IIMA PGPX V meet at Delhi

It’s around one and half months when we left IIMA. This was also the time when most of us were in transit and trying to settle at our new locations. So when this idea of re-union was mooted by Prameet , it was just the right time for a get together.

We had a very fun filled interaction at Rodeos. This place in connaught place provided the right setting for this re-union. Nine of our batch-mates could make to this gathering. We relished all sorts of Mexican food and drinks. I should admit that I don’t remember the names of any dish that I had. We exchanged numbers and did some chit chat about each other. We had a really good time after so many weeks. Thanks to all those who could make it to this event. Next time I am sure we will have a bigger gathering.

What a year it was!!!!!

What a year it was? That’s how most of us wish to talk about the last year… In my case it was exactly like that.

It was a year when things changed completely overnight. I once again got to live as a student and that too in the most famous and prestigious School of India i.e. Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad. Instead of chasing schedule deadlines I was worried about surprise quizzes, assignment submissions and project deadlines. Some said it was all very hectic, stressful and so on. Frankly speaking I enjoyed it all.

It was a year when dreams came back to my eyes .That was not because I got to sleep very less over last so many months. It was so because I started re-discovering myself. I got to meet so many exceptionally talented people that I had never had an opportunity anytime before.

Once again the latent extracurricular insect in me came out. I couldn’t resist participating in IIMA TNITE. We had a rocking time at Dassada. IIP was fun and learning combined. London and Dubai trip were bonus add-ons. So many activities in such a short span of time. Phew!!!!!

It was a year when I discovered the joys of observing an infant doing everything for the first time. I was blessed to witness the magical transformation of a newborn every day. These memories are going to stay for lifetime and may be more….. Wish you all a very Happy New Year 2011…

Writing MBA essay

I have tried to come out with a process for writing MBA essays. Please note that these are my personal views and not a comprehensive list in any way. 

Joining MBA is your step in entering the business management career. As in any business decision the objective for making such a decision should be very clearly thought out. Make sure you write this objective separately and keep it always with you. 

Writing an MBA essay basically requires two important aspects: 

1. First and foremost know about yourself. You as a person should come out very clearly in your essays. Take time to think about yourself and make sure that your essays portray you holistically and give some valuable information to admission committee.
2. Next important thing is to know about the institute that you are applying for. It is very important to know the institute that you are applying for. Collect all the background information about the College. Get information about professors and their work. Try to interact with alumni and current students to know more about different activities associated with college.  Basic idea of doing this exercise is to show your interest about the college. Admission committee is very keen to gauge your interest level in the college. 

Some important stages while writing the essay: 

1. Pre-draft phase: During this phase you jot down all the points, which come to your mind regarding the essay topic. Do a thorough brain storming by yourself and come up with all the points that you want to be included in your essays. Do not be concerned with word limit at this stage.
2. Draft phase: Once you have all the ingredients for your essay, start giving it a shape. Put your ideas into structured sentences. Some important things to look for are:
1. Decide the flow of essay. What should come first and what later?
2. There should be no jumbling up in essay. All the points coming out in your essay should come out as a series and not in a haphazard manner.
3. Start thinking about world limit.
4. Do not repeat the same thing by saying it in different words. This makes your essays boring.
5. Do not go overboard either on your strengths or weaknesses. Try to give as much objective picture as possible.
6. Avoid pleading in your essays. Sometimes candidates give reference on their weak background to boast about their achievements. Please note this is my personal view. You can take your own       call.
7. Avoid unnecessary verbosity in your essays. They don’t add much value to your cause. 

3. Final draft: At this stage your essay is almost ready. Do a thorough review for any grammatical or logical errors. It is advisable to have two to three rounds of thorough review at this stage. If possible you can ask your spouse or a close friend to have a look at your essays and solicit some feedback from them.
4. Submission copy: This is the copy that you will submit for evaluation by admission committee.  Look for any formatting issues. Read it for final time and press the submit button. Now everything is in hands of admission committee. You have done your best and be rest assured that best will come out after all your hard work and pain. Best of luck for interviews…

PGPX VI interview short list is out

Interview short list for PGPX VI is out. Congratulations to all of you, who made it to this list. 

Give all your best for writing the essays. Make sure that you spend enough time on making your draft essays. Also review it thoroughly before sending it to PGPX office.

Dinner at Vishala

Today evening we went to Vishala for dinner. We were accompanied by two of our friend’s family also. My car had a narrow escape from a close kiss by a big truck lorry. Thankfully we reached safely all in one piece.

It was a dimly lit place. Most of the light was coming from kerosene lit lanterns. After long long time I saw a real lantern. I have seen lots of lanterns used in many of the restaurants. It has become a fad for resorts and restaurants to use lanterns. Most of the time these lanterns have electric lamps in them to provide illumination. As per me this is grave injustice to the pure soul of lantern. Lantern is meant to be illuminated with kerosene and not with Edison’s Electricity.

Searching our way we reached inside this spacious place. A man in traditional headgear welcomed us with rose sprinkled with synthetic aroma. I think this is again injustice with the soul of rose. Its original sweet smell deserves more respect. I have suddenly started behaving like film critic. I am talking more about souls and originality. May be operations management class at IIMA PGPX is having more than it’s share of influence on the poor soul (once again.. I told you…) of mine.

We were asked to pay in advance. Now this is never heard of in Indian style restaurants. Vishala is supposed to be a restaurant showcasing Indian traditional culture, craft and cuisine. It also boasts of a utensil museum. We were too hungry to be bothered by matters of history.

Our next stop was at puppet show. Kids had a great laugh at this. All of them enjoyed this thoroughly. Of all the arts showcased at Vishala this was in true traditional style. After this we stopped for some time at this central place where some local artists were trying to enthuse patrons with garba, ghazals and bhangra. Now this is truly something to cover all the different hues of Indian music in one setting. I was by this time almost starving for some mouth watering fair. I had already gulped 3 glasses of raw mango “panna”.

We were made to sit on ground to enjoy our dinner. Now it’s not easy for ladies to maintain this posture for a long time however slim they may be. When the serving started it was like avlanche of food items being served on the pattal(leaf dish). Initially I was impressed by sheer variety of dishes. Slowly I started tasting one dish after the other. Now I have to be very honest here. Truly speaking I wasn’t impressed with any dish in particular. I was constantly searching for a dish, which I could feast upon. Sadly I just kept roaming from one dish to another. Service was good and prompt.

After this came the best part of the evening. We once again went to the central place where local artistes were trying to serve potpourri of Indian music laced with western beats. We made demand for some old ghazals. The singer was not prepared for those numbers. He tried to impress us with best of the numbers in his repertoire. We also joined in chorus to enjoy the best part of evening. After this a bunch of young hip crowd came with guys in funny hair does and gals in skimpy revealing clothes. I think to be hip you have to follow these basic traits. They demanded some disco garba and bhangra. The artisans obliged promptly with whatever they could do. Suddenly everybody was dancing there. Kids, spouses everyone had their share of latkas and jhatkas.

We had meetha pan to put icing on our dinner expedition. Home journey back was uneventful. Overall an enjoyable evening in company of friends and family…. It’s surprising to have this kind of relaxed evening for a serious PGPX student at IIM Ahmedabad…

Housefull.

Went today to see film houseful. I am a big fan of films in slapstick comedy domain. Somehow I didn’t like this film. I felt all the tricks in comedy arena were desperately employed to create humor unsuccessfully. Film producer and director were aware of shortcoming in story line. Therefore they have relied heavily on skin show by lead actresses. Most of the time they keep on dancing in skimpy clothes near a pool or sea beach. First half of film is somewhat palatable but meanders aimlessly in second half. Final climax scene with laughing gas doesn’t looks convincing. You just don’t get involved with characters. After you come out of theater you don’t carry any part of film with you.

Things have been very hectic for us here at PGPX. There were three quizzes in last week. It took the wind out of sail for majority of participants. Almost every face in new campus on IIMA looked lost and puzzled. When stress crosses a threshold you become numb to it. The only positive thing to happen was that we have crossed another benchmark in physical and mental endurance.

We have also gained one important skill during our stay here at IIM ahmedabad. Me with some of my syndi-mates have become almost experts in predicting surprise quizzes. We were able to predict both the surprise quizzes accurately last week. We shared our prediction freely also with other batch mates. Very few from other syndi-groups believed us because we were new in the market. Going forward we will be listened more attentively for our quiz forecasts. Hope we can master this art and make some business out of it. These days I am thinking of making business out of everything!!

Tomorrow we have another quiz. This is not the surprise one at it was announced one week before. I should be preparing for it instead of writing this blog. Somehow I don’t feel same kind of excitement as in a surprise quiz. That’s perhaps the reason I am not so much worried now. Trying to maintain my composure and belief in this vast world of management theories and jargons…

Below are some photographs from PGPX innaguration session.

Nature in all its glory

Nature in all its versatility is present on IIMA campus. Cats, Dogs, Squirrels, Monkeys, Parrots; you can spot everything here. Every morning and evening sky is filled with birds migrating to and fro from their nests. It’s like being in a bird sanctuary. Langoors(Big monkeys with black face), that too big ones numbering over a dozen are there to give company to occupants of PGPX hostel. Security guards have a tough time warding them off from living areas.

You can always hear chirping of birds at almost any time of day. It’s like a constant music going on in the background. You don’t need an Ipod or any other music device while going for a jog. Just hear the sounds coming from all sides. It’s like nature creating a perfect symphony to keep you in good humor.

Suddenly this craze of night football has started within the PGPX community. This game typically starts around at mid night in PGPX lawns and goes on for almost an hour or so. I am not sure if this will be a continuous feature in the coming days also. One of the profs was quite puzzled to see this night football game. I can sense his discomfort as the profs pride themselves by burdening us with all the workload possible in an academic environment. Lately two of my group mates have started going to gym. I have been advising them to keep this adventure as secret. If faculty gets a whip of it, they are sure going to have a re-look at the workload and would invariably end up increasing it still further. I only pray that such a thing never happens.

Just one more update: Elections of major committees other than placement has happened. Some able guys have got the charge of some important portfolios. I am sure they will do a good job in coming days.

Vote for me, I promise you the World!!!!!

These are election times for IIMA PGPX batch. Things are getting hot literally. Elections have added spice to the otherwise academically overloaded life at PGPX. People are gearing up for big elections due for Placecom, Media rep and other posts. Obviously most talked one is the one for placement committee. Everybody has or her own view of this very important committee.

Potential candidates have already started their campaign in style. There are some who have already positioned themselves even before arriving at Ahmedabad. They consider placecom position as mater of life and death. Their only big aim in life now is to get into this committee. They have been giving hints about their aspiration both in public and private. A very common style is to bring about the placement talks in any possible forum. They live, eat and sleep placement. I am sure placecom will be in safe hands if these guys get elected.

There are others who have already declared themselves almost elected. They are promising moon to ordinary mortals like me. They will ensure that most of the fortune 500 companies make a beeline for PGPX batch when the placement season starts. In this category there are some who are even promising to bring blue chip companies from some particular countries. I know you PGPX guys already know which countries I am talking about.

Covert campaigning is on full swing both at MSH and Dorms. Some of the wives have also joined this golden initiative of their husbands. There is already talk going on spouse circles about how the future placement committee should look like. Whether it should have more experienced or harder working energetic guys; everything is getting discussed. Opinions and choices are being exchanged. Thank God kids are still out from this whole election business. They think that this is some other election that usually happens in this country.

In between this, there are some who have still not opened their cards. They want to jump at last minute and spring a surprise for everybody. All kinds of strategy are being put in place. People have already started using the learning obtained in MD (modeling of decision) and OB (organizational behavior) classes. Decision trees are already in place for smooth ride to success in elections. My only worry is that they may be putting half-baked knowledge to use and it may backfire for them.

What about me? I am having the best seat in the theater to watch this very interesting aspect of PGPX life. Way to go PGPX. You guys rock…