Night melodies

I had the wonderful opportunity to hear a BEAUTIFUL song by my husband.

• Prasanna's song- “Biteka Kura ”

It was indeed a great way to start a BRAND new day at 12:00 am :)

My day

The alarm clock buzzed at 6: 45 in the morning. After snoozing for about 4 times, I finally decide to drag myself out from the bed. " I have a meeting in the morning-" - Prasanna had warned me before going to bed last night. This meant getting ready by 8:15...Reluctantly; I forced myself out from the bed. We went to bed at 1:00 in the morning. I had the case-writeup due this morning. I wished I had more time to sleep. I also had a meeting with one of my professors at 9:30. As I head to take the shower,Prasanna rolls out from the bed and heads to the coffee machine.. Perfect aroma in the apartment. We quickly got dressed and head out for the brand new day. :)

The train is awfully crowded. I have my book with me and I care less. Crammed in the crowd, I start to enter the Desai world. The book is getting more interesting and soon comes the " Park Street" station. Time for me to get off. I have a morning class today. We are discussing about the “Providian Trust" case. Intersting case about Reenginnering and Transforming the organizational structure. I got my first case back. I am happy:) My grade took me by complete surprise:)

After the class, I quickly grab a bowl of soup and three power bars and head to the library to do my Corporate Finance homework. The books that I have bought at the ebay has not arrived yet. I am sitting in the library's reference room trying to get hold of the Corporate Finance book.. apparently someone has checked it out and it is not due back for another hour. I want to get over with my Finance homework by Friday. I see two of my friends doing the same homework. I join them... the problems looks relatively easy. I think I can get the work done in a hour or so... I did it!! I did all the problems except the last one. I still need to check it but I think, the major part is done.. oh! what a relief! Now the case write up. We have a make up class on Friday for the Martin Luther king holiday, which I am going to miss. We are off the Louisiana on Friday morning...early morning :)

The weather is quite chilly. Boston weather, which sometimes leaves me wondering if my ears are going to fall off in the cold! Because we were both in a rush this morning, I forgot to get my scarf and the gloves.. The view of Charles is beautiful in the early morning. It is covered with a blanket of ice and a slight tint of sun rays bouncing on it makes it even more beautiful.

Weekend was hectic. I attended the " Dynamic Women's Conference" at Harvard Business school from 8 - 5 pm. Quite a busy day. It was great opportunity for us to hear some encouraging insights from some of the powerful women in the business world. Attending Panel discussions at Harvard Business School's class along with the business student was quite an experience. I attended three panels. 1. Entrepreneurship 2. Consulting 3. Marketing. In addition, I also got to meet with and listen to the creator of the TV series "Amazing Race”- which I really love to watch!!

Talked with everyone back home. It is sad that we missed the wedding.Prasanna really wanted to go but could not leave because of his work. He works too much… Sometimes, I wish he had more time :) Time is what we lack the most..

Without further dwelling much into detail, I would like to conclude the journal for today! I am tired today.. Soon I will drift off to dreamland. Adios.

quick run down

Despite the bitter cold, I still make an effort to take the longer route to go to my class.Why ?-- To get some exercise. I am ridiculously out of shape -—the brisk wind on my face and icy air in my lungs is no fun. There is a small hill in front the Beacon Hill that exactly takes me to the business building. Walking in the cold wind makes your brain quite alert but in Boston,this might not always be a good idea.Yesterday was awfully cold so I opted not to go.

I feel quite fresh today! Sleep is a prized commodity. I got a good night sleep last night compare to the one before. I had a case due so I was up until 1:00 and then again, got up at 6 to do it. This is what you get for buying the case package at the last minute. It was a complete Havoc.

School has been going on just fine. The bad thing this semester is that all my presentations are at the end of the semester. Let’s see-- total of 4 presentations with four different groups. That is going to be fun.

I had my law class yesterday. My mind is still buzzing from all the new terms I read. On top of that, reading the case was a torturous ordeal. The two cases were “Schooner Vs McFadden and the Asahi Metal case.” Usually, the business cases takes me about 45 min of concrete attention; however, the law case yesterday took more almost 2 hours. Some of the words were purely brutal….. I have read almost all the novels by John Grisham, yet, reading these cases was horrendous. I can already tell this class is going to be a fun one :) I probably need to allocate a good chunk of time just for this one, and then I have Corporate Finance and Operational Management. This semester, Corporate Finance is also going to be a killer one. Working in a group to do our assignments is a BIG “NO.” The professor clearly stated deducting points if he catches the same mistake in our homework’s. That means more time for me as I am quite dubious of the whole Finance subject.

I am kind of multi-tasking. I am doing my homework and chatting with one of my good friends, Swasti from school. She is giving me a quick summary of a wedding of my brother-in-law back home which both Prasanna and I missed. This ifriend of mine is a mutual friend of my new sister-in-law as well. Therefore, I get the chance to hear the scoop from the girl’s side. Wedding is one of the best times in Nepal. My cousin is also getting married in second week of February. Mum will be off to Nepal next week. All we can do is sit here and hear the exciting and fun stuff back home.

I am hungry now. More than often have I been reprimanded for my eating behavior, and yet, I shamefully admit, I am not disciplined. Especially with the school and group meeting, one way or the other, I always seem to miss my lunch.

Jan 23^rd one of the important dates for me came and went by...nothing especial. Fragmentary as it is, this is all I can summarise of this week.

Win and Loose

Tom Brady’s picture loomed over the Boston Globe and the metro yesterday morning. 3 out of 5 had the newspaper in front of them with their sad faces (Or happy for the Colts fan). It could have been a SWEET victory for the New Englanders, however, to the shock of the civilized world, Brady threw a pick that ended the game and sent the Colts to the Big Game. Even Manning thought Brady was going to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat…and look how the game ended… the victory was so close, yet so far!!

Now, I guess all the pressure is off Peyton, because his arch-nemesis, his Kryptonite, Tom Brady and the New England Patriots are out of the leagues.

Now that the Pats are out, I am fully supporting Colts….mainly because of Peyton Manning, brother of Eli Manning..…. I guess supporting MS. As ironic as it sounds, I went to same school or I should say college as Eli Manning did-- My alma-mater "University of Mississippi" aka Olemiss. Both Eli and I were in the same class--Micro-Economics and Business Law both at 8:00 in the morning.

I still regret the fact that I never got his Autograph.—Just imagine how much it would have worth now…...In retrospect, I can STILL say that I went to same school as Eli did and have seen both Peyton and Archie Manning during our home game.

Sunday night was a good night. Sanjay, Pras and I went to Motu dai’s and Ishwar dai’s residence to watch the game. There we had the great company of Neevs and Anil dai. The only thing that was missing was of course, the victory at the end. The Game was was exciting. Better than the one with Saints and Bears. I have NOT really been a "football" fan..... but the last game was simply amazing !!

I am at the library today. Yesterday, for a change, I went to the Law library and it is so much better than the Business school one. Law students seem even smarter than usJ I was not trying to eaves drop, but I could not help over hearing how the students were talking about getting only 5 hours of sleep. Boy! Law school must be hard. I went to their cafeteria and the table was filled with students studying with their laptop. If the cafeteria was like this, then imagine how the law library was. I have now decided to study in the Law library. Maybe looking at them will give me more reasons to study.. Just an assumption here…. Nothing proved as of yet…..

Talking about library--- I am still at the library--the Business school one. It snowed a little bit in the morning. I have been trying to study but it has been hard to focus.

I am book hopping right now. Since I had already renewed the book twice, before re-newing the third time ( which I do not think is allowed) I have decided to read Kiran Desai’s Hulaballo in the guava tree and I am half way done. With the rate I am going, I should be done by Friday!

Friday

I see flurries outside the window…but somewhere in the cloud, I see the hidden sun forcing to come out. It succeeds for a sec then again; the cloud envelopes the whole sky in a murky grayish haze.

I am glad it is Friday, and not Monday!

I am working on my Professor’s research today. Lots and Lots of articles to read… some interesting and some not so interesting ones.

I had the “International Law” class yesterday. It seems interesting; however, the work load is not funny. Quite outrageous. Preparing for 4 cases and reading chapters is not going to be fun.

I have started reading The God of Small Things by Arundathi Roy. In the mean time, I am also planning to start Magic Seeds. With the time crunch, it is going to be hard, but this will definitely make a good company for my bus and train ride.

As I was reading the book, I started pondering a bit about LIFE!

I wonder, sometimes, how we keep ourselves above the despair that looms yawningly below us as we tread the fragile bridge of everyday life

This is what I answered myself with --

Find yourself a life worth dreaming of, an adventure you've searched for since you figured out what it was. Let go of the things that have been holding you down. If you have succeeded thus far, despite everything, what you've built will remain. If you have built true, against the odds, it will be here for you always. If it is not, then it was not true, and to tie yourself to it is to cripple you for life. Seek a new life, and leave nothing at all behind. If you would be strong at last. You would be free.

Struggle

I got the following anecdote from Shailendra dai. It is a very inspiring one.
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A man found a cocoon with a butterfly within it. One day a small opening appeared and he sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through the little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared to have gotten as far as it could and could go no farther. The man then decided to help the butterfly.

He took a pair of scissors and snipped the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily. Something was strange! The butterfly had a swollen body and shriveled wings. He continued to watch the butterfly expecting that at any moment the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time. Neither happened. In fact the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling round with a swollen body and deformed wings. It was never able to fly.

What the man in his kindness and haste did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the small opening of the cocoon are nature’s ways of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it released the cocoon.

The moral of this story :

Struggles are exactly what we need in our life!!! We need to be a fighter!!

Back to school

I am slowly getting accustomed to my old schedules.

I do miss Tokyo. The craziness I suppose. Whether you want to call it spontaneity or chaos, there are a million different Tokyo moments that can catch you off-guard and sweep you off your feet. During the day it can seem bleak and endless, but at night it's exciting, breathless, illuminated by a thousand pulsing lights. Anything can happen here -- stuff so strange, you couldn't make it up.

Jet lag is still lurking over me. I do not know when it will go. I got up 4 am in the morning, and after being awake for almost an hour and half, I fell asleep and got up again at 6 and without my realization, it was time for me to go to school.

Yup! Today was my first day of School for this semester. I had a class called “Global Information Management for Competitive Advantage.” Interesting course I must add-----as it left me awake throughout the class.

One of the chapters we are going to cover is about “Knowledge Management.”

Knowledge management refers to a range of practices used by organisations to identify, create, represent, and distribute knowledge for reuse, awareness and learning across the organization.

Honestly speaking I was quite ignorant of this topic until my dad told me. My dad is in Bangkok right now for the “Knowledge Management” seminar. Knowledge is a powerful tool and the more effectively we manage it, the better off we are.

I also had a quick appointment with my Professor. For this semester, my task is to conduct a thorough research on the demand factor of the Designers. What do designers wish to get out of their further education? Where would they utilise this education. My professor is publishing an article in one of the Design Management Journals. Even though, this topic sounds quite strange, it actually is an amalgamation of both Marketing and Design field.

It is really cold outside and waiting for bus was a nightmare. The only thing I enjoyed was reading the book. Mr. Mehta’s book is still not done. I am enjoying reading Mr. Mehta’s perspective on the city. The book is written in such a detail that I, as a reader feel as if I am one of the characters wandering in the street of Mumbai. It is sort of like a intoxication. Once you start it you cannot stop..The book keeps on getting interesting and I get more curious about the city-- the Mumbai city!!

My reading list keeps on growing and the time keeps on shrinking….

Tomorrow, my second day of school this year, hopefully it is going to be either deeply unproductive or astoundingly productive, or possibly both for me.

That being said, I bid a humble Adieu!

Back

I woke up in Boston on a balmy morning to find a sunny day outside my window. I got woken up by the car honks outside the Mass Ave. It took me a while to realize whether I was still lying in my brother’s room or in my own room. The emptiness in the apartment clarified my ambiguity. I was indeed back in Boston. Being home with my Mum for past couple of days made me kind of spoilt. I wished Prasanna did not have to go to work today.

I left Tokyo on Thursday afternoon. at 10:30 am in the morning to be precise. My flight was at 3:30, however, I had to leave early as the airport is 4 hours away from the city. Quite a long commute. My flight from Seattle was o.k. I tried to sleep but could not. I continued with Mr. Mehta’s book which took me to the whole different world.. —I have yet to finish that. In the second half of my flight, I entertained myself with the movie,“The Queen.”

This is a nicely depicted documentary but it really left me pondering on whether the characters were actually correctly portrayed. Why was “Philip,” husband of Queen Elizabeth so cold? Why was did the monarchy made such a big deal about having their flags half down to show the sympathy for the death of the princess. When the whole world is mourning, why was it such a big deal for the royals? And most of all, why was the queen so hesitant about delivering a speech post the accident of princess. If the movie is indeed portrayed correctly, then I must admit that I am very much in side of Prime Minister Tony Blair, who took control of the situation very nicely. For a recently appointed Prime Minister, I admire him for the way he stood for his belief. In sum, I really liked the documentary. You really get to witness a whole new side of the so called – “British Monarchy.”

The latter half, I watched the movie, "Khosla Ka Bhosla" and I really enjoyed it. It is a funny movie. Worth seeing- I must say. I landed at the Seattle Airport at 7:00 in the morning and it was unbelievingly pitch dark. It was like landing at 7 at night. As the sun gradually started glaring up, I could really enjoy the beautiful city of Seattle covered with white snow. It looked beautiful.

I had to kill few hours. Feeling drowsy and sleepy, I decided to sit and continue with my book. No luck! Because I was so sleepy, I could not even manage reading a single page. Then something interesting caught my attention. Mr. David Beckham was on the T.V. The news was that Beckham had recently signed with the LA soccer team to promote the “Football” here in the US. Wow, David actually left Real Madrid to come to a country where the word football means different thing. Regardless of that, David and his wife will become successful in stealing the attention.

My flight was long. From Seattle, I flew to D. C and then finally to Boston at 11:30 at night. It was a longgg day for me. But I forgot everything----all my jet lag, all my pains… after I saw my lovely husband waiting at the airport. This is the ONLY thing that I looked forward to coming Boston for.It was good to be home..!!

Yokohama

I went to Yokohama city today. Another beautiful and second largest city of Japan that I really love. It is not as crowded as Tokyo and with the bay by its side, the city is even more beautiful. I had a lunch appointment with my old bosses. They both used to work at the Nissan HQ in Ginza, Tokyo but recently been transferred to Yokohama’s branch. This was good as it gave me a reason to visit the beautiful city of Yokohama.

I left the house at 11:00 pm—the actually plan I had was to leave the house at 10:30 so that it would give me enough time to get enjoy the beautiful city. However I kind of overslept and left the house bit late. I was worried that it would take me more than to reach by destination, however, luck favored me as I managed to catch the express train and got to the exact location at 5 min before the hour.

Lunch was good. We went to an Italian restaurant. Even though I am in touch with them through an e-mail, I had not seen them for almost 3 years. Last time, both Prasanna and I were in Tokyo for only 4 days and I did not have chance to visit them then. It was nice seeing them after so long. We had some "Marketing" talk.Since the Japanese market has matured a bit; Nissan is now interested in developing new strategies in Asia. Who knows, I could be very well working in the Nissan Asian branch in near future. Working in Nissan has really been one of my best experiences. It helped me find my true interest in Global Marketing.

After the lunch, I enjoyed the view of “RAINBOW BRIDGE” and the glimmering cityscape that reflected on the water. This bridge is so heavenly beautiful at night. Strange enough, every time I listen to a Jazz music, this is the picture that pops into back of my mind. Not a single clue why…. ?? When I was working at Nissan, I had the chance to test drive the new Toyota model in this bridge and boy, it was fun!! I am still quite astonished by the fact that this bridge is two stories. Heavy trucks drive on the top and the regular car drive on the bottom lane

Is sum, I had a great day today. More flashback of my olden days :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!! !

Osyogatsu Omedeto gozaimasu!!!!

Finally it is the new year… the new era!! ( Even the UN has a new Secretary General!! ) It is the year of 2007. This is the first blog of 2007. A new year brings the opportunity to have a little fun and try new things. It allows you to take a look back, laugh at all of last year’s silliness, refocus and start anew. Moreover, that’s exactly what I am doing here. Here are my tentative goals for the new year- I resolve to work smarter, hustle harder, be more focused and the list goes on….

Before I forget --- A Happy New Year to everyone!! I know.....a bit belated but still heartfelt.

The new year has started off well. Every new year’s eve, the Japanese movie and music industry has this big male Vs female singing concert-- unfortunately, the male won :( We usually watch this show as it is the main highlight of the night here in Japan. Similarly, this year, almost after 8 years, I was once again watching the show with my parents and welcomed the new year from home. Since the living room has the “room with a view”, we also enjoyed the fireworks from our balcony.

Now that the New year is gone, everything is back to normal now. All the offices are open. My dad had 6 days long holiday and his work started from today. After a long spoilt schedule, he had quite a difficult time getting up this morning. My brother who is dreading to go back to his school has no choice but to go from Monday and soon.. it will be time for me to leave as well.

I went to Shibuya with my brother today. Again, the crowded city gave me a quick flash back of my high school days. Weather wise, it is quite mild. It gets bit windy during the day but with the sun, it is not as bad. I am enjoying the beautiful sunny day in Japan.

Next week I am meeting my bosses from Nissan at Tokyo and Yokohama. I guess this is will be the other main highlights for next week..

Since this is my first blog of the year, I hope to share many good news with you!!

Akemashite Omedeto Gozaimasu!!!!