Term 7 comes to an end

Today Term 7 at ISB came to an end. It seems just a few days back I used to blog about Term 1 and Term 2 and the stress busting late night parties at ISB. Well now that Term 7 is over, the campus bears a far different look. On one hand the long arduous road to this point has taken its toll on people. In addition the current economic uncertainty has played a dampener as well. So no parties tonight.

We are having placements on an ongoing basis and till most of the batch is placed, we will try to avoid large scale celebrations. Reading my own blog posts feels so nice sometimes. I can almost relive my journey through ISB. Well Term 7 brings an end to the wonderful unity of our "COBRA" quad with one of my quad mates going to Duke for an exchange program. We went out for dinner last Saturday and arranged a wonderful farewell party for him with presents and lots and lots of booze. These are times when I feel so nostalgic. This one year in our lives is going to be so cherished for the coming years. The fun, pranks, heartbreak, joy, pain, games, parties, dunkings, clubs, and overall the phenomenal environment and infrastructure at ISB. We are all going to miss it like crazy once we head out on the 5th of April.

These days with the motivation for studies waning by the day, I am averaging 2-3 movies a day. Although this does not beat my wonderful record when in US, it is pretty impressive. In spite of exams today, I managed to watch Vantage Point and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button last night. The latter is a nice movie and the concept is pretty neat. After a significant period of time, I watched a good drama. Although my heart still goes out for Slumdog Millionaire for the upcoming Oscars.

I am heading out home tomorrow morning for a well earned break of 10 days. It is going to be nice staying away from laptop screens,emails, Orkut and Facebook profiles and blogging. I hope to be able to spend some time with parents who have been patient and supportive with everything that I have gone through over the last year or so. A friend of mine called me the other day and was shocked to see so much stuff on my blog. Well, most of it is plain simple ramblings and would amount to 0 bytes when compressed. But then who would come to read my blog for intellectual enlightenment.
See you all in 10 days and take care and Happy Valentines Day in advance to all you beautiful ladies who happen to read this post(at least no harm dreaming that many of them will do).

Professional or Personal

It was a very emotional day for me at work yesterday. After slogging like anything for the last three and a half years, we had a party to celebrate the grand success of our project. A huge group of around 50 gathered to look back at the journey which was filled with innumerable challenges and had more than a fair share of difficulties and low times. But by the end of it one thing clearly emerged...we had been professional in discharging our work but we had been emotioanlly tied to the project and to one another and had crossed into the realms of personal.

We all know how cliched the word "Professional" is in a workplace. But yesterday i realized that no matter how much professionalism is important, personal touch is worth its weight in gold. Its the personal touch which keeps people from going beyond the call of duty to take up other's responsibility, to help each other in times of need and at times overlook the odd mistake understanding the circumstances they were committed. As we talked in length over drinks and then lunch, i was amazed at how much those small personal incidents are etched in everyone's minds.

The client program director delivered a very impromptu and very emotional thanking speech where she went through and thanked everyone present and singled out a few for exemplary contribution. I was singled out for having guided the client team through uncertain times and helping them through a very difficult integration initiative and for developing a innovative cost saving tool for them. Her voice broke when she said that we would all miss you....

In the evening, the client director for business and customer management came by to meet me on her way out to Canada. I have been working very closely with her for the entire duration of my stay here and we share an excellent working relationship which i would hate to call "Professional". We hugged and she cried like a child....i was so overwhelmed that i would not control my tears either. I told her that the world is a small place and we would definitely get to meet someday. People talk about fancy terms like networking and how important it is to know as many people as possible in B school. I think if you can establish that personal touch with atleast a few people i would say that its worth more that gold.

Its ironic that as we strive to be better professionally, we need to be better personally. Its that part of us that probably is very difficult to be taught or changed. Its a gift for those whom it comes naturally. I just hope that i come out of my next one year at school with a few of these wonderful personal bonds.

Nostalgia - Or lack of it

Its been 15 days since i have come back to USA after having gone back to India from the same place after three and a half years. Monterey is such a lovely place and each day of my stay here I have been fascinated by the natural beauty, the peaceful atmosphere and wonderful weather. However things this time around is quite different. I dont know what it is but something seems different now. Maybe this is due to the fact that mentally i have already dissasociated from the place. I know I am going to B school and relocating to Hyderabad for a year and I know that I have to leave this place maybe forever.

I am not all nostalgic. At times I really feel all sad about having to leave the place but that is really infrequent. Honestly I am amazed at how less bad I feel about having to leave Monterey. My stay in Monterey has been one of the best years after leaving college. I have so many fond memories, memories that will last a lifetime. I have matured in so many ways during my stay here and made lasting friendship with many. Monterey is also the place where I learnt that I could love a girl and how nice it feels to be in a relationship. So is it not strange that I dont feel as bad as I should?

The answer lies in me. I think I have an adventurous instint. People who know me probably would frown and say Debottam and Adventurous? Well I have never been the guy who escaped school to go to movies, or who bunked tution to see his girlfriend or for that matter propose to the girl I had a crush on in my adolescence. I have taken the well established route of School to Computer Science Engineering to a stable decent paying job. But I could feel that something in me which never let me be content with whatever I was or whatever I was doing. During my stay in US I have visited almost 70 percent of the national parks, enjoyed each and every moment of exploring this vast country and have travelled to new places at the slightest of excuses from meeting a friend, to enrolling in a training to attending a conference. I have driven out alone for hours on stretch and felt myself alone in the middle of nowhere.

The same has been the case with my career as well. I have been lucky to have changed roles for the better every year or so in my career. Yet there was that thing that used to poke and prod to come out of the comfort zone and try to do something different - something that i always wanted to do...I must admit that the special person I mentioned above also played her part to support this feeling and the end result? GMAT and MBA Application.

The day I got in ISB was one of the happiest in my life. I was at home, near the people I love and nothing could be more perfect that that. But this day also marked a new beginning. It showed me a new unexplored way which was inviting me to travel on it.A path that would possibly pull me away from the people whom I love the most in this world but that adventurous self in me became happy. My mind deep down is now already bracing itself for the thrilling ride to the unknown future. Today I can say with confidence that I really dont know where I see my life after five years. Where I would be staying or where I would be working or what actually I would end up working on. Call me foolish, call me crazy but I feel the fact that I dont know makes me happy. It makes me wake up each day with anticipation of nice things, of new things and not to the monotony of repetition. I could have taken the more conventional way to a happy life - working and getting settled in Kolkata near my family and friends or shifting jobs to settle somewhere in the comfort of developed nations (read US,EU or AUS) but I feel that my happiness lies in the journey to the unknown. I am sure that this journey will take me to all these places and I also know that this journey will be fulfilling. So as the time has slowly come to bid farewell to Monterey, I feel free....free fallinggggg