91DIVOC Tales #3

Well, my day started with a bit of dilemma. We received the list of 1st round interviewees for one of the companies that we applied to. Guess what? Karthik made it while I did not. I was not sure how to react to be honest. One hand, I was super happy for him. On the other hand, I was super unhappy not because I was not shortlisted but more so because I was not displaying any signs of sadness!! I was really untouched by my performance. I was like 'fine, this company is not lucky to have me'. What am I thinking?? The world is heading towards recession.. Everyone is bracing for impact and applying to all Tom-Dick-&-Harry firms. I am sitting here thinking I will certainly find some job somewhere.. Either I attained highest level of confidence in myself which for a while I have been striving to.. or...... I am simply going crazy!!

Its interesting to compete with your partner in professional lives. I don't know why people make a fuss about it but I enjoy it. Coz, whatever is the end result, I will get my way through. For instance, if I win over him, I simply enjoy the success. If he wins over me, well I still enjoy.. as I trick him into doing chores to cheer me up :D I am a very bad wife, poor guy he never realises it.

91DIVOC Tales #2

I started re-blogging with an aspiration to write fun-blogs. As much as I am aware, I failed at it terribly. Let me try sticking to my goal at least for once today :D

What was one fun thing that happened today?

Well, I attended Brand Management class today and guess what? We were discussing 'Washing powder Nirma' ad. Apparently, Nirma, a local brand in India managed to outperform Unilever, a giant CPG company through its catchy 'Nirma' song. Such a fun fact, isn't it? What's furthermore hilarious is the fact that most Indians of my age still remember the Nirma ad; we started signing the ad as soon as the Prof mentioned it :D

Lately, Karthik and I have started watching BBT over lunch and dinner to compensate for the loss of fun in our lives due to COVID lockdown. However, I do not enjoy it as much as he does and that frustrates me! He has good attention to speech and I don't making me miss out on certain jokes I ought to listen to. I still enjoy watching the episodes with him, his laugh is contagious :D

Oh yea, another fun fact, yesterday was Ugadi, new year in my native town. One highlight of this special occasion is the panchangam - a sneak peek into the year for you based on your zodiac sign. There are several astrologers who flood the television with their expertise in panchangam on Ugadi. I was talking to my mom about how she decides who to listen to (narrations vary with the expert) and her simple mantra - listen to their forecasts from previous year, compare it with reality and decide! LOL

I love these panchangams, they are a way for me to keep my hopes high. I dump them however when they don't predict what I want to hear. Lets see what this year has in store for us and how much of it matches with what we heard from panchangam :D

91DIVOC tales #1

91DIVOC?? What better title can you expect from someone in lockdown in France in the March of 2020?!!

I don't know how long this lockdown is supposed to last, I thought I better have some fun out of it and make my life less miserable :D

I live in Fontainebleau in France. It's a small town and well, no one outside France is aware of its existence. Sometimes, not even the neighbouring Parisians!! Its fun to hear some of my friends say 'the town is dead silent after the lockdown'... I laugh to myself - when has it been other-way? 

This beautiful town is kind of a retirement paradise for few old European affluent, most of who are French. It's an irony that INSEAD is based here - we are young, poor students looking for jobs! Sooo not ready for retirement yet... We have huge loans to clear you know ;) 

Anyways, back to COVID19, so since the lockdown started, Karthik and I are stuck in a small apartment with little outdoor activity. We barely cook at home. I even made plans to hire a full-time cook in the future. But now, not a single day passed without us turning the stove on.  I kinda enjoy it though, it is my way of de-stressing and zoning out for a bit. Besides cooking, now that we are recruiting, we spend time writing cover letters and praising these firms. More than writing the letters, I spend time making sure I am sending the 'right' letters to the 'right' parties :D 

Last fun thing that happened today was our online MBA classes. It did not go that bad. I was surprisingly more engaged than I am usually in a regular setting. The class was truly lot more productive as each of us did what we like to do - some listening, some texting on the chat box, some sleeping and pretending to be attentive (note, with the online feature allowing us to hide our videos, this option just got so much cooler). I fall into the later category, I have low attention span and need to take a break every 10mins to be engaged. So I watch videos related to the class content, search online - all of it with so much freedom and without guilt. Online classes are really so so cool. I am sure this 'zoom' trend is not going away after COVID19 vanishes. Furthermore, I am confident we are entering the hologram age where our digital selves are teleported to places across the ocean in seconds.