Student Life:

The new MBA students

 Finally our year of joy and happiness as a student has come to an end. Last Friday was the last day to submit our assignment and it is the last to our academic education too. After the last sleepless night, we did our submission and our student life too came to an end. Looking back, apart from learning and fun we had as a student, the experience as a student is something special.  The power to be independent and unquestionable is something special and it will never come back to us unless we are student.

While I was in the registration, I met the new set of MBA students with lot of aspiration and hope (just like me in last year). It bought me the pleasant memories of the past and also reminded me of my future life ahead.   Am sure that I can no longer have this cool life as a student again.  But the past memories will be preserved and whenever I see any student,  am sure that these reveries will be kindled and the fun will be remembered.

The Last Report:

The most commonly spoken word especially during the end of term time by students Is dead line. Generally we will be given a time limit where we should finish our assignment or report by that time. I love the word dead line because of its irony. It can be called as end line. But they call it dead line because of its importance. Where if we fail to complete our work we will be Dead.   But if we look closer it’s we the students who make its dead line more fatal. During our class in project management, my professor was talking about the project time and critical time. Where he told generally human mentality is that they tend to postpone the work so much to the end that, in the final they will  make every minute becomes a dead line if they need to complete their work.

That is what happened all these days whenever we need to submit an assignment or project. We had the last report where ample time was given. But just because we had a lot of time, we kept postponing and finally in the last day we used to work so hard that we give our best. If I had managed my time properly as said by my professor, I could have finished the last report long back with  ease. Anyway I cant deny the fact that it is lot more fun to write the assignment in the last minute where we call our friends to check and do our assignment as a race.    

The Students week!!

It has been a year since I stepped into UK. When I came, there were no friend here, no contacts. The only thing I had is the hope and belief on me and the university. I was well received right from the moment I stepped in Manchester by the university staff (got a pick up from the university to my accommodation) and then I was guided very well.



With my team!!



Now at last the time came where I can help some of the new student and return the kindness and favour I received from the university. I got an opportunity to work in the international check in where I need to check on the student’s visas and passport and guide them to complete their first contact with the university. It’s a three weeks work and I was given a short and brief training on what I am supposed to do. We the team of Rachael (we are part of student ambassadors) joined together and started for the process.

I started this work this Monday and I have seen students from all around the world and I get excited whenever I see someone from India. And the speciality of this job is it is lot more fun to do it and I have made a lot new friends already. Two more weeks are yet to go. And am sure we are going to have a wonderful time ahead.

Adieu to my friends:

Together!!!

Crazy moments!!

Our MBA is about the get completed. We are supposed to do our final consultancy project where we need to solve the problems of a real time company. As part of the curriculum, we need to give an presentation and need to submit two reports (customer and reflective).  Once we complete our presentation we can submit our report even from our home. Some of our already completed the presentation and some even started moving back to their country. Our MBA class had students from multiple countries like Brazil, China, Turkey, Nigeria, Hong Kong and India. But with this one year, we have formed a bonding together. As we realize that its time now to get back to our real world and work it is sometime painful to see our friends depart.

We started having lot of get together and parties as this might the final time for us to have fun together. And some of my friends have group trips across UK as they even felt they might not visit UK again as they know about the work load. Earlier we used to go to pubs for such party. But recently we realized having fun in home was much better with our own preparation of food. This week alone, I had three parties and today I have one more to attend. Whatever said and done, we make sure to spend our time to the best and capture these wonderful moments.

One in our Accomodation!!

My New Home

Mouth watering Chicken 65

After a year of stay in the university accommodation, I shifted to my friends place last week.  It’s a four bedroom individual house in Chethamhill. One of the advantage of Chetamhill is that it’s an predominantly an Asian area and so you can enjoy the Indian cuisine anytime needed. And also its just ten minutes from the city centre.  I was given an individual room which has all facilities. Since my friend has been staying here for almost a year, his home has everything we looks for. But out of all, the one that attracted me a lot in the whole house is the bathtub which was not available in the university accommodation.

Jalebi after a long time

And regarding food, the most attractive shop to me was the sweet shop. Since I didn’t eat the Indian jalebi for a long time, I bought half a kg of it and had my full share along with my friends. Also today being Ramadan, the shops were all full and I need to stand in the queue to get my order of sweets. More than the room and shower, my new room mates were so kind( two of them are my MBA class mates – Phani and Richie). They started with cooking chicken 65 for my arrival and welcomed me with our home made Indian food. After lot of hesitation and mixed feeling, I came out of my old accommodation. Am more than delighted now and hope we all had a exciting stay together.  

Last Week in the Accomdation!!!

Fz 16- My Love

I was watching a short film yesterday which is about the love between the hero and his coffee. The movie was little over hyped where he becomes a psycho killer due to his obsession for coffee and starts to kill people for a cup of coffee. In spite of the director’s extreme imagination, I felt something true about all of us. We people do have a lot of love to many inanimate objects and sometimes that goes beyond an extent where we start hurting others. When I was in India, I used to love my bike so much and usually never allow my brother to ride it. (But now the bike became his possession and I can’t do much about itL). Even though if it’s not for a coffee, am sure that many people do have a great love for money atleast. And I believe this kind of love is inevitable and sometimes makes our life better (as long as it doesn’t affect others).

Recently I have developed this kind of love and bonding with my accommodation especially with my room. I feel as if I came to the university a month back where my cosy room gave me the comfort and security required by that time. After staying almost a year, it’s time now to leave this place as am in the end of the contract period. Again it’s not only the room, it’s the ambience, the independence, gym, basketball court and more than all, the friends I made which made the bonding and love. Though I might not cry when I depart next week,  am sure I will miss this most lively place.  

Anyway, in life only if we lose something we will get something better and I believe this change is also for the good. Let’s wait and see….

Hoodie

Last week UK experienced something that they never experienced before – the Riot which started after the initially peaceful protest in Tottenham. With their identity hidden within a hoodie and  kerchief, the rioters involved in widespread looting, arson and violence with significant outbreaks in various parts of London. Within few days, it spread across all major cities of UK and eventually the Manchester too fell under it.  Almost all major retail shops were broken with the target especially on the electronics and booze stores.

The strength of youth!!

But right after the day of attack in Manchester one thing was shown greatly by the local mancunions which is their united Spirit. It bought back the people and business around to life as soon as possible.  The next day, thousands of Mancunians were found coming to work, going about their business, tidying their premises. Also the police played a great part in strengthening the protection across all potentially vulnerable areas and thereby avoided all further attack. When I went to the consultancy project the following day, apart from broken glasses of the shops, I also found the ebullience and strong character of the local and their support to the community.

Earlier in Indian films, I have seen Omni van generally used by the terrorist for all their activities. Whenever I see an omni, I usually imagine of terrorist using it(usually when I was small). Now after the attack here in Manchester, I find all people (especially young person) with a hoodie appearing to be a rioter. Even though I like personally like hoodie and have a lot of them (most of them bought in the university), I nowadays found a new dislike to it. But I hope this feeling of both hoodie and the pain which was caused by the riots will be short-lived…

Fun amidst Hardship:

Final days are getting closer. Everyone is busy with their final dissertation and projects. Since we don’t have daily classes anymore, it became increasingly harder to meet our friends. My university accommodation became almost like my mini jail as I need to sit in front of the computer for almost all the time and do the work. We finally found some ways to come out of our den and spend our energy.

Common room - All for us!!

After almost 10 months, we thought of using the accommodation facilities like gym, snooker board and basketball court to meet and greet. To our luck, our friend Mahesh (who is also staying in our accommodation) turned out to be a national basketball player. With his nifty teaching style, everyone honed our skills and started to play professionally ( we believe) . Our accommodation became a meeting spot for some of our friends where we met and played funny games. And gym is highlight as it became the chat room as we were chatting more than doing actual exercise. Since almost the accommodation is nearly empty without undergraduate students, the common room and other facilities became all ours.

We all know that this university life will last only for few more days. But I believe we will rejoice thinking these small moments in the future.

Project Time:

The Law firm

After having a lot of fun in the college it’s time now to start our real time project. After learning lot of theories and case studies, now we were asked to soil our hands by experimenting in a real company as a business consultant. All our class mates were introduced to different clients based on our skill set (past experience) and our preference. The good thing for the company is that our service is totally free for them which they relish a lot (The minimum market price for a consultant like us starts with 300 pounds per day whereas we do our work for weeks and that too free). Being a win-win situation for everyone, we were all left to ourselves.

I was lucky to get to work with the largest law firm in the world (DLA Piper) where I was to fix their marketing issues. My contact point was the regional marketing manager for northwest and she was more than happy to have me to analyse the market as she is busy pitching for new customers. I was given full support by them and was provided a seat amidst the busy working environment of the company. After a year break from my IT profession, working again with professional people was too inspiring and I felt I was back to my best. Thought I don’t know much about law, the management issues and marketing problem remains universally same for all companies (whether small or big).

I am learning a lot more than my project and this experience is really boosting my confidence. I can clearly see the way ahead of my prospective future.  

Third Semester!!

Am now in the fastest and finest days of my MBA; the final and last semester. In contrast to other post graduate students, our MBA curriculum includes a final month of taught class which means we are the only few students who had taught classes in the whole university. But being the last few days, we spent our last month in a more unique way.

Preparing for the innovative pitch!!

This semester was designed so that as a MBA graduate, we get to know about leadership and build Entrepreneurial skills that can be utilized later in our life. Also the importance of innovation in business is concentrated. Almost the whole semester is so practical where we need to come up with our own idea and formulate an innovative plan which we might use in our later stage of life. The innovation presentation involves in discussing our future idea which will possibly make every one of us a multi-millionaire.  It was fascinating to hear and help friend to generate ideas. One thing was made clear from this course. Ideas are easy to generate and very easy to implement when worked together as a team.  

Our final pic!!

In addition to learning we had lot of other good moments. Being together for almost a year, a kind of bonding was built within our student and even with the inanimate objects like chairs and computers in the class. Some of my sweet friends even prepared food for the whole class and distributed during the lunch. Our last month of final MBA passed so fast that we all even felt an 2 year MBA could have been much more enjoyable (As we can be a student for an year longer J).

Whatever said and done, we had a wonderful year of MBA. We have a practical project left for the semester where we need to go to a real time company and solve their management issues with our past experience and newly acquired knowledge. A long way is there to go and I believe our MBA gave us the right signpost for a successful future.

Paris Trip – Part 3(Continuation...)

Paris from the top

Finally came our moment of Paris. The Eiffel tower became bigger and bigger as we went closer thru the bus. After a point it became impossible to capture the Tower fully with my tiny little camera due to its massive height and breadth. With our adrenalin pumping faster, we jumped from the bus and started to run towards the tower entrance.  While wondering the beauty of Eiffel tower, I also realised the reason for it being selected as one of the world Wonder.   We had an option of going to the top with in few minutes in the lift. But we chose to have a ride thru stairs.

Within few minutes almost all of us started panting and started to look for a drink to quench our thirst. We reached the first floor (after climbing some 25 floors I guess) and got relieved to see some shops selling water and energy drink. But being in the top of the world, the prices were also found to be skyrocketed.  But who looked for it. We still had another 2000 steps at least to climb and we know that the price of these drinks also will climb still more as we reach the top. After the short refreshment we started our mission above. But our pace was greatly reduced.

Moments captured :)

The fun when we go in a group especially during these kind of climbing (or trekking or Mountaineering ) is that we can find at least one person in the group who will take more rest and will give all others reason to  rest. And he/she will be the one targeted by the group. We too had such people and after loads of funny moments with them we reached the second floor (up to which we can walk). Again our photo session started and looking the world from the top of Eiffel tower is always fascinating. We tried to spend as much time as we can there and finally came down. We spend so much time around the tower that it started getting dark (it was almost 10.30 pm). Suddenly the glittering lights were turned on and the tower started to sparkle in the darkness.

Actually the tower is too far!!

Glittering Behind!!

As we were too exhausted with the long and wonderful day, we started to look for a restaurant and moved away from Eiffel tower (saying a final good bye).  Later an enjoyable Indian dinner and funny games back in the hotel, night walk in shorts and t-shirt and what else??. We finally finished the longest and loveliest day by around 5 am with a small nap.

 The university trip to France will remain to be one of the best times in my life…. 

Paris Trip – Part 2 (Continuation)

City thru Hop-on Hop-off

After our gathering in hotel, we found we have a very less time to go around (it was 4 o Clock already) and so a quick decision was required for visiting as much places as possible. We had two options. One to use the public transportation (which we were not familiar with) and other to use the Hop-on Hop-off bus service. Since we were awake of our great knowledge of French (lol), we went with the second option which was little expensive. There were various bus services providing this hop-on hop-off service (which is an open top tourist bus which goes around all important places of Paris). With 29 Euros as premium which is quite high for the few hours of our travel in bus, we took our first step to see the most awaited Eiffel Tower.

  

The Concorde

Checking Paris from the top of the double decker was an awesome experience. And since we didn’t have much time, most of the pictures were captures from the bus top. But again to our disappointment, we had made another big mistake. We took the bus in wrong direction which means we will see Eiffel tower only after 7 o Clock since that’s the last stop for the bus. The good thing about European climate is that in contrast to Asian countries, sun will never set till 10 pm during the summer. Therefore, 7 o’ clock seemed to be ok for us. Starting with St. Madeline church, we covered Auber, Palais-Royal Comomedie Francaise, Museum d’Orsay, Arc of Triomphe, Norte Dame and finally Museum du Louvre.

Museum Louvre - Am enjoying

World famous Museum du Louvre was amusing as it welcomed us with the glass pyramid (which I saw in the move Da Vinci code). Our real photo session started in the museum.  Especially with my friends expensive Nikon SLR, giving pose to the picture was a pleasure.  The only disappointment was we were unable to see the world famous picture of Mona Lisa due to our time constraint. After checking all around the museum, we were so determined that our next spot will be only in Eiffel tower. After an enjoyable ride around the city in the bus, we ended up in Eiffel tower. To be continued…

Paris trip – Part 1

Standing tall - Taken from our Bus

After a week of interesting events in Rouen Business School, the much awaited day to visit the 6^th largest city of the world arrived. A bus was arranged for our trip and we started to Paris after our breakfast in Rouen. The temperature in France in general was so good (around 20 degree most of the time) and the weather forecast also confirmed on our best day to tour around. We were greeted by the Eiffel tower even from a very far distance which stood sumptuously welcoming everyone. Every street was filled with surprise as French architect have shown their competence in every possible building.

Au pied de cocbon - Paris

Our stay was arranged in a three star Hotel – Bergere Opera by the university which was in the heart of the Grands Boulevards. Also our farewell lunch from Rouen Business School was arranged in famous Restaurant of Paris - Au Pied De Cochon. As chicken was not consumed as commonly as we have here in England by the French, my favourite dish remained to be fish during my stay in France since I don’t eat Pork and beef due to religious reason.  To my surprise, the food catered also had their cultural touch where they served whole fish with dressing all around it (French have the habit of eating the whole animal as leaving some part of them was considered to be a disgrace). After a bon appetite, we almost ran back to our hotel to get dressed for our awaited tour. Since we had only half a day left for our exploration of Paris, time became a critical factor.

A warm day ahead - busy street in Paris

 Do wait for my next blog to know about our experience on the worlds prominent places in Paris (Actually, I can’t restrict my experience in few words within this blog). A lot more excitement yet to come… 

Rouen Business School (RBS)

As part of our MBA curriculum, a one week trip to Rouen Business School in France was organized by our university. Being the first trip outside the country and that too with all our class mates, we were very excited. And for me, this will be the first time to France and I have heard a lot about the romantic country and so it added to the thrill. Some of my friends started shopping a week in advance planning and anticipating the events. These planning and discussing was more titillating than the actual trip. After all the ballyhoo, the day for our journey came and with a one and half hour journey through Air France we stepped into the city of love – Paris.

Too hungry - made my plate clean(After a delicious meal)

From the airport, we went to Rouen which is a two hours’ drive through road. Everything is arranged so well that we felt the RBS was like our second home. Individual rooms in university accommodation were allotted to us and even utensils were provided which will be sufficient to cook whatever we want. We even shopped and had a traditional Indian meal (including chicken gravy) together with our friends.

French people were so much fascinated to their culture and they were more than proud to follow all their tradition. Therefore, the only language spoken in France was French and we were made to use the universal sign language for communications. But our sign language was not too successful. For instance, in a restaurant when my friend ordered desert (ice cream with chocolate) they served him with another meal and we all had a good laugh. But it also helped me to learn some words in French like Bonjour and merci which we used in our every conversation.

Too delicious - Red Wine

We had various interesting sessions in RBS and my personal favourite was a mini session on wine tasting (where various wine was served and we were taught to find a suitable wine as per our preference). Also the trip to Port Le Harve where 60% of all French export and imports are carried out was too informative. Other session include culture and international finance. One obvious difference between the usual class and the session we had was that it was attended by our MBA Director and Professor where they participated actively as a student, listening and asking queries as one among us. We met the MBA students of Rouen and had an outing with them too. We had booze, dance, party and every other possible thing to enjoy. It’s true that the time will become golden when friends hang around together.       

     

Hours went like minutes and days became too short. One week in Rouen Business School was one of the best times of our university life. Our exploration of France didn’t stop in Rouen; we travelled then to Paris. Do wait for my next blog to know my wonderful experience on the World Wonder – Eiffel Tower.    

Exams!!!

It was 5 o’ clock when I finally had my relaxing breadth after a tiring exam. It marked the end of my second semester and I was having a mixed feeling of joy and excitement and little sorrow deep somewhere for it all ended so soon. We had lot of memorable moments in the second semester and preparing for exams is also an important part of it. Almost my course is complete now and we have our final project to come. Our second semester was comparatively different to our first semester especially in the way the curriculum was designed. We had lot of group work where we need to spend lot of time together with friends which includes our sleepless night in the library.   

One fascinating thing about these night study and preparation is that it makes the work (whatever it is) interesting. Most of the preparation time comprise of irrelevant discussion, funny jokes (pulling each other leg) and a little bit of our subject. Since our university library will be open throughout the night finding a suitable place for all our fun ( group work) was not a problem. And another form of group work is the conference call in skype and status update in facebook.  Thanks to the advancement in technology as everything is free. And exams are lot more fun. Since we always have the illusion that our preparation is never sufficient, we tend to prepare more during last minute. I always have the feeling of getting my brain cleared right before the exams. But thankfully I get to remember some part of the answer when I see the questions. And am relaxed now since I feel I have written my exams fairly well and no point is thinking about them.

As a saying goes, a day can be complete only when both sun and moon shows its presence. And similar to that our university life was made interesting and complete with these exams and a wonderful break after that. Now we have an educational trip to Paris in few days from the university and have already planned so much with lot of anticipation. And we believe it will be a more than a welcoming break after the exams!!!

King and Queen

The wedding of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and Catherine Middleton took place last week in London. The whole country celebrated the wedding and I too celebrated it with my friends in Scotland in our own ways. Utilizing the continuous holiday, we covered almost all tourist attraction of Scotland. We planned for a four day Scottish trip to visit places around Scotland and booked for our accommodation in Edinburg and Glasgow.

The remains of Urquhart Castle

Scotland is a beautiful country which has its own unique attraction. We began our journey with the largest city of Scotland – Glasgow and started to feel the country. In addition to the wonderful places like 12^th century cathedral, botanical garden, universities, museums and City Centre, we got an opportunity to visit our first live concert of famous American pop singer Trey Songz.  And then we started to the capital of Scotland – Edinburgh. Wherever we went, we were welcomed by the pleasant traditional Scottish music played with the Great Highland Bagpipe. Our one day guided trip around the highlands covered almost the whole Scotland and it helped us to get better understanding of the country. Out of the entire visit, there were some special historic places which attracted me. They are the Scottish castles and palace.

The most visited tourist attraction of Edinburgh – the castle was well maintained by the government and it showed the kings rule on those days. In contrast to today’s modern high-fi weapons of the country , the weapons and armors used by the kings in the 12^th century to 19^th century and the life style of the kings in those days was found fascinating. Even the remains of the Urquhart Castle which was used by kings in 13^th to 16^th century as a guest house showed evidence of the quality of the life in those days. The Palace of Holyroodhouse which was the official residence of the monarch of Scotland in the 11^th century was too impressive and I really wished to live as a king for one day at least. Though most of the facilities available to the king of those days are available to most of the citizen of this country, the power and responsibility associated with the kingdom is too much.

Holistic View of Edinburgh

 Coming back to our today’s world, the contrast and change in the power and rule of our todays Queen was seen obvious. Am sure the Prince wedding added pride to the country and worth for the two billion people around the world to wait and watch.  

Newton's Law

I am always fascinated by Science from my childhood since we live in the modern world where we are inseparable from it. My favorite scientist is Newton for his one of the greatest discovery about gravity as most other inventions are based on them. To say frankly, when something falls on my head, I would generally abuse the nature and my bad day. I remember my school days when we used to sit below trees for lunch and used to have an eye above (not for the fear of apple or any other fruit, but for the fear of birds shit which I detest the most). But when an apple fell on Newton, he saw science in it. Coming back gravity, I should say am more than thankful to him as  total fun we had last week trip was based on this fundamental fact. We went for a trip to Alton tower which is biggest theme park in UK known for its gravity based roller coaster rides. It was one of the trip organized by Interlink and adding to our excitement, it was fully sponsored by the university.

The Oblivion- Colossal Vertical drop

Though I can write at least 10000 words about the various adrenalin pumping rides and amusing things in Alton towers, I would like to tell something about the special thrills of Alton towers (10 rides classified as Thirteen by Alton tower mgnt.) and our special moments. These ten roller coaster rides were distinctive feature of Alton towers designed to give ultimate pleasure and most of them cause Goosebumps for sure.  And my favorite among them is AIR which was designed so that we feel weightless and fly during the ride. In contrast to the other theme park (Black pool pleasure beach which I visited last month) there was one ride which made me sweat even in the cold weather. It’s the “Oblivion” which was designed so that we will be having a vertical drop from a thousand feet in to the deep pit. The highlight is that it will stop in the edge and once you look down, however brave and strong you are, fear will grip you instantly and you will have the best time after that. The total ride time is only for few seconds but those seconds will be remembered forever.

We also had great fun in the deceptive Rita (which looks like a boring train but it’s the fastest and one among the thirteen) where we gulled our friends (who don't want to try any of those special thrills and came just as observers) to the ride to have their share of experience. Apart from these kinds of thrilling rides, there are other water rides, traditional castle, frightening dark forest, adventure lands, and scintillating shows to spend the whole day.   Overall, Alton towers was a worthy place to visit. As I said earlier, I owe my special thanks to Newton and those super talented designers who built these thrilling but safe theme park.

In front of the Castle

Festival of Colors - Holi

With Halloween look after Holi!

With the transition from cold winter to refreshing spring, newly blossomed daffodils can be seen all over the country welcoming the change. Days started getting longer and warmer. After staying around six months in UK, now I started going around with cool T-shirt and jean without the protection of heavy jackets and gloves.  In India, it is celebrated with the religious festival called Holi where we welcome the spring with colors. I never expected to continue that tradition in UK. I got surprised when my friend told about Holi being organized and celebrated near Rusholme.  Without much anticipation, we went there and got pleasant surprise seeing people in full action. Most of them are unrecognizable and it took some time for us to even recognize my accommodation friends. Dancing, shouting, teasing and fighting with colors, wow, it was really a memorable experience. Except for the fact that it took hours together to clean my shoes and dress  

Gaming Zone!!

Age of Empire- My all time favorite!

I have always been fascinated by games.  As a kid, when I got my first video game kit as a gift for birthday, I literally glued myself with the TV and played games day and night.  Especially, I have a very strong association with Mario as I have saved the princess many times from the evil dragon. (And even now, whenever I see kids playing Mario, I will feel the strong urge to snatch the joystick and plunge into the action). And later during the engineering days, strategy games like Age of Empires, Red alert and Age of Mythology were my favorite. Many a times, I have bunked the classes since I spent sleepless night as a warrior leading troops and capturing new lands. Later, online role playing games attracted my interest and it’s the worst of all. Because it makes you forget the outside world and you will completely live with the virtual reality. (The movie Avatar is an advanced form of it, but actually it’s true with all online players).  After coming to UK, I gave a small break to all my gaming desires and since I had other kind of fun to cherish with. But it was not for long!

With the start of second semester, we had our new surprise. Now am supposed to start with a new business game, but as part of our curriculum. In contrast to playing against computers, this game needs to be played against our class mates. And as prospective future managers of the world, we are supposed to take decisions and run a billion pound Car Company and compete with each other team. That’s the game (Check the website to know more about the game http://www.trainingsimulations.com/). 5 teams were formed with 4 members in each team and we were ready to compete against each other. On one hand, we were enjoying with our competitive game and its outcome whereas on the other side, we started learning about the importance of managerial decision making. We started to see simple decisions changing the company’s future and so started implementing all the theories that we have been learning for the past 6 months.

As we grow up, we tend to forget our lively childish behaviour and tend to lead an empty life. But these kind of games can bring out the spirit in us. I can never forget our class mates shouting, mourning, jumping and even fighting while we played and it made thing more interesting. More than winning the game, it is this kind of participation which makes the game (and even our life) more interesting!!!!

Multi-cuisine

The first thing I need to adopt right after I stepped in UK was my food habit. I know that the salubrious and delicious food served by my mother with love can never be substituted anywhere in the world. Though my limited cooking skill can quell my hunger to an extent, one thing really bothered me. I don’t like to eat the same variety of food again and again even though am not a connoisseur of food. I remember the days when me and my brother used to bully my mother for making different varieties according to our specific taste. (My brother doesn't like most of the items that I like). But, after I came to UK, I really found it difficult even to think of making new dishes and also realized my mother's expertise in handling us.  

Delicious Chinese Cuisine

Eventually, I found one unique alternative to my ravenous hunger problem. In UK, it's not that we can get only traditional English fish and chips in UK restaurants. UK being a global village, you get almost every special thing in the world. My favorite is the McD which is on my way to the university. Whenever I think of the McD French fries, I start to salivate immediately. I started tasting different cuisines and really enjoyed this diversity. With Chinese, American, Italian, French, English, African and lot more substitute to my Indian food, I am enriching my sense of sapidity as much as possible.

John Lester Court

Whenever I return to my home after a short trip or a stay at relative’s house, I get instant peace of mind since I feel that there is always some connectivity between me and my home. But, when I left India for my higher education, especially knowing I will not return for a year at least, I felt a twinge in my stomach. Earlier, I have claimed sometimes that I am adventurous and love change, but this change was little heavy for me compared to my previous one. I booked the university accommodation in advance so that I can reduce the anxiety to an extent.

Holistic view from my Room.

When I reached my new accommodation (John Lester Court), I was given a place in the 12^th floor. It is a well-equipped room with a common kitchen and toilet which is to be shared with two Chinese friends. To get accustomed with the new environment and people, the management team in CLV organized various events and trips. Since I was involved in almost all events in the university, I was not able to participate in those events. But whenever I return back to my room after an interesting yet tiring day, I felt my room welcoming me back. Especially to sleep cuddling your pillow inside the blanket in the cold ambience is the loveliest thing in the world (I do that every day). With university and shopping city at a walk able distance and everything required set inbuilt, I feel completely content with my new accommodation.

Now I feel my room has turned to become my sweet home and will remain so till I complete my degree the university. The only hard fact is that I have only seven more months for it and I need to look out for my new life after that. Anyway change is inevitable and who knows what tomorrow brings!

Choosing the University

One of the biggest problems with choice is the fear of missing the best option. Fortunately, I picked the best and am enjoying the fruit of it now. When I was applying for universities, I looked for ranking, accreditation and finance and shortlisted quite a few. I did get offers from most of them but I selected Salford primarily because I received the prestigious Vice-Chancellor Scholarship award worth 5000 pounds. Also Salford being a century old institution and known for its technical competence, I gambled on Salford by leaving all other universities. 

From the various financial benefits I obtained from Salford, the 5k scholarship is found to be a start of it. I would like to discuss here some tricks (can call it as tips) that I learned from the past four months which might help anyone to minimize expenditure while having the maximum fun. First of all, if you are fun loving person who love to visit new places and tour around, the easiest thing is to become member to University communities and teams. Especially Interlink is the best way to explore if you are an international student as all the trips are free and exciting. Joining International society will help us to have cheapest trips all over UK. Also from this year the university is paying for our membership and we need not even bother about that too.

My University

Second, if you need to have some extra income then there are a plenty of part-time jobs all around Manchester and some even within the university. To start up with, the university will be conducting job fair where many prospective employers will gather together to give us job. And just by checking the university activities will help us to get the right job. Am sure that working some extra hours can help us to get whatever we want as far as we are in UK. If our money is properly administered it would be more than enough to cover all our day to day expenses as long as we live in UK. Also by selecting a university outside London, we can save more than 50% in the accommodation alone. 

And the third is the exciting part. That is to plan for the future and work. This is my personal favorite also. It’s developing our self and improving our CV with good reference without spending a penny. Joining in communities like SIFE, our personal skills like leadership, organizational abilities and team work can be enhanced. More than that, if there is an entrepreneur within you with the ambitious ideas, Salford is willing to give the office space and also sponsor it. What else is needed? (For more details visit http://www.sifesalford.com/ )

Though I missed to join in some of the communities I listed, I made sure to utilize them this semester and started taking part. After all, my university life might be for another nine months only. So I want to get the best out of it.   

Chinese New Year

Lion Dance

Today I celebrated the fifth day of the Chinese New year (Year of Rabbit) with my international friends. Many events were organized in the Manchester city center and we started early from the student accommodation so that we don’t miss anything. I saw the massive crowd which can be seldom seen in the city center. There were many events organized and the most impressive one were the dragon and lion dance and acrobatics (some martial arts stunts). I also got some blessing from the fortune god and he wished for everyone's wellness.  

After a ravishing Lunch

And in the afternoon, for the first time I went to a pure Chinese Restaurant. I instantly felt the cultural difference with my neighboring country. All the dishes were ordered by my friends since I can't discriminate between anything. The highlight is I started learning to hold the chop sticks (But I asked for a fork and knife later to eat since holding alone can’t quench my hunger).  We roamed around the food stalls and art workshops while waiting for the final firework and took some crazy pictures. And finally the firework proved the waiting to be worthy. It eventually turned out to be an unforgettable day.  

Yupee!! the fireworks

Along with the Chinese, I believe this year of Golden Rabbit will bring fortune and good health to everyone.  

New Experiences

 I always love to experience new things and it was actually one of the reasons I came to UK. Catering to my interest, while I was in India, my friends (from Switzerland) description about UK incited me to join Salford. And right from the day I stepped in UK, I am having lot of different experience which can’t be easily just described in few words. I would like to share two such pleasant experiences I had in this week.

In the warmth of Sunset 

Cycling: I purchased a mountain bike from EBay as I found it to be the best way to explore the city. With my friend Richie who already owned a cycle, we started our exploration together. And our first plan was to visit Manchester united stadium. Though we both have travelled to the stadium many a times, we thought to take some unconventional route with the hope of finding new shortcuts. We got engulfed by the scenic beauties of the country and eventually ended up in Eccles which lies 180 degree opposite to our intended direction. But when you travel with a friend, nothing could stop or trouble you. We found our way back to Manchester united. We indeed had some abuse from a drunken man and angry stares from the some commuters for ignoring some rules (Hope we will master them soon), but it all ended up as a pleasant ride.      

Lost in Eccles

    

Skating: I never imagined skating to be a wild sport. When I got invitation from my scuba team for the ice skating, I was more than thrilled.  Some of my friends started sailing in the ice with ease and some even did some crazy jumps, back flips and triple axles. But when I stepped in to the ice, I instantly found the difficulty and fear gripped over me. I became a child and started tumbling in all direction. (Some were very embarrassing indeed). But the only advantage is that you are not the only one to fall. Though many were skating so well, I found lot of first timers like me and now I started competing with them. With my friends help, I learnt to stand and move with the help of a support. But our falling never stopped. The more I thought I learnt something, the more I fell. It eventually turned out to be the best day of my life with friends competing with each other on the falling rate. Though we had a lot of minor bruises, no one was hurt badly. Looking back at the photos we had a very good laugh. 

   

We learned to Stand at last

My Journey

Our Manchester trip

It has been more than four months since I came to UK. But I feel as if I just came few days back. I still remember the day when I bid adieu to my family and friends. After that, the whole journey of 7500 miles to Manchester was filled with nostalgic feeling along with some unknown anticipation of future. In the Airport, when I saw a student with the Blue Salford University hoody to receive me, I felt instantly comfortable.  With the university organizing various events and trips, I had the best time in the next two weeks.  It helped me to know new places and also to make new friends. In fact I made most number of friends in those first two week. My trip to Castleton and Trafford center were most unforgettable.   

Castleton Trip

And finally came my first day in class. Doing MBA was my childhood aspiration and I was actually thrilled when I got an offer from Salford. Salford Business School being one among the very few AMBA accredited university, my expectation was pretty high. In short, with the MBA, I wanted to get transformed to a perfect Manager from a Software Engineer. Yeah, the course proved its strength but the course was not what I imagined before. In India, there used to be a wide gap between the class room education and real time life. It used to be a spoon feed on facts and theories. But on the contrary, I felt our MBA is a transformation process where the reality is shown clearly. To say truly, they didn’t teach me or feed me anything, but I got all the required signposts to succeed which is all I need. 

Apart from studies, the fun I had was also not limited. Though the university has a lot of communities, I made sure to join at least one among them: SCUBA diving society. First of all, I joined to it because I know for sure that I can never get trained in diving outside the university and second, I loved it. Am still undergoing training and am sure will go for a sea dive soon. (For more details on Scuba visit http://www.scubadiving.com/ ).Trips through Interlink, visit to factories, snow games, International society events and parties with my friends, Wow I have really enjoyed my last few months. (I have booked for the trip to Manchester eye tomorrow through interlink, so another day of joy!!)

I have completed my first semester with the exams last week and now have another week for my second semester to kickoff. The second semester may be flying faster than before, but am sure I will not miss any excitement in the ceaseless journey. 

To learn more about life at Salford, why not watch our YouTube videos?

http://www.youtube.com/user/InternationalSalford#p/u/12/Q7JUzkrODkI