A semester that is special...

Aix en provence, France .. my desktop weather gadget indicates that it is 0 degrees Celsius outside. Thanks to my mini heater (which is surprisingly reliable), my small dorm room is protected from the harsh climate. It has snowed this morning, but I was kind of knocked out from the sleep deprivation over the past few days. Obviously, sleeping for 4-5 hours a day is not going to help my body.. so I had to compensate for that. As I peep out of my window, I see puddles of water frozen all over the place. Oh dear, how cold can it get in Aix? What I see now is in stark contrast with what welcomed us into France 4 months ago..

August 2009.. Aix en provence - the town of springs that is over 2 millennia old.. we started our adventure (yup, it is one big adventure) in France by staying in a studio apartment at a hotel. We experienced a very hot summer, and French hotels do not have fans. We cooked everyday and enjoyed free internet. We are international masters students now.. students of IAE (business school). College was nice, located in a peaceful village near Aix. Unfortunately (for me), we had to take 2 bus rides to get there. All international students were divided into 4 groups based on their previous knowledge of the french language, and then taught french for the first 2 weeks. I was in the beginners group (I still belong to the same group). We got started with the administrative stuff. We had fun in the team building workshop, where we built self-propelled automobiles using rubber bands & balloons


IAE is different from most other colleges, especially the ones back in India. Professors are very friendly & enthusiastic here. Lectures are delivered in an informal tone. Students are evaluated through individual exams & group works. IAE also has visiting professors from different countries. Instead of having classes for each subject throughout the semester, the class is sped through each subject through a series of lectures over a short duration of time. Sometimes, the schedule feels so hurried that a subject starts on day 1, has an exam on day 2 and concludes with a group work on day 3. But the group work was always fun. It was an enriching experience working with people from different countries bringing in diverse perspectives.



I moved to student dormitory in September. Actually, this was the first time I ever lived in a dorm. For me it was a big change, considering the fact that I lived alone in a 4 room apartment in hyderabad. This was made up by the internet speed, which is extremely high here (Sometimes I can download a whole movie in 15 minutes) Settling in was the hardest thing for me to do, not because it was a tough transition, but because I took the "settling in" process too seriously. For the first few weeks, our classmates had one trip or the other. We went to the nearby towns Marseille, Cassis, etc.



I thought I can get used to the environment by travelling along with my friends. I was wrong. Although I enjoyed those trips, they were taking a toll on my body. I had no proper food (read Indian food) here, and the food served in student cafeteria is either boiled vegetable or beef & pork. I couldn't take it anymore, so I bought a stove and started cooking everyday. Things got better, but only until I understood that cooking was not a problem at all, but doing dishes was. I was back to square one. However, I got used to a routine, Frites (French fries) became my primary food. I cooked occasionally, sometimes even had guests. We had a weekly dinner at another hostel block, which was an international potluck. . I cooked Indian curries for the first few days, but they were extremely spicy by international standards, hence I had to stop cooking for the dinner. On the whole, we enjoyed excellent food at those parties. More than the food, we enjoyed each others' company

Since there are so many nationalities in such a small class, it was hard for me to get used to so many accents. I had to change my own accent because it sounded too Indian and nobody would understand it, hence I started using my alter-accent, something I came up with at my first job for conference calls with US stakeholders & foreign teams. And the chinese are a majority in our class (4 of them). They gave everyone chinese nicknames. It's very interesting to know about china & chinese food is really tasty! Talking about getting to know countries, we had a marketing course, part of which is preparing a presentation about a country. I teamed up with Karthick & presented India, which got the highest score! Each day the class spent together, our understanding of the world was further enhanced.


Since I cannot drink alcohol (I tried it by the way, the taste sucked), I could not go to any of the wine parties or bar hops. My pastimes were playing tennis with Yagr and cooking food. We also enjoyed eating at Indian restaurants & food outlets (BK foods near Estellan is really good). Gradually, the hot & sunny Aix slipped into cold winter. My coat is not even close to keeping me warm, so I bought a new one here. Things are very expensive here. A good hair-cut costs atleast 15 euro and a good Indian meal costs 25 euro (1600 rupees? in hyderabad, i could get a biryani for 100!). Train tickets are also expensive. I took the TGV, fastest wheeled train in the world, to Paris (800 KM in 3 hours) to collect my Finnish visa. Paris is a beautiful city, a blend of medieval heritage & modern amenities. I enjoyed walking & cycling down those long & tidy streets.


Towards the end of the semester, we had an enterprise forum; a career fair. This was an eye opener, most of the employers are not willing to hire people who don't speak good french. It is very important to learn at least one european language to secure a job here. To conclude the semester, our professor Laifa arranged a separate forum for IMMIT with representatives of 3 french companies, followed by a lunch with them. Strangely, that's when I actually had "French" food for the first time - a leafy salad & a cooked duck ( i don't even know their real names).

Now that the semester is over, everybody shot off in different directions to explore Europe. We will start the next semester on Jan 4th 2010, in Turku, Finland. I'll be leaving Aix on the last day of the year and celebrating the new year in Helsinki. These 4 months were loaded with experiences, it is hard to believe that 4 months passed so fast. And now we are ready for another adventure, Finland. One of the coldest places I will ever possibly live in, Turku can get as cold as -30 degrees Celsius. I already have plans for Turku - playing tennis, ping pong, cycling & travelling. It will be loaded with fun. Yet there is something mysteriously seducing about Aix that makes me feel a little nostalgic. Although our stay is very short here, I'm sure .. that some day, I will be back for more fun! Miss you Aix!!

A new journey...

"Wake up now, or you'll miss the flight"

My brother was shaking me out of my half an hour nap. I tried to open my eyes and focus on the watch. What time is it? 3:00 am. Still feeling drowsy, i made my way through the room packed with baggage. It is not easy to get ready at this hour, i had to brush my teeth with ice cold water.

I put on the clothes set aside the day before, mom, dad and bro were all set to go. My sweet granny called me up and prayed for my well-being. The cabbie arrived on the dot. Everything was going as planned. We reached Shamshabad airport well in time. Although I got my check-in and immigration formalities done, I couldn't spend enough time with my family. Just a one minute chat, and I ran into the airport across the immigration desks.

I booked premium-economy, but somehow I was upgraded to executive class. Mmmm.. executive class is good! I put my stuff in the shelves above and sank into my chair. The flight took off smoothly, and I looked at the rising sun. As I fell asleep again, there was only one thought in my mind, I'm going to miss watching the sunrise in my home country for a long time...

Over an year ago, I gave my GMAT. Strike one. 650. Good, but not enough. Not if I want to get into a management program. Not if I want to get a scholarship. Hence, Strike two it is. But this isn't baseball, strike two is 3 months away. Cool, I didn't feel like I need to rush things. I can concentrate on my project at hand and prepare for GMAT right before the exam. A week of preparation should be enough (given the fact that this is my second attempt). What about TOEFL? Everyone told me that it is easy to prepare for and a week should be ok. So I booked slots for both exams in the same week.

And that week came even before I started my preparation. So it was a one night preparation for TOEFL and no preparation for GMAT. Incredibly, I did better this time and my GMAT score went up by 10 points (... only). And my TOEFL score wasn't bad either. I was convinced that I could get into a good college in the US, if not into one in the top 50. But as I started my research about colleges and programs, the reality started becoming obvious.

Getting into college is directly linked to ones financial capability. If you're not going into a top 20 college and/or you don't have a striking CV, you've got to be rich. Filthy rich. By some calculations, the fee is more than the lifetime earnings of an average middle class Indian family. I checked every type of loan available, what I observed was that you would get a loan only if you have something twice as valuable as the loan amount for security (somebody explain this to me. twice?). Else you need a US cosigner. Strangely, I remember people who asked for a US cosigner for funding UK courses. US, UK, Australia, Singapore and even Hong Kong. Nothing was within my reach. I used all the math I've learnt until that point of time in my life, but the numbers said only one thing - that I cannot invest in a master degree right away.

I told myself that I wasn't ready yet. Perhaps the preparation helped me in a good way, it helped me get stronger. And helped me learn how to stay focused. I'll work for a few years and then it will be Btech + Executive MBA. I was convinced that this is the only solution. I got back to my plans at office, what to work on for the next 6 months. But my dad changed my life with a single phone call. He called me up to tell me about a seminar organized by a european university. A newspaper article explains how the european education system is different from that in many other countries. I thought it was interesting, so I hit google. Then I found the course that would later be my masters program - IMMIT.

International Masters in Management of Information Technology. The contents and the delivery methods of this program are quite interesting. And there is a scholarship too! I decided to give it a shot. And I gave it my best shot. I got good recommendations from my workplace and a good CV with extracurriculars. Thankfully, I made it through the selection process. And I've got to thank so many people for this, my family for always being with me, my best friend (without whom I wouldn't have thought of a masters degree in the first place), my managers and my teammates at office for supporting me, my good friend Ravindra for being my MBA application "compatriot" (he's a more deserving candidate for a masters than I am) and everyone who has ever helped me inch towards my goal (even those who thought I could never do it).

I worked on my visa(s) and documentation, got my tickets ready and started buying stuff. This is going to be a long journey, hence I better be well-prepared. I left my job, which wasn't easy, after having worked for 3 years, I felt like I was about to be catapulted out of my comfort zone. On my last day at work, I was the last person in our team to leave the campus for the day. I just didn't feel like leaving. Getting a little sentimental, am I? :) I'll never feel the same way about another job in my life. I got everything ready and when the time arrived, I said my goodbyes and flew to my home for the first semester, France.

I woke up when we were cruising at 39000 feet. Outside temperature .. -58 degrees celcius. I kept wondering how cold it would be in France at that point of time. But the truth came in as a surprise though, because I had to transit through London, and I stayed for one night in an airport hotel. The climate at London wasn't even close to being cold. And down south in France, I could already see how warm it could be.

I took the connecting flight the next morning and reached Marseille, France. I met two of my classmates, Narek from Armenia and Suresh from Nepal. We headed to Aix-en-provence, where we would be staying for the next 4 months. As we headed to Aix on the highway, I looked at the vast green landscapes of Southern France through the bus window. I felt like I missed my cozy apartment. I missed my folks back home. But there's something more important ahead of me. My hope for a bright career, and my first step towards that - IMMIT ...