The AIMS convention at school a few weeks back was quite impressive. I didn't realize beforehand what a momentous event it would turn out to be. Hundreds of representatives from business schools in India and abroad flocked to Welingkar to attend workshops, lectures, meetings, and networking galas. Welingkar has really been making a name for itself in India and the President of the school is actually the current President of AIMS as well. The school really went all out to make it a first-class convention, and our cohort of IMBA students reaped some serious benefits from attending. The faculty and administrators went out of their way to invite and include us in all the various events - even those that were off-limits to students. We felt like VIP's all week, eating in the executive lounge and networking with prominent business leaders at the rooftop galas and cultural presentations! We made some great connections and learned a lot of valuable information along the way.

   

<Rooftop Gala with the Director

of Career Services at Welingkar

>The park behind the women's

hostel where Emmie, Marli, and

I stay.

Our corporate visits have also begun, and our classroom schedule has gotten fairly hectic. We spent a half-day at Network-18 in Lower Parel to tour the television studio and learn about the company's marketing scheme. It was very interactive and exciting. One of our professors is married to the anchorwoman from CNBC, so we got to see her taping a newscast. We were all a little starstruck. She's very famous here - the Indian Katie Couric, if you will

5 Americans and Bhavin, a Temple alum we met here in Mumbai,

out for dinner and drinks at Blue Frog in Lower Parel (very cool place!)

Last week we had a visit to the Reserve Bank of India and the cheque clearinghouse of Mumbai. It was interesting to learn about the differences and similarities the central bank here has with the FED, and it certainly made for some relevant discussion that the Leheman Brothers/Barclay, Washington Mutual/JP Morgan Chase debacle is going down at home over the past two weeks. Ironically, we visited JP Morgan Chase here in Mumbai just this past Wednesday, only one day before the government took control of Washington Mutual and JP Morgan bought it!

Sunday night Pooja's family had us all over for a traditional home-cooked Indian dinner. It was fantastic! The food was delicious and her parents are just the sweetest, most hospitable people. We really enjoyed ourselves (although we left with a fear that our pants might not fit the next day due to the Daftary's goal to fill our bellies to the maximum!). Pooja's mom even sent us home with some leftovers to bring to school for lunch the following day. I've actually been spending a lot of time at Pooja's lately (she has her own apartment a floor above her family). We get along really well and we're efficient study partners, too. I've stayed over a few nights when we've been up late preparing for exams or dropped back at her place by her friends after a night on the town. It's a little more "homey" than my hostel!