Warming Up...

Things have finally started getting hotter by the moment now. Classes have started full throttle and I have started feeling the heat despite the cool rainy Singapore weather. But I don't attribute all that to the deadlines or the packed schedules. Many other things have changed too.. A kinda new phase. Some people who were close have gone away and some who were far off have barged in. Some had to be intentionally pushed down the 'relationship priority list' while others have come up now. A challenging thing to face I must add! However then, that's what adds spice to life and it's bound to happen all the while. Imagine, how dull life will be if you got to see all the same people around all the time? :-)

Life on the academic front has been busy too. First there was this classy truly intellectual lecture series on IT Leadership and Strategies by our Dean which included a video titled "The world is Flat" by Thomas L. Friedman. Then there was this young MBA student "Vijay Rao" from the Nanyang Business School presenting his ideas of how to turn blogging into a profitable exercise. Innovative idea I must say! Then was the much awaited ERP series by another senior faculty from Paris (who also happens to be an ex-IBM’er to the core). The ERP series concluded with a lecture by a senior person at IBM Singapore about the SOA Architecture and IBM's strategy behind it.

And now… as part of the Visiting Wisdom Series, we have Robin Sharma, the renowned author of "The Monk Who sold his Ferrari" coming on campus on 26 January 2007. I have read almost all his books and am looking forward to see him in Singapore. Will be a great learning experience I guess.

Hmm… That’s all for now! Got to attend a meditation session tomorrow morning at 7! Got to sleep now to cool down a bit… Zzzzz.

Welcome To Singapore

I can't really believe that it has been exactly a month since I last updated my Blog! Time just flew by and I did manage to do a lot of things. Flew back home from Dubai for a very short 14 Day break, completed my SGP formalities, met up with some friends, did some pre-departure shopping et all... and finally landed in Singapore on 19th Nov.

But hey! What did I do all this time after I came to S'pore? Hmm... Well I must say, I just did 1 thing... explored... explored... and just explored. And let me tell you; it was FUN!! The Beautiful College campus, Marriot's VIP lounge, Vivo city Mall, Harbor Front et all... Singapore is very much like India and sooo much 'Unlike' Dubai. Even the names of some places are like India... Crawford Market, Little India, Dhobey Ghaut, Hyderabad Road and Mustafa Market to name a few.

In fact Singapore is such a happening place. It rains a lott and yet there is always something happening all the time. I also zeroed down on the Maharashtra Mandal in Singapore (click here) where I found that the Maharashtra CM, Mr. Vilasrao Deshmukh is on a visit to the beautifully planned City State on 1st Dec '06.

I also got a chance to have very informative interactions with a lot of Indian Students studying in leading Universities like NUS, NTU and they have helped me in understanding the local culture better and very quickly. Singapore feels like a home away from home. It definitely has something that makes you feel at home... that welcome feeling which you will only get in some serene Indian cities like Pune.


That's it for now. It's almost 2:15 AM. Need to catch up with some sleep. Don't want to fall asleep in Class tomorrow :-)

Catchya soon!!

P.S.: Here's the link to some snaps I uploaded on Yahoo! Photos... Check 'em out by clicking on this Post's Title "Welcome to Singapore" above

I'M BACK !!

Aha!! I’m done with the Exams finally. Feels Great! And with all the stress out of my head, I now have some time “Just for me”. It’s so different to have nothing to do at all. The last five months in Dubai have just whizzed past. Today as I soaked lazily in the hot water bath tub, I realized how much time comes at a premium in a 1-year MBA program.

We did however make the most out of any free time that came our way. I try to recount some of these memorable moments that we had in term 1 in Dubai in this post…

Our first group outing was to the Jumeirah Beach in Dubai. One incident I do recall vividly is when ‘bugzee’ almost scared the hell out of us when she (sort of) fainted and remained submerged under the waves for a few ‘tense moments’. Thanks to some of us who were nearby that “Bugzee’ was pulled out to the shore – safe but terrified. None of us had a clue how she fainted but the explanation we got was that ‘a huge wave’ had caught her unaware and so blah blah blah… Now that’s what I call ‘an absolute thriller’!

Then there was the overnight trip to Fujeirah beach with the entire Dubai Cohort. We started late evening from campus and came back in the wee hours of the next morning. The beach was great… clean white sand and the place seemed much cooler than Dubai. However this time too… there was something more in store for me.

Two hours into the fun (soccer, volleyball, waves, getting wet, food, bar-be-que etc.) and Gaurang got himself into trouble when he injured his knee while scoring a goal. Seeing his agony and the tears in his eyes, we feared it might be a fracture. After a futile attempt to ease the pain using painkillers et all, we quickly swung into action, summoned a vehicle and rushed him to a nearby hospital (this was the first time I found myself searching fanatically for a hospital at 2:30 AM, in a completely unknown city). Luckily we found a Government Hospital soon enough. A careful examination, an X-Ray by a sleepy apprentice, a painkiller injection and an hour later, the Doc beamed “It’s just a bad sprain young fella! Nothing to worry about.”

We were relieved and glad it was nothing serious. Gaurang was even gladder and in his eagerness he asked the doc, “Can I play football tomorrow?” A long pause followed. I couldn’t believe my ears! Neither could Kaushik or Alok. This chap, who was writhing in pain just 10 mins back, now wants to play football again! “Can You?” asked the Doc in reply; breaking the awkward silence in the room. And we all burst into laughter.

Gaurang took more than a month to recover, thanks to a wheelchair and crutch (courtesy: Damodar Sir) and lots of caring friends ;-). The hospital incident made my Fujeirah trip even more memorable. Thanks to ‘PC’ and gang for making this trip happen! This trip meant the end of Term-1 and helped us rejuvenate for the upcoming Term-2 in SPJCM, Dubai.

Term-2 brought along with it more work and still lots of fun too. But more on that, later in my next post… Catchya then!

P.S.: I clicked a snap of the Dubai Creek side last night with my new SONY Digicam. And it came out just fine. I have just uploaded it in this post. Hope you'll like it!

I'M BORED !!

Uh.. Oh!! I'm sooo... bored!

It's so unlike Diwali over here... Hmm.. Well.. 2 reasons.
1. "Diwali in Dubai" is not such a wonderful idea after all !
and...
2. The End Term exams of the 3rd (and final) term will begin soon.

But I still managed to get some time off click some snaps on my new SONY digicam and surf the Net... Came across this kinda different survey site. Check it out here if you want to know a thing or two about your own self... :)



Hmm... SCM is the 1st paper. Guess I need to get started. Better late than Never ;-)

Ciao!!

DIWALI in DUBAI !!

LOL! It just gets crazier... Can you believe it, there is a 3rd Term exam, a Final SGP (Special Group Project) Report submission and several other assignment submissions... all scheduled for next week! I can’t believe it myself! But hell, this Term 3 pales out in comparison to the First and the Second terms. We had all the BIGGIES then... Accounting, Marketing & Finance!! Phew, for someone who has no idea of any of these, man, these BIGGIES were a challenge in itself!

Ok, now let me stop complaining... looks like I am doing a lot of it these days... (I bet my friend PC will agree with me on this point at least :-) ). This blog has been like ‘give-vent’ kinda things where I can crib about the amount of work! To all those who are trying to make it to their dream schools, I don’t really want to scare you away but just want to tell ya that it is not easy! Of course, I am learning & my li’l mind is expanding in exploding proportions & my vocabulary has just incremented exponentially to include many complicated jargons just so, I can get away without the other person even realizing what actually happened. ;-) (If you didn’t really understand that, let it pass... it was nothing worthwhile anyways !)

Term 1 was bad in terms of Time Management... Term 2 was a li'l better... Guess I need to 'strategize' much more henceforth. So, all my dear friends out there (mostly in India), maybe you may not see many posts on my blog this Term. But I will try my best! Okie, now, got to rush to my Telecom Management Class!! Ah…And did you know money had time value attached to it & not just value! LOL!

PS: Have been losing sense of time here! I almost forgot... I will be missing all the Diwali fun and the crackers this festive season...
Neways, A Very Happy Diwali/Deepavali to one & all! Have a BLAST folks… while I blast my deadlines over here and join you on 5th November’06. Ciao!!

Thought for the day...

"We are paid for the results we produce, not for the efforts we put in."

- Sign Hanging on the Office Door of a manager at HSBC Bank.

Isn't that a Very Practical, no-nonsense approach to doing business?

Quote of the day...

"The nice thing about standards is that there are so many of them to choose from"

-Andrew Tannenbaum, computer science professor.

Came across this line while reading the Wordsmith by Anu Garg. Seems fitting for the IT industry... :-)

Ganpati Bappa Morya !!

Happy Ganesh Chaturthi !!

Dubai Diaries...

It is now a little more than two months since I landed in Dubai (8 June 2006 to be precise). On one hand, it feels like ages for I am going through one of the busiest phases of my life and on the other hand it doesn’t seem to be anywhere even close to two months at all, thanks again to the rigors that ensure a steep learning curve. Time just seems to fly by at SPJCM (www.spjain.org)… I am already on my way to making lifetime friends, not to mention building networks. In this blog which is also my first, I try to describe how I spend a typical day at S P Jain, Dubai campus.

A typical day begins at 7 AM, with classes starting as early as 8 AM. The early morning rush to get ready for college is something that deserves special mention over here. Mathematically speaking, the speed of getting ready is inversely proportional to the time left for boarding the college bus (Can’t stop my engineering fundas from creeping in!J). The necessity of boarding the bus becomes the mother that helps us discover our hidden potential. In fact, some of my friends have become experts in the art of getting ready from bed to bus in five minutes flat. God bless the inventor of Deodorants! And then there are some more running to board the bus, with laptop in one hand, belt in mouth and tucking the shirt in with the other hand giving us a live lesson in multitasking that we learn outside our classes.

Classes are a completely different story though. The exhaustion and rustiness suddenly vanish into thin air as we hear of ‘surprise Pre-class Quiz.’ Post Quiz, we get to see some ‘excellent Class Participation (CP)’ which in some cases borders on Desperate CP to earn some brownie points. At this point, I must add that the faculty flown in from SP Jain Mumbai does a commendable job of teaching us and more importantly keeping us awake through their interactive sessions.

Typically classes end by 5 PM. Occasionally; however, we’ve guest lectures by industry stalwarts after the classes as a part of Visiting Wisdom Sessions. Whether external wisdom visits us or not, the professors ensure that we get wiser every single day.

Hey Wait! You thought this is it? Boy! This is just the beginning. In fact, the real fun starts now! For now comes the Herculean task of completing the pending assignments, presentations and reports due for the next day… And by the time you leave the institute to head back home (the villas), it’s already 11:30 PM. You can’t leave any later for that is the last bus. But that is just an interval in the long movie on our typical day. In the villas too, it is not abnormal to see people discussing and studying until 1.30 or later. Thereafter you crash into the bed and flake out into oblivion…

A few more such days and we hit a weekend, full of hope for recharging our batteries. Our weekend is Sunday & Monday, the two days dedicated for the Special Group Project (SGP) with companies like Microsoft, TCS, Infosys, Emirates Bank and many others.

Truly, time just seems to fly by. We’re a two months old cohort and we’ve just three more months left before we end our tryst with Dubai and move on to Singapore. I now realize that there is, however, much more midnight oil to be burnt before we take the break and many dunes of wakefulness to cross before we reach the oasis of sleep.