No pain no gain; no guts no glory

Dear loved ones back home

Its Sep 14th and I am getting older. Birthdays were never like it used to be before. When I was young I wanted to get old and start earning. When I started earning I couldn't wait to get back to school. Now I am in a school, getting old and no Income (All three together) .... Trust me very bad situation to be in!
I am almost intentionally dazzled about Hong Kong. I had set off wanting HK to be something special and there fore it was. It is kind of a Wilful Infatuation. I guess its always like that with me, I don't carry too much baggage of my previous city and try to like my new home.It was true with Chennai, Hyderabad (Including Milwaukee and London - Though people might accuse me of being immodest)
From the response of my readers, I realize that I am in Danger of romanticising MBA life or HK and I want to correct that anomaly.
It really is not all that fun and exciting. Once the Initial excitement subdues, Many moment of truths strike you hard. It has its load of horrible moments. Cooking and washing your clothes daily is not fun at all. Imagine cooking food after a rather tired day at Univ. ! The loneliness and feeling so away from home - not cool at all . When you are really hungry, and you cant find a decent veg restaurant... Quiet depressing. Sometimes when you are alone you cant help but ask your self, What am I doing here ? No answer ! Why leave a job with handsome pay and make this move ? No Answer ! These are moments when you suffer a momentary loss of confidence. Now before I sound melodramatic let me Quote Albert Einstein " Life is like a bicycle , In order to keep the balance you have to move". How ever like always in life the brighter spots over rides these melancholic moments. I recommend all of you who still have a chance to break out of the monotony and come out of your comfort zone. It could be quiet a life changing experience.
HKU MBA
The MBA students are getting really comfortable with each other and a collegiate feeling is slowly creeping in. You know that when everybody starts sharing lewd jokes to each other and openly mocks the professor. The Under graduate courses have opened up and the university is looking more youthful and cheeky. To our surprise, quiet a lot of Indians are studying under graduate courses, especially girls.
Lot of us get excited when we see an Indian girl and start abysmally ogling at her. No matter how physically far you go away from home you only seem to get closer symbolically. How much ever you try you cant cut out that Indianness out of you, can you ?
Courses - Creativity and Business Design
My first semester is ending next week and classes couldn't have been more busy. I am taking three courses now. Decision and Risk analysis - A Proxy name for boring , monotonous Maths classes. I have always been mathematically challenged and this course only exposes it further. It doesn't help that the Prof. is not great especially after the other Profs had inflated our expectations. I am also taking a very interesting course called " Creativity and Business Design" Taught by Prof. Ali (From Iran). Its probably one of the best courses so far. Prof Ali teaches at Insead and MIT. Need I say more to validate his credentials. More over this class has an interesting mix of students. There is a Canadian Arabic who is a stand up Comedian. A eunuch who is an event manager! A Egyptian and many other interesting students.
We had a leadership workshop last week and this is how my visiting professor opened the class.
" Leadership is like Sex, Unless you have done it before you don't know how it is like"
The applause and ruptures of laughter didn't die for 5 long minutes .
China Theatre
I am reading quiet a few literature on china and its history is truly intriguing and as tumultuous as India's. Did you know that all Universities and schools were closed in China for almost a decade. Imagine, No schools and colleges for a whole decade.! Think about it a little harder and it opens a whole Gamut of questions !!
I am told the photos are getting too repetitive.... However I am sharing a couple of photos taken during the team building workshop. It was in our sports complex.
I hope you enjoy reading my experiences as much as I enjoy writing it.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mining the essence of a life well lived

I first met Harihara Iyer in 2009 in a hurried and anxious setting – not for him, but for me. He wasn't particularly interested in me, but I was hoping to win over his daughter's interest! I'll never forget his opening salvo to me 17 years ago. I would dread such a question from a prospective employer, but coming from a suitor's father, it was downright jarring. He skipped the pleasantries and cut straight to the chase: "Are you a CA?" (He knew I wasn't). The question pierced right through my gut!   But I rattled off my rehearsed response, highlighting my MBA and certifications (including Hindi Prachar Sabha, of course!). However, his attention had already wandered midway through my meandering response, and I could almost hear him mumbling, "Next groom, please." Despite that shaky start, our bond grew over shared interests in politics and macroeconomics. We'd discuss election results and India's economic landscape, and I'd nod enthusi...
Read more

The undertones of an Overton window

This is a momentous week to recall the pivotal year of 1991 in India's history. 1991 was a remarkable period in the country's history. India was at a crossroads, which was a fancy way of saying we were bankrupt. The cabinet secretary handed a note to the newly sworn-in PM. He looked at it bewildered and asked, " Is the economic situation that bad?"  The non challant response — "No Sir... It's worse!" Thus began unraveling the story of the reforms. The options for the intellectual and the diligent finance minister were straightforward: a simple three-point plan: devaluing the rupee, liberalizing trade, and disrobing the license raj.    Unlike a corporate leader who could simply draft a policy, issue a memo, and expect compliance, the economic reforms were not corporate boardroom drama. The Oxford-educated finance minister was not making chess moves but making strategic maneuvers. But there was a democracy at pla...
Read more

Stress-tastic: The Art of Worrying Well

The human capacity for stress is boundless. Give us a problem, and we'll worry. Take the problem away, and we'll find something else. Stress is such a stressful topic amongst the chatterati. To assess the quality of challenges in a given society, look at what the local newspaper in the city is fretting over.  I visited a country last month where food allergens and bullying at school were among the most stressful issues for the community. The local newspaper reported food mislabeling as one of the gravest crises of the century. The locals were stricken with grief when they heard about employees back in my country working nine hours a day! They claimed to have empathy burnout by merely hearing the story! A Child getting bullied at school can cause deep distress in this community. As a child, I remember getting thrashed at the playground. I come back home with a deep gash in my hand. My grandmother glanced at it and suddenly remembered that she urgently needed a half-liter of milk...
Read more