Friday, June 23, 2006

UNKNOWN FACTS ABOUT BEING AND NOTHINGNESS. AKA GANJA TURTLE.

My Accent: Not South Indian but definitely Indian. For a brief 1 week in Zurich, it was for a while all-American and sometimes zee Française, but after concerted coercive efforts by fellow travelers, had to come back to Indian.

Drink: Cherry brandy, Johnie Walker, Breezers…so on and so forth…but my favourite is water.

Chore I Hate: Cleaning the mess made by a roomie…dirty clothes, wet towels, unwashed cutlery…some people.

Dog or Cat: Doggie lovers of the world unite.

Essential Electronics: Laptop/Computer, Digicam, mobile phone with a stereo headset.

Perfume: Azzaro when I am myself, Boss Dark Blue at work. (Yes, that's decidedly supposed to sound like an old favourite Raymonds ad “If it’s Tuesday, it must be the Aston Martin” – does it? Lol.

Gold or Silver: Na, I don’t like adornments…like you know…my biceps usually serve da purpose.

Home: Home is where-ever my mom, brother and dog are.

Insomnia: Twice– Eve of an Operations Research Exam during 1st year MBA; then 1st month in sales – the fear of failure kept me running all night long into dawn.

Job Title: Product Manager.

Living Arrangements: Flat + 3. In probably the most beautiful state in India.

Most Admirable Traits: Ugh…I don’t like talking about myself. I am told that I am helpful, loyal, modest, creative and passionate about what I believe in. Sometimes am told otherwise ;-)

Number of Sexual Partners: Ah…une questione delicatesse...we are what we are as much as by what we do not do, as much as what we do…Yeah, that means that GT scores a 0.

Number of times in hospital: Countless times! Never for myself– am the resident expert on hospitals admissions, treatment, payments, insurance, how to arrange shifts, make payments, request for doctors, what to say to patients, how to help nurses etc etc. God bless all the good doctors and the gentle nurses of the world.

Phobias: A death in the immediate family.

Quotes:
To strive, to seek, to find and not to yield.
The journey is the reward.
That awful daring of a moments surrender,
which an age of prudence can never retract,
by this and this only have we lived.
Ask not what the meaning of life is, for life is the question – And you...you are the answer. (Me? Na,not me. Hes talking about YOU)

Religion: Catholic

Siblings: A younger brother

Time I Wake Up: GT considers this question…dribbles it along the corners of his mind…jiggles like it a jelly…juggles it like a joker and finally comes up with a classic shot that almost wins the Nobel prize for its universal applicability… “It depends”.

Unusual Talent or Skill: I can crack my right toe as many times as I want to. Hey, hey, you are the one who said unusual! Ok, ok…here’s one more - I am the fastest SMSer in town.

Vegetable I Love: I like Avial and all that goes into it – the drumstick, the brinjal(Go BBLC!), the raw banana, the carrot. Besides this I love rajma, butter beans and soya beans. How did I miss out on tomatoes! And raw carrots! And spinach & lettuce when my mom makes it. Also mom’s secret recipe for beans+tomato fry. And also the grilled ladies-finger mixed in curd. If mushrooms are a vegetable, I like them too, luuuuv them in fact. And I think crunchy boiled broccoli is yummy. Fried cauliflower dipped in bread crumbs too. Er, u did say vegetableS, didn’t you…

Worst Habit: I think faster than I can speak and this makes me sound confused and garbled at times. While this is not particularly a problem when am talking to myself or to my dog (who after two bowls of Pedigree is the very epitome of patience), it does become a problem when you need to explain the rationale behind a product launch in 2 sentences to your bosses’ big boss. Am working on this-watch this space (And if you see a big black dog in it, you will know that not much progress has been made)

X-Rays: Twice. Once when I fell backwards and hit my head on the pavement. 2nd time when my motorcycle skidded and got caught under a police van. The protagonist and his loyal black bike were inseparably dragged along for about 20 meters before the police van decided,sparks et al, that we weren’t about to commit any crime while being dragged along the main road in Madurai and detached us from its metallic grip.

Yummy Food I Make: Am usually the fast & reliable assistant during this complicated cooking business – I clean/cut stuff quite fast. But what I can cook really well is the simpler stuff - the pastas, noodles, jellies, custards and fruit salads of the world. Yeah, fruit salad is a dish. And you kinda cook-make it. Savvy?

Zodiac Sign: Capricorn.

People tagged to do it: Since the bevy of obliging women who usually throng around Ganja Turtle seem to be in shleepy shleepy land, GT leaves it to blog-mosis to carry out his supreme will. Spread forth, admirable & gentle tag!

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Le GMAT est mort! Viva Le Ganja!

The renowned and respectable Ganja Turtle took the GMAT ON 19th June.After digitally signing, videographing, fingerprinting about 10 times and finishing a bottle of water + 3 bars of Kitkat, Ganja managed to get a score...

Overall Score - 710/ 94 percentile
Quant - 48/ 86 percentile
Verb - 39/ 89 percentile

Considering I would have been happy with exactly 700 and dreamt wild about getting a 720, this was a bonus. Considering I was scoring just about 40 in Math during prep, this was a lottery.Considering that all my prep & dummy test scores were hovering around the 660-680 mark, this was a godsend.

Thanks to all of Ganjas friends for their unstinting support - right from Arunther Dent in the US of A who reminded me that I didnt want to be stuck in a cubicle in Kerala all my life, to peoples in Bangalore who have been checking my prep once a week, to peoples who woke me up early everyday at 6am so that I could study, to peoples who made me so afraid of failing, to people who by already did "it" & set a clear example, to peoples who wished me the very best as I was about to go in. More than the fact that they did it, is the fact that I seem to be worthy of their time and effort ;-)
Thank God for everything.
Thanks to the squeaky talking characters in the Kaplan Software who shout "yaaaaaaaaay" everytime you answer correct.
Thanks to my....er....we dont want this becoming an Oscar acceptance speech, so we will hold on to that for now.

Now a man can get back to his regular work, drink, blog and books. Feels like someone just lifted a millstone off my chest - cant believe it could be such a relief to go back home after work and not study! To wake up in the morning and not study! To go home for the weekend and not study! Whew!

Ivy League, here I come!