Broke my back againnnn!!!!!!!!

WTF!!! I must realize that i am getting older and that i need to take special care while lifting heavy weights. Broke my back again on Friday morning and i am sure all my plans would have to be re-visited....rest, rest and some more rest ....

Had planned an excursion trip with friends and that's too gone for the toss...i will try my best to recuperate within a week so that i can atleast go to some hill station for 3-4 days....

Heil Myoril ...

Friendshipppp!!!

Heart -- Am on verge of losing 2 good friends!!! :'(

Mind -- Why do you think so? They are just moving to a new location and you have all the means to connect with them. You can mail em, sms em, call em.

Heart  -- I can connect with them but distance does changes the relations. Friendship is not easily forged, it takes time to find a person whom you can call a friend.

Mind -- You are thinking too much

Heart -- Thinking is your problem dude!!! All i can do is "FEEL". And, for your kind information -- feelings are 14 times stronger than your stupid logics...

Mind -- You can always make new friends...didn't you lose friends in school and then in college?? And you always found new ones...

Heart -- hmmm...you are right but then every time i lost friends it created a void in my life...

Mind -- Come on dude , don't behave in a childish manner...or shall i say child like...

Heart -- haven't you heard the song "Dil to bacha hai ji" .. Oops..i never intended to fire such a PJ..

Mind -- think of it that life is good!!! it has been good!!! WhY do you "FEEL" so much...you have so many things to keep you engaged....write, go on drives...meet new people...void would be gone...

Heart -- easier said than done...

Mind -- i m not asking you to give up your old friendships...just asking you not to fret over this issue....

Heart -- will try

Mind -- friendship is like a string, the moment two people hold ends with the right traction they become friends...when you try to pull too hard -- the string breaks...and once you losen the grip -- the string becomes a drag....

Heart -- Thanks for the gyan...

Mind -- hope you ll grow up and learn to handle issues in a mature manner...now stop sucking me up..have got to complete a task...

Got the TOEFL waiver!!!

Good news -- i have got the TOEFL waiver from all my r-1 target schools. So that's one thing less to worry about. I would suggest all my fellow bloggers to either seek TOEFL waiver early in the process or if required give TOEFL as soon as possible.

TOEFL does not require much preparation but if one has to divert his/her focus from apps to TOEFL during the last lap then it might be a problem....last days should only be kept aside for Essays and discussions with recommenders...

Feeling good :)

I had written a post about "How i chose my recommendors?" and was glad to see Accepted.com's reply:

read reply here

Feeling good that my choice has been re-enforced...

Godddd help !!!!!!!!!

At times i wonder luck is the most important factor in one's professional life. And this realization always happens after i meet my SVP. He is working for the company for past 30+ years now and has plethora of experience when it comes to Operations. He started his career with Operations and by sheer stroke of luck  was appointed to lead the division that is involved in highly analytical work. {Who in the hell decided to place him in such a position, really want to kick his/her butt}. He does not even have a remote idea of the work that we do and to make the matters worse he wants to apply rules from Ops to this field.

What would happen if consultants at Mckinsey started measuring their performance in terms of accuracy and timelines? Does one measure the impact of knowledge services in terms of these bloody factors? Yes they can be a small part of overall performance metrics but who is going to measure the overall IMPACT of the work? What difference did the project made to profitability or share-holder value etc....this question does not even comes to the mind of our smart SVP.

I feel that our SVP is trying to make Ferrari in Suzuki's factory -- god knows what will happen. Attrition rate that was below 10% has shot up to 35% since the time this highly intelligent creature has started leading our group..Quantity has started over-shadowing quality...God help!!!!

Career Goals essay

Finally after pain-staking revisions for almost 25 times i have finalized the outline for career goals essay. I think Passion, Aspiration and Vision are essential ingredients of any b-school essay but these 3 play a major role in defining the career goal essay.

Passion-- put down all the things that you have done since starting the professional life. Ask why you attended a particular under-grad college, why you graduated in a particular concentration, why you made certain career moves or joined a particular firm. Now, try to see the common linkage between all your choices. Is there a common theme? Is there something that ignites passion in you and brings out the best in you?? If yes then this will answer the WHY {Passion} part of career goals essay.

Aspirations -- By the time you attempt career goals essay you should be crystal clear about your short term goals after MBA. In many cases this crystal clear vision would be lacking but even in this case you should have a clear idea about the direction in which you want to head.

Now someone might argue that many people change their career aspirations once they attend teh college and nothing is wrong with that. True!! But you don't want to tell the ad-com that you are just meandering aimlessly...YOU HAVE TO SHOW THAT YOU HAVE GIVEN A DUE thought to your career. And you know what is it that you want from the school and how best you would use the school's resources.

Vision -- Leadership and vision go hand in hand. Don't just stop at your short term goal after the MBA. B-schools often rant about producing leaders and they are very serious about it. Show them that you have a vision to be among the higher echeleons of the management. Things that seem impossible right now will become possible once you wear the badge of a particular top b-school....

Early Action - to apply or not !!!

The question that is bothering me for some time now is whether to apply in early action round? Does applying in EA increases one's chances of getting in? But, then with a binding to withdraw applications from all other schools can prevent one from getting into his/her dream school. Also, are Ad-coms more generous during EA when it comes to shelling out schols??

I have 2 schools on my radar that have EA with a binding. But both these schools are not my dream school {they are pretty close to my dream school but not no.1 }.

Need big time help on this one...

Indo-chinese invading the west!!

Portugese, French, Dutch and British established their trading ports in India by 16th century and later established colonies in India. By 1856 most of the India was under control of British -"east india company". What started as a business opportunity led to the forceful occupation of Indian territory and Indian resources. British sent the best of their military officers, administrative officers etc to India in order to develop an army of Indians that could be used to rule India. The influx of British technicians and technology gave India few of the best examples of world class engineering and architecture. British exploited India's rich natural resources while Indians never stood united in face of adversity and in-fighting threw them into clutches of slavery for hundreds of years.

China was never directly ruled by any western power but the hold of its Quing dynasty was weakened after British opium wars in 19th century. Like India, China was equally exploited by west for its natural resources.

At that point of time Britain was the core of power and economic well being. Britain experienced industrial revolution and soon fell short of resources. To feed its factories , britain invaded east.

Hundreds of years later.

USA is the core of power and has the largest GDP.

Most of the people involving high intellect are serving USA in variety of fields. Medicine, Space exploration, Defense, Engineering, Technology and MBAs {how can this blog forget MBAs ;)}. We have already heard allegations of Chinese spies stealing US space exploration and Nuclear ideas to develop the same for China. India is also growing in stature with time.

Indians and Chinese have already established sort of trading ports in USA and UK though in individual capacity. Various bills are proposed to stop the influx of people from these two emerging economies to the developed nations of the world. With almost 1/3 of world population India and China will soon require gigantic infrastructure and tremendous resources to meet the demand of population. When people won't find resources in their home country they will leave for other prosperous countries.

Take that -- Australia has 3 times the area that of India and a population that is 1/50 of india's population.

What remains to be seen is whether in coming centuries India and China will invade west to fulfill the demand of their population?? I am sure in next 15 years or so we will see one big war. Oil has been the reason of many wars in gulf area, next wars could be triggered in Indo-pak-china region because of scarcity of water. Or, it could also happen that India and China unite {highly unlikely at present but not impossible} and try to take control of west.

Its just a thought so take it lightly ;) ... i think a futuristic movie can be made on this theme,,....

Rajneeti - Review

Watched Rajneeti with Miss S and friends this Saturday. So, here i am to review the movie and this time i would try to incorporate suggestions of dear friend Sid.

Plot -- The plot of Rajneeti is inspired by Mahabharat and in parts by Godfather. The first half is gripping and fast paced. A lot of characters are introduced and audience is introduced to their respective thoughts on politics.Post interval director has failed to maintain the pace. Editing is poor and last quarter is heavily inspired by Mahabharat. I would give 2/5 to Rajneeti for its plot. It has got nothing new and later half is painful.

Cast-- Rajneeti has got a powerful star cast. Naseeruddin Shah is wasted {he plays a cameo}. Manoj Vajpayee is awesome and has played the character to perfection. Nana patekar and Ajay Devgan haven't got much to do but have played their parts well. Katirna kaif looks beautiful but her acting is below par. Ranbeer Kapoor has got the best role but he is unable to carry it off. I think Ranbeer is too soft to play such a role and has still not graduated to that orbit of acting where in he could carry the film on his shoulders. Arjun Rampal has exceeded expectations {obviously you don't expect much from him when it comes to acting ;) } but he is looking hand-some. Others have played their parts well and with such a star studded cast you don't expect small names to shine through still Shruti Seth has done well to catch the EYES ;). 3/5 {manoj vajpayee - 4.5/5}

Soundtrack -- Mora Piya and Bheegi si bheegi si are good and are used in narrative. Background score is good and impactful. 3/5

Overall, Rajneeti is a one time watch with friends while munching pop-corns and sipping cold drinks.

My verdict -- 2.5/5

How i selected my recommenders??

Selecting recommendors is a tough job. This task not only reflects your judgement ability {as to who can write favourably for you} but also decides the fate of your application. And its cliche to say that the title of recommendor hardly matters. SO, look for a person who can cover most of your professional life and who would be happy to write favourably for you. Last year i heard one of my friends abusing his supervisor for missing the deadlines to submit the reco.  If you can ask right people to write good recos for you it shows that you have good persuasive skills {imp. for a manager}.

I had 6 options when it came to selecting recommendors. 4 out of 6 have supervised me at some point of time in my career and the other 2 have been my clients for whom i have worked on various projects. I have been reporting into the same person for more than 3 years now, so he was the obvious choice.

Only concern -- I might not get opportunities to travel abroad, to setup new teams, or to expand my team once i disclose my plans to him. But this person has seen me progress professionally as well as has delegated variety of responsibilities my way, so i could not afford to lose his insights on my application. I was apprehensive about revealing my MBA plans to my current supervisor but last week i did so. And to my surprise he encouraged me to go for an MBA and was happy to write recos for me.

Even schools say that one of the 2 recos should ideally come from current supervisor. In case your supervisor has changed recently, mention that in your rationale behind selecting the recommendors. {Most of the schools often ask for the rationale behind selecting a particular recommendor.}My supervisor is well versed with my shortcomings and strengths. He has seen me take numerous initiatives at work place and has also given me numer of opportunities to lead projects and people. So, my task is cut out -- simply share anecdotes from past 3 years to support his claims.

Choosing the 2nd recommendor was tough. I wanted to go with one of my clients, she has an impressive title and when i disclosed my plans to her she was very excited. She could very well write about my client handling experience and about the high impact projects delivered by my team. But, apart from project management she could hardly reveal anything.

My 2nd client does not have very good communication skills and getting 4 recos from her would have been a humongous task. Among my past supervisors, one of them {say recommendor b}currently audits the work that my team does. This person made most sense to me because he has supervised me in my very early days, when i was raw and has seen my now when i am a lot more mature {atleast i think so ;) }. I chose mr. b as my 2nd recommendor. He is the one who can cover last 4.5 years of my professional history and since he has worked very closely with me on some of the projects , i am sure he can vouch favourably for my candidacy.

In sum, choose your recommendors in such a way that most of the professional life is covered, the recommendations reveal various aspects of your personality and that some of the claims made in essays can be backed by recommendors.

I would be happy to see suggestions of fellow bloggers.

Second Recommendor - Finalized!!!!!

What a relief!!!!!!!! Both my recommendors are finalized. I have personally spoken to both of them and shared my plans with them. One is my ex-supervisor and current client and the other one is my current supervisor. I think together both of them can cover majority of my professional development.

Also, i believe both of them are well aware of my strengths and shortcomings, both have seen me grow in professional life and i share a good rapport with both of them. Now i need to sit with them and share my app strategy.

Now i can enjoy the weekend ;)

Crossing the limits!!! - Is it fine???

Lately, i have been thinking hard about "word limits". Is it fine to overshoot the limits given by colleges? I have read mixed responses on this topic. Some say it is fine. If yes, then by what %age? say a college asks you to define your career goals in 400 words, is 410 right or even going upto 460 alright??

And how about falling short?? helpppppppp!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!