can someone please tivo the whole MBA thingy?

Just so you could press the pause button every now and then. Both
Deepti and I have been saying that it's like we've put "life on hold"
for the MBA. I haven't watched any movies (indie, non-indie, Hindi),
haven't even been to the art institute yet, haven't eaten a decent $7
ethiopian meal in so long I've forgotten the taste of injera, haven't
read anything "real" in so long (GGM's autobiography is waiting, as is
The Time Traveler's Wife, to name just a few) and haven't even listened
to any music even though I carry my shuffle with me everyday (not to
mention that NPR had to go on pledge-drive all week here in Chicago...
and BTW, their pledge-central ain't as good as *our* pledge-central.)
After a very very long time, I put on some Moby and some Morcheeba and some Cornershop and some Raghav today. Felt really, really good. MBA-sham-BA!

...mine's on the 45...

Oh, what a week! A case-competition, a case-presentation and two
mid-terms! At least I'm not in IB. Because I haven't gone to any
presentations, so I sure hope the Consulting companies haven't been
coming to campus. (Didn't even make it to any of the
lunch-and-learns.) Don't know how the IBers do it. An IB friend told
me he had a breakfast appointment, followed by a lunch, followed by
cocktails, followed by "office-hours" -- all with the same bank --
topped-off by two midterms the next day. That's ridiculous!

My mid-terms were, how shall we say, o k a y. The case-presentation
went off really well, the case-competition -- well we'll find out soon
enough, I think. It's the AT Kearney one. Weird case. I have another
mid-term next week, but the weekend gives me a chance to catch-up on
sleep...

Last weekend we went to the garba. Good fun. Kinda like the Cal-state
hayward ones in the bay-area: big crowd, low on quality. Falguni
Pathak was on stage; good garba music, but the dandia was very
disco-ish and not all that great. Deepti also noted that no one was
doing the "dodhiyu". She still can't pronouce it right.

Note-taking in MBA group meetings

It's a photograph of a whiteboard. Talk about lazy.

first week of classes

First week of classes is behind us. It was hectic. It's not just that
classes started, and pre-class assignments (readings, mostly) had to be
done, and study-groups were to be formed and homeworks were to be
worked on . No, additionally, we had LEAD and Career Services -- each
a 3-hour time-chunk, a Mocktail to attend (we got to practice networking
skills at mock corporate presentations complete with 2nd-year students
pretending to be recruiters), TNDC to go to, and all the usual stuff
that goes on. It's a giant juggling act. It's not like I've never been busier. It's just getting used to the unstructured life we were so in love with, back in undergrad.

I cleaned out my email-situation a little bit this past weekend, and finally got around to paying off 2-month old bills. Doubled my cell-phone minutes, because I was way over. Still need to buy a desk, clean out my place et al. Note to self: I still haven't handed in my checks for the student-groups that I'm signing-up for.

There was this latin-American party that had to be attended on Friday. (No really, it had to be attended. It rocked.) Saturday brunch was at Salonica (nice!) followed by some homework, followed by a late-nighter at a party at a fellow GSBer's in Lincoln Park. Sunday was more homework, followed by the ritual trip to Devon, and unfortunately, a not-so-nice dinner at Indian Garden. And so there you have it. Which is such a pity, because the weather was absolutely gorgeous this weekend, and I couldn't do anything about it -- I mean, didn't find the time to ride my bike or go for a run... :(