The coup attempts and our rescue plan....Manila in troubled times...

I really had quite tough time to have communication with him
He was speaking strange kind of Cambodian English. I felt quite pity for some of the Indian students who had to pay such huge fees for doing MBA in AIM Manila.
After the lunch we waited till afternoon when I was taken by My Indian batchmates for a round of cricket in the park quite some distance away from the institute.

My tryst with the AIM MBA started with the classes which begin on 21 st july,2003 when I entered the classroom named Meralco ( an electric power company in manila) and god did I find it anything funny !!! yes!!
I had to get a chair named after me and it happened to be right in front of the professor in the first row. I found the class initially quite interesting and funny because of the kind of system prevalent during the MBA classes. Class participation was call of the day - and every student had to( preferably) participate in the class by saying something about the case to the professors .Sometimes it ended up in funny show where students had to say something and ultimately it all ended up in the comedy show as it appeared to me in the first seven days and I must say ! I had really good laugh in the first three days in the class and I personally could not contribute anything in the class. I was told by my batchmates that I need to participate any how as I came late and keep participating as most of the subject grades are based on the dreaded class participation parameter. To me it looked like a cruel joke(?) played on the students by professors and as if every one is pressing one other for saying anything of value in the class in the name of class participation.
It was one of the dangerous way of evaluation in my view in the first year.The funny show was added by the typical Vietnamese English spoken by some students which were not understood by me ( And many other students in the class) and I found it to be funny and agonizing. Still I had good time in the class as I started participating in the classes from the next week ( from 26 th july)
And then something happened which played a terror on our mind (for most overseas students) It was the sign of times for we have landed in Philippines - famous for the coups and military overthrow of the government as it happens in the Latin America. On 27 the july ,2003
( Sunday) we were suddenly told by the institute janitors that some military people(revolt group) have overtaken a hotel building nearby in makati glorieta mall and they are threatening to blow up the whole building unless their demands were not met. It seemed that some section of the Philippine army had revolted against the government on some alleged injustices done to them( It was not the coup attempt as it was previously thought ). It really seemed to be a dangerous ploy lead by the brilliant man named Antoines trillanes of PMA. The danger was imminent as most of the buildings near the hotel Oak wood ridge was evacuated ,but unfortunately AIM was in the blast vibration zone ( danger zone) and
god !!!Did the students panicked !!! they were a bit terrorized on Sunday!! We had been put into emergency plan as all the students were put into group of ten and were planned to leave and stay in some other place in manila (say malate) away from the Oakwood ridge hotel( if the crisis did not get averted by night). We panicked as we were about to leave for the designated place.All the shops,malls, and convenience stores were closed and the whole place was put into curfview. We had tough time looking for the food outside as the most of the cafeteria employee were absent because of the revolt. The incident continued till ten o" clock in night when the good news was broadcasted that there was a successful negotiation between the revolt group and the government lead by president of Philippines viz Gloria Macapagal arroyo.( In Philippines this sort of things are quite common and people there were accustomed to it , even though we in India are not accustomed to this type of things )The negotiation put an end to the crisis and a major disaster was averted. This incident played a psychological effect on me as to the extent of uncertainity in living in Philippines as it happened in the past when a military dictator named General Ferdinand marcos ruled this improvished nation for twenty years after overthrowing a democratic govt. in a military coup.
Most of the students were trying to normalize their emotional and physical well being after this incident on 28th july which was a declared holiday in AIM. The most important thing about this incident was that it occurred on my birthday ie 27 th july ( My 28th one )and it really blew up the chances of celebrating on 27 th along with my friends.