Trail.

What a waste of time.!!

Seriously, I am joking. Don't consume that statement at its face value and Lancaster trail was time spent well.

The trail was a team event and the person behind the scene who created and planned did an excellent job and needs to be complemented. Seriously it was a trail that required good knowledge about the city and its historical importance, which I did.

The trail led us to many different parts of the city and get all answers correct, an excellent team coordination was required (it was evident in our scores). All of us spreaded out in different directions and I was myself in the museum and learnt quite a lot about the city and its historical importance. The thing that I noticed in the museum was that the army regiment from Lancaster was deployed in India, during 3 wars that Britishers fought in India among many, the most famous being the "Sepoy Mutiny" of 1857.

Here is a picture of what I did at the museum. I colored two sheets of pre-drawn sketches and I was coloring a picture for the first time after passing from the school.

Another interesting artifact in the museum was the Roman Tombstone. It was a very large tombstone and was quite intriguing. There were many other items that may fascinate history buffs, but I was impressed.

I have to narrate this, later when I went for the lunch with the team. In Britain is that I don't get the food that I want and the vegetarian food is not always the one that I expect. Sometimes, I think, I waste a lot of money on food outside. It is better to cook or eat bread with some sides. Why can't English food be a bit palatable? I am still looking for a place that serves good palatable vegetarian food. The place we went in had a great ambience. It was a wine cellar during the old days which is now converted into a good restaurant.

The best part of the day was the creation of Scrap book. It was required to log our findings of the city during the day. It came out really well and the creativity was at its best.

The thing that remains is to maintain the momentum that this trail generated. I am sure we can maintain it.

Settled in ?

Everyone back home seems to be asking this. Friends, family, not so friendly and almost everyone whom I can think of.

Well yes. I have settled in. Got few new friends. Getting well in the class. Getting to know new people, new cultures everyday. I have started to greet new ideas with respect. Have got a genuine feedback (I hope it is genuine) and started to work on that. Eating Indian food and by the time I reach back home, I should have earned one more degree, qualified chef.

What else? The class schedule is tight and packed with events, lectures, guest lectures, cultural lectures, discussions about microfinance, global economic outlook and everything that I think can be discussed in the MBA class.

Apart from this, I have lots to write about the last week, when we were outward bound doing crazy stuff by hanging ourselves with safety gears in the air after climbing on the pole, creating a stack of crates, running blindly for clues.. gosh it was crazy but fun.

The last discussion is always about the INR-£ conversion. This country is so damn expensive that every money spent needs to be watched. God, I pray that I atleast earn twice the amount in 1 year after MBA that I would have spent on it (request my readers to please pray for me).

Right now, I have to read two chapters from Operations Management book for tomorrow's class.

Moral of Week 1

Work hard, party harder.

I mean it literally. That's what has happened in the first week. Even before Week 2 has started and mind you it is only induction (orientation) week where things are kept deliberately loosely coupled I get the feel that the year is going to be hectic.

We have got lot of assignments which wont be evaluated (for God's sake) but require lot of introspection to be done before we fill in. Mindful Manager module started on a very high note and I felt somewhat dis-oriented but got on track towards the later half. This is one module which is going to last for nearly 9 months.

Career development cell started its work, arranged workshops for the class by leading consultants and gave us two week timeline to fill in the details. Just 2 weeks, to introspect, to identify with oneself (I feel why I left India for this, could have joined a Buddhist medidation class there itself), and then the regular SWOT analysis. In the meantime, I hope to search for internships elsewhere in UK and if you have details you can help me with (my mail box is waiting to hear from you) do let me know.

Lastly the party. What a blast to end the week and begin the course. Had everything from skit to quiz, to dancing, to great food (though being a vegeterian, my options are limited) and a great bar and of course desserts from all parts of the world (Denmark, New Zealand, India, UK, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Africa). Everything went as it should. Let's see the rest of the year.

School.. ahem

I am back to school.

Before I write about my first two days at school let me speak something about my travel experience. It was good, it was bad and in the end it was a mixed. I started from my home on Saturday morning 8 a.m. India time and reached Lancaster on Sunday 9 p.m. UK time. I spent 10 hours in the train while I reached Delhi (I was scheduled to spend only 8 but the train was delayed by 2 hours and my palpitation increased every minute until I deboarded and reached the airport), another 10 at Helsinki airport and all put togather I was in air and on land for more than 37 hours. Phew.. what a journey.

The arrival was good but reaching so late meant that I missed the Sunday's party that was planned for future classmates and I had to rely on the free food (comprising of boiled meshed vegetable that tasted awful and a small piece of bread) and the beer that I bought. I met one of my future classmate from Nigeria who also landed the same day and relied on the same food but I really had a very good conversation to set the tone for rest of the year. I ended up spending 2.5 hours late that evening with him and I enjoyed every bit of it.

Now the school.

It is impressive. Had to hunt a little before I got to meet many of the students. Facilities seem impressive. The director of the program and the staff seem friendly. Moreover the fellow classmates are interesting with backgrounds as diverse as Marine Engineering to Finance to Manufacturing to IT. The nationalities are 22 in number.

I am impressed by the program conducted so far and the interesting discussion on credit crunch situation in the world economy by Prof. Balasubramaniam provided an interesting insight into the problem and the role India and China are playing in it. Overall, till now it has seemed that the year will be exciting and at the same it will be stressful.

Stay tuned for more information. Will post as soon as I get my laptop from the university on Thursday.

Fatherhood and MBA

September 16, 2008, I am blessed with my second child, a baby boy.

It has been a hectic fortnight after my departure from Bangalore. I visited quite a few relatives, spend days without Internet connection apart from spending some quality time with the family. Days of planning went in for the D-day and when the day arrived lot of anxiety prevailed before the nurse broke the news. I was hoping since very long time that before I depart to Lancaster, I should be able to spend some moments with the new one. I thank God for listening my prayers and granting me my wish.

Right now I am very busy and I have not yet started planning for the departure (a basic preparation was done long ago). Right now trips between the hospital and home and also managing my elder one are sapping up all my energy. I was planning to read through the pre-reading material before starting for the class but never found some free time (classical excuse), now I think I will read in the room at the Graduate College in the University before the classes actually begin.

In the meantime lot of activity is going on among future classmates and all seem to be worried about the placements. I am also worried but haven't really thought about it yet. I am impressed by the ideas floating around and would like to contribute actively to make placements a success at Lancaster. This will happen only when I reach there and till then I wish to enjoy some blissfull moments with my kids.