The Top 5 Activities of MBA students in the final phase

Come the 6^th aka final term of a two year stint in a MBA programme, and one finds quite a few unique things happening around/to oneself. It is a different matter altogether that something keeps happening to/around oneself throughout the MBA course. But the 6^th term is somewhat special. May it be regarding activities, academics, interest or casual time pass; all of it gains a new perspective and like a kaleidoscope appears to bear a multitude of different things. Based on my observation of few things, this is a humble attempt to pen down the Top 5 activities actively (or passively) indulged by the majority of the students in a MBA campus. As Margaret Fuller says ‘Nature provides exceptions to every rule’ so is the same true here.

Do try to check if you can correctly identify the Top 5 activities by your own (Of-course before you reach the end of this article).So here we go with the activities stated in no particular order.

1. Quest for Nirvana

As surprising as it sounds, the fact of the matter is that many students develop a new interest in the attainment of Nirvana or Enlightenment during the ending phase of the MBA programme. It may be either coz they have seen/experienced a lot in their 2 year life period which makes them seek a higher purpose. But it’s to such a high degree that even the sages of Himalayas might feel insecure seeing the passion of these young fella’s. And yea, as the quote goes, ‘Its not in the idea but its execution which actually matters’, the students actually perform the Tapas (Meditation) most of the time.

They get good support from student administration who schedules the classes’ at a heavenly time appropriate for Meditation (Morning 8am). It’s becomes more convenient for the students to enter the class, sit in their places (depending upon the acoustic of the classroom) & enter the tapas mode in search of the Nirvana. There are also two different categories in this namely the inexperienced and the experienced ones. The inexperienced folks who are yet to master the secrets sit in the first-second rows & depend on external support (the Prof’s lullaby) to enter the Tapas mode. The more experienced ones detached from the external environment choosethe last row and enter the Nirvana state on their own accord. It’s amazing to watch a class after say 30 minutes of its start, and one can see ample amount of students in their steady, meditative state focused sincerely on a single minded focus to achieve enlightenment.

2. Job hysteria

This shouldn’t be hard to guess for any MBA grad. After all the main purpose why many left their well paying jobs and entered a two year Vanvasa was to ensure they get a good plump offer at the end of 2 years. (It’s a different matter altogether that what they expect and what happens is similar to intelligence and beauty quotient in girls aka Beauty Brains Paradox). Still, come the final term and it is the time when all things come to a standstill. 99% of the academic related activity whichever a student undertakes willingly would be for this factor ‘A Job’. May it be CV (Curriculum Vitae) preparation, CV submission, CV review, CV re-review, the fear factor ensures that you end up doing all of it and still wonder if the CV is good enough to feature in a company shortlist. Also, a new expert group emerges (who have been lucky enough to have pocketed a PPO (Pre-Placement Offer) assisting out the poorer souls to help them conquer the Mountains of NoJobPhobia (read No-Job-Phobia).

3. Virtual Corporatization of the Institute

Few may argue that this activity should fall under the previous activity. While I completely accept the argument that it is more or less qualified to be a sub category of the previous heading, this has enough strength (qualities) to stand on its own. Let me explain why. While the frenzy over the job makes the students run around haplessly, this activity is undertaken by most of the student batch whether they have an option or not. And yea, the expert PPO groups aren’t left to choice too. It is a common belief that the orchestrations of all this is done by a special group aka You-Know-Who or They Who Must Not Be Named… Well, so the Virtual Corporatization refers to the corporate culture which the campus finds itself in. Hold on, don’t mistake that all of us evolve and start behaving like professionals which is hoped for in a corporate culture. Na, Na, far from it. What I refer to is the visible phenomena which could be seen as in a corporate place. Yea, iam referring to the suited Men & Ladies who run around helter-skelter to attend the company ppt’s, company interview, group discussions etc… The whole scene looks like hordes of suited people moving around. So for a person who might venture into the scene out of nowhere might wonder if he has entered a corporate office (excluding the jungle setup). I personally feel that the students deserve some Bravery award just to admire their courage to brave the bitter cold and live to attend the next day’s ppt too.

4. Awakening of the Explorers

Many of us seek inspiration from others who have achieved something great. In this case, one person to whom many look up-to would be Ferdinand Magellan (Yea, he wasn’t the first person to circumnavigate the world, rather it was his slave Enrique, yet going by popular belief & well known names, let’s go with Magellan).

I wonder how many of the MBA grads would have gone around the campus once, so going around the world can’t be thought of at all. In that case, the only option left to the so called explorers is to circumnavigate all the places in the nearby vicinities. So, gathering inspiration from Magellan or Columbus (If you like him), there arise a group intent on covering all these places. Well these places aren’t that well known to raise a second glance, yet to name few places near Lucknow, it would be Dudhwa national park, Khajurao (quite a distant 380 kms away), Agra, Delhi, all the religious bathing sites (Haridwar, Rishikesh, Kashi etc), Nainital & some places in Uttaranchal. So as soon as we get a free weekend, the explorers set to conquer these less well known places and derive satisfaction at the end that their adventurous appetite has been attended to. For the others who don’t prefer to wait for the weekend time, they ensure that they circumnavigate the inner areas of Lucknow almost on a daily basis.

5. Entertainment Marathon

This last activity is something which is indulged by almost every living soul in the campus. The time which we get excluding the time spent on Nirvana meditation and the Job run is exclusively devoted to this aspect called the ‘Entertainment Marathon’. This is nothing but the continuous watching of movies, sitcom’s, drama etc etc… It’s as if the life on the earth is about to come to an end, and every person has an unfulfilled commitment to watch a certain set of movies before time runs out. Few common conversations which could be heard would be suggestions on the movie names from the so-called movie experts. You might say what about the Bollywood flicks which release on a frequent basis, yet gauging from the failure of the recent flicks of Bolly movies (Tees Mar khan, ToonPur ka Superhero etc) to fulfill the student expectations, many have resigned to the fact that it’s better to see better movies in the comfy of their rooms rather than venture out. But there are still those who believe that their commitment to maintain the legacy of watching all the movies in theatre has to be continued and that their expectations will somehow be fulfilled by at-least movie.

Whatever happens, one thing is for sure… The life goes on. May it be the acads, competitions, events, a common thread unites most of the students and that is the intent to enjoy the best of remaining few days in the institute and to imprint few evergreen memories. Suited or not suited (where we really don’t have an option), one thing is for sure, as Barney in the well known sitcom ‘How I met your Mother’ says

“Its gonna be Legen… (wait for it)....Dary" for the remaining days.

P.S: If you are still scratching your head over intelligence and beauty quotient in girls, the axiom says that intelligence is inversely proportional to beauty, or that beauty varies inversely with intelligence, or that people (read girls) aren’t typically endowed with both beauty and brains!

Green pledge campaign

Some of you might be wondering why all of a sudden few guys have started cribbing and making hue and cry over environment and all. Well, its all for a simple reason that the saving environment is no more a social issue, it’s a humanity issue. Going forward, what kind of world do we want to leave for our future generations so that they look back on us and say “there lived a generation which made a conscious decision to change their daily lives for the better, or do we want to be remembered as the generation that turned on the heat blinded by our ruthless craze for domination over nature.

There is a concept of Gaia philosophy. According to it, Mother earth is a single unified organism; in this view the Earth's biosphere is consciously manipulating the climate in order to make conditions more conducive to life. It considers earth to be conscious, sentient, and highly intelligent, are usually considered outside the bounds of what is usually considered science. Richard Branson talks about it in his autobiography “Just do it“and wisely says that it is no matter a question of saving environment. It’s a matter of survival now. OUR SURVIVAL.



For anyone still wondering if the threat of global warming is real, here are some facts to substantiate it.

• Average temperatures have climbed 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit (0.8 degree Celsius) around the world since 1880, much of this in recent decades, according to NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

• The rate of warming is increasing. The 20th century's last two decades were the hottest in 400 years and possibly the warmest for several millennia, according to a number of climate studies. And the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports that 11 of the past 12 years are among the dozen warmest since 1850.

• The Arctic is feeling the effects the most. Average temperatures in Alaska, western Canada, and eastern Russia have risen at twice the global average, according to the multinational Arctic Climate Impact Assessment report compiled between 2000 and 2004.

• Arctic ice is rapidly disappearing, and the region may have its first completely ice-free summer by 2040 or earlier. Polar bears and indigenous cultures are already suffering from the sea-ice loss.

• Glaciers and mountain snows are rapidly melting—for example, Montana's Glacier National Park now has only 27 glaciers, versus 150 in 1910. In the Northern Hemisphere, thaws also come a week earlier in spring and freezes begin a week later.

• Coral reefs, which are highly sensitive to small changes in water temperature, suffered the worst bleaching—or die-off in response to stress—ever recorded in 1998, with some areas seeing bleach rates of 70 percent. Experts expect these sorts of events to increase in frequency and intensity in the next 50 years as sea temperatures rise.

• An upsurge in the amount of extreme weather events, such as wildfires, heat waves, and strong tropical storms, is also attributed in part to climate change by some experts.

[Source: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/12/1206_041206_global_warming.html]

Hence taking all of this into consideration, the objective of our Mission SOS is to sensitize the students junta towards living more greener way of living. Capitalism is alluring and adventurous, yet it has to be Balanced Capitalism.,. what use of resources if there aren’t conditions suitable for living.

As a part of our Mission SOS, we have started a Green pledge campaign. We encourage people to visit the link : http://pages.rediff.com/Mission-SOS/5084 and take a pledge about what activity would you follow or any activity which you have been following which is environment friendly.




Lastly to quote Al Gore,

“We sometimes emphasize the danger in a crisis without focusing on the opportunities that are there. We should feel a great sense of urgency because it is the most dangerous crisis we have ever faced, by far. But it also provides us with opportunities to do a lot of things we ought to be doing for other reasons anyway. And to solve this crisis we can develop a shared sense of moral purpose”

Regards,

Team Mission SOS

What's your EQ score ?? Find it out NOW.

First of all, on the eve of Republic Day, instead of the mundane Quiz on Indian freedom struggle or politics, let us focus on something more relevant today. The Environment and its continued destruction by us...

Before that a small update for the readers. IIML hosted its Management fest - MANFEST, from 22nd to 24th Jan. The special highlights being the Auto conclave attended by Auto industry stalwarts and the Gaming conclave. The last day had performance by Kailash Kher who mesmerized the crowd who were left stupefied by his performance. The weather was unexpectedly cold but the whole colIege withstood the cold wave and ensured that all the activities went on well. There is something interesting which i wanted to share with you all.


I and few of my friends @ IIML (Kiran shah, Uday Sankar, Soumya, Madhavi) had organized a environment awareness campaign). We put on a stall and posters/charts on how to save environment and reduce the global warming which is increasing at a horrendous rate... We had a caption writing contest and a general quiz on environment. I would like to thank my other friends who had been involved and showed active interest in arranging this activity, namely Arava Nirmal(helping out in the Operations), Ashutosh Sardesai(for setting Quiz questions).




This is the banner which we had made for our stall.


Now, coming back to the main purpose of this article, iam sharing the environment quiz with you. I will be publishing the answers along with the photo of the people who got the maximum correct answers.


Quiz:

1) One of the most famous contemporary documentaries, this movie made a former Vice
President of the USA received critical acclaim. Which movie are we referring to?


2) Which iconic cricketer recently appeared at the MCA ground to endorse the BMC’s ‘Save
Water’ campaign?


3) They are geographically defined areas of ecologically similar climatic conditions. Unlike
ecozones they are identified with particular patterns of ecological succession and climax
vegetation. Name them.


4) This American labor union activist who worked as a chemical technician for making
plutonium pallets at the Kerr-McGee plant died under mysterious circumstances after
investigating claims of irregularities and wrongdoings plant. She was immortalized by
Meryl Streep in an eponymous movie. Identify her.


5) As a young footballer he is believed to have commented “hang the Greens while there still
are trees” seemingly expressing his dislike for the German Green Party. Who are we talking
about?

6) John Travolta plays the lead as a civil ligation lawyer and his decade long case against an
American corporation in a water pollution dispute brought by citizens of a Massachusetts
town. Which movie?


7) A beloved science fiction writer he passed away in 2008. In one of techno-thrillers he heavily
criticized global warming terming it a hoax. Al Gore commented about the novel, “If your
baby has a fever, you go to the doctor [...] if your doctor tells you you need to intervene
here, you don't say 'Well, I read a science fiction novel that tells me it's not a problem”. Which
novel/author are we talking about?

Looking forward to your responses !!!

P.S: EQ score means Environment Quiz score. ;)

The Revival

I was tempted to include 'Phoenix' in topic name of this article. something like "The revival of Phoenix" or "Back from the inertness". And it would have been apt too. For a simple reason,that i have been estranged from the blogging world for more than 1 and half months.Not a single day goes by wherein i tell myself that i will blog today. and as if the world had plotted against me, i would invariably be held up by some work and eventually i end up not doing what i intended to do. Anyhow, there is something which i had learnt after coming to IIML and that is the fact that I need to improve my time management capabilities. Well, one always keeps learning something and iam learning the nuances of it.

The last 2 months here @ IIML have been quite memorable. There have been enjoyable moments, stressful moments,sleepless moments,hellish moments as well. The routine,the schedule and your life becomes such that one becomes quite impervious to the happenings of the outside world. The only connect with the outside world is through the globally connecting World Wide Web ! Everyday brings with it one learning or the other and the faster you learn them, the quicker you can grow. I have loads to share with you all, the culture ,the extra curriculars,the acads, the funny things etc. Hopefully my new resolution about blogging a little more frequently would hold stead. Lets see what all things i would be sharing with you. 1st 30 days after coming to IIML, Start of 1st term, Frenzy within the campus, Haunting 1st Mid terms etc.

Just penned this post to break the jinx of the in activeness which has been holding me back for such a long time. Not much content in it for now. Anyhow, for my dear friends who have been checking if iam still penning post, i thank you for your interest in following my blog. I would strive to compensate for the lost moments :)

Would like to sign off with a nice quote i had come across few days back.

"Opportunities multiply as they are seized"

Here's wishing good health and mind to all.


Peace :)

All Road leads to Lucknow

I would like to share a good news with you all. I will be joining IIM Lucknow to pursue my MBA this year. I would like to thank few people who were my pillars of support and induced doses of motivation when required.

First and foremost,i would like to thank my IMS friends Srinath,Avinash,Abhimanyu and Suvesh. It was great time with you buddies and the times we spend together discussing and chit chatting in IMS classes will always be special . I wish you a very best future and hope to see you all soon !

Iam also thankful to few of my seniors namely Sundar Rajan,Vasanth and Lewin. They were helpful in boosting my morale by suggesting that cracking CAT was only a matter of hard work and persistence. Iam grateful to you for the encouragement.

Iam thankful to my online friends namely Zeph,Nirmala Palaniappan and Sormita and Sriram.The conversations which i had with you all helped me to look things in new ways and to continuously strive for the best. I thank you sincerely for it.I would also like to thank Mr.Murli Nagasundaram,a senior alumnus of my college who has an extra ordinary quality of correlating things and understand the nuances behind things. He is a charismtic person and interacting with him for some time will leave you pumped up with vigor and enthusiasm. He helped me understand that being yourself is the best thing one can do for oneself. Thank You Sir.

I also grateful to the core members of RECAL-Bangalore chapter namely Rajan Narayanan,Mahesh,Ganapathy,Ajay. The regular Indira Nagar club meets to plan for the RECAL events was not only fun but too also helped me know few nuances behind the management aspects. I would definitely miss the regular meets ;) Not to forget my roomies Laxman and Prabu who also supported me in a lot of ways during my preparation. Miss you buddies !

Last but not least my sincere thanks to all my well wishers who have been with me all along. Thank You for it. The next 2 years @ IIML will be exciting.Iam penning this post from Delhi National Airport waiting for my flight to Lucknow. More post on the days @ IIML. Stay connected till then !