Bomb and Ahmedabad Rains

It's raining heavily in this part of Ahmedabad. After a long spell of scorching summer heat, this rain feels like a soothing balm.

Bangalore and then Ahmedabad - Bomb blasts made a scar on the city's face. I was talking to an autowala yesterday. He was on roads with his auto on the day of the blasts. He did not have any choice - he told me when I asked was it safe out there.
I received so many calls and msgs from my friends asking about my well being. I did not know how to respond to them. I was not the one affected by the bombs. Sometime I feel I do not live in Ahmedabad. I live in IIMA. We live in a different world. A world of our own. Life here is such that we hardly go out of the campus. What happens in the city, we get to know through msgs or mails or through internet.

Thank god that this world is safe as of now. So here is the message - I am perfectly fit and fine.

Slot exams are approaching us fast. So are TNites. And we have to do our best in both of them. More about all these sometime soon.

For now let me enjoy my favorite rain song - The Indian Rain by Colonial Cousins

From PritS to Boondiii

Best foot forward
22nd June - I landed in WIMWI campus. My family accompanied me when I entered the gates of this news world. The shine in my parents' eyes said a lot, I was taking a giant step in my future. Dorm 3 Room 23 became my new abode. Parents looked satisfied with the setup and left with tears in their eyes. Shine and tears - its pure love.

Day 0
First day at new place has its own charm. The impressions that you make this day are imprinted in your memories for your whole life. Registration, Bank formalities and Inaugral lecture - activities kept me busy the whole day. But still there was something in the air that made me beleive that it was going to be one of the most significant days in my life.

Dorm 3 Room 23
I was alloted Room 23 in Dorm 3. Those of you who have been to IIMA campus would recall that this dorm used to be the only co-dorm in this campus. A majestic building with 30 odd rooms. 19 of us PGP 1s and 6 from PGP 2s batch. A great mix of people from all part of countries and varied backgrounds. First impression - this is going to be a great experience. Simply great!! Dorm 3 calls itself "Dorm 3, The TE3N Spirits". I have become part of this spirit.

Section A
Rated A, known for their high grads and winning performances in TNites, that is how we describe our section junta. Section handoff ceremony that happened on the night before our first class, was amazing fun. It was the first platform where we got to know our section, and ofcourse tuchchas from PGP2s. As with other things, section system has its culture too. And roots to this goes long back. Looking forward at TNites that is going to follow our slot exams in Aug 1st week.

Boondiii
Culture and heritage prevails in thie campus. There are things that do not make much sense but still happen with great enthusiasm and dedication. Dorm Names is one such experience. Each and every student who lives in these dorms, gets a dorm name. This name is a tag that will be associated with him/her for the rest of the life. I, from now on, am known as Boondiii on this campus. As soon as I expand my horizon [read at summers and then final job] more and more people will know me by this name.

These are just few moments from my life in last month or so. There are so many things that I want to share, but not getting time. Still...
Here are some of the moments from my birthday celebration in the dorm.
Video [Bday invite], Photos

Is it worth the effort?

Everytime I face a dilemna, I think of this question. Many a times the answer is not very clear, still I feel it will help me getting my life in order.

boondiii

Boondiii was born at 2:30 am on 19th July 2008.

in search...

"in search of UTOPIA" - Does it still seem to be an apt title for this blog? Given that last 10 odd posts have all been stories from IIMA life, I can very well rename it as "Life @ IIMA" or for that matter "Stories from the far far land of WIMWI".

No doubt, life at WIMWI is devoid of peace. There is intense pressure to perforom, that too in a group that is fiercly competitive. Things are unpredictable, and still there is very little scope of error. My grades have been pathetic in the first set of surprize quizzes. Cs and Ds are something that never featured on my report cards, but here I have plenty of them. It's going to be a tough game improving these so that first slot results are atleast above average.
phew!!!

Everyone is running fast, and you are the only reason if you are left behind in this race. So Run Forrest Run.

Where is the peace in this then?

So, should I change the name?
Aakhir naam me kya rakha hai!!!

Behind the Scene

the world sees us like this:

This is behind the scene: :)

250 characters

Task: Introduce yourself.
Background Info: This writeup is used in the placement profile that is sent to various companies.
Constraints: Max 250 characters. [Yes, you read it right, it is character and not words]

I have spent almost a day solving this riddle.
Give it a shot if you have some free time.

ps: As 'usual', in IIMA 250 characters span just 250 characters.

Clock

Time runs so fast here that we don't even realize it.

It's a lazy sunday afternoon. Here is what my todo list reads like at this moment:
1. PlaceCom survey - by 14/7 23:59:59
2. MicroEco quiz - 14/7 @2:30pm
3. Study for FRA (Financial Reports and Accounting) class
4. Presentation for PS (Probablity and Statistics) due on 15/7 16:59:59
5. Cover ID (Individual Dynamics) backlog

:)

CP bole to Class Pareshan

#define CP "Class Participation"

CP rules in IIMA.
It constitutes almost 20% share in your final performance rating. In principle, It helps the professors in evaluating the learning process on an ongoing basis. Presence in class, attentiveness to the proceedings in class, contribution to class discussions - three major ingredients that make a CP.

This is the knowledge most of us had when we attended our first class in PGP1. And as you can imagine, the whole class was a mess. It was a dejavu from the IIM GDs that we all had been part of few months back. Everybody wanted to make his/her presence felt in the class. There were moments of "let me finish my point" or "I have a slightly different view on that" or even more intersting "we need to look at this problem holistically and think of short term and long term goals." blah blah blah.

But, as we attended more classes, the science behind CP became clear. You don't need to talk crap as the professor knows who is making sense and who is just blabbering for the hack of it. Still there were some creatures who do not want to learn. And bugs like this make everyone's life miserable. You get shorter breaks, and then extra classes to cover portion that should have been covered in the class. God give some brain to these people and save us from their out-of-the-box thinking.

Good news is that things are changing, albeit slowly but. A proposed punitive punishment for nonsense CP has been a good deterrent for many. I hope it continues to be effective. We will come up with more such solutions in time to come.

ps: In an alumni meet, batch of 79 mentioned about one such bug that existed in their batch. So this too is part of tradition. Ooof!!!

post 502

Yaha ki daud bhag ki jindagi me mein ye to batana hi bhul gaya ki I have completed 500 posts on this blog.

And for me, this is a really big achievement for me. I always had this problem of getting bored with something too soon. I have passion for some things, but never ever I was able to turn it into an addiction. It always comes from nowhere and fades away without even slightest of hints.

Somehow I got stuck to this blog. 500 posts spanned over 2 years. And I know I will go on for a long time to come. There are so many things to write about, so many things to share, that I feel that I will never be able to do justice to everything. None of us can do that.

Next two years or so are going to be the most crucial part of my life. And I want to capture each and every event from it.

It's been almost 15 days now in campus. I still have to take out my camera and capture the beauty here. Will do it sometime soon.

For now, its time for some accounts cases. Balance sheets and P/L statements are waiting for me.

ps: I did it, and I did well in the task today. :)

RAMP

After a grueling week filled with loads of activities [all academics related that is], the nicest way to beat the heat is to let yourself lose and dance your heart out.
RAMPs here give such a platform to everyone. A night filled with music and masti.
We had our first RAMP last night. A dance party where everyone was invited.

If you ever thought that these RAMPs are the place for singles to get lucky, think again. 19 girls and 300 guys - this is our batch composition. This is one thing for which I will curse IIMA profs my whole life. Arre yaha to koi chance dete. :(

Anyways.

The dance floor was no different from what we used to have in hostel functions in college. All guys dancing their heart out. Bhangra to dandia to free style and even the snake dance. I-me-myself Dance [origin not known] needs a special mention here. This is one form of dance that does not require any skills. No matter where you spent your life [hostel or home] you have got to be an expert this. Its an inborn skill.

I did some dancing too. You might ask "Bapu!! aap aur nach gana???"
Arre!!! I did dance. Trust me you don't want to see what steps I did in those 2 odd hours. :)

Most of what I have described so far is something I had expected. So not much disappointed. Ab to aadat si ho gayi hai...

But what disappointed me was the enthusiasm from my fellow fachchas. Just about half of the batch was present there. That is in the first RAMP. Even if one is not the party type, missing such an event is sad. It's part of culture, and we are slogging our ass off here to be part of this place. Everything has its first. And I feel this was the best opportunity for anyone. Best part of these events is that nobody judges you for anything. You get to be yourself. I am really happy for those who came. We might not have gotten what we had fantasized but still we got to become ourselves. And that is important.

Tomorrow I get one more chance to do something that I have never done. It's out of my comfort zone. But it is part of culture, so I know my comfort zone will have to expand. I am here to become part of this glory and I will not miss any damn thing that makes me feel one.

Keep reading for lots of updates from Dorm-3 Room-23

Till then, Good Night. :)

bhag fachche bhag

At 1pm today a bunch of Tuchchas were waiting on the way to New Campus. All set with their cameras, they were shouting "bhag fachche bhag." And bechara poor fachcha, with WAC assignment in one hand, and his eyes on watch was running for his life. It's just one minute to 1pm and 1pm happens to be the deadline of submission. One minute spans only one minute amongst these red-brick buildings.

Deadlines are deadlines. No excuse, no respite. Period.

I can very well imagine we [as our batch] standing on the way and doing the shouting next year same time. They faced it last year, and they doing it this year. We face it now and then our fachchas will face it next year. It's a tradition that needs to be carried out. It's just the way it is.

Sometime I wonder if we are becoming a bunch of sadistic people.
No we are not.

It seems everything that happens on the college is part of big scheme. We are getting molded for the pressure that the world will thrust on our shoulders as soon as we are out of the campus two year hence. Deadlines that are as dead as a dead body, value system that is as solid as concrete - they are just part of this molding process. So college is right on target when it comes to expecting and forcing discipline.

Come to talk about the tradition of WAC run [as this event is formally called]:

Wherever you stay, whatever kind of life you live, you find your own way of finding happiness. Life is successful if we can find even few moments of happiness in a day. What tuchchas did today is another such attempt to bring some smiles on faces around. Spirit should be high, and you can swim through any ocean.

I am pretty confident that this works. 280 odd tuchchas are testimony to the same.

ps: 1. WAC - Written Analysis and Communication
2. Haan... Mein ek fachcha hoon. Yakin nahi hota? To dekho... And he folds his sleeves to show his arm proudly showing a tattoo which says "Mein Ek Fachcha Hoon..."

muggo fachcho muggo

How do you shatter ego of 330 of the best brains from this country?

Bring them to IIMA and take a surprise quiz of PS (Probability and Statics - A course taught in 1st slot of 1st year of PGP course). Profs here will give you a test comprising 4 questions from the portions that most of us are learning (again and again) since class 10th. First reaction - 4 questions and 40 minutes - bahut naainsafi hai. But according to conservative estimates, 98% junta will fail in even attempting all four questions. 98+ %ilers that we called ourselves just few months back. phew...

They say A in IIMA stands for not Ahmedabad but Academics. And this they have been saying since last 30-40 years. So nobody can question the validity of this claim. Still, most of us come from IITs and RECs and top notched institutions, with lots of confidence (or should I say overconfidence) that jab yaha tak pahooch gaye hai, baaki bhi dekh lenge. Suicide it is. These profs have seen hundreds like us every year, and they know how to bring us to our aukat. They are just too good in this. Coldblooded operators!!

Wake up PritS. It's high time you tighten your seat belt, 'coz this ride is going to be one hell of an experience.

PS: Title of the post is the anthem that Tuchcha (defn: PGP 2nd year students; source IIMA) sing when they see any Fachcha (defn: PGP 1st year students; source IIMA). Muggai (defn: To cram, or to Study long hours with a dedication of saint; also to rattofy; source IIMA) is the religion in first year here.

wimwi ka tempo high hai

WIMWI ka tempo high hai...
Baki sabki leli zigzag zigzag...

It's 2am and sleep is still eluding me. This is 8th day on row when I have not slept before 2am. This has to be accepted as a world record in my small world. And I know, it is not yet over. The race has just begin, and the record will be broken again and again.

Life at WIMWI [Well known Institute of Management in Western India] is something one can not imagine. You can not understand from outside. You have to live it to be able to say even a bit about it. And I am doing it now.

After coming here I had two big realizations:
1. I am no special. There are 600+ more such guys/girls like me who have come here with lots of dreams. They all have proved their determination in the same way as I have done. So it's a level playing field here. We have to "play the game and play it fair."
2. I have become part of something very big.

Last one week has been hectic to say the least. But each moment has brought something special with it. I'll try my best to capture these moments. For myself and for others.

For now, I will go and try to get some sleep. Tomorrow morning 8:45 class is waiting for me.

-Pritesh
D3, Room 23