As Easy As Apple Pie

When life hands you lemons, make lemonade, said a wise man.

So, last week, life took me accidentally to a farm in Michigan. I managed to get a lot of produce, including 'cooking apples' (i.e. ones that aren't good to eat). So, life handed me apples, I made apple pie. It was pretty exciting - the first thing I've ever baked. Followed the recipe to a T, but one thing that no one told me was how to deal with all the water/juice that the apples let out when they heat. I had one soggy apple pie to deal with.


Anyways, as I made the quintessential Americana dessert during the long American holiday weekend, I realized that I am going to have a very different set of experiences, and consequentially a very different set of learnings during these next two years. As I enter the next phase of my life, after a life-altering two years in India, I realize that the blog that I had devoted to these two years is best left as it is. I will continue to update ashishinindia.blogspot.com as things related to India's development, my connections/memories/contacts or the progress of GDL and Indicorps keep coming up.

This blog, creatively titled AshishInBSchool, should serve as a platform for me to reflect, record & communicate my experiences during my two years at the University of Michigan Stephen M. Ross School of Business Full Time MBA program, where I hope to gain core business skills in order to fulfill my goal of affecting India's development as a social entrepreneur.

There has been quite a bit of gap since this and the last substantial post on Ashish In India. Much has happened since then. While it was meaningful, it probably wasn't of enough burning importance to get me to write about it. I am getting back to the US lifestyle in a very smooth fashion. What HAS happioned tremendously is actually coming back to the US via Atlanta - my old home, my old workplace. It was nice to come back to a place where I felt at HOME, a place with OLD friends, FAMILIAR streets. Plus, the 15 hours it took for Delta airlines to get me from New York to Atlanta on the day I got here meant that I wanted to come to Atlanta more than any man has EVER wanted to come to Atlanta. I literally kissed the ground as soon as I walked out of the airport.

The other big thing: I am now starting classes from Tuesday at the B-School. The last week and a half has been a foundation session for the Ross Leadership Initiative (i.e. orientation that focused on leadership a lot). In many sense, a lot of it was what Indicorps trains us for and pushes us towards. But I am immensely impressed with the faculty at Ross, and realize very humbly that there is much for me to learn. I am also convinced that Ross is the best place for me because of it's sincere and strong emphasis on Social Responsiblity, Social Enterprise & Non-Profit Mgt.

Why am I REALLY happy about this: It gives me an environment where I can be true to my long-term goal as a person who actively takes part in INdia's progress by setting up businesses that aim to be agents of social change as much as profit-generators for their owners. It allows me to keep my passion intact, and maybe, just maybe, live up to the person that I can be.