A day in the life of an AIMian ...

I'm taking liberty to go back in time...Dan dana... dana dan ... Flashback .....

10:00 p.m. 20th of Sep 2007...

We first yearites (or MBA-I, as we are called here in AIM) have an LOB (Language of Business) quiz at 08:00 a.m. on 21st. Because of certain issues, we have been asked not to bring our Laptops in the quiz. So everybody is running after seniors to borrow their Financial Calculator as the syllabus of quiz also covers bond amortization and annuity payment.

Now me, instead of studying LOB, I'm reading pages after pages of HP 12C Platinum Financial Calculator's User's guide, which I've bought in the evening itself. At 23:00 hrs, I decide not to challenge myself any further by trying to learn something new under extreme pressure situation, and start looking for a senior who has by now not lent his TI BAII Plus financial calculator to someone.

After coming back empty handed from a few rooms, I'd almost lost hope when out of blue, one of my senior became my saviour. He used all his resources, phone, IM, contacts etc to find one of his batchmet who had his CalC with him. Finally I'd one of the high in demand calculator in my hand at 23:25.

Now... it took me more than 30 mins and help of 02 batchmets to make me feel comfortable with using NPV, IRR and other functions of CalC. After that we (06 dorm mates) started solving 05 practice problems forwarded by one of the finance whiz. kid of our batch. When we solved all these problems we realized that its already 02:40 a.m. and once this realization dawned upon us, we also realized that we are actually very very hungry. So all six of us ran after whatever was there to eat... bread, noodles, popcorns... coffee nething and everything. Now once something went inside our stomach, re-energized, we went back to revising theory for the test.

One by one, we finally started going to bed starting from 04:30 a.m. I fnally cud sleep only after 05:30 a.m. as I gave almost half an hour more in learning to use my beloved HP 12C finanancial CalC.

Even though, I'd not slept properly in the night, my test went fine. I was able to finish my paper in 40 mins and came back to my room 20 mins earlier. I then utilized this time in trying to get prinout of my emotional literacy test result which I was required to carry with me in HBO lecture starting at 11:00. As the concerned person in library was not available, I cud take this printout only at 09:35 a.m. After this I'd to discuss the result with one of my frnd, as we were not able to do the same last night. In between I was fighting with myself to keep me awake so took a power nap of 15 mins for the duration in which my partner went down to get printout of his test result.

HBO lecture which begun at 11:00, lasted till 12:30.

Next lecture of MC was to start at 14:00. But then someone reminded that we have to do one ECO assignment too in which we were supposed to read one 14 page long case and answer 03 questions based on that. So the fight between will power to remain awake and study and to sleep started all over again and continued till I found that without doing lunch I'm in case room.

After coming back from class at 15:30 hrs, there was no time to think for nething. We just barely managed to do and submit our eco assignment hardly a min before the deadline, i.e. 17:00 hrs.

At long last I was free for some time and so started having my lunch/brunch. While I was having this, I received a call from one of my CAN group mate that other CAN group mates are waiting for me in the Zen garden as we have to go to a FIGARO Coffee parlour for getting a first hand feel of the place related with our MM (Marketing Management) project. Realizing that therz no way out as the program was fixed on monday itself, I finished my lunch and went down. I cud come back only after 19:30.

At this point of time I was feeling so very tired, sleepy and hungry and enervated at the same time. I tried to slep for some time, but soon realized that its not easy to sleep unless you have something solid in ur stomach. Whatever, I made noodles and had that.

I'd started feeling relaxed when one of my roomie reminded that we have to finish updating our Resume on the institute website at any cost during the night itself as tomorow morning same shall be cut on a CD to be sent to prospective employers. Not to forget that I'd to chat with my two younger brother, cousin sis and Wifey too. And yeah, a little bit of masti or time pass too. As it was our only way of rejuvenating ourself with the enthu to start working tirelessly again.

By the time I finished updating my resume, I realized that its already close to dawn, i.e. 04:30 a.m.

After all this, when I tried to sleep, I failed miserably. So here I'm writting all this to bore you all with this tiring and enervating experience..... :D

MBTI & Emotional Intelligence Test

After MBTI test which says that I'm an ENTP, I gave a highly spcialized Emotional Intelligence test yesterday. This test which has been developed by HBO department of Asian Institute of Management, Manila (http://www.aimeq.com) tries to measure the Emotional Intelligence of an individual. I must say the findings were startling, at least for me.

I used to think, I'm good at understanding emotional cues. Not anymore. I'll certainly try to develope this skill over period of time. Good thing that it kind of substantiated my belief that I'm highly Self Confident and believe in Collaboration :).

By the way, just came across this highly motivating status message in gtalk of one of my senior at AIM :

"Jindagi ki asli udaan abhi baaki hai,

Humaare iraadon ka imtehaan baaki hai;

Abhi to napi hai mutthi bhar zameein,

Aage khula aasman baaki hai......"

Great thought .... Loved it the first time I read it.

Apooravi.... my little angel

Phew.... I've almost forgotten when was the last time I visited my own blog. It was only when someone mentioned about it in the class today, I thought may be I should write something today.

So ... its 13th of September 2007, B'day of one of my cousin sister...Good thing that I didn't forget this and called her first thing in the morning :).
Also, my daughter, Apooravi, has become exactly 3 months old today. I've asked my wifey to send me her recent photographs. May be I'll post some of them tomorrow.
For the time being I'm posting a picture of my little angel, which my wife took and sent me a month back.

Another important thing happened today ... I received a cheque from my previous employer towards full and final settlement of my Pension and PF fund. Its a handsome amount, slightly more than what I'd expected it to be. It should be enough to take care of some of my financial worries :)

Don't feel like writing much ... may be I'm tired. After all this third LOB quiz and CP pressure has robbed me of a sound sleep since what seems like ages.

GAIL - Parting letter

First Job, Getting married, Buying first car and Becoming father ... these are certainly some of the most joyous moments in anybody's life. In my case, I shared all these happy moments with my colleagues from GAIL. These wonderful friend of mine certainly deserved a better parting letter from my side but I could manage only what follows in the next paragraph. I believe to some extent it does reflect the true place for GAILians in my heart.

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"It feels as if it was only yesterday when on the fateful day of Monday the 1st of July 2002, I’d joined GAIL (I) Ltd at Noida as GET(E&C). Five years latter, I believe that my association with GAIL has channeled the exuberance and enthusiasm of a young & fresh out of college student to somewhat responsible professional which I think I’m today.

In the hindsight, when I reflect upon the time that I’ve spent in GAIL, I find that there are mostly happy memories. I consider myself fortunate that I always got supportive bosses who encouraged learning and gave freedom to experiment and grow. I got wonderful friends like you.

However, I also believe in a line from movie Black, “Life is like an Ice-cream, enjoy it before it melts” and that there is life beyond what I’m doing here in GAIL.
With this in mind, now after spending exactly five years in this wonderful organization, I’ve decided to take a break from 09:15 a.m. to 05:45 p.m. work life and become a student again. For the next 16 months, I shall be challenging myself with new goal of sailing through the academic rigors of 16 months full time MBA degree from ASIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT, MANILA.

Working in GAIL, and having the opportunity to meet you is an experience, I’ll cherish throughout my life.

Again, with all these technical advancements, this world is becoming smaller with each passing day, which forces me to believe that “Kahin kisi roz, kisi na kisi mod pe, ham fir milenge jaroor”.

Till then, adios."
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GAIL (INDIA) LIMITED

I should have written this post exactly a month back, when I'd resigned from GAIL after completing exactly five years of service, but my procrastinating nature is to blame that I'm writting it today. Never mind even if I'm late, the organization I worked with for 5 years must find a mention on my blog.

Though I do believe in the saying, "Whatever god does, he does it for good" I find it very hard to understand what was so good about graduating from IITG in the year 2002. May be I'll discover it in the years to come!

2002 was the year when dotcom bubble burst was affecting the placement scene at IITs and other colleges of India.

Our seniors used to have the luxury of choosing best role and profile amongst the multiple job offers, but class of 2002 was finding it tough to get even a single job. Already two months had passed since placement exercise had begun, and I was still jobless. The list of companies yet to visit our insti for placements was going down very fast and with this my fear of walking out from IIT without a job was mounting. I was simply not ready for this ignominious situation.

And then one evening I heard that ECE and CSE students are invited to attend PPT (Pre Placement Talk) by GAIL. This was the first time that I heard this word, "GAIL" which became my identity for the next five years.

Never ever, not even in my worst dreams I'd thought that I'll work for a PSU, but then there are many other things which I'd never envisaged but they happened.

GAIL (I) Limted or Gas Authority of India Limited (http://gailonline.com/) , as it was known in the year 2002 is one of the most efficiently managed Public Sector Enterprise of Govt of india. As the name suggest, till sometime back it used to had the authority vested in it by Govt of India for exclusive Natural Gas marketting in India which was its main source of Revenue. However during past few years, it has diversified into the realm of Petrochemicals production, LPG production and transportation, Oil & Gas exploration, Consultancy and Telecom. I was recruited for its Telecom Subsidiary GAILTEL whose area of operation is bandwidth marketting.

During my stay in GAIL, I saw the business of GAILTE increasing from the initial level of a meagre STM-1 and a single customer base Bharti to present level of 5000 E1s and a customer base of more than 50 mobile operators, Pvt companies and ISPs.

Life at AIM

When I'd came here on 20th, all the seniors were unanimous in saying that, "get ready to experience the kind of sloging and grinding, you have not experienced till date" and I was like What a big deal ... I've already passed the test of 2nd/3rd year pressure cooker situation at IIT and now am ready to face anything.

Alas I was wrong.

My classes were scheduled to begin on 23rd.

Seeing that many of my fellow first yearites have already started reading last chapter of book that we got at the time of registration, I realized that I've been robbed of all the options but to study. That night I probably slept for 4 hrs.

A day latter, it was the turn of reading and problem assinments which didn't allow me more than 3 hrs of sleep. And then yesterday I could manage hardly 2.

Probably it has something to do with the fact that its been almost 5 years now when I'd last lived a student life but I'm sure finding it difficult to cope with the pressure. Now what am I supposed to do today?? Even If I don' sleep tonight as I've to read more than 100 pages of theory and have to solve many problems alongwith submitting an assignment what will I do tomorow then?? As therz going to be a quiz on day after tomorrow!!!

The best part is that its only PRE MBA so these days we are having two lectures only, accounting and quants. Which makes life a bit easier as I can devote all my time for accounts. What shall I be doing when actual MBA classes will start and I shall have to read more than 3 cases a day along with the related chapors from the book???

Life at AIM is certainly not going to be easy.

This is to announce that I've become proud father of a beautiful baby girl....

Although the expected date of delivery of my child was 23rd of June, during my last visit (on 5th of June) doctor had said that now the baby can arrive any day. So I took a long leave from office and was with my wife in Jaipur. As everything seemed to be normal, on 11th I went back and joined office on 12th. However, it proved to be a wrong decision as in the evening I received a phone call from my father-in-law that they have admitted my wife to hospital as she was experiencing labour pain and doctors are saying that baby can arrive anytime during the night.

She finally came at 02:32 a.m. on 13th of June while I was packing for my journey back to Jaipur from Vijaipur.

From railway station I went directly to hospital but could see my daughter only after 02:00 p.m. She is under specialist's supervision (in ICU) and hence doctor's did not allow me to hold her in my hand, in fact I could only see her from a distance for a few seconds only. But those few seconds are something I will cherish throughout my life. In those seconds I'd seen a small, fragile looking almost pink in colour small baby girl, who would look up to me for all her needs and want and get inspiration and strength from my success. Who would one day call me "Papa".

Thank you my dear wife for promoting me to next level of hierarchy in life.