What time of the day is it??
Monday, October 31, 2005
I have had no clue about how time has flown this week… too many things have happened and all I could manage was listing down in my small brain what all I need to write in my blog! And true to its size, it has over flown and I better pen something before I go blank :-)
I played (in a team of 4) the IIM-A Mousetrap (Confluence), a live simulation game, each session lasting for about 2 hours and 6 sessions over a period of 4 days. We had to choose sectors, decide on plant locations and capacity, and for each production session, we had to decide on the production and advertising. We thought it would be similar to the Markstrat simulation we played as part of our Marketing Decision making course in second term… but this game did not live up to our expectations… The game as such was not as interesting and did not have many reports to analyze for the decisions to be taken. And the fact that there were too many glitches in the way it was conducted was not expected from an institution like IIM-A. In all, the good news is that we are the only team from ISB which ended up in the top-50 and after their redistribution according to their rules, we were ranked 25th overall. So we are eligible to make our way to the Ahmedabad campus in our November term break:-). This week, we are also working on a finance case for another IIM-A competition… with an OPFR midterm this week, I hope we have the time to crack this case.
Other than this, the Marketing club of ISB is organizing an internal competition every fortnight - Industry Olympiad – Each fortnight, 2 industries/sectors would be chosen by the club and teams need to write a report and give a presentation about the sector. The main aim is to help us learn more about different sectors and this week we had Telecom and FMCG (Personal care). I (in a team of 3) participated in the Telecom sector presentation… Three days ago, I didn’t even know the basic terminologies and in a couple of days I learnt a LOT through this initiative. Great idea from the Marketing club and thanks to my team for helping me learn so much! Seven teams participated and we were one of the three chosen for the final round. I gave half of the presentation today and though we did not win, the quantum I have learnt has made me decide that I would do this every fortnight! I hope more people make use of this opportunity by turning up atleast to watch the presentations.
There are times when I have wondered if I should have taken this one year program when I have lesser experience compared to almost everyone around here… but the best thing about this place is how much I can learn from my fellow students…
I am happy that I am still sane this term :-) and managed to even get out of the campus for lunch on one of those rare holidays for me last week. Diwali is on Tuesday and many activities seem to be planned – I guess I would light some fireworks along with the Chennai gang tomorrow evening!
This place has kept me so busy that I think I might like a break at times, but wouldn’t enjoy a slow paced life at anytime. I was just thinking of same time last year and everything else that has happened, I know for sure that there isn’t a better place I could be in right now!
Author: Raghini » Comments:
How many more sunrises?
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Early morning, the sun is still playing hide and seek when I step out of my room to submit my Fixed Income assignments. I am cursing the housekeeping for switching off the lights before 6 am. But as I walk up the stairs leading to the academic centre from SV-3, each step seems to switch on a new light as the surrounding becomes bright. I walk around the academic centre and still get lost after 6 months!! At last I find AC-4, drop in the cases and problem set to take another walk back… I love to watch the lake when I walk back and I was thinking how calm this place is and still manages to storm our brains so much! And suddenly the only soul I see is professor Avner Kalay who is enjoying his morning walk while I haven’t slept a wink yet!!
I know I am going to see many more sunrises in the days to come but its okie! Sometimes, I myself wonder where I get the energy to sustain this, but isn’t it something I know about myself.
Author: Raghini » Comments:
Sunday, October 23, 2005
Colorful Dandiya Floor
Author: Raghini » Comments:
Spouses dance
Author: Raghini » Comments:
Spouses dance
Author: Raghini » Comments:
Students dance
Author: Raghini » Comments:
Students dance
Author: Raghini » Comments:
Dandiya Group - Students
Author: Raghini » Comments:
Thats me
Author: Raghini » Comments:
One hell of a night!
Colorful women & not so colorful but equally enthusiastic men :-) glorified the dance floor today with so much of energy… hats off to the SFA for organizing such an amazing event and for the students and others who turned up and showed so much of liveliness in the atrium today. There was Gujarati dinner served by our own Sarovar, a dance performance by the spouses, one more dance by the students (in which I took part) and then the dance floor was open to one and all… There was a live band performing while all of us danced to our heart’s content.
The ghagras that were ordered were a flop show and so decided to make my own ghagra with skirt, top and dupatta… During the performance, when I danced just the first step, my dandiya broke… what better way to start the dance… one of my fellow students gave me a new one while I was dancing… missed a few steps but finished it quite well… overall a very good show by both the spouses and the students.
Dandiya night did give me a much needed break only one week into the frenzied elective term. I am uploading a few of the snaps from the amazing and most colorful night at ISB!
Author: Raghini » Comments:
Dandiya
Friday, October 21, 2005
Hectic is the wrong word to use for my schedule these days… But I took it upon myself with four fin courses + LSCM! Now I wonder how I am going to live through this term. Late night case discussions for the past 2 days seem like the norm for the rest of the term… & I seem to be attending classes all day!
Even inbetween this, I am participating in the dandiya show that is going to be put up by our class on saturday night... I have always wanted to learn this dance and so I grabbed this opportunity even though it is inbetween demanding time constraints. I got hurt and broke my toe nails on the first day of practice and managed to psyche even the doctor (student here). Thought I would not be able to continue, but joined the gang again today for some awesome practice :-) We are renting ghagras for the occasion and I am really looking forward to performing this dance.
Term 5... with each elective in a different class, unlike the core terms, we need to run around with our name cards to each of the classes... & forgetting the name cards and walking back for it seems to be general trend across the campus... Still need to get used to picking them up after every class... and even more difficult thing is to remember where to sit in every class... I need to remember 5 seating positions for my courses and I invariably look into the seating chart before I enter the class... shd get used to this next week.
Author: Raghini » Comments:
Assignments and the Artist in Residence
Thursday, October 20, 2005
Did I think that Logistics and Supply Chain course is my easiest of the courses this term… With four other finance courses, I didn’t think I was wrong… until, 10 am today morning when I started working on the first case… New groups have been formed for each of the elective courses and we have the liberty to make our own groups… Only after we started working today, did we realize that 5 of the 6 in the LSCM group are from Infy :-) and that leaves the diversity candidate to do all the work! We were all comfortable with each other as we were in the same section for the past 4 terms and we worked enthusiastically until 3 am… seems like a long time since I worked on a case for this long a time, but I think the report is damn good. Have an 8 am class tomorrow (all classes pre-poned by 30 mins to accommodate a 6.15 to 8.15 pm session at the end of the day! And I have that session too, making it another 6 hour day starting at 8 am and ending at 8.30 pm!
Planned to do some reading for the Fixed Income course today… but no plans saw light! Got my CF grades (which term did I write this paper?.... third term! Actually the second term grades have not yet been released, so I should not be complaining about third term)… managed to make the grade which I haven’t made before in ISB… before any guesses are made, it’s above my usual standards :-)
Today when I was working in the Atrium with my group, someone called me for a photo session with the Artist in Residence – Sanjay Bhattacharyya, celebrated realist painter. He is known for his human forms, the streets, old architectural compositions and landscapes of rural Bengal in oil and water color. I have earlier never bothered to even notice who is the artist in the campus but when I looked at his paintings and interacted with him today, I was amazed at the talent. He was explaining minute details and answering all our CPs as I got to know that Water painting needs to be done in one stretch as the shades are different when it is wet and dry. In contrast, the oil painting can be done at one’s own pace. His longest stint is a 17 hour water painting. Also, oil painting needs to be started from the darker areas and completed with the shades in the lighter areas. The water paintings are started with the lighter shades and gradually completed with the darker shades… This brings out more light from the water paintings… That was definitely a lot of learning for someone who doesn’t even know to differentiate a water and oil painting!!
Author: Raghini » Comments:
Elective term begins
Monday, October 17, 2005
Started with the Logistics and Supply Chain Management – am doing this out of general interest(!). Today’s class was very generic but we have a case to submit in the next class… guess it would be more interesting as the course develops.
Next came Financial Reporting & Analysis – the prof. Suren Mansinghka is supposed to be very good for this course – again the class was just an introduction class and so not much to say.
Then came the Options & Futures taken by our dean MR Rao… he is the invisible man in ISB who became visible today to the students. He assumed that we had done a lot of this stuff in our Investments class (!!!...did we…!!!) and went on to a lecture that left more than half the class dozing off (2.30 pm timing also had a major role to play) and the other half trying the catch the transmissions that were trying to go over the head! I kept myself awake till the last 15 mins when the 6 hours fatigue took over and I left the transmissions to fly above my head!
Tomorrow I have the fixed income and advanced corporate finance class… The fixed income professors – Avner Kalay and Ahron Rosenfeld, both from Israel – are supposed to be very good. This was one topic which left me blank when I did my investments paper… so hopefully I understand something better here. The teaching skills of the advanced corporate finance prof Sankar De is well known, so I know what to expect in class tomorrow :-)
Author: Raghini » Comments:
Some things never change...
Sunday, October 16, 2005
As the 5 red lights went off, started the final grand prix of the year that left Renault & McLaren fighting till the finish for the constructor's championship and the great red man was again left spinning on the Shanghai tracks... Hope the next season bring in more red on the podium! To my eyes, none of the other colors look good out there at the top :-)
I am currently struggling with my pre-reading for tomorrow's classes. There is lots to do and seems like a long night ahead, though I have an appoinment with a movie inbetween! Why do the professors always give 4 to 5 chapters to read for the first day?
I was awaiting my quadies return today and shruti obliged with lovely home made chocolates which would be gone as soon as it came... & simran has decided to miss the flight at mumbai and I doubt some other reason for her extended presence there... a chance to rag her as soon as she steps in tomorrow :-)
Author: Raghini » Comments:
Sunday morning...
well, it is not as lazy as it should be... I managed to pull myself up and walk to breakfast and yeah, the best part of sarovar meals is their breakfast which i eat once in a bluemoon like this! Don't think I need to have lunch today :-) These days I have been hearing the general comment that I have put on weight... even at home everyone said so... & that means I shouldn't be eating n sleeping like this... but still I managed to eat a cheese omlette today with so many other things I had!
The campus is becoming bubbly again... thanks to the rain which has given itself a break and the crowd which is pulling in... by evening today, many would have returned and it would be time to start term-5!
Author: Raghini » Comments:
Lazy days @ ISB
Term Break... even if I plan to fill the break with so much of 'things-to-do', all I get to do is sleep and watch movies :-) why is there no motivation to do anything else? First, the hectic term schedule just doesn't inspire me to work during the breaks too... my sleep takes priority over everything else. And I realised that I need the crowd around me for me to feel the pressure to do anything & since the term break confines everyone to their rooms or outside campus, I again sleep or watch movies! Watched 'Paycheck' yesterday and a tamil movie 'gajjini' today.
Inbetween all this, thanks to Jasvir's persistant efforts, I managed to write a case analysis for the IIM Indore IRIS competition. And here he is, already thinking of flying to Indore to present the case!!
Elective term begins on monday and that reminds me I must be studying tomorrow (Today after my sleep) for monday's classes... am doing 5 courses this term which includes four finance courses... after the horror finale in the Investment Analysis end term exams, I hope I live through term-5.
Author: Raghini » Comments:
Back from the break!
Friday, October 14, 2005
After the funny MO paper, the next day of exams was something that the campus wants to forget about! So let’s go to something more interesting i.e. the term break… I went to my home in Chennai and slept like a log for 5 days! My mom always wonders if I haven’t slept for the whole term before I go home :-) The only useful thing I did… taught my sis (who is in 10th std) stocks n shares from her mathematics text book & this time she decided to call her friends too and so it was a full fledged class room!
It has been pouring cats n dogs in Chennai. So could not step out of the house except for a lil bit of shopping… came back yesterday, but haven’t done much here too… term 5 begins on Monday… I am thinking about it only when I write now about it! I am still in the term break.
Watched the movie ‘Mystic River’ yesterday night… good one… planning to watch ‘Paycheck’ today. I am home alone once again… campus is empty… thought a lot more people would be around because of the ELP and the Innovation Challenge… maybe everyone is as lazy as me sitting in their rooms!
Author: Raghini » Comments:
MO at its best!
Thursday, October 06, 2005
An actual question from today's MO paper:
You like people who like you - True or False
I am not kidding, this is MO at its best in ISB!
Author: Raghini » Comments:
Why should I be studying?
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
... its exam time again, thats y :-(
Have exams on thursday and friday... MO and SAIT on the first day and IA and GSB on friday... In MO & SAIT, I guess I have to apply common sense and general knowledge to get my usual grades... people who need better grades can slog more... and GSB, I have no idea what I am supposed to prepare... my course pack is spick and span (i shall sell it for the maximum bidder, in case there is any!).
For me the best part about exams is that I get to sleep the maximum in the week before the exams... I inevitably sleep althrough the day during these preps!
Author: Raghini » Comments:
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
View from my window...
Author: Raghini » Comments:
Another world, another day, another dawn.
I am impressed with myself for reading Management of Organizations till dawn... the view outside my window is beautiful as the sun rises... & here I go to sleep :-)
Author: Raghini » Comments:
Pride & Prejudice
"Sometimes the last person on earth you want to be with is the one person you can't be without."
Now don't ask me why I put this here... just felt like it!!!
Author: Raghini » Comments:
Section B Rocks!
Monday, October 03, 2005
It has been 4 terms… sat in my last class with Section-B today! Life has to move on and all of us would be doing electives in different classes from now on… but we would all miss the fun we had with Section-B. It has not been long ago, when I saw 85 strangers on the first day of class in May first week. And in four terms, I have got to know all of them, some very well, some a little… but all for life!
There was so much of enthusiasm in class today that we were all left with nostalgic feelings… didn’t feel like leaving AC-4 (Section-B home) even after 7 pm when classes ended… we had a snacks party in between our classes today and lots and lots of snaps were being clicked… The best part was the video made by Bharani and Ramki focusing on everyone in Section-B… amazing video… lots of efforts have been put for making it and it had come out really well… Thanks to both of them for giving us something to remember for life time!
If just four terms could make us so nostalgic, what is gonna be our state at the end of 8 terms?
Some of the things I would always remember about Section-B… (in no particular order)
Gachibulls
Our enthusiastic CR
First Thursday of every term parties
Section-B Gals Party
T-shirt days
Photo shoot
Wonderful singing talent in the section
Volley Ball monopoly
Group B-8
Insightful CPs
Rolling hand CPs
CP appreciations
Barbies and Cuties
NPV calculations
Porter’s 5 forces
Wonderful Professors
Blah…
Creativity for making fire
Core competencies
Sustainable Competitive advantages
Sleepy heads and late comers
Productivity increases
Confused, Pink and Polka-doted!
Siamese twins and LOC violations
BSE index and ICICI direct.com
95% confidence intervals
I believe…
We are fortunate to have you professor
…B Transforms Trauma!
The following collage was prepared by Ramki and it has all the snaps used for the video… everyone in Section-B is in there!
Author: Raghini » Comments:
Section - B Collage
Author: Raghini » Comments:
Sigma and Standard deviation
Sunday, October 02, 2005
Right from my school days, I have had this incessant problem of not being able to remember if ‘sigma’ is standard deviation or variance!! Every term in ISB, I have noted this down in some corner of my cheat sheet (An A-4 sheet with formulae that we are allowed to take to the exams). But this term in ISB, I have successfully remembered this funda… thanks to Simran again :-)
“You tend to think Sigma Squared is Standard deviation because of the S. But the world is never as you think it is… Hence sigma squared is variance!”
Author: Raghini » Comments:
Section B Gals
Author: Raghini » Comments:
Time of my life!
Saturday, October 01, 2005
Have been having the time of my life! That too with just a week to go for the exams, should I be wondering about the way I have been away from books these days? May be :-)
We had the inter-section music competition today in Khemka… this is the last event in which the sections would be contesting against each other and so there was a lot of enthusiasm for this event… everyone in Khemka was full of energy and I haven’t seen ISB as lively as this for a very long time… it was a war between the sections… all the teams had put a lot of effort and we could see great talent being displayed on stage… All teams were great though the winners were Section-D. I think they had the highest number in terms of participation, good enthusiasm and color on stage. Section-B’s songs were melodies and were all well sung. Great show guys n gals of ISB.
Also, Section-B had a photo shoot today. As a memory of staying together for 4 terms, we are planning to get a photo framed with all of us for a souvenir. Snaps have come out really good and I shall upload one as soon as I get the full picture. The section-B gals had a slumber party today and I had great fun in this… in one of our gals’ studio apartments, which she decorated with candles, we met, played games, gossiped, ate, drank and had utmost fun knowing each other more than what we knew in four terms… at the end, we were all asking the same question… “What took us 4 terms to do this!”
Author: Raghini » Comments:
