The several phases of the first term...

Jun 21 to 29, 2010: The "Now is when I should start studying!" phase

Entering a college after three years, what with that being ranked as one of the best in India... The 'Cream of the country' had a rough time on an average, with people made to run around all day and night-the Orientation week. "I came here to study, I don't have time for these things", many people tell you - Awesome, you think. Real people who want to study! You wonder if you could be like that, like ever! Then, classes start on the 28th. You do the readings for the first day and walk in to the class with your head held high, thinking 'Heck, I am a padips...'

Yes, the phase lasts for a mere two days from there.

Jun 30 2010 till sometime in late July 2010: The "Tomorrow is when I'll start studying" phase

Amidst assignments, classes, cases and stuff, You forget that you have books to read. You'd always want to hit the bed or read some novel, wondering when you'll start writing your book. People study all night and you watch sitcoms all night. This is the phase you are branded as belonging to a particular set of students, some groups being DMLs (merit list fellows), studs, dark horses, cool dudes and dumbos. And oh, this is the phase when most people begin to stop attending phone calls.

Sometime in July to mid August 2010: The "... .... When will I start studying?" phase

Mid terms come running at you and you are nowhere near prepared. The guys who had put all-nighters till date continue to do so and that scares you a bit. The 'Will I Pass?' syndrome attacks you and you frantically search for your books and decide that you'll be better prepared for the end term. You realize that you do not know what day or date it is and don't know what happens outside the stone arch campus. You also remind yourself that you should buy a high-end camera within the end of the term. The mid terms come and go and you feel that you haven't done that badly. The results come and tell you that you did badly. You calculate your Return on investment to be near infinity (near zero investment) and convince yourself that you are better than the others. The branding into the dumbo group is near complete.

Mid August 2010 to  September 7 2010: The "... .... .... Will I start studying?" phase

Whatay! The term is almost over and all my resolutions to study are down the drain. You've already bunked several classes and you strategise your attendance for the rest of the term. You realize that you attended all the classes in, at max, one subject and you're not confident about that subject either. You realize that you've learnt a lot, which you'd have done anyway, even if you had not come here. In fact, you had read more about Organisations and Economics before coming here. You curse the system and say it should be more practical and more an environment for 'learning', at least at this level. Group projects, presentations,individual assignments, presentations and ta da, you are at the gate of the end term examinations. 

Oh, You should probably get back to that finacc group case. Bye bye.

September 8, 2010 - Sep 12, 2010: ??? 

*To be updated*

Debate, anyone?

Debating Club - A club whose mere existence I didn't like in my first year at CIT.

Two reasons:

a) I was a really bad stage artist and despite my English being something above sub-standard, once I got on the stage, I'd freeze.

Aah, I still remember that beautiful day at school after I completed my Higher Secondary exams. One would think that one cannot possibly get embarrassed after passing out of the school, especially when one is a topper (gloat, gloat). But then, I was at the school assembly once like that, and the Principal introduced me to the school and asked me to talk to the school...

I still remember that beautiful, fateful 'I... I... bah... I...' day. Faint. Sigh. It was so iconic that some teachers still remember me by that.

b) Such events increase(d) the competitor in me - something I so want to avoid. I am a very ferocious competitor and a very bad loser.. with a very low temper. A lot of you would think that I am just the opposite, because that's what I try to be, for my own good.

So, when I was forced to attend the Debating club events initially, I was like WTH. I remember my senior JP dragging me (genuine thanks for that) and a bunch of my room mates to the 'Mock press' event a few days into college.

We ended up getting all three prizes. Munish was Kamal hassan, for crying out loud!

I didn't know that I wasn't that bad. The curiosity in me took me to another event, in which I got the first prize this time. Quest came, and I got four prizes in the four good events I attended for fun. Whatay! (Muni was again my team mate in the two-per-team events - What's the good word, eh? Funtastic event!)

I got into the debating club after the selections in second year, though it was a slightly doubt-filled selection - given better speakers were left out. In any case, I attended a lot of events and tried to improve the way I spoke on stage. From a time when I'd be paralysed in front of a crowd  to a time when I wasn't that bad or self-conscious a speaker, the journey was urm...let's say, eventful.

The fourth year came, and I wanted the Debating Club to focus on juniors who were like me - scared shitless at the sight of a microphone or totally not confident about their English. The focus, then, was more on the elite - people who were already good having a gala time thumping the heads of the supposed weaklings on the walls repeatedly at every event. While I was lucky to be forced into it in my first year, many others weren't. Karthik tried what he could as the secretary in my final year, but the image didn't change much, or so I felt. I grew to hate a lot of such events that scared the not-so-strong from speaking up.

My idea is that such clubs should focus on the weak students - and try to bring them to the level of others, which the club at CIT is slowly but steadily orienting itself towards (hopefully). There are very few poor speakers here - I don't say we're all Martin Luther Kings.

So, here I am, in a college with the best speakers in the country - and there is a debating society that keeps interviews and selects the best of them, conducts events for the elite, by the elite and of the elite, and does such you-know stuff. Why am I writing this, by the way? We have an inter-section Turncoat event today (continuously speaking, switching 'for' and 'against' for the given topic at some kind of a signal) - where the best of each section fight for glory (and championship points - Go C!) - and it got me thinking.

My Question is "What's the point in having events such as Turncoat?"

All I am seeing in this is the generation of a bunch of Arnabs, who would keep asking questions and debating, regardless of the knowledge level or relevancy level. I don't even find these events to be fun - except for the odd joke, unlike the good old debates, quizzes or sports. Some might say this is about 'networking' or 'getting famous'. Whatever.

Share your views, people. Do you think there's a point? Do you find Turncoat or competitive-GDs (as against the collaborative group-case-solving ones) or JAMs interesting? Why are these the most widely held events (such GDs are even held for selection into a huge number of B_schools - thankfully not mine!), when they're the most pointless?

- The debate is On -

PS: Also ur feedback on the design change.

Deja Vu

There's this funny stuff that has been on at B ever since I reached here. I didn't know anyone beforehand, first year or second. So, I was eagerly looking forward to meeting new people. But is that what happened? No.

It was Deja Vu all over again. (get it?)

When I saw all the second years (and some first years as well), I knew that I knew nothing about any of them, but at the same time, I had a feeling that I knew everything about most of them. I knew exactly what they were going to say when they talked to me; I could guess the whole damn thing in advance! It's like they had been my subjects (scientific and not political) from one of my old experiments, doing what I thought and saying what I expected. I was actually scared for the first 3 days thinking on the lines of, "Did someone die last year? and I possessed by his spirit or something?" You know, according to my yard stick, this was the only non-crazy thought in my head. So, you can guess how obsessed I'd have been with the idea.

I still don't know or have any explanations on why I feel that I know most people here, but then, I've tracked a lot of things. Looks like Mr.A is from the college next to mine, and hence I could have seen him many times with some of my friends from there. And Mr.B, I don't know yet. Ms.C, on the other hand, looked like a combination of my relatives and Ms.D and Ms.E, they'd lived in my territory for a long time back in Chennai. It's a small world, uh? 

But what about the rest of them? The err... hundred of them? Well, I really don't know. Maybe I should get to know all these people better. Or maybe I am possessed. :)

PS: I didn't want to write about this, but then, I didn't know what else I could do with it. I had to tell someone about this without people thinking that I am crazy and what better place than this, where all my eight readers already know that I am crazy.

March 21, 2010

So, I was going back home from work early on the above mentioned date (that would be around 10 30 PM) since I had a flight to catch first thing in the morning. Flight? yes. To Bangalore. To attend IIMB interview on the 24th.  Yes, you heard it right... and yes, woo hoo.

So, I was going back home in a cab from Bandra to Borivali singing along with the "Uff, teri adaa" the driver had switched on. Little did I know what was in store for me at Andheri.

A couple on an old scooter thought they could cut a Mumbai Taxi at the base of the flyover. The one at Andheri (which flyover? the main one. No, the other one. Wait. Forget it. They all look the same to me...) The funny part was that they tried that out. The fun ended right about there. The Taxi, as one would expect, travels at a much higher speed than a twenty five year old Scooter model and this one, to add to its misery, was accelerating as it needed to climb the flyover. There was the scooter trying to move from its right to its left, but unfortunately ended up smack in the middle for the taxi to run over. The Taxi applied the extremely sudden brake, as I would call it, and averted that disaster. There was a Scorpio (I think) right behind the taxi whose driver had no idea what was going on.

BANG.

The taxi was near hurling itself towards the side wall of the flyover as the scooter couple watched in horror. The Scorpio which tried at the very last moment to move away, had hit one half of the taxi and had hence turned by 90 degrees and was moving in reverse towards the divider.

Are you asking where I was when this happened?

There was a second taxi right behind the Scorpio and I was occupying the front seat in that. Our driver was driving just as fast as the Scorpio and was so horror struck that he didn't step on the brakes. Our car missed the reversing Scorpio by inches. It was like going through a ring of fire, only infinitely more dangerous.

Inches... Even God wants me to live and study at IIMB, I think.

The question is: Will the evaluators want the same?