Life at IIMK has been unusually alive for the past few days and contrary to my nature, I have not been writing anything. I had started this blog as a line of thoughts that are anything but random. All thoughts and feelings that I have been sharing with my blog are very closely related to what has been happening around me. It has been, at times, something as trivial as a movie I watched or a book I read, as serious as personal worries and concerns, as sensational as the student body elections, and as bland as the mid term examinations. Staying with people who are going to be a part of my career and life, directly or indirectly, I needed to know how I react to them and whether that reaction needs to be streamlined or changed. My blog has certainly helped me figure out the way people react to situations and the way I react to them (people and the situations, that is).
Any sort of introspection, in fact, is certain to give you the other perspective, which has been the title of this blog right from the word go. Fortunately or unfortunately, the blog is now being read by my batchmates and what has followed was what had kept me from writing a blog for so long. When I had, in one of my posts, come out of my dilemma by deciding to name all people in my posts as they were and not give indirect references, the blog's readership was quite limited. It was, thus, that the readers I had warned in advance to not treat my posts too seriously, did start doing exactly that and before I knew it, I was on the receiving end of hushed jokes and cry-baby remarks. It turned out that the non-conformist (as Somas likes to call it) tendencies that were already present in abundant measure in me, got a further boost in this case. Whether I like it or not, I now have the reputation of ruffling feathers that have been silent for some time and any untoward action/reaction by any one in the batch is measured in terms of what I did at a point in time.
To say that I am totally unaffected by what has been happening would not be true. I am human and humans are social beings. However, thanks to the people who know me for what I am, the situation is not bad...in fact, life is on a roll @ backwaters (as Yash would say) and there have been some new friends I really cherish being with. At the same time, it will not hurt if I get along well with everyone. With the kind of people around this place, it is my loss if I do not get to know them better. Almost everyone has something to give...almost everyone has been an achiever and there is so much to learn from each one of my batchmates.
Okay, going back to do what I do relatively better, I need to focus on what has been happening in my life for the past few days for which this blog has not seen any entry. Since there has been so much happening, this post is going to be a long one...probably my longest to date...
IBM gets its act together
Yes, I am writing this post from my lappie. Having decided earlier to get one from the US through one of my friends but that not materialising, I had no choice but to wait for the bulk deals on campus. However, I was not prepared for the kind of deal that we finally struck with IBM. A lot of credit goes to Raul (great job, dude) for getting such a good configuration for almost a pittance. For all those who think that I am talking nonsense will get the gist after I have given them a brief idea of the features that this model has and the price that we have paid for the same.
The lappie is an IBM R51 model, built on Centrino technology, with a 256MB RAM, a 30 GB HDD, a 1.5 GHz Pentium-M processor, and above all, the IBM performance, features, and guarantee...and will you believe it, all this for just 62K. I just need my speakers (which, I am sure, will be in by tomorrow) and then, I will be done. It is really difficult to manage with the laptop speakers, especially if I have to watch movies (which I have been having to, much more than I should).
Indi-Paki bhai -.....
Why I didn't complete the above slogan will be obvious if you look a little more carefully at the picture above and despite the not-too-great quality, figure out for yourself that there was hardly any scope for completing the slogan in its original (or even modified, for that matter) form, at least as far as the delegation from LUMS is concerned. But I think that I am jumping the gun...first things first, there has been a delegation from LUMS (Lahore University of Management Sciences) visiting India over the past few weeks. This delegation, comprising of a faculty member and five students (four girls and a guy), was at IIMK over the weekend, as a part of their visit, during which they were invited to places like IIMB, IIMA, Narsi Monjee, SP Jain and others.
As was apparent from what they said repeatedly during the extensive interaction that they had with the students here, these people did not expect India to be what it turned out to be. In their own words, they were taken aback by the hospitality that has been shown to them here. I am pretty sure that even if a delegation was to go to Lahore from here, it will get an equal, if not greater, welcome. Even at the risk of sounding righteous, I will like to point out that this just goes on to show how the relations between the neighbours is being spoilt by the selfish interests of a score of politicians and decision-makers...shame on them for being so selfish...and shame on us for being such cowards as to not challenge them openly and take things in our hands and improve them.
On a more personal front, I thought that the visit got its purpose somewhat diluted, with the number of girl students in the delegation, that resulted in increasing proportionately, the zealousness of the welcome party. Rajat from the senior batch and our own newly elected SCon members were literally falling over each other to be of 'help' to the guests.
All the same, it was great having them here at the IIMK campus and given the good things they had to say about the campus, everyone will be more than happy to have the honor of hosting another delegation from the neighbouring country (it would certainly help if the sex ratio improvement is consistently targeted at by the neighbours, as well).
Pow...pow...powpow
Okay, going back to do what I do relatively better, I need to focus on what has been happening in my life for the past few days for which this blog has not seen any entry. Since there has been so much happening, this post is going to be a long one...probably my longest to date...
IBM gets its act together
Yes, I am writing this post from my lappie. Having decided earlier to get one from the US through one of my friends but that not materialising, I had no choice but to wait for the bulk deals on campus. However, I was not prepared for the kind of deal that we finally struck with IBM. A lot of credit goes to Raul (great job, dude) for getting such a good configuration for almost a pittance. For all those who think that I am talking nonsense will get the gist after I have given them a brief idea of the features that this model has and the price that we have paid for the same.
The lappie is an IBM R51 model, built on Centrino technology, with a 256MB RAM, a 30 GB HDD, a 1.5 GHz Pentium-M processor, and above all, the IBM performance, features, and guarantee...and will you believe it, all this for just 62K. I just need my speakers (which, I am sure, will be in by tomorrow) and then, I will be done. It is really difficult to manage with the laptop speakers, especially if I have to watch movies (which I have been having to, much more than I should).
Indi-Paki bhai -.....
Why I didn't complete the above slogan will be obvious if you look a little more carefully at the picture above and despite the not-too-great quality, figure out for yourself that there was hardly any scope for completing the slogan in its original (or even modified, for that matter) form, at least as far as the delegation from LUMS is concerned. But I think that I am jumping the gun...first things first, there has been a delegation from LUMS (Lahore University of Management Sciences) visiting India over the past few weeks. This delegation, comprising of a faculty member and five students (four girls and a guy), was at IIMK over the weekend, as a part of their visit, during which they were invited to places like IIMB, IIMA, Narsi Monjee, SP Jain and others.
As was apparent from what they said repeatedly during the extensive interaction that they had with the students here, these people did not expect India to be what it turned out to be. In their own words, they were taken aback by the hospitality that has been shown to them here. I am pretty sure that even if a delegation was to go to Lahore from here, it will get an equal, if not greater, welcome. Even at the risk of sounding righteous, I will like to point out that this just goes on to show how the relations between the neighbours is being spoilt by the selfish interests of a score of politicians and decision-makers...shame on them for being so selfish...and shame on us for being such cowards as to not challenge them openly and take things in our hands and improve them.
On a more personal front, I thought that the visit got its purpose somewhat diluted, with the number of girl students in the delegation, that resulted in increasing proportionately, the zealousness of the welcome party. Rajat from the senior batch and our own newly elected SCon members were literally falling over each other to be of 'help' to the guests.
All the same, it was great having them here at the IIMK campus and given the good things they had to say about the campus, everyone will be more than happy to have the honor of hosting another delegation from the neighbouring country (it would certainly help if the sex ratio improvement is consistently targeted at by the neighbours, as well).
Pow...pow...powpow
Of the many good things that the Pakistani delegation did for IIMK (apart from getting us some good media footage and enthusing the IIMK guys...yeah, guys specifically...well apart from a few like Reddy who have been shouting from the rooftops regarding their preferences), one of the best turned out to be the Kathakali performance. This was the very first Kathakali performance many of us were watching and what a treat it turned out to be. I had been in the habit of not missing anything similar organised during college and with like minded people as company, it was always great going to watch the masters like Pt Bhimsen Joshi, Ustad Bismillah Khan, Ustad Zakir Khan, to name but a few.
The language barrier ceases to exist when it comes to performing arts. Whether it be the music flowing out from Hindustani or Carnatic instruments, or the theatrics in the plays and dance dramas like Kathakali, what comes across is the talent, regardless of language, religion, and even beliefs. The evening's performance, based on an episode from the epic, Mahabharata, did not have much in terms of the story...it did help to have a readout on whatever there was, though. The story of Kiratham was about how Arjuna was worshipping Lord Shiva and how Lord Shiva, with his consort, Goddess Parvati, tested his disciple before giving him the boon.
As one can probably guess, more than the story, the presentation turned out to be effective. With an unusual beginning that perhaps did not convey the right impression, the performance only became better. The cries of pow have become a rage and the way the actors managed to grab the attention of what they called a sophisticated audience (personally, I believe that they were and are way too ahead of what we can ever hope to be) was absolutely amazing. The performances were all very good and adequately suited to their respective roles in the play. If Lord Shiva's character was suitably flippant and did all his leelas, Goddess Parvati was the quintessential Indian woman, helpless yet influencing, arbiter yet warmonger...Arjuna was the proud and vain warrior that he should have been, adjusting his paraphernalia even when he had finally bowed down before Lord Shiva.
Sona Chandi Martial Arts
Many people would have jeered at the advertisement of Sona Chandi chyawanprash featuring the Indian cricket captain, Sourav Ganguly, who is shown to indulge in sword fight with a different martial-art style. However, the other performance of the night would have put any such people to shame. Not that Sourav came here to show his swordsmanship, but what happened was even better. It was a breath taking display of the prowess of the practioners of one of the oldest martial arts form of the world, Kalaripayatu (pardon me for mis-spelling it, if I have done so). Clad in the traditinal black clothes and equipped with shining swords, spears, staffs and what not, these people from the heart of Kozhikode showed us and the Pakistanis the spirit of Kerala.
On hindsight, I believe that the Pakistanis would have been more impressed with the Kathakali performance, given the fact that Pathans are generally very fierce warriors and the martial arts performance could be related to many-a-feats of their people. However, I doubt if they had seen anything like the extensive imagery, the play to audience, the detailed make-up and building up of the story, that was displayed in the Kathakali performance.
Of carried away 'childish' outbursts
Nilanjan has been writing some very interesting blog entries recently. More than that, I have been blessed with some exquisite timing. Not to be confused with the timing of the Indian batsmen (which, incidentally, had been giving us a bad time with our Pakistani guests a much relieved lot), this timing relates to whether you read a blog entry before or after it has been edited. If you have done neither and like me, enter the blog just when the entry is being edited (seeing the full post on the main page but when you click on the comments, you get just a truncated post, killing all your ambitions of posting a cutting remark :-)), it is then that you are said to possess the timing that I am talking about.
So what is it that has caused all the gung-ho and for once, even threatened to topple me from my crown of the official batch gossip??? Nothing much really, as Nilanjan will like us to believe. It was just a party and if people decide to be in two parties at a time, who is Nilanjan or anybody else to stop them from doing that? (I don't intend the sarcasm for I really don't know who is right in this case). On one hand, it does appear rude if some people you have been having a nice time with at a party, leave the party all of a sudden, and later it turns out that they are at some other party.
On the other hand, the other aspect is well taken, too. Friendship is not exclusive and if someone is my friend, I do not have rights on his movements and behaviors. The other person has got his own individuality and the group theory is fast being disposed off and as Yash has commented in Somas's blog, non-conformists are in fashion. The long and short of it is that just because of a tiny little thing like a party, it doesn't deserve an outburst that is full of childish groupism theories (which, I am sure, Raul had a tough time reading about, in my blog).
Just wondering why I do not require the spiritual booster to write such things!!!
It was my day at Paragon
I have been having a bad time at restaurants in Calicut and to imagine that I had to come to this place after I had left everything that has the flesh and blood in it...it does boil the red liquid a bit. Moreover, if you order for soups with exotic names like Herbal Soup and descriptions that are mouth-watering, to say the least...and finally are left with Palak Daal, you know what you have been missing.
So it was quite some fun when we finally landed at a restaurant which not only had some decent tomato soup and some more than decent curries, but also turned out to be a nightmare for my more savage friends. Ravi, Vikhyat, Abhijit, Stephen, and Kanav had a hard time trying to digest the sweet and even bland fare served to them at Paragon. Surabhi and I had a field day laughing at them and for now, I have something to say when they raise that singularly embarassing topic of the Herbal soup yet again (which I am sure they will...the fiends).
Who has been reading my blog???
The hit counter at my blog helps me know, in a limited way, about who has been reading my blog. It tells me about the pages from which the site has been accessed and also the IP address of the computer/netwrok from which the blog has been accessed. Over the past few days, there have been visitors (or a single visitor, as is my guess) who have come to my blog from Google, after having searched for a particular faculty member at IIMK. Having reached my blog and having read something interesting (God! what all have I written in the blog), the visitor has even searched for other faculty members who have been teaching us...and this search is not in google...but in my own site. The other teeny weeny interesting factor is that the IP from which this visitor has been coming belongs to the IIMK proxy (oh, my luck!!!)
It may sound like conspiracy theory but it does look like some faculty member has been reading up on my blog. This makes my job of writing about my feelings all the more difficult because if I seriously do not like a teacher's teaching style, can I not even write something unflattering about the same? I would like to believe that the teachers at a professional institute like IIMK will be practitioners of professionalism themselves and will not take my comments in any negative sense (just don't let my grades be affected by my blog...please, God :-)). However, thinking again, can I even take the risk? I know I took the risk with my batch mates...decided to write what I felt...fully confident that they will have the maturity to take it in their stride and be able to identify the spirit with which things have been recorded...but what happened did put a few chinks in my faith. What is going to happen if in deed some faculty member is reading as I write all this and specifically, what will happen if I keep on writing and at some point, forget that there is that distinguished visitor who may check in on my blog yet again...
Finally...something that I have come here for...academics
It was a hectic weekend that just went past. We had four case studies in as many days and all for a single subject, marketing. Dr. Panda has sure stepped on the accelerator but I believe that it is not helping my productivity one bit. I am not sure how he would take this feedback or else I would certainly have tried telling him that I am not grasping all that he has been kindly sharing with his students.
The mid term results have started tinkering in. I am satisfied with what I have managed in accounts. I was expecting something in the 15-20 range out of 25 and I believe that Dr. Broca has been quite kind to us...I managed 18, which makes it a total of 33 out of 40 and I am sure, this is not bad. The other subjects' mid term results are due soon and with a lot of assignments, case studies, and project submissions due over the next two weeks, it is going to be a pressure cooker wroking out here on the hills of IIMK.
The language barrier ceases to exist when it comes to performing arts. Whether it be the music flowing out from Hindustani or Carnatic instruments, or the theatrics in the plays and dance dramas like Kathakali, what comes across is the talent, regardless of language, religion, and even beliefs. The evening's performance, based on an episode from the epic, Mahabharata, did not have much in terms of the story...it did help to have a readout on whatever there was, though. The story of Kiratham was about how Arjuna was worshipping Lord Shiva and how Lord Shiva, with his consort, Goddess Parvati, tested his disciple before giving him the boon.
As one can probably guess, more than the story, the presentation turned out to be effective. With an unusual beginning that perhaps did not convey the right impression, the performance only became better. The cries of pow have become a rage and the way the actors managed to grab the attention of what they called a sophisticated audience (personally, I believe that they were and are way too ahead of what we can ever hope to be) was absolutely amazing. The performances were all very good and adequately suited to their respective roles in the play. If Lord Shiva's character was suitably flippant and did all his leelas, Goddess Parvati was the quintessential Indian woman, helpless yet influencing, arbiter yet warmonger...Arjuna was the proud and vain warrior that he should have been, adjusting his paraphernalia even when he had finally bowed down before Lord Shiva.
Sona Chandi Martial Arts
Many people would have jeered at the advertisement of Sona Chandi chyawanprash featuring the Indian cricket captain, Sourav Ganguly, who is shown to indulge in sword fight with a different martial-art style. However, the other performance of the night would have put any such people to shame. Not that Sourav came here to show his swordsmanship, but what happened was even better. It was a breath taking display of the prowess of the practioners of one of the oldest martial arts form of the world, Kalaripayatu (pardon me for mis-spelling it, if I have done so). Clad in the traditinal black clothes and equipped with shining swords, spears, staffs and what not, these people from the heart of Kozhikode showed us and the Pakistanis the spirit of Kerala.
On hindsight, I believe that the Pakistanis would have been more impressed with the Kathakali performance, given the fact that Pathans are generally very fierce warriors and the martial arts performance could be related to many-a-feats of their people. However, I doubt if they had seen anything like the extensive imagery, the play to audience, the detailed make-up and building up of the story, that was displayed in the Kathakali performance.
Of carried away 'childish' outbursts
Nilanjan has been writing some very interesting blog entries recently. More than that, I have been blessed with some exquisite timing. Not to be confused with the timing of the Indian batsmen (which, incidentally, had been giving us a bad time with our Pakistani guests a much relieved lot), this timing relates to whether you read a blog entry before or after it has been edited. If you have done neither and like me, enter the blog just when the entry is being edited (seeing the full post on the main page but when you click on the comments, you get just a truncated post, killing all your ambitions of posting a cutting remark :-)), it is then that you are said to possess the timing that I am talking about.
So what is it that has caused all the gung-ho and for once, even threatened to topple me from my crown of the official batch gossip??? Nothing much really, as Nilanjan will like us to believe. It was just a party and if people decide to be in two parties at a time, who is Nilanjan or anybody else to stop them from doing that? (I don't intend the sarcasm for I really don't know who is right in this case). On one hand, it does appear rude if some people you have been having a nice time with at a party, leave the party all of a sudden, and later it turns out that they are at some other party.
On the other hand, the other aspect is well taken, too. Friendship is not exclusive and if someone is my friend, I do not have rights on his movements and behaviors. The other person has got his own individuality and the group theory is fast being disposed off and as Yash has commented in Somas's blog, non-conformists are in fashion. The long and short of it is that just because of a tiny little thing like a party, it doesn't deserve an outburst that is full of childish groupism theories (which, I am sure, Raul had a tough time reading about, in my blog).
Just wondering why I do not require the spiritual booster to write such things!!!
It was my day at Paragon
I have been having a bad time at restaurants in Calicut and to imagine that I had to come to this place after I had left everything that has the flesh and blood in it...it does boil the red liquid a bit. Moreover, if you order for soups with exotic names like Herbal Soup and descriptions that are mouth-watering, to say the least...and finally are left with Palak Daal, you know what you have been missing.
So it was quite some fun when we finally landed at a restaurant which not only had some decent tomato soup and some more than decent curries, but also turned out to be a nightmare for my more savage friends. Ravi, Vikhyat, Abhijit, Stephen, and Kanav had a hard time trying to digest the sweet and even bland fare served to them at Paragon. Surabhi and I had a field day laughing at them and for now, I have something to say when they raise that singularly embarassing topic of the Herbal soup yet again (which I am sure they will...the fiends).
Who has been reading my blog???
The hit counter at my blog helps me know, in a limited way, about who has been reading my blog. It tells me about the pages from which the site has been accessed and also the IP address of the computer/netwrok from which the blog has been accessed. Over the past few days, there have been visitors (or a single visitor, as is my guess) who have come to my blog from Google, after having searched for a particular faculty member at IIMK. Having reached my blog and having read something interesting (God! what all have I written in the blog), the visitor has even searched for other faculty members who have been teaching us...and this search is not in google...but in my own site. The other teeny weeny interesting factor is that the IP from which this visitor has been coming belongs to the IIMK proxy (oh, my luck!!!)
It may sound like conspiracy theory but it does look like some faculty member has been reading up on my blog. This makes my job of writing about my feelings all the more difficult because if I seriously do not like a teacher's teaching style, can I not even write something unflattering about the same? I would like to believe that the teachers at a professional institute like IIMK will be practitioners of professionalism themselves and will not take my comments in any negative sense (just don't let my grades be affected by my blog...please, God :-)). However, thinking again, can I even take the risk? I know I took the risk with my batch mates...decided to write what I felt...fully confident that they will have the maturity to take it in their stride and be able to identify the spirit with which things have been recorded...but what happened did put a few chinks in my faith. What is going to happen if in deed some faculty member is reading as I write all this and specifically, what will happen if I keep on writing and at some point, forget that there is that distinguished visitor who may check in on my blog yet again...
Finally...something that I have come here for...academics
It was a hectic weekend that just went past. We had four case studies in as many days and all for a single subject, marketing. Dr. Panda has sure stepped on the accelerator but I believe that it is not helping my productivity one bit. I am not sure how he would take this feedback or else I would certainly have tried telling him that I am not grasping all that he has been kindly sharing with his students.
The mid term results have started tinkering in. I am satisfied with what I have managed in accounts. I was expecting something in the 15-20 range out of 25 and I believe that Dr. Broca has been quite kind to us...I managed 18, which makes it a total of 33 out of 40 and I am sure, this is not bad. The other subjects' mid term results are due soon and with a lot of assignments, case studies, and project submissions due over the next two weeks, it is going to be a pressure cooker wroking out here on the hills of IIMK.
3 comments:
>Over the past few days, there have >been visitors (or a single visitor, as is >my guess) who have come to my blog >from Google, after having searched for >a particular faculty member at IIMK
The same thing has happened on my blog as well however i have been told by 'reliable sources' that my blog is a topic of discussion among the faculty members . One of the faculty has even asked one of my classmates to inform me that i need to remove some posts from the blog. :-)
don't tell me!!!
If this has happened with your almost sacrosanct blog (compared to mine), they might want my entire blog down :-)
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeks!
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