Hi, dear Abhishek !!

This to inform you that I have just finished reading all the posts on your blog…. I had sort of became hooked to it during the last few days, but now having completed reading all the posts I feel a bit relived.

hmm…..

My favourite one was Sunil Handa one, but I also liked the couple of posts about ‘the zoo’ , but didn’t actually understand which/what place were you referring as ‘the zoo’ ??

also thanks for your ‘real’ insights on IIM-C , from an insider’s point of view…..

You promised in 2007 that more posts on the ‘good old days’ will follow, which I fail to find !!

One question I will like to ask you, as you have aroused my curiosity, about the post on ‘confusion’ posted in jan, 2008. You told that you were in confusion between abhi@DA-IICT v/s abhi@IIM-C…. so did you manage to find any solutions for that confusion? I am asking you that, because many people here may be facing same problem after just entering the college , so your experience may come useful to many people…

congrats for your job in Johnson & Johnson … but you posted ,more than one time earlier, that u didn’t want to do the ‘zombie’ job instead you are determined to become an entrepreneur, what happened suddenly ?

also I want to know the procedure for reading all that private posts ;~)



P.S. : I found your thoughts on Google very true and have some similar experiences with Google, also I have an explanation of your post topping Google search of “duniya ka naara”, if you want to know

and thanks for your amazing tips for preparing for cat/gd/pi on your blog

sorry for writing such silly things in your scrapbook(can’t resist it), but such outburst occurs when u read too much from a single author in too short time, you get sort of linked to him/her and he/she captures your thought process for a small amount of time.. I would b highly delighted even if u read all this silly outburst, and b highly obliged if you have time to answer even some of my querries/questions !!

————Another one after a few days———–

Hey, it’s great that you are in France… it should be a wonderful place, but at the same time it’s not Britain(whose language, food, structure r all somewhat expected, ) ……. hope you enjoy a great time there !!

About your surprise, well I told you that I used to read very much since I was a kid I was hooked to reading, it was similar effect in your case because..

1) Your use of language was really good ;~)

2) Your thoughts and insights were original as well as different (non-stereotype ! , I liked your idea about TAJ MAHAL in particular, but I don’t think “people we elect” are going to implant such fantastic ideas :~9)

3) You projected/marketed your thoughts well enough

4) “Tips on preparation for cat” acted as an initializer

I am very much pleased to know that u r going to answer all my queries/concerns/thoughts/suggestions;…time doesn’t matter

First of all, Thanks for all the appreciation and apologies for taking so much time to respond to it. It is my pleasure to know that you liked some of the posts in this blog and again the expression of surprise that you read more than 100 posts within 2 days!! That is simply incredible!

Now answer to your queries-

Regarding missing posts: Well, it happens a lot of times that you commit yourself to certain posts but then do not find enough time/motivation to complete that. That is particularly strong when you write about past incidents from your own life- You got to feel nostalgic to do justice to the post. But now since you have pointed it out, I will try and complete those posts next time I go nostalgic.

Private posts: Sorry buddy but certain posts need discretion. There are certain matters related to one’s private life or certain posts related to politics at work places / study places / peer groups etc. which can only be shared with appropriate audience otherwise things might get blown off out of proportion and hence, whether or not to allow someone to read those posts has to be decided case-on-case basis.

Zombie job and enterpreneurship: As you have already gone through the entrepreneurship posts, you know that I was always very motivated with doing something of my own. The spirit still lies intact and I am still game for something challenging. As far as it goes about jobs, probably you mistook every job for “Zombie” job. The Zombie job was a phrase used in particular for Investment banking jobs and I am still very much against those. On the other hand, marketing and consulting jobs are very much different from the investment banking jobs and it would be absolutely inappropriate to treat all these in the same category. Also, I must mention it to avoid any ambiguity that my hatred for finance jobs should not be considered as hatred for the field of finance. I have a lot of respect for the field of finance as such and it is just the finance jobs that I hate – that again more due to the work-life imbalance point of view. Again I would like to repeat what I also mentioned in concerned posts- This is very much a personal disliking – Do not hate it because I hate it – Just make an informed decision.

So as far as venturing out all by myself is concerned, I would surely do that but as of now I am just playing safe and building up strategy to get in there when the time is right.

And lets face it, it takes a lot of guts to sacrifice the security and foray into a territory yet unknown to you. Probably I am scared to take that risk now!

Regarding abhi@DAIICT v/s abhi@IIMC – You know there is this particular thing God has gifted to all the living beings – an automatic ability to adapt. Let me tell you my friend, this ability is nothing but a true gift! It makes things so easier for us humans. [:)]

Well things have changed on that front as well. I hated it initially and that was the time when that particular post came out but it was not very long before I realise strengths of both the lifestyles. And the thing after that was not really difficult – I just had to adopt the positives (better said – the way I wanted it) from both and come up with a lifestyle of my own. You will come across such issues many a time in your life and believe me all you need is a strong will power. You can transform it in any way you want – just got to have will to do that.

On the same lines, I would also like to point out the difference I feel about the IIMs now as compared to the time of posts on ‘Why not to join IIMs’. Well, frankly, even as on date I do not feel very great about IIMs but it is not that bad as well. It is just a totally different lifestyle than what I was living and it was probably that change, for which I wasn’t really ready then. Now when I look at my friends who joined B-schools last year, yelling at the system and the lifestyle I find it amusing as I was doing the same last year and no longer have that strong reaction! One possible way of explaining this is the cliche – Everything changes with time. Another possible explanation as I mentioned earlier as well is that probably I was not prepared well to experience that huge change when I joined almost 2 years back. Yet another possible explanation could be that I identified my interests here and that totally changed my perception.

“The Zoo” – Thanks for refreshing my memories of “The Zoo” [:)]. While I was working, I used to stay with my friends – Nitesh Luthra, Prashant Tholia and Gaurav Jain and we used to call our place as a zoo. It doesnt take any rocket science to guess why that was so! [:P] Still if you do not get it why it was so, just go through “Awesome Pathetic” once again.

Eurotrip- To tell you frankly, that was an amazing experience. I travelled to 15 countries in 3 months and had many incredible experiences during that. More on this in Eurotrip post.

And finally thanks again for your comments and appreciation.

P.S.1: I was so moved by you passion that I decided to create a full post to answer your queries. I could have rather answered your queries by sending you a personal mail but I like your spirit and please consider this post as my gesture to show appreciation to that!

P.S.2: It feels good to be back!

Eurotrip update:
After the last update I have visited Austria, Hungary and Italy and was planning for the scandi trip this weekend. However, the scandi trip has got postponed again (3rd time postponed now). As of now, I myself dont know which country I would be in tomorrow morning.

Till sometime back my GTalk status said:
“1 month = 4 Weekends = 5 Countries = 13 cities! A perfect Eurotrip it is! “

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Update 1:
Too busy traveling.. hardly finding any time to update the blog! Having too much fun..

The classes schedule here is so well designed for people to make these trips over the weekend. Well the weekend here could be anything from 3 days to 13 days!
Visited Toulouse, Paris, Amsterdam, Nice, Cannes, Bordeaux, Arcachon so far.
Leaving tomorrow for Austria and Hungary.

Next update on Monday or Tuesday
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