Courtesy Ameel, I have some great news for all my readers. Melbourne Business School (MBS) has been ranked the number one full-time MBA program in Australia and 26th world-wide in the Economist Intelligence Unit 2008 MBA rankings, released in September 2008. That's the highest world ranking ever for any Australian school. Ain't this SOME news !!!
Anyways, here's the full story :- http://www.mbs.edu/go/news/mbs-ranking-highest-ever-for-an-australian-business-school
The shocking, unfortunate and moving events of the last week have brought back into public focus, the total, or in some cases partial, failure of the various national security setup including the Police, the Intelligence and the polity. Like all other fellow human beings (I refrained from saying 'Indians' because this act would, for obvious reasons appear equally dastardly for all 'humans' regardless of their race, religion, cast or nationality), I am appalled at the amount of destruction. This in a country which is amongst the elite group of 20 nations economically, demographically and militarily. What a shame!
Having said that, everyone (more so, every Indian) is seething with rage and wants answers from the government, action from Pakistan and moral support from the International community to pursue and punish the perpetrators of this act. Every self-respecting Indian wants vengeance. I endorse this view completely. There are endless debates on Indian TV on who's responsible and how we can fight the terrorists better. However, the one point everyone seems to have missed completely, is 'prevention' or 'Root Cause Analysis'. Without doubt, we must answer an act of war such as this, with determination and sincerity; but not only in fighting the terrorists but also battling terrorism. What I am trying to bring to public attention is nothing new. It’s pretty much an undisputed and accepted ideology that effective and long lasting peace can be brought about not by simply addressing the symptoms of terrorism but also by simultaneously investigating and then assuaging the terrorist mentality – the hatred within. Let me reiterate, no efforts must be spared to punish or eliminate those who’ve done and/or planned such activities – I am an advocate of Capital Punishment and I also support the so called un-civilized punishment methodology of the Arabs, Taliban etc. A punishment is no good if it doesn’t evoke the ‘fear of god’ in the most hardened criminals (leave alone you and me); it’s objective is to deter further crimes and therefore I do endorse a measure of barbarism as far as that goes. Once we’re done punishing those responsible though, we need an equal amount of dedication and commitment to find out what’s causing all this hatred.
I am sure the reader realizes that to do what an Asad Kasav did or what other ‘Fidayeen’ do, takes an infinite amount of hatred. We need to sit down, do some retrospection and introspection to find out what must have caused some people to hate us so much that they’re willing to sacrifice their future, their career, their ‘just-about-everything’ so they can go around killing innocent men, women and children in the name of ‘Jihad’. And we need to address it if we want lasting peace and brotherhood. Think about it, you and me are seething with anger over the incidents of the last few decades, but are we willing to do what the Fidayeen do? No, because we’re not angry enough or rather our hatred hasn’t reached a stage where we’d be willing to give up everything and get on the path of guilt, destruction and misery. Of course, some ‘experts’ might argue that the terror factories do what they do to not out of hatred alone but out of a sick addiction to the feeling of power. And they’ll say there are no issues to resolve – the terror masterminds just want to kill people for the heck of it and no amount of peace-building measures would motivate them to give up arms. And these ‘experts’ may be right – albeit in some cases, not all. I believe we can establish trust, love and brotherhood in most cases. Let’s take an example, that of the Kashmir issue. This issue highlights both points of view very well. On the one hand, one might say that the militancy in Kashmir is nothing but an imported problem. It’s been proven more often than not, that the battle of the Kashmiris is being fought by the people outside it. So no amount of peace-process in the valley will bring the elusive peace as long as Pakistan’s involvement is not out of the equation. On the other hand however, have we, in the last 60 years of India’s Independence, been able to being about growth and prosperity in Kashmir the way we have in say Maharashtra or Punjab ? The answer is a firm ‘No’. Through our shameless governance that stinks of inefficiency and ‘kut-niti’ in place of ‘raj-niti’, we’ve created enough reasons for the peace loving Kashmiri to get totally disgruntled. Pakistan has simply exploited this opportunity to hit us, and hit us hard. Not once but on several occasions. I say let’s set-up a hundred schools, a hundred hospitals, a few industries; let’s just really spend (not on-the-paper spending) on Kashmir even half of it’s allocated yearly budget. I find it hard to believe there still will be disgruntlement and hatred. Once that happens, peace will very much be on it’s merry way. I might be totally wrong, but there is certainly no other option left to try.
To conclude, I will repeat what’s usually said – Prevention is better than cure. While it is critically important at this juncture to provide symptomatic relief to this nemesis of mankind, it’s also necessary to remember (after all the trials and punishments and improvements in the terror-fighting mechanism) to look for a way to stop people from hating us so much. It’s not really that hard to spread the language of love, it takes an effort and it needs a first-step.
Getting an Australian student visa can be quite a complicated thing. Here's some information on what is required from the student's side. I'll update this as I get more information as I am still in the process of applying for one :).
1) Financial ability :- The Austrlian govt. wants to see proof that you will be able to fund your entire study, air-fare and living expenditure. In case of a dependent you would need to show funds for her/his/their expenses too. The most important thing is..whatever money (cash or FD or PF etc.) you are planning to show as your personal wealth OR your sponsor's wealth needs to be there since the last six months.
2) Confirmation of Enrollment :- This is a letter you get from your college once you pay the first installment of the fees and your health insurance. If you've taken out a loan, the first installment of fees needs to come out of this loan.
3) IELTS :- Unfortunate, Unfair but true. You need the IELTS regardless of your current English Skills to apply for an Austrlian VISA. The IELTS is presently held twice a month in a pen & paper mode, so you get your results about three weeks after you write your exam so plan accordingly.
Note : It's best to get professional help. I am going through IDP India. They help you through the details really well in such a complicated process and you can bank on their experience.
Disclaimer :- I just wanted to provide some basic information which you should know about six months BEFORE you apply to a B-School and subsequently a visa. For the ever changing specifics..please visit :-http://www.immi.gov.au/students/students/573-4/eligibility-student.htm
To Melbourne then...
Hmm..admittedly it's been a long while since I picked up the pen (ok! keyboard.). Well I am out of my shell now and for good. Life's taken a few turns of it's own and I have a lot to write about and a lot to share. For starters, after a relative period of no events, me & Tania got a great opportunity to work in Panama. About the same time I also received an offer from Melbourne Business School for an MBA. Since nothing had really materialized on the Panama front, we decided to go in for the Melbourne offer. Needless to say it's a dream come true to be offered a place on one of the most prestigious MBA programs on the planet.
Given that I am moving to Melbourne in January'09 there're plenty of things that are happening now. I have applied for the student's loan, am about to give my IELTS and am also talking to the IDP folks regarding my VISA to Oz. True, life's been pretty boring up until now but now I have plenty to write about. Right from my inflammed sinuses to my crusade for quality education and other interesting and dis-interesting stuff! Watch this space for more soon !
It's been a long time after which I am back to blogging. Long because there was pretty much nothing to write about all these days. Things weren't exactly moving about, and my life was waiting for something to happen. So it was another creaky, creepy weekend. We usually look forward to the weekends but hardly ever come out of one feeling fresh. And that's because we decide to put it to use to do all the chores we don't do during the week. So this time we decided to hit the road and get myself a break - not only from work but also from Pune. I, my wifey and another two friends (a cute couple) thought Mahabaleshwar, definitely one of the most popular hangouts in Maharashtra, would be obliged by our presence! Not much planning though, and we ended up having no place to stay..well almost because we really had nothing to live in till we'd searched almost 4-5 places.
Anyways. I've gotta say it's one of the most beautiful places I've seen in a long long time. The flora, the fauna and the weather were just plain delightful. We managed to get a couple of rooms at a nice little cottage for fifteen hundred bucks a room, and though we were pretty well looked after, I must say we need a better place the next time round. After checking in, we decided to check out some of the must-see spots near Old Mahabaleshwar and so we were back on the road. I can assure you it was a beautiful drive what with dense jungles covering both sides of the road, and the clouds practically in our faces - so much so that we couldn’t see anything beyond 4-5 meters ! So we reached what’s called Marjorie point after what seemed to be like a really long drive. To our disappointment we could hardly see anything there, thanks to the cloud cover. Another few points with the same thing happening and we were wondering whether Monsoon was after all the right time to visit this part of the world. I mean why visit a hill station if you can’t see anything ? But on our way back, we witnessed the most beautiful site you would see as one by one the winds took the clouds away revealing, in full filmy fashion a most fantastic site of the Ribbed Sahyadri Ranges.
There’s another experience I’ll never forget. It was dark and on our way back to the Hotel, I thought I saw a Bison ! And since it was indeed one, everyone was terrified when I halted my car some meters ahead and stepped out to check out the beast. I must admit that was about the most outrageous thing I’ve done in my life because it was dark, it was cloudy and I had no idea the 1.3 ton monster was just 2-3 meters away. Once I knew how close it was, I rushed inside the safety of my car but I wasn’t done. Over and above the shrieks of my wife and her pal, I backed my car far enough to be in the Bison’s face – and then rolled down my left window to reveal a magnificent site..the Great Indian Bison – in the wild – staring us down. I think that stare made the trip memorable. I am not sure it would’ve been worth remembering had it not been for the huge beast sighting.
The next day was equally well spent. We woke up to the chirping of birds and sound of raindrops hitting our rooftops hard. After a simple breakfast we headed out to visit the newer part of M’War. Here’s where we came across an astounding view of the Krishna River Valley at Kate’s point and at Needle point. This is a must-see according to me – and don’t forget to try the ‘Strawberries with Cream’ at Kate’s point – it’s expensive but worth every penny ! By noon, we decided we’d enjoyed to our heart’s content and were ready to head back to the city that gives us our daily bread – Pune.
And so it was over. One of the most memorable weekends I’ve spent. I owe this to mother nature, the friends who were with us and made it so special and definitely to the beast called the Indian Bison who was tolerant enough to let me live to write this :):):)
Well I just completed watching 'Lakshya' the zillionth time and getting inspired as many times. I guess for me it will go down as one of the finest movies ever made anywhere on the planet. It's inspiring, it's romantic, it's real and above all else, it's technically & thematically brilliant ! So I thought lemme create a list of my all time favourite movies and what I like about them (memorable dialogues, classic scenes..everything). Here goes.
1) Lakshya - Like I've said before, this one's gotta be just plain genius. It's got everything the movie-goer can ask for - cinematography, dialogues, music, direction etc...everything is special. Hrithik is awesome while Preity, Boman, Om Puri & the rest of the crew are at their best even though there's less to do quantitatively speaking. My choice of the most touching scene is one where Hrithik talks to his father Boman just hours before leaving for a near-impossible mission. Another superb scene is one where he meets Preity on the highway before leaving for the mission..the silence is just so beautiful and expresses such a great lot..the missing hug conveys emotions superbly etc etc..the list is endless.
2) Anand – A timeless classic, whichever way you want to put it. Rajesh Khanna’s best and most awe-inspiring performance merits many a credit but don’t forget Amitabh in his babu-moshai cameo. Most touching scene – the one where Johny Walker comes in to meet Rajesh Khanna and breaks down when he’s told about Rajesh’s illness.
3) Chak De! India – This one’s made it to the third position only because of Shahrukh. It’s Shahrukh all the way, even though the gals are superb in a supporting role. Sensational theme, slick direction and rock solid performance make it one of my all time favourites. Best Scene – the one where Vidya saves the goal in the final and India wins..you gotta see Shahrukh’s expression. He’s just outstanding in that scene. Another inspiring scene is the one where he talks to the gals right before the final – ‘Yeh Sattar (70) minute’… very well written indeed.
4) Independence Day – I’ve loved this movie, and watched it at least 10-15 times ever since I saw it first almost 12 years ago. The graphic effects and direction are simply awesome and so is the plot. Best scene is definitely the president’s final speech hours before the aerial combat begins, to save mankind. Here it is, just for keeps.. "Good morning. In less than an hour, aircraft from here will join others from around the world. And you will be launching the largest aerial battle in the history of mankind. "Mankind." That word should have new meaning for all of us today. We can't be consumed by our petty differences anymore. We will be united in our common interests. Perhaps it's fate that today is the Fourth of July, and you will once again be fighting for our freedom... Not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution... but from annihilation. We are fighting for our right to live. To exist. And should we win the day, the Fourth of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day the world declared in one voice: "We will not go quietly into the night!" We will not vanish without a fight! We're going to live on! We're going to survive! Today we celebrate our Independence Day! "
5) The Pursuit of Happiness – Brilliant ! That says it all. Will Smith at his best and more than ably helped along by a great script and theme. I particularly like the line which he says about his life when he achieves his objective of becoming a broker. It goes, ‘This…small part of my life, is called Happiness !’. Whenever I’ve failed at something, I’ve reminded myself of Smith’s character and how giving up is never an option.
6) Andaz Apna Apna – Well, this one’s come in last, but I’d put it above every other movie above in terms of sheer value for money. Every scene is a gem, Aamir & Salman are amazing and Paresh Rawal is good. But the one character that takes the crème is Crime-Master Gogo..Shakti Kapoor is simply a genius un-earthed ! Best Scene – Well I can’t decide..every scene is as good as the other but I think the last scene is very, very good.
A lot of my pals have asked me about the best GMAT preparation around, so here goes. My strength is and has always been Verbal, and I am an average math bloke. For GMAT structure, I would trust the Official Guide OR the official GMAC Website. However, for preparation here is my list of books/material, in order of fondness (call it quality if you like :)).
1) Manhattan GMAT Online Tests - Cost me $40 but is by far the best/toughest material I have solved. It's strategies and study guides are simply amazing because they focus on content (what) rather than style/tips/tricks (how).
2) Official Guide Book - It's the official thing and pretty close to the real exam, but it's Math is way easier than the real exam.
3) Princetons Review Book - This is an excellent (rather, the best) book to get going. Math & Verbal tips are very useful.
4) Kaplan GMAT Book - I liked this book but found it a bit harder than the actual stuff.
Apart from this, you could use Kaplan 800 but personally I think it's not as hard as they say it is. The one thing I want everyone to go through is the Manhattan GMAT Strategy Annex, I'd give it 100/100 for it's content & theory. Also, there is a lot of free material on the Internet (search 'GMAT' at www.esnips.com), but I'd say the above material is more than sufficient.
A note - Like my PR instructor says, the GMAT is an erratic exam - anything can happen, so be mentally prepared to fail, while still being optimistic and positive about your chances.
