Time@INSEAD

Time flies here.

This short preamble must have suggested that THIS IS GOING TO BE THE QUICKEST BLOG EVER. Reason: My schedule is busier than what I was ever prepared for. But that does not mean that I will leave without posting a YouTube clip. In fact, I will post 2 videos this time. Though I know that even this will of course not come close to compensating for the lack of my beautiful prose.

First, the updates:

Academics: Did NOT do well at all in P1…tried to catch up in P2

Social: Sadly, the bad P1 results did not keep me from making a drunken fool of myself at every INSEAD party

Personal: Girlfriend almost dumped me. More on that later.

Misc.: Got elected as a member of the Student Council!

Career: Got interviewed by Google, a bank and some consulting firms. I don’t care about others but Google decided not to take our relationship further. Funny how I was so pally with the coordinator from Google and then suddenly she wont even write what went wrong.

I found this one when I was searching for “Israel, Arab, war.” (Hahaa, of course). This woman is not only an INSEAD MBA, she is not only beautiful, but she is also really cool to listen to. Please don’t leave any comment regd what she actually talked about because I was too busy noticing her features:

Bollywood 101 for westerners:

For you, my readers, I am putting my integrity at stake and giving you another video.

For all fans of Steve Irvin: I am a fan too. It was a treat to see his enthusiasm. In fact, when people sometimes ask me (sometimes=once per year, but isn’t this the most important question of your lives?) “H.G., what is the all important criteria to choose a profession?”, I say “do what you are most passionate about.” May Steve R.I.P.

For all budding consultants, this video might prove useful:

Senses and Actions

I had a difficult time deciding between having “Exams are Over” or “Senses and Actions” as the title to this post. While I was slacking about it, I came across this video in youtube and if you want to know why I selected “Senses and Actions”, then see the video:

Anyways, lets start from the beginning. P1 exams got over today. The past 2 weeks were stressful enough for me to start reconsidering my notion of INSEAD being a “party place”. We basically covered enough material taught in 4-5 months in other business schools. P1 has been, in general, 2 months of exceptional learning for me. I learnt about the importance of time and setting priorities. I understood the meaning of Spiderman’s philosophy “With great power comes great responsibility”. Most importantly, I came to know a lot about myself and my alignment with the world I want to be in. Ah! genius is boring you with futile generalities. Alright then me hearties, let me wear my pirate suit…

My P1 from a pirate’s eye (the uncovered one) was housing problems – conveyance problems – study group conflicts – social scene mess-up – more housing problems – academic nightmare. With P1, most of these problems seem to have vanished. Today after the exam, the bar area actually looked like it was hosting the mardi gras in France. Beer and nick knacks all over the place. A couple of hugs – people leaving for their ski trips or to see their girlfriends and boyfriends in London. I just went home and slept a couple of hours then I was back at INSEAD replying to emails and talking to my folks back home. I think I will not go to the party at “Bakardi” tonite just to spend some time with myself. Ah! And now genius is so vain. Well, maybe genius just needs some more sleep! 

Its all about fun and work here

…and the twain do meet at INSEAD, its just a matter of employing the concept of “tradeoff” (we learn that a little too early here, much before our first class of “prices and markets”).

Anyways, my consistently ignorant punjabi brethen in California posted this video last year which basically made fun of a certain sect of people:

Though I condemn it, I have been told that it was made in good humor. And one of the casts is actually applying to INSEAD to refine his temperament and to hone the faculty to appreciate a different culture.

MBA – A Haven for an Escapist Or A Bigfoot Step to $$$?

Here’s a list of top 3 “eat-shits” in my life:

1. Obliging a complete moron with status reports, etc. Because he happens to control 15% of the variable part of my salary
2. My absolute loneliness. Coupled with growing frustration (these are related so I will not have separate points for each)
3. The fact that I am growing older without enhancing the quality of my life

You, avid reader, obviously identify with the above or at least think “genius-at-large is fecking pathetic” but you are certainly not without a myriad of feelings. So 3 months ago I decided to change my frustrated life. I started working out because one day I saw 2 of the prettiest girls in the gym, as I was walking by. On my second day at the gym, I lost my iPod. Since then, I can’t bear to go towards the gym because it just reminds me of what happened to me when I thought “positive”. “Positive Thinking” is the latest “eat shit” in this world. People should learn to see things for what they are not what they look like when you cover them with icing.

So I tried staying home. I tried getting certified in Project Management Certification. The people at the PMI.org interchanged my first name and last name and 2 weeks into negotiations, they were still not convinced of their mistake. (Added on 31st Aug->) As it turns out, there was a major confusion about my records. The certification is a very stringent process which requires you to have managed projects for thousands of hours and also undergo a formal training in PMP. The procedure is organised. And I finally got a green signal to take the exam, that I scheduled for 31st Aug. (<-Remarks end) That was a development! Inspired, my happy brain cells started a cascading effect and woke up the dormant “effort expending” cells…So I gave my GMAT and applied to INSEAD. To cut the long story short, I got my offer letter today! Now I look at the facts. It’s going to cost me way more than a ferrari. Then, getting a >$200,000 job is not guaranteed. Worse, I’ll have to move from the US and leave my (prospective) girlfriends behind. Then I re-read the last few sentences. Are these really that bad? I am off to France…wait..lemme use google language translate tool to express myself…”J’aime les femmes françaises.”

My life has certainly taken an interesting turn and lets see if I make millions or if I eat more shit.