The first three weeks

Vanakam...
Seeing back the 3 weeks am here, at 24 Kothari Road, placed among the posh localities of Chennai, at Nungumbakkam…at IFMR…rejuvenated again from the all the work load…just trying my hand briefing my little experience…

A perfect day to start will be something like getting up at 4 in the dawn, getting refreshed and start studying…keeping up to expectations of all…and perform better to best with high hopes…and all the ‘goodie goodie’ words…
But its quite different for me…

Day starts at 8 or even late…getting ready…with shirt tucked in…all set ready for breakfast followed by the classes…

With excellent good faculty, classes at IFMR are very interesting, sometimes learning extremely tough concepts…but sometimes work load taking its toll on me…I manage to continue the classes till 1. But luck running out on some days when there are post lunch sessions…it becomes extremely tough for me to keep my ‘shutters’ on… At last the classes come to an end at around 4 in the evening…grey cells all saturated…

Back from the classes, with a brief time to spare and with impounding work and studies, it is really a pleasure to wake till atleast 3…Cuko to give sweet alarms every hour of night starting around half past 1…really a ‘Silence Breaking’ session…

Oh….how not to mention the ‘Ice Breaking Sessions’…it was(hope it has ended) a very interactive experience for me…barring a few late night sessions…seniors really came close…well appreciated by all…the best being with the drama session…and also switching off the mobile with eyes closed…legs and arms raised…as if ‘Moon Bhangra’…

Friends are always a part of ‘success’ journeys…not an exception here…with a batch strength of around 85…the class really acts as a close unit…with a new CRs leading the roles in their respective departments… the best part of our batch is that it is well integrated with people coming from varying disciplines…and some too extremes to my imagination…

With all the efforts to clear up study lag and learning the art of preparing fine presentations, life really moves too fast…hours blink by...days fly by…trimesters always at your door thumping hard with a frowning face…program of two years seems to get completed in 2 months…

With a bit mixed experience at IFMR, life is really good and enjoyable…provided one can make time out…but again I find some contingent events weird to my thoughts…So I leave you with a statement to comment upon…

'Do we ever look back at the steps that have been a part of our journey, giving support to the risk of taking the next step? May be the hunger for looking forward has made us forget it…’

P K V - Powerpoint is powerless

Guy: ‘Hello viewers today in our studio we have Prof.PKViswanathan fondly called as PKV with us. (Turning to sir) Good morning sir’
PKV (checking the collar mike): ‘Thatharina thatharina sasa magamaga sa ri ga ma pa dha ne saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa vanakkam’
Guy : ‘Sir for the next 30 minutes we will be asking you few questions expecting answers from you and your expert views about it’
PKV (gleaming): ‘Aah yes. But instead of going through the routine question and answers we will try to experiment this show through a case. We will have a change. At the end of this session I will also ask the viewers some small questions like choose the correct answers, fill in the blanks etc to make it more interesting. What say?’
Guy: ‘Ok sir; let’s take the case of the Left stance on the nuclear deal. What is your opinion Sir?’

PKV: ‘See east or west, north or south, left or right, if the left is still in power we won’t develop.’

Guy: ‘So then what will be your remedy for this situation Sir?’

PKV (gets animated) : ‘I say give the left a 3 hours test full of fill up the blanks then throw them and their results in the Bay of Bengal or Arabian Sea whichever is nearer.’

Guy: ‘Ok sir, you seem to have a strong point of view over the left. How about Mr.Advaniji and his new book My country My Life ‘(and the guy flips over a few pages through the book)

PKV (snatches the book from the guy): ‘You people don’t even know how to open a book. Let me show you how to open a book. (Cradling the book) First hold the book perpendicular with your hand (the camera zooms to PKV’s hand) and then slowly open page by page. And don’t ever scribble or mark with pen or pencil. It’s a disgrace to Lord Saraswathi. See someone has already scribbled in this book’ (pointing out the preface page)

Guy: ‘But sir that is a print of Advaniji’s hand written preface’

PKV: ‘Oh ok ok. But whatever the thing may be. These books can be made pretty small. The content is worth only one third of the pages. But these people give lot of stories and unnecessary explanations to make profit’

Guy: ‘Lets move on to the business world. What do you think of the Microsoft’s continuous trying to overbid Yahoo!?’

PKV (disgustingly): ‘I tell you. Microsoft is the worst company in the world’

Guy (puzzled): ‘Sir?’

PKV: ‘yes I say. They invented this copy paste method. All you need to do is chick chic copy from one place, chic chic paste in another paste. Such a shameless operation. But I will show you some tricks if you permit me. I see the time is already running out. But you should permit me. Is it ok?’

Guy (in a dilemma): ‘Ehh’

PKV: ‘Ok here it is. Chic chic. You copy. Chic chic ‘(suddenly the computer’s power goes of) ‘I don’t know how all of a sudden these things go wrong. Ok anyway next do the chic chic, you will get the results beautifully tabulated’

Guy: ‘thank you very much sir for your presence here.’

PKV: ‘now I am not going to speak. I want the answers from the viewers. It is my -------re to be here. I thank the --------tor for --------ing to the show. ------k –u. –ye –ye.’

Guy (sighing): ‘That’s it for the day viewers’

(In the back drop PKV’s mike is being removed by a girl. He starts talking to her)

PKV (with a smile):’ You were there during the presentation last week right.’

Girl (surprised): ‘No sir’
PKV (smiling too much): ‘No I remember you. You were during that CEO’s presentation……… (And he goes blah blah)

Life of a 1st bencher…

Scene 1: Its 8:30 in the morning, my roomies n me all still in their dreams of well suited manager and glued to their bed as if a Sunday morning waiting for a room service of continental breakfast…still could’nt come out of last days hang over…suddenly realizing that its just the middle of the week…atleast 3 days away from a week end…’Oh My God!’ Its 8:35 in the morning, just 25 min to go for the first class…now its another decision…may the toughest decision for a manager…which one to choose… classroom or washroom?
Bt I played safe…

Scene 2: Grabbing the dhosa like a chicken role…stuffed as much as it can be…hurrying through the red tiles of the campus…its 9:05…hoping against all the odds…hurrying over the stairs better than Olympics gold medalist…finally reached…‘The Bhagirathi Hall’… Micro Sir already with his graphical expressions…Just squeezed in my chair…1st row…couldn’t make out what the hell is going on…Then seeing the projector…its an ‘Indifferent Curve’…but my eyes quite indifferent to it closes itself frequently…just to taste a sweetness……….
Suddenly feeling the presence of someone in front…heads down, eyes blossoms again, sir in front with an explanation to someone’s unique query…my head starts nodding as if knowing the answer before hand….

Scene 3: 1st interval of the 1st period…stretching myself…yaaaaaawning…bigger than the ‘Use Me’…as if the only break of the movie ‘Kanchanjonga’…desperately needing a face wash…But of no use…the period goes on and my yawning…both as if ‘Complementary Goods’ like ‘Left nd Right Shoes’ sometimes shamelessly…thinking of the cartoon ‘Tom & Jerry’ where tom desperately needing a bed to fall upon…uuuuufffff

Scene 4: The best part has just come…with a new CR efficiently making an announcement of an extra class in the afternoon session of such a subject that just adds a pillow to slumber…Oh my God! Desperately needing the lunch break for mornings bath…waiting for the 1PM stand…at last it comes…shouldering my new laptop…striding for the hostel with a post pone lunch (Unusually)…

Scene 5: After munching the lunch, with most displeasure, heading again towards Hall, this time determined not to dose again…reached the class…within 10 minutes class gets filled…along with the resp prof…with renewed vigor eyes widely opened…trying utmost to understand a ‘System’…and also analyzing it…with an ‘ICICI bank’ example being audible…trying to gather as much ‘Information’ to ‘Manage’ it….But suddenly I could feel a System fault in me…eyes closed again …my information system unmanageable, collapsing…zzzzzz!!!


I leave you with question to comment upon…
Why are there first benches??? Zzzzz!!!!.....

Life@IFMR

sorry to snatch the honors from everybody but, after witnessing THE MAGNITUDE OF TRAUMA(due to assignments) that I went thru in the last 3 days, just , cudnt resist the temptation to open a thread abt life@IFMR.
A typical day at IFMR starts wid two options fr me…taking bath or breakfast(I hate getting up early in the morn nd I consider 8 am very early).Choice is pretty simple as am in Chennai and can’t do away wid a early morn bath. Classes start sharp at 9 and then it’s a process fr me to fight my innate habit of dozing in class.But surprisingly some of the teachers have woken me up from my slumber..nd am not making any bones abt it we do have some of the best teachers around. I wouldnt harp on that much more but only thing I can say in the 2 weeks here that a great prof can make a difference between going over a subject & really liking it.


Life finally seems to be settling into B School ways
When I first came to this place, all I heard was that life would be hell. MBA is not for weak hearted, blah blah blah. Dont think its that bad. Lot of it is hype. Ultimately it all boils down to simple things like managing your time well. There would always be people who would excel in acads, participate in extra cirriculars & not miss on the other learning aspects as well. Only thing is ... they operate at better efficiency levels. & I think a B School punishes you for not being efficient. Its not an option

The campus is small but beautiful ...many trees...n many birds...only issue they might bomb u .so u gotta watch out for that
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Learning curve is now starting to look a li'l too steep now .. (atleast for me) .. dunno whether I will be able to handle the dilemma of advance reading for next day v/s revision for today's classes. v/s chill out. v/s indulge in a intangibly beneficial gyaan exchange session with a fellow classmate
Parties are a way of life and 2 weeks into IFMR we already had two bd’dy celebrations…the last one being yesterday and wid the club activities all set to roll things r getting pretty excitingbut let me remind u...its not all fun n games hre....we hve got 6 subjects...n the diff level is bad...n even worse is the competition level....as mentioned we ve got guys from even frm IIT....


But all in all, last 2 weeks at IFMR was an experience to remember. Pretty sad to note that I'll be experiencing it just once in my life. It is THAT fun (and spirit)