It's over, folks....

Yes, ppl, Its over... A year (10 months to be precise) of moulding us into managers has concluded... It's 2 weeks since I've been back at home, n I've just been making up on the sleep I've lost over the past 10 months...

I've been 'preparing' to join Reliance Retail, and RIL is famed for stressing out the employees.. I figure it can't be worse than Ispat, where 12-14 hour work days were a norm, and the 'alternate Saturdays off' remained just in the HR Policy...But it will be challenging to enter a company which is poised to transform the retail sector in India. Whether it succeeds or fails remains to be seen, but I'm sure it will be a hell of a ride...

Aside from Reliance, another thing happening this summer will be 'Sequels'... As Spiderman: 3 releases today, it starts off a juggernaut of 'thirds' and then some which are set to release this summer... Shrek the Third, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Ocean's Thirteen, The Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Live Free or Die Hard, Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix, Rush Hour 3, Mr. Bean's Holiday... these are a few of the sequels lined up... Being a movie buff, I think my summer's gonna be quite busy....

I Did It My Way...

Shucks, its 2 months since I blogged... In the beginning of this period, I was busy with a lot of stuff... Exams, placements, n then exams again... I got placed, and I'm gonna be living "Dhirubhai ka sapna" with Reliance Retail...

There are only 3 weeks left for my time at SPJCM to end, and though I'm not an emotional sort of person, I cant help but absorb some of the sadness in the eyes of some of my batchmates... It is durings times in your lives such as these, when u suddenly start to understand & relate to the words of some of the more well-written songs... One of them, is a song which I heard for the first time when Michael Schumacher retired from Formula One last season... Schumi said that this was the song he could most easily relate to during his last race... It is a song originally composed in French, with English lyrics put in by Paul Anka... It was made famous when Frank Sinatra rendered it in 1969... It's called 'My Way'... I remembered it today when I saw the song's name listed along the name of one of my batchmates on Gtalk... I'll end today's musings with the lyrics of this beautiful song...


"And now, the end is near
And so I face the final curtain
My friend, I'll say it clear
I'll state my case, of which I'm certain

I've lived a life that's full
I've traveled each and every highway
But more, much more than this
I did it my way

Regrets, I've had a few
But then again, too few to mention
I did what I had to do
And saw it through without exemption

I planned each charted course
Each careful step along the byway
But more, much more than this
I did it my way

Yes, there were times, I'm sure you knew
When I bit off more than I could chew
But through it all, when there was doubt
I ate it up and spit it out
I faced it all and I stood tall
And did it my way

I've loved, I've laughed and cried
I've had my fill, my share of losing
And now, as tears subside
I find it all so amusing

To think I did all that
And may I say - not in a shy way
No, oh no not me
I did it my way

For what is a man, what has he got
If not himself, then he has naught
To say the things he truly feels
And not the words of one who kneels
The record shows I took the blows
And did it my way"

Another week gone by...

Before I begin to pen my thoughts for the day, I must acknowledge the excellent blog that one of my frnd’s has begun to maintain. The link to the blog named “I Ran Over The Rain…” is to the right, under the name “Richa”… And no, this is not a reciprocation for her having mentioned my name on her blog … (I can almost hear her saying, “Yeah Right…”)

The previous week had been by far the most hectic for SMM students at the Dubai campus… With a schedule ranging from 8 in the morning to 9:30 at night… To top it all, we had a FIVE hour break in the middle… We had two courses this week, i.e. Industrial Economics (IE) and Business-2-Business (B2B) … I have never missed so many classes of a single subject than I have for IE… My attendance is like 4 out of 9 classes… K … But wat 2 do, the Prof was the single most boring faculty I have ever encountered in my student life… That added to the killer scheduling really killed my appetite for attendance… I must credit him for one thing, though… This blog (& for that matter Richa’s too) was started during his classes, and all the work on the blog so far had been done in his class… For that, I am grateful… Also scheduled in the week, were submissions & a viva for Mkt Research (MR), another subject which I dread… Even though we had more than 3 weeks to do the MR project, our group of late lateefs began doing it only half a day before the deadline & viva…

On the other extreme, B2B was one of the most enjoyable courses we had… I didn’t miss any of the classes… :-D … It was simulation based (INDUSTRAT), which is somewhat better than lectures, and the faculty from Mumbai was excellent… I don’t feel sorry that Richa’s group (Mowgli) beat our’s (King Louie) to the top spot, since I really enjoyed the simulations, & hey – 2nd place aint half bad, is it …?

So another week in the GMBA saga has gone by, but I hardly feel any smarter… Two more new subjects and another grueling week await us in a couple of days , interspersed with Guest Lectures (the so-called ‘Visiting Wisdom’) and Pre-placement talks… Well, I guess that’s life at a 1-yr MBA program… We asked for it, didn’t we…

Signing off, a few lines dedicated to Richa, Ritu n Rashi (our honourable team members & adverseries)…

“Jungle - jungle baat chali hai, pata chala hai…
Arre, Chaddi Pehan Ke Phool Khila Hai, Phool Khila Hai…”

Friends, Romans, Country-men.. Lend Me your Ears...

This post marks my return to the world of blogging... I had started a blog earlier in 2004 but never got around to maintaining it too much... As a result there r only 3 or 4 posts on it... anyhow, for future reference the address is http://rajatsinghvi.blogspot.com/ ... Well, so something about me... I'm 24 (as on 12th Aug'06, which happens to be my b'day), I'm an engineer, and am currently doing my Global-MBA in Services Marketing at SP Jain Centre of Management, Dubai-Singapore.... God, that sounds so much like a resume for a job application... but then, we've been brought up to give these kind of "Intros" ever since our first day at skool... I can just imagine..."Roll no. 245, khade jo jaao... Class ko apna naam batao... Aapke papa ka naam kya hai? Woh kya karte hain? Aapka ghar kahan hai? ... " So on n so forth... And even today we keep doing the same thing... the importance of our parents' names have diminished over the years, but in place we have things like qualifications, work-ex, extra-curricular activities etc etc... i've forgotten my point here, so I'll just leave it at that...

Now on to what my writings will address or try to address, both consciously and unconsciously, what an Industry would call its "Mission"... I'm gonna talk about frnds & family, music, movies, SPJCM, & to sum up all of these - "LIFE" - b'coz that's my life right now ... all the components, in that order of importance...

I'll just go on 2 introduce some of my frnds who r blogging around to establish the links ... Deva, Vandit, Shawshank, Devesh, Harshad, Sowmia, Richa, Abu... I'll add more later, coz dat's all I remember right now...

So i'll sign off for now... I'm in class actually... I'll try 2 keep this blog up-to-date...

Ciao !!!