His honorable, ex-defence/foreign/external affairs minister, Jaswant Singh was in the town day before yesterday (don't know when did i start giving so much respect to the politicians but Jaswant Singh has been one of the better ones in the recent history). I hear he's been given visiting professorship by one of the colleges of the university.
Seeing him, my first reaction was that he's really grown old. Or maybe, it was because of the cold English weather which made it look worse. But listening him talking about his experiences and his views on different matters concerning the country, you realize that politics is a tough game to play. His strong views on the US international affairs policy - be it Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan - made you ponder about all the bad things happening around us.
Overall, it was a nice experience. Singh came across as a friendly person. After his talk and the Q&A session, we (group of fellow MBA students) shared our views with him. He told us that he'd be in Oxford again after two months - may be we can persuade him for a session at our b-school - without doubt, it will be a big hit.
Will post some shots with him soon. Keep watching this space for more.
Friday 9 February 2007
Friday 2 February 2007
A Good Day in the Life of a MBA Student
2 February 2007
Michaelmas Term Dean's List
The Dean has just announced the students who have been selected for the Michaelmas Term Deans List. I am delighted to inform you that you have been selected for the Michaelmas Term Deans List. The official signed list will be posted on the MBA notice board by the pigeon holes, and the rest of the class will be notified via e-mail. As a result of being selected for the Deans List you will be invited by the Dean, to attend various lunches and events. Kate Nayler, Professor Hopwood's secretary will be contacting all of you with details of forthcoming Deans Dinner, invitations will be placed in your pigeon holes. Both Tim Jenkinson (Dean of Degree Programmes) and Stephan Chambers (MBA Director) congratulate you on passing your Michaelmas Term examinations, and for your Deans List selection.
At times, one does get lucky. My guess is that I just managed to scrape through in the distinguished list for Michalemas. This is how my day progressed. Wake up in the morning at around 8:00. You know that Friday you dont have classes because you have made an extra effort during the earlier weekdays to attend classes of other sections (Professors used to tell us that by Hillary Term, MBA students get very good in managing their time effectively... i think its beginning to show). You start your day by checking the emails to see if your study group mates have sent some update on the assignments that are due over the weekend. One of the emails that you see is from the MBA programs office informing that the first term transcripts will be available in Seminar Room 21 between 12:00 - 1:oo PM. Your first reaction, you will have to get ready and goto school. Incidentally, Saif and Sunil are also at home today. During breakfast, we start talking about who's to go to school.
Sunil: So guys, we are getting the transcripts today. When should we go and collect it
Me: We'll go in a while. There's so many other things to do
Sunil: Yeah, who cares!
Finally, after you know you can't wait any longer, you get ready. And off to school. Straight to Seminar Room 21 and you sign the sheet to take the sealed envelope. Next what you see is very neat! 63, 66, 70, 71, 70, 74. You share your performance with other desis around and they start talking about Dean's list. Well, you know that anything above 70 means distinction but then you also realize that papers were not very difficult and many people may have got higher marks..so Dean's list is far away.
You goto the library to start working on Finance assignment (at the back of your mind thinking that if only you'd have put in a lil more effort, you'd have got the distinctions). But hey, as soon as you open the laptop, you see the mail from Programmes Manager suggesting that I have made it through the Dean's list. Pause Pause Pause... Read the mail again... Err.. Did they make some mistake? ... Read the mail again... It takes some time for the news to sink in... But then, you have to believe that you have indeed made it through.
Congratulations!
Now in retrospect, I know that I did well in the exams and got good marks. What I need to improve upon is my class participation and regularly taking interest in contributing to the discussion. This is what I have to do to extract more out of this MBA year. Remember, BEEN THERE.. DONE THAT.. YOU CAN DO IT AGAIN.
Before I finish, we had a Templeton College dinner last week. As always, magnificent experience.. and why not.. you get a break and good food and wine as well! Here's, one shot!
Michaelmas Term Dean's List
The Dean has just announced the students who have been selected for the Michaelmas Term Deans List. I am delighted to inform you that you have been selected for the Michaelmas Term Deans List. The official signed list will be posted on the MBA notice board by the pigeon holes, and the rest of the class will be notified via e-mail. As a result of being selected for the Deans List you will be invited by the Dean, to attend various lunches and events. Kate Nayler, Professor Hopwood's secretary will be contacting all of you with details of forthcoming Deans Dinner, invitations will be placed in your pigeon holes. Both Tim Jenkinson (Dean of Degree Programmes) and Stephan Chambers (MBA Director) congratulate you on passing your Michaelmas Term examinations, and for your Deans List selection.
At times, one does get lucky. My guess is that I just managed to scrape through in the distinguished list for Michalemas. This is how my day progressed. Wake up in the morning at around 8:00. You know that Friday you dont have classes because you have made an extra effort during the earlier weekdays to attend classes of other sections (Professors used to tell us that by Hillary Term, MBA students get very good in managing their time effectively... i think its beginning to show). You start your day by checking the emails to see if your study group mates have sent some update on the assignments that are due over the weekend. One of the emails that you see is from the MBA programs office informing that the first term transcripts will be available in Seminar Room 21 between 12:00 - 1:oo PM. Your first reaction, you will have to get ready and goto school. Incidentally, Saif and Sunil are also at home today. During breakfast, we start talking about who's to go to school.
Sunil: So guys, we are getting the transcripts today. When should we go and collect it
Me: We'll go in a while. There's so many other things to do
Sunil: Yeah, who cares!
Finally, after you know you can't wait any longer, you get ready. And off to school. Straight to Seminar Room 21 and you sign the sheet to take the sealed envelope. Next what you see is very neat! 63, 66, 70, 71, 70, 74. You share your performance with other desis around and they start talking about Dean's list. Well, you know that anything above 70 means distinction but then you also realize that papers were not very difficult and many people may have got higher marks..so Dean's list is far away.
You goto the library to start working on Finance assignment (at the back of your mind thinking that if only you'd have put in a lil more effort, you'd have got the distinctions). But hey, as soon as you open the laptop, you see the mail from Programmes Manager suggesting that I have made it through the Dean's list. Pause Pause Pause... Read the mail again... Err.. Did they make some mistake? ... Read the mail again... It takes some time for the news to sink in... But then, you have to believe that you have indeed made it through.
Congratulations!
Now in retrospect, I know that I did well in the exams and got good marks. What I need to improve upon is my class participation and regularly taking interest in contributing to the discussion. This is what I have to do to extract more out of this MBA year. Remember, BEEN THERE.. DONE THAT.. YOU CAN DO IT AGAIN.
Before I finish, we had a Templeton College dinner last week. As always, magnificent experience.. and why not.. you get a break and good food and wine as well! Here's, one shot!
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