The day in London

I was in London today. The weather was fantastic - and it felt wonderful to walk around and near the London Bridge. P5 has begun earnest - and on the very first day I had 4 back-to-back classes starting at 8:30. I think I will have quite a bit of free time from beginning June.. wow, it's the last 2 months!

Best of Blogging Award! .. and another lifesaving tip..

Last year, Clearadmit dinged me and I got no award >:/ which prompted me to put this post. But this year, I've finally been honored -- yeah! Oh yeah baby! wait...9th place?! you gotta be kidding me! C'mon! ;)

2007 (last year)



This year..a little better!

Well, thank you readers, clearadmit...feels good

consolidate all IM with Digsby - you will thank me for this!

If you use IM messaging in MSN, Yahoo, Facebook, Google Talk and have friends scattered all over, go over and get yourself Digsby which is out of private beta. In one single IM you can consolidate all your friends, see facebook news feeds, update status, see gmail snips...makes life so much simpler and easier. Start using it and you'll realize how good it is and it's still in early stages. PS - if you hadn't noticed - faceboook introduced IM just like Google chat. With Digsby you can see all your online facebook buddies in a regular desktop application along with Yahoo, MSN, Google talk -- makes it really cool. Only Skype is missing.

The Louvre | Musée du Louvre - A review and top 10 exhibits and artifacts

I've always wanted to visit the Louvre museum (or Musée du Louvre) in Paris - the largest single museum in the world. As a history buff, this visit was on a mandatory list. This is a review of the Louvre museum visit and its exhibits.

So, the verdict? Must for a history buff! The collection is vast and amazing.

This review is split to three parts

1. Top 10 Tips while visiting Louvre (Louvre visit top 10)
   
2. Exhibits to visit - my favorite top 10
   
3. Some photos
   

Top 10 tips while visiting Louvre

(what use is a review without one of those confounding top 10 lists?!)

1. Take the metro to get there -- real easy and comfortable. The metro M 1 line takes you to "Palais Royal - Musee du Louvre" and the underground passage will take you straight into the Louvre.
2. Preferably give yourself 6-7 hours if you are quick paced and alone. More if you're with friends who slow you down ;) I went alone, and in hindsight this was wise - I could go where I most wanted and spent time in areas of my interest. My legs hurt by the end of the day but it was worth it. One could potentially spend 2 days but it's unlikely everything will interest you in the museum. You prioritize :)
   
3. Visiting on Wednesdays has an advantage - Museum's open till 10 PM (6 PM otherwise)
   
4. Get the combined tickets (Museum + exhibitions), it's worth the money. You can see that the museum is using a nice "bundling strategy" combined with customer segmentation to extract customer surplus! I visited the "Babylon" section with the exhibition ticket, it was great.
5. Do some prior reading of some of the more popular artifacts (my links below will help), you will appreciate and enjoy what you're seeing.
6. Get one of the Audio-Visual guides - seriously. What frustrated me was that a lot of artifacts have only French descriptions! For a world famous museum one would think they'd make an effort to make it a little more friendly with English by the side. Only some places have English. The audio-guides do not have explanations for all artifacts, but only some famous ones. There were times I was really upset for not being able to read descriptions of artifacts that seemed interesting. However, the audio guides are still worth it and have many valuable commentaries.
   
7. Take a little backpack and some packed food. There are areas where you can sit and eat - the food stalls in the museum are pretty expensive.
8. Don't forget to pick up the Louvre map - a very useful guide to the layout and major attractions - available at the information booth near the ticketing area.
9. Don't ignore the great paintings on the way to Mona Lisa - yes, we all know Mona is a superstar - but there are some great galleries on the way to the Mona Lisa (La Jolla) room. Take your time, enjoy them, before you get your chance to fight the hustle and crowd near Mona Lisa.
10. Read rest of this review. I had to make this one up because I ran out of tips.
    

My favorite top 10 Louvre exhibit visits

1. Winged victory of Samothrace - almost 2,200 years old, to me this was the most beautiful sculpture. It's powerful, beautiful and mysterious. It's also pretty big - you realize when you stand in front of it.
2. Code of Hammurabi - the first codified laws! The Babylonian section was fantastic - photography was not allowed. Here is a Google maps link to the Babylon excavations.
   
3. Madonna on the Rocks - this is the version made famous in Da Vinci Code. The painting itself is beautiful and all the mystery and stories that surround it make it all the more alluring.
4. Akhenaten's statue - you should read the history of this "renegade" pharaoh whose name was systematically destroyed by later Pharaohs. This statue piece is over 3,300 years old. The Sphinx at Louvre is another great piece - again over 4,000 years old.
   
5. Mona Lisa - all the hype...just makes you want to like it! :) The portrait is set in a large room which gets pretty crowded. This is one exhibit that really gets the star treatment.
6. Napoleon's apartments - whew. They're really grand!
7. The seated scribe - nearly 4,500 years old and in great condition.
8. Alexander's bust and Michelangelo's dying slave
   
9. Paul Ruben's gallery - for some fantastic large canvases
10. Venus de Milo
    

These are just my preferential items - there are many, many more great exhibits - ancient sculptures, papyrus, paintings.

And now, photo time! Louvre Photos

Description is below the photo.


Louvre under clouds. It's a palace converted to a Museum.


Napoleon's apartments. Gorgeous.


Napoleon's apartments Grand Salon.

The winged victory of samothrace - I converted the pic to B&W because it somehow gives a better feel.

Venus De Milo

Akhenaten




Madonna on the rocks

Mona Lisa.


Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed this mini-review. When you get a chance, take the time to visit Louvre and see first hand some of the most famous exhibits in the world.

And here's a random post on some popular queries on my blog.

Two useful tips / easy subscription to this blog/HDD cleaner

Subscribing to this blog so that you need don't need to visit this page often to check for updates...

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Keeping your Hard Disk Lean and Mean!

If you are a heavy PC user and your HDD is filling up with junk, it may be time to clean up some space. I found this great tool called CCCleaner (free) which helps you get rid of a lot of crap. I freed about 1/2 GB (and that's a lot considering I clean my PC quite often). I also used RegToy (free) another great tool for Windows that helps you tweak many parameters (don't use it if you are scared of IT and don't know much about registries and computers...)

This weather sucks. Raining for the last 2 days.

Plan B - what is yours?

In strategy or marketing there is often the lesson that a company or individual needs to have a 'Plan B'. The bottom line is a back-up, fall-back option if the primary course of action fails.

For example, getting a job. For most of us, plan 'A' is really getting the job we seek in campus recruitment. But getting that job is a function of variables within our control (CV, academics, interview performance) and beyond (Economy at large, company performances, the institution's brand image in the eyes of recruiters). This comes to the question of 'what is your plan B''?

It could be any of the following, depending on one's priority.

1. Find a job on-campus but not necessarily in my preferred area
   
2. Find a job off-campus in a preferred area of work, through networking
   
3. Find a job off-campus in a related area of work, through networking
   
4. Go back to my previous employer in a different role, different function
5. Go back to my previous employer - not much change in role or function

I was mindful of the environment and competition, so I kept my lines open for off-campus opportunities and my past employer and kept them engaged in conversation. At this point, of course, I think I have what I wanted so my back-up plans may not need to materialize. In the past weeks, I've sometimes wondered what else I could be doing...hmmm....

a) Farming - my dad owns some land in our village farm. Assuming he would employ me..


b) Shady Bollywood back-dancer / fighter - one of my class mates has some connections in Bollywood. I could be in there. No, not as a hero, but if you've seen some Bollywood movies you see that in certain song and dance sequences there are these badly-dressed, bad-looking dudes dancing in the background showing off some awful moves. I could fit that! I could be a fighter as well.. the one that gets beaten up by the hero and flies through glass walls, fruit carts etc. That works as well.




c) Singapore food-court owner/seller - I could make some $$$ there! Apply for a food court license and open one near INSEAD. But then..Singapore laws do not look kindly on illegal immigrations. I don't mind getting deported but getting my @ss caned isn't what I'm looking for. I'll pass this one.

I wanted to travel Northern France for 2 days, but I'm stuck at Fonty due to certain circumstances that prevent me from planning. Crap.

End of P4

The INSEAD P4 finally ended (2 days ago). We are now 4/5th into the course with the last leg starting on Monday. Overall, it's been a great ride - stressful at times - but rewarding ultimately. P4 specifically has mixed emotions - on one hand we have some great electives but on the other, we are consumed by the job search process that sucks your soul. So a few observations, highlights or whatever you want to call it.

1. Cell phones are objects of terror - sitting and waiting for that call - rejection or "next round" or offer, is horrible.
2. Cell phones buzzing and people walking out in middle of class - truly weapons of mass destruction. Everyone freaks out when this happens - "are they calling?", "will my phone buzz?" .. and when the person who walked out comes in, everyone is looking at them to gauge their expression. Is that joy? disappointment?
3. The best electives get little love - ICA (Karel Cool) and MDS (Market Driving Strategies - Markus Christen) are both great electives. Except that I really couldn't concentrate and did horribly in ICA tests. I really wish we had 2 months in INSEAD that was only about recruiting and no classes...because I missed out really learning ICA in depth. My advise to future intakes is that if you're really focused on the job search and want to do ICA - do it in P5 when things are more settled. A lot of people are distracted in the classes.
4. People chill a little bit - there's not that much heavy peer pressure to party or do anything you don't really want to do
5. France gets really pretty in spring - when the weather's good, it's lovely outside. Though it still isn't consistently good weather - rains many of the days.
6. People stress in P4 - understandable..job search anxiety, bad economic conditions..can't read FT anymore..series of dings..not fun!

I'm hungry. And I need to wait 40m more for food. Let's do a case. Profitability of the INSEAD cafe has been  declining in the last 2 years. Frank wants to know why. Find out the reason and also make 3 recommendation how you would improve it. Now..let's split this to Revenue side and Cost side... ;)

I'm hungry. And I'm delusional from hunger.

A few more tidbits / France / Recruitment..

Just some random tidbits and a little more information on recruitment

first, my interesting experience at the local supermarket. So I live in a little village (small town..whatever) which has a pretty decent supermarket. I mean, it really is a supermarket - like a mini-Albertsons or Big Y or Stop n' Shop etc. My friend and I were out grocery shopping around noon to stock our fridge. Suddenly, at one point, most of the lights go off - and there is some rapid fire announcement on the store speakers. Now, both of us don't speak French (he's a Swede who's lived most of his student/working time in UK) and we have no clue what was said - but we saw many people scurrying towards towards the exit area. I'm thinking "emergency?! fire drill? evacuation order?" and as we go near the rows of cashiers, most others are lining up as well. "This can't be emergency.." I thought..and then it dawned on us and we both cracked up laughing. It was lunch time and the supermarket was closing and kicking us out. That was the first time ever I got thrown out of a superstore... well, the French definitely care about their lunch/free time, which is pretty cool, even if it surprises some of us. But I just couldn't help come up with this..jus' kiddin' of course ;)


Now about recruitment -- well it's been a rather stressful time. I've done OK I guess given the situation and I have something firm on hand - and I really like it. I have a few more final rounds to go for other companies, and once the dust settles I will put in some posts about what helped me during recruitment, what surprised me and so on.

I saw the palace at Versailles, it's pretty awesome. France is beautiful in Spring. Pictures coming soon.

The best of blogging awards..

The last time I was nominated, I kind of did nothing. Now that I'm about to arm myself with a MBA, I have to shamelessly promote myself! But I must!

So, please nominate me :)

http://blog.clearadmit.com/2008/03/best-of-blogging-awards-2007-2008/

Pauses and Silence

Yes, I know. I've been rather quiet last couple of days - the mad recruitment rush combined with panic of not getting anything done was hitting me like everyone else on campus. You might ask how things are going with me on recruitment, and I will tell you that it's much like most others. Moments of elation, stress, distress, tension, happiness, jubilation, dings, resignation, thrill - it's all there. But overall I'm quite happy where things are headed for me.

I have a few things I want to post on once I relax a bit - next week is terrible with all the term assignments coming in and I haven't started anything yet! It would be terrible to repeat courses in P5!

And this is a wish to a good friend and a fellow blogger. Happy birthday! (assuming you'll see this post on the right day) and here's wishing some great times ahead, and a chance look to a wonderful tomorrow! I would have wished you in person but I'm not in town. You brought me a beer, and I owe you one in return. Next week!

INSEAD Singapore Photos / Photographs!

This one was a long awaited post. A few more photos of INSEAD Singapore campus. The description is below the photo.



INSEAD while entering.


A side view into the library when seen from outside. The INSEAD Singapore Library is a compact, nice library.


The behemoth building behind INSEAD (and dwarfs it completely, making INSEAD look like a matchbox!). This is called Fusionpolis - which is expected to be ready I guess in a few months or an year. It's huge, and supposed to have many food courts, malls, cineplex, office space - everything rolled into one futuristic building. The Singapore MRT (metro rail) is opening a new station right next to INSEAD - and this means I expect the Singapore campus to become really convenient and super connected in another 2 years. It's going to get hard to find a seat for this campus.



Lockers - very convenient to hang your suits and leave your coursework.


The main entry corridor that looks out to reception and library at the other end.

Main corridor when seen from the reception.

A view from the cafeteria.


An open "break out room" for study, meetings, group work, napping.


A view of the open eating space outside the cafe.

A closed break-out room. These rooms are in great demand, and hard to find. You feel very accomplished if you find a free one and then you hog it for half a day..

INSEAD Fontainebleau ("Fonty") photos will come in spring. Right now weather is rather sucky here in France and I'm in no mood for photography.

PS - a couple more photos and some campus FAQ is available in this post. And you might want to read this INSEAD Singapore FAQ post that tells you a lot more about the Singapore campus, facts, myths.