Blog #6 - Final Reflection

Finally the end of a semester and although I've spent only a year here, ES2007S has been the most interesting module I've had and also very useful. Being the youngest one in the class, I thought initially I should have taken something else and saved this for my final few years. But I've learned so much over the past 4 months and even though it's been a lot of work, I now have a long time to improve on my communicating skills and when I finally graduate all that I have learned from this module will be of great use.

This module I know will be benefit in the long run but I'm not going to be facing any interviews any time soon, I do not need a good resume now I still believe me perform better here. At the start my english was good, better than most Indians but I've always had a problem when it comes to writing. I'm used to writing using the simplest language possible and in school it was fine but in college it clearly is not enough. This module has really helped me realize how far behind my writing standard is compared to others, especially during the proposal. Now usually that would make me upset but I can now look on the bright side, I've discovered my weakness very early on and have enough time to take up courses and work on it. I really have ES2007S to thank for that.

Also I really have to give a shout out to Brad, he is so far the best teacher I've had. Never had a subject, which if not done just right can be incredibly boring been so interesting and I am so glad I've had him as a teacher.

I'm only finishing my first year so I obviously have a lot to learn but in these past 4 months I have learned so much, not just from Brad or the course itself but also everyone in class. I've identified my strengths and weaknesses and I now know what I have to work on and in 3 years time, when I graduate if I land a great graduate school, I;m sure I'll have ES2007S to thank.

Blog #5 - Reflections on the oral presentation

Well the past few weeks have sure been fun. This is only my second semester here at NUS and so I've never had to do a presentation so formal before and we've never had to do any presentations at school, so this entire process was new to me. The past few weeks have been quite hard getting to know the process and getting used to the standard of the work. The standard of these presentations when I look back on it is way more than I could have managed individually with my lack of experience and I feel so grateful that I was a part of a group, they made the presentation better than I could have ever imagined it.

Somehow I've never really been nervous about public-speaking, in fact I even enjoy it. So I was looking forward to this presentation and till the moment I had to go speak I was happy and then I got up and I started panicking. I think eventually I managed to calm down and give a decent presentation (considering it was my first try). I could have slowed down a lot though, by the end of it I felt like I had talked continuously for 5 minutes without a single breath and I could have prepared a bit more. But overall I felt the presentation was a success. Of course the only problem was the $15,000,000 question for which I shall blame the faulty source.

I must say I owe a lot to my group mates, I've never done this before and took a long time to get used it and they put up with it and I've learned a lot from them. Overall it has been an incredible experience and I'm sure it will help me in all the presentations I have to do in the future.

Blog #4 - Intercultural Conflict - Stereotypes

Coming from India, difference in cultures, religion, language etc. is nothing new to me. There have been many conflicts, not just arguments but even violent fights due to these differences. I feel most conflicts arise due to stereotypes. There is one particular stereotype that particular bothers me as It also affects me personally. The conflicts between north Indians and south Indians seem never endings and seem to have no merit at all and yet there always seems to be some problem.

Growing up in the south, the usual opinion of north Indians in my city was not very good. We always thought they were stuck up, fancy and not as down to earth as we south Indians and we did often mock their language. Likewise I know  many north Indians consider south Indians to be nerds without a life outside of work, outcasts in a way as we are the only state were hindi is completely useless (It’s the national language) and also they seem to think we south Indians have a strange mentality which I cannot seem to explain being south Indian myself.

But it never seemed to be a problem till I got to college. In school we were majority south Indians but in college it is a mixture and the differences are very clear. We south Indians cannot talk to the north Indians much because were the only people who never cared about hindi much to learn the language and this seems to be something the north Indians pick on. We speak tamil and I have even heard people say “Chennai vs the rest of India” which I feel is a bit unfair. Many people in many states do not speak hindi but we get picked on and about us being nerds I feel that is completely not true because we do have a life outside studies and work, we do know how to have fun. I have many friends in other colleges where the hindi speaking population are the majority and they always complain about how the northies (as we call them) complain about us tamilians, our food, city, language, attitude just to name a few.

Of course I can’t blame the northies completely, we had our opinions on them too and I have met many north Indians who aren’t anything like what we imagined them to be. In fact some of my best friends now are north Indians. But I guess some stereotypes never die and these will cause many more intercultural conflicts in the years to come.

Blog #3 - 1st and 2nd drafts of my cover letter.

First Draft:

Mr Mahesh Gupta

HR Manager, Gammon India.

Gammon House ,Veer Savarkar Marg,

Prabhadevi, Mumbai - 400 025,

+91 99657 87654

Dear Mr Gupta,

I am a student from National University of Singapore, currently in my first year. I am majoring in Civil Engineering. I wish to apply for an internship in the materials department of Gammon India.

I have excelled in my academics both in college and school and have participated in many extra-curricular activities. I have helped organize many successful events. I am a very hard worker and I am willing to spend long hours working. I can handle high pressure jobs and can work both in a group and individually. I hope to learn more from this experience and grow as an engineer.

My resume has been enclosed. I will follow up next Monday by calling you at your office. If you have any queries you can e-mail me at uk_1707@hotmail.com. Thank you very much for your consideration and time.

Yours Sincerely,

Uttara Koundinya.

Enclosure Resume.

 Second Draft:

Uttara Koundinya

F-301, Atrium,

49-Kalakshetra Road,

Chennai – 600 041

uk_1707@hotmail.com

12^th February 2011

Mr Mahesh Gupta

HR Manager, Gammon India.

Gammon House ,Veer Savarkar Marg,

Prabhadevi, Mumbai - 400 025,

+91 99657 87654

                To obtain an internship in the materials department.

Dear Mr Gupta,

I am a student in  National University of Singapore and currently in my first year. My major is civil engineering and I wish to specialize in materials. I wish to apply for an intership in the materials department.

Having been highly ranked in my academics in both school and college, I believe I will do well at your company. I have won numerous awards for academic excellence in school. Apart from academics, I have participated in my extra-curricular activities like dance, drama and tennis. I have organized many events like Reflections which is the inter-school cultural competition in which over 15 schools from all over the city participate. From these experiences I have learned how to carry out a task in high pressure situations. I am a hard-worker and am flexible in my working hours and with the nature of the tasks. I hope to gain more knowledge on materials and how the industry works and grow more as an engineer.

I will follow up next Monday by calling you at your office. If you have any queries please send me an e-mail(given above). Thank you very much for your consideration and time.

Yours Sincerely,

Uttara Koundinya

Enclosure Resume.

Resolving Interpersonal Conflict

Well I've had many small fights with my friends and I guess that is natural as we all have conflicting views on certain subjects, but this one fight went way too far.

We had been good friends for almost 3 years and when we were 16, she was going through some “relationship crisis” and seemed to take out her frustration on everybody else. I generally hate letting people go, especially good friends so I put up with her complaining ALL the time, bitching about my other friends for no apparent reason, taking out her frustration by blaming others and snapping at me for no reason. At first I was convinced it was just a phase and she would get over it but over a month with no change I was the only one left who would still talk to her. This is when it really started getting annoying because her problems weren’t any bigger than what any ordinary person faced at 16 but she made it seem like she was in hell and as much as I tried to help she wouldn’t stop snapping at me.

We did have a few small fights when I thought she was being unfair but nothing big until she seriously insulting a few good friends and she decided last minute that she wouldn’t come to a movie she had agreed to come the previous week and we had already gotten the tickets. After the movie I called her to find out why she blew us off last minute and she had given a family outing as an excuse, turns out she never went. Finally I couldn’t stand to listen to her anymore and I told her she was being a self-centered diva, we went on arguing for a good hour and finally I stopped talking to her.

We ended up not talking for almost a year before finally catching up again and now we’re friends again and she has changed a lot since then and I’m glad we’re friends again. At that time I thought I did the right thing as I really could not stand her anymore but now when I think about it, it was unfair of me to simply lash out like that and maybe I could have handled myself better.

Any suggestions on what I could’ve done ?

Why is effective communication important to me ?

So why is effective communication important? I would always say it’s not important. The lesser you say, the lesser fights you are going to get into or the lesser people you will hurt or you are less likely to make a fool of yourself by saying something stupid. My motto has always been “Talk only when necessary”.

It took me 17 years to figure out that if I avoid conversations just because they are unnecessary then I am going to fade into the background and if I die no one would notice and that woke me up. I decided to start communicating more. Talking led to more friends, more friends led to more activities and that led to a better life. So what if I make mistakes, I could always laugh it off. If I had a problem I could rely on a friend to help me out which I couldn’t before as I would talk to no one.

This probably seems like a useless rant on my life but this is when I realized why communication was important. To me, effective communication is necessary to have a good and happy life. Having a laugh with my friends after a hard day or talking to my teachers to learn more or classmates for help on things I do not understand, all of these make life simpler which in turn makes me happy.

A psychiatrist’s job is to help people going through difficult times and they do so by talking. Talking is a form of communication. So if going to the psychiatrist helps the person, it proves my point above that communication is necessary to make one happy and that’s why it is important to me. No one can live in a bubble on their own and can honestly say they are happy.