TT Week 0

Well, nothing very happening happened this week. But it was a good week. It felt great to meet friends who were travelling all over the world. Had nice time catching up. As there were no major events, I am going to stuff this post with facts and thoughts....

So once again, it was really great to catch up with friends. This is the Trinity Term, the last term of our MBA program. So for these 8 weeks I am going to try to hang out with all those as much as possible. In summer most of us will depart to do our internships and SCPs. Then we will meet again for about 15 days in September. And after that everyone will be scattered throughout the world leaving a piece of hear here for the amazing years they had in Oxford and especially for the friends for life they made here. There are good chances that many of us won't see each other ever again. But thanks to web 2.0 things like facebook, we will be in touch....

Anyways... so this term I have six subjects. All electives. I selected three finance, one strategy, one marketing and one retailing. Five of six subjects need to form groups. For these subjects the groups are chosen by us. So once again got a great chance to work with friends and with some really interesting people. I am not expecting to deal with any group problems this term.

Other than this I need to form a group for Strategic Consulting Project in summer. We need to form a group of four and bid for different projects listed. One of the projects is from ICC about the impact of 20-20 cricket. Obviously I am not bidding for it. And obviously this will be considered by Indians. Anyways. Trying to get into some good projects. I have to find the team and bid before Friday. So this will be major work coming week.

Well some senti stuff and some boring facts... Don't want to drag it more. So this would be all for this week.

Turkiye

Amazing 10 Days in Turkey. Last term I was dead bored to stay back in Oxford. So before that vacation ended I planned this trip and was looking forward to it the whole term. Finally it happened and I am glad it did.

Kayaking

The main intention of this trip was kayaking. There is a very small town at southwest Turkey called Gokova. I went for kayaking there with GokovaRuzgar.com group. These guys are very cool and friendly. My instructor Yavuz is in adventure sports for about 25 years and he had pioneered rafting, kayaking and now kite surfing in Turkey. He had been Turkish champion for couple of years. His wife is into kitesurfing. And they are just cool. I had been graced with one nice dinner and and a superb breakfast at their home. I just had fun with them. And kayaking was amazing. Thought I didn't learned everything I needed to, still overall it was great experience. One day we went to a tour of an island having remains of about 3000 years old civilization. Another day we went for whitewater kayaking. All very cool. I guess snaps will give the better idea. There are also some videos in this album.

Kayaking in Gokova

Efes.

This is again 2500 years old roman city. The city is in good condition. I rented a car to go there. There I realized that Turkey has good infrastructure. And Turkish dogs are just same as Indian dogs, they like to chase cars. I don't understand this concept. I mean I am sure that these dogs know they can't kill and eat the car. Then why to chase it. Complete waste of time and energy in chasing something completely useless. I don't know why dogs behave like a humans sometimes.....

Another thing is number of cats in Efes. I counted two things in Efes. Number of cats and number of Japanese woman tourists aging above 45 (How do I know the age?.... well, you just know....). The formar was 34 while the later was 37. Now I might have missed some and might have been counted more than once as they all look the same. And all of them were looking fat and content (Last two lines refer to CATs only). The city has so much history associated with it that I won't even bother to write it. But I am glad I visited it. Here is another album.

Efes

Istanbul

Very conjusted city. The part I am in is very touristie with many tourist attractions. But this part is beutiful. Just check the snaps.

Overall I got to explore wild and serene part of Turkey, visited ancient city and Istanbul, once a cultural capital of world. Very nice and memorable trip. Also this was my first long term travel alone trip. And first time in non-English speaking country. Very good experience.

Istanbul

Now back in Oxford and trying to get out of holiday mood for the last term of MBA....

I still have got sand in my shoes: Check this video :)

HT Week 10 - End of Hillary Term

The last week of so called Hellary term. Well the term wasn't exactly the hell. Infact I think I enjoyed it way more than the first term. The main reason being with a great group of friends. You don't need Socrates to tell you that the good company can make any moment a moment worth remembering. Neways... here are some highlights of the week.

Examinations

I must confess that I haven't prepared for exams as seriously as I did last term. But still exam is exam and I had to spend most of the time studying. This time the exams were in Examinations school. This is the traditional building where thousand of students have been writing papers of years and years. This is very beautiful building. We can't take photos inside, but if I get it somewhere I will post it later. Meanwhile here are couple of them stolen from Jenny's blog.

Examination School

People in Subfusc after the exam

So it was quite an experience to go to a nice building in subfusc and all. And this time I could just walk as the building is close to my place. And the papers were OK. Nothing spectacular, nothing too worrying. So it would be fine.

Dorcet

So here is something. MBA are supposed to be the managers, leaders and organizers. MBAs from reputed institute like Oxford (well I know we rank 20 world wide... but its not that bad) are supposed to be good at what MBAs should do. Then here is a simple story.

12 MBAs from Oxford decides to go for couple of days of vacation. The plan is simple hire cars, book accomodation and go site seeing. Well, it wasn't easy to co-ordinate four cars and 12 full grown, full ego MBAs.... so we ended up visiting nothing but city centers and restuarents in Southampton, Dorcester and Dorset. Little bit siteseeing at beach.

But tell you guys, I won't say if wasn't fun. It was a hell lotta fun. The drive was simply wonderful. The road was picturesque. The compay was fun-filled and the accomodation was scenec. You will get all that from the snaps. But the most enjoyable event was the Friday night. We played Pictionary and Dumb-Charads. It was such a fantastic fun and great break. Haven't enjoyed that much since Engineering. Everyone was at his best and there were moments for life. People got identities and characteristics attached to them which will be laughed upon everytime we will meet. Some moments are marked deeply and I am sure that after spreading throughout the world for earning break and butter after MBA, whenever we will meet, these memories will be recalled and cherished. Great event guys... One for the bests for MBA. I won't write much. Get the gist from the album below.... Still snaps from some other cameras are pending. I will upload them as and when I get them.

Dorcet Trip

Back to Oxford

But all this exam and fun made me severely run out of sleep. Even while driving back I was feeling the strain. So when we came back on saturday, I decided to ditch the previously decided plan of movie and poole and slept at about 2000. Get up in between for couple of hours for dinner and went back to sleep again only to get up at 1100 in the morning on Sunday. It snowed heavily on Sunday morning. But I missed that. Harsh actually send text that it is snowing. I read that but just preferred sleep. And then had the movie and poole thingie tonight.

This is pretty much it. I will update the blog again when I get the snaps. Otherwise I am off to Turkey next Monday. So may or may not write for a while.

Have a great time all. And belated happy Holi!!!

HT Week 9

The preparations leave week. Last term it was very simple vanilla PL. Studied all seven days in a structured way. This term was bit different, many deadlines in between. EP Presentation and three big assignments.

EP Presentation.

Entrepreneurship Project Presentation. One of the special things at SBS. We make a team of 5 and create a business plan for a very new idea. Out Idea was a Healthcare Kiosk. I need permission from my group to share the details. But we worked very passionately for EP. This group is my most favourite group I ever had in Oxford. I loved to work with them as a group and some times individually. I guess I have made friends for life here in the form of this group. We had to give a 10 min presentation in front of a real VC, MBA program director and our EP guide followed by 10 min Q&A and 10 min feedback. I worked hours for preparing the slides. As the idea was healthcare, I created slides in Blue and White theme that will look very much 'doctory'. Also used a chic to grab the attention. The presentation was handled by Harsh and Jenny. Harsh's pitch was very enthusiastic and straight from heart. While Jenny presented with grace and professionalism backed by real data. 10 min Q&A was handled by rest of us. We answered almost every question. We had 10 main slides for presentation plus 20 backup slides for anticipated questions. Any question asked was backed up by these slides and data.
The feedback was:
This is the best presentation so far. You guys look very committed to the project and very enthusiastic. You have done your work and prepared a good case. These are the best presentation (slides) with most extensive back up slides. Your teamwork is excellent. You have handled presentation and distribution of work very professionally. The Q&A part is excellently distributed.
Our EP guide sent an email saying:
"Dear all: Very many congratulations on this morning’s work. The panel felt that this was by far the best presentation and rigorous business case they had encountered to date. "

The only negative feedback was about making financial stuff more reasonable. We will do that and submit the final Business Plan before 10th April.
Here are some snaps of this memorable moment:

EP Presentation

This is not all. We sent our idea to couple of conferences and were accepted at both places. One in London and IEEE conference for healthcare technologies in Singapore. Again excellent feedback.

Rest of the week and weekend

Then had three big assignments due. Somehow finished it. Don't want to talk a lot about it.

Also attended end of term dinner at Jesus. Nice food and ambience. Enjoyed it a lot as it was on the eve of our EP Presentation.

After that just study and study. Exams are starting tomorrow and Ending on Wednesday. So again wish my good luck. Last time your wishes were pretty helpfule :)

With this, I will end this selfpraising, show-off post.

HT Week 7 and Week 8

Nothing very spectacular happened during these weeks. Almost everything was regular. As the term end is coming near the workload is increasing. Have done very well in some assignments while have done very bad in others. Have attended great parties and had fun with great people. This term I am hanging out a lot. Last term the outings were about once a week or not even that. And the normal time of outing was from 2000 to 2400. This term there is no regularity but it is lot more frequent. This is an accumulated result of the facts that unlike last term when I studied only with Sab, this time I am studying with a group of friends. The library timing is extended by an hour and it now closes at 12. And the work this term is more tiring. So any given night, someone needs a visit to pub or restaurant and we just go there. Sometimes we just go and play TT or Poole in common room of some college. It starts at 0000 and lasts till 0200. Overall, a lot of fun time....

It was Jitin's birthday in week 7. Here are the snaps:

Jitin's Bday

Again, thanks Aashima for snaps!


Other than that, no big parties on week end.

But was invited by couple of friends to their colleges for meals. Went to St. Cross college for lunch. Courtesy, April. Its very small college. Fairly old. (The colleges build even in 19th century are considered NEW on Oxford). I liked the nice garden there. The view was suitable for any epic movie. Though they had very modern and un-harry-potterish dining hall.

This Friday Larry Kao invited me for dinner at New College. Interestingly, New college is one of the very old and big colleges in Oxford. Harry Potter 4 was filmed in this college. Interestingly this college has nice garden and a Myans type pyramid below which people who died from plague are burried. This garden is called squicky garden because if you clap or make noise in front of this pyramid, the eco squicks. If you remember the long corridors in Harry Potter, they are from this college. And again below the floor of them are lieing many dignitaries of college. The dining hall of the college is large, old and beautiful. Enjoyed the dinner. Unfortunately it was dark and I haven't had camera. I feel very sorry for that.

Other that that the lectures ended this week. Now coming week there is very important EP presentation on Tuesday and three big and individual assignments due on Friday. So itz gonna be very busy week. To make the matter worse, there is a nice greek party in my college on Tuesday and Harsh's birthday on Friday. So letz see how I survive. Wish me good luck for presentation and course work.

Sorry for unstructured and random post. Have fun!

HT Week 6

Week

Came and went. Just like other 5 weeks. Some assignments, Measure leap in EP, again nothing in TMO project, and stuff. As I said before, I am working in different groups this term. About 4 groups... Three of them are choosen by student while one is imposed by the college. This compulsory group had really smart people with diverse backgrounds and knowledge. Unfortunately we didn't / couldn't work as a group. This was one of the most disintegrated teams I had ever worked in. At the end I made some very good friends at the same time some bitter relationships in this group. All in all we submitted our last assignments as a group this Friday and I am just glad that it is over.

Surprisingly I didn't study as much as I needed to and still somehow I am not feeling pressured. I know... very bad for me.....

Anyways. On Wednesday called Jenny and Incheon (Korea) for dinner at Jesus. Both of them are my EP partners. Both of them are very experienced and senior to me but still very humble people. Loved the dinner.

here is one more from dinner last to last week.

McKinsey presentation
For some people it was like event of the year, for some it was annual worship event. Almost every other MBA dream of working for this company. They are elites of the elites. The company of smartest people in the world. Actually the presentation was almost like any other presentation. But the atmosphere was charming and, if I would say, inspiring. McKinsey had brought people from all over the world for the presentation. They were well prepared with agenda and who is going to talk about what and all. Everyone of them was in black suit. And great number of MBAs were in the same attire except I guess only 5% (including me...). We were sitting and they were standing and everyone was dreaming to cut the few feet distance between them and us. Every student was thinking of standing at the other side. McKinsey tag is one of the most powerful tags in the world. And you could see it in the eyes of students how much they desired for it. I think max 4-5 of us will be able to pass that few feet distance and all of sudden will be regarded as success stories by the school. They will be featured in school broachers and called for school events and honorary dinners. While most of the rest will keep having equally successful but less regarded career...... Interesting......

Week End

Mardi Gras

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mardi_Gras

Remember last term I was whining about missing the Templeton dinner? Well I came one step closer this term. Still I couldn't get the dinner ticket. but got the ticket for the after dinner party. Well, the party wasn't as much fun as I thought and the dance floor and DJ weren't that cool. Not that I was craving to dance... but it just couldn't raise the party atmosphere to the extend expected. Nonetheless had fun with friends. And managed to kept alive this term's tradition of celebrating Friday nights till Saturday morning. Here are some snaps:

Mardi Grass

PS for computer illiterates: Click on the above picture to see the album. Also you can click on other pictures to enlarge them

Jodha Akabar

Saturday was bit lazy. I was supposed to study but I didn't. I was supposed to go to Cowley Road to get some Indian grossary but I didn't. I was supposed to buy wetsuit for Turkey trip, but I didn't. Then what did I do? Well.... nothing till 4.00 pm. At 4.00, 8 of us gathered at Gluecester Green bus station to travel for about 2 hours to Southhall. Reason was food and movie. SouthHall is an area populated mostly by Panjabi folk. This area has most of the Indian stuff you need including restaurants, hotels, supermarkets and theatres. Had good food, watched the movie Jodha Akabar, fooled around and reached back to Oxford at about 3 in the morning. but I must say we had a great time. This is the stuff I was missing last term. I am glad I am having fun this term. Here are some snaps:

Jodha Akbar

Once Again courtesy Aashima

Rest of the week end

But I know this fun is at the cost of study. Every hour I am spending in partying and hagging out with friends is piling up the work I need to do for this term. And with only 4 weeks remaining for the end of the term, I am afraid that I will be in trouble.

But anyways... I am thinking that I will enjoy this week end and then will start study. Though I became restless for not studying since Thursday. That made me skip the rugby today and study instead. Skip rugby because I had some other plan as well.... Nintendo Wii.... My college GCR has Wii as I mentioned last time. Jenny seems to be fan of wii and wanted to try it. So she, Tarun and Ravindra came to my college GCR in the evening and we spent about 3 hours playing wii and Pool. Again had a great time.

So thatz the story of this week end. Lots of fun and good time and very loose on study. Hopefully now coming four weeks will be fruitful.

HT Week 5

Before anything else, here is the video of Oxford MBA created by college. There is one more at you tube. This is taken last year, so you wouldn't find me in there :)




Week

As expected, the week was pretty busy. I was brave enough to ditch couple of lectures to work on assignments. Had to interact with multiple groups this week. Thankfully things went smooth. Though I have realized that we are lacking considerably in EP as well as a huge report due end of the term on Technology and Innovation Strategy (TIS). During weekly EP meeting on Friday we have distributed the work and decided the timeline. So we are at least moving in that project. But for TIS, the group haven't even meet yet. This is scary. We have to decide something this week.

Anyways. Got Turkey visa. So everything including visa, tickets and hotel is done now and I am really looking forward to the trip.

Week end

Had another blast this Friday. Actually had macroeconomics group meeting from 5 to 7. So didn't go to happy hour. All the seminar rooms in college were occupied. So we went to RAC for the meeting. RAC is the Templeton college accommodation just across the street from SBS. Templeton college takes about 60 MBAs and more than half of them live in RAC. So had meeting in the common room there. After the meeting played TT for about an hour in that common room. After TT grabbed some quick food. The plan was to meet at Aashima-Lovraj's place like we did last Friday. But Jitin insisted on watching movie. So finally me, Harsh, Jitin, Lovraj and Aashima we all ended up in the GCR (Graduate Common Room) bunker of my college. They have this nice big TV, DVD system, music system, Wii, pool table and foosball table. We spent many hours there watching movies and playing pool and foosball. Finally dispersed at about 2.30 in the morning. Great fun and great to spend time with friends.

Rest was normal. Working on assignments. This Sunday I wasn't feeling very good. So decided to ditch rugby. Now I am feeling sorry for that decision. Anyway. The guests of this Sunday's Jesus college dinner were Mr and Mrs Kiran Chaugule. Marathi couple from Pune. And they are Jain. So was like family dinner. Had a good conversation in Marathi.

After that here I am writing assignments. Couple of them are due in few hours and group members are sending mails after mails. So have to go back to work.

Meanwhile here are the snaps of Chinese new year celebration that I promised week.

Chinese New Year Celeb

Courtesy Aashima: