Last day at work…

Today is the last day at work. It’s feels weird to think that this is the last day that I’ll be coming here and sitting at this desk… So today I took loads of pics in my division and went and met all the people I’ve been working with for the past 2 years. This is the desk where I sit. Funnily enough I don't feel that sad. I will certainly miss my close friends, but I guess this work has started to get monotonous and though I have a few wonderful friends the others are just people I work with... Or may be it's cos I sooooo excited about Cambridge.

These are some my friends at office, near my cubicle

I’ve also been catching up with loadz of friends. It’s unbelievable how many things happen in the span of a few years. This gave me a good excuse to call and mail friends I haven’t kept in touch with and most of them seem the same (except ofcourse many are married!) I hope we’ll be able to keep in touch…

Words of Wisdom...

Never Walk on the travelled path because it only leads you where others have been
- Graham Bell

Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we might win, by fearing to attempt
- William Shakespeare

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work
- Thomas Edison

Preparations for the MBA

Well I was pleasantly surprised to see the amount of preparation done by the Cambridge MBA admissions committee even before we start the course, and the opportunity to get to know my fellow MBAers on-line is great cos already I know who I’ll be studying with. (at least by name.) Ofcourse when I see their profiles I feel a bit intimidated, cos most of them have been working in major multi nationals for many years compared to my 2 years in a local Telco…

My future batch mates sound pretty cool. We’ve even discussed about meeting informally before the course officially starts on the 18th Sep 2006 and about Pub Nights and Salsa Nights! I’m really starting to look forward to meeting all these people from so many different countries and backgrounds. I guess the fact that I’ll be leaving behind everything I know for years hasn’t really sunk in yet… (or maybe I’m just over dramatizing things, after all with the advances of technology and software like Skype, I am not only able to talk to but also see my friends and family from across the world :0) )

Another group that has got kick-started is the JBS (Judge Business School) Careers team who are already getting us to read and think about the kind of career that we’d like to do after the MBA. I’m totally clueless here. One of the reasons that I wanted to do an MBA was because it would open up so many doors for me…

To give us insight into our likes and dislikes as well as strengths and weaknesses, the JBS Careers team had given us access to CareerLeader®, a comprehensive business career development tool (as they called it!). I found it’s assessment of me pretty thought provoking… The accuracy of career leader is ofcourse questionable, considering that there are questions which ask me to identify my own strengths and weaknesses. (Usually we all tend to see our selves as better than we actually are and don’t always see all the weaknesses in us)

According to CareerLeader I have core elements of business work
· Counseling and Mentoring
· Theory Development and Conceptual Thinking

You are strongly interested in Counseling and Mentoring, one of the elemental activities in business work. You enjoy developing relationships -- and people -- and view this activity as an integral part of business work. A strong interest in Counseling and Mentoring is often expressed through a desire to manage groups and lead teams. The emphasis is more on the "people management" side of things than on managing processes, projects, or strategy.

You also have a notable level of interest in Theory Development and Conceptual Thinking, one of the fundamental activities in business work. Whether as a business professional or aspiring businessperson, you enjoy solving business problems through conceptual approaches, exploring abstract ideas and the "what ifs" of a business or industry, and considering broad economic and social trends.

The jobs suggested were, Management Consultancy, HRM, and Non Profit Sector. Hmmm funnily enough it didn’t mention anything about engineering or technology. I Wonder whether that’s cos the tool doesn’t work properly or cos I’m not a techie at heart…

Anyway I have been interested in Management Consultancy for some time now and would love to get into that sector after the MBA. One thing with Sri Lanka is that usually we’re not exposed to careers paths such as these and everyone is expected to fit into ‘doctor’, ‘engineer’, ‘accountant’ or ‘lawyer’ roles and if you’ve chosen one you’re not supposed to change it. So if I venture into a non techie field it would be considered a waste of my education. I don’t see it that way cos I believe that even if I don’t use the techie knowledge directly the analytical skills that I learnt will not go wasted. I’m looking forward to trying out unconventional fields.

WANT A PANDA? APPLY NOW!

Well I just got this email about 16 Panda Babies born at the a zoo in southwest China. They looked soooo... cute I just had to post them. Aren't they the cutest things you've ever seen?

The Sichuan Wolong Panda Protection and Breed Center is dealing with the results of a breeding boom -- 16 pandas have been born since July, 2005. The brood includes five sets of twins. The cubs are weighed and measured every five days by a special panda nurse. (I want to be a Panda Nurse!)

The heaviest tips the scale at just over 24 pounds, while the lightest weighs about 11 pounds. The pandas are due to stop being suckled by their mothers in February, 2006 just about the time they'll start learning to walk. Once weaned, the panda cubs will attend panda kindergarten. In the meantime, more little ones are expected at the center, since 38 giant pandas were artificially impregnated.

Coming out of Hiding!!!

Guess what, I've finally decided to come out of hinding and few days ago added my name to the profile, but I still like to go as smiley :0)

Now I've added a link to my new flickr account. So you get to see my pics. Flickr is a great way to share photos and I thought this would be ideal for me to share my photos with all at home while at Cambridge. I decided to change my blogger profile photo to this, but blogger is giving trouble in changing it so decided to keep my original smiley.

Blog Comments

I was wondering why no one has commented for the last couple of posts and then I got a mail from Turtle Guy saying that 'Comments on this blog are restricted to team members' Thanks Turtle Guy. I have no idea how the comments condition changed!!!!

Well I've fixed this now, so don't forget to comment :0)

Live like you were dying...

He said I was in my early forties
with a lot of life before me
when a moment came that stopped me on a dime
and I spent most of the next days
looking at the x-rays
Talking bout the options and talking bout sweet time
I asked him when it sank in
that this might really be the real end
how's it hit you when you get that kinda news
man what'd you do

and he said
I went sky diving
I went Rocky Mountain climbing
I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named FuManchu
and I loved deeper
and I spoke sweeter
and I gave forgiveness I'd been denying
and he said someday I hope you get the chance
to live like you were dying.

He said I was finally the husband
that most the time I wasn't
and I became a friend a friend would like to have
and all the sudden going fishin
wasn't such an imposition
and I went three times that year I lost my dad
well I finally read the good book
and I took a good long hard look
at what I'd do if I could do it all again

and then I went sky diving
I went Rocky Mountain climbing
I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named FuManchuand
I loved deeper
and I spoke sweeter
and I gave forgiveness I'd been denying
and he said someday I hope you get the chance
to live like you were dying.

Like tomorrow was a gift
and you got eternity to think about what'd you do with it
what did you do with it
what did I do with it
what would I do with it'

I was listening to this song and suddenly this started to have a special significance to me. Though I don’t think I’m dying (you never know when the day will come) in a way there is a similarity, since I’ll be leaving SL for atleast 2 to 3 years, and by that time I don’t know where my friends will be… (they may have migrated or gone for higher studies themselves) and I'll be starting work at a new place and so many things would have changed...

I'll So these days I’m trying to meet up with all my friends and spend some quality time. I’m also visiting places in Sri Lanka where I’ve always wanted to go without putting it to the future. At work I’m trying to make sure I wind up everything cos though I won’t be here, I wouldn’t want people to complain that I started a lot of things and left without completing them. (I know how usually whenever something goes wrong in a project the scapegoats are always the ones who’re not there to defend themselves. So I want to make sure that I reduce the possibility of that happening.)

It’s funny I’ve gotten in touch with (met or called) more old friends in the past month, than I had for years…I really don’t know for how much longer I would have waited to get in touch with them if not for the fact that I’ll be leaving the country soon. It feels like the end of one chapter of my life and the beginning of a new one...