Halfway Through First Year Saturday, January 30, 2010

One of the great things about not being able to think too far into the future is that life becomes so much more eventful when seen through you own eyes. Things move at a pretty hectic pace in a B School. You hardly get time to take a step back and ponder. To look at the rear view mirror and see how far you've come. But when you do get that window of time and your mind starts to connect past incidents to light up the road which has brought you here; more often than not, you sit back and marvel at how things have changed. How you have transformed.

Quarter 3 has been easy so far. Fridays off and lighter Wednesdays and Thursdays. Perhaps because it's the interview season. It's also the time when second years start thinking about their reentry into the 'real world'. You would frequently hear about ToDo lists to be checked before school ends and trips to be made. Some take it easy and relax. Others take as many courses as they can since it might be the last time they go to school. First years realize how time flies. And prospective students begin to reach the end of their application process. In the last few weeks I've interacted with a few applicants who have successfully made this journey. And my mind went back to the time when I had got the call. It had made a lot of things fall into place. Past failures, which had closed a few doors and opened a few more; decisions which were made at times impulsively and on the rare occasion with thorough analysis; and events over which I had little control. Almost like the trees we make in our Decision Analysis class. Options and Events. You take some, you lose out on some.

So like I mentioned earlier, it's internship hunting time in a first years' life. Stress levels typically increase during this period. But then again, different people react so differently to the same circumstances. I'm in the 'still looking' club right now. I think it's early days and we form the majority! The point is, a year back, I couldn't have imagined myself in this situation and my reaction to it. Getting into B School was the only thing I had in my mind space. I had left the next chapter for later. And now I find myself in the middle of first year. Thinking about internships and beyond. Trying to balance a myriad things and not lose perspective at the same time.

I'm a staunch believer of the theory that any experience is what you make of it and no matter how much you've heard about it before, unless you are in the midst of it, you really do not have a clue of what it's like. Darden has conformed to that. Memories, experiences, dilemmas and hopes. That's what this blog is supposed to be about. And right now, I'm absolutely loving the abundance of all of it.

Travels During Winter Break - 2 Saturday, January 23, 2010

Pike Place Market - Seattle

Spent an evening roaming around the place. It was the highlight of the 3 day trip. Had a very small city, touristy feel in spite of being so close to downtown Seattle. People playing guitar and piano. Some playing the guitar and the harmonica while hula hooping at the same time. The first Starbucks, the fish market, the fruit sellers, the magic shop, the dozens of stalls selling decorative items and jewelery, tourists clicking pictures - it was an exercise in observation. And a very entertaining one at that.

But for the labels on each fruit and the price tags, I would have thought that I was in India.

Knew about the iPhone app. Hadn't seen one before!

Piggy Banks

The flashy neon sign

Slide Guitar

Felt surprised and sad at the same time. He was playing some beautiful pieces.

But people around him were mostly oblivious. A few tourists stood by and made short videos.

Travels During Winter Break - 1 Monday, January 11, 2010

New York, Washington DC, San Francisco and Seattle. A visit to 4 cities during the winter break has made me realize how easy it is to travel in a new place. All you need is an iPhone (actually any smartphone with GPS would do) and an ATM card. A car and a friend who can drive helps too.

Coming from India, it's exciting, to a degree of mind boggling; the way technology is used in everyday life in the US. From petrol pumps to car washes, from self checkout counters at retail stores to vending machines and from the ubiquity of the 3G network to the proliferation of smart phones - things which I considered luxuries even a few months ago have become necessities now.

New York, with its avenues and streets forming a perfect grid, is tailor made for a GPS system. All you need is a sense of direction and you should be good. And even if you're directionally challenged, the iPhone makes sure you get it right. So commuting between Union Square (where my friend was staying) to Times Square was as easy for me as a resident New Yorker. I could choose to walk if it wasn't too cold and I had time to kill (like the time when I had a 3 hour window and decided to walk around downtown NY and ended up visiting MoMA). Or if I had to take the metro, my iPhone would give me to the minute, the arrival and departure timings along with any transfers I needed to make. All I had to ensure was that I got that information before entering the subway since there was no network coverage here. My friends from Singapore, Seoul and Hong Kong were more critical though. Since they were used to better systems while working there. I wasn't complaining.

And this became a pattern which extended beyond just taking public transports. In DC, Seattle and San Francisco, where we drove quite a bit, people took turns being the navigator. Constantly trading off between the battery sucking yet faster and highly intuitive iPhone app and the talking but at times slower GPS having the non QWERTY keyboard. So in the Bay Area, where we had to travel a lot between downtown San Francisco and Palo Alto, Fremont, Sunnyvale and Mountain View; it was a combination of the Bay Area Rapid Transport and our always willing driver and trip leader who saved the day. The 30 mile-ish rides were fun though. San Francisco had a great Rock n Roll station which played classic rock. Our topic of conversation during the rides could be anything ranging from the geography of the area (which was so very different from C'ville) to the infrastructure in the US to the high number of Porches and Corvettes that we saw there to crazy drivers changing lanes to the high number of Indians and thus Indian restaurants. My friend in Stanford told me that the Indian community in Mountain View and Sunnyvale wanted the cities to be renamed Pahadganj and Surajpur respectively! It could totally be a rumor. But it was the most ridiculously hilarious thing I've heard in some time.

Finally Seattle. And this time we had these 2 'big ass' vans to carry the group around. Which made finding parking a little difficult since the clearance needed was 7'. Anyway, GPS to the rescue again and besides finding parking, we didn't have any issues navigating in a totally new city.

Reviews of bars and restaurants, public transit, checking mails on the go to transferring money from one account to another - having all of this at my fingertips and realizing how much it has enabled us to not plan ahead was a revelation of sorts. Maybe it has made me less 'smart' so as to say. Maybe, it means that having fewer things to remember, I am after all becoming too dependent on technology. But nevertheless, for now, for me, it's akin to a discovery. A new way of going about life. And I'm beginning to understand why after staying here for a long period of time people find it tough to go back. I'm not picking one over another. But appreciating how having different priorities can lead one to choose a particular lifestyle. One country over another.

Now if only my iPhone would be more efficient in receiving calls instead of deciding not to ring at all or directly go to the voice mail on several occasions. AT&T has no clue. Time to get to the Apple guys I guess.

Winter Break: the unhurried life Tuesday, December 29, 2009

It's a testimony to the pace at which life goes on here, that its been only two weeks into the winter break even though I feel like I've been vacationing forever. It's a welcome change. In some sense, a throwback to my days in Bangalore, where the mornings were unhurried (yes, office started at 11 AM) and started with sipping chai in the balcony, turning on the TV and reading the Times of India. And that's why, yesterday in particular, reminded me of life before B-School. The Wall Street Journal has replaced the Times of India and it's a little too cold to actually stand in the balcony. The number of roommates has reduced from 3 to 1 and no longer is there a cook to make tea. But the sun rays streaming down the sliding glass door, and the the satisfaction of dipping the biscuit in the cup of tea was good enough.

Charlottesville is pretty empty now. It's a little too quiet for me. A week ago, I was having this big city, small city conversation with a friend in New York and how the people around you become so much more important in smaller cities. I totally get it now. Fortunately, there are a bunch of us here and so in between watching movies, killing time, going out to eat and preparing for the interviews (the time devoted to each decreasing in the order in which listed); we've managed to keep ourselves busy. Somewhat.

Another 3 weeks before the break gets over. And on the 1st day of 2010, I leave for San Francisco. In India, we say that the entire year mimics whatever you do on the first day of the year. 1st Jan, 2008 - I flew from Singapore to Bangalore. There were around 12-15 more flights during the rest of the year. 1st Jan, 2009 - Minneapolis. I woke up at around 12 in the noon, after a long night of drinking and partying in sub zero temperatures and worked the whole day on the Darden essays (they were due on the 4th).

Will 2010's first day have any bearing on the rest of the year? It's anybody's guess.

The Season's First Snow Saturday, December 05, 2009

Brianne's ping was the perfect excuse I needed to go out. It was the Saturday after a brutal week at Darden and even with exams looming large, I just couldn't get myself to study. Most Facebook statuses ran on the lines of 'Oh it's snowing in C'ville...'. For a lot of us it was the first snowfall of our lives. My mind went back to another Saturday morning earlier this year, when I had ventured out in harsher temperatures. It wasn't snowing back then, though.

I love lamp posts. There's this old world, story like charm to them. Always reminds me of childhood stories of a quiet town, with a railway station and a solitary lamp post. And the yellow in this case looked so contrasting against the backdrop.

Contrast, again. This time red against white. A much stronger one. And the way the snowflakes had melted to form a lump of watery ice and had yet managed to stay atop the red berries.

Park benches at Darden. Another one of those objects towards which I have a strange attraction. No reason. Totally random.

Same colors. Same lump of ice. Different setting.

Stripped of all its leaves, the branches of the tree still prevent the grass underneath from being totally covered with snow, adding a dash a green to the picture.

This Week Last Year... Sunday, November 29, 2009

...I was a first time visitor to this country. Everything was happening very fast. Black Friday shopping was a necessity because the jacket I had was good only for an Indian winter. And that too was borrowed from my 6' tall friend so it wasn't exactly a fit. 26/11 had just happened in India as I stood in the hotel lobby watching images of the Taj Palace under siege, feeling a sense of disconnect which internet or cable television doesn't quite fill. The weekend brought the season's first snow. I remember waking up in the morning and finding everything covered with a thin layer of white. It was my first encounter with sub zero temperatures. Over the next couple of months, that would touch -25 degree Celcius.

That was Minneapolis. A year on, everything's still moving past at a hectic pace. But the setting is so different. There was time and money to spend last year. The money is still there though. Just that it's a huge loan. And don't even get me started on time. My Darden application wouldn't happen until January and so if you had asked me where I saw myself a year from then, Charlottesville wouldn't have come up as one of the answers.

This has been a much needed (shall I say much deserved too?) break. And I've successfully done what I do best. Chill out. It started off with drinking wine and sangria and singing songs at our place. Next day was the Thanksgiving party courtesy Jose and Lucas complete with touch football and LOADS of food and wine. We followed it up with a game of cricket the next day and dinner at Ariana Kabob House and a round of Taboo. In between there were futile attempts to string together a cover letter. There's still one day. So there's still time.

One more day till everything comes crashing down again. Resume drops, cases, exams - all thoughtfully packaged into two weeks of madness. And then the winter break. And New York. And San Francisco. And Seattle.

Let's get over this quickly, shall we.

If the glass is half empty, at least you can't drown Monday, November 09, 2009

The best week in Darden so far. And all because it had less of Darden in it. Don't get me wrong. I like the intensity. It makes me stretch myself. But once in a while, you do need that break. To explore and experience some other things. To sit back and relax and just enjoy doing nothing. Black November as it is turning out, already happened in October.

It can get a little intimidating at times. Case studies, class participation. exam grades, cover letters, networking calls. It's a lot to handle when you have never done it before. And that's why this week was so special. So needed.

Monday and Tuesday went as usual with inventory management trying to match up to Capital Asset Pricing Model and the IS/LM curve. From Wednesday, however, things started getting really good. First, we had this Operations filed trip to MicroAire. Seeing the push-pull strategies of marketing and the lean manufacturing principles of operations actually being used in real life was quite a kick. And since MicroAire was into manufacturing surgical instruments like those used in Carpal Tunnel and Knee Replacement surgeries, there was the ethics angle to it too when it came to how much should the market be driven by the manufacturers and not by the doctors.

The rest of the week was easy and didn't involve case preparation. This meant that the entire evening was free. I spent the afternoons playing Racquetball; had Thai food one evening and just enjoyed being relaxed. Wednesday night, in particular was great not only because of the dinner but also because of the fact that it was one of those rare nights, when unwinding did not mean getting high on alcohol and being with hundred other first years in a bar. We walked down to Tara Thai at Barracks, had dinner and then came back chatting about first year and our expectations from this whole MBA experience.

The Virginia Film Festival was in progress and so some of us decided to catch a few films. Meet John Doe, Departures & Wonderful World. Three very different movies. But three very satisfying experiences.

Meet John Doe is a classic about the power of press and how it can create and destroy public figures. My friend had told me that there was a Hindi movie - Main Azaad Hoon which was inspired by this one.

Departures (last year's Foreign Language Film winner at the Oscar) is as unique a movie as I have ever seen. An unemployed cellist takes on the job of 'preparing' dead bodies for the funeral. It's a beautiful commentary on life and death and the emotions the death of near and dear ones can evoke in us. There's a lot of dry humor and drama in the script but I particularly loved the closure that the ending brought which seemed to reconcile all the different threads - the main character's tension with his wife regarding his not so glamorous job and his memories of his father who had left when he was a six year old.

I could talk about Wonderful World but it's better if you watch the trailer. Matthew Broderick puts in a controlled and powerful understated performance as the pessimist who would start believing in the general goodness in the world once he sees "fish falling from the sky". The dialogues are crisp and even though I would have liked the script to be less abstract and more explicit; this works.

And in both these movies, the soundtrack is really melodious. Loved both the classical (even haunting) cello pieces in Departures and the acoustic guitar pieces in Wonderful World.

And yes, we went bowling last night and played a First Year Vs Second Year cricket match today which we narrowly lost.

Quite a week.

By the way, the title of this post is from the movie Wonderful World.

From Engineering to Economics Monday, November 02, 2009

Stack means LIFO and Queue means FIFO. The most basic data structures in computer science.

Well, apparently, they are also inventory costing methods used in Financial Accounting.

So what's the best thing about coming to a B-School from an engineering background?

Quant skills? Structured thinking? A sense of confidence that you would be able to survive it? Knowing the equation of a normal distribution and being able to handle probability?

No. If you ask me that is.

The best thing is that none of the courses are a repeat of what you did in undergrad. Which means that the balance sheets and the bond pricing and the supply, demand, interest rate graphs are all new for me. Yes, for some of the things, (and this is mostly in economics) Wikipedia had already given me a foundation to build on, but learning about how the Fed might lower interest rates to bolster investment in a formal setting is certainly helping me get a stronger grasp on it. Suddenly the articles in the WSJ have started to make sense. Like when they talked about Amazon, Wal-Mart and Target not being able to discount price books in Europe or when they analyzed various industries on the basis of cash as percentage of assets.

It's tiring and frustrating at times. Being asked to do so much in so little time. But at least so far, it takes just a moment to sit down, take a few steps and realize the tremendous potential these two years have. And I'm not talking about getting a great job and walking out with a fat paycheck. I'm simply talking about the perspective a B-School can (and already is) give to someone who hasn't studied about business before.

After The Rain Sunday, October 25, 2009

I finally found some time to go out with my camera and take some pictures of the place I live in. As has become the norm here, the weekdays are generally gorgeous and it rains all day during the weekends. Today was not all that bad though. The rain stopped during the late afternoon. The sun came out in bursts in between drizzles and an overcast sky. At times, a gust of wind would shake off the water droplets from the leaves giving an impression that it had started to rain again. The weather was pleasant without being cold. There was a section party coming up in the evening. Could you blame me for completely wasting my day and doing nothing?

Green & Yellow

Leaves on the grass

Wooden stubs

Rain droplets on the leaves

Inside Ivy Gardens. The road that leads to my apartment

Against a cloudy sky

The road that runs between Darden and Ivy Gardens

Exam Week Tuesday, October 13, 2009

It's so different. 5 hours, open notes, take home, honor code and the least stressful week of the entire quarter - exam week in Darden is a whole new experience. Maybe it was planned that way. After all aren't we supposed to 'Trust the process'? I mean, the week before it was hell! Consulting conference, GMO conference, company briefings, networking dinners and of course, cases. Cases which ran for 30 pages and had scores of Exhibits. Cases which were supposed to be cracked without the aid of the learning teams. And then suddenly it's Friday night and you almost feel a void. You study because others are. You go through the review notes and try and organize all the stuff in folders for easy reference. You say to yourself that you havent been slacking off during the last 2 months so you will be okay even without studying for the last 2 days. No. Don't get me wrong. I'm no rock star and I'm solidly in the middle when it comes to the unique Darden phenomenon called class participation (trust me, other B Schoolers - it's different here!). It's just that studying before exams is not my thing. Till high school, I was supposedly a smart kid and didn't need to study before exams. In undergrad, I was way too screwed up to make any significant improvements by studying in the last week (though the night outs made sure I never got an F! and over years I learned the art of optimizing my study hours to just make that mark). Here, its neither of the two. And yet. I cant sit down and study. So, it's not my thing. QED!

The marketing exam was a mix of emotions. I used my old strategy to start off with the last question. It helped that it was an easy one so I felt good after the first 15 minutes. Couldn't say the same for the rest of the 4 hours and 45 minutes though. So at the end, I had a lot of margins and percentages and numbers and dollars floating around the word doc and I was hoping that at least half of it made sense to the professor. Hope, like they say, is a strategy.

Accounting tomorrow. And then 3 more papers. And then the 100 case party. And then Metallica. And then Quarter 2 from Monday. I love Darden.