St. Hugh's Formal Dinner

I had a great evening at St. Hugh's last evening. We had a formal dinner at the college, and the principal and our tutors had invited us as guests on the high table. This was the right opportunity for me to don my newly acquired tuxedo.

The evening started with champagne in the common room. Both Chris and myself were amongst the first to reach. After a bit of socializing and usual photos, we were led by the principal to the dining room.

I was fortunate to sit beside my 'Strategy Guru' - Thomas Powell ..... so we had a great conversation about his recent trip to India, his interests in Rishikesh and its ashrams, his tryst with authentic Indian food, and interviewing Indian students applying for the next MBA batch.

After the three course dinner, we moved to the 'dessert table' where I was sandwiched between two Oxford philosophers. Now back in India we dont have such formal dinners, and I learnt a lot about the customs about high dining in Britain. I learnt that these dinners followed by the dessert table was very much an Oxford and Cambridge thing, and also followed by the very upwardly Londoners. Over an interesting conversation about artificial intelligence and the confluence between philosophy and psychology, we had fruits, cheese & crackers and chocolates .... one of the chocolates even had the college crest on it. I also got to taste 'sweet white wine' and 'port'. In the old days, after dinner, the men would retire to have cigars and port... and crack dirty jokes (as I was told), while the women went to 'gossip' in another room...... And I did not make any of this up.

We moved back to the common room for some coffee, and then I walked back home coz I had to leave for London early next morning.

A great experience overall !!