Diving at Subic...

Water...Swimming...My waterloo...

My apprehension for swimming has been well known amongst my close friends especially if it is deeper than 6 feet so one can understand when I went ahead with my friends for a weekend trip to Subic to try out diving...

Subic Bay is part of Luzon sea on the west coast of the island of Luzon in Zambales, Philippines, about 100 kms northwest of Manila Bay.Its shores were formerly the site of a major U.S Navy facility.

The experience of diving was mind blowing and something that has to be done atleast once in life irrespective of the fear for the sea.

It was a whole new world down there at the sea bed and though we just dived in to about 5 mts deep, it seemed much more than that in the claustrophobic attire in which we were. However the sights and life at the sea bed was beautiful.

At the start when I was on my way down to the sea bed, it felt as if I was dying a slow death. However that all changed once I got aclimatized to my surrounding and overcame my fear and dislike of water.

Within the first 30 seconds due to the change in air pressure, my ear drums started paining like hell, and the concept of equalizing which we learnt in one of our diving sessions prior to the dive was well exercised.

However once at the sea bed and at peace with my surroundings, it was time to appreciate the blue world at the bottom. I had seen so many diving videos, but the actual visual was just something different.

It was difficult roaming around in the water, with all the diving equipment tucked to me, and it even difficult to walk on the sea bed because of the diving flippers we were given to wear.

For me and my friends who were first timers just like me, it was an experience of a lifetime and something we plan to do more often, now that we have been bitten by the diving bug.

Emile was our man of the hour who planned and executed the entire trip and was also the one who took care of us during the entire trip.

The guys from "Boardwalk dive centre" were phenomenol and taught us everything that was needed to know in the water as well as saw to it that we survived our first experience of diving and came back alive from the short adventure.

All in all an awesome weekend, well spent with friends, drinking, eating, sleeping and doing new things.

Watching "Live" basketball match in the Phillippines

I have been dying to post this entry for close to a month now but because of the time constraints, I had to let the urge to blog prolong for a while longer. (Finally doing it during FM lecture @ the start of term 2 in class...Can you beat that)... :)

The game I am talking about here is one of the most important games in the calender year for an average Filipino basketball supporter.

La Salle vs. Ateneo (Green vs. Blue) on paper might just seem to be a normal college basketball match, but in reality and by looking in to the history of these schools, the game is the biggest night for the school, it's players and more importantly it's fans.

For the first time in my life I realized how big a deal it is and how huge a business is "college sports". Having seen college level sports in U.S on television as a kid, having the privilege to watch one here in Manila has been an experience worth it's weight in gold.

A special thanks to Aina (my classmate) for forgoing the chance to go for the game herself and letting me and Harsh to go in her place instead. (She is a die-hard fan of La Salle and the one who told me about the games during the first few weeks of our MBA).

Now to the game...

Date:- 16th August'09.
Time:- 1700 hrs.
Venue:- Araneta Coliseum @ Cubao in Quezon City

The coliseum was filled with sea of blue and green; the official colors of the two teams.There were more than 4000 people for a college basketball game.This goes to show the popularity of the sport in this country.

The upper tier of the stadium housed the two school bands on either side of the coliseum blasting their drums and equipments to the raptures of the crowd below.

It seemed as if as the players sweated out on the court, the two bands sweated, competing against each other for the entire duration of the game and creating an amazing atmosphere within the stadium.

The fans of the two teams where phenomenal, with one side of the stadium depicting a sea of blue and the other side showcasing the floral color of green.

The entire set up was so electrifying and by the end of it all, it was not about the two teams or the score and who won and who lost, but the experience of being there.
The cacophony which the two school bands created in the coliseum was to be seen to be believed. They just electrified the entire arena with their drum wars and the fans were at it too.

All in all, a wonderful experience, and one to cherish for a long time to come.Thanks to Aina...

ps:- For anyone and everyone , if ever you guys are in Manila in during July-August,and have an opportunity to watch an Ateneo vs La Salle game, go for it...It's worth it...Trust me on this one.

Study Smart and Party Harder...

It's exactly 3 months since college has started for me here in AIM.3 months of awesome fun sans responsibilities; enjoying life to full marginal utility so to speak.After another awesome drinking session with friends, I am back in my room and with classes just 2 hrs away, I guess it's the perfect time to retrospect.

Given the mindset with which I had left India to do my MBA, I can easily say that those dreams were too lofty at best to fulfill.After just a week into the MBA I realized that hard work was one virtue that someone doing an MBA can't overlook or under emphasize.Few of my batch mates have defined new standards of handwork in context of an MBA and I am no one to compete with them.
With this rule imprinted on my mind n body there was only one thing to do and that was to enjoy life at Manila and party harder than ever.

The past 3 months have been a blur and though I did keep a track of each day as it happened (Something for which Amrita has already given me a hard time), the past few weeks have just rolled by like a supersonic train.

All my aspirations as an MBA student have evaporated and just like I did in engineering my main aim now has transcended to be able to just clear off each subject with a min grade of "P" or "P+"...:)...Well there goes my ambition...

But over the last three months I have realized that one of the important virtues which I need to develop is "patience" and to "control my anger" in public.The last few days have been suicidal to say the least picking fights with best of friends for no rhyme or reason.On top of that, I have been really lax towards my assignments and studying.Not that it matters much in the current scenario but yes looking at the way I am going, it could be very soon before I take a tumble for the worse.

Anyways with just 17 official days left before the dreaded term 1 ends all eyes are on the 6 day break and everyone has already starting planning for the trip out of town during that period.Hopefully I land up in a beautiful beach with friends sipping on beer all day long.

Well 3 months since AIM started and after numerous occasions of attending lectures I am in a dilemma to whether attend prof. LT's next FM-1 lecture which begins precisely in an hr and thirty mins without having had a wink of sleep.Well this should be a new experience which I am very excited to experience, so wish me luck...

I guess the success rate of surviving today's 2 lectures will go a long way in deciding whether my current lifestyle will help me stay just under the learning curve for the rest of the term.
Wish me luck...

Best exam ever...

It's been a while since I last blogged.I already have two post which I haven't published just because after having started on them, I left them midway, incomplete.Not that I have really been busy these past 2 weeks.However I haven't really managed my time that well to sit and blog for a substantial time up until now.

Well I am already on my 14th week in MBA @ AIM & with just about 17 days more to go for the term to end.It has been a roller coaster of ride up until now & I guess it will continue till the term ends...

Today we had our microeconomics final exam & it was one of the best exam taking experience I have encountered in my student life. Not only did our economics teacher ( Ms Patricia Lontoc), change the format of the paper an hour before the exam but it was one of the most interactive exams I have ever had and one which I would not forget in a hurry.

Finally after 3 months, the dreaded subject of economics is behind us.
Knowing that we would not be having anymore economics classes in the coming week is such a relief.

Right now I need to be by the pool side to go and celebrate Saumya's birthday and Chai is already by my side coaxing me to shut off my lappie and get going...
So Adios...

Up All Night...

I cannot fathom this...Actually I am astonished at myself...It's precisely 5.32 am on a Monday morning and I haven't slept a wink the whole night.

I guess this is one of the lowest points in my life as in I have never ever compromised my sleep so much for the sake of studies but the circumstances leading to Sunday night have led me to do this godforsaken sin of not sleeping at all.

I wasted the entire Saturday and 2/3rd of Sunday before actually kick starting my chores of assignments which are due in exactly 2.5 hrs.

Hence after spending a good part of 3 hrs doing MCP, and then giving equal amount of time for the OM assignment and wasting my afternoon doing an MM case for which I still haven't found a solution, I find myself in front of my laptop screen blogging at an hour when the whole of Philippines is sleeping or just about waking up from a good night's sleep...:(

On top of that, this was the first weekend when I haven't had a single drop of alcohol go into my system. All this because I wanted to test my self restrain...What a moron I am...

Plus the fact that I have played this up so much compels me to abstain or try to abstain from touching alcohol till Aug 15th...i.e. a good 19 days away...

How the hell am I gonna survive, god only knows...

The only good thing about this weekend has been playing cricket for a good 2 hours on Saturday afternoon (Aseem also had a good day with the bat...surprise surprise...:)) and enjoying myself and then spending quality time with close friends on the beer pub chatting the time away.

Our plan was to end by 2 am but as is the case with me and Chai in particular, we ended up sitting and chatting with Nishant n all till 5 am in the morning.

Thus, because of these small atrocities which I committed during the weekend, the end result has been that I had to compensate the time spend with my precious Sunday night sleep.

I have no idea how I am going to survive the 3 hard core lectures tomorrow.
I just hope I retain my sanity till 12.20 pm...

Good morning people...:)

Btw this Day 46 @ AIM main...and day 56 in total...

Cheers...

QA exam # 3 in less than 8 hrs...

Can't believe how lethargic and irresponsible I have become.I have started taking this MBA course very lightly...

I have an exam in less than 8hrs and instead of sitting and solving I am right now blogging this shit...

On top of that though I started in earnest at 7 pm but till 10 pm, I had no idea that I can't creata an ANNOVA table on my excel sheet on my comp...

Then started the process of getting hold of another laptop where I could use Excel 07 to get the desired software and hence the desired table...

Thanks to Harsh I at least now know what I have to do tomorrow for the problems which are to come in the exam, but this would be like the first Math or Quant exam where I will be going without having practiced even one sum or problem on my own.

Plus for the last one hour I have been listening to Indian Ocean and downloaded "n" no. of gadgets from Windows live to use on my comp.Talk about wasting time and I think I am the king today.

Hopefully with God's grace I'll clear tomorrow and get the much needed exemption and hope I don't make such a mistake again...

Anyways fingers crossed and back to problem no. 4 of group problem set for me...

Yellow!!

Why is that I am seeing yellow everywhere today...
First for breakfast I got a really yellow colored scramble egg...:)
Then I saw Cherry in a nice yellow tee and then a female who was smoking near the pool side was wearing this really nice full on yellow high heels and to top that even Cathy has a yellow top today.

I know this sounds really girlie but then what is it with yellow today.
Plus right now I am listening to yellow- coldplay...

One more observation...The Juventus jersey I am wearing today has the name of its sponsor " New Holland" also in yellow...

Plus in QA class today there was a yellow colored Wendy's cold drink container...Talk about yellow...

I feel so yellow already...

Haha...