IESE Class of 2008

2008-04-09T16:39:00.003+02:00

Fin, fini, finito, the end...

Perhaps this could be a good occassion to post - I'm officially done with the MBA! We just had the final SMAP presentation to the professor, which means no more classes, cases, group meetings, powerpoint presentations, spreadsheets --- till I start working.

But that doesn't happen well until July, so that leaves me a couple of months to unwind, travel, forget everything I learnt (well, almost everything) and start all over again.

Perhaps this is also a good time to bring this blog to a close. Just a parting note - someone who recently got an admit to IESE asked me if I had a good time. Lets just say, if I had to do the MBA again, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

¡Hasta siempre!

2008-02-25T21:52:00.004+01:00

The Countdown Begins

I know how ominous that title sounds, but it's true. We recently had the most awaited party of the entire year, a.k.a the Multi-Culti 2008. Anyone who has been there will tell you about the madness and debauchery that is the MC. This year was no different. I lack the superlatives so I'll take the easy way out and post pics so you can decide for yourself.

The Calçots-eating competition, courtesy Cataluña.

55+ countries represented..

The Indian performance

But nothing beat the Japanese, they were way too cool!

And that's how it ended... for some.

Anyways back to the countdown bit. The Multi-Culti's over, so is SKIESE. Next up is Doing Good and Doing Well, followed by Spring Fling -

And before you know it's time to graduate, and start a new chapter. Shudder. I'm not sure if I'm ready to go back to the real world.

2008-02-03T23:40:00.000+01:00

A first..

From as long as I can remember, we at the Asian Business Club (ABC) at IESE have been trying to organize an informal get-together... the objective being meeting all the members outside of school, to get to know people rather than purely network.

Last Friday we finally managed to achieve that, with a premature celebration of the Chinese New Year, a.k.a. the year of the rat. About 30 of us including a couple of professors gathered at Shanghai 1930 (which despite being a pretty good restaurant, is not my favourite - that honour goes to ~~Sichuan~~ ~~Mitsui~~ ~~Sichuan~~ .. bah I can't decide).

Unfortunately, it was Friday, also the day I play Badminton, so by the time I got home, showered and left for the restaurant, I was ready to bite my fingers off due to hunger. Lesson learnt - even 2 glasses of wine on an empty stomach *will* make you tipsy. Thankfully they brought out the food before I passed out.

I'll leave you with some pictures. And thank god, I didn't karaoke that night. Once is enough!

2008-01-27T23:18:00.000+01:00

Back!

Right, so after a number of complaints from people that I didn't know read my blog, I promise to get back to posting regularly.

Last time I checked, I was done with the 1st semester of the 2nd year, and was on my way for the Winter Break. What's changed?

a) We have results from the previous semester, and I did okay.

b) We started with the 2nd and last semester of the MBA... and man, I'm swamped with work. Since I'm interested in consulting, I chose the following courses -
- MADEM (Managerial Decision Models) a.k.a. my favourite class this term. It's a lot of excel modelling, crystal balling and optimizing, but I love this stuff, so I'm enjoying it a lot. It's a *LOT* of work, might I add.

- ENFI2 (Financing Entrepreneurial Opportunities): Perhaps the most heavily subscribed class in the MBA.. or perhaps 2nd most (the first being INTEC which I took last term). Focusses on .. well, financing entrepreneurial opportunities. Good base for someone looking to go into Venture Capital.

- DRIMA (Information Driven Marketing): This class is essentially the MarkStrat game, where teams of marketers have to compete in 2 markets to gain market share and $$$. Lots of fun!

- EMECO (Emerging Economies): After taking INTEC the last term I wondered if another Economics class would interest me (INTEC was my favourite class last term).. and I was pleasantly surprised. The Professor, apart from being the ex-Dean of CEIBS, is very experienced and extremely engaging. Totally worth getting up at 06h30 on a Friday morning... I know!

- SISCI (Management Control): Talks about topics such as budgeting, evaluations (not HR related!), aligning incentives of the employees to the objectives of the company, Transfer pricing etc.

- SMAP (Strategic Marketing Planning): Or in other words, writing an actual marketing plan. Practically every course this term has teamwork, and so does this. We're coming up with a marketing plan to introduce a luxury car by a manufacturer traditionally known for mid-range family cars. Can't talk about the company incase they ask us to sign confidentiality agreements.

c) I accepted an offer from a consulting firm, which means (i) I officially have a job! and (ii) I'm gonna stay in Barcelona atleast for the short to medium term. And on days like today (open terrace barbeque in January!), I kinda feel glad about making that choice.

2007-12-21T00:33:00.000+01:00

Goodbye 2007!

So the last term of 2007 and the second last term of the MBA ended with a bang last night with the Xmas Ball. But before I go into the details of that, a quick recap of what this term has been like.

The way it worked out for me, thanks to the electives, was I only had 1 final exam... which I thought was a good thing. Wrong. The other five courses had group projects, and you invariably end up working with different people on different projects. And trying to manage schedules of everyone do finish one project is a logistical nightmare. But hey, it was fun while it lasted.

Right, back to the Xmas Ball. I almost didn't make it this year - coz the last year's ball was *horrible* and that's putting it lightly. So I'd decided to have a quiet dinner with friends instead. The organiser's last-minute plea made me change my opinion and boy, was I glad! Although, too much booze and too many friends (is there such a thing as too many friends?) is never a good combination, and what ensued was.. in the words of Barney (from How I Met Your Mother -- you have to watch it, its insanely hilarious) "Legen...wait for it....dary!". Enough incriminating pictures were taken to ensure that I'll never be able to run for President, ever.

I'll leave you with some memories from last night -

2007-11-12T14:12:00.000+01:00

Second Year Blues

You're right. I haven't posted in a loooooooong time, and there's a very good reason for that. If the 1st year was full of academics, the 2nd year is only slightly (really, very slightly) easier in terms of workload - purely because you get to choose what classes you want, and there's a couple of hours free each day due to flexible schedules.

But what makes this year crazy is all the time that goes into organizing activities for clubs (I co-run the Asian Business Club), job search, projects etc. Specially the projects. Most courses that I've selected this term dont have exams, instead they have projects. With different teams. Imagine trying to match the schedules of, on an average, 6*5 = 30 people in order to complete your projects on time. Of course, all of them have to be due the same week.

Anyways, did I mention we had the chance to talk to Conchita Martinez? One of my courses this term is Marketing of Experiences, Innovative Concepts and Media (MECMI) .. and there was this case on how Maria Sharapova's image was marketed to companies in order to differentiate her from compatriot (and equally hot!) Anna Kournikova. In order to get a first-person view of the situation, the professor invited Conchita Martinez and her agent, where we grilled her on everything, from how it was to beat Navratilova at the Wimbledon, to her present day assignments. Awesome.

Finally, I'm kinda annoyed that there's now COW (Comment of the Week) in the 2nd year.. so many good comments going to waste! Tsk tsk.

2007-10-11T11:43:00.000+02:00

The Daily Grind

You know, I just realised the advantage of courses in the 2nd year ... no mid-term exams!! They used to be right painful throughout the 1st year. Barely 2-3 weeks of classes and bam! there's the mid-term.

Come to think of it, there're hardly any final exams too. Most of the classes I've chosen have projects to be done, but no "exam" as such. Weird as it may sound, I prefer to have exams over projects. It's a day of torture but then you're done. With projects, no matter how much you work, there's always a little bit more that you can perfect.

Anyways, the first years should be off on their annual London Banking Tour. I distinctly remember last year's when about a 100 of us paraded in London in our suits, all carrying bright red umbrellas that one of the banks gave out. Now that's a sight you dont see every day!

2007-09-28T19:27:00.000+02:00

Back to school

So it's been 2 days since school started and things are back to normal already. Since we get to choose the electives that we want, I went in for -
INTEC (International Applied Economics)
MECMI (Marketing of Experiences, Innovative Concepts and Media)
COCOM (Corporate Communications)
PERSO (Personalidad y liderazgo - my spanish credit for the bilingual degree)
BRAND (Brands and Advertising) and
CORPO (Corporate Strategy)

This week has been pretty laid back as I only had 2 classes a day, between 14h00 and 17h00. But starting Monday, it's going to be the usual routine of 09h45 to 17h00, with a 3 hour break in between. May be I can put that time to good use? Let's see.

Quick one before I leave for dinner - In today's CORPO case on the Walt Disney Company, the professor was mentioning how Disney World was a holiday experience and not just a one-day trip any more, when she inadvertently said "So people like T***** (female student) like to go to Disney World to spend a few days there, wake up next to Mickey Mouse.."

Oh, the laughter in the class...

2007-09-25T13:41:00.000+02:00

En Route (the other way)

Exactly 23 days ago I blogged from this same spot on my way to India, and I'm doing an encore on my way back to Barcelona. The difference? I'm one (wisdom) tooth short, probably a skin shade lighter (I barely saw any sun during my entire time back home!) and a few kilos heavier.

Few more hours to go before the reality of classes, cases and job searches sinks in, but hey, I'm glad to be back in BCN, I enjoy it there. Only wish is that my vacation were a tad longer ... you can only have so much food in a month! :(

2007-09-02T15:49:00.000+02:00

En Route

My first time in Finland (I'm flying back home via Helsinki), and I only get to see the airport. Bah, well. I'm sitting by a window overlooking the airstrip, next to the woods, and you'll only have to take my word on how beautiful everything is (since I didn't get my camera and am dangerously low on my mobile battery, I can't take pictures).

My last day at work was pretty uneventful - apart from the fact that there was suddenly some work to be handed in, which by now has become du jour. Later that day I had a chance to chat with some other people from IESE who had done consulting internships at other companies, and I wasn't surprised to hear that a few of them didn't have a lot to do during their entire duration at their respective firms - it's August and everyone's on holiday... the consultants, their clients, everyone.

In comparison I consider myself lucky to have worked on 2 very hectic projects. Apart from that, I'm also helping my employers out with other activiies at IESE where they would like to be involved, such as sponsoring events, participating in the career forum, organizing activities with other clubs etc. Hopefully all this should help me gain some brownie points while pitching for a full time job.

Alright, that's it. I have an hour and a half more of waiting for my flight home, which I intend to waste in doing mindless games on the web and watching people. Feels good to be doing nothing for a while.

I know I'm gonna be bored soon.

2007-09-01T12:44:00.000+02:00

Home, Sweet Home
The internship as it was ended last night, and I've written enough things about it to reiterate again. Right now it's home, sweet home for a month and then back to books for another year.
Vacation time, finally!

2007-08-18T10:59:00.000+02:00

Countdown

Starting Monday will be the last 2 weeks of what has felt like an unusually long internship. The workload's still a lot, but then at least I don't work weekends like the Investment Banking guys, so it's always good to spend the weekend in Barcelona where the weather rocks and the beach awaits, right?

Wrong. For starters, my flight back to Barça on Thursday night was possibly the most disturbing ever. Right behind me was a child (I could swear he had a mark of the devil on him somewhere) who screamed at the top of his lungs at the airport in Madrid, during the entire hour of the flight, and after landing, as his parents even stood next to me as I was picking up my luggage at the conveyer belt, seemingly oblivious of the nervous breakdown their child was causing their fellow passengers.

Now let's get this in perspective - I have a nephew who, if let loose, leaves the house looking like Katrina has struck - not to mention he does have his fits of yelling and screaming and crying. So I'm pretty immune to what I consider "normal" child behaviour. The kid that was in the plane, on the other hand, took "normal" to a whole new level. I think 2 more hours of yelling like that and they would have had to make an emergency landing because the screaming would've loosened the screws from the wings or something. It was that bad.

Plus after I finally got into the taxi, hoping finally for some peace and quiet, I have to meet the only cabbie in all of Barcelona who would not stop talking about the advantages of putting on a seat-belt, because its mandatory since 1991, and because the sky would fall apart if I didn't. And I was on the back seat, on a ride that takes 15 minutes to reach my apartment. It was the longest 15 minutes ever. (And before you branch off into the advantages of using a seat-belt : I know.)

Not to mention the weather this weekend *sucks*, despite my sun-dance, which according to some people, was not the right sun-dance. So no beach.

However, all's not bad. I had a satisfying week at work, met friends for dinner, and intend to get some beauty sleep, now that the weather's prompting me to.

All's well that ends well.

2007-08-05T16:10:00.000+02:00

I'm more than halfway through my internship now, and apart from the incessant flying which I still have to get used to, everything else is sinking in well. Let me qualify that - of course not everything I get to do is awesome, there are dull moments like in any other job, of course there are times when I don't like what I'm asked to do or the way a particular thing is done, but overall I'm very satisfied with what I'm doing.

I still travel to Madrid each Monday morning and fly back Thursday nights and work from the client location. Over the last week, we (i.e. my team) have been working from the offices of one of our strategic partners, and it's been interesting, to say the least. Although the official language of my project is english, not everyone in the office of our associate speaks english, so it can be challenging for all of us - me with limited spanish vocab and them with limited english vocab!

Enough talk. Time for some well-overdue pictures. First some from my weekend at Victor's in Madrid -

The thing that Madrid is most well-known for!

The big black bear, somewhere in La Latina.

The royal residence -

Alright enough about Madrid - can't post any more pics here, ask me if you want to see them! Next up are pics from the Summer Day trip to Vigo / Playa de Rodas / Santiago de Compostela.

That's where it all happened:

Spreading the wings -

Lunch..

.. And then the beach.

Alright I'm outta time. ¡Hasta Pronto!

2007-07-23T23:51:00.000+02:00

This is going to be an ultra quick post, for 2 reasons - it's my chance to be in bed before 01h30, something I haven't been able to achieve in the past week and a half, and secondly because my prepaid internet card is about to run out in 15 minutes.

I'm in a Madrid hotel room as I type this, and will be here every (week)day until the end of August. I've been genuinely enjoying the last few weeks at work - I'm full time on a market-launch project based here in Madrid, meanwhile supporting another based in Barcelona, so it's a bit of a challenge to juggle both. The option that seems to be working for me is to do one after I get to the hotel after "work". It's hectic, but it's also bloody good experience.

The last couple of weeks have been hectic, even apart from work. The weekend after Pamplona I spent in Madrid, visiting the city for the first time in the past one year that I've been in Spain. It's kind of ironic that I spent 8 hours (one way) on a back-aching bus trip to Madrid and back, only to be told the next that that I was going to be based in Madrid for the next month and a half or so.

Anyways, the last weekend the entire office went on a yacht trip/ race / relaxation weekend to Vigo and what has been voted as the most beautiful beach in Spain, la Playa de Rodas, on an island just off Vigo. If there's a place that resembles Phuket in Spain, this is it. As always, pics to come later.

Ok, I better log out before the card dies on me ... I'd hate to type this all over again.

2007-07-10T21:46:00.000+02:00

Los toros y yo..

So the last weekend a bunch of us went over to Pamplona to enjoy la fiesta de San Fermin and then to San Sebastian for the sun, the beach and the food. I'll let the pics do most of the talking.

Pamplona at 04h00

The bulls!

Pitstop enroute to San Sebastian

San Sebastian. (L-R Lizard, Arun, Me, Sun-Sun, Owen, Prasad)

Food, glorious food! Worth going to San Sebastian just for that!

Da gang. L-R Hiro, Brandon, Arun, Me, Ben, Prasad, Sunsun, Owen (cuddling) photographer's wife.

Next stop? Will tell you when the time comes!

2007-06-24T11:46:00.000+02:00

Summertime

Last night those in Barcelona celebrated the official beginning of the summer with La fiesta de San Juan, when everyone comes out on the streets and lights firecrackers. So at Barceloneta, Barcelona's (in)famous beach stretch, were 3 generations of IESE students - two from class of 2007, a dozen from 2008 and representing class of 2009 was one brave soul.

It turned out to be almost like a picnic, people bringing food, blankets, cava & wine flowing freely, with a free spectacle (the fireworks!). It's almost exactly one year ago that we were right there, meeting everyone for the very first time, all starry eyed, not knowing what lay before us. Yesterday, with the exception of knowing people around us, the rest was pretty much the same. I can't believe it's been ONE WHOLE YEAR already. Pics have been clicked, will post them as soon as someone emails them around.

The job front has been fairly tranquilo so far. I've been told that on the coming friday we have the monthly (or is it quarterly?) Office Day where everyone from the Madrid office comes over to the Barcelona office (or vice versa) to meet and talk about projects, evaluations, presentations and some general banter. Another occasion to test my Spanish, which I must admit, atleast feels like it's getting better.

2007-06-18T21:57:00.000+02:00

First Day

I doubt if the title requires any explanation - I officially inaugurated my summer internship today... and boy, what a day! I knew that some of the people at the firm spoke spanish so I was ready for just that - some spanish. What I didnt expect was to spend the last 11 hours talking to everyone single person - even the non-spaniards - in spanish.

Alright, it's not a fair complaint. I know I'm gonna look back at this with a smile, but for the moment though, I yet have to come to terms with my present situation.

But let's go to the bright side - the people were nice. I've been placed on a business strategy / market launch project(which I exactly what I wanted). I'll be based out of Barcelona and might have to occasionally fly to the client location. There's free food and drinks in the cafeteria.

I have a feeling this might go well. Fingers crossed!

2007-06-14T18:14:00.000+02:00

Brief interlude...

... between the reality of classes, cases and exams and the reality of having a job. This week has been perfect - warm weather, no school, not having to get up early, daily dinners and drinks - except that it's also been the week of saying good-byes to people you've become friends with over the past year, even though it's for a maximum of 6 months (esp. for folks going on exchange). Wonder how hard it'll be saying good-byes when we finish the MBA!

But life moves on. My immediate concerns for the moment are buying (another) suit for the internship, wondering what it'll be like to work after so long, and how I'll fare on my final exams, not necessarily in that order.

For now, it's time to convince Melissa there's no way they're letting her board her flight with that much luggage, then drinks with some folks at L'Illa, followed by dinner and a long night's sleep. This rocks!

2007-06-08T22:42:00.000+02:00

Ya esta, part 1

I haven't had time to update my blog since the mid-terms, and there's a very good reason for that. Three good reasons, really, viz. Nike, Telefonica and AT&T. We finally finished all the reports in time (much to everyone's surprise) and had the respective presentations over the last week.

AT&T (for Corporate Finance) went pretty well considering it was a merger negotiation, and although we did expect to run into trouble, both our team and the other behaved like adults, so no complaints. Call me biased but I feel ours was by far the best presentation in the class!

Nike (for Operations Strategy) was actually quite fun, with the EMEA Operations Director sitting with us in the classroom as team presented their analysis and recommendations for the project, and then rounded everything off by giving us some very good insights and tips from his experience. He was even nice enough to bring Nike caps for everyone (prompting "so this is what you do with unsold inventory" from some bright spark in class). Needless to say pictures were clicked with the entire class looking like a big advertisement for Nike. While I don't have the class pics yet, here's some of us showing off our gifts -

Finally, Telefonica (for Competitive Strategy) went well considering I wasn't picked to present the project - it was a lucky draw so only the really "lucky" ones got to present.

That's it... that was the last lecture and report for the whole of the 1st year. I can't believe 1 whole year has passed already, and come Tuesday - after 2 days of exams might I add, people will go off on their summer internships and then on exchange, so I'm not going to see some of my closest friends well until January next year... it sucks!

One last thing before I go - a couple of pictures of my section (A) and my team (A1) that we took some time back. Melissa, Victor, Joris, Mario - I'm gonna miss you guys! Go kick some ass and see you in Jan 08!

2007-05-21T19:49:00.000+02:00

The breaks are off...

... as we hurtle down to the mid-point of the MBA. A week has passed since the mid-terms, we have back our results (except QMM and Global Econ) and I managed to do well in all. At least I managed to do as well as I expected to do (i.e. *barely* scrape by in Corporate Finance) so no complaints. Now if only QMM and Global Econ don't turn out to be shockers, I will have survived the first half of the last term of the first year.

Post mid-term is a whole new story. We seem to be working endlessly, including on weekends. Apart from the daily stuff (which most of you know by heart by now), we're supposed to hand in three project reports until the end of the term, which is a mere 3 weeks away.

The first one's for Operations Strategy - a real life case for a Sports goods manufacturer / retailer in Europe, that will be discussed with the company in concern. The second one is a mock M&A negotiation in Corporate Finance between AT&T and McCaw Communications, but mock or no mock, there's a ton of stuff to do. Finally, my pet project is the one for Competitive Strategy, where we had the liberty to choose any company we wanted. Mine's a well-known telco in Spain / LatAm, and considering I'll be doing telecom consulting for my summer internship, it's the one I'm most interested in.

Needless to say, our final grades depend on how well we perform on these projects, so I better get back to them. Now where did I leave my coffee??

2007-05-12T12:51:00.000+02:00

Another finde..

So finally another set of midterm exams is over. The good part is that they end quickly so there's no prolonged torture. The 2nd day of exams brought Quantitative Methods (QMM) and Operations Strategy papers. QMM seemed to go uncomfortably well, so either it *was* easy or I screwed up big time. I think it's option A.

The Ops Strat exam had an HBS case on [German luxury car manufacturer] that had trouble in finding a good place to locate their new production plant. I think I did OK, but so did the other 219 of us so it's up to the profs to bother about the grades.

Finally yesterday we faced our fears (well some of us anyways) - Corporate Finance and Global Economics. For once I'm certain I screwed up Corp Fin big time... like I was telling someone, "I have a lot of numbers, I'm just not sure if they're right". But then I only want to be partially blamed for this - we were told we'd have a sheet with formulae on it, but the one we got was barely sufficient. Now if we were allowed to bring our own cheat sheets, it would have been a whole different case... Only now I'm glad I didn't choose finance as a career. I got whacked by the WACC.

By the way, we had a question which promised 1 Bonus point to the best answer in the class (which I have my doubts on, but that's what it said). The question? "What would you rather be doing right now?" There sure are going to be a few creative answers to that one!

Global Econ went pretty well (again, my opinion only!) considering Melissa and I had revised a couple of key concepts (Open/Closed Economies, Fixed & Flexible exchange rates) just before the exam and 2 of 3 questions were directly based on them. Sea lo que sea, exams are over!

Oh, we also had our first ever Beach BOW right after the exams, and the party ended at 3 AM (for some of us) at the awesome Danzatoria up on Tibidabo. Cheap beer, warm sun and eye candy is probably the best post exam therapy ever.

¡Hasta pronto!

2007-05-09T21:31:00.000+02:00

Exam Time

Mid Term time again. Did case on [Spanish Airline] for the Competitive Strategy exam today. 1 down, 4 to go. Up next - Quantitative Methods and Operations Strategy.

2007-05-02T21:42:00.000+02:00

Houston we have...

Having gotten into the third term routine, a few of us (actually all of us) were a bit surprised to get an email from Student Affairs informing us that the Operations Strategy course won't be held in our usual classroom, but was going to be held in another, in a different building.

Now it so happens that in every operations class, one study group has to prepare a presentation about the case, analyse the competitive situation of the company with a focus on operations and suggest possible alternatives. Today's was about a German textile manufacturer that catered and supplied products to basically all the major car manufacturers in Europe and a few in the US & Asia.

So why the change in class? Well our professor had a word with the CEO of the company under consideration, and the two decided that the conclusions that we would arrive at as a group would be presented to the CEO to get to know his thoughts on the same... through video/teleconference. Imagine our relief when, after listening to our recommendations, the CEO replied "I came out of a board meeting 5 minutes ago, and we've decided to do the same". Phew, disaster averted.

By the way, I think Georgio may have won what could probably his 30th COW with "Why did [Italian Car Manufacturer] turn around so spectacularly two years ago? Uhh..because I left the company!" . I'll find out on Friday.

2007-04-22T12:48:00.000+02:00

In other news...

>> This blogger has been down with a spate of illnesses. First it was cold, then cough, then fever, then every kind of -itis you can think of (gingivitis, bronchitis etc etc) and once I recovered from that, I got the stomach bug that kept me throwing up like there was no tomorrow. For some time I wondered if I should be reading my cases in the bathroom instead of going back and forth. But all's well that ends well so no complaints!

>> I had the amazing chance to meet Mr. Narayan Murthy, who among other achievements, founded Infosys. He is on IESE's board of directors and some 30 of us had a chance to hear him speak and answer questions over breakfast, and it was fascinating to hear his views on the strategy of Infosys, the growth of emerging markets and the competitive advantage of Europe. I'll post some pics if I can lay my hands on them.

>> Whoever said Term 3 was easy or laid-back or relaxed or any other adjective meaning the same needs to see me a.s.a.p. It's all a bunch of cleverly packed lies to make us feel better. In fact, apart from your standard cases and pop-quizzes, this term we have to deal with, on an average, 3 assignments to be submitted per week.

The fact that some of them are team assignments doesn't really help, as you end up working for all of them, lest you get left behind. The only saving grace is that we have a bunch of holidays this term, so there are only 3 weeks in the entire term where we have classes all 5 days a week, so there's some breathing space left.

>> Oh I forgot. There's another thing that makes it harder to concentrate on studies, and that's the weather. It's so good, there're no words to describe it. It's April and the temperature's already hitting the 20s, which means that it's going to be a hot hot summer. ¡Welcome to Barcelona baby!

2007-04-09T18:49:00.000+02:00

Summer in Barcelona!

No, it's still firmly springtime here in Barcelona (which only means one thing - lots of rain!) but I'm talking about me spending my summer in Barcelona.

I finally heard from my number 1 choice for internship and they said Yes! Which means I get to do what I wanted so bad, and I get to spend summer in Barcelona. And hopefully pick up some more Spanish on the way. I can't believe my internship search is finally over.

In other news, this blog has been apparently nominated for the Best of Blogging awards. Gee, I must've done something right.

2007-04-06T16:21:00.000+02:00

Nothing sucks more than having a 10 day vacation and falling sick on day 1 and recovering on day 9. Groan.

2007-03-27T15:32:00.000+02:00

Term 3

The last term before the first year ends is here! I must admit that it hasn't got a warm welcome, considering we had final exams (Term 2), then "a whole weekend" to recover(according to our QM prof), immediately followed by a week of new courses.

Everyone's looking forward to the coming Friday as we take off for Easter Break. A quick word on the third term though. We have 7 courses -

Global Economics
Corporate Finance
Operations Strategy
Quantitative Methods for Management (Half Term)
Competitive Strategy
Leading Organisations (Half Term)
Transforming Organisations and Markets with ICT (Half Term)

- and going by the looks of it, I think I'm gonna enjoy Corporate Finance the most. But its too soon to say. A ver.

Quick update on the weekend. Friday Night - Killer party at A Viva Voz where some 35-40 of us karaoked the night away. Now I have the kind of voice that shouldn't be heard outside the bathroom, so I was pretty reluctant to sing, but its amazing what a couple of beers and some tequila can do!

Here's Ranjeet and I singing ... lets just say something that would cause Madonna to sue both of us.

Bala and Rawan serenading each other..

The night clearly belonged to Hiro and Kenji, with their superb rendition of Livin' on a Prayer!

Meanwhile off-stage, Morgan got busy with what he does best -

... and then some more!

The guys singing "We are the champions"

Just a bunch of really happy people!

Saturday - Killer brunch at Susan's. I have no pictures for this, but believe me when I tell you that we ate like there was no tomorrow. Pancakes, french toast, baked omlette, hash browns, banana cake ... slurp.

Sunday - Killer barbecue at Stefan's where we started eating at 1430 and finished LUNCH at 1900h, with my groupmates from Team A1. Pics to follow.

All in all, a killer weekend. I think I must've eaten a month's worth of calories in 2 days. Now if only I could find those jogging shoes...

2007-03-21T16:57:00.000+01:00

Exams suck...

Have I mentioned lately how much I hate exams? Ever since we started the MBA in September, we seem to have a never ending flow of exams - surprise tests, mid-terms, finals and the cycle repeats itself all over again. I wish IESE just said "Alright, you're good enough, here's your MBA!"

Plus 6 papers over 3 days make me really cranky. We had Capital Markets and Economics today, good thing being neither of them were 3 hrs long. Being half credit courses, the exam only lasted for 1.5 and 2.5 hours respectively.

Due tomorrow is Cost Accounting (shudder - I'm actually blogging just so I can postpone studying) and HRM. Day after: Operations Management (another shudder) and Marketing.

You know how captured spies endure torture by focussing on completely unrelated things to take their mind off the pain. I'm focussing on the Karaoke night on Friday and Sunday's barbecue @ Stefan's. This too shall pass.

2007-03-12T22:35:00.000+01:00

Snowballing!!

Things are going at a break-neck speed of late. Ever since the Multi Culti, we've had, among other usual parties and BOWs (Bar of the Week), the Reverse Random Dinner (which is the opposite of what happens in the first term, where 1st year students get randomly invited to 2nd year students' places for dinner) and the Spring Fling (where students from most european B-schools come to Barcelona to compete against each other).

I'll skip the details, but please check back other students' blogs, there're some pretty fascinating stories making rounds!

Right now, its 2240h, and I need to take my clothes out of the washing machine, do the numbers for tomorrow's Operations Management case (Levi's, for those interested), and re-read the marketing case (Marvel Comics) - not to mention my ongoing fight against drowsiness induced by my cold medication. It's gonna be a long night.

p.s. Is it a coincidence that I'm listening to Everybody's Changing by Keane - "..try to stay awake and remember my name.."??

2007-02-28T21:06:00.000+01:00

Multi Culti

So what do you get when you mix 55 nationalities, their food, drinks, performances and cultures in one big melting pot? The Multi Culti, a.k.a. sheer madness. Lest I ruin this post with any more talk, I'm gonna let the pics do the talking. And remember - these are just the clean ones!

All that fooooood...

... and all that boooooze

Sheer madness!

The Indians had some pretty decent Bhangra, if I can say so myself!

Here come the Mariachi..

Not sure who these guys are... I'll go for Nordic.

The Spaniards show off some fancy Sevillana..

I'm so going back next year!

2007-02-21T19:59:00.000+01:00

P.I.P (Post in Pictures)

Cookie Monster and Ski Beluga fighting against the elements..

It's a bright, bright, sunshiny day!

The hills are aliiiiive... with the sound of my pain.

... And this is where I fell... again.

2007-02-11T21:55:00.000+01:00

Mid-Terms, SkIESE

My 3 readers will have hopefully noticed the lack of posts on this blog of late.
Reason 1: Mid-terms.
I don't believe it was about 3 posts ago that I mentioned the end of term 1, and here I am blogging about the mid-terms already. Anyone can tell you that four papers spread over 2 days is not a good idea. At the end of the day, I was ready to punch someone in the face. Thankfully a freak accident just before the Operations Management exam on day 2 (that I will desist from mentioning as I'm unaware of the age of some of my readers - mail me about this!) had me in splits for the rest of the day.

Reason 2: SkIESE.
As has been the tradition here at IESE, some 200 of us first and second years headed to Andorra for the annual ski trip, aptly called SkIESE. Now snow or no snow, when 200 people head out to 1 place, you know you're gonna have fun. Thankfully for us, it snowed, so all the ski enthusiasts got what they were praying for.

Unfortunately, some beginners (such as yours truly) did more falling than skiing - I had no clue that there were so many ways to fall, and I'm happy to have gotten away with jelly legs, a sore back, and what looks suspiciously like a cracked thumb. Others may not have been as lucky. Needless to say, pics will follow.

2007-01-31T20:11:00.001+01:00

Coming soon...

2007-01-21T11:34:00.000+01:00

Negotiations galore

As days go by, I'm starting to love the second term more and more. It's difficult as hell (with 3 finance courses!) but this is what I came to do the MBA for. Even the most pessimistic of my classmates feel that we're actually learning something of value. Of course it helps that all the professors we have had so far are fantastic. This might sound like a sales pitch, but a) you've got to see it to believe it, and b) No, IESE isn't paying me to say this stuff.

Anyways, this friday, like all fridays, we had 2 continuous classes of negotiations, where we did the exact same exercise that I remembered reading on Noelle's blog exactly a year ago. The class was divided into 2 sections, and our team had to bid for product prices in a competitive market against the other team. We did beautifully - our team decided to take a fall by upping the price, so as to signal to our competitor (which was in another room, and consisted of people from our class itself, but we had no inkling who they were) that we wanted to collaborate and not start a price war.

Our competitors got the idea, and despite tremendous temptations (in the form of multiplying your profits 8 times - and I almost fell for it too, only pausing to listen to the rationale of my team members and maintaining my sanity) both teams, in a non-communicative way (even when we had to send a team rep to speak to the rep from the other team, our respective reps wisely chose not to speak about the prices at all), stuck to the unsaid agreement, as both our respective teams ended up with the most profits in the entire class.

Two things that struck me. One, the success of any venture depends largely on the intelligence that you and the entity that you are dealing with display. Had our competitor not gotten the hint, we would have spiralled into a price war, cutting profits for both of us. Second, I saw teams in my class react the exact same way Noelle had mentioned - that even though some team reps shook hands on a particular price, they failed to get the backing of their teams, thus changing the agreed prices, and resulting in some very un-diplomatic language in the class. It's funny how similar some things remain even when they are so different.

2007-01-14T17:26:00.000+01:00

News in shorts (no, I'm not wearing them)

1. Term 1 is out, Term 2 is in. We received the results for the courses in Term 1 and I'm happy to inform my 3 readers that I got straight Bs in everything - including the courses for which I had a C in the mid-terms. Term 2 is another story. We take 8 (you read that right.. EIGHT) courses this term, not 6. And that's not including Spanish. I'm happy to be taking the D.I.E.N (the exam that qualifies one to be able to take some courses in Spanish) at the end of the month.

2. Courses in Term 2:
Operational Finance
Human Resource Management
Managerial Accounting
Capital Markets
Negotiations
Marketing, Planning and Implementation.
Markets and Managers
Operations Management

Spanish

3. Interviews for the summer internships are in full swing (especially IB and Consulting).

4. In Campus News, the Responsible Business Club finally got what they've been rooting for, for so long - a water fountain! Goodbye 400 bottles of plastic per day! A big thank you to Pradeep and the boys!

2007-01-08T19:17:00.000+01:00

Happy 2007!

... And we're back! In other news, I had a smashing vacation, got really drunk at New Year's, and started school with the news that I've avoided Cs (Fail) in atleast 2 courses. Now let's see how I fare in the other 4.

I also learnt from someone [that I did not think read my blog] that I don't post enough pictures on my blog. Say no more. Let's take a whirlwind tour of Sevilla and Granada.

Barrio Santa Cruz, Sevilla.

Catedral, Sevilla.

View from above, Sevilla.

Alhambra, interiors, Granada.

There.. just saved you 500 euros!

2006-12-22T13:00:00.000+01:00

End of Term in style

So finally as of wednesday, Term 1 is officially over. During this term, I (in random order) -

>> Was so far out of my comfort zone, I couldn't have imagined.

>> Met more people from different countries than in a Benetton ad.

>> Learnt that the MBA was a marathon, not a sprint, so the best way to finish it was to take it easy and not start at a great burst of speed and lose wind mid-way.

>> Learned to think, to question, to probe rather than to accept facts as they are.

>> Realised some mistakes that I had committed during my career and wished I could undo them.

>> Made a handful (only) of friends that I hope will last for life.

>> Partied more, drank more, laughed harder.

>> Left a city that I used to call home, visited one that I used to call home, and am living in one that's my new home.

>> Learnt a new language.

>> Ended the term in style - with the IESE Annual Christmas Ball!

Pics to follow.

2006-12-15T18:13:00.000+01:00

Crunch Time
Barely 3 days to go before the end-of-term exams. I don't believe it's the end of the term already ... feels like yesterday that everyone was all starry eyed and gawking at the mountain of cases sitting in our pigeon-holes, and in the blink of an eye, they are reduced to, well, ink-blotted, number filled, underlined, highlihted pieces of random paper sitting in files.

Starting Monday, we have our Decision Analysis (I need a miracle here), Corporate Financial Accounting(I will survive!) and Marketing Management (70% weightage on class participation, woo hoo!) exams on one day after another.

The light at the end of the tunnel is the Christmas Break that I'm so looking forward to.. Wish me luck!!

2006-12-05T19:42:00.000+01:00

Weekend Plans!

For the uninitiated, this afternoon was the start of the 5-day weekend we have here in Barcelona. Ok, so Thursday is still working, but IESE graciously decided to give us that off too, hopefully to see at least some of us working on our grades! Here's what I plan to do -

Tuesday night - Dinner at Susan's, drinks with the gang in Gracia.

Wednesday - Biking trip to Tibidabo (need to lose some calories, damn), Managerial Communications assignment, Decision Analysis assignment, half of OB assignment. Might catch a movie in the evening.

Thursday - Other half of OB assignment, start with revision of Financial Accounting, revision of Decision Analysis. Something in the night.. maybe that Falafel on La Rambla?

Friday - Biking to Tibidabo or some place else (hopefully), more F.A and D.A revision, cases for Monday and Tuesday, a few cervezas and copas in the night.

Saturday - Cases for Monday and Tuesday, more revision of F.A and D.A, more drinking in the night.

Sunday - Chill. Need to have some energy left for the end-of-term exams that are due in 2 weeks time!

On a different note, the "results" of the internship application are out, and I see a lot of happy faces on campus, and only a few long ones. I'm in the middle. Not ecstatic, but definitely not sad. Life's good. I hope that lasts.

2006-11-26T16:04:00.000+01:00

No longer a Thanksgiving virgin!

Yesterday I had the good fortune to attend my first, and IESE's 18th annual Thanksgiving dinner. I had my reservations when I learnt that the tickets were a bit on the higher side than I expected, but eventually bowed down to peer pressure and bought one, so naturally my expectations were high.

We started at around 1830h, with a word of welcome from our Dean Jordi Canals, followed by a quick Thanksgiving prayer - and knowing that people from different countries and cultures were present, the priest was careful enough not to inadvertently hurt any feelings, so kept the prayer fairly generic. Not wanting to keep the guests (us) waiting too long, our MCs (one of which was fellow blogger Noelle!) got us started on some extremely delicious fare - soups, turkey, the works.

Not so fast. Just as we were about to start the main course, our MCs called for all the first year students, and asked for 3 volunteers to take part in the turkey carving competition. Not having carved a turkey ever, I busied myself by pointing at other people, only to hear "Ashwin.. get over here!" by none other than Noelle. So not only did I end up having my first Thanksgiving dinner, I also carved my very first turkey!!

The rest of the night passed in a blur, partly due to the wine and partly due to this heady feeling of being a part of a tradition, a community. I was stunned by the quality of the talent show, which was far from the amateurish acts I've been used to seeing at work - the skit, the poems, the music bands galore. The icing on the cake was without doubt the IESE Auction, where students, professors and staff offered their services, bearing in mind that all the proceeds of the auction would go to charity. Being my first IESE auction, I was ready with my 50 euro bill ready to donate money for a cause. But with items such as A hiking trip in the Pyrenees with our Decision Analysis professor going for close to 1000 euros, and a dinner organised by some of the loveliest first year girls fetching 4000 euros, I realised how completely out of league I was - we ended up collecting over 18000 euros in one night, and mind you, this was a bunch of MBA students heavily in debt! Hopefully by next year, I should have a job in hand in order to up my bid...

So I guess there's an ounce of truth in what they say - you never forget your first time!

2006-11-23T19:10:00.000+01:00

View from Tibidabo

(I love Barcelona!)

2006-11-18T19:33:00.000+01:00

Term 1 - Part Deux

Results are out, and the verdict is... I survived! Not completely, might I add. I fared well in one subjects and abysmally in the other, so overall I know how to strike a good balance. *Mental note - should use this during interviews* On the bright side, this was only the mid-terms and I have half a term to recuperate and improve my score, so I'm optimistic about it.

On the non-school front, fellow- blogger- who- shall- remain- nameless and I went all the way up to Mount Tibidabo on our bikes, and boy, what a ride it was. It took us all of 3 hours to climb up - actually we went further than just Tibidabo, we went off the Barcelona map, and some kind soul directed us back to our tracks, even though we insisted that we weren't lost, just exploring. Anyways, what made the trip worth the effort was the calories that I (must have) burnt, the *spectacular* views from up there, and the fun ride down. We must have been doing atleast 50 mph on our bikes, and with no cars on the road, it was more like a roller-coaster ride than a bike ride!

Pics to follow. Back to cover letters now.

2006-11-11T14:39:00.000+01:00

End of Mid-Terms

As of friday, half the first term officially ended. That is to say, we had our mid-terms. Thankfully, of the 6 subjects that we're studying in this term, "only" 2 are exam based, the other 4 are going to be graded on a combination of pop-quizzes, class participation and end-of-term reports.

So after taking the Corporate Financial Accounting and Decision Analysis exams on subsequent days, the entire IESE community seemed to have relaxed a bit. You could see people on campus sipping beers, sunning themselves - incidentally, that's another thing I love about Barcelona : it's november and I can still roam around the streets wearing a tee and shorts during the day... it gets chilly at night though.

Come friday night and students from all 3 sections attended a dinner party organised by the student-reps of the 3 sections. Needless to say, almost everyone who had stayed back in Barcelona was present, which meant a LOT of stories were swapped, among other things. Stories of people falling asleep during exams, people getting stalked, people singing aloud in the streets, more people falling asleep in class, the COW (Comment of the Week)... anything that could invoke laughter was there. The entire lot then went to the BOW (Bar of the week) to a posh nightclub, where followed more drinking and dancing.

Which brings me to today, i.e. a tiny hangover and cover letters. Completely unrelated subjects, of course. With summer internship deadlines looming around the corner, I better finish sending my cover letters across to employers before it's late!

2006-10-29T18:26:00.000+01:00

Post in Pictures..

Lets start off with the Moon Festival fiesta at Susan's ...

Moving on, a reminder of the MAD, MAD Bar Crawl @ IESE

This is my study group (GO A1!) working on the OB report

Still working, boy all that OB can be exhausting!

2006-10-19T17:31:00.000+02:00

Day of Fiascos

Clearly, something wasn't right today. The first lecture (Corporate Financial Accounting) went off like a Ferrari doing 180 on the freeway. Was it just me in the class going "Huh?" or is there anyone else out there? One thing I know for sure - I don't like Italian companies any more. Atleast the way they do accounting. Although I must admit that it was a laugh when one of the Italian women in my class went "... those crazy Italians!".

Next up was Managerial Communications, which generally tends to go well. Not today. It was my turn to speak to the class about a topic of my choice (The Google-YouTube wedding), and while everyone else seemed to finish their speeches / presentations in the allocated 5 minutes, I rambled on for about 12 odd minutes until the Prof had to actually jut in to stop me from taking any more time. And to think that last night when I went over the presentation out loud in the confines of my room, it took 4.5 minutes. Bizarre.

Finally, it was the lunch break that took the cake. I was trying to subscribe to the latest additions in the list of corporate presentations on campus when, on clicking save, I got a little pop-up that said "You have successfully deleted 16 presentations". And to think there isn't a DELETE button on the damn web page! I was about to lose my cool when thankfully someone from the career services made sure that they re-subscribed me to almost all the presentations that I wanted to go for. Only later did I find out that it wasn't just me in the boat.

Hope everything's back to normal from tomorrow on.

2006-10-15T23:16:00.000+02:00

The London Banking Tour

Over the last long weekend (Thursday and Friday were holidays in Spain), as is tradition, everyone from IESE interested in a career in Investment Banking headed out to London to visit banks, meet the recruiters and speak to alumni to find out what a job as an investment banker entailed.

For me, there was a 2-fold benefit. Not only would I glean valuable information, I'd also get to visit some of my closest friends who're in London, but lets stick to business here.

Over the course of 2 days, approximately 100 of us (the biggest Banking Tour in the history of IESE) visited the who's who of the Investment Banking world, attended presentations, met alumni, toured trading floors and for the most part, convinced ourselves that this was the right job for us.

While each bank laid out it's own statistics about how they were better employers than the rest, what impressed me mostly was the number of people who put their daily lives on hold to speak to us, to clear any misconceptions and to promote their employers. Some even went to the extent of telling us what we should / avoid putting in our cover letters, things recruiters don't/ want to hear in interviews etc. Over all, an amazing value addition for someone like me coming from a non-financial background, who earlier wouldn't recognize a DCF if it bit me in the ass.

Pictures to follow!

(In other news, three cheers to IESE for coming out on top of the EIU Business School Rankings yet one more time!)

2006-10-03T23:43:00.000+02:00

The First Few Days

To put it in one word, chaotic. It's only been 2 days since we started taking the "proper" MBA classes (everything else before this was just a warm-up), and already I am a classic case of having to juggle too many balls at once.

Term I at IESE consists of 6 core subjects - Decision Analysis, Analysis of Business Problems, Marketing Management, Financial Accounting, Managing People in Organisations and Managerial Communications. If you're fortunate enough, I repeat, fortunate enough (because the professors are so damn good!) to need Spanish lessons, that's one more subject to study.

Lets break this down. Typically, there are 3 lectures per day + Spanish, so there's a minimum of 3 cases to study at home each day. Considering Spanish class gets over at 1700h and you're home by 1800h, you're still talking about a minimum of 6 more hours of study per day - and that's excluding Spanish. A typical First-termer goes to bed at 0100 and wakes up at 0630, so that's only 5.5 hours of beauty sleep!

Personally, I guess that Year-1 is purposefully made hectic by the professors to allow us to prioritize needs, like the way I choose to blog instead of reading a Financial Accounting case!

On the plus side though (yes, there is a plus side!), the learning curve is amazingly steep. Already we've seen and spoken about industries and companies that I had no inkling about, and considering class participation plays a solid role (well, depending on the subject) in the grading system, the option of taking it easy doesn't exist.

Bring it on!

2006-09-24T17:00:00.000+02:00

Watch out Wouter! ;)

2006-09-21T19:42:00.000+02:00

The Pre-courses saga

Getting back to books after 6 years is painful. I somehow got myself to study for the GMAT without giving much thought to how difficult it was going to be for me to get into the study mode again, so allow me to repeat what I've already stated - it's not easy!!

This week started with the 2 optional pre-courses offered by the school - Introductory Financial Accounting and Basic Quantitative Methods, both designed to help accounting-and-numerically-challenged students (like yours truly) to be in the same step as the rest of the whizkids. Having studied Accounting roughly 200 years ago (well seems like it anyway), I thought "Bah, this is chicken sh*t, I'm gonna crack this!". The only thing I managed to crack was my skull while butting my head against the wall trying hard to crack even the easy-peasy problems, all the while wondering how the hell I managed to do the same back in college.

Quant is another story altogether. Inherently, I have something against probability, and guess what shows up in the very first lecture? Fortunately I'm trying to convince myself that it's not as boring as it seems and I seem to be succeeding to quite an extent.

One thing that has changed in this week, that's starkly different from the previous weeks is my workload. If previously we "only" had Intensive Spanish classes for 7 hours, this week it's Accounting, Quant AND Spanish. Naturally each professor wishes to keep his students busy by giving homework, so out goes mad partying, dinners that last hours and extended conversations on the campus after class. Lately it's more like wake up, go to school, attend classes, try to grasp as much as possible, rush home, do homework (which usually goes on till 0100 hrs) and sleep. And to think that when actual MBA classes start, the workload's going to double. Gee, what fun!

p.s. I do hope to recover over the weekend all that I've had to forgo over the week.

2006-09-15T21:11:00.000+02:00

End of an era.. well, almost.

Today was officially the last day where we had Spanish lessons for about 7 hours flat, something which we've been doing for the past 2 weeks without a break. I remember speaking to my landlord in my almost non-existent Spanish 2 weeks ago when he told me "You'll be amazed by how much you're able to speak by the time your intensive Spanish courses end..", and he was so completely true.

Every single one of us probably wonders what happened over the past 2 weeks, about how we got to where we are today, and I guess a fair share of the credit goes to our profs. Mine, especially, was such a complete delight to work with. That guy exuded so much enthusiasm, even after all those heavy lunches that I secretly thought he drugged himself after lunch.

That's besides the point. Also coming to an end, along with Espanyol, is the freedom we've been enjoying here. Freedom in terms of no homework, no headache (well maybe a little) and no case-studies to ponder over. Things are about to change. Come Monday and we start our Accounting and Quant. pre-courses, so I expect to be a lot more busier than I already am. We'll see how that goes.

2006-09-12T23:34:00.000+02:00

La vie est belle

To plagiarize un amigo mio de Estados Unidos, Life is Beautiful. That's about the extent of my plagiarization for 2 reasons - a) not my style and b) I don't hope to match the literary talents of MBA students moonlighting as bestselling writers.

Coming back to the point though, life, presently has been close to perfect. Work load's bearable (considering the fact that we only have to deal with about 7 hours of Spanish per day) with a little bit of excitement thrown in in the form of exams. I've got one in less than 15 hours, although that doesn't stop me from being online. After all, how much Espanyol can one hope to study by himself?

Anyways, a few incidents that captured my attention this week. First up, was my fairly expensive Spanish lesson with a haircut thrown in for free. I went to this rather fancy looking peluqueria to get a hair-cut ("you should do something about it.. it looks like a wig"), as they (boldly) advertised on the outside - Cut and Wash: 7.95 euros. After about an hour and a half and a conversation in Spanish that would shame a 3 year old, did I find a sign about 2 inches wide next to the cashier that said "Corte Caballero (Haircut for men) - 14.95 euros". Why in their right senses, would they charge more for cutting a man's hair is beyond me. To add insult to injury, they charged extra for putting some rotten gel on my head! Not that 20 euros is a lot of money, but it does hurt a bit when you're expecting to pay 10 and have to pay double.

Not that I'm complaining though. I had 2 random people complement me today. Guess I'll go back there.

Next up is the amazing cultural awareness of me and hang-out club. We were crossing La Sagrada Familia,

where I was telling this friend whatever precious little that I know about the church, we suddenly saw this poster proclaiming that Missy Elliot was about to perform in Barcelona. The enthusiasm with which we changed subjects left me dumbstruck and fairly glad. I'm not alone out here.

Finally, an acknowledgement going out to my-friend-who-shall-remain-nameless for cooking the most exquisite Chino-Japanese dinner that I've tasted in a long, long time.

Oh, and I learnt to write my name in Mandarin. How cool is that!

2006-09-01T01:44:00.000+02:00

Baby steps in Espanol

For the Nth time, I BARELY SPEAK SPANISH. I don't know how I ended up in the level that I did, maybe someone overwrote my test. Maybe one of the professors took fancy at me. I don't know. What I do know is that I'm clearly in a level that I maybe shouldn't be in.

For starters, I'm surrounded by people who, apart from being extremely nice, are either Brazilians, Portuguese, have studied Espanol for a while and/or have been living and working in Spain for the last few years. I'm the underdog.

Sure, I'm good at conjugating verbs in all possible tenses. But like the say about the proof of the pudding - when it comes to speaking Spanish, I plain suck. I had a word with the prof about this, but he seemed confident that I'd catch up, and if he's being so confident about someone who he's met like once, I think maybe I can try harder. One thing about him and the classes though - he's impressive. Maintaining the interest of a bunch of guys in a language class for 8 hours at a stretch each day for the next I-dont-know-how-many days is a task that he excels at. When it comes to hiring professors, IESE doesn't like to fool around.

The plus point though is that I finish Spanish lessons in the first trimester, so when it comes to grappling with Quantitative Methods in Management, I don't have Tenga, Tengas, Tenga, Tengamos, Tengais, Tengan running around in my head.

2006-08-31T00:46:00.000+02:00

Barcelona for newbies

Now that I've been in BCN / Barca / Barcelona / the capital of the republic of Catalunya for a week, I feel competent enough to release a list of words/concepts that people mostly hear while in Barcelona.

Barceloneta - Mainly talks about the beach. I could go into in-depth details of how good it is, but imagine blue waters and a women's locker room in a gym. You'll get the idea.

La Caixa - Pronounced as La Kaaysha. Ubiquitous chain of banks and ATMs around BCN. There's literally 2 around every corner. Around where I stay, there're 4. I'm not kidding.

Plaza Catalunya - Also known as Centre of the World. Almost everything begins and ends at Plaza Catalunya. The place to get off at to go to La Rambla (see next).

La Rambla - Imagine a secluded, peaceful, wide, tree lined avenue in the centre of the city. Now throw in about 500 people per square foot, and about 1 musician / performer every 2 feet, and you have La Rambla. Place to take a walk, buy beer, gaze at street performers, buy pets, get robbed etc.

El Corte Ingles - Government approved place to get ripped off. Also known to be one of the largest chain of shopping centres in Barcelona. I got a pair of UK to Europe adaptors for 3.5 euros each, only to find out that I could buy a pair of these at my local Chinese store for 1 euro. Sucks.

Ferrocaril - Also called the metro at times, which it is not. Network of (mostly) underground trains that complement the existing metro service. Plus point - you can use your mobile phone despite being underground.

Gracia - THE place to hang out at. Full of pubs and restaurants to satiate every taste. Close to pretty much every other place in Barcelona. Suggested places to visit in Gracia: Plaza del Sol, Plaza de Revolucion and thereabouts.

Afternoon - Any time between 12 pm and 8 pm.

Early evening - Afternoon + 4 hours.

Late night - Early evening + 5 hours.

More to follow.

2006-08-24T20:06:00.000+02:00

I have way too many things to say, and very little time, so I am gonna resort to my favourite activity - writing in bullets.

>> First off, I LOVE BARCELONA. I have been to about a dozen cities around Europe, but Barcelona takes the cake. The place is awesome, there is no other word for it. I havent had a chance to go to the beach yet (I think I heard a gasp) but should do it one of these days. The city is cleaner than almost any other city I have seen, so it appeals to me even more.

>> I love the IESE crowd. I never had a chance to talk to people from America, Canada, Spain, Peru, Kuwait, France, Germany, Holland (I could go on for a bit here) all at the same time, so every day is like a new day. Almost everyone that I have met so far has been very easy going, and I hope the rest of the guys are the same too. People are a definite plus point that IESE has.

>> Moving on, three of us went over to IKEA today to get stuff that would make our collective lives a little easier, and came back with 3 people (just us), 1 bed, 1 study desk, a set of shelves, 2 bedside tables and a whole lot of other stuff - all inside one car. I bet our necks hurt from craning, our backs probably might hurt from all the lifting, but we had one hell of a day. That´s one less thing to do before I hit 30: sitting in a car with a bed next to you.

>> And finally, here`s acknowledging the presence of my new friend and reader Sam. There, you happy now man? ;)

To follow - Barcelona in pictures.

2006-08-21T17:48:00.000+02:00

Saying good-byes has never featured in my top-1,000,000-things-to-do list ever, but over the last couple of days, I've been inundated with good bye calls, messages, texts and hugs, and each one makes me feel like I'm going on a mission to mars instead of an MBA to Barcelona.

Anyways, haven't got no time to kill. Two hours to go until I leave for the aeropuerto, and loads left to do. I particularly despise packing - how're you expected to pack your life into 2 small suitcases anyways? Plus with the recent terror scare, airlines are now asking passengers to carry only a *single* piece of luggage into the cabin. So either you carry 8 kilos of stuff, or your laptop. Or like I've done - put your laptop inside your handbag (backpack in my case), eating up valuable kilos. It doesn't particularly help when you're the owner of the heaviest laptop in the world.

Long distance flights sure make me cranky.

2006-08-17T12:13:00.000+02:00

The Adventures of Ashwyn : The Case of the Spanish Visa - Part III.

This is the grande finale, the happy ending, the proverbial icing all rolled into one. I got my visa!! This is how it'll happen to you -

>> Day 0 - You'll be informed that your visa's been approved and that you're supposed to be at the embassy between 0900 and 1000 hours, Mon to Thurs.

>> Day 1 - You stand in the line at around 0800 hrs, show your mugshot to the security guard so he knows you're around, who then moves you to the Enquiries line.

>> Gates open 0930 hrs, people in the Enquiries line go in first. You go to one of the two counters, submit your passport, and walk back home. They'll hand over the passport with the visa only the next day between 1430 and 1700 hrs. (Some extremely lucky souls who shall remain unnamed get the visa the self-same day. You need to have done penance for this in your last birth).

>> Day 2 - You stand in the sweltering heat at the appointed time, only to be told that the passports haven't arrived. "From where?" is not a valid question.

>> You stand / sit / take a walk / watch Mr. and Mrs. Monkey perform some lame tricks, to while away your time until the passports "have arrived".

>> Gates open at 1600 hrs. More sorting. You're in the line for the Long Duration Visas, which needless to say, goes in last. More waiting ensues.

>> At around 1700 hrs, your line starts to move. You go to the counter, collect your passport, check your visa, collect a few more documents (PCC, Medical Certs, Admission letter) and walk out with a huge smile on your face. You don't need to practice this, it comes automatically.

>> It's only after you've had a few beers later that night, does it sink in that it's all over. You decide that root-canals and child-births are less excruciating than the visa process, and decide to give one of the other two a shot (or both, if you fancy).

Voila. Next step? Packing!

2006-08-01T20:22:00.000+02:00

The Adventures of Ashwyn : The Case of the Spanish Visa - Part II.

Well quickie update as there's not been much action lately. Called up the embassy to be told that I was supposed to call back in a week's time, which, considering my date of departure, is cutting it quite close. Will I get my visa on time? Will I have to cough up extra cash to get my tickets reschedules? Will I get to say "vamos a la playa" before school starts? Will I miss my only chance to bump into Ms. Right at Parc Guell, when instead, I'm actually standing in line for my visa?

Only time will tell. [Note: If this blog were ever to be made into a movie, this would be just about time for a solid crescendo].

My parents were right - I do have a flair for dramatics.

2006-07-18T08:44:00.000+02:00

The Adventures of Ashwyn : The Case of the Spanish Visa - Part I.

It's been 3 days that I'm back from a truly mind (and leg) numbing trip to Delhi for my Spanish visa application, and I still haven't fully recovered. Before I give out a detailed account, here are some facts for readers to consider -

>> The Spanish embassy in India (Delhi) is common for not just all Indian states, but for countries such as Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

>> It's located at 12, Prithviraj Road, sort of at the intersection of Shahajahan Road and Prithviraj Road.

>> There are no seating arrangements outside the embassy, nor will you find any shops (due to security reasons), so come fully prepared. While you may find vendors selling bottled water on carts, make sure you carry something to snack on, as it's easily a 4-5 hour wait (for Larga Duracion visa applicants).

>> As far as possible, go with someone you know. Not only will they keep you company, you'll have someone to watch after your bags if you have to step outside the line for a bit. Suggested gadgets - A CD player / an ipod / an FM radio.

Right, now for the account. I intend to keep this as short as possible so I'll jump directly to the day that we went to the embassy. Timings are only indicative and may vary.

0430 hrs - Wake up, shower, take a rickshaw to 12, Prithviraj Road. Typical fare = Rs.50, although this is variable. There's no concept of metered rickshaws in Delhi.

0530 hrs - Reach embassy to find that we're numbers 9 and 10 in the line. You find one guy who has been waiting there since 0230 in the morning. You them make sure to get your name written down on this unofficial list that someone will have started. This is to ensure that people don't take your place if you step out for a bit. It's quite useless as you'll later see, but really it's for peace of mind.

0830 hrs - By now, the line has grown to a respectable 40-50 people, but most of these guys have come there for tourist visa applications and/or for visa enquiries. Very few people actually belong to the Long Duration class, and these include students like me, and work permit applicants.

0850 hrs - Guard opens gates, there's a scramble to rush in, only he doesn't allow anyone inside. Takes a look at the unofficial list, sorts people on the basis of their application type. Tourists stand go in first, followed by enquiries. Students / Work permit applicants are asked to stand in a separate line and they go in after everyone else has finished their work. So much for maintaining a list!

1038 hrs - Hunger pangs take over, legs start shaking. Check with guard to see how much more time it'll take, and he says (politely) that he'll send you in as soon as he receives orders to do so from inside.

1145 hrs - Someone from the embassy has finally given the guard a green signal, and you go in all exhausted, only to form a shorter line outside the main hall. From there, you can see why everything has been taking so long. There are only 2 counters inside, so the visa officers are sort of inundated by the sheer number of people coming there. There's a sofa on the side that seats about 3 people, and the second guard will allow you in if there's place.

1210 hrs - Finally your number comes, as the visa officer shouts "Nexxt!". All larga duracion visa applicants go to the counter on the left. It's a surprise to find a very well spoken and polite visa officer when you've been expecting a typical public sector employee. An exchange of pleasantries, and then she (the visa officer) gets down to business. Glances through documents to see if everything is in order (from what I've heard, it helps to arrange your documents in exactly the same order as mentioned on the form), and asks you a few questions. Why MBA? Why IESE? Why Spain? Are you planning on settling down there or do you wish to come back to India at the end of your tenure?
She realizes that you've travelled abroad before (by looking at the visas on your passport) and asks you to take a photocopy of all pages with visas and stamps on them. No, she says, there's no photocopy machine in the embassy.

1218 hrs - You rush outside asking every Tom, Dick and Harry where the nearest photocopy machine is, but not before telling the guard at the entrance that you'll be back in a bit. Someone takes pity on you and directs you to Khan Market. You take a rickshaw (fare - Rs 15) and make small talk with two Spaniards the driver has picked up on the way to make an extra buck. Find a cybercafe-cum-photocopy centre, take copies, take rickshaw back.

1232 hrs - You tell the guard that the visa officer is expecting you with documents, and you walk up to the counter (assuming it's free, of course) and hand over the documents to the officer. Small exchange of pleasantries, and you're returned back your passport and one of the 4 copies of the application form that you've filled in, with the application number written on it (you need to request for it). You're also told to call back in 2 weeks time to see if your documents are in order and to check the status of your application. If everything goes well, you are expected to go back to Delhi one more time with your passport to have the visa stamped.

There. If reading this is exhausting, wait till you get to Delhi!!

2006-07-11T11:10:00.000+02:00

As I pack my belongings and gather roughly 2 kilos of documents to take with me to New Delhi for my Spanish Visa application (I really wish they had a full fledged consulate here in Mumbai too) , here is a last minute check of all that I need -

1. Visa application filled in original, with photos (4 copies) ... check.
2. Certificate of previous studies (SSC, HSC, Graduation) ... check.
3. Copy of GMAT score ... check.
4. Original admission letter in English and Spanish from IESE ... check.
5. Details of the programme ... check.
6. Proof of medical insurance (Winterthur booklet) ... check.
7. Proof of economic means - bank statements + affidavit ... check.
8. Loan confirmation from Banco Sabadell ... check.
9. Medical certificate from Doc, HIV/WIDAL/MANTOUX test results ... check.
10. Passport, Indian PCC, UK PCC ... check.
11. Demand draft ... check.

Looks like I'm all set to go. Back on Saturday, wish me luck!

2006-06-28T10:15:00.000+02:00

Update time! I know I've been a bit lax in updating this blog but I blame it entirely on my unending list of things to do, plus a false family emergency that sent me scurrying off in all directions. I hope my sole reader hasn't given up on me yet.

Anyways to get things started, I just received this from IESE -

For those who have a sight problem (like I do), it's a fancy-ish box containing a pen-drive (512 megs), a pencil and a card holder, all branded by IESE. While it's not much to look at, the information that the pen-drive contains is practically invaluable for someone like me who's about to start school. So thanks to this, I now know that -

* Pre-term now starts on the 30th of August and not the 1st of September as I previously imagined.

* The first day itself has a Spanish entry level test. Gee, I can hardly wait.

* We have roughly a squillion hours of Spanish during September.

* The other precourses, viz. Introduction to Financial Accounting and Basic Quantitative Methods begin mid-September-ish.

* The pace really kicks up end September when we'll actually have all the incoming students present at the campus (including those exempt from the Spanish and other pre-courses, or as we say in India, Lucky Souls) to witness the Dean's welcome, a tete-a-tete with Career Services and an Investment Banking seminar(?).

Apart from this, the pen-drive also contains a thick student handbook (thick when you print it out, like I did) that covers almost everything that you'd need to know before you hit school, indepth details of the Business Spanish programme and other pre-courses and a set of documents dedicated entirely to Career Services, which talks about resume writing, the career-services handbook and some pre-course work required to be done by students to aid the CS.

The wheels are definitely in motion.

2006-05-28T20:21:00.000+02:00

The Da Vinci Bore.

Disclaimer - Those of you who're about to see the film and don't want any spoilers, stop reading now.

Having just seen the film 57 minutes ago, I can safely describe Ron Howard's latest in one word - crap, crap, crap. Ok that was 3 words, but guess what, Ron didn't keep any of his promises either. I don't believe that this is the same guy that gave us A Beautiful Mind. Clearly, the guy's losing his touch.

Let me make this clear - I'm no Da-Vinci-Code-the-book fan. I think the premise was superb, the suspense build up was great, but Dan Brown pretty much butchered the ending, so I wasn't expecting the movie to blow me away anyways. Although, I didn't expect it to be so bad.

So, what was so wrong about the film? Just about everything. I can understand that directing a film that's based on a best seller is tough, and that the director has to make certain allowances to the plot, but I was aghast at the liberal interpretation RH has made of the novel.

Things I didn't like -
1. Extremely patchy. I wonder how much sense it made for someone who hasn't read the book.
2. The entire film seemed like a seedy treasure hunt, reminiscent of Indiana Jones or The Librarian - Quest for the Spear (I just saw this on TV yesterday - BAD movie).
3. The liberal interpretation that I was talking about up there - like 24 Rue Haxo being inscribed on the key instead of being written by Sauniere, like Sister Sandrine having a list of the members of the Priory - with their names on it!, like Sophie and Robert walking into Bois de Boulogne and buying some stuff off a junkie for 50 bucks (what was that about??), like the Swiss bank account coming with a "safe passage" clause, like Remy admitting to Silas that he was the Teacher, like doing away with the first cryptex entirely, like Sauniere not turning out to be Sophie's "real" grandfather.. I could go on and on and on.
4. Tom Hanks. The guy is brilliant, but that entire movie was such a waste. I only hope he got a lot of money for it, coz it's definitely not getting him any awards.

Things I liked -
1. Sophie trying to walk on water. That was funny.
2. Sophie, i.e. Audrey Tatou, and her accent. Yummy.
3. Jean Reno, did a good job as Fache.
4. Did I mention Sophie?

So in short, it was a good waste of money and time, if you don't happen to like Audrey Tatou. They say Spielberg's planning to direct the prequel Angels and Demons, and I sincerely hope he does a better job. There, I'm done.

Boy, if you've come this far, you either really dislike the movie or really like me, or have nothing to do. So for your sake more than mine, I'm gonna go off to sleep and hope to apply for my PCC tomorrow.¡Hasta Pronto!

2006-05-28T19:54:00.000+02:00

After sitting on my behind for quite a while now, I finally seem to have shrugged off some of my laziness and have started moving in the right direction - I finally applied for a bank loan! This of course, is the loan for the (rather steep) tuition expenses I have to bear to study at IESE. How steep? So much that 5 years ago, I hadn't even imagined that I'd be shelling out this much money for *anything* in the world. Yet today, I'm ready to mortgage my soul to the devil even, to lay my hands on Eur 60,000 approx - and that's just the tuition fees.

The good thing, however, is that IESE has a tie-up with Banco Sabadell and thanks entirely to this agreement, accepted students get a collateral free loan from the bank. In plain words, all the bank needs is a signature on the application, and you get yourself a loan. No showing lots of money in the account, or providing proof that your family owns land equivalent in value to Versailles.

That's easier said than done, though. Here's the current deal they're offering (this may change anytime, as it rests at the discretion of the bank) -

Loan amount - Eur 60k approx
Repayment period - 8 years
Capital deferment - First 2 years (i.e. you don't make any capital related payments to the bank for the first 2 years - that's when you're studying - but pay for the accrued interest)
Interest rate - 4.05% for the first year and 4.05% + - some variation.
Guarantee - Personal only. No co-signors, no collateral required.

The only flip side is the Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) that non-Spanish students have to take mandatorily, and the premium amount for the PPI for 8 years works out to roughly Eur 8000, which needless to say, is covered by the loan. But it still comes out of my pocket, when I'm repaying the loan.

Anyways, PPI or no PPI, I've at least gone ahead and applied for a loan. And quite honestly, it was the best deal I could've got. Come on, who in India is ready to give that big a loan, solely on a personal guarantee, at 4% odd interest, unless you're royalty, in which case, you don't need a loan! I rest my case. Next step? PCC, here I come!

2006-05-11T07:07:00.000+02:00

As I was coming home from a nice night-out with my friends, I had the bizarrest conversation with the Rickshaw-driver (Mumbai's ubiquitous three-wheeled medium of transport). It went something like this -

Me: (Exhausted) Phew!
Rickshaw Driver (RD): So, had a late night?
Me: Yeah, well..
RD: Did you get off early today from work?
Me: Huh?
RD: No, it's just that I picked you up much later the other day..
Me: (Still confused) No, I wasn't working... you picked ME up? When?
RD: 10 days ago, it must have been 3 in the morning. You'd finished your night shift and were going back home.

Now this was too much. Not only do I not work in shifts (I *hate* the whole system of working in shifts), I distinctly have no recollections of someone picking me up at 3 in the night! So -

Me: Are you sure it was me? It could've been anyone.. after all you drop off hundreds of people a day...
RD: No Sir, there are four categories of people whose faces I never forget - Lawyers, Cops, Professors and people from my village.
Me: (Trying hard not to laugh, as I'm neither of the 4 above) Ohh yeahhh.. I'm glad you remembered me. It's hard to find Rickshaw Drivers who actually remember people they've dropped off! So, how are you today?

That, I guess was the pebble that broke the barrier. For the next 20 minutes, I had to listen to stories of how he remembered faces, returned forgotten items like mobile phones and cash to their respective owners just by remembering what they looked like, and how it was physically impossible for him not to remember me from the last time, as he had such a photographic memory!

There sure is no dearth of strange people in this world!

2006-05-08T22:02:00.000+02:00

Alright, I agree, sometimes I'm just plain lazy. In all my years of blogging, seldom have I used a standard, ready-made template for my blog. But the last few months, I've been overwhelmed with certain tasks - researching schools, applications, interviews, handing over stuff at work - that I'd put the whole template issue on the backburner.

Since I don't exactly have a valid excuse any more, here's my new template. Due credit goes to Stock Xchng for their amazing frame that I've used as the background. That, and a little bit of Photoshop can do wonders, even for someone with practically no HTML knowledge! There, now I finally have some place to call "home"!

2006-05-02T07:06:00.000+02:00

The last 24 hours have been quite eventful as far as IESE and meeting/speaking to people are concerned. First up, the guys from Mumbai, with the exception of Anindya (Andy) decided to meetup for a leisurely lunch yesterday. Both Ketan and Vivek turned out to be very cool, easy-going guys, and if any of you is reading this - Please try not to talk Greek the next time we meet ... or wait until I know what contra funds and hedge funds are! :-)

Then late last night around 0130hrs, I got a call from Jose, my Portuguese friend, classmate and housemate. Needless to say I was asleep, and the first time he called, I thought it was actually my alarm clock going off and it was time to hit the gym. So I did the obvious - I cut the call and went back to bed. Thankfully he called back, so was great talking to him too, although in my stupor, I'm not exactly sure if I made any sense.

Finally early this morning (yes, 0830hrs constitutes early!) I got a call from - of all people - Andy, my very first friend from IESE, who was calling from a sat-phone on his ship, somewhere close to Russia? He's due to return back to Mumbai soon, so hopefully this time around, we'll have a full-fledged meet up - Ketan, Vivek, Andy, me + Uruguayan Girl??

2006-04-29T20:52:00.000+02:00

Vacations rock - especially the kinds that are all paid for! My entire family, i.e. my parents, sis, bro-in-law and my nephew were supposed to go for this weeklong vacation to Alibaug. But as fate would have it, my mum and nephew fell ill due to which my sis couldn't join us and my bro-in-law's company had to choose that very week to send him to Switzerland so eventually it was just my dad (who was supposed to work anyways, it wasn't a vacation for him), his colleague (a demure looking chick) and I who ended up going.

Of course I couldn't back out - I didn't want to! Who'd let go of the opportunity to stay in a starred hotel, eat, drink and swim as much as you want, and be driven around in a chauffered car for a week? So to cut a long story short, I had a semi-luxury vacation by myself, and it's seem to have done me atleast some good! Pictures tell the story below -

This first collage is of downtown Mumbai, with the Gateway of India and the Taj Intercontinental in all their glory.

This one below was taken at the hotel that we stayed at. One of the best parts was since it's owned by my mum's best friend, everything I ordered as room service was libré.. free! Wish I'd known earlier :P

Finally, these two collages below try to do justice to the Janjira fort in a sleepy beach town called Murud. Built in the middle of the sea, this fort has a history of being unconquered to date - that's about 300 years! The only way to get there is with the help of a locally run boat service, which uses boats that people manually row.. and whose floor is so low that you're sitting literally six inches above the sea. For someone who can't swim (read: me), it can get pretty scary when the sea's rough but it was a definitely a memorable experience!

Built on 22 acres of rock jutting out of the sea, this fort even has access to 3 underground springs that used to provide drinking water to its inhabitants, right in the middle of the sea! And although it's clearly crumbling, as you can see, it's still in a surprisingly good condition given its age.

Well, that's about it. Wish I could have more of such vacations! Where do I go next? Let me see...

2006-04-15T19:43:00.000+02:00

I haven't seen much of Southern India, and whatever little I have, was when I was an ankle-biter, which is enough to say that I have no memories of my southern sojourns whatsoever. Then towards the beginning of last week, my family (consisting of my parents, my aunt and her family, plus an extremely odd uncle - more on him in another post) decided to take a mini vacation to the state of Karnataka, which retrospectively turned out to be both a good and a bad thing.

It was good because thanks to the immediacy of the event, the fact that I've quit my job and have nothing to do hasn't quite sunk in. It was bad, clearly due to the season in which the trip was planned. Southern India is pretty much an overheated sauna throughout the year, and this being summer, visiting the state was the equivalent of cooking a pizza and sitting in the oven at the same time. With day time temparatures reaching close to 40 degrees celsius, our air-conditioned car resembled a pressure cooker. It was thanks entirely due to the heat that we cut short our vacation by 3 days, so we could only visit 4 of the 7 places that we had originally planned on seeing.

Enough said. I did however get the chance to be awestruck more than a few times, and definitely plan to revisit the place - in (some) winter. Here are a few pics that I managed to click:

This one was taken from the car. Whoever said India has terrible roads will eat their words. The Golden Quadrilateral project connecting the four metros has been a godsend, and the roads are almost picture perfect!

These two were taken at a place called Badami, which is well-known for its caves.

Alright, I'm bored of the commentary so I'm just going to post the pics and for those of you that are very keen on knowing more, please write in!

I couldn't resist this - the mural above was almost 30 feet across. Wonder how they ever built that one! Over and out.

2006-04-06T05:45:00.000+02:00

It’s been hectic over the last few weeks. Regulars to this blog will know that I stop working soon, so the last few weeks have been fraught with handover sessions, updates and up-issues of documents, lunches, photo-taking sessions (for posterity’s sake), and other mind-numbing formalities at work. One of these was my exit interview which happened a couple of days ago.

I need to put this in perspective. I don’t hate my company. In fact, almost everything that I have today – work experience, the chance to live abroad, even friends that I’ll probably cherish life-long. So don’t mistake my anger for hatred. After about six years that I have worked for these guys, I gave the HR a two-month notice period, so they had a good 60 days to look at my file and know that I was quitting to join a B-school. Through half the exit interview that lasted for roughly 40 minutes, Miss HR kept asking me why is it that I was planning to join another company. It was after I pointed out that I wasn’t quitting for another job, did she actually open the file and check.

Honestly, I don’t understand if these guys don’t read what’s in front of them, or they are so self absorbed that employees are nothing but a folder on the computer. There, I’m sorry for the rant but I think it was called for.

On a lighter note, something happened a few days ago that almost killed me – with laughter. I’ve got this friend at work who’s genuinely nice but has quirky vocabulary. For example, if we are to have a 3-way conference, instead of “pulling” the next person in to the conference, this woman says things like “Oh wait, let me flash him”. So imagine my surprise when one fine day, while talking about horses, she says to me “Ashwin, if you buy a horse, do you promise to ride me??”. Hang on. Why do I need to buy a horse for that?

2006-03-07T07:06:00.000+01:00

“Sir, you’ve had… what, two glasses of wine? Would you care for a third?”

Hell yeah, I would! Flying has never been one of my favourite activities but when you’re working abroad (fairly) frequently, I think it makes more sense to fly 8 hours than spend 6 months on a cargo ship with 154 other highly strung men suffering from a testosterone overload. What makes the whole experience worse is that fact that my company has a tie up with Air India, but on the plus side, employees get to carry 10 extra kilos while flying AI – which is a lot considering your mum wants to pack you off with so much food as to give someone the idea that Europe has a perennial food crisis.

Anyways, so flying Air India hasn’t exactly been on my list of Top-10-Things-To-Do-Ever, but since I was scheduled to travel back from Ipswich (that’s another post in itself) to Mumbai, AI was the only option. What I hadn’t expected was to have an utterly eventful flight home. As is always the case with me, I over-shot my prescribed weight limit by a meagre 4 kilos, which is quite heartening considering it’s the lowest in the past 5 years – but don’t blame me! I can’t help it if folks back home want a year’s supply of Schwarzkopf shampoos and St. Ives’ body scrubs, and I can’t say no. They’re the only family I have. Back to the point, though. I over-shot my limit and the chap on the counter where I checked in my luggage sat with a face that only implied a night on the couch and no sex for four weeks. In short, he was in no mood to humour me. I was to reduce the luggage by 4 kilos – not a gram less. His words, not mine.

Thankfully for me, he had messed up someone else’s ticket / boarding pass, so Mr. Pissed Off along with his 16 kids came barging to the counter, which effectively occupied him for about 20 minutes, by which time he had conveniently forgotten about me and my luggage. Once he shooed them off successfully, he was so harrowed by the experience that he gave one look at my luggage, another at me, and waved it off without even so much as a murmur.

Once I did get my boarding pass, however, did I realise that I hadn’t asked for either a window or an aisle seat, so I was hoping like hell that I wouldn’t be caught on the middle seat with two guys next to me, who insisted not only on sticking to their seats but also on talking to each other non-stop for eight hours in a totally incomprehensible language (that happened to me on one of my earlier flights). It came as a pleasant surprise to have gotten a window seat next to the emergency exit (where there aren’t any seats in front of you so you can stretch, stretch, stretch your legs!) and the two seats next to me empty. Having one of the air-hostesses - who for the record, was so old that I could count her wrinkles and guess her age – tell you in a throaty voice the operation of the emergency exit in case she fainted on impact, was only a small sufferance. I did however neglect to tell her that once I realised that the plane was going to crash, I would probably run around like a screaming banshee.

Much to my relief, I never had the opportunity to tug-unfold-hop-slide. Also relieving was the fact that the whole affair of trying to make me understand why I had to use the life-jacket if we were not crashing in water proved too much for Miss Throaty Voice, who soon tired and drifted off to sleep on the crew seats bang in front of me. Thus I had the pleasure of being served by – clearly the highlight of my trip – an extra-young doting little thing who insisted on serving me seconds and thirds without me even asking for it. I have a vague feeling she also adjusted my air pillow and blanket but I could have been dreaming. I was also in strong doubt if she knew this was economy and not first, but she was probably drowning in her own effervescence to take notice.

Her excited presence alone reduced much of the drone and probably the average IQ of the plane too. She also suggested, in a very ominous voice, to go for the vegetarian option to which I meekly complied. The crew had probably spat in the meat-menu, and I was in no mood to find out. Too much wine (I eventually had 4 glasses before my bladder took control) led to the inevitable. Just as I relieved myself and half-opened the door, I was grabbed by a guy with such foul breath, it would have made a garlic wilt in shame. Over the hum of an aircraft at 30k feet, I was short-listed for a job that paid up to 300 quid a day. Why I get a job when I’ve quit my existing one to join B-school is beyond me, and I made an addition to the mysterious ironies of the universe.

All in all, it was a great trip back home. Much to both, my delight and my chagrin, nothing has changed back in Mumbai. The roads are still dug-up; the air is just as polluted but the people are still as warm and it’s great to have a life again.

2006-02-10T19:54:00.000+01:00

I've just been told (rather rudely, might I add) that I'm not gigolo-material (for women only). There goes my internship idea.

2006-02-10T19:27:00.000+01:00

It's things like these that get me upset. First it's my office server that has blocked anything and everything to do with blogger. So I write this nice long post about things on my mind (including some funny stuff - lest anyone complain that my blog's "boring"), sent it to myself so I could access it from a cafe, and then in a haste to leave work, deleted it with a bunch of other junk mails.

Anyways, for the people interested, I've put in my papers. It's a little too soon, but this is my notice period and my last day is actually well into April. I realise April itself is too soon, considering the course (do I talk about anything else lately??) starts in September, but -

a) It's been five long years since I've taken a real break (it's always been a Oh-I-gotta-attend-a-wedding break or I-gotta-study break). This time around the only thing on agenda is: unwind. Possibly in Goa. And work out - my "new" year's resolution!

b) Well everyone, repeat, everyone that I have been in touch with seems to suggest that studying as much Spanish and refreshing as much of Financial Accounting are must-do activities before I start IESE in September. May be I could use my break do that as well?

Funny thing is, I could have given the guys at work a month's notice and walked out a free man. But no, I gave them TWO (partly out of the goodness of my heart). So what do these guys do? They tell me "it's too short a notice period and could I please extend it a little." I think two months is a perfectly good time to find a replacement for someone on Mars, I don't know what these guys are talking about.

Recent update: I had a meeting with my super-boss and guess what? Everything's hunky dory. I'm out as planned.

2006-01-27T19:18:00.000+01:00

I’ve got many disjointed things to talk about and I’m not sure where to start. Eenie..Meenie..Miney..Mo...

Got it. Made a trip to Newcastle yesterday and realised a few things.
1/ My presence was completely unnecessary and I could have as well vegetated here in Ipswich rather than fly out, have two airport meals, nod my head like the thingamabob on the dashboard, participate in a conversation that made utterly no sense and come home dead tired.
2/ BT values the MBA degree a lot, and they hire about 50 MBA graduates each year. *Mental note – can try this option.*
3/ Business (&useless) trips are a great way to find out more about your super-bosses. Like mine loves wine. Is fanatical about golf. Is divorced but seeing someone he newly met. Adores Spain. Wants to do community service.
4/ I realised that if you have an issue, there’s no substitute to a face-to-face meeting. My team (i.e. the project that I’m working on) had some issues with another, and we were neither getting any cooperation from them, nor were we making any headway. It took all of two f-t-f meetings to clear the foul air, gain trust and secure co-operation.

Next, I’m worried about how I’m going to finance my MBA. There’s the collateral-free loan that’s offered by IESE but it covers only the tuition expenses. What do I do about the living expenses?? I don’t fancy touching my savings, and I’m not about to ask my parents for money (that’d be just plain wrong). The only option seems to be to take yet another bank loan to cover my living expenses, and two loans on my head give me very little leeway to take risks. Plus there’s very little that I can do from here. I need to go back to India and see if I can get that stuff sorted out.

Finally, I am through with at least two of the 10 most important things on my To-Do-List-In-UK, one of them being meeting my ex-manager Mike, who also happened to be my recommender. Funnily enough, both he and my super-boss were of the opinion that they always preferred to have only those Indians on their team who had travelled & worked abroad before. The reasoning? That the experience taught them the importance of saying No, as against Indians who hadn’t worked abroad and who fell into the trap of either saying Yes to everything and thereby either failing to deliver, saying Yes to their managers because it was not in the Indian culture to argue with managers (huh??) or having to work their asses off for 90 hours a week to deliver what they had promised. I really don’t know where they got them from. May be I ought to talk to some more people and find out if that’s the general opinion.

2006-01-20T08:46:00.000+01:00

It's been a working-week since I first landed in Ipswich, and already I have mixed feelings. On the bright side, I have a boss that I seem to like, get along with(that's the second time in three years - where are all these nice bosses springing up from?), and look up to(he has a PhD in Nuclear Physics, and although that doesn't make him perfect, I respect his knowledge) so I don't have any work related complaints for now. Plus, although I haven't been able to meet any of my friends, I know that it's only a matter of time before that happens.

On the flip side, things really need to be spruced up around here. There's none of that hustle-bustle that I am so used to in Mumbai and previously in London, and everything seems to move around in slow-motion. If this goes on for a while, I'm gonna have to take up meditation to catch-up with these lot. On second thoughts, that doesn't seem like such a bad idea!

2006-01-15T13:51:00.000+01:00

I have exactly 9 more hours before I board my flight to Heathrow, and I had promised myself that I'd make a post to break my mini-hiatus, so I'm taking the easy way out and posting an image of my to-be alma mater: IESE. I've never had a chance to visit the school in person (I had my interview via telephone) but from what I've heard, it's beautiful. See for youself -

IESE Business School

Not exactly sure if I'll be able to make a short trip to Barca during the month or so that I'll be in the UK, but if I get a chance, you bet I'm gonna take it. Although, it looks increasingly difficult as from what I've just learnt, a Spanish tourist visa application takes over 2 months to get processed. That, and the fact that I'll be stuck in (sunny?) Ipswich, a nondescript little village south-east of London, where people pass their time by watching birds fly and trees grow, makes this a trip *really* worthwhile (note the sarcasm).

Ok, I realise I might be hurting a lot of sentiments here (especially if someone from there's reading this), but come on! I hate to be unusually critical, but Ipswich isn't exactly the centre of the universe (at least they have Nando's). On the bright side, I hope to meet, apart from some very close friends,some of the guys in the UK who have also received an admit and are going to attend school with me in September. That, should be fun.

2006-01-02T17:42:00.000+01:00

A few pics from the bash... I'm still working on the rest, so hold your horses!

2006-01-02T09:46:00.000+01:00

Two things jolted me out of my post-party-pre-hangover state yesterday. The first was when I read that the Y chromosome was on a decline and that in environ 225000 years from now, the male species would be extinct. Not that any of us will be around to witness that, but the possibilities are immense!

“Imagine the sale of dildos”, chips in my friend. Now, I’m nowhere close to an expert on either sex toys or genetics, so pardon my ignorance when I say, WTF?!! Would females mutate i.e. turn hermaphrodites to fill in the gap? Would we be able to replicate sperm? Clearly, if you are gonna be working 225000 years from now, BioTech is the place to be!

The second thing that jolted me was, well, more surprising than the first one. Sonia Gandhi was elected as the NDTV Indian of the Year. Now I’m not about to waste any lines on my political stance, but the news is a biggie considering Sonia Gandhi was born Sonia Maino, an Italian wedded into the illustrious (?) Gandhi family. It’s surprising because when it comes to accepting an “outsider” into the family, Indians are generally a suspicious lot. Even more astounding is the fact that the most votes in favour of Ms. Gandhi came from the rural population, the poor, illiterate folk and not the educated, socially aware, broad minded (so to speak) lot.

And whether or not she deserves to be made Indian of the Year over and above the other stalwarts in the line up is the subject matter for a different post, I’m just glad that Ms. Gandhi’s perseverance finally seems to have paid off (she could’ve just gone back to Italy after her husband was assassinated), and that we, as Indians, have yet another Indian to call our own.

2006-01-02T07:40:00.000+01:00

I don’t think there’s anything more obvious than the subject of a blog post on the 1st of Jan – it’s got to be a New Year’s Post!! Well, last year a bunch of us attended one of these high-end parties (not to mention that we paid the equivalent of the monthly wages of an entire cross-section of the population in my country – and no, I’m not proud of it) only to find out that not only was it badly organised, they even ran out of food! Plus the music, which was supposed to be a crowd-puller, was strictly ok. We did end up having fun (hey, it’s the company that matters) but it was a kilometre away from “Perfect”.

We decided to make this year slightly different, more low-key and more chilled out than the last. So, throw in a smattering of close friends, pick an empty house (my parents’), dollops of mouth watering food, plenty of alcohol, some music and lots of laughter, and you end up with a memorable party! (Pics to follow soon)

Alright, enough about that. Its funny how everything seems good in retrospect and 2005 has been no different. Like each year, I have my set of New Year Resolutions, most of which sound so high-and-mighty that they’ve been on the list since... umm, 1985. There’s the standard addition of a few more this year too, some of which I plan to seriously work on in 2006. I have, however, been successful in crossing a major one out, so I can breathe easy. For now.

Finally the last thing before I sign off is to wish a Happy New Year to everyone who’s reading this. God Bless!

2005-12-28T09:44:00.000+01:00

Warning – this post rated “R” for gory details.

My doctor’s thinks I’m hot. No, really. Over the last week or so, I had developed a pea sized growth on my cheek (“Oh it’s just a boil, nothing to worry about”), which, thanks to the excess body heat that I possess - ask my doc- grew to the size of a golf-ball (ok, may be that’s a slight exaggeration).

So not only was I completely unsightly and in pain (it was the equivalent of a man sitting in there with a sledgehammer, pounding my insides to a gooey pulp), it also gave my doc immense pleasure. You see, although I trust him blindly, that doesn’t change the facts.

He’s a sadist. So every day for the past three days, I have been undergoing the equivalent of labour pain. Lying on his recliner, I stifle my moans as he squeezes the hell outta my cheek, and watch him glow in the satisfaction. To make things worse, he makes it a point to show me each blood-soaked ball of cotton as he throws it away. Today’s supposedly the last day of this “draining” session (quite literally). Perhaps I won’t be so brave today and yell just when the waiting area is full. That should teach him a few lessons.

On a completely different note, I also think he’s a weirdo. The other day as he was examining my simian cheek, all of a sudden he froze. “Take off your glasses...” was followed by “Nice frame, where didja get that??” I rest my case.

2005-12-28T07:47:00.000+01:00

Right, this whole holding-cards-close-to-my-chest approach isn’t helping anyone, least of all my audience, which seems to be dwindling down from sparse to non-existent. Anyways it’s been a while since I posted anything, and that’s partly due to the lazy procrastinating $#*& that I am, and partly due to this tennis-ball sized growth on my cheek (more on that later).

So, it’s Revelation Time! I have thought, re-thought, slept, mulled and :place-verb-indicating-action-here: over it, and I think that given my career-cum-MBA goals and the whole fitting-into-place aspect of the MBA, IESE Barcelona is the place to be. Needless to say, I received my admit a couple of days before Christmas (woohoo!!), and that’s been the key reason for my overflowing Christmas spirit.

Mind you, I have had to turn down another kick-ass school AND a partial scholarship but now I seem to have made up my mind about IESE, there’s no looking back!

2005-12-12T10:40:00.000+01:00

I somehow dislike uneventful weekends, and I just had one. On the bright side, my parents had come over to visit me and I ended up talking about the one thing that I’ve been avoiding confrontation with – finances for the MBA (the bright side was the home-made food). “Here’s how it is – I have some savings, a partial scholarship and an enormous bank loan to fund my MBA”, I tried reasoning. What I had failed to consider (rather avoided thinking about) was the enormity of the bank loan. Well let’s just say that it’s enough to buy a piece of prime real estate in Mumbai – where prices are among the highest in the world.

I know I can bank on a loan to fund my studies, but it’s going to be at the cost of putting the house we live in up as collateral. I’m not entirely comfortable with that. I wish that the school that I was admitted in had a tie up with a bank which would provide a collateral-free loan, but who says you get everything you want? I know for a fact that the other school that I haven’t yet heard from *has* one, but then they better have one, - the course is effing costly. (And I haven’t heard from them yet, so I still don’t know which country I’m going to end up in. Arrgh I hate uncertainty.)

Finally, it took enough probing from my dad for me to finally blurt out the plain fact. That if something went wrong, and god forbid I wasn’t able to finish my MBA (an illness? may be a calamity?) or I didn’t get a job after graduation (which I didn’t want to consider as both schools where I had applied were among the best) there was no bloody way I could pay back the loan, without working like an ass all my life. There. I’ve finally said it.

There’s no point dwelling on it too much. How many people drop out of a top-class MBA anyways?

Btw, people who like gore and guts and stomach churning stuff in their films, please watch Wrong Turn. Whetted my appetite alright.

2005-11-24T10:56:00.000+01:00

Right, I’d promised myself (and someone else – you happy now, Nef?) that I’d restart my blog if I got into a B-school of my choice, and guess what? I haven’t. But I have managed to get into a b-school. Whether it’s the one that I eventually take up is yet to be seen, but I plan to capture snippets of my journey ab-hinc, well through my MBA days and who knows what else, right here.

Having said that (I’m a man of contradictions), I don’t intend to write down every teensy-weensy bit of detail regarding my personal life (did I hear a sigh of relief?), for which you’ll have to call me up. If you don’t have my number, well too bad.

So welcome aboard and hope you enjoy the ride!