Happy Indian Independence Day to all !!

Indian Independence Day - a day which always gets everyone thinking - Are we as a nation doing things right? Are we as citizens of this Nation doing our part? And many more.

Every year, when I start thinking about these, there is generally a blog post that I publish. This year, one of friends did a decent job of penning down the right questions in his blog and had it published in Hong Kong time, even before I woke up here in India. So, I just shared his post on my FB :-)

Got myself a wi-fi router and configured it at home, so that I could get back to the world of Whats-App and now I suddenly feel connected to the rest of this world :-)

Meanwhile, considering my health, and also the fact that I haven't done anything while in India apart from taking rest, I had to decline participation in Singapore Trek, so that I can take care of all personal errands that I need to, while in India.

Went through all the emails in my IE inbox to decide priority of tasks to be done during the vacation, which is almost half over now :-)

Anyways, while I am watching all those patriotic movies on the tv tonight, here's wishing you all a very happy Indian independence day :-)

Recovery time :-)

Well, while the IE India Trek continues in Delhi today, I was back home late night and as soon as I got up, went straight away to our family doctor to get a cure on my sore throat. Had a decent rest today and am feeling way much better today. Looks like after more than a week of illness, recovery is finally underway.

Soon, I would have to work on my fellowship project. Hopefully, I would be starting tomorrow :-)

Good times just got better !!

Britannia - a familiar name in every Indian Household with its range of products - biscuits, cereals, cakes, and so many more.

Today the India trek started with Britannia. The Regional HR head of Britannia attended a meeting with the IE group of candidates. After a presentation about IE, She gave a small presentation about Britannia - its product lines, its market mix, its plant locations, its org structure and so much more information. To me, it was as good as some presentation in one of our Strategy classes.
"To be in every Indian house, everyday" - was listed as one of the Strategic objectives of Britannia; and my mind began to think - don't we almost have the products these guyz are selling in our house everyday. Wow !! No internationalization apart from Dubai and no current plans for it. Luis, our strategy professor, would be happy, I thought :-)

Next up was Mahindra. We went to the Mahindra Tower, the corporate headquarters of Mahindra. The person we were scheduled to meet had to unfortunately go out on an urgent errand. So, we met his sub-ordinate. While there was a fair idea given to her by Vivek, in his email, she seemed a little clueless, and we told her the purpose of our visit again. This meeting was a short one, where she directly told us about the recruiting process of Mahindra "assuming" that we are there to explore this information and there wasn't much time for a presentation about IE as well :-)

Anyways, we did take IE flagship to this company, so for that matter, the prupose of our trek is successful anyways :-)

After a lunch together, we all headed to our destinations - some to airport, some to their homes in Mumbai, some to hotels and me - I headed to Satara. All this trek related travel and meetings made me forget that I still have a mild fever and a very sore throat. But then, I know for sure, I will need to go back and get some medicine real quick to nulify effect of traveling in this rain :-)

Trek Time !!

Today the IE India Trek started in Mumbai.

I had some personal work in Pune during the morning, so could reach Mumbai only in the evening - but today the trek visited Jet Airways and TCS.

Well, let me first explain what the IE India trek is all about :-)

It's an event organized and coordinated by the IE India Club and the IMBA students, where-in those who have registered for the event will visit the companies that have agreed to host us during the event. During the visit, a short meeting to present IE to the company and to understand the company management functions, would occur. This meeting also will allow IE students to explore various opportunities of connecting with this company and these opportunities can be in form of job openings, internships, training programs, competitions, etc. Companies will also be given an insight about IE events like venture day, HR meets, etc and knowledge partnerships offered by IE.

All-in-all, a good meeting to promote IE and to understand the company being visited.

Cannot wait to join the trek tomorrow morning :-)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMMY :-)

Yepp !! Today's my Mom's Birthday !!

This was the one reason for which I absolutely loved the timing of this summer vacation. It helped me to be at home, on an important day of the year for my family and for me :-)

Of course, my health continues to remain bad, suffering with fever. So, today I could not contribute much towards the birthday celebrations. My sister cooked a great Indian meal in the afternoon, which I helped only to eat [although only a little, thanks to the dietary restrictions by the doctor] and we just sat around chit-chatting in the evening.

Mixed feelings at the end of the day - at home for mom's birthday, but down-enough-with-fever, as to not able to drive the celebrations, as much as I wanted to...

Feverish times continue ..

Damn this flu and fever !!

Even today was spent in the bed, doing nothing but eating the medicine, some food and sleeping for most part of the day.

This fever seems to have caught up with me forever !!

On a positive note though, I am thankful that this major streak of illnesses hit me only after I am home, and only during the vacations. I cannot even imagine how difficult such a situation would have been, if the school was on.

There is always a positive side to everything, and for now the feverish times continue ..

Deferred Illnesses?

Another day in bed. Another day spent doing nothing but sleeping. In a way it is good as I am getting a lot of rest, but on the other hand, I am home only for a few days and I am missing on regular home food :-(

Anyways, today as I was thinking about it all, going through cycles of fever, shivering, sore throat and sneezing, I realized that all these illnesses were probably due a long time ago - when I reached Madrid from Indian Summer to stay in a room without central heating, even while Madrid temperature was around 4 to 6 degree Celsius; or when the Madrid heat in summer last month was unbearably high; but my body kept deferring them, in midst of long days and longer nights at school; and as soon as it realized that it is time to relax, it just threw in all of it in a single go ..

Interesting theory, ain't it?

It's an Ambush !!

Well, I had begun to feel a little ill yesterday itself, but today it all came together. Cough, Cold, Fever, Shivering, Head-ache, Sore throat, all of it appeared out of nowhere today and made me fall ill.

My dad was discussing about an ambush situation with one of his friends over casual talk this morning, and I realized that all illnesses have actually done a ambush attack on me.

Thanks to the fact that I was HOME, I went to our family doctor, Dr. Billampalli, and got medication from him. Plus, I was under care of my mom, so wasn't worried so much about the illness anyways.
I did have to do nothing but rest today. Spent the whole day sleeping and I think it will be a couple of days more before I get back in good shape.

Catching Up :-)

Well, did some catching up with my EM group this morning, to share the progress of survey that I had created. A quick Facebook chat it was.

After my lunch, went out to meet my friends in Satara, my hometown. Did some catching up with them about happenings in past four months.

Eventually, ended up going out for dinner with them :-)

Like there is no tomorrow ..

Well, we may all choose to blame it on the "Jetlag" or the "body clock"' but today I slept until 11 AM in the morning; got ready, had my breakfast and slept again from 2 PM until 5 PM.

At 5 PM, I was finally hungry enough to have my lunch and ate the delicious mutton curry that my mom made, so much, that I am not sure if I would need to eat again in 2 days.

Today, I ate the home food and slept in my bed at home so much, as if there is going to be no tomorrow :-)

H.O.M.E. S.W.E.E.T. H.O.M.E.

After 3 transits in Frankfurt, Mumbai and Pune, and after a journey totaling 33 hours, finally I am home.

As soon as I arrived, my niece came up running with a friendship band and made me wear it - "Friends Forever" it says :-)

Tonight, as I write this blog, sitting in my study room, listening to the sound of the brook water that flows next to my home, I feel so relaxed, so happy.

It may take a couple of days to make me start working again; till then I want to do nothing but enjoy the feeling of being at home :-)

I am going HOME !!

Finally, vacations begin !!

Woke up at 4 AM today, got ready, did a last minute check of all bags and documents and at 6 AM I was in a cab towards Barajas Airport.

Long journey this one - yet I am all excited about it - finally, I am going HOME !!

Some Last Minute Housekeeping :-)

Well, today was almost entirely about the last minute housekeeping works, except a nice lunch with Hitesh and his family.
To start with, did some last minute housekeeping in the place I have now landed; followed it by some last minute shopping and packing before I fly and towards the end of day, some last minute wrap up of EM group work. That's right - "School related work".

Well, it was just to create a survey to get a public view on some of the assumptions my group has been working with, and then to collate responses of restaurant owners we have received so far to help us with our market analysis. Not too much of work as such, more of a housekeeping task. Hence, the title :-)

The Tourist, The Monk and The Riddle :-)

Well, as much as I enjoyed shouting "I am not a tourist" while staying in Tokyo, Singapore and even now in Madrid, today, I decided to be one anyways. All those streets, all those squares, all those monuments, which I have passed by more than a dozen times now in last few months, I wanted to revisit them, but this time with my camera.

So began a long walk in the morning covering Paseo de Castellana all the way up to Sol and back to Goya via Serrano before heading home. All journey on foot with my camera in hand.

By the end of it, my feet pleaded me to stop :-D

Anyways, while the photos taken were being processed, I took up another task - long pending in my to-do list.

Let me give a brief flashback first. As part of our Entrepreneurial Management participation grade, Rachida had told us that we can gain an extra 5 % percent grade if we read a book titled "The Monk and the Riddle" and answered two questions based on it.

As usual, I delayed reading the book till the very end, and then when it was just a few days before deadline, there wasn't enough time.

I did lend the book from IE library though and read through first few pages. Book seemed interesting - so, although I didn't write any answers for that extra grade, I did add reading of this book to my to-do list.

So, coming back to the present times, I have the book with me now, and tonight I am going to read it all. I realized last night that due to the habit developed in past few months, I can't sleep before 3-3:30 AM anyways; so tonight I will be making good use of this time.

And yes, photos taken today, will be posted on my facebook profile :-D

Meta Blogging :-)

Well, just to clarify what this title means, we have a term in the database world - any data which describes some data is called Meta-Data. On similar lines, today I did some Meta-Blogging :-)

In simple words, I answered a few questions asked to me by Dirk, from IE Singapore office, about my overall IE experience so far and about my daily blogging in this series. This would eventually go in one of the IE blogs and hence the title :-)

Apart from that, most of the day was spent eating, sleeping, unpacking in the new place and again eating, sleeping, unpacking all over again.

Enjoying the vacation to its fullest, though very soon, I will be back working, to complete my fellowship tasks :-D