ISB Ranks in Top 20 Global B-Schools

ISB began as a dream. A dream whose time had come. And today the dream is reality. Hats off to all those people who put their faith in their dream, and are now in enviable position of seeing it lived in their own time. With that being said, the time is now. Our time has come. It is official. ISB is ranked 20 in the Top B-Schools of the world by Financial Times.
As we do India proud, being the only Indian school in the rankings and the youngest ever to make it to the top 20, that too the first time it participated in the rankings, all the critics stand silenced. ISB was always a global school, and today, we can truly say that.

Let the celebrations begin, or rather, continue :)

http://rankings.ft.com/global-mba-rankings

http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/videopod/default.aspx?id=22830

Blooker material?

Theres been a long time since I have been looking for some motivation to blog again. And recently, I read about the concept of "blooker". A blooker being a book which is inspired by a blog. It seems publishers are reading blogs and deciding to publish them in a book version. Since it has been my long cherised dream to write a book, this could be a mode to get there. I can almost see you smirking. Ya, right. I know this blog is not the quality they would print in a book. But well this is warm up (yet again), before I start writing seriously:).
Do i really want to get serious though, surreal is what my mood is nowadays.
And suddenly the thoughts stop, as suddenly as they had started. Relentless, torturous, overpowering, phenomenal, to not let go ever....
Let there be more when there is a better day, the time is not now, let us wait for the right time....

Term 6.

We are already in Term 6 and life has become so predictable, yet so unpredictable. Until and unless you have a deadline tomorrow, no work gets done. And if you dont have a deadline for tomorrow, you feel wierd. Its like there has to be something to be done everyday. How can you have time for yourself. I am being considered lucky since I dont have any submission due tomorrow. Unluckily, I have 5 coming up on Monday, but guess what, I am still not doing any. It would be sacrilege to touch it before Sunday. Much like unsuspecting people thinking I have gone crazy when I said I have finished one assignment 24 hours before the deadline.
Comfortably numb, as some friend's Gtalk line read. Life seems to have a pace of its own, with you not having to interfere. As the topic of the blog only reads. How much more uncreative and unimaginative could it have got, you wonder. Or do you.
Just a blip in your entire existence, as our LSCM professor says. I seriously wonder how many of these blips I will even remember ten years down the line. Things which command so much share of mind right now, how important will they actually be some day. And for that matter, how important are they right now.
And as the Consumer behaviour class ended today, I realised we are already halfway done through this term too. Its like a fast paced giant wheel, what with all the ups and downs life brings here. And as I get ready to face another one, unpredictably so, its time to sign off.......:)
Predictably yours
Madhur

As good a time as ever

2 in the night, a day before an exam, is as good a time as any to start re-blogging. What do u call a three month break- a sabbatical, a reality check or an imagination trip? Where does the line between imagination and reality actually blur, and where do the demarcations end?
As I try to focus on the task at hand, try really hard and yet not succeed :), I wonder what tomorrow holds, and the day after that. And thats it I have stopped wanting to know beyond that. There was a time when i used to fantasise about life, about the future, and not live in the present. The present always seemed like a wrong time to live. The future was always more alluring, being the unknown. Ever wondered what it is about what u dont know, the sense of adventure, the mystery, the sweet smell of secret, its a potent package altogether. And suddenly its not. Or is there a small voice at the back of my head that still wants to know but does not want to admit.
Do we all actually live honest lives? Dont we always lie about whats important and what matters and why we do what we do? Why is it so difficult to state the reality and accept it? Are we scared of coming across as vulnerable and is imagination a good enough shield? When does the like about reality and pretence taper off? And when do we accept the wall we build?
Is now as good a time as ever to start studying, or am I better off still wondering

contempatingly yours
@ISB

Survival of the fittest or ????

I am staring at the watch as I type. With two exams down and one due tomorrow, we have almost finished the end term. You would ask why this sudden urgency to write now when my last post was more than 3 weeks. why cant I wait for tomorrow to be able to write quality and not just spew a mixture of thoughts on the screen and stop torturing my readers with half baked ideas and stories. As I walked out of the paper and comtemplated how I had done, my first thought was how others had done. Game theory the call it right. Life has become that only. Everything is ranked basis the average. What was the average, am I above, it, if yes, how much above, if below, how much below. All grades are relative. So the fight to survive, to be the best. If someone were to come and tell me people found the paper tough, that would give me more pleasure than the fact that I did a good paper. Its sad. You wish everyone but your close friends have ----ed it. You wish mediocrity on others to ensure you come out as better. Its all relative. Makes me miss college and school, where everyone was happy that everyone scored. Are the resources that short that we need to apportion. the production frontier, have we reached that? Adn then again, why do we all want the same things, which are not enough in number. are we all runnning after a mirage and losing our identities in the process. Would one grade more or less matter any which way in the future, or for that matter, even today. Are grades any measure of intelligence or competence in any case. Its convenient to decide the world in above and below average, but is it right. Does it make any sense whatsoever.
:)
Contemplatingly yours

Wide AWAKE

0630 in the morning. Cant believe I was awake the whole night finishing an assignment, and I am still not sleepy. This inspite of living on 4-5 hours of sleep for the past 3 days, due to a mid term exam. Strange. Life changes, people change, even habits change. I would never have thought I could survive on anything less than 8 hours of sleep. Sleep, such a precious commodity at ISB. U want to do so much more, that sleep feels like a waste of time. Actually.
Term 3 is the killer, I had heard from seniors. It feels very much true. What with assignments every 2 days, bidding for live industry projects, and so many other things coming up, it actually is difficult to survivie. Sometimes I wonder what world I am living in, what life and whats beyond this. And what was before this. I miss my past life a lot here, like I will ISB a lot when I pass out.
What more and what less and what else and what not...:)

Wonderingly yours

Another month gone

More than a month and not even a single entry..Can believe myself. My scientist friends must be disappointed. But then how would I know. Its been a long time since I spoke to any of them. ISB is like a whole new world. Almost like you are on an island with this the only population. Many a times you forget there is a world out there. What with so much happening all around, another term is about to come to an end. And if we thought Term 1 was difficult, it seems like paradise now. We used to have weekends then, without classes and in fact one without assignments also. Now, when I walk into a class and someone asks me "how was the weekend", my reply is like, "What weekend?". A GLEC class, an extra Comp Strat session, a special Mark Strat conjoint lecture, 4 hours of Mandarin, one DMOP case assignment, is that what you call a weekend?
We are finally done with Mark Strat- the marketing strategy game that tested our abilities to work in teams to the limit. With submissions due every 3-4 days, you were spending loads of time with your group. and if u didnt like any of the members, they were immense long hours......For the uninitiated, Mark Strat is a game played at leading B-Schools around the world, to teach you Marketing Strategy first hand. Its only when you burn your fingers do u make a good cook, as per our professors. Well, my food is still burnt, with no takers :)
The game is interesting, very interesting and very arresting. I didnt sleep the night we did really really bad(for the lack of a better word).!!!!! and whats more, I even got up at 7 :). It evokes interest, tests your logic, makes your wonder, makes you want to believe in magic, and in the invisible hand(stealing a macro economic concept here). It all balances, sometimes by logic, sometimes by luck??? Sometimes by a whole lot of analysis..It was a part of your life.. the every third day big question,"So how much did your firm make?" And the sighs and the joys associated with them. Its amazing how such a small thing can occupy such big mindspace, time space and all other kinds of space, pushing everything else important into the background.....
I didnt blog for over a month, and whats more, didnt even think about doing it in a long time....
And now, exams in a week and yet another term will come to an end. The roller coaster ride is gaining speed, and I can barely hold on. The fear of fallinf off is magnifying. And so is the hope of staying on.
Hope, eternal Hope.....:)