just like that

After all the months of hype and hoopla, the cricket world cup is finally here. I have been looking forward to this for nearly a year now. Just like every other Indian fan who thinks with his heart rather than his head, Iam expecting India to win the world cup. This World cup is the first time sixteen teams will be playing. It is the first time it will be played in the West Indies and also the longest in terms of the duration of the competition. More than anything, I guess this is the most open World cup we have had in nearly a decade. The recent bad form of Australia and the good performance of other teams makes it a very interesting world cup. While the associate members are given a chance to prove themselves in the league stage, I believe the real excitement will begin in the Super eights. Not even a single game could be missed here. Atleast that’s what I thought before the World cup begun.

Noone could have predicted the way things have gone in the first week. Going by this one week alone, this World cup might well be remembered for the rise of the minnows. Ireland first tied with Zimbabwe and went on to topple Pakistan. That easily is the biggest upset of all times. The loss means that Pakistan is out of the competition. And they have angry fans waiting back home. Things with India aren’t looking exactly rosy either. The shock loss to Bangladesh might serve as a wake-up call but there is a strong possibility that we might get knocked out of the World cup even if we win the next two matches against Bermuda and Srilanka.If Srilanka manage to beat Bangladesh, the latter going into the last game against Bermuda will know exactly the margin by which it would need to win to qualify for the super-eights. The odds are indeed stacked against India at this moment. However, as a start, they can concentrate on winning against Bermuda by as big a margin as possible. Then probably they can think of the game against Lanka, try to win there and then leave everything else to the Gods.

It will be indeed sad if India does not make it to the super-eights but irrespective of that, the fans in India need a reality check. Making them heroes every time they win and pelting stones in their houses every time they lose is not going to get us anywhere. Its one thing to cheer your team for victory and entirely another to accept a loss and move on. I guess it will be difficult for an emotional fan to understand this but the sooner we all realize it’s just a sport, the better for all of us.

End note:

Even as I was writing this post, news of Bob Woolmer passing away filtered in much to the shock of many cricket fans around the world. He was arguably one of the best coaches in the world and brought in great innovations to the game. It is indeed a sad day for cricket. May his soul rest in peace.

That’s one question that’s been haunting me for quite some time now. I started this blog around about a year back. I did so because I always liked writing and six months at IIM-Indore had made me aware about blogs. So I began this blog, partly from peer pressure and partly from my own interest towards writing. Amongst my first thoughts was to build this as a social awareness blog, giving strong opinions on important social/political issues. Unfortunately, that needed a lot of background work and the lazy ass I was, I never got to that. So the next best thing was to write about something I was experiencing – my life here. Hence, this blog today stands before you as indorelife - a ‘campus’ blog. That now takes us back to our main topic – where does this blog go now?

Even while on campus, with all the free time in the world and a broadband internet connection at my disposal throughout, I have managed just 25 posts in an entire year. Of course, numbers are not everything but they do indicate my laggard nature. The point is, when Iam going to shift to a busy work environment where am I going to find time for blogging? Will I at least have access to broadband in the small town that I may be posted to? All said and done, I guess if Iam really passionate about my writing, all the excuses can be handled. And I do feel that I just might manage to continue writing. Assuming I do that, the next question is – will it be under indorelife.blogspot or will it be a new blog?

‘indorelife’ has built some brand equity for itself over the last one year. With 3116 hits as of today and readership across seven countries, it is a truly global brand :). Jokes apart, I really don’t want to throw ‘indorelife’ out of the window just because the name is no longer relevant. I request my regular readers to voice your thoughts on the same. May be you can help me reach a decision.

“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!

In the first of this two part series, we shall trace the story of how Vimal actually got elected as an acadcom member and also his initial days in the job.

The year was 2006. The last week of the first month had just begun. The SWAC-EC elections had just got over and the batch had elected the eleven people who would head the various committees. It was now time for the member elections (The members shall work along with the secretary of the respective committees). While everyone’s eyes were focused on the placom elections, Vimal and Wayne (The SWAC co-ordinator) went around scouting for a possible candidate from their section that they could request to stand for the acadcom member. They went around asking people whom they thought would do a good job as an acadcom member. They finally zeroed in on one Mr. Vivek chopra who at that point of time was contemplating about standing for ‘Alumnicom’ member. They explained to him how Acadcom was a much more important role and why he was needed there. He promised to consider this. In the evening, with hardly a few hours left for the filing of nominations, the duo once again went to see Mr.Chopra and see if he had made up his mind. He had indeed made up his mind and he would be standing for the ‘alumnicom’ member elections.

Faced with the daunting task of finding a nominee from their section, Wayne made a mistake that the entire batch would regret for the year to come. He requested Vimal, the innocent bystander, to stand for the member election. Now, Vimal had always set his eyes on the Quiz club (which is an interest club and whose elections would happen later) as he felt it matched his lifestyle of no politics and at the same time being responsible for something he liked. So when Wayne suddenly threw this missile at him, he was unprepared for it. He tried to laugh off the preposterous suggestion but when similar salvos were fired from other allies, Vimal fell. He filed in the nomination just before dinner. Little did he know that the small signature was going to change his second year in ways he could have never imagined.

The Election Day was probably the darkest in the history of IIM Indore. Seventy three half-mad participants voted in Vimal as their acadcom member. A post-poll analysis suggested that most people had thought that this guy would most probably end up with single digit votes. Hence, they had voted for him in the hope that he wouldn’t feel too bad if he got a few more votes. Talk of winning an election on sympathy votes!

With Pawan(P) having already been elected the secretary, Roshan(R) and Vimal(V) completed the three member team which will handle all the student issues regarding academics in the coming year. The team, which came to be known by the acronym ‘PRV’, started off briskly just like all teams do at the start. They got themselves introduced to the various faculty members and started working on the electives for the second year. Vimal, though, was very apprehensive to start off with. He even feared telling the Prof that his time was up when the class time was over. He had a difficult time listening to all the long stories that the Profs were waiting to unleash on any participant who dared to enter their rooms in the afternoons. In his words, “I sincerely thought I had made a big mistake by coming into acadcom”. However, time and PGPOffice change everything. By the end of term in March, he had mastered the art of answering all participant queries. After all, how difficult it can be to learn to say “We are looking into it” or “We will look into it”.

It was at this time that Team PRV realized that there was a lot of budget left over from last year which could be put to good use by conducting some events. Vimal simply jumped at the opportunity as unlike acadcom work, conducting events was something he enjoyed doing. He came up with a “truly novel” series of daily events called “Brain-I” (in keeping with the tradition of IIM Indore to name everything with an ‘I’ in it). The game was simple – Every night in the newsgroup, few questions would be posted in the newsgroup based on the class readings for that day and what the Prof had actually taught. The participants simply had to mail the correct answers and stood to win money if they were among the first three correct entries. The game fell flat in exactly ten days. With not even three responses coming in after the first few days, Acadcom was left with no option but to close shop and concentrate on their bread and butter – postponing assignments, projects, quizzes, birthdays oops!(Just got a little carried away there).

All these experiences hardened Vimal into a lean, mean fighting machine (!) capable of standing up to any Prof for the cause of…for the cause of…well, forget it. Anyways, when the summer break came in April, he thought the worst was behind him. After all, second year was supposed to be chill. With these pleasant and soothing thoughts, he headed off to Bangalore to start his internship with Radio Mirchi. Little did he know how second year in acadcom was going to change his life for ever…..

(To be concluded)

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’:)