Nothing much this week. The week went ok. Didn't attend many classes and worked on assignments and other stuff. After I finished whining for SCP I decided to bid for second round of SCP. The result is awaited in few days. Week and weekend was without any happening. Though the worst thing was Federer's pathetic loss against Nadal. I mean the guy is world no.1 and couldn't even score 6 points in entire match. The match was so similar like last year's match. I mean the same problem with backhand, the same way to try to reach to net while knowing that no matter where you put the ball, Nadal is going to reach there, and same slow movements. Almost equal disappointment as last week when I didn't get SCP.
Anyways. As nothing else to talk about, I am adding some snaps to view.
Provost Garden and Worcester College opened to all only once a year
We were invited by Aashima and Lovraj for this garden party
Teaching Jitin how to pay Croquet - a traditional garden game
Dinner at Incheon's place. with Jenny and April
I am pretty much ready for the last week of term. I was slow and hence didn't complete much during the week end. So might be busy during the week as I have loads of assignments to complete. And hopefully will get some good news this weeks.
It was a transformational week. Many things changed in this week.
Strange Change
Very first and unexpected change was the behavior of people. Being private matter, won't discuss it on blog... but this substantial change in relationship with some good friends... both positive and negative change.... had major impact on my thinking and my perspective to look at the overall program and life thereafter.
A big blow
I couldn't make it to any of the Strategic Consulting Project.
There were total 40+ projects and less number of teams. So statistically, more than one project per team. But large number of projects couldn't attract any of the teams. So core interest was in about 15 projects. I was counting on IBM internship (which I lost eventually) and hence didn't formed a team beforehand. Later on it was late as most of the good people had already teams and I had great difficulty in finding team. Finally we formed team just 20 hours before the deadline and we prepared cover letters in just 5 hours. Again one of the team member had to pull out and we found another team member. Some more things like that. We bid for 7 projects. Eventually two of them withdrew, of remaining 5 we were interviewed by one. But at the end we couldn't make it.
Frankly speaking, our team wasn't very best formation. And couple of calls were given based on CV and cover letter that we formed just in 5 hours and hence were not of a very high quality. But I don't like to give excuses for loosing. So the fact is that we weren't competitive enough and we lost. This is very hard to digest. I couldn't manage to come out of it even after 48 hours. I know it is not end of the world and all the other positive arguments from other side. But when you lose, thatz what it means....you lose.
Apart from whining about it, there are some real problems ahead now. Those who can't get SCP and internship have to choose summer electives. The ones that I could choose are starting at the end of August. So when other MBAs are doing cool internships and SCP all around the world with nice companies, I am most likely to... I don't know what I am going to do then. I might go to India for about a week and come back for job search. But job search every day won't take more than 5 hours. Don't know what to do after that. Anyways..............
Sylvester Awards
SBS has something called as Sylvester Awards. A ceremony to appreciate / comment / pull legs of MBAs. There are some good awards like sportsman of the class, while most of them are really naughty like the person who ask most riduculous questions in class or sleeping beauty of the class. Most of them are very funny. And the event was organized very nicely. Kindda flashback of whole year and the fun we had. So overall it was a great event. But this event made everyone realise that the end is near. Only two weeks of classes are left. Then everyone (except the fallen ones like me) will travel all around the world for in summer work or vacation. We will meet again for 2 weeks in September and thatz it. People have started to talk about 'the end' and 'departure' and stuff. Not very pleasant subject to talk about.
I know its really whiny post and the situation might not be dire as it seems (or it might really be)... But thought I will write it whatsoever.....
Cooking
Anyway.... to change the mood... find some snaps of Indian lunch I cooked for my Asian friends on Saturday... the menu was Peshawari nan, mutter paneer, rice and my patent receipe dish of spicy coconut pulao... I blew it up... it was stuff too hot for my friends and I guess taste wasn't that good. But the nice people said they liked it....
Incheon and Jenny advertising for the food....
Sorry guys, couldn't get rest of the snaps by this time. Will update it in a day or two.
Every Saturday I think of writing something about the school, the course, the professors or 'words of wisdom'. But by the time Sunday arrives, I run out of time, I start thinking who am I to tell about philosophy of life and criticize Oxford profs. So the blogs turns into one more newsletter...
Not that the news are not interesting. In fact so many interesting things happen here everyday that a full magazine can be printed for every week's events. Considering my not-so-social nature, I attend mere 10% of the events that many socially active MBAs go for. Few distinguishing people attend most parties, participate in many sports, work on many committees, attend many dinners and still manage to get into Dean's list. How cool are they.
Alternatively large portion of these events is parties and bops. I don't understand the concept of getting drunk and dancing. I mean I like dancing. But I don't feel like doing it randomly and for no reason (or even if the reason is couple or more beers). This is not to say anything less about the people who like it. Its just me. Though consequently that cuts of 60% of the events and hence socializing. Right now I am not sure if I am missing something or not... Let the time tell...
Nonetheless. The headlines of the week are as below.
Week
Right now, don't remember much of it except assignments and stuff. But I like classes more and more. This week M&A class and Corporate Valuation class were very interesting. Now feel like doing MBA.
Jackie Chan in Oxford
Jackie Chan's visit to Oxford was arranged by PPE society. As a kid, I didn't know English. So the first few English movies I saw was essentially only Jackie Chan movies for you don't need to understand what they talk. Just see the amazing action. And the other thing was the English of Jackie himself. He is astonishingly poor in English. During his speech also he had to ask others many times for English translation. I can't believe he did so many Hollywood movies with this poor level of English.
And I had in mind his image as a shy, humble guy. But he is salesman personality. By that I mean he is very confident, non ashamed to call himself great and iterate his achievements, talkative and knows how to sell himself. But it was cool to see him just few meters away. Here is a video:
Oxford - Cambridge sports event
Saturday was another sports event between Oxford - Said Business School and Cambridge - Judge Business School. This is organized alternatively by each and this year it was The Other Place. Most Oxford MBAs love to hate Cambridge building and I must say, they had a point. The building is really flashy and it is indeed hard to explain why anyone will paint a business school in red, yellow and blue. But the event was organized very well. Cambridge class is smaller and more diverse. So the class is just like family where everyone knows each other well. Just like BEIT class. It was a nice sunny day and everyone enjoyed a lot. Out of 15 events oxford won 8. Considering small size of 'The other place' they did very good. The rugby was touch rugby with mixed team of guys and gals. So there were enough people and I wasn't very keen on playing touch rugby. So instead I played Table Tennis. If anyone cares about the results, I won, thought overall Oxford lost. All in all good day, good game and fun time.
This 'other place' seems to have many big and nice colleges. Though the city is small. Here are some snaps.
Judge Business School Building
Celebrity college in Cambridge. King's college
I guess thatz all. May be I will break self imposed rule of writing only on Sundays and write when the impulse to address the word will arise. If not, then next newsletter on next Sunday.
So here are the pending Paris snaps. I liked Paris more than London. London is very constricted. Paris is more green, more beautiful and has typical Europian city look. Some people hate this thing though I liked it.
The site seeing was more of a formality. We didn't really have much time in hand... So we went to places, took snaps and moved to next. Specially at Louvre where one can easily spend whole day, we finished it in an hour. Just visited the famous thing we knew are there.
Though there were many benefits for people under 26. Like very cheap train ticket and I even got free entry to Louvre... lucky me... most MBAs are well over 26, so I was special case
Normal week, busy in assignments and all. This term is pretty interesting though for number of reasons. One is the subjects. I always wanted to know about Mergers and retailing which are the subjects I am learning and so kindda fulfilling my goal to do MBA. Another reason is guest lectures. Many classes are taken by well know guests from Industry like McKinsay partner, ex-HMV CEO and high profile people like that. So it is really intersting to hear from them about the real, first hand experiences.
Week end
Apart from meetings, celebrated Bday of team mate, noelia with cute little cake on Saturday. On Sunday I was invited by April at her place for lunch. She laboured a lot from buying vegetables to chopping, cleaning and cooking just to cook vegetarian taiwanese food for me. Can't express my gratitude for this gesture. And the food was really lovely. Great to have such a nice friends and nice food at Oxford. Here are some snaps:
When I got admission into Oxford, I decided to try two sports. Rowing and Rugby. Well Rowing schedule was very weird and couldn't make it. But I was practicing Rugby regularly. To tell the truth, compared to people playing competitive Rugby all the time, I am very incompetent. But otherwise considering I never played before, I am ok.
So finally I was in Oxford Rugby team for MBAT (www.mbat.org) where top B schools in EU competed for sports. We did damn good. In first round we washed out LBS (London Business School) team B and INSEAD. Those poor kids are still rehabilitating from their injuries. In Semi we made ESADE bleed. Final was with LBS and was very competitive. Still great performances from my team and great show. We won and we won the gold.
So we are official MBA Rugby world champions :)
See the medal
Didn't play and won sports since school. I used to play Kabaddi in school and I could say I was good. No way for sports in 11 / 12. Then for engineering, I wasn't interested in Cricket and lack of power games didn't motivate me to participate in games like Volleyball. And again due to Students' Council, time was another problem. So feel really great about this. One thing less from the to do list.
See the pics of match. To find me, you have to look carefully in the snaps... but I am there and I really played :)....
I know I am being rather irregular in wrting posts this term. But this term time management is all messed up. In two weeks many times had to press the panic button. And no improvement is in sight... so bear with me!
Results
Well, I have already written about most of the week. Another thing to mention was- got my Hilary Term results. Of course pass in all subjects. But to my greatest dispair no distinction. I am dieing to blame someone else for this but I know only I am responsible for this. Some of my class mates got rather very good results while some smart people are at the same stage as I am. But again no reason to compare or justify. I won't say I didn't study or didn't give it all my attention. But the result is what it is... the result. And the result is pass but no distinction.
Injury
One more swollen half broken finger and bruises after the Rugby game. We practice for tackle this time. And there are good chances of injuries if you are tackled by a six and half feet giant boxer running at the speed of 30 miles per hour. So it hurts to type right now. But don't worry as you always... I will be ok :-P.
MBAT
So here is the event of the year or whatever. MBA olympics. In Paris students from top and only top business schools in Europe gather for MBA Tournament (MBAT). What am I going to do there? Well I am represeting Oxford University in Rugby....ummm...well.... I know its not as great as it sounds. but who cares... Good opportunity to visit Paris. Though the hassle I had to go through and the extra work I had to do I sometimes think its not work the efforts. And I might not enjoy there. But I am going anyway. This also means next blog post might not be on time.
So thatz all. Now I have to finish the assignment, sleep for about 90 mins before getting up for the class... so all you folks enjoy the life. Everytime you waste a food, remember of people in Africa who don't get to eat for days. And everytime you stay up to watch stupid cricket match remeber of MBAs in Oxford who don't get to sleep in days....
Why 2 1/2? Becase second week is only half done. The new term started and took speed within no time. Some little time mismanagement from my side was also responsible for it partially.
Week 1
Week 1 was miserable. As I had to make 5 teams + SCP team this term. There were so many fluctuations and changes that at one time I had all team and next moment none. I had to spend many hours in frustration trying to find out team members. Eventually teams for the elective subjects were formed. But there was no hope for SCP (Summer Consulting Project). I was keen on internship and hence didn't form teams with friends before. So all of them who wanted SCP formed there teams. And eventually I realized that I couldn't get any internship and have to form SCP team. The big problem in forming this team is companies look for diversity of backgrounds and experience in the team. But if you have people from different backgrounds, each one wish to do different projects and it becomes hard to find the common list of projects. The deadline for registration was Monday morning. By Sunday morning we still were three people looking for one more. And in frustration I dropped mail to program coordinator if we can form a team of only three. Eventually she replied negative. To make the matter worse there were three assignments due in pipeline.
Thankfully Shasha Huang who wanted to do SCP but was fluctuating between decisions met Jenny and Sirena. I had worked with Sirena in first term and working with Jenny in many times. Both of them are very good friends. They nicely told Shasha about our team and recommended me. Finally we got the team at 5 in the evening. After that many many many hours of work for:
Writing 7 cover letters for SCP MBAT practice (I might play Rigby) Visa preparation for MBAT. Appointment on Monday Corporate Valuation assignment on Monday Mergers and Acquisition assignment on Tuesday Strategy assignment on Thursday
Long story short, From Sunday morning to Thursday morning my cumulative sleep is sheer 12 hours for four nights. But I guess I have done all I needed to. Enough of whining. Here is something pleasant.
May Day
Every year 1st May is celebrated in UK, specially in Oxford. The tradition is on 30th April people go to different ball or parties and stay up all night. Then in the morning all gather at Magdalen College where are 6.00 am a church choir sings madrigals. This is followed by number of impromptu performances on street. Until two years back there was a tradition of jumping from bridge in river which was cancelled last year after injuries due to shallow water. Thought at the cost of highly priced sleep, this event was very pleasant and enjoying way to spend a beautiful morning with good friends.
This nice morning ended with nice breakfast at Jerico Cafe. Catch up a bit with sleep after that then after eating and some study, here I am writing this post.
Here are some snaps stolen from Jenny and Aashima.
Provost Garden and Worcester College opened to all only once a year
We were invited by Aashima and Lovraj for this garden party
Teaching Jitin how to pay Croquet - a traditional garden game
Dinner at Incheon's place. with Jenny and April
