Its' not been a good day. No my friend, it has been not. Kolkata lost in the IPL & Man U lost in the EPL. Why do all my favourite teams falter on the big days? Ah...I hope I had the answer to that one. A few of us had thought of ganging up & watching the IPL. The only good thing out of it was the Tandoori Chicken & the beer we had. Seeing the meat find its way to oblivion lifted our spirits to a high which no sports can achieve. On top of it, we are still not getting ESPN/Star Sports in our rooms. In a way that's good, because our fragile spirits probably cannot handle seeing both of our teams losing on live TV at the same time.

On a different note, the pre-terms are coming to a close. I had spoken about my disastrous encounters with both maths & stats. So I decided to use my superior intelligence & came up with a solution - I will not attend any more classes. To be frank, I feel better off. I am positively chirpy. It's infinitely better to sit in the sidelines knowing that you don't know rather than the fact getting hammered into your mind, body & soul in the classroom.

We had our first session of consultant gyan yesterday. Couple of alums from BCG decided to address the fertile minds of the current batch. Catch the students raw....they have been here for what? Only 2 weeks. That fortunately or unfortunately was not a deterrent. So we had the session from 10 pm. By the look of it nearly 250 people turned up crammed into a room which could take not more than 80 people. I along with SD & DD turned up around 10 mins late & we could not get anywhere near the door. We immediately beat a retreat.

Somebody had done a great job & summarized the entire discussion & sent it to the whole class. Unsurprisingly, I saw nothing new in the whole discussion. I have been in PwC for the past 5.5 years & I know how consulting functions & what the work entails. Like in all discussions/forums at ISB there were arbit questions. Got these gems from one of my friends who attended the session.

Student : So what is the exit policy of BCG?
Alum : ?????????????
Me (on hearing) : ??????????

Student : So where does BCG rank among the consultancy firms?
Alum : Well, the Tier 1 is Mac, BCG, Bain then 2nd tier is ATK, Booz, Accenture & so on...
Student : So where is McKinsey??
Me (on hearing) : Did you think Mac means McDonalds????

I have taken part in a lot of arbit discussions during my stint at PwC. I have been part of teams where a deal has taken 6 months to close & we have had meetings for an entire day from which nothing has emerged. But they have been cases where there has been a difference in the opinion between the 2 parties on the table. I mean, guys, have your fundas in place. Consulting is glamourous but it is tough to get into, it is tough work & the life you lead is also very very tough. It is not a career meant for most people.

If the first question or even the tenth question you ask from a prospective employer is about their exit strategy then all you can say is Bye Bye. Why would you even want to know that at this stage? Is it because you are not convinced that this is a right fit? In that case, why are you here at all?

As of now, I am still in the sidelines looking on at all that is happening. What's the hurry...I tell myself. We've only just been here. Like I laugh at the enthu people mentioned above, they also must be laughing at me....this idiot sits in the atrium all day, he's falling behind. Hmmm....food for thought. But I have seen pressure like few other professions have, all thanks to PwC. I know how to meet deadlines...& I have worked & made my team work for 30-35 hours at a stretch. The work pressure doesn't scare me, the prospective time schedules don't scare me. What scares me is my utter lack of knowledge in all these subjects. And that my friends, is not a nice thought.

Cheers

I was bored today. Also I needed some confidence booster after the drubbing in the hands of Maths & Stats. So I decided to sit for the accounting pre-terms. You are a CA....some of my friends mentioned. Doesn't matter....I needed some familiar ground before I tread onto next week. To be honest, I also wanted to see other people struggle to pamper my suffering ego.

So right after lunch I landed up at the Accounts class. The class today was basically about the following things:
a) Golden rules of accounting
b) Debit-credit & writing a journal
c) Posting to ledger accounts & drawing up a Trial Balance

Seeing the class I was overcome with nostalgia. I did these things in the 1st year of my college...back in the prehistoric days of 1997. It was a struggle for me as I had science till high school. Seeing these engineers suffer in the same way throwed me back to those days. Writing pages & pages of journals, doing problems of Trial Balance for weeks on end. Accounting is all about logic, but I must say, the logic is not very apparent initially. Why cannot this be debit? Why cannot a liability be negative? There were, to me, very very basic questions from all corners of the class. At times I wanted to jump up & shout fundas....see guys, I am a super-dude. But I must say, the instructor was very good. She was extremely patient and answered all the queries...however silly they maybe.

Seeing her, my mind went back to my Accounts teacher. I went to him a greenhorn & something he did put the love of the subject in me. It's entirely due to him that today I am a CA.

But I am digressing. Coming back to the class, man was I relieved. If I struggle in stats, these guys do in accounts. My rationalisation logic says that it will all even out. I guess we will find out in a few days time. Monday is almost upon us.

Cheers & ciao

The Pre-terms have started & with it I'm officially back to studies. I have signed up for the Quants & Stats pre-terms. Obviously, I don't need to take the Accounts module.

I always thought that I was pretty decent in both Maths & Stats. I was in for a rude shock. Time has rusted all my basic math skills. I cannot remember anything. Period. I walked into the class on the first day with a swagger but now I'm scared. I feel so hollow about the concepts, that their application seems like a distant mirage. The only solace is I can see the other guys struggling in equal measure.

The alums had mentioned that the pre-terms are useless & to an extent they are correct. The speed at which it is going is ridiculous even if it is meant only as a brush-up exercise. Howver, the good thing is that it gets you in the classroom groove and prepares you for 2 long hours in the class. I mean, we always had 40 minute periods in school & college to the extent I always felt that this is some sort of a global norm. 2 hours???? First time I heard it I thought that it must be some sort of joke. But I will survive.

Another habit which I seem to be carrying forward from my school & college days is sleeping in class. We had 3 Stats classes till date & I have slept for some duration in each of them. The scary part is that we have all our 1st term classes early in the morning. I seriously hope that I don't snooze onto glory in them. That would be some embarassment.

On a different note, groups are beginning to form among the students. I am still floating around. I know most of the Calcutta gang & some other common interests have helped in knowing other guys.

Finally, 7 of us ganged up to watch the Chelsea vs Liverpool match last night. I having an empty studio, was the host for the night. Tosh brought over a few beers. We expect a more substantial participitation for the Man U - Barca match tonight. Already quite a few guys have confirmed. It's much more fun watching the game in a group than sitting up alone at 1 in the night.

Cheers & ciao