Jul 28, 2008

Seeking solace

My contribution to Sunday Scribblings - Solace

As the day dawns, ushering in hope and inspiration along with a bunch of to-dos hovering in the air, the much needed solace is a hot cup of tea. My morning begins with switching on the gas stove, brewing tea and mixing it up with hot milk. No matter what, I can never skip this routine. Although my hubby keeps suggesting that I should either wake up early or skip having tea on Fridays and Saturdays when I have to rush for my MBA classes, I can never give up my special tea (might skip breakfast, though). Infact, I claim that I can make better tea than the ones served in many restaurants. This obsession with tea didn't begin until around 6 years back when I moved from Chennai to Bangalore. Coffee, Boost and Bournvita used to be my favorite beverages then. Tea is something I prefer to have anytime of the day. I'm working on a term paper for my Consumer Behavior elective and guess what - the topic that is assigned to me by chance was "link the current trends of the tea industry with respect to consumer attitudes". Isn't that a good irony?

The challenges and pressures of day-to-day demands and the expectations set by myself sometimes need to take a backseat when I indulge myself in the music of A R Rahman. Regular readers of my blog would have noticed how crazy I am about his music. For every mood, there is a perfect song to give me company. When I want to reminisce the first feelings of falling in love, there is "En Swasa Kaatre". When I feel romantic, there is "Kannukku mai azhagu". When I feel nostalgic about someone I've been missing for a long time in my life, there is "Shauk hai". My day doesn't end without hearing to his magical tunes. When I'm sitting in my cab going to office, when I'm working on my projects, when I'm relaxing, when I'm about to sleep, his music is always there. My ipod understands my liking for Rahman's music so much that it plays his tunes mostly when it's in shuffle mode.

A hot cup of tea with a soothing melody of Rahman is a perfect solace that can comfort and cheer me up anytime.

Jul 17, 2008

Exciting journey

With a year just whiffed past offering an experience to remember for a life time and another year and a half to go, I'm sure the zeal and passion I have for my PGSEM course will continue. So what if I like to be the first bencher, not bunking classes and being attentive? I'm having my share of fun. During my engineering college days, I used to hate attending many boring lectures that I would bunk and sit at home. But at IIMB, every session is packed with action that there is no reason to bunk. Every week is brimmed with varied activities - be it quizzes, assignments, case analyses and ofcourse, exams that test your application of the concepts and not your memory. Along with 13 core courses in the first year, I also learnt how I can squeeze time out of my daily routine, prioritize the tonnes of work that land up in my plate and optimize my workload.

The confidence that gave me in first year led me to take 4 electives in this quarter. "You have taken 4 courses and one of them is CB!! Oh my God!", my friends asked me in the first week of this quarter. With a slight puzzled look in my face, I replied, "Yes, I hope I can manage...". CB stands for Consumer Behavior, a very interesting but at the same time demanding course. In the fifth week of this quarter, I'm managing 4 electives, although the other three are not as demanding in terms of workload compared to CB. I guess I made a good choice in selecting the right balance of courses, if you could say the right balance falls within the domain of marketing. I have taken 3 electives in marketing - "Consumer Behavior, Advertising management and Product management" and the other elective in the Public Policy area - "Business, Government and Society". All four courses are unique in their own aspects. The literature and the articles that are distributed to us as part of the reading materials (apart from the usual pillow size textbooks) are an excellent compilation, giving more of a practical understanding of contemporary issues and viewpoints.

I have made the right decision in joining this course and am sure the next year will be as interesting and engaging as the first year. Many of my acquaintances think that PGSEM is not its worth without the official placements. People perceive the benefits of a product or an offering in different ways; for some, it is placements; for some others, it is networking; for a few like me, it is the overall experience that makes this programme unique. I just want to sail through and gather myriad shells of learnings and experiences.

Blog Archive

All contents copyrighted by Anuradha Sridharan, 2023. Don't copy without giving credits. Powered by Blogger.