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..