After spending 2 months on preparing for GMAT, taking it in October, then starting the long and tiresome application process and now after getting an admit in a school of my choice, I think its finally time to document my journey to a B school on my blog! I did write about how I felt going through the process in this and this post in a subtle manner.

My life is headed for a big change right now. A week from new I’ll be relieved from my job and next Saturday, I’ll be joining the business school . At a time when my life is about to go through such a major change, I decided to give the blog a well deserved makeover (along with a much needed upgrade from Wordpress 2.2.2 to 2.7). I hope the new theme looks good. According to me, the theme fits the blog very well and gives it a clean, crispy look while making a personal connection with the reader. 

Becoming a student once again and not getting a monthly salary are some things I’m preparing myself for. And exams, of course! What makes this change bigger is that I’ll be moving to Hyderabad. The thought of leaving Bangalore makes me sad. I’ve spent a little less than five years here, after all. There is a possibiliy that I might come back after the programme ends next year but still. As I sell one peice of furniture after another, I feel like I am giving away a part of my life away. A life that I slowly built in four and a half years.

On the other hand, I am starting a new life with a clean slate and I feel like getting out of my comfort zone here was just the thing I needed to grow. And above all, I can finally experience the much hyped hostel life that I’ve only heard of till now. So wish me luck and brace yourself for new posts from a management student’s perspective!

Ah, the last day of the year! Always a good day for introspection. Fortunately for me, I’ve been introspecting for the past 1-2 months and though I am mostly satisfied with how things have been so far, I feel the need to do more in life. So the plan is to continue learning new things.

This means I’ll continue learning German (I recently completed German A1 level exam! Yay!), take up guitar lessons again, learn to swim, continue learning to cook and much more. Also, I had kinda loosened up on the fitness regime but no slacking from tomorrow. The fitness freak is back! The only new (and important) resolution for the new year is to spend as much money as necessary as opposed to spending as much as I can which is what I have been doing till now! 

Coming to the things I liked about the year, there were some movies that I really liked: Wall-E (of course!), Iron Man, The Dark Knight, Aamir and Dasvidaniya.

I didn’t find as much great music as I found last year but some of it was awesome. Few soundtracks (Wall-E, Juno) , some new (for me!) bands (Hellogoodbye, Goldspot) and some good Hindi movie songs (Aamir, Ada, Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na, all songs sung by Mohit Chauhan) worked for me.

Television took a backseat this year for me. I think my TV watching time was less than halved. Lost remained at the top of its game. Family Guy and 30 Rock continued to entertain. I discovered The IT Crowd and Its Always Sunny In Philadelphia and ensured that I watched each and every episode available.

Like I wrote in my birthday post, it was a mixed bag as far as my life is concerned, but the sum total of everything that happened is definitely positive. Also, I travelled much more this year than previous years and my first journey was on 1st January. Maybe its true what they say. What you do on the first day the year….

I look forward to 2009 and I hope it will bring the best of everything with it.

Wish you a very Happy New Year!

I wish myself a very happy birthday! You should too!!

Last year, I wrote how I planned a few things and changes for this year and fortunately for me, I was successful in carrying out most of those. I have mentioned my will to sponsor a child several times on this blog and just a few days ago, I finally did it. I sponsored a little girl from Tamil Nadu. Thats my birthday gift for myself.

As I grow older and wiser (I hope so!), the challenges keep getting bigger and complex. And all I can say is that I am prepared to face all the challenges. 

I am 27 and single. Some of my relatives might run into depression!

Yeah! It has finally happened! You are reading the 200th post of this blog. It may not seem like a big achievement to some but it certainly feels like one to me. So go out to the nearest cake shop, get a piece of your favorite cake and eat it cos its celebration time!

Whats funny is that I wrote this celebratory 100th post way back in November 2006 which means that it took me 17 months to write the second hundred posts when it only took me only 4 months to complete the first 100. But that’s okay! The post frequency had gone since last year, I took two 3 and 4 month long breaks from blogging last year and even came close to abandoning the blog but decided not to do so because my blog had helped me get through some tough times.

I’m happy that my blog is back on track and I have been sticking to my aim of at least 2 posts per month. I hope that I’ll celebrate a millennium soon. Okay, not soon but still!

I guess this would also be a good time to talk about what’s in store for my blog. Hmm, I plan to be more regular with the updates, write about a lot more diverse things and very soon, I plan to redesign the blog. Should be fun! So if you don’t find this blog to be the most boring, self-involved blog ever (heh!), stick around!

Now go get that cake please!

Its been almost three and a half years since I stared working and to say that life’s become mundane and monotonous would be an understatement. Even going to the gym is part of the boring routine now. So I decided to try something new. Some things that I always wanted to do but never managed to get around doing. The major hurdle was that I didn’t want to be the guy who never finished what he started. But then I realized that not even giving things a try was much worse and so lately I’ve taken up not one but two things:

• German language classes: The idea of learning a foreign language had been on my mind for quite some time and since I find German easier compared to most other languages and I found a teacher, I decided to go for it. The classes are held just once a week so the progress would be slow but I think I am picking it up rather well. I’ve even been complimented by the teacher a couple of times. I hope to become proficient in speaking, reading and writing German soon.
• Guitar classes: Playing the guitar has been a childhood dream and I am really thrilled that it might become a reality soon. The classes are over the weekend and I’ve only been to three classes till now – most of which have been theoretical about musical notations. I did get to play a little bit in the last class though and I bought my first guitar yesterday. Its black, looks sexy and sounds good (in the hands of a friend, that is. I can’t play anything yet!)

I am determined to not give these up midway once the initial enthusiasm dies down. I would hate to disappoint myself. Wish me luck! Tschüs!