The last month

The last month has been really hectic.

The first thing I remember that happened last month was that INSEAD gave me also an admit!! So that puts to rest the huge question of how we were going to deal with separation. It was the happiest day in our lives :)). So then, we celebrated with a nice dinner and beer at Rice Bowl on Lavelle Road. Immediately after the celebrations, it was time to start working on all kinds of things. Sale of items at home, the loans, the tickets and so on and so on. The list is endless!! We are now in shape to leave in 10 days' time. It's been one really hectic journey.

The financing was the biggest question mark. An angel came in the form of Deepthi - my cousin who lives in the US now. She agreed to co-sign a loan from IEFC for me. There was a point in time when we wondered if it was worth putting in all the effort of convincing the Adcom that I'm worth it - whether it the MBA is only for really rich people from the really rich countries. It's amazing there are organisations like IEFC and there are people like Deepthi :).

Next thing was to sell all the stuff at home. We are going to completely shift out of Bangalore - move to Singapore. The B-school dream. And that too, in our dream B-school, INSEAD. There is one problem in this compared to IIMA. It was so easy to tell folks and friends in India, that I had an admit from IIMA. But, INSEAD needed explanantion and riders stating that it is ranked No.6 in the world! And then even tougher, convincing them that the 'investment' was worth it. One thing we always wondered, was the way people ranted about their b-school experience. What did they mean by it? Well, since we're almost there, we'll experience it ourselves!!

Office work seems to be in control. But, I'm going to be working till Jan 4th next year. Yes, I need every paisa possible. This b-school is costly. Every b-school outside India is costly. Someday, we'll work on a loan scheme that's available right here in our doorsteps in India. I'm also going to be taking every other loan available in town - we need to live and eat too :)

We've also been having people over to enable them to say Goodbye to us and wish us luck. We need all the luck in the world! We're entering this new unknown world. But there's one thing out there - the Brand and the experience. Singapore's going to be different. It's not like India, it's not going to be like US or Europe - it's a different combination of peoples.

There's no TV at home. Life without the idiot box is difficult. We just realized how much of a stress buster this TV is. Especially missing some good cricket action .. The very idea that you give control of your mind to something else, something external - that's how the TV watching works!

Then set in this huge inertia. I haven't blogged in a while! So it I decided it was time to convert the inertia of rest to ineria of motion. So hopefully, I will blog regularly for the next few days :)

Roger Binny

We both bunked office yesterday mainly to work on the loans for Pooja's INSEAD admission. So we had to spend half a day in Canara Bank Indiranagar. We were made to wait and wait for every little progress possible in the deal. The most exciting part of the wait finally was when Roger Binny walked into the bank and stood in a line for the teller. I told Pooja I know him and he's Binny and thanks to her encouragement I went and asked him if he was Binny. He said yes and I came back happy. Then again I ran out after he left the bank and got his autograph :-). That was the most exciting event in the bank in the morning!

 

Anyway, rest of the day went really well. Later in the day we went to KSCA for a bookfair happening there. In the Pavilion, was Binny's portrait. I went on a little memory lane trip on his bowling. I remember him as being a star in the 1983 world cup win as well as the 1985 Benson and Hedges World series in Australia. I have very fond memories of that world series under Gavaskar's captaincy. Waking up at 5 o'clock in the morning to watch India get almost every team all out. And of Kapil and Vengsarkar's batting - of Ravi Shastri splendid all-round performance - of Srikanth's blitzkriegs - and of course of Roger Binny's swing and Mohinder Amarnath's batting and walk-bowling :-)