About 5 minutes before the scheduled start of a test, we heard loud sighs of relief from the floor below, one that houses 2 classrooms. As we were wondering what had resulted in this came the announcement that the test had been cancelled. What resulted was a marked deviation from the usual in "L cluster", most importantly decibel levels . About 350 of the so called "leaders of tomorrow" were celebrating the momentary relief by clearly putting their vocal chords to best use.

But most people walking back probably had no clue what they would do in this new found free time (or wondering about the next deadline that has to be met). This has more or less what the last 2 months have been for me. A schedule has been made for me and all that I do is run with it. It has gotten me thinking about what has really happened to the things that I used to enjoy and those that I used to look forward to eagerly. Maybe the life around here is designed to be hectic and as the lines of poem Leisure goes , "there is no time to stand and stare".

There have been some special moments that I cherish, but most of them just zoom past me and it eventually takes some time for me to realise that they would indeed fall in the "once-in-a-lifetime" category. These are the times that I would like to live through longer, enjoying them in it's full beauty without the worries of what the future holds for me. I can picture the look of disbelief on the faces of many people inside the campus as they would disagree with me writing this. For, the reason is that I have succumbed to the pressures of the environment and am truly left wondering at what cost have I changed myself to suit this place. I no longer find the time to be in front of the T.V whenever Arsenal steps on a football pitch, have a track of the cricket tournaments happening in the world, read Dilbert at a stretch, watch "The Contest" for the 186th time, stubmling upon random blogs in the cyberworld and probably most importantly writing the occasional post on this blog about whatever leaves a mark on me.

These and many more are the things that I would truly like to be a more significant part of my life in the next 2 years I spend here. Everytime I walk in front of the room M-14, memories flash in front of me, a re-run of an old episode which could have led to a very signifcant change in my "script".

And yes, A Happy and Safe Diwali to everyone of you reading this post (as long as that is within 2 days of posting :) ).

6 weeks and a set of mid-terms down , I have finished more than half-a-term in this place now. The words most often heard inside these walls are " This too shall pass" . Many of our classrooms are interesting for those special "examples" through which "concepts" are taught.

A few excerpts from our classes so far :
(I fail to relate what concepts most of them relate to, for they mostly went somewhere over my head)

Managerial Economics - Prof. Ranganathan. V

"Mere inefficiency cannot get you fired in the public sector"

"It is always wise to opt for education ahead of sports, for here, a lot of mediocres are tolerated"

"It's all over. It's like marriage" (On Sunk Costs)

Financial Accounting - Prof.Padmini Srinivasan

"All accountants know the cost of everything and the the value of nothing"

"If one of your legs is on ice and the other on fire, on an average you are fine".

"In India, we do not know which way to follow - the U.S way or the U.K way" ( On Accounting Standards, but I guess it can be generalised to everything).

Manish Sabharwal , Founder Teamlease (Guest Lecture)

"Why bother digging with shovels, when you can do so with spoons? " (On NREGA)

"Secret to success is being at the right place at the right time. You never know what the right time is so you hang out at the right place all the time" (Quoting Calvin)

"You dont have to be Cleopatra, you have to be less ugly than your competitors"

"Strategy is the art of creating an unfair advantage"

"We did not write the 11th plan, but the 11th version of the first plan" (On working with the Planning Commission)

"Know your customer or Kick your customer" (On Banking Infrastructure in place)

"Most of my competitors are either criminals or politicians, often both"

"The notion of a taxpayer paid social security is science fiction"

"MBA is the most intellectual wine tasting session that lasts longest"

"Post mortems have a certainity over prescriptions"

"You married a pregnant bride , you can't take credit for what happened" (His dad's comment on his company's success".

"You have to kiss many frogs, before you find your price/princess"

To end it, something which acts as a comforting factor for me most of the time, heard in Prof. Rishikesha.T.Krishnan 's class :

"In the long run , we are all dead" (Quoting Keynes)

It has been more than a fortnight since I have reached the campus of the place to B - IIM Bangalore. Life has been a "Series of fortunate/unfortunate events " over this period of time. Each week has been characterised by a particular theme and significantly none of them have been the magic word - Academics.This was more or less on the expected lines for that is what a B School is supposed to be , not just the Education , but much more than that.

The first week that was essentially spent in getting oriented to life in IIM Bangalore , will probably remain the most interesting week I shall remember after these 2 years. With the second week going off with the facchas trying to prove their worth to seniors through Aarambh , the cultural show put on by us to entertain our seniors. Sleep is the most luxurious thing inside these walls in Bilekhalli and something which the freshers realise in the first week, for I hear "Zombie" has become an annual feature at Aarambh.Amidst such activity , something else started off - Classes. They have just become another of our daily activities, we can either choose to be prepared for every class with all the prior readings or you can be present at the class, sign the attendance sheet and try catching up on some lost sleep if the professors do not mind. Fortunately for me, every professor has taken a different approach to the subject and none of them which is scaring me about it. I have opted to attend the classes, but as to contribution I doubt what I can do on those lines.

And the last 5 days have truly been the benchmark of the ratrace, the mad fight for that single biggest bullet point in your resume which can get you the coveted Day 0 Shortlist.Noone really knows how significant that line can be and how that can give you a "spike" in the resume which your past 20 odd years of existence has not given , but you just do not want to risk missing out on that. And let me tell you that, I too am running, partly worried as to why truly I am doing this and partly being ready to agree to the fact that it is the fear of a being tortoise in this ratrace.

354 other people have joined me in this journey , many of whom are just simply exceptional and to say the least , it's plainly scary to know that I will be competing with them.But I dont think that will be bearing heavily on my mind throughout the next 2 years ,for slowly everyone of us will become just another PGP1 (and hopefully PGP2's next year) who is trying to prove Darwin's theory of "Survival of the Fittest" wrong . As the days progress , the challenges increase and we either will ourselves to fight it out or we just know what we are best at , realise our limitations and know where we stand in the crowd. The last 20 days have been intimidating, frightening and overwhelming but I am slowly realising that this place is Mostly Harmless.


P.S:
The theme for the next week is the magic word , 4 quizzes and I get the first true taste of "competition" around here , I hope I survive to narrate the story.

It is only in the last 6 months that I have truly experienced what "Bachelor Life" is all about in an Indian city. Even though I have been away from home during college too, this was something different , not in a hostel, no running for tuts , no curfews , no supres/wardens to watch out for and watching CL matches in your own hall, not a lodge.Lest I forget all this was funded by the wonderful "hands-on" experience creating internship ( aptly title Practice School) which was very very educative indeed.

The fact that all of this happened in Hyderabad , a city which I had been in last summer , was slightly familiar with and had a little knowledge of helped . After using the expertise of people around me for the first 1 month, I knew which were the eat-outs to which you could go to , where would be the best "ambience" for sports matches and of course the hip and happening places in the city. For those planning to visit the city , know that Chutney's is the place to go to for the Steamed Dosas, Guntur Idly's, Babai Hotel Idly's , exquisite Sambar and mouth-watering coconut chutney , Malgudi for authentic south Indian food and any of the Ohri's for the ambience. K Circle at YMCA and HQC proved to be the occassional tonic to keep myself in touch with the Quizzing world. As time moved on after the interview phase , I had more free time than anything , making more friends , having more "fun" and the only complaint I had was about the"Paying Guest" I was staying. Thankfully for the last 2 months, I live in a house and not a hostel.Friends from last summer - Arun and Kaushik ( who have now started on with the second "child" after Lootstreet ) were also around for the occasional get-together and Poker times amidst their busy schedules.Sandeep Prakash too could always be met in one of the book outlets on a Saturday evening for a pre-Poker conversation, looking forward to you making me familiar with Bangalore too.

The best part is and will remain my stay in the flat -Praveen , Pradeep, Thiaga and Mani being the other inhabitants. During this period , I have evolved into a fairly moderate "cooker" under the guidance and mentorship". The 5 of us have cooked 4 course meals and had lunches/ dinners while watching all-time favourite "Jest 4 Jolly" comedy clips from Tamil movies. There is nothing that can beat getting up in the morning, making a cup of coffee for yourself, watching the 1 hour back-to-back F.R.I.E.N.D.S episodes with a newspaper in your hands.All the conversations in the flat - the tips for becoming an excellent "peanut farmer" , Sports/Politics related arguements with Praveen ( more so when both of us were sitting in adjacent buildings in Oracle with absolutely nothing to do and debating over the transfer policy and brains of Benitez,Wenger and Florentino Perez) , cursing Dhoni for the CSK loss,disapppointment at India's catastrophic failure, ex-flatmate Psyche's nonchalance, "Ok Boys", never ending comedies and many more such special moments are just a few things I will miss.

Goodbye Hyderabad , I will miss everything from here - Hi-tech City, Rock View apartments, Cafe Nandhini, JMJ meals and being around each one of the above mentioned people. Here is to knowing that we will definitely be meeting again sooner or later .

An ode , 4 years of engineering , 3.5 years of village life , 0.5 years of "work-experience" , 8 semesters of "Education". A lot of memories, a series of amazing incidents , unforgettable times.In a format that is special to BITS. Here is how I remember 4 years in Pilani.A collage of almost everything I have been through.

0 % Attendance. You are a smart ! Retailer in 3rd year. Being "parliamentary". Lounge Piranha at 3.30 am.96 hours - Oasis and not desert for once. Galeez . Cheese Pizzas at Sky. Pappuji. PPW,MNB,Blue Moon,Chimpuji.Saint and Flatley - ELAS as a phoenix.Galeez.Magic of Wholesale and Retail.T20 finals in Audi.Heena at BOSM. Catfight at BOSM Girls BasketBall. OD's gift to Sponz. DOPY's truly "amazing" snaps, more so on delivery. Running from chowkis. "Are you a superstar ? " - Satpathi D.K. Roadies Audition - Devrishi shines, in Bear's room. Sitcom marathons. "Xchng Plsss" . Trivia, DC ++ . Dude/BOB/Kadalai/CRC Iyer. Chitappa's Night outs. "Interaction Sessions". OHT,OQ,BOB, AVQ. First Blood. Wordstock. Treasure hunt "decoys" and "Ahaa" moments."You are David".APK as Nathuram Godse.Nightout in C Lawns - Psyche grinning and "happy" throughout. Arsenal Vs Man U in CR , in high spirits. "How long can a 50 gm toothpaste tube last for 9 people ? " - Galeez has answers . Adirad saving me on Birthday(s). One comp for 8 eight Illads in first year - Janki, the man ! Kevalramani's EG classes .Challenges to VVS Pavan, the COSTAN ( or whatever it is rightly spelt as). Go "Fill Arbit Name here" Go ! DumbCharades in FD3 , the night before Workshop compre."Who Moved my Quiz" - India Quiz 2007. "Niiii!" - Shilpa. The best guitarist BITS has ever seen - You Know Who . Kaiser, the camper - Chitappa's CS avtar . EPC stapling sessions. Intros starting with "Myself XYZ".Suicide Notes in SMS language , courtesy OEP.OHT QM asking for a "peg" before the quiz.CL matches in Pilani Lodge.Sharma's Dinner. Revamped ANC , still "Sweat Maggi". Haran Rajkumar ! Aravind's fight for supremacy over the SWD Website - Instances : Nilam "Sweet" Babu,"AFHQ" . SUBASHREE@NAGALAKSHMI R. Specially for Illads, SAC Lunches. Psenti-sem without a wing. JB and Chitappa going at it. Chitappa neads black charts! Special entrant in Lights Booth. Bear beating up Ashwin.The secret Swimming Pool break-in.Joseph's never ending analysis of PS.Kiddo in demand.Chari and his secrets. Kaushik's love for robotics. Aswin's love for the truth. CuppyCake! CP 1, CP 2 "Evaluated Labs". Vivek's "Mech by choice" . Himesh! King Mama/Ravishing Ravi/King Diamond ! APK going "cuckoo" . Ramya looking lost all the time.Kairali Grubs and Dhotis.Beg/Borrow/Steal for Batch Snaps. "Happy Days" at Batch snaps.Vivek's walk-in pics. Super Special KC in the mimes.Psyche, Vasanth,Kutts and me at Mithali."Have you read Fountainhead" .The two wonderful TA's. Mech "reaching steady state takes infinite time" Labs. Upto 300 % error accepted.School Kids in Roctaves.Gossip Girl . Operation Deltaforce( Did I get the name right ? ) . "Love is in the air" 3-1 , also the article and after-effects.Wing Formation Politics. "Dont you just simply love Wodehouse" - Psyche in 3-1 . Psyche's special nuances . Impartial Chittu and Pres Treat.Mama's Sports Quiz - D13's sledging. Informals and ELAS tie-ups. KOTA karthik and his CraCing abilities. Anand Iyer - "Give Gossip".FL@SH-"Orgasmic" over TB's on DC++."I ate Zebra" says the Bear. List of missing items APK is responsible for. APK and his hidden stash of Pringles and Chocolates. Vladtepes being a madman.Mighty Joe young. Cheeku and the Saint fighting over hidden secrets from school. Kaushik throwing mudballs."You cannot eat Hide n Seek during Audi Ragging" . The EC brigade and their bags. Dhall hugging trees. Seinfeld- The key, starring Gangster ! No tracks for Pilani - save us from the dacoits.Bunty's, Chirawa and Punjabi Dhabas,Unforgettable "Good times".


For everything else , there is mastercard, this is simply Priceless.

To all my batchmates, wishing you a great future and the hope that we keep bumping into each other at every turn in our lives. Comments with more such lists would be really great, for that is the only place where I can add things that I have missed out.



P.S:

No Offences meant, extremely sorry if anyone feels hurt.

Despite having possibly the most balanced team in the Indian Premier League, Chennai SuperKings contrived to lose and that too in a pathetic fashion in the semi-finals.I am pretty sure every Chennai fan would have strangled M.S.Dhoni to death, if possible as soon as they saw the starting XI for the match. I cannot not rant and vent out my feelings of depression on seeing the same, please excuse me for this post.

1.There was no logical explanation for Jacob Oram being an "important player" . Despite never being used as a bowler in the league stages, the captain believed that when called to do a job Oram could deliver the goods.The reasoning would have been extremely sound if Oram had been used consistently throughout the tournament, been used to bowling such a thing called as "dibbly-dobbly"/millitary pace/ medium fast.It clearly showed when Oram could not even hit the deck and managed to save some trouble by using his expertise to concede 14 runs in 4 balls.

2. Mike Hussey. It is probably only in a country like Australia that a player of the calibre of Mike Hussey could be kept out of the national team till he was 28( 30 in case of tests ! ). Irrespective of however excellent Jacob Oram is , nothing should have kept Hussey out of the Chennai Super Kings team,especially after he made himself available despite the taxing international schedule for the knockout stages. Form or no form , any Chennai school kid knows who Mr.Cricket is , only the man in charge doesn't.

3. The love for small town boys has been carried a bit too far. Joginder Sharma and Manpreet Singh Gony do not win you matches. The captain seems to be in love with "rural development", but you are not being paid for that, you are being paid to win. M.S.Gony's 2 overs cost 23 runs, it always has. For no fault of his, Sudeep Tyagi was missing from the line-up, his 2 overs might have cost the same, but it probably would not have been the rank long-hops and full tosses that deserved to be smacked. Tyagi seemed to have mastered the art of bowling 2 overs in the start, taking a wicket and getting done with the job ( except for maybe McCullum). This was not right and might have lead to the team's victory, hence drop him !

4.Taking charge was the captains responsibility and man did he do it well.Throughout the 2 seasons of IPL, Subramaniam Badrinath was grossly under-utilised.A player of his mould is best coming in at no.3/4 in the first ten overs after the fall of wickets, not in the 18th over when you use your ingenious batting technique to swat balls down the track. But again this might have lead to better performance and hence forget that.The innings in the semi-final was excruciatingly painful to watch, the consolidation and building up was much better left in the hands of Badrinath, the "slam-bang-thank-you-ma'm" is something which players like Badri (I should add Dravid too here) cannot learn.

I do have my own theory which can back this up, the performance of Badri could have cost one very good friend of the captain a place in the test side. Badri is due a place in the national test team, the fact that he fails to suck up to Dhoni is the cause for him not being there is disheartening. Smacking Stuart Broad for 36 runs in a T20 match does not make you fit to become a test player.

The failure was in no part the fault of the players, the fault lies in all its entirety with the "Cool Dude" - "Win my Love Songs " - "I can field as badly as you guys too" Captain Fantastic Dhoni. Being Cool is over-rated *. It does not bode well if you stand around and smile while your team is dropping catches left, right and center . In the semi-final,where you have a small possibility of winning, this demands some intensity/display of emotion/inspiration from the captain, which was very clearly missing.In sharp contrast at the other end the captain was Anil Kumble and you could clearly see the difference in attitude.

I have always stood with the fact that Dhoni has been riding his luck. The current Indian team is probably the best ever to play in a long time, we have a good pack of pacers up front who can perform in any set of conditions, few decent spinners ( according to the cricinfo Page 2 resume one of them is the best spinner for India abroad after Irfan Pathan ) and a batting line-up which no longer revolves around one man.This team does not need an inspirational/special/magical/made in heavens captain, it will probably perform the same if the "match ke pehle first ball" captain continues to captain the team throughout the T20 World Cup.

At the end of the tournament, none of the teams looked like champion material.Though, I really feel for Anil Kumble, under him the Royal Challengers were a different team, he did his best and the others just could not deliver when it mattered. The IPL is yet to be won by an Indian captain - Sachin can never be a great captain, Dhoni's luck has run out, Kumble needs an ounce of luck and Yuvraj needs to do something other than take hat-tricks (Sehwag/Gambhir dont deserve a mention) .It is going to take sometime coming , but I hope it comes soon.

P.S:

1.The T-20 "Champions League" beckons and in all probability that will be a bigger farce (or in Lalit Modi's words "Marketing Success" ) than the IPL . Do the rules of the IPL stick there too ? - Not more than 4 overseas players ? Isn't that putting Deccan/RCB/Delhi to a disadvantage ? If you know the answer, please leave a comment.

2.*Thanks to Srikanth, my PS team-mate for this.