The Year that was ...2007

The years 2005 and 2006 were not memorable, and were beset with a never-ending string of worst-case scenarios. That despite the fact that I sowed the seeds of my MBA, owned my dream motorcycle Suzuki VStrom, traveled farther than I imagined, impressed some high-profile people….

2007 was as exciting as taking a hair-pin bend, near the peak, at full-throttle, with no safety-wall and peg-scraping! in biker talk. I am one of the few people who lived in 3 of the world’s most important* countries – India, USA and China. You can imagine it to be more of an ordeal than just a pleasant experience, but it gave me that exhilarating feeling of having achieved something.

I experienced from being employed to being a student and all the travails of switching over that come in between. I was most homesick during this year as I traveled thrice to my home, further my definition of home/house varied from a university dorm to an own room in custom paint shade. I ve tasted atleast 25 different cuisines, and dishes that I dared to even smell. So, 2007 was a roller coaster year in terms of experience, fun and travel.

I expect 2008 to be even more adrenalin-pumping with trips to Thailand, SE Asia, USA or EU still pending…’God Only Knows’ what is in store for this guy…

Great Lunch with Standford MBAs

On Dec 21, after completing my IT Mgmt course examination I rushed to Mandarin Oriental- an up market hotel-restaurant for this simpleton. The reason of course was to mix and share experiences with a batch of MBA students who typical go to school multiple time zones away in California- Stanford University.

The guest speaker Dr.Wong happens to be an Electrical Engineer like me, but definitely more entrepreneurial and adventurous for he went from $40K to $2B [lets ignore the USD issues for a while]. He not only built an electronic games business but also picked up a stake in Oasis Airlines and thereby fulfilled his childhood dream of airplane ownership. The students were amazed at his progress and picked up some crucial motivation pointers.

The 90-minute interaction brought forward the similarities in the students despite the many differences like race, religion, culture, geography, language etc…..hope the Stanford MBAs felt the same way.

Thanks for the Lunch guys :)