Placements – The ‘Mahakumbh’ of Science, Art and Luck!

The passing days of the lullaby storms

These qualifying grades, those dreadful norms

I wish I was blind, a believer at heart

They say its Science, I call ‘it’ Art!

“Don’t be a wishful romantic, one day someday your sins will find you out”

-Shashwat Rai

What sin did I commit – a question that is auditing my little brain these days!! Ok, being part of an MBA, I was expected to do a lot more than I did perhaps but why my present indicates an epileptic seizure for these impending Placements.

Maybe I should have reread those essays (that I wrote to get into this premier college) a few more times where I talked all about my adept versatility and how I was earmarked to become the next big entrepreneur and float a publishing house.  Maybe I should have won over my reservations and given my professors the benefit of doubt before dismissing them to deathly hallow of my connived cynicism. Or maybe I should have joined an art college and explored my very existence and beliefs!!

Ok no more philosophies, no more global gyans what say.. aha that surely would have brought relief to some but then what’s more to a discourse if not the alternatives that presents a window of titanic hope.

As I start this sequel of Placement updates from the beautiful campus of Great Lakes, I promise you hope, hope that our days of hard work and anxiety would pass soon and like true Spartans we will rise to the call of duty. For now, it’s our duty to prepare for Placements and land our dream jobs, isn’t it!!

Hmm i think i got you again in this game of political correctness, but that’s the irony. I will be lying if I say my entrepreneurial thoughts that had me waltzing has killed the ‘service’ guy in me, that I am no more charmed by the thoughts of landing a seven digit salary from here. But there is a classical dilemma that needs to be answered and trust me it has no one correct answer.

Is getting an MBA a sub par achievement – a shortcut to a great job, a fancied salary, a means to an end? Or has this course brought right perspective to our learning curve and equipped us with knowledge in commerce and strategy.  Aren’t we the custodians of the business world that is limping and gasping for breath in the wake of these seasonal recessions? Has MBA qualified us as candidates in areas of leadership and nurtured us as individuals who believe they can change the world!!

In one of his addresses to students and faculty members of the Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai, delivered at the Tidel Park, the strategy Guru, late C.K. Prahalad stressed on a manifesto of how Indian business might prosper in today’s global world.

“How do we compete and develop a theme of becoming unique? How do you do something that few others can do and more importantly how to differentiate yourself and not compete by other’s rules?”

CK was aware of the fact that MBA colleges like Great Lakes are shining examples of optimizing resources and new assets creation, “Great Lakes is a fundamentally important example of Constrained Innovation, where the college was able to use the scare resources at its disposal and build a school that is a model for other business schools. The idea is not to build assets that are not required as the temptation is huge to expand. However, vitality in the medium to longer term comes not from asset reduction but from resource leverage.”

His was a message that one needs to carry close as we prepare for the coming days. The fundamental drivers of successful differentiation: understanding the future of competition and co-creation of values.

Think of red carpet at the Oscars. Placement season is the confluence of all that we have learnt: a test of discombobulating (yeah as confusing as this word perhaps!) concepts that we have mastered mixed with grains of Luck that is so integral to our Indian way of preparations. It’s like the Mahakumbh mela of Allahabad, where people attired as Sages to Nagas converge. Aren’t we all cloaked with this abysmal naked truth that opportunities come with fancied jobs?

The time seems to have paused, the air is still with soundless debate of which company to choose and what roles to apply! The best companies have started visiting our campus and the pre placements talks are on in full swing. Those books of marketing and finance that were shelved have been duly reassigned and the slides and notes that one prepared in the last half-year are being referred back. Our CVs have also been professionally tweaked to highlight our core competencies but the question remains – Is a good placement a testimony to our talent, a rightful fruit of our self-exiled tapasya!

“Karma-Yoga is the attaining through unselfish work of that freedom which is the goal of all human nature” – Swami Vivekanand.

As a self-proclaimed keeper of the Holy Grail (a blogger who is locked away but present, observant but invisible), I can sense the change that’s engulfing our campus. Are these the ‘winds of change’ that Scorpions sang for their Crazy world! The unwinding salsa classes have temporarily stopped and the rhythmic bands have been shut down. Even the birthday celebration has suddenly become consciously aware of the gravity at hand but isn’t getting good placements purely incidental of our efforts here!

Most have started preparing for the d-day and those who haven’t will do so shortly. And that’s Karma for us, at least for now <.>

“Environment consciousness and sustainable earth: from awareness to action” In conjunction with PARYAVARAN 2011- “closer to green sense”

 “Nature is an elixir to living”

After extending a warm welcome towards the guests Dr. Nanditha Krishna and Dr. Prabhat Kumar, Pratibha and Abhishu enthralled the audience with a beautiful rhythm, while lighting of lamp by Prof. Swaminathan, Prof. Sriram and the guests Prachi captivated the atmosphere with a beautiful piece from Vande Mataram.

Prof. Sriram Addressing the Spartans and the Guests defines the true grit of this cause and the difficulty it takes to bring about the consciousness amongst all of us. He quotes “that the green awareness is a business necessity; it will not be far when organizations will have to report their contribution and effect to natural conservation just like financial reporting.” He talks about the triple bottom line, profits, people and planet and stated that those global organization who are contributing towards this cause also enjoy a great brand image.

“It is no more a luxury, it is more important for all of us to look into it in a serious fashion”.

Extending a warm welcome, Professor Sriram & Professor Swaminathan honored the guests with a punnadai and flower seeds. Inviting them to share their wisdom with us

Our Guest, Dr. Nanditha Krishna

A Ph.D. from Bombay University, has been the Director of the C.P. Ramaswami Aiyar Foundation since 1981, and is the founder and administrator of its various constituents, C. P. Art Centre, C. P. R. Institute of Indological Research, Saraswathi Kendra Centre for Children (with learning disabilities, dyslexia and autism), Shakunthala Jagannathan Museum of Folk Art, and The Grove School.

Having a candid talk with the students she engrossed all of us into the lyrics of the Vande Mataram, leaving the foot prints of harmony in nature she spoke about few major causes that invigorates the natural imbalance in India, one of them being the Garbage issue “work out systems, India is the world’s largest recyclers, so all can be recycled”. She emphasized that development is change and no change is sustainable. As development cannot be stopped so our contribution would be towards sustainable living. Equally focusing her talk on panch bhuta and the diverse factors such as leather usage, ground level water, fresh water rivers and the air pollution she explores a holistic picture on where the natural imbalance stands.

“Living in this lovely campus, one would not realize that India’s urbanization has been a disaster” giving various examples Dr. Nanditha shows a drastic picture of ecological imbalance. On a closing note she nurtures the cause of sustainable living in harmony with nature by stating “We come from a culture which has respected environment, but today the scenario is very different. If we don’t respect, the nature would not respect us back”

Welcoming our next guest, Dr. Prabhat Kumar

Director, BHAVINI (Bharatiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam Limited)

A Mechanical Engineer and has many “first of its kind jobs” to his credit in Nuclear Power Program for India. His assignments over the years from Design, Procurement, Reactor Maintenance, QA and ISI, Life Management, Remote Tooling and Construction. He has distinction of working on Pressurized Heavy Water as well as Pressurized Water Reactors. Due to his persuasive capabilities, ability to motivate team, ability to deal with design organizations and past record of working at great speed, has been assigned to construct Fast Breeder Reactor Project (PFBR) in the capacity of Project Director

Addressing the batch of Spartans, Dr. Prabhat inviting great lakes to kalpakkam he motivated the audience with the technological studies and advanced being carried out for energy production in the country equally sustaining the ecological balance of the surrounding. Emphasizing on the importance of PFBR project he invites the students to explore the most cleanest nuclear power plants “we have occupied a very small portion in the life span of the earth, but we have done enough damage that goes beyond our timeline”

Going forward with the event Dr. Bala Balachandran sends his message for the Great Lakes Family, emphasizing on “the attempts made by the various organizations to increase awareness towards saving nature” stating his gratification for all the green initiative, Dr. Bala inspires students of Great Lakes Institute of Management to be more environmental conscious.

The green committee showcases a small video on the green initiatives taken by Great Lakes under its construction and structuring of the platinum rated campus. The paryavaran-2011 initiative showcased students from the Spartans batch taking up day to day causes and acceptance making a difference towards the society.

Brining in the wagon of winners for various competition organized by the Green Committee.

Winner for Green Quiz – Abhishek Haldar

Runners up – Mr. Vikram Choudhary, Gauthem Karthik, Sanju Thomas

Winner for Quiz 2 – Saurabh Goyal

Runners up – Atif Alam, Ruma Patra

Winner for Quiz 3 – Naman Arora

Runner up – Sachin Kulkarni

Winners for Green Logo – Pranita Dhamdhere

Winner for Green Slogan – Sahil Kukreja

Winners for Green poster making – Rituparna Kashyap & Rahul Ray

Winner for Green’o’graphy – Suprabhat Gupta

Winner for Green Ads competition – Kumar Mukesh Singh

Honoring Dr. Muthuraj for his green initiative ad campaign, Spartans enthralled the halls of Lake Veeranam and Mansarovar by the thunder of claps.

Prof. Swaminathan marked the closure of Paryavaran-2011 by presenting the vote of thanks on behalf of Great Lakes Institute of Management. Extending our gratitude, professor thanked our Guests and promised to meet efforts towards this initiative as best as we could.

Workshop by IIMC Alumni Chennai Chapter & Career Guidance Sessions (Part 3, The Soapy Tales Case presentations)

The Part 3 of IIM C Alumni workshop started with a warm welcome extended by Prof. Swaminathan to MR. Ajay Jain Director, Enzotech Solutions Pvt. Ltd. who as a moderator staged the soap case study presentation with a detailed structure of soap industry and how its marketing strategy should be. Having a plethora of experience in the defined industry, Mr. Jain rightfully quoted

“marketing is something that you do on a day-to-day basis, the real-time marketing”

With this he invited the best four teams to propose their marketing strategy presentation to take over

The Boondock Saints - Gokulendu, Mukesh and Siddharth

being the first in the arena to present the case identified the outline of the case study. With Gokulendu, Mukesh and Siddharth as a team, Boondock saints strategically portrayed the soapy tales with characterization of its different usages and the key players in the Soap industry.

proposing a solution of non-ambiguous branding strategy, well-defined product line boundaries and brand elements which make unique and strong associations, this team left no stone un-turned to make-believe a full-proof branding strategy for Soapy tails.

Team DIODVAC – Avni, hariharan and Gajendran

As with the name this team is a power package in itself, briefly outlining the key issues of the case. the presenter extensively addressed the current market scenario of the soap industry keenly identifying the potential available in organised retail sector and FMCG sector.  DIODVAC equally emphasized the market threat and challenges due to competition and increased input cost.

Proposing revitalizing and re-positioning of the current brand portfolio, to create an emotional attachment with the consumer and create a strategy based on such a target proposal DIODVAC wishes to come true to the promises done to consumers.

Team SAAPS – Saumya, ankita, Poonam, Preshit & Shriram

Being third in a row of competing for that one spot at the top, SAAPS jump started with the challanges faced by the business currently, extrapolating which the team slowly identified its market strategy for re-branding M as a family soap, where as FF into men’s freshness segment and P in the baby soft segment. SAAPS primary focused on packaging and the target marketing for premium men’s soap segment.

 

Team BUD : Shashank, Anshul, Richa, Akriti & Bhanu

The grand finale for the session 3 for IIM C Workshop on soapy tales case study, jump starting with a power packed presentation, Team Bud left the audience bedazzled with their catchy slides. Targeting the masculine passive space in the soap industry their market entry strategy revolved around the understanding of the men’s soap segment which currently prevailed less cluttered than the others.

As quoted by Akriti

“Absence of appeal and excitement led Team BUD to target a particular segment”

With this the last session of IIM C Workshop concludes with intense competition within all the four teams and spectacular presentations to aid them. Spartans imbibed the essence of live discussion between the participants and the panelists involving a huge potential to unlearn the marketing myths from industry experts and learn the real strengths of marketing skills.

Team SAAPS was judged the first and Team BUD being judged the second in position by the panelist as winners for this session. Mr. Ajay Jain encapsulated the essence of soapy tales complete presentation in few business specific norms and factors, pin pointing teams to be more precise on numbers and re-positioning to a market friendly segment the moderator for the event factually emphasized on value creation selling.

As they say, no story remains untold. The success of IIM C workshop is a story well scripted by the arduous effort put by management, student volunteers, panelists and participants. Spartans at their best yet again successfully concluded the last session for the day.

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Workshop by IIMC Alumni Chennai Chapter & Career Guidance Sessions (Part 2, The Case presentations)

And the battle begins,

Be it the warriors of Athens or the board rooms of conglomerates, the possession of the top is an infectious disease. The viral has well spread to the four best teams (New Wave, Challengers, Just in Case and Lemon Aid) presenting their analysis and market  propositions for Nimbooz.

The stage is set, the panel is ready and the game is on.

Sonali from Team New Wave quotes with their exemplary presentation stating their high points as

“Team New Wave presented an in-depth analysis of “Lemon-Aid Strategy” case, it equally made recommendations that revolved around bringing new variants of Nimbooz (spice and Masala variants), involving health specialists as brand advocates to boost overall sales.”

Team Challengers showcasing an upbeat competition with a plethora of speculative questions and strong contenders, Nishtha Dewani, Amit Pal Singh Bagga, Rohit Aggarwal and Vivek Gupta presented a spectacular with a strategic sales pitch in Nimbooz  at the fast food outlets where the cheesy flavour is counting on calories.

Their target point hits high node with their proposition of Nimbooz as a non-sugared version to target the health conscious and mocktail segment.

Not to far was the next high on energy team, Just in case with a case presentation done by Pratibha, Naman, Kashish and Divya showcasing a clear structure to a marketing strategy. well touted by the panel and well grilled by the audience ‘Just in case’ left no doubts about their presence and understanding of the case.

Naman from the team says it all by encapsulating the following lines

“We suggested keeping it simple, with only limited variations, as complexity may not gel well with the product. While continuing to target out-of-home consumption, we recommend focussing on the freshness of the product, and its refreshing effect. Health focus can be achieved by introducing Diet Nimbooz to bolster sales in the health-conscious segment. Also introducing a Rs. 5 Returnable Glass Bottle (RGB) would help capture the more price sensitive consumers. Since it’s a product consumed across age groups and geographical locations in India, the marketing communications should have a wider focus than just the youth.”

The last to mark the grand finale was Group Lemon Aid, giving a fair fight and enthusiastic approach to their strategy to introduce Nimbooz as a substitute to home made drink and mixers. Advaita, Sahil, Jaywardhan and Sourabh did present to be the true crusaders to mark the finish line. As quoted by the team members

“The presentation looks forward to the strategic path to make this brand into a mega brand. “

They say no show ends without a show stopper, today not one but we had 4 teams beckoning the exemplary show stoppers for the closure of the first session of IIM C workshop. Mr. Prateek Pota enveloped his suggestions and ideas marking the end of the lemon-aid case study presentation

The grand Finale gets done with the first prize bagged by team ‘just in case’ and second by ‘Challengers’. Truly speaking, nothing else can be better than a well deserved accolade.

And yes, whatta game it was!!

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Workshop by IIMC Alumni Chennai Chapter & Career Guidance Sessions (Part 1)

“Once a sales man, always a sales man… its just that you graduate to selling your dreams”

– Ashok Jayaram

Certainly, “History is not a burden on the memory but an illumination of the soul”

With the best of IIM Calcutta Alumni in the walkways of Great Lakes institute of Management. This Saturday morning is a special retreat, with the trimmed black suits and formals bringing in the best of a B-School presentations, the director of PGPM Prof. T.N. Swaminathan opened the workshop by IIM C Alumni, Chennai chapter with a warm welcome extending his gratitude of behalf of Spartans and the college.

Mr. Ashok Jayaram, (CEO, Coaching foundation India) charted the workshop with a short crisp introductory speech, dotting the two major milestones in his sales life, of one bringing in the first sales pitch and second having a repeat customer as the primer in a sales marketer’s lifecycle. Closing up with a feeling of gratification to have received few of the best presentation from GLIM, he passed the baton of introduction to Mr. J. Krishnan.

Mr. J. Krishnan, who pioneered the chair of Chief executive officer, Deccan Chargers for the two years of its inception is an IIT Madras, IIM C Alumnus. Currently associated with UniMity Solutions Pvt. Ltd. Mr. Krishnan showed his pleasure to visit Great Lakes for the second year in concurrence.

Following the lead of luminaries, to join us were Mr. Jagannathan from Godrej, Mr. Prateek Pota, Executive Director – South, Pepsi. Mr. Mali Mahalingam, Partner, T.S. Mahalingam & Sons. Mr. B Ravindranath, Director, Kadamba Technologies Pvt. Ltd and Dr. P. V. R. Murthy CEO, Executive Search Consultants.

With dignitaries gracing the presentation, Mr. Prateek Pota took charge for the workshop briefly outlining the structure for Lemon Aid case study. The Ongoing IIM C workshop – Chennai Chapter in GLIM, the batch of Spartans are exuberated to be a part of the session marking the launch of career counseling session for fall of 2011.

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Bridge between learning & entertainment

Choosing between right and wrong is not always as easy a decision as it sounds. Because, what is right cannot determined in absolute terms; the movie ‘The Bridge on the river Kwai’ is a testimony to this observation. The movie was screened recently for all the Spartans under the aegis of the films appreciation club. The show was successful, being a welcome change from the rigorous routine!

The movie is a World War II story of a British soldier’s unit and the days they spend in Japanese captivity – first treated as slaves but eventually winning the respect of a tyrant enemy.  The sole responsibility of this turnaround could be credited to the British Commander Colonel Nicholson who adapts dynamic and fitting tactics to deal with his Japanese counterpart Colonel Saito. The movie, like most of the war movies, succeeds in displaying a wide array of emotions that suffering of war brings upon.  However, this movie offers a few unique perspectives that are worth noting.

1.)    Have a value system and guard it to life.

2.)    If you flourish on getting garlanded as a leader, be ready to pay back with gusto when it counts!

3.)    Learn to respect yourself before you expect the world to respect you.

Colonel Nicholson during his first few meetings with Colonel Saito tried to win the rightful conduct for his unit and was jeered at repeatedly. Never did he act out of code and bravely confronted the Japanese abuse of the situation. To win dignity and respect from others one should first award them to himself! In one of the scenes during this phase- suffering from acute weakness and dehydration, the Colonel did not let himself be dragged in front of his unit; he indeed marched like a soldier should and won his terms from Colonel Saito!

4.)    When you negotiate – negotiate hard!

Upon his release, Colonel Nicholson recognized how he held upper hand over Colonel Saito due to the pending construction of the bridge. Col Nicholson did not mince words when they mattered and smartly procured all the things he desired from Col Saito for his unit and officers. He was deft enough to do this without hurting Japanese ego!

5.)    What is ought to be done is ought to be done! There is only one righteous path.

There comes a time in movie when Major Clipton gets perplexed by the honesty with which Col Nicholson gets into the project of building the bridge across the river Kwai for Japanese – the enemies! To which the colonel replies with an astute message of giving the best even as a POW and that he would be proud to be recalled by the future generations as the builder of this bridge. This philosophy is exactly the one preached in Indian scriptures as ‘Dharma’ or ‘Swa-Dharma’ to be precise. Every being has to perform his duties in a righteous way – but this righteous way is itself a function of circumstances. Hence, we as humans shall perform what is right under all conditions.

The ending act of Colonel in the movie, when he blows up the bridge himself, is also a manifestation of realization of ‘Swa-dharma’. Colonel Nicholson was able to think through the right way to act given the sudden change in circumstances. He sided with Japanese when he thought was right and played his part as the British Colonel when he became aware of the orders of higher authorities.

The movie teaches many lessons and I am sure other viewers would be able to append/modify what I tried to summarize. This churning up of thoughts is what we at Film Appreciation Club would attempt to do every time we screen a movie. I am looking forward to your thoughts and views on this remarkable movie.

By

Devashish Pandey

Films Appreciation Club.

 

 

 

 

Ghazals on iPod

Amidst all his glory God does get unfair at times – if not before he has surely has been so in the past few days! First Steve Jobs and then Jagjit Singh were lost to the vagary of death – the two stalwarts of their own fields! The world mourned from the beaches of California to the plains of Punjab and everywhere else in between. In the world full of conformists and traditionalists there is always a dearth of original thinkers. The above two personalities were not only original but they had the courage, conviction and drive to introduce new vistas of possibilities to the world. I have been a huge fan of both and at this great loss I could not stop myself from drawing parallels between the two amazing personalities.

‘Never compare apple with oranges’ goes the saying. One may laugh at an attempt to compare Jobs and Jagjit – there is nothing remotely common between them! While Jobs has spent majority of his life in the USA working on pioneering technologies and designing devices, Jagjit Singh was the Indian musician of a rare art form known as ‘Ghazals’.  While Jobs was a straight faced English speaking American, Jagjit Singh was a typical Indian with mix bag of language skills including English. In all possibility, the two would have never met all their life and I won’t be surprised if they didn’t even know of each other. So is this attempt to compare them a mere hyperbolae or an eccentric attempt to read too much into their lives? No.

The learned say – the basic principles of life remain the same irrespective of times, geographies and people. There is a method in the madness of the world and pioneers are those who champion these methods. It is on these lines of thoughts that I intend to compare the life, time and work of the above two distinguished figures. To put a structure to thoughts let’s pick certain headings.

Innovation and Self belief

Steve Jobs – the founder of ‘Apple’ and creator of many modern design marvels – once struggled to save his company. In the era dominated by Microsoft Windows and PC – Jobs believed in the viability of devices powered by Mac. Jobs was proven right when the Apple Macbook and the subsequent launches from the company were highly successful. Jobs proved his mettle again when he redefined music listening thorough the breakthrough product – iPod! In combination with iTunes – the product reaped rich harvest for the company. Not long ago he bettered himself with the bigger brother of iPod and a yet again novel idea – iPad. His belief in himself and his ideas lead to the classic innovator Jobs was.

Jagjit Singh entered the musical arena in the 70s. The Indian music industry in the films was dominated by the giants in Kishore Kumar, Mohd. Rafi and Manna Dey to name a few. Being turned away by music directors citing his ‘unsuitable’ voice – Jagjit decided to pick his first love – Ghazals. Ghazal singing in those days was a niche and secluded art form. The singers like Mehndi Hassan, Begum Akhtar and other proponents of classic style left no space for a newbie. Jagjit with his wife Chitra launched his first album ‘The unforgettable’ in 1976. With an emphasis on melody and choice of ghazals, he propounded a new simplistic form of rendering ghazals. This diversion was often jeered at by the traditionalists, but it was this unique simplicity that he brought to the art that has won millions of hearts world over!

Keep it Simple – Touch the senses!

While the world wondered about usability of a phone with no keypad – Mr. Jobs made use of one of the natural senses of ‘touch’ and ushered the touch screen revolution headed by iPhone. The minimalistic designs of all the products from Apple are testimony to the fact that simplicity is special. Be it the user friendly click wheel or multi-touch pad of its laptops – Apple has kept design as simple and natural as possible and the credit goes to the visionary Mr. Jobs.

Jagjit Singh is often credited with bringing the Ghazals to the masses. One of the prime reasons for his success in making it happen was the simplicity of his tunes. Jagjit’s music relied more on melody rather than the technical nuances or classical rendering. It did not require one to be an expert in music to appreciate the soothing and calming effect his sonorous voice created backed by simple and pleasant tunes. The aim of his music was to touch the audience and not impress them! This simplicity and the intention of touching souls did resonate and how!

World is not fair – get used to it!

Imagine being kicked out of a company you founded and that too by a guy who was hired by you! Sounds so unreal – but Steve Jobs faced it. His reaction? Founded another company based on an altogether different idea, nurtured it well. However a talent as big could not be missed for long – he was called back to Apple, when the company was in doldrums. Rest, as they say, is history. Jobs and Apple never looked back. The take away is the man did now succumb to the circumstances anytime; he let his inner self always be stronger than the outer influences.

Jagjit’s life has been full of troubles. He left for Mumbai from his native place to become a film musician, only to return empty handed and without ticket to his hometown. He gathered courage went back and thus started a long phase of struggle. He sang in private functions, small functions and gradually grew to rule the roost one day. When things looked just perfect he lost his son aged merely 18 years to a car accident. Life was never the same – his singing partner and wife withdrew from the profession and never sang again. His music attained a new high after this very sad loss.

There are many more such similarities to ponder over – and that’s the beauty of the common thread that weaves through such magnetic personalities.

Being an apt representative of the modern society at large – the Spartans fraternity at Great lakes too shared the condolences. Sridhar Venkataraman, Smruti Rekha Padhy and many others have expressed the emptiness they feel after these losses. Abhilash Mohapatra says about Jobs – ‘In this dynamic world very few have been the personalities who have added revolution to the rotating earth. One amongst them who has touched everybody in their mind was Steve Jobs. He affirmed with his work that world can be made a better place. Innovation has much longer to go. He not only inspired with his trail but with his spirit of innovation as well’

Richa Chauhan shares her feelings as – ‘Jagjit Singh the velvet voice that will never be heard again. “Kal Chaudvin ki raat thi” and ” Tere aane ki jab khabar” are like the background music of my life now. Time flies with his voice. Sad that now the treasure is limited. No more will be added to it ever now. I’ll always regret I never had chance to hear him live. One regret I’ll always have to live with. RIP Jagjit Singh’

Abhilash pays homage to Jagjit Singh – ‘Jagjit singh a name synonymous to ghazal, never did one express feelings the way he melodiously sung them. They say there are five elements in this world but Jagjit sahab made all of us realise the sixth element MUSIC that touches the soul. Generation might come and go ,the soul in his songs would remain forever – chitti na koi sandesh,Janney woh kaunsa Desh jahan tum chaley gaye’

If I may conclude – the most important similarity is that both of them touched millions of hearts during their stay on Earth! May their souls rest in peace! Heavens will take pride on playing the best of the music on best of the music player now.

- Devashish pandey

Spartan 2012

Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara- An excellent AIETA Model for New Product market

 

Second time director Zoya Akhtar’s Spain odyssey takes you on an adventurous ride full of drama, romance and camaraderie between friends. Mostly shot in the beautiful land of Spain, the movie oozes energy of youth and refreshes you.  Javed Akhtar’s splendid lines “Dilon mein tum apni Betaabiyan lekar chal rahe ho.. toh zinda ho tum” (If you have eagerness in your heart, it means you are alive) keep echoing forever. But even beyond these apparent themes there is this disguised objective in the movie which many marketing fellows will agree to.

Just remember the splendid blue sky of Sevilla marvelously painted by Carlos Catalan’s fluid camerawork .You watch three guys jump from a plane one after another, your adrenaline rushes at Rajni speed. The last one to jump is just like you, frightened of heights, not sure to do it. Or maybe your personality is more like the second one, completely ecstatic about it. Nonetheless there is this seed planted in your sub-conscious inadvertently, a message that gets conveyed to the depths of your brain “Ultimate fun is in Sky Diving”.

Cut to scene 2, the hunk is sweating, facing his fear of water. You feel connected to him, it has happened to you so many times. You have just let it go because you were frightened. But this time your lobes see a different image. You see him overcoming his fear and challenging the extremes of it, a ‘deep sea dive’. At the same time your brain is conditioned with the presence of an immaculate beauty to exaggerate the sense of enjoyment. You love the blue water with colorful fries moving all around, the music takes you into a journey of soul.  And tadaaa, message no.2 received “Adventure sports are safe and extremely enjoyable”.

Your mighty brain takes no nanoseconds to web all these different messages, planted across the movie, into a story which tells you how you can overcome your fears and go for the ultimate fun and enjoyment via adventure sports.

It might not be evident on the face of i , but Zindagi Milegi Na Dobara exquisitely camouflages and uses  the age old marketing steps of product market development. The five steps defined by George Beal and Joe Behlen  in 1957, Awareness, Interest ,Evaluation, Trial  and Adoption to target a fairly new Product market  “Adventure Sports in India”.  The story plot weaves unforgettable images of the product and  ensures capture of  customer’s mindshare as they journey across the AIETA steps.

It targets a particular segment of consumer, set of rich young persons in intersection with set of individuals having paucity of time. These consumers have a tendency to do stuff which is not runoff the mill, they associate prestige with their products. And what better than adventure sports to cater to all these values, addressing prestige, symbolizing fun and providing psychological gratification with notion of achievement.  Above all it makes such an interesting topic of discussion for their next social meets, with different stories behind each jump and different colors in each dive.

The movie works hard to belch out the pre-activity details of each sport and makes it a point to customize them for the varied personality traits. There is this trio of an enthusiast, a reluctant and an indifferent personality, which broadly covers the various consumer behavior styles. And without the knowledge of viewer marketer has won the race in crossing the “Awareness” stage.

“Interest” generation is easier now, with charm of characters portrayed by superstars having youth icon status, who keep running into viewers face every time he switches the idiot box on. In combination with   various promotional shows where they joyfully pour the details of fun they had while shooting for these sports.

As mentioned earlier, the positioning done in the sub-conscious of viewer, the seeds planted, manifests itself in anyone who has crosses the above two stages. There is already an acceptance build which guarantees a positive result out of the “Evaluation” of adventure sports.

And now when the iron is hot the only task left for the  potential beneficiaries and  masterminds behind these awesome idea   is making available the “Trial “ process  to  such consumer and ensuring there is no dissonance in the promised deliverables ,“Thrill, Fun, Success, Pride” ,eventually leading  into the “Adoption “of adventure sports as a brand by  loyal customers. Customers, who will be more than happy to be its unofficial brand ambassadors in their own domains.

To sum it all, ZNMD thus duly succeeds in setting up a cushioned platform for the forthcoming sequels of an Integrated Marketing Campaign for   “Adventure Sports”.

By:

Pranav Gopal Jha

Film Appreciation Club

Great Lakes Institute of Management

GL Sports Meet 2011

“Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee” 
                                                                           

                                                                   - Shashwat Rai

                                                                            (with valuable insights from Ravisekhar)

 

“Being out there, conquering every hint of fear.
The untold story of the six was yet to flare.
Naive and fearless we stood with nothing to lose.
Victory and defeat had the sides to choose.
They won the match and us the hearts.
The victory for both, divine played smart”

Our noon lecture had just finished – a grueling 3 hours with marketing and branding sprinting marathon in my mind. Catching hold of my friend X who was busy painting the world of social sites with his interesting updates (like the one above from Imran) on the sports meet that was underway in our college, I headed towards the mess. As we waited in the queue for our lunch, the air conditioned thoughts of the impending match loomed heavily on my mind. I was asked to cover a football match for the blogger’s diary.

Gosh football and me!!!

Football is one game that truly inspires the whole world community but ask a die-hard ‘Indian’ cricket fan and you will have scores expressing indifferent responses. I was no different and was wondering how to be true to my present job knowing very well that an off-side never turned my thoughts on.

Mister X solved the problem. It was lunch time and the famous ‘salad-bar’ of our college was decorated with its usual mouth watering offerings.

The private tutorial of Mister X commenced…

“Dude, suppose this pepper here is our Goalkeeper.” The pepper looked lost in his giant hand.

Picking up a piece of shell pasta and its rotini cousin he continued, “And the rotini is the defender. Also let this shell here be the attacker. Now, when the ball’s played forward, the shell has to be level with the rotini. Hello, now concentrate… Offside, onside… Offside, onside….” The expert was at his best and somewhere, somehow ‘Bend it like Beckham’ was running on my mind.

“So get this straight… The offside rule is when the shell pasta is in between the pepper and our rotini…”

For the next half an hour I couldn’t but think about the craziness that had engulfed the whole college. Everyday a new hero was born and his exploits did the rounds of our coffee table and socializing joints.  It was a fortnight worth canvassing and locking away in our memory books. This is college life and all of us here were living it!!!

I believe a blog should never start with plain reporting, even if its purpose is one! There are ways to charm your audience: protocols that have been used by writers over the years to influence readers into submitting to some wishful mental imagery. For this article, I would like to state its pedigree by peeking through the mystifying lens of history.

Citius, Altius, Fortius: faster, higher and stronger. These are the Olympian ideals that guide people, spurring them on to achieve ever greater heights in their lives. It is no coincidence that the modern day Olympics aspires to such lofty ideals, setting the standards that the athletes must live up to in their pursuit of excellence. And it is no coincidence that as business school students, these are the exact same ideals that drive us to excel. So what better way to manifest this spirit than a sporting extravaganza organized in its full glory!

In ancient Greece, the Olympic Games were held in honor of the Gods who presided over mount Olympus. The games were a holy celebration of effort and sportsmanship. In much the same spirit, over a period of 15 days, Great Lakes Institute of Management was transformed into a sporting arena where the sports warrior amongst us heeded the call of competition and took to the playing field. What followed were brilliant displays of technique and power that were not merely entertaining but positively dazzling.

Great Lakes sports fiesta was an organized series of acts and performances that unfolded in an emotional backdrop.  It was unrehearsed but practiced, relentless but rewarding.  The emotional tinge to the event was courtesy to the fact that the four sections (S1, S2, S3 & S4) in which the Spartan current batch was divided were being dissolved as the electives season approached.  It was perhaps the last time that the sections were together as a unit and this added to the emotional quotient of the tournament.  Some fondly called it a split-up season while others waited for the breakup parties. The campus was brimming with an undeniable energy of youthful verve – everywhere you looked you could see the Saina(s) and Tendulkar(s) walking hand in hand and sharing their thoughts on the sports meet.  Mortals were fermenting into poets and spirits were turning all high!

In keeping with the true Olympian tradition, there were a multitude of games to participate in. From the traditional football, basketball and shuttle to board games, a wide range of events were available for the players. The excellent on campus games infrastructure was put to good use, with qualifying, quarter finals and semifinal matches occurring every evening immediately after classes, with games going on well into mid night. Each of these matches was host to enthusiastic crowds cheering for their respective class mates. Every successful move drew roars of approval from the crowds causing the entire hostel to vibrate with the decibels. Throughout the events there was a festive air about the venues, almost a carnival atmosphere that was a source of enjoyment and pleasure to both players and onlookers.

Imagine sitting in a lecture, listening absently to your professors with minds running helter shelter on what’s in store for the evening elsewhere!!! Some games between Spartans were true gems, gravity defying boomerangs and epitome of true sportsmanship moments. These shall always occupy the legendary tales on our platter of good times when we look back on our stay at Great Lakes.

Some highlights:

1. The most heated match of the Table Tennis tournament was – TT doubles b/w Sridhar/Kashish v/s Sumit/Anurag – a match that created enthusiasm in the event for Spartans and tested the will of every supporter who nonetheless never cared about the spin on the ball or the depth in shots, who were there to blindly support their sections. We witnessed the height of cheering and the ‘dabba banging antics’ of Saurabh Srivastav(melaram, as we fondly call him) for which he had to put band-aids next day and surely this act would have made the famous ‘Sivamani’ recompose some of his tunes!!!
2. The next most heated events were in badminton – major matches were played b/w 11pm-2 am and there were multitude of spectators for these matches. People were unable to complete their assignments properly because of these matches, some lost grades others sleep; there are such good memories of badminton matches that represented the spirit of sportsmanship that my penned account cannot truly reflect on the same!

a. In a semi-final badminton match where Swati (S3) played Against Neeti (S2) – the match had a nail biting finish where the match ended in the final set with Neeti as the winner.

b. Badminton finals match between Avnish from S3 and Sridhar S2. Match started around 1:15 in the night and the entire men’s 4^th block was jam packed to see the finals and it was a final worth watching also. The eventual winner was Sridhar with the match going into the final set of best of 3.

This is what some Spartans had to say about the match:

“They say champions fight all odds, rise from the ashes and pump their fist in victory … To my friend, group mate and a true champion!! Take a bow”

- Siddharth Radhakrishnan

“Some games are not played between sections, nor between people, sometimes it is the game tha plays, all by itself. This game was one such game.”

-SriHarsha Bandaluppi

3. Basketball match between S2 & S3 girls: The score line was 24 -6 in favor of S3 where Swati Arora scored 20 points alone… Basketball match between S1 & S4, where S4 were kind of underdogs but they won by a mere margin of a single point.

4. The finals of football match between S3 and S2 had everyone biting their nails as the match couldn’t be finished in the extra time and went into penalties where eventually S3 won.

Interesting  Facebook status updates:

1.      “Rise and fall, a reality after all, Moments to cherish are too blurred to scroll… Flocking us together was a herculean task, Executed to perfection behind facial mask… Hearty thanks to every effort and sweat, Making our evening memorable and conquering every threat… Achieving the infinite is our story and try, Spartans no doubt will always fly high…”

- Mohd Imran Athar

2. S2 Football News: “Mighty S2 beat skilled S3 by 1-0”

Nilotpal scored an ecstatic goal in the second half giving little scope to the ever so technically sound S3. S3’s dream of being the Spartan Football champion took a hit when the muscle of S2 tactically nudge the football between the legs of the goalkeeper. The game however came to a turmoil when S2’s captain Kunnu missed an easy goal that even the oldest woman on earth could kick. However, great saves by kotler and the two defenders Hari and Sudu saved Kunnu’s ass yet again. S3 were very disciplined and strategic in their game, while they imposed on disabling Kunnu by tripping him and fouling him. But who knew that Kunnu was only a decoy and the real game was being played by the other 4, the substitutes and the enchanting crowd of S2.”

-          Special correspondent , Najeeb Imran khan

3. ES2PN: Highlight of day 2. It’s unfortunate when the best player of the sport is out injured; but even in injury Aishwaraya showed that his is a couple of classes above the rest of the best volleyball players in GLIM. Boom, boom, boom, boom!. Four bullet serves left the crowed completely stunned. Gravity defying high speed flat trajectory that could not be returned. We wish him a speedy recovery just like his serves. – Nilotpal Sinha

4. Spartans, we are like the sunlight & shade: when there is a lot of study we are found in our holes , but when there is none we can be found anywhere- facebooking , playing cricket , planning for event of ganesh chaturthi, some karmayogis & onam planning , then comes the planning of electives ,where a lot of inventions for many people are yet to happen. So overall By the Greatlakes forecast department – today will be an eventful day with some muddrops of OB & bouncers of QM, some creativity in Rangoli & some tussle in musical chair , some rivalry in lemon race .. oh no.. all are pessimistic words *(tussle rivalry) – but thats the magic . Be ready to cheer for your teams in the sports events. At last happy cheering!! – Rohit Agrawal

 

A Spartans epilogue – a talk by Chetan Tolia

~

“And then there was tyrant, an abysmal faith

Of while the worlds fought with an unaccustomed pride

A piece of land, beans of grains, sometimes for love and equally hate

Men fight their battles, O Spartans of Sparta

Men fight their soul and a dignified pain”

The evening was pleasant as the cool breeze of this city down south blew past the tower of reflection as Spartans from Great Lakes batch of 2012 sat willfully watching their Conclave at its finish line, just when the master of ceremony stood behind a commotion speaking to his colleague trying for a mono-act explaining that the guest has arrived. The branding team all set, events team ready on a go, the placecom vigil and alert as one of the most awaited guests for the evening came walking with a smile, and as one could see him with a group of dignitaries you hear,

“Please welcome the Director, Tata Management Training Center, Mr. Chetan Tolia.”

A thunderous applause astounds the walls of Lake Mansarovar and Veeranam as he took chair of the event.  From the mark of a start every single student sitting inside the hallowed rooms of this institution was ready to imbibe like a seed which has been seeped in water for the first time.

After an introduction and exchange of pleasantries, the floor was open for talk of the evening by Mr.  Tolia and never would you have seen such energy levels of an auditorium where 300 would sit straight, minds razor sharp, one shot of fire and you could actually feel sparks flying. All in the enlivening atmosphere one would call paused to enthusiasm, Chetan Tolia greets with a chuckle and a rhyme.

For a second amidst such preparations all were taken aback “is he really so cool?” and could hardly return his greetings. Another try and the affirmative assurance “yes, he is cool” normalcy derives and the batch of 2012 cheers with a boisterous greeting to the speaker.

“Your generation has tremendous responsibility and you have the opportunity galore to explore that responsibility”

While most of us were ready to take notes, pointers and quotes as usually from an inspiring talk. One would be amazed to see how easily a speaker par excellence would mold a high intensity discussion into a smooth flowing platform for dialogue, where learning multiplies by levels without diminishing an inch of its intensity.

“Today I would talk about three themes nurturing, innovation and thinking.”

Spreading insights over how leadership germinates when a nurtured and nourished mind meets a challenging opportunity one would wonder on what various aspects of life will a simulation of real time problems would be given, a prototype where one would always have a dry run as to how can one grab an opportunity right when its lying affront and equally one would be dismayed that It will happen hardly and most of the times it would be we chasing behind opportunities and strike at the right one at the right time. With an effervescent aura he continues,

“Your only chance to do anything with the knowledge is when you explore the challenging opportunities, whether you succeed or not it doesn’t matter.”

A true leadership, where one is often misinterpreted to showcase performance based results as the only way to succeed. While all you would ever need is a will to innovate, patience to explore opportunities and a skill to implement 

He further proceeded to his second theme as seamlessly as one could imagine over the discussion on Innovation,

“Few years from now, innovation would be the key differentiating factor across the value of an organization. The chances of innovation increase at the confluence of more than one domain. Get out of your comfort zones, go and learn more”

Certainly the daily rigmarole is not something that any student of masters would wishfully think of when all that he has believed of himself is to be unique, creative and extraordinary. Mr. Tolia focusing over the importance of innovation led the so called thinkers from the batch of Spartans ponder as to how well one could strike a balance in between growth, power and innovation. In this labyrinth of opportunities, one is usually busy looking at the closed doors of missed chances when all the while one fails to identify the open door marked by the path of innovation. Chetan Tolia after a brief suggestion over the importance of innovation in an organization delves into the last and the final theme, of that being “The Thinker”

“One thing that cannot be outsourced is the ability to think. Don’t outsource it to your boss, to your friends and colleagues; don’t outsource it to anybody”

Leveraging once potential can be measured by the various techniques that can be identified with, one of them is the immense power that every human holds in the power of thinking. All one needs to know is to question “why?” and not settle for any half hearted information that one desires for.

Before I could rest my pen for the day, I could see those faces of wonder mixed with satisfaction which one experiences after a best in class talks. Mr. Chetan Tolia in the paramount of the time and amidst an experiential conversation paved the path to success by just three stepping stones.

“I would like to leave you with these three key words to reflect on Nurturing, innovation and thinking.”

And right after the post conclave candid discussion with students sitting on the stairs of amphitheatre, one would marvel how can there be such a remarkable amalgamation of simplicity with power, of intelligence and understanding. One need not be a rocket scientist to cherish an over the coffee conversation but one surely needs to be a Spartan to realize such an experience amidst one of the largest events at the Great Lakes Institute of Management.

“Stay where you work, develop domain expertise and innovate. There is no better way to reach for the top”

There comes a moment when you relate to the meaning of being in your Alma mater, such an experience for us was this talk on a surreal evening. Where every Spartan believed and felt their true reason to learn, imbibe and explore under the institution regarded for its values. The event came to a closure with a clouded sky and a mild rain as Spartans took course for rest of the day with a volley match and assignments galore, with deep eminence from an unforgettable talk.

As thunder poured, Bistro Anna ready with his steaming pot of milk assuming the stream of hostlers who invariably would jump in… the night leisurely delved in few cups of coffee, exams, discussions over the event, laughter, music and poetry…

“Delusionary vision, you might hardly care

Of while you defy, those doors of Satan divide

A path for truth, few good men, sometimes for poor a merciful disdain

Men fight their battles, O Spartans of Sparta

Men fight courageous, indefinably insane

And then you would see, the cloudless thunder

When 300 would join for the end of a game

Those rebel for the kill some bleeding to death

Men fight their battles, where few would arise

O Spartans of Sparta and win thy name”

~

By

Debashree Chatterjee

HR Conclave 2011 – Great Lakes Institute of Management – Part 2 – Panel Discussion

Shortly after the tea break, HR executives from diverse industries indulged into a candid discussion with the media and the students of Great Lakes Institute of Management about the various structures one follows with the development of leadership in various organization, after a frank informal discussion the event prepared itself for the second session of the HR Conclave 2011 – the panel discussion, With Mr. Anand Bhaskar (VP – HR, Sapient) as the moderator for the first panel.

“They say a talk is only worthwhile if it has been explored deeper than the depths of one’s imagination.”

Mr. Bhaskar started the panel discussion with an instilling story of a priest starting a gurukul to teach people, with which he emphasized the judgment of fairness to think if a student should be as smart as the teacher to be a successor. An indeed a provocative thought to start with, the panel discussion further took course to a reflection of producing leaders is what separates winners from losers by Mr. Mali Mahalingam (CPO, Symphony) he emphasized on the four results a leader produces, they being People, organization, customer and Investor. Delving more into the result oriented performance he specifies leadership brand with result base, competence, style & situation and traits. Further concluding his talk Mr Mahalingam identifies the importance of leadership brand finding a connect between employer brand & customer expectation.

“Great leaders are not people who are successful; leaders need to be nurtured, having values as organization”

He encapsulated the key factors which enable nurturing leaders such as Values, opportunities, rewards, development plan, safety net and mentoring.

Further the discussion introduced Mr Ashit Ranjan (VP – HR, tecnova),

In an interesting insight Mr Ranjan identifies the flow of nurturing leadership by a picturesque relevance with swimming, he explores a 1 meter diving board as a platform to teach skills and values in an organization, a 3 meter board to encourage performance and attitude, a 5 meter board to help overcome fear, a 7 meter board to empower – share responsibilities and a 10 meter board to facilitate and become change agents. With such a significant contour of leadership mentoring he further explores the critical factor for successful leadership they being tolerance for mistakes, encouragement, mentoring, structural support and trust.

Mr Venkatesh (Head, HR – Educomp) ,concludes the panel discussion over the ability to perform best when the focus is on pressure induced by challenge, knowledge of importance, freedom to work and team achievements.

The moderator Mr, Bhaskar closes the discussion with a dialogue over popcorn leaders where the term enable to those who are pushed to leadership rather than people who have been carved to leadership. An extensive discussion amongst the panelist lead to the successful conclusion of the panel 1 discussion making way for more to seek ahead.

~

By

Debashree Chatterjee & Divya Monga

Photographs: Shiva & Dagar

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HR Conclave 2011 – Great Lakes Institute of Management

Next to excellence is the appreciation of it.
~William Makepeace Thackeray

Today Great Lakes institute of Management welcomes the plethora of dynamic HR professionals, B School Students and the eminent faculty for the Great Lakes HR conclave 2011. The air is crisp with professionals running off to make the last minute mark, women making their best effort to fill the feminine sanctity with an ardent art. They say to be a  minute editor one has to be a fine observer and right then you come across Dr. Bala V Balachandran and you are sure to who are we competing in marking everything picture perfect. Few flashes of lights, a surreal pause and the event begins.

Vishal and Ramya, explore the marks of inclusive experiential process and script the beginning to one of the finest events that one could come across in an MBA school. With a touch of purity by Pratibha’s eloquent prayer and the lighting of the lamp by Prof. Sriram (Executive Director, Great Lakes institute of Management) and Dr. Bala V Balachandran (Founder & Dean, Great Lakes Institute of Management) HR Conclave 2011 genesised.

Dr Bala Balachandran extended a warm welcome to all distinguished personalities, students, faculties and to the highest resource of any company, the HR. Signifying the importance of three pillars of a country and equally for a company the people, the technology and the prose’s Dr. Balachandran focused on the development of any company with the help of the outstanding galaxy of people who take the highest asset of any organization to a different pinnacle. Greeting the esteemed fraternity of HR who joined Great lakes institute of management in HR Conclave 2011, Uncle Bala commemorated the release of Great Lakes Journal on Late Dr. C. K. Prahalad, a special edition by Dr. Ashok Chandra & Mr. Benedict Parmanand (Editor Management Next media & Publications LLP) to celebrate his life and achievements. Following the announcement of the second edition of Great Lakes journal in the event of L’Attitude 1305 to accomplish the legacy of Late Dr. C.K. Prahald, Uncle Bala also informed the collaboration of the first executive MBA program with the Bauer college, Texas, USA staring on 7^th of January in the coming year. Warmly extending his welcome to all present Uncle Bala opened the session for the Key note speaker Dr. Satish Pradhan, (Chief – group HR, Tata Sons Ltd).

Dr. Satish Pradhan welcomed the session with his greetings to all. Sharing his insights over Dr. C. K. Prahalad, he poured his heartfelt gratitude for the late management guru who influenced all at par with his inspirational quality and his capability to encourage all.

“You would realize that the words used by Bala are deeply felt by a very large number of people, who r invested very deeply by C.K. He is vibrant, simulated and energetic”

Over the changing aspect of the world he marked over significant issues such as changing of weights towards India and China and equally the development of Consumer confidence index in India which makes a significance competitive advantage over all other countries leveraging the economic growth to all together a different pinnacle.

Concentrating on the Indian pool of talent Dr Satish focuses on the mammoth of education hub that India has come up to be with 2.5 million graduates every year.

“There is a great strength here but it is killed if we don’t leverage it”

He further condensed his talk with a special significance to one of the largest challenge faced by organizations is the development of future leaders. He leveraged by saying that One needs to focus not on what makes sense to him but on what makes sense to the world exactly spotting on to an extremely important topic of continuously staying ahead in technology, in thinking and in the quality of business that we do.

“The most imp agenda for us is the development of leaders for the future. If we pay attention to that, we will have planted trees that would become great forests in the future.”

Dr. Satish captured the audience with his emphatic intensity of discussion which came to a conclusion with a significant expectation that one holds from the behemoth of young B school graduates and that being that each one of us must be a multiplier of what potential C.K. Prahalad and Uncle Bala holds.

The conclave further invited Dr. Ashok Chandra (Head – Strategy & Shared Services, GATI) who interestingly emphasized the effectiveness of the change in DNA’s (Differential Natural Attributes) that an HR executive would need, to find a mergence with the business, by which the potential of an HR would multiply to manifolds bridging the gap which is significantly felt in many organizations between an HR leader and a business leader.

Great Lakes HR conclave approached the conclusion of its morning session with the vote of thanks by Prof. Sriram (Executive director, Great Lakes Institute of Management) along with the inauguration of its internal magazine Gravity, Prof. Sriram thanked the dignitaries on behalf of the entire Great Lakes fraternity and concluded the first part of the event with enthusiasm and verve to look forward in this panorama of an intellectual meet.

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By

Debashree Chatterjee

Photographs: Shiva Jeevanantham & Dagar Katyal

Arghhh Arghhh Arghhh !!!

We put on our eye-patch, tied the bandana, polished our hooks, picked our mugs and screamed “Spartaaa” as we set sail in to the great lake, searching for the lost treasure…

No no, this is not a spoof of the Pirates or 300. What we are talking about here is much more fun – Great Lakes presents the Great Treasure Hunt (Psst.. It would be unfair if I did not mention the organizing team here.. Team BPR, You guys rock!).

What fun is a treasure hunt without a whacky tea

m?? Believe me, ours was no less.. Our team had 7 vibrant people – Miss E, Miss P, Miss R, Miss SK, Miss. SP, Mr. A & Mr. R. We called ourselves the Mango People – Aam Janta in the native language.

The events kick started in the sacred Basketball arena with about 33 teams participating. With multitude of teams registering for what was a stress buster midst the hectic schedules, Team BPR came up with a brilliant plan to reduce the head count, what is commonly known as the elimination procedure.  The round required that we identify this one person who could gobble up 3 rice cakes quicker than the blink of an eye. Now came the problem. With the team predominantly comprising girls, there were only two rays of hope – Mr. A & Mr. R.  After hours of discussion and 5 cups of coffee, Mr. R volunteered to sacrifice his snacks to enjoy the delicacy awaiting him. Poor Mango People, thought the competitors, for a 2 year old could eat quicker than him! With a lot of pressure from the opposition but loads of support from his friends, Mr. R braced himself to prove the world wrong. And what happened you ask? Mr. R not only made us proud, he was one among the fastest ones.. So “ha” to all of u who thought you were going to win!

Things were only getting exciting. The treasure hunt was just starting and we were already high on our first victory. As we picked our first clue, we had just one thought – the glowing gleaming treasure.. awaiting our arrival.. just wanting to belong to us. It was not long before we were running all over the place, yelling and then came the victory dance when we found our second clue. Thirty two seconds later came the second victory dance and another thirty nine seconds later, the third. We danced our way through the final clue as our fellow pirates watched us with green green eyes. Ten minutes.. that’s all we took.. Ten minutes. Hearts pounding, sweating, we opened the treasury… There she was.. what a beauty.. We cried like two year olds.. out of joy.. for we had found it!!  We sat in silence, for we couldn’t believe our eyes..

The feeling was overwhelming.. So wonderful.. so blissful.. That was the last of sanity..   Then there was a sudden outburst of emotions in the form of screaming, shouting, Wohoooooooooooooo… What we did post that is not something I am proud of but I must admit, it was a lot of fun.. We sat there.. watching the others run desperately around.. searching for their clues.. sometimes their first; calling out to people.. telling them how we had won in a record time of ten minutes… Not very encouraging when you are on the receiving end and you have three clues waiting to be uncovered. It took the other two teams, what seemed like centuries, to find the final clue and we were as well behaved as well behaved can be.

Overall, it was a great experience.. fun filled and energy packed. I can’t thank the organizing committee enough for this wonderful day..  Team BPR, when is the next one?? I have my sleeves rolled up.

By

Sowmya K Kumar

From Team 21 – Treasure Hunt

With ~ Anurag Tiwari, Ekta Yadav, Prachi Sawant, Raghavendra, Ritika Diwan & Shraddha Pandya

Be Selfish 2 Join the hands

While reading about how blackmailing being done by an individual is paralyzing the democracy and how it will set a wrong precedence, few thoughts cropped up in my mind. What justifies the act of Lord Rama killing Bali from behind while he was fighting with Sugreeva? What justifies the act of Yudhishthira lying (though indirectly) that Ashwathama is no more, which cost Dronacharya his life?? Let’s come to the present, if the bullet fired produces the same result, why does it matter that whether it is fired by a soldier or by a terrorist? All these questions are answered by a single sentence from the Bhagavad-Gita “It is not the way of doing the things but the purpose behind that deed which decides whether it is right or wrong”.

Look at us; we didn’t question the blackmailing done a terrorist who hijacked the plane, because using power they left us with no option. But if that blackmailing is being done for a noble cause in a peaceful way then it reminds us about our power and we start questioning it. In developed countries even presidents are under scanner of independent committee which looks after corruption, does it means that democracies are paralyzed? By the way, for whom this democracy is, isn’t it for people? Or are people for democracy? Unless there is something wrong with it, millions of people would not have come to the streets without any vested interest. Then is this so called paralyzing of democracy is a wrong thing for a cause which is haunting millions of people?

What about setting a wrong precedence? What if everybody started going to hunger strike? Well answer to this question is also simple. What will happen if someone decides to go on hunger strike till death, unless Miss India is made to marry him? Needless to say, his name will die hungry (as no one will attach his name to that of theirs) with him. This Gandhian weapon (fasting) becomes useless, unless the cause for which it is used has the capability to touch millions of lives. Our politicians (won’t say leaders) have no other excuse; hence they are using this baseless defence. And when our smart politicians become clueless, they remind us about the theory of foreign hand.

But, why is corruption so rampant in India? Why one has to pay  bribe for a proof that he is alive(birth certificate) and after being dead, your closed ones have to pay the bribe for a proof that now he is having good time with those Apsaras in the heaven or with Yamraj in the hell (Hope corruption has not reached there).Why access to education depends on your ability to pay  fees rather than your intelligence quotient(The word ‘donation’ is used as if you are running with dilemma, what to do with the extra money you have).

This raises few questions. Are we corrupt by birth, inheriting those genes of corruption? Or are we corrupt by choice? For most of us, the answer is a big ‘No’. A traffic constable becomes corrupt because his salary fell short to cater to the dreams of his children (If at all he can afford to have one) in this corrupt society. Like that traffic constable, most of us travel the path we would not like, in order to meet the undying demands of this modern and corrupt society. And once that path is chosen, there is no way back but a dead end. For those in power, more the power they have, greater is the need for them to feed the power. If you kept power hungry, it will eat you. And they fearlessly do it as they are damn sure about our ‘short term social memory loss’, they are sure that we will enjoy the drama about the scams on the news channels, not even realizing that we have sponsored that drama.

Why the hell, I am talking about corruption? Why should I give it a damn, when my CTC is enough to take care of the bribes to be paid and my wife is also earning (The term house wife is dying naturally in metro cities, as the luxury of having house wife is not affordable) and a quote in a bracket, I am also one of the beneficiary of corruption either by not paying taxes or by some other indirect means (Do I need to mention?).Wait, there is more to it. As long as you are not one of those big sharks in this corrupt world (who makes tons of black money), you are always paying more than what you are gaining from corruption. How?

Why economy is growing at 8% whereas inflation is growing at almost 14%? Why national income since independence has multiplied by only a few folds whereas the cost of land (or flat) skyrocketed thousand folds? It is simply because the black money which comes from corruption is fuelling the demand, taking it beyond our reach. It is this corruption which is making you spend considerable part of your life in travelling (enjoying the body odour of fellow commuter while exchanging yours) as you can’t afford a place in the heart of the city. It is this corruption which makes you think hundred times before having second child as you may not afford it (Don’t even dare to dream about the third one).It is this corruption which adds meaning to the word ‘Higher’ education, taking it higher, beyond the reach of the common man.

It is this corruption which makes a mother advice his son who is working away from her in a metro city “Beta, don’t travel by train and prefer autorikshaw over bus”, as those caring eyes have read somewhere that there were bombasts in trains and buses. How is terrorism related to corruption? There is no terrorist attack in America since 2001, because they have the infrastructure which can detect any terror suspect. In our case, this corruption prevents building the infrastructure which can counter the terrorism. It was corruption and not terrorism which cost a senior police officer(Mr.Karakare) his life as he get caught almost naked with that substandard life saving jacket (which itself lacked life).See the miracle, after some time, that jacket became invisible in government custody (Don’t worry, a committee is searching the cause and soon it will also become invisible).

The problem with us Indians is that too much of technical details bore us. Few of the suggestions proposed in Lokpal are really good such as, processing all the corruption cases within two years (Boforse case is pending since last 25 years), putting all the government employees under scanner with deadlines defined to complete the work, if the Lokpal committee member has corruption allegations then within two months, he will face an enquiry and action if required. Nothing in this world is perfect; everything has its pros and cons. By doing the things we are doing since last 60 years, we can’t expect change. Even if it has the potential of reducing the corruption by 1%, it is worth giving a shot.

As rightly said by Napoleon “A nation suffers not because of deeds of wrong people but because of silence of good people”. Let’s break that silence. It took us 200 years to be free from those foreigners whereas to be completely free from this corruption which is deeply rooted inside us, it may take another hundreds of years. The journey of thousand miles begins with a single step. Let’s take that step, who knows being optimistic and hoping against the hope, our future generations may see India as a place where one does not have to be corrupt or immoral to reach the top, one does not have to question the integrity of a person from specific religion who boarded a train and one does not have to leave the country for better opportunities.

Be selfish (as we all are); join hands for a noble cause if not for the person who has nothing to gain at the age of 74, being bachelor and spending most of his life in a small temple (Look at the irony, a Maharshtrian put Gandhi era to an end, where as another Maharashtrian is keeping him alive through his values). Let’s ensure that this spark generated turns into a wild fire which will burn this evil which is still keeping our country ‘developing’.

Don’t you think the time has come to stop crying that nothing will change but to bring the change??

What say??

By

Maheshkumar

The exploration of a human mind

The exploration of human mind is unfathomable; it spreads wide across, beyond the boundaries of imagination. It is an element so deep, hidden within the wraps of unconscious efforts, that right inside is a small little box of desires, beliefs and passion which explodes with every open window of opportunity, with ray of light, with every hope of tomorrow. Yes, mind is ever expansive in its exploration to the outer world driven by the insanity of one’s desires, beliefs and passion.

History is patient enough to agree that no great place was ever born because of a piece of land. Great places have come into existence because of the great minds which ignite the torch held high at every cross roads. And this piece of land is no different. This school is not only enlivened by eminent teachers but by a behemoth of earnest learners, who have unraveled the secret of their bottled intellect and have fast driven into the lanes of glory. One such among us is an engineer, a mathematician, a photographer and an MBA to be.

It was night 1 A.M. when actually the PR team sits with this virtuoso to gauge what goes inside the temples of a fascinated mind. By fascinated the certainty of ones craziness is not diminished rather it is extrapolated a million more times to know the very reason of this enthrallment, the very reason of the restlessness of that small little box we spoke about. And all that was needed was just a small nudge to let the story begin; the intensity of one’s desire didn’t stop at being a mathematician, an engineer or a photographer. It went on to be an ardent painter, an entrepreneur and a calm listener. One by one the pages from the past flipped through and stood still the day when Nilotpal Kanti Sinha enrolled at the New York Institute of Photography, one of the largest and the oldest schools of photography in the world.

“Fortunately I was working at onsite in Hollywood which is the glamour capital of the world, where I could see the scales at which professional photography was done. Here I came in touch with Ash Gupta, one of Hollywood’s leading celebrity photographers. I learned one simple thing; 99.99% of all the money in photography is in the fashion, advertisement and glamour genre”

And that’s been the catapult for this dream chaser to be a professional fashion photographer as he dusted off a studio in Bangalore. But is it where all things started or there has been a flashback to all his accomplishments? With the prick of such an exclamation there’s a flipside to this fashion photographer who delves into some serious conversation when it comes to his research into the field of mathematics. Fortunate to be mentored and guided by one of the greatest Indian mathematicians of the twentieth century Prof. K. Ramachandra from TIFR, Nilotpal started his research work in number theory which took him a whole of seven years to complete.

“In 2003, I saw certain common patterns in four different branches of mathematics which could mean only one thing that there is some hidden relation that is connecting all this branches of mathematics. I began working on this and used to get results in bits and pieces. It took me seven years to get the final equations and put forward a theory”

His co-researcher Prof. Marek Wolf, a renowned quantum physicist and an expert in computational mathematics carried out the tests to verify the theory at the Institute of Theoretical Physics, Warsaw, Poland.

“The computer ran non-stop for seven months before it gave the results. The theory is correct!”

And right at that moment sitting in front of him watching him talk his life out of his heart, you would feel to jump and scream “Eureka”.  Nilotpal finally published his coveted results with a distinguish to be accepted at the NASA Astrophysics Database of Harvard University.

The bistro guy was watching dazed as to what few morbid can talk so interesting in the middle of the night keeping him awake for the endless coffee’s where all he can think of is to shut his door down and snooze to sleep. How well he knew that a true Spartan was being unraveled of his talents with him being the alibi at a judge’s court.  As you start counting your fingers … A mathematician, a Professional Photographer, An Engineer already and lo you catch the missing link ‘The Entrepreneur’

“I started a company along with 2 of my school friends. It was based on import model of consumer electronics i.e. to import electronics goods form the manufacturing powerhouses like China and Taiwan, and sell in India. Mostly B2B sales”

It was like the finishing stroke of a painter at the closure of which you hardly find any faults and all you can make believe is a dream captured within a soul of a painting.

Life is too short for those who know no boundaries that can seal them from the treasure of knowledge and right when you listen to someone talk or read to one who wished to explore the unknown territories you realise that the limitations of life does not exists to those who count their life not by the number of years but by the worth of knowledge they imbibe.

A fashion photographer, a researcher who is listed amidst the likes of Albert Einstein and Amrtya Sen by the University of Oakland, a mathematician, an entrepreneur, an engineer and an MBA in the making … you wonder is this just one single person or a multitude of desires that have come together to be a human beyond the limitations of scholarly achievements. When you ask him, as to what leads to attain such varied facets of life and probably with a smile you will get a reply

“You get to live only once. I want to do everything.”

To the world he must be a million solutions to a million problems, to the future he might be just another star in the moonlight, a reason for inspiration. To us he is and will be

Nilotpal Kanti Sinha, a Spartan from the batch of 2012, Great Lakes Institute of Management

A pioneer to a batch of undefeatable!

~

Debashree Chatterjee

Pride & Prejudice

 “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”

- Eleanor Roosevelt

I have used this quote on countless occasions, in a number of essays and articles for an even greater number of applications, publications and blogs. The beauty of this quote lies in its simplicity and its ability to inspire people. At the risk of sharing my secret recipe for successful applications, I want to share this with all of you because never before have I found it to be more apt, than it is to us right now.

Initially, I was of the opinion that the college I get admitted to would decide my future course of actions. I will be what the college makes of me in the 1 or 2 years for which I am there. With the bigger brand names swinging past me without so much as an acknowledgement, I was picked up by another big brand which apparently saw some potential in me. I was excited, elated, ecstatic, *insert some more synonyms here*, and relieved. Missing out on an opportunity like this would have led to some amount of distress and self-doubt, but all’s well that ends well. It felt like the promise of a long weekend, a glass of ice-cold lemonade on a hot summer afternoon, the aroma of a home-cooked meal after spending months away from home.

Fast-forwarding to today, that feeling has somewhat subsided. Leaving aside the intense amount of labor required to fulfill our academic requirements, I would want to think that there isn’t much I could complain or whine about. Actually there isn’t, because I don’t think it fair to complain about something for which I am as responsible as the next person. And I promise that I am not going to complain about anything, neither should you. But what about the people who do not have to share this burden of responsibility with us but still think of it as theirs? They have every right to complain, but again the beauty lies in the fact that they don’t.

They will tell us, show us, hold our hands and walk up to face it with us, but they will not complain. Why? Because they don’t have the power to do so. The power has been handed down to us, and, for lack of a better cliché, “with great power comes great responsibility”. All of us have heard the fairy tales and the horror stories, the success stories and the struggles, and as another fellow Spartan put it in another post – the good, the bad and the ugly. Our predecessors have witnessed the ugly and the bad so that we can see the good. The question we have to ask ourselves is: Would our successors think of us in the same light?

Not having the power to complain about the unpleasant, I can only exercise my will to appreciate and applaud the pleasurable. There have been moments, people and some moments with some people that have led me to believe that I was not picked by an act of fate. In those moments, people and some moments with some people, I have felt that potential within each one of us, you must have too. There are names I would like to name, moments I would like to recount and feelings I would love to describe. But if you can already think, remember and feel all of these inside your head, my job here is done.

Coming back to the quote we started with, the future has always been in our hands. We just have to believe in our dreams to be able to shape it into whatever we want to make of it. Again, at the risk of using more than one cliché in a space of less than 300 words, “together we can, and we will”.

I am not what this college will make of me, I am what I will make of this college.

- A Spartan

By

Siddharth Goyal

Having a ‘Genie’ in your pocket is not enough!

Entrepreneurship, I asked myself often – what is it??? Is it a new bull in a china crockery shop shattering many a traditional beliefs and value systems or is it something more relevant; perhaps an idea whose time has come for most of us!!!

“Should I develop my own idea or should I join a high paying MNC.” A good number of the current batch of Spartans seems to have challenged this Marxist dogma: floating with the downstream flow of the ungodly river of perception that once in a ‘safe’ job all is well. No more is a perpetual source of income stimulating enough for these young lads.

“Start working for yourself before others makes you work for them. Working for others and earning respect and fame through them or under their name doesn’t satisfy my thrust. I want to earn my name through my means. Along with this, being from a business family I have naturally inherited risk-taking business-intellect which is most necessary for being an entrepreneur”, quotes Tushar Arora, a current student at Great Lakes and cofounder of OKRASOFT that develops ERP solutions for its clients.

In these turbulent times of uncertainties, the speculating judgements are out! Macro and micro don’t seem to be economically happy anymore in their nuptial bonds of blissful associations.  Nonetheless these men of steel (whom the lesser mortals like us term as entrepreneurs) are busy planning for years ahead.

Tushar reflects back, “My experience so far has been very enriching but unexpectedly adventurous. Developing a complete ERP solution was itself a big achievement for us. We didn’t get much success; however, we were able to make few clients.”

There are innumerable actors in play that come together in such scripts; hence it becomes imperative for us to learn from their experiences. Everybody wants to discover the ‘aha’ idea! Even mister Einstein once famously stated, ‘If at first the idea is not absurd then there is no hope for it.’

As a painting substantiates the feelings of an artist, Nitish Salian, another student at Great Lakes who was running his own Travel Company before he joined the coveted MBA program, confirms my doubt, “In a small setup, there are constraints, mostly in the form of funding and intellectual capital. The other major constraint is lower bargaining power with suppliers. Note that I choose the word traveller and not tourist. My belief is to provide experiences to my guests rather than just site-seeing. The golden egg lies in hitting it off with your customer. Most customers (first timers) are, let me put this bluntly, stingy, choosy, annoying and ruthless; despite that, treat them like gods. So make sure you keep the customer happy, deliver the best possible service, and throw in any piece of conceivable freebie that you think is a value-add, like providing a hotel room on the top-most floor the with the best view, picking a hotel that would reduce the cost of travelling, etc. This will go on to add immense value to your guest at no added cost, something your guest will appreciate very much. Be in their shoes before you plan to sprint!” Amusing as it may sound but like the ethnographic survey that most marketing graduates are versed with, such simple but practical advices are the only solutions.

Here is an excerpt from the interview with Tushar & Nitish and their subtle insights on their mantra of success (or failure if you consider it necessary on your learning curve) as budding entrepreneurs.

Tushar: “My main source of learning was through newspapers like mint etc. We started inviting other ERP solution providers to come and meet us to sell their product. We returned being disappointed by clients. But that never stopped us. The key learning which we all take from OKRASOFT is that knowing your product is not enough. You should be able to make others understand your product better than you. Also, fail, fail and fail till you learn to fail better. Currently, I’m working on two business plans.  One is online solution for Paying Guests and the other one is a transport solution in tire-2 cities. I believe ideas have very short expiry date. They expire before you think to implement them.”

 Nitish: “There are ‘experts’ who think that traditional brick and mortar travel companies should have been dead and buried, which is plain B.S. The online travel companies have taken a considerable share of the domestic air ticket. Agreed… But, since when was the entire travel industry only about domestic air ticketing? Packaging and selling products/services can be aped, it hardly provides for any competitive advantage. What differentiates you from your competitors is your business processes. Therefore, as a budding entrepreneur it is of paramount importance that he/she learns to organize the IT infrastructure and processes for the company in a cost effective manner”

 Entrepreneurship is in real sense survival and an important tool to nurture creative thinking, sometimes even acting as a refuge for a dynamic individual who feels lost in crowd. But having a ‘Genie’ in your pocket is not enough.  Hopes and dreams are built and shattered with every boom and doom. You should know how you can use it to your best like Nitish and Tushar.

 

-   Shashwat Rai   

The Eighth wonder

Well, thus far I could not have ever imagined that this would be the moment. I have been walking all through with my long cherished dream of capturing the innocence of my soil with my ever busy camcorder. But so far what I have found was a mockery of the art… A cheap depiction of what I have long thought to be the real face of my milieu.

Nah, they are all gone…perished… lost in the tide of time, all that remains is nothing but a commercial restoration of a sacred art…a religion in itself.

Well I have been through these alleys for a number of times. The heart touching fragrance of the red soil is long known… I always come here during this time of the year… when all of the rural Bengal gathers here in this cultural womb of Tagore…The sage who eventually turned out to be a poet.

Whom I was searching for??? Well they are a well seen but truly lost tribe of my state called the BAULS – The singers who used to be nothing less than the well verse philosophers.

Tagore had this unimaginable bonding with these folks right from his days in teens. He was a sort of caretaker appointed by his father, for their estate in SILAIDAH (Now in Bangladesh). His job was to look after the peasants so that the tax paying system ran through fine throughout the year, but he ended up collecting a number of songs from some well-known folk singers of that estate including LALAN FAKIR, who was a phenomenon in his time for his songs which were deep-rooted in the mystic philosophies of BAULs…

“So much so for this place… I have started rowing again…

                                All my days go by clearing water out of my boat…

                                In the summer, in the winter, in the rains”

Like all great visionaries Tagore had a mission, a mission to make the world recognise the treasures of India that are lost in its dusty long trodden village roads. Through him the urban world came to know about this poverty stricken poetic geniuses of rural Bengal. LALAN FAKIR was discovered followed by GAGAN HARKARA, SARBAKHEPI and many more. For the first time the elite snobs were finding dusty folklores (sang with a handmade EKTARA) something to cheer for.

The wheel started rolling; Bengal’s BAULS started getting recognised by the nation and eventually by the world cultural forums. People like PURNDAS BAUL even made it to the lands of DENVERs and DYLANs.

But like every fairy tale, good things eventually come to a halt if not an end. With the rising popularity commercialism started creeping into the serene AKHARAs (ASHRAMs) of BAULs. Their little known festivals started getting sponsors, with that came electronic keyboard, hanging microphones and to top it all a number of singers who had nothing to do with this religion. Things became so worse that some of the normal singers in the rural areas started dressing up like BAULs for making their way to some easy money.

Cut to… 2010…Paushmela, Shantiniketan, Here I am sitting in my cottage in the midst of a lovely winter night writing my encounter.

Today I reached this long known place with my desire to find true BAULs who are slowly becoming extinct. Paushmela is a yearly festival in this place started by the originator who was nothing less than a true organizer of his time who created this whole University called BISWAVARATY out of nothing. He used to personally invite all the BAULs to his very own winter festival, the practice became a tradition over the years.

Like every year I am slowly making my way through this huge gathering of rural and urban India… most of who think it is fashionable to come to PAUSHMELA once in their lifetimes to have taste of TAGORE.  The festival which used to be a little celebration of rural life during TAGORE’s times has slowly emerged to become a regular, famous, well known, typical, colourful, commercialised cacophony. With development come its vices even to our very own culture. Here and there the globalised BAULs are singing (or should I say performing?) their so-called BAUL songs to culture crazy fanatics. Most of the good songs were borrowed from LALAN and most of the impurities are added by the singers.

I had enough reason to feel frustrated, but suddenly something struck my auditory organ:

“Oh my lord how I can find the way to your true love…

The moral and material boundaries are restricting me to go near you…”

Well it is nevertheless a famous LALAN song… but there was something pure and authentic about the tone or the pitch or whatever you may call it, perhaps the soul which made me mesmerized.

I slowly started moving towards the origin of the melancholic prayer.

 

By

Koustav Bhattacharya

2nd Great Lakes – Union Bank Conference on Financial Inclusion August 12, 2011

Great Lakes institute of Management, Chennai brings forward the 2^nd Great Lakes – Union Bank Conference on Financial Inclusion on August 12, 2011. This conference throws insight on various issues around financial inclusion particularly focusing on Micro finance which is also explored as the theme for the panel discussion

“Microfinance: A Panacea for financial Inclusion? If so, how to get there?”

The Financial inclusion as defined is the process of ensuring access to timely financial services and adequate credit needed by vulnerable groups such as weaker sections and no income groups at an affordable cost, in its holistic nature the availability of banking and payment services to the entire population without discrimination is the sine qua non for maintaining a balanced public policy.

And who else can be a better pioneer to pilot a calibrated approach to financial sector reforms other than Dr. Y.V. Reddy former governor, Reserve Bank of India. The key note speaker at the Great Lakes financial inclusion conference is an I.A.S. officer of the 1964 batch who served as the twenty first Governor of Reserve Bank of India from 2003 until 2008 and has been awarded India’s second highest civilian honor, the Padma Vibhushan. He was eminent in formulating financial policies such as tough lending standards on the Indian banks which eventually helped in saving the entire Indian banking system from the sub-prime and liquidity crisis of 2008. As quoted by Joseph Stiglitz “If America had a central bank chief as Dr. Y.V. Reddy the U.S. economy would not be in such a mess.” Truly honors his effort in equipping India with a strong weapon to fight against economic crisis.

The financial inclusion conference also honored Mr. S.C. Kalia (Executive Director, Union Bank of India) who emphasized on the concept of financial inclusion and not just micro financing; he also focused on inclusive growth through formal and informal means, biometric, mobile banking and smart card technology equally emphasized the role of partnership with banks. He concluded by focusing on the role of inclusive growth and tailored approach in case of specific areas.

Dr Bala V Balachandran, Founder-Dean Great Lakes Institute of Management along with Dr. S.K. Shanti (chair, Union Bank Center for Banking Excellence) honored the key speakers and the panelists with their insights and personal experiences extending a warm welcome at their institution, opening the august ceremony of this event and inviting Dr. Y.V. Reddy to commence the ceremony.

Dr. Y.V. Reddy commencing the financial inclusion with his talk explores the concept of financial inclusion on definite pillars, one encapsulating the problems faced by women at the villages having a proper place to safe keep their money and second the problems dealt with the vertical mobility of money within all, following which he broadly embarked into the panoramic view of financial inclusion which according to him without the economic inclusion is not viable. His perception also dealt with the important path being followed by financial inclusion via financial services to financial credit.  Dr. Y. V. Reddy projected the various financial models he laid importance on, specifying the decision of choosing the right model on the basis of its cost and also that MFI’s are an extension of individual branches of bank and not a bank in itself. He envisioned the role of legislation and regulation as a strong foundation to every financial body levying due credit to each measure on its ability to be quantifiable, defensible and that can be allocated.

After a packed session of knowledge and deeper insights into Micro financing with financial inclusion at large, the conference was concluded by the executive director of Great Lakes Institute of Management Prof. Sriram. He thanked the key speakers of the conference Dr. Y.V. Reddy and Mr. S.C. Kalia for their incomparable insights and experiences. Their humility to share their apprehensions and success on the same platform leveraged the whole experience of the 2^nd great lakes- union bank financial inclusion.

~

Debashree

Part 1: All in a day’s slog

I desperately dial Miss-friend-in-need-is-a-friend-in deed’s number as I half-walk half-run through the desolate corridors of the hostel. She is not answering. This is not a promising sign. I am late…yet again.  I sheepishly grin at the room-clean akkas who make admonishing noises even as I hurry past them trying to tuck my shirt in with one free hand while still fervently trying to reach friend-indeed with the other.”Hullo?” Finally a barely audible whisper at the other end. “Has the class started?” relieved I almost shout into the phone.”Come fast” is all she snaps and before I can say save-a seat the line goes dead. I break into a run encouraged by the sight of Mr. Brawn and a few others running just ahead of me, silently re-affirming my faith in the safety of numbers. As I hurry past the mess it takes some effort to ignore the olfactory summons of breakfast   and keep moving even as hot idlis and coffee start making funny patterns in my head. I try and shake it off returning back to the grimness of reality only to notice Mr. Brawn and company turning the corner towards the classrooms far ahead. I silently curse myself for my cibarious reveries and try and push my already wasted legs to run faster. As I near the academic block in sweat and near-tears I realize to my mortification that I am totally clueless about which room to enter.Worse, Mr.Brawn and Co. are nowhere to be seen. The closed doors of three equally probable classrooms grimly stare back at me as I stand there stupidly, hoping for a miraculous epiphany. Just then my phone blinks. Friend-in -deed’s message’ where ARE you? Come fast..Lake Veeranam!!’ Relief flooding my senses, I quickly rush in through the door, desperately hoping to make an unobtrusive entry.

Thankfully Professor-I –Iove-surprise- quizzes is in an intense huddle with the IT department guys and I am able to make good a quite entry. ‘Never again’ I swear to myself for the umpteenth time exhaling an audible sigh of relief. With that I plomp down upon the nearest available seat in what is endearingly or ominously termed as the’ back-side-of –the-beyond’ depending upon the range of vision and interest of the professor in question. ’Chappa mara?’  An all too familiar voice happily asks from the neighboring seat just as I start to smugly settle down into what I suppose to be the anonymous comfort of my chair. I almost get up with a start   realizing with a sinking feeling that I can bid inconspicuousness goodbye for today having inadvertently taken a seat   beside I-question-therefore-I- am. I look up to see more than a dozen  grinning faces staring at me with what seem to be smiles of wicked glee . With dead static playing in my head I drag myself towards the biometric fingerprinting device to register my doomed presence.

“Goooood morning Class’ booms I-love-surprise-quizzes’ voice across the hall as I get back to my desk. There are few murmurs of response as 150 anxious minds quickly try to gauge the probability of a surprise quiz happening today based on subtle nuances like his voice modulation and rapid eye movement patterns .I-question-therefore-I-am complacently chuckles beside me,’Aaj ka toh easy hain yaar…there should be a quiz today’ giving rise to dark murderous thoughts in my head. Sure enough his dire wishes come true and before my mind can register signs of protest I see all too familiar white answer sheets being handed out. The next fifteen minutes are a blur as I struggle with esoteric concepts of demand supply and free market trade and before I know it the dreaded quiz is over. The class gets under way even as I try to reconcile myself to the reality of the increasingly growing distance between a respectable grade and me with each passing day.

Over the next one hour I try to make sense of the intelligent discourses flying thick and fast all around but the only thing my mind registers is a dull monotonous drone. I vaguely recognize I-question-therefore-i-am intermittently bobbing in and out of his seat but I can make no sense of his more than enthusiastic exhortations. Each time he starts to speak I merely sink down further into my seat hoping to live through another day unnoticed and unquestioned. I realize that by doing so I jeopardize my class-participation grades but I optimistically put my faith in tomorrow yet again to announce my existence. I feel magnanimous enough to concede today to the I-can-answer-faster-than-you-can-questions around.

After what seems like an eternity of listless stupor the class finally comes to an end and I quietly edge my way through the chaotic babble of unintelligible chatter towards the bistro. Friend-indeed calls out from behind running to catch-up “Where WERE you? I thought you had missed the class!!”I merely shrug and walk on too tired to explain. Explanations can wait. First I need some food. Fifteen minutes later after much pushing and shoving in a bistro bursting at the seams with hungry people shouting for attention, I am finally able to grab a plate of maggi and gobble it down without much ado. As I walk out back towards the classroom I see students flowing out of the corridors and staircases in various stages of the pre-read and assignment life-cycle. I marvel at my own state of unpreparedness and quietly brace myself for an unexpected assault.

Sure enough catastrophe hits in the very next class as Professor Staunch-Believer-of-Class-Participation calls out my name. At first this seems so incredulous that I confidently look around assuming my auditory senses have deceived me. But the last shreds of hope of a mix-up come crashing down as Professor Staunch-believer clearly spells out my name once again to dispel any further myths. Realizing it is too late to hide my nameplate, I stand up hesitantly, unsure of what I am supposed to say. I murmur apologetically something about debits and credits desperately trying to make sense of my own gibberish when to my relief the professor carelessly dismisses me with an admonishing “fallacious argument.” I sink back into my seat thoroughly embarrassed by my poor show wishing I ceased to exist.

The rest of the day goes by pretty uneventfully running between classes ranging from Chinese to Statistics, the cross of failure bearing down heavily upon my dejected shoulders. It is almost 8:00 by the time classes are over for good and I tiredly trickle into the mess with leaden feet and drooping shoulders sitting down to listlessly chew away at the food on my dinner- plate. Out of the corner of my eye I spot Miss social- butterfly fluttering past with boisterous resolve leaving me almost envious and marveling at her boundless energy reserves.

After dinner me and friend-in-need take a short walk round the sports block where our local slam-dunk ping-pong and fitness enthusiasts have already started with their respective evening routines.  All around I can see people huddled in groups deep in animated discussion or mere idle banter. Just as I indulgently start soaking in the dynamic vivacity of the environment, Mr. No-Nonsense ambles over and grimly declares “Group meeting at 9:00 to work on tomorrow’s marketing presentation.’ I  nod lamely  rudely  snapped back  to the reality of mails waiting  to be read ,pre-reads and assignments waiting  to be completed  and presentations waiting  to be made all within the span of the night . I stifle a yawn fully aware that the comfort of sleep is a long way off yet for my day has only just begun.

(To be continued…….)

 

By

Pratisha