Here we begin...

I have thought of starting my blog forever..i make a start today… and hope to keep up with new entries about my life, experiences, thoughts and the world from my eyes… (no pun intended J... and promise notto write so much together going forward…


It’s the end of the 3rd semester for me at Wharton, well life is on a fast track.. but its time to sit and think back… and look forward… why… well a one month break… freaking amazing or is it?

I am currently in Mumbai, after 24 hours of travel (which could be painful especially when the passenger in front of you decides to make your life miserable bhy tilting his seat back even before the flight takes off and carries on through the journey even after being told again and again by the stewart). But I did survive not only falling handbags from the cabin to a sweet but crying baby to almost getting lost att Heathrow… Well what happened, why did I get lost.. hmm… I was being escorted to my London Mumbai flight when I decided to take a washroom break… I went in and my hostess from BA was waiting outside with my bag… now some overzealous co-passenger decided to help me coming out of the washroom and when I came out I could not find the BA hostess or my bag… or my boarding pass that I handed her to find the departure gate… well I didn’t really panic butwas slightly worried … more so because I would have to go through the entire process of searching for a BA crew and explaining the situation and then trying to find a solution… I so wanted to find her and just assume nothing happened… I waited for 5 painstaking minutes, drowsy and sleepy and slightly and mildly irritated J… then came an angel (I don’t know her name so angel)… and she saw me a little lost… asked me if I were alright and I narrated the saga… guess what happened… she started laughing and I was astonished at her apathetic response towards me… but then what the heck… I was in self pity… almost…

She said – looks like you are on the other exit of the washroom… hmm… was this funny – NO… and she escorted me to the other exit where my nervous hostess was wondering if I had decided to abandon her and my baggage and run away… the look on her face was quite amusing and her nervous eyes were almost angry/pleading/sad… (ok guys now this is not a joke… I didn’t see it myself but her voice said it all) of course the entire incident was hilarious or so I nthink now…

Then I made it through the flight… reached India… my motherland…

Guess what happened at immigration… I met an old uncle (officer) across the counter… and he started quizzing me… “where do you study? What do you study? (then silence ) how do you manage? “ I almost thought I will not be allowed admission into my own country… oops… come on I am one of those few Indians who still speaks the same English and accent that I took with me to the US,… believe me allow me in… my parents are waiting for me outside… please … then in my typical response and enthusiasm to educate the whole world I explained how I functioned, removed my cell phone and made him hear the software speak… - I thought I was crazy… but well everyone knows that I am crazy so that was nothing new was it? What happened next is also something that you would experience only in India… that uncle across the desk said “Mr Ashish Goyal… god bless you and we are proud of you and I will always remember you ashish Goyal”… well these nice men… or uncles.. so I miss them when I am abroad… J

Back to my motherland… My motherland, that is spoken off so highly in the economic press nowadays, the enigma that 65 wharton students will soon discover through the trek and some 35 others through personal tours and wedding attendances… , the country that is supposedly the biggest competitor to China’s growth and supremacy…, the nation that boasts of so many cultures and even more opinions and ideas, the powerhouse that is buying businesses abroad and boasts of the best performing decent sized stock market in the world that has gone up 7times in 4 years…

I was here just in May… and did not expect much to change (unfortunately I still am not accustomed to the log scale even though my derivatives professor made me do it like a gazillion times) and guess what happens – I am surprised again at the rate of change. I see money all around- tons of it… people spending like crazy… on food, more food and more more food… I mean there twice as many fancy restaurants then there were like then… there are tons of more food courts and malls… and all of them selling food at prices that I am almost ashamed to pay… why because in that much amount of money I can feed like 10 lives and still spend money on feeding them some ice cream… People are also spending money on real estate… hmmm… real estate… how Real – I don’t know… (for a second do not believe that I am a bear on India, no I am still quite bullish but think that we are running ahead of time or even trying to build the 20th floor without making sure the foundation has enough steel or cement or water)… home prices are insane… whether to buy or to rebt… hotel prices are ridiculous… I was trying to search for rooms around the airport for a friend… guess what Rs 18000 plus taxes per night… equivalent to only a mere $500 a night and I am not even talking of the 4 seasons here… J
Anyways, then I went out – Monday afternoon, within 12 hours of my landing – preposterous decision… I thought I was superman… well I am a Wharton suudent.. am I not… so what is impossible… what freakin jet lag and stuff… who cares… and we all think the same way isn’t it.… J but I soon discovered- it was a horrible idea.. absolutely ridiculous and one that I will not try again..

So this is how it happened… I reach 01.30 hours Monday morning… come home by 03.00 hours… sleep or try to by 04.00 hours… get up at 10.30 hours… and leave homeweat 12.30 hours… I live in north Mumbai and had my appointment at 15.00 hours in south Mumbai … I reached at 14.45 hours… because it was light traffic as it was the afternoon.. only 2 plus hours… and guess what I had traveled… a grand total of 20 miles… yes 20 miles… well I was lucky.. I was warned… so I had my Vodafone (another foreign direct investment… with millions of new subscribers every month the wireless telecom industry is booming ) which bought the hutch cellular services… and my laptop… which my friends at Wharton know I live with J/…. The only problem was that my call ept dropping every 10 minutes… no baba it was not coz the network was bad or anything… only that there are x customers and the bandwidth requirement is already 2.5 x and growing… so it happens sometimes… well well..

Since I had already planned this ordeal… I made sure I ssed all my opim skills (if I paid attention… well I guess i did…)… and I met 4 other friends before returning at midnight that night individually… individually because its simple… you don’t really get a chance to talk about meaningful things until the group is on the same wavelength… lesson learnt from Wharton :) there is nothing like meeting old friends.. ones that you can just be yourself… isn’t it? And I had tons of fun… enjoyed the evening… and more…

While meeting friends I discovered that there were not only many of them with more fancy jobs… but even bigger pay packages.. something un heard of … and they were thinking big… real big… There is no shortage of brain power and ideas in this country.. and I love my India for this reason… we have some of the most intelligent and enterprising people… and even all these infrastructure constraints don’t hold and can’t hold them back… All of them talking of taking vacations abroad… once a year at least and owning some swanky cars (I don’t know where can you drive them though J … but when we met – it was about them me us and all things good happy and sad… time is flying away and things are changing… one thing that doesn’t change it is the love for and from friends…

The next day I met a senior Wharton alumn from a well known PE shop… and we agreed to agree (no its not disagree please) about the state of the Indian economy and the way it is going.. his statement “its difficult not being present in this market, but valuations are so stretched that its difficult to justify”… hmm… and then I remembered another alumn speak of China “ the world thinks that China is a bubble for the last 15 years… all I want to remind them is that the US is a bubble for 200 years for the Europeans”… so… I am still just a student and will allow all you intelligent people to make your judgement and debate whatever you think… And I decided to go and watch a movie… why a movie.. well its Bollywood- the cheesy sweet and traditional bollywood.. or is it? I have had tons of debates and discussions with friends at Wharton in the last year and a half that Indian movies are moving beyond the normal- that we are making films that match international thinking and content… yes technically we still don’t have the money to make a matrix… but scripts, stories and acting are of world standards in some movies now… and I was proven right again… This was my 5th movie in India in this year (including 4 during my month long stay in May)… and I am soooo happy with the change… am ope to making recommendations but will spare the blog from my personal favorites…

So the paradox continues… and I am looking forward to seeing it unfold over the next couple of weeks… months.. years and decades… I know that india is a great country… all I am waiting to see is the extent and strength of its greatness…

More later… enough – we guys don’t even read this much of crap for some of our exams – I am surprised you all reached the end of this one J … thanks for reading..

I am soon off for Australia… to watch some cricket and have some fun down under… soak some Australian spirit and give them some Indian flavours… I am sticking my neck out and proclaiming to the world… India will give Australia a run for their money… This is my dream tour – one I was waiting for 5 years now… and feel lucky I am finally going… the Indian flag is out, my cricket T shirt and cap are ready, the camera is charged, and the adrenaline is pumping… chuk de India…