My Musings

Dear loved one's back home, I have just returned from Shanghai and feel compelled like many other travellers before to become a self confessed chinophile. The university arranged a 1 week tour to visit Shanghai and learn about business in China. China has been a nemesis for many western business investors. Many of them with dollars in their eyes have burnt their fingers doing business in this sea of little people . I am so sorry, I am a vegetarian I am now quiet capable of writing a book on the life of a vegetarian in China. On my trip to Shanghai I was literally treated like a handicap. A special needs person. I was given a small chit by the faculty coordinator that said in Chinese "I am a vegetarian, I only eat vegetables, grains, plant, fruit and rice." Do look at the photo attached. She simply said you MIGHT survive with this! While my Prof. and others assured me, "don't worry you will be fine". For the people who didn't know th...

Dear loved ones back home, I was telling myself to cut down on the email spams that I seem to be generating on your mailbox. The last mail was supposed to be the year end mail and I was planning to take a long siesta before I come up with some more crappy thoughts. However I couldn't resist my temptation to write this last rambling before I could lose my thought on this issue. I hope you don't mind, but if you do, the delete button is on the top left hand side of the window :) Some of you took offence to my labelling myself as an NRI. I only meant that I am a NRI (Non Reliable Indian or Not Required in India(n)) Today's problems come from yesterday's "solutions" I did not mention about Prof. Jim Newton. He is a typical Englishman and in the same league as Prof. Ali (and that's quiet a league!). He teaches us political economics and his narration style usually leaves you at the edge of the seat. He narrates the issues like a story and often he would talk as...

Dear loved one's back home, The last few weeks has been a little rough. Couple of exams and vain attempts to rote learning of reams and reams of archaic content. I am through those dull moments of MBA! I can now proclaim myself comfortably as a half MBA ! Phew that's quiet some stuff. Its getting freezing cold here and my definition of cold is quiet skewed. Less than 30C is freezing winter for me and its 13 C here ! Om Sweet Om I cant wait for the winter break coz I am GoInG HoMe !! Its the "NRI returning home syndrome." Gosh am I an NRI :) Well I wont make melodramatic Swades like Comments . Vivekananda said " I travelled all over the the world and came home to find peace" well that's all crap. I am going home to find chaos! Its kind of mixed emotions. While I am elated about feeling my dear home, I am unduly concerned about the uncanny questions from my stake holders and investors (Read parents and brother). Debts are piling up and still no signs of...

Dear loved one's back home, China reminds me of India like no other world city has !! Beihaai could have been Bangalore and Guangzhou could have been Gurgaon! A China Travelogue I made a quick sojourn to China last week. As always the act of travelling always entices me. Planning the travel, the vroom of the flight, The tension of getting through the immigration check posts are enough to pump your adrenaline. Before I reached China I was itching to get my foot in, after I reached China I was dying to get out!! It is this nomadic instinct in me that kind of gets me to do new things and quit before it comes to a logical conclusion! Somebody said " MBA is like a public toilet ; People outside cant wait to get in, people inside are dying to get out. " well well... this time I am in no hurry to come out of the loo without getting the work done !! A Communist tongue trapped in a capitalist body : There was one thing I wanted to do when I went to China, type democracy into googl...

Dear loved one's back home, The winter has started setting in Hong Kong. For a person who has lived all his life in Saharan dessert climates, this is quiet a climatic shock. There are some merits of such cold climates too.... well I am not going to dwell in to that sorry. My readers are already quiet imaginative! I had an opportunity to play Lagaan like cricket last week. All Indians and Pakistanis on one side and Brits (and 2 Australians) on the other side. The pretty English madam's were the audience. A clap and a cry of good shot once in a while. As I have already commented earlier, the third world citizens were in the local attire absolutely unfit for cricket. The Brits were all in whites and sports shoes. You could have very well mistaken it for a Lagaan studio set but except one glitch.... ahem ahem well we lost and they won !!! Now Aamir Khan wouldn't have been pleased with it. For the first time in life I was in a full cricket gear(Including the helmet and the snug ...

Dear loved one's back home, Wish you all a very happy festive season! This is my forth month here and all newness of the place is thoroughly worn off. Unlike my earlier monologues, there is really nothing to say about Hong Kong. I guess Its time for another change !! All of us in the class are looking forward to go to London/Columbia and are very kicked about how things are progressing on that front. For starters we had a LBS (London Business School ) faculty talk last weekend. What she said at the end of the lecture was quiet profound. LBS is so diverse that no one nationality is a majority. "In a 60 student class there typically is almost 40 nationalities, that's almost like a U N general assembly meeting. Oh sorry !! The Indians usually are the majority, do we have any Indians in this class ? 10 of us raised our hand !! A little bewildered she asked how many of you are there in this world, are you sure its only 1 billion ? I am not too sure. " If sources are to bel...

Dear loved ones back home, I cant refrain from doing a countdown on how long it has been since I left my dear Mother land ( I also cant help from overly dramatizing!!) It has been 3 months since I came to Hong kong and its the end of term 1 at HKU. The last 3 months have been quiet event full. I had a short gestation period before Term 2 onslaught began last week. Hong Kong - Love it , Live it For those of you whose mood is affected by Climate, HK is heaven in September. This is a month of perfect blue skies with a bite in the air and a sharpness in the light.Simply put it is a very optimistic and " life is full of hope" kind of a climate. HK is a union of several dis joined Islands and recently I had an opportunity to go to one such beautiful Island - Discovery bay with a population of around 14,300 residents with a size able expatriate community of residents from over thirty countries. The entire Island is a no motor zone and people commute in a ferry to office everyday! T...

Dear loved ones back home Its Sep 14th and I am getting older. Birthdays were never like it used to be before. When I was young I wanted to get old and start earning. When I started earning I couldn't wait to get back to school. Now I am in a school, getting old and no Income (All three together) .... Trust me very bad situation to be in! I am almost intentionally dazzled about Hong Kong. I had set off wanting HK to be something special and there fore it was. It is kind of a Wilful Infatuation. I guess its always like that with me, I don't carry too much baggage of my previous city and try to like my new home.It was true with Chennai, Hyderabad (Including Milwaukee and London - Though people might accuse me of being immodest) From the response of my readers, I realize that I am in Danger of romanticising MBA life or HK and I want to correct that anomaly. It really is not all that fun and exciting. Once the Initial excitement subdues, Many moment of truths strike y...

Dear loved ones back home, Allow me to open with a quote "China grows because of it's government, India grows in spite of its Government" - Quote by Nandan Nilekani in the book World is flat Nothing depicts India's situation better than the above Quote. Its been close to two months since I have been to HK and I have already begun to feel like a local resident !! I have been trying to learn Mandarin and have made no progress at all ! Its one of the most toughest language in earth . The Chinese language uses a lot of symbolism in the speech, As a teaser let me tell you this There is no word called Threat - its morphed as Danger+ Opportunity. This also shows how they view threat " as an opportunity". Even words like love is said in a round about fashion. foreigners actually go bonkers to learn the language. I don't hope to make too much progress myself. HKU MBA and " Class elections"...

Dear loved ones back home ( That's my patented greetings!!) Its been precisely a month since I arrived in HK. A lot has been going on since then. The classes are finally heating up.There is a lot of presentation and studies to catch up with. There is a lot of group work which is part of any MBA Dynamics. Honestly it is not as busy as it sounds !! There is still time to play badminton or go for swimming.There is enough time for some worthless conversation with room mates and of course time to mail all you dear people. Hong Kong/China For a lot of us, Chinese dynamics is actually an enigma ! many people are wonder struck by its recent successes considering its culture of nepotism, corruption and seclusion from the outside world (not that India lacks any of these characters!). Now don't expect me to unravel any of this for you, but it is true that it is arguably the most intriguing of societies. At the outset, they seem to have a strong sense of nationalism... one suc...