Internship in india is going fine. No real opportunity is opening up in India or elsewhere and at the same time confusion just keeps on increasing with regards where should i focus my efforts on - india, dubai, singapore, london or anywhere in us? I hoped to get some clarity via trip in india — and i have gotten clear as MUD!

Neeways this blog isnt about that. Just a quick note on some good stuff in mumbai:-

First a good step ahead — always wanted to take up yoga! I have started learning the same. And I have been stupendously lucky. Bhuvneshwari Makharia, a World yoga Training centre teacher (http://www.worldyogatraining.com/teachers/) and founder of Yoga Ashram Hrishikesh (http://www.yogashramrishikesh.com/) — was kind enough and agreed to give me 4 times a week one-one sessions for the 5 weeks I was here to be able to impart as much as is possible in that time! I have been extremely fortunate to be learning from one of the leading proponents of Yoga who has been practising and teaching the same for more than 30 years and believes in teaching the science and rationale behind ‘Yog’! So far stupendous. Watch this space for more. I might well go do one of here Hrishekesh tours before I start full time work (when I get ‘a’ job i.e) post mba.

Second, today I did a guided tour of Dharavi — what is more infamously known as Asia’s biggest slum. The tour was another fantastic experience courtesy Krishna Poojari our guide and co-founder/director of Reality Tours - a company founded by him and his british friend. It was fantastic because Dharavi was nothing that I expected. I mean sure there was a lot of what one would expect — 1.75 square kilometers of poverty with sub par living conditions and less than ideal facilities. But Dharavi is a 3000 crore turnover industry. Leather (one of the biggest leather producers in this part of the world), plastics recycling, carboard, aluminium, footwear, pottery - you name it! It was complete with schools, english training classes, cinema hall, computer learning center. The one thing that all 5 of us in the group (me, nat n gagan from ox gang and a couple of travelling spaniards) thought hit us about the place was the thriving industry. It never felt as much a slum as it did a huge campus with many sub factories and sweat shops. It was clear that people here believed in making it happen. No excuses, no self pity (infact very high and proud of their work; photgraphy is not allowed on this tour), no slack — work and make it happen! There were a couple of poignant moments on this trip I shall carry with me - I was tying my shoe laces and a little behing the gang when a 5-6 year sweet girl passed by and in almost impeccable english with proper pronunciation and no accent said: hello, how are you!, smiled and keept walking. Or a small kid outside of school keen to see what we were upto with his t-shirt proudly saying “if you wish, you can!”. I was just glad I went.

Lastly a small note on few good places in mumbai i ve visted — thanks a ton to the locals (dhruv, nat,sajith, varun, stuti, twinkle) who suggested or took me to these places. Some of the ones i loved and would suggest to u are (no not all are swank; infact some very rundown. but they are places i Loved and locals swear by):
Leopold - Shantaram was here. Need I say more? Must visit.

Cafe Churchill - Best contintental food. Dont go by looks of the place.
Zenzi - ultra cool chic food/bar in bandra; bit pretentious.
Moches - best food i ve had in mumbai so far.
Ivy - nice, non-pretentious laid back place. Known for their wine collection.
SukhSagar - ever reliable indian ‘naasta’ place on marine drive. Must have: ‘idli-chilly’
BadeMiya - best sign off place maybe in all of mumbai…after a late party nite, pig out at Bade and go home!
Jazz By the Bay - good lunch buffet. Decent salads and nice sandwiches.
Pizzeria - Awesome pizza with the sea in view. Right next to the Jazz by the Bay.

Watch this space too. Coz hope to add a few more places that I have been told I must visit before i leave..

And to end on oxford news (i miss oxford — Trinity term results are out. And I passed!! Wo-hoooooooooooooooooooooo!

Though I am gonna start with the very latest…because not only is it fresh in my mind, but as the title says it was truly mesmerizing. As you would know (ya rite!), I am in mumbai,India for summer. For my third weekend here (july 17-20th), I went for a weekend getaway to Ranikhet — a mesmerizing scenic beauty set in the charming background of the western peaks of the snow clad Himalayas — in the Almora district in the Indian state of Uttarakhand (previously uttaranchal)!
Check out the wiki for info on the place: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranikhet
It was one of the best weekend getaways ever (topped the mendocino trip in california or dorset in uk i recently updated u guys on!). There were 3 others : Dhruv (rockstar - thanks for making this trip happen, Nat, AP) — mah buddies from ox!

How we got there: mumbai - delhi flite, overnight train from delhi to Kathgodam (nearest railhead - 80 km from ranikhet) and then a private taxi through the beautiful hills to Majhkhali — peaceful spot 13 km from ranikhet with views of majestic Sonya peaks in the Himalayan ranges. This is where our cottage was — one of the most tastefully done getaway cottages ever! More on the cottage later in the blog.

First up on our way to Majhkhali in the taxi, we made a stop over at ‘himalayan fishermen lodge’ - a spectacular and luxurious lodge overlooking a beautiful lake — in bhimtaal (22 Kms. from Nainital and on the route from Kathgodam to Majhkhali). You have to see it to believe it! And whenever you do visit (coz by the time i m done with this blog, u will be lookin up deals to this place) - you MUST put up at this lodge. See the pictures below if you dont believe it — and the real deal is 10 times better! An eco-friendly lodge with rich facilities, delightful staff and panaramic views — the lodge is serenity personified and the experience I can vouch be truly world class!

Then we got to our ultimate destination — the cottage in Majhkhali. A huge huge shout out to Mr. Bakshi (Dhruv’s uncle) for letting us camp at his cottage. It is undoubtedly one of the most tastefully done interior’s I have seen for a holiday home. (He is also the owner of the lodge mentioned above - so you can imagine how much greatercare would taken for a guest lodge!). Rustic pastel colours and immaculately chosen decorative adornments with a equally inviting homely traditional indian furniture immediately lulled us into vacation mode the moment we entered the cottage. We were pampered to bits by Narainji, an old timer and caretaker of the cottage. What did we do for 3 days: Start the days to 2-3 cups of tea and hot parathas in the covered patio (right most section of house looking out to the himalayas– see pics)

with the clouds literally amidst us, a pseudo yoga session by the girlshot scrumptious indian meal for lunch, afternoon snooze, walk out in the mountains or down the the village, back with evening tea and ‘nasta’pretty much immediately followed by the start of rum and wine session at around 7 pm. That would go on till 9 or 10 with eric clapton/buddha bar/nusral fateh ali khan (yup the cottage was complete with the most eclective classic music collection) playing in the background. This session was in the center living room which had french panes looking out to the himalayas (’the view’) - and they were the best part of the trips for me! Yup the rum was a factor but so was some delightful conversations with the kids (read dhruv, nat n ap), music and what i shall always refer to as ‘the view’! Dinner was in the left most section of the house, again looking out the the himalays the difference being this room not only had french panes but a glass ceiling. So hot dinner (think chicken curry, ‘madhve ki roti’- a local bread, dal, paneer etc) with rain drops on a glass ceiling! Needless to say the nights post dinner went long — usually back in the open patio or the living room.

IF the above sounds too good to be true — it WAS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE! I had never visited the northern part of india as much..and now I am sold on it! I am most definetely doing a trip tp Jammu (his native place) and Dharmsala (buddhist monastries) in this year for sure! Thanks a ton kids for making this trip happen, more so Dhruv (my main man!) and most of all his uncle. Truly appreciate your generous gesture.

Phew!! :-). So how and what am i doin in Mumbai in the first place. Well its getting a monkey off my back. Most of u know how much I have been talking about wanting to come back to india after the 8 years away. Well if Oxford was step one leaving the US, this internship is step 2 in giving Indian and honest open shot. I shall work here for 8 weeks and see for myself which side of my well wishers opinion am I on — i.e. I will love it or be frustrated and not want to work here). Mumbai though so far has not dissappointed me. Yeah the weather could have been better and I could have done with some space — but besides that no complaint. I am put up on Marine drive, working at VT (working with the PE arm of Times of India group) — so really cant complaint. My main purpose being networking I have already had a chance to attend a super exclusive event (corporate Dossiers Super Achievers Forum at Rooftop, Hillton) — where in I got to have dinner with the likes of CEO Deloitte Internations, CEO Deloitte India, MD Pfizer, CEO Tata Power, CEO Mahindra Life Space, MD Merill Lynch etc! At the same time also trying to meet peers who have made it back to learn from their experiences.

Shall update you soon with my learnings on that profesisonal front. I think its not rocket science and is about managing expectations. But watch this space for my views on that in a couple of weeks.

What else had happened since the last update(dubai) and before Ranikhet? Here is a dump
Trip to the USA (new-york, san francisco, austin), MootCorp business plan competion, SBS Fund finalist and the pitch at the finals, Trip to Paris, MBATS, Trinity term final exams, india forum at oxford (got to hear the likes of sunil bharti mittal, indian minister kamal nathi, ficci chair mishra, advisor to pm dr. sanjay baru, india express editor shekhar gupta. I was lucky being part of oxford entrepreneurs I got to do lunch with these dignitories too), cancelled flight to India leading to all nite end of term partyyyyyyyyy and finally arriving to India!

Yeah I know the year at oxford has just whizzed by. I complete the internship end of august, head back to oxford and am done within a month. where will I be come end of September — — Its that time in life again. I dunno! Your guess as good as mine — mumbai? Dubai? London? back to the US? or somewhere else? Time ll tell…

peace out
jitin

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!

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!!

Yup. Halfway through Michaelmas (thats what the first semester at Oxford is called)!! 8 week classes and 4 weeks are done. Boy what a ride.

Allright first with all the fun part of the weekend. Please do take a look at the pictures

@ http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/jitind/Week6

Lots of great pictures this week and I will be uploading more (these are just from my camera. Others from other friends will go up too by tomorrow).

3 College dinners. New college (i think this was last week ? — but pictures yet to go up). Larry belongs to New college and he had invited us a few friends over for the formal guest dinner (you cannot have dinner or go to formal halls of other colleges unless along with a member of that college).

The name of the College sometimes strikes visitors as odd in an institution more than 620 years old; its origin is that the College’s “official” name - the College of St Mary - is the same as that of Oriel College. Hence “the new college of St Mary”. Interesting alumni of New college — Hugh Grant.

ChristChurch — my college!!!!! As you guys must already know, it played host to the famous harry potter movies and its dining hall is the famed one. Attached are pictures (yes !!). I had Larry, Katy and Pushpak over as my guests for the formal night. What made it extra special was it was on halloween day! So Halloween at harry potters. There are loads of other pictures of this day that will go up (some crazy ones with us in wierd wigs!). Watch this space. Oh famous alum: Lewis Caroll, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto

Worcester — Thanks Aashima for the invite!! Pics attached. The usual gang (me, larry, katy) along with few other friends ! Its a beautiful old college. Oxford students know Worcester best for its Ball. Every three years a thousand ball-goers enjoy the Worcester College Commemoration Ball on College grounds. Held in June, it lasts from 6pm until 6 am and the dress code is white tie. Famous Alum: Rupert Murdoch

Phew. So that was a great week as having dinner at atleast 20 of the 39 colleges and visiting all of them is one of my goals for the year and 3 in a week is way to go!!

Now to serious stuff. Yup we submitted two group study projects — DEM and Strategy. Have a decision science workshop tomorrow. Its now getting to a point in the term when you see that the intensity in the school is picking up. People are waking up to the fact that this stuffs for real! Me — still to wake up and smell the coffee!! But I am getting there…:-).

Lastly we had our Said Business School group photograph. The one I have attached on the blog is our group study. Just pure luck to be in the fantastic group I am in. We are the ‘assasins’. From left to right on there — me, Adam, Michelle, Vikas, Gary, Chris.

We also chose our electives for Hilary (next semester). I have a nice balance — a strategy, an eco and a financial management course. This along with marketing and operations core-course means it will easily be the most balanced semester. Add to that mix the Entrepreneurship Project which is our biggest deliverable (and take away as per me) for the year — and you have the recipe for another roller coaster of a semester.

But before we get to far there is a good 6 weeks to go on this one (2 weeks for the exams). Here is a peek into next week: Decision Science workship, 6 classes, Founder of Facebook and founder of Carphone warehouse are gonna come to speak, Friday night is Hindu society bollywood night, Saturday we are arranging Diwali at SBS, Tuesday dinner with my dear peer supporters, another college dinner or maybe two depending on the guest dinner schedule (wadham and pembroke the two colleges I think), Entrepreneuship project workshop and pitch and lastly my improv group get together!!

Wow…I better get some sleep. That right there seems like a long week but as always — its got the good with the better ;-)!!

peace out…next week same time….till then ciao!

First up, do not let the sleep deprivation in the blog title not give the wrong impression. It was a good week :-). There were a few positives…

After the low of last week, not getting on the Entrepreneurship OBN, I got on the committee for Alumni relations role for the student advisory board for 2007-08 and also the External relations role for Oxford Entrepreneurs — one of the biggest student run organizations in Europe. The Oxford Entreprenur role excites me no end as this is a organization with 4000+ members and the committee comprising mostly of very very bright group of young individuals (mostly undergrads) is doing some great work and are getting better. Check them out at @ — http://www.oxfordentrepreneurs.co.uk/

Must say a special thank u to a dear friend and Mentor who had told me after my last week’s dissapointment — “so what did u learn grasshopper?”. I got the message and and it reminded me that there are no failures — just learning opportunities! Thanks Marc. Also marks for the first group assignment were out. My group got distiction which was real cool. Only 4 / 13 groups in our section got distinction and 8 / 36 across the entire batch. So it was good worthy effort I would think. We need to ensure though that we look to improve as a group and always finish strong to continue this good start.

It was a special week as my bua (paternal aunt) visited me. She has come from india to visit Deepa (me dear cousin) in Birmingham. Its a pity that due to my packed schedule I could just be with them for half a day, but we had a great time never the less. She liked Oxford quite a bit. Some great pictures of ChristChurch and myself attached from her trip. A good friend had requested pics of Christchurch — so maddy here u go! Will be putting up pictures for the Harry Potter hall soon.

Hmm what else. Oh yeah, the (one of the) highlight of the week was the visit and talk by Chairman and CEO of Coca Cola — Mr. Neville Isdell at Said Business School. It was a great talk focusing around coroporate responsibilities and role model corporate citizenship being very important for Coca-Cola. A truly exceptional person, his reference to Nelson Mandela being his hero struck a chord with me as Mr. Mandela is my childhood hero too! I had the good fortune of having some personal face time with Mr. Isdell as I was one of the people organizing and helping out with the event. Attached is a picture of the help group with this truly distinguished gentleman!

The week ended on a great note too. Friday night I was invited over by Larry to his College, New College, hosting a formal dinner night open to limited guests of the college members. It was a grand affair and truly memorable. This is really what seperates Oxford from any other institute in the world. 1000 year old buildings, the tradition, history of presidents, nobel laureates having eaten where we were eating. It was a goosebumpish (did i just make up that word?!!) affair! Thanks Larry!

Saturday night was Oxfords first house party. Hosted again by Larry and his flatmates (Nick, Tian, Vicky) — the party was called “The Botley (street on which they live) Bop (a term used for parties hosted by colleges in Oxford) Antifusc party”. It was a roaring success I felt and personally had a great time. Thanks guys!! Attached are a couple of pics which might give you an idea of the wild night that was.

Sunday night, after a day reading at the library, was Id night hosted at Somerville college (this was the college of former Prime Minister of India — Late Mrs Indira Gandhi). Was good food and some decent entertainment!

So there…quite a week. Next week will see 3 assignments and as soon as I upload this post I will be reading for atleast a couple of hours giving me a good 4.5 hours for sleep (lucky me! )..

Next week…same day…we will be at the halfway mark for the semester. How fast are we moving….vrooooooooooooooooom!

Week 4 over….2 weeks of studies over. So in a way 25% of my first semester is over (8 week semester). WOW.

Dunno if i am getting used to the pace of ‘the grind’ or all I did was work this week, but it was a relatively sedate week. Lectures were on in full swing. My reading was hardly up to the mark. Infact I am seriously seriously lagging with daily readings of text and case studies. But i think an MBA teaches you to learn to priortize and pick your poison..literally! So I am zeroing in on Finance and Economics as the ones for which I will try to keep my eye on the ball. I am hoping keen participation in class and relative ease of curriculam for the others (decision science is quite a lot of statistics, financial reporting is very new to me but a purely quantitative subject which i think should be leveraged for pulling up overall grade, strategy is well strategy — anything flies, org behaviour is lot of fluff) should help me tackle them right before exam.

Had a disappointing start to the week as I lost out on ‘chair’ position for the Entrepreneurship business Network which I was eyeing. There was election by show of hands and not many people turned up. But I think a great guy won so it should be an interesting OBN(Oxford Business NEtwork). I though am on the Marketing OBN which should allow me to help with some of the events too.

We had two group assignments due this week. A Strategy case study on Robert Mondavi and the wine industry — was quite a tough one as it required industry analysis. The other was a relatively simpler Organization behviour case study dealing with different personalities. While on personalities, we did one of these personality test in class which then gave results for analysis. Was interesting actually — I am supposedly a laid back relaxed guy who is pushy and competitive — whatever that means!! Also I am reactive and very much an explorer (a day dreamer who seeks to always explore more ) — though I kind of agreed to the test on these two counts! And lastly on the project, I must add I personally think we have a great study group team. We are the ‘Assasins’ - yup we have given ourselvs a name and all. I shall soon update pics of my team mates — Adam, Chris, Gary, Michelle, Vikas and myself!

I had the first of my improv workshops this week. We had a decent turn out - 9 people showed up. Sarah (a MFE student), Phil (a great improv ) and myself (with my humble improv experience) orchestrated the workshop with few ‘yes and’ games and C.R.O,W scene work. Was a lot of fun. We need to come up with a great name for the group and also get into logistics of when do we aim to have our first public performance. I have a good feeling about this one!!

Also this week we had our first peer support sync up meet after 2 weeks. It was absolutely fantastic meeting up with 10 friends who had shared a whole week before classes started. We caught up on whats been going on and how each was dealing with the madness of the first two weeks. We shall be meeting up for dinner the coming week. So look forward to some snaps and updates next week from this corner.

The week ended with two major events on Saturday. First up, the rugby world cup final (rugby is huge in England. The game was invented here and whats more like a true world up this one happens once every 4 years). England vs South Africa. The other was ‘Indian Garba Nite’. Unfortunately they were both at the same time. I was dressed in my white showing support for England and carrying a India ‘kurta’ in the hand. But ultimately being from gujarat, my genes got better of me and I opted for the dandia. It was a great decision. Bonded with quite a few indian friends and had great fun. Good times!!

Sunday was subdued. Went for a run through the woods behind my apt with thames running by the side. Shall update pictures of the same soon. Beautiful place. Then went to a faraway Tesco (Tesco is like the biggest grocery supermarket chain in the UK) for groceries. Back to school and read up the Microsoft vs State case for the Economics class tomorrow. No prizes for guessing the topic here - Monopoly!

Its an easy week before the storm the week after ( we have 4 group assignments due then which is like impossible). I hope to use it to catch up with my reading. Let there not be a lull before the storm!!! Back to ‘the grind’!

 I will go on record and say this was one of the busiest and shortest week of my life (though it felt like the longest as I was speeding through it!). I always knew it will be tough to get back to classes and student life. Boy did I underestimate!! Tough does not even start to describe how difficult I found coping up with this week. Picture the following — 7 3-hour lectures, 4 3-hour career events, 2 3-hour Improv auditions, 2 Bop parties, 3 hour formal Matriculation, 2 group assignment meetings, unending reading lists (none of which I could get to), peer support pizza party and couple of dinner with close friends most of whom I did not see all weekend as we have been spread over different sections — what a week.

Needless to say I am really really short on time. So I will be brief but will compensate by loads of pictures!

Matriculation was undoubtedly the highlight of the week. A very formal latin ceremony officially inducting us to oxford. As one of the friends rightly likened it to the march of the penguines. INteresting read @ http://picasaweb.google.com/shahaoneal/MatriculationAtOxford

It was truly a spectacle though. Proud moment to be part of a 800 year old tradition in the worlds greatest and oldest University!!

I also auditioned for the Oxford Imps — the only improv group in Oxford. Go through the first audition and got a callback audtion where I was cut. But here is the good news — of the 17 who were called for the callback audtion — only 5 got through. The rest of us are going to start our own improv group!!! The first workshop happens on Wednesday. Look out for updates on this in future weeks.

After the long study week (the gory boring details of which I shall spare you), weekend was lotta fun. Long happy hour on friday — the night ended at 1 am. Saturday early am was the matriculation and sat nite was dinner with bunch of good friends (the ones have bonded with most as they ve been around longer and had come to oxford earliest when I had too). Sat night we went to the ’sexy sub fusc party’ @ St. Cross college. Wild night ended @ 3 am.

Sunday was some imrpov, reading for the next week and ended the week with some dinner with Larry, Katy and Aashima — buddies @ OX (since classes have started and we are in different sections we try to meet up couple of times a week!).

Enjoy the snaps…