PGSEM Qtr 2 - MBA#1/5

Welcome back! If you came here multiple times just to see if I have posted anything for Quarter 2 then definitely you would have been disappointed. Even I was. And this is my 7th attempt at writing the blog post. I started on same schedule as I followed in Qtr 1 and each time the only line which I wrote was the post header. But I am morally obliged to write an account of my quarter 2 ordeal, so here I am, again!

While I am writing this post, I am finished with all my quarter 2 exams and assigned projects. Completely chilling at my place. Just to be fair to me and give some breathing space I dint even collect the Quarter 3 books. Yeah! Mail was there for book collection even before I wrote my last paper for quarter two. As if it was telling me, don't worry about passing this quarter buddy, 3rd quarter books are already there so you are definitely going to quarter 3. What grade I will get that time will tell, but for me it was the toughest time both because of work pressure at office and subject content at college.

Whenever I think I can relax a bit and breath easy, the PGSEM rope comes around and tightens its noose. Quarter 2 was like that, and I doubt coming quarters will be any different. I have thought many a times in quarter 2, what was in my mind when I started thinking about management or what was my expectation from management? I think I have failed measurably on all accounts as everything has hit me unplanned. It is not the case that I am demotivated by the grades or abysmal performance on own scale, because performance is a relative term. And nothing can teach the magic of relative misery better than the relative grading. You may think from your scale that you are doing bad but relative scale makes you look good. Before you start running horses - I was bad/average on both parts :P

Quarter 2 had 3 subjects - Macroeconomics, Quantitative Methods - 1 and Managing Organization

Macroeconomics - Learning has its own pleasure and it clarifies many of the self beliefs (read biased beliefs). Macroeconomics was one of such subjects. It cleared my doubt that I can never be a economic adviser to prime minister of India, so I will never get the dilemma between job opportunity between economics adviser and something else. ;) Macroeconomics talked about GDP, GNP, Consumption, Govt Expenditure Investment impact on GDP. And why the GDP fluctuates and goes in cyclical mode of boom and recession. It was interesting concept to read but was tough concept to remember. This being a closed book exam and cumulative syllabus made the task more difficult. I have survived the brunt of economics somehow so far but definitely won't be taking anything in economics. It was never meant for me because of its theoretical weight.

Quantitative Method - I - Well, what can I say about this subject. This subject also cleared all misbelief on my number ability. I always thought I am good with numbers and QM-1 helped me to get rid of that 'fantasy'. Suffix 'I' is just to remind me that torture is not yet over (torture abhi baaki hai mere dost). QM showed an interesting expect of simulation, probabilistic and statistical modelling, decision tree, confidence interval and hypothesis testing and most importantly the mean and standard deviation. Prof teaching style was awesomely fantastic and terrorizing. May be I didn't pick up much in beginning as I ignored and was terrified with the load but at later part of quarter when things slowly started sinking in, I became fan of the prof and the subject. He seemed more of a techno-crazy and open source addict who has too much of energy and wanted to pass the knowledge to the students. He actually made us look at R programming as an alternate for excel and if that was not enough Libre office (open source tool) as an alternative of excel. It is the other story that I ended with excel. Regarding grades he fairly quoted - "Relax, breathe easy. It's only a stat exam. What's the worst that can happen? You might start to think everything is random" And often quoted - "If you think what you predict comes true then lets head to LasVegas". I will make sure that I will follow his advice when things start looking in my favor. Most interesting - "if you ever make a fraud make sure that you look good as a statistician". I am completely awed by the magic and awesomeness of statistics. There are lot many interesting quotes which he came up with during class discussion, and I feel bad about not keeping them with me.

Managing Organization - Managing organization was one subject which carries huge relevance to what I intend to do in coming time and sadly I didn't look at it properly during initial class discussion. Thanks to my awesomely bad grade in mid-term I had to actually go back and read entire book for the end term. And I thoroughly enjoyed it. Organic and mechanistic organization, organization life cycle, organizational behavior, hierarchical structure and its benefits. There is lot to ManOrg and Organizational Behavior and I hope I will be interested to take some electives in OB in coming quarters. The prof somehow knew that we may not be catching the concept, so he made us do a book review for book based on any living organization to understand the intricacies of the process. "Only The Paranoid Survive" was what my project group picked and I thoroughly enjoyed the reading and presentation. In-fact now I like Andrew Grove, the then CEO of Intel.

While I hope for most of the thing and hope that things will turn to better but I still wonder if Red was right when he quoted - "Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane" or Andy Dufresne was right when he quoted - "Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies". This was an overdo - I like Shawshank Redemption. :P

BTW before I miss it here comes the flaunting part - http://www.iimb.ernet.in/pgsem/student-committees you can find me here. Anonymity is what I want on my blog but little clues here and there won't hurt.. :P

P.S. - I am plainly getting into lazy mode and losing motivation for writing anything so I doubt if I will be writing even intermittently here. So come back to my blog after 2-3 years or don't blame me offline for not writing.

P.P.S - Time is running out quite fast and before I realized 2 quarters are already gone. Nonetheless, its fun being here and if you are not at IIM B you are missing the fun big time. ;)

P.P.P.S - I am writing this after getting complains that there are too many spelling and grammatical mistakes in my post. Well, I am too lazy to work on them. So I won't be proofreading my posts, please read them in way which is making sense to you.

PGSEM Qtr 1 (5/5) # MBA (1/10)

I am again late in writing the final post for Quarter 1, blame it on the hectic work schedule at office, 3 college projects and all this sucked out all the energy out from me. And right now when I am preparing for the vicious circle of Office, Class, Quiz, Project, Mid-term, End-Term again I thought of closing what was the needed. Did I miss anything? Oh Yeah! my personal time!  But this time I have planned to change the rules of game. I just hope that I will be able to do that. :(

I have once written my encounter with Murphy's law which states 'Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong'. I guess that encounter was nothing compared to what I faced during ending time of quarter 1. I just hope that this doesn't get repeated ever.

I had a inkling that my office project beta deployment may coincide with my end-term/college project submission. I was also worried about the new requirement coming to me in office at the last moment, worried that I may have to work late night in office during my end-term, worried that my college project will be a mess altogether because of all the above mentioned priorities. BOOM! As if I was wishing for everything, and wish granter was happy with my deeds, everything turned true including things which I was not even expecting. Wish granter must be really pissed off with me.. hahaha

I some time wonder why I am pushing myself to write this, I don't love writing anymore, neither do I write for friends nor do I get money for writing this. May be I am still a confused being or may be I want to remember this till eternity what phase I have passed through.. haha..  Whatever, Quarter summary - 

Microeconomics - I always thought that I have understood the subject pretty well and not even that my day-to-day activities were having element of microeconomics principles. But somehow the theory  wasn't getting reflected in terms of performance in marks. Not that I care about it, but when you have relative marking and you join the league of Farhan and Raju of 3 idiots then you gotta be caring about it. As Virus said in movie - I  will be very very worried Mr. Raju Rastogi. I was feeling ME professor may like to tell me the same after correcting my ME answer-sheets. :( 

Financial Accounting - There is ME and there is FA, both are class apart. In ME were I was in bottom side with clear concepts and open book exam, FA was the subject were I was on the top side with shaky concepts and closed book exam. I somehow fail to understand it how and why it happened.  Not that I scored good in end-term, but I had scored so much in mid-term that even if I would have had skipped end-term I would have passed overall. Best part was, for whole quarter I was taking off from office on Friday and never worked late night in office for any other week day during my tenure at company, but then exactly on day before exam I ended in office. And when you come to exam from your office instead of your home then there is a serious problem! I guess my marks will show that problem. OK! at this very line I realized why I am writing this. This is to remind me as well as fellow/future PGSEM'ers that things can go worse, very worse, so challenge is to be prepared all the time along with your office work. :-)

Strategy Management - This was one subject where not only me none of my classmates had any idea, what could be the pattern of paper. 4 hour test  with one 25 page case reading and question based on that, was too little of time. But paper was important because this paper dint had any mid-term so pressure was high. but unfortunately I had no time to prepare for the test. Fate yet to be decided.

ME/FA/SM Projects - This was hell of a task and given the limited time to work on it along with late-night stay in office because of last minute requirement sucked out all the energy from me. But now when its over, I am enjoying one week of peace till the cycle begins! And seriously I don't want to write anything more about it, as I don't want to remember it anymore.

Now when the Quarter 1 has ended, I feel good about the time I had. Have got new friends, had opportunity to listen and interact with profs who are best in their fields. In corporate people talk about Work-Life balance, but now equation has changed for me. Work-Studies balance is the new mantra. Life you ask? well as my engineering friends have started quoting, "I have no more Life left". I will award myself a gold medal on completing this course! So my own gold medal here I come.

Whatever, MBA 1/10 is over. 9/10 more to go!!!

PGSEM Qtr 1 (4/5)

Here I am, writing a delayed account of my past one month of PGSEM Qtr1. To be honest, laziness is what which is causing this. Course pressure doesn't have to do anything with this. BTW am I really taking any pressure? Anyways I will be writing a very short note.

A lot many things has happened since past 1 month, and to be honest I came thrice on this board to write something and walked out without writing anything. Organized 'Pehel 2012' event for PGSEM community of IIM B. Got a chance to hear first hand report about Arvind eye hospital and their philanthropic work through their faculty. Was brutally screwed in the mid-term. And on all three occasion I thought of writing detailed account but didn't do that. So here goes the brief account.

PEHEL 2012 - THE event of the PGSEM'er, by the PGSEM'er and for the PGSEM'er. Somehow I landed in organizing the event along with 2 of my batch mates. Managing across different committee, pressure of getting things done along with regular work/classes, what not to do, and what to do when into the soup - event teaches a lot of things. A glimpse of fun event we organized is here. If question rising in your mind whether I participated in any stage event or not then answer is NO. As a usual practice I like working backstage plus neither had time left nor had talent, so I did what I am best doing.

Arvind Eye Hospital - I am always game for inspiring stories. Arvind eye hospital is one such story. You need to watch this video to understand what Arvind eye hospital (AEH) is doing. A faculty from AEH came to give the session on strategy management case on AEH on request of our Strategy professor. Being in IIM gives you an opportunity to get first hand information from any source, and this is not the only one such occasion, we have luxury of meeting and listening to industry honcho at regular interval. AEH idea is aligned on the theme of 'Benefiting Masses Profitably' and I am big fan of this idea and the untapped segment.

Mid-Term - Do I need to talk, fate is kinda obvious? My laziness, involvement in events and other activities running in college led me into situation where I was on verge of getting screwed. Reading for GYAN rather than marks also aided to the pathetic situation. Microeconomics was one of such disaster. Even before writing the paper I knew that I am going to be screwed and for I was so right. :-) At one point of time during exam, I was not getting idea what to write for question, so walked out from the examination hall thinking why to 'waste' time sitting here. Results are out as well and I have scored quite average as per my standard, ya ya I think too big about my standard :P. Thankfully, relative marking will save me and can hope to get a decent grade here. Accounting was on expected lines, it is my favorite subject and have got marks which I deserved. So no issues there. I was even lazy to ask Accounting prof for marks at one question where he didn't give marks for being partially correct like others. Strategy Management is the course for which brutal attack will happen in single go at end -term.

Next two weeks are going to be a hell of week. Have to complete 3 reports of 3000 words plus each, one presentation and not to miss the end-term which need to be given. First term is almost over. And unfortunately nothing has been done so far in any of the assignment and presentation. Still a engineer. It is real fun nonetheless. :)

PGSEM Qtr 1 (2/5)

As quoted in my earlier posts, I guess I was absolutely right when I told future isn't bright with respect to me jotting down day-2-day experience on PGSEM. Blame it on the time which is flying so fast, I have almost lost track of time. And now too lazy to pen down what happened in past 3 weeks of first quarter classes in individual posts. Not that, I am devoting too much time on studying, it was never my way nor would ever be. Or I guess its too early to say about future, royal screwing on grades may/will change this ignorant attitude. *Hopefully this won't happen and utopia will continue*

I have settled up for 3 posts a quarter now. It is useless to tell what would be future of this comment too.. hehe

Coming back to school after a long gap has its own set of disadvantage. 6 years have gone by since last time I attended a School (or say College) where getting grades were piece of cake. And I was, and am still in same mode thinking getting 9/10 CGPA (IIMB equivalent would be 3.5-3.6 out of 4 ) will be child's job like Engineering. So I am chill and is doing everything apart from studies. And worst part is, this is when couple of topics discussed in class are going over head. But,why to worry when sword of placement is not there. Nonetheless learning is important and Profs make sure that you take back some learning with you after ever class.Yes, I can imagine you all who went through the ordeal of IIM B rigor, laughing at  this attitude and thinking time will teach me in brutal way what is required even in absence of placement but definitely till that time I can have all the fun in the world. This is the best management course, I am telling you. ;-)


So, what exactly I am doing. Working in core committee for Pehel event  (Exclusive event for PGSEM Community) where I am suppose to coordinate between PGSEM office, inviting Profs/PGSEMers for the event, doing ground work on event plan. And this week participated for Badminton trials for Sangram, IIM K event. Unimportant point is whether I will be going to next round in trials or not, important is I am living my college life again and doing things which I always enjoyed doing. Except hostel experience and few friends who could have possibly given a crash course before exam, I am not missing anything. Time left from trivialities mentioned above are dedicated in making new friends and off-course continuing with usual office work. A fully power packed day. 24/7 times a week and 365 days a year. ;-)

Core courses covered during 1st semester are Microeconomics, Financial Accounting and Strategy Management.  After 6-8 classes idea is sinking in and shows interrelation of all three courses. For first time subjects taught in school/college are showing sense/relevance. 'Knowledge' flow statement as mentioned here

Microeconomics - Microeconomics talks about economics of individual units. There is dearth of information stored in Demand and Supply. How subsidies, income increase, taxes impacts the consumption pattern. Elasticity (Demand, Supply, Income), Marginal Utility, Indifference curve, substitution effect. Why company and Govt some time bring some policy changes, how they optimize their profit, production lines? All these with relevant anecdotes aided with class participation made the subject interesting. Prof teaching ME has an impact from day one. Luxury to have him as our mentor for this subject.

Financial Accounting - Anything distantly related to maths has been my favorite since the day I scored the magic number in Class 2 (2 for 2). ;-)  Accounting talks about Balance Sheet, Income Statement and 'Cash' flow statement. With this line you would have guessed from where the 'Knowledge' flow statement mentioned above was originated. All in all everything in Accounting revolves around Assets, Liability, Owners equity, Expenses, Revenue, and to be honest this limited scope is what which makes life difficult, as first timers always find it difficult what to consider in in ideal scenario. Going 'practical' on any item would violate 11 accounting principle even without your knowledge and put the balance sheet in real mess. FA prof figures out in various consulting project for Govt and have close to 20 yrs of teaching in IIM B.

Strategy Management - Any theoretical subject with loads of definitions/reading become a nightmare to me. Strategy seemed to belong to those class of my arch enemy with maximum weight of subject matter (in term of Kg's obviously). So far SM talked about Industry Attractiveness, Micheal E. Porter's five competitive forces, Competitive positioning and Micheal E. Porter's three Generic Competitive Strategies. Not a single item made sense to me even after reading around 1 kg of subject matter. And worst part was, I was reading this subject only for all my free time since the cases and books were handed to us during Orientation. Profs had different teaching style which did not made any sense to me and was slowly drifting away from the course. But the allocated case presentation suddenly changed the view point. Strategy is totally mathematical model and an interesting story/subject. Know Porter to know SM. Profs too talks about his real-life experience which is a great value add. I look forward to listening to him, whenever he talks. Lets see how things goes with remaining 3/5 portion of this trimester.

With mid-term date declared as 27-28 July, some seriousness is being called towards studies as well. Not sure when I will be doing my 3 projects for 3 subjects and when I will be studying for end-term scheduled on 24-25 August. Future is not bright on many extracurricular items. Balancing things will be a challenge for sure.

To be Continued..

P.S. : IIMB campus is a runner's delight. I had planned to go there on daily basis for running after Orientation day as campus is quite close to my home. But because of lazy attitude and tight schedule this plan was never brought in execution. I have decided to go there at least on Sunday morning when there is no rush for office or classes. I need to do this bit as my running club membership is biting dust and so is my body, aiding to my weight :P  Hope will be able to do this.

P.P.S : For a change this time I had some relevant header for my blog. Detailing 2/5 part of my 1st Quarter. Also, frequent readers of my post would have missed the disclaimer as well. Why to keep when you have read so far.. :P

G20 Summit and Some random stuff

Though I was suppose to write account of my first week classes, here I am writing a random post on G20 summit and random stuff. Future doesn't look bright on my resolution to use this page as note-'book' for my classes.

While reading some random stuff, I came across this article - India to provide $10B for eurozone bailout. Hon. PM Manmohan Singh came up with revelation during G20 summit which was kinda surprising. A counter article to on this action was published by firstpost with starting line as - 'When one’s beard is on fire, it is folly to ask for a matchstick to light one’s bidi.' 

The statement was kinda funny but it summed up the situation in true spirit. With India facing a double digit inflation, slow industrial (or is it negative) growth, falling GDP numbers, policy paralysis complains and the rampant political situation and corruption puts India itself in danger of economic mess. What surprise me is when countries like USA, UK have refused to add any money to IMF coffer what's the point of committing such action on own by country like India which itself faces problem of its own? I am not saying USA and UK are the country to follow, but this time they are really acting as per situation. I feel in turbulent time like these Nouriel Roubini idea's are showing real significance. On my personal thoughts - when own house is on fire you shouldn't run for saving neighbors house. On lighter note may be economic advisory council have watched 10 Lakh movie famous beggars song - "Garibon ki Suno wo tumahri sunega, tum ek paisa doge wo 10 lakh dega" before recommending this bailout fund money. And hoped this $10B will infuse $10B*1M to Indian economy. But I always have feeling that Indians (or is it Humans) have 'that' spirit in them which will make them tackle any problem when there are no escape. :-)

On other (or shall I say Real) side of life - days are passing quite fast. By the time I notice, I see another Friday looming ahead with loads of cases pending on to-be-read-before-class and assignment to be completed. Life is tough and will be tougher in days to come, not sure if my batch-mates shares the same thought or not? I probably won't say TGIF for next 2.5 years (hopefully it will be only 2.5 :D). Probably hostel oriented course would have helped to keep the anxiety level down. With many stakeholders extending their support for my IIM run, it is becoming a moral obligation to do good rather than anything else and eventually aiding to the pressure. Luckily I always gets company of good people around me. Many thanks to each and everyone helping me in some way! IIM is teaching me to be humble.. hehe

Ready Reckoner

Don't worry about the title. It is my usual habit of putting some weird header every time. This is a personal post with no significant value for blog reader.

Finally, I closed my library account today. Exactly an year back joined the library as if everything was predestined that IIM classes will start from 15th Onward. Though I targeted to read 3000 pages on April 16 for last 2 months of membership. And as it happens by standard law, if you disclose something before the event completion there is high probability that you will never do it. Hence I failed miserably. Not sure how 'Rowdy Rathore' - do things which he says and also do things which he doesn't say.  'Brida' and 'Run Away Jury' were last 2 books apart from book 'A time to kill' I was reading while publishing the post in April. My read-list was displaying a total of 123 books/magazine at time of closer today. Satisfactory number I suppose.

Things are changing quite fast these days. And I am getting a feeling that situation is going to be same till I pass-out from the course. As I have planned to use my blog page as a notebook, will post the week-1 details soon. And definitely I am not going to check for grammar, spelling, formatting. Plus, I feel I am 'differently abled' when it comes to English/Grammar/Spelling. :P

BTW one change which has happened in Admission procedure too starting from this year. Only GMAT and CAT scores will be considered for admission. Surely, things are going to get difficult from this year onward for those who are aspiring for PGSEM course from my perspective. Though college did followed normalization mechanism across the GMAT/CAT/PGSEM test and none  of the entry mechanism were easy when considered on normalized numbers, not sure why IIM moved away from PGSEM test this year. For me it was simple calculation, as I was aiming only for PGSEM program, why I will waste Rs 1600 for CAT application & test and then Rs 500 for PGSEM application, instead pay 1600 Rs for PGSEM test directly and get the right numbers in PGSEM test to get the call for interview process after which standard route for all.  College authority must have had better thoughts then me. Hope this change will do some good to the brand and the program recognition. 

As it always happens with me, wherever I go, the place becomes happening.. ;-) Who knew Chapra before me. Now that's a major constituency, if you do not know dude! you seriously need to work on your general knowledge. Who knew VIT before I joined, and now you can see it is under top 10 engineering college. So would be the case with PGSEM. Definitely something will happen to course or college. :P Harvard, Wharton, LBS are you listening, still 'aliens' haven't heard about your college. Get me to get them. :P

PGSEM Orientation & Inauguration Day -3

Spoiler Alert : If you are aspiring for the PGSEM course at IIM Bangalore read further at your own risk. Reading any further may kill the joy of exploring thing on your own in next or years to come.

Continuing from the PGSEM Orientation & Inauguration Day -2

Day-3 started on usual note of waking up in panic mode because of lack of sleep and the time crunch. Proof reading of  submitted assignment is always a bad idea, and we did a grave mistake of doing it while heading towards the canteen. We wanted a shock and we got that, assignment was with awfully bad formatting and grammatical mistake. The work was so bad that we thought if the assignment lands in professor's hand he will surely throw it away. But then what's done id done and as there was no chances of reverting the mistakes we came at peace.

Post sumptuous breakfast, we were herded back to the class which started with a short note from seniors on House Cup score and later a surprise quiz. Damn! Fortunately, right answers to right questions were given and most importantly was not sent to any prof for review again. We were not in position to risk our wonderful creations going second time in same day to prof and eventually gaining his wrath.

I wouldn't call the next 3 hour session with Prof. B Mahadevan as a lecture but a healthy discussion for sure. He started with value of case approach and why solutions are not important for any case. Also, how important questions are for any case discussion as students may get lost in myriads of options and end up with nothing.

Case was on ITC e-Chaupal (HBR) past, present and future.The entire discussion showed how multiple people approaches a single problem in multiple ways. Each one coming with their own biases and trying to reason out on 'their' amicable solutions. The discussion ended with an inspiring lecture (yes lecture) by Prof. Mahadevan, who talked about the importance of material approach and the actual goal which everyone seeks. He talked about interesting anecdotes and tales of his real-life entrepreneurial venture. The never-ending pursuit of happiness of humankind while their ignorance towards it at the same time. As usual it was left on discretion of the listener to take the idea in their own way for their own good. This was followed with the a short note from Prof. NM Aggarwal and the result which everyone was contributing and waiting for since past 1 week. Who is the winner for house cup? And the result was announced as 'Best Buddies' are the winner!!! A totally unexpected result but pleasant nonetheless and as a standard practice it was welcomed by a loud and sudden noise of cheering. Yippie! Its an amazing moment and feeling to be a part of wining team. the house cup will be presented to us during our first b-school 'informal' event due next month 'Pahel 2012'.

We were greeted with another 0.5 kg of case study which was waiting outside for us. Great! As if previous 3 kg's where not enough. Class representative election and later with lunch 3 day marathon ended. After few photo sessions around the campus, we packed our bags and vacated the hostel so as to come back to campus again on 15th June, the day when the grinding will actually begin. It will be interesting to see how the course will be manged with multiple things running around.

Last but not the least, a commendable show by the senior batch students. Our batch gave a tough time to them but guess this is the tradition. They never lost the patience and greeted with a smiling face, at least a quality which I need to learn if not master completely.The energy and enthusiasm level was really contagious and helped us to get transitioned smoothly into complex structure of PGSEM program.

Nonetheless, the departing thoughts were quite disoriented, hope to retain sanity in the insane schedule. And here were we who came here to get oriented. Welcome to the world of Bin-ness.

P.S.  : - I love my post scripts and disclaimers so they always come in my posts somehow. Most of my posts are back-dated and are posted on later dates. That's the reason, I lose the sense of tense some time and sometimes post contains hyper link with of  future dated content of some other URL.

P.P.S. : -  If you were waiting for any shocker for day-3, then by now you should have got that, there were none. I love to keep people guessing on matter which is never there. :P

PGSEM Orientation & Inauguration Day -2

Spoiler Alert : If you are aspiring for the PGSEM course at IIM Bangalore read further at your own risk. Reading any further may kill the joy of exploring thing on your own in next or years to come.

Continuing from the PGSEM Orientation & Inauguration Day -1

For a guy who followed the routine of sleeping as early as 10 PM everyday and waking up as early as 5:30 AM for past 8 months, all rules of biological clock gone topsy-turvy after being awake as late as 2:30 AM previous (shall I say same day) day. Day-2 started with utter panic with ringing mobile and seeing time was 7 AM already. Thanks to group member, got wake-up call in-time for the event starting at 8 AM. Day-2 was dedicated to the CSITM activities with few paper presentation by people in academia and guest lectures by eminent personalities on theme of 'Benefiting Masses Profitably' lined up for whole day.

It was an interesting theme that talked about dearth of opportunities available in the area of  people empowerment while maintaining a regular cash flow. Thankfully the assignment done yesterday, helped to get some head-start on the theme and because of which sessions didn't meet its usual fate as it always happens with me.

Day started with welcome address by Dean Academics and short note from Prof. NM Aggrawal followed with guest lecture by Mr. Jasjit Singh (EVP Datawind) who talked how they are trying to transform the lifestyle of common man and talked about vision behind 'Aakash Tablet'. Difficulty faced by them and what they are doing to counter the problem. As a whole the theme started unfolding how the masses can be benefited using the technological advances. This was followed by short note from Mr. Anand Sudarshan, (CEO Manipal Education), who talked how he his organization has revolutionize the learning experience of masses by use of technology and online education using tools like edunxt. And how technologies are bringing bigger dreams to the people for whom higher and quality education was a impossible thing to think. We also had a quick lecture by Prof. Sourav Mukherji (OB & HR) talking about various aspect of mass empowerment and difficulties behind the resources not reaching to the masses. Which was later followed by paper presentations on people from academia talking on same theme utilizing services like USSD,Mobile technologies for rural and agricultural empowerment.

Post lunch session began with the lecture by Mr. Vir Kashyap (COO Babajobs.com). It was really inspiring seeing the idea his company is working on to fetch better job opportunities for blue collared groups by utilizing the spread of the mobile's network available in the country. He actually showed how he is trying to solve the last mile problem, not in telecom sense but in connecting all class of people on single platform. It is seriously an excellent example of entrepreneurship venture which is working for people and still generating pro.

Next discussion was scheduled with Mr. Ganesh Rengaswamy, (Partner - Lok Capital) - who talked how he decide on the funding a venture and how their organization is working for ladies in the villages and generating job opportunities for them. Which was followed by lecture from Mrs Gunjan Krishna (IAS officer & Head of eMission - Karnataka Govt). She talked about the initiatives taken by the Govt. and the problem faced. She also talked about the need of hour and the requirement of more entrepreneurship ventures in the field of social upliftment of society. And why some initiatives dies after big fanfare. Too much of information load called for the tea break  which was followed by lecture by Mr Bhavish Sood (Research Director - Gartner). All in all, everyone gave a new perspective and showed why technology is not completely evil and can be utilized for people from poor class as well while maintaining the profits. This was more than what we could have taken for the day, thankfully the day ended immediately with vote of thanks by Mr. Rajesh Pandit (Chief Manger, CSITM).

Now it was the fun time with sports activities lined up. Group did miserably in cricket, satisfactory in Basketball and TT and came first in Badminton. Post-dinner activities information were passed to us and were asked to assemble back in the meeting place for treasure hunt and closing plan. By the time the treasure hunt got over it was almost 11:30 PM. We were tired because of last 2 days activities and lack of sleep but a shocker was given with the assignment and case paper planned for discussion next day by Prof B Mahadevan. What which was expected to be a simple case took almost 2 hours. As it was almost 2 AM and did not had enough energy to discuss any further all discussions were called off and formatting the answers for case questions were started. Being sleep deprived has its own funny quotient, which was released immediately when one of the group member asked for 3 'bullet' points for assignment question. This was duly given as Dhichkaon.. Dhichkaon..and Dhichkaon.. by yours truly. Somehow the assignment was completed, and discussed for some time whether to send the assignment or not in current format as we really did a lousy job.  The day finally ended at 3:30 AM with thought, if this is how coming days are scheduled we are screwed for next 2.5 years. Little did I know at that time that another shocker awaits next day..

To be continued..

PGSEM Orientation & Inauguration Day -1

Spoiler Alert : If you are aspiring for the PGSEM course at IIM Bangalore read further at your own risk. Reading any further may kill the joy of exploring thing on your own in next or years to come.

This! Exactly this point, is the difficult part in entire story building when you do not know what to write and what not to. And I always end up writing something, deleting and then re-writing to get the flow of story correct.

As mentioned in  previous part with Last in the Tower my much awaited IIM dream began. Talk to any one from UP & Bihar belt, you will realize that they seldom use 'I' and believe in concept of 'we' while talking but when it comes to 'II*' then rules of games suddenly takes a different route as it is II T&M, cm'on do I need to tell that again. Yeah, you got it - I will not live a single opportunity to brand IIM. :P

Enough of branding and promotions, coming back to the story line, the mock up rigor show began even before joining the college. Entire batch was divided into group of 5 each with and assignment passed to us which was supposed to be done in group a week before the formal inauguration & orientation. The assignment being a group assignment became a difficult task as no one had met anyone in their group till now, nor were aware about the likes and dislikes of group members. All assignment and work division was suppose to be done via e-mail/SMS as no one had ample time to come and meet. And, as it happens in all such cases, no one's contradict anyone and one who comes up first with any methodology, always gets followed. Somehow the engineered solutions were given to each of the problems, though was thinking all the time while doing the assigned question that If I am able to do this now, then I should be awarded the degree straightaway. :D

Finally the much awaited day came, after a wait for almost month and half. I reached the campus by walk and realized, hostel is quite far from the main gate compared to distance between my house and main gate. Dumped the stuffs in allotted room in O-Block hostel and returned to the PGSEM block as per the schedule provided. Senior batch students gave us walk-through about the rigor of the course, instructions for next 3 days, followed by inspiring lecture from Prof N M Aggarwal (Chairperson CSITM Advisory Council) and Mr. Rajesh Pandit (Industry expert and part of CSITM management team). Both the lectures were highly informative and contagious, talked about our career choices and the rigor. The priority were defined as family & friends first followed with company bosses and colleagues. Because they are the one who are doing a thankless act by allowing us to do the studies on expense of their time. Once all the right things were said, we were asked to assemble at auditorium for further events.

There came the shocker, 3 Kilograms of Material(!!!) to be read for first trimester. And were informed by seniors that another 1.5 kg overall will be on way, to be provided before remaining classes of trimester. As if saying, welcome to IIM Dude, what were you expecting! So as per averaging theory around 1.5 kg of material for each subjects. I guess this is going to be my unit of measure for each subject in next 2.5 years and not sure how many kg will be added on me, reading these kg's. :P

Now the fun part began, group re-alignment was done for entire batch and were divided in 4 groups. Each group were suppose to complete set of assignment/events in next 3 days to win the prize on stake the  'House-Cup'. Innovative introduction for group members were expected as part of first event. This truly showed some interesting characteristics of the each and every group and their respective members. This was the end and were asked to assemble back at 5 PM for the inaugural address by Mr. Anjan Lahiri (President IT Services, MindTree).

Mr Lahiri talked about the problem faced by the Indian IT services and how the rules of games has changed in past 4-5 years. He talked about low growth rate, NASSCOM projection and need of IT professions to keep themselves abreast with new skills so as to keep ourselves on the front of the Growth cycle rather than looking for opportunities just because of accumulated non-performing year of experience. He also talked about the struggle at mid level managerial role playing people to keep themselves relevant to the organization strategy. He talked about tough times ahead and how people will turn obsolete if they won't keep themselves updated. A lot of topics were discussed, but space constraints doesn't allow me to put it here.You can refer the complete details here.

After tea break, we had Mr. Mansoor Khan for pre-dinner talk. Bollywood buffs and stats keeper will identify him immediately as a Movie Director for Jo Jeeta Wahi Sikandar. But he had a lot of other things to offer sans movies. He talked about the Peak-Oil, Jevon's Paradox, Third Curve. It was pleasure interacting with a person of such diverse interest, and one who have stints with IITB, MIT, Cornell, Movie direction and currently a social worker. His lecture was contrasting to what Mr. Lahiri was talking. With this our today's sessions ended and were asked to leave for dinner. We learnt about an interesting phenomena of the B-School education where students are told about problems and are left on their own biases to reach an amicable solution. It will be interesting to see how the things unfold in next 2.5 years with IIMB.

Post dinner, we were herded back into our group for competing on other events like JAM, Dumbsherads as an ice-breaker. And were informed at 12 AM that party was over with a write-up required as assignment on topic 'Benefiting Masses Profitably' to be submitted before 8 AM same day by group of 5 students. This required us to discuss on topic till 2.30 AM and send the assignment to accumulate few more points for the house cup. With this an eventful but tiring day ended to begin again as soon as we wake up on same day.

To be Continued..

P.S. - Congratulation! For lasting till this point of such a big post which may not be so interesting from third person perspective.

Random Post : Read List - Books to Read

Another incoherent post of mine. Nothing great in post body so read no further, to save some time.

An year (10 months to be precise) has gone by since Chennai lost its last wicket to Bangalore and I am definitely not talking about IPL. IPL is just waste of time according to me.

To put fact straight, I did missed Chennai some time and solely because of the library near to my PG which provided books at cheap and best rental price. And yes do miss the cribbing against Chennai sitting with friends at apartment in Chennai, but that's altogether a different story, we can very well crib even while sitting in Bangalore.

Something wrong with me for sure, what I am talking here.  Coming to point, I got hold of a library near to my place in Bangalore some 10 months back and after 55 magazines and 63 books issued on card I thought of putting the read-list on my page. Have highlighted the good books for my readers so that this visit won't be a utter waste provided you like reading book, otherwise undoubtedly visit will prove to be a wasted affair.

Title	Date Issued	Date Returned
Atime To Kill	15-Apr-12	Currently Reading
Dork : The Incredible Adventures of Robi	11-Apr-12	15-Apr-12
God Save the DORK	01-Apr-12	11-Apr-12
Mickey Mouse FEB-11	11-Apr-12	15-Apr-12
Chandamama (Hindi Small)	06-Apr-12	11-Apr-12
JOHNNY GONE DOWN	29-Mar-12	01-Apr-12
Vengeance of Ravana	24-Mar-12	29-Mar-12
King of Ayodhya	17-Mar-12	24-Mar-12
Bridge of Rama	03-Mar-12	17-Mar-12
Armies of Hanuman	22-Feb-12	03-Mar-12
Demons of Chitrakut	11-Feb-12	22-Feb-12
Siege of Mithila	02-Feb-12	11-Feb-12
PUL TOOTANE SE PAHLE	21-Jan-12	02-Feb-12
Bombay Duck Is A Fish	17-Jan-12	21-Jan-12
Theatre road ke Kauve	07-Jan-12	17-Jan-12
Prince Of Ayodhya	28-Dec-11	07-Jan-12
CAN LOVE HAPPEN TWICE?	24-Dec-11	28-Dec-11
Honor Among Thieves	18-Dec-11	24-Dec-11
English August : An Indian Story (Ji)	07-Dec-11	18-Dec-11
Delhi Is Not Far	07-Dec-11	14-Dec-11
MICE IN MEN	01-Dec-11	07-Dec-11
Flight of Pigeons	01-Dec-11	07-Dec-11
Keep off the grass	19-Nov-11	27-Nov-11
No Onions Nor Garlic	19-Nov-11	01-Dec-11
The Immortals of Meluha	15-Nov-11	19-Nov-11
I too had a love story	27-Nov-11	01-Dec-11
CALVIN & HOBBES :THERE'S TREASURE EVERYWHERE	05-Nov-11	15-Nov-11
How To Work A Room: Your Essential Guide To Savvy Socializing	05-Nov-11	15-Nov-11
CHOKHER BALI [PB]	30-Oct-11	05-Nov-11
CALVIN & HOBBES: REVENGE OF THE BABY-SAT	30-Oct-11	05-Nov-11
Cricket Today	27-Oct-11	30-Oct-11
Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The	27-Oct-11	30-Oct-11
False Impression	16-Oct-11	30-Oct-11
Champak English	11-Oct-11	15-Oct-11
Chandamama - Hindi 01-MAR-11	05-Oct-11	11-Oct-11
Chandamama (Hindi Small)	02-Oct-11	05-Oct-11
Prison Diary 3	05-Oct-11	15-Oct-11
CARRIE (B) PB (REISSUE)	24-Sep-11	05-Oct-11
KANE AND ABEL	20-Sep-11	24-Sep-11
Great Train Robbery, The	13-Sep-11	20-Sep-11
YOU ARE THE WORLD	11-Sep-11	24-Sep-11
SOMETHING UNDER THE BED IS DROOLING	04-Sep-11	11-Sep-11
Hannibal	24-Sep-11	11-Oct-11
Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The	11-Oct-11	27-Oct-11
5 Minute Tales Of Wisdom	27-Aug-11	04-Sep-11
Memoirs Of A Geisha	27-Aug-11	13-Sep-11
Paths Of Glory	14-Aug-11	27-Aug-11
Presidents Of India	14-Aug-11	20-Aug-11
Prison Diary 2	20-Aug-11	27-Aug-11
A Prison Diary	06-Aug-11	14-Aug-11
Twist in the Tale	06-Aug-11	14-Aug-11
Zero Percentile Missed IIT Kissed Russia	30-Jul-11	06-Aug-11
THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD	16-Jul-11	24-Jul-11
Rich Dad's Increase Your Financial IQ: Get Smarter with Your Money	09-Jul-11	16-Jul-11
Shall we Tell The President?	09-Jul-11	10-Jul-11
Myth=Mithya - A Handbook of Hindu Mythology	16-Jul-11	30-Jul-11
CHANAKYA'S CHANT	02-Jul-11	09-Jul-11
The Kite Runner	29-Jun-11	02-Jul-11
The Authoritative Calvin And Hobbes	26-Jun-11	29-Jun-11
THE ALCHEMIST	19-Jun-11	26-Jun-11
E=MC2	19-Jun-11	26-Jun-11
COMEBACK	18-Jun-11	19-Jun-11
Pirate Latitudes	17-Jun-11	19-Jun-11

Not sure why the extract ran on the library portal returned repeated entries but suppose some different books may have been issued as library never allow re-issue of the book.

Now in another 2 months time when I will be forced to read or shall I say fed with some other books at IIM Bangalore, I  am verge of closing my library account. Or possibly will wait till i will get screwed at IIMB over reading trivial stuff. Leaving the decision for future. I have gone greedy in the end and have set target for remaining 2 months of membership  to read a minimum of 3000 pages. Lets see how it goes. Most of these reading were done during my 2.5 hour of horrible daily travel to my office and if the book was good then sometime at home or during weekend.

Library are indeed good thing, you get to pick books which you would have never picked in normal circumstances.

To be continued..

Last in the Tower

This is going to be a series like my untold stories. I just hope that it will not meet its fate like the other one did. I can't promise this to be as good as 'my' best posts which came earlier but with time and material I hope this to get better (provided I write regularly). So keep visiting. Here you go..

Why does it happen that when you wait(shall I say dream) for something for long time, it never come your way and then one fine day when you are bored of trying and are least concerned about the outcome the things miraculously fall in place as if fate want to tease you See See what the heck do you think of yourself, I am the one who is powerful and can make you move whatever way I want you to. And suddenly you lose the fun of achieving it. In some way I think I fight with myself a lot.

I have 'somehow' received a final covert for IIMB PGSEM program.  I feel my preparedness and seriousness toward the exam was zilch. Even I can shamelessly confess my only contribution for the selection this time was me paying the application fee a day before closing day of application and attending written/interview during weekend to get a feel of doing something worthwhile for once in a while and to interact with new set of people. Oops.. I forgot to mention a lot of thinking too on whether I should be paying application fee or just drop the idea.

Fate of written test -  Lazy attempt during written. Even I was sitting idle for last 5-7 minutes after the examiner called stop writing. Not because I am great fan of ethics but just disliked the idea of being CAT'ish and marking answers till invigilator snatch the answer sheet. Things may have changed in recent time on CAT because of shifting from OMR to computers as per NEWS items, so new terminology have to defined ;). Anyways,much lower attempts around 60-70 out of 100 in 2 hours. I am not trying to sound modest, but paper itself is quite easy. Regular CAT aspirants can attempt even 80-90 or can go 100/100 in 2 hours. Interview call totally unexpected.

Final Convert expected but for a change this time performance was totally unexpected. Wrote half page essay for given topic, not because I couldn't write full page or more. I am proud of my paper filling capability, but then didn't want to torture the IIM profs by making them read something of no values. What are these blog pages made for. :P

I was last one to be interviewed. Gave all my negative points along with answers to their questions so that profs/Alumni shouldn't be in doubt at all to know my current standing and let 'them' decide rather than myself decide whether I am fit for the course or not :P

I talked like never before during interview(later I did wondered how I spoke so much in spite of high anxiety/nervous and neophobic nature) , at one point I felt I am not giving Alumni and Prof to even complete the question and kept talking. More on interview later. Not sure what clicked in my favor but final verdict selected.

Now comes the fun part. Never ever in my dreams I thought I will re-think (not even think) about something coming my way from Indian Institute T or M(read T for Technology and M for management). Even have stalked on any odd jobs from T&M. I suppose I was not only one of such kind but there are lot many T&M obsessed soul :P. But suddenly lots of doubt came up when I saw OFFERED status, which made me re-think if I should actually do the course or not. More on apprehensions later. I guess I have to think on word like re-think too if there are word like that. :P

This post was just to give the background information and can be called preface or author note. haha.. I am good at making mountain out of mole. ;-)

Story matter lies in future. Funny Friday and Super Saturday waiting for me and can just hope that it will not last more next 2.5 years. You will know at later stages that it was not funny and super I intended here.

P.S. : Ideally you should be wondering what the 'last in tower' has to do with the blog matter . Its my usual practice of picking weird topics and building stories around it. 

P.P.S : If you were able to last till this line and looking for more posts. Do leave a comment asking for it if the gap between my posts are longer, as sometime I keep pushing thing till as much time as I can. Procrastination I say. 

To Be Continued.. 

P.P.P.S : A word of caution : Do not take this as an example to decide on the difficulty level of the exam or admission process as most easiest because what has been piece of cake in my case won't be easy for you. Average GMAT score needed is 710+ and average CAT percentile required to get the interview call is roughly 97+ percentile as per current batch. Also, average work experience is around 7.5+ years. So in case if you replicate my case and can't get entry don't come looking for me. :D

Back

Its a cliche' now but still would say I am back. I do this many a time, I go away from blogger to post back with the comment as 'I am back'. Though it was different this time I blocked access for my blog page thinking never to come again and keep the posts to myself. But now I have decided to open it again for public viewing. I hope things would be different this time and will be having loads of stuff to write.

To be continued..

New Year - 2012

Hello,

Its been really long long time since I posted something here. Its not that, I purposefully did this nor was the case that I had nothing to write. Lot of things were there, and I always had loads of thing to write, but as usual procrastination and laziness did this to me.

Lot of things changed since I switched company. Not even a day have gone by when I didn't feel of running back to old place. Not that my new company is bad or I am not enjoying my stint with new company. I am perfectly enjoying my work and company too, but somehow things have gone predictable again. Everything has, came back on same old routine. And here was I who thought everyday will be bring new things afterward. When everything had to be like this only then what was the point. In fact, life is meant to get bored with all the triviality around you.  

I have been reading like I never read before. Joined runners club. And left over time on movies,serials and lot of other stuff.

And well, last but not the least - Thanks for visiting my page even though I am not writing often. Wishing all my blog readers a very happy new year 2012. Cheers!

P.S. - Not a resolution but would try to write at regular interval. Take care.