A ride to remember!!!- Part 3.2- Euro Trip!!!

Search for 'Metro':

Once out of the awesome ride from Paris to Lille... here we were in a scene right out of In Bruges... Eerie looking railway station... platforms lined with ice... very few people... all dressed in black... and we began our search for Hotel Metro which was supposed to be 100mtrs from the Station... no one was able to help us... all who we asked for directions avoided us like beggars and the most we could get out from a few who tried reading the address was "Non Anglais"... damn these French... how can an address be English or French???

Finally we split up with a few of us guarding the luggage and the rest as search party... Pele knew how the hotel looked (thanks to google street view) and was able to find out the hotel... We (Me, Pele and Thatha) checked in and took a deep breath... Out came the mugs from all the bags (vital travel companion for any red blooded Indian) ... time to do our 'business' with plenty of water to wash...

By noon we were all hungry and set out on a mission to find food (cheap food)... after walking for hours in the streets of Lille we came to a conclusion that we were grossly misled on the cost of food... We cursed Master with all our heart... Dejected we were walking back when I spotted a Turkish Djoner (pronounced Doner) kebab store.... damn it was cheap and with just one order our tummy was really full... and best part was that it was only for 5 euros... (This later became our staple diet)...

Soon we were back in our hotel discussing( and boozing) on how bad the things could have turned out...

IESEG:

We had reached on a Saturday and on Sunday we went around Lille which is a very small town... we walked to our college (for the next 3 months) and figured out the easiest route from the hotel...

On Monday we attended our first lecture... and damn the class was almost 70% female... all really really good looking (HOT HOT HOT!!!)... I dont think any of us payed much attention to the lectures that day... we left the college early in search of accommodation.. which was completely fruitless as all our contacts were French and were infected with the 'Non Anglais' syndrome... we came back and spent most of the remaining day talking about our classmates (:D)...

Finally by Wednesday we had given up on lodging as after countless calls no one was ready to lend us living space for less than 6 months... finally we went searching for Helene Guinard... (supposed to be our international relations contact for IESEG)... expecting an old hag Thatha voted out from going to her and finally me and Pele went ahead to meet her... damn she was beautiful plus she talked pretty good English (which was a much needed respite after heating all the 'Non Anglais' from hottties)... she arranged Hostel accommodation for the three of us ... on our way back we discussed on how can such high percentage of women in such a small area be so damn hot???... we have beautiful women in India but damn this concentration in Lille could beat the hotness level in a Mumbai Celeb party...

"Pok deleel":

Once we finalized our accommodation details and paid the money (insurance, deposit etc) to the rental agency (which we would have a hard time getting back later)... we embarked on our journey to our home for next 3 months... We boarded the subway... (I keep thinking on how is it feasible for a small town like Lille with no industries or any other support mechanism to afford to run a Subway system)... Our next stop was 'Port de Lille'...

It was almost the last stop and since all station names were being announced, we got a bit relaxed ... I found a seat and planted my ass for some rest... there was a sudden hustle from Pele saying its our stop... but I remembered hearing clearly 'Pok deleel'... when I told him this.. he pointed me at the board in the station... Port de Lille... confused and startled at the same time we 3 rushed out... later we understood that in french all words with 'r' in them are pronounced as 'khhhrrr'... just like you have something stuck in your throat and you wanna cough it out...

Just outside the subway station was our hostel... I took a single room and the other 2 a double room on the same floor....our rooms were awesome... with a beautiful big window and really good looking furniture... cooking stoves (with heater coils) and attached baths...

We all started unpacking and settled in... our wing was almost entirely Indian... we met some really cool guys (who had been staying there for over an year) who told us a lot about all the necessary information (where to buy booze, food, women, college parties, college parties and women) ... finally the bad feeling that had set-in over the previous few days was washed over and I was looking forward to the next day at IESEG....

A ride to remember!!!- Part 3.1- Euro Trip!!!

The Interview:

From the first week at IMT, I always liked the concept of Exchange... I always dreamt of going abroad... mingling with the foren crowd... partying like they show in movies... so when the announcement for nominations for international exchange came I was on time to submit my application... Tiger and Paachan were a bit confused... I advised them both to join in... then following paachan's lead, tiger decided not to submit the form... (the decision, I am sure he is regretting till date)...

My interview for exchange was scheduled on a Saturday... so safely enough I was drinking till early morning of Friday... slept at around 4-5 in the morning... at around 11am I got a call from Menon saying that my interview has got preponed and I need to be there in 10 mins... damn... i was up in a jiffy and was running around.. got dressed and took a bath in my deo... reached just in time and entered the interview room... damn... A/C room... I could smell the booze off myself... My head was reeling with the heavy hangover.... and I had the most dumbest interview in my life:

• SP: So you want to go to US for exchange?
• Me: Yea
• SP: Why?
• Me: Because I have a lot of relatives there. (???)
• SP: So tell me names of any 5 states of USA
• Me: ???? ... cant remember any names
• SP: Your SOP is so inspiring but your answers dont come close to what you have written
• Me: I cant remember what I wrote..
• SP: Are you sure you wrote it???... (shows it to me)
• Me: (Blank stare)
• SP: I think that's enough!

With my head still reeling... (little from the booze and a lot from trying to remember the names of States in US)... I went back to my room and fell down on my bed...snoring away to glory...

Paachan meanwhile had a sudden epiphany that he should go for exchange and roping in some contacts he submitted his application for the exchange program... Tiger remained unaware of this development... because of this Tiger from this point on-wards would be referred to as Chutiya of the Gundaa fame...

Finally the rank list was put up... and as expected I was one of the toppers from the back... Paachan somehow outshone everyone and was #2... and then came the college assignment... there were some 5-6 colleges in total... 30 odd seats... 1 in US and the rest in France... it was a rolling process ...Paacha was the first to get a choice in France as he was #2... he chose Paris... I was waiting with bated breath for any options to be available... and sadly all seats got filled 4 ranks before me...

Enter the Master:

Master had been our inspiration to go for exchange... he went on exchange for two terms out of the total 6 term... managed to get both summers and final placements in awesome companies and a GPA to envy... to sum it up... he had the perfect MBA degree...

Just as the room was emptying after all seat being allotted... Master came in with good news that additional 13 seats have turned up... and finally I got a seat in IESEG Lille...

Schengen Mania:

Once the colleges accepted our exchange visit we were supposed to get our visas stamped... Though the travel was tiring the experience at the French embassy was very nice... we all had our schengen stamped for 90 days and were all set to go... but there was one exception... Mr Thatha had not competed the formalities and to join him was the much famed Ms. Chunchunwala... forced by good nature and male instinct (surely denied by him)... Thatha and Chunchun went on a famous bike ride... full of sudden brakes and pot holes.... a bike ride which would torment Thatha till then end of his life (we will ensure that)...

With the visa stamped and the tickets booked we were all set to fly on 11th Jan'2009...

Disaster Management:

All hyped up about the trip we all reached IMT 2 days before 'the flight' ... of course not Thatha... me and Pele had planned to get all the shopping done on 10th for our late night

flight on 11th...

At around 10am on 10th we got a call from the travel agency that the flight had to be preponed by a day and will be on the same night... damn... no shopping done... and worst of all... Thatha would arrive on 11th morning... the entire scene was fucked up but somehow we managed to complete the shopping, pack our bags with correct 30Kg luggage, postpone thatha's ticket and reach airport 3hrs before the flight...

After standing in check-in queue for 1 hr we were told that the luggage weight limit was only 20kg....(what the fuck).... we tried arguing and fighting but it seems the cheap air-india flight was on code sharing with air france and the latter didnt allow extra 10Kgs for students... so after another hour of fruitless running around... we decided to shed additional weight... out came the pressure cooker... masalas... dals... soaps... and before anyone could stop us we had piled up each of our 10kgs in the middle of IGI and ran over to the check-in counter which was announcing the last call for passengers to check in... As I was about to move into the emigration section a security guard pulled me back forcefully... scared as I was... I managed to look confident and asked him what the reason was... he said we had left unclaimed baggage on the floor... (ohh shit) ... i ran back took up all the stuff and was almost about to dump the entire load into the trash when one of my friends parents volunteered to take all the stuff with them and to return when we came back (which i collected back almost after 1 year)... I was delighted and thanked him with all my heart... I ran back to the emigration and finally managed to make it just in time for the boarding...

Air France: Floating shit in air

Boarding a flight through a skyway makes me very impatient... its like walking blindfolded into a car... you dont know if your ride is an auto-rickshaw or a BMW... also the feeling that I dont get to breath fresh air one last time (in case the plane crashes) makes me restless...

Happy to have been changed from AI to AF ( apart from the luggage fiasco which we had forgotten by now) ... we had something good to look forward to... but as soon as we entered the flight... all the expectations were let down... it was just like any other shit cramped AI flight....no video screens, no leg space, nothing different... just that all the old auntys in AI were replaced by gay old french men...

The flight was all turbulent... i remember looking out and see the planes wings flap and praying for a safe landing....

Lost in Paris: Priceless

The flight landed safely in CDG ( thank God!!) and we walked into the immigration section... did our verification and stepped into the luggage bay for collecting our luggage...

We waited and waited... after 2 whole hours of waiting people started walking off... and we were like dont these people want their luggage... then we went over to the security and they said that since the temperature had dropped 3 degrees the labor union has called a strike... but we could see all other flight passengers getting their luggage.... apparently strike was called by only the Air France union and rest all operators were ok .... we were asked to not wait around and give the address for the luggage to be sent to....(Flying fuck.. this cant get worse)

Desparate, tired, all hopes lost... we sat down on the conveyor belt... not sure on what to do next... one of our batch mates was carrying only a laptop and didnt even have a spare underwear... suddenly the sun shined from the sky and almost instantaneously the conveyor belt started to move.... before we could look at each other in surprise my box came out....

All set with our luggage... food in our tummies... Train tickets in our hands... we boarded the 1 hour/350km journey to Lille....

A ride to remember!!!- Part 2- Middle of Somewhere!!!

Accio Suit:

Just 5 months into the grind of things (boozing, sleeping, partying etc etc) suddenly an announcement of resume verification came for Summer Placements... and with just as much surprise the realization of why we all were here dawned... Out came the CV's, certificates, mark-lists... and frequent requests for "yaar mein kya daalun CV mein...??"...

Tiger was literally shaken after seeing some of his classmates CV's... I guess those times were really testing for all freshers... Specially all those who didn't have a long list of fancy accomplishments to adorn their CVs... What these freshers didn't know was that it was the work-ex people who were the not-so-hot properties for summer placements... all companies wanted freshers....

Once the CV frenzy was over the suit frenzy began... Some had their MBA interview suits ... as for me, I grew two sizes in the last 5 months and so I was out suit shopping (stitching as there weren't any readymades for my size)...

Before we realized... the cold fogging of Winter had engulfed IMT and with it came the Summer Placements...

"I am the Candyman...":

Summer placements were a pain in the ass... get up early in the morning.. remember what the companies said in the pre-placement seminars or go through the slides they had sent.. go through the entire list of companies visiting that day... learn about the company... for you don't know which company would short-list you for a GD or interview... all in all the very fact that you might not probably be called for anything at all overpowers you and you sleep all drunk.. get up barely in time for the companies...

Perfetti came.. shortlisted the entire college and conducted some weird activities... i surprisingly cleared each round and became the only non-fresher to get through... My gtalk status remained same for the next 6 months... "I am the Candyman"

Many got placed on day0 (1st day in layman terms) and it was time for jubilation... as the day passed and finally time to take headcount to get the booze arrived... I came to realize that my best friends/ my roomie/ my booze buddys aren't placed... there was a sudden death of all the fizz and I ended up explaining what went right in my interview and GD to all the less fortunate ones... to be frank I really thought there were atleast 100 other people who were far better than me... Somehow there was a unanimous undecided decision to celebrate after the placement week...

Remaining of the placement week was all about counselling, pep-talking, inspiring - one after the other who lost heart... I don't know how but incidentally after the 2nd day I started feeling left out ... feeling guilty for others not clearing... 3rd day I downed a couple of pegs and BAM! came back the happiness...for the remaining days of the placement week I kept myself to my room and limited all counseling and inspirational talks to J47 visitors...

After the week was over... things suddenly came back to normal... classes started... exams.. presentations... booze followed... people kept attending interviews of companies that kept coming in trickles... soon the entire environment was even more abuzz than before placements... there were more celebrations every time someone got placed ... and there was a reason to party almost every other night... somehow success seems sweeter when you have really sweat blood for it...

Love is in the air... from one chat window to the other:

One great thing about MBA was the amount of free time I had and the amount of time I spent online...

Long before joining IMT... I had met Veena on my parents insistence... We visited their house as per custom and after a brief moment of talking to each other alone we both decided that this would not work out for us as she wanted immediate marriage and I didn't...we parted...

One drunk night at IMT...For some strange reason I remembered her B'day and maybe the alcohol in me made me send her a birthday greeting... that was the start of 100s of Gbs of internet usage for her and me... we started chatting... then doodling... followed by video chat... soon we realized that we were meant to be together...

I planned out a visit to her home for the xmas holidays... and lo before we could think clearly our parents had decided to confirm our wedding... a formal event was arranged in just 1 week and I became committed....

Dichkyaaaun... I'm Back!

Well... a year has passed since the day 'The' KF King gave me a handshake and a receipt for the 8lacs I had spent wisely... My Degree Certificate!

A lot has happened since that day and from my last post... to cover it all would be torture to all the tired old brain cells, lacking all the regular stimulation they received from the random booze parties at IMT... But I will give a 10000km view (a phrase I've heard a lot lately) of things that have happened...

1. Got Married
2. Joined Job
3. Went to Goa
4. Shift Job (Internal)
5. Celebrated anniversary at Pondicherry
6. Going to become a Dad soon

Now that we are up-to-date with all developments (Whooooaaaatt???) ... I'll get back to continuing my regular posts :P