::ThoughtFarm::

The reason why there are so few articles on my web site is that the MBA course I am doing is keeping me busy with countless “Copy+Paste” assignments, reading imp mgmt books like the latest one by Lallu Prasad Yadav or indulging in “value-adding activities” like burning DVDs of “That 70s Show”.

Now that we are in to our second year, having completed the Summer internship where we “applied the theoretical concepts learned in first year to actual practical applications for finding optimum solutions to real world Business problems keeping in mind the long tem organizational goals and vision”, I tell you guys life’s not the same anymore.

I don’t know if others agree with me but the lectures in this Sem seem to be so long that I fear missing on the eventful world out side.

Suddenly in this semester, the gym is the “in” thing to do. As if the gym on our campus is not enough, people are joining other professional gyms by paying atrocious sums of money. I stayed away from this mess for a long time, but when a new Gym opened right in front of my house in Kothrud, I also took the plunge. My roomies here had a bet that I wont last more than a week…………………………………..they won the bet.

You see ,some decades ago, I used to be an athlete who used to run daily and keep away from drinks so as to maintain a proper physique. Now I have become a drinker with a running problem.

Last week our Corporate Interface Team (CIT) had organized an “Entrepreneurship Meet” where we had eminent speakers deliver lectures about their start-ups, the hardships they faced and the “essential qualities” of an entrepreneur. Suddenly no one on campus is talking about placements but about being an entrepreneur. I wondered (with due respect to CIT) whether it is possible to be a entrepreneur just by attending these kind of meets?

One speaker that stood out amongst all (including the famous Mumbai Dabbawallahs) was Mr.Mahesh Murthy who made clear the simple fact that we (students) are all different and have different aspirations and still when a company comes for placements, we all apply to the same company. The tone of the speech was similar to the one of Larry Ellison’s speech at the graduating class of 2000 at Yale University. He talked about us trying to “fit in” rather than “fitting the world in” to our aspirations.

The problem is you see that there’s so much competition in India. Even if you are one in a million, there are still thousand people like you.

Also it doesn’t help that the curriculum is not updated with students learning from books which have been written in the 60s. Every year thousands of MBA grads across different B-Schools enter the industry, all of whom have been injected with the same dose that its important to satisfy the customer. In fact our marketing textbooks say that it is no longer enough to satisfy the customer, the customer should be delighted. Moving ahead from delight, another one talks about customer thrill. What next – Customer orgasm ?

Life in a B-School is indeed patterned. Like the Oracle in The Matrix said “You have already made a choice. You are here to find out why you made that choice”.

Like Neo , I am also searching for an answer.

No visit is to Dubai is complete without a Desert Safari to do dune bashing, savor the Arabian coffee, sheesha and dinner laid out in an oasis tent accompanied by a belly dancer while the stars brighten up the desert sky.

Desert safari is done at a place Hatta, around 45 mins drive from the bustle of main Dubai city. The cars used for the dune bashing are Toyota land Cruisers 4X4 drive. The entire safari lasts for about 5-6 hours and costs around 150 dirhams (rs.1875).

Once we reach the starting point in the desert, all the land cruisers come together and then the fun starts. In our land cruiser, the driver was a Pakistani while the rest of the passengers were Russians. On asking us to fasten our seat belts, Mustafa, our driver, roared the car in the desert. The cruiser bounced and sped over the dunes and we did an adrenaline rush for the next hour. From one sand dune to another, the cruiser went through almost 80 degree turns sideways and even vertically.

The cruiser goes through such verticals that even taking snaps becomes difficult particularly when Mustafa used to intentionally slide the cruiser downwards from a slope as my fellow Russian passengers shrieked and laughed with excitement as the car went up and down the dunes.

As the sun descended into the horizon, we stopped to take sunset photographs, while standing on top of the fading desert dunes. The view of the desert sun slowly fading down a distant sand dune was truly awesome and the orange-blue hues of sunset intermingled with the brown desert sand made all the passengers stare at the sight till the Sun finally disappeared over the horizon.

We then headed to the campsite where a convoy of camels awaited our arrival for short camel rides. After returning from the ride, we relaxed on majlis (low cushions) in traditional Bedouin tents. We were also served Arabian coffee which has a strong lingering flavor of cardamom.

There were some desert scooters on which I had a small ride near our camp for about 15 mins (they are damn costly).

Returning back to the camp, all the fellow passengers were settled in respective tents while arabian music was being played. I even had a snap of mine dressed in traditional Bedouin male garments. (Check out the snaps below).

I have had Sheesha’s quite often at café mocha’s in Mumbai but the original sheesha that was served over there in the chill of the desert night was truly awesome.

We were served barbeque dinner consisting mainly of chicken and fish along with some pasta and some veg items. But considering that the organizers of the desert safari are mostly Indians/Pakistanis, the dinner wasn’t very Arabian and actually was quite like the barbeques that we have in India.

Towards the end of dinner, suddenly the music volume was increased and we were entertained by the dancing of a belly dancer to traditional Arabic music. The belly dancer was actually an Ukrainian dancer .

Wont speak much about her “belly dance” since this is an open forum