Fort Kochi - An Experience

Independence Day is a matter of great pride for all Indians as it symbolises their collective victory over the British. It is also great news for students as it is s compulsory holiday for educational institutions. So we finally got a holiday - and utilised it well by visiting the old city - Fort Kochi.
This time we were just 4 of us. The rest had gone home for the weekend. But it was great fun nevertheless. We were at the beach till 2 pm and then had a scrumptious Chinese lunch. I had always wanted to visit the synagogue and so, we set off for Jew Street. And that, i believe was the best event of the day.
Synagogues are not very commonly seen in India. Today, there are around 5000 Jews in India. The Cochin synagogue is managed by a certain Jew family of 14 members. Stepping into Jew Street you get a feeling of having reached some other world. And the synagogue, wow!! The number of lights there made Roopal and me gasp. The guys were not pretty impressed initially, but later, they too found the place interesting. The flooring of the synagogue is of handpainted chinese tiles, 1100 of them, each unique, i.e. with a different design. The synagogue itself is around 500 years old. The whole experience was fascinating.
We decided to have our evening snack at Bimbis, but ended up going around whole of M.G. road before finding the Jose Junction one. I had a Black Forest pastry which I had been wishing to eat since long.
The day was great except for the sudden heavy rain which drenched the 4 of us around 5 minutes before we could reach our hostels. But no harm done. The fact that I had to sit up till 1 am with my assignments (yeah!! they are still there!) was not a dampener.
In all, a great experience!!

Friendship Day @ SCMS

My last post must've made it very clear that we are being really driven hard here. But that does not mean we cant have our share of fun!! That is just what we did on August 7th, Friendship Day.
The whole class decided to go on a sort of picnic on that day. The best thing about being in a city like Cochin is that you dont need to go very far if you feel like doing some masti. So we decided on the most common place, the marine drive, boating and Bolgatti palace.
But the fact is, we had the maximum fun on the boat. We chose a musical boat and we danced to our hearts' content on the deck to songs from 'Anniyan' and the like...After freshers, this is the second time we had such a blast. And dancing on a boat in the middle of the water is so wow!!
Later in the day, we'd decided to watch a movie, but our 6:30 pm curfew in hostel which is not relaxed even on Sundays played spoil sport. So we hostellers returned by evening, back into the world of assignments and projects. We had 2 assignments to submit on Monday and i thankfully completed mine by 12 am. I was very very tired and just fell to bed like a log. But I know many of classmates had to work till 2-3 am to complete the work....
Life is just going on....somewhat rocky, a lil bit smooth. Just wonderful!!

Hit by a Tornado....!!

Yesterday was one hell of a day. All these days we MBA students were having a very relaxed time with no heavy work, presentations or assignments. But yesterday we realized what the next 2 years are gonna be like.
My friends in PGDM were really jealous of us because of our relaxed schedules (yeah! you can relax inspite of the 8-5 timing!!). Parag asked me yesterday whether we had started getting REAL jobs yet. I said no. Half an hour later....
Rajagopal Sir decided to give the 1st unit assignments to roll nos. 50 to 60. And I am no.58. The assignment - 'behavioral science in management'. Minimum 4 pages handwritten. Minimum 3 texts to be referred. Net should not be used. Seminar - maximum of 6 slides. To the point. whoops!! My topic runs into pages and pages. How in the world am I gonna make it into 4-6 pages and 6 slides. Anyway, submission date is 16th August, which means I should complete the work by the 13th. I should be going home for 3 days after that.
This was not all. Radha ma'am came into our class and voiced the common complaint that we do not read journals. So the solution - go read a journal and write a report on any article and submit it by 5. It was 3 then. BY 5?!! NO!! That was it. We ran to get journals. I decided on HR and read and article on outsourcing which was, thankfully, quite interesting. Managed to submit a handwritten report by 5. Wonder what ma'am is gonna do with all the reports.....
Subscribed to Economic Times. Hmm... trying to get into the groove of business. But my first love is IT. Still cant get over it....

Too Busy.....

Life is one long joyride now. I had never imagined that one could enjoy so much. I mean, I am a person who had not seen the college canteen during engineering. But now i am living life to the full.
It began with the freshers party on the 23rd. Ohh man!! What fun we had! I know this is the last time i would be studying in a college, but still, for a freshers party I am ready to join college any number of times.
The day began with the seniors being very rude to us and all of us were made to sit like we were in jail. But when the fun began, all their attitudes changed and we mingled like friends. I too made a lot of good friends among my seniors. There was a group presentation we had to do for our seniors which not just impressed our seniors but also made us classmates come closer to each other. And then came the grand finale :- The DJ dance. Whoa!! 2 hours of heavy duty dancing and man!! Werent all of us friends for life! Too bad that the seniors are having study leave now for their 2nd sem exams. It would be more fun in college if we had our seniors with us.
Studying in a city has the added advantage that there is ample scope for roaming. But the unreasonable 6:30 pm curfew in the girls' hostel makes it very difficult to go out much. But we make up for all the deficiency of roaming on weekends. So yesterday all of us friends went out to a movie 'Maine Pyar Kyu Kiya' and later for a walk on the Marine Drive. Actually the movie made me go 'Maine Picture Kyu Dekhi' but the snacks at 'Oven' and the trip to Marine Drive were great.
With all this fun happening, whats up on the academics front? Ohh Lots! We now have classes 6 days a week from 8 am to 5 pm. Group assignments are piling up and most of the free time is spent in the library or in the lab googling for the details of Fortune 500 companies, etc.. So much so, I could not blog.
But I am really happy. There is a unique balance of work, play and enjoyment.
Life Rocks!!