The last days

I have been a culprit. I promised myself that I will post a blog every term of college (come rain or nuclear disaster) but I have not. Though I cannot be entirely blamed. My friends kept increasing at the rate of inflation everyday and I had (probably for the fist time) unlimited and unhindered fun.
I would not say the MBA has changed my life, but yes it has corrected it a lot. It has removed and added filters through which I saw and perceived outside as well as inside. The true 'learning' has been "to learn who you are" from the viewpoint of 300 equal minded people (some being more equal than others!). When I took the decision to do my MBA, I was really not sure whether it was entirely correct. When I walk out the gate of Great Lakes; I would be sure of one thing: I took the right decision.
Yesterday I gave my last exam; after the moment of euphoria there was a long silence in the aisles of my mind. It took a while to sink in that I had completed 1 year; I had survived. More important than that, was the feeling I would be leaving my friends here for good. There would be the occasional meet; but it would never be the same. This MBA has taught me a lot of jargons but never taught me how to say goodbye without a lump in my throat. I made some friends instantly at Great Lakes, some late and probably lost the opportunity to make some more. The biggest gain from the college has been this interaction. From debates in class to arguments on the games arena to the constructive criticism by peers and friends alike; we have grown so much in this 1 year that would have taken us ages outside.
I am not sure whether I want to continue writing and write about my emotions that have been going through the roller coaster ride but let that be a different write up. MBA. Finally. Was feeling happy with this status update yesterday, now sentiments and nostalgia build up every time I think of it. I have to leave in a few days but I don't want to. I do not want to go away from this college, from my friends and from this batch.
All good things must come to end, but why should they? As a professor in my college said, good questions don't have answers. I will walk out in a few days, proud to have been a past of the Spartans Batch, the class of 2012.

Competitions and the Social Media

"Guys, there's this awesome competition about designing an marketing plan for some product.Want to take part?" Hell yeah. I am an MBA student. I am majoring in marketing. Why should I not? Well I should have read the rules more carefully in the beginning. The design was nice and the plan was good. Now the organizers had decided every team should make a Facebook page an detail their plans in the same. The uniqueness and the 'number of likes' would be counted in the final score of the team. This particular aspect, I had not bothered to read much into. The 'number of likes'. Ok, I get it they are trying to promote their name, the competition, the sponsors. But why in the name of heavens, 'the number of likes'? Is it really that important? Some say, thats the skill of your networking. Now someone please tell me, why would I use my networking strength to get a LIKE for a competition. Is this why I developed my network? To use it for some god forsaken competition.

Firstly lets look at the requests people send. Hell, even I used to send these requests. Now over a period time these requests are now standardized, I guess soon some site would even offer 'How to send a request for a FB like'. The message, though, goes something like this, "Guys, I/My friend has taken part in a competition. Please visit the below/above link and Like the page/photo/video for them to help me/them win the competition. Thanks. Also if you can tell your friends about this." Copy, paste for each of your friends in the list. But people forget one thing: The power you hold over others lessens each time you make use of that power. Sure, my 'MBA' friends would realize why I am doing this. But does it make sense? What abut my non-MBA friends. My work/school/college friends. The networking strength should not be used to promote such things. This is nearly an atrocity in the name of networking.

We have all been taught, not to sacrifice quality in the name of quantity. Yet these competitions(if you can call them so) factor in quantity than quality. I have personally seen entries which would not, in any given competition, make it past the second round, winning the bloody damn first prize. Why? oh it had so so many Likes. How can people be wrong. I guess this was not what James Surowiecki had in my mind when he talked about the power of the crowds.

Now, as of today, I nearly want to 'Dislike' a competition for that rule. Sadly, that feature is yet not available on any social media site. Even if it did exist and I did it, I would not be allowed to participate in that competition. In the book, The Goal, Eliyahu M. Goldratt and Jeff Cox mentions about the single objective of every firm. Now, i have been left wondering what is their single objective, to invite good entries or to gain more social publicity? Is this what competitions have boiled down to?

Thought it may feel like from above, I am nor anti social networking sites neither do I hold anything against designing social media pages, photos or videos. I am just saying that people should not be forced to Like something at random because somewhere someone's friend sitting in a far off (possibly remote) location entered some competition.

A Dreamy Start

It’s the perfect time to write. On the way back home, I am sitting by myself in the bus. I have watched the last two months go by in a blur. And this bus journey reminds me off the first bus journey to this college. From that day till tonight all I have dreamt about is the future. Ah, the future and the dreams. They are so interwoven they could be used interchangeably. Some dreams will turn into reality; some dreams would bite the dust, while some would still remain dreams. And that’s how it should be. Without dreams we are just but ‘history’ books.
It’s the dream of the future that intrigues everyone but it’s the past that has gone by like a dream that I feel like thinking about. The last two months. A dream come true or a reality turned into a dream?
The wheel of time had never turned so quickly enough like it did in the past two months. Every day was a blur and yet every event is still etched in everyone’s memory. Today we have just finished with our first of the many term exams and yet I can still recollect the day we had our first quiz.
The first scores announcement and the submission of group projects. Meeting new people every single day while bonds with the old friends strengthen. I thought the term ‘friends in an MBA’ is an oxymoron, but this group has proved me wrong. This is a dream like place. The place where though you don’t even realize, people gear up to take care of your problems.
My first day here is somewhere at the back of my mind walking the thin line between the dream and memory. I might not remember everything but this dream’s background music would be the OST from New York. The days that proceeded from then onwards unfurled at me the greatest obstacles; analyzing what I never knew how to analyze; working with 4 different groups on the same day. Everyone was going into his or her sixth gear. Then the time of end terms and project submissions happened. One could almost hear the OST from ‘Last of the Mohicans’ playing while everyone readied themselves to face the first of the many wars in this battle. And like every war there would be people hurt, tired and broken. And like all strong armies we don’t leave anyone behind. The batch proved that. This was one of the first seven wars to come and we survived the onslaught. Was it all a dream?
I think about it in the Spartan way, men standing for their nation. I can almost smell that pride here.
My eyes feel heavy and I go to doze off once again checking the date on my watch. June 18th. Where did the last two months go? I smile to myself. The answers lie in everyone’s dreams.

A Birds Eye View

Its around ten in the night, a light breeze blows across the corridor. It's just enough to cool your thoughts and get you nostalgic. I fill warm water from the dispenser and make my coffee. Ah, the sweet smell of coffee on days like this is just blissful. Holding my cup I walk to the 'balcony' on the second floor from where I get a, if not a birds, but a sparrows view of the college. And its not ten anymore.

I hold my coffee mug and take in the aroma while gazing across the view I am offered. Near the hostel entrance I see a group of girls and boys walking towards the college with their bags packed; they look no different than army personnel loaded for a mission. Just the point where they cross the canteen I see scattered groups of people. In groups of four, five and sometimes fifteen I hear a collective buzz. And no its not noise, its much more. Its the chatter of the generation that will define my tomorrow. Our tomorrow.

Another group sits on an arch outside the basket ball court, with their laptops searching for information around the globe, they discuss their latest projects. The work with intent, with time being irrelevant to them. They are at their game, and by Jarvis, are they good at it. The latest strategies, latest marketing gimmicks, the who's who and the whats what. If you sit with them, you would be warped in another world with mind boggling information.

Taking another sip I turn back to my room, and yet my steps take me downstairs on a walk through the college. I have walked through the college umpteen times and yet tonight look different. Though from a broad view everything is same and yet in its essence everything is strikingly different. As I walk towards the canteen ,to my left another group sits by the parapet on the lawn. They neither have books nor the laptops. It's the group you would find at every corner of a college, an office or just about anywhere. The group of merry men and women of today. As they find me staring at them , they all fall silent,I gaze somewhere else lest I pry on their privacy and then like a bolt of lightning someone cracks a joke(or so I feel) and the group is merry again.
I sip my hot aromatic coffee and decide its time to retire for tonight I walk back to my room and my corridor is in a different state altogether. Guys, and some men, walking to everyone's room except their own. I can hear the sound of music from somewhere( i say music relatively). Some are carrying their laundry basket to the washing machine, which has survived the onslaught. Some come out of their bath, ready to tackle the books and the gurus. I exchange greetings with many and telling them I am going to sleep gets a look that says : " Are you human? Its just ten!"
The aroma of coffee demands my attention.Another sip awaited my lips and as my lips were about to touch the divine concoction there is commotion downstairs. Everyone from the army personnel on mission, the sleepy logger heads, the information seekers, the merry men, the boys and the girl brigade assembled like ants surrounding another group of three or four people. Soem run in from the college and the library. In any other part of India, this would imply the inner group would be beaten to pulp; here we just celebrated their birthday. Maybe inspired by the call of the wild , everyone smashed the tasty looking cake on each other and kept laughing.Its this laughter I watch with more intent. Its the laughter from the heart. No one's duping or faking one another here. Its a trait which we will have to preserve and pass on. Being genuine. I can just pray this is infectious.
The aroma of coffee dragged my attention and so did my watch. It was eleven. I took the last sip and bid the college a good night. Though I knew, the college had just started its morning.

I believe, and thus I am

Well a lot has been happening in this MBA life of mine. I have got tests and exams rushing at me. Quite analogous to cars coming at me in Bangalore. They all just seem to have one intention. Well at least I have one. Survive. And as they say " Its the survival of the fittest"
Just before the day of a test I was learning photography from a particular shifu( Chinese for master). Both of us were in actual terms irritated being confined to a room which quite closely resembles an enclosed cubicle from a not so distant work life I used to have.
We shot for like an hour or two after which I started on my hobby and i got myself so lost that it was only when my phone rang, I realized i had lost two - three hours. But what the hell, I enjoyed those moments.
I remember clearly going for the test. I had absolutely no clue on what were all the words going through my head. All I had was a belief I knew the subject.
The paper as usual went not so great. Did not answer anything with a iota of confidence and then after ten days when the result came out, it was Boom. I had got 82%. That's my highest score after tenth standard in any subject. Blue moon, red moon, whichever moon I was there. On top. And yet I failed to realize then how I managed to get that even after not knowing.

In retrospect,I guess it sits all in the belief, the power of thinking that I can do something well. That no matter what happens, I know I will come out on top. I will ride the wave.
Something similar happened to a project in which four of my class mates are working on together. We were well behind schedule till yesterday and we just kept thinking we know we can do this in a day. Yesterday we just sat down and voila! we were done with it. In a jiffy, as you like it, godspeed. It's all in the belief.
So well all this belief and trusting yourself changes the fact the fittest survive; if you believe you are good, then not only will you survive you will live. ( Only if pigs could fly might well have been used here, but that would be going a bit far off with this! )
I guess if each one of us believes she/he can be the game changer for tomorrow, then in all the real or nominal sense of the world they are going to be.

Instant Bonds

My college offer a lot, believe me it does. Its intranet site offers like 5/6 databases to choose your data collection from. It offers a library with such an exhaustive list , that probably i woud have to be here for ten years before i could safely say i have read all the books. It offers you the faculties of the best pedigree in India. But above all it offers you new friends for a lifetime.

It was while i landed at the resort I met this (i am not commenting on anyone's height) girl who was desperately trying to lift a suitcase which did not budge an inch. While i was on the phone with my sweetheart just picked up the actually-not-so heavy bag and put it where the rest of the bags were. Then I saw a familiar face . This guy come with his brother and drop his luggages. I guess I recognized him from my GD/PI group. To move towards great lakes we had to be seated in a bus and in the bus and during the journey we got to know each other. The girl was from Delhi, the guy was from Cochin. Joseph and Noopur.

When i landed up at the hostel I saw this guy waiting for all of us and i said "Hi Dude wassup???' His reply was a very calm and quiet "Hey". The way he said it just made me like him, and we became good friends. Then while my room was being allocated I saw the guy who i had met at the bus and resort. Asked him room number. It took sometime for him to take out his keys and after that he said, "you tell me yours, I'll keep coming there" Yet another friend in the offering and I did not refuse. Ibrahim.

The first day while sitting in official wear at the auditorium, I was looking at the students who were late. And then I saw the girl who i had met in the bus in a 3 piece suit. She was wearing a coat in the Chennai heat. Yet another friend in my offering. I did not lose the opportunity. Noopur.

Generally wherever you go, you really want to meet a guy who is exact in the same pedigree as you are. Someone who dreams and works at the same help. A guy who you can look up to during any time. Here I met Joseph.

All of us bonded really well. Because all of us had one thing in common i guess. We were at Great lakes to make new friends, not new contacts. We were crazy in a crazy way!

From that day onwards our small group of 3.5 men or 3.5 women has been together. Through learning dance ( salsa, jive.. you dont the guys are so good a it while the women cant even move in proper direction). And yeah, talking about Dancing, just want to make a point, if the 3 guys in this group start dancing like girls dance, you would know who to blame.

All said and done, these are my friends. And i am so thankful I found them. They are probably in all terms might not be the best of people around or anything, but for me they are absolutely without any shred of doubt Perfect. Oh i forgot their names. They'll kill me for this. Chotu, Chochu, ZooZoo and Ibubu. Thank you guys for coming to Great Lakes. Without you I would have been lost.

Arriving for my MBA

So finally the D-Day arrived. The train was at 6:00 am and i got up at 3:30 to recheck i had kept everything. Right from the charger of my cell phone to my clothes. I was hyper excited as well as hyper scared, because Murphy's Law has a habit of striking at such moments. After calming my self down, I walked with my huge two luggages and off towards the railway station with my parents. I half expected the train, Shatabdi, to be somewhere on a god forsaken platform number and it was on 7. Carrying atleast 40 kilos i finally tugged all my luggage in, met a few of a coincidental friends travelling to Chennai for other purposes and before I knew it the journey began.

I guess I slept through most part of it and the parts that I did not, I was on the phone with my friends. The train was supposed to reach at around 11.00 and it reached at 11.00 by the minute. Got ripped off at the railway station by the cab driver who threatened me(Me of all people!) and finally after some real reckless driving I made it to Green Meadows. And the board said 'Welcome to Spartans'. The feeling of getting back to college had not sunk in by then and to me it felt as if I am on a all paid vacation. Since my reporting time was 2-3 i started asking around for the process and meeting a whole new bunch of people.

The group who were supposed to report at around 11 am finished tagging their luggage and were off towards great lakes before I met a couple of other guys. Met an ex office friend, and then met some more new friends and before i knew it, we were around thirty strangers talking about ISB versus Great Lakes , what food we can expect, the humidity in chennai. The tagging of the luggage was simple though I could not fathom the process of removing the sticker. After serving onion pakodas and kappi and tea, we were off to great lakes packed in a bus.

Sitting in the first row, i could clearly see the reason why the ECR was designed to cut down population. To overtake is a do or die mission. I guess our bus nearly tried to knock over many people but luckily it never quite managed to do that. After forty minutes we saw a barrier bearing the Great Lakes logo, though not yet a part of the college, felt somewhat happy to see it. And then after an hour we were there. The board and entrance of Great Lakes Institute of Management welcomed us into its fold. And like true believers we walked our first baby steps into the campus.