For last couple of days me and my classmates have been hearing a lot about the "Oxford Experience" . Well for some, it would be the city around us , the numerous pubs and/or the night life but I have a more classic "Oxford Experience" to tell tonight . Three of us were sitting at the Indian joint across the school (the food is pretty decent) and discussing the various languages spoken across India , the attributes of people across India and everything which makes India such a vibrant and "unlikely democracy". I believe the gentleman sitting on the table behind us had been overhearing our "unripe" psycho-babble and unformed theories for quite some time, when he decided to introduce himself . So we had the pleasure of getting acquainted with Mr. Prashanth an Indian mechanical engineer who got fed up with his mundane life and went ahead and did a PhD in linguistics !! and that too from Japan on a Japanese government scholarship . I was like "whoa" . And that's not all, the softspoken gentleman hailing from Pune actually teaches in Japan and that too in Japanese. We had a interesting discussion with him on a number of languages and their history (In retrospect I think we should have shut our trap and let him speak a bit more). I learnt a number of new things in the hour long discussion that ensued and though Navoniell and Hari don't look the part but take my word for it , they can engage you in a decent academic discussion :) . The gentleman is in Oxford just for couple of days and it was lucky for us to have met him .
As we said our goodbyes, the question I asked the guys was - "How many business schools will give you the opportunity to engage in a discussion with a Linguist over a cup of coffee (a decent cup it was, I must admit)" . Not many is the answer , I guess . So it seems the "Oxford Experience" is infact a reality and I am looking forward to more of it in the coming year.
Thursday 30 September 2010
Monday 27 September 2010
Am I daft ? (Please don't bother to answer)
Went through the first day of the finance bootcamp and it was great . With the number of new things I heard and learnt about, it seems I haven't been on this planet for a long time. Yup I know being in a tech firm was not exactly the place to learn about finance careers, but seriously, how can there be so much stuff I do not know about .
I did feel a bit daft at times , and before any of you jump in to help me re-affirm that I am so, just let me say, that it was a mere fleeting thought and I am confident of my intelligence. So, thanks but no thanks :)
Have another day of finance ahead of me, let's see how that goes.
I did feel a bit daft at times , and before any of you jump in to help me re-affirm that I am so, just let me say, that it was a mere fleeting thought and I am confident of my intelligence. So, thanks but no thanks :)
Have another day of finance ahead of me, let's see how that goes.
Sunday 26 September 2010
The First One !
I have planning to start this blog for a couple of days now but there has been so much going on ! (and the classes have not even started yet). Well anyways here I go :)
Dropped into London on the morning of 21st Sept '10 . The bus from Heathrow was amazing ( "The airline" is what it is called I guess ). They had wifi on-board and it was good to be able to ping a few people on my way down to Oxford. At Oxford I had taken up a room at a hotel called WestGate as I waited to get hold of my private accommodation (Didn't get the accommodation I wanted from GTC :( ). The hotel was ok , and anyways I spent most of the next 2 days walking around in Oxford and meeting a lot of amazing people who will be my classmates for the coming year.
22nd and 23rd was the Management Consulting Bootcamp. An amazing effort by the "Career Services" team and hats off to them . It was great listening to people from the profession tell us about what recruiters are looking for , the kind of job it is and a number of personal experiences . To be frank I was a bit apprehensive going into the bootcamp. What if I mis-understood consulting and actually don't like it ? I was hoping the bootcamp wouldn't end in me running out of the place flaying my arms above my head shouting "I can't do this" and probably jump into the nearest stream connecting to Thames. (Funny that reminds of Barney Stinson). Well thankfully at the end of the 2 days that didn't happen and I walked out of the place as normally as I physically could :) .
The evenings have mostly been spent setting up our place or meeting people at the pubs (There are a lot of pubs around) . It has been an great experience all together , and listening to all the people tell what they have been doing before Oxford I think it' gonna be a amazing year forward. That's all for now (I'd love to write more but I have another bootcamp to attend ) .
I'll be back later , unless something else makes me jump into the Thames .
Dropped into London on the morning of 21st Sept '10 . The bus from Heathrow was amazing ( "The airline" is what it is called I guess ). They had wifi on-board and it was good to be able to ping a few people on my way down to Oxford. At Oxford I had taken up a room at a hotel called WestGate as I waited to get hold of my private accommodation (Didn't get the accommodation I wanted from GTC :( ). The hotel was ok , and anyways I spent most of the next 2 days walking around in Oxford and meeting a lot of amazing people who will be my classmates for the coming year.
22nd and 23rd was the Management Consulting Bootcamp. An amazing effort by the "Career Services" team and hats off to them . It was great listening to people from the profession tell us about what recruiters are looking for , the kind of job it is and a number of personal experiences . To be frank I was a bit apprehensive going into the bootcamp. What if I mis-understood consulting and actually don't like it ? I was hoping the bootcamp wouldn't end in me running out of the place flaying my arms above my head shouting "I can't do this" and probably jump into the nearest stream connecting to Thames. (Funny that reminds of Barney Stinson). Well thankfully at the end of the 2 days that didn't happen and I walked out of the place as normally as I physically could :) .
The evenings have mostly been spent setting up our place or meeting people at the pubs (There are a lot of pubs around) . It has been an great experience all together , and listening to all the people tell what they have been doing before Oxford I think it' gonna be a amazing year forward. That's all for now (I'd love to write more but I have another bootcamp to attend ) .
I'll be back later , unless something else makes me jump into the Thames .
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