Week 1 : Induction ! to what !

I can vaguely recollect what official induction at hel(L) was ! Intro to Case Study , DirO Speech ,Alumni interaction & something else.. .  Anyway I won’t forget the unofficial part of it , including  H10 induction and encounters with H9.

Now it was back to drawing board at Univ here …. around 3-5 hours of lecture on courses , infrastructure followed by  a St Gallen tour . The St Gallen tour was good , I think we should trip to “Shahi Imambara” as part of induction at L , else many like me still miss out because you spend most of  free time in the next two years at PVR , FUN or Waves!

Now the most differentiating and fascinating part of the induction week was the parties organized by the Buddysystem here. I attended a couple of them and enjoyed both of them .

The takeaways from induction week was

> Knowledge of different pubs in town
> Expert tips on differentiating  Italian wine from a french wine

> Taste of  local swiss beer

Episode 2 : Zurich Se St Gallen

Well what should have been a nice journey from Zurich to St Gallen became more entertaining than I wanted it to be .

I bought the tickets and came down to the platform to board the train . I asked a couple of elderly people  whether I could board any compartment of a given train and they nodded in affirmative . I boarded the first train to St Gallen and was able to get my heavy baggage in before the doors closed . Thats why I prefer the trains in India , you can board them till the last compartment moves off the station and the doors are never closed !

I boarded the train and was looking at the picturesque view all around through the wide windows. As soon as it reached the next station en-route I saw a  sign “1″ on the other end of the compartment .I then quickly went to the sign  and started reading the details.  There were enough German words which where similar to English to make me realise that  I would have to cough up 120 francs fine as I had boarded the First Class with a Second class ticket. Also my infinitesimally  minimal  knowledge of German meant that I could not know if there were any imprisonment clauses too !

Just as I made my mind to get down at the next stop , my eyes caught the ticket collector\ checker ( seemingly a rarity on Swiss trains) who had just boarded the adjacent compartment. I was tensed , day 1 and wrong side of the law ! I started shifting my luggage towards the exit  away from the ticket collector. I was standing at the exit for next 20 minutes biting my nails  and praying to all Gods back home as the ticket collector was slowly moving towards me. Then came a heavenly voice , from the automated train announcement that  next halt was nearing .

When the ticket collector was four rows away , I got into the restroom to think of an excuse apart from my ignorance so that I can atleast  get away with the fine . As I got out from the restroom , the TT had moved 2 rows ahead at smiled at me. I got the fear of my life and just  as I looked out I saw a station and the train started slowing down . I didnt care about which station that was , I just rushed out with  all  my luggage ,thanking gods who saved my day .

As I saw the train halt for more than a minute , I boarded the 2nd class compartment of the same train. For about 35 minutes my heart was in my mouth.  Felt like I had been through a thriller movie , and I am more than happy with  climax, but I would not recommend this to anyone!

Eurotrip Episode 1: Mission Istanbul

I finally get rid of my laziness to blog again and  I start with my Eurotrip updates till date!

The trip began the night before Strat Man exam . I was more busy packing my bags and checking my documents rather than even glancing once through the  text book  for the subject . I feel that’s another one of those text books which can be resold at market price .IIM’s could consider  reducing expenditure on books as part of the  austerity drive!

The cab booked by MM came handy as we had to rush back to station by 3pm after finishing Strat man exam   .The  delayed lunch at Comesum , lucknow railway station was just about fine, and not comparable to ones at  New Delhi & Bangalore. MM and me boarded Shatabdhi at Lucknow as Mr Love waited for his train down south .

As we reached Delhi its started raining cats and dogs and the whole station was waterlogged . The huge baggage  I had made it difficult to even walk out of the station . If not for a very timely drop home from a good friend and his parents , the Delhi taxis would have taken me for a long ride. MM too managed to get a prepaid taxi to the airport .

The next two days in Delhi , I went currency shopping (Swiss Francs-CHF) but with no luck . Even the large private banks and PSB’s are short of CHF .Finally I got hold of an agent who got me 200 CHF , which he had recieved the same day morning from a Swiss tourist at a five star hotel.The Euro I had brought in had to be again converted to CHF here  and so ended up paying double conversion fee.

After the 2 day currency crisis, a senior Synapsian treated to me a nice Italian Food near Priya. The Pasta feast started early !

The final day before departure I caught up with a couple of cousins after almost a decade, and  had a  good south Indian meal . The visit to Big Bazaar and a leather jacket at a addidas  factory outlet kept me occupied throughout the day.

My cousin dropped me at the airport around midnight  on Sep 7 and much to my surprise even the Turkish airline had a  decent queue. It’s not just our beloved StEX team who had struck a bulk deal with them , but  also TATA AIG group. And now the first difficult part of a foreign trip , parting with your packed luggage at the airport due to excess baggage.  My persistent requests to the folks at the counter ensured that I didn’t  have to leave too many of the items to at Delhi airport . Then for the next two hours I was accessing web through the computers provided by the airport as the  electrical sockets for laptop were  out-of-order.

The flight was bereft of anything like “Inflight entertainment” and I spent most of the time sleeping. I just woke up in time to see the Black sea , and flight i am  yet to google up and check ‘why is black sea black’. I reached Istanbul around 8 in the morning . The 7 hour wait at Istanbul was long and I got bored of  window shopping at the duty free shops. I did not find any difference in prices of Chocolates , though I am yet to check the prices of other stuff. I really wonder how many of these duty free shops are  actually have profitable, for customers and owners alike.Finally I boarded the flight to Zurich at 4 PM.

So True , But Is it worth it !

Finally Starts Blogging

As an induvidual who has often wondered why people blog , I realised  that it may be the best way to kill your time when you do not know which of the 5 pending assignments to work on ! Or perhaps its another platform to share my thoughts which other wise find its way to mess , Gupta’s (L’s most successful enterpreneurial venture ) , Nescafe  or even classrooms !

So I create this blog at 2 AM on a rather busy day at L and hope  I  pursue this ‘fad‘ seriuosly . With exams two weeks away and plethora of pending assignments , I would be lucky if I can start acive blogging  this month.

Be rest assured that the blogs will have controversial , radical and non sensical stuff in abundance along with my take on the world of business , technology , sports and movies !