WAC and DIWALI

What a week that was, started with the drama and suspense of our first WAC unfolding, so talked about by everyone, with hints dropped here and there by Sean and John and picked gleefully by us. Well it wasn't a damp Squibb as such but wasn't an atom bomb either, Neal did mention last week at Halloween party that the first WAC will be cool and they will become tougher later, so I really had mixed feelings about it. The day went well with never ending discussions about it, followed by pizzas and finally retreat to our homes. The deadline was 2.00 PM next day. I finished most of mine by midnight and went to sleep comfortably, woke up at 10.00, revised it and submitted by 1.00. A good mind exercise, in following the word limit and putting all the economics concepts to writing. OK post WAC now, what next, Diwali ofcourse... the big Hindu festival and which was as much talked about in our Indian community here at Cranfield since last week as WAC. We decided to celebrate Diwali in two groups - one with Indians only and one with MBA batch. Since Diwali was falling on actual WAC submission day, and people are prone to head for Socials after submission, we thought to celebrate that day with only Indian community at the community hall. The evening went very well, we have a sizeable Indian population here (actually was surprised as I didn't know that Cranfield is so popular in India for its post-graduate courses), got to meet many new people, from South India, Maharashtra and UP as well. We had a small puja, followed by fantastic Indian food (shared cooking) and antakshari. Good fun, Diwali well celebrated this year, though I did miss fireworks.

Now the preps started for MBA Diwali, Hema called everyone at her house and shared this brilliant idea of enacting a spoof Ramayana with background Bollywood songs. We were all sold on the idea and started rehearsals, my role being of music arranger, I downloaded songs, clipped them and put them together in a new file. It was great fun to watch the characters rehearse their roles with great gutso. At one point we had our differences though, the religious aspect, the humour aspect and the whole-point-of-it aspect. But we marched on and come Thursday its show-time now. let me just briefly mention here that Friday was the submission day of another 1500 words individual report on OB, and I could see the tension building among people. Well tickets sold, rehearsals done, invites sent and we were there at Forum in traditional Indian dress welcoming everyone, the Anchors started Introduction of Ramayana, I started my music and here we go. After 10 minutes I could only hear loud cheers and laughter all around, guess we did well. Butterflies in the stomach subsided and rats took their place, Indian food aroma was everywhere and calling. And so it happened, another evening of fun and socializing. Thought I would started my OB report after reaching home but was just not upto it, ditched the idea until next day.

Got up at 8.00, started writing, did a lot of thinking about my learning team mates, and about myself, finally wrapped it up at 3.00 and submitted. It did give me some creative satisfaction, as I had not written before on people's behaviour. A good learning exercise, hope it will be more fun with the group report coming up later. So that's it, a fruitful week gone by, saturday already half-spent and looking forward to my afternoon siesta now.
Guten Tag