Lahaul & Spiti - The Backpacking Trip

I was backpacking in Lahaul & Spiti valley last month. It was an exhilarating experience and I intend to write a travelogue sometime soon.

Meanwhile, here are some of the pictures from the trip:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/medhavin/collections/72157634659539049/

Spending Time

It's been almost three months now since I got back home from Cal. I'm scheduled to join AMC earliest in mid-July and latest in early-Aug, so there is at least a month of 'vacuum' that still needs to be endured before the 'up in the air' phase begins and the grass on the other side will begin to appear greener!

So, the thing is that Arpit had his joining a couple of days back. His vacation didn't last too long. Less than a month. And he made good of whatever time he had with his collection of TV series. I, on the other hand, am definitely not blessed with such free-wheeling tastes and have no qualms in admitting that I simply can't live with the idea of investing time in any unproductive activity on a continuous basis. I mean, once every while is still okay, but time is just too precious to be consistently blown up that way. Even during vacations!

So, here is a list of all that I've been doing during the vacations:

1. Exploring Delhi - monuments, eating joints, film festivals, museums, etc.
2. Travel - Vrindavan, Chandigarh, Jaipur
3. Learning German
4. Learning VBA for Excel
5. Learning graphics for MS Office
6. Reading books on consulting
7. Revisiting statistics
8. Building up my book collection
9. Beginning to cook. A little
10. Fitness - Running, Yoga & Pranayama [Doing, reading]
11. Catching plenty of sleep

That should sum it up. I had many more things that I had planned/wanted to do, but the uncertainty regarding the joining date kept those in abeyance. However, now that I have an assured month all to myself, I guess I can add at least a couple of things to the list above and build on whatever I've managed to achieve.

Kiddo is home

Kiddo is back home! For those who weren't regular readers on my other bogs, Arpit, my brother, has just completed his B.Tech. in Electrical Engineering from IIT Delhi. He'll very soon jump-start his career at Opera Solutions, the big data and predictive analytics firm. He starts in June, so as of now both of us are sort of vacationing at home. With little else to do, we, wittingly or unwittingly, succeed in raising hell every now and then. Needless to say, the parents aren't amused every time!

Any how, I'm so proud of you kiddo. You have done well.

The science of management consulting

One of the most common and intriguing aspects of the life of a management consultant is to explain what exactly she/he does in layman terms without the use of business jargon. It ain't easy. Can say that from a few experiences I have had yet. After all, your are working for clients across industries and practice areas. You begin as a generalist, doing anything and probably everything, and then gradually gain expertise in a particular domain.

Since I'm joining Accenture Management Consulting, I am learning to go by my firm's definition of what exactly consultants at Accenture do for their clients. Here is a sneak peak:

Introduction

Hi. My name is Medhavin and this blog will be my online journal for the foreseeable future. I have maintained multiple blogs over the past decade or so, the themes of which ranged from life in general, my MBA prep, a memoir about a dear friend, and some random rumblings here and there. Everything has a time and place though, which is one of the reasons why my previous blogs are no longer available for general reading. Here onward, I intend to maintain this blog as my only journal.

A little about me:

I am a recent graduate from the Indian Institute of Management at Calcutta, from where I pursued my post-graduation in management. Before that, I did my bachelors in computer engineering from Delhi College of Engineering. Professionally, I'm starting as an analyst at a leading management consulting firm in the days to come.

A little about this blog:

With the above as the context, this blog will be about the following

1. Life

2. Consulting

3. Travel
4. Photography
5. Music

6. Reading

7. Technology

8. Casual poetry

9. Memories from IIMC, DCE, DAV Chandigarh and DAV Ludhiana
10. Random rumblings, of course.

I don't intend to write here as regularly as I did on my other blogs. A part of it is due to the very nature of my professional career, where time will be a scarce resource. The rest of it can be attributed to the benefit of hindsight.

Will write soon.