And it's over...

I finished my Term 8 exams today… No more pending assignments, no more submissions, no more classes and no more exams. It’s all over @ ISB. As Adi puts it “100% MBA …….* conditions apply” :-)
Of course I am thrilled – but then it’s a weird feeling. Alums say – “Co-2008 – Welcome back to the real world”
Everyone is dreading what’s the truth beyond the rosy picture that we see form campus. But WTH, we are ready to face it!

After 2 back 2 back exams and an hour of badminton, 4 of us headed to Sahib Singh Sultan for dinner. I with a very close group of friends @ ISB… and then it seemed how this time is now so short-lived.
Four of us have had umpteen numbers of meals together Donno if this time will ever come back. Will we ever get to sit like this again? We’ve had our share of misunderstandings, our laughs, our cries, but what was most important – was the assurance that we are there for each other.
Our daily lunch meets was something that I always looked forward to. I think its really been by support system @ ISB.
While I have never really posted any gyaan on this link for batch of Co-09, if I were to say one thing, it would be – Acknowledge that you will need a support system sooner or later; and that nothing can substitute a set of good friends.
One will have zillion things lined up – quizzes, assignments, exams, group meets, club meets, grades, networking, celebrations … ( and a lot more, which is for the next batch to discover)…But a daily ritual of catching up serves as a brilliant stress buster.

Anyways, coming back to present, it’s 1 am and I just walked into my quad. It’s empty.
All my quaddies have magically disappeared. They do have assignments pending and so I assume they are sitting around with their groups to meet the 8am deadline. Nevertheless, it is eerie.
Every piece of furniture assortment looks just the way I left it 10 hours ago – absolutely untouched and unmoved. And so I wonder, how will our quads be one week hence.
It’s hard to imagine a lifeless village with emptiness prevailing in the blocks – an abandoned village where once life thrived. Strange but true.
But what’s re-assuring is that the village will soon be buzzing with action by month end – A new batch, a new spirit and a new face of SV2 :-)

Seems like next 5 says are going to get us all super nostalgic. Despite a lot of people planning to make GOA, Dandeli trips, we’ve decided to stay back. Call it lack of planning, laziness or the sheer affinity to the place – we’ve all decided to be @ ISB for the next one week. So expect more nostalgic posts …

Cya!

Six terms down, 2 more to go

ISB - A new place, a new world. 421 strangers, 356 days. This place would change my life, they had told me. And how I didn’t know then. I first drove into this campus on 13th April 2007. Didn’t know a soul. Was never a part of any Mumbai pre-ISB meets, so didn’t know my then to-be batch mates. Wasn’t fortunate enough to have anybody from my undergrad college joining me here.

One year is too short to transform someone, I thought. 8 months down and I can say I’ve been proved wrong.
What is a B-school without seniors on campus, I wondered. Now I know how this place doesn’t necessarily need that; with the alums pitching in every time you need em.
In more than 1 ways this campus has managed to challenge, if not change many of my perceptions. So while I look back now, I think about those numerous moments from the past 8 months, that have been etched clearly in my mind, those memories that I will cherish forever. The friends that I have made, the friends that I couldn’t make, the Profs that I salute to, the classes I would rather miss ;) the sleepless nights, the morning 8 am submissions, sleeping after breakfast, waking up to have dinner, the midnight snacks, the all exclusive booze parties, the poolside maggi, the spicy gossip sessions, the irony of being tagged as a Delhi-ite by Mumbai people and a Mumbai-ite by the Dilliwallas :-)

If I were to put my experience in one word, I would say constantly ‘Exploring’; it’s about exploring yourself, stretching yourself, knowing your strengths, your limitations, being able to take in stride things you never thought you could do and truly going beyond what you though (not so) do-able.
It’s been a party all the way for some, an ordeal for others, brought vacation for few, and ‘losin-it-all’ for others; But surely a challenge for all of us, that has given us the strength and confidence of being able to handle all that comes our way; And probably that’s been the most important thing. Now there is no such thing as ‘fatigue’, and no such thing as ‘being limited by time’ and when that happens, there is no looking back :-)

So Cheers! Let the party continue …

Value proposition - Enhancing viewer experience to maximize clicks? Does it work for my blog?

If you just went @**# on reading the subject line J Welcome to our world of jargon mania. 5 terms down the MBA-PGP@ISB, the language is sure rubbing on to all of us. Here are some of my encounters with the jargon laden conversational tit bits:

First one in Strategic IT lecture, when my cell went beep beep:
“Do you think that the ROI on predictive s/w for enhancing customer retention and provide analytical capabilities is justified?!!!”

When R managed to reply in a jargon heavy CP:
“That’s very good R, now tell us what it means”

S’s CP of the term, in a data mining lecture:
“ .. So Prof you mean, we need to massage and slice the data before ….”
Prof: “ :-D Yeah S, may be you need to visit a ayurvedic therapy parlor”

When A’s gf was visiting him on campus:
“My wify is coming this term break”
“Dude, she isn’t your wify yet”
“Yaar, it’s the Present value of future inflows”
M, who overheard the conversation almost fell off his chair!

Pace ISB

To All my Non-ISB friends complaining about my absence in the blog world,

Firstly sorry for the disappearing act for the whole of last month. There are simply too many things happening around. At ISB, the pace of activities never ceases disappoints you. So while the usual assignments, quizzes and exams are on (Oh! Do they even count on the schedule now ?!) we’ve had some very notable sessions. In a span of ten days we have had Air Deccan’s Captain Gopinath and Ex-Chief Minister Chandra Babu Naidu coming down to campus and address the students. On the other hand we had some very impressive presentations by recruit biggies like Mckinsey, Google and Microsoft. While Mck has been coming to campus quite frequently to interact with the batch, MS – marketing division came down to talk about roles in online sales and marketing and some amazing presentation on the launch of X-box.

Looking forward to some cool sessions lined up including a talk by filmmaker Kalpana Lazmi organized by the Arts and Creativity Club and Convergence organized by CITNE.
CITNE is the Centre of IT and Networked Economy at ISB. This year’s theme for panel discussion is Convergence of ICT industries. Very enthusiastic about the event since it will have some big players from the Telecom field including Qualcomm and TRAI.

And so while we celebrated the termination of the term three torture, we realized that we’ve been bombarded with a whole set of activities to keep us on our feet all the time. – Paev project which is a B-plan execution, short assignment working with an NGO, inter - section cricket matches, rangoli contest, paper writing contest at IIMB – well half the campus was busy with this one believe me : ) and yes the trauma of going through Term 3 grades!

By the time we get ourselves together amidst the plethora of activities, we realize that it’s already midterm - Term 4, yup I have an exam tomorrow!! Have to also complete my bidding for electives for term 5. Term 5 is when the elective courses begin, so you take your pick and bid. More on all the happenings soon, for now I think I should catch some sleep.

Just got a mail from ASA – Term 4 Midterm Exam seating arrangement posted on intranet : ( - Sleeping plan cancelled.

Murky Me

Thats what a part of my schedule for the next 25 days looks like.
Yeah Just filled in all the assignment due dates on my planner, mind you have just accounted for 3 subjects out of 4. On top of this is gonna be, accelerated club meets, PAEV, B school competitions, speaker sessions etc etc etc.

Cant afford to fall ill @ this hour. But my Doc DJ strictly advised me to take good rest. Says it's viral, 3- 10 dayzzzz.

It's raining outside and everything seems gloomy. Seen enough politics that I can take for this term. Everyone is under pressure ... ELP teams, Paev, Club activities... the list is endless.

For some breather for myself, I have managed to capture some really cool pics......ah ! there is so much more to life !!
BTW read an interesting quote : Weather forecast for tonight: Dark”

I can be so Dogmatic at times …

It’s that time of the term again.
First week T3, action replay of first week of T1 classes.
Donno where do people get the confidence to go on ad nauseam in the classes which have a high percentage for CP. And when I say confidence I mean the conviction to go on talking without adding any value to the class.

I agree that a lot depends on the professor facilitating class participation. This is clearly instantiated by the fact that T2 had good CP happening owing to some amazing professors. These Profs precisely knew
When to throw open questions to the class?
How to contain responses which called for high air time
How to cross question to limit arbit CP and also to facilitate more thinking on students’ part
And more importantly, they had the control and gave direction to the discussions happening in the class.

But not all Profs are able to do it as efficiently. Does it not then fall upon the students to ensure that the class discussion is fruitful? Or do we start behaving like school going kids and succumb to pressures of “The CP”.
The CP, which counts for 5-20 % of different courses, The CP, which brings out how different people behave, The CP, which shows what soft skills you carry, The CP which shows how you pick up signals the world around you is giving you, The CP, which shows you different sides of your own friends which you might not see otherwise J
I understand that the pressure to perform is very high, and I also realize that
If it’s not you then someone else will capitalize on The CP opportunity. But in this race why do we forget that by throwing random points in the class no one is actually being benefited. Why do we have difficulty following the Profs instructions and basic discipline of a class?

I know that it’s just the beginning of the term and after the 4 day vacation people are rejuvenated and high on energy. Truly hope that this CP mania cools down soon.
Don’t want to end up being more and more cynical about the whole thing or rather succumb to the same after seeing my own T2 CP score: P
Whichever way it is, I honestly do not want to vent out my frustration against such paltry matters in any further posts …

However I also strongly advocate that CP MUST be a part of grading. Besides the fact that students sometimes do have excellent ideas/experiences/information to be shared,
I believe The CP also makes up for the absence of any psychology/ human behavior class in the MBA course.
After all how else would you practically get to study human responses and behavior in a classroom environment!!

Socha Na Tha ...

What a week it has been !!

Flew to Bombay twice in 4 days

Wrote 4 exams between the 2 flying visits

Participated in B school case competition @ SPJain – lost in the finals L

Met one of my darling pals :D from engineering college, currently @ SP

Pleasantly bumped into couple of colleagues from TCS Nortel – again @ SP

Encountered compounded levels of shocks to see the differences in SP and ISB

Worked on 2 major assignments

Ate, Slept, Ate, Slept, Slept, Slept, Ate, Slept ….after the exams

Shopped all day and hardly bought anything for myself !!!!!!!!!! ( yeah even I am surprised)

Will be meeting my best friend from college tomorrow J

Now just need a good book and a masala entertainer to call it a week.

P.S – Socha na tha is just the song playing in the background ;)

Statistics Of Life !!

You never know when and where you will life teach you the its lessons in the most subtle ways. One of the lessons I learnt in the initial days was in basic Stats class @ ISB was - Consistency is not Always a virtue !! How true. Though weve been trained to be consistent and always strive for the best it might not be required all the time and more importantly not possible all the time. Though the stats lesson talked about variance and deviation, it has had implications in the way I see things in life. And so the basics dawned on me again ....Relax when you can and stretch when required. Common sense isnt it ?



Term 1 and came Watermans classes..... one of the best profs. SO while he was teaching multiple regression which I think cudnt have been taught any better, he said .... Never ignore an outlier, otherwise you will never learn beyond what you already know. Such a powerful statement.
To learn new things in life we have to be able to look beyond what seems acceptable.
But do we do that?? Most of the time we excuse ourselves by saying "there are always a few exceptions" The actual wisdom though, lies not in ignoring or accounting for an exception all the time, but indeed in being able to rationalize whether the exception needs our attention or not.



Another one on the same lines... Courtesy Prof Ziv Katalan. ..Class 1 Decision Models and Optimization, Monte Carlo Simulation.
He says -
We know that we dont know, but we ignore the ignorance !!!!
Can it get better than this :)
And we learn to Acknowledge Uncertainity :)