Week 9 -- Tension, Templeton and Team for EP!

Templeton -- Week 9

Click Above is an album

Yo gang! This is going to be super short at its 3 am and I still need to work for an economics assignment which is 50% of our grade and due tomorrow. But I will say this-- this Monday is easily the most look forward to Monday of the term! IT is whan all assignments are done, all group studies for this semester over and just one week of classes and one week of preperation before exam!!

This past week has been really really intense! 3 Big time group assignments were due. Each with a very high weightage and time was as usual squeezed. Tensions were high and the group dynamics were changing as people were getting edgy as exams near, no time to study, group study taking longer, more at stake and in general too much too do. Every one felt sleep deprived, overworked and under appreciated!!


So I am just going to go through a laundry list of what I did this week. Though check out the snaps. The are from Dinner, Opera and after party (one of the wildest parties this semester) at Templeton College. Templeton is Oxfords most mordern and specialist MBA college. It has 60 MBA students, by far the largest MBA community any college accepts.

So night at Templeton was fun. Also after 3 weeks I went for Improv workshop. Its exciting times there as we are planning for a performance in MArch sometime.

This week finalized the team for Entrepreneurship Project -- by far the biggest reason I am at oxford. Am happy as have got a decent team. Also had a meeting with the Chair of Said who is also co-ordinator for the EP. I think we have a brilliant idea which if followed through might actually be feasible to take live. It was something that had occured to me back in San francisco and its exciting to see it turn into the EP.

Got officially inducted into the Oxford Entrepreneurs this week. Should be a great year at this pretty impressive organization which is one of the largest if not the largest student run body in Europe!

Do check out the snaps. And promise a lot more fun next week and there is going to be a lot of 'blowing steam' this week!!!

Week 8 -- Boiling Point, Bollywood Masala and Black Tie at ChristChurch

Dinner at Christ Church 17.11.07

Above is album. Click to View



Man this semester is officialy getting out of hand. Things are simmering at boil!!
And I am struggling!The horrible weather is not helping at all. Overcast, raining and very cold! I long californian sunshine or amdavadi heat!


This week we had an individual case study assignment for Organizational Analysis. We will see how things go. Got grade for a strategy and Decision Science Workshop. Unfortunately our distinction streak was broken as we dipped below for both these.

Another major assignment this week was the Financial Reporting 'Vodafone' assignment. Man it had become the bane of my life last few days. Just coming back from submitting that beast -- 3500 word analysis of Vodafone's 164 page annual report and 10 such reports for last 10 years, which is going to account for 40% of our Financial reporting marks. We need to do well on this one! Fingers crossed and will keep ya guys updated!

Also this week got serious about EP (Entrepreneurship Project). Oxford is maybe the only business school which has one subject less in the Hillary (second) semester and instead has a Business Plan competition which ends with us presenting before VC's. Teams should have a mandatory 5 members. EP was one of the major reasons I elected to come to Said. So far have clubbed with another idea guy and we are toying with 2 ideas. We will be creating elevator pitches for both and sending out to few of our friends, mentors and professors for a gut check before we decide on one. Also we are trying to think up of and recruit a team as people are very rapidly consolidating into groups. Watch this corner for updates throughout the next 3-4 months!

Ok. So it was not all work and no fun. Went for a couple of college dinners this week. First went to Wadham college -- special thanks to Deepti for having me over. I shall update the pictures form Wadham soon as I do not have them yet. Wadham College was founded by Nicholas and Dorothy Wadham in the reign of King James I. Nicholas Wadham, a member of an ancient Somerset family, died in 1609 leaving his fortune to endow a college at Oxford. Famous alumni: Robert Blake.

Also had the ChristChurch Black Tie event for chirstmas. Unbelievably and beutiful and grand affair. You guys have already seen the famous Potter hall in few of earlier snaps but check them out again. Had Aashima and Alyson as guests with me. Was a great night!!

Lastly went out and watched King Khan in 'Om Shanti Om'. Now Mr. Khan needs to thank me for being his loyal fan. All the way in OXford, with people stressing their wits out due to all the mad rush, I made time to check out the 'Diwali' Bollywood blockbuster of the year. And shamelessly so, I LOVED IT!. EVERY NONSENSICAL minute of it.

Next week is super crazy. It starts on Monday with another Decision science workshop (the 2nd and last this semester). The rest of the day is going to be used up by the Silicon Valley comes to Oxford event wherein we have a slew of seminars and master classes. We have quite a good panel with the Founders of Linked in, Yelp, YouNoodle and Automactic, Venture Capitalist firms, Stanford Prof's, Senior Google personnel etc coming in. Being on the Oxford Entrepreneur I shall get to do dinner with them which am looking forward to. There is a huge Economics group assignment to get started on which is due end of week and is 50% of our grade and if that wasnt enough there is also a Finance group assignment! Daaaammmmnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!


Allritie gang! Next 3 weeks better be the most hardworking weeks I have had since the last couple of years (basically last I worked as hard was the first few releases of THoT) if I am going to have any shot of getting through this semester.

Miss all of my friends & family, miss California n miss India!! Miss watching Kobe light it up (NBA season's started). Miss Fort Mason in San Francisco and Naaz 8 ! But am loving every minute of Oxford and acutely aware that week by week, the year's ticking away.

Week 7 -Diwali Bop, Decision Science Workshop and Dinner at Magdalen.

Diwali Party SBS 10.11.07

Above is album -- click.


A very very happy diwali to everyone (family/friends in states, uk, india and dubai!)

Today is gonna be super short. Have a mock exam on Tuesday, one individual assignment due and a shit load of other stuff.

The week was long but the weekend was great fun but sub par on the study front. That is getting to be a concern as I am lagging terribly on my courses and if I do not get my act together it may well be a lost cause!!

Diwali was a major highlight. Partying started on Friday. There was the Diwali bollywood bop at Keble college. Great music and lotta fun. Then a good 15-20 of us landed up at a friends place and played cards all night long. Crashed at 6, up at 10 on Saturday as had to help organize for the Diwali party at the Business school in the evening. The event was a huge success and loads of fun. Check out the attached pictures.

Also this week attended the Magdalen dinnner which was arranged as a Christchurch Magdalen exchange event. Magdalen by far is the prettiest college I have seen at Oxford so far. See the pics. There are still parts of Magdalen (like their famous deer park) which I need to check out. Famous alumni: Oscar Wilde.

Got a distinction for the third assignment. So far our group is 3/3 for distinctions -- which is good. Would be great to carry it through for all assignments for Michelamus term.

Had a peer support dinner at Hanbal's! It was a feast. Was great to catch up with the peer support bunch.

Allright..promise to fill up details and more snaps next sunday. Need to get to cover up for all the fun this weekend. Happy diwali and a prosperous (hindu) new year to all!!

Week 6 - Halloween with Harry potter, Hillary term electives and High time to start studying!!

Week 6

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

Week 5 - Committe elections, Coca cola CEO and Could do with some sleep!

Oxford -- week 5

-->CLICK ON ABOVE -- IT IS AN ALBUM


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

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

Must say a special thank u to a dear friend and Mentor who had told me after my last week's dissapointment -- "so what did u learn grasshopper?". I got the message and and it reminded me that there are no failures -- just learning opportunities! Thanks Marc.

Also marks for the first group assignment were out. My group got distiction which was real cool. Only 4 / 13 groups in our section got distinction and 8 / 36 across the entire batch. So it was good worthy effort I would think. We need to ensure though that we look to improve as a group and always finish strong to continue this good start.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Week 4 -- Garba, Group Study and 'The Grind'!

Garba 1




Garba 2




No laughing matter -- fooling around with Larry




Garba, Group Study and 'The Grind'!

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

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

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


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


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

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

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

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

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

Week 3 --Classes, Case Studies and Comedy!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Enjoy the snaps...

Week 2 -- Formal Induction, Freshers Fair and Family time!

Here we are again. Its been 3 full weeks now that I have been in Oxford.

This week as expected was loads of fun and not too much serious work. It was a roller coaster allright. As they say around here, let there not be a lull before the storm i.e. the classes which get kicked off tomorrow.

The highlight of the week without a doubt was my inducation and the formal dinner at my college -- ChristChurch. The induction was a semi formal event. All the freshers (juniors and graduates) assembled in 'The Hall' -- yes of the harry potter fame. We were given the Oxford rules and regulations bible -- a big, bulky multi purpose tool that could be used as weapon of mass destruction and sleep inducer. Each one of us was then called upon to shake hands with the Dean, collect our college ID and then head off to the Medical Registration. The NHS covers all students free of charge for medical purposes. The doctor assigned to you is from the college you belong too. The evening dinner was a grand spetacle! A full blown formal affair, we were required to be in a formal black tie full suit with the gown (which everyone then removed after the first couple of minutes). After meeting our advisor (each college assigns its students a college advisor who is there to monintor general and academic well being of his/her students) over a few drinks, all proceeded to 'The Hall' for dinner. Boy was it pretty!! It was as if Hogwarts had come to life. Hordes of students with their formal suits and black gowns, assembled in the huge hall with 1000 year old paintings of the likes of Lewis Caroll(author of Alice in Wonderland) staring down at you and a 3 course meal being served by equally well attired steward/stewardess! There were 4 glasses for -- a pre-dinner white wine, red house wine with dinner, desert wine and liquor -- just to give an indication of the elaborate setting! Fish for appetizer, partridge in curry sauce for main course and strawberry cheese cake for the desert (true to tradition, ChristChurch food S****d). There was some decent company at my table too. A couple of my SBS batchmates, a delightful coversation with a local Brit miss who was there for some graduate teaching course and some spiritual discourse with a chaplain.

I learnt some things about ChristChurch too. Lewis Caroll was good friends with Alice who was the daughter of the dean of ChristChurch. He was inspired to write 'Alice in Wonderland' based off Alice's antics.
The dean of ChristChurch is someone elected directly by the Queen of England.
ChristChurch was the first and the oldest cathederal and hence it is called ChristChurch and never ChristChurch college.

Onto other events during the week. I attended the Freshers Fair. A 3 day event with all the varied societies and organizations in Oxford showing up in booths and stalls at the Examination hall trying to pitch to the freshers. There were some really funky and innnovative ones besides the usual suspects like rowing club, cricket, ethinic clubs, drama societies etc. The one that really took the top honours in out of the box concept was a club called 'The Oxford Guild of Assasssins'. What it is is a society whose members play a real time game wherein each one of them is a assassin out to kill the others. The goal is to survive all attempts at your life which maybe in the form of paper bombs in your mail box, water spray guns and a whole slew of very innovative killing techniques!

There were the official Said Business School information sessions for the first two days of the week for various things as Career Services, Library services, IT facilities, General safety and Group building excercises.

We were also divided into 3 sections this week. Had some of my good friends get seperated to different sections though quite a few of whom I know well are still with me. Also means a great opportunity to get to know others as well. I also got introduced to my group of 6 -- i.e. study group. Each such study team has to submit their group assigments over the next 8 weeks and 6 courses together. We had our first team meeting also and it seems like a bunch of great people. A couple of Americans, couple of Indians (including me), a Taiwaneese and a local Brit. All with diverse interesting background and great personalities! It should be fun working and getting to know them better.

Ended the week by another visit to Birginham. My bua (paternal aunt) was visiting from INdia and knowing that things were going to get very hectic starting tomorrow, I figured this was the best chance to meet up with her and also have some chill time with family before the shit hits the ceiling. Was a chillax weekend -- lots of talking, good food, movie and couple of games of pool (tho my bro-in-law kicked ass on both the games!).

So here we are friends. The journey truly on its way. Not enjoying the fact that classes start tomorrow and the library today had people studying preparing for class tomorrow. Friends I have seen partying, chilling and socializing are actually getting prepared for their academic odyssey about to commence. The game about to begin. Let it be a good one!

Week 1 -- Peer Support, Pursuit and Partying

If Week 0 was fast, week 1 has been an absolute blur!! I had signed up for the Peer support program -- a student welfare initiative introduced at the Said Business School last year. All this week I was attending the training sessions for the same which were from 9-5 Monday thru Friday pretty much. As the name suggests, the programme is designed to train a group of students in basic listening skills so that they can provide support to those of their peers experiencing difficulties. It is a great platform to meet and bond with a small group of people (fellow peer supporters) and go through some interesting interpersonal and listening exercises. But as the training schedule suggests, it is a weeklong commitment and hence advisable only for those who get to oxford early enough or can work within the framework of the commitment. I had the opportunity of being part of a fantastic diverse group and that has made it a super experience.

Also this week there were a few career events. First up was my CV review session with a sector consultant for Finance. As was expected and was the aim of the exercise, I was advised a boatload of helpful changes that I needed to make for my resume. These changes had to do with my experience in the finance sector being minimal to the fact the each demographic usually requires a slightly different CV format and I had to tune mine to UK format. I also had lunch with Alasdair Bell, President of Oxford Entrepreneurs Society, a student run society. Alasdair came across as exceptionally bright young Oxonian and I look forward to being involved with the society in some capacity in near future.

Then there were a few guest speaker/seminar sessions. The first was from Morgan Stanley group with a few analysts and associates sharing their experiences and insights with regard a career in Investment Banking. I thought it was an extremely informative session. Later in the week was a talk by George David, Chairman and CEO of United Technologies Corporation. This was a great talk by a great individual -- very insightful, crisp and authoritatively delivered -- in short very American! He also raised an interesting debate with his comments over the Indian and Chineese markets by not mincing words in suggesting that he believed the Indian market and economy was going nowhere unless there was some consistency with their foreign policies. I as a few others though begged to differ on this count.

We also had a few introductory workshops. One each on finance and consulting. They again were insightful and it was enlightening to see the different demeanour, tone and effect of a finance person from that of a consultant. The finance sector consultant team were very aggressive in their presentation and making the point that the profession is not for the faint hearted and requires you to be very much on the top of the game. Though I feel their hostile style might have scared away a few fence sitters considering finance (me being one of them), I feel they provided an honest picture of things as they are. The consultant sector group had a more open and friendlier feel to their pitch. Also the fact that the consultancy companies shall come for placement in the next semester as opposed to finance whose placements will be done by November, meant that there was some more breathing space.

Lastly not to miss out on the fun, there were some great parties. The Said business school had arranged for 'Oxford Pursuit' -- a hunt via clues of the oxford city in groups of 5 which were randomly selected. I had a great time. I got one person on our group I knew from peer support and 3 new people I met. It was lot of fun though we didn’t fare as well :-). Following the pursuit, we had the informal meet and greet party at the 'Oxford Retreat' -- a great pub right by the Hythe Bridge -- literally a few feet away from SBS. Me along with 3 other friends had been arranging for this get together earlier this week and had got a great deal on drinks and reserved area for the 220 SBS students. IT was a fun fun night!! Had a great turnout, the place was awesome with outside and inside areas and I hope all there had a good time. Special thanks to Vebster and people at the Oxford Retreat!

This afternoon we had the Oxford Reception -- a formal lunch with all SBS students and their families arranged by the Business School. I just came back from a friend’s place where we had a dinner for 7-8 of us. It was a perfect end to a long day. No networking, just relaxing, great food and casual banter. Just loved it!! Thanks to Pushpak and Alka (the hosts) for the same. I am already beginning to feel the pinch of 16 hour days with work, networking and partying!! And classes haven’t even started yet.

Overall an unbelievable week. But one thing that stands out is the unbelievable diverse set of people I am going to share this year with. Americans, Indians, Canadians, South Africans, Spanish, Norwegian, Danish, British.....the list is endless with regards the different nationalities I met who are going to be with me for the course. Even more diverse were their back grounds with doctors, army men, civil engineers, IT professionals, non-profit and a lot more. Add to that the overall diverse culture and ambience of the world’s oldest and most premier Umbrella University -- Oxford and that makes it an invaluable experience.

Coming week is gonna be crazier -- its the induction week so there are going to be lot of college events (Christchurch events as that is my college), fresher’s fair, formal introductions at Said, more peer support training and definitely more partying! Hold on...here we go!!!

Week 0 -- Clubs, ChristChurch and Chandni Chowk

Week 0 -- I am finally in Oxford and have settled in. Has been almost a week. Boy its been a crazy one !! Being here is almost like being in a time warp. 800 year old buildings, week long wait to open bank accounts, seperate taps for hot and cold water, beautiful colleges, awful weather, great students, some uptight locals, great pubs and expensive drinks. I love it!!!

I know that was too cryptic but it was what first few days were in a nutshell. I have been meeting current batch mates who are already here. Bunch of great people. We ve been out bonding over drinks pretty much every day this week. Attached is a snap @ a pub called 'Kings Arms'!

Also visited business school and my college ChristChurch. ChristChurch is one of the oldest, popular and one of the most beautiful colleges at Oxford. Oxford has a collegiate system. Every student at the Said Business school has to be member of some college.

Christ Church has traditionally been seen as the most aristocratic college in Oxford. It has produced thirteen British prime ministers which is more than any other Oxford or Cambridge college (and two short of the total number for the University of Cambridge, fifteen). The college is the setting for parts of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited, as well as Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. More recently it has been used in the filming of the movies of J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series .

I got my keys to the GCR (graduate common room) which every college has and is accesible to all members of the college. I am though still waiting for my student id -- which is something the college provides to the student and not the business school.

Over the weekend, visited my cousin in Birmingham. Being in birmingham after a week in oxford was like being back to the 'real' world. Birmingham is the largest of England's core cities, and is often considered to be the second city of the United Kingdom. I thought the city was like any other modern day city from what I saw of it. I visited the famous SOHO road -- a strong indian community base. Had some decent desi grub at a aptly named place -- 'Chandni Chowk'!

More coming next week. The oxford ride is just about to begin and I cannot wait!!