I am Back

Ooph! Somehow I managed to finish the exams !! The final exams were not tough but there may be a possibilty of one re-exam due to administrative errors. I am tired of this exams and am against the re-exams.

Two out of four subjects next term are going to be less theoritical ( or more of cp subjects CP- Class Participation). I hate doing cp and am expecting a tough time ahead. Management of Organizations Prof has asked us to prepare network matrices listing all the professional people I know and interlinking them. He is going to design the course pack based on that. I think this course should be somewhat interesting !!

I can't believe three terms have passed and I never realized it. One more term and we will be half-way through the course !!

I think the application forms for next year admissions will start in October. Still the debate of raising the intake is going on!! Lets see what happens !!

I will write tomorrow whether I recommed ISB or not for future applicants !!

Next term subjects:

Government, Society & Business

Investment Analysis

Management of Organisations

Strategic Analysis of Information Technology

Yesterday night I was not able to sleep. I was spending my time in preparing the VC presentation for entrepreneurship class. Today I slept full day compensating for that.

The previous entrepreneurship class was interesting. We had a case discussion about Alacrity Housing, Chennai. The founder was here and was explaining how difficult it is to live as a honest person amidst the corrupt society. It was a good learning.

I am going to start my exam preparation. My next blog will only be on Wednesday. Till then, Goodbye. :)

Yesterday I was preparing a presentation for entrepreneurship class and was not able to sleep. Today I spent full time sleeping to compensate for that. The previous entrepreneurship class was interesting. We had a case discussion about Alacrity Housing, Chennai. The founder Amol was there and was explaining his principles and values and how he is facing difficulties in living as a honest person amidst a corrupt environment.

I am going to start my Exam preparation and my next blog will be only on Wednesday after the exams. :)

Assignments, Exams and A Poor Soul ...

I have not yet recovered from the shock of mid-term exams and still can't believe that the final-exams are on next Monday. Exams are becoming routine tasks and assignments are becoming increasing burdens ... We have business plan evaluation assignment for entrepreneurship. Each team will have one crore each (You know, it can't be real money) and will be investing according to the presentations we make.

We have a bidding game in managerial accounting and a problem set in Operations. Apart from that, I have opted for an independent study in operations and have to prepare a proposal for that. PLACOM work is also very hectic with a lot of issues to be tackled. Still I have commitments to go out on alternate days and what not.

Tell me, can I call myself a poor soul ...

Today I decided to bunk the operations class. Yesterday was very hectic with two assignments to submit. So today I decided to bunk class and take some rest.

Nowadays I am playing badminton daily. I am having neck pain and wrist pain due to that but am planing to continue playing.

Yesterday I started a new account with Kotak for trading. I have invested in reliance, tata mostors and Union Bank. Lets see how it goes.

Admission process will start in next two months and am still wondering about the impact of increased intake.

Hectic Weekend ...

The weekend was very hectic. Saturday we had India-China conference. We had speakers from all over the world to talk on India-China issues. Sunday, there was a talk by Deepak Jain, dean of Kellogg. He talked about new marketing concepts. He emphasized the need to change from product marketing to cutomer experience marketing.

Then, we had children from a nearby school visting the ISB as part of net impact activities. I volunteered for this event. I was conducting games for these children and it was good fun. That afternnoon, I visited IIIT as part of BTC club activities. It was impressing.

Ooph! Today morning I didn't feel like going to class.

Tomorrow is the exam. Still a lot to read ... How happy I was while working ... No tension ... No exams ... :(

Soon this term will come to an end and then I have to start working towards my placement. Still I am confused whether I should switch to consulting or finance or should I return to IT. Sometimes I would be firm in going back to IT and suddenly my mindset would change ... I have decided to do my profiling to see what would suit me ...

Exams, Exams and Exams

Well...Biswajit asked a good question...We have exams every 22.5 days ideally :) Each term spans over 1 1/2 months and if you take mid-term and end-term exams, it will seem like the course is full of exams.

This time I am very relaxed and am not even planning to go through the books , while others are having night-mares in completing it. I am just going to browse the class notes and try my luck in the exams.

Students are planning to bring out "Harbinger", the student magazine. I have written an article for it and am involved in design also. Though I am very interested in contributing to the layouts and other stuffs, I am unable to do anything due to the lack of time at this moment.

Today we had a session about profiling and career counseling. An external vendor will do that for a fee of Rs 2500. I think I will also do my profiling.

I have enrolled for an elective called "planning an entrepreneurial Venture". I don't know why I enrolled for it as I don't have any big entrepreneurial plan as of now. Lets see how it goes.

Nowadays I am spending too much timed in the recreation center. I am not a person interested in sports but somehow I have started playing badminton and snooker and am spending nearly 5 hours daily in the recreation center. Alums have said that students start relaxing from the third term. I think that is happening now.

Next week, we have mid-term exams. Time is flying very fast. I have not yet started preparing for the mid-term. Lets see how it goes.

Urgent need for permanent faculty ?

Yesterday I was having dinner with one of our profs. He was an excellent guy who was responsible for starting the IT division of wipro in India. He was praising the ISB students that they are very bright and they prepare well for classes regularly. While talking with him about the institute, I raised this question about permanent faculty.

He said that the school cannot depend entirely on the visiting faculty. He mentioned that a Mexican school, operating on 100% visiting faculty model, was able to survive only for seven years and was shot down in the eighth year. On the other hand, we have schools like Insead which has been very successful in visiting faculty model.

The ISB is doing a right thing in recruiting permanent faculty at a good pace. Though these faculties cannot give the same learning experience as given by some world class visiting faculty, a trade-off has to be there.

It's Raining ...

It's ranining outside ... I do love rain but nowadays it is raining frequently disrupting my normal schedules. Sometimes I have to go late for dinner or start early for class .... Though I can take umbrella or wear my jacket, I hate going out while raining. Apart from all these, I don't get the mood to study while it is raining.

The ISB is getting better term by term. There was a period in term 1 when I was thinking whether I made a mistake by opting for ISB. Term 2 was good except for some classes. Term 3 is really rocking ... All the courses seem to handle very essential and relevant topics. Another reason I can think of is that this term has no ISB faculty. All the profs are visting profs mostly from Kellogg. I don't want to talk more on this issue... :)

These days the time I spend studying has reduced drastically. But I have started to be very attentive in the class, taking notes in detail and reviewing the notes regularly. Reviewing the notes doean't take more than 10 minutes and most of the time I spend watching movies in DVD or watching Tv.