Catching up...

Let me inform you at the outset – This is going to be a long post, so read in leisure time :D It has been a long time since I updated my blog, owing to rigor in IIM Calcutta, a real hectic week long trip to Delhi, and a 3 week holiday in Mumbai. On top of that, no regular net connection also kept out of action for almost over a month.

Well, I completed my first year of my MBA (ya again!) and headed to Delhi to catch up with relatives and old friends. It was a week-long trip which was quite hectic, coupled with not-so friendly weather there. All in all, it was great to meet some people after a really long time in life :) And more importantly, finally got the chance to see the Akshardham Temple, near Commonwealth Games Village with some of C classmates.

Then, I headed to Mumbai for a 3-week stay there before joining my internship. Here also, I met with old friends and watch the famous play – ‘Class of 84’ being played in National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA). It was a nice play and I would recommend it to anyone who has not seen it till now. And those have seen it, would agree with me on this :)

This time, I also got a chance to watch 3 plays in the Performing Arts Festival of IIT Bombay. They were absolute brilliant performances and one cannot stop admiring the efforts put in by every student there.

In the meantime, I got the news that I will be interning in Thailand in a phosphate plant of Aditya Birla Group located in Samrong, Samut Prakan province, about 20 kms from Bangkok. I was excited to say the least :D

Finally, the D-Day arrived. All the group interns were to join by 5th April evening in ABG’s training center called ‘Gyanodaya’ in Belapur, near Mumbai. I reached around 8 in the night and was shown by room. My room partner was one of my batchmates from C only. The rooms were just WOW and so were all the arrangements.

The evening was left to us to socialize with fellow interns from other institutes. Post-dinner, we batchmates from C, caught up on lotsa things on campus talks, year gone by, internship projects et al. All of us then started playing cards and this continued late into the night.

Morning was reserved for formal introductions of all the interns, and HR professionals from the Group. All in all, there were 40 interns across 5 campuses of IIMs A, B, C, L and XLRI. We were given a lot of information about the various group companies and the activities undertaken by them. It was an informative session and made me aware of many new things about the Group. Post-lunch, we were taken through administrative formalities, getting our tickets, passport, details of stay and other rules and regulations.

We (4 of us are interning in Thailand, albeit all in different locations) were to fly Indian Airlines later in the night, so had ample time in life to chat around, sleep and watch some sitcoms :P

We departed for the airport and against all expectations, made it to the airport in just 2 hours. The check-in was smooth, and so was the immigration and security check. This gave all of us to explore and enjoy the NEW Mumbai International Airport. It has undergone major revamping and has some amazing duty-free shops now. My reference point of comparison is Dec 2007, when I last used it as a tourist to Thailand. Though, the airport is good, it’s a no match to other international airports across the globe.

The flight was on time and boarding was announced was also timely. But, I was surprised to see the aircraft was not more than 40% full. Apparently, Thai and Jet Airways were offering lower-priced tickets than Indian Airlines! I would like to mention here that IA has also undergone a sea change in level of service and cleanliness. Dinner was OK and in-flight entertainment was below average. Watched ‘Rock On!’ for some time, listened to some old hindi songs and then caught on some sleep for around 2 hours.

My sleep was broken by pilot’s (I still don’t understand why is he called a ‘captain’) announcement of landing at the Bangkok International Airport. The arrival terminal seemed familiar :P and it was a long walk to the Immigration department. Apparently, Thailand has waived off its visa fees and also it has visa on arrival. It was longgggg queue at the Visa terminal at the airport. Enroute to the immigration, I got 10 USD exchanged to Bahts as I was not sure of encountering currency exchange counter soon. Here also, immigration was smooth but customs people insisted that we should get our luggage scanned, which we did without any hiccups.
Now, when we came out, we were expecting (as told) a person with a placard; but no one to be seen. And in Thailand, English is not that famous language. After talking to some people, through sign language, we figured out that there are 3 (atleast) exits in this airport and our person could be anywhere. We started moving towards the next one and spotted one person having a placard with just 2 names! Again, there was a language barrier and we got the message that he was here to pick up only 2 of us – another intern and myself. So, there has to be another person. Making that person as a part of search, we eventually found the person who was there to pick up the other 2 :). We parted ways there and moved on towards our destination.
My place was around an hour’s drive from the airport, thanks to the traffic. Distance-wise, it was around only 30 kms odd. The other person left in some time to his location which was a further 200 kms away. I was shown my guest house and room and got to meet the caretaker also. I was glad to see the place – it’s a plant location which is self-sufficient. And everything is inside the complex. I slept for some time (flight sleep was not enough by any standards) and joined in the second half of Tuesday.

I met key people and got the drift of project. Last few days have involved meeting a lot of people, understanding current systems, my project and I am sure of one thing – its gonna be EXCITING!!!

Thursday, April 9, was festival ‘Sankrat’ (not sure of spelling ;)), which celebrated with water and white powder. It was good fun and the water part came after a pooja in the office. It was like ‘holi’ without colours :P Now, Thai New Year (Songkran) is coming up and hence it is off here. I am off to Bangkok in few minutes and will be there for next 3 days!