mere funde

Author: Amit Goyal

  • The sound of silence…

    The honeymoon period, as they call it, has come to an end. The first core term, for the Class of 2010 [Co2010] begins tomorrow. We already have loads to read up even before the first class. Just leaves me wondering if it is a sign of things to come!!

    The weekend was spent partying, generally relaxing, and getting mentally prepared for the coming weeks. My section (E) went out for a Hyd trip and I joined them for dinner at Angeethi. There was a BITSian lunch proposed today, which had to be postponed due to some circumstances. Btw, there are some 17 BITSians in this batch, up from 12 last year – way to go BITS!!

    Another interesting event was a interactive session by Navtej Sarna, Indian Ambassador to Israel, IFS Office, Class of 1980 [Note: I was born in 1983]. He spent a lot of time as the spokesperson of the MEA, and spoke candidly, without spilling any beans, of his experiences there. He elaborated on how the Indian media needs to regulate itself in events like the 26/11 or the Kandhar hijacking. He also spoke on how India’s perception in the West has changed over the years, and also how he reacted to Slumdog Millionaire vis-à-vis Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. A very interesting hour and a half was spent with him. I am already becoming a fan of the speaker series at ISB.

  • First Impressions!!

    I have been at the ISB for a couple of weeks now, and I must say I am pretty impressed.

    Anyone who has been to the ISB, will confirm that the infrastructure of the place is top notch. The only other place in India that comes close is the Infosys Mysore campus. The campus is well planned, beautiful, and extremely well maintained. The student lodging is very very comfortable, and the management does its best to keep useless distractions away from the students. The library is very well stocked, both with books and an assorted collections of DVDs. I just wish we get some free time to use it 😉

    As for the current batch, its amazing diversity never ceases to amaze me. There are folks from every possible industry, and every possible company. There are folks with a couple of years of experience, and there are people with more than 8-10 years of experience. While that also accounts for a lot of confusion during class discussions, it also brings to light a lot of questions that we could never even have dreamt of!! There are media folks, lawyers, doctors, people from the armed forces, family business, and what not. The kind of knowledge and queries they bring to the table is just mind boggling. Also, most of them are fun loving folks. We already have had 3 big parties, and umpteen number of section parties. One problem though is remembering the names. There are around 10 Amits, many more Goyals and in the end I remember only a small fraction of names 🙁

    Lastly, the faculty. We haven’t really started on the core courses, but as soon as we do I will definitely comment on this part. But from what I have heard from the seniors and others, the faculty is really good and wouldn’t be a sore point.

    PS: Lloyd Blankfein, CEO, Goldman Sachs, was on campus a couple of days back and he had a very interesting presentation about empowerment of women entrepreneurs through the 10000 Women program launched by GS. This was followed up by a witty QnA session with the students and the Press.

  • @ISB

    Long time no post. But then, I was in Siliguri for a couple of weeks with extremely limited internet connectivity.

    I reached Hyderabad on the 11th of April and since then have been busy with the activities in the Orientation week. My brand new laptop (the Dell Latitude E5500n) was only given back by the IT yesterday after installing licensed version of all softwares ISB would want me to use, and since then I have taken some time to customize it and make it usable installing Firefox, Chrome and others.

    Also, ISB has some media policy for the students, covering what they can or can’t write about on their blogs. I am waiting for that to be clarified before I start writing more frequently.

    Till then c ya!!

    PS: I turned 26 yesterday – and to quote Harry Potter – It’s not everyday that your young man turns 26 is it!!

  • All my bags are packed…

    … Well, not really. But almost there. 

    When I landed in Gurgaon, in November ’05, the first reaction was – Wow!! What am I doing in this God forsaken place?? But then I got used to things. Made friends. Work became fun. Trips were made to Pilani. And truly speaking, I am hating the moving from Gurgaon experience. It sucks!! 

    Tomorrow morning there will be no more familiar faces. No Pooja, no Gogo, or Sanchita, or Rahul. No more cribs by Shivangi. No funny ringtones from Manju. No lunch with the gang. No chai with Anoop and Praguna. 

    Damn!!

  • Moments to cherish…

    Just looking back at a couple of times from the many that I will cherish forever from the last three and half years at work. There are many more, but these are the ones most prominent in memory, as I go to work for the last time, for a year, tomorrow. Thanks to all my colleagues – you guys have been legendary!!

    Where were you when India won the T20 World Cup?

    I remember it very clearly. Conference Room 1, Tower A. With the Chemistry team, attending a Questel webinar on optimizing the use of the MMS database. Akshat was there. So were Nachi, Bala, Bong and others. It was one awesome evening. Listening to updates on the phone, and running all the way to Don’s house for the presentation!! Thanks guys!! The Chem team rocked!!

    The first ever late night for a deliverable.

    I think we were barely a month into our jobs at Evalueserve. Staffed on an urgent project from a large prospect. We had completed our share of the work, when the BR half of the work came in, under prepared. A decision was made. Me and Anoop stuck with research. Nawani and Charul worked on the final deliverable. We worked till 3 in the night. And a deliverable was sent, which the client appreciated. And Nawani treated us to lunch the next day. Oh, and we also took recruitment interviews the next day. Brilliant!!

    The Big B.

    20 people, one client, three months. And we came out of it very strong!! This was the big project. The big client. The brilliant organization of work.  The client became a regular, and all the people who worked on it, great friends. Special thanks to Pooja. Wouldn’t have been possible without her. Gogo, Sanchita, Praguna, Namita, Ankur, Mohunta, Shivangi, Mrinal, Manju, Akanksha, and I am still missing many more. You name the person, and he would have worked on it. Thanks a ton everyone!!

    PS: Cherish was also the topic for my ISB pre-interview essay!!