My new found passion - Poetry!

I had given it a shot the first time, when I was in class X... I had also won the first prize for it :) That was the end of it... never tried anything later. Today I felt like getting back this lost passion of mine.. Thanks to the "Creativity" course :) Here's my second one, that I wrote today..


As I lie down beneath the skies in solitude,
I am gazing at the stars, thinking of you
Reminiscing those wonderful moments and the passionate mood,
I wonder if you are thinking of me too…

When we met, I knew there was something about you,
I still remember that friendship, so pure and true.
Never once did I speculate, my Mr. Right, is it you?
I wonder if you are thinking of me too…

I believed our friendship held us strong and close,
That our love bound us and endlessly grew
I was glad that you were the one I chose,
Now I wonder if you are thinking of me too…

Never knew what the days ahead would bring,
I just wished and prayed it would be only you.
An everlasting bond, I was longing!
Now I’m just left wondering, if you are thinking of me too…
--Pratima

Looks like my creativity brims at 12AM in the midnight these days! :)

Christmas tree at SV1... (taken without flash)





Taken from my room window about a week back...




One more thru the window...

Hmmmm.....

Wow! This looks like a repeat telecast !! As I still hear, from my room, the very hummable number "Kya mujhe pyaar hai..." by K.K playing from the lawns here.. I think... Last night (or shud I say early morning today) when I got back from the party I told myself ... its ok to take this break once in a while.. its fine to have not studied or done anythign productive at all in a day... and not feel guilty about it!!

I thought... today I will refrain from attending the party.. its not gonna be anything different! Well.. i forgot that resolutions are always meant to be broken :) My roommie drags me to this party coz it was happenign at SV1 and she also needed a break badly as she missed the one last nite (and I made her feel a little "J"!) I thought.. again .. that I would stay there for just half an hour and get back to my project.. but well.. again.......... I can see the clock strike almost 5AM now.!!!! I must say this is one of the best parties "I" have every been to in ISB... awesome fun, great energy, cool music and full of life!!! and of course a good way to catch up and network with the alums (considering this is a 1 yr program)

I can see myself back into some grillling and grinding from tomorrow(rather today !) with all the assignments due throughout the week and the exams approaching... welll... I say to myself.. this is life.. isn't it? :)

Beginning or the end?!

Its 5.25AM and it is freakin cold out here. I didnt know hyderabad wud get so cold!! I have no idea if i shud call this the beginning or an end of my day!! The last I stayed awake so late was in Term 3 doing MADM assignment... well the reason today is different though... We have our Solstice - the annual ISB alumni meet this weekend, starting today and hence had a cool party by our alumns, including those from the founding batch.. I guess many people (including me) got stressed out after the "gyaan" session by alumns on the placement scenario and the party was a cool way to unwind and chill out..

I have no clue what my fingers are typing now..so i guess its time to hit the bed!

Cool!

A photo taken by one of my professors. I thought this is just awesome!!

Prof. Punya Mishra. Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/punyamishra

Technology Impact

Two of my classmates have created this new blog on "Impact of technology on business". There are some really interesting topics discussed and some nice gyaan to take away. Those of you who are tech savvy might want to bookmark this - "Tech-impact blog"

55 fiction

I have this course called "Creativity, Innovation and Design" which I chose this term and it seems pretty interesting. The Prof sure does make it very different than the usual boring case studies or lectures.

He made us try out this thing called "55 word fiction" in today's class. The task is to write an original story in just 55 words or less (MAX 55 words and not a single word more). It sure does seem easy but trust me I spent hours to do this!! As you go on you realize how tough it is to express an idea in just 55 words. You will also realize that you dont need too many words to create an impact in the reader's mind.

This exercise is used widely to test the creative ability and the thought process of a person.

Here's what i have... any comments? I dont know how comprehendable this is!!

We were unique and so good together. We held each other so close and thought we would never part. But now it was time to let go. We said goodbye and never did we look back. The door bell woke me up and he was calling out. I muttered “Oh God! We are still together!!”

ISB Leadership Summit

The ILS, which is ISB's flagship event was held on 2nd December and was a good learning experience, listening to the eminent leaders of the various industries. Here is the summary of the talks given by various panels.

http://www.isb.edu/campussbuzz1/ISBleadersummit2006.htmlAA

ISB celebrates its 5th anniversary

Today was the 5th anniversary celebrations of ISB and its nice to see how this school has come a long way to be what it is right now! Cheers!!

And yes..not to forget..our own ISB radio was launched today... here are some pictures of the event today

ISB radio launch video....



The ISB radio team :)



Former Dean addressing the students...

Yippeeee!!!

Well.. the post itself conveys my "hyper" excited state right now :) I have never been this excited for a loooong time now!!!!!! Reason? I got my very first chance to try out the role of an RJ on our brand new ISB radio channel which will be launched pretty soon!!! I've always wanted to try this out but never really found the right time or the opportunity but am glad today that I have done one more item on my checklist of things i wanna do in life :)

most clicked blog?!

I was just checking out the league of ISB bloggers.. which keeps track of all the bloggers at ISB, includes our alum batches too. Here is the link http://isbleague.blogsome.com/ It has a section called "most clicked blogs" and I was surprised to see mine as the 2nd most clicked in the list :) Didnt know that my blog gets so many hits! Hmmm....

Three more to go...

Here comes the customary post! Yeah you guessed it right... end of another term :) Just three more to go! I must say every term I feel that the term flew faster than the previous ones!! Days seem so short here, in the ISB world!! This term was a little different from the previous ones... our electives started and for once I loved all the subjects that I was studying! Also, we had different sections and multiple study groups.. it was fun interacting with new people. Its been 6 months and it was surprising to see that I had met only about 70% of the batch :)

Couple of days and a new term begins. Lots and lots of things to do...Its going to be the most busy and the most overloaded term of my year. I have overloaded it myself, so no one to blame!! Looking forward to it... at least i will become better at stress & time management, if not anything else :)


Just a tangential thought... found this quote somewhere...
"There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning"

Kind of describes what I am thinking right now..

The name's Bond, James Bond!!

Heres a very nice article about building brand value. It talks of how the "James Bond" brand has been leveraged and still sustaining... Though being consistent is very essential in building a brand.. retaining the relavance is more important and as the article says, this is where the brand has done very well.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/359560.cms

Grading....

(wrote this post last nite...but for some reason blogger was not allowing me to publish it)

This term all of us were supposed to grade each other's GSBC mid term papers (a new innovative idea of our prof!). So it was kind of a general agreement on campus that everone will be lenient towards each other.. (live and let live types :) ) Well all that apart... we had received the papers to be graded (mostly anonymous) about 2-3 weeks back and I knew the deadline was sometime in the first week of November to submit the graded exam paper. Thanks to my illness (I was bed-ridden for about a week and still in stages of recovering now but able to walk :-)) that I completely forgot that yesterday evening 5pm was the deadline. Today while in class, something strikes me and I suddenly remember that there was this submission around today.. here is the conversation that followed....

Me: (Out of the blue)Shit!! Isnt today the deadline for the GSBC submission??
K: (Who was reading somethign seriously) No.. that was last evening 5pm itself!!!
Me: (Really worried look not knowing what to say and thinking K is just bluffing...)
K: Seriously!
Me: (looking more worried)
K: Its ok ..dont worry... it will just take you max 1 hr to evaluate..do it after class now and submit.
A: (Who heard us and also saw me worried) Its ok man... it wont even take u 1 hr...just 15 mins or so..thats enough!
K : (A little puzzled)
Me: (A little relaxed!)
Chi: Just chill... it will take u just 2 mins to evaluate :-)
Me: (More relaxed now!!!!!!!)
but...
K: (More puzzled and hoping it wasnt his paper) Dude!! Come on! Dont tell me u evaluated the paper in just 2 mins!!
Chi: Gives a smile :-)
K: (Serious but puzzled tone) Dude! it will take u half an hour to understand the policy...another half an hour to read thru and grade the paper!! How can u decide someone's marks in just 2 mins!!!
Me: :-))))))

the class starts....

hmm...well i finally submitted the graded paper..i dont want to reveal how much time it took me though... :)

The Top Ten..

The Top 10 global brands (as of 2005)

1. Coca Cola
2. Microsoft
3. IBM
4. GE
5. Intel
6. Nokia
7. Disney
8. McDonald's
9. Toyota
10.Marlboro

More details at Business Week Top 100 .. Intel has moved from position 6 in 2004 to 5th position in 2005 :)

Why am I writing this? Well.. this term one of the electives I have chosen is "Branding" and I have just fallen in love with this subject. Just amazed as to how these brands have really established themselves to success. I have been reading a lot about it and I seem to be viewing the branding world in a totally different way!!! This means you can expect to see more posts (trivia/insights/analyses!) regarding this on my blog often :)

Today is diwali and an official "holiday" for us (thats great news coz we hardly get any days off here!). Half the people have gone home for diwali celebrations and the rest of us are celebrating here on the campus itself. Today after a long time, I get to chill out in my room, all by myself without any assignments or deadlines hanging on my head. Could get that luxurious 8-9hrs of sleep and now happily lounging, catching up with all the blog readings that I have missed over the last few weeks, browsing the net, reading some WSJ and economic times (yeah, yeah, placements are coming up!) and replying to emails...

People dont like to be led...

A very nice article on leadership and what a B-school doesnt teach you about it..

http://www.business-standard.com/strategist/storypage.php?leftnm=6&subLeft=8&chklogin=Y&autono=261124&tab=r

As the article says, its my personal belief too that leadership is a state of mind. Its the art of influencing and directing people. Its all about passion and charisma to get people to accomplish a vision. Are leaders born or made? Well.. this can always be debated. The B-schools can just give the set of tools and cognitive skills that can make you more confident to lead but not turn you into a "leader" itself.

One of the pictures that i took last year, same time..while trying to learn some photography skills :) Found while browsing thru and feeling nostalgic about the time when this was taken. Am sure someone who was present at that time while i took this, can associate with it too!!

Letting go...

To let go does not mean to stop caring,
it means I can't do it for someone else.
To let go is not to cut myself off,
it's the realization I can't control another.
To let go is not to enable,
but allow learning from natural consequences.
To let go is to admit powerlessness,
which means the outcome is not in my hands.
To let go is not to try to change or blame another,
it's to make the most of myself.
To let go is not to care for,
but to care about.
To let go is not to fix,
but to be supportive.
To let go is not to judge,
but to allow another to be a human being.
To let go is not to be in the middle arranging all the outcomes,
but to allow others to affect their destinies.
To let go is not to be protective,
it's to permit another to face reality.
To let go is not to deny,
but to accept.
To let go is not to nag, scold or argue,
but instead to search out my own shortcomings and correct them.
To let go is not to adjust everything to my desires,
but to take each day as it comes and cherish myself in it.
To let go is not to criticize or regulate anybody,
but to try to become what I dream I can be.
To let go is not to regret the past,
but to grow and live for the future.

To let go is to fear less and love more
Remember: The time to love is short.

-- author unknown

Half the journey!

It's such a relief today to finally get done with the painful exams and catch up with that ever-wanted-but-always-short-of sleep!!! This term has been the shortest of all with just 4 weeks but seemed the longest to me! (not sure about the reasons). It marks the end of our core terms..which means I am a 50% MBA now :) Half the journey is thru...and 6 more months to get to that graduation day, when I'll have another degree added to my qualification.