memoirs of a lazy blogger

Two months and two weeks and four days later, I am back to doodle on these pages. Yes I'm very much alive and out there. So where have I been hiding? Well....life has been really BUSY (with emphasis on the all Caps). For the last two months, at any given point of time I've had three assignments to hand in, two exams to study for, research for my thesis, attend placement seminars, and ty to squeeze a bit of personal life somewhere in between. Add to that the fact that there hasn't been anything interesting to report on the MBA front (no admits from the two schoold I really wanted to attend and lack of interest in others). That coupled with some family considerations has meant that I put my b-school plans on hold for the moment. So have also been busy planning the next couple of years of my life (the primary activity being job hunting). And whatever free time all this left me, I've spent lazing around in general. And left these pages completely unattended till a friend recently pointed out that I'd been hiding for too long. So here I am once again :-)


Thats all for now....I want to catch up with my favorite blogs today. Will post more soon.
Ciao!

What is Love?

One of those emotions that I wonder about every now and then. Today I came across some wonderful thoughts on Megami’s blog. And I was surprised by the uncanny parallels between her views and mine. Like her, I too like to believe that love is something uncommon, and something very special. I too have always evaluated (the existence of) Love from two different perspectives. The Idealist in me maintains that true love is a deep emotion, that it does exist, and that I will understand it when I find it. The realist in me thinks that it’s just a four letter word that encompasses an ordinary set of emotions. Nothing special - just something you decide to say to someone when you run out of other expressions of admiration.

Although I have always had very strong ideas about what love means to me, I went through a large part of life believing the realist’s view; perhaps because I experienced love fairly late in life (by today’s standards). As a single teen, I often faced the ‘you don’t have a boyfriend??’ type of questions, making me wonder if there was something wrong with my perception of love. There were too many questions but no answers. With time, I began to fall in line with the realist’s view, perhaps more to console myself than anything else. And when love did come my way, everything changed. In a flash, my beliefs came alive, like a Pandora’s box of feelings that had been waiting to be unleashed. All the questions faded away and all my doubts vanished.

Eventually, I feel that our perspective on love depends on where we are placed on the spectrum of that emotion. While love may mean different things to different people, it is a very complex emotion, difficult to comprehend fully and perhaps impossible to explain. The best description I can think of (and this is from personal experience so may apply only to me) is overwhelming happiness, a sense of security, a sense of belonging with the other person and a strong emotional bond that stays forever. Each one of us has to feel it to know it. Call me a hopeless romantic, but I believe that there is a definite wisdom in not rushing things, in waiting for 'love' to happen to you when the time comes. And while it may take longer for some (like me), when it does happen, it has the power to transform your life in the most beautiful way.

Homer, William Shakespeare, Neil Diamond….

…..and me!! According to Myer Briggs Type Indicator test, I am an INFP (Introverted, iNtuitive, Feeling, Perceiving), which puts me in the same group as the famous people mentioned above. INFPs are also referred to as Idealists. Here are a few excerpts from the analysis…..

Idealists are passionately concerned with personal growth and development. They strive to discover who they are and how they can become their best possible self -- always this quest for self-knowledge and self-improvement drives their imagination. And they want to help others make the journey. They are naturally drawn to working with people, and whether in education or counseling, in social services or personnel work, in journalism or the ministry, they are gifted at helping others find their way in life, often inspiring them to grow as individuals and to fulfill their potentials.

Idealists are incurable romantics who prefer to focus on what might be, rather than what is. The real, practical world is only a starting place for Idealists; they believe that life is filled with possibilities waiting to be realized, rich with meanings calling out to be understood. This idea of a mystical or spiritual dimension to life, the "not visible" or the "not yet" that can only be known through intuition or by a leap of faith, is far more important to Idealists than the world of material things.

INFPs present a calm, pleasant face to the world and are seen as reticent and even shy. Although they demonstrate a cool reserve toward others, inside they are anything but distant. They have a capacity of caring which is not always found in other types. They care deeply - indeed passionately – about a few special persons. Their idealistic streak means that they are able to bond deeply with only a handful of people, who then mean the world to them. At times, this characteristic leaves them feeling isolated from the world at large.

C'est Moi...

Before people forget all about me or conclude that I have abandoned my blog...thought I'd peep in and say a quick hello. Was away from the internet while on vacation. And have been neck deep...umm...make that nose deep in work since I got back. Hence the prolonged absence.

Haven't had the time to catch up with all my favotire blogs, but I hope to do that over the weekend (which looks relatively light!) Huge Congrats to all those who have admit(s) under their belts...bravo people! I am still waiting for some good news to come my way...probably over the next three-four weeks.

Gotta run now....will write more later. Ciao!

Looking forward......

It's been a bumpy beginning to the holiday season. Started last Saturday when my journey back home was loaded with problems. First my bus ride from college to London took over three hours thanks to an accident on the motorway (normally its a one hour journey). Just when I heaved a sight of relief on having successfully left English soil and moved somewhat closer to home, I was informed that my connecting flight from Frankfurt was delayed by eleven hours due to fog in Delhi! And let me tell you, as fabulous as it may be, Frankfurt airport s not the best place to spend eleven hours of your holiday time (or any time for that matter!)...and more so if you’re all by yourself. So while other Indian families, couples etc. buzzed around me, I was busy trying to find different ways of entertaining myself. Most of the time my laptop emerged savior - I watched movies, surfed the net aimlessly, spammed all my friends on chat and e-mail and tried to think up alternate ways to get home sooner. I finally got home on Sunday afternoon, after spending exactly 24 hours in transit! Wonder where I can get in touch with some scientists and pursue the development of an energy transfer system for humans a la Star Trek :-)

A bigger blow came in the form of an unfavorable decision from Wharton. I must admit I was surprised at the result. I thought over it a lot but I still can’t put my finger on what went wrong. In my feedback session last year I was told that my work experience, scores, and recommendations were good, and it came down mainly to writing stronger essays. I rewrote the essays this year and thought I did a good job of presenting a well rounded picture of myself. And the interview went off well too. So I really don’t understand where I fell short. Maybe there is an element of luck involved and I didn’t score well on that front. Or maybe there’s somethig else that I am missing at the moment...in which case I hope I figure it out soon.

Anyway, all that’s over and done with now. Time to move on to other applications and have a rethink about my strategy for R2. Many thanks to all my fellow bloggers and others who posted wonderfully supportive and encouraging comments on my previous post. And another big thanks to the team of Wharton’s Admissions Blog for their good wishes! It’s a truly wonderful gesture.

Also a huge Conngrats to Britchick, Riter, Megami, GoDidiGo, and Kalki for their admits to different schools. And for those of you who are still awaiting some good news, hang in there. There’s always light at the end of the tunnel; just that the tunnel itself is a bit longer for some people.

As for me, for now I’m off to enjoy the holidays with my family and friends. There is a huge reunion happening in Delhi with my brothers coming down from New York and a few close friends coming home from different parts of US. I intend to have a blast this coming week and bid farewell to 2004. It has been a very eventful year for me, but also one of several unfulfilled dreams – an unfinished goal and a love denied. Hope the new beginnings in 2005 brings better news and brighter prospects.

Here's wishing everyone a fabulous 2005!!

Oh Well....

Declined admission at Wharton....time to move onwards to other schools.

Congratulations to all those who made it!

And onother one

Aregon23 is IN at Cornell.....Congratulations!!!