Taking a chance at chance

The classes at IIMK have just moved on to the first gear, or that is what the seniors want us to believe. In fact, thinking about it myself, I don't feel that there has been anything so far that can be really classified as load. We have been having tons of free time and it has actually become a bore. Also, the very basis of my expectation from an institute like IIMK has been shattered. Now I know that an IIM is not radically different than any other college (UG or PG). However, there do exist some subtle differences which not only need to be nourished but also improved upon by constant innovation and experimentation.

I do not know if things stand where they do because there has been lack of effort from any party. Actually, I seriously do not think that this can possibly be the case. As in the example of my own team at college attempting to get sponsorships for the various college fests, I can understand the case of total effort and yet less than optimum results. In my opinion, for all it is worth, it is all about creating the right opportunities at the right moment and more than that, about the opportunities making themselves known to you. There have been so many cases in my own past where I have not been able to identify obvious chances that could have given so much and so much more easily compared to opportunities that I and the team actually created for ourselves out of nowhere.

I know all this sounds very abstract so far but that is because the context is not there for the reader. We had another session of Omega, the Operations Management Interest Group at IIMK, last night. This session was focussed primarily on the Six Sigma concept as seen by Deepak, a summer intern and a Pre-Placement Offer Recipient at GE. The session was informative and interesting, perhaps not so much for the people who are uninitiated into operations of any company. For the majority of our batch however, that is not the case, and we have all seen at some stage or the other, the working of an organisation in quite a bit of detail. So it was not all Greek to me, as Deepak took us through the jargons and his interpretation and usage of those jargons. Most of the jargons, being a part of Six Sigma and not of the CMM model practised at Infosys, were unknown to me but the basic concept remained the same.

The second part of the session, the smaller part, focussed on the lack of options that we have in Operations in the college and the small amount of interest that has been mostly responsible. Perhaps it is not my place and experience to say anything at this juncture but I do feel that things can be managed more efficiently in a lot of organisations to get more active participation. I am saying this not because I am just being 'global' in the IIM lingo. It is because I have done it in the past. Having been the Literary Club Secretary in my college, I had this daunting task of trying to attract junta to a dead club, that was believed to be the bastion of the dull brains of the batch. I had tried to change the impression by adding glamour to the group by getting events sponsored and actually combining literary activities with theatre to come up with events like a modified version of Dumb Charades, etc. I knew that this was not the real purpose of the club and I even faced opposition from the faculy in charge of the club for 'belittling' the ideals of the club.

All along, my intention had been to get those people in, who do not really know about their interest. Literary skills are something that are more often than not cultivated and not necessarily inherent in an individual. Once an individual is pulled in by some 'cheap' events that are well marketed, the agenda can later be turned to a more serious one. That was how I was able to manage a crowd of about 80 people for the annual Literary skills workshop that earlier had a record for highest attendance of 20-odd.

In the five days of classes that we have had, Accounting and Micro Economics look to be the interesting classes. Perhaps it is an indicator of things to come and the probable shaping of my interest and specialisation. As for the interest groups, as was my practice in college, I think that I am going to attend and like all of them since they involve an informal and student approach that appeals to me, whatever be the occassion.

I finally met Prithesh yesterday and he was good enough to actually come down to my room. I know that it shoud have been the other way round but I do really appreciate his gesture. And not just his alone, the way this entire senior batch has been treating us is with kid gloves and I must say, we are lovin' it.