Meet the Foreign Minister

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.

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!

Enough! I Just Want to Listen Songs

Do not get confused by the title of this blog. It does not mean that I have finished all the assignments. It just means that I am totally bored of reading cases and then writing my opinion on them. I have three more cases lined up for this week but it just came to my mind that today is supposed to be a holiday. So, for the next two hours, it is going to be just songs and songs. Get rejuvenated!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I need a life.

Pure White

Today morning, it was all white... yes, it snowed yesterday night. I woke up in the morning and was thinking about my day's schedule, when I removed the curtain my room's window and to my surprise, I saw the first snow at Oxford. Within no time, I was out in the open ... a very short walk to the ground very close to our house. Atleast, something changed to raise our spirits in the monotonous life these days.

As I could feel the freshness and chill of the morning air, I decided to get ready and dash off to the school. On way to the school, we (myself and Saif) clicked a few photographs. Though some of the snow had melt by that time but nevertheless, this could not have been left uncaptured.

20 Days Into the Current Year - I wish you all a Happy New Year

Holidays over and back to the grind.

The first week of second term is also over! What am I upto now? I dont know - all I know is that I have some courses lined up over the next few weeks. Add to that, the never ending job search.... But I have to confess, at times I get this feeling that how in this very competitive world, will I ever get a job with a firm. However, we all know that there's something (somebody) on this earth in store for everybody (remember SRK's dialogue in DDLJ ....)

Last weekend was relatively good.. met Aditya, Ekta (Adi's wife) and his brother-in-law. They had come over to visit Oxford; it was nice to meet Aditya after a long time. A week before, met ex EVS colleagues in London.. it was fun as well.. gupshup and beer.. ha ha ..The world's a small place, isn't it?

More next time.. The round of assignments have started. This weekend we have two to go! But before I leave, here's a pic that we clicked on the last day of our Michaelmas exams at Angel's place.. I am wearing Andrea's biking gear (read jacket) and guess what.. I drove his 800 CC bike.. woooooooooooooooooooooooooosh, it was tough!!

Flashback!!

The first term has sped away. With little time to think about any thing, one definite advantage of such a rapid pace is that you dont really think about getting settled. You just get on with the situation and are always in the damange control and disaster management mode. Are you thinking .. Is it that bad? I'd say there's no other way to deal with it. But in between all this, all of us did have some good moments... Here's a flash down the memory lane.

1. Just Arrived

From the Heathrow airport, we (myself and Deb) rode straight to Oxford. The journey was uneventful, though I found myself in deep thoughts captured by the vast green spaces and relaxed environment - a strike difference from what you find back home in India. At the Oxford bus stop, we were greeted by university's 'international students welcome team'. They guided us to our destination. I was supposed to stay with Deb at his college accomodation for the first few days. The private that I had taken up with three other guys was getting renovated and we were supposed to get the keys only after a week. Unfortunately for both of us, the caretaker of Deb's house had already left office by the time we reached. Andres, my first friend at Oxford, offered to help. He had an apartment in the same building and went around with us to search another Indian friend's place who was supposed to collect the keys of Deb's house. Courtesy Andres, I took a short guided tour of the city on the very first day itself.

2. First Class

After a week long orientation in the school, we were supposed to be ready for the grill. We had heard the following three words a lot of time in the past one week (Week 0) - 'Welcome to Oxford'. This day marked a beginning to the long study group meetings and an end to all the welcoming rituals. The atmosphere and the feeling was full of optimism. And why not! It was like a dream for me and many others to study at this great institution and I was about to realize this dream. But what about all those assignments? With the first week, also started a never ending stream of assignment submissions and deadlines. My first friends were my study group mates - Andrea, Angel, Deepak, Shreyas and Kate.

3. Matriculation Day

A big tadition @ Oxford. All of us were dressed in formal black suits and a bow tie. It appeared like a great ceremony across the entire city. You could see everybody else also in similar attire, ready to be officially inducted in the university. For the first time in life, I wore a subfusc as well. This is also our uniform while we take our term examinations. It was a truely magnificent experience as the Vice Chancellor addressed all the students from Templeton College - the ceremony lasted around 12 minutes. And then as the official students of the university, we could call ourselves 'Oxonions'. Well, we did look like business graduates - Men and Women in Black Suits.

4. More Study Group Meets

As the semester wore on, we started spending more time in the school attending lectures, support classes and those largely unfruitful company presenations (followed by a small reception including a round of drinks.. without doubt, the largest attraction for the already tired students). I was lucky to be a part of a wonderful study group. We managed to strike a real consistency in performance of all our assignments - almost ZERO standard deviation right from the first assignment. Be it Strategy, DEM, Finance - we scored all 60s!! The best thing was that we all agreed on a very efficient way of wrapping up the assignments... Generally we had just one full fledged meeting where we discussed the case for an hour and a half. And one person took the responsibility of writing down the analysis and then others reviewed it and came up with minor suggestions before deciding upon the final draft. Very very efficient! Here in this photograph: Sitting - Kate and Deepak, Standing (from left) - Angel, myself, Andrea and Shreyas. Cheers Guys!

5. Babbu @ Oxford

This chap always makes you laugh. He always has an anecdote up his sleeves which you will relish. And so when he came to meet me during the mid of my first term, it was a well deserved and much needed break from studies. As simple as this - 'yaar mujhe samajh nahin aata yahan ke log har baat pe Thank you kyon bolte hain; maine to jitna thank you peechle ek mahine mein bol diya hai, lagta hai poori zindagi ka quota poora kar diya hai'.



We had real good time - went around the city, clicked photographs. The kind of personality he is, he stated that watching a Piano Concert at Sheldonian Theatre made his UK trip successful. I, though, slept through majority of that concert (may be I was tired because of less sleep and whole day walkout). The second day was spent largely searching for souvenir for his friends and loitering around the various streets. Two days well spent!


6. Financial Reporting and Managerial Economics
The big ones! Last two assignments of the semester and really the big ones! Both accounted for 40% of the total course evaluation and came at a time when the semester was already half-way through. But, like all other things in this world, everything that begins has to end as well. We managed to get over this phase as well. The highlight for me definitely was the presentation on 'Managerial Economics' report that I and Andrea gave to the class. We managed to engage most of the class in the discussion and with Andrea on board, it was bound to be hilarious and lot of fun.

7. Week 10 - Examinations

The final week of Michaelmas term. We had a week's preparatory break for the examinations. The break was welcome after 8 weeks of regular classes. The celebrations had begun with no more classes to report to. You could sleep, eat, drink, study whenever you wanted to. The exams were largely a formality and you could sense that professors want you to pass their course :). But the experience was good. Seeing yourself and everybody else dressed up in business suit with an elegant bow tie gives you some confidence and the feel of being a MBA student. Champagnes opened after the last exam and it was a realy party time. Why not! we had a long break to unwind and recharge the batteries.

Delhi in Oxford

The weather's been amazing over the last two days. I could sense and feel the cold Delhi winter nights - the one's similar to walks in IIT and coffee at Nescafe. The sun sets at 4 pm these days and its really good fun to go around in the town during any time of the day.

Yesterday, for the first time, I utilized my college's sports facilities - played squash. We had a good time out for five games. The college is approximately 20 minutes cycling distance from our place. It takes some motivation to decide to bike aroung that long in -1 deg C. However there's been no dearth of motivation as you know that once the next semester starts, you will again be in a deep mess moving around to attend those lectures, finishing assignments and attending company presentations. The sports facilities in the college are very good. Come to think of it.. we've spent GBP 3000 to get the compulsory college membership (some maths and you can work out how costly it is!!).

After a good workout and a hot water bath in the college, we (myself and Saif) rode back home not before having a small photo session. The evening was largely spent with the laptop trying to keep up with the latest news. And then you think why do so many things occuring around the world have to happen simultaneously.

Then came the real treat of the day. After dinner in which we made gulaab jamuns, rice, daal, chick peas, we streamed 'Lage Raho Munnabhai'. Sanju baba and not to forget, arshad warsi are a great jodi.. laughter, laughter and more laughter.

Bande mein tha Dam.. Vande Matram!!!!