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

But this SCP has more than just an exotic location, it is really an amazing project.  We are being asked to audit the entire business of Gambia is Good (GiG), analyze what is working and not working, conduct a visioning workshop with all of the stakeholders to set their long term and short term vision, create a strategy, and finally recommend a 1-2 year operational plan and see if they can transform from an NGO to a profitable business.  The current objectives of GiG is to develop local small scale farmers such that they can provide high quality, locally produced vegetables and fruit to hotels and restaurants in The Gambia.  After just one week on the ground with them we can also see a much broader opportunity for this business.

We have had an intensive first week working non-stop to learn as much as possible about the business and to prepare for the visioning session Saturday July 12.  We spent a full day on GiG farm which serves as a research site, conference center, back up production, and tourist location.  Then we spent the next day in the office.  We met first with the head horticulturist, then took part in the monthly production meeting where sales and marketing tells the production managers how much of which varieties of produce they will need and production managers review where and how they can get it from.  It is important to note that while the production managers work for GiG, the producers (farmers) do not.  Thus it is a tough exercise with your supply being dependent on independent, small scale farmers who you do not control, at this point they don’t even have contracts with them.  Clearly this area is one of constant worry for the business and one we hope to address.

The theme of production continues on day 3 which we spent at a regional farmers meeting in the Western Division where we were welcomed by the local women with song and dance.  At this workshop we spent the full day discussing their perspectives on what was going right and what needed to be improved with their relationship with GiG.  After the full session our SCP team split up and each spent some one on one time with a few of the different farmers to ask some more pointed questions away from the GiG staff to help round out our knowledge and keep it more unbiased.

While we wanted to spend Saturday on the glorious Gambian beach, we only got a few hours off in the morning and instead headed to the ferry, across the river Gambia, to the North Bank region and a different view of production and training.  We spent the next day and a half going to the farmer training facility, meeting with the local production manager, visiting a community garden funded by another NGO, going to successful small scale farms started by former students of the training center, visited some truly small gardens which people have started in a spare plot of land to generate some extra income, and even helped harvest tomatoes and grade and select onions from one of the farms.  As we reached the ferry at sunset on Sunday we were drained from two days in the heat and sun, but brimming over with more questions and ideas and excited to get started on the vision planning and recommendations.

Monday we spent time with the Finance team, understanding the current accounts, what donor funding the “business” still relies on, and what areas of inefficiency there are which we can hopefully address to help their operating costs.  Then Tuesday we finally dove into the planning and pre-work for the visioning session so that it will run smoothly Sat – Mon.  We really want to do a good job, so we are putting a lot of thought into it.  To make sure the sessions are successful, we even ran them on ourselves.  Not sure what the team will come up with, but after an hour and a half of brainstorming and prioritizing we came up with two potential vision statements, which sound incredible if you ask me!  To round out our business exposure we spent Wed exploring the customer side of the with hotel, restaurant and market visits all of which were intriguing.  The customers in general were very pleased with the quality of the product and service they were receiving from GiG so we are off to a good start there.  Thursday and Friday are 100% dedicated to putting the rest of the workshop together and despite trying to be efficient, actually working quite well together, and wanting the same things out of the event, we are still up until past midnight every night trying to get this done.  But we all know it will be worth it when we are able to deliver a thought provoking and valuable workshop.

We keep looking longingly at the beautiful beach and dreaming of the weekend we will get off on the 19th so that we can really enjoy this lovely country.  We did manage to squeeze in a concert by a famous artist from Sierra Leone (Emerson), so we have had a bit of fun amidst the hard work.  Stay tuned for next weeks update to hear how the vision session goes.

(Personal Note from Mariah:  It is getting harder and harder to imagine having a desk job.  I knew this was going to be a life changing experience, but I was not sure the impact of that.  This week, number of hours spent in an office = 12, hours spent working > 60!)

Essentially, you have a choice of three summer scenarios, with some room for creativity and combinations:
1. Strategic Consulting Project (SCP): This is an eight-week consulting gig performed with a team of four students…I’ll explain more in a minute.
2. Summer Electives: Two week-long summer electives (you can two at the same time and get it over with in one busy week) also provide the necessary credits for degree completion. Taking electives frees up the rest of your summer to do an internship, write your next business plan, or sit on a beach somewhere far from the business school.
3. Thesis: Individual research thesis…unless you are really into research and/or have a project that would warrant this kind of work, the thesis option is not a very popular one.

Summer Consulting Project:
The SCP is a great opportunity to actually try out all the stuff you’ve learned over the year. While I obviously haven’t done mine yet, I’ve been told by various alumni that they really did use something from every class during the SCP. Sponsors (corporates, non-profits, individuals, etc) for the projects are solicited by the Projects Office at the School, and this year they presented a list of about 40 different projects ranging from a feasibility study with the Borough President in on how to support social entrepreneurship in the Bronx, NY to a study on the impact of 20/20 Cricket by the International Cricket Council, to a merger integration project for the Royal Bank of Scotland Group. The School coordinates a bidding system in which teams bid for projects in order of preference, and submit CVs and cover letters for each project of interest. Teams can bid for up to ten projects. The companies review the teams, typically interview several, then choose the team they like best. In general, it seemed like most teams got their first or second choice. Most projects include a travel/living expense stipend, though there is a cap on compensation. Each project has a scope of work and deliverables clearly defined ahead of time, and students have to turn in a final report to the exam schools at the end of the eight-week session.

Students can also source their own projects by approaching companies that they’re interested in earlier in the year and setting up a project directly. Companies work with the project office to make things “official” and students are guaranteed the project if it is self-sourced.

I am SUPER excited about the project that we ended up with. Four of us will be heading to Tanzania for the summer to work on new business development plans for an organization called APOPO. APOPO has developed a system for training giant African pouched rats to sniff out landmines—does it get any better than that? I didn’t think so, either. Here’s a video of what they’re doing:

SummerElectives:

Week-long summer electives are offered from the end of Trinity term through the first week in September. Several of the really popular electives from Trinity are repeated, so if you don’t get into the class that you want in the third term there may be a chance to take it in the summer. While the courses are condensed and intensive, I’ve heard that some of the best courses of the year are taught over the summer. This is also a great option if you’re looking to set up an individual internship or other type of non-assessed arrangement during the summer months.

Thesis:
As I said, not many people choose this option, though it’s a great one to have if you need the entire summer for an internship, or if you have future plans that would benefit from a dedicated research project.

Finally, the school allows students to extend the MBA into a 15 month program, allowing you to take the entire summer for an internship, and then participating in an SCP from September—November. This is great, again, because it allows for additional flexibility. The only catch is that you need to find three other students who are on the same time schedule. You could write a thesis in the fall term, as well.

Some more lectures on Friday before the weekend started with our Elvis Happy Hour at the Business School. Every Friday during term, our catering service organises a Happy Hour. In that week, they came up with something special and organised an Elvis Tribute Band. Really great fun!

Later on, the party continued at some friends’ place. Looking at my calendar, I see that I had meetings with two different study groups the following day. I wonder how I managed to attend and be productive. Anyways, on Saturday, Keble College  had its ball – themed For bidden City. That was the first proper College Ball I went to here in Oxford and absolutely worth going.

But doing the MBA is not all about partying. Lots of work the following week, especially since we went to the MBAT from 8th to 11th May and thus had to work on all the assignments due immediately after this great event before we could leave for Paris. Additionally, there were two more highlights before the MBAT: a talk by Lloyd Dorfman, the founder and chairman of Travelex, and a black tie dinner at my college. The talk by Lloyd Dorfman – he presented some anecdotes from his life as an entrepreneur – was interesting, especially since I got the chance to attend the dinner afterwards; and black tie dinners at my college really are always fantastic!

The MBAT in Paris is organised by the HEC business school. Many of the leading business schools gather there and compete in different disciplines – from salsa dancing, tug-of-war, rugby and all the more traditional sports to pétanque. As a member of our sailing team, I’m very proud that we won gold in that discipline and finished first ahead of Cambridge and the London Business School. Needless to say, that it was not only about the sports but mainly about just having fun, partying and meeting students from other business schools. The MBAT is a truly unique and amazing event!

We came back to Oxford on Monday morning. The big thing of the week was SCP interviews. The SCP is our Strategic Consulting Project which for us is one of the options for July and August. In teams of four, we could apply for several different projects. All the organisations did their interviews last week. We went to London for a project based in Canary Wharf and did some phone interviews for projects based overseas. I’m really curious which project we will get. But no matter where we will end up, I’m sure it will be a great experience! I’m really looking forward to working together with my team; they are all great guys.

On the party side, I went to an exchange dinner at Trinity on Wednesday and to another one at Brasenose on Friday before we all went to the Cuban Bop at St Antony’s. Besides all that, there were some more assignments to be handed in, e.g. a two-page individual piece of work for Social Finance which I just managed to upload before the Brasenose exchange dinner on Friday.

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.

The week after that, the Oxford Literary Festival took place at Christ Church College. Since I really love books I went to quite a few events there, e.g. to a discussion with Louis de Bernières and to a really interesting talk by Robert Fisk, the Middle East Correspondent for the Independent. It’s fascinating how much he knows about the history of and the present situation in the Middle East. If you ever get the chance to go to one of his talks you should definitely go for it. I’m sure his books are really interesting, too. Unfortunately, their length is a real disincentive to read them.
That reminds me of some of the readings we have to do for our classes. Although most of them are quite interesting unfortunately these are often long and I just don’t manage to read all of them. But before getting back to our lectures, let me continue with the Easter Break.
Well, during the break, there were also two major assignments (Financial Management and the Entrepreneurial Project) due. So, it wasn’t all about enjoying life in and around Oxford for me. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed the break. My girl-friend visited for a few days. Although that’s really unusual we had a wonderful snowy day in Oxford.

We then got a rental car and went to the Cotswolds for a couple of days. In Stratford-upon-Avon, we saw a Shakespeare play (The Merchant of Venice) at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. In Cheltenham, we had lunch at a two-star restaurant, the Champignon Sauvage. Besides that, we visited Winchcombe, Charlecote Park, Sudeley Castle, Broadway Tower and Chastleton House. I was really impressed by all these villages, castles and so on, and can only recommend visiting the Cotswolds.

It’s one of the advantages of studying in Oxford, not only that there’s so much happening in Oxford itself but also that there are so many interesting places close by. For example, I still definitely want to visit the Blenheim Palace and Salisbury.
During the break, we had two more conferences at the business school, the Summit on Business & Environment and the Private Equity Forum. Since I couldn’t get enough of these conferences I went to another one in Germany during week 0. That’s the reason why I missed all my lectures then. Anyways, I think I have managed to catch up with everything by now. I chose quite a variety of courses this term. My most favourite Trinity courses are Corporate Social Responsibility & Ethical Marketing and Business in China.

Day 0:  7 of us on a flight from Gatwick, London to Dubai. I nearly missed the flight as the damn cab refused to come in the am (530 to be precise) and I just about caught the bus to Gatwick by jumping the Q. I had to – the next bus was a couple of hours later which means I miss the flight. There is an unforgettable story to share even on this flight trip (yup…tat is how interesting this trip was). So we are on the 45 minute flight from doha to dubai. 4 of us are sitting on adjacent seats in the mid row of the flight. Suddenly one of the people on the left side of the seats along our row calls the air hostess and complains that one of us is harassing him. We were all busy watching some stupid gig on the tv then and we look at him as if ‘what the ..’. The air hostess asks him as to how is it that he is being bothered to which he replies : “ He (pointing to one of us) is removing bones from his neck!!!”. I swear we thought we heard him incorrectly and the air hostess obviously chose to ignore the complaint. Wait it only gets interesting. We get down at the airport and are moving towards customs and much to our surprise, the person has lodged a complaint with the airport cops and hence that one of us is thus held back for q & a. Cut to and hour and half later we are upstairs in the Dubai police joint at the airport, and speaking some hindi I find out the the complaint made is still the same: “that one of us removed his kidney and bones from his neck using some black magic!”. The cops though obviously in disbelief have to entertain the complaint and they confiscate the passport of one of us and ask the person making the complaint to go get an xray to prove otherwise and ask us to ocme and collect our passport the other day!! I kid u not! Its difficult to believe because even as we were going through this, I was messaging back and forth with a couple of local friends in dubai and they obviously thot I was making this up sitting in some bar. Though it was very very late, we all needed a drink when we got to the hotel at like 2 am. We hit the bar right before the last call, caught a pint and went up to crash at 3. Obvious as my luck would be my dear friend with whom i was sharing the hotel accommodation was flying in later that night and he lost his bags. So in all honestly I really slept at 5 am with a morning alarm set for 7.00 am. Dubai hadn’t really kicked off well at all!

Day 1: Up to the automated morning alarm service, the day started in the fast lane. Quick breakfast and we were on our way to the Shell office. They were located at the Convention Tower. This was my first serious view of Dubai as we were on our way there in the bus. My first impression was Los Angeles on steroids (to borrow a commonly used way to describe Dubai in Dubai by expats). Wide roads, traffic and legoland like contructions. Overall for Sheik zayad road and most of new dubai think Los Angeles weds Las Vegas. At Shell we had a great morning. We had the head of the Middle east regions and 

Day 2 (the day that changed my life..for now): Day 2 was to be in Abu Dhabi all day. After a looooong bus ride (1.5 hours) we got to the ADIA Tower – our first meet for the day. This is the morning meet which would really start to turn me around somewhat in awe of the magnitude of stuff going on in the middle east region. Though a highly covert sovereign fund, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority might well be the worlds biggest investor fund (though they do not officially publish their numbers) and the second biggest international institutional investor in the world. They recently struck a deal on November 26, 2007, with Citigroup, the largest US bank, by agreeing to invest 7.5 Billion dollars in Citigroup. This deal gives ADIA 4.9% of the New York-based bank, making it the largest shareholder, with Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Al Saud of Kingdom Holding of Saudi Arabia the second-largest shareholder, with 4.3%. But what was ‘surreal’ was the obvious richness seeped into the 33rd floor of that building. A fantastic reception, without doubt the most breath taking view I have ever seen overlooking the corniche and a snappy presentation. We obviously could not get much details as previously mentioned it is an organization that as a policy does not divulge much details. Personally I felt it would be a great organization to work for. If morning session left me dazed, I had to recover fast as the afternoon lunch was hosted for us by the Undersecretary of the Department of Civil Services, Ali Rashed Al Ketbi – a very friendly young personality with a sharp acumen, The lunch was a lavish 4 course middle eastern meal at the Emirates Palace a 7 star wonder and the biggest land mass hotel in the world. I also had the good fortune of having a wonderful lunch time conversation with a British academician who had for the past 18 years been in the middle east region helping out with strategy with regards nation building activities. The meeting was insightful as it was obvious that one cannot ignore the middle east region of the world. Infact this might well be the region that pulls the world through the ongoing recession (i personally believe the states is in recession currently as i write). The biggest problem that the MENA (main players Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Dubai, Sharjah, Oman, Bahrain) might have is too much liquidity which is causing inflation. Except for Dubai the other regions have enough oil reserves to last another 5 decades. Most importantly they are really focused on investing in infrastructure (universities, art, research, telecomm) a lot more carefully not the repeat the 90ies mistake and they can do it without fully opening the floodgates to the world like Dubai. Dubai today has 95% expats and just 5% local emiraties. But then again, Dubai has no choice – they are adopting a Singapore weds Las Vegas model and have successfully made it into a top trading and tourist spot. As you shall read in the following days, some of their tourist destinations are simply jaw dropping and make anything i have seen in any top spot in the states ny, la, vegas, miami or london, beijing, mumbai pale in comparison. The bus ride back was dreamy! Lots of sleepy snaps should be testimony to that. The evening was a wonderfully chilled out event serving the perfect antidote. Chandni, Farhaan and myself went down to the Jumeira beach. Falafel wraps by the seaside, be giving them a brain dump of my day so far, followed up by a nice meal at Saladacious (yup the duck pasta rocked most ;-)!) and then onto Baristi. Another big ass resturant cum bar cum sheesha place on the sea. A few drinks, walk down the beach cum bar (yup it was that long) and then on our way back we got a ride on of the electric vehicles and the guy himself a newly transported expat actually took us down to the pier – a drive usually forbidden for the ‘commoners’  Phew…all in all. This is a crazy part of the world with things changing every day and every night, lot of action, people and youth from world over and way too much cash. That can be a heady mix!

Day 3 (anything’s possible!): Ok i m running out of time. Been 20 days since i started writing bout this trip. So I ll rush thru it now..:-). But day 3 we went to Nakheel…These guys literally are magician real estate people. They can do anything. Sheikh Mo woke up one day and wanted to increase the coastline of dubai from 60 odd km to much more as real estate on beach is valuable. The crack team of HBS alum come up i guess with the ingenuous idea of reclaiming land in the sea and voila more beach. Nakheel is the company that made it possible!! They really took great care of us. The piece de coupe of the trip was a boat ride to the middle of the sea and then suddenly in there u see trucks spitting sand and islands and huge villas…in the middle of freakin nowhere in the sea!!!!! The next presentation was HSBC. Not much here for me..:-). The nite went to madinat with farhaan and channi, also channi’s place for the first time. Madinath is the absolutely magical mini city almost full of fancy restaurants and bars. Great drinks at bar raza and must see hukka bar called sheikh pier…back at nite close to 2-3 am with jobs and Vicki!

Day 4 (fun continues): Next morning we went to the office of Dubai holding in the emirates tower. Would love to fill in on the details but maybe later. Was unbelievably lucky to actually see Sheikh Mo in person walking out of a restaurant in the towers. Afternoon at another consultancy firm ! Evening went to the networking event hosted by us for the alum and other guest at the wonderful palace hotel in old town (which actually is anewly build town which resembles old town..go figure). Great setting and met a few interesting ppl. Great chat with an alum who now works with ICC, the cricket body based in dubai. Followed that up with a trip to ‘bar dubai’ with chandni, aashima and luvraj to get some desi grab..chat to pav bhaji to kulfi…awefun!!!!!!!!!!

Day 5 (Thursday): mah fav day! Okie. Went to the 3 big ones – mckinsey, bcg and booze allen. Great talk at all 3. Had the most international lunch hosted by BCG at place called Galliard. N i mean international… argentenian fish, Chinese tempura, lebaneese mezaas, Persian khus khus, Indian dal, Italian pasta, greek salad, lamb cooked in a style could not recognize! Back in the hotel…quick drink with farhaan and Vicky at the hotel bar called longs bar (which is named so as it was the longest bar in dubai at some time).. Then went to what was my favourite place in dubai…old dubai. Crossed the channel via a ferry where i hit up an interesting conversation with a local who had been in dubai for 40 odd years. Was sad though as he lamented on how all the progress and internationalism in the last 10 odd years has hurt the trader – at one time the main vocation in dubai the most!! Then had dinner, sheesha and drinks and just lazed at kan-zaman – beautiful old open air and terrace restaurant right on the river. Just talking with family, enjoying good weather and food…loved it loved it loved it!! Slept over at chand’s that nite!

Day 6 Me and chand left for the hotel as we were to go for the world famous Dubai desert safari. Was great fun going in huge  land rovers doing dune bashing!! Then a couple of hours in a setup in the desert in the middle of nowhere with some belly dancing, middle eastern kebabs, camel rides et….and back on our way ot the hotel!

Got to packing and grab a couple of hours sleep before is say good bye to dubai!!! That was my trip..sorry for rushing thru day 3- 7..but better have it there than never ;-). N no..dont believe a word of what i said about dubai. Do yourself a favor. Go visit Dubai! And you will be blown away… Since then have been on amazing trips to the US (NY, Austin, Bay area) and Paris (I LOVE THIS CITY)…Shall put up updates soon…wait for them… Peace out!

If you wanna check out the full Dubai Trip Album click here

1. Richard Branson (and people like Richard Branson) are forces of nature. Don’t try to stop a force of nature.
2. It’s all about people. You’re not going to make yourself successful, other people are going to make you successful. Surround yourself with good people and treat them well.
3. Solve problems for people—they’ll tend to like you for it and give you more and bigger problems to solve.
4. When you’re handed an opportunity, don’t be afraid to take it!
5. No matter how good you are or how hard you try, a crap idea will never work.
6. If you can’t hold the whole solution to a problem in your own head, it’s probably too complicated and probably won’t work.

But so here is a bonanza update…ll go thru some of the highlights this semster

Okie…some good news!! My entrepreneurship idea and project was chosen the best and selected to represent Said Business School @ MootCorp, Austin USA!! F**king A…i know ! Its funny…I still remember when I was researching and looking at schools to apply, I read a blog of one of the ex Said students and his team had won the trip to Austin too. At that time somewhere I thought this is the kind of program and activity I need to have some wind beneath my entrepreneurial aspirations! From that read to getting to Said, exploring an idea, seeking out and getting a like minded team, pitching n now Austin. Many thanks to a wonderful group of friends I had on my team!

More so to Pranav and Raj — two buddies and brothers in arms for all the support! Its gonna be a kick-ass trip : will be visiting my sis in NY, then austin (will be trying to visit another sis in Houston), then up to sweet ol california to visit more family n friends !

What else…hmmm exams came and went. They were a non-issue this time :-).

The after party as usual was a blast…absolute blast! Started with wonderful peer support dinner at Capt. Will’s where aashima n me cooked for 8 of us. Then off to Kings Arms and Escape (after my first sem blogs these names should ring a bell now :-))! The night ended at 5 am with a near street fight and loads of alcohol — i know the two go hand in hand!

While on parties, there was the Templeton Mardi gras party this semester. From last semester as I had told templetons was one of the best parties. This time too they did not dissapoint. Though the DJ was a touch sensitive fella…someone knocked over his speakers while dancing and he threw a tantrum and held up the party for an hour. Tsk tsk!!

Well OCD — the improv group I was a charter member of had their very first public performance!! Unfortunately I wasnt part of it as I had not been able to attend practice all of the semester — ya i know shame on me! But the gang put up an absolute stellar show. I am back in the fold and will be practicing and performing next semester before I bow out of Oxford.

Hmmm..oh yeah! Mah Birthday :-)! Had a great one! Blessed to have met some of the people I have met on this oxford journey. And top of the list is Miss Batra!! I had like 3 cakes cut in a day with as many surprises….Aly, Larry, Katy, Harsh, Pranav, Raj, Lovraj, Vicky, Divya, Stuti, KD, Abhi, Deepti, Aparna, Dhruv, Margueritte, Gagan, Luis, Will, Hanneka, Hanbal, Hermeet, Jakob, Raj, Priya, Harini, Suchi, Sabina n everyone who made the day special…thank u all! I think the biggest takeaway from a year at oxford is these special lifelong friends. And oxford is worth 10 times over just coz I met them.

Oh…then there was this trip to Dorset…16 of us…4 cars…and had this wonderful almost castle like structure in the middle of a jungle nowhere that we had reserved for an overnight stay. Just beautiful! great fun….were up most of the night drinking, playing stupid games….I have never had so much fun playing something like dumbcharades that I had in an hour that nite….:-)! Was ‘His-Story’ ..everyone on that trip will vouch for it..Do not miss the pictures of that trip. On the album.

Had a fantastic trip to a place nearby (the name escapes me) with my core study group — francois, sabina, romell, anil and myself. Great great outing and lot of fun. We were all day at the oldest pub in UK (900 years old). Fantastic place

There was tons more this semester - some the usual…took a bunch of friends to the harry potter chch hall for dinner, memorable trip to the famous Southhall and jodha-akbar there, the Idea Idol competition, Skoll Forum with the likes of Al Gore, Jimmy Carter in the Said Business School Building, Sunday cricket, peer support meetings, interview with shell, REJECT from shell etc!

I have a crazy month coming up. Am flying out to Dubai April 5-12 (meeting channa—wohoo!), then have 10 days in between when I need to get my US Business Visas and Schengan visas done, then flying out the the US on 25th (NY,Austin,San Fran) and flying back to londong on 6th May, 7th May 140 of us are off to Paris, France for the intercollegiate MBAT which is gonna be a 4 day highlight of the MBA if reviews by the seniors is anything to go by.

Time is flying …. one more semester of 8 weeks which already seems action packed. The nice summer sun and job search will make it more exciting. July - August is internship or summer consultancy project — am looking at a VC option in India or will try to push my business idea further. Somehow I feel I am going to face the moment of truth wherein I might have to pull the trigger and taking the entrepreneurial jump into the unknown — or make peace with normalcy and lock up the dreams for now! But more than anything else I wish to cherish the last semester with friends and this wonderful Oxford University — and blog every week I promise!!!

So long…next update will be at the start of next sem i.e April 14th with all the Dubai snaps.