End of first leg of the journey @ scmhrd

After a long break, of course! The happiest news is that we got to go home!! Haha and yeah, it’s true! It couldn’t get any happier than that for all of us here at scmhrd. The icing on the cake was that our biggest threat turned out to be the silliest lollipop – I’m talking about our last exam, Operations Research. The first semester exams ended on 31st of October. The initial declaration was that we’d be having holidays from 4th to 11th Nov. I had made travel arrangements for the night of 3rd. Oracle sessions were scheduled between 1st and 3rd Nov. However, after the exams got over, I discovered that the finance batch had nothing to with those lectures and immediately changed my plans. I went out to the city, contacted the travel agents to find if I could find any train for Vizag. Though I couldn’t get any direct train, I got a bus to Hyderabad. I grabbed the ticket, went to the railway station to cancel the ‘confirmed’ ticket. The reason why I put the word ‘confirmed’ in quotes is to emphasize the importance of ‘confirmed’ tickets in today’s scenario. If you read one of my previous posts, you’d understand how mush difficulty I had faced in getting to Pune to join this institute. The lady at the reservation counter asked me twice before she punched in the entries to cancel the ticket. It was quite a tiresome proposition for that I had to stand in the queue for about 2 and half hours.

Finally, the time had come for me to set out to home! Yes, it surely gets exciting when you are going back home after a break of 5 big months. Another part of the excitement was that I’d be landing in Hyderabad – a place I’ve been to only once that too to give my CAT exam last year and I hadn’t stayed there for any longer than just a day. I had heard a lot about it and it’s actually a kinda shame telling people that I had never been to my state capital. Now was the chance to silence all the critics out there (sounding as though I’m that renowned Sachin Tendulkar consistently getting out on a NOT, am I not?). So after some high-drama while boarding the bus in Pune I finally reached Hyderabad at 10.00 in the morning while the bus was actually supposed to reach at least 2 or 3 hours earlier. I didn’t waste any time and immediately set out to the imax theatre. Met some friends there and watched “Happy Days” there. It’s a really well made movie and an ideal match for guys like us who have just passed out from engineering. It made us feel really nostalgic and we only hoped that we could relive those wonderful and amazing experiences we had had in the four year period. Though I later found that the movie was not to the liking of many from the parent community, as a recent pass out from an engineering college, I cannot resist but appreciate the way the director Shekar Kammula has crafted the movie!! Some of the best scenes are the ‘campus placements time’, ‘class bunking moments’ and all the songs have been excellently shot. Then the same night I caught a bus for Vizag and reached there early in the morning. Back, after 5 months.

I was in some kind of a jail at Pune, having not gone out more than just twice or thrice. I was actually expecting Vizag to have undergone a drastic change but all was normal and same as before. One day later, Mr. Puvvadi landed in Vizag for collecting his certificates and I had the pleasure of meeting him, accompanying him to the college and all. (For those of you who don’t know Mr. Puvvadi, he’s my best friend and he’s working for Mindtree Consulting at Bangalore). That Mr. Puvvadi was a little too busy to spend any quality time with me except for a few hours that we spent sitting at the beach road discussing life on the night before he was leaving for his house. After he left, it was quite boring for me. I had a good time with my bike which I got to ride after a long gap. It still felt the same way as it used to before I had left Vizag for Pune. I wish I could have the bike with me out here. I seriously miss it a lot! I had a wonderful time with my bike in the final year of engineering. Then on the 8th day of November, I bought a new mobile for myself, THE SONY ERICSSON K550i. It was amazing to have a camera phone for myself. It had all the features to satisfy all my needs and make my sister jealous. Took so many snaps, videos, transferred them onto the lappie and had a great time. Finally, the time came for me to leave. The vacation was over. Time to get back to the prison. Took the same route to come back to pune (Vizag – Hyd – Pune). Landed here on the morning of 12th. You know what, as I was walking into the hostel, I saw people running to the college saying “Subbu Sir’s batch meet!!”

Ciao!

in the pursuit of being an MBA...

Don’t you get carried away from what was written in my last post…that was just the beginning and as I had mentioned there, those two were the only days where we had our ‘last laughs’ @ scmhrd!! I’m not kidding for the fact that we’re studying 18 subjects this semester says it all!! The day actually starts at 6.00 A.M with compulsory attendance for the non-acads forcing us out of our beds after a late night sleep. However, God has showered his grace upon us and Subbu (our director) has come up with some kinda option for us guys. We’re supposed to clock-in 5 hrs of non-acads in a week. Be it Gym, Yoga, Aerobics or Swimming…it’s entirely our choice. It’s an idea our seniors are envying upon.. So, that has brought about a bit of slack in our attitude and working hours. After been used to sleeping early at home (by early I mean 11 P.M), it’s hard to stay awake for any longer after that period. No matter how hard you try, it simply doesn’t seem to work! Putting the non-acads aside, the classes usually begin at 9.00 A.M. and run till 8.30 P.M in the worst case. It’s been a rough journey so far and we’re assured that it’s only gonna get worse as we progress…

That’s the general view of life @ scmhrd. There is buzzing activity at Sweety Stores (the only departmental stores in campus which caters to the needs of all the students on campus) once the classes get over. People are seen sitting with their laptops open and their heads buried under the screens giving an impression of working on a very important presentation or something but a slight peep reveals the truth which everyone knows, gtalk!! I happened to ask a few of my batchmates if we really needed to have the laptop and what people always keep doing with their laptops open and sitting in every nook and corner of the campus. I got a very amusing answer with the local touch of words. One of the guys replied it’s just for the sake of ‘tashan’ (something like a showoff!!). To give people a feeling that you’re an MBA, a laptop was a basic requirement in their view.

I guess I’m still talking only about the little bit of fun that exists at this place. Let me tell you, it’s not such a nice place to be for those who are quite a bit lazy like me. This place demands a lot from you. You need to be really strong both physically and mentally to take the torture and pressure which they put on you. Let me tell you an example. We have an exam scheduled on the 24th of this month which is at 6.00 A.M. Yes, you heard it right, 6.00 A.M. And did you notice that it’s a Sunday?? Yeah, we have the bulk of our classes on Sundays!! Incidentally, once you’re at scmhrd, you tend to not realise what day of the week it is. Like our marketing professor Mr. Prantosh Banerjee says, it’s a Sunday everyday for us out here at scmhrd!! I forgot to mention, some of our profs are quite good. Two are IIM-A pass outs and the marketing one I just mentioned is just awesome. Would you believe if I tell you that the tagline of bajaj pulsar ‘definitely male’ is his brainchild?? And we’ve got a course called ‘Written Analysis and Communication’ which is offered only by IIM-A and scmhrd in the entirety of India!! Now that’s something great, isn’t it?? Well, whatever, how much ever great it is, its hard when it comes bundled with a package of 17 other hard nuts to crack. I had never imagined that I’d be facing 18 subjects in a single semester in my life!! Just to give you an idea of how tough a task it is, it’s hard to even remember the names of all the subjects. In the first week I had a really tough time recollecting just the face of the prof who had taught us in the first class, put aside remembering what he had taught!! That’s enough of exposure I guess…

Now there are selections going on for various committees in our college. The likes of Placement Committee, Guest Lecture Committee and Alumni Committee have been conducting interviews to shortlist people. Considering the workload and my capabilities, I had applied to none of them. However there are a lot more Committees lined up for recruitment and once I feel like managing my stuff, I’ll try to sneak into one of these! I had actually wanted to get into the admissions committee, selections for which are still to take place but then when I had expressed this idea to one of the seniors whom I knew, she simply said ‘are u crazy??’ Now what the hell was that supposed to mean? Whatever it meant, but it really drained off the little bit of interest I had in joining these committees.

Hmm..feel like sharing more with you guys but don’t have much time for all that now. Will sneak in as and when I find time and feel like writing. There are actually a lot more things to share but I don’t have my own laptop as yet. Well, I’m planning to take a Dell Latitude D630. Once I get that, I’ll probably have more flexibility about my posts! By the way, I’m learning Spanish as well!

Adios Amigo!!

a new halt in the course of my journey...

Hi People,

First of all, the latest news for you all! I'm at SCMHRD (Symbiosis Center for Management and Human Resource Development), Pune right now and will be for the coming two years!! Now for those of you who must be thinking that this guy has grabbed a once in a lifetime opportunity and all, let me tell you, I'm in a sort of an exile in an abandoned island. Life @ SCMHRD is not so bad as I'll be telling you but for a guy like me who is quite reserved and one who takes some time to settle down, its a bit tough to enjoy life out here. However, the college is quite good. It has got a very good reputation and the campus is excellent. It has got all the facilities that a good MBA college would need to have and its definitely on the journey to reaching much greater heights in the near future!!!

Now, let me tell you what all happened on my journey to SCMHRD. I managed to get my train ticket confirmed at the very last moment after lots of struggle before the day of journey which made sure that there was little time left for me to finish my assignments and presentation which I was supposed to submit upon joinin the college. The journey was rather uneventful but a bit tiry. I had a tough time keeping myself awake at a late hour or else I would miss the station (the train that I was travelling by would arrive at Pune at 12:00 in the night). Luckily for me my cousin had come to the station to pick me up and I stayed at his place for the night. Getting sleep was tough because I was wondering how the college would be, what kind of roomies would I be getting and about the life @ SCMHRD!! Putting an end to all the speculations and doubts, we set out to Hinjawadi, a place about 20 kms away from Pune city. After travelling for about half an hour on the Bangalore-Mumbai expressway, we reached Hinjawadi and made our way to the 'Symbiosis Infotech Campus'. I felt really good upon looking at the college building for I had always wanted to study in a college which had all the qualities of a good college, good campus, good infrastructure, good facilities etc etc. And with the very first sight, I could realise that this college had it all and I was being very lucky!! Registration done and then went to the hostel and found the room to be quite good. In the later part of the day, both of my roomies arrived and was very much happy with them as well.

Day 2. Induction. The chief guest of the day was Mr. Jagadish Khattar, M.D of Maruthi Udyog Ltd. The chancellor of the Symbiosis International University, S.B.Majumdar and the Director of SCMHRD, Subbu were also present. The event took off sharp on time and everything was going as plan. This was probably the first time in my life that I was watching an event go on as per schedule!! Truly, SCMHRD was really good at that. There were so many presentations and as we were nearing the end of day, the incharge of the SIC had to speak a few words. Col C.V.Mohan, tore apart the parda and disclosed the life @ SCMHRD in a subtle and user-friendly manner. His description of the director and his rather dictatorly activities was much fun. We were also told that that would be the last day for us to be laughing on campus as the Diro was supposed to make sure he took away all the fun from our lives!! The way he called the diro 'D' and 'Don' etc was really funny. The induction ceremony concluded sometime after his speech.

The next day we had somehthing called Out Bound Learning where we were taken to a nearby farm and we had to play some games involving stategy building and all but it was all quite fun. Got to interact with a lot of people and the whole day was quite fun but with disclaimers that this was probably going to be the only day @ SCMHRD where we would have no work and all play!!

Ok guyz, I think I've already shared all the interesting things with you and I got to stop it now because I already have exams coming my way!! Yes, I have exams from this Wednesday so got to go now. But I'll surely keep all you guys informed about all the happenings out here...

Keep visiting!!

SAMSKARAM '07

The mobile lying in a dark corner of my bed sounded the arrival of a 'good morning' message and put an end to the bliss of my soul! I know it won't be so good on my part to curse the poor soul that cares to remember me every morning and most importantly, wake me up (thro the sms). And just as I open my eyes I see the entire house buzzing with activity and I realize that I was really very late in getting up. Then I suddenly remember why all this has happened. What had made me sleep so late into the morning?? I coolly snuggle in my bed recollecting what all had happened and for all those who want to know, read on!

On a day when the whole of Andhra Pradesh was observing a bandh in protest against the 'stay' ordered by the apex court against the implementation of reservation for OBC in educational institutions, and at a time when the srilankans were firing on all cylinders to overwhelm the Englishmen in the Caribbean islands, the final year students of Electronics and Communications Engineering of GITAM were busy honouring their faculty and the support staff at Hotel Green Park, Visakhapatnam!! The important thing about this get-together was that it was the first time the two sections of the final year ECE had come together to host an event. There were initial speculations, as usual, about whether we'd be able to strike a good rapport with each other and make the event a success. But everything had to begin at some point of time and so did our event.

It all started off one fine afternoon when we heard rumours of our juniors not hosting a farewell for our batch. We felt dejected but we thought that we should not be waiting for such a let down to strike us. We wanted to host a party ourselves and felicitate our teachers. Initially it all appeared like a prank to a few of our classmates but it was only later that they realized we meant serious business. Then we heard some good news. One was that our juniors were hosting a farewell for us. It went on quite well as can be inferred from my previous post. And the other good news was that we were going to carry on with our idea of felicitating our teachers.

In a few days time, after a lot of math and inquiries at the venues, we came up with a figure to be collected from the class. Our section was at an advantage in finance terms in that we had some 'reserve cash' which was the remnant of our previous hostings and tours. I had taken up the job of pooling the money and it was the first time for me. I enjoyed the job, going up to all people and reminding them of getting the money on time, getting onto the stage, announcing events and that sort of things. It was a great feeling holding so much cash, making note of contributions and planning expenses. We had a great time in deciding what gift to be presented to the faculty! Also, the rounds we made to the hotels in town for the right date and food and most importantly, the price, were amazing!

It was time for SAMSKARAM '07 (brainchild of Mr.Bharat Jhurani) to be flagged off! The event was scheduled to start at 6 P.M. Well, the time was decided keeping the 'Indian Punctuality' factor in mind and we were not wrong in doing so - the first guest arrived at 7.30 P.M. Sticking to the 'xtreme casual' dress code that we had mentioned in our invitation, our Head Of the Department arrived. Then others slowly followed. The event started off with a song by one of my classmates. Then there were felicitations as usual and some rocking dance performances by Pavan & Vamsi Murthy from my class and Kiran & Ravikanth from the other class. My classmate Shrikant was the host and Spandana from the other class was the hostess for the evening. I did not really have much to do except when the hotel guy called me in between to decide upon the time for starting the dinner, to check the number of plates and finally to pay the bill!! I had actually wanted to make my presence felt by donning the role of an anchor but because of the lack of enthusiasm or whatever, I couldn't do it. Wait a minute, I did get onto the stage, not for speaking or anything but to present the memento to Mr.G.V.K.Sharma, the youthful faculty member of our department. The event went on and finally it was dinner time. The hotel guy had already called me twice by that time to warn us about the shortage of time as the dinner was to be served only till 11 P.M. I ran back to the hosts and made sure that they'd wind up the event in a short span of time. After the Vote of Thanks was proposed, it was dinner. There were cameras all over the place. The students were so very enthusiastic and ecstatic that they even did not let the faculty have the dinner peacefully. Every time the HOD puts a spoonful of pulao into his mouth, a new batch of students would be ready with a camera. And since I was on the organizing side this time, I had to eat at the end and make sure that the dinner was served properly. I went round asking people about how the food tasted and all. After making sure that everybody had dined or had started to dine, it was my turn to hold the plate and enjoy the delicacies. The food was excellent and I was quite sure we had struck a great deal with the hotel with regards to the price. I was quite happy about this especially because I was involved in finalizing the deal. Then we had some last moment group snaps. I felt I had missed out on the photographs front this time. May be because I was busy ensuring that everyone was eating or because of anything else, I missed out so many photo sessions. That's the only drawback I had felt. After all that, the bill was cleared and the gathering had dispersed for the night.

the cricket mania

Just a few days ago, it was all well. India had landed in the Carribean islands with a positive outlook and a lot of confidence backing them up in the form of their victory against Srilanka at home. It had even done quite well in the warm-up matches. It appeared as though there would be no stopping India this time from grabbing the very much wanted "World Cup"! The cricket carnival was kicked off with the series opener in which the host had won and a team from the sub-continent, Pakistan had lost. The result was not of much bother for the Indians at this stage. Then came our turn. We were on a high and a bit of complacency having crept in. We were facing the minnows of One Day Cricket, Bangladesh. No one would ever have thought in the wildest of their dreams what had occurred on 17th of March 2007!

All Indians were awaiting the series opener for the Indians and were glued to their TV sets and had prepared themselves for a long night-out despite the opponent being a weakling. Needless to say, a match is always interesting as long as India is involved! People always like to see Virender Sehwag throw his bat at every delivery that comes his way and send the ball sailing over the ropes. They take immense pleasure in savoring the extravagant batting display of the little master Sachin Tendulkar. Its a fact that thousands of people stop watching the match once the little master gets out! They feel that the match is almost over and there is no chance of a come-back. These are the levels of expectations our Indian cricketers carry on their backs. Its understandable why Sachin often suffers from a back problem!!

With the expectation levels high as usual given the good form the team had displayed in the warm-ups and considering the low experience of the opposition, one would have thought that the opening match would be a cake walk for the Indians. But, it turned out to be a lot different!! Virender Sehwag continued his poor form and got out in a 'dirty' fashion. The rest of the team too did not seem to show much resolve and the fighting passion. It appeared that the cricketers were a lot relaxed as though the outcome of the match wasn't going to matter at all. The fact was that the result of the match was going to pose serious threats to India's chances of continuing further in the contest! People were left in a deep shock watching the batting collapse of the Indians. One after another followed suit exposing the complacency within each one of them. One was left to wonder whether there was something wrong with the pitch or the Bangladeshis were at their thrashing best! People were waiting for India's turn to bowl so that their questions will be answered. Everybody expected that the Indians would come-back well and would restrict the Bangladesh team to a low total. But things came out differently. The Bangladeshi batsmen looked in excellent touch and were stroking the ball quite confidently. The people had then got the answer for their question. It wasn't the nature of the pitch that led to the Indian collapse. It was solely because of the excellent bowling of the Bangladeshis. People watched in silence as they made the chase look so easy. At no point did India seem to put a block to the Bangladeshi chase. It all went off quite smoothly for them and they finished it off in style. The Indians had got a 'wake-up' call!! They now had to recover from their deep slumber and pull-up their socks for the rest of the games to stay in the competition. They faced criticism from every side. Everyone wanted Sehwag to be sacked and sent back home. Dravid was greatly criticized for including him in the team. Dravid had no answer!

On March 19th, India were playing another minnow of International cricket, Bermuda. This time around, the Indians were very much awake and had their own calculations about the kind of performance they had to put up so as to stay in the tournament. Things started off slowly and tentatively. The batsmen were playing defensively and just as Robin Uthappa got dismissed, one would have thought that may be Bermuda also wanted to upset India, just the way Bangladesh had done two days before. Sehwag came in at one-down and his feet appeared to be moving. He was stroking the ball confidently, right from the word 'GO'. This was the last chance for him to prove himself and to stay in the team. Good God, he delivered at the right time! This was the perfect setting for Sehwag to come back into form and he did. He ended up scoring a century in a blitzkrieg innings. He provided the necessary platform for India to take off and achieve a huge total which was necessary for them to stay in the competition. They needed to win the match by a really huge margin. Thanks to the timely contributions by Sourav Ganguly, Yuvraj Singh and Sachin Tendulkar India went on to make the highest team total by any team in World Cup history, 413/5. There were a total of 18 sixes in the innings which again was another world record. It was a triumph for the Indian batsmen. Now the bowlers had their task cut out. They needed to strike early and dismiss Bermuda for a meagre total to win by a huge margin and accumulate a decent Net Run Rate(NRR). They did, and India won by a mammoth 257 run margin! This again is another world record, the biggest margin of victory!! Thus, the Indians not just came back, but they did it in style!!

All I have to say is that its not good to criticize anybody just for one single poor performance. I agree that its very much this criticism that has helped the Indian team make a come-back but the degree was too high! We need to have patience and confidence in our players and not put too much pressure on them. The death of the Pakistani Coach Bob Woolmer is an indication of the levels of stress the sub-continent coaches face. The passion for the game drives the people crazy once their team fails to put up a good performance. Cricket is a game in which the outcome of any match cannot be predicted before-hand. The game is to be taken in its spirit and not be treated as a means to display a nation's strength or passions! Its high time the people realize their mistakes and stop putting excess pressure on their players!

AU REVOIR

Its farewell time. It still feels as though college had begun just a few days ago, but we're at the tail end of it already! It happened so quickly that we never realized we were about to finish our course and head off into the future. Time flies, doesn't it??
Now, when I start thinking as to what have I achieved in all these four years, I take a pause and wonder. Not that I hadn't done anything but that I hadn't done anything great!! Let me elucidate. The first year was quite dull. It was the first time I was staying in a hostel and so I took time to adjust myself to the conditions and people around me. Initially I felt my hostel mates had some weird ways of behaving themselves, but later on I found myself doing the same things and felt my initial doubts have been addressed. It just went on without much activity and fun. I wasn't in the thick of things. I was sitting with the books most of the time, still hadn't come out of the effects of my 'Inter' study! I had a good roomie to compete with. So, that kept me busy most of the time and I was quite relieved to have got rid of the ragging menace once the first year was over.
Then in the second year, life was a little on the easier side. Now I wasn't stressed by the ragging menace as I now was on the giving side. However I didn't resort to much of ragging but I simply enjoyed the feeling of living my life on my own. Being in a hostel with friends around was fun. But there are advantages and disadvantages. Sometimes, we all felt cut away from the outside world. We used to go to the city on during weekends and that too for a movie or something. Those were the times when I strongly wished I was staying with my parents so that I had more means of timepass(TV etc.). The thing is that the 'computers' hadn't landed in our hostel till then. There was no specific means of timepass except sports and games and a common TV that rarely worked! Then mid way, my roomie left the hostel and went on to stay with his parents and so I got a new roomie. Adjusting with him wasn't very difficult because he too was my classmate. And coming to the point of my studies, like I told you before, had taken a dip. I don't mean to say that I completely stopped studying but because the competitor wasn't by my side, I was a little lazy and almost removed myself out of the competition. There weren't many quotable incidents in this year either. Not many achievements. But I should say it was much better than the first year!
May be because I had had enough taste of hostel life or may be because I wanted to get coached for CAT(Common Admission Test for admission into MBA institutes), I decided to move out of the hostel and stay in a room in the city. Then I started my hunt for a good room and a better roomie. I couldn't get to stay in a place where most of my classmates had been staying but got to stay with another classmate of mine who had a house in the city and was staying alone. So I put up at his house as a paying guest and got going. I had to take a long commute in a bus every morning and repeat the same in the evening. It started appearing quite tiresome but then I got used to it. I used to feel quite bored at the place for my friend rarely used to stay at home and I for lack of a vehicle never went out. Slowly I realized I had to interact with the outside world to be called a human being and then I too started visiting friends leaving the house alone. I started interacting with my classmates and friends in a much better manner than before. I understood that this was the time to bring about the right change in my personality. I had to move out into the public so that I get rid of stage fear and learn to interact with people well. All this was necessary to face the campus interviews that'll be up at the beginning of the final year. So I was all geared up and even gave a few paper presentations and stuff and I regard third year was very eventful and active!
Then at the beginning of the final year, I got placed(you can read the interview experience from my previous post). Then college began and classes went on. We used to have very minimal number of classes. Then we had to do some project. We don't know how we did but we did. Then we had a hardware exhibition in our department. And after all that, we're now at the fag end of the semester. I cannot understand how it all happened so fast. I still have the picture of the day on which I had joined the college. Yesterday we had our farewell party. It was great fun. The whole class gathering in colourful dresses. We partied late into the night!! Now, I am wondering how it all happened and am writing this!!
See you soon.