Midterms and Diwali

Well guys.... the mid terms are finally over. Didnt go as bad as I thought they would go, but not good enough either ;)

On the night before Diwali, I was reading up for my accounting midterm. Trust me, accounting is not the perfect way to begin your diwali ;)

On Friday, second yrs had arranged for a diwali celebration. It was a really nice way to relax after the midterms. They had the aarti playin in the backgrnd (downloaded from the net :) ), did some pooja, had amazin Indian food ordered (tons n tons of it) and then started off with alcohol and cards(which is a must on diwali night :D )

I tried my hands at playin cards, but was not that lucky. Decided to back out before I lost all my money in there ;)

Monday, I have my mock interviews as well as a case study discussion on banking. Need to prepare for it as actual interviewers from one of the banks will be coming in to take the interview.

Pooja

The Food

Funday

Today was a really cool day at school.

We had to discuss a case about Sony Eye Toy in our marketting class, and the professor actually got a PS2 along with the eyetoy to show us what its all about. A couple of us did get to play the game on the giant screen in the class. It was really hilarious to watch these people jump/run/crouch around.... :)

ABP was equally good. Our professor was a couple of mins late. So, some of us started goofing around and started imitating certain people :) ...

Really nice way to relax around and get your mind out of the studies....

Updates

Its been a long time since I updated my blog and I apologize to all my blog readers for the delay.
Life has been really hectic these past two months. Cant believe that it has already been more than 2 months since I came over to Barcelona.

Ok, so here are how things stand. I have started with my first term of MBA. Got 5 subjects this term. Accounting, Marketing, Analysis of Business Problems, Decision Analysis and Managing people in Organization. I also have Capital markets, but that's gonna start only after mid Nov.

It was not even 2 weeks into school that I had to visit London as part of the Banking tour. There were almost 80 of us students walking around the streets of London all dressed up in our black suites. It was a sight to see :). Overall, the trip was great as we got to see a lot of banks and meet with a lot of bankers and understand this industry.

Last week, we had our career forum. For 3 days, we had representatives from 50 odd companies coming down to our campus to present themselves and talk about the openings they have for the summer internship program. It was a great although hectic schedule. Got to learn a lot of a lot of companies.

Had an ABP report to submit today. As usual, I left it till the last minute and was working like crazy on it last night. Managed to write something and submit the report on time.

Next week I have my midterms. It really is scary coz this is the first exam that I shall be taking up after 5 yrs of break. I really am not used to studying anymore :( ..
Well, wish me luck. Need to hit the books now... I promise that I shall try to be more active on my blog...

Till later....

Figueres and the twisted mind of Dali

I went over to Figueres this Monday and saw Dali's museum. Thanks a lot to Magada for taking me along.

I am really not an art lover, but somehow Dali's work was kinda very intriguing... He sure is obsessed with himself.. all his art has either him or his wife in it...

Well, I'll just let the pictures do the talking...

The Museum

"Dali-lisa!!!

Dali's Wife

Ab Lincoln

Dali's jewellery

Room in the shape of a ladies face

In Barca

Well folks... have finally arrived in Barcelona...

After an uneventful flight ( was sleeping throughout), I landed in Barcelona on the 15th of Aug. Little did I know that 15th is a holiday and almost all of Barcelona is closed.
When I say closed, I mean closed. There was nothing at all in town that was open. The whole city looked deserted.

I landed at my new apartment in Barcelona. Its a nice cozy place near the college. I will post snaps a bit later on.

So, on the 15th, I went over to IESE. The old building is really small. It looks more like a villa than a college. But it somehow looks really cute as well :)
I have heard that the new building is much better and that you get a really amazin view of the city from there. Will check that out tomorrow.

The water in Barcelona sucks... it has a weird taste, and after drinkin a glass of it (I was desperate as there was no water at home ), I had an upset stomach.
Have decided to survive on mineral water for the rest of my stay here...

Today, I went over to IESE again. I applied for my resident permit and hopefully something should materialize in the next month or two. I also opened a bank account in La Caxia (had to do it to apply for the resident permit). Then, I got myself a new cell connection. Got a free phone as a part of the deal :). Feels good to get a free phone (something that still needs to happen in India)

Tomorrow, I plan on finishing off with my IESE resident permit work, and then I shall leave for the beach... will click some snaps tomorrow and post them here..

Till then... adios

End of (S)Pain........ Time to go to Spain...

Wohoooooo... its done... finally.... I have my visa :)

Surprisingly, this last trip to Delhi was perhaps the best one. Maybe the Spanish consulate has changed the way it works or maybe its just that I'm too happy to even bother about the little pain one goes through in the consulate.... I think its the latter ;)

The day started well. Reached the consulate in the morning to let them know that I have come to collect my visa. Had to wait in the queue for an hour. The lady behind the counter knew my name... and why wouldn't she... I have made sooo many trips to the consulate ;)

Well, they just entered something in the computer and asked me to come in at 2PM to pick up the visa.

Now, from my prev exp, I had learnt that it makes no sense coming in early. So, I turned up at 2:30. And boy, was I surprised. The consulate guys were actually waiting for me. I was out of the embassy within 10 minutes.
It really felt good to make them wait for a change ;)

Anyways, kept on looking at the visa and pinching myself to make sure that I am not dreaming. I really have gotten it :)

Now, I need to start working on my TODO list... there sooo much to do and sooooo little time...
Its time to leave for Spain baby..... :)

Good News....

Just got a call from the embassy. My visa application has been cleared and I am expected to come and collect it anytime between Mon and Fri.

What a relief this news is for me... I had not cancelled on my apartment... nor had I changed my travel plans. Guess I'm leaving for Spain on 15th Aug :)

Thanks to all you guys for your wishes...

I just hope that nothing unexpected happens when I go to collect it this Wednesday :)
Keeping my fingers crossed....

(S)Pain Continues

Finally got back from the consulate at Delhi... and boy, what a disappointment it was.

I reached the embassy thinking that its all a matter of time before we get our visas and I can start planning ahead on the things that need to be done before i leave. I was so wrong.

We stood in the queue again (only for 2 hrs though) and were finally ushered into the consulate.
I was asked to wait for some more time. Couple of minutes later, I had to give an interview. After asking me the typical questions (Why MBA, Why IESE etc), I was told that I will be contacted once the final decision arrives. On enquiring the time period that they are talking about, I was told that its gonna be a min of 3 weeks. This is too close to my travel plans (was gonna be flying out on 15 Aug).

Now, all I can do is wait and pray. Have to rethink on my travel plans and probably even give up on the beautiful apartment that I had almost rented :(

Keeping my fingers crossed.

Family visits

Life has been pretty hectic this whole month. I have been travelling all over the country.

In India, we have a tradition wherein we are supposed to visit all our elders and take their blessings, before embarking on a new journey.

Therefore, before I leave for IESE, I am supposed to meet up with all my family members.
I have nothing against it and I really do love meeting up with my family, but having them scattered to the two ends of our country does not make things easy :) .
Also, I am a spoilt Bangalorean, I just can not tolerate extreme temperatures :)

Going to Delhi in the peak of Summer is something that I really was not looking forward to.
I did not have much choice here though. I had to go to Delhi to finish off with my visa formalities. Therefore, I decided to club my family visit as well.

I took a week long vacation and managed to go to Amritsar and Delhi. It was a lot of fun. Amritsar is heaven for a food addict like me. I must have put on an inch more around my waist ;)

After getting back to Bangalore, I again took a day off and drove down to visit my gandmom at Puttaparthi. Got to meet up with a couple of cousins as well.

Am again going this weekend to Hyderabad to meet up with my brother and then onwards to Delhi to (hopefully) pick up my visa.

Pointers for visa applicants

Just putting in the list of documents that I took and also some pointers to make your visa application process a bit relaxed :)

Documents to take:

• Application form - Take 3 copies (only 2 are mentioned in the site). They are really not very bothered about the photograph as long as you face can be seen clearly... so, no need to get any special thing done.
• DD
• Admission letters from IESE
• Financial proof - Bank statements, loans etc.
• Police clearence certificate
• Medical certificate - They didnt ask anything about the tests done.
• Copy of passport - All pages with info need to be there..
• Travel insurance

The following documents are required, even though they are not explicitly mentioned in the website. Most of the rejections that we faced was because of not attaching these documents:

• 10th and 12th std marks cards
• Degree certificate along with the mark statements.
• Last 3 yrs IT returns.
• Copy of PAN card

I even gave a letter from my employer stating that I have been workin with them since dd-mm-yyy and also gives the breakup of my annual salary.

Tips to make your visa wait not that bad :)

• Carry something to eat. You get nothing there and its gonna be a long wait. There is a person whoz selling water. So, thats not a problem.
• Keep something to entertain you. Books, Music player... anything that will keep you occupied and make you not curse out loud :)
• Make sure you go real early. The later the you go, the more time you take, and the more you need to stand in Delhi heat.
• Try to go with someone you know. Its always better to have someone to talk to rather than standing their like a mute pig :)
• Carry your bedsheet/matress in case you wanna relax in the middle :)

Embassy of (S)pain

It has been a long time since I wrote my last Blog. Apologies for that, but I have been still recuperating from the trip to Delhi.

I thought we were the lucky batch as we had to submit our applications at the IVS centre at Delhi and they would take care of everything else. However, I guess my luck ran out. All long term visa applicants had to go to Delhi and personally submit the document.
I had read a lot about the pain one goes through while applying for a visa at the Spanish embassy. I thought we were much better coz only the long term visa applicant were supposed to come to the embassy. I realized how wrong I was....
I reached the embassy at 8 in the morning. The embassy opens at 9 and i thought that reaching at 8 was more than enough...

I was shocked to see the number of people who had come. It was like a carnival. There were people who had got their own bed sheets and were sleeping on the pavement. apparently, they had been waiting at the embassy since midnight. I realized my mistake. I had come to the embassy on the day it had reopened after a week long holiday. So, the crowd was expected.
Well, I had no choice but to get in the line ( the very end). Luckily for me, I had a couple of IESE batchmates who were also in the same boat. So, I thought it would not be that bad.

Now, let me give some background on how the Spanish embassy works.

They have no reservation system. You can not book any appointment and you are supposed to come to the embassy during the embassy hours and just wait for your turn.
There is no token system in place either. So, you will have to wait in the queue till your number comes. In case you go out of the line, you can just pray that the person behind you is good enough to let you get back into your original place.

There are two kinds of people who come to the embassy (now that IVS takes care of the short term). One is the long term visa folks (includes students, migrants, people going on work permit etc) and the other are the people who come for enquiry. We long term folks are given the lowest priority. Hence, we are let in only after every enquiry candidate has finished.

There are a couple of security guards outside who try to maintain order (and fail miserably). There was this one guard who kept going around and counting the number of people left... and eveytime he counted... my number always remained the same :).

There was this other guard who tried to act tough. Everytime the line used to crawl a bit, he used to come and push everyone back. So, I stayed at the same position that I started from almost till the very end.

June is the wost month to visit Delhi. The heat is at its peak and is just unbearable. It was around 45 degrees average. Luckily for us, it was not very sunny. But we were still sweating like Pigs.

Finally, after 10 long hours in the line ( without any break), my number came at 6 PM.
When you go into the visa section, you realize why its taking so much time. There are only 2 window. One window is where they issue the visa at and the other window is the one where they are accepting the applications.
In other words, only one person takes the visa applications from everyone that wants to apply to Spain :o

Anyways, once I got in, it was over pretty quick. The person just scanned the documents, and asked me to come after a month for the final decision. He didn't even ask me a single question. I don't blame him though. He himself must be pretty tiered, working for 8 hrs straight.

It was such a great relief after getting out of the embassy. Even though it took 10 hrs, I'm sooo happy that I was done with it in the same day and didn't have to come the next day...

I'm sure IESE is worth all the pain that I have gone through.

Now I need to go there again on the 9th of July to get the final verdict. Lets hope that its not this painful :) .. Keeping my fingers crossed...

Visa work

Time really flies. It just seems like y'day that I got my admit.

Now, I am running around, trying to get all the documents for the visa ready.

Thankfuly, I am done with the police clearence certificate(a bloody pain).

To get a PCC, one needs to apply at the local Passport office.

Luckily at Bangalore, we have interent reservations. Therefore, all you need to do is to make a reservation, go at the scheduled time and deposit your documents. Well, it is not as simple as it seems. The passport office folks have lunch break before the internet reservation stuff starts off, and knowing how strict govt officers are when it comes to being on time, the process starts off 30 mins late. Luckily, lot of people who have booked through the internet do not turn up. So, I just need to wait for an hour before my name is called.

Just when I was about to hand over my documents to the guy sitting across the counter, tea break happens. And there is no way that these guys would work while on a break. So, I have to sit again for 10 mins, while they are sipping away in front of me and gossiping arnd with their colleagues.

After a further 10 min delay, I finally get to hand over the documents. Its pretty fast after that. My documents go through 3 windows (scanned at every stage), and finally at the 3rd window, i pay up the fees. Phew... thought that I was done with it,

I was told to collect it the next day. I was under the impression that it would be like the internet booking system again, and that I would need to come at a particular time and collect my passport. Well, wrong again... I had to come at 4 and wait for my name to be called (and in case I was not around, I had to wait till the very end).

This time I was prepared. I came in at 5. It was the right thing to do, coz they started at 5. I had to wait for another 1 hour before my name was called. Finally at 6, I left with the documents in my hand.... What a relief :)

Now, I need to get my bank papers in order and also get a medical certificate. To top it up, I came to know that visa applications now have to be made at the embassy directly. Have heard a lot about the pain one goes through to get the visa sorted out. Looks like, I will have to go through it myself :(

Am flying to Delhi on the 1st of June to apply for the visa. Will let you guys know how things go :) .... Keeping my fingers crossed

Wii

iMy flatmate just got back from US. Apart from the alcohol (which he had to get :) ), he also got us Wii...

For people who do not know about Wii (like me), it is a new gaming console from Nintendo. It has motion detectors, so it actually feels as if you are playing the game.

See http://wii.nintendo.com/ for more details.

This thing really rocks. You just strap on the remote and hold it in your hand. When the game starts (for e.g. tennis), you just move your hands as if you are actually playing the game in real life. The motion detector sences your movements and the same movement happens on the TV screen. It absolutely fantastic :)

There are also a lot of advantages of Wii. The obvious one is the experience that one has while playing the games. Its almost as good as real life.

Another one is the physical exercise that one gets. Hard to believe, but its true. You actually have to move around to play the game. So, its as good as playing it in real life. A friend of mine and I were playing Boxing. By the time we finished, both of us were sweating like crazy.

Wii also supports flash player. So, if you are an flash geek, you can make your own games and deploy it on Wii.

One thing that I found was lacking was the graphic experience. I admit that the graphics are really cool, but it does not have the same experience like PS2 or X-Box. Also, I think that the variety of games for Wii still needs to be worked upon.

Also, it just detects your hand movements. So, although it feels as if you are really playing, it still is not complete.

On the whole, this is one heck of a gaming tool and it has taken gaming to the next level. I would strongly recommend it to everyone.

I just cant wait for the day when we have gaming tools with body sensors for real life gaming experience.

Listen to your stomach

The last couple of days were some of the most miserable days of my life.

 

It all started on Friday. We had an impromptu party at work. What do I order??? Domino's Cheese Burst Pizza's. These cheesy things we so full of cheese ( and so very tasty too), that I just ended up stuffing myself on them.

 

On Saturday, a friend of mine had come down from Singapore. There were a lot of treats due and a lot of treats to be taken. So, we ended up eating out on Sat nite, Sun afternoon and Sun nite.

 

By monday, I already started feeling miserable. My stomach gave a threatening growl every time I even thought about food.

But knowing me, I just couldn't resist the temptation of free food.

 

On Monday, we had a company party at Sahib Sindh Sultan. It is one of those classy expensive restaurants, and I surely couldn't miss out on the opportunity to hog there. Even though I was warned by my stomach, I paid no heed to it and just gorged on the food.

 

That's it... by the middle of the meal, everyone could hear my stomach growling.

By the time I got back to office, I was in no state to stay here. I immediately packed my bags and got out of work. By the time I reached home, it just gave up on me. Had to rush to the bathroom :(

 

To top it up, I got fever (guess my stomach really was taking revenge).

The whole night I kept on going to the loo, every two hours. It was the worst night of my life.

 

It didn't stop the next day. I decided that it was about time that I took control. I went to a hospital and got myself checked up. Was dreading it to be some serious kind of diarrhea and hoped not to get admitted. The doctor looked at me as if I am some kinda idiot who doesn't even know the basic medicines to take for a stomach upset. He just prescribed me the standard drugs one has to take and that's it. Guess he took pity on my condition and didn't charge me the consultation fees. As I left his office, I could see him shaking his head. I can imagine what he must be thinking :)

 

Well, the drugs worked and I am back to normal today :). However, my diets controlled now ( at least for a week). Can't have anything except curd rice at work (yuck).

 

Today, we had amazing Parathans and Egg curry for lunch. This is one combination that is rare to find at office and I was tempted to have it...and then my stomach growled...

Hyderabad

Thanks to Republic day falling on Fri, we had a 3 day long weekend.
Long weekend usually ends up on roadtrips, and this was no different.

Anshul, Gagneet and myself decided to do one of the longest trip that we had ever done, and decided to drive down to Hyderabad.

We got up real early and managed to get out of home by 4 in the morning. After we had crossed Bangalore, we realized that none of us had a camera.. so, sorry folks.. I do not have any pics of the road trip part of the journey.

It was a 10 hr long journey, with breaks ofcourse :).
We had converted the back seat into a bed. So, kinda took frequent naps. Luckily for me, Gagneet could also drive, and Anshul did not mind sitting in the front seat while he was driving :P

After a tyre puncture and crappy trafffic at Gooty, we managed to reach Hyd by around 3 in the afternoon. We were all dead tiered and just wanted to crash.
Had mom's amazin food and then crashed for the day.

Gags njoyin his evening Siesta

The next day was our site seeing day :). We started early afternoon and first went to the Salarjung mueseum.

They are currently displaying the Nizams jewelley selection there. It was my second time there, but still, it just amazed me to see that kind of jewellery this dude had. He used to use diamonds as paperweight :O

Just glanced through the rest of the museum and then decided to go to Golconda fort.


This is where the Nizam used to hide in case of any war etc. As soon as we entered the fort, we had a couple of people asking us to take them as guides. Each one had his own price (started from 500 and came to as low as 150), but we decided to be adventorous (and kinda miserly ;)) and made up our own story about the fort.

There were a couple of things worth mentioning. They have this echo point as soon as u enter. On clapping here, the echo can be heard right upto the top of the fort. This was used as a communication means in those days.

The view of Hyd from top of the fort was amazing. I have been to the fort a couple of times before, but this was the first time that I actually climbed upto the top. The climb sure was worth it.

Me, Gags, Mad and Rinki on top of the fort


After the fort, we headed onto Dhola-re-Dhani. This is a Rajasthani theme village on the outskirts of the city.
I have been here n-number of times before... just love the food served here :).

This place had minor changes from the last time I had been. First, they had this weird theme park. Had all sorts of weird statues put up there. Look at the pic below and u'll understand :D


Also tried out my hand on hookah. It looks like ur smoking... but it just doesnt feel like it. Doesnt hurt your throat one bit :)

The food there was amazin as usual. Had lots of malpoa and bajre ki khicadi along with daal baati. I love Rajasthani food.

Came back home and crashed. The next day was our journey back. Another 10 hrs of driving. By the time we reached blore, we were all dead.

I have decided never ever to drive down to Hyd again... it just too freakin far :)

Updates

Its been a long time since I last blogged. A lot has happened since then and I am going to summarize them in a couple of points

 

1. Got real sick of coding and finally decided to be serious about my MBA. Finished my GMAT. Did pretty well... scored 770/5.0
2. Confidence was at peak height... thought that I could get into any college... hence, didn't concentrate too much on the essays..
   Result: Didn't make it through the ivy institutes.
   Lessons Learnt: Never be overconfident :)
3. Got an admit for one of my dream schools (didn't do bad after all :)). I Will be going to Spain this summer for my 2 yr MBA stint at IESE (and I promise to be a more frequent Blogger from now on).
4. Have finally started using the gym again. Need to be in shape before I reach Spain ;). Lets see how long my gymming lasts (The last time I tried, I went continuously for 2 weeks. Plan to break that record now :D).
5. Made a road trip to Hyderabad (more details in the next blog)