Some thoughts on MBA- Part 1

Hi there. After long time i am writing again.
So I just want apologize for not keeping in touch for almost 1 month. Yeah I have my reason as usual. ( Now people don't say that i always find some excuse. The fact is i always have some excuse.) The problem here is, we have not received our laptops as of now. And if you see our computer lab then you will think that its not B-School at all. We just have 10 odd computers in there which are always occupied. Just imagine we are 500+ students using 10 computers. But these as****** still not giving laptops. So that's the biggest problem. So if anyone is using computer in lab he/she cannot use it unless he/she has some very important work like presentation.
Anyways so i got laptop from my home. And this post is possible because of my lappy only.
So it's been almost three months since i started this course. Let me admit first that this is really hectic course. I am doing it from ICFAI (IBS) Bangalore. When i came here i was almost lost in this world. You just enter into premise and you get smell of competitors. The atmosphere is totally different. Campus (whatever we have i.e. just one large building) is good in terms of facilities such as computer lab, library, class room ventilation, light arrangement etc. You will be surprised that i have included ventilation and light arrangement here. But believe me friends this is very important part when you have to study and concentrate. I realized this when i compared it with my Anthropology department. All my friends from Anthropology you must be remembering our corridor and class rooms which were small and light was almost nil there. That was the best condition to put anyone to sleep and especially when faculty is boring.
Then coming on faculty. I will not say that faculty over here is good. Definitely some professors who are form IIMs are the best on campus and the way they teach is something each and every faculty should adopt. We have Mr. Sukesh sir for our Marketing. He would just come and he would not dictate anything, but he will ask you questions that will help you to think and you will realize that you have actually thought and you have learned the concept by yourself. Especially this technique will be very helpful in Anthropology where lots of theories are there and there is no point in mugging those theories. But apart from these few people all other faculty is not worthy at all.
Another important thing is team projects. Doing project in a team is the worst job i would say. During graduation and post-graduation we had projects but very few were group assignments. But here in MBA we always have group assignments and presentations. So if you cannot gel with your group then you will be in deep shit. This definitely teaches some teamwork though. So how you complete these assignments depends on you and if you are successful here then believe me you will be able to work in any condition.
This post will be continued next time... bye for now!!

Smell of Freedom

Hands bound by invisible shackles
Some invincible force driving me
Tired and exhausted
I keep dragging myself
Hands want to get free
Legs want to stop
I keep walking a road
Same road indefinite, infinite miles
I have travelled till yet
Road, full of illusions
Of twists and turns, but straight in reality
Days and nights
Months and years passed
I met many travelers
Met and lost
Some are in memories
Some are lost as they are not worthy of keeping in memories (I think)
Some are still with me, keeping me alive, reminding me of my existence
We all keep traveling
With the kindled hope of
Finding what lies ahead
Finding someone who can free us
Free us from shackles
Someone who can outweigh invincible force
Some One who they call GOD!!!!

Failed

Yesterday TISS results were declared. And as expected i could not make through!!

Failed,
Don't worry, failures
are stepping stones for Success
Rejected,
Cheer up, there are
better things lining up for you
Who the f*** says so
All these are fantasies,
created by people who are very much successful
These are all exceptions,
as laws of nature state
There are always exceptions
But what about those
for whom there are no
stepping stone of success
No new door opens when
someone slams "The Only Available Door"
in their face
They are forgotten
They try to find their place
in this world of success
depressed and lost
They belie by smiling
believing silently
words of wise
hoping someday, somewhere
they will come across Success
and here I, also
one of the latter ones
waiting, waiting, waiting
and Wait continues.....

My MBA Journey Begins........

hi there.. it's been almost 15-20 days that I have not written in my blog. I was just busy. Only few of you would know that I am in Bangalore now and pursuing my MBA from ICFAI Bangalore. However I am still waiting for TISS results so I have not informed everybody about this. So as saying goes "it's not over until it's over"; i have kept my fingers crossed.
Anyways now it's been almost a week now and i am now trying to adjust to new environment and new people. Six people, including me are sharing 3 BHK flat. The striking difference that i observed here in this class is , the amount of aggression my fellow classmates showed. There are some who are extremely innovative, that could be seen in some of the impromptu presentations we had. Some of them may not be knowing much but the way they carried themselves was really "Professional". When i compare it with what we had in Anthropology difference becomes more stark. The environment over here is really Market oriented. I will write more someday.
These were the thoughts that came to me when I was sitting in my classroom and some professor was explaining Credit System that institute follows to evaluate our performance.

MBA INITIATION

Have you ever felt discomfort?
The feeling of anachronism?
have you ever given a thought that
you could be a "misfit"
Yes, I have, I have felt this many times
In a short life span,
Yes 24 years is indeed short span
What one sees in 24 years?
may be a part, a section of "WORLD"
World; that is enjoyable
World; that is painful
World; that is colorful and
World; that is filthy
How many of us have really seen and experienced
all these shades of the world?
That apart, how many of Aged
have tasted a real World?
Few, and perhaps only by disadvantaged ones
But here we are
Sitting comfortably
Spending enormously
believing to be future TIMES Tycoons
Our idols
yes Ambani, Tata and Bajaj

Perhaps we will be like them
Perhaps we may not
But we have to take care that
We would not see our futures
broken down in Grades and GPAs

ALL THE BEST FOLKS!!!

The Waiting Faces

This poem was written during the long wait for interview in TISS for HRM course. My Group Discussion was over by 10:30 am and then I had to wait till 5 pm for my interview. Before starting the poem I would like to give background unless which, according to me, readers will not be able to get what i want to say. There were many people waiting for their turn for the interview just like me. Some of them were fresh graduates, who were facing such situation for the first time while few were experienced like me or even having more than me. But all were anxiously waiting for interview to get done and as they came back from the rooms where interviews were taking place, I came to observe their faces, and everyone, no matter experienced or otherwise showed same expression on their face and this poem occurred to me. And I thought of putting it here:

The Waiting Faces

For how much Time
Shall we wait?
Asked faces
Faces, that were tired
Faces, that were pretty
Faces, that were anxious
Faces, that were waiting
For their future

For how much time
Shall we wait?
It was already four hours
Gone in wait for "Questions"
That would answer
If their "Wait" is going to end
This year or one more year shall they wait
Before ending "The wait"

Some faces, relieved
Some faces, despaired
Some faces, happy
Some faces, confused
Such faces were
The product of our system
Some faces, young
Some faces, experienced
But they were all there
Together, waiting
Making no distinction
As such there is no difference
Between faces
Who are "waiting"

Here is the true story of Photojournalist, its a story of his Life, Achievement and his Death. (Source: http://backissues.cjrarchives.org/year/94/6/apartheid.asp)

Eye on Apartheid

by Judith Matloff
Matloff, a Reuters correspondent based in Johannesburg, was Kevin Carter's housemate, colleague, and friend.

Last April, the South African photographer Kevin Carter was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his picture of a well-fed vulture stalking a starving Sudanese girl. In May, he came to New York to receive his award. Two months later, the thirty-three-year-old news photographer connected a hose to the exhaust pipe of his red pickup truck and gassed himself to death. Journalists who had buried colleagues killed covering South Africa's turmoil resumed their grim role of pallbearers. Carter himself had barely missed being killed covering incidents in Tokoza township, the township where his best friend and colleague Ken Oosterbroek was later shot dead.

Carter had been documenting the political turmoil in his country since 1983, when he was hired as a photographer by the Sunday Express. His first Time cover came the next year. Thereafter, he worked for most leading South African newspapers -- The Star, The Sunday Tribune, and the progressive Rand Daily Mail, which later became The Weekly Mail -- and finally Reuters.

The violence seemed to affect Carter more than it did other colleagues who managed to shrug off with joints and jokes what they recorded on film. Returning from particularly upsetting assignments, he would often cry, or try to drink or drug himself into oblivion. Friends grew used to his 3 A.M. phone calls, rambling about suicide. He said that after shooting the Pulitzer-winning picture, he "sat under a tree and cried and chain-smoked. I couldn't distance myself from the horror of what I saw."

Carter's private demons were closing in on him when he returned to South Africa from New York. His suicide note said he was "depressed . . . without phone . . . money for rent . . . money for child support . . . money for debts . . . money! ! !" But he also lived with the demons familiar to all those whose profession makes them witness to horror. "I am haunted by the vivid memories of killings & corpses & anger & pain . . . of starving or wounded children, of trigger-happy madmen."

Randomness of thoughts

There is no electricity, thoughts are running here and there
Remember there is a rape victim in Delhi who was beaten for her crime of disclosing herself as a victim of rape
Inflation in India reaches new highs
Kumble is not fit for today’s crucial test match

Its been half an hour, electricity still has not come
Have to do something for this power cuts
What will happen next Friday, have to get through this interview or prepare to go to Bangalore
But hope is the best word or sedation
Hope this will happen
Hope that electricity will come soon

One hour and some more time has past now
Still no improvement
Mosquitoes having good feast
There is repellant in room that might be attracting them
Can we play better tomorrow, hope Dhoni’s boys will
Again hope
Have not stepped out of house today
Lets go for a stroll
In night and in no light
Because power still has not return

Oh man, power should have come by now
You asking why? Its been past two hours
Cant can not be done
Have to have some good talk
But how

Alas I can see light, power is back
Let us watch TV
But truth is you can not go away cant
TV is blurting out same stories that I mugged up for last three hours
Just switched off the TV
Let us write some thing
Something good, nice
Entertaining, imaginative, intelligent

But what am I writing
wasn’t it better then, when there was no electricity
When there were random thoughts
Floating in me
Rather than this, on this page