Brutal Cough

My shoulders and neck ache, tension and strain over the ache of overuse.I don't even have the energy to record the litany of my problems... Cough and more Cough………It's almost over. Soon it will be over. It's almost over.

It has been almost a week and the vicious cough has not abandoned me. I suspect, it the my own recklessness ( need not to be mentioned here ;) for having taken to this stage-- Regardless of what I say now.—the cough is bothering me a little more too much.

I feel frail but I am still surviving. I need to survive. If I succumb, then I am doomed. -- Next couple of few days are very (let me re-emphasis the VERY part :))-- very crucial to me. The main reason being – the Finals!

Update Aside, This week has been relatively a hectic one. And on top of that recuperating after the long break makes it even worse. And the piled up case studies and presentation does not make it any better.

One down two more to go -- :)

I had my Organizational Behavior presentation on Monday!

A very important noteworthy fact is that: we were the brave group to volunteer to present it right after the break.

Our title was “Corporate Social Responsibility"—

What does "Corporate social responsibility" mean in terms of a media organization? How would you measure it, and why does it matter?

We chose three companies :-

1. Starbucks

2. Body Shop

3. Unilever

I also had a chance to share my personal experience of The BODY Shop international with my fellow class mates—which I very very happy about.

Some say it is the way to create an image in front of public. Some say, it is a genuine effort. Because, I have seen my family getting involved with the Body shop International, I agree with the latter part.

My dad and my uncles back home own a paper factory “The Get Paper Industry.” (Yup! I come from a business background.) Majority of the exporting is done with the Body shop International in the UK. One of the main highlights of the company is fulfilling the Fair Trade Guidelines and Code of Conduct of The Body Shop International social and environmental responsibilities. 40% Of the Revenue is dedicated to the Non Profit sister organization GWP (General Welfare Pratisthan) where the money is spend for AIDS Awareness Activities, opening schools, girls education and environmental activities. The CEO of the body Shop, Dame Anita Roddick who is an activist, an entreprenuer, author -- a truly amazing person!!! herself has visited the factory in Basbari.

The company was opened in 1989. Since then, each and every family member has played a critical role in taking the company where it is today. I am very proud to say to say that the company has been the recipient of “Exporter of the YEAR” in 2001/2 and 2003. A load of credit definitely goes to the uncles for this great job. The factory is located in Bansbari and Hattiban and has total of 200 employees.

It is December tomorrow. It will be a one year anniversary for this blog. As I had mentioned in my previously, my blog has expanded its sphere, albeit in a slow pace which I am still VERY proud of.

The temperature today was unbelievable-- high 40s. I guess with all the Gobal Warning going on, this is very much inevitable.

It really does not feel like Winter.—which of course, carries bit of a good and bad news.

Winter is emptiness, a silence that is not to be broken. The ground is frozen, sealed; the world sleeps WHILE Summer is a wild heat, an explosion of growth.

On a side note, my professor has let me borrow one of his books. It is called “ The innovator’s Dilemma”—when new technologies cause great firms to fail. It is by Clayton Christensen. Since I am working with my professor on a design aspect, I think it makes very much sense for me to take a grasp of Mr. Christensen’s ideas.

I like to read--- I am a ridiculously complex person and I take great delights in ridiculously complex things.I appreciate consistency, but dwelling in contradiction is lot more interesting.

Thanks giving break

I have not been writing for a while. Truthfully speaking, I really did not have anything to reflect upon. Suffice to say, it may be less 'out on a cloud' intellectual, and more focused random snippets. Well, I suppose I shouldn't foreshadow or predetermine the line of my blogging.

In keeping with the introspective nature of this past week's blogs....here it goes AGAIN!!

I just finished reading the Virgin Mobile case. It deals with the whole "pricing strategy." My head is hurting mildly-- good excuse for me to take a quick break!

To recapitulate my past few days---- Thanks giving break was basically a resting time for me. Sipping tea and witnessing the serendipity brought at my bedroom by newspapers and TV is how I have been spending this break. I came to the realization that this body of mine needed its own time to rest, without the binding demands of the external factors as I am going through right now.

Each winter I think I get little better- in terms of flue and cold and I reluctantly succumb. I got sick … ….Well not sick per-se but I caught cold and the cough was unbearable. I was already feeling sick from last week and on Wednesday it got even worst. I was bed ridden for almost all day.

Despite not feeling good, we both did manage to go to the “Bistas” residence for Thanksgiving dinner and enjoyed the Turkey. For brunch, we had gone to the “Yadavs” residence and again had the liberty of enjoying the delicious waffle, hash brown and omelet made by Shailendra Dai and Sanjay. We both really enjoy going to their place. :)

I am still rejuvenating by the fact that my Marketing presenation is finished. It has really been one of the biggest reliefs.

Interviewing Prasanna – It is not very often (not often at all! I must add) that you get to interview your own husband. Along with my 5 other MBA friends, I had the honor of interviewing the VP of Business Development last Wednesday. This is for my Accounting pricing project’s presentation next week. We all decided to meet at the lounge of Marriott hotel at Kendal Square. The interview lasted for about an hour. I could not help but simply smile looking at him. I was interviewing my husband.I had never seen the professional side of him-- so eloquent and so dashing of course! I was happy.

The coughing is back again. It just sits and indeed is misabused by too much tension throughout the day.

Winter is here. Slowly, the endless snow will start to accumulate and get dirty.

Time : It stretches; it's not static. When you feel caught up 'in the moment', a few minutes can last a lifetime. When you feel crunched, even 30 min is not enough.

I have a half formed thoughts--- before I go off tangent by writing banal thoughts…I better say Adieu.

Presentation fiasco

I am on a personal best high. Sometimes, you get up in the morning and you are just so happy. It was like that this morning— not for any particular reason. I was just happy and relieved. I finished my Marketing Presentation yesterday. Such a huge relief. Our presentation was an “Industry Audit” for an Airline Industry. It was an interesting research about the overall Industry airline. Most important fact of course was how all the major US Airlines have all filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcies. The recent big news of US Airways possibly acquiring Delta is making a headline everywhere. If the deal goes through, and If US Airways buy Delta before it comes out of the bankruptcies, then it will be saving almost $1.6 billion. But for now, we will just have to wait and see what happens.

Kellie, Dan and I --we had been working on for so long and to have it finally over is really a biggest relief. Now, I only have two presentations left. One for Accounting and the other one for Organizational behavior.

As for the weekend—it was one of the busiest ones for me. I was buried in my books and research all Saturday and Sunday. Sunday, I had the group meeting at the library at 1:00 and I returned back home at 8:00 in the evening. It was a long or I should emphasize longesttttt one. On top of that, I was not feeling well on Sunday. I think it is the cold. I had been feeling kind of weak all day, however, I had no choice but to drag myself and go to the meeting. With the help of centrums, Tylenol and orange of course, I forced myself to gather the strength. I was so scared that I was going to be sick on Monday—my presentation day. Luckily, I did not succumb, I survived.

Saturday – We had a brunch with Sujeev dai and Shailendra dai at this nice place called "SoundBites”.Prasanna was saying that it reminded him of Seinfeld’s “Soup Nazi show.” We also went to Chalphal talk that evening. It was GREAT listening to Sujjeev dai. His ideas and his plans were simply amazing. Had I had more time, I would have definitely stayed longer but had to go because of the presentation.

I am feeling little frail right now… basically my throat hurts. But—I know I will have a good rest during the thanks giving break.

I added my picture in the blog. Sometimes, even this blog page needs little bit of a modification. It is, after all MY BLog ( a page encompassing all the important facets of my life) and I also wanted to show little bit of my creative side. It's fun & perky. Like a new haircut. :)

It will be a One year in about 2 weeks since I have started writing this blog. I still remember that day---- I was in the library—cold winter of course! and my head buried in GMAT book.

Surprisingly, I have lasted this long---a year. Honestly speaking, I feel that I gradually have adopted the habit of writing a blog. I used to write a diary back in the school days and then I stopped for a while. Then I was back to the writing mode in my college days and now finally after 2 years, I have been accustomed to this habit which I am very proud of. :)

I just finished reading Kite Runner----It is one of the best books I have ever read. It keeps you interested throughout and is fantastic.

Kite Runner is set in Afghanistan during the Russian invasion (this will sound bizzare but I didn’t know Russia invaded until I read this book! Seriously!) and the years following in which the Taliban reigned. It follows the life of Amir and his servant/friend Hassan. Best friends from the beginning, theirs is a friendship saddened by discrimination and betrayal. Hassan would do anything for his friend and it is this leads to there eventual separation. Through out the book Amir is haunted by his past. Through out the story he searches how to right the wrongs he and others committed against his friend. Kite Runner reveals and hidden world that is fragile, beautiful and recovering from a tumultuous history.

Recently, I have started to notice that I have become fond of reading books by foreign authors. I am also talking about Jhumpa Lahiri-- she gave me a whole new different perspectives of many different aspects of life. And in this case, Khalid Hosini, the Afghan author—gave me another one for the Afghani world- -which, otherwise I might have been total ignorant of.

As you can probably tell from my writing,I am at the library—the random snippets jumping from here to there in no particular order). Whenever I feel like taking a break from the studies—I continue with my blog.

I just attended a “Make a Fair trade” from “Oxfam.” If time permits, this is one of the other organizations that I really want to get involved into.

Right now, I am sporadically reading the case studies for my Global marketing class.The case is about “Lucent technologies: Global Supply chain management.” I also have the do the Virgin Airline cases and the Reflective journal—the homework load just does not stop coming.

I forgot one more interesting thing—I attended the Bloomberg Crash course last week. That thing is simply AMAZING!! I learned that the acronyms of the stock market are referred as “Tickers”.

The talk

I have been in the meeting from the early morning—For the Organizational Behavior presentation on Monday. I will feel a huge relief once I get done for my presentation on Monday.

Everyone said it rained quite heavily last night. Honestly speaking, I do not have the slightest clue. I had a long day and was very tired. I dozed off right after I went to bed—which was almost around 12:30.

So far the best weather was on Wednesday. High 60s I think. I had to attend the talk by Dr. Yoram Puri.Since the location was not far from school,I decided on talking a quick stroll around the busy downtown. The weather was simply marvellous. To my surprise,I was the odd one out walking around the city in my long coat.

Dr. Yoram Peri had also been appointed as the advisor for Yitzak Rabin’s period. It is always interesting to hear the first hand experience on these "on- going" conflicts. In relation to Nepal, I was kind of surprised to hear how instrumental the military was in the entire peace process in Israel. Dr. Peri emphasizes on the fact that Military were used by the politicians to strengthen their position. – To me, this is indeed a very interesting perspective.

Another interesting point he added which was quite appalling was when he mentioned, “War would have stopped, but the military did not want to. If there was a strong “ civil lain intuition,” then the war in Israel would have stopped. The view was just top myopic.”

Additionally, he added that fact how Israel after deciding to withdraw the troops from Lebanon unilaterally got attacked by the Hezbollah. He emphasized, that Israel thinks that they should not have withdraw from Gaza and Lebanon. “In near future, if we withdraw, we will get attacked.”

I think the talk was very interesting. Last month I had attended the “Jerusalem Women Speak” talk. In that talk one of the women had mentioned how in Israel, many thousands of eighteen years old are resisting conscription into a military because they do not see them being as a defense force. However, Dr. Peri, depicted Military as on of the heroic symbols in Israel. Truthfully speaking- I am confused.

I am not very knowledgeable in this topic but from the two talks that I have attended, I have just been more confused. Why is there so much involvement between the militants and the political leaders? I think Israel’s fundamental security posture will not improve until the pattern of relations between its generals and political leaders is dramatically altered and a better decision-making mechanism in national security matters is established.

After the talk, like usual, I managed to have a quick chat with Dr. Peri and of course! Shook my hand. The place was quite packed with Professors and representatives from the various consulates.

Not that I like to eavesdrop, J but one conversation really caught my attention. This old gentlemen patted on the back of a another one and gleefully said, “Your great grand father was a great president,”

“He was an idiot” – was the other gentlemen’s firm reply.

I could not help but think who that person was.

He definitely looked Middle Eastern—Israeli to be exact. Who am I to be so sure of that person’s nationality? He could have been very well from Turkey, or Palestine.. Anyways, during that event—that was one question that was running in my find and unfortunately, he left before the event ended. Nope, I did not have the chance to talk with me. The question still ponders in my mind.

On an interesting note, I met a wonderful lady, Dr. Kinchuk, director of the Humphrey Fellow Program from the BU University. She was from St.Petersburg (Leningrad), Russia-- The same place my dad got his undergraduate from. I always get excited to meet with people from around the world and if I could to relate to them I get more thrilled.

It was really nice meeting with her. I am very thankful for her as she helped to book the room for the Chalpohal talk tomorrow.

I am at the library- -trying to do the work for my professor. The internet is just too slow.

I have whole weekend booked for the Marketing presentation on Monday

snippets

Boston is cold again. The air is so cold - you can feel it like a wall when you step outside the front door. Yesterday was really nice. Sunny and high 50s I think. Today… rain and more rain.

Both Prasanna and I, we needed a BREEEaaaak. It had been a longgg week for both of us.On Sunday, despite the crazy weather, we still decided to go for a quick spin. We were listening to the Jazz cd that Shailendra dai had made me last week. The sound was so mesmersing that we cared less about the Havoc outside. We kept driving and ended up going all the way to the JFK library. Neither of us had gone to this library, so we both thoroughly enjoyed every bit of that trip. I have been to the one is Dallas, where the president was shot; however, it was not anything close to the one we went on Saturday.The museum was really nice. We also managed to watch a quick documentary on the “Cuban Missile Crisis” during Kennedy’s Era.

In sum, this weekend was bit relaxing as compared to the other ones --- mainly becuase I had handed my Accounting midterm. I have two huge presentations coming up next week so this week so far has already been CRAZYY BUSY. Since both of us are so busy with work and school, I decided to take a break and decided to make 4 dishes last weekend--- which hopefully will last for at least 3 days. ( It is the second day and we still have some so far :)

Lately I have been captivated with “The kite runner.” I always read this on the way to school and back home, however, the story has become too addictive and I cannot seem to stop reading it. It has become a daily part of my routine I wonder what I am going to do once I finish it. I have been enjoying the book so much that I do not want to get off the train. I want to go on and on... The book is really very touching. It depicts an epitome of struggle. Struggle of Amir, the rich kid. Only after reading the book, I have realized how much similarity there is between Nepali – or I should say Hindi and Afghani. Some of the words like Zindgai , khushi, mehaman, bakshish - Some how reading this book has made me real familiar with the Afghani world.

I think this will a good movie if they ever decide to direct it.

Last week was a good week. I attended two networking event. I had a chance to talk and shake hands ( I try to put lot of emphasis on the shaking hand part as you might have noticed) with Mr. Arthur Frey, the inventor of Post it. His story was really inspiring. Really, talking with people like this makes you realize the essential of being a failure. I would say Failure is GOOD! You will stop and reflect back and become stronger. I say life could be mundane if you do not have challenges in front of you. IF you fail, you will struggle and try to do your best the second or the third time.

Art Fry’s story was one like that. Prior to inventing the final product of “Post –it” he had failed several times--- and look where his product is now.

Thursday morning, I attended another event called “Innovation and Design.” This was organized by my professor—the professor I work for. Very interesting event of course. They had a panel discussion with a professionals from five different backgrounds- -who all shared similarity about the topic of Design and Innovation. Working with my professor, I have come to realize the importance of Design factor in any successful companies. I agree that by delivering the best design, you can clearly appeal to the market. Even though this was one of the morning events—yup! 7:30 am one—I am so glad that I went to attend.

I am the midst of reading the case, “ IKEA Invades America.” Interesting case. I have class in about an hour—and honestly speaking I am already quite drained.

Tomorrow, I am planning to attend the talk by Yoram Peri, Former Political Advisor to Yitzhak Rabin. I am always excited to meet with these leaders. Their talks always inspire me. Oopsss--- I think it is about time for me to head to my class. Au Revior mon amie.

midterm

I am done with my Accounting mid-term. Ah! What a relief. Now, I have two more presentation lined up and finally, I can take some break before the Final. I am taking a break from my studies. The weather outside is awfully gloomy and the rain makes it even worse. Prasanna’s got fever. He is sleeping. It is a flue season and I am trying my best not to let them attack me.

Good news back home. There has been a mutual agreement with the Maoist and the Government. We have hope. I see light at the end of the tunnel. I am very optimistic about the peace process in Nepal. When my parents went Nepal 2 weeks back, they really had to hard time finding the ticket right away because everything was sold out. This is a good sign. It seems to me that Tourists Industry have been revamped again. It indeed is a time for felicitation.

Another interesting news—Sadam’s Final verdict on Sunday morning.

What was with the deal with judge’s remark though? “You were not a dictator. You were not a dictator, however, the people and surrounding around you created a dictator out of you.” Seriously, how could anyone say that the man charged with murdering ten of thousands of his compatriots was not a dictator? Either way this remark unleashed a storm of criticism.I am still pondering about this whole thing. This incident some how made me reflect back upon the Slovadan Milosevic trail. Treacherous leaders like these have pawned upon the life on very innocent civilians.

Boston Beer Company

On our Marketing class on Monday, we took a trip to the Boston Beer Company plant. Boston Beer Company manufactures the most famous SAM ADAMS beer. It was an interesting tour. I am much fond of wine, so honestly speaking; I did not have much of a zeal. The overall trip was interesting one I would say. The pungent smell of barley and yeast was what bothered me all the time.

Weekend was good.

I have officially entered the esteemed post quarter century club denoted by Mr. Prasanna. Saturday was bit relaxing. I did a little bit of studying and reading.

Sunday was GREAT!

The weather was great. (Suddenly, I have come to realize how much impact the weather has on our behavior ) Prasanna sang me one of my favorite songs from crossroads. Then we had the honour of having a brunch and dinner at the Yadav residence. Shailendra Dai and Sanjay made us a GREAT waffle brunch. For Dinner, we had the combination of great curry with little bit of wine accompanied by Great Jazz music. I had a great day.

J'aime J'adore. Il est tres magnificient. merci beaucoup ma mari :) Yup! I learned french for two years . I even had a tutor ( Son of famous poet Laxmi Prasad devkota) when I had gone home for summer in my junior year of my high school.

I need to get back to studying ----

I am interested in investigating questions of the mind, in my mind, and do I mind? Yes, I do. That is in fact why I am here.

Weekend

My Marketing midterm is over. Honestly speaking, I do not how it went. I had studied so much in a micro level and the exam was solely based from Macro point. Anyways, what is done is done. Reading 300 pages was very interesting. I was especially intrigued by some of the examples the book gave.

This advertisement from Accenture, the consulting firm really caught my eye. I am quite familiar with its name, however, it never clicked the fact that Accenture was a division of Arthur Anderson Consulting and completely detached itself from the Arthur Anderson's name after Enron incident.

The word "Accenture" is derived from "Accent on the future". In order to one again revive their brand image; the company has used the strategy of introducing Tiger hoods, to promote their company. In any field of endeavor, there is always a select group of competitors that rise to the top. What does it take to be one of them? Talent, of course. But talent alone is not enough to become and remain a high performer. After all, many have the talent to succeed but being a consistent high performer requires more: unerring focus, a relentless work ethic and a commitment to continually improve even at the height of success.

Brand Image is such an important thing in the corporate world. You really need to put a lot of work to pass the “Adaptation” phase, and if something happens and it gets ruined… then your company can be in a total jeopardy.

I was particularly drawn to this advertisement because of the message it was conveying. “To accomplish more, you need to see less.” This is a very critical point. The world associates Tiger with high performance. High performers like tiger focuses on “relentless consistency," which is probably only attainable if you have a concrete goal. In sum, to achieve something, you need to have a total focus on one thing. Only after you achieve this; you will need to take another step rather than focusing on everything in all direction. What I get out from this picture as a reader is that you need have a CORE GOAL to move forward. And Accenture has done a good job in demonstrating its tag line, "We know what it takes to be a Tiger." With this Acceture has sucessfully positioned itself as a high performance company.

Friday was good. Both Prasanna, Sanjay and I, we went to “Kathmandu Spice”, the newly opened Nepali restaurant. Food was good.

It is gloomy Saturday morning. Just had a long talk with everyone back home. Thanks to the new technology, everything has been so easy and convenient.I decided to make fresh croissants this morning. Fresh from the oven.The combination of Coffee, croissant and the scrambled eggs was superb!

The aroma still lingers in the living room.....

exams

I inadvertently seemed to have been missing days.The last one I wrote was on Monday. Not bad really--- I have been quite busy (and no this certainly is not an excuse). Currently,I am taking a break. Break from studying I would like to add. I have a marketing midterm tomorrow. 12 chapters- each consisting 30 pages. I have read 9 chapters so far and I am very much overwhelmed. Slowly Exam’s have taken a ubiquitous form. Week after week I am thrown with exams. Next week, I have Accounting.

I have been studying all day---Technically, I was supposed to work for my professor today. However, since my focal point for last couple of days have been this exam,I decided not to. I decide to give all my energy for the exam-- reading the longgg chapters of course! I have whole lot of pending work waiting for me. Next week is going to be fun.

Multiple choices. I hate multiple choices. The process of elimination always gives me this iffy feeling. As you might have guessed this, my marketing exam is solely going to be multiple choices along with 1 short answer.

While reading the chapters, I have come across the name Lafley quite a lot. Mr. A.J. Lafley is the CEO of Proctor and Gamble. It really feels good knowing that you have actually seen this person. Actually on my global marketing class last week, we made an emphasis on Porter’s theory. Today, while reading the chapters, I have come across Michael Porter's name several times. Knowing the fact that I have actually spoken with him makes me feel good . :)

This week on our Global marketing class, we had to do the analysis of Proctor and Gamble’s "SK II case." What is SKII ?

SKII is the leading prestige and high-end beauty brands by P & G. The case analysis was whether or not P & G should enter the Chinese and the UK market with this product.

SK II is an upscale product from Japan that is exclusively sold through selected Saks Fifth Avenue stores. The product is Fragrance free --- and it does not look anything like the upscale products, yet, one small bottle costs over $170.

The dilemma at the time of the case, 1997 was whether or not to enter the new market. The case was very interesting. The company did decide to take the risk and enter the Chinese market and they have successfully captured their targeted niche.

Doing business is all about taking a risk. Had P & G not captured the Chinese market, their competitors like L’Oreal, Chanel and Estee lauder’s would definitely have with their high end products. In the competitive world today, business is all about being an innovator and capturing the consumers mind. If you don’t do it, someone will. This is how the corporate business world works today! Seize the moment or else someone will------ now this makes me think back about the title for this blog. Carpe Diem-- SIEZE THE DAY!!!

The class was very interesting. This is one of my favorite classes. To tell you the truth, I really like case analysis. It is so much interesting then the professor’s lectures. Classes based on case analysis are more interactive and more energetic and that is what I like.

I am going to bit relieved after next week—after my Accounting midterm. My relief will be enormous. But may be not .....

To further my case ..... I still have 3 presentations to do before the end of the semester.

Weather is gloomy outside. The leaves have changed. It looks beautiful. I can sit and enjoy the view. Sadly, the situation does not permit me to. I better get back to my studying.