By Phornthep(Puneet) Thakral, BBA#14

Of all the times we have presented in various competitions abroad the pressure to do well has been enormous; but believe me when I tell you that it is one thing when you are presenting abroad and another when you present at home.  To be presenting in front of a crowd which consist of virtually everyone you know (family, friends, colleagues and professors) takes the pressure to a whole new level and to come out and to have the confidence and belief to present it is nothing less than marvelous. To go a step further and come out on top will surely go down as one of the most memorable and fantastic achievements in one?s lifetime.

This was indeed an eventful year, as Thammasat University had reached a milestone of completing a decade of organizing the TUBC.  This year the TUBC had 16 top business universities from 7 countries all around the world.  After grueling rounds of try outs, Thammasat University sent four representatives to take part in TUBC 2007.  Our team comprised of three seniors: Miss. Sirunya (gift) Buntornvorapun, Miss. Poomnuree (Benz) Supachanya, Mr. Akepisith (Dutch) Suttikulpanich and one junior: Mr. Phornthep (Puneet) Thakral.

The TUBC began on Wednesday night with all the teams being invited for dinner onboard the Chaophraya Princess which sailed along the river Chaophraya passing beautiful sights such a Wat Arun, Thammasat University and various 5 star hotels. This was a great opportunity to get to know the other teams.  The sumptuous dinner was followed by singing and dancing.  One particular participant even showed us some of his deadly break dancing moves (we honestly thought someone might get hurt) which lit up the whole dance floor.  Each University also had to pick a team name, which does not reflect the name of their university.  It took us almost all evening to come up with a team name, finally settling for NIRVANA CONSULTING GROUP.  Day 2 began early morning at 7:30am with a trip to Rose Garden.  This trip was organized so that the teams were able to learn more about the Thai culture and also make new friends.  All the participants were divided in a number of teams and had to go to various stations all over the place which included the pottery, sword, painting, herbal, bamboo dancing stations to name only a few.  There was a herd of Elephants and almost everyone took a ride on them.  Each team was also given a set of questions to answer and to add a competitive streak to this; the winning team would be given a voucher to the Thai Herbal Massage Center, which was won by the FARANG (guava) team.  After lunch we set off for Bangkok to our hotel, The Dusit Thani.  Our advisor Ajarn James met us at the hotel before the opening ceremony to give us a few words of inspiration and motivating us to do our best, which set our spirits on fire.  The opening ceremony, which was held that evening, had all the ladies looking gorgeous and the men looking handsome. The drawing of lots as to which team would be in which group and what time they had to present also took place.  Thammasat were pooled in an all Asian group comprising of Chula University, Mahidol University International College and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.  Later that night, many teams took off to Khaosarn Road to party while others chose to rest for the days coming ahead.  We decided to hang out in the comfort of our rooms with the exception of Benz who enjoyed a few rounds of cards with other participants mainly our neighboring room, the very energetic University of Ottawa, Canada.