Wilmington Trip – Fuqua Life 6

October 28, 2012 Leave a comment

Wilmington is a port city in and is the county seat of New Hanover County in coastal southeastern North Carolina, United States.It is the eighth most populous city in the state. Wilmington was settled by European Americans along the Cape Fear River. Its historic downtown has a one-mile-long Riverwalk, developed as a tourist attraction. It is minutes away from nearby beaches.

Several of exchange students decided to plan a trip to the beautiful beach of Wilmington. The day started with a long but beautiful drive to the beach and then few wonderful playing in water and relaxing. In the evening we went to explore the downtown . While waiting for a spot at our decided dinner place we went to a bar which turned out to be much more interesting than we expected. It was an open air bar cum DJ where it was a truly amazing ambiance.

Filed under Opinion Uncensored, Travel Tales Tagged with ,

Dodgeball @ Fuqua – Fuqua Life 5

October 28, 2012 Leave a comment

Apart from the usual dose of basketball and football, we also got to experience  2ndAnnual MBA Games Dodgeball Tournament!

Time / Place: Sunday, 9/16 from 4-6pm at the IM (Intramural) Building – next to Wilson Gym on the West Campus

Rules -
- 16-team round robin followed by an elimination tournament
- All games are played 7 vs 7
- Teams must have 2 of each gender

Post-Party:  Once we were exhausted (read eliminated), we set off for Alivia where organizers has scheduled an after match party for all the participants.

All the exchange students fielded two teams – Xchange 1 & Xchange 2.

Team 1 – Xchange 1

Melissa Chin

Aurélie Jarlier

Fumio

Mete

Atsushi

Clement

Torbjorn

Team 2 – Xchange 2

Nafisa

Helen

Samir

Rahul

Trent Rigby

Luis

Carl

I am not stating who won or lost because that was never an intention of our going into the tournament. We went in to have fun and had loads of it. The best part of the tournament was Xchange 1 vs Xchange 2 match. This match was the longest in the tournament since both of our team were rookies and so most entertaining. Out and out, super awesome experience … for more pictures join our GANG !!!

Filed under Opinion Uncensored, Travel Tales Tagged with , , ,

Why I respect Russel Peter now – Fuqua Life 4

October 20, 2012 2 Comments

I know a lot of you maybe wondering when did Russel Peter come to Fuqua … no he didn’t … you didn’t miss any excitement

Occasion – Amine’s birthday party hosted by him and his gracious flatmates … Thank You Guys !!!!

We call for a cab but the cab company keeps on telling we are almost there …. We were getting anxious and angry at the cab service. Finally I saw a cab on street and decided to flag it. We cancelled the cab booking and went to the flagged cab once it stopped. The driver was ecstatic to see us and welcomed us saying, he had dropped us before to our house. I just smiled because I didn’t remember anything …

Once in, we told him the address which we wanted to go to. He laughed and said in excitement BARTY BLACE. Let’s go …

I am confused …what is BARTY… “We need to go to this address” … no BARTY

Cab Driver – Yes Yes, I know. THE BARTY BLACE.

Varun – No Barty … Just take me to this address.

Cab Driver – Yes … Barty Blace

Now I am losing patience … what the hell is going … and what is BARTY

Enters into the argument, my flatmate, my NUS classmate, Samir Sultan ( clapsss … ). He is most polite and soft spoken person I have ever met.  I am confused, how come he is coming to the argument.

Samir – Let me handle …

Varun – You sure

Samir – Yes …. ( turning away to cab driver) … Yes we need to go to BARTY BLACE …

Cab Driver – Yes, that is what I am saying… let’s go !

I am surprised … shocked … where are we going … Samir tells me in Hindi to not worry and relax. I act to relax and to some extent tried to relax too.

Few minutes later, we reach the place and only person interacting with cab driver was Samir.

Now I am confused and I confront Samir …. what the HELL is this BARTY PLACE

Samir smiles and smiles and smiles. Now when I ask again, the main story comes out …

Samir – I actually saw lot of Russel Peter show in Singapore. In them I remembered he told that Egyptian origin people can’t say the letter P. They pronounce the letter P as B. So I could understand what the cab driver meant.

Varun – You learnt it from Russel Peter … of all places , Russel Peter. I can’t believe it.

Samir just smiles and I realized learning can come from anywhere … even Russel Peters !

Filed under Karma Conspiracy, Opinion Uncensored, Travel Tales

Why are there no people around – Fuqua Life 3

October 11, 2012 1 Comment

Saturday evening, 11 PM, I am walking back to home from the school through the science drive exit of the building. It has suddenly got cold in past two days and I was not very well prepared for it. As I try to walk in hurry to my house, trying to protect myself from whatever cold I could, I saw a man walking towards me. Well inside university, usually there are not too many people on foot on weekend at 11 pm in night. I didn’t pay much attention until I saw the person trying to look around like searching for something.

Before I could ask him what he was looking for at that time, he approached me and asked if he could ask me a question. I thought maybe the guy needs some help, so I took off my face mask to help him. That was the starting of my experience !

Let me write it in the form on conversation ….

Stranger – Hey Hi ! Can I ask you a question

Varun – Ya sure, looking for something

Stranger – Yaa, people … why are there no people around

Varun – What people .. Are you looking for some party you were supposed to be (I am thinking … It is weekend evening, super cold, who the hell is partying right now here …. let’s see what is going on)

Stranger – People I mean, there are no people around in Duke Campus. I come from Boston and there are always people around in Campus.

Varun – ( still confused and trying to understand what does this man wants) It is quite cold, people usually go for Duke games on Saturday. Probably they are all studying or preparing for the recruitment season. Is there any specific group or place you are looking for …

Stranger – Naah.. I am generally looking around… btw I am a recruiter too. I have come here to hire at computing school. So where do people go to party here at Duke.

Varun – Interesting … so you are just out looking for people at this time.

Stranger – Yaah. Where do people usually party here at Duke.

Now I am loosing my patience . I want to tell him – See dude, I recognize and realize that in this part of world, people love small talk and casual chit chat, but this is really not the time. I am FREEZING and I am no mood to be travel guide at this hour.

Still retaining my composure, here is what I said …

Varun – There are lot of party places but I am not sure what is open now. Maybe you could search for word Shooters, Parizade on the internet ( These were actually only two places I have been to and I wanted to give some name and not sound dumb)

Desperate to save myself from catching cold and reaching home, I now decided to get out anyhow

Varun – Well have a great recruiting time at Duke and hope you can find some party places soon. Good Night

Stranger – You too. I am staying in this Duke Washington hotel (first time I heard that name ….)

Varun – Cool ! Good Night

I walked as fast as I could without turning my face back. Still wondering what part of conversation was truth and was I really talking to a stranger in middle of road at almost midnight. Hope the stranger found some people and some party

Filed under Karma Conspiracy, Travel Tales

The confusion of assignments – Fuqua Life 2

September 19, 2012 Leave a comment

This is a tale of my tryst with the confusion and near mishap I went through during my first assignment submission.  I had a submission due for “Manager and Legal Environment” course.

With the conventional logic , I came from, the assignment due in a class is based on what was taught in the class earlier.  Now I had an assignment and I could make no sense of how it is related to all what we had studied in the class. Everything on the assignment appeared to be greek.  The clock is ticking …..

I somehow manage to complete the assignment with whatever I could make out from the assigned readings for the class in which assignment was due.  The true revelation came when I sat down with my team for the group assignment.

Our teacher had a rule which was unique for me but super common for Fuqua … no it is not related to Fuqua Honor Code which everyone swears by here …

Rule – The assignment was based on the chapters to be covered in the class in which the assignment was due. It is somehow done to ensure students read the chapters to be covered before class. Sounds logical, right ?

Why it was weird to me – Students will build up understanding to do the assignment and if that understanding is not right, they need to unlearn and then relearn it in the class.

And so started my academic journey at Fuqua !

Filed under Karma Conspiracy, Travel Tales Tagged with

Start of new journey called Fuqua LIFE

September 16, 2012 Leave a comment

As I write the first post of this series of my experience at Fuqua, I realize how I am turning blue.

Don’t worry my health is PERFECTO !

This blue is the Duke Blue and I am really feeling proud to be part of Team Fuqua. I just finished the CLEADS course this Friday and even before I realize the long weekend is over.  This long weekend has its huge tail of experience which are here ….

1) A tornado warning as SMS which was the least thing I expected while talking on phone during my night walk. 15 minutes later, the warning is withdrawn. I know I quickly I made a dash for finding place in some building.

2) A soccer game which my friends say was wonderful and which I couldn’t watch. The stupid me, perpetually in love with my laptop took my laptop backpack to stadium. Security didn’t allow me to enter the grounds so I saw the match from outside on the big screen.

3) The unending list of grocery shopping and shuttling from one bus to other

4) The Friday night party at Parizade. When normal head home we headed to the next venue and stayed there until the owners closed it.

Thus so passed the exciting first weekend at Fuqua Business School!

Cross Posted here

 

Filed under Karma Conspiracy, Travel Tales

Welcome To Singapore

April 11, 2011 1 Comment

Hello All, I am writing this post for all my friends and relatives who want to or plan to come to Singapore for vacation :)

Main reason for writing this is that most of the things I tell them are same and I felt it will be a good idea to compile it all here. I will keep updating the post from time to time .  So this post would be kind of FAQ ;)

Q1. What there for shopping ?

A1. Electronics, clothes, chocolates, perfumes, jewelery ….thats it . Rest everything is cheaper in India :)

Also do remember to get the 7% GST refund on any of the above items you buy here. You can get it on airport. Just take care of all the receipts and rest of the process is very easy.

Q2. How many days are enough for Singapore ?

A2. This one is little tricky. It depends on your interests and budget. Usually 4 days is the descent time period for SG.

Q3. How is the climate here ?

A3.  Hot and Humid. Do not carry any full sleeves. Carry lot of Sunscreen . Do carry 1 jacket as sometime AC in public buses and halls can be really nasty. Umbrella , you can buy here or get if u want. A couple of small polythene bags in case it starts raining to store your phone and passport in it. It can rain almost anytime, so be prepared for it.

Q4. How do we travel in SG ?

Public transport system is quite nice and easy to comprehend. You can also take up taxis, which are costlier than in India , but still manageable.

Q5. What places should we should  go to ?

Family Visit –>  Marina Bay Sands , Sentosa , Juorong Bird Park, Night Safari, Orchard Street, Vivo City, Singapore Flyer, Universal Studio ( list not in order of recommendation)

Bachelor Visit –> All above + Casino ( Resort World Sentosa + Marina Bay Sands ) , Clarke Quay ,  Orchard Tower

I am not including Mustafa Centre because it is one excruciatingly overpriced and cramped place. Unless you want to buy spices and amul milk imported there from India , no need to go there. It is a highly hyped place among Indian visitors but trust me there are much much much better places than it to go.

Shopping Haunts –> Bedok night market ( Singaporean version of janpath market) , Funan IT Mall ( for all those IT geeks drooling over DSLR, LED TV and Hard disks) , Niranjan ( for those wishing to buy Phones) , Street Shopping in Little India ( for clothes, soviniour, I love Singapore key-rings, T shirts , chocolates) , Candy Empire ( best chocolate shop in SG)

Q6. Can I find vegetarian food there ?

Yes a lot. Apart from Indian cuisine you can also try Chinese vegetarian dishes.  There are really good. Btw Singapore is no alien land and we got your Dominoes, Pizza Hut, Sagar Ratna,  Subway …Plenty of choices

Q7. We got small kids / senior citizens  with us.  Any special advises ? 

Just carry basic medicines, some dry food items . Prefer to take a taxi for travelling since MRT and bus can get crowded in morning and evening times. Otherwise , there should be no problem.

Q8. Are we allowed to carry our own medicines. Can we buy directly from chemist as we do in India and other countries ?

In the luggage anything less than 1 Liter and in any handbag anything less than 100ml will not be a problem.  I will recommend you to carry all the tablets and pills you might need with you. In Singapore only very basic medicines like Paracetamol are available over the counter, without prescription.

For any health issue, you need to visit doctor, they will give you medicines or prescriptions.  Prescription from India will not be recognized to buy medicines at shops here.

Q9 . How much money are we allowed to bring in and how much shopping goods can we take back ?

Bringing anything less than 30000 USD is not a problem, above it needs to be declared at the airport. As for taking stuff back while shopping, remember to collect 7% GST refund at airport.  Singapore government doesn’t care how much stuff you take out. For India, the limit is 25000 INR per person stuff is allowed to brought inside India at the airports.

Q10. What flight, hotel  to take and how much money is good to go ….

Airlines

Direct + Cheapest -> Indigo ( from Delhi)

Direct + Costly  —> Jet Airways , Indian Airlines,  Singapore Airlines [ Delhi], You can find more options from Mumbai, Banglore

Cheap but hopping –> Airasia ( stopover at Kuala Lumpur)

Hotel

Depends on budget but you can find descent ones from 80-110$ SGD per day. Rest talk to your travel agent for updated data.

Money

Food = 15-20 $ per day, Travel 10-20 $ per day

Shopping and Drinks and Casino  - No Comments No Limits

Still to continue …will keep updating  …Let me know in case you want some more ques added

Any specific advises …..

Not too many …  ;)

1) Don’t use any racial words for people here, you know what I am pointing to. People generally are helpful.  Some might not be so friendly but that is very small minority.

2) Don’t worry about language. English is good enough :) …Don’t start wondering if people attach a suffix LAH after various words. Thats Singlish. Don’t think too much into it

3) In case you really want to buy some Apple product which are cheaper here then it is better to pre-order it from Apple Store. If you buy it with immediate delivery from a reseller it would cost you at least 5-10% costly. Let me know before you are coming and I can help you order it before coming.

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Why a person from good family becomes an illegal immigrant

November 8, 2010 2 Comments

This is story I experienced during my journey from Kuala Lumpur to Delhi. This is about a young Punjabi guy who escaped being declared an illegal immigrant. I was going home for a vacation and chose to take a stopover at KL since it was cheaper to reach home that way.

Standing in the queue  for getting my boarding pass for my flight from KL to Delhi, I noticed a frail looking guy with a small bag being encouraged by a small looking man who also looked tired. They were talking in Punjabi and being a naturalized Punjabi speaker I understood that there was something not right. I asked the guys and got to know that the frail guy named Vijay ( fake name) was unwell and going back to India.He had never traveled alone and wanted to reach Indian soil anyhow. The guy accompanying him pleaded me to help him board the plane and looked really concerned. I agreed for a host a reasons, I was helping a man in need, doing nothing illegal, it didn’t cost me a dime . The only downside I could see then was that the book I was carrying to read would now take a bit longer to finish

After a while of casual talking and inquiring the guy broke up. He had reached Malaysia 28 days earlier on assurance of  GOOD job by some of his friends working in Malaysia. He came with some Ringitt and 1.5 K  USD for expenses from his family. If he hadn’t left Malasia in 48 Hours, he would have become an ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT. There I saw the desperation and longing in his eyes for his motherland.

The first few days of his stay in Malasia were filled with travelling and parties. However the things soon turned out to be much uglier than his imaginations could ever think of. The money he had was taken from him by his handlers or friends as he used to believe on pretext of application fee and other charges for “Work Permit Application”. He was put in a small room and threatened if he ventured out he could be handed over to police.

The guy born and brought up in a village of Punjab couldn’t adjust to new food cuisine and developed digestion and related issues. The local medicines owing to having no insurance for exorbitantly costly and he couldn’t continue with them for more than 3 days.  Eating almost no food for 15 days and ill health made him lose about a third of his body weight.

One thing which was intriguing me why in first place he came to Malasia. I had read so many reports in newspapers about Punjab suffering from labor shortage. The guy then told me that he was photocopy machine mechanic in India, earning 9K INR pm.  He came to find work here because he couldn’t find any DIGNIFIED  work back home. That was kind of weird. I delved more into this while talking to  him. He then explained to me that a particular section of youth in Punjab was not interested in doing jobs which needed physical labor. They are ashamed to do those jobs and considered them fit only for Bhaiyyas [ a term used to mention migrant labor from UP and Bihar ]. These Punjabi guys are ready to do the same job abroad but their EGO doesn’t let them take it up in their own villages.

Quote:- “Veerji Sanu to ai sharm hi maar jaandi hai” [ Brother, it is this shame which brings our down fall]

Then he told me how his friends took his all leftover money in name of getting him tickets to India. They got him fake tickets and his earlier attempt at leaving Malasia had failed. He somehow escaped this morning from the room he was put in and reached out to the neighbors also from Punjab for help.  He convinced them to lend him money to buy tickets, promising his family in India would send an equal amount to the Indian homes of the guys who helped him. It was touching to see how different can be people’e attitude. There was his friend who had robbed him off all his money and there was a perfect stranger agreeing to lend him money.  I don’t know what to call it humanity, brotherhood, compassion, Panjabiyat…..I really don’t know. The person who had come to leave him at the airport was one of those neighbors and taken a day off from work to ensure he safely boards the plane.

I talked to his family on phone who were worried if he had really got the ticket andwas boarding a flight to Delhi. Talking to guy in Punjabi probably calmed their nerves a bit.

After all that only thing I was thinking was - Why a person from good family becomes an illegal immigrant…is it money,lackof jobs, dollar craze or as my friend said SHAME to do jobs which you don’t mind doing abroad because none knows you here but are demeaning back home…

During the flight he was seated elsewhere and I met him next at the Delhi airport. Before I got busy buying some stuff from the duty free area, he just came up to me and hugged me. He uttered just three words – ” Rab Rakhan Veerji” [ God Bless You Brother] and sprinted  back with moist eyes his family members waiting for him at the gates.

This was the journey of a small town boy who is probably repairing some photocopy machines in some dustycorner of Punjab. God Bless Him.

[ This is a true story and is not a piece of fiction]

Filed under Karma Conspiracy, Travel Tales

Phuket Day 2

July 29, 2010 Leave a comment

Now the story moves to the second day since on day one it was already half past nine when I reached by hotel. I just strolled around the nearby market , had a pizza and slept. I woke up at something like 11 on the next day since I was in a holiday mood. After that I drank 2 litres of milk and ventured to Patong beach. It was one of the less crowded beach but looked ot have a lot of potential for tourists. I can say so because there were a large number of beach chairs vacant. I went through the list of water sports on the block and realized I had done all of them in my previous beach trips in Bali, Batam or Penang ….I was kind of  slightly disappointed…but then suddenly I saw an advertisement for bungee jumping..whoaa thats new….

I after some bickering with the tuktuk ( thats what they call the local auto taxis) I reached the place. The bungee jumping was a scary but once in a lifetime event.    I asked the instructor for some insight into interesting places to visit.

During the jumping I found a swedish guy there who was a friend of the bungee jump instructor. The Swede whose name was Harjee  propsed to takeme around the island onhis scooty withhim…I was initially scared to go out and venture with a stranger but then something from the bottom of my heart said that this is a good guy. I chose to trust my heart for once.

We had such a great time. We went around the whole island on his scooty. We went to meet an Orangutan and his Thai girlfriend..:)  The monkeys there were so sweet , but the dogs there were quite scary :(
We then went to a bar owned by another Swedish Guy where there was internet access…my luck..We added each other on Facebook as friends to stay in touch later :) I met several more Europeans who I became friends with as well…I got to  learnt their philosophy of living life…. they would work for 6 months and enjoy for rest 6 months..
Later in the evening he dropped me at a place near my hotel after which I went to sleep after a tiring day. I came to realize  that relations are not dependent  on cultural , religion , racial, national boundaries ….it all depends on heart … Dil Ka Rishtaa !!!

Filed under Travel Tales

Phuket Day 1

July 29, 2010 Leave a comment

Phuket trip was my first trip alone I mean without a friend group. I had booked a budget hotel and went without any plan for the trip .

I had done no research about places to visit which I usually dont do even for the other places I visit. For the other places my friends have already a well documented wish list of places to visit . But this time it was different . I want it to totally random.
The excitement began from the airport. I had convinced my boss to let me go out of office few minutes early. I had my luggage in my back pack and cleared the immigration swiftly. I was conscious of not  making any mistake since I was all alone.
I during the time I was waiting to board the flight noticed two young Indian looking guys talking in Hindi…ohkk s oI have some desis with me on the flight as well. During the flight i tried to strike a conversation with them since they were sitting right in front of my seat.I told them while we were getting of the plane that visas for Indians wil be free due to a special tourism drive by Thai government. They were delighted to hear that and our conversation started.
I was initially planning to make a mini bus to the hotel btu seeign them take a taxi I chose to take a taxi since i wanted to talk to them. So we all took a taxi and for 45 minutes they guided my about career options. I got to know that they were both mba grads working in a prestigious consultancy firms and bank. They surprisingly refused to give me their names and said we have given you too much knowledge for one day.
And in case you really want to find us then you will find a way. It was fun talking to them though and after the trip I managed to track one of them. Soon I will get to the second one also.

Filed under Travel Tales Tagged with , , ,

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