Why I Chose MBA?

Written By Sadaf Fayyaz, 

 

My Personal Diary, On 21st April, 2010

I chose BU for doing my MBA. My area of interest is Human Resource Management. MBA has a much wider scope than Masters of Sciences or any other Engineering degree. An MBA Program provides the highest quality graduate business education. It allows us to maximize our potential and helps us to advance our career. An MBA program teaches us all the skills we need to be successful in a dynamic business world.

A capability of a Computer science Graduate is limited. He is offered jobs only in the development sector. There can be one more example. An MBA program teaches us to communicate, monitor and organize our different activities. It teaches us good leadership qualities, analytical skills, management skills, problem solving, efficient decision making and planned risk management. On the other hand, a computer science graduate might be having excellent potential, but due to bad planning and poor leadership qualities, he may not be able to communicate or lead his project members. About ninety percent of the software projects fail badly due to bad planning, awful project scheduling, and poor time management.

In an MBA program, we learn how to face the business world challenges. We learn how to manage the functional and strategic levels of an organization. How we should present ourselves? What type of competitors we have? What lucrative markets exist for us? An MBA degree has an answer to all these queries.

With the passage of time, MBA has been classified as MBA Finance, MBA Marketing, MBA Information Technology, MBA Human Resource Management, MBA executive and MBA Human Resource Development. Each of these divisions has its own pros and cons. It depends on the person what major to go for. If a person is good at convincing people, he can be a good sales person, a marketing executive or a corporate sales manager in any organization. If an individual opts for banking as a career, he goes for MBA Finance. If a bank employer thinks that in order to get promoted, he needs to have an MBA degree, he chooses MBA executive. All these vary from individual to individual.

The manager of the future must master a world of cross-functional jobs and hybrid industries. The future requires the ability to put together business functions, the ability to integrate new technologies across functions, and the ability to integrate knowledge from business and non-business disciplines into a successful project

After two years course of MBA, I will be having different markets open for me. It merely depends on my area of interest, and which major I go for. If I do my major in Human Resource Management, I would have a broader scope. In any organization or multinational company, Human Resource department is the core one.

This note I wrote 5 years ago::: Now all this doesn't seem true to me, simply do not know what others would think about it. This was the perception in my mind, when I joined the program.

Orientation Day at Bahria University 2001

Written on 1st Nov, 2009 Personal Diary

By

Sadaf Fayyaz

After getting admission at Bahria University for my BCS program, we were all formally informed by the administrative authorities about our orientation day. I wasn’t much interested in attending it but the word “Mandatory” convinced me to attend it. We were asked to come in full-fledge uniforms. The Orientation happened in the end of 2000 and our regular semester classes commenced from 12th Feb, 2001.

We all came in our uniform and those who came in fancy weren’t allowed to enter the auditorium. I remember a girl, who later became a friend of mine in BCS, came in dark make up and lilac colored dress. The authority figures didn’t let her enter the auditorium. We entered and were getting bored, as Rector’s speech and address was something very conventional and monotonous, repeating to every new batch of students in every semester. However, the lecture by the two Head of the Departments was worth listening and much impressive. I think Bahria should change its strategy of repeating the same kind of lectures and addresses for each semester. Policies and rules keep changing at Bahria, so why not the addresses and speeches by high authorities?

After the session ended, we were led by a young lecturer Kiran Hayat, to take a round of the campus and the premises. She took us to cafeteria and said,”This an ideal place for your bunking classes and these windows ideal for jumping out of the class.” She taught us Data Base Management System (DBMS) and System Analysis & Design (SAD) in third semester. Later, the ones who joined BCS program introduced themselves to each other. I remembered only Mehreen, Apsara, Zara and Mudassira and no one else. Our regular classes started afterwards in February 2001. The earlier batches were getting their degrees from Peshawar University, with which BU was affiliated. In 2001, it became a chartered university, granting its own degree during our times.....

The Reason for Disgust

Written on 19th Oct, 2009, Personal Diary

Sadaf Fayyaz

After I joined my high school classes, I went busy with my bundle of studies. I initially got very busy in my work and studies, and wanted to score good marks in the final boards. I along with some other friends, used to go to the college for a combined study work. My initial aim was to get my concepts clearer and help some friends of mine, as I happen to grasp better concepts after teaching some people. Here is a crush of a stupid boy of my class that really provoked me a lot. Though, I never understood him. My friends often used to make meaningful remarks, which I usually ignored. They were useless and meaningless for me; as such college crushes are really unwise.

We moved to Islamabad after my college permanently since my father was given a more responsible and serious assignment with DG ISI. After 10 years, I thought of adding my old college friends to my network. I added some of them whom I remember; else I have forgotten most of them. Similarly he was the one to be added as well. Things usually get crystal clear when you have a closer contact with someone. I just noticed one thing: those I had hated during college days were nice people, and those I thought to be nice-natured, were really strange. I have a great passion for dances (belly and Spanish) and always loved them. I was really shocked to hear a very sick remark on my choice, “You love belly dance, do you wear the same dress as well”, “That’s something very sick of him, and he is making fun of my aesthetic sense”. I thought.

The second comment was again on profile; I have always been a crazy fan of Hasan siblings and love their song “Tere Qadmon Ko”. He commented, “You love this song because you want your feet to be kissed by someone?” Just see the mental level of the person.

A third point came when I wrote that I was known as a vampire among my friends. That was a simple joke and the remark holds true for my intellectual looks i.e. (uncombed hair, loose clothes and long nose). But again the guy commented, “A vampire sucks blood from neck, you do the same?” From every positive and aesthetic thing, he was extracting something obscene and vulgar out of it. I didn’t like his style of talking, but was traumatized to explore this kind of behavior.

I am a serious person and usually don’t make friends very easily. Before confirming a request on any network, I message the person whether he knows me or I know him. I used to talk to only a few of the guys during my college days, since most of them couldn’t understand what I was talking about. He finally objected to my talks and conversation with those guys. “You always talked to them, and never talked to me”. He snored. “I am talking to you now and let us check your ill chatters and vulgar remarks”. I thought. I even never liked the ill kind of addressing that he used with me, with terms like, “babe”, ”dear”, “bad girl” etc. I am usually known as “Sadaf” or Aapa among my friends and cousins.

He hit the nail on the coffin when one day he started irritating me. He started convincing me that he was a very nice guy and the guys with whom I had friendship in college days were really dreadful, as they kept making fun of me all the time. “I don’t mind if people make fun of me, in a positive manner”, I replied. I developed a very nasty impression about him, that he had the wrong tendency to leak out everything that his friends did or spoke. Boys usually do it when they sit together and chat. But he shouldn’t have disclosed his friends’ remarks or comments to me. “If he can do this to his friends, he can do the same with me too”, I thought.

Besides achieving nothing in the last 10 years, he kept making remarks on my status. “You are not married, marry any ugly low IQ or short man, but get married.” My prompt reply was, “You could have developed a crush for some stupid, ugly low IQ girl of the class, why did you develop it for me?” he replied, “Because I found you intelligent and a bit good-looking”, “The same rule applies for me as well, how can I marry a short and low IQ person?” he didn’t have any answer. I think rules should non-discriminatory.

One day on a chat session, an old and a very close friend of him pointed very sarcastically at me, “Sadaf, this is for people who understand the cycle of life, not for you.” I really exploded on it. “What is he trying to say, it’s a point on me”. I deleted him finally after getting very very much annoyed. I remember our last conversation, “You will never get anything in life”, he replied. “I will and you will see what I can do”. I requested him in the end not to contact me again and keep any kind of contact with me again. So but still I am unable to know the reason of my hatred that I have developed for him now. ..........Sadaf Fayyaz

Studying Together: Coeducation in Pakistan

Written on 5th Oct, 2009, Personal Diary

by

Sadaf Fayyaz

It’s often very difficult to portray glimpses of your high school days. Though, I have revitalizing recollections associated with my high school days. But everything is a combination of good and bad memoirs, so the golden days had some black and agonizing memories too. I mentioned only the positive side of the story, but the two sides of the coin are One such thing happened during our final papers as well. We used to sit together and some of the boys and girls came to me discussing numerical and theoretical concepts. One day, we sat enjoying in our college canteen, when a special correspondent came hastily towards us and snored, “Sir is in a dreadful mood and told me that he doesn’t want to see the four girls of his class, including me and three friends of mine.” We were all shocked. “Has he gone nutty or psycho?” replied one of my friends. “He has always been a psycho, Fatima, nothing new, let us go to him and see why he’s growling in anger”. When we went to meet him, he replied,”I have seen you guys sitting on the laps of boys with my own eyes, and sitting very closely to them, I have seen with my own eyes”. Though school teachers were off from the invigilation duty, and some new invigilators were assigned in the examination halls. What was he talking about? Usually crap stuff and meaningless nonsense, because I never saw him in the college during board papers. Thanks to his Reuter reporters.

At times there were birthday parties and some students used to bring cakes and refreshments, so that we could share the bubbly event together. But this unison was even criticized overdramatically. Some of the CSI agents went to the teacher and told him that I had a severe crush on a class boy, which really infuriated me. I am not a kind of a person who falls in love easily and develop crushes quickly. The people I find with good caliber and etiquettes, become a part of my network. For example I have been a great fan of Vital Signs, if someone asks me about my “Chehra mera tha nigahein uski, Khamoshi mein bhi wo batein uski”msn or facebook status that what kind of a status is it, etc. I will definitely remove him from my network. Since it is a ghazal by Late Parvin Shakir and composed luminously by Vital Signs. It added more traumas when a guy from my class pointed out the same, that I had a crush on him. Anyways it was very difficult to justify that I had very few crushes. I am not blaming the system but the problems and low-rated thinking associated with it.

So these events do not sensationalize or fabricate. They provide a deep insight into what kind of a co-ed college system we were having and what could be the drawbacks. If you seriously want to reform or bring improvement in someone’s behavior, follow Kiran Bedi. The way she has worked hard on serious criminals and transforming them into good human beings is appraising. I would call it a transformational leadership style. This kind of education system certainly doesn’t prepare us for graduate school life, where we work together with boys and even married individuals. I have always worked on different projects with young men and the core focus being an A+ rated project, not love stories. I at times remember working with four young gentlemen on cement sector analysis and was asked to lead them. So should one expect that bizarre co-ed system was of any help?

Besides a love relationship, there can also be some other kind of relationships among folks, which are almost impossible to define. You know very well about your boundaries and limits. But scandalizing a fine set of connections won’t leave you anywhere. You should believe in developing a good network and taking advantage of it. There are other things in life besides crushes and juvenile mediocre-class thinking. A better co-ed system is seriously needed, which polishes your skills and helps you in being a part of the amiable society. ........ Perceptions are good but never be a slave of them. Sadaf Fayyaz same. I remember some painful memories and events regarding my high school days too.

The very first thing was a dim-witted co-education system in an armed forces college. The students came from sundry cultural backgrounds and families. The networking among students proved to be very difficult and power-distant. When you come from different backgrounds and study with people, who are entirely different from you, it is a bit tough for you. But there is always an adjustment.

I remember some prickly episodes of the co-ed system, we were victims of. Our class boys gave some titles (not the vulgar ones,) to all the class girls. The next day, our class teacher, who always showed a weird paranoid attitude, started shouting at us. He said that he highly despised the title giving stuff and networking among the class fellows. “What the hell is that? Are we making love or dramatizing Romeo & Juliet? Pooh”. I thought.

There followed a series of filthy events after this one. Since some teachers’ pets found a golden chance to attract attention of teachers. They lacked personality traits and intellect, so found spying and slandering a better way to be prominent before the instructors. What I thought of it initially, was that no one wanted any one to reform or improve: It was an immense source of fun and entertainment for most of the folks. The investigation and spying performed was somewhat better than CID style. (They should have taken assistance from the high school folks).

One such event that I remember, is of a junior folk’s childish crush on me. I suspected his attitude, but it became apparent when he asked two of my friends to talk to me about it. When they came to me, I straightaway rejected. But the class folks found a nice and sizzling debatable topic. “She doesn’t look 19, she looks of our age”, commented one of the friends. I was very much shocked to hear a remark from a teacher, “I am happy that she has rejected him”, he told one of his special news correspondents on the trip. The grapevine travelled down to me. It was my personal business; no one should have bothered about it. I wasn’t eloping with him like a fugitive. We weren’t running away from our homes. In fact no one was escaping from his/her home or was willing to drink poison.

I remember another event where a close friend of mine was badly alleged of giving heroinic looks to the class boys. “If she doesn’t give looks to boys, should she give them to old 70-year-old men?” I thought seriously. There was another friend of mine who was a tomboy. She was very cute and highly supporting. A teacher developed so much grudge against her that he wasn’t passing her for 33% marks, which was a core requirement for appearing in board. He developed a very reckless impression that she used to bring boys closer to the girls. But she got the highest marks in mathematics, which proved the insane grudge only a myth.

Why This Difference?

Written on 19th Oct, 2009 Personal Diary

By

Sadaf Fayyaz

Yesterday I and mom had a discussion on failure of arranged marriages. I was telling her story of a banker friend of mine who had applied for "khulla" from her womanizer husband at a local court. She sighed and told me the about the pros and cons of arranged marriages, and mother's role in making it a complete failure. We discussed it in deep detail and she mentioned a cousin of her, whose son has been into serious relationships twice, and just because of his mother's haste and greed, he had to break off.

Mom told me that Aunt used to call her for hours and used to discuss about the kind of "bahu" she wanted for her son. "I want a very beautiful, rich and nice-natured girl for my son", she told mom. I remember even my internship days in 2003. I was tired and came back late from my first internship, when mom suddenly told me about aunt that she had come for a "bahu" hunt to Islamabad. "Hey, I want Sadaf and you to come to the house and interview the girl, I think she is a good match for my son". I felt quite bad and odd on questioning that girl of my age, but aunt insisted a lot. I had to interview her formally about her education and interests. Later I came to know that Aunt rejected her.

She kept doing this hunting process and having tea times at different homes in Peshawar. In the early weeks of 2006, she called up mom and told her that she had found a nice girl for her son. The engagement continued for only 6 months. When we asked aunt, she replied,"They were asking for my second son for their second daughter, which I did not want, so broke the engagement". This was only one side of the story, the girl's mother was a Shaheed's wife and she called my mother for about 3 hours and informed her about all the details. "Your cousin was becoming a headache for my daughter. She would tell him all the time that she was ugly, short and dark, even though she selected her for her son. She was demanding high dowry and money as well. I am a widow, my daughters are everything for me and my son is mentally retarded. She made us very insecure and finally broke the relationship".

Anyhow, after some months she initiated the Hunting process again, and found another family for her son. This time "Nikah" was performed and "Rukhsati" was awaited. After only two months, she started ringing up my mom and started speaking ill about the girl. My mom used to at times hang up her calls or did not attend her calls. This time she was like that she would demand very expensive furniture from girl's family. They were a bit poor and couldn’t afford to pay a heavy dowry. In the meantime, aunt’s daughter was also engaged. Whenever we paid them a visit, we found her talking to her fiancé on her cell. My aunt had a lot of objection on her son talking over phone to his wife, but she never objected her daughter’s act, though she was only engaged. Things kept worsening one day we came to know of uncle’s heart attack. We rushed to the Lady Reading Hospital Peshawar and weren’t expecting it at all. We found that aunt had been torturing her husband and forcing her son to divorce the girl, without any reason. Uncle and my cousin didn’t want to break off this relationship. She kept forcing him and that caused him a mild heart attack. We came back and after 3 days, got his demise news. My cousin had too much pressure from aunt and decided to divorce the girl, which his father took to his heart.

Even after his death, people ask my mom that your daughter (me) is 30, why don’t you sisters get your children married? I think after reading the story, everyone must have got a fair idea about my aunt’s cruel and greedy nature, that even took the life of her husband. My cousin has become a psycho now, and hates marriage. He is obedient to his mom but has started hating her now. My point in the story is that the same lady shows a different kind of attitude when it comes to her daughter and his fiancé. We never heard about even a single clash or problem arising from her daughter and her fiancé. But the same woman shows a different kind of attitude when it comes to her son and his fiancée. She acts wisely and allows her daughter to talk to her fiancé all the time on the phone, but has restrictions on her son. She used to listen to her son’s conversation with his fiancé on phone, but never did the same with her daughter. They are allowed to talk and meet openly before everyone. What does this finally depict? Finally they applied for divorce at a court and my cousin is a divorcee now. My aunt has again started looking girls for him.

Graduate Days Spotlight

Written On 22nd October, 2009 Personal Diary

by

Sadaf Fayyaz

I joined Bahria after a hard-hitting approval of migration policies and procedures. Though, red tape mechanism has always devastated many industries, including education. I felt extremely praised after getting admission in MBA. The first day I went to MBA class, I found majority of the boys and only five ladies, which was an outlandish ratio. After the initial introductory sessions, normal lectures commenced. Nanny was the class head and seemed quite a compassionate guy. He was the first to come and ask me if I had any problem, I could promptly go to him without any hesitation. I had a very fastidious intuition of him on the very first day.

Our finance lectures were almost “aspirin oriented” and dreary. Only a couple of students, who were some finance acumen, developed ardent interest in the course. The rest of us used to catnap during the unexciting sessions. Human Resource course was much better and no one got that irked. Ramadan approached and taking classes became quite hard, due to lack of sleep and food. The most horrified course was of accounting, which I was exempted from. I used to take eighty percent of my lectures with MBA associates. Days passed by, and some of us started becoming pretty interfering and over-chirpy with others. I remember one such specific day when I was sitting with the class head on a bench. Ivan was passing by. He made a sick remark,”Aha, at last it is done”. He was spotting Nanny, not me. But I developed a very ghastly notion about him. Who was he to point out? On the very same evening, I received his message, “What comes to your mind when you think of me?” I replied, “An abuse, of course”. He must have felt quite awful, but replied, “Lady, that was a good shot”.

There were some miraculous folks, who were more interested in knowing my age and personifications, though, I never relished their queries. I never cherished their ardent ways and cheeky stuff. Some of them were truly fastidious and obliging. I really liked Nanny’s enchanting sense of humor, which very few individual possess. He was very witty as well. One day, there was a discussion going on marriage, I promptly remarked, “I shall never marry, that’s my final decision.” Nanny ejaculated swiftly,”You will not marry or no one will marry you?” Everyone started laughing and I was speechless. Our mid terms approached and I started having some stomach problem one day before Organizational Behavior paper. I prepared it well, but next day I started vomiting and having agonizing joint cramps. My blood pressure dropped drastically, which made me dreadfully lethargic. Mom was quite vexed as I wasn’t in a condition to appear in the paper. She took up my cell and found a class fellow’s number in it. She called and told him about my condition. (This she told me when I woke up in the evening.) Somehow, my paper was arranged and I had to appear again.

Then a spiteful presentation era instigated, with everyone being malicious and inimitable about his/her own projects. The presentation details I won’t be mentioning here. We had a trip to Murree and PC Bhurbin. One night before, my newly-married cousin came with her family and in-laws and there was a dinner at our place. I came much drained from university and extremely fatigued. Mom told me about 6 pm that she had arranged a nice dinner for her niece. What the hell? She hadn’t done any cooking at all and asked me to cook. I managed to make only five dishes, as I was totally worn-out. The guests came around 8.30 and left around 2 am. I was so tired that couldn’t sleep for the whole night. Next day, I had to wake up early for our trip. We went in a group and enjoyed a lot at Murree. All the way in the bus, we kept buzzing Bollywood new arrivals. No doubt, we had grand fun together. There wasn’t any food till 4 pm and I started having hunger cramps. We held singing competitions that made our voice hoarse. We held picture sessions and started at around 6pm. I came home and went to sleep early.

Ivan had captured some trip moments, which he was quite eager to show us. Upon my entering the café, he screamed, “Hey has the hospital authority discharged you? You looked very exhausted in the pictures.” I felt like smacking him, but after looking at the pictures, felt that he was incredibly right. I was really looking like a patient, with weary eyes, insomniac looks and dark circles around eyes.
Though, things started becoming exceedingly political and malicious, towards the end of the semester, where every group had its own axe to grind. Such idiotic things even bothered me a lot. But still I enjoyed the beginning days at Bahria.
We only remember the events that are extremely joyful or tremendously agonized, and forget the rest......Sadaf Fayyaz