Globe !

Today I wish to speak about a phenomenon very common in every B-school - GLOBE ! The nomenclature might be different, but the concept is omnipresent and penetrates every kind of business school in the country and probably elsewhere. In fact, not only business schools, 'globe' is usually the major constituent of most casual discussions and political manifestos. Globe is vague, but ususally delivered specific to a context. Being such an inseparable part and parcel of our lives, it was not a surprise to see that the Student's Cultural Committee had chosen 'Globe' as the theme for Unmaad - IIMB's Cultural Festival.

The thought of writing about globe did strike me very early in the first term itself, but the complexity of the task coupled with the 'hectic' schedule here forced me to procastinate unwillingly for an incredibly long time. 'Globe' is most evident during case discussions. As soon as the professor asks for comments on the case, he announces WAR. A shrewd battle of confidence, dominance and timing to put in the much needed CP a.k.a Class Participation, which is one of the graded components of our 'performance' in some courses, starts and the proper identiable aspects are covered within the first two minutes. This is exactly the point when globe starts to come into the picture. Often this is in the form of someone very cleverly trying to paraphrase one of the already mentioned points and trying to project it as a new direction. 'High level globes' like 'their procurement strategy needs to be improved', 'the discontent needs to be addressed', 'the environment is dynamic and the company needs to be flexible in its outlook' are some examples which give a very broad outline of what is obvious, but no specific way as to how to go about achieving these objectives.

Now, I am not at all against the idea of globe. In fact, it turns out to be the only savior while writing project proposals. One glance at most of the project proposals submitted will make you wonder if these guys are actually going to change the way business is carried out world over. However, a closer glance will reveal time-perfected techniques of putting in globe at the crucial and critical places without going into the details. I dread to even think of the reaction of people who would have read 350 of our "Cover Letters" and "Statement of Purposes", which is nothing but well-articulated and formatted globe. A perfect example of globe could be this very blog post, where nothing substantial has been written, yet it might give the impression that I have pondered enough about 'globe' and took a lot of pain to actually put down what qualifies as globe.

Of Lounges(Ouch!) & L^2

One of the most important aspects of life @ IIMB is the L^2, rather the L^2 parties. Our seniors had planned our first L^2 at the end of the rigorous 'orientation week'. Many of us had heard about these fancy parties, but the real thing was worth getting our asses kicked for a week! I take the liberty to start with the boring details first - the name L^2 is simply because it is a L-shaped elevated platform, with stairs and a small basketball court. These parties are organized by the Student's Cultural Committee(fondly known as Culcom) and I am not very sure about the frequency of such parties, but I sure hope they happen more regularly.

The party started at 11pm and it was meant for two reasons - Firstly, to welcome the new "fachcha" batch and secondly, to celebrate the DMLs. Now, DML or Director's Merit List holders are a different species of people on IIMB Campus who have managed to trounce the competition and emerged as the 12 people with the highest CGPA on campus. So, the party was flagged off by the DMLs with a bottle of champaigne and then some numbers by the rock band. Meanwhile, the bar had started in the background and junta was automatically crowding that corner and demanding re-fills of the free booze. The stage was then cleared and the DJ equipment setup. L^2 was now ready - Disco Lights, DJ with blaring music, Students with most of them a peg or a can down. The girls didn't miss the opportunity to come all 'decked up' for the first party on campus and our eyes weren't complaining either. The guys were also at their best with party shirts and similar stuff. Slowly, as the booze flowed freely, the hips started swinging and the mood was setting in. Then, it was an all-night non-stop party till 4.30 AM ! Surprisingly, most of the girls did stay till the end.. I had two pegs each of vodka and whisky and found that it aids dancing a lot. My arms and legs didn't hesitate to the music and I had a rocking time. This is the definition of fun at IIMB - L^2 !

Now, the sad part of the blog - Lounges. The concept of lounges was started by our seniors, who were creative and took the initiative of making these 'madhushalas' in almost every hostel block. The ambience of a mini-bar was replicated very well in these. They all had names like 'A-top or Madhushala' , G-Spot, J-Bar, etc. Very creative use of coloured lights and old banners and publicity posters. We 'fachchas' were looking forward to inherting these lounges, being a part of them until one of our own batchmates stabbed us all in the back. Someone had gone straight to the Director and reported about these lounges and the supposedly 'bad influence' they were having on us. End of topic. The director entered the hostels for the first time in years and ordered an immediate closure of all lounges. Sad ending to a great inititiative.

Thats all for now, have lots of studies to catch up with. Managing Organizations (Globe !), Financial Accounting and Business Statistics.. 3 tests next week.. Shit, I should have studied instead of writing this crap !

First Impressions

Its almost been a month since I've set foot into IIM Bangalore and my experience of this place has been loaded with surprises. The initial preparatory classes started off on a very light note at a time when there were very few people on the campus and it seemed quite dull and lifeless, devoid of any activity. Financial Accounting was not that fearful a monster that it had been made out to be. Preparatory Quantitative Methods was a revelation at the beginning as much as it was a nightmare towards the end. The prof. tried his level best to get us interested into math and the inevitability of us escaping through the system without being proficient at it. However, three weeks passed and I got to know a few people and was none the wiser about how much of 'magic' I created by putting the pen to the paper.

What we were waiting with bated breath was the orientation week that was to follow after the registration formalities on 22nd June. The time from morning to about 6pm in the evenings had some scheduled activity, which was the 'easy' part. The part which followed was unpredictable, hectic and exhausting. The first night was spent in two activities where we were supposed to 'know' and 'bond' with our seniors at a personal level. GBMs(General Body Meetings) by any of the student bodies like SAC(Student Affairs Council), PlaceCom could be announced at anytime and tasks like getting our resumes made handed out with strict deadlines. The message which we were supposed to get drilled into our worthless gray skulls was "Deadlines are SACROSANCT " in this place. And the typical deadline style here is XX:59:59.. It could be 11:59:59 pm or 01:59:59 am ! Apart from deadlines, there were also fun sessions organized by the seniors where forms filled by 'creative' and 'passionate' batchmates of ours were dissected for laughs in front of everyone. Hardly anyone would have spent more than 2-3 hours of sleep during the week. On the last day there was a PPT(Pre-placement Talk) by a fictitious company which was then followed by a 'watery' welcome by the PGP2 batch. We got a chance to 'hoosh' a lot of PGP2's and the expression on our faces was of pure delight.

A lot of details have been skipped for the purpose of brevity and conciseness and individual aspects can be dealt later at the perogative of the author. Ha! That was good..