Commencement

It's strange in a way and in other makes perfect sense that the Graduation day (last day in School) ceremony is called Commencement - a beginning. But the more I thought about it, the less strange it seemed and made more and more sense. The day was indeed a commencement; commencement of a new journey and a new career.

The excitement was in the air for this day few weeks in advance. Many could not believe where the 2 years went by so quick and I was no exception. Just seemed like yesterday that I was writing this post and sulking about having to move away from Pune and all the friends back home. It just took a little time before Boston became home and classmates became friends for life. 

For me Graduation ceremony was just about black robes and throwing the cap in the air - I was so wrong and boy am I happy for that or what? As a B-school applicant, three years back, I would always look up student commencement speeches of the school I was applying to. It always provided so much perspective into the school's culture and what it stands for. And being the innate dreamer that I am, I dreamt of the podium on my graduation day.

Dreams do come true!! Like many others, I always thought this was just a trap your trainers tell you to run longer or hike higher (how we hate those guys). I never imagined this dream of mine will come true UNLESS IT DID!! I was driving down Masspike when my phone buzzed and I read the sweet sweet email informing me that my speech was selected for the ceremony. I almost ran into a few trucks in the excitement. I had never stopped believing but somehow the belief was a little bit shaken during the 2 years at b-school. But this email restored that belief. Couldn't have asked for a better end to the bitter-sweet MBA journey. 

The day of commencement was beautiful, impeccable weather, sunshine, everyone looked so stunning (I even got my har done for once), families and loved ones and a feeling of accomplishment surrounded us. When I marched towards the venue with the music and cheering along with my classmates, it did feel like we had achieved something special. 

Personally, for me this is a commencement of a new belief in myself, commencement of possibilities and commencement of a life where dreams do come true.  

Thank you all for the kind and motivating words before and after the speech. I felt so very special hearing all your compliments and glad that everyone found something to identify with in the speech. Here is a link to the speech.. 

Mediocrity

A recent Quora question, “What will be the 1^st line of your bio/auto biography?” made me think long. Oh yeah, I am addicted to Quora, but more about that later.

So I had various versions going on through my head:
- I had arrived
- At the stroke of midnight, with her usual fanfare, Anagha made an entry.
- And I thought to myself, “Meh so much for the nine month wait”.
- As the clock struck 12, ending the month of May, my life changed, I was born.

Moving away from just the birth clichés, I thought even harder:
- A small town girl, out there to make it big.  (I know, real bad and cheesy)
- If I said I never thought this book would be written, I would be lying.
- I spent a lot of time thinking about this sentence 20 years back.

And then something struck and this was my final answer: 

"Mediocrity best explains everything that I am but hope it doesn't define me, as I have never ceased to fight it."

Successfully or not is yet to be decided. When I wrote this down, I was pretty satisfied with it. Not because of what it says about me but because it is true.

When we are growing up, we always think of doing great things, at least I did. Don’t get me wrong, I still do but I guess the definition of great has changed. Great is no more becoming famous, earning ton of money and giving to charity or becoming the first Indian woman to win a grand slam (sweet!). Actually it’s exactly all this but not in an overnight-filmy kind of way. More in an enduring and patient kind of way. Not sure if this is true or just a story adult me tells the kid me to justify why we couldn’t do all that we set out for – yet!

But yep, that’s the story; I mean the start so far. What will be your start?

Devidas

He always walked in with a smile and messed up hair

His shirt was always a size smaller for his tummy and pant an inch too long

His hands were cracked and shoes unclean but had a heart of a king

He was always eager to talk and never wished to stop

He loved his car and always shut the door a little too hard

He was always there to pick me up at the wee hours when I arrived home

He was the first to arrive in the morning and the last to leave

He was also the first one to defend his beloved ‘Bhau’ and the family

He was the one we counted on and looked for, for anything and everything

He was Devidas!!!

Just this morning, when I got up to the rains and cloudy weather, mom called up and something seemed odd. She spoke about a lot of other things but seemed lost. Finally when I asked and heard her speak, my heart stopped.

Devidas is no more. Our driver for last so many years but more of a family to all of us is gone. I am so far away from home and haven’t seen him for last 2 years but still cannot stop thinking about what a great guy he was and feel the big loss and void this has caused.

May his soul rest in peace!

Quarter Mile!!

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Can’t believe a semester is already over. Seems like yesterday that I wrote this POST about moving to Boston and trying to settle down. Reading through it, I realized I wasn’t too happy about moving here. So pleased that Boston, Babson and most importantly the people turned it around. As they say, you are having a good time if you don’t realize when time passed. This is what exactly happened. Got a little busy with school and next thing I know is that the semester is over…!!

It all started with meeting so many diverse classmates from all over the world and going through the pain of helping them pronounce my name only to give up in the end. So far only 2 non-Indians have aced the art of saying my name right. For most of the rest I am baptized to ‘Ana’. I kind of like the name, I do get a lot of slack form my desi group about it but its better than being called Anagaganagdjhsfj.

Pre-MBA was a weeklong induction for the international students to understand US culture. The famous Indian ‘Head Bob’ is now the only hurdle in our way of becoming vilayati babus and bens.

Class of 2013 - International Students

Boston is a place you don’t need too much time to fall in love with. The city is one of the most beautiful ones I have seen. Lot of history, cool places to hang out and lotta eat out places what else you need. The Boston day tour during my first week here was exciting. Not only did I get to know the city but the people a little better too.

Quincy Market, Boston

Tech Mark has so far been the best experience at Babson. It is basically a Business simulation competition that went on for 2 days. The Class of 2013 was divided in teams of 7 and we all competed against each other to meet certain business goals. It was dynamic, real time, fast and exciting. In those 2 days we learnt a whole lot about business and definitely understood what we need to pay attention to during the coming 2 years. An unparalleled experience. We also won ‘a price of unspeakable value’ in the end. And more than anything, I feel the price was the phrase in itself which is overused ad over abused ever since.

Tech Mark Team

One of the best parts of staying on campus is that the party never ends. You are back from a party in Boston and another one starts in the kitchen; it just never stops. You get the liberty of getting up at 8 for an 8.30 AM class. Also I can use the gym facilities anytime. Making use of that I learned to play a new sport – SQUASH. I started in September and with the help of my awesome friends cum coaches, I can play reasonably well by the end of December. Woot!! Learning Squash has definitely been one of the highlights of this semester. Figuring out new stuff to learn in the coming semester, could be piano or probably getting back to drums.  

The difficult part of staying in a dorm especially in the US is the food. But turns out in my case it became the best part of the day. I still haven’t really figured out but just like that a group came along and the 8 of us started cooking as a group. None had any mentionable skills but we were ready to get food poisoned for fellow cooks. Surprisingly, each one of us can today take pride in a specialty dish and some other not-so-special dishes. Dinner is the time everyone comes together and after fights over dishes, spoons, rotis and chairs are settled starts a non-stop conversation about the days happenings, professors, classes and everything under the sun.

Dinner Gang \m/

SLE (Something (I forget) Learning Experience), another interesting and fun part of the 1^st semester. My team was pretty diverse - Indian, American, Chinese, Chinese American and Latin American, we had it all. This made communicating a whole lot difficult and funny but nonetheless at the end of the day we all did a great job. The 24 hour exam for Strategy stream was the real test, we slogged all night and submitted 28 seconds before deadline. Phew!! We did pull off some on the spot presentations and submissions which was pretty cool just like our team name - 3D \m/

Team 3D

While the school never took it too easy on us, we never stopped having fun either. Zipcar was not just a case study we did but an enabler for all the fun out of campus. Destinatin 1, Harvard Square + Zipcar + Awesome Music +  Endless time finding parking + Falafel = AWESOMENESS!! Once Zipcar gave us the 'wheels when we needed', anything closer than Harvard Square to have dinner was blasphemy.

1st Snow 2011

Staying in Boston has so many perks. You get to see the RED SOX play and for free if you sign up to pic some trash. Broke MBA students will do anything :P Also get to visit MIT and Harvard for various events and listen to some amazing speakers. Although the Babson pride never stops us from bashing these ahem 'other' schools in Boston.

Red Sox Game

In other news, I did manage to be a part of various club activities and get on leadership of a couple I really wanted to. Being a part of the flagship event of Babson, Babson Entrepreneurship Forum made it possible to share the same frame as Michael Porter, the man behind every MBA's (at least 1st year) most favorite words "Porter's 5 forces". I also managed to lose some elections at school and that was a maiden experience and surprisingly a good one. Definitely got to learn a lot from it, in fact a little more than all the victories of Undergrad :)

Same frame as Michael Porter!!

The achievement of the semester and might as well of the year be finally gathering some courage to perform DANCE on stage. 'I was meant for the stage' may be one of my most favorite songs but dancing as a part of it was never a part of the plan mostly for the safety of the viewers. But being in a completely new environment and having audiences with stronger hearts made even this feat possible. It wasn't as bad as I would imagine in my head or may be it was, who can tell!!!

Sheela ki Jawani ;)

Diwali 2011!!

Time kept flying amidst all these truck load activities. I did scoop some time to study and be answerable to my family back home paying for my tuition. But I truly believe everything mentioned is a part of the experience and not just the academics and classroom teaching. All this craziness adds up to what we call the 'MBA Experience'. Glad so far it has bee great.....

Yale MBA Games

I guess by the end of the 1st semester I did find a new home, new friends and lot of new experiences. Herez to an equally or even more eventful and awesome semester!! Cheers!!

Let the craziness continue!!

The story so far....!!!

Few of things before that....

1. Yes, I do plan to continue this blog.
2. I will write the part 2 of the Leh trip, nonetheless months later and though nobody read the 1st part, anyway.
3. I have a bunch of other stuff drafted but never finished and posted, hope still remains I will do that some day.
4. I know the project “50 days Pune” did NOT work out and I am todally bummed because of that but I will be back in Pune again someday and complete the project. Thanks for the support guys but life got so crazy that I just could not get it done.

Now, the story so far...

1. The place I called home “9, Padam Appartments” is no longer mine and I left Pune on 10th Aug.
2. The journey was quite eventful till Mumbai but thankfully pretty mundane then after.
3. Reached Boston safely and had lot of fun meeting people at Boston.
4. Stayed with friends for few days and the reception was heart warming.
5. Moved to hostel couple of days back.
6. All settled in the dorm and seems like a fun place.
7. Classes began today (pre-MBA) and the class is totally awesome.
8. Looking forward to getting busy with course work to take my mind off from missing Pune, friends and family.

Unpacking was the toughest part. It had a sense of permanency to it and that felt scary. Past trips to the US were always short and there was ‘homegoing’ to look forward to... There is no going back now.. There is no place to go back to... Its all ahead of me from here...

But there is always hope.. Hope to make new friends - like old ones, to make this place home and have even more rocking time here....!!! Herez to the (to-be) home and more good times!!!