Nainital...Here we come..

First time I am going out for a trip with my friends after joining IIM.

Will update soon...

Maybe I was wrong...

This post is about the class room updates.

In previous posts, I made a bigger announcements stating that "The most Leisure Term". I think I was totally wrong.

This is the term wherein the submission started as early as at the start of second week. Its something very rare. Normally profs give some time for students to start working. Also, in today's lecture one of the profs insisted for weekly submissions. That is something terrible to hear !!!

I mentioned about a prof in my previous posts stating that he got irritated since we laughed in the class. In the same class he mentioned that he knew about our profile. I dint take those words seriously. But he mailed to one of my group-mate quoting that "he should personally take care of involving me and two others in this project and should contribute to the project. Also, he mentioned our names in the mail with internship details". I was shocked when my friend, to whom prof has mailed the details about us, has forwarded the same mail to us. Its sad that prof has taken the things too personally. I am worried on how to rebuild the trust.

This time, in team building class, we had an exercise on "introduction to teams". It was a scenario case. The scenario was that a set of people with certain background were stuck in a cave and who has to be rescued first and in what order need to be sorted out by our team. It was a funny exercise wherein we were all arguing with each other with a variety of inputs on giving priorities. Ofcourse, I have seen a guy in our group is arguing just for the sake of arguing. Also, we had one girl in our group who is from Italy(Dont know exactly the place). The total team was in dilemma when we were to choose between a lady with two children and a guy who is potential enough to develop a cheap drug for cancer patients. It was like whether to go with present scenario or need to think about future. One thing is that there is no correct answer. It depends on individuals. Whom do you chose?

Apart from these, I have seen few ads about Gujarat Tourism. It was awesome given the fact that the videos contain Amitabh and also shot in multiple languages. Its a good strategy to attract both Indians and Foreigners. Good Learning. Here are the links -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQXNiFC3YE8 - in Hindi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xU6c7j73e1s&feature=related - in English

Have a look at it. The video clarity is good and also the theme.

Welcome home Anvesh and Happy Journey Lokesh

Finally, Anvesh is back. He came back last weekend. I am so happy to see him back but at the same time, Lokesh is going to US. Its like a tie.

Actually, I wanted to meet anvesh at Delhi. Also, I booked the return journey ticket. But finally he said "no" to my visit to Delhi.

Now Lokesh is going to US and it is going to be a long stay. He waited so long for this offer. I wish him all the best and happy journey.

Also, I have seen Sandesh buying a new car. Thats really a great news. He is the first guy in our batch to have a car.

Party Time !!!

This week I went out to city twice just for the sake of food. That doesnt mean that I am not being served food here. Its just that we are bored of eating the same food daily.

First, it was index party. This year again I am part of index team. Everything, except the fact that I am in second year, is same. I mean to say the work I did and the work I am doing hasn't changed much. Its the same photoshop work that I hate. At times, I feel that I am cursed and at times, its a differentiating factor. Anyways, I cant change anything at present.

Coming back to party, it was a good one. Though the food was not good, I enjoyed the time, that our team, spent there. It was fun. Ofcourse, it was first time I was interacting with the whole team given the fact that the team was formed long ago. I dont know the names of any of the first years. So, initially it took sometime to break the ice and as of now it is partially broken. :). One thing I understood was that they are very curious to know about the placements. All I could tell them is not to worry. But it is very difficult to control our nerves during placements, including me. But everyone knows that he/she is gonna place in some company but what is that "some" is a question mark.

Here are few pics..

The team 5Ps

Scream 5 ???

Juniors

Second time, it was sai,gopi and me who went to city. This time it was Dastarkhwan. After a gap of almost 6 months, I went to the city by bus. Nothing new and its the same old roads with lot of dust. Wherever the bus stops, I can see a kg of dust falling back in to the bus and slowly getting distributed onto the passengers. You would be lucky if you were sleeping with your mouth open. Before people get any kind of doubts, let me clarify one thing - I dint sleep during that journey.

Thanks to Gopi for paying the bill and thanks to Sai for paying the bill at sports shop for my wrist band. I bough a wrist band to play TT with out any interruption caused by excessive sweating (Assumed to be). But after purchasing the wrist band, I havent played TT.

Again, tomorrow we are going to City.

Classes.. Term 5

Finally I can feel some seriousness in attending the classes. The classes are a bit interesting.

In team building class, there was an activity. It was about understanding ourselves. There were certain attributes given and we are suppose to rank them. After ranking them, we will come to know about the scores for different personality types - tiger, eagle, turtle, solmon, Chameleon.

Each animal is defined with certain aspects. For tiger - brave, leadership but doesnt listen to anyone. For Chameleon - works on situation but doesnt posses leadership. For eagle - long vision - but doesnt care about notifying the team. For Turtle - slow and steady - analyzes the situation. For Solmon - rebel. Based on the graph, mam used to explain how a person's character will be and how he responds to a situation. One thing I understood was that people should be very high on eagle but should be low on Solmon. Interestingly, my graph was quite opposite to that of normal. I am rebel as per that activity. I think I should start thinking that way!!!!

In marketing class, I have heard something very contradictory. In early days were soaps were aired, one serial was blockbuster. The main element of the serial was extramarital affair. That concept cannot be used for marketing a product but a company used it in a different way. I dont want to write much about that. But it is something different and unheard of.

Also, when washing machines were first introduced in India it was a big success in Punjab. When company went to see and understand why that product was successful. They were shocked. The washing machine was used in Dhabas for preparing lassi. It was funny. The way people think about certain things that the manufacturing company never heard of.

In today's class, prof was giving an example of "wheel" advertisement. The husband throws the shirt on his wife's face and then wife uses wheel to clean it. Finally the husband gets the promotion. While explaining that ad, professor, in a funny note said this "throwing a shirt on wife's face never happens in India. It is just exaggerated. A typical husband knows what happens when he throws a shirt on his wife's face". "Generally these kind of ads start with a message like - "Attention viewers. This ad is performed by experienced people under a protected environment and viewers should not imitate at home". The whole class started clapping. I think thats true.

For first time, I was caught in the hands of Prof for laughing in the class. Prof was so irritated and was angry. I was lucky to answer the question that he has asked me else it would be have been a disaster. The class was damn boring and so we started cracking jokes. I dint realize that he was observing me and all of sudden he asked me a question. After the class, our project group was asking prof some kind of doubts. We were suppose to implement some crazy ideas and I was laughing listening to those crazy ideas. Prof saw me for the second time and then....

Tremors ???

Recently I have heard news that in USA there was an incident on Earth quake in New York. Then, I heard a similar news in reference to Delhi.

Yesterday, I saw a status message in FB on one of my friend's wall - "I felt the chairs were shaking. Was it an Earth Quake?" I was shocked looking at it. Then I started searching for the news in google and shockingly it was true.

What am I doing at that time? The answer is that I was sleeping, indeed it was a deep sleep. It happened around 5PM. After knowing about that, my brain started thinking something very extreme.

Though nothing happened in my college, later on I found out that so many people were dead near sikkim. That was very bad.

I believe that of all the natural calamities, earth quake is dangerous. Because for the rest of the calamities, atleast we can get some information prior but incase of Earth quake it will be known only after the damage is done.

Interestingly one of my friend has updated his FB status message as "Tremors in Lucknow. My friends, instead of running out of the building, were updating the same message on Facebook." I am wondering how powerful an FB is - more than that of an Earth quake.

Term 5.. The most leisure term....

If someone asks me whats the best thing that you always want to see in this term, my answer is "Time Table". Even If I see 10000 times, I still feel like seeing it again. I can feel like I am set free from all kind of rigor that we were going through, though its not correct. On Monday and Tuesday, I need not get up till 1PM. On friday and Saturday I have just one class. I cant ask anything better than this.

This term I have 3 marketing, 2 system and 1 HR related courses. Even the courses are not too hectic. But one problem is that, the courses I have taken are highly sought after courses and hence I can see the top 10% students of the college are in some classes. Now the problem would be to get good grades by getting marks better than them. That would be a dream. People might be thinking why am I crying for grades because its ultimately grades that get us to the destination. Dont ask me what destination I am looking for because I am no different from others.

I am so leisure that I have completed the Prison break (4 seasons in 2 weeks time). The first season was awesome and later on I felt bored. The twists and turns that were there in first season were repeated very frequently in the consecutive seasons and so I could guess the plot very easily. One more thing is that - digging a tunnel / passing through a tunnel. I never thought it would be so easy to do such a thing. Where ever the lead actors go, they dig a tunnel there as if it is patented to them. The last season was more like a typical sentimental movie - to choose one between wife and his brother. It is too far from reality. But I should accept that it was entertaining. Now, I understood why parents are so addicted to serials.

Mom, Dad and 8 holidays...

This post is about the holidays that we got at the end of Term 4.

I want to start this post with an example. A lion which was kept in a cage for 3 months and was made to work hard for 24 * 7. Imagine how it feels when it is released into jungle for a week. The happiness it gets cannot be expressed in words. Ofcourse, I am not lion but I dont mind you guys assuming it.

Although I dint do any productive work in holidays, I enjoyed to the maximum extent as there were no worries about grades nor project-work nor extra curriculars. Just eat and sleep. A continuous sleep for more than 6 hours is something rare and I achieved it consecutively for 8 days.

BTW I went to Tirumala on foot. I walked all the way (2400 steps). It was amazing. When I was walking on steps, I have seen couple of times "Praveen and Sravanthi". Its written on the walls which is a pathway to temple. Does it mean should I fix with Sravanthi? Where is she?

Jokes apart, I met my cousins and other relatives. It was more than a gala atmosphere.

One thing I couldn't escape was the committee work. Though I was on vacation, I was given some work with a strict deadline. Its my fate.

When I was going to Triupati, I met a guy in the train who has just come from US. It was very nice meeting him who is in a very good position at IBM. Interestingly, he too appeared for CAT and got some info about IIMs. He believes that people in IIM are inclined towards setting up new ventures. But I hardly see that here. He also gave me some insights about US politics and it was very interesting. I also understood that he is not that good at networking but a very hard worker. During the same journey, I met a old lady who has a very bad impression about software engineers. She feels that we dont enjoy life and work very hard. Partly it is correct but I dint feel like agreeing with the "hard working" part. We carry personal works during office hours and so it looks asif we are continuously working for 8 - 10 hours but it is not so.(Half the time we spend doing "some other" work. Its just my opinion !!!

Tiresome Journies

The exams were over on 2nd september and I booked my ticket for the train that leaves lucknow at 10.35 PM. I had an another connecting train that leaves jhansi at 5.30 PM. The time gap between the arrival and departure of first train and the second train was just an hour. Moreover my tickets were in waitlist till 2nd morning. I thought I would face hell before reaching home. It was more than that. The train left lucknow an hour late but reached Jhansi at 5 PM. I couldnot sleep properly that night. The total journey time was around 32 hours. I reached Hyd at 5 AM in the morning and was the only person left sleeping in the coach after the train had arrived at the final station.

One interesting thing that I felt during the journey was these dialogues - "Bloody.. what the hell? I need to sleep. Dont call me. Why are you like this?". It came out from a girl. Please dont think that it was me on the other side. The girl was on a phone call and I was eavesdropping on that conversation. Though it doesnt sound interesting to others but it is to me as it reminds me of my past :(.

Another interesting thing is that the conversation that I had with train attendants. It took hell out of me to explain the importance of IIMs. They have idea on IITs and not on IIMs. They talk about MBA colleges in Andhra Pradesh and say that they are great in India. I was caught in dilemma. It was an interesting conversation.

But they gave a good logic about marriages in India. He said that he had three daughters. He says that if his daughter studies till degree, he can find a match for his daughter equivalent to that of degree or greater than that. But if his daughter studies till post graduation and now the question is he needs to find someone equal to that of PG or more than that. The problem doesnt end there and continues with increased expectations in the form of dowry. Though its hard to digest but its true in case of lower middle class people in India.

Though the return journey was also bit a lengthy, I had the company of my friends. Around 10 other friends were there with me and we all were there in Mumbai airport for the whole night. It was such a tough time to be sitting on the chairs for the whole night.

BTW the day started with a krusher at KFC. Sai (both) had chicken popcorn at 6 AM in the morning. Well, I have no comments on that.

Happy Birthday Padma (Sept 1st)

Though belated, Happy birthday Padma...

Funny.. May not be... Part 2

Sitcoms... Contd...

By the time the term 4 was finishing, we had so many guest lectures. In a guest lecture, the faculty was teaching us about some topic that was not in syllabus and he wanted us to be interactive. But half the class was not interested as they were tired. (The class started at 7 PM). Prof saw a person sleeping and dint call him wake him up directly. He asked a question to the student next to that guy who was sleeping and gave this statement - "You speak; He wake". Thats it the whole class started clapping and disturbed his sleep.

In strategy class, Mam was asking questions to selected people and especially to those who sit in the last bench. It was a kind of tricky question. First person answered it to some extent and next person added a bit to it. But one student gave a very smart answer - "Mam, whatever he told was correct". Mam started laughing and told us that during exams write the answers this way -"Whatever the person, sitting by the side of me, has written is correct"

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Apart from these sitcoms, I have seen few examples of selfishness in movies/serials/books but for the first time I have come across a guy with such a character. He is too selfish to give chance to his own team members and I hate those kind of people. May be selfishness is required but a selfishness of such an intensity leads to destruction. Luckily, I am not part of his time till now.

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These days I am confining myself writing small posts. I got feedback from srilu quoting that my blogs are too long and sometimes too boring. I cant deal with the boring part but at the same time I can deal with the "lengthy part" and as a result you can see "the conitnuation parts" for the same post.

Funny.. May not be...

There were some funny moments in Term 4... Actually they are sitcoms...

In one of the classes, a professor inserted an USB drive into the system. He named the drive with his own name. So, when he inserted an USB, a message popped up showing "Do you want to format Prof.XYZ ?". Half the class understood the funda and started whispering "Yes, press ok to format it".

Proxy is something that profs never tolerate. When prof was taking roll call, a guy by mistake told "present" for a girl. Prof was shocked and stopped taking attendance. Though it was not intentional from that guy, I could not stop laughing after what has happened. Also, I remember the same prof, when he forgot to bring the attendance sheet, asked us to sign on a sheet of paper. Once we are done signing, prof counted the number of signatures and tallied with the class strength. No one could have imagined that prof would be doing such a thing. I cant discuss further more on what has happened then !!!

Our group was presenting on some topic in the class. When the presentation was over, mam normally asks us some questions/clarifications about the topics that we presented. During that time, I took out the pen drive that was connected to the system assuming that it was our group's and gave it to the girl who was the member of my team. After we finished answering the questions that mam has asked us, we went back to our places. Mam, then, went back to dais, and shockingly her pen drive was missing and accidentally it was me who took it out and gave it my team mate. Mam started searching for pen drive and asked the class "Has anybody taken my pen drive?". The girl was silent still thinking that the pen drive she had was our team's. After sometime mam asked our group, as we were the last persons to leave the dais. She then realized that the pen drive she was carrying with her belonged to mam and gave it back. Then ???? - Laughing & Clapping !!!!

While a group was presenting in the class, one student took too long for explaining a slide. He was explaining the same slide for about 4-5 minutes. Mam (may be intentional) - "What happened to the slides? Why are not they moving? Is the system stuck there at the same slide?". The whole class started laughing and clapping.

Another ad ...

We have a subject for which we are suppose to create an ad for a product that we choose. We need to apply all the concepts that we have learnt in the subject for that ad. It was funny.

Here is the link to that ad.. Can you guess what that ad is about ??

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfIBTqQ-N10

There are few concepts like - humor appeal - emotional appeal - high/low involvement to know about the product..

Since we have selected a product that falls under service sector, it would not be the similar way that we create an ad for a normal product like soap/jam etc. For a service industry (like banking), the ad should indicate both the information about the product - loans, and an emotional appeal to attract the customers. Especially in banking industry its about trust on the bank that works (most of the times). Its just some kind of information for those we are interested in marketing :).

I was shocked to see the number of views(550) for my college video - eternals@pec. Till now, it has the maximum views of all the videos that I have created.

End of a tiresome term...

Its been a while since I have written a post. The title of the post says everything. It was one of the hectic terms just equal to that of term 2. I have mentioned the same in couple of previous posts about how hectic the term was.

The last two weeks of term 4 was the worst. It was the first time we were doing seven projects in a term and we are suppose to give presentation and prepare project report for all those subjects.

One of the most embarrassing situation in the term was that the prof was laughing after looking at our slides, when we were presenting our project to the class. We prepared the slides on the previous day. The biggest flaw was our recommendations. We have given very hifi recommendations for a government hospital. I dont know where to keep my head because it was me who suggested the project to my group. I felt very bad on that day.

There were days in which we gave 2 to 3 presentations on the same day on different subjects. There were some differences among the members of the team. A perfect platform to what we are going to face in the near future.

Coming to end-term exams, few of them are open book. Those exams that were based on open book doesn't require a text book at all. If profs declare a subject as open book, it is implied that we are not gonna get any question directly from text book. We need to workout and fit in all that we have learnt on a piece of paper and that is really a tough task when compared to that of a closed book exam.

In one of the exams, the question paper was very different. We are suppose to assume everything and write the answer. When mam told "assume those that are missing and answer the question", whole class started laughing. That was because we need to assume so many things that we never thought off. It was as if we are writing something very new about a product.

One thing that I have realized is that those topics that I leave (I just left one slide in one subject) will definitely appear in the question paper and it happened for two exams. Anyways, its over and I cant change anything (Suggestion given by my close friend @ hell).

Thats it for now...