Many people asked me in past one year about how and why I selected "University of Hong Kong"as my next destination.
During my tenure at TCS (Tata Consultancy Services Ltd.) the work had become somewhat monotonous after 3 long years in the same project. And what better than a Master degree would be a perfect remedy for that? :) So, one fine day I just thought ..OK Boss!!! thats done for me. I have done the best what I could with the job. May be no more challenges left for me in that particular project (and then changed personnel at project did not go well with my style of working.. Read my previous blogposts to get more inside on that). You can say the feeling of saturation was mainly forced me to just check on other options available.
Then I started researching on Internet. US was never an option because I never wanted to get a 2-Year degree because 2-Years is a too lengthy break in the career. May be if I was going for Masters directly after my Undergrad then I would have given a thought about it. And then fact of the matter is getting into Big Names like Harvard, Standford, MIT with the profile and background that I have is very difficult if not impossible. I am quite practical about that and know where I stand with my CV and academics. But the 2 years duration was the major turn off.
Then Next options were either UK, Australia, Singapore or Hong Kong. UK Universities were not offering any financial aid due to global turmoil and then without an aid UK is quite a costly proposition. So among Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong. I had applied to 2 Australian Universities and then HKU (Because it was ranked no.1 Asian University and also world rank was No.25 by THS-QS rankings in 2009). I got an admit from Australian Universities but then situation in Australia was not quite good for Indian Students that year (With attacks on Indian Students making headlines and breaking news almost every day). So more than me, my family was too reluctant to let me go for Australian University (UNSW, Melbourne Univ). So I decided to go for HKU (University of Hong Kong). Anyways I had already confirmed it as it was the highest ranked university from which I got an admit.
# On Ranking: I read on the internet during the time I was preparing a list of probable universities. And even now you can read at many places that Ranking is not that important in the selection process. But I think Ranking certainly playes a big role in selection. As Humans we select even a smallest thing by looking at its merit and brand value then why universities should be exception to that.
Though I agree that Ranking should not be the only criteria but it should be one of the criteria for sure. You dont want to land up in some Tier 3 or Tier 2 US University just for the sake of saving some money or say a compromise. If you don't select a reputed one it may actually spoil your CV.
And if you dont think Ranking is that important to you then you are free to do it in any shady deemed university in India. Why to waste so much of money and then go to US for post-grad with some unheard university which boasts that it has ranked in top 10 university of that particular state ? Obviously any university wants to put up a good image in front of prospective students and no one will say that we are worst so please dont come to us. So you need some benchmarking to filter out those shady ones.
Over the past one year or so, My experience with HKU has been nothing less the spectacular !!Truely a world class university. Good infrastructure and nice faculty. Also given me value for money I spent. Perfect blend of University that I was looking for, Economizing my adventure yet retaining the value associated with it!
The care, the quality of education what I got here was truely amazing (And much above my expectation). I would like to say only one thing about the whole experience "If you do not have a pre-occupied mindset about something you can always get more out of the opportunity, Just try to grab it with both hands without any second thoughts."
Before I came here people told me various things about Hong Kong and life at HK.
Some positives and almost 80% Negative. But now after 1 year I dont have any negative thing to share with you about Hong Kong. Splendid atmosphere, Friendly people and well managed city .. thats my impression of Hong Kong. The people around me at the university always took care of me and made me realize time and again that I am a part of big HKU family.
Actually for Negative talks I would just like to point it simple thing " You get what you deserve". So if you are kind, polite and respectful most of the time you get the same treatment from the other side and it applies anywhere in planet earth.
Now after some days, when I will return back to India.. I have a whole lot of Nice Memories about HKU and Hong Kong to share with my friends and family.
# About Course Cost: Most Important part.. All of you must be waiting fot this part..
Monney is honey :) If you try to control your budget well within the limit. and if you are not a late night party buff and have no addiction of Sutta n Bottle..
You can wind it up nicely with pretty good living standards for about 800,000 - 900,000 INR per year. That includes some small recreational activities like roaming around, visiting disney and ocean park etc., some parties.. But then it depends totally upon the person how he controls his budget..
# About counsellors : I have a very little experience with them. Basically if you have ample of money and lack of brain you can certainly hire one. I dont know if student going to some top universities cannot take their decisions on their own then whats the use of their wisdom ? Even the counsellors never visit the university they list in front of you. They just are smart enough to take out all related data from Internet and put it in a very polished format to impress their client. So be smart , search yourself, Ask your seniors who are already there.. that is the way to go.. No need of splashing out money on Middlemen !!!
So if you planning to look for HKU.. You can certainly look forward to have a nice , exciting experience for next one year.
(P.S: I am not endorsing any one here nor I have been paid to write this. Just sharing my honest view point with you. So the people who are willing to join HKU may get some Idea about the environment and education @ HKU)
## New Addition ##
About University Health Services... University provide very well maintained and efficient health services which are covered under your student insurance. And for some more expensive treatments very minimal amount is charges ( Around 10-20% of the standard rate in private clinic in the city). Doctors and medical staff is friendly and really took care of me when I had some dental and allergy issues last time :)
Take care.. Love you all..
I found many of you visit the blog for information about HKU. If you have any querries or want some more information, please leave me a comment. I will be more than happy to help you out.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Proof Reading and Editing Posts..
Hmm.. Nothing but just a random thought.. I was just going through my posts and I always find some mistakes or you can say not properly structured sentences in my posts.
That always happens with me because I cant put on the paper my thoughts with the same speed as they come to my mind. Too Many thoughts and then I simply become eager to put them onto blog at once.
The other reason mainly lies in my background. I do not come from Native English country. And I try to think in English but I guess I lack that cutting edge..
I hate proof reading somehow. I always think that let me post it first and then I will correct the post sometime later. (Hmm.. Soundin a bit lazy! )
Anyways now its not possible to correct all the posts.. Some of them I tried to correct. But then I am not so keen on checking out old stuff and making corrections in it.My Mind always wants to do something new..
Anyways I don't even know whether I should post this one or not..
May be you can treat it ...Just a Random thought in Mind :)
That always happens with me because I cant put on the paper my thoughts with the same speed as they come to my mind. Too Many thoughts and then I simply become eager to put them onto blog at once.
The other reason mainly lies in my background. I do not come from Native English country. And I try to think in English but I guess I lack that cutting edge..
I hate proof reading somehow. I always think that let me post it first and then I will correct the post sometime later. (Hmm.. Soundin a bit lazy! )
Anyways now its not possible to correct all the posts.. Some of them I tried to correct. But then I am not so keen on checking out old stuff and making corrections in it.My Mind always wants to do something new..
Anyways I don't even know whether I should post this one or not..
May be you can treat it ...Just a Random thought in Mind :)
Sunday, May 16, 2010
José Mourinho : My Inspiration
Not a bad topic to start blogging this year !! Jose Mourinho, many of you always ask me about this guy and why I always praise him so much (Mainly those of you not quite interested in football or soccer). But anybody who knows about football, must know the MAN and his heroics on and off the field. For some time now he is hailed as one of the best managers in the game of his generation. Actually He is the BEST which the game has seen over some time :)
Full name: José Mário dos Santos Félix Mourinho
Date of birth: 26 January 1963 (1963-01-26) (age 47)
Place of birth: Setúbal, Portugal
I could always draw some parallels from his life to my life, through all the years I am following his success story. (From the Birthday to his thoughts, his way of going about the things)
Jose, was never a great football player during his 20s. May be pressure was too much for him in his early days to prove himself, that was mainly because his father was great goalkeeper who played for the Portugal National Team and he came from a respectable setubal family to step into his father's foot steps. But it was never meant for him. Struggling career as a player halted by several injury problems.
But then he never lost his hope and went to university of coimbra to polish his academics in the field of sports management and fitness. After that he joined Barcelona as a Translator to Sir Bobby Robson and then stayed there for some time.
But still he did not get the break he always wanted to !! (Or may be at that time he never dreamt of)
Then came some small but impressive stincts in Portugal. And one fine day, he was chosen as the Manager of Porto (The most famous Portuguese club in recent years).
He started winning everything that came in his path. I still remember watching that match on TV from Old Trafford, Manchester. Final Minute equalizer from Jorge Costinha.. What an upset!!! Jose was on the planet nine :)
From that moment, he never looked back. Joined Chelsea to win first premiership title with them after 50 long years of unsuccessful run in his first year as a Manager. Some of the folks attribute this to the money of Roman Abrahamovic. But money can't buy you success , this is quite evident how Manchester City fared despite sheikh pouring down his oil riches in the club !!
For me it was simply Jose's Masterclass that prevailed in the end.. His tactics were out of this world. No one have seen such technical prowess till that moment of time.
Sir Alex team's were full of flair but they can be very unpredictable at times. Especially they were too much depended on Flair and Individual brilliances of the likes of Cantona,Beckham,C.Ronaldo and now Rooney.. You don't relate them with team spirit and controlled performances!! Sir Alex is one of the best in the game but even his teams are not as well coached as Jose's bunch. They say that Players are willing to run into brickwalls if Jose's set them to do so !! Such is the greatness of the man and his players always rely on him for that spark of inspiration..
He also has fan support behind him wherever he goes. He is a Master of Man Management.
Now he is at Inter and again basking in glory of success. This year he will be gunning for an unprecedented Treble for Inter !! Wish him all the good luck.
He has already won a double while I am preparing this blog..
He is the MAN in the game. Its all about winning. If you are playing within the rules set by FIFA and geting the results , no one should complain about the style.
His teams go their to WIN the prize and not to play some Idiotic attacking football when there is no need. The great Barca was made padestrian many times by an outfit coached by Jose. Even their demi GOD Messi could not found the way out of Jose's Maze.. That speaks a million words about the man he is..
Jose is never afraid of speaking , whats on his mind. Sometimes people like it and sometimes people don't. But it is not always easy as it looks. If you fail to achieve success , speaking your mind out can have disasterous effects. But then People who dream big can only achieve big. If you always live in cagey world you will never know what is freedom, isn't it? Higher the Risk, Bigger is the reward..
Thats the principle of life !! Take your life by the scruff of the neck and don't let the life and situation dictate it.. You put your foot forward before someone else does that. Jose is all about controlled aggression and positiveness.
His famous quote which I love so much "Please don't call me arrogant, but I'm champion and I think I'm the special one !!"
Jose always inspires me.. It is not at all wrong calling yourself "The Best" when you can see the mediocracy around you. There is nothing shameful about it. It increases the stakes against you but then when you are confident of achieving success then why bother fools barking around!! The taste of such success is always better and ever satisfying. (Its like while playing cricket saying the bowler that I can hit you 6 fours in the over and then executing your plan with finesse). Some of you might call it over confidence but I call it calculated risk. After a thoughtful assessment of the situation you can make certain comments and with confidence in your abilities and knowing your limitations you can achieve success. So whats the point in holding back yourself !! Its not about arrogance, its about asserting yourself :)
Jose Mourinho Is God !! You cant beat Barcelona 3-1 at San Siro by playing so called "Anti-Football". It is called strategy and tactics. Barcelona should hide their face having riches of Messi and youngsters at their disposal and still could not break ageing defence of Inter.. Salute the Coach !! And if there are people who dont want to see the "Brand of football" they had seen at Nou Camp, there are people like me who simply love that kind of football.. It all in the mind n you need master tactician for it.It was wonderful to see the dedication and application of 10-man Inter at Nou Camp to pull the awesome victory over Barca in two legs. What a perfect implimentation of boardroom plans.
One more thing that I can relate with Jose is our Mercurial Nature and Big Mouth attitude. But its a part of mind game. I know we increase the stakes when we comment on something.But the success is even bigger when you achieve what you have said.
"Higher the risk ,higher the benefits !! "
People who follow him love him to the core.. People who hate him do that to the core.
But he will always remain "THE SPECIAL ONE".
THE SPECIAL ONE's Achievements:
Managerial honours
Portugal Porto (2002-2004)
* Portuguese Liga (2): 2002/03, 2003/04
* Portuguese Cup (1): 2002/03
* Portuguese SuperCup (1): 2003
* UEFA Cup (1): 2002/03
* UEFA Champions League (1): 2003/04
England Chelsea (2004-2007)
* FA Premier League (2): 2004/05, 2005/06
* FA Cup (1): 2006/07
* League Cup (2): 2004/05, 2006/07
* FA Community Shield (1): 2005
Italy Internazionale (2008-)
* Serie A (2): 2008/09, 2009/10
* Coppa Italia (1): 2009/10
* Supercoppa Italiana (1): 2008
Individual honours
* UEFA Manager of the Year (1): 2003
* UEFA Champions League Manager of the Year (2): 2002–03, 2003–04
* UEFA Team of the Year Coach of the Year (3): 2003, 2004, 2005
* Onze d'Or European Coach (1): 2005
* IFFHS World Manager of the Year (2): 2004, 2005
* World Soccer Magazine Coach of the Year (2): 2004, 2005
* BBC Sports Personality of Year Coach Award (1): 2005
* Premier League Manager of the Year (2): 2004–05, 2005–06
* Premier League Manager of the Month (3): November 2004, January 2005,
March 2007
* Serie A Manager of the Year (1): 2009
* International Sports Press Association Best Manager in the World (1): 2010
Special Awards
* honoris causa - degree by the Technical University of Lisbon for his
accomplishments in football
Courtsey: Wikipedia.org
Salute to THE SPECIAL ONE !!
( P.S : Hire him as a coach of Indian Cricket Team..Bet he can do Magic!!)
Full name: José Mário dos Santos Félix Mourinho
Date of birth: 26 January 1963 (1963-01-26) (age 47)
Place of birth: Setúbal, Portugal
I could always draw some parallels from his life to my life, through all the years I am following his success story. (From the Birthday to his thoughts, his way of going about the things)
Jose, was never a great football player during his 20s. May be pressure was too much for him in his early days to prove himself, that was mainly because his father was great goalkeeper who played for the Portugal National Team and he came from a respectable setubal family to step into his father's foot steps. But it was never meant for him. Struggling career as a player halted by several injury problems.
But then he never lost his hope and went to university of coimbra to polish his academics in the field of sports management and fitness. After that he joined Barcelona as a Translator to Sir Bobby Robson and then stayed there for some time.
But still he did not get the break he always wanted to !! (Or may be at that time he never dreamt of)
Then came some small but impressive stincts in Portugal. And one fine day, he was chosen as the Manager of Porto (The most famous Portuguese club in recent years).
He started winning everything that came in his path. I still remember watching that match on TV from Old Trafford, Manchester. Final Minute equalizer from Jorge Costinha.. What an upset!!! Jose was on the planet nine :)
From that moment, he never looked back. Joined Chelsea to win first premiership title with them after 50 long years of unsuccessful run in his first year as a Manager. Some of the folks attribute this to the money of Roman Abrahamovic. But money can't buy you success , this is quite evident how Manchester City fared despite sheikh pouring down his oil riches in the club !!
For me it was simply Jose's Masterclass that prevailed in the end.. His tactics were out of this world. No one have seen such technical prowess till that moment of time.
Sir Alex team's were full of flair but they can be very unpredictable at times. Especially they were too much depended on Flair and Individual brilliances of the likes of Cantona,Beckham,C.Ronaldo and now Rooney.. You don't relate them with team spirit and controlled performances!! Sir Alex is one of the best in the game but even his teams are not as well coached as Jose's bunch. They say that Players are willing to run into brickwalls if Jose's set them to do so !! Such is the greatness of the man and his players always rely on him for that spark of inspiration..
He also has fan support behind him wherever he goes. He is a Master of Man Management.
Now he is at Inter and again basking in glory of success. This year he will be gunning for an unprecedented Treble for Inter !! Wish him all the good luck.
He has already won a double while I am preparing this blog..
He is the MAN in the game. Its all about winning. If you are playing within the rules set by FIFA and geting the results , no one should complain about the style.
His teams go their to WIN the prize and not to play some Idiotic attacking football when there is no need. The great Barca was made padestrian many times by an outfit coached by Jose. Even their demi GOD Messi could not found the way out of Jose's Maze.. That speaks a million words about the man he is..
Jose is never afraid of speaking , whats on his mind. Sometimes people like it and sometimes people don't. But it is not always easy as it looks. If you fail to achieve success , speaking your mind out can have disasterous effects. But then People who dream big can only achieve big. If you always live in cagey world you will never know what is freedom, isn't it? Higher the Risk, Bigger is the reward..
Thats the principle of life !! Take your life by the scruff of the neck and don't let the life and situation dictate it.. You put your foot forward before someone else does that. Jose is all about controlled aggression and positiveness.
His famous quote which I love so much "Please don't call me arrogant, but I'm champion and I think I'm the special one !!"
Jose always inspires me.. It is not at all wrong calling yourself "The Best" when you can see the mediocracy around you. There is nothing shameful about it. It increases the stakes against you but then when you are confident of achieving success then why bother fools barking around!! The taste of such success is always better and ever satisfying. (Its like while playing cricket saying the bowler that I can hit you 6 fours in the over and then executing your plan with finesse). Some of you might call it over confidence but I call it calculated risk. After a thoughtful assessment of the situation you can make certain comments and with confidence in your abilities and knowing your limitations you can achieve success. So whats the point in holding back yourself !! Its not about arrogance, its about asserting yourself :)
Jose Mourinho Is God !! You cant beat Barcelona 3-1 at San Siro by playing so called "Anti-Football". It is called strategy and tactics. Barcelona should hide their face having riches of Messi and youngsters at their disposal and still could not break ageing defence of Inter.. Salute the Coach !! And if there are people who dont want to see the "Brand of football" they had seen at Nou Camp, there are people like me who simply love that kind of football.. It all in the mind n you need master tactician for it.It was wonderful to see the dedication and application of 10-man Inter at Nou Camp to pull the awesome victory over Barca in two legs. What a perfect implimentation of boardroom plans.
One more thing that I can relate with Jose is our Mercurial Nature and Big Mouth attitude. But its a part of mind game. I know we increase the stakes when we comment on something.But the success is even bigger when you achieve what you have said.
"Higher the risk ,higher the benefits !! "
People who follow him love him to the core.. People who hate him do that to the core.
But he will always remain "THE SPECIAL ONE".
THE SPECIAL ONE's Achievements:
Managerial honours
Portugal Porto (2002-2004)
* Portuguese Liga (2): 2002/03, 2003/04
* Portuguese Cup (1): 2002/03
* Portuguese SuperCup (1): 2003
* UEFA Cup (1): 2002/03
* UEFA Champions League (1): 2003/04
England Chelsea (2004-2007)
* FA Premier League (2): 2004/05, 2005/06
* FA Cup (1): 2006/07
* League Cup (2): 2004/05, 2006/07
* FA Community Shield (1): 2005
Italy Internazionale (2008-)
* Serie A (2): 2008/09, 2009/10
* Coppa Italia (1): 2009/10
* Supercoppa Italiana (1): 2008
Individual honours
* UEFA Manager of the Year (1): 2003
* UEFA Champions League Manager of the Year (2): 2002–03, 2003–04
* UEFA Team of the Year Coach of the Year (3): 2003, 2004, 2005
* Onze d'Or European Coach (1): 2005
* IFFHS World Manager of the Year (2): 2004, 2005
* World Soccer Magazine Coach of the Year (2): 2004, 2005
* BBC Sports Personality of Year Coach Award (1): 2005
* Premier League Manager of the Year (2): 2004–05, 2005–06
* Premier League Manager of the Month (3): November 2004, January 2005,
March 2007
* Serie A Manager of the Year (1): 2009
* International Sports Press Association Best Manager in the World (1): 2010
Special Awards
* honoris causa - degree by the Technical University of Lisbon for his
accomplishments in football
Courtsey: Wikipedia.org
Salute to THE SPECIAL ONE !!
( P.S : Hire him as a coach of Indian Cricket Team..Bet he can do Magic!!)
Hiee Again..
Hi to all. I am back as I promised to everyone after a somewhat splash and dash finish in my last semester at HKU. Offcourse waiting eagerly for the results now :) Hoping for the best.
During past 6 months (Oh I have just realised that it is a first blog from in the year 2010) I thought about various topics, too many thoughts as always came to mind. But then I did not have enough time to put those into a nice blogpost. (You can always point out the time I wasted playing Mafia wars on facebook :) ) Okiez.. But then I had my laptop crashing down out of no where in leaving me helpless and then studies and other activities always kept me somewhat away from blogging..
Anyways now I am back. So you all can expect some good topics in coming days at this space.
During these 5 Months (January to May 2010) I learnt lot of new things. Learning to code on MATLAB was one of the major achievement. As an engineer I was always aware of MATLAB codes but never used it as such a powerful tool during my B.E. days. It was all about copying from some well maintained programs from the lab and doing it. Oh you cant blame me for that! There were only 5 PCs with MATLAB in my college and even my professors from Undergrad program were not that well versed with MATLAB.
But here at HKU, I learnt MATLAB from a whole new perspective. Again I realised the importance of "SELF-LEARNING". Learning should always be done by yourself and teachers, friends or seniors should only guide you and not spoon feed you. Because when you learn from self experimentation on a particular software or tool or for that matter any subject, you always learn it with all tricks and trades. You get to know the things quite well and be at ease with that at your own comfort.
Other than that nothing much. Lifes pretty cool out here. I changed my hairstyle (or should I say I was forced to ) lot of times during the year. Naah. Dont worry I know its not "Saurabh's Fashion Saloon" blog and I am not putting up all those pics here (like Before and After)..
I guess thats all for now. Keep visiting my blog !! I will come up with some new and nice posts :) in coming days :) Love you all.. take care
During past 6 months (Oh I have just realised that it is a first blog from in the year 2010) I thought about various topics, too many thoughts as always came to mind. But then I did not have enough time to put those into a nice blogpost. (You can always point out the time I wasted playing Mafia wars on facebook :) ) Okiez.. But then I had my laptop crashing down out of no where in leaving me helpless and then studies and other activities always kept me somewhat away from blogging..
Anyways now I am back. So you all can expect some good topics in coming days at this space.
During these 5 Months (January to May 2010) I learnt lot of new things. Learning to code on MATLAB was one of the major achievement. As an engineer I was always aware of MATLAB codes but never used it as such a powerful tool during my B.E. days. It was all about copying from some well maintained programs from the lab and doing it. Oh you cant blame me for that! There were only 5 PCs with MATLAB in my college and even my professors from Undergrad program were not that well versed with MATLAB.
But here at HKU, I learnt MATLAB from a whole new perspective. Again I realised the importance of "SELF-LEARNING". Learning should always be done by yourself and teachers, friends or seniors should only guide you and not spoon feed you. Because when you learn from self experimentation on a particular software or tool or for that matter any subject, you always learn it with all tricks and trades. You get to know the things quite well and be at ease with that at your own comfort.
Other than that nothing much. Lifes pretty cool out here. I changed my hairstyle (or should I say I was forced to ) lot of times during the year. Naah. Dont worry I know its not "Saurabh's Fashion Saloon" blog and I am not putting up all those pics here (like Before and After)..
I guess thats all for now. Keep visiting my blog !! I will come up with some new and nice posts :) in coming days :) Love you all.. take care
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