Horros of Mumbai :(

"War on Mumbai" screamed the headline of all the news channels on 26th. I and my room mates just could not believe what we had been reading. Images and news of bomb explotions had kinda become regular in India due to the spate of regular bombings but this was something different. Something completely unexpected, something which we would not have thought in our wildest of dreams. The horror continued for a full 3 days with all the major hotels which have been landmarks of the beautiful city partially destroyed and 200 people dead, with a permanent scar on the face of the city.

Despite the seething anger of the people, the politicians hardly have seemed to understand the situation. But I believe we have been silent for too long and we need to group together to make sure that this never happens. I convey my heartfelt condolences to the families of those killed and to the families of the brave officers who laid down their lives to save our people. Jai Hind!!!

The US way of Life..

Its been a long time since I have updated my blog. MBA is a very hectic course and time management is one of the crucial things that I have tried to learn though I have a long way to go in terms of perfecting it. The US way of life is so different and the fact that this was the first time I had been out of home in 24 years (yes, u heard it right ;) ) didn't make things easy. I have experienced so many highs and lows in these 4 months of the B school life than I ever have in my 24 years of college and work life.

The best fact about this life is that it makes you very independent and self reliant. The most important skill that I have learnt till now is to cook. I make good curry, sambar and rice.. things enough for basic survival :). Coming to the academics, the business communication course has completely transformed from a stage shy person to person capable to delivering a decent performance for my presentations. All the professors for courses such as economics, statistics, accounting, finance, business strategy and marketing are interactive and constantly relate the text book learnings to the real world scenarios. This helps us to understand how we can utilize this knowledge in the real world.

All said and done about life and univ, I would like to specially mention this beautiful city. The city of Tucson is at its best in the months of November and early December. It has ooty like climate in the mornings and afternoons though it gets little chilly at night. The cost of living is also very low when compared to other cities. So as I and my classmates come very close to the end of a very turbulent semester we will always carry with us the pleasant and great memories of the months gone by. Though finals are still a big 2 weeks away, all of us are forward to our India trip now(little exhausted). So that was the quick summary of B School and US life.

Book a HOME before U book a flight.

It been about 4 days since I have landed here and I and my friends have been doing full-time house hunting at Tucson. A very tuf job considering the fact that we were not used to the places and stuff. Considering the fact that its tough to find a rented apartment after cuming to Tucson, I would suggest prosepective students to find a rented apartment before they come here.

There are lots of sites which would help can help you find in Tucson, the most preferable one being the craiglist (http://tucson.craigslist.org/hhh/) and also the apts near to the Eller university namely Univ Park, Univ Gardens, Palm shadows and Park Adams are good places to be in. So the most important thing is to book homes and make sure that you move into the permament apartment as soon as possible.

The Flight Journey.

My flight journey towards the "Land of Opprutunities" USA was a very long and tiring one. I and my friends (Karthik and Pandian) had boarded the flight at 4 am in the morning at chennai. We reached Dubai airport at arnd 7 AM in the morning. The airport is a man made wonder and we nearly saw abt 500 planes standing inside the airport. As we stood over-awed by the structural beauty, we had more of that to come. The interiors of the airport were the best I have ever seen so far. As we freshend up and got ready to catch the flight to Houston, we saw Abhishek and Aiswarya Bachan. We were very surprised and it took us a while to realise that the world famous couple were standing close to us and they also boarded our flight on the way to tucson. Though we were not able to get any autographs, we managed to take a pic of them and boarded the flight to houston.

The Dubai-Houston leg of the journey was a loooong 16 hrs. Though we were offered great food and had a wide plasma screen for entertainment, the long journey was very tiring. Finally after 16 long hrs we landed at US-Houston airport. After getting our immigration done we travelled to the check in counter of the Tucson flight. We still had about 2 hrs left and I dozed off under the weight of tiredness. My friends woke me up for flight to Tucson. But the tiredness was not over and I dozed off again to just wake up before the flight landed at Tucson. Thus the loooooong India-US journey came to an end. I would suggest people coming to West Coast of US from India to take the Cathay pacific airlines which trips from LA to Chennai with a stop over at hong kong.

Tucson is comparitively a big city than we had expected it to be. We had informed the students at the India Club present at Tucson to pick us up at the airport. I would like to thank them for their hospitality in picking us up and also the indian students who have been giving us temporary accomodation till now.

Human Psychology..

A kinda feel that it’s a strange topic for me to blog on this topic as I believe I am NOT that old to write on this J. But I wanted to share some thoughts that I read in a book recently. The author of the book explained the different human psychological patterns and the key to understanding the different patterns. Though I don’t remember all the content of the book, I would just wish to share a few points available in the book.

One of the most crucial aspects of the human psychology is the ability of a person to interact with one another. In the book, Human Communication is defined as 10 digit mobile number. Even if we dial one number wrong we could miss the communication link it seems, which I feel is quite true. The book states that while communicating we need to understand the nature of person, his present mental position, his surrounding and mostly importantly the topic of the conversation. If that’s very tough to comprehend then the book gives a simple solution. Just give yourself a 5 sec breather time, wherein you can asses the situation and present your thoughts. I guess in present day life its tough to follow but I am trying to practice it.

The second point is related to the first. It relates to the old clichéd adage “First impression is the Best impression”. The book states that most people remember the first meeting or a first movie with a friend more than any other instance. So I guess it’s important to make the First Best impression. I guess the solution to this is again the 5 second breather time method.

The other main thing is ego. Ego is kinda related to self-respect of the individual. For example a friend unknowingly teases or hurts his friend, then the friend feels humiliated and wants to get back at that friend and that creates a bad environment between them. If it’s a boss scolding his junior then the worker has no way to show it back and he in turn shows it to somebody near him. So there can be a big amount of bad energy created by these small events. The solution to this would be watch once words before they speak as anger is quite contagious like flu. Anger is another expression more closely related to Ego. I guess I need not explain things on anger J as everybody has got tons of it including me. But the point specified in the book is if anger helps you solve a problem then it might just be a temporary solution. The real solution would be to understand what infact caused the problematic situation. Whenever I get angry, I would kind think whether my anger would help me solve the problems. They actually do not and sometimes further complicates the problem. So this thought has kinda reduced my anger. I somehow don’t believe in the laughter or any theory on controlling angry as these are temporary solutions. The permanent solution is to eradicate situations that cause anger.

The last and the most important thing in human psychology are relationships. According to me and the book (Both same opinion ... strangely J ) relationship are kinda strange. They mostly depend on the situations around them. Relationships require constant care. The mom-daughter-son-sis-bro-father and friends relationships are easy compared to lovers or relative’s relationship. The reason is that the latter relationships expect more out of you and understand you a little less J.

So I believe this kinda boring blog would have helped you gain some insight into how human psychology works. You would know all these facts but would not have read about them. Do let me know if these hints have helped you in your life.

Lord KABALISWARAR with Peacock Ambal.

KABALISWARAR temple has been one of the real landmarks of our Singara Chennai city. I had visited the temples many times, but each with visit of mine to this temple; I am overawed by the structural beauty of this magnificent temple. I had recently gone to this temple along with my parents had a great darshan of the Lord Siva and Ambal. After darshan of the main deities we can actually have a view of all the gopurams by standing in one of the corners of the outers praharams (Outer passages of the temple). This corner of the temple passage has a temple bell over it.

There are other small temples around the main temple. I was actually surprised to see one Siva temple containing a peacock statue near it. Usually one would be able to see Nandhi (bull) standing in front of Lord Siva. I then read the history of the temple written on the main door of the temple. The story goes something like this- "Long time back when Lord Siva and Parvati were having a chat, Parvati noticed a beautiful peacock, was enticed in its beauty and therefore did not listen to what Lord Siva was speaking. This angered the Lord and he cursed the goddess to be re-born as a peacock in her next birth. Goddess asked the Lord to forgive her and then a cooled down Lord told her to take the next birth as a peacock and worship Lord at a particular place. So the goddess took the avatar as a peacock and worshiped the Lord. The Lord pleased by goddess devotion gave her darshan and mukti". So the name of this place where this temple is situated was named Mylapore (Peacock City). So next time when you guyz go to the temple you can worship the Lord and Ambal knowing the superb history behind it.

I also visited the Vellishwarar (Silver Lord Siva) temple which is situated right behind the Kabali Temple. This temple has Lord Siva in a silver Lingam form, a real treat to watch. This temple also contains Lord Sarpashwarar (head of a lion and body of a snake) and Lord Sukrashwarar (Lord Sukran worshiping Lord Siva). This temple is a must watch especially on Sunday 4.30 PM to 6 PM when we have Rahu kalam pooja for Lord Sarpashwarar. I hope to visit the famous Chitra Kulam nearby the Kabali temple. So next time you are in Chennai, don’t miss these superb temples and also the huge pond at the back of the Kabali temple.

The Mystery Muder Case...

Whenver I see any news channel on TV, I keep hearing this news or news related to it everyday. The Aarushi murder case has meandered thru the twists and turns that would make a very good thriller movie script and it’s also one which would even have challenged the best in murder investigation business.

The murder of this young gal with her head smashed by a hammer and her throat slit by a surgical knife has sent shock waves thru everybody in our country. It’s a gory murder by any stretch of imagination. Then started the drama of the servant being suspected and his body found in the home’s terrace 2 days later. The case twisted even further where the police accused the father of committing the murder as he saw his daughter close with his servant. Unfortunately the police were not able to recover the murder weapons.

I believe the media too placed a lot of HYPE on the case and this immensely pressured the investigation agencies. On the whole the young gal’s life has been analyzed to the most extent by the MEDIA and the police. With the CBI taking over the case I believe the case would be closed soon with the real culprit caught soon.

But the whole point behind the case is why anybody would do that to a fun loving kid like Aarushi. I have a cousin sis that age and this case has shocked, saddened and angered me on the way it’s handled by the MEDIA and the investigation agencies. I request the newsprint and the other people in association with that to be more sensitive while sharing information to the outside world. I hope the world becomes a better place to stay where such incidents don’t happen. My deepest condolences to the Aarushi family.

My Saviour Mantram..

I had been an atheist till my 12th standard. But somehow, I had gone to temples to pray for my 12th results. I could hear an inner voice whenever I used to visit the temples. Then thru my college days, I did not visit temples often. In the 7th semester of my BE, we had campus interviews. All of us were very keen to get into any one of the big IT firms. After my disastrous interviews with INFY and WIPRO, I was devastated. I can still remember how time literally came to a standstill. That’s when my dad told me how he used to visit a temple (Shivili Maharaja Siva temple) at his native place, Tharuvai and he asked me to pray to lord. My interview with TCS clicked for me and from that moment my devotion towards god increased. I visited that temple and me and dad performed pujaas.

Though I would go to temple once in a while, I never used to pray at home. But that changed after a big incident. I had been preparing for my GMAT for quite sometime. But I was not getting the desired scores in my practice tests. The situation at my workplace also was not very rosy and also I had big-time health problems. Facing such a big strain and pressure from all ends, I was mentally and physically exhausted and I got affected with viral fever. At this point of time, an uncle who resided above my home provided me with homeopathy medicines and also told me a story which changed my life completely.

I had my upanayanam (thread ceremony) when I was studying my 10th std. But I did not comply with the rituals associated with that. One of the important part of the ritual is the recitation of Gayathri Mantram for 108 times. Now this was the same thing that the Homeopathy doc uncle had told me lot of time before. I actually never took it seriously. But that day when I was sick he told me a story about this gayathri mantram.

"Long time ago, during Akbar’s rule, Akbar and Birbal would go around the city secretly at night to check the needs of their people and stuff. Now they noticed a beggar who approached them for alms saying that he had not eaten for 2 days. Akbar spoke to the beggar, enquired about him and gave him alms. On the way back to the palace Akbar taunted birbal by saying that the beggar was a Brahmin and that muslim people don’t beg for alms. Birbal didn’t reply to this. The next day he called for the beggar and told him that he would give him 25 paise if he would recite "Gayathri Mantram" 10 times. The beggar was overjoyed and promised that he would start reciting the mantram. Slowly the Brahmin noticed lots of changes in his life. He started getting food and alms without asking. After a month birbal called the Brahmin and asked him to recite the mantram and that he would pay him 50 paise for it. The Brahmin accepted the offer and started praying big-time. Now it happened that people who came and told the Brahmin their problems had their problems solved. Birbal had called the Brahmin again and asked him to recite the mantram for 1008 times and told him he would give him 1 rupee for that. The Brahmin told birbal that he would recite the mantram and he would not need any money for that. Soon the Brahmin kept on reciting 1008 times Gayathri Mantram and Goddess Gayathri gave him darshan and he became a saint. Whoever told the problems to the saint, their problems vanished and so the Saint’s popularity grew and Akbar got to hear about this saint. Akbar decided to meet the saint and he along with Birbal went to seek the Saint’s blessings. The Brahmin and Akbar had a discussion and Akbar sought his blessings. On the way back he asked Birbal on how they missed having the darshan of this saint before. Birbal asked Akbar whether he had seen the Brahmin saint before in his life. Now Akbar was very confused and said no. Birbal then replied saying this is the same person who once sought alms from them and the power of Gayathri Mantram had changed him. Hearing this Akbar was very astonished."

When the uncle told me this story, for the first time I kinda quite believed it. I started reciting Gayathri Mantram daily and it had an immediate effect. I could see my scores in my GMAT prep test increase, my health and my office problems lessen. I started reciting 1008 times the Gayathri Mantram everyday before my exam and this directly reflected in my exam where I got 710. The most interesting part of this is that I had expected only in the range of 610-620(my friend Vikram would know about this for sure ;) ) and that I have had heard many people getting higher scores in preparatory tests and low scores comparatively in the real tests. But I guess for me it came the other way round.

The Gayathri Mantram:
"Om Bhur Bhuva Suvah
Tathsavithur Varenyam
Bhargo Devasya Dhimahi
Dhiyo Yo Naha Prachodayat"

U can also view this site : "http://thillasthanamsabha.freehosting.net/Gayathrijapam.htm"

The Raja of Remakes..

The Remake Raja or the "Raja of Remakes", however you call him has come back with a hit again in his latest movie – Santosh Subramanium. The master director ‘Raja’ had given 3 big hits in the form of ‘Jeyam’, ‘M Kumaran- Son of Mahalakhsmi’ – my favourite and the 2006 release ‘Something Something-Unakkum Enakkum’. I agree with the facts that he has copied the scripts, location and everything for each of his movies, but still there is something in him which makes him choose the correct movies. How many of us can recollect a director who has given 4 hits continuously??

I believe that eventually he will make a movie of his own script and that will also be a big hit, if not a good family entertainer. The Raja-Ravi combo has been renowned for the blazing hits they have given. I didnt like the first movie ' Jeyam' that much but I loved 'M Kumaran' and ' Something Something'. The mother- son relationship shown in M Kumaran is something close to my heart and the 'Neeye Neeye' song makes my eyes moist considering the fact I would be away from my mom for two whole years. 'Something Something' Trisha was awesome. Clad in a davani she looked very cute and the story of bro-sis-love was great entertainer.

Next in line to these great movies has come Santosh Subramanium which is a great story on a father-son relationship taken from the original "Bommarillu" which ran 200 days in Andhra. Sidharth was at his THE BEST in that movie. The comparison between both the version of the movie though inevitable have started. The tamil version has been pictureized beautifully and probably is an exact replica of the telugu version with little deviations.

I believe that this movie too would scale the heights of his previous movies. Anyways I am great fan of this mastercraftsman whose worth would surely be tested in the coming years.I hope Raja will soon prove his detractors wrong and come up with a high successful movie.. of his own script .. :)

Best Host.. Great Communicator - Neeya Naana

I have admired the communication skills of the very successful people all round the world. I guess I would place Gopinath, a TV show host in that league. He presents "Neeya Naana" (U or Me) debate show on Vijay TV. He takes up a topic every week and has two groups of audience who take part in it. The specialty of this show lies in the way that he conducts the show. He starts off by talking about the goody goody things and then slowly turns on the heat on both the teams. He sides with one team for sometime and then with the other. It’s sometimes funny to see how he controls the proceeding in that show. I guess a man of utmost confidence can only do that. :)

The topic last week was "whether who is more successful in life - an educated person or and uneducated person". Gopi as usual started it off asking how successful each person in his own business. This brought in lots of stories of rags to riches story. And the war of words started with the issue that uneducated people take more risks and educated people wouldn’t want to learn in their job as they have the feeling that they have learned more. This really turned off the educated team audience with even Gopi supporting the uneducated audience team. Then the tables turned with Gopi asking the uneducated team as to how many people were successful in their own business and how they would be cheated if they don’t have enough knowledge on their job which may come through education. The debate was very lively and fiery also. And as usual Gopi was at his fluent best, crisscrossing the various points through this debate.

During the course of this and other discussions on this show, I have got to learn so many new and interesting things from the audience and Gopi himself. Do lookout for the next show of Neeya Naana on Vijay TV.

Hot.. Hotter..Hottest.. GW

The above picture says it all. As most Chennaites know, the city has been reeling under high temperatures. The sun has been unforgiving and people believe that the worst is yet to come. I would attribute the rise in temperature to GLOBAL WARMING also.

I saw a report in NDTV today where it was reported that the coral reefs around Lakshadweep islands had nearly disappeared. As coral reefs form an important link in the fragile marine ecosystem, the near disappearance of these reefs has also affected the entire marine life. I believe there have been many other severe consequences of global warming of which I have stated just one.

On this "World Earth Day", I would like to request everybody to use resources like electricity, water judiciously as each and every effort counts while saving our dear earth. I believe that we as residents of our planet can save our world for our future, as little drops of water make up an ocean.

So shall we take a pledge to do simple small things to save our dear earth??

The Loooooong Admit Journey - Final Part!!

The final and the most antagonizing part of the MBA admission process is, waiting for RESULTS!! Anybody who has had that experience would speak about how they would get up early in the morning to check for elusive admit mail in their inbox. I had applied to five universities-Kelley, Purdue, Katz, Fisher and Eller Schools of Business. I had got an admit from Katz (Pittsburg) and was quite buoyed up. But as I enquired from the present students of Katz, I understood the fact the placements at Katz faced stiff competition from Carnegie Mellon School which was right round the corner. So I eventually decided not to take up Katz.

After my good interview with Fisher Adcom, I was expecting a definite call. I in-fact got a mail from Fisher stating that I would be considered for admission irrespective of my application submission date. I put together my best essays in the available time; though it was far short of the perfect essays I would liked to have sent. After I sent in my admission packet to Fisher, I eagerly awaited for the results. Day after day, it became a ritual for me to get up as early as 6 in the morning, to check my gmail inbox for the admit mail. Suddenly one day I logged into the Fisher admission site, only to find that I had been put on waitlist. :(

The waitlist at Fisher hit my quite hard, as I had been expecting highly from that school and had not given much interest to other schools. I believe, its better not to put all the eggs in one basket... With rejects from Kelley and waitlist from Purdue, my only hope hinged on Eller school of business. I had sent in my financial document little late and so my admit decision also came little late. I got an admit call from Eller with a very good scholarship! With the VISA process over in a month's time, hopefully I should be on my way thru to Eller.

So I guess I have learnt a lot in this pre-MBA journey, more importantly it has helped manage time better, focus my attention on creating a road map for attaining my future goals and also helped make great friends at my IMS class!!

The Loooooong Admit Journey - Part 2

The interviews for MBA applicants are the most challenging part of the MBA application. A telephonic interview is better compared to a face to face interview. But it has its own share of merits and de-merits. Answering questions face to face is easier than telephonic interview where we have to maintain our concentration for half an hour or more.

I had a couple of telephonic interviews in which I had the most clichéd questions asked along with some new questions. The toughest one was at Kelley’s interview where they had asked me situational questions like if I were the lead and the project had overshot its time, what steps I would take. There were other challenging questions also. I had prepared for other interviews but not for Kelley’s as I was down with fever a day before. The interview didn’t go off very well. I guess I should have prepared better.

But the best interview came in the form of a face to face interview with a Fisher school admission committee (adcom) member, Kara. I still remember every detail of that interview. The interview was scheduled at TAJ in Bangalore at 9 AM. I had reached the place an hour earlier and was sitting in the lobby looking around the beautiful place and the equally beautiful people. In about 5-10 minutes I had the company of other admitants who had come in for their interviews in full formals with blazers and stuff.. Man, I really started getting nervous at that point.

I tried calling the room number of my interviewer and was unable to reach her. There were so many people in the lobby that I didn’t know whom to contact and ask. Precious minutes began ticking away and parellely my tension grew. Collecting all my courage I proceeded towards an interviewer and asked her where I could find my interviewer. She motioned towards a person sitting in the last seat taking an interview. I went and stood beside my interviewer. She gave a casual glance and asked me to wait till the interview was over. Pretty female I shud say :) Then I had my interview and after 1-2 mins of initial nervousness it was pretty cool. The interview which was supposed to 15 mins went on for 45 minutes and we were talking about the weather and lake beside Fisher. I guess I should thank my friend Sid presently at fisher who gave me all the small insights into the school. That’s when I realized the importance of networking. Kara and I exchanged cards and I heaved a huge sigh of relief. I also attended the MBA fair in the same building. The fair was really good. So people starting for MBA preparation can ideally start by attending these fairs which is the best place to look for MBA related information and these fairs usually come in the last months of the calendar year to India.

Interview processes are very interesting experience where preparation and good communication can help us do wonders in what the most important stage of MBA admits process.. On the whole the Pre-MBA admission process really helps us focus and fine-tune our energies and we go into the schools a lot learned persons than what we are before.

The Loooooong Admit Journey - Part 1

After my lucky performance in my GMAT, I thought the rest of the process would be simple. But I was grossly mistaken. The battle had started only then. GMAT was like the soldiers assembling for the battle. It’s quite boring to write about oneself :) but as soon I as began writing some essays, I saw the the 1st deadline fast approaching round the corner for Katz School of business on November 1st. Though I am not very good at using poetical words in flowery essays, I managed a decent essay. I had a delay in getting my transcripts. I guess people preparing for MBA should get their transcripts ready as soon as they take the GMAT exam or even before that. I didn’t have a hope that I would submit all the documents on time. I guess some how I managed to send my GMAT, TOEFL scores and transcripts to the school and then finished my essays and recommendation letters and just about submit a day before the deadline.. Wuh!! It was really close.

Just when I was starting to relax, I had three school deadlines on November 15th. Kelley, Eller and Fisher school of business. I was able to complete only Kelley and Eller on time. I thought I probably would not apply to Fisher but this idea soon changed through the great event – the interview. After completing my applications for Kelley and Eller, I had got an invitation from Fisher school for an interview. Man, what an interview it was!! That’s in my next blog guyz. Too big to accommodate that here.

And once again my relaxation after completing my applications was short lived as I had to complete my Purdue application on December 1st. I was totally exhausted by the whole process, because I had to combine these efforts with my office work which was equally challenging my time. I guess the whole process really shook me out of the groove. It was a great challenge to dig deep into my memory for the events that I had to write in my essays. I should specially mention my friend Prathiba who helped me prepare for my GMAT exam and also egged me on for the essays. If not for her MBA would be a difficult journey. I guess that’s what the best of friends are for!! That’s the loooong boring process of MBA document preparation.. That’s it folks..

Journey to Small glory

Three words rung hard in my ears after I had completed my GMAT exam last year-"GOD Saved Me". I had been preparing hard for that exam like never before. My mom even joked that if I had taken my 12th exams this seriously I could have ended with much better marks. My job made my task of preparing my exams even more challenging. I had to keep pushing myself harder, something that I had never done in my life before. But I had doubts whether I would be able to pull it off. Studying 4-5 hours a day would not matter, the end result should show, I felt.

I had started being very religious when I started out my preps for GMAT. Something inside me told me that I would succeed. The D day arrived. I can still remember how tensed I was. :) I had my slot at 5:30 PM. I had woken up quite early that day and couldn't sleep the whole day. My eyes were literally swollen when I reached the center. I just recollected an innings from Master Blaster Sachin where he had struggled against Brett Lee but stayed on to score 79 precious runs which helped India win 2 days ago. I too was determined to struggle. I started the test and time just flew. For the first time while taking the GMAT my concentration was on the question alone and not on the time and the number of questions. Four hours just flew by and I completed the test. I had to enter my undergrad information in the system and I wanted to ask the administrator as to when I would receive the score, as to when I saw the score appearing on the system. I had got 710... My eyes just popped out. I picked my things and left the room. My throat was parched and I would not speak. The score was very very special as I had never ever reached 700 score before in all my tests. I just sat there on the reception chair not knowing what to do ;).. then it suddenly struck me that I could have seen the score wrongly and waited for the printed confirmation and my friend also to come out, who had also taken the exam along with me. Unfortunately he didn’t score well. But my head was spinning.

Then I took my bike out and started driving towards home bewildered by the events. I circled all the roads.. didn’t know where I was traveling.. Finally I reached home 1 hour later, a journey which should have taken me less than 20 minutes. I went home and saw my parents watching TV. They had all along supported my in exam prep and were keenly looking towards me for the score. I wanted to surprise them and gave them a dejected look. One that would have surely sent shivers down my mom. She had my pillar of support right through. I gave her the printed score card. She saw it and she could not believe that. Dad was so escatic that he hugged and lifted me off the ground :) mom was damn happy and she thrust in a big sweet inside my mouth. That’s ma mom, I guess after all we all live for these moments of joy. Then it was phone time and I called all my friends and told them. Most of them who knew about my GMAT exam preparation score wouldn’t believe me ;) I never ever received so many congratulatory messages in entire life.

My journey towards my dream of pursuing an MBA had just began..