Certainly yours, 2013!

It's been an eventful 2012. I'd rather not begin listing them. But personally, it's been a year of learning and self-improvement. I'm definitely a little more mature than I was last year. And as for this year, I hope 2013 year brings more certainty into my life. I am getting a little tired of trying to lessen my anxiety of how the future is going to pan out. As for resolutions, I'm not making any, except maybe, not think too much into and about the future and take life one day at a time. And finish reading all the books that I've bought over the last few years.

New Years Eve, Gurgaon was freaking cold! I thought the dance floor would be warm, but the heavy breathing and dancing and all that carbon dioxide did nothing to make the place warmer. Not to mention the common cold that I was battling. I don't know if it's because the course is coming to an end, or because people are generally more emotional during new years, but love, romance and even friendly display of affection was in the air! Or maybe it was the effect of all the free alcohol. This party sure was different from all the parties we've had in college before. Some people came and told me strange things. In any case, my new years eve was so much more fun than I had imagined it to be.

I hope 2013 is more revealing than I imagine it to be. Here's to a happy 2013!

Outrage

Damini succumbed to death today, and that fills me with so much sadness that I'm actually compelled to write.. thinking about the horror that she went through. On the other hand, I also think maybe death was a better deal for her than to live in ignominy for the rest of her life - the society wouldn't spare her. Only in an ideal world would the society stop pitying her and let her leave the horrors of the past behind. While I wouldn't want to comment on what kind of punishment the perpetrators of this heinous crime should get (shouldn't be as easy as death... or maybe the fear of death is a punishment harsh enough.. I really don't know), what fills me with dread right now, going through the news right now is how the government is preparing to handle the nation's mourning of her demise. The government is so scared of its citizens that even peaceful mourning/protests are not allowed. All routes to India Gate have been blocked, metro stations have been shut (as a sign of respect?! Really? The government is an incompetent liar as well) - and all this because the government is scared about what may or may not happen. I find that ridiculous. It's one thing to get reinforcements just in case a peaceful protest spirals out of control, but it's just unacceptable for the world's largest democracy to impose a curfew and not let a peaceful protest happen. Is this what the world's largest democracy in the world wants to showcase to the rest of the world? Is this the example we want to set? How are we different from those middle eastern countries that are fighting for democracy? Of course, more often than not a peaceful protest turns into a violent protest...crowd psychology and all that, but that does not mean the government does not let it happen. The police force could be cautious and have reinforcements ready just in case the crowd goes out of control, but not letting citizens protest is just unacceptable, especially when a country calls itself democratic and flaunt it like it's the epitome of democracy.

Timetable layout - term 4 and 5

Paisa vasool

Totally! If there's one thing that counts as a return on investment of Rs. 12 lakhs at MDI, it's term 5 for a marketing student who likes finance (but doesn't want a finance job) and also likes graphic designing. Haha so yeah, it's just me. But it really has been my most productive, most value-adding, most fun term at MDI. I'd pay all of the fees I've paid here for this one term. It was probably the choice of subjects, but it was who taught the subject that made all the difference and makes MDI such a good institute (and no, that's not a Corpcommer talking).

I had taken three marketing subjects -

• Business Marketing, Prof. Vinod Kalia
• Issues in Rural Marketing, Prof. Sanjay Chandwani
• Customer Relationship Management, Prof. Dhruv Nath and Prof. Neelu Bhullar

And two finance subjects -

• Behavioural Finance and Business Valuation, Prof. Sanjay Bakshi
• Management of Banking and Financial Institutions, Prof. N. Bhusnurmath

Why it was so great studying these subjects was because these professors are authorities on the subject, and learning from someone who's had decades of experience (that is still continuing, through consulting assignments) adds a whole new dimension to the learning. If that's not all, the passion that these professors have in what they do makes it that much more compelling. And I say this for every professor that has taught me in term 5, even though I know that not all of my friends would agree with it.

That's just academics. Outside the classroom, it was organized chaos! I've been involved in graphic design work for a lot of clubs, member or not, and that has kept me busy the rest of the time, when I wasn't having fun with friends. And helping out gave me returns I did not ask for - Mahindra War Room, some recognition, some pats-on-the-back, invitations to invite-only parties (like the National Alumni Meet - what an experience!), and of course, more design work!

Imperium, Illumina, Delphique and Akshayam - no matter how many people say otherwise, this year's events were more fun than last year's. Probably because all my friends were here, and not at home, but these events have been particularly instrumental in forging closer friendships with friends and acquaintances.

And of course - trips! Agra, Lucknow, Mumbai, Jodhpur and Jaisalmer. Could this term have been an better?

Why I wait for Mr. Postman

Resurrected an old hobby that I had to temporarily stop for almost 4 years because someone kept stealing stamps from the postcards that I received at the hostel during engineering. I've lost count of how many I've received since I started the hobby in 2007. Everytime the guy at the courier/post counter stops me, I smile instantly because I know there was a surprise waiting - a random postcard from goodness-alone-knows-where in the world!

And here are a few of the postcards I've received -

Postcards Snapshot

I've been away so long because.. + timetable layout - term 4

I've just been plain lazy. Ok so the last term was incredibly hectic (so glad it was a short one), but this term in terms of academics it's quite spaced out and chilled out with very little to do. Or so I thought until work came up, and ever since then I've had the busiest, and the most enjoyable, time ever! I've been occupied though with my favourite timepass - design work for the event club I'm a part of - Imperium.

First of all I made the logo look better:

Before

After

And then designed the brochure:

Cover Page

Made a few posters for events:

Cultural Events

Management Events

Nautica 2012

Event by the Marketing Club, MarQuity

Nautica 2011. Ok so this is last year's work ;)

Designed team t-shirts:

Paresh, the Imperium Secy

Designed sweatshirts for the club:

Oooooooh!

And also for the Alumni Committee (free sweatshirt in return! Yay!!):

I'm a Mandevian For Life!

 And a lot of work for the Sports Committee, for which I get a free and exclusive Chhotey Santre Football Club (CSFC) jersey! (Double yayy!!)

MDI Exclusive!

And a logo for Illumina (which ultimately got rejected, but since I helped Shanmug - the other way round rather - with the one that DID get selected, another free t-shirt!!)

Reject!

Annnnd a logo for W5H, the quizzing SIG, along with Shanmug (made me part of the club!! :D )

Product of Team MaSh

 And finally the logo and the standees that will live for years to come - the logo for the Placement Committtee's Incendo corporate talk series) [nope, no freebies here :( ]

Four such standees, also Team MaSh

And for my own personal projects, I made a 3D map of MDI with the help of Google Maps and Google Sketchup, which we then used exclusively for the Google+ Get Social competition that I am taking part in.

 And of course, the timetable that was due on this blog months ago!

See? I HAVE been busy! No?

Midterms

With half the year gone, half of my life at a B-School done, it is time for a mid-review, or maybe even a mid-course correction.

Whichever half you take - half of 2012 or half of B-School life - it has been nothing short of amazing. Life's most eventful, most exciting, most happening time this period has been.

The juniors have come and in a small way we're living through our first year all over again through their induction week and other experiences. Second year of MBA has become a little bit of a challenge considering the level of study has suddenly shot up; the professors expect a lot more, the subjects delve deeper into concepts and have come even more application-oriented. And I still feel a little clueless about what I need to do with all this information. But then, all this is part of study and college life, so it's all ok. I'm sure the second year will pass in the blink of an eye and soon I'll be wondering why it all had to end. In fact, I already find myself wishing sometimes that this never ends and that I would never have to go through the drill of corporate life and work politics, and have very little to worry about.

As for the resolutions, I did do a pretty good job of no expectations, no boundaries, no rules for quite some time. I did things quite unexpected of me (nothing bad, if that's what you're thinking about), and when you don't expect much from life in general, life throws surprises - some good, some bad, mostly good - and it makes life a little interesting. That's deteriorated over time and now I find myself expecting, and hoping, and then starting to live in hope that something happened or something didn't happen. And this is where I think my midcourse correction comes. Life's become a little too predictable at this point, and to make it a little interesting, I'll have to make this mid-course correction and take life one day at a time.

Otherwise, life's just been wonderful to me, and I hope that it continues this way.

When workplace is fun

Albeit for two months... In the blink of an eye, the internship is over. I thought these two months would be a drag, and now I can't get myself to believe that it's over. Just. Like. That.

Of course, that obviously means that I enjoyed the internship. It was a great learning experience at a great company with an amazing team and a cool bunch of fellow interns from IIM-Calcutta and IIM-Ranchi.

Pictures from my travel to 6 cities over 10 days for the internship
Pune, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai

BD is a very good company to work for. PPO, or no PPO, BD definitely has set the bar high for my expectations of working at another company - with respect to the people, the work culture, the informality, the bonding within the team, everything. Working at BD was an absolute delight.

I liked my project too, which in itself was a huge learning experience. Things in the B2B segment are very different from the B2C segment (all the text book stuff). Talking to the customers - the middle/senior management from the client companies - understanding their concerns, the issues they're facing, their impression about BD, their needs, their expecations from a best-in-the-industry company like BD, has given me a firm grounding to build my future work on. That way, I've also been extremely lucky to have been accompanied by account managers and quality managers everywhere I went. Through out those 10 days of meeting with customers, I've had countless enriching conversations with them, both on the work front and on a personal front.

In all, these two months have been great. I've learnt so much, I actually want to go back to college and be able to relate all the learning with what we study in college. No wonder they say, work experience helps.

Am I going to be called a nerd now?

Anyway, I also want to get back to college to be able to see my friends again, have late night chats, the late night walks, cook some food, hang out at Arcus, crib about being back to the mess food, enjoy a classroom atmosphere, crib about assignments and projects, crib about placecomm sessions, talk about the new juniors about to join and also, use my newfound power as the creativity head for Imperium... There is so much to look forward to!

Can't wait!

Changing Perspectives

No matter how fervently I talk about sleep being such a huge waste of time, sometimes I do need that long peaceful twelve hours of sleep. And what I really mean by sleep being a waste of time is when I find myself sleeping during the day thinking I’ll be fresh and be able to work efficiently afterwards. But the result is rarely that. I end up feeling all groggy and unproductive for many hours after I wake up. So that, clearly, is a humongous waste pile of unproductive hours I could have spent watching episodes from The Big Bang Theory, or Yes Prime Minister.

So I slept for twelve hours last night – 10pm to 10am. I woke up, very fresh, had breakfast and went for my regular weekend morning walk. The weather was just perfect. It was cold and sunny at the same time. Absolutely wonderful. During the walk, I listened to Dennis Dalton’s lecture on Political Theory. And then I listened to Richard Feynman’s lecture on Physics. The contrast was intriguing, yet they didn’t seem too far apart either. There’s a thin thread connecting the two. And then I thought about the course I was studying here at MDI. And I wondered, surely there’s so much more to life than to learn how to “generate revenue”, or “strategize” to generate the most revenue. So what exactly am I learning here? Am I really learning business management? Honestly, it seems like I’m learning more about people management than business management. I’m not sure if my friends pursing an M.Tech/M.S. have similar experiences, but I have enough reasons to believe that life of an MBA student is very different from the life of an M.Tech/M.S. student.

I was told before I came here that I would meet all kinds of people here. And I thought that these so-called “all kinds” would be a small percentage. I was so mistaken. The small percentage actually constitutes the normal people who behave like er... normal people. And the rest of them are eccentric. Some are complete basket cases, and some are completely psycho. It’s not very easy to deal with them. In fact, it is in such situations you need to “strategize” your dealings with these people if you want to come out of this place sane. But of course, sometimes nothing works with them and you just learn to live with it.

I’ve never been more uncomfortable in my life before. I did spend four years in a hostel during engineering and there were difficult people, and not once did I feel uncomfortable. But here, at MDI, it’s a whole new world. You feel the discomfort tugging at you every moment of every day, and all you wish for is to get done with the course and run away as fast and as far as possible.

But in the light of all the reading and understanding of fields other than management, I’ve learnt to look at it from a larger perspective. If not for generating revenue, or helping the economy grow, or improving the standards of living of people economically, to say the very least, it’s an interesting insight into human behaviour and the application of this insight into conducting business transactions with people. And for that alone, I am glad I’m here.

And of course, no need to mention, the wonderful friends I’ve made here, and some very interesting people I’ve met.

Timetable layout - term 3

Probably my most audacious attempt at a timetable layout. It was very difficult to resist the temptation of making it a coloured layout. But, a decision is a decision. And I had absolutely no reason to change it. So black-and-white it is.