Fog everywhere

We got our share of fog on our way to India ... first it was the chaos at Heathrow, and then more for at Delhi. We finally reached Delhi after more then three hours of delay 'onflight'

India Calling !

I am finally going home today. Its only for ten days and I know they'll be gone in a jiffy. Will be in Delhi for most of the time. The only other place I am visiting is Kashmir (to meet my folks).

I am glad to be going for more than just the charm of going home. If yesterday's weather was any indications of the times to come, I wanna be out of here for as long as possible. It was 1 degree (celsius) during the day ...... and the prediction for Friday is "minus 1" ... again during the day. Not that Kashmir is a sunny beach resort. But this place is crazy !!!

Anyways .. wishing everybody a Merry Christmas !

Respite from Exams

If I tell my classmates that I woke up at 4:00 am on the morning after exams, they'll freak out. But I did wake up at that crazy hour (Its not crazy during exams though). I had to go to London to get my passport renewed, and wanted to reach the Indian High Commission before it opens at 9:30 am. Pre-empting your next question - "Then why at 4:00 am ?" , for anbody who has had experience with the Indian Embassy would know better about the long queues outside the Indian Embassy.

I reached London at 7:00 am and then took a pleasant walk to my destination, past Trafalgar Square and the Big Ben. When I reached the Embassy at 8:00 am, there were already more than 350 people lined up ........... I hope that is evidence enough !! .... After spending another 5 hours there, my work was only 10% done, and I will be going there again sometime in March now. :) ... I have a passport that was issued in kashmir, and now these guys have to do some extra verification. I think I look Indian enough to be treated like a normal citizen ! So far people have taken me to be a German, Afghani and Swedish...... Crazy I tell ya !!

Spent some more time roaming around London .. went to Piccadilly Circus & China Town .... met Sudheer (who had come for an interview with Diamond) and his wife Sushma (who had come for Chicken Biryani) ...... a simple illustration to show how much fun the spouses are having vis-a-vis the students.

Finally got back to Oxford, had a nice dinner out with wifee dear ... and then slept for 15 hours :)

The return to Normalcy

The exams are finally over. All but the last one (Finance) went off well. I have slept for barely 2-3 hours in the last 2 days and I am dying.

The end of exam celebrations started right after the exam ended. Some of us had wine outside the examination hall to celebrate the end of torture. (ha ha)

I came home biefly to discard my sub fusc and formals, and join the other MBAs for a "Pub Crawl"tha started around noon at Oxford Retreat.

I though I will take a well deserved nap before heading out to the 'G-bar' where fllow MBA student Dheerin will be the DJ

Looking forward to the evening !

Drama on Day 1

That's how I would like to summarize my first day of exams at Oxford.

Four of us had decided to take a taxi to the exam school, and inspite of proactively reminding the taxi guy on the eveof the exam and early in the morning, he ditched us. We waited till about 8:45 am (exam was to start at 9:00 am), and then started walking towards the train station for another cab.

The rain gods decided to add to our woes and it starting pouring (i haven't seen such a heavy downpour in my last three month here). Add to that the wind factor, and we were pretty much drenched (considering the four of us had two umbrellas to share amongst us).

As in a crisis situation, we formulated a strategy and spread in different directions looking for cabs. Finally our 'booked' taxi nly picked us. It was 9:25 am then.

We were fortunate that it was the first day, and the exam started a bit late. I sat for both my exams in a wet suit. I discarded my 'sub-fusc' as it was drenched.

The silver lining of the day - the papers were 'passable' ..... Just in cae ou did not know, I belong to the "Get 50 Club".

Now lemme get back to my Org. Behaviour Models .... This subject puts me off to sleep in an instant...... Here's hoping that the exam paper is more engrossing :)

Last Minute King !

Ya that's me ...... Yet again I have proved it that I will make sure there is a bit of an adrenalin rush in everything I do. There is no fun in studying religiously everyday of the term ..... that ways one misses the excitement & anxiety that comes with exams. Given that I have a lot of ground to cover in terms of completing my syllabus, I would have surely amplified the feelings associated with examinations that I mentioned earlier.

I am an optimistic to the core, and firmly believe that 30,000 pounds is a lot of money, and SBS would not fail us after we have paid them so much. And I don't mean we have bribed them to give us the degree. :) Having said that, people do fail, and that scares me, especially in Financial Reporting and Finance ........ Just in case I ever mentioned in this blog or elsewhere that I had come to SBS to major in Finance, I take my words back.

Exams start tomorrow....... and guess what ? My first paper is Financial Reporting, and Decision Science in the second half ...... What a start !!

Now before I make my exams more compelling, I better get back to my books. Wish me luck !!!!

X-Mas Dinner At St Hugh's

Last Sunday ...... some of us got together at "The Comfy Room" at St Hugh's for my first Turkey Dinner ..... Thanks Hiro, Madhu & Saheel for your enthusiasm in organizing the dinner. Special mention for Hiro, who froze his back off carrying the turkey from Sainsbury to the college.

We had a great time together .... all of us pitched n with some food or drinks or snaks, and by the end of it there was enough remaining to ensure that the chief organizers could go without cooking (that is if they chose to) for a week.... slight exaggeration here :)

Some learnings/observations:

• Stick to chicken ........ cooking turkey is not for the impatient


• Madhu's obsession with chips


• Jeane's ability to shrink peas


• Brian's culinary skills ... and his obsessions with certain parts of the anatomy :)


• Chris North's determination to eat good food (he cycled to St Hugh's braving heavy rains)

Snaps from the evening ...

Dinner at Templeton

I am a week late on reporting this one ..... The whole of last week was spent submitting the 'biggie' assignments: An industry report on eBay for Managerial Economics, and a Financial Analysis of Vodafone for .... Financial Reporting obviously.

Going back to last friday, I made a trip outside Oxford (literally) to eat the famous Templeton dinner. The food was nice (my kind), there was lots of wine, champagne ...... and surprisingly lots of 'Vodka' for people like me :)

We had a nice three course dinner, after which we walked through the lovely campus to their GCR for (more) drinks and dance. The pampering went on with chocolates fruits, cheese, crackers ..... I am told these are like 'given' at Templeton. Lucky fellas !!!

Got back home at 2:00 am ... probably the longest I have stayed out this term.

Silicon Valley Comes to Oxford

What promised to be a promising day was to some extent marred by assignment deadlines ... and compounded by my inefficiency to complete the assignments well before time. Anyways ......

The annual "Silicon Valley Comes to Oxford" event was held at Said Business School today. Some of the speakers were:

- Chris Sacca, Head of Special Initiatives at Google
- Reid Hoffman, Founder of LinkedIn
- Matt Cohler of Facebook

We had a DEM assignment submission, and as I am the leader of "last Minute" club, I was running against time today. There were two sessions ..... early afternoon, and evening (by UK standards and daylight conditions) .... Each session had a 'garage' workshop and master classes held by one of the speakers.

I attended the evening garage workshop by innovation and creativity consultants Synectics to brainstorm and resolve problems. Chris Sacca from Google drew our attention to the Net neutrality debate, which is about the ISPs thinking of charging big websites such as Google and Yahoo for ..... for being online (because an ISP is the medium to reach these sites). Our task was to use metaphors/analogy/catchphrases that will help the masses understand the problem, and the importance of an open & neutral Net, in a simple and understandable manner. To know more about the debate, here's a link on 'Series of tubes' from Chris' blog.

The 30+ participants were divided into three groups, and the facilitator led the session in a un ique but very effective manner.

The workshop ended with us presenting some of our ideas. The most apt analogy as per me was the one suggested by Sunil that compared the Google with Air ...... Charging for Google is like charging for Air ...... I think he was pretty impressed with this thought ... The title for his day's blog entry is: Charging for air . . .

Chris rightly mentions in his blog ...... "We are all extremely Lucky. The internet is nothing short of a gift"

The remaining part of the evening was spent in completing my assignment which I submitted with 20 minutes to spare ... Phew !!

The Cutting EDGE !!

Said MBA is surely rigorous ... but I have managed to find time to do some social service for fellow classmates ..... Here's the most inexpensive barber in Oxford (if there is a cheaper one ... do lemme know) ...... I tried to postpone my haircut for quite some time ... but finally started looking like anything but a prospective employee for a Consulting or a Financial role ...... So found this place on Walton Street called - 'Edge Barber'.... They charge 8.5 pounds for a haircut (student discount included)

I will not vouch for the quality though ..... neither will my friends Sudheer and Sunil :)

All The Best !!

Castle Mill

That's the name of the place where I stay !! ... Its a university accomodation ... which means that its 'relatively' lighter on the wallet. The word relative is very important here ... especially for the Indians back home.

The good thing about this place is that its new ... and this time its not relative to the age of the university ...... its about 3-4 years old (believe me on this one). I am not gonna tell u about the merits of this place coz neither am I gonna get any commission nor a rent rebate.... so why waste time.

I am attaching some snaps of the place ..... You wont find it on the Oxford maps as such..... For the die hard 'googlers' ... here's the postcode - OX1 1AD.












This place is practically on the railway tracks .. as you can see from the pictures below:

My Picasa Albums !

My Oxford Albums on Picasa ...... Here are two of the Oxford related albums on Picasa (U'll find more there)... As I do not have a camera ...... the credit of these photographs must go to some of my talented classmates - Ruzbeh, Saheel, Chris, Brian & Takashi (our official photographer)..... That was an acknowledgement for anyone with a copyright (One can expect anything from MBAs - One of them might have a secret business plan to make money from suing people voilating their copyrights on snaps ...... Just kidding!!)

Said Business School - University of Oxford

Oxford 2006-07 : Matriculation

Brrrrrrrrr !!!

And I thought I was a Kashmiri .... Hah ! ..... Its the start of November, and I am already freezing here. The day was foggy throughout. We had our MBA Class photograph, and the sun God was kind enough to bless us with some sunlight just during that one hour.



By evening time, it was just too cold, and our formal suit was not helping at all in keeping the cold out. As per the BBC website the minimum temperature was 3 degrees .... Celsius !!

Somebody told me that the temperature drops to minus 10 in Dec-Jan ...... SHIT !!

Here are some foggy snaps (must be around 6:00 pm ....

Diwali again !!

On Diwali I heard not even a single firecrack sound the whole night. But today evening was different. There was this not stop sound of fire crackers going off all over the town ... and some of the fireworks were simply spectacular.

Somebody said that Diwali was being celebrated this weekend in UK ..... My next question was why now ?? Are firecrackers banned in UK in October ?

Anyways, I have to study, so let me cut this short ..... Its Guy Fawkes Night, or Bonfire Night as it is referred to ... There are local firework displays organised across town...... Click here for more info ..

I better get back to Decision Science. I studied the subject for 4 hours today, and when we got down to doing the assignment, I was completely stumped. So lemme give it another shot !!

Electives For Sale !!

Today some of the Professors pitched their respectives subjects to the MBA batch. They tried their best to make us believe that the subject they were teaching was most pertinent for an MBA.

When I walked into the hall, I had 90% made up my mind of opting for Finance II and Strategy. However, as always there was a twist in the tale.

The first one was Finance II: Very articulate, a good sense of humor... did not take me long to be convinced even further.

Second one was Organisational Analysis II: After my sleepy state in DEM, which seems like a pre-cursor to this elective, I had decided not to even consider this one. However, the paper seems to be a good match between Strategy and Implementation, and the course structure is extremely practical, with class presentations included. I decided to consider it.

Next was Macroeconomics: The Professor here did not seem half as animated as my dear Macro Professor from college (Dr D.K.Sethi). He did not refrain from advising us that Macroeconomics is the favourite subject of discussion during Investment Banking interviews, and would be more useful than NPV and IRR (Finance Stuff for the uninformed) .. Although I am keen on the subject, I was not convinced entirely. But it is still under sonsideration.

Then came Strategy II: This turned out to be a bit different from what I expected.... it was more focussed towards a budding entrepreneu wishing to start a techie firm .. or the like.

The last pitch was by Prof. Linda Scott, who will be teaching a new paper - Marketing, Culture & Society. This is her first year at Said.... but she appeared very confident of herself, and was the only one who dared to mention that this would be a toughie. (the Finance professor was the other extreme mentioning that anybody with a GMAT of 400 would pass Finance II ... Now that's a big joke considering majority of the class is already struggling with the first assignment of Finance I )

I really liked the content of the last paper. I will onl have to consider the fact that there is another core marketing paper next term.

Net net ... I am pretty confused on the second Elective to take .... Will probably check the Core papers of Term 2 and Electives of Term three and then decide.

I better get back to my Finance Assignment ...... I am looking at a future in this paper after all ... He He !!!!

Diwali In Oxford

Well this was my first Diwali outside India ..... and I could very well feel the difference. missed family and the 'patakas' ..... but I will be wrong to say it was dull. We had a great time.

On Friday, we had a Diwali BOP at St Anthony colleg, which was organised by the Oxford Indian Society ..... The place was completely packed with desis and students of other nationalities. There were these particular two guys i found very amusing..... they had loosely tied turbans ..... more 'Osama like' than Indian. :)

We finally got back around 1:30am ...... worked on the DEM assignment till 3:30am ... and then went to school Saturday morning for some 'catching up' studies.

A number of us met up at Ravi & Shweta's place for dinner (Yummy Thai food) .... I got a little feel of Diwali at their place as there were some 'Diyas' (earthen lamps for thos with poor GK)... And ...... I also ate Ben & Jerry's icecream ..... 'Chunky Monkey' and 'Peace of Cake' .... these are innovative flavours of B&J ..... and we all concluded that 'Ben & Jerry's does have a sustainable competitive advantage'.

And we are not done yet with Diwali celebrations. As I am publishing this, we have a number of us meeting at the Castle Mill (that's where I stay) common room for a 'Pot Luck' ...... yummy Indian food.

So I better run along ... as good India food is a scare commodity in this part of the world :)

Matriculation

This has got nothing to do with Exams...... its about getting enrolled into the university. Its confusing for sure.

At oxford, all incoming students get officially matriculated into the university. One of the many customs that go with the 800 year old history of the university. And come to think of it, we attended one full week of classes not realizing that we were still not bonafide members of the University.


So I woke up at 7 in the morning, only to be greeted by a misty morning. After dressing up in my dark suit, white bow tie and the 'sub fusc' (looks like a Batman cape), I cycled to my college - St Hugh's for a college photograph. The college has a lovely campus, and we had the photograph session in the college grounds.

This was followed by a roll call which is like an official record of our entry into the college. We then walked from our college to the Sheldonian Theatre, where the official matriculation ceremony took place.









The ceremony was short, but grand in itself, with some Latin mantras, everybody in gowns, lots of tourists, cameras flashing everywhere .... Once the ceremony was over, we made yet another customery trip to the Turf Tavern.











After then I rushed home only to join my study group later in the day to complete our first assignment.

End of Week 1

Week 1 is over ... but somehow it feels that I have been studying here for quite some time. Classes after all those years of work, can be taxing. We had a lecture each for the the 6 core courses that we will be studying this term.

Some of the classes were fun.... especially the Financial reporting class..... it was a laugh riot.... Our professor ... Dr Tomo Suzuki is hilarious to say the least. I am a complete poet (his term for a beginner) in Accounting, and he made me feel pretty much at ease.

We also had some company presentations .... a couple of Investment banks - Bear Sterns and Lehman Brothers. I even met up with some of the career consultants to understand the various functions and roles with Finance, and if my background is suitable for it.

We also had to submit our first group assignment, this one was for Strategy. After much debate I think we have submitted a good analsis of the Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream case....... I have resolved that if we do well, then we are gonna treat ourselves to B&J ice cream, and if we ont, I am gonna boycott them ... just kidding.

The week has just whizzed past, and I have loads of work to complete.

See ya ....

Its Study Time Folks !!

After a week of orientations, college events, BOPs, etc etc ..... classes finally started this week. I am one of the chosen few in Section C, which seems to have a relatively easier schedule. Maybe its a comforting tactic, but we want to believe it that way.

My first class for Strategy..... and the professor (Thomas Powell) was good and engaging .... Well.. its Oxford after all :) ... It was a bit tough getting used to a 3.5 hour long class, and I was pretty tired by the end of it.... and ended up dosing thru the next session on Projects.

I have two classes each on Tue, Wed and Thu ... and am not at all looking forward to them .... considering that we have to prepare for the classes in advance, which entails studying the readings and cases ...... I guess its time to bid goodbye to my much cherished sleep. :(

My first BOP

BOP at Oxford means a party, and I attended my first one at my college, St.Hugh's this Saturday. It was a 'Back to School' BOP, so we all dressed up in white shirts et al. We first trekked to Ruzbeh's place at St. Hugh's, mixed drinks, leading to a state of happiness, and then headed to the college bar for the BOP. It was good fun..... I got back around midnight, but most of the others stayed till 2:00 am .... Some die hard party animals also went to Exeter for their BOP.

Here are a couple of snaps from a memorable night...

My Photu

Putting my snap here in no way means that I am self obsessed...... I was trying to include it in my profile, but my IT skills are limited, and I only managed to get this far. :)

Day 1 of Week 0 ... What ??

What the hell do you mean by week 0 ?? If this is Zero, then what was last week, when we had those career services sessions and the IT sessions ...... Minus 1 I guess.

Anyways, for the benefit of those who may not be aware .. this is Week 0 ... classes begin next week, which is Week 1 and we have our exams for this term in Week 10. Right now that somehow seems like a long way... There is no Tax for dreaming, right ?

To sum up Day 1.. It was exciting.... I got to see my cllassmates in full strength for the first time. It truly is a diverse bunch representing 41 countries.

We were introduced to the Dean of SBS, the MBA Dean, and many more ...... We had a presentation by the security folks, which was ok ..... I was in the first row, and could not even afford to wink... Not to forget the presentation on Examinations... which was kind of scary !

We had the first round of introductions..... Having done dramatics all my life, I am not the kinds to get a stage fright. But considering that we were being recorded did make me a bit uneasy.

We also had individual portrait photographs taken by a professional photographer, and we have been promised that they will not be morphed, and there is no likelihood of them appearing on any of the (in)famous websites.

But, for me the highlight of the day was the speech by Mr Kevin Sharer, CEO of AMGEN, which is the world’s largest biotech company..... and growing pretty fast. I must admit that I had previously not heard of Amgen ..... my poor General Knowledge to be blamed here I guess. Mr Sharer was extremely impressive, very witty, and gave us some great mantras for effective leadership.

I was one of the very few who skipped the Suits and ties for the day. So I had to scram after the speech to get appropriately dressed for the Reception.

The enthusiastic batch, not satisfied with just wine, headed off to 'The Living Room' at The Oxford castle.

I take this week as the start of our MBA Roller Coaster ride ....We are right now creeping our way to the top... and from Week 1 ... its gonna be a really Topsy Turvy ride till the very end !!!

Best September of my life !

September 2006 has been the most relaxed month for me since I started working..... and it will be till I retire. I came to UK very early (reached here on the 5th of September). There are three reasons for that:

Firstly, had I stayed longer, I would have ended up working longer. I was infact in office till 7:00 pm on Sep 04.... and my flight was the next day at 1:00 pm.

Secondly, I did not have a place to stay in Oxford. I spent numerous hours on the net looking for a suitable private accomodation close to SBS. they were all frightfully expensive, and frankly speaking I am not the type who will select a place basis some snaps on the net. So I had to pretty much sweat it out. Fortunately for me, the University Graduate Housing found my name at the top of their list when I visited them in Summertown. So here I am well settled at Castle Mill, a brisk 10 minutes walk from the B-school.

Thirdly, I wanted to spend some time with my good friend from school, Tarun, who stays in Essex. I had a lovely time with his hospitable family. My wife Harshita is accompanying me, and we used the time exploring London, its train network, and coming to terms with the steep prices of everything when comaped with India.

I have been Oxford since Sep 15 ...... and so far have only slept, wined and dined. As my batchmates started to trickle in, the get-togethers increased, and I am having a swell time meeting new people everyday.

At first I felt a bit funny every morning, coz I had nothing to do - There was no urgency to get ready and go to office. No worries about pending deadlines. No presentations, meetings... basically absolute bliss. This was compounded by the lovely weather, and the luxurious sunny days.

I haven't walked so much in years...... I cycled after like 15 years (I still have to learn the gear system on bicycles, coz the last time I cycled, I did not have those).

Yesterday, we had a team building activity which was fun. After the drinks at school, it was nice to see such a large turnout at 'Frevd' ..... I do appreciate the capacity !

September has done me good ...... I guess only Keanu Reeves Sweet November was better than this..... Just kidding.

Lets see what October has in store for us ......

Blog ??

The first question is ... what prompted me to start this Blog ? ... I read a few blogs of MBA students in the past month and they were extremely interesting. I am starting on my MBA tomorrow, and I am dead sure that this is gonna be one of the the most exciting years of my life. So why not document the experience ? Reading this many years from now seems like a good idea to relive the good 'ol days.

I know this is gonna be a tough year, and I hope my blog goes beyond this opening article :)

Here's wishing myself all the very best for this Blog... and more importantly my MBA.