Colombo Calling

The date for the IIFA Awards is coming closer and closer and the working is getting heavier and heavier. Things havent yet gone haywire, but I am afriad pretty soon, things can burst up. Its not as bad as I thought would be. Organizing something on an international is always takes a lot of effort and these guys have been doing it for the last 11 years (all different venues every year), so I guess they are pretty experienced and are calm. I, on the other hand am taking things very seriously. Its a first time experience for me, and I don't want to be responsible for anything going wrong, that makes me want to be extra careful.

Now for some news. For those who don't know, I will be heading to beautiful Colombo tomorrow early morning. I will be handling corporate hospitality, which is a very fancy way of saying, ticketing :P. I dont care that I have been moved from marketing/sales to hospitality. It has its elements of marketing. It involves a lot of PR, which obviously is a part of marketing. There is a lot of face saving one has to do. People say stuff about the company and the services provided, so I have to make sure that I keep the mazimum number of people happy. Ofcourse, lke the rule of marketing says, you cant keep everyone happy, I will try and keep just my target market happy. Its even more difficult to identify a target market in the first place. I know what the requirements are for a target market. But it is difficult to identify them when they come looking for tickets. The only means I have to identify if the person will fit my target market is emailing styles, the way a person speaks on the phone and the last and the most important, how they talk and treat me once I am in Sri Lanka physically selling tickets. Its a very difficult job to not get crushed by all the blackmailing and the bad mouthing because I would have become the face of the company and I will be the guy who would be the meany or the b****** or the b**** who did not give someone some tickets. Its a difficult job to do, but someone has to do it. As they say, its all part of the job, one has to get dirty.



I am really looking forward to this trip, not only because I will be at one of the most prestigious bollywood awards function, but also because I get to visit a beautiful place. I dont know if I will have enough time to go explore the city and take some pictures. From what I know, its a beautiful city and I would love to capture some of it through my eyes, but the best thing I will have is my phone to take pictures with. I am hoping I will have a little free time to capture this beautiful place.

I also hope that I will have enough time to update my blog on what is happening in the awards, maybe get some inside nwes on some stars ;) and then I can blog about that. All in all, I am really looking forward to this trip and I hope it will be an experience of a life time. Colombo.....here I come!

Internship in India 101

Now it has been 4 weeks since I have been doing my internship at Wizcraft International and honestly saying it has been an interesting ride. I started off pretty low, not getting much work. I used to work just 2-3 hours a day but stay at work for a good 10-12 hours. I suppose, I was being "trained" to get used to the environment, and get familiar with the company and its products.

Now that I am deemed familiar with the company, I am getting loads of work. I must say, thats a drastic change of duties for me. Just last week, I was sitting at my desk and making work for myself and today I find myself staying at work till I dont know when to make sure that the work is done. I guess its that time of the year when the awards are really near and these guys can use all the help they can get.

To describe exactly what I have been doing, for the past few weeks, can deemed "very interesting" kind of work. I have got down and dirty to get the job done. I have been doing literally everything from "office boy" kind of jobs like packing up sponsor material and transporting them personally in a tempo, to supervising people late at night (which is exactly what I am doing right now). I will give more details as I blog later.



Now, I want to describe how I have been experiencing the city. Although I have not been able to go around the city a lot, infact I have barely gone out of my office route. But from what I have seen of the city, everything is just messy. There are no traffic rules that are followed, the office doesnt really have any defined times, people are so casual, but somehow, everything works. That I must say is miraculous. In a city of about 18 million people, everything somehow falls into place and people go on with their lives.

Moving on the the food! My my the food in the city is a treat! I have become a huge fan of the roadside sandwiches. They are sooooo delicious! I wont recommend everyone trying it, but the food is pretty safe. I have been told that if the turnover of the roadside shop is good, they normally have fresh stuff. I was seriously surprised at that, turnover of a roadside sandwich shop! Now thats MBA knowledge working at the ground level!!! The restaurants, again not tried many, have good food as well, especially the Mughlai (I hope I spelled that right) dishes. And the best thing about restaurants here is that almost everyone will deliver to your home/office at no extra charge! I think the no extra charge is the best topping on the great food that they provide. Not only the restaurants, every shop on the nook and cranny will provide home delivery for even a bath soap (well thats an exaggeration). But that is product differentiation to an all new level. I guess it has attained the same level as the loyalty points in the aircraft industry, literally everyone offers it now.



So thats my experience in the city so far. I have taken a decent amount of pictures and a few videos of my fun ride, but unfortunately I dont have access to them right now, so I will edit my blog later tonight or tomorrow to upload those as well. Till next time!

Cheers!

Namaste from India

I have finally gone through one year of my MBA and landed in India to start my 12 week mandatory internship here. I have secured an internship as a management trainee at Wizcraft Entertainment International Pvt Ltd. I dont know what kind of duties I am going to be holding but I have some information about my peers. I know there are 2 interns coming from Germany, so that is something to look forward to. The company is also very well reputed and I am really looking to start working there in another 3-4 hours. Right now, I have nothing to do but to wait for the time.

Meanwhile, I have been going in and around Mumbai a little. I made a little trip to Pune, a city around a 100 Km from Mumbai. I went there to attend my sister's final fashion show. Needless to say I was amazed to see the collection that she finished. I had seen sketches of the dresses before and seen one picture from a photoshoot, but to witness the whole event was a totally different experience. It was amazing to see how these kids (all 21-22 years old) have managed to create such a collection.

After a day in Pune, it was back to Mumbai and needless to say the traffic on the streets and highway is going to put you in a panic mode if you are not a local. But all was not the same. I was pleased to see that some areas do have sensible driving. The Mumbai-Pune highway is one of the best in India and people actually follow lane driving on the highway. Sadly, the lane driving ends as soon as the highway ends. As soon as you enter back into the city, its back to good old honking and shouting. But I am still hopeful that one day the highway driving between Mumbai and Pune will reflect the driving across India.

Another thing I noticed in India was that everything is so much smaller as compared to North America. Be it the living space or the food you eat. Even though things are cheaper, you get lesser for your price. The apartments in Mumbai are very cramped, the parking spaces are so small, just enough to fit a car in, but not enough to keep your doors wide open, needless to say they have fit more than 18 million people in an area about the size of Toronto.

Overall, I am really looking forward to learning to live the Indian way. It will be challenging but at the same time, an experience of a lifetime.