Have I been busy or have I been bored, considering my last post was two months back!

Well, busy is more like it.

WebComm Team

This team was instituted after Ravi and I joined / founded it. And work was hectic the last week of August and the first week of September.

While we did get the SCMHRD site up and running, as you can see it is painfully slow. There’s absolutely nothing I can do to speed it up except redesign the entire site.

I’ve been working on a layout and speeded up the entire thing. A test site has worked decently, but I guess I will have to move away from tables totally as I do with all my other sites.

As part of the team, I spent a lot of time in the Admissions room and so was asked to join it officially…

Admissions

…which I did

And as a result, the last two months have been extremely crazily busy. We released the Admissions Brochure, which has come out pretty well. We’ll most likely release a PDF version of it for those interested.

Also been looking into the advertising in magazines and newspapers. Can be both entertaining and quite a pain at times. But, it definitely has improved my negotiation skills.

Answering phonecalls is the most painful part of Admissions. For one, most of the calls are regarding distance learning. SCMHRD doesn’t offer that and for distance MBA, you need to contact SCDL. The second set of questions are about the Management Quotas. This is handled directly by the Symbiosis Society.

The last thing we did (besides tonnes of others) was load the trucks. Between three of us guys, we handled some 2-3 tonnes of materials several times. If you’re talking TQM, we did that.

Brochures should be available in all leading career coaching institutes all over India.

College and Exams

Finally got done with the Semester I examinations! Well, atleast gave all the papers and am now awaiting the results. Studied for most of the papers on Day-1 except for accounts which began on Day-2!

As for accounts, that still remains a challenge as I got that paper to give yet again. Had expected a backlog but was surprised to have been joined by over 100 others as well!

Summer Placements

Summer Placements were painful, especially when we could see several Freshers snatching up jobs, while we work-ex people struggled to find one. I’m hoping the tables turn in the Final Placements next year.
Anyway, got placed on Day1 at eClerx, which has its offices in Mumbai

Sem II begins

We’ve selected our electives. I chose Operations Management II, Sales and Distribution and Brand Management. With these three I could cover the 8 credits that I needed to choose. It will also help me in my transistion towards an Operations Major, which I am strongly considering.

Ohh, and we’re on our Diwali break. Will be going back to Pune early Monday morning. Ravi tells me that there is tonnes of work to be done on Monday and Tuesday. At the same time, will have to juggle with lectures to attend!

Life @ SCMHRD!

Happy Diwali my dear readers

As I mentioned last week, I took one last holiday before my MBA course begins to visit Goa for a week along with some friends.

Crispin and I had booked tickets via Paulo Sleeper Coach. This is my first trip to Goa and also my first travel via the sleeper. We booked the upper beds in the Volvo and realized that was a big mistake.

For one the head room was too little. As a result we couldn’t sit up straight and had to lay down or risk breaking our necks by bending them for too long. Added to this was the shoe rack which could take only one pair of shoes. We took the easy way out and hung the shoes at the window (see the right portion of the above picture on the right).

As for sleep, well we didn’t get much of that because it wasn’t very comfortable when you wanted to turn in your sleep. We did have a small stopover at some place for a late dinner and few stops to relieve ourself in the trees!

Must say that Lil white mouse, her sis and granny were in a much better position coming by train.

Anyway, we landed at Mapusa a little past 9.30am Tuesday and picked up bread for our lunch and dinner.

We then caught a bus from Mapusa to Thivim which is where this beautiful house is located.

By the time most of you read this post, I will be in the Volvo on my way to Goa. Crispin and I set out on Friday hunting for tickets. We decided to try getting them in the area, but were a little taken aback by the price (Rs. 900).

So we headed towards Teli Galli in Andheri where a multitude of these booking offices exist, only to find that the rate there was just the same for the sleeper. We decided to go ahead and book the tickets anyway, since we had to go. The sleeper is air conditioned, so the journey should be pleasant. I can confirm this when I land there.

Have dragged along my camera for the journey, so I’m going to be trigger happy as much as possible. Am also grabbing my laptop with an internet connection to give possible regular updates during the stay there.

Stay tuned for the amazing adventures of Ajay D’Souza.

If there is one thing a geek needs, then it is a good internet connection. Now, that is one thing that has always eluded me and there is no chance of it changing in the near future!

That is one of the reason this blog has seen absolutely no updates for a long long time.

The past week and more can be summed up as follows:

Choir

Practice has been on in full force for Good Friday. We’ve had practice four times in the last week and things are shaping up.

Had to sing for a funeral mass on Thursday at the Oshiwara Cemetery. Few of us from the choir decided to drop in at the “Mega Mall” just across the road. The place is still coming up and the only thing there was the super market. We weren’t out shopping so just moved on to Inorbit food court.

Headed home and back again to choir practice.

Yesterday was Passion Sunday and we were singing for the 6pm mass. Father dropped the bombshell that we had to do the part of the crowd in the liturgy. With no prior practice, I think we carried it out well

Computers

My internet connection sucks. I’ve been calling Exatt up every single day for the past two weeks to ask them to come fix the connection. I dropped in at the office today and waiting for the folks in charge to come. The problem is they have no clue how to fix the frequent switch hanging.

I’ve been considering the MTNL Triband, but my mom is too terrified about “incorrect” billing on their part. I’ve decided to chuck the idea. If my net is down, a cyber cafe shall have to serve as my resort.

On the computer front, my Dad was down last week and he brought me a Kingston U3 DataTraveler.

I am very impressed by the drive. Besides functioning as a normal 2GB memory drive, the U3 Software adds autorun capabilities with easy installation of portable software to run directly from my drive. I’ve got my browser and other software installed on the drive, so no privacy issues at cafes

Dad also got me a 120GB external hard drive. It’s small and portable and a real life saver. This will all be part of my baggage to SCMHRD in June.

College

On the college front, I received the results for XIMB. I’m 101 on the waitlist which is definitely not converting. Besides, I don’t think I will be taking it up anyway. SCMHRD seems a better option after weighing in a lot of factors.

The SCMHRD Foundation course which was supposed to start on April 1 has temporarily been postponed. I’ve received the confirmation letter and receipt for the payment.

Also metup with the several SCMHRD folks from Mumbai on Saturday. Will save that for a small post later.

Personal

The mouse dropped in on Wednesday to say hi. Someone should be studying

Accompanied a pal to town on Friday. Have been digging up some stuff about studies in Australia. Maybe in the future. Then again, maybe not.

Have also made plans for a holiday in April. Things are shaping out well. I’m not much of the holiday person with hardly any trips at all.

But, the holiday always makes for some good blog tales…

Actually a Boeing 737.

Woke up by 3.30am (not that I got much sleep earlier) and quickly got ready to leave.

Mom insisted on coming with me to the airport (love you Mom) as I wasn’t too well. Spent a good half and hour standing in the checkin counter in a long line.
Got through immigration easily and spent the rest of the time in the final waiting area. Thankfully the flight was on time.

Surprisingly the food during the journey was excellent (considering at moment’s notice Dad was only able to arrange a flight on the low cost flight of Oman Air). It was also surprisingly short, though the landing was rather painful (for my ears).

What I have always loved about Muscat is the efficiency of their work. Additionally their customs’ officials never harrass you, unlike in Mumbai where all of the them after just waiting to make a buck. X-(

Collected my visa and passed through thier immigration in under 10 minutes (it can take half an hour in Mumbai, i.e. if you are lucky).

Had to wait a while for my baggage. The cough started to start up again rather badly as I waited in the cold airport terminal.
Had to wait just again for my dad who came to pick me up and then it was a walk in the hot sun to the car.

My dad’s got a sexy Chevrolet (lots of photos soon) and an even more amazing house!

I’m going to enjoy my stay here, though I am still recovering from my illness.