Its winter time and temperatures are dipping. Here in Ahmedabad the winters are not as chilling as in north especially Lucknow. I keep getting nostalgic about those foggy mornings and benumbing evenings there. I had never been fond of winters, because I wish to see bright sun each day. I always thought I would rather like scorching summers than cloudy misty winters. Its only now when I am here in Gujarat, and the winter time has approached that i realised that everything has its value. I contacted one of my friends, Sodium, just yesterday, after one full year. Infact there was no reason to lose contact with him as we are only connected through net ever since we've known each other. But yesterday some deep feelings to talk to him re-emerged. and then when I started reading our past chats that I realised that it was all a part of my nostalgia. I had come in contact with him in winter months in Lucknow, and it had almost become a habit to read his blog everyday and also chat with him. For three months I talked and then one day we just stopped for some reason I can't recall. Possibly he had to go out of city for some work and in the mean time I also became busy with some things in my own life. And then we never tried to connect with each other.
Yesterday while reading our chats, I saw him and we jsut started talking spontaneously as if the whole year's time was just a moment. And then he gave me a good news that he earned his admission in an MBA college of his choice. I know this guy for a very less time but can't say what made me feel so strongly about him yesterday. Either the time that we had shared with each other or the time of winter and my habit attached to those times. But this feeling is amazing.

The world of ads

Every day i want to fly stay by my side...everyday i want to dream stay by my side..every morning wish i could just play..wish the mornings would just stay.....this is what plays on as the jingle of vodafone...this was a mere jingle which caught my ear because it was musical till a few days back....now the way i observe advertisements is as to what marketing startegy was at the back of mind of the ad-makers....

it is not merely the beauty of the advertisement that matters...there is a great lot of thinking involved to make a single ad...n not that the dog carrying the tie for the girl..neither the way it licks the postage stamps is what makes the ad so apealing......it is also the timing as to when the ad is flagged...and also the audience who could be watching at that time is calculated.

i have always been so intrigued with the amazing ideas and creativity displayed in advertisements but its only now in the classes of marketing management that i learn that advertisements are a great source of creating a desire to buy.

marketing as it is commonly perceived is not merely informing about a product and selling it, it is about enticing a person by glorifying the product to an extent that one starts feeling the urge to buy it....even if it is not a necessity. There is lot of research in finding out the demography, the culture, the social status, political/legal sanctions of a prospective customer.

those who are planning to be marketing managers need to learn that whether one markets a product or service or even an idea...after all what matters in the end is the value delivered to the customer.

I am at ICFAI Busiess School... a Home away from Home

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In the last two days we have been going through a set of farewell sessions...teachers mentioning that we may or may not find the same faculty from june 3rd, after this section change. The previous division of four sections which was on the gounds of our educational background (engg, arts/science, commerce, I.T) shall be reshuffled to make it five in number and on no definite ground. This was like a second farewell in such a short time-span of one month..first was when we came to join ICFAI leaving our homes behind. In such little time , our familiarity with the teachers gave us a feeling of belongingness and security in this new place as they are the only elders here to guide us and keep a check on us. I had always known that i do not wish "complete" freedom...my only demand was autonomy in terms of work and career...that i have in plenty over here.

Its about to be a month at the college, and the P.G.hostel. I find this whole environment very conducive for studies and positive growth in personality. I suppose its only at ICFAI that the classes started in May...in the name of preparartory classess, and we have been "prepared" with the fundamentals of accounts, statistics, softskills and principles of management. This time could'nt have been better utilised .

When i look back i am reminded of my struggle for deciding which college to take up and then my teachers at the coachning esp Mr. Mandan,now the centre head of ICFAI, Lucknow, convinced me for ICFAI while my mother insisted on taking Lucknow University.

It was in the last week of February that i had been for my interview to IBS, that's Icfai Business School..and I got through to Ahmedabad centre. I had a tough time convincing my parents for the admission, fee being hefty, 6.5 lak, and then expenses on fooding-lodging, et cetera. It was my sisters and friends who gave me the moral support and my brother gave both moral and financial support, and here i am at ICFAI, Ahmedabad. I am happy to have taken this decision over all other options...

Besides the college, the place , Ahmedabad,Gandhinagar...are one of the best places to be in..its clean, safe, modern as well as cultured, engaging and entertaining.

There is one place that i love most here...my sister's institute (Indian Instt of Advanced Research)which is situated some 40 kms from my college in a suburb of gandhinagar, on the bank of a dry river, amidst a jungle. It gives me the feeling of such serenity and peace, that i love to visit it every second weekend.

Not that i dont miss home but the place and its people are so warm that i dont have a feeling of being away from home. Its a home away from home now.

Time to say bye to T.I.M.E.

"Aa gayi humari moderator" chuckled Nabeel, as I sauntered in the classroom. " What did u say , come again" I said to Nabeel. Hindi or English i could not even make out, Nabeel has that American accent, a real one.

The G.D had already finished and it was time for feedback. and who else could do the job better than myself.....job of a moderator...one who puts some innocent people in a situation that each has to fight for survival and he himself keeps out of it and enjoys complacently!

I forgot to thank Juhi for being my interpreter for I was already in the role; I pulled a chair a little distant to show my self out of the group; how else could show that I am the one."Well the feedbacks now" I continued..."How will you give the feedbacks, you haven't even herad what we spoke"...interrupted a member of the group, suspecting my skills. "Yahi to baat hoti hai ek achhe moderator ki"..." chhup ke dekhne ki" Juhi visualised the dreaded situation if it were real. "Main sabki harkatien janti hoon" I continued ...and as if Juhi found it to be a comment on character, came into a defence mode "hum aisa bhi kuchh nahi kar rahe the jise harketien kaha jaye".

There was a moment of silence and obviously I made the first comment. "sab silence mode main kyon aa gaye?". Manish shook himself up in his chair and for the cell-phone generation made it comprehensive "I am in the vibrator mode"; We all laughed out loud except those who were already thinking a new topic for discussion.

This is a common scene in T.I.M.E. these days. The G.D. and interview calls have made even the most casual ones also turn serious. We try to lighten our moods "in between times" after those heavy discussions on liberalisation, communism, inflation, rupee apreciation, NREG act, stock market and so on and so forth. Oh! i forgot to mention "black is better than white", "ethics are absolute" and other abstract topics.....well they are easy, and I can see some heads shaking..."no abstract topic, please, I cant handle it".

I am turning nostalgic now. I joined TIME (Triumphant Institute for Management Education) on 27th september 2006. Its almost a year and a half, and I have made more friends in the last two months than in the whole term, probably because we came to know each other more personally in the group discussion sessions and also gave acceptance to others' personality. This is a quality of intelligent people!

TIME is no more a coaching institute to me. Its like another college, I attended regularly throughout, met teachers for guidance without being impressed upon "I am your teacher". They all have toiled and have helped us to make it to the best MBA colleges. Its time to say BYE to TIME.

I wish all the best to all for interviews and hope to remain in contact.

Time To Self-actualize

Maslow, a psychologist, gave a theory of hierarchy of needs. He talked of five needs. Self actualisation was the need placed highest in that hierarchy. The first four were, physiological, security, love n belonging and esteem needs in the same order. That every individual has the same needs and follow almost the same order every time, I feel I went through a slight different course.

While two of the needs lower in hierarchy are easily satisfied for most, I almost skipped the need of love and belonging and started moving towards gratifying my need for esteem i.e. status, recognition, fame, prestige, attention, strength, competence, mastery, self-confidence, independence and freedom, with a lot of focus on independence and freedom. In fact I had almost paved my way towards self-actualisation, the fifth and final one, but a great change came into my life. I returned back to studies, MBA, after having worked for two years and finding myself fitting quite well in the field i was, i.e. psychology, counselling and teaching.

Now that i am going back on the line, i am trying to find out whether this is actually taking me back to retrace my steps towards fulfilling my fourth need again or is it that I have set a higher goal and obviously a higher self-actualisation. While i need to find an answer to this question, I also realised that i had taken a peep into the third need of love n belonging, and had very soon realised that it was never very important to me to have a lover or a spouse because i had this great sense of individuality prevailing over the need for a community as such.

I wrote all this because today when in a mock interview I was asked as to "Why I was wanting to do MBA, a complete deviation from my field of earlier education?", I could not give a convincing answer, probably because I myself was not convinced with my decision, or rather someone else's. Therefore all this self-search. And it seems i have somewhat answered myself. When we are able to answer "What do i want?", we get to know what we exactly want and start working towards it with all our efforts and at times it automatically fills us with the required confidence too.