just like that

"Be the change you want to see" - Mahatma Gandhi

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.


3) Assignments, Projects and presentations – Yeah, right!


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!

If there was one thing that was not part of my activities planned for the second year, it was writing B-plans. But tuning myself in with the flavor of the season, I have also taken part in a couple of them. And actually it was fun - Thinking carefully about concepts learnt, how practical/impractical they are in the current market scenario and finally selling your plan despite all this. There was also this paper on World trade we did and sent in for another competition. So why am I suddenly doing all this? I guess its partly due to the inspiration from a few of my fellow batchmates here. Just giving you a glimpse of it,

1) Sandeep kumar wins the Tata 'Smart Manager' award beating competition from all other B-schools

2) Hushi,Joseph and Sanika win the national level contest of L'oreal Brandstorm and are among the elite 32 teams in the world to take part in the finals in Paris.

3) Sandeep(again) was selected for St Gallen's Symposium; held annually at the University of St Gallens, Switzerland, it is the world’s leading neutral platform for critical and constructive debate on the issues of global concern.

4) And just yesterday, Sanika and Mrunalini won in the 'Cherry Blossom' case contest held in MDI, Gurgaon. The grand prize included not only cash but also an PPI from Reckitt & Colman.


My congratulations to all you people!

As you can clearly see, there is enough motivation for all of us to keep emulating these people and bring in more laurels for ourselves and the institute. These things definitely go a long way in conveying to the corporate world about the potential of the students here. Being the youngest of the IIM's hasn't prevented us from taking rapid strides over few of the others, but as we look ahead, we would like everyone to view IIM-Indore more for the 'Indore' part and less for the 'IIM' part. It isn't something that happens overnight. Everyone here realizes that and we all want to contribute our little bit while we are here.

Moving on to other news,

1) The juniors have gone on their first term break. The first term break is usually the most awaited one and everyone has gone home.
2) The classes are running pretty light - Finally some time off to catch up on movies, jogging and going to the city (incidentally, none of which I do regularly)
3) On Super Sunday, Arsenal bt ManU and Chelsea(my team) bt Liverpool. This is very much a campus news due to the huge number of fans for the various teams and the fights that happen in the newsgroups.

Thats it for now! See u soon on the next update.

Update - Sep 24,2006

I never thought I will be updating this so soon but Sandeep Kumar and Vivek Chopra just won the second place in the Banker's Day finals held at FMS,Delhi. Congrats guys!
The way things are going, I guess I will have to keep updating this post every now and then :)

Update - Dec 20, 2006

Prashanth, kaushal, Ashik and Parry have been winning left,right and center with their incredible business plan. They finished second in the Pan-IIM business plan contest held in Singapore. They have also been selected for one of the best business plan contests in the world, the name of which I seem to forget. They also won the first place in the FMS business plan contest. All in all, a rocking year for them and IIM Indore.

Anoop, Bhajanka and Banka won the first place in the JP Morgan case study contest and won themselves a PPI along with 2 lak cash prize. The win was even more significant as they competed and won against some of the best teams from the other IIM's.

Great work guys! keep it going!

Was chatting with one of my friends today and after a long discussion on this topic, I thought I might as well write about it.

To begin with, a typical Indian love marriage happens post one of the following scenarios:

1) Parents from both sides don't agree. The lovers run-away and marry (no movie stuff - still widely prevalent in many villages and even cities)
2) Parents from one side agree. Marriage either occurs immediately or after waiting successfully/unsuccessfully for other side to agree.
3) Parents from both sides agree (becoming more common these days in the big cities)

So, why don’t parents agree to the choice made by their son/daughter? I guess it’s got to do with a couple of things – our caste system and societal pressures. In a way, they are inter-related. India’s caste system has always prohibited people from marrying into another caste and this has been followed down the centuries. Whether they see any logic or not, parents are adamant about not letting their children marry anyone from other caste. And ours is a social system where people pay too much importance about the way the relatives see/talk about you. So no parent wants to hear things like ‘Oh! Ramesh – His daughter ran off with that Christian, didn’t she?’ or ‘u know, Mahesh’s son married some Punjabi girl; My God! and this man shamelessly tells me that he accepted them’. Hence every parent wants to marry off their children into a family chosen by them which, of course has the ‘appropriate’ caste and class. I have seen many a family where the parents actually keep driving this fact time and again to the children. There is also the additional aspect of marriage being a spectacle of showing off in many communities. A friend of mine once remarked how people in his community actually save a lot and lot of money throughout their life only to burn them all during the 5 or 6 days of their daughter’s marriage. The marriage being such a status symbol also sometimes contributes to the mad and unreasonable rejection of love by parents.
(There is also this huge stupidity of matching horoscopes to check compatibility - Since it is not such a great factor as far as love marriages are concerned, we will not go into the details)

There are also a few things which explain why love marriages are always not as successful as arranged marriages are in the Indian context. First of all, unlike the west, an Indian marriage is the coming together of two families and not just of two individuals. So when the girl coming into the groom’s family is from a similar family background and upbringing, she is able to fit in that much more easily into her role as a daughter-in-law of the family. Not only is a girl coming from some other community viewed with a lot of prejudice, she is also that much less readily accepted in to the family. Compare this with a scenario in the west, where the couples live alone and the girl just needs to tackle the guy (I wonder how they manage without saas-bahu serials). On the other hand, things become difficult for couples living alone in India (say after love marriage without the support of parents). The neighbors view them with suspicion, they are isolated by all relatives and don’t get invited to any family function. In fact, it becomes difficult to raise the kids in case both of them are working. Hence, it is very essential that the couples earn the support of their families before marriage. It solves a lot of unforeseen problems later on. Things which might seem relatively unimportant now become critical later on. So all couples who are in love and are planning to marry - let the marriage happen with the acceptance and blessings of both the families. If you have to wait for it, so be it; if you have to fight for it, so be it.

Of late, though, there are encouraging signs. There are quite a few cases where I have seen/heard parents accepting wholeheartedly the choice of their son/daughter. Even a lot of my friends here acknowledged the changing scenario. I guess, after all, those hundreds of romantic movies are finally having their effect. Of course, Iam very sure that this is a trend limited to the big cities. We still have some way to go before we can even talk of a developed society where the individual married into a family is viewed for what he/she is rather than for what his/her family is.

Finally, if there is one characteristic of the Indian parent that needs to be admired, then that is the way they accept their son/daughter back into the family after the initial period of isolation post the marriage. The period of isolation may vary from parent to parent, but ultimately they do accept. A salute to that quality! As for all the lovebirds out there, all the best – hope there isn’t a necessity to experience that quality of your parents.

Starting with this post, I plan to begin a new series of 'campus updates'. This I decided based on two things - one based on a scolding from one of my seniors with regards to the lack of updates and two I need to know whether I really write anything of substance apart from campus happenings. So hereafter the 'campus' series will cover campus events only. Lets get started.

Well, one of the most striking things as far as the last term went was the arrival of our junior batch. Ever since our seniors left in March beginning, the campus was ours to rule. So when the juniors arrived in the last week of June, suddenly it felt a bit odd. They were also the first batch of 180, so for the first few days any place you turned in campus, it was swarming with them. I once remember a particular lunch time when I was the only PGP2 in the mess and believe me, for a moment, I didn't know where to go. Of course, once the initial ice was broken I was as good a friend with lots of them as Iam with my own batchmates.

As a part of the tradition here at Planet-I, we also had the inter-section cultural stand-off popularly known as the 'Talent night'. Aimed at building section and batch unity, the performances are typically from the PGP1 side. And boy were we in for a surprise this time around! The performances put up by them was simply mind-blowing both in terms of variety and quality. Fashion shows, skits and videos were only a teaser for the big things to follow. The light music (I wasn't sure what to call it) performances really stole the thunder. The singers, the guitarists and drummer really made us feel that we were witnessing a professional show by experts. There was also this great dancer(Vivek Johar, if Iam right) who did a Hrithik performance. At the end of it all, we were pleasantly shocked, surprised and in awe of what we had just witnessed. Seriously, this batch can go on to do bigger things.
( For the record, Section B won the competition :) )

Moving on, the PGP1 had their elections about a month or so after they landed here. The elections for the various student body committees were well contested and certain committees like hostelcom and messcom which have rarely witnessed competition in yesteryears had many nominees. Overall, I got the feeling that the batch was a bit too political with all those manifesto presentations :) Anyways, in most of the initial elections like these, it is the more popular guys/gals who get elected(Nothing wrong here - it is completely natural). My best wishes for the elected representatives - u have an important role to fulfill for your batch.

Apart from these, the term in general was a very hectic one for most of us. Came as a real shock to many who were expecting a far lighter second year after all the slogging in the first year. It could probably be attributed to a relatively shorter term and the fact there were three compulsory courses in addition to the electives. Infact, during a particular stretch of fifty days during the term, a sizeable number of people in the batch didn't have a single holiday. Of course, the academic load did not in anyway affect the other life at I . Be it quizzes, club events or full-night parties - it was as always at full flow.

Now as we begin a new term, there are a few important things that lie ahead of us. Apart from the studies, there are

1) The exchange students from France and China (Our guys have gone to USA and Newzealand in addition to these two countries)
2) The Business plans and paper presentations
3) The summer placements for the junior batch.
4) The mother of all events, Iris (this November, experience 'larger than life')

And of course, lots of birthdays, lots of parties and loads and loads of fun :)

Ever since I came back for the second year, I have been a confused guy (Not that I wasn’t confused before, it’s just that it has gotten worse). The basic reason behind this might be the fact that I have started thinking about where Iam actually headed in life. First year was all fine when you just had to study the subjects that were there. Second year is different – you need to decide which subjects you will study and which you won’t. All I know right now is what stream I don’t want to get into.

It is not just a question of the subjects or the stream alone – I don’t see where Iam headed in life. All right, I will finish my MBA; get a good job (hopefully) and then what? I don’t have any sense of direction of where this is all leading to. When I was young (say ninth or tenth standard), I dreamt big. I wanted to be the next Tata or Ambani. I wanted to do something that will make India proud. I wanted to provide employment to thousands of people. I never knew how I was going to do it but I always knew I should.

Strangely, somewhere along the line, I have lost it. I just did what everyone else did. I tried for IIT and BITS and didn’t make it to either. Got into a decent engineering college, got one of those good software jobs at the end of it and was very happy about it. A year later, Iam in an IIM dreaming of those big bucks. I still sometimes think about my big dream but the fact that I don’t know how Iam going to get there worries me a lot. I recently read about an IIM-A grad, Sharath (http://www.hindu.com/2006/04/02/stories/2006040215261000.htm) who started a restaurant after finishing his MBA. He had struggled financially right through his life. He had an ageing mother who had fought all her life to ensure the rise of her children. He had brothers and sisters to take care of. He could have easily taken one of the many on-campus offers he had and lived happily ever after. Rather, he chose the untested, riskier path of going on his own. This guy Sharath suddenly became a hero for me. I got motivated by what he had done.

As in most cases, reality struck me hard a few days later. Once I was out of that emotional cloud, I evaluated what were my realistic chances of doing something similar. To begin with, my parents have high expectations from me. Though they never convey it to me, I can see it in their eyes. Tomorrow, if I go and tell them that I want to start my own company, they won’t say no but they would be very disappointed. They don’t want a model son for the society; they would rather be happy with a normal MBA grad leading a good life. I wouldn’t blame them – it is the typical mentality of any middle class family.

This apart, on a personal front, the fact that I don’t have that bright idea yet worries me as well. I have always been confident of myself, but all I have is just that. Iam beginning to wonder whether I will really make it and when you start thinking like that, you are as good as finished. However, there is also this last glimmer of hope inside me which says I might just make it. Whether that glimmer burns out or glows brighter remains to be seen.

To begin with, I was never a great fan of football. Only after landing in Planet-I last year, I have begun to follow it (though the word 'follow' might be a bit disrespectful to the true fans). Nevertheless, over the last one month, I was surprised to see the amount of support and passion that some of my friends had for their teams and for the game. Many discussions in the mess and hostels revolved around football. I was really wondering whether India had suddenly made football their popular sport. Anyways, in terms of watching the games, it was great fun as all the important matches were shown in the auditorium big screen. It is a great experience when 100 people around you 'ooh' and 'aah' the hits and misses.

Getting down to the tournament itself, I had pledged my support to France long back. It goes back to 1998(when I started watching football for the first time) when they won the cup with a splendid Zidane show in the final. Anyways, coming into this World cup, few supporters would have expected them to make it big. And the initial signs were disappointing. The way they were playing, it seemed that they wouldn't even make it to the second round. Anyways, the match against Spain turned the World cup upside down. Suddenly, I got all interested in the World cup although Brazil was up next. And when they actually stopped the South American team's brilliant run in the competition, I was almost sure it was time for 1998 again. The final was always going to be difficult despite a below-par performance being enough against Portugal.

And what a final it was...A sixth minute penalty and time for Zidane to show his genius. To have the audacity to take such a shot in an World cup final - too good (Though my football guru, Shameel, believes he was plain lucky). The powerful header from the Italian in the nineteenth minute set up things nicely. Italy dominated till half-time but France came back brilliantly in the second half and looked all set to take the Cup. But the fact that they couldn't convert their dominance in to goals meant the inevitable - extra time. and boy, did it have some drama! Ribery and Henry get substituted. Zidane's brilliant header saved by an equally brilliant Buffon was easily the defining moment of the match. That save stood between Zinedine Zidane and a fairy-tale farewell for one of the greatest players. Minutes later, Zidane head-butts Materazzi and promptly gets what he deserves - A red card. Whatever the reason, whatever Materazzi might have said or done (http://antithesis98.blogspot.com/2006/07/why-did-zidane-to-it-because-materazzi.html) that was unacceptable. As far as Iam concerned, you don't become a great player by your on-field play alone; it is as much, if not more important to have proper on-field behavior and be a role model for others (Shameel still says ' He is Zzzzzzzidane, he is allowed to do it').

Getting back to the game, France still played well with ten men in the dying minutes although it was all but heading for the penalties. The very look on Barthez's face before the penalties didn't inspire me. He strangely didn't seem very confident to me. Buffon, on the other hand, was all charged up and motivating. Whether it made a difference in the end, we would never know. At least, Trezeguet didn't give us an chance.

Italy won the world cup and France my heart (unfortunately, people seem to pay more attention to the former :) ). Congrats Italy! Well played France! I will be rooting for you next time around as well.

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.

When I first landed in bangalore to do my summer internship, I was looking forward to a lot of things. The most important among them was how this stint is going to help me make that important decision about my career. At the end of my first year of MBA, I still wasn't sure what I wanted to take up - Finance or marketing (or probably systems). These two months were supposed to throw some light on it.

First day at office - After the introductions were over and I had settled down, one of the managers explains to me about the entire concept of radio and advertising. It all sounds very exciting. Alas, the excitement didn't last long. As part of my work, Iam made to go all around the city and take a list of all the hoardings in the city. Roaming all day in the hot sun, stopping at every hoarding and making a note of the hoarding - it was a really miserable two weeks. The worst thing is the look you get from the passersby. Why is this idiot looking at the sky, thinking about something and writing it down! Anyways I was a releived man when my guide told me there would be no more field work ( a small pause - Am I unconsciously getting the feeling that sales is not for me or was it just the kind of work I did which was making me think like this?

Over the next one and a half months I have done a number of things as part of my project - noting down ads in newspaper, acting as telephone operator, arranging visiting cards etc . To top it all, one day due to a series of unfortunate circumstances, I become the peon who goes and gets photocopies done. To be fair to my employers, they are in the middle of an important transition phase and Iam anything but a liablity. The real learning for me happened watching all these people work - how they went about selling their product to advertisers.

Now even as I near completion of my two month stint, Iam as confused as I was at the beginning about what to choose. Sales & Marketing seems good but then is it something Iam going to be good at? Probably time would tell.

P.S. - I didn't mean to end on a philosophical note :)

It's been more than a month since I landed in Bangalore for my summer internship but I haven't quite had the opportunity to explore it. After going home to chennai for the last 4 weekends, I decided I will stick around this time. Hence, the last saturday, after the morning and afternoon were spent peacefully eating and sleeping, we decided finally it was time for some action.

It was a cool saturday evening when me and my friends set foot on the Forum, a shopping mall. Although I had paid a fleeting visit to it earlier last month, this was the first time I was exploring it in detail. With Mcdonald's in the front and KFC in the rear and many more biggies in between, the Forum is catering to the new, emerging class of young Indians who are increasingly willing to pay anything for what they consider fashionable or the 'in' thing. The Landmark shop was the highlight. You can get lost for hours together in the maze of books. My favorite pastime when I was in chennai was to get in there and keep reading sections of many books without actually buying anything. Anyways, since we had better plans that day, we just moved on after buying a purse for my friend. We then proceeded to check out the movies at the PVR cinemas and as expected all the night shows were full. After window shopping for some more time, we finally settled down in McDonald's. The transparent glass meant we could look at the entrance of Forum and the best time of the evening was there. For nearly an hour, we kept looking at all the girls who were passing by. It was a throwback to the good, old engineering days when we used to do the same sitting in bus stops and railway stations. Of course, the worrying thing for us was that most of the girls were accompanied by their boy-friends. There were also rare moments when we did catch a couple of girls all by themselves. At the end of the day, it was a very satisfying outing :)

Overall, a few things I have observed in Bangalore are:
1) The auto-wallas can speak in Kannada, Hindi or English. They understand Tamil and Telugu as well. They are more honest than the chennai autowallahs but still some way to go before they can catch up with their mumbai counterparts.
2) The roads are always congested and the infrastructure is poor - desperately in need of a good mass transport system.
3) The most obvious - highly cosmopolitan.
4) Cost of living is pretty high - only slightly less than what it would take you in Mumbai if you are a bachelor.

All in all, it's a nice place for bachelors to be, particularly if you are in the right places at the right times :)

Come May 8, yet another assembly election will happen in TamilNadu and yet again, it will most probably be the AIADMK or the DMK combine which will come to power. I was talking to a couple of my friends the other day and they all sounded pessimistic about the whole process. They were lamenting the fact that how neither of the parties had done anything for the development of the state. They said there was no point in voting.

Although there is some truth in whatever they said, I don't think shying away from voting is the right thing to do. It is not just a democratic right; it is the duty of each and every citizen to vote. I believe most of the educated people do nothing but complain about the Government policies (or the lack of it), but shy away from voting at the time of elections. Then what right do these people have to complain? The real voting is done by the poor and illiterate of the country who are swayed by the false promises made by the politicians. It is little wonder then that most of the manifestos include promises of free TV, rice at 2 Rs etc. The real development issues never gain importance.

Iam not asking people to vote for someone they don't like; rather there is an option of not supporting any party but still exercising your vote. Under the 1961 Election Rules, Section 49-o provides the voter the option of registering that he doesn't wish to vote for anyone. However, this needs to be expressed at the time of voting in the booth and not before. The problem of course is that this is first of all not known to many people. Even many officers at the election booths are not aware of this. Since no party is going to publicise this aspect of voting, it is up to the election commission to make the voter aware of it. Of course, the additional problem is that the present Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) don’t have a button where the voter can register this. So this needs to be registered with the election officer at the booth which once again raises the question of secrecy of ballot. When the voter's choice of party at time of voting is kept confidential, people argue that even this must be confidential.

However, despite all the problems, this type of voting is useful for two reasons
1. When u want to vote but don't like any of the candidates
2. when the percentage of voters who have voted under 49-o is greater than the percentage of voters of the winning candidate, the election commission calls for re-election in the constituency and none of the candidates who stood initially can stand as they have already been rejected by the voters.

We can just imagine the situation even if it happens even in one constituency - The otherwise busy media will focus all its attention on this and as a result, 49-0 will get wide spread publicity. Political parties will be more concerned about whom they are nominating in every constituency, probably resulting in better candidates. I am not saying this will create a revolution, but we can at least try. A social awareness movement has been started in TamilNadu by Gnani (a renowned writer and thinker) and a few others who are now spreading this message by distributing pamphlets on all buses leaving Chennai to various parts of TamilNadu. The initial response, they say, has been very encouraging. Their web-link is
http://www.keetru.com/ohpodu/index.html

My request to everyone who have read so far is this - Please exercise your vote. It is something you owe to yourself and your country. If you are not satisfied with the candidates, still exercise your vote under 49-o. Spread this awareness to your friends and family. Let this election set a trend for the years to come!


Radio Mirchi, Bangalore went on air yesterday and being a summer intern here, I had the opportunity to be part of their historic moment. The first song played was A.R.R.'s “Vande Mataram" and the first jock-talk that followed it went something like:

“The time is six minutes past 8 PM
The date is 17th April 2006
The place is Bangalore
and India's No.1 Radio station, Radio Mirchi is here!!!
(Loud cheers in the background)
Radio Mirchi 93.3 FM, Sakkath Hot Maga”

I was one among those standing in the studios and giving those loud cheers. It was an emotional moment for many of them as their months of hard work finally bore fruition. They have a challenging few months ahead as they try to establish themselves in the third biggest media market in the country.

All the best Radio Mirchi. Rock on!!!



The most important part of any residential program is the hostel life. so having completed one year of my PGDM program, I thought of reflecting at the life that has been in our hostel.

First day on campus was pretty intriguing for me. I was simply lost in the maze of rooms and had a tough time finding my room while coming back from lunch and evening tea. Even as I was just settling down into my room nicely, a new allocation of rooms came. I was shifted to the "A" block top floor(ATF). I had heard lots of stories about the particular block. This was the only block where there were girls on the ground floor and first floor with guys occupying the top floor. Also it was a bit distant from the other three blocks, so people were saying that u will be cut off from the main action and all such stuff.

Highly apprehensive and completely unwilling I moved my entire stuff to my new room. Even as I was approaching the room, I saw a vaguely familiar face. Yes, this was the guy whom I had seen at the "TIME" classes in Mumbai. As it turned out by a strange coincidence,four of the five guys from our TIME classes who made it to IIM Indore occupied consecutive rooms. Pawan - 307, Wayne - 309, Raj - 310 and me - 311(308 was the common tv room).

The striking thing as far as our hostel life goes are the birthdays. At exactly 12 in the midnight, all of us goto the birthday boy's room, make some customary wishes and then the real fun starts. The birthday bums were first given to the birthday boy and depending on the mood of the guys, to some other people. Maggo was the one guy who always got bums irrespetive of whose birthday it was.Can't help feeling for the poor guy but I do enjoy seeing him getting kicked:) After the bums, the birthday boy is taken outside the mess wherien the 'kumbabishekha' starts. To begin with, a few eggs are broke on the guy's head. This is followed by pouring of sauce,pepsi,coffee... After sometime, it becomes a free for all - almost anything that people find will become a decorative ornament on the victim. Dahi, atta powder, vegetable peels, left over mess food were some of the add-ons observed during the year. Finally, the slaugtered goat is allowed to go and have a bath after a chorus of "happy birthday" song. The whole thing is great fun to watch unless it happens to be your birthday.

If I didn' talk of FIFA, my hostel life would only be half complete. FIFA is the computer football game. Initially, it was a rage amongst many of our blockies althought most of the other guys found AOE and NFS more interesting. However, within a short period most of our guys uninstalled FIFA as it was getting too addictive. Finally, there were just three of us(Me, wayne and niket) who were playing the game throughout the year. We had some memorable matches and even longer analyses after the game. By now, we have mastered most of the moves and the game is beginning to lose its charm.Infact we are eagerly waiting for the release of FIFA 2007.

Our TV & printer room was unique - it was just another student's room converted into a common room unlike other blocks where they had a separate, spacious common room. Our room had just three chairs and at any point of time, not more than 6 or 7 people can be inside the room. We had some great moments there watching the football and cricket matches. My favorite moment was when Pathan picked up a hat-trick against pakistan and I woke up the entire block on that sunday morning with my screams of joy. The printer in the room is a very old one and doesn't work most of the times. We spend most of our times trying to get it running but ultimately end up printing it from other blocks.

There are many more things which I just want to go on and on about, but I think I will stop here. Now that a new batch with bigger size is going to come in, we will have to vacate our rooms in the second year as it is converted into an all-girls block. Iam definitely going to miss A-block. The entire feel is something which cannot be described in words. Things would probably be never the same again, but then it's always the people who make it special rather than the place itself. So hopefully another exciting year of hostel life is in the offing.

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.




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