Monday, September 28, 2009

Dandia Nite at SIC


All of us had quite a time running footloose on Dandia Nite at the campus on September 26.And one anticipates today's lunch too :the Bijoya Dashami special menu .Ahaa!the festival season is in full swing.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

The pursuit of happiness

It was as if the castle of my heart has been all morose because of her absence. Then there was news that she was coming back. And then she came, with all her grace, with that charming gait, stunning everyone around her with her quintessential beauty.

“She’ll be coming round the mountains when she comes,She’ll be riding six white horses when she comes.

Yippeee yi yi yippee yippee yi”

Everyone rejoices at her arrival. The trees salute her with greener leaves. The clouds, her guardian angels, always roam around to keep her safe and sound.

Monsoon has come!!

The sudden squeak of the microphone breaks my flow of thought. I came back to the harsh reality. The reality of competition, the rat race for jobs, MBA, entrepreneurship, Capital Markets, statistics and bitter ugly rivalry in all spheres of life. There is no time to sit and brood about the beauty of nature. Everyone is running. People are running towards some unknown invisible magnetic force whose nature nobody knows. Some say they are running in pursuit of happiness. Some are running for recognition, fame, money. But at the end of the day all that one wants is happiness. So would it be fair to assume that we are running after happiness. But at the end of the day are we happy? This entire saga of struggle, the study, the competition, the sleepless nights does it all make us happy?

I do not know.

Yes, we are happy when we achieve something. But sometimes I think that it would be so much better if I could leave everything and settle in some small village, with a river nearby. If I could watch sunset sitting beside the river with no worries in my mind.

But reality does not let us paint such a romantic picture. Reality has mosquitoes which tend to come and scare of people who would be watching sunset beside the river.

“Let’s take 10 mins break and then we’ll resume with the subsequent portion.”

People scurry out of the class. Some hurry to the loo, some to grab a coffee to help him combat the torturous boredom of the class. I wait. Wait and watch those incessant drops of rain coming down from the heavens. Yes even the heavens are crying on the sad plight of the human race. The race that had advanced so much, that they have forgotten that the basic right of all beings is the right to be happy. The dark clouds roam about menacingly over our head posing. A harbinger of some great calamity. A possible check to the humans who are becoming menacing to the earth’s existence itself. The heavens keep on crying on man’s plight, on the sad state of God’s favorite creation.

Krishanu Mukherjee (09-11)

Are we really happy??


Have we ever thought what are we running after?...

Aren’t we running this rat race and ignoring the little things in life which are the real source of happiness.

Do we remember when we made someone smile or made someone’s life better?....Do we remember when we went out in the rains to have a splash?...Do we remember when we had a long walk along a beach?..”Woh kagaz ki kashti , who barish ka paani”

Aren’t we so much engrossed in the petty issues and giving them undue importance. Getting half a mark more than our peer has become a priority, earning a fat pay package is a matter of pride without any clue how to spend that sum.

We have stopped loving each other and running in this mad chaos for better marks, better jobs without realising that we are postponing our smiles and happiness in this journey called LIFE . We strive to get into the best of colleges, in turn to get the best of the jobs; without realising the fact that the end result we aspire for is happiness.

But, happiness does not come just as an offshoot of owning a BMW or a beachside bungalow at Juhu beach.

Vice President ,strategy at Lehman Brothers in New York during the crisis said” At a time when all wealth disappeared overnight for me,the only thing that stood steadfast was the meaningful relationships with family and friends that I had nurtured through a lifetime”

The subprime crisis has brought people back to the roots. The meltdown is a reminder to everyone to put aside the deafening daily din and to put one’s ears to the inner voice and calling of life.

I feel happiness is a factor of relishing small things in life…remember when we were children, played small indoor games felt elated in winning them, when we won our first ever prize in kindergarten , that small prize or that sense of recognition when we were on the top of the world.

But, now we crib on small things in life…crib for half a mark ……or a better job for that matter.

We have become so self-centred ignorant to the fact that we are not happy inside. We have stopped making true relationships and every relationship has become an interest of self-gratification. Its all directed to the self. We have failed to recognise that we have a definite life span for all of us…a day will come when our lives will come to an end.

We don’t realise that we have almost covered 20-25 percent of this life god has bestowed upon us..why not to make the most of what 70-75 percent of what is left now?

Do we dare to ask this once we die whether the world will remember us from the grades we get or the amount of money we have in our bank accounts, but how much we have made changes to their lives?

What matters is the number of smiling faces all around and how much happiness one spreads along the way.

“After all there are things which money can’t buy”

We should get back to our roots ….there is no end to materialistic pleasures.

Samarth Gupta (09-11)

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Remember why it started?

It is going to be exam season soon , end of Semester I for 09-11 batch ; the glorious crib and cram sessions awaits.A rain check here,remember why it started?


So you are at it again
Wiser neither for the years nor the mandate
And you follow the same old, the same very old ways
Remember why it started ?

You thought you had a chance
And believed an unblemished spirit of enquiry would see you through
A glimmer of a knack and a trick up the sleeve
Remember why it started ?

You couldn't see the thorns in the path
Or hear a word of ridicule from the naysayer
You could see why it was worth it all.
Remember why it started ?

Yet as are with such things
The seed of doubt is given an acre
And the constant rain of not remembering
Of why it started.


Remember why it started ?

The all time favourite inspirational tool-kit :-
1)If(Rudyard Kipling)
2)Chicken Soup for the ___ series (Jack Canfield)
3)The Winston Churchill Battle series : yup, not just the generals , the politician too could pack a punch while rallying a nation or the troops to charge on.So these series of quotes pretty much serve as a reminder that humanity has been through worse than a term paper.

A poet in a MBA grad school, of course ;has a different meaning : the non-traditional students who bring a different perspective to the classroom, usually populated by engineers, bankers or information technology specialists


Sketching updates!

More sketchings on your way...

by Kunal Kanishk(2008-10)





by Vinod Tripathi ( 2009-11 )

Thursday, September 17, 2009

When God Speaks

Wait..This isn't any spiritual/religious stuff. This post is a fan's tribute to my favorite professor God Bole(Now do you get the title of this post..?:)). He has been my newest inspiration in the longlist of amazing people who have enriched my life. His greatest asset as well his signature style, apart from his brilliant clarity of thought, is his temerity built on mastery over the subject, bordering on arrogance, blended with a deceptive simplicity which beguiles his brilliance. Its a treat to watch this contrasting portrayal of intellectual temerity wearing a humble cap through his senile voice. The fragile voice filters out the extraneous effects of his audacious self and makes it so palatable to the ears(I admit , at times, soporific, also).
Its as if arnold schwarzeneger plays the role of a coward person with aplomb, fully aware of his strengths. One often wonders whether his dynamic self is encapsulated in his humility or is it the other way..
Hang on....This article isnt supposed to be psycho analysis of my favorite teacher. Its about his unique method of teaching which makes him a genius.

His teaching runs like the popular zeitgeist movie: Rang De Basanti.

If in case you are wondering how a seemingly soporific lecture would resemble a block buster movie, then read on..

For the uninitiated, Rang De Basanti movie brilliantly portrayed how colonial past juxtaposes with the present times. The director of the movie showcases his genius when the lead protagonists after playing the role of martyrs in a documentary reach the 'epiphany moment' when they realize how the roles they play seem to reflect the bitter truth of circumstances they are forced into.

Similar epiphany occurs during the project presentation when the boring theoretical stuff in the book, written in a monotonous, didactical tone suddenly acquires 'live' dimensions.
For instance, while most of the students were growling during presentation sessions over how can the professor-'manager' can be so vague in his needs, a vacuous statement in the text book on the necessary uncertainty of the needs of the manager suddenly appears so hauntingly real. Several statements in the text book appear real when looked from the prism of the project experience.
His brilliant evaluation techniques by letting us feel the shortcomings of the marketing research techniques to our own judgement makes him a philosopher of marketing research who accidentally teaches the subject too.

Teaching cannot get better than this...!!

I can keep rah-rah ing about various other brilliant facets of his teaching. I shall leave that for another article some time later....

Venky (09-11)

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Sketching updates!

It's been a wonderful experience to see participations from our own SIIBian sketchers, over the last few weeks. And as usual the delay to post the same in the blog( owing to the reason that blogger.com doesn't open in D-hostel ) might have kept many a few anxious about if their work would be ever published here. Am terribly sorry for that, and the constant reminder of Piyeush modi has finally made it possible( ya, just met him a minute ago).
Well, to start off with...

by Shipra(batch of 2009-11):






by Prana( batch of 2009-11):
The burning desire
Flower
woman


by: Rama ( batch of 2008-10 )


For more amazing works of our own picassos...please visit --> "Sketching by SIIBians"

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Entrepreneur - The Calvin Way!


Please have a look at this presentation which was inspired by the topic of our Leadership Series: “Entrepreneurship”. What can better capture the spirit of entrepreneurship than Calvin’s undying energy, curiosity and audacity! Created in what Calvin describes as the right creative mood: "last minute panic":-), this presentation is an entry in the “World's Best Presentation Contest 2009” ofslideshare.com.

If you like the presentation, please vote for it at http://www.slideshare.net/nedumudi/entrepreneur-the-calvin-way

Registration takes only a minute. Thanks a lot !!! :)

Prasanth Vijay(2008-10)

Sketches and the Picassos of SIIB...



This post was a long due, sorry for having delayed. It's the no-prizes-4-guessing-idea of our Dear Ignisense09 coordinator Mr.Piyuesh Modi, to create an online sketches portal by all the SIIBians.
Mr.Modi, who's been instrumental behind all the works for Ignisense09 preparations is also quite a good sketcher and apart from the creativities and crazy ideas that oozes out from him now-n-forth instantenously ( Courtesy, the creativity classes he is so much obsessed with these days ) :)

So, just a humble beginning. Your feedbacks(suggestions/criticisms) are all welcome...

How will this work?

  • Sketches submitted by all of you would be uploaded in the picasa album created under the siibblogger@gmail.com head ( find the link for album here --> Sketches by siibians )
  • Selected few of the sketches would be displayed here in the blog...and the rest can be viewed in the album itself.
  • Send your sketches(if interested offcourse) @ --> siibblogger@gmail.com, or piyeush modi (skyisntlimit@gmail.com ), Venkat Raman( incorrigibleoptimist@gmail.com).
Hope to see all of your participations...
If you've any suggestions of any other stuffs that can be carried out SIIBblog, please feel free to drop a mail @ romele26@gmail.com or siibblogger@gmail.com.





Cheers!