions are all about selling yourself. Making a brand out of yourself. Marketing yourself using the limited resources available. Well, that is what an MBA (especially in Marketing) all about. No, i do not think so. It has to be much more and that is why my profile is common :)

Its all about your application: your essays, your short answers and the other activities that make up the whole application. They sell. And you have to be the Ad man here. You have to be the product here. A product that the MBA admissions committee remembers for long. A brand that the MBA admissions committee associates its school with. Yes, all this can be achieved with the help of essays. Its all about self-study and finding out the little little things that you do, change and achieve in daily life.

A software engineering job is different from many other jobs where you can demonstrate the so-called qualities of initiation, leadership, handling people and sometimes entrepreneurship. I think, in a software engineering job, you demonstrate all these qualities sometime or the other without knowing that you did it. Sometimes, you do it so many times that you start thinking that it is routine and does not qualify as "special" for an MBA essay. Its all about finding all those instances in your job and daily life that will help in writing the essays. If you cannot remember, then make a note of them.

Coming to the common profile mystery, there are a lot of male IT engineers who want to apply to B schools. Now, since they are Indian Male IT engineers, they must have good scores and GPAs. But why are they most common at this point in my life. Well, there are a lot of reasons for that and none of them is sufficient to answer the question. Some of them are:

• Indian IT males are bored of their jobs
• Indian IT males are very ambitious
• Most of India's population is young and the amount of people working in IT is also significant
• A lot of Indians are suddenly realizing the value of post graduation than ever before
• Indian IT males want to switch careers
• Indian IT males want to attain high positions in their own industry, albeit quickly.

Well there can be many more, but the point is "I know, you know, we know and they (MBA schools) know"

The most important List

Now that the research into finding the most suitable schools as per my profile has been done, its time to publish it and see for myself how it looks. Although I have prepared many documents that contain the list i.e. word, excel etc., but nothing beats the Web. Here it goes:

1. University of Berkeley, Haas School of Business (A little too ambitious)
2. Duke University, Fuqua School of Business (Very competitive)
3. University of North Carolina, Kenan-Flagler School of Business (Very competitive)
4. University of Texas, McCombs School of Business (Very competitive)
5. Emory University, Goizueta School of Business (quite Competitive)
6. Indiana University, Kelley School of Business (quite Competitive)
7. University of Washington, Foster School of Business (competitive)
8. HEC School of Management, Paris (again a little too ambitious)
9. ISB, Hyderabad (again very competitive)
10. ESADE, Spain (depending on priorities)

Tip for school selection: Goto each school website, figure out their courses, their electives, what you want to do after MBA, what you like, average class Profile, placements, faculty, sometimes location, out-of-class activities etc. etc. Once you see the Class Profile, decide on

1. one or two dream types of schools where the average class profile is your profile.
2. four or five competitive schools where the average class profile is little below your profile.
3. one or two safety schools where the average class profile is far below your profile.

By profile, I mean the gmat score, work experience, age, background, interests etc.

The journey begins

Its been a long time since I wrote a blog. I promised myself that I will be more regular, but somehow due to multiple reasons, I was not. I regret that a little bit, because blogs can really take you to places, albeit the chances are very rare. Coming to the post title "The journey begins", I wanted to indicate that my journey to applying for an MBA from some of the best schools in the world begins now.

I wanted to write regular blogs about my experience of applying to B schools since quite some time i.e. almost a year. The last year went through pretty fast and I did not get the time to apply to many schools and even did not apply to any school in the first round. So, I did not get the chance. But now, I really want to do it, want to write about the unique experiences that I would go through while applying to the best B schools. I want to win the Best Bloggers Award from ClearAdmit. OK, that was a joke. The real reason to start the so-called "MBA Blogging" is to get rid of the writers block. Somehow, today I found the time or the opportunity to put finger to key.

The season starts now and although its not very much alive, it still gives me that feeling to start preparing right now. Its partially alive because most of the US schools to which I am applying have not released their essays. While most of the European and Asian schools have released their essays.

I hope the season ends well this time :)

Annoying power cuts

Bangalore these days is seriously short of electricity. I do not know the exact reason but I guess it is the early summer or increase in consumption. There have been regular load sheds and I know they have been happening in many parts of Bangalore. It becomes really frustrating if you do not have a back up. Sometimes you feel so helpless because you want to do something which you cannot. But something has to be done soon. But in future the situation can only worsen. With frequent changes in weather and increasing consumption, it may become very difficult for the authorities to meet the power needs of Bangalore. So the need of the hour is too save as much electricity as one can and to set up the required infrastructure to meet the demand.

Invigorating is the word

Recently, my music teacher told me something i found invigorating i.e. imparting strength and vitality. Here it goes:
"you can become a very successful person if you learn to get away with the following:
1. The scare of not having dinner and sleeping empty stomach.
2. The scare of not having a roof on top. "

Although it is easy to read and remember, doing it is equally tough. We had a discussion about famous musicians and this came up during that. Although it is still early days for me, I would like to prove my teacher right some day.

Another Reject

My dreams of getting an MBA degree are going into a recession just like the current world economy. After getting a reject from ISB, I got another reject today from the HEC School of Management, Paris. Although I did not apply to many places (only 4), these 2 were the only hopes that I had. Apart from these two, I had applied to Stanford and Kellogg. And well you know how difficult it is to get into these schools. You can say I did not apply to other schools where I could have got an admission. Well there are multiple reasons for it. First, I was already pretty late in starting my applications. Second, I have not given my Toefl and hence missed out on some schools where I really wanted to apply. Third, seeing the current economic situation, I gave my MBA plans a second thought and went a little slow. I still want to do an MBA but I was trying to access the situation. I could have applied to 2 more places with the limited time I had. But I did not. So I was left with 4 very high profile schools. I knew the chances of my getting into any one of these 4 was very less even though I have a score of 730. And I think I am being proved right by these schools.

The time has come to again review myself and see what went wrong. I would definitely want to review the feedback from these 2 schools where I had a reject. I would strive towards improving on my weak points. For now, I do not really know what could have weighed against me. It can be many things. First, 730 is not that good a score these days especially in the current world economic situation with people leaving jobs and going for higher studies. Second, it could have been my profile also. It is strong in terms of experience and the work involved but it is weaker in some parts like extracurricular activities. It could also have been my recommendations. But I doubt that although they can make a difference as well.

The results for Kellogg and Stanford are to be out by this month end and I have almost no hope from Stanford and a miniscule ray of hope from Kellogg (Just because I had an interview with a Kellogg alumni). For a guy like me to even get an interview call from Stanford would be some sort of achievement. If I get one from Stanford, I would consider it as my biggest achievement so far even though I got a reject from lower ranked schools. I have been getting mixed feelings since the last few days. Feelings of dejection and feelings of elation. I do not know which one will dominate this month and probably the first few days of next month. But I surely know one thing that I will not lose heart and will strengthen my profile. This post turned out to be the most inspirational thing I have ever written.

My Barber

If you think that this post might culminate towards the review of a so-called movie about Billu Barber, then you are wrong. Although after seeing the trailers, i somehow remembered my barber at my home town. And then i really wanted to write a post about my barber whom i met when i went home 2 months back. Well, the meeting was an emotional one. Not that we had tears in our eyes, but our hearts were heavy. Mine was surely and i could make out his was too.

The story goes back 15 years back. When i moved to my current hometown (a small place) 15 years back, there was only one barber in the entire township. (Yeah now you know how small a place it might have been). And the city was not that near. So nobody dared to goto the city and get a hair cut escpecially when you are in school and not such a style freak. So, it started with my first hair cut during the 1994 winters and it became a routine almost every month from then on. Initially, I did not interact with my barber as well as his other family members who worked at the shop. Then as i grew up and became conscious of my hair, I started telling him to cut my hair in a particular way. For example, longer at the front and shorter at the back and side area. It was the beginning of an association that is still alive in our hearts. Whenever my father used to go to him, he used to ask about me. During those times, my hair was a bit like Shoaib Akhtar (fast bowler) and i used to play cricket a lot. So all my friends used to say that this guy bowls like Shoaib and his hair looks like that too (Shoaib was a good bowler those days). Although my barber never knew what my friends used to say, he suddenly one day said that my hair looked like Shoaib Akhtar. Whenever i went to him for a hair cut, we used to discuss cricket a lot.

Then came the time when i moved to another city in order to attend college and whenever i came home, I used to make it a point to go and meet him. He used to ask my father a lot of times about my holidays and when would i be in town. After finishing college and starting as a professional, my trips to home got reduced somewhat and I skipped meeting him for 2 or 3 times over a span of 3 years. I used to think that if i dont have to get a hair cut, then why should i go to his shop. That was so selfish. I realized later that what a loser i was. The realization came 2 months back, when i went home and my father persuaded me to meet him this time. I felt so bad inside that i did not meet him over the last 3 years and would be doing that now. I went and the meeting was so overwhelming. I had mixed feelings. I felt bad and at the same time I felt so good to relive the past days at my hometown. I talked to him for half an hour and wanted to talk more. He had lots of questions for me. Like how is life in a city, what do you do in free time, where do you get a hair cut, how is US like etc.
It feels so good that you know people who are so kind, so caring and full of love. And there is some learning for me here. It reminds me of the Tata Safari dicor ad where it asks "If you looked back on your life, what would you remember ?".

An evening spent watching Delhi 6

I had a lot of expectations from Delhi 6. The reason may be that it was directed by the same person who directed Rang de Basanti. The movie was really going nowhere in the first half. I felt the first half lacked content and you can just overcome it by listening to AR Rahman's awesome music. I will talk about music later. The movie overall tries to do too many things and finally achieves little. Out of an average of 3 stars that most critics have given it, I feel one star was solely contributed by its incredulous music.

The movie did not feel that engrossing and was really helped along by its music. It was a little disappointing that I partially went to listen all its songs and there was not even a single full song shown on the movie. But the background music contained a lot of the music from the album itself, so felt nice. There were many good things about the movie as well. First of all, Sonam Kapoor is very refreshing. At a time, when almost all actresses are going the glam route, Sonam looks different and connects immediately with the girl next door image. She does exceedingly well for her character. Abhishek also plays his part pretty well and it was good to see so many people from the old world film industry play their roles. The Kala bandar concept was good but it was stretched a little too much. It may be that I never really paid attention to the news at the time it really happened in Delhi, but in the film it seemed like a bit overdone. The picturization of one song - Dil gira daftan was exceptionally well with traces of India and its traditions in New York City. The song's appeal also contributed to the liking.

Coming to the best thing in the film - the music. The music is simply superb and you cannot resist singing it along when you hear any song. Be it masakkali or the title track or rehna tu or genda phool. Even the Aarti and the Arziyaan song are irresistible. Its been raining spectacular music lately and Rahman is responsible for contributing a large part to it. I feel that the movie is overall watchable.

Valkyrie - A forgotten piece of history

It was Saturday morning and I had some work in a Bank on the Airport Road. There was very little traffic and Bangalore did not feel like its usual self with vehicles spread all over its face. Then i called up my friend on Airport Road and went to meet him at his place. We talked about a lot of things and then decided to go for a movie. We knew that we would not get Delhi-6 ticket (I checked almost everywhere the same morning) and so we decided to go for Valkyrie. We had 2 hours to spend before the show. So we went to Shoppers Stop and were not in any mood to shop. But then the discounts as well the stock was mouth watering. We could not resist and both of us ended up buying 2 pair of Jeans each. And then it was time to go back in History and enjoy Valkyrie. Well, i would say it was not an entertaining film, but it was a really well made film. If you concentrate on the sets, the cinematography, the background sounds etc. in a movie, then you would definitely like it.

Tom Cruise played his part very well and did seem to overshadow a lot of the other characters. Hitler's role was very limited, which was right from the movie's perspective. But some parts of movie prove just how huge was Hitler's influence. I never liked Hitler but there was something about his leadership that made so many people obey his orders. The movie is about the last of the many unsuccessful assassination attempts on Hitler's life. The movie really takes you into the World War 2 era through its cinematography. Attention has been paid to the details and that is what might have got the movie some nominations. It makes you come back home and find out more about Colonel Stauffenberg, his associates in the plan, the situation at that time, other attempts at Hitler and more about the World War 2. Some things like these attempts are little known in History, but they do form an important part of it and this movie tries to make people more aware about such events. If you have time to pass, you can watch this movie.

Unplanned trip to Pondicherry

Last week I along with one of my friends from work went to Pondicherry. Although we had planned it a week ahead, but i would call it unplanned since we did not have either the tickets nor we did book any hotel. It was all very random at the end. Here is the trip in detail:

Thursday Morning : No Tickets yet since we were waiting for confirmation from one more friend. He canceled it and we decided to go even though only 2 of us were left.

Thursday Evening : We went to KSRTC booking counter and as usual there were no tickets. We frantically searched for tickets online at redbus and ticketvala, but with nil success. Now we were really stuck since we had to leave a day after and we did not know how we would go. Even though my friend had a car, we 2 were not very confident driving on highways. And given the fact that there were only 2 people, it appeared risky to go by car.

Hopelessly, i looked at the Indian Railways for trains to Pondicherry and amazingly there was a train on friday night that reached Saturday morning 9:20 AM. We searched for available seats and to our surprise there were more than 700 available. I guess not many people know about this train. Another reason for so many vacant seats could be that the train took more than 10 hours as compared to buses which take about 7 hours.
As the only option, we booked our tickets for the train journey. By the way, the train did not have any sleeper class coaches and only AC coaches. Yet, the train was cheaper than most private buses.

Friday Night : We packed our bags and were all set for the comfortable albeit long train journey to Pondicherry. I assumed it would be comfortable, but it did not meet my expectations. The train coaches were of the latest design and the new coaches can accomodate around 80 berths where the side berth has 3 sleeper berths. The new design also made the usual berths to compress a little and we were short of room on the upper berth. Anyways, we both were tired and slept till 7 in the morning.

Saturday Morning : The train journey was boring for the last 2 hours. It grew hotter and we knew that Pondicherry was not far. There was a line i read on some blog online saying "Pondicherry's climate is either hot, hotter or hottest." Fortunately, we were going when the climate was hot. we reached around 40 minutes late at 10:00 AM. Now, we had to do a lot of things before we went around sight seeing. We had to book our return tickets, book a hotel and take a 2 wheeler on rent. We hired an auto and told the driver to take us to a 2 wheeler rent shop. We hired an activa for 2 days for 150 per day. We took the activa to a nearby petrol pump to get some petrol. Then we went to some 3 or 4 hotels around the beach road area and none of them had any vacant rooms. It was 11:00 AM and the Sun was almost above our heads. Somebody told us to look for hotels in the bus stand area. We went to the bus stand area and got a budget hotel for 400 per night. The hotel was decent but i would not recommend it for a family. The bus stand area was around 3 kilometers from the beach road. Let me tell you something about beach road. The beach road is the best place to visit in Pondicherry. It is a road right next to the Sea with ample area for sitting, chatting, eating and roaming around. The road is closed for traffic every evening by 5. During this time, you can see people jogging, kids skatting, cycling, couples roaming hand in hand (:)) and tourists enjoying their stay in Pondicherry. It is a good hang out.
Coming back to the hotel, we unpacked ourselves and went searching for the return ticket. Luckily, we got 2 semi sleeper tickets in a private travels bus. The ticket was obviously expensive than the train tickets. It was around 12:00 PM and we were thrilled to begin our sight seeing. But we realized that we had been hungry since morning and did not have our breakfast. So, the plan to have a lavish lunch somewhere on the beach road. The beach road is scorchingly hot during afternoons and does not have a good middle clas restaurant. It does have a good cafe which serves snacks but not lunch or dinner type of food. We parked our Activa near the beach road and went searching for a restaurant. We did not find any good north indian or south indian restaurant on the beach road. Actually we were new and did not search thoroughly. Frustrated and hungry, we went to a darshini near Bharati Park and had Poori Saagu. It was not that bad and we wanted more. We decided that we would first go to the Chunamber Boat Resort and have something there.

Saturday Afternoon: We reached chunamber boat resort by 1:30 PM. Its on the Cuddalore highway and I would not recommend anyone to go there in the afternoons. The Sun is right above your head while driving and is very Hot. On reaching Chunamber, we decided to take the boat to the nearby beach through the back waters. Actually, the ride is about a couple of kms from the resort and it does give you some relief from the heat if you touch water while the motor boat is running. We reached the beach in about 15 mins and the beach also did not offer any respite from the heat. Nobody was allowed to swim after a certain distance where the water was waist high. The slope was very steep and may be that was the reason nobody was allowed to go deep.
We spent some time on the beach, took some photographs and drank sprite. The place did not seem worth its popularity, but it was a one time visit. We returned to the city by 5:00 clock and spent the next couple of hours on the beach road. It is because of this beach road that a lot of tourists from chennai can be seen roaming around. They usually come just to spend the evening. It is 140 kms from Chennai and i have heard that the ride on Eastern Coast Express highway is a pleasure. We ate lots of snacks while on the beach road. They ranged from bhel puri to ice cream. We even sat in the Le Cafe and had coffee along with french fries.

Saturday Evening: We were quite tired till 7:30 PM and decided to have a heavy dinner and go back to the hotel and sleep. Just roaming around the bharati park area, we hit the Nehru street. Now this street seemed completely out of Pondicherry and is very much like the Brigade road in bangalore minus the branded showrooms. It has some good eateries and we decided we would eat our dinner there. There was a garden restaurant on that road and we had 2 full biryanis along with soup. We were quite full and i wished someone would transport us to our hotel without us walking to the activa and driving ourselves.
We reached hotel and i had a good bath and just laid down on the bed watching India Srilanka match. We went to sleep around 11:00 PM and were awakened by the constant honking by the buses in the nearby bus stand. It was 7:00 AM and the intensity of the Sun made it feel that the time was 11:00 something. We decided to visit Auroville and cover the rest of the tourist places in pondicherry.

Sunday Morning: We left for Auroville by around 10:00 AM (Yes, we were quite laid back just like the Pondicherry way). We reached Auroville by 10:20 AM and took our passes to visit the Maitri mandir. Little did we know that we were not allowed to enter the Mandir without prior appointment. The appointment can be made only from 2:00 PM to 4:00 Pm and it takes 2 days to get the permission to visit the maitra mandir. If anyone is interested in going inside the mandir, please make an apponitment 2 days before the visit. The Auroville area is really beautiful and makes you feel like a writer engulfed in the serenity of the area. We came back to the main Auroville information center area and spent another 2 hours in the restaurant cum cafe there. We were the only indians in the restaurant and it felt awkward. But you may encounter such a situation many times in Pondicherry. There is a boutique near the restaurant which sells everything Aurovillesque like incense sticks, soaps, food, caps, tops, bags and everything is labelled Organic. We ate some light snacks before 12:00 PM and then had a decent lunch at the restaurant by 1:30 PM.

Sunday afternoon: We decided to leave Auroville by 2:00 PM since there was not much to do there in Auroville. We reached Pondicherry by 2:20 PM and visited the Sacred Heart Church, the most popular church in Pondicherry. We even visited the Auroville Ashram on Rue de la Marine near the beach road. We even went to the Botanical Gardens but it was a time waste, rather a time pass. I wanted to take a walk on the Suffren street near the beach road. The Suffren street housed many old french style bungalows we well as offices. The street is really unique and reminds you of the old colonial times and the architecture of those times. It was 4:30 PM and we had virtually seen almost all popular tourist spots in Pondicherry. We decided to hit the beach road again and capture some more photographs. We ate some chats right in front of the bharati park.

Sunday Evening: Sunday evening was no different from Saturday evening and we again hung around the beach road observing different kinds of people on the road and listening to the sound of the sea waves crushing the rocks laid right along side the beach road. It was 7:15 PM and the plan was to have dinner and leave for the hotel by 8:30. The bus was at 10:15 PM and the pick up point was at a stone's throw distance from the hotel. The bust departed by 10:45 PM and the journey was not that comfortable. We reached Bangalore by 5:30 AM and did not have anything in mind except sleeping on a bed.
Phew, that was the longest post i have ever written.

The Ten Vital Questions

Some of my friends have given me this task of identifying the ten important questions that a boy can ask a girl when he wants to find out if the girl can be his soul mate. This blog is the result of a discussion me and my friends were having last weekend related to arranged marriages.

Before I move on to the questions, I would like to clarify that I am doing this just for fun and this blog is not intended to mean anything to anyone. Also, this is a work in progress and not a definitive statement.
I would like to point out one more thing that there can never be a formula for identifying your soul mate. Because if there was one, then every eligible bachelor must have been using that to find out the most eligible soul mate.

Please note that these questions may be more relevant to the ever growing Indian IT male population. However, they can hold good generally as well.

So, here they come:

1. Which person do you admire the most (Can be from any field but no one in your family) ?

2. Which is your favorite Movie (any language) ?

3. Do you like to watch/play Sports (Any real game) ? If yes, which ones ?

4. Which all places have you seen in India ? (Not stopped by but actually stayed there)

5. What matters to you most ? (This question asks for some quality or a thing but not a person)

6. What do you like eating the most ?

7. Can you define software ? (In layman terms)

8. Thing that you most regret ?

9. Which is the best TV/Print Advertisement that you can remember ?

10. Any questions from me ?

Remember that not all questions may be beneficial to every single boy. But still, the answers to some of these questions may very well give you an idea of the girl you are going to marry.