Sp Jain - You are in History

Following my previous post, yes i did end up going out there and giving the so called aptitude test... I wish they had told me the score, instead i was hustled into a room for interview...

The lady across the desk, tiny little thing, with a strange hair cut... she made sure she got her best ammunition out on the desk, and in continuous succession shot me with hard hitting questions from a point blank range... didn't sound fair to me, but yes she was doing her job and doing it well... i took some hits, i dodged a few, more often returned fire with fire... and yes a few days later the mail box lit up with a new mail from sp jain inviting me for the course...

And... and then it got a little mysterious and i started explore other options and kept stumbling into this little abbreviation dotted about on webpages of reputed colleges, and it said... GMAT... it sounded tough, it looked tough... but i saw a reason behind it... i saw it as a challenge...

I decided not to retire into a routine, where i would ride the wave and jump into any little canoe that got me a MBA tag, it was the time, that i fought this stigma, and embarked towards bigger challenges... and it was before me in bold, underlined and flashing like neon bulps... GMAT

A little research and yes i had rolled myself into a institute specializing in GMAT tutoring... guys wish me luck... it is time to get some numbers...

The Hunt for SP Jain.

The descision to find it.
Out of the blue, a friend of mine and me decided it is time to hunt down the infamous Sp Jain university... in Dubai...
We knew it was somewhere in Academic city... but where in academic city... was the big question haunting our minds...

The journey
So we head out, out bound, bearing towards this mystery land... and somewhere down the Hatta road, we followed the Academic city board sign... and we were on a double carriage lonely road, with a sign board daring us to cross 80 kmph...

The heat, the dust and endless span of nothing... was getting to us and we decided that we donot want to give any reason to be lost in this wilderness and took a collective decision to stick to air speed way below 80 kmph.

Driving down the road for 10 mins... nothing... we quickly compared our IQs to find a reason to blame each other just incase we were going no where... and before we could reach a conclusion... the sand storm decided to show us distant buildings of the academic city...

First the infamous Bits Pilani... a simultaneous node from both of us pegged us to drive further... why? cmon who would want to pay 100k AED for a course... in whatever... it is not possible that if we did spend the money to study and at the end of the course we will be driving out of the campus with a high profile job and in a porsche... (FYI for those who are wondering why porsche... it is my favourite car)...

As we moved ahead, with a cautious eye on the speed... i could feel the dust and its velocity working like a high speed sand blasting machine on my not so new car paint... But what the hell... we went ahead... we have to sacrifice something in the name of education...

Finally we came across familiar names, like Szabist, Murdoch, Michigan, Manipal... universities / colleges... but no sign of SP Jain...

It is a fact that men are 20% slower in making up their mind to ask for directions... and we drove around the set of building... twice... before my friend decided to jump out of the car to ask the security guys for direction...

Turn off: College parking

They said this is the closest parking area and we have to walk into the building for 5 mins... and I see myself, looking at the parking area just beside me but no access to it... and again after a complete go-around of the parking lot, I did find a yellow line parking space (technically illegal parking area)... and yes i took off on foot... in a while i can see my friend whistling from the other end of the road, reminding me to get his pack of cigarettes... ugggh... hell no... i am not going back... I left him a choice... Dunhil lights... my brand or starve for nicotine...

By the time i walked the parking lot, crossed the road and was heading down the tiled payment into a jungle of buildings... i couldn't help commenting that we are going to find information about a MBA course in a college that does not have a parking lot... Cmon i would prefer the olden days...like open air theatres, they should have drive in parking, park the car in front of a large projected image of a professor, with a drive through popcorn stall along the way... Yes we would have to call in advance to book seats in the last row of car park... okay this maybe asking for too much... well atleast an underground parking lot... where we can jump from our cars to these pneumatically powered capsules, that would float us straight to our classrooms... but I decided to accept reality by assuring myself with a feeling that the world needs to catch up a little to live up to my expectations...

Signage 1

And as we came close to the buildings, i noticed these interesting signage all over the place...

'Campus monitored by CCTV'...

ummm i wonder why... it could be a possibility that the courses are so frustrating that it would develop an exactly opposite reactive response among couples to relieve their desperation... and some how someone at the other end of the CCTV had something to look forward to, instead of doing nothing and seeing the same architecture / landscape again and again... for moment i did feel that the college was sensitive towards their employees and did provide them with a auxiliary form of adult entertainment, that they can look forward to everyday and be more attentive at work... I wonder if they had the archive of the videos in their library... ;)

We did try a small assignment on the way to the block 5... to find these cameras... couldn't find them... good job Mr College-campus-architect... so either these cameras are well hidden, or they dont really exist... and these pretentious signage work like a efficient scarecrow to keep the educated birds from mating within private properties... a very cost effective way to maintain the discipline...

Signage 2
The next important signage... this reminds me that I would need to carry a measuring tape with me if i end up in college... The sign said.

'No smoking within 25 feet from the enterance'...

ah maybe they meant...

Step 1 - 5: find your cigarete, or borrow it
Step 6 - 10: find your lighter
Step 11 - 15: Pick the cigarete and put it in the mouth
Step 16 - 20: Strike the flintstone... it is a windy place
Step 21 - 25: Keep trying again and again, till on the 25th step you have well lit cigarette...

Actually to make it easy, 25 feet away from the main enterance they should mark it as 'Assembly point incase of fire'... so it serves quiet a few purposes

1) we know were to stand in case of fire
2) culprit who caused the fire will be also in the crowd
3) he will definitely have lit a cigarette out of habit
4) finally we smokers, will be able to smoke among the non smokers, students and teachers alike

Turn off: The college Main Doors Locked

Ouch, i nearly hit my nose into the glass... didnt know that college main doors could ever be locked... what happen to the days when they said college doors are open to all those who wants to learn... ah forgot those were the days in the country that paid large funds to function and students contributed close to nothing to study... makes a lot of recessional sense...

Good wisdom walks through the glass doors of our minds and we begin to search for an alternate enterance... we did find it

Walked into a cool corridor... a sign they have air conditioners here... a little foot work, there was a strange reception, efficiently using the space on the L shaped edge of the corridor... two persons at the desk... they amount to the majority of the population in UAE... there was an indian guy and filipina lady... indian in formals no tie, broken english... filipina... in t shirt and strange jeans actually heading out for lunch... to help her indigestion, the indian guy had to stop her, because he didnt seem to understand much of the global language... not malayalam... i meant english... finally he asked,'admission?'... i say 'yeah' and he calls for the filipina in a funny attire... amusing till now... and she directs us to this little round table and we were immediately whisked away to a meeting room... wow meeting rooms... before we even applied for MBA... that was a good start...

Buying a car in dubai

Okay here goes, i have recession at one end crying out aloud, you fool... not now...
Then, it is the better half, with her other half of ideas of an ideal car...
and finally i have this unrealistic idea of what a good car can be...

I am sure we all have had this strange re occurring feelings... why some cars have some features and others dont, and if they have all the features and more, it is so expensive... No I am not chinese... but you can say I have just read a book on wishful thinking...

Yes like all of us i heard all the wise cracks out there, i heard their opinion on cars... i ve heard the sales man, giving their best sales pitch... which generally resulted in a home run... then i have seen all possible cars online, offline and in line on the road and their respective showroom...

The best was walking into the Mercedes showroom... and asking about ML 350, 2009... remember I have the ML 320, 2002 and then i have this sales man coming over and telling me all the features, i nearly fell asleep waiting for him to come up with something i have not heard off and is not available in my current vehicle... ouch, finally to add some fuel to the chernobical inferno in me... he told me the price... and yes my jaws dropped to the floor... and i wish i could spit fire all over him...

My only question... You call the car fully loaded and you do not have a navigation unit... and i must admire his straight face, when he said, ' Ah yes that will cost another 20k aed'... THAT IS ALMOST 10% VALUE OF THE CAR...I think he was very lucky he was not in the ring with me... he hurt my sentiments so bad...

And he says that since Dubai being a small city, we really do not need a navigation system... Agreed, if i was driving around dubai... but little did he know that the car was meant for my better half... (no further comments, dont want to sleep on the couch)... ;)

Finally, I called it quits and gave him a complimentary - fake - good - salesman smile and waited for him to print the numbers on paper... and walked out of the showroom, planning my next stop at the Mercedes approved pre owned car showroom...

Then we had a short visit at the GMC showroom, Acadia... lovely SUV... correction lovely big car... the ground clearance is as good as an other big car... however the size, the shape and above all the features were worth the drool... Just imagine the features and it had it all... Double sun roof, navigation system, ceiling mounted dvd system... heads up display... 3 rows of seats... price was good, sales man was humble and precise... but he did hurt my feeling again when he told me that the Mercedes SUV's did not really do well in the market... for moment i felt even my mind was playing games with me and i was imagining him with swollen bluish red nose... but then the better side of me took over and he received a warm smile... let us be fair, he was only doing his job and trying hard...
But the worst news from the GMC news desk... like many other American company they are filing for bankruptcy... and my wife being the hard core financial adviser ... gave me a no go sign... and again i was on a cross road with a red light glaring back at me...

Then we did pay a visit to the volvo showroom... nice straight forward car / suv... yes after seeing the GMC Acadia, the volvos didnt feel or look as inspiring, until we sat in the vehicle... and we felt oh so safe... why? those heavy doors going clonk... I had my engineering mind, running through an animated video showing me how various locks came into place to secure the door and felt like they were locking us inside a pressure controlled space mobile... loved the vehicle especially for some reason we were not interfered by a sale - hungry - salesman... and we left the showroom with a satisfied we-are-coming-back smile...

As we walked out of the showroom... stood before us like a huge monument of Toltec civilization... the building like a tall pyramid... staircase leading all the way up into the truncated entrance... and as we walked into the showroom, stood the grand LS 460L, standing guard also representing the best of the lexus brand... Thank fully, I could read from the distance, the 6 digit numbers, excluding the decimal digits, defining the value of the car... and is exactly the same reason, why i cautiously walked past the car completely aware that this car did not deserve a humble being like me...

As we walked deeper into the monument, we found ourselves among the so many wannabe lexus... so many cars... looked nice and had the lexus brand written all over it... and the dealers did well to inflate the price and bring these not so deserving lexus's feel like they are worth the price... in our final verdict, we walked down the stairs to our loyal Mercedes... convinced that yes someday, when we are rich enough to own a second luxurious car, it would be the LS 460l... to pick up our groceries... he he

More to come...

Dubai City of Gold... Is it?

Dubai city of gold...
Is it?...Here we see growing buildings and narrowing roads... we see multicoloured textures of skin and monochrome attitude to earn... Our hearts and souls are locked in the moment only to make a better future...

Who are we? We are the people, whose sweat has salted the desert soil... we are the people, whose skin have darkened in this persistent heat...

Why are we important? We are important because we are humans like many others in this deserted solitude... We are important because we live here and have made this our home...

This beautiful earth is a gift and we have divide our only gift with borders of attitude,culture and pride...

We love this city, but it shockingly glitters with no signs of gold...
We love the people here who surprising cannot love us back...
We work for institutions which hesitate to reward us in return...
We walk our paths home only to be crossed by ruthless drivers of pride...
We are the foundations who cant help but buckle under few people's dreams to reach the sky...

Please tell me is this the reality we can humanly create or can it be worst...

People who feel the same please share your thoughts with us...

Regards
Resident survivor in Dubai...