Economics and Analysis - an attempt to master a rare art :-)

Today, after waking up at noon, when I finally got ready and came to school, it was time to perform an online simulation set up by Gayle, for us to analyze and understand economics of an unknown country. This also helped me to do my part of the economics group work. Moreover, it helped me to develop an economics analysis without any bias for the country, as the name of this country was not known.

I would say the anonymity in the whole exercise was the best part of the simulation I did today and it is going to be a major milestone for me, as I pursue this course of country economic analysis, to master a rare art of analyzing national accounts statistics for any country, to benefit me in future :-)

By the way, today being the last day of Movember, I exported a collage from my Mo Tracker, a collection of photos that I have been uploading daily to the Mo Tracker. It is a good way to look back at the last month and have a moment to myself remembering all those crazy moments that I had due to my Mo. For all those who are curious to know about this, here is the picture :)

 

Social Responsibilty Mania :-)

Well, when most part of our school day is occupied by the Business Government Society class discussing BP and then Patagonia, about the social responsibility initiatives at BP, and about the values and mission at Patagonia, that help it be a leader in environmental friendly products and initiatives, then you know that your day has been marked by this theme :-)

And why would it not be so, because soon after the last class, we set up a Movember Charity Sales Shop in Launch-pad, to sell things that many from our class had donated, proceeds of which would all be donated to our Movember team.

I spent all three hours in the shop, and by the time we wrapped it, we had collected 390 EUR :-)
Feeling great about the whole thing, and it was good to see people donating from 1 EUR to 50 EUR for the cause, as we called upon them to donate, when they were passing by :-)
An activity to demonstrate our commitment and commitment of many others, towards the society and social causes :-)

Of course, this mood is about to change soon, as I am now heading to a party that is thrown by one of my classmates, and then its the IE India Night - So, time to change the socially-responsible face and put up a party face :-D

Have a great weekend all :-)

Nostalgia continues :-)

Today, in Supply Chain Management, it was the case of UBS at the time when financial crisis began. It discussed how the things were at UBS before, what it meant in time of crisis, and what were the measures that UBS management planned to bring the costs under control.

While reading the case, and while the discussion was on, I couldn't help picturing myself in the UBS Tokyo office, at Otemachi First Square building, enjoying the perks that were mentioned in the case; experiencing the different conditions that the case talked of; and having fun. Those were the "Good Times" :-)

To add to the nostalgia, I had already dressed up in one of the UBS t-shirts today, that I got during the community service activities that I was part of. Of course, when you have worked for an organization for five long years, even though it is in the role of vendor consultant for Infosys, it is hard, not to have a nostalgia, when everyone around you is talking of the good-old-days !!

My economics "dream team" got together today to discuss the group work due next week, and after going through the case and the questions and all the numbers, we knew we need to do some real work for this assignment. Good thing is, once we are done, we would be able to analyze economy of any country, once we know the numbers for past few years :-)

Fortune down Under and the Quest for it :-)

Today, in Business Government and Society, we had two cases - one of Chevron trying to establish its foothold in Europe for shale gas exploration, other of China and its recent stance on the Rare Earth Elements [REE] and position of many industries and nations with regards to this stance.

Another double session of an interesting discussion on intricacies of business strategies, governments, social factors, monetary risks and benefits, leverages, possibilities and future outlook on this two important contemporary discussions in the current international politics and business worlds.

Both cases were written by Jeff himself and they were indeed very well written - I liked the REE case for the sheer readability of it, and the flow of topics arranged within this case; and the Chevron case for the amount of data made available for different countries in Europe and the US in a single place. Not to mention, both cases are about something, which is still a burning issue out door - two very current cases :-)

Had a long siesta in the evening, and now gearing up to work on Corporate Finance assignment, to prepare myself for tomorrow.

By the way, Movember is almost about to conclude - so, if you have not donated yet - here is the link for you:
http://es.movember.com/en/mospace/6944853

When Nostalgia meets Analysis :-)

Today, we had the case on Japan's economy in Country Economic Analysis. While going through the case, which described the journey of Japan in last century until now, and the various reforms - political, social, economic that took place in this country of rising sun; my mind often wavered to the memories of those good-old-days I have spent in Tokyo - the three years that I enjoyed so much; and all the gifts &boons - direct and indirect that this country has conferred on me.

So, I was curious to see how Patricia takes the discussion on Japan forward. As I had commented earlier, she is a believer of things - and through today's discussion, although we discussed what went wrong in Japan and how that caused an impact; and while we saw the plight of a common Japanese family due to these economic changes through eyes of Kurosawa-sensei's movie "Tokyo Sonata"; towards teh end, Patricia also offered the ways out of this current situation.

What can be done in Japan, and what will work to bring it out of the current economic crisis successfully, what can help to increase its working population, and so on - were the points we discussed to conclude today's session.

After the class, I took a toll of things that are now lined up in front of me [and my classmates], as this term is in its final phase. Here's a list for my own reference in coming days, and for information of all of you:
28th Nov: Corporate Finance Group Case submission
29th Nov: Supply Chain Management Final Report submission
2nd Dec: Talent Management Final Exam
3rd Dec: Country Economics Group Case Analysis Submission
4th Dec: Negotiations Final Exam
5th Dec: Business Government & Society Final Exam
8th Dec: Marketing Strategy final report submission
10th Dec: Marketing Strategy presentation
10th Dec: Country Economics final Exam
and then, after a break for one week, we will have the Business Government and Society final presentation on 18th Dec and Corporate Finance final exam on 19th Dec.

To sum it all up, its time to step up, its time to stock the red-bulls and burns and other energy drinks, its time to use the most hours that we can from 24 hours of the day, its time to get set for the steepest and final part of the roller coaster ride that is term three :-)

Can't please them all :-)

Today, we had a negotiation case with multiple parties and their own stakes involved; and then with random assignment, people were chosen to play their parts.

It was fun to see how people could be adamant, how they can use their influence, how the positions and stakes involved can make people change their behavior and their positions.

Also, learned an important lesson - it is good to have everyone on-board when starting a new project - but even if you don't have them all, as long as you have enough number to fulfill all your criteria and realize all your stakes from the deal, there is no harm in moving ahead. You cannot please them all, after all !!

Interesting class today, I would say :-)

Spent some time in afternoon bidding for second round of electives and then after reading the cases for tomorrow, went home early - as I had to do some shopping at the grocery store on my way :-)

Hibernation :-)

It's getting colder outside. And that was enough of a reason for me to do nothing today. When I say nothing, I mean nothing apart from some quick cooking and eating - all the other time, I was in my bed, lying down and watching movies online, browsing net and sleeping - mostly sleeping, if you ask me :-)

So, with winter beginning, today was the day I hibernated a little :-)

Cats, Food, Whip or the Bottomline !!

Well, my day was spent today attending various panels of the Social Responsibility forum that started yesterday.

I was fortunate to listen to views and opinions of many esteemed guest speakers that had flown in from all parts of the world.

The flow of topics was also interesting for me, as it started with discussion on whether Corporate Social Responsibilty is just a mandatory expense or can it be a value add to the shareholders, followed by a session on green energy and the energy landscape in Latin America thus giving us practical insights on what various industry leaders in this arena are strategically doing to make their mark and at the America time help to make this world a better place and the final session I had chosen was on means to have a future with sustainable waste management.

Overall a complete life cycle of the product from strategy, design, implementation, business cycle, disposal and it's after effects - I think it was an interesting day today.

And a key take away from today was a question, and I am going to use some words by one of the speakers when he said that Instagram today mostly has photos of cats and food - to extend into a rhetoric : What is it that I can do as a manager, as a human being and as a member of this world to ensure that sustainability is not targeted just for publishing the photos of cats and food (Attention, Credit, Cuddling, Reputation) or for the fear of the Whip (Regulations), but is also done to improve the bottom line, and to create value for the shareholders and the society as a whole? 

IE Social responsibility forum

Today, we had a day off although it turned out to be a longer day - not that I am complaining, but just saying. 

In morning, our group finally agreed to proceed with the SCM simulation exercise, after a lot of brainstorming for almost 10 hours in past few days. We started at 10 AM and continued to work on the simulation until 3 PM for four years of SCM planning and execution. Got a decent result at the end.

And then, it was time for the 8th IE Social Responsilbility Forum. It started at 3:30 PM at Ciaxa Forum exhibition hall in Central Madrid.

Keynote speaker opening the ceremony was the CSR chief at Loreal, who told us about Loreal's Vision 2020 and then there was an excellent panel discussion about ' Social means Business'. 

After a short break, event resumed with individual panel discussion kicking off. I had opted for the Education panel and the discussion was really good. We had Prof Gomez who talked about his experiences of how education can enable sustainable businesses helping society, we had founder of 8 belts - the Entrepreneur of the year in Spain for this year, we had two people from an organization teaching underprivileged students, and we had a lady from an NGO in Sweden that teaches Math to anyone who needs to learn for "free".

All in all, a great panel and I got to hear many new innovative ideas that these people are practising or have already implemented.

Day concluded with a cocktail at the Hub Madrid - yepp, the same place where my team won the IE impact weekend at beginning of my MBA :)

And now, even while I am writing this post,  I am thinking if I can go out tonight and have some fun :)

Secret to the Secret Formula :-)

Well, finally after we had our learning curve and experiences with marketing strategy simulation, which really tested us on how we apply various attributed of marketing strategy, in terms of segmentation, targeting, positioning, and in terms of marketing mix, along with customer satisfaction, market share and profit considerations, and after we have already sent our reflection report to Erik yesterday, today was the day - the day when the secret to successful simulation was revealed.

What we did, what we could have done, what would give best results and score - who did better and who made money - who possibly colluded in their attempts and who did bad - all the secrets were revealed today - in the one session of 80 minutes.

It was the day when we tried to listen and read and try to get the secret to the secret formula of simulation :-)

Met with Alvaro and Manan today to discuss our further stages of fellowship work and analyze the work we had put together last week.

Tomorrow is the Social Responsibility Forum which begins only in afternoon, so expecting a relaxed morning tomorrow :-)

Multinationals and their impacts

In the talent management class this morning, prof Monika opened the floor for discussion on compensation policies of Costco vis-a-vis Wallmart - to send the message that higher employee salaries and employee benefits can yield better results in stock market and in market share.

After spending a good hour and a half on what wallmart is doing and what Costco is doing, it was time for BGS class with Jeff.

In this class, we discussed the reaction of Chiquita - one of the prominent players in Banana market - to changing markets and policies; what went wrong and what could have been done better. And then, it was the Pharma companies with their lobbying for intellectual property rights protection back in the 90's and how the changing political and health issues landscape made them change their stance eventually.

It was an interesting day where we discussed four different companies, and how their policies and lobbying and positions on certain issues and aspects, made an impact in lives of general population, and what could have been done better.

Analyzing Life :-)

Well, morning started with a double session of Supply Chain Management by Daniel. After spending some time in explaining us the SCM simulation, he began teaching the various inventory management models. It was a more of a lecture style class today, although the examples he gave to explain these models were all day-to-day life examples - from queues at amusement parks to airline check-in to planning a birthday party for kids to buying chocolates.

It was like we were presented with models for analyzing the simple events happenings in our daily life.

By the way, he did give us a quote today, "All models are wrong. But some of them just prove to be useful".

A statement made by some statistician to explain how no matter how much we try, there is always some variable that we assume or miss or ignore, making every model incomplete in a theoretical sense.

And then, it was the country economics class by Gonzalo with a case on India. While reading the case last night, I found myself really efficient, as most of what was written was known to me anyways.

Today, it was time for noting and analyzing some of the events in history of India that shaped its economy. It was like I was looking back at my own life and life of my fellow countrymen with an additional lens of economics.

At the end of it, Gonzalo also nicely explained why countries like India had the import substitution policy up until early 90's.

The whole economic sense that this explanation provided was an interesting thing to learn.

Had a real long group meeting today to work on SCM simulation, and now that we finally decided to take a break, I thought of quickly putting up this post for today.

Considering all the readings for tomorrow, looks like I have got a long night ahead of me :-)

Compensation, Benefits, Negotiations :-)

Today was the day when the negotiations and talks for compensation and benefits ruled.

In the morning, Prof Monika discussed the HP case for Pay-for-performance experiments by HP and then there was a double session of negotiations where-in we role-played a negotiation for benefits for person who has recently received a job offer and is discussing her salary, perks and other benefits.

Later in the day, I did some work for my fellowship project, so be ready for my meeting on Wednesday and then read cases for tomorrow. Tomorrow, it is going to be a case on India in the country economic analysis, so looking forward to it :-)

Reflection time :-)

Well, we have had three attempts at our marketing strategy simulation, each of which was around 12 quarters of strategic and tactical decision making. Now that we are done with it, we also need to submit a report reflecting on what we did, why we did it, and what did we learn from the overall exercise.

So, even while there are a couple of days before this report is actually due, I sat down today to reflect on my learning and my experience during the three rounds of simulation.

Also did the readings for tomorrow and some work for my fellowship project.

As the weather outside is chilled and there is a sprinkling rain on top of it, I am happy that I spent this day indoors, doing some reflection :-)

Visiting some History :-)

Well, today me and a group of other people from my class, we gathered around Plaza de Espana, and did some sightseeing around the Egyptian temple, the Royal Palace and the Plaza Espana itself. Then, we had an amazing lunch on top floor of Corte Ingles on Gran Via - truly a gourmet experience, with a great view of the surrounding.

Knowing these various historical monuments was an additional bonus :-)

Came home to relax for some time, had my dinner and then I am now in school to make up for all the work that I have not done in past two days that were off.

Tomorrow being Sunday, I think I will stay in MM31 for some time, and get done with most of the work I am supposed to do :-)

Induglence :-)

Well, I had already decided to not do any work today. Thanks to the crazy party at Ani's last night, that went on until 3 AM, I had a good reason to be in my bed till noon :-)

And then, I started the day by having a nice brunch at Zumuz, after which I spent some time browsing some pictures and videos that I had taken in the past and doing web surfing for nothing.

Later I wrote a post for "When Pictures talk" blog [http://when-pictures-talk-to-parsooram.blogspot.com.es/2013/11/immortals.html] and in the afternoon, spent some time relaxing and watching movies online :-)

One corner of my mind kept knocking, that may be I should have registered for the Alumni forum that is going on today [thanks to which, we have a day off]; but then I have also registered for the social responsibility forum over next weekend and traded-off this weekend for rest. After enjoying a relaxed day indulging in doing things that I love, there is no more knocking that I hear ;-)

Meanwhile, and I have to mention this, today, the GOD of Cricket, Sachin Tendulkar, played his last innings for International Cricket.

Having grown up watching him play since my childhood, Cricket without him doesn't sound real.

I think, this compilation by Google to thank him, says it all:

 

When Institutions can't adapt to changes

In the Economics class today, Gayle made a really good point [among many others]. Even after European Union was formed and Euro was accepted as a common currency, countries and their government as institutions running them, continued to behave in the same way as they behaved when the currencies were separate. Germany continued with the same policies as it had when there was a rising Mark, and Spain continued with same policies as it had when there was a falling Peseta.

Net Result, movement of these nations towards the extreme ends of being the "Spenders" or the "Savers" accelerated rapidly and that is one of the main causes of the state that Spain or Greece are currently in.

Today the class was about economic analysis of Spain, and the way Gayle plays around with numbers, interpreting them and making economic sense out of them, is simply astounding !!

I enjoyed today's class even better than the one for U.S. as there were so many perspectives, on Spain, Euro, European Union, US, etc involved and I am happy that I learned a lot of new insights today.

Worked with my group for some time and had a siesta for some time in the evening. It's a day off tomorrow, thanks to the IE Alumni forum scheduled here at IE.

Already got done with third and final round of Marketing simulation and got a decent score for it. All-in-all, I am all set for a good restful day tomorrow.

Yippee !!

Wanted: Rest !! Rest !! Rest !!

After spending some time reading even after coming back from group dinner last night, and thanks to an early telephone call I needed to attend this morning, I didn't really sleep very well last night.

The result was too evident in the classes today - I could get myself to participate much in the two hour BGS class.

While I am now habituated with less sleep during weekdays, today I was also feeling a little feverish, thanks to the changing weather in Madrid everyday - one day very cold and windy, other day very hot !!

Anyways, to tell you all the truth, today I was just physically present in the classroom and could not focus much on the learning or participation part of it.

After school, I decided to complete all the readings in the afternoon for tomorrow, so that I can go home early and sleep more tonight.

Right now, as I am writing this post, all I want is to rest !!

Bringing the cannibals in family :)

When you are a firm which specializes in a certain product and boast of providing a value, but when the value you provide has a risk of being secondary to something that is slowly becoming a trend of future; when you see that competition is coming up with a product and a marketing budget which can potentially eat your market; can you step up and broaden your installed base, launch an innovative product and ensure your presence in the upcoming tech?

Well, do the numbers and you will know. Today's marketing strategy case was focused on qualitative and a bit more quantitative analysis of various strategic options, given the budget constraints we have and determining the right or the most profitable strategy. And if the strategy to launch new products yourself even though it cannibalises your existing market to some extent is the most profitable option, we should go for it.

In words of Erik, if there are going to be cannibals out there, they better be part of our family :)

Carlos today discussed about how the expected value we get for NPV can be divided into periods of monopoly or competition or can be run through various worst, best and most likely scenarios sensitivity analysis, to determine whether the project is really worth investing in or worth re-investing in.

He also held an extra session for those who are struggling with modeling this afternoon for almost three hours. although I had another work of higher priority, I heard that this session was really good. Feeling a little sad that I missed it. 

Anyways, there is a reason to cheer though. My group this term is going out for Italian dinner tonight, so it is going to be a good night :)

Managing Creative People

Today's Talent Management class was about how to manage creative people and this aspect was discussed with respect to case of a small firm with 24 employees working in creating IT product solutions.

Owing to my previous background in IT, this case was an interesting one for me. There were arguments and counter-arguments involved yet, a TedX talk video that Monika showed in class supported the [my :-)] argument that a small team of creative people should better be left without pressure of performance and bonus earnings and relative compensations :-)

Good discussion in the class today. Need to work on Corporate finance preparation for tomorrow and then tonight, I will read the marketing case for tomorrow.

And yes, as for Movember, its work in progress :-)
Here is the link for my Mo Space again :-)

http://es.movember.com/en/mospace/6944853

Time to work :-)

Ok, there was enough partying last two days and today I had to get back to work and finish tasks for multiple classes and for my fellowship work.

So, today was the day spent in MM31, completing the second round of Marketing Simulation, creating a model for Corporate Finance, reading cases for tomorrow, some group work, some fellowship work, and some blogging :-)

Having a good time ...

Well, the Colombian party last night started at 11:30 officially, I reached there at 12:!5 AM, and most of the people from our class reached by 1 AM. What followed was a crazy party which went on until 5:30 AM.

So, after this party, and after resting for some time, when I woke up, it was almost time to be in MM31. A few of us plan to start with case interview preparation and today was day one for this initiative. I rushed to school, and after this meeting and another short meeting with Manan to review our fellowship work, I went out with a few people from my class, for a walk around Sol. We ended up in Mercado San Miguel, had amazing food and wine there and then headed for a Cuban restaurant. Although we finished there at aroun 11 PM, we came to know that they have a live band from mid-night onwards for an hour. So, we stayed back and then enjoyed some amazing Cuban music with everyone singing and dancing and cheering. The whole place was full of positive vibe and energy.

I had a good time today :-)

Using Businesses to control International Politics :)

So, the question for the day: why is EU forcing its ETS for carbon print control on all airlines and not just European airlines. Simple answer: Because whether these airlines accept the ETS or decide to follow an alternative that their countries would develop, they will essentially cause their countries to comply to Kyoto protocol :)

It was an insightful discussion today about how international trade can influence international politics.

Had a long siesta after school firstly because I was not feeling very well during the day and secondly because I am going to the Colombian party tonight - courtesy Martin :)

Enjoy your weekend readers :D

Step up time :-)

Today's Country Economics Class was by Prof. Gayle, was actually about analysis of economics. Starting with a sheet with ten years data of GDP, Unemployment, debt, etc economics metrics, we discussed many theoretical concepts and saw them at work for analysis of U.S. economy, we figured out what was done differently from theory and why and also how it affected the economy in future years.
We got insights about the balance between the "Savers" and "Spenders" as nations in the global economy and importance of role changing in this context. And then, when it all came together, we could understand how U.S. currency changing or not changing makes so much impact on global economy and also why countries like Greece went into downward spiral and are struggling to move upwards. Amazing class of Country Economics Analysis today.

And yes, now that we have almost gotten the WISP paper completed, today I met with Prof Alvaro and Manan to discuss the plan ahead. In the hour long meeting this evening, we chalked out a lot of details, regarding the plan of action and the milestones going forward.

Tonight, I also got together with Sophie, Hanna and Carla and we cooked some Indian food at Sophie's place. it was a fun evening today.

Waiting for Friday to get over now, as thanks to all the work this week and also the cold and running nose that I have got for past two days, I just want to have some rest.

And to sum it all up for today, it was a day when the economics class and my fellowship work led to a step up :)

Negotiations Time :-)

Today, after we spent the morning for group work, we had a double session of negotiations, with two professors teaching the course. Yepp - double the session, double the professors, double the learning and double the penalty if we miss this one :-D

After going through the theory of it for first one hour, we started practicing some negotiation exercises from simple ones like splitting a cake to a relatively complex one with no information exchange and price as a target object for negotiation. It was fun :-)

Got a lot of readings to do and a one-pager to write for country economics class tomorrow - so, will spend this evening doing the same. Until tomorrow, good bye :-)

Towards a better future :-)

Well, in the Talent Management class this morning, our group made a presentation regarding talent development practices - the history, current state and futuristic trends involved for the first 10 minutes. Following this began discussion of 3M case for best practices in talent development.

Overall, various practices adopted by 3M and how they are helping this company develop leaders of tomorrow in a more effective way, was the core of discussion today. After walking through the history of talent development practices by our team, we were discussing models and frameworks that can create a better talent development practice for any company. We were discussing a better future prospect.

And then, in the corporate finance class, the discussion was centered around determining the fixed assets in our model correctly, so that our forecasts are more accurate, so that our future outlook is more accurate. Again a tint of better future in this approach, by adopting right techniques and tricks.

Finally, the Country Economic Analysis class of today was about Euro - how it was conceptualized and why, what have been the challenges so far and how can these challenges be overcome to have a better future for European Union and its members. This was the first class we took with Prof Patricia and she handled the entire class discussion in a very structured manner. She will be back for discussing Japan and Sweden economies, but from today's class, I could sense that she is a firm believer in normative aspects of economy that can be achieved in the long run and this reflected in her opinions, which she expressed a couple of times, and her overall outlook about a better future for European Union. Of course, that's just me saying :-)

the beaten path in woods ..

Well, the Diwali party last night went on until 3 AM, and I slept only at 3:25 AM. As you can imagine, not an ideal sleeping time when the next day is Monday morning.

Yet, thankfully, I could get myself out of the bed and in school on time. Marketing Strategy class today was revision or overview session, discussing the concepts and cases we have seen so far, and tying it all together. We also learned a couple of new frameworks to look at marketing strategy and role of marketing within the organization as such.

What was interesting was that Erik started this class by a quote by Emerson, which basically says if you have something better to offer as a product, then even if you go and stay in the woods, people will make a beaten path to your doors.

And then, we could see how this is a thing of past, as all three cases we discussed so far, were of companies that came up with innovative and better products - but without a proper marketing strategy, they were handicapped anyways.

Erik also introduced the third leg of strategic advantage of customer intimacy - apart from cost and differentiation advantage. My mind got curious about this though, that why is it not taught or even mentioned as part of our Strategy class though and I did speak my mind in class, although I think the question didn't come out exactly as it should. I did get my answer though in form of "which is why it is taught in this course" which kinda stresses the importance of this element.

In BGS class, although I had skimmed through the case yesterday, thanks to the fatigue from last night, I didn't participate much today. The class was interesting though - about how politicians can use companies, specially those carrying a nationality with them, for their advantage, and how can such situations be handled.

the IA-IA-IA framework which was introduced in last class proved useful to understand this case better as well. Jeff also announced that we can now decide about our group projects - this project I think is going to be an interesting one - as we need to apply a theoretical framework and provide solution to some issue, which so far we have been just ignoring to think beyond a daily news about some company or some country.

There was also a session by Career Strategy, where a lady psychiatrist provided us some insights on body language, personalities and tempers of people.

Had a real long siesta in the afternoon to make up for last night's sleep and am back into action now to do the readings for tomorrow :-)

Chores time :)

Well, I had my fun with the sightseeing on Friday and doing nothing on Saturday, so today was the day to transform back into reality.

Today was the chores time. Spent the morning in cleaning, laundry and washing dishes, followed by a lunch with a friend and then got to the study chores a.k.a. Readings for tomorrow :)

There is Indian Diwali party at Akshay's place at 8 pm tonight, which is why today's post is early. Besides there is not much to say anyways :P

Happy Diwali :-)

Happy Diwali to all my readers. The biggest festival that is celebrated in India has one of its important days today, and at many places today is also the "official" start of Diwali.
I say this because, we have a couple of days prior to today as part of Diwali as well - It begins with "Vasu Baaras" - the day dedicated to Cows and Cattle, for expressing our gratitude towards them; second day is "Dhan Trayodashi" which signifies the importance of Health in our life and is dedicated to Dhanvantri - one of the ancient scholar and expert of Ayurveda - the Indian traditional medicine; the third day which is today, is the one which is celebrated all over India - it is "Narak Chaturdashi" - the day when evil demon Narakaasur was defeated as per Indian scriptures.
Tomorrow is the day of "Laxmi Poojan" when everyone worships the goddess of prosperity - Laxmi, followed by "Bali Pratipada" - the beginning of Hindu New Year and "Bhau beej / Bhai Dooj" the day when brothers and sisters express their love for each other by exchanging gifts.

While, I am here sitting and commenting on the whole structure of Diwali festival, I am also missing it all, with an only exception of the Diwali Party arranged by Akshay and his flatmates tomorrow. And to top it all, it is also my niece's birthday today.
So, a lot of things happening back home, and I am here doing my M.B.A. !!

There are always a few moments in life which make you home-sick. May be that is also a reason, why I didn't feel like doing anything today - apart from talking at home, and exchanging Happy Diwali messages on facebook and on whatsapp, and editing some photos of the trip that I took yesterday, there isn't much which I can claim that I did today :-)

Life is full of trade-offs and this is one of it. Anyways, today being an auspicious day, let me wish you all a happy Diwali and a prosperous year ahead !!

It's time to Mo !!

Decided to do some sightseeing today around Madrid and thanks to the list of one day trip destinations that Cian and Lisa had given me last week, I knew exactly where I am going. Avila and Segovia - was my plan for today. Got up early and even while I was rushing to get ready and start early, suddenly I realised that I don't have to shave today. It is first day of November and hence it's time to start with the Movember. It's time to Mo :)

Had a long day today with lot of walking around Avila and Segovia. Took some good pictures which I will post on my FB soon.

As for the Movember, request all my readers to do visit my Movember profile below:

es.movember.com/en/mospace/6944853

Help to spread the word, and help with donations. It's Mo time :)