Sometimes you tend to meet personalities from whom you can learn so much, seeing whom you realise how self-centered you have been and how much you can do for people around. AJ is one such amazing guy and was lucky to have met him in IIM-S.
The best brain in the class, nautanki saala, Bakkar unlimited, Saviour during DIG sessions, cultcomm intiatives, Tour organizing, super imaginative birthday invites, non stop Hindi commentary during cricket.. the list goes on.. AJ was the one responsible for making PGP09 all the more "awesome" !!!
June 21 2010 will always be remembered by each and everyone in PGP09!! May god give you the best things in life because am sure you will give everything you have for making people around you happy !!
I would definitely rate July 2nd 2009 to March 28th 2011 as the most awesome time of my life. It has been one great ride – full of surprises and shockers! What a god given break it was for me after 3 years in the industry. I was too bored of the diplomatic life of an MNC where you have to be extremely polished in your interactions with the clients and fellow employees. I was realizing I was not myself in there but there was nothing much I could do. I could see so many of my colleagues complain about the same thing! In the 2 years at S, I made it a point to be extremely jovial though I feel I have exceeded the limits and have come to a point where not many take me seriously : )
I consider myself really lucky to have managed to reach the portals of this wonderful college. This is by far the best class I have been part. Lack of precedents set by lots of batches of alumni helped us to be our original self throughout these 2 years which is normally difficult in other institutes owing to ugly competition and mad rush for grades.
2nd year has been too much fun in the new hostel which can rival the best in terms of facilities. It pays to be among the first batches to make use of the facilities at their best. It was sad that my room’s view of the valley was blocked by another upcoming hostel. : ( The construction noise has become an additive white gaussian noise(AWGN) whose presence has stopped worrying us and we have started to accept it as a part of life : ) .
The birthday celebrations started to assume new meaning this year with the best celebration reserved for the favorite son of the batch – Anurag Joshi!!
I must say I played loads of cricket here after a long time. I had literally stopped playing cricket during the last 2 years before joining here and it was awesome to play with full josh again. The fact there were real good players in my batch made the matches really fierce! Kopda-3 conducted by PGP10 was just out of the world. Nice organizing by PGP10, the auction in the auditorium with players’ photos on display, with well suited organizers on stage and that wonderful auctioneer Sunil Mishra : ) . It was an awesome evening. : )
My close friends have been my strength throughout the 2 years. Without taking names, I feel they were all really humble for all their talent. I would miss each and everyone and would miss the constant bakkar and hang outs.
It was not that there were no differences of opinions among my batchmates but we had the maturity to separate the opinions from the person and more importantly we knew to stand together united when it mattered. Guys, am sure if we had not done that, the batch would have been suffered big time. I would never forget that meeting at RN1 where Gullu started the defence with his wonderful speech. The way the “safe” people pitched in for others that day is a testimony to the unity and helpful nature of my batch – rightly called awesome66!!
I would like to thank god for having given me an opportunity to study at IIM S with wonderful people. I just hope we all stay in touch for years to come and am sure FB is goanna be one medium to stay connected.
I stepped into the campus of IIM – Shillong on July 2 2009. I already knew a couple of my to-be-batch mates personally, so my Mom was a bit relieved to let her Vayasu paiyan(Age Boy ) into the little known north eastern part of our country, a part which most Indians relate to marking in India map to score a mark or two in their geography exams J .
The day I arrived in IIMS, I saw heavy rains I had never witnessed before. Everyone was carrying an umbrella with jerkins on. Many were discussing about their CAT and their umpteen calls from premier institutes. I was flabbergasted by the kind of people I was to study with and was seriously brooding whether I was in the wrong place!
Aditya, my undergraduate junior (IIM-S classmate, Internship company mateJ ), had arrived a day earlier and he said one thing which really comforted me, “Maple, inga makkal nambala maari sema ghaleej than J onium prachana ila (Son-in-law, Here people are as Jovial as we are, so no worries) “.
Inauguration ceremony was the first time I was wearing a suit and I was already feeling like an executive. I helped many with my core competency of knotting a tie. J ... One fellow exclaimed, “See, this is the advantage of having work experience, you must have been used to all these corporate culture”. I nodded my head in a matter-of-fact way J . Only I know the amount of time I spent on YouTube videos telling about different kinds of knots and after a long struggle picked up the easiest oneJ.
The week that followed when seniors made us follow their footsteps was easily the rigorous week i had spent in my whole life. It was a perfect finishing school for us and a real welcome to the busy IIM life!
28 out of 66 in an IIM is probably a record female ratio that can just never be beaten in many years to come. Yet, no luck on that front. J This sentence would just make my close friends of the past to ask what’s new J and would probably exclaim “Chotte ke naseeb mein nahin hain” .. ( A famous cricket dialogue J ).
Over these 10 months, the 66 of us have become a seriously close bunch with all the differences amongst us notwithstanding. Over this time, I have been quietly appreciating so many for their unique qualities and trying to enjoy my life as much as possible, for I know I am goanna get screwed big time, the moment I am going to step outside.
My top 10 moments in IIM Shillong which I vividly remember are:
1) The way my ghost drama sent a chill through the spines of many in my batch.. Especially kaushik exclaiming, “ipdi irundha intha campus la epdi pasanga irupaanga” ( If the campus is this spooky, how can students live) .. LOL...
2) Accounts classes by Manav..” Debit what comes in, credit what goes out..” Actually nothing came into our minds.. The height of it was when Dude was explaining Cash flow statement to Me, Maruthi and Adhi. A fin dumbo teaching to 3 bigger dumbos J , It can’t get better.
3) Spandan which saw many talents of PGP09 come to the fore especially Rukma as a pianist and a singer! Little did we know that she was rated world’s best pianist by Trinity College of music ahead of ARR!! And yeah spandan also saw some of us shake our legs J
4) Kopda cup – IIM Shillong’s IPL sans controversy J . Each team had a guy as a captain and 3 gals as CXOs. 10000 points were given to each team for bidding players to form the team. Kedia going for 5400 to Sirjee’s team was gross over valuation J . I hope Sirjee does not do such gross errors in his internship at a premier investment bank J
5) Trip to cherapunji!! Extremely good trip with as many as 40 from the batch turning up J . Though it was not exactly the season to visit Cherapunji, the fun we had there more than made up for the off season. The one picture of that trip would be the flying picture clicked by Abhinav!!! The trip had a real kick start with our one and only.. “thaaaaddd i dnt knoooo” blocking the taxis as we had not informed about the trip J
6) Kaushik humming answers in a tune to us from behind in tamil in Finance surprise quizzes. It will be like.. ( ondru thavaru, moondru unmai, naangu unmai, .. ) . For all those who probably have mistaken him to a finance stud, I am sorry, he is not J , just that Manav jain from SRCC sits beside him J
7) The lectures in which Kedia and Joshi don’t miss a chance to go in front of the class to sing some random 1970s hindi song. Only thing that was not done was a proper Khasi choreo J .
8) Who can forget the real bashing that was given by Mr.Corporate in the Marketing – 2 class and the way FMCG group was called and blasted whenever he felt likeJ . Esha being asked to stand up in the class by him to explain her business research project which she had not started at all. And Esha as smart as ever opens her laptop with an empty excel sheet and blabbers something in good EnglishJ. But Mr. Corporate as shrewd as he is, blasts her with repeated questions, “U please tell me the test u conducted and the significance level”..
9) The selfless people in my batch who shared all the material that they had to the entire batch just goes to show the kind of people we have out here who are an extinct species in any other IIM where dirty competition is prevalent.
I once asked Keshav, the eternal supplier of exam materials as to why he does that when he so easily keep it for himself and have a sustained competitive advantage over others. His reply – “What is the fun in me scoring better with an extra material that none of the others have. That is no achievement.. With everyone equally armed, If I manage to do better, that is a real indicator of my preparation and efficiency”. This is IIM-S for you!!!! I was really proud of him that day!!
10) The wonderfully organised farewell for our seniors with everyone contributing wholeheartedly. Muzz and others were at their creative best in implementing the bollywood theme and Debu sitting on the floor cutting the paper into many star shaped figures with a scissor at 3 in the night was a picture of real commitment!!
In a nutshell, I think the one year has been one jolly ride for me!! With many close friends and useless bakkars!! I just hope the second year turns out to be even more eventful!! The awesome66 that we are, am sure it is very much within our reach to make it happen J ..
As a parting note, to all those who are goanna get a final call from IIM-S on May 12th, consider yourself lucky to have got an opportunity to study in this great college in the Scotland of the east!! Am sure you will realise this is an IIM with a difference!!! J
Here I am, writing my blog after a long time. Completed my first term at IIM-S. Phew... what a journey it was!! Did so many things.. learnt so much!! Got new friends, met talented people!!
The bakkar-phodu types are the ones I admire the most. In contrast, Muggo-Padaaku keeda combo is ubiquitous, You cant do much about them :) . You just have to put up with them.
Normally people find such wonderful people at good institutions that if one is not egoistic and is prepared to learn from each one of them, he will go out as a much better person. I will consider my batch diversity and the learning I am having from them to be the biggest take away from this place.
Things got so much accumulated at the end that at one point I seriously did not know which task to take up first. Everything seemed to be of high priority!! I thought I was losing out in the pressure game.But, I could find ample solace all around as people started to feel the heat too!! Gaaliyaans of all kinds on the system from people around reinforced my belief that it is getting onto them as well:). Hectic presentations, Project Submissions, Term papers..Man o man what a welcome to an IIM..
These projects are the most irritating stuffs as for successful implementation of those, one has to work from the term beginning but we are not of that kind. The end result is that one has to work really really hard to fudge data or rather create favourable data out of nowhere and arrive at a suitable pre decided conclusion ..All over a weekend :) The kind of tension that flares up as a result of the worked up minds is another behavioural study in itself. :) .
When the deadline of any project nears people can resort to really funny means to get the job done :) One of the groups just inserted a completely unrelated mahindra & mahindra quarterly result balance sheet in the middle of their statistics project on M&M just to confuse the Prof and add to the page count :)
I feel that I am not able to enjoy life as I used to do before joining this institute as I am not getting the free time that I used to get. All said and done, Life is definitely monotonous :( .. But I have learnt to accept it as a part of the package on offer and I have stopped cribbing about it. :)
My first blog entry was about this great person whom I still value the most after my parents.
My B Tech HOD prof. M. Ramachandran passed away today. I am still to come to terms with the fact that he is no more. He was such a loveable personality who used to see the entire department students set as his own children. The fundas that he used to give in the class was just out of the world that I used to keep alarm at 11:30 in the morning in just to wake up in time for his class and crash to bed again once his class finishes.
He was one of the most contented individual I have ever met. He was so attached to Coimbatore that he did not take several lucrative offers outside. I have been to IITs and IISc for short term courses and I can say with authority that he was right up there with the stud profs there.
He did not do a Ph.D as he was of the opinion that teaching in an undergraduation programme does not require a research degree. How true! The way he used to give practical examples ..maan i miss him so much!!
I did my undergrad project under him and learnt a lot! Learnings that probably cant be got anywhere. After I had passed out, when I went to get a recommendation for MS programme, I went directly to his house and the ailing picture of him is still quite vivid in my memory. He was coughing his gut out yet was filling all the university forms for me. I thought that was just a temporary illness and he will come out of it soon. Never in my dreams did I think I wont be seeing him again. :(
The last time I spoke to him was over phone on september 5 2008 - teachers day. He asked in his usual friendly tone, "Aporam Umamaheswaran solunga epdi irukeenga?!" (Umamaheswaran tel me how are things?!) The very fact that he remembers my name is an honour for me as he barely remembers student's names..
He retired this year. Some alumni had got together earlier this year to give a felicitation ceremony for the man who served the college department for the past 35 years.. the plan somehow did not take off as everyone became busy in theirr work and assignments.. This is what makes me feel really guilty.. Had we done that.. He would have been a much happier person :(.. Sir, Please forgive me :(
I had one dream (childish you may say)..calling Mr sir for my wedding and having a a small re-union of sorts there in typical Raymonds advertisement style.. That would not happen anymore :( :(
Yesterday, I spoke to my best friend in my college who was also a big fan of MR.. I just could not accept the fact that he was on his death bed.. and I broke down in my hostel room.. Such was his influence on me..
As his last rites might be going on in coimbatore, I just want Sir to hear whereever you are.. Sir, you mean a lot to me and I am indebted to you more than anyone else... Probably you came into this world with a purpose of teaching .. leaving this world after you retired.. I can never forget you :(
It has been long since I posted. Part of the reason can be attributed to the rigorous life @ IIM Shillong. It is really difficult to come to terms with the fact that you don’t get the fat package anymore which means the reckless spending and frequent credit card usage is out of the picture :( .. Worse still is the fact that you have to keep track of how much you gave when going in a taxi with your friends and how much each one owes the other. :) All these take me back to the By-2-cold coffee and light tea days of my undergrad monetary crunch. :)
It is difficult for people living in other parts of India to digest that we have to wear sweaters here in July and gets really cold in the evenings. Ceaseless rain is a normal thing here and probably this is the only B school where you can see students wearing business suits and also carrying an umbrella wherever they go :) I can tell you, It is serious fun in an IIM with quality people all around from whom you can learn more than you can from the professors. In my batch there are plenty of people who can pull others legs at will the whole night and still come up with an excellent presentation the next morning!! :)
Here, there is a lot of stress on being ambassadors for this neglected north-east region of our country and I feel the atmosphere in this IIM is definitely different from the other IIMs where it is cut throat ugly competition which forces many people to consult psychologists. Here there is real impetus on healthy competition and concern for others. I just hope these values are exhibited in the placement season as well :)
Engineers start at an initial disadvantage as all the accountancy and economics sound Greek and Latin at the beginning but coming around this problem is not a big deal. Engineers often concentrate on arriving at the one and only correct answer but in management it is about analysing the various future options and analysing each one. Finally, after a lot of trade off, we arrive at a solution that is the best of all. Just a tweak in mentality is needed that is it.
The best part of education in an IIM are the case studies where a group works towards a solution and there will be plenty of new ideas coming up. I was never for group studies in my undergrad as I thought it was a waste of time but I have changed my stance after coming here. You don’t get so many fresh ideas in such a short period of time!
The most hated as well as the funniest aspect of a lecture session here is something called DP - Desperate participation. Every subject has marks for class participation and for this reason almost everyone tries to desperately participate irrespective of whether they understood the concept or not. The result is that such dumb doubts and restatement of same questions in myriad ways arise which would make any good professor frown silently :). All these remind me of Tamil comedian Vivek’s famous joke - "Saar,neenga verum daas a? ila lord labak daas a?" :) :) ...
I don’t know how my life will unfold after my graduation but am sure that these two years are going to rock in every possible sense and I am hoping to make the best possible use of the conditions here.
It was very difficult leaving Samsung leaving behind many close friends. I hope we all meet once again somewhere down the line. This gift in particular was indeed touching. Thanks so much yr..
