journey of a jat, the warrior

I had a good and relaxing long weekend after a long long time. Went to Chicago to see a couple of friends and it was a lot of fun. Since I had been to Chicago twice in the past and seen all the attractions, this trip was all about lazing, relaxing and catching up with my buddies. One memorable part of the trip was the awesome view of the city from my friend's office; he works in the 12th tallest building of the world.

The friend I stayed with lives very close to GSB, so we went to the school on Friday and walked around the campus. They had the "GSB live" event going on that day (by the time I had finalized my Chicago plans, registration to this event was closed) and thus everyone was busy and running around. One of the adcom members was nice enough to spare me a few minutes to talk about my waitlist. Apparently, there is nothing much I can do at this point of time, but wait.

An ongoing annoyance in my recent life is my court battle with management of my old apartment. I had posted about my trial win (JatWarrior Vs Apartment Management) way back in August. Guess what? Those defendants appealed against the decision in the upper court, and things have been moving painfully slow ever since. My trial date has been set in April (I had started this whole litigation process way back in May or June '06)... and you think courts in so called third-world are slow??? Last week, I met with the defendants for a pre-trial conference at the court. First of all, main attorney of the defendants was missing. There was someone else from his office representing him, and that guy was not in a position to agree on the mediation or the dates of the trial w/o talking to his boss or client. WTF? What did you bring your sorry ass here for? Anyway, I stated that I am ready for an out-of-court settlement so as to wrap this case ASAP. Since I would start my MBA in August and would quit my job much before that, I am not sure how long I can stay available for the trial. The lawyer called a few days later that his client was ready for the settlement and asked how much did I expect. Lower court had ruled a payment in my favor for double the security deposit ($540*2) plus an interest @11.5% since the date of judgment, but in order to expedite the process, I offered to settle for $650 (original security deposit + court fee etc). He noted my figure, talked to apartment management and called me again that all they wanted to pay was my original security deposit ($540). I was irritated, but decided to bite the bullet and agree to it. We agreed to send a letter to the court stating that we have reached the settlement outside the court and there was no need for the trial. Ten minutes later, I received another call that defendants have retracted the offer (I had only agreed to what they had proposed) and they would now pay only $350. Furious, fuming and enraged, all Jatwarrior could mutter was - "let's go to the trial".