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Fun @ Mckinsey

Fun at Mckinsey

Bhaago Team Bhaago ! 

If you ask me what I remember most about my Mckinsey stint, there's one story that immediately pops up in my head. So, my first project was in this place called Korba which is like a proper industrial location. Reaching Korba itself is a pain. If I'm going from Mumbai, I need to go to Raipur airport first, sometimes a day in advance and then take a train or car to Korba which is like a 5 hour ride. Coming back is also equally painful.

So it was one of those times we were going to take a train back to Korba and then fly out the next day. So, it was a thursday evening train for which we were waiting at the usual platform - platform 1. There were 5 of us - Me, Sharma bro (my best buddy from Mck), Manocha, Sumeet (Our manager) and Shankar (our associate partner). It was diwali break. So many days off ahead and we were all eagerly waiting.We reached the platform at 6.00pm for the train which usually leaves between 610 and 615pm. We were happily chitchatting. It was 6.15. The train hadn't come and we didn't observe it until Shankar heard an announcement stating that the train is about to leave.

F*ck ! They had changed the platform for this train which always used to come on the platform we were waiting for.And we looked ahead. We were in platform 1 and the train was in platform 5 and had just slowly started to move. All 5 of us had big luggages also with us. There was absolutely no way we were going to reach the train even if started running. But Sumeet, who was our manager started running. He had this super focused look on this face that "This is for the Diwali break! Missing this train means less time spent with my wife. I'm definitely catching that train no matter what !' And he started running towards the foot over bridge. I and Sharma bro also started running followed by Manocha and Shankar. None of us talked to each other. It was as if the universe was telling all of us "Bhaago Team Bhaago" 

As we were on top of the bridge, we looked down and the train seemed be at a pace where jumping onto it was highly risky. But Sumeet was leading the pack. So, I also followed along. So did the others. We reached platform 5... I saw Sumeet jumping into the train. I had never done this in my life. I ran and jumped together after throwing my luggage in first. I somehow got it. But I had no idea what to the others. But suddenly, there was a big noise and the train came to a halt. It was Sumeet. He realized that Shankar and Manocha had given up and Sumeet pulled the chain ! Wow! It was quick presence of mind from Sumeet and I loved it.

It was the first time I jumped onto a train cruising at that speed.The passengers bad mouthed us obviously. Although the cops came and enquired our boggie number to come and penalize us, it didn't happen. But the entire run from platform 1 to platform 5 to jumping onto the train was super memorable :P

Chennai days

Raman's Birthday Celebrations

At Trident Chennai

Mumbai Days

Nikita, Ishita, Me, Kini, Kalia

Due Diligence Project in Mumbai - Probably my favorite Mckinsey team 

Myanka's B'day !

Gaurab @ Amoeba - After SteerCo effect

Myanka, Me, Arihant

Munika, Myanka, Me, Arihant, Aditya with Gaurab in the centre

Some Next Level Partying only we did

Euro Trip 1 Highlights

EURO TRIP 1 HIGHLIGHTS

Starting off from New Delhi. Headed for Milan, Italy

Sep 2015 - Dec 2015 

This was probably the best time I've had in my life. Not probably. Definitely the best 4 months of my life without a shade of doubt.

Made a lot of new friends (Aditi, Kshitij, Rushil, Salvika, Shahzad (although i knew him from before, this was when we connected a lot more), Tvisha) 

Went to places I've never been to. Had awesome food across different cuisines.
Saw my one and only role model in life play live (That's Rafael Nadal in case you were wondering). Met a lot of my old IITM friends (Oh ! That was super bliss !!! )
Went to a massive DJ concert. Did a 2 week solo trip and went to Geneva. I had to split from other groups because of which I missed Rome, Budapest but which I covered in my Eurotrip 2 for which there is a separate blog post)
Did a 22km trek and almost accidentally killed myself (Yeah ! Lol.. Luckily came back alive). Visited all the scandinavian countries - Norway and Sweden - Heavenly places and lovely wonderful happy people. 

Oh yes and it was all supposed to be a part of an exchange program where I was supposed to ideally go to classes in Bocconi university in Milan :P Below is the university campus building. All in all, I attended half a class and there was a break in between, got out, never came back until the final exams which were 4 months away \m/

                                    We were supposed to ideally go to this campus every day !

                                        Yeah Right ! Like that was ever going to happen. Lol...

So Islam and his parents - Egyptian family - They hosted us. Got airbnbed with them. Uncle made awesome pasta. He's a professional cook. That's Islam and his family, me, Suneesh bro and Karunesh. Also, I was writing a book for my juniors while I was staying at their place. I loved working on my book and finished writing it at Islam's place and sent it across to my juniors later on. :) 

Uncle's pasta preparation

So, I think this was the first and only day I went to Bocconi campus along with the bros. Tried looking all cool and yo and stylish with my sad superman tshirt. Don't think it really works..

Milan to Mannheim. Dumped luggage at Kshitij's place and moved to Sweden - The happy country

 Felt an insane connection to anything and everything in the univere

Stockholm with Suneesh

With Suneesh and Kshitij @ Stockholm

@Stockholm before mini cruise

Mini-Cruise / Sad ship

@Stockholm- Love this place and the happy people here

Suneesh, Kshitij, Me, Aditi @ Stockholm

This pic aint abt me. It's about those seagulls walking towards us...beautiful creatures i must say..Helsinki, Finland

@Norway with Suneesh - Sad jacket only I have ! Got it changed to a cool one later on. You'll see that as you proceed.

With Suneesh and Nidhi

 Suneesh wanted to do the Trolltunga trek. I think we were in Bergen then. But others in the group weren't keen on it. I knew Suneesh better at that point and I really didn't care about the plan. I had outsourced my entire decision making and full planning to Suneesh for my entire trip. I just had to go along with him :D So both of us decided to do this trek. Went to Odda. But sadly some situation happened because of which we were homeless when we reached Odda and it was late night. Didn't know what to do. So we slept on the chairstacks put in the bus station and it was fcking cold. Then next day morning we got a place, went and stayed at a farmhouse. It was the most serene experience. Beautiful clear river straight in front of us with a mountain view.

 Odda - Dream home ! Mountains, River and clear Sky right in front of our cottage !

 Glacier behind our cottage @Odda !

                       On the Top of the World...Hmm... May be not the top.. but felt like I'm somewhere near the  top of the world.... \m/ Trolltunga, Norway

Paradise is here on earth... Absolutely no doubt about that... :-) Trolltunga, Norway

From there we went to Hamburg, chilled there for a while, headed back to our temporary base in Mannheim at Kshitij's place with a stopover at Copenhagen and then Munich for Oktoberfest \m/

Hostel @ Copenhagen. 

OktoberFest...Hmm.. Need I say more... ;-) Munich, Germany 

 Shahzad and the ladies ! 

 

With Rushil bro

Back to Mannheim and then off to Spain/Portugal part of the trip

Barcelona - Me, Rushil, Kshitij, Aditi, Shahzad, Salvika, Nidhi, Suneesh

Game of thrones castle....I didnt watch it at that point...had no clue what those guys were referring to inside this place.... Seville, Spain

 with Aditi @ Sevilla

"Make Chai... Not War"...hmm...ok... :P. Seville, Spain with Shahzad and Aditi

"We're going to Ibiza" late 90's Venga Boys song reference- . "We partied at Ibiza ! ! ! " Yo !!! - World's party hub...woohoo..- Ibiza, Spain

Swag :P Ibiza, Spain

The Spain Portugal Road Trip - hmm... filled with funny epic disasters from the moment we got those 2 cars.... somewhere between Spain and Portugal— with Shahzad, Aditi, Rushil, Salvika, Kshitij and Suneesh

The Sun says "Have fun guys.. Good night.. I'm off !!! " b/w Spain and Portugal

A wonderful group wonderfully awesome at pestering each other :P Lagos, Portugal

..Thanks Aditi and Salvika for this small makeover...not sure whether putting this pic up is the best idea, but what the hell - i actually love it.. :PLagos, Portugal

With the Seagulls #iloveseagulls#ilovethewaytheyfloatintheair Reference to one of my favorite books "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" @Lagos, Portugal

With Suneesh and Salvika

And then we split groups. I and Suneesh had to go back to Milan for some passport verification related work. We dropped our cars in Madrid, went to Paris and took a train from there to Milan.

I had some work related to my research that I had to complete. So Suneesh left early from Milan. I took a solo trip from Milan to Amsterdam. This was en route at some empty train station in Switzerland.

DJs - Guetta + Tiesto + Snake + lots more at Amsterdam Music Festival

Kickass lights dancing with us at the Amsterdam Music Fest \m/ Amsterdam, Netherlands

hmm.....something very innocently cute about this pic... not sure what though.... :) Brugge, Belgium — with Suneesh

Gent, Belgium

 With Kshitij and Shahzad @Havar, Croatia

The others went to visit some Game of Thrones castle. I felt like going solo for a few hours. @Croatia

Croatia is super-awesomely beautiful...On a ferry.

The Sky, the Sea and the Mountans together saying "Hi Folks !" with a beautiful smile hidden somewhere:) Croatia

Back to being kids - Aditi, Shahzad, Kshitij, me and Suneesh. I and Shahzad in fact jumped into the water and raced to a point around 300 metres away. He won ! Still, it was fun :) 

After Croatia, we went to Prague but I decided to switch groups. My IITM batchmates were around. 3 bankers from London and one engineer from Amsterdam. (I love engineers over bankers anyday btw) I travelled solo from Prague all the way to Amsterdam. Was like a full day trip. Then went to Dan Haag where Mithin used to stay at this very cool apartment. Mithin and his wife Sharu stayed there. Next day, the three of us went to Belgium where we met the London bankers

Reunion with Theepori Europe ..#MegaBliss...#GoodOldInstiDays#WonderfulMemories...at Gent, Belgium — with Mithin, Nikhil, me, Sanjay, Yahiya

Me + Theepori Europe + the 2 new recruits#MegaBlissOnceAgain :-) Gent, Belgium — withSharu, Mithin, Nikhil, Me, Sanjay, Yahiya, Niloofer

Delirium Café Brussels, Belgium... ~3000 varieties of beer apparently...... belgian beer is strong i must say... Thanks for this fancy pic Blucky :P

I love my new jacket ! Looks cool.

2/3 "TalentSindia - IITM 3 idiots" Reunion - Alex - Missed you like crazy man..... 

#PreciousDecadeOldBonding \m/ Gent, Belgium

People from London are super-obsessed with this selfie stick...Some Belgian castle in the background:) Gent, Belgium — with Sharu, Sanjay,DJ,me, Niloofer, Yahiya, Nikhil

Nothing much to say except "YO !!! \m/" Gent, Belgium

Decided to stay at Mithin's place at Dan Haag for next 5 days. Sharu and I did some good shopping. My wardrobe was really bad until then. She took me to H&M and Zaras and I got clothes and a great shoulder bag which I still use.

Pakka Mallu food after so many months... Heavenly :) .. Dan Haag,Holland Thanks Sharu

In between Kshitij had mentioned that he's headed to watch Paris masters. I so wanted to watch my one and only role model Nadal. So went from Dan Haag to Paris solo and met up with Kshitij and we went for Paris masters together.

Watch my One and Only Role Model Play Live - Check \m/ And what a match it was... From Match Point down, he came back to win the match....Yo ! Vamos Rafa ! ! ! Paris Masters Paris, France

Kshitij i think had to go back to Mannheim. i decided to travel solo for a few weeks. went to the Eiffel Tower and then next day headed off from Paris to Geneva.

Solo trip begins again !

Geneva stay at Sri Lankan uncle's place

Uncle's place was full after a few days. So I had to find another place. So I moved to Geneva city hostel right in the heart of the city.

 Geneva City Hostel

 Workroom :) And that's the bag Sharu made me purchase and I still use it. 

 Common area in the hostel

Salvika came to Geneva and together we headed off to Munich, joined the rest of the gang and we headed to Berlin

Berlin Hauptbahnhof

Brandenburg Gate Berlin, Germany — with Suneesh

Salvika, me and Suneesh @ Berlin wall

@Berlin

Then I and Suneesh headed off to eastern Europe to cover Krakow and Prague. I had missed that part since I went to meet my IITM batchmates. So Suneesh bro agreed to come along with me.

Advance Xmas wishes from Krakow Poland

Salt mine, Krakow


 Prague

Prague

Yo@Prague

Then both of us took a bus from Prague to Mannheim to join Kshitij, Rushil, Shahzad and Salvika and we headed off to Black Forest and it was fuckin amazing !

Epitome of Natural Perfection :-)#BlackForestDiaries Bad Wildbad Germany

with the kiddo who calls me Mojo Jojo :D 

Well. After this, I and Salvika wanted to do some super massive chocolate shopping. Both of us went to Frankfurt and then headed off from there to Aachen in Germany where there's a Lindt factory and did some massive chocolate shopping.

Post that, we came back to Mannheim. I and Salvika left from Mannheim and at some train station in between, we split ways and I headed back to Milan. And the next 2 weeks was the not so fun part - Study for the exams. Was slightly painful. Somehow managed to pass the courses :)

Generator Hostel Berlin