Archive
Invest in yourself
In the hustle bustle of life with juggling priorities and responsibilities, we often throw away or overlook the idea of investing in ourselves. The same routine, the same old menial work – we just live the way life takes us thinking ‘money’ and ‘peaceful or balanced life’ is all what we aim for.
How many of us wanted to change our jobs but never had spent time looking for it?
How many of us wanted to get promotions at work but did the same amount of work with the same level of commitment?
How many of us wanted to start a new thing but started and never pursued after a day or a week?
How many of us live in the opinion of others and never ventured out anything that we truly believed in?
How many us have unique potential that has never been utilized?
Almost most of us do. Why do people who have the same ability, same potential, same resources as many of us here became successful in what they wanted to do in life when we struggle to become one or not being able to become one? It’s because they invested in themselves before they invested in what they wanted to do, achieve and become successful.
Here’s a 5 min clipping from ‘MSN Today’ that caught my attention. A session of insightful questions & thoughtful answers from 4 self-made people in their own field. A must watch not only for the change makers/Entrepreneurs but for anyone who wants to excel in life: [Click on 'What brings success?' to watch the video]
My take-away is to continue introspecting 5 mins daily before going to bed and persist on investing in the ideas, thoughts, beliefs, goals that make me.
And, What’s your take-away?
Randomized…
T20: There are 2 T20s that I want to talk about: India Vs Pakistan. Became an ‘app’ woman – only checking updates from the notifications of the app. While you are busy working, these notifications do help – they do remind you that something else is also going on in this world other than work or school 
A win against Pakistan if not in hockey at least in the world of cricket draws some contentment. Second T20 is of Airtel Super Singer’s. It was legendary Kamalhaasan’s presence made the show special (DD maadhiri thirumba thirumba naan solla maeten 
) I admire him not only for his acting and skills which is a very common justification of being a fan, but also for his pursuits, bold ventures and sincere efforts. If you have watched the show this week, you would have noticed how he enjoyed the music and singing (by nodding and tuning his head and hands to the tunes). That’s the beauty of an artist – enjoying his own as well as others work.
Movie time: Watched NEPV (Needhane En Pon Vasantham) and NKPK (Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kanom). Gautham Menon has disappointed me. I am a big fan of his Vinnaithandi Varuvaya and with huge expectations, I watched the movie but it pushed me to a point “Please padatha seekirama mudinga”. It was a totally opposite experience when I watched NKPK. I did not have any expectations other than few friends suggested to watch it. Though I felt the start was a bit boring, the fun part started from “Ennachu? Cricket Velayadinom…” till the end. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. Vijay Sethupathy has acted very well and so as others. The “Ennachu” disease has stuck me and I keep saying
that word, though neither did I play cricket nor did my Medulla Oblongata is repaired. I would recommend any Tamil movie lovers to watch it – You will have fun, you will laugh a lot, you will feel relaxed and at the end you will feel contended that you spent few hours worthy relaxing and entertaining yourself.
Cash flows: Ha…I always took pride that I am good at Math. With my ‘Financial Reporting’ coursework in progress, my problem solving and analytical skills are being tested. Only with two courses completed in my school curriculum, I feel that being an Entrepreneur is the most challenging and difficult thing in this world. It’s not about focusing on one area, it’s about focusing on almost all areas – Investment, ideas, revenues, people, talent, time, market share, economy, structure, design, employment, opportunity and also a bit of luck and being at the right place at the right time. Though Entrepreneurship is a long way to go, my current focus is only on tackling cash flows, balance sheets and income statements [Hair stands like Einstein's when I do financial accounting assignments. I should at least get pass marks in this course is my goal ]
Innovation: Reading articles, watching shows like ‘Shark Tank’ and ideation does not do any good unless there’s some sort of action involved. Travel industry is the major market that’s being targeted for innovation. Though there are yoga studios and checking the menu and ordering via an iPad in the restaurant seems to be new ideas, I’ve always wondered why not a ‘Red box’ (I don’t own some movies that are recently released and while the flight is delayed, need some form of entertainment to pass time) rental or ‘Book rental’ (I don’t need to carry books or my Kindle or nook) or ‘Toys rental’ (distract or engage the kids while waiting) in the airport [though the ROI may not be that great is a reason behind not having these rentals]?
Innovation starts from observation. Startup mantra is:
1. Finding a problem that YOU currently have
2. Building something that solves the problem
3. Iterating and never stop improving
4. For every iteration, checking if the end meets the means
“Empty vessels make much noise”: SFO women’s startup pitching competition is in Feb 2013. I wish I had an idea, a business plan and a prototype to pitch there, even if it does not scale or win. There’s an Entrepreneurship teaching campaign in Africa led by Babson during Spring break for which I really wish to go and teach kids about Entrepreneurship. I want to take internship in my dream company IDEO. I wish to go to India and work with NGOs for my non-profit start up to have a beginning. Sometimes, it’s like I want to do too many things and end up doing nothing
1 more week of break time and I rather use it efficiently and effectively writing blogs, eating & sleeping, watching movies and listening to music ‘Study mode’ button will soon be pressed after New Year.
Have a fantabulous new year ahead!!!
Zoomed in…
I have not been consistent in blogging since school started, trying to juggle between work, team discussions, classes, meet-ups and assignments. I don’t remember if I started this year on a high note but definitely this is a year that’s ending with many sweet memories, new challenges, intrinsic learnings, futuristic visions, growing bucket lists and much more. I always take time to reflect and rewind to see how things scaled up and this is what exactly I told when my classmate asked “What do you want to achieve personally by doing an MBA?”. My reply was “There should be a difference between how I was when I joined and how I am when I leave. There should be a graphical representation that shows a giant leap of weaknesses that transformed into strengths” All these differences and transformations should align me to make a difference in this world. Pete Cashmore whose blogging turned into a site that is ‘mashable’
today attracting 23 million readers everyday. He considers his success as 1% of what Steves (Woz and Jobs) could do to put a dent in this universe from their garage. My view of life is similar to this – If I could do a 1% difference [subjective] in this world before I die, I would die happily having lived a worthy life. That difference is my dream. That difference is my vision.
Joy of Giving:
This year had been a great year filled with the ‘joy of giving’. Be it donations to ‘Give a book’, ‘CRY’, ‘Petral dhaan Pillaya?’ or buying cookies for seniors or adopting a family for giving Xmas gifts, nothing in this world can beat the feeling of giving a ray of hope, an arch of sunshine, days of happiness to those whom you can never expect or get anything in return. That’s when I decided that I will donate something for a noble cause for my best buddies and close relationships special days like birthdays and anniversaries. In a way, my materialistic gifting to all those people has dwindled but karmic goodness and blessings has reaped.
Vroom:
First trip of the year in NJ and MA spending time with family was delightful (Kids are the best part in life). Then a pleasure and sight-seeing trip to Vegas followed (No gambling but beautiful views of casinos esp. Bellagio’s). Trip to SFO for my friend’s baby shower and spending late nights decorating and enjoying the company of friends with laughter and joy was a memorable one (Did not realize that I may be visiting SFO often after that). Each one of us who long for, get excited about and end up with ‘don’t want to go back’ feeling – The India trip revealed a new me in me (lots of attitudinal shift for good). Trip to Seattle to meet the two tiny ones for their first Birthday – Had a blast mingling with people enjoying the fun times (Happy feeling). And the time with my best buddies for the B’day, roaming in MN, WI and IL (That’s special). Then the first foot at my dream school gave a feeling of pride (That awesome feeling cannot be equated to the words expressed). Later and now Silicon Valley has become my next stop
The flops:
Started various things in this blog but most of those did not prevail – The Leadership Ladder, I read. I liked, One observation, one new thing, The starting point, Stanford’s online classes. ‘Time Management’ needs focus
New realms:
Focused on many interpersonal skills, initiated new strategies to study, got new people whom I can look up to, thought about new ideas and approaches in my entrepreneurial readings this year. Had a huge smile while looking back and connecting the dots on how past experiences and initiatives has helped me to step into Babson. It has reiterated a point strongly – any skill, any knowledge, any effort can never go waste. It may not render immediate benefits but at some point in life, it would help – At that time, you would look back and smile.
2012 definitely had been a great year for me. And when I look forward for 2013, I can see many challenges, many new experiences on its way.
May the new year 2013 bring you
New avenues to accelerate your learning
Challenges to shape you better
Happiness to show the beauty of life
Prosperity to show you how to live and give
Good health to have fun
Wonderful times to accelerate the hopes
Blissful moments to show the purpose of life
Wishing you wonderful days in 2013 and have a great and happy New Year!
Enriching experiences
[Warning: Long post. Read at your discretion]
Taste buds: It’s a series of festivals…Halloween and then Diwali…As I said earlier, I’m in the road to breaking my routines. So, made up my mind to prepare 2 new dishes for Diwali this time – K (Kaaju Khathli) & K (Kaara Bhoondhi), it was! Poor me, with my tooth braces tightened, could not relish much of the Bhoondhi. But was grabbing the K sweet every evening as I passed by that small dabba where it resided. For everything I do, there’s either a self motivation or an inspiration from someone I saw – This cooking inspiration was from my friend ‘A’ who has a forte in preparing sweets like Badam Halwa, Kheer etc., For you all to believe that my hands on these two new items turned out well, here’s a picture [2012 'From Raji's kitchen' Copyrights reserved ]
Celebration time: Not only this, we had a Diwali celebration at work place like the ones that we had last year. My responsibilities spanned from ‘Rangoli’ to ‘Diya decoration’ and I did help sometime in serving desi food. After watching all those creative minds decorating diyas, I couldn’t stop my longing to do one. So, grabbed a Diya type that most of them did not pick and created a colorful one, realizing that the diya had only five petals. I thought it had six and started decorating with two different colors. Mine was an average creation. I saw some superb ones, gold plated, plush green ones etc. I’ve placed it in my cubicle now. It was a fun time with friends and colleagues enjoying some music, sports, dress booth, dance, food, ethnic decorations, Henna decorations etc. I couldn’t stay till the end for a group snap (Cha…I missed it this time) since I had to rush to catch my flight to SFO for my face to face MBA classes.
Traveling in trains: Though I did not have any clue of how trains operate in CA or the different public transportation systems (BART, Caltrain, Muni, Light rail), I did enjoy the journeys. I could use that 1 hour 40 mins train travels from Sunnyvale to SFO to review my class notes, do the case studies, talk to family and friends, browse, observe people and surrounding and sometimes munching snacks. I hail the technology of this time – My friends in those trains were the iPhone apps – Caltrain and BART and Google maps [No, I don't have iPhone 5]. I relied on them totally for my walks from train station to the class, getting tickets, checking timings and even sometimes some FAQs. I don’t know even if my other friends would have helped this much as how these apps did. Thanks to Technology!
Class connections: Since I am one among those who comes from a different state to the classes in CA, all my classmates cared to ask where I stay, how I commute, when my flights were. Every breakfast, lunch and snacks time was a time to connect with different people. During one of those lunch time, met one of the prospective student visitor who was asking about the classes, course work etc. I could see a bit of intimidation in her face watching us cramming through the presentations and case study reports even during lunch time.
Memory game ice breakers: Our first class was our final project presentation of the innovative product that we created as a team. All of us had this anxiety syndrome on how we were going to present and tackle through the questions from the other class mates and professor. The professor found our inherent anxiety and started the class with an introduction game where we had to tag our first names with an adjective which starts with the same letter as our first name and then tell about our job and a fun fact about us. The next person has to tell the names of those previously did the process and it continues on. We all had a notebook with all those names. I could have told ‘Relaxed Raji’ but I said ‘Reluctant Raji’ and the whole class now calls me with that name Snakes coming in my dream was a fun fact [Idhu fun fact-a? it should be a nightmare] about me and one of my other Asian class mate detailed that in their custom, if someone gets snakes in their dreams, he/she will get a very good guy in his/her life. I smirked and said ‘I have been waiting so long for one’ and the whole class giggled. The same Asian classmate told that she drives out the snakes in her dreams…I turned back and asked ‘Are you the one who drives away my luck of getting a good guy?’ After the whole game of introductions, we laughed much that the anxiety went away. Each team presented an innovative product prototype that has a potential to be in the market. I don’t want to reveal any of the product ideas here which will hinder our chances of being an Entrepreneur to create such new products. Though all of those products including ours were not mind blowing but each had its own usefulness and uniqueness.
Rocket pitch: Since I had been following the TV series ‘Shark Tank’ and some entrepreneurship forums and articles, I was aware of what a Rocket pitch was. Nevertheless to mention, earlier, I went to my professor who’s also a venture capitalist and said ‘I want to become a VC and what should I do to become one?’ He gave me a ‘bulb’ asking me to find what VC is and why I want to become one? I’m yet to find the answer for that We have to show case our product ideas to a bunch of investors within 3 minutes allocated covering all significant details that will make an Angel investor or a Venture capitalist to invest in the idea. The most important learning was the feedback and questions and insights shared by the other classmates and the Prof, after it was presented. It was a coincidence that I had glimpsed through ‘Steve Jobs’ presentation skills and tips few days before and it helped me to easily traverse through what was discussed. I’m seriously considering some tips to be put into action. There’s one big area of improvement for me, Public Speaking – Planned strategies in place and its going to take some time for me to implement and become successful in it. Some people are very good at it and they inspire me. Inspiration does not help in its entirety, some action needed from my end.
Role plays: This was the most fun part for me. We were put into positions of being CEOs and planning strategies and composing visions and subjected to “If I were the CEO of company X, what would I have done differently?’. After we reported the role play pointers, class discussions happened on analyzing and working through which would work and which wouldn’t. With a mix of different thinking abilities of people, I automatically learn new perspectives which I would have never even thought of. Another time, we were partnered and negotiate for a start-up company that we were about to start as partners. To my knowledge, I played it very well that most of the negotiations fell in my favor. High fives!!! But I failed considerably in the role play of how to give constructive feedback and gain momentum to work with others. My partner said ‘You are too humble and giving up easily. Give me a tough fight so that we can learn from each other’ for which I smiled (not knowing what else should I do).
These freedom of thoughts has brought out my openness in asking how to bring innovation at work place. I could see a change in me - Analyzing the business reports of the company which I never spent much time earlier rather than just reading it. As one ages, memory deteriorates. I try harder to keep up with the memory after I read various case studies and text book articles, but its not coming up easily. Any tips are welcome!
Time with friends: It was a (S)Funday! Spending time with friends, eating loads, watching movies and playing with ‘S’ (my friend’s 4 month old son) – A relaxing day after travel and studies. Flights are not being friendly with me these days. Missed the connecting flight last time (not my fault, airlines’s) and stuck inside the flight for 2.5 hrs due to some servicing yesterday.
Back home now and enjoying my ‘Me’ time – Yeah….it’s the first break time of the course! Time to clear the back log of reading magazines, watching video and movies and connecting with friends.
Deep sense of gratitude to all my friends and family who’s helping me in (m)any ways that they could, to achieve this ‘MBA’ dream of mine possible. With this thanks giving note, wishing ‘Happy Thanks Giving’!
The Colossus…
Ha…if there’s something called a ‘time bank’ where one can invest the unused time of their day and withdraw it whenever there’s need to, how great it would be? I’m an aspiring entrepreneur and so, don’t be surprised with my new breed of ideas
Sipping hot tea and Radio Mirchi on one screen and Ind Vs Pak T20 on another…Pak just won…Gr…rr…B’day boy Ashwin’s superb bowling went in vain.
Studies are keeping me busy. It took a while to get into the pace, the studying mode, but sometimes I go into the information overload mode when I study for hours without a break. Appetite has grown as well…Stomach craves for something to munch and I tend to look all over the house for anything different to eat at every breaks that I take.
Slowly, getting connected to my classmates via the virtual professional spaces. Now, lots of things make sense – the ‘whys’ of GMAT exam pattern, how some companies succeeded, some failed, how ethics matter to corporate culture, how price changes on day-to-day life commodities affect market and people in turn, how cash flows are important for a company, how technology play a pivotal role, the intensity and impact on graphs and spreadsheets that can bring a company down or scale up – much more to it. Well, at least now, my anxieties have turned down and interests towards the subjects are accelerating.
I’ve become very active on twitter. I could connect/follow investors, entrepreneurs, business aides, friends, my favorite celebrities that way. Some fun facts, some latest trends, some ideas, great deal of knowledge. In the beginning, I did not know that people following you is a normal thing in the twitterati. Rather, I got over excited of seeing Martin Zwilling and Amy Wilkinson following me – Blame it on my ignorance
Stanford free online courses has been announced (got it via Forbes) – If you are interested, check it out here: http://online.stanford.edu/courses/index.html
For now, I’m planning to take 4 of those courses mostly those that are related to my core study area of focus – ‘Entrepreneurship’.
Babson has been ranked #1 in Entrepreneurship again, for the 16th time. Though I am not in its Undergrad studies [for which it had been ranked #1], I’m still feeling proud to atleast have gotten admitted
http://www.babson.edu/News-Events/babson-news/Pages/120912-us-news-ranks-babson-number-one.aspx
Time is precious. This blog was not ‘eating my frog‘ thing on the first day of this week. Let it be as it is. I got to go…
Sundays with Raji – #25
Many things to be said here are not the ones that I put forth. It has been said by many, lived as ‘principles’, ‘values’ by many, preached by many and want to embrace by many. ‘Sundays with Raji’ is my reflections, experiences and here’s one after its been laid back for a while.
Habits:
1. Be aware of the bad and the negativity around you, but always focus on positivity and good. This way, your energy is spent on some great values than those that draws you down
2. Early mornings are the best time to do and strike off the most important tasks of your day. This will leave you with a level of satisfaction when you lie down on bed that night
3. Do one new thing everyday. Don’t let go off your potential wasted, buried in the dark. Spend some time every week on an activity, interest that you are most likely to want to pursue. When you look back after days, you would feel like ‘Life is beautiful!’
4. Faith moves mountains. Miracles do happen with insurmountable faith and indomitable will to pursue something that you believe in, standing for what you believe in, irrespective of any circumstance it is, irrespective of any odds that you may face
Take-aways:
4. ‘I sacrificed this; I sacrificed that;’ – Telling people about your sacrificial things is like getting attention and wanting appreciation for the sacrifice. Sacrifice is a judgement that should be made by the world; not by you. Mahatma Gandhi never said that he sacrificed his barrister job to become ‘Mahatma’. Mother Teresa did not say that she sacrificed her life to help the needy [From Masterminds - 08/25/2012]
5. When you do anything in life, make sure it serves these two – ‘Personal Good’; ‘Larger Good’. Unless you strike these two things off after you do what you wanted to, it does not serve its purpose [From Masterminds - 08/25/2012]
6. Meditation brings communion. It helps you to get concentration power. You need not meditate for hours, just few minutes everyday for yourself, bringing peace within you, bring focus to eradicate the shorter attention spans
Habits are those that I follow. Take-aways are those that I am constantly working on for the betterment (personal good and larger good – I am an evolving consciousness as like all others
The roadblock…
I was talking to a closed one about the upcoming coursework and with his curiosity, I detailed him on how it all started and what it took to get a coveted student seat on the élite cohort community. He said “Well, I know you had lots of failures in life. To put it, there were more failures than successes”. To his viewpoint, all I had to say humbly was “What’s the essence of success without learning from failures? I don’t look it that way. Failures are not the stepping-stones to success, but the learnings from failures and its application are. I am happy to have treaded in that rough path to get what I dream of”. Last 1 year had forged a great attitudinal shift upward curve to me personally. I could see the fruits of it. Well, there are always miles to go before I sleep
Why not for some good reads now?
With GVMenon’s movie NVP’s expectation has been soaring high among the fans, I’ve been looking forward to this movie for a variety of reasons – Music Maestro’s musical delight, the vivid romance – a strong weapon of Menon’s, Samantha’s looks and costumes (I wonder how GVMenon shows his heroine earn ‘the most beautiful’ tag always), the realistic life on-screen expectations. And I happened to read this well written ‘musical’ article, a special bonus to ‘Paatuku Thalaivan’ Ilayaraja’s devotees: http://baradwajrangan.wordpress.com/2012/06/16/i-call-it-the-raja-genre/
Evolving consciousness happens to everyone in a day-to-day life. To share some insights on the openness and basically because I like the fact #1 in this article, here it’s for you to grab and read: http://zenhabits.net/open/
A dinner get together tonight and much more for the weekend and the coming week, this is all for now. Sayanora…
Days of my life…
The title of this post is derived from Dr.Drake Ramoray’s (Joey’s) part in the F.R.I.E.N.D.S series An all time favorite of mine. I can watch it several times and can never get bored. If you ask me who I am a fan of, in the ‘F.R.I.E.N.D.S’ series, I won’t be able to tell. Each part is characterized and played very vividly aptly.
Into the days of my life now…
With my MBA course starting in about a month and half, I’m trying to keep up a work life balance. My schedule is getting intact. It’s a great privilege to know and to be a part of the community where CEOs, CFOs, Program Managers and IT Specialists from various industries are going to dwell. Mixed emotions – Very excited for the kick-off residency classes and at the same time feel perplexed on how I am going to fit into this great élite pool and make a significant mark. Challenging times ahead…But what matters is the enriching experience and exposure it’s going to dawn on me, isn’t it?
Being introduced to the new world of Accounts, Economics, Statistics, Ethics and Business, I’m able to see the vision and clarity of many great Entrepreneurs/mentors who I’ve been closely following lately – Chris Guillebeau and Mukund Mohan in specific.
Going to miss Nadal’s action in US Open – Now I console myself that it’s good that I did not get a ticket to watch it live (it was one of the items in my bucket list). Trip plans ahead for B’day/long weekend and the F2F MBA sessions. Fun days and intense schedule ahead. I’m saying to myself – Chillax Baby!
And here’s a song that has been ringing in mind lately:
First job, Beaches, Restaurants, People, Friends, Hang Outs, Shopping Spree – Thanks for the exposure you gave me Chennai! ‘Happy Madras day’ to all Chennaites and Chennai lovers
Give a good book!
Time flies off easily. It’s been another year and another birthday around the corner – Not only a birthday but also a birthday wish
“Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime”
Books are the treasures of life. What’s the best trait that you can develop in a child? Reading habit. Reading makes a child to think, explore, focus, communicate, gain knowledge and create ideas. Reading is a discipline. While most people know this, not everyone in this world are able to develop this discipline in a child just because they cannot afford to buy a good book. We can change that and make at least some children to gain accessibility and own a good book which he or she can cherish for lifetime. That’s my birthday wish of this year – ‘Give a good book’ fund-raising campaign.
On my birthday, you all are going wish me to have whatever I dream of. This fund-raiser is one of the big dreams that I have for this year. Will you make my dream and birthday wish come true this year by donating whatever you can and make a child have a good book in hands?
With a book in hands, you can bring a smile in a child’s face here.
http://supporters.firstbook.org/goto/give-a-good-book
Thanks a million, in advance!
A dream come true :-)
Success = Potential + Efforts + Luck
Though the % towards each factor can differ, when one is not there, ‘Success’ as a collective thing could be out of reach; could be a dream and not a reality. I watched this video from Grasshopper and I liked it because I thought it was well aligned with my thoughts. And, I’m sure every other Entrepreneur or a wanna be Entrepreneur has watched this video umpteen times.
The Start:
It all started somehow, somewhere to have a motto in life to make a difference in every possible way. When your vision is clear, putting the thoughts into words can be easier than expected. I have talked to many people at work, at functions, at home, at friend’s place about being an Entrepreneur and getting into Babson’s Olin School of Business. Many have questioned me why I did not consider Stanford, Harvard, Yale, Wharton, Berkeley, Darden and all other ivy league B-Schools. Babson has been ranked #1 in entrepreneurship for 19 consecutive years. Babson’s professors are Entrepreneurs – Their realtime business execution, success measures, lessons on failure and much more will be helpful than just being in a theoretical class. Most of the Students are Entrepreneurs or at the least they have an idea or agenda to be an Entrepreneur. Theory can teach you the ways of doing things but unless it is put into practice, it is mere information. Practice can take you through the intricacies, show you to get back strong after a fatal fall – Experience can give you much more than the Knowledge you possess. Getting into Babson was a dream. I lived with it for years.
During one of our dinner outing, K asked me what were my plans for applying this year. I detailed her about the difficulties and she was the one who spurred this idea into me of trying something that’s possible in terms of executing the dream. My research started there and it provoked me to connect with few of Babson’s alumni and the prospective students. They helped me throughout the process of knowing what it is and how to approach. It was the start!
The Accelerator:
Application Essays – This was one of the things that kept me occupied for days altogether. Though I like writing, I was not sure how this format of app essays should be written. I researched on essay editing services and approached some but was not towards them due to the expenses their services rely on. So, ruled out the option of getting my essays edited through the services available and heavily relied on my writing skills. My best friends N and S were the driving force in getting the essays done. I honestly told them my views and the way I want it to shape up. Thanks to S for the valuable suggestions she provided. I owe N a great deal of thanks and gratefulness for spending several hours in reviewing, acknowledging, criticizing, giving ideas and directions and at the end giving me a very satisfactory feeling to say “It has indeed come out really well!”. Thanks to my sister for reviewing the essays within a less amount of time that I could give her, correctly pointing out grammatical errors and the lines that were not making any sense – I was able to correct it and rephrase it to mould the essays into a better shape. With application essays carrying the greater weightage for candidacy, without these 3 people, it would not have been easier to get it done with utmost satisfaction.
My good friends K and A, well wishers from my earlier and current company – S and R, were instrumental in recommending me to Babson’s MBA. I owe a great amount of thanks to them.
Bounds of joy:
The anxiety of checking the results every 1 hour on the web ended yesterday. Even for the 10th and +2 results, I did not have this anxious feeling. But the first ever time I tried to get into Babson, i.e. this time, it worked. I was not 100% hopeful because I stumbled in one significant question in the interview process. Yet I was very satisfied with the way I shaped my application essays. So my take was 50%-50%. The results were supposed to come on Thursday but it did not. So, the anxiety factor increased tremendously although I kept saying myself that a day delay in the results could be because of the July 4th holiday.
Later yesterday, when I got a call and the other side uttered “We have a great news for you!” – I felt like dancing; I felt like jumping; For few minutes after, I did not listen to what she said. I sunk into one of the happiest moments of my life. Then I realised the call was not over yet. We discussed on the next steps and hung up. The year(s) long dream, the vision, the future has unfolded today – Hurrah! Babson accepted me. I made into Babson’s fast track MBA this fall [I wish I could fill this space with 1000 smileys ]
The Philosophy:
My parents are one among those who know this dream of mine. They came to know it better after I detailed them on how I see it. So, when I told them the news yesterday, my dad gave a philosophical connection on why he believed that I would definitely make it. The connection/story is simple – He went to get the official transcripts from the university where I attended for my Undergrad studies. Generally it takes weeks or even months to get it. He approached and they said it will take time and with my deadlines fast approaching, he gave up the idea of getting one and was returning home. On the way, he was approached by one of his old students who was working in the university asking the reason for his visit. The student went with my application and there he was, with the approved application and official transcripts in hand within 2 hours. This was the root cause of my dad and mom’s belief of me getting it This sheer coincidence is what luck is!
The Challenges:
Going to be back to School after 9 years. Studies, Travel, Work life balance, Financial responsibilities – A tough road ahead. I could foresee many challenges but I want to live yesterday’s moment without comprehending anything
The First treat:
I know S only for few months after she came to this place. We have gone out for Friday dinners, did cooking together, watched movies, shared personal futuristic views, took strolls on a nice weather etc. We went for the usual Friday dinner to one of my favorite restaurants. It was her treat for the great news that I shared. I did not know about the treat until she told me that when the bill came.
Whattay feel:
It’s a new beginning with challenges ahead, responsibilities surmounted, vision focussed. It’s going to be a difficult but an enriching experience!
I hope I live up to Babson’s legacy. A dream turned to reality – What an incredible happy feeling it is!
