Vegas !!

Day 7 : Friday
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Thanks to delays ... reached LA around 1 am. Rashi and Ashu came to pick us up. I was too sleepy to notice much during the two hour to Santa Barbara. We all hit the sack soon after getting home. Woke up as we had been invited to a beach barbeque at Goleta Beach, organized by Kitty (Vandy's friend from school). Got to meet her kids for the first time, her husband Sohit, and her Brother & Bhabhi who were visiting them. Also met Kinmaya and Vishal, who work at Citrix along with Ashu, Kitty and Sohit. Barbeque was great, post which we left for Vegas. The weekend rush to the 'Sin City' delayed us a bit and we reached Vegas just before midnight. Stayed at Bally's ... right on the strip. Without losing much time, we hit the casino at Bally's and the adjoining Paris. Got back around 3-4 am.
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Day 8 : Saturday
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Spent the day exploring other casinos on the stip, including MGM Grand, Bellagio, Venetian and Caesar Palace. Watched the Water Show (The fountains) at Bellagio, which was simply awesome. I liked Venetian as well. I haven't been to Venice, but they had done a good job of replication the environment fit with a canal and gondola.

We went for dinner to a night club by the name of 'Rum Jungle' at Mandalay Bay. The club features the world's largest rum bar and one of Vegas' best dance floors. It a nice dining place till 11 pm after which it converts into one of the more happening night clubs. Having dinner here was the best way to beat the long queues outside the club.

I left the place early coz I had to pick up a t-shirt from the Hard Rock Hotel, which was surprisingly not on the strip, and required extra effort. I must have made the purchase at around 1:30 am, which I guess goes with the city. Also managed to catch the last show at Bellagio. It looked all the more beautiful with the lights. Gambled some more before retiring, and this time managed to recover some of the lost moolah :)

New York

New York has been fun. Here's the summary of our trip so far.

Day 1 : Saturday
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We arrived at JFK around 1:30 pm, and surprisingly the immigration was a quick process. After my sis Vandana had picked up Naina (who is based in Italy, and arrived at JFK at more or less the same time as us), she came to our terminal to get us. We travelled by the famous yellow cabs to her apartment in Upper Manhattan. Rest of the day was spent chatting and catching up on what each one of us has been upto. We though going for a walk in the evening, but the light drizzle deterred us from doing so, and we watched a movie at home.
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Day 2 : Sunday
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We decided to walk down to Midtown area. With Vandy as our guide, and a nice sunny day, the day promised to be full of fun. Our first major halt was at an American Diner. We all enjoyed extremely large helpings of omlettes, home fries and pan cakes. Great food, but none of us (minus me of course) could finish the meal. Some of the places we visited were:

• Central Park (which is next to her apartment)
• Lincoln Center
• Rockefeller Center
• Cap Gemini Office (that is where Vandy works)
• Midtown area (Lehman Brothers building, Broadway, etc)

By the evening we were too tired and took a cab back. Only then did we realize how much we had walked earlier that day.

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Day 3 : Monday

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Vandy left early morning around 4:00 am (stressed life of a consultant). She had to go to Chicago for her current project. We decided to explore more of Midtown area. We took the subway to 34th street, and then straightaway headed for Macy's as shopping there was high on harshi's agenda. After spending three hours there, Harshi bought nothing, but Naina and I did. We then went to the Gap showroom across the street, and went beserk buying. maybe its the buying power of the Pound :) .... We then walked around Fashion District and Bryant Park, which is a small park surrounded by huge buildings. As planned, we reached the destination of the day by around 8pm - Times Square ..... and fell in love with the place. There is just so much energy there, one has to be there to experience it. We had drinks at the Hard Rock Cafe, where I also picked up my souvenir t-shirt. We got back home past mid night.

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Day 4 : Tuesday
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After a heavy brunch made by Harshi, the three of us decided to do some typical sight-seeing. We went to the Museum of Natural History, which was about 10 blocks from where we were staying. We picked up the 'New York City Pass' that allowed us to visit another few attractions for qite a bargain. The museum is huge, and we ended up spending up most of our time at the museum. We in fact lost track of each other by the end of it, only to unite at the entrance, after the museum closed at 5:30 pm. We then took the subway to Midtown, to go atop the Empire State Building Observatory. Had a great time up there. Not to forget, Harshi managed some more of her shopping. We then rushed back as Vandy was expected back by 10 pm, only to find out that she had reached an hour earlier. Sorry Vandy for keeping u waiting !!

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Day 5 : Wednesday

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Naina treated us to some yummy spinach and corn for breakfast. However, although that's a meal for her, Vandy and I decided to go for the main course. So we cooked some great omlettes, which the other two also ate finally. Vandy had to take some calls from home, so we decided to visit the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), and she would meet up with us after that. We cut across the Central Park to the East side, onl to find out that MoMA was not on East Avenue but somewhere in Midtown. We reached a different Modern Art Museum :) ... Museum was nice, in parts, and then we met Vandy, and headed for Downtown Manhattan. We took a subway to Chinatown, and then walked to Ground Zero. Seems like the construction of the Freedom Tower has already begun. We then went to Battery Park to have our first look at the Statue of Liberty. On our way back we stopped at Times Square and went to this Kathi Kebab place for some great Indian food.

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Day 6 : Thursday
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Left early for a cruise around Manhattan. The cruise was around 1pm, so we decided to explore Times Square by the day. The Circle Line Cruise was fun. The live guide was humorous, and provided great stories about the city and its landmarks. Its now time to go to California & Las Vegas. We have the flight at 8:30 pm.

Uncle Sam Calling !

Exams are over ... finally !! ... and I just wrapped up my OM assignment as well... I am now off to US 0f A for a short vacation, vry much deserved, after the scary Hilary Term exams. To be honest I did decently. (minus Finance as usual).

I better finish my packing.... got to leave for the airport in the next couple of hours.

Exam School

One more thing ....... I simple loved the Exam School, and the Exam Hall. Its pretty grand. Nothing like the ones I have been used to back home. We are not allowed to take anything inside, so kudos to Janis for smuggling this snap out ...... :)

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If this snap is from the morning session, I feel sorry for all us innocent souls, studied hard, all dressed up to be butchered mercilessly in these old beautiful halls.

• Wikipedia Link: click here
• History of the Exam School: click here

Blood on High Street !!

Day 1 of exams ... and just like last term, it was again dramatic. Unfortunately, this time, apart from the weather (which included hail, rain, snow), there was also mayhem in the exam hall.

The first paper was Financial Management, and we came out of the beautiful exam school after those 90 minutes in a state of shock. The paper was difficult and lengthy, and all my effort to master the past papers and practice questions as wasted. I am yet to hear of a person who completed all 10 questions..... my random sample tells me that the average attempt rate was ar0und 6 questions.

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The red carnations were seen in plenty for the afternoon session, implying our butchering by the examiners in the first exam. The second paper was IBGG, and it was ok. You really have to be talented to screw up on a case sudy (this doesn't apply to marketing though - my next paper). This paper was also in some way a bit of a shock. After taking the advise from a 'reliable(???)' source, most of us had prepared 4 topics - more to do with the entry of firms from developed countries into emerging economies. And what did we get ? Just the opposite ...... Firms from the emerging markets going abroad. But no sweat really .... after spending so much time on those frameworks, I made sure they were adapted to the scenario :) . Rest of the story marks will tell.

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I better sleep now. After Marketing, I have Finance-II and Operations Management on Wednesday ...... so I am not gonna get any sleep that night. So let me freshen up for the assault.

Entrepreneurial Project

As a part of the course here at Said Business School, we are expected to for a team of five and make a business plan for an original idea of ours. Its referred to as the Entrepreneurial project or EP, and is compulsory.

Apart from making the business plan, we also have to make a pitch in front of VCs (who are from the industry). The pitch happens in this term, and we get feedback, which we can incorporate before we submit the business plan on the first day of next term.

My presentation is today. I cannot give details of my project here ...... Dont want to give away our million dollar idea. But it has been interesting... doing all the background work, sizing the market, drafting our value proposition, then making the marketing and operational plans, and most importantly doing the financials - projecting the NPV, IRR, estimating the Enterprise Value, etc. etc.

Early morning walk !

Decided to take a break from studies and go for an early morning walk. (Disclaimer: early morning here is 8:00 am). Fortunately for me it was not raining, and the walk did some good to appease my mind, loaded with all sorts of Finance & marketing fundas, cluelessness about IBGG and Operations Management and anticipation for a great job. Here are some snaps:

Bollywood Calling !

Yes!!!! ... David Dhawan (a leading Bollywood filmmaker) has asked me to play the lead in his forthcoming movie...... MBA No. 1) :) ..... Just Kidding !!

'Bollywood Calling' was the theme of our last Happy Hour on Friday. Even though the exams are round the corner, it was almost a full house, with free drinks till 7:00 pm. I have noticed a strong of MBAs towards booze. Research students have a new research topic.

It was a fun night, with our in house DJ Dheerin belting out bollywood numbers. Some people followed this up with the BOP at St. Hughs. I gave that a pass. :)

Countdown has begun !!

10 more days left for my next exams..... and this time I am not at all looking forward to them. The only paper I am comfortable with is Marketing, probably because there isn't much to do there. David Arnold has been kind enough (after his not so kind marking on our only assesment) to give us his 'Eight Big Ideas' to crack marketing business problems.

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For Finance-II, I have a decent buffer from my assessments, and will probably rely on the summary sheets that Jos Van Bommel has provided us.

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Financial Management is fortunately based on the first five weeks. The paper is all numerical based, and that should be ok .... hopefully. I have no idea about the last three weeks, and if anybody in our class can say that s/he is right on top of the course material covered in these three weeks, I will recommend him/her for a Nobel in Financial Management.

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Macroeconomics has been one of the most interesting classes at Said Business School. Oren Sussman is simply fantastic. His classes are a must attend if you want to learn more about things that we take for granted - inflation, depression, defecits ....... but dont really understand much about them. His assignments have been extremely challenging and time consuming, and the paper will be equally tough, coz he doesn't seem to be very exam focussed (which I think is good - considering we are not here to just score good marks, its more important to learn). But the bottomline for this paper is that, I am very scared about it.

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Operations Management..... as of now, I dont have much of a clue ....... we used all kinds of gadgets in class, and played all sorts of games, but I am not to sure about the concepts we have learnt, But considering, we are working on the project that will require us to apply some of the concepts, I should be able to get some practice before the exam.

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Last but not the least ..... IBGG - International Business & Global Governance. After writing an assignment every week, one would expect to be a master at this course. But like the name, its too global, and I can frankly apply onl the learnings from a couple of weeks. The problem with this course is that unlike Strategy from last term (which Thomas Powell taught brilliantly), this course does not have very many frameworks to apply to business problems. Hopefully my 'P' grades in assignments will help me on this one.

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Well after going through the list, I am not scared anymore (except for maybe in Macro). But the papers this term dont seem to be scoring. Anyways ... time to hit the books !!!

Mission accomplished !!

Finally submitted my last assignment of the term, and believeme, here were too many of them. Now just two project reports to go ... for Financial Management and Operations Management.


Here's a glimse into our dreary life ....... notice the submission dates over the weekend !!

My Baby is Back :)

Finally, when I had learnt to live my life without it, my laptop has finally been fixed. But now again. the weight of the machne is too much for me to carry to school each day, so I am staying with the new flat screen Dell PCs in the library.

Having access to the net at home will surely impact my productivity .... adversly that is !! Now I am gonna surf more, chat more ... things that I had shunned for the last coule of months.

I am kidding about the negatives ...... really glad to have the laptop working.

RFID

Two great speakers in a row. Today I attended a talk by Mr Dick Cantwell, Chairman of EPCGlobal, which is leading the development of industry-driven standards for the Electronic Product Code™ (EPC) to support the use of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). Mr cantwell was with Gillette, and came to P&G with the merger of the two firms.

He talked about how RFID has transformed the supply chain in the retain industry. Empty shelfs and thefts were costing the companies billions of dollars annualy, and the RFID technology has been the apt solution.

It was an interesting concept, and I see huge applications of this technology. I was fortunate to accompany Mr Cantwell for lunch, along with some other students. We discussed some of the applications further, even thye application of this technology to track customer preferences. Although the company is alert to not get into any privacy violation, I am convinced that the day is not far when we walk into a Walmart and the computer already has our preferences listed out, has a special offer for my anniversary, and even recommends some new products basis my past buying preferences.

Mindtree Consulting !!

Today, I went for an extremely interesting talk by Anjan Lahiri, Executive VP of MindTree Consulting. The topic of discussion was 'Managing Business in a Crisis'. He delivered a 'straight from the heart' presentation about his experience with MindTree, and how they faced the dotcom bust years very early in the company's history, and yet never slipped on their quarterly improvements.

He shared some interesting mantras for survival during the tough times. He also talked about his learnings from Ashok Soota, the Co-founder of MindTree. One of his quotes, which I can recall:

''Dont say ...... If tomorrow comes ...... tomorrow will come !!''

The only bad feature of the evening was the dismal attendance for his talk. I can oly say that those that did not come, missed a great speaker.

The 22%ers

It took my brain cells a while to figure that out ...... our MBA class has 22% females ... and they call themselves the 22%ers. I thought we guys had done something nice by giving them a rose and chocolates on valentine's day .... the girls made our effort look pretty ordinary with a great feast that they prepared for us yesterday.

They really went all out, and it was a reaaaaly nice effort ... Thanks a lot girls. You just might have started another tradition ..... a tough one to keep up tough !!

Phew !!

After four trips to the Indian High Commission in London, I finally got my passport renewed today. The question is why did it take so long when it should be done within 24 hours ? Well, the biggest reason is that I belong to this beautiful place called Kashmir, which gets a special treatment at most places. They had sent a special enquiry for me to confirm that I am a good boy, and that oxford has not made a mistake in giving me admission.

The Indian High Commission seems to be very particular. They also dont trust the American and British High Commissions as I have valid visas for both these countries......... there's much more I can write here, coz its pretty frustrating. I feel sorry for other people, for some of whom it has taken close to 4 years to get the name changed on their passport. I am lucky that ways.

Anyways, I am not done with the High Commission yet. My new passport is only valid for one year. I am travelling to USA next month, and once I come back from there, I will have to reapply for a renewel, and this time they will give me a 10 year validity. Lets hope so!!

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 !!

Electives in Trinity Term

I finally have a list of electives that I will be taking in Trinity Term (that is term # 3 at Oxford) :

• Corporate Valuation
• Restructuring & Implementation
• Branding & Communication
• Customer Insights
• Strategic Decision Making under Dynamic Environment
• Business in China

I did not get Real Estate ... as my highest bid was not high enough. But I will try and 'audit' the course, which is attend the class but not write any assignments or exams. Who would mind that ! I wish I could do that for all papers :)

Time to take a break

Maybe it was a Wednesday (with not so interesting classes) ..... or maybe I took Valentines Day more seriously than before ......... I took this day as a perfect opportunity to head off to London with my wife. We had a nice time roaming around town, ate yummy Indian food ... at a Pakistani joint ..... and also did some shopping (got some great bargains at Zara for myself). We finally got back around 10:30 pm ........ had another yummy Indian meal at a restaurant in Oxford (which was doing it own bit of 'lovey-doveyness' by giving complimentary roses and chocolates).

At the school front, the guys from our batch gave roses and chocolates to the girls in our batch. Seems to be some tradition at Oxford (Said Business School)

Trip to Cambridge

Went to Cambridge today for the oxbridge Fair ... which is essentially a joint job fair for the Said Business School and Judge Busness School (Univ. of Cambridge).

We left Oxford around 9:00 am for the 3 hour journey to Cambridge. The Fair did not begin till almost 11:30 .. so we just idled around, admiring (?????) the architecture of the business school. I have to admit that it did remind me of my kiddo days !! I was very disappointed not to see any 'swings and slides' in their lawns. If you don't get what I am talking about, then make a trip and find out for yourself.

The Fair was ok. Met with some company representatives. How helpful it was, I can only tell if any of the companies present there gives me a job :)

Once I was done with meeting the company folk and collecting 'goodies', I along with a few others left to explore Cambridge. We saw Kings College, which I found extremely beautiful. There was a reception afterwards, which I skipped, as I was getting a hitch to Oxford.

After visiting Cambridge, I am glad of choosing to come to Oxford .... Its anyday better ! .... much better !!

Phone - Lost and found !!

2007 isn't turning out to be the best for me so far ...... that is electronically speaking. Firstly, it was my laptop, which is still in hibernation and refuses to boot-up. And then it was my mobile phone. The snowfall in Oxford, and the ensuing snowball fights left me without a mobile phone ... as I dropped it somewhere in the snow.

As much as I was looking forward to the snow earlier, after this incident, I could only wish for it to melt, giving me a more realistic chance to find my phone, and as luck would have it ... I did find it this morning :)

Hopefully the phone will work once its dried up !