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World of Abhijeet AwasthiAbhijeet Awasthi is a passionate being , be part of his journey in quest of mood and money February 08 Things getting clearerNow finally things are getting clearer ... Finally after lot of deliberations I m goin' to take finance as my specialization , there was no doubt right from the start neways bt u see the mind is fickle :) so wht are the things i m interested in : Corporate Finance I suppose, Investment Banking is a close second but then these are on the wishlists of every one here. IB is more glamorous but CorpFin is more satisfying but both are stimulating at the same time. I really dont mind wasting sm of my initial time doing hardcore analytics . Applying all the models and theories. Building basics is necessary :). What about other options ??? Marketing seems to me a gas balloon..... everything chalta hai , can prove nething by saying consumer wants this .Fin has concreteness abt it , u get tangible results and you dont have the liberty of being right all the time. January 28 Nothing much to do today :-)I am back after a quick trip to home... there are some problems there which I hope will get resolve in near future. Well hope is the only thing which keeps u goin in the testing times , I hope therfore I will .... Coming back to hostel is like a retreat from all those outside tensions , being cocoooned , that is a great feeling I tell u. So wht do i do today as I am free. REad newspapers ... perhaps bt then i m not feeling like it. REad a book ... perhaps bt no fun in them too So go to blog n share things with frends , that's cool n doable too. Apart frm home one more thing which is lurkin in mind right now is the TRIP to LADAKKH. As the feb will come to a close excitement is sure to rise after all u dont go to ladakkh every day:) well on a personal front i m not those adventure types bt i do like to experiment. One more thing which i want to write is that wenever i m bloggin i get a sense of deja' vu. Why i dont know may b in teh previous lifes also i wrote blogs ( given my age that's quite impossible though) So signing off right now on a ladakkh note ie a high note :) Abhijeet.... seeya we shud keep meeting what say January 01 New YearLot of time has passed since I last wrote something on this blog, really lot of time. I vow to be regular going forward. But the reasons were simply beyond my control. A strenous killing schedule and my energies being diverted to writing the official SP blog were the primary reasons. So 2006 has come to an end, an eventful year in every right. I reached an MBA school , the calling came true. My insecurities and ignorance was exposed !!! and I came out tougher to deal with all of it. The last day of the year being a holiday I spent it doing the stuff which I enjoy the most that is reading n watching movie. I m reading right now a book named Liar's Poker which is abt the life of investment bankers and takes a dig at them. Then i spent time completing one business plan. Around 7 pm I started for the eventful night ahead. I have just returned from the New Year's party and what a party it was ... but there is no reprieve forthcoming tomorrow is a day full of classes. Markstrat game classes in which the profs will try to teach us unsuccessfully the nitty grittys of marketing and I will sleep as usual. About the party tonite . It was a really great experience. Before the party we went to a concert in Andheri Sports Complex, watched Priyanka Chopra and Shahid Kapoor perform. In short thoroughly enjoyed. After that came back to a dance party in our beloved Bistro but my mind as usual went on to the philosophical moorings of life. Why am I here and what will happen next , these are few questions which I generally find very good . In the long run only if u r doing a job which is according to ur liking n u marry a girl of ur liking u will b happy . These two bcoz they form the foundation of every other decision of urs. I also thought abt the kind of bonds i am makin here, how sustainable these relationships will be. The answer to this is that I really doubt that these will b very sustainable. Once u r out of sight u r out of mind no rocket science in that but no mourning the rules of life . Positive side is the quality time we all spent together, livin in the moment that's the mantra. The New Year has started n new resolutions are to b taken. My vow is to get rid of my time mismanagement habits. Let's see how successful I get but this is a wish n a vow at the same time. October 17 First break : time to regroup Part 2So what all were the important subjects I learnt ...
Quantitative methods : a course on statistical techniques
Financial mgmt: how to read balance sheet and how to analyse company statements. From where in the markets can company source the funds needed to run the business? and how it plans to repay them ?
How to ascertain that the company is making sound investments decisions? and a lil bit of consulting i.e. making people think that they have a problem and in ways to resolve those problems.
MacroEco: A dicey issue .... but in these months I have learnt to cope up with it.
Digressing a bit , just yesterday I was going through the top B school rankings for india. SP was 8th but was pretty low on intellectual capacity. This made me wonder how this dismal state can be changed? I propose we should start or launch a site known as SPINFOLINE. Here we should upload all the papers which have been submitted to the faculties. Regular updation with the help of faculty remarks and the consequent batches taking them as a research base can add to them. This will ensure that we have some genuine research output in few years time.
Collaborate to dominate: Collaboration is new mantra. One cant go alone if he doesnt believe in collaboration and coordination. First break : time to regroup part1Ohh god 4 months have passed ... and i hv become 1/6 th of MBA grad.
And all this without m knowing anything , journey these four months have been like running from here to there and there to here ...
So what have been the achievements? academically nothing it seems , i have been hovering in the last 20's consistently , many tried to match my consistency but they were no good. They got marks somewhere and had to concede defeat.
So now do i know that what this MBA education is all about ??? what those numbers quoted as salary figures really signify? Is this overhyped over sensationalized thing worth investing ur time and money?
The answers to these questions have become pretty clear in these months and i will say that this clarity is also because of the two years which i spent in HSBC prior to college.
So before answering these questions one more important question comes to my mind which is : what will you call a successful life? this is because your every successive step will be graded based on that answer. If you really value money and will say that nothing else motivates me than MBA is preferrrably not the place for you. Dont get fooled by the astronomical sums which newspapers quote, be realistic. Those fools dont even know what things they are talking about. So money shouldnt be the reason.
For me its love of knowledge. It was the joy of doing something which was new , which was meaningful. Being somebody important rather than a piece in an eternal chain. If you r like me then MBA is for you. Enough of boasting lets keep it for sometime later. September 03 An average person's guide to crack CATToday sitting comfortably in my hostel room with my back saddled in a cushioned chair I want to open some secrets.
What are those secrets and are they related or detrimental to my position right now. Are they confessional in nature or they will unveil somebody else's dirty secrets.
No they are nothing like that , simple and purely reflectional in nature these accounts dont hurt anybody. By these accounts I want to help some hapless souls who are toiling day and night these days. So what I want to tell? I want to accept that even though sitting pretty in one of the best B School's in India, I am a pretty average person that too when you stretch the definition of average extensively on the lower side.
So what is the message.... if I can do it then you also can.
Lets talk of all the things which are common for all of us and happen to all of us during preperation for CAT( nebody denying them is telling a lie.. be assured of that).
Anxious , desperate nights, bouts of self disbelief, thoughts of leaving it all and running away , these all are same for us. So what makes the difference. Let's see... September has just started and keeping the dirty brouhaha over the reservations aside world is more or less the same. Third sunday of november is still the D Day. I guess lots of things will be made or broken during these 2 months as they are most crucial in terms of preperation.So how to utilize them most effectively.
1) Prepare a schedule and stick to it come what may. OK ok you have heard it lots of time, nothing new in it. Remember in life, the most hazardous habit is doing things at the spur of the moment without giving them proper thought. If you study in discontinous manner, regularly on and off, it is surely bound to hurt. CAT is not only test of your knowledge it also tests your sincerity. So follow the schedule religiously. Office outing can wait, midnight strolls with girlfriend can also wait for these 2 months.
2)Cover your weakness, play on your strength. Oft repeated but difficult to follow advice. CAT requires you to show your competency across all the sections so you cant afford to leave any topic entirely. Going by the last year's experience the choices in terms of chosing questions is getting restricted. Have a dispassionate and rational estimate of your strengths and weaknesses and decide accordingly. Remember everyone is going through the same emotions ,so never lose heart. Just be organised, it will help you even more when you are in the college.
3)Dont give extra importance to the SIM CAT's rankings. I realize people will tell you that the ranks in the test actually translate into calls. But this is an event which can happen or not happen with equal probability. So till the last day try to learn the maximum out of each test. Take them in proper manner , extensively exhaustively analyse them.This is very very important.
4)Read a lot. You will say we know that. Ok boss but reading pertinent and pointed stuff is very important. Dont bog down yourself with too much information. Daily dose of HINDU and ET will suffice , give them at the max one and half hours daily. Write what you dont understand and revisit them periodically.
5)Be cool dont treat it as a matter of life and death. Remember life is long and beautiful, an exam cant decide about your worth in the world. CAT is just an important event meant to be treated with sincerity and honesty. I can assure you that honesty pays.
We see that everything boils down in the end to being honest about your efforts. Easy to say but difficult to follow. I remember when last year one of my seniors gave me these words of wisdom which sailed me through.
Enough of preaching .... I cant sit at a place for so long. So bye for now.
MunichSteven Spielberg ......
Sometimes down the future people will like to remember these times as the time when Speilberg was making movies. He never disappoints and comes back to you everytime more potent than ever.
Munich a movie made on the backdrop of killing of Israeli athletes in munich olympic village in 1972. But that incident and the incidents thereafter are just the facade. Spielberg thought goes much beyond that. He explores and questions the basic human behavior and then without passing a judgement on right and wrong lets the audiences intellect to decide and derive the meaning.
Movie traces the story Eric Bana playing the undercover operative of Mossad. He with the team of five men is assigned a job of exterminating the key people of Black September group. They perform their jobs effciently but slowly and slowly become aware of the fruitlessness of the whole exercise. The movie captures the human emotions of anguish and despair poignantly and thrives on the dilemma of the protagonist.
In the end a thoroughly captivating experience, 2 hrs worth investing.
Highly recommended. |
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