Back From India

Got into the United States on Thursday afternoon by way of Singapore and Tokyo, just in time to start my second year of MBA studies at UCLA Anderson on Friday morning. I’m looking forward to this quarter, the finance and operations classes are sure to be riveting. I’m sure that sounds like sarcasm but it’s not – it’s going to be a great quarter of class content.

The rest of the trip in Hyderabad was great – the finance class was enlightening. In particular given the 100mph pace of the US banking world in the last two weeks (the Fed buys Freddie/Fannie for $5T – the largest deal in the history of money, B of A buys Merrill, Lehman fails and Nomura eats most of it, AIG gets $85M from the Fed, WAMU fails… is that it?) … what a great time to be in a class studying derivatives, what credit default swaps are, different hedging strategies to mitigate interest rate risk or exchange rate risk, forwards, futures, swaps, and options.

On my way to Seattle for a wedding of a great friend and college roommate, thinking about India, here are the things that stand out in reflection as highlights of the trip:

- Trying to capture the experience of driving down the street in a tuk-tuk with my camera and realizing it’s futility… India is a place which needs viewed in 3D and with five senses.

- Getting a chance to eat a halal fast-breaking meal with a Muslim on Ramadan. I’m starting to think halal is a set of Muslim food preparation instructions not a particular dish, but basically it was a specialty lamb and cheese paste we ate that was imported delicacy from UAE.

- Visiting the largest mosque in South India where 15,000 people visit daily to pray during Ramadan

- Visiting a Hindu temple and drinking holy water before later that night talking about the Bhagavad Gita and generally Hinduism with a Hindu Indian classmate

- Seeing a camel being rode down the street as what appeared to be this guy’s daily driver

- Seeing a Bollywood movie filming in progress at Golconda Fort

- Under great protest, lip synching “Baby Got Back” while wearing a kurta payama at a Hindi karaoke session

- Dying laughing as the 67 year old professor had an epiphany and suddenly understood the Indian head nod (the Indian head nod is a cultural thing… Indians wobble their head in an ear-to-shoulder direction at certain times which usually means ‘maybe’ or ‘okay that sounds good’ or ‘yes I think so’)

- And possibly the best part… making three new friends from the UCLA FEMBA program

I haven't made it back to San Francisco yet, but when I do I'll pull some pictures off my camera and post.