My Fifth Week of Internship

The week started with a big bang of having an opportunity to attend Michael's presentation. Well it is not always you get to meet someone in the list of Forbes richest men and this one was definitely special for the shear amount of growth Dell has had in the last few years. There were a lot of questions related to the recent changes in Dell, both on corporate level and strategic level and it was good to hear the leader taking a "I believe" stance. However, what caused me the most surprise was that in an organization spawned on Michael's entrepreneurial ideas - there has been no big names coming even close to the high command. Anyways, the positive thinking was surely reflecting in the entire meeting.

On the work front, things were finally moving and I was able to hit the cracks a little harder this week. On Friday, I had a one-on-one with Mike Rosenstein, Director for Global Tech Product Mgmt, and it was a great experience in short. We discussed about our project and it seemed he was really impressed and interested there. Talking about Dell in general it was good to understand that the executives realize the challenges and opportunities at Dell and are concerned to make a change.

I think of two things when it comes to changes at this 80,000+ man-powered elephant:

1. Finding information here is like finding "a needle in the hay stack"
2. And trying to execute something really require championing your ideas (Reminds me of this - "Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world" - Archimedes)

The weekend was pretty productive this time - We were able to finally sit down and do some case practice. Man!! Was I not rusty this time. Anyways, I am finally able to get some dirt out of my analytical side. Gym routine is going fine in to the fourth week and I am happy to say that I am really beginning to enjoy the experience. On Saturday evening, we went to do some community services organized by Keep Austin Beautful at Stephenson Preserve as a part of our internship experience at Dell. Well mulching in the rain was not the best way to show interest in community and I was horrified to see the conditions of my shoes later. The night was "King Pong" tournament (Beer Pong) at Mak's place and I was happy to get on the third spot. Boye it was a crazy night :)

Watched Ocean's 13 on Sunday - Decent movie - I guess you start expecting things in a particular fashion in these sequels and this was no different (but for the fact that this was much more hilarious/humorous). Also watched Cheeni Kum and Jhoom Barabar Jhoom - enjoyed both of them. However the music for "Jhoom Barabar Jhoom" rocks!

The feeling of nearing 30+

Statuary Warning - If you are in the age bracket of 30-45 please do not read this!

Well it hits everyone… and this time the victim goes by the name of Manish Dabas! It is hard to define this feeling, but I have finally got the answer… a hard way though because this feeling makes you wonder how far you have come in life and how much more is remaining of it… it makes you wonder if you need to set or change your priorities, above all it makes you see life in a different way for sure… and yet you sort of wonder when did it hit you the first time!

When we were kids, we looked around and wondered how these 30+ uncles and aunties are going through the routines of life… how they were getting stuck in to the long and eternal circle of one day to another and how they were meant to be that way for a long-long time! Thanks to the changes in the recent Macro-economic environment we no more suffer from that syndrome. But there is one thing that still needs to be taken care off… your body! Youth! Ah this age :) - Probably most of you would agree that 25-30 are the best years of anyone's life… true some people succeed earlier than that and some later, but I am not talking about success here, I am talking about the capacity to enjoy that success. How fit you are and how much energies you have to enjoy life… okay weird… let me take a step back. In childhood, one hardly cares about what one has to do… eat, drink, sleep, run, play… you have so much to do… then as you keep increasing the candle on the birthday cakes, as you keep loosing hairs, as you keep increasing those inches to your waist… wait a second…

Not that I haven't experienced some of these syndromes, adding inches to my wait was certainly not my idea to grow old. Still as I move towards the 30+ side, I am growing more and more concerned about it. When you are 18 and you are drinking those beers, you don’t care, there is a lot of time to be back in shape. When you are 22, you just start working, sitting on the office desk for 14 hours and in front of TV for next 4, you don’t care either… when you are 25, you are still good to go for another 5 years and you feel so full of energies like never before… and then suddenly one fine day you look at your recent photograph and see a little overgrown tummy bulging out… you are concerned now… you go for a jog for 3 days and you are back to square one… then one fine day, you are looking at that Album from yesteryears and you seem puzzled, although you haven’t noticed it all this while, you used to look so skinny in your college days - "I was always healthy man, how can this be…" you wonder!!! You make sure you take that Gym membership while coming back from office and months goes by… you fill your Gas from the Gas Station one block away, you do your groceries in the same compound, still you don’t have time to go to Gym… what are you up to? You try to make sure you get good shirts to make you look slim, you try to hold your breath while getting photographed (trust me it is difficult to do so while smiling at the same time), still one day one of your friend scraps you on Orkut - "Dude you have put on so much Weight"!!! Time has come to take that Gym membership!

Three months pass and you have still struggled to go to the Gym beyond the first week and now you do the ultimate thing… your start uploading your upper profile only by clipping those pictures… and that to me is the right way of defining the feeling of nearing 30+ for me … Now some of us may choose to accept this fate and carry on with their lives… and by the time they reach 40+ think about walking in the park to avoid any more heart related problems… some of us even choose to cut down on those high calorie diets and keep their blood sugars in control… and some brave ones among us can chose to change this, actively delay this aging process and start hitting that mat on the tread mill the next day, and the next day and keep on hitting it until the joints start to pain… I have decided to take the last option and I think I am ready for it NOW!

Oh by the way, its not that this thought has come to me for the first time - no this is no Eureka moment - I had been an ir-regular at gym at Evalueserve (doing all sort of exercises for 2 days and then repenting for those the next 5 days)… I in fact went to a Gym for about 2 week in Telesoft in bangalore and even odd exercises at during Logic Eastern days… but all this while I never thought it is now or never. There was always next six months to look ahead for those six-packs. There was always something gravely serious for me to have any time in life. There was always that small window of hope… not this time and I know this is serious stuff.

So the plan right now - Well to burn this fatty tyre around me in the next 2 months. I wonder how easy it has been off late to run for 3 miles on the tread mill - I still recall the race organized by Hindustan National Glass in Bahadurgarh and how I didn’t have enough fuel to take me full distance… I ran pretty well for almost 3/4th of the race before falling behind on second place as my Dad looked at me - He was the judge for the final leg and I could not keep it up :( well no longer dad… and that’s a promise!

My Fourth Week of Internship

Well two major things happened during the week at large - one I finally got a go-ahead for my KM project and second we went to Lake Travis on a Dell Sponsored welcome party on Wednesday afternoon! Now I know how much fun it is to be at the barge along with 50+ more people on an afternoon but then to be paid for that is shear orgasmic :) (pity they didn’t have any beer that day… never mind)

The weekend was pretty happening too - Friday was an all-boy hangout and with one of my intern friend (Abhishek Mitra) celebrating his birthday, Saturday also happened to be one. Went to sixth street and as Abhishek wanted to have some chilling time at Coyote Ugly (please use discretion while opening this link) we let the "Bad Boy" have some fun. After a lot of club-hopping at 2 o'clock we finally decided to head back. Sunday was a relaxing day after the week's hard work ;)

By the way, I think I forgot to mention this earlier that I have been trying to be pretty regular to gym these days. Finally, there is some reason to head back from office early and not feeling guilty about it!

My Third Week of Internship

The fun has just started to begin. I started working on my first project last week and by the end of this week it seems to be almost nailed. So when my mentor asked me how long will it take me to do this and the surprise he showed when I said "Two weeks" … Now I think I need to slow it down even further.

Monday-Thursday were all boring stuff with nothing much happening besides project work and a lot of reading. The only good thing happened all this while was the team lunch on Thursday and I had my tummy stuffed to the brim on this occasion. Came Friday and I tool off - yes this was the third week in a row that I would not be working for a 5 day/week. Compare this to my I-Banking friends who are spending most of their Sundays at work working till 2 A.M!

So what did I do - well here is a small itinerary -

Friday - Went to these beautiful dry caves in San Marcos, 35 miles South of Austin, called Wonder World Caves. These caves formed due to seismic activities between the two tectonic plates that form Texas state and divide the whole state in to two almost equal halves. It was great to see the earthquake from inside (almost 160 ft deep). The funniest part though was to go to the near by wild park and feeding Dears!

After spending some time there, went to Barsana Dham, a temple/aashram in the south of Austin. In case you are wondering since when this Atheist has gone believers way… wait till you hear this. Barsana Dham is supposed to be one of the largest Hindu temple in the States (probably after Swami Narayan Temple in Illinois. Strangely enough, I travelled on Route 59 all the way here and still missed that one… may be this time when I go back I will see this.

Saturday - The best day here so far. The lazy day started when I got up way past 11 and headed for Café Mozart around noon after having my brunch. After having a nice hot coffee on the cool deck near Lake Austin, we headed for a walk on the nearby trail - which we soon realized was meant for Dogs only! From there we went to Windy Point on Lake Travis and I simply could not resist the temptation to jump in the water anymore :) Having spent some time there, we went to restaurant Oasis and this time we didn’t have to wait at all to get some nice seats near lake. Boy isn't this place beautiful… and rocking as we soon realized as we headed to Sixth Street in the evening. Going to an 18+ club was not the best ways to enjoy the evening, but I didn’t mind much after such an eventful time. The only thing that troubled me was that music was all Latino and I could not get a single word of the songs we were dancing on… Night was young and bright but tiredness finally loomed over me as I headed home from there… but not before dancing Bhangra on Latino music!

Sunday - I was dead thus far and yet wanted to do so much more… went to this Pakistani restaurant for lunch and after a gave a little "why Pakistani restaurants are not good for business" I realized how corrupt my brain has become off late with the problem analysis business. Anyways, I didn’t count the poor food quality in to it and I was rightly corrected. A lazy start for the day turned further lazier with Sun glazing in its full glory on this June day… Hitting the pool seemed to me the best idea and so I did… Sure I survived thanks to my Pigments :) In the evening went over to some friends place and played few rounds of Poker before letting all-in and getting all-out! Also met a batch-mate from IIT (Ashutosh Chakraborty) after four years and man it was fun to remember the sad-loonie days of IIT. Tried to sleep early… Alas the thoughts surrounding … 'its going to be a long week" didn’t help much :)

Why a Pakistani restaurant is not good business in US?

Seriously this goes beyond the first thought of the rivalry between the two countries and trust me so far from the sub-continent we don’t really care as long as the skin is brown (I am in fact starting to feel for my Mexican brothers). Ask anyone who has experienced the ghost biryani or a stuffed naan in a Pakistani-Indian restaurant and he can almost swear by the mouth watering taste. I am in fact a great fan of all the Pakistani restaurants and yet wonder "Why is it that most of the Pakistani restaurants I have been to look deserted?"

First thing that came to my mind was that compared to some of the not so good restaurant, I found these restaurant were located in far-off, obscure locations. Could this be the reason - and this leads us straight to understanding of the Causality - Think of this in business perspective - is the location a factor or a result… or is it just another Spiral reasoning? I soon figured out that for a restaurant to exist you need a customer base - a large loyal regular customer base and if you don’t have that you better go to a place where you can survive even on a very small even ir-regular customer base - in other words cut down on the fixed costs as much as possible. Although I agree location is a factor... that alone would not help and thus Location has little to do for the Business here - it is more of a result than a cause.

A simple way to look at this would be to understand the sub-continent population in the US - A majority of which are Sikhs (would not eat in a Pakistani restaurant because of the way meat is cut), Gujratis (mostly vegetarians), South-Indian (a different league altogether) and Bengalis (who can not do away with their love for fish :)). So that leaves with a very small population base that patronizes these restaurants. Even this population is bounded while traveling with a person from the above-mentioned communities. So we get the mathematics in place now. What stop from Americans - well the spices and people who recommend - Think about it, why would I go to an Italian restaurant when no Italian is talking about it and on top of that they serve me food which is bland. A spiral reasoning again!

Thinking on these lines, compare this to a Indian fast food chain kind of a thing - Yeah Indian Fast Food. All you need to run this is some punjabi Chats, dhokla and paav bhazi, idli, vada and some variations of dosas. Add a normal $5 thali or a $8 buffet to it and you have the shop in business. How often will people turn up - as long as you have a weekly menu - I guess they would come. Keep the drink like "Chai" on a low and add some more snacks like Bhatoora and Samosa to fill your counter. I am also tempted to keep some indian style hookas to add that little touch… How about this for a business plan! Oh BTW, name it anything but Shalimaar :)

Preparing for MBA - Part II - Submitting the Application

1. Secondary Research – For all those school that you are interested in, I suggest you start your secondary research somewhere in May-June (for people applying in Second round add1- 2 months to the whole process everywhere).
a. Website - I think this is the best source to start with for any school. See what their flagship program is; see the curriculum, the teaching practices, the focus areas for the school, the recruiting teams, the student activities, relevant club web-sites, what is school really proud of, diversity, class size, desi population, etc – in nut shell everything etc. It should take you around 4-6 hours roughly to browse through the entire content for the school.
b. Next I recommend you to start looking for information about the school from site like Business Week, MBA blogs etc. Business Week is a good source… should also check out on some message boards there.

2. Primary Research -
a. Contact alumnus and students you know of (try to get hang of some referrals if you don’t know any or some people that are non-evaluative). Ask them questions besides “What are you thinking after MBA” and least of all “Why MBA” (I hate this one question the most… ) Ask questions such as “Why this school”, “How is it different from XYZ”, “How is ABC as a place to stay” … "Tell me something about what you do outside the class"… "I am interested in this, do you think there are enough opportunities" … remember they expect you to know the basics, but surprise them about their school by asking some pointed questions – I enjoy it when I learn something new about Michigan from some of the prospective students – something that even I am not aware of!!!
b. Talking to some of the student ambassadors of the school is also a great idea. They have been trained well by the ad-com so they know a lot to satisfy most of your queries. What more… you can also refer them back in your essays highlighting how their answered helped you pick that school!
c. If you are based in US, you are in an amazing place to just pick up the phone and talk to them so use this to your advantage. This is true for a lot of people in India too, so do not hesitate. I would love to talk to anyone calling from that far :)

3. Contacting Admission Committee – This step should start somewhere in July beginning (they are relatively free by that time to answer to student’s queries). Write a short e-mail to them telling whatever you have done - Start with a brief intro and your interest in the school, your brief background and then move on to tell them that you have been to the school website and also gathered some basic information through other websites and blogs, tell them that you have been interacting with the students.
a. Once you have established that you are really keen about their school, ask for more information – this could be one of the question that other people have not been able to answer, or just contact of one of the school ambassadors, admission committee member or alumni near you for a one-on-one chat about the school (if you have not got a chance to talk to one by now). Again get as much information on why your school OR how do you differentiate yourself?
b. Again if you are in US, You should ask if you can get a "Day in MBA life" sort of help from them in order to understand their admission process, the school culture and teaching method better … This will go a long way to showcase your interest in the school and would also give you very good inputs as to what they want to hear when they ask "Why XYZ B-School" … This will also help you to make your essays very strong and pointed with respect to that particular school.
c. All these schools try to differentiate each-other on the basis of culture (a lot of which is outside the classroom experience) so make sure you understand this aspect well. Even from an experience perspective it will be important for you to understand where will you be able to fit the best (trust me it is different – some schools have very competitive class and some are very laid back… It can be an amazing thing to notice)… also believe it or not, though they all sound like another B-School they think they are very different from one-another and you can not replicate the experience at one place from another.

4. Start working on your essays
a. Once you have done this work, you should be fit to start working on your essays by the end of July – First week of August. Also, you would know what the admission committee wants to hear so you will be able to tweak your story a bit. In addition to that you would also be able to write different things for different schools rather than a generic applications – remember one size doesn’t fit all!
b. Now essays writing is a specialists job and I might not be the right guy to tell you how to sell yourself. However, this is what I can generalize from my discussions with others and therefore I am daring to suggest the same :) –
i. Write all the things/stories you want to highlight in your application (A must step if you don’t want to sound like everyone else)
ii. See what qualities you are able to highlight through those
iii. See the missing link between – desired and provided. You should be having a fair idea by now about the profile these schools are looking for so you can see this easily.
iv. See if you can get some more examples – it can be as simple as helping a junior with her exams to helping your CEO save his chair… However don’t try to make a fool of yourself by trying to cover things. If you don’t have a good GPA/% don’t blabber about how you were so mastering the art of Clay modeling in your engineering school. If its there, its there… I suggest you better not say anything about it until probed.
v. Once you are done doing this – look at the questions and see how you will fit those stories and start writing – This way you will not miss anything.
vi. Start writing the essays and finish writing by Mid-August.
vii. NOW is the time to look at some of the sample essays that you have got from your friends (yeah I know we all do it… why even hide) and to compare them with yours. Don’t try to copy the styles but see if you are too verbose or otherwise. They will also give you some ideas that you would like to incorporate ;) (However I have seen some gross stories about people writing whitepapers in their college mags that impact Irish foreign policies… STAY SANE).
c. Finish by end-August for sure.

5. Adding a few things - A lot of people have also been asking me about the relevancy of NON-PROFIT experience. Does it matter? Well yes and no… it depends finally on the complete story. However, if you have done something for the cause of others do highlight it. I would even suggest you go ahead and start doing it even for the sake of your MBAs… at least this will inspire some 40,000 applicants to do at least 2 months of social work :)

6. QC, QC and more QC
a. Run those essays through as many people as possible. Set-up times in late Aug to Mid-September. Make sure you use some of the people you had talked to in earlier stages. Please stick to the timelines given by these people (they are helping you and I think they deserve this).
b. Run essays through some of the native speakers and existing students too. This will help you find some of the "subjective objectionable items"… I suggest you also use some of the non-MBA resources. I took help from one of my Aunt who was a teacher in high school (trust me that was good!)
c. Once you get the reviews, QC, QC, and more QC… (QC – Quality checks)

7. Follow-up - After you have submitted those essays, follow it up with the admission committee people thanking them for all the information and also letting them know that you have submitted your application and you look forward to hear from them soon. I realized this is one thing we are not too good at… following-up. It is amazing to see motions turning in your favor if you are able to strike a good relation by following up - after all there is always a human-element to every process here.

I think if you would be able to follow this, you should be good to go to places :) Having said that, feel free to take your own course, I am sure you would find something you can better here. Also, do let me know so that I can add it here :)

Preparing for MBA - Part I - Taking the GMAT

Frankly speaking I didn’t do much prep with GMAT and was shear lucky to get some good score… but that could be because I was already studying for CAT for that whole year. However, here is what usually people think –

Time Required - Three months preparation time is a good time frame, more than this and you will start feeling bored… less than this and you might feel under-prepared… but again it is good to set a good timeline for yourself knowing your weak/strong points.

When to take GMAT - March-April is probably the best time to shoot for it. This will leave you with ample time to meet most of the first round deadlines and also give you some buffer to re-take the exam if something doesn't work out well.

What to do on first day of preparations - Register yourself and get a date. I cant remember myself working for it, until finally one day I got myself a date. This to me was the MOST IMPORTANT STEP. Then start with a mock-test on Day 1 itself to know where you stand and what areas you really need to work on.

Preparation - Many versions are available for this - From joining a coaching institute to studying from every book under the sun. However, I suggest that you go through Official Guide at least 4 times (so much so that you can recall the answer to 59th question is ‘D’’). I think preparing CAT-level maths (which I think it more difficult and time-wise more demanding) would certainly ensure that you would score full in Maths section. I never went below 400 in any of the mock in Maths. Verbal was always problematic for me so you might like to hear someone else for this.

One another important thing besides following Official Guide to GMAT (see it is important to be mentioned twice) is to take your MOCKs SERIOUSLY and in an EXAM LIKE ENVIRONMENT. A lot of people skip essays, don’t even think about it. GMAC publishes a list of essays (now I didn’t know that all essays come from that list only but this is a fact - bad thing is the list has almost 200 odd topics, but one can try!) … so pick one from there if you have to. Remember we haven't had the practice to be attentive and sit for 4 hours for a long time now, it is good that you practice this EVERY TIME you take a MOCK,

On Test Day - Well I don’t think if I helped you anyways so far, however, I can certainly tell you how not to prepare and still crack the examination…. You can try that form the word go in your Mocks too!

1. Reach the examination centre at least 45 minutes prior to the exam. My exam was scheduled for 1300 but started at 1240 itself. I reached at 1230 so you may think what condition I was in to.
2. Once you are in the exam hall, make the grid that you would use for the answers on the paper before you start the test and filling in the other information. It saves time. Trust me although every book talks about it, no one really do this in mocks and suffers later. Practice this in mocks.
3. Remember the list of universities you are sending your scores to. You will not be allowed to take even a scrap of paper inside so by heart this information. This includes the exact state, university and most important of all course names you want to apply for. GMAT requires you to fill in the choices prior to your exam so beware that you might like to keep your options open there.
4. For the Issue essays please think 4-5 minutes well before starting to type. Also keep 4-5 introductions and conclusions ready-made. Don’t waste time in thinking there; else you end up reiterating the stem like me. After you are done with 4-5 minutes of thinking and jotting down the main points, start with the ready made introductions and write down the approximate conclusion you want to end up. Then start writing the most important point. Take a stand right in the beginning, it helps to keep the flow and helps the construction. In about third paragraph, state a few pros of the alternative thinking and then go on saying however this is not the complete picture.
5. For the Argument essays, same thing with regard to initial 4-5 minutes and introductions and conclusions. Here a template will help you even more as you would not like to start with something, “Right from the known history, man has loved to battle for territory”. Rip apart the argument. There will be on an average at least 4-5 assumptions of data fallacies you will be able to spot. Start with the major point, and keep building in order of preferences. Another important thing to note here is that your e-rater will judge it against other essays to don’t try to be unique, you might loose points there.
6. Take a break after essays. Essays are the most brain-storming section as far as GMAT is concerned. So take a break here. Even if you loose a minute or two extra here, if won't matter much in quant (again not true for everyone… please use your judgement).
7. Quant: Caution, checks, double checks, think hard and read every statement carefully. There is no reason why you can’t solve any problem in GMAT. However, the traps are to be avoided at all costs. For DS, it might be good to read the second choice before first; you may be able to avoid a few of those traps. Leave your mental calculator outside the hall, do it on paper. You might be say the answer will be same, but writing will help you re-read the question, will slow you down and help you find that hidden “Positive” next to “Integer” or a “non-zero” just before the “real number”.
8. Verbal: Time the section well. For non-English speaking people like us, it is all the more applicable. Take almost 2 minutes in the beginning for around 10 questions and then speed up before you are left with no time in the end. Use the grid well here. Once you have strike out an answer choice it will help you not to read it again and again. Read the GMAT official guide from start to end, especially for CR. You will find a lot of reasoning in the same pattern. It helps.
9. Breaks: You will not be allowed to take out anything from your locker without prior permissions. But you can keep a chocolate or two. No one frisks you prior to exam, but during the exam everything is recorded. You are not allowed to eat or drink in the exam hall. So don’t even think of drinking water side by side. But as soon as you are out for break, don’t waste time, grab that chocolate and increase the body glucose, and enjoy life!
10. Attempt all questions - the MOST IMPORTAN THING - and I have to add it after hearing the shocking thing from a friend - PLEASE ATTAMPT ALL THE QUESTIONS. You are penalized the most for not attempting, so do it. If you think time is becoming a issue for any section, guess randomly… but at all cost don’t leave anything un-attempted.
11. Submit your exam - Contrary to the existing belief, most of the B-schools don’t care if you have taken GMAT umpteen number of times. So even if you are in doubt submit your answers and get a score. Guess what I was scared as hell when I gave my GMAT and I thought I didn’t do good at all… it was in fact worse than all my mocks and history has it I got 760 :) … now even if you don’t score well (and I don’t see why you wouldn't but hypothetically) you have time with you to take it again… in the end its just a 4 hour question answer thing and no one should be allowed to make a judgement on your capabilities based on this.

On a side note - If you are planning to take TOEFL, it will be a good idea to take TOEFL first as it will really prepare you for the big show. Not many universities really care about TOEFL score until it is above a required range so feel free to take this on. At the same time, it is interesting to note that TOEFL is not a requirement for most of the school so you might like to check that first.

I think this is all from my side. If anyone wants me to drill on anything in particular please let me know.

My Second Week of Internship

Well after spending the weekend, which included Monday (memorial day holiday) as well this time, lazing and gazing around... I thought second weekend of my internship will be fun. After all I had my computer with me now! Alas… this wasn't supposed to be the case. So on Tuesday morning, when for some strange reasons I was feeling too tired to go to office, when my mentor gave me a list of projects (yes projects!) to be done this summer, I was least excited. However, hiding that I ended up reading some white papers on the search engine on the net. Trust me reading in your new office is not all that fun. First of all you don’t know how much others know so you tend to read more than required. Secondly, at the end of the day you hesitate to share your learning for the fear of sounding trivial… and last but the most important thing is that you don’t have anything to show as productive at the end of the day. However, I decided to showcase my knowledge and asked some questions at the end of the day (for some strange reasons my mentor thought them to be "Great"… now that’s one adjective I am most afraid of… it is okay? good? Or simply confusing… never mind! Wednesday and Thursday again went by in more reading and more questions. To add to this, I have been to these funny events organized by the HR team here - Rooftop party at 6 in the evening (when it is crazily hot here and you have to keep smiling all the while to avoid any suspicions from HR that you are not enjoying your project) and Ice-cream socials (where the HR team-member kept of rambling about the ice-cream vendor - how she started, how they serve, how many shops are there, how have they expanded… and yes it is Authentic Austin… in the end it turned out to be good for a Kroger Chocolate Vanilla combination). By the way, I forgot to mention that so far my third project (of which I have no clue so far) has been changed twice already! So came Friday this was and came the big launch night and oh boy that was fun…

So to build the context here, we update our website twice a year and Friday, June 1st was that time of the year. My mentor asked me if I am interested to see things, and seeing some opportunity for excitement, I readily agreed. Little did I know about that… Accepting that offer meant I get Friday whole day off and I had to show up at 10 in the night to office - thus staying till 6 in the morning of Saturday night!!! There goes my plans for the Friday night partying… on top of that spending the whole day doing nothing once again was not to cool either. What did I do - actively searched for the friends I have lost touch with on Orkut (yes and why else you wonder that I have suddenly added 200 friends in my list!!!)… At 10 in the night the office was sort of alive (much alive than at 5 PM on most of the days)… and people started testing the applications of which I had no clue. So I sat in the corner of that meeting room and as I was rightly suggested by my manager to bring my laptop there, I made full use of the same by learning things that have troubled me the most ever since I have come here - Baseball, Poker and Golf. After reading about then for around 5 hours - when I suddenly felt the feeling of - "I know kung-fu" (Matrix I)… I started searching for some articles on TV programs, Economists views on Child Labor, how to plan a trip on east-cost etc etc. It was a fun night finally. I think the most important thing for today was to find the freakonomics blog today. It is really a great evening read once you are done with the work. Anyways, I will come to that sometime later… so having spent my entire time with that, search finally went live at 4 AM and I did my bits by running some test cases. At 6, I was done and over with everything I wanted to know and came home.

When your weekend starts on the note of "I need to go to bed now" it is harder to sleep and you cant even call anyone for fun at 6 AM in the morning! So I went back home and straight away went to the pool. Swam for a good hour or so and the chlorine effect further delayed my sleep by a good 3 hours! My body was almost swaying with tiredness and I simply could not catch any sleep… watching "Ek Chaalis ki Last Local" finally helped.

The summary of the weekend - Swimming pool (3 hours), Grocery Shopping (2 hours), and a wonderful tour to Lake Travis and dinner at Downtown (Good Saturday evening)… By the way on Saturday, while roaming around these lakes around Austin, I finally realized what a beautiful place Austin really is (thank goodness for that)!!!