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Saturday, October 08, 2005
I have been meaning to write something on Mode C for long but fortunately or unfortunately, things out here in Paris have taken such a hectic pace that it has become increasingly tough to just keep abreast of the proceedings, forget writing about them at two places (the other blog is in deed alive, and doing well, thank you). However, Mode C and its readers (if they still come back to check, even if it is once in a blue moon) do deserve more than the neglect I have been able to offer so far.
Life in Paris has been an amazing journey so far with varied co-passengers and their different mannerisms, combined with the vagaries of the journey itself, have been making the journey as interesting as I could have hoped it to be. It has been nearly three weeks since I came to this Wonder Land and like Alice, I am still lost in the wonders that this place keeps offering day after day, hour after hour.
The typical French haughtiness is there aplenty, but so is a completely contrasting love for life and living it to the fullest. The French love to talk, not so much about themselves, as the introductory seminar at ESCP about French culture explained to us, but about things pertaining to the common knowledge and discussion. In fact, the only other thing that they do with probably more passion is kiss. They kiss everywhere...on trains, on streets, on railway stations, inside museums, in gardens, in bookshops and libraries, you name the place and you have people kissing there as if there is going to be no tomorrow.
The party scene is, as expected, outstanding. Though I missed out on the parties last week despite having a problem of plenty in terms of company, I made amends this week and after the fantastic Erasmus party yesterday, next in line are the party today at Cite Universitaire (the group of houses of international students from different countries, including the House of India where we are staying) and of course, the grand party at ESCP tomorrow that is supposed to be the big Daddy of them all.
In other news, studies are cruising along pretty well and after a week of rather insipid lectures, things have started heating up and the attack is slowly and surely getting targetted at the fundamentals, which we Indians are finding out to our discomfort, remains our biggest drawback despite the bags of gas we are capable of producing anywhere and anytime.
Even IIMK is seeing a lot of activity taking place. The placement season for juniors as well as the laterals are around the corner and the campus would surely be witness to old books being dug out and heads buried deep into them hoping to get the fundas right, in time for the impression they need to present once the opportunities come calling. I hope and wish that all my batchmates, and especially my close friends back at campus, have a great placement season and grab some really handsome deals.
I just had a great news from one of my juniors from BHU I had been talking to, a couple of days back. Amitanshu, the poor guy had been looking for a job after doing his MBA from BHU with an HR specialisation. He sounded so worried as he asked me about the different opportunities that I could see for him. And what do I hear today? That he has not only landed a job in one of the better HR consultancies in Bangalore, but is also set to be engaged soon, to another junior from BHU. I do love happy endings!
Posted at 02:49 am by Nitai
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Wednesday, September 21, 2005
In latest news, I am in Paris right now and enjoying every moment of it. I have started a new blog to record the trip through text and visuals but the blog is not going public yet (I am not pretty sure why but that's the way it is).
In case you want to read the French diaries of mine (for whatever reasons), just drop me a mail and if I think you are good enough to read my would be best selling travelogue during its formative years, I might just make your day and send you the link to my new blog.
This space would not die, but. There are, first of all, some back posts that I have on my laptop and which I have not been able to post for some reason or the other. So these posts will find their pride of place pretty soon on Mode C and even in the future three months while I am in Europe, I will continue to write stuff not related to the European tour (the existing of which, there is very remote a chance of).
Posted at 06:02 am by Nitai
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Friday, September 02, 2005
Little updates from the little birdie
So it is about time I update my blog readers (I have ceased to wonder about the reasons for their existence apart from the ikka dukka ones I know of :-)) about what is happening in my life apart from the cribs and the rants and the sobs and the frowns. So here goes, something fresh from my garden, for all those who care to have a whiff.
The end terms for Term 4 at IIM Kozhikode are under way and I am about half way through my papers. Although I have come to (come to, because I never intended to but somehow ended in) taking the maximum number of allowed subjects, the exams are not too much of a bother. With most of the papers in the marketing area being theoretical and expandable (in other words, global), things are pretty smooth and expected to be so till I leave Calicut on a three day train journey to home...and this time, I shall be gone for quite some time.
In other news, I am all set to go to Paris in about a fortnight from now and I must say that as the days pass, I am getting more and more excited about the trip. Having grown up for the last decade on a diet of mostly Europe-centric books (right from the Five Findouters to Sherlock Holmes, et al), there has always been that feeling of awe for the region in me. Honestly speaking, anything faaren would have done just as well for a first timer (yes, I have never been abroad and for the records, this will be only my second flight over, the first international one, of course) like me but Europe simply takes the cake.
As if Europe was not enough, I start off (and in fact, even though I have all my plans for the Euro trip, I am actually supposed to be staying the entire three months) in Paris, the city that has been mentioned so many times by so many connoisseurs of arts as the best and the finest. If ever there were a capital of romance and romantics in the world, Paris would be the top contender for the position. Since I consider myself to be somewhat of a romantic, as well, I am sure that providence has been playing its role in putting me on to Paris.
The real (all right, official...all of you are such hecklers) purpose of the trip, of course, is the international student exchange of IIMK with ESCP-EAP, Paris and I am supposed to study (in caps??) one whole term of my management education out there. The subjects I have chosen there look pretty interesting as of now and if the teachers and course structure out there are even half as good as what I have set my expectations on, life should be fun.
Talking of courses, did I ever mention the courses I have been taking this term here at IIMK and the ones I am supposed to be taking at Paris? I suppose not, so for the record and to store the data for quite some time in the future (actually I really don't know why I am listing down the subjects but just felt like it), my Term 4 courses include:
Finance Courses
1. Fixed Income Securities
2. Management of Banking and Financial Services
3. Portfolio Management
Marketing Courses
1. Sales and Distribution Channel Management
2. Advertising and Sales Promotions
3. Retail and Franchising
Systems/Consulting Courses
1. Strategy Management (the only compulsory course)
2. Enterprise Resource Computing
Yeah, right! Quite a big fill, I know. But before you apply your stereotype and term me a nerd, here go the next term courses and you might just change your opinion or at least, confuse myself (how I love confusing people :D)
Finance Courses
1. Capital Markets and Financial Engineering
2. International Finance
3. Financial Intermediaries
Marketing Courses
1. Consumer Behavior
2. Marketing Communication
So there, with three day weekends and a lot of free time in the midst of the courses, I (and by now, even you) know what I am going to do in Paris. Europe, here I come!
Posted at 09:14 pm by Nitai
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Monday, August 29, 2005
But you are the Grand fatherly voice of reason, they will listen to you. You just have to say it once.
What...fun event and take him along...umm, no yaar, not him. Somebody else who is more lively perhaps!
May be you just don't know when to have fun and when to be serious, and are taking even the fun instances seriously.
It is the songs that you listen to, all of them from a world that is past.
Look who's flirting, buddhe pe jawaani chaayi hai
Aap chal rahe hain...aap ke liye to yahi theek hai...aap kya karenge in sab cheezon ka...aap, aap, aap
All right, I am jaded, old, and without any spirits. I don't know how to be fun for myself or for others. I am the Big Daddy, the Grand Father who everybody looks up to but nobody looks at, as an equal with the same vulnerabilities and wishes as any other guy. All right, I am not the boy next door...the uncle next door, perhaps? Posted at 10:02 pm by Nitai
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Friday, August 19, 2005
The clouds seem to be lifting, slowly but surely. After one week of uncertainty, Nani's condition is improving and the blood sugar level has finally come down from an extremely high number of 500+ to a more manageable 150+. Thank God for his mercies.
Now that I have the luxury to think clearly, Mode C will hopefully be back to more frequent and regular posts, with two of the immediately pending posts being the one on newly elected Backwaters Committee members and the other on the immensely enjoyable Freshers party...but all this and more later.
Posted at 03:30 pm by Nitai
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