And all good things too come to an end!

As I sat in on my last MBA class at ESADE yesterday (and probably the last class in my life), it was a strange bitter sweet feeling. Sweet cos it does feel like a bit of an achievement and bitter because it marks the end of 15 intense and exhilarating months! Just the thought of not knowing when I will see some people who have come to become very close friends is sad to say the very least!

But one thing is for sure, life will never be the same after ESADE and I mean that in a good way. When I got accepted to the MBA and readied myself to move to Barcelona, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. A year and a half later I know a lot of what I am today is because of this very experience and for that I will always be thankful for ESADE and the people who I crossed paths with here!

Time to go take the real world by storm :-)

Dream Weekend!

So the one weekend that I decided not to travel, the whole world and their neighbors are travelling! Since I don't have any 'social engagements', I have the whole weekend to myself and it totally helps that I happened to go on a book shopping spree last weekend - courtesy Netherlands having an English book section in every store!

After a long long time, here I am stuck at home on a cold winter weekend with Spotify, books and some hot chocolate for company! Dream weekend, indeed! Unfortunately, the nerd in me is really jumping with joy :P!

Perspective of happiness can be so limited..

Last weekend I was  travelling in Amsterdam, an incredibly charming city. While I was there, I happened to visit the Anne Frank house - popularly known as the museum with a soul and a story. It is the story of a little jewish girl, Anne Frank, who was holed up in hiding (from the Nazis) in this very house (now presented as a museum for tourists) for years before she was killed at the age of 15 during the World War 2. She and her family hid in this secret annexe for two whole years fearing their discovery every minute. It is a heart wrenching story about the trials and tribulations she went through during those years.

The museum has everything from excerpts of her diary, decorations on her wall, the kitchen they used and the hiding place to the black curtains.

This little girl lived there with her family and started writing a diary of daily events at the age of 13. She wrote about her life and many war related stories for two years. After she died, her father chose to publish the diary in to a book and reveal her story to the rest of the world.

The museum had interviews of surviving members, friends and family. This is one of the most intriguing, astonishing and yet excruciating stories I have come across.

After the museum visit, I felt compelled to go to the bookstore and buy her book. I wanted to know more!
The book is highly recommended - a testament to innocent prosecution!

But the one thing about her diary that really caught my attention wass that she was a very real girl (although she is often projected as this hero) who sometimes had more negative than positive things to say about people. She went through heartbreak, tension and struggle - but she still managed to find happiness in the smallest of things. She had to crave for the most basic things like sunlight and food, but she was also perfectly delighted about decorating the walls of her room with cut outs of old magazines.

It kind of makes you think about how relative the concept of happiness or unhappiness is. And our perspective of happiness can sometimes be so limited..

Obrigado Portugal for an amazing time...

We had flights booked and Portugal planned quite some time back. At that point I didn't realise I was travelling to Galicia the exact previous long weekend. Two back to back vacations! What is the problem, you ask? Well, the only problem was I came back from Galicia on Tuesday morning and had to leave for Portugal on Thursday evening and had 4 classes to attend in between and an equal number of assignments to finish. But hey, it was totally worth it!

After two sleepless nights of working hard and writing  one final cover letter on the flight, I was all set for Portugal. I was travelling with two amazing friends from school, Marlene and Ekaterina. We had done a trip together before, so we knew this was going to be fun!

Coastline

As soon as we landed at the Portugal airport...well actually, as soon as we found our way after sort of getting lost in the airport (All the exit signs led to a dead end, really! It was 3 of us and one Austrian at that (they are super smart)  - so it couldn't have just been my direction sense!) we were welcomed by the warm (not usual for October and hence lucky, we were told) breeze and  a chatty cab driver who very kindly gave us tips on places to visit.

The street act

We had a nice cosy hotel not too far away from the center. We dropped our stuff off and headed out to the center of Lisbon. We walked down the narrow and quaint, yet busy streets, treated ourselves at a lovely local restaurant and continued exploring this lovely city. We spotted a street performer and halted to check what all the noise was about, but we soon became part of his captivated audience. This guy was super funny and performed some  slick stunts. I have to say that I was truly amazed by how well he spoke English and it wasn't just him, the staff at the restaurants, bars and shops all spoke a little bit of english - a refreshing change from Barcelona. The Portuguese people were definitely very enterprising and made for warm and nice hosts.

By the end of the first night itself, M and E had become huge fans of Lisbon while I have to admit I thought it was nice, but not spectacular. To me Spain and France were spectacular, while Portugal had a very different feel to it. Some parts were rural while some parts were serene and extravagant as I was about to find out over the next few days.


The next day, we took a train to a small town called Cascais at the outskirts of Lisbon. It had been recommended by a number of people.It was different, a bit more touristic and colorful. When we saw the cute shops and beaches, we figured this was haven for us! After some shopping and a lazy late lunch at a cute Indian restaurant that was styled like the inside of Taj Mahal, we thought this day couldn't get any better, but it did! We readied ourselves for a mini adventure as we rented bikes to ride up to a specific beach. This was one of the best parts of this trip as we cruised , stopped, huffed and puffed and cruised along the riding tracks. Okay, it was just me huffing and puffing and poor Marlene would have to stop every now and then to check if I was okay. I told her to go along and I would catch up, but she was so sure I would get lost. To that, point taken, I thought to myself!

The sea-side view as we rode up was stellar, breath-taking, amazing...u get the point! We got to the beach, parked our bikes, got some ice cream and made ourselves comfortable. Just when we started enjoying the warm golden sand under our feet, we realised it was late and we had an hour to get the bikes back to the booth in time. Obviously, we had taken longer than we thought we would getting up there. So we halfheartedly packed our things, ran towards the bikes and started asking someone if they knew of another booth closeby. Thats when we realised we were running as per the Spanish clock and were one hour ahead of Portugal.*TING* So we went back to the beach, unpacked and spent some more time there.

The ride back was easier and prettier as the sun was beginning to set. We were exhausted by the time we got back to the hotel where Ekaterina was finishing up her work. She had decided to skip the day trip to finish some work.

We had planned to meet an ESADE alum (a year senior to us at school) for dinner. We decided we would finish dinner and call it a day as we were all exhausted. Yeah, that was going to happen.

We met Tiago for a drink and then headed for a Portuguese restaurant and had some amazing food. They have this tradition of serving bread with a few cheeses. The cheeses tasted so good and so did the food!

The sea side restaurant

This was followed by a few halts or hops at what we were told were the most famous spots at Lisbon. I love how the most famous clubs there are called 'Looks' , 'Silk' and 'Bedroom'. It was good fun. I couldn't help notice that the music and huge floors reminded me of Barcelona!

Understandably the next day started pretty late and we just lounged around the city visiting a famous castle and some lovely stops at the city. We took the famous tram ride and ended the day at a restaurant by the sea. It was absolutely fantastic -overlooking a famous bridge (that looked suspisciously similar to the Golden Gate bridge). It was stunningly lit up in the night and that was the point, I made the transition from nice to spectacular. Of course the girls gushing about Lisboa and totally being offended that I didn't proclaim the same kind of love, also helped ;)!

Sintra

The next day, Luis offered to give us a lift upto Sintra as he was driving up there. We had met him over dinner and he was Tiago's friend. It just so happened that I had met him over a year ago through another friend at Barcelona. Talk about coincidences. Small world, indeed! Anyway he was very nice to give us a quick tour around  Sintra and told us where to start. We got off and started off with breakfast at a cafe (I think it was callled Cafe a Piriquita) that was recommended by one and all. We were even told exactly what to order - Travesseiros and oh boy it was awesome!

We walked through the castle, took the bus up to the palace and walked around the park. We spotted a few exotic birds and tons of cats (This country probably has the highest cute cats population).Sintra also has the most amusing carvings and statues standing by the winding roads.We spent the entire day in Sintra and loved every bit of it.


On the last day, we had a flight back to catch in the evening. We spent the morning in Belem, walking by the sea and spotting the Belem tower. We headed back to the Lisbon centre. We split up to go shopping and ended the day with a late lunch at an outdoor restaurant where the girls finally got their sea food and I got my veg Lasagna.

Portugal, to me, was such a different experience. It had so much to it - quaint streets, lovely thatched roof houses, traditional tiled walls, narrow lanes,tiled roads, upbeat music, one of the best cuisines, uber fashionable women walking elegantly in their heals, traditional women, old couples walking hand in hand, the occasional man sleeping on the street and many many tourists looking just as amazed as I was and trying to take all of it in!

I still have to do Porto and Coimbra,especially because I have heard more than a few people swear by these places. So my tryst with Portugal is not over, just as yet! Until next time...

Some share worthy interesting quotes I've come accross (Some inspiring and some just funny)


"Dear Lord.. The gods have been good to me. For the first time in my life, everything is absolutely perfect just the way it is. So here's the deal: You freeze everything the way it is, and I won't ask for anything more. If that is OK, please give me absolutely no sign. OK, deal. " - Homer Simpson


"People think at the end of the day that a man is the only answer [to fulfillment]. Actually a job is better for me."
—Princess Diana




Let there be spaces in your togetherness - Khalil Gibran




If you do things well, do them better. Be daring, be first, be different, be just.
Anita Roddick (Bodyshop)

Life is brief, and then you die, you know? And we’ve all chosen to do this with our lives. So it better be damn good. It better be worth it.” - Steve Jobs

Here's the mini-cherry on top of the regular cherry on top of the sundae of awesomeness that is my life - Barney Stinson

I have never really been a fan or even a regular watcher of Tamil movies, but then I've really loved some movies like Roja, Kandukondain Kandukondain and Alaipayuthey in the past.

However I must say that the last two that I tried watching in the recent past have been pretty bad. It was like watching a string of meaningless Salman Khan movies that are the least bit entertaining, give you what feels like a permanent headache and then you also have to deal with the depressing fact that you live around people who really seem to enjoy them!

Yesterday, my mum and dad were really in the mood for a tamil movie and coaxed me in to watching this one called 'Vaaranam Aayiram' and I really loved most of it (barring some questionable breaking in to dances in the middle of blasts and exams). It makes you think about how unpredictable life can be/

It also has some lovely music scores and it has not been directed by Rehman (That is encouraging right?)

Here's my favorite song from the movie:

I just love it when a plan comes together!

Three months back on an all nighter which was meant to be spent completing a school project (Actually we did manage to complete it!), I remember telling a couple of friends, how much I wanted to get my own place in this one area in Barcelona that I really liked! And then I went on to tell them about how I could maybe finish my internship in India, come back and get a part -time job and how that would help me get my own studio. It all seemed like a long shot and my awesome friends smiled on supportively.They really are awesome, I tell you!

Although I think I saw them roll their eyes a little. It may have had something to do with the fact that it was 4 am and that I tend to drift.

So anyway, some  trotting and some phone selling later, it was time to put my plan in to action. A million times  it looked like it would all fall through and a million times, I changed my mind. But eventually, it all magically fell in place.

I took up an interesting fun marketing project with a tourism company (Read: Anything to do with Travel - YAY!!!!!) and found a nice studio apartment nestled in a quaint lovely locality.

 I moved in to the place just in time for my parent's visit and we've really been enjoying the terrace and the late sunsets! Makes me think, how nice it feels when once in a while things work out exactly the way you planned them!

Being back in Barcelona and having a week off before starting my second internship has given me a lot of time to kill and boy have I killed it well! So anyway, I had a movie marathon week and managed to catch up on all the movies I have missed in a while....

At the risk of sounding vain (Actually, this is totally going to ruin my cool persona, but what the hell!), I love chick flicks! Especially the ones that have Hugh Grant - definitely the best thing that ever happened to Hollywood and maybe even (wo)mankind.Oh and Michael Vartan...and Colin Firth! Right...I am guessing you get the drift.

So here are my top six recommended chick flicks (for the vast universe of my blog readers..sounds a lot more sarcastic when I actually say it):

1) The truth about cats and dogs

2) Notting Hill

3) Two Weeks Notice

4) Bridget Jones Diary

5) It had to be You

6) Never been kissed

You are in a relationship with your phone, my friend!

When I just landed at ESADE, all of us got the same phone and contracts so that we could BBM each other instead of calling! I remember discovering the world of BBM and Whatsapp. I had hardly felt the need to use either before, but  I got so addicted to it! I remember a friend I had met for coffee look at me and go, "Did you really want to meet me? You have looked at your phone more times than you have looked at me! You are in a relationship with your phone my friend!". I was like, lets not overreact and get all dramatic please!

2 months later of course, BBM was passe!

However, I seem to be meeting a lot of people who are still stuck in the my-'smart'phone-is-the-best-thing-that-ever-happened-to-me mode! Coffee, lunch meetings, just hanging out - whatever the occasion, some people seem to find their phones more interesting than anything I have to say! I am trying not to take this personally.

But yes, it is a tad (just a tad) troubling !

Checking in...

It has been an eventful summer, which I kicked off with a trip with a bunch of people from school to Ibiza. It is an amazing island with some beautiful beaches and fancy clubs with a great line up of DJs and great music. Very relaxing and a much needed vacation after a grueling semester and internship hunt.

Right after Ibiza, I moved to Gurgaon to start an internship with Nokia. (Have I told you how much I hate moving? To think I will have to house hunt and move again in BCN in less than a month...sigh!)

Back to the internship, it has been a great experience thus far. I am working on a social media marketing project and some other digital marketing initiatives for a new Nokia phone. Social media has been an extremely exciting and new space to work in..I have been studying competitors and other consumer brands' social media strategies and I realise how much the digital landscape has changed thanks to the Facebooks and Twitters. Overall, a very satisfying and fun experience that I will be concluding in a couple of weeks.

In other words, as a new 18 year old friend I've made here put it...you get to be on facebook all day and its called a job, what more can you ask for in life! I really tried explaining to her that social media marketing is a lot more than just facebook-ing, but she seemed kinda fixated on Fb so I let it go.

Back in Barcelona in a months time to start the last term of the MBA (quite a bitter-sweet thought that!)

Ich liebe dich Deutschland!

A Monday off meant a long weekend and a chance to travel! So I did exactly that and decided to pay Radhika (A friend of mine from school) a visit in Germany. Vaiteesh and she have a lovely countryside house on the mountains about an hours drive from Stuttgart. This was my third trip to Germany, having done Munich and Hamburg before, and the more I get to discover this country the more I am starting to love it! So much so that I am even considering looking for an internship there :)!

Anyway, so the weekend got off to a great start as soon as I landed and got out of the Stuttgart airport in my nice-and-perfect-for-'sunny'-Barcelona jacket. It looked bright and sunny, but didn't feel anything like it. The board read -2 degrees,I almost got misguided in to walking a kilometer to get a train and  I coughed, shivered and froze until I finally boarded the bus and made my way out to Pfullingen!

An hour later I was so very happy to see Rads and she had the whole weekend planned for us. We spent most of Friday catching up, walking down the quaint streets, shopping at the town stores, driving through the mountain forests (and spotting Antilopes) and chilling (which also included watching the movie ROBOT, which btw has to be the worst movie EVER. Yes, it was my idea but in my defence it has Rajnikant. I mean we are talking about the guy who can kill 3 people with one bullet).

The next day, one of Rahika's friends joined us and the four of us drove down to the city, visited Vaiteesh's university (which he was very excited to show us :P), checked out a few palaces and ended the day at an awesome bar (I so love the European bar culture).

The Ludwigsburg palace was definitely the highlight of the day (after the bar :P). It is huge and has some stunningly beautiful arhictecture under one roof. We signed up for a two hour german tour (we missed the english one) of the entire palace which had about 120 rooms. We also found some 'interesting' facts about the king who weighed 200 kilos and drank 2 litres of coffee a day and the queen who had 5000 pairs of shoes! Surrounding the palace is a huge beatifully maintained garden and fountain. This place is amazing and totally worth a visit if you appreciate good architecture.

We spent most of the Sunday exploring Tubingen which has some quirky buildings, a lovely river and a beatiful park and walkway. It is dotted with many touristic stores (which were super expensive, but I didn't fall for it. I just got one shortglass...I mean just so it reminds me that I had been there. Oh and a calendar with such beautiful shots and some candles and a bag. Damn! These overpriced tourist stores...such a menace). There were also a bunch of bands playing the guitar by the street and entertaining people with some awesome music!

After scouting for almost an hour for a restaurant that had any vegetarian food at all (story of my life), we found the cutest Asian restaurant. It was done up in a mix of Thai, Chineese and Vietnamese style. Not counting the weird fried banana desert, this was pretty much the best Thai food I have tasted ever!

More walking, shopping (sometimes I feel like Sophie Kinsella's Confessions of a shopaholiolic was inspired by me) and freezing (this time I had three layers on) later, we ended the day with a lovely dinner at an Indian restaurant and with mango schnapps!

Had sucha a good time. Loved hanging out and catching up and can't wait to go back to explore other parts of Germany!

Now back in Barca and back to the grind!

Ups and downs! Crash and(back with a) bang.....

This new years I made a resolution that I would blog more often....just because I want to pen down (metaphorically speaking) this whole exhilarating experience! Clearly it took me 2 whole months since to actually do it!

Anyway, 2010 has been one of the most eventful years in my life. Exactly one year back I remember going back and forth in my head, debating two options and running my pros/cons list by everyone who was willing to listen. I was confused and couldn't decide if I should accept my admit with ESADE or wait two years to go to INSEAD (which then was my dream school and I had received a strange sort of deferred letter from them...long story). After a lot of thinking, I decided I needed to do the MBA then..it felt like the right time in my life and ESADE sounded like a pretty good option plus one tiny thing...it "happened" to be in Barcelona!!!!! So here I am one year later and I have got to say I am glad I made that decision. It has been one helluva ride...ups, downs, good times,not-so-good times, fun times, crazy work load and living in one of the most charming cities ever does help :)!


The one thing I have come to love about this school and this experience is the amount of diversity I get to experience on campus. The first team that I worked in had one Japanese, Peruvian, Canadian, South Arabian and Indian. My current team has people from five other countries. I live with a German, Moroccan and a Pakistani-Canadian! It doesn't get better than this. I have learnt so much about so many countries and cultures. #Good times!!!

I have often heard of the cliched phrase 'Change is the only constant' and boy did I experience it! That was the mantra in 2010. Not just school and moving countries, it was a slightly overwhelming time on other fronts too. Last year felt like the end (not sure if that is the right word) of a really long and intense chapter of my life!

In a way it was such a mixed year - some super awesome times and some forgettable moments! Either way a milestone year!

This year has been great..maybe even super fantastico (as they would say it here)!

My only grouse is that I seem to be missing too many golden moments !I'm missing two weddings - both really close friends!

Oh and my darling of a niece, Antara is growing up too fast. Last time I spoke to her, she asked me why I did'nt have an Iphone and dissatisfied with my answer, she grumpily explained it is the world of the Ipad and the least I can do is  get an Iphone! She is 3.5  years old. I keep telling my sister, this kid is a prodigy, but she doesn't believe me ;)!




Anyway off to Germany this weekend to meet Radhika and Vaiteesh! Quite excited and looking forward to some fun times!