Week 17: Slacker, Slacker, Slacker!

Sorrrryyy. Slacked again....! But here I am...3 weeks later.

A lot has happened as is usual. I will just let the pics the the blabber below do the talking as short on time.


A few dinners: Karans place, Pranav (microwave-frozen-food-cook ;-)), Green college, mansfield college, Mktg team dinner
Parties: SBS Bop, Brazilian Carnival
Speakers/Special dinners: Sir Tom Hunter , John Bird, Oxford Business Alumni trip to london
Great nights: Rocking nite at luvraj's, at abhi's Jesus GCR,
Assignments: lets not go here!
Special mention: I shot for a video (see link n rate my oscar worthy performance), moved apartments (newer pad n closer to school)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zu1DHCyG8xE

Other: Finalizing trip to Dubai in April (should i drop in to india for a bit??), Trip to Paris for MBATs in May, got most electives for the next term except for Private Equity


Allrite. So how are we doing :-)?

Its wierd, there is like a lot lot more to do this semester. But for some strange reason I seem to be in a super chill zone. Avg sleep hours up to 10 (ppl at Said read this they ll faint!), havent been as regular with lectures, EP -- something I really am interested in given I was nurturing the idea since Los Angeles days -- is really blow hot blow cold and am way behind on it!

what else...NBA all star is here. Too bad cant catch the games live. But just saw highlights of Dwight Howard winning the DUnk fest. Specta-freakin-cular!

Its 4 am at night and just got done with an assignment so will sign off....! More later...

Week 14: London, Long Break, L'OReal CEO dinner!

Week 9 - Week 14

Above is album: click for pictures.


First of all apologies for taking a 6 week break from the blog!!! I missed writing and hope some of you did reading (shout out to all family and friends who kept reminding me to update it). But I am coming back from a great event which inspired me to share with all. Will get to it in a bit.

First of all, what was I upto these past few weeks. Lets make it fast. Exams in december, big time parttttttttttty from 1130 am to 4 am the next day, trip to london, lord of the rings musical, back to India, met up loads of old friends, trip to mumbai, 31st bang with school friends and couple of MBA friends in abad, great family time as me sis made a special trip to abad too, back to oxford, unbelievably dreadful weather (which just refuses to get better), un-freaking-believably busy semester (2 core, 3 electives, entrepreneurshp project, internship and scp search, fulltime job search, electives for upcoming semesters, on average 3 projects a week with 4 different groups), couple of great fun night outs....phew! pics for some of these events are up. Will put up others too...

Now I shall share with you a great evening. The day started as usual early (hate getting up in darkness, even at 730, all cold and having to choose between extremely hot water or extremely cold water for a face wash as two seperate taps) as had to go for a operations management short field trip to the biggest TESCO in the neighbourhood with my study group. Have a great group for the core courses (all groups i have this sem are great :P!!). Spent about an hour there and back. Got home, changed as had a meeting with my Entrepreneurial project team. Then after another meet with MBA director with regards our EP, back home to get into a tux for a presentation by LOreal CEO Sir Lindsay Jones which was to be followed by dinner with him and his team and a few select MBA students. The talk in my mind was one of better ones I have heard. Sir Jones's speech personified what he said was the one thing his journey meant to him: FUN. He delivered expert subtle nuances on 'Enduring Success' from his experiences at LOreal in a very engaging way. AFter a drinks reception for networking with all the LOReal guests and all the audience, few of us proceeded for dinner in the boardroom. It was a great couple of hours being in the same room as some of these people with a wealth of experience having led truly global giants (I am sure the few other MBA students who were fortunate to be in there must have felt the same). A really engaging post dinner conversation gave insight into their minds and views from where they are at. A senior board of directors for a lot of big companies made a point with regards corporation's role in sustainable business. He talked about an example of how while in an african country, when he was helping out with a hospital which was trying to arrange for drugs which would help treat small kids with AIDS, it was a battle to arrange for the infrastructure and distrubution to get the drugs sent from the big nations to this small interior place in africa. As a solution helicopters were flown in for the same. Then he walked out of the hospital that evening and was surprised to see major cola drinks easily available. The obvious question was if there could be a network of distribution for the colas, how is it that something as critical as life saving drugs does not find its way? Should corporates not play a role? An extremely logical couter argument provided was that there is a difference between philanthropy and tax!!! Corporates are there to do what they do best. To create value, make wealth, re-invest, increase employment, improve economies and then help in ways they can. But to expect them to do what is actually the very basics that a goverment is responsible for or UN is responsible for is just leading to a scenario which will only take them away from doing their job and doing something which is not their expertise! Hows is it that we almost start believing that the corporataion is obligated (a la tax) to do what is the core responsibility of the goverment?
Somehow that thought process of the distinction between philanthrophy and tax just struck a chord ...

Also had a wonderful wonderful dinner at pushpaks and Alka's (yup if u following me blog, I had a great one last sem too at their place). WE were celebrating republic day of India. That explains the patriotism in the snaps..:-). As is usual at their place -- great food n good times! And the weekend weather has just been SPECTACULAR. I know it wont last tho....


I shall leave you guys with that. But from now on, shall be extremely regular as before...every sunday!! Next weeks menu: More bad weather, 3 projects, talk by founders of Netfinder and the Big Issue, dinner with CEO of the Big Issue, black tie dinner at Oxford Cambridge club with Oxford Business Alumni and much more!!!

Shout out to dear friend nbf..happy bday dude!

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!