My long vacation…

I’m back!!! (Okay, I admit I’ve been back for almost a month now, so there’s really no need to put my famous exclamation marks, but hey, I love these exclamation marks, and this is my blog, so I’m just gonna keep them :D ) People have been telling me to write about the exam, the trip, the food, the weather and what not! The big problem is, I have no clue where to start. Every time someone asks me how the trip was, I just have one word to say... "Awesome!", accompanied by my customary grin. In fact, that word does a pretty good job of describing the whole trip.
So it all started when I decided that I should finally give GMAT. I mean, I went to Dilip Oak’s when I was in college, I’ve been giving plenty of gyaan to anyone who’d lend his/her ear about MBA, and I keep “researching” schools all the time… so, I had to do something. Anyway, so I took a date, 27th September 2008 at Ahmedabad. And since I was going to give an exam, for which I was supposed to study hard (like that was gonna happen), I decided to take a long vacation after the exam. So I applied for 8 days of leave (which translated into 13 days of vacation) and convinced my best friend to join me for an awesome trip that I would plan.
The next big decision was to choose the place where we’d spend our long vacation. The first choice was Ladakh, but it was ruled out because it was off-season time. Some more names were on the table, but we finally decided on Rajasthan. I wanted to visit the place for a long time… it was the perfect time, not too hot, not too cold, and there was plenty of time to visit all the major attractions. So the place was done, and I got down to planning the entire trip, from getting accommodation to nailing down the itinerary.
As it turned out, the trip was awesome. The pictures are up on Orkut and Picassa. Check them out! Next post, on tackling GMAT :)

Beat the GMAT ?

Well, I did! :) That's the simple answer to the question. Got 750, extremely commendable, esecially for someone as lazy as me. I probably wasn't even expecting as much. But now that I have such a fabulous score (a fact that everyone I know unanimously agrees with, unless they have never heard of GMAT, in which case I get the good ol' polite smile-and-nod, "Must be a good score, she doesn't look that dumb!"), people keep asking me for advice, study tips and so on. Usually, I end up repeating what I'd read on quite a few blogs, and not exactly what I'd done. And that is because my studying patterns are irregular, hardly effective, and rely heavily on my mood swings. I still remember, it was August, and the rains were on, and most of the days, I'd get back home from office, plan to study, and then end up spending the entire evening on my balcony with a cup of coffee and chips! :)
Anyway, getting back to the point, I think the thing that helped me most during my preparations was remembering the basic rules. I didn't end up doing half of the mock exams that I had collected. For those seriously pressed for time, I'd recommend starting off with reading Kaplan, Princeton and the likes for the very basic steps for approaching SC (Sentence Correction), CR (Critical Reasoning) or RC (Reading Comprehension) and even DS (Data Sufficiency) questions. Also, make a achievable list of the things you plan to finish. Put realistic time lines. Find time to give a few mock exams, even if it means doing only one section at a time.
I don't have much to offer, so "Good Luck" is all that I'm gonna say! :)

Great-food & bad-dressing day

Well, it's not everyday that I go ga-ga over the food I've eaten. Pune has such a dearth of good eating joints that the only time I get to eat lip-smacking food is when I've cooked it myself! (and that takes a lot of effort, and people who know me know that I'm not too fond of that :D )However, yesterday was one of those exceptional days where everything I ate was damn good! However, it seems that my dressing sense had taken a serious hit..(no thanks to my friend who thought otherwise :) but hey, I'm duly flattered.. ) Let me explain myself a bit here.
So, the day started with me going for Ganpati Visarjan. It was drizzling outside and I decided to stick to my "rainy-day" attire, i.e. old jeans, old shirt and the oldest of them all, my floaters! After an eventful Visarjan ceremony, where I had a nice laddoo (good food), I ended up taking my friend to the Army canteen. Now, normally, i don't venture out much in my "rainy-day" attire. But I was convinced that I looked fine and could definitely attempt to make a little more public appearance than I wanted to. So, I go inside the canteen, and there is no shortage of well-dressed Aunties giving me those looks which shout out "Can't you even bother to wear clean clothes and comb your hair?" :-( Well, the best option seemed like ignoring all those looks, stashing up on my monthly groceries and what-not, and making a beeline for the exit. So, i did exactly that. Now the next part of plan was to go home, take a bath and head out for lunch.
However, none of the above happened. I got convinced, yet again, that I was fit to head out for lunch in the same attire...Now I was damn hungry and it totally seemed like the best option at that time. So, off we were to Chaitanya's for their nice stuffed paranthas and paneer lachha and patiala lassi! Awesome food!
After stuffing ourselves, we headed straight back home for a lovely afternoon nap. :-) Got up in the evening, and did some major TP at home. Anyway, so it was time for dinner soon. The original plan was to get some pav-bhaji at the tapri near my house...So, I left home dressed in the same clothes that I had on (which were very unimpressive :( )However, as is the case with most plans, at the last moment, we decided to go to Sheesha Cafe. Now there was no amount of persuasion that would make me step into Sheesha with what I had on. But man... little did I realize that I'd fall prey to some more flattery!!!
So, what followed was a crappy theory about me being so rich that I was sporting the 'I don't care!' look and hence being so under dressed...The funny thing is, the evening was damn good, especially with the hookah and the good food round 2!
And, for all of you wondering what this post is all about, well, it's basically about nothing. I hadn't ranted for a while and thought I'd spend some time of my precious time at work doing so. :-)
Sorry for making all you busy people read this crap... :-D

A bout of nostalgia…

A change of job comes with its upsides and downsides. After my recent switch, I’ve got a decent pay-hike (better than my counterparts … with IT raises hitting rock-bottom this year), decent work-hours (yea, I know its because I’m still ‘new’ and nobody can dump work on me that I don’t understand ;-) ),working conditions conducive to productivity, a good boss (I can’t stress enough on that!!) and a good shot at making a decent (read rocking) career for myself. But there are days, some days, but yet there are those days, when I miss my good ol’ company. I don’t shy away from hard-work, but I think there are times I’d like to be one of the ‘hardly-working’ types…Call it nostalgia, but I can’t help missing the free time I had on my hands a few months back (it’s a whole different issue that I didn’t use it much, except to have fun :P ). But now that I’m here, not only do I have work (to do and learn), I also need to get started with my extremely, terribly, long-overdue plan of giving GMAT. Plus, the part I hate most is that I miss my friends. There are nice people here, and everyone keeps telling me that it takes some time to make friends and get comfortable, yet I keep missing ‘my’ friends. I miss the familiar faces, the friendly waves, the small talk with people whose names I keep forgetting, my window-seat, the green gardens and the ‘chai ki tapri’. I bet I could keep going on but I want to stop. It’s a different kind of feeling to be surrounded by people who are competent, know what needs to be done, and do not get off your back till the job is done the right way. I like this feeling of responsibility, which was absent (at least on the work-front) for quite some time now. I can feel my ambitions fledging. It is different but it feels okay.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that change is inevitable, it’s our decision to either get on with it or keep holding on to a more secure past. I’m still in touch with the friends I keep missing all day long, but I don’t feel bad about it anymore. I’m not best friends with anyone in my new company yet, but I’m sure I can survive 10 hours a day with these guys now… But most of all, I look forward to making sure that this change is for the better.

The pursuit of happiness

A sudden discussion with one of my best friends sprouted some thoughts on what one needs to feel satisfied with one's life. I've always had a standard definition for what I want in my life.... I just want to be happy. The problem is, I need a lot of things to make me feel that way. For starters, a good job, one which gets me a fat paycheck every month, along with satisfactory work, good colleagues, a nice boss...and the works. Most people keep telling me that's a lot to ask for! And given my current situation, I have to agree.
The ironic thing is, a few months back, I used to LOVE my work. Excellent work, a supportive boss, friendly co-workers..Its a whole different story now!! Anyway, I think I'm digressing from the point...
So, getting back to being happy. I wish there was a formula for it. Anyway, apart from work, I think good family support and a healthy dose of good friends should do the trick. Seems pretty easy to achieve. I mean, we all have friends, our parents would really never not support us and how difficult is it to find a decent job (especially when you have a solid education backing you up)? Turns out, its not that simple.
I'm still figuring it out for myself. Don't have a lot of concrete answers yet, but I'm happy I've started getting a few things on track.