Preparing for change..

That rare but truly desirable feeling.....relief....feels good, doesn't it? An emotion that grabs all yours troubles and anxieties and tears 'em to shreads. A feeling that brings with it hope for more goodness to follow. Something that clears all those cobwebs in your , brings a smile to your face and gives you sound sleep at night. Some would imagine that my first emotion upon receiving the news of my selection into SIBM would be sheer delight and ecstacy, but somehow only one emotion swept through me: relief! Relief 'cos of the fact that I can finally accomplish what I had set out to achieve 3 years ago: complete my MBA from a prestigious B-school. Relief 'cos of the fact that I can finally move on from a job that honestly was taking me nowhere but down the depths of mediocrity and monotony. And relief that I will finally get a chance to explore and realize my true potential and abilities.

18 odd months after embarking on a new phase of my life, it begins all over again. One chapter closed, another about to be written. It's time for me to prepare for yet another major change. The first step for me is arranging for funds to finance my MBA, and that has introduced me to the ominous world of "loans". All about the fine print, baby - that's what I've realized after checking out websites of pretty much every bank that exists in the country, calling half of them and visiting half of those I called! Things seem so rosy when you first come across them, until you've seen the bigger picture, when you realize how screwed you are! Whether its the requirement of collateral, interest rates, co-applicants age, loan amount....one by one I've had to cross almost every bank off! SBI does seem to have a favourable scheme for SIBM students, so I hope to get it done there. SIBM has put us in quite a spot though, giving us less than 15 days to cough up 3.25 lacs for the first installment - not that it can't be done, but it sure puts those less privileged souls in a pickle (thanking my lucky stars I'm not one of them!). I'm sure they have their reasons though, so I ain't complaining....

Hmm...also need to consider my specialization options carefully....finance would obviously be my first choice....second is what has put me in a quandry. (a) Operations management is something I find interesting at the outset, but not having a background in it is what bothers me a little 'cos I have no idea how good I'll be at it (b) HR is kind of a default choice for people if not finance, esp. at SIBM...so I wanna avoid going down that road (c) Marketing....well lotta people have figured me out to be a marketing guy in the future, except for one - me! Somehow I can't see myself in marketing....have no interest in it, so am ruling it out for now. It's gonna be a toss-up between Operations and HR, but I think I'll mostly go for the former.

Anyway...rest later....time for some Seinfeld (need to finish 7 seasons of Seinfeld and 5 seasons of 24 before April!!)....