From Chicago to Jonkoping via Delhi

05 Jun 2009 | Posted By: Maria Markenroth

“By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time.”
—Introductory line of Jordan’s NBA Encyclopedia biography.

I have never seen Jordan play live but like a true fan during my professional stint in Chicago I went to the United Center to see his statue and like all fans wanted to “Be like Mike� and was curious to know what were the shoes worn by his statue. If you have ever played basket-ball and you do not have a pair of Jordan’s the thought in itself is blasphemy!!!!! Google came to my help and I found that it was Air Jordan IX designed after he had retired from professional basketball.

I wanted to know more and kept on reading and finally found out that Tinker Hatfield is the renowned designer of many of Nike’s most popular and innovative athletic shoe designs. I was surprised to know that Hatfield is an athlete formally trained in architecture!!! Today he’s the master chef in Nike’s “innovation kitchen.” Conventional wisdom was challenged at that very moment! Innovation kitchen, are you serious?  An architect is cooking my shoes???? Also found out that Business Week has put Tinker among the top 25 champions of innovation. Move over Mike I have a new role model in Tinker.

Innovation was a word I heard repeatedly during my annual appraisals but that day it had a whole new meaning for me. I kept on reading, looked up innovation and the term innovation loosely means a new way of doing something. Simple, Try innovating in the highly governed and regulated financial services industry!! With profit margins shrinking, acquiring new business almost next to impossible, lay-offs, the R word… my brain was processing faster than IBM Roadrunner the world’s fastest supercomputer. Have I found my calling?

It’s been two years since I decided I wanted to go to graduate school but not for pursuing an MBA.  After searching the internet for almost 8 hours and an empty six pack of Heineken, I found what I was looking for…..masters programme in innovation and business creation, JIBS, Sweden. It was as if the course was custom designed for my requirements.

My first reaction…Sweden,  very tall, blonde people, living in red houses filled with stuff from IKEA, driving Volvo cars while listening to ABBA with last name “Svensonâ€� and a few of them wearing Viking hats! I am human and like all of my fellow human beings do have stereotypes and am sure I am wrong but I profusely apologize if my words have hurt anyone’s sentiments.

It took me a good two weeks to decide if I wanted to leave my job, leave Chicago and move to Sweden while simultaneously working on my application.  Just apply  and then take time to think over it was my initial strategy and the more I read about Sweden, its culture, its economy my stereotypes took a strong beating and changed the reference points of my thought process. I was ready to go to Sweden with a clean slate only if I was accepted. I registered my application at Studera and sent in my supporting documents wondering about the fate of my application!

Waiting for a decision for around 5 months without any communication is a test of patience and character and I started checking my Studera account every day. Till the first week of May 2009 nothing moved and I was getting worried if I would get in. Then I got SG &  RG for my application and wanted to know what it meant? Who else then the main man, Tomas Bengtsson, wrote to him, tried calling him but he is a tough cookie to crack.  He politely told me to wait till the results were out and I promised myself if I make it to Jonkoping, he is not getting any Indian souvenir from me!

It was time for the “leap of faith�! I packed my bags as my assignment was getting over, chose not to go to a graduate school in US and moved back to Delhi to be with my folks and unwind after the three brutal winters I had spent in Chicago. Time to travel and thaw my bones!! Home sweet home here I come!

Lo and behold, magic happened when the status flipped to under process and then around May 5 my application pages were blocked as the results were to be out for the first round of admission. These were the longest days of May with the Delhi heat at its best I was on the edge! One of my cousins flew in from Dallas, TX for a family reunion of sorts on May 6 and that day I had my doubts! Am I doing the right thing? Leaving US to go Sweden? Am I letting go of my “American Dream�? Not yet my friend, not yet!

I have been a good student all my life but somewhere at the back of my mind I have felt that I have never lived up to my potential! It’s time for redemption I constantly told myself and with each passing minute I grew confident of my decision that I did want to go to JIBS because that was something I really wanted to study. Finally in the afternoon of May 7 2009 I got my admission result and was I happy!! I was admitted to JIBS in a programme I wanted to study. To confess had I not been admitted Mr. Jordan and Mr. Hatfield would have lost one of their loyal customers.

The waiting was over and I desperately wanted to calm my frayed nerves, what better than a nice clean beach and a couple of weeks away from this maddening world! Picked up my backpack, jumped on to a flight and Thailand was where I wanted to be before the next big thing…..application for a student residence permit.

After a few weeks in Phuket, Thailand with the stress of waiting for admission results gone I started preparing for my student visa application. Copy of my passport, couple of photographs, visa fee, and admission letter & armed with my bank statements I was standing outside the Swedish Consulate in Delhi. The staff at the consulate was absolutely fabulous, understanding and polite & they did answer all my questions.

Walked in around 09:15 am on June 02, the woman across the counter went through my papers, arranged them in a manner she wanted them to be, made me arrange the documents in the second set like the first and handed me a number…3… for my visa interview. Now unlike other consulates that make a decision on the day of application the decision for Swedish residence permit takes a good 6-8 weeks and this made me a wee bit nervous. I have been through a lot of these visa interviews but this one gave me jelly knees, why because I would know the fate of my application after 6 more weeks. My number flashed on the screen I walked up to the visa officer she takes a look at my face, then the papers, looks back at me and starts typing in information on her browser based system which generated my application number.
After 25 minutes and having asked me questions on why JIBS, my source of funding and others which I quite frankly couldn’t care to remember hands me a receipt and tells me to wait for 6 weeks before following up with them. Are you kidding me, 6 more weeks? I need another vacation once I get my residence permit.

Ever since have been surfing the web for more information about Jonkoping, life in Jonkoping and as accommodation is taken care of by the university I am also searching for information on driving license & learning Swedish.

This is my story, Amit C, a prospective student at JIBS, Jonkoping for masters in innovation and business creation.

Thank you for reading it and I wish you the best in all your future endeavors!

Next week all I have found out on the web and from friends!

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