just like that

Since we are already in February, it is probably a bit too late for the 2007 year post, but since I had started writing it sometime back, I might as well complete it. This should also satisfy all my readers who have been complaining about too much of cricket posts :)

It was a year of two parts – the one on campus and the one after.

The one on campus

The last few days on campus were quite enjoyable as was most of the two years. Birthday cakes and treats, parties, movie downloads, yearbook testimonials, placement preparations, a few last-minute love stories, and farewell trips with friends – it was all happening! And then came the three biggest days in any B-school’s calendar – Day 0, Day 1 and Day 2. (Yes, all those stories you read in papers about placement getting over in half-a-day are, mildly put, pure #%$*). Anyways, blessed with a buoyant economy and a hard-working placement committee, we all got our dream placements. Delighted mothers, relieved fathers, and proud siblings - the convocation was really the icing on that huge cake called IIM Indore.

And then it was finally time to leave - everyone had to, except that no one really wanted to! There are moments in life when you wish you had an opportunity to go back and do it all over again - that feeling came over me as I stood near the stairs of my hostel block and took one final look at the home of my two years. And when I finally boarded the train at Indore, I knew I was finishing up on one important journey and starting on another.

The one after

The one month period after campus and before work was bliss - I slept a lot, ate even more and generally didn’t do any productive work. And then I joined work. The first four-and-a half months was so hectic and so full of travel that it passed before I could say ‘paint’. After that it’s been relatively peaceful with occasional bursts of work.

On the personal front, a six day week meant just one day for all the catching up - catching up with friends, coming online on Gtalk, sleeping long hours and all the efforts towards getting a driving license and passport (both still continue to be in the pipeline). Thanks to weekday night shows, I managed to stay in touch with the film stars. And by installing DISHTV, my lifelong ambition of watching Sachin bat on a 29 inch screen was also fulfilled :)

There is one more very significant thing that happened in the year of 2007. Right through my school and college days, I have tried everything from drinking Complan (Yes, I was a Complan boy!) to working out at the gym to put on weight. None of it had ever worked even a little bit and I had given up hopes long time ago. And yet, magically, this year, with almost no effort from my side, I put on so much weight that for the first time in life, I was actually worried about my diet :). For this reason alone, 2007 would go into the annals of my biography as a very important year. 2008, u better have something really special up your sleeve :)

“All my bags are packed
I’m ready to go….

….cause I’m leaving on a jet plane
Don’t know when I’ll be back again
Oh babe, I hate to go”

I always knew this was coming – when the two years will be over and it will be time for everyone to leave. And to be very honest, the moment is a mix of happiness and sorrow. Happiness, because this place has given me a bagful of wonderful memories and friends for a lifetime. Sorrow, because the merry-go-round has suddenly come to a stop and I don’t know what to expect next.

I look back at these two years and a few things come to my mind immediately. The first month when I stood shocked, stunned and surprised looking at some of the most intelligent and hardworking people in the country. How I slowly got my bearings together. How I surely realized that I never wanted to do any Fin in my life. How I learnt to work through the night and get any assignment done. How inadequate my general knowledge was. How I learnt important lessons about working in a team and how to handle one. How my acadcom experience taught me about handling problems and people.

And now as I prepare to leave, I have begun to realize a few things that Iam going to miss. Where else can I have a party that starts at 12 in the night and go on till 6 in the morning? Where else can I have Paratha and Maggi at 4.30 in the morning? Where else can I find a subject matter expert on almost any subject you can think of? Where else can I find the greatest collection of movies and TV shows in one place? Where else can I find so many brilliant people together? Where else am I going to have those intellectually stimulating conversations on the long walk down the hill?

Fortunately, despite all the questions, there is a ray of light in front to guide me. I realize that I came here for the experience and the placements at the end. Both of them have been very satisfying to say the least. I realize just like school and engineering college, this is just another phase in life. You treasure the experiences, maintain the friendships and move on. Without getting anymore sentimental or philosophical, let me conclude this one.

Here’s wishing everyone a truly wonderful life ahead. And as for the real world, here Iam!

February 18, 4.30 PM – My last class in the two years here. I made my last presentation and I gave my last ‘Thank you’ speech to the Prof at the end of the class. I officially completed all course requirements of the PGDM program. Hence, I hereby declare myself an ‘MBA’:)

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.

‘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.

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.

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.