Books, Books all over!

Posted by Sharvari on 27/01/2009

With the university exams coming up in less than 2 months most of us have started(atleast pretended to have) studying. And that is how my room is full of books everywhere. Books on the table, books on the bed, books on the chair, books at the window. I have just one specific problem. I can't stick to one damn subject while studying and that is one of the reasons why I can't boast of having completed atleast one subject. The other ofcourse is my laziness. My mother has threatened to throw all my things out if I don't keep them in order. As it is my brother has been compelled to use one of the cabinets of the living room side-piece because the lady herself(that's me) occupies the study table cabinet. I know I m mean. But I can't help it. I have variety of study material stuffed inside the cabinet. Be it my TY books or my German course books. I also have a dirty habit of stocking my old stuff. That would explain the reason behind me still holding on to the MBA entrance material. Though I moved it out of the study table cabinet and put it on one of the upper shelf cupboards. The upper shelf cupboard also contains some of my school books which my mother has kept for my brother's reference(You know all those essay books, sanskrit books, etc). It also contains my FY and SY stuff. My mother does not understand the reason behind me not using them and still clinging on to them. What if I forget what I did in FY, SY and something similar crops up in TY. Then they will always come handy, wouldn't they? I know I have a hoarding syndrome, but there are so many memories attached to such things. Well I am not all that mean, I have promised my brother the study table cabinet after my TY.

PS: I forgot to mention. I have hoarded up all the editions of reader's digest since 2005 and I keep removing 2-3 per week to re-read. lol!

Love U darling!

Posted by Sharvari on 23/01/2009

It has been 15 years now, since I was blessed with a darling sibling. I suddenly grew up and we had a small baby at our place. In his early days he was a pee-potty machine, spoiling every little piece of cloth he could, but he was the cutest thing ever.
As he grew up the bond between us became stronger and stronger. It is not that we don't fight. But the care and love for another outwieghs the fights.(Touchwood!) As my mother puts it,' They may fight amongst themselves, but against the world they are one.'

"Sweetu, I don't know what I would have done without you. You taught me to share, you taught me to sacrifice and more than that you taught me to love. HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Just be the way you are-SWEET AND ADORABLE. Muaah!!!"

Oh-BA-MA

Posted by Sharvari on 21/01/2009

Wow! What a man! A great son, a great husband, a great father and now a great(I m assuming) president. A lot has been spoken about him and people know a lot about him. I ll just say what i liked about the man. He is a gentleman in all true sense of terms. What amazing guts he has got! With that just a bit of unusual warmth. I say unusual, because it does not come so naturally to strong-headed people like him. In some parts of his book, 'The Audacity of Hope' he talks about his wife Michelle. He says had his wife contested against him, he would have lost hands down to her. he says and I quote, 'Some people who have heard my wife speak at times come up to me and say 'Obama, we think the world of you, but your wife-WOW!' Who would talk about his wife like that? They have one simple but amazing love story. I was just overwhelmed by the way they were together yesterday. It was not a formal arm-in-arm but a very informal hand-in hand! That speaks volumes about their relationship. I am no entity to comment on his personal life. But just his simplicity appeals to me. I wish him all the best and may he bring about the change he wants to bring about.

PS: I told my Mom,'Ma, get me a man like that and I ll get married the next day!'

Mesmerized

Although I don't watch a lot of TV, one programme is a must watch. I am talking about Idea Sa re Ga Ma Pa which is aired on zee marathi every monday and tuesday at 9:30pm(Repeat telecast tues,wed 3:00pm)
I will not write more... Just posting a few videos to give you an idea.
http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=kjRNpik7Oag
http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=ygYH_KXr7Vs
http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=RFdtYetM-kM
http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=8U7ZBoGgkQ0
http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=YMoP5qzLOa4
http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=igTcXqWSQ7g
And if you are not left mesmerized by these videos, stop calling yourself a music fan!

A weekend that wasn't....

The result season has begun...
The CAT result was shocking! My score according to the ans key put up by them was different and according to the score card was different. Paagulguy went amok with such problems. People with lower percentiles have got calls and someone with 98.9 did not get a single call. As some might put it- a weird pattern of results. Well coming back to my score...Whatever it was I would not have made it to the IIMs with it. So there is no point in discussing it. It is like losing a battle which was fiercely fought. Sad!!! But that is how life is! All in all the experience was fantastic! Just one competitive exam teaches you what the education system could not teach you for years. I will admit I felt a bit bad, but the roof did not come crashing down.
SNAP result was good. But I am not applying. Some friends have called me choosy, egoistic, crazy and what not. Some said that on my face(which I appreciate) and some did that behind my back(grrr!). I just have one question. When I have the choice, why should I not exercise it? And given the current scenario, isn't it safe to do your MBA from the institutes which are at the apex of the triangle? I know I am sounding kolhyala draksha ambat(Grapes are sour for the fox who could not reach them) types, but somehow I feel I will do well if I take up the job. If I do a MBA 2-3 years later I stand to gain more. And it is JPM for God's sake! It will look great on my CV! I am looking forward to May now.
While writing all this I m listening to, 'Yeh honsla kaise jhuke, yeh arzoo kaise ruke, manjil mushkil toh kya, dhundla sahil toh kya, tanha yeh dil toh kya. Raah pe kaate bikhre agar, uspe toh phir bhi chalna hi hai, shyam chupale suraj magar, raatko ek din dhalna hi hai, rut ye tal jaayegi, himmat rang laayegi, subah phir aayegi...."

PS: Even the symbiosis results were not great for some. People are calling it names and even going to the extent of saying that the seats are sold! lol!!! lol!!! and yeah the journey to the IIMs has not been aborted, it continues. It is only postponed! :)

A look down the memory lane...

Tomorrow is a big day! It is going to decide my future course of action. Not only for me but also for the other 274999 MBA aspirants, who took CAT-2008. CAT is suppose to be the 'baap' of all MBA entrances. If you clear this you stand a chance to get into the most coveted B-Schools of India. Before talking about what happened after CAT, let me talk about what happened before and on the day of THE CAT.

Before CAT:-
I was juggling quite a lot of things with CAT. College and TY classes sucked up maximum of my time and energy, leaving me with hardly an hour or so to prepare. First few mock-tests were pretty good. And then the downfall began! I went down till 40 percentile, scaled up slowly to reach 90-95 again. Trust me I dreaded Sundays; more than that the entire jig of analyzing the paper to see where I went wrong. During this leg of my preparation I found the papers of other institutes easy and the paper of my institute biased( One advice to all MBA aspirants, please think twice before choosing an institute... they ain't of any help. I would suggest you take up these books written by Arun Sharma and start preparing yourself. There are even private tutors for those who are weak in quants and VA. After that you can always join the test series of the institute which has wider coverage as compared to the others.) Coming back to what I did. I just took up all the papers from other institutes and started solving. They somewhat boosted my confidence and I manage to remain calm for the 'D' day.

On the day of CAT:- (I was a celebrity for a day!)
Surprisingly this time I could sleep soundly before the paper. I woke up early at 5:30. My centre was IES(Bandra). Since it was far dad decided to drop and pick me up from the centre.(He even went and saw my centre and the route leading towards it well in advance... How sweet of him!) We started at 7:00am in the morning. I enjoyed the ride to centre. The cool breeze and the songs on the radio helped to calm my turbulent mind. We reached at 8:00- a nice hour and a half before the reporting time. I had idilis from the tiffin packed by my mother. My every need was taken care of. As I mentioned in the title I was a celebrity for a day. Finally we were let inside the centre at 9:30. They gave us the paper at 10:15. 90 questions! As I had expected... But there was something more to it... A particular section had 40 questions and others 25 each. As usual you cannot predict anything with the CAT! I just could not help but giggle! Just to avoid any tension I checked the OMR to see whether I had filled in d details carefully. The bell rang! I had to now change my strategy. I decided to give DI 25 mins, quants 35 mins , 45-50 mins to VA and keep rest of the time as a buffer. DI was tough. I was disheartened as it was my strongest section. Nothing could be done now. In 25 mins I could crack one caselet of 4 questions. I moved to quants and I did around 9 questions there. After that came VA. I solved the grammar and vocabulary part first and then went on to the passages. I attempted in all 18 questions there. I was careful and did not want to be reckless like I was in the mocks. I again went to DI cracked a caselet or two and the time got over. After the paper I thought I had attempted less! I checked the answers in the evening. Quant and DI clear, VA doubtful... I cried like a baby! And my brother, such a smartass, said,"If you aim for the sky this will keep on happening!" He got a big scolding from mom for the uncalled oneliner.

After CAT:-
Next few days, I was almost mourning! I fell sick. First it was heavy cough and cold and then a tummy upset, that kept me on curd rice for a week! I was trying to gear for the other entrances but was not in a mood. Then came the Placement week! And guess what I was picked up on the first day itself by JP Morgan(excerpts from the interview later). I was (rather I still am) on cloud nine. I now had a back-up in place. But this back-up turned out to be a turning point. My parents, my cousin and my uncle were of the opinion I take up the job. I should leave it only if I get into the IIMs( which seems distant as of now). I would be a fool to leave JPM for symbiosis or narsee monjee. And after that every sunday became a picnic for me! And those entrances also went on well, coz I was pretty much relaxed. I went to nerul one sunday for TISS, next sunday I was in Goregoan for SNAP, next I was in dadar for NMAT; but my best outing was the last one- for XAT to Don-Bosco. The atmosphere there was wonderful with a beautiful church and a big playground. I enjoyed watching tiny tots play football. I met a lot of friends there. While coming back I had S & P for company. I had a gala time with them in the train!(Oops I forgot to mention, for the XAT essay I fell short of paper...lol!). As someone has said, 'Big Changes in our lives are more or less a second chance.' This is exactly what JPM has done to me. It has given me a second chance to find myself!

Now the reckoning day!
Tomorrow I ll come to know how I have faired at CAT. My friends call me choosy. In their opinion I m leaving good institutes for a job. But it is JPM. It will do wonders to my CV! Lets see if the quest for IIMs continues or it is postponed.