Wow...this is awesome, I have seen Coach K in action at the NCAA games but never knew that he also coached the US "Dream team" and got it the gold medal at the Beijing Olympics. Iam amazed at the big brain in his little head, that goes on forming strategies after strategies. When I started watching the NCAA games(out of boredom), especially the rivalry between UNC Chapel Hill and Duke University(which seems as intense as a cricket match between India and Pakistan), it was Coach K who drew my attention. Undisturbed by all the brouhaha in the court, he stands there calm and attentive watching the players and suddenly calls for a timeout and changes strategies. He might as well become a management guru, teaching how to tackle pressure and formulate strategies :)
For people who dont know Coach K , a little bit of a background here. Coach K aka Mike Krzyzewski is the head coach of the Duke University men's basketball team - aka the Blue Devils. He became the coach of the Blue Devils back in the 80's and has been there ever since. He transformed the team from a moderate college team to one that has won championships and that is considered a strong contender in the NCAA.
The best thing about him,that I like, is his humility and loyalty. He was pursued and offered millions by top NBA teams like the LA Lakers and Boston Celtics, yet he chose to stay with Duke coaching it's college team for the NCAA.
As far as I know(which is of course very little, with just 8 months of watching basketball),I guess no living basketball coach has been honored the way Coach K has been. Duke has named it's basketball stadium as Coach K Court and it's new training facility , Michael Krzyzewski Center.
Simply put, Coach K has gained eternal fame and is living through it.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Friday, August 22, 2008
Final List
Now I think I have an apt title for my blog - the one that exactly suits me, for I've been delaying things on and on and on... But Soni has sent a shiver down my spine. He has submitted the Kellogg application !!!!!!!! Good god, I just started writing the first draft of my K-essays and he's already done with it.
Now I think I need to buckle up and start seriously. For an international aspirant like me, I guess UK too gives the same opportunities as the US does and what more, the worker-visa laws are quite simple for an MBA grad while in the US...well , who hasnt heard the visa troubles last year. My final list goes something like this, divided equally(well not mathematically) between US and UK. I believe Iam not app-ing too high given my profile with K and L being the "top-tier" and F,R and O being the "middle-tier"
Kellogg
Fuqua
Ross
LBS
Oxford
Wish me luck
Now I think I need to buckle up and start seriously. For an international aspirant like me, I guess UK too gives the same opportunities as the US does and what more, the worker-visa laws are quite simple for an MBA grad while in the US...well , who hasnt heard the visa troubles last year. My final list goes something like this, divided equally(well not mathematically) between US and UK. I believe Iam not app-ing too high given my profile with K and L being the "top-tier" and F,R and O being the "middle-tier"
Kellogg
Fuqua
Ross
LBS
Oxford
Wish me luck
Monday, April 28, 2008
My list
Doesnt it seem my blog is flooding today? Three blogs in an hour, with three different topics .I'll try to be as regular as possible now, no spurts of posts and then dead for a long time. Come on guys, consistency is the key !
This is the list of the schools I came up with after my initial round of research. Need to cut down the list to 5-6 or may be 7. So which are the unlucky ones(or may be lucky) not to have my precious application submitted :) ? Soon, very soon
INSEAD
LBS
Tuck,Dartmouth
Chicago GSB
Kellogg , Northwestern
UCLA Anderson
ISB
Fuqua School of Business, Duke University
Darden,Univeristy of Virginia
Oxford
Michigan, Ross
UNC Chapel Hill
McCombs, UT Austin
Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon
This is the list of the schools I came up with after my initial round of research. Need to cut down the list to 5-6 or may be 7. So which are the unlucky ones(or may be lucky) not to have my precious application submitted :) ? Soon, very soon
INSEAD
LBS
Tuck,Dartmouth
Chicago GSB
Kellogg , Northwestern
UCLA Anderson
ISB
Fuqua School of Business, Duke University
Darden,Univeristy of Virginia
Oxford
Michigan, Ross
UNC Chapel Hill
McCombs, UT Austin
Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon
Let Down
Ok..Enough of bulls***ing.
The name of my blog seems weird, but I just came up with something that has M.B.A in it
Maybe I'll change it over a period of time but I'll still have the same acronym
So my MBA, I let down myself applying for it. I chalked out plans for applying to INSEAD Jan 09 R2, had everything in place except for the essays. I gave myself a full month to write the essays and started off with the easiest ones. I regarded myself as a good essay-writer, not someone who could weave a web with words, but someone who can create genuine interest. But I failed !
The first essay that I wrote received feedback saying it wasnt INSEAD material. After modifications and re-modifications, it still looked naive. It didnt fit the bill to get me into a top-notch bschool. I did a bit of soul-searching, came up with the drafts of the other essays, checked my work-schedule(which is killing me!), read them again and again, changed them and I gave up.
Now, when I think over it, two things cross my mind. One, Iam either a feeble-minded who changes decision in split seconds or two, I deliberated over the pros and cons of app-ing now and took a rightful decision. So my INSEAD application for January 09 R2 is down the drain. I am looking forward to Sept 09 R1. Then , only then will I know what Iam
I need to gear up, hone my essay-writing skills and crack the pot. I better start looking into the essays right now. But I've learnt that work pressure plays a vital role in the application process and everyone needs to create some space for apping.
The name of my blog seems weird, but I just came up with something that has M.B.A in it
Maybe I'll change it over a period of time but I'll still have the same acronym
So my MBA, I let down myself applying for it. I chalked out plans for applying to INSEAD Jan 09 R2, had everything in place except for the essays. I gave myself a full month to write the essays and started off with the easiest ones. I regarded myself as a good essay-writer, not someone who could weave a web with words, but someone who can create genuine interest. But I failed !
The first essay that I wrote received feedback saying it wasnt INSEAD material. After modifications and re-modifications, it still looked naive. It didnt fit the bill to get me into a top-notch bschool. I did a bit of soul-searching, came up with the drafts of the other essays, checked my work-schedule(which is killing me!), read them again and again, changed them and I gave up.
Now, when I think over it, two things cross my mind. One, Iam either a feeble-minded who changes decision in split seconds or two, I deliberated over the pros and cons of app-ing now and took a rightful decision. So my INSEAD application for January 09 R2 is down the drain. I am looking forward to Sept 09 R1. Then , only then will I know what Iam
I need to gear up, hone my essay-writing skills and crack the pot. I better start looking into the essays right now. But I've learnt that work pressure plays a vital role in the application process and everyone needs to create some space for apping.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Stats make me sick!
Why-o-why in the world did I land in the IT industry.
Ever since I seriously started thinking of my MBA , I've constantly been bugged by this question. Every year the number of Indian IT male applicants(of course the females too, but there is a gender bias on the school's part) to an international b-school has been steadily increasing and it comes to no surprise that, the AdComs have realized our potential and have made it a point to cut down on us.
Ever since I seriously started thinking of my MBA , I've constantly been bugged by this question. Every year the number of Indian IT male applicants(of course the females too, but there is a gender bias on the school's part) to an international b-school has been steadily increasing and it comes to no surprise that, the AdComs have realized our potential and have made it a point to cut down on us.
It seems as if an AdCom saw a profile stating - 26-27/M/Indian/IT industry, without a second's thought they would say - oh, not another one- and off you go into the trashcan.
Need to prove myself different - ya I did community service, I have some accomplishments outside work, yada yada yada !!. Now who doesn't do that and applies for an MBA. So what else makes us different from each other. One goes to the US, the other to Europe , someone to China and someone to Australia... does it really make a different what country you worked in when you do the samething ...I dont think so
Let's figure out who's accepted and who's dinged!
God bless y'all (of course, me included) Indian IT MBA aspirants
Thursday, October 25, 2007
My Emotions and My Thoughts
I wrote this long back, about 2.5 years back. I think I need to put it down here so that I can see this quite often
I am writing this down so that I could see for myself the developments in my life.There's no source,other than my mind, from where I could gather my days of yore and think what was life before and obviously the mind can't remember such important details as it is jammed with a plethora of useless things. I hope this would improve my instincts and develop in me a sense of....something I can't describe now.While Iam wondering what to pen down,thinking of a more artistic way to make this interesting,my emotions , the same emotions everyone has , are making the words flow.I am still unable to set a goal for myself in life.Lots and lots of opportunites,dont know which one to prioritize and which one to dump along the way.
I wonder why I follow the mob everytime,why not something of my own.If one could create opportunites from whatever he has,why can't I, am I a dummy, I believe not.Then why..thats the question that has been pricking me like a thorn from the day I graduated.I dream myself of being an entreprenuer(Iam not joking) .I wonder, if I cant decide a way out of the rat-race, what kind of entreprenuer am I? Every night I try to chalk out my plans, but could never decide on anything.Often I say to myself "From what you are now,You are better than many people in this world,then why are you unhappy and why do u stress yourself so much,take your time to think"..but I long ago left the philosophies of life...which I followed hoping to become a better person and realize my dreams but the very rules left me berserk with painful memories moving like pictures in my head. Now Iam on my way to ruling out emotions from my mind...but the human tendency never lets them out...so thats what prompts me to scribble something meaningless here.
I believe in Karma that 'I make my own destiny'..so i need not fear what lies ahead because it's what I do now makes me what I will be.But still something lurks inside that makes me uneasy( Reminds me of lyrics from 'Linkin Park', the band which I hated for disturbing my sleep during my under-graduation and the same band which brings out the thoughts that I have now). Irony of Human Nature!!
I am writing this down so that I could see for myself the developments in my life.There's no source,other than my mind, from where I could gather my days of yore and think what was life before and obviously the mind can't remember such important details as it is jammed with a plethora of useless things. I hope this would improve my instincts and develop in me a sense of....something I can't describe now.While Iam wondering what to pen down,thinking of a more artistic way to make this interesting,my emotions , the same emotions everyone has , are making the words flow.I am still unable to set a goal for myself in life.Lots and lots of opportunites,dont know which one to prioritize and which one to dump along the way.
I wonder why I follow the mob everytime,why not something of my own.If one could create opportunites from whatever he has,why can't I, am I a dummy, I believe not.Then why..thats the question that has been pricking me like a thorn from the day I graduated.I dream myself of being an entreprenuer(Iam not joking) .I wonder, if I cant decide a way out of the rat-race, what kind of entreprenuer am I? Every night I try to chalk out my plans, but could never decide on anything.Often I say to myself "From what you are now,You are better than many people in this world,then why are you unhappy and why do u stress yourself so much,take your time to think"..but I long ago left the philosophies of life...which I followed hoping to become a better person and realize my dreams but the very rules left me berserk with painful memories moving like pictures in my head. Now Iam on my way to ruling out emotions from my mind...but the human tendency never lets them out...so thats what prompts me to scribble something meaningless here.
I believe in Karma that 'I make my own destiny'..so i need not fear what lies ahead because it's what I do now makes me what I will be.But still something lurks inside that makes me uneasy( Reminds me of lyrics from 'Linkin Park', the band which I hated for disturbing my sleep during my under-graduation and the same band which brings out the thoughts that I have now). Irony of Human Nature!!
My First
I never thought I'd start blogging, actually I never wanted to blog. I always wondered why people wrote loads and loads of all kinds of , could I say, crap !! Then, I saw some really useful blogs, some which gave me a lot of exposure and some which opened up new avenues for me and I just wanted to say one thing - "You guys are amazing", awed by their determination and patience to write something that's really useful.
Even then, I didn't have the tiniest bit of interest to blog. It's kinda weird, being a techie who's hooked up to his laptop 12/7/365 and not being a blogger. May be I didn't feel the need to do so, or may be I just curbed the minute interest I had or may be I didn't have anything to write about. Ok, whatever, but here Iam today adding my bit of crap to all the crap that's existing over the internet. So why Iam blogging now? Good question.. Thats what this post is all about...let me think !!
The first and foremost reason, ok , to be frank there's only one reason, Iam BORED, UTTERLY BITTERLY BORED !! Iam the typical-undistinguished-unexceptional yet quintessential Indian software engineer who survives not on food and water but on e-mails, e-nteratinment..actually anything on the planet that starts with "e-". Lately, I've become so averse to all the e-things that I don't find anything interesting in the e-world and tried to find something to do in the real world and owing to my professional nature, couldn't find anything and had to revert back to the same thing again.
But doing the same stuff over and over again bored me, so I thought of things that I haven't done before and blogging was the first that hit me..so here Iam writing this blog , hoping that there would be something new to do and new to look out for, pen down my thoughts as randomly as they occur, and read them to amuse myself (and may be even few others, if I can)
And with that hope, I rest my case !!
Even then, I didn't have the tiniest bit of interest to blog. It's kinda weird, being a techie who's hooked up to his laptop 12/7/365 and not being a blogger. May be I didn't feel the need to do so, or may be I just curbed the minute interest I had or may be I didn't have anything to write about. Ok, whatever, but here Iam today adding my bit of crap to all the crap that's existing over the internet. So why Iam blogging now? Good question.. Thats what this post is all about...let me think !!
The first and foremost reason, ok , to be frank there's only one reason, Iam BORED, UTTERLY BITTERLY BORED !! Iam the typical-undistinguished-unexceptional yet quintessential Indian software engineer who survives not on food and water but on e-mails, e-nteratinment..actually anything on the planet that starts with "e-". Lately, I've become so averse to all the e-things that I don't find anything interesting in the e-world and tried to find something to do in the real world and owing to my professional nature, couldn't find anything and had to revert back to the same thing again.
But doing the same stuff over and over again bored me, so I thought of things that I haven't done before and blogging was the first that hit me..so here Iam writing this blog , hoping that there would be something new to do and new to look out for, pen down my thoughts as randomly as they occur, and read them to amuse myself (and may be even few others, if I can)
And with that hope, I rest my case !!
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