"Butt"erfly!!

couldn't stop myself from posting this video...the world leaders looking at things "differently"...nothing eludes their attention :)

Socha tha MBA Kar Lein...

Good old Aristotle once subtly prophesied, "Studying won't kill anyone." I didn't take a chance.
Socrates commented, "XL and quizzes go hand in hand." I took my chances.
Here I am, bowled over.

Quiz 1 : July 7

Its was raining outside. I had my lunch and rushed to the lecture hall, quite bewildered to see others with the study material and text books with them. I probably had a blocked nose because by and large I'm good at smelling when things get fishy. The prof came and remarked, "This is not a surprise, I believe," and took out the quiz papers. Whoooooosh!

I had actually slept off the recess in which others got to know that Section-A had an open notes test. Blissfully ignorant that I generally am, I had no resources; though I must tell you that while others kept on browsing the text for jargon and many could not even finish off, I submitted the paper before the allotted time of 20 minutes. The questions were quite generic in nature but the absence of marketing jargon was a factor that couldn't be overlooked.

Quiz 2 : July 7

The same lecture. Whatever happened to the nutty Prof wasn't pleasant enough. Minutes after the first quiz got over, he gave us a four-minute quiz where we had to do an environment analysis of a non-tobacco product called Nirdosh Bidi. Quite merrily, I discussed about the positive effects that the absence of tobacco had on the environment. I roped in phenomena like pollution, hygiene, passive smoking etc.

I later found out that environment analysis happens to be something like a SWOT analysis.

Quiz 3 : July 8 : Gango's Quiz

Gango's quiz is an calamity of national importance in XL. Seniors had organised a Gyaan session the previous night that I had missed for a marathon Federer-Roddick Wimbledon encounter. Others seemed genuinely sympathetic. I actually had no hopes from myself. But the question paper wasn't that difficult. I got 19/30 - probably in the third quartile from the top. Twenty-two got 30 on 30.

Quiz 4 : July 9

It was Managerial Economics - a weird subject to say the least. There'e not a single concept that eludes my pint-sized brain when Prof. Sarkar teaches in his unique way. But when it comes to applying the same theories to practice, I'm bummed. No prospects, again. But the questions seemed to be at little variance from the ones solved in class. And it was an open-notes test again. :P Rocked the test. 8/10.

Quiz 5 : July 13

I had bunked the morning lecture of CSE. And there happened to be a surprise quiz. (Though I must admit I didn't know squat about "Ecological Security" either - the quiz question :D)

Quiz 6 : July 15

I reached the lecture hall at 0901 hours, sixty seconds late!! The sadist of a professor (CSE again!!) didn't let me in and took a surprise quiz. F*ck!

Quiz 7 : July 15

There was a twenty-four hour event - MAXI Bazaar - the last day. Somehow the seniors thought that we had an OB quiz the next day. They tried talking to the professor to defer the quiz. As the events unfurled, there was no quiz scheduled. But he got so incensed that he dropped in a mail at 0100 hours about one in the next lecture. Exhausted as I was from the event, I didn't overestimate my ability to cram the entire crap in a few hours' time. So I didn't. Got screwed up badly in the quiz, yet again.

Lines from the XL anthem rebound in my head :

"Socha tha MBA kar lein
Hum tum bhi thoda sa padh lein
Lo aa gaye XLR

Khwabon mein socha jo humne
Aaye usey poora karney
Lekin hui aankhein chaar"

I now pronounce you Chuck and Larry!

Guys, we accept you as you are. Coming out of the closet was the bravest thing to do. You've been the Harvey Milks of India, the true champions of your cause. We're proud of you, folks. Keep it "up"!


"Sabse pyara inka pyar, No more 377 ki deewar"

You’ve got to be kidding me!

We’re just back from our first Industrial trip at XLRI. We visited the Jamshedpur plant of Tata-Robins-Fraser, supposedly to get the knowhow of operations on the shop floor. High thinking as I am, my attention was focused on the shop walls rather than the floor. And these are few of the masterpieces that the wall was adorned with.

Disclaimer : The author of the post takes no guarantee of what and how you interpret the following “instructions” to “workers”. Any resemblance to anything…ahem ahem…is purely co-incidental.

* Vibrator Equipment : True Flow.
* Assly. Vibrator : Testing bed
* It works only when its open.
* Close tap after use.
* Manufacturing Manual : Nut Bolts, Tight Screws…
* Do not overtake at sharp turns.
* Garm Padaarth Na Chhuyein.
* Cost is long forgotten but the quality is remembered forever.
* Wear safety belts when working at “heights”.
* Deep thought and Hard work.
* Nagn aankhon se na dekhein.
* Never take chance. Think in advance.
* Safety First!

And here comes the legen…dary :

* Do it right. First time. Everytime.

No wonder the subject is called “Production and Operations Management” .

Time For Reflection

Stats first :

Its been 21 days in XL.
I've had breakfast 4 times.
I've bunked(or missed) lectures 6 times.
I've slept in class (n-1) times where n=number of lectures attended.
I've cussed infinitely.
I've studied infinitesimally.
I've completed ZERO out of three projects allotted till now.
I've made progress on ZERO out of three projects allotted till now.
I've plans for how to proceed on ZERO out of three projects allotted till now.

Pre-readings(stuff to be read before a lecture), projects, forthcoming quizzes. That's pretty much the picture of the initial days at XLRI. People here are nice. People here are good. People here know what they're here for. People here think. People here work. I'm somehow the odd one out - a square peg in a round hole!

A square peg in a round hole...that's pretty much GMD. True as it is, GMD is the order of the day. Its an uncanny feeling watching the junta around slogging their asses off while you cant relate yourself to the multi-coloured fonts. Gosh! Am I dyslexic? Am I a moron? Am I paranoid?

But there are quite a few "friends" here. Yes, friends. A newly-reintroduced concept after a four-year vacuum. And there's this senior whom I respect more than anyone else in this campus. The chill-pill. And there's Internet. Ultra-high speed. And there's FLIX - our movie server. And there's air conditioning. And there's this lovely weather after yesterday's cat-and-dog rain.

Life's good. Life's great. I'm living my dream as an XLer. I'm not happy. I'm paranoid...inexplicably!

GMD!!

Prof. T Gangopadhyaya, "fond"ly known as Gango, is best known for his overwhelming punctuality. He doesn't believe in time the worldly watches show. He enters the lecture hall, bolts the door, and that's it. No more entries please. For a 9am class, the modal frequency is 08:56am. (btw, he teaches Quantitative Techniques :P). What happened with the our PMIR batchmates was something they would never forget. Some of the guys reached the hall almost with Gango, their nose ahead by inches. But in a fit of regrettable courtsey, they let Gango enter the hall first. And there was Gango, slamming the door on their faces with the most ultimate poker-face ever!!!

Yours truly reached the first class at 09:03am, panting and still chewing the remains of the slice of bread as violently as possible. Result as expected!

P.S. : I didn't even bother trying for the next class. But have been on(read: before) time since then!

P.P.S. : The opening lines of the timeless classic GMD are about Gango. :D

P.P.P.S. : Prof. Kakani, the other leg of the dreaded twosome set the stage for our seniors(batch of 2010) by the opening line : “You don’t get raped in XL…you get Gango-ed and Kakani-ed!”