Bangalore...
Apologies upfront for not updating this blog as frequently as I should be. Life has been HECTIC. Accordingly, this post is going to be short.
The wedding in Delhi was fabulous. Fantastic location and elaborate arrangements I had never seen before. The spread was delectable and I wasn't even able to sample everything on offer. I wore a full turban ( a personal first!). Someday I am going to learn how to tie one myself.
The next day I trekked down to Gurgaon and walked through a few malls. The speed at which urban India is embracing malls surprises me. Night I flew into good ole Bangalore. There is no place like home!
The last few days in Bangalore have been super hectic. Have been trying hard to catch up with all my friends. It is hard. Did a quick trip to Tirupati. Was rewarded with a nice darshan. Did a ton of shopping for food stuff I don't get back in Hanover. Also been shopping for clothes. Have been dining at a different place every evening. To date, I am pleased with the way I have managed my schedule. Another 4 days and I can relax for the period of the journey. Of course, I am wistful that the trip is already ending. Will I be listening to 'Leaving on a jet plane' again in a loop on Sunday? I hope I don't have the time to do that, though the sentiment will definitely be there.
The intensity of the last week is unparalled. Tiring though it has been, I am very happy that I made this trip back. The day I step foot in Hanover, I will begin preparations for my next trip back!!
Finally, if I haven't managed to speak to you yet, please pardon my sloppiness and send me a mail/give me a call. My digits remain the same and end with 70364. Au revoir.
New Delhi....
I came in to Delhi late on Monday night. The journey was pretty good. A friend drove me to the Boston airport. Since it has snowed the previous day, I made sure we left sufficiently in advance and subsequently had a lot of free time at the airport. Was able to use the time to catch up with some friends.
The flight itself was rather uneventful. Flew Air France and had a connection at CDG. I reached Delhi on time and was in bed a little past midnight. I wasn't mentally prepared for the jet lag. I woke up very hungry at 5:30!! I then realized that it was dinner time for my poor stomach :( . A bar of Snickers did the trick and I got a couple of hours of sleep.
It feels great to be back. The familiar sights, sounds and smells. I heard more people using their horns during my 1 hour ride from airport to guest house that I had heard during the last 6 months. Somebody needs to educate people in the US that it is not impolite to use the horn. :)
On Tuesday I hung out briefly at the bridegroom's house. Met his family. Over the last 6 months I had heard so much about each of them, it was nice to put a face to each person. Beagle - the dog was the only family member I hadn't heard about.
After some shopping at Delhi Haat, I went across to meet some friends from undergrad at Gurgaon. It has been a year since I visited Delhi last. The development in Gurgaon has to been seen to be believed. The city is teeming with swanky malls. The brands on sale could easily make you believe you are actually in a city in the western hemisphere. I don't know whether the shops are actually making money, but the mall developers are surely laughing all the way to the bank. I plan to return to the malls to spend some time looking around.
Catching up with friends felt great. I had not met one of them for over five years and had not seen the other two for over 2 years. We talked and talked and talked - and before we knew it, it had been 5 hours!! One of my friend's had brought his wife along. She must be a really patient person to listen to so much of talk about people she doesn't know!
The trip has been so busy that I have decided not to proof read/spell check my blog posts!
End of Winter Term!!
It has been a rough 2 weeks, but I am glad I am done with Winter term 2005. The last couple of weeks were intense, with project presentations, report submissions and final exams.
My study group decided to split up and tackle the strategy and marketing projects in mini groups of 3 each. I chose to work on the marketing project. Diapers isn't the most exciting product category for a marketing project, but I must say I learnt a lot during the course of the project. It has been a while (~25 years) since I have been out of a diaper, so this wasn't a product I could relate to. And nobody in my study group has kids around. We had to develop an understanding of the category from the scratch. We hit the store aisles, spoke to mothers of toddlers and did a boatload of research to get some insights on how we were going to sell diapers better. The final presentation went off well and we got a positive response from the folks whose daily job it is to market these solutions :-D
In 30 hours, I took 3 exams. Debt Markets (4 hours), Strategy (4 hours) and Corporate Finance (3 hours). Of these 3, 2 were take home exams and I chose (rather foolishly) to put off taking the exams till the last moment. Only after the exams were done with did I realize the intensity of pressure I was taking on myself.
Winter term has been good. We got some good snow but it hasn't been very cold. I had an awesome study group. We probably spent 3 hours per meeting (meeting 4 days a week) but all of us thoroughly enjoyed working together. Over the term as a study group we have accomplished tasks like choosing a Mark Jacobs bag, designing a perfect engagement ring, compared car washes between LA and NH :-D. Of course, none of this is even tangentially related to course work. But again, who said study groups exist only to complete homework and prepare for class??
Now with the exams done with, I am looking forward to Spring Break. This morning I went around Hanover with a couple of friends I used to work with pre-Tuck. We took loads of pictures of the town even as it was snowing. Then we went sledding. It is fun. I wonder why I didn't do that before. Next year, I am going to enjoy the winter much more. Hockey, skiing, sledding - EVERYTHING.
Next stop - New Delhi for a friend's wedding!
