An MBA finishes but an MBA does not

OK…so finally my MBA (the degree) came to an end. I completed four semesters of some fun, some hard work and lots of learning, which was always meant to be an overall great experience and I am damn sure I came out as a better person. Although, 3 specific events that made it all the more memorable are;

I got to know such amazing people during my MBA, especially the wonderful friends I got here (although they are not wonderful because they are my friends, but probably they are my friends because they are…as I said wonderful). It would not be statistically correct if I say that all I learnt during MBA was all because of my friends; though I wish to say so; still in the process of making friends, one definitely meets people who are not or cannot be your friends and learn great deal. This learning helps when you enter the big scary corporate world, where you meet more sharks, foxes and lizards who are there either to destroy you, or tackle you or in other cases piggy back you to success. Those are exactly the same experiences you have in a business school, with the kind of competitiveness it brings out in you. Still, in spite of all the oddities, one always finds some like minded people who are there to share you ambitions and excitement, rather than stab you in the back on the slightest chance of your succeeding better than them.

I fulfilled my dream of getting the exciting job, in fact one of the most coveted at that time amongst all business school students and aspirants. I am writing at that time because it was one of the most rewarding jobs in the market and as finance students we’ve learnt the lewd relationship between risk and reward. I did learn my theories well knowing it well; I accepted the risk full-heartedly in lieu of earning that handsome reward “at that time”. Not focusing so much on the R-R kinship, let me talk more about the dream that came true.
Actually it was not just my dream; it was a dream of a lot of people who wished well for me, who had thought of me achieving great pride for them and who were standing besides me holding my hand through times; best or worse. I owe it to all those people, not just because they thought I can achieve it, but because they had full faith, sometimes even more than what I had on myself. I wanted to do it for them, if for nothing else. I wanted to make them feel proud and keeping their faith strong, although no failure of mine has ever been able to shatter their belief in me.

The third thing that happened during my MBA was more of a personal one. As spoken about earlier in my blog that I got a new life after drowning in my condo’s swimming pool, this was another such events which change you, your thoughts, your priorities, your wishes in life. These events leave you hurt and down, but now I’d like to think that these should make you stronger and I can just hope to become a little stronger with time.

Anyways, the point I wanted to make with this post was that I had a wonderful 2 years in NUS Business School and met some wonderful people including the friends I made. I would specially like to mention and thank Keerthi, Lek and Vamsi who were my partner in crime (all group or non-group projects and school-work). I am not mentioning more names just because I do not want to bore the people reading this with a 3 page long blog, but I wish each and every one of them a great rocking life. In fact, I just saw Rock On and thought maybe later in our life, we would be able to team-up again and do something more creative and off-beat.

So an MBA story comes to an end, but the story of an MBA continues from here…

Internship unlimited…

As I told I am interning with the world’s best Investment Bank (at least that’s what JPMorgan prefers to be called) where “first class business is done in a first class way”, my experience so far has been wonderful. While working in there Derivative Analytics Groups for Asian Rates market, I know, I know that’s a lot of buzz words, but can’t avoid it in a world where even a simple “Hi” becomes “hihi”, I learnt more about finance and real market than I could do in all my Fin classes back in school. This again buttressed my belief that on-the-job knowledge is the best.

Again my MS Office knowledge combined with my logical thinking ability helped me out in the office where my mind was busy learning all those buzzwords, slang and other lingo used in I-banking world. We were closely working with Singapore, Hong Kong and Mumbai market and to my good fortune, I got to handle a new pilot project for London office which gained me a lot of repo in my group and a lot of good words from people in London. With which I think I’ve nailed the casket and would definitely be offered to come back after my MBA.

JPMorgan is definitely a great firm to work with. My interactions with people here have been great and I learnt a lot from each and every individual I worked with. My group mates, most of who are non-MBA statisticians from ISI-Calcutta and others have a great knack for Finance and analytics. Number churning is something that I learnt from them greatly and the other most important thing I learnt was an eye for information and detail and I think these are going to help me greatly in the log run. As the end is coming closer, I reminisce my days here and think that they will always remain in my memory as another short school.

Ah-shook the intern :D

After all my efforts with numerous applications, mails and calls to different people, I was able to get what I want. I became an intern with the legendary JP Morgan investment bank in their derivative analytics group and felt elated as my hard work paid off. I felt like the famous chaacter from Dilbert, ASOK THE INTERN (pronounced Ah-shook), and was ready to work my @$$ off to prove that I can do finance :) JP Morgan is a great company which was started in 1800's and merged with Chase Bank in 2001 to form JP Morgan Chase, one of the biggest financial institutions of the world. JPMC has a long history to be proud of and I hope I will be able to add to that pride somehow, someday ;)

Term two ends too...

If term one was a roller coaster ride with lots of ups and downs and tonnes of confusions about deciding my career goal and path to take to reach my final destination, term two came out to be a little more focused and much more tensed. Focused, because I knew what to expect from NUS Business School and what I want to do after I graduate (the confusion was much less after I decided to go with numbers, my first love and on that too in finance coz that earns good money...my another love :P), and tensed because I need to get a good internship in a great financial company to prove my worth ( its really tuf for an IT guy to get into finance with no prior exp in that, but I must say its not impossible if u really want to do it).

So, in this sem, studies were more focused, efforts were much focused, attending talk were much focused ( used to attend every talk last sem) and in end applying to companies for internship was much focused. Our subjects (specially strategy and economics) were superb and gave us a better perspective about management and world economics. We also played an online Strategy Game where our group ran a company and that was the thrill of the week. Every week was a quarter for us and to see those P/L and Balance Sheets on Sunday night was such a thrill for all of us, I could just imagine how those big shots might feel when they see the figures of there real companies. In the end, our group was declared the winner of that game and nothing could have been better... it was a real joy and I felt like I am Dhirubhai Ambani and just beat Godrej in clothes business :D

We also did a project on NUS MBA Career Service Office where we tried to analyze their shortcomings and in a survey we found that they were just too many to count. We sent our recommendation to the Acad. Director, Vice-Dean and Dean and we hope that our work will bear fruits for us and we will be able to contribute positively for our pride...NUS Business School. As CSO had a lot of problems, I was also having problems finding a suitable internship (which I really wanted to do and not just anything anywhere which I was doing OREDI:P ), and just kept praying to god that my prayer (applications) to Gods (companies) will find an answer someday. In this hope, I finished the second sem also finished and on reflecting back I felt that I done well in all the fields and should expect a good result :)

End of Term-One

So somehow I managed to finish term-one. The last few days were quite hectic with never ending presentations and always due project reports. Then there were exams and submissions and exams and they continued until we were exhausted. It was quite a good experience as it equipped me with some of the basic and utmost important skills and most importantly, changed my attitude a little about management and now I was looking at my stunt in NUS MBA as more of a holistic experience. Somehow, somewhere deep inside I had started feeling like a manager but the way to become a great leader was still way long.

As others were planning for a month long vacation after exam, I dint have respite their as well as I had accepted to do a winter internship at Wealth Management firm AXA. My experience their was quite enriching as my boss and colleagues were more than wonderful. I had quality learning time and enjoyed as well with the Christmas and New Year parties thrown by company or as a joint effort of my team. Soon I developed good relations with everybody and was later offered a part time position to continue with even after my classes start.

In between came my term result where I scored fairly good, I guess my best grade after I passed 12th std. in my school. I got 4.6 out of 5 and which placed me among the top quartile of my MBA. There I learnt a thing that regarding studies, my experience is always better with schools. I used to excel in my school in every field but when I went to engineering college, my grades sucked. Now again I am back to business school where I am again back on track. So I hope and pray to God that this relationship will fetch me good grades if nothing else :P

CYA in next term........hfff...3 more terms to go :|

Me...Re BORN :)

It was a fine Sunday noon in Singapore, when everybody else like me was lazing around to get themselves ready for the hectic week. My classes were also going to start the next day, so I kind of got enthusiastic and pulled all of friends for a tour to our condo swimming pool. It was like everyday, we were splashing and playing in water and since, I was still an amateur at swimming, and I was trying to hone my skills at the same time.

Sometime then, I don’t know why I tried to cross the pool from the longer and deeper side. Although I had done it a few times before, I lost my way (thanks to my swimming style in which I can't still keep my face out of water). Due to this, I was in a quandary, where I was sure to not reach the other side and could not go back enuf to keep me in shallow water. I tried but failed and finally I tried to pull up my hand and attract others attention towards me. Soon enuf I lost my consciousness and regained it only when somebody was trying to wake me up...but for this time, it was not a dream and I was in the ambulance.

Later when I got was able to sit and chat my friends told me that during my struggle, I bumped into the bottom of pool, which made a bump on my forehead and thus fainted. My friends were also not good swimmers but still they tried against all odds and somehow pulled me out of the pool. When they saw my body, they lost all hopes of getting me back, but yet they somehow called an ambulance and finally I was saved. Somebody also said that had they been 15 secs late in getting me out of the pool, there was very less chance of saving me. They say that its Almighty's grace that I'm still alive and must have done something good in my last birth which saved me.

But I realized that rather than last, I did some good things in this birth and made such good friends who instead of worrying about their own life, jumped into the pool to save me. Some of them were as amateur as I was and could have drowned them in the process, but still it was their effort that saved me. I thank God for giving me those friends and I just pray to have them for my life (although I got a nice daant for my mischief after it...but jab kaam hi aise hon to koi kya kar sakta hai ;). After the incident, I promised to them and myself to be a little careful.

Spice up your life : Chilly Chocolate combo :)

Its a part of our marketing presentation in school which is about spicy chocolates made by CowGirl Chocolates. For more information about these chocolates, visit www.cowgirlchocolates.com Have fun watching the video :)

A tribute...to NanaJi

Once upon a time there lived a great man. His greatness was not linked to his name or his fame. He was not even great because he did something great for the society. Most of you would not even know him if I won't tell you about him. But his story needs to be told. I would rather say his struggle needs to be told. Yes, he was a struggler, a struggler who struggled for whole of his life.

He was eldest son of a very small farmer born in a very ordinary village in very remote India. He helped his father in his daily work and used to study sidewise. He was a brilliant student and his teachers knew it very well. To his misfortune, his village had only primary school after which one needed to go to nearby town for study. His father, being poor and illiterate was averse to sending his son and would not agree even to his teacher's request. But the boy wanted to study at any cost and so he flew away from home. He went to a city where his struggle began. He lived the kind of life which we only get to see in movies. In daytime he used to work in factories and studied in the night. At the age when we played cricket and ate chocolates, he lived the life of a mill-worker, somehow trying to make ends meet. He tried quite hard and passed 8th standard with satisfactory marks. Somehow he was able to secure a job of a crafts-teacher in a govt. school and life became a little steady. But his struggle did not end. He continued his study and brought his younger brothers and sisters from village, educated them and enabled them to stand for themselves. Throughout the period, he was the sole source of income for the family. In the meantime he got married and his family again expanded. He never desired luxury for himself but he tried everything possible to make his children well educated and self-dependant.

He remained a simple teacher throughout his life and changed the life of many poor students who came to him and learnt the art of succeeding by working hard. So many people came in contact with this person, and his simplicity and humilty earned him respect from everyone. His life was a struggle, the struggle of a poor Indian villager who tried to be different. He was the most humble and straightforward person I have ever met and I am very proud to say that he was the father of the lady who gave birth to me. He is my hero, my idol, my God who taught me how to live life. He is my inspiration and today with wet eyes I pay my respects for the great soul who departed from this world a few days back leaving an undying remark. He might not be an important person to anybody else but his character and his life will always remain my guiding spirit.