Stumbled Upon

After being sad whole day due to my WAC grade and the general pessimism i am experiencing these days i stumbled upon this blog.

It is such a refreshig idea. The blog contains pictures of bookmarks , notes and scribblings left by people in old used books and notebooks. The author of the blog works at a used books store and comes across these "Antiques" frequently.

It reminded me of my feelings which i have inadvertantly when i witness some beautiful spectacle of nature like a sunset , water bodies, hills , tee plantations, meadows, lush jungles e.t.c . The feeling which makes me say out loud that "There is more to life than just the materialism which forms the better part of our lives ".

Getting back to books, which i truly and dearly love reading, smelling and collecting. I also happen to scribble thoughts on pages and margins . Make bookmarks out of Old photos and post cards. Write on each book a short history. When did i buy it or who gifted it to me or anything diffrent associated with that book.

Memories. Sweet memories.

Reading Tinkle and Raj comics in afternoons after lunch . Swapping them with friends. Telling stories . Fighting over them . Taking them to school and reading them during classes . Miss those days. Days when my whole life was not about competition, grades, placements, cv and getting bullet points on my resume. When i was actually busy having a wonderful childhood.

Why did i ever grow up :(
Life should stop in class 9th and start over again .

Why worry about grades and materialism when there is so much more to life .

Learnings at IIMA

Statistics class

"The role of a manager is like a catalyst "

Quite aptly said .

I remember reading somewhere

"9 out of 10 people in the
world work for the 10th.I am training to be the 10th "

:)

Scamper.. Breathe.. Run



The title of the post pretty much sums up my life right now . I am currently in the shortest and the sweetest phase ; Breathe. This phase commenced post 5 traumatic days of WAC submission and Mid Term exams. WAC stands for Written Analysis and Communication , a course which aims to make grammatically sound managers out of us with expertise in report writing. Sounds cool right. It sounded to me also when i heard about it .

But i beg to differ after 2 such submissions and one peer evaluation. Writing a blog or cooking up stories is one thing but writing a report on some actual case which is supposed to affect some business and its stakeholders is another. We are supposed to analyse the problem , consider the options objectively and find the best one. Alas all options look the same to the harried students and one has to twist and interpret facts in ways to make the one of his choice (or was it the choice of the guy whom i met in mess today) as the one most delicious with a cherry thrown in at the top.

Somehow the report submission landed on our already taxed heads a day before the Mid Terms. Human Rights guys. Are you listening . Thus began my 5 sleepless nights . It was a group assignment so me and Pankaj started it at 11 in the night . Watched videos , talked and ordered and ate food from CT(Canteen in IIM Ahmedabad). Then the alarm bells rang and we ended up with a good enough report and 1 hour of sleep the next day . WAC run.. Um will tell about it later.

Then began the actual hiking. The mid terms . Studying for subjects is a zero sum game at WIMWI. You study one and the other is left out . The same thing happened with me and i was fairly comfortable in the day 1 exams but was totally at my wit's end in the next two.

The fear was so much that i actually went to a seniors and looked at last years stats about the number of failures . Thankfully they were minimal ,0-3 , in a batch of 300 +.

Having this assurance i struggled with them and eventually managed to do OK ( that is pass ) , i think . Another easy paper and my 5 day long ordeal ended. The exam got over at 10:30 and we got our next slot books at 1 :) .

This slot has 2 of the most important subjects - Marketing -1 and Financial Markets. I hope their Profs are good.

The exams ended and the whole campus was gripped and is currently suffering from the T NITE fever( along with an actual flu which has actually got a lot of victims on campus ). More about T NITE after its completion .

The highlight is that i spent one of the best moments at IIM Ahmedabad last night. Out of impulse i left my room at 1 in the night and strolled through the campus . The campus is so beautiful , serene and calm . The buildings here actually reassure you that you belong here . It gives you a sense of achievement. So many times i have confronted this question in the past month whether i belong here or not . But last night i knew the answer. And the feeling was amazing. I hope i carry this feeling always with me throughout my life .

The full moon looked splendid from the spot in the parking where i sat . The weather was perfect with cool breeze carrying the sweet scent of wild flowers . The feeling in my mind was satisfying and the thought of someone whom i was missing was pleasurably painful in my heart :)