First Day...

Today was the first lecture at this Well-Known Institute of Management in Western India (WIMWI)… We were introduced to the case-study methodology of studying management.
The thing here is that students are given a case to read and are also given all the relevant theory needed to solve the case as deemed fit to the best of the student’s ability. The next day, you will have around 50-70 bright kids who would have prepared for the case. In Enters the Instructors/Profs who would have more knowledge about the case than all 70 kids put together.

It is not unlikely that very often the case we are studying is going to be discussed by the same Prof. who was the consultant to the company at that time…

The discussions are often intensive and the value-addition is entirely dependant on how much effort one has put in the case.. The Prof. will not give answers. He will make you think…and if you want to add something to the discussion, you have to be well-prepared…
Sample this –

Student: “ Sir, I believe that this biscuit-making company is making a loss because it is
not a house-hold name.”
Prof: “Ok..So ..if it was a house hold name, everyone will buy this biscuits…?”
Student: “Yes Sir…”
Prof: “Hmm… So according to you, since the Al-Qaeda is also a Household name, you
will also have thousands of people flocking to Al-Qaeda for recruitment!!!”

Life in Binary

There is a system at Wimwi... it is a simple system...It functions in binary code..

If Submissions have to be made before 1.30 pm, it means exactly that...
1.30 and 01 seconds is not acceptable..

If classes begin at 8.45 am , you are welcome till 8.44 and 59 seconds...
Beyond this, you are pushing your luck..

You are either in time ...or you are late..
YOu are either in ..or you are not..
You have either passed... or you have failed..

In exams, your answers are either 100% correct.. or 100% wrong...

Nothing is considered grey...

You are either good...or you dont count...


This is the concept at IIM A... This is the system...

Sure, the system is not perfect.. But it works..and it works bloody well..
There is Zero-tolerance for being late... for being inefficient....or for your excuses...

I am getting increasingly worried about my well-being... You see, I thrive on excuses...add in my tendency to procrastinate, throw in my absolute disdain for punctuality and I am on a roll !!!...

So far, 2 alarms clocks, 3 friends from Mumbai with cell phones and one dorm-mate are intricately involved in ensuring that I wake up just in time to attend my classes...

Gawd!!! I am not liking it one bit...

Anyways, this is just the perfect recipe for my Misadventures... dont worry.. I will keep you guys posted...

..And dont worry...
At WIMWI, Everyone of us will count...!!!

Excel-lent

I am sitting in the computer centre right now...

It is 10.50 pm right now...

Under normal circumstances, I would have been sitting here for the love of Orkut, Youtube and associated time-pass browsing activities..

But noooooooooooo....
We are fachas in IIM A...
Trivial things like time pass is not for us mortals...

Me and the other 14 people sitting here are breaking our head on writing Excel programs that fall in that irritating realm of problems that just almost elude us...
Its like - sit here , look at the screen, look at the problem statement, look at the screen again, make faces at the screen, look around you and repeat the entire cycle...
It is like almost waiting for the solution to hit you... It been like that for the last 3 hrs !!!...

Everyday we have Computer classes at 11am to 1.30 pm and then 4.30 pm to 6.45 pm ... This is when we find out how much can we push our luck with Excel sheets... By the way, the timings are the official timings - that is when we have profs in class.. for the other 9-10 hrs , we try figuring out what the Profs were saying !!!...

Like all other things.. the prep class has its share of over-zealous characters who were earlier making a living out of writing these very programs at TCS,infy etc... Nothing wrong with them ..it is just the way, they will gloat over their Excel sheets... like some mama goose looking proudly at her gooslings..

These guys will complete the problem in 15-20 mins.. (This is the average time for normal people to UNDERSTAND what is happening in the problem...!!) Then, Mama Geese will flaunt their excel sheets - all replete with neat colour fonts graphs, and other 99 formatting tricks...

The conversations will go something like this
Me (Average Joe) : "This is one of those problems where we will first try to find the salaries of the employees and match them with their bonus incentives. Then somehow, get the highest paid employee and display his name..."

Enter HOT SHOT COMPUTER ENGINEER FROM HOT SHOT INSTITUTE AND WORKING AT HOT SHOT COMPANY USED TO WRITING HOT SHOT PROGRAMS
Hot Shot : "Duuuudddeee... You dotn have to bother with all that trouble. Just put a VLOOK on columns, using the INDEX and MATCH , get the columns and rows . Name your RANGES, and Put in a DSUM on the whole array with MAX condition on Salary Range and Display it... "

This is where Hot shot sees 7 people .. 4 with blank faces , 1 looking at the ceiling, and the other two looking bewildered beyond belief..as if they were just electrocuted or struck by lighting ...

It is kinda comical when such scenes unfold.. One guy will have all the gyan... and will try to explain to seven other people.. Usually two things happen
a) The enlighthened One while explaining the fundas , will lose his way...and lose his halo and become mortal again..
b) Seven ppl will think that they have understood the fundas, will solve the problem... next day, the prof. will ask 3 fundamental basic questions and we will end up back to SQUARE ONE...

I have to go now...
EXCEL-Lence awaits... and I want to play frisbee too... Waiting for others to come back from the movie...

The Prep Days..

I woke up at 8 am today..

Had a lavish breakfast - Cornflakes, Lime Juice, Bananas, Omelette, Aaloo Parathas ..

Turned up for Maths class..

After a disturbing insight of things-to-come like Probability distributions Curves, 4 hours , one coffee break and 15 pages of written notes later, We were free ...

Headed straight to the nearest mall.. turns out Levi is having a sale of buy one-get one free!!..
So splurged as usual

Ahmedabad has decent malls.. there is no single international/national brand that is not represented here.. from Ruf-n-Tuf jeans to Exclusive BOSE boutiques... they have everything here...

Returned at 6 ... had a yummy double cheese chicken sandwich...
Then went to play Football... had fun...

The Footers here have this ritual here :- The team which allows the first goal to be scored, have to remove their shirts.. so it is a common sight to find fat, overweight guys running around bare chested, puffing , panting, yelling like small kids..

Post dinner.. we head to Dorm 9.. we play carom, table tennis or pool...depending on what is available... it is around 9.45 pm and we are just warming up...

Then comes the event of the day - FRISBEE..

A simple disk , 14-15 over-enthusiastic fachas , and a well-lit empty LK plaza... and we are ready for a game thats been played on this campus for generations... Frisbee..

The game is pretty similar to basket ball..
You have two sides of 7 players a side...
No player can run with the Frisbee in his/her hand,
No player can possess the Frisbee for more than 5 seconds
The objective is to pass the Frisbee and score.
If a player drops the Frisbee, the other team gets possession ..

Thats all...
The amount of fun , the commitment of all the players, the masti, the spirit.... Its unbelievable...
You will have fat lazy sloths diving around, you will find players arguing about the millimeters by which a goal was scored/missed... we played from 10 pm to 2 am, stopping only because the cramps were killing us...it was fun... real fun
and the best part of it all was the camaraderie... genuine bonding ...

And in the final analysis... I guess... most of us preppies, wont remember much about Poisson Distributions or Little's Law.... But the one thing that we will remember is the spirit of the 35 odd students who were lucky to be called a preppie... uh, sorry.. make that an IIMA Preppie...


P.S : Later, we saw the new Indiana Jones DVD...hehe!! yeah baby!!!

The Basic Principle of Fuchadom

"Right now, you are like towels in a bucket filled with water...
Soon you will be squeezed ...and twisted...and stretched...and then the whole cycle will be repeated till you think you are at your limits....
And then..
you will be stretched once again ...and then once more..
But this time, you will prove that you are capable of working far beyond your perceived self-limits...
And that will be greatest learning you will take away from IIM-Ahmedabad..."
                                 
       - Sidd (Yum Yum) - IIM A passout... currently one of the most prolific  entrepreneurs in India...

People... and Interview Questions

This is a typical setting one will find at IIM A..
You will find four people outside Cafe Tanstafl (CT)...

One of them is a Professional Wine Taster from Mumbai
Second guy is a serial entrepreneur from Delhi who has opened and closed 3 companies including a dotcom in the past 9 years
Third guy is a professional Event Coordinator from Dubai
And fourth one is a Agriculturalist from Kerala..

And people say that IIMs are filled with Engineers... ( Yeah Right!!..and Cows will fly)

Trust me, the last thing you will be asked is what have you studied.. No body is interested in where you are coming from .. They do rather know where you are going!!!... 

So far I have come across a Doctor, a Sailor who travelled around the world and then gave it up to start a Apple Farmyard, a guy who made helicopters at Hindustan Aeronatics Limited , an editor from PricewaterhouseCoopers and lots of interesting personalities..

The Tuchas are yet to come back from their Summer internships. The remaning 200 Fachas will join ard the 20th June.. So I am expecting to bump into a lot many interesting characters... 

One of the batchies was narrating his interview experience - 
"Suppose there are 5 parachute jumpers in a plane. At an altitude of 14000 ft, they all think of jumping out of the plane. However, one of them changes his mind. How many jumpers were there in the plane at 14000 ft.. ? 

"Sir, There will be five jumpers still in the plane... There is a difference between thinking of jumping,  and actually jumping...!!" 

I was impressed.. I had gotten it wrong... So thought of asking the same question to other batchmates.. I asked 14 guys and 2 girls...
16 of them got it right...

Damn!!!

So far So Food...

 Its been a week now at IIM A...

More than anything , it has been the food that has been impressive..
Sample this ..(no pun intended)
Ras malai on Monday
Hot n Sour Soup - Tuesday
Chocolate Pastries- Wed
Srikhand - Thur
Vanila Ice Cream and Gulab Jamun- Friday
Vadilal's fruit Paradise Ice Cream - Saturday
Sweet Corn Soup - Sunday

And this was only the dinner that I was talking about...

The Breakfast is another thing that impressed me - Everyday there is a special dish prepared in addition to the Lime Juice, Cornflakes and Bananas that are kept ...

All this happens in the Student's Mess... Right outside the Mess, is popular student hangout...
Cafe "There Ain't No Such Thing As Free Lunch"  popularly condensed to Cafe TANSTAFL
 
 At no point in the day, would you find this place empty... For most people, this is not just a cafe.. it is a live saving device... The Student Mess closes at 9 pm ... and trust me, you will be awake for a lot longer after that... and the only place for food at 3.46 in the middle of the night is Cafe TANSTAFL.... so you are better advised to respect this place...

I continue meeting different people... Today evening, all of us were sitting on the LKP ( This is the Luis Kahn Plaza- named after the Architect-Genuis who designed the IIM A campus..)

Met a batchmate limping..
"What happened?" I asked

"Bloody Football!!.. "..(note- This guy is a 5ft 10 inch guy, about 90 kilos, the chubby jovial kinds..)

"What about it?"

"Learnt a few lessons today-
a) Over enthusiasm for the game after a gap of 3 years is not a good thing..
b) Respect Gravity
c) Respect your Body and most importantly, your body's limitations.. And lastly
d) Trying a never attempted cycle kick without considering prior experience, gravity, and Body Mass is the most Stupid thing one can do on the Football field!!!! "

With this, he limped off, clutching his back while we all laughed our lungs out...

I hope I keep meeting such specimens... Its the people at IIM A , that makes this place IIM-A..






 

Architecture, Weather and Water...

There are MBAs, and then there are IIMs and ..then there is IIM-A.

In the next few months, my life will change... along with me, there would around 250 others who too will share this experience.... We are PGP1.. the batch of IIM Ahmedabad 2010...

This is my story as it unfolds... The WIMWI reports...

I shall take try to make sense of the chaos that is ever prevalent here...

This year onwards , the syllabus is different... More on that -later..

Lets get this started..


The first thing that stikes one about IIM-A is the Architecture... (actually, it is the ridiculous heat and the humidity..but that kinda hits you at Ahmedabad station and remains with you all the time!)

The entire campus is divided into two parts - the old campus ( the one they show in magazine pics) and the New campus... There are 20 dorms in the old campus..and 8 new dorms in the new campus..

The entire IIM A is like a big city... it has schools, playgrounds, banks, tennis courts, fitness centres, gyms, residential blocks, offices , it has its own courier office!!

The first few days will go in exploring the campus, if the heat allows.. It is mindnumbingly hot and humid... so the heat will make you sweat...while the humidity will ensure that you remain sweaty all the time...
But trust me- I have not met a single person who has walked away unimpressed... This is the temple of learning..and the architecture never lets you forget that.. There is an awe when you look at these magnificent structures... It makes you WANT to come in...

The water here is queer... it tastes funny... Of course, a few ppl have no sense of taste ..and look at me when I tell them that the water tastes different.. They ask me - How would I know when water is tasteless to begin with??... duh...

The new campus rooms are bigger and more spacious... The old dorm rooms are more abt prestige and heritage...

Depending upon one's luck, one has to calculate the time taken to reach the classrooms... you would hate to be 7 minutes away ...esp when those 7 minutes could be used for sleep... more so when you know that for some people, classrooms are 30 seconds away!!...

I guess i have covered the architecture.. the weather...the water...
Next stop - the classes... the people... the return of Tuchas (second yearites..or the lucky people who had lost paradise...and regained it..)