Going to miss my Alma-Mater

3.30 in the morning and I am not feeling sleepy at all, despite a tiresome day. It’s my last day at SIBM Campus (‘Symbi Resort’ as we fondly call it), last day of my MBA experience, may be last day of my official student life. Fascinating has been the discussion tonight with four of my close friends about the 2 year experience. Revised the whole chapter over few hours and a couple of drinks. From the day 1 of SIBM campus and 1st round of drinks; we started the analysis phase leaving no teacher or student unturned. From personality analysis to one word definition, from fresher to farewell, from awesome personalities to nerds awards, from eccentric groups to serious couples, from academic rigor to well shaped figure; we discussed about almost everything under the roof of SIBM.

Two years seem like 2 days; as if it was just a few days back when I started from home with my bags packed. Came to campus with an open mind ready to see a new world, observe, involve and learn from it. A fresher Economics Graduate, coming out of his state for the first time had a clean slate to get prints from the real world. And now sitting at the last junction of these two years, I can safely say that my expectations have been met with panache. Leaned a lot, laughed a lot, slept a lot (not only in the class but also in the room), partied a lot and most important of all- made friends for a life time. Where else will I get such a talented bunch of people with diversified knowledge, who also happen to laugh, dance, shout and cry with you.

Certainly going to miss this place a lot. Going to miss tapri (and delicious omlette it serves), badminton court (where 23% of my awake time has been spent), card games late at night (fight to become ultimatum bluffmaster), Goa visit at the special request from College (!!), Chandna (Ye Khopcha kahan hai tumhe pta hi hai) and LemonTree (of course for its famous Lemon Tea), regular commentary in the class, late night debates and ever flowing music in the room. WILL MISS MY ALMA MATER ! WILL MISS SIBM.

economics with cuteness......

Okay c’mon tell me what is wrong in studying economics in graduation?

It came to me striking while I was having a lovely chat with a few lovely girls in a café recently (I don’t know why everything related to girls comes striking to us?). I was sitting with the friends of a friend of mine so I thought to concentrate on her friends (of course to make them feel at home); especially to one whom I found really cute. Our jokes were understood by each other very well followed by an extra ounce of laughter. As a group also we were going nicely, discussing the latest movie- NewYork, dressing sense of Katrina and John, then we went on to discuss new movie launches in pipeline (I was dreaming the future prospects) until one of them raised a technical question (I hate it when girls raise technical issues and that too in between nice talks). The question pertained to my studies. Economics Graduate I said. And after that the reactions changed from wow feeling to Oh! "Oh the number stuff? Why even after so many economics theories we can’t prevent a recession when it comes? Why everything in economics start with hypothesis?"

Oh my god this was not where I wanted to land.

And then started what I may call my nightmare. My cutie pie asked- Did you take Human Resources Management as your specialization to give yourself a human perspective after this economics degree or you were genuinely interested in taking up HR? I tried to lighten up the environment by cracking actually it was because of pretty girls in HR that I took HR. But my jokes were not jokes anymore. I could have understood if it were from one or two girls. May be a breakup with an economics guy or some time table guy (remember Dil Chahta Hai?); but there I was with four girls just hell bent to post mortem my decision of taking Economics at first place and then the dare to follow it up with an HR.

So finally I had to take up the stage to clear things about economics. Yes economics guys are a little enticed towards numbers (when somebody asks us how many hours you slept yesterday we tend to say 8 hours, 33% more than my average sleeping hours and so on). Yes economics theories did fail to solve the problems many times but believe me I had nothing to do with those theories. So finally 43 minutes later, after 7 arguments in favour of economics and 3 proofs about economics guys being human (even without studying HR), we came to the conclusion not to ostrich economics people from society. But in the process of reaching to conclusion my cutie pie was lost somewhere. My future dreams which had started coming in the beginning of the talk were forgotten in between somewhere. What an opportunity cost of discussing economics!

you cant eat the cake and have it too..

So far I have voted two times in my life for government elections- once for assembly elections and second time for Parliament elections. But since I have a deep interest in reading and knowing stuff related to politics I read a lot on this subject. I have always thought why politicians use petty issue like religion, communism, caste etc and on based on these sentiments they try to win elections? Don’t they have self conscience? But today I got an almost same analogy and I understood the concept in a better sense. Today we had elections for selection of Student Council President and Coordinators for various committees in our college. Even in this highly educated class of MBA’s, issue of casting votes according to class sections raised significantly. It was looking as if section A were fighting against section B or C. Can’t they understand there is much to life beyond a small section boundary? And here I got answers for my earlier questions - When people can raise this section thing just to win a small election what’s wrong if politicians raise such divisive issues to win Parliament or Assembly elections where stacks are really very high. Next thing is even worse - why do people vote for such politicians; why do we constantly select people with corruption and criminal records? When it comes to shouting about the problems we have to face due to poor functioning of government, our people will be in front shouting against government but when time to choose good representative comes they will decide with a MY perspective in mind. Instead of going by merit; people go for - My caste, my religion, my boli (language), my section. We people are big hypocrites; while choosing our representative we will ask for MY, but while looking for performance we want best quality. “cake ko ya to kha lo ya bacha lo- dono kaam ek sath to nhi ho skte.”

we live our life only once...

Each organization has its own culture and a value system inherent in it which you can feel in the people of that organization. For so many years, I have heard a lot about sibm culture but today I felt it. Symbiosis as a culture can be described as a culture of friendship and joy. People here love reaching out to people. One more thing which is entirely visible is love of symbites for their institute even after years. Alumni just love coming to institute to meet even years after years. Today two events ran this sudden streak of thought and brought out the feeling which I was experiencing for a long time. After the Leadership event(a big event consisting of many leaders across sectors), I was outside the campus to bade my friends. We were clicking photos with our cellphone camera. All of a sudden a charming person around the age of 35, with a high quality camera in his hand, who I think was going back, appeared and offered to click our photo. We were all surprised. He clicked the photo, took one of our email ids, and promised to send photo on that id. We all were mesmerized at this gesture, he said- “1992 batch” and walked away. I was so shocked and delighted that I could not even ask the name of our friend.

Also I met one more alumna of symbiosis, priya, a really nice and pretty girl, 2005 batch pass out from scmhrd. One can see the proud of being associated with sybmi in the eyes that young lady. I liked her down to the earth personality and love for symbiosis. She was excited visiting the symbiosis after a long time, interacting with sybmi students. We discussed a whole lot of issues ranging from practibility of curriculum, market conditions, to symbi feeling. “You can recognize any person from symbiosis just by interacting with them for 5 min. That’s what culture is all about. we live our life only once and rest are memories.” – puts priya. Rightly defined. Currently she is working with Standard Chartered here in Bangalore.

To....point 5

The worst thing with the relative grading system of evaluation is that it is really hard to fight back once you have left the trail somewhere. The system works like this- if you have scored relatively less in your first semester, you tend to work harder to cross the average and perform better (a few folks who don’t share this idea please forgive me; but believe me I am also amongst you). But the problem is that you are not the only one who is thinking this way. There is whole bunch of below average and about average people who are thinking on the same lines. So next semester these hardworking people will work harder and push the average high in the process and when looked at relative performance, they will find themselves almost on the same position (isn’t it seems like being inspired from five point someone; of course it is, you fool). But the point is today I have got the grading of 2.492(almost 2.5) out of 4 (just above average )so I have all the rights to write about it. Now onwards my whole target in MBA is to reach 2 point 5 instead of tending To... point 5. Quite moderate a task; seems like but when you look at my daily schedule (of novel, newspaper, TT, Gym, Chess and Chatting) you will find out there is hardly any scope to improve in examination related stuff. And I will be satisfied once I achieve my target of 2 point 5. Anyways if you score more than that, people will say- “ saala ye to MBA me padhne gya tha!!!”

To a serious note, i would say that though marks are important in MBA but MBA is lot more apart from marks only. It is more about overall development, networking, focus, confidence and loads of fun.

MBA - Is the juice worth squeeze?

One of the most obvious and most asked questions in MBA is – Is it worth anything what we are reading? Does it have any practical application at all? Or most of the time we are mugging up theories only?
We, as human being, are what our teaching, life experiences, people around us have made us. Our environment and learning in life put a deep impact on our way of thinking and applying the thoughts into practical life. But is it possible to cut that learning into pieces and say that this part of my behavior or learning can be attributed to my learning at the age of 15, this can be attributed to my learning from std 8th and like that? The way you behave or solve a problem in particular situation depends on the learning and experiences applied cumulatively. In the same manner it will be difficult for us to say whether a particular part of our MBA will be useful for us in long run or not. It is never that you take your decision exactly as per some theory taught to you in class but these theories definitely have an impact in shaping processes of mind and molding it to think in an intended direction. MBA is all about building the right attitude – about work environment, about colleagues, about the problems that you face and about the LIFE.

And the most important of all; an MBA degree can take you to the boss' position...read further:
When the body was first made, all the parts wanted to be Boss. The brain said: "I should be Boss because I control the whole body's responses and functions." The feet said, "We should be Boss as we carry the brain about and get him to where he wants to go." The hands said, "We should be the Boss because we do all the work and earn all the money." And so it went on and on with the heart, the lungs and the eyes until finally the asshole spoke up. All the parts laughed at the idea of the asshole being the Boss. So the asshole went on strike, blocked itself up and refused to work. Within a short time the eyes became crossed, the hands clenched, the feet twitched, the heart and lungs began to panic and the brain fevered. Eventually they all decided that the asshole should be the boss, so the motion was passed. All the other parts did all the work while the boss just sat and passed out the shit!
Q: What can we learn from this?
A: You don't need brains to be a Boss - any asshole will do.

sometimes travelling gives you more pleasure than reaching destination..

A lot has changed in the college after the joining of the new director, Pankaj Gupta. College is again looking like a place to study which once became a fun resort. Now with the renewed focus on studies with IIM lecturers and more discipline, pressure is slowly building up. About 1st semester, I can certainly say that things did not turn up the way I thought them to be and certainly this is not what I expected from SIBM. Sometimes even the feeling had come as if I had made a mistake in choosing SIBM as my destination and partner for two most important years of my life but then I think, actually how does it matter. A few external factors can never define a man’s destiny. It is something deep inside him that defines it. External factors at best can play a role in highlighting or hiding that innerself for some time. May be my destiny has something for me here which is as unique and in resemblance with the way i have travelled so far in life. Who thought of the path, travelling on which I have come to here, when I started my journey? From a small school in M Adampur to Holy Child School hisar. And from there to Holy Angel for a small stint (with those tuitions for PCB) and then from there to Polytechnic Nilokheri for one month (mind you, with rank 6; topper ki hawa hi alag hoti hai yaar college me) and finally to HAU veterinary Deptt. Those two years in HAU were wonderful in terms of getting friends and doing a lot of masti. But the veterinary college afterwards wo topper wali hawa nhi khha ke dekhi kabhi. After veterinary to Bachelor’s and now here in SIBM pursuing my MBA. Who has thought, life will take so many turns but it has. And the biggest point is that I am satisfied with the way I have travelled. When the way itself is so joyful who cares for destination or in other words- the real essence of pursuing destiny is in the travelling.
Ya from learning came to my mind a thought on which I was contemplating for long. One thing which I have learnt here in my first semester is how to use the technology, how to utilize laptop optimally, how to use latest softwares, how to make best use of internet. I got the chance and I made a small movie for our college to be sold with the prospectus.
2nd thing that I contribute to learn from sibm is the culture from different part of India and even that from across the globe. I am always mesmerized by the diversity and learning which takes place when each of 165 individuals brings with him his culture, his values and dreams. For example south Indian people, as per my observation, are hard working but less innovative or imaginative when compared to north Indians. Maharastrian have more chauvinistic feelings for their state and language etc, they tend to bind more among their own people. People from gulf (NRI) and even from other parts are more passionate about things whatever they do- be it dancing, be it guitar, music or be it drinking/smoking or four letter words for that matter. I am enjoying here in the company of great minds. Let’s see where is going to be my next step?