Its sad how much I am looking forward to tomorrow – the Insead alum meet at the Four Seasons in Bombay. Its not for obvious reasons like “I really want to go to Bombay” or “Oh god I miss INSEAD”. Its far more basic.
I am craving company that looks and sounds like myself. While my experience over the last three days has been challenging and exciting, I find wearing a salwar kameez 24/7 and making jokes about my roman sandals replicating ‘cable assembly systems’ slightly unfulfilling.
So much so that when I spoke to an INSEAD alum in my organisation this morning about an extremely formal and sensitive acquisition opportunity, I forced myself to finish the conversation with – “Once we finish with this business transaction, why don’t we have dinner in Pune, I need a drink”!
Felt like a total firang rushing around shopping for cheap kurtas and investing in ‘MTR’ pre-packed food (but what to do, life is like that wonly). It is also fuelled by the fact that my only company through the evenings is the telly with 147 channels on Indian entertainment, Indian sport and 120 news channels. So even though I live next door to the Osho ashram, the German Bakery and other wonderful touristy spots in Pune – I am yet to have a conversation with one like myself. I wish someone would crawl out of the woodwork and take me for a long dark coffee. Yes, I have written to the handful of alumni I could find on the website.
No, I am not complaining. I wouldn’t trade my experience in for anything else. However, it feels like penance – flipping from window to window on the internet, looking for connector websites that carry the information that I am desperately seeking. I am clearly NOT a data junkie and therefore clearly NOT cut out to be a consultant. Its the fun stuff that will come 2 weeks from now that I am really looking forward to. The tip toeing around management, the long and sometimes painful courting game (through the acquisition process), the informal (ofcourse not) dinner conversation about valuations, the manic DD process and the submission of a rationale. Few more days and I will get there – Bombay first, then factories in Chennai and Bangalore (including one in Kanjeevaram believe it or not!) and then back to Pune for some hard courting!
Overheard in my office: Drum length is that wooden drum isn’t it? It comes cadmium coated. He has issues with rubber or plating? 20 kilometres eh? But why?
