just like that

Starting with this post, Iam starting a new series – ‘My forgotten friends’. These posts will be about certain important companions (mostly my habits – not human beings) of mine whom I have slowly forgotten in the one-and-a-half years I have been in this place. I have been so busy with all the wonderful things that IIM Indore has kept me occupied with that I haven’t even realized that these guys are slowly slipping away. Anyways, now I would like to look back at them and see if any of them can still be rescued. So here we go!

I have lived the major portion of my life in Chennai. There are two things a Chennai guy will never argue about – The best film star and the best newspaper in the country. I have almost woken up everyday to find ‘THE HINDU’ on the sofa near my bed. I guess I started reading ‘Hindu’ when I was in sixth or seventh standard. Like all starters, I used to read only the sports section. That was also the period I got interested in cricket and I used to closely follow the fortunes of the Indian team through all the articles that came. I remember how automatically I used to take the paper, remove the supplement, go to the last page and flip back one page to reach the last but one page (Sports page). By the time I was in eleventh standard, Vijay Lokapally (the guy who wrote columns in the sports section) was one of my favorite writers. I liked Hindu also because it almost covered all the sports Indian players were taking part in, irrespective of where the event was happening. That’s how I kept track of how many titles Vishwanathan Anand was winning and how Geet Sethi was faring at the England Billiards championship. Some of the sports news that came in Hindu was carried by Doordarshan only in that day’s evening news and this impressed me even more.

When we were in ninth standard, a lot of boys in school always talked about sports. So it was a kind of show-off for most of us to talk about all the players, all the statistics and the gossips. And the fact that I didn’t have cable connection at home (meaning I didn’t have access to any sports channel) meant I had to read the sports section from top to bottom without leaving out even the slightest detail.

My grandfather was the one who had encouraged me to read Hindu from the beginning. He said whatever English knowledge he had was thanks to reading Hindu over the years. He was initially happy to let me just read the sports pages but slowly he was advocating me to read the other sections of the paper as well. When I was in eighth standard, he told me ‘you have to start reading the open page supplement’ that used to come on Tuesdays. In the second page, it had a section called ‘Know your English’ which was pretty interesting and I began to read that as well. Of course, my other favorites were the sports supplement and ‘Young world’ that came on Saturdays. I was deeply disappointed when Hindu discontinued this sports supplement sometime later.

As I moved into my eleventh and twelfth standard, my grandfather asked me to read the editorial and the ‘letters to the editor’ – he said that I will learn a lot from these things. I tried but found them boring and till my third year of engineering restricted myself to the first page for some headlines and of course the sports pages. Then midway through my third year, I joined IMS coaching centre for my CAT training. There was this guy, manager of the center, who talked so impressively and motivated all of us towards the test. As part of the preparation, he asked us to read the center page of the Hindu everyday. He said it will serve two purposes – one, improve your awareness about a lot of things and two, improve your language. He said whenever you find a word that you don’t understand, stop reading and immediately refer to the dictionary, understand the meaning, try to fit it back into the sentence and continue reading. So the Vimal who never read the editorial despite repeated pleas from his grandfather over the years finally began to read the center page because he wanted to clear CAT :)

It was during this period I began to realize what a brilliant paper ‘The Hindu’ was. The coverage was so complete; the editorials and opinions were so unbiased. In fact, one day I read another newspaper and felt so bad that I had to come back in the evening and read ‘The Hindu’ to console myself that everything was fine with this world. And this perfect love story continued until one fine day, I had to move to Mumbai to take up my job.

At first, I thought they were joking but when I learnt that people there really don’t read ‘The Hindu’, I was shocked. It was almost like waking up one fine morning to find your right hand missing. Even in my office, where even the ‘chotu mottu’ papers were bought everyday, I was stunned not to find Hindu amongst them. Pretty soon, I found that the only place I could get Hindu was in Mathunga (a predominantly Tamilian area in Mumbai) and I was living in Kandivali. On two Sundays of the month, we used to go to ‘Mathunga’ for two purposes – to have good tamil food and watch a tamil movie. The secret motive for me of course was also to buy ‘The Hindu’. You can’t believe the amount of joy I used to get when I read that paper later in the evening. Of course the disappointing fact was that there was no editorial on Sundays :)

The paper that was selling the most in Mumbai was the ‘Times of India’. One look at the newspaper and I wondered “people actually read this??” It never really seemed to have any issue that was important to the common man. All it was concerned was with any news that was sensational, any news about movie stars and cricket personalities (I remember recently there was a front page article about Sourav’s little daughter asking him ‘Papa, why are you not playing these days?’ after he was dropped). Basically it had anything which would make it sell. And I guess that’s what mattered at the end of the day. I resigned myself to reading the opinion pages of TOI. They weren’t exactly that bad after all but I couldn’t even begin to compare it with my paper. By the end of the year, I had started reading Hindu online and consoled myself.

The problem continued when I came here for pursuing my studies. Although Hindu was available in the city, it was a Delhi edition and came in pretty late. And since the campus is some 30 kms away from the city, the newspaper guy could get us ‘Hindu’ only one day late. Having been starved of it for over a year, I settled for even this. But after a few months, I found it really stupid as very often I would be reading news two days old and ultimately discontinued it. These days, I have a subscription to Business Standard. The paper just comes everyday in the afternoon and I hardly ever touch it.

Right now, the very thought of me sitting on the sofa with a 'Hindu' and sipping the hot coffee that my grandmother makes is enough motivation for me to get a job in Chennai :)

I shall close with the links for my favorite paper.

The Hindu online - http://hindu.com/
The ePaper - http://epaper.thehindu.com/

P.S. – I just realized how nostalgic this post had gotten. So if you are allergic to it, keep your distance from this series :)

That is the name of one of the courses we did here in IIM Indore. This is a very unique course across B-schools and was designed keeping in mind the vision of IIM Indore to produce socially conscious managers. The course is done in two parts – a theoretical part in Term IV and a practical part in Term V. In the theoretical part we looked at the relevance of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in today’s scenario via the help of a lot of cases. We saw how CSR is more and more becoming an integral part of corporate strategy today. We had lively debates during some of the cases about why the business of business is more than just business. Then came the practical part in the fifth term where we were to take up a specific project in the neighboring community (like Rau, Pithampur) and study and if possible, make realistic recommendations. The Profs we had for this course were pretty good and they made it very clear in the beginning itself that the basic aim was to sensitize ourselves to the community around us. In the process, if we can come up with any recommendations which can be implemented, well and good.

Now six days were allotted in the term to make these field visits. Our group chose to study about the contract laborers (security guards) working on campus. To be honest, most of the groups didn’t take it seriously and were doing it just like any other project. The course was viewed by most of us as just a necessary evil wherein we do all this big talk about society but actually achieve nothing at the end of the day. In fact, the way some people were doing it, I began to wonder whether there was any purpose in doing this course.

And then one day, myself and a friend interviewed a couple of security guards as part of the project. That half an hour came as a rude awakening to me. It really laid before me, in black and white, the people I meet almost everyday but about whom I barely stop and think about. I realized what a different life these guys are leading and what are the various difficulties they are facing. Those guys weren’t struggling for food or anything but a lot of things which we take for granted are only a dream to most of them. Most of us had been mocking at the course and its relevance but for the one hour after we finished the interview, I really wanted to do something for all these people. I don’t even know what that is but the thought is there. Today, as I was just making the report for the final submission, I thought I would write about this course. But what I begun to write about and what I have to say now are somewhat different. Sometimes we are all so immersed in our worlds that we fail to see how important a responsibility we all owe to our society. I would request anyone who is reading this to give something back to the society in whatever way you can. Not necessarily now but as and when you are in a position to do that. It might be as simple as providing one meal to a beggar or something as important as supporting the education of one poor child. Believe me - it gives you great happiness when you see a small deed of yours make even a little difference to someone’s life.

When I was in first year, I always used to think that what a good time the seniors were having. I remember saying to myself that in the second year, I will do the things that I always wanted to do in all the free time I will have.

Alas, second year has been an entirely different story so far. The fourth term was short and packed with credits, so I let it go. All my eyes were on the long three-and-a-half month fifth term where I was sure I will get my time. However, things have been totally different. Due to a variety of reasons from acads to IRIS, I have literally been on the run right through. So today, as I completed the last exam in the afternoon and the last project submission in the evening, there was more than anything a huge sense of relief that came over me.

Of course, we did have our share of fun – we celebrated dusshera, Diwali, IRIS and the birthdays and parties. I also managed to go someway with one of my goals for the year – Reading Kotler. Hope to complete it in the next term.

The next term is not only the last term here but also the most important one. Most people have already begun the countdown. As for me, I still have no idea where Iam headed after MBA. The next term will hopefully provide some answers.

Right now though it is time to sit back and relax for a while. A few of my friends are going to Goa. Iam going back home. Will be back in ten days time. That’s all Folks!

‘Idanim’ is the new drama and theater club in IIM Indore. The brainchild of a few enthusiasts , the first play was made for Independence Day and by all counts was a great beginning. So when they decided on putting up a play for the alumni meet, they actually took auditions for the various characters. Having dedicated a great deal of my life to drama[:)], I was naturally interested. I was eventually selected to play one of the roles.

The play basically revolves around seven characters – people who are all going back from an alumni meet and due to a flight delay are caught up in the airport. Tanvi (script-writer and co-director) supposedly based most of the content from what we normally hear from our seniors and from alumni blogs. It was a wonderful script – in fact that set the basis for a superlative performance from some of us. And the casting was once again perfect. Whether it was Christoph as the rock star (during college days) or Saurabh as this son of the soil, it looked like these guys were made for it. Needless to say, we all had great fun while rehearsing. Two hours of practice time would mean only half an hour of actual practice. The rest of the time was spent in making fun of the characters and sometimes the script writer and the other director (Dibyak).

Anyways, finally it came off very well and everyone enjoyed it thoroughly. In the words of my director, “Dying is easy. It’s comedy that is hard” (originally made by some one else) and I guess we did a fair job of giving people a good laugh that day.

Good work Idanim! Keep it up! Looking forward to at least a couple more plays before the academic year ends.

P.S. – Idanim has also been screening some really great movies (classics) in the audi now and then. Recently watched ‘Amelie’ thanks to that.

If the success of IRIS was important to us as an institute, the success of one of the games in it, Marksman, was important to me as an individual. To understand why, lets just go back an year in time to IRIS 2005. I was one among the four member PGP-1 team handling Marksman – an online marketing strategy game. We (Sandhya and Cijin in particular) had worked hard under the able guidance of the PGP2 team but unfortunately we didn’t have enough time to test the game properly. The result – the game crashed mid-way and we had to make a manual entry later to decide the winner. I felt bad in being one of the very few games that let down the entire show. And at that time I told myself, whatever happens, next year I shall ensure this game becomes a success. It was one of the very few promises I definitely hoped to keep.

Cut to July 2006. The Marksman team now consisted of Sandhya, Mrunalini and myself(Arun and Cijin had moved onto bigger things). And the pitching of various events to the PGP 1 began. I knew this was it. If we were to succeed, the PGP1 team coming in had to be good. They were going to make it or break it. And thankfully the enthusiasts list got self-pruned to a sincere bunch of five guys – Anubhav, Nitin, Vignesh, Vijay and Easwaran. Of course, Srinivasan and Kaustubh helped us out in various stages of the game but the above five were the ones who were in it right through.

These guys were about as good as you can get – sincere, enthusiastic and knowledgeable. After the first few meetings, I began to breathe easy as I realized these guys could handle it. And of course, the dependable sandhya was there to lead and guide them. Easwaran was into the concept design part while the other four took up the core part of coding. My role was limited to allowing my room to be used for the meetings and giving globe now and then. Mrunalini, of course, was providing the technical inputs and also backing me up in the free-riding :)

After the first few meetings, the guys came on to their own and the team began to have a good working chemistry. This, I thought, was very important as these guys had to motivate themselves through assignments, summer placements and end-terms. We had initially planned to finish all coding about ten days before IRIS but when we approached the home stretch with still a lot to cover, I was slightly worried. Thankfully, the guys gave no more anxiety and finished it with about three days to go for IRIS – enough time to test it out thoroughly and find the chinks.

IRIS came and the prelims of our event happened on the first day. Eight finalists were chosen from the fifty-eight teams that took part. Day 2 of IRIS, 4.30 PM – This was it. The D-day was finally here. It was now or never. I was a little nervous within about whether things will go on smoothly. Can we do it?

Thankfully, except for a minor technical snag (which was fixed on the spot), the game went amazingly well. The greatest joy comes when even the losing participants come up to you and tell what a ‘fundoo’ game it was. It was personally a very significant thing for me. It was not as much about those smirks that I had received but more about the need to prove it to myself that our team could do it.

Great job guys! I know now that ‘Marksman’ is in safe hands. It will be taken care of and some good improvements made in the coming years. Thanks to the entire team – It was indeed great fun working with you and I really mean it.

P.S – If you are wondering why Iam making a big fuss about a game going off as expected, I guess I can’t explain much. Sometimes you need to be there to know it :)

There are times when I feel really lucky for having made it to this place. Some of the people I have met here have inspired and motivated me to bigger things. The Professor who handled Business to Business (B2B) marketing for us is one among them. This post is a dedication to him and all such good Profs in this country.

I still remember the first class. Even as the people were all just settling in the class, we saw this tall guy going about setting up his things. My first thoughts were one of skepticism – doesn’t seem right; must be yet another of those 'globe' profs! And then he began to speak. There are a few prof’s who speak really well but really don’t have much substance and then there are some who know their stuff but are not really able to get it across to the students. Very rarely do you find a Prof who knows his subject and is able to communicate it in a way that even the least inclined student gets interested and learns something. For once, all those guys who always considered marketing as ‘globe’ shut up. For once, we knew what case analysis really meant. For once, here was a Prof who was teaching us what was exactly happening in a corporate scenario and how to handle it. For once, we were spellbound!

The best part about the classes was the light-hearted manner in which he narrated certain mistakes made by himself/his colleagues at work. And also the humble, polite manner in which he answered the silliest of questions on and off the class. Every class of his was filled with immense takeaways and as I just said, solutions to tight situations a manager might find himself/herself in when they start working tomorrow. Over the course of twenty sessions, he has introduced a structured thought process in us and Iam really happy to say that I can approach any case much better now. Above all, it has got me totally involved in marketing all over again.

Thank you sir! It's truly been one helluva course. Hope you continue to enlighten the future batches of IIM Indore (and other schools) for a very long time to come.

After nearly 45 days of hibernation, Iam back to blogging. My thanks to the loyal readers (however few they are) for continuously checking on me. More than everything, it’s for you guys I wanted to get back ASAP.

Anyways, some dope on what's been happening all these days:

1) Summer placements of juniors - With the batch of 180 coming in, the summer placements this year were the biggest operational exercise in the history of IIM Indore. Our placom had worked hard and the results were there for everyone to see. History was created when all the juniors were placed in the day process itself with no one going into rolling. And the kind of the companies that came in was simply outstanding. Hats off Placom - we are really proud of you!

Some excerpts from the placement report:

"With 199 offers from 58 companies, IIM Indore has placed the entire batch of 2008 in the first 4 days and moved on from being a business school at the front of the pack to being a trendsetter, setting both the direction and momentum for placements across all IIMs this season."

“95 companies expressed the intent to participate though only 58 could be accommodated this season. On Day 0, a total of 133 offers were made, an increase of 82% over last year's summer placement process. Of the 58 companies on campus, 23 were here for the first time. An average of 3.5 offers was made per company which indicates the growing confidence shown by Corporate India in IIM Indore.”

2) IRIS – Within less than ten days of summers getting over, we were all gearing up for the next big challenge – IRIS, the annual management festival. The four day festival was a big success this time around as well and reiterated why IRIS at the top of all B-school fests. Our flagship event ‘Ashwamedha’ got bigger this year with the winner taking home Rs 1.5 lakhs. The event, into its third year now, is a big draw across B-schools and as any of the 30 finalists would confer, this is easily the most challenging and complete game you can imagine. Kalpavriksha, the social venture business challenge, started for the first time across any B-school also had a fantatstic start. (For more details visit www.iimi-iris.com )

My own event - Marksman, a marketing strategy game, also went off smoothly. It was personally a very satisfying experience for me and my team. I will make a separate post on this some time.

Anyways, in between all this I also managed to lose my cellphone. After all the formalities with the concerned authorities, I got back my number and the eighteen hundred odd balance from the old SIM.

That’s about it then. Iam back and hope to have a lot of posts(sensible ones) in the days to come!

Currently on a break from blogging due to some really hectic schedules. My apologies if you are a regular reader - u wouldn't have found anything new in the last month .
Will be back in about a couple of weeks time.

Last night was a great one for several reasons. To begin with we had the dusshera celebrations in the form of 'dandiya'. I had been introduced to dandiya a couple of years back when I was in Mumbai but I hadn't exactly danced till date using the 'sticks' (sorry, I couldn't find a better term). So when I went down to just watch the dandiya show, I had no idea that one of my friends (Deepti) would actually pull me in and make me dance. I found the going very tough initially but was soon comforted by the fact that there were just four basic steps - a left, a right, a side and finally a swirl in which you bring both pairs of sticks into contact and also make a revolution (may/may not be accompanied by a position change). Soon after I was in the thick of things and the dance without any sticks was the one I liked the most (Once again I forgot what they called this particular form).

Well, after nearly 2-3 hours of dandiya, the stage was set for the real party - the one where you are free to dance as you want :). The dew/fog was gradually filling up the entire place giving the night that romantic touch. Initially, the pace was pretty slow as people were a bit tired from all the dandiya. It was during this time that I had a long chat with one of my friends (Mars) on 'The life, the universe and everything'. And then it was time for me to enter the dance floor. Once on the floor, Iam usually a no-holds barred sort. I enjoy doing 'pakka' local steps for all the English songs and all MJ steps for the Punjabi ghanas. Of course the song I look forward most to in any party is 'Appadi Podu'(a Tamil song). It is a regular song in all the parties here and somehow I enjoy dancing to this song the most. Till this point of time, it was just like any other party until me and Shreyan went crazy. We tried on all sorts of goofy things while dancing (we actually sat on the floor and imitated driving a F1 car for the 'Schumacher' song; we tied our faces with the kerchief and did a blind dance). All in all it was one of the best parties I had after coming here :)

By the time it was 4.45, I was completely done. I usually retire around this time in most parties. But today, me, Shreyan and Rajesh sat down in the mess and started discussing about nothing in general. Soon enough, it meandered into a discussion about the girls (and guys) in our batch and the junior batch. Rajesh was the real 'guru' here giving us gyaan about men-women relationships. In fact, Shreyan was so impressed by the analysis that he asked him to write a book on 'Women' for which he was willing to be the editor :) And before we knew, it was 6 am in the morning. We decided it was time to crash and came out of the mess where we had a brief chat about the new names given to the hostel blocks (Sanskar, Lakshit, Sanyamit etc).

All in all, it was a great day capped by the fact that Iam writing a blog now with 'winamp' playing on the background. The only thing Iam worried about is whether I will wake up in time for lunch at 2 pm :)

P.S - Just in case u haven't figured out by now, 'Campus Update' has been abbreviated as CU in the title. We shall follow the same henceforward.

IRIS 2006, the annual management fest from IIM Indore, returns this year bigger and better. The grand mela is still 45 days away but the website was officially launched today. You can visit the same at www.iimi-iris.com

Keep visiting the site for regular updates about the events and all the latest news on IRIS itself.

About the website - The design is simply awesome and it’s probably right up there with all the professional websites. Kudos to the design team! A few of the links are not yet up and running but this is just a trailer – Wait and watch the real movie!

So, after two months of roaming here and there, we are finally back on campus. It was almost like a second homecoming for most of us. There was a series of big hi's and bigger hugs. And among the first things we did were to carry out an extensive search for the sweets and snacks that had come in from various homes across India. The following things illustrate what it means to be back on campus.

1) Hearing loud music at any time of the day
2) Playing FIFA, the online football game
3) Sleeping in the evening from 5 - 7 pm (something my mom would never allow)
4) Taking the only bath of the day at 8 pm (something my mom still doesn't know)
5) Taking that long walk after dinner
6) a party that starts at 12 and goes on till the last guy on the floor can dance (usually by which time the sun is up)
7) Having two classes on the same day the sun went up
8) Spamming the newsgroups
9) watching 'Friends'

and with the night canteen opened from today, campus life is back in full flow.

The second year promises to be more of fun and less of acads. Let's hope it stays that way.

19th March,2006 will be an important day for all of Sachin fans. That was the day he was booed off his homeground after his dismissal. Sachin, atlast, they said had become mortal. People begun to come up with statistics saying how he has underperformed in the last few years, how he no longer deserved a place in the team, how he has never won a match for India single-handedly - the no. of hows seemed endless. This post is not as much about a debate about all that but just an attempt to view his life from the side of a great fan of him.

Leave alone others, even Sachin couldn't have dreamt of the great heights he were to reach when he first took strike in pakistan in 1989. Over the next few years, he became the undisputed god of a cricket crazy nation. I grew up idolizing him as did million others. That WorldTel signed him shortly afterwards for an astronomical sum was a surprise only to those who didn't follow him. I think some of his best knocks were during the 1996 World cup. The way he would tear apart attacks was truly a sight to behold. He was easily the best batsman in the world right then. But his best was yet to come. We have seen batsman win matches for teams but Sachin in 1998 won an entire series for India. The knock he made under the lights after that desert storm to get us into the finals is easily one among the greatest innings ever.

For me, it is not as much about all those knocks as it is about Sachin, the human being. To remain as simple and unassuming as this man has been is a lesson to any youngster, whether he is into cricket or not. That his words could calm an entire nation, which was furious after India's miserable performance in the first two matches of the 2003 world cup, speaks volumes about the great force behind that child like, smiling face. Time and again, so called experts have criticised him and his response has always been only through the willow.

Although I continue to be a great fan of his, I have to admit the fact that the spark is missing nowadays. He is still undoubtedly one among the best around, but, even he would acknowledge the fact that he is nowhere near his best. For cricket own's sake we need the "little master" back. Now that he is off for a couple more months due to a surgery, it is a good time for him to sit down and find out where it is going wrong. As Kapil Dev rightly pointed out, only he can judge exactly where he is , both physically and psycholgically.

I have always dreamt of India winning the World cup. Next year would probably be the last time Sachin plays the World cup. Nothing can be a greater feather in his cap than winning the World cup itself. For the sake of millions of fans like me, Go Sachin, Go! Win us the World cup!

The time has finally come for our seniors (known as PGP2 here) to pack up and move on. Two fun-filled years at this wonderful place and off they go, to start a new phase in their lives. Most of them are happy having got their dream jobs – after all, this is what we all came here for.

As far as my interaction with PGP2 goes, I must admit that it was very limited. Living on a floor where there are no seniors doesn’t help the cause in any way. I still remember the first time I had a serious chat with one of the PGP2 people. It had been less than a week after I had come on campus. I was at the dinner table, eating all alone when one of the seniors (Who I will later come to know as Arun) sitting two chairs away invited me to join them. Arun, who was also from Chennai got me introduced to a few more PGP2 guys at the table. He had lots of wisdom to share with me, particularly considering the fact that I was eating all alone even after a week on campus. I soon developed a respect for him and he was the one person in PGP2 whom I could approach without any apprehension at any time.

During the course of the year, I also came to know of Govar and Jam. Jam (I still keep forgetting what his real name is) is the man when it comes to quizzes. He was a de-facto member of all the interest clubs, conducting quizzes for them. However, what impressed me most about him was the way he involved himself with the summer placement process of our batch. He was there right through the entire process - shouting, chiding but at the end of the day getting the work done. He is unofficially known as the “saare panch” placom member. He was quite active during the parties too doing both the D’s – drinking and dancing. I have had a couple of friendly fights with him as to which batch is better – PGP1 or PGP2.Govar, on the other hand comes across as a secluded person. A self-confessed computer geek, he is well respected by our entire batch. He is supposedly one among the best bloggers in India. And the best thing about him is that he comes across as a very simple, down to earth guy when you talk with him. None of those “I know all” types despite him actually being one.

Now, we come to the guy with whom I was always comfortable with – Angshuman. I was a part of a marketing game in IRIS, headed by this guy. We had a great time as a team (also consisting of rashmi, sandhya, cijin and arun) while preparing for that game. It is through him that I came to know Kida, another amazing guy. There were a few others like dejo george, who inspired me a lot. I actually sent in a nomination for the events coordinator of IRIS, simply because I wanted to follow in his footsteps and do a great job. There are a lots of other people about whom I heard a lot but never quite got the opportunity to interact and know better.

Now that they suddenly have to leave, it is a strange feeling. Though I don’t feel sad or anything that these guys are leaving, Iam not happy either.Those long queues during snacks, the intense matches, the nightlong parties, the mindless spamming on the newsgroups – all this simply wouldn’t be the same without these people. Nevertheless, I guess life moves on.
Ok then, for the entire batch of 2006, I wish a wonderful time ahead in their lives. All the best people!

It is 'the time' of the year for all the people trying to get into an elite institute to pursue their MBA. I just went back a year in time and looked at the interviews I had atteneded. Some of them seem pretty funny right now and so here we go.

IIM Indore Interview

Panel: You said your father works in Sundaram Finance Ltd. Can you tell me who the chairman of that company is?
Myself (mentally): What sort of a question is that?
Myself: No sir, I am not aware of it.

Panel: Do you know what Sundaram fasteners produce?
Myself (mentally): For Heaven's sake, what is wrong with you people?
Myself: I am not sure, sir. I think they produce the fastening materials (What a brilliant answer!!!) for nuts and bolts.

Panel (mentally): This guy is clearly dumb!
Panel: Nuts and Bolts???
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
P: Do you now what is Bluetooth?
M: It is basically a wireless system confined to a limited area with high quality transmission and reception.

P: What is the difference between ordinary wireless and Bluetooth?
M: ???!!???

P: OK, tell me why is reception quality better in FM compared to AM?
M: Sir, in FM, the frequency is modulated whereas in AM the amplitude is modulated (Nobody in this world knew about this before!!). Since noise basically occurs more when there are variations in amplitude, noise is less in FM.

P: No but why is the noise less there?
M: (ok u asked for it! Come on start!) If you consider AM, the carrier signal is modulated w.r.t. amplitude and during transmission noise can enter at various spikes and troughs. Whereas in FM the amplitude is constant. This is the reason noise is less.

P: (How the hell did he pass his engineering?) Ok, can you at least draw me the waveforms of AM and FM?

After struggling for 5 minutes, I draw two waveforms that can be accepted by half-asleep people as AM and FM waves. After seeing that, the panel decides that if they continue to ask in electronics, they will forget whatever little they know of it.
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
P: Ok, so you come from Chennai. Which major foreign companies have set up plants there?
M: (Aah! Finally something I can answer.) Hyundai, Ford…

P: Have they set up plant in Chennai or in outskirts of Chennai?
M: (oh! shit, these guys seem to know everything)On the outskirts of Chennai, sir.

P: You have heard of Maraimalai Nagar?
M: Yes, sir.

P: Which company has its plant there?
M: (Inky Pinky Ponky…) Hyundai.

P: Really?!? Who has set up plant in Sriperambadur?
M: (By this time I realize that they already have found out that I don't know anything and were simply playing around.) No, sir. I don’t know!


P: Why does the city have its name as Chennai?
M: (That's it man! I quit!) Well, sir, it was traditionally called Madras. But people wanted a Tamil name to give an identity. So probably they gave the name Chennai.

P: No, but why was the name Chennai given?
M:(After thinking for about 30 secs) No sir… No idea.

P: OK, what other calls you have?
M: Calcutta, sir.

P: Best of luck for that Interview. (This is anyways gone! Atleast do that properly) You can leave now!
M: Thank you, sir. It was a pleasure meeting you all. (A pleasure I hope I will never have again)

P: (I’m not sure whether you will get an other opportunity)

Post-mortem:
Chennai is called so because the city was sold to the British by a king called Chennapanayakkar. Ford has its plant in Maraimalai Nagar and Hyundai has it in Sriperambadur. And I am still trying to find out why the noise is less in FM.


IIM Calcutta Interview

P: Mr. Vimal, you are working in Polaris. What exactly is your work there?
M: Well, sir, basically speaking, we are concerned with the clearing house operations of Citibank... (Give a huge Build-up)... ... ... So, that's what we do.

P: OK. What is the system that the RBI has to clear all the cheques in one day irrespective of the bank you deposit it in? (This was asked because during my build-up I had given some example about cheques.)
M: No sir. No idea.

P: Well that’s ok. You seem to have done your engineering from electronics and communication…
M: (If you want to commit suicide, just say...) Yes, sir.

P: Did you have telecommunication as a subject?
M: (I thought of telling no – In fact that is what I would have told to half the subjects - then I remembered that my mark-sheets were right across the table. So My answer changed to) Of course, sir.

P: what are the two mobile technologies available?
M: I think they are CDMA and GSM. (I later found out I was correct)

P: From user point of view, what are the differences between the two?
M: Well sir, (whenever I begin with a "Well, sir" it only means one thing: Nobody in the world will ever understand what I am going to say because basically I myself don’t know what I am going to speak) CDMA will provide... ... ... whereas GSM can only provide... ... ...

P: (How the hell did he pass his engineering?) (Getting nostalgic..? Stay tight. The real fun starts now!) Will my SIM card work if I remove it from one CDMA mobile and put it in another?

M: (Poor guy - He doesn’t even know this!) Of course, sir. No problems!!!

The rest of the interview was just vindication of the opinion you people by know have in your mind.

Post-mortem: CDMA MOBILES DON’T HAVE A SIM CARD.
ANYONE STARTING A MGMT SCHOOL ANYWHERE - JUST GET ME A SEAT THERE!

Ok, let me begin with something I wrote a few months back. I had written this mail to my college mates as to what was happening with my life here.
Exercepts from that mail:

So here is what I have been up to in the last few months.
When I came back for the second term, I was determined not to let things slip. I was among the bottom half of the batch and wanted to move up the value chain(?????).The first 2 days were one of intense planning wherein I decided how Iam going to allot each minute of the day for various subjects. It was a very good plan but soon after, the real ‘vimal’ in me took over. So, I was back to square one (or zero).

It took two classes(actually mid-way throught the second) to understand that ‘Finance’ is not for the ordinary people of this planet. Disappointing, especially when u consider the fact that I was thinking of a Fin specialization when I came in here. My first term favorite, Microeconomics had evolved into Macroeconomics in the second term. It continues to be my favorite in second term along with marketing. Marketing as a subject shows a lot of promise in the sense that I can talk absolute globe for half an hour and still not make a single point. As for other subjects, less said the better.

Life here is much more than just academics. The glossy side of my life here has been the other 18 hours in the day. The beauty of the campus continues to amaze me. You almost lose count of time when you go on one of those long walks down hill with the moon shining down in all its beauty and the chilling winter breeze striking across your face. It is almost too good to be real.

As for the people here, they continue to amaze me with their intelligence-hardwork combo.We have a good bonding among our block mates here, who are twenty in number. The other blocks envy the unity of our block and also its strategic positioning (right above the girls block). We have a ‘gala’ time most of the days. No wonder, most of our grades are hopelessly screwed.

The most eagerly awaited event of the second term – the summer placements happened three weeks back. This was for our summer projects in march and april. I had prepared a resume properly for the first time in my life ( my job interview resume was prepared by a friend of mine) but when I saw some of the other resumes I thought of sending my resume to the place where it belongs – The Trash. Anyways, the big day came and so did the biggies. HLL, ITC, Tatas, Reliance, Pepsi, Coke, L’oreal, StanC and HDFC to name a few. My first GD shortlist was that of HLL’s and I screwed up the GD big time. Then came ITC and it was basically a dream GD. I got the interview shortlist. Excerpts from the interview:

Panel: so vimal, you studied electronics. Why did you get into management?
Vimal (to himself): because I never understood anything in electronics.
Vimal(to Panel): Sir it’s got to do with my long-term career plan. Well, you see ….

P: why do you want to get into marketing?
V(t h): Because Finance is screwed, there are no HR profiles open and I don’t know anything in IT.
V(t P): Marketing – the very word excites me……

P: why do you want to join ITC?
V(t h): because you are the only people who have short-listed me. It’s that simple, really.
V(t P): when you want to learn, you better learn it from the best. The 2 months will be a learning curve for me and ….

After a few more such "wonderful" interviews, I got an offer from Radio Mirchi. I was pretty happy and excited about the fact that I would get to do my summers in something I would enjoy actually.

After all that excitement with placement for 4 days, we had a few peaceful days where we screwed up quizzes as usual. Then, IRIS came. It is the biggest management festival conducted across all B-schools. With a sponsorship of 15 lakhs, the event was truly a success even before it begun. The event had the biggest prize money on offer for any game across B-schools, namely one-lakh rupees for the first prizewinner in a particular game. The other events had equally attractive prize moneys. On the last day, we got “Euphoria” to perform on campus. Incidentally, it was the first time they were performing in Indore and the ticket sales were simply outstanding. It would take me an mail as big as this to just tell about IRIS, but put shortly, it was a truly amazing experience.
.....


All right then, let me stop here. Hope it wasn't too boring.