Fuqua finally!

Just wanted to let you know (provided I still have blogger readers :)) i'm still alive, and very much living through orientation O-week... not just that, but i'm loving it so far!! The past 2 days (orientation is 3 days long, so we have had the first 2 so far), have been crazy, fun, hectic, partying, and well, even more hectic. it's really been amazing - my initial thoughts on Fuqua, Team Fuqua, the resources, the expectations, and what orientation has to offer are to follow soon ( i promise!).

I'm surviving on 4 hours of sleep per night (for the past 2 nights), so it's difficult writing all my initial thoughts right now! Hoping to put forth something in a few days (or once i get a good nap), on this blog! 

Stay posted, and Fuqua rocks :)

Coming to America :)

In our part of the world, America is oft thought of as 'the land of opportunities' or the 'greener side' of the grass :) And so, as time has just flown by , I am now in the US! The last few weeks had me overwhelmed and so caught up with packing, shopping, packing, sleeping, learning how to cook basic stuff, getting my driver's license updated, buying cds of my favorite music, and basically packing once again!

And so, the weeks really sped by, until it came to my departure flight, and I realised it really has been long since I blogged the updates of my journey. And for some odd reason, the murmurs of 'Going to America' by Neil Diamond flashed through my head as I boarded my flight. Corny, eh? :d

For now, I'm spending a vacationary week in New York, before I head to Durham. the few days in Durham before classes start should be good enough to settle in, buy furniture, basic apartment stuff and all. 

I've been to new york about twice before, for 2-3 weeks, so I'm not doing the typical touristy stuff of going to statue of liberty, and seeing the museums. but boy, I really do love the museums, particularly the one on natural history. Anyway, so this week is more about relaxing, spending a rainy day at a small cafe in brooklyn with a good book, walking around, enjoying some of the sales at macy's :P , and taking life a little slow. Any suggestions on fun stuff to see while I'm here though would be much appreciated!!

Things on my list for now are seeing the new Highline park in Manhattan and seeing a play at Broadway.

Stay tuned for my life in Durham, Fuqua, and the MBA-life as it engulfs me only next week!!

It's been a while...

It's been a while since I last blogged. 2 weeks almost i think. Wow, so much has happened in these 2 weeks.

For starters, the panic mode is starting to kick in a little. Not a lot, just a little. Not really panic either, more of the realization that henceforth starts my last month at home, in this phase of life. :)

Other than that, the past two weeks have had me both elated and grieved. Elated, i say, because we won the ICC 20-20 World Cup, and in doing so, we won our first major cricket trophy after 17 years. Wow, that really was great. It was actually amazing seeing how sport (and at that cricket!) seems to unite people and give them something to be happy about!

In other news, Michael Jackson passed away. And with his death, he took away a generation's childhood. As I watched the TV programs re-living his life, his songs, his legend, I related each of his songs to a phase of our lives, of the times when we first heard his songs. I wish I could have heard him live in concert though, I'm sure he would have been phenomenal. Despite all the controversies and scandals that engulfed his life in the past decade or so, I do know this - he truly was a legend. It's really not often that you come across an artist, a musician, a singer who can make his/her mark across the whole world. MJ did just that. 

:) More later!

Ain't nothing but a Summer Jam...

This ain't nothing but a summer jam....bronze skin and cinnamon tans....ohh...

Man I love that song (yes i know it's gotten old, but every summer i still feel like listening to it!!). And so it's June already - the *almost* peak of the summer. I'd say mid June - mid July starts off the worst time - the unbearable heat, the stifling heat, the long afternoon naps that are so hard to resist. But with the heat, the sweat, and the passing of another season, something good does come. And not just good, but heavenly good. I'm talking about the mangoes.

Man, I could write a whole blog series on the mangoes. The mangoes of the sub-continent are famous for their rich aroma, their addictive sweetness, the soft pulpy flesh, and the varied kinds that exist. So that's what summer signifies for me.

On other fronts, my MBA preparations are still going. I'm learning to cook the food's I'll miss most. I'm expecting a CD in June, which will have a pre-course work program (Math and stuff) we're all supposed to do before starting Fuqua. So, yea, looking forward to that - i really need to get used to this study routine! After such a break from studies, getting used to the work routine, I'm wondering whether it will be easy to adjust the back-to-school (studying) life. Hm, well only time will tell.

Celebratory MBA chocolate cake!!!

There are various kinds of chocolate cakes - there's the kind you crave for at midnight, then the one you crave after lunch, the one you crave when you're feeling low, the kind you crave when you want to reminisce about your childhood... and finally, there's the one you crave while enjoying your pre-MBA celebrations :)

So here it is! For me, this is it - the cake I'd have (and have had...yummm!) to celebrate my MBA. I can just taste the rich chocolatey icing, the nicely textured cakey slice, the intense chocolate after-taste, and the ensuing feeling of satiety. 

This is a tried-and-tested recipe. I (and many others) have made it for many many years now - it's a safe, chocolate bet. Follow the recipe and trust me, you won't go wrong. Oh, one more thing, i hate cake recipes that use 'xox cake mixes, instant puddings and so on'.  I like cakes that are made from scratch - you feel a greater sense of achievement :D

So, without much ado, here it is:

(Source: Hamlyn's cookbook)

Ingredients:

4 oz. plain flour

1.5 tea spoon baking powder

0.25 tea spoon salt

1.5 oz. cocoa

4 oz. butter

4 oz sugar

2 eggs, blended

1 tablespoon milk

For icing:

1.5 oz butter

1 oz cocoa

3-4 tablespoons milk

4 oz. icing sugar

(The picture I took of the cake I made, utilized 2 times this recipe). 

Sieve together flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa. In another bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add eggs a little at a time, beating well. Fold sieved ingredients into mixture with milk. Mix well. Turn into greased tin. Bake for about 40-45 minutes at 170-180 C/ 375 F until centre of sponge springs back when lightly pressed (you can stick a fork in to test if done - if fork comes out clean, then cake is ready). 

Icing: Melt butter for icing. Add cocoa. Cook over low heat for 1-1.5 minutes. Add milk and sugar, and cook over low heat until you get a creamyish icing. Note: Add the sugar to suit your taste, as 4 oz may be too excessive. I usually go with about 2-2.5 oz  sugar for the icing.

Spread the slightly warm icing on the relatively cooled down cake. ENJOY!!

A new phase...

So I had my last day at work, and it's now finally all fitting in...but what is it about last days (anywhere) that just makes them so weird! That unexplainable, almost conundrum-ic feeling you get, knowing this is the end of an era, a phase of your life...whether it's your existing job, your college, or even saying goodbye to a friend who's moving to another city or place.. you know things will have to change inevitably.  so that's pretty much the same for me. My last day made me realize I really have learnt quite a bit from my recent job, grown personally, and enhanced my professional network. 

The initial feeling was one of exhilaration as I felt I was a free bird, no longer a captive of the corporate slave-hours! Hehe, this feeling was short-lived though. My fourth day of being free and I'm actually wondering how to kill time.. there is quite a lot of stuff i have to get down to doing, such as immunization, sorting out what to take along, what to shop, filling out some Fuqua forms et al, but this lack of a daily routine is making me oh-so-lethargic!

Oh well, tomorrow's another day right. I will not procrastinate tomorrow. haha. i've been reading a book, one which is claimed to be a book you HAVE to read in your life : One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It's not the book, i guess it's me, but i just haven't been finding the motivation to read it/ finish it. I need a fast paced, action thriller, un-put-down-able book right now. any suggestions? 

I read Grisham's "The Associate" a month or two ago. enjoyed it - i actually read it while at an airport, and i have to say Grisham's excellent for airports/ long journeys. 

I've been getting a few requests for a celebratory MBA cake recipe. :) i have taken heed of that and promise it in my next post! yea for chocolateness in life :)

this has turned out to be a random non-MBAish post, but then i guess this is the start of my new job-free-until-MBA-starts phase!

The Lost Generation...

I have a lot of free time on my hands (yes, i've resigned from work, and am just serving my notice period).. i get done 31st may! you would think that since these are my last few weeks, i would be swamped with work, leave late and have a stressful life. Not at all actually.

Surprisingly, work has slowed down a lot, i actually have a little too much free time now. Not that i don't enjoy it - my gym-ing activities have started again. Although i have realised something, the free time you value when you're working in a rigourous 9-to-6 or whatever time routine (unofficially) you have at work, that feeling of high on the weekend is just unbelievable. .. I now have a whole two months to enjoy and plan, before the journey starts on 1 Aug.. actually the journey will start much earlier, what with immunizations, visas, accomodation, pre-coursework and planning on living in the US, i'd say the journey is already on full swing :)

Anyway, so what with the free time, my mind finds itself wandering and pondering various random thoughts... what's been bugging me for some time, is what i like to call "The Lost Generation"....here's how i define them:

See when all of us grew up, we had hobbies. Now, the way i see it, a hobby is an activity that you indulge in for leisure. It's an activity you take up in your free time, something to look forward to, a passion even. Some of the common hobbies are taking up sports, reading, collecting stamps or coins, painting, learning a craft, cooking, baking and so on. But for the generation of today, the kids who will grow up (or have already grown up prematurely), it all boils down to one thing - FACEBOOKING. Urgh. Facebooking is a hobby? Is it really? I mean seriously!! But honestly, if children/teenagers today spend all their free time on Facebook, chatting, joining x group, thinking whether to accept xx friendship request, what else would you call it? A hobby. A very sad hobby though.

Sigh. As much as I love technology, the Internet, Youtube, Facebook and the world of cell phones, i can't help but look back on my childhood. To start off with, none of us had cell phones. The world of missed calls, sms-ing, rejecting a person's phone call didn't exist :P It had a charm though - a certain freedom. You could do what you liked, unwatched, unaware. Now, it's just plain creepy - the stranger next to you on an aeroplane or bus could be google-ing you or facebooking your account to see who he(she) is sitting next to... or worse, they could be taking your picture with the oh-so-sleek camera of their cellphone and you wouldn't even know it!

So here it is - an ode to the lost generation; the kids of today who will never know the joy of playing CaromBoard, Risk, Cluedo, cards with their family; of meeting a stranger and knowing nothing about them; of reading books, painting on a summer afternoon; of calling your friends on their home phones; of not knowing who is calling you when you pick up the phone; of technology-innocence and simplicity.

:) Magical, the times we used to live in, eh?