The Break and After

I finally got some traveling done out here. In the past I have tended to prioritise other activities, such as coursework, job hunting a lot higher than just easing back, taking a break from the academic year and just looking around but this past period was a little too stressful and therefore two trips have been made in the last 10 days though both have been within the confines of France.

Still, Annecy is a quaint little village on the Swiss border (30min from Geneva) and Brittany is a coastal town about a 6 hour drive away from Fontainebleau. Having company on travels is always pleasant and having had Gayatri, Nicolas and Florence with me on trip1 and 18 other batchmates and partners with me on trip2, it has been a tremendous past 10 days.

Photos follow... but just 5 this time.

During the break I also managed to shift apartment and attend three job interviews, but that will have to be a topic for another post.

Update: Can't get the bloody photos to upload. Can't imagine what the problem is...











Update2: Photo-upload works again. Hooray.
Update3: and video upload works too...

This is what happens when a bunch of b-school students invade a quiet little carousel in Brittany.

More B-School Poetry

Time sure goes fast. Only another two months remain in the MBA programme. Another period has ended and that means it is time for another poem.
Each end-of-period poem usually has a theme to it. This one is about the job search.
Without further ado, here it is.


Discussing P4's Big Question

When the days get short and the nights get cold
Will you wonder about what's in store?
Will you turn on the heater, huddle in the sheets
Will you reflect upon P4?

Bear with me while I ruminate
Give me some moments of your time
While I follow my regular end-of-P tradition
And sum up the P in rhyme

A major question has arisen this P
It has spread, yes, it surrounds
Without the answer, without a way out
We seem to simply run aground

Classes seem incidental, a matter of course
There's only one thing that we see
And when we greet old long lost friends
We ask them, 'Got a j-o-b?'

Tension has a death grip upon our mind
'Wasn't b-school supposed to be fun?'
And when we get a 2nd round interview call
We anxiously wonder, 'Is this the ONE?'

Do you even notice rare days of glorious sun?
Did you realize that 8 weeks have slipped by?
Do you understand that you can't have all
This time back even if you try?

At the end of the year what will you remember?
Will it be the good moments of the year?
Or will be it the moments of desperate search
Or an interview eve spent in fear?

Will you remember your time spent with friends?
Or your moments in the pack?
Or will you think about the rejection letters
From Bain or from big McK?

Do you think that's a true measure of your worth?
Is that what really counts?
Will a pay hike then cause an increase
In your worth's amounts?

When someone asks you, "How was b-school?"
Just what will you say?
Will you say, "Oh. Yeah. It was really great.
My job pays 100K."?

A job is certainly really important
You may have to pay off a loan
But you can only control some circumstances
And have to leave others on their own

You may have had an initial vision
Getting a job of which you dream
Gaining riches unprecedented
Achievements on your own steam

Will you remember that dreams are important?
Can you, with bumps in the road, still believe?
That Dreams are present to make it even sweeter
When it is that you achieve

Can you keep the faith, draw support from friends?
If you don't have a job, can you smile?
Atleast on weekends can you let stress dissipate
And just relax for a little while?

This is a network that will last you years
So treasure the moments, the small happenings
Try to dismiss disappointments with a round of beer
And thus, with friends, celebrate your 'dings'

Celebrate also others' job successes
Make sure you wish them well
The weather changes so quickly here
That you'll soon see your own sunny spell

What about you who already have a job?
What do you feel, on the whole?
Are you glad to be out of this stressful rat race?
And do relief waves flood your soul?

Feel no guilt in the fact that your job hunt is done
You deserve your every success
Just bcos there are others who are still in the hunt
Doesn't make your success any less

After all we're a gang who is in it together
We're part of one disparate group
There's no way that a chaotic recruiting season
Could cause dissention within the troupe

There is often genuine pleasure in another's success
It feels like victory in a mini-war
And for perspective when a stubborn recruiter rejects
Isn't that what this great gang is for?

So remember the parties, the times of fun
Don't hold on to moments of pain
Write a journal, at the least take photographs
This will soon be your memory lane

Recall P1s stumbling through welcome week
Or P2 when we hardly slept a wink
There's so much of P3 that you'll recall
If you just stop to think

Run your fingers over your class photographs
Recall the details of these days
If you had to remember your b-school life
Shouldn't this be the appropriate way?

To those of us leaving Fonty's borders
I bid you a thunderous 'bye'
And wish you safe passage with a sailor's toast
'May you always see clear blue sky'

To all of you, I wish you all possible luck
May you have endless heart to strive
And may the force be always with you
In these, the glorious days of our lives

Of Metamorphoses and the Job Search

Another post of observations. One would think, going by my posts, that an MBA is rarely about action but I'm a young guy with much to learn and a whole bunch of what I'm getting out of this year is simply by observing, studying others and just seeing how various people react to different situations.

It isn't a stretch to say that different people react differently to different situations but having that difference so clearly illustrated by observable actions, enhances the impact of the observation.

Job search at my b-school is an incredibly tough, stressful time. Statistics indicate that 75% of people find a job upto within 3 months of finishing the program through campus placements and other allied services. Nobody wants to be in that other 25%. It is a time of intense competition, rivalries, perceived face-offs and one-upmanship.

It is also a time of inflated egos when a single rejection can cause people to denounce humankind and question the intelligence and abilities of others, especially those who've been selected. It is a time when egos can be massaged with the poor performance of others and satisfaction derived from others' pitfalls. It is a time when innocent questions come fully-loaded and hidden meanings are inferred from simple answers.

It is a time when people have to make a decision to either focus solely on the job search and well, self-interests or to chip in with group assignments and coursework and do as much of both as is humanly possibly until the sleep deprivation proves to be too much. It is a time when free-riders roam free.
It is a time that not everyone deals with well.
It is also therefore a time where you know who the really great and genuine people are and your appreciation for these people increases multi-fold.

There is a question at the end of this.
What tells us more about someone's personality? Reactions during stress, trouble and adverse situations or those on a normal day when there is far less at stake?
Do intense moments bring out true personalities or the worst in people?
Should some people be reassessed and their actions examined in a different light?

I'm not sure. What does it mean when some people seem to metamorphize overnight, however temporarily? Is this the 'changing' part of the Life-Changing aspect of an MBA?

I'm not sure what the answer is. I'm not sure if there is just one answer.
However I'm observing and I'm recording.
And yes, I'm definitely learning.

I recommend...

That you watch 'Omkara'.


The movie is really good and the acting, Saif in particular being bloody brilliant, is excellent.
I won't review the film in detail since there are far superior reviews out there, like this one.

However, I will say that the UP(?) dialect of Hindi had me groping on occasion and though I always got the gist of what people were saying, I would certainly had enjoyed it more had I understood exactly what each dialogue snippet meant.

Secondly, the supporting characters performed much better than the leads with Saif and Konkona Sen Sharma stealing the movie from under the leads' noses. You end up investing less in the main drama playing out in the movie when the supporting characters hook you more. If Bhardwaj is the kind of director it takes to have Saif performing like this, man, lets have more of him.

Thirdly (and this may link to my first gripe) I didn't follow some of the motivations behind the initial theft of the cummerbund that forms an essential part of the movie. I didn't quite get why Langda Tyagi's wife helps out in that regard.
Was it explained in the scene after? Was it not?

All things considered, just go see the film. See it twice. Take your friends. Even the music, which is wonderful, is so entrenched in the movie (except for one song, 'Namak') and the atmosphere that you don't feel the running length, don't look at your watch or wish for a remote control with a fast forward button.

Random Sights, Sound Bytes

This is going to be a crazy few days. Have a couple of interviews coming up.
It just seems like the entire MBA thus far has been a dress rehearsal, a dry run, a light scrimmage, a warm-up game, a shadow box for the events of the week.

Interviews coming up within the next few days for a Marketing position, based in Asia, for an International Bank and a UK based position for a top Consulting firm. This, as they say, is what its all about.
Seems strange that despite all the fun, work and 'education' of the last 10 months, if I don't end up with a job, it'd all seem pointless, which is far from the truth.

The last 10 months have been some of the most memorable of my life and I shouldn't let the job search affect me so much. In truth though, the prospect of being jobless post-December is a little too daunting to comprehend and contemplate at this point. Maybe if I don't think about it, the possibility will just go away, like Boogeymen in Calvin's mind and sunshine in Fontainebleau.

Its getting very cold very quick here and today I inaugurated the heavy artillery winter clothing. For a while I thought I looked like I'd be more at home in a Siberian Dacha but then came across a few locals similarly attired and instantly felt warmer.
Now that I'm onto fashion trends, I definitely need to know what the deal is with all these women wearing shin-length boots? Methinks its the latest fashion trend. Practically every woman on campus is wearing 'em though some wear them tucked inside their pants / jeans. Strange.

Speaking of Consultants, they're all over town, with all hotels completely booked up this recruiting season. There's a spate of interviews scheduled for the remainder of the month and most of the suit attired people you see walking the streets turn out to be prospective interviewers.

I passed a bunch of these people, walking in twos, as I walked past them on my way home last night. Caught snatches of conversation which included, "Round table conference", "We had to fire all of our people", "Recruiting for the London Office", "late for the client meeting". Seemed like they were returning back to their hotel after dinner and I couldn't believe that even a single group wasn't talking shop.
I think that's a sign.

From now on its no-nonsense, pure-business.
Wasted enough time. End of post.

Ricky Fitts' Dilemna

Sometimes there's so much beauty in the world, I feel like I can't take it, like my heart is going to cave in.

Its been a while since I've been overwhelmed by the physical beauty of a city. Normally what hits me about a city is how convenient it is to live there or how great or crap the weather is or how many grocery stores and movie theatres I'd find in a 5 mile radius of where I stay.
Paris is... different.

Its rare that I can walk around in a city, turn a corner and say "Whoa. So here it is."
Last Thursday I was in Paris to get my UK Visa from their embassy and found myself with about about an hour to kill. I found myself in Madeleine, aimlessly wandering around, walking the streets.

Within 20 minutes of walking around, I had found L'Eglise de la Madeleine, the Headquarters of the FIA in the Place da la Concorde, Cleopatra's Needle, my first view along the Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe, Jardins des Tuileries and at the end of which is the Musée du Louvre.
Omnipresent throughout was the towering La Tour Eiffel.

I could have honestly walked around there forever but the shock of seeing so many recognizable symbols in such a short time was a little overwhelming. I wandered about with dropped jaw for quite a while.
That walk... it was something else.

To capture the magic of that little interlude, this blog is a rather poor excuse but like Ricky Fitts in this movie, I need to remember.

Finally, pictures of Home

After several requests, I have finally taken pictures of my IKEA upholstered home.
I wish I'd taken these photos earlier. I've been living there a little over a month and the place is considerably dirtier than when I first moved in.
Nevertheless, here it is... for better or worse.


The front gate from inside



From the gate to the front door



The kitchenette, as soon as you enter on the right



Straight ahead, the miniature tv, wall hangings and table top vases all IKEA


And that's my room with the pigeonhole storage space, which I quite like


My bed, which at the best of times is a mess



The rectangular bathroom. Remember to walk in sideways



The window facing the front gate and the street



Finally, a photo of my bike