So how did I get to be here, procrastinating on my homework while looking out on the beautiful river view from the Hertford College Graduate Centre?

Starting with the basics, I am a 25-year-old native of Washington, D.C. and a graduate of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. After college, I worked at a public relations firm doing health and social marketing work. After a few years, I quit my job in Washington D.C. and lived in Uganda for a while, working on a small business project with village women.

I always knew I wanted to enter a career in international development, but I wasn’t sure exactly what kind of training might be helpful. Most people I knew in the development field had MPH, MS or even law degrees. But the more I learned about the field, the more I wondered if a new kind of approach was necessary—one that incorporated the end “customer’s” viewpoint, one that responded to demand instead of supplying programs dreamed up by bureaucrats, one that demanded accountability and efficiency in all its operations.

Why weren’t more people in this field getting MBAs? I wondered.I was almost through with my application process—solely to business schools in America—when I happened to have a conversation with Chris McKenna. Now the  Oxford MBA Program Director, Chris was working in America when I asked him about Oxford’s business program. Many schools I was considering seemed like “classic” MBA programs, with a focus on traditional industries, making money, etc. I was more interested in applying business techniques to the nonprofit sector and “making a difference” in the world. What could Saïd Business School offer?
Chris paused then, and his eyes widened. No doubt he was thinking of the School’s Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, its professors’ many public-private research interests, or its uniquely international student body…among many other factors. “I really think Saïd would be a good fit for you,” he said.
So here I am, almost done with the first term, and it has gone by fast. My day planner looks like it was attacked by a crazed diarist around the end of September. And it’s been filled with some really unforgettable moments (hopefully including actual class material…we’ll see in exam week…)

As the core first term requirements, we are taking Marketing, Strategy, Finance, Financial Reporting, Decision Science and Managerial Economics. In the interests of full disclosure, I should tell you that I nearly fainted when I read this little educational ensemble before I came here. But here’s the good news: there are a surprising number of people in our class who have just as little background in quantitative analysis as I do. And there are even more people who are experts in these subjects and devote an incredible amount of their time to helping their classmates understand the coursework.

I’ve been quite impressed, in fact, by the general lack of competitiveness here. If people can help you by sharing their knowledge, they don’t hesitate. Maybe you’ll help them with an assignment in your area of strength, maybe you’ll buy them a beer at the pub later, but reciprocation isn’t the important thing.

And then there’s quite a lot you can learn from classmates outside the academic arena. The student body here is so diverse, it feels like a mini United Nations. We are all divided into study groups of about six people, with whom we will do group assignments for the whole first term. In my group alone, the students are from India, China, Colombia, France and Great Britain. So whenever we work on a project, we get six perspectives analyzing the problem in a uniquely comprehensive way. (And yes, sometimes this can be difficult, such as when we have different reactions to things and need to reach a quick consensus…but it actually doesn’t happen as often as you might think.)

As for the other activities, a few examples and a couple pictures will have to suffice: MBA happy hours, Diwali parties, matriculation events, 2008 election night festivities, formal dinners at friends’ colleges, the notorious Evelyn Waugh Night at Hertford College…deep breath…punting on the Thames, visiting museums, cycling in the countryside, Guy Fawkes Night (for which there is no explanation a non-Briton will understand), and just generally exploring Oxford, one of the oldest and prettiest towns I’ve ever seen. You can understand why there’s hardly any white space in the day planner.

This week, we had a dinner (probably the last one) with the Principal and the ‘Tutor for Graduates’ at Hertford, the college I belong to. Interestingly, the seat I took happened to be next to the principal, exactly the same place I sat at the fresher dinner at the beginning of my year in Oxford. He asked me the same question as he did at the former dinner, whether the University of Tokyo is the same university as the Imperial University of Tokyo, (“Yes, it is. It used to be the Imperial University,” I said politely.), which again reminded me of the first time I came here. This time, then he kindly explained to me some of the former principals; portraits of them are hung around the walls of the dinner hall. There was one who served as the principal for as long as 50 years, because there was no retirement age in those days. Another one had a student who later became a novelist; since the student didn’t like the principal, a mean character named after the principal would often appear in his novels. There was also a portrait of the person the current principal himself learned from.

Then I talked with my friends, who are studying various subjects such as history, chemistry, environment, surgery, computer science, had drinks with them, and left the college. It was an interesting and amusing evening, getting out of the Business School for a moment, and talking about something of quite a different scope. It was one of those moments that make us feel that there really is something special about doing an MBA in Oxford. It constantly reminds us, MBA students, of a wider range of issues and different vantage points.

About 160 of us piled into three buses early Thursday morning for the 12+ hour ride to Paris. First thing the next morning, game on. It was pretty fun to see the athlete come out in people that you wouldn’t have expected (or seen) otherwise. One guy on our course ran the 100 meters in 11.8 seconds on a shoddy track! Another guy was a phenomenal rock climber. A friend of mine who claims to “jog” occasionally came out and placed third on our team in the 7 km cross country race, beating all the girls and most of the other guys! Needless to say, I’m not jogging with her anymore ; )

Our ultimate frisbee team placed second overall. It was the last sport of the first day, so we ended up with a huge cheering squad. We had to go up against London Business School, which had a bunch of American guys who had played a lot before. We were down 4-0 after about 10 minutes, then managed to bring it back to 5-5, then they took off again and I think we lost 10-6 or something. It was a great game, though, and so fun to have lots of people watching, cheering, saying things like, “wow, I didn’t know this is how you played frisbee!”

I ran cross country too, which was literally the most pathetic race of my life–I wasn’t planning to run, but got woken up by the cross country captain at 7:30 am saying “we need one more girl to field two teams…you have to save the day!!” Of course, I’m a sucker for saving the day so I stumbled out of bed and ran to catch the bus to the starting point. I was exhausted from the day before, dehydrated, confused, and the course was really long and really hilly…I think I ran about 10 minute miles the whole way just trying not to die. In the end, they didn’t count our second team, so the whole thing was pointless. The only good out of it was that it gave me a chance to preview the course for the mountain biking race later that day. Let’s just say it was a lot more fun on a bike.

Our guys rugby team won the whole tournament—I haven’t ever paid attention to rugby before coming here, but it is by far the roughest game I’ve ever seen. At the end of the last match the guys all looked like they’d been through a war zone—dislocated shoulders, twisted ankles, scrapes, stitches, bruises…but wearing their gold medals proudly. The weather was gorgeous all weekend, and a bunch of us went to Versailles for the afternoon before catching the overnight bus back to Oxford. Now, back to life—3 assignments due this week.

A lot has happened as is usual.

A few dinners: Karans place, Pranav (microwave-frozen-food-cook ;-)), Green college, Mansfield College, Mktg team dinner
Parties: SBS Bop, Brazilian Carnival
Speakers/Special dinners: Sir Tom Hunter , John Bird, Oxford Business Alumni trip to London
Great nights: Rocking nite at luvraj’s, at abhi’s Jesus GCR,
Assignments: lets not go there!
Special mention: I shot for a video (see link n rate my oscar worthy performance), moved apartments (newer pad n closer to school)

Other: Finalizing trip to Dubai in April (should i drop in to india for a bit??), Trip to Paris for MBATs in May, got most electives for the next term except for Private Equity

Allrite. So how are we doing :-)?

Its weird, there is like a lot lot more to do this semester. But for some strange reason I seem to be in a super chill zone. Avg sleep hours up to 10 (ppl at Said read this and they will faint!), havent been as regular with lectures, EP — something I really am interested in given I was nurturing the idea since Los Angeles days — is really blow hot blow cold and am way behind on it!

What else…NBA all star is here. Too bad cant catch the games live. But just saw highlights of Dwight Howard winning the DUnk fest. Specta-freakin-cular!

Its 4 am at night and just got done with an assignment so will sign off….! More later…

First of all apologies for taking a 6 week break from the blog!!! I missed writing and hope some of you did reading (shout out to all family and friends who kept reminding me to update it). But I am coming back from a great event which inspired me to share with you all. Will get to it in a bit.

First of all, what was I up to these past few weeks. Lets make it fast. Exams in december, big time parttttttttttty from 1130 am to 4 am the next day, trip to london, lord of the rings musical, back to India, met up loads of old friends, trip to mumbai, 31st bang with school friends and couple of MBA friends in abad, great family time as my sis made a special trip to abad too, back to oxford, unbelievably dreadful weather (which just refuses to get better), un-freaking-believably busy semester (2 core, 3 electives, entrepreneurshp project, internship and scp search, fulltime job search, electives for upcoming semesters, on average 3 projects a week with 4 different groups), couple of great fun night outs….phew! pics for some of these events are up. Will put up others too…

Now I shall share with you a great evening. The day started as usual early (hate getting up in darkness, even at 730, all cold and having to choose between extremely hot water or extremely cold water for a face wash as two seperate taps here in the UK) as had to go for an operations management short field trip to the biggest TESCO in the neighbourhood with my study group. Have a great group for the core courses (all groups i have this term are great :P!!). Spent about an hour there and back. Got home, changed as had a meeting with my Entrepreneurial project team. Then after another meet with MBA director with regards our EP, back home to get into a tux for a presentation by L’Oreal CEO Sir Lindsay Jones which was to be followed by dinner with him and his team and a few select MBA students.

The talk, in my mind, was one of better ones I have heard. Sir Jones’s speech personified what he said was the one thing his journey meant to him: FUN. He delivered expert subtle nuances on ‘Enduring Success’ from his experiences at L’Oreal in a very engaging way.

AFter a drinks reception for networking with all the L’Oreal guests and all the audience, a few of us proceeded for dinner in the boardroom. It was a great couple of hours being in the same room as some of these people with a wealth of experience having led truly global giants (I am sure the few other MBA students who were fortunate to be in there must have felt the same). A really engaging post dinner conversation gave insight into their minds and views from where they are at.

A senior director on the boards for a lot of big companies made a point with regards corporation’s role in sustainable business. He talked about an example of how while in an African country he was helping out with a hospital which was trying to arrange for drugs which would help treat small kids with AIDS. It was a battle to arrange for the infrastructure and distribution to get the drugs sent from the big nations to this small interior place in Africa. Then he walked out of the hospital that evening and was surprised to see major cola drinks easily available. The obvious question was if there could be a network of distribution for the colas, how is it that something as critical as life saving drugs does not find its way there? Should corporates not play a role?

An extremely logical counter argument provided was that there is a difference between philanthropy and tax!!! Corporates are there to do what they do best. To create value, make wealth, re-invest, increase employment, improve economies and then help in ways they can. But to expect them to do what is actually a goverment or the UN’s job would lead to a scenario which takes business away from doing their job and doing something which is not in their expertise! There is a situation where we almost start believing that the corporataion is obligated (a la tax) to do what is the core responsibility of government!

Somehow that thought process of the distinction between philanthrophy and tax just struck a chord …

Also had a wonderful wonderful dinner at Pushpaks and Alka’s (yup if you are following my blog, I had a great one last sem too at their place). WE were celebrating republic day of India. That explains the patriotism in the snaps..:-). As is usual at their place — great food n good times! And the weekend weather has just been SPECTACULAR. I know it wont last tho….

I shall leave you guys with that. But from now on, shall be extremely regular as before…

Next week’s menu: more bad weather, 3 projects, talk by founders of Netfinder and the Big Issue, dinner with CEO of the Big Issue, black tie dinner at Oxford Cambridge club with Oxford Business Alumni and much more!!!

Shout out to dear friend nbf..happy bday dude!

Exams
Whoa, that was a lot of exams—6 in 4 days will really take it out of a person. I felt pretty good going into the first exam on Monday morning, but then a killer Financial Reporting exam in the afternoon hit pretty hard, and it was a slippery downward slope right through to Thursday morning, when Finance just about did me in…It’s been funny thinking back on my undergrad experience—somehow, I don’t ever remember exams being that big of a deal. And it wasn’t that I didn’t take difficult classes, or lots of them. I guess I must have had projects and/or final papers in lieu of written exams for many of my undergrad courses. Needless to say, I have never packed so much information into my brain as I did in weeks 9 and 10 of this term, and while it was stressful, exhausting, and detrimental to any semblance of healthy eating or sleeping habits, it was actually fun to feel like I had really learned the material. We’ll see what the examiners have to say in a few weeks…

Winter Break
It is so cool to live in a place where you can hop on a plane for less than £100 and in a few short hours you can be skiing in Switzerland, cruising the streets of Barcelona, or roaming around on the African continent! Ok, ok, so I didn’t manage to do all of those things over the winter holiday, but I came pretty close! The ski trip was thwarted by a combination of poor snow conditions, and waiting too long to purchase tickets and reserve accommodations. My husband and I did, however, manage to meet up with my family in sunny Barcelona. We had a lovely Christmas spent with long lost relatives outside of Madrid, and then made our way south to Granada before taking the ferry from Tarifa to Tangier. We spent a phenomenal ten days travelling between Tangier and Marrakesh, soaking up the beautiful, vibrant, and ever-entertaining Moroccan culture. We walked the beautiful and winding streets of Chefchouen, got hopelessly lost in the crowded market in Rabat, and spent an entire afternoon watching from a balcony restaurant as the huge plaza Jemaa l-Fna in Marrakesh came to life with food vendors, snake charmers, acrobats, and fortune tellers. It was a tough decision to stay abroad for the holidays, but I must say that this winter break will not be soon forgotten.

Back in Oxford
We arrived last night by bus from the London Gatwick Airport. It’s a bit surreal to have spent the last several weeks traveling, then return “home” to Oxford, which still feels a bit like a travel destination of its own. Coming in on the A-40, the bus drove through so many interesting parts of the city that I haven’t even found on a map yet—places like Headington, Cowley, and St. Clements all have great shopping, beautiful old buildings, and fantastic restaurants just waiting to be sampled. This term, I’ve made a resolution to get out more, experience more of the incredibly rich history and culture that Oxford has to offer.

It felt good to be back, and nice to see familiar faces again at the Business School. We walked down the canal path to the grocery store last night in the dark, got caught in a horrendous downpour on the way back, and thought to ourselves “Ah, home sweet home!”

I love my college Harris Manchester. I think the right word for it is “quirky”— it’s filled with smart and kind characters and it’s a great fit for me. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve spent only a tiny fraction of time there compared with hours upon hours spent at the Business School, but whenever I do make it to the college for a meal or an event, it’s always a great experience.

My favorite thing about the college is the amazing people you meet and (even better) they are people who look at you funny when you use B-school words like “value added” and “normal distribution” and “brand recognition.” It’s a great reality check. So far, I’ve met an internationally acclaimed badminton player, a teacher studying the best way to teach theology to kids, a trial lawyer who’s decided to come back to uni after 20 years to get a masters in history, a wine connoisseur, an opera singer, a Latin-speaker, and an elite tennis player. One guy I met was in a band that hit it big at 16. He’s already experienced the rise and fall of his own UK rock band before returning to study at the ripe age of 21. Wow.

It would have been great to live in, but my husband (I’ll call him Tyler from now on) is here in Oxford for the year, and the college doesn’t offer “partnered” housing. (If you’re looking, several colleges do—you just have to do some searching!) We’re living in an apartment near SBS, which is working out great, and we try to make it to the college at least once a week for formal dinner or other events (they host concerts, lectures, parties, etc). Tyler is actually playing on the college football team and has made more friends there than I have, which is great because he introduces me to people!

We had our Christmas dinner the other night, and after a tasty meal and several glasses of wine the entire faculty table stood up, donned Santa hats, and sang us all a Christmas carol. I love this place.

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/jitind/TempletonWeek9

Click Above is an album

Yo gang! This is going to be super short as its 3 am and I still need to work for an economics assignment which is 50% of our grade and due tomorrow. But I will say this– this Monday is easily the most look forward to Monday of the term! IT is when all assignments are done, all group studies for this semester over and just one week of classes and one week of preparation before exam!!

This past week has been really really intense! 3 Big time group assignments were due. Each with a very high weightage and time was as usual squeezed. Tensions were high and the group dynamics were changing as people were getting edgy as exams near, no time to study, group study taking longer, more at stake and in general too much too do. Every one felt sleep deprived, overworked and under appreciated!!

So I am just going to go through a laundry list of what I did this week. Though check out the snaps. They are from Dinner, Opera and after party (one of the wildest parties this semester) at Templeton College. Templeton is Oxfords most mordern and specialist MBA college. It has 60 MBA students, by far the largest MBA community any college accepts.

So night at Templeton was fun. Also after 3 weeks I went for Improv workshop. Its exciting times there as we are planning for a performance in MArch sometime.

This week finalized the team for Entrepreneurship Project — by far the biggest reason I am at oxford. Am happy as have got a decent team. Also had a meeting with the Chair of Said who is also co-ordinator for the EP. I think we have a brilliant idea which if followed through might actually be feasible to take live. It was something that had occured to me back in San francisco and its exciting to see it turn into the EP.

Got officially inducted into the Oxford Entrepreneurs this week. Should be a great year at this pretty impressive organization which is one of the largest if not the largest student run body in Europe!

Do check out the snaps. And promise a lot more fun next week and there is going to be a lot of ‘blowing steam’ this week!!!

Man this semester is officially getting out of hand. Things are simmering at boil!!
And I am struggling!The horrible weather is not helping at all. Overcast, raining and very cold! I long californian sunshine or amdavadi heat!

This week we had an individual case study assignment for Organizational Analysis. We will see how things go. Got grade for a strategy and Decision Science Workshop. Unfortunately our distinction streak was broken as we dipped below for both these.

Another major assignment this week was the Financial Reporting ‘Vodafone’ assignment. Man it had become the bane of my life last few days. Just coming back from submitting that beast — 3500 word analysis of Vodafone’s 164 page annual report and 10 such reports for last 10 years, which is going to account for 40% of our Financial reporting marks. We need to do well on this one! Fingers crossed and will keep ya guys updated!

Also this week got serious about EP (Entrepreneurship Project). Oxford is maybe the only business school which has one subject less in the Hillary (second) semester and instead has a Business Plan competition which ends with us presenting before VC’s. Teams should have a mandatory 5 members. EP was one of the major reasons I elected to come to Said. So far have clubbed with another idea guy and we are toying with 2 ideas. We will be creating elevator pitches for both and sending out to few of our friends, mentors and professors for a gut check before we decide on one. Also we are trying to think up of and recruit a team as people are very rapidly consolidating into groups. Watch this corner for updates throughout the next 3-4 months!

Ok. So it was not all work and no fun. Went for a couple of college dinners this week. First went to Wadham college — special thanks to Deepti for having me over. I shall update the pictures form Wadham soon as I do not have them yet. Wadham College was founded by Nicholas and Dorothy Wadham in the reign of King James I. Nicholas Wadham, a member of an ancient Somerset family, died in 1609 leaving his fortune to endow a college at Oxford. Famous alumni: Robert Blake.

Also had the ChristChurch Black Tie event for chirstmas. Unbelievably beautiful and grand affair. You guys have already seen the famous Potter hall in few of earlier snaps but check them out again. Had Aashima and Alyson as guests with me. Was a great night!!

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/jitind/DinnerAtChristChurch171107

Lastly went out and watched King Khan in ‘Om Shanti Om’. Now Mr. Khan needs to thank me for being his loyal fan. All the way in OXford, with people stressing their wits out due to all the mad rush, I made time to check out the ‘Diwali’ Bollywood blockbuster of the year. And shamelessly so, I LOVED IT!. EVERY NONSENSICAL minute of it.

Next week is super crazy. It starts on Monday with another Decision science workshop (the 2nd and last this semester). The rest of the day is going to be used up by the Silicon Valley comes to Oxford event wherein we have a slew of seminars and master classes. We have quite a good panel with the Founders of Linked in, Yelp, YouNoodle and Automactic, Venture Capitalist firms, Stanford Prof’s, Senior Google personnel etc coming in. Being on the Oxford Entrepreneurs I shall get to do dinner with them which am looking forward to. There is a huge Economics group assignment to get started on which is due end of week and is 50% of our grade and if that wasnt enough there is also a Finance group assignment! Daaaammmmnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!

Allritie gang! Next 3 weeks better be the most hardworking weeks I have had since the last couple of years (basically last I worked as hard was the first few releases of THoT) if I am going to have any shot of getting through this semester.

Miss all of my friends & family, miss California n miss India!! Miss watching Kobe light it up (NBA season’s started). Miss Fort Mason in San Francisco and Naaz 8 ! But am loving every minute of Oxford and acutely aware that week by week, the year’s ticking away.

A very very happy diwali to everyone (family/friends in states, uk, india and dubai!)

Today is gonna be super short. Have a mock exam on Tuesday, one individual assignment due and a shit load of other stuff.

The week was long but the weekend was great fun but sub par on the study front. That is getting to be a concern as I am lagging terribly on my courses and if I do not get my act together it may well be a lost cause!!

Diwali was a major highlight. Partying started on Friday. There was the Diwali bollywood bop at Keble college. Great music and lotta fun. Then a good 15-20 of us landed up at a friends place and played cards all night long. Crashed at 6, up at 10 on Saturday as had to help organize for the Diwali party at the Business school in the evening. The event was a huge success and loads of fun. Check out the attached pictures.

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/jitind/DiwaliPartySBS101107

Also this week attended the Magdalen dinnner which was arranged as a Christchurch Magdalen exchange event. Magdalen by far is the prettiest college I have seen at Oxford so far. See the pics. There are still parts of Magdalen (like their famous deer park) which I need to check out. Famous alumni: Oscar Wilde.

Got a distinction for the third assignment. So far our group is 3/3 for distinctions — which is good. Would be great to carry it through for all assignments for Michelamus term.

Had a peer support dinner at Hanbal’s! It was a feast. Was great to catch up with the peer support bunch.

Allright..promise to fill up details and more snaps next sunday. Need to get to cover up for all the fun this weekend. Happy diwali and a prosperous (hindu) new year to all!!