Moved on...

After a long bout of wasted web space this blog has moved to http://medhakrishnamurthy.wordpress.com/

I have S.L.O.T.H written all over me

The other day my friend a fellow blogger sent me the link to her new post, I visited it and was amazed at the amount of posts and the jazzy new look of her blog (looks like the effect of her 'better half' has rubbed off on her ;))
I spared a thought for my blog which has been rusting in the cans for about 5 months now. Enthused by the idea I sat down to pen my thoughts but then on what?????? Life at XL part 3?? or lessons learnt in the past 1 year? Enough fodder to last a good 3 posts I reckoned.. and here it began. With my right eye nearly shut thanks to the sty (grubby hands=rubbing eyes=sty=discomfort arrghh!!! ), waiting for one of the "teen deviyan" (Anusha, Vidya and I) to turn up from her jaunts for dinner, I started writing. Not a good way to start I know...but what the heck it's MY blog, MY wish! Life in XL part 3 it was to be coz of my involvement in it instead of giving a pedantic account of lessons learnt (I’ve saved it for another day).

Term 3 was by far the best. It got off to a wonderful start :D. “Maxi fair was fun” would be demeaning to say the least. It was loads and loads of fun!!! Check out the fun part :). A picture speaks more than thousand words .

Muahahhahhahahahahhahahh........ (disclaimer: I aint the 'Ba' in the above pic)

Ok now the serious part, we had to slog all through day and night to make this all a success. The important day dawned on us on 21^st January. Setting up stalls, giving finishing touches, decked all of us stood waiting for the Jamshedpur here forth referred to as Jampot junta to arrive. Arrive they did and made a big impact. Not one or two not a dozen or a score they swarmed all over the place like bees. It appeared as if this event was the most awaited event to the entertainment starved junta (Come on! there is just one theatre usually screening Mithun da’s C grade movies & no malls in the steel city) . Making them play “supposedly” interesting games to garner data points for market research is no mean task. Designing the games to hide the ulterior motive is an up hill task. All day long they swarmed the place- paying no heed to the relentless sun beating down upon us. First 1 or 2 hours was fun, and then came the “marginal utility” concept into play. I was shunted away to handle the kids (being a kid myself it is kinda hard to handle them especially since I was itching to play truant). Finally tired of all this I managed to find a secluded corner to talk to my ‘stress buster’ only to have kids coming after me “didi didi”. Finally at 5pm the shop was closed phew! What a relief. Aching feet, droopy eyes did not dampen the brilliant smiles as seen in the group pic :).

The academic rigor soon caught up. A certain prof who regarded engineers as “dunkeys” (guffaw) loomed like Lord Rudra over the poor bummers. I have never ever been good at math, analytics & the ilk and this subject promised to be hell 7 times over. It delivered as promised :( .A firang prof was brought in to teach Strategy and was oh! so nice until he bamboozled us with his end term paper. How the hell are we supposed to remember “how we started the case discussion in the class” , “what did we discuss about this particular point in class”. Gimme a break. We dint attend half the classes taking advantage of the fact that the prof dint take attendance and paid for it :( . A marketing research subject went beautifully esp the project with the prof promising to get our project published in management review books. Still waiting for him to make good on his promise… One area I absolutely loathe is finance. The finance prof was a very considerate human who let us do hotch potch and gave us super grades in the end. I’m done with finance (yippy yippy yay yay!!!!!!!- a nutty jig by the nut).

The organization behavior project made sure I know much more about Infosys than Mr. Murthy himself. Analyzing it from a OB point of view, group shift, halo effect et al drained out through osmosis all the pride I had in Infy . Macro eco was awesome coz the prof liked the style in which I presented the same point is hazaar different ways in the same answer (engineering experience :) ). Soon the term was over leaving me with a assorted bundle of emotions- relief, exultation on being “half an MBA” -just a year more to go , a summer internship – my first working experience to look forward to.

Stopped over at Hyderabad for a day before dashing to Bangalore for my internship. I wished I could have arm twisted the company guys into giving me Hyderabad as my work place . I had learnt enough Hindi gaalis during 1 year to blast the courier guy for having made off with the best of my clothes. It spiced up the day. Off I trudged to Bangalore………..leaving behind XL, home, Hyderabad and love…to commence another comical journey…

Bitten by the "writing itch" ...

Back to blogging after a hiatus of 2 months ..at 12:45 am just coz the nut is bored to death by eco which was never a favourite and rest assured will never be..the detest of the "pink papers" continues even when the nut should be reading them regularly to gain "knowledge".

Picking up the threads from post no.3....viz account of term 2..

Fresh from molly-coddling,delicious food,fitful sleep..the tearful trudge to Jamshedpur begins with fervent hope of an academically better term...The term began with certain subjects that scared the living daylights out of the nut.Never,did she like maths,numbers and a number heavy term loomed dangerously.Also was the communication subject by a certain prof who was reputed to be "the demolition man" during admission interviews.This particular subject required the gentlemen to dress in formals..suit boot et al and the ladies in saris..yours truly had worn a sari on a handful of occasions that too with loads of help coz she is incompetent in wearing a sari perfectly which she insists on..either perfect or chuck the sari is the what her harassed mom is threatened with ,whenever her mom asks the nut to wear a sari and look "ladylike" for a change.
Now she has to wear a sari all on her own to every class!!!! waaaah waaah waaaah......
A beautiful academic start boosted her hopes which were brought crashing down with abysmal performances that followed..so the omens indicated another bad term...
A completely 'frax'(XL lingo for Free Riding) subject was probably the only saving grace apart from business law which turned out to be the only subject the nut was interested in...A new wonder was created coz not once did the nut fall asleep in the law classes!!!!!

The communication classes tested the students' presentation skills,interview handling capability,clothing style and what not!!! all for the summer placements. With hastily donned 6-yard drapes,wet hair,swollen eyes,a stifled yawn and a name tag, madam fell asleep even in these "active" classes ..With summer placement season fast approaching,all students got busy with resume writing,honing their term 1 knowledge, general knowledge et al..the chillmax nut put all these essential things off to the fag end.When alarm bells started ringing,only then reluctantly resume writing began.Horror of horrors, she doesnt know how to write a proper resume that would catch the recruiter's eye and earn a shortlist.A pathetic CV written in engineering when CV's dint matter at all was excavated from the Yahoo! portals.A look at it was enough to cause someone to retch forget shortlist.Serious activities needed to be pursued.Everyone around was either with work-experience or from a pseud college('pedigree matters'-this one thing I'v learnt) or a combo of both.CVs looked meaty,juicy enough to warrant all short lists. A certain girl with gold medals in every academic stage+work ex,pedigree individuals with good stuff under their belt,people like the nut from a ' nationally unknown' college with topper tags, a melange of people existed.When she started doing some damage control i.e 'fleshing up' her resume she realised she dint have anything 'jhakas' to pep it up with..the college level stuff is peanuts,every eena,meena,deeka in a B-skool has it and doesnt put it up coz it aint substantial(except to fill up a 'skeleton like' resume).Tough task eh?CV mentoring dint help,even the mentors(assigned/unassigned) couldnt do much. The prayers began (reminds me of a certain Kabir quote which said man always remembers God during times of crisis).

A decent number of shortlists not very substantial though,followed.The best of the lot was a certain consulting firm.10 students shortlisted for 1 internship.Pinning all hopes on that certain firm..the nut walks into the interview to come face to face with a person who seemed to be more interested in the sari she was wearing(a beautiful sari at that ) and playing the Don Juan. A formality it turned out to be.The company had already selected the 2nd person they interviewed and for formality sake played the fool with the remaining 7.A certain someone had to walk through unexplored thickets in a place 1000 km away to cheer up the 'down the dumps' girl who was disgusted with the sham.She had an interview at 1:30 am and just coz she dint ask the company reps a question she was chucked..else it would have been a dream summers for more reasons than one.Just coz she was sick and tired of the whole process she 'tanked' an interview of a company she never intended to join by giving ridiculous, pea-brained answers. Then she tried tanking another interview but was unsuccessful .Finally placed!! Came to terms with the company which she was disinclined to even apply for initially but good pay and a seemingly interesting profile smoothened matters.

The brightest point in the term turned out to be a rendezvous ,which never before in her 21 yrs would she have even contemplated......My,my someone became courageous enough to attempt even such a thing....The returns were more than worth the risk...Then came the dreadful end-terms after which another round of molly coddling,love,sleep and delicious food beckoned....

Account of my B-skool life..Contd

Yeah so as I was saying....subjects go way above the nut's nutty head...sample this.....
Quant prof: So ,what is the probability of insurance companies insuring people prone to accidents???
Nut : "blink blink blink" pause then more "blink blink blink"....
Quant prof: This can be considered as black and white balls in two urns, black being
people prone say ' p' and white being people not prone say 'q' now it is similar to
drawing a black ball for an urn which represents insurance companies insuring
people ,now this is conditional probability.....blah blah blah blah....

P.S :The nut has no clue about the solution till now and the problem aint clear even after the subject is done away with and from the ignorance level the probability of the nut getting an A+ is effectively zilch..zero... She hasnt yet fathomed the need for probability in an MBA

Another gem...
A humungous assignment of accounts has been given and your's truly doesnt have an iota of knowledge of what comes on assets side and what on the liability side. Now she has to pick an industry of her choice with given amount and manage the business incl accounts obviously for 3 whole months!!!! She does kick-ass research( fortunately her googling skills are decent) and zeroes in on matchstick industry....prepares a month's accounts and then lo and behold!! discovers a glitch in the capital calculation after spending 2 sleepless nights over the bloody thing!!!! :,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,(. Like in schools unimpressed by a student's work the teacher scribbles in red RE-DO... the nut does it all over again this time correctly for a month and then next month begins and then 'gyaan' from a commerce friend enlightens her about the tediousness involved coz Madam carried away by the idea chose too many raw materials which made the already miserable life more miserable as it involved nearly 4 times the calculations......so now CHUCK this again... again now new industry selected..potteries...does decently then the balance sheets dont tally!!!! :,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,( nother sleepless night on this..numerous checks...then finally chuck....same story for remaining 2 months.... The assignment had penalty of 2 marks if submitted late..so bunks 2 classes to complete it ..finally completed after a week of sleepless nights...a sigh of relief escapes...whew!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! but the relief is shortlived when she gets to know that nearly 75% of the class also had the brilliant idea of bunking classes to complete it...obviously the profs are livid...
PUNISHMENT: 2 GRADE DROPS,1 EACH IN A SUBJECT!!!!! that was the last straw that broke the camel's back.....already abysmal performance on top it this!!!! LIFE SUCKS...BIG TIME......
Then the gruelling sessions of self-awareness, self-actualisation.. in form of organizational behavior ..how you are the buliding block of the organization...all gas which your's truly sucks at....with loads of readings from text and harvard business review thrown into the already overflowing cauldron of misery ....
Then whoosh the end terms are here 'tra-la-la-la'.....to suck more blood out of the already emaciated kids.....
each day goes at a lightning pace.....finally term done!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Home beckons.... some salvaging of battered,bruised ego...with murmurs of encouragement...patient hearing to all the cribbing...good food!!!....sleep!!!....love!!!!.....aaah heaven !!!!! would never want to leave the cocoon that home offers.....but alas ...
Term 2 beckons arrogantly......

The nut returns--account of my B-skool life

All enthu about joining one the best schools in India,the nut came to XLRI with stars shining in her eyes,now all that shines is the light in her room till 4:30-5:00 am. Switches it on again at 8:35 am "damn!!! the alarm, damn!! my 9 am class",a groan escapes from the nut....who once upon a time,long long ago,used to find it weird when people said a 9 am class was at an unearthly hour.So in a mad rush- brush,take a bath,run to class with wettt hair flying all over the place like medusa....A sigh of relief,made it just in time.95% of the class hasnt brushed forget a bath!! The prof comes,starts his lecture..5min later the nut is prodded awake by her neighbor who hisses "wake up!! sleepyhead".So,with intermittent dozing away interspersed with bouts of consciousness and a rare CP (class participation) thrown in between the hour and half torturous lecture comes to an end.Run back to room,catch a few winks again to go back to class for another round of sound sleep.

Now,lets say its an eco class.Mam drones on in a flat monotone,succeeding to put 99% of the class to sleep including urs truly who was asleep already :D,except for couple of ACP's (arbit class participants),DCP's(desparate class participants). With heads lolling, heads on the desk,eyes shut,the class sleeps. Then the last 10min, Mam announces in a slightly loud voice "since I have the option of 3 surprise tests,today we will have one",that one statement jolts the whole class awake including the nut.."shit!!!!!!!!,damn!!!!!!!!!!,what the hell!!!!!!!!"escapes from the students. Mam writes a Q on the board which punches every one below the belt "unfair unfair.." goes the silent cry. Anyway after much brain racking the nut comes up with a funda of her own which she is convinced is the greatest brainwave of the century ...only to be told by Mam later through her evaluation that it is absolute crap....The nut convinces herself that "the world will see 50 years later what the Aquarian (incidentally shes an aquarian) can see now".

After the test, lunch time!! how the nut used to look forward to it previously,now doesnt want to hear the word 'lunch' but kya karein,have to eat to live,heck people turn into cannibals to survive,now shez turned into a grass grazing human,who has to eat salads more than the rest of the food coz its tooo bland,even the pickle aint spicy,the rotis would win prizes in hardest stuff contests.Back to room,checking the intranet,to discover to her shock an assignment waiting for her with deadline coupla days later.. Life is unfair!!!!! Back to classes again...with a break thrown in between where decent food (read oily,unhealthy) can be gobbled before sprinting to next class. On and on it goes...An extremely busy day would mean 5 classes each of one and half hr duration from 9am-9:15 pm with assignments ,projects and tests thrown in between.Extremely relaxed day would mean 2 classes with assignments and projects.

Labour laws are strict in their rule regarding mandatory off day. Alas!!! though the very subject of law is taught here,there is no sign of implemetation....no holiday on Sunday also :,,,,,,,,,,,(.
She finds all subjects going wayyy above her head...

To be continued..gotta go for a ppt..

Ramblings Of A Lethean

Now that I am absolutely free with no constructive work on hand(not that I do any) with some prodding from certain quarters(read.. friends) here's my blog.

I'm the kind of a person who doesn't cast one's mind back too much but something made me think of my life till now.From a post-mature(I can visualize the lexicographers go ballistic at this word) baby(yeah 10 days) to a 21 year old about to step into the hallowed portals of a B-School lots has happened(enough for an Ekta Kapoor kind of a serial).I'll write about certain things I cherish.First of all would be the 12yrs of my school life at St.Ann's.With things like "what is your mother tongue?" ans:Pink,the rivalry between different houses even in cases like the mite box,radium sticker collections,the girlie fascination with certain beautiful insects we used to call "velvet boochhi"(blood red in colour and extremely smooth satin feel about them),the zeal to get even in the extra curricular activities,the animosity during the annual day and camaraderie once the annual day was done away with no day was drab or run of the mill......

Next would be the two years at Gautami--most valuable would be the friends I made --Rambo n Dee,the discipline (ahem ahem...)our director 'tried' to inculcate,our physics sir and his 'Jogi jogi rasukunte boodhi' dialogues,his fascination with Julia Roberts,super clowns like 'ore','samastha devatala puthrudu=SSC' made the grind enjoyable.The grind failed to fetch me a seat where I wanted but did get me into a place where I never imagined in my wildest dreams of 2yrs intermediate I would join.Anyway got into a decent college where I would spend 4yrs of my engineering life.

The 1st month at MGIT I was in a zombie like trance 'Main kaun hoon?Kahaan hoon ?' kinds.Slowly things started falling into place and soon reconciled to my destiny.The ragging part built a healthy rapport not just between seniors and juniors but also between the 'quivering' juniors.Then quick as a flash the 1st yr was over.Then with the 2nd yr people started moulting and some of them changed for the good and unfortunately some for the worse."Time and tide wait for no man" Alas!!! 4 years of engineering was over....In the process learnt to handle things on my own,differentiate between the good and the bad,recognise the face behind the facade,friends like Bow Bow and Timer et al.Thinking back MGIT hasnt just given me a Bachelors Degree and a lifetime opportunity in form of XLRI but also a gift I would cherish and adore lifelong which I would have missed out on had I gotten into BITS making me reaffirm my belief in 'whatever happens happens for the good'...

In exactly a month from now I would be leaving the cloistered and pampered life to be on my own in a 'remote' place called Jamshedpur, to make a mark in this wide world.The principles my parents and my teachers have inculcated in me will hopefully stand a good stead.I would like to take this medium of communication as an opportunity to thank all the people who have directly or indirectly made a difference to my life and wish them all the success and joy in the world.