Six months at IMT G: Haan Ji

Its been almost six months since we wannabe managers entered the portals of a certain insti called IMT G. Notice that I didnt use the adjective 'hallowed'. That said please bear in mind that the 'un-hallowed' is only in comparison with the IIMs :) The six months have been a roller-coaster ride right from day one when we lined up before SAC office, backpacks slung across the shoulder, form in one hand on a hot June afternoon.

That seems to be a long long time ago. What with staying up till the wee hours of morning and then making up for the sleep or the lack of it, in the classes the next day, to running around looking for Chanakya, Abhimanyu, Arjun, Chandragupta and the like in the first couple of weeks for various committee/club interviews( these are the rooms in the acad block which by the way i still cant figure out which one is where) to late night strolls inside the campus with friends agenda being bhasad - it is an experience of a different kind.

Ten things that one cannot miss here -

1. The Amphi-

This circular structure at the centre of the campus surrounded by trees is very much the heartland of IMT. Informal corporate interactions happen here.The official venue for class parties, this place has a nice cosy feel to it -not too big and not too small the diameter is just right.

2. The BBC -

Being midway between the mess and the hostel, BBC is most the frequented place and tells you the mood in the campus. If the exams are on then its a deserted whiteland, else this place is teeming with vella folks - some sitting on the sidewalk under the trees, some just strolling along aimlessly, some playing cricket on the cement under the floodlights

3. The maddening rush at the mess entrance adjacent to Block A when its ice cream time after dinner- There is a saying that talks about no-free-lunch. Trust me you have to 'earn' your choco-chip ice cream in the ensuing near-stampede

4. 'Haan Ji! Password type kijiye'

5. Gera Curve if you are taught by one Rajat Gera

6. PlaceCom Openhouse cant be missed.

7. The air-conditioned library - just for the summer season ;)

8. Tennis Court - This should have been #1

9. The lush green ground claimed by the footballers and cricketers alike; actually its neither going by the dimensions but its still fun playing.

10. (Edited) J Lobby - From project discussions to birthday bashes read GPL, from booze parties to exams, the square has a buzz about it, even at 3 in the morning, with its proximity to DLP and sutta stall outside the campus

PS: The best part of hostel life is the time spent with friends. This was a first for me in and I am throughly enjoying it :)

Disclaimer: The views are all in good jest and not to be taken seriously.

Rishikesh Ride: Trip Log

24th October,2009

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1030 hrs: Our Ops class done, we headed back to the hostel to pack for the ride, woolens and all with winter setting in gradually

1300 hrs: After a quick lunch, we were off. There was just the one motorcycle- my Std 350. Aravinthan, my friend and classmate riding pillion.

1330 hrs: We hit the canal road off the Delhi-Meerut road. (I love this stretch of the road.) Its a narrow road flanked by the countryside on one side and the canal on the other. The fern-like wild shrubs fluttering in the wind made for an awesome sight! We stopped by to take a few shots http://picasaweb.google.com/atmdeo/GTownRishikeshTrip#

With hardly any traffic, we zipped by at 90+ clocking 100 on a few stretches. With the sun on its way down, the temperature dropped gradually and the vegetation got thicker giving way to dense trees as we approached Roorkee.

After hitting Roorkee we took the highway to Haridwar. We stopped for a snack near College of Engineering, watching the sun go down for the day as we sipped tea and savoured the steaming pakodas- paneer was lovely. There is something about food during a ride -it tastes better than it would do otherwise! Maybe its the local cuisine that is unique to the place.

Break over, we hit the highway for the last leg of the ride. We encountered more traffic and the average speed dropped considerably. We were in Haridwar around seven in the evening.

With the temples all lit, the town of Haridwar looked spectacular. We rode on to Rishikesh without stopping. It was decided after reaching Rishikesh that we would crash for the night in the heart of Rishikesh - Ram Jhula. We checked in a cottage closeby (Krishna Cottage)

Brr it was cold- time to get the old mufflers and jackets out. Had dinner at Chotiwala. If at all you happen to be anywhere near, make sure you stop by here. After gorging on the different kinds of paranthas, palak paneer, we decided to take a walk on Ram Jhula. With peak season over, there were hardly any people there.The silver waters of the Ganges lit up by the crescent shaped moon looked poetic. Add to it ,the lovely breeze blowing. It was magical. We walked around for a good hour and a half after which we decided to head back and catch up on sleep.

Next day it was time for some white water rafting. We took a cab to Marine Drive- 26kms off Rishikesh. The rafting was fun. There was no untoward incident ;such as the raft overturning although Aravinthan managed to fall off the raft in the one of the rapids (the bugger wanted to fall off ). We crossed ShivPuri downstream and finally we were at Ram Jhula. It was four in the evening already. After a quick lunch at Chotiwala, we checked out and by 5 30 we were on the highway riding back.

Night riding has its own charm, although I prefer day riding. Roorkee onwards, we took the highway instead of the canal road.(Just a caveat, the canal road has had incidents of robbery in the night )

The moonlit night ride was fun. After covering majority of the 220 km ride, we took a break at eleven at Bikanerwala which was some 40 kms off Ghaziabad. The next stop was IMT.

All in all, a super ride and a super weekend. Aravinthan, thanks for coming along!

IMT Open - Finals- Amit(senior) vs Me

MadBulls 7A Kodaikanal Ride

With the memories of RM 09 RTMCishstyle refusing to fade away (quite literally the RM parking sticker on my Std is still there!) the prospect of one more ride, this time to Kodaikanal for Madbulls 7A was too good to be true. Got the registration done in the first week of opening. Before I knew it,I was up at 3 in the morning on the 1st of May and an hour later was riding towards Shell petrol pump, Silk Board the starting point of the ride. There were about 25 of us riding from Bangalore. Met a few old hands and some new ones too. 4 30 and we were off creating quite a din in the early morning hours ;)

The route for 480-km-ride was Bangalore-Krishanagiri-Salem-Nammekal-Dindigul-Kodaikanal. The idea behind the early morning start was to offset the traveling in scorching mid day sun as much as possible.The ride on the straights of NH-7 was uneventful till Salem. Did decent speeds at 80-90 consistently. Post-Salem there was this comic 'trench' episode in which there were three falls while walking, yes while walking and these guys werent even drunk ;) - Deep,Gokul and Sukrit. To be fair, the pits were small and deep, easily camouflaged with the colour of the soil. Though Gokul did sprain his ankle but it wasnt as bad as we feared initially and he could ride with a little bit of discomfort. The other two were lucky to get away without any injury. Infact Sukrit's fall was funny. Picture this - Gokul is lying on the ground after spraining his ankle and we are debating if someone could ride Gokul's bike. Thats when Goop with his pillion(Sukrit) stops by to have a look. Deep asks Sukrit if he can ride Gokul's bike. And Sukrit walking towards us, says 'Yes I ca...' and before he could even finish, he is in the pit too! Even as we were trying to help him out, we burst out laughing. It was terribly funny!!

Lunch was at Dendigul's Venu Biryani (guess it was Mamada's idea, who else!). Awesome place. The mutton biryani, mutton sukka and the mutton balls were just out of this world. If at all you happen to be crossing Dindigul ,whatever you do make sure you stop by at Venu Biryani for the mutton delicacies. Trust me, you wont regret it ;).

So after a sumptuous lunch we set off for the final stretch -the ghats. As we started to ascend, the coconut trees gave way to thicker vegetation and the temperature started to drop. There was a smattering of rain welcoming us making the ride even more worthwhile. As we got closer to Kodaikanal, we came across a group of MadBull riders,a few solo riders all on their way to Kodaikanal . It seemed all roads led to CliffTop Resort(the venue for MBMC 7A).

Met the MadBulls on reaching the place - Gunfight, Sim and Co. Got our rooms and must say the acco and other arrangements were great. Took a quick shower and then it was 'chill time'. Was wonderful listening to Prashi and his tales from the Raid. Loved the 'we-have-come-all-the-way-here-for-chai' bit ;) . Also got to know that Goop's M.B.A insignia on his number plate is not 'Mad Bull Ahead' but an MBA after all. There were several other such 'intellectual' discussions over the course of the two days. We slept, gorged on rich food, danced around the evening-bonfire with half-empty Old Monks in one hand (needless to say I was a spectator!) Great party all the way ,the two days. Nicely done MadBulls thankyou!

The ride back was the icing on the cake (no offence to the 7A cake we had :P). Took a different route this time. Kodai-Palani-Bhavani-Mettur-Thoppur-Krishanagiri -Bangalore. The entire ride was simply mind-blowing. Started at 4 30 from Kodai and doing the ghats early in the morning with almost no traffic was a super idea. Enjoyed every moment of the descent. Just awesome riding at dawn. As you get out of a curve, watching the tiny speck of flash coming from your fellow rider is one of the many things that makes group riding so much fun. Ok i got carried away. Where was I ? I had to give a break midway to cool down my bull's drums which were getting heated up. We stopped for breakfast after hitting the plains of Palini. Just when we were starting back, Ratish's kicker fell off. We let the group go ahead as Ratish and I put the lever in its place. Then we clipped to catch up with the group. Super riding that was too as we didnt know the route and had to stop for directions. It was a pleasant surprise to see my Std clocking 100 consistently. We caught up with the group after Bhavani. The countryside was wonderful all the way making even the heat bearable.

We had a final stop after hitting Hosur, where we said our goodbyes and went in our own directions.

All in all, a kickass ride. Thanks to the organizers for a smooth event and ofcourse the riders who made the ride possible.

PS: This will be my last ride for a while. Packing my bags for Delhi.

Breaking News

It doesn't matter which day of the week it is - it could be a mundane Monday morning or a lazy Saturday morning, the front page of the morning newspaper is bound to have a scandal of some sort displayed on its front page in bold letters and to go along with it a sleazy picture no matter how irrelevant.

Is it just me or do you feel it too that our media, both print and electronic considers negative publicity as the way to grab eyeballs and keep them glued to the tele or paper, whichever the case may be? Sure there are scandals and need to be brought out to the public, but in between there are some 'not-so-scandalous' news which deserve attention too. For example India's foray into space with the indigenously developed Chandrayaan hardly created any ripples in the media; or for that matter how many of you recollect the names of our Olympic medalists at Beijing 2008.

Why? Simply because it does not fall into the 'Breaking News' category. But if Dhoni happens to take a haircut in Ranchi that seems to grab the headlines for a day at least. Talking of examples we could even talk at length of the 26/11 carnage, where the media became the eyes of the terrorists by airing live the positions taken by the NSG commandos!!

We keep blaming the politicians for inflaming communal tensions, which is absolutely spot on by the way. But what about the role of the media? The moment there is an incident, no matter how trivial, there would be a reporter there on the spot interviewing the victim, almost egging him/her on to malign a certain person or a community. One thing leads to another and lo behold we have a '9 PM ka tamasha' which is aired across all the news channels each trying to take credit for the 'Breaking News'.

I would rather go back to the old Doordharshan /AIR days . The lady anchors draped in silk sarees for me, thankyou :P

PS: After a long time, posted two posts within a week :)

Cheers,
toejam

Winds Of Change

The first rays of the crimson morning sun entering through the window,

through the cracks between the curtains right into your sleep-filled eyes.

You drag the curtains closer, flip over to other side, eyes shut. This is one memory that lingers whenever I think of the holidays in the good old school days.

With my last working day fast approaching - 6th May, I can look ahead to a month of masti before I am back to school :D. Yes, school, B-school, yours truly converted the call from IMT Ghaziabad. Got Marketing , the course I wanted. (Link at http://imt.edu/) . Looking forward to meet some great minds and er... pretty faces ;). That is not to say pretty faces dont have great minds :P

Anyway, its goodbye IT and good riddance too :). Its a relief I can tell you. So its now time to pack my bags and head north. Will miss my friends here. Also will miss riding with RTMC. That said there will be one last ride to Kodaikanal on 1st May. Its the MadBulls 7A ride. Will come up with travel log once I am back.

PS: The campus at IMT G has flood-lit tennis court so wont miss out on tennis ;)

Those joining IMT -G 2009 Batch please join this community http://www.orkut.co.in/Main#Community.aspx?cmm=60677574.

Cheers,

Ride Safe

What Ails Our Society

It takes an Oscar winning movie, which delineates India's poverty, to make us sit up and take notice. The poignant scenes depicted are quite heart-rending. The point is not whether you liked or did not like the movie , the point is given an option we like to be in a self denial mode all the time. When I say self denial, I mean indifference, having a laid back attitude to life in general. It takes a jolt to stir us up. The motive behind the 1991 reforms was not so much a great vision ,as a last ditch effort to save our country from plunging into a financial crisis - we had a burgeoning fiscal deficit and were on the brink of defaulting on our international debt. Thankfully, that never came to pass, thanks to the then Finance Minister Manmohan Singh. Just goes to show that we are capable, but only when our backs are against the wall. On a lighter note, our cricket team over the years too seems to get its act together after a sluggish start. But why play catch up in the first place?

It must be an inherent trait we all share. I can certainly relate to it and can think of many others too. One reason lies in our upbringing. As kids we do we as we are told(to avoid being spanked), not often are we encouraged to take decisions. At best we come of age by 17-18, when I say of age, I mean in taking decisions. Compare this with an American kid. From about five or six onwards, the kid can take care of himself/herself(another kid too as a news report goes to show :D).

It can be argued that with India opening up to liberalisation, the younger generation of today is more independent with exposure to better standards of living. True, parents enrolling their kids in swimming or guitar lessons is not uncommon anymore. But this phenomenon applies only to the upper echelons of our society. We are still not a liberalised society. How else can we explain the several bandhs that hold the nation to ransom or the histrionics of the Ram Sena and Raj Thackeray! No, far from being a liberalised society,we have become a polarised society, with each side feeding off the other and thereby growing farther apart. Raj Thackeray , by swearing to weed out the competition emanating from north Indian states, has brought out anti-Maharastra sentiments in the youth from the North. The shooting case involving the youth from Bihar is testimony to this fact. Such incidents have political undertones and in no time the situation gets exacerbated, inflaming passions in our society and further fragmenting it.

With all this hoo-haa, does it mean we have finally woken up from our deep slumber? Yes and No. Yes because tolerance as a forte has been replaced with a sheer contempt for differing views. No because when it comes to real issues be it from fighting terrorism to development agendas, we are still dormant.

Here is a great chance with looming global financial crisis and deteriorating political system, to push for reforms - labour reforms, police reforms, judicial reforms, health, education - you name it, for the country needs it badly.

Its 1991 revisited again!

IMT-G Interview : A knotty Experience :)

Venue : BIT, Bangalore

Date : 15th Feb, 12 30 slot

CAT 97.43(DI - 89.45, Quant - 93.9, Verbal - 95.22)

X: 89.4

XII: 86.1

BE(Electronics and Communication): 73.27

Decent extra circulars

Work Ex in IT(19 months - Accenture)

1030 hrs: me and a fellow puy(now a good friend) take a cab to BIT.

1115 hrs : Reach venue.

1200 hrs: Have a quick coffee knowing that registerations will take a while

1345 hrs: Registerations finally done. Told GDs would start from 1415hrs.

1450 hrs: My name called for GD.

************************************************

TOPIC : Consumer is God in today's market.

Group: 14 guys and a pretty lady :P (turned out that many of us , correction all of us :), let her speak even in the close-to-fish-market GD that followed; )

Ground Rules: 5 mins to think. 8 mins to discuss and 1 min for an oral summary from each in random order. '2 min'(for sure it was less than 80 secs) to write down summary before the papers were submitted.

Overall GD Quality: 4/10(lots of good points, but too noisy to hear them )

Moi: 5/10 (came in three times with examples)

********************************************

1530: GD over. Wait for PI begins.

1645: My name called for interview.

G1-gentleman1

L-Lady

G2-gentleman2(not so gentle as i found out!)

G1: Gestures at me to enter.

L: Sit down(stares down at my imt form for a good min . Now i start feeling like a criminal applying for a parole )

L: So you did engineering from Hyderabad?

me: Yes(kuch galat kar diya kya!)

G1: Which entrance exam?

me: told AP state board's EAMCET.

G1: So why not MBA right after engg?

me: answered, G1 seemed satisfied.

G2: But you did waste two years in IT then!

me: Countered that statement with some gyan about exposure to corporate culture....being a team player...blah blah

G2: Whats your job profile?

me: Told.

G2: Asked me a ques about a customer having multiple credit cards, in different banks. How would I handle the data operations for our client( my profile being data transferring)

me: Told something about customer having one account in our bank and multiple credit card numbers associated with the same account and only one of which is active. Gave some funda of front end and back end and how data moves from the customer to database and vice versa. Mission accomplished !! got G2 confused or was he?

G1: (looking at my form) So you are a son of a Brigadier. Army ah! How has that impacted your life?

me: (jumped with joy hearing this..was waiting to talk about this..) Told abt my schooling across ten diff schools all over India. Got in some well choosen words adaptable, versatile ...blah blah

L: So bullet is your hobby? (she thought i was into guns, lol)

me:I own an Enfield Bullet and enjoy going on long group rides...

L: Do you read books

Me:Used to read sometime back

L: Read newspapers?

me: every now and then

L(smiling and for some reason looking at my tie): Which brand is your tie?

me:(you cant be serious....arre yaar tie mere dost ki hai...brand tho maine dheka nahi !)

me: smile back and say I dont know, feeling foolish

L(smiling): Ok you can leave. Send the next guy after 30 secs.

edit : Converted this call. Got PGDM-FT the course i wanted :gm:

Rider Mania 09 RTMC Ishstyle - An Unforgettable Experience

The much awaited RM 09 RTMC Ishtlye is now finally over. For those who are not aware, Rider Mania is an annual get-together of Bulleters from all over the country. This year, RTMC(Rolling Thunder Motorcycle club) had taken the mantle to host the gala event. The venue chosen was Sterling Fern Hill, Ooty.



The overwhelming response in terms of sheer numbers( 600 plus), meant that the event bookings were closed inside a week- yes a week(to think a day or two late and i would have missed out on the booking!). The organisers from RTMC had worked their backsides off to ensure this mega event took off. From roping in sponsors - Castrol, Kingfisher, Lee, Cramster and several others ,to arranging the logistics, be it accommodation or food or parking or security for six hundred fifty hungry bikers to running the whole show single handedly( i mean just as a bunch of individuals without any help from the self-patronising Royal Enfield)
deserves nothing short of a standing ovation.


Coming back to the Rider Mania, for once I will not talk about the ride to Ooty. This being my first RM, it was one kick ass experience or a get off ur ass experience as one of our sponsors would like to put it (no pun intended). I could write on and on about the beautiful landscape around the venue or the invigorating ,cool mountain air. I will just quickly list the down the things I liked about the event -

1. As mentioned above ,the choice of venue. I ,for one, have a fetish for the hills .The weather was great, not too cold, not too hot, just right. The accommodation was great. Great view from the window overlooking the valley.


2. Participating in the bikers' parade was one of the highlights of the event for me. 600 plus bikes thumping up and down the valley was a sight to behold ! The memory will remain etched in my mind for years together.


3. Got an opportunity to make new friends and also to catch up with some old ones.


4. To sum up , it was the indomitable spirit of the Riders that made the event a smash hit that it was.

< RM participants, please feel free to add/edit points >

Again hats off to all the Riders, organizers , sponsors and everyone for making the event possible.

Cheers,

Atmdeo

PS: Deluge of snaps and videos below :)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jilmil/3233806108/in/set-72157613036825927/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jilmil/3233806240/in/set-72157613036825927/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/naveenroy/sets/72157613060330078/

http://picasaweb.google.com/sushil.siddesh/RiderMania09?authkey=VTmpEFDGHDo&feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/prateek.sadhukhan/RM09?authkey=D2FXB1Iv_gk#

http://www.flickr.com/photos/70642088@N00/sets/72157613038047570/ http://picasaweb/. google.com/ sushesh/RM09RTMC Ishtyle# http://picasaweb.google.com/manan.sureka/RM09#http://picasaweb.google.com/arunn316/RM09?feat=directlink#http://picasaweb.google.com/jishnu.c/20090124RTMCISHTYLERIDERMANIA09
1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixHTWZAyrUE&feature=email

2)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iNc2mWJgmk&feature=email

3)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NX5cBmObhZw&feature=email4)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_q89XYu5v4Q&feature=email5)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xXwwm97-NU&feature=email
1) TV9 interviews Saamanhttp://in.youtube.com/watch?v=G4tone7ohis

2) Saaman as a doodwalahttp://in.youtube.com/watch?v=12LAYljbB9k

3) Inddiethumpers "make an impression"http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=CSZNaS0UO9o

TV Show:http://www.worldsgreatestbusinessmind.com/20090128-RM%20%2709%20RTMC%20Ishtyle-Organ~~risers-create.html&WT.mc_id=WGBM%7CCreate