P4

There has been a huuuuuge gap between my last blog and this one. You guessed it, I was buzzzzzzzzy ..busy learning stuff, meeting people, having fun, goofing up, messing up things, missing on things, sleeping, reading, partying and all that ...its been so great so far.

P1 and P2 were definitely not my fav periods. France winter was not easy for my Indian skin. Fonty town was small for a Bangalorean (city) girl like me. But I had loved the French salads right away. I had loved the lovely looking houses too. My best find was the French deserts - if you are ever in France, dont miss the deserts.

Fonty was harder for me than learning accounting and FMV. Well, after being thru with it all, now I miss Fonty in certain ways. The summer was beautiful. Summer in France is more beautiful than the European summer you see in romantic movies. Summer totally turned the atmosphere and my mood around. From cold streets and black clothed grumpy looking people it turned to into picturesque long drives, cute clothed happy kids running around and old romantic couple holding each others hands and respective sticks taking strolls in the late yet bright evenings. I loved the fact that the there was sunlight beyond 10 p.m in the day.

After a harsh P1 it was a busy P2 and then a lovely summery P3. The 2 month summer break after P3 took me to Holland for internship. I had so looked forward to get OUT of Fonty during P3 and was excited to pack all my belongings and move. Towards the end of my stay at Holland when I visited Fonty, I felt that for the first time this year I was going to a place I had known. It felt so comforting to go back to a place where I had lived and known - the streets, the alleys, the restaurants, the hangouts and the corner where the black cats live. I traveled quite a bit this year and each travel took me to a new destination. It definitely feels so good to come back to a place that you have lived and known before. Its a feeling of acceptance that is quite moving.

Now I am in Singapore in P4. I had been here earlier for my business foundation course for a week before INSEAD. It was just a week long and I had badly wanted to get back to Bangalore ! But this time around I LOVE Singapore. I live in Holland Village. Isnt that such a deja vu. I lived in Holland and then I come to Singapore to live in a place called Holland Village. I am sure this doesnt happen to people often. Right now, I am loving it ..really loving it.

Oh yeah, what about the campus ? Well, I think INSEAD is the same everywhere. Its very different with regards to the building and facilities and stuff. But it still has the distinct INSEAD flavour and it still has all the same major characteristics. The same classes, profs, cases ..yeah cases ..well I got to finish my assignment for tomorrow. Ciao.

At the library today

Microeconomics is still a jargon to me. I got to the library for 45 minutes (finally in the last 23 days at INSEAD) to study this. I gather that ....

Microeconomics -> price theory
- to study how individuals, households, firms make decisions to allocate limited resources - where goods are bought or sold.
- examines how these decisions determine supply and demand for goods and services

Supply and demand describe market relations between prospective buyer and seller for a good. The supply and demand model determines the PRICE and QUANTITY sold in the market ...makes sense to me.

Now, we visualize a competitive market where price of a product (or service) will function to equalize the quantity demanded by the buyers and the supply produced by the seller and bring the market to EQUILIBRIUM.

- Competitive market means that there is no Monopoly - which means that Microsoft has a strong competitor (I said we visualize ).

Almost Famous

Of the famous things that have the word 'famous' in them, I can only recollect one thing ...the movie 'almost famous'. I never have watched it. Right now, I am sitting at the 'Famous Studios' in Mahalakshmi, Mumbai. This is my break between my morning run to the French Consulate office and the evening one that is going to be at 4:00 p.m.

Looks like things are all fine, but the NOC has not reached. :O. A big O. Cant close my mouth back ..O. How could that be. I am going to Business Foundations Programme tomorrow morning and I need my passport back. At worst, I would have to come back to Mumbai for the visa. At best, the lady at the desk will find my NOC that was sent from Allianze Francaise and stamp a visa. Let me see if this break at the 'Famous Studios' brings me the luck that I need.

Well, lunch time .. I always believe there should be no tension. So lets deal with that later at 4 p.m. Till then, let me share what I say and heard inside this building. "Shahrukh came here last week for three days". Thats the king Khan ... Now I am not a great Shahrukh khan fan, but when you are told that news you are expected to look like one. I did.

I just left my techie job behind. I worked on the storage domain most of my life. Never have seen a SAN environment live in a customer place. And today I did. I did. I did. Right here at the 'Famous Studio'. And then all these shots that are taken on the negative are scanned into the SGI 16 rack machine. Lots of TB space there in each rack. These are digitized and work done on them. Editing, animation, graphics ... you name it ... all for your eyes to please. And then rewritten and published. And I got a first hand explanation of all these and a look at their IRIX machine, plus the two HP machines with Red Hat on them ! Not bad at all for a finale of my techie life.

Ah yeah, back to the visa stuff. Its 2:35 p.m and I am to leave here at 3:00 p.m to make it there at 4:00. Yup, fingers crossed.

Sometime later I shall write all about getting a visa from the mumbai consulate office. Last couple of months I just didnt make the time to write it down. Now that my techie days at office are coming to a close, hope to make some time to write it all.

Fonty ! Do I get there ?

Admitted ! It took me two days for the feeling to sink in. And then I was terribly confused .. INSEAD or IMD. IMD or INSEAD. Finally .... yes, Fonty, here I am, this is me, this is where on I earth I would rather be ...

And then I slept the rest of the weekend. Have been doing things the last minute lately. Just two days before the last date, I sent them my acceptance letter.

Ok what next now. hmmmm.... Visa for sure. Then housing. Yeah, a car. Oh, the warm winter clothes. What else ...err.. hmmmm..... cash... yeah, all the cash for the fees. The flight tickets as well. And yes, resign - that sure feels good. I am going to miss all the limelight I am getting in my current job, but yes, have to give it up. I am going to work till the very end ... this is like a pregnant friend of mine who was in office on completing 9 months and swore to work till the very end and sure she did - very happily that is.

Lets get back to the list
- Visa
- Housing
- Car
- Flight tickets
- Cash

I just told my boss today that I will be flying to Fonty. She didnt know INSEAD, forget Fonty. Actually this is not surprising .. I myself did not hear about INSEAD a year and a half ago .. blame the technical focus our job demands ?? ... may be. But sure had this tingle in her eye .. she is excited for me. She said my case was very unique. You said it lady, thats what I have been ... UNIQUE. Thats just the perfect word. So I have knocked off resignation from my list as you can seen. Thats more of formalities to finish now.

Next let me get to the Visa / Housing.
Visa - I will have to go to Mumbai. Looks like I need to get a NOC of sorts. Got some info there. I am feeling so lazy to pick the phone and call the embassy ... for whatever reason. Will do that. When I do that, will let you know.

Housing - So far I have mailed few guys and listed out some apartments on www.bonapart.org that I liked. I have to understand the formalities involved.

Cash - well, I have got most of it, I better start counting as to how much I need and get to the bank to give me education loan.