Pursuit of Happiness - The Marital One

This week's TIME magazine carries the cover story "Unfaithfuly Yours" and discusses the problems with the american marriage the reason why we have so many Edwardses and Sanfords among us, and the institution of marriage appears ever so flimsy. As a still unattached single guy I too took time to ponder on this important issue, and I'm sure many if you in mid-age, planning to pursue your MBA at this point in life, would be as interested as well.

As an important tidbit the article mentions that "Americans tend to highest number of partners in their lives, more than anyone else in the world"

I would say this can be equally attributed to the American way of life or the "Pursuit of Happiness" as Thomas Jefferson put it in the fundamental rights section to begin with. This is this pursuit of happiness at all costs that had allowed the financial bigwigs to steam roll the financial system to satisfy their ends and benefits, it is what had tempted people to borrow and live beyond their financial means, and it is what indirectly responsible for most of the mess we see nowadays around us, even in the institution of marriage.

Most of the people who end up say the marriage vows here in US out of love. We are told that love is blind -- blind to reality that is -- and hence the people who are riding high on emotions after tying the knot, when they step into the reality are not ready to step up to the demands of marriage. Add to it when they have kids, and have to worry about everyday demands and financial stability, the marital life instead becomes a chore and romance is the one that sours and gets kicked out first. The couple don't take time to discuss and talk about issues, and instead turn outside for their "Pursuit of Happiness". That is the reason we see so many failed marriages around us, and the children of no fault of theirs are the ones who are to suffer the most. As the late writer Leonard Michaels once, chillingly, observed in his journal: "Adultery is not about sex or romance. Ultimately, it is about how little we mean to one another."

So instead, is the arcane "arranged" marriage system, that is still practiced in some parts of the world, such as in India, any better? It is better in that the relation doesn't start on love, but its start is instead based on trust and commitment, and hence is better grounded in reality. As opposed to love marriage, in the arranged marriage system, there is no common ground to begin with and hence people try to make up by talking and understanding with each other -- in short there is no ground to lose here and everything is to gain. As people, from the start, take time to talk, understand and ready to walk halfway if needed they are better positioned to weather out any of the storms.

I'm not suggesting to take a big cultural leap and choose "arranged" marriages over "love", but instead we can analyze and incorporate the advantages which tend to make most of those "arranged" marriages tick. Showing commitment in a relationship, make the genuine effort to make it work, taking time to talk about issues, and importantly be ready to face the reality when you step into marriage and not be blinded by the promises of "happily ever after". In the end, Marriage is what we make out of it, you tend to get what you put into the relationship. There is no secret formula for happiness, and it is up to us to make it work through effort.

So, in retrospect, it would have been better if Jefferson had instead put it as "Pursuit of just happiness by right means and honest effort"

Easy (?) way to finance school debt !

Go on for some pirate hunting this summer before bschool and get paid for it. Regarding whether it will help you in answering leadership/teamwork questions in your future job interviews.....you decide.

http://www.newmajority.com/ShowScroll.aspx?ID=ff46d445-bf1d-4bc2-95cb-9b910e70f40b

Updates & Gandhi-ism

In the past week I got busy with work and with all other things to be taken care of before I leave to India. I also received my 13-inch Macbook Pro early last week and I will truly say that I'm thoroughly enjoying the experience. I'm glad I made the bold decision to buy a MacBook Pro instead of the standard Windows laptop. I'm currently installing software packages, accustoming myself to the new OS and commands, and trying to slowly learn the ropes. I'm sure I would be in a better "productive" position when I start school in August. I welcome any suggestions on software packages for Mac, or any general advice that some of you experienced folks would recommend for novices like me.

At last I managed to book my flight tickets to India and back to USA. I booked the tickets in Qatar airlines (which I was pleased to learn is one of the few 5-star airlines in the world), and after I had booked the tickets I found that within the next 6 hours the ticket prices went up by $400. I was fortunate that I was able to book the tickets at a much lower price. A word of caution to you guys booking tickets online, to not blindly trust Orbitz. I found the price difference between booking tickets through Orbitz and directly at Qatar airlines' website was $300. So always make sure to verify the prices at the airlines' website before you book tickets through Orbitz (or any similar travel booking portal).

I promise to write a more comprehensive post regarding the going-ons in my life in the next few days. In the mean time, I would like to leave you guys with these youtube videos of speech given by Mr. Arun Gandhi, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi. I've never heard heard him speak before, and I would have to say that I was greatly engrossed and bedazzled by the content of his speech. He clearly explains how Gandhi-ism and the principle of NonViolence is increasingly more relevant in our present materialistic society than it was in the early 20th century India. If you could spare 30 mins of your time, I seriously recommend you to watch this complete 7 part video series. I'm sure in the end you will agree that it was a 30 mins well worth spent.

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=EF5E35C14B146770

UPDATE:

I'm also planning to sell the 8GB iPod Touch I received with my MacBook Pro this month, at a much reduced price. As I'm planning on buying an iPhone for school, I don't think I would have the need for a separate iPod Touch. So if any of you are interested in buying it from me, drop me a comment.

Quick Updates

1) Evanston Housing:
- After being in McManus housing waitlist for long, I was informed yesterday that I was being offered a spot in McManus. So for the time-being, the huge burden of housing is off my back for now, and I can plan the dates and book tickets for my return to Evanston from India.

2) Kellogg Medical Forms:
- Went to my physician here in US. Informed him that I don't have any records from childhood for the immunizations required for Kellogg. I was given the Tetanus shot (the 2nd shot is due in 28 days, and the 3rd in 6 months). For MMR, as my Dad confirmed that I was definitely given the shot in my childhood, I decided to go for the blood test. For TB, did the PPD skin test. All results would be due this week. While at my physician's place, I found it unusual that he insisted on doing a thorough physicial, including checking height/weight etc. He even insisted that I be checked for hernia and testicular cancer. My plea that those tests were not needed for the University Medical forms were ignored, and instead I was told that it is necessary to perform a complete physical checkup (for medical-insurance reasons), and a person of my age should definitely have these periodic checkups. So I eventually gave in and went for those tests. In the end, I was that glad all those results came negative :)

3) Laptop for School:
- I was originally planning to buy the IBM Thinkpad laptop through the Kellogg's KLP program. Though I liked the idea of owning a MacBook, the huge price tag of nearly $2,000 was big NO-NO for me, especially with the certainity of huge student debt looming in the horizon. But after Apple slashed its MacBook line's price in the past week, I'm currently sold to the idea of buying a 13-inch MacBook Pro (which starts at $1,199). After applying education/student discount, it becomes an even greater deal ($1,099), and even a free 8GB iPod Touch would be included in the package. So now I'm all set to take the plunge :)

UPDATE:
I've ordered the 13'' Macbook Pro and it should be arriving anytime early next week. Excited.

Debunking Third World Myths

Though I'm a hopeless Youtube addict, I resolved myself to refrain from posting any youtube videos in this blog. But I can't help but share this one.

This is an impressive talk by Hans Rosling at TED, which debunks many of the myths that still persists about Third World countries -- btw, Why are they somewhat derisively called "Third World", connoting their existence doesn't matter much to the rest of the world? Similarly, do we also have "Second World" countries? -- and shows clearly how majority of the world is becoming flat, but not as how Thomas Friedman had imagined.

It also shows how to make statistics more interesting and accessible, so that it can be easily shared with the wider public.

UPDATE:
A search on wikipedia shows that there are indeed "Second World" countries. But I still don't buy this classification of categorizing people/countries.

Quick Updates

1) Expect to hear some news next week regarding Evanston housing and have to plan accordingly. Depending on that I need to set my arrival date back from India. If I get into an unfurnished studio/apt, then I need to be here atleast a few days before the start of KWEST, so that I can get the things done. I would like to request and enlist other Kellogg bloggers' help to move things around...feel free to volunteer ;)

2) I'm still struggling between either going for blood test for MMR, or going for new shots. Currently, I'm in favor of the latter approach, as if the blood tests were negative for immunity (which I guess would be the case), then I need to go for shots anyway. So why not go for the shots right away?

3) Haven't heard about my KWEST trip allocation yet. Guess would be hearing about it in the next few weeks. Hope atleast this would go my way -- unlike my McManus oncampus housing application.

4) Saw the Disney/Pixar movie "Up" last week on the release date. Liked it. I would not say that it is the best animation movie I've ever seen -- that would be "Shrek", "Shrek 2", "Toy Story 2", "The Incredibles" and "Finding Nemo" -- but it still was way better than other crap movies that get rolled out nowadays. Highly recommend it for good quality summer fun.

5) The go-live date for the project/application I've been working on for the past 2 years was in the last week. So I spent most of my time last week working crazy hours nailing things down, ironing out the chinks, and getting issues resolved. Even the next week would be relatively busy. Expect to blog more regularly after that.

6) Spent sometime compiling the list of things to-do before Kellogg. The list only kept growing longer and longer :) If you, like me, spend most of your time on computer, and would like to prepare to-do lists and set timely reminders, I recommend NoteZilla. Try it out. I do hope you would "know" what to "do" when the free trial runs out ;)

Weekly Update

1) Yesterday I received my I-20 from Kellogg. The turnaround time was around 4 to 5 days. Kudos to the Kellogg International office for getting it done sooner. Now that I've my I-20, I need to start the F1 visa processing steps such as paying the SEVIS and visa fee, filling up visa forms, setting up visa appointments, booking flights to/from India, in short, a whole boat load of things to take care of. I will refer back to maverick's post I mentioned before for guidance on the F1 visa process.
I've a doubt. maverick's post mentions "Address Proof for the state of residence – this could be your last 6 months salary slips or a confirmation of your address on your company’s letterhead". As I'm currently in USA for the past 3 years, I don't have a valid residence address (for last 6 months) in India. But as I'm planning to take the visa interiew in India, which address should I be providing? Do any of you guys have any thoughts on this?

2) I heard from Kellogg this week that I was not being offered an on-campus housing accomodation at McManus (supply-demand explaination was given). In short, I was dinged (again?), or in this case, "waitlisted". I wonder who among the other Kellogg bloggers were fortunate enough to secure on-campus housing. So right now my solitary housing plan has fallen through, and upon hearing the news I was sort-of completely pissed off for a day. Now I need to decide soon and earnestly start looking for off-campus accomodations. It is gonna be a bit tough to couple this housing search along with my F1 visa process. I'm especially interested in a furnished (?) single studio (or even 1 bedroom), near the McManus area (closer to Barnes & Noble and Whole Foods). So if any of the current 1st or 2nd year students, or even incoming students, are reading this blog (which I highly doubt), please do shoot out any suggestions that you might have regarding housing.

3) Has any of the incoming students started with compiling the medical immunizations records that are required for matriculation. I'm not sure whether I (or even my parents) have all my immunization records from childhood. Also, as I've already stayed in USA for the past 3 years, doesn't that mean I'm not a "threat" to other people anymore? :) What are you guys planning on doing? I'm now leaning towards D.G's advice, and take all the MMR, tetanus shots again, so that I need not spend time looking for them now.

I've been contemplating on a few blog posts, along with the one I previously promised about "essay advice". With luck, I will try to get to those sometime this weekend.