Good to be back !!!

Okay, I'm back!!! After what seems like ages since my last post, life has been a roller coaster of sorts. So gonna give a glimpse of what happened to from where I last left, Term 5....looks like ages now. Coming up in the next posts are the usual Exec's of Terms 6 thru 8. The placements season, unwinding in T8. The break before work, updates on whats going on in my life .... wink wink...and also general musings. Promise to keep this blog ticking. Hello ....out there.

HMTG.

Term 5 - exec summary

Term 5 was a race against time. 5 fin courses in 5 weeks was alwasys going to be a difficult proposition. This task make more difficult by some difficult times domestically :-(. Nevertheless, lets get to the interesting parts.

Had the following courses, Prop Fin, Adv Corp Fin, Fixed Income, Options and Futures and Feco. Prop fin was a good course made elementary, it was all about cap rates, mortgages and debt service. Some interesting stuff about CMOs. So not a very great course.

Feco, Mudit was awesome, contemporary thoughts and some insightful things were discussed, moi yet to grapple with all the stuff CAPM has to offer yet. Good course, I guess this is the foundation to all finance, if stocks define finance and the underlying of all stocks are volatility and returns. So enjoyed the course.

ADCF, hmm..a big let down, did get as much out of the course as I had expected to, neways was a good learning experience, that the amount you learn is proportional to the amount of effort one puts in. So no great qualms here..

Options and futures...was all about Hull, didn't get a think of what was thought in class. I love derivatives !

That apart, moi was involved in the Capital Markets conference and was instrumental in getting the event together, which was a grand success but for the ISB junta participation.

Participated in the Hyd 10K run, and completed it. It was around the Hussein Sagar lake and had an impressive turnout of around 2K ppl, including Sameera reddy :-). Maybe this is one the things I would remember about Hyd in the times to come.

Placements, big hearbreak. No DB no GS no ..blah..bhah..so moi bit disappointed.

HMTG.

Yo Bangalore ! Yo Term 5

Bangalore this time around was more about Infy mates, UVCE mates and some good food. Sis had come down for diwali, so was an occassion for all of us at home. Giri as usual was at his best with Sw**ty, all ga ga. Took me to this new chinese joint at KML, called Yo China, good ambience , good food and more importantly , undiscovered. I've nevered enjoyed chinese noodles as much as I did the other day. And how can we miss our good old Corner house. Pusp, Lala and Kiran were all doing good business for Diwali, Gold sells big time during diwali.

Back home at 12, read about a zillion mails, I had accumulated over the terms, slept like a baby. Sunday was loong...had to meet Mathew and Deepa ( what a lovely couple they make, but for the SAIT session at khemka, I would have made it to their wedding in mal land). Neways, got them a lovely bronze statue ( or at least I thought it was good), CCD at KML is pretty cool for such a occassion, nice garden setting and all. Met up with Randy, dude is all set to app to some big shot B schools next year. Then next up was the big get-together with Mads/chets/amit/sarika/bindu ..... Decided to meet at 3/4 chinese ( chinese again, thinking about it I come to love chinese food). But before that some godly stuff, Mom thought that I had almost become an atheist, so had me accompany her to the temple ! ( big occassion that ). So in the evening , met up with my mates, chattet about the good old engg days ( akki roti, munches, badami - e - halu ...), ended in the same old uvce style, Corner house.

Sunday, morning, almost missed my flight back to Hyd. Reached at around 11, and had to pick my bike from Kachiguda station, and then drive back to Gachi....what a nightmare, I cannot for my life tell where G...is from K...! Neways, reached and then began my never ending saga of classes ( or my misses ). Term 5 in a nutshell, 5 courses, 1 Mapi, 1 IS, 1 Langauage, 2 I banks. has made my life a big time warp.

Visited RR's house y'day, Pragna rules.

Adios, HMTG.

May the force be with me !

Good news first, had been to Bangalore. Enzaid. <>, now after the eventful SAIT, I decided to get some goodies for Ash, so the ever dependable Mr S, decides to accompany me to LS or HC. So we three head off towards HC ( S, me and my Pulz). Reached HC, got some toys, some tees, some sweets from Pullaz, and dined at SS ( good food, nice exp, nice price). So I returned all happy about life, full bliss and a state of euphoria. Slept well again.

Now, when we wake up late for an exam the previous day, and when you realise that you don't have an exam today, the human mind is programmed to think that its vaccation time, am I am human. So even though I woke up in time, didn't realise that I had an AdCF class, but I acted a bit smart thinking that since I can't attend the OPFR class in the eve, would attend it earlier, so went to the class, just to see Pinks asking "where the f.*** were you" in as many words, realised that SD did a good session on Fin case anaylsis, so now had to change plans, had to attend a hours lecture in another class in he evening at 5, had to catch a train at 7. Receipe for disaster. Attended the Options class, attended the Prop class, attended half of ADCF, and by then it is 6:15. Am still at campus, holy shit.

Rinkle and Surya warn me that Kachiguda is far away and I had to leave early to make it, but somehow I've been brought up to believe that things just can't go wrong with me. Oh !

Took out my pulz, not trusting an auto for speed. So started ripping towards a vague direction towards K..station. I didn't have a clue as to where I was going, just assumed that most of the junta on the stree were going to the station, so just followed the traffic ( believe me folks, this technique works). At about 7 pm, I was about 1 km from the station, Rinkle called to tell me that the train had left ( pity that she had to travel alone, coz of yours truly, and to add to that, the anxiety of trying to reach my mobile). Neways, the worst was yet to come.

I was caught using a mobile on my bike, without a helmet, without a Hyd registration, and without my RC. To cut a long story short, I was let off scot free, glib pays folks.

After about an hour, was at an APSRTC counter waiting for my volvo to Bang, Mom came to know about this, and was all too worried. Finally reached Bang, the next day at 10.

Home, sweet home is where the heart is, and where the biggest diamond is.

HMTG.

Arrgghh....it 9:30

Today should go down as one of my most memorable/dramatic days in my life. It all began about 2 weeks ago, when the SAIT exam was postponed to a later date due to non availability of text for a few studends. After some hoopla about this, things settled down for an exam today. As it has always been, a 10 day term break did not quite prompt yours truly to study for the impending exam. Last night, finally decided to open my books and was at it till early morning, finally decided to go to bed with the confidence that my alarm and my cell phone would not let me down and I would not let them down either. So moi good into deep slumber.

When I finally woke up it was 9:30...my Exam was supposed to start at 8:30. Somehow didn't panic a lot, was confident that the TA's would let me take the exam( not sure why I had this, but in hindsight it isn't very unlikely that they would have denied me entry). Also was sure that if given entry, I should still be able to have a decent crack at the exam. All this happens thought occurs in exactly 30 secs, the next 30 secs is spent dressing up , picking up my keys and a pencil. I ran towards the acad centre ( not very sure of my seating plan either, buy vaguely knew that it was ac6 or ac4). Meet Borax on the way, thatz when my heart really sank, could someone let me in once ppl have finished the exam and left, luckily I was in a great hurry and didn't think too much, borax , a star as he is, said a few soothing words, said "It's 120 questions, easy and that there was some goofup and students were given 30 mins extra", I felt a bit better. My name wasn't at ac6, so headed to ac4, found my name and entered.,

Without looking at the TA, signed the attendence sheet, she was a bit surprised, she said that some had already finished the exam and left, think about an angel, she let me take the exam. Had a quick look at the time, it said 9:40, the TA also said that I would not get any extra time, so had to finish the 2 hr paper in 50 mins flat.

By now most of the folks has left, and I must've been the only soul in the class yet to start. So me got cracking, luckily for me, there were no surprises, and also not much of "memory recall" questions, so had a decent crack at the paper. In the meanwhile the TA, who knew that I had just woken up from sleep offered me some horlics. Was a very kind gesture, and all the while was asking me to relax and said that I hadn't lost much as ppl had finished the paper in 30 mins. Finally finished the paper on time, revised only half the questions, after which I had to hand over the paper.

I would not have felt very great for such an exam, but given that I could have so easily woken up at 10:30 and got an F, made me feel good, Thank God for his mercy.

Thatz if from me today, somehow I didn't like term4, and it showed in my committment to the subjects. Neways, what an experience.

Wake me up......

HMTG.

Term 4 - Break

My term break is effectively over, come MAPI and its official. I've learnt quite a few things during this break, more about myslef, about life and what it takes to chill. Sometimes things are good, and good they are only till they last (now this is what I call profound) and like all things, all good things come to an end. The mind is too feeble to fathom the complexities of life, human emotions and Destiny. It is akin to the universal law of gravity, where each object influences (by virtue of force) every other object in the universe, the human intellect can do only as much to understand a simple action of one person on the millions of ppl around him/her. All the mind knows is of the immediate obvious, the rest are left to a more divine being to comprehend. Well cutting back to the theme, the break was good. Rejuvenating and more importantly gave me time for myself. Caught on to a few vices, guess they were always on the cards.

Term 5 looks exciting, 5 fin courses, and add to that the I-banks which are gonna be on campus and an IS. It is all about knowing your destiny, what it takes to get there. It is hard to find that inner voice which eggs you on, but it is only as hard you make it out to be.

The next good think was orkutting, wow....where have you been KR, our nation casts its lonely eyes on you....was a fab experience to catch up with loads of buds. Good time catching up with them, all out there just to be yanked and spoken to. Good fun.

SAIT, is scheduled for Wednesday. Going home this thursday for Diwali ( home sweet home). Have been missing Diwali at home for some years now, so Momz all happy for it. So herez one for T5..cheerz

HMTG.

It aint over !

It aint over till the fat lady sings.....

A soul in tension thats learning to flyCondition grounded but determined to try - learning to fly, PF

During my engg days, in one of the DEC labs, I muttered to my groupie, "if one lives life hoping he would die starving" ( don't remember the context, but somehow remember the words). Now about 10 years hence, it is on just one thing that life hinges on "Hope", Nobody can beat Freeman's eloquence in Shawshank Redemption, so moi gonna nick this one, here goes.

"I find I'm so excited, I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it's the excitement only a free man can feel, a free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain. I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend, and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope. "

Well it all comes down to this, hoping against hope. When the writing is on the wall, when the mind says its all over, it is the indomitable spirit of the heart which still keeps the flicker of success alive, the ability to change the inevitable, the will to transgress, the will to stay on course, the will to destroy obstacles, the will to win and the will to say "I hope". I am a firm believer of the human will, which is only next to divinity. Nothing, absolutely nothing deserves more respect that sheer human will, and it in this will that wars are won or lost, kindoms vanquished and minds conquered.

How often we forget, the simple sentence we used to practise cursive writing, Where there is a will there is a way. Now, with wisdom on my side, I'd say "Where there is a will, there is more than one way". Go K....Go.

HMTG.