The next chapter

If you get a seat on a rocket ship, don't bother about which seat is it, but just grab it! I read this long back, but applied it some time back when I got an opportunity to be part of the market entry team of IKEA, as they were stepping foot in India. And boy, what a learning it was! Never a dull day and the sweat, tears, blood which are seen culminating on the final D Day as the 1st store in Hyderabad was opened to the customers was all worth it. Things moved on in my career as I got a chance to then work with some really amazing retail brands across both Indian and the North American markets and apply my retail expertise. Well this journey in retail was never planned but it was worth taking. 

I also progressed personally, as I was fortunate to experience the beginning of parenthood along the way. Juggling work and being a mommy made me realise that this is what I ever wanted, my ideal adult life always visioned. But then came a catch! It started becoming comfortable :) And some where deep down I knew I need to look for next challenge and wriggle out of that comfort zone. 

I found a 2 months long course to do that and crazy it was. It however taught me how i could get further out of the 24 hours of time and still stimulate myself both intellectually as well as make the most of the growing moments of my little one. I experimented too. And then was the time to bid a good bye to retail and operations. And today, here I am looking ahead towards this new journey which I look forward to, starting the next week!

How happy are you?

Newspapers, WhatsApp Groups, FB Newsfeed had all been flashing Anant Ambani last week. The third generation of India's richest family had turned heads around as he lost a whopping 70 kgs in 18 months! While we sit and wonder how the kids of the richest families in India have everything in their life and nothing to worry on, little did we know that he was putting in efforts in terms of - walking 21 kms each day, doing yoga, weight training, functional training and high-intensity cardio exercises to reach his goal; not to forget along with his zero-sugar, low-carb diet. He worked hard for the choice he made of being healthier because he had an option! And boy, the whole nation congratulated him (even if in terms of trolls) when he trended on twitter for this.

This brings me to what I really want to convey in this post - Being Happy.  We all work towards being happy in life. Like how getting into a premiere B School made me very happy, because that meant I could plan and lead my life the way I wanted to, which I then believed would make me happy. Was my formula correct? Is that all I needed? Yes and No. As Will Smith's character, Chris, clearly points out in his masterpiece, we are always chasing it and hence it's called "The PURSUIT of Happiness." Chris places emphasis on "pursuit." Jefferson, when he penned the Declaration of Independence, did not promise Americans happiness, but only the right to pursue it. Chris says, at one point in the movie, paraphrase, "I am happy right now. It is a fleeting moment." We experience happiness in eyeblinks. The rest of the time we, like Chris, are chasing it." That's what a good opportunity gives you. The right to pursue it and not happiness itself. If you are paying taxes (post March effect!), you are very lucky to be among the top 3% of Indians who are paying it right now. It makes you very lucky to be at this position, and it started right from the time you were born to your parents, who provided for your education and raised you to pursue opportunities which brought you where you are at this moment. 

What I mean is that a domino’s pizza delivery guy might be better than me in inherent skills, like a better IQ/EQ but he didn't have the opportunities I came across just because I was born at the right place and time to my parents. That's what Prof. Deepak Malhotra in his famous Tragedy and Genius speech (or Quit Early, Quit Often Speech as I like to call it) brings on to the table:

 

 (At least, the 1st 15 minutes are worth the listen for the topic)

In short, he conveys that it really is a tragedy if even after being given all the opportunities you are not Happy, because tragedy is the difference (delta) between how happy you could be (Circumstances) and how happy you are (Choices), that's how you quantify it. If you don't have many opportunities, the circumstances were not right and the how-happy-you-could-be itself has lower bars and that's a real situation. However, if the Circumstances bar is high enough and you are still not happy, it is mainly the choices you have to blame because sitting in your comfortable home, without worrying about your basic needs, educated enough to be among the top 3% of people around you who pay taxes, you just can't blame the circumstances. It has to be the Choices. That's what Anant Ambani made and worked on in last 18 months! Prof. Malhotra, termed that as opposite of Tragedy, called Genius - not the essential of something but essence of.

I have interacted with many MBAs around me for both professional and personal purposes. I found many of them to be complaining about their work. Trolls being exchanged in WhatsApp groups about how a person finishes his engineering, does his IT job, gets into MBA and after that he realizes he doesn't like even his post MBA job eitther. I could relate to it, we all can because after all we are pursuing happiness. One of the most profound indication of that would be to waste 71.4% of our lives (Weekdays) just waiting for the Weekends to get away from work. That would be hardly the pursuing I am talking about here. However, once you understand the missing gap and where exactly you are going wrong, you can definitely reduce the delta which takes you towards being the happy genius.

The opportunities which you have around should be leveraged upon to make the right choices and to convert the tragedy to genius. That's when he talks about (@10:20 in video) cultivating the habit of 'quitting' - quit early, quit often - something usually associated with a negative reference. And that's where you leverage your opportunities (like your MBA, in the example i take) to quit, experiment and get early to a field where you are actually adding value as an MBA or whatever field you are into. Spending years to justify, why you are doing it makes no sense as the Prof. says. We don't have a ready reference script in our hands as Will Smith had but we need to have that strength to pursue what really makes sense of our abilities and skills, if not what we really want to do. And that I believe is the perfect recipe of being the genius, pursuing happiness and reducing the delta, the way you want it to, in your own customizable way.

Flashback

23rd November 2008

8 am, Cold Chilly Foggy Sunday Jaipur Morning 

Why did I fill this form up, just because the words " International" and "Business" on the brochure looked good | Chacha dropping me off to an old government army school, am sure he might be thinking the same | Why is this place so crowded

11 am, Army Public School, Jaipur

Scribbling on my rough papers on the rickety SMALL school bench | What? is it 1 hour  already?! How the hell is anyone supposed to solve the remaining paper in next 1 hour

22nd November 2009

5 pm, Salt Lake City, Kolkata 

The paper had sectional cut offs | Forget preparing, I should have at least read the instructions well | Why on Earth do they keep sectional cut offs |Which era does this B-school lives in | Not even checking answer key

25th November 2010

10 pm, Hyderabad

Read every possible article and discussion available on the internet about today's paper | Not bad | I am so in between the cut offs | It's going to be a tough long wait for the results

10th December 2010

10 am, NIMS Hyderabad

In between the tranquilizers and painkillers | Cranky in my hospital bed | Desperate to know the result | Hanging between the cut offs | Missed by a 1.5 | Silly Me | Sleeps back again

14th Dec 2011

1 pm, IBM Hyderabad

Results Declared | Cut Off - 44.92 | My Score - 45.49 |  I am converting it. Period

(4 years later)

14th Dec 2015

11 pm, Bangalore

Danish philosopher, Søren Kierkegaard said way back in 19th century, that life can only be understood living backwards.Steve Jobs did make the statement connect, some years back.

I could have worried about the 100s of facts around me at that time or the 1000s of people scoring better than me in the written or the fact that selection process doesn't give much weight-age to the later rounds, but then I would have choosen a parallel universe, which I don't even want to think about now ;) 

At the end it's all worth the efforts, it's a splendid maze where all the ways are beautiful in it, but you carve the way out of it which you want to and when you look back to connect the dots, it carves itself out differently and extravagantly and turns out to be the right one :)

The view

 

To live a decade in a year and a year in every moon cycle,

Of exploring genres of extreme music, people, places and careers all together

From sipping the exquisite wine around the poshest of people in that tiny shiny dress

To satiating hunger in a dhaba after trekking out of a treacherous cave in the rugged years old jeans

To searching for peace in the chaos around to creating chaos in the unexpected peace

From highs to lows and lows to highs

I hope streak of these happenings continue as I see the next year rushing to come by

Because to live a decade in a year, you live many lifetimes in a single life

Saturday Quickies

The last week had been very interesting and nostalgic. All I could think of was Mr. Sharma's sales class during my B School stint. That was the nostalgic part. Interesting part was how the things (or rather gyan, for the lack of better words),  I learnt in his class were a 180 degree opposite view of how things actually are! It broke so many of the preconceived notions away, one by one, a few short months into my new stint, that I have to blog about it like a travelogue, like here: 

• It takes you to the heart of "A Business" 
• You see where the actual talks take place, ideas are discussed and things happen live
• You live outside the computer screen not merely on the MBA styled xls/ppt
• It is one of those areas where you knowingly / unknowingly , apply the things from those big sleepy B school Classes and Case Study discussions and apply strategies from random areas
• In my 4 years of varied career roles ranging from coding mobile apps in the beginning to presenting FTE reduction gyan to executives till now, am amazed how I had never applied so much of my brain ever!
• You learn a lot about human psychology
• You unlearn a lot about communication and lack of it and forms of it
• You meet people, lots of them, different kinds, and learn a lot
• It is a world in your platter in true sense with an empty canvas on how you deal with things in your own true way
• It makes me write such blog posts even on a late Saturday evening

First of the (hopefully) many Sales Diaries to come on the way!

Evolution of The Sunday

Sunday is a species of its own kind. And how it has evolved for me. The good old days, when I awaited the Sunday Newspapers! Though thinking of those times, when in grade 5, how I actually read Times of India's Sunday Times, first thing in morning and how they have shaped my thinking can give good chills to the people around me, given the fact that the newspapers these days have themselves not evolved as per Darwin's famous stated rule. 

However, those were the golden eras of Sundays, and like childhood they too passed, as they soon turned into the savior days, when I would cover my maximum exam syllabus, as I was soon developing traits to be a successful engineer, leaving things to the last moment. 

Then came college / work and Sunday morning was the second best thing after a Friday evening. Thanks to the 2 day weekend idea of the noble souls who have given this biggest blessing to the current human kind. However, courtesy the MBA keeda! TIME and IMS Mock tests became my best Sunday friends! From running to the deserted test center in the Lakshmangarh, after having the hostel's yumm rajasthan special Sunday Idly, whose taste still gives me some serious nostalgia moments (and no Sarcasm Intended) to the no-food, run to test center Sundays during work, the Sundays finally took me to the B - School, where Sundays just disappeared for 2 years.

And let's not even get to the Sundays after MBA. As a responsible adult, they have been dedicated to the family, in some ways and other. Coming down to today, am really happy how Sundays have evolved, as I sit down to blog on My Galaxy, as it enters to the 9th year of its amazing existence in my life with this post :) Some consistent things in life do make you realize, it's all worth it and does make sense.

Firsts

Night Trekking.

Both the first of their kind!

Am not sure who can better tell the experience, the muddy torn shoes and jeans or the super achie legs the next day after the 12 hrs trip to Skandgiri.

 However the satisfaction of completing it successfully was worth the experience! :)

Finally, i get to use this cliched line ;)
So when was the last time you did something for the first time?

Happy New Yeary!

A lot happens again. I get a new laptop. I inch closer towards at least one 'Indian Institute' (Indian Institute of Foreign Trade here!) & well, a whole new though not much eventful yet important 'learning' year comes to an.

As this happens to be the 1st blog post in 2012, Happy New Year!! :D

Meanwhile, I did write an analysis @IdeasMakeMarket, about Booming Businesses for 2012 check out my article here.

C - Day Brief

Long time no see.October literally runs outta my blog post list as I gave my 4th & last attempt of CAT. I would have never given it, thanks to the almost nil amount of motivation & faith I have in the online CAT but then thank you God for the lovely friends (A Big Good Luck to them if they are reading this :)) who have more faith in you than you have yourself on your own at times! & phew had I not given it, I would have missed it coz as PC says, you may forget about your passion once & suppress it divert yourself to other things but deep down inside your heart reminds of your passion & all is not so well then.And so here it goes my experience of the C - Day copy-pasted from my debrief at PG.

CAT Centre, Date and Slot: Prometric, Hyderabad, 4th Nov, 3:15 pm

1) How many attempts you have made?
QA/DI-28 (1 last moment guess), VA/LR-29 ; OA 57

2) How was your experience of the test?
I always found the complete "online CAT" experience similar to taking a flight, right from check-in,starting the test at 3:15 & finishing exactly at 5:45 pm .But seriously a smooth experience.

3) What was the surprise element for you?
I was prepared for any changes (or surprises) in my slot even after reading the experiences of the previous slots, coz' last year I gave my test on 16th Nov, 2nd slot & there was a vast difference in difficulty level in QA even in the morning & afternoon slot which really took a toll on my final result.
& the surprise was QA again this year which was full of sitters.

4) Any tips to handle the computer based exam better?
Just make sure you don't miss out with any sitters which unlike in the paper based patterns are a little difficult to identify.

5) Your overall analysis of the exam. Toughness, new topics, sections etc.
QA as said above was full of sitters.A few hiccups in between which can be dealt with.
DI I found a set lot more calculative than the other two moderate ones.
Overall in Section 1, keep an eye on the clock!

VA was the most awaited one specially after reading the reviews here.Being prepared helped.RCs were difficult-moderate-easy I would say a mix bag.Other questions too were on the same lines.
LR totally doable.

6) Any other query or something you would like to share.
Be prepared for any changes in the difficulty levels of the sections.

Just my 2 cents.

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Hey! By the way did I tell you what I actually discovered about the so-called exam.It just re-affirmed by belief, what papa had told me long back - the longer & harder you worry about something, the more it makes you worry about it. My Post CAT partying can never match the Pre-CAT relaxers (read as - 3 movies & 2 novels at the last week of CAT! my fastest ever ;) )

The day after D Day

After the overall JEE 05 ordeal , there was just a thing I was sure of, am never gonna give another huge thing called CAT but life as usual has her own plans.Courtesy, the IT jobs which took me in with quite an ease,the danger they are posing now & the old habits die hard syndrome of 'i-like-stormy-sea'.I too unsurprisingly, got caught in this challenge & all the excitement of MOCKS & here I am with my own CAT post.
After all not everyone has it to start it all over again after accepting a defeat, just like everyone doesn't have the guts to follow their conscience in this 'big-bad-selfish-world'...err back to my original topic.

So here is what I have all about it:

My most important lesson:
Mocks are totally different & actual CAT is CAT.The pressure this name carries with it is totally not over-rated.

My First Reaction:
Maths & English, how can they be so easy, after all it is CAT, only DI was actually the CAT types..!

After Listening to a couple of friends:
Hmm..maths was tricky, but do i have the courage to find out if it actually tricked me.

Almost before sleeping:
I can't sleep without checking my score, back to work.

After initial analysis:
Woah..!! Maths Cracked(almost)..!DI screwed(mismanagement), Verbal though moderate, fingers(all possible) crossed,& who believes Coaching Institutes for the VA key, its one & only the IIMs which define the final key(too optimistic !?!)

Conclusion:
Of course am not into the big-league,still far below it but not a bad 4 month prep..(after all such posts are for self pat...ain't so?)
The season has just begun & so has the dreaded & better avoidable love affair with CAT.