May 17 2005

Probably the longest stretch since a posting on the blog. Also probably the most I've ever traveled in one fortnight. The second remark explains the first.

Its been Paris - NY - LA - SF - LA - NY - Paris - NY - SF - Paris, without staying more than a couple of days in any one of these places. The Art Center trip to Los Angeles was amazing. We visited the design center and saw some of the creative works of the students there. The highlights were the trips to the various design studios - Nokia, GM, BMW Designworks, Idealab, Nasa Jet Propulsion Labs, Disney Imagineering. I missed the dinner at the french consulate and the trip to Rhythm and Hues (the studio responsible for the special effects of Electra, Garfield amongst others). Now Rhythm and Hues, I really wanted to see. But I had to fly down to San Fran to meet with Google for a couple of hours at the airport and back again to Los Angeles.

It was a great bonus(bonus or critical motive?) being back in New York and being able to meet Bhamini the good old folks of NY/NJ. An even greater bonus was when I had to come back to California (and stopped over NY again) to Mountain View for an interview. I post this blog from Mountain View. I got a Grand Am rental and drove around San Francisco today. Took a scenic route through the hills into SF, went to Coit Tower, GG Park, Lombard Street (crookedest street), and then had dinner at Washington Square. It was nice. Tomorrow I'll be visiting the Mountain View office. I missed the Montmelian Arabian Nights party last weekend at INSEAD due to my travels. Its Greek Week this week, and I'll be catching the end of it by the time I'm back in Fontainebleau on Thursday.

30 April 2005

In the US now. And off to California tomorrow. Good to be back in NJ/NY and nothings changed.

Apr 27 2005

My laptop battery is running out!! I'll make this a short one. Finally landed a job. So thats good, quite a relief. I'm in the middle of a lot of projects, trying to finish up before I leave for the US tomorrow. Looking forward the the US trip. Going "back". Will meet up with old buddies, people, and Bhamini! And then on to Los Angeles. Probably won't be able to fill in on this blogger during the time but maybe more when I am back. Melissa and Robyn will be leaving as well, and so will Raoul (for Singapore). The house will be quite different. Adjusting to change again...its always like that. Abhimanyu is quite happy I got a job in London. Should be good.

There's going to be some farewells tonight. But for now, on to lecture..and on to charging my hungry laptop.

22 April 2005

Barclays Capital in London on Wednesday. Tuesday was McKinsey. And that was the end of that. Thursday was DiamondCluster - good thing it wasn't a case interview. Quite busy with all this. And now I'm running along for an Xbox project for the Industrial Competitive Analysis class. I'll be in New York next week, and then LA. But it does seem quite far away considering I have two big projects and a finance paper (negotiation) due before that. P4 is fast coming to an end!

18 April 2005

Was the Africa Week "Funkin with Fela" party yesterday. Theme was colored clothes. Not too bad. Came back at a decent time as well. Then today, went with Shan and Becrom to this Asian food store. Reminded me of Jersey. Got lots of Mama noodles

11 April 2005

My schedule for today: Wake up at 9am after 5 hours of sleep. Get ready, and off to class in Raoul's car. Go through an interesting lecture on the RJR Nabisco LBO (which I just don't get), and then a Finance assignment group meeting for this Latin American Bottling company (which I also don't get). Then a quick lunch in the cafeteria just as its closing. Get done with lunch at 2:15pm, and off to a cube to add bits to the finance assignment, since its my responsibility this time. I managed to send it off by 3pm to my groupmates. I'm sure I'll hear from them in due time and will have to make changes. Probably tomorrow evening. Anyway, so then there was this interview with Google at 3:15pm. Lasted till about 4:00pm and then I rushed to the library to write up some stuff on Electronic Arts. But I had to check email (a must at INSEAD) so I couldn't quite get to it. 5pm. Meeting with Guy, Francis and Annet, our professor. It was for an update on how we were doing on the Electronic Arts project. Problem is, I haven't done anything on it since the last time we met (got to get my act together -- but when!?). Now its 5:40 pm and I'm trying to put together this EA paper, or at least my thoughts on it. Get off blogging! Now. Yes, now. So I can finish up what I'm writing and then go to the Accenture presentation at 7:15pm. Get home by 9-10pm, read for Industrial Competitive Analysis tomorrow (usually a bookload to read), and sleep yet again at 3am to wake up at 7:30am for an 8:30am class tomorrow. So busy. I love it in a torcherous kind of way.

10 Apr 2005

Why am I writing here just now. Have to finish this finance assignment before I start doing this. Focus.

Last night there were 16 people in our house. I think it was a record for our tiny living room. We had a pot luck and I made some Aalo gobi. Turned out pretty good, everyone wiped it clean. And then we played Mafia with cards. Good game. We did all this instead of the Toga Party. Probably a better choice.

Got to practice cases for that McKinsey interview next week.

6 Apr 2005

Its Italian week this week. A whole bunch of events. There's Go Karting, 3 on 3 Football, Foosball. And there are Forestiere's taking part in every event. Its almost like Forestiere week. I just got back from 2 hours of Go-Karting. I must say, I'm pretty skilled at it. Had some good lap times, but we were far from the top 3 places. It was in teams, with pit stops and stuff -- Raoul, Shan, Becrom and I. Now these are the things that I will never be able to try in the after-INSEAD. It was fun.

There's even a big Italian dinner this weekend (friday) and a Toga Party on Saturday. But I'm not going to wear a Toga. Hence, no party for me. Also, somehow I'm not so much in the party mood these days. Maybe its the aging problem that the whole world talks about. Or maybe its just the bit of pressure for finding a job and being able to sustain myself in the after-INSEAD.

But on Saturday, instead, Becrom has planned some Mafia game. Come Saturday, perhaps I'll mention it in the blog.

Over the weekend, I went to Paris to Musee d'Orsay. There's only so many hours one can take of the museum so we were only there for a couple (Shan, Becrom, Gokhan, myself), had lunch (awfully slow service) at Rue St.Germain and then headed back. It was a beautiful sunny lazy day. 8:30 class tomorrow and some EA research to do. Signing off.

3 Apr 2005

Another cover letter and I will have had enough. Sigh. But they still have to keep coming...more and more and more cover letters, until I get something.

Been quite busy with the job hunt. When I had classes, I could at least write a few words on the blog daily, but now I feel things are more serious. For instance, I turned down an opportunity to watch a movie in Paris on Friday. Turn DOWN a MOVIE? Whats going on here!?! Now that denotes a change.

I did see a movie at home today though. Knight's Tale. Okayish. Also went for a barbeque at Danny's place. Beautiful day and he has a beautiful place in Bois le Roi, overlooking the Seine. Even played some Table-tennis. Earlier in the afternoon I was at the Chateau Gardens since Ranjith's wife, Priya is heading back to the US. It was nice to be outdoors for a change esp. since the day was so nice.

28 Mar 2005

Deepali is in Fontainbleau! Yesterday we did the usual round starting from Chatelet, Notre Dame, Louvre, Arc de T, (and then a slight diversion to Place Vendome), and then to Pere Lachaise and back to Gare de Lyon for a Turkish Bite. I got to find some new haunts in Paris now, I think I've done this trek enough times. Somebody (Raoul?) mysteriously rearranged our living room so now its even more entertainment friendly. The couch is right in front of the projector/screen, so we can laze while watching a movie. And now, on to another week.

24 March 2005

Jenna (Jeremy's sister) left today morning. A brief visit, but I think she ended up doing a lot in Paris. So Deutsche Post is coming on campus tonight. Sounds close enough to Deutsche Bank -- maybe I have a chance!?

BT and GS, its a no go. Oh well, as one of my professors says "life sucks and then you die". May seem like a dreary statement, but its actually a motivating one in a peculiar sense, if you know what I mean.

March 23 2005

Its Iberian week (Spanish/Portugal). Had an Iberian breakfast today, the sausages on bread (bocadillas) etc...its what we had day and night in Spain over the winter.

22 Mar 2005

Jenna (Jeremy's sister) came in yesterday and we went out for dinner with Raoul, Robyn etc.

18 Mar 2005

Been missing again from my blog for a few days now. And there aren't many classes. Then why am I missing. Well, I was in London for a couple of interviews. Went okay. But it was nice to be back in London. I think I can feel quite at home there. Got a bit of the India feel as well as the US feel. Ashish and Abhimanyu happened to be in London as well, so it worked out great.

But the job presentations are rolling in at a fast pace. Its not possible to attend all of them, and/or apply to all of them. So the time has finally come where I actually have to narrow my choice or work/sector/job/company. There's a McKinsey dinner tonight and I'll be sitting at the BTO table. Missed the Bain, BCG, BAH presentations, but hopefully they weren't that vital. And last night, was a late night submitting applications for them. I hope my words were coherent in my cover letter considering I was so tired. So, let's see, I only slept about 5 hours on Monday night (reached Milton Keynes for the BT interview Monday night), then 4 hours Tuesday night (Goldman Sachs the next day), 3 hours the following night (was spending some quality time with A/A), and then 5 hours last night. And one of the work-life balance presentations say that there should be a minimum of 6 hours sleep everyday. I don't see that happening just yet. But hey, I think I can manage to live longer by sleeping less, because its more hours of awareness. Which translates to more hours of fun and games. So maybe its not such a bad tradeoff.

11 Mar 2005

Was a party at Auberge today. Somehow, don't feel like going to too many of these parties now. Rather stay at home and have a nice dinner with the Forestieres or something. That is, the people around the house. Ah, the weekend. And then the interviews and consulting company presentations. An important week coming up.

11 Mar 2005

No classes today and yet so busy. Now I'm kind of scared what it would be like when classes get in full swing. Busier than P3? I thought that wouldn't humanly be possible. But now it seems like it might be...hmm... Well, anyhow, P3 was the busiest time in my life so far. So thats good to know.

Becrom is back. Shan was back a few days ago. Shan took his car back. Becrom is going to take his printer and speakers back. Its over. I'll have nothing now! Oh well, back to the little Dell Laptop speakers and the good old bicycle that goes like this when I ride it to school: creeak, creeak, screech...creeak, creeak, screeech...and so on...

9 Mar 2005

Saw a movie last night, S.W.A.T. Raoul returned from Zurich as well and that leads us to the end of the P3/P4 break. Its a little ironic that during the INSEAD period, when I have classes, I manage to get 2 mins to write something in this blog. But when I have a break, I am not able to write anything when supposedly, I have more time. The truth is, I am extremely busy during the breaks trying to catch up on sleep! And then there are other job hunt kind of things that end up being a little more critical than a blog entry.

So, I was in Belgium and Amsterdam last couple of days. It was excellent. What a laid back place. Potential settle-down city.

I'm happy to inform you I will be headed to London for a BT Assessment Center Test. And even happier to inform I got a 1 year work permit for the UK. Now it remains to be seen, if I get a job there!

The Singapore guys are back. And they're back with a whole lot of more people. P4 is very popular here at INSEAD because of all the recruiting events. Quite a few companies coming on campus. Going to be hectic.

2 Mar 2005

Raoul almost missed his flight as we took the wrong route to the airport. Flight at 2:50, we reached at 2:35. Too thin.

Saw Apocalypse now at home with Ranjith and Priya -- and this time I didn't sleep through the movie. What a movie!

Now back to some work. Yes, work -- despite the end of exams.

28 Feb 2005

Exams over! Hope I passed. Now that its all over, I feel like I just got struck by lightening. Can't believe P3 is over already, and so are the exams. I have this one Media Management Nintendo Project left to do. But thats about it.

I think I'm in an empty space now, wondering what to do next. Go home and sleep? Go out for dinner? Watch a movie. Not quite sure. I actually have some time! It will take me some time to get used to having some time. In a week, the time will come that I will have no time again. Okay, time to go.

26 Feb 2005

No time to write in this entry today. So I'm going to paste something I wrote to my ex-DB mates.

"The French exam today screwed me over. The teacher told me the essay was going to be on "imagine your future" kind of thing. It turned out being "What profession do you like, what are the challenges, and what are the strengths of it". I just couldn't figure out the words for astronaut or firefighter. So I wrote about being an acteur (actor). Thats my story for today. Will probably go in my blog. Actually, I'm just going to copy and paste this bit, will save me the blog entry of the day."

24 Feb 2005

Aujord hui, je vais etudier pour mon examen francais parce que demain est mon examen francais. Mais, je dois aussi etudier pour les macroeconomiques et politique international. Ces examens sont a Lundi. C'est tout. Au revoir mon petit blog!

23 Feb 2005

Unbelievable, I'm actually home before dark today. But it doesn't help that I have a ton to do and got to wake up at 6am after sleeping for 4 hours last night.

21 Feb 2005

Had a French Oral exam today. I think I passed. Ideally, I should be writing this blog in french - but I don't think I have the time for that. But ideally, I should have the time for that because I should be so fluent in it, that it shouldn't take much time.

Saturday night, Raoul had one of his Raclette nights. It was great -- all the cheese and potatoes.

Now, on to class. And I wait anxiously to hear from Goldman.

19 Feb 2005

I can't believe I actually had some free time today. A few hours of it. I didn't quite know what to do with myself. But I decided to keep it low key and went out for dinner with Ranjith and Priya. Had Crepes for Dinner and Crepes for dessert. Oh Crep. I'm crepped out now.

I just ruffled through some reading I have to do for Political Analysis and Macro on Monday. Quite a lot of it. That means I should get started soon.

Had a Goldman Interview today for Private Wealth Management. Investing -- I don't think I know too much about it. And I didn't even take that investments class in P3. I should have. Or maybe I should save that last sentence depending on whether I get the job or at least into the 2nd round. GS seems like a good company to work for. A bit different from the other banks I gather.

17 Feb 2005

3 Hours of sleep. And counting...zzzz...uh huh...ok, wake up. Had to do this super long Applied Corporate Finance assignment on this Funeral Home Group last night. I think I'm just incredibly slow at doing these Valuations. So it took me forever, even though when I sat down at 12:30am to do it, I said to myself "Oh, I'm almost done". And then I slept at 4.

Had Media Management at 8, and we discussed Bertelsmann, AOL TW, and Newscorp. Cool class. Media is good too. And so is Consulting. So maybe Media Consulting? By the time I'm done with these blogs, I would have explored every career option.

Got to go build my product today. We're making a prototype of this Ly.Chi Suitcase. A suitcase for the female business traveler. This is the class with Melissa and Robyn (who incidentally live in my house) - the designers from California. Of course, they are doing all the drawings for the prototype.

16 Feb 2005

Had a BT interview yesterday. And a "Day in the life of a Consultant" speech. Consulting is good.

14 Feb 2005

Valentine's Day. Where is my Valentine? Somewhere across the ocean, perhaps thinking the same thing. ;-)

On Saturday, it was Career Day. CMS (Career Mgmt. Services) finally put something together that is worthy of praise. We had an improvisation workshop and a body language one. And then a special session on Deception Detection. I'm not sure how thats going to help us but it was mighty interesting. There was this guy from the Israeli defense force and he was a professional interrogator for criminals in the army. It was like the movies. He was giving us all the tips to interrogate criminals and to determine whether someone is lying or not. Watched King Arthur at night.

Today was packed. And tomorrow as well. The day after also. And after....and after...until the exams end two weeks from now. Got a BT Interview tomorrow. Got to Prep. See you.

11 Feb 2005

It was the end of the British Week. So we had a Disco School Party. The idea was to wear school uniforms. I didn't dress up in one. The thing is, I've worn a uniform most of my life and I just didn't want to dress up in yet another one! And besides, I was lazy to dress up. Although, everyone else did, with the mini skirts and the ties and all that. Quite amusing.

Tomorrow is Career day. Got to wake up at 8am. So I should be sleeping...

10 Feb 2005

These students who were previously consultants shared some of their experiences in an amphi. The more I hear about it, the more appealing it becomes.........Aaah. Just now. This very moment...My spacebar clicked into place! It had been bugging me for 3-4 days - the spacebar had clicked off the keyboard and I was cursing Dell. I thought it was over, its going to be a 60% spacebar now instead of a 100% spacebar. But just now..JUST now, as it clicked into place, I think its going to be a 100% one. Phew. Michael Dell rules. And Carly Fiorina?

Why is my cough back. I thought I was cured.

I played squash at 9pm. And my squash racket's strings broke. Now I wonder and ponder, should I get a new one or just get it restrung. Now if I had a job right now, I'd surely have gotten a new one.

9 Feb 2005

The OECD Secretary General Donald Johnson spoke for an hour and a half about the aging problem affecting the world economy. Quite interesting. Also, just to see such a powerful guy give a speech.

Been running around all day! I wanted to get some water at 10am. And I was only able to drink a drop at 2pm. I have to even time bathroom breaks. Lets see, in the morning, after 4-5 hours of sleep, we had this OECD Lecture. Then, a quick email check, and a group meeting for Applied Corporate Finance. On to lunch, a sip of water, and then Macroeconomics. Right after, French. And then the Booz Allen Hamilton Crack a Case workshop (which was overbooked and thus, I couldn't practice the case interview). BAH seems like a pretty chill company, or at least, the guys who were here seemed pretty relaxed.

Then I got home at 9:30pm, and ate a week old chicken I cooked, and now I'm here typing this blog, trying to get some valuations (arrgh) done. That was my day. If I narrate my day everyday, I'll go crazy. So think of this blog addition as a treat.

8 Feb 2005

BT sent me an email today for a phone interview. Phew...my first, and hopefully not my last. I'm looking forward to it - its a great position. Anyway, I won't say more just now about that.

Its British/Irish week this week. So the British and Irish flags are up all over the campus. They were selling 1 Euro Guiness, Strongbow, Caffrey's. Good old England. I participated in a Quiz with Aloke, Dharma, and Akshaya. Kama came along and joined us a bit later. We didn't do too bad considering there were 4 indians and an Indonesian answering all these British/Irish questions. Tricky questions. For instance, How many countries in the world drive on the left side of the road? Did you know...66.

Tomorrow the Secretary General of the OECD is coming to our Political Analysis class. Should be interesting. I wonder how they got him to come to INSEAD. Our Professor know some big people in big places. Maybe its the Harvard connection he has...like our friendly US President.

7 Feb 2005

Went into Paris today. Finally. I need to get away from our Fontainebleau just to see that some greater life exists out there in a city. I met up with Nitya, an old Mayo friend. And Kama who's living at my house in Fbl also came along with me to Paris. It was time to visit the Rodin Museum and observe Le Penseur. The Thinker.

Also went to a strange Modern Art Museum with all kinds of weird displays and objects. Interesting. And then the Musee D'Orsay, which was closing at 6pm and didn't allow our 5:45 pm entry. Nitya gave us a hearty mom-made home-made lunch at her place in Trocadero. Fantastic apartment they have!

I downloaded Before Sunset and Before Sunrise from the K Drive (our INSEAD common drive). So after we had some Raoul Fondue, we watched Before Sunrise. Or was it Before Sunset. One of them...the first one, whatever it was.

5 Feb 2005

Raoul rented The Hulk. He's always renting movies I've already seen. The coming week seems to be relatively lighter. Which means I have to make it heavy. Otherwise the following week will be even heavier. Its a whole balancing act out here.

Finance is good. Our proffessor Kevin Kaiser is really good as well. But I don't think I get the whole picture. Or maybe everyone else just pretends to know everything. I hope its the latter.

Have to choose my electives for P4 next week. Choices, choices. I contacted this Executive MBA for Shell IT and the response looks positive (fingers crossed)

Chinese week is over. I bought some tickets for the party this weekend, but then I sold them. Nobody in my house was going. I probably could have gone, but somehow I've not been in the mood to go to some of the parties this period. Perhaps the job/work issues? Or maybe I'm getting old. Naaah.

1 Feb 2005

I just remembered. Got to hand in rent today. This is probably the most worthwhile rent I'll ever be giving considering my landlord (Guy) just bought us a projector. Raoul watched Troy on it last night, and I could only catch 30 mins of it because I have so much work! How come Raoul never has any work?

Our Media Management class was super cool today. The EMI Chairman came and was talking about the difficulties the Music industry is facing (Piracy, Competing entertainment, distribution, content rights etc...) and he was saying how Norah Jones was bringing them lots of money. Apparently, she is very humble and doesn't want all the publicity. EMI found her playing in a bar in New York. The other artists they have are Coldplay and Robbie Williams. The guy probably knows all of these people on a first name basis! Mariah Carey is also an ex-star of EMI.

Enough with EMI. Just went for a Fidelity Investments presentation. I think I want to work for them too.

31 January 2005

Its Chinese Week. Plenty of things planned for the upcoming week, with the week, as usual, ending with a Chateau Party. I wonder how they're going to China-ize the Chateau.

We got a new projector for the house (Villa la Forestiere). Its pretty nice. We also have a nice big ecran (screen) and Raoul has set up some nice big speakers. So we saw Spiderman 2 at home last night.

Now I found out that this blog shows up when searched in Yahoo. Thats not good. I thought it wouldn't. So I'm going to have to watch what I type here since its entered this crazy place called the world wide web. It doesn't show up on Google though. So if the whole world uses Google, I'm safe.

30 January 2005

I slept till really late today. Why does my Finance assignment take so long to do? And it was just a short report today. I wonder how long its going to take me when I do a long report.

It was the Action Team party today and we got to see some pretty crazy videos of the Action Team. After, we went over to Stefan's (he was in my group in P1, P2) 30th birthday party. Now tomorrow is time to get down and dirty with the books.

January 29 2005

Had a nice dinner with Ranjith, his wife, and Rohit. Egg curry it was. I painfully repasted all my little snippets of blogs back onto this page. I had to take them off for some reason and put them back on. What a pain. But now I'm done! And can continue adding to this blog. Or at least, intermittently keep adding to this blog.

It was an okay week. But I know next week is going to be busier with all the papers due. Also our Media Management class is going to be back on schedule ( we didn't have it last week ). Our Finance professor is a pretty cool guy, or rather, a bit of a strange guy. He really gets the messages through to my head. Got to give him credit even though he uses a bit of profanity at times!

And now the question arises, as Fukuyama for my Political Analysis class puts it, Is it the end of History? And are we missing the Cold War? And are civilizations going to clash? hmmm...

There was an AT Kearney (Mgmt. Consulting) Japan presentation. Unfortunately, you need to know Japanese to work in Japan. I don't know Japanese. I can learn though. So I asked. But I don't think they were too happy about the idea of me learning Japanese so I can work at AT Kearney Japan. Perhaps it is too much of a challenge. Maybe someday in my life, I can work in Japan.

January 17 2005

Les Artistes is keeping me busy. We had a sketching/drawing interactive class last week and a dinner as well. These INSEAD clubs rock.

16 January 2005

My birthday yesterday. Nice day to have a birthday. It was Saturday and it was also the welcome week party. Party was quite good -- in a chateau as usual and lots of people. Got back pretty late and then woke up late as well. Drove over to campus, did some reading, then came back for the RANDOM dinner that is hosted for the new Januaries. Raoul had invited 4 other Januaries for the Random Dinner and there were 12 of us in total. Just got done eating. And now there's a case to read and a paper to write and then an 8:30 class! Darn doggone it.

13 January 2005

What a crazy day. Welcome Week in full swing and club fairs are on. I was at the Les Artistes stand for the half the day. Also, the Media Mgmt. class started. It seems there is a lot more work this semester. And on top of it, I have French Lang. classes as well. Too much. Ok, back to my paper for a new product design.

12 Jan 2005

Wow, its 2005. And the last time I wrote anything on this blog was 2004 - a month ago. Okay, so first it was end of term papers, then exams, then more exams (which I probably messed up) and then a nice little break to Berlin with good old Jeremy. We stayed at Marie's place and saw lots of stuff. Took an overnight train. Then we took a walking tour and went around the Reichstag, Berlin Wall, Charlie's checkpoint (Charlie was some American guy guarding that checkpoint where the wall was), the Pergamon museum (with the Ishtar gate), Friedrichstraase, took the U Bahn and the S Bahn, Berlindom, saw the Russian Embassy in Berlin, Saw the hotel where Michael Jackson hung his baby out, walked over Hitlers bunker etc... so that narration was for myself so I remember what we did.

Then back in Fontainebleau for a couple of days and Bhamini and friends came over. It was off to Spain.

Seville - Giralda, Alcazar and the quaint walks around the city. Took a little tour around the Alcazar
Granada - Alhambra (ahem), Albaycin, the Moroccan looking souk places, Flamenco dance, Hotel Austria, and lots of mudejar architecture. Also, Mirador San Nicolas -- great view of the Alhambra and the Sierra Nevada. Really cheap city! Had a nice Doner Kebab there.
Madrid - Stayed right in Placa Santa Ana. Prime location! Walked over the Placa del Sol for the New Years - crazy Spaniards are up all night. Dinner only starts at around 10pm. Went to the Museo del Prado, walked around Jardin Buen Retiro and went the Post Salamanca area.
Toledo - Walked around the old city (old capital) of Spain. It was quite dead though, since it was Jan 1st. But we all had an excellent walk along the river on the side of a hill. Also bumped into INSEAD friend Michelle. Strange -- out of all places!
Barcelona - Probably the highlight. Such an arty city. Picasso Museum, Olympic area, Park Guell, Gaudi house, Montjuic (Olympic mountain), La Rambla, Port Vell. We stayed at Rita's place who's attending IESE in Barcelona.

By the time I got back, I was in the "Si", "lo siento" mode, rather than the "oui", "pardon". Now I'm slowly switching back with the start of my first French class today.

Been such a busy week already. Have had some new interesting classes. Course material is probably more interesting than P1, P2, but a lot more work. Also its Welcome Week. Can't wait for next week when things should be more routine and calm down. (Or so I hope - truth is, the madness never ends!)

29 Nov 2004

Phew...had 4 classes today! My brain is fried.

28 Nov 2004

Uh oh. Things are getting crazy again. Exams in a week! Man, this P2 really flew by. I think it was actually a week shorter than P1. It seems that I'm learning all these things but there is no time to absorb all of it. Can't even finish all the readings! The housemates and I wanted to do something together one last time before we all split apart (going to be strange) but there is no time to do it. Maybe dinner today.

Yesterday was a Neige party for the end of Canadian week. Had to wear white. It was in this Chateau Bellefontaine -- quite nice. One of the last parties of the year before everyone splits up. Things are going to be very different come January. I don't know if thats good or bad. I'm writing a paper on Informal Networks for Organizational Behaviour right now. Quite boring.

25 Nov 2004

It is Canada Week this week. So we had this ice skating and ice hockey night. We all set up teams. I also set up a team but somehow our chance didn't come to play. I played anyway in Team India. Of course we lost. We're Indians. We don't play Ice Hockey. The finals was Canucks vs the Nordics. An obvious final. Nordics won. Poor Canadians -- it was their week and they lost. They both played really well though.

Fontainebleau just opened up this small little ice skating rink recently. Thats where we played. It suddenly got pretty cold and foggy today as well.

I have this Organizational Behavior paper to write. I'm writing it with this guy, Anand. Quite boring -- this paper.

23 Nov 2004

We saw the Stanford Prison Experiments for our Organizational Behavior class today. Creepy. Especially when the learned and aware also start losing it because of the social environment.

22 Nov 2004

They actually kicked out our Accounting Professor today! Daniel, our Academic rep in the section, went up to the Dean and told him how awful our Accounting Profs teaching was. Apparently, the class voted against the prof. because they disliked his teaching. I thought he was a really nice and knowledgeable guy. Agreed his teaching wasn't the best, but then again, you can't always expect the best professors. They're some good ones and some bad ones. No justification to get him kicked out! Poor guy.

Anyhow, will be getting a new professor now for the last 2 weeks of classes. Which is another pretty senseless thing.

We wrapped up our E-Strat Loreal Challenge Period 1 decisions.

21 Nov 2004

Saw Manchurian Candidate in Paris today.

20 Nov 2004

Saw a movie today. Confidence. Raoul rented it. And then we cooked some indian pork/chicken and stayed home. Relaxing Fri night. Been working on the Loreal Estrat challenge. Its not too bad -- quite fun.

17 Nov 2004

Our group (E2-6) was selected for the Diageo Drunk Driving contest. We were one of seven teams to present our anti-drunk driving campaign. Stefan from our group is awesome at powerpoint and giving presentations and I think our group clearly had the most enjoyable presentation. Too bad our material wasn't good enough though. Some of the other groups had a lot of ideas on solving the drunk driving problem. So although our presentation was good, we didn't win the contest. It was good we made it that far at least. I still like the slogan "Be Driven", but the "Are you gonna go my way" won.

16 Nov 2004

We had our Section E2 Karaoke/Chinese dinner night today. I was surprised -- almost everyone went up and sang a song. Food was okayish, but the Karaoke was pretty good. Song selection not so varied but there were some French songs we sang as well. There was also a talk by some of the people in our section. They were Booz, BCG, McKinsey ex-consultants. Life of a consultant seems to be hard, but you can learn quite a bit it seems.

15 Nov 2004

Just got back from the MBA Idol. They have this "talent show" which is really quite funny and creative. There was everything from 'Who wants to be a millionaire' to Simon from American Idol. And all, of course, based on the INSEAD environment and cliches. I think our promotion also gets a chance to organize this and I kind of want to perform or do something in some way. Problem is, I don't have any great ideas. Any ideas?

14 Nov 2004

Just a lazy weekend of reading. Nobert (Guy's friend) came and cooked two big chickens so the whole house ate that. And then we watched an episode of the Simpsons.

12 Nov 2004

The crazy campaigning for National weeks continue. The whole bar area at INSEAD was full of different stalls selling their national weeks. Then we had a voting session in one of the amphis, to vote for the national weeks. And paper was being thrown all around.

In the evening, the Indians had a little get together for dinner and antakshari and some pooja. It was good. I hardly take the initiative to do something myself for Diwali so its nice when someone else plans something and then I can participate in it.

11 Nov 2004

Our class is campaigning for national weeks next year. So it was great today -- we got a lunch of all various countries. There was campaigning for Greek, Benelux, Iberia, English, Chinese, Russian etc...weeks.. so I had some Greek, Dutch, Spanish, Chinese food. I ate this whole herring (fish) raw. I think its a dutch thing. And of course, the greek food was delicious. Tomorrow is voting for the 9 national weeks we'll have starting January. 13 running -- have to vote 9.

Our Strategy class was kind of interesting. They showed a clip of Cirque de Soleil. Apparently its a great strategy for a circus. Organizational Behavior -- we played some dumb game.

Nov 8 2004

Back to school. I feel as if I had a really long vacation. In truth, it was just a weekend hiking trip. We had to all wear white to class today and bring an apple and place it on our desk. Some kind of "doctor theme". And sharp at 6pm, everyone was to crunch into their apples. So we did.

Nov 7 2004

Just got back from a beautiful hiking trip. It was in the Massif Central. Auvergne region. There were these volcanic hills that we hiked and reached the highest peak in Central France. Puy de Sancy its called -- at 1800 metres. Not that high and the hike wasn't that demanding. But it was great getting some French countryside air. That was on Saturday. Then on Sunday, we hiked up to a volcano. There was a crater as well and we went down into it and spelt INSEAD with some rocks. So its as if INSEAD rocks. har-de-har. 17 of us were there and we stayed in a Cabin (Gite). It was a 5 hour drive away -- not that close.

4 Nov 2004

Getting pretty busy here now! Tonight is our P1 Champagne Party. You know...the "Champagne Rules". The Champagne rules will probably come up again in P2 so I'll elaborate on that later. I'm also going hiking this weekend to this place: http://rando.auvergne.free.fr/ in this region auvergne. So no more blogging for a couple of days.

2 Nov 2004

Had a seminar on the exchange program from INSEAD to Wharton/Singapore today. I don't think I'll do either. Various reasons. Not going to list them. Came home and I shared the Chicken curry I made with everyone else. Although, there wasn't enough. So Jacqueline put some extra potatoes and sausages and Shan made some rice. Becrom provided desert and Raoul provided eating. It was good. Raoul also rented a movie -- BASIC. Seen it already.

31 October 2004

Kinda lazy day. Read a lot of stuff all day and saw this movie "Sum of all Fears" in the evening. Raoul or Becrom or someone finally got a DVD player for the house. So thats cool.

30 October 2004

I went and played squash today with Becrom, Raoul and Jacqueline. Quite fun. Also went to a crazy "Playboy mansion haloween party". It was probably the wildest party at INSEAD so far. Everybody was dressed up. I went as the Hunchback and my costume was quite a hit. The party at Chateau Montmelian was organized by a professional party planner with dancers and all that. Impressive. Its amazing how much effort INSEAD students put in just to have a good time. Last night was the Swiss Week Oktoberfest party. It was just like Oktoberfest in Munich replicated all over again. A band flew in from Munich just for the occasion.

28 October 2004

Yesterday was Swiss dinner night. Fondue, Raclette, White Wine, Kirsch, Toblerone and Lindt. Typical Swiss. Even had an Alphorn blower and an alphorn blowing competition. Some dude won a trip to the highest station on earth -- in Switzerland. Today, all day, was a big CV day. First there was a CV group session. We had to humiliate ourselves by showing our CV's on slides. In public. Then there was some Job Search techniques seminar. And then Job Search techniques in the library. Somehow, the CMS (Career Mgmt. Services) tries to be helpful, but aren't as effective at it.

26 October 2004

Had a Strategy and Managerial Accounting class today. It seems my professors are better than they were in P1. Decent improvement. Its Swiss Week this week and this stud of a CEO came in from Swisscom to give a talk. Quite an interesting talk. This guy is only 35 and gave us some insights on what INSEAD can't teach you. Things like "people are dispensable". What an evil guy.

25 October 2005

Just got back from Stockholm. And had exams before that. Those exams were probably the most academically challenging ones ever. I'll find out next week if I did ok. In other words -- passed. Anyhow, Stockholm was an awesome break. Really good atmosphere in the city, especially walking through the old town and on the bridges. Today I had to go into Paris again for my OMI (Medical) checkup for visa purposes. Also stayed over in an apartment in Paris last week, with my housemates. So been doing a fair bit of "getting out of Fontainebleau". But now I'm here. And I'm going to stay here.

15 October 2004

Went back to good old Carrefour again. This super walmart place is quite something. The employees are on skates rolling around all over the place, because its so huge. And its almost impossible to shop there. We went to eat some Chinese food at this place in Carrefour and I ordered some rice/pork etc... I thought I had ordered way too much. So I asked the woman to reduce some of the quantity. Before I knew it, she had doubled the quantity and gave me two plates thinking the food was for two people. So much for my french communication! I had to eat SO much food.

Becrom finally bought a wire to connect his Laptop to the TV. So we have a DVD player now, in effect. Once exams are over, I'll finally be able to watch a decent movie.

14 October 2004

I had some fondue today. Raoul and Emelda made some for the whole house. It was nice of them. They even played some traditional Swiss Music while we dipped into the warm creamy cheese. mmm. Had little bottles of Kirsch after that. We were momentarily transported to the Alps.

13 October 2004

So Bhamini finally bought her air ticket to come here today! Great. I've been quite busy trying to catch up with all the readings and problems for the 143 classes I have. No, they're 5 classes. But it seems like 143. I've been snooping around some Mayo websites today. Uncovered a lot of old mayoites. Including Ashish and Abhimanyu. There Abhimanyu -- I've put your name on this blog again. You owe me one now -- big time.

12 October 2004

Hello. I have exams in less than a week so perhaps I should stop writing until then. Or maybe I'll write. We'll see. I don't understand anything in my finance classes. What a strange, abstract subject. I would think there would be more solid results. After all, its only a matter of numbers.

11 October 2004

Just a couple of classes today and handing in of the Finance project. I finally cooked up some Indian food today. Some Alu ki sabzi. Turned out pretty decent. Although I think I burnt the rice.

10 October 2004

I went for a nice hour long jog in the Fontainebleau Forest today. 25000 hectares worth of forest makes it the 2nd largest forest in Europe. And its right outside my window. I was looking around for the wild boar but didn't see any. There were supposed to be there. I jogged around with Raoul and Emelda. There was even a 19th century tower erected in the forest. So we climbed up and had a nice view of Fontainebleau, Avon and Samoreau.

I finally saw Guy's room today and saw where he sleeps.

9 October 2004

Yesterday was the end of the French Week. So they had this big party on a boat on the Seine overlooking the Eiffel Tower. I didn't go though. But I heard it was pretty good. Instead, I was at Anand's place. Arvind, Ashish, Harish, Prasoon...etc..were there as well. So it was nice little indian gathering with all these married couples. Rohini made some Burmese food and Sangria.

Got to hand in this Finance valuation project in on Monday. And tonight is the big France Ireland World Cup Qualifier game in Stade de France. I'm going to go watch it. Too bad its raining. But rain or shine, football goes on...

6 October 2004

Group meetings. group meetings. group meetings. Luckily we have a finance expert in our group -- so the meeting didn't last long. Its French week this week. Yesterday there was some French Amphi storming where these french dudes came in shouting "we want more" . They were supposed to be on strike. Then, to fulfill their needs, they had various French events scheduled for this week. And then the big boat party at the end of this week. Although, the boat party near the Eiffel tower is being priced at 35 Euros; its a bit too expensive. Hmm. I don't know if I should go.

5 October 2004

Uh oh. I'm not feeling too well today. Now I wonder what the consequences of falling sick are at INSEAD. Missing even a class or two would be disaster. I went for an Alcon presentation today. This big Aluminium giant from Quebec. We have tons of group assignments due as well and I happen to be "in charge" of this Finance one of pricing an acquisition. I have no idea how to do it. eeks.

4 October 2004

Gudu Mama/Rachu mami came in today. It was great meeting them and showing them around. We went to downtown Fbl for a coffee and some brunch. Finally, I also saw the Fontainebleau Chateau. Quite nice -- it has periods ranging from Renaissance to Napolean. The Italian Renaissance touch is quite prevalent. We went into INSEAD -- the Bar area -- for some more coffee after that. And then I bid them and Sally/Monique farewell. The end.

3 October 2004

Had to wake up at 8:30 for classes on a Saturday. They went on till 1pm. Then I went out for lunch with a couple of INSEAD people in "downtown Fontainebleau".

In the evening we went into good old Paris. For Nuit Blanche. Its this festival in Paris where there are concerts in different areas of Paris. Went to a couple of them, walked around like crazy and also saw an open air silent movie with some techno music. Then I had some Madras Curry with Pasta in a Cafe. I discovered that French chefs only know how to make French food. When in France, don't even try any other cuisine. Went around the Bourse, Pompidou, Des Halles etc. We got back by train.

1 Oct 2004

Today there was a huge Arabian Nights party. But I didn't go. None of my housemates went actually. So amongst the party poopers, I've become a party pooper myself! But it was all right considering I had to wake up ar 8:00 am for my enjoyable Saturday classes. Really enjoyable. The timing for those classes couldn't be any better.

I also got my Accounting exam back. Boy, the average is super high. Its almost not like average. So its tough to beat the average. And it doesn't help that the grading is purely relative.

30 Sept 2004

Today classes were from 8:30 in the morning to 8:30 at night. All day. Too much. In between I even had a not very helpful career counseling session where the counselor drew funny matrices trying to tell me where my career is heading. yeeeeeeaaaaaaahh

I even checked out an age-old Peugeot 209 today. For a 1000 Euros. Hmm...should I buy it?

29 Sept 2004

I don't know if I mentioned this but its Arab Week this week. There was some belly dancing going on when I left campus but I think everyone was too worn out from the events of India week last week. I think it is tiresome having national weeks every week. They should alternate. Next week is French Week.

28 Sept 2004

We had this "how the grading system at INSEAD works" session today. The Dean came and spoke to our class about it. Grading is on some strange Z-Curve where the grades given out are purely relative. So basically, someone is bound to fail since everyone is distributed along this curve. Well, maybe thats not the exact interpretation, but thats what I make of it.

I got back and Becrom had called a couple of people over for some wine-tasting. There's some sale of wine going on in all the stores around here. Guy made us some soup as well.

26 Sept 2004

We were really desperate to watch a movie today. But the theatre is only playing French movies. The one english movie the fontainebleau theatre is playing is Bourne Supremacy. But that is dubbed in French as well. Not a problem for most of my housemates since they speak french, but I think its a bit of a problem for me. So us movie hungry people went searching for a DVD to watch. No DVD player at home, so we had to go to Campus and watch the movie in one of the amphi's (classrooms). It was fun being part of this "illegal" activity -- watching a movie in school. Wenkan had a DVD -- Merlin with Sam Neil. So we saw that. Really long movie, but not too bad.

I also spoke to Bhamini today. I added this line on so see can also see her name written in this blog. I speak to her every other day (a pretty constant factor of everyday) and just found out she would like her name introduced to this blog. :-)

25 Sept 2004

Yesterday was the big India Week party. It was in the same Chateau as the Bain Welcome Week party. I think if we have every other party in this magnificent chateau it won't be as magnificent anymore! It was a great party though. They were playing some hindi music in the "dungeon" of the chateau. The dungeon is where the dance floor is. I met a lot of people. I got home really late and then had to wake up in a couple of hours for the finance tutorial. Why do these tutorials have to be so early on a Saturday morning? After 4-5 hours of classes, I read a bit of stuff for my Monday classes and then went to another inter-section cross-pollination party. Its a tough life. Work hard. Play hard.

Today is my moms birthday. So I called home as well.

22 Sept 2004

Boy its getting busy. So these days I've been leaving home at 9am or before and coming back at 9-10pm. Then there is all this reading to do --usually some 60-70 pages and some homework. But I don't do half of it! The thing is, most of the work is pre-work -- in the sense it is work that is taught in a subsequent class. So I'd rather wait for the class first before doing the work. Anyhow, its a strange method of teaching INSEAD follows and I wonder if it is really working that well. Because I seem to miss out on doing most of the work. I think around the exams, there will be a lot of cramming going on.

There was an awesome DELL presentation today. And I got to talk one-on-one to this guy, Paul, who reports directly to Michael Dell. It was cool.

21 Sept 2004

Its India week. INSEAD has a national week every other week. With 72 different nationalities represented, some of the national weeks have to be combined. For instance, the current week is the India-Pak week. The Januaries (the INSEAD batch that came in in January) weren't that friendly when it came to organizing the events. So they organized most of it themselves. I played a small role in the Amphi Storming. Amphi Storming is when all the desi's rampage into the Amphi (classroom) and put on a little act to explain the coming events of India week. There is going to be some Kathak Dancing, Bollywood night etc...and the week ends with an Indian Dinner and a big party in a Chateau.

3 Dec 2004

So since its the last few days of E2 being together they're having all these events during class. Day before yesterday they had a holiday season day. Everyone had to wear red green or white. And then if, in a question to the prof., you name some of Santa's reindeer, you get a champagne credit. I managed to squeeze Rudolph in a question about getting trade secrets from a company. Kind of like a little girl finding out the secret of Santa and Rudolph!

Then yesterday we had a sleepy day. Everyone had to come in Pajamas and pillows. Not everyone did though.

Today was drinks mixing day. Everyone had to come in with some wine or the like and mix cocktails during class. Also E2 went in and stormed E1 with paper balls. Quite crazy.

So the semester is almost to a close and exams are next week. Back to the books...

30 Nov 2004

November almost over. Need I write that..you can tell from the date on this blog. We had our E2 section picture today. Everyone had to wear berets, carry baguettes and a glass of wine. It was the theme of the picture.

Nov 9 2004

Today was Entrepreneurship/Private Equity day. These enterepreneurial INSEAD students came out to give a talk and also discuss course selections for people wanting to focus on Venture Capital. Hmm.. I don't think I'll do it. But these guys sure were accomplished and it is very tempting to be your own boss. There was one guy who started his own company www.dmeurope.com. And another who was making stuffed toys called Giant Microbes (tm). And also www.wketchup.com. Then there was this French guy who had 10 different companies under him. All fairly young. While sitting in the amphi, I was just thinking "Wait a minute -- what am I doing here??!?" Maybe one day, I can also be an entrepreneur. Maybe right after INSEAD??!?

27 October 2004

Today was Swiss dinner night. We had some Raclette and Fondue. And they gave out lindt and Toblerone and had an Alphorn and an Alphorn blower. Pretty cool. Like we were transported to the Alps. And Potatoes of course...so we melt the cheese and lay it on the potato. mmmm...

23 Sept 2004

Saw a movie for my leadership class today. Old Black and white one. Pretty interesting. Its called 12 Angry men. Heard of it?

In the evening there was a GE presentation that was pretty disorganized. Also, for their leadership program they require a EU Visa. What nonsense is that? I don't think I want to work for them.

But beggars can't be choosers.

20 Sept 2004

My grandmoms birthday! Also the day I came back from Munich. Everyone was awfully worn out in the overnight bus trip back. We slept most of the way.

19 Sept 2004

Spent the day in Munich. The youth hostel was really clean. True German style. Very efficient. Oktoberfest was like a big fair with tents and things. I went on a few rides and ate lots of sausages and some German Beer. There are these huge women holding 10 1 liter glasses in their hands and serving them. Wow. The guys are all wearing their lederhosen and singing. Quite authentic.

Sept 18 2004

Left for Munich -- Oktoberfest! There was a busload of 50 INSEAD people. Good bonding time. Especially with my housemates Jacqueline, Becrom and Shan. It was a mighty long ride. Some 12 hours. But we had some fun along the way. The Autobahns in Germany are crazy. Cars were going at 180 kms an hour easily.

17 Sept 2004

I chatted with Abhimanyu today. It was awesome. Now when I find out that one of my best buddies actually is reading these blogs, I get encouraged to continue writing. So I'm writing.

I have my exam in an hour though. And then after the exam, with a busload of 50 INSEADers, we're heading to Munich for a little over a day. A short trip but we're going to catch the festivities of Oktoberfest I presume.

16 Sept 2004

Today I went in for a bit for the India Week preparation. Every other week at INSEAD is some nationality week. So some things are being organized for next week (India Week). There's going to be a South Indian Breakfast, Movie night, Party, Music night etc...And on Monday we're going to storm the amphis(classrooms) and tell everyone about the schedule. Then I studied for the Accounting exam tomorrow. Eeeks. It was awfully cold riding the bike into school in the morning. Its getting cold.

12 Sept 2004

I went and played Ultimate Frisbee for the first time. Pretty fun game and definitily more strenuous than I thought. I got back and cooked some pork with Becrom. And then down to the books.

11 Sep 2004

I just got back from Paris. There were about 15 people going out "clubbing" kind of thing. So we went there in cars. First it took forever getting everyone together and then when everyone did get together and we got there after lines of traffic, it was already 10pm. So we just ate a hearty meal (expensive--- 37 Euros!) and then headed off to this place The Scene or something. This was all in the Bastille area - quite a lively area at night. But there was a cover charge and it was already 1:30am. So my housemates and I came back -- while the others went in. It was nice of Becrom to drive us back.

Earlier in the day I played a bit of cricket but nobody showed up to play so it was just 3 of us playing -- Aman, Vik and I. And even earlier in the day I went for two tutorials for 2 hours each. These tutorials are like Rutgers recitations with Teaching Assistants. Pretty helpful. I had one for Finance and another for Economics. I have an exam on Friday so I'll probably spend all of tomorrow studying for that. And there is even some ultimate frisbee going on so I'll go and check that out.

Signing out for the end of the second week of school.

9 Sep 2004

I had only two classes which ended by noon but yet the day was so busy. There's always something lined up in the day. Went to some Statistics Tutorial and some Career Management Presentation. Also talked a great deal about the Myers Briggs Type Indicator personality test. I don't believe much in that. But its supposed to get our career into focus. Hmm. Didn't work too well.

Went to a Booz Allen Hamilton presentation in the evening.

8 Sept 2004

Played 4 sets of Tennis today.

7 Sep 2004

Did some grocery shopping today from Monoprix and Champion. Also went to a Bain presentation. The presentation was more for the December grads but I sat in anyway.
posted by Dhiren at 9/7/2004 11:30:23 PM 0 comments
Sunday, September 05, 2004
Sept 05 2004
Since its the first Sunday of the month, all the museums in Paris are free. So I went in with Shan and Becrom. We went to the Louvre and paid homage to the Mona Lisa. After, we went to the Notre Dame, ate at a cafe in San Michel and walked around the Eiffel Tower. I didn't go up the Eiffel Tower because I have a feeling I'll end up doing that anyway when someone comes. It was a beautiful day so it was nice walking around around the Seine.

5 Sep 2004

Since its the first Sunday of the month, all the museums in Paris are free. So I went in with Shan and Becrom. We went to the Louvre and paid homage to the Mona Lisa. After, we went to the Notre Dame, ate at a cafe in San Michel and walked around the Eiffel Tower. I didn't go up the Eiffel Tower because I have a feeling I'll end up doing that anyway when someone comes. It was a beautiful day so it was nice walking around around the Seine.

4 Sep 2004

We had a South Asian Dinner get together today. In other words, an Indian subcontinent get together. It was in Bouron Marlotte. Met a lot of the desi crew.

3 Sep 2004

http://www.pari-roller.com/?lang=fr〈=en
This site has the event I participated in today. After a tough day of classes and all the assignments given to us I went to CarreFour (like a Super Walmart) and bought some knee, elbow and wrist guards. Then I went to Guy and he lent me his age old pair of roller blades. And then I went back to campus and drove in with 6 other INSEADers to Paris -- Gare Montparnasse. That was where the event starts from. 10000 rollerskaters skating around paris for 22kms and 4 hours of the night. Although I think I lost all of the 10000 skaters (in other words, I was the 10000th skater) after the 10th kilometer. I charted my own independent route out then, stopped for a coke at a cafe near the Bastille and made it back a little after the 10000 skater troop arrived back. Quite an adventure. And in the process I got to see a few sites and cross over a few bridges (pont) of Paris. Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower etc.. the Eiffel Tower looks amazing at night now that they lit it up.

Now I'm aching a bit. I lagged behind the skaters not because of my skills, but because of the skates. Yeah, sure, blame the skates. But its true. Those wheels were really old. Maybe I should invest in a new pair of nice skates. Considering I could skate around paris for 3-4 hours and not fall once. But then who knows where I'll be after INSEAD and then what will I do with the skates? This question arises so many times for various things.

Yesterday I played squash in the morning with Jacqueline as well. And I've been biking a lot everyday. It seems I've come to INSEAD to get my body in shape. Not my mind.