Notes to myself

Been a while, no? Things have either been too stressful or too light for me to write. More of the former than the latter. Gave final CB quiz(zes) today. Five quizzes and I don't miss a single one. Two quizzes in StratMgt and I miss both. Bad luck hi kharab hai. Or maybe I have this conscious-sub-conscious hatred towards StratMgt, that I completely ignore any information related to the subject. Ditto ERC. Ugh. Finished final class of ERC today too. Gave presentation and as usual, Mr.Inhale-Exhale was looking elsewhere. I just can't get why they don't remove him from the faculty -
a) There's no one else and they need a figurehead
b) He has some dangerous contacts way up there

It's good he called those people from SAP, otherwise we'd have had to bear with this torturous, completely meaningless sessions for 30 hours. Except for the VP and his immediate junior who gave a decent overview of the whole system and actually talked business, the rest of the course has been completely useless. Combine that textbook with my SAPM and CMIB textbooks and you have three books that haven't been touched by the indiscriminate defiling point of my highlighter.

Been reading Snapshots from Hell lately. I never wanted to read it because of all the hype and because I have some grudge against MBA books, you know, the ones that everyone has read - Lee Iacocca's autobiography, The World is Flat (after I'd read the hilarious review that one critic wrote, I never wanted to touch it. In spite of the fact that it's been touted at least once every term), some Drucker book blah blah. I love this book though. Probably because in spite of my great engineering background, I'm a 'poet'. I'm more interested in the ideas than the math. Mathematical abstraction is something my brain refuses to deal with coherently. There I am thinking about x{x|x is an abstract topic}, then I start thinking that I'm thinking about x, then I realize I should stop thinking about x and then I think that I'm thinking that I should stop thinking about x. And then after chasing its tail for the past few minutes, my brain says - enough is enough. THINK. I shake my head and start again. Sounds stupid? Hilarious? It happens!

And while I couldn't (and still can't) figure out what I'm going to do with my MBA, I do know this - my knowledge horizon has expanded - humongously compared to a year ago. Sometimes when I'm reading about this latest business happening, I stop and think to myself - I am aware of this. I know what this is. It feels good! The other day when four of us teamed up to work on a project and I realized that I was actually using things I'd learnt in my summer internship, I was delighted. I'd never felt so useful in my life! Just that one day where schol hadn't come to office and the Corporate Fin team wanted a valuation done in - TWO HOURS. With hardly any historical data. No real peer comparable companies either. And bossman came, set up shop in the cubicle beside me. It was like setting up a mini workshop - me, bossman and Sujeev. I made some really dumb, mechanical mistakes that day. If they don't give me a PPI I'll know it was probably cause of that day. Nevertheless, at the end of that day - there was a feeling of exhilaration, of having done something - quickly and to the best of our ability. And the other day, when I was able to remember all that and do it, it felt great. Of course there was a model, so there wasn't much thinking on my part, but making all those assumptions and then finally reaching a value that seemed right - it felt awesome. Some threatening doubts still loomed and the fact that I didn't know what to do after my part was done was very unfulfilling. That's what I think the problem is here - I can do the small, little calculations that make the base, but do I know the big picture? No, not always. But exposure like this should help, and it will I hope.

Twas N's b'day on Monday. Got her a Murakami among other littlebittles. Went to the nice, golden glow place where Ramshi imitated each of us giving orders at the canteen :D Was very funny. Lots of lovely pictures shot. Subdued lighting greatly turns on the photographer in me. Wish I had a better camera.

PB's gone to the US. Everyone's going somewhere :( Finally though, I will too. Shall add Sri Lanka to my list of countries visited(5)! Of course, half of those 6 will have been only airports :D But good, something to look forward to.

The past few days have been full of sad news. Batchmate's dad passed away while on campus. Lots of people knew the two who drowned at Indore. And then stuff closer home. Also, rebellious mail sent to parents yest. has not been replied to yet. Isskary.

I have 7 hours of classes today :'(. Hwaaaaaaaaaa!
Okay, goonayits.
Sloopytime.