Isn't it amazing how the phrase a six-pack can be referred both to cans of beers and a certain ordering of muscles in your stomach. Would you not rate god's six days of toil much higher had he given a positive co-relation between the two, unfortunately god has got his(or her) own plans and I, now have a very visible belly.
I have forever been used to the fact that I can never put on weight no matter what. The endless sessions of hyderabad biryani coupled with 1.5Lt bottles of coke, or for that matter the tons of alu fry lovingly prepared by pati never made much of an impact on my fat quotient. My dad has some excellent theories when it comes to life. The context compels me to let one out of the bag -"You start putting on weight, first when you get a job and second when you get married..... after that, well you just stop noticing". Given this biblical truth, my jitters get even higher as my only shot at a job is two years from now, and marriage well.......
My first few days @ helL were all fun compared to what is in store right now, I actually managed to go down to the city twice to gorge on some lovely authentic food, watched shootout at lokhandwala with a couple of Frenchmen, drank every brand of liquor from desi daru to signature..... man am getting nostalgic. What I forgot to mention is that I also used to go on a 3km brisk jog around the campus every night. A ligament in my leg just refused to see the point of doing all the exercise and a month and a half later, I can't see my damn belt buckle anymore!!
Most of us facchas(the first year lambs) have bought a laptop and already run file sharing softwares, so the night gets longer and the schedule a little tighter. The internet speed is pretty amazing here, only wish I had the time and to do full justice to the facilities. All the presentations in the subjects for the first mid-term are done with me giving the introduction in each presentation(thanks guys). All my experience with impromptu speaking were put to good use and I came through unscathed.
Will VLCC, dieting and slimming pills start doing their rounds?? Only time can tell. I slightly have more urgent problems to look into right now. My first major academic challenge, the first mid-term examination begins on Monday with the endemic MANAC and carry on for the rest of the week. Will sure have a lot to say in my post next Saturday, just hope am in good enough spirits to write one. Oh! and by the way I got a 6 on 10 in my first MANAC quiz, the first step towards scaling the mean of MANAC.
The stuffed capsicum was really good today. Am off to grab a snack before my 4pm lecture(attendance crisis).......burrrp
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Monday, July 23, 2007
Soap salesman
After seeing all those life on the edge movies about corporate life and the stimulating work environments, I came to helL looking for some catalyst that would transform my otherwise mundane career profile. Had I not landed here, I would like thousands of other Indian Engineers be working for some IT banner in a non-descript cubicle. I would have made close to 4 lakhs per annum, looked forward to friday night, sneaked a way through the office's firewall to surf banned sites, watched Shivaji in its first week of release, started reading on potter's last days at Hogwarts and at the very least slept 10 hours a day.
There is this new buzz around the campus with P&G announcing a live project. There are 10 teams of 20 people each competing towards decoding the strategy of 'ghadi', some unheard of detergent which is apparently doing well in the rural areas of UP and Uttaranchal. The work done by us dutiful slaves would then enable P&G launch its own brand in the mass market. The winners of this contest can hope for the holy grail of marketing hopefuls a Pre-placement interview(PPI). After losing out in the council elections, I was available for picking and am now a part of one of the best teams on campus.
This is where people should understand the amount of stale work that goes into a seemingly glamorous profession. I don't think anybody in his right mind would want to emulate the work of a census taker. It is not fun walking around in the streets of Lucknow asking people "Do you use ghadi??" and if that harassed person actually bothers to respond, grab the opportunity and poke him until he leaks all his data. Once all the data is compiled, you then make a proposal (bending on both knees) and pray. Pray that two years down the line, you end up as a soap salesman.
Numbers bring to mind another fiasco that occured today - our first quiz in MANAC(management accounting), the most dreaded subject in the first semester. It had a casualty rate of 15 last year. The professor hands us a 4 page case study and announces "you have 13 minutes". 13 MINUTES???. Looks like I am going to end up on the wrong hook of the bell curve as usual.
Am getting glares from my teammates now, have 2 presentations for tomorrow.
There is this new buzz around the campus with P&G announcing a live project. There are 10 teams of 20 people each competing towards decoding the strategy of 'ghadi', some unheard of detergent which is apparently doing well in the rural areas of UP and Uttaranchal. The work done by us dutiful slaves would then enable P&G launch its own brand in the mass market. The winners of this contest can hope for the holy grail of marketing hopefuls a Pre-placement interview(PPI). After losing out in the council elections, I was available for picking and am now a part of one of the best teams on campus.
This is where people should understand the amount of stale work that goes into a seemingly glamorous profession. I don't think anybody in his right mind would want to emulate the work of a census taker. It is not fun walking around in the streets of Lucknow asking people "Do you use ghadi??" and if that harassed person actually bothers to respond, grab the opportunity and poke him until he leaks all his data. Once all the data is compiled, you then make a proposal (bending on both knees) and pray. Pray that two years down the line, you end up as a soap salesman.
Numbers bring to mind another fiasco that occured today - our first quiz in MANAC(management accounting), the most dreaded subject in the first semester. It had a casualty rate of 15 last year. The professor hands us a 4 page case study and announces "you have 13 minutes". 13 MINUTES???. Looks like I am going to end up on the wrong hook of the bell curve as usual.
Am getting glares from my teammates now, have 2 presentations for tomorrow.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Life at the bottom of the bell curve
Whats the most natural thing you say when you meet someone and have to make petty conversation?? My take generally is "Howz life?". An acquaintance today asked me the same question and the only reply I could muster was "going on...." DUH what kind of an answer is that?. Looking back, actually looking way back(20 days is an eternity here), I wonder if given a chance, I would make the same decisions again. It has not been a smooth flow, I lost the cultural secretary elections by 1 vote in the repoll(the first was a tie). Ended up in the bottom 8 in my class in the Quam quiz and am almost sure to be chucked out by all the committees I applied for.
Contrary to Sanjana's analysis of me being a 35yr old banker, I consider myself to be a gambler. There is this seperate thrill when you push things beyond the limit and the stakes are all or nothing. Ever heard of this management funda called SWOT analysis?? I am sure you have for if not, you wouldn't really have reached this far down in my blog. Anyways, the SW & O seem to have taken a walk and only the T stands in all its glory. Lets look at the situation on hand....
I have reached the task round of PCOM(placement committee), the most elite body in IIM Lucknow. The selection procedure comprises of 2 rounds of interviews, two concurrent task rounds and a final presentation. Now, here is a committee I would really like to join both for the brand name and the kind of work they do. The members themselves are zombies and the only time they manage to sleep is in class. The stakes are high and so is the price to pay... aah now we are talking.
Every subject @ helL( we have six in the pre-mid term) requires you to complete a group assignment and make a presentation on it, the deadlines approach in a week. The mid-term themselves are in twelve days.
Only three of us have made it to this stage of PCOM from ABM and Mr.Basu has already dropped out. I tried my hand at it but the PCOM guys asked me to give it another shot. I just hope I am not shooting my own foot.
What exactly am I doing blogging when the going is such?? Just trying to push the barbed wire a wee bit closer to my neck. I welcome myself to life at the bottom of the bell curve where even reaching the mean is an uphill task.
Contrary to Sanjana's analysis of me being a 35yr old banker, I consider myself to be a gambler. There is this seperate thrill when you push things beyond the limit and the stakes are all or nothing. Ever heard of this management funda called SWOT analysis?? I am sure you have for if not, you wouldn't really have reached this far down in my blog. Anyways, the SW & O seem to have taken a walk and only the T stands in all its glory. Lets look at the situation on hand....
I have reached the task round of PCOM(placement committee), the most elite body in IIM Lucknow. The selection procedure comprises of 2 rounds of interviews, two concurrent task rounds and a final presentation. Now, here is a committee I would really like to join both for the brand name and the kind of work they do. The members themselves are zombies and the only time they manage to sleep is in class. The stakes are high and so is the price to pay... aah now we are talking.
Every subject @ helL( we have six in the pre-mid term) requires you to complete a group assignment and make a presentation on it, the deadlines approach in a week. The mid-term themselves are in twelve days.
Only three of us have made it to this stage of PCOM from ABM and Mr.Basu has already dropped out. I tried my hand at it but the PCOM guys asked me to give it another shot. I just hope I am not shooting my own foot.
What exactly am I doing blogging when the going is such?? Just trying to push the barbed wire a wee bit closer to my neck. I welcome myself to life at the bottom of the bell curve where even reaching the mean is an uphill task.
Friday, July 6, 2007
Siestaaaaah
Ever heard of people suffering from this disease called 'insomnia'??? Whats that? I mean how can someone not get his forty winks. There is this feeling of bliss that I experience every time I flop down on my sweaty pillow knowing fully well that the I am immune from the fires of helL at least for the next few hours. I have been used to getting 56 hrs of sleep a week at the very least and the thing that scares me most out here, is whether I will have to pawn this at the feet of the omnipresent god called CGPA. There is this senior in my wing who claims to have gone a whole week without sleeping. Come on now.. we are talking about 168 hrs straight. I have heard stories of Samson breaking pillars and a horse which can count but this tops it all. But somewhere in the very corner of my mind, the thought lingers "could it be true?".
One night sans sleeps gets me far more woozy than 6 pegs of McDowells or for that matter, one joint of Lucknowi ganja. Imagine such a person being subject to the strongest amphetamine in the world......CLASS. Right from my kinder garden days to college, I have paid homage to the last row in class. How can helL not infringe upon this fundamental right??? is it possible that the system will leave this small pleasure to us? Welcome to the system of fixed seating arrangement. The system where 26 year olds sit at their assigned seats like the teeth in your mouth. Every absence is conspicuous. Imagine smiling with a few tooth knocked out. This blunts the only weapon we davids possess against the tall requirements of attendance. Just in case I did not mention this before, we require 80% attendance for every course. Sounds like a School???????.............. Welcome to life at a B-School.
One night sans sleeps gets me far more woozy than 6 pegs of McDowells or for that matter, one joint of Lucknowi ganja. Imagine such a person being subject to the strongest amphetamine in the world......CLASS. Right from my kinder garden days to college, I have paid homage to the last row in class. How can helL not infringe upon this fundamental right??? is it possible that the system will leave this small pleasure to us? Welcome to the system of fixed seating arrangement. The system where 26 year olds sit at their assigned seats like the teeth in your mouth. Every absence is conspicuous. Imagine smiling with a few tooth knocked out. This blunts the only weapon we davids possess against the tall requirements of attendance. Just in case I did not mention this before, we require 80% attendance for every course. Sounds like a School???????.............. Welcome to life at a B-School.
Monday, July 2, 2007
Relationships.....
As an engineer, one is expected to have an analytical mind and look at the entire gamut of phenomenon in a quantitative or sequential manner. Can this be applied to all kinds of happenings, lets take a few relationships for instance.
My mother is supposed to love me, typical of every mom on the planet. We have a variable here 'love' and two actors, me and my mom. In any kind of transaction between two mentally-adept parties, the yardstick is that the result should be mutually beneficial. Right from the moment my mother heard that I have gotten into IIM, she has started every sentence with "you know praveen, he is now in IIM". Suddenly, the nuisance turned into a golden boy. I guess everybody must have read the story about the pretty princess who kissed a frog and turned him into a handsome prince. helL can never be described as pretty and surely I looked better than a frog. Now, does this mean that my mother loves me more than she did before I got in here?, or is it just that she now has a socially justifiable reason to express her feelings for me?
Sanjana on the other hand is not taking the whole thing too well. The days are littered with phone calls that sometimes go into hours. I have already spent 1200 rupees topping up my phone. Personally, I can understand what she must be going through, for my mom's list of expectations totally differ from that of Sanjana. Sanju's scared that helL will expose the two horns that have been suppressed through the years. helL is a place where slitting a throat is not only justified but is a skill that must be perfected. The very system of relative grading and the razor sharp rules act as a sharpening stone and each passing day gives another opportunity for your dagger to say hi to the stone. Oh!! by the way Sanjana is my girlfriend. The girl whom I used to tease with my friend in high school, forgot in classes 11 and 12 and then fell head over heels in love with in my graduation. Are you my lucky charm Sanju??? Now thats a question that must be put across to mom.
My mother is supposed to love me, typical of every mom on the planet. We have a variable here 'love' and two actors, me and my mom. In any kind of transaction between two mentally-adept parties, the yardstick is that the result should be mutually beneficial. Right from the moment my mother heard that I have gotten into IIM, she has started every sentence with "you know praveen, he is now in IIM". Suddenly, the nuisance turned into a golden boy. I guess everybody must have read the story about the pretty princess who kissed a frog and turned him into a handsome prince. helL can never be described as pretty and surely I looked better than a frog. Now, does this mean that my mother loves me more than she did before I got in here?, or is it just that she now has a socially justifiable reason to express her feelings for me?
Sanjana on the other hand is not taking the whole thing too well. The days are littered with phone calls that sometimes go into hours. I have already spent 1200 rupees topping up my phone. Personally, I can understand what she must be going through, for my mom's list of expectations totally differ from that of Sanjana. Sanju's scared that helL will expose the two horns that have been suppressed through the years. helL is a place where slitting a throat is not only justified but is a skill that must be perfected. The very system of relative grading and the razor sharp rules act as a sharpening stone and each passing day gives another opportunity for your dagger to say hi to the stone. Oh!! by the way Sanjana is my girlfriend. The girl whom I used to tease with my friend in high school, forgot in classes 11 and 12 and then fell head over heels in love with in my graduation. Are you my lucky charm Sanju??? Now thats a question that must be put across to mom.
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