Earn

A lot of people, including me, will connect 'Earn' with Money. Of course, that’s the most obvious and best possible connection one can make with 'Earn'. It is indeed the most pragmatic one too. As a matter of fact, one cannot survive without it. You want water? Money gets it. You want food? Hotel is the best business that is run nowadays. You get clothes, accessories and everything else in exchange for Money. How awesome it is go to an island, enjoy the natural beauty, have the best food around, lie over the beach mud and wonder about some random insane stuff. Heaven for most! And this possible only if we can afford a trip to an island. It is all these sort of moments that help in providing meaning to the life we live. Money helps us live a better life.

Now just rewind to the earlier paragraph, check out how the island trip would be if you do it alone. Still you think you would love it? I will assume that you would like it more if it is with your family or your friends or your girl (guy). How awesome will it be to lie on your mother’s (/girl's/guy's) lap in a breezy beach in a lonely island? Definitely more awesome that the one in the first Para. Money helps us live a better life, but does it guarantee to provide the meaning to our lives? It doesn't.

Now connect 'Earn' with 'People' and 'Love'. You can earn people by showing goodwill and being friendly. You can earn their love too. But consider a real life example. You have a friend or a relative who has been so nice to you. Assume he has 'earned' you. Now, are you ready to help him live his life? For a short period most of us would agree to help him out to live. But in the long run, he is going to be burden and you would want to get rid of him as soon as possible. So, earning people also doesn't help much to live a meaningful life.

So what? Connect Earn with 'Money', 'People' and 'Love'. Now it makes sense. You might earn tons of money. You can go places with the money you earn. But if you had failed to earn people, the money earned is not going to add meaning to your life. And this is why we have that unique thing called 'Love', which is probably the most ill-used word of the century. Without a caring mother, a trip to a sacred place is not as sacred as it would be. Without a good friend, a trip to an amusement park is dull. Without a loving girl(/guy), a trip to beach is not as much fun as it would have been. So it’s important that we connect Earn with 'People' and 'Love' as much as we do it with 'Money' and start earning all three.

The childhood, the way you troubled your parents when you were an infant, the way you grew from a boy to a guy with their help, the way you had fun with your everlasting friends, the first relationship with a girl (/guy), the last relationship with a girl (/guy), the way you had the love going after marriage, the way you brought up your children, the way you managed to do so much in life. If you can recollect these valuable memories in the last one minute you live, you can be proud to have 'lived a life'.

Earn money. But Earn people and their love too.

Now tell me, how much do you earn? :)

20K and 2 people per month? ;)

Amazing April!

April 2011. What a month it has been. So many things. Just thought would share a couple of moments.

April, 02, 2011.

The day when we were crowned world champions. The day when Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his men made us all proud. To be very honest, never did I think India was the clear favourites to win it. I had thought South Africa was well prepared this time. But the 'C-word' hunted them down, yet again. The final was setup very nicely. India vs. Srilanka. A shaky start coupled with the loss of Sanga at a crucial Juncture meant India was on course to restrict Srilanka to a modest total. Mahela Jayawardene had different plans. As Harsha Bhogle said, he almost protected the seam of the ball while playing his shots. The innings was a delight to watch for a neutral, but for us, well, no curse was enough. As a result Srilanka posted a tricky 274. During the innings break, there were all these talk about all century efforts always being backed up by a win in World cup finals, low percentage of teams chasing and winning a world cup final and what not. The chase began in the worst possible manner. Sehwag was history soon and after showing glimpses of beautiful form Sachin was back too. At 31 for 2, it was that 'Achingly familiar' moment from 2003. We thought "Are we going to repeat 2003 again? Oh god. No. Let it be 1983." In the crease were two men who were perhaps the best two men India would have wanted at the crease at that moment. They steered us past the danger line but Kohli left it half way. I had thoughts about Dhoni coming up the order at 5 but dismissed those thoughts considering the good form of Yuvi and the bad form of Dhoni. I was surprised to see Dhoni coming in at 5. But once he started batting, there was something different in his batting this time around. What was that? Attitude and Intent. He had lacked that throughout the world cup till the final. He stepped up the order, made the game look so simple. Eventually, he finished it off in grand style with a huge six. There he was, flipping the bat in his hands as though he has done something so easy. End of the day, WE ARE WORLD CHAMPIONS! :)

April, 18, 2011.

A fortnight later. A day which is not as big as April, 02 but significantly huge. A day when I wanted all my mental strength to accept whatever happens. The day when IIM - A, B, C results were due. Last year I was not good enough to be called even for interview. This year I was. And now, i needed great mental strength to accept a triple reject, which had a significant probability of happening. April 18th being a Monday, I came back to Bangalore after spending the weekend at Chennai. I reached my place in Bangalore at 6 in the morning. I knew I had to wait at least three hours before I can see at least one result. I started the flash-back and analysed my interviews.

March 5, 2011. IIM-A. Last Candidate to be interviewed. Very short interview with only 4 to 5 questions. Interview time was not more than 10-12 minutes whereas for others it was close to 20 minutes. I came out. Thought I did not have enough stuff to be questioned about. Chances looked slim.

March 6, 2011. IIM-C. Interview where i covered most things i wanted to. Was done in by the interviewers in a couple questions. But overall performance wasn't bad I felt.

March 7, 2011. IIM-B. Again last candidate to be called. All question seemed very generic. Not an exceptional interview. Performance wasn't enough to cross the line, i knew.

Clock was ticking. I refreshed all the pages half an hour once. Finally I found IIM-A link active. Well. It was out. But how on earth am i going to check it. It asked for the CAT registration number. I typed. Then E-mail Id. Hands trembled. Managed to enter it as well. Then i had to press 'Enter'. I did.

To see Congratulations there was incredible. After all, me? I could not believe. But turned out to be true. I had got the Admit.

It had not been easy to work every weekend for 4 - 5 months continuously. Weekends were always taken away by Mock tests, interview preparation or actual interviews. A lot of people have helped me in this.

Praveen Subramanian. He was just amazing. Helped me throughout the prep with his Verbal knowledge. Took me to places where I had to attend interviews. Sat with me while I filled up forms. And what not.

Priya Ravi. Again, immense help while filling up forms. Helping out in prep. All this while she had her plates full.

Vimal Nair. Previous experiences count. Helped with all his previous experiences and made me aware of stuff because of which I was able to do what i have. He will have a greater say @ IIM-A as tuchcha. :D

Karthik. The person with whom I studied. Combined studies do a lot of help.

Aditya, Sabareesh, Vibin(IIM-C mentor). All of them helped me with getting things right in the interview.

GowriShankar. Again, helped me go places to attend various interviews.

Karthika, Mukund. A great help by getting a lot things signed from college in quick time.

Just want to thank people above for all the help they have done. It has helped a lot. Thank you guys. :)

And after all, this is the first step towards a tougher path. For this, it takes me so much. :D

Well. I hope there is lift somewhere down the line to take me through. :)

PS: I still had to see 2 rejects from B and C. Thank god A came out first.

PSS: Very sorry for a long one. Very sorry if it had been boring. Just wanted to express something. Will put up better ones in the coming days.

PSSS : I might have missed a couple of people's name while thanking. My apologies.

Cheers. :D