Nuwan Online - Nuwan Weerasinghe’s Web Log

I arrived in Atlanta after almost a 36 hour flight on the night of the 5th January. A flew ro Doha Qatar in the midle east where i spent the night in a transfer hotel and embarked on the Qatar Airways flight to New York. It was quite an experience flying into New York JFK airport. It was a 13.30 hr flight which i felt like never ending. From New York it was the third leg of trip to Atlanta on a Delta Air Lines flight which took around 2.30 hrs i guess. I did’nt notice anything during that flight since i was dozing all through the flight.

I walked into an uncharacteristically cold Atlanta. It was a full Winter here. Temperatures plunged into -8 or -9 in my first week. I had all the winter clothes with me, but the first ever experience of snow was amazing. I just loved the sight of small snow flakes comming down from the heavens.

Where i stay is about 40 minutes away from Atlanta city an area called Duluth. From here its about 10 kilometers to the Office of my Client. (Americans use miles for distance which i’m not very familiar with) I quickly got upto speed with driving in America. Its all about driving on the other side of the road. It takes a little bit of time to get used to it, specially on a junction, it really gets tricky. But apart from that you have to be careful about speed limits. Most of the roads around here allows speeds between 35 - 45mph. But a high way (400) Close by allows higher speeds.

There are many places to eat here. Had the opportunity to try Mexican and some Italian as well. The temperatures are getting better now. Probably by the time i leave (26th January) it should be quite normal here. But i’m ever glad that i walked into a winter and had the opportunity to experiece it.

Visited a large Wal Mart and a Barnes and Nonle book store last Saturday.

It would have been the perfect year in every sense. Then again what is perfection? 2009 promised a lot. There were victories as well as failures. 2009 is so far the most decisive year i have spent. Changed so many things forever.

Its just last friday that i was able to finish my first semester exams at PIM. I dont think it was a bad attempt. I’m just focussing on not repeating the mistakes and learning from them. Luckily my other group mates are like minded. So far i should say i really enjoyed every bit of my work at PIM. I know that it will test me and i like that.

Next semester starts from next Monday, but i will miss the early lessons due to my first ever visit to US. I will be going into a severe winter in the US and looking forward for that experience as well. All in all life just keeps rolling…

Its been exactly a year. I would’nt forget! It was indeed a bright sunny day. So much to be decided, so much of expectations. But not knowing that it will only last another 4 months . Now everything is at a standstill. Time passes by, which i hardly notice. Days go by.

I have revisited that distant day, over and over again to tell me that it was not a dream. But its not a reality either. 20th March, 15 April, 3rd September all these were cherished in my best spirit.

Will never see days like those again.

Its you or never!

I will be starting my first semester at PIM today. The next two years are going to keep me extremely busy. Balancing work and studies is quite a challenge. Specially when considering all the assignments, group activities, presentations and exams. Also to constantly keep a GPA 4 would mean you need to put everything into it. But then, that is exactly what management is all about.

Jeff Immelt the CEO of GE has once said that it was his business school (Harvard) which made him realise that there are 24 hours per day and that he could use all of that. I have already cut down my sleep to less than 6 hours except on Sundays. So I’m using atleast 18 hours so far.

 I’m sure i will find new capacity and hunger in me which was never explored before. Bon Voyage!

‘In seven days, God created the world. And in seven seconds, I shattered mine.’

Watched this movie just 3 days back. Well!! its pretty interesting to know how the audience would react to this movie. Because i believe that the response of Ben Thomas is pretty different to many real life responses from many of us in a similar situation.  Obviously we would feel guilty as he feels, but what he did to overcome that guilt of that fatal accident is extraordinary. He goes to such lengths to confirm himself that all those people deserve what they are about to get….

Will Smith is amazing, remarkable and great. I guess this should be a serious contendor for Academy awards… Sometimes you are so emotionally attached with a movie and this is certainly one such movie.

And finally… Rosario Dawson is stunning.

This movie is a treat!

I have been marveled on many occasions on the things which we mankind was able to create. It is indeed fascinating to think what humans created from our pre historic stages. We have the 7 wonders which were all manmade. Then so many modern scientific inventions are quite outstanding.

But it is the Mother Nature who is the undisputed creator of all marvels.

Just over a week back, I had the opportunity to visit a friend at hospital who had just given birth to her second child who was a baby girl. She was barely 24hrs old when I saw her and that was the very first time in my life that I ever saw an infant ‘that young’. I just got lost for a couple of minutes in front of that baby. Rosy cheeks, tiny little fingers, silky hair. It was such a wonderful little thing. Actually you can just forget all your worries for a moment and only think of how cute she is.

I don’t know what is going through the happy parent’s minds. But I can guarantee that it’s BLISS!

I got selected to the 2010/11 MBA program conducted by the Postgraduate Institute of Management (PIM) in Sri Lanka which is affiliated to the University of Sri Jayewardenapura.

PIM is widely respected to be the leading Business School in Sri Lanka and indeed it is a happy moment in my life. The selection process for this MBA is probably the most competitive in Sri Lanka.

Every year thousands apply for this most prestigious MBA conducted by the PIM. It is a collection of Executive experience, Academic excellence, selection test and finally an Interview with some veteran academics and industry resource personal which earns you admission to this prestigious MBA program.

I know how hard I worked towards getting selected to this program. Week days I come home after work, take a one hour break and work till midnight preparing for GMAT. Each of those days, I slept less than 6 hours a day. On weekends I worked equally hard. I wrote almost 15-20 practice essays. I prepared hard for the final interview. But I was never sure of my achievement because I jolly well knew the competition I had, in getting selected to one of the best and most competitive programs in this country.

Now that i got selected, I know that the tough part lies ahead of me in the next two years. But I look forward to enjoying this phase of my life and i know the path to success.

Hard work and Perseverance in the face of adversity. There are no shortcuts.

Acres of Diamonds is written by Russell Conwell. This is actually a speech which he has given in the early part of the 20th century. He has given this speech over 5000 times. The book is all about inspiration. The book explains how we overlook riches in our own backyards while we wonder around.

Its quite interesting to see how such a relevant topic to modern days was discussed so vividly almost a century ago. You can easily find the book free on the internet.

There were quite a few movies i watched during my eventless weekends and thought of writing something about those.

Chariots of Fire

A true story about two athletes. Its amazing what drives people. One athlete was driven by a passion for glory. He wanted to win and victory only could make him happy. The other one was driven by God. He belives and becomes more close to god by running and that running is like fulfilling a duty. Driven by these different recents, these two champions run and they become victorious.

As correctly mentioned in one of imdb comments ‘A battle beween the forces of the physical and spiritual’

Munich

If you are a fan of Eric Bana (I am) this is one of his memorable performances. I have always been a history junky and this was an important story cos i have known the Munich Olympics disaster.  I was just thinking the similarities when the LTTE gun runner ‘KP’ was nabbed by Our Intelligence people in Malaysia. Luckily they did’nt kill him like what Avner (Eric Bana) did in Munich.

Again, a thriller!

Nights In Rodanthe

This is based on a book by the same author who wrote  ‘The Notebook’. Again a story of middle age romance. But not as powerful to me as of ‘Brdges of madison County’, but a good enough one to spend some lonely time. A sand ending unlike ‘The NoteBook’.

The Shawshank Redemption - Fear can hold you prisoner, hope can set you free….

You should never loose hope. Even if it takes 20 years to dig a tunnel to freedom. A truly inspiring story of a prison break who was wrongly convicted and put into prison. Its a love between two great friends. Something which we not oftenly could see.

This is a must watch….

I had to go through some secondary school stuff like Geometry, Algebra, English Essays, English Grammer and Comprehension over the last three weeks as part of a selection examination for graduate studies. So every evening i go home take a one hour break and plunge into my laptop and start reading the GMAT (ebook) till midnight. I could manage the english, but the maths was funny. Also learning how to write GMAT style essays was some new experince.

So that the selection exam was done on this sunday, i now have to wait and see (and pray) that i have done enough to get selected for the interviewing. From what i learned, around 850 candidates sat with me for the written exam and i guess only half of that would be selected for the inteviews. From the interviews they will select the last 150 or so who can join the 2010-11 graduate program.

Its soooo competitive….