Solstice 2008 .... Backstage

Sorry friends for not blogging from quite some time....The story goes something like this.. For the last couple of months (and over the next month or so) i have been busy organising a three day event here on Campus. It's the ISB Alumni reunion - 'Solstice'

It is hard to imagine the hours of effort that goes into organising an event of this size. It will go for three days and will have close to 1000 people participating.. throughout the three days there are many many fun things planned..
This year we are having to put our blood, sweat and tears into raising funds (yes, raising funds is part of the deal), me and my team really feel the liquidity crisis.
However , organising an event like this is a real life class room and I'm sure one of the greatest experiences me and my team will take with us, so many opportunities to learn and to make friends.

We have to invite a celebrity speaker, try to see if we can get a rock band for a concert and plan many many more activities on a shoe string budget this year..
The theme for this year we have decided is 'Heroes - The homecoming' in times like this we all have to find the hero within ourself (okay okay I now that it is getting a bit mushy)..



There are still a million and one things to do and my day usually starts off with making 10 calls to sponsors and touching base with my team to see just how much work lies ahead for the day.. i quickly run to class try to switch to student mode..see what assignments i need to complete before night fall .. in all of this we continue to see how to push the organising along... just this morning i found out that one of the main venues that we needed was booked for something else.. so there was a lot of running around before that fire was faught... one other sponsorship prospect went from green to red.. not a good feeling but will keep on keeping on :) .. my friends tell me that the only word they hear from my mouth these days is Solstice and that when I have my first kid maybe i should name it Solstice (now thats not funny ;).

The best part is that I have a great team of people and we all lift each others spirits when it all seems like too much to handle.. We are all learning and living it together..

Hope to see all the Alumni fly down this year with their capes on to be part of the event and celebrate with us....

Will keep you posted as the event takes shape.... http://www.isb.edu/Solstice

Are we there yet...

You hear you mind asking this question again and again while you are sleep deprived.. 'are we there yet' just like you used to ask your mom on those long car journeys.

Well can't believe it but we are half way there.. half of the course is over. The feeling is off relief more so for survival than for anything else. We survived the 4 core terms where we had to do all the subjects, even those that we were not really comfortable with. Looking back it was a great chance to get a flavour all the different avenues we could pursue, from finance to marketing, from operations to public policy..truly was a buffet for the inquisitive mind.

It was sad that we bid our section good by. I will no longer be sitting with Sec C (or section C). I spent the last 6 months with my class of 75, 4 hours each day and many more hours doing assignments. I got to know each one of them and our sections become our comfort zone on campus, something like our extended family. Some of the friends we have made here will be there for a long time.

Also last week was the last assignment with my Study group, the 5 people that i did all my assignments with during the last 6 months. We saw our ups and downs and went through at least 70+ assignments together, lots of late nights and lots of early mornings.. Got to learn a whole lot from each of them.. and off course those end of assignment outings to Punjabi Rasoi for a bit of Dhaba style celebrating ..it will be weird working with a new group come Monday.

We all move on now to our elective terms, where we choose our specialisation. I haven't fully decided mine as i think the choice of my subjects will decide that for me soon. Its exciting in a way, we will get to interact with more people and make more friends...adding to our ISB experience :)... Will keep you posted.

1 overcast Saturday Evening, 2 motorbikes, 3 friends, 4 Minerets , 5 months late....

I have been in hyderabad for over 5 months now and that is how long it has taken me to make my way to the most famous part of town, "Char Minaar" or the Four minerets which are the most prominent icon of Hyderabad. Its the old part of town which is majestic and built in a time when there were kings and queens ..

It was on a overcast saturday evening that me and two other friends decided to make the 20 km trip and get transported into a completely different world.. there began our adventure...

We left at about 6ish in the evening not thinking about the peek traffic we would face and more importantly not really knowing the way to the place.. we figured that we could ask people on the way where Char Minaar was , surely everyone in Hyderabad could point us in the right direction..after close to 45 minutes on the motorbike i noticed out surroundings had changed there was an old world feel now and people were moving at a different pace.. the buildings were looking more ornate, even though they were probably in need of repair .. but i love all things old so it was a treat to my eyes to see the majestic city around me, the hussle and bussle of people and the thousands of lights slowly going on getting ready for the night shoppers..

As we saw the four minerets we all smiled, partly for having made it in one peice and partly for not being disappointed at the site..just beneath it we were stuck in traffic which gave me a good chance to take it in and also look at all the exciting shops around me and all the trinkets.. i ear marked a few for shopping when we found parking ..

We finally found some parking inside a hospital. It was a calm place in the midst of so much activity and you got the best photo opportunity for the char minaar from there .. being the Japanese tourist that i am i made the most of it.

Our obvious next stop was FOOD.. it was everywhere.. hundreds of fruit vendors selling the reddest pomingenates.. we went looking for Haleem thinking that Ramzaan had started.. only to find out that it was still two days away.. although disappointed we thought we would have a glass of the famous lassi and head to the famous Bangle Bazaar..

Girls, if you ever want to go crazy come to this place.. hyderabad's famous bangle bazaar.. there were ladies in burkhas everywhere and shops filled with glittering bangles. Bangles that were full of glittering gems and stones .. i have been to a few shopping places around the world but never have i seen such beautiful bangles.. the catch is though you have to know how to bargain and we soon realised this.. i ended up buying a beautiful maroon bangle set studded with maroon stones.. the shop keeper gave me good wishes too saying now that i have bought the bangles marriage can't be too far away .. ;) ..

The shop keeper gave us the old world hospitality.. insisted that we stay for some special hyderabadi chai..in the mean time he told us where we would get the best food in this part of town.. 'Shahdaab'was the place we needed to head to and he gave us the exact order "one plate chicken chilli fry with two naans followed by a mutton biriyani' .. we found and auto and headed directly to the place all the time thinking of the chilli chicken fry and mutton biriyani .. all i can say is when we got there , ordered and ate we were not disappointed at all .. it was by far the best biriyani i have had..we did make the mistake of ordering something that wasn't recomended .. we should have stuck to what the local recomended..

As we headed back the clouds arrived .. and it started pouring .... this was going to be a long journey .. we decided to head back regardless as we had assignments to finish (you must have been wondering what happened to the assignments) .. stuck in traffic with water upto our toes we could do nothing but laugh.. the rain got so heavy we had to take shelter at a local shop.. there were going to be atleast another 2 stops like this.. just as we were about 20 minutes away from home one of our tyres got punctured... we went looking for a puncture man .. his name was mr. Syed who was kind enough to help us out ...

All in all it was a fun day to remember .. and i got a beautiful set of bangles to remember it with.

Food Files I ..

Sorry i've been away for a while .. but before you jump to conclusions about me being lost in books let me set the record straight I was out and about looking for good food.. eating at the dinning hall here at the ISB can get very monotonous, with its exotic dishes like 'yam pudusu' , 'snake bean poriyal' and 'something papu' your mind starts to play games with you. It forces you to ring up a taxi, rush out of class and just head out in search of something that will satisfy the foodie in you.
Lucky for me I have discovered that Hyderabad is a place for foodies like myself.. being a city of so many cultures the variety of food available here is certainly refreshing... So here it goes some of my food adventures so far ..

Stop1: Punjabi Rasoi .. a small family run restaurant on the cross roads near ISB. Anyone who has ever passed out of this school has eaten here. It can also be renamed to TGPR 'thank god its punjabi Rasoi' . It has become the life line for many here on campus, when we want to eat something that will chear us up after a hard night full of group assignments ... in fact to celebrate the submission of a long group assignment me and my group drive down to have some good old tucker at punjabi Rasoi..Great feel good food.
Must Have: Mutton Rara Punjabi- succulant pieces of mutton stir fried in dry spices and served dry.
Mita's Rating: Concept : hmm..survival Food: 3.5/5 Ambiance: 1/5

Stop 2 : BBQ Nation .. a ISB favourite , at any given time you will find atleast 2 tables occupied by your fellow Isbian...
Concept: Taking on from the original Korean table BBQ where in the middle of the table there is a coal BBQ set up on top of which meat is placed and gets cooked fresh in front of you. This restaurant is the Indian Tandoori take on it.. there is a small tandoor in the middle of every table and delicious marinated meats and veggies are brought out 3/4 cooked and placed on the hot tandoor..
What I ate: Well since this is an all you can eat restaurant (and i come under the profitable clientele category) i tasted just about everything that they brought to the table, first there was chicken tikka, thai fish, tandoori prawns, lamb kebabs, marinated mushrooms, paneer tikka.. if your mouth isn't watering yet please go and see the doctor.
Must Have Gilaffi Naan, a soft semi sweet bread straight from the tandoor with pistachio nuts and almonds. Fish on a skewer , tender marinated fish that melts in your mouth. Make sure you ask for these when you head there.
Mita's Rating: Concept : 5/5 Food: 4/5 Ambiance: 3/5

Bon Appetite...

Walking up the steep hill

The one thing that is a constant here at the ISB is the constant climb up the steep learning curve. Especially if you are up for a challenge. They have leavers on the curve to make it steeper and steeper, just when you get used to the incline it gets cranked up a few degrees.. currently i'm on an incline of about 38 degrees (this calculation was done by using simulation in the solver, using 'how thin can you spread yourself' as the decision variable).

Want to share a recent experience which was both unusual and challenging for me ..
Being a director in one of the student councils here i was responsible for creating a team that would work with me during the year. The selection process required resume screening and interviews, this may sound normal but there was a catch.. i was going to interview my friends and peers, people who i have come to admire over the last few months.. and people who i would be having lunch with for the rest of the year. This was certainly going to be a challenge cause every resume here is a star resume and everyone here is so talented. The interviewing process was probably more daunting for me than the people being interviewed, after all these were my fellow classmates and passing a judgement on them was a tough call.. But learning how to take tough calls was why i was here in the first place. And I took this chance to learn some skills. The interviews went well, kept them somewhere between formal/casual/serious/friendly. Made the decision. To my surprise everyone of my peers that was interviewed took it in the right spirit, and i have to say thank you to all of them for being such good sports. ISB certainly creates so many opportunities for growth (and pain). Its truely upto the individual here just how much muscle you want to build.

So for all those that are planning to come hear in the near future please pack some comfortable shoes and the will to climb, cause here 'attitude will decide your altitude'

Suffering from PMS...

Never thought I would say this but everyone here is suffering from PMS * , doesn't matter if are you from mars or Venus (or from any other planet for that matter) you have positively been diagnosed with a case of PMS*.. the uncanny symptoms include ..

1. Feeling of being deflated amongst the inflationary pressures..
2. Sudden bouts of anxiety sparking from thoughts about India's current account deficit...
3. Dreams of swimming in the money base with the RBI suddenly pulling the plug on you..
4. Loosing the ability to make decisions without first drawing a decision tree ..
5. Working out the critical path from SV1 to Sv2 so that you get there on time ..

If you are suffering from 3 or more of the above symptoms then you have PMS* .. Although no cure has been found as yet but some people (research firms like Bacardi and Smirnoff) are working on it .. tomorrow night there will be a mass camp at the Lounge and medicine will be handed out to everyone .. i have a feeling all will be cured ;)

*PMS (Pre - Midterm Syndrome)

Back on the treadmill

Its been long since i blogged and i'm sorry about that friends.. just that the speed of the treadmill here just went up a few notches over the last couple of weeks and it was hard to type and run at the same time.. I wouldn't say it has got any slower but i'm going to attempt to write regardless.. can't have some stupid speedometer stop me .. So whats the update ?

• End term exams where over and then came our first break.. I was on campus during break time and it was quite a weird feeling, the place looked deserted.. its funny how after such a hectic first semester most of us found it difficult to the sudden halt in activity.
  
• The club elections are over and we have new presidents for all the professional and social clubs on campus.. i can feel the momentum building up now for the year ahead.
• Term 2 is a whole new ball game.. its much harder, has many more assignments and seems far more intense than term one.. but then again looking back down on the climb you have made always makes it seem easier.
• The weather here in hyderabad has cooled down.. its overcast all the time and very windy.. infact here at the atrium at the ISB i have felt like i will be blown away , no kidding ...

A bit rusty from not blogging for a while thus i will keep it short for now.. hope to keep you posted :)

The calm before the storm

As I look out window all i see is grey today.. its been over cast here at the ISB for the last few days.. not much rain or noise but a constant cloud cover indicating that a storm is lurking .. people are in their quads studying away for the coming end of term exams and when you walk out at night , at 2 or 3am you notice the vast majority of the room lights on.. each room holding a potential star in the dark night..

The weather report goes something like this
Sunday: Cloudy and over cast ..
Monday: Stormy with heavy rains continuing all day .. stay indoors.
Tuesday: Morning showers continuing throughout the afternoon .. Sun will come out late afternoon. A lucky few will see a rainbow, luckier few will see the a pot of gold at the end of it and the rest will enjoy their time in the sun..

Its an honor

I needed to write a blog entry today. The journey that started off approximately 8 weeks ago from the other side of the equator took a new turn. I was elected as a Director for Alumni Affairs in today's Student board council elections. Even i'm lost for words (and that is something). All i can say is that its a great honor to be representing the Class of 2009 on the student board. Its also humbling cause my fellow students have put a great deal of faith in me and I hope to do the best I can. The journey at the ISB has just got a whole lot more interesting and a whole lot more intense. A year ago i would not in my wildest dreams have thought i would be sitting in India, in my quad at the ISB, have my own blog and be writing a blog entry about being elected.

I would like to say a big thank you to my study group who are like my family here. They encouraged me to stand for the position and showed a lot of faith. Thanks to everyone else that also supported me .. and before this blog entry gets too mushy let me sign off .... will keep you posted on life at the ISB.

Still alive and kicking

Sorry folks for disappearing for a while ..I'm sure some of you would have thought that the Mid Terms were the last you will hear from me .. sorry no such luck ;) ...

So whats the update ...

• Mid terms finished (and we have got our marks back already) . They were quite rightly followed by a big party on campus were people were looking the happiest in a long while .. No one cared if they did well or not i think the thought of getting to the finish line was good enough..
• It stormed 3 nights ago .. there was so much rain all night and the whole campus got drenched.. the grass seemed like it was happy. The weather also cooled down. Before the rain we were all feeling like we were inside an oven being baked for someone's super. By the way the thousands of frogs that share the campus with us were very happy too .. you could see them jumping with joy.
• We had our formal photo shoot. Realised just how hard it is to wear a business suit when the weather is close to 40C . To top it off my one was a woolen one so smiling infront of the camera took my best acting skills.
  
• Its election time here on campus and its quite an experience. People campaigning , discussions about who to vote for and midnight soap box sessions. The excitement just doesn't stop.
• Then there is the usual .. assignments, assignments, tests and exams .. we are all getting so used to these now that we don't pay as much attention, like brushing your teeth in the morning , here its submitting your assignment at 3 in the night, just part of the daily routine.
• Two of my school friends in Australia got married on the same day (no, not to each other). I missed out on two weddings :(
  

By the way, in economics I learnt that 'we are all presumed to be rational', its good to get some fiction into the course material every now and then :D

See ya for now !

Midterm Madness...

Its midterm time here at the ISB and there is a lot of crazy gas floating around ..

Most of us are slowly going mad and those that are not going mad were mad to begin with .. i think after this all of us will surely be on an equal footing of madness..

I have never seen so many people study so much (but then again i am from australia) .. if you added the number of study hours the batch has put in over the last week it will surely equal the GDP of Naru ..

It was good to see that some people have crossed the bridge of stress and are now in a Zen like state where they have worked out their marginal benefit to every extra hour of study and there marginal cost for every hour of sleep lost .... each to their own i say cause everyone will find their place in the sun :)

I just came back from a 2 hour chit chat session in the atrium with some buddies .. the cost of which will probably be about 200 rankings but its a small price to pay for my sanity :)

It depends ...

For all of you that will not be heading to an MBA degree anytime soon ... or those that think that the costs are far too much, i will let you in on some insider gyan (knowledge) which covers about 50% of the course material .... If you just take this on board then you could pass as an MBA about 7.5/10 times (don't ask me where i got these statistics from .. it sounds believable enough so it will suffice for now) .. for all those that have read 'The secret' and are still confused about life well the secret below might add more to your life than that book..

Hmm.. have you ever be confronted with a question that you had no clue about .. or sitting in a high powered meeting and where the spotlight was suddenly put on you.. There is a simple answer to all your problems .. the two magic words .. "IT DEPENDS ..." these two words are something that all MBAs (or wannabes) learn .. and the one thing that everyone at school has picked up in the first week .. they will transform you from being a 'dumb arse no body' to a 'smart arse somebody' . You actually get the other person thinking and take the attention away from yourself. Suddenly the pressure is on them to try to think about why does it depend. Also you washed yourself of all responsibility of getting the answer right. Lets test drive it ..

Boss: Are we going to make our target for the coming fiscal year ?
mba : It depends ... on the revenue we generate in the last quarter

Professor: Do you think the marketing plan is going to be successful
mba: It depends .... on the advertising mix

Wife: Are we going out to dinner tonite ?
mba (husband offcourse) : It depends ...

Even if you have nothing useful to say after the two magic words you leave people with the impression that you are an Analytical thinker who looks at both sides of the argument, weighs all options, has an unbaised view and generally has a maturity level that is far above average ;) . All you did were say two words .

Now that you know the secret to success you have no further excuses left .. on second thoughts, it depends ...

-Sunk cost - Opportunity Cost - Brain Depreciation = MP(Watching 'Tashan')

Even sometimes experienced ecomonists get is so wrong so a newbie like me can be excused. They also say that in economics we cancome up with models to simulate the real world , but only once you arrive in the real world do you realise that your model was nothing but a fictional tale.

After 10 straight days of studying continously (don't read: 'I am a geek' , Read: 'I am slow') me and a few friends decided to escape the walls of the ISB. It was a true escape plan, we had identified our escape car (ND's car) , our escape route (First Atrium -> Rec Centre -> SV2 -> SV1 -> Main gate), found our accomplices, and decided to buy our ticket for this escape (tickets for 'Tashan' a new movie at Prasads). In our hearts we knew we were creating history on assignment weekend by deciding to escape..

We filled our stomachs at a place called 'Malgudi' which served exotic south indian food, i had mutton chops, biriyani and chicken, food was spicy but good ... got into our escape car again and headed to what we were later going to realise was going to be a life altering experience..

The movie 'Tashan' started and well maybe in the first 10 secs or so i had a 'oh no!' feeling. But i hung on .. after 10 minutes the 'oh no !' feeling had turned into a 'oh no way!' feeling .. for the mathematically inclined.. this line had a negetive gradient from here on and the law of dimishing returns was starting to set in.. the movie i would have to say is one of the crapiest i have seen in a long time.. i mean this time bollywood has out done itself on all fronts... to and to it I was sitting in the second row so the pathetic acting was blown up to look even more pathetic , it was well and truely in my face..

My movie ticket was a 'Sunk' cost.. but what did i do .. nothing .. at various points in the movie i thought about getting up and leaving and maybe heading back .. but like a true indian i wanted paisa wasool.. which every good economist knows is a bad strategy.. one should cut your losses and move on .. so i sat their through it all .. which meant that now i had introduced 'opporunity' cost to my escape .. obviously wasn't paying attention in economics class to evaluate just how much I was loosing.. While walking out of the theatre the one feeling that we all shared was 'That was an out of this world experience' .. i guess i can't really explain it .. for the curious ones all i can say is go watch it :)

On the way home we realised that in the process of watching 'Tashan' we had killed those valuable brain cells that we needed for all the assignment.. our minds had truely depreciated..

All I can say is that it wasn't all futile.. I truely understand the meaning of 'Sunk' cost and 'opportunity' cost .. Maybe they should make a trip to watch 'Tashan' a part of the economics course ;)

"The only time you will toss a coin to make a decision is marriage.. there is no past data" -My Statistics Professor ISB

Today was my last pre-term class and the end to an intense week.. yes i didn't have a weekend and that is quite hard for us aussies to swallow.. after years of bludging on the weekend my brain got a shock when it was asked to sit in 10 hours of lectures just over two days.. all in all i sat through 36 hours of lectures this week and many more hours of homework and club activities:) .. The maths class had a whole semester of maths crammed into 14 hours and then there was statistics and accounting.. Although i can't claim to have become an accountant , a statistician and least of all a mathematician I can now certainly claim to know just what i don't know about these subjects :) .. first step to knowledge i guess is knowing that you don't know .. I have to say it was totally worth it for me .. this preamble gives me an idea of the fun times ahead .. no i'm not sadistic and no i don't like to work on weekends .. so here is why i enjoyed it..

The amazing teachers .. all three of the teachers were inspiring .. they had the ability to keep us engaged and interested in subjects which would otherwise be painful to complete. They explained concepts with real world problems and they kept the humor going. I have been taught in different education systems and I would rate each of these teachers amongst the best.. each of them had different styles yet you could tell that they were here cause they loved to teach..

By the laws of probability if this is the sample set, and 3 out of the 3 were inspiring. The probability that the coming year is going to be a great learning experience is extremely high :)

Disorientated and ready to begin...

With orientation week over I can well and truly say that now I'm totally dis-orientated. The last week has been hectic, tiring, fun but most importantly essential is allowing most of us to shed the skin that we came in with. To put it more graphically we all got a smack on our backsides just like when a baby is born and most of us yelled in our own ways. It was time to get out of our comfort zone and start all over again..

Things i have learnt in the week gone by..
- There are just not enough hours in the day
- There are some amazing people that have achieved so much already and are headed for even greater things.
- Hyderabad is a Hot Hot place...
- This campus is confusing i still get lost and end up walking twice as much in the scorching heat..
- you have to be lost before you can be found ...

'O' -Week .. HO HO week!

Its 2:20 am (yes AM, not PM) and i've decided to write my first blog from student village 2 at the ISB. People on the outside might think its crazy (and i would have thought the same a week or so ago) but i know that come tomorrow i will probably not get any time during the day and will end up writing it at about the same time :) ..

Its 'O' week at ISB or for the less orientated its orientation week. Geez! what a week it has been so far .. even i'm lost for words to describe just how much i have learnt and seen in the last 4 days i have been here.. to put it in true bollywood speak it has been 'mind blowing' in every way. Here is some of the 'oh so fab' stuff that i have experienced in the last few days..

• First and foremost the amazing sense of community created by the Alums (class of 2008). Everyday i am amazed to see their genuine energy and enthusiasm to help us. They have put endless efforts into making 'o' week so much fun, so informative and just a total Blast!.. If sleep deprivation for a year makes people this positively charged up then we should all keep our lights on longer.
• The endless 'gyan' (advice/knowledge) sessions we have been getting. This evening a session for the consulting club was scheduled for 11:30 pm and close to 150 people attended. Sleep is not an option when so many interesting things are happening..and there is so much to learn.
• PARTEY!! PARTEY!! PARTEY!! is the mantra here.. after a full day of work parties start at 11pm .. its been 4 days and there have been 2 big parties already .. a flavour of what is to come :) .. can you see the pattern forming here, sleep is a distant memory.
• Pranks, the seniors have played a few pranks on us .. and these are pranks at a grand scale with 450 students.. as if we weren't feeling dumb enough, our egos have taken another battering.. and the cherry on the cake is the video footage that has been generated as part of these pranks.. its part of history now :)
• Meeting 1600 different people in 4 days.. that is meeting the same person 4 times without knowing that you have met them before .. feels like an endless loop at the moment :)
• Getting to know the amazing backgrounds that people have come from. Never met so many interesting people in one place ..
  

This post is about all the good stuff i have experienced during the past few days.. i will leave the cribbing for the many more posts to follow :)

When I came through the gates i knew it would be a hectic year ahead and had a few apprehensions .. some of these are still there but with every passing day they are fading away and being replaced excitement. Excitement for all the possibilities that lie ahead.... every possibility comes wrapped in apprehension... i hope to unwrap a lot of these presents this year ...

One sleep to go

Its 12:30 am and there is only one sleep to go before the beginning of a year at the ISB. Don't think i will get much sleep tonight. My head is working overtime with a million thoughts, all of which amount to nothing.. and my heart is racing through a multitude of emotions. I have known that the 12th is going to come along soon and now that it is only a few hours away it feels all to real. My eyes are feeling a bit moist, I'm missing my family tonight, they have always been my strength ..I'm sure they are thinking of me too.

I guess a bit of anxiety is normal, after all its my first day back at school. Seems like the calm before the storm ...

Hopefully my next post will be from my room in Student Village 2 .

Namaskaaram... from the city of Nizams

Namaskaaram (aka 'Hello' in Telegu) from the city of Nizams. Sorry guys its been a while .. was finding my feet (and a good internet connection) in hyderabad. Landed safely and soundly at the new hyderabad airport. Pretty nice airport although it looked a bit unused and unoiled at the moment.. as the luggage starting coming out my two pieces of luggage were the first to roll out i wasn't even ready with the trolley yet.. but i take it as a good omen as i have never been that lucky at the luggage carousels:) .. so far it has been an enjoyable stay ..here are some highlights.

• My cousin had a house party the first night i arrived.. cooked some good food and had lots of chit chat, so my first night in hyderabad was a party night, , what more can I say :)


• Hyderabad is much greener and cleaner than i had imagined. Love the trees that they have grown everywhere. Even the road dividers have huge trees and lush green grass.


• The weather (something that i was dreading) has been unusually cool here. It has rained the two days and there has been a cool breeze blowing. I have even seen lightening. Couldn't have asked for anything more :)


• Celebrated telegu new year 'Ugadi' on Monday. It certainly is going to be a 'new' year.


• Already got my hands on some authentic Andra food. Went to place called 'Chutneys' which is supposed to be quite famous. This is the thali that i ate there ;) .. hope to write a restaurant review soon. (I looked like such a silly tourist when i was taking photos of the food at this restaurant ;)



• I visited the ISB and SV2. The guards at the gate were very polite and let me go in to check it out. The place was deserted so had a bit of an eary feel to it. Think there was a bit of maintenance work going on .. getting ready for the class of 2009.
• Visited a supermarket here called 'Q' mart in Bangara hills. It had everything i get back home so i was really happy. Found all my favourite food including my favourite chocolates.. everytime i get home sick 'Q' mart it is..
• Drank fresh coconut water everyday ..

I'm sure this is just the begining of many adventures here in this city...

Fasten your seat belts ....

As I fasten my seat belt on the plane tomorrow it will feel more like fastening my belt on a roller coaster. My current emotions are very close to those just before a big roller coaster ride, when they lock the bars and fasten your belts, only this is ten fold of that feeling.Feeling excited and scared at the same time. There is just no looking back now. The adrenaline is starting to rush through the body and well the mind can no longer think straight .. I know i wanted to sit on this ride, now looking at the track ahead it seems pretty daunting. I couldn't get much sleep last night, don't know what time zone i'm operating on but its not an earthly time zone.

Today i decided to empty my piggy bank (which was full of change) and exchange it for chocolates to fill the last bit of space in my suitcase . I always knew i was saving that for a worthwhile cause and what better cause than chocolate. I picked up my favorite lindt dark chocolates, some gummi bears, cherry ripe and trolli lollies. SV2 block 'I' will be on a constant sugar high :)

Thanks to all my friends that have wished me good luck not just for the year ahead but also for the plane trip, some hoping that i get a cute co-passenger (it hasn't happened in the 100+ odd flights I've taken but if i keep flying the law of probability should be on my side ;)

I am going to miss home and everything about it but hope to make the most of this ride.

Fingers crossed, my next post will be from Hyderabad city!

3,2,1......blast off!

Three days to go now before I make the equator crossing. Seasons will change and so will the scene. Large part of my to-do list is over now, just picked up the dry cleaning from the shop. Spent today with my parents (both of them had the day off). We had lunch at our local Thai place. Still have to pack everything, my room looks like a mess with all the clothes and shoes and stuff. Have to make so many decisions as to what makes the cut for coming with me and what gets left behind. Just don't realize how much stuff we own until we decide to put it into a couple of suitcases. Sort of glad that there is a luggage restriction otherwise I would be carrying too much clutter with me.

The move seems real now after we have been allocated our quad numbers (our home for the next year) and everyone is eager to find out who they will be sharing the place with. TN is one of my flat buddies and I'm glad about that. I think my flat is going to be on the higher floor so the stairs should keep me fit (its going to be an excuse for not going to the gym).

Yesterday i finished trimming some of the hedges in my garden and since winter is on its way they should stay neat for the next few month. I'm really going to miss all my plants and hope to get picture updates from my family :)

Better head back to sorting and packing arghhh!!

Sitting in the Dark for my favourite planet

8:40pm 29th of 2008 and my neighbourhood looks different, not a single light is on in any house. Its EARTH HOUR. I'm sitting in my room in the dark with my laptop running on its battery and the radio on its. Earth hour, an event that was started last year in sydney where residents and businesses turned their lights off for an hour to focus on our attention global warming and the environment. It has grown this year to include 200 cities across the globe. In the next few hours other cities will have their earth hour where they will turn their lights off.

Some critics may claim that an hour of turning our lights off will make no difference to the planet. I say its very important, if nothing it brings our attention to the important issues of global warming, to an ever increasing energy crisis and to our planets health in general. All too often we take energy for granted, especially in the developed world. Events like these turn our focus on the task at hand. The need for alternative sources of energy, the need for conservation of energy and most importantly the need for sustainable development.

Another less known advantage of such an hour is it gives the romantics amongst us the chance to have a nice candle lit dinner ;)

Don't forget to turn your lights off from 8-9pm tonite :)

meals i'm going to miss

Well, before i write about all the other things that i am going to miss about home I have to at least talk about all the good Sydney food that I'm going to miss terribly. Being a incurable foodie i have been spoilt growing up in Sydney. Without being biast i have to say the variety of food and fresh produce that is available in the city is amongst the best i have come across. This is mostly thanks to the many migrants from around the world that have made this place home. I remember in my kindergarten class I had kids from 25 different countries, so each lunch box had something quite exotic in it.

There are various areas in Sydney that serve authentic food from particular nations, the upside of ethnic ghetto living. So if i want to have authentic Turkish i head to the Turkish quarter, or yummy Vietnamese i head to a suburb where you feel like you are in Vietnam (well as far as the food is concerned). Here are some of my favorites...

• Malaysian : Laksa at 'Laksa King' - Laksa is a favourite noodle soup for sydney siders and is available at every food court. It is a spicy coconut milk based noodle soup with fragrant spices, can be quite hot.
  
• Turkish: 'Sofra' at Auburn. Makes the nicest Adana Kebabs - lamb kebabs marinated in spices, slow cooked over charcoal, served with turkish bread (close to the Indian Naan), onion and tomato salad with sumac(a middle eastern spice). Drink Ayran (Yogurt drink like lassi )with it.
• Vietnamese: Pho or Chicken noodle soup at Flemington or Cabramatta. A healthy option , and makes you feel better with warm clear chicken soup with noodles, mint, basil, fresh chillis and sprouts.
  
• Lebansese: Doner Kebab or Shewarma at every corner. Perfect for a late night meal, slow roasted chicken wrapped in lebanese bread with Toubouli salad (my favourite) and homous.
  
• Thai :Curries (red/green/yellow). Thai food has become pub food in Sydney. Being the most popular food here. Great option for vegetarians as they do veggie food well.
  
• Greek : Dolamades - marinated rice wraped in wine leaves, kalmatta olives, slow cooked lamb souvlaki.
• Italian : Wood fired pizzas and lasagna and Cappocino anywhere in Leichhardt or Five Dock..
• Chinese : Sydney's Chinatown .. some things i'm still too afraid to try but the sizzling plates are nice.
• Other : Crepes, meat pies, baked potatoes, nachos ..

Hmm.. all this food talk has made me quite hungry.

Although i'm going to miss all this food i am quite excited about exploring Hyderabad and its food secrets. Have got myself the Times Food Guide to Hyderabad and will surely be checking out some places .. will post my thoughts on these.

Last few days here will be spent eating up all the stuff I'm going to miss ;)

To do or not to do .....

Only 10 days to go now before I head to India and my to-do list just seems to be growing by the second. I'm sure everyone making there way back to school must be going through a similar phenomenon. This morning i got up after the extra-long easter weekend and thought i should get through some items on my to-do list..Left my house this morning at 8:20 am..

1. Go to doctor to get eyes checked .. ended up waiting one hour even though i had an appointment. Almost got a parking ticket cause i had only paid for an hour.
2. Go to library to return books
3. Ring Airlines to change flight date (on hold for 35mins, cordless battery ran out,done)
4. Ring Gym to cancel membership (have to send them some signed letter etc)
5. Collect Laptop battery from courier (arrived with free gift)
6. Confirm dentist appointment (confirmed)
7. Check what the markets are doing today .. (looking green today, thank god)
8. Arrange and Make booking for Friday party .. (done)
9. Ring tax office to find out about this years early lodgement..
10. Ring to arrange a gardener ..
11. Put insurance on hold ..
12. Renew car on road support membership ...
13....
14...

The to-do list just seems to grow faster as you work on it more .. reminds me of the trees that i prune in my garden.

As a wise man once said .. you can never get rid of your to-do list but you can learn to live it ;)

Change rooms need to change

I went shopping today for some clothes. I had to visit the dreaded change rooms which is the least fun bit about the whole shopping trip. Seems like when they design shops they pay very little attention to creating good change/fitting rooms.

To start of with there is usually a long line, then there is someone standing there who wants to know exactly how many pieces of clothing you have. When you finally get entry into the change room you find you have to learn the art of curtain closing, you spend 10 minutes getting it right (well almost right, who cares you think in the end). You then realise that you have 10 things and only one hook wah lah! so you end up putting half the stuff on the ground .. we all know what happens next so i won't go into the details ;)

If you think about it, the change rooms are a part of the shop where the largest bit of investment should be made since this is where the most critical decision is made , "should i buy this or shouldn't I". I presume the better the experience the more things a customer tries on, the greater potential to make that sale. What would make the change room experience better for you?

3 weeks to go.

I sit in my bedroom tonight and I hear ..

the gumtrees make rustling noises in the strong wind outside,
the possom knocking on my roof as he/she does every so often in the night,
faint gun shots from my brother's room from some crazy computer game he is playing,
the murmur of my small table fan which is about to die after years of service,
and the sheer silence of the night.

It still seems a bit unreal that in three weeks time, on a similar monday evening my ears will be privy to a new set of sounds .. not sure what they will be .. will let you know :)

History ... whats the point?

History to many brings back memories of a much dreaded subject at school. How they had to learn an endless number of dates, names of people and event gone by.. What's the point?

Last night i was watching the movie 'Gandhi' an historial account of the great man and his works. It reminded me of how we sometimes are so engrossed in getting to the future that we forget the all important past, a treasure of insights. So why is the past so important?

What makes history interesting (and very important) is not 'when' it happened (1800 or 1850 makes no a difference when we are in 2008) but 'WHY' it happened. 'Who' was the actual doer is far less significant then 'HOW' it was done. Take for example the partition in 1947 the most important parts of this event is not when or who but how it was excuted, how so many lifes were lost and most importantly why it ended up being one of the bloodiest mass migrations in history. Similary if we ask these questions of the great wars we come to gain many insights into human behaviour.If we don't acknowledge the mess that was created how will we work towards ensuring that the mess is never recreated. Looking at the good and the bad leaders in history we better understand what sort of leadership is effective and what type of leadership needs caution. If we don't understand how Hitler came to be, how can we recognise another one in the making.

Just as from our personal life we have successes and mistakes and we learn many lessons from these. Similarly we have many lessons to learn from humanity's successes and failures. For the more scientifically inclined, history is like the results of a great many experiments carried out over time, results which should not be ignored.

Although we all have the previledge of shaping the future we also have the responsibility of learning from the past because they say 'History has a way of repeating itself'.

Downunder had a hot Indian Summer

This Summer here in Australia was what could be termed as a 'hot Indian Summer' and not because of the mercury. In fact it was one of the coolest summers if we are to trust our thermometers, however we all know differently.. yes folks I'm talking about the cricket season that has just gone past.

Thought I would share with you a what living in Australia as an Indian cricket supporter is like. Being part of the 'Swamy army' here in Australia is not an easy task, its like being on the front line. Each Indian supporter feels the pain when India looses matches. In india they analyse and whinge and re-analyse.. But those of us who live downunder can't get up and forget it the next day.

A typical Day after an India Loss: As soon as i walk into work i have a few emails waiting for me reminding me how India lost the match..then i walk into the coffee room and someone asks me (with a cheeky smile on their face ) if i have read the sports section this morning.. finally when i make it to my desk i have a few visitors who want to discuss how good the Australian cricket team played how they are the world champions .. on my way home i pick up the evening news paper and it talks about how the India lost.. as you can imagine I never look forward to the mornings after India has lost a big game to Australia. But its not all doom and gloom, for everything i get i give back with interest :) ..waiting for that elusive win, making sure i forward a few headlines to people and make my visits to various desks and bring up the topic of cricket :)..

Might I add that its all in the right spirit. We all have a good laugh about it. Growing up in Aussieland we take our sport seriously, and that's about all we take seriously.

This summer well it was no different except hotter and spicier just like a good madras curry or as we would say in Aussie slang 'the indians gave the aussies a bit of curry'. The controversies and the monkey business added fuel to aftermarth of a serving of curry and made for endless banter at friday drinks.
Some personal highlights for me from this summer include :-
- Watching India Vs Australia at the SCG in a sea of Blue with the constant beats of the Dhol.
- Being the only Indian supporter on a bus full of Sri Lankan supporters on way back from the Canberra game where India Lost to Srilanka. I was brave enough to keep my India T-shirt on. I think after surviving that ordeal i have come out a stronger person ;)
- Watching India collapse in the T20 with 5 other Indian families over Dinner, watching everyone loose their appetite and recieving 20 SMSs from my Aussie buddies.
- Reading the million and one articles the Aussie press wrote on Bhaji, its a love hate relationship.
- Last but not least Walking into work with the biggest smile on my face after India won the One-Day series.

Cricket they say was a dying sport here in Australia but thanks to a hot indian summer its alive and kicking!

Ah first times ...

They say there is a first time for everything .. so here it goes .. my first blog post in my first blog... are you the first reader ???

Here's to some of those first times ... difficult yet full of possibilities

• First day at school ... Thought: ' how beautiful is my new school bag and my cool new pencil case with all these new pencils '
• First crush ... Thought: 'oh how cute is he'
  
• First day at work ... Thought: 'I'm going to work my hardest and consequently do really well here'
• First heart break.. Thought:'The world is going to end. Its going to stop spinning'
• First sip of alcohol ... Thought:'Yuk, how can anyone pay for this stuff'
  
• First day of unemployment... Thought: 'yipee! i can sleep in'
  
• First blog entry ... Thought:'Geez just what have i signed up for'
  

Luckily there is always a second time :)