MBA Miles

Wikipedia says:

The term innovation means a new way of doing something. It may refer to incremental, radical, and revolutionary changes in thinking, products, processes, or organizations.

Felt the need to dig for this definition when I saw this video on youTube. Its an Indian rendition of the famous “Sweet Child of Mine” song by Guns N Roses. Done by V Channel for their We are all Rock Stars campaign. Very innovative 🙂

[V] are all Rockstars!

Sometimes I feel that scope of the the word “interpersonal skills” is too narrow. Sometimes I feel its too vast. I decided to probe a bit and found this. It might be  useful in our essays…

Click on the pic to read the full article…

Today, I was writing one of my Haas essays…

If you could change one thing you’ve done in your life, what would it be, and how would you do it differently? (250 word maximum)

First of all, I find the 250 word limit itself challenging. On top of that though I have made mistakes and missed many opportunities in life, there is no significant choice that I have made that I would want to do differently. Those mistakes, missed opporunities and choices that I thought was not the best have led me to better opportunities, ones that I probably would not have got if I had made a different choice. I am still struggling to get a decent answer to this essay.

But the blog post is about something else. While I was thinking about this, I remembered an old blog post I made in my crazy blog, all the way back in April 2006. I thought I should repost it here…

This has always been in the back of my mind, picking at my brains. But I decided to blog about it when I saw this entry in my friend DDey’s blog.

Robert Frost is a great poet, who has given us such wonderful poems (I loved his works right from high school, my personal favorites being Birches, Mending Wall and Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening).

But reading Dey’s blog entry, the poem that came to my mind was Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken“. Its the story of a traveler who reached a fork in his journey and decided to take the less traveled road then reflects on it later with a pleased demeanor.

As DDey says,
“I believe every moment is a forked road. You choose one path, and that determines what happens next, and at the next fork, you choose yet another path, and so on. The point is, you decide what path you take, and hence, you decide what happens to you next. Therefore whatever happens in your life is a consequence of a decision that you made at some previous instant in time.”

I have faced the “Fork of Life” a lot of times. To reflect back on it makes me neither happy nor sad, just contented that I have chosen what I have (the less traveled road or not).

May be I’m too nerdish, but the fork is a place to analyze life as a tree (binary or otherwise). Trace the graph of the consequences of your selection and predict the approaching “forks” in life. It can help you make a decision in the most optimized way.

But then again, its all crap… I had a fork in life where I had to decide, where I had to do my graduation. One was a college, well known for there academic excellence (BITS Pilani) and known to groom the best engineers in the country, one was a safe option of staying on the home-turf in a college near by and then there was Manipal (the unknown, the unexplored, the lesser trodden road) about which people told me all kinds of stories.

I was “Forked” and the logical solution cried out to me saying “go to Pilani for God sake, even if it was to study something that I didn’t enjoy”, my mother wanted me to be at home and was keen not to spend unnecessary money on my education… But I dared to take the less traveled road and packed my bags to Manipal.

The 4 years I spent there was perhaps the happiest of my life. It taught me a lot of lessons, evolved me into a true MITan and landed me into a job that even the best dream of. But looking back, I often think how it would have turned out, if I had taken any of the other two roads. Where I would have been and how different it would be. But now,

“I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”
-Robert Frost

There is always an amalgam inside your soul, of destiny and determination, that makes the decisions for you, for the better or for the worse…

I’ll end with an addendum to the post, again from DDey’s post 🙂

So, you might ask, are ‘Destiny’ and ‘Fate’ a whole lotta bollocks? In my view, here’s how they fit into the scheme of things. As I mentioned, you reach a forked road and you choose the future course – course means path, what a happy coincidence! – of your life. Destiny, in my view, is what brings you the choices, the paths, that you choose from. It’s like you’re walking on an unknown road, and suddenly you reach a point where three paths go in three different directions – Town A, City B and Village C. The choice of these three destinations was brought to you by Destiny. However, where you decide to go, is your decision, and within your control.

Since everything that happens to you is a result of a decision you’ve made, this leads to so many what-if scenarios. “What if I had left the party early and never met her?”. “What if he hadn’t been sitting next to me at the examination, would I have passed?” You wonder how life would be now if you’d taken a different path at some moment in the past. It’s something worth thinking about.

A relaxed mind is essential for ideas to flow and for a decent essay to be born. I’ve been having a mental block, dealing with a whole lot of stuff at work along with my apps. Looks like Nov is going to be a tough month.

I’m currently doing my Haas essays. Haas is among my favorite schools that I am applying to (along with Ross). But the application has turned out to be probably the most challenging. I love the questions, its just that I hope I had more leisure time to address them.

To try something different, I got some California Wine (a crisp and fruity white from Napa Valley) and sat down to write my essays. Probably its the California connection that did the trick. My thoughts cleared and I could finish drafts of 2 essays, which is kind of a record for me. My reviewers have also said that its much better than the crap that I have been churning out for sometime. Nice… 🙂

So I came up with this equation…

Good Wine = Relaxation = Working mind = Decent Essay

Takes me back to my vacation in Napa in 2006. Some fond memories 😀

At Beringer Vineyards…

Let me in 🙂

Where’s all the wine ?

Got it…

Whoah!

Hola, bonita chica! Hic!

Snowballed to senses

Let me make my view clear upfront. This is not a post saying that Tuck is doing something wrong. Its just a personal view and one that I think is shared by a lot of the prospective Tuckies, as I found out at the Tuck Reception in Bangalore.

My recommendors came back to me saying that the Tuck recommendation is much more demanding than what they had done for Ross. No, its not that the questions that are demanding, but the fact that each of the questions have a 300 words or fewer (3000 character limit).

I think it makes a lot of sense asking students to write within limits, so that :

1. It prevents the applicant from going berserk and writing a saga
2. It tests the applicant’s ability to do more with less.

But, a recommendor is a person who :

1. Is not the applicant and so doesn’t have the time to spend a whole lot of time on the recommendations.
2. Is someone who is being constantly pushed by the applicant to submit the recommendations.

So, the chances of them writing a huge recommendations is pretty slim in my opinion. Asking them to adhere to a word limit makes their work even more difficult. It is possible that it might irritate some (thankfully my recommendors were annoyed, but gracious about it).

Another thing that I didn’t understand:

300 words or fewer (3000 character limit) – What does this mean? I have a text which is 2800 characters, but 450 words and another which has 280 words but again about 3200 characters.

What do I ask them to do? Adhere to the word-limit? or Adhere to the character-limit? My recommendors have been very accommodating when I asked them to get the recommendation into the word limit. I personally feel its asking a bit too much from them.

Which brings me to the question on why did Tuck do it? Before I put the blame on the school, I suspect that the root of the problem might be in the application submission software. Ross used embark.com and that was a pleasure to work with while Tuck uses applyyourself.com. I think it might be the software that is putting this restriction on the application. Most schools use applyyourself.com, so I can find out if it is Tuck or the software…

Earlier, I had written about my experience at the Ross Information Session in Bangalore on 10/14. I had a chance to have a lot of discussions with the alumni and with Kelly and thoroughly enjoyed it. I also had a chance to interview 2 of the alumni who attended the session.

Mr. Sandeep Basrur, Ross Class of 1986, now runs his own manufacturing firm in Bangalore, after several years at Proctor & Gamble. He talked about his Ross Experience, how Ross has changed since he came out of the school and about the Ross-India Alumni Association which he is an active part of.

The other person I interviewed was Mr. Atal, Class of ‘05 and Kelly’s classmate who is now into Management Consulting with PRTM and has worked in US, Egypt and India on several projects. He was very passionate and energetic talking about the school. At the session, he was one among the alumni who was most upfront in answering questions. He talked about his experience at Ross, Ross’s stress on teamwork, his class experience, professors and his MAP experience.

Sadly, my E71 acted up and the video got screwed. I tried with all my video editing skills to get it working, but I could not get a good enough version to upload on the site. So I ripped the audio off the video (you might see/hear that a part of the audio is lost, from about 01:20 to 01:22). Also the last question got cut off, again due to some technical snag with my phone 😦 Here is a picture of Atal and the audio from our interview (or what is left off it) …

Atal, Ross MBA Class of '05

[Download the file here]

I also wanted to talk to Ms. Kelly Kong Rogers, Associate Director of Admissions and Ross Class of ‘05, but she was really exhausted driving the whole session and had to set off to Hyderabad for an event the next day. But Kelly was considerate of my request and agreed for a telephonic interview with me on 10/17 before the Ross Information Session in Mumbai.

Talking to Kelly on Friday, I was able to get a perspective on how the admissions committee views an application. I have read it several times on websites, but Kelly really explained and dispelled many myths associated with B-School admissions. I really appreciate the fact that Kelly, despite her busy travel schedule could spend time to clear a lot of the misconceptions and also share information on Ross. Here is the audio recording of the call.

[Download the file here]

I would like to thank Sandeep, Atal & Kelly for taking time off to do these interviews. I really appreciate it…

Blogs are a real important part for me to get to know a school. I was reading A Slice of Tuck yesterday and came across a reference to an article on the Tuck Investiture 2006.

I wasn’t sure what an Investiture was, so I looked up wikipedia – Investiture, from the Latin (preposition in and verb vestire, ‘dress’ from vestis ‘robe’) is a rather general term for the formal installation of an incumbent (heir, elect of nominee) in public office, especially by taking possession of its insignia.

I read the excerpt from the keynote address and it was simply awesome. Roger McNamee is the co-founder of Tuck’s Glassmeyer/McNamee Center for Digital Strategies. His speech really echoed on what the life after an MBA is. I know its too early for us, but nevertheless, it was inspirational. Here are some of the things he said:

• First, opportunity seldom waves a flag in front you. You have to look for it.
• Second, your job and career are different. Your job is what generates the paycheck. Your career is the larger arc of your professional life.
• Third, professional networking matters as much as you have heard.
• Fourth, don’t be afraid to be wrong. You don’t need to be the smartest person in the room all the time. Test your hypotheses on people who are better informed than you.
• Fifth, try to extend your time horizon. [This a bit gyaan type]
• Sixth, time is the most precious thing you have. [This too]
• Seventh, do something you are proud of.
• Lastly, have a passion outside of work [Roger is a lead singer for Flying Other Brothers Band]

Its a really nice speech. Go through it when you have time 🙂

From the Stacy Blackman Consulting Blog, I came to know about CBS Interactive’s business website called BNet.com. Pretty interesting site. I signed up for free and they gave me a PDF with tips and tricks for Excel as a sign on gift 🙂

I saw an article which I thought was really good in there called How to Manage Your Team in a Downturn (and Come Out on Top). Its really interesting and you can download it as a PDF if you have an account. The article interested me for various reasons:

• I thought it gave me a clear view of cultivating leadership, one that all MBA schools require you to do.
• It looks at a problem logically, refuses to play blame games and works a strategy to work things out, or as the article says:
  

  Motivate employees and find out how and where the business needs to change

• The comments to the article are as good as the article itself [The Web2.0 mantra of harnessing collective intelligence]

I think there are several aspects mentioned in the article that we can successfully incorporate in our essays. Most of you may have already done so (in some way or the other) but for me, this article provided clarity on leaderhip and motivation and put these abstract concepts into words…

So, this website is going into my bookmarks and the podcasts (pretty interesting stuff) into my iPod. 🙂

Yesterday as I set out for the Ross Information Session at Hotel ITC Windsor, I did not exactly know where the venue was. All I knew was that it was somewhere on the Golf Course Road. As I got out, the rain gods started playing hide and seek and it was drizzling on and off. When I reached the Golf Course Road, it started pouring like crazy. By the time I finally got to the venue, I was soaking wet and I actually had to blow-dry myself in the restroom before i was presentable at in a social setting 🙂

When I reached there were already a couple of people there (unlike in the Tuck session). I met Ms. Kelly Kong Rogers (Associate Director of Admissions) and an alum Mr. Sandeep Basrur (Ross Class of 1986). It was great that a person who did a Ross MBA (I think it was called University of Michigan MBA then) so long back was still passionate and willing to help out the school. That definitely told me a lot about Ross.

The room was full by the time we started and I noticed that like me, there were several of them who had completed their Ross app. I was there not for information on the applications process, but to get to know the school a bit better from a personal perspective. We had 5 people representing Ross that night:

• Ms. Kelly Kong Rogers, Associate Director of Admissions and Ross Class of ’05
• Mr. Sandeep Basrur, Ross Class of 1986, who now runs his own manufacturing firm in Bangalore, after several years at Proctor & Gamble.
• Mr Keshav, Class of ’02 who is in the Corporate Planning division with Infosys in Bangalore
• Mr Akshay Kamath, Class of ’08, who did his Evening MBA at Ross and now works in Brand Marketing for Intel Asia
• and Mr. Atal, Class of ’05 and Kelly’s classmate who is now into Management Consulting with PRTM and has worked in US, Egypt and India on several projects.

Kelly gave a presentation that revolved around Ross, its Leadership Initiative, the MAP and the Ann Arbor culture. Then the alumni answered a lot of questions from the group. There was one gentleman who went on and on about asking about teamwork and what it meant at Ross…

I had gone there to ask a couple of questions myself and here’s what I got:

1. What about aid/loans for international students now that the news says CitiBank has withdrawn the CitiAssist program for Ross?

I really liked Kelly’s answer to this. She was very frank in admitting that these were tough times. She said that though the CitiAssist program has been revoked for Ross, there is still a Citi program for international students, common for the whole of Univ of Michigan that requires a co-signer. She said the school might provide aid/loans, but people should be prepared to make arrangements nonetheless, probably get someone who can become a co-signer. She went on to say that finance, though is a problem, should never be a deterrent for applying to business school.

2. How does the industry characterize a Ross MBA ?

Here are the points from what Kelly and Atul said:

• The Ross MBA is viewed as a strong General Management MBA, but with a lot of flexibility built in.
• Students are down-to-earth and not uptight.
• Students are greatly prepared for the real world, owing to MAP.
• Collaborative spirit and teamwork shines out in a Ross grad.
• Recruiters are amazed at how well the students excel at the internships, owing to the MAP course that precedes the internship…

As at the Tuck reception, i was able to get the interviews of some people at the event, but sadly the videos are still under processing and I’ll put them up in a bit. Both Atul and Sandeep spent quite a bit of time with me making sure that all my questions were answered. Anyway, here are my takeaways:

I really liked this quote in the Ross MBA Book on Action-Based Learning…

You can read a case study anywhere. Be the case.

My Hurrays!!

• I was really impressed by the alumni passion for the school. The fact that Sandeep, class of 1986 turned up to help for the event itself was a testimony to that.
• MAP as per the descriptions, met and exceeded my expectations.
• Ann Arbor community to me looks a lot like Manipal (where I did my undergrad). It would be fun to go back to that setting after all these years in the din of the city.
• I see a common thread in how these alums consider the school and in what makes me tick…. Passion, Passion and more passion.

Disappointments and Scary Stuff

• Frankly the loan stuff is making me uncomfortable. Every time!
• Disappointed that I couldn’t get an interview with Kelly. She was totally exhausted by the end of it. Working as an Evangelist and having done a variety of events myself, I definitely understand. Hope I can catch her for a telephone interview sometime..
• I confirmed my fears about the Michigan weather. Minus 30 degree Centigrade is tough stuff…

I went to the session to get a clear picture of life and community at Ross. I must say I got what I was looking for. I found them to be warm, open and down-to-earth. Sandeep spend quite a lot of time with me asking me what I was looking in an MBA and helping me analyze if Ross was a good fit for me. He even spent time reviewing my other school choices and gave his comments. Thanks a lot Sandeep, I really appreciate it.

Ross, Tuck and Haas are really my prime choices for my MBA destination. I really cant pick a winner amongst them at this point, but my interactions with Ross at the session has clearly got Ross scoring some brownie points in my book. I think I will be a good fit at Ross, now its for the school to decide if I am one that they would like to have in the class.

Go Blue !

After attending the Tuck Reception in Bangalore, my affinity for Tuck has jumped high up on my scale. I spent a whole lot of time today, debating if I should slog and hurry a Early-Round app or wait for a better app by Nov. My essays are almost done (with the exception of one), but recommedors have not yet responded. Going through the app, it requires me to put in a lot of other details, a bit more than Ross which is the one that I finished… So I’ve decided !

I am tucking the Tuck app for Nov Round, because I want to put in a better effort at the application. The motto stays: “Apply when you are most prepared” and I think I need a bit more time for Tuck.

Here’s a video I found by Sara Neher, Director of Admission, Darden School of Business about loans for international students.

According to me, there are a couple of interesting things in what she said:

• Yes there is a credit crisis (we all knew it), and its temporary (i need more proof)
• She said that if the banks don’t step up, Darden may come up with some ways to help prospective students (that’s awesome)
• Nothing was spoken on International students with co-signers available…

This week, I also saw this post about Citibank canceling its Citi-Assist Student Loan Program at Several Business Schools including MIT Sloan and Michigan Ross (oops!).

I will surely add this to my list of questions that I want to put to the admission officers at the Ross Information Session tomorrow. I want to know if atleast the schools that I am applying to, are planning any school specific initiatives for International students, similar to what Darden talked about… These are tough times indeed !

Here’s an aggregation of the Tuck reception videos… It was hosted by Martin Keck (Tuckie Class of ’08).

Martin’s Intro speech

Martin’s MBA Experience

Interview with Martin Keck

Fevicol is a brand that’s so much into the Indian consumer’s psyche as Xerox and recently iPod is among the international audience. Fevicol, in existence since 1959, enjoys upwards of 60% market share and is  manufactured and marketed by Pidilite Industries Ltd .

[From Wikipedia] For its advertising, Fevicol won a Cannes Lions Silver award in 2002 and has won several ABBY awards. Ogilvy & Mather, the advertising agency responsible for the brand’s advertising claim, “From the physical aspects of the word to the metaphorical manifestations – ‘Fevicol is Bonding and bonding is Fevicol’ in the mindspace of people at large.”

I remember that as a child fevicol ads were one of the most interesting ads on TV. Every one used to ask for”Fevicol” and not adhesive 🙂 I dug up some of my favorite Fevicol Ads from 80’s to today…

The Chicken & Egg ad

(Probably one of the earliest ones I remember…)

The Bus Ad

This one won several awards

Mom and Kid

I like this one a lot…

Fevicol has penetrated the brand deep into the minds of the customers themselves. In the beginning it may be that there was not much competition, but now their innovative ads and marketing campaigns still keep them at that spot…

I think I really broke the jinx. I have registered for the Ross Information Session in Bangalore on Oct 14 2008. See you all there. I have finished my apps to Ross but I’ll still go. I want to see how the Ross guys are…

After my Tuck Reception, I am really looking forward for this. I hope it will live up to my expectations. I hope atleast this time, I can get to talk to an Ad-com person.

You can register for the Ross Information Sessions here [http://www.bus.umich.edu/Admissions/Mba/forumsreceptions/RossReceptions.htm]

After all the luck/divine intervention, I finally made it to the Tuck Reception yesterday. I was a bit apprehensive as Nitin had commented on my blog and mailed me saying that the Ad-Com couldn’t make it to the Delhi Tuck Reception due to some reason.

Anyway, I was at the venue a bit early and was the first person there even before the Tuckies. People slowly flowed in and I had a chat with several of them.One of them mentioned that Tuck curriculum lacked focus to Operations which was interesting to me. I need to dig this a bit deeper.

The Venue – Taj Residency

Another one…

At sharp  7:00, Martin Keck (Tuckie Class of ’08) walked in and we got started on time. But like any other IST (Indian Stretchable Time) based event, people kept trickling in long after the session began.As feared Marin started by announcing that the Ad-Com couldn’t be there because they had to go cancel after a huge surge in applications due to the economic slowdown. Here’s a video of Martin’s intro speech.

Martin’s Intro speech

A bit more about Martin Keck. Martin is from California and was working in Venture Capital & Private Equity prior to Tuck and is switching to a consulting role at Bain post MBA. He had a great GMAT score and was offered a scholarship at Tuck.

It was clear that Marin was called on at the last minute as he fumbled through the presentation and did the formal presentation, mostly reading from a piece of paper. I sympathize with him as I am sure he wasn’t aware of it in advance. The formal presentation covered all aspects of life at Tuck and the then we moved on to questions.

I was hoping this doesn’t turn out to be a “What do I need to get in?” kind of a session. Thankfully, due to the fact that the Ad-Com couldn’t make it, there were more questions about Tuck and the program rather than the admissions. There were people asking questions on opportunities at Tuck to pursue Social Enterprise, Entrepreneurship, Private Equity, Marketing… among others. We then had a small tea break and then Martin got talking about his MBA experience which was the highlight of the day 🙂

Martin’s MBA Experience

We had a bit more formal questions and then we concluded. Even after that a whole lot of people surrounded Martin, bombarding with questions. I must say Martin was gracious and was at ease tackling them. Anyway once the crowd cleared, I caught Martin for the interview that I had requested in the beginning of the session for my blog. Here it is (the voice fades off for a bit in the middle. I am still trying to get used to using my E71 for podcasts)

People surrounding Martin

Interview with Martin Keck

My Observations

What I liked/loved:

• The session gave me insight to Tuck that was not on the website.
• I have been in touch with a few Tuckies and Martin echoed their sentiments of Tuck being the best days of their lives.
• Reiterated Tuck’s general management focus and alumni network.
• Martin’s MBA experience got many of us licking our lips 🙂

What was disappointing:

• I hope an Ad-Com member could have made it.
• I hope there were more Tuckies. I had hoped to meet Ad-Com, Students, Alumni to get varied perspectives.
• Martin scared a whole lot of us by saying that this year is going to be a huge jump in applications 🙂
• Finally there was mostly non-veg food around, so I had to go hungry 😦

As i said at the end of Martin’s interview, I went to the reception thinking I will apply to Tuck. But I left the place excited to apply and praying I get in. Now back to my essays so that I can finish the Tuck apps for the early action round on the 15th…

Another pleasant surprise today (Boy this is getting better by the hour). I am featured in the MBA Applicants Blogroll kept by Hella (Keeper of the MBA blog lists and Wharton MBA 2006).

Due to this, my posts are also showing up on ClearAdmit Individuals’ Blogs page. Cool !

Serendipity strikes again 🙂

Happy Vijayadashami/ Dussehra to one and all. For people who are clueless what Vijayadashami is (read the wiki page for sure), it is a day when many families in South India start formal education of their kids as it is the day of Goddess Saraswati, the Goddess of Learning.

The practice has been so old, that it has even grown secular in parts of South India. For example, in some parts of the state of Kerala, many churches formally adopted the same tradition of introducing young children to education on Vijayadashami. What’s Vijayadashami got to do with my MBA application? Well, today I got a pleasant surprise in the morning. I am unsure to call it Serendipity or Hand of God/Goddess 🙂

You might remember my frustrated post on not being able to attend the Tuck reception. All the Tuck alumni I interacted with have told me that they fell in love with the school at the Tuck reception (well that might be a bit exaggerated) and so I was mad that I missed the window. I wrote to the school explaining my circumstances (the fact that due to my traveling job, i was unable to decide till the last minute if i will be in Bangalore for the event) in a desperate attempt, but this too (as expected) was in vain as they had limited space.

But today morning I woke and something/someone (not able to still decide which 🙂 )told me to check the Tuck website again.  And lo, there was a slot available for today’s Tuck reception at Taj Recidency. Bless the soul who pulled out 🙂 So seems like I have broken my jinx and am going to attend my first MBA event (though I planned to attend 3 of them before this). If you are coming, see you there. You know what I look like (if not, see the side bar)

Today, I completed my Ross Application. Some say making the first step is always the toughest. Hope the subsequent ones will be easier. I was getting slightly paranoid in the end, reading the whole applications again and again. Anyway its done and I got a mail from ROss saying that the app has been accepted. Now wait, watch and pray.

Some leanings from the app experience.

• Give the recomendors enough time. It was a mad rush in the end to get them to do it on time 😦
• Don’t be complacent. I had downloaded the recommendation qns from the Ross website a long time back and it turned out to be of last yr. I found it out in the last minute (hence the paranoia with the rest of the application) which caused a bit of a problem for the recomendors as I had to explain my mistake to them. They were quite gracious in overlooking the mistake. Thanks guys.
• Make sure that you see to it that your GMAT and TOEFL scores reach the ad-com in time. I had a scare at this…

Things I liked:

• The embark.com’s software for application. Quite neat. All the other schools I am applying to are using applyonline.com’s software for the application.
• Loved the fact that all the stuff in the application was using PDF. A proud moment for an Adobe guy 🙂

Ross is one of the places I really want to get into. I love the school, the people I have interacted with and everything about it. The next app is of another school that too interests me a lot. Tuck…

What’s with me and MBA events? They just seem to be running away or I happen to run away myself 😦

It started with the ISB events. I registered for both of them in Bangalore (wasted 400 bucks) but had to be out of town on work on those exact days.

Then the MBA Tour on 29th Sep in Bangalore. I register and I get an intimation from the passport office in Trivandrum on my application for a new passport (I had changed my name and had applied for a new passport)…

The last straw today was the Tuck Reception. Every damn venue in India is available except Bangalore. WTF…. It seems I can never make it to an MBA event… ~!@#$%^&