many many full moons ago...

The century old Pyrmont bridge in Sydney was a year younger when I last scribbled a few words on this blog. The bridge has witnessed many full moons since then. A lot of interesting things have happened in this period (no, I dont mean the sub-prime mortgage crisis, or anything Sensex) that could have been reflected on "Reflections". While I have always wanted to keep myself from completely abstaining from blogging, I have not been good at executing the same. I hope to and I am determined to doing a better job this year... Stay tuned.. Cheers!!

back again...

2007 beckons

Just a couple of hours seperate me from the morning of 2007. The morning,when I'll take my Financial Statement Analysis exam. How romantic! Thats not all. There are a couple of nice parties happening on the New Years eve. and guess what! I'll not be attending any of those.

Well, on a more serious note, if 2006 was an action packed year, 2007 promises to be a couple of notches higher on that scale. The placement fever has gripped one and all in the ISB and one can really feel the storm that is just round the corner. Talking about storms.. my exam on the 1st has all the makings of being a mini storm.. which suggests that I should get back to the statement of cash flows..

Wish you all a Happy New Year. Keep walking!

R1 results

The round 1 results for admission to the ISB were declared 2 days ago. Some people were escatic, some dejected and all the others are waitlisted. Thats exactly how it was last year. I remember each and every moment of that Abu Dhabi winter morning (Jan 7, 2006) when the R1 resutlts for the class of 2007 were declared. I didnt sleep the night before. Infact, I had a long walk with R paaji (btw paaji, I miss those long walks and the roof-top pizzas and coffees) at night in anticipation of a favourable result next day morning. Next day morning saw my anxiety levels sky-rocket. But then, I got the mail - the mail that brought me here, to this roller-coaster ride.

Very soon, the class of 2008 will take over. I wish the admits and the R2 applicants good luck. One bit of suggestion to the R1 admits - Relax now and charge yourself for the most enjoyable and the most hectic year of your lives. Welcome to ISB!

Its going real fast

I wrote my term 3 final exams yesterday. Yes, term 3 is over. Welcome to term 4@ISB. It’s going real fast man. May be, a bit too fast for comfort. It feels like I landed here just a couple of days ago. However, I guess that’s how it always is. In this case particularly, one gets trapped (is discombobulated the right word?) in the maze of activities one gets to (is made to) indulge in. Besides the normal scheduled class lectures, there are guest talks, there are assignments, there are group meetings and then there are exams, and more exams. I believe that shows up in my bloging patterns as well. However, I guess I have decided to be regular with my blogs from now on, which in no way means that I expect to have spare time now. Infact, my kitty is fuller now than it ever was. I am doing an ELP with HSBC. I have enrolled for the ‘Planning an Entrepreneurial Venture’ course. And lo! As if this is not enough, term 4 is actually a 4 week term.
Let me also take some time out to reflect on the courses I studied in the previous term. These are in the order of my liking towards the subject:
1. Corporate Finance (Rating 10/10): Did I not absolutely love the subject. I attribute this to two factors.
• One, the instructor was Prof. Bhagwan Chowdhary. Trust me folks, even fin guys can have a sense of humour.
• Braley Myers: Principles of Corporate finance. I just loved reading this book. Would like to quote something from their chapter on Financing and Valuation summary.
“This chapter is almost 100% theory. The theory is difficult. If you think u understand all formulas, assumptions, and relationships on the first reading, we suggest psychiatric assistance.” – Braley Myers: Principles of Corporate Finance, 7th edition, Chapter 19, Page 552
2. Operations Management (Rating 8/10): Nice course. I quite liked Prof. Sudhakar Deshmukh from Kellogg. I believe that operations is a fairly useful subject in terms of its applications to the industry. Even the BCG consultants have to find Economic Order Quantities 
3. Entrepreneurship (Rating 7/10): The 40% class participation component of the grade ensured that the classes were fairly interesting. The course was very insightful.
4. Managerial Accounting (Rating: You don’t want to know): I think I am not the right person to comment on this course. All I’ll say is that the course tests your patience more than any thing else.

Destination ISB - Prologue

I've been getting a lot of mails and phone calls from people who want to make it to the ISB the next year. This doesn't surprise me one bit, for ISB is getting a few notches higher everyday. I have hence decided to post a series of articles in the same space for the benefit of all those who want to experience this roller-coaster ride next year. The first step towards this direction is the GMAT. No one can downplay the importance of a good GMAT score. I'll discuss this aspect at length in my next post on the Destination ISB series. Stay tuned and keep reading.

The week that was..

This is my first post from the ISB. As I compose this post, I find myself going through a plethora of emotions. While I am excited about being a part of this wonderful institution, I also get nostalgic at the thought of the times when I was preparing (and hoping) to get here. In the last one week or so, I've got real insights into the life@ISB and have got my expectations straight in terms of intensity of the programme. We have already had a host of parties in the last couple of days and now everyone is kind of looking forward to the core terms to begin. This reminds that the core terms will indeed begin in a few days and I'd rather get started with my books :)