Back after a looooooooooong hiatus….er…….self-inflicted ban..er…….laziness on my part. Whatever you want to call it. They say life at Bskool is tough, tiring etc etc. But believe me you have no inkling what’s in store for you. Its been a month since I got back after the term break, a lot has happened at “the Eagle’s nest” (aka the Sanquelim campus) in between . Let’s go in reverse order……bole to flashback………….

Its mid-august, it’s raining as if the gods have decided to flush out the entire earth from the galaxy. You are sitting in your room, contemplating, whether you should start studying for midterms or finish the HIMYM series first. You weigh in your options and you decide Barney’s man (read women) management skills are more important than reading about what Pavlov did with/to his dog or what the hell a Chinese man along with a French woman was doing in a “Blue Ocean”. So, you watch merrily, till your eyes start abusing you. You sleep at 4 am, wake up at 8:30 am, swipe attendance at 8:45 am, grab the last bench and start waiting for the executioner…er….I mean professor. You are sitting, your eyes as big as an owl, staring intensely towards the Prof, nodding at fixed intervals. Suddenly the whole class is quiet, you are still nodding your head, u hear a faint noise “What is the example of stealth positioning?” what do you do? You nod. The person sitting next to you kicks you” Dude, he’s asking you a question, why the hell are you nodding?” Suddenly the outline of the classroom becomes clearer. You mutter something……… The Prof cracks some joke about students sleeping in the class, You are still sleeping…………you curse him in your sleep and promise yourself next time am gonna show him.

Enough of my blabbering, moving on to September, it’s still raining….even more heavily…..every now and then you get mails of lost umbrellas, slippers and what not. September is the end term month; you scamper around, submissions, presentations, book reviews, quizzes. It’s the “all hell loose” month. Sleep deprived, you hit the local bar with vengeance a week before the end terms. The next morning you promise yourself two things: a) next seven days m gonna study like anything b) m not drinking again. You look at the exam time table, two exams in a day. You chuckle at the cruel turn of events, even PGP office has a sense of humour. You decide nothing can be done now, “next term m gonna kill it”. You get tortured in the exams repeatedly, day after day. You repeat your promise after every exam  “next term m gonna kill it”.  It suddenly dawns upon you, the term is over and you have managed past it, without any physical and mental damage (academic part is still awaited). Three months at GIM and you feel like you are half Goan. You scoff at tourists, start loving the rains, love the lazy elegance of the place. You can name all the beaches in ascending order. The narrow winding roads of Goa nestled with trees take you to a different place altogether.

 These three months at GIM have been a revelation; a Bskool changes you, for your own good. People who embrace this change are a happy lot but people who resist………….well they are still happy but not content. When you look around yourself, you see friends, you see people who are with you 24X7, a sense of familiarity ascends on you. What is the spirit of GIM??? What makes it diferent from other colleges?? Perhaps it’s a difficult question to answer, but believe me, when you ask this question to anybody associated with GIM, the smile tells it all…………..

Flashback continues in the next post……………….   

Mujhe chahiye Sinkara.....!!!!!!!

Kids,

"It was the rainy season of 2011 and one brave soul ventured alone into the wilds to get some tea but all he could get was beer, so he drank and drank till the bartender locked him out. He vowed never to come back again but he didn't know that he would have to come there again and again and one more again."


 Now don't get confused, I just wrote it coz I so much wanted to start this post with "Kids" (HIMYM effect). It has no effect or resemblance to/on any cat, dog, pig, iguana, troll or human for that matter neither does it represent my views. It.s just some random bullshit so please ignore it. Period.

So...its been a while.....i know, but its not my fault. The days have been crazy and the nights are insanely day like. We are almost bang in the middle of our first trimester and the reality has started to sink in. the varnish has worn off and what lies in front of us is the naked truth of MBA.

OK.....I was being overly melodramatic there but believe me when I say that (based on my limited experience :)) that the course really gets you out of your skin, I actually mean it.You do things which you never would have thought doing, you don't sleep, you start spewing stupid jargon the moment you are in the class.....you try to read ET, you start forgetting the concept of 24 hrs, you try to relate everything with "customer satisfaction".....and you do "haiyaaaah"  :P

The rain never stops here but on the bright side, you get used to it and start enjoying it and the surroundings. Goa is just majestic in rains, the greenery around leaves you all "bagh bagh". Your biggest weapon here is "the umbrella" and also priceless. Without it,well...... you are a lost soul drenched in rains and people with umbrella sniggering at you.....sob sob!!!

The whole month has seen a plethora of activities right from the (mis) adventures of the freshers party, gruesome JCC selection processes, Piyush Pandey talk :), surprise tests, assignments, case studies, getaways to baga, panjim, CSR activities and preparation for Samriddhi. In between all these you still get time to unwind and thats what i love about this place. You can never feel the pinch here........and thats the beauty of GIM, it just embraces you in the spirit of its adventurous journey and you absorb all that comes your way.

Not to forget  Samriddhi............the National Conference and Business School Meet hosted by Goa Institute of Management is going to be held from 19-21 Aug. We all are super excited about it. And hope it will be a grand success.


Its been 50 days since I arrived here and every single day has been fun......Ok.......few days were hectic........few were sad.......but it was funnily sad :). I cant exactly explain what does that mean but it just sounded deep.......you know like philosophy and deepak "spirituality" chopra kinda stuff....so please dont judge me on my spirituality quotient, I set standards for shallowness :P


Oh one more thing, met Remo Fernandes @Inox.....awesome person....absolutely no frills.....clicked few shots with him. I wonder why my friends stopped me when I was on the verge of asking him to sing the "o  meri munni song " :P ........just kiddin!!!, I just asked him why did he come to watch HP7 movie.........Bazzingaaaaa.......Kiddin again!!!. Not anymore, I promise, seems like the fear of assignments is taking its toll on me. Its better I sleep, have to go to Surla village tomorrow for CSR activity, dnt want to scare the farmers :)


Later,


Abhishek

Midsummer: before and after!!

"July 1 is the 182nd day of the year (183rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 183 days remaining until the end of the year. The end of this day marks the halfway point of a leap year."

Now, why did i write that?? If you googlify 1st July.......you get to know a lot of things like Hong Kong reverted to Chinese rule, Carl Lewis was born on this day, independence of Burundi, birth of Walkman, first gay pride march in England, Delhi belly released....viagara viagra (oops.....i meant etc etc.....)

But what Google will not tell you is that on this day somewhere in the misty mountains, in the ancient land of Sanquelim (Sakhalim) there was an explosion, an uncontrolled detonation of raw talent, charisma and showmanship.

The occasion was Midsummers Night organised by the PGP2 for welcoming us i.e. PGP1 and what an eventful night it was!!!!!

We danced and drank with Sharukh, Katrina , JLo and .........damn!!!

Ok...I made up that last line. But i assure you some of the performances were really extraordinary. People just stood there gawking, mesmerised as the night unfolded itself. But before I go on and on about the amazing event organised by our very own "Razzies"(not the "golden raspberry" oscars!!!) . I must harp on the fact that the event marked end of our foundation course and the official beginning of the term. Well....all i can say is that it was fun while it lasted but we are geared up for the ardous task ahead.....aye aye!

Coming back to the midsummer's night, the stage was set for an exhilarating night and the promise was delivered to the core. Some of the performances were truly amazing and left everyone shouting "encore". The date concept was truly a "hit", but of course there were some "misses" as well ;)

What was amazing to see was the camaraderie shown by both the batches in the organizing the event and in making the event a grand success. It was truly a fitting start to what I hope would be  an eventful two years here at Goa. Also not to forget some of the PGP 2 talent was also displayed and I must say it was really out of this world.

I started to write this post five days back but I was so hard pressed for time after the course started that I got time today only to finish this . Although the "marketing mania" is still haunting me. But that episode needs to be told separately. 

Its almost three days since our class started and it feels like somebody has upturned the whole Great wall of China on me. Assignments, case studies, group discussions.......arrrrgh!!!!!!! But as i said some stories need time and a sane mind, both of which desert me for the time being.

Not to end on a somber note, I have already scourged the length and breadth of panjim till now and am completely in love with the narrow roads of Goa. As one of my friend remarked, you sometimes pinch yourself walking on these lanes that are you really studying in Goa??? And then you see familiar faces acknowledging your presence, reassuring you that" Dude........this is GIM......you are here", you let a sigh of relief and then again start dreaming " Man........am one lucky --------------"( fill in the blanks as per your sensibilities- PG 13) :) :) :)

Later

Abhishek

Hmmmm....interesting!!!!!!!! (The week before......)

Yeh jo world hai na, isme do tarah ke log rehte hai, ek jo JCC hote hai aur ek jo JCC hona chahte hai. The past week here has seen a flurry of activities, right from the beginning of arrival of PGP2's to the jostle for being JCC (which still hasn't peaked by the ways). For the uninitiated, let me try to define the term JCC, but before that, I would like to confess that I still am to fully understand the true meaning of the term. But the adventurous soul that I am, I would give it a shot anyways!!!! ;)

From what I have heard , gathered, concluded, testified, re-testified,deliberated, the term JCC is usually used to describe a  b-school "fuccha" or rather say a "buccha" (clever....huh!!) who with stars in his eyes tries extremely hard to score some brownie points during his initial stay in a b school while also trying simultaneously to make a contribution towards the betterment of his fellow inmates as well as the institute itself by losing his hair, appetite, sleep, fat content in the process.

Welll.....enough of shitbull, as i said earlier, with the arrival of PGP2's our campus for the first time is totally hara bhara with the load of around of 500 people. You can sense the buzz around the campus now.And I must say with the promptness and ease with which they took reign really impressed me be it the functioning of canteen or some minor hostel issues.  It was truly great to see their helpfulness and active interest in matters at hand.

The week started off with the customary SAC and Placement committee GBMs. We were briefed on the rules and regulations, do's and dont's  and lots of other interesting things. That really upped the ante and every other day we had some club's presentation or various other engagements. And now all is left to wrankle your brains about the choice of clubs. atleast for the time being.

We also had the famous "Ribandar Talks" with Mr. Ashank Desai which was very informative and extremely interesting. Its quite amusing to hear to listen to "Ribandar" talks sitting here in sanquelim. Its like few of those things such as "panama hats are from ecuador not panama". Anyways I like the term "Ribandar Talks", it somehow makes me feel more connected to that old yellow building which has seen the genesis of numerous careers.

But till now it has been all good, atleast we are looking at the shape of things to come. In between all these chaos and people running for collecting club membership fee, some running to get dates for fresher's party.....yes we have to ask out a senior on a date!!!!!! People are working real hard to present something on midsummer's night. We all have already our hands full.....I am scared to think of the day when the term formally starts for us.

But untill that as they say in mozambique "world going fetching oil, you having fun" or something like that.....you get the idea!!!!!

From this year we also have a mandatory CSR course that too a three credit course, which I believe is something very unique and is an awesome concept in itself. We are in the process of listening to various NGOs and then we will have to chose one project among them. Really looking forward to it!!!!

But untill then, I still have to figure out which club to join, get hold of philip kotler and his cronies, a visit to Tito's, prepare for midsummers night, face the music at freshers night..........phew!!!!!(panting panting panting!!!!).You see, life before a b-school :"formally" starts is something which you have to take full advantage of.........and I still have a week left!!!! :) :)

P.s. we had a PDP session with our seniors in the canteen, which was super fun and very "enlightening" in every sense :)

Later,

Abhishek

the kaam before the calm!!!!!!

Its a week already since I arrived in Goa, and to confess i have already succumbed to the "vices" of Goa..... :). Explored panjim a bit, gorged buffet at the legendary haunt "fidalgo", got sloshed....sigh!!!. There are still places to explore, people to meet , soak the goan sunshine instead of getting soaked in the heavy rains!!!!!.....my schedule is already filled.....

Not to deviate from the course of action, we are already knee deep in action here at GIM. With the advent of the gruelling ( well.....at least for some people!!!!) 3 week long foundation course, things have started to fall in place a bit. Still we have enough time to explore the nearby scenic areas. The inland beauty of Goa really amazes me,compared to the beaches and all, it is hugely underrated. With the occasional  sprinkle of rain, the greenery of the place literally lightens up....

Coming back to the foundation classes, it has been fun interacting with profs and fellow batch mates alike. Some people really capture your imagination, some hijack them and in some cases you still wonder "what was that?". But I guess these are  perspectives which one needs to shift accordingly :). From the initial reactions one can gauge the fact that the faculty here is really up to their task and they know their "p's" and "q's" damn well.... I can already see my future :p

Our campus here is promoting a real novel concept of RFID cards for your every need on campus be it food ,laundry, stationary, snacks anything. Every transaction on campus is cashless transaction. So, up the hill cash doesn't work (pun intended!!). And as far as I know other than GIM none other institute can boast of such a unique facility. Of course there's a flipside, if you lose the card you are broke or the guy who finds it will make you  :) :p

The campus is still in a progressive stage but once it is complete it will be a sight to see.

Quite unusually it has not rained for over 20  hours now, its a first for me since I arrived so am not complaining.

Rain or no rain, first week here was quite eventful. Hope my cheerful tone doesn't get caught in the myriad shenanigans of the coming weeks. :) :)

Later,

Abhishek

P.s. TT is a big hit in the hostel (the only "entertainment" here)

Prologue: GIM

As I settle to write this, the rain drops tap my window incessantly and the clouds draping the mountains are slowly caressed away by the cool winds.The whole greenery and the misty mountain tops are the perfect setting for a great countryside novel. But that is not what I am here for :). Such is the beauty of this place that the moment you gaze around, you cant help but marvel at the nature's work.

 In case, you are wondering why this guy is yankering about the surroundings here at Goa Institute of Management (GIM),Goa. Its because I'm completely smitten by the beauty of this place :-).

Well, first things first, Its been two days since I arrived here in Goa or rather somewhere which somehow happens to be in Goa but its not "the Goa". Sanquelim (Saakhli, Sakhlim), had a tough time explaining to the taxi driver at the Karmali railway station that I want to reach GIM not some god forsaken Hotel management college which he was hell bent on taking me to.

So, when I finally saw the campus from down the hill, I heaved a sigh of relief. During the journey, armed with Google map (god bless amerika!!!) I had been constantly peppering the taxi wallah that whether he knew the way or not? we should go right not left!!. And as a consequence of my smart ass antics, the taxi wallah refused to give me his number, when i asked for it. A snubbing, which I richly deserved :). Lesson learnt: Never underestimate the taxi driver, even if you don't understand a word what he's saying.

It was raining elephants, sharks everything when i arrived.....after a lot of roaming around in rain and sacrificing my umbrella to the hands of gusty winds. I somehow manged to complete all the formalities and got myself a nice hostel room overlooking the mountains. By that time I was completely out of steam......met some people from the facebook group.............dumped the contents of my luggage in the cupboard....phew!!!!.

As the day came to an end, got acquainted to my roommate and few other nice people. The campus was already abuzz with construction activities and with 240 people now and 240 more to come.......i only hope there's going to be an awesome camaraderie around.

Day 2 started off with the director's speech and the faculty introduction. Mr. D'Lima, our director, introduced us formally to the "GIM". Somebody mentioned he has close to 42 years of experience, and the experience definitely showed in the wonderful way he addressed us and presented his points clearly and crisply. The faculty introduction thing passed off in a whiz. And it was time for the "tests". About which I rather not write here. :) ;)

Post lunch session was the doctor's talk.....abstinence from the vices of Goa.........proper care of your health...........antibiotics usage............ I wonder till what time i will abstain from the "vices" of Goa. A thought to ponder,indeed. :)

Forgot to write about my trip down the hill.............the adventurous soul that I am (pun literally intended!!!!) decided to look around sankhlim market a bit. My roommate Sanil, dropped me off  while on his way to panjim. With my newly purchased umbrella, I set upon exploring the place amidst heavy rains. Although being a pretty small hamlet sort of place..... I was surprised to find the place has everything you need. A hospital, physician, optician, banks, atms, general stores and even a "national bar" which for the record i didnt go to.

The adventurous streak which i mentioned earlier, I don't know how  but that streak died its slow death the moment I started climbing the hill. and by the time I was at the cafeteria scourging those puffs I was literally huffing and puffing (Shakespeare would have turned in his grave on seeing my rhythmic connotations).

Anyways, enough of my ramblings, these days have been dramatic, chaotic and everything right from the word go!!!!! Already loving it!!!!! Somehow the sense of achievement and urgency is yet to sink in and hopefully we will overcome the "stressing" and "stretching".

Till then, its time get drenched in rain again and again!!!!

Later,

Abhishek
 

In this world there are two kind of people, one who work on weekends and one who are forced to work on weekends. I belong to the latter group. And over the period i have seen that my efficiency on a Saturday is much higher than other days (have to remind myself to include it in my CV:)). Maybe that sunday sleep eggs me on to finish work quickly.

Caught the last ten minutes of the Australian Opens mixed doubles final, Lee-Hesh were totally tamed by the flying chest thumpers, the Bryan bros. The Australian Open crown still eludes our celebrated "divorced-single-divorced-single" couple again.Guess instead of calling them Lee- Hesh, we should call them " the Indian Express un-Lea- sh-ed".

Gotta go for my 12 hour hibernation, its slightly chilly outside, perfect for a deep slumber.

P.S. Ignore my pathetic attempt to mock "the Indian Express", they are awesome:)