Student Exchange

From the very first day that I joined IIFT, I had been hearing a lot about the Student Exchange Program. Some of the seniors who had been on a student exchange described it as the "best experience" that they had till date and the rest described it as a "looong vacation". I liked both the versions. When the time for selection came I opted for the Hanken School of Economics, Helsinki. The only criteria guiding my decision was the time factor. I wanted to be back in India by April not to miss my summer internships and Hanken's exchange period was just over two months. So, it was the best fit for me.

I had never been abroad before and was all excited about this program. To add to the excitement was the fact that the third trimester in IIFT was supposedly the toughest term. I wanted to run away and I was happy that I was running away to an exotic place.

On 13th January, I along with two other friends of mine reached Helsinki. The entire runway as well as the surrounding areas were all white. For the first time in our lives we were seeing a city colored white by the snow. The temperature was -6C and this one more first time for us. It has been 50 days since then and I have not yet experienced positive temperatures. Initially we loved the snow and cold but gradually we started hating hating it. On top of that the days were very small and for tens of days we did not see the sun. It was tough to go out and travel and sitting inside the rooms, we were bored to death.

But one thing, Finland is an excellent country with great people. I mean I have not been to many countries to comment on this, but they have impressed me like anything. No matter whom you ask for help, be rest assured that you will be treated well and helped. I have met people who have walked along with me for 15 mins just to show me the way when they were going somewhere else. A tip for people who may visit Finland: Finnish people are very shy and hardly talk. Don't mistake them to be high-headed. I mean even 10 Indians in a train can make a noise equivalent to that of a band party, but I have seen coaches full of Finnish people and you can hear your breath.

I am bit unlucky to have visited this place in the winters. From what I have seen in the photographs, this place is heaven in summers. With greenery all around, beautiful lakes and long days, summers is the best time to visit Finland.

Helsinki is a small but well maintained city. Figuring amongst the top five livable cities in the world is a testimony to this fact. Some places that are worth visiting in Helsinki are Suomelina (an island about 20 mins away from Heslinki), the Natural History Museum, the Temppelliaukio church, the Parliament house, the Finlandia hall, the Finnish National Opera, the Sibelius monument and the Kaivipoisto park.

Its winter and I am not able to travel much, but the beauty and calmness of this place has bowled me over and if ever I get a chance I would love to visit this place in summer to get a feel of paradise.

I had thought of writing about my student exchange experience and ended up writing about Helsinki..Well that is basically "student exchange". "Looooong Vacation"

The Ultimate Warrior League 2.0

I know the title sounds very pompous...

The UWL (Ultimate Warrior League) is the exclusive sporting extravaganza of IIFT, conceptualized on the lines of IPL. But when looked at from a B School graduate's eyes, it goes much beyond it. It has all the nuances of IPL at a level which can be handled by students.

The million dollar question that arises now, "Why am I writing about it, considering the fact that I always try and write in thin air so that I don't get caught??".
ANS: I owned a team. YES!!!I owned a team. Before the event started I had imagined of wearing my shades and sitting with four girls under my arms just outside the playing arena. I had infact started feeling like the KING before the event started, but trust me once it started I had the most awful time of my student life. I was caught sleeping in almost all the classes, I spent all my monthly dole in two days and am going to secure ZERO in two quizzes. And dont ask me about the off-field experience. I did everything starting from waking them up in the morning (I was abused like hell) to carrying their water bottles and towels.

Ok. Lets get down to something sensible. Yes, its true that I owned a team along with one of my friends. In fact we were the only guys from the 1st yr to own a team. Now let me elaborate the entire scheme of things. It may sound corny but I want to write and I will. The process kicked off with the selection of owners. There were four teams on the table, namely; Aryan Juggernauts, Mumbai Hawks, Eastern Gladiators and Southern Stallions. We bought the team Eastern Gladiators. It was followed by the selection of brand managers and we selected our brand managers who would market our team and promote the event for the next two days. The entire concept behind it was to combine a sporting activity with a management activity.

The next day, we had to bid for the players and we had a maximum amount within which we had to buy all the players. Now unlike IPL, the UWL had almost all sporting events starting from cricket to athletics. Thus, we had to bid for 25 players who could participate in these events. The 2 hours bidding process and the 5 hours that we had put in selecting our players and adjusting bids for them were some of the most mind boggling and memorable moments of the entire event. Luckily we had a good day and we almost got 19 our first 25 players(the best hit rate amongst all the teams).

The next two days were dedicated exclusively for the pre-launch promotion. The entire campus was covered with posters, flexes, banners and mascots. Our branding team did a good job at it and the most innovative and visible ideas were ours.

The opening ceremony was scheduled on the evening of 24th October. Vijay Dahia, the former Indian wicket keeper was the guest of the evening. And know what...our team launch was adjudged the best. Our players staged a ramp walk which was followed by a formation using candle light. We launched the team t-shirt and our international player, Daniel was the first player to don the t-shirt.

I can't explain how it was like to own a team, bid for players, plan for events, etc. It something which one can't understand unless he/she experiences it...

I know I am stretching it too long..Aaj k liye itna hi...
Will come up with the coverage of the events in the next blog.

IIFT

After investing close to a lac of rupees on b school forms and interview expenses, finally I have joined IIFT Delhi. I was dying to take a break from my job and had it been any college (if not IIFT), I would have joined. But with IIFT, I was a bit happy as its one of the better known colleges in the country.

I joined here on 1st July and it has been close to two weeks now. Each of the past 13 days has been different in some way or the other. It is a batch of 159 people from all over the country. So, one thing that is for sure is variety. Moreover we have got guys from all sorts of fields, starting from IT guys to fashion specialists, from 11 yrs work ex guys to 20 yr old boys. It was this variety which I had been searching for so long. Although I have hardly known a little over 70 guys in the batch, but I am sure within a coupla months I will get to know all. The professors at IIFT are good. The workload is not as much as I had expected it to be, but I am enjoying the free time. The initial two-three days were great when the seniors conducted some PDPs (only IIFTians can understand what these "Personality Development Programmes" are) but because of a few problems they had to be stopped midway. I guess life would have been a lot different if they had continued. The meetings of Placecom and other clubs have already begun. I have decided to get into the quizzing, marketing and consult clubs. On the flip side the infrastructure here is not very good. A little improvement in the infrastructure can make this place a lot better.

Apart from other things I have decided to get back to quizzing and nurture my dream of first hand involvement in a theatre group, in these two years. Though my parents have strictly advised to concentrate entirely on my studies but I see no point in studying and getting great scores. I feel that its better to be an above average guy over here and enjoy, probably the last two years of father-earns-son-spends time. Hope my dad does not come across this.

See you..after a yr... :)

( My blog becomes alive once in a year)

Jaane Tu....Ya Jaane Naa

After a hiatus of four months, I finally watched a movie. When I say, "I watched a movie", I mean watching a movie in a theatre. When you watch a movie from a CD, you don't actually see or understand what the director wants to put forth, instead its what you interpret from the hazy images and a speech lag of 15 mins. (See, I am paid by film producers to protest against piracy)

Anyways, lets come to the point. Last week I watched 'Jaane Tu....Ya Jaane Naa', and it made me feel better. Although, the movie does not have any new story to say, but the fresh look and innocence of Aditi and Jay Singh Rathore, impressed me. The supporting characters, specially Amit (Aditi's brother), have also put on a good show. The movie is well paced, smooth and has got the right songs at right places. Full marks to Abbas Tyrewalla. But one thing, which I think needs mention is that, had it not been for Aamir Khan, I don't think the movie would have done what it has done. The very mention of Aamir Khan doubles the chances of a movie to make it big. This is what branding means and I think we have a good case at our hands for the B-School marketing folks. Anyways, let me not divulge into business but coming back to the movie, I think Imraan Khan deserves a pat on his back for his potrayal of a non-violent Rajput.
All in all a good chilled out flick.

Coming up next is "Rock On"....

Now......

Hi all..By looking at the frequency of my posts I guess all of you must have guessed by now what kind of a blogger or for that matter how shallow a person I am. After numerous attempts of starting to write something, today I am determined to post something. Not that I have come across something great which I want to discuss, but today I not going back for lunch (no, I am not busy with my work, just don't want to move my ass out of this ac room), so I decided to exercise my fingers.

It has been over a year and half now since I have been working. And gradually, I am starting to realize what great transition I have been through and what all changes I will have to bring in my behaviour to succeed in this corporate jungle. It was not long ago when I was in college and invariably I used to reach late for my classes. When the teacher used to ask for the reason, I would give a smart excuse and enter the class, walking to my seat looking towards every corner of the room, telling myself ,"man u r something!". Unable to answer a question asked by the teacher used to reaffirm our status as cool guys. We used to call our professors by funny names and in some cases, even had serious quarrels which led to suspension of classes for a couple of days. Even when in school, I used to lie my parents, bunk tutions and go out to watch movies. I used to think I was smart enough to do all these under their nose and not giving them the faintest of hints of what I was upto. But then, we had never done all this to hurt anybody or to embarrass anyone. We just enjoyed ourselves and continued doing all this because at the bottom of our heart we had this feeling that no one would take these things to heart as we were "KIDS" and instead would simply laugh at our childishness.

After joining Tata Steel, though I stopped all these mischievous acts but I did not get out of that kiddish phase. I took up my work very seriously, but on days when I did not have any work (which is 3 out of 6 days in a week) I used to reach half an hour late or on days when I had worked the whole night, I would not come the next day. I would log on to orkut thrice a day and would spend a lot of time reading blogs. Most of my colleagues are more than twice my age and I used to take these liberties, expecting them not to mind as I was only half their age. I work in a steel industry where working conditions are very harsh. When I used to work non-stop for 6-7 hours in the shop floor or solve a problem, I used to think that they would come and pat me, saying "good job done, boy". But I never received any such pats or words of praise from my colleagues. Instead, I overheard people calling me "a bit irresponsible".

And now, I am realizing that though I see myself as a 23 year old guy, expecting some liberties because of my age, but the others look at me as a colleague or to be more specific, as their competitor. To my parents I am a kid, to my teachers I am kid but in the office I am another officer. Not that I complain, its just that this transition is becoming a bit difficult for me because I had never expected things to change so rapidly. I may sound a bit stupid, like someone shying away from his duties but the fact is that I have not yet been able to fathom the fact that I am working.

Taare Zameen Par: Darsheel Safary

One man who has ben the bastion of perfection in Bollywood is Aamir Khan. Be it QSQT, Lagaan, DCH, RDB or Taare Zameen Par Aamir Khan has always impressed the classes as well masses by his excellent performance and approach to movie making. And hats off to him for making a movie like Taare Zameen Par.

But this time around it is someone else who has stolen the show. Yes, the kid, Darsheel Safary. What a performance!! I think his performance was a far better performance than ShahRukh's in Chak De or any other actor this year. But kudos to Aamir Khan for directing the movie so brilliantly. Though he had an excellent script written by Amol Gupte, but there have been umpteen examples of great stories transforming into ordinary movies in Bollywood, only because of the director's "wish" to make it his way and not the way the story demands.

I was going through an article published in "The Hindu" from where I got to know some interesting facts about the movie. Amole Gupte and Reeta Bhatia, the duo who concieved the story, had worked on it for seven long years. It all started from a small one page story by Kurusowa, a Japanese movie-maker who could never develop an interest towards studies and thus started concentrating on art. Though he was not dyslexic, but it gave Amole and Reeta some food for thought and they started looking out for answers to the question, "Why some kids simply cannot concentrate on studies whereas they are brilliant in some other fields?" Dyslexia, was one of the reasons and they started building a story keeping that as the central theme. Even after finalising the story, it took them one and a half years to find the kid ( Darsheel), who would play the role of Ishaan. Amole, Reeta and Aamir conducted numerous workshops and they studied the behaviour of around four to five hundred nine to ten year olds. This is how they found our new "superstar", Darsheel. Hope, by now you guys must have understood, how a great movie is made and how much of devotion it takes.

The theme of the movie was so pertinent, I think every parent can relate to it. Today everyone wants a winner in his/her family and this in turn leads to burdenising the children with their own unfulfilled dreams. But what if a kid buckles under the load?? What if his dreams and his parents' dreams don't match??

Life on the slow track

It's been more than two months, since I posted something here. Well, speaking honestly, if I say I was busy, then I would be lying. Actually, I could not understand what to write about. Nothing exciting has happened in my life for the past two to three months. But, I wanted to write something today. Considering the derth of topics and my passion of Bollywood, I have decided to write a review of OSO (this might tell you, what exactly has been happening of me).



I watched OSO, here in Jamshedpur in a theatre that has nothing except the screen and the roof and I am not exaggerating. From the promos, I could make out that it was going to be fulltu masala movie and so I had left my mind back home(which I hardly carry). But from the very first scene the movie gripped me. I understand, a lot of you must have started thinking whether I actually have a mind or not and some of my friends will stop visiting my blogspot after reading this. But I can't help but like the movie.I was kicked like a pig when I asked some of my friends to go and watch the movie again.



The reason why the movie touched me so much was because it was all about dreams. I understand I am sounding philosophical, but yes. And the lines uttered by Shahrukh when he gets the best actor award, for a moment made me to believe that it actually happens. Although I had read those lines earlier in "The alchemist", but the effect was never so profounding.

Anyways, I won't recommend this movie to anyone, but if you are feeling low and want to know what actually touches the hearts of the masses (OSO was the highest grosser in bollywood last year), then borrow a CD and watch it.