Cuban Cuisine, Meeting the Yale World Fellows, and a Long Conversation with a Pickering Fellow
Cuban Cuisine, meeting the Yale World Fellows, and an interestingly long conversation with a Pickering Fellow were the highlights of last week.
To the food first, there is so much variety of cuisine to try around New Haven that I feel overwhelmed to try each one of them. Every week I want to try something new and this week it was Cuban Cuisine. The food was great, and it was not spicy, Cuban food tastes sweet and tangy so it was good to try something new. I never used to experiment with new cuisines but I being an MBA, I have learned to get out of my comfort zone and try the variety life has to offer in everything and I realize that it’s all worth it.
Next, the Yale World Fellows were an amazing bunch of 16 people from around the world. I got to meet three really interesting people having backgrounds in Banking, Law, and Private Equity. One of them was from Pakistan, and it was great to know that she planned to move from Banking to Social welfare in Pakistan. I was really inspired by her ambition of bringing about a positive social change in the people of Pakistan that can help the people standup together as one Nation.
Finally my conversation with a Pickering Fellow was last highlight of the week. Our 5 minute conversation stretched to a full hour long debate. We discussed US Foreign Policy, and how developing economies benefit through the numerous programs included in US foreign policy, such as the USAID program. We also agreed that wars damage the social fabric of community apart from the lives of people who are caught in conflicts, but interestingly countries like Japan and Germany emerged much stronger in the post war era. Our range of topics was so diverse from homosexuality in Muslim world to wars in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, that I loved every minute of this conversation. It’s always great to learn about perspectives from people with different backgrounds as this has helps to me develop a broader perspective. I believe this is essential to my growth as a business leader for the future. I remember an important lesson from David Bach's lecture, that you should not just confine yourself to your area of specialization, rather it is important that we enrich our knowledge by learning about other disciplines be it politics, law, astronomy, literature or music.
Looking forward to the next week now......