On a Sporting Pilgrimmage

Gopichandar reports from Paris
After incessant threats from Media Cell, I have finally gotten down to writing something for the K Blog. I guess everyone knows that French cuisine is out of the world (some personal disagreement) and that French women are beautiful (no disagreements at all!!) but probably unknown is the fact that France boasts of the greatest sport lovers in the world. They hosted what is easily the best rugby world cup ever with matches like even Tonga vs. America filled with beer drinking French supporters dressed in costumes ranging from Asterix & Obelix to George Bush. Here is a rundown on my encounters with sports in Europe.

Venue: Parc De Princes
Match: PSG vs Bordeaux

It was my first soccer match and I landed up couple of hours early with a lot of expectation, and I wasn’t disappointed. Unlike the blessed souls in London which has ten clubs in the EPL, PSG is the only club in Paris and not surprisingly it is very well supported. The crowds had gathered early and were waiting patiently for the gates to be opened. I was wandering around after splurging 15 Euros on a PSG scarf, when I heard loud hooting and booing. I realized it was the away team supporters arriving completely cordoned with police protection. As a practice the away crowd assembles far away from the stadium and is escorted into a specific area in the stadium allocated to them. Though the PSG team boasted of stars like Rothen and Pauleta and had great crowd support but the away team walked away easy winners by a 2 goal margin. What was fascinating was how a neutral like me shouted my heart out rooting for PSG as if I was a lifelong fan. I guess that’s what soccer can do to you.



Venue: San Siro
Match: InterMilan vs Genoa
As any soccer fan would tell you, San Siro is one of the greatest sporting arenas in the world. Home to two famous clubs and a rich tradition of more than a century, it was a must see during our stop over at Milan. My enthusiasm rubbed off on our dear topper Venkat and Nakul (both of whom couldn’t spell soccer before ;) ) and the trio marched into the San Siro to watch Figo, Crespo and company. After watching the Paris crowd root for a losing cause, we were hoping for a home team win. And win they did! With style! - Knocking four past a brave Genova side. Figo was good but Estabian Cambiossa was brilliant. I had my doubts about central midfielders being hyped too much, but it was a scintillating performance from the Argentine veteran. By the end of the match Venky professed eternal support to Inter Milan and came out only after he had rendered the Nerrazuri song all by himself.


Venue: Bercy Indoor Stadium
Match: Paris Masters Semis and Finals
After buying tickets for the semis and finals of the Paris Masters, I was confident that I would be able to catch Federer and Nadal in action. But alas, another Argentine who goes by the name of David Nalbandian decided to play the tennis of his life at the most inappropriate time. He got past Federer in straight sets in the fourth round and left me cursing. With a heavy heart I landed up at the indoor stadium to catch up on the Nadal v Baghdatis match. After looking around unsuccessfully for Baghdatis’s girlfriend, I settled for the next best option - watching the match. Nadal did what he does best- make others make mistakes and pulled off another comeback victory. The other semifinal was a damp squib in terms of competitiveness as Nalbandian blasted past Gasquet in straight sets leaving the French crowd high and dry.
And in the finals Nalbandian took his game to a sublime level. The crowd was left gasping as he imperiously dumped Nadal for a 6-4, 6-0 victory. Federer has to wait another day; I am a Nalbandian fan for now! There’s something with these Argentines-they seem to be everywhere!!!

I finished off my sporting trip with a visit to the Nou camp (stadium of Barcelona) and Santiago Bernabau in Madrid. I also visited the Roland Garros. There is still so much to write about these arenas that will follow in another post. So all sports maniacs in PGP 11 - if you are looking for reasons to come on a student exchange program - look no further………

JIBS Sweden echoes Incredible India!

Prasanna Bora reports from Jonkoping (Pronounced as Yon-show-ping), Sweden on the International Day Celebrations planned for 13th November, 2007. Read on and enjoy!

International Day celebrations were planned for 13th November 2007. The exchange students from IIMs, who normally prefer to gallivant around Europe than participate actively in events on campus, seemed all excited and geared up to put up a good show. Was it good? Well, it was great !! Here's the story: On International Day, each team is required to put up a stall representing their country and presenting information about the art,culture, education, job opportunities, places to visit and much more. So we, seven students from different IIMs, decided to show the rest of the junta, what India was all about.

Preparation time was limited and so were the resources as we had no diyas or rangolis and had chosen not to get any traditional attire from home. However, Deepika used her strong networking skills and got lots of the above mentioned accessories from an Indian lady whom she met at the supermarket. (For the record, the lady invited Deepika to her place and she was treated to a good Indian brunch). Tasks were divided among the seven of us with each responsible to gather information about different topics and prepare one-pagers on each topic. We have come to know more about India during this exercise than ever before. With just 3 days in hand, we designed seven colourful posters showcasing Indian lifestyle,sports, music, dance, places to see apart from a factsheet about India and juggled around a few youtube videos to make one of our own. Assorted parathas (Alu, Gobi, mutter and paneer), gajar ka halwa and lassi was the menu planned for the guests who would visit our stall. On the eve of the celebrations, the kitchen defied what too many cooks do to the broth.


D Day : We got up early in the morning and carried bags full of stuff to the university all dressed in traditional attire. We could not miss our lectures, so we set up the stall much earlier. As Deepika and I tried our hand at rangoli, the other IIM guys set up the posters. When we were done, our stall looked colourful with lamps, chunnis, bangles, a tray full of food, aftermint and tidbits, notes and coins all finely arranged. But the USP of the stall was that we offered visitors a chance to wear Indian attire and get themselves clicked. We even offered to email them their snaps at the end of day. The ladies got to choose a bindi and a chunni of their choice while the men got to wear a turban and a stole with the traditional vermillion tilak. With 40 countries represented, the school entrance was full of colourful attire, informative posters, music, food and above all, a helluva lot of excitement.

Hardwork pays... it surely does as we were judged the best stall. Our excitement knew no bounds as we lived the moment, a moment that we would remember for a long time and so would everyone else at JIBS. It was a pleasure to meet Mr. Peter Hiton, the director of JIBS, who personally came over to our stall to invite us to collect our prizes and was kind enough to take pictures with us in traditional Indian attire! What followed in the evening was a party hosted by the organisers for all the participants. Thats about it ...our moment of pride at JIBS Sweden and maybe for India as well. Chak de!!!

Prasanna

P.S: Visit this link for more of the day's pictures.

Parisian Tales

Bonjour dear Komrades,

Its been more than a month at the ESCP-EAP Paris and it's been great. The city is beautiful with its boulevards, cafes, bistros and most importantly, the fashion conscious Parisians. The 35 hour work week ensures that Parisians have time for everything art, music and the numerous museums the city is so famous for. People truly enjoy life and can hardly be seen running around, they do things at their own sweet pace.

The French education system ( well, we had a 2 hour session on it) is highly competitive and only the best can make it to the elite Schools of excellence called the Grand Ecoles (ESCP-EAP is one of the better known Grand Ecoles). And successful people in every sphere are from Grand Ecoles System. To get into even the least famous Grand Ecole is more prestigious than getting into the best university. And we've had firsthand experience of the respect people give you after knowing that you are a student of a Grand Ecole!

The International exchange programme attracts about 150 students from 21 countries including Members of EU, US, Mexico, Russia, Israel, Argentina, China, Japan amongst others and this really makes it a International Exchange programme. It is quite an experience to just listen to different accents of English.

The professors are also on international exchange or so it would seem. We have French, Irish, American, British Professors. These professors do a lot of consulting for corporates and have a rich working experience which adds a very practical dimension to their teaching. Another interesting thing is that most of the professors think very highly about Indian students and attribute computer-like mathematical abilities to Indian brains. Guess we need to thank our seniors for that but it surely is a very, very positive image to live up to.

For the exchange students, courses offered in both English and French. Although, Indian students have taken courses in English. We initially had a course that place of France in European and world affairs. Most of us have taken regular courses while a few have taken some very exotic courses like Working of the Human Mind and Evolution of the American Cinema. The lectures are usually of 3 hours with a fifteen minute break after a 1.5 hours and as usual, there's some intelligent CP and some crappy CP. People walk in and out as they feel. Students are treated as equals. Professors encourage students to go in for research and are always ready for writing papers with their students.

Elections are a funny affair here - there are Campus parties and these parties nominate candidates to contest against each other. These candidates distribute cakes, chocolates, candies and juices early in the morning. There are parties to get votes with free alcohol and food, not to mention dancers from famous bars, quite unimaginable in IIMK! All these affairs are sponsored by corporates. In fact there was such a party last night sponsored by some energy drink company (of course everyone was more interested in the alcohol than the energy drink!) It's been quite an experience so far... c'mon junies, work hard; then come and party in Europe! J

That was Aruna Nayak reporting from Paris. The others too sent in their two bits:

Gopi told us how he was 3 hours late for a presentation at school due to the transportation strike that has now hit France. The bike service (that allows you to pick up and drop bikes at stations), was the main means of transport while some Parisians hit the streets with roller-skates and skateboards!

Sheetal's been finding the language and pronounciations very funny, because the French turn rs into h sounds and the frequently used 'pardon' turns into 'pah-do' (with a soft d) that when translated into Hindi, makes it a strange thing to say to someone you meet in the street :D Having Moroccans and Sri Lankans in their neighbourhood has also led to some interesting experiences for these guys.

Ananya wrote on her blog, "The first look at the Seine and a cruise on it is something that I dare not attempt to describe in words, I have neither the prowess nor the imagination to convey to the reader the beauty of the experience. The only guarantee is that it lifts your spirits and gives you a high that not the strongest alcohol can".

She also lists some 'Highlights' from the early days of their stay -

1.Tushar being asked by a fellow Indian student - 'Excuse Me! Which country are you from?'

2. Our unsuccessful attempts at using the Euro Latino telephone calling card.

3. Tomato Puree being misunderstood for Tomato Ketchup (Yeah! Yeah! We can't read French).

4. The daily effort at comprehending the food items in the Mess.

5. The shower system (You need to keep pressing a button to keep the water flowing).

6. Gopi asking a man on the station for directions in Tamil.(And actually getting the answers)

All of them have been having a very frustrating time with the French calling card system which explains Venky's gestures in the picture below.

The picture below should tell us why the guys just don't want to come back :)

(Photo credits: Gopi)

Prasanna Bora reports from Jonkoping!

Hi All,

Greetings from Jonkoping (Pronounced as Jon-show-ping), Sweden! It is been about 10 days since we reached this place. It has been great so far. At my school, Jonkoping International Business School (JIBS), we have exchange students from IIMC and IIML as well, apart from students from over 100 different Schools. Yes, you read that right. JIBS' uniqueness is its diversity. There are people from over 50 countries here and more than 250 exchange students. I think having students from so many different countries is truly something unique.

Courses: The school is really big on entrepreneurship. It’s known for its entrepreneurship programs but isn’t very great for Finance. If you ask me how the courses are, I’ll say – it depends. ;) It truly does depend on what courses you take. We are free to take courses at bachelor level (there are 4 categories of courses: A,B,C,D in the ascending order of difficulty). So if you take an A level course in finance and you are an Indian, who is naturally better at numbers, then you got nothing to learn. Bottom-line, if you wanna make most of the academic experience, take the courses that the university is known for.

We are supposed to take 2 courses per quarter (4 for the sem). For this quarter I have taken Entrepreneurship and Business Planning (EBP) and International Financial Management (IFM). EBP classes are amazing. The course has an enrollment of 375 to 400 i think, which implies we have to have lectures in the auditorium. Yet the lectures are interactive and do not get boring one bit. It is an experience to sit in a class of 400! But of course, for seminars, sessions where there are group activities and presentations to compliment the lectures, we are split into classes of 40. We have been given a loan of 200 SEK (read Swedish kroner or krown) to start our new venture and we got to be profitable during the duration of the course. Besides, we get to make visits to a company and analyze how that company started as an entrepreneurial venture. Perfect combination of theory and practice. A very well designed course. IFM isn’t very exciting and we as fin majors and students of a master's program feel the pace is too slow and the learning limited.

Lectures here are scheduled for 2 hours, but as the profs say, an "academic hour" is only 45 mins. So we get a 15 min break at the end of 45 mins and lectures get over 15 mins early. Is that a piece of advice for someone who talks of market fundas esp paaanetration with complete disregard to the clock ;)

I work in a group of 10 for my new venture project, and we have 6 countries represented among the 10. Beat that for diversity.

Professors: Even for a disinteresting course like IFM, the effort put in by the professor is tremendous. There is no 'free-riding' by the professor. Lecture slides, handouts, course outlines, etc are managed very professionally. The EBP professor has like an entire team of faculty members and PhD candidates working for him, nearly 8 of them handling that one course. The prof is very charismatic and walks in with his expensive business suit on, is a smooth talker and teaches very well.

Professors here are pretty cool. Mobiles ring in class, people come in late, surf during classes, eat, drink coffee and it’s all accepted. But most students are serious and want to make most of the lectures. Also attendance is not mandatory in most cases. Probably explains why professors are not paranoid about things like laptop, mobiles,etc.

Infrastructure: It’s an unfair comparison but cant help it. A classroom here is at least 10 times better than the best facility we have. One of the most amazing things in classrooms that grabbed my attention was movable marker boards. There are multiple movable marker boards that slide across and over. So the prof writes on a board, does not clear it, slides the board up, pulls another one down and writes on the second. Amazing!! The intranet is very well used resource. IIMK needs to put in serious thought on using its intranet well. VC and moodle are the most under-utilized and the professors need to be educated about the effective use of an intranet. Squirrel mail is not intranet!

The country: We have struggled with Swedish. Most people do speak English, but the problem is that everything is written in Swedish. So when you go to a super market, you read a pack and you cant make out whether its sugar, salt or something else. We can’t read the newspapers, the brochures, the notices and more. People pay a lot in taxes. A cleaning company charges 300 SEK (conversion rate Rs 6) per hour. A doctor's appointment costs 1600 SEK. It is a very expensive place to stay. Sweden seems to be devoid of the Walmarts and the Tesco’s. Most chains seem to be Swedish. That may explain the emphasis on entrepreneurship. Volvo and Scania are Swedish icons, if I may say so. It is truly breathtaking to see one of those huge Scania trucks.

Women: A lot of guys would be keen to know about this. There are quite a few pretty looking ones, esp the French. Some do hold you breathless. Also makes me wonder how some manage to dress up scantily in the biting cold. Snaps up here.

Prasanna Bora can be contacted at his gmail id: bora.prasanna