2008 - The Year that was....

2008 probably has been the most happening year for me ever in life. I know it sounds hackneyed but its true...a real roller coaster...So here is looking back at the year gone by for me

1st Jan 08 - It was not a great start to the year for personal reasons... Things happened and lots of "rona dhona" and lots of emotions. But in spite of everything, it probably will be a day I will never forget in my entire life.

5th Jan 08 - I had to fly back to the US to take care of the assignment so that I could make a smooth exit of the project and then the company.

25th Jan 08 - Went on a 4 day road trip of Death Valley National Park. Enjoyed to the fullest but felt a bit sad as I would miss these trips after moving back to India. The drive into the Park, negotiating the great Panamint Ranges at 1 AM at night through a deserted road and then stopping in the moon light with the Panamint Valley bathed in moonlight in front was an ethereal experience.

6th February 08- The last day at work in US. It was really emotional since the place (Monterey) and the people had become a part of me. Lots of memories...I did not know how to react when my client director break into tears while saying Goodbye... :(

8th April 08- Last day at TCS. I did noty realize but on my home it struck me finally. I was out of work for the first time in 5.5 years.

12th April 08- Join ISB and life never was the same anymore.

18th June 08- Got elected as President of Business Technology club at ISB and life at ISB changed again. But it was something I really wanted to do and have enjoyed it.

6th October 08- Flew back home and spent the first pujo at home since 2003. It was really nice and met a lot of school friends at our favourite hangout in Durgapur.

25th November 08- A sense of Deja Vu...Spent most of the day interviewing 3 rounds with Google. Brought back memories of 2002 when I went through the whole day interviewing with TCS. The results unfortunately did not keep up with the similarity.

26th November 08- Shocked like the entire country with the dastardly Mumbai attacks. Watched events unfold on TV I could not believe I was watching. A close friend escaped unhurt from the incident by Grace of God.

19th December 08- Everything went for a toss...A case of so near yet so far...It was so close to my personal life getting settled. Yet as fate would have it, things went south. The incident has left a scar and shook my belief on people.

31st December 08- Remember last year....Every moment of that day in 2007... Wish I could play back 2008 again. I just want to make things right. Well not to be...

So here is hoping that 2009 brings more peace, prosperity and more importantly Happiness in all our lives...Cheers everyone!!!!

Ghajini - "Victory" in Tamil

It has been a crazy crazy last 2 days. One mistake of taking a hardcore subject of CCMA and I am paying the price through a take home test. Just for example, I slogged for 14 hours at a trot to complete only half of the examination. Anyways the second half remains and I need to finish it somehow by tomorrow evening.

You might be asking why the hell do you need sweat it out in the lovely extended break between Christmas and New Year. Well the reason is at ISB there is no such thing as break. With exams on Sunday and Wednesday (31st) and a submission due on 4th January, ISB has ensured that we are pretty much tied up in our quads. Nothing has fundamentally changed since the earlier terms. If you happen to take the wrong electives (read the ones with higher volume of coursework) then it is as hectic if not more than core terms.

And so it goes. Christmas has never been so dull. The only high point being forced to watch a Hindi movie Ghajini. The new movie featuring Amir is all set to be the biggest hit of 2008. So how is the movie? Its a very "Tamil" flick, if you know what I mean. The movie, a remake of a 2005 Tamil hit by the same name, is loosely inspired by Chritopher Nolan's directed movie "Memento". However thankfully this movie is just inspired and is totally Indian and much less complicated than its Hollywood version. Amir is good as usual and so is the villain. Asin, the lead actress in the movie is really pretty and did justice to her part in the movie. The movie weaves the nice, soothing romantic love story in the middle of the violent gory revenge action theme. The nice gestures of selflessness in love in the movie are very touching. One has to stop and think whether such selfless and pure love is now restricted to the silver screen and gets polluted once it sets foot in this big bad world. The cinematography is fantastic and so is the editing. Although the movie has several logical flaws, it keeps you at the edge of you seat for the entire 3+ hours. So all in all money worth.

So here is me signing off with a couple of nice songs from Ghajini...AR Rahman is GOD....Listen On

Song 1.Guzarish..
Song 2.Kaise Mujhe..

Escalation of Commitment

It is true that once someone does an MBA their language alters dramatically. Many of the things that he/she knew or assumed common sense now have new terminology and most of the times, these terminologies are even more daunting. But no matter how much this causes irritation and annoyance to people not accustomed to this lingo, it is really fun to use them appropriately.

Of the zillions of such terms, one which comes to mind is "Escalation of Commitment" or "Sunk Cost Fallacy". I guess by now you have no clue of what they mean. This means the phenomenon where people justify increased investment in a decision, based on the cumulative prior investment, despite new evidence suggesting that the decision was probably wrong. So what essentially happens, people repeatedly get evidence that something is terribly wrong but keep on believing that things will somehow work out and needs some more patience or some further effort. They fail to realize that no matter what is done its a lost cause and so better to just quit.

This phenomena can be seen in business, government, project management and gambling. It can also render itself in our day to day life where we are so attached to a decision emotionally that you think that more effort and time will make things better. And it takes something drastic to realize all of this and understand that you yourself fell into the sunk cost fallacy and never realized. All I can tell you is that it is not easy psychologically to recover from it and even if you do a part of you still tries to think what you could have done differently to make the effort a success...You wish you could go back in time and fix it up....Our minds!!!