..and I dream of going back to be

P.S

(1) I know that this logo needs to be bigger and that I need to explain my long absence, but since I am way beyond tired right now, I'll just stop to say, that I am back!!

The sun is blazing down. Beads of perspiration adorn my forehead. My designer running shoes crunch against the gravel on the road and the sound of my heart pounding is amplified through my ears. I am gasping for air and my lungs feel like they are on fire. I forge on.I refuse to stop running. Through the corner of my eye, I spot a cyclist in fast pursuit. I see him bending low,pushing the pedals harder trying to speed past me. I match him every step of the way in our own little secret battle. He tries to cut me off several times,but I am relentless. Then, with a sudden burst of energy I forge ahead, leaving him behind in a cloud of dust. I am euphoric but the last vestige of energy in my body has evaporated and as I collapse into a heap on the pavement, I reach to cut the timer.Gasping for breath, I will the world to stop turning and my stomach to stop churning. I eagerly reach for the timer to see how well Ive fared in my first exercise routine in six months. I have clocked....WHAAAAAAAAAAT.. 2 minutes and 57 seconds!! And I almost brought upon myself, a cardiac arrest, for this??

This, ladies and gentlemen, is what happens when you are unemployed and filled with false pride at having gotten an MBA admit; when you channelise your essay writing energies into watching law and order marathons every single day; when you stick your tongue out at every gym-loving person and pat yourself on the back for embracing the couch instead; and when you aspire to do greater good(read:generate revenues for cookie manufacturers) by daring yourself to eat a dozen chunky chocolate chip cookies everyday!!

A small consolation for my pathetic existence, as my running partner (gleefully) points out, I at least beat that 3-year old kid on his tricyle..ah hell, gimme that cookie!!

So, I am actually jumping the gun here by talking about my perceptions of Yale post- welcome weekend, before actually describing the weekend itself. But the alcohol doused thoughts are somewhat fresh in my mind and I am eager to get them on paper lest I start getting them backward..

(1) Academic Program
So much has been said and written about the new curriculum. What does it really mean to a student? The " funky diagram " as the Dean calls it, is in many ways, just plain common sense enveloped in an exceedingly elaborate wrapping paper. I remember learning a bunch of disjointed concepts in economics, statistics and financial management in my undergrad days and never thought to connect them until I started my first internship. Hearing my client talk about his budgeting and sourcing plans and then seeing them take shape through accounting concepts resulted in perpetual "light bulb" moments and I would always go.."OOOH, this is what the prof was talking about". More recently, Ive found myself putting to use(subconsciously) several of the leadership styles we all read about in college. Yale's new curriculum does just this, except it is a conscious attempt to integrate several traditional disciplines so as to mirror what happens in a real world setting, thus making managers super efficient. You may argue.."dont we all do this at our work places already?" True, we probably do, and if we dont, we should be. Thats why, this reform to me is just common sense. I love the underlying idea. If my management education will directly point out how various fields are related, thus saving me the trouble of figuring it out on my own, I am definitely for it!!

(2) Faculty
As someone who's looking at an MBA as an education to strengthen my fundamentals and not just as a means to change careers or get a job, I cannot say enough about Yale's world-class faculty. Attending the faculty reception on Friday evening as well as the Finance Club's faculty panel on Saturday afternoon, made me aware of how approachable the professors are. I ve always been faulted for being too curious; the student-faculty ratio of 3:1 at Yale gives me hope that I can give some wings to my curiosity without disrupting the proceeds of a regular class.

(3) Students
SOM has often been faulted for having less-than average in their midst. I have always felt the opposite and to test this theory, I made it my weekend's mission to talk to as many fellow admits and current students as possible. At the end of the zillionth "where are you from?" conversations, I happily confirmed that the quality of people there is no less than those of other schools. Why do then so many people think otherwise? Do they classify only the wannabe investment bankers/Ceos or consultants as the go-getters of the world? Maybe its the industry these people are in, or the aggression they need to portray in these fields ( I should know, I am one of these), they are just automatically classified as the ambitious lot. To all the skeptics out there, "non-traditional" doesnt mean below-average. Just because these people arent clamoring to get into the rat race of the financial world, doesnt make them any less competitive or any less qualified..!!
Talking to many of my fellow admits helped me learn about the gamut of jobs there are in this world. It was such a refreshing change from the usual bschool talk and I am thrilled that I will have the chance to interact so closely with people from different industries and sectors rather than confining myself to my comfort zone within finance. I have no doubt in my mind that many of my fellow admits pursuing these so-called "untraditional" fields will be the best in their chosen areas and I will be richer for their friendships !!

To be continued...

Just returned from watching the Inside Man . Its opening and closing credits are actually set to the Bollywood tune of Chaiyya Chaiyya from Dil Se. I was quite pleasantly surprised !!

His tunes being played in a small town theatre in the United States - AR Rahman has truly arrived!!

I've identified the following things I still need to do(not necessarily in this order)before I can call myself an MBA student:

1) Arrange for finances
2) Get an I20
3) Book a visa appointment/Apply for a change of status(COS)
4) Finalise a house
5) Obtain the visa
6) Move,Move,Move..I hate moving!

I havent read too much information/blogs on the post-admission process and so I hope to be blogging about each of these steps as I go along.I will try my best to make the info as generic as possible...and for future Yale admits, I will defly be including New Haven and SOM specific data.